CHAPTER 94: BACK WITH ANNA & CLAUDIA AGAIN

Claudia felt the corner of her lips twitching, too speechless to comment on the sight in front of her. Anna herself also smiled amusedly, yet just like her sister, she stayed quiet until the person in front of her broke the silence first. Meanwhile, the person they were waiting to speak to, Sheva, just ignored them completely. He just had his eyes on the table as the boy kept devouring the sweet martabak in front of him greedily.

Sweet martabak was the kind of sweet, unhealthy street snack that was popular in Indonesia. The price itself was pretty cheap, with only 15,000 rupiah or just one dollar to buy a box full of it, with that box enough to feed the entire family for one day. However, here they were witnessing Sheva devouring the entire box full of sweet martabak by himself. The greasy oil could be seen forming on the corner of his mouth, giving the image of him breaking one of the seven deadly sins here. Even Claudia stared at him in disgust, couldn’t believe that he could act so... Foul like this.

"If I don’t know better, I will think that you are related to a pig or boar." She sneered in disgust. "Swallow it slowly! We will not steal your food, for God’s sake! Mind a little bit about your manner!" The girl didn’t forget to scold him.

"Bah! Who would’ve care... Who would’ve care abouf manner?!" Sheva retorted with a mouth still full of food. "Bry... Bry bo blay a game for five hours, and you would never care about manners!" He couldn’t even speak like a normal person, still struggling to chew everything inside his mouth. That only made Claudia look at him with more disgust.

"Swallow it first!" She slapped him hard this time.

This time, Sheva nodded quickly, swallowing everything in his mouth hastily. Claudia could only shake her head in disgust while Anna herself was trying to hold back her laughter. Honestly, it was always amusing to see her sister bickering with Sheva. It was exactly like the relationship she imagined if only she had a big brother, full of banter like that. In the end, Sheva cleaned up the crumbles and traces of oil on his mouth before changing the topic.

"Anyway, I haven’t heard anything about your game earlier. How did you both do?" He asked, couldn’t help but be curious. Hearing that question, a bright smile formed on the siblings’ faces as they remembered something pleasant.

"Well, looking at my expression, what do you think happened earlier?" Anna smiled playfully, making Sheva blush a little. Sometimes, he forgot that Anna was one of the prettiest girls he had ever met in his life.

"Wait, wait a second!" He shook his head quickly as if realizing something. "You mean to tell me that you won?! You beat Master Priasmoro Novendra?!" He widened his eyes in shock. This was definitely a big upset. After all, Anna didn’t have a good result in the last couple of matches, so for her to bounce back against a player whose rating was 100 points above hers, a grandmaster nonetheless, was definitely a boost for her confidence.

"Yup! A clean win! Master Priasmoro couldn’t even last for thirty moves!" Claudia said proudly, as if it were she who won the game. "Master Irfan couldn’t stop bragging to Master Priasmoro for this result, saying that he couldn’t even win against Big Sis, who was Master Irfan’s protege. Now that Master Priasmoro’s student, Arfan, couldn’t win against you, Master Irfan would have a field day tomorrow when he met Master Priasmoro."

Sheva had a sweatdrop on his face, not expecting to hear that. Master Irfan sure could be childish and petty in such a peculiar situation like that. "So, you finally got your first full point, huh? Impressive... At least, your hope for the first IM norm is still quite open, right?" He asked Anna once again.

"Yeah, I just didn’t expect that Master Priasmoro would tilt like that in the middle of the game. He probably had a lot on his mind at that time." Anna smiled while remembering her win earlier. "Now, I have two points out of 6 games. With 3 rounds left, I need to get at least two wins and one draw to get my first IM norm. In the next round, if I could catch Master Irfan off guard, I think I could snatch a win against him. My last round against Brother Jodi is also a winnable game. The problem is in the eighth round against the Indian Grandmaster, Akash Ganesan. If he still has a chance to win the tournament, I don’t think I could force a draw against him." She said, calculating her chance in the last three games of the tournament.

Sheva just nodded his head, completely agreeing with Anna’s analysis. Even though he hadn’t seen the current standings in the GM section, the boy knew that Azarya Jodi Setyaki, Indonesian IM, had a mediocre tournament. If Anna were in her best condition, the possibility of her winning would be high. She was also very familiar with Master Irfan, which also gave her a chance to get another point.

The problem was the Indian Grandmaster, Akash Ganesan, who was in third place right now. With 4.5 points out of 6 games, he was still down half a point behind the top two players of this tournament, Suleymanli Aydin and Susanto Megaranto. With his chance to win quite open, there was no way he would lower his guard, especially against Anna, the lowest-rated player of the section. He would go all out there, which would make Anna’s life quite difficult here.

Still, that was another problem for the future, so he changed the subject once again quickly.

"What about you, Ia?" Sheva asked the youngest person at the table. "Don’t tell me that you were defeated twice in a row?" He smiled teasingly, referring to the morning game where Claudia lost against Arfan.

"Of course, not! Who do you think I am?!" The little girl scoffed as if she was offended at the thought that she would lose two games in a row. "I beat Sister Ummi earlier, and you better get ready, because I will come and hunt for your blood tomorrow!"