I've long been a fan and, dare I say, an ardent practitioner of the skill colloquially known as the 'dramatic entrance'. In the past, I had waxed poetic about the nuances and minutia of this of-forgotten cousin of the thespian arts, and while I could do so again, I felt that sometimes it was best not to overcomplicate things. There was something simple yet elegant in the basics of the craft, and from time to time, I found it wise to practice them. Return to my roots, so to speak.

Or maybe I was just feeling lazy today. Who knew?

"Give me some change."

"Ack!"

The grey-haired young man nearly jumped out of his chair when I appeared in his office out of the blue. His eyes darted across the room, one hand already on the hilt of the fancy ceremonial cavalry saber propped against the side of his desk. Or at the very least I presumed it was ceremonial, as I'd never seen him use it. Now that I thought about it was it even a 'cavalry' saber? He had a naval uniform, so maybe it was a 'navy saber'.

Hold on. Did the Abyss even have a navy? Sure, the place was a copy of Critias, so it was an island surrounded by water, but it wasn't like they had to worry about being invaded by an enemy fleet, so… maybe it was a cavalry saber after all?

…

But wait. Did the Abyss even have a cavalry? Sure, the place had some feudalistic vestiges in their government and whatnot, but…

"Excuse me, my Emperor? Could you please repeat that?"

My thought process was cut short when the man got up and made a polite request.

Dimas Ekhtear. The right-hand man of Crowy, from the distinguished Ekhtear family that served the Inannas for centuries, and he was one of those 'unnecessarily handsome' fellows. We were about the same height, and he had long, straight grey hair and piercing violet eyes. His build, while not quite 'buff', was still pretty fit without a hint of excess fat. It was as if the man just stepped off the cover of a romance light novel, though… yeah, he wasn't really 'main male lead' material.

Considering his calm, no-nonsense mannerisms, I imagined he would better fit the secondary love interest role, playing second fiddle to some generic, dark-haired Übermensch guy with a more forceful bad-guy vibe. Which, in this context would've been… Crowy? Bleh.

Anyhow, I cocked my head to the side and put my hands on my hips.

"I don't like to repeat myself, but I'm in a good mood, so I won't punish you for making me do it." A meaningful beat followed, and then I extended a hand towards him, palm up. "Give me some change."

"… Money?" he repeated after me, and when I remained completely motionless, hand still held out, he hurriedly produced a pouch from his belt. He was giving me a look that said 'How much?', but when I only bent my fingers a bit, his eyes shook and he forced a smile onto his face. "It would be my honor, my Emperor."

With that, he reluctantly placed the pouch into my hand and I opened it up right away. The Abyss had a fiat currency, but maybe because their internal economy was small, they never bothered to print banknotes. Most everyday transactions were handled with coins, and while larger ones could use cheques, they were pretty rare. Mainly because the only 'banks' were run by the Noble Houses, and they were pretty much the only ones doing business on a scale where such things were necessary.

The Abyssal coinage was remarkably boring. Simple minted metal disks, mostly made of copper and brass, and the currency didn't even have a name. It was just 'Coins'. Anyhow, I didn't want it to weigh down my pocket, so I swiped a couple of the larger coins and a few of the mid-sized ones and then tossed the pouch back to Dimas.

He let out a relieved sigh; he must've thought I would take it wholesale. If it was Crowy, I would've done so in a heartbeat, but there was no point in bullying the middle management. Once he counted his remaining coins, he glanced back at me, visibly curious.

"My Emperor… May I ask—?"

"No," I cut him off and Phased to the other side of the desk, forcefully moving the conversation along by leaning over books spread all over his desk. "Oooh? These look old! What are you researching? Looking for historical precedents? Tracking ancient bloodlines? Trying to find the lost secret of perfect homemade cookies?"

"No, my Emperor. I'm…" He hesitated for a second, but then he ultimately picked up one of the books and showed it to me. "My Liege requested that I investigate the history of the Mana Wells."

"Really? How studious!" I clapped my hands and then cocked my head to the side again. "But why are you doing this? Don't you have better things to do? Like listening to Crowy's rants? Or pampering him? Or finding people better suited for this job, so you could spend more time orbiting around him?"

Dimas's brows twitched imperceptibly. He must've thought I was bringing his competence into question, but he swallowed his pride and inclined his head forward.

"Normally, such tasks would fall under the purview of the House's spymaster, but since Lady Tajana is still on a mission, it falls upon my shoulder." He exhaled a long breath and added, "I hope she returns soon, but until then, no one else can be trusted with this task."

I would've thought he (or at the very least Crowy) would care more about Tajana going missing (from their perspective) but they obviously didn't. Though again, maybe it was just that news from the outside world took some time to reach here, so they were still under the impression that she was laying low. Feigning disinterest, I picked up a book and gave it a closer look.

The title was startlingly long and convoluted, and a quick glance under the cover told me that this tome was damn old; the wording and sentence structure reminded me of Middle English, but it was also peppered with unfamiliar technical terms. I could still tell that it was all about the Mana Wells though, mostly because of the illustrations and diagrams.

"Don't worry about her," I spoke absently as I kept leafing through the book, looking for something interesting. "She has her role in the tapestry of fate, just like everyone else. Including you."

"I understand."

He said, but he didn't sound like he did. More importantly, I couldn't glean anything useful from the book, so I put it down and turned to face Dimas.

"So? What exactly are you looking for?"

"My Liege…" He was hesitant, but eventually told me, "He's searching for a more… efficient way to control the power of the Mana Wells, and since we now have access to the library of Castle Ashur, he tasked me to look for any potential leads."

"If he's so curious, then why doesn't he read them himself? It's not like he has anything better to do nowadays."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"My Liege is recuperating," Dimas interjected forcefully, only to then immediately backpedal. "Please, forgive me. What I meant to say was that, as his loyal servant, I would not dare to refuse his request, and his time is better spent planning the next stage of the war, rather than researching old tomes."

That's what he said, but realistically speaking, if Crowy wanted to know more about the Mana Wells, his first stop should've been me. Of course, I would've given him some suitably whimsical excuse as to why I couldn't tell him diddly squat, and so investigating historical research records, especially coming from the Noble House that collaborated with the Celestials, would've made a lot of sense. However, that first step was missing, which told me that Crowy was planning to do this… well, maybe not exactly 'behind my back', but without my direct involvement.

I already knew where all of this was heading, so I didn't pay it much heed and lightly patted Dimas on the shoulder, much to his apparent confusion and apprehension.

"What a good lapdog you are! Go ahead then. Don't let me hold you up."

On that final note, I sent him a wink (though I wasn't sure he could see it through the mask), and Phased away. My destination: the cell at the bottom of the Chasm of Desolation, not far from where the little kid was locked up. I chose this one specifically because he couldn't see inside from his cell, and I made some strides to remodel the place.

I 'borrowed' a proper bed, stockpiled a whole lot of snacks and non-perishable food in the corner, and even got myself several bookshelves' worth of novels piled up for later perusal. More importantly, I had a whole wardrobe here, and the location made it perfect for changing outfits. I was really missing the convenience of the Leoformer, but I could live without it before, and I could live without it for a while now.

After rummaging through the outfits, I chose a slightly garish yellow set of the local Victorian/Gothic high fashion, and after parting my hair in the middle and pocketing the coins I just pilfered from Dimas, I Phased out and reappeared in a familiar alley at the edge of the town's busiest shopping street. It was early in the afternoon, and the whole place was absolutely bustling with activity.

It was a sight I scarcely got to see before, because my usual scouting trips were usually done at night to reduce the chances of being discovered. Now, because nobody here knew this face, I could walk around all I wanted incognito, and that led to me making a whole bunch of discoveries that completely flew under my radar beforehand.

For example, the fact that Abyssals were extra-attractive, even by Simulacrum standards. Not just that, but they were way more unique than the people on Critias, or even Elysium, as shown by Dimas's secondary male lead energy, or Tajana's weird girlfailure personality and two-tone hairdo. As always, I had a theory about it. A Doylist theory, to be exact.

It went something like this: the Simulacrum wasn't created for us. While the world tended to fill in the blanks of the proverbial canvas, Critias, the World of Mystics, and the rest of the world absolutely existed outside of the time frame of our scenario. However, it didn't mean that all the world 'fully existed' all the time.

The best way to put it would be to say that the Simulacrum was more of a patchwork, and each individual scenario played out in a mostly isolated environment. And when I said 'isolated', I didn't just mean from other scenarios, but from other elements of the Simulacrum as well.

For example, I've long suspected that at some point Sebastian used to be the male lead of a romance scenario or two. The first one with him serving as the dark-haired Übermensch (or Überdrache) for his second wife's budding reverse harem, and then as the mysterious, standoffish stranger who was forced to elope with the hyper-affectionate manic pixie dream girl, also known as his third wife and Elly's great-grandmother.

However, one scenario only barely involved the supernatural, while the other had none of it at all. Similarly, Rinne's stories about her high school years as a young monster hunter in Osaka reeked of shounen manga urban fantasy tropes, but they didn't involve the rest of the World of Mystics outside of Japan at all. The list went on.

From all of this, I deduced two things: isolated scenarios like this were happening all over the Simulacrum, and once one was 'completed', its main characters could show up in other scenarios as supporting cast. Now, let's look at the Abyss.

We had distinct, old-timey high fashion and nobles, both of which were extremely common in fantasy romance genres. On top of that, some of the Abyssals were both main-character attractive, as well as sporting especially striking designs, all of them among the Noble Houses where such a scenario would most likely take place. Finally, if such a scenario had happened, then since ours was taking place directly on top of the Abyss, it made perfect sense for the main characters of that plot to return as side characters in ours.

Q.E.D., the Abyss was most likely the setting of some grand romance narrative, and all the local peculiarities were its rippling after-effects, which meant…!

…

Absolutely nothing to our current scenario. I just thought it was a neat possibility, and I imagined Judy would probably like to give it a deep dive once we were done here.

Anyhow, while I was pondering all of this, I reached my destination. I was very familiar with the fancy saloon in front of me, though this was the first time I visited under my current guise. I walked in without further ado and my nose was immediately hit by the distinct odour of tobacco smoke.

The interior was a mixture of a French salon and a British pub, though in the daylight, it felt much more like the former than the latter. Which was, incidentally, exactly the other way around during the night. Maybe it was on purpose, I wondered as I moved further inside.

"Good day, sir," the bartender greeted me from the other side of the counter. "How may I serve you?"

This place had a pretty stable clientele, as I could see familiar faces all around. It also explained why this man would specifically greet any strangers. Newcomers were probably few and far between.

"A jolly good day to you, friend!" I greeted him back with an ear-to-ear grin and sauntered over to the counter. "I'm Antonio Balderdash, the younger, and I'm here on official business."

"Balderdash?" a dour old soldier spoke up from a nearby table, looking me up and down from head to toe. "That's an odd name."

"Trust me, I get that a lot, but what can you do?"

I followed that up with a hearty laugh, during which the bartender put away a bottle and gave me his full attention.

"What kind of official business may you be referring to, Lord Balderdash?"

"Antonio will do," I interjected, and he nodded long.

"Mister Antonio."

I flashed a smile and dramatically pulled on the lapels of my garish coat to make the coins in my pockets jingle.

"Why, I was told that a good friend of mine visited your fine establishment not too long ago, and he left a tab open."

"… Could you be a bit more specific?"

"Tall fellow. Likes top hats. Had his estate burned down by the Nergals recently."

"Ah, I remember him!" a portly man exclaimed from the back, sounding almost elated. "He was a good chap! How is he doing?"

"Fine, considering the circumstances." I grinned at the friendly face before turning my attention back to the bartender and placing a handful of coins onto the counter. "Since I was nearby, I figured I'd pay his arrears. Please, take this."

The man's brows shot up at once, and he pushed the large coins back towards me.

"I believe this is more than enough to close the tab, Mister Antonio."

"No, I insist," I responded firmly and pushed them back. "Knowing him, the next time my friend will come here, he'll forget to bring his pouch again. Just take it; it's just small change anyway."

He eyed me, and then the coins, but in the end he accepted them.

"As you wish. Would you like to order something?"

"No, I'm afraid I can't. Maybe next time." A second later I mimed just remembering something and raised a finger. "Ah, but before I leave, can I ask you to give a message to my friend when he comes by?"

"Certainly."

The bartender picked up a small notebook and a pen and waited for me to say my piece.

"When he comes by to clear his tab, please tell him that Antonio was here, and that he shouldn't stress himself too much. Finally, tell him to visit the princess."

"Princess?" one of the regulars blurted out in surprise, and I shrugged.

"He'll get it."

"Very well," the bartender dotted the end of the sentence and glanced up at me again. "Anything else?"

"No, that's all. Thank you, and until next time, ciao!"

With that, I gave an unbridled wave to the curious patrons before turning on my heels and marching out of the saloon.

"One more thing to cross off the mental checklist," I whispered to myself, followed by a shallow sigh as I realized that list never seemed to get any shorter.

Other people said they had so much work, they wished they had two of themselves. I had two of me, yet that only made my workload even bigger. How did that make any sense?

"Oh well."

I shrugged, which made the remaining coins in my other pocket clink, and that gave me an idea: let's do some shopping before moving on to the next article on the list. For example, it was high time I showed my appreciation to Crowy for all of his hard work.

"Good day, sir. How may I help you?" a clerk welcomed me as soon as entered a boutique and I flashed a grin at her.

"Give me your cheapest, tackiest, most uncomfortable shoes!" I declared loudly, followed by a wink. "It'll be a gift!"

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