Chapter 47 : A Habit : part 4

“We should play again,” Aldric said.

“With pleasure.”

Maxime started laughing.

“You just lost and you’re accepting?”

“I just lost. Of course I’m accepting.”

“That also matches my analysis.”

The sixth match began, and Julien regained the advantage. When he won the round, he raised his arms.

“There!”

“You seem to have regained a significant portion of your satisfaction.”

“Absolutely.”

The seventh match went to Aldric, however, which prompted Julien to demand an eighth round. This time, Aldric decided to switch characters, but the experiment was short-lived since he lost in less than a minute.

“Bad choice,” Julien said.

“I agree.”

“You want to switch back to the other one?”

“Yes.”

“You already have a main.”

“A what?”

“Your main character.”

“Why ‘main’?”

He turned toward Maxime.

“Why do people say ‘main’?”

“Because it’s your main character.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

Getting no further explanation, Aldric turned toward Emma.

“Do you know?”

“No.”

Julien immediately cut in.

“Why are you asking her?”

“Because you don’t know the answer.”

Silence settled over the room. Sarah raised her eyebrows while Julien realized that everyone was looking at him.

“I mean… Maxime is right there.”

“And yet you just asked me the question.”

Julien remained silent for a second before sighing.

“You’re exhausting.”

The eighth match began, soon followed by a ninth. After several rounds, Sarah asked to try as well. Julien handed her his controller while Aldric explained the controls.

“You’ve been playing for less than an hour, and you’re already explaining how to play.”

“Julien seems tired of doing it.”

“I’m mostly traumatized,” Julien replied.

“Light attack here. Block here. Dodging depends on the direction.”

“Thanks.”

Julien put a hand to his forehead.

“He’s already passing on my knowledge.”

“Your legacy is secure,” Maxime said.

“I never wanted an heir…”

Chloé started laughing.

Sarah lost against Aldric.

“All right,” she said. “He really is annoying.”

Julien raised his hand.

“Thank you!”

“Don’t be too happy.”

“Finally, someone understands me.”

Emma took the controller next.

“My turn.”

“You know this game?” Julien asked.

Aldric handed her the controller.

“I can explain it to you.”

Julien looked at them.

“It’s my game. I’ll explain,” Julien said.

Aldric handed him the controller.

Julien sat down beside Emma and began explaining the controls to her.

“He seems particularly attached to his role as teacher,” Aldric said.

Maxime coughed to hide a laugh.

“Yes.”

Julien turned his head toward them.

“I can hear everything.”

“Focus on your student,” Emma said.

“Thank you.”

Emma learned the basic controls before taking her place opposite Aldric. Their attacks sometimes missed completely, their dodges came too late, and they still occasionally pressed a button without getting the movement they expected.

Emma grew more confident. Her character advanced and landed two attacks that Aldric tried to block, but the second broke through and took a portion of his health bar.

“Come on, Emma!” Sarah shouted.

Aldric immediately counterattacked. His character closed the distance and managed to land several attacks before Emma could get away.

“Aldric!” she protested. “I just learned how to play.”

“So did I.”

“You have a one-hour head start!”

Maxime started laughing as Emma attacked again. This time, she managed to dodge a strike before counterattacking, and both health bars began to drop. Around them, Sarah and Chloé cheered for Emma while Maxime switched sides every time one of them gained the advantage.

The end of the fight became much closer. Emma had almost no health left, but Aldric was in the same situation. He tried to retreat to avoid another attack and pressed the wrong button. His character leaped straight toward Emma instead of dodging.

She didn’t waste the opportunity. Her character struck Aldric in midair, and the last portion of his health bar disappeared. Emma raised her controller.

“Yes!”

“I confused dodge and jump again…”

“Not my problem.”

Julien smiled as he watched the result while Aldric handed him the second controller.

“Do you want to play against her?”

“With pleasure.”

The fight between Emma and Julien began. Julien announced that he would take it easy to give her time to get used to the game, but that intention lasted only a few seconds. Emma managed to hit him three times in a row, and his expression changed.

“All right… Grace period is over…”

“I didn’t even know there was one.”

“It just ended.”

Julien attacked.

A few seconds later, Emma lost.

“Are you proud of yourself?” she asked.

“Very.”

The evening continued like that for nearly an hour. Chloé eventually tried the game and immediately lost. Maxime then decided to challenge Julien and won a match.

“This evening is becoming a disaster,” Julien announced.

“You’ve won most of the matches,” Sarah reminded him.

“I wanted to win all of them…”

Sarah checked her phone.

“It’s past midnight.”

“I have to go home,” Chloé said.

Sarah nodded.

“Me too.”

Maxime stood up.

“I’ll go with you to the metro.”

Julien sighed.

“Always when things are getting interesting…”

Sarah picked up her jacket.

“Thanks for tonight.”

“My pleasure.”

Chloé picked up her bag.

“And next time, I want a game where Julien doesn’t have four hundred hours.”

Maxime opened the door.

“Good luck.”

They left the apartment, leaving only Emma, Aldric, and Julien in the living room.

“We should go too,” Emma said.

Julien turned toward Aldric.

“One last match.”

“Emma wants to leave.”

“Just one.”

She sighed.

“One.”

Julien picked up the controller.

“Perfect.”

Aldric sat down as the final fight began, and Aldric lost.

K.O.

Julien put down his controller.

“There. We’re ending on that.”

“Thank you for tonight.”

“My pleasure.”

“I would like to do this again.”

“Anytime.”

Emma put on her jacket.

“Coming?”

“Yes.”

Aldric picked up his own and headed toward the door. Julien walked them to the entrance.

“Good night.”

“Good night,” Emma replied.

Aldric inclined his head.

“Good night, Julien.”

“Good night. And don’t watch any tutorials. I’ve already lost enough advantages for one day.”

“I understand.”

“No. Promise me.”

Emma started laughing.

“You’re really going to forbid him from practicing?”

“Fine. I will not watch any tutorials about this game.”

“Perfect.”

“I can still play by myself.”

“No…”

“That restriction was not mentioned.”

“Now it is.”

“I did not agree to it.”

“Aldric…”

“Good night.”

He stepped into the hallway, followed by Emma, who was still laughing.

“Cheater!”

Aldric turned around.

“I haven’t done anything yet.”

“I’m getting ahead of it.”

The elevator doors closed, leaving Julien alone in the entrance. His smile disappeared as he closed the door and returned to the living room.

Julien looked for a moment at the spot where Aldric had been sitting before shaking his head. It had taken him only five matches to go from a man incapable of properly moving backward to someone capable of identifying several of his habits and beating him.

“Five matches!”

He grabbed a cushion from the couch and slammed it against the backrest.

“I hate you!”

He hit the couch with the cushion.

“Four hundred fucking hours!”

Julien stopped, out of breath, still holding the cushion. He looked at it, then at the couch, before putting the cushion back in its place.

“Asshole.”

He began tidying the living room, gathered the abandoned glasses from the table, and carried them into the kitchen before returning to pick up the controllers. He turned off the console and finished clearing away what remained from the evening.

About twenty minutes later, as he placed the last glasses in the sink, his phone vibrated. Julien dried his hands before checking the new messages that had appeared in the group chat.

Sarah: Made it home safely 😊

Chloé: Same

Maxime: +1

Emma: We’re on the metro. Thanks for tonight 😊

Julien: My pleasure 😊

He put his phone down on the counter, but another vibration sounded.

Aldric: Thank you for the games.

“No one asked you.”

Julien: My pleasure. Next time, I’m choosing a game where you can’t learn my habits 😂

Aldric: That seems prudent.

“Asshole…”

He put his phone away, then walked down the hallway to his office. He sat down in front of his computer and turned it on. His gaze almost immediately settled on a folder: ALDRIC DE VALDOR

He double-clicked it and found the different sections.

Identity

Timeline

Relationships

Photos

Statements

Inconsistencies

Emma

Julien opened Relationships first.

Several lines appeared.

Patrick: coworker

Karim: coworker

Lucas: coworker / friend

Chloé: recent friend

Sarah: recent friend

Maxime: recent friend

Julien: contact

Julien selected contact.

Then wrote:

Julien: friend

“Fuck.”

Positive relationship.

Frequent competition likely.

Learns far too quickly.

He saved the document before letting his gaze drift toward the Emma folder. He opened the directory and found, among the first files, the photograph taken during Sarah’s birthday.

Julien enlarged the image and found himself thinking back to the evening that had just ended. He remembered Emma arriving at the bar, her smile when she found their table, and the almost natural way she had taken a seat beside Aldric. He also remembered her encouragement during the matches and, above all, the “Yes!” she had shouted when Aldric finally managed to beat him.

Julien frowned.

“Traitor…”

His phone vibrated as a private message from Emma appeared on the screen.

Emma: Seriously, thanks for tonight, it was fun 😊

Julien: My pleasure! I had a great time. We can do it again whenever you want 😊

Emma reacted with a heart. The evening suddenly seemed much more successful than it had a minute earlier. When he looked back at his computer, the photograph of Emma and Aldric was still open. His smile faded, and he opened the document dedicated to their relationship.

Relationship with Emma: To be determined.

Obvious closeness.

High mutual trust.

Emma looks for Aldric’s reactions.

Aldric instinctively turns to Emma when he doesn’t understand something.

Emma had been the first person to help Aldric when he arrived in Paris. She had explained most of the things he didn’t understand, helped him find an apartment, and introduced him to their group. It was therefore perfectly logical that Aldric had developed the habit of turning to her whenever he didn’t understand something.

To be monitored.

“I’m becoming ridiculous.”

He didn’t delete it, though.

Julien leaned back in his chair and thought about the evening. The video game session had produced exactly the opposite result from what he had imagined. He had wanted to prove that Aldric could be bad at something and, technically, he had succeeded.

Aldric had started learning and, worse, the whole experience had just created a new activity they could now do together.

Julien opened a new document and typed a title at the top of the page.

PLAN 2

Objective: Beat Aldric.

A smile appeared on his face. He placed his fingers on the keyboard and considered the best way to proceed. His first instinct was to look for another video game Aldric didn’t know, but the idea seemed much less satisfying.

Aldric had just beaten him in an area where Julien had far more experience than he did.

Julien leaned back in his chair.

“All right.”

If he really wanted revenge, he had to do exactly the same thing: beat Aldric in his own domain. So he wrote a new line.

Domain: Combat.

A direct confrontation was obviously out of the question. He had seen Aldric handle a sword and possessed enough survival instinct to understand that an actual duel would be the worst idea he had ever had. He therefore needed a form of combat close enough for the victory to count, but modern enough that Aldric’s experience wouldn’t give him the advantage.

A smile appeared on his face, and he wrote:

Laser tag.

Aldric knew swords, shields, bows, and an absurd number of other medieval weapons. On the other hand, he had never held a laser gun, didn’t know the rules, and had never moved through a darkened arena with an electronic vest strapped to his chest.

Julien listed his advantages.

Aldric doesn’t know the weapons.

Aldric doesn’t know the arena.

Aldric doesn’t know the rules.

Aldric doesn’t know the technology.

For once, everything seemed to be in his favor, and he fully intended to make sure it stayed that way when they faced each other.

Practice before suggesting it to him.

Memorize the arena.

Above all, don’t give him time to learn.

Julien smiled.

“Perfect.”

Probability of victory: High.

His smile froze when he remembered that he had already made this kind of estimate a few hours earlier. He selected the last word and replaced it.

Probability of victory: Reasonable.

Julien hesitated again. The memory of Scorpion snatching victory from Sub-Zero came back to him, and he revised his estimate one last time.

Probability of victory: To be determined.

“There. That wording seems safer…”

His phone vibrated, and Julien picked it up.

Aldric: Julien.

Julien: What?

Aldric: I looked up what Mario Kart is. The concept seems interesting. We could try it next time.

Emma: Good idea! I like Mario Kart.

“Of course…”

Julien: All right. Mario Kart next time.

Aldric: Perfect.

Julien was about to put his phone down when his gaze returned to the document open on his computer.

Laser tag.

He then looked at Aldric’s message.

Mario Kart next time.

So he added a new section to his document.

Preparations:

Practice Mario Kart.

Play several games of laser tag.

Memorize the arena.

Don’t tell anyone about laser tag.

“This time, you’re going to lose.”

Aldric read Julien’s reply one last time before putting his phone in his pocket. Sitting beside him on the metro, Emma watched the stations pass by.

“You’re smiling,” Emma said.

“I enjoyed the evening.”

Emma smiled as well.

“So did I.”

The metro slowed as it approached the next station, and Aldric looked up toward the doors. A week earlier, he had still known almost nothing about video games. Tonight, he had learned how to play and discovered a new activity. He wanted to do it again.