As soon as I entered the dining room, I was greeted by the sight of food piled so high it seemed the table legs might collapse.

The main dish was a whole roast seasoned with spices, accompanied by white bread, oyster dishes, and a stew made from crushed grains. Nothing was lacking.

I had enjoyed a hearty meal at the Bakus residence last time, and today I was receiving another precious treatment.

It was like experiencing a grand feast that might only happen once or twice a year, two times in a row. I was happy, but on the other hand, their kindness felt burdensome.

As I hesitated, looking for a place to sit, I saw the Duke already seated.

Unlike earlier, his expression was calm as usual. But he was silent and didn’t even glance at me.

I moved my lips, pondering how to address the Duke. As a result, I ended up standing there blankly.

“Lize, sit here.”

Yurik pointed to the seat next to him. Closing my lips, I looked at Yurik pulling out the chair.

Among all these seats, the most comfortable one would naturally be next to Yurik. Not wanting to be caught overthinking, I tried to quickly sit down.

“…Can’t you sit next to me?”

Yune tugged at the hem of my dress.

She pointed to her seat across from Yurik. It seemed their seats were usually assigned, as she didn’t think to put me in the middle and demanded the seat next to her.

“Yune.”

“You can yield once in a while, elder brother.”

“That’s why I let Lize go to your room first earlier.”

The two argued without fail.

In front of the Duke, their voices gradually grew louder. It was awkward. Even so, Yune tugged my clothes tightly when I tried to sit next to Yurik.

“Yune. Let go of Lize.”

“…I…”

“Yune Penton.”

Unable to hold back, Yurik called Yune’s name firmly.

Pressured by her brother’s force, Yune’s expression gradually stiffened as she still refused to let go of my clothes. At last, a single teardrop fell from Yune’s eyes.

The two had been arguing continuously since I entered the residence. Pointless bickering went back and forth. That accumulated dissatisfaction continued until now without being resolved.

“…Ah.”

At Yune’s tears, Yurik stopped his actions.

“Oh dear. Lize, I’m sorry.”

The Duchess apologized to me on behalf of the siblings and embraced Yune.

In her mother’s arms, Yune let out the sounds she had been holding back. As Yune’s sobs grew louder, Yurik silently watched his sister.

“Yurik. You were wrong to both your sister and Lize.”

“……”

“First of all, Lize is not an object. If you fight over her, putting her in the middle, do you think she’ll like you?”

Even Duke Penton, who had been observing the situation, spoke up. Yurik’s head naturally lowered.

In the heavy atmosphere of the dining room, I couldn’t even sit down and just fidgeted my feet. I felt uncomfortable, like an unwelcome guest intruding and disrupting a happy family.

“Yune. You don’t have to sit in the designated seats. Let Lize sit in Mom’s seat today, and you sit next to her.”

“…Is, is that okay?”

“Of course. Now, let’s sit down.”

The Duchess, who resolved the issue at once, glanced at me. Noticing her gaze, I quietly sat next to Yurik.

Yune, still unable to stop crying and sniffling, came next to me. A maid came and moved Yune’s plates and utensils in front of her. Finally, the meal preparations were finished, but no one picked up their forks.

Were they waiting for Yune’s tears to completely stop?

At that moment, the Penton family, except for me, closed their eyes and held hands. Puzzled by the solemn atmosphere, I stopped my motion to pick up the fork. I pondered whether I should also clasp my hands.

“We are grateful to all who have helped our family enjoy a warm meal today.”

Everyone prayed. The maids, the chefs. They naturally clasped their hands and listened to the Duke’s words. Among them, I sat there dumbfounded with my eyes open.

It was strange. I wondered if I should also clasp my hands, but thinking that would be odd too, I just slightly lowered my head.

After some time passed, the prayer ended.

“Let’s eat now.”

At the Duke’s words, everyone picked up their forks.

“Go ahead and eat, Lize.”

“Yes, yes.”

At the Duchess’ words, I tackled the food that caught my eye first. Fortunately, all the dishes suited my taste. Especially the bread, which was so savory that my hand kept reaching for it.

As I ate without hesitation, the Duchess smiled contentedly. She even pushed a plate in front of me, telling me to eat more. I didn’t refuse and used my fork to pick the other dishes I hadn’t touched.

“So about the chess tournament. Will you participate?”

The silent Duke Penton asked me. I stopped moving my fork and met the Duke’s gaze. The Duke’s expression was kind, but the chilling look from earlier when we played chess remained in my mind.

“…I, I’m sorry about earlier.”

“Hmm?”

“For being stubborn. You were completely right, Your Grace. I’ve been overestimating myself. I believed I could solve everything on my own. But nothing got resolved.”

My head lowered on its own. This problem didn’t just appear when playing chess. Due to my chronic personality, I habitually believed in myself in all real-life situations. I checked my current efforts and thought I would improve more in the future.

It was like that now, and it was the same in the past.

“If you’re talking about earlier when we played chess, I wasn’t angry at you. I was angry at myself.”

“……”

“I wondered if my skills had deteriorated to the point of being looked down upon by a young girl.”

The Duke laughed awkwardly and put down his fork.

“Ahem, anyway, don’t apologize. Rather, I’m the one who should apologize. I was a little uncomfortable with you, Lize, because you’re a child of the Marsen family. So I got scolded a lot by the Duchess just now.”

At the Duke’s honest words, the Duchess let out a small fake cough. It seemed they had talked while I went to the room with Yurik. Thanks to the Duchess, the Duke’s anger seemed to have subsided.

Feeling a little relieved, I opened my lips again.

“…Actually, I don’t know if I have talent. I’m worried that I might just waste the participation fee.”

“You have talent, Lize. The fact that I got angry at you today is proof of that, isn’t it?”

Should I take that as a compliment? As I tilted my head, the Duke pondered for a moment, then picked up a chunk of bread on the table.

“It seems you can’t gauge your skill level because you haven’t competed against many opponents yet. Well, let’s say this bread is the skill of the current chess champion, Munt. As you know, Munt has held the champion position for 20 years as the strongest player.”

Duke Penton cut off a piece of bread the size of a fingernail.

“And this is Kito’s skill.”

“…There’s hardly any difference.”

“That’s right, now it’s a hairsbreadth difference. So there’s a lot of talk that Kito will become the champion in this tournament.”

The Duke cut off another fist-sized chunk of bread.

“Here, this is my skill.”

“It still doesn’t seem that different.”

“Do you know where Kito and I first met? It was at the World Chess Tournament. There was only one spot left to advance to the finals. Kito and I played a game to get that spot. It was the first appearance for both of us, and we tried to beat each other to dethrone Munt, who had recently become the champion. In the end, I lost, though.”

The Duke laughed, reminiscing about the past. They played a game for a spot in the finals at the World Chess Tournament…

In other words, the Duke Penton in front of me was also a formidable player. Not knowing that, I had tried to beat the Duke.

Duke Penton cut off two more fist-sized chunks of bread, leaving me surprised.

“This seems to be you right now.”

The bread had already been reduced by half. Looking at the bread that had become smaller than before, I couldn’t hide my disappointment. At the same time, I wanted to hit my own head for underestimating the Duke’s skills earlier.

What kind of confidence did I have to look down on the Duke’s ability?

“But Lize. Just remember one thing. You haven’t seriously studied chess yet, right? But if you’re already at this size, you definitely have talent.”

“…Really?”

“Of course. To be honest, when I first heard about you from Kito, I was skeptical. You’re young. And you’re a child of the Marsen family…”

“Father.”

Yurik, who had been listening, interjected. The Duchess next to him swiftly poked the Duke’s side.

“Ahem, but that doesn’t mean you should be complacent, you know? Even though you’re young, you’re a bit old to start chess. Usually, chess champions started playing much earlier than you. The youngest chess champion in history is only about five years younger than you. Of course, back then, chess wasn’t as popular as it is now, so the competition was a bit lacking.”

“Then why do you want to send me to the tournament?”

“Even if you started chess late, it doesn’t seem like your skills will improve slowly. Let’s say other people gain a sense through years of learning. Lize, from what I see, you might be able to master it in a month. If this pace gets faster and faster, you’ll definitely be able to win. Above all, Kito and I have acknowledged you.”

“…Yes.”

“But Lize. You’ll have to be careful of one thing if you want to win.”

I listened attentively.

“It’s how you use the pawns.”

“The pawns?”

“You often isolate your pawns.”

“You’re right. It seems to be my bad habit.”

It was something I often felt when I lost to Duke Penton. Each time, I paid more attention to the pawns than the other pieces, but every time, one pawn would fall behind and put me in a difficult position.

“But that’s not entirely bad, Lize. Of course, if a pawn is isolated, it can become a weakness. Like today. It will also become your stumbling block. Your opponent will persistently target your isolated pawn.”

“……”

“But you know. Sometimes it can also be a strength. This is quite difficult, though.”

“How so?”

“It depends on how you isolated that pawn. Lize. Try turning your bad habit into a good one. Try using the isolated pawn as a strength, not a weakness. Use that pawn that your opponent doesn’t even notice to suppress the king’s momentum.”

“…I don’t know if I can do it.”

“My prediction is that you’ll do quite well. And if that really happens…”

The Duke gathered the chunks of bread he had been tearing. Not only that, he brought over another bread and placed it on top.

“You could become the biggest bread.”

That’s you, Lize.