Part 1

I had many a colourful expletive on the tip of my tongue, wondering if I truly was this exasperating, or if I was playing some 5D reverse-psychological chess move on myself for some reason. Maybe it was supposed to make me have one of those self-reflective epiphanies. But wait… I already had a few of those because of future-me, and since he's future-me, he should know that I already started reflecting on my behaviour, so… What the heck, me?

Sadly (or maybe fortunately), I never got to voice any of my misgivings, because we never stopped walking, and we were soon in front of the cell tucked away at the most isolated depths of the dungeon. It was… peculiar, to say the least.

"Hi, little guy!" future-me greeted the occupant of the cell with a toothy grin, and he grinned back at him without a hint of apprehension.

But before discussing the child, let's go on a tangent and look over the room behind the bars, because it sure as hell wasn't a prison cell. While the stone walls were pretty much the same as everywhere else down here, they were partially covered with colourful posters. I couldn't recognize any of the cartoon characters on them, but they were definitely from children's shows, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

In the corner, there was an honest-to-goodness race-car bed, the kind you would see in the kids' bedroom of an old family-friendly sitcom, complete with a matching nightstand with a teddy-bear-shaped novelty lamp sitting on it. In front of the bed sat a large wooden box with 'TOYS' written on the front using large, colourful letters, and the floor was completely covered in large, space-themed rugs. There was one shaped like Saturn, with the rings included, while a little further back there was a different one depicting a cartoon cowboy riding a pointy retro rocket.

Then, in the corner, there was an old CRT television with a VHS player under it, paused on a key-frame of some anime fight scene, and… wait, how does this place have electricity? On second thought, the teddy-lamp on the nightstand was also working, so I should've asked this earlier, but… how? And why? And… wait, was that an electric heater in the other corner? On second thought, this part of the dungeon did feel a bit balmier than the rest, but why would there be…?

"Uncle Antonio? Who's that?"

Scratch that. Let's ignore the room after all, and focus on the child instead.

First off, he was clearly a pre-schooler. By eye, I would've said he was about five- or six-years old tops, and he was wearing a fluffy grey housecoat… or was it a bathrobe? One or the other. Under that, he had striped blue pyjamas on him, and although he was stuck at the bottom of a nasty medieval dungeon, his short blueish-black hair was perfectly combed and his cheeks were unexpectedly chubby.

More importantly, he was staring at me with palpable apprehension, right until future-me reached out a tousled his hair through the bars.

"He's a friend. He came to say hi."

"Erm… Yes. Hi," I greeted him a touch awkwardly, and after a long beat, the child let out a soft giggle.

"He's funny."

"He is, isn't he?" future-me doubled down and rubbed his head one more time.

"Is he the head of house Ashur?" I asked, trying my best to stay professional.

"Yes. Éolienne Serua Ashur, in the flesh," future me introduced him with a small flourish, and then added, "I call him Ollie for short."

They both looked at me expectantly, and I realized that this was the point where I was supposed to introduce myself… except I was drawing a blank. How was I supposed to do that? I couldn't even ask future-me about it, because he didn't have his mask on, and I didn't have my Leoformer turned on either, so we couldn't communicate through the enchantments. I locked eyes with him, looking for a clue, but he just shrugged as if saying 'Just do whatever'.

"I'm… Polemos," I blurted out, and the kid remained completely unfazed, which… on second thought, shouldn't have been so surprising. He was kept in Crowy's custody since the fall of House Ashur, and he was a child on top of that, so he probably never heard about me. Heck, until very recently, the whole Archon thing was obscure enough that even Crowy's cronies were stumped by it the first time around Which was in the cheeky message I left for him after accidentally poisoning him, if my memory served right.

"Good evening, Mister Polemos," the child… Should I go with Ollie as well? Let's go with it. So, Ollie greeted me back and turned back to future-me. "Uncle Antonio? Is he the friend who will take me home?"

"In the future, yes. For now, we're just here for a visit."

"Aw…" He sounded genuinely disappointed, but it only lasted for a second before he bounced back. "Then, did you bring me sweets?"

"Oh, you little scamp!" Future-me chuckled and produced a baggie of gummy bears from his breast pocket. However, just as Ollie was about to snatch it out of his hand, he pulled it back and wagged his finger at him. "Before that though, weren't you supposed to be in bed at this hour?"

"But… But it's at the best part…!" the little boy whined and pointed at the frozen TV screen in the corner.

"No buts," future-me said, but then a beat later he handed him the gummy bears anyway. "Finish the episode, and then go to sleep, okay?"

"Okay!" Ollie beamed at him and hid the plastic baggie in the folds of his housecoat, as if afraid that it would be snatched back from him.

"Now, scram, you little troublemaker." Future-me made a few shooing motions, and added, "I'll come back to check on you, and if you aren't asleep by then…"

"I'll be good!" the boy exclaimed between giggles and scampered back in front of the television, only stopping long enough to turn around and wave goodbye.

"Bye, Mister Polemas!"

"It's Polemos, but…" I shook my head and waved back. "Never mind. Bye, Ollie."

With that done, future-me subtly gestured for me to follow after him, and we silently walked back to the same stairwell he pointed out to me beforehand. We didn't go up though, but as soon as we were out of both sight and earshot, we stopped and turned to face each other, as if we rehearsed for it ahead of time.

"So he's the kid Crowy wanted to marry to Snowy after getting rid of his entire family."

"Yep."

"And he's also the kid that Tracas wants dead."

"Double yep."

I remained silent for a while as I ruminated on the situation and ultimately concluded it with a soft hum.

"Huh. You were right. If you weren't here, I probably would've Phased him home in the heat of the moment."

"Probably?"

"Definitely."

We both nodded in mutual understanding, followed by another short spell of silence.

"But wait… You knew to be here to stop me because a future-future-me was there to stop you, but then who stopped him? Isn't that a para—"

"Oh, stop it," future-me griped and lightly hit my shoulder with the back of his fist. "Stop thinking of this as just a time loop, and consider it from the perspective of a retcon. During the span of the retcon, things can't happen in a way that would cause a time paradox, because it would affect me in the future and cause all kinds of infinite regression problems. The Simulacrum hates that, so anything like that would be shut down immediately. The fact that this works and we're talking here is the proof that there's no paradox involved."

"I… okay, I can run with that, but…" Future-me's expression was getting increasingly impatient, so I inhaled deeply, held it in for a second, and then forcefully exhaled to clear my head. "You're right. Let's just presume that once I get to the retcon-point, I'll understand what's what, so let's ignore the timey-wimey bullcrap and focus on the non-timey-wimey bullcrap instead." I paused again and levelled a flat stare at my future self. "For example, why the notes you gave me said nothing about this entire situation with the Abyssal houses and this Ollie kid."

He immediately responded with a nonchalant, "Spoilers." I was just about to roll my eyes at him, but he beat me to the punch by adding, "It's kind of necessary to keep you in the dark about a few things, because your genuine reactions are required to keep things on track. It's all because of this Free Actor thing."

"Sure. And I still don't know what it means."

"Because you haven't talked about it with The Girl yet. Be patient."

All of a sudden, an odd realization reared its ugly head in my mind, and I hurriedly raised a palm.

"… Wait, I just thought of something. The Emergents exist outside of the Simulacrum, and they perceive time differently from us, so… if you already talked with The Girl about this in the future, then if I tried to do the same, wouldn't it be just repeating the same conversation from her perspective."

"Nah, you don't get it." Future-me crossed his arms and flashed a smirk. "We are all tied to this continuity now. They just haven't realized it yet."

"How does that even work?"

"Idunno. I'm planning to ask the Crowned Coalescence as soon as this retcon is over. Let's hope we get a coherent answer."

"Those are in a short supply as of late," I grumbled, two fingers already on my temple. "Fine. Let's ignore that too. Can you at least tell me what the actual plan is with this kid and the Abyss and Crowy and everything?"

To my shock and surprise, future-me responded with an upbeat "Sure!", throwing me on a loop for a long second.

"Really?"

"Yeah. We'll need to start working together a bit more closely anyway. Ask away."

"Oookay…" This sudden shift still felt a little suspicious, but I put my apprehensions aside for the moment and asked the first thing that came to mind. "For a start, what's with the kid's cell?"

"Oh, that? I've been looking after him pretty much since the start of the retcon."

"As 'Uncle Antonio'?"

"Yes."

"A phantom thief."

"Indeed."

"What are you even stealing in the Abyss?"

"People, mostly." He paused meaningfully and then gave me a smirk. "Don't worry. You'll get it in time."

The straightforwardness of his answer made me feel like I was the weird one for even asking, but I shook off the mind-games and pushed on.

"Whatever. So, you smuggled all of those furniture and toys and electronics, and…"

"And extension cords. Looots of extension cords."

"Yes, that too, I guess… And nobody noticed?"

"Oh, a few people are in on it. Ollie has a few official caretakers who bring him food and whatnot, but I used my infamy as Bel to make sure they don't tell anyone about it."

"And nobody else comes down here?"

"Nope. It's because of those things." He casually pointed at one of the purple runic magic circles embedded into the ceiling of a nearby empty chamber which, unlike Ollie's, actually looked like a prison cell. "You already noticed it the way down here, but this place dampens magic."

"Yeah, I did."

"It's because this whole dungeon is built under the Mana Well," future-me explained matter-of-factly. "It draws in mana and redistributes it across the Abyss to maintain it, and it creates a… I guess it's kind of like a syphon effect? The point is, all the mana being drawn in by it drags all other forms of mana with it, which disrupts magic and enchantments. The deeper you go, the more pronounced the effect, and those magic circles are used to further focus it."

"So this is a dedicated anti-magic prison," I concluded, and future-me nodded along.

"Precisely. Because of that, it's a great place for locking up people like, say, members of other Noble Houses or powerful enemies of the Abyss, but you won't see Crowy ever come down here, because it also disables his powers and it would make him vulnerable."

"Meaning he only sends down servants, I get it." I gestured at the empty cells. "But where are all the other prisoners of war? I didn't see anyone on the top layer, and there's nobody down here at the bottom either."

"Oh, that's because I stole them," future-me stated smugly, but before I could get him to elaborate, he clapped, and it made me focus on him again. "Anyhow, you wanted to know the plan, right?"

"Yeah. It would help if we were on the same page," I admitted, and he nodded along at once.

"Indeed it would. After this point, we'll have to put on quite the charade, so it's best we're clear on the script and stage directions."

"You took the words right out of my mouth. So? Where do we start?"

"For a start…" Future-me echoed me and tapped on his chin. "I guess we have to be clear on the primary goal of the scheme: we cannot be the ones to resolve the plot."

"Obviously. It's supposed to be done by Josh."

"And Angie. Also, technically everyone's involved in this."

"Everyone?" I blurted out, and he firmly nodded. "Even the class rep?"

"Especially the class rep," he insisted, making me squint at him.

The childhood friend couple getting involved made sense, because this was their 'route', so to speak. Snowy getting involved would also make sense, because this concerned the Abyss and her brother, while Penny kind of already shoe-horned herself into the cast by joining the training arc, but the class rep?

"Doesn't she have her own sub-plot already?"

"She does, and that also needs to be resolved, but she's also intrinsically linked to the finale."

"… Would you care to elaborate."

"I can't. That one's a spoiler."

I would've thrown my hands into the air in indignation at any other time, but I held back and only exhaled a soft groan.

"Got it. Back to the main topic: how are we going to resolve this?"

"First off, we're going to take advantage of the ploy of the Abyssal houses, and use it to invoke that trope."

"… Which trope?"

"Oh, you know the one," future-me grunted dismissively. "You're thinking of it right now. The one where the big good of a shounen story is taken off the stage in order to raise the stakes and force the protagonist to up their game. That one."

"And how are we going to…?" I started, only to pause and look at the magic circle on the ceiling of the cell next to us. "Ah, right. We can use this as a plot device, but… there's just one problem. How are we going to justify everyone coming here?"

"We use Deus," future-me stated blandly. "If they want to come to the Abyss, literally nobody in the Elysium will dare to stop them, and they'll move heaven and earth to 'rescue' us. At that point, Josh will naturally come with her to protect her, and since those two are going, others will want to tag along. The rest will work out naturally."

"And why would I need rescuing…?" I started, but then I realized I already knew the answer. "We're going to put up another show?"

"Yep! The good-ol' 'the big good falls into a trap and it's up to the hero to help them' gambit!"

This time, I didn't hold back and rolled my eyes with all the gravitas that response deserved.

"Let's say that's the rudimentary plan. Then what?"

"Then we'll set the stage to have a big epic battle of big epic proportions. Setup, rising action, midpoint setback, darkest hour, and then climax and resolution. The whole three-act pie in one big serving."

"And you're not telling me the details because it would be a spoiler," I guessed, but future-me shook his head.

"Nah, it's not that. We'll need to discuss this a whole lot in the future, so there's no point trying to lay out everything in one go here. It would just make things redundant later. Also…" He mimed pointing at his nonexistent wristwatch. "It's getting really freaking late now, and you really don't want to keep Judy waiting."

"Why would she even be waiting…?" I started, but then I realized I was about to argue about the future with someone from the future, so I wisely shut up. "Point taken. When do we discuss the details then?"

"Don't worry. I'll find you when the time is right. Now then, you should go home, and I should go and tuck in the kid." Future-me let out a wistful chuckle and shook his head. "Seriously, if I don't do that, he would stay up all night watching retro anime."

"How retro are we talking about?"

"Cosmo-boy retro."

"That's… very retro indeed." We both nodded, as if we just had a profound exchange, and future-me turned on his heel and walked away, waving over his head all the way.

I let out a shallow breath and closed my eyes, and lo and behold, Judy really was still awake and waiting for me in front of my PC. Without further ado, I Phased home, and as soon as I materialized in the room, she turned around in my swivel chair and gave me a deadpan look.

"Chief. Do you realize what time it is right now?"

"Sorry, got sidetracked," I apologized on autopilot and leaned over her to take a look at the monitor. "Are you browsing the Hub?"

"Yes. I'm trying to scrounge up every morsel of information available on the Tracas and the…" Her words trailed off and she gave me a few overt sniffs. "Chief? Why do you smell like cigars and brandy?"

"… You could seriously smell that?" I blurted out, half-impressed and half-mortified, and tried to give myself a sniff, yet I still couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. "I wasn't even wearing these clothes back there…"

Judy was still looking at me intently, so I quickly stopped resisting and recounted the events of my scouting mission, including the parts in the pub-salon-whatever place and my meeting with future-me. She listened to me without a word, and once I reached the end of my tale, she fully turned around in her seat and folded her arms.

"So you're now conspiring with yourself to put yourself in prison."

"That's a crass simplification, but not entirely wrong," I admitted, and she let out a soft huff.

"I'm not telling you that you shouldn't trust your future self, but maybe you should show a bit more initiative, because right now, it's starting to feel like you're yanking your own chains. From the future."

"Hey, I'm not exactly super-comfortable with this either, but if I'm going to be going out of my way to retcon myself into the past to fix things, I must will have to know what I'm doing, so I should try to make my life easier in the future by not messing with my future in the present."

"… Chief? Did I mention how I find time travel confusing?"

"Today? Not yet, no."

I flashed a smile, and while it didn't fully chase away the storm clouds on her brows, she ultimately let out a shallow breath and turned back to the PC.

"In any case, this means that the Ashur House's head is safe and secure, so we don't need to rush things." She typed a few keywords into the search field on the site and added, "You should still keep an eye on him through Far Sight. From what I gathered, Tracas is not the patient type, so he might try sending other assassins after him if we take too long."

"Nah. Future-me would've told me about that, and…" My words trailed off as I suddenly realized something and clicked my tongue.

"Is there a problem?" my dear assistant inquired without looking away from the screen, so I hastily excused myself.

"No, nothing. Don't mind me."

I might've said that, but I only just realized that I completely forgot to mark the kid while I was in the dungeon. In my defence, I was distracted by future-me, and… Wait. Maybe he distracted me and pulled me away on purpose to make sure I wouldn't mark him. But if so, why? Couldn't he just tell me not to do it? What even was the point of sneakily manipulating me like that when…

"Wow… I really am playing some 5D reverse-psychological chess moves on myself on purpose, aren't I…?"

Part 2

As they say, there are few things in this universe that cannot be argued with. Death, taxes, and the slow yet inexorable march of time were some of these… though again, retcons were technically changing time, and since that could be done, resurrections might not have been completely off the table, so…

On second thought, maybe taxes were the only unchangeable universal constant, but the rest were a close second. Anyways, what prompted this train of thought again?

"Leo? Earth to Leo?"

I blinked when a hand waved in front of my face, and stopped in my tracks. The rest of our group followed my example, and a certain hyperactive Celestial cocked her head to the side in front of me.

"Whatcha thinking about so hard?"

"Oh, you know? Profound stuff about life, the universe, and everything," I responded with a shrug. "The usual."

"I get that, but…" Angie sounded like she wanted to ask something, but then her eyes suddenly lit up and she let out an excited squee and dashed past me. "Josh, look! A squirrel! We've got the first squirrel of the spring!"

"Slow down! You're going to trip!" the only other guy in our group responded with just a hint of exasperation, reflexively following after his girlfriend and leaving me alone with my own.

More importantly, the mention of spring jolted my mental gears and I finally remembered what I was musing about. Time. As in, how quickly two whole weeks of spring break flew by us. It was already the middle of April, and this was one of those occasions when the whole group was walking to school together. Or rather, most of our group.

Nothing happened to Amelia during our beach episode in the Elysium, so Lord Grandpa was no longer as over-protective of her as before, but while now she could visit the base and the Dracis mansion more freely than before, attending school was still out of the question. Her floaty magical marbles, while more cooperative than they used to be at the beginning, were still impossible to hide, and there was no good way to explain them to the 'mundane folk'. Due to that, she was still stuck in home-schooling limbo for the time being.

"Wait, so the child saw Leo? And he introduced himself as Polemos? Isn't that bad?" Elly whispered to Judy by my side, and they both glanced at me in unison.

We didn't get to properly explain the details of our meeting with the envoys and my jaunt in the Abyss, because she was busy with other things, so my dear assistant was in the process of giving her the footnotes-version of the events. By the looks of it, she honed in on a weird detail.

"I don't think it matters much."

"But once he gets rescued, he might tell people that he saw you. Wouldn't that be a problem?" the princess insisted, and while Judy didn't say a word, I could tell that she was in agreement and also curious about how I was going to explain this.

"Not really. I mean, I've been working on consolidating the explanations of my 'illusions' and my Phasing anyway. I'll just say that I remote-controlled an illusion into the Abyss to scout out the prison, but I couldn't Phase him out because of the anti-magic stuff."

"That doesn't make sense either," Judy pointed out. "What are you going to say if someone points out that if your ability to teleport was affected by the magic dampening, then your illusions should've been as well?"

"I'll just smile mysteriously and say 'It's peculiar, isn't it?', and move on," I responded with an example of said mysterious smile, and my lovely assistant subtly rolled her eyes with an 'Oh, you' kind of gesture.

Meanwhile, my other girlfriend furrowed her brows and asked, "Wasn't that the advice you gave to Penny the other day? About how the dungeon master should deal with a situation when the players point out a contradiction?"

"The same principles apply," I confirmed, and we would've probably continued on this topic, if not for a certain little sister of mine overhearing her name and skipping over to us.

"Did you call me?"

"No, kiddo. We were just talking about tabletop RPG stuff." I reassured her, and after a long beat, her face lit up like she just received a revelation and she patted her pockets, looking for her phone.

"Oh, gosh! Thanks for reminding me! I need to call Agrawain and tell him about our next session!"

Saying so, she turned around and dashed back to Snowy's side. She was waiting for her at the crosswalk by the end of the street, where they originally stopped when we did. Speaking of which, why did we stop? Oh, right. Because Angie wanted to ask something, and then she went to look for—

"Squirrel!"

I was honest to goodness startled when a furry little critter was thrust into my field of vision, and it took me a second or five to realize what was going on.

"You caught it?" I blurted out on autopilot, and the Celestial girl grinned at me while holding the surprisingly calm critter on the top of her palm.

"He's a friendly little fella," Angie declared and showed it off to my girlfriends as well.

"Here we go again," Josh muttered as he also came to a stop by my side. "I dunno why, but she's like an animal magnet."

"That's nice and all, but this is technically a wild squirrel," I pointed out with just a tinge of reservation. "Is it safe to just grab it like that?"

"Nah, man. This is normal," Josh asserted, sounding like he was sharing some world-weary wisdom. "I tell you, she's been picking up small animals like this since forever. Sometimes she even had birds land on her shoulders and stuff."

I blinked at turned to the grinning Celestial girl.

"What are you, a fairy tale princess?"

She didn't respond, but instead she held out the squirrel on one palm and pointed at my sisters.

"I'll go show him to Snowy and Penny! I'll be right back!"

"Shouldn't we…" 'be the ones to start moving?', is what I would've asked if she didn't already dash ahead.

"Squirrels are cuter than expected," Judy noted, and my princess was in full agreement.

"Let's get a pet squirrel!"

"No," I responded categorically, much to Elly's shock.

"Chipmunk?"

"Again, no. We already have a Dormouse."

"Oh, you're right!"

And then she immediately hugged my other girlfriend, much to her lack of amusement. True story.

Jokes aside, were squirrels even native to Critias? Maybe this guy was someone's escaped pet, and that's why he was so friendly. Or maybe I was overthinking it, and Angie being the lead heroine just gave her Disney princess fiat to instantly befriend animals. Who knew?

Meanwhile, we finally started moving again and I couldn't help but notice that Josh looked like he wanted to talk about something. The girls were still interested in the squirrel, so I gently pushed them forward while I lagged behind with the guy. My hunch was proven right in just a few seconds.

"Hey. So, you know about that whole tournament thing?"

My sideways glance wasn't enough to get the message across and he kept looking at me expectantly, so I squeezed out a curt, "Of course."

"Yeah, I guess it makes sense. Ms Yamako is involved, and all, so…" He suddenly shook his head. "Never mind, that's not important. Listen, I need some advice."

"… About the tournament?"

"Yeah. I won the last one, right? So, you know, this is technically a different tournament, but it's also held here, with the same audience and a lot of the same contestants and stuff, and…" He paused to scratch the back of his neck. "The thing is, I was kinda invited to the closing ceremony. Because I'm the champion, technically speaking."

"Sounds reasonable. What's the problem?"

"I'm… kinda expected to have an exhibition match with the winner."

"Oh. Well, these are Draconians we're talking about here, so that's still within expectations."

"Yeah, but…" Josh glanced around and sidled closer before continuing in a low voice. "Zihao is practically guaranteed to win this time."

"So it will be a rematch. I still don't see the issue. Can you be a bit more specific?"

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He glared at me and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Dude. I sparred with him a couple of times, and I never managed to beat him with my Celestial powers."

"Was that before or after the training camp?"

"It was…" He stopped his response in the middle and let out a thoughtful hum. "Actually, we didn't have time to spar in a while. I mean, between the trip to Elysium and the spring homework and everything…" He fell silent for a while, visibly pondering. "Do you think I can beat him now?"

"I have no idea, but if you use your new weapons and everything you learned, you should be fine."

"Yeah, but… Last time I was using Draconic powers to fight him, so won't people question why I'm using Celestial powers in public?"

"You've been using them in public for a while now though," I pointed out and patted him on the back. "Just ignore the naysayers and go for it."

"I… Yeah, I guess I will." Josh let out a grunt filled with newfound determination, followed by a sheepish smile. "I guess asking for advice was the right call."

I was tempted to tease him a little, like saying that every broken clock is right twice a day, but I never got around to it, because we caught up to the girls, all of them waiting at a crossing for the light to turn to green.

"Goodbye to Sir Bouncealot!" Angie called out, and we just caught the last glimpse of the cheeky rodent hopping away and disappearing into the green embrace of a nearby treetop. She then turned to us and added, "You guys missed the best part! Sir Bouncealot stuffed, like, five peanuts into his face! It was so cute!"

"Very cute!" Penny echoed her, and the rest seemed to agree wholeheartedly.

"Where did you even get peanuts?" Josh voiced the same question that came to my mind, and his girlfriend looked at him like he just asked the silliest thing in existence.

"All self-respecting animal lovers should have peanuts on them all the time! Don't you know anything?"

"Um… I like animals, but… I don't carry peanuts," Snowy commented on the side, and Penny hesitantly nodded along.

"Ditto," Judy noted, and the princess seemed conflicted by her side.

"I don't carry any either. Do you think I should? Do dogs like peanuts?"

"They like peanut butter, so maybe?" Penny noted and took out her phone. "I'll check!"

In the meantime, Angie's expression was practically screaming 'Wait, am I seriously the only one?', but then the light turned green and we started walking, and the topic quickly got washed away as we rearranged ourselves. This time, I ended up in the front along with Judy and Elly, while the rest clustered together behind us and continued to discuss the merits of peanuts.

"What were you talking about with Joshua?"

Judy's question was expected, and there was nothing to hide, so I responded truthfully.

"He was invited for an exhibition match at the closing ceremony of the Draconian tournament, and he needed some encouragement."

"Oh, right. That's just wrapped up," Elly uttered, her voice sounding rather contemplative. "I nearly forgot about it."

"It's only to be expected." Judy's comment made my draconic girlfriend raise a brow, so she elaborated. "Since we're not involved this time around, it was much easier to overlook."

"True, but… Isn't it kind of strange that absolutely nothing happened during the tournament?"

"I repeat: we weren't involved, so it's only natural that nothing happened."

Judy's insistence only made Elly furrow her brows harder, so I lightly poked the crease between them.

"How about we forget about it altogether? I actively tried my best to ignore the whole kerfuffle, and I would like it to stay that way."

"I get it, but…" Elly rubbed the spot between her brows, but then both her fingers and her words came to a halt, followed by a slight tilting of her head. "Actually, couldn't the two things be related?"

"What two things?" I asked back reflexively, and even Judy looked intrigued.

"I mean, maybe nothing remarkable happened during the tournament precisely because you were actively ignoring it."

"Are you implying that if the Chief got involved, something would've happened?" Judy asked, and Elly nodded without a moment of hesitation.

"That's how things always worked, right? With the whole Narrative concept?" Her eyes, practically shining, opened wide as she was suddenly struck by a new idea. "Hey, guys? Do you think we can use this to our benefit?"

"You have to be more specific than that," I pointed out, and the princess took a deep breath, no doubt to organize her thoughts, and she soon continued in a vehement yet quiet voice, lest the others would overhear us.

"We talked about this before, right? Leo is the Narrative, and the Narrative's job is to make sure that there's enough drama to satisfy the Simulacrum. That means that if Leo is involved, something dramatic would inevitably happen, but if he's not, then… erm… not. Do you get what I'm trying to say?"

"I think I do," Judy replied with a hint of uncertainty. "You think that if Leo is the one that makes things proceed in a dramatic direction, whether consciously or subconsciously, then if he's not paying attention to something, it would conversely mean that it would proceed without any problems or twists."

"Yes, that! I'm thinking that maybe we could use that to our advantage!"

"I get that, but how?"

I didn't mean to do it, but my question still made my girlfriend's enthusiasm wither in real-time, and she ultimately muttered a soft, "I… I don't know yet, but I'll think about it…"

It was time to encourage her a little, so I hastily told her, "If you think of something, please do tell. I'd appreciate anything that could give us a bit more breathing room before the whole Abyss comes crashing down on us."

"I… think that might be a bit too much to ask right away, but I'll do my best!" my princess declared, back to full enthusiasm.

We were getting close to the school by this point, so I gestured for everyone to quiet down and drop any supernatural discussions. There were more and more other students of Blue Cherry High in sight, and unlike at the beginning of the school year, most of them had already developed from simple placeholders to actual people, so them overhearing our discussions and spreading them around was starting to become an actual thing to consider.

Like that, we shifted the conversation over to more mundane topics, such as the spring homework, or the upcoming sports festival, and before long we were already climbing the hill leading to the school gates. It was a very familiar sight, yet after the long break it also felt fresh somehow. Spring was in full force right now, and the trees lining the path leading to the gates were already past budding and were in their full green splendour.

The seasons were changing, time couldn't be stopped, and yet…

"Ya-hoo! Like, morning, y'all!"

"Do not shout. You are disturbing the morning commute."

"Easy there, Paz. Like, nobody minds, right?"

Some things remained the same, huh?

Standing on the left and right of the gates, Sahi and Pascal were watching over the steady stream of students flowing through. They were both wearing the disciplinary committee's red armband on their uniforms (to this day, I still couldn't figure out how Sahi managed to convince them to let her join), and the brown girl elatedly waved at us. Armband Guy, on the other hand, remained stoic as ever and only greeted us with a few modest nods. At least until his eyes landed on me, that is. When our gazes met, he unsubtly gestured for me to come over to his side.

"Dunning," he uttered, sounding almost as deadpan as Judy.

"Morning. Do you need me for something?"

"Not me," he stated and jerked his head towards the main building. "Lord Ambrose requested that I tell you to find him at your earliest convenience. He wishes to speak with you about certain official matters."

"The third Grimoire Key?" I guessed, and he nodded.

"Most likely."

"All right. Message received."

"Good. Now, please move along. You are holding up the other students."

"Sure, sure."

I also shared a few short words with the revitalized incognito arch-mage, and after bidding farewell to Sahi, we entered the courtyard of the school campus, and…

"Wow! Leo, look!" Elly exclaimed excitedly and pointed at the treetops lining the footpath leading to the main entrance, like fluffy pink clouds arranged in two neat rows. "Cherry blossoms!"

"It's the season," I noted a touch absently, only looking away when Judy tugged on my shoulder.

"Chief? Do you want to do the trope?"

"Which one?"

"Flower viewing."

"Oh?" Elly's ears picked up our conversation, and she grinned at me expectantly. "Isn't that when you have a picnic under the cherry trees?"

Judy nodded.

"Yes. It's a very specific custom and trope, but since we have the necessary props, we might as well use them."

"It's a date, then!" the princess declared without asking for my input, though to be honest, I wasn't against the idea. More importantly…

"These are pink," I noted, and my girlfriends looked at me funny in turn.

"Of course they are. They're cherry trees," my dear assistant pointed out, which drew a hum from me.

"Hm. True, but it still feels wrong." I paused and then dramatically pointed at the large nameplate over the school's main entrance. "I'm going to tell Lord Grandpa that this is false advertising. Do you think it's actionable?"

"Maybe?" Elly responded immediately, while Judy just rolled her eyes and pulled us towards the school building.

That's how yet another mostly average school day started, and—

"Wait. Maybe it's the fruit that's blue. I should look it up."

"Chief, stop it."

— and how my short-lived interest in the horticulture of unusually coloured fruits began and ended. In other words, another rare peaceful day to cherish.

Part 3

I was sitting in the classroom, just after the bell signalling the lunch break rang and Mrs Applebottom left the classroom. Tradition dictated that this should've been the point where I started waxing lyrical about the comforting mundanity of everyday school life and how it provided a sense of solid grounding in our hectic lives that never, ever changed. Except that it kind of did.

"You've got such a nice tan!"

"Thanks, I guess…" Judy responded a touch awkwardly, but it didn't seem to bother the classmates clustered around her desk.

"Hey, hey? Did you really go to a Mediterranean island for vacation?" One of the girls, a short one with simple pigtails leaned over with her hands planted on the desk, her eyes practically shining with excitement. "Did you?"

"That's… technically correct," my dear assistant confirmed in an unusually mousy voice, and the group erupted with 'Oooh!'-s and 'Aaah!'-s.

"Lucky! I wanna have a rich girlfriend too!" one of the guys (I think his name was Steve) groused, much to the amusement and agreement of the rest of the group.

"I'm sooo jelly!" a girl with long, dark green hair whined, and one of her friends patted her on the back to reassure her.

"Boyfriend," Judy belatedly corrected the previous guy, and another one (I think he was also Steve) cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"But aren't you going out with Eleanor?"

"No, we're both going out with Leonard," she corrected this one too, only for a third guy (I was fairly sure he wasn't Steve, but don't quote me on that) to let out a confused noise.

"Eeeh? But if you're all together, then doesn't that mean she's also your girlfriend?"

"That's not how Type 8 Triang Relationships work," Judy stated flatly, and I nearly laughed out loud, not expecting that old term to unexpectedly pop up here of all places.

All that aside, it was moments like this that really drove home the fact that the rate at which placeholders developed had been steadily accelerating over time, and by this point it felt subtly wrong to refer to them with that term anymore. They had their own personalities, interests, and relationships now, and could no longer be called entirely two-dimensional extras populating the background of our lives. I wasn't too surprised though, as once we discovered the underlying mechanics, their steady development was inevitable and—

"Emergency meeting!" a familiar voice rang out from the corner of the classroom, drawing my attention to it and stopping me in my tracks just as I was about to get up from my seat. "I have confirmation! Repeat, I have confirmation!"

"Impossible!" Mr Bedhair exclaimed while holding his spiky-haired comrade by the collar and dramatically shaking him. "You lie!"

"I'm sorry comrade, but our source is beyond question," Mr Bowl Cut stated with a heavy voice and placed a hand on Mr Spiky's shoulder. "We have asked Goddess Angeline herself, and she confirmed the rumors."

"No! Don't say it!" the spiky-haired boy finally let go of his bed-haired fellow and his face twisted in an anguished grimace, as if his whole world was collapsing.

"It's true," the fourth amigo, Mr Crew Cut, spoke with a heavy voice and placed his hand on the guy's other shoulder.

"Our Goddess, Ms Yamako…" Mr Bowl Cut swallowed hard, as if barely able to contain his grief, but then he steeled his expression. "She's getting married."

"Nooo!" With an anguished cry, Mr Spiky fell to his knees and threw his hands into the air. "It's unfair! It should've been me! It should've been meee!"

…

Okay, on second thought, maybe placeholder character development was quite evitable after all. Or at the very least, some people were wholly immune to it. Go figure.

"Where should we have lunch today?"

My attention was drawn away from the four amigos' antics by a, in retrospect rather obvious, question from my lovely princess, stopping me in my tracks for the second time. She was already holding one of her multi-layered, homemade lunch boxes, no doubt lovingly handcrafted by her (and maybe Melinda).

"The weather's great, and we have the cherry blossoms for scenery, so let's eat outside."

"My thoughts exactly!"

She beamed at me and was waiting for me to lead the way, but I had to disappoint her.

"I have to make the rounds first, so you go pick a nice spot, and I'll catch up with you afterwards. First thing first thought…"

I pointedly glanced at Judy's desk at the front.

"No. A threesome and a triang relationship are not the same."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I'm in one."

"A threesome?"

"Yes. No. Sometimes. It's two different things, okay?"

Her usually deadpan voice was tinted with just a hint of exasperation, but since it was Judy we were talking about, that was the equivalent of being on the verge of blowing a fuse, so I inclined my head towards her.

"Please rescue her at your earliest convenience."

"On it!" Elly declared and strode over, lunch boxes in hand.

With that situation sorted, I finally managed to be on my way as well (the third time's the charm), and I left the classroom while staunchly ignoring the bawling creeps huddled together in the corner of the classroom. The lunch breaks of Blue Cherry High were long, but if I wanted to visit everyone on my list and still have a leisurely meal with my girlfriends, I needed to pick up the pace.

My first target was the nurse's office on the ground floor, and after skipping down the stairs and navigating the flow of students in the hallways, I soon stood in front of the familiar door. There was no need to have any reservations, so I walked in without knocking, and Jaakobah immediately turned in his office chair to face me. He naturally resumed his cover work as the school nurse with the end of spring break, and the white coat on his back and the stray stethoscope around his neck were starting to feel as normal as his Celestial hoplite outfit.

What wasn't normal were the other occupants of the office.

"Lord Polemos!"

"W-We greet the Second True Archon!"

As soon as they noticed me, a pair of familiar faces scampered over to my side, looking unexpectedly excited to see me. Pais and Kóre, my hastily promoted Chief Reminders, were dressed in old-timey light blue nurse outfits, complete with those folded vintage caps on top of their little heads.

I would've said I was surprised by their presence, but I would've been lying. I've already seen them through Far Sight, and they were, in fact, the reason why I decided to pay a visit to Jaakobah.

Speaking of him, my Praetorian Prefect got up from his seat and gave me a solemn salute with a plain "Lord Archon?" in tow. It was easy to see that he didn't expect that I would be visiting out of the blue, and while he wasn't exactly annoyed by my presence, his tone said he wanted to hear why I dropped by all the same.

"At ease, all of you," I started, followed by a long beat and a pointed glance at the kids. "I did not expect to see the two of you so soon."

The children averted their gazes and shuffled their feet as if I just caught them with their collective hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Surprisingly, Jaakobah quickly came to their rescue.

"As I've mentioned during our last meeting in Elysium, I took it upon myself to oversee your Chief Reminders' education."

"I get that part, but why are they here? In the school?"

"I work here," he answered flatly, as if I just asked something silly.

"No, I mean, couldn't you leave them with someone else while you're here? Like the rest of the Praetorian Guards."

Unexpectedly enough, it was Kóre who responded to that question.

"Mister Jaakobah said it would be better for us to remain close to him and learn by his example."

Seeing that I only raised a curious brow at her made the boy also gather his courage, and in a mousy voice he added, "A-Also, he says they're a bad influence, so…"

I could see storm clouds gathering over Jaakobah's brow, so I waved for the kids to stay quiet and nudged the conversation along.

"Fine, fine. So you're teaching them even while you're on the job?"

"Yes. That is the gist of it."

"Does Lord Grandpa know that they're here with you?" He gave me an uncomprehending look, so I amended, "The principal, I mean."

"Yes, I've already cleared them with him," Jaakobah nodded firmly, and I had nothing else to say. Well, except maybe one thing.

"… Why nurse costumes thought?"

"They are for blending into the environment," the phlegmatic Celestial stated, making me raise a brow at that.

Though again, this was the man whose concept of 'low-key disguise' was a brown trench coat over a cocktail suit and a fedora that screamed 'I'm an agent from a paperback spy-thriller', so I probably shouldn't have been so surprised.

While I was considering that, I might've been staring at Pais in particular, because Jaakobah soon added, "They are also technically unisex."

"That… wasn't a question, but if you say so, then fine." I paused and focused on the kids again. "So? What are you learning?"

"Anatomy!" Kóre exclaimed as if waiting to show off. "I already memorized all the major bones of the body!"

"Good job?" I blurted out, and the boy once again felt encouraged by my reaction and joined in.

"We… are also learning healing arias. I-I'm not that good at them yet, but I promise I'll do better."

"Don't stress too much over it," I said, and my hand automatically landed on his head and tousled his hair. "Jaakobah probably has high standards, but you're still kids, so don't overwork yourselves."

"A-As you command!" the boy exclaimed, sounding unusually happy.

In the meantime, the man by the chair pointedly cleared his throat, so I turned my attention back to him.

"Do you have anything else to report?"

"As a matter of fact, there is a subject I wish to discuss with the Lord Archon."

"I'm listening."

"During my visit at the orphanage, when I adopted these two, I—"

"Hold it!" I cut him off with a palm raised. "You adopted them?"

"Yes. Is there a problem with that?" Jaakobah asked back, and for a second, I didn't know how to respond.

"No. It was just… unexpected. Please, continue."

He nodded and proceeded like my interruption never happened.

"The orphanage is primarily dedicated to the children of agents and officials who perished in the line of duty, but they provide little guidance to them beyond ensuring they are well fed and they read their scriptures. Seeing such waste of potential, I was considering the establishment of a youth branch of the Praetorian Guards, and I wished to ask for your approval."

"A youth group?" I echoed him, but he remained stoic and only stared at me dispassionately. "It sounds a little vague. Give me a proper proposal in writing, and I'll give it fair consideration."

"As you command."

He gave me a quick salute, and the kids clumsily mimicked him.

"Is there anything else to report?"

"Nothing urgent."

I nodded and reached for the doorknob.

"In that case, keep up the good work."

"Yes, Lord Archon!"/"We will! We will!" the children exclaimed, while Jaakobah only gave me a solemn nod.

With my curiosity about the presence of the kids sated, it was time to head to the next location, which was the faculty office. It was also on the ground floor, though at the other end of the building, and it didn't take long to get there. This time, I did knock first, and after getting an unenthusiastic response from the other side, I walked in.

Blue Cherry High's faculty office was pretty typical, all things considered. A bunch of large desks arranged in a U-shape, a couple of PCs with old-school CRT monitors flanked by piles and piles of books and paperwork, and a large photo-copier printer in the corner, along with a few potted plants. The only people inside were Mrs Applebottom and Lord Barnabas, though the latter was currently hidden behind a whole mountain of test papers. From the looks of it, they were already preparing for the end-of-the-year exams coming up.

My destination wasn't with either of them, and I headed to the counsellor's office in the back instead. It was called that, but in reality it was just Lord Ambrose's little hidey-hole where he spent most of the day while pretending to do his undercover job as a Board of Education consultant. I walked over and lightly knocked on the door, and a few seconds later it opened, revealing the bearded arch-mage on the other side.

"Hello. I've heard—"

Before I could finish the sentence, he grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me in before slamming the door shut behind us.

"Finally! I've been waiting for you since morning!" he declared loudly and crossed his arms with a huff.

"Pascal didn't say it was urgent," I held while unsubtly scanning the messy room, full of barely disguised magitech equipment, scrawled research notes, and a whole bunch of empty pizza boxes.

…

Why did I suddenly have a feeling that Ambrose and Fred might get along surprisingly well?

"Never mind," I muttered with a shake of my head and faced the robed man. "So? Do you need my help with something?"

"Potentially!" He declared loudly, with no indoor voice at all, and suddenly I also had a feeling he might be birds of a feather with Dad-in-law too. Anyhow, he raised a finger and added, "Just a moment!"

He turned around and started chanting some faux-Latin words while making vague gestures towards the door and the only window of the room. The spell soon took effect and formed a thin bubble that expanded and covered the entire room in a transparent, colourless film. Then, for good measure, he also walked over to said window and closed the blackout curtains.

"Why the secrecy?"

My question made him let out a soft huff and he folded his arms again.

"Just in case the others tried to listen in," he responded openly and looked me in the eye. "We need to talk about Lord Marzanna."

It took me a second to recognize that name, mainly because I'd only ever heard it in passing.

"The arch-mage with the last Grimoire Key?"

"Yes, her!" Ambrose growled. "Listen, the rest are trying to keep this secret, because they don't want a 'potential diplomatic incident' just as we're finally starting to make peace with the Celestials, but she's almost certainly related to the assassination plot against the Deus girl."

"… Okay, so if the Assembly wants to keep this under wraps, then why are you telling me this?"

"Because that infuriating bint is stonewalling all our attempts to get the third grimoire key from her!" he burst out, throwing his hands in the air in the process. "She put the whole Assembly into a gridlock, and she even has the gall to say that we're compromised because we're working with you! We're this close!" He extended two fingers, as if trying to pinch the air between us. "This close to unlocking the Grimoire! We're on the precipice of history! Just trying to imagine all the wondrous knowledge in there! The knowledge that will no doubt finally make the Mysticism Schools realize their ways are misguided, and yet we can't take that last crucial step because that fool is being obstinate!"

"So she doesn't like Celestials," I whispered, but because we were isolated from the outside world by his spell, Ambrose easily overheard me.

"She sure doesn't. She's probably jealous that you have better healers or something."

"Sounds as reasonable as anything." I shrugged and voiced the pivotal question. "So? What exactly do you expect me to do? Send more official requests to Glasgow? If the Assembly is already in a bureaucratic deadlock, it won't do much good."

"Don't be daft, Leonard!" the arch-mage scoffed and flashed a grin. "I'm saying that we should go to Lord Marzanna's place, pick up her Key, and bring it to Amadeus's kid. Once she has all three, it's going to be a done deal, so the rest of those old bastards will just have to accept that it was done."

It took me a while to fully digest what he just proposed.

"Are you telling me to go all the way to Ottawa and steal their Grimoire Key?"

"No, no. It will be for safekeeping. The same way you kept mine and Amadeus's Keys out of Bel's reach," he said, winking, but I couldn't help but stare flatly at him in return.

"I can't do that," I stated categorically, channelling my inner Judy, much to the bearded arch-mage's outrage.

"What? Why?"

Well, primarily because I had no marks for Phasing in freaking Ottawa, but I couldn't say that out loud, so I focused on the other obstacles.

"I'm currently representing both the Draconic Federation and the Elysium. Even if I could just gallivant over to another continent and nab the last Grimoire Key like that, it would become an international scandal at best, or a complete diplomatic meltdown at worst."

"In the short term, yes, but once the Grimoire is open, nobody will care!" Ambrose argued back, but I was firm on this one.

"We already have a bit of a situation brewing with the Abyssals and Bel. I can't afford to leave the island right now."

Lord Ambrose glared at me, but then he closed his eyes, raised his hands, and massaged both of his temples at the same time. After a few short seconds he exhaled a sharp breath and pointed at me.

"Okay then, change of plans. How about this: Since you can't leave Critias for long, I'll do it. I'll go to Ottawa, and one way or another, I'll get Lord Marzanna to hand over her Key. One way or another."

"You're repeating yourself. Also, you could do that without me," I pointed out, but he scoffed at me again.

"No, I need you to back me up. They aren't letting me do it, so if they raise a fuss, tell Amadeus and Gulliver that we have a plan and you've got my back, okay?"

"I… guess I could do that much…" I agreed tentatively, thinking that this would be the point where he explained what that plan was, but Lord Ambrose just rubbed his palms with a wolfish grin instead.

"All right! This works too!" Without further ado, he turned on his heels and muttered a few muffled words that made the isolation spell covering the room pop like a bubble, and then he grabbed hold of the doorknob and only turned back long enough to say, "Don't forget: If Gulliver asks, everything is under control, and you've got my back. Got it?"

He didn't wait for my response. A moment later he was gone, and I could even hear him storming out of the faculty office in turn. As for me, I had a feeling that this was going to lead to some trouble down the road, but if Ambrose managed to get the last Key, this Lord Marzanna, or both onto the island, I felt like I could work with that. Not to mention, future-me's notes did mention resolving the whole Grimoire situation before the Abyss plot, so if the boisterous arch-mage wanted to kickstart it for me, I figured I might as well let him.

With all of that concluded, I took out my phone and checked the time, accentuated by a click of my tongue.

"Well, crap. I guess the third stop has to wait until after school hours," I whispered as I put away the device and also left the faculty office.

Call me shallow, but when it came to priorities, a picnic lunch under the cherry blossoms with my girlfriends would naturally take the top spot. The clearly suspicious woman in a black catsuit, perched on a nearby rooftop and observing the campus with a pair of comically large binoculars, could wait.

Part 4

The rest of the first schoolday after the break was rather uneventful. The lunch under the flowers was novel, though it ended up less romantic than predicted, because the rest of the gang was already there by the time I arrived, including my sisters. It was still fun, in a rowdy kind of way, though we had to cut the occasion short because the first afternoon class was PE and we needed to change for that.

Since the weather was nice, Rinne had us do some outdoor exercises, which was also fine. Josh hoped that we could play some basketball, or maybe soccer, but the end of the school year was steadily approaching, so it made sense that we would do more stuff that could be graded for our final report.

Last, but not least, we had homeroom. Mrs Applebottom went through the usual gamut, asking us about what we did during the break and whatnot, reminded us about the upcoming events, and we had a short discussion about the looming sports festival. It was a pretty common trope, but I wasn't especially hyped up about it. We'd see how it turns out when we get to it, unless I'd get caught in something else beforehand.

Just like that, school was out for the day and we were all following the usual routine. Judy and Elly went ahead to hit the restroom, Angie roped Josh into helping her with some tennis club minutia, and I headed downstairs to the shoe lockers. What I would do afterwards was still up in the air, or rather, to the discretion of a certain allegedly sneaky individual I occasionally kept track of with my Far Sight.

Speaking of which, I was just about to check on her before switching my shoes, but my plans were interrupted by a rather peevish huff coming from my left.

"Brother! How could you!?"

Blinking, I turned to my fuming sister, closely followed by a rather confounded Snowy.

"How could I what?" I asked back by reflex and got a finger pointed at my nose for my trouble.

"Why didn't you tell us the twins were in the school?"

"Twins?" Snowy echoed her, and after a long beat, her face lit up with a pleasant surprise. "Do you mean Kóre and Pais? They're here?"

"Yes! And Brother didn't tell us about it!"

In my defence, I only learned that today, but it was true that I completely forgot to tell my sisters about them. Oops?

"Sorry, it just slipped my mind," I apologized while my hands were already fiddling with the shoe locker's door.

"But… why are they here?" Snowy asked the obvious question, so I gave them a quick rundown of the events, and my other sister's face was practically shining with excitement by the end of it.

"Oh? Does that mean that we can meet them any time we want?"

"Maybe not 'any time', but if they stay with Jaakobah, they should be around in the nurse's office."

"Do you think they're still there?" she asked, but before I could respond, she grabbed Snowy's hand and turned on her heel. "Let's go and check!"

"Just do it in moderation, okay? Don't inconvenience the—" I was just about to tell her not to bother the Celestial Prefect too much, but I had to bite back the second half of the sentence when a simple, unadorned white envelope fell out of my shoe locker as soon as I opened it. "Oh? Well, that's quaint."

While I was buffeted by a sudden and inexplicable wave of nostalgia, my sisters froze in their tracks and Penny in particular completely paled in shock, followed by a series of distressed sounds.

"A-A-Awawawa! Snowy, it's an emergency! B-Brother got a love letter!"

"Oh, hush, you," I chided her even as I reached down and picked up the envelope. "Ever since the girls' performance at the cultural festival, the whole school knows that I'm dating them, so there's a bat's chance in hell that this is a confession."

"S-S-Still! Quick, dispose of it before Judy and Eleanor see it! It's an anti… um…" She faltered and tugged on Snowy's hand, followed by a hurried whisper. "Sis? What is that thing called?"

"What thing?" my Abyssal sister asked back with her head tilted slightly, causing Penny to get even more flustered.

"Y-You know! That thing that Judy keeps telling Brother to keep in mind."

"Oh. Do you… mean the anti-harem countermeasures?"

"Yes, that! Thanks!" She beamed at my other sister and pointed a finger at my face again. "You must follow the anti-harem countermeasures! Cast it into the fire! Destroy it!"

"Pipe down, Kiddo."

I lightly poked her forehead for emphasis, which she must've mistaken for the prelude of a forehead flick (or maybe a head pat), as she let out another cutesy noise and hid behind the back of an eminently amused Snowy. With the distraction out of the way, I finally managed to open the envelope and fish out the folded-up piece of paper within. On it, inscribed with remarkably messy handwriting, were just four simple words forming a sentence.

"Come to the rooftop," Penny read it aloud and… wait, when did she even sidle over to my side again?

It didn't matter, though when I raised a brow at her, my knightly sister immediately stepped away from me and pointed at my face for the third time today.

"N-Now that the cat's out of the bag, you have to respond! It's the right thing to do!" she vehemently declared. Why was she so invested in this anyway, I wondered, but not for long, because she continued to pester me. "You must go and turn her down! You have to be firm about it, and… Wait, knowing you, you would be too firm, so you have to be also careful! Girls are sensitive, so you mustn't be rude, and you have to…"

It was at this point that Snowy noticed my wordless signals for support, and she stepped up to Penny's side."

"I'm sure Leo's got this. Let's visit the twins."

"Y-Yeah, but…"

"Shoo, shoo. Off you go," I said, waving at them, and with some effort, Snowy finally managed to pull Penny away, leaving me… well, not alone, because these were the shoe lockers and everyone was heading home, but it was close enough. I glanced at the message again, and couldn't help but exhale a wistful breath. "The rooftop, huh?"

It's been a while since I last went up there, and it was probably the most meaningful place for me on this whole damn island. In fact, the same could be said about most of us, really. It was special, and so being called over there didn't quite sit well with me, but what could I do at this point? I couldn't just ignore it.

…

Or could I? I Far Glance over, and… Yep. As expected. She was right there, black catsuit and all, and as much as I found the prospect of this encounter tedious, I would've been lying if I said I wasn't at least a bit curious about what she was all about. As such, I pocketed the letter, closed my shoe locker's door, and headed upstairs. With some luck, I should be able to quickly resolve this and still meet up with the girls without making them wait for me.

I quickly skipped up the stairs, two steps at a time, which turned a few placeholder heads on the way. I ignored them and rushed to the top, and it was only when I reached the door leading to the rooftop that I ran into another nostalgic tidbit that I probably should've considered ahead of time: it was locked. In retrospect, it was silly of me to overlook that detail, but there was no point dwelling over this, so I didn't.

It wasn't that big of a deal, considering I could just Phase to the other side, but since I ran into this situation, I figured I should first try something I was curious about for a while. The idea originally came to me during one of our extracurricular lessons with Lord Taika, and since the opportunity presented itself like this, I figured I might as well give it a go.

As for what I was doing, it was effectively 'just' an application of my temporary retcon ability. The one where I only changed the form or function of something for a short while. So far I had little use for it beyond using it to fake my super-special-awesome illusion powers in front of experts, and its practical applications were… dubious at best, but it still didn't hurt to experiment with it a bit. It was kind of slow, taxing, and literally headache-inducing, but I figured I might as well practice it, just in case it could come in handy one of these days.

So, let's look at the problem: the door's locked and I want to get to the other side without Phasing. First option: make a key. Problem: I didn't remember what the key looked like, so that's off the table.

Second option: turn the door into Styrofoam and then jump through while holding a jug of trademarked red juice and shout 'Oh yeaaaah!'. Problem: I had no jug of trademarked red juice on me. Also, the broken parts of temporarily retconned items didn't reassemble themselves, and I didn't want to explain why I shattered a metal door just for a gag.

Third option: Just make it so that the door isn't locked. Problem: … None that I could see, so I did just that.

First off, I took a phantom limb and plunged it into the door. After a short yet subjectively long perspective shift through non-Euclidian fractal space later, I had to fine-tune the range of my modification. Because the door was part of the building, I had to first narrow the scope down to just the door and its frame, since it was technically part of the locking mechanism. Then I just had to find a fractal iteration that wasn't locked, grab it with my other phantom limbs, overlay it on the original, and presto!

A moment later, I was back in my body and, after exhaling a pent-up breath, I reached out and turned the handle in front of me, opening the door without any resistance. That went… smoother than expected. And my head only hurt a little bit. Must've been because of the tolerance I built up over the months, I concluded and stepped onto the rooftop without any further ado.

"Ah? You're here already."

I was greeted by a sultry voice, and it wasn't hard to find its owner, since there weren't any other people up here.

"Corbeau, if I'm not mistaken," I spoke flatly, and the woman flashed a grin at me.

"I'm surprised you recognized me right away," she responded coquettishly, and… was she doing some kind of femme fatale impression, I wondered.

Who could say for sure? That said, her surprise was understandable, as her current getup was rather unusual. She was wearing a skin-tight black catsuit made of some kind of matte, leathery material. It covered her whole body, including her hands and feet, and while it had some thicker material with red highlights around the forearms and the soles, a couple of areas around her chest, shoulder, and thighs only had a thin, semi-transparent layer over them. It almost looked like a bodystocking peeking out of under the strategically placed holes of the surface layer, revealing quite a lot of skin underneath.

Her lower face was partially covered by a neck gaiter attached to her hood, and she was also wearing a pair of large, bright red goggles that were currently pulled up to her forehead. While I might've certainly had a hard time recognizing her at a distance without my mark on her, up close, I could immediately spot the beauty mark under her left eye.

"I'm here." I cut to the chase and closed the door behind me. "What do you want?"

"Right to point. I like men who are direct like that," she purred, making me feel just a bit uncomfortable. A moment later, she let out a chuckle and told me, "Fidèle Basmu Shamash wanted to meet you."

"… Then why didn't she meet me?" I asked the obvious question, but the woman in front of me scoffed like it was a silly thing to say.

"She's a vamp. She's not good with the sun."

"So you're just the messenger."

"Yes," Corbeau responded dourly, apparently finding the arrangement less than satisfactory. "We're in the same boat right now, but calling upon someone of my caliber for something so simple is still a bit demeaning, don't you agree?"

She went as far as to flutter her eyelashes at me, and the only reason why I didn't roll my eyes at her was because I was too busy being confounded by her comment.

"If that's all, then why didn't you just send me a message." She was looking at me funny, so I clarified. "On the phone." She was looking even funnier, so this time I actually rolled my eyes. "Oh, for the love of…! Don't any of you people have phones?"

"I don't have your number," she pointed out, and then a beat later she added, "Wait, is this your attempt to get my contact info?"

"You don't need my number to contact me!" I cut her off and took out my phone. I raised a finger to forestall her while I loaded up my browser, and after a few seconds of poking the screen, I presented it to her. "Look! My office's number is right here, on the Draconic Federation's website!"

"You… have a website?"

"Of course we do! It's current year!" I huffed and gestured at the screen. "Look, it's very intuitive. You just go to the site, and then tap on the cute little animated dragon in the upper left corner. My sister drew it, by the way. That opens the Draggie's Help Corner menu. That's the dragon's name; it's kind of our mascot. Anyhow, you tap on 'I want to contact someone', then it gives you a list of offices, and look! Leonard S. Dunning, the third button from the top. It has all my contact info and…" I frowned and turned the screen back towards myself to take a second look. "Wait, I have a fax number? Since when?" After getting over the first shock, I shook my head and turned the phone back to her. "Never mind. See? You can just contact me here, and someone will tell me about it. There's no need for elaborate shoe-box letters and clandestine rooftop meetings like this."

"I… see…"

The Abyssal spy looked rather overwhelmed by my explanation, so I decided to cut it short for now and pocked my phone.

"My point is, use the proper channels next time. So? What was the exact message?"

My prompting made her twitch and clear her throat.

"Yes, that. The head of House Shamash wanted me to tell you that she wanted to meet you in person to discuss the current state of the Abyss in private."

"Private," I repeated after her. This sounded like some shady stuff done behind everyone else's backs, so I inquired, "Does Tracas know about this?" just to be sure.

"It doesn't have anything to do with him," Corbeau responded with a knowing smile. "You know, I work with him, but it doesn't mean I work for him. There's room for more than one man… Oh, pardon. More than one partner in my life, you know?"

There was an implied wink-wink-nudge-nudge in her words, and… Why was she acting like this? I mean, she was a Seducer according to Tajana, so… maybe speaking in innuendoes and being clumsy with them was a racial trait? Or maybe it was some kind of genius 5D gap moe gambit that was really effective, and I just wasn't the right demographic for it? Whatever the case might've been, I continued to doggedly ignore her weird advances and moved on.

"Charming. Where does she want to meet?"

She looked just a hint annoyed by my attitude, but then she just crossed her arms and uttered, "Do you know the information board in the local park?"

"Of course I do."

"Tonight, at nine, in front of it."

"Sounds fine to me."

Corbeau eyed me for a moment and then let out a soft huff and turned on her heel.

"Message delivered."

I was mildly surprised by her response, which then quickly turned into being startled when she did a couple of elegant, dance-like motions, causing magical lights to swirl around her for a few seconds before her form was overlaid by a very retro flying saucer right off the cover of an old pulp fiction magazine. Then, as if that wasn't enough, she suddenly sprouted a pair of large, leathery wings from her back.

"Arrivederci, Lord Archon," she said with a wink, and then pulled her goggles over her eyes and took off into the air, leaving me all alone on the rooftop.

Well, at least that explained how she got here when the door was locked, but it meant little when I had so. Many. Questions.

She only sprouted wings at the end, and her catsuit didn't explode, so was she in her Abyssal form all along? Was that her Abyssal form? And what was that UFO disguise at the end? Who came up with that one first; was it the Draconians, or the Abyssals? And how could she just fly in and out of here when this was technically the heart of Magi territory? And the way she bid farewell was—

…

I shook my head and swiftly left the way I came before the temporary retcon could expire and I ended up locked out. Not that it would've mattered, but if I had to Phase away after all the trouble I went through with the door, I would've felt rather silly.

After making sure the door was closed behind me, I made my way down the stairs and… where was I? Oh, right: 'arrivederci'? That was Italian, wasn't it?

"Watsonian explanation about accents in the Abyss, my arse!"

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