Practice. The word can hold two meanings, both of which held some semblance of significance in my life. For me, it held the idea of bettering oneself, and perhaps the application of one's skills in a professional setting. Sadly, that didn't mean I actually did both things. Well, maybe the latter, but the former was something I rarely did except maybe on stuff that I really gave a shit about. Hell, I didn't even practice drawing blood from patients till I was forced to do so during internship. Maybe I was lazy. Maybe I was being stupid. But did that mean that I liked it? No... Not really. Still, maybe if I really managed to bring myself to care, then maybe I wouldn't be here in the first place. Maybe I'd still be a doctor back in the old world, doing a job that I somehow brought myself to like instead of languishing in ridiculous adventures such as the one I was having now. Heh... Maybe I didn't regret it

The streets of Mathema were quiet and still as we navigated our way towards the palace. With Grigori taking point, the veil of darkness under the night sky insulated us from what few guards we even came across. It was a good thing too, seeing as Anne had helpfully forgotten to inform me that she had sprained her ankle due to the blast way back in the wall. As such, we were moving at a reduced pace as I made sure to prevent the maid from aggravating her wounds further. Arya, meanwhile, kept to the shadows behind us; flitting from hiding spot to hiding spot in a way that I never expected from someone so lackadaisical with their job. Make no mistake, however, that she would keep quiet even if she was pretty damn good at not getting spotted. "We're at least an hour away from the palace grounds, Deary~" I heard the bluenette's voice echo from somewhere above. "Assuming that we're k

"Assuming that they haven't changed a thing since I stopped being in charge...." Grigori hummed as he trailed off. "Draw me a perfect square and we'll go from there." Sharing a glance with Anne, we found ourselves shrugging as we mentally tried to get the other to do the drawing. It wasn't that we didn't want to do it. Rather, we were simply extending the courtesy of letting the other do the drawing part of the equation. After a few seconds of wordless communication, I shrugged as I pulled out my dagger and began carving the aforementioned square into the table. My blade dug fairly deep into the wooden thing. The poor piece of furniture didn't seem to like the liberal application force based on how much it creaked and grunted at my efforts, but at least it didn't collapse on us as I traced a beautifully symmetrical square right in the middle of it. Looking to the old man, he o

The advent of long-range communication was a game-changer for the entire world when it first became available. The telegraph, even with its hours-long delay made it possible to transmit messages from continent to continent within a fucking day, and that was unheard of at a time where ships and steamboats were still a thing. Come the world wars, and radios were used in everyday life to relay news, orders, battle tactics, and everything in between in practically real-time. Enemies that still had to rely on courier pigeons or some other primitive methods were literally left in the dust as troops moved as smoothly as the information that was relayed between the frontlines and the command center. In a sense, enemy movement didn't seem as blazing fast anymore if Command can swiftly respond with all of the pertinent information available to them. As such, I was hoping that having a literal working radio would make things go smoothly for our