“That’s the most ridiculous plan I’ve ever heard!” I shouted.

Emma’s eyes narrowed slightly in anger.

Gone was her fear of me, and at that moment, only getting this muddleheaded dumbass who somehow lucked out and got himself a powerful experimental mecha core to acknowledge her ideas mattered.

“It’s NOT ridiculous. It will work.” Emma said stubbornly with a high tone herself. She folded her hands in front of her and glared at me. “You’re afraid.”

“I’m definitely not afraid. Oh wait, YES. I am afraid. VERY afraid of getting killed by your ridiculous plan!” I shouted at her.

Why did I keep shouting? Because in spite of all my bluster, I was actually quite excited.

And of course, Emma being Emma, she immediately realized that point as well. So she did the very thing that would work in that moment.

She kept quiet and allowed my own excitement to boil over and make my decision for me.

And she stared at me with her beautiful round eyes, because well, she has got really beautiful eyes and a little encouragement from that aspect couldn’t hurt.

She couldn’t have known at that moment that her pair of perfectly formed, beautiful eyes full of intelligence, confidence and determination had short circuited my brain.

I blinked a few times as I stared back at her, trying to jump start my brain once more. It was a difficult struggle, but I finally managed to drag my good for nothing pair of eyes away from her. I looked up into the sky and sighed.

Damn her. Why did she have to look so perfect? And damn you, stupid heart of mine. Why are you pounding so hard?

“Well?” Emma demanded.

“Uhhh…Let me think some more. Shhh.” I shushed her without looking at her. With my condition at that moment, if I made decisions while looking at her, my damn tongue would probably bypass my brain and say yes to all of her suggestions.

“Let me see. The first step of her crazy plan is stealing a military mecha during the first engagement.That’s easy enough.” I muttered.

“The next step would be to use that military mecha and the Red Dragon blue mecha I took earlier to set up a ‘parley’ after stealing the white mecha and capturing both leaders there - “Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief. That’s completely crazy.” I thought to myself.

“Which ten year old in their right minds would actually consider capturing not one, but TWO adult commanders with hundreds under their command? It’s impossible!”

…

The image of Emma’s face with her beautiful eyes appeared in my mind. I sighed. I was only ten, but damn it, love is real for ten year olds as it is real for twenty year olds. Love is blind, right? It didn’t care about how old you are, and it sure didn’t care about how old I was.

Love is love.

Plus I had a feeling that it could work, somehow.

And so I revisited the idea again in much greater detail.

“Is it really impossible? It shouldn’t be too difficult to get them both to come to the parley. Amelia would be frantic to find out who took her white mecha, and the military would be frantic to know more about who Amelia is and where the white mecha came from. So, with a little bit of acting, I probably can get them to come...” I mused.

“Capture them… Well, I should have a white mecha by then, so it should be easy to capture them.”

“Next, force the enemy leaders to draw out the soldiers from both bases one base at a time - “Lure the tiger off its mountain base. Capture them and force them to surrender. This is… nuts.” I muttered.

“Hey, luring the tiger off its mountain base and capturing them AND forcing them to surrender is nuts!” I shouted loudly to Emma. “How the heck am I supposed to get one thousand fully armed soldiers to just lay down their weapons and listen to everything I say? They would probably end up running away and alerting every single base from here to the north pole that a rogue white mecha had appeared.”

I turned to look at her.

“It’s not nuts.” She quickly replied.

“How do you plan to control hundreds, if not thousands of fully grown men and women then?” I demanded.

“You’ll be in a WHITE mecha, don’t forget that. What’s the point of having a white mecha if you don’t use it?” She said rather crossly.

“I am going to use it.” I retorted back. “I am so going to use the heck out of it!”

“Yeah? To do what? Run away to some corner and rule over a bunch of street rats?” She said viciously.

“Do you even understand the full power of a white mecha? It’s not just about its destructive power. It’s about what it represents! It represents the power of either USAA or The European Empire! Once you’re in a white mecha, NOBODY would probably dare to open fire at you. If they did, their own commanders would probably beat you to kicking the living daylights out of them! And they won’t “run away and tell everybody from here to the North Pole that a rogue white mecha had appeared.” They would probably think that you’re sent by some super power! And THAT’S exactly how you’ll control the two bases! Wu Zhong Sheng You - Creating something out of nothing!”

“I know that.” I grumbled in a small voice. I did know that. Really. I just didn’t think of putting it into practice so quickly. Heck, I hadn’t even gotten my hands on the white mecha! Who on earth would even make an entire plan complete with anticipating how the enemy would think based on something that you haven’t even got your hands on?

But of course, Emma did. She’s an extremely rare genius. You know that.

“Then what’s the problem?” She demanded again.

“Well, even if I manage to get them all to listen to me, what do I do with them? Plus, I don’t NEED two bases!” I shot back at her.

I expected her to give me another scathing reply, but unexpectedly, she didn’t.

Instead, she smiled widely and said, “That’s exactly the root of YOUR problem, isn’t it? You might know what you want to achieve in life, but you don’t really know HOW to achieve it. But lucky for you, I know.”

“Really?” I asked very doubtfully.

“Yes.” She lifted her little hand and beckoned me over.

I obliged her. I really wanted to know what she had to say.

She leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “If you do as I say, I will guide you to be the overlord of this country within three months.”

At that moment, I didn’t know whether I wanted to laugh or be impressed.

But as you know. We did become overlords of the country, and then some more.

Much, much more.