The Choices of the Chess Piece

"Young master, there was nothing else but these two pieces of bread in the kitchen!"

Just as Benjamin sat frozen in bed with a myriad of thoughts going through his head, Jeremy returned from the kitchen. Benjamin could already hear Jeremy’s shouting even before the latter entered the room.

Benjamin’s heart jumped, and quickly stuffed the envelope and letter under his pillow to prevent people from noticing that something was wrong. He covered up the abnormal traces, turned around and waited for Jeremy to come in.

Jeremy held the bread in his hand and stood at the door. Both of them shared eye contact, and they did not say anything momentarily.

"Is there something wrong, young master?" Jeremy seemed to have felt the weird atmosphere and asked suspiciously.

"Nothing much, just pass the bread to me, they are sufficient. It’s difficult to get anything else at this hour, right?" Benjamin promptly answered and switched the topic.

"Oh, yes," Jeremy dumbly replied, and absentmindedly passed the bread in his hand to Benjamin.

In fear of Jeremy overthinking and asking more questions, Benjamin took the bread and continued speaking.

"What happened to the matter that I sent you to complete? How did you do?"

After he was enquired, Jeremy’s attention was completely diverted. Nervousness crept up his expression, and he rummaged his pockets for a while before withdrawing a wooden cross from the pocket of his shirt.

He handed the cross to Benjamin, "Here, I bought this for you, young master."

Benjamin’s emotions finally stabilized. He glanced at the cross in Jeremy’s hand, then plastered a poker face of a supervisor scrutinising the work of an underling. He snorted, his happiness and anger could not be inferenced from his actions.

"Young master?" Jeremy became agitated by Benjamin’s attitude and asked warily.

Benjamin took a glimpse at Jeremy and suddenly said, "This is not the right thing."

Jeremy looked more anxious now. He most probably forgot whatever happened previously.

Benjamin paused and ordered, "Go back, find a carpenter from the east side of the city, and tell him that this is not what I wanted. He will understand what I mean."

Jeremy’s eyebrows were twisted together once again, "Wait, now?"

Benjamin nodded, "Yes, start your journey now."

Jeremy’s face fell once again.

If he sent his servant out in the middle of the night, he would probably immediately catch the attention of the church. Once the church got nothing out of this investigation, their supervision on Jeremy would probably drop drastically. Thus, although it was already late in the night, Benjamin had no choice but to trouble Jeremy.

Everything he did was just for Annie’s hidden treasure.

Although Michelle’s letter disrupted all of his plans, he did not plan to give up that part of his plans. He never expected Michelle to sincerely mentor him in magic, he also never planned to willingly follow her whims. Who knew what evil plans the woman could come up with?

He would rather believe in himself.

"I’m leaving now, young master. If the butler asked of my whereabouts, please remember to explain to him, or else my allowances would be reduced."

At this point, Jeremy had accumulated much experience in running long distance errands. He did not complain much anymore. He held the cross in his hand and left the room with an anguished expression. Benjamin only nodded and smiled encouragingly as his eyes farewelled his courier delivery man.

He built quite an amount of trust in Jeremy, but he would still keep some things hidden from him. No matter what, magic was too scary of an issue for this cowardly and naive servant of his.

The church’s effort in brainwashing the citizens was admittedly exceptional. In the eyes of the common folk, mages were the reincarnation of devils, the unforgivable villains. Regardless of how loyal Jeremy was to Benjamin, it would be very difficult for Jeremy to understand Benjamin’s actions. It would be a win-win situation for both of them to hide the truth from Jeremy.

After Jeremy left Benjamin’s vicinity, Benjamin stepped forward and shut the door.

He exhaled in relief.

He was grateful that Jeremy was just his servant. He was not too bright too, and thus was easier to manipulate. If it was someone else who barged in, he would have no idea how to deal with them. Even if it was the butler, he would probably be suspicious, thus that might start the rumor mill.

Although he was dissatisfied that he only had one servant (an unintelligent one), from the bright side, it was actually a positive factor.

After he closed the windows and pulled the blinds, and was sure that he would not be interrupted anymore, Benjamin reached under his pillow and once again took out Michelle’s letter.

To him, the importance of this letter could not be expressed in words. He was already soaked in cold sweat after reading only the first sentence.

He needed to finish the rest of the letter.

In actuality, there were two letters in the envelope. At first, Benjamin thought Michelle had too much to tell him that she had to use two papers, but he quickly found out how wrong he was.

Aside from the sentence ‘You’re very talented in magic. After 10 days, I will come and teach you magic’, the first letter only had another paragraph written on it.

‘After you finished reading this, burn this paper, and give the second letter to the priest in St Peter’s Cathedral. You must convince him to believe the contents in that paper. There are so many ways available for you to contact the priest, I believe there is no need for me to teach you that.’

When he saw Michelle’s plan to hand the letter to the church, Benjamin felt a sense of doom. And when he finally read the contents on the second paper, he could not help but sigh helplessly.

The contents of the second paper was, ‘5 days later, meet me at the prison ruins downtown. Do not play any tricks, the first attack of the curse is right around the corner. That would be a living hell to you."

Benjamin was so scared all of his hairs stood on their ends.

Once again, he underestimated Michelle.

This witch’s desire was immense. She not only wanted Benjamin to get her the treasures of the Lithur family, she also wanted to ambush the church. She wanted to use Benjamin as bait, and set up a trap for the people of the church. Then, she would take revenge, 5 days later, at downtown prison ruins.

This was no longer a battle between him and Michelle. This was also a battlefield for Michelle and the church. He was just a chess piece of Michelle’s.

What should he do? What could he do?

Michelle really did see through all of his thoughts. If he really did what Michelle dictated and passed the second letter to the church, the church would very likely walk right into her trap and march towards the prison ruins five days later. Then, the church would suffer from a big blow, and Michelle’s would become unstoppable.

On the other hand, if he did not hand the second letter to the church, he would suffer from the curse, and also lose the support from the church. He would then be forced to face Michelle alone, and the situation would be more dangerous for him.

If Benjamin used reverse psychology and handed both letters to the church, the church would then find out about Benjamin’s magic and ‘cleanse’ him on the spot.

There was no need to even consider burning both of the letters and then lie to the church that they burst into flames by themselves. The priest was also a cunning character, would he believe his words without actual clues of Michelle's whereabouts? He would probably pretend to trust Benjamin and bring Benjamin for a walk in the park with pretty words, but offer no actual help. The priest did not have a treasure to find, thus the news Benjamin had this time was really useless to him.

Every path would lead to death, and no matter how he chose to move his chess piece, he would be checkmated 90% of the time.

Benjamin found himself deep in the pool of despair again.

"Ahhhhhhh! What should I do now?" He covered his face frantically, and had no mood to even eat the bread in his hand.

"Uh, you should probably listen to Michelle since she was going to teach you magic, right?" The System suggested after much consideration.

"After I learnt her magic, I would then become the next Sally and Annie, or worse! My life was already in her hands, do you think she would view me as an actual partner? Or she would maybe break the curse she placed on me willingly? You must be dreaming," Benjamin shook his head and said.

"True," Although its normalcy could offer no help to the present situation, the System's ordinary reply was still a rare occurrence that should be acknowledged.

Benjamin went into deep thoughts. He felt ideas rushing through his brain while he pondered, and stress was looming right above him, forcing him to make a decision as soon as possible.

He needed to make a quick decision.

If he decides to pass the letter to the priest, he must start moving tonight. After tonight, the '5 days later' in the letter would become '4 days later', and it would be increasingly difficult for Benjamin to explain everything to the priest, as no matter what he said, the priest would also be suspicious of him.

It would only be worse if he wanted to instigate something out of the '5 days later' and '4 days later'. The priest would get nothing out of this, and thus would further distrust Benjamin; Michelle would know of Benjamin's disobedience, and the curse would torture the living lights out of him.

Benjamin was caught in between two evils.

The church wanted to use him to capture Michelle, while Michelle wanted to use him to defeat the church. If he was not careful, he would end up in a lose-lose situation on both sides. It would also be too difficult to handle a butcher's cleaver skilfully. No matter how difficult it was, he would still need to achieve that, or else he would not have a chance to get back up.

All in all, he must make a decision that maximised his gains.

All of that must be achieved in such a short period of time.

The wall clock at the corner chimed at nine, as if it also joined the rank in urging the frantic Benjamin.

Gong.... Gong....

At the last chime of the clock, he finally sprang up on his feet.

The curfew in the kingdom started at ten at night, no one could wander around in the streets after ten. If he intended to return to the Lithur Manor before that, he must move now.

Right, move. He decided. He would follow Michelle's orders and hand the second letter to the priest, thus leading the church folks downtown.

He walked towards the table and held the first letter towards the flickering fire of the oil lamp. Then, he poured the ashes of the letter into the chamber pot.

As he did that, he realized how fated he was with chamber pots.

"You really plan to play along with Michelle's plan? If the church suffered a huge blow, who knows if they would take it out on you? Don't be impulsive!" the System kindheartedly reminded Benjamin.

However, Benjamin was not surprised by that notion. As he was preparing for his outing to the church, he answered the System in his heart, "Indeed, there is a possibility that the church would take everything out on me. However, if I was also trapped and was injured because of it, or if I nearly died in the process, would the church still suspect me?"

"You plan to inflict injury on yourself to win the confidence of the church!" Benjamin's plan finally dawned on the System.

Benjamin sighed as he nodded, and he spoke helplessly, "You must lose some to gain some. If my injuries are severe enough, I might win the church's trust. Then, everything would be worth it."

The System became silent after his words, as if it was contemplating Benjamin's choice, or maybe it was just putting the advertisement for Extra's chewing gum on loop.

Benjamin paused briefly before he continued, and it sounded like a reply to the System, but also like a whisper to himself.

"As an insignificant chess piece, how could I not play some tricks to make myself an asset for the chess player?"

When everything was all set and ready, he left the Lithur Manor under the guise of the darkness, and rushed towards St. Peter's Cathedral.