Trickery

"I'll become your slave."

As soon as Kile said that, the eyes of all three widened in shock. Bella cried, "No, Kile! You can't!"

"Boy, there's no need to do this!" Bella's dad had a similar reaction. But unlike those two, the man who Kile challenged, kept quiet for a few seconds, then broke out in a wide grin.

"Very well, let's do this, brat," He said.

"Alright, " Kile replied.

But Bella was not having any of it, as she quickly held Kile's harm, trying to drag him out of the bar.

"I won't let you play, Kile!"

'Sheesh, what the hell is up with this girl? Don't tell me she really has a Bible. I am doing this because I am confident I can win! This guy is a complete beginner at this game. Fine, in order to persuade this girl, I'll need to use the secret technique—physical touch!'

Kile placed his hand on top of Bella's, and slowly looked at Bella with confident eyes, and with a slightly deepened voice, he said, "I'll be fine. Please, trust me."

At the sudden confidence in Kile's eyes, Bella froze, unsure what to do. She was pondering whether she should really trust the boy's words, or not. But during this short interval of time, Kile quickly got out of Bella's hold, and made his way to the table where the gambler was. Kile then pulled back the adjacent chair and sat down.

"Shall we set up the board," asked Kile, with a slight smile on his face.

"Sure, let's do it."

"By the way, sir, what's your name?"

"Huh? My name? Why do ya ask?"

"Oh no, nothing. I just thought that since I'll be playing against you, it'd be nice to know your name..."

"Hmm... I see. Well, the name's Gilbert! Keep this name in mind, as it's the name of yer future master," Gilbert said, with an arrogant smile.

Kile only replied with a polite tone, "Understood. By the way, although, you may have already heard from them, I'd like to once again introduce myself. My name's Kile."

"I see. Brat, ya look like a beggar, but why do ya have such manners? Are you noble, or something?"

At this, Kile realized his mistake. 'Shit. Obviously, no beggar would be so polite in their speech. Thank goodness, we were talking in a low volume, otherwise Bella would have been very suspicious, hearing my way of speaking.'

Kile quickly responded, "It's not like that."

"Is that so? Welp, it ain't my business, so ain't gonna ask any further." Gilbert quickly lost interest.

By the time they were done with their introductions, the board had been set up.

"I'll let ya start," Gilbert said, as he rotated the board that had the white pieces towards Kile, and himself took the black pieces.

'You sure are confident, aren't you?'

Kile started with the London opening, in order to quickly develop his pieces. Gilbert responded with something else. Both of them slowly moved their pieces, exchanging pieces, and developing their own.

"You're good, brat."

"Ah, thank you."

As the match progressed, both of their positions got more , and more complicated. Gilbert quickly realized that Kile was someone who similar to his calibre, so he started sweating, and moved his pieces more carefully, taking more time. Meanwhile, Kile.....

'Fuck! I didn't think that pretending to be on this guy's level could be this difficult. His blunders are so easy to notice, but I can't help not exploiting them! Who knew that advanced players faced such difficulty while lowering their level of gamely?'

Thanks to Kile racking his brains to come up with a 500 elo gamely, he also started sweating as much as Gilbert. He didn't even need to act as if he was struggling against Gilbert!

As for why Kile was pretending to be of Gilbert's level, when he was clearly much higher? It's because Kile planned on playing more than just one match with this man. He was planning on completely robbing him of everything he made today, and to do that, his opponent needed to have the motivation to play more rounds. If one were to be completely demolished by their opponent, they'd not challenge them again, but if they saw that their match was close when they lost, they might want to play more matches, thinking that they had a chance.

After 20 minutes, Kile had only his king, and two siege towers (that's what they call the "rook" in this world), but Gilbert only had his king. Seizing the moment, Kile moved his two towers, and put Gilbert's king to what is called—a ladder mate.

"Tsk. Here ya go," Gilbert said, as he handed Kile a bag of coins. Kile opened the bag, and saw that there were 15 coins. 'They look like copper coins.'

"One more round," Gilbert said, as he glared at Kile. At this, the corner of Kile's lips twitched. While from the outside, Kile looked expressionless, but internally....

'Just as planned. No, I can't laugh yet, hold it in! I have to reply to this man's goodwill!'

"Alright."

Meanwhile Bella and her dad just stood there, dumbfounded at Kile's gameplay. But Bella still didn't want Kile to play, so she tried stopping him again.

"Kile, I think it's enough. Let's—"

"Shut up! Don't dig your nose into our business!" It was Gilbert, who retaliated. Bella clenched her fists, as she glared at the man, feeling completely powerless.

Kile gently smiled, and said, "Don't worry, Bella. Oh, by the way...." he glanced at Bella's dad, and signaled him with his hand to move close to him. Bella's dad did as he was asked, and moved closer to Kile. Then Kile whispered into his ears, "...How much does a mug of beer cost?"

Bella's dad looked confused at the boy's question.

"Don't tell me you plan on drinking—"

"No, it's not like that. I was just curious, so please tell me."

".... It's three copper coins."

"Alright." Kile looked satisfied with the answer, and then looked around the bar. 'There are currently 9 people, other than us four here. So it'll take me 27 coins to treat them all.'

"Oi, what are ya whispering? Get yet ass over here, and start playing. I'll start first this time."

Kile nodded, and they started playing again. Kile, once again, pretended to struggle against Gilbert, and won. After that, they played 5 more times. As Gilbert face grew more, and more infuriated per game, Kile decided to throw the 3rd game they played, so that the gambler doesn't stop playing. On their last game, Kile offered to give back everything he had earned so far for all the coins Gilbert currently had. Of course, Gilbert didn't agree, so Kile proposed that he'd bet everything he'd won today (34), and Gilbert would bet half of the coins he had (15), right now. After a few minutes of thinking, Gilbert agreed. They both put the bag coins over one another beside the board, and started their fifth game.

On their fifth game, Kile didn't hold back, and crushed Gilbert in just 5 minutes. At this, Bella, her dad, and Gilbert, all of them became speechless. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Kile had been holding back a lot, so far, and had only pretended to be on Gilbert's level, so that he could rob more coins of him. Gilbert's face grew red, in anger, and was about to punch Kile in the face.

But before he could do anything, Kile swiftly grabbed the two bags, and announced to the remaining people in the bar, "Guys! Today, on winning so many games, I'd like to treat you all to a mug of beer!"

""Yeah!"" At Kile's words, the remaining number of people in the bar, which was seven now, exclaimed in joy. They were watching the matches between Gilbert and Kile, so their response came almost as soon as Kile announced his treat.

Kile looked at Gilbert with a smirk. 'Heh, try to punch me now, asshole. I know you can't. Not after I got all these people excited, and earned their favour. This is politics! Kukuku!'

Just like that, Kile had to only spend 21 coins, left with 28, earning a profit of 13 coins. The frustrated Gilbert left the bar, slamming the door, and the two Bellas just stood their, with nothing to say.