The Simulacrum

The temperature in the room instantly dropped by a couple of degrees. Or was it just me? In any case, the question came right out of the left field and hit me with a surprise hook that left me reeling for a moment.

"The Conduit of the Grimoire?" I echoed my host in an effort to buy myself some time to rearrange my thoughts.

"Yes."

That short answer didn't exactly give me the time I wanted, but it was better than nothing. I took a deep breath, and said, "If I recall right, it's a prophesized chosen one kind of deal."

"We at the Assembly do not deal in prophecies," Lord Grandpa told me flatly, and I shrugged.

"You can call it a smeerp, but if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it's a duck." My response drew the old man's brows into a frown, but he didn't refute my claim, so I continued with, "But back to this Conduit thing. I believe it's supposed to be a person who can unlock or channel or what have you this magical whatchamacallit you call the Grimoire, and then use it to uncover the answer to life, the universe, and everything."

"In very, very broad terms, you are not incorrect, but I am afraid the answer to our questions is not nearly as simple as forty-two."

There was a long, stumped beat hanging in the air, ultimately broken by my hum of approval.

"Wow. You actually got the reference. I... wasn't expecting that. I have to admit, that improved my impression of you by about half a notch."

"Please, focus," the arch-mage warned me sternly before reaching into his drawer and taking out a familiar wooden box covered in an intricate pattern of softly smoldering magic circles. He placed it onto the desk and tapped on it with his finger. "Before we go any further, let me ask you one thing: when you stole this Grimoire Key from my safe, did you ever open its container?"

"I prefer the term 'borrowed', and no, I didn't."

"Have you interacted with the key inside in any way?"

"I only confirmed that it was inside."

Lord Grandpa let out a low grunt, and this time he picked up a letter opener in the shape of a sword. Normally those were supposed to be blunt, but this one looked pretty sharp, which he soon demonstrated by pricking his right thumb with it.

He waited for a couple of seconds to let blood pool on his fingertip, and then he pressed it down onto the top of the box. There was a comment about this feeling a little unsanitary on the tip of my tongue, but before I could say it, the box opened with a series of clicks, and the lid popped half-open. Was the keyhole at the front just a misdirection, I wondered?

Anyhow, the arch-mage wiped his finger and then fully lifted the lid, revealing a white marble the size of an eyeball embedded in something that, at first glance, looked like a jeweled hexagonal amulet encased in velvet padding.

"Do you see anything strange?" He asked me and shifted the box so I could get a better view.

"I... can't say I do?" I answered a touch hesitantly, and the old man let out a soft hum.

"It is not supposed to be shining like this."

After a few blinks, I leaned over to take a better look. Truth be told, I was so used to anything remotely magical being a glowing eyesore that I took it for granted that this key marble thing would be the same. I squinted my eyes a little and did my best to ignore the hazy colorless light surrounding it, and underneath that, I could finally see that the ball was alight with a soft, blue glow.

"Well, it certainly does now. I figure it has to be significant for you to go out of your way to show it to me."

"It is," Lord Grandpa emphasized and held the box up in his palm. "The Keys not only serve as the only way to deactivate the seal on the Grimoire of the Last Truth, but they can also detect the presence of the Conduit. In the history of the Assembly, this has only happened once."

"Really? Then shouldn't you already have your answer to life, the universe, and everything?"

"Regrettably, the candidate was swiftly disposed of by the winged ones of Elysium before she could bind the crystal."

"Ouch. That's a downer." I muttered, though, in retrospect, it certainly fit the MO of the Celestials."

"This happened more than three hundred years ago, and it led to the great purge of their infiltrators in our Schools," the old man told me absentmindedly while playing with the box in his hand. "And now the sign appears once again, at the same time as the youngest artificer meister in the history of the Assembly."

I didn't like the way this was going, so I firmly declared, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you're looking at the wrong guy."

"Am I?" he asked back with a provocatively raised brow, and I shook my head.

"Nope. I'm definitely not your Conduit."

"You sound certain."

"Because I am."

We locked eyes, and after studying my face for a while, my host set the box onto the table with an unnecessarily loud clank. "In that case, I believe you should have no contentions about laying your hand on the Key."

I wasn't fond of challenges like that, but it was best to nip this misunderstanding in the bud, so after making sure it was safe with my phantom limb, I casually put my finger onto the glowing marble. It was unexpectedly elastic and pleasantly cool to the touch. I waited for a second, and there was no reaction, just as expected.

"See? I told you.

I took my finger away, and Lord Grandpa's face told me he had a hard time deciding whether he should feel disappointed or relieved by this confirmation.

"So you really are not the Conduit. That is... unexpected." He reached out a hand and theatrically snapped the lid of the box shut. "But then who could it be?"

"I'd personally recommend you don't think too hard about it. In fact, you should ignore this whole Conduit business for now."

"It is not something that could be casually ignored," he objected with a deep frown.

"Why? You're the only one who knows about it. Well, the two of us, but that's beside the point."

"For now," he stressed and shook the box. "Whenever someone taps into the Ley lines of the planet, it leaves a faint echo. The Keys are designed to listen to these and detect the unique mana signature corresponding to the Conduit. While I have certainly been paying more attention to the Key in my possession, ever since you 'borrowed' it, it is only a question of time before the echoes are detected by the other Keys and my fellow custodians also recognize the significance of this event."

"So the signal is out in the open, and the only way the Assembly wouldn't make a fuss about this is if everybody forgot to check their Keys. Or if they couldn't…" I mused aloud, only to stop my train of thought when I noticed the expression on Lord Grandpa's face. "What?"

"I know that I am not in a position where I can make unconditional demands, but I strongly implore you to not even consider 'borrowing' the other Keys."

"What? No way! I don't have time to go to Glasgow and Ottawa for something like this, especially now of all times," I scoffed, and after a moment of pause, the old man let go of the box and buried his face in his palms.

"I wonder if I should even dare be curious about how you discovered the locations of one of our most closely kept secrets…"

"Hey, I'm an information broker," I told him with a shrug, and he for once, snapped back.

"Then how come hardly anyone has ever seen you trade information?"

"I'm too sneaky?" My tongue-in-cheek response didn't earn me any approval, but it wasn't like I was looking for any, so I carried on. "Anyway, now that we're clear on this whole Grimoire issue, do you have anything else you want to say?"

The old man proceeded to give me a long, deadpan stare, and at last, he uttered, "If no one else brings the topic of the Conduit of the Grimoire to the attention of the Assembly, I will not do so either. In return, I once again expect your cooperation in regards to Lord Saahira."

"Are you seriously trying to spin this into doing me a favor?" He remained intensely silent, so after weighing my options, I decided I would suck up the scolding from Ammy later, and told him, "Fine. However, since I'd already agreed to talk with Sahi, let's balance the scales properly. A favor for a favor, if you will."

"What do you mean by that?"

My host was suddenly apprehensive, which painted a wide smile onto my face.

"Those anti-illusion arrays you wedged into your security system? You shouldn't rely on them too much. Case in point, I'm not even in this room anymore."

I winked, and a long beat later, I Phased right out of the study.

...

Only to then Phase right back in a few seconds later and hastily add, "For the record, I was still in the room when we did the whole Grimoire Key test or whatever, so don't draw any funny conclusions. Are we clear on that?"

The completely motionless arch-mage wordlessly stared at me for a solid five seconds. Then, at last, he nodded. Very. Slowly.

...

Eh, good enough.

"Alrighty. See you later."

And just like that, I Phased out of the study for the second time and appeared right in front of my frowning girlfriend.

"Chief? What exactly was that about?"

Judy, sitting on my bed, crossed her arms and directed a scrutinizing glare at me.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb. You can't just Phase in, exclaim 'Oh, bloody hell!' and disappear again."

Normally I would've pointed out that I just did that, so I definitely could by definition, but she didn't seem to be in a jokey mood.

"I just dodged a bullet I shot at my own foot, that's all."

"... I hope you realize that doesn't fill me with confidence at all."

"Don't sweat the small details." I walked over and put my bag down next to her. "The others?"

"Downstairs. They're packing snacks for the afternoon."

"Good. Remind me to Phase down after about, let's say, thirteen minutes and pretend I came home on foot."

"Now that you mention it, why did you Phase home? I can distinctly remember you mentioning something about holding back on using your abilities to preserve your 'brain juices'."

"The situation absolutely demanded it," I responded curtly, and since my dear assistant looked like she was on the brink of going to town on me, I unsubtly cleared my throat and changed the topic with the grace and poise of a veteran discussion derailer. "So, guess what I just discovered?"

"Considering you talked with Lord Endymonion, I presume it had something to do with Sahi participating in the tournament," she told me in a deadpan voice, and I would be lying if I said that didn't make me raise a brow.

"You already knew about that?"

"She told me when we ran into her during lunch break."

"Then how come I didn't know about it?"

"I was under the impression you wanted nothing to do with the tournament, so I didn't tell you."

"I… can't really argue with that, can I?" I muttered, and shed the topic by saying, "That was one thing, but more importantly, Josh's 'chosen one' status has finally reared its ugly head."

The mildly disapproving frown evaporated from my assistant's face in an instant, and she promptly took out her phone, which was her way of telling me to elaborate. I was planning to do that anyway, so I gave her the footnotes version of my discussion with Lord Grandpa. She occasionally nodded as she listened, and once I finished, we remained silent while she committed my words to bytes.

"So it appears Joshua's finally gaining attention," Judy noted once she stopped poking her phone.

"Looks like it, though it feels a little sudden."

"Maybe the Narrative is pushing it because you planned to get rid of the tournament arc?"

"Let's not jump the meta-gun. Elly just scolded me for that today."

"She mentioned something like that. In that case, what's your alternative?"

"So, let's make things clear first. This while Grimoire business is the Magi's prophecy. Ammy is the Magi representative in Josh's former entourage, so if it came up, it would surely do so because he's on her route. He's not, because she's hitting it off with Mike instead, therefore it's likely that this development is completely unrelated to the 'plot' and it's caused by some loose variables instead."

"Such as?"

"Josh's been experimenting with mixing his blood capsules lately, hasn't he?"

"Yes, but according to Neige, he didn't have much success. Taking a second pill just replaces the previous transformation with a new one."

"True, but that wasn't my point. We already established that taking Ammy's blood doesn't have much of an effect on him, because he lacks the training necessary to use spells. However, what if mixing it with the other blood pills caused those mana echo things Lord Grandpa was talking about?"

"That's a tenuous conjecture, but it's one we can test today. Robatto would probably have a way to detect these signals."

"Precisely. The cat's out of the bag already, so a few more experiments resulting in new echoes probably wouldn't make too much of a difference."

"So, in conclusion, your hypothesis says that the Grimoire Keys are reacting to Josh's experimentation, and it's not an indication of his plot-relevance getting revealed yet." She paused here and scrolled her notes back to double-check something. "There's one possibility you overlooked."

"Which is?"

She tapped on her phone and explained, "While Joshua is certainly not on Amelia's route, he is almost certainly on Angeline's. Lord Endymonion specifically mentioned the Celestials getting involved the last time the Magi had a candidate for the Conduit of the Grimoire. Therefore, it's entirely possible that this is simply a setup for getting them involved with Joshua."

"Possibly, but that's reading Narrative intent into it again, so I'd like to stick to my interpretation for the time being."

"Of course you do. You're always pushing Watsonian theories," my girlfriend grumbled, and I could only shrug in vague agreement.

"Well, I can't help it. You're the one who keeps jumping to the Doylist explanations all the time, and I'm a compulsive contrarian."

"Just because you're aware of it, it doesn't make it better."

Ignoring her jab, I let out a soft grunt and raised a finger.

"Speaking of Watsonian interpretations, I also tried to apply it to the tournament arc, and I'd like to hear your input on the topic."

Judy obviously wasn’t pleased by my attempt at dodging her complaints, but she still opened a new file on her phone and gestured for me to continue.

"Now that we decided to adopt a live-and-let-live approach to this whole mess, I'm curious what you think about it. Or rather, why our presumed antagonist in plain sight came up with the idea in the first place."

"Do you mean beyond the Eastern Draconians' already established penchant for it?"

"Yes."

She pondered for a while, and ultimately uttered, "Most likely part of some larger plan regarding Draconian politics."

"I figured as much, but I couldn't really connect the two so far."

"If the Eastern Draconians were to lose, Naoren would lose face." I sent a sideways glance my assistant's way, but she doubled down. "I'm serious, Chief. 'Face' is very important to them. Failure is seen as the fault of the leaders. If the Eastern Draconian participants didn't achieve much, it could be used to claim that Naoren was doing a bad job governing the clan alliance."

"That's… kind of silly."

"Yet that's how 'face' works," Judy concluded, but I still wasn't entirely convinced.

"That still sounds like too much effort for too little gain, and it would indirectly affect the grand elder as well. Any other ideas? Try to put yourself in the mind-space of a nefarious baddie and start from there."

Judy gave me an unusually enthusiastic nod, and put a finger on her lips as she thoroughly considered my advice. At last, she pointed at me.

"First possibility: By incentivizing all of the Draconian clans to fight, they could use the tournament to gauge everyone's power levels and fighting styles for future reference."

"That's a little nefarious, but it doesn't really give him any advantage. Wouldn't everyone else also be able to glean the same information? Not to mention, the Feilongs would have to reveal some of their cards during the tournament as well," I pointed out, and after considering my words for a moment, Judy nodded in agreement.

"True. In that case, could it be a straight up power-play? Not against Naoren, but the whole community."

"Please elaborate."

"Let's change the initial hypothesis around. What if instead of a face-damaging defeat, the grand elder aims for an overwhelming victory? If they gathered all of these combatants from all the families, and they still came out on top, it would solidify their status as the leaders among the Draconians. Of course, this presumes that they are confident in winning the tournament."

"So it's riskier, but it has some clear benefits. Also decently nefarious, if a little plain. Good thinking."

"Thanks." I was ready to move on, but then my girlfriend's eyes lit up, and she clicked her tongue. "Chief, we almost forgot the most obvious answer."

"Which is?"

"It could also be just a distraction. The tournament will be held alongside the grand auction, so maybe it's to divide people's attention while grand elder Xinji does something else. It could serve as alibi, plausible deniability, or a part of some other scheme that requires the brightest of all the clans to be present at once."

"Are you thinking along the lines of some grand assassination plot?" She nodded, and I seriously considered the possibility for a while. "Well, it would practically behead the entire future leadership of the Draconian clans, and it could be both very beneficial to the Feilongs and super-nefarious… but I think it's a bit too over the top and it could easily backfire."

"But it's still worth keeping in mind."

"Certainly, but my money is still on the second option. The fact that the rules permit two participants per clan is too deliberate, so if we presume that the Feilongs' first fighter will be Naoren's brother, the second one is probably going to be the crux of whatever plan they have for dominating the competition. As soon as we figure out who that is, we can—"

"It's grand elder Xinji's granddaughter."

My mouth remained open for a few seconds, but then I closed it with an audible clatter of teeth and asked, "Okay, since when did you know that?"

"Emese texted me yesterday." She showed me her phone again, and for a moment I didn't even know what to say. Did mom-in-law even have a phone? How come I didn't know her number? In fact, now that I thought about it, my contact list was pretty bare, wasn't it? Anyhow, Judy must have misunderstood my inner turmoil, as she firmly stated, "I didn't tell you because you didn't want to hear—"

"Anything about the tournament. Yes, yes, it's my fault." I let out a weak groan, and after collecting myself, I guessed, "So? Another love interest?"

"Too young. According to Emese, she's only eleven."

"Eleven? As in, eleven years? Can she even compete?"

"She's technically part of the younger generation."

"Then why wasn't she at the banquet?"

"Probably because she's a child, and she would've found a social gathering boring," Judy pointed out, and I promptly buried my face in my palm.

"Let me guess. She's also a sheltered tomboy mini-moe with those odd hair-buns who aggressively tries to protect her family's 'face', right?"

"I don't know, but based on the tropes we are dealing with, it's a fair assumption. Also, I believe those buns she may or may not potentially have are called 'ox horns'. Also known as an 'odango'."

"Thanks for the information. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to dramatically sigh with a mixture of annoyance and exasperation."

"Those are more or less the same thing."

"Too late to change it, I'm already sighing."

After I made good on my declaration, with some appropriate shoulder-slouching for extra effect, I shook my head and picked up my bag.

"This is too much at once. Let me get some fresh air, and then we continue this discussion after I came back."

"Sure. On a related note, don't you think it's about time you let the others know about the full capability of your Phasing ability? That way you wouldn't have to do all these extra steps."

"Can't. It would link me to Bel, and I can't let Penny and the guys make the connection yet. I still have use for the identity."

"In that case, do as you like." She put her phone away and rose to her feet. "I'll meet you downstairs. Don't tarry for long; it's cold outside."

"'Kay, I'll be right back."

And just like that, I left home so that I could walk a hundred meters to get back home. I'm pretty sure there was some kind of lesson about the human condition in that sentence, but one I wasn't in the mood to ponder at the moment.

Anyhow, by the time I arrived, Judy was already in the living room, and the entire gang was waiting near the door to my teleport closet, carrying bags full of what I presumed were the snacks Judy mentioned. Well, all of them, except for Ammy, who was standing by the entrance with her arms crossed and a frown on her brows.

"Hi guys, I'm back."

My attempt to ignore the class rep was to no avail, as she pointedly cleared her throat to get my attention.

"Leo?"

"Erm… Yes?"

"Did you behave yourself in front of my grandfather?"

"Sure, I was a model gentleman," I answered reflexively, and to my confusion, Angie in the back let out a snicker and held out a hand towards the guy next to her.

"See? I told you he looks away like that whenever he's feeling guilty!"

"Yeah, yeah, you won the bet," Josh groan and handed a crumbled up banknote to her.

"Hah! Easiest five Jens of my life!"

In the meantime, the class rep loomed over me (at least as much as someone a good head shorter than me could), and menacingly adjusted her glasses. Welp. As it turns out, maybe deciding to suck up that scolding was a bad idea after all…

"Haaaa!"

Josh lunged at me from a crouching position. The fingers on his left hand were bent like claws, while the ones on his right were balled into a fist he raised high. It wasn't quite a haymaker, but close enough where it was still clearly telegraphed. I took half a step back and used the butt of my training spear to strike at the leg he put forward, but before I could hit it, he abruptly pivoted onto his other feet and lashed out with his left hand.

My danger sense… well, it didn't exactly scream at me per se, but it firmly warned me of an incoming attack, so I twisted my upper body to the side, allowing Josh's sudden air bullet to sail past me. I avoided that by a safe margin, but my reaction time still felt sluggish, so I slightly adjusted the mana flow of my equipment. Josh wasn't standing still though, as after a couple of side steps, he rushed at me again while keeping his head low. The moment I readied my weapon, he changed direction so sharply it would've given a fighter jet pilot whiplash, and since my danger sense was telling me something was coming, I jumped back at once, just in time to avoid a shoulder-slam by my suddenly accelerating opponent.

"That's the princess's footwork, isn't it?" I noted absentmindedly as I leveled my spear and lightly poked at the exposed side of my friend, forcing him to retreat. Hm? That stab was a little more forceful than I intended, wasn't it? Let's tune down the multipliers by about a third of a notch. Strength was good, but control was more important.

Anyhow, the guy wasn't fazed for long, and he crossed his arms in front of his chest. I momentarily wondered what he was planning, but then he flexed his fingers and spread his arms, expelling half a dozen small air bullets, and they… oh! They curved! Josh had homing missiles now! That's pretty neat. I knew that all that training with Snowy would pay off sooner or later.

My approval aside, I used the opportunity to fine-tune the reflex boosters by accurately deflecting three of the projectiles with my spear. I originally planned to do all of them, but there was still a limit to how fast I could swing my weapon, so I had to dodge the rest. Josh didn't stay still though, and by the time I was ready to focus on him again, I found him about three meters high in the air. I didn't see any ethereal wings on him, so I figured he didn't switch to Celestial just yet, meaning he probably jumped. My deduction was proven true a moment later, when he let out another air blast, but this time towards his back, using it to propel himself towards me.

That… was kind of over the top, wasn't it? In any case, he was coming at me fast, yet my danger sense was only giving me mild forewarnings, and it was easy to understand why. I mean, this would've been a nice shock-tactic if not for him diving towards me with a fist raised for a punch. Jump-kicking was already a contentious move, but jump-punching was even sillier, and if this was a real fight, all I would've had to do was plant my spear and let him impale himself on it. In fact, I technically could've done it now, as I was pretty sure the new wards on his Magiformer would soak up most of the impact, but it would've been still pretty cruel. As such, I took a quick step to the left and extended my spear horizontally instead.

Josh tried to change direction with another air blast, but he was too late, and his legs hit the shaft of the spear, causing him to tumble and crash to the ground. Since I was holding the weapon with only one hand at the moment, the impact nearly tore it out of my hand, and my fingers were feeling numb afterwards. Note to self: incorporate some kind of force-dissipation array into the gauntlet.

But back to the sparring match: Josh rolled on the ground to recover after the fall, but now it was my time to be on the offensive, so I grabbed the spear with my other hand and dashed forwards. My aim was the moment he stopped rolling, and I planned to deliver a strike at his solar plexus. However, just before I was about to make contact, my hands received another shock, like I hit a stone wall. I blinked in surprise and found Josh grinning at me, both his hands firmly clamped onto my spear just under the blunted blade. His Abyssal form was pretty strong, but it wasn't that strong, so I figured he must've popped a Draconic pill at some point. The guy was getting pretty good at switching up his tactics like that.

So, at this point, I had a couple of options. I could try to get the spear out of his grasp by twisting, but I doubted it would work. I could also abandon my weapon and rush in, turning the match into a hand-to-hand scuffle, but I had a feeling I'd be at a disadvantage there. I was currently only wearing the gauntlets and boots of my armor, with an experimental harness on top of my clothes that completed the mana circulation cycle. On the surface, it looked a little flimsy, as it wasn't much more than a series of small, angular metal plates connected by straps, and since it was designed to be easy to access and modify on the fly during experiments, it could only bring out a fraction of the potential in my already partial Knight gear. In a contest of pure strength, I would probably lose to Josh, and if it came to grappling, he had a serious advantage. As such, I opted for a third option.

Using my Phantom Limb, I made a couple of adjustments to the physical enhancement arrays, staying just barely on this side of the redline, and after inhaling sharply, I firmly set my feet and swung my spear upwards with all I had. My friend, completely taken aback by this development, continued to hold onto my weapon with all his might. The shaft strained and bent a little, but at last, inertia gave up, and before he even understood what happened, Josh's feet left the ground. My muscles screamed as I raised the guy dangling at the end of my weapon over my head, and then with the same momentum, I smashed him into the ground on my other side. Josh hit the floor headfirst, and after a long beat and an indignant "Ow!", he finally let go.

"What the hell, man!" he complained, sprawled out on the ground. "That hurt!"

"You said you wanted to have a serious duel, didn't you? You have to be prepared for things like this," I answered with just a hint of a smirk, then circled my neck and added, "I'd offer a hand to help you up, but I think I pulled a tendon in my shoulder."

"Serves you right. Who even does something like that?" Josh moaned but rose to his feet anyway. In the meantime, the onlookers concluded that the sparring match was over, and Elly jumped into the ring.

"Are you hurt?"

"My right shoulder is a little sore, but I'll live."

"That was really cool, but you shouldn't hurt yourself for something like this."

While she might have scolded me, her eyes were practically sparkling with excitement, and after taking the spear from me and passing it onto one of the nameless squires serving as support crew, she began to carefully massage my aching shoulders.

"I was the one who hit his head, so why are you the only one who—?" Josh attempted to complain, but was cut short when his childhood friend rushed over to his side.

"Hey, are you all right? Do you feel dizzy? How many fingers am I showing?"

"Uuuh… Three?"

The Celestial girl let out a relieved sigh.

"Good. That means you probably don't have a concussion. Let me cast a healing aria, just to be sure."

"I feel fine but… um… thanks, Angie."

Awww. Look at that! That's pretty cute, isn't it? Elly also seemed to agree, as she let out a soft giggle. In the meantime, Judy also came over in the company of Fred. Our research division head was wearing proper lab attire for a change, and had a black clipboard in one hand and a bulky briefcase in the other.

"Kihihi! So? How's the External Mana Injection Kit working for you?"

"I'd prefer if you'd stop giving fancy names to every single one of our prototypes, but for your interest, it's stable enough. There are a few small kinks to work out, but I should be able to incorporate the array into the finished Uniformers."

Our resident mad scientist let out another chuckle and rubbed his palms together, at least as much as he could with both of them being occupied, but for the moment I focused on my assistant instead, who seemed to be completely immersed in typing on her phone. At last, she glanced up, and declared, "Chief, I think I'll have to update the power rankings again."

"I still find your fascination with power levels odd, but more importantly, does it mean I'm finally going down the ranks?"

"If anything, you should be going up!" Elly spiritedly commented on the side without stopping her massage. It was a little clumsy, but still unexpectedly pleasant, so I couldn't complain.

"Joshua is certainly going up. As for you…" My dear assistant paused and repeatedly blinked. I was just about to ask what she was doing, but then she muttered a deadpan, "My winking app crashed again."

"Let's just pretend it didn't. What were you planning to do?"

"I wanted to do a peace sign with it and say, 'It's a surprise!'."

"Would've been cute, if a little annoying, considering the subject matter. Keep practicing."

Judy nodded with a soft hum, and Fred used the opportunity to draw our attention by clearing his throat and tapping on the clipboard in his hand.

"Everybody finished sparring, so should we move on to today's agenda?"

"Do you mean the brackets?" an excited Angie cut in, closely followed by a still grumpy Josh.

"No. I told you I'm not getting involved with that in any way whatsoever," I told her on no uncertain terms, and she immediately deflated.

"Then what?" came the next question from the guy behind her, and instead of an answer, I gestured for him to follow after me. We headed towards the rest of our group. They were currently sitting on a blanket nearby, like they were having a picnic, baskets of food and all. Snowy and Ammy were a given, but even Rinne, Ichiko, Galatea, and all the knights were sitting around. Oh, and speaking of the Knights…

"Come on! Pretty please?"

To my surprise, I found Penny pestering Snowy, and the latter seemed like she was completely bamboozled by the attention.

"But… I don't know how to do it."

"Me neither, but we have the internet! I'm sure we can figure it out, so pleeease?"

It was around this time that Snowy noticed I was coming over, and after glancing between me and my other sister a couple of times, she lowered her voice and told said, "Next time, okay?"

"Yes!"

My knightlier sister did a fist pump, but then our eyes met, and her ear-to-ear grin was instantly replaced by a blank look, followed by a loud 'Awawa!'.

"H-H-Hi Leo!" Penny greeted me from the top of her lungs, and even though she was really suspicious, I decided not to call her out on it and instead gestured for everyone to pay attention to me.

"Listen up guys. Josh's new Magiformer seems to be working perfectly. As you could see, the wards now provide about twenty percent more impact negation. I also added a couple of other wards to protect against electric shocks and sudden changes in temperature. More importantly, it now features a secondary mana battery array to draw power from, so it poses much less of a restriction on the user's offensive power."

"Still feels a little stuffy," Josh mumbled on the side, but there was nothing I could do about that, so I ignored his comment.

"It requires more individual customization than the originals, so since his Magiformer takes priority due to the tournament, yours are going to be delayed a little. That said, are you sure you want to use your own gear?" The question was aimed at Ammy, but since we were in something of a cold war at the moment, she only curtly nodded. "Are you one hundred percent sure? I can probably still finish yours if I start working on it now."

"I'll be fine."

It didn't seem like she would change her mind any time soon, so I gave up and focused on the others, but just as I was about to continue, I noticed Angie's raised hand.

"Yes? Is there a problem?"

"Kinda?" She sounded uncertain, but then patted Josh on the back and said, "I mean, since this guy now has an improved Magiformer, wouldn't he have an unfair advantage in the tournament?"

For a moment I had no idea what she was on about, but then the proverbial light-bulb finally lit up over my head and I exhaled a brief sigh.

"You mean the internal tournament." She nodded, so I sighed again, this time harder. "That's none of my business. If you want to, you can battle without the Magiformers for all I care. Just be prepared that if any of you gets injured over something as silly as this, I'm going to shut the whole competition down and the offenders get the scolding of their lives."

"Then… I suppose we should discuss it between ourselves?" Josh mused, and I shrugged along with a 'Duh.'

After that, I tried to move on to the main topic again, but this time I was stopped by Penny's hand raised over her head.

"Yes, sis? What is it?"

"You talked about the Magiformers, but what about our uniforms?"

"… I was just about to get to those," I told her a touch irritably, and she shrunk back.

Meanwhile, I waved for Fred, and he presented the bulky suitcase he was carrying to me. I popped the clasps open and raised the lid, revealing four familiar, more-or-less identical sports watches. I didn't know when Fred had the time to make custom sockets for them, but on second thought, I didn't really care either. The quartet of Knights immediately perked up, and I gestured for them to come over. Needless to say, my excited sister was already by my side before the lid was even open, so I picked out her Uniformer and handed it over.

"This is the best I could do under the circumstances. It has the full ward set and the latest prototype connection array. It should be able to reproduce around thirty percent of your original armor's peak performance, and with your sword, you can push that up to around fifty percent for short bursts. It also comes with an undersuit, but be aware that it will only provide a single-use boost, and it has to be manually replaced after every use. By me. So please only use it when necessary, because I already have way too much to do." She repeatedly nodded, so I concluded with, "There's still a lot of room left for tweaking, but I figured you'd need to get used to it before the tournament, so please do with this for now."

"Can I try it out?"

Instead of any further explanations, I handed the watch over to her, and she immediately put it on. Meanwhile, the other three also came over, so I handed out their equipment as well.

"I focused on Penny's Uniformer, since she's the one who's going to publicly compete, so your devices are two generations behind hers. That said, both the wards and the connector arrays are functional, and they should help you get familiarized with the tech."

"Dae ours an' a' come wi' yin o' they undersuit hings?"

"Yes, and the same applies to yours as well," I answered, and Duncan let out a pleased 'Hah!'.

"Such a curious thing. So small, yet this will forever change our Brotherhood," Roland mused as he inspected his Uniformer from up close, and by the time he put it on, Penny had already turned hers on and let out a disappointed whine.

"Aaaw! Why does it still have trousers?"

"Because you've yet to convince me that combat hot pants make any sense whatsoever."

I expected her to keep protesting, but she fell silent when the big guy also activated his Uniformer, followed by a small squee.

"Wow! This looks really great on you!"

"Is… Is that sae?" Duncan muttered in an unexpected display of bashfulness that was soon replaced by apprehension when my sister grabbed hold of his arm.

"Come! Let's try it out!"

Since he had no way to say no in this situation, the big oaf had no choice but to allow himself to get dragged off into the sparring arena. While all that was happening, even Arnwald activated his Uniformer and he clenched and unclenched his gloved fist a couple of times.

"Truth be told, I never expected I would be wearing a military uniform again."

I had a feeling there was a story there, but before I could ask, Roland cut in with a curious expression.

"Say, Leonard? How much of our equipment's power can we draw from this device again?"

"As I mentioned, it's two generations behind Penny's, so about twenty to twenty-five percent. Potentially forty with a compatible weapon equipped."

"So it's compatible with our weapons. Can we also wear our armor on top of it as well?"

"Gauntlets and boots are doable, greaves, cuirasses, and helmets are currently not compatible." I showed off my own hands and feet for emphasis. "Sorry, but that's the best we could do for now. Progress is a little slower than expected."

"You consider this slow?!" Fred suddenly exclaimed by my side, all but dropping the open suitcase in the process.

"Isn't it?"

"Boss, I don't know what kind of crazy expectations you have, but normally getting this far would've taken years! Just getting from the fourth generation prototype to the fifth should've taken months, not a single week!"

"Really?"

"Yes, really!" he stressed, all but fuming. "Thank Sophia none of the others heard that remark, or you would've given them an aneurism!"

"I got it, I got it. Sheesh." I shook my head and turned back to the intrigued Mr. Griffon, and after clearing my throat I declared, "What I meant to say was that this was the best we could do despite the breakneck speed of our development process." I paused for a beat and directed a sideways glance at Fred. "Here. Better?"

"Yes. Much appreciated."

"Great. Now go and familiarize yourself with your Uniformers and their functionalities. If you want to change the design of the uniform or feel uncomfortable moving in them, just call me. Adjusting those things is pretty easy."

"Understood, my liege," Arnwald declared by tapping his fist against his chest, a gesture he recently picked up from the Fauns, and the two of them also headed for the training field, where Penny was already in the progress of handing our aggressively Scottish companion his ass.

Now that this part was done, I was just about to join the others at their ad-hoc picnic, and I could already see a fancy sandwich that pretty much had my name on it, but I was summarily intercepted by my sister rising to her feet.

"Uu… Leo? Can we talk?"

"Sure. Is there a problem?"

"Yes, but…" She glanced around and then whispered, "Can we talk in private?"

That was unexpected, but nobody seemed to mind her request, so I motioned for her to follow after me, and we walked over to the reception area with the teleport closet. I closed the door behind us for good measure and turned to the nervously fidgeting girl.

"I'm listening?"

"It's… It's about Penelope…"

I narrowed my eyes, and after recalling their most recent interaction, I ventured a guess.

"Is this about that thing she asked you about? Before I came over to your group, I mean?"

"H-Huh? Oh, no, not that." I raised a brow to prompt her, and after some hesitation, she began her explanation in a mousy voice, "She wants to install some games on my PC. She said she always wanted to try it, but she never had the money to get into gaming, and she doesn't want to ask you to buy her a computer after you already bought her a phone recently, so she asked me if she could play on mine whenever she comes over."

"I see. And you told her…?"

"That it's something Elly bought me for doing artwork, so I would have to ask her first, but then she told me it's mine and I can do whatever I want, so Penelope kept asking, and so I told her we'll try the next time she visits."

"So that's what she pestered you over, but that's not the problem you want to talk about." She shook her head. "But it's still something that has to do with her." This time, she solemnly nodded, but didn't actually say anything, so I had to urge her on with a slightly impatient, "So?"

Snowy looked away, with a hint of guilt surfacing on her face. It was soon replaced by helplessness, and after what felt like ages, she quietly muttered, "Please don't get mad, but… I think I might've… accidentally seduced her..."

"... Excuse me? Could you repeat that?"

I made an effort to sound calm, but Snowy still shuddered like I was scolding her.

"I... I didn't do it on purpose!" she burst out, and her panicked words flooded over me like water from a broken dam. "It just happened! I don't know why! I-I mean, think I know, but I’m not sure! I wanted to get along with her because she's your sister, and I was afraid that if we kept arguing, you would take her side, and then I would have nowhere to go, so... m-maybe I did it unconsciously, and before I knew it, there was a connection, and I wanted to cut it, but if I did, I was afraid we would start fighting again, and then I didn't know what to do, and, and..."

"Snowy!" She flinched, and now that I finally managed to get a word in, I raised a finger in front of her mouth and said, "Breathe."

After the first moment of confusion, she balled her fingers into fists and rapidly inhaled and exhaled with a serious expression. She did it so vehemently that I was afraid she was going to hyperventilate, so I turned the single extended finger into a palm to make her stop.

"All right. Are we calm now?"

"N-No, but... better?"

"Good enough. So, from the beginning: Penny used to antagonize you when she transferred in." She gave me a nod. "Because you didn't want to cause trouble, you tried to befriend her, but then you accidentally did your Seducer thing."

"Yes. It was an accidental connection," she stressed.

"Easy there, sis. I believe you. So, when did you notice this connection thing?"

"... Last week," she meekly admitted, and when I didn't respond right away, she hastily added, "I-I know I should've told you sooner, but I didn't know what to do, and I was afraid, and—"

"Easy, easy." I rubbed her back, both for emphasis and to calm her, and once she settled down a little, I asked, "What exactly are the effects of this 'connection'?"

"It's... not very strong, so it should be just a mild fascination. A feeling of closeness, trust, comfort... those kinds of things."

I exhaled a sneaky sigh of relief. For a moment I was afraid it was something more substantial, like a love spell, but on second thought, if Snowy never used something like that on Josh, there was no way she would hit Penny with one. Still, it was better to leave no stone unturned, so I asked anyway.

"In other words, when you said you ‘seduced' her, you meant the ability, not that you made her romantically interested."

"N-No! Strong emotions require a much stronger connection! There's no way I could do something like that on accident. I mean, it was an accident. Really. I swear."

"I know. I already told you I believe in you."

My sister shyly averted her eyes, and I used the silence to think. Not that there was much to consider in this situation, as there was only one reasonable thing to do.

"All right then. You stay here, I'll go get Penny, and we're going to explain things to her together."

"Do we... really have to?"

"Of course we do. It's the reason why you came to me, isn't it? You could've kept this a secret, but you didn't, so we should go the whole mile and resolve this entire situation in one go."

"... I suppose you're right."

"Yup. Trust your big bro, and we'll fix this in a jiffy."

I flashed her a reassuring smile, and she gave me one in return, even if hers was a little strained. I figured a brotherly head pat was in order, and after delivering one, I left the reception room to look for my other sister. It wasn't hard to find her, as she was still bouncing around in the sparring arena, though since I've last seen her, she replaced her partner with an eager Josh. By the looks of it, their match was going surprisingly even.

"Guys, could you—?"

"I'll get you this time!" Josh cut me off with a roar and rushed Penny.

"In your dreams!" my sister answered with a fearless grin and did that zig-zag move she used against me during our Arbitration. They met in the middle, and Josh blocked her strike with a semi-transparent green barrier covering his left forearm. He tried to push on, aiming for a grapple, but Penny pushed him aside and did a completely superfluous backwards somersault to gain some distance.

"I said, could you two st—?"

This time I was cut short by a spirited roar coming from Josh. Once he regained his balance, he cupped his hands in front of his chest, and I could already see the seed of a large air bullet forming between them. Penny responded by brandishing her training sword and taking up a guard point. She yelled out, and her whole body started shining, a side-effect of cycling her mana. Weirdly enough, they did this whole power-up stand-off while they were only about three steps apart, and by the looks of it, they didn't even register that I was there. Rude.

Since I still had my testing gear equipped, I revved it up and briskly walked between the two while they were still busy channeling their super special awesome attacks or whatnot. Without further ado, I reached out and grabbed Penny’s sword near the tip. I had my gauntlet on, and she was using a blunt training sword, so there was no way I’d get cut. She still panicked for a moment when she realized what was happening, which allowed me to easily yank the weapon out of her grasp.

Josh also recognized my presence, at last, and tried to redirect his attack. He was within the reach of my Phantom Limbs, so I figured it was simpler to just cut his oversized air-ball in half with one swipe, and it disappeared with a limp whooshing noise. Now, since he was in phantom-limb range, it naturally meant he was also in sword range, so I raised the recently snatched weapon over my head and lightly bonked him on the forehead for emphasis.

"Ow! What gives?" my friend complained and vigorously rubbed his forehead with the kind of look a big dog would show when you took its favorite toy.

"Pay attention to people when they’re talking to you." Right after saying that, I held out the sword pommel-first, and it took him a second to recognize what I wanted. I let him pull the weapon out of my grasp, then grabbed my sister by the scruff of her neck and said, "I’m borrowing Penny for a minute."

"Brother, wait! We’re not finished yet!"

"You can continue sparring after we’re done talking."

With that, I dragged her off the training field, leaving an eminently baffled Josh in our wake, plus a couple of intrigued bystanders. We ignored them all, and before long I was back in the reception room with a resigned girl following me.

Once she noticed Snowy, she let out a stifled cough and asked, "Is... this about the computer?"

"No, it’s something more important," I answered, and gestured for Snowy to speak up. She didn’t. Instead, she just stared at the floor and awkwardly shuffled her feet, so a sigh later I broke the ice with, "You know that by Abyssal standards, Snowy is something called a ‘Seducer’, right?"

"Yes?"

"Seducers have this ability to make people like them."

"I figured," Penny muttered, suddenly sounding apprehensive. "So... Are you trying to tell me she used that on you?"

She even pointed at me, and I could barely hold back the impulse to flick her forehead.

"No, you blockhead. She used it on you. You, not me."

"She did?"

She looked at Snowy in alarm, and my Abyssal sister finally spoke up.

"It wasn't on purpose! It was by complete accident, I swear!"

By the looks of it, my knightly sister was hit by a classic blue screen of death, but after rebooting, her face went red as a lobster and she practically hid herself behind my back and pointed a finger at the other girl.

"No way! We're both girls! Girls!"

"That doesn't really matter," Snowy explained, and Penny’s brows climbed even higher up her forehead in alarm.

"It... It doesn't?"

"What she meant," I cut in before she'd develop some kind of weird misunderstanding, "is that she only wanted you to like her as a friend, so whether you are both girls or not is completely irrelevant."

"Really? Phew!" Penny theatrically wiped her forehead, and finally stopped trying to hide behind me. "So... it didn't work?" We both gave her odd looks, so she hurriedly added, "I mean, I already told you it's not like I like her a lot or anything, so it obviously didn’t work on me, right? Because of my awesome magic resistance as the Unicorn Knight, right? Right?"

I had no idea what kind of resistance she was talking about outside her armor, but before anything else, I gently pointed out, "That means you do like her, at least a little."

"It's semantics!" she pouted, her face flushing again just as it was about to return to normal. "It's not like we get along particularly well, right, Snowy?" Before my other sister could answer, Penny let out a triumphant huff and declared, "You see? This isn't a biggie at all."

Honestly, I hoped she wouldn't make a huge deal out of being subtly manipulated like that, but the passion by which she tried to ignore the whole issue was a little suspicious.

"Just to be clear, Snowy here unconsciously used magic to influence you. Are you really okay with that?"

"I don't feel influenced at all," she declared, almost sounding proud.

This time I turned to my other sister, and asked, "For the record, you still have that Seducer connection with her, right?"

"Yes. I... didn't know what to do, and I didn't want to forcefully cut it."

"Can you do it now?"

Instead of answering, Snowy clasped her hands together with a determined look in her eyes. There was a soft glow around her, and for a moment I could see something in the air between my sisters. It was faint and wispy, kind of like when a ray of sunlight poking through the holes on a shutter illuminated the dust in the air, but before I could take a better look, it completely dissipated.

Maybe she was expecting something more dramatic to happen, as Penny repeatedly blinked and glanced around, ultimately settling on me. She flashed a cheeky grin and declared, "You see? Nothing changed. I still only like her this much."

She illustrated her point by parting her thumb and index fingers. I leaned closer to take a better look, pointed at it, and turned to Snowy.

"Say, sis? Isn't that more than the last time?"

"I’m... not sure. Maybe a little?"

"That's just your imagination," Penny declared with a pout and hid her hand behind her back.

"So... You're not mad at me?" Snowy sounded a touch sheepish, and after some thinking, my other sister shook her head.

"You said it was an accident, and that you were sorry, and it wasn't that big of a deal anyway, and forgiveness is a virtue, so..." She suddenly stuck out a hand and asked, "Water under the bridge?"

Snowy stared at the outstretched hand like she’d never seen on in her life, and glanced at me for encouragement. Instead, I shook my head and told them, "I don’t want to rain on your parade, but this isn’t something you should sweep under the rug like that."

"But why? There was no harm done," Penny pointed out, but I stood my ground.

"I don’t want this incident to crop up again and bite us in the butt in the future, so I’d like you to talk it out properly. I want you to open your hearts, spill out your feelings, and all kinds of other mushy stuff, so that you two would be on the same page for sure, without any possibility of a misunderstanding."

"That’s... difficult," Snowy muttered, so I turned to her.

"Why?" Instead of answering, she pointed at me. "It’s difficult because I’m here?"

"It would be embarrassing."

I couldn't really argue with that, so I gestured towards the bench by the teleport closet. "In that case, I’ll leave it to you two. Be nice, be honest, be thorough."

My sisters shared a confused look, but under my urging, they obediently sat down side by side. A soft grunt of approval later I waved them goodbye and left the room, only to run into my girlfriends loitering in front of the entrance.

"What’s the scoop?" Elly asked after sidling up to me, and after a moment of consideration, I shrugged and gave them the footnotes version of the events.

"So, she really used her powers on Penny after all," Judy concluded without looking up from her phone.

"I knew it!" Elly agreed, causing my brows to knit on their own.

"You did?"

"Well, fine, I didn’t know, but I had a strong feeling that was the case," the princess clarified herself. "That’s why I only hinted at it in front of Neige, to see her reaction."

"I believe that’s why she decided to consult you," Judy commented on the side, still typing.

"For the better. The last thing I needed right now was something like this to drive a wedge between my sisters," I noted a tad dourly, but Judy only responded with an absentminded hum and continued to type away. "Dormouse? What exactly are you doing right now?"

"I’m in the process of factoring in your recent intervention against Penelope and Joshua into our internal power ranking matrix."

I had many words to say about her strange fascination with power levels, but in the end, I only acknowledged her with a deadpan "I see," and left it at that. Everybody needed a hobby, and who was I to judge?

"What’s the plan for the rest of the day?" Elly inquired and I seriously considered her question.

"The girls should work this out between themselves, but let's stay around until they're done, just in case. After that, we have to test Josh's mana ripples, and then I plan to finish Judy’s artifacts today." That finally made my dear assistant look up from her notes, so I gave her a toothy smile and added, "Look forward to them."

"Don’t mind if I do."

"Once I'm done with that, it’s probably going to be time to ferry everyone home, and then I’ll visit Sahi to chat with her about the tournament."

"Are you going to talk her out of it?"

At first, I didn't quite know how to answer that, so I shrugged.

"We’ll see. I still have to figure out how to approach this whole tournament arc, and I want to hear her out too."

"No sabotaging," Judy warned me.

"At least not before I get to the semi-finals," Elly added on, earning a frown from my assistant for her trouble.

"Don’t loosen the terms for no reason."

"I’m not. Not to mention, Leo promised that he’ll watch my matches in the semi-finals, so he obviously shouldn’t do any sabotaging before that," the princess explained, and while I could’ve pointed out I only promised to think about watching, I let it slide this time.

"Unless it turns out it's dangerous, I'll probably leave the tournament to chug along. If anything, I should come up with a way to make it work for us."

"That’s what I like to hear!" the princess exclaimed and patted me on the back, only to let out a pained hiss. "Owie! Sharp!"

"Oh right. I still have the harness on me," I mused and pulled on my glove. "I supposed I should get out of my gear. I don’t need any more experimental data today, and—"

Then, just as my hand was about to slip out, my sixth sense gave me a mild warning, and I reflexively stepped back, pulling the girls along with me. It was just in time too, as a split-second later a stray air bullet careened past us and hit the heavy metal door of the reception room with a dull thud.

"Akuryo no Senmai!"

I could faintly hear Josh exclaiming ‘Crap!’ in the distance, followed by a heavy impact. A second later, there was a much more distinct yell of, "Ha! Missed me!"

It was roughly around this time that the door behind us opened and Penny poked her head through the crack.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, don’t worry about it." With a solid tug, I pulled my gauntlet back onto my hand and hissed, "Just continue your discussion. I’ll be right back after instilling some discipline..."

"Good night!" Elly rose to her tiptoes and gave me a chaste kiss. "Don't forget the stage."

It took me a moment to realize she was talking about the stage for the school festival concert. I had no idea what I was supposed to remember about it, but I still obediently answered, "I won't. Also, for the record, it's barely evening yet."

"Hush, Chief. Nobody likes a nitpicker," Judy scolded me, but then she glanced down at the ring on her finger and added, "Other than me."

"Us," the princess corrected her, showing off her own ring, and my dear assistant amended herself.

"Other than us."

The ring on Judy's fingers was, naturally, the custom-made defensive artifact I made for her. Well, technically I only tuned it for final specifications, but it's a distinction without a difference. Since she wasn't supposed to enter into combat, its only job was to protect her in case of an emergency, at least until she could be extracted, by encasing her in a barrier. It would only last for a couple of seconds on a single charge, but I figured it was more than enough time for me to Phase in and take her to safety.

As for why the princess also had an identical silver band on her finger, the explanation was quite prosaic: balance. After all, giving a ring to only one of my girlfriends was pretty much begging for further misunderstandings. The fact they insisted on wearing them on their ring fingers, and that I had to put them on myself, went without saying. Of course, Elly's artifact was more offensively-oriented, and Judy received a couple of other enchanted tools as well, but rings had special significance, so I made sure both of them would get one.

In any case, my lips twisted into a smile, and I kissed both girls before gently urging them out the door and towards the patiently waiting limousine parked on my driveway. My girlfriends lingered long after the rest of our group already headed home, and while their company was always welcome, it was getting late. After our final goodbyes, I saw them off and waited until the car left the street before I returned to the living room.

I considered whether to grab some snacks, but my train of thought was interrupted by screeching noise coming from upstairs. A soft sigh later my legs carried me up the stairs, stopped in front of Snowy's room, and I knocked twice. A long beat later my sister opened the door and poked her head out. My redhead sister, that is.

"Yes?"

"What's the commotion about?"

Penny cocked her head like my question was weird, but then she fully opened the door and said, "We're just rearranging things a little."

Looking inside, I found Snowy carefully moving the computer desk to the corner where her wardrobe used to be.

"Why do you need to move the furniture for a sleepover?"

My perfectly reasonable question was met with conspicuously averted eyes and a tongue-tied silence.

Long story short, after I scolded Josh and Rinne, and established new rules regarding sparring and the usage of small Purple Zones, I discovered that my sisters already finished discussing the whole 'seduction' topic. Since Snowy was still feeling apologetic, she apparently allowed Penny to use her PC whenever she wanted, and my other sister snatched at the chance with suspicious zeal. She also wanted to capitalize on the opportunity right away, so with my blessing, she was going to stay over at our place. Actually, now that I thought about it...

"Say, Penny? Where do you plan to sleep tonight again?"

"Here, of course," she declared, and gestured towards Snowy's bed, currently occupied by the duffel bag holding her change of clothes and school uniform.

"With Snowy?"

"Obviously." I was just about to respond to that, but then her face flushed red and she hastily proclaimed, "D-Don't have any weird ideas! It's totally fine to do that! We're both girls, right, Snowy?"

"I… Yes?" my other sister responded a bit slowly, visibly taken aback.

"You see? This means it's totally fine."

"You're repeating yourself."

"No, I'm not!" Penny fumed, but for the moment I ignored her and turned to the Abyssal girl instead.

"Are you sure it's okay?"

"Yes. If Penny wants to sleep over, I don't mind sharing."

I eyed the silver-haired girl for a while and decided to say, "Just for the record, you don't have to listen to everything she says just because you're feeling guilty for what happened."

"Hey! You make it sound like I'm blackmailing her!" Penny protested, but I continued to ignore her.

All things considered, I was happy they were still getting along despite this whole 'seduction' hubbub, but I was a little worried their relationship would get unbalanced by Snowy's guilty conscience. For now, it seemed Penny was only using it as an excuse to hole herself up in her room and get her hands on her PC, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Just remember, if things get too crummy in here, Penny can still sleep in the guest room."

"Things aren't going to get 'crummy'!" the redhead in the front objected with a galactic pout and gave Snowy a small bear hug. So… a cub-hug? Is that a thing? Should it be? Anyhow, she continued with, "We can fit in a single bed no problem! Also, there's nothing strange about that at all, because we're girls, right?"

"I… think we are still girls, yes?"

Snowy sounded even more confused but endured the cub-hug without any complaints.

"Yes, we are! Also, sisters! Sorta!" Penny carried on. "So there's nothing weird about sleeping in the same bed, right! Siblings do that all the time!"

She was still kind of suspicious, but her going out of her way to call Snowy her sister was definitely a welcome development. An odd, rushed, and questionable development, but definitely not a bad one, so for the time being I decided to leave these two to their own devices and let them figure out their relationship on their own. I would still step in if Penny got too overbearing or Snowy too uncomfortable, but I had no reason to do so yet.

So, since I confirmed the source of the noises and that my sisters were getting along just fine, it was time to move on… after some obligatory teasing.

"Are you sure you're the same girl who chased Snowy across the school building while calling her a pastry?"

Penny reeled back like I just smacked her in the nose, followed by a shrill "Brother! Did you seriously have to bring up Snowy's trauma right now?"

"Excuse me, but weren't you the one who caused that trauma in the first place?"

Her face tinted in a shade of crimson, Penny finally let go of my other sister and used both hands to push me out of the doorway. I let her do it, and once I was out of the way, she exhaled an indignant huff.

"Out with you! You don't have a shred of delicacy!" And with that, she very carefully and quietly slammed the door on me. However, even after that, I could still hear her let out a groan on the other side, followed by a much softer, "I-I didn't mean it! When I called you a tart, I mean! It was in the heat of the moment and everything…"

"It doesn't really bother me," Snowy answered softly, eliciting a confused noise from the other girl.

"It should! I-I mean, not in this case, but you shouldn't just let anyone call you that! If somebody does, just call me, and I'll teach them a lesson! … Or, I suppose you can probably beat them up too, but… but never mind! Just call me, and I'll show them what's what!"

Whatever Snowy's answer was, I couldn't hear it, because I was already heading to my room. Eavesdropping was rude, after all. Unless it was done using supernatural remote viewing by a handsome, talented, and criminally humble guy, in which case it was Hunky Dory.

Putting my self-deprecating hypocrisy aside, once I was inside, I sat down and did a Far Sight roll-call. Josh and Angie were already home, and she was giving first-aid after-care to her childhood friend. There was a nice atmosphere between those two, which made me wonder when and how they would cross the proverbial finish line. It wasn't likely I'd learn anything important though, so I moved on. There was nothing on the rest of the gang, nothing on Abram, nothing in the base, Mike was already sleeping, Jaakobah was holed up in a room somewhere, and as for Crowey… Let's just say he was still suffering from the fallout of my infiltration of the Inanna's the Mana Well. By the looks of it, he wouldn't be bothering us for at least a couple of weeks longer.

Now then, that meant it was time to move onto my main target, and I honed in on a certain incognito arch-mage, currently leisurely lounging in her high-class hotel suite. She had probably taken a bath, as her hair was wrapped up in a bright pink towel that contrasted with the plain joggers and hoodie she was wearing. Normally I would've used a more indirect entry, but I already promised Rinne that I would head back to the base later today to finalize the plans for the new training grounds, so without any further ado, I Phased away.

"Evening."

"Whaaaa…?"

The brown girl on the couch nearly jumped out of her skin, but once she realized it was just me, her tense shoulders slouched like it was going out of style.

"Leonard! What are you doing here?"

"I'm not really here, just projecting. You know? Illusions and stuff," I answered off-handedly and walked around the couch to face her.

"Really? Wow. That's, like, so bad."

"Bad?"

"In, like, a good way!" the old lady in the body of a teenager declared with a grin so wide I could see her molars. "So, like, why are you not here?"

"Just wanted to discuss your participation in the tournament," I told her without beating around the bush, and her good mood evaporated like hand sanitizer in the Saharan noon.

"It was the old badger who set you up for this, wasn't he?" When I nodded, he let out an angry 'Bah!' and threw her hands into the air. "Gag me with a spoon! That's totally typical! So what? Do you, like, want to tell me to withdraw?"

"The old man definitely wants me to, but I can go either way. It really depends on why you want to participate."

"Oh, that's simple," she brightened up and pulled her legs into a cross under her. "It's gonna be totally tubular!"

"So you want to join because it sounds fun." She nodded without the slightest hint of hesitation. "Even though it will draw attention to you, may make the Assembly investigate you, and potentially mess up your inheritance?"

"Hey! Whose side are you on?"

"Don't mind me, I'm just making a token effort," I told her without reservation. "So, is that it?"

Sahi eyed me for a while, then out of the blue, she took the wet towel off her head and shook her hair loose.

"Listen, Leonard. I already lived a long, lame life. If I had to choose between trying something fresh and playing it totally safe, I would choose the first every time! Like, look at me!" She pinched a tuft of her hair between her fingers and showed it off to me. "No split ends! No grey strands! And I'm, like, totally hot! Why should I waste my time worrying about my money and research? What good did they ever do to me?"

"Technically, it's because your research set the foundations that I could transfer you over to this body," I pointed out, but she dismissed me with a roll of her eyes.

"Don't, like, split hairs on me! I just told you how I'm totally stoked that I don't have to deal with those anymore! And, like, more importantly, I just want to live a new life without any regrets."

"And you would regret not participating in the tournament."

"Fer shur!"

"Well, that settles it then."

Sahi once again looked at me funny.

"Is that it? I thought you would, like, try to convince me and stuff?"

"Nah. I just came over so that I can tell Lord Grandpa I tried. He probably won't be going to like it though."

"Of course he won't! That wizened weasel never had a day of fun in his life! Like, he wouldn't recognize adventure if it totally hit him in the nose!"

"Wouldn't he? I was under the impression he led at least one expedition into the Amazon in his younger days."

The fuming girl on the couch fell silent and gave me a look that said she wasn't sure if I was pulling her leg or not.

"Where did you hear that?"

"From the school nurse," I admitted, and her eyes opened wide.

"Those dweebs did something like that, and they never invited me? The gall of those posers!"

"I have nothing to add to that, so if you excuse me, I'm going to sublimate out of perception now."

"Oh, okay. One day you have to show me how you do these gnarly illusions. It's major amazing! Even when I know it's fake, it's like you're totally here in front of me!"

"Maybe one day," I told her mysteriously, and after waving goodbye, I left the penthouse suite and returned to my own room. Token effort: complete.

My eyes automatically checked the clock on the wall. It was still a little early, and I internally debated if I should head over to the secret base, or stay around for a while longer in case my sisters made a commotion. In the end, I decided to stay. First, I would continue the roll-call, then I'd check the Celestial Hub for any interesting news, then maybe brew a nice hot cup of tea. Sounded like an easygoing yet productive plan for the evening, so I went with it.

For a start, I focused on the new marks I'd made during the banquet. The first person I checked was naturally Zihao, and I found him sitting in an empty room, legs in a lotus position, and meditating. Or napping. Either way, absolutely riveting.

Okay, so that was a dud. Moving on, I focused on the Western Draconians I marked, but it didn't go much better either. Were Draconians early sleepers, I wondered? The few of them who were still awake weren't doing anything interesting either, so I ran out of targets really quickly.

This left me with one last group. While I never got the chance to mark Naoren and the grand elder, my previous experience with the Knights showed me that marking an otherwise generic placeholder in their environment was almost as good, so I made sure to sneakily poke a couple of the lesser family members and servants orbiting around the main players. Some of them were duds, but at least one of them turned out to be the personal assistant of the bespectacled clan head, and I managed to pick two members of the grand elder's inner circle as well.

Long story short, my indirect glance at Naoren proved to be less than exciting, as he was doing paperwork. I had no idea what kind, as I couldn't read Chinese, but it had a lot of big numbers and tables in it, so I was pretty sure it was business-related. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Now then, as for the people around the Grand Elder—

"…exactly do you want in exchange for this information?"

The raspy female voice hitting my ear made me shudder, and the moment my vision cleared, I could feel my chest tighten with a mixture of surprise and disbelief. The shock kicked my brain into higher gear, and I immediately changed my Far Sight target Phased out of the house.

"[Ah? Blackcloak?]" Brang uttered in surprise when I appeared out of thin air in the Fauns' barracks, and he put the book he was reading aside. "[What bring you here at—]"

"[The time to converse does not exist!]" I barked out while taking off my shirt. "[I request that you retrieve mine Abyssal masquerade of Bel with absolute haste!]"

The old general probably had a lot of questions in mind, but to his credit, he didn't ask a single one of them, but instead he rose to his feet and rushed out of the room to fulfill my command, and by the time he returned with a box and a coat hanger, I was already down to my underwear. Time was of the essence, modestly was secondary, and while I wasn't sure how I'll play this, one thing was for sure: my plans for an easygoing evening were definitely out the window.