"And that would be checkmate, sir," Castelle declared as she cornered the man's king with her bishop.
The man, instead of being frustrated that he had lost the game, erupted with incredible excitement.
"This is exhilarating! There are so many possibilities in the moves that I can't help but try to think of more than five moves ahead!"
Castelle laughed. She had been just like him when she first learned about chess.
"This game called chess… can I buy one for myself? I simply must tell my friends about it. They are going to have a blast!"
This was an unexpected turn of events. She had only brought her own chess board because she would get bored whenever they travelled through the carriage. She would play by herself and try to improve her skills through imagination.
When the sir mentioned he was bored, she simply wanted to play a game of chess with him because she wanted to play it as well.
She would have never imagined that it would lead to another possible source of business opportunity for the Reborn company.
"Very well, sir. I will ask my employer to provide you with chess boards."
_____
Later that evening, Castelle reported the encounter to Michael.
"Hmm… sure, why not."
"Very well, sir! How much should we sell a board set? One gold coin each? No… that's too low. How about ten gold coins each?"
According to Castelle, chess was an expensive item because Michael constructed each piece by himself, a process that took great effort and time from the young master himself.
The maids and butlers couldn't do it because they didn't have the magic nor the craftsmanship required to carve the intricate statuettes for the chess pieces.
In her opinion, a single board should be worth at least 100 gold coins.
"No, that's too expensive. We should sell it for around 100 bronze coins," Michael said, rubbing his chin.
"Bronze coins? Not gold coins, young master? Isn't that too cheap?"
Michael shook his head. "What do you think will happen once we put the chessboard into the market and it costs around 1 gold coin?"
"People would want to buy them?" Castelle answered.
Michael nodded. "Yes, but what if they can't afford it? What do you think would happen after that?"
Castelle was stumped. "They would save money to buy one?"
"No. What would happen is that other people will produce their own chess boards at a much lower price. They will sell it and earn much more than us because there will be a lot of people who will buy it."
That kind of practice was very normal in his previous world. Whenever a popular brand released a new product, cheap imitations would immediately swarm the market and would be sold at a much lower price.
"There's nothing special about a chess board," Michael continued. "It's just made of wood and a couple of pieces. Anyone can make that."
It was only then that Castelle realized Michael's words.
No one would want to buy a chess board from them at an extremely high price when they could just make one by themself.
"I think I get it, young master. If we sell them at a low price, a lot of people would still be able to afford them and buy them from us instead of others who will copy us!"
Michael was also thinking about one thing that this world didn't have: branding.
Sometimes, it was much better to build a strong brand rather than make immediate money. That was what increased the profits of companies in his previous world and transformed them into global giants.
"How much did we earn from the Reborn soap and shampoo delivery today?" Michael asked.
Castelle gave him an even larger leather pouch than the last one.
"About 3500 gold coins, young master."
Michael weighed the pouch in his hands. That was worth 3,500,000 dollars worth of gold coins in his hands. This was the most amount of money he had ever earned in his previous life.
And to think he earned this in about a week… Michael's mind was blown away. But since he didn't have anything to do with this money right away, it was better to invest it in his company instead.
"Take this money and hire some wood craftsmen or mages to create the chess boards and pieces," Michael instructed as he pushed the leather pouch back into Castelle's hands.
"Understood, young master!"
And before she left his room, Michael added one last thing.
"Oh, and introduce the game as Reborn Chess. We need people to know it's ours."
_____
The next day, Castelle once again set off into Kingsbridge, but this time, it was to deliver chess boards to the Sir's mansion.
Upon her arrival, she found that the estate was already bustling with well-dressed gentlemen acquaintances, all eager to see the game he had raved about.
Michael had created 10 chess boards for this shipment, but the next orders would be made by other craftsmen.
"Oh, here she is, gentlemen," the man announced proudly. "She is the one who introduced me to this brilliant, sophisticated game.
Castelle was met with a lot of curious gazes from the men clad in gentlemen's suits. Judging from their stature alone, she could guess that they were the intellectual type.
"Greetings, sirs and madams. I am here to deliver the chess boards you ordered," she announced as she carefully laid down the board on the table.
"What say you we play a demonstration match to teach them the rules," the Sir from before suggested.
"It would be my pleasure," Castelle replied with a polite smile.
After about an hour, the table was crowded with gentlemen rubbing their chins and adjusting their monocles, their eyes fixed on the board. They were intensely focused on the game, mumbling to themselves about which move they would have made if they were in the man's place.
"And once again, that is checkmate, Sir."
A collective gasp spread through the spectators. Only now did they notice that Castelle's final move had completely conquered the chessboard. There was no move left for the King to run away to.
"Golly…"
"Oh my…"
Despite his loss, the gentleman sitting opposite to her beamed with delight.
"Do you see, gentlemen? This game is the perfect mental battle for men like us! It is as if we are generals barking orders to our armies!"
The rest of the men went silent.
It wasn't until a few seconds later when one man with a monocle broke the ice.
"You shouldn't have moved your king to that place! You should have used your bishop to defend that last pawn!" he exclaimed, lecturing the man.
His words seemed to ignite a lively discussion amongst the gentlemen.
"You are completely wrong! The best move should have been—"
"No, no, no! Clearly, he should have castled much earlier."
"Look at you, spouting the wrong things. What he should have done is—actually, let me show you. Why don't we play a game right now."
"You can't. I'll be using the board next."
"Let's play a game to see who'll use it next?"
"You're on!"