Chase gave Vivian an awkward smile as he scratched his eyebrow.
"Maybe you could just like, I don't know, forget that you have paladins?"
She chuckled.
"No, I don't think it works like that."
She picked up the paladin on her right and slid it forward three spaces, setting it in front of his knight.
'I really don't like this game.'
Chase thought, quietly studying the board.
'Wait, why did she set her paladin in a place where my queen could just take it?'
He picked up his queen.
'Even if she takes my queen, I will still gain access to my paladins, so why in the hell would she move it there?'
His thoughts paused as his eyes widened.
'Unless...'
Chase quickly took her paladin with his queen, which was followed by that queen being taken by her pawn.
Then, quickly realizing his right side could have been breached, he moved his rook a space to the right, and behind his farthest pawn.
She responded by moving her right-side bishop into range of one of his paladins.
The move made zero sense to Chase; she was willingly sacrificing that bishop to the paladin.
'Is she trying to lose?'
Suddenly, everything seemed to make sense.
The strange movements of her pieces, as well as the sacrifices, but there was one more thing that was eating Chase alive.
'She is testing me... Which means that she already knew who I was.'
Chase moved his king up and to the left of her assassin.
She raised an eyebrow at him as he made the strange and out-of-place move.
"What house do you belong to? If you don't mind me asking."
Vivian studied him with a look of confusion.
"I belong to the house of Valorian, and you?"
Chase smiled as he confidently set his own king in front of her assassin.
"I don't belong to anyone, but you already knew that."
Her eyes widened as she realized what he had done.
"Well, I suppose this is checkmate."
Chase said with a smug sigh.
Without saying anything, he knocked his king over with her assassin.
She continued to stare at the boy with a surprised expression.
"I don't mind losing, in fact, I've done a lot of that in my short life so far; however, what I do mind is being tested by people because of who I am, so no, I won't play your game."
He said, with a victorious smile on his face.
Once Vivian realized that Chase had willingly lost, and he had seen through her tricks—she sighed and began to tidy up the board.
"You're clever, and smarter than most of the idiots who attend this place."
She said with a smile.
"This does mean I win though, since I seen through your test?"
He said, letting a bit of satisfaction appear in his expression.
"Yeah, I'll help you find your books."
She said with a soft sigh.
Chase picked up the history book as he stood.
"I only need four or five more books, so it hopefully shouldn't take too long."
She looked up and raised an eyebrow.
"That could take hours, depending on what you ask for."
Chase nodded.
"Then we better start now."
...
As he walked through the aisles of the mystic library, Chase thought back on the chess game the two of them had played.
In the end, Vivian did not mind helping him find his books; in fact, she was planning on losing in the first place.
Chase assumed that she realized who he was during their first encounter, and she decided to set up a chess match to test his knowledge.
To be fair, there were plenty of people in the academy who had heard the news that a Stray like him was going to attend for the first time in history.
If he were them, he would also question the headmaster's decision in letting him attend.
So, in the end, she was just seeing if Chase was "worthy" of attending in a sense, and based on her reaction, she seemed to be satisfied with the results.
She happily helped him find the books he was looking for, and the two eventually parted ways once it began to get late.
He was carrying six books as well as a beautiful navy-blue sword that swung back and forth from the makeshift sheath on his waist.
Slowly making his way up the stairs, Chase let out an aggravated sigh.
'Can't I just go to my room already?'
He mentally cursed the gods as he slowly looked over his shoulder.
Of course, the strangely intimidating aura was the same one from this morning, which was of no shock to Chase.
"Ya know? I get that you're all pissed off that some worthless Stray is attending your prestigious school... Your highness..."
He paused.
"But, do you think you could shame me tomorrow? I'm kinda tired."
He said with a mix of arrogance and anger leaking into his voice.
Behind him stood the most beautiful girl he had ever met, for the second time today.
Her crimson red eyes pierced through Chase, sending a shiver down his spine.
Headmaster Leander had warned him that because of his nameless background, certain royals and nobles would not take a liking to him; in fact, he said that it was probably inevitable that some would even try to kill him.
However, this was an unexpected turn of events.
Leander had said that out of all of the first-year royals at the academy, Princess Poppy would be the most non-hostile of them all, and wouldn't bother caring about him attending.
But nothing was ever as simple as Chase hoped things to be.
The princess was wearing a simple white nightgown that covered most of her body, including her hands.
However, it didn't hide the ebony dagger that rested in her left hand.
Chase really didn't want to ruin the books that he had grown quite excited to read after all of the suggestions Vivian had given him.
Princess Poppy's lips curved at the corners, turning into a frown.
She quickly hid the dagger behind her back, as her ivory-white hair gently flowed with the mystic breeze of the academy's halls.
"I'll be on my way then, please refrain from slitting my throat while I sleep, if you will."
Chase turned back toward the stairs as he continued up a couple of steps.
Of course, that didn't stop the blade from piercing right through his already sore shoulder.
A pained sigh escaped from his lips.
'Welp, so much for not staining my new books with blood.'