Sonor was still simmering with talk of the horrific crime outside King Meron's palace. Everyone was wondering: Who killed that aristocrat and turned his body into an artistic stage?
Detective Reese entered the crime scene. He was a man in his mid-forties, with piercing eyes and a permanently grim face, as if life had never allowed him a smile. He approached the body, knelt down, and examined the victim's hands.
Reese: "The brain is in the right hand, the heart is in the left... A killer with a cold mind, who knows how to turn a crime into a message. He left nothing to chance."
A soldier approached him and said anxiously:
"Sir, we have no trace of the criminal. How could he disappear so quickly?"
Reese replied, slowly getting up:
"The killer didn't run away... He wanted us to look for him. It's as if he was inviting us to a game."
The next day, De Maurier left the capital for a nearby small town called Nester. A quiet town surrounded by wheat fields and vineyards, where farmers lived a simple life. But this simplicity concealed something else.
In Nester Square, a middle-aged man sat in front of a wooden chessboard. People surrounded him, whispering about his past exploits. He was Alfonso, the farmer who had once been the continental chess champion five times in a row, before abandoning everything and returning to the fields.
De Maurier approached him with quiet steps and sat down opposite him.
De Maurier: "I heard that here I will find a man who knows how to move kings and pawns on a small board... as if he controlled an entire continent."
Alfonso slowly raised his head, looked at him with defiant eyes, and said:
Alfonso: "Chess is not a game of continents, sir... it is a game of patience and reason. Many have been defeated by swords... and few by imagination."
De Maurier smiled.
De Maurier: "Then let us test our imagination."
The match began. People gathered around them. The pieces moved slowly at first, then accelerated. Alfonso was calm, placing each move as if he were carving a rock. But de Mauret was different; he placed the pieces lightly, as if the board were merely a canvas he was painting.
After a full hour, Alfonso found himself trapped. The king had no escape.
De Mauret placed his hand on the knight piece and said with a faint smile:
De Mauret: "Sometimes, a small horse decides the fate of an empire."
Then he moved the piece... "Checkmate."
Alfonso froze, amazed. Some of the spectators clapped in surprise, while de Mauret bowed slightly and said:
De Mauret: "Thanks for the game... but the real game doesn't take place on the board. It takes place between kingdoms."
On the other side of the world, inside the Kingdom of Francia, Prince Lucy was holding a grand party at his private palace. The party was for explorers and scholars who had come from all over the kingdom.
Lucy stood in his black robes emblazoned with the white owl logo, staring at the crowd with keen eyes. He was looking for someone different, someone who could help him with his grandest project: exploring the continent of Leus.
Amid the crowd, his attention was drawn to a young man in his early twenties, carrying a large roll of paper under his arm, his face excited despite his modest clothing. Lucy approached him and said,
"Lucy, I see you're holding a map... not just any map, is it?"
The young man was a little confused, then replied,
"Linus, my name is Linus... and I'm mapping the world as no one has ever seen it before. The sea, the mountains, the roads... all dots waiting to be connected."
Lucy smiled faintly.
"A young man who dares to redraw the world? That's exactly what I'm looking for. Tell me... do you dare to explore the unexplored?"
Linus's eyes twitched with excitement. He said,
"Linus, if you mean the continent of Leus... that's been my dream ever since I learned to read. I've heard there are secrets beyond imagination."
Lucy placed his hand on the young man's shoulder and whispered in a low voice, "Lucy: Then we will rewrite history together."
While the minds in Sonor were searching for the killer, and the board in Nestor was transforming into a theater of the mind, a greater project was taking shape in France: Lucy's ambition and Linus's boldness.
But behind all these threads, De Maurier continued to weave his grand game, as if the entire world were a chessboard... and he was the only player who could see all the pieces.