PART 1

"Things are quiet," I murmured ominously before biting into my sandwich. "Too quiet."

"Chief. We just established the other day that jinxing is still a universal force whether the Narrative operates or not," my dear assistant, sitting next to me on the usual bench on the school's roof, chided me before using a napkin to casually wipe the corner of my mouth. "Stop it."

Talk about mixed messages. But putting whether Judy was annoyed or doting aside for the moment, I cocked my head to the side and let out a hum.

"The other day, you say? It's been more than a week."

"Eleven days," she corrected me and wiped my cheek. "Be careful. You have sauce all over your face."

"Because it's good," I told her unashamedly and took another bite. Needless to say, it was from the lunch box she prepared, and since I was praising her cooking (I was sure these fancy ham sandwiches had enough work put into them to qualify), she graciously let my previous faux pas slide and picked up a sandwich herself.

So, just to re-iterate: the weather was nice, we were eating Judy's sandwiches on the rooftop, and there was no immediate threat or convoluted plot weighing down on my shoulders. Wasn't that nice? And nostalgic, now that I thought about it. It reminded me of the early days, with the initial brainstorming sessions about the Simulacrum and the experiments on the placeholders and Robatto and…

Wait. Did I just look back fondly on the whole Robatto affair? Damn. I had a hard time deciding what was more distressing; either my rose-tinted glasses had a much higher dioptre than I ever thought, or the recent events roughed me up so much it made even our hodge-podge sentai arc felt nice and sensible in comparison. Both options were pretty bad, but for different reasons.

That said, there was no point in stressing over something so silly and ruining the moment, so I shook the notion out of my head and finished up my sandwich, focused on enjoying the scenery, the company, and the peace of the moment.

The rest of the gang were all doing their own things as we spoke. Elly joined Angie and Josh, and the three of them were checking out the equipment of the tennis club in preparation for practising for some spring championship or the other. The class rep was running some errands for Mrs. Applebottom, while Jaakobah and Rinne resumed their work at school under their respective covers. Last I checked, my sisters were being pestered by Sahi, trying to get them to join the disciplinary committee because they were short on hands. To this day, I still had a hard time digesting that she, of all people, ended up joining, but I could probably chalk that up to Pascal's influence on our rejuvenated arch-mage.

Speaking of arch-mages, the four of them (not counting Lord Grandpa, who had been doing his job as a principal for years) had completely assimilated into the school, and Lord Gulliver even hinted that they would continue to act as teachers until we graduated. I didn't quite know what to think of that, as I was pretty sure leaving their official posts at the Assembly vacant for years on end would cause some trouble, but it was theirs to deal with, so I decided not to concern myself with it.

Since the Assembly came up, it was worth mentioning that the negotiations between the Magi, the Elysian Congregation (placeholder term for the new Celestial government, final name still pending) and the Draconic Federation were going swimmingly. We already have a non-aggression pact in place, and the first official cooperation agreement was hot on its heels. And the best of it was that I didn't even have to get involved in any of that.

In conclusion, everything was peaceful. Really, really peaceful.

"It's too peaceful," I grumbled, causing my girlfriend to let out a shallow sigh.

"Chief. What did I just say?"

"I know, Dormouse. I know. Jinxing and all that, but can you say that I'm wrong?" I waited for a beat to see if she had anything to say. When she hadn't, I made a gesture with my hand that said 'You see?' and quickly scarfed down the last bite of my sandwich before continuing. "I'm telling you, without Narrative-me stirring the pot, things are getting a bit stagnant."

"I don't think that's a bad thing though," she pointed out while unscrewing the top of her thermos. "You said that after the last climax, we have some leeway with the Plot, and some of us definitely need a break."

"Yeah, I can't argue with that. Josh and Angie were hit the hardest by what happened, so it's probably a good idea to give them some space to breathe and do their love-comedy shenanigans."

"True, but I was also referring to you."

I turned a sideways glance at my girlfriend.

"Do you also want to have love-comedy shenanigans?"

"Don't we always?"

"… A fair point." With that, we both nodded with all the weight and gravitas that only a silly inside joke could have and moved on as if the previous exchange never happened. As usual. "Seriously though, all this peace and quiet is making me restless. It's like… how should I put it? You know those 'calm before the storm' situations? When you realize that the current easy-going status quo can and will go wrong at any moment? It's kind of like that, but because now I know I'm the Narrative, or at least supposed to fill in the vacuum left by Narrative-me, it's more like an itch. Like… Okay, you remember that whole thing with the Vritras?"

"Sure." While I talked, Judy poured tea onto the portable cups by her side and handed one over to me. "They were rather reasonable."

"Yes, that's the problem!" I responded a bit vehemently, but quickly toned things down with a soft, "Ah, thanks," as I accepted the drink and took a gulp.

Okay, context. Smack dab in the middle of last week, the Vritra family showed up on the island. They were a prestigious Draconian family from Northern India who had historically strained relations with the Feilongs. In any kind of proper Plot, them showing up in force on Critias would've meant a conflict was brewing. On one side, we had the Feilongs led by Naoren, with their weird Chinese wuxia allusions, while on the other side, we had a gaggle of inflexible old antagonistic Draconians ready to pick a fight and challenge the Draconic Federation's authority. Super-straightforward stuff. Even a middling writer with more hipster plaid shirts and Starbucks bills than brain cells could squeeze some drama out of that.

Yet, they just showed up, and after some initial blustering, they signed a petition with Roland and Dad-in-law to join the Draconic Federation, and then they left. I repeat: they left the island! We had a whole bunch of exotic Draconians with unique names and powers and deep-seated grudges just begging for some conflict or scheming, or… Damn it, I couldn't believe I was saying this, but even just throwing the younger generation into a small tournament would've worked!

But no! They left! Who does that? Why would they even be introduced, only to then get taken out of the Simulacrum's scenario without any drama? Didn't that go against one of those writing principles? I mean, there's 'Chekhov's Gun', which states that if a plot device is established in the first act, it should be used in the third act for a dramatic climax. Conversely, if it doesn't get used, then the plot device shouldn't be introduced, because it would just take up space and confuse the audience. Unless of course it was meant to do that, but then it's no longer a Chekhov's Gun, but a Red Herring, and I'm rambling.

The important bit is that we had a setup for a side plot, or maybe even a whole arc, and then they negotiated a peaceful resolution instead and unceremoniously left the scene the way they came. While I rationally understood that this is how things would 'normally' go, and that sudden tournament arcs were wholly unnatural tropey stuff that wouldn't happen in 'real life', it… it…"

"It just feels so anticlimactic," I groaned after finishing my drink, my shoulders drooping on their own. "I just feel so… conflicted. On one hand, I'm happy that I can finally relax and just stretch my legs a little, but I also feel like I should stir up the plot and capitalize on tropey stuff that presents itself, but at the same time I know I really shouldn't act recklessly, but it just keeps bugging me. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"No, not really. It sounds altogether too conceptually alien to me, but then again, I'm not 'Narrative adjacent', as you once put it."

"I… can't argue with that."

"Just make sure to keep your urges in check for now, please. At least for a little longer." In the meantime, she put away my empty mug and the lunch box and turned to face me. "Or at the very least, channel your plot-stirring energies into something productive."

"Like manipulating the stock market?" I blurted out, and my dear assistant gave me a deadpan gaze and pinched my cheek.

"Do I look like Elly to you?" When I shook my head, she let go. "No. I was talking about your big plans for the 'ultimate epic ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny'."

"That was one ultimate too many," I pointed out, but when she just continued to stare at me, I pulled myself together and considered things a bit more seriously. I also glanced around a bit, just to be safe. It was only the two of us on the roof, and that's why I felt comfortable discussing such Doylist topics, but it never hurt to be sure. "Okay, so I think I told you about this, but I'm planning to make use of Bel for the finale. He's already set up to be the big bad, so it's the obvious thing to do."

"Yes, I'm clear on that. Have you figured out how to do it?"

"It's a work in progress." I shrugged and glanced at the blue sky over our heads. "There are a lot of moving pieces I have to consider. There's Bel himself, but Angie and Josh also have to be involved."

"You too," Judy pointed out. "Since you're building it on top of the failed Celestial Route, Polemos not getting involved would be suspicious."

"Right. I have some plans for that too, but more on it later. Honestly, the part I still need to decide upon is whether I should broaden the scope, or tighten in." Judy was looking at me attentively, so I took a deep breath to collect my thoughts. "The first option would make more sense from a consistency standpoint. So far, the scope of our final, climactic showdown always kept increasing, with more and more people being involved. I think I have a solid idea of how to increase the scale of the conflict so that everyone would have a chance to shine, but doing so would logically mean that there would be a lot of fighting at lots of different places, so making sure everyone makes it out of it alive and unharmed would be really hard. Conversely, I could shift the scope to only involve the most important actors of the scenario, but then I would have to set up a plausible and convincing set of circumstances to ensure that the others wouldn't get involved, which is also hard."

"You're being rather vague here," Judy noted, sounding unamused by my choice of words.

"I can't help it. We just talked about how jinxing is still a thing, and if that's still a thing, there's a good chance of Unspoken Plan Guarantee is also still in effect."

"The trope where a plan's success rate is inversely proportional to how much the audience knows about it." My dear assistant explained in a disinterested voice, and I would've loved to point out that what she just said suspiciously sounded like an 'As We All Know' line, a fairly maligned exposition trope in and of itself, but then she used it as a springboard to ask, "Are the audience the Submerged Ones in this case?"

"Metaphorically? Yeah, though I'm still not entirely sure they are actively listening or perceiving us… but it's better to be safe than sorry, so the plan remains vague until the last moment."

"Sounds reasonable," she granted. "Back to the previous topic: What you're saying is that you have only two options, but both of them are difficult."

"Right now, I can only think of those two, yes. I would prefer if I could literally take the third option with some clever subversion, but those are hard to come by." Letting a soft groan pass between my teeth, I rubbed my forehead out of habit. "And then we didn't even talk about the twist! Every good story needs a last-minute twist, and I have to come up with something for that too. Also, maybe a MacGuffin. I kind of set one up beforehand, but I don't know what to do with that, and… You know, Dormouse?"

"Yes?"

"I take back whatever bad things I've ever said about Narrative-me. This is hard work, and I shouldn't have treated him/me so harshly. Tell me to give him/myself a pat on the back if we ever get to meet."

"I'll make a mental note." After saying that, there was a long beat, and then Judy asked, "Where does that leave us?"

"Well, for the time being, I guess I'll just keep working on the plan-to-end-all-plans, and hope that the interpersonal dramatics tide us over for a while. Otherwise, we have to improvise. Say, when's our spring break going to start?"

"In two weeks," she responded promptly. "From the 30th of March till the 10th of April."

"So a little over ten days…"

"Technically, since it starts on a Monday and ends on a Friday, it's fourteen days in total."

"That's generous," I noted, the gears in my head already turning. "It should be more than enough for a short vacation, I think."

"Any ideas for that?"

"Nothing yet. Your dad and Abram have been low-key planning a fishing trip for a while, as a sort of family outing, so we might get roped into one during the break."

"I would personally prefer something that doesn't involve camping, but that doesn't sound terrible either," Judy concluded.

The discussion had been meandering for a while, so I checked my phone, and seeing that lunch break was almost over, I got up from the bench and stretched my arms.

"Let's continue this conversation in the afternoon."

"Don't be silly, Chief," my dear assistant all but huffed as she also rose to her feet and picked up the empty lunch box and thermos. "Today is my solo day with you, so I already have plans, and having serious discussions isn't compatible with them."

"Plans?"

"We're going on a date," she stated bluntly, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm down with that. Where did you want to—?"

However, before I could finish the sentence, I noticed that someone was walking up the stairs leading to the rooftop access, and when I glanced over, I saw Mountain Girl poking her head through the open metal door. Was she the teacher in charge of locking it after lunch break was over, I wondered.

"Ah, Leonard-dono. It's time to vaccinate the premises."

"Vacate," I corrected her on autopilot and headed her way, feeling satisfied that my hunch was right.

"Yes. Rinne just said that."

She responded a touch defiantly, yet I couldn't help but notice that her heart wasn't in it. If anything, she seemed distracted. Almost depressed in a way.

Wait. Was that a kind of plot hook I was seeing? Or was my mind just getting oversensitive to these kinds of things because of the previous discussion? In any case, she was acting odd, and that meant one or two things; either some weird shenanigans, or there was drama afoot. I was sure it wouldn't hurt to check.

"Why's the long face?"

"Rinne's face isn't long."

"The Chief is asking why you're dispirited," Judy came to the save, and it made the woman in the doorway look genuinely startled.

"R-Rinne isn't dispirited! It's just that… Rinne has a lot on Rinne's mind at the moment!" she denied with clearly suspicious vehemence.

"Can I help?" I probed her a bit, just to see her reaction, and for a second or five, she was clearly torn about how she should respond.

"Rinne… doesn't want to burden Leonard-dono, but…" She vacillated a bit longer, but then she resigned herself and finally spilled the beans. "Rinne is troubled."

"We can see that," Judy noted on the side, not taking more than a passing interest in the discussion, and messaging to someone on her phone instead. Probably the princess, I surmised.

"What's eating you?" I prompted her again.

"It's… about Naoren-san," she admitted, suddenly sounding downright gloomy in a strange, timid way that didn't really fit her usual character. "Rinne isn't sure that Rinne is a good fit for Naoren-san."

Oooh? Would you look at that? When did their relationship progress to this point, I wondered. It must be a recent development, I surmised, and I flashed a smile to ease her into the conversation.

"Now, now. Don't put yourself down like that."

"Rinne isn't putting Rinne down. Rinne just thinks that by marrying Naoren-san, Rinne will interfere with Naoren-san's happiness."

…

"Come again?" came the natural response from Judy, her finger frozen mid-motion on her phone screen as she stared at Mountain Girl with eyes wide open.

"Naoren-san already told Rinne that he has a lady Naoren-san likes, and so Rinne feels that getting between Naoren-san and this lady is—"

"No, stop," I halted her with a palm raised. "What was that about marriage?"

"Naoren-san asked Rinne to marry Naoren-san," she stated bluntly and seemingly without any emotion, as if it was the least important matter in this conversation. Seeing that we were both baffled by her words, she quickly clarified. "It's a contract marriage. Naoren-san said it is necessary to silence the elders who want Naoren-san to enter into a political marriage, so Naoren-san asked Rinne to get married for a year, but Rinne isn't sure it's the right thing to do when Naoren-san already likes a lady, and…"

While she prattled on, I finally digested the new information and turned to my lovely assistant.

"Sorry, Dormouse, but today's date is postponed." Saying so, I pointed a finger at Mountain Girl. "I need to get to the bottom of this ASAP."

"Understandable. Keep me updated."

And with that, we both nodded, while the adult woman next to us kept waxing about her bloody contract marriage of all things. I had to admit though; I didn't see that coming.

PART 2

After school, I bid farewell to my girlfriends and headed straight to Timaeus's Chinatown. On foot. While carrying two briefcases full of official paperwork. And it was all due to a certain someone's insistence. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

"I can't understand you," the class rep told me, her voice tinged with a mixture of impatience and irritation. "Wasn't this exactly the kind of thing you were looking for?"

"If by this, you mean a 'contract marriage plot', then no, it absolutely wasn't," I answered, hiding my own annoyance as best as I could.

The two of us were on our way to the familiar pagoda hotel, though for different reasons. I was going there to confront the guy about this asinine plot development, while she was delivering some documents about a trade agreement or something. Despite everything that happened so far, she was still acting as Lord Grandpa's secretary. I tried to explain to them that, since there's no need to worry about Celestial infiltrators anymore, they can drop the whole 'only direct relatives of the local arch-mages are allowed to access confidential paperwork' policies, but I was shot down. According to them, established rules like that had a lot of inertia and couldn't be changed all willy-nilly.

Of course, I immediately pointed out that I've been changing such rules all the time as the King of Knights and Polemos, but they just looked at me like I was some weird, alien creature who just arrived on Earth and entirely lacked common sense and self-awareness. That was rude, so I naturally stopped trying to convince them and let them wallow in their silly bureaucracy. That'll show them.

On a more serious note, we rounded a corner and were now just a stone throw's away from the hotel. I looked up at the building at the other end of the colourful street, and after a meaningful beat, I turned my head to face my companion.

"Time?"

Ammy raised a brow at that, but seeing that my hands were still occupied with the briefcases full of her documents, she obediently took out her phone and turned the standby screen towards me.

"A bit past five," she also told me, as if I couldn't see it, and I exhaled a soft huff.

"If we just Phased here like I said we should've, we would be probably heading back home already."

"And I told you that you have to stop teleporting everywhere just for the sake of convenience," she retorted, her hand already reaching for her glasses. "With how irresponsibly you use it, it's a miracle nobody started connecting the dots yet. The moment anyone collated all the times you showed up somewhere onto a single timeline, your whole secret will be blown wide open."

"Even if they do, I have like half a dozen different 'reasonable explanations' to excuse myself, so it's no big deal."

"But if you were more careful, you wouldn't need those excuses!"

We continued to bicker as we neared the hotel, and while she did make a fair point, I wasn't going to just back down now. Especially when I was about ninety-seven percent sure that the reason why she objected against Phasing over had little to do with the integrity of the cover story surrounding my publicly undisclosed abilities, but rather her aversion to the process itself. It made her nauseous, allegedly, but when I told her that she just had to get used to it like Judy and Elly did, she yelled at me that she didn't want to.

Anyhow, if that didn't make it abundantly obvious, the class rep was a bit grouchy today. Maybe it was that time of the month or something. I didn't know, and I wasn't nearly mad enough to ask, so I just put up with her confrontational attitude. Case in point…

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Wait, did you just change the topic? You still haven't answered my previous question."

"I did."

"Not properly," she retorted, her fingers tweaking her glasses about three times a second, which was both impressive and a little bit scary. "You said we need drama, and this is exactly that. You even brought up the relationship between Mr. Feilong and Miss Yamako as a potential source of it."

"Right, but this isn't it."

Before I could continue, we bumped into a bunch of bald men dressed in stereotypical pale orange Buddhist robes, and they forced a couple of pamphlets upon us before letting us go. It was nice to see that the Simulacrum's streets were getting livelier and more varied over time, but I had to admit that religious recruiters were pretty low on the list of things I wanted to see there. That was just the thing with uncontrolled development though; you could never predict where it would go.

Take my current conundrum, for example. Normally, I would've blamed the narrative for such a dumb, tropey development, but knowing that Narrative-me was out of the picture, I had no choice but to accept that this happened organically. Well, mostly organically. If I were a betting man, I would've put money on the whole contract-marriage trope being something that already existed in the scenario's framework, but since there was no outside force to enforce it now, I felt entirely justified to be outraged at Naoren's flagrant invoking of it.

That wasn't the crux of the class rep's question though, and after she carefully folded and pocketed the pamphlets (I would've thrown them away at the first thrash bin, but she was a good girl, so she didn't), I let out an overt huff to get her attention.

"Listen, there's a difference between 'drama' and 'melodrama', okay?"

"Which is?" she shot back, one hand once again hovering near her glasses.

"You really need to stop that," I pointed out, making her blink. "The thing with your glasses. It's a bad habit, and you're going to accidentally break them one of these days."

"What are you talking about? It's not a bad habit, and… are you changing the topic again?"

"No, I'm just trying to be nice," I responded with a cheeky grin. "Also, the difference is that melodrama is stupid, over-the-top, and predictable."

"How is this in any way predictable?" Right after asking that, she fell silent when we reached the stairs leading up to the hotel's lobby. The staff, seeing that I was coming, was already holding the door open for us. Ammy probably wasn't used to being treated as a VIP, but when I lightly nodded in the direction of the bellboy and continued on my way, she quickly caught up with me and continued in a slightly lower volume. "Who even heard about such a thing as a 'contract marriage'?"

"You haven't?" She glared at me, probably thinking I was making fun of her, so I hastily added, "No, I mean it. Have you seriously never run into this trope?"

"No…?"

Her response was a bit less combative this time around, but I waited until the VIP lift at the back of the lobby arrived before I would continue. It was an express elevator that only stopped here and at the penthouse level, so when the sliding doors opened, there was nobody inside. Until we stepped in, that is. I put down the briefcases and pressed one of the only two buttons on the panel to our right before facing the class rep again.

"Listen up. This whole situation is extremely tropey."

"You mean, guided by destiny."

"No, I meant 'tropey'. Some things can be tropes depending on the context of a story, while other things only exist as tropes in stories. For example, you're the smart girl of our group, and smart people wear glasses, which is a trope, but it's not the actual reason you're wearing glasses."

"Are you sure?" she was about to reach for her temple again, but after her previous exchange, she momentarily froze and crossed her arms. "But couldn't it be that I'm nearsighted because destiny decided that, as the 'smart girl', I need to have glasses?"

"Stop. Now you're the one who's changing the topic. That's not what we're talking about here." I waited for a beat, and since she didn't argue further, I continued the previous train of thought. "This is something called 'Truth in Television'. In the past, people who were smart and well-educated naturally read a lot. Reading a lot meant they strained their eyes, which would affect their eyesight in the long run, resulting in a need for glasses. As such, there was a weak correlation between how well-read someone was, and them wearing glasses, so it turned into a trope. However, that doesn't mean that wearing glasses automatically makes you smart because desti— I mean, the narrative says so."

"Okay, I get that, but how is that related to Mr. Feilong proposing to Miss Yamako?"

"As I said, there are some developments that only really exist in the context of certain genres of fiction. Contract marriages are mainly a thing in East Asian romance stories. You can think of it as a sub-type of the 'Marriage of Convenience' tropes, with…"

It was only at this point that I realized that the class rep was zoning out. I totally forgot that I wasn't talking to Judy just now. She would've got it.

"Anyhow, the point is that this development is an extremely overused and formulaic one that always leads to contrived and overblown misunderstandings, and we're not having any of that under my watch."

In the meantime, we almost reached the top floor, so I picked up the briefcases again, just as Ammy collected her thoughts.

"Right. You're acting as the new enforcer of destiny, so I understand that you want to control the situation, but I just…" The elevator doors opened, and I automatically stepped through, with the class rep following shortly after. "I just don't understand why you're so concerned with this. Don't you have more… how should I put it… important 'destiny things' to worry about?"

"Oh, trust me, I'm worrying about those too, but this is something right in front of me, and I'm not letting it slide."

I intended that as the final word of the discussion, but just as we approached the usual room where I would meet Naoren, I was stopped by a young woman dressed in a modest Chinese dress. She was vaguely familiar, though clearly a placeholder, and it took me until she spoke up that I realized she was the one who played the zither when I had dinner with Naoren a while ago. I was pleasantly surprised that I could recall her, as I had trouble with recognizing placeholder faces at the best of times, let alone foreign ones who all dressed the same.

But speaking of that, she gave me a shallow bow and addressed me with a thick accent.

"Please accept our warmest welcome, Master Dunning. I'm afraid the clan leader isn't back yet."

"Back? Back from where?"

"He's in a meeting with the elders. Please forgive us for the discourtesy, but we weren't expecting your visit."

"No, it's my bad. I should've called to say I was coming… if only Naoren had a phone."

Both she and the class rep blinked in surprise at my unexpected remark, but I was only vaguely aware of this, as my mind was already elsewhere, along with my point of view. In retrospect, another thing I should've done was to use Far Sight before we set out, instead of just confirming that Naoren's red dot was within the hotel building. In my defence, I was distracted by my initial argument it the class rep, the one about Phasing, and how was I supposed to know that he would be in an internal clan meeting at this hour anyway?

"E-Excuse me?" Ammy spoke up next to me, and I once again had to marvel as her switch flipped and she went from defiantly arguing meta-knowledge with me to timidly sidling behind me like a classic shrinking violet heroine type the moment she had to interact with someone unfamiliar. "I'm from the School, and I have documents for Mr. Feilong's eyes only. W-When is he expected to return?"

"I… can't say," the attendant responded a touch uncertainly, but after just a hint of the usual thousand-yard-stare, she pointed at another door. "If it's important, you can wait for him in—"

"Thank you, but there's no need for that," I turned her down, trying to sound as polite as possible to offset the fact I was cutting her off. "I'm going to pick him up myself."

"But… Master Dunning…"

By this time I already turned around and walked back to the elevators, so I only glanced over my shoulder to say, "There's no need for a guide. I know my way around here."

"Leo! You're being rude!" the class rep hissed as she hastily caught up with me, but I let her complaints in through one ear and out through the other.

Stopping in front of the non-VIP elevator, I pressed the button corresponding to the floor under this one, and while waiting for it to arrive, I turned back to Ammy.

"So, as I was saying before," I began, this time really changing the topic, "This whole contract marriage thing is going to be a huge source of melodrama."

She eyed me with disapproval as clear as crystal glass, but she ultimately chose not to protest and only prompted me with a deadpan, "Such as?"

"Oh, you know?" Meanwhile, the elevator car arrived, and we stepped in. "I don't exactly know why Naoren set this up yet, but I know for a fact, as surely as I know that the sun rises on the east, that Rinne is denser than neutron star. Like, so dense, she makes Josh look positively savvy in comparison. On the other hand, Naoren is your typical dark-haired Übermensch archetype."

"Excuse me? He's what?"

"You know?" I shrugged, finding it a bit awkward to elaborate on something like this. "Tall and fit young adult with wide shoulders and jet-black hair who also happens to be strong yet intelligent and well-read, incredibly wealthy and influential, but with low EQ and an inability to clearly communicate his feelings to the target of his affections." Ammy was still looking at me funny, so I stated, on no uncertain terms, "It's a ridiculously common archetype. Look it up, if you don't believe me. Anyhow, I'm calling it now; these two enter into this contractual relationship, but then Rinne will think that they aren't in a real relationship so she will dismiss all of Naoren's advances as just him putting on a show, while he'll never speak his mind and will be convinced that she doesn't like him. Then they will keep having all kinds of awkward and/or romantic situations that nonetheless fail to progress their relationship and instead will lead into a series of contrived misunderstandings that pile up until they'll have a big falling out, both of them convinced that the other doesn't like them, but then after a crescendo of more shenanigans, the misunderstanding will be cleared up and then they immediately enter into the honeymoon period." I managed to squeeze out all of that before our lift came to a halt, and let out a satisfied breath as the sliding doors began to move. "All of it is very melodramatic and drawn out, and I don't like that."

"I understand, but…" Ammy eyed me for a second or five, and then suddenly fired an armour-piercing question at me. "Why do you know so much about… what was it again? East Asian romance fiction?"

Her words nearly made me stumble as we stepped out into the corridor, and after clearing my throat, I figured I might as well tell her.

"Webtoons. Judy likes them, so I read a bunch of them, so we would have common topics to talk about."

"… Seriously?" When I nodded, her previously dissatisfied expression grew softer. "Wow. You're a good boyfriend, aren't you?"

"I'm trying," I responded just a touch bashfully.

"I admit, I thought you were only talking about things related to the world and destiny and these tropes with her."

"Hey, we can't just talk about those things all the time. It would make us the most boring couple in existence."

"Talking about those things… is boring?"

"Anything's boring if it's done too much," I quipped, and this time it really was the end of the conversation, as our destination was in sight. "Can you hold onto these for a moment, please?"

Without waiting for her confirmation, I handed the briefcases over to her and walked up to the large double doors at the end of the hallway. The two men standing guard on its sides, both dressed in traditional red-and-black martial artist tunics, were alarmed by my approach and stepped up to stop me.

First, they spoke in what I presumed to be Chinese, but then the one on the left recognized me and grabbed his colleague's shoulder with the words, "Master Dunning? What brings you here?"

"I have business with the clan leader," I responded with a very, very friendly smile. "Could you please step aside? This will only take a minute."

"But… the meeting is…"

The other man tried to object, but I just walked past them and flung the doors open, startling all the middle-aged and elderly Draconians at the long table, garbed in their fancy, colourful ceremonial robes and their hair done up in those weird hair bun things. Naoren was sitting at the head, dressed the same as always, and he looked especially baffled by my sudden appearance.

"Brother Leonard? What are you—?"

Before he could get started, I stopped and politely nodded at the gathered clan elders.

"Please excuse me, but I must borrow your clan head for a while. I promise I'll bring him back in one piece, so please take a coffee break or something."

"This is an important meeting about the recent visit of the Vritras and… W-What are you—?!"

In front of everyone's eyes, I walked up to the head of the table, picked up the guy (along with the wooden chair he was sitting on), and lifted them over my head. How? Well, I was wearing my Leoformer uniform, of course.

Ever since the assassination incident, we made it an unofficial policy that any time we were in public, we would wear our magical gear, both for safety and so that we could react faster in case of a dangerous situation. Needless to say, the class rep was also wearing her Magiformer all this time.

Anyhow, the physical enhancements of my outfit roared into action at full capacity, and I casually carried the stumped young clan head towards the door, only stopping right in front of it to lower him a little, so that he wouldn't hit his head on the doorframe. I also used the opportunity to turn around and address the elders one more time.

"Thank you for your understanding. Please, have a nice day."

"Wait, Leonard! What is this all about!?"

"You would know, if you bought a bloody phone already like I bloody told you," I hissed at him, and then after a beat, I nodded my farewell at the men in the room, along with a good-natured, harmless smile.

And with that, I manoeuvred the still-seated Naoren through the open door and jerked my head to tell the frozen girl in the hallway to follow after me, while everyone else stared at us in silence. Baffled, stumped, maybe even outright bamboozled.

Ah. Refuge in Audacity, my old friend. I missed you.

PART 3

"I can't believe you just did that…" the class rep muttered in a daze, and I did my best to pretend I didn't hear it.

We were currently sitting around a small table inside one of the empty rooms of the penultimate floor, because even I wasn't going to try and bring Naoren up to his penthouse with his chair in tow without Phasing involved. It was smaller than the room where the young patriarch was staying, though it did share the aesthetics of the rest of the hotel, from the traditional style wood panelling on the walls and ceiling to the Chinese lantern-shaped lamps used for illumination. I was already used to the visual style, and to my eyes the room felt warm and cosy, though Ammy clearly didn't share my sentiment.

"Grandfather told me that your approach to people in positions of power is 'unrestrained'…" she whispered in a tense voice, her hands mechanically stirring her drink with a teaspoon. "… but experiencing it firsthand is…"

Her words trailed off, and she took a sip from her thick green earthenware mug full of one of those fruity-herbal-infusion non-tea beverages, only to then put it down and throw in another sugar cube. She would probably get along well with Tsephanyah, I mused absentmindedly even as I turned to the other person at the table. Despite the unorthodox nature of our meeting, by the time we settled down, the hotel staff already delivered a set of drinks and snacks to our table. Very professional.

"Would you please explain what this is all about?"

Naoren maintained a veneer of calmness on the surface, but I've spent enough time with him to tell that underneath that, he was more than just a little disgruntled by the stunt I just pulled. He also annoyed me with the stunt he pulled though, so I simply considered the scales getting balanced and didn't pay much mind to it.

"Au contraire, my friend. I'm the one who's here to hear your explanation." He blinked at me in mild perplexity. The kind you get when you can't put the USB plug into the socket even after you turned it around three times already; not particularly profound or mystified, more annoyed if anything. I figured it was best I stopped beating around the bush and just ask the pivotal question right away. "Could you please tell me what this whole 'contract marriage' business is all about?"

The way he looked at me had a distinct resemblance to a dead fish, and it took him several seconds to formulate an answer.

"We… discussed this." I didn't say it was a good answer, did I? My dissatisfaction must've shown on my face because he quickly put down his cup and took out the same privacy artifact he used the last time we had dinner together. He placed the small wooden box into the middle of the table, opened it up, and after its light enveloped us, he let out a soft groan that nevertheless sounded like it came from the depths of his soul. "You said you don't object to a relationship between Lady Rinne and I. What changed since then?"

"You're focusing on the wrong part," I pointed out and lightly tapped on the table with my finger for emphasis. "What is this deal about a temporary contract?"

"It was a… let's call it 'emergency measure' I had to undertake due to certain tensions within the clan, with many a complicated twist and turn, I'm afraid."

While I waited for him to elaborate, the class rep meekly raised her hand into the air.

"I'm sorry, but am I allowed to hear this? If it's related to the politics of the Draconian Federation, then…"

"Just sit tight, class rep. This shouldn't be a state secret." I waited for a beat and then glanced at Naoren. "Or is it?"

"Not quite, but…"

Seeing him fidget and act self-conscious like that was a rare sight, but as much as I found it amusing at the moment, I didn't want to overdo it and have him develop a grudge against me. That would've been just awkward, especially in the long run.

"Just say it as it is, please. If you had a good reason, you should be able to tell me with your head held high."

At last, Naoren looked me in the eye and adjusted his posture in his seat.

"My predicament isn't an uncommon one. As you're aware, I was courting Lenore before your engagement."

"Who?" the class rep blurted out, seemingly without meaning to, and when I glanced over, she hastily covered her mouth, as if afraid that she just committed a faux pas of monumental proportions.

"He's talking about Elly," I told her, and in a second, her expression shifted from panicked to critical.

"Mister Feilong calls her that?" I didn't know why she was asking that with such an incredulous voice, as if she didn't just hear it herself, but I nodded all the same. "And you're okay with it?"

Now it was my turn to look confounded.

"Okay with what?"

She glanced at Naoren, then back at me, but didn't hesitate for long.

"I don't want to offend Mister Feilong, but isn't calling someone else's fiancée by a pet name somewhat… inappropriate?"

"Don't overthink it," I cut in the moment I recognized what she was getting at. "It's just a nickname, and who am I to call someone else out for using one? If I got mad every time someone gave a nickname to someone I care about, I would be shouting at myself all day long, and that's just not very productive."

My bespectacled table-mates blinked in unison, having a hard time digesting my words. Which was weird, because I was pretty sure what I just said was both very legible and logical. It was Naoren who managed to regain his wits first, and after clearing his throat, he hastily clasped his fingers on the table.

"I assure you; I have no designs involving her anymore, either in a romantic or political nature. I only brought her up in this conversation because she's relevant to the bigger picture of my woes."

He stopped there, and the way he was looking at me told me he was waiting to be prompted.

"As in?"

Naoren sucked in a deep breath, as if mentally preparing himself for something.

"While Clan Head Abram never officially gave his blessing, within the social circles of the Draconian clans, our union was considered to be a foregone conclusion. That, of course, was a short-sighted prediction, but one everyone accepted. Because of that, I didn't have to concern myself with other suitors. However, due to Lenore being engaged to you now, there has been a mounting torrent of intrigue both within and outside Clan Feilong regarding my marriage prospects."

"In other words, you're telling me that once Elly was out of the picture, you became the most eligible draconic bachelor on the island."

"More like in the world…" the class rep whispered on my left, but by the time I glanced over, she was back to leisurely sipping her not-tea and preteneding she wasn't even listening.

"You could certainly say that, yes," Naoren agreed with a heavy voice filled with faux self-deprecation. "Due to that, ever since the public announcement of your engagement, the Elders of Clain Feilong have been subtly but unfailingly insinuating that I should choose a suitable bride soon to maintain the face of the clan."

"Face?" Ammy interjected again, this time sounding more confused than anything else.

"It means 'prestige'." After clarifying that, I turned back to Naoren.

Was he throwing the elders of his clan under the bus, or was there more to this story, I wondered. I didn't have to do that for long though, as he soon continued where he left off.

"The clan has also received some offers from other distinguished bloodlines since then, but if at all possible, I would like to refrain from disclosing the details of those meetings. I just want you to know that my affection towards Lady Rinne is genuine, and I have turned down the other clans and their prospective brides."

"Then how did we end up with this contact marriage plot? Please get to the point."

Naoren's eyes closed in resignation and he continued his explanation in a soft voice, bordering on a whisper, "It's because of the Vritras." He paused again, as if waiting for the non-existent dun-dun-dunnn sound effect to die down before continuing. "During the meeting with their representatives, they made numerous veiled implications about Clan Feilong's position in the Draconic Federation in general, even going as far as to openly imply that the clan leader not having a wife or heir at my age is a show of weakness. The Elders didn't show it in public, but they were outraged behind closed doors, and even the other branch families and subordinates of Clan Feilong voiced their discontent and demanded that I would remedy this blotch on the face of the family."

"And so you proposed to Rinne to get yourself out of the crossfire," I concluded, and after an uncomfortably long silence, he weakly nodded in assent.

"It wasn't such an impersonal decision, but yes, I admit that it would look so on the surface. Regrettably, I didn't have the luxury of options, as I was afraid that if I proposed such a deal to anyone else, it would create a rift between me and Lady Rinne, one which I could not afford. Considering this, and that you have already given your blessing, I did not think my decision would result in your… intervention like this."

Ignoring the faint tinge of resentment in his voice, I leaned back in my seat and levelled a dispassionate gaze at him. Now we were clear on the nitty-gritty details, it was time to resolve the main issue at hand. Namely, how to dismantle the 'contract' part of this malarkey, and fix up the relationship between those two.

"How many people know about this?"

"I have yet to announce it publicly." That made sense. Otherwise, I would've probably heard about this from other channels already. "As of this moment, only the people in this room and Lady Rinne herself should be aware." There was a momentary pause while he stared at me attentively, and when I didn't speak up, he reluctantly added, "If you wish us to dissolve the relationship, I believe this would be the best time for it."

"No, that's not the point. I just want the contract part of it to be out of the picture." Naoren's face eased up with relief as if I just told him he passed a difficult exam. "Also, until we clear this up, do your best to keep your admirers among the fairer sex at arm's length to prevent any contrived misunderstandings. Not that I think you have any, but you get my point, right?"

While I only intended that to be a light jab to ease a mood, Naoren's expression turned indignant right away.

"For your information, I do have female associates. Close ones, at that." That reaction surprised me, but not as much as the sullen way he said it. I didn't think the man in front of me had such as… was 'childish side' the right word? Anyhow, seeing me taken aback (though not for the reason he expected), the currently slightly less dignified than usual patriarch's lips bent into a pleased smile. "For example, I believe I'm getting along well with Lady Yseult."

Yseult? It took me a second to pair that name with a face, but then I clicked my tongue. Right, Yseult Albion, the representative of the second most influential Western Draconian family within the Draconic Federation. I used to be able to identify her by her beehive hairdo, but she got a more sensible haircut since then, and she wasn't particularly active during the meetings of the Draconic Council, so her presence kind of slipped to the back of my mind. Still, just the fact that her name was brought up in this context was enough to make my plot-senses tingling.

"How so?"

Naoren must've mistook my request for details for doubt, as he swiftly doubled down.

"Swimmingly, I would say. We've known each other for a long time, we have engaged in small talk many times during recesses, and I could even go as far as to claim we have developed a mutual rapport." All of a sudden, his face tensed up. Was it because he read something into my expression, or something he had realized on his own? We may never know, but he certainly got flustered for a second and his voice sounded just a tiny bit strained when he insisted, "In a platonic sense of the word, I assure you. I simply wish you to acknowledge that I'm not some old bachelor whose only attractive feature is his wealth."

"I never said any of that, but putting this misunderstanding aside, can you answer me one more thing?"

"… Yes."

I ignored the hesitant pause and the tone that just creamed 'Do I really have to?' and asked my question anyway.

"Yseult is single, right?" He nodded. "And considering her status, she would make for an ideal partner for you, right?" He nodded again, although this time with less enthusiasm. "And you two have a good relationship."

"I believe so, yes, but as I just told you, it's entirely platonic in nature."

"Sure, sure," I responded on auto-pilot while rubbing my temple.

Of course, things wouldn't be so simple. When were things ever simple in the Simulacrum? Never, that's when.

I didn't want to jump the gun, but since we already had a contract marriage plot, my mind was already tuned for related genre conventions, and that just screamed 'villainess trope' to me. As in, the actually existing love rival antagonists archetype that shows up in romance stories from time tot time, not the clichéd dead unicorn trope from the villainess reincarnation genre.

While I was only acquainted with her on the surface level, Yseult ticked most of the boxes. Refined lady from high society, noble and well-connected, a more fitting match to the male lead due to her eminence, a more seductive style of beauty to contrast with the wholesome girl-next-door attractiveness of the female lead… Heck, now that I thought about it, she even had a hand fan, which was weirdly common amongst stereotypical Eastern romance story villainesses, whether the story was set in a medieval European or Asian setting.

Now, I couldn't be sure if she was interested in Naoren in a romantic sense or not, but there were too many significant markers present to dismiss my hunch as just paranoia. However, if I was right, then it meant that Mountain Girl was already set up to have a whole romance subplot dedicated to her as far as… the time of the Draconian Conference and the tournament arc? Sheesh.

It also explained why the Vritras came and left without interacting with me or causing any development in the 'main plot', so to speak; they were here to nudge Rinne's sub-plot along. The question was whether this was Narrative-me trying to pull some strings to say 'Hey, look! I'm still here!', or just the cascading result of plots and hooks already set up in advance and moving through narrative inertia.

I didn't know, and I couldn't do much about it, so I focused on what I could actually affect.

"Okay, people. Here's what we're going to do."

Both Naoren's and Ammy's ears perked up, though for different reasons.

"Am I also involved in this?" the class rep blurted out in surprise, and after some thinking, I nodded.

"Sure. You're now an official conspirator. Congratulations."

"Uh… I don't feel good about this…"

Ignoring the girl moaning on the side, I turned to the bespectacled patriarch and levelled a serious gaze at him.

"Listen up. First off, sit down with Rinne and ask her out normally. Tell her that you like her, in simple terms, so that she can't misunderstand."

"If you think that's the wisest course of action…"

"Also," I cut in, a finger raised. "When were you planning to announce this fake marriage thing?"

"During this week's banquet."

Ah, right. Banquets. Draconians, whether from the West or the East, were into those to an almost obsessive degree, and we had one of them practically every weekend. I didn't care much for them though, so I never attended any of them. However, this time around I figured I would have to make an exception.

"Okay, then if Rinne agrees to a relationship without strings attached, you'll announce it there. I'll provide backup."

"Backup? Why?"

"To bail you out when the inevitable complications rear their ugly heads," I told him with a knowing smirk, and it finally made him relax a bit.

"Your pessimism is showing again."

"No, it's not pessimism. It's experience," I corrected him and tapped my temple with a finger for punctuation. "I think that's all I can say at the moment. I need to collect more data and consult Judy and Elly on how to proceed, so let's cut this discussion here for the day."

"Isn't that a bit sudden?" Ammy chimed in, but I only answered after I stood up from the table.

"I mean, I've got my answers, and I told Naoren the what's what, so things are on track and there's not much else to discuss." Meanwhile, I walked over to the patriarch's side, and put a hand onto the backrest of his chair. "Also, I kind of promised the people in the meeting room that I would only borrow this guy for a few minutes and then return him in one piece, and I'm a man of my word."

"Wait, what do you mean by return in—?!"

Before he could protest (or get up), I grabbed the chair with Naoren on top of it and lifted it over my head.

"Upsy-daisy, and away we go!"

"No, stop! Or at least let me pick up the privacy artifact!"/"Hold on! What about my documents!"

Ignoring the complaints coming from all around me, I casually strolled towards the only entrance of the room, already lost in thought. All things considered, as annoyingly as this whole situation started, it turned out to be potentially beneficial in the end. If my hunch was right, then I could use this to observe how a sub-plot would unfold without Narrative Influence. Or heck, it might even provide me with a relatively safe and low-stakes environment to practice being a stand-in for Narrative-me. I was sure Naoren wouldn't mind the minor inconvenience that could may or may not come with it, right?