CHAPTER 351: AN OLD CONFLICT ARISES AGAIN!

"Just go for today’s team!" Before anyone could say anything, Novendra had already said with a decisive tone. "We have achieved a great result today, probably the best in our history. The momentum is on our side, so changing the lineup will only make everything more chaotic. We don’t need that now!" His tone was strong while his eyes were resolute, as if challenging everyone to disagree with his opinion.

Sheva felt the corner of his mouth twitching furiously at that. Not just him, but the others like Medina and Laysa frowned, with some clicking their tongue in dissatisfaction. Even though Novendra didn’t say it out loud, everyone knew that he was targeting Sheva here. It was ridiculous, but Novendra’s pettiness was beyond their imagination here.

"Honestly, do you hate me so much to the point that you would rather lose the matchup instead of seeing me thriving?" Sheva got tired of the man’s antics and decided to go straight to the point.

Right after that, the atmosphere froze instantly beyond the freezing point, as no one expected Sheva to be so blunt about this. Before, while the clash between Sheva and Novendra was quite intense, they would still hide it with subtle and sarcastic remarks. Now, it seemed that Sheva wanted a direct confrontation, catching everyone off guard.

"Why do you think that we would lose the matchup immediately when you are not on the team? Aren’t you being so full of yourself here?" Novendra frowned in dissatisfaction. The man knew what he was doing here. By asking this question, he would force Sheva to offend everyone in the room, and it would lower the boy’s chances of appearing in the national team again in the future.

Sheva himself didn’t know what kind of scheme he was about to jump into right now. However, even knowing about it, the boy wouldn’t hesitate to give everyone his piece of mind. No matter how much the others wanted to trip him, in the end, what mattered here was their chess ability, and Sheva was confident that he could beat everyone in this room 10 times out of 10 games.

So, he didn’t hold back with his words.

"Are you suffering from amnesia or what?" Sheva sneered sarcastically. "Why do you think that beating the Ireland team, a far weaker team, that was not even playing their best player, gives you the illusion that you are the best player that has ever walked on earth? Didn’t you forget that this is your first-ever win in... What? 7 games? 8 games? That is embarrassing for the ’second-best’ player in the country, right? Remember how many times I have to save your ass after you got beaten black and blue? And you have the gall to say that I am full of myself? Do I have to give you a mirror before you can see clearly who the bastard is here?"

Time seemed to freeze instantly after that, as all eyes turned to Sheva in disbelief. Everyone was so dumbfounded, not expecting the boy to go all out here. The smell of the gun’s powder was so strong, suffocating all the weak-willed people at the table. Gone was the celebratory atmosphere a moment ago, being completely replaced by the tensed air that could kill someone accidentally.

Novendra himself didn’t look good. His face darkened instantly, and the expression was so ugly. While yes, he wanted to provoke Sheva, but this was a bit too much here. The boy was humiliating him so blatantly in front of the other players, and his temper was so close to exploding straight away.

"Okay, that’s enough!" Medina, probably the bravest woman on earth, finally couldn’t bear the tense atmosphere anymore and spoke out. Then, she glared at Sheva and Novendra without hesitation, enough to make those two wilt. "You two, get out of here! You make a commotion! Cool your head outside and be back when your anger is not there anymore!" She ordered decisively, not accepting any rejection from those two.

"Wait! Why me?!" Novendra wanted to protest. However, the glare intensified on his part, enough to kill all the nasty things on the tip of his tongue.

"You still want to ask why?" Medina asked sharply. "Are you sure you want to challenge me like that? Because I can assure you that I can give a list of why you have to follow the words here, or you will be humiliated more. I mean, don’t think that no one notices your little scheme, boy."

Novendra flinched when Medina called him that. Even though he was a GM already, Medina was two years older, and the fear instilled by her from the beginning of the career was enough to make him believe that the woman would fulfil her words if he was still being stubborn. He could also see all the teenagers staring with so much hostility, and after thinking about it, the man knew that this was Medina’s attempt to save his dignity.

If he lashed out, all the teenagers—except for Arfan, probably—would strike back at him, and not only would it be humiliating, but with the strong backing that some of them had, Novendra was sure that his career would be jeopardized in the future.

Sheva himself just huffed before walking out silently. Bagas and Sarah also followed along, not even caring about the commotion behind them. Unlike the others who came from the chess community and would probably be afraid to defend him, both Bagas and Sarah were his high school friends, so they would always pick him over anyone else at that table. It also helped that they felt the same, being so frustrated with the childishness that Novendra showed.

"Good job, by the way." Bagas patted his shoulder firmly. "Someone has to knock out that asshole soon. I am glad that it is you."

Sheva just grunted for that, making a lot of rude hand gestures that were enough to crack the atmosphere here. Seeing the two boys chuckling like this, a smile also spread on Sarah’s face. Still, she couldn’t help but feel worried about the repercussions.

"So, what should we do now?" She asked.

"Oh, don’t worry, I have already thought about the solutions here," Sheva said. "I might be a lot of things, but impulsive is definitely not one that could describe me. I have a lot of solutions inside my head right now, and which one I pick depends on the situation. Hopefully, the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen, but if so..."

"If so..." Both Bagas and Sarah also trailed the words behind, waiting eagerly for Sheva to finish it.

"... Well, it is simple. Maybe I could do the same thing that Wesley So did in the past."