H-Huh? Lace? Again?! "Sister, I'm sure you have a lot of questions in your mind right now. But trust me that I'm not betraying her for your freedom." I was pretty sure that my mouth was agape at that very moment as I struggled to piece together a working theory as to why the fuck Lace was involved with Prime stuff. Again. Not to mention the fact that I was essentially being traded with another person! "Livia, I trust you. But what the hell is going on?" My voice came out desperate, I noticed. That was pretty bad form when facing someone that can probably wipe us off the map if she had the same power as the one that put us in this situation in the first place. But I needed answers, dammit! "A simple exchange, Lady Crimson," the Prime coldly answered for my sister, her eyes still unnervingly e

The concept of deal-making was always a fascination of mine; the art of getting a one-up on your proverbial opponent always bringing a surge of satisfaction to my self-fashioned intellectual needs. Having watched countless anime about outsmarting one's opponent's through sheer skill, perception, and wit, I had tried transforming myself into a logical monster; one capable of outsmarting or out dealing her opponent through sheer perception. Or, at least, I thought I had managed to do so. In the end, I was still the plain old girl with an above-average intelligence that managed to scrape by with little to no effort. It was cringe-worthy, being a massive weeb while also being a try-harding delusional idiot. But while I couldn't boast the frightening foresight of the Light Yagamis and Lelouches of the real world, I could at least say to myself that my ability to criticize work that

She didn't know what to think. Olivia had thought that she was already over her sister being somewhat of a clueless idiot when it came to matters that weren't relating to her safety, but it would seem that a part of her was still touched that her sister was still trying despite the older woman's own lack of care for the well-being of others. "Vaio is the neighboring kingdom to the east of the Empire," she found herself explaining dutifully, her hands running on autopilot as she rummaged through her chores. "They're a threat to this land, apparently. Often doing experiments on those that they manage to capture." That revelation was something that she learned a few months back during one Lady Love's earlier visits. The fact that a kingdom was kidnapping people only for the pursuit of science was repulsing, not to mention wasteful if she recalled her

Pulling an all-nighter was, and will always never be a part of my plans, but I guess fate had something else in mind when I accidentally spilled ink over the last few pages of my book. As a result, someone who has never been fond of staying up late for work was forced to redo the last few pages of her handwritten book. And as one might think, it was a complete and utter pain in both her back and her wrist. Needless to say, that person was me. "Fuck me..." I stared at the finished product with exasperation and relief. The ink-stained pages of a few hours ago laid strewn around behind my desk as their newly-written replacements shone in their white backgrounded splendor. The Art of War. Something that I'd never thought I'd actually write down, let alone even remember this well, to be honest. At least buying the damn thing was well worth the price of

The Art of War. As far as I could recall, pop culture and genuine curiosity drove me to buy and read the small guidebook religiously for a few months. And while I didn't really participate much in real-time strategy games as I did before, the knowledge imparted within that orange hardback book wasn't lost to me. In fact, if one was able to skew their logic and preconceptions a bit, Sun Tzu's teachings and observations can be applied to almost everything that even remotely relates to competition and wargames. From business meetings to basic life-advice, the Chinese general must've been a tactical and strategical genius if he managed to codify what amounted to something akin to basic tactical instinct into something quantifiable and easily readable. The debates on whether the damn thing was actually written by the guy or if it was actually written by a bunch of generals were wholly irrelevant to me as its teachings were useful regardle