Making the last move, I sighed as the battle ended with a draw with Ralph. He was just too good at reading people's actions, to the point where if I wasn't a veteran who had seen Leo make the exact same calls before, I would have lost. Oliver, on the other hand, was simply a bomb of a player. He played extremely aggressively at the start, biting off large chunks of both our armies, before his playstyle couldn't remain sustainable in the game and he got cut off by the two of us. But if we had allowed ourselves a moment to breathe, he would have certainly swallowed us whole at record speed.
The two of them were phenomenal players, showing exact opposite strategies, making the game so much more complex and challenging.
Sighing at the thought, I stared down at the sand boxes and felt a wave of nostalgia hit me at the sight. Since Oliver had lost fairly early in the game, his marks were nowhere to be found. And so this board had essentially two players. What's more, based on how the marks were scattered, it was easy to tell that one of them was a strategist who loved to scatter traps all over the map. And the other one was just a fly weaving through the mesh of trip wires and infrared rays. It was just like the games I used to play with Leo.
"That was a good game!"
Stretching, Ralph looked quietly over at my exclamation and smiled. Then, turning our heads, we saw Oliver close the news book he had grabbed from the bookcase.
"Is the game over?"
Leaning over, he glanced at the sand box and raised his eyebrows. Then, without words, we erased the sandbox and started another game.
"This time, I'm not going to go out this early."
Despite the determination burning in his eyes, Oliver placed the news book beside him. The page was even turned to where he had last read.
Not commenting on his actions, the three of us started a new round where Oliver continued with his aggressive campaign. But this time, instead of pointing that aggression everywhere, he accurately attacked crucial battle formation weak points, and Ralph and I were forced to scramble around the box to avoid being swallowed whole. It was as if someone was guiding him.
Gritting my teeth, I sacrificed an important location to slip out of his grasps.
"Why are you suddenly so good?"
From the other end of the box, I saw Ralph toss a distraction towards Oliver as he escaped with barely a sliver of health left.
Did he purposely lose just now?
Sneaking a look at Oliver, his eyes scanned the boxes intently for any breakpoints. Suddenly, his eyes unnaturally focused on one of my marks, and I quickly tore my attention from him to protect myself.
However, his reign of terror couldn't stay strong forever. Soon, his marks were dispersed far enough that counterattacking became possible, and we ripped into his freshly-attained territory, carving it up between ourselves. As his newfound kingdom crashed to the ground, I heard Oliver give a sigh from beside me as the last of his marks were swallowed up.
"So close."
Leaning back, Oliver retrieved the newsbook, obviously not affected by the game, and went back to reading.
Turning back to our game, we set up our marks in their positions again. However, since Oliver had basically rampaged the entire map, the battle had become a different sort of beast. Forced to fight as we set up our marks, the usual peaceful moves had now devolved into a fierce fight for strategic positions on the map. And because of this, since I was better at navigating such a minefield, the battle tilted in my favor, and I easily eradicated Ralph from the box.
Cleaning the box again, I stood up and peered out the door to check the time. The house was dark and silent. Opening the door, I could barely make out the tables and chairs in the living room. Turning my head, I spotted a bright shard of orange light leaking from the bottom of the door.
My parent's were not back, and since Ralph was here, that probably meant that his mother went out to work. Remembering the sight of Ralph when I had first met him, I silently closed the door. She would probably be working extra hard today, since holidays have the best pay.
"Is it late?"
Stacking the boxes near the bookshelf, Ralph randomly took out a news book and flipped to the first page. And copying him, I took the news book from two years ago and started rereading the first article.
The first article, unlike all the others that came after it, started near the end of the year. In fact, since the news book was so thin, it also contained articles for the first few months of the next year.
The first article was about the aftermath of Andrew's adoption of Oliver and Alex. Even during those times, there were many against the adoption. The majority of them had been worried that Andrew would murder Alex in order to have access to a body with MDVA. Although those worries settled down after many people had seen the three of them live a peaceful life,
Skimming the article, it took a neutral stand on this issue by presenting both sides equally. When talking about the reason people feared for Alex's life, they always mentioned the law that MDVA victims would have their corpses collected by the government since they no longer possessed any rights. And right next to this point, the articles would always mention the research center at High street.
Flipping to the other articles, I flipped through the book until I landed on the article that began last year.
'What happened at Bottom street? The Wrap Up.'
Below the heading, there was a compilation of pictures of many families smiling with their lost children. And near the top left corner, I spotted Camelia and Daniel hugging a cheerful and bright child in their arms.
'The shocking series of events that rocked society started out with the kidnapping of a policeman's son from Middle street. The wife of the policeman, who was an ex-policewoman, had spotted the leaving backs of the kidnappers and, through investigation, had determined them to be from a specific gang from Bottom street. With the cooperation of the police from both Middle and Bottom street, the gang was successfully arrested after several weeks of back and forth fights that ravaged the public's trust of the safety of Bottom street.'
Separating the text blocks was a picture of several men being arrested by the Middle street police. Standing at the side of the pictures doing nothing were the Bottom street police.
'However, the arrest of the kidnapping group wasn't the end for some of the victims. Nearly a third of them developed MDVA by the second week after their rescue, with the policeman's son being sent to the euthanasia center only a couple days later.'
There were several pictures of families crying as they stood in front of a sea of white flowers. Near the middle, Daniel had a shoulder around Camillia as they faced flowers. Beside them were many families just like them, regardless of number, gender, or occupation; they all grieved the loss of what had to be at least several dozen children.
Focusing my attention on the area near the center, my eyes followed a woman with a white flower in her hands. She was leaning forward, her face hidden by her hair, but I remembered that day clearly, as if it had been burned into my brain.
It was a gray day, and the clouds painted the sky a sorrowful color to match the mood. Having been invited by Camilia and Daniel to attend the public funeral, our small group arrived at the venue in near silence. At that time, Leo had already left this world, and since he had often played with Eren, my mother, who was always home, was the closest to Eren in our family. Especially after Leo's death, Eren often came over to console her.
Walking up to the main entrance of the funeral area, each of us accepted the white flowers being handed out by the rich sponsor of the funeral. They were said to be from High street, a politician who was fighting for the abolishment of the MDVA prevention act.
After taking the flowers, we headed near the offering area, where the sea of flowers had already formed. Camilia and Daniel were the first to offer their flowers. She had needed some assistance to walk, as her body was still quite injured from infiltrating Bottom street. Following them were the three of us.
Limping towards the white field, she bent down to place the flower and muttered something inaudible. From a small distance away from her, my father and I waited patiently for her to stand before heading over to place our flowers. After that, my father had gathered her into his arms, and we had walked back to the Justice couple.
Returning to the present, I ran my finger over the picture. On the bottom of the picture, there was a small line of text describing it.
'A picture of the funeral sponsored by Anti-MDVA act politician Henry Hank'
Flipping the page, the article then listed a couple of goals the Bottom street police would aim for after the incident. However, whether they actually would do anything would be a different issue. Even the article wasn't very confident about the statements.
Suddenly, I felt a warm shoulder touch mine. Titling my head, I saw Ralph's cool blue eyes fixate on the list.
"The incident from two years ago?"
As he reached out his hand, Ralph took the article and looked down the list. On the side, Oliver had put down the news book in his hand and crawled to my right. Peering over my shoulder, he glanced at the list, and those black eyes darkened.
"Such empty promises."