Camelot didn’t waste any time.
If the clue said to look for the queen under the oak tree, then the first thing to do was check the oldest oak tree in the estate.
He left the old wing and went into the garden.
The closer he got to the tree, the more he understood why Aurelius had chosen him.
The oak was huge.
Its trunk was so thick that two adults could hardly wrap their arms around it.
Branches stretched over the garden, covering part of the sky, and the roots had long since sprouted through the ground and protruded in places.
Camelot walked around the tree.
Nothing.
He crouched down and peered between the roots.
Also nothing.
«A queen, then.
Where did you hide?»
He was about to start searching the ground with his hands when he noticed movement.
Something green flashed near the root.
Camelot froze.
A lizard cautiously emerged from the small grass.
She was very small.
Her scales had an unusual green hue, almost the same as the young leaves of an oak tree.
But Camelot was most interested in something else.
There was something pinched at the end of her tail.
Camelot narrowed his eyes.
«It can’t be…»
He took a step closer.
The lizard instantly raised its head.
And then Camelot saw the whole thing.
A small chess piece.
«A queen!»
And not an ordinary wooden queen.
The figure was made of dark metal, and the edges were covered with thin silver lines.
The lizard held it with its tail, as if it were a very ordinary wand.
Camelot slowly sat down.
«So that’s where you are…»
The lizard looked at him carefully.
Camelot held out his hand.
She immediately retreated.
«Okay.
Calm down.»
He took his hand away.
The lizard continued to watch.
Camelot looked at her slender body.
And then I realized.
«Are you hungry?»
The lizard tilted its head.
Camelot wasn’t sure if she understood him.
But I decided to check it out.
He returned to the manor and a few minutes later appeared near the oak tree with a small bowl.
There was water in it.
And next to it was another small container with live worms.
Camelot has put everything on the ground.
«Here, this is food for you.»
The lizard didn’t move at first, but then its eyes widened abruptly.
She stuck out her tongue.
And suddenly she darted forward.
Camelot didn’t even have time to realize what had happened.
The lizard ran up to the bowl and began to drink the water greedily.
After that, she attacked the worms.
Camelot couldn’t help but chuckle.
«So that’s our password.»
She no longer saw Camelot as a threat.
Her tail relaxed.
The queen fell right on the grass.
Knock…
Camelot slowly extended his hand.
This time, the lizard didn’t run away.
He carefully picked up the chess piece with two fingers.
And at the same moment, the world around him froze.
The wind stopped.
The leaves stopped.
Even the little lizard froze near the bowl.
A page of the grimoire flashed before Camelot’s eyes.
[An item related to an additional task has been found.
]
[ Aurelia Canham’s Queen ]
[Condition: Stable.
]
[ Origin: The Canham family.
]
[ Subject history: Classified.
]
[ Special property: Is unknown.
]
Camelot frowned.
«Even here, you won’t tell me anything?»
But the grimoire was already gone.
Instead, something else appeared in front of Camelot.
A chessboard began to form out of thin air.
First, one cell appeared.
Then the second one.Third.
A few seconds later, a large chessboard was fully formed in front of him.
She wasn’t standing on the ground.
She was floating in the air.
The figures were missing.
Camelot slowly walked around her.
«What is this?»
He looked at the back.
There was indeed an inscription.
It was as if the old letters had been burned right into the wood.
«Play the first game.»
Camelot felt a strange tension.
It turns out that Aurelius and that unknown woman played more than one game.
And this chessboard was just the beginning.
A new line appeared in the air.
[Additional task has been updated.
]
[ “Green Kiss on the Chessboard” ]
[ Goal: To play the first game.
]
[ Opponent’s player: Unknown.
]
[ Rules: Standard.
]
[ Victory condition: Unknown.
]
[ Injury condition: Unknown.
]
]
Camelot looked at the empty board.
Then he looked at the queen in his hand.
Then at the lizard.
She calmly continued to eat the worms, completely uninterested in what was happening.
«Do you even know what’s going on here?»
The lizard blinked.
Camelot sighed.
«Okay.»
He placed the queen on the first square.
And then there was a green flash across the chessboard.
Somewhere far away, in the old wing of the estate, there was a sound.
Click…
Then the second one.
Click…
And then the third one.
It was as if someone invisible had already placed the pieces on another chessboard.
Camelot slowly looked up.
The last line from the grimoire appeared in front of him.
[The first player has taken his place.
]
[ The second player awakens.
]
[ The party begins.]
And from the depths of the old manor came a woman’s voice:
«Aurelian grandson… You came after all.»
Camelot started the first game with an invisible opponent.
He was sitting under a huge old oak tree with a chess board in front of him.
There was no one in front of him.
His opponent was inside the manor, watching the game from somewhere behind the walls, as if he wanted to see if Camelot could win.
Camelot made the first move.
The answer came almost immediately.
One piece after another moved across the board.
Camelot tried to calculate his opponent’s actions, but it was as if he knew his every move in advance.
The party did not last long.
After a few minutes, Camelot realized that he had lost.
The moment the last figure stopped on the cage, a small green lizard sitting nearby suddenly trembled.
Her body began to change.
Two small horns appeared on the head, the eyes turned bright yellow, and the scales darkened.
The lizard bared its teeth and hissed angrily, completely ceasing to resemble this harmless animal that Camelot had recently fed.
But an even stranger thing happened to the chessboard.
A woman’s hands appeared out of nowhere right above her.
It was as if they were separated from the body.
Pale fingers slowly sank to the edge of the board, and long nails were covered with a green manicure.
Camelot froze.
It was a color he had seen before.
Suddenly, a soft female whisper sounded very close by:
«We have three games in total…»
One of the hands slowly moved the chess piece.
There was silence again for a few seconds.
And then a voice whispered:
«If you lose, you will be punished.»
Camelot slowly looked at the transformed lizard, then back at the woman’s hands.
Now he understood.
It wasn’t just a chess game.
Someone really decided to play with him.
And it seemed that he had yet to learn the rules of this game.