Dec 07, 2025
Author's Commentary #44:
Time to talk about Chapter 44: The psychopath's melancholy.
Originally, parts of this chapter served as the finale for Season 2 in the original. They come close to it here, but with the notable difference that I revised the Okisato-Iori moment to take place at Triple Cedar, rather than at school like in the original.
Speaking of Iori, more light has finally been shown on both her backstory and character. Okisato now also has a good read on her, though whether he'd be able to beat her in chess when she's at her best, remains to be seen.
As for the game, the main reason for adding it was to show that Iori's getting serious and will be joining the quest to beat all the maestros and become one of the best players in the world. The game was another me vs the Chess.com bots original. Since the bot was rated 250, the lowest level, I was able to pull off the crazy opening. Speaking of which, I don't think the Ishikiridokoro Opening will be a viable opening against anyone rated over 1000, unless of course you're a top-level player. I plan to try and experiment with some brand new opening combinations for some of the future games, but they'll most likely be meme openings. Nonetheless, I hope you look forward to it. As for Iori, expect to see much more of her in Volume 3. I have big plans for her.
On a separate note, Haruki Kamoshida, aka the piece of shit, is dead. While it would have been better to have him suffer for a bit longer, Tsar Grigori decided to order Svetlana to eliminate the piece of shit for his failure. However, the Desperado by-laws prevented her from doing so, thus Red Reaper stepped in and did the deed, as he seems to be unaffected by them.
The principal was also ordered to be eliminated due to how useless he is, and since he's not a league member, nor a skilled chess player, Svetlana can murder him normally without any repercussion, aside from murder charges if she gets caught. The main reason I lined this cruel fate up for the principal is because I felt he got off too easy in the original, thus, I had him suffer more here in the volume version before offing him. Now he is 100% dead, meaning the school will need a new principal.
Finally, let's discuss what sin the piece of shit, Haruki Kamoshida, embodied. The answer is lust. Initially, I thought pride was the sin he most embodied, due to the fact that he takes pride in harassing people and ruining lives. He'll happily beat you up, then tell you he did something horrible to someone close to you. Thus, I believed the sin of pride is what he most embodied. However, after thinking about it more, I feel lust better describes his motives as his main goal is to have sex with Svetlana and pretty much everything under the sun. Thus, I decided that the sin he embodies most is lust. Fitting considering both the characters he takes inspiration from are associated with the sin of lust.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
