Adrian had finally calmed down after his streak of terrible luck had assaulted him from every possible direction.
He was lying in his mother’s lap when an idea suddenly struck him.
He could copy the games from Earth and introduce them to this world.
And make money from them.
Adrian immediately jumped up and went to find Ronald, who was supposed to be working but was instead busy playing with Serena.
Adrian entered the room and cleared his throat.
Hearing it, Ronald immediately hid the toy in his hands and stood straight, facing forward.
Adrian looked at him.
“Ronald, where can I get a chess set?”
Ronald gave him a completely blank expression.
“What is a chess set, Your Highness?”
Adrian paused.
Then he tried again.
“Ludo?”
Ronald’s expression didn’t change.
“Snake and Ladders?”
Nothing.
“Checkers?”
Nothing.
Adrian continued naming games one after another, but Ronald had never heard of any of them.
Adrian’s eyes gradually widened.
None of them existed.
He was overjoyed.
Ronald, however, was even more confused.
The Prince had come asking about a series of things that apparently didn’t exist, and upon learning that they didn’t exist, he had become extremely happy.
What exactly was going on?
Ronald wanted to ask.
But before he could, Serena reached for the little bell Ronald was holding.
His attention immediately shifted back to her.
He began playing with Serena again.
Adrian simply left.
He went out with Rowen and searched the village for a carpenter.
Eventually, he found the one he was looking for, a skilled one.
Adrian spent the remainder of the day sitting beside the carpenter, carefully explaining how the chess pieces should be made.
By the end of the day, he finally had his chess set.
There was only one problem.
There was no suitable colour available to make the opposing pieces black.
So Adrian improvised.
Instead of relying on colour, he had different symbols carved onto the two sets of pieces to distinguish them.
It wasn’t perfect.
But it worked.
Adrian eagerly carried the finished chess set back with him.
There was only one problem.
Nobody knew how to play.
The most intelligent person Adrian knew besides himself was busy playing with a baby.
So Adrian had no choice but to teach his guards.
There was only one chess set, and Adrian was the one who wanted to play the most.
So he came up with a system.
The losing player would leave the board and another person would take his place.
The winner would continue playing.
Adrian was confident.
He had superior intellect, a modern education, and years of experience with games like this.
There was absolutely no way these guards could defeat him.
At least, that was what he thought.
He sat down for the first game against Rowen.
After explaining the rules, the game began.
And Adrian nearly lost.
His expression slowly changed.
He stared at Rowen.
“Oye… you’ve played this game before, right?”
Rowen looked confused.
“No, Your Highness.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
Adrian narrowed his eyes. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“I’ll know if you’re lying.”
Rowen genuinely had no idea what was going on.
The game continued.
And eventually…
Adrian lost.
He had been so arrogant that he had nearly thrown away the game before he even understood what kind of opponent he was facing.
His chance to play the next round was gone.
But Adrian wasn’t going to accept that.
He gave the guards a deadly glare.
So nobody volunteered to take Adrian’s place for the second round.
Adrian looked around.
“Hmm.”
He smiled.
“Looks like no one wants to play the second round.”
He pointed toward the board.
“So I’ll play again myself.”
This time, Adrian was more careful.
And ….
He won.
His mood immediately improved.
He was happy again.
But Adrian had learned his lesson.
He left the chessboard to the guards and allowed them to continue playing against each other.
Soon, they began playing round after round, even placing small bets among themselves once Adrian had left.
Adrian had successfully introduced an entirely new indoor game to Valewood.
And then another idea came to him.
Why stop at chess?
He created more games.
Checkers.
Snake and Ladders.
Ludo.
And several other games he remembered from Earth.
Soon enough, Adrian had created his own little arsenal of indoor games.
But he wasn’t finished.
He now turned his attention toward sports.
The easiest sport to replicate was football.
Adrian remembered that forms of football had existed in ancient civilizations, including a particularly brutal version played by soldiers in the Mongol era where they used human skulls as a football.
Obviously, he wasn’t going to use human skulls.
He didn’t have rubber either.
A stone or iron ball would be far too heavy and would probably break someone’s legs.
So he settled on wood.
It wouldn’t be as good as a rubber ball.
But it would work.
He ordered the carpenter to make one.
It took the man several days to figure out how to hollow out a wooden sphere without destroying it.
Eventually, however, he succeeded.
Adrian had his football.
He gathered all his guards and explained the rules.
Then he divided them into two teams.
Adrian himself didn’t participate.
He was only six years old, while his guards were fully grown adult men.
There was little point in pretending he could compete physically with them.
The guards began playing.
Match after match.
And surprisingly…
Everyone loved it.
Ronald watched.
Elara watched.
Even Serena watched.
The servants gathered around.
Soon, practically everyone in the residence was watching the games.
Adrian’s eyes lit up.
A stadium. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
He could build a stadium.
Charge people for entry.
Sell food.
Sell merchandise.
Hold tournaments.
It could become an enormous source of income.
But there was one tiny problem.
A stadium required money.
A lot of it.
And Adrian didn’t have that kind of money.
Not with Aldren copying his banking system and earning money from it.
So Adrian put the idea on hold.
Instead, he made a deal with the carpenter.
For every game the carpenter manufactured and sold, Adrian would receive one gold coin.
The carpenter agreed.
Unfortunately, the games were anything but a hit.
The one-gold licensing fee made them expensive.
The poor couldn’t afford them.
And the rich weren’t numerous enough to sustain sales.
The games sold occasionally, bringing Adrian little more than pocket change.
Another failure.
Adrian felt like he was only a few steps away from smashing his head against a wall.
Every time he tried something…
It failed.
His previous life.
Failed.
His company.
Failed.
His bank.
Failed.
His games.
Failed.
Fail.
Fail.
Fail.
Everything seemed to be a failure.
And when he combined that with his ambitions…
He felt even worse.
He wanted to overthrow the King.
Destroy Aldren.
Win wars.
Change society.
Challenge religion.
Reshape the kingdom.
Perhaps even change the world.
Yet he couldn’t even defeat one insignificant man without resorting to killing him.
What a joke.
Adrian was beginning to wonder whether his ambitions were simply too large for him.
Maybe he should give up.
Maybe he should stop trying to become the greatest King in Asterra.
Maybe he should simply live quietly.
Become the insignificant prince everyone already believed him to be.
Adrian was genuinely considering giving up.
Then he heard laughter.
He looked over.
His mother was playing Ludo.
She was smiling.
She was enjoying herself.
And seeing her happy made Adrian smile too.
For just a moment, all his failures disappeared.
Then Elara suddenly said something while playing.
Ronald had eliminated her pieces multiple times now so she allied with Talia saying
“An enemy of an enemy is a friend.”