Author's Note:

Are you guys happy? I hope you're happy because I'm never, ever, going to do something like this again.

Do you know how long this chapter is? 51 freaking pages. And do you know how many words are in 51 pages? 25,000 words. I'm never writing a chapter this long. Editor-chan was crying the whole time (and squealing because Tanaka was too cute, but still). I was at my wit's end.

What in the world happened? It was supposed to be 10 pages. Ten measly pages. How did everything evolve into 51 pages!?!

*coughs* Anyway, I'm almost certain this story is cursed. ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡

Can you believe I got sick, again, while I was halfway through? It was another cold, turned into a sinus infection, and I still have the coughs left over. And no, I'm not going to die. I'm okay, seriously. Thank you all for sticking with me while I'm on hiatus because of my classes and family stuff. I was planning on giving you guys a bonus chapter because of your loyalty, but I think 51 pages worth 3-4 chapters of material is good enough for now. (￣ω￣)

But this is an information-heavy chapter and I understand if there were some parts that bore you. The game itself is convoluted and complex and though Editor-chan went over it with me and had told me that it's fairly easy and well-explained enough for her to grasp, I'm not sure if it was the same for anyone else, so please, if you have questions, I will try to answer them as best as possible! (Grammar might be worse than usual because of how long this chapter was, so please be kind!)

My creativity-power was completely exhausted because of this game, so please forgive me for any plotholes you might have seen >.<.

The next few chapters should be fluff-filled and only fluff. I told Editor-chan that I'm done with world-building for a while, so everything should be nothing fluff for a while!!!

Also, I'm very sorry for the very, badly written Arabic featured in this chapter. I consulted with Google-sensei many times, but there might be plenty of things that are incorrect. I wanted to write in Najd Arabic and Gulf Arabic, but there's no convenient translator for those two dialects. ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡ What can I do? OTL

So some of you are just going to have to settle with Modern Standard Arabic, which I am assuming that Google-sensei is using. *squints*

...--------...

Tanaka could hear Nicole mumbling under his breath, probably reciting a spell that would activate the runes on the mat and the longer he spoke, the brighter the engraving become, but... It seemed that the activation spell was really long-winded. Just listening to it was too tiring...

Regardless, by the end of the incantation, an image started to rise up from the mat and Tanaka's brown eyes sparkled in amazement as a grid formed over the mat. Over on Nicole's end, four translucent cards of different colors appeared in front of the temperamental nobleman and though his green-eyes had swept through them as if he was reading whatever was written on the cards, Tanaka couldn't see words on his end.

With a smug grin, Nicole grabbed the red card as if it was a solid item, making Tanaka blink in astonishment. Then, with a wave of his hand, Nicole sent the remaining cards to the other players in the field. Edward was given a blue card, Xander had a green card, and the remaining brown one flew in front of Tanaka and Amir.

Written on the brown card that the young master and butler pair had obtained were the words 'Zafaran' and Tanaka quickly realized this was how the game distributed countries. With an expression full of wonder, Tanaka reached for the card and nearly jumped when his fingertips brushed against it.

Amir, who was observing the other's actions and expressions the entire time, coughed once in order to suppress his amusement. The little one had no talent in hiding any of his thoughts from his face and it entertained Amir to no end.

Once Tanaka grabbed onto their card, a platform protruded out from the grid. It was low enough for Tanaka to look over, but Amir might have to bend down a little touch it. As Tanaka looked over at the other players around the mat, whose platforms were actually much taller, the transmigrator concluded that the game can accommodate for height depending on who had the country's card.

Surprisingly, the game seemed rather high-tech despite the use of magic rather than electricity. Tanaka couldn't help but question why they seemed to be able to create something like this but still used horses and carriages for long-distance traveling. Regardless, it seemed that the game would only get more complicated from here and Tanaka couldn't help but wish that there was a convenient manual he could read... oh wait.

"Okay, let's just place our card on the platform and play--"

"Excuse me," Tanaka interrupted, stopping Nicole from mid-speech. Ignoring the irritable glower shot towards him by the temperamental noblemen, the young boy continued on as if there wasn't someone trying to glare a hole into his skull. "Is there a manual?"

"There is," Xander immediately answered, smiling at Tanaka kindly. "I'm not sure whether Sir Gallant has it with him, but if he does, you are free to read it for your own use."

In a timely manner, everyone turned their eyes toward Nicole, who had a sour look on his face. "Can't we just play already? It's already past five and I have to be home by dinner."

"So you do have it," Edward concluded on the spot, causing the fiery teen to glare at his cool classmate.

"What if I do? We don't have time to wait around for your younger brother to read through the whole thing and then play!"

"I'll just skim over it really quickly," Tanaka reassured. Though he generally hated doing extra work on anything, games are a different matter for him. As an introvert with little social interactions outside of family and friends (and even then, that was generally kept at a minimum), Tanaka either slept, ate, or kept himself entertained by books, experiments, or games. He had played mobile games, online games, console games, multiplayer games, and the likes. He was often pretty good with games as well; maybe it was because, with games, he could experience a lot of things without having to get out of bed or move around too much. To experience running, he could play Temple Run. To experience playing sports, he could just play sport-based video games. If he wanted to go camping, he could play games like Ark: Survival Evolved or The Forest. If he wanted a pet, a virtual pet would be the best thing for him.

Suffice to say, he really enjoyed playing games-- of course, in the laziest definition of 'playing' that could occur. But even if he didn't play them often (because 65% of his schedule consist of sleeping and eating), he was well known in gaming circles. Tanaka was quite skillful with his hands; whether it would be hacking, programming, performing chemical experiments, or even winning the international gaming tournament from the comforts of his own home, as long as it was done in the comfort of his own home, Tanaka had no restraints.

He would have been considered the end-game final BOSS if it wasn't for the fact that he was too lazy to become even a small-time mini-BOSS. After all, if he revealed himself as a powerful person to the public, the number of people bothering him would be endless. He was quite happy living in his small world.

Either way, Tanaka looked up at Nicole with imploring eyes and repeated, "Really quickly," as if it would convince the other more of his sincereness.

In response to Tanaka's earnest expression, Xander looked at his sour-faced classmate and gave him an imploring smile. Edward had also turned his gaze towards Nicole and gave the other nobleman a raised eyebrow.

Faced with the expecting expression from both the Prince and his rival, Nicole scowled and grit his teeth, barely able to hold his temper back. With a harsh shove, the green-eyed nobleman dug his hand into his spatial bag and brought out a large book almost as big as Tanaka's head. The size startled the transmigrator— rather than a manual, it looked to be a 300-page handbook instead.

With a sneer, Nicole literally threw the book across the mat with unnecessary strength and it would have knocked Tanaka on the head if it wasn't for Amir's quick reflexes, who caught the thick tome just centimeters from the youngest Rosetta's nose.

Tanaka's only reaction was a surprised blink before he looked up at his savior, who gave the young boy a perfect smile, though his eyes seemed darker than usual...

"Sir Gallant, you could have injured Young Thomas!" Xander instantly scolded, his expression full of shock and anger. Xander could forgive a lot of things, but he could not condone having people that he was fond of harmed.

"The Zafarian caught it anyway, didn't he?" Nicole protested, feeling slightly wronged by the Crown Prince's reprimand.

"Either way, you are in my household and I have been tolerant of your attitude, but I will have to ask you to restrain your temper, Gallant," Edward said coldly, his ice-blue eyes gleaming threateningly. Even if Thomas gave him more trouble than he would've liked, Edward is still his older brother. Not to mention that the youngest had a five-tier aptitude and was incapable of using magic himself— does Gallant intend to harm someone who was younger than him and unable to defend themselves?

"...I understand," Nicole forced out with clenched teeth. Sure, the book was a little heavy for the kid to handle, but weren't they being a bit too overprotective? All the brat was going to have was a bruise and not much else. They act as if he was going to do something worse than that.

And Tanaka would also agree that both the Prince and Edward were being overly concerned, but he probably wouldn't say anything about it either since he was pretty much used to it. He had learned long ago that anything he said would be useless in these kinds of things; Nanami and Daichi were great examples of that when he worried them.

Regardless, as soon as Amir handed the large manual to him, he placed the book on the floor and sat down to read. Rather than flipping through the pages while carrying the book, it would cost less energy just to set it down and read it on the floor.

Feeling Nicole's prickling glare stabbing his entire body, Tanaka flipped through the pages quickly as if he was just skimming through the text of the manual. To anyone that didn't truly know him, they would've thought he was not reading through anything with his fast turning speed, but Tanaka was actually imprinting every single word inside of his mind.

Generally, he would like to take his time reading very slowly, allowing his lazy and sluggish brain to absorb the information in a snail-like pace, but Tanaka had the ability to take in a large amount of information in a short amount of time and never forget it. But to do so takes effort. And energy; so he didn't really like speed-reading unless he had to.

Since he didn't want to make the others have to wait for him to finish this unnecessary large book, Tanaka had no choice but to speed things along. More than halfway as he got through the manual, Tanaka discovered something very surprising about the game and how it actually plays. It seemed that the game developers had made the game board a lot more realistic than Tanaka had thought, which was strange because... wasn't this game made for propaganda against Zafaran?

He flipped through the pages once more to check on his conclusions and tilted his head in curiosity as he took a peek at the game mat.

From a distance, the runes looked to be fanciful and decorative. It was very pleasing to the eye and the way it shimmered when activated made the plain mat into a beautiful light show. Regardless of the aesthetics, Tanaka could see a pattern interwoven in between the engravings; rather than artwork, it looked more like a complex formula to his logical and scientific mind. Realistically, there was no way for Tanaka to figure out what these runes represent without some kind of key or convenient translator, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the board was more complicated than it should be for a children's game.

First of all, there are too many runes for the simple set up Nicole had briefly described before. Second, Tanaka knew how precious magical items were considered to the magic community. Something this extensive would nowadays cost a kingdom or two, and yet its a common commodity between noble children?

There are very few rune masters in the entire continent and even less can use and translate more than 2,000 out of more than 200,000 discovered runes. It was also a very difficult task to combine the right runes in order to create the effects one desired. Whoever had created this game and the rune-filled mat along with it had to be a runemaster of some sort and at a glance, Tanaka could tell that there are 300 different runes inked on this piece alone. If he looked even closer, in between some of the larger runes, he could see more runes written minisculely probably to save up space.

To think that they would be using such an incredible piece of rune technology for some frivolous fun. Rather than a game for children to play... it was more like that this device was probably originally used to help create war strategies against other countries. How it eventually ended up as a children's toy was beyond Tanaka's comprehension...

Either way, after checking over a few more pages in the manual, Tanaka picked up the book and carefully stood up from where he sat. Immediately, he looked up at the butler next to his side, who was already staring back at him with incomprehensible eyes. As much as he could, the young boy lifted up the tome and pointed towards a certain description in the book. When Amir quickly read over the gestured text, he raised an intrigued eyebrow.

"Did you know?" Tanaka couldn't help but ask seeing the other's reaction.

In response, Amir bowed his head and said, "I did not, Young Master Thomas. This was the first time this servant had witnessed the 'Zafaran Edition'."

"Are you done or can we start playing?" Nicole impatiently spoke out, his expression full of aggravation just by the short wait.

Edward subtly glared towards the irritable noble, obviously wanting to make a comment about the other's rudeness, but Tanaka had closed the manual regardless and asked, "Can I keep this with me?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just play already!" Nicole was itching to show the Crown Prince all of his good points and, at the same time, humiliate Edward in 'Magic and War'. Because while the controls are generally simple and 'Magic and War' had been considered as children's game, intellectuals and teachers had used it before to measure children's strategic mind and IQs when they first started the academy and Nicole was graded one of the highest among his peers. He didn't think the game would last long and believed that he would end up being the winner by the end of it.

Regardless, as a response to Nicole's impatience, Tanaka placed his card onto the middle of the flat platform and both Edward and Xander followed suit. With a sneer, Nicole practically threw down his card onto his own platform, which caused the runes to brighten even further before they gradually dimmed. Then the largest rune in the center, along with the surrounding runes encircling it, projected a light that spread on top of the mat and Tanaka allowed his lips to part open as the light formed a thin sheet in mid-air just right above his knee. Once it settled, the sheet bloomed with color: sea blue on Edward's side, forest green in front of Prince Xander, and a mixture of red and stone-white for Nicole.

On their side, sparkling flecks of gold and sand-colored brown entered in his vision and Tanaka watched enraptured as a new and colorful world was created-- mountains were raised, surrounding a proud and jubilant kingdom on Nicole's side of the board. In front of Edward were the seas and rivers that flowed around a smaller kingdom built near the coast of a bay. Forests sprung to life, sometimes even towering Red Country's Kingdom's tallest spire, in Green Country and hid the camouflaged kingdom beneath its branches and leaves. Tanaka was not able to see how large the kingdom was due to the cover of the trees.

Zafaran, mostly due to its desert, took the largest space out of all the other countries. Dunes of golden, sparkling sands made up the majority of Zafaran, which made the gold, dome-topped palace and the surrounding city stand out. Though the design of Zafaran was created through the game, Tanaka couldn't help but wonder whether there were any real similarities between the real Zafaran and the one being projected on the rune mat.

"... Is Zafaran like this?" Tanaka couldn't help but ask as he looked up at his partner in playing, stretching his neck back as his eyes sparkled discreetly in wonder.

Of course, Amir had been watching the little one's expression since the beginning of the game and had witnessed the awe on the young master's face. It was as if this was the child's first time ever seeing how a rune mat worked, as unlikely as it seemed considering how popular the game was among noble children. Then again, the young master wasn't even aware of the game's mechanics until today, so his childish wonder was most likely genuine.

It amused the Zafarian butler as he observed how the little one's dark eyes would flit from one end of the mat to the other, his small mouth parting as the young child unconsciously lean closer as if he wanted to immerse himself into the projection.

"It's much more vast, Young Master Thomas," Amir answered indulgently, his lips curving ever so slightly.

The wonder on youngest Rosetta's face was now unmistakable. Even Edward from across the mat could see his little brother's curiosity very clearly on his young face while Xander had this fond expression displayed on his handsome features. "How vast?"

"So vast that there were still parts of the desert left unexplored."

Tanaka, of course, wanted to ask more about Zafarian from Amir's point of view since the internet didn't exist in this world and he couldn't reliably ask the majority of his professors, but he saw Nicole's deep scowl and piercing glare from the corner of his eyes and suppressed his curiosity. He could always continue his inquiries with Amir later.

Since Edward's little brother was finally done talking, Nicole mumbled a few incantations very briskly, obviously impatient to start the game, and several card-like items appeared from each platform. At the same time, tiny humanoid figures popped up into each of the kingdom, each of different design and numbers. Only Red Country's, Blue Country's, and Zafaran's 'army' could be seen out in the open while Green Country's numbers were hidden by their forests, but out of four of them, it was expected for Zafaran to have the smallest army and Tanaka wasn't surprised seeing that he had only 25 soldiers on hand while the others already had over 100.

Tanaka wasn't too concerned since, with each turn, he could add more soldiers to his army, but the transmigrator already knew Zafaran's growth would be much slower in comparison to the other countries. If any of the other players want to make trouble for him, all they would have to do was send half of their soldiers across the desert and to the Capital in order to suppress Zafaran, even though such a move would also be considered stupid since it would leave their territory weak against the other countries' attack. Of course, since the youngest Rosetta didn't even enter Nicole's line of sight and his Highness and his elder brother would be too busy raising their defenses against Red Country, who already had the largest army reaching in the 200s and much more resources on hand since other than being surrounded by mountains, Red Country also bordered the sea near Blue Country and the forests in Green Country-- either way, Tanaka didn't need to worry about being attacked anytime soon.

Other than military might and the Country's defenses, which both could be increased at the same time in each turn depending on how the player used their stamina (a total of 4 per turn), resources were also important for the gameplay. Resources were automatically farmed in each turn and the larger your territory, the more resources your Country had, and to make your territory bigger, you would have to conquer lands from your rival Countries.

According to the general rules, regardless of whether a player had the stamina to perform an action, there had to be a sufficient amount of resources to back it up. If the player wanted to build up their Country's defenses, it would cost some resources. If they wanted to move their army outside of their Country and into another Country's territory, it would also cost some resources as well. Also, the number of resources consumed was directly proportional to the size of the Country's militia-- the more soldiers there were, the more resources that would have to be used on them.

Each action also consumed different amounts of resources as well: generally, only moving the army would cost about 5% at most of their total resources. Engaging in battle would cost anywhere about 10-25%, depending on the number of soldiers employed for a certain battlefield and the strategy used by the player.

Suffice to say, it wouldn't be surprised if most players familiar with the game would first build up their resources and defenses-- unless they were Red Country who could easily cause a short and small disruption with their 500+ resources while Zafaran had less than 100 total resources from the start of the game.

Tanaka: "......" Weren't they underestimating Zafaran's economy a little bit too much?!

He could see why it seemed that Zafaran would have an unfair disadvantage in the game. Apparently, all the large desert land didn't count as resourceful territory and therefore a 'waste of space' probably to most players, but Tanaka knew that his greatest weapon wasn't his army. Any probability in winning 'Magic and War' would highly depend on how Tanaka would utilize the desert before him.

The cards on the platforms were not there for decorations after all. Every player would have two General cards that would allow them to increase their numbers or their Country's defenses. These two cards could never be discarded. Every time the player used them, they would appear back on the platform and depending on their stamina, they could raise their military and/or strengthen the defenses around their Capital a couple more times in a single turn.

The rest of the cards were either 'Attack' or 'Trap' cards. Attack cards were special moves tailored to each kingdom and depended highly on the amount of 'Magicians' in their army and the player's resources.

The army could be separated into three factions: the 'Magicians,' the 'Archers,' and the 'Vanguard'. The Archers would usually be placed in the back of the army, the Magicians in the middle, and the Vanguard in the front. The Vanguard and Archers were regular knights with no special skills, but the Magicians were a specialized group and depending on what Country they came from, they could either cast fire, water, earth, or non-attributed spells. Of course, like any other game with elemental features, some countries have resistance to certain types of spells. Blue Country was highly resistant against fire spells but weak against earth. Green Country was highly resistant against water spells but weak against fire. And Red Country was highly resistant against Earth but weak against water.

Zafaran was a Country that had the most non-attributed spells in their deck and weak ones at that. While their enemies would have no resistance against them if they ever attacked with a non-attributed spell, it would be the same vice versa.

But Tanaka had planned to discard most of the Attack cards back into the shuffle and concentrated more on the Trap cards.

Trap cards have two subcategories: 'Man-made' and 'Natural'. Man-made traps were things like 'bear traps' or 'mines'-- things that were made by humans, which Tanaka was completely uninterested in. Natural traps allowed the players to use their territory's environment against invaders. They were more for defense than for offense, but Tanaka's eyes sparkled when he saw the choices given to him.

Though he was not one for conflict, Tanaka did enjoy playing a good game and playing a game constructed out of magic was very exciting for the 26-year old turned 13-year-old. The main way to win the game was to seize the Capital of every rival Country, obviously, but Tanaka didn't see that as a possibility with their numbers, so he could only play the long game.

Suddenly, a cube-like item popped up on the platform with dots on the sides-- a die? It seemed that this was how the game would determine the order of turns; the player with the biggest number should be first if Tanaka recalled the gameplay correctly.

Of course, Nicole didn't waste time and threw his die into the middle of the mat and Tanaka watched in fascination as the cube didn't sink down onto the rune mat, but bounced on the projected world instead. There was a smug expression on the young Gallant's face when the resulting roll gave him a six, which indicated that he had the first turn.

Edward saw how the arrogance gleamed in his rival's eyes but ignored it in favor of rolling his own die, Prince Xander following along only half a second later, and the two dice didn't make a sound as they clatter onto the world. Edward obtained a four while the 'Prince of Smiles' obtained a three and unless Tanaka rolled a five, the oldest of the Rosetta siblings would have the second turn while Prince Xander would have the third.

Tanaka eyed his own die with curiosity and as he picked it up, he found the texture was as smooth as an actual die. He really wanted to what runes would allow such a convincing illusion (if it was really an illusion-- maybe there was a storage space within the runes of the mat that kept these objects? Or maybe the runes and the magic in the runes were really sophisticated enough to materialize certain objects into reality. So many possibilities, but Tanaka only had the late afternoon to observe this fine piece of magical technology. Maybe he could divulge into his funds and buy himself his own 'Magic and War' rune mat?), but Tanaka knew it would be considered rude to make his opponents wait, so he stopped rolling the die in his palm and held it out to the butler next to him.

After all, Amir was playing as well (though they hadn't really discussed how they should play the game together) and Tanaka didn't want the other to feel left out. Plus, he didn't want to expend the energy to throw it in the first place-- he had to skip one of his nap times to play this game so he might be a little bit more languid than normal.

Amir, in response, gave a subtle raise of his eyebrow, but took the die nonetheless, a trace of amusement hidden in his expression. "What number would Young Master Thomas like for me to roll?" the butler promptly asked as if he could control how the die would land.

"One?" Tanaka implored rather hopefully, ignorant of the surprised expressions from both Thomas' brother and the Prince while Nicole sneered at his choice.

"Young Thomas," Xander called out from their left and when Tanaka turned his head to look at the bright and sparking Prince, the red-haired teen gave the younger boy a gentle smile. "The larger the number, the higher your priority. Say, if he drew a six, then both you and Sir Gallant would have to roll again to see who has the biggest number."

"I know," Tanaka reassured bluntly, his dark eyes clear and open. "I just want to be last."

There was a cough from his companion next to him and when Tanaka looked up, not noticing the stares he had garnered, Amir had his ever perfect smile and not a thing out of place. "If that is your wish, Young Master Thomas," the butler flawlessly accepted and with a graceful flick of his fingers, he sent the die into the air and rolling on the board. Much to Tanaka's pleasure, the die did land on a one, placing Zafaran as last, and the youngest Rosetta looked up at his dark-skinned co-player with shining eyes, his usually lazy expression brightening with awe.

"Thank you, Amir," Tanaka said to the other gratefully and though the number could be due to luck, the suspiciously powerful butler didn't seem like the type of person that would leave things to luck. He was the type that did things purposefully without wasting energy on a single movement and at first, the perfection was rather unnerving for Tanaka, but the transmigrator got used to it and even admired the other's energy sometimes.

Posing, serving, guarding, smiling to strangers, and the likes-- people who could do these type of things all at once were really admirable. Nanami and Daichi were civil servants and had to cater to the egos of many people and Tanaka, who always looked up to his siblings despite his lack of motivation to follow in their footsteps, was always prideful of how in control and cool they were. Before he died, his older siblings had already obtained high positions in their respectful jobs and Lazy Tanaka would actually be willing to defend them if anyone had spoken badly about them.

Regardless, Amir only tilted his head in acknowledgment towards the little one, used to the youngest Rosetta's gratitude after weeks of interacting with the small teen; it seemed that the youngest master enjoyed praising the servants for their hard work and his genuine appreciation and sincere words touched the hearts of all the employees working in Rosetta Estate.

Since the day he was hired by the Master, Kyron Rosetta, the Zafarian had never seen the butlers, the maids, the groundskeepers, and even the estate guards so diligent in their jobs and, like children, they would peek around hoping to find the young master witnessing their progress and hard work. It had even become a past time for many of the servants to count the number of praises they had earned per week-- so far, Clarisse had taken the lead, followed by Henry, Amir, Conrad, and Sven.

It was all very amusing to the dark-skinned butler-- ever since Young Master Thomas' personality change, the manor had been very lively.

On the other hand, Edward found himself staring at his so-called 'little brother' once again with an unreadable expression on his face. It was common among nobility to treat their servants, especially their personal servants, as commodities to show off rather than people employed under their family names and Edward was not necessarily the exception to this type of expectation. Though he made sure not to degrade his servants' dignity and pride unlike some of his peers, who would childishly force them to show off their magic or put them into compromising positions, the majority of the noble population did not share his restraint.

Thomas, like many noble children of his generation, had never treated their servants deserving of praise, much less with good will.

It was another startling change that Edward wasn't sure what to make of, but didn't have time to ponder since Nicole was very eager to start the game.

In a single turn, Nicole used three of his stamina to raise his army, now totaling around 500 (350 Magicians, 50 Vanguards, and 100 Archers), and to add a layer of defense to Red Country's Capital. The ridiculous growth would be enough to discourage other people from playing, especially since each Country had their own growth rate that made catching up to Red Country seem impossible, but the Rosetta siblings and the Crown Prince weren't fazed by the dominating number and concentrated on their own side of the game.

Tanaka, on the other hand, found himself staring at the little, glowing dome covering Red Country's Capital. He was surprised and a little fascinated how the game portrayed 'defenses' as a magical shield around the Capital and couldn't help but wonder if Evadne had such arrangements-- if large-scale arrays did ever exist, it was probably made with many complex runes and powered by a large source of magic particles. Tanaka couldn't help but wonder whether the arrays were placed anywhere near the city walls, and he could only imagine that the controls for those arrays would be inside the Royal Palace. Unfortunately, the city walls were too far from the Noble District for him to make the effort and he did not have access to the Royal Palace, therefore he would have to give up on any thoughts of studying the array until otherwise.

Edward's and Xander's turns passed fairly quickly since they were very aware that Nicole would most likely set out to attack them first and increased their defenses and their Vanguard's numbers. They would probably add Natural and Man-made trap cards later on since, despite their classmate's already superior numbers, Nicole would most likely be building up his military might to invade Blue Country and Green Country simultaneously.

Though the Gallant's heir's thought process was rather predictable, there was no point in how the other would play if they weren't able to defend and counterattack against it effectively, so with a single glance passed between them, Edward and Xander agreed to a temporary truce. They would not invade each other while they were busy defending themselves from Nicole's attacks, nor would they help each other during this period as well.

While they were best friends, they also had a competitive streak when it came to games and competitions. There were not many things that the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister's Heir could compete again each other for-- after all, they both had different interests and their time was usually occupied with duties, so it was rare for them to come together to play a short but friendly game. Though 'friendly' might not be the correct word to describe how they played since their attitudes tended to grow serious and tense as if whatever they were playing was a matter of life or death. Even a simple game of chess seemed like a death match when the two of them are playing against each other.

Most people couldn't handle their severeness since they tended to get caught up in whatever game they had participated in and even their seniors hesitated in inviting them out for some fun. Nicole was an exception, mostly because he was stubborn and determined to kick the eldest Rosetta from his high horse, so Edward had tolerated his presence despite his distaste for the other's personality. Xander seemed to like Nicole's pig-headed personality, for whatever reason Edward couldn't fantom, so he didn't want to seem close-minded and tell his best friend who he should keep in his inner circle.

While Nicole seemed to have some animosity with him, that didn't necessarily extend to the Crown Prince; of course, like any other Nobility, the young Gallant was quick to butter up to the Heir of the Throne, but this was common among their peers so it wasn't something that Edward could fault him for. But what Edward could not forgive was how often Gallant tried to take advantage of His Highness's kindness.

There were things that Royalty should and should not do in order to maintain their reputation and their prestige. The aftermath of the Zafaran War and King Dominus Regale's death left the Royal Family's domestic and international status walking on stilts. The previous King had broken many treaties and threatened the countries at their borders, and if it wasn't for Charles Windsor's talent in dialogue and debate (and Marie Windsor's dominating magical power, which was well-known after her debut as a soldier during the Zafaran War), those countries would probably have attacked them during the Succession War out of spite. Therefore, the Royal Family and their closest and reputable vassals had the duty to present themselves in the best way possible and while many of the older generations saw this as cowardly, acting so submissive to the lesser countries, realistically, even Astria, with its advanced magic and large army, would not survive being attacked on all sides of its borders.

As the Crown Prince, Xander was well aware of Astria's situation and knew of his position all too well. As soon as he graduated from the academy, though he was not expected to succeed the Throne any time soon, he would immediately be apprenticed under his father and other high officials to further his education as the Crown Prince. Once he stepped into the world of politics, everyone's eyes, including those internationally, would be watching his every move-- in fact, they were already watching his every move despite his lack of political influence, and Xander was faced with this pressure since he had been born.

Though it would seem suffocating to most people, Xander seemed to shine under it and Edward would be lying if he said he didn't admire the other's optimism and love for life. Though he couldn't be reckless and play around in the mud like other boys of his age, he found enjoyment in many other things that only made him brighter in every aspect. Whether it would be reading books, playing chess, horseback riding (with escorts), or simply interacting with his friends and family, he did everything in a zealous and excitable manner. There was nothing restrictive or pitiful about the Crown Prince's life; Xander had always seen his position as a blessing. There was no need to add anything more 'daring' or excitable' to it-- though Sir Gallant seemed to think otherwise.

Edward wasn't sure what Nicole was thinking: inviting the Crown Prince to dally around in the Flower District, encouraging him to play around with the servants, and trying to tempt his best friend to participate in Beast Fights. Was Gallant just ignorant of His Highness's situation or decided to turn a blind eye to it?

Though His Highness was a capable and talented Crown Prince, he was also soft-hearted, something that his time in Nobility had yet to get rid of, and had always felt guilty turning down Nicole's 'friendly' invitation. Edward was afraid that if he left his best friend alone with Gallant for too long, the other's silver tongue would guilt-trip Xander enough to join the snake-like noble in his schemes.

Regardless, Gallant's suggestion in playing 'Magic and War' was surprisingly tame, one that probably was made in order to make Edward look bad, but as long as His Highness was comfortable and having fun, the eldest Rosetta didn't really care for the other's motivation.

Besides, other than by their own competitiveness, they both knew that if they tried to attack or help each other, it would leave an opening for Nicole to pounce like a wolf to weakened prey. They both intended to win regardless of their advantages and disadvantages, so they couldn't afford to leave such an obvious opening to someone as vicious as their classmate.

Well aware that no one seemed to be considering him as competition, judging by their heated stares towards each other, Tanaka discarded all the Attack cards, saved for a couple, and all of the Man-Made Trap cards. He had a total of ten cards on the platform: two were the General cards, he had four Attack cards with now only two left, and two of the Man-Made Trap cards were gone.

Tanaka then focused on the remaining Natural Trap cards, which had their descriptions in the Common Language (the language that all Astrians spoke), but the name of the card was in Zafarian Alphabet? He squinted at the familiar and elegant curvy letterings and couldn't help but find them really similar to Arabic writing. Was the Zafarian Language really the same as the Arabic Language back in his old world? Somehow, Tanaka found that doubtful.

After all, the evolution of each language was complex and unique and it would be very hard press for the Zafarian Language (also known as Rayyan's Prayers to the locals) to evolve the same way as Arabic with the same variety of 'dialects' and/or regional languages. And yet...

The Makis were well-known for their gut instincts (which aggravated their enemies and competitors and exasperated their close associates). His mother was the CEO of an international company and many of her most accomplished sales were made due to 'a feeling she had' (much to the heart attacks of her stockholders). His father was an international award-winning novelist whose most well-read books were written out of a mere whim. Daichi's life (and job) depended highly on his instincts, while Nanami needed her instincts to make tough decisions for the good of Japan.

Tanaka was not the exception to this seemingly familial trait— though his so-called 'instincts' were more like 'curiosities' that often got him into more trouble than not. What would happen if he poked this particular hole in the government's highly secured satellite network? What would happen if he combined this particular compound with this particular tumor? What would happen if he created a man-made subatomic particle and integrated it into an atom?

Admittedly, a lot of his curiosities... exploded, in his face, and what caused his boss/best-friend to dump him in a highly-durable, corrosive-proof, fire-proof, etc. private laboratory practically a thick, titanium-tungsten-steel wall away from everyone else (with his own private medical ward, funded by his family), but they also tended to be very dependable and led many groundbreakings discovers in several scientific fields.

Tanaka wasn't the type to think too hard of a certain subject-- either act on it or push it off until he had further information. Since the first day of his transmigration, he hadn't tried speaking in Arabic, not even to Amir, because it didn't seem anyone else was familiar with it. He wasn't even sure if Arabic was even a viable language in this world-- as far as he knew about this World's Languages, there was the Common Language spoken by the people of Astria, the Zafarian Language (possibly with several different dialects), the Language of the Alfus people in the West, and the Neifise Language from the country of Neifion Southwest of Astria. Of course, Tanaka had no doubt there was more than what his books, especially Astrian textbooks, had told him, but he was too lazy to look it up.

Regardless, now that he had read through Alexander Rosetta's diary and looked at how these cards were written, maybe the Zafarian Language and Arabic did have a connection somehow. So he picked up the card that translated to 'Rise of Rayyan's Throne' (or, so he hoped he had translated correctly) and lifted up towards Amir.

The butler leaned down and looked at the card with slight curiosity and once he swept his dark eyes over the title, Amir gave a perfunctory smile. "Would Young Master Thomas like for me to translate?" the dark-skinned servant offered with a slight bow of his head.

"Oh, our apologies little one!" Xander suddenly voiced out, sounding rather repentant. "Some of the cards for Zafaran were written in their language, so it might be difficult to read or pronounce." There was another reason as for why playing as 'Zafaran' was difficult: there were certain features in the games that could be 'voice-activated,' such as ordering the army to move a certain distance, using Attack cards against a particular foe, and/or triggering Trap cards to stop invaders. Common Language can be used for most of the gameplay except for announcing Attack and Trap cards.

In order to play Attack and Trap cards, the name of the Attack/Trap card(s) needed to be declared (though with Attack cards, the player would have to state the location of where to launch the attack while Trap cards could be simply placed face-down on the chosen area within the player's territory). Of course, there were other ways to activate Attack/Trap card(s) without having to use the voice-activation system, but this 'Manual mode' required actively moving the cards to where the player would want to use or place them. The War Rune mat was considerably large and with Tanaka's short reach, so he would have to stretch or just climb over the mat in order for him to use anything. There was also a translation of the Zafaran cards in the manual as well and the translated title could be used instead if 'Manual mode' wasn't feasible (or too much work, in Tanaka's case).

"So you brought the Zafarian along to play the game for you? How smart," Nicole snorted, his so-called compliment full of mock. "I thought your little brother hadn't played 'Magic and War' before, Rosetta."

Edward narrowed his eyes, hearing Nicole's underlying accusation. Before he could retort with his own icy words, his younger brother spoke out with a sulking tone:

"I can read the cards just fine. I just can't reach." It was difficult for Tanaka to find the motivation to learn four different Arabic dialects in the first place(though not necessarily difficult to learn them), but when he became fluent in all of them, Basim-san had praised him. Basim-san, who was always hard to impress, had actually praised him, so Tanaka was a little prideful in his Arabic. After all, he would only need to learn the Standard to read related Arab and Middle-Eastern news and such. Why should he torture himself by learning several other 'dialects' which were basically different languages on their own???

But he wanted to talk to Basim-san properly and though his Japanese was not bad, his accent was particularly thick. There were times that Tanaka had thought the other was thickening his accent on purpose, forcing Tanaka to use his brainpower to properly translate his words into understandable Japanese. It was easier for him to learn Arabic, but though Basim could speak in Standard Arabic just fine, he kept mixing other dialects to confuse Tanaka during his learning process. So out of frustration, Tanaka also learned Najd, Gulf (Kuwait), and Levantine Arabic at just so that the other could stop teasing him.

Therefore, maybe because he was a little offended by what Nicole had implied, he turned back towards Amir and asked him in a clear and accentless voice, "Yrja wade hadhih albitaqat fi makan ma bayn sanadiq M13 w M16." (Please place this card between the boxes M13 and M16./رجاء ضع هذه البطاقة في مكان ما بين صناديق M13 و M16.)

Though very faint, there were grid lines on top of the projection that lined up and intersected throughout the mat, creating about 676 squares and each denoted by a letter (similar to the English Alphabet) and a number. In Magic and War, to ensure fairness and promote realism, no matter how many resources you have, each player was only allowed to move each army five spaces maximum since each side of the grid had 26 spaces from corner to corner.

Of course, if there was an obstacle in the way, such as the rival Country's own army or a Trap card that was placed beforehand, the player's army would be hindered until they could overcome that obstacle. The projected world might seem small at first glance, but when experienced players placed their soldiers and traps well enough and build up their defenses around the capital, suddenly, the board seemed much larger. Especially since it was possible for one army to push back the other if numbers and/or resources were low enough.

Tanaka could feel the pointed stares from everyone in the room, which didn't really bothered him that much. He would often be given these kinds of stares if he spoke Arabic in a public area, but the blank stare from Amir made him rather nervous.

Was his intuition wrong? Or-- maybe it was because he had spoken in Standard Arabic, which was not typically used as an everyday language. Therefore, if he tried a different dialect, maybe Amir would understand him better?

So with his small hand still holding out the card to the butler, he repeated his words but in Najd Arabic instead. He honestly hoped the kind of Arabic the butler knew was an Arabic he had learned. Otherwise, he had dug into the Language Wing of his mental palace for nothing.

Amir stared at him for a couple of more seconds before one of his patent smiles curved onto his handsome face once again. For some reason, Tanaka felt goosebumps rising from his skin.

"'Amam balad 'ahmar, ya sydy?" (In front of Red Country, Sir?/ أمام بلد أحمر ، يا سيدي؟)

Oh, so he did know Standard Arabic, or whatever was the equivalence of it in this world.

"Nem min fadlik." (Yes, please./نعم من فضلك.) Showing no other expression than his pleasantry, Amir took the card in Tanaka's hand and placed it where Tanaka had specified. Afterward, he held out a gloved hand towards the youngest Rosetta, obviously expecting the little one to give him more tasks to do.

Tanaka complied by giving Amir the last Natural Trap card, 'Rayyan's Wrath' on their platform. "Faqat daeaha fi 'ayi makan fi alshra'. Altansib ghyr mahm." (Just place it anywhere in the desert. Placement is unimportant./فقط ضعها في أي مكان في الصحراء. التنسيب غير مهم.)

"Kama yahlu lak, ya sayidi alsaghir." (As you wish, little master/sir. / كما يحلو لك يا سيدي الصغير) Tanaka hadn't seen what happened to the last Trap card since he was preoccupied talking to Amir. When the dark-skinned butler placed the Trap card on the projected, it sank down beneath the sand and blended into the environment as if it was never there. If one wasn't watching their opponents' gameplay carefully, they would step into their enemies traps all too easily.

"Yumkinuk rieayat aljaysh balnsbt ly?" (Can you take care of the army for me?/يمكنك رعاية الجيش بالنسبة لي؟) Tanaka then asked, his large, soulful eyes still frozen on where the last card had disappeared. "Sa'uqdim lak alqudrat ealaa nuqat altahmul almutabaqiyat." (I will give you the remaining stamina points/ سأقدم لك القدرة على نقاط التحمل المتبقية.)

The Zafarian seemed to ponder about his suggestion for a moment, but the amused light in his eyes hadn't disappeared. He peered at the youngest Rosetta with a certain intensity before bowing his head once again. "'Iidha kan hadha hu raghabat alsyd alsaghir, 'afahim," (If this is the wishes of the little master, I understand./إذا كان هذا هو رغبات السيد الصغير ، أفهم.) was his reply and before Tanaka could answer back, Xander broke the silence between the three older teens.

"I wasn't aware Young Thomas is so proficient in Zafara!" the Prince gushed not unkindly, his bright red eyes sparkling. Tanaka at first squinted due to the sparkling visage of the Prince of Smiles but then was briefly confused by the word 'Zafara'. Maybe the name for the Zafarian Language in Common Language?

"... I wasn't aware as well," Edward admitted faintly, his ice-blue eyes now boring fiercely into his younger brother's deceivingly mediocre figure.

Now snapped out of his temporary shock, Nicole was displeased by how the youngest Rosetta seemed to be put in the spotlight. "What does it matter? So he knows how to speak gibberish, so what?"

Except, Thomas Rosetta clearly spoken the Zafarian Language with a high level of fluidity, judging by the speed of the discussion between the young boy and the Zafarian butler, but Nicole refused to acknowledge that. Wasn't Edward's little brother supposed to be the 'black sheep' of the Rosetta family? Wasn't he supposed to be this weak, five-tier, low-class bastard who had no talent or support? The temperamental nobleman was not willing to recognize another Rosetta close to his level.

On the other hand, the Crown Prince seemed only to have praises for the youngest of the Rosetta siblings, missing his best friend's bewilderment and confusion. As expected of Edward's younger brother-- despite his origins, Thomas was just as talented and intelligent as his older brother. "I must ask whether you would be willing to converse with me in Zafara! My mother had taught me as much as she could but... she was not a very good teacher-- either that or I was not a very good student!" Xander laughed joyfully at this and, as if it was a subconscious reaction, Tanaka noticed that one of Edward's eyebrow twitched at the mentioned of said mother. This was the closest he had ever seen Thomas' elder brother looking distressed.

Considering how... excitable and energetic she seemed, even though they had never met and were streets, buildings, walls, and gardens away from each other, Tanaka felt this was something that both he and Edward could actually agree on.

"...I would be honored, Xan... Your Highness," was the only thing that Tanaka could have said under the pressure of the Prince's sparkling, woeful, puppy-dog eyes.

"Fantastic!!" Xander cheered and Tanaka could have sworn he saw flowers pop up behind the 'Prince of Smiles,' causing him to blink his tired eyes rapidly. Regretfully, it had only been the first turn and his next, scheduled nap-time seemed far off...

While both Xander and Tanaka seemed to be off in their own (separate) world, the gloomy atmosphere on the other side of the board went unnoticed.

One was sulking much like a child that wasn't given any attention while the other was trying to wrap his head around the fact that his younger brother knew Zafara.

It didn't seem that long ago when their Father had called for his brother to discuss his failing grades. He remembered how he had mocked the little imp, along with his sister Katherine, who often took a lot of joy in making fun of their youngest brother, but now that Edward had thought about it, instead of sulking and fuming as Thomas usually did when their Father would scold him, there wasn't even a single ripple in his indifferent expression.

Thomas sat far away from them, which he persisted whenever they did have meals together, but most of the time, he was never present for breakfast or dinner times. Edward had thought this was a new way for his younger brother to call for attention, but he had heard a few things from few students in his brother's class, leaving him baffled.

Sleeping in class or skipping them altogether? Using his textbooks as pillows? Climbing trees to sleep on branches, isolating himself in the academy's library, avoiding people in general-- these type of sloth-like and unkempt actions were not what he would associate with his obsessive and prideful younger brother. He brought these concerns to his Father, not because he wanted the youngest to get in trouble, but because they were becoming... increasingly worrisome.

He had heard from one of his younger brother's professors that Thomas had asked the professors judging the practicals to give him an F, and after further questioning, it seemed that he wasn't turning in his assignments either.

Ineffectively, it seemed that his Father's response was to put him on the spot and scold him once again along with isolating the somber child into his room as if it was the only thing the Head of the Rosetta of the household could do to his youngest. Admittedly, this type of punishment would have worked in the past, but obviously, Thomas was different now...

Eventually, as far as Edward had monitored, his grade had made vast improvements, though the rumors in concern towards his conduct in the classroom were still problematic and very much bewildering. And there was still the matter where his brother found time to speak Zafara so fluently since the eldest of the Rosetta siblings knew that one of the foreign languages that Thomas had signed up for wasn't Zafara.

Zafara wasn't even an easy language for native Common Language speakers to learn at all-- their alphabets looked nothing like each other, there was little to no commonality between their constants and vowel sounds, and even the way they were written was different.

Most nobles, if they ever planned on leaving the country even just for business, would learn Nefise, the language of the Neifion citizens. Neifion were famous for their exports and their beautiful coastal cities, making it a prime spot for nobles of Astria to visit and spend their vacation days. Though Nefise was still not an easy language to learn or speak for Common Language speakers, it was still less difficult than Zafara and if he recalled correctly, Thomas was having trouble with the loose word order of Nefise...

Had he been learning two languages at the same time then? But who was teaching him Zafara? The only Zafarian that Thomas was acquainted with was his personal butler, Amir Al-Amin, but his servant didn't normally interact with his young brother... then again, their relationship seemed strangely amiable right now...

Before Edward could continue on with that thought, Zafaran, which was highlighted during Thomas' turn, dimmed faintly and Nicole's Red Country brightened up not even a second later.

Tanaka looked over at Amir once again, the butler's expression unchanging, before looking down at Zafaran's military, seeing that there was defense shield around their Capital but an increase in soldiers instead-- 50 in total.

Tanaka: "............"

Nicole only had to increase his army three times to jump from 200+ to 500+, yet when they did it twice, their numbers only increased by another 25. This type of growth was really unfair.

Yet. Nicole for some reason acted as if he was the one wronged, glaring at the youngest Rosetta from across the War Rune mat with a sour expression. Nonetheless, they were still playing the game and their competitive spirits wouldn't allow them to be too distracted by the new discoveries about Edward's little brother. So the other teens concentrated on the world projection in front of them with some reluctance.

The next several rounds of turns passed the same way as the first. All four countries concentrated on preparing for a full-scale war. Tanaka could see that even Nicole had placed several Trap cards around his territory, obviously wary of being attacked while his main army was occupied, much like Edward and Xander, whose own territories were laden with Trap cards as well in preparation for Nicole's invasion.

Tanaka's own gameplay was not that much different from everyone else. He concentrated on exhausting all the Natural Trap cards that the game had given him-- sometimes the game drew four for him, causing him to neglect their army, while other rounds would only give him one, leaving Amir to make necessary adjustments and changes to their offense and defense as he pleased. Most of the time, they talked in Zafara/Standard Arabic to communicate, generally because it was somehow more comfortable this way.

Tanaka used to speak to Basim-san every other day even while the other was out of the country for business-- which was often. No matter the time or whether he was actually busy or not, Basim-san would video-call him at his scheduled/usual times without fail. It was rare for the lazy man (now boy) to not see the other's handsome and rugged face once every week.

He missed Basim-san.

Around the fifth round, tension started to rise in between the players (excluding Tanaka, who was as mellowed as a sloth, and Amir, whose amusement could not be seen on his pleasantly smiling face).

Amir, for whatever reason, stopped increasing both their defenses and their military after the fourth and allowed Tanaka to used all the stamina points they had, stacking only two defense shield around their Capital and raising their army to around only 100 people, 75 of those people only archers.

Tanaka wasn't bothered by these numbers. After all, he trusted Amir to know what he was doing and their main force against the other country wasn't their military, but their environment.

By the seventh round, Nicole accumulated around 1250 soldiers and 3500+ resources. His Capital had more than seven layers of defense and one could only imagine the nasty traps in Red Country's territory just waiting for a victim to clamp their claws on. With a sinister grin, Nicole split his army into two factions: 600 heading towards Blue Country, 600 towards Green Country, and the remaining 50 left in front of the Capital as further defensive measures, just in case a certain little bastard decided to attack his country while he was preoccupied with the Crown Prince and his older brother.

Too bad Tanaka had no intention of doing so.

Both Xander and Edward already had a segment of their overall military (around 200+) near their borders to face Nicole's invader's head-on.

Both of Red Country's battalion was arrested at the borders, but the temperamental noble didn't seem concern. The Eldest Rosetta and the Crown Prince were also very calm as well.

Though it seemed that Nicole had the advantage, each country had their own strength. Blue Country had its Rivers and was the only Country with Warships at their docks. Within the Rivers, the Sea, and in the Lake just South of Blue Country's Capital, there were extra gridlines that made would cause anyone attempting to cross them stall and slow down. The fastest way to get to Blue Country's Capital would be through the Bridges, which were placed sparsely on each River, but Edward already had tyrannical control over in each Bridge in his territory. Some Rivers even had two but usually, the ones left defenseless were the ones with nasty Trap cards that could destroy hundreds of soldiers in one swoop.

Red Country was a bad matchup against Blue Country in the first place, so it would not be easy for Nicole to reach Edward's Capital. Not to mention, the haughty nobleman would have to keep pressuring his rival so that the Rosetta Heir would not be able to deploy his Warships.

Right now, Edward could not afford to split his numbers up; while Gallant's Capital would be easy pickings if he attacked it from the water, in order to bring down one defense shield effectively, he would need five Warship to lay siege simultaneously. Each Warship needed 100 soldiers to man, which the eldest Rosetta could not afford to send while being invaded by Red Country's overwhelming numbers, so the two Countries would be at a standstill for a while.

Green Country was not faring as well as Blue Country though. As soon as Nicole's army touched Green Country's borders, the trees went aflame, the red, bright glow somehow very devastating to witness.

Of course, even Green Country had their own advantages. Their numbers weren't publicized, along with the number of resources they had, which varied each game. Only Green Country's player, Prince Xander, was aware of what was going on in Green Country's Forests.

The Forests were also known to be home of many Beasts as well. If an army traveled through brush carelessly, they could accidentally end up in the lair or territory of a powerful Beast, which would stall them, but also caused their numbers to diminish as well. There were also patches of lands which were 'bigger' than most-- like Blue Country's waters, they had extra gridlines that only Green Country's player could see. One of the best way to avoid both situations, and to cause Green Country to lose their advantage, was to burn the forest.

The opposing party could burn only one line of trees from the border of the Forest per turn though and with Green Country's own army trying to push them back, it would be a while before Red Country's military could make headways with Green Country. Not to mention that their Capital was just as hidden as their numbers, making Nicole's victory much more difficult, but sweeter as well.

After all, what was the point of proving himself better than Rosetta if he didn't crush his rival at his very best?

Since Nicole still had two Stamina left (two out of four used just to move his two battalions to the right and left borders of his territory), he used it to increase his numbers once again. At his capital, 400 soldiers appeared by the end of his turn.

Instantly, without an expression on his face or a flutter of his eyelashes, Edward's calculative, ice-cold eyes swept through his territory for only two seconds before moving the 200 soldiers defending the 'Second' Bridge on the Second River from the border to join the troops stationed at the 'First' Bridge. It left the 'Second' Bridge defenseless, but it also stalled the Red Country invaders from crossing the 'First' Bridge as well. It was a type of decision seemed to be only delaying the inevitable, but to anyone who was familiar with the Rosetta Heir, more likely than not, there seemed to be an underlying meaning in his choice.

There were about six Bridges total in Blue Country and four Rivers in between the border shared with Red Country and Blue Country's Capital. The First Bridge was built on the outermost River. The Second Bridge and Third Bridge on the second outermost River. The Fourth on the next River, and the Fifth and Sixth on the innermost River.

Each River had at least one Company (100-300) of soldiers and the most defended River was the innermost, of course.

Regardless, Edward didn't make any further moves and used the rest of his Stamina points on more soldiers, which would have to be distributed in his next turn.

The flames and smoke rising from Green Country made the Crown Prince's situation seemed direr than it actually was. Nicole was not careless enough to enter into the Forest of Green Country with visualization because once his army did, it would be all too easy for His Highness to pick his enemies off bit by bit. It would be like playing the game blind. Therefore, Xander was not too concerned about Red Country's progress in their invasion so far.

No one was able to determine what Xander did for his turn other than that he laid one Trap card within his territory.

Tanaka's turn also passed quickly. He discarded most of the discardable cards except for one and gave it to Amir to place. The butler did so without so much as a pause or without even asking where to place the Trap card, performing another graceful flick of a wrist to send the card to a spot on the desert.

Aware that the little one had no intention of using the rest of the Stamina points, Amir then split their small army into three teams: 25 archers moving towards the open desert left of the Capital and 25 archers on the right. The remaining 50 stayed around the area outside of the Capital, the soldiers facing in the direction of Red Country from across the board.

Their turn then ended without much of a fanfare.

Nicole immediately sent 250 of his recently summoned soldiers to join the others in Blue Country and to replace the odd 100+ soldiers that had already fallen while sending another 100 to Green Country.

The first line of trees that was burning had turned into ashes and when Red Country's back-up arrived, they pushed back Green Country's vanguard and set a new line of trees aflame.

At the same time, Blue Country's 300+ frontline soldiers were being overwhelmed by Red Country's 700+ and about 400 of Nicole's battalion broke off to head towards Edward's Second Bridge, the one that was previously guarded but then abandoned to defend the First.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until some of the invaders stepped into the middle of the Bridge. Each Bridge also had their own extra gridlines, but not as much as Blue Country's Bodies of Water. It was still possible to completely cross one in a single turn but required at least two Stamina points to cross two.

Nicole had to use his second to last Stamina point to cross the Second Bridge after crossing the first, but once he did, his small army was arrested in the middle of the bridge! The River water glowed and the temperamental nobleman ground his teeth together as he glared at his rival while Edward just raised a graceful as if he had done no wrong; there were two bridges on the second outermost River and it wouldn't be surprising if there were traps on one of them or both.

If Nicole was more cautious, he would only need to send a small fraction of his military to trigger them and save the majority, but he went forward too eagerly and recklessly. Blue Country's Trap cards were few (disregarding the common Man-mad Trap cards) and once used, they could not be used again. They were known to be double-edged swords as well-- if their own people were in the vicinity of the effect of the Trap card, they would be sweep away as well!

The Gallant Heir did not think that Rosetta would use a Trap card so early in the game! And a powerful one at that.

With a cold expression, Edward voiced out, "Activate: Leviathan's Baptism."

The one end of the glowing River swelled before bursting like a broken dam, flooding and sweeping away everything in its path, including the Second and Third Bridges. The unfortunate soldiers near the banks on the bridge could only struggle before they drowned. In an instant, the Trap killed 350+ of Red Country soldiers and cut off their route across the Second River.

Nicole growled-- rather than wading in the water, he had enough resources to build another bridge again, one that Edward could not play Trap cards on, but he would have to sacrifice one Stamina and one turn for it to be finished!

Though it might seem like a careless strategy for some people, Edward was always conscious of his rival's numbers. The majority of his military were Magicians, which would allow Nicole to launch powerful Attack cards. But Magicians were mid-range fighters and their reach was not as far as Archers, so knowing that Gallant was saving his best Attack cards to lay waste to his Capital, the eldest Rosetta needed to make sure that Red Country's troops never crossed the Fourth or Fifth Bridge.

Archers posed little threat to the Defense Shield regardless of their long-range reach and were mostly used to cut down incoming enemy soldiers from afar, but Blue Country would be in trouble if magic attacks were used to assault their Capital, especially if the Attack card used was a powerful one, so it was necessary to cut their route off early.

Nicole could use his last Stamina point to start building a bridge, which would be finished by his next turn, but now his numbers in Blue Country are only around 300+! If he finished the bridge on his next turn and tried to attack with his numbers after whatever addition or preparations Rosetta had made on his turn, then his soldiers could only be slaughtered in response! He would have to build up his battalion in Blue Country once again before building the bridge and continuing with his offense against Edward.

So with a bitter expression, he used his remaining Stamina points to replenish his numbers. With just one press, 250 soldiers were summoned from outside of his Capital.

On Edward's turn, he used two Stamina points to increase his own numbers. Then used another Stamina point to send soldiers from the Sixth Bridge to reinforce the Fourth Bridge. Finally, the eldest Rosetta then had 100 of his soldiers stationed at the Capital moved to the docks, allowing him to start using one of his Warships.

Xander's expression wasn't in its usual friendly state as he gazed at his board with sharp and burning red-eyes. If one watched closely as he moved his hands to use whatever arsenal he had, they could see his eyes following something moving in his Country, but he ended his turn with just an additional company of soldiers to stall the invaders from Red Country for a turn longer.

Tanaka did the same thing as last time, except he had given two Trap cards for Amir to place. Amir then used the remaining Stamina points to adjust the placement of their army and their turn passed as quickly as it came.

Immediately, Nicole used two of his Stamina points to add more people to his military while the 300+ finished off the remaining Blue Country soldiers defending the First Bridge, depleting their own numbers by 50 in turn as a consequence. He sent the 500 soldiers out of the 750 that were recently summoned to the First Bridge and the 250+ remaining soldiers from the First Bridge to start building a Bridge on the Second River, using up all his Stamina.

Edward gave himself half a minute to consider his options before using one Stamina point to increase his number and then sent 200 out of 500 soldiers from the Sixth Bridge to the Fourth. He then sent 100 to man another Warship and start moving both of them towards Red Country's Capital.

Nicole was obviously unhappy about this, but he was confident that Rosetta would be too busy dealing with him on his next turn to even think about moving those Warships.

Like his best friend, Xander didn't want to seem too passive and immediately launched an attack as soon as Green Country was highlighted, indicating his turn. Jumping passed Red Country's soldiers were Green Country's specialized Vanguard, Calvary Riders, and if one looked carefully, Green Country's Calvary men were riding on animals that looked very close to bucks instead their antlers were smaller and their bodies much bigger.

The Calvary Riders made their way towards Red Country's Capital, intending to attack it directly, but they, unfortunately, stopped mid-way. After all, it was not like Rosetta was the only one that could use a Trap card.

With a sinister smile, Nicole announced, "Activate: Phoenix Claws," and from the ground, metal-like contraptions with sharp teeth sank their sharp edges into the deer-like animals. The moment they did, a small rune glowed from underneath them and like their trees, set them on fire. The visualization was rather gruesome, especially since the other players could see how the steeds would struggle with their mouths opened as if they were crying. Fortunately, despite 'Magic and War' realism, the creator seemed to have forgone adding that particular detail in the game.

Some riders from the edge of the Calvary were lucky enough to be able to jump off their steeds, but the majority had burned and died in the next few seconds. Maybe if it was Blue Country's or Zafaran's own soldiers that triggered the trap, they would survive and only be afflicted with Bleeding and Burning conditions, but Green Country's people were much more sensitive with Fire Magic and therefore, the morality would be greater with Fire Magic.

Red Country was known for their brutal and powerful Man-Made Trap cards that would often inflict a Burning condition paired with a Bleeding condition. To balance the power in their deck in comparison to the others, Natural Trap cards did not exist within Red Country's arsenal, though it didn't seem to deter their ruthlessness regardless.

Xander uncharacteristically frowned, seeing that his attempt for Nicole's Capital was hindered and ruined before he could even make a dent, but he didn't panic and made a few more moves before turning the opportunity towards Zafaran's duo.

Once again, Tanaka gave more Trap cards for Amir to place and the two of them didn't even use their remaining Stamina points before allowing Nicole to play once again.

Nicole took this chance to combine the 500 soldiers he had sent to Blue Country with the 250+ stalled near the Second River and since the new Bridge was done, he had the combined army clash with the defenders from the Fourth Bridge.

Apparently done with his tasks in Blue Country, the temperamental noblemen surprisingly didn't do anything else and focused his attention on Green Country instead. Using his two remaining Stamina points, he increased his numbers (from 450 to 700) and then sent 200 men to assist the battlefront near Green Country's borders. The second line of trees that was burning near Green Country's borders were also made into ashes and a new line of trees was lit red and orange by Red Country's soldiers.

With a subtle grimace that could barely been seen on his statue-like face, once his turn was given, Edward had the 200 soldiers on the Fifth Bridge and the 300 soldiers from the Sixth Bridge to provide aid for the company on the Fourth Bridge and then block off the intruders from breaking off to the Fifth Bridge. These combined numbers (about 900) should prevent Red Country's battalion from advancing and put a dent in their manpower, but the eldest of the Rosetta sibling was well aware of Red Country's fast growth in numbers and it wouldn't be long for Nicole to replace is fallen soldiers. Therefore, until he could get the upper hand or until Gallant had stumbled, he would not allow his Rival to pass this point!

With his remaining two points, Edward first strengthened his military and then sent about 200 soldiers to the Sixth Bridge before ending his turn.

Xander didn't seem eager to try to invade Red Country so soon. He had been paying attention to where Nicole had placed his Trap cards and most of them scattered in between around Red Country's Capital and the border shared by Green Country. He would have to send several small groups to locate all the traps while defending the edge of his territory at the same time. To locate them, he would only need to get 'a feel of the land'-- in other words, direct his so-called 'scouts' to march through the land in between their borders and Red Country's Capital and try to find a route that would best avoid the most traps. In order to do that, he would need to check each square one by one. One of the best indications for a trap was if the scout suddenly stopped moving to give the player the opportunity for the opposing player to activate their card. He would just need an opportunity to send a scout.

Though it seemed that Red Country was cautious enough not to enter into the Forest regardless provocation, there was no need to confront the intruders, Nicole arranged his battalion along the borders in a way that left no room for Xander to squeeze his people through to dismantle the other's traps without taking a long way around toward Blue Country's borders. Therefore, at this point of the game, he would need to keep pushing them back until he was given an opening.

Xander's hands were swift as he performed the necessary actions for his plan to push back the intruding Red Country soldiers, his eyes glancing at something no one else would be able to see.

When Zafaran's turn came, Tanaka... once again did nothing different. He had been watching the intense 'war' like an unrelated bystander for the past 15 minutes bored and very sleepy, his entire body currently leaning heavily against Amir because if he didn't, he would be swaying on his feet. Though the warmth from the taller man didn't really make his eyelids less heavy, honestly, but the intense atmosphere from the other side of the War Rune mat kept him awake.

Tanaka couldn't help but wonder whether they remembered that they were playing a game...

Nicole began his turn using three of his four Stamina points to add more men to his army (totaling 1100 at home base), and then sent about 400 passed the First Bridge in Blue Country.

Obviously, this kind of big preparation meant that their classmate was planning something big, so Edward made sure to use two Stamina points to create more soldiers, one to move 200 of them to the Sixth Bridge, and the last to move the combined 400 soldiers with the troops defending the Fourth Bridge and to counteract the new battalion heading towards their way.

Seeing the large numbers of Red Country soldiers still stationed near their home base, Xander decided that he would need to decrease the numbers already at his doorstep first or he would end up being overwhelmed before he knew it.

The Prince sent more of his soldiers to the battlefront, most hidden in the brush and under the canopies and when he saw an opening, he then sent a troop of Vanguards to dismantle the traps. But it wasn't long, maybe just a couple of spaces away from the battle, that the group was arrested in mid-march, indicating the presence of a Trap card.

With his progress stalled, he considered sending another 'scout' to find another trap, but seemed to think otherwise and did something else with his last Stamina points.

Seeing how sluggish the little one was, and how the youngest Rosetta was nearly asleep on his feet, Amir took it upon himself to discard the usual cards and placed the other cards on the platform after taking account the spaces that were still empty, then passed the next turn to the Gallant Heir.

Nicole first used one Stamina point to increase the number of soldiers at Homebase (from 700 to 950) and then swiped off a card that everyone noticed he had kept to the side for the past several turns. There was a smug and haughty expression on his face as if he had already won the game and when he flipped the card over to show it to his opponents, his smile turned sinister.

Seeing what the card was, The Crown Prince was startled while Edward's expression had turned slightly black. It was one of the most powerful non-attribute cards that only had 0.00001% chance of showing up to any game: Teleportation. It would be considered both an Attack and Trap card, depending on how it would be used. This card could be placed somewhere on the board and when the opposing party's army triggered it, they would be teleported into a different place on the World Projection. It could be in Blue Country's Waters, Green Country's Forests, or on another deadly Trap card. The player could also teleport their armies near their enemy's Capital and bypass all of their traps and all obstacles between point A to point B

Of course, for such a powerful card, there were restrictions that the player must abide: the maximum number of soldiers transported had to be 500. Also, the player must meet a certain amount of Magician and and Resources in order to play this card, which was not a problem for Nicole, who had ample amounts of both, especially since he had conquered parts of Blue Country's and Green Country's land, therefore increasing the growth rate of his Resources.

Lastly, the maximum distance that the user could teleport to was seven spaces. Seven spaces didn't seem very far, but since the card can overpass 'obstacles' -meaning potholes, bridges, bodies of water, etc.- it was the type of card that could end a Country.

Since Green Country was still mostly covered in Forests, it wasn't surprising that Nicole had sent 500 of his soldiers past the first three Rivers, but that was enough for Red Country's Magicians, the 300 that had been transferred along with the 200 Vanguards, to start attacking Blue Country's Defense Shield. Immediately, the 200 Blue Country's soldiers started to attack the group, but Gallant's Vanguard had blocked them off from the Magician.

Of course, that was not the end since Nicole was determined to ruin his rival.

Both Edward and Xander could see Nicole taking another card off his platform and grimaced together when their eyes met briefly. Though they would not aid together, it was left unsaid that Blue Country was in a better position to defend and attack against Red Country than Green Country. If Blue Country failed and Edward was disqualified from the game, Xander would have the brunt of Nicole's attacks for the next turn. And with the other's increase in territory, therefore increase in Resources, their classmate would almost be impossible to beat.

Regardless, both of their Capitals hadn't fallen, therefore, there was always a chance for a comeback.

With a glint of malevolence in his eyes, Nicole played another Attack card since his numbers and resources allowed it: "Activate: Dragon's Rage." This was a fairly simple Attack card; in 3 rows of spaces about 5-6 spaces long, a dragon would rise up from the battlefield and burned everything in its path. He aimed it specifically at the defense forces in front of the Fourth Bridge, causing many of Blue Country's soldiers to fall. Fortunately, Blue Country, in general, was very resistant to Fire Magic, so the death wasn't too big and most of the soldiers weren't inflicted with a 'Burn' condition, but then Nicole used his last Stamina points to move the 400 men awaiting across from the Second River and joined their companions near the Fourth Bridge.

Edward knew that by the next round, his own soldiers would be overwhelmed by the additional 400, combining with the 650+ still actively fighting his men in front of the Fourth Bridge, and once that would happen, those 1000+ intruders would join the 500+ that had appeared. He needed to lessen the casualties as much as possible!

His most powerful Attack card needed the functionality of his Warships and Gallant had, unfortunately, somehow avoided all the other Trap cards he had placed around the World Projection, including the one on the Fifth Bridge. All he could do was keep a steady supply of soldiers to suppress the intruders and gave his turn to his best friend.

While Xander was not in trouble like Edward was, since his Capital was still well hidden and away from Nicole's clutches, it was not like he was making any headways into victory as well. After all, with each round, his territory would shrink little by little and he wasn't even close to touching Red Country's Capital.

Since Nicole had been neglecting to send more troops for the last couple of rounds, Xander was able to slip a couple of more scout troops past the battlefield, but all three groups were stopped after a couple of spaces. He sent more men to aid the frontline before ending his turn.

Despite the intenseness between the three classmates, Tanaka was very relaxed against Amir's leg, finally sitting down on the floor, crisscrossed, with the game's manual in his lap. The butler once again indulged the little one and did most of the work for the both of them--except there was a pause as he picked up one of the cards. Under Nicole's impatient gaze, which was more amusing than intimidating to the Zafarian, the dark-skinned man showed the card to the youngest Rosetta, who gave it a cursory glance though Amir was the only one that didn't miss the brief calculative gleam in the child's brown-eyes.

After a soft yawn, one that sounded more like a breezy sigh than anything else, Tanaka looked up at his companion with bleary eyes, the corners dotted with tears due to sleepiness. "Yrja alaihtifaz biha..." (Please keep it.../يرجى الاحتفاظ بها ...) he said quietly and rubbed his head against the butler's pant-leg, enjoying the other's warm as he waited for the others to remember that they were still playing.

There was a flash of amusement on the butler's face before he then abided to what the little one had instructed and left the mentioned card on the platform alone. He took his time finishing his tasks regardless of the anxious air over on the other side of the room and finished the round.

Nicole immediately added more men to his military once again and sent 200 of them to Green Country to make things more difficult for Xander. On the way, they interacted with one of Green Country's scout team and, because the scout team's small numbers, destroyed them before continuing on.

Green Country was once again placed under pressure.

Then Nicole turned his attention back to Blue Country and when 1000+ Red Country soldiers cleaned up the rest of the defenders from the Fourth Bridge, he combined them with the teleported numbers across the Third River. As soon as they came together, he played another Attack card called Sun Flare, a powerful spell where a large ball of concentrated Fire Magic was made by the Magicians and then shot towards a specific target. It took one round to finish and there had to be 300 Magicians alive to maintain it during that one round, but considering the Gallant Heir's numbers, that shouldn't be a problem as long as his rival didn't have any tricks up his sleeve.

Unfortunately, Edward's hands were really tied for this round. No notable cards had popped up on his platform and his own soldiers were barely making a dent in the Vanguards protecting the Red Country Magicians. If he didn't want for Sun Flare to be cast, then he must kill as many as Magicians as he could!

After Nicole had used his last Stamina point for more soldiers, Edward started his turn to gather more men as well. Using three Stamina points, the eldest Rosetta focused on increasing his Vanguard numbers and sent them into the battlefront. Like how certain Countries have a weakness for certain types of Magic, each type of soldier are weak against other types of soldiers.

The Magicians could easily be mowed down by the Vanguards while they had the natural ability to use magic to block the Archer's arrow. The Vanguards were not able to defend themselves from a volley of arrows as easily, but they were known to be resilient against Magic. Archers were actually both weak to Magician and Vanguards, but as long as the Archers kept their distance from the Vanguards, they would practically be invincible. Magician, unlike Vanguards, had ranged attacks and didn't need to get close to the Archers in order to kill them.

Therefore, the surplus of Vanguards was ideal for Blue Country's situation, but it would be difficult to assess whether they would still be able to break through Red Country's Vanguard and start dwindling Red Country's Magician numbers in time to stop Sun Flare.

Regardless, things were starting to look bad for both Green and Blue Country with a fourth of Green Country's Forest already gone and Blue Country's Capital under attack.

Since Nicole had replenished his numbers against Green Country, Xander was barely able to slip past one more scout team to replace the one practically ran over by Red Country's soldiers, starting back from square one. He was able to move the two other scout teams a couple of space closer before they stopped in response to a Trap card, but his progress was rather slow. After sending more of his men to the battlefront once again in order to create an opening, his turn ended on a frustrated note.

At this point, Amir was actually debating whether he should just pick up the little one and let the young boy sleep his arms. Surely, it would be more comfortable than sitting on the floor upright. Then again, Young Master Thomas had the tendency to be comfortable in any position considering the places that the butler found the young master in.

Either way, probably because it was past his usual nap time before dinner, the little one was practically draped over his feet and Amir had to stand still lest he accidentally kicked the sleepy child. It still seemed that Young Master Thomas still wanted to play though since he made the attempt to reach over to the platform to obtain and discard the usual cards.

He quietly let out an amused huff and couldn't help but wonder why the child would stay awake for a game he was barely participating in when the little one would often fall asleep while eating or cleaning himself. Keeping the amusement off of his face, Amir waved the young boy's sluggish hand away and did the tasks for him.

Tanaka allowed him to with half-lidded eyes as he yawned once again, tears gathering in the corner of his eyes while doing so. Apparently, his yawn wasn't as quiet as he thought it was since it somehow snapped everyone's attention onto him, breaking their concentration from the game.

Edward, for some reason, looked baffled by how... child-like his younger brother looked. Granted, his brother was still a child, but Thomas previously had always tried his best to look like an adult -to look like their father to be more specific- and... he barely recognized the child sitting near his butler's feet-- he barely recognized his young brother the entire day.

Xander, on the other hand, immediately felt guilty for his neglect. After all, he was the one that proposed that Young Thomas would play and he had hoped for the young one to enjoy himself as they played, not to put the child to sleep. Most of the time, the red-haired teen would forget about how hyper-focused he and his best friend could be when they were in the middle of a competition and the people playing with them were often left in the dust. Since this was his first time playing Magic and War, Edward's little brother probably wasn't expecting a simple game to become this intense...

"Oh, my apologies, Young Thomas!" the Prince nearly cried with a regretful tone. "Would you like to sit out or take a nap while we finish this game? It was quite irresponsible of us to neglect you." Well, regardless of how remorseful Xander had sounded, he really couldn't bear to leave the game unfinished as it was. Sure, Nicole had the advantage now and his victory only seemed surer with each passing round, but the red-haired teen refused to let that depress him. He also doubted that Edward would give up as well, so they were pretty much committed to the game until the bitter end.

Surprisingly, the youngest Rosetta shook his head rapidly, as if answering and trying to shake off his sleepiness at the same time. He won't back out. He hadn't even gotten started.

Nicole sneered at his answer though, his expression a little bit more arrogant than usual as he crossed his arms at Rosetta's black sheep. "You should listen to His Highness-- you're pretty much dead weight anyway. The Zafarian should play instead."

"You--" Edward's ice-blue eyes flashed towards his rival with slight contempt. While they were taking the game much more seriously than it would probably merit, it didn't mean they should judge his little brother for playing it much more casually.

But before he could scold Gallant for his insensitive words, Thomas had already shrugged indifferently, unaffected by his subtle insult. This seemed to irk the temperamental nobleman since it reminded him too much how Rosetta would deliberately underestimate him and now his useless little brother was doing so as well.

With a nasty smile, when a new round had started, Nicole first watched with glee as his Magicians in Blue Country had finished casting Sun Flare and the large ball of flame was slingshot onto Edward's Capital. In an instant, two out of five of Blue Country's Defense Shields were gone and the third Defense Shield was already on the verge of breaking. Also, as a side-effect of the card, meteors of fire fell from the impact of Sun Flare, and dropped onto his rival's reserves still stationed near the Capital, the death toll as high as 150 and many more 'wounded' with a Burning condition.

Content with the amount of destruction he had caused in Blue Country (and the dark expression on Edward's face), Nicole then supplemented his Country with more soldiers by using two of his Stamina points and graced the youngest Rosetta with a suspiciously generous smile.

"We don't want Rosetta's little brother to be getting bored, now do we?" With a few words and wave of his hand, he sent 300 of his soldiers towards the desert, the sound of their marching somehow ominous.

Nicole was originally going to attack Zafaran sooner or later, but the biggest threat was obviously Blue County -and Green Country, to some extent- and he needed to thoroughly weaken his rival before he could target his rival's little brother. Now with both of his real opponents trying to salvage as much of their defenses as they could, he was free to play around with the little bastard.

Tanaka didn't have much of an outward reaction as he stretched out his legs, trying to wait for the pin-prickling feeling to fade away since they had fallen asleep while he had them crisscrossed on the floor. With wobbly legs, he stood up using the leg he was leaning on as an aid, though he would have fallen backward if it wasn't for the large, gentle hand placed on his back. He rubbed at the slight crust on the corner of his eyes, either ignorant or indifferent to the irritable glare Nicole was giving him.

Then, the 300-soldier army made it to the desert and once the frontline stepped into the sea of sand, they stopped. Considering that Tanaka and Amir had been doing nothing, but placing Trap card after Trap card on the World Projection, it wasn't surprising that the Red Country's soldiers would encounter a Trap card so soon. And, of course, they did encounter a Trap card, but not one that anyone was really expected.

In the blandest tone possible, Tanaka called out, "Altanshit: Ghadab Rayan." (Activation: Wrath of Rayyan./التنشيط: غضب ريان) The entire desert area brightened up before heat fumes started to rise from the sand as if the Zafaran territory was being baked in an oven. It caused everything to looked hazy and distorted, and just by looking at it would make a person feel hot and sweaty.

This was an area-wide Natural Trap card that didn't need to be placed on a specific location in the desert; the entire desert was the trap for this card. No matter who or where the intruder entered, they would all be affected indiscriminately-- except for the Zafarians, of course. They were the only ones that wouldn't be affected by any of Zafaran's original Natural Trap cards.

When this card was activated, the opposing player could only move their army by three spaces instead of five and with each overall turn in one round, they would lose 5% of their Resources in addition to any actions they performed on their turn regardless if they made no actions against Zafaran. As long as even one soldier from their numbers were in the desert, the Country's Resources would still be used up.

For the Countries that were Resource-rich like Red Country, this was not a problem. More of an annoyance than anything else. Zafaran Natural Trap cards were known to be non-lethal, unlike Blue Country's and Green Country's Natural Trap cards. They were made to hinder the opposing Countries and not kill them directly, therefore they were considered 'weak' to those who wanted to play aggressively.

Nicole considered Tanaka's attempt to hamper him laughable-- so what if it would only take him a few more round than usual to reach their Capital? He still had the bigger army while the little bastard had a measly number of 100 people defending their Main City. He would have to play one of his Attack cards to destroy their Capital in a single turn since Zafaran, in general, had no resistance to any type of Magic (except, maybe Non-attributed Magic). It would be enough for this type of opponent, but the haughty nobleman wasn't planning on wasting his Attack cards on Edward's little brother. It's not like it would take any effort to seize Zafaran from the little brat's hands.

Regardless, since Tanaka had activated his Trap card, the Red Country soldiers that Nicole had sent were frozen at the borders. Originally, they were going to march the full five spaces but stopped at the third space now that their movements were limited. Nicole wasn't too concerned about the effects of Wrath of Rayyan (not that he knew what the card was called or how it was pronounced, but knew the general idea of what it could do) since he used another Stamina point to move the 300-soldiers at his disposal three steps further-- except they stalled at the second space, most likely due to another Trap card.

In the same bland and sleepy tone, Tanaka voiced out, "Altinshit: Earsh Al-Rayan." (Activation: The Throne of Rayyan/التنشيط: عرش الريان.)

Once Tanaka had activated the Trap card, a large mountain-like sand dune raised in front of the Red Country intruders, cutting them off from further advancement. Just like Blue Country's Waters, the sand dune had extra gridlines on top that was about 20 spaces long across the sand and if Nicole didn't want to be stuck at the beginning of the desert and nowhere near close to Zafaran's Capital, he would have to guide his army to move around it rather than climb across it.

The corner of Nicole's eye twitched a couple of times. Just like his elder brother, it seemed that even Thomas Rosetta was going to test his patience. He ended his turn by sending 100 soldiers to the battlefield in Green Country, and since the Forest was getting smaller due to the deforestation, and therefore with the battlefront getting further away from Red Country's Capital, it would require more than one Stamina point to reach its edges.

Regardless, unfortunately for Green Country, Nicole's reinforcement had stumbled upon one of his scout troops once again and eradicate them on the way to the battlefront, hindering his progress towards Red Country's Capital.

Finally, Edward could start doing damage control since he failed to prevent Sun Flare from being cast. Of course, the most important thing to address was his broken Defense Shield, but he also needed to replenish his numbers as well if he didn't want Nicole's military to overwhelm his men, so he settled for strengthening and repairing the cracked Defense Shield, and then using the remaining three Stamina points to replace his fallen numbers.

Xander mostly concentrated on making sure he had enough numbers to push back the Red Country soldiers and trying to send out more scouts to glean where Nicole's traps were placed. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of an opening past the battlefield for this round, so all the Prince could do for his Country was to add more men into the flay.

Tanaka did not make any offensive actions towards the intruders in his desert-- though there was some doubt that he could in the first place. The Red Country soldiers were too far from the Capital for their Archers to reach and the youngest Rosetta made no plans to travel across the desert to directly fight the intruders as well, so he had Amir placed the usual cards on the World Projection before ending his turn just as quickly as it came.

When his turn came, Nicole gave his armies in Blue Country and Green Country a brief look over and decided to use one Stamina point to increase his numbers to 300 and another Stamina point to send 200 of them towards Blue Country's Capital. He used the rest to maneuver his troops in Zafaran around the large dune, avoiding the excessive gridlines that blanketed the mountain-like structure in order to efficiently move through the desert. Just as the army of 300 had moved two spaces past the dune, the group stalled, allowing Tanaka to announce another Trap card-- the same that first hindered the intruders, actually.

"Altinshit: Earsh Al-Rayan," Tanaka repeated, before following it with, "Altanshit: Ghadab Rayan," in a strangely curious tone. The entire desert brightened once again while another large dune obstructed the army from moving further once again.

Tanaka was completely unconcerned by Nicole's heated glare as he swept his dark eyes over the board once before he seemed satisfied by the direction of the game, though it had only been a couple of rounds that he had actually started playing.

The next few rounds happened the same way as well. Whenever Nicole tried to advance further towards Zafaran's Capital, Tanaka would block him by using The Throne of Rayyan, followed by Wrath of Rayyan every single time, and even when the temperamental nobleman had to temporarily abandon his crusade of destroying Zafaran to further Blue Country's and Green Country's demise, the youngest Rosetta would still activate Wrath of Rayyan.

"They're not even moving!" Nicole had protested during one turn, a little bit aggravated by the bright light emitted from Zafaran every time his turn came as if to mock him for turning his back from the little bastard.

"But your army is still on the desert," Tanaka casually rebutted, speaking in Common Language for the first time since the last half hour. "Therefore, they are within the range of my Trap card."

There was nothing wrong with the youngest Rosetta's logic and since the game allowed Tanaka to play as he did, Nicole had no choice but to clamp down on his irritation. Though the youngest Rosetta barely held any resemblance to his older brother in terms of appearances, much less to the rest of the family, the way they talked and how they annoyed him to death with their smartass comments seemed to be a common trait.

Regardless, the game continued on with Nicole still mostly in the lead when it came to numbers and his advancement towards the other Countries, though he had an ugly expression that would make people think otherwise.

Then, once the Red Country Soldiers in Zafaran reached the halfway point towards the Country's capital (though not without having to take several detours due to the ancient dunes that seemed to pop out of the stand like a bunch of daisies), Tanaka suddenly changed his gameplay. While he still had Amir lay out a couple more of his frustrating and seemingly useless Trap cards, the youngest Rosetta took a card from his platform to use directly instead of discarding it or placing it down on the World Project, and when it flipped it over to reveal its identity, it garnered some interesting reactions from all of the older teens.

Though not as rare or as powerful as Transportation, the card Night of the Beasts was still a difficult card to obtain normally. The card was also only useful to certain Countries as well; if Red Country and Blue Country found this card on their platform, they would discard it in a second and hoped it would be lost somewhere in the shuffle. However, if either Green Country or Zafaran had played it, while there were intruders within their territories or near their borders...

Night of the Beasts is an area-wide Attack card and one that was not directly lethal. As the name implied, when the card was played, the World Projection would be bathed in darkness for two whole rounds, mimicking a black night without stars or a moon, and during those two rounds, Beasts of many kinds would attack the intruders discriminately with obvious bloodlust. The only Countries with Beasts were Green Country and Zafaran. Green Country's Beasts had claws and sharp teeth and often left a Bleeding effect to any soldier they happened to bite. Zafaran Beasts were full of snake and bug-like creatures that most likely wouldn't be able to kill their intruders but never failed to leave them with a Poisoning condition.

The poison from Zafarian Beasts was special. While they weakened and crippled the ailing individual, they were also impossible to cure even with healing magic. Eventually, the Poisoning effect would fade away after three turns, but before then, the poison would cut off the part of a person's life inch by inch until they were dead or near death.

Unfortunately, while this card did not require resources nor a certain amount of soldiers to play it, both Green Country and Zafaran would not be allowed to move their armies or attack the other party (unless they were already attacking before the activation of this card) for the next two rounds as a result. Also, all Area-Trap cards, such as Wrath of Rayyan, would be canceled and have to be reactivated after Night of the Beasts had ended. Therefore, the Red Country Soldiers in Zafaran's desert would be allowed to move five spaces once again.

But Tanaka didn't seem to be concerned with the cons since, after briefly showing the card, he called out, "Activate: Night of the Beats," without even a single second of hesitation. The card disintegrated in his small hand and when it had disappeared entirely, everything on the World Projection went dark.

For a minute, there was a strange quiet on the board as if the night had taken away sound as well as the light, but then an army of red-eyes appeared in the Dark Forest and the still glittering -now dark silver- sands of Zafaran. As if hearing the same battle cry, the Beasts then lunged out of their homes to attack the intruders.

Wolf-like creatures snarled as they jumped onto the nearest prey, their large teeth aiming for their throats before ripping them apart with their claws. The visualization was brutal, along with the sounds of terror and screaming.

The Red Country Soldiers in Zafaran were not different from their companions in Green Country. Black and dark-scaled snakes slithered on the sand with great speed and either wrapped or sank their fangs onto the nearest limb they could find. In waves, almost like a large body of black water crashing into the iron sand, was a colony of scorpions that surrounded the unfortunate army and some unlucky men were even stampeded beneath them, his screams echoing in the desolated wasteland.

Nature was completely in control of the situation and the results were surprisingly gruesome to watch. No one blinked an eye at the slaughter; Tanaka was too accustomed to realistic games to be bothered while the others were familiar enough with Magic and War visuals— in fact, a couple of the older editions had more horrific scenes than this.

Regardless, Nicole knew he lost his advantage in Green Country. The Beasts were harder to kill than regular soldiers— faster, stronger, and more tenacious, the humans against them barely even stood a chance. Although Xander wouldn't be able to move his people, therefore his scout teams, to take advantage of the situation, that didn't mean he couldn't after the Night of the Beasts had ended once all of his soldiers in Green Country were decimated by the Beasts!

Tanaka ended his turn without bothering to use the last Stamina point and Nicole immediately began his counterattack, stocking up some soldiers with two of his Stamina points and send an army of 500 to replace and aid his soldiers in Green Country. There was not much he could do for his people in Zafaran though-- they were currently too far for him to send reinforcement since there were too many dunes in the way to make an easy and short path to the stranded army and he needed to keep his numbers close to his Capital so that he could send them to either Green Country or Blue Country, his more threatening enemies.

Admittedly, Edward's little bastard of a brother was making his supposedly easy victory into a more annoying and difficult venture, but he doubted it would last long. All the youngest Rosetta had done was stall his army from reaching Zafaran Capital and most of his men should be able to survive the next three rounds until the poison faded. Right now, in concern towards the brat and the Zafarian, what he should focus on was advancing through the desert further now that the restriction from 'Gadab Ry-' whatever was gone.

So, he did, ordering his poisoned soldiers to march forward towards the Capital, only--

"Altinshit: Earsh Al-Rayan."

Once again, a large dune blocked him from his goal and Nicole was ready to throw something at the little brat-- most preferably a concentrated ball of fire, but when accidentally made eye contact with Edward's Zafarian butler, whose dark and seemingly endless orbs seemed to nearly penetrating the depths of his soul, he unconsciously averted his eyes. This only served to make him angrier though because he was a Gallant-- one of the higher-classes of nobles, known for their prestige, their intelligence, and their beauty in all of Evadne, in all of Astria, and to avert his gaze because of a mere servant was laughable!

In order to wipe the seemingly smugged expression on the Zafarian's perfectly polite facade, Nicole waited for his next turn to make his move.

Edward was still struggling with the numbers Nicole kept adding and the opportunity to push his rival back hadn't made itself present yet. Especially since he was the main target for nearly every single Attack card his classmate had played, making it more difficult for him to efficiently replenish his army back to a decent and threatenable size against Red Country. But the temperamental should be busy trying to salvage some of the control he had over Green Country, so the eldest Rosetta used this chance to increase his men and send them off to battle near the Sixth Bridge.

Xander, just like Tanaka, couldn't move his army and therefore couldn't use his scouts to search for Nicole's Trap cards, but there were plenty of other things he could do to prepare for a great comeback against Red Country. He unexpectedly had some good luck due to the card Young Thomas had played, allowing him the opportunity to fight back. While he was always good at playing defense, he couldn't stand how stuck he was during the last several turns against his classmate.

Once again, it was Tanaka's and Amir's turn, but regardless of the change of direction from the last round, it seemed that they were back to their casual Trap-placing routine, their actions considerably harmonious as if they hadn't flipped the game upside-down in an instant.

It was quite notable that Nicole had used three of his Stamina points to get closer to Zafaran's Capital, though he was blocked by The Throne of Rayyan twice, he made a lot of progress regardless.

Tanaka couldn't help, but blink in surprise by the aggressive decision-- well, it was not as if Nicole hadn't played aggressively since the beginning, but the transmigrator knew the temperamental teen didn't consider them a threat, much less worthy of this much attention in one round. What could have changed that?

For some reason, the lazy young master looked up towards his much taller companion, who had noticed his gaze and looked back down at him with the same pleasant and mannerly face he had held throughout the entire game, his eyes curved charmingly in a way that caused goosebumps to rise from his skin. After a minute of contemplation, Tanaka decided not to ponder the matter any further.

The round passed quickly enough since Edward and Xander were only taking the opportunity to either increase their numbers or prepare a proper counterattack against Red Country, so when it was time for the Zafaran team to make their turn, night turned into the day and the Beasts that were the terror of the Red Country Army either faded into the shadows of the Forest or sank beneath into the sand as if they were never there. Green Country's Forest looked like an emerald dream while Zafaran's sands became golden once again.

But Tanaka and Amir played as they always did and once they laid the usual Trap cards, their turn ended in a blink.

Though Nicole wanted to take his frustration out on the pair, he had to focus on the incoming mess that would be happening in both Blue and Green Country. His rival had accumulated enough soldiers, especially Vanguards, to threaten his battalion once again and if he didn't make sure to keep enough numbers to face whatever Prince Xander had planned, then his advantage would crumble before he could take his revenge against Edward's little brother.

For the next few rounds, Nicole did riot control, trying to suppress both Countries with Attack cards and numbers at the same time. Tanaka on the other hand -probably to annoy him, so the temperamental noble had thought- kept activating 'Ghadab Rayan' on every single one of Nicole's turn, causing the other's anger to spike each time, and once he deemed his situation stabled, he turned his attention back to Zafaran with glaring eyes.

Despite the restrictions from Wrath of Rayyan and The Throne of Rayyan, it only took another few more rounds Nicole closed the distance enough for his Magicians to start attacking Zafaran's Defense Shield and since it had no resistance against Fire Magic, unlike with Blue Country's Defense Shield, theirs had already started to crack slightly.

Though Nicole had a face as if he had finally won, Tanaka didn't seem distressed as he scratched the back of his head, ruffling his curly brown hair with a thoughtful expression on his face. The fact that the intruders were close enough to start attacking his Capital, and that his Defense Shield had already starting to crack, wasn't really a problem for him-- he was just a little perplexed how soon it had happened. His older brother's and Prince Xander's classmate went ahead of schedule for some reason. He had thought the temperamental noble would approach them at a more casual pace rather than forcefully push through despite his situation with Blue and Green Country.

"Sayidi Alsaghir," (Little Master/Sir./سيدي الصغير) Amir called out to the youngest Master of the Rosetta, causing the little one to look up at him in an instant. The corner of the butler's lip twitched upwards ever so slightly. It seemed that the child responded to Zafara much better and faster than the Common Language, for some reason. "Asmihuu li 'an yakun hdha bidawrih." (Allow me to have this turn./اسمحوا لي أن يكون هذا بدوره.)

"Hasna." (Okay./حسنا.) Tanaka didn't hesitate to agree since the other had proposed it himself. He was a little bit worried that Amir wasn't enjoying himself-- well, Tanaka fell asleep halfway, so maybe the butler wasn't really enjoying himself at all. Though his face always looked pleased, the great and encompassing magic that the transmigrator could always feel beneath the other's skin was also contrary. But, as Tanaka had leaned himself against the dark-skinned young man, it felt rather calm this time, though still bubbling just right below the surface-- maybe Amir was not as bored as he thought he was?

Regardless, after both Thomas' brother's and Prince Xander's turned had ended, Amir was the one that stepped up to the plate, taking a card from a platform with a swift and graceful hand. He held the card between two fingers, giving it a cursory glance, before turning his dark eyes the immature child across from the rune mat.

He gave Nicole a smile, one that looked very handsome but entirely unpleasant at the same time, before flipping the card over to be seen by the group. "Activate: Rain of Iron," his baritone voice resonated as if he was casually commenting on the weather and with his permission, the Archers stationed around the Capital immediately took arms and aimed for the sky.

Rain of Iron was a standard Attack card that every player/Country could draw and use. Basically, instead of haphazardly shooting arrows towards the enemy, all Archers would draw their bows and release them at the same time. Also, the numbers of arrows shot towards the enemy would double as well, allowing Archers to kill double the number of enemies effectively.

Of course, this type of attack tended to be useless against Magicians, who naturally had shields to block against the volley of arrows, but the majority of the people in the invading army were either weakened or crippled and some Magicians weren't able to pull up a shield in time before they became porcupines. More than half of Nicole's forces in Zafaran were destroyed, causing the Gallant Heir's face to turn red. It was far too late for him to notice that he was somehow tricked by the duo to lead his army to a certain spot in the desert where the arrows would optimally reach his men in all three sides. Originally, he thought those dunes were created to stall for time but they were made to maneuver him into a trap instead!

Fortunately, the majority of his Magicians were still alive, though he lost all of his Vanguards and his Archer, he didn't believe he would need them to win against Zafaran, of all things for him to have difficulty over! He intended to use an Attack card to destroy Zafaran's Capital once and for all.

Of course, even after Amir's counterattack, they both still used their remaining Stamina points to add more Trap cards, as if they would still have the chance to use them once Nicole was done with them, but neither of them was concerned with the noble's sinister gaze.

Once they were finished, Nicole took one of the Attack cards from his platform and was about to play until he realized he had no soldiers within Zafaran anymore-- in fact, the Magicians that had survived the rain of arrows died from where they stood, their corpses buried steadily by the consuming, golden sands.

Not comprehending on what had just happened, the haughty noble then heard screams from both Blue Country and Green Country. When he turned his attention back to look at both battlefields, he noticed that some soldiers had stayed in the frontlines but most had turned back and ran away back towards Home Base. Nicole was practically speechless and baffled by what was happening. It seemed that he wasn't the only one since both Xander and Edward were in the same state as well-- of all the years they had played this game, they never seen such a thing happened before.

It wasn't until Edward had peered back towards his rival's Capital that he realized something and amusement flashed through his usually cold eyes: "You have run out of Resources, Gallant."

"What?" Nicole blurted out rather stupidly before turning his eyes back towards his Resource Counter, his jaw nearly dropping when he saw the '0'.

"I have never seen such a thing before-- at least, for Red Country!" Xander couldn't help but gush with wonder in his tone. Of course, for smaller Countries like Blue and Green Country, if Red Country had invaded enough of their land, Red Country could force the two Countries into starvation. Usually, those two Countries would be focused taking back their lands and hoarding their resources for bigger projects, but Red Country rarely had to do that. It was difficult to starve Red Country, which was always Resource-rich, and most of the time, it seemed rather impossible no matter how much of its land was taken. But the impossible became possible during this one game, causing Nicole to doubt the results.

"Stupid thing, it must have been broken!" Nicole accused, his tone full of denial as he tried to activate his Attack card, but couldn't due to his insufficient numbers and Resources.

"It's not," Tanaka pointed out from across the board, his bland and blunt voice only aggravating his mood into something worse.

"It has to be! I shouldn't be out of Resources so suddenly!"

"It wasn't sudden. You weren't paying attention." That was probably true. Most of the time, those who were playing Red Country didn't need to check how much Resources they have since it was always 'too much' rather than 'too little'-- if Nicole had noticed how drastically his Resources had been used up with each turn, he could probably salvage the situation but since he didn't, he would just have to deal with the consequences. "It's the effects of Ghadab Rayan."

Nicole recalled the description of the card Ghadab Rayan, which wasn't difficult since it was one of the very few cards the youngest Rosetta actually used in the entire game. "Impossible! That card only takes 5% of my Resources! Who are you trying to fool?!"

"Yes, each card would take 5% of the intruding Country's Resource," Tanaka admitted easily and though it sounded like he was trying to make fun of Nicole's intelligence, Edward understood what his little brother was implying.

"The effects could be stacked upon?" the eldest Rosetta asked sharply, his ice-blue eyes turning towards his youngest sibling, and Tanaka could only nod in response. It was well known, for those who had played the Zafaran War edition, that if Wrath of Rayyan was activated, those within the desert would be limited to moving three spaces through the sand and having 5% more of their Resources depleted for every turn the intruders were still in the desert. The three-spaces limitation couldn't be changed, but the depletion of Resources effect could be stacked upon.

It wasn't something that was explained on the card description, but something that Tanaka had found out while reading the manual and checking out Zafaran's unique cards. According to the book, a player was only allowed to stack the effect five times, which meant that the highest percentage of Resources that Wrath of Rayyan could deplete was 25%. At first, it did not seem like a high number, but since Nicole was waging war in three different fronts and was producing more soldiers than he would have lost, his overall Resources was sapped with each turn.

Tanaka was a little surprised to discover this little feature since Zafaran was supposedly the 'weakest' Country in the game, but with the desert and the card alone, they could probably make empires crumble upon themselves. After all, without Resources, the player wouldn't be able to move their military, activate certain cards, or even fight against their foes. They were practically sitting ducks until their next turn when their Resources would build up again.

And both Edward and Xander were aware of that, and just like how Nicole had done with them, they would not give their classmate any face or mercy. They both did not question the validity of the youngest Rosetta's method-- after all, if the game allowed it, then it was within the rules. Because of the rigorous design of the game, unless one was a Rune Master and had in-depth knowledge of runes and how each one would interact with each other, it was impossible to cheat around a rune mat.

The game had already passed Nicole due to his lack of resources-- he couldn't even lay any Trap cards since the Man-made ones would cost Resources, none of which he had, and Red Country's deck lacked the Natural ones.

Therefore Edward took this chance to target Nicole's Capital and since he still had built up quite some numbers, a lot of which had survived against Red Country's overwhelming numbers, he sent out 300 soldiers to occupy 300 Warships. Sometime during the game, he had already sent the two Warship close enough to start shooting high-pressured water cannons at Red Country's Defense Shield and adding the next three Warship, the combined power was enough to make one Defense Shield crumble in half. Next, he played an Attack card called Marex's Trident, which was the ultimate Attack card for Blue Country, especially against Red Country. It would merge the power from all five Warships to create a single, thin, laser-like, high-pressure water beam with twice the destructive power that would continuously assault Red Country's Defense Shield until the next round. With his last Stamina point, he then activated an Area-Attack card, Marex's Rage, which would increase the potency of Water Magic by 100%.

Dark clouds came flying over the Sea and after a couple of lightning strikes and some thunder booming in the air, rain poured down on the Warships without warning as if a dam had been broken. Nonetheless, Marex's Trident continued its attack on Nicole's Capital and, in fact, became stronger since it broke through three Shields in an instant. The fifth one was already on the verge of cracking and it was estimated that before the next round, all seven of his Defense Shields would be gone.

When Xander's turn came, he sent out nearly half of his soldiers towards Red Country's Capital, including all of his Cavalry Riders, and since Nicole would not be able to activate any of his Trap cards until he had sufficient Resources, none of them were forcefully stalled on their way to their enemies defenseless Capital. It took two Stamina Points for his military to reach their goal and once they started to attack the cracked Defense Shield, it broke down into dust in about two seconds. It was almost ironic how with each Defense Shield broken, the leftover magic would sprinkle over and into the air as if it was something to be celebrated.

Of course, there was still two more Defense Shields left before they could reach their classmate's Capital, but Xander did have a plan how to get rid of them in an instant. Though he was saving this card for his best friend, the Prince was well aware that they didn't end Nicole on this round, the other would recover his Resources and his Defense Shield much quicker than they would be able to destroy his entire army. They only reason they had this opportunity in the first place was due to Young Thomas' amazing strategy, but since all of the Red Country soldiers within Zafaran's territory had died, the Wrath of Rayyan's effect was gone and Nicole would not be careless to enter the desert again-- not without eliminating Blue Country and Green Country first!

So, without hesitation, Xander played a card called The Guardian of Silvia, and just right beside the Cavalry Riders, a large golem of massive size made of earth and wood rose from the ground. It had a body similar to a human, but its head was animal-like with the snout of a wolf, full of sharp teeth and dripping fangs, and the antlers of a buck with moss hanging from its branches. Its battle cry was decidedly outworldly though, a mixture of a shriek and a roar that rung in everyone's ears.

It was one of Green Country's most powerful offensive moves but because of its size, which was as wide as three spaces and even taller than the top of the Defense Shield, this card could only be played outside of the Forest (or rather, it was recommended that this card would be played outside of the Forest), otherwise the invading Country wouldn't need to burn down the Forest to find Green Country's Capital. The Guardian would gladly do it for them! Thought its title seemed elegant, the way the golem fought would bring great (messy) destruction to its surrounding, even to the Forest. It would have better to create chaos in someone else's home rather than theirs.

Right after its creation, the Guardian brought down its fists onto the Defense Shield repeatedly. And paired with Marex's Trident, the second to last Defense Shield caved easily. It wasn't long until the last Defense Shield had started to crack as well and with one last Attack card from Xander's platform, Silvia's Song, which was similar to Marex's Rage in that it could increase the attack power of all Earth Magic, Red Country's Capital was finally exposed.

Nicole could only watch with an ugly expression and several colorful faces as the empire he had built up was destroyed under the pressure of both Blue Country and Green Country's attack.

Tanaka, the main reason for Red Country's disastrous demise, didn't seem surprised by the results or particularly happy about it-- though he gave both Blue Country and Green Country the chance to recover during the Night of the Beasts and had also given them the opportunity to destroy Red Country in a single turn, it didn't mean that the game was over. Far from it, actually.

Eliminating Red Country was only the first step, one that was easy to conquer as long as Nicole continued to play in such a predictable manner. Of course, Tanaka couldn't foresee the other's possession of the Teleportation card. Nor did he foresaw drawing the Night of the Beasts card either, but he had always planned on depleting and/or crippling all of Red Country's Resources. He didn't need a large army or even a layer of Defense to do that. All he needed was to for the enemies to stay in the desert for a long period of time and the nearly inexhaustible amounts of Wrath of Rayyan cards in his hands-- in other words, Tanaka had found the laziest way to play Magic and War.

No need for complicated army placements or to think about how to use up Resources efficiently. His people could stay comfortably near their homes and not far away stranded with support readily nearby and didn't have to use complicated Attack cards or spells against the enemy. Complicated schemes would bring more harm to Zafaran than protect it, especially since they were too far away from the other Countries to make any direct attack feasible, so it was better just to wait for the enemies to come to them and let them foolishly try to face the desert head on. And when they lost all of their Resources, let the other Countries gobble them up.

Everything pretty much went according to plans, except...

Tanaka couldn't help but look up at the handsome butler beside him once again, whose expression hadn't changed but gave off a feeling... like a cat that had caught the canary.

Tanaka: "......."

Amir should be aware what Tanaka was planning during the game. In fact, he was the one that placed most of the Throne of Rayyan cards around the desert, allowing Tanaka to cut off Red Country from advancing every two spaces as if the butler knew where Nicole would move his men several steps ahead.

But at the very last minute, even though Amir knew the next turn would be Nicole Gallant's last, the dark-skinned butler asked his little master for the chance to 'take care' of the invading army. Tanaka agreed, mostly because he wanted Amir to have fun too, and the child was aware that his definition of 'fun' was... well, rather than fun, he prefers to sleep the daylight (and nighttime) away. Though Magic and War was a fantastic game to watch and explore, it was passed his pre-dinner naptime, unfortunately, and his lazy personality took over, taking some of the excitement and hot-blooded competitiveness out of his blood. He couldn't keep up with the three other teen's intenseness and vigor.

Regardless, Tanaka was very well aware that Amir was basically taking enjoyment out of 'kicking someone while they down' even if the person themselves didn't even know they were in a dangerous situation in the first place. It was surprisingly a very petty move coming from someone like the butler, who was always the perfect example of grace and poise...

But Tanaka didn't comment on it out loud and moved on.

Anyway, this lazy method of playing would work for maybe the first couple of Countries, but once the rest figured out Tanaka's plan, they wouldn't be so careless to enter into Zafaran's domain without stocking up their Resources to counter the Wrath of Rayyan's effects.

Zafaran's military might was still very poor for an all-out war even in their territory and Zafaran neutrality in all magic was both a headache and a boon to consider as well. Not to mention--

"You all conspired against me!" Nicole accused spitefully after his lost had sunk in, snapping Tanaka out of his thoughts.

"We didn't," Edward stated truthfully, unaffected by his rival's childish anger. "At first, but you did make it easy to."

"You--" Steam started to rise from Nicole's shoulders and Edward countered it with a short blast of cold air, but it only served to increase his classmate's fury. Tanaka was honestly, very concerned that they would start fighting in the library again and cause casualties among the books on the shelves.

"If I may interrupt, young masters," Amir suddenly spoke up, his head bowed in submission with his hands clasped behind his back. "But I'm afraid that it's near dinnertime and his Royal Highness Windsor and Sir Gallant will have to be escorted back to their estates."

Nicole turned his glare towards the elegant Zafarian, who didn't even flinch, nor was intimidated, by the noble's burning gaze. If the Gallant Heir had the ability to burst the butler into flames by the heat of his green-eyes, the dark-skinned servant would probably be on fire. "Who cares about dinner? I want a rematch!"

"The current game hasn't even ended, Gallant," Edward sneered, his ice-blue eyes full of ridicule even if his face remained expressionless. "Stop throwing a tantrum and act your age. It's unbecoming."

"Fine," Nicole suddenly agreed with a dark expression on his teeth, almost bearing his teeth at his rival. "Rather than playing some stupid game, let's conduct a magic spar!"

"You're the one who suggested this 'stupid game,' Gallant-- in fact, you brought this game for us to play so don't go regretting it now."

"Oh dear, I didn't realize it was already so late..." Xander couldn't help but commented when he realized how dim it was outside. The sky had already turned into a brilliant red and orange color, basking the library with its splendor, and it complimented the Prince's hair beautifully. "My Mother would be upset if I didn't make it back for dinner. I'm afraid we must cut our fun short Sir Edward, Sir Gallant." Obviously, while he should be heading home, he was also trying to discourage his best friend and his fellow classmate from harming each other. If they continued acting in such an uncivilized manner, Young Thomas would certainly be badly influenced by such immaturity!

Ah, speaking of Young Thomas, Xander could see how the little one was nearly asleep on his feet. Though he courageously stayed awake while he led Nicole to his destruction, the excitement seemed to have faded, leaving a tired and droopy child.

Every time the little one would flutter his eyelashes, trying to keep himself awake by blinking his large, dark eyes rapidly, Xander felt his heart soften. His best friend was so lucky to have such good and cute siblings. Though his mother and father were advancing in their years, maybe there was still hope for him to have a little sister and/or brother.

"It seemed that Young Thomas would have to eat dinner later in the evening, after a nap perhaps?" After all, young children need to nap frequently in order to grow up healthy, right? "Good sir, Mr. Al-Amin," Xander called out with the proper pronunciation of the Zafarian's name. "Would you escort Young Thomas to his room? Sir Hughes can escort me and Sir Gallant to our carriages."

Morgan 'Hughes' could only comply and bow his head, eyeing the youngest master and his fellow butler with strange eyes. The little imp had turned into a little sloth and his co-worker... well, it was safer to say that he hadn't really changed, the Zafarian's pleasant and artificial facade still intact, but his tolerance for the illegitimate child was rather strange. Regardless, he was not paid to question the happenings of the household-- Young Master Thomas was still the unfavored bastard while his own charge was the extraordinary son and heir in every aspect. That was the only thing that mattered to the butler.

If that meant he would get to curry some favor with the Crown Prince, the Gallant Heir, and his own young master while the Zafarian was stuck with the little brat, then who was he to argue?

Either way, Tanaka blinked in surprise as he finally remembered that Morgan was near the door-- not that he was never unaware where the other butler was stationed, but he was so focused on the game that he had forgotten the extra audience in the room.

Nonetheless, Tanaka had no arguments either with what Xander had proposed. He gets to have his nap and his dinner afterward? Usually, Clarisse would balk at the change in schedule since she was afraid that having pre-dinner naptime and bedtime close together would ruin his sleep... even though her young master had the ability to sleep regardless of time, situation, or space... But anyone would be able to tell that just from a glance that the child would probably fall face-first into his dinner rather than eat it, and considering how thin and small the little one already was, they weren't willing to let him skip any meals. Especially with his mandatory glass of milk, which was provided for him at every meal time.

Amir, who understood the little one's habits better than anyone in the room, agreed to the Crown Prince's suggestion and started to usher the sleepy child towards the door, but surprisingly, Young Master Thomas ducked under his hand and stumbled straight towards Young Master Edward instead.

Edward was startled from his intense staring contest against his rival when a small hand tugged on his jacket sleeve, and when he looked down, he froze at the sight of his younger brother's lucid eyes framed by his soft, brown curls. This was the first time since a long while did he actually seen Thomas this close and the more he looked at him, the more unrecognizable he seemed.

"Do not use magic in the library, please," Tanaka requested solemnly, his tone half pleading, half sincere, and partly admonishing.

Edward: "......" He found himself rather speechless because Thomas had often said that he would rather die than receive help or asking anything from anyone 'with that woman's blood,' but what in the world had changed that??

"Please fight outside." Unlike Xander, Tanaka did not care if they fought just as long it was not in the library. Both Father and Mother should be home so he did not believe the fight would escalate to the point of blood being spilled, but it would have been too tragic (for him) if one of his favorite napping spots was frozen or burnt down. Then, after a moment of thoughtfulness, Tanaka amended his statement.

"Please fight in the courtyard. Not the gardens." After all, Conrad had toiled very hard to make the gardens in the Rosetta Estate to be second only by the Royal Palace Gardens. Plus, there was a bush of lavender that the gardeners had planted just for him and he liked to take naps near it when the weather was nice.

After staring at his serious-looking, but sleepy younger brother for a long minute, Edward could only helplessly agree: "I won't pick any fights. Go rest while I escort His Highness and Sir Gallant to their carriages."

Tanaka gave a small smile to the other in response, satisfied that the library would be here for him to explore again tomorrow, before turning around to follow Amir once again. Edward was left in a daze since this was the first time he had ever seen the youngest Rosetta smile. Smirk, yes. Frown, plenty of times. Sneer, too many times to count. But a genuine smile was something he didn't think Thomas was capable of due to his twisted personality.

Before exiting through the library double-doors, Tanaka at least had the courtesy to wave both to Xander and Nicole as a farewell gesture, one waving back sunnily while the other had a scowl and a glare that could probably melt through steel, before disappearing out of the room.

The pair of servant and young master then started heading towards Thomas' isolated wing of the manor and though Tanaka had tried to keep up for as long as he could, one minute later, he stopped following Amir, who then had to stop as well.

Looking back at the little one, not surprised how quickly the other one had given up trying to match his stride (which he made purposefully long for his own amusement), he saw the young master holding out his arms towards him, his dark, limpid eyes half-lidded and his small mouth partly opened.

"Aelaa, raja," the little one had both ordered and requested at the same time, and Amir narrowed his eyes in amusement and pleasure. It had been a while since he had last spoken Zafara with someone, and while he was initially surprised to find that the youngest master was able to speak the language of his people so fluently, he was also a little pleased.

He was very well aware of the little master's intelligence; there wasn't a day that Clarisse wouldn't boast of it every time her young master's report card came back, but Amir felt that there was something more to this intellect, more to the little one that no one was able to see...

With a quirk of his lips, his face unknowingly indulgent, he made his way over to the young child and easily swooped the little one up into his arms. After hearing the young master taking his usual brief sniff over whatever scent he could smell on the butler, the little master then tucked his arms against the dark-skinned man nuzzled his head under the older male's chin, the little one's breath evening out in less than a minute.

The youngest of the Rosetta's was completely and utterly defenseless against him and even after he used a gloved hand to touch the other's neck, only so that he could readjust the little one's head on his shoulder, the child wouldn't stir.

Amir's gaze darkened as he continued to walk towards the young master's room, knowing that Clarisse would be there waiting for the little one since she had already investigated her young master's whereabouts and decided to leave him be, somehow confident that her co-worker would take care of her lazy charge.

Indeed, Amir ended up being the one to return Young Master Thomas back into his room, and as he strode down the dark hallways, illuminated only by the descending sunset which turned the sky purple and red, he thought back to the child's Zafara. His sharp, dark orbs flashed towards the vulnerable figure in his arms before shifting them away to the hallway before him.

The Zafarian might be convinced that the child had studied under a professor or had taught himself how to speak and read Zafara, but there was one thing that didn't make sense...

What the Astrian called 'Zafara' was known as the 'Common Language' in Zafaran; this was what he and the young master had been using throughout most of the game. It was mainly spoken in the main cities but generally understood by everyone in Zafaran. Of course, there were some tribal dialects in the villages and tribes near the sea and those who lived among the borders, but the Common Language would be taught as a second language for them in that case.

This was what the Astrians would have taught in their schools (for those who actually did want to learn how to communicate with 'the barbarians'), but it seemed that Young Master Thomas was fluent in the Common Language and more.

When the youngest Rosetta had spoken to him in Zafara for the first time, the child seemed unsure, as if he wasn't sure whether he was using the right words. So Amir, at first, didn't say anything or answer back, mostly to see how the little one would react or say if he kept his silence and pretended he didn't understand the words the child had spoken.

Then, the little one repeated his statement in Noble Language, which didn't sound any different to those who were not familiar with Zafaran, but would be recognizable to any Zafarian in the main cities. More specifically, to the Zafarian nobility.

The Noble Language, in contrast to the Common Language, was what the Nobility and the Yarshud, the Head of Zafaran's main religion, had claimed to be closest to the language spoken by their ancestors. It was sacred in that only some high-ranking noble families, a few devoted and important followers of Rayyan, and those with Royal Blood could learn to speak it. It was passed on secretly and tightly within the inner circles, and yet, how did the youngest son of the Astrian's Prime Minister stumble upon it? Actually, it was impossible for the child to just have 'stumble' upon it. That meant someone, someone of Zafaran Nobility, had taught the boy for some inexplicable reason.

He remembered when he had first carried the child in his arms and how the boy had called him 'Basim,' and he found his arms around the little one tightened.

'Basim' was not an Astrian name. It sounded distinctively Zafarian, but Amir could not recall anyone in Zafaran's nobility that with this particular name.

A sigh from the little one brought him out of his thoughts and he loosened his hold on the fragile body ever so slightly. The child didn't seem to be aware of Amir's darkening mood or calculative thoughts as he only curled himself further into the older man's embrace, causing the butler to huff in amusement before he then slowed down his pace.

No matter, he would make the necessary arrangements and start investigating who this 'Basim' was. This man broke several laws teaching this child the Noble Language and he wouldn't be welcomed in the Capital once Amir had found him.

He also doubted that this 'Basim' had any good intention making contact with the illegitimate son of the Prime Minister and would pay dearly for outreaching into his territory.

...--------...

Geez, it has been a while since I have written anything so I hope my writing style hasn't changed too much. Or that I haven't lost my sense of cuteness and fluff. >.< As a writer of cuteness and fluff, it would be very bad of me if I lost that.

Anyway, I need... well, time. To recover from this monstrous chapter. My brain feels squeezed like a lemon and then taken apart piece by piece. The next chapter is going to be much, much shorter, which I'm sorry for, but I can't afford to write long chapters like this. (￣▽￣;)

But I'll increase the fluffiness x10 to make it up!

Oh, I'm not sure if any of you guys were checking out my profile, but I left a message saying that I would also be publishing a new story, just for my own amusement. Mostly because I want to read a slice-of-life zombie apocalypse story and something without too much revenge lol.

If you guys like Tanaka, then you'll probably like Zhang Jian.（‐＾▽＾‐）Basically, it's a mixture of The Reborn Otatku's Code of Practice for the Apocalypse and Beloved Marriage in High Society, though more towards the former than the latter. I mentioned the latter because Zhang Jian and Meng Ting have similar personalities. (＾▽＾)

The title is: Having a Good-Looking Face is Too Troublesome

You'll find out why its titled like that pretty soon lol.

The Main Synopsis:

Zhang Jian is an ordinary army soldier with a plain, but masculine face, a pair of sharp eyes that often gets him into trouble than not, and a skill set that any ordinary military man would have.

He doesn't have his own convenient dimensional space, or some kind of powerful special-ability, or even a golden thigh to hug to help him survive the apocalypse, but he had already lived through twenty years on his own using only his own strengths and wits to survive the next day. Surely, things would be better for him the second time around, right?

The Actual Synopsis (that this Author actually wanted to write):

If there is anything that Zhang Jian has learned during his years living in the apocalypse, it's that beautiful people are troublesome.

Whenever a pretty face would show up in public, people would argue, blood would be spilled, and Zhang Jian's good opinion in humanity would be nonexistent.

There was also the fact that beautiful people are often granted abilities to help them live through the apocalypse. Therefore, Zhang Jian really didn't want to involve himself with these type of frightening and terrifying people (he's not good with regular people in the first place) and yet... why are all these good-looking people trying to crowd around him?!

The 'daughter of a politician' pretty little sister: "Jian'ge~"

Zhang Jian, who saved her and took her in: "....."

The beautiful, playboy young master: "Jian'ge, don't go off anywhere without us."

Zhang Jian, who also saved him out of a coincidence: "......."

The handsome but persistent military general: "Xiao Jian, don't leave my sight."

Zhang Jian, who only saved him out of convenience: ".........."

The popular, good-looking former high-school friend: "Jian'er, stay with me."

Zhang Jian, being crowded by these good-looking people: "..... It's suffocating...."

Reading Guide: Technically Harem but eventually 1v1, fast-paced, bl, adorable MC