"We do not bear firearms, and you are permitted to check." Ace of Hearts raises both hands as if to show vulnerability, but he maintains that derogatory smirk.
"I asked of your reasons to step foot on Diamonds ground!" Ten's still keeping his guard up high, so was the soldiers around.
Nearly every soldiers present on the Diamonds side had their firearms pointed directly at Ace of Hearts.
Except for Ace, he didn't have a weapon and he was visibly nervous. Ace was trembling so intensely that he's practically squirming.
"As written in the delivered letter, I am a representative of the Hearts community, which wishes to discuss terms for a peace treaty with Diamonds."
"We never sent a letter back approving this visit."
"As I've stated previously, we bear no firearms and you are permitted to check. We come in peace."
Ten was visibly tense, as would anyone in such a situation, he kept his gun up but did eventually reluctantly accepted the visit.
"State your terms."
"Where's your Jack?"
"Why does that matter, Ace of Diamonds here is assigned for this discussion instead, you are not meeting our Jack."
"We are commanded by our superiors to only state our terms to the Jack of Diamonds, no one else."
"Then I'm afraid that's not possible."
"Then I'm afraid this will be seen as a direct declaration of war with Hearts."
As soon as the word 'war' was spoken, everyone on Diamonds side flinched.
"Something I do remember because it's also a thing in later stages, I only lost my memories from this specific stage, Hearts is the strongest community in terms of manpower." Four explains to me.
Confronted with the threat of war, Ten grits his teeth in vexation, while Ace of Hearts widens his derisive smirk.
Being a part of the strongest community, Ace of Hearts has no fear for being impertinent in foreign territories.
"What do we do?" Ten asks Ace, who from my observation, has been panicking in silence this whole time.
"Uh I uh j-just I dont..." Ace stutters over and over trying to talk, really accentuates just how terrified he is of this situation.
"What's happening to you, Ace? You're not usually like this." Nine asks frustratedly.
"Corpse is right behind us." Four whispers in my ears. I didn't bother to turn back, I can trust my uncle on that.
"What's he doing?"
"Nothing."
The tenth best player in the game, doing nothing, then again we're not doing anything either, just observing the story.
This leaves one player absent, Shockwave.
"Let them in." Ace says hesitantly after a long thought.
"Are you sure?!" Ten asks, refusing to submit to Ace of Hearts.
"Um uh..." I can only imagine how it must be for Kenneth Spears right now, I don't like shouldering the responsibility of decision making either, ill luck of his to get the character of Ace of Diamonds.
"Just do it, we can't risk war with them." Nine spoke up.
"Tsk." A loud tsk that is, from Ten who still has a grimace on.
"Fine." Ten lowers his gun, then signals the Diamonds soldiers to search for weapons on the Hearts visitors with a hand gesture.
During the search for weapons of any sorts on the Hearts visitors, Ten and Ace of Hearts were basically having a stare off, I don't think either side even blinked.
Ace of Diamonds on the other hand, was just standing still despite being the one assigned to handle the visitors.
"They brought food, tents and some extra clothings, no sharp objects or firearms." One of the soldier reports back to Ten.
"Follow us." Ten said to Ace of Hearts.
"With pleasure."
Despite Ace of Hearts' domineering behaviour and conceited temperament, we as Diamonds, an inferior community in terms of manpower has to comply with their requests.
Ace, Four, Five, Nine, Ten, me and the Hearts visitors begin our walk to the centre of Diamonds territory, the 60 story tall building, with the rest of the soldiers following close behind.
"The man in the maroon blazer which I'm sure you had met back in 1-1, that's our Jack." Four says to me.
If that's the case, Jack should show up at the entrance hall of the 60 story tall building today to supply us ranked officers with food, perfect opportunity for Hearts to meet him.
Or perhaps, perfect opportunity for Hearts to assassinate him?
Plausible, that's our task for this stage after all, it's gonna be difficult for them to do it without any weapons in hand though.
"You think they could be the one we're protecting the Jack from?" I asked.
"Possible, they don't have any weapons though, which is strange." Four looked back while we walk to observe the Hearts visitors, indeed, nothing hostile, just food, tents and clothings stored on a wooden supply crate with wheels.
"Either way, stay close, nothing in this stage could stand a chance against me." That's the fourth time you said 'stay close' uncle.
When we finally arrived at the 60 story tall building, the other ranked officers were there, Six, Seven and Eight, but still no Two, no Shockwave.
Six, Seven and Eight encountered with the sight of about 10 Hearts visitors approaching, involuntarily took a step back.
"What the hell?!" Six exclaimed.
"They don't have weapons on them, just here to talk." Ten explains, but with uncertainty in his tone.
"Where's Jack, he should be here by now." Nine asks.
"I don't know, he's still not here." Eight says.
During all of this time, Five's stare was entirely fixated on Ace, with Ace avoiding his gaze the whole time.
"Is Kenneth Spears also a target of Living Cemetery." I asked Four.
"I don't know, I'm not sure."
"So where's your Jack? I don't think I see him." Ace of Hearts is not a patient man, he questioned Ten in an impudent manner.
Ten lets out another "tsk" before turning around and facing the immature diplomat Hearts had sent.
"Wait." Ten asserted.
Ace of Hearts tilts his head sideways, then guffaws mockingly.
"Ok, we'll wait then."
Ten almost lost it, but Nine stopped him from crashing out.
"Chill out man."
Ten grits his teeth even harder, I can almost hear the sound of friction between his molars.
"Ace, what are you doing?" Nine asks Ace of Diamonds, who has shrinked to a corner of the entrance hall.
"I-I-I-I'm sorry."
"Come on, man up, this isn't you, what the hell happened?"
"I'm sorry I...I'm sorry." Ace was forced yet again to face the Ace of Hearts.
"Gonna guess he's assigned as the diplomat from our side." Four comments.
"Yeah, bad luck. Have you seen Shockwave?"
"No, no I don't see her."
All ranked officer should be here to retrieve food for their group, yet Two remains absent.
Back to the scene, Ace of Diamonds was placed to face Ace of Hearts by Nine and Ten.
"What?" Ace of Hearts' demeanor only gets more insufferable.
Ace of Diamonds was at a lost of words, and still very much shaking in panic. Eventually, he managed to mutter his second sentence to Ace of Hearts.
"I'm t-the diplomat our Jack has assigned...s-state your terms to me."
Even his voice was trembling, and it doesn't help that that sentence elicited laughter from the Hearts visitors.
"Don't mean to come off as judgemental and informal, but next time, do muster up a bit more courage when professing yourself." Ace of Hearts mocks.
Nine rushes forward and stands in front of Ace of Diamonds, who were utterly overwhelmed by the embarrassment.
"State your terms." Nine requests firmly.
"I believe I made myself clear the first time, we are ordered by superiors not to divulge our terms to anyone but the Jack of Diamonds."
Nine was visibly dissatisfied with that answer, but has no other choice than to back down and not argue further in face of a superior community.
He pulls Ace of Diamonds back while comforting him, "Look this is alright, but you really gotta get yourself together man."
There were still laughter and mockeries exchanged within the Hearts visitors ridiculing Ace of Diamonds, thank god I wasn't assigned that character.
After a few minutes of waiting, the sound of the usual heavy duty trolley can be heard, but it wasn't Jack of Diamonds pushing it.
Everyone in the hall looks outside in shock, it was just a random man from the Diamonds community.
"Where's Jack?" Ten asks as the man pushes the trolley through the broken glass door.
"He said he won't be here today, and I'll be the one delivering these."
"What a disappointment." Ace of Hearts says. "Is there any other ways perhaps, where I could meet Jack of Diamonds?"
"I don't think so..." Ten responds with a weak voice.
"How unfortunate. Well, luckily, we Hearts were expecting the discussion to last over a day, we brought tents and sufficient rations for a week.
If you all don't mind, we would like to set up camp here in Diamonds territory, waiting for Jack of Diamonds."
Everyone in the room frowned at that suggestion, except for Five, whose stare still remains firmly on Ace of Diamonds.
"Any of these concerns you?" I ask Four.
"Not at all, even if they do have weapons, I can take all these Hearts men out without breaking a sweat."
Expected confidence coming from the seventh greatest player in the game.