The corner of Ruri’s mouth curled up slightly.
She thought to herself that her dummy big brother really was just playing around.
He didn’t even fight for the first move.
Everyone knew that the first player had a higher win rate than the second!
But no matter what, he was still her big brother, so she decided to go easy on him.
Let him make a few more moves and have some fun.
Ruri casually moved a pawn forward.
“All right, then I won’t hold back.”
The moment Natsume Chikei saw where his sister had placed her piece, he barely thought at all.
His finger tapped lightly, and a bishop slid into what looked like an ordinary square.
Ruri watched her brother move without any hesitation and smiled faintly, continuing with her “teaching game” mindset.
Her moves looked quite casual.
However, after just over ten moves, the relaxed smile on Ruri’s face gradually froze.
Her gaze grew slightly serious, and she straightened her posture a lot more.
She felt like she had already gone easy enough.
It was time to get serious, or else her brother might actually win!
But Natsume Chikei’s responses remained completely calm, without the slightest ripple.
His eyes pierced through the board as if he could already see the final outcome.
As the pieces kept falling.
Control of the game quietly shifted.
Ruri followed the flow and her expression changed slightly—her king had somehow been surrounded by an inescapable net without her noticing!
No matter how she tried to maneuver, she couldn’t escape the fate of being checkmated.
“Huh…?
When did I get checkmated?”
Ruri stared at her captured king, her small mouth puffing out slightly.
“That doesn’t count!
I was going easy on you just now.
Let’s play again!” She quickly reset the board while muttering, “This time I’m going to be serious!”
“Mm, let’s go again.” Natsume Chikei could tell his sister had been holding back.
This game hadn’t shown her full strength anyway, so a rematch was fine.
In the second game, Ruri put away all her underestimation and brought out the same focus she had once used against their father.
She opened with her best “Static Rook” formation, launching a fierce offensive and trying to end it quickly.
However, Natsume Chikei’s defense looked full of holes, yet no matter how aggressive Ruri’s attacks became, he always managed to quietly plant lethal traps in the gaps of her formation.
Finally, after a seemingly ordinary exchange, Natsume Chikei’s rook cut in diagonally, coordinating with the knight and silver general he had already positioned in ambush, instantly creating an inescapable mating net!
“Tsume!” Natsume Chikei calmly announced the result.
Ruri stared blankly at the board.
This… what was going on right now?
Had she gotten so rusty from not playing for so long?
How could even her dummy big brother beat her?
She clenched her small fists, unwilling to accept it.
“No way, one more time!
I didn’t see that last move clearly!”
“Ruri’s already gotten back into the groove!” Get faster updates on novelping.com.
“This time I’m really, really, really serious!”
Natsume Chikei smiled without saying a word.
After this game, he already understood that after equipping the “Dusty Old Shogi Record,” his strength had far surpassed his genius little sister.
When he looked at her next move, he could already see the next ten or twenty moves ahead.
It could be said that his sister’s intentions were almost completely transparent to him.
So no matter what she played from here on, she probably wouldn’t be able to beat him anymore.
Because of that, Natsume Chikei was also deeply shocked in his heart.
He felt that the effect of this [Dusty Old Shogi Record] was simply ridiculously powerful!
He had gone from a complete shogi outsider to a master capable of crushing his genius little sister in an instant.
After that.
Ruri kept playing and kept losing.
The corners of her eyes were already starting to glisten with little pearls.
“Want to play another one?”
“Yes!”
Chikei knew his little sister very well.
She looked polite and well-behaved on the surface, but deep down she was actually quite competitive.
If he kept winning, she might keep playing while crying, possibly all the way until tomorrow!
Under normal circumstances that wouldn’t be a problem.
But right now he needed to write.
He had to finish The Devotion of Suspect X.
There was no need to waste any more time on shogi.
With that in mind, he figured it was time to go easy on her.
Otherwise this really would never end.
Still, it was rare to see his sister like this, and he found it very entertaining.
Natsume Chikei rested his chin on his hand propped against the small table and smiled as he watched his little sister.
“This time, do you want to go first or should I?”
“Me first!!”
Natsume Ruri puffed out her cheeks, her stubborn gaze fixed straight on the board as she made the first move.
Soon.
With Chikei deliberately letting her win, Natsume Ruri finally won a few games and shouted excitedly:
“Tsume!
Big brother, you lost again!”
Natsume Chikei smiled faintly.
“Looks like it.”
Natsume Ruri put her hands on her hips and grinned.
“When Ruri gets serious, she’s invincible!”
“Still, big brother, you only just started learning again.
It’s already pretty good that you can reach this level.”
“If you work a little harder from now on, you might actually be able to surpass me someday!”
Natsume Chikei smiled.
“All right, it’s getting late.
You go take a shower first.
After I finish mine, we should both get some sleep.”
“Tomorrow’s the first day of school.
It’s better to go to bed early.” The source of this chapter is g.com.
Natsume Ruri was clearly in a good mood now.
She nodded with a smile.
“Mm.”
With that, she grabbed her change of clothes and headed to the bathroom.
Natsume Chikei quietly sat in front of the small table, took out his phone, and started typing.
He wanted to finish writing The Devotion of Suspect X as soon as possible.
Still, he estimated that at his current pace, it would probably take about a week to finish.
The novel was around 150,000 characters long.
Even if he was copying from memory, he could write at most 20,000 characters a day.
Right then.
The old television in the corner of the room once again played a familiar voice.
It was the new shogi tournament advertisement that had aired earlier:
“[All-Japan New Talent Shogi Challenge] is now open for registration!
Amateur enthusiasts are also welcome to participate!
Challenge the strong, win generous prize money!
First win: 10,000 yen.
Each consecutive win doubles the prize!
The final winner may even get the chance to challenge the Dragon King’s throne!
…”
Natsume Chikei’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to the screen, locking onto the scrolling prize numbers—first win 10,000, second win 20,000, third win 40,000… ten consecutive wins would be 5.12 million yen!
A strong impulse rose in his heart.
Writing a novel was certainly one path, but even if he finished it this week and submitted it immediately, he wouldn’t receive the payment until next month at the earliest.
Right now, rent, tuition, living expenses… everything required money.
His sister had been overjoyed just winning 1,000 yen.
It was easy to imagine how heavy the financial pressure was.
Natsume Chikei knew that his current part-time job paid at most 800 yen per hour.
Working eight hours a day, that was only about 6,400 yen at most.
And that was only because the manager had deliberately scheduled him for more hours.
In reality, there were time restrictions for high school students working part-time.
They could work at most 5 hours a day, and 40 hours a month.
If they exceeded that and someone reported it, the shop could get fined and shut down.
So many places that hired part-timers generally wouldn’t let high school students work too long openly, for fear of being reported.
Calculating based on the maximum hours a high schooler could legally work, in one month Natsume Chikei could earn at most around 68,000 yen…
Meanwhile, this tournament only had tomorrow left as the final registration day.
Once registration closed tomorrow, the tournament would begin!
Natsume Chikei didn’t think there were many professional players who could match his current ability to calculate ten or twenty moves ahead.
So he was confident that with the terrifying shogi strength he had just gained, he could win quite a few games.
Even if he didn’t win all the way to the end, he could still earn at least several tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand yen.
No matter how you looked at it, it wouldn’t be a loss!
In the short term, this tournament would bring in money much faster than his part-time job or waiting for the novel.
It could relieve most of the family’s financial pressure before the novel got published and started paying royalties.