Editor-in-Chief's note: The original submission contained significantly more profanity than what appears here. We tried.

  I refer to the headlines and commentary surrounding Obscure Scarlet choosing Dante Higashino as its master.

  They are f*cking abhorrent.

  My family has spent generations caring for the Regalias in the Sanctum's possession. My grandmother knew that they had moods before she knew her prayers. My father nearly lost his head to the Nameless when he forgot to ask it for permission to shift it into another room before the Meridian Hall underwent renovations. I grew up in those halls. I know what it looks like when a Regalia tolerates someone, and I know—I know—what it looks like when one chooses. There is no faking it.

  The Regalia are Living Weapons. The Godshards are their hearts, their cores.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Obscure Scarlet chose Dante after being in hibernation for hundreds of years.

  So why are we pretending this is a scandal?

  Just a month ago, we had a ceremony for Mr Jia Wenwu when he inherited Golden Conquest, didn't we? When it was passed from father to son, something that we hardly see? I was there for the feasts, the tears and the booze. Sometimes, people thought that Wenwu had somehow earned the Regalia.

  It's not tradition for people to earn their Regalia, but it's tradition for them to be celebrated when they get one.

  But none of those previous masters was an Aberrant. And it's remarkable, isn't it, how quickly the tradition dissolved the moment one was.

  The Regalia chose. That has always been enough. It should be enough now.

  I keep thinking about the people writing these pieces, asking these questions, demanding that Dante justify what Obscure Scarlet already settled. I wonder if they have any real sense of what they're dismissing. I suspect, if they did, they'd find it a lot harder to keep writing such nonsense.

  In any case. I have work to do. Your weapons don't make themselves. The Regalias don't care much for all this noise—and neither, I've decided, do I.

  Chakrit Rungroj

  Warden of the Meridian Hall

  1 July 2004