Once upon a time, in a far far away planet called Earth, there lived a young man named Sora. Sora was a huge military nerd, that attended the military academy and conquered the black belt in traditional karate before completing a PhD in physics. Then one day he was kidnapped by Tet, the One True God, and transported to Disboard, where everything was decided by gaming.

At the beginning, Sora was not sure that he could adapt to Disboard, where nobody even remembered what actual fight was, but then he met Jibril. Jibril belonged to the Flügel: a race of god-killing weapons, created for war and war only… now condemned to live an eternal and purposeless life in a world where war did not and could not exist.

They first met when Sora had stumbled into Jibril's house – a huge library in the capital city of Elkia – believing it was a public library, and they had clicked almost immediately. Jibril was the only one in the kingdom that remembered what war actually was, and Sora was the only one that could understand the plight of the Flügel. Jibril allowed him to move in with her, and for a few weeks Sora and his landlady just read and played the days away together. For both of them, it was one of the happiest periods in their lives.

Then Stephanie Dola, princess of Elkia, showed up at the library. There, she begged Sora to compete to become the new king of Elkia, in order to avoid Immanity becoming slaves of the elves from Elven Garde. He had actually never wanted to become a king, but Stephanie seemed so desperate that in the end she convinced him to assist her. Jibril helped him to conquer the crown, and became his Special Assistant and most trusted confident.

Following the king competition game, Sora devised a plan to begin hostilities against the elves. Jibril approved, and teleported right above the capital of Elven Garde. There, she unleashed her unlimited power to write a message on the side of a mountain:

"Elves drool, Immanity rules!" was written in letters that were hundreds of meters high, and could be read from hundreds of kilometers away.

Of course, the elven Senate could not let this slide and sent their ambassador to demand satisfaction. Sora easily run circles around the old ambassador, that eventually lost his patience and declared war on Elkia by challenging Sora to a game. All according to plan.

Elven Garde was the largest country on Disboard, and Sora did not believe for a second that it could be conquered in one fell swoop. For this reason, he proposed that both countries would bet an area that was 90% the extension of Elkia. But there the plan hit the first snatch, because the ambassador demanded that Sora bet all of the territory of Elkia. And Jibril.

The earthling agreed to the first condition, but was appalled by the second, and rejected it categorically. Multiple times. Until Jibril herself butted in.

"Tell the ambassador that I accept to be part of the bet… if he bet his Race Piece"

Sora's mouth had dropped open "W-why?"

"I have faith in you"

"It's too dangerous!"

"Are you saying that my assessment of you is incorrect?"

Sora had his misgivings, but allowed himself to be convinced. And so it was that Elven Garde bet his Race Piece in exchange for all of the territory of Elkia. And a Flügel.

Sora chose the game. And he lost.

The old elf laughed manically, before spitting in the face of the young human. He then grabbed Jibril by the wrist and dragged her away, loudly declaring that she would reside in the dungeon of his house forever after.

Sora fell on his knees, shut his eyes closed and did his best to shut his ears too. He focused all of his brain power to erase any input from the outside world, and eventually he succeeded. He did not know how long he stayed in that position, but eventually he regained enough consciousness to realize that somebody was standing in front of him. It was Stephanie.

"I am so sorry Sora" she whispered, on the verge of tears

He looked at her "Me too"

"I-It's not your fault…" she stammered "…you did everything you could…"

He looked away "Not enough, apparently"

she knelt in front of him, and took his hands onto hers "Let's withdraw… for now, there is nothing we can do…"

He gave her a stern look "There is no 'us' anymore"

Her eyes went wide "W-what?"

He was unwavering "I hereby relinquish my ownership of the King Piece"

Stephanie was shocked, but was even more shocked when Immanity's Race Piece was transferred to her

"Sora… there is no need for you to do this…."

"Shut up!" he roared. And quickly stood up, leaving her on the floor

She was mystified "Sora…"

He gave her a flaming gaze "I knew it was a stupid idea for me to become king! It's all your fault! Take that damn thing or – I swear – I will give it to the elves!"

Stephanie desperately tried to placate him "Sora… Sora, please… calm down!"

"Enough of this!" he snapped giving her the shoulders "Don't ever talk to me again, because the next time… we are going to be enemies!"

This said, Sora stormed out of the palace.


On the same day, a man appeared in front of the main research institute of Elkia City. He was around thirty, obese and bald. But what made his appearance distinctive was that most of his lower face was covered in bandages, as if he had recently been in a fight. The man entered a room where a professor was teaching math to a dozen of students, and quietly took place by the side of the door. He did not stay quiet for long.

"What a bunch of nonsense!" the man shouted out of the blue, provoking everyone to turn towards him.

The professor was less than pleased "And who may you be… sir?" he asked, almost spitting the last word.

Sora nodded internally

This disguise seems to work. Good.

"Somebody that actually knows math… unlike you!"

All of the students collectively dropped their jaws, and some started whispering to one another. The professor was outraged

"How dare you! I demand that you apologize immediately!"

The bald man leant back on the chair and crossed his arm "Not going to happen… dumbass!"

The older man was furious, but fought hard to maintain his composure "You have no right to talk to me like that!"

Sora shrugged "It's not my fault if you have no idea of what you are talking about!"

The scholar narrowed his eyes "Oh really? Then why don't you show us how it's done… sir?"

The earthling smirked "Is that a challenge, you ignorant buffoon?"

"You are damn right it is!"

"Good, I bet my own life"

The professor's eyes went wide "W-what?"

"If I lose, I will be your slave…" Sora said calmly "But don't worry, I will not ask you to do the same. Instead, if you lose you will be bound to obey my orders… but only in matters concerning the Academia"

The older scholar was at a loss "This… this is insane!"

"Do you trust your knowledge so little?"

Reluctantly, the teacher accepted the terms. The challenge was a math-off, that Sora easily won by using his knowledge of modern science. Satisfied, the earthling gave a nod to the defeated professor.

"I will let you continue with your work, now. Meet me in front of the office of the dean at the end of the lessons period"

Leaving behind a room buzzing with whispers of shock and amazement, Sora moved to the next class. One victory later, the earthling emerged from the room and moved to another class, where he repeated the process for the third time. He spent the rest of the day defeating professors at their own subjects, until eventually the day came to an end.

As he marched in front of the dean office, he noticed that all of his newly acquired clients were already waiting. Without giving them a second glance, he pushed the door open and entered the office.

"Good evening, dean"

The old professor raised the head from the parchments "Good evening sir… may I ask you who may you be?"

"I am the dean of this institute"

The old man laughed "You just said that I am the dean!"

"Come in, every one!" Sora ordered, and all of the professors that he defeated during the day entered the office

The dean started to worry "What… what is the meaning of this?"

Sora smirked "All of these gentlemen here have lost a game against me, and they are now under my direct control. Academically speaking. So, you can see that I am also a dean of this university… maybe even more than you are!"

The dean looked around. All across the room, numerous luminaries that he had been acquainted with for many years were either looking downcast or averting their eyes.

"This is unacceptable!" the dean stated

Sora shrugged "Is it? Works fine for me, actually…"

"There can only be one dean!"

"I disagree" the young man said casually

"We shall settle this right now!" the scholar shouted

Sora grinned "Is that a challenge?"

"Yes it is! We shall see who is more fit to be the dean of this institute!"

"So… the game that you want to do is an academic showdown?"

The dean nodded

"And the winner will be the one and only dean?"

Another nod.

Sora was delighted "Perfect! That's exactly the game that I wanted to play!"

The dean was one of the best and brightest scholars of Immanity, but even only a cursory knowledge of General Relativity or Quantum Mechanics was decades if not centuries too advanced for him. Sora became the head of the institute, but left the dean as his right arm to run things as before. Because he knew very well that he was not going to be around the faculty very often.

That night, Sora pondered whether or not to try to contact Jibril. In the end, he decided not to.

The following day, still wearing his disguise, dean Sora went to visit another institute in what was now the capital of the Immanity Province of Elven Garde. In an almost exact replay of the previous day, he defeated a sledge of academics, before challenging the dean for the control of the institute. By the end of the day, he was officially in charge of two universities.

The third day he did not bother with the small fries. He went straight to the head of faculty and started to provoke him until he was challenged. He bet one of his institutes against the one he was visiting, and won again. After a week, all of the major academic centers of the city were under his direct control. By that time, he had grown quite a long beard, and so he stopped wearing bandages on his faces to avoid being recognized. He kept using the fat-man disguise though… and a fake name.

For the next phase of his plan, disguised Sora took to the road and left the capital, eventually reaching a relatively remote village in the countryside. There, he introduced himself as a famous academic, head of an important university of the capital.

Hungry for news from the capital, as well as for a chance to increase his visibility in the circles of the big city, the lord of the village invited Sora into his palace as a guest of honor. He had no idea what his guest had prepared for him.

Sora spent the entire evening pontificating on how scholars were the real wealth of society and for this reason it should be scholars to occupy the highest rank on the social order, and not nobility. In fact, he pointed out that land-owning nobles were so ignorant that they had no idea how to efficiently run their properties, and for this reason their possessions should be given to professors and teachers to administer instead. At the beginning, Sora's host tried to endure the barrage in the name of hospitality, but that just seemed to make things worse. Eventually, he could not take it anymore and challenged his bald guest to a game, betting his manor against all of Sora's institutes.

After harping for the entire evening on the superiority of mind over physical strength, Sora then very hypocritically chose karate as the game (his fat-man disguise did not restrain him at all), and easily became the Lord of the village. He kept the former owner as administrator though, and let his family live in their old house. Because he knew he that was not going to be around very often.

In the following days, Sora wandered the countryside, repeating the same procedure in a different village every day, and adding them all to his growing power base.

It was only a matter of time before Sora overthrew somebody with relatives in higher places, and so it was that one of the defeated nobles begged his cousin, the county Lord, to challenge this outrageous man that was taking over the countryside one hamlet at the time.

Sora bet all of the villages that he had conquered for the position of county Lord, and won. But this time, he did not allow the former Lord to keep the job, because this time he knew that he was going to use the power of county Lord.

Sora immediately began a series of changes in the policies of the county, together with a series of aggressive and provocative moves against a neighboring county. In a couple of weeks, the offended Lord of the county that was being targeted was at the door of Sora's palace, loudly challenging him to a game. Sora accepted the challenge and won, becoming the Lord of two counties. He then proceeded to use the combined power of his entire domain to harass a third county of the former kingdom of Elkia. This time, though, the county Lord saw the way the wind was blowing and simply offered his allegiance to Sora, that accepted it and immediately began to prepare to acquire the position of regional Lord.

Luckily for Sora, the Senate of Elven Garde seemed content with keeping the human Lords in power, at least for the moment, and so he could move on with his plan. It took a couple of weeks to organize an ambush to the regional Lord and take his position, but the ruler of the neighboring region turned out to be a harder nut to crack.

He simply entrenched into his palace and refused to leave, or let anyone in. And simply ignored each and every one of Sora's insult or provocation. Sora was annoyed, but realized that an indirect approach was necessary in this case. And so, he donned a different disguise and took to the road, sneaking in the targeted region as a simple traveler. Once deep into the countryside, Sora started to challenge one landowner after the other. Village chieftains, lord protectors, county rulers, they all fell prey of the earthling.

But this time, Sora did not let them run their estates as before. Instead, he let them keep their position, but ordered them to stay away from their posts, and let entire counties sink into administrative chaos. With the lords absent, nothing could be approved, or adjusted, or coordinated in any meaningful way. As those positions were not vacant, the regional lord could not simply replace them, nor he could just easily step in and micro-manage the crisis. After a month of this attrition war, the regional lord accepted to challenge Sora directly, and lost.

As soon as Sora started to move against the next region, a huge number of minor nobles saw the writing on the wall, and flocked to swear allegiance to the earthling personally. His control on the region now almost an empty shell, the third regional Lord also capitulated.

Sora could see that he was getting close to his goal, but he could not allow himself to relax. Failing now, so close to the finish line, was not an option. And so, hour after hour, day after day, he steeled himself; checking every detail he could over and over again while preparing for the final confrontation.


One evening, disguised Sora was having dinner in a cheap tavern as per usual, when the entire place went silent. It did not take long to understand the reason: a woman, wearing all of the insignia of a high-ranking officer of Elven Garde had just entered the room and was scanning the hall, seemingly looking for something. She finally seemed to find it and started to walk towards Sora, stopping only when she was standing in front of him across his table.

"Good evening, Sir"

"Good evening, Ma'am"

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

"Not at all. Please, be my guest"

"Thank you" the woman said, upon taking her seat "Do you know who I am?"

"I don't have this honor"

"My name is Senator Viel Nirvalen of Elven Garde"

"It's a privilege to meet you, Senator"

"Do you know why I am here?"

"Dare I suppose this is about my activities in the last months?"

She raised both eyebrows

"You don't lose time, I see. Good, that makes it easier. You made a lot of problems for us"

"Did I?" Sora asked emotionlessly

She narrowed her eyes "Are you playing dumb?"

"Everything I did took place in the Immanity Province… I am pretty sure that no elves were hurt in the process…"

She relaxes slightly "Uhm… that is true… for now…"

Sora did not reply, and Viel stared at him in the eyes for a long moment. The human did not seem to be bothered by it in the slightest though, so she spoke again

"Is your goal to rebel against Elven Garde?"

"That is not my goal, no"

Viel did not break eye contact. She had an excellent talent at recognizing liars, and she was sure that Sora was actually telling the truth. But if he was not planning to rebel, then she had no idea what he was planning.

"You certainly did not believe that the Senate would remain unaware of the power base that you were building…"

"All the opposite… that's what I was aiming at…"

She looked at him intently "You wanted us to notice it… why?"

"I have a request that only the Senate can grant… but I first wanted to prove that I deserve to be taken seriously"

"Uhm… you certainly proved that. But you said that you have a request…" she leant back on the chair, assuming a very regal pose "Very well, sir … I am listening"

"Do you know who I am, Senator?"

"I know that you use a false name… we checked that"

He nodded "My real name is Sora. Until sometime ago, I was the king of Elkia… but then I lost a game against the ambassador from Elven Garde… and so I lost everything that I cared about"

"I see…" Viel grew pensive "…the answer is no" she said flatly

Sora didn't even flinch "I didn't tell you what I want yet"

"You don't need to" and she stood up

"It's not my kingdom that I want back" Sora said calmly

Viel stopped and gave him a penetrating look "And you expect me to believe that?"

"I never wanted to be king to begin with. No… what I want is something else entirely"

Viel seemed to ponder the issue for a moment, then sat down again "Very well, Sora-san. State your request"

"Other than my kingdom, I lost something else on that day…" he sighed "Well, it's not a something, actually… it's a someone. That day, I lost someone dear to me, and that someone is now held as a slave by the former elf ambassador to Elkia"

She nodded slowly "I see… and so what you want is…"

"I wish to beg the Senate to use its power to restore that person's status to what it was before my defeat. I wish her to be freed, and her properties returned. If you do this for me, I shall serve the Senate until I live. What I did to all of those that stood in my way… I shall do all of that and so much worse to all of your non-Flügel enemies … if you give me back my friend"

She widened her eyes "That… is your request?"

"Yes"

"You basically control half of the Immanity Province…"

"You know why I did that… if you accept my offer, I shall free everyone of their obligations towards me"

"Why would you do that?" Viel asked, but then seemed to find the answer herself "Wait a minute… you are still in possession of the Immanity Race Piece!"

Viel came to the conclusion that Sora had used the power of the King Piece to bend all of those nobles to his will, and he was offering to return all of his conquest because he was always going to have absolute power over them anyway. But such conviction was short-lived, as Sora corrected her.

"No actually, I do not own the King Piece anymore"

She was incredulous "Are you mocking me?"

"Not at all" he said tersely

She looked at him intently "Uhm… I can tell you that you are not lying… but who has it then?"

"I gave it to princess Stephanie Dola"

She was taken aback "You gave it… why did you do it?"

He shrugged "I never wanted it to begin with…"

"But you could have used it for bargaining…"

Sora made a face "It was an emotional moment…"

And indeed it had been an emotional situation, but he himself did not relinquish his ownership just because of the spur of the moment. He had given the Race Piece to Stephanie to avoid the temptation to use it as a bargaining piece, because as much as he cared about Jibril, he could not bring himself to bet the destiny of millions of people to save only one. His plan had been all along to offer his services to the Senate to buy back Jibril's freedom, and for that reason he had told Stephanie to stay away from him, and to consider him an enemy from now on.

Viel thought about the issue she was facing for a few seconds, and then addressed the human one last time

"You made an interesting proposal, Sora-san. I shall withdraw now, and give it all the consideration that it deserves"

He bowed slightly "You have my thanks, Senator"


Some ten days later, Sora was leaning against a wall close to the gate of the former Royal Palace. He had shaved his beard, allowed his hair to grow again and, for the first time in a while, left home his fat-man disguise.

It was late afternoon and the sun was about to set, painting the buildings of a beautiful warm shade, but Sora was barely registering any of it.

Senator Nirvalen told him that the Senate had accepted his proposal, and that they were going to let Jibril go from the Palace where she was currently held. But could he really trust the elf? And if so, what was going to happen next? What if Jibril hated him for losing the game? And what if he had changed so much in the meantime that they could not get along anymore?

He was restless, and barely able to contain his impatience… yet at the same time, he was terrified of what may lay ahead, and hoping that he could freeze time forever.

Finally, the heavy doors began to open, and he froze. Few moments later, Jibril stepped out of the doors, that immediately began to close behind her. Sora's heart skipped a beat. There she was, looking exactly as he remembered her.

His relief was very short-lived, though, and he immediately became conflicted. Did he have to be relieved that she apparently had suffered no physical harm, or rather be weary of the psychological injuries that she had certainly received?

Jibril looked back at the doors until they were completely closed, then took a few uncertain steps into the square. She stopped and looked around, seemingly uncertain of what to do, or even where to go. She finally seemed to spot him, and froze. Sora waited for just a second, and then walked towards her, stopping only when he was a couple of meters away.

They didn't have any contact with each other for months, and so they just stared at each other for a while.

Sora took a deep breath. There were so many things that he wanted to tell her, but he seemed to have lost the capacity to articulate anything intelligible. Finally, he made an awkward smile and exhaled

"Hi" was the only thing he could say

"What are you doing here?" she asked

"Did they tell you that you are free now?"

She seemed surprised "Yes… how…"

"Did they tell you why?"

She raised her eyebrows "You mean… you…"

He made a face and looked sideways "I may have had something to do with it…" there was a moment of silence "…shall we go home?" he offered

"Home?" she asked as if she had no idea what he was talking about "I don't have a home anymore…"

He shook his head

"I made an agreement with the Senate; part of it is that the library and all of your books were to be returned…" he made a face "… I am afraid that at least some of your books were stolen, actually… but the majority is certainly still there"

she stared at him in disbelief "I thought that you had just forgot about me and moved on with your life…"

he blinked "Why should I do such a thing?"

"Because I forced you to accept that game… you were a king and you lost everything… all of what happened is my fault…"

He scratched his face "Well… I wasn't strong enough to win, so… we are both to blame, I would say"

Her mouth dropped open "I cannot believe you"

He smiled awkwardly "That happens a lot"

"But then… why didn't you try to contact me?"

He sighed "I don't know if that was the right thing to do… but I assumed that the ambassador was not going to let you receive any letters… and I was afraid that he may even use them against you… and so I decided to keep a low profile … " he sighed again "…but I did write to you… almost every day. I made a booklet with those letters, if you want to read them…"

She hugged him, holding him for a long moment before saying:

"Thank you, Sora… I will forever be in your debt"

He shook his head "You owe me nothing"

She held him even tighter "How could you say that?"

He hugged her back and stroke her hair "I just wanted back my life with you… as you can see, I was completely selfish"

She felt a pang in her chest, and pushed away from him "Did you seriously just call that egoist, you fool?"

He smiled "Correct. Can we go home, now?"

Jibril nodded, but then stopped, and suddenly grew serious "Are… are you not even going to ask?"

He bit his lips "If by that you mean asking: 'How awful have been your life in the last months?'… it depends"

"On what?"

"If you want to talk about it, because that is the way you deal with traumatic experiences… Sure, I will listen to everything that you want to tell me. But if that is only going to bring back painful memories… then no, I am not going to ask"

She grimaced briefly "Then… I am not going to talk about it… thank you for being so considerate"

He nodded "Don't mention it" and he turned around, offering her his arm. She accepted it, and they started to walk towards the library.

"Tell me, Sora… what have you been doing lately?"

He chuckled "I have been a teacher for some time"

That picked her curiosity "Really? And how was it?"

He scoffed "Preposterous! Absolutely preposterous! Seriously, as a profession, it should be abolished"

She made a small smile "Why?"

Sora was outraged "You have no idea what the students of this world would do to avoid studying for an exam… the ones of my world are quite bad too, but the Immanity… are so much worse!"

She smiled and repressed a laugh "Can you tell me some story?"

He grumpily nodded "There was this boy, for example… he trained a lizard to answer the questions for him! Can you believe that?"

She could not repress a laugh, this time, and looked at him in amazement "A lizard? In the class?"

He grunted "Yes. He said it was part of his religion, and so he got permission to do it… but I got him anyway!"

"And what did you do then?"

Sora grinned "I failed him… and promoted the lizard…" he gave her a smirk "I heard that the lizard is currently pursuing a degree here in the capital!"

Jibril laughed again, and asked for another story.

THE END