“And that would be checkmate, sir,” Castelle said as she cornered the man’s king with her bishop.
The man, instead of being angry that he lost the game, became incredibly excited.
“This is exhilarating! There are so many possibilities in the moves that I can’t help but try to think about moves five turns ahead!”
Castelle laughed. She was like him when she first learned about chess.
“This game called chess…can I buy one for myself? I simply must tell my friends about this. They are going to have a blast!”
This was an unexpected turn of events. She only brought her own chess board because she was bored whenever they travelled through the carriage. She would play by herself and try to improve her skill through imagination.
When the sir mentioned he was bored, she simply wanted to play a game of chess with him because she wanted to play it as well.
She would have never thought that it would lead to another possible source of income for the Reborn company.
“Very well, sir. I will ask my employer to provide you with chess boards.”
…
…
…
Later in the evening, Castelle reported the incident to Michael.
“Hmm…sure, why not.”
“Very well, sir! How much should we sell a board set? 1 gold coin each? No…that’s too low. How about 10 gold coins each?”
Castelle considered chess as an expensive item because Michael constructed each piece himself, requiring a lot of effort and time from the young master himself.
The maids and butlers couldn’t do it because they didn’t have the magic nor craftsmanship to create the intricate statuettes for the chess pieces.
In her opinion, a single board should cost around 100 gold coins.
“No, that’s too expensive. We should sell it for around 100 bronze coins,” Michael said, rubbing his chin.
“Bronze coins? Not gold coins, young master? Isn’t that too low?”
Michael shook his head. “What do you think will happen once we put the chessboard into the market and it costs around 1 gold coin?”
“People would want to buy it?” Castelle answered.
Michael nodded. “Yes, but what if they can’t afford it? What do you think would happen after that?”
Castelle was stumped. “They would want to save money for it?”
“No. What would happen is that other people will produce their own chess boards at a much lower price. They will sell it and earn much more than us because there are a lot of people who would buy it.”
That kind of practice was very normal in his previous world. If a popular brand released a new product, there would immediately be a lot of fake products swarming the market and being sold at a much lower price.
“There’s nothing special about a chess board. It’s just made of wood and a couple of pieces. Anyone can make that,” Michael said.
It was only then that Castelle realized Michael’s words. No one would want to buy a chess board from them at an extremely high price, when they could just make one themselves.
“I think I get it, young master. If we sell it at a low price, a lot of people would still be able to afford them and buy them from us instead of other people!”
Michael was also thinking about one thing that this world didn’t have: branding.
Sometimes, it was much better to improve branding rather than earning money. That was what increased the profits of companies in his previous world into global heights.
“How much did we earn from the Reborn soap and shampoo delivery today?” Michael asked.
Castelle gave him an even bigger leather pouch than the one last time.
“About 3500 gold coins, young master.”
Michael held about 35,000 dollars worth of gold coins in his hands. This was the most amount of money he had in his previous life.
And to think he earned this in about a week…Michael was blown away. But since he didn’t have anything to do with this money, it was better to invest it in his company instead.
“Take this money and hire some wood craftsmen or mages to create the chess boards and pieces,” Michael said as he pushed the leather pouch back to Castelle’s hands.
“Understood, young master!”
And before she left his room, Michael had one last thing to say.
“Oh, and introduce the game as Reborn chess. We need them to know it’s ours.”
…
…
…
The next day, Castelle once again set off into Kingsbridge, but this time, it was to deliver chess boards to the Sir’s mansion. She arrived at his estate, which was already full of gentlemen acquaintances he invited.
Michael created 10 chess boards for this shipment, but the next orders would be made by other craftsmen.
“Oh, here she is, gentlemen. She is the one who introduced me to this sophisticated game.”
Castelle was met with a lot of curious gazes from the men clad in gentlemen suits. Judging from their stature alone, she could guess that they were the intellectual-type of people.
“Greetings, sirs and madams. I am here to deliver the chess boards you have ordered,” she said as she laid down the board to the table.
“What say you we play one game to show them the rules,” the Sir said.
“It would be my pleasure,” Castelle replied.
After about an hour, the table was crowded with gentlemen rubbing their chins and adjusting their monocles. They were intensely focused on the game, mumbling to themselves about which move they would have made if they were in the man’s place.
“And once again, that is checkmate, Sir.”
The rest of the spectators gasped, only now noticing that Castelle’s one move completely conquered the chessboard. There was no move left for the King to run away to.
“Golly…”
“Oh my…”
The losing man looked very happy despite being bested by Castelle yet again.
“Do you see, gentlemen? This game is the perfect mental battle for men like us. It is as if we are generals barking orders to our army!”
The rest of the men went silent.
It was only a few seconds later when one man with a monocle broke the ice.
“You shouldn’t have moved your king to that place! You should have used your bishop to defend that last pawn!” he said, lecturing the man.
His words seemed to ignite a lively discussion amongst the gentlemen.
“You are completely wrong! The best move have been—”
“No, no, no, clearly he should have castled much earlier.”
“Look at you, saying the wrong things. What he should have done is—actually, let me show you. Why don’t we play a game right now.”
“You can’t. I’ll be using the board next.”
“Let’s play a game to see who’ll use it next?”
“You’re on!”