by Yuu Kamiya
“I see. So you got a little argument ready ahead of time—what’s your wager?”
When playing an absolutely binding game under the Ten Covenants, what to wager was also part of the negotiation.
“Heh-heh-heh… If I win—”
But, as if that question was what she was waiting for, Steph grinned back.
“Sora, you’re going to become a decent person!”
Whammo!…went Steph’s finger at Sora. But only silence returned.
“Uh…uh…?”
“Oh, I see how it is.” “You got me there.” Those were the kinds of reactions Steph had expected. But, instead, Sora shouted with a twinkle in his eye.
“That’s—right—if the Ten Covenants are absolutely binding, then that would make that kind of thing possible?!”
“Humgh?!”
As Sora swayed toward Steph with unexpected enthusiasm, Steph turned her blushing face away.
“I-I-I mean, you commanded me to fall in love with you…which means—”
—That’s right, after their previous game, at the end of which, through some sort of trickery, he’d demanded her to fall in love with him. It could be seen that Steph had in fact been forced to fall in love with him, regardless of her will. So.
“I-I see; I’d totally overlooked that—!!”
This is what it meant to have the scales fall from one’s eyes. Sora looked to the heavens with fervor, but then gasped and shouted again.
“Th-then don’t say ‘decent person’—make your demand that I ‘get a life’!”
“—Get a…life? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s an expression; it’s pretty much like being a decent person; come on, let’s bet it, let’s play; I’ll lose!!”
“Uh, w-well…”
While Steph stood bewildered at how to deal with his fervent response. The brakes came on from an unexpected direction.
“…Brother, you can’t…lose to someone other than…me…”
“Wha—?! My—my sister, are you going to life-block your big brother?”
“…Blank can’t…lose…”
“Ngk—!”
That’s right: Sora (Sky) and Shiro (White), when the characters for their names were combined, made Kuuhaku: “Blank.” And “ ” couldn’t lose. It was a promise the two had exchanged, back in their old world—. In a world without rules, it was an absolute and immutable rule that they had decided for themselves. But now Sora looked back in despair as if dropped from heaven to hell.
“That’s… But! I mean, there’s no way I would actually lose to Steph playing for real?!”
“Wha—?!”
The siblings ignored Steph’s facial contortion and went on arguing.
“…I don’t care…”
“Come—come on, just think, a life, a real life, with flowers and sparkles and shit! Sh-Shiro, let’s do it; you set it as the wager. There’s no problem if it’s you, right? I’ll lose with all I’ve got; come on, maybe chess.”
“…But…I refuse…”
“Aah, God, shit! Steph!!”
“Y-yes?!”
Sora put his hands together in supplication and shouted to Steph from his heart.
“I’ll stake it on the one-in-a-million—no, inexpressible-without-imaginary-numbers chance that you might actually have a game you can beat me at! I’m begging ya, Steph!! Answer my hope, tinier than a quantum!!”
“Heh, heh-heh…he-he-he…he-he-he-he-he-he-he, y-you’re asking for it, buster!!”
With her face twisted by the rain of verbal abuse, Steph laughed.
“The game is—blackjack!”
……
“—…Hhhhh…”
“…Hff…”
As the siblings each gave their own sighs with their own meanings, Steph wobbled, unable to grasp the meaning of either.
“Uh, what? What’s that?! I do have a chance at this game?!”
As Sora just sighed, and Shiro seems to have lost all interest, Steph yelled:
“I’m the dealer! Sora’s the player! This will prevent Sora from cheating, and, even if he does, I can show it and win! Skill has nothing to do with it if it’s a game of pure luck, right!”
Sora looking out the window. On his cheek glistened a single tear.
“The character for ‘fleeting’ is written with ‘person’ on the left and ‘dream’ on the right. Well, whatever, Steph; don’t lose hope; I’m sure next time you’ll blah blah blah.”
As Sora messed with his nails and got started on a lazy victory speech, Steph chewed back into him.
“H-how dare you… J-just you wait! Aschente!”
This word was an oath that committed one to an absolutely binding wager under the Ten Covenants—but.
“Yeah, yeah… Aschente.”
“Oh, come to think of it, I forgot to say what I would wager…”
“Yeah… Anything’s fine, really… Hff…”
“Y-you—!”
While Sora acted without doubt that he would win, Steph reminded herself silently to calm down.
—That’s right, calm down. This is your chance. Inside, Steph squeezed up the corners of her mouth and crowed. A game of pure luck? Like hell. Even though she’d been busy, it went without saying that she’d been practicing a trick all night and was confident she could pull it off. The dealer gets to shuffle the cards. Which meant that if she could line up the cards in the shuffle in a way that looked legitimate, she could win. It wasn’t as if she were slipping in cards: There was no way you could prove it. The Eighth of the Ten Covenants: “If cheating is discovered in a game, it shall be counted as a loss”—which meant as long as it wasn’t discovered, you could cheat! (“Heh-heh-heh-heh… You’ll rue the day you looked down on me!”)
—But Steph didn’t know. Doing that. Would never be enough to win her victory over Sora…
—Beyond the horizon. Chess pieces giant enough to throw off perspective, as if the towering mountains were merely pedestals for them. Sitting at the top of the king piece, kicking his legs, was a boy. As the boy whistled merrily, he held in his hands a blank book and a quill.
“Hmm… It’s hard to know how to start.”
Apparently thinking of how to start a story he was writing. Eventually, he seemed to think of something and started moving the quill.
“—Once upon a time, there was a world in which all exercise of armed force was forbidden, and all conflicts had to be resolved by games, as an absolute rule… Yeah. I guess that looks good, more or less?”
Nodding, from the top of the piece higher than the heavens, the boy looked far into the distance and muttered.
“…I wonder if it’ll start moving about now…the first piece.”
The boy’s name was Tet. He was the supreme creator of this world—Disboard, a world where everything was decided by games. Until the long-ago Great War of the gods put him on the throne of the One True God, he was known as the god of play. And now this One True God looked out into the distance, as if casting his thoughts to a faraway lover.
—Question: is this a sign of the fall of Immanity?
Suddenly, this haughty voice rang from thin air.
Or: is it a sign that thou wilt at last make thy move?
At this voice, Tet seemed slightly peeved, but still smiled.
“Eavesdropping on me talking to myself? I can’t say I think much of your hobby.”
The being spying on Tet, the One True God, was able to send words to him, albeit brokenly. Without a doubt, one of the Old Deus race, ranked first among the races—and one with power limited even among them. Of course, to Tet, the One True God, it was obvious who the being was, and not particularly interesting.
—Question: Space-time distortion observed before new Immanity monarch determined. Inference that thou wouldst intervene: true, false?
But, to this question, Tet shot back languidly.
“You guys really are a bore.”
Then, as if he were about to meet his lover again. Tet s
poke with an impatient smile.
“I’m not on anyone’s side. You don’t have to understand. Just go on playing your meaningless games.”
And then he said with a smile, a smile that embraced great hope in the midst of great despair:
“They are coming. To my doorstep—and you guys can’t stop it.”
As if he couldn’t even see the voice resounding from space, literally. He looked instead at Immanity’s last city—Elkia. Though, to the One True God, even hundreds of years must seem like the blink of an eye. His eyes instead. Like those of a child at the door on the day of going to the amusement park who couldn’t wait five minutes for his parents to get ready. After confirming that the presence behind the voice that had rung from the air had vanished with a ffp, Tet mumbled.
“Please don’t make me wait too long, Blank.”
Kicking the edge of the piece he was sitting on with his heels.
“I can hardly stand it anymore. If you make me wait too long—I’m going to have to go visit you, aren’t I?”
Twisting his mouth into an impudent grin, he whispered:
“Oh, that’s right. Next—”
Apparently having thought of how to continue his story, Tet spoke as he twirled his quill.
“One day, a pair of gamers was invited from another world to a country of Immanity, the lowest-ranking race among the Ixseeds. Coming to the last country of beleaguered Immanity—to Elkia—they defended it from other races and became the king and queen—and that is where everything started… I like it!”
—The scribbles he wrote, now a story. Soon to be an epic to be passed down among the bards for generations. Sung in the hand of the God himself, telling of the gods of the future. In other words: the prologue to the newest myth—.
CHAPTER 1
WEAK SQUARE
The country of Immanity—the Kingdom of Elkia. The capital, Elkia: Block 6, Eastern District. In the guest hall of a resplendent mansion, five people surrounded a table, with several spectators.
One of the people surrounding the table was a young man with chaotically cut black hair and dark circles under his eyes. In an “I <3 PPL” shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The second was a little girl sitting on his lap—with long, long hair as white as snow. With red eyes like rubies and white on three sides (sanpaku), and wearing a black sailor suit. Around the young man’s arm was wrapped the queen’s tiara, like an armband. Likewise, the girl was using the king’s crown to tie her overly long bangs. In fact, these siblings were collectively the monarch of Elkia, the last nation of Immanity. The brother: Sora. Eighteen, virgin, unpopular, socially incompetent, loser, game vegetable. The sister: Shiro. Eleven, friendless, socially incompetent, shut-in, game vegetable.
……So long, humans.
THE END
…Well, that’s what anyone would think if that was all they heard. But these two—were not of this world. In their old world, they had set unbeatable records in the rankings for over 280 games. Carving their blank name at the top of all kinds of games, without a single loss. And so these gamers, with their unreal skills and mysterious identity, came even to be regarded as an urban legend. Known as “ ”—and here they were.
In this world, Disboard, where war had been forbidden by the Ten Covenants since the distant past. Where everything, even national borders, was decided by games. When Immanity had been backed into a corner by the many races that kept cheating using magic, which humans could neither use nor even detect. When the last city of Immanity was about to be turned into a puppet state by an Elven spy. They had come, without magic, without powers. With mere human ability, they had earned the crown of the strongest of all humans, in name and in truth, and ascended to the throne.
It was true. Unmistakably, they were failures at life. It was true. Inarguably, they were unfit for society. But, in this one world—the siblings could very well be the saviors of Immanity. Of these two who held the hope of Immanity in their hands—the brother, Sora, cards in hand, opened his mouth!!
“Hey, Steph. Where do babies come from?”
……Perhaps we should say so long after all.
A certain figure, watching from outside the table, just beside Sora and Shiro, responded with cold eyes.
“…I don’t really want to have to explain that to someone who holds the fate of Immanity on his shoulders…”
The girl in her late teens, with red hair, blue eyes, and just the sort of frilly clothing you might expect to see in a fantasy world. Her fashion, her appearance, her manner all suggesting high breeding—Stephanie Dola. Aka Steph. The young miss of a most pedigreed household, once the granddaughter of the king of Elkia, answered.
“—Your Majesty, have you finally lost your mind?” No, that wasn’t the right way to put it—she corrected herself. “When I say it like that, it makes it sound as if you were sound of mind to begin with.”
“Hey, I’m sound as can be!”
“Asking that question as if it’s sound as can be is exactly what’s unsound!”
“Jeez, you just don’t get anything! Look, in this world, we have the Ten Covenants, right!”
The Ten Covenants. The absolute law of this world, created by the god Tet upon winning the throne of the One True God.
1. In this world, all bodily injury, war, and plunder is forbidden.
2. All conflicts shall be settled by victory and defeat in games.
3. Games shall be played for wagers that each agrees are of equal value.
4. Insofar as it does not conflict with “3,” any game or wager is permitted.
5. The party challenged shall have the right to determine the game.
6. Wagers sworn by the Covenants are absolutely binding.
7. For conflicts between groups, an agent plenipotentiary shall be established.
8. If cheating is discovered in a game, it shall be counted as a loss.
9. The above shall be absolute and immutable rules, in the name of the God.
10. Let’s all have fun together.
“…Yes, and so?”
“I mean, look. Bodily injury is forbidden. So how are you supposed to make babies?”
……
“…May I ask why you are asking this now?”
“I was just bored and it occurred to me. But isn’t this kind of a serious problem?”
Mindful of the gazes around her, Steph whispered at Sora’s ear:
“In your world, were people born from eggs?”
Yes, it was a secret that Sora and Shiro were from another world.
…The point being, don’t talk about this in front of all these people. So, to Steph, who spoke to him with cold, incredulous eyes as usual.
“—H-hey! Don’t make fun of me for being a virgin! It’s not like I don’t know it’s, like, the monster in the guy’s pocket goes in and out of the girl’s secret garden and then the whole world flips, right?!”
“…Brother, when you, put it like that…it makes you sound, even more…virginal.”
“I am a virgin; what do you want me to be if not virginal?!”
The royal gentleman who had never had a girlfriend in his life, childishly retorting to the observations of his eleven-year-old sister on his lap.
“A-anyway, when you do that stuff, it causes injury, right?! At least the first time!! So, with the Ten Covenants, how does Immanity reproduce in this world? That’s what I’m asking!”
Steph, realizing that he might be asking a serious question after all. But, first—
“…Just let me check: this isn’t some fetishy plot to humiliate me publicly, is it?”
“—Um, I think you’re the one who’s weird for thinking of that?”
She could come up with a porn game situation in a world without porn games. Really, you had to be impressed at that kind of imagination.
“Forget it; I’ll just ask someone who knows how to explain things later. Useless.”
“Wha—fine, fine, I’ll explain it to you!”
Steph, clearing her throat
—a-ahem.
“It is clear what the basis is for constituting a violation of rights.”
“Hmm. Specifically?”
“It’s simple: actions that violate rights with malice—are canceled.”
…—Wha?
“—Uh, what, are you saying our brains are being censored in real time?”
“Yes, that’s quite it.”
Okay, while this may have been a fantasy world, you gotta say that’s ridiculous.
“Therefore, since the establishment of the Ten Covenants, most laws have become mere relics. After all, any action that is successfully executed has got to be conformant to the Covenants, or else performed by consent, or by mistake—”
“Hhh… Your God here really can do anything.”
“The One True God obviously can do anything, can’t he?”
—The right to rebuild the laws of the world on a whim. And now—that itself would be decided by a game in this world, it seemed.
“Hmm… All right, then. So, let me ask again, why is making babies okay?”
But the one who answered was not Steph, but Shiro, who was on his lap shuffling cards.
“…Consent… ‘Transfer’… In other words…”
“Oh, so if you give each other permission, it’s not a violation of rights.”
Sora, remembering how he was kicked in the back by Shiro before, finally grasped it. If it was Shiro, it was natural to think he might have agreed unconsciously.
—So, with a yawn, Sora spoke as he shuffled the cards in front of Shiro.
“Well, that makes sense. I mean, doctors’ hands would be tied if you couldn’t do anything that wounded another person.”
As Sora mumbled again that these sure were well-designed Covenants, Steph spoke. “You can see the world is functioning, and the rules are fast.”
“That’s not how it was back in our world…”
…Surprisingly, the world still functioned even without rules. Though buried in contradictions and defects. This world had to have been the same before the Ten Covenants, really.
“…But then that raises another question.”