Divine Celebrity 98 (Patreon)

I wasn’t the only one that noticed the sudden change, as more than one phone rang on the sidelines, distracting the players. “Take five and rest,” I shouted, giving them a chance to focus. “But make sure don’t say anything too aggressive in any platform no matter who goads you. We are already suffering from a lack of players, and we don’t want anyone receiving unnecessary bans.” 

“What’s going on?” Marcus asked, realizing the situation. 

“Let’s just say the dean is learning that supporting an idiot unconditionally is not for free,” I said, and walked away. 

Still, as I walked away, I threw one last glance at Arthur. The timing of the transfer was not suspicious, and even the potential discrepancy in the reports shouldn’t be suspicious. 

After all, he wouldn’t be the only student that pulled some strings to gain a fake-athletic scholarship for admission. Ironically, I might have written it off as another glorious sample of nepotism and bribery if it wasn’t for one fact. 

He actually had sufficient ability to gain admission without trickery. 

I took a note to dig deeper, but not right now. I had more important things to address first, such as the growing crisis — I wanted to feel resentment at the necessity, but considering I was the architect, it would hardly be fair. 

I found the girls in the main conference room, which was normally dedicated to the coaches. Megan sat in the corner, typing furiously with a focus that surprised me, not even noticing my approach, while barking occasional orders at Kim, who was busy on the phone. 

And, Coach Juana was on the phone, nodding with a smirk. “I understand, sir,” she said occasionally, making it easy to guess who she was talking to.

The Dean. 

I gestured for her to mute for a bit, and she did. “How’s it going?” I asked. 

“Well, he’s furious, and he threatened me a dozen times already,” she said. 

“You’re recording the call, right?” I said. She just nodded with a smirk, showing that she had that handled. And, considering some of the words the dean was using, I guessed that he didn’t factor that in. 

I might have felt slightly bad against a nicer man, but against him, that was hardly an option. “Is there anything else I need to address —“ I started to ask, when my phone rang. I checked the caller, ready to turn it off, only to realize it was the Director of Sports. 

I turned on the call recorder before answering the call. “How can I help you, sir?” I said. 

“Oh, Terry, how are you,” he answered, with an annoyingly saccharine voice that set my teeth to the edge. 

“As well as I could be, after losing a valuable member of the Coaching team Coach Spencer, sir,” I said, not bothering to hide my mocking tone even as I used my Taunting ability. 

“Yes, it’s bad news, isn’t it,” he said, his forced cheer immediately replaced by barely-restrained anger. To his credit, barely restrained was still restrained. “Anyway, I have decided to arrange a beautiful event that would allow us to manage this horrible disaster. Check the link I sent you.” 

I did so without bothering to answer, and met with a hastily put-together paper.

One that was declaring a friendly chess match before the football game with our dear rivals. 

A classical chess game.

“I’m guessing my attendance is mandatory,” I said. 

“Of course not,” he answered with a vindictive chuckle. “Since you are busy with the football team, we understand if you’re busy enough not to attend it.” 

I had to admit, his plan was not bad, especially since it took only a few minutes for him to come up with it. I either go and join the tournament, wasting critical time that was needed for the upcoming match. 

Or, I rejected it, and the tournament happened without me. Ordinarily, a chess tournament wouldn’t matter, but at this point, that had turned into a part of my reputation, and skipping a tournament would reflect badly.

Especially if they advertise the tournament as much as I expected them to hype it. 

And, the last dagger was the fact that it was a classical tournament only, with no blitz portion, not only making sure it would waste a great deal of time, but also confronting me at my weakest.

They were clearly determined to destroy my reputation. 

I almost felt bad for him that this clever strategy was dead under the boost of my Traits. 

“I … I don’t think I can reject it, sir,” I said with a trembling voice. It wasn’t a particularly good example of acting, but talking through the phone allowed it to be relatively convincing against someone that was sure of their success. “How does the schedule looks like?” 

“We have a meet and greet today at six, and the real tournament is half-day Friday, and full-day Saturday,” he said gleefully. “And make sure you attend them, we arranged some fun events for it as well.” 

“I - I will be there,” I stammered. A little overacting, enough to earn a dubious glare from the girls, but I managed to hold back my chuckles until the call ended. 

“What’s going on,” Megan asked. 

“Nothing much, just some more work for you,” I said as I forwarded the announcements. 

“A last-minute chess tournament. Isn’t that a bit, irregular?” she asked. 

“Oh, very, which means that either our Dean is pulling some strings, or our dear coach is still afraid of failure,” I said. 

“You can win, right?” she asked, which I answered with a nod. It was enough for them considering their limited knowledge of chess, with little knowledge of the distinction between blitz and classical chess. 

“How about the training schedule,” Coach Juana intercepted as she checked the schedule. “Even if you win, you won’t be able to attend the meetings.” 

“Worst comes to worst, I’ll somehow handle it, but no need to alarm yet. I have a way to cut the time short.” 

“What?” Kim asked.

“That’s a surprise,” I said with a widening smirk. “Let’s just say you two need to be on standby during the event to make some noise, maybe even arrange a few people.” 

“Should we start already?” she asked. 

“No, not yet. I have the feeling that the school would do its best to exaggerate the event. They need to cover up their current scandal, and what better way to humiliate me very publicly.” 

I didn’t need to check the social media to know that, not when the intent flow I was receiving had increased already, people’s anger at the scandal replacing the earlier pity. 

Megan frowned. “But you said that you would win easily.” 

“Yes, but does that  mean they know that fact?” It earned another set of raised eyebrows. “Hey, they gave me a partial scholarship, and I gave them a partial champion. More than fair, right?” I explained. “It’s not like I could make a fortune through chess.” 

It wasn’t true, but it was passable enough to be convincing. 

“Now, before I go to that meet, I have some things to prepare,” I said as I pulled on a laptop, and started drawing a detailed practice schedule for every single player, their strengths, weaknesses, the roles they would play…

And the most urgent technical deficiencies they need to be dealing with. 

“That’s a detailed breakdown for a quick session,” Juana said. “Are you sure that they are all accurate?” 

“Enough to make a bet on it,” I said. 

“And the imbalance of the tactics,” she added. “What kind of tactics we can put with such a broken skillset,” she said. 

I chuckled. “A crazy one, of course,” I said. “With what we have, we don’t have any other options.” 

Unless I figure out how to empower people. Though, if worst came to worst, I would just awaken my guide and ask her to intervene.  After all, she needed the Intent the games provided as much as I did. 

Maybe even more than I did, depending on what awaited her if the darkness she mentioned would actually return. 

In any case, I trusted my ability to change the game in unexpected ways even if things had worked worse than I expected, so I focused on drawing a few trick-play examples for Juana. 

“A-are you sure,” she stammered in shock. “These plays are crazy.” 

“Crazy enough to work?” I asked with a chuckle. 

“Maybe … No, they are just crazy,” she gasped as she looked at me, though I could see that she was already wavering. 

Not that it mattered much. At this point, changing her mind was not an option. “Let’s go and see the players,” I offered.