Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 379: Friend’s Invitation Before Going Home

History! A 17-Year-Old Boy Becomes the Best in the World! 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

The Youngest Ever to Become the Gold Medalist at Chess Olympiad!

Who is Adrian Sheva? A 17-Year-Old Genius from Tambora Flies High in India!

The Red-and-White Flag Flies High in India! The Rise of the Indonesian Chess Community?

How Much Bonus Will Adrian Sheva Get from the Gold Medal Olympiad?

After two weeks of full tension, a brand new day finally arrived. However, it didn’t come peacefully. No, if anything, the day started with Sheva getting bombarded by the local news back home, as no matter which website he opened, he would always find a story about himself getting posted there.

Sheva himself was completely dumbfounded by this development. Hell, he could even find his life story from being in kindergarten to his high school time, and some students who had never talked to him also commented about how proud they were of being his friend, seeing his potential since the beginning, and all of those bullshits that would make Sheva himself blush.

He knew that this was their attempt to ride on his fame. However, the boy didn’t expect that it would be this big.

"You really underestimate our country’s hunger for something earth-shattering like this, Shev," Bagas said wryly. "Besides Badminton, we don’t really have any sports that we could be proud of. Hell, even in Badminton, after the Minions retired, we haven’t done really well. People are craving for something here. You remember the Tokyo Olympics a year ago? We even celebrate rock climbing and deadlifting, right? If those not-so-popular sports could get recognition like that, chess, which all the old men in the world played, would definitely be better."

Well, that was one hell of an explanation. Sheva himself could also remember vividly about the event that his friend was talking about, of how crazy the celebration was for the deadlifting athlete and the rock-climbing athlete who won the gold medal in the Olympics a year ago.

Still, even though Bagas said that this was normal, Sheva couldn’t help but feel afraid about this. People started doxing all the stories about him in the past, from his introverted nature, his circle of friends in high school, and even his grade, for God’s sake! Now, he was afraid that people would also go to his home and start to question his mother as well.

"Don’t worry, I have already made an arrangement about Aunty. No one will bother her until we are back." Bagas said, recognizing his worry. Sheva didn’t really know what kind of arrangement he was talking about, but out of his trust in his best friend, he just nodded straight away, finding that all the problems were solved here. "Anyway, we have lunch with Pragg’s family, right? Should we prepare now?"

Yeah, the invitation changed from dinner to lunch, since Sheva and the rest of the Indonesian players had to go back home at 5 PM. It would be a lie if Sheva said that he wasn’t nervous. After all, besides Bagas, this should be the first time he came to someone’s house. Master Irfan didn’t count, because Sheva considered the man as his teacher. But this... Getting invited by a friend?

"Should we bring something?" He asked, a little bit uneasy.

"Don’t worry, just let me handle this!" Bagas patted his chest proudly, as if he had already thought about this.

True enough, a moment later, a delivery service came, bringing a fruit platter that they were going to bring for the host. The fruit was fresh and varied, from grapes, bananas, apples, to even a fucking pineapple in the center. The color was so bright that it was enough to make everyone’s mouth watery.

After ordering two taxis, Sheva, Bagas, Sarah, Laysa, Anna, and Claudia went together to Pragg’s house. Honestly, it was a bit embarrassing, since only Sheva, Bagas, and Laysa were invited here. However, the others got roped into this mess, and Pragg and Vaishali were kind enough to let them invite more people.

"Oh! You must be Sheva, right?! And you are Laysa! Come in! Come in! Don’t just stand in front of the door!" Right after they arrived, they were greeted by Pragg’s mother.

"Thank you for your invitation, Aunty." Bagas, the social butterfly that he was, stepped forward to greet the woman. "Here is a little thing that we brought. Please, accept it." He said, delivering the platter.

"Oh, you sweet boy! You don’t need to do that! Come in!"

As they went inside the humble house, they could see Pragg and Vaishali waiting for them impatiently. With their ordinary clothes, they both lost their ’chess prodigy’ air, looking like any other normal teenager outside.

On the table, a lot of dishes were prepared, most of them local. Sheva couldn’t even name one of them, yet he knew based on the smell that all were killer dishes, enough to knock everyone out before leaving the table.

The lunch was quite harmonious, with everyone getting along quite well. Pragg’s mother led the conversation most of the time, asking a lot of questions about their children’s new friends. Well, not about them, per se, but about a specific problem in their career.

"How did you get permission from your parents to go abroad alone?" She asked. Indeed, this was a big concern, especially since they were all just a bunch of teenagers. However, they all had the perfect answer for this question.

"Unlike India, the chess community in our country is quite small, so everyone knows each other. My parents know some of the veteran players, so as long as I am with them, I think everything is okay." Laysa answered nonchalantly.

"Claudia and I are also the same, Aunty," Anna added. "As long as Sister Medina, Sister Irene, or Master Irfan joins, my parents trust us to go abroad without them."

"Cannot say the same for me, but I have been friends with Bagas for a while, so my mother trusts him to keep me on the line." Sheva shrugged.

Hearing the answers from her guests, the mother pondered thoughtfully, as if she were thinking of this possibility. However, Pragg and Vaishali were impatient, as the younger boy finally said, "See, Mom? You can just let me go with the others! It should be fine!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Vaishali nodded in agreement. "You must be tired from accompanying us going all over the world, right? Why don’t you just sit here and wait for the good news from home?" The girl acted sweetly, trying to butter things up.

"Oh, be quiet, will you?!" The mother clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Let me think about it!"

It seemed that the mother was the type who couldn’t let her children wander around in foreign countries without supervision, and she didn’t trust anyone to do that for her. That was probably why her presence could always be seen, no matter where they played in foreign countries.

Well, that was definitely a concern, but not for the Indonesian teenagers here. They just offered their insight and experience, but the rest ultimately depends on the Rameshbabu family in front of them.

Nevertheless, the lunch went quite well, and they all left with stomachs full. As they said goodbye to the host, Sheva couldn’t help but smile, inwardly thinking, ’Even the best chess player in the world would have this kind of problem, huh? Oh, well, I am sure that my mom would also react the same when I finally arrive back home...’