"K! O!"
Two flamboyantly stylized letters appeared on the LCD television screen. The character Yūki Chinatsu was controlling with her gamepad had already had their entire health bar wiped out by a single super move from Kamiyā Yuu's character, while she hadn't managed to take even a sliver of health off him.
"Damn it! This game isn't fun at all. Kuroneko, teach that arrogant Yuu a lesson for me." Yūki Chinatsu was so frustrated that her teeth itched. She wanted to throw the controller to vent her anger, but ultimately calmed herself down and handed it to Gogyo Ruri, whose gaming skills far surpassed her own.
Gogyo Ruri had been sitting beside them watching the match, and after seeing Kamiyā Yuu's skill, she was already itching to give it a try. She took the controller and glanced sideways at Kamiyā Yuu with her strangely captivating crimson eyes, colored by contact lenses, before teasing him, "Hmph. Gaming is the one area where I'm still confident I can beat Director Kamiyā. I won't lose at a fighting game!"
Kamiyā Yuu smiled and shook his head. "Confidence is a good thing."
"I'm going to the bathroom." Yūki Chinatsu stood up and walked out of the living room. She hadn't gone far before running back and snorting at Kamiyā Yuu. "Yuu, you might still win when it comes to FPS games, but judging by the skill you showed just now, you're nowhere near good enough to beat Kuroneko. Don't lose too badly!"
"Yes~ yes, I'll keep that in mind." Kamiyā Yuu smiled as he gripped the controller. His performance just now had merely been him testing out the game's control system.
After returning, Yūki Chinatsu, with nothing else to do, noticed that Kamiyā Sora had been staring at her laptop the entire time. Sometimes she frowned in thought, sometimes she typed rapidly, and sometimes she wore a strained expression. Curious, Chinatsu leaned her head over and asked, "Sora, you've been using your laptop this whole time. What are you doing?"
Kamiyā Sora instinctively tried to block the laptop screen, but when she saw that Yūki Chinatsu was already staring at it, she shook her head. "Nothing. It's nothing."
Yūki Chinatsu looked at the contents of the laptop screen in surprise. "Is this a light novel?"
"An anime script. I'm just writing it casually."
Yūki Chinatsu's interest immediately soared. She sat down beside Kamiyā Sora and continued asking, "But there are illustrations here. Did you draw them yourself, Sora?"
Having someone show interest in something she herself cared about gave Kamiyā Sora a certain sense of recognition. She nodded seriously. "Mm. I just felt that if I didn't draw them, I might not be able to convey the anime's style properly."
Yūki Chinatsu studied the illustrations on the screen, which resembled simple sketches, and pondered aloud, "Eh~ It feels pretty similar to Etsuki's art style."
They were only simple sketches, but one could still clearly sense the rich classical English style conveyed through the background architecture and the characters' clothing. It was also an area Uehara Etsuki specialized in.
Kamiyā Sora explained, "The story is set in Britain during the Victorian era."
"..."
Yūki Chinatsu tilted her head. Having failed to understand what Kamiyā Sora's explanation meant, she looked thoroughly confused. "...Uh... so?"
Kamiyā Sora looked somewhat helpless. After thinking for a moment, she explained again in a serious tone, "Victorian-era style falls within the cultural field that Etsuki-nee specializes in. England was the center of the world at the time. As the Industrial Revolution reached its peak, its economic strength accounted for roughly seventy percent of the global economy. The economic development brought about by the Industrial Revolution had an enormous impact on British culture at the time. Humanistic thought and beliefs progressed, while various artistic and literary movements, including Classicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, and so on, gradually emerged."
Kamiyā Sora used the mouse to switch to a webpage containing information she had found earlier and patiently continued, "In architecture, artistic expression often involved a mixture of Renaissance, Baroque, Elizabethan, and Gothic styles. Take this cathedral, for example. The front courtyard uses Gothic pointed-arch architectural design, while the rear uses Lombard bands characteristic of the First Romanesque style—lacking in sculpture but rich in rhythmic layering—to emphasize the grandeur of ecclesiastical architecture.
"The revival of classical styles also brought clothing changes. Women's fashion at the time often incorporated Gothic or Baroque court styles, characterized by extensive use of lace, ribbons, ruffles, tiered cake-like designs, puffed sleeves, corsets, bows, and so on. See this noblewoman in front of the church? There is actually a structural frame made from special materials underneath her skirt, allowing it to maintain that blossoming shape for long periods."
Knowing absolutely nothing about the subject and unable to digest such an enormous amount of information in so little time, Yūki Chinatsu scratched the back of her head uncertainly. "Ah... I don't really understand any of that, but it sounds amazing. What kind of story is it?"
Having expected precisely that response, Kamiyā Sora sighed weakly. "A classical English romance."
"..."
After thinking for a moment, Kamiyā Sora gave a more widely known example. "Do you know 'Pride and Prejudice'?"
Yūki Chinatsu's eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously. "Oh, that movie! I saw it at the cinema the year before last, but it was so boring that I accidentally fell asleep halfway through."
Kamiyā Yuu couldn't be bothered to correct Yūki Chinatsu. 'Pride and Prejudice' was a novel that had been adapted into numerous film and television productions. Generally speaking, however, its style remained fundamentally unchanged, retaining that familiar flavor of classical British literature.
Kamiyā Sora was helpless. "Chinatsu, if that's the case, even trying to explain it with a simpler analogy won't help. You can think of it as a story about the only son of a wealthy family falling in love with a commoner woman. But because the Victorian era was a period of conflict and transition between aristocracy and capitalism, the only son of a wealthy family was expected to inherit the family estate, yet he married a commoner woman. Such an act itself would have been considered foolish and incomprehensible at the time."
"Conflicts and transitions between social classes, as well as questions surrounding the status of women, were extremely popular subjects in British literary circles at the time."
Yūki Chinatsu nodded seriously, then gave an assessment that made Kamiyā Sora give up on explaining any further.
"Sounds really complicated."
...
"My destined nemesis, today is the day we finally settle this once and for all! Take this! Fallen Heaven Dark Dimensional Slash!" Gogyo Ruri declared confidently while gripping the controller. She maneuvered her character into the corner in an underhanded attempt to use ranged attacks to whittle away the health of Kamiyā Yuu's character.
Kamiyā Yuu made his character roll once, then followed with a jumping attack, perfectly evading the assault. The moment Gogyo Ruri's character was touched, a merciless combo began. The fighting game's hit-stun system didn't give Gogyo Ruri even the slightest chance to catch her breath. After a dizzying barrage of attacks, Kamiyā Yuu chained into his fully charged finishing move and ended the match.
"K! O!"
Gogyo Ruri's eyes widened in astonishment. Seeing her character's health bar mercilessly emptied, she protested unhappily, "W-Wait, Director Kamiyā! That's cheating!"
Kamiyā Yuu waved the controller. "But that's how fighting games work."
Gogyo Ruri shook her head in denial. "That's completely different! You caught me making one mistake, and immediately KO'd me. That's too underhanded!"
"But that's a normal character combo."
Gogyo Ruri pouted. Her delicate hand made a forbidding gesture as she declared righteously, "Anyway, forbidden! You're forbidden from KO'ing me with a single combo! Hasn't Director Kamiyā ever heard of the Rule of Three? Rock-paper-scissors takes three rounds to decide the winner, when you make mistakes you're given three chances to correct them, and if food falls on the floor, it's still fine if you pick it up within three seconds."
"That last one is the three-second rule. And the game itself is already best two out of three."
Gogyo Ruri tossed her silky black hair, her crimson eyes fixed indignantly on Kamiyā Yuu as she protested, "Anyway, we have to follow the Rule of Three! It's an immutable truth of the universe!"