The park was quite crowded that day as Victor walked in, fixing his favorite cap over his head to warrant some kind of protection from the heat that threatened to melt him. It was a really sunny morning and he had already picked up a job from the request board back at his guild. While the idea of earning more of his own keep was great, the reason that he took that particular quest, he looked down at the paper in his hands, was because it was quite curious.

It was not a request to slay a monster, find cats, fight something, or any off those odd jobs he had gotten used to over the years but actually a challenge, asking for someone to beat this kid, Bart, at chess. Victor was familiar with the game and could understand how it wasn’t so popular that everyone played it but to fill out a request and pay someone just for a game was quite weird.

He walked over to the area where they had a lot of tables and chairs lined up, quite a lot of people gathered around, playing their own card or board games. Victor spotted the spectacled boy from the other side of the table he sat in and quickly went over, pulling a chair back to sit opposite to him.

“Hey there,” he greeted, his smile spread wide. Sadly enough, it wasn’t reciprocated. The boy looked as grim as he had even before Victor sat down. “Hello. Let’s play already,” his voice was blank as he pushed his glasses up, taking each pawn out of th box to set up the table.

Victor followed, choosing black over the white pawns that Bart took. The young boy opened his move by moving the pawn in front of the bishop up while Victor played his move by taking out the knight. They both exchanged moves for a while, stopping suddenly when Bart paused and looked up from the board.

“You’re good” seemed to be all the acknowledgement he gave Victor. But it was the beginning to an eye opening conversation. Bart spilled his heart out, about the struggles of having to keep up with his two scholarly brothers and his own passions and desires. Having to live inside the four walls of his house and in the even more limited walls of books alone, the boy didn’t seem to be living the life of someone his age.

Victor did what he could to advise him. While it wasn’t exactly the same, Victor had been in the same situation before. He understood the pain of being locked in your home when all that your heart earned for was to go out and explore. Bart seemed to be in a situation much like it, only his problem was that he was unable to express himself properly. “Maybe you should talk to your parents,” he said, moving his bishop a column up, hissing as he saw that he had made a bad move.

“I think I will,” Bart chuckled, their conversation having lightened his heart quite a bit. The boy now looked like he was really enjoying the game and even Victor could see it. He slowly fell back, intentionally falling behind a few moves to let the boy have an upper hand. If it was his duty to please this boy and have him build some confidence, then that was exactly what he could do as a Blue Pegasus guild mate.

At the end of their game, Bart sat victorious across him as Victor himself leaned back into his chair with a small smile. The boy was practically beaming when he thanked him and handed him the money. “But I didn’t win,” he raised an eyebrow, wondering if he had read he terms of the job wrongly. “No, you aren’t wrong,” Bart spoke as if he could read Victor’s mind. “I choose to give this to you. Despite everything, you helped me out a lot today,” the boy said, shyly looking down at his fingers. “Maybe we can play again,” he finally said, smiled happily and was already running off before Victor could even say anything. Oh well, it seemed to have ended quite well anyway.

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