The Alice and the Spade Knight

Chapter 1

College is boring. Lectures that are over an hour long? Count me out. I rolled my eyes and glanced at the clock again. Only 15 minutes left. I thought to myself. I huffed and snuck a peek at my phone. No update yet. I tapped my pencil a little faster against my notebook. My favorite dating sim Alice in the Land of Love is due to drop a major update today. And I plan on playing it once my lecture is done for the day! After all, I'm among the top fans for the game in the United States. I have to stay on top of every update released! I write fanfics, come up with theories, draw fanart, and even cosplay! I have well over 100k followers on my Instagram page and TikTok account solely dedicated to Alice in the Land of Love! So, yeah, I guess you could say I'm a major fan!

"Okay, please remember to do the quiz online and answer at least one question from the reading! I'll see you next week!" The professor dismisses with a wave of her hand.

I jump out of my seat, haphazardly throwing my notebook into my bag and furiously walking to meet my best friend and roommate. Her name is Evie and we coincidentally met on social media talking about the game! We found out we lived close to each other on the east coast and even went to cons together, and eventually decided to become each other's roommate when we found out we were applying to go to the same college!

"Yo! Minka!"

I turn to see Evie waving at me. I jog over to her, practically bouncing on the balls of my feet.

"Hey! You excited to get the new update?" I asked as we started to walk back to our dorm.

She nods, brown waves going all over the place. "Yeah, totally! Except I can't play it tonight!"

I frown. "What do you mean?"

"I have a meeting for my club and a ton of work to do. So I'll be holed up in the library until 8 maybe 9 tonight." She sighs. "I wish I could play tonight, though."

"Aw, man. Well, I'll let you know if something major happens. Especially to Claude. I know he's your favorite." I tease.

She rolls her eyes. "Girl, shut up! You know this is a Claude Hate Zone. Besides, I'd rather know if something happens to Julius, anyway."

I giggle. "I know, I know. You're a total simp for him. Ah, I guess this is your stop."

Evie looks at the library and sighs, hanging her head once more. "I guess so. I'm gonna live vicariously through you!"  She calls as she heads into the library.

I laugh and wave, pausing at the busy street before safely crossing to get to the dorm buildings. The college bought some neighboring apartments and renovated them into dorms for the students, so the average dorm room now have 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small kitchen and living space. Basically it was an apartment. But that explains why students have to cross what feels like a major highway to get to their room. You'd think someone would come up with a solution to that.

Walking into the apartment, I flicked on the light, threw my bag on the ground, and plopped right onto the couch. I pulled out my phone and checked the app. Yes! It updated! I tapped the icon and the checkerboard and blue title screen popped up with the iconic theme music playing. I tapped again and settled in to play for the next few hours. There, my favorite character, Leander Blanc, greeted me on screen. I played through his route so many times to get all the artwork and unlock every ending. Hell, I even cosplayed him when the company approached me about doing a promotion with them! Sure, some might say I'm basic going after the 'canon' romance, but I like him. And how he protects the main character and his backstory, he's just perfect, in my opinion. I click on his route and I settle in for the next update.

I must've played for hours cause when I look up it's already dark out. I jump up and throw a coat on. I just finished the update and the plot has thickened immensely! I shoot a quick text to Evie letting her know I'm on my way over to tell her everything about the game. I lock the door behind me, mind full of theories and ideas for fanfics and fanart and cosplay and everything. The new update revealed what we all knew was coming: the continent of Cartia, where Alice in the Land of Love takes place, is going to war with the neighboring continent of Arotta. There was a year time skip and everyone even got new designs as they all prepped for war. And, of course, Arotta announced their plan to kidnap Alice, the main character, so that the love interest can come save them in an epic battle scene! But what was really the worst, was that the developers decided to kill off like half of the characters! I understand it's war, but seeing Leander reacting to the death of his friends was just heartbreaking. I'm bubbling with anticipation to tell Evie, thoughts swirling in my head that I don't see or hear the honking of the truck or the bright headlights until it's too late. Well, shit. And it all fades to black.