A Game

During another day of total war, a once peaceful field of fertile plains was transformed into a theatre of war.

Cannon-fire rocked the air as artillery pieces from both sides placed in strategic positions tore apart their enemies's positions.

Men both on foot and horseback skimirshed around the battlefield, picking off key targets from afar or keeping their counterparts at bay.

At the centre of all this were organised 'lines' of men who fired upon their enemy simultaneously, all the while persisting through the constant bullet storm.

And when gunfire failed to win the day, the two sides clashed onto each other with fixed bayonets, quickly dissolving the 'organised' battlefield into a chaotic brawl.

Countless men died in what could be ultimately surmised as a 'pointless' death.

And Leon watched all of this unfold in front of his very eyes.

"My what a tragedy..."

With glazed eyes, Leon watched the entire battle unfold without a sense of grief or even ecstasy, but boredom instead.

Through a computer screen, Leon boredly watched the fictional battle taking place in front of him.

But not only was he spectating the battle, he was actively taking part in it too.

More specifically, he was controlling one of the four factions participating within the battle.

Commanding and leading said faction to victory.

The men dressed in dark blue uniforms.

The Prussians.

But there was nothing more to really describe.

For the battle was already in his hands.

Another victory.

Another easy victory that ultimately meant nothing.

Although it was only a video game that was meant to entertain him, Leon found that to his chagrin, he felt rather bored.

Actually, the word 'bored' simply could not describe it.

While 'nothing' may be a more suitable, Leon felt that it also wasn't really that accurate a word to use when describe what he felt.

There just wasn't a word that he could use to describe what he was feeling.

In all honesty, it was rather annoying.

The feeling of the 'perfect word' lying at the tip of his tongue, yet still not being able actually remember what it actually was.

In fact, he's not even sure if the so-called 'perfect word' actually existed.

However, as Leon lost himself in his own thoughts, he then suddenly remembered that in fact, he was in the middle of a game.

For the most part, he was only 'on auto-pilot' for the majority of the battle.

Perhaps, he should divert some of his attention towards the game so that the battle could end quicker.

Soon, he cleared his mind of stray thoughts as he once again focused on the game in front of him.

Only for him to realise that-

"Oh we just won..."

The fact that he was allowed to daydream while playing just proved how easy the game really was, only requiring minimal input from him in order to achieve victory.

Even if he wasn't paying attention and didn't even touch the mouse, he was sure that his teammate would probably clean up the mess without him anyway.

His opinion of his 'opponents' was just that damn low.

Speaking of his teammate, he should probably address her while he still can. After all, he would rather not give her a reason to say that he 'forgot her existence' again.

"Why did you make us play at this time of the day Lydia? It's damn amateur hour again."

"What's so wrong with that?"

However, he soon quickly realised that in reality, it was more of a lose-lose situation the moment he heard Lydia's response over the call.

"Weren't you the one one that always said 'that a win is still a win, no matter how hard or easy it was to actually obtain the win, a win is still objectively a win'?"

"Don't make me mute you again..."

For some reason that not even Leon knew, he felt that he was more irritable today, well more than usual anyway.

Either way, Lydia either didn't notice that he was more irritable or she just didn't care. Instead, she just scoffed as she gave a sarcastic remark.

"Gah you're no fun."

Of course, just because he was more irritable than normal, that didn't mean that he lost his 'sarcastic edge.'

"Well it would be nice if you could stop being a pain in the ass. Surely it can't be that hard now can it?"

As Leon expected, Lydia's response was equally as sarcastic.

"Heh, well why can't you stop getting so agitated so easily?"

As Leon bickered with Lydia, the game soon returned to the 'campaign map' since the battle has concluded.

In essence, the campaign map was the 'macro' part of the game, taking the shape of a scaled replica of Europe.

In this 'campaign map' each player can manage their cities and train new army units while at the same time move them around the map.

A single army unit may be a simple line infantry regiment or it may something unique and special like the Royal Scots Greys cavalry regiment.

As one would expect, an actual 'army' composed of multiple army units which can move around the campaign map in order to garrison a city, or lay siege to one.

It was only once two armies of opposing factions clashed with one another whether it be during a siege or on an open field that the game would leave the campaign map and enter the battle map.

This battle map was the 'micro' part of the game, where the players can give specific and distinct orders to their units.

They can order their units to form up lines or squares, march or charge forward, and even place their unit regiments in strategic positions.

Of course, what most players should attempt to do was out manoeuvre and outflank their opponents in order to increase their odds of winning.

But the battle has already ended.

And evidently, Leon and Lydia's opponents were outplayed and clearly outmatched.

In a single two vs two battle, the entire main force of the Russian and Austrian players were virtually wiped out, forcing them to consolidate whatever forces they have remaining in their most important provinces and lick their wounds while they wait for their reinforcements to be trained.

As of right now, the two players were effectively out of the game for a few moments until they could rebuild their military strength.

In other words, their military capabilities was 'stunted' for the time being.

All that was left for Leon and Lydia to do was take advantage of their weakened state to blitz and seize as many of their provinces as possible before they rebuilt their armies.

Such a move was to be expected and as such, Leon didn't have to put much thought into it as he once again went back into auto-pilot while he continued bickering with Lydia.

"Listen Lydia. I'm just saying but... perhaps it would be nice to not steamroll the opponent 24/7? I mean I would suggest a handicap but I have my reservations about that."

Leon heard Lydia chuckle over the mic before she responded.

"You mean that you're fearful of your win-rate that you can't risk being 'ruined' by losing to some scrubs because of some self-imposed challenged? Oh please get over yourself Leon."

"Now you're just taking it the wrong way."

Leon couldn't really describe how he felt whenever he had these moments with Lydia.

They were somewhat entertaining sure.

But at the same time-

"Lydia, you're such are a pain sometimes, I hope that you know that."

Lydia scoffed when she replied to Leon.

"I'd just like to remind you that I was not the one that brought up this conversation in the first place. Heh, I'm starting to think that you enjoy it when we... we..."

For some reason, Lydia trailed off into silence, forcing Leon to question her.

"We what?"

"I think I just came up with an idea."

Leon's instantly had a hunch as to what her 'idea' was the moment she proclaimed that she had one. He just hoped that he was wrong.

"You said that 'it would be nice to not steamroll the opponent 24/7' right?"

Leon could only confirm the truth in response to Lydia's question.

"Yes I did."

"Then I know just what to do to 'spice things up.'"

Leon chuckled as he replied to Lydia.

"Oh surely you won't do such a-"

"I already have."

Soon, a notification appeared in front of Leon informing him that Great Britain has declared war on Prussia and has even laid siege to one of his outer provinces.

With a sigh, Leon spoke.

"I expected this and yet I somehow still feel surprised."

"Relax we are reaching the endgame anyway."

Lydia paused for a short moment to chuckle before she continued.

"And what's an endgame without a climax?"

When Leon heard what Lydia had to say, he couldn't help but feel that perhaps she was right.

Besides, it couldn't hurt to go to virtual war with her could it?

Soon a smile formed on his face as he clicked on the prompt to begin the battle, eager to participate in Lydia's so-called 'endgame climax.'

A wallpaper of soldiers lined up in formations on green plains replaced the regular campaign map as the game loaded up the battlefield.

At the bottom of the wallpaper, Leon could see a bar which was coloured mostly black with except being the light blue colour towards the left.

As seconds passed by, the light blue colour crept sidewards, replacing the black of the bar.

It took a few short moments but eventually, that bar filled up entirely with the colour blue.

And then Maxwell opened his eyes.

...

Maxwell couldn't help rubbing his eyes as he groggily sat up from his bed.

Although he woke up on his own terms, his vision was still a blur.

In a daze, Maxwell glanced around his bedroom, only barely making out his surroundings as he did so.

To his surprise, he found this tall grey and purple 'peculiar object' that stood at a height slightly taller than the average Drussian.

However, as his sight returned to him, it soon dawned on him what this 'peculiar object' actually was.

It was Erika.

Erika was standing inside his bedroom in her typical straight-faced and chest-puffed manner with her hands behind her back.

Her navy blue eyes slightly dewy because of perhaps sleepiness while her typically smooth hair which reached the top of her elbows was slightly more disheveled than usual.

But in complete contrast to her slightly worn out appearance, her mouth marginally curved upwards into a slight smile while a 'glimmer' appeared in her eyes.

However, it was not 'that' glimmer in her eyes that Maxwell was accustomed to, but something else entirely.

A different kind of glimmer that only appears rarely.

That only appears once Erika is sure that she will personally participate in battle herself.

Soon Maxwell remembered that the only time that Erika would be in his room like this was when she had urgent information that she immediately had to give to Maxwell.

However, despite Maxwell's attempts, he could never convince her to wake him up. Instead she opted to 'allowed his Majesty his well-deserved rest' and to simply wait for him to wake up.

Typically, Maxwell could tell from Erika's expression if the news she gave him was good or bad.

But right now, Maxwell found that Erika's expression gave him the impression that the information, whatever it was, was both good and bad at the exact same time.

As if the urgent piece of news that she had to give him was something to be completely glad about yet at the same time, also something to be horribly sad about.