[183]: Blind Girl
"Human technology is pretty interesting, nya," Neferpitou said, watching as Pouf appeared on the big screens, now acting as the public spokesperson for East Gorteau.
Across the entire country, every TV and radio broadcast was filled with the spokesperson's voice.
The message was simple:
— All the chaos was due to armed insurgents causing trouble.
— There were no monsters; the deaths were all the work of rebels.
— People should be cautious of those spreading fear-mongering rumors.
— Stay home. Do not go outside.
"Controlling the media and manipulating public opinion... it's a skill every ruler needs to master," Cyr said lazily, watching the scene unfold.
He then took a trip around East Gorteau and discovered that almost everyone had believed the announcement.
One after another, they locked themselves inside their homes, not daring to step outside.
The entire country seemed to have become a giant breeding ground for the ants, with humans as their livestock.
Locked doors and windows were meaningless against the Chimera Ants.
Meanwhile, the Ant King stayed in the royal palace, spending his days playing chess against a rotating roster of human challengers.
His skills steadily improved, and up until now, he had never once lost a match—becoming truly unbeatable across the entire nation.
Some opponents were so terrified upon seeing him that they couldn't even lift a chess piece.
Those people… usually ended up dead.
Of course, even if they were killed, their bodies appeared intact outside the palace.
As for those who managed to force themselves through a full game with the King... they didn't fare much better.
"Nothing special," said the Ant King arrogantly, convinced he had already reached the pinnacle of chess mastery.
His next opponent was an extremely ordinary-looking human girl—so plain that even her clothes were tattered by the King's standards.
She was sniffly, ragged, and, worst of all... blind.
She looked so weak that the Ant King didn't even consider her a proper opponent.
Too weak.
Beneath notice.
So when the game began, he barely paid any attention at all.
There was no way, he thought, that he could lose to such a pitiful creature.
When Cyr returned to the palace, he arrived just in time to see the Ant King lose.
The King was stunned, furious, humiliated—he flipped the chessboard and stormed away in a rage.
Meanwhile, the girl remained eerily calm, her emotions steady as still water.
"What happened?" Cyr asked the brother and sister who had been lurking in the palace's shadows.
"The Ant King lost to that human girl," Airey replied.
Huh?
Cyr turned a careful gaze onto the girl who had beaten the King.
She looked young.
She was definitely human.
And… she was blind.
Everything checked out.
A brutal Ant King and a frail blind human girl—wasn't this exactly that kind of setup?
She looked incredibly weak—even Six Eyes wouldn't sense anything special about her...
Her life energy wasn't any different from an average human's.
But her chess skills had to be terrifying—after all, she had defeated the King.
Thinking about it, Cyr said confidently to Aimi and Eili, "The Ant King is going to fall in love with her."
Because that's exactly how this story goes.
He already saw the pattern—
The Ant King, undefeated until now, finally loses to a fragile human girl.
His curiosity grows.
His frustration deepens.
He seeks to understand her.
They spend time together, and slowly... he falls for her.
After all, the Ant King loved extreme contrasts—like when something looked weak but tasted delicious.
He'd even once complained that Cyr's flesh tasted too bland to be exciting. Hah.
Now that he thought about it, this human girl in front of him... actually matched the Ant King's preferences perfectly.
She looked incredibly weak—even weaker than an ordinary person—but in truth, she possessed Nen.
A rare find.
Her "flavor" would be far superior to that of normal humans.
Confirmed:
The Ant King would absolutely love her.
"Why?" Aimee asked, puzzled.
The Ant King? Fall in love with a human?
Chimera Ants with human genes were really impossible to predict.
"Because the Ant King lost to the type of person he despises the most," Cyr explained, his tone slow and theatrical.
"His pride was trampled underfoot by someone he looked down on. He's never encountered this kind of person before. He was toyed with, completely."
"…" Aimee and Eili both stared at him blankly, utterly confused.
They had never read trashy romance novels or watched soap operas.
As non-humans, it was questionable whether they even had something like a "romance" system in the first place.
Naturally, they couldn't understand this pattern.
"To put it simply," Aimee summarized, "because the Ant King lost to her, he'll fall in love with her."
They really couldn't understand it.
Chimera Ants with human DNA were just as complicated as humans.
The original Chimera Ants were straightforward—expand the army, find food, build a kingdom.
Or rather, all they ever thought about was eating.
Even building armies and kingdoms was just a means to secure better and more abundant food.
"I'll give it a try," Cyr said, sitting down in the Ant King's seat.
"Play a game with me too."
"Oh right, the rule is: every move must be made within thirty seconds.
If you're even one second late, you lose," Cyr casually added, tossing out his most familiar rule—hoping to finish the match quickly.
The longer it dragged on, the more his brain would start overheating.
"…Please," the human girl said softly.
Her emotions remained calm, her voice gentle—just hearing it made people unconsciously relax.
Even if she kept talking, it didn't feel annoying at all.
However, her playstyle was the complete opposite of her frail and pitiful appearance.
Every move was solid, cautious, and when she needed to make sacrifices, she acted decisively without hesitation.
Every placement of a piece was filled with ruthless determination.
While playing, her blind eyes seemed almost able to "see" the chessboard and the pieces above it.
And then—
When Cyr forced her into a desperate situation, she awakened.
A surge of powerful Nen erupted from her fragile body, completely out of sync with her physical appearance.
She had awakened Nen through chess…
A talent so overwhelming that she could awaken Nen on her own?
That was basically another form of "Heavenly Restriction," wasn't it?
It was similar to how Toji Fushiguro had sacrificed cursed energy in exchange for a peerless physical body.
After all, he was someone who could pummel Special Grades to death using only raw strength.
If judged purely on chess ability—
this girl might one day become the world's number one.
Cyr silently placed a piece while holding his nose.
His head hurt.
Chess was always time-consuming and brain-intensive to begin with—and in this game, they had been playing for two whole hours.
And with the thirty-second-per-move rule, you had to instantly read your opponent's intentions and make the correct counterplay.
The difficulty doubled.
For Cyr, who was already burning through brainpower under double debuffs, these two hours had been brutal.
At one point, his brain even physically "fried"—
but he immediately healed it with Reverse Cursed Technique.
Even so, he couldn't win.
Of course, he didn't lose either—it ended in a draw.
Both players' "generals" were trapped, unable to move, and no other pieces could be played.
The game couldn't continue.
If you imagined this chess match as two countries at war, it was as if both sides had exhausted all ammunition and resources—
forced into a reluctant truce.
"…"
Cyr leaned back in his chair, deep in thought.
He had once held the title of World Champion in chess competitions, though not in Shogi.
He had even beaten AI opponents before.
This game just now—Cyr had played at full strength.
The debuff only made him lazy and prone to headaches, it didn't actually lower his intelligence.
Even if he had lost, he wouldn't have had any excuse.
But this was a draw.
Even if they played another match, Cyr couldn't be sure who would win.
°°°
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