Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 16 - Chapter 1.1

  MISSION: MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

“Once I become Meijin––––––please accept my hand in marriage.”

Time comes to a screeching halt.

The person who said that, Ayumu Kannabe, is kneeling in front of a woman and holding up a small velvet box.

Inside that box is a ring with a huge diamond.

All of this is unfolding at the same table where I’m sitting, but …… it feels like it’s a world away.

“Oh? Is he ……?”

“Is that what I think it is ……?”

Other customers at the restaurant start noticing something is up. Lots of heads start turning our way as whispers crisscross the dining hall.

They build into waves of excited chatter that fill this high-class restaurant in Shibuya from corner to corner ……

Since they don’t know any specifics, I bet it probably looks like a stylish couple got dressed up to have some fun making some once-in-a-lifetime memories.

I mean, there’s a handsome young man wearing a white cape kneeling in front of a woman who looks straight out of Victorian England. Considering where we are, if someone told me they were taking themed pictures before their wedding, I just might buy it.

For those of us who know the details, however, it’s just as shocking as getting hit by a meteorite.

I mean–––those two are Shogi Master and apprentice!

And she’s old enough to be his mother!

“…………”

This is so out of the blue that even the brash Aggressive Archangel, a.k.a. Women’s King Ryou Tsukiyomizaka is frozen in silence.

The first one of the three of us to make a move is Yamashiro Ouka Machi Kugui.

That move being opening her bag, taking out her camera and snapping as many pictures as she can!

“Dah! …… Machi?! Why are you taking pictures?!”

“The Future Meijin has made a marriage proposal!! What’s more, to his own Master, the Eternal Queen! This very moment could become pivotal in the history of Shogi! Any writer who would lead to this moment would have to be lost to the sands of time and would not be worth their clout!!”

She’s right about it being an important moment. Assuming she accepts his proposal.

“God Cauldron ……”

The woman on the receiving end—Women’s Legend Rina Shakando—gazes lovingly upon her dear apprentice and calmly answers, “Enough jesting. The poor young Dragon King is at a loss for words.”

“I am not speaking in jest!”

Ayumu is suddenly hot under the collar, but Shakando-sensei just smiles at him.

“What age were you when you first proposed to me, I wonder? Already in the Sub League, yes?”

“…… On the very day I promoted to 5-kyu. That was the first proposal.”

Say what?!

The first ……? That means this is already happened multiple times before, doesn’t it?

If he was 5-kyu back then, that means he would have been 11 years old. He probably got so excited about getting promoted that he proposed at the same time.

But …… That changes things.

Kids in kindergarten and grade school admire their teachers, and lots of them pop the question at some point or another. Even my apprentice’s friend Charlette Isoir was giddy when I said, “Instead of my apprentice, you can be my bride!” back when she was six.

It goes without saying that I have no intention of marrying Charlette at all. Some people still seem to think I was serious, but I have a girlfriend.

Circumstances won’t let me see her, my older sister apprentice …… But I will never give up on Ginko. I don’t know where she is right now, but I will find her and marry her.

Hm? What would I do if multiple wives were allowed?

That would completely change how things play out (Shogi commentary-esque).

“Oh my, you’ve even prepared a ring? Promoting into A League does not make wasting your money acceptable. Return it for a full refund, understood?” says Shakando-sensei as if soothing a little kid as she glances toward the back room.

“Knowing you, you have instructed the staff to prepare cake and flowers for me, have you not? I shall cover those expenses–––.”

“Please do not treat me as a mere child!”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Ayumu raise his voice to his beloved Master like that.

“I admit that marriage may have been an unattainable goal in the past, that my proposals may have seemed in jest. Now that I have taken a position in A League, the title of Meijin is within my grasp! All that remains is to take hold! I wish for you to see me as a Shogi player worthy of your hand once I have become the Meijin!!”

“Once you have become Meijin is it ……?”

Shakando-sensei had been smiling up to that point. She closes her eyes.

“The word Meijin is not to be taken so lightly.”

Then, a frigid glare the likes of which we’ve never seen before greets us when the Eternal Queen opens them again.

“A condition for marriage? You could not have seriously believed that doing so would delight me. …… It seems that I erred at some point during your tutelage.”

“……”

Ayumu’s face turns pale with shock.

To him, Shakando-sensei is pretty much a goddess. He worships the ground she walks on.

Being rejected by her has to be his biggest fear.

Though that would mean the proposal was doomed to fail from the start ……

Even so, Ayumu desperately clings to any last shred of hope and keeps holding out the ring.

The next words that accompany his Master’s Arctic gaze take us all by surprise.

“Are you aware of why my title is not the Women’s Meijin but is instead the Women’s Legend?”

“……?”

The four of us exchange confused glances.

Actually I don’t think I’ve ever thought about that before. Other women’s titles like King and Empress are taken directly from their pro counterparts.

“Tsukiyomizaka-Women’s King. Do you know the reason?”

“Don’t tack on the title, c’mon ……”

If a current Women’s Title holder doesn’t know, then there’s no way I’d have a clue.

“Upon its founding, the title was intended to be Women’s Meijin. However–––” Shakando-sensei sighs under her breath. “A handful of board members claimed that the title of Meijin would be wasted on a Women’s League player. A counterproposal of Meijin Apparent was made, but it was ultimately rejected at a Players Meeting. That is the true weight behind the word Meijin.”

“A Players Meeting? ……,” I echo unconsciously.

The Shogi Association of Japan is a society made up of professional Shogi players. Achieving the rank of 4-dan is required to become an official member.

And official members are the only ones who have a say in determining which direction the association goes at Players Meetings.

Women’s League players with 4-dan are allowed to participate nowadays, but I’ve heard that wasn’t always the case.

In other words, a group of men decided that the title of Meijin was too valuable to give to a woman back then.

“…… Those fools!” Ayumu spits through gritted teeth.

Neither of us sees the title of Meijin as sacred. It’s more like our way to refer to the godly person who currently has it, along with three other titles. The title of Dragon King Ryuo, which outranks Meijin, already existed when we were born.

“…… But I can picture the ones who’d say things like that ……”

My Master Kousuke Kiyotaki 9-dan, for one.

Having challenged for the title of Meijin twice, it’s obvious he has a special attachment to it.

That’s not because it’s the only title he challenged for, though.

I’m sure that those feelings were the norm for his generation.

I don’t want to think he’d oppose a Meijin title for the Women’s League, and I believe he wouldn’t. It’s just I know how sacred it is to him.

The title of Meijin.

“It is true that having a Meijin emerge from his family line was my Master, Sadatoshi Ashigara’s ultimate goal and his last request of me before his death. It was for that purpose that I, a woman, took on a male apprentice and committed myself to grooming him to do just that.”

There are Women’s League players who have Women’s League players as Masters.

But as far as pro male players go, Ayumu is the only one to have a Women’s League player as his Master.

Making that a reality couldn’t have been easy.

That shows just how much Ayumu’s talent caught Shakando-sensei’s eye, but–––

“Nevertheless, the thought of becoming that apprentice’s wife has never once crossed my mind. I want to be the Meijin’s Master.”

“……”

Ayumu collapses, breaking his fall with his hand at the last moment. He probably just realized how shallow he has been.

Not to mention that getting to the top of A League isn’t easy in the first place.

Even if you do pull it off, a seven-match series against that godly last boss is waiting at the end. Anyone, not just Shakando-sensei, would get the urge to tell him to say that once you beat him after hearing what he said.

“I have lost my appetite.”

Sensei sounds bored as she looks away from Ayumu.

“Though it pains me to do so after all of you have gathered to celebrate my apprentice’s promotion to A League, I have my own title match to attend to. I shall excuse myself.”

“! Master, allow me to escort–––.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Master ……”

Ayumu, ignored like an abandoned puppy, can only watch as Sensei takes hold of her cane and climbs to her feet by herself. 

Machi then stands up and says, “Shakando-sensei. Allow me to take you back to your abode.”

“Thank you, Machi.”

Shakando-sensei takes Machi’s outstretched arm without complaint.

“It may be rude of me to say, but would you also wed my apprentice while you’re at it? In my opinion, a handsome couple such as yourselves would make a wonderful pair ……”

“I decline. Unlike you, I would rather not be betrothed to a man better looking than myself.”

“I see: the everyman is more your taste …… He-he-he.”

For some reason, the two of them smirking at me sends a cold chill down my spine.

“W-Wait, Master! Please ……! I still–––”

Ayumu reaches out for the frilly hem of Shakando-sensei’s dress only to be stopped by Ryou grabbing the collar of his shirt from behind.

“You’ve made enough of a scene already. Pathetic.”

“Ngh ……! Release me, Gabriel!!”

“Not happening. Hey, Trash. Grab his legs.”

“Got it!”

Ryou’s got Ayumu in a headlock, using every bit of her upper body strength to hold him back. I rush in to help. Who knows what’ll happen if it gets out that the Women’s League Title Holder had a lover’s spat with an A League Shogi player?

Worse, my apprentice is about to challenge for her title, Women’s Legend! I won’t let the media have a field day. Sorry Ayumu, but you’ve done enough for one night!

Now.

All that’s left is how to explain this to our audience–––.

“May I have your attention please?”

Before we can figure out what to do, some of the staff step up for us.

“What you’ve just witnessed is one of our restaurant’s special services! A man just surprised a woman with a marriage proposal right at this very table!”

“As you can see, we are here to help even when things don’t go as planned!”

The tension clears immediately.

Since this is a high-class establishment, there aren’t any rubberneckers around with their phones out to take pictures …… Machi took tons, but her camera looks professional enough that everyone probably assumed she was working as a camera person anyway. Whew, that was lucky.

Since the staff managed to pass off what happened as a failed surprise and to get the restaurant back to business as usual, all I can say to them is “good job.”

As the two of us are taking Ayumu out the door like a fallen log, I say to Ryou, “Just what you’d expect from a fancy restaurant, right?”

“Yeah. And this bonehead is the reason we’ll never get to come back.”

She’s absolutely right.