Chapter 38 If the Chessboard is the World…
Nothing is certain. Nothing is coincidence, either. If mathematics can provide some degree of prediction to future events, then everything we do is just gambling. When the revolutionary army was formed from the very first day, they were gambling. When Najenda, Bulat, and even Akame defected from the empire to the revolution, they were gambling. When the single-eyed leader recruited Hei as an ally to her line of Night Raid assassins, she was gambling.
The real question is – has Hei gambled in his life as well?
Conflicts and wars are just like a game of chess. Analytically, one can perhaps calculate the best move each time, but sometimes one might use psychology to their advantage and win a game by taking a risk to trick their opponents. Such actions are hardly analytical, because psychology can be extremely difficult to predict – even the study of statistics cannot fully grant anyone a successful model of predicting subjectivity.
"Checkmate."
Back in the Night Raid headquarters, the Black Reaper is currently sitting in front of a game of chess, watching the dramatic reaction of a certain green-haired boy unfold at his demise.
Since the intruders have been successfully cleared out, Lubbock challenged Hei into a game of chess for… revenge? No one is certain. Not seeing any harm in doing so, Hei complied.
"Ahhhhhh! I give up! I give up! It's not fun to play with you at all! It's been ten games, and you won all ten of them!"
Shouting across the table, the young assassin looks straight at the masked man, trying to see Hei's secrets in winning every single chess game.
Hei is totally not listening.
Taking out a notebook from nowhere, Hei continues to work on the scripts of complicated formulas and equations, which again demolish every attempt the green-haired boy tries to make to see through his actions.
"I can't believe it! It's impossible to beat you!"
Lubbock is crying internally to death – again.
"My victory is reasonable."
Looking up from his notebook, Hei naturally fixes his mask, and proceeds to answer Lubbock's intended question.
"For example, if you are willing to sacrifice your bishop over here, then my king will under heavy pressure of your two knights. Furthermore, if you sacrifice your queen over here, then that leaves you an open position to checkmate in my congested formation."
Pointing at the chessboard, Hei peacefully explains to the frustrated boy.
"But, but, but… if you already knew about my opportunity to checkmate you, then why did you continuously attack my bishop? If you did succeed in taking that bishop with your knights, then I can checkmate you according to your explanation."
Lubbock is not stupid, he can see the logic error inside Hei's argument.
Or at least he thinks he can.
"Yes, it was possible for you to checkmate me if I took your bishop, but I calculated that your subconsciousness will view pieces more important than position, thus you will focus on protecting your bishop and your queen instead of pushing your rooks forward."
Concluding his argument, Hei turns back to his papers.
"Such ineptitude of masses. Always treating emotion over reason."
"The world is a game of chess. Instead of holding onto your precious pieces, you should sacrifice them to obtain your victory."
This is Hei's view of his life, this world, and everything within it. People are just pieces on a chess board, waiting to be manipulated by no other than the Black Reaper himself. If Hei could kill off his own five hundred soldiers to eliminate the thirteen thousand empire troops in Elder Basin, then there isn't really anything else to say about his beliefs.
To sacrifice these pieces to achieve victory!
The ends justify the means!
Absolute Machiavellianism!
"Ah… What…" Lubbock stunningly looks at the Black Reaper, trying very hard to comprehend what Hei just explained while viewing the terminated chess game.
Hei, the undisputable professor, has just delivered a life lesson to the green-haired young assassin.
Sometimes, you just have to let go of those you hold precious.
Finally understanding what Hei is trying to tell him, the young assassin depressingly looks over the setting sun from the window, and lets out a heavy sigh.
"You sound extremely foreboding, Hei, I will give you that."
"…"
"By the way, isn't Tatsumi going to handle his very first mission today?"
"…"
Silently walking away from the chess table, Hei turns to the window, and searches through the darkening sky to look for his precious stars.
Moving through rooms after rooms, Hei slowly finds his way out to the forest – nobody knows what the Black Reaper is thinking in this time of the day, perhaps not even himself.
Hei has questions.
When the night falls over the sky, when darkness takes over the shining sunlight, when the very first star lights up the children's dreams, Hei will have his answers.
"Izanagi… what have you brought upon me?"