Chapter 25

"Tomorrow, Ruri will take this money to buy lots of fresh ingredients for you, Brother, and make delicious food for you!"

Natsume Chikage was stunned, looked at his sister's excited little face, then laughed, and reached out to rub her head, "Our sister has such good luck!"

"That's a must!" Natsume Ruri puffed out her little chest and smiled happily.

"By the way, Brother," she remembered the important matter, "Didn't you go to Auntie Kondo's house? Did you get Dad's keepsake?"

"Yes." Natsume Chikage nodded and handed the ancient and heavy chess manual in his hand to his sister.

After Ruri took it, she flipped through the hard cover and looked confused: "Is this chess manual Dad's keepsake?"

Natsume Chikage explained: "Calling it a keepsake, it's not entirely accurate."

Ruri was confused: "Why do you say that?"

Chikage looked at the thick cover of the chess manual and explained:

"This was bought by Father at a roadside stall when he was in high school."

"Then before graduation, he gave it to a junior in the same club, Auntie Kondo Miyuki."

"She is now a full-time housewife and doesn't have much use for this chess manual, so she thought of returning it to its original owner and giving it back to us."

"So this counts as a keepsake, but not entirely."

Ruri suddenly realized: "So that's how it is!"

She flipped through a few pages, looking at the dense chess manuals and annotations, and her little face wrinkled slightly, "But I'm not very interested in shogi or anything, how should I deal with this thick and heavy thing..."

Natsume Chikage reached out at the right time and smiled: "Then leave it to me to keep. I've developed some interest in shogi recently."

Ruri was stunned when she heard this, her moist big eyes full of surprise: "Brother, you're actually interested in shogi? Even though Dad used to teach you shogi, you were always indifferent and would slip away after sitting for less than ten minutes!"

Chikage coughed lightly and covered up: "The past is the past, now is now."

Ruri tilted her little head and thought, thinking she understood—Brother must be seeing the object and thinking of the person, missing the time when he played shogi with his father, so he suddenly said he wanted to pick it up.

But thinking of Brother's previous chess level... she couldn't help but giggle in her heart.

After all, she had seen Brother and Father's games with her own eyes; that scene was simply too miserable to look at.

She even felt that even if she had only learned for a month at that time, she could easily win against her father who had studied shogi for many years.

Ruri felt that she had some talent, but she had average interest in shogi, so she had never studied it.

At this time, Ruri noticed that Chikage was also carrying a plastic bag in his other hand, which contained a brand-new, well-packaged simple shogi chessboard.

She was even more surprised: "Brother, you even bought a new chessboard? Could it be that you really want to spend time studying shogi?"

Natsume Chikage shook his head: "Studying doesn't count, I just want to try some things."

Ruri became interested when she heard this, thinking that since there was a chessboard, playing a few games would be quite good.

Although she wasn't keen on shogi, playing occasionally was quite interesting.

As for winning against this stupid brother, she felt there was no suspense.

She suggested with some expectation: "Since you bought a new chessboard, let Ruri play a few games with you, Brother!"

"Okay, let's play a few games!" Natsume Chikage readily agreed.

He knew that his sister was a true genius.

Not to mention that her studies in junior high school were the best in the school.

Just in terms of shogi, she was indeed very talented.

You have to know that although Ruri's father wasn't too strong, he was a person with some fame among amateur players.

The kind that ordinary people definitely couldn't win against.

But it was such a father who was won by his sister after she had learned for less than a month.

You can imagine how amazing his sister was.

So he was also very curious about how he would compare to this genius sister after equipping the 'Dust-laden Chess Manual'.

Ruri happily took out the new chessboard from the bag, sat on the tatami in a duck-sitting position, deftly unpacked the transparent plastic packaging in front of the small table, set up the smooth wooden chessboard, and then began to organize the chess pieces, coding them in categories on both sides.

While his sister was organizing the chessboard, Natsume Chikage's attention fell again on the ancient and heavy chess manual in his hand.

【Dust-laden Chess Manual】

【Quality: Blue】

【Effect: After equipping, you can instantly learn all the knowledge in this chess manual, and your aptitude for chess is superb; you can infer ten things from one, and have an understanding that is unimaginable to ordinary people!】

【Introduction: If you don't play shogi, seeing me is like a frog in a well looking at the moon in the sky; if you play shogi, seeing me is like a mayfly shaking the blue sky!】

【Synthesis condition: Requires at least three pieces of the same type of equipment!】

【You have obtained ownership of this equipment. Do you want to register it?】

【Yes/No】

Natsume Chikage muttered in his heart: "Yes!"

【Registration successful!】

【One more piece of special equipment is needed for the attribute point reward!】

【Do you want to equip the 'Dust-laden Chess Manual'?】

【Yes/No】

"Yes!"

In an instant!

A massive amount of profound shogi knowledge, countless classic chess layouts, and exquisite methods for solving endgame puzzles poured into his mind like a surging torrent!

Not only that, he felt as if his thinking had been completely opened up and reshaped, and his understanding, insight, and deduction ability of the chess game had reached an unbelievable realm.

Just by looking at the squares on the chessboard, countless possible moves, subsequent evolutions, potential traps, and killing moves were automatically deduced, combined, and optimized in his mind at high speed, forming clear and optimal paths.

That feeling was as if he had been immersed in this path for decades, becoming a chess saint who controlled the chessboard!

"Brother, why are you still standing there?" Ruri's crisp voice pulled him back from that mysterious and powerful feeling.

She had already set up the chess pieces and was looking up at him, with a hint of mischievous smile on her little face, patting the seat opposite, "I've already set it up, sit down quickly!"

"Yes." Natsume Chikage looked at the ancient chess manual in his hand, took a deep breath, suppressed the shock and excitement in his heart, and sat cross-legged opposite his sister.

The small chessboard lay between the two, and the chess pieces shone with a warm luster under the light.

"Brother, do you want to go first or should I?" Ruri looked relaxed, with a sense of superiority of a "senior" guiding a "junior".

"You go first." Natsume Chikage's expression was calm.

Although he knew that the first move had a certain advantage in shogi, he didn't care about this slight difference in winning percentage at all now. ===== CHAPTER 26 =====