The Black King (Audio Drama)

Stage 0.916 takes place just before the anime series starts and before Lelouch and Rivalz are friends.

Summary
The audio drama begins as Rivalz Cardemonde is losing a Chess match against a noble. Rivalz explains that he felt confident he could beat the nobleman as he works part-time in a gambling den and has often filled in as a chess player for his manager. However, the nobleman has proven to be a much more skilled opponent than he expected and Rivalz gets more and more concerned that he might lose the game because he doesn't have the money to pay off the bet that he made. The nobleman seeks to taunt Rivalz further and tells him that if the game is turned around he will crawl around the table three times and bark like a dog. Lelouch overhears this and decides that it would be interesting to see and he takes over for Rivalz. Lelouch sits down and surprises everyone by moving the black king first. Lelouch's trademark move causes Rivalz to lose all confidence in Lelouch. However, Lelouch gets a pen and paper and proceeds to write something down before handing the paper back to Rivalz.

A few moments later, Lelouch calls checkmate and the nobleman can't believe it. He asks Rivalz to read the paper he gave him and it is discovered that Lelouch had already predicted every single move that he and his opponent would make. Lelouch takes half of the winnings and when Rivalz asks why Lelouch saved him he says that he really just wanted to see the nobleman bark. Rivalz offers Lelouch a ride on his bike but Lelouch refuses on the grounds that he doesn't want to hang onto some guys back. At this point, Rivalz decides to buy a sidecar in order to be able to ride around with Lelouch.

Trivia

 * At one point Lelouch says that Rivalz is on bad terms with his father and because of that, Rivalz has taken his mother's maiden name (Cardemonde) as his last name.