Day 1- Chess- The Royai Gambit?
Fuhrer Grumman pulled out the chess set and waved for Roy to set the board up. It had been nearly six months since they had played. Roy and his team had been in Ishval for the reconstruction, and Roy knew that this would not just be a routine game. He had kept Grumman current on the projects and politics, but there were things that did not come across in reports. The Fuhrer seemed to have an excited look in his eyes. Roy, who knew the old man well, found it to be quite unsettling. When they played chess, the strategies were not just for the game.
The two men each made a couple of conservative moves before Grumman began to talk. "Do you know much about the origins of the game, Roy-Boy?"
Roy froze. Oh, shit! He's never called me that before. That means that he's been in cahoots with Aunt Chris. Somehow, it always disturbs me that those two are so chummy. Is he really worried about something that I've done? Not done? "Uh, no I don't, Sir. I was always most concerned with strategy. Not that it has helped me against you. Sir." Roy grinned.
"I've got some old books that you could read about the countries south of Xing. Amestris- as you well know, has always paid great attention to its border countries but has all but ignored any place that would be difficult to conquer or was far enough away to be of no consequence. We even ignored Xing, since it was beyond the desert, and Xing is a huge and rich country. Believe me when I say that they knew about Xing and the countries south of it," Grumman continued. "Anyway, no one from Amestris has written any account of their travels south of Xing in the past 500 years or so, but I have two early books from the late 1300s. They are mostly accounts of mathematics, military tactics, and chess. Chess was invented in a country called Salamin.
"The military tactics were fascinating. They used drugs to give soldiers strength, concentration, and endurance. And even blood thirst."
It was enough to distract Roy, "I believe that my Master had mentioned texts from Salamin. The concept of zero was also created there. He had never seen the texts, but his master had told him that some people believed that alchemy was invented there, too. We think that we got it from Xerxes, but it may not have originated in Xerxes. Hohenheim might have known." Roy knew that Grumman knew who his master was. Well, the game was never confined only to the board, but the Hawkeye family, while often on the old man's agenda, was probably not part of today's game,
"It's interesting how we both came to be soldiers," Grumman posited. You are a scientist soldier. Now that you are working in Ishval, you are becoming a bit of a statesman, but you still initially look at things in a scientific way. I'm still the warrior with my eyes on the prize."
He had checkmated Mustang. His glee brightened like the sun at Mustang's sigh.
"But I do have another reason why I brought you here today..."
"Ishval, Sir?"
"Yes. You haven't put anything about this critical issue in any of your reports. Really, what I want to know is... when are you going to marry my granddaughter?"
The move came to Roy like a bolt of lightening. "Why don't you ask your granddaughter when will she marry me, Sir?" He couldn't keep a smirk form his mouth.
"I'd have to smoke some of that Salamin drug before I ever do that."