Part 1

My day at school was… rather stressful. Not because of the lessons, or the tests I had to take to make up for the time I missed, or any other similarly mundane reason, but due to the gnawing sensation in the pit of my stomach. It was more psychological than physical in nature (or so I hoped, as an ulcer was the last thing I needed right now); a result of my worries over whether I made the right calls over the weekend.

Was it fine to leave the directors in place? Should I have been more forceful? Would my actions cause them to be more or less active in the future? Would it have been better if I just publicly denounced them, instead of trying to deal with them behind closed doors?

Similarly, did I make the right call with Percival? Maybe I shouldn't have even talked to him, and just let Roland deal with him. But was it right to remove him from the capital-P Plot, especially at a critical juncture like this?

And speaking of the Plot, what was the Narrative's ploy here? Was it to spark a conflict between me and the Directorate? If so, what did that mean in the grand scheme of things? Did I delay the Plot by not flying off the handle completely and kicking the three head directors (or at the very least, Savir) out of office, or was I subtly influenced to hold back because I wasn't supposed to do that yet? I wished I could ask other-me, but I had a strong feeling that the trick I pulled last time would've had diminishing returns, and if other-me wanted to tell me about it, he could've done so the last time.

With all of these questions (and many, many more) weighing on my mind, it was a small miracle I could pay any attention to the classes. Luckily though, there were lots of distractions to keep me from falling into a navel-gazing black hole. Some were welcome, such as the antics of my girlfriends. Others though…

"So, I was thinking," Ammy whispered as we were lining up in the cafeteria. She was so quiet that I had to read half the words off her lips to make sense of what she was saying, which was both annoying and slightly odd, considering she normally would've scolded others for whisper about such topics in public. What topics? Well… "Listen, you said you have to power to retroactively change things, right?"

"Yeah," I confirmed a touch trepidatiously.

"And you can really do that, right? You didn't just say it to scare me, right?"

"I can, but it's—"

"So," she cut me off, just as we were about to reach the counter. "You could change things about people too, right?"

"Theoretically," I granted her and then gestured for a pause while we placed our orders. The moment the cafeteria lady turned away though, she continued unabated.

"So, can you make me into a human?"

"You're a human already."

My delivery was flat enough to put pancakes to shame, but she remained adamant.

"You know what I meant," she hissed, and it took ungodly effort to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

"And you know how I feel about the whole homunculus thing," I told her and picked up my lunch.

She did so as well and quickly followed after me.

"But it's theoretically possible, right? Right?"

"Yes, but I'm not doing it." I stopped for a moment to let some other students pass us by, and then pulled her aside to a less crowded spot. "Listen, retconning stuff is ridiculously dangerous. You are you, because of your history and memories. If I changed something fundamental like that, you would no longer be yourself, but a different person. I thought I made this clear when we talked about this in the base."

"I know, and I'm not telling you to do it. I just want to know if it's something that could be done," she argued back, and if she didn't have both of her hands occupied with her food tray, I was sure she would've done that thing where she menacingly tweaked her glasses at me.

"Potentially, yes, but there would need to be a literally life-or-death situation for me to even consider something like that."

In truth, I probably would've hesitated even then, because it could've had literal world- (or at the very least, Simulacrum-) shattering results. Getting the attention of the four star-people and their bony guest-and/or-superior was just yet another reason to treat the prospect as just a thought experiment. It was best it stayed that way.

"I was just asking," Ammy complained, but I ignored her and headed to our table.

She grudgingly followed after me, to the usual table in the corner of the cafeteria. The weather was promising to be gloomy for the next couple of days, so rooftop lunch breaks were off the menu for the time being. Everyone was sitting at their usual spots, and as soon as I joined them, a certain Celestial girl theatrically rubbed her cheek and tweaked an imaginary monocle. Or was it a magnifying glass?

Either way, she let out a huff and declared, "Suspicious!"

"What?" the class rep asked as she took a seat between Josh and my sisters, and Angie let out a strangely French noise. No, seriously, that's the best way I could describe it.

"You, mein Fraulein!" Angie exclaimed and… wait, was that supposed to be a German noise? Whatever the case might've been, she pointed at me next, stopping my train of thought dead in its tracks. "And you! What's going on between you two lately?"

"Excuse me?"

"You two have been whispering between each other all day today." She mimed smoking a pipe, using her fork as a prop, and… wait. Was she trying to act like a detective? "All evidence points at the two of you being up to no good!"

"It's not like that," Ammy spoke up in our defence, drawing Angie's attention.

"Then you should have no problem explaining what exactly you were doing, right?"

"Actually… I can't."

It was only natural, considering she had been pestering me about the Narrative, the Plot, and other meta-related topics every chance she got since the morning, none of which could be freely shared with the childhood friend duo. Or the rest of the non-meta-aware crowd, if we're at it. That said, she could've probably deflected it by saying it was about 'destiny' or something, but she didn't think that far ahead.

"You see! I told you they were up to something! Sharing secrets and stuff! All very suspicious, eh?" Angie exclaimed with an ear-to-ear grin, and poked her boyfriend, nearly knocking the food off his fork.

"Hey, careful! This thing has truffles, you know? It's not cheap."

Oddly enough, such things never seemed to bother him when I was the one who bought his food here. What a huge difference that makes, huh?

In any case, Angie didn't relent and pointed her fork at me.

"Leo? You aren't trying to cheat on Judy and Elly with Ammy, right?"

That accusation made the class rep nearly drop her own fork. As for me, I glanced at my girlfriends, who were locked in a heated discussion about the minigolf course with my sisters, so they weren't paying much attention to our side of the table. Probably for the better.

"Josh? Would you kindly flick your girlfriend on the forehead for me? I'd do it myself, but I just sat down, and I don't want to get back up."

"My pleasure," he said, and to my surprise, he immediately did good on it.

"Owie! Hey!"

Of course, I would've hit her harder, and wouldn't have rubbed the spot afterwards like he did, but that was to be expected.

"I'm with Leo on this one," my friend backed me up, though again, the way he was rubbing her forehead made his scolding slightly less effective. "Where did you even get such a dumb idea?"

"It's not dumb. Leo was always surrounded by pretty girls and always secretly whispering about stuff, even back then, so of course I'd think that!"

"Back when?" I asked, and she made a vague gesture.

"You know, back in the…" She paused and tilted her head to the side, Josh's fingers following the movement. "Actually, I can't exactly remember."

By the sound of it, it might've been a stray memory of Deus. I had some problems dealing with Polemos's fragments in a similar way, though it only lasted for a few days. In her case, the process was a bit more protracted, but so long as it didn't affect her personality, I figured it wasn't something for me to worry about. I was agonising about too many things already, anyway.

"It's still a heavy accusation to make." Ammy was glaring at the troublemaker, and she immediately backpedalled.

"It was supposed to be a joke! A joke!" she insisted, but the class rep was already entering into lecture-mode, so I figured she'd get a scolding. Based on his expression, the guy caught between the two of them had the same impression, and he continued to mechanically eat while doing his best to ignore the argument around him.

In the meantime, the four most important girls in my life were still discussing whether or not they should plan another trip to the minigolf park, a conversation I also didn't want to interrupt, so I decided to follow Josh's example and just eat my food… at least until I was interrupted less than a minute later.

"Bon appétit, Leonard," Lord Barnabas greeted me as he walked by.

Considering our customary table was out of the way, it meant he had to approach me on purpose, so I put my utensils aside for the moment and turned to him.

"Same to you. Do you have any business with me?"

"Being straight to the point is important in many cases, but acting too straightforward can also turn people off and consider you rude and brash," he lectured me on the spot, and after a beat, he added, "Yet, as a matter of fact, I do indeed have some business with you."

"Do tell."

The dark-skinned arch-mage glanced around the table, but seeing that there were no free seats, he had to continue while standing and holding his food tray.

"There was some troubling news about further unaffiliated surveillance teams being sighted around the School, but after what happened last time, Lord Endymonion is unwilling to let your Praetorian Guards act on their own to verify these rumors."

"Yes, Jaakobah was complaining about that the other day."

Of course, since I was busy with all the other things on my plate at the time, I didn't do anything about it.

"In that case, I have a proposition."

"Oh?"

"I'm willing to act as a liaison and observer to ensure the Praetorian Guards don't overstep their jurisdiction while apprehending these suspicious elements, so to speak. Of course, to do so, I would require your explicit consent."

"Sounds nice, but what do you get out of this deal?" I asked the obvious question, and the man flashed a pearly-white smile.

"Peace of mind."

"Fair enough," I shrugged. "I'll talk to them after school, and we'll work something out."

I thought that was the end of the conversation, but he didn't move.

"On the topic of after-school activities," he started, his expression even more focused than when we talked about potential spies and assassins just now, "Have you given any serious thought to my offer?"

"… Do you mean the diplomacy lessons?"

He nodded, and I was just about to give it proper consideration when we were startled by another voice.

"Barnabas! How dare you!"

Glancing over, I found Lord Ambrose stomping towards us, with an awkwardly smiling Lord Gulliver following closely behind him.

"What could you possibly mean by that?" Barnabas responded in a neutral voice, causing the bearded arch-mage to fume even harder.

"I told you that I was going to challenge him today! How dare you get in my way!"

"And I told you that I don't believe that your attempts to repeatedly duel Leonard Dunning are conducive to cultivating a favorable relationship with either the Draconic Federation or the Celestial realm."

"Nonsense! What better way is there to foster understanding between different folks than a good old-fashioned scuffle? Aren't I right, Leonard?"

"I…"

"Don't try to pressure him into agreeing with you, Ambrose," Barnabas cut between us. "Furthermore, we were already in the process of making arrangements for the afternoon. I personally believe that both us and our organizations would gain much more from us sitting down and explaining our differences and how to resolve them like reasonable adults, rather than your attempts to use Leonard to test whatever new spell you cooked up as of late."

"Bah! You see, Leonard? The practitioners of the aetheric branches are always like this! Let's focus on the words and the theory and whatnot, and never consider the practicality of something!"

"I might if you could convince me how these duels are in any way practical."

While the two of them continued to argue, the red-headed arch-mage sneakily sidled up to me.

"Psst? Leonard?"

I turned to Lord Gulliver, currently crouching next to my seat in a display that was anything but befitting of his dignified position as an arch-mage, and he gestured for me to lean closer.

"What is it?"

He put a hand next to his mouth, and whispered, "I have a favor to ask. Could you go along with Ambrose?"

"… Why?"

"You see…" He awkwardly scratched his cheek and lowered his voice even more. "You see, Ambrose has a… strong personality, so he doesn't have many friends in the Assembly. Everyone acknowledges his skills, but that's about it, and since he had such a good time the last time you sparred, could you play with him again?"

My eyes narrowed into squints on their own, but the man's smile was entirely guileless, no matter how closely I scrutinized him.

"Are you his helicopter mom, or something?"

"Sometimes I kind of feel that way," the lanky arch-mage answered with a smirk and a wink. "So?"

I considered my options and ultimately shrugged.

"I'm a little stressed out nowadays, so I might as well let off some steam with him."

"Great! Ah, and please keep this conversation a secret."

"I'll—"

"Hey, you lummox! What are you whispering about with Leonard!?" Lord Ambrose bellowed, and Gulliver let out a carefree chuckle.

"Nooothing at all!"

He gave me another wink and exited the conversation. In the meantime, Angie was pointing at me, so I tuned into that discussion, and…

"You see! Now he's whispering with men too! It's all too suspicious!"

"There's nothing suspicious about it though," Josh pointed out, but his girlfriend was adamant.

"But I'm telling you, Leo was always really popular with boys as well!"

"When?" Ammy asked, her hand already poised to tweak her glasses.

"Like, back then! You know?"

"We don't know, and that's why we're asking," Josh muttered in an exasperated voice. "This isn't another one of your young-adult-fiction-induced delusions, right?"

"Mou! Stop it! You're supposed to be on my side!" Angie pouted and repeatedly bonked her boyfriend's head with her knuckles. It was all for show though, and obviously didn't hurt him.

"Ow! Hey! Cut it out!"

Or so I thought. In any case, I flagged down the arguing arch-mages.

"Yes, Leonard?" Barnabas turned to me with a perfectly calm and composed expression, as if he wasn't in a heated argument just a few seconds ago.

"I'll squeeze both of you into my timetable," I told them, raising a few brows in the process. "We'll have that diplomacy class first, and then I'll find Lord Ambrose and I'll take a look at whatever new spell he wants to try out."

"Fine by me, but don't take too long," Ambrose huffed, and after glancing around, he raised his voice again. "You lout! How dare you leave me behind like that!"

While the bearded Magi rushed after his lanky companion, Lord Barnabas let out a soft sigh and told me, "For our first lesson, I think we should discuss how trying to please everyone will often lead to pleasing no one, and result in more friction and incomplete resolutions in an organization than otherwise."

"I'll promise to at least listen to it?" I said with a cheeky smile.

"Fair enough, for a start."

He gave me a deep nod, and then headed after his colleagues, no doubt to continue the argument. Meanwhile, Josh waved at me to get my attention, and when I turned to him, he pointed a finger at my face.

"You're going to spar with that old guy, right?"

"That's the plan."

I was a bit curious about where he was going with this, and they didn't have to wait long.

"Then can I also request a duel?" he asked, redoubling his pointing efforts.

"… Why?"

"Because I need it." His tone sounded a bit uncertain, but then he doubled down. "I mean, I've been trying my best to get used to these Celestial powers, but I feel like I've hit a wall, and I have no one else to ask for pointers."

"I'm not exactly an expert either, but… eh, since you asked nicely, we can give it a go. This evening, after Fred took your measurements?"

"Sounds fine to me," Josh answered with a wolfish grin, and it was this moment that my girlfriends used to rejoin the conversation.

"What did I miss?" Judy asked while pointing at the guy's expression.

"I'll be having lessons on politics and diplomacy with Lord Barnabas, spar again with Lord Ambrose, and then have a one-on-one with Josh later in—"

"I tell you, I only said that because Leo is really popular!" Angie interrupted my explanation, still locked in an argument with Ammy. "Or was. Used to be? You know what I mean!"

"And then there's that," I shrugged, and after glancing over, Judy gave me a flat look.

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not."

That was enough to convince her, and she turned to her food instead.

I was about to follow her example, but then something in what Angie said made me pause. Let's presume she was having these weird impressions (and turning them into bad comedy) because her perception of me was an odd amalgamation of Leonard Dunning and Polemos. However, she claimed that OG-Polemos was popular with both men and women. Conversely, by having a fraction of a fraction of his memories, I knew for a fact that OG-Polemos only had eyes for OG-Deus. Yet Angie, our second coming of Deus, was unaware of this factoid, and instead was convinced that OG-Polemos was a womanizer… manizer? Peopleizer?

Whatever, I'll work out the terminology later. More importantly though… could it be that OG-Deus was yet another super-dense protagonist type? Just why the heck was this archetype so common, anyway?

"Eh, food for thought," I mumbled and shelved the idea for the time being, focusing on the food that wasn't for the thought in front of me instead.

PART 2

Josh, Angie, Zihao, Penny, and Snowy. Plus yours truly, obviously.

That was one eclectic bunch if there ever was one, and all of us gathered at the underground base's training grounds was especially unusual.

"Hiya! Too slow!" my Knightly sister, clad in her Uniformer and wielding a training sword, exclaimed as she dodged out of the way of the younger Feilong brother's kick combo, and then used a wave-dash to rapidly close in on him, but he managed to get away with a double-jump.

…

"Maybe I've been playing too much Super Bash Siblings lately…" I mused, and my other sister turned a puzzled glance at me.

We were sitting on the benches at the edge of the sparring field, while the childhood friend couple was sitting just a bit further away. They were kind of lost in their own little world though, with Angie helping Josh stretch, so let's ignore them for now. As for Snowy, she was here to cheer for Penny (while I wasn't looking, she, Josh, and Zihao developed a weird rivalry-triangle), but the more I looked, the more I felt that she didn't have her heart in it.

"Why the long face?" I asked jokingly, and to my surprise, she let out a soft whimper.

"I'm just…" She stopped, and I waited for her to continue, but it never came. If anything, my question only made her look like she was even deeper under the weather.

Considering the recent events, I tried to figure out what was eating at her, and by process of elimination, I came to the only viable answer I could think of. I gestured for her to lean closer, and I made sure to whisper so that the others wouldn't overhear it.

"Is this about Sir Percival?"

Snowy was stumped for a moment, but then she responded with a soft 'Mm' and a graceless nod.

"I… really wanted to do something useful, but in the end, I didn't get anything out of him."

"Don't feel too down." For emphasis, I patted her shoulder. "He's a crafty old snake, so there's no shame in it."

"But it still hurts my pride as a Seducer…" That was already an odd thing for her to say, but she even pouted a little. It only lasted for a second though, as her face immediately flushed and she insisted, "I-I mean, I'm not proud of being a Seducer, but it's… you know… It's supposed to be my thing, I guess?"

She sounded oddly uncertain of herself by the time she voiced her woes, so I couldn't help but smile and rub her head a bit.

"Ease up, sis. It's no big deal."

"But I thought I was getting to him. I even called him 'uncle' a few times…" she muttered, sounding embarrassed by the whole ordeal.

"Let's not let it get you down. Look on the bright side; you've made a lot of progress with Tajana, right?"

"R-Right!"

I had to admit, my Abyssal sister was nothing if not adorable, and the moment I reminded her of her ongoing efforts to subvert the hapless spymaster, the way her mood turned on a dime was almost funny. Of course, I would never laugh at her resolve, so I kept my chuckles locked up and only rubbed her noggin a bit harder. I thought that was the end of the topic, but then her expression grew clouded again, and she turned to face me.

"Leo? You're planning to send him into Elysium, right?"

"Most likely. Everyone seems to think that stripping him of all his titles and kicking him out as a spy is the best way to deal with this."

"Before that… can I give it another go?" When I raised a brow at that, she hastily explained, "I-I… spent so much time and effort on this, so… I want to try one last time."

"I don't know what you're expecting, but don't let me stop you."

She nodded, determination practically oozing from her expression, and we both turned back to the sparring ring, where the fight was about to reach its crescendo, with an unexpected twist at the end.

"I've got you!"

Penny yelled out loud as she did her zig-zagging Sanic the Hedgehog impression and rushed down the draconian boy. Yet, just before she could swing her sword, Zihao stepped in and stood his ground. To avoid a head-on-collision my sister changed the direction of her dash, but then Zihao's hair flashed with red light as he forcefully twisted his feet to match her trajectory, and caught her flat-footed.

He grabbed hold of her uniform, and with a yell, he threw Penny over his shoulder while retaining much of her momentum. The move caused her to land on her back and then roll, losing her weapon in the process and coming to a stop several steps away from the point of impact. By the sound of it, a lot of her Uniformer's wards activated to mitigate the blow and she quickly rose to her feet, but without her weapon in hand, it was already her loss.

"You… signal too much…" Zihao said between heaves, and while he was grinning over his victory, the sweat on his forehead and his laboured breathing said it was a hard-won one. He rapidly inhaled and exhaled a few times, while making a martial artist salute, and then he continued in a much more even tone. "You shouldn't announce your moves in advance. It gives your opponent an edge."

"That's rich coming from mister 'ReCeIvE mY iNfInItE qIlIn PaLm'!" Penny argued back, causing his dignified expression to show some cracks.

"Are you making fun of the Feilong clan's martial arts!?"

"Hmpf! At least I don't shout the names of my attacks out loud!"

"Big words for a loser!"

"I wouldn't have lost if I had my armour on!"

"Excuses, excuses, excuses."

"Ease off, kids," I cut in, walking into the sparring field. "Arguing after a match is not very sportsmanlike."

My knightly sister let out a brash harrumph and picked up her sword, then pointed it at Zihao again.

"I'll go get my armour, then we'll have a rematch, and we'll see who's talking rubbish!"

"Bring it on," the draconian growled, and Penny did so as well before sheathing her weapon and dashing off.

"Is it my turn now?" Josh asked from the side and hopped into the ring.

"Go, get him, tiger!" his girlfriend cheered him on, and speaking of girlfriends, it was around this point that Judy came into view. She was downstairs in the Research Division's lounge with Galatea until now. I only recently realized, but the two of them got along surprisingly well… though in retrospect, maybe it wasn't so surprising, considering the whole robot-gimmick.

"Penelope almost knocked me over just now." She stopped next to me and tilted her head a bit. "What did I miss?"

"She lost to this guy," I said, indicating Zihao with my finger.

"That's surprising," my dear assistant commented without any ill-meaning, but it still made the Feilong boy scoff.

"What? What's so surprising about it? Are you picking a fight?"

"… Care to walk back on that before I knock you upside your head?" I asked very, very politely, and the guy twitched before quickly saluting.

"My apologies. I'm still worked up after our duel." When he saw that I wasn't making a move, he let his hands down and added, in a decidedly grumpy tone, "But it still shouldn't have been surprising. I'm strong, you know?"

"You're indeed in the upper third of our power rankings," Judy stated, and Zihao immediately raised a brow.

"Power rankings?"

"Don't ask."

My words caused my girlfriend to lightly kick my shin, as is custom, but I could barely feel it. Meanwhile, the younger Feilong brother thoughtfully rubbed his chin, and let out a series of thoughtful hums.

"I see, I see. There are indeed a lot of monstrously talented fighters in our organization. I have to train harder."

"Just keep it in moderation."

My words were meant to be just idle small talk, but it once again caused Zihao's temper to flare.

"It's easy of you to say that, blessed by the heavens as you are, but if you don't take practicing your martial techniques seriously, one day you may be dragged down from your throne."

"By you?" I asked, mostly in jest, and the guy let out a vigorous grunt only slightly undermined by his refusing to meet my gaze.

"Maybe… or it could be him."

The person he was referring to was, naturally, Josh. He was still doing stretches at the other end of the ring, which looked especially weird when he did them clad in his Justicar outfit. He apparently took a liking to it lately and used it way more than his Uniformer outfit, but the way he looked in them while doing callisthenics still brought a smile to my face.

Zihao must've misunderstood the source of my amusement, as he was quick to double down on his previous statement.

"I'm not joking. He's a rare talent you only see once every generation, absorbing martial arts like a sponge absorbs water. You must best not underestimate him."

Why was this guy trying to up-sell my friend as if I wasn't perfectly aware of this already? None of that was shocking by any stretch of the imagination. Breaking news: Battle harem protagonist is unnaturally talented at supernatural combat. In other news: water makes things wet, space is big, and the pope reads the bible. More at eleven.

Seriously though, I thought it would take Josh considerably longer to get fully used to his Celestial power set, especially after only using Abyssal and Draconian transformations since forever, but he took to it like a duck to the water. Or so I imagined, considering he was able to go toe-to-toe with Zihao when sparring. As for posing a threat to me… we'll see about that, but I certainly wasn't holding my breath just yet.

"Can we get started? I'm starting to feel silly warming up all by myself here."

Josh's complaints reached receptive ears, as Zihao quickly left the ring, and so did Judy, though only after making me promise to take it easy. That was the plan from the beginning though, as I was already a bit tired from listening to Lord Barnabas's lecture and playing target practice for Lord Ambrose's newest 'totally-not-just-a-magical-gun' spell.

With all that in mind, I gestured for one of the Fauns idling by the side of the sparring area, and he tossed me a training polearm. It was a little longer than Teeny in its spear form, but it made little difference. I activated my Leoformer and donned my version of the Magiformer uniform. The Leoformer currently had four outfit configurations stored in it: this one, my Polemos outfit, my Bel disguise, and the tuned-up (if still inferior) replica of my Lion Knight armour. This wasn't shaping up to be particularly dangerous, so I opted for the uniform, as while it had all the wards, its weaker physical enhancements were easier to use in situations like this.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Meanwhile, Josh picked up the helmet that came with his Justicar ensemble and walked over to me. He stopped a couple of paces away from where I was standing and looked at me with a pair of resolute eyes.

"Today, I'm giving my all," he declared, with altogether too much fighting spirit.

"No need for that. It's just a friendly match," I responded lightly, but he shook his head and put on his helmet.

"Maybe, but if I'm to improve, I need to take this seriously. I can't live in your shadow forever."

"… Oh, come on. Are we really doing this?" I muttered softly, but he already took up an odd martial artist stance that was similar to Zihao's, but not quite the same. In any case, he probably didn't hear me, and he even did that thing from old martial arts movies, where one of the duellists made a 'Come and get me' motion with his hand to taunt his opponent.

As much as I loathed to admit it, this was a pretty tropey situation. Specifically, the 'talented protégé is trying to overcome a mental block by fighting his teacher' trope, common in both martial arts, shounen battle, and by proxy, harem battle narratives. And I walked right into it, without recognizing it ahead of time.

It made sense, too. Josh was, according to Judy's idea of the route structure, in the late stages of his 'character development'. Proving himself by fighting me, and showing off all the new and fancy abilities he learned and how much stronger he'd become, was evidently a part of the process. Normally it wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but it was also a bloody death flag for the mentor; either the hero wins, meaning they had no reason to exist in the story anymore and would get eliminated or demoted to extra, or the hero would still get defeated to reaffirm the power-level of the mentor, only to then get offed by a villain to establish their menace and power-level.

Though again, maybe I was just overthinking this, and there was no overarching narrative purpose for this duel beyond us having a sparring match. After all, we used to spar all the time in the past. Before I got too busy, and he found partners better suited to his style and power level.

In any case, Josh was waiting for me to make the first move, so I inhaled sharply and took up a simple stance with my training spear. Compared to his posture, mine was slightly less refined… but then again, I was an autodidact when it came to combat. While Josh received lessons from Rinne, the Knights, and even Zihao, by the looks of it, I got most of my experience by spending hours upon hours fighting the Fauns in Dominance battles, plus whatever crazy encounter I occasionally got myself into, like the duels with the arch-mages.

Though again, these didn't really compare well. Fighting someone who wanted to punch you was fundamentally different from trying to fight someone who threw serpents made of fire and bullets of stone at you.

But enough stalling; it was time to get this thing going, and I did so by readjusting my posture and making a light stab at Josh's side. Since he was fighting bare-handed, I had a serious advantage in range, which kind of reminded me of my very first real encounter with Brang, just before the school incident with Crowey. Good times.

…

Wait, no. Those were the exact opposite of good times.

Meanwhile, Josh jumped back to get out of my range, and then he suddenly accelerated to the right, accompanied by a flash of faint magical light. I was tempted to rush after him, but I stood my ground and retracted my spear, only following him with my eyes until he came to a stop.

Now on my right, I stepped to the left and simultaneously swept the spear over my head, stopping him just as he was about to move in. Since I had my weapon high, in an aggressive stance, I figured I might as well use it to rush him down, yet he once again slipped out of my range, his feet moving as if skating on ice.

That was already odd enough, but then he further surprised me by accurately exploiting an opening and suddenly closing the distance while I was pulling the spear back. I even got a faint warning from my danger sense, and I automatically leaned to the side, just in time to avoid a small bolt of white light exploding from his palm. Its shape kind of reminded me of the light arrows Jaakobah and midriff woman were shooting from their off-brand magitech magnum pistols, just less defined.

While I was doing that, he closed the distance, so I used the butt of the spear to push myself to the side. He followed right after me, and I could hear faint chanting as a bunch of faint disks appeared in the air around him. I figured they were some kind of projectile, but then even as they accelerated toward me, I couldn't feel my danger sense activating. I soon learned why when Josh let out a soft grunt and stepped onto one of them, using it as a foothold to dash through the air, from one platform to the next before landing behind me.

I had to give it to him, it was a flashy move, but kind of excessive, and when he tried to hit me from my blind spot, I did the same to him by thrusting the butt of the spear backwards under my arm, hitting him squarely on the chest. With this, the first strike went to me. Yay.

More seriously, all actions have an equal and opposite reaction, so as I stuck him and activated his Uniformer's built-in wards, the spear in my hands was also pushed back. Since it was an awkward position, I had to move with the force to retain my grip on my weapon. After taking a few steps forward, I brandished my weapon and turned around… only to momentarily freeze when Josh was nowhere to be found. My eyes were reflexively drawn up, and there he was, sporting a pair of translucent wings and already in the process of diving at me.

The sight made me instinctively glance at Angie, but she seemed to be fine, and enthusiastically cheering for her boyfriend. That was a mistake though, and one Josh immediately capitalized upon by grabbing hold of my spear, his hands gripping the shaft right next to mine and pushing it to my chest. The impact pushed me back a few steps, and he followed after me, refusing to let go of the spear. Was he after my weapon from the very beginning, I wondered. It was a smart move.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn't nearly as attached to this wooden training spear as he thought. I let go of my weapon, startling him for just long enough for me to slip under his guard and deliver an uppercut to his stomach. Normally you'd do that to the chin, but he was wearing a helmet, and I had no gauntlets, so I refrained from doing so.

Contrary to my expectations, he didn't stagger back, but instead tried to headbutt me. I twisted my upper body to avoid it, but that meant I had no way to respond when he used my own weapon to sweep at my feet. I suppressed to urge to Phase out of the way and took the hit. It was pretty insignificant, considering that both of our postures were a mess at the moment, but it was still a clean hit. Then he surprised me once again.

Instead of holding onto my weapon, he tossed it at me, just as I was about to jump back. I reflexively caught it, but my honed weapon-catching instincts were used against me when he suddenly sang the refrain of an old pop song I've often heard using as an advertisement jingle as of late, and he swung down vertically. His fingers were straight and held together firmly (a 'knife hand', if my memory served right), but more alarmingly, his entire lower arm was surrounded by a surging golden glow, extending beyond his fingertips. I've seen that move before, when he got out of control during the match against the Praetorian Guards, though this time it seemed much weaker than it was back then.

I raised the weapon in my hand to block it, but to my further shock, I was easily pushed back, literally skidding across the floor a good couple of meters before I came to a halt. Glancing up, I saw a deep notch on the spear shaft, reaching down to nearly half of its diameter, and still smouldering with the golden light.

"Hah…" Josh exhaled hard and took up his initial stance once again. "Ready to take me seriously yet?"

I gave my friend a disparaging glance and ramped up the physical enhancements on the uniform as high as they went (which was about half of the max output of the other three outfits) but I didn't lunge at him yet. Instead, I raised the spear over my head and brought it down on my knee.

The shaft broke cleanly in two at the notch, and I brandished my 'new weapons', earning a few 'Ooohs' and 'Aaahs' from the steadily growing peanut gallery. However, despite his earlier cocky attitude, Josh was the one who made his move first, humming a song and then blasting the ground in front of him, kicking up the equivalent of a magical smoke pellet. It was oddly reminiscent of a trick he often used with his Abyssal transformation, but while it was extra-effective on my eyes due to it being suffused with the colourless light of magic, it couldn't fool my sixth sense. I rushed in, and when I got a warning, I swatted the incoming magical bolt out of the air with one half of the spear, while using the other half to strike at its source.

I was rewarded with a thud of impact, and I immediately pushed my advantage, delivering a series of strikes without giving Josh any opportunity to retaliate. Half of my swings whiffed, while half of the remaining were blocked or redirected, but it still meant I got a couple of hits in, unbalancing him. By the time the smoke screen cleared, I could hear him trying to hum another Celestial spell, but I was faster, and with a burst of effort, I delivered a shoulder slam that sent him reeling back and nearly falling to the ground.

Once the obstruction finally cleared, we were standing a couple of steps apart, with Josh's arms raised to protect his head, and his outfit bearing the marks of my strikes. Despite my best efforts, he was still chanting, yet even after he let his arms down, there was no magical light show coming. Instead, he used his fist to beat his chest, and he was suddenly enveloped in a warm light.

"What was that?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Healing chant," he answered off-handedly and hopped in place before taking up a stance again. "Takes care of scrapes, restores stamina, and clears the mind." He paused, and I could practically see the shit-eating grin behind his closed helmet as he once again gestured for me to come at him. "I can do this all night, you know?"

"Tell that to your girlfriend," I answered curtly, and threw my broken spear aside, requesting a pair of proper training swords in the process.

Josh apparently wanted to turn this into an endurance match, which was fine by me. I might not have had his magical recovery, but I had stubbornness on my side. It was time to find out which one was more effective.

Spoilers: chalk one up to stubbornness.

PART 3

"Come on! End it already!" Penny yelled from the side, clad in the Unicorn Knight armour. "It's been more than an hour!"

I glanced over at her, and then back at the guy currently wielding two of those magic hand-blade things and heaving like a dog, still squaring up against me even though he looked like he just ran a marathon. To be fair, I wasn't exactly minty fresh either, but at least I paced myself a little better, and even if I didn't, I was too stubborn to admit it at this point.

"Tell Mister 'I can do this all night' over there," I said, gesturing at him with one of my nicked and beaten training swords, which he took as an invitation to lunge at me again.

We exchanged a couple of blows, mostly in the parry-counter-parry-dodge format, and it caused my sister to stomp her feet at the side.

"Argh! At this rate, I'll never get my revenge!"

"Your attempt to take revenge, you mean," Zihao responded at her side, earning himself a glare.

"Shut up! As soon as Brother is done, I'm sooo going to beat you up!"

"You can try!" he responded with a provocative smirk, and that was all I caught before Josh leapt high into the air and dive-bombed me again.

I stopped his momentum and we locked blades for a while. It was a pretty unrealistic thing. The whole 'blade-lock', I mean. Sure, it was also pretty cinematic, as it put our faces close to each other, meaning it was the perfect opportunity to exchange a few dramatic quips and whatnot, but as far as practicality was concerned, it was the worst.

That said, I had no reason to push myself at this point, as I was getting pretty exhausted by the whole affair. This duel was technically for the sake of Josh, so I drew it out a bit, not only so that he could get more practice, but also to throw a wrench into the whole 'battle against the mentor' trope's gears. Or so I hoped, but honestly, it was such a vague trope that no matter who won or lost, or how, it would still somehow apply.

"Hey?" Josh suddenly whispered, his breath belaboured and weak. Apparently, his quick-fire healing hymn couldn't fully restore his stamina after all. Or maybe it tired him out in another way. Whatever the case might've been, he tilted his head to the side, and hesitantly asked, "Draw?"

I gave him a flat look, and then shifted my weight, then the angle of my blades, and with just those small changes, Josh's magic blades began to slide down the flats of my training swords, creating a cascade of sparks in the process. This caused him to lose his balance for a moment, which I used to slip by him, and before he could turn around, I tapped the back of his neck with the weapon in my left hand.

"Nah, it's not," I told him, I flourished my armaments. "Next round?"

Josh turned his head to face me, and a beat later, he dispelled his magic blades and his outfit shifted back into his usual school uniform. His forehead was drenched in sweat, and while he tried to hide it, I could see the dissatisfaction in his eyes.

"In the end, I couldn't get you to use that flash-step of yours."

"Oh, cry me a river," I said as I also undid my Leoformer, and returned to my casual clothes. "Don't be a sore loser."

"I'm not. I'm just annoyed that I couldn't get you to fight me seriously."

I awarded my friend an extra flat stare.

"Dude." I pointedly wiped my own forehead and showed off the sweat on my palm. "Do I look like I was playing around with you?"

"Ew!" Angie exclaimed on my left, and I just realized that she quietly snuck up next to us while we were talking. Then, she glanced at her boyfriend, and let out another, "Ew! You're even more sweaty!"

"Of course I am! I was doing my best here!" the guy sulked, and she moved behind him and started pushing him out of the sparring ring.

"Yes, and you were really cool, but it doesn't change that you're drenched! Come on, the next bus is coming in ten minutes, so hurry up!"

"But…" he tried to object, but she had none of it.

"No buts, mister! I still have homework left to do, so we should go home and take a bath ASAP!"

I watched as the two of them left the ring, and was soon approached by Judy.

"Good work, Chief. Here, have a cookie."

"It's a candy bar," I said as I stared and the bright yellow package.

"Don't sweat the small details."

Honestly, after that workout, I did feel a little peckish, so I accepted it without further ado. However, before I could open it, we were shooed off the training field by my knightly sister and her equally eager opponent. It was only once we were standing on the sidelines that I noticed the conspicuous absence of my other sister.

"Where's Snowy?"

"She left a while ago," Judy told me as she led me to the lounge area, watching as I was trying my best to open the stubborn packaging. "She said she had something important to do."

It was only at this point that I realized that I could've just Far Glanced at her, but at this point, there was no point anymore.

"Right. She did say she wanted to have one last talk with the old man."

In the meantime, we reached the counter, where I was welcomed by Karukk, for a change.

"Good show. Impressive boss."

He flashed a grin at us and handed over a soda bottle without even having to ask.

"It was fun to watch. I much prefer you doing this than real combat," my dear assistant commented on the side, her phone already in her hand and her fingers dancing on the screen with the wild abandon of a drunken ballerina. "I'll have to re-evaluate Joshua's ranking."

"Are you still doing that power-ranking thing?" She didn't answer right away, too focused on the screen, so I opened the bottle and took a swig first. "What's even the point?"

"Don't be dense, Chief." She accentuated that by pinching my cheek, without even looking up from her phone. I'm not going to lie, that was a little impressive. "Considering the genre, power-scaling comparisons are not only natural, they are inevitable."

"I don't see what's so inevitable about them, but have it your way," I said and finally managed to tear the packaging of the candy bar and bite into it. It was sickeningly sweet, but I needed the sugar, so I didn't mind.

"Staying on topic, from a range of one to ten, how would you rate Joshua's performance?"

"Eight," I answered off the cuff, then alternated between taking bites from the snack bar and drinking from the soda bottle while I explained, "He's less reliant on raw power than he used to be, but he's still too eager to get into close quarters combat without a good way to get out of it when necessary."

"Angeline told me they've been practicing using his Celestial abilities in a way that doesn't resonate with her powers, so you've most likely seen the results of that."

"Probably. In any case, he's good. Better than the Praetorian Guards, at the very least, though it's admittedly a low bar to clear."

"Chief. Those people are trained professional soldiers." When I only gave her a 'so what' kind of look, she shook her head. "Your standards are too high. No wonder Joshua is frustrated."

"Hey, don't peg that on me."

Ignoring my protests, Judy tapped her phone a few more times and finally put it away with a twinkle in her eyes that immediately put me on guard.

"The Feilong clan is already in the process of organizing another auction."

That wasn't a question, but a statement, and I cautiously nodded.

"Yes. The final touches of the secret project still need some extra funds and rare materials for the finishing touches. The last time I showed my face in the Federation's meeting room, I asked them to hurry it up and get it together by the weekend. Why?"

"Since we're having another one of those, I think it's only fitting that we should hold another tournament."

"… Dormouse? Are you messing with me right now?"

She shook her head and looked me in the eye.

"I know that you have an adverse reaction to tournament arcs, but holding one is necessary to finalize the power rankings," she insisted with an expression that said she was extremely serious. "Penelope has been training with Ms. Yamako for a while now, which should affect her performance, the rest of the Ordo Draconis also changed their combat style to adapt to their new circumstances, and Joshua is a rapidly evolving wild card. A tournament is the simplest and easiest way to collect all the necessary data on them to update the rankings."

I really, really wasn't in the mood for this, but she looked especially adamant, so I leaned towards a compromise.

"Let's say I let you organize it in my name," I started, but before I could get to the actual point, my girlfriend gave me a thumbs up.

"Deal."

"… I didn't even—"

She put a finger on my lips to seal them, as if afraid that I would ruin something, and then she took up her phone again.

"I'll tell Elly the news, and we'll get back to you later." With that, she rose to her tip-toes to give me a peck on the lips, and then immediately turned around to dial my other girlfriend.

…

Seriously, why was she so into power rankings like that? It was a mystery for the ages.

Anyhow, Karukk was grinning at me, so I handed the empty bottle and wrapper over to him to keep him busy. Seeing that Judy was occupied by the phone call, I decided not to bother her and I beelined towards the stairs leading to the second floor instead.

On the way there, I once again passed by the training area, where Penny and Zihao were still going at each other. This time, my sister had the clear upper hand, due to the higher specs of her armour, but the Draconian guy held his own admirably. I glanced at the cheering Squires and other assorted onlookers, and with a shake of my head, I continued on my way downstairs.

Honestly speaking, I was pretty tired. A full day at school, an extracurricular diplomacy class, and two duels would've exhausted anyone, even if the second one wasn't an endurance match. I really, really wanted to just go home and rest for a while, but I promised that I would check out the progress on the homunculus project today, so I figured I'd quickly get it out of my system, pick up Judy, and then spend the evening watching a bad movie together, or something.

First thing first though, I stepped into the main workshop, and I was immediately welcomed by Fred's… I wanted to say 'grating cackle', but I've been so used to it at this point, I no longer found it annoying. Humans were truly adaptable creatures, weren't they?

Philosophising aside, our head of the mad science department greeted me with an ear-to-ear grin, and he was closely followed by Peabody and Sahi, all wearing matching white lab coats.

"Kihihi! Good evening, boss! I've heard you had some trouble with the kid up there?"

"Trouble is an overstatement," I answered, and the three of them chuckled in unison. Thankfully, Sahi didn't have her own version of the weirdly consistent cackle. But then again, she had her own thing going on.

"So, like, I totally wanted to check out your duel, but I was, like, totally busy? Did you win?"

"Yes."

"Hah!" She exclaimed and hit Peabody on the back. "You see? Like, if we actually made a bet, I would've totally won!"

"O-ho-ho… Young lady. I'm fairly sure we all agreed that Leonard would be victorious."

"Yes, but I totally called it first," she insisted with a pout. "And, it's like, totally irrelevant anyway, right?"

"We can agree on that," I cut in and walked off.

The three of them followed after me, completely ignoring my mood. Just what was so interesting about by sparring match with Josh? I mean, I had a feeling it had some narrative strings attached to it, but from these guys' perspective, there was nothing special going on. It wasn't the first time I've trained with him, and probably wasn't the last either, so why was such a buzz made about it?

Ignoring my misgivings, we reached the back of the workshop, and the huge apparatus I funnelled much of my time, money, and effort into over the past couple of weeks.

It was a setup right out of a retro-futuristic sci-fi movie, with a whole lot of blocky heavy machinery beeping and booping and flashing around me. Embedded in the middle of all of that was a huge glass cylinder filled with a light green artificial amniotic fluid. The tube was lit from the top and the bottom so that its contents could be clearly seen.

In the middle, there was a small body. The size of a prepubescent child, the nascent homunculus was naked and hairless, curled up in a fetal position, their arms and legs positioned to hide their chest and crotch. Not that it mattered, as at this stage of the development, they were still androgynous, with the 'sculpting' of the final appearance only taking place not long before the incubation was over.

Looking at it, I couldn't help but be impressed. Just a few days ago, the homunculus in the tube was only half its current size, and if we looked back two weeks, it was just a literal fetus, just without a placenta. Speaking of which, apparently homunculi had no belly buttons, because they had no umbilical cords either, and Sahi even demonstrated this by showing off her flat stomach. That made me wonder; did the class rep also lack one? And would asking her about it constitute as sexual harassment?

"The specimen's development is proceeding as predicted," Fred told me, tapping on the glass.

"We were a little worried about the bone density," Peabody chimed in with a big grin, "But recent readings show that everything is well within the acceptable parameters."

"Kihihi. We might just break the record of creating a fully-fledged homunculus at this rate!"

"It's not fully fledged though," the portly nurse turned temporary mad scientist lamented, but then Sahi stepped up.

"Like, chill. The housing array is totally going to be done by the time the body is ready."

What she referred to was the same kind of grand enchantment as the one that housed her own soul in her youthful replacement body. Incidentally, said arrays were based on the ones inside her, and it was my share of the work. She had already made a copy of the remote-control array she originally used to pilot 'Sahi' while 'Saahira' was still alive, and my job was to slowly expand and upgrade it based on the version she currently had in her chest. It was long and meticulous work, but we were already done with the lion's share, so with some luck, we'd finish in a couple of days. Which meant…

"Are you saying that the body will be finished soon?"

"Soon is a… relative term," Peabody said, sounding awkward all of a sudden. "Growing a homunculus body to adulthood normally takes up to a year, depending on the methodology, so accomplishing it as swiftly as we did is—"

"What Uncle's trying to say is that it'll be done in about two weeks," Fred came to the rescue. "Or more like ten days, plus a few more for testing and installing the array you want."

Two weeks were neither long nor short. However, I knew full well how much things could change in just a few days, so I was still a little uneasy. That said, maybe I was overthinking things. While the Directorate was a pain in the ass, after personally cowing them due to their recent stunt, I hoped they would sit still for a while and won't cause any more problems. While there were a lot of other things in play, I just had to wait out those two weeks, make sure to avoid any escalation of the plot, and then… well, maybe it won't be 'smooth sailing' per se, but so long as I had my back-up plan up my sleeve, I could at least rest a little easier.

With those thoughts in mind, I gestured for Sahi to follow me, so that we could continue our work on the arrays that would be the linchpin of my whole plan. I sat down by the usual workbench with the carved blue stone on it holding the half-finished enchantment, and we began the usual routine. She would lie down on the nearby bed, and then I would poke her with a phantom limb to take a look, and then poke the stone to see where I could implement what I just saw. It was a slow but necessary process I couldn't half-ass.

Yet, I've only just started getting into the groove of it when I was literally shaken out of the non-Euclidian enchantment space by Sahi poking me with her finger.

"Leonard? Earth to Leonard? Like, your phone is ringing!"

"Got it, got it." I shook her off and reached into my breast pocket. "I just got too immersed in the work, and…"

My words trailed off when I saw the caller ID. Snowy rarely called me on the phone, so if she found it necessary to do so, it meant she must've made some serious progress with Percival. I wondered what he could've said to prompt her to dial me right away, but I kept my expectations low and picked up the phone.

"Hi, sis. What's—?"

"Leo!" Her panicked voice made me jump up from my seat. "There's trouble! You need to come, quick!"

"What happened?" I asked as I was already rushing out of the workshop, surrounded by the alarmed glances of everyone present at the scene.

"We… We were attacked, and we need you here before things completely get out of hand!"

"Slow down, sis." I just reached the first floor where Judy was waiting for me, but when she noticed my expression, she also became tense. After a brief moment of hesitation, I told her, "We have a situation. Get ready to act as central command again, just in case."

"On it."

She immediately turned on her heels, while I dashed across the main hall, towards the reception area. Once I got there, I closed the door behind me and raised the phone to my ear again.

"Okay, I'm here. Now, start from the beginning. Where are you?"

"At the hideout," she answered, sounding slightly less panicked but just as rushed.

"Who attacked you?"

"The Fauns. Tajana's Fauns."

"Why?"

"I… I don't know. They just did, and we fought back, but there was an explosion, and now Mr. Walker is here, and I don't know what to tell him."

"Mr…? Do you mean Barnabas?"

"Yes. Please, hurry."

I let out a long groan and told her, "I'll be there in a moment."

Then, I cut the line, pocketed the phone, and I was there in a moment, not yet realizing that the dominos were already tumbling, and I was too late to stop them.

PART 4

The sight greeting me upon my arrival was not what I was expecting. I purposefully Phased a bit away from the hideout, hearing that Lord Barnabas was there, and after reaching the warehouse, I was startled to see the destruction on display. One of the walls had a huge hole in it, and part of the roof collapsed, with the bare metal beams sticking out of the rubble.

Luckily, since this industrial part of the dock district was sparsely populated, there were no civilian gawkers to be wary of, so I rushed to the scene. I was baffled about the lack of a Purple Zone in place, but I figured things must've escalated too quickly to erect one.

My priority was my sister, and to my further confusion, I found her on the ground floor instead of the basement and surrounded by a rather eclectic group. At the moment, she was in her Uniformer, meaning there was some fighting (as if the destruction wasn't enough evidence of that), while Agrawain was standing next to her, clad in his Uniformer gear and animatedly arguing with Lord Barnabas. This was the first time I'd seen the dark-skinned Magi in a battle-ready state, and curiously enough, he was covered from head to toe in what looked like semi-transparent, orange-tinted magical armour plates. He was also wielding a fancy staff that looked more high-tech than it had any right to be, but other than that, he had the usual suit plus cape ensemble under it all.

"Lord Archon!"

Even more inexplicably, he was accompanied by Jaakobah and almost all of the Praetorian Guards. The Celestial greeted me with a customary salute, but I didn't pay much attention to him, since my eyes were automatically drawn to the rest, their weapons trained on the large bodies lined up next to an intact wall. Two of them were Gram and Rabom, who were probably on duty here, but there were also three more Fauns I was unfamiliar with. All of them were on their knees, in identical positions, with their hands behind their heads.

Were these guys Tajana's retinue? What were they doing here? Where was the rest of them?

My internal questions remained unanswered for the moment, as when Snowy realized I arrived, she skipped over to my side and grabbed my hand.

"Leo, come quick! You need to talk to Mr. Walker!"

"I would like to have the situation explained to me first," I said as I let myself be led over, where Barnabas gave me a surprised look-over.

"I didn't expect you would be here so soon."

"I was in the neighbourhood for an unrelated business," I explained curtly, the white lie coming to me naturally, and swept my gaze over the faces surrounding me. "Now, would someone please bring me up to speed? What are you doing here?" I glanced away from Barnabas, and to Jaakobah. "What are you doing here?" Finally, I pointed at the unknown Fauns by the wall. "And most importantly, what are those guys doing here?"

"I'll start," Agrawain cut in, sounding about as exasperated by the whole situation as I expected. He used his thumb to point at Snowy. "About half an hour ago, right after she arrived here, those Fauns kicked down the doors of the warehouse. We rushed upstairs and fought them off, but then a second group infiltrated the basement, so your sister here erected a Restricted Space to make sure the prisoner couldn't escape."

"That's what we detected," Lord Barnabas spoke up.

"Yeah, and then these bastards showed up, and did something to turn off the Restricted Space, and then he blew a hole in the wall!"

"Agrawain! Language!" Snowy whispered to him, but the guy was too incensed to care.

"If you would let me add," Barnabas stepped up and cleared his throat. "As per our previous agreement today, I visited our Celestial guests to act in my newfound role as a supervisor. We were just discussing the potential rogue elements hiding on the island when I received a message from the School's monitoring department, warning about a Restricted Space formed inside the city limits." Seeing that I raised a brow at that, he added, "The creation of an unauthorized Restricted Space is a clear sign of unsanctioned operations, and while the monitors can't keep an eye on the whole island, maintaining a twenty-four-seven early warning net over Timaeus is entirely feasible."

"No offence, but I don't really care about the technical details that much," I told him and turned to Jaakobah, and he stood ramrod straight.

"As per your earlier instructions, Lord Archon, we accommodated the arch-mage in our field base. When he informed us of possible enemy operations that could potentially pose a threat to Her Grace, we opted to accompany him to the combat theatre."

"A gesture I appreciate, Sir Prefect," Barnabas spoke cordially, though his expression remained neutral. "If I had to wait for a strike team to be dispatched from the School, we wouldn't have arrived here on time."

"On time for what, exactly?" I growled as I looked at the destroyed wall and roof. Not that it mattered much at this stage; after this incident, everyone would be aware of this place, so it would no longer be suited to remain a black site, let alone a prison… And that thought suddenly jolted me into alarm again. "Snowy? Where's our prisoner?"

"That…" She didn't look me in the eye, and that was answer enough, but then Agrawain groaned and spelt it out anyway.

"He was taken."

"Oh, great," I whispered and clenched my fists so hard they hurt. "I knew something like this would happen…"

"Excuse me, Leonard," Barnabas addressed me with a pair of narrowed eyes. "Who is this 'prisoner' you're referring to?"

"He's…" I began, but I couldn't quite find the right word.

Traitor? Personally, I did feel betrayed by him, and he technically sold out the Brotherhood, but so did I in a sense, so that would've been a bit hypocritical. Celestial mole? Sure, that was also accurate, but trying to explain why that was a big deal when we were openly cooperating with Celestials at this very moment was a bit farcical.

Thankfully, I didn't need to think much longer, as Raven Boy came to the rescue.

"With all due respect, Lord arch-mage, this is an internal affair of the Ordo Draconis. Please respect our jurisdiction."

"Certainly."

Barnabas might've said that, but his expression told me he was still slightly miffed by being stone-walled like that. Meanwhile, I noticed that Snowy was gesturing to me, specifically by tapping her ear, and I belatedly realized what she meant, and activated my Leoformer, donning my Lion Knight armour replica.

"{Chief? Can you hear me now?}"

"Loud and clear," I answered, and when the others in the room looked at me funny, I put two fingers on the helmet, over my ear, to signal that I was using long-distance communications. "Are you up to date?"

"{I've listened to the situation through Neige's ears, so I've got the gist of it.}"

"Good. Please inform Brang about what happened, and tell him to prepare for a manhunt." I gave the whole situation some more thought, and added, "Mountain Girl and Naoren should be on patrol today, so call them and instruct her to come here. She should make subduing the rest of the Fauns considerably easier."

"{Roger. I'll keep you updated.}"

Honestly, as startled as I was by Snowy's call, it turned out to be slightly less of a headache than expected. Nobody was seriously injured, Barnabas and the Praetorian Guards were mostly reasonable, and the only niggling issue was Percival's disappearance.

That said, even that was little more than an annoyance. Essentially, so long as I had him marked, he wasn't going to slip away… and in truth, this might've been a beneficial development. Practically speaking, there wasn't much damage Percival could cause at this stage of the game, so I figured I could let him loose for a bit, and if he was kidnapped by Tajana's Fauns, then I could use his mark to track them back to their hidey-hole and uproot them in one go.

In the worst-case scenario, I'd have to pick him up myself by Phasing over, but for the time being, it felt safe to delegate his recapture to Rinne. Contrary to my initial fears, this seemed to be an isolated incident, so I didn't rush things and focused on uncovering the circumstances that led to it, starting right here. Specifically, the Fauns still lined up by the nearby wall.

Seeing that everyone was waiting for me to finish my call and give my input, I moved my hand to the back of the helmed, unbuckled it, and then took it off. I handed it over to Raven Boy and then addressed Gram and Rabom.

"You two. Are you injured?"

"Slightly," Rabom answered in an almost embarrassed tone. "Got thrown against door. Dented it. My fault man was taken. Apologies."

"Stop that, and get up," I told him, and turned to the confused tunic-man, hammer-lad, and uniform-bloke, still pointing their weapons at them (as much as that applied to stuff like big magitech sledgehammers and whips, anyway). "Let them go. They're with us."

"Us?" Lord Barnabas inquired with an uncharacteristically slack expression.

"They are with me… um… t-teacher?" Snowy interjected meekly, so I flashed an encouraging smile her way before turning back to the arch-mage.

"As you've heard. They are part of my sister's retinue, and they were stationed here."

In the background, the two awkwardly shuffled to their feet, and while the Pretorian Guards present still looked wary of them, at least they no longer tried to menace them with their weapons. Speaking of which, though…

"Jaakobah. Give them a check-up and see if they need healing."

"I… yes, Lord Archon, but I'm not entirely sure healing hymns work on the creatures of the Abyss."

"If Angie could heal them, you can too," I told him curtly before I walked up to the remaining Fauns kneeling on the ground.

The three of them were bruised and battered, yet they glared at me defiantly. I had to wonder; why? Why did they make a move in the open, after remaining so doggedly elusive for so long, and why did they attack this place in particular? Was it the Narrative yanking my chain, or was I missing something? It was something I absolutely had to figure out, even though I wasn't exactly in the mood for an interrogation.

"Lord Archon, don't get too close." The warning came from midriff-woman, and she dramatically levelled her magitech gun at the closest Faun. "They could be dangerous."

I very nearly asked her why they didn't tie them up then, but again, they most likely didn't want to get within arm's reach of these guys. They looked practically identical to our Fauns, meaning they were big, muscle-bound, and to the uninitiated, their ram-like features probably looked alien and disconcerting.

"Care to tell me why you raided this place?" I asked without any pretences.

There was little chance they would just confess everything, but hey, it was worth a try. I hoped they might've been the overly-chatty-mook archetype, the kind that yells 'Hah! You'll never stop our boss's attack on the very important location at this exact time, oh snap, I wasn't supposed to tell you that!', but sadly, it didn't seem to be the case.

"[Do your worst! The honorable Faun Inanna won't bow to you, usurper!]" the one in the middle growled at me, and it made me blink in surprise. Right. Fauns were supposed to be, at least nominally, adhering to the honourable subtype of the 'proud warrior race guy' trope, even if Brang and his company often made me forget about it due to their wholesome antics.

In any case, a declaration like that needed a response, so I told him, "[Your bravado descends with the grace of a pot-bellied pelican.]"

Not expecting a response in their own language, the three ram-men looked at me funny, until Gram chimed in from the side.

"[The Regent always talks like that. He means you're full of shit.]"

"[I show gratitude to your attempt to facilitate communications, but I recommend you focus on the recovery of your earthy coil.]"

"[Sure, sure…]"

While we exchanged words, Lord Barnabas kept glancing between us, and finally blurted out, "What just happened?"

"Don't ask me, I didn't understand a word either," Agrawain commented on the side, with Snowy backing him up.

"There's nothing wrong! They're just talking in Faunish."

Seeing them gave me an idea. While interrogating our captives took priority, I also wanted to put an eye on Percival as soon as possible, so that once Mountain Girl arrived, I could give her some proper directions. However, I didn't have to be the one to do the questioning, especially when I had people for a job like this.

"You two, come here for a moment." Snowy and Raven Boy obediently walked over to my side, and I pointed at them. Then, I waved at the Fauns. "They're all yours. Give them the good-cop-bad-cop treatment."

"Are you…?"

Agrawain probably wanted to ask if I was serious, but Snowy's determined nod cut him short. She was eager to be helpful, as usual, and so I left the captives to them, while I walked over to Barnabas's side. He was currently inspecting our Fauns while they received their health checkup from the humming Celestial agent, and he looked oddly intrigued by them, as if this was the first time he'd seen one of them from up close.

Though again, that might've been the case. While everything in the Simulacrum seemed extremely focused on Critias, probably because the plot revolved around Josh et all, the Celestials operated across the world. In contrast, the Abyssals needed to 'tunnel out' of the Abyss on the island, and while the odd Abyssal could probably sneak abroad on a boat or a plane, huge ram-headed warriors undoubtedly had a much harder time doing that.

"{Chief?}" My musings were interrupted by Judy calling, so I put my fingers on my ear, even though it served no function. "{Ms. Yamako is on the way, along with Naoren Feilong. Do you need me to mobilize anyone else?}"

"For now, that much should be enough. Do you have an ETA?"

"{I don't, and even if I did, I'm not sure her estimates can be relied upon.}"

"That's… a good point."

While I talked, Barnabas came over to my side and scrutinized me, but he waited until I let my hand down to raise his voice.

"I've informed Lord Amadeus about the events, and he requested that I enquire about whether you require any further assistance from the Assembly." I was just about to shake my head, but he raised a hand. "Before you respond, I would like to remind you about the basic principles we talked about just this afternoon. If an associated entity offers their help without any strings attached, and you already wish to establish ties with each other, working together is a simple and effective way to foster positive relations."

"… So, you're telling me to just accept it."

"In simple terms, yes."

"Fine. Tell him I appreciate his goodwill in the name of the Ordo Draconis."

"Noted. Now, with the formalities concluded, would you mind if I directly inquired about the purpose of this…" He looked at the collapsed wall, then at the stairs leading into the basement. "… 'facility'?"

"I think Sir Raven already told you our stance on this," I pointed out, but he shook his head.

"I'm not requesting an answer as an arch-mage of the Assembly, but as an interested individual," he insisted. "You already have numerous properties on the island, including an underground fortress, so why would you go out of your way to establish such a rudimentary hideout at a place like this? Does it have something to do with the identity of this prisoner you've been referring to?"

"Since things turned out this way, there's a good chance you'll get your answer sooner or later."

My answer didn't please him, but realistically speaking, even if we managed to re-capture Percival, along with the Fauns who kidnapped him, there was no way to keep things under the lid anymore. His identity and involvement with the recent events would definitely get revealed to the public. For now, I decided to remain silent on the topic, lest I would give away more of the game than necessary.

Unfortunately, I forgot to send the memo to Snowy, and she quickly skipped over to my side, followed by the grumpy Raven Boy.

"Leo, we found out what happened!"

"That was fast," I muttered as I glanced over to the 'honourable Faun Inanna' who definitely wouldn't squeal.

"She just scolded them, and they folded like a house of cards," Agrawain told me with a conflicted expression. "I didn't even get a chance to play the good cop."

"Listen," Snowy cut between us with, her arms spread. "They were here for Tajana."

"Who?" Lord Barnabas blurted out, but he didn't get an answer.

"They thought she was here?"

Snowy nodded, her expression unusually stern and focused.

"They thought she was held here, and that's why I kept visiting the basement."

"That adds up," I mused and pinched my chin. "What about our missing prisoner?"

"That's…" She nearly responded by reflex, but then her eyes opened wide, and she rose to her tippy-toes and tried to whisper into my ear. "He told them he knew Bel and had information on him."

Sadly, despite her efforts, the arch-mage still overheard her, and he let out a series of contemplative hums.

"So, the prisoner was kept here because he was related to this 'Bel' we've had the misfortune to encounter? Was he isolated here to keep him away from more critical infrastructure? Or maybe to serve as bait in a trap? No, if that was the case, he wouldn't have been taken so easily. But if not so, then…"

While he continued to muse, I patted Snowy on the head for a job well done (and so she wouldn't feel bad about spilling the beans), and I was just about to close my eyes and finally take a proper look at Percival via Far Sight when I was contacted by Judy again.

"{Chief, we have an emergency.}"

The fact a tinge of panic was audible in her voice made me twitch, and I raised a finger to my ear again.

"What kind of emergency?"

"{Joshua was shot.}"

…

"… Excuse me? With what?"

"{With a rifle, on his way back home. He wasn't seriously injured, but Angeline is going out of control.}"

"How in the world could—?!"

My words staggered to a halt as my mind began to assemble the full picture. The Fauns attacked here. That caused Snowy to make a Restricted Space, which drew Barnabas and the Praetorian Guards over. That gave an opening to the alluded assassins to make a move on Angie, but Josh got in the way, and now…

"Shit!" I whispered, then turned to the confused people surrounding me. "We have a serious situation on our hands! Jaakobah! You head back to your post with the Guards and secure the perimeter! The rest, stay here until Rinne shows up and guard the captives."

"What about me?" the arch-mage asked, and I exhaled a grunt.

"Don't ask me, I'm not your boss! Just don't get in the way!" With that, I picked up my helmet from Raven Boy's hands and started running, looking for an out-of-sight spot from where I could Phase away, while furiously whispering, "Dormouse, alert everyone! This isn't an isolated incident. It's the bloody climax!"