Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
55. Stalemateless (1)
“Not checking messages again, eh?”
A day before Jo Uisin’s family anniversary, Jo Uisin didn’t check Hwang-ho’s message.
It was a common occurrence and every time Hwang-ho would feel frustrated[1], but not as much this time.
“Rather, it might be better.”
“We can come first, eh? Jo Uisin could simply refuse Hwang-ho’s suggestion to go to give respects, but if You say You want to pay respects with the Divine Beast and descendants in front of him, he won’t be able to refuse.”
Hwang-ho, who tilted his tea cup, frowned, but because everything Jeok-ho said was correct, he reluctantly nodded and said:
“Then we should choose the mourners. First of all, Eun-ho’s descendants and Divine Beast can’t be skipped.”
“I and my son will go. Baek-ho, how about You? It’s within the Eungwang District, so there won’t be any problems.”
“I’ll go.”
Woof woof!
Everyone who stayed at Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion revealed an intention to go offer flowers.
Moreover, when Hwang-ho operated his alter-egos and passed the words to people, who knew Jo Uisin, the majority of them replied they would certainly come.
“A lot of people said they would go, eh? It seems we will have to pick them out a bit. I thought the To tribe could also come if we call them, but we will have to skip them, eh?”
“We can’t be noisy in the place of mourning. Don’t tell them.”
If Ok Toyeon or Ok Toyun found out later, they would certainly run around in anger, but everyone agreed with that opinion.
Because it was a place to mourn the benefactor’s family, it appeared they thought it would be better to be a bit annoyed later than call the disgraceful rabbits, who hid Eun-ho’s descendants.
If Eun-ho’s descendants were here, they would secretly call Ok Toyeon, but in preparation for tomorrow, the descendants went to sleep early.
“Ah, Cheong-ho’s disciples said they would make sure to come. Jo Uisin found Cheong-ho, and thanks to that, weren’t they able to take revenge on humans, who had tormented their master? It seems the gratitude for this will be always deeply engraved in their hearts.” [2]
“Okay, we probably should call the four.”
Excluding Baek-ho, the Ho tribe members drunk one more cup of pear dried persimmons tea prepared by Kim Sinrok and when the mourners’ list was determined.
Kim Sinrok looked at the device, and his face fell.
Jeok-ho didn’t miss his son’s face turning darker, and tenderly asked.
“Son-ah, what’s the matter?”
“… The lights in Jo Uisin-gun’s dormitory room are still on. It seems he isn’t sleeping yet.”
It looked like Kim Sinrok checked the dormitory lights status as the Earthly Wings Council’s advisor.
The surrounding became quiet at Kim Sinrok’s answer.
Hwang-ho opened his mouth after a few sips of tea.
“Right now it would be just a year since he sent his family away. With Jo Uisin’s personality, there is no way it would be nothing. You don’t get accustomed to the pain of losing family even if the time passes, right?”
“… That’s right. It’s difficult to imagine how it is to lose family.” [3]
Hwang-ho recalled his benefactor.
He didn’t seem to be accustomed to being lonely, but if left on his own, he would obviously stay in his room alone and offer flowers alone, even on a day like today.
It seemed that Jo Uisin thought it was unnecessary to protect his body or mind.
Hwang-ho thought it was admirable that Jo Uisin played the best moves by acting kindly towards others within boundaries, but treating himself coldly, but he didn’t like it.
‘He probably isn’t planning to inform others about his family’s death anniversary and to try spend time together. It’s obvious he will try to persevere alone, eh? Jo Uisin won’t inform even us, who call him our benefactor.’
Next day.
30 minutes before Jo Uisin left the dormitory, all Ho tribe members gathered in front of the enshrinement hall.
It was Hwang-ho’s prediction that he would probably leave the dormitory at the time when the flower shops open, and Jo Uisin arrived at the enshrinement hall according to the predicted time.
“We came to express condolences to benefactor’s family. I sent a message saying we would come to pay respects, but it wasn’t checked. Is it okay to pay respects?”
With his arms full of chrysanthemum bouquets. Jo Uisin looked at the tigers, speechless.
Jo Uisin didn’t reply for a while, and then said thank you.
“Thank You for coming. Let’s enter.”
Looking at Jo Uisin’s expression, the Ho tribe members, including Hwang-ho, were at a loss for words.
It wasn’t an expression of just a seventeen years old boy, who lost his family a year ago.
Behind the blank face, they felt heavy sadness and a will to endure that sadness completely alone.
“Jo Uisin, you…”
Are you really okay with it?
Hwang-ho couldn’t spit out that question in the end.
Instead, he revealed the intention of coming to offer flowers next year.
‘There is little we can do for the benefactor, eh?’
For the Ho tribe, who missed Cheong-ho and Sinin, Jo Uisin shouldered a heavy risk and threw a question to something transcendental.
That Jo Uisin didn’t even ask for one flower for his family from the Ho tribe members.
The requests he made were always only for someone else within his boundaries.
Hwang-ho recalled the event when Jo Uisin vomited blood in front of the Heavenly Sacred Tree and collapsed.
And the last question he had asked.
— … Is Seong-heon doing well?
For Jo Uisin to ask it there, it meant it was a question that couldn’t be answered unless it was something transcendental.
No matter how hard Hwang-ho and Jeok-ho worked, they weren’t able to learn about the person named ‘Seong-heon’.
They wanted to find out about that ‘Seong-heon’ and lessen the benefactor’s worry, however it wasn’t easy.
But now, at the unthinkable moment, that name came out again.
“Seongheon-ah…”
Research Institute basement, where he accompanied Jo Uisin.
Jo Uisin made the face he made when offering flowers to his family and called Cheon Dongha’s dongsaeng, who closed his eyes.
* * *
In this world, I wasn’t Stalemateless.
The records of the games I competed in and what I won remained, but it was just the minimum to maintain the setting of Jo Uisin, the chess player.
Though my competition game records didn’t have a single stalemate in this world, I didn’t have a nickname.
Because in this world there didn’t exist a time when the commentator of the live broadcast of my game analyzed the move of my white player[4] opponent, who attempted a stalemate, and called me ‘Stalemateless’ for the first time.
Moreover, the excited reports, who were announcing the birth of a chess prodigy in Korea, didn’t spread that word wide, solidifying it as my nickname.
In case Jo Uisin of this world also had such a nickname, Yeom Junyeol wouldn’t take such a reckless action as trying to gain victory by stalemate in the school chess competition’s finals.
“Stalemateless? What does it mean?”
“It’s a word not recorded in a dictionary, eh? It seems to be a mix of ‘stalemate’ and ‘less’.” [5]
As such, Hwang Jiho and Cheon Dongha, who had investigated me and had knowledge of chess, didn’t know that the word Cheon Dongha’s dongsaeng spoke using his eyes was my title.
I think I knew why Cheon Dongha’s dongsaeng suddenly said that word using his eyes.
Even if I personally met him, I doubted his identity, so he said my nickname, which didn’t exist in this world, right away.
‘Why is Seongheon-yi here in such a state…!’
I recalled the last day in the previous world.
The day I cleared the last chapter of PMH, when I received a notification I can obtain the last chapter clear reward.
Perhaps because the sound of coughing was heard outside, as I couldn’t stop coughing, the gosiwon floor manager Cheon Seong-heon came to my room.
At that moment, I heard the system message I thought was a hallucination in my ears.
⟨Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification ‘Jo Uisin’s’ information modification, dimension synchronization and transfer is in progress. Completion in the next 10 seconds. ⟩
When I couldn’t answer and kept coughing, Cheon Seong-heon unlocked and opened the door from outside.
Almost at the same time as Cheon Seong-heon opened the door, the system message’s countdown was completed, and my vision was enveloped in pure white light.
I thought back to the past, while questioning possibilities one after another, and came up with a scary hypothesis.
‘… No way, was Seongheon-yi swept with me when I moved?’
The system message said that ‘Jo Uisin’s’ information modification, dimension synchronization and transfer was in progress.
If he was simply swept with me, Cheon Seong-heon should have fallen into the place where the group 13’s practical exam was held that day, together with me, shouldn’t he?
If Cheon Seong-heon didn’t undergo through the same information modification, there wouldn’t be a setting attached and information manipulation setting him as Cheon Dongha’s hidden dongsaeng, right?
I tried to think about it coldly, but with Cheon Seongheon in front of me, my thoughts didn’t work well.
“Seongheon-ah…”
When I called his name with a choked voice, Cheon Seong-heon opened his closed eyes again and looked at me.
As he could only move his eyes, his expression didn’t change even a bit.
“… ‘Seong-heon’?”
“Uh?”
The two, Hwang Jiho and Cheon Dongha, made puzzled faces.
It seemed that Cheon Seong-heon’s name wasn’t ‘Seong-heon’ in this world.
“Senior Cheon Dongha-nim, You said You ‘discovered’ Your dongsaeng, correct? When was it?”
It seemed that Cheon Dongha was confused by the word Cheon Seong-heon conveyed with the Morse code a moment ago, and by my reaction.
Even though it was clear that he thought it was strange, Cheon Dongha calmly gave an answer.
“I learned about my dongsaeng’s existence last year, in December. The precise date I found my dongsaeng is…”
Hearing the date, I felt as if I was hit by lightning.
The date Cheon Dongha gave was the day I came to this world.
“Jo Uisin, this is the day you took our school practical entrance exam, eh? But didn’t you call him ‘Seong-heon’ a moment ago?”
Hwang Jiho asked what it meant, but I wasn’t in the right mind to answer.
When I didn’t reply, Hwang Jiho didn’t interrogate me.
Instead, he observed Cheon Seong-heon and me.
“…. Were you here? Since that day last year?”
After I asked Cheon Seong-heon, Cheon Seong-heon blinked once.
When I was about to ask again, because I didn’t know what it meant, Cheon Dongha added.
“When communicating with my dongsaeng, we decided that he would blink once when answering ‘yes’ and two times when answering ‘no’ to the question. It probably meant he answered ‘yes’, but…”
“There is a record of moving a few times, right? It wasn’t that he was here all along.”
Cheon Dongha and Hwang Jiho spoke like this, but Cheon Seong-heon clearly answered me ‘yes’.
Didn’t it mean that since that day last year, after the time of entrance ceremony, Cheon Seong-heon was in this world in this state?
Was he ‘discovered’ by Cheon Dongha just after coming to this world?
There were many questions, but I decided to ask about the important thing first.
“Do you know where is it?”
Cheon Seong-heon blinked once.
It seemed that he knew that this world is some kind of parallel world similar to PMH.
I felt suffocated, but I asked a question I had to make certain to ask.
“… Did you come here with me?”
Cheon Seong-heon blinked twice.
I guess he didn’t come here with me.
My windpipe cleared.
Whether it was because of me or not because of me, the fact that Cheon Seong-heon showed symptoms of lock-up syndrome just like before was exactly the same, but at the fact I wasn’t the reason, my heart became a very little bit lighter.
However, I felt horrible that I had such a thought.
I threw another question.
“Did you come here out of your own will?”
Cheon Seong-heon blinked once.
I didn’t know what had happened, but it seemed that Cheon Seong-heon really came to this world out of his own will.
He didn’t come here with me, but it seemed that Cheon Seong-heon came to this world because he intended so.
“…Why?”
Cheon Seong-heon didn’t reply to this question and closed his eyes.
*~*~*
[1] frustrated — literally could mean suffocated, choked up.
[2] “Ah, Cheong-ho’s disciples said they would make sure to come…” — Jeok-ho’s sentence.
[3] “… That’s right. It’s difficult to imagine how it is to lose family.” — Jeok-ho or Kim Sinrok’s sentence. ㅠㅠ (crying emoji) for both of them.
[4] white player — In Korean the chess player, who plays white is called ‘선수 (seon-su) first-mover’.
[5] “It’s a word not recorded in a dictionary, eh? It seems to be a mix of ‘stalemate’ and ‘less’.” — ‘Stalemateless’ is hangulization of English words, so author-nim is kindly explaining it.
Translator’s note: Okay, I love that the first chapter of Stalemateless starts with ‘He is not checking messages. Again’.
Ah, but who said they wouldn’t come to offer flowers I wonder.
(Chapter is a bit earlier because of the cliffhanger in the last one. We don’t change our schedule.)
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