Just two people playing Catan.
Of course, there’s no way to play it properly.
Even if we ignore the dice, there’s no way proper resource trading would happen between just the two of us. The Third Prince also realized this after playing Catan multiple times. It wasn’t for nothing that Kyle Byron said the minimum number of players should be three.
But in the quiet stillness, when everyone was asleep…
The two of them were playing Catan.
*Clatter!*
“The number is 9. I’ll take one wood.”
“I’ll take one wheat.”
“Would you trade that wheat for my wood?”
“Sure.”
Was it because they never refused each other’s trades?
Or was it because they started with three villages each, following a special rule for two players?
Not at all.
It was because one of them wasn’t paying any attention to the board game at all.
And it was obvious who that was.
“…Kyle Byron.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Stop with the… pointless consolation.”
“………”
*Thud.*
After the game had progressed a bit…
The Third Prince, who hadn’t even built a single road since starting with three villages, placed all his resource cards down and muttered.
At first, he was unsure. He couldn’t figure out what Kyle Byron’s intentions were in calling him here.
Even if he was a distinguished guest, summoning a prince in the middle of the night was no small matter. It was only possible because the Third Prince had built trust in Kyle, the board game creator.
Still, just in case, the head maid, an aura user, was waiting outside the door, prepared for any threats or assassination attempts.
She was the only one left by the Third Prince’s side, the only person he could rely on.
Glancing toward the door, the Third Prince continued.
“Over these ten days, you’ve done a lot for me. Thanks to you creating Catan on the very first day, I was able to escape my brothers’ suspicions. Every day, I looked forward to the time I could spend playing Catan with you. Frankly, I enjoyed it.”
“………”
“For that, I’m truly grateful. You’ve also created other board games, so I’m sure you’ll soon make one that can help me get closer to my brothers. I’m sure of it.”
But.
This is too much.
“You’ve crossed a line this time, Kyle Byron.”
“…A line, Your Highness?”
“I’ve given up on the throne competition, and though I’m always treading carefully, I’m still the Third Prince of the Empire. Even my brothers or the Duke wouldn’t dare summon me so casually.”
The Second Prince had invited him once, but that was a formal meeting, not a private one. It was a public invitation, with their people watching, so it was only natural.
Otherwise, not even the Second Prince could summon the Third Prince in the middle of the night. Who knows how the First Prince might twist it?
To put it bluntly, they could secretly assassinate the Third Prince and frame the Second Prince for it.
That’s how serious it was, and no matter how distinguished a guest Kyle Byron was, this wasn’t something he should’ve done.
In the end, it was only possible because the Third Prince agreed to it.
“I understand your intentions. You wanted to… console me. You must’ve seen something in me while playing Catan, while playing board games.”
Probably the inferiority complex he’d been suppressing for over ten years.
He’d felt some vicarious satisfaction through Catan and slowly released it, but that’s why his true feelings had to come out.
He’d tried his best to hide it, but it seemed Kyle Byron had noticed.
So, he understood why Kyle wanted to console him. The Third Prince wasn’t the type to feel offended by being comforted by commoners or nobles.
However.
“But how much comfort do you think I could have received from that?”
“………….”
“Even if we set aside the competition for the throne, the Third Prince is solely focused on protecting his own life. There are quite a few people in the world who feel sympathy for such a prince. The fact that I can enjoy this level of power now is ultimately based on that sympathy.”
Of course, not everyone feels sympathy for the Third Prince. In fact, many felt a sense of superiority.
However, even if they support the First or Second Prince, there are still quite a few who sympathize with the Third Prince.
When I was young, that sympathy and comfort were simply something to be grateful for.
But now, it’s not.
“I appreciate your attempt to comfort me… I’m grateful for the sentiment. But I’d prefer if we didn’t meet like this again.”
“………….”
Especially someone as radiant as you, Kyle Byron.
Instead of comfort, it only deepens my inferiority complex.
Please.
“Don’t worry, I’m not disappointed in you or anything. I’ve received too much sympathy to be disappointed by something like this, and you’re still a noble to me. It’s just… a bit strange, that’s all.”
“…Strange, you say?”
“Even comfort… through a board game, of all things.”
Thinking about it, it’s kind of funny. The way to comfort someone drowning in inferiority is to play a board game together?
It was so different from the others who offered financial support, comforting words, counseling, or even hugs. So different that it was almost absurd.
Do they really think they can comfort someone this way?
Did they think this way because they’re obsessed with board games every day?
Beyond sarcasm, the Third Prince was genuinely curious.
To that, Kyle Byron fell silent for a moment.
“Why can’t it be a board game?”
“………Huh?”
“Why do you think a board game is vaguely not acceptable?”
“Well.”
The Third Prince couldn’t bring himself to say, “Because a board game is just a game.”
Because Kyle Byron’s expression was deadly serious.
“Your Highness, may I tell you a story from the past?”
“A story… from the past?”
“It’s about Sally.”
“That maid?”
The timid, reserved maid who loyally follows Kyle Byron.
The one who gives dirty looks to the Water Spirit and the Tower Master’s disciple but never shows it in front of Kyle.
Why bring up her past all of a sudden?
“Do you see this scar here?”
“…I couldn’t see it because it was covered by your clothes.”
Kyle slightly pulled down the collar of his shirt to reveal a hidden scar.
It was a scar so gruesome that even the Third Prince couldn’t help but grimace.
It looked like it was caused by something deeply cutting and stabbing, but one cut wouldn’t leave such a messy scar.
It must have been stabbed and slashed over and over in the same spot to leave such a mark. A scar so deep that even healing magic couldn’t fix it.
Why would the third son of a viscount have such a scar?
Kyle Byron smiled and answered.
“It’s a scar from Sally.”
“………What?”
“When I first met Sally… she was quite rough, to say the least. Having lived in the back alleys of the slums, she had no qualms about stabbing people.”
“…………….”
“How do you think I became close to someone like her?”
Well, I don’t know.
The Third Prince didn’t know about Kyle and Sally’s past, and he couldn’t understand why Kyle would even think of getting close to a slum kid who left such a scar.
But the hint was…
You’ve probably already heard it, haven’t you?
The Third Prince, who had been half-doubting until the end, finally spoke.
“A… board game?”
“At the time, it was a very crude thing.”
“You’re seriously saying it was a board game?”
“Do you think I’m lying?”
“……”
The Third Prince, who had honed his survival skills and insight, could tell.
Kyle Byron wasn’t lying. If he couldn’t even see through something like this, he would’ve been killed by the other princes long ago.
But that’s exactly why it was even harder to believe.
The person who left such brutal scars was that maid who blindly followed Kyle Byron.
“It wasn’t easy. It took a long time, and there was a lot of hardship. But in the end, I was able to get close to Sally.”
“Why…? Why did you put so much effort into a child from the slums?”
“If I said it was because of who I was in the past, you’d find it hard to believe, wouldn’t you?”
Kyle Byron and the maid were about the same age. If the maid was young back then, Kyle would’ve been young too. So why did he refer to it as “who I was in the past”?
But Kyle just waved it off like it was nothing.
“Anyway, I was able to become friends with Sally through a board game.”
“……Right. So because of that precedent, you thought you could comfort me with a board game? That’s—”
Too one-sided, and just a stroke of luck.
The Third Prince swallowed the rough retort that had momentarily come to mind.
‘Again…….’
Inferiority. No matter how much he tried to suppress this damn emotion, it kept resurfacing.
And it was because of all the negative emotions too. The irritation at Kyle Byron, who had so rudely summoned the prince in the middle of the night. The inferiority he felt at the pity from someone so brilliant. The anger at being judged by someone else’s standards.
But the Third Prince had experienced so much inferiority that he could stop himself before it spilled out. Just like he had in front of the Second Prince earlier that day.
But Kyle wasn’t done talking.
“There’s also the Water Tiger.”
“The Water Spirit…?”
“The Water Tiger was a spirit that once followed a Spirit Master’s orders and was hostile to me. I became friends with it through a board game, talked with it, and eventually even managed to have a conversation with the Spirit Master, who didn’t trust humans.”
“……”
“I think I became somewhat close with that Spirit Master too. I should stop by on my way back. And then there’s Adela.”
“The disciple of the Tower Master.”
“At first, Adela and I didn’t get along well enough that she even threatened me with magic… but after playing Abracadabra together—the same game Your Highness played—she slowly opened up to me.”
“………………”
“Your Highness, do you understand the point of what I’ve been telling you?”
“……You’ve become close with all sorts of people through board games, haven’t you? That’s how you’ve lived… so you tried to get closer to me through a board game too.”
That’s how you wanted to comfort me, right? Now the Third Prince finally understood Kyle Byron’s thoughts.
If he had lived the life of a genius board game creator, he probably really did solve all sorts of problems with board games.
Suddenly feeling hollow, the Third Prince also realized the gap between them.
‘Shining people, and those who don’t shine…’
He had wanted to be a shining person all his life. But the Third Prince had never shone.
Because Kyle Byron was a shining person, a radiant person, the Third Prince felt even smaller in front of him.
Like a shadow shrinking in front of a bright light. But at the same time, the shadow grew darker.
The Third Prince felt his own inferiority growing stronger.
“You’re wrong, Your Highness.”
“What…?”
“It’s not entirely wrong, but that’s not what I wanted to say.”
Other words? What other words could there be in a story about getting closer to people through board games?
There, the Third Prince and Kyle faced each other.
“I know nothing but board games.”
“……Huh?”
“When I first became friends with Sally. Thinking back on it, I find myself ridiculous. Approaching a slum kid holding a knife, suggesting we play a board game? There must have been more efficient or better ways. Don’t you think?”
“……That’s.”
“But I didn’t know how to get close to others without board games. Because my life has revolved entirely around board games.”
The Water Spirit, the Tower Master’s disciple.
“Looking at the result, we did get closer. But was that the best way? If it wasn’t a board game……if it was another method, couldn’t we have built a better relationship?”
“…………….”
“His Highness calls me a genius board game creator. But if you take board games away from me, what’s left?”
Kyle Byron was confessing.
About the limits of oneself that people don’t want to think about or face.
I’m not special.
Without board games, I’m nothing.
After realizing this, the Third Prince, who had been spacing out for a moment, spoke.
“……But I’m no different.”
“………….”
“The title of Prince is the only thing that defines me………I have nothing else. In fact, the Prince title I was born with and the board games you’ve earned through your own efforts………there’s a big difference.”
If anything, he felt even more defeated.
In front of the Prince, who had completely bowed his head, Kyle opened his mouth.
“But, how do I look to you now?”
“Kyle.”
“Do I look like someone His Highness should feel inferior to?”
“……………Ah.”
Only then, really belatedly, did the Third Prince realize.
That the entire conversation so far─── was itself, a comfort to the Third Prince.
Kyle Byron wasn’t really trying to comfort the Prince with board games.
Board games were just an excuse, a pretext.
From the conversations that started with board games, to the maid and his past, to his own confessions.
That was Kyle Byron’s comfort.
‘………I.’
Though Kyle’s comfort momentarily moved the Third Prince’s heart, it couldn’t dissolve the accumulated resentment.
However.
That sincerity and comfort weren’t as trivial as the Prince had thought.
Just a little.
……Enough to let go of his heart.
“I apologize. Your comfort……thank you.”
“It’s nothing. Shall we start again?”
“………Huh?”
“Catan, shouldn’t we continue? If you wish, we can start over───”
“……………….”
