“Now we need to talk about our plan,” I seriously said before adding while looking at Hilary, “you came from a place far from here. I want you to draw a detailed map on the ground before explaining the situation in that area.”

“You mean a map of Illinois?”

“Of course that’s what he meant, genius!” the jumper rolled up his eyes, attracting the aggressiveness of Hilary.

“Says the loser,” she shrugged and before the jumper would fall into this trap, I gave him a warning gaze.

Enough of wasting time kids, we have many things left to do.

“This is Illinois.”

But after half an hour of waiting and watching Hilary work on the ground, I regretted asking her to do that.

If I asked a five years old girl to draw, her drawing wouldn’t come as bad as what Hilary just did! Damn! Don’t tell me she didn’t know what Illinois state looked like.

“This is Illinois? Pft!” Karoline couldn’t hold herself and pointed at these scratches and irregular lines on the ground while laughing in mockery.

“What do you think this is, pathetic girl?” Hilary didn’t like the tone or the words of her rival, crossed up her arms and looked in challenge towards Karoline.

“I’d say an apple pie or something,” the jumper laughed and joined Karoline. Hilary turned to me and all I could do to you, chick, was to raise both hands in the air, announcing my helplessness towards this.

“Screw you all! I dare to see how you’ll draw my Illinois then.”

“I’ll teach you,” Karoline moved, grabbed that white charcoal from Hilary’s hand before scoffing, “just watch.”

This time the drawing didn’t take longer than five minutes. The map wasn’t that detailed but it was good. Comparing this to Isabella’s map from before, I knew Karoline lacked a lot.

But comparing this looking like a map drawing to whatever Hilary drew, this was obviously better in every way.

“Humph, you seem to know my Illinois very well,” Hilary acted shamelessly and didn’t show any sign of embarrassment or defeat at all.

This chick… She had her own strength after all.

“A daughter of the last president of the US will know the corners of her country very well,” Karoline stood up and proudly said.

“You… What?” This was the first time for Hilary to know the true identity of Karoline. And the latter just raised her chin even further in pride and arrogance when she heard that comment.

“I’m the daughter of my father, the last president of the US before the apocalypse.”

“Is she…” Hilary seemed to not believe what Karoline said. She turned to me to ask, and I simply nodded.

“You really know how to pick your girls, Hye,” Hilary said in admiration, one that I could understand perfectly.

“I won’t settle with anyone… After all, I’m not a normal person, right?” I also took the chance of this moment to feel pride, and Hilary simply smiled in a mysterious way.

“Scared now, rude girl?” the jumper said, yet Hilary responded only with a short laugh.

“This only will make things funnier,” she said, “we aren’t in the past glorious US reign. We are in the apocalypse.”

She turned to Karoline, and all I could see was a far serious look over her face, “let’s see how the beloved and deeply cherished girl of the white house will do in these times.”

“I’ll beat you,” Karoline firmly responded, “just wait and see.”

“I’m waiting then,” Hilary lightly said, as if she didn’t care about the history of Karoline.

Yet I felt a little change in her attitude. This knowledge differed in her vision towards Karoline.

“Anyway,” I said to stop this meaningless talk, “I want you to explain the situation on this map.”

“Well… I believe this is Springfield city,” she pointed at the centre of the map before pointing to the Northern East, “and this is where Chicago lies, right?”

“It’s your state, don’t you recognise your big two cities?” Karoline responded in mockery, but I gave her a warning gaze as well as that jumper.

I didn’t want to interrupt Hilary at this point.

“Keep talking,” I also said, blocking the path over the sharp tongue of Hilary to step in.

“Fine,” she shrugged, “I started from Springfield. Then I expanded my forces and territory towards Chicago. It’s now under my control, yet the East from it lies the areas controlled by that dead dragon archlord.”

She spoke while pointing at many places at the same time. This chick… She was messier in explaining the situation over the map.

But I got the general situation from her words alone. “So you still didn’t take control over the entire state, right?” I asked just to make sure I was following the right track.

“I sent out my forces to take over the state,” she said, “but to the West from here, there is a strong force that belonged to the Selvators.”

“Is it another state?” I lost track of where she was pointing at. Was it inside Illinois borders or outside it? Was she speaking about Springfield city or the entire Illinois state?

“It’s Missouri state,” she said, “unluckily there is an archlord of the Selvators there with strong forces helping him. I had to spare half of my troops to stop his forces.”

“He is that strong?” I started to think about the future foes in the upcoming war. And she nodded.

“Very strong.”

“My man already has ties with an archlord of Selvators,” Karoline said in pride, but I didn’t agree with her words this time.

“The two are different,” I simply said, “archlords in each race aren’t as friendly as you might think.”

“Oh, my man really knows his craft,” Hilary responded to Karoline’s comment, referring to me as her man. I only skipped this part and didn’t comment or react to it.

“What about Illusionists?”

“These cowards?” Hilary asked almost instantly, “they are in the north but I won’t bother with them.”

It was weird that we two agreed on calling this race cowards. Of course they were! Compared even to humans!