The Knight Commander, Rick, Hansen, and Victor were playing under the Kyle Galli house rules.
Since the game had turned into a more physically demanding one, I assumed the Knight Commander might have an edge.
However, the game was playing out in a completely different manner.
“Keep the Commander in check! Attack all at once! Aim for his wrist!”
“Cards! Watch out so they don’t get crumpled!!”
“Haha! Hansen, Victor! You thought you could contain me with just the two of you? You’ve underestimated me!!”
“Huh? T-Two? Don’t tell me Rick, that bastard…!?”
Clang!
“Being on guard is good and all, but let me collect some cards too.”
“That Shorty bastard…!!”
In any case, this was practically everyone’s first time playing.
Yes, Hansen managed to trick the Knight Commander, and the Knight Commander occasionally lured Victor by hovering on the edge of pressing the bell.
But fundamentally, the game centered on intense physical scrambles. After falling for each other’s feints a few times, they stopped getting tricked so easily.
Still, I was not particularly concerned with who was winning.
Because the ground is dirt, the starting spot keeps getting dug up. If this goes on too long, it might interfere with the game.
They even slid in at the start and knocked the bell out from where it was planted. Maybe I need a better way to secure it? Or is a penalty enough?
I only allowed the use of the right hand, but things are getting more intense. This part… well, it can’t be helped. That was the original intention anyway.
I looked for loopholes in the rules and ways to address anything still lacking.
It was so far removed from the original Kyle Galli that one could say it had practically become a brand-new game, so some imperfections were inevitable.
I observed the knights’ match closely to find such problems.
I was thinking of a few ways to improve it when—
“Y-Young Master?”
“Hmm? Sally?”
“Y-Young Master… wh-who do you think will win…?”
Thanks to placing the bell on the ground, Sally who was maintaining her hardening magic with a much more relaxed expression asked this.
Who I thought would win, huh?
At a glance, Victor was in last place, while the other three had about the same number of cards. And it was clear the three knights were all focused on containing the Knight Commander.
Well, as someone who prided myself on being a board game veteran, if I had to predict—
“First, what about you, Sally?”
“H-Hansen, I think. The K-Knight Commander is also trying hard, but… the way they’re keeping him in check…”
“I pick the Knight Commander.”
“H-Huh?”
“Just watch.”
From my experience…
A change was bound to happen soon.
***
“Huff… huff…”
The Knight Commander panted heavily and paused to catch his breath.
How many times had he sprinted so far?
He went from standing still to running full speed, then wrestled with the other three knights using only his right hand. It drained his stamina far more than he had anticipated.
Still, that didn’t mean he found it hard to keep moving; not in the least. In fact, all that activity made it quite fun.
And the Knight Commander wasn’t the only one breathing heavily.
“Hngh… heh…”
“M-My cards…”
“Whew…”
Hansen who seemed to have moved around almost as much as the Knight Commander, Rick, who was mainly trying to take advantage of openings in the scrambles, and Victor, who hadn’t won a single card, were all showing signs of growing tired.
As the Knight Commander, no matter how many times they tried to keep him in check, letting himself collapse first would have been a blow to his pride.
“Rick, you have to draw a card.”
“Huff… I know that.”
Perhaps because he was focused on Kyle Galli, Shorty Rick spoke more curtly than usual as he drew a card with gleaming eyes.
Next, Hansen drew one, then Victor who was on the verge of tears, then finally the Knight Commander.
Each time someone drew a card, everyone flinched. Especially Victor whose deck was about to run out if it went on for a few more turns. He looked the most desperate.
How many more times did they repeat this process?
“………”
“………”
“………”
“…Damn it.”
They had not paid attention at first, but now they had no choice but to take notice.
Since four people were participating, even drawing just a few cards usually completed five shapes. Because of that, everyone ran at full speed, even when there were only a few cards at stake. Each small round had that much importance.
However.
The cards the Knight Commander had drawn already exceeded seven.
Each of the four participants had seven cards, so the total was twenty-eight. Meanwhile, Kyle Galli’s deck contained fifty-six cards.
In other words, in this single round, half of the total cards were on the line.
“…………….”
Only the sound of breathing filled the training grounds. Someone swallowing was loud enough to be heard clearly.
They were tense, and the cards, which they had drawn somewhat casually before, now felt oppressively heavy.
Without even thinking to wipe away his dripping sweat, the Knight Commander focused all his attention on Rick’s, Hansen’s, and Victor’s cards.
Victor had no more cards to draw. Even if it was his turn, he simply skipped it.
Because of that, Victor’s cards were set in stone.
Four circles, four circles, four circles.
He planned to act the moment a single circle appeared in either Rick’s or Hansen’s hand.
He had repeated that idea countless times while recalling the plan he had devised.
They had been ready to run for a long while now. Though they kept their upper bodies straight to draw their cards, their lower bodies were already in a stance fit for running. The others were no different.
Shuffle
Following Rick, Hansen drew a card. With that, he was left with only one card.
Now the number of cards at stake exceeded thirty.
The card Hansen drew…
“…O-One circle…!”
Those words slipped out unconsciously from Kyle’s personal maid and apprentice mage, who was outside the game rather than one of the four players.
In reality, that was a foul. Even if the other three did not mind, Hansen was not supposed to know the card in his hand. This meant any psychological warfare was no longer possible.
Yet none of the players complained.
After all, they were all sprinting toward the bell with everything they had.
Thud-thud-thud!!
“Please…!!”
Victor was the most desperate of them all. He was the only player with no cards.
If he lost this round, he would be eliminated for sure. No matter what, he had to press the bell.
His legs that were already exhausted moved furiously.
“Hup!”
Victor, who ran as though his life depended on it, was followed by Hansen and Rick in that order, with the Knight Commander bringing up the rear. In reality, he was deliberately slowing himself down a bit.
Although he still had more cards than Victor or Hansen, who had none or just one, it was only four or five. Considering how Rick, currently in first place, still had some leeway, the Knight Commander really should have gone all out.
However, the Knight Commander had his own plan. He did not know if it would work, but it was a gamble he had to take if he wanted first place.
He looked at Victor, Rick, and Hansen with a gleam in his eyes.
“Rick! Take care of the Knight Commander!!”
It was Hansen who shouted. Even if he lost now, he still had one card left, so he would not be eliminated. Still, having just a single card left only made him more uncertain.
He wondered if he should hold back to conserve his energy. If he gave his all, failed to ring the bell, and wore himself out, it would be over in the next round. But what about Victor?
All kinds of thoughts swirled in his mind, but Hansen’s decision was simple. Keep the Knight Commander in check.
Although the Knight Commander had fallen behind Rick, he had the explosive power to seize victory at any time. In fact, if he and Victor had not blocked the Knight Commander, Rick would never have taken first place.
Hansen thought it was time to repay that. Rick, who held first place and still had plenty of cards, should hold off the Knight Commander, and in the meantime, either Victor would press the bell or Hansen would do it himself.
And Shorty Rick, when he heard Old Man Hansen’s words…
“…Haha! If I can just get that, I’ll definitely be in first place…!!”
“Riiiiiiick!!!”
“Why should I bother blocking the Commander? If I win this round, I’ll have more than forty cards on my own!!”
He aimed even more intensely for the bell instead of turning toward the Knight Commander.
At first, the three knights might have been of one mind. Their fear of the Knight Commander outweighed their focus on the game, so they deliberately tried to stall by keeping the Knight Commander in check, hoping to delay being reprimanded for as long as possible.
However, now the situation was different. All they had in their heads was victory, and nothing else.
Under normal circumstances with the old Kyle Galli, such thoughts might never have occurred to them. But the newly reborn Kyle Galli that was created exclusively for knights drove their competitive spirit into a frenzy.
Their bodies collided, sweat poured, and they tested each other’s strength and techniques while also exchanging subtle psychological attacks.
They even wondered if this could really be that same frustrating game.
Moreover, knights were prideful. They took pride in their bodies, their skills, and their Aura.
Losing to an opponent in a game where they had to mobilize all those assets was more than a humiliation; it was maddening enough to drive them crazy.
At that very moment, the alliance between Shorty, Old Man, and Bald Spot shattered. All that remained was a competition where not a single person could be trusted.
And that—
—was exactly what the Knight Commander was aiming for.
Crash! Bang!!
“Move, move out of the way!!”
“V-Victor! Hold on, let’s negotiate—”
“I’ll be taking this!”
“Rick!! I’d rather lose than give you these cards…!!”
Victor, Hansen, and Rick all put their hands together in front of the bell.
Their right hands overlapped, shoulders blocked one another, and they kicked at each other’s legs to disrupt the path.
They used their entire bodies to brawl, aside from the left hand holding their cards.
Even so, because they were knights, their offensive and defensive moves were definitely at a high level. Yet it still fell short of how it was at the start because they were all exhausted.
“Now!”
Having confirmed this, the Knight Commander accelerated immediately.
He had run more slowly on purpose because it looked as though those three would break their alliance.
If he had been wrong, he might have been unable to even approach the bell and ended up losing his cards for nothing. But the Knight Commander’s gamble paid off perfectly.
The rush of success swept over him in an instant, and riding that momentum, the Knight Commander kicked off the ground. He was determined to use the remainder of his strength.
Only then did Rick and Hansen finally turn their gazes toward the oncoming Knight Commander.
“S-Stop him!!!”
Hansen shouted urgently, yet he himself did not move. Even at that moment, he had to block Victor, who was rushing straight for the bell.
In the end, Rick was the one who moved. If Hansen or Victor pressed the bell, that might be acceptable, but if the Knight Commander did, Rick would have to give up first place.
If Victor and Hansen got eliminated, there was no way Rick could ever beat the Commander one-on-one.
When he concluded that, Rick charged at the Knight Commander, practically in tears.
“Commander, why don’t you take a little break!!”
“No chance, Rick!”
But there was a reason he was called Shorty Rick. No matter how much of a knight one was, the natural difference in height could not be denied.
Facing an ordinary person might have been one thing, but the Knight Commander was on a higher level than Rick. There was a reason Rick had opted for tactics that exploited gaps instead of meeting him head-on until now.
Aura, which the Knight Commander had conserved, emerged from his body, gathered in an instant in his right hand, and reversed the situation by seizing Rick.
“Ugh!?”
Whoosh!
Rick flew through the air just like that.
The Knight Commander’s Aura-enhanced strength hurled Rick away. Rick attempted to resist using his own Aura, but even if he managed to land quickly, he would still arrive too late by then.
All the Knight Commander needed was that brief moment.
Having effectively taken Rick out of the picture, the Knight Commander turned toward Hansen and Victor.
Old Man Hansen ground his teeth.
“If it’s come to this…!!!”
Suddenly, Hansen’s right hand moved in a way it never had before.
The Knight Commander understood what that meant right away. It was Hansen’s signature move, the one he used when throwing someone over his shoulder.
But that should have been forbidden by Kyle. The Knight Commander quickly sensed this.
He’s willing to take a penalty just to eliminate me?
If Hansen flipped the Knight Commander over like this, he would receive a penalty. But if he managed to buy some time that way, Victor would press the bell.
Hansen would still only receive a penalty, not be completely disqualified from Kyle Galli. At the very least, he could aim for a final chance in the next round.
On the positive side, it was taking advantage of a loophole in the rules; on the negative side, it was essentially a foul.
He could attempt it only because Kyle Galli’s house rules were not yet perfect.
Of course.
That did not mean the Knight Commander would just let himself be taken down without resistance.
Tap!
“Oh, oh…!?”
“Trying to flip me over with only your right hand? That’s arrogance, Hansen!!”
He lightly deflected Hansen’s hand, which was targeting his wrist for the throw.
After all, it was the Knight Commander who had faced and observed Hansen’s flipping technique the most during training.
Trying to flip someone with just one right hand, when even using the whole body might not be enough, was simply a gamble that went beyond what the Knight Commander himself had attempted.
He batted it aside easily, but Hansen’s already exhausted body staggered from even that minimal effort.
He used that moment to aim for his final target: the bell.
“Uaaaah!!!!”
And there stood Victor, who didn’t change his position from start to finish, doing his utmost.
Hansen’s hand, which had been blocking him, now turned toward the Knight Commander, but the bodies and legs of both Hansen and the Knight Commander physically obstructed the path.
As a result, Victor’s hand only just barely brushed the bell.
The Knight Commander brought his right hand down without hesitation.
Both hands overlapped, and one of them pressed the bell.
Ding—!
Right after the bell rang to signal the end of the most desperate round,
“Ah, aah….”
“…I won.”
It was the Knight Commander’s hand that had pressed the bell.
In the very end, what was required was simply their raw physical strength.
The two hands collided, but the Knight Commander’s stronger hand prevailed over Victor’s. That was all there was to it.
Having confirmed his victory, the Knight Commander laughed and collapsed on the spot.
Thud.
“Huff… huff….”
He had won. He really had won.
He emerged victorious in the round that had the most cards on the line.
Filled with a surge of accomplishment and exhilaration, the Knight Commander grinned widely. Although he lay sprawled on the training ground, drenched in sweat, his face radiated pure joy.
While he stared blankly at the blue sky, someone approached and looked down at him.
“Knight Commander, how was it?”
“Y-Young Master… huff….”
“Normally, since only Victor was eliminated, we’d have to continue with the game. But since everyone has collapsed…”
Shorty Rick who had been sent flying; Old Man Hanson who resisted until the end; and Bald Spot Victor who lost his final chance. All of them were sprawled out on the training ground alongside the Knight Commander.
Everyone was gasping for breath, so it seemed impossible to continue the game any further.
“So…?”
“Right now, the person with the most cards is the winner. And that would be… of course, the Knight Commander.”
“…Ha, haha. Hahahahaha!!!”
Victory, and first place.
At this triumphant declaration, the Knight Commander let out a hearty laugh before speaking.
“Young Master, you’ve truly created an incredible board game.”
“Well, by the middle, it felt less like a board game and more like training or exercise.”
“That may be true, but its foundation still lies in Kyle Galli, doesn’t it?”
Winning the game brought something to mind.
The Knight Commander looked at Kyle with renewed respect and admiration.
“And it doesn’t even require any extra tools.”
“Huh?”
“This game. Don’t you only need the original Kyle Galli materials: the bell, the cards, and a table? That’s why it’s still Kyle Galli.”
“Well, house rules are usually like that.”
“And that’s what makes it amazing.”
It finally dawned on him. The worries the Knight Commander had about Kyle were entirely unfounded.
Kyle didn’t need to have talent with swords or magic like the eldest, nor did he need skill in swordsmanship and Aura like the second son.
The youngest son of the Byron Viscounty was flourishing with a talent that was uniquely his own.
“Young Master, I have a request.”
“What is it?”
“During training or breaks… would it be alright for everyone to play this Kyle Galli?”
“Come on, why are you asking me that?”
“Huh?”
“Board games are something players do when they want to. Just because I’m the creator doesn’t mean I have the right to stop anyone. Just find a good mage who can cast hardening magic, and you’re set.”
“…Understood!!”
“And could you call me over whenever you play? I think I need to observe more to refine it. Personally, I found it pretty interesting when Hanson tried to flip the situation midway. It wasn’t technically a disqualification, so he attempted to eliminate just one person, which was interesting. Rather than outright banning tactics like that, we could allow them as part of the mind game, but with harsher penalties to prevent overuse. Alternatively, we could simply ban them altogether. As for Victor outright blocking with his body, that might also be an issue, but making a rule to prevent that would restrict physical play entirely, which defeats the purpose of house rules. Besides, no matter how careful we are, the cards still get slightly crumpled. At this rate, it might be better to make the cards from a different material or enchant them with hardening magic. Though, that might be tough. If we start making special cards, we’d lose the original Kyle Galli’s feature of being able to change the rules on the fly. Would we have to make all the cards into special ones? No, that would cause budget problems if we wanted to distribute it to the people of the territory—”
“……………”
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