"Yes, a draw."
The woman known as teacher let out a cutting, shadowed laugh. She looked at the queen before her , the pitiful girl who had been pushed onto Hypermion's throne. Never in her wildest imagination had she thought that, on a whim, teaching this monarch chess would awaken her latent power completely.
The board is a battlefield, and the way one plays reveals the essence of their soul.
Swift as the wind, fierce as the flame.
The playstyle of this so-called puppet queen , Anaxa , told her everything she needed to know.
If, one day, this nation ever let this beast off its leash, then this land... this world... would surely birth a monster who would chase victory and conquest without hesitation , or mercy.
"Starting tomorrow, I shall not visit this place again."
"Then, teacher," the queen replied calmly, "let us play one last round."
Resetting the pieces on the board, Anaxa stared silently at the woman across from her , the noble of royal lineage from a hostile kingdom. Once famed as her nation's Iron Lady, she had fallen when her homeland was defeated by Hypermion during the last war. Now she lingered here as a prisoner of war, a living spoil, a golden canary trapped in a cage.
And myself... will I not end the same?
The nobility and the rebellion had already gnawed away the fat of Hypermion's strength, leaving behind little more than a hollow shell.
The resentment of the people simmered , she did not need another nation to invade; under that resentment, her fair neck might just meet the blade of a guillotine.
Therefore, she must struggle, must resist.
She could never accept a fate like this woman before her.
But before that... she had to take something crucial back from her teacher ,
Victory.
Draws were unacceptable.
Only victory could justify her existence, the one and only method for her survival.
"Will you win?"
The enemy queen smiled, lifting a piece, eyes glimmering with cruelty. She would expose everything , all her tactics, her pride, her venom , to crush this "puppet" beneath her heel.
"I will."
Replied the puppet queen.
And she placed her piece down.
"Heh-heh-heh-heh... I will win... I will win...!"
"Come on, one more round , one more round!"
"Who taught you this?! Whose strategy is this? Impossible... Anaxa, you counterfeit queen , how could you surpass me?!"
Seeing her teacher's composure crumble, the puppet queen of Hypermion turned away coldly.
Glancing toward her trembling old mentor, she ordered the attendants outside,
"Keep her under watch. I don't want her running her mouth about anything."
"That'll cost extra, Your Majesty."
The response wasn't the voice of a handmaiden, but a younger, playful male tone.
Anaxa lifted her gaze , and met the eyes of two strangers.
A woman slightly older than the boy beside her, holding a bronze spear, eyes sharp and predatory.
A beast , a warrior through and through.
The boy looked around fourteen, his features delicate and well-chiseled, almost unnaturally beautiful , a work of precision more than flesh.
Anaxa had never seen either in the palace.
Which... was bad news.
If even this shrunken-down royal court wasn't fully under her control, how could she ever overthrow the regent who ruled the nation from behind her throne?
"Who are you two?"
"We heard," the boy said cheerfully, "that Her Majesty of Hypermion is quite the heroine. We came today to recruit you , so we can all go up the mountain together and do something big!"
The puppet queen's gaze remained calm, expression unreadable.
"I have no time for jokes. Which faction sent you? Ladon? Campa? Or perhaps the... Hattite Kingdom , the one my teacher hails from?"
"None of those. We hail from Janusopolis."
The name stirred something in the queen's eyes. A flicker of light, then recognition.
Once, back when she was still wandering as a refugee, she had , in a half-delirious state , received the oracle of Talantum. She had paid for that gift with the price of eternal adolescence, her body arrested in its youthful form forever.
From the Titan of Law and Equilibrium, she had gained Golden Blood , and became a Chrysos Heir after the fact.
Janusopolis, then , the Triarch City of Converging Faiths, where Talantum's temple stood alongside those of Janus and Oronyx.
Now was the turbulent dawn of what later generations would call the Golden War , the era when cities and temples fought and betrayed each other for the right to claim divine legitimacy.
Among those divine cities, only two stood uncontested in their authority: Okhema, the holy city built at the feet of the Titan who bore the world, and Janusopolis, renowned as the most radiant sanctuary of divine oracles.
To reach Hypermion , this frozen kingdom of the far north , one would have to cross the northeastern mountains, traverse the barbarian lands of Campa and Ladon, and brave the tundra.
Why then... had these two dignitaries from the warm south come all this way to find her?
"Tell me, what brings you all this way...?"
"For you, Your Majesty."
The boy's coy smile widened.
"Anaxa. The Conqueror, the Caesar. Demigod of Law, Monarch of the Board, Tyrant of Okhema, Future Ruler of Amphoreus , I have come to reveal to you our purpose."
"You truly are a heroine. We came today to bring you into the mountains , to join our crusade."
"How can a great nation prosper when it's infested by worms that hollow out your throne?"
The puppet queen's expression remained tranquil.
Not a single emotion wavered at his impossible monologue.
She only lowered her gaze in thought, quietly analyzing his intentions.
Every gift from fate is priced in secret.
What value did she hold to him?
Would he use her title, her queenly status, to usurp her nation?
No , she wasn't worth that much. Everyone in this country knew she was a useless figurehead.
Then what did he truly want?
What value existed within her that even she herself didn't see?
Perhaps... it was hidden in the names he had called her.
Demigod of Law.
Usurper of Okhema.
And finally ,
The Conqueror. Caesar.