PART 1

My return from the Elysium was swift. While I was tempted to pay a visit to Kane, I could do that any other time, and I found it more important to get home and keep tabs on the directors while the wounds on their egos were still fresh.

As such, by the time I returned to the usual balcony in the company of Jaakobah, we were already welcomed by an open portal. He must've called ahead, but it worked out perfectly for me. Note to self; give the guy a raise. Or a free day off. Or maybe a gift basket. I'll figure it out.

More importantly, I already did a quick Far Sight round check on all the important players while riding the elevator to the right floor, but despite my apprehensions, nothing had happened while I was meeting with the three directors. I should've been happy about that, but I had this strong, foreboding feeling deep in my bones that told me something was off. If there ever was a time for the Narrative to muck things up in my absence, it was this moment, and things being quiet only made me more wary.

In any case, Angie and Josh were still playing Street Kombat in the guy's living room, my sisters and Tajana were unboxing the fidgety spymaster's new TV that I promised her for cooperating (even though she didn't need to do anything at all), my girlfriends were in their homes doing their own things, and there was nothing to note on the troublemaker-side either. Crowey was still busy stalling for time with the other Abyssal noble houses, the arch-mages were still busy adapting to their roles as teachers and filling out class plans and whatnot, while Percival was… ugh, he came up again.

Honestly, as much as I've been dragging my feet on this subject in the past, I fully resolved myself to do something about him. Whether he would be the first or second priority on my list was entirely dependent on the chief directors' reaction to our meeting, but in either case, I could no longer procrastinate on him. Snowy already delivered him my ultimatum in the morning, so I felt obliged to confront him in person and drive in that nail even further.

But that was a concern for a bit later. First off, after a curt farewell, we returned to Timaeus. Since the portal was opened by the same guy, it led back to the Praetorian Guards' impromptu base of operations, and the moment I arrived, I shifted out of my Polemos outfit. After doling out a few simple instructions (be vigilant, keep an eye on the neighbourhood, give Josh and Angie some privacy, et cetera), I left them to their jobs and walked out of the house.

I could've Phased home right away, but thanks to relentless practice, I could already multitask my Far Sight with some rote activities, such as eating or basic enchanting tasks, so I didn't dally any longer and threw my point of view over to the chief directors' side.

"… listening to yourself?" was the first shred of a sentence I managed to catch, coming from an exasperated Tsephanyah.

To my surprise, the three of them were no longer in their conspiratory hidey-hole, but in the main assembly hall of the Directorate, with the huge round table and everything. Fortunately, my reforms (if they could be called that) stuck with them, and the place was both well-lit, and they didn't wear the stupid cowls anymore.

In any case, there were only about fifteen people present, including the three faction leaders, which meant this emergency meeting was most likely arranged in a hurry, and only the most important (or least busy) directors could attend.

"I have to agree with Director Tsephanyah," the man in charge of the Department of Military Affairs… what was his name again? Was it Gideon?

"You're speaking out of line, Gideon," Savir hissed. More importantly, I managed to remember his name. Yay, me.

"It doesn't make us wrong," the lantern-jawed Celestial general-in-anything-but-name-only scoffed, and there was a quiet but noticeable wave of agreement spreading around the table.

"If the Second True Archon's words are true, and why wouldn't they be," another director spoke up, and while I couldn't recall his name or department, I was pretty sure he was in Mensah's Unorthodox club. "… then we must consider the ramifications of this news and act in unison. We can't afford to act out on our own in a way that would shed negative light on all of us."

When he said that, he was pointedly staring at Savir.

"What are you insinuating?" she hissed, eyes thundering with barely concealed fury, and Mensah pointedly cleared his throat to draw her attention to him instead.

"You have to admit, you're responsible for forcing the Archon's hand by acting on incomplete information and provoking this 'Bel of the Abyss' on your own."

"On my own!? Don't try to act like you weren't in full support of the plan, Dolion!"

"I might have served as an accessory," the bespectacled director answered with a subdued grin, "But the Lord Archon has fully endorsed my efforts for military readiness. I consider that a clear sign that he didn't hold me to account and that he approved of my actions. The only one who was explicitly reproached was you, Eris, and we all know the reason why."

"Actually," another director chimed in, sounding uncertain. "I'm not sure we have discussed this topic before. Is there a reason why the Lord Archon would be in conflict with the Prime Director?"

Oh, right. That was one of Savir's many titles, wasn't it? However, the fact that this question came from someone in her own camp told me two things: they kept the fact that she tried to blackmail me in a roundabout way a secret, and even with that kept under wraps, her position was greatly shaken. In retrospect, that was to be expected; while we did meet behind closed doors, and our meeting was short, by this point pretty much everyone in the Elysium should've been fully aware of it. While its contents were a secret, my attitude before and after the meeting no doubt gave a lot of fuel to the rumour mill.

"It was a disagreement personal in nature, and there's no need to discuss it here and now," Tsephanyah covered for her in a heartbeat, though his words were accompanied by a sly look saying 'You owe me one now', once again reminding me that he wasn't much better than the other two. Or the rest of the Directorate. Scheming, backstabbing bastards, the whole lot of them.

"Indeed," Savir spoke through gritted teeth. Her complexion didn't look great, to say the least. "For the time being, let's focus on more important details. Such as how to treat this 'Bel' person from now on."

"What is there to discuss?" Mensah cut in, his finger tapping on the table. "Whether he's an Abyssal of this age or an age long past, it's blindingly obvious that he's an enemy of Elysium, and we must treat him as such."

"And what of the Lord Archon's involvement with him?" another director, this time from Mensah's own camp, spoke up, and the youngest chief director all but scoffed at her.

"It is clear as day that Archon Polemos and Bel of the Abyss are engaged in a contest of power and wits we aren't privy to. After what happened the other day, and how easily Director Savir was guided to jump to a specific conclusion by his machinations, it's easy to see that this Bel is adept at manipulating both others and the circumstances surrounding him for his own ploys and benefits."

"Indeed." Tsephanyah's approval rippled through the people around the table, eliciting nods and thoughtful hums all over. "If not for the Lord Archon's personal intervention, we would be in the middle of a wild goose chase even as we speak, threatening our unity and potentially opening us up for further subversion."

If I was there, I would've been hard-pressed not to shout 'Unity my ass!', but since I wasn't, I had to be content with just thinking it really loudly. But speaking of where I was at the moment, I focused more of my divided attention on where my legs were carrying me and was pleased to see that I was already in my neighbourhood. Reassured, I returned to the scene in the Directorate's meeting room, where Savir was just finishing up a small speech.

"… of subterfuge as you suspect, and he truly did appear in front of me to plant the seeds of doubt in the heart of the Directorate, then we must strive to be even more vigilant, so that the safety of Elysium and its people would not be compromised."

"I agree with the First Speaker," another director, using yet another of her titles, spoke up from Tsephanyah's side. "We need to focus inward."

"Hold on for a minute," yet another voice joined the fray, an older woman with a silly hairdo in Mensah's group. "If anything, we should increase our presence outside Elysium to keep Her Grace Deus safe and provide support for Lord Polemos if necessary. Why else would he have approved the mobilization of the military?"

"Maybe we should wait some time for passions to cool before we request the Lord Archon to state what exactly he's expecting from us?" Gideon, the military's top dog, spoke up next, and he once again found himself receiving a lot of agreement.

"Yes," Savir spoke, sounding borderline soulless. "Maybe that would be for the best."

The meeting went on for a little longer, but there was nothing special discussed afterwards, mostly just repeating the same arguments and going in circles over and over again. So far, it seemed like the Directorate wasn't going to bother me for a while, which would've been good news… but I still couldn't shake off that foreboding feeling. As such, I made a mental note to keep a closer eye on Savir, in case they decided to hold another private meeting and come up with more harebrained schemes.

It was only at this point that I realized that my multitasking ability still needed some refinement, as I managed to lose track of my surroundings and ended up walking past the junction leading to my house. Slightly annoyed, I turned around and headed in the right direction this time.

Seriously, how come doing enchantment-tweaking, which was an infinitely more mentally taxing act in theory, allowed me to multitask with Far Sight so much easier? At least so far as just doing basic operations was concerned? Maybe because it engaged a different part of my brain?

I couldn't be sure, and while I could ask Fred, he was already too busy with other things, such as the secret projects aaand I just reminded myself of another thing I would have to check on. Peabody and Fred were making good progress on it, but I hoped they would give me a proper timeframe for its completion one of these days. It was hard to plan around it otherwise, and I really hoped it would be done before things came crashing down. It would give me so many new options and a solid fallback-plan, at the same time.

In any case, I soon arrived at my front door, and passed through Snowy's wards without any problem. By this point, we had a four-layered system, with the outer barrier encompassing half the neighbourhood and serving as an early-warning system in case some ne'er-do-wells, like Tajana's Fauns, tried to snoop around. In comparison, the innermost layer was apparently sturdy enough to withstand mortar fire, if the class rep's assessment was to be believed.

Some may call that overkill, but my motto was always 'Expect the worst, prepare for the even worse', so I had no complaints. More importantly, once I was inside, I realized that we had guests, since there were two pairs of unfamiliar large boots under the wall hanger in the entranceway.

"Welcome back!" Penny greeted me from the living room, sounding even more excited than usual.

"I'm home," I responded as I walked in, and then nodded at the guests on the couch. "That's unexpected."

"Welcome home, My Liege," Arnwald greeted me while awkwardly holding a controller. Morgana was sitting by his side, holding another one, while Penny, Snowy, and even Tajana were lazing around and watching them play Super Bash Siblings, another game my sisters bought for Penny's game console. It wasn't exactly Street Kombat, but it was more family-friendly, that's for sure.

"Did you get roped in?" I asked with a smirk, and the Knight let out an awkward cough.

"Since my mission is to act like the father of the Dunning household, I deemed it necessary to engage in family activi—" His eyes suddenly opened wide as his character was sent flying off a platform. "Morgana! I was talking to our liege!"

"Serves you right for not being vigilant," she responded with a smile as amused as I'd ever seen on her face.

"That 'mission' is kind of over though," I pointed out, but Snowy of all people came to their support.

"Didn't you say that the child protective services would pay us a surprise visit later?"

I wanted to point out that, so long as I kept tabs on their dots, there would be nothing surprising about it, but Penny doubled down.

"It was our idea! This way, we can get used to acting like a family, so we'll be prepared, whenever they show up!" My knightly sister punctuated that with a toothy grin, and then pointedly glanced at the Abyssal spymaster. "Especially you! You need to put in more effort!"

"But… I'm not part of this…" Tajana tried to object, but Snowy interjected before she could gather steam.

"You're a family friend staying with us, so it's natural that we would treat you as part of the family."

"I… suppose…" she muttered, and it finally dawned on me this was probably yet another step in their ongoing efforts to subvert her and make her switch sides. I had to give it to them, they were both persistent and creative in their methods.

"Exactly!" Penny proclaimed smugly, her smirk once again reminding me of the princess, though even after fully acclimating to her being my little sister, she still wasn't half as cute as my girlfriend. Well, fine, maybe that was an overstatement. About… sixty percent as cute? Give or take five.

She must've realized I was staring at her, since her smirk was soon replaced by a confused expression, and then the proverbial light bulb lit up over her head.

"Brother? Do you want to play too?"

"I… can't really. I have stuff to take care of," I stated, already thinking about whether I should drop by the secret base of the dockyard hideout first. Or maybe just spend the evening focused on Savir and the others?

"Oh, come on!" my sister protested and stomped over to grab my hand. "What's the point of practising being a family if you aren't here?"

"That… That's right!" Snowy joined her, much to my surprise, and grabbed hold of my other hand. "We're family, right? That means we should look after each other and spend time together."

"Right! You even promised to hang out with us, and that we would go somewhere to play!"

"Penny," Morgana spoke up, sounding just like a tired mother. She was really taking to the role, it seemed. "Don't hassle Leonard. He's busy."

"But he promised! Right, Snowy?"

"Y-Yes," my Abyssal sister nodded, albeit a touch hesitantly, and as if waiting for her response…

"He did!" Tajana exclaimed with a finger in the air. "I was in the room! I remember!"

"You see?" Penny spoke a bit more confidently when facing Morgana, but she wasn't the one who responded first.

"Maybe we should join as well?" Arnwald floated the question, prompting Dame Gorgon to turn a pair of narrow eyes at him. "What I meant to say was that, since we're assuming the roles of a family, going on a trip in a public space would both reinforce the illusion, as well as serve as good practice for when those government workers return. It's all for the sake of training."

"On second thought," Morgana mused with a hand on her cheek. "It might not be such a bad idea. His Majesty could also use some time away from the daily worries of the Ordo Draconis and his other obligations."

"Let's go on a trip tomorrow!" Penny hit the iron while it was hot.

"I had some plans for tomorrow," I tried to cut in, but I was immediately met with Penny's dejected puppy stare, and after a moment of confusion, my other sister twitched in realization and joined her act as well. "… But I guess I'll just do it in the evening."

My grumbles made my knightly sister jump in excitement and she offered a high-five to Snowy, who belatedly returned the gesture. After that, she stared at her palm for a second before she walked over to Tajana, and held it out, forcing the Abyssal woman to also give a high-five.

Once that ran through the entire 'family', I couldn't help but shake my head.

"Fine, I'll think of something." Following those words, I pointedly glanced at Tajana. "But what should we do about her?"

"Oh, right. We can't take Tajana with us yet."

Snowy sounded a touch dejected, and that immediately flustered the hapless spymaster.

"M-My Lady, don't be sad! I'll just watch my dramas, as always! You should go and have fun with your… family?"

Honestly, the way she was getting more and more caught up in the flow, only vaguely questioning the situation, made me wonder if we were subtly gaslighting her. That was something only bad guys do, and we weren't bad guys… but then again, doing that to get someone away from the actual baddies (read: Crowey and his ilk) wasn't a strictly nefarious thing, so… Eh, I'll just chalk it up to 'morally grey' and call it a day.

More importantly, Penny was in deep thought until she suddenly snapped her fingers.

"I have an idea!"

"Everyone, brace yourself," I jested.

"Brotheeer!" my knightly sister pouted, and if she was closer to me, I was sure she would've stomped on my foot. "I'm serious! It's a good idea."

"Let's hear it, dear," Morgana prompted her, but it only caused Arnwald to raise a brow.

"Dear?"

"I'm playing my role," she answered seriously. "As the mother, it would be strange if I kept calling everyone by their name all the time." She paused and pointed at the man sitting next to her. "Speaking of which, should I also call you 'dear'?"

"That's…" the man muttered, audibly stumped. "That… would be quite nice, actually."

"In return, you could call me 'My Morgana' again," she said, with just a hint of mischief.

"I would never be so disrespectful…!" he protested, but then cleared his throat, and I couldn't help but hear a muffled 'Maybe in private' under his coughs.

Ignoring the two adults who definitely needed to get a room, I turned back to Penny and gave her the go.

"We should invite Uncle Roland over! He gets along really well with her, and he'll make sure she won't try anything while we're away!"

"W-W-We don't get along at all!" Tajana protested at once, even more flustered than usual. "A-And, in the first place, I've been behaving well all this time, haven't I? Why would you think I would do anything like…"

"It's all right, Tajana," Snowy comforted her by holding her hand. "I trust you."

"My Lady…"

The third adult looked at my teenage sister with the kind of starry-eyed fawning that was usually reserved to teen pop idols by their adoring fans. Sadly (or fortunately, depending on the point of view), her expression only lasted until Snowy spoke up again.

"But I think if Uncle Roland is around, you certainly wouldn't be bored."

I still wasn't entirely clear on how I felt about Snowy adopting Sir Griffon as her 'uncle', but my misgivings were nothing compared to the dejected moan escaping Tajana's mouth.

Meanwhile, the man on the couch offered me his controller.

"My Liege? Would you like to play?"

"At this point, might as well," I said with so much enthusiasm, if my excitement could be turned into water, it could irrigate at least two whole petunias. Yay.

Since I was caught up in this family web, I figured I might as well play along for a while, just to keep my sisters happy. That said, I wasn't completely neglecting my duties, as even while I played, I was taking short Far Glances at people, just in case there was a new development. I figured that if I could do that while enchanting, and sort of do it while walking, then it should've been…

"Oh! Sister Morgana is truly good at this game," Arnwald noted with a sagely nod just as my character was sent flying off the screen.

Yeah, this was a complete disaster. But to be honest, I preferred this kind over whatever else was looming over us. At least this one made Snowy laugh. That automatically made it better than whatever this ominous thing I could feel in my bones was.

PART 2

A family outing. It wasn't that odd of a thing to consider; after all, I'd already taken my sisters for one of those escape room attractions a while ago. Back then, I was accompanied by my girlfriends. This time, it was a 'pure' family experience only involving the Dunning household.

By the way, let's stop this train of thought and ruminate on this point for a while longer. 'The Dunning household'. On the surface, we might've looked like a suburban family right out of an old sitcom espousing the 'American dream', but… none of us were actually related. By blood, I mean. Not only that, but technically none of us were 'Dunnings' either; it was just a cover identity pre-amnesia me used, but I decided to stick to it, because it sounded less over-the-top than my alleged true name of 'Leonard Pendragon'. Everyone else was just piggybacking on that, using forged identities to fit into the family, and in the case of our two senior Knights, it was only supposed to be a short-term ruse.

"This is surprisingly difficult," Arnwald mused as he raised the short golf putter to his eye level and held it out horizontally, like an artist or architect trying to calculate distance or some angles, even though he was staring at a hole just a couple of meters away from where he was standing.

"Good luck, dear," Morgana encouraged him with a smile, and the man let out a determined grunt before anti-climactically standing over the small orange ball on the green felt under our feet, and doing a couple of practice swings.

"Brother! We got it!" Penny exclaimed from another course, and she waved her putter over her head to get my attention.

"Careful, Penelope. You're going to hit someone," Morgana chided her, and my sister stuck out her tongue.

"No, I wouldn't! I'm always careful, right, Snowy?"

My Abyssal sister didn't respond, because she was too busy fishing out their ball from the cup at the end of the twisty course.

"Ha! I've done it in one try!" Arnwald exclaimed in delight. "Did you see that?"

"Ah, sorry dear. I was paying attention to the kids," Morgana apologized, and the dejected man looked at me for validation.

"I saw it," I told him with a semi-enthusiastic thumbs up. "Good job."

That was enough to turn his frown upside down, and he handed his club over to Dame Morgana with a grin.

"It's your turn next. Give it a go."

"What about His Majesty… Oh, I mean, Leonard?"

"I'm good," I told them as I politely turned down the offer, and in the end, she took the putter and walked up to the tee with her ball in hand.

If the previous events didn't make it blindingly obvious, let's state it for posterity: the Dunning family, dressed warmly for the weather, was currently in the middle of a family outing at the biggest (and as far as I was aware, only) World Minigolfsport Federation approved putter-golf field. With over thirty interlocking felt and eternite courses, ranging from simple straight tracks with a few obstacles in the way to mechanize Rube Goldberg machine-esque contraptions with turning windmills, opening and closing dragon mouths, and long twisty plastic channels ferrying the balls between the courses, it was a sight to behold.

The weather was both sunny and fairly balmy for the time of year, but because this was the off-season, only a few placeholders were idling around (mostly older people), meaning we had pretty much the whole place for ourselves. A fact my sisters both appreciated and exploited to its fullest.

"Penny! Don't climb onto the props!" Snowy warned my knightly sister, trying to get on top of the cartoon dragon statue guarding the entrance of the tiny castle hiding the next target hole within its walls.

"I just want to take a look!"

"If you lose your footing, you'll hurt yourself."

"Naah! I'm a Knight! There's no way I would fall down from—"

I closed my eyes and counted back from three. Two. One.

"A-A-Awawaaah!"

"Look out!" Snowy cried out, and then a blink of an eye later, Penny landed on top of her. Thankfully, the aforementioned dragon statue was only about a meter tall, so while Penny's fall knocked my Abyssal sister onto her butt, neither of them was hurt, and they soon broke into giggles.

Once I was sure they were fine, I shook my head and closed my eyes again. I was glad to see that they were having fun, but as far as I was concerned, I, unfortunately, could not share their merriment due to a constant source of annoyance gnawing at my nerves. Speaking of which, I far glanced over at the Elysium, and barely managed to stifle a groan.

"Is this truly necessary?"

The question came from Tsephanyah, dressed in plain, earth-colour clothes and walking through the farming settlement surrounding the central tower.

He wasn't alone, or the only one underdressed at the moment. On his left, Mensah let out a grunt in agreement, clad in the same style of brown tunic as the blonde director, and he wasn't even wearing his weird magitech earpiece for once. On the literal other hand was Savir, her long hair let loose and without any makeup on her face, dressed in an unadorned green dress with a long skirt. She promptly rolled her eyes.

"Yes, it's entirely necessary," she hissed in a low voice, close to a whisper, and glanced around to make sure nobody was paying attention to them before facing Tsephanyah again. "It's the only way we can be sure that our discussion won't be forwarded to the Archon."

Mensah sighed and swept his hair back, then rested the heel of his hand on his forehead.

"I still can't figure out how he discovered our meeting spot."

"He didn't do that," Savir answered, then paused to smile amicably at a passing Celestial farmer, only to then immediately return to her previous sour expression. "He must've subverted part of our inner circle, and that's how he learned of its location. It's the only logical explanation."

"You do have a point, but then shouldn't we try to plug the leaks?" Mensah proposed, and it was Tsephanyah who dismissed him first.

"No. We have no way of knowing who is reporting to Polemos, and how many of them are in the Migdál. Acting against just one or two of them would only cause him to suppress us once again."

"Precisely. And that's why we need to get away from the Migdál to have this talk. We can't let any of this reach his ears."

"Oh, screw you…" I muttered under my breath, causing Arnwald to look at me with mild concern.

"Pardon? Did you say something, My Liege?"

"No, I was just talking to myself," I told him while barely managing to keep the mother of all groans bottled up in the pit of my stomach.

"Understood." He didn't sound convinced, but when I didn't say anything else, he shrugged and returned to Morgana's side, who was trying to get her ball into the hole at the other end of the course in one go by bouncing it off one of the obstacles. Or at the very least, that was the impression I was getting from the way she was measuring distances with her putter. These two were taking the game way too seriously, but they looked like they were having fun, so it was fine.

On the flip side, my sisters were much less meticulous about their play, and after yet another failed attempt to get their ball through the mouth of the dragon, Snowy slouched her shoulders in defeat and walked over to me.

"Leo. Help."

"No!" Penny scurried over in a hurry and made an X-sign with her hands. "Asking for Brother to do it for us is cheating!"

"But you already tried to cheat by using your foot," my Abyssal sister pointed out, causing her to flush red.

"T-That wasn't cheating! I was just exploring new tactical possibilities!"

"You know, girls," I interjected with just a hint of a shadow of a facsimile of a smile, "I never played minigolf, so I have no idea why you think I'd do better than you two."

"But you're good at everything," Snowy pointed out with the kind of frank naiveté that made her sound sarcastic to the more cynical listener. Of course, I knew that she meant it honestly, but since under the cynical exterior, I had an even more cynical interior, I couldn't help but automatically narrow my eyes at her.

"Except at video games," my other sister pointed out, drawing my squint to her.

"Nonsense," I grunted, arms folded and brows furrowed. "I'll let you know, by all meaningful metrics, I'm downright average at games!"

Snowy covered her mouth to hide her giggles, but then she tugged on my sleeve with a pleading look, and before long, I found myself on the next course, putter in hand, and standing over a yellow ball on the felt. Sighing, I looked down the lane spotted with small, round protrusions serving as obstacles, and a cartoon dragon at the end, and silently calculated the best way to putt my way to victory. Or rather, my sister's way, but it was a distinction without a difference.

Before committing though, I first Far Glanced at the directors again and found them still walking the dirt roads of the settlement while arguing about something insignificant. I shook my currently non-existent head, but before returning to my body to make the shot, I first flipped through all the other usual targets, just to be safe.

It should've only taken a second or two, but I got unexpectedly bogged down when I reached Josh, as I found him at an unforeseen place. Granted, the last time I checked on him was a couple of hours ago, but I didn't expect to find him at the underground base, let alone in the company of the younger Feilong brother.

"Catch," Zihao said and threw one of those cylindrical plastic flasks you'd see on sports bicycles, and Josh caught it without any trouble.

The two of them were at the edge of the training ground segment of the main hall, and they were both sweaty and bruised, no doubt the aftermath of a vigorous sparring session. Josh was wearing his modified Magiformer, though it was currently in the shape of his Justicar disguise from the Elysium instead of his usual school uniform, sans the helmet, while Zihao was naked from the waist up and wearing loose pants, his muscles glistening with sweat and his spiky red hair still softly glowing after their presumed bout.

"You've got weaker, Joshua," the Draconian guy spoke with a smirk, causing my friend to glare at him.

"Screw you, I'm getting better."

"You're still weaker than when we fought in the finals," Zihao responded with the cockiness of a prize rooster.

"That's why I asked for your help, against my better judgement." Josh hissed and took another swig from the flask. "I need to get used to this," he said, gesturing at his outfit, meaning he was referring to his Celestial powers. "And to do that, I need someone to fight me seriously and push my limits."

Spoken like a true shounen protagonist. I would've been proud of him if it wasn't so clichéd.

"If these are your limits, then you better watch out, or your girlfriend might just get snatched by a stronger, faster, and more handsome guy," Zihao joked (I hoped) and struck a bishounen pose with fingers under his chin, at which point Josh unceremoniously tossed the empty flask at his head.

"I'd like to see you try," he growled, and the other guy responded with a boisterous laugh.

"Maybe I will! But first, pass me that towel, asshole."

"Here you go, shithead," Josh responded curtly and tossed the fluffy cloth at his side over to him.

Ah. The beauty of the battle shounen rivalry. It was such a picturesque sight.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

…

Oh, who was I kidding? It was absolutely—

"Amazing!" Penny exclaimed, and before I knew what was going on, Snowy practically jumped onto me to hug my neck.

"You see! I told you that you're great at everything!"

She beamed at me from just a few centimeters away, and I was left completely confused about what just happened. At least until I glanced over at the dragon statue, which was making dinging noises out of a casino game, its eyes replaced my large X-es, and both its mouth and the castle gates behind it were wide open.

"Did I just hit it in one go?" I asked, ever-so-slightly flabbergasted, and Snowy nodded, nearly headbutting me in the process.

"It was truly impressive, My Liege," Arnwald noted from the court over, with a competitive light in his eyes. "We must strive to match your excellence!"

"Take it easy, dear," Morgana commented and patted his shoulder, but it did little to quench his enthusiasm.

In the meantime, Snowy let me go, and Penny took the putter from me with a grudging, "Hmpf. Beginner's luck," before she grabbed hold of my Abyssal sister's hand, and the two of them zipped over to the next course.

Meanwhile, I looked at my hand and was lost in thought. So, according to empirical evidence:

Wiring enchantments in a non-Euclidian space plus Far Sight equals easy.

Playing minigolf with my eyes closed plus Far Sight equals easy.

Walking home plus Far Sight equals difficult.

…

"In what universe does that make a lick of sense?" I griped under my breath but then stepped off the felt track and walked to a nearby bench.

Ignoring the ridiculousness of the situation, I Far Glanced at Josh, and just as expected, I found him sparring with Zihao, while being overseen by Brang. It was a visually stimulating battle, but I didn't really care for it, and I had more important things demanding my attention. Such as the three directors, and when I shifted my point of view, I found them skulking in an empty house on the outskirts of the settlement.

"... safe here," Tsephanyah noted flatly as he looked through the window and then promptly closed the shutters, plunging the room into darkness. It only lasted for a second, as Mensah hummed a solemn tune, and conjured a dozen or so small candle-lights that floated around the trio, illuminating them as they took their seats around the rough wooden table.

"I never imagined that we would be forced to hold a meeting under such circumstances, but desperate times—"

"Leave the platitudes for later, Acacius." Savir's interruption made the oldest director frown, but he didn't protest, and after they settled down, Savir took a deep breath. "We all know why we're here, so let's not beat around the bush. We need to investigate Archon Polemos, without his knowledge."

"Oh, for the love of…!" I hissed, once again drawing Arnwald's attention, but I waved for him to ignore me and returned to the extra-clandestine meeting.

"Do you still think that he's withholding the whole truth from us?" Tsephanyah asked, and Savir all but scoffed, as if the question itself was distasteful.

"Of course he does. I once thought that he was more Leonard Dunning than Archon Polemos, but his recent actions speak otherwise. If so, it's only natural he's trying to manipulate us. It's only a question of how deep the well of his deception runs."

Oh? Did I hear that right? Was that, maybe, just maybe, a hint of self-awareness I've just heard, acknowledging the Celestials' downright pathological obsession with skull-duggery? Nah, it couldn't have been, or could it?

"First, let's look at what he wants us to think," Mensah followed her up with a frown and he linked his fingers on the table. "He's saying that Bel of the Abyss is, in fact, Bel of the Tenebrous Flames, and the two of them are locked in a war of schemes and subterfuge where they are even making use of each other for their ultimate ends."

"Of which, we know nothing," Tsephanyah added.

"Indeed," Savir agreed with an ambivalent expression, and she began to absently draw circles onto the table with her index finger as she spoke. "For now, let's ignore what Polemos may be planning, and look at this Bel, and his latest actions. According to Polemos's words, Bel came to me on his own, knowing that I was attempting to trap him. What was his goal?"

"Easy," Mensah responded before she even finished speaking. "He showed himself in front of you to read that paragraph of Ancient Celestial Script and plant the idea of a grand conspiracy in your head."

"But why?" Savir stressed. "For what reason did he do that?"

"If we presume that Polemos tells the truth and they are not in cahoots, maybe it was to turn us on the Archon?" Tsephanyah proposed, and his countenance darkened. "And he almost succeeded."

"But that's only true if we presume Polemos is telling the truth," the bespectacled director raised his voice, along with a finger. "But what if that's not the case?"

"Then he betrayed the Archon?"

"Not necessarily," Savir commented with a thoughtful hum. "What if we're looking at this from the wrong perspective? Polemos had obviously done his research on us, and he knew how we would react to Bel's actions."

"How you would react," Mensah stressed, earning himself a scoff.

"Don't try to weasel out of this, Dolion. It's beneath you." Shaking her head, Savir continued. "However, if we presume that he knew how we would react, then could it be that he took it into consideration, and crafted the scenario with that in mind."

"Are you proposing that it was all a ruse?"

The blond director sounded incredulous, almost mockingly so, but she nodded all the same.

"Precisely. First, they misled us into thinking that Bel was a Celestial in disguise aided by others, to lead us to conclude the existence of a conspiracy. Then, Polemos would debunk it, making us focus on Bel alone, while turning a blind eye to the even the potential existence of a conspiracy."

"But that presumes that Bel of the Abyss is purposefully acting as a distraction to draw our attention away from the Archon and this proposed conspiracy," Tsephanyah argued with audible skepticism. "Yet, you have to remember that we wouldn't be aware of the possibility without his involvement, in the first place."

"And your point is?"

"What if it was all part of his plan?"

"Bel's?" Mensah blurted out, and the other man nodded. "In other words, Bel purposefully revealed the conspiracy to force Polemos to act, and he predicted that we wouldn't trust him and think they were still working together."

"It's possible," Tsephanyah declared with a sagely nod. "In fact, it would be most prudent to presume that he expected us to come to that conclusion, with the implicit goal to make us suspicious of Archon Polemos and oppose him in the future."

"But if we say that," Savir cut in, her fingers no longer drawing circles but tapping impatiently instead. "If we say that, then isn't it just as likely that Polemos expected that we would expect Bel to do that, and thus using those expectations to hide the true ploy behind it all?"

"It wouldn't be unexpected, that's for sure," Mensah answered, and I just…

"I just can't," I blurted out, and cut the Far Sight. "I just can't with these people…"

"Leonard? Is everything all right?" Morgana called out to me and walked over to my side, and I immediately shook my head.

"No, it's fine. Everything's fine."

She looked me over, and her expression was hard to read.

"It appears you aren't enjoying the family trip."

"It's not that," I responded in a hurry, accompanied by a dismissive wave of my hand. "I just… I guess I just can't separate myself from my worries. Like whether or not I should do a coup tomorrow."

"My Liege?" Arnwald addressed me from a nearby course, his brows furrowed. "I thought you promised Brother Roland that you wouldn't do anything rash."

"I won't," I groaned and waved my hand again. "It was a joke. A joke."

Or was it? To coup, or not to coup? That was the question.

"My Liege? Maybe instead of dwelling on your quandaries, why not play a few courses?" Arnwald proposed, and held out his putter. "You should try to put your mind at ease. Isn't that what this family excursion is all about?"

"You heard your 'father'," Morgana quipped with a voice full of jest and mirth, as if trying to give me an example of how to leave our daily selves, weary and weighted down by myriad troubles and tribulations behind, and enjoy the moment in good company. Or maybe I was just overthinking this, and she only said it to tease the man awkwardly shuffling while still holding out his putter.

In any case, I gave up and took the club from him. Honestly, I was starting to feel that getting worked up over the chief directors like this was like getting angry over an old dog pissing on the carpet. It's not like I could change that now, short of throwing them out of the house altogether, and in a way, that was exactly what I was planning, so maybe there really was no reason to get hung up on them. For now, let's just adopt a zen attitude, and putt some balls.

"Speaking of family, we should invite your cousin next time," Morgana proposed, halting me in my tracks.

"My what?"

"Agrawain," she explained with the same smile she had just given to Arnwald a moment ago. "He's my nephew, and I'm acting as your mother, which, by logical extension, would make him your cousin."

I blinked at her, but she seemed entirely serious.

"… Shit. I didn't think this whole 'family' thing through, did I…?"

PART 3

"Sunova—!"

"Evening, Raven Boy," I greeted the young Knight sitting at the table, and he glared at me in return.

"I told you to stop doing that!"

"Stop doing what?" I asked innocently as I sat down as well.

"Stop appearing next to me like that! It's freaking me out."

I had many a different response on the tip of my tongue, but in the end, I settled on a shrug and absent-mindedly scanned the room with my eyes.

We were inside the 'dockyard hideout', as I usually referred to it, and over time, the lot has changed considerably. It was technically an old, abandoned warehouse with a couple of rooms in the basement, and while the structure above was left untouched (lest it would draw attention), this chamber in particular was in remarkably better shape than it had been at the start.

In retrospect, I should've expected that the Fauns would go out of their way to renovate things; it had been their modus operandi, regardless of the circumstances, after all. Yet, I didn't expect them to plaster the walls, or fix the tiny windows, and now the place even had separate corners dedicated to the fridge and kitchen appliances, the folding camping cots, and the electric heater to keep the temperatures cosy. Add in the rugs, the shelves filled with books and miscellaneous items, and the other paraphernalia, and it all felt surprisingly lived-in and comfortable. Almost like a basement apartment, or something.

"So? What are you here for this time?" Raven Boy asked, putting aside the book and notes in front of him.

"I'm here to have a chat with Percival," I answered, maybe sounding a bit dourer than I planned, but he didn't pay it any attention.

"Finally. Does that mean that I won't need to be holed up in this place anymore?"

"Depends," I told him with a shrug.

"What do you mean 'depends'? Give me a break, already!"

"What? Isn't this a cushy job?" I teased him a bit with a grin. He, naturally, didn't appreciate it, but I couldn't care less.

Or… well, maybe I could. It was true that he's been the one most often on guard duty here. Part of it was because of a lack of manpower; while some of the Fauns were always on standby, only he, Morgana, and Roland knew about this place, and my dual identity as Bel. Roland obviously couldn't waste his time on guard duty here, as he was acting like my second-in-command in my absence (read: he was stamping and signing paperwork all day), while Morgana was a senior Knight, and thus had lots of extra duties in the Ordo Draconis (read: she was helping Arnwald double-checking all the paperwork before Roland would stamp and sign them). By process of elimination, that left only this guy, and so he was stationed here for four or five days of the week.

As much as I still didn't like the cut of his jib, he did his job dutifully, and Judy wasn't holding a grudge against him either, meaning I had no good reason to heckle him nowadays. Well, aside from my antipathy, but with everything else going on, I couldn't afford to be so petty about minor things like this.

"Cushy my ass," Raven Boy objected to my previous teasing with a deep furrow between his brows. "Do you have any idea how annoying it is to get stuck somewhere without being able to get anything done?"

"Well, I was stuck in the Elysium for a while."

"Where you were treated like royalty!" he exclaimed, and I couldn't really object.

"It's not like you're wasting your time though," I pointed out, with a literal finger aimed at the books and notes he shuffled aside a minute ago. "Weren't you working on something just now?"

To my sincerest surprise, his face tensed up, and he tried to draw my attention away from the pile.

"Sure, but it doesn't make the time go any faster, and while I can get things done here, it would be better if…"

I narrowed my eyes and picked up one of the books, making him twitch in apprehension. Ignoring his reaction, I took a better look at the cover, then skimmed the insides.

"A TechnoPunk rulebook?" I asked a touch incredulously, and Raven Boy responded with an indignant grunt.

"So what? I'm doing research, okay?" When I continued to squint at him, he let out a sigh. "Seriously, I am! Penelope asked me to help her with her campaign, so I was looking into the adventure modules and the rule books."

Now that he mentioned it, my Knightly sister was indeed running a separate tabletop roleplaying campaign with a hodgepodge crew in the underground base, though I wasn't paying them much mind after their first gathering.

"I couldn't even join the last session, because I was stuck here," Raven Boy continued to gripe and snatched the book out of my hand, as if afraid that I would take it.

"Everyone needs a hobby or two," I granted, and was planning to leave things here, yet he kept eyeing me with undisguised suspicion. Was he expecting that I would start nitpicking him here, I wondered.

Whatever the case might've been, it wasn't any of my business, so I folded my arms and did my best to get my thoughts in order… which only made the guy even more restless. Was I such a bad boss that my silence was enough to make him fidget?

…

There was no reason to answer that question.

"Are you going to talk to Sir Percival, or not?" he asked at last, and I had a hard time giving him an answer.

"I need to prepare myself first."

"For what?"

"To make sure I won't accidentally turn him into a black knight."

"A… what?"

"You know? Character from that comedy with the coconuts and the unladen swallows and the holy hand grenades? 'Tis but a scratch?"

The guy's face lit up and he nodded knowingly.

"Ah, right. That black knight." He crossed his arms to mirror me, and concluded, "A classic."

I wasn't entirely sure he got the reference, but he was a tabletop gamer, so there was no chance in hell he wasn't exposed to the pre-internet memes about it. In any case, I wordlessly considered the comparison again, and I had to conclude it was more apt than intended.

I mean, we were talking about a knight with unchecked overconfidence and a staunch inability to recognize when they were outclassed, butting heads with a 'king' leading a bunch of other knights. Who was I talking about here?

Contrasts aside, Raven Boy remained silent, while I wasn't in the mood to engage with Percival yet, so I did my best to drag my feet… I mean, to collect myself, and while doing so, I figured a quick Far Sight roll call wouldn't hurt.

"Today was the best!" Penny exclaimed while lying on her stomach and hugging a pillow on her bed, her face practically glowing with a blissful smile.

"Mm. It felt like we were a real family," my Abyssal sister responded from in front of the PC, and the other girl stopped grinning and sent a stern glance at her.

"Don't be silly, Snowy! We are family!"

"… I guess we are," she answered with a smile, and they both giggled.

Ah. Just what I needed to heal my mind. Little sisters were a treasure, even if occasionally a handful.

Sadly, I couldn't spend much time watching them, as habit made me shift over to others. I glanced at Josh's scrapes being treated by his girlfriend, Elly practising her singing, Judy and the class rep having a discussion over the phone, and then I watched Mike and Moose arguing about who ate the last doughnut in the fridge. At last, I finally resolved myself to take a look at the three head directors again.

"As per the Archon's instructions, we must maintain full readiness!" Mensah declared while holding a small meeting with his fell Unorthodox faction members.

"But if he really is affiliated with the Abyssal…" someone tried to object, but he browbeat them with a glare.

"It doesn't matter. It's best to have all our forces at the ready. Get all the Colossi out of storage and prep them. Even the mothballed experimental ones," he ordered, then linked his fingers in front of his face as his glasses glinted like one of those old-school anime villains. "Whether we'll have to use them against the forces of the Abyss, or someone else, so long as we hold control over the weapons, we'll have a much stronger foundation for the future. Now, get to it."

Shaking my head, I shifted over to the second target, and I found Savir in an extra-clandestine meeting outside the tower.

"… this under wraps. No one must learn their identities, or how they are related," she instructed a Celestial, and then man nodded. He was a fairly unremarkable placeholder-type, but his fancy clothes and the large amulet hanging around his neck, depicting a sword piercing a book while surrounded by burning wings (aka, Deus's insignia, as far as I gathered) reminded me more of a clergyman than an agent.

"As you wish, Matriarch," the man proclaimed and backed away after a deep bow.

Meanwhile, Savir smiled as she looked at the evening sky, and whispered, "You might think you have everything under your thumb, but I still have an ace up my sleeve," followed by a series of chuckles just a hair away from megalomaniacal laughter.

I had no idea why people did that. I mean, making dramatic declarations like that without anyone around. It was just weird. I was okay with the laughter though; everyone needed to let out some steam every once in a while, and over-the-top cackling was an underrated stress-relief method.

Anyhow, I moved on to the third target, and found him in the company of his faction's top dogs and their subordinates, their meeting taking place over a nice dinner table.

"… and that's why I'm saying that we need to ensure we are ready to enact wide-ranging reforms," he stated while everyone was paying rapt attention to him, and he swirled his wine, probably for dramatic effect.

"Are you certain?" a familiar director whose name I couldn't recall inquired, and the blonde man nodded before taking a sip.

"The Lord Archon has shown to upend the traditional status quo on the ancestral land, and he'd done that through both force, subterfuge, as well as legislation and regulation. I believe our ultimate goals are not incompatible, so as long as we step up and help enact and enforce his edicts, I'm sure we can greatly benefit in the process."

"And what about Her Grace Deus?" another voice called out. "What if she disagrees?"

"So long as we have Lord Polemos's back, he'll have ours," he declared with unfounded confidence. "It's clear that the Lord Archon doesn't respond well to provocation, so all we have to do is to earn his favor, and then later use that as leverage to sway him towards our cause." He emptied his glass and added, "It might be a slow and ponderous route to achieve our goals, but it is the safest and least likely to put us in conflict with the Archons. That, in and of itself, is the greatest benefit. As the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race."

There was widespread agreement around the table, while I let out a low groan.

So, what did I learn? Mensah still had tunnel vision, Savir was still a scheming chronic backstabber who refused to learn her lessons, while Tsephanyah was still the sanest of the three, but he was still too much of a career politician for my liking. Same old, same old.

"What was that?" Raven Boy asked with a brow raised, and I waved him off.

"Nah, I'm just silently lamenting my troubles."

I stood up and took one last deep breath to steel my nerves, but before heading to the holding area, I turned to the guy still sitting at the table. We locked eyes for a while, and while he didn't glare at me the way he used to, he wasn't avoiding my gaze either.

"You've been working hard lately, haven't you?" I said, and somehow that put him on guard.

"… I'd say so."

"Hm." I hummed to myself for a few seconds. "Agrawain?"

"W-What?"

And now he looked startled. I had no idea why, but then again, I wasn't a mind reader. It would've made my life easier if I was. But then again, the same could be said about all my other out-of-context powers, but if I didn't have them, my life would've been much simpler, wouldn't it?

I didn't ponder that for long, and simply told him, "Congratulations. I'm officially placing you at the bottom of my shit list."

"Gee, thanks," he sniped back with a sour grimace.

"Don't look at me like that," I told him with a smirk. "My shit list is full of arch-mages, Draconian elders, and Celestial bigwigs. You're in illustrious company."

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better already."

I allowed myself a soft chuckle at his expense and waved him goodbye, then headed to the cells. On my way there, I greeted Vurrok, who was on guard duty outside, and after I entered, I waved to Pip to leave me alone with the old man. Then, it was time to face him one-on-one.

Despite his captivity, Percival looked mostly fine. His injuries from my impromptu beatdown have mostly healed, and while his cell was still mostly bare, he managed to weasel himself into the possession of a small library's worth of old books, courtesy of Snowy. I didn't know if she was taking pity on him, or if it was part of some kind of deal, but whenever I used Far Sight on him, he'd been perusing them to alleviate his boredom, and while I still hated his guts, I was okay with a small comfort like that.

Speaking of which, he was dressed in casual clothes, and while his hair and beard were unkempt, his eyes were just as sharp as on the first day I met him.

"Leonard," he greeted me like one would welcome an old friend they haven't seen in ages. "I was wondering when you'd pay me a visit."

He put his book aside and walked up to the bars, his lips bent in a jovial smile that made my stomach turn. Maybe I should've taken Cal with me after all, I mused. I could've really use that calming technique right now, but then again, recalling him nonchalantly talking about how he wanted to poison Snowy made me afraid I would 'accidentally' cut him to ribbons if I did.

"Cut the friendly grandpa act, old man. I'm not in the mood," I told him firmly, and his expression took a turn for the neutral.

"You know, after all of this, I was expecting at least a hint of empathy," he complained, gesturing at the cell. "You're breaking my heart."

My first reaction was to tell him he's lucky I wasn't breaking anything else, but I swallowed my words and tempered my, well, temper.

"You ended up here due to your own actions. Don't expect sympathy from me."

"And pray tell, what were those 'actions'?" he asked, and he made the question sound genuine. When I didn't respond right away, he shook his head and leaned against the bars. "No, I'm serious. Can you tell me exactly what I did wrong?"

"You sold me out to the Celestials."

"Sold you out? Who sold you out? I certainly didn't." He looked sincerely offended by my accusation and shook his head. "No, Leonard. I've merely cooperated with the only people who could recover your memories, in hopes of curing your amnesia. And look how well it turned out! If not for me, you would've never become this 'Polemos'!" He suddenly narrowed his eyes and looked me over from head to toe. "Now that it came up, what was that all about? Did you seriously manage to fool everyone into thinking you're this ancient Celestial hero or what have you?"

"What if I didn't?" I asked back, and he let out a chuckle, as if it was a good joke.

"Oh, don't be like that. I've known you since you were just a wee pup. Amnesiac or not, I can recognize your mannerisms and reactions in a heartbeat." He fell silent for a moment and tapped his beard. "Actually, does your amnesia have something to do with this 'Polemos' business?"

"No, and we're getting off-topic," I told him, but he immediately raised a finger.

"No, we aren't. My point still stands; while I wasn't aware of all the facts, I didn't betray you, and my actions led to you now possessing more political clout than any one man in the history of the World of Mystics. I should get a damn medal, not a cell like this!"

"None of that changes the fact that you colluded with the Celestials behind everyone's back."

"So did you!" He pointed at the empty cell next to his. "If it's that big of a deal, how come you're on the other side of these bars, and not locked up over there?" He let his hand down and leaned against the metal rods again with a grin. "And really, does it even matter anymore, when the whole world now knows that you're with the Celestial Directorate? Your Draconic Federation already fully accepted you, despite that, didn't it? Then what makes my so-called 'crime' such a big deal?"

I squinted at him, a certain detail in his words catching me off-guard.

"You're well-informed about the outside world."

"Well, what can I say?" His tone was carefree and his expression smug enough that it made me want to punch him. "It was child's play to get the Abyssal missy to dribble a couple of interesting nuggets of information here and there. I just had to praise you a little bit, then drop a few insinuations, and she would tell me all kinds of news." When I didn't respond, his expression hardened, and he added, "Let's not kid ourselves here, Leonard. You have no reason to keep me here, do you?"

"You mean beyond the fact that you were planning to poison my sister?"

"Did you hear that from that Bel of the Abyss fellow? Bah! Think for a moment, you rascal! I was only pushing his buttons!" When I didn't respond, he let out a disappointed sigh. "Listen, it's simple. I knew that he was on bad terms with the Abyssal houses, so I figured that my best way to ingratiate myself with him was to say what he wanted to hear. How was I supposed to know that you were working together, or that he would fly off the handle like that? It was just a… minor miscalculation due to incomplete information."

"I still don't hear you denying that you tried to use Udug Blood Amalgam on her."

"As a last resort, if she tried to betray you!" He was insistent, and when he saw that I wasn't receptive to his words, he immediately shifted his tone. "But more importantly, did Bel tell you how it even came up in conversation?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh, just you wait," Percival spoke with a wolfish grin. "I bet he didn't tell you that he was immune to the effects of the Blood Amalgam." When I didn't respond right away, he must've misunderstood my silence for surprise, as he immediately doubled down. "You know what that means, don't you? Just how much do you even know about that man, huh?"

"You're changing the subject," I pointed out. "This conversation is about you, not him."

"Oh, but it is still relevant," he insisted with a thin-lipped smile. "Tell me, Leonard. For how long have you known this 'Bel of the Abyss'? For how long have you been working together? I thought he was manipulating you from behind the curtain, but it turns out you've been in cahoots with him for a while, haven't you? I wonder; you call me out for 'betraying' you and the Brotherhood for the Celestials, something you're just as guilty of, and then you turn around and collude with some shady powerhouse claiming to be from the Abyss. Sure, you can say it was 'For the greater good', and 'For the benefit of everyone', all you like, but how is that any different from what I did? Bloody hell, how is that not worse?"

"Do you have a point or goal behind this tangent," I hissed at him, cutting in before he could continue. "Beyond making me unreasonably irritated."

"Don't let your emotions lead you astray, Leonard. Wasn't it one of the first lessons I hammered into you, way back when? When you were just a wee boy under my wings?" he insisted, making an emotional appeal in the process, the hypocrite. Though again, maybe I shouldn't throw stones while living in a glass house, I guessed. "You must look at the situation objectively, and realize the unquestionable truth."

"Which is?"

"That I'm not guilty of anything you yourself haven't committed, that I pose no real threat to you, and that you're wasting my talents by keeping me locked up here." He paused, and when I didn't budge, he added, in an impassioned voice, "Come on, son! You know that I'm right!"

I closed my eyes for a moment, clenched and unclenched my fist a couple of times, and then exhaled softly. Once I got my temper under control, I levelled a flat gaze at his pleading face hiding a pair of cold, calculating eyes.

"Is that all? Do you have anything else to say?"

"I think I've made my point, and you're too smart not to realize that I've got it," he insisted, maintaining eye contact. "Just let me out of here, so we can sit down properly, and we can have a proper talk. Not like this."

He gestured at the bars, while I was deep in thought, and after a couple of long seconds, I turned around.

"I'll sleep on it," I said, and walked out, letting Pip back in to keep an eye on him, and once when the door closed behind me did I relax my shoulders and exhaled a pent-up breath.

"[Are you all right?]" Vurrok asked at once, and I gestured with my hand to tell him I was fine before I rubbed my temple with it.

In conclusion, Percival was convinced he didn't do anything bad, that I should be thankful to him, and that I was a hypocrite for keeping him locked up, concluded with a plea both emotional and rational, leaning on our alleged connection as mentor and protegee as well as his potential usefulness for our organization. Was I convinced?

Hell no. This man was, in many ways, worse than the Celestials. At least those guys were consistent with their scheming and beliefs, while Percival was just a straight-up turncoat, ready and willing to switch sides, backstab others, and pretend that he was doing the morally upright thing all the while.

So yes, while his arguments weren't completely wrong, and releasing him while keeping him on a short leash would've technically resolved this situation, I would've had to be mad to do so. That said, as I'd discussed with Roland beforehand, keeping him locked up was a waste of resources, while killing him off… I once joked about him being my personal Knight of Cerebus, and I seriously didn't want to test if that was a jest of a hypothesis.

In the end, I concluded today's interview with a tired, "I need a second opinion," and disappeared from the basement, none the clearer on what to do.

PART 4

"So, we're not invading the Elysium today," my dear assistant stated, much less asked, as we walked down the street.

It was early in the morning, and I decided to pick her up ahead of the usual schedule to discuss a few things in person. I'd spent the whole night stewing over what to do with Percival, and I wanted to hear a few other perspectives before I made up my mind. But first…

"No, Dormouse, I'm not invading the Elysium yet after all."

Disregarding the hint of annoyance in my tone, she nodded and grabbed hold of my hand.

"Good. If you do something like that, you have to do it properly."

"You already told me that," I grumbled as we walked down the usual streets on our way to school. "And it's not even the thing I really want to talk about right now."

"I know, but this takes priority. A coup would affect all of our schedules for the rest of the week, so we should clarify everything ahead of time."

It would've done much more, but I guess she was making light of it on purpose.

"Sure, sure…"

She squeezed my hand, and finally asked, "So, have you decided what to do with Sir Percival?"

"That's the problem. I haven't."

I already gave her a footnote version of my discussion with the bastard over the phone last night, so didn't need to do it all over again.

"You know that he's trying to manipulate you, right?"

"Sure, but what he said was still annoyingly reasonable." I exhaled a shallow sigh. "I mean, he's an opportunistic turncoat and a spy. Letting him stay close to us, let alone giving him an official position after all this, is just asking for a sudden yet inevitable betrayal… but he wasn't explicitly wrong about what he said. Urgh... It's exactly why I didn't want to talk to him..."

"Have you thought about exiling him?" she proposed. "The Brotherhood of the Most Heroic Bloodlines must've had a protocol for that."

"And where would I even exile him? Even if I send him off the island, I'd bet it would only take a few days for the bloody Directorate to track him down and get him involved in a multi-step plan to annoy me."

"Then exile him into the Elysium, with the express intent to keep him under house arrest," Judy proposed.

"Yes, because the Elysium wasn't bad enough already. It obviously needs another annoyance there."

If the flatness of my voice wasn't a solid enough indicator, my grimace must've made my attitude towards the idea abundantly obvious, as my lovely assistant lightly shrugged.

"I'm just trying to give you ideas."

"I know, and I appreciate it, but if it was so simple, I wouldn't need advice in the first place."

It looked like she wanted something to say, but we put a hold on the conversation when a comet of familiar blonde ringlets appeared at the corner.

"I'm here!" the princess declared as she dashed over, with an entire toast hanging from her mouth and…

"Déja vu?" Judy spoke my mind, but by then, Elly quickly finished up her food and was looking at me with just a hint of a seed of a pout.

"You could've texted me ahead of time if you wanted to go to school early! I had to rush my breakfast, and Melinda even scolded me."

"Sorry, it wasn't really planned. It just turned out this way," I apologized, and that was enough to lift her mood enough to line up next to me and entwine our arms.

"So? What did I miss?"

"The Chief's not invading Elysium today," Judy noted, and my other girlfriend nodded.

"Good. You can't do surprise attacks so haphazardly."

"Isn't a surprise attack, by definition, something you do in a hurry?" I objected, and she shook her head.

"No! You have to time it right, and you have to notify all your allies ahead of time, and you have to plan it all out so that everyone understands the goals of the operation," Elly lectured me, and I felt like it would permanently derail the conversation if I let her do that, so I pulled her closer to interrupt her.

"It doesn't matter, because we're not doing that yet, and I'm currently focused on what to do with Percival."

"Oh, right!" The princess looked at me with expectant eyes, and asked, "So? Did you decide to deal with him?"

"That's the problem. The Chief is still undecided," Judy noted on my other side, causing my draconic girlfriend to open her eyes as wide as saucers.

"But why? You can just change his Oaths, cripple him, and then kick him out. Even better, send him into Elysium, and let them sort him out."

"For the record, that was also my advice."

Judy sounded vindicated, but I shook my head.

"No, I can't do that. Remember, his Oaths are a Plot Device, so I can't touch them."

"Oh, please!" Elly playfully rolled her eyes and snuggled up to me even closer. "When did that ever stop you? Wasn't mom's wound also one of those 'Plot Device' things?"

"And the spear," Judy added.

"Yes, and Ascalon as well! I'm sure you can do something about this one too!"

I was silent for a while, but ultimately shook my head.

"Not that simple." My girlfriends were naturally less than fully convinced by my genius rebuttal, so I had to elaborate. "First off, the method to deal with Plot Devices is to do it in a roundabout way, using 'plausible' existing factors and external forces. That's hard in his case, as I can only implant new conditions by directly interfacing with the Oaths. More importantly, even if I did manage to do it somehow, I'm not sure I should. Remember that whole thing with 'other-me' I told you about?"

"The one where you blackmailed yourself into revealing information about the Simulacrum to yourself," Judy responded flatly, and when she put it like that, it did sound kind of silly. Anyhow, I ignored her tone and doubled down.

"Precisely. I was warned not to mess with the plot. Whatever said 'plot' may be, the only unambiguous traces of it we could find so far were precisely these Plot Devices."

"So you're saying…" Elly interjected with a thoughtful look in her eyes, "… that since Sir Percival's Oaths, and only his Oaths, are these Plot Device things, it means they are relevant to the plot, which means he's relevant to the plot. Did I get that right?"

"Exactly. And that's why I can't decide what to do with him."

"To me, it sounds like you already decided though," Judy pointed out, and when I directed a baffled glance at her, she explained, "You are expecting him to be part of the plot of the Angeline Route, and you don't want to disturb the plot too much because of the warning you received… which is, I would like to point out, contradicts your previous plan to forcefully evict the Directorate."

"Now that you mention it, it does sound like something that would disturb this 'plot'," Elly agreed, and her comment made me groan aloud.

"Girls? Girls. Please, can we please drop this topic? Can we just agree that I was caught up in the heat of the moment and I didn't think it through?"

"Meaning you aren't going to take down the Directorate?" Elly asked, and I reflexively shook my head.

"Nah, those guys can't be left alone, I'm just not doing it through a military coup."

"Good. You should make sure to do it thoroughly," Judy nodded, and I couldn't help but feel I was getting mixed messages from them. Before I could point it out, she continued with, "As I was saying, since you are expecting him to be an important part of the Angeline Route, meaning he's a piece you cannot remove from the game board, you might as well let him fulfil his designated role while keeping a close eye on him."

"Ah. It's one of those 'Better the devil you know' kind of situations, isn't it?" Elly chimed in with a grin. "Maybe you should just extradite him to Elysium after all, huh?"

"I'll… consider it," I responded a tad grudgingly, mostly because I couldn't object to their conclusion. There wasn't much of an opportunity to do so anyway, as just as we rounded the corner, we encountered yet another familiar face.

"Good morning," the class rep greeted us, looking as prim and proper as usual. She was alone, which wasn't that surprising. Even though we took our sweet time walking slowly while we talked, we were still much earlier than usual.

"Hi, Ammy," Elly greeted her back with a smile and a wave. "Did you wake up early?"

"You could say that," she said, her eyes locked on me. "Can I borrow Leo for a while?"

My girlfriends looked at her funny for a moment, but soon enough, Judy let go of my hand, and Elly grudgingly followed suit. Without further ado, the class rep came to my side and waited for my girlfriends to walk ahead before she whispered to me.

"Can I ask you for advice?"

"Sure." She glanced around, and seeing that Judy and Elly were already a few steps ahead, she automatically followed after them, and I lined up next to her so we could talk. "So? Is this Magi-business, relationship-business, or meta-business?"

"Yes," she responded with altogether too much seriousness. "I've talked with Judy about this, and I made a lot of notes, but I want to run some of my ideas by you first."

"Shoot."

She adjusted her glasses, and opened with, "I was told you have this hypothesis about various tracks destiny could follow, based on Josh's choices as the 'Chosen One'. Judy called them 'Routes' if I remember right."

"Yes, that's the working idea at the moment."

"So that means there was, at least theoretically, a potential chance that Josh would hypothetically enter into a possible relationship with me," she said, suddenly sounding a little awkward. "I mean, if I didn't meet Michael and Josh didn't… you know?"

"Yes, yes. Relationship stuff affecting the fabric of the plot. It's a pretty common trope, so we figure it was in play here."

"Right, but that's not really what I'm trying to get at." She paused to collect her thoughts. "So, my actual point is this: because of destiny, events would've drastically changed depending on Josh's choice. He chose Angie, so she turned out to be the leader of Celestials while pulling you in as well, and if he chose to be with Elly, then he would've most likely ended up in a conflict with the Feilongs and the Brotherhood. Without your intervention, I mean."

"That's likely, yes."

"Then what would've happened if he chose me, colloquially speaking?"

Actually, that was a good question. Since she dropped out so early from the race, due to Mike's courting, we never really considered that particular scenario before.

"It would've most likely had something to do with the Grimoire," I posited. "You know? Because Josh's constitution would take the attributes of the person he's 'exchanging fluids with', he would've most likely gained permanent Magi powers, and those would've given him access to that Grimoire thing in the Assembly, while also putting him in conflict with the Celestials, who would've tried to keep up the status quo."

Ammy furiously blushed at the mere mention of fluid exchange, but she pushed it down by just as furiously tweaking her glasses.

"Y-Yes, I thought so, and it's why I've been wondering: what would've been my role in that track of destiny?"

I wanted to tease her by saying 'his girlfriend', but it would've been a little inappropriate, so I gave it more thought.

"That's a good question. Probably a sub-plot related to homunculi? Or maybe…"

I paused as I've got a sudden idea, and mulled it over a bit. Let's look at this objectively: Josh's prophecies were vague, but in retrospect, there was a bit of a trend there. The Abyssal prophecy signified him as a 'herald' of the Emperor of the Abyss, not the emperor himself, and the Celestial one ended up with him playing second fiddle to his girlfriend, who was the true second advent of Deus. The Draconian prophecy was about reviving the bloodline of the dragons, which would've naturally required Elly's 'contribution', to put in in PG-13 terms, which meant…

"Have you ever tried touching one of those Grimoire Key marbles?" I asked, and her eyes lit up.

"Yes, I had the same idea!" she proclaimed with a determined look on her face. "Since Josh would've been copying my powers, wouldn't that mean that they would be compatible with the Grimoire? And if so, wouldn't it mean that I could be compatible with it as well?"

"It's worth a try."

"I'll ask Grandfather about it as soon we arrive!"

I blinked at her enthusiastic declaration, and couldn't help but smile a little.

"Well, someone's eager."

"Of course. I would've never considered this as a possibility without learning about the tracks of destiny, but if we're right, I might be… I might even be able to finally throw fireballs!"

"… Everyone needs a goal in life, I suppose," I muttered, but she didn't seem to hear, and she looked so unusually excited I could practically see the sparkles around her. "Was that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Ah, right." The sparkles vanished and she readjusted her glasses again. "There was one more thing I wanted to ask you about. It's… related to Michael."

"As in?"

"T-Three things," she began, suddenly sounding awkward again. She's been swinging between emotions way more than usual, hasn't she? "First, since you're the resident relationship expert…"

"Since when?" I blurted out, but she ignored me.

"I'd like to ask what you think about our relationship. I mean, between me and Michael."

"You're… a cute couple?" I muttered, but she shook her head.

"No, I mean, if we're together because of destiny, or if it was… natural."

This time it was my turn to awkwardly scratch the back of my head. Just how was I supposed to know that? Still, considering they started not-yet-dating-but-actually-totally-dating way before Josh started to be conscious of Angie…

"It's a meaningless question. I personally think the Narrative was unrelated to your relationship, but if you're happy, would it even matter if it wasn't?"

"I… guess you've got a point." She digested my words for a few seconds. "Then… can I ask you to give Michael a day off?"

"… Sure?" I was a little baffled by her request, as I didn't know why he needed my permission for that. It wasn't like he was officially working for me nine-to-five. "Do you want to go on a date or something?"

"That's the plan," she admitted. "I'd also like to ask you about how to take the… next step in our relationship."

I was once again stumped by the way she worded things, and while it was hard to interpret it any other way, I had to make sure I wasn't running headlong into another one of those 'misunderstanding comedy' tropes.

"You mean sex?"

The class rep froze up and put a hand on my mouth, but then when she realized what she was doing, she immediately retracted her arm and pulled back.

"Y-Yes, but you didn't need to say that out loud!"

"I just had to be sure, but… why are you asking me?"

Wasn't this one of those things that she should've inquired about from Judy and Elly? Heck, even Angie was getting enough experience in the field where she could've given her decent advice, so coming to a guy like me was…

"It's because you're the relationship expert," she insisted. "Do you think it's too early? I mean, we already met his family, and his mother is already considering me her daughter-in-law, but I don't want to rush things too much, but the world could end at any moment the same way it began, and I wouldn't want to miss out on this, but I don't know what Michael is thinking, and are you listening?"

"Yes, yes. I hear you loud and clear."

"Okay. So, as I said, if we weren't tied together by destiny, or even if we were, I want to take our relationship further, because I do love Michael, but…"

And so on and so forth. I listened to the class rep's relationship woes, belatedly noticing that my girlfriends hurried ahead to give us more privacy. Or at least so I hoped, because the alternative was that they ditched me to my fate, which was just cold. In any case, while I wasn't sure I was the right person to help her in this regard, I dutifully listened to Ammy's words, though I couldn't stop myself from wondering about other things.

Such as whether it was a good idea to send Percival over the Elysium or not. Or if I should do so while pretending that he was a quadruple agent to mess with the heads of the chief directors. Or if doing it as Bel, while loudly declaring that Percival definitely wasn't my spy, would've been hilarious, or trying too hard. Or if I really should take Lord Barnabas up on his offer and take his diplomacy classes. Or if Ammy could really hijack her own defunct route and start throwing fireballs in the future. Or why I ended up as the resident relationship expert.

So many things to consider, and all of them were equally important. All of them.