The Simulacrum

The shouting, audible all the way from the other end of the hallway, died down the moment we entered the Dracis mansion's spacious conference hall. This was the same room where we brokered a peace accord with Penny's group, though the interior design was completely overhauled for the occasion.

The big table in the middle was taken out, replaced by a semi-circle-shaped one at the back of the room. Around the curved side sat the most important Draconian clan heads, or their representatives. The only exceptions were the Dracises, as Emese and Elly were both seated next to Abram at the head of the table, at least as much as this concept applied here. There was also an empty seat between them, no doubt reserved for me.

Speaking of empty seats, there was another spot left empty, right between the still black-eyed grand elder and Naoren's annoying brother, currently wrapped up like an off-season mummy. The Ordo Draconis (still can't believe that this name stuck) members were seated on the side, and while everyone seemed a little unnerved by their presence, they remained unbothered. As for Morgana and Raven Boy, the two of them were sitting behind a plain table facing the fancy semi-circular one, in the company of two nondescript middle-aged Asian men.

All in all, with the bigwigs in the back, the four in the middle, and the small gaggle of miscellaneous extras seated around the four walls, the place looked closer to a courtroom than a conference hall.

But back to our arrival: Naoren and I both received a change of clothes, namely a pair of matching 'victorian aristocrat' style suits similar to the one I wore to the banquet, and came here right after putting them on. Xiao was whisked away by her bodyguards in the meantime, so it was only the two of us this time around, yet our presence still silenced the cacophony of the room in an instant.

"Welcome! Please, come and take a seat!" Abram exclaimed in his usual lack of indoor voice. "We didn't know when you two would finish, so we started without you! Sorry about that!"

"There's no need to apologize, clan head," Naoren said in a diplomatically neutral voice I couldn't imitate even if I tried. So I didn't.

"What did we miss?" I asked as I walked over to the empty seat by Elly's side without any reservations, and the Feilong patriarch soon followed my example.

"How much do you know?" Emese inquired, and I only answered after sitting down.

"Xiao told us what happened at the tournament. Did you know she was a dragon? I have to say, I didn't see that coming."

"I think none of us did," Mom-in-law commented a tad morosely, but before she could add anything more, her husband's voice filled the chamber once again.

"So, son? Who won?"

"Clan head Abram!" one of the clan head representatives, a young woman, spoke up in disapproval. "That is hardly the most important thing we must discuss right now!"

"But I'm curious! Don't tell me I'm the only one!" He glanced around, looking for approval, and there were actually a couple of people in the crowd that seemed to share his sentiment. "So? Don't keep us in suspense!"

I glanced at Naoren, and we both let out a shallow sigh, more-or-less in unison.

"If you really want to know," I began, drawing everyone's attention, "After a long and tiring fight, we both aired our grievances, argued our perspectives, and in the end reached mutual understanding and ended the duel on amicable terms."

"So it's a draw?" Abram blurted out, and I nodded. "So... did I win or lose the bet?"

I had no idea what he meant, and considering that mom-in-law already wedged his elbow into his side, I didn't even bother to ask.

"Impossible!" Zihao exclaimed in outrage... kind of. I mean, he probably wanted to do that, but his jaw was bandaged up, so his words ended up kind of muffled. "There's no way my brother would lose to a lowlife like you!"

"Zihao, mind your words," Naoren spoke up sternly, halting the guy before he could gather more steam. "After our duel concluded, Leonard and I swore an oath of brotherhood. As my peer, you must address him as such."

"You did what?" Zihao blurted out, and I couldn't help but let a pleased smile creep onto my face.

"Wait, does that mean that he now has o call me something like 'elder brother'? Huh. Suddenly this whole sworn brother thing sounds pretty neat."

"I'm not going to call you--!"

Before he could finish, the grand elder by the brothers' side raised a hand, and it silenced the explosive younger guy at once.

He looked me over with a critical eye, then said, "You say the two of you had crossed blades for over six hours, yet you do not appear to be any worse for wear."

"Well, we weren't just repeatedly punching each other for six hours, obviously," I responded, and Naoren picked up my slack as well.

"We contested each other in many ways. Only brutes use their fists for everything, and only fools allow themselves to be pummeled."

"Right. Exactly as he said," I concurred, only to pause for a beat and innocently ask, "But speaking of pummeling, what happened to your face, grand elder? Did you accidentally run into a lamppost... about twenty times? Or was it closer to thirty?"

"Leo," the princess hissed on my side, and I took a moment to breathe in a center myself. Force of habit and all that.

Instead of responding right away, the old man only glared at me, yet soon his face returned to a neutral expression and he blandly stated, "I encountered two warriors of the Brotherhood of Most Heroic Bloodlines. I'm led to believe you are well-acquainted with them."

"You mean Morgana and Agrawain over there?" I pointed at the two Knights, currently wearing what looked like surgical gowns (I admit, I forgot to prepare tracksuits for them), and waved. Morgana gave me a deferential nod, while Raven Boy remained indifferent. "You could say that, yes."

"As a matter of fact," the grand elder raised his voice and aimed an accusatory finger at me, "I was told that you are none other than the head of the warmongers of the Brotherhood of the Most Heroic Bloodlines!"

That sudden accusation created a bit of a buzz, but much less than expected. Apparently, the information was already disseminated by this point.

"Your information is a little outdated. We're called the Ordo Draconis now."

"Do not pull the neck of the duck and call it a goose!"

"... Was that even a Chinese idiom, or something you came up with on the spot?"

"Stop avoiding the question!" the old man growled, incensed to the point his face was redder than the princess after I teased her a little. "Do you dare deny the fact that you have conspired to smuggle the members of Brotherhood of the Most Heroic Bloodlines into our ranks?"

"Ordo Draconis," Arnwald corrected him on the side, earning the old man's ire.

"Silence! You shall be dealt with in due time, after the—"

"Would you please shut up for a moment?" I cut in with a level but firm voice and my best glare, leaving the old man's mouth hanging.

"You dare!?" Zihao burst out, so instantly switched my glare at him.

"I believe what you wanted to say way, 'You dare, elder brother?', am I right?" Now it was his turn to make his best stumped-fish-impression, and since he didn't respond, I proceeded to ignore him and focus my attention back on the old man. "But to stay on topic, I would advise against threatening my subordinate in public like that. It's not a good look, and it may cause me to point out that when it comes to vaguely nefarious conspiracies, you should be the last person accusing others." I paused here, just to let that settle down in everyone's mind, and then added, "However, to be fair, I can't deny that I am, indeed, the current leader of the Knights, and thus responsible for their presence on the island. I'm also responsible for telling my subordinates to safeguard your tournament, which is the reason why they put down the coup d'etat you set into motion, and evacuate everyone during the attack of the stray Knights you got involved, along with an alleged Abyssal Lord you pissed off. But by all means, please do tell how it's all our fault."

"Now, now, son. Don't push so hard," Abram warned me in a rare display of normal volume levels. "We have already discussed the internal dispute within the Feilong clan, and grand elder Xinji was found to be acting with noble intentions."

"Was he?" I asked back, and this time it was one of the Eastern Draconian clan heads who spoke up.

"If I may, please allow this humble official to summarize the proceedings of the conference so far, for the benefit of clan head Naoren and... errr..."

The man was giving me an odd look, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize what caused his wires to get crossed and say, "Just skip the titles for now."

After a brief beat, he nodded and started again.

"For the benefit of those not present during the first half of the meeting…" He squared the notes in front of him, and only continued after looking through them. "According to the testimonies of the clan protectors of clan Feilong, grand elder Feilong Xinji was corresponding with them in secret, informing them of the progress of his plans to draw out the seditious elements among the subordinate branch-families, and he coordinated with the leadership of the loyal clans. While the timing of the rebellion was inexact, after reviewing the witnesses and the evidence presented the clans present at the summit deemed grand elder Feilong Xinji's actions appropriate and without malice, and no one pressed any claims for punishment or reimbursement. As such, any further investigation or examination was left in the hands of the Feilong clan's internal disciplinary council."

Since it appeared the man finished speaking, I looked at Naoren and asked, "You have an 'internal disciplinary council'?"

"Yes. It is led by the grand elder, though I believe in this case I would have to take over his duties until the end of the investigation."

"But that doesn't change the fact that he's going to be reviewed by his own men. That sounds like a scandal in the making."

"Don't worry, I will ensure the neutrality of the process. Please give me some face."

"Aw, dammit!" I hissed and nearly rolled my eyes. "We were this close to avoid the whole 'face' cliché, and you blew it…" The bespectacled patriarch raised a disapproving frown at my grumbles, so I added, "Yes, sure, I naturally trust your judgment and your face and whatnot, but considering this was an incident that endangered not only your extended family, but many others as well, I propose a joint investigation."

"You dare question my brother's judgment?" Zihao barked in, and so I only again leveled a flat look at him.

"You once again forgot to add 'esteemed elder brother' at the end of your question, so I won't dignify you with an answer until you learn your etiquette," I answered a touch snobbishly, and while I received a couple of glares for my trouble, the princess at my side had to hide her face to stifle her giggles, which was way more important to me, so I didn't mind.

More importantly, I maintained eye-contact until Zihao finally averted his gaze, yet at the same time, I subtly gestured for Naoren to go along with me. He didn't seem entirely enthusiastic but followed my lead all the same, and the moment I looked at him, he asked, "What do you have in mind?"

"Thank you for asking." I stood up and cleared my throat. "I propose that the members of the Ordo Draconis would oversee the process as neutral observers." That earned me a round of confused, flabbergasted, and mildly outraged voices, but once I raised my hand, the confubbergastraged noises all died down, allowing me to continue. "You might wonder why I would propose to let men and women who were, until today, your mortal enemies, do that. The answer is as simple as it is harsh: you are fragmented, you are divided, and you are weak." This time I didn't let the dissenting voices gain momentum, and raised mine in advance and pointed at the four uniformed Knights on the side, then at the two by the table in the middle. "Look at them! These are the 'accursed knights' you fear and loathe! Seven, counting myself! You, descendants of mighty dragons and hoarders of wealth and prestige, and you had been held in check by seven people, three of them too young to even legally drink in most countries! Why do you think that is? It's because you are so busy squabbling with each other over scraps and old grudges that you completely lost track of the big picture. Look at what happened today. A single man made a fool out of all of you because you were so focused on scheming and plotting against each other, you forgot to even consider that maybe you should rather brace yourself against the Abyssal with the unknown motivation and powers."

"We didn't exactly know about him…" one of the Western Draconian clan heads noted on the side, so I pointed a finger at the grand elder.

"He did, and he chose to instead focus on his plan instead of telling anyone about it."

"I learned of this Bel of the Abyss's existence during my brief contact with the two warriors of the Brotherhood of the Most Heroic bloodlines," the old man stated in a dignified but tense voice. "I couldn't reveal his threat without disclosing my manipulation of the warriors of the Bro—"

"And tell me, did it even cross your mind not to do that?" I cut him off before he could repeat the Knights' unnecessarily long name for the umpteenth time. "Did you even consider that maybe your internal squabble was less important than this new threat? That maybe you should just cut your losses, explain yourself, and ask for help?" I waited for a beat, then declared, "No, of course not. This is the problem. You, we, are all too entrenched in our ways, pointlessly repeating our mistakes without ever learning from our history. Hundreds of years of fruitless feuds had already proven that. No matter the threat of violence the Knights have imposed, it couldn't make you change your ways and unite. However, despite you never changing your ways, the Knights kept using the same methods over and over again. It's an endless cycle of pointless, petty violence and strife, and it. cannot. continue."

"What is your alternative?" Naoren prompted me again, and I opened my arms wide.

"All of you have seen it already. The Brotherhood of the Most Heroic Bloodlines is no more. We have pledged ourselves to right the wrongs of the past, and some of you have experienced our determination firsthand during today's incident. The Ordo Draconis now exists to maintain peace, order, and the bare minimum of decency among all Draconian families. However, we can't do it on our own. For this to work, you have to do the same; set aside your grudges and unite under a single banner. Only when we are of one mind and vision can we avoid falling into another vicious cycle, and with new, unforeseen threats on the horizon, we cannot allow ourselves to do that."

"Are you demanding us to follow you?" a voice called out from the crowd, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"I don't care who you unite under. Follow Abram, or Naoren, or form a new federation, or do whatever you want so long as all Draconians end up united. It's not a hard choice, I think, but make it quick."

"This all sounds wonderful, but I'm sure there are going to be many who would not want to join your union," Dobry Smok spook up, sounding more than a little conflicted. "At the very least, I believe my father would not approve of this."

"You make a fair point, so let's gauge things, shall we?" I asked with a practiced showman's smile and opened my arms again. "Ladies and gentlemen, the choice is yours. Are you willing to consider my proposal, leave the past behind, and search for a better tomorrow with us?"

"This might be obvious, but the Dracis family is already prepared and eager to do so!" Abram exclaimed, and even Emese followed it up with a subdued, "That much is natural."

"The Lohikäärme family will follow the Dracis patriarch's lead," the middle-aged woman on the far right spoke up next.

"So do the Lotans," the man seated by her also agreed.

These two were the families closest to ours, so this much was to be expected. However, the next voice joining the fray seemingly surprised even my in-laws.

"As the representative of House Albion, I wish to express my interest in joining this new union," the tall, pale woman with a beehive hairdo declared, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

"The empire, long united, must divide; long divided, must unite," Naoren spoke softly, yet audibly, and before anyone else could get a word in, he also stood up and proclaimed, "Clan Feilong will fully support Leonard Dunning's proposal for a peaceful tomorrow."

"Clan head, you can't—!"

Before he could get any further than that, the grand elder's voice was drowned out by the many other family heads and representatives speaking up at once. By the looks of it, Naoren's backing broke the proverbial dam, and all the smaller families were doing their best to out-shout the others in their attempt to proclaim their support.

That… went smoother than expected. However, while all of these declarations sounded great, I was keenly aware that this wasn't something we could decide in one sitting, so it was time to take a step back, if only for the sake of appearances.

"Please, everyone! Calm down! While this is definitely a milestone event in our history, we cannot blindly rush into it." I could see a couple of people nodding in the crowd, and after waiting for a little, I added, "We have many other pressing issues to discuss today, so after we're finished with them, let us appoint a date for a new conference, where the details can be ironed out to everyone's satisfaction. Do you agree?"

"Naturally!" dad-in-law exclaimed, and Naoren nodded along as well.

So far, everything proceeded more or less how I envisioned it. I really wished we could just ride the hype train and get everyone to agree on forming a new Global Draconic Federation or what have you, but something as grand as this required solid foundations. That said, Rome wasn't built in one day either, and with how the plan received the support of over ninety percent of the major families and clans, I had a good feeling about this.

So, I sat down, and the moment I did that, the princess grabbed my hand to get my attention.

"Hey, Leo?"

"Yes?"

"Did you come up with that speech on the spot?"

"What? No, of course not. We wrote it with Naoren. Most of the evocative stuff came from him."

"Really?"

For some reason, she seemed almost disappointed, so I hastily added, "Well, to be honest, I had to improvise quite a bit around the middle."

That was enough to turn her frown upside down and make her look impressed again. Was she prejudiced against pre-written scripts, or was I missing something else? In any case, I had no time to ask her, as the commotion in the room finally quieted down and we all moved on to the next topic.

"Since we decided to leave the discussion about Leonard's proposal for another day, I believe it's time to discuss the so-called elephant in the room," Naoren said, drawing everyone's attention. "What do we know about this 'Bel of the Abyss'?"

All right! This is what I was waiting for. I knew I left a strong impression on the people present at the amphitheatre, but that didn't mean there was no need to reinforce Bel's image even further. After all, I was planning to shape him into a greater-scope villain, so I wanted to make sure everyone understood how dangerous, unpredictable, and unfathomable he was. The fact that doing so also made my argument for uniting in the face of new threats more credible was just a bonus.

"I've only met the man today for the first time, but I believe it's safe to say he's a villainous madman!" Abram responded, and I could barely stop myself from clapping. That's it! We just started the discussion, and we already used the 'v-word', and without any prompting to boot. Things were going great.

"Maybe we should ask someone who had more experience with this strange man," Emese added and glanced at the knightly quartet sitting on the sidelines. "Roland?"

"Yes, ma'am?" Mr. Griffon responded and jumped to his feet at once.

"I think out of everyone present here, you're the one who interacted the most with this Bel person. What can you tell us about him?"

I'm not going to lie, I was almost flabbergasted by this development. This went exactly how I planned, except originally I was going to call Roland to testify about Bel. However, since mom-in-law did it for me, it worked out even more smoothly than I could ever hope for.

In the meantime, Mr. Griffon walked over to the side of the semi-circular table, so that he could see both the people being it and the rest of the crowd, and after a few seconds of consideration, he stated, "I have met Bel of the Abyss three times in total. On the surface, his behavior is erratic, his motives are shrouded in mystery, and his powers are both exotic and overwhelming."

Yep. Leave it up to good old Uncle Roland to perfectly set the stage. We were on the right track.

"However, I disagree with the notion that he's a madman."

Yes, Bel's not a… Wait, what?

"In fact, I would argue that when all of his actions are taken into consideration, the picture they paint is far from that of a villain."

Um… Houston? We have a problem.

"Whit th' heel is wrang wi' ye? Ur ye it ay yer feckin' min'!?"

"Duncan! Language!" my sister hissed at the big dolt at her side, only to then look at Mr. Griffon and exclaim, "Uncle Roland! Are you listening to yourself? You're out of your bloody mind!"

"Kiddo, mind the language," I warned her, and while I was tempted to complete the rule-of-three template by yelling something about Roland's mind with some suitable expletives in tow, I restrained the urge and only uttered, "Please explain yourself."

Mr. Griffon stood straight, put his hands behind his back, and began his explanation in the tone of a military report.

"I have personally encountered Bel of the Abyss on three separate occasions. The first time was during our infiltration of the Dracis family's property in search of a missing artifact, the dragon-slaying spear Ascalon."

"Ah, right! You guys gave us a scare back there!" Abram cut in, much to the disagreement of his wife.

"We're in an official hearing. Don't interrupt!" she hissed at him in a low voice, followed by a much more regal, "It's ancient history at this point, and we don't hold a grudge over it."

Roland acknowledged her comment with a small nod and waited for me to gesture before he continued.

"During this encounter, Bel of the Abyss introduced himself, and his stated goal at the estate was the recovery of the same weapon. He also took two more of our artifacts during the events of the evening, and he professed himself to be a collector of rare items.

While that moniker certainly fits his behavior up to that point, his future actions made me review his potential motives."

He paused here and glanced around the room, apparently gauging everyone's reactions before he continued.

"In short, if Bel of the Abyss's goal was Ascalon, he had no reason to show himself before us. Furthermore, his words and actions during our second encounter created a further discrepancy."

"By the second encounter, you mean the time he showed up during your meeting," I commented, prodding the discussion along.

"Precisely. On this occasion, he appeared in our temporary base, and using a combination of threats of violence and small concessions, he forced us to suspend our activities on the island.

As for the last encounter, you have all been witness to it today, but for the sake of completeness, let us fully recount the events in order: approximately fourteen days ago, Bel of the Abyss encountered grand elder Xinji, Morgana, and Agrawain during their initial negotiations."

He pointed at each of the named figures in turn and didn't continue until they all nodded. Well, the old man only glared, but it was almost the same.

"Afterwards, during the incident described by Morgana..."

That made me raise a brow. Apparently, they already listened to the two Knights' testimonies while they were waiting for Naoren and me to return. I listened closely to Roland's summary of the 'event', and was happy to hear that they were more or less identical to the agreed-upon cover story we hammered out last night.

"... and so after subduing them in secret, Bel used a pair of curse-amplification artifacts to cast a strong geas spell on the two of them, forcing them to cooperate in his plan to disrupt the grand elder's plans. Did I miss anything?"

"I have nothing to add," Morgana stated a touch blandly, after which Roland continued to recount the events from his perspective, ending at the point where I, or rather, Bel tossed Xiao over to Sahi and left the scene of the crime.

"In light of these events, I think the discrepancies in Bel's actions should be plain to see, but let me recount them for the sake of clarity.

Number one: During our first encounter, Bel had no reason to show himself if his goal was as he stated. However, if we only look at the effects of his actions, they paint a different picture. He not only took the dragon slaying spear before we could gain access to it, but he also disarmed Sir Duncan, and by taking Penelope's artifact interfering with the creation of Restricted Zones, he both hindered us in pressing our advantage, as well as enabling the safe evacuation of the people still in the building.

Number two: Despite describing himself as a collector, he was willing to return Penelope's artifact in exchange for ensuring we would temporarily cease our activities.

Number three: Despite his claim that his motivation for negotiating with us was to ensure we wouldn't interfere with his plans, we hadn't heard of him until today.

Number four: He forcefully enlisted the cooperation of Morgana and Agrawain despite his already proven ability to operate on his own.

Number five: Instead of confronting the Feilong Xinji behind closed doors in search of his missing item, he interfered with the latter's plans, triggering the rebellion of the Luu and Rồng clans ahead of time and leading to the chaos at the arena, despite it not serving his stated purpose at all."

"So your point is that this 'Bel of the Abyss' is an unpredictable element?" one of the clan heads whose name I couldn't recall off the top of my head asked, and Roland promptly shook his head.

"While his behavior is certainly erratic, I think it's easy to see the one common throughline in all of his actions."

He paused here, probably just for the sake of suspense, and while I was the last person to cast the first stone when it came to employing dramatics, I really wasn't in the mood at the moment, so I cleared my throat.

"Please explain yourself."

"As you command," Roland responded with a respectful nod and raised his voice again. "Simply put, whenever Bel of the Abyss took action, it resulted in a swift resolution of conflicts with little to no injuries or collateral damage."

"You call this 'little to no injury'?" Zihao cried out while pointing at his bandaged face, and Roland raised a critical brow at his expense.

"With all due respect, it was you who attacked him without listening to any of our warnings. If such a thing happened amongst your ranks, I think it would've been considered justified self-defense."

Zihao was just about to retort, but swallowed his words when Naoren raised his hand. Once he settled down, the bespectacled clan head turned an intrigued glance at the man in the middle, and he continued at once.

"During our first encounter, Bel's intervention ensured that neither side suffered any losses, which would've hindered future cooperation. Similarly, his second intervention ensured that we would remain inactive, preventing any friction with either the Dracis family or the local authorities, and allowing Leonard to collect us under the same banner.

Finally, Bel's actions today make much more sense if we presume his goal all along was to provide an opportunity for us. By robbing the auction house, he alerted us to his presence, which led to us being on standby and allowed us to intervene during the revolt. Similarly, his co-opting of the Feilong grand elder's plan confused the rebellious clans, leading to a disorganized uprising that could be put down with ease while also bringing Morgana and Agrawain to the scene, and thus reuniting them with the rest of us.

In conclusion, when looking at the big picture, Bel of the Abyss's actions are all purposefully designed to lead to cooperation between our factions. Isn't that right, Bel?"

It took all my effort to remain completely still, surrounded by startled intakes of breaths and restless eyes. In particular, Elly was giving me an odd look, but just as I was about to get really nervous, Roland nonchalantly glanced around and shrugged.

"Apparently, he's not here. My apologies for surprising you, but after the last time, you have to admit it was worth a shot."

It was only at this point that I slowly exhaled and grumbled, "Sure, apology accepted."

"Are you saying that Bel is actively working to establish this alliance?" Naoren followed me up, sounding about as uncertain as I felt at the moment.

"Potentially, though my intuition tells me he might be following a larger plan. For explanation, I would like to direct your attention to his last words before he left the arena. Miss Eleanor, if you will?"

The princess, still too busy scrutinizing me, blinked in surprise when she was suddenly thrust into the center of attention.

"Me?"

"Aside from us, you were the only one present at the scene who is also currently in the room, so I wish to humbly ask you to recount your memories of Bel's parting words."

"Oh, I see," she nodded and after some fidgeting in her seat, she lightly cleared her throat and began with, "After exchanging words with Sahi… Oh, right. You might not know, but she's the granddaughter of the late arch-mage Saahira, and she was the main nominee of the local School. You probably remember her as the girl with the revealing robes, and… Wait, that's not that important. Where was I?"

"The part where Bel said something to her," I whispered, and she nodded twice.

"Yes, that. So, he was talking about the two of them meeting a long time ago in another country during a concert of the famous balalaika-player Alexey Andreyev."

"I can't believe you remember details like that, but I don't think that's what Roland wants to hear about," I whispered again, and it was only that this point that the proverbial light bulb lit up over her head.

"Oh, you mean the time-line thing! Right, he was talking about how he caused some kind of paradox and he had to talk to his future self about something."

"Thank you," Roland spoke up before my girlfriend could start rambling again. "As many of you have seen, Bel of the Abyss seems to be able to traverse short distances seemingly instantaneously, completely disregarding abilities that would normally restrict or track spatial movement. During our previous encounters, we have already hypothesized that he is capable of manipulating time itself to achieve this effect."

There was a long beat hanging in the air following Roland's words, so I took it upon myself to nudge the conversation along by acting as the devil's advocate.

"If my memory serves right, the Magi consider time travel to be one of the Three Impossible Magicks. Doesn't that mean that your hypothesis is theoretically impossible?"

"Stopping true dragon fire is also theoretically impossible, yet he did it without suffering any injuries," I shot back, followed by a solemn, "His abilities are already beyond our concept of common sense, and so I would urge everyone to at least be open to the suggestion, especially considering its ramifications.

If my conjecture is correct, Bel may be working on a much larger scale than we can even imagine. It's due to this that I think calling him a villain would be a gross simplification of whatever motive he might have, and considering the benefits his actions have brought to us so far, we should treat him with caution instead of enmity."

Oh, great. Here goes my plan of making Bel into the boogeyman and having everyone join together to face his ever-so-nebulous threat. Nice going, Roland. Real nice. The fact that he mistook my abject disapproval for the exact opposite and puffed up his chest in pride didn't help my mood either.

"So, what exactly do you suppose we should do about this Bel fellow?" dad-in-law raised the question on everyone's mind, and Mr. Griffon responded in a grave tone.

"In my opinion, he must be working on some kind of grand plan. Maybe a very specific future only he can see. To accomplish that, he repeatedly influenced events to ensure our union, yet that does not mean he's our ally. He's a being of impressive powers, uncertain allegiances, and unfathomable end-goals. As such, we should view his words and actions with caution, and treat his every appearance with care, as he is a harbinger of change. In conclusion, I strongly suggest everyone treat him less as an enemy we must fight, but rather as a force of nature we must treat with great care and healthy respect."

Roland's final words were followed by several minutes of solemn silence, during which it once again took all my presence of mind to stop myself from delivering a facepalm-induced concussion on my own head. At last, Abram raised his voice, sounding unusually low-key for once.

"Thank you for your explanation and advice. We will consider it carefully." A couple of others expressed roughly the same sentiment, but Roland remained in the center until I gave him a nod, at which point he gave a Faun-style salute and finally returned to the side of the other Ordo Draconis knights. Once he did that, and the room quieted down a little, dad-in-law spoke up again, this time his voice as loud and boisterous as usual. "So, putting this Bel fellow aside, we still have a couple of pressing matters to discuss! For example, we have a dragon! Speaking of which, where is she?"

"Lady Xiao is currently resting," one of the Feilong elders responded at the back. "She's still young, and she exerted herself too much, but she refused to lay down until the clan head returned from his duel. I believe she should be already asleep."

"Oh. It that case, let's not wake her up!" Abram replied loud enough that if she was in a nearby room, it was guaranteed he would've woken her up anyway.

"More importantly, I can't help but ask just how long the Feilong family was planning to keep this huge news under wraps," the pale lady at the table, the one with the big fluffy hairdo, cut in, her words all but dripping with vitriol.

"I second Lady Yseult," another Western Draconian bigwig joined the fray, an elderly man. Was he the representative of the Lotans or the Zomoks?

Either way, their inquiries turned all attention to the Feilong trio at the table, and this time it was the grand elder who spoke up first.

"My granddaughter is still young and inexperienced. This world is full of frogs waiting to dine on swan flesh, and it was my decision to hide her away from hungry eyes. To protect her until she was old enough to protect herself."

"How very noble of you," I commented on the side, and the old man sent me a glare at once, so I hastily added, "I'm not being sarcastic here. You had the right idea. A flesh-and-blood dragon is a big deal, and with a brotherhood of knights running around and hunting them, keeping her identity under wraps was a smart decision. Luckily for you, that particular threat is now resolved, and the cat is already out of the bag anyway, so we need to figure out what to do with her." He looked like he wanted to say something, so I quickly added, "I, for one, would like to recommend that you let her stay on the island for a while. As you said, she's still inexperienced, and I happen to know another dragon who could teach her a thing or two."

"Excuse me?" one of the clan heads blurted out after a literal spit-take.

"Preposterous!" the grand elder thundered and nearly rose from his seat. "There's no way such a convenient thing would happen! You must only want to keep her in your sight, so you could sink your fangs into her!"

"Grand elder, please calm down," Naoren called out a tad morosely and put a hand on the old man's shoulder. "Brother Leonard already discussed this with Xiao Xiao on the way here, and she requested that he would introduce her to this mysterious hidden dragon."

"Did… she…?" the old guy deflated, with the wind taken out of his sail like that.

"She did," I confirmed with just a hint of schadenfreude. "She was reeeeally looking forward to it too, but since she's your ward, I ultimately leave it up to your decision. Of course, it might reeeeally disappoint her if you stopped her. She might even grow to resent you. You know how kids are." The grand elder continued to wordlessly glare at me, during which time Elly poked me in the side again, so I hastily toned back the sass and added, "Anyhow, this is a family matter, so I'll leave the rest to your discretion."

"We'll discuss the offer in private and contact you later," said Naoren, only to then glance at the table in the middle and amend, "But speaking of family matters, what should we do with those four?"

"I think it was already decided that the two clan heads are going to be dealt with by the disciplinary council of the Feilong clan," Abram suggested, but Naoren shook his head.

"If we are to proceed with the merging of our families into a single organization, I believe a proper internal judicial system would be necessary," he said, bringing up one of the topics we had discussed in the past sooner than expected. "I propose we temporarily postpone their punishment until negotiations have concluded on the exact form, nature, and membership of said judicial establishment."

"I second the notion," I spoke up at once. "I would also request the presence and active participation of the Ordo Draconis during the creation of the laws that would be enforced by this organization to ensure they would promote cooperative, egalitarian, and lawful behavior among the members."

"That goes without saying," Naoren agreed on the spot, despite many of the other clan leaders looking skeptical.

"And what about these two?" Abram pointed at the Knights sitting at the table. "Are you taking them in?"

"What do you mean 'taking them in'?" the grand elder exclaimed, suddenly furious again. "They conspired against us and gravely injured many today!"

"I'm fairly sure that the only person who got injured by them was you," I responded, and before I could add something along the lines of 'and you deserved it', Elly stopped me by pre-emptively poking me in the side. I glanced at her, and after a few seconds of gaze-judo, I gave up and added, "They were technically under the control of Bel of the Abyss at the time, so if you want to ask for compensation for damages incurred, talk with him. If it would make you feel any better, I can give you a public apology."

"That would be unnecessary, brother," Naoren answered in the stead of the fuming old man, and I took the opportunity to agree at once.

"Very well, then. Father? Can I ask you to keep these two under custody for the time being?"

Abram's eyes lit up with delight and he exclaimed a joyful, "Of course, son! At the same place where these for used to stay?"

"Yes. In fact, they would also be staying over for a while. That way, they could look after these two, in case there would be some residual mind-control in play, as well as be readily available during the future council meetings."

"Sounds reasonable enough! I will inform the staff that we'll have guests!"

"Speaking of 'council meetings'," mom-in-law cut in, accompanied by a pair of air quotes. "Today was a long day, and all of us are tired and need time to discuss everything heard here with our inner circles. I would like to propose to close this meeting for today."

"Before that, I have one last item on today's agenda we should agree upon," the lady with the beehive 'do interjected, and she even produced a fancy fan she could dramatically close and tap against the table. "What shall this proposed alliance of Draconian clans and families be named?"

"Ah, you're right, Yseult! That's a really good question, but… I don't have anything on the mind!" dad-in-law admitted a touch awkwardly, but then his eyes landed on me and lit up at once. "Say, son? Do you have any good ideas?"

"Erm… Draconic Federation?" I blurted out without thinking.

"Oh? I like the sound of that!"

"Federation implies at least partial self-governance," the lady with the fan mused and tapped the table again, "The Albion family approves."

"Does anyone else have another idea?" Naoren raised his voice above that of the murmuring clan heads, but nobody seemed to volunteer.

"I personally think it has a nice ring to it," Dobry Smok noted on one side, and a young-ish Eastern female representative nodded along.

"Yes, we also think it sounds appropriate. Should we put it to vote?"

There were more than a couple of voices in the crowd agreeing to her proposal, and when I cautiously glanced Naoren's way, I noticed he was already rubbing his temple while frowning at me.

Well, tough luck, buddy. If you're annoyed by the way things turned out during this meeting, all I can say is 'join the club'…

Part 3

Despite mom-in-law's proposal, the meeting at the Dracis mansion somehow managed to drag on for more than an hour longer, with about half a dozen 'just one last thing' interruptions. I expected quite a bit more resistance to the merger, but by the end of it the clan leadership got so into it they were discussing things like coat-of-arms and mottos. They reminded me more of kids in the process of creating their own little treehouse club than seasoned political leaders, but then again, considering the discussion was mainly led by Abram, maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.

On a side note, according to what I'd gathered, the main reason everyone agreed so easily wasn't just because the Dracis and Feilong bosses both gave their support. Or rather, it wasn't the only reason.

On the Eastern Draconian side, the failed coup caused all the branch- and subordinate clans under the Feilongs to panic, so the moment Naoren revealed his stance, they were practically tripping over each other in their hurry to show their loyalty by agreeing with him. Seeing that, I almost wanted to pat myself on the back for deciding to go against the obvious development and draw the Feilong patriarch into the scheme. If I just butted heads with him over the princess and we ended up on bad terms, the failed coup would've given him the leverage to torpedo all my plans with a few words.

As for the other side, the reason behind their cooperative attitude had less to do with the prestige of the Dracis family than the nature of the whole Draconian conference itself. In short, the Western Draconians who accepted the invitations were the representatives of the 'nicer' families who were already predisposed to work together, while the ones who would immediately reject the proposal didn't even come to the island.

On one hand, it allowed the emergency meeting to smoothly transition into a unification summit, which was an awesome development… but on the other hand, it meant there were unreceptive Draconian families out there who definitely wouldn't approve of what we were doing here. Some of them, like the ambivalent Smoks whose patriarch didn't bother to show up, might come to our side just due to peer pressure, but If I was a betting man, I'd wager my nonexistent hat on at least a couple of families refusing to join. Add in the fact that we had yet to discuss exactly what kinds of behaviors and activities would the Ordo Draconis consider unlawful, and I had a feeling even the people eagerly discussing the potential benefits of the merger would soon cool down their enthusiasm.

Oh well. At least Roland and co. would have something to do. Considering how long they had been cooped up in the secret base, they were getting a little stir-crazy anyway, so I'll just send them out to resolve the issue before the dissenters would do something silly, like creating an 'Anti-Draconic-Federation Alliance', or something equally annoying.

In any case, that was for later. I was feeling tired, both physically and mentally, and after the meeting, settling the Knights into the familiar barracks in the Dracis mansion, and reassuring Sebastian that I pulled an awesome switcheroo maneuver and he's going to get his stupid spear back, I decided to return home and take a long shower.

"We arrived," the princess announced the moment the limo stopped in front of my house, and she didn't even wait for me to open the door for her, gesturing to me to follow after her instead.

She didn't say why, but she insisted on coming with me, and she even arranged a ride for us. I didn't really mind, as I couldn't just Phase out of the mansion when it was filled with people wary of a seemingly teleporting non-villain. Speaking of which, it took an inordinate effort on my end not to chew Roland out for messing up my carefully laid out plans, but I somehow managed to even praise him for his 'smart' and 'helpful' deductions. He was so full of it, he didn't even notice the sarcasm.

I hoped I could at least vent to Elly, but after we got into the car, she remained dead silent. At first, I thought she was sulking, for some inexplicable reason, but that wasn't quite it, and I couldn't tease the reason behind the disapproving stare out of her during our short car ride. Not that I was trying too hard; I figured she'd tell me in private rather sooner than later.

When I got out, she immediately waved at the driver to leave, then grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the front door, and before I could get a word in, she already opened it with her own key.

"Welcome home," Snowy called out from the living room the moment we were inside.

"Hi, sis. Anything to report?"

"No, nothing really," she responded without coming over. Since she was in the living room instead of in her room, I figured she was engrossed with whatever was on the TV at the moment.

I was just about to kick off my shoes, but the princess stopped me by putting her foot in front of mine.

"Is Judy here, or at the base?"

"The base," I responded on autopilot, and she grabbed my hand again.

"In that case, let's go."

She was unusually direct. That meant she wasn't too angry; she tended to be a bit dotty whenever she was worked up. Yet, I couldn't help but feel even more uneasy. An irate princess was something I could easily deal with. This was something else entirely.

"Erm… Okay." I pulled her closer, then called out, "Snowy? We're going to head over to the base, and…" Pausing, I glanced down at Elly. "Are we going to be back by dinner?"

"Depends on you."

"… We're probably going to be late, so eat without us," I concluded, and my sister let out a hum on acknowledgement.

"I'll just reheat yesterday's leftovers then. Take care."

With that settled, I Far Glanced over to Judy's side and found her in the lounge area of the main hall, in the company of Galatea and Brang. Normally I would've Phased over to the fake teleport closet, just to be safe, but with the Knights and Squires staying at my in-laws, I didn't bother, and a blink of an eye later we appeared near the bar.

"Notification: grandmaster arrived," the suspiciously human android announced the moment our eyes met, and so Judy turned around on her bar stool to face us.

"Hi Dormouse, Galatea, general," I greeted them in turn. "It's rare to see the three of you together."

"She asked me to help explain her robotics jokes to Brang," my deal assistant told me with a deadpan face. "I'm afraid he's a lost cause."

"Apologies," the elderly Faun uttered with a hint of amusement.

"You can do that later," the princess cut in and used her free hand to grab Judy, only to freeze and glance around. "Is there a private place where we can talk?"

"Storage room," Brang answered at once and pointed a finger to our left. "Empty."

"Thanks," my draconic girlfriend gave him a thin-lipped smile and then tried to drag us behind her, pulling Judy off her seat in the process.

"Easy there, princess!" I called out, and stood my ground, if barely. "Let me get Mountain Girl out of my shadow first."

On cue, the floor near my feet rippled, and Rinne jumped out of it, wearing the same getup and carrying the same hiking bag from before. It startled the girls, but a split-second later the princess was back to intently glaring at me, so I quickly said, "Thank you for your hard work. Feel free to take a day off."

Rinne glanced at me, then at my girlfriends, and in an extremely rare display of reading the room for once, she gave us a shallow bow and walked off. I expected that her appearance would elicit at least a few questions, but after acknowledging her presence with a nod, Elly resumed her efforts of dragging us away. This time I didn't put up any resistance, and she didn't let us go until we reached the storage area.

At this point, the base had several rooms set aside for storing anything and everything, from building materials and food ingredients to spare weapons and all of Fred's construction-Sprockets while not in use. This particular one was mostly for storing the assets of the Research Division, which mainly meant paperwork, books, and a metric ton of incomplete or infeasible prototypes. Since each hired Research Society member had their own expertise and quirks, it meant the room was chock full of all kinds of weird stuff, including African shaman masks, half-assembled robotic endoskeletons, and potted plants with udders. That last one was extra-confusing, but let's ignore it for now.

After looking around the place to make sure we were alone, Elly casually picked up a huge wooden box filled with coconuts (don't ask, I have no idea either) and unceremoniously plopped it down in front of the door before finally exhaling a relieved sigh.

"Chief? What did you do this time?"

"I'll be damned if I—" 'knew!' is what I wanted to say, but I was interrupted by the princess marching up to me and pointing a nostalgic accusatory finger at me.

"Leo."

"Yes, princess?"

"Did the Knights know about what you were doing?"

"Well, no, not really…"

She maintained eye-contact for a couple of seconds, and just when the silence was about to get awkward, she let out a long groan and buried her face in her palm.

"So you had them enter into battle without letting them in on your plan? … Wait, why am I surprised? You didn't even tell me the whole plan!"

"To be fair, I can't really tell them that I'm Bel," I objected, but it just made her frown even harder.

"Leo, you do realize it's only a matter of time before they realize, right?"

"Not if I can help it," I stood my ground, eliciting a critically raised brow from the princess. "I put a lot of effort into my disguise, and it's practically foolproof."

"No, it's not."

She… sounded pretty confident in that declaration. Did she know about how Morgana recognized me? She shouldn't have. Ms. Gorgon couldn't tell her because of the Oath, and I didn't do it either, so I glanced at Judy. My dear assistant seemingly read my mind, as she promptly shook her head. That meant Elly probably meant something else.

"Oh, come on, princess. Would you have even recognize me if you didn't already know?"

"Of course."

"… And how exactly would you do have done that?" I pressed her, and her frowny expression finally faltered, only to be replaced by a pouty one, and she dramatically pointed at her own face.

My confusion had to be visible at this point, as after another beat, she let out a small groan and said, "My nose. I could smell you."

"Oh right, that's a thing…" I mused, but then my face slackened as the realization sank in. "Wait. How common is the ability to smell mana? Could someone else at the arena recognize me based on that?"

"It's pretty rare, actually, and…" the princess began to explain in a contemplative tone, but then she caught herself and reasserted her frowny disposition. "Wait, that's not important right now! The real issue is that you did things on your own again and didn't let anyone in on what you were doing!"

"Are you… mad because I left you out?"

"Again," Judy added, and so I sent her a 'You're not helping!' glance before turning back to Elly.

"No, I'm not," she retorted, once again sliding towards the pouty end of the spectrum. "I would appreciate if you would at least explain which parts of what happened today were planned, and which parts were out of control."

"Oh? Okay then. I was about to do that anyway."

The gaze my draconic girlfriend directed at me was savagely skeptical, but thankfully my other girlfriend came to the rescue.

"To be more accurate, the plan was to let you in on the plot after the tournament, so he's telling the truth."

"I figured I'd tell you as soon as things calmed down a little. Which, I supposed, is right about now?"

We locked eyes for a few seconds, then at last she let me go and crossed her arms.

"Then please go ahead."

We shared a glance with Judy, but her eyes were pretty much saying 'It's a hole you dug, so climb out yourself', so I took a deep breath and said, "I suppose I should start at the beginning. So, do you remember that time I had a private chat with Naoren during the banquet…?"

"… and so, because of Roland, now my plans to wedge Bel into the narrative to see what would happen is in tatters." I finished my explanation and glanced at Judy on the side. It took her a second to realize I was looking at her, as for the last fifteen minutes she's been sitting on one of the crates and taking notes on her phone. She didn't have anything to add, so I turned back to the princess and concluded with, "And that's the long and short of it."

Elly remained more or less silent during my long explanation, and it was only at this point that she uncrossed her arms, but only so that she could rub her face.

"I see. This is worse than I thought," she whispered, and once she let her hand down she added, "For the record, how many people know you're Bel at this point?"

"Judy, obviously. There are also the Fauns, Fred, and Galatea. Mountain Girl too. Oh, and there's also the mini-shoggoth collective, if they count."

"Only them?"

"Yeah? I mean, besides Morgana and Agrawain, but I already told you about them."

"Right, you said she figured it out on her own…" Elly whispered, and after digesting all the new information for a few seconds, she solemnly nodded and looked me in the eye. "I'm kind of angry right now. Do you know why?"

"It's because I kept you in the dark ands only explaining things to you now," I answered a tad morosely, but to my surprise, she shook her head.

"I'm a little annoyed about that, but no, that's not the main problem here!"

"Erm… Then, is it because dad-in-law and mom-in-law were caught up in the plot?" She shook her head again. "In that case… Judy?"

"I hate to admit it, but I'm just as confused and curious as you are," my other girlfriend noted on the side, and since I couldn't come up with any other obvious answers, Elly put her hands on her hips and let out a displeased 'Hmpf!'

"Leo? What was the thing I told you about leadership?" she asked, seemingly out of the blue, and it took me a few moments to gather my wits.

"That it's all about delegation?"

At this point, she narrowed her eyes and, a beat later, poked me in the chest.

"Precisely. So why aren't you doing it?"

"I'm… not following. Dormouse? Are you following?"

Before my dear assistant could respond, Elly poked me again, drawing my attention back to her.

"Let's summarize what just happened: you created an alter-ego and tried to make this Narrative thing latch onto him as a big villain, so through that, you would have more control over future events, but because Roland didn't know about this, he worked with the information he had available to him, and he ended up ruining your plan."

"I didn't create the character for that purpose, but besides that small objection, that's more or less the gist of it, yes."

"Do you see it now? If only you told him, things wouldn't have ended up like this!"

"But I couldn't! I used Bel to threaten them in graphic detail in the past. There's no way they would cooperate with me if they knew it was me!"

"I'm fairly sure they would have," Judy noted on the side, and the princess nodded along.

"That's right! You don't seem to realize this, but those four would jump into a burning building for your sake. So long as you explained yourself, they would've played along, no problem."

"Now, that's just exaggeration if I've ever heard any," I grumbled in return, and this time I was the one who crossed their arms. "There's no way in hell Duncan would've played along."

"That's only one out of four, and despite all of his objections, he still follows your orders to the letter," Judy spoke up again, forcing me to face her.

"Come on, Dormouse? On whose side are you?"

"The right side," Elly declared, but then continued in a much more subdued voice. "Listen, Leo. I can't believe I have to spell this out, but you are actually doing really well as their leader. You're providing them with a common goal, the means to achieve it, and you give them all the support they need. The one thing you are withholding is the bigger picture, and so long as you keep them in the dark, they are going to keep stumbling into your plans and messing them up, like what happened today. Roland is smart, right? Imagine how much easier all of this could've been if you worked with him instead of against him! You might've not even had to appear at the arena!"

"Yes, but… I mean, you saw how chaotic things were getting, right? And Bel appearing was more or less necessary to establish him in the eyes of the other Draconians, so—"

"And now they don't think Bel's that bad of a guy, which means your plan to make him more important in the narrative plot thing ruined," Elly cut in with a deep frown. "It's all because you just don't trust others and try to do everything by yourself."

"Hey, hold up! That's just straight up not true," I raised my voice this time. "I delegate stuff all the time."

"Such as?"

"Such as when I had Mountain Girl take my place in the fake duel with Naoren. Or how about the time when I put together a strike force to capture Duncan and Arnwald without my supervision? Those count."

"Actually, Chief, I don't think they do. You only did those because you literally couldn't be in two places at once."

I sent my dear assistant a sideways glance, but she didn't seem to be too bothered by it.

"Fine. Then how about how I'm leaving the organization of the Fauns and the Kage ninjas to Brang and Rinne?"

"You only do that because you can't be bothered to do it yourself," Elly pointed out. "Tell me one occasion where it was something you could do, but decided to let someone else take care of it because they were better suited for the task."

While I was sure there were countless very eloquent and convincing examples that completely destroyed her argument, I couldn't quite come up with one in the following three seconds, at which point she once again poked me.

"Case in point, you have a ninja clan, and an extra-awesome one that can hide in shadows, and you never ever used them for espionage!"

"Hold your horses, Princess. You know that I have this convenient ability that lets me spy on the bad guys without any risk, right?"

"Yes, but you can only do that one person at a time," Elly retorted. "Also, you have a bad habit of keeping everything you learn that way to yourself, come up with elaborate schemes and plans based on that, and then get shocked when the people you purposefully kept in the dark interfere with them. Case in point, if you actually had a proper intelligence network, keeping an eye on multiple people at once and discussing the findings, you might've realized the grand elder's plan ahead of time and didn't walk right into the coup!"

"For the record, I still think that the guy is guilty and just threw his co-conspirators under the bus," I grumbled, earning me another poke in the chest. It was at the exact same spot too, and it was getting a little sore.

"You think, but you don't know, because you didn't even think about delegating his surveillance to someone who actually speaks his language, or to share this information with the group so that others could try and come up with some ideas as well."

I had nothing to counter that, so after I few tense seconds I dropped my shoulders in defeat and said, "Fine, I get it. I need to get others more involved."

"Yes, you do," Judy commented on the side, and when I glanced over, she further emphasized, "You are already the boss of an extensive organization, but once this Draconic Federation starts operating, you're going to become one of the leaders of a massive, world-wide faction of the mystic world that will easily match the Schools of the Assembly. You really have to do something about your habit of trying to do everything on your own and jumping into every chaotic situation you find."

"I… can't really argue with that," I admitted. "Just… give me some time to internalize this, okay?"

"Sure! So long as you take my advice seriously and don't ignore it again," Elly declared triumphantly, finally easing up on the frowning. "All right! Now, let's discuss what to do with your Bel character!"

I didn't plan to do that right now, but since he offered the opportunity to change the subject, I would've had to be an idiot not to grasp it. At least if I wasn't beaten to the punch by Judy first, that is…

"It all depends on one question: Did Emese also notice it was the Chief?"

The princess pondered for a moment, but then she shook her head.

"I doubt it. She wouldn't have kept silent if she recognized your scent."

"I think it's safe to say that the Knights didn't recognize you either," Judy added. "What about Joshua and Amelia?"

"What about them?" I asked back, and my dear assistant let out a shallow sigh, apparently annoyed by my inability to pick up on her meaning.

"The two of them already had experience with someone wearing a fancy mask and being able to teleport," she pointed out, and it was only at this point I realized what she meant.

"Ah, you mean during the raid on Fred's place? Considering how much effort I put into my Bel costume and acting, I sincerely hope they didn't connect the dots, otherwise it would just make me feel silly."

"I don't think they realized it's you," the princess noted with a thoughtful hum. "They were overwhelmed by the events though, so maybe after they sleep the excitement off, they might get suspicious? Your Bel mask is very different from the carnival mask from back then, but Judy is right; it would be strange if they didn't notice the similarity."

"Even if they did, my alibi with Naoren is rock solid, so I doubt they would jump to conclusions. In any case, I already have some back-up-plans in place, so it should be fine. I'm more worried about your mother's nose, honestly."

"I'm fairly sure mom didn't notice, with everything else going on in the arena, but you really should be more careful around her."

Nodding, I made a mental note about paying more attention to this in the future, as I had no idea just how many other Draconians could smell mana. Maybe I'll ask Fred to look into it when designing the next iteration of my Bel disguise...

"Let's presume that my identity is secure for the time being and answer your original question: I still want to continue the plan of making Bel a villain, but I don't really know where to go from here. So long as the Draconians treated him as a big deal, I could play into that and make sure he would stay in everyone's focus, and then we could observe how the proposed Narrative would react to this. If they just consider him a neutral entity, that's pretty much FUBAR."

"What does that mean? Is that an acronym?" Elly asked with her head tilted, but before I could explain, Judy spoke up.

"If you really want to keep with this unorthodox experiment of yours, I think you should just force the villain status."

"Dormouse, dear. Bel just ruined a tournament, mind-controlled two Knights to beat up an old man, and then spooked a baby dragon. I have no idea how I could top that short of just straight up making good on the random death threats I threw around, but you know about my reservations on that front."

"Maybe you could fake a murder? It wouldn't be much more complicated than what you're already doing," she proposed, but before I could explain how that would still potentially cause the world to become more grimdark, Elly cut in between us.

"Hold on, you two! What's wrong with you!? We just discussed this!"

I shared a confused glance with my dear assistant, but she didn't seem to have a clue either.

"Delegation, Leo! Delegation!" Elly exclaimed with audible exasperation. "Come on, Judy! I know Leo has trouble with the concept, but you should know better!" She paused to rub her forehead, then abruptly pointed at me. "Who are you?"

I… was fairly sure that if I just said 'Leonard S. Dunning', I would get knocked over the head, so I considered her question a little more. She was talking about delegation, which was linked to leadership, which meant it had something to do with my position.

"The King of Knights?"

"And?" she prompted me.

"And the head of the Kage clan." She was still giving me a flat look, so I added, "Also, a future figurehead of the Draconic Federation?"

"Yes!" Elly exclaimed, seemingly perplexed that she had to explain this to me. "You have enormous influence. You don't need to come up with some kind of elaborate ploy to make everyone think Bel is a baddie; just tell them, and that's the end of it!"

"… Is that how this works?"

"Yes!"

"… Are you serious?"

"Of course I am!"

That… still sounded too simple to be true to me.

"Even so, it would be just my own word, wouldn't it? Without hard evidence, anyone could object to that?"

"And who would?" Elly asked back provocatively.

"Naoren," I answered promptly, only to pause and mutter, "… probably wouldn't. Same for dad-in-law, now that I think about it, so… The grand elder?"

"And do you think his word would carry more weight than yours?"

"Yes?" Her frown deepened, so I hastily amended, "No?"

"Of course not! You're Naoren's sworn brother! That puts you over him in the Feilong clan's hierarchy."

"Really? Huh. This 'sworn brother' thing just keeps getting better and better."

"Excuse me, Chief? This is the first time I've heard about this."

"It's a very recent development, I'll explain later," I responded to Judy and then fell silent while I ruminated over the princess's proposition. "So what you're saying is that, as long as I declare Bel to be a huge threat and the most villainous villain who ever villained in the history of villainy, everyone will just accept it and take my words for granted?"

"Yes. That's how this works," Elly confirmed, still sounding baffled over how she had to explain this to us.

"That sounds absolutely delightful…"

I followed my words up with a not-at-all sinister chuckle, at which point Judy subtly rolled her eyes and stood up, then gestured for Elly to come over to her side.

"While the Chief descends into megalomania, let's clear up a couple more things."

"Oh, okay."

She walked over and the two of them quickly got lost in filling up the holes in each other's recollections of the recent events. As for me, I couldn't help but grin as brand new vistas opened up in front of me. For the longest time, I was wrecking my head over how to test our theories about the dreaded Narrative, but if Elly was right, by using and abusing my position, I could completely side-step the whole problem. Instead of waiting for the plot to come to us and dealing with it to the best of my ability, I could finally get ahead! I could spread information and misinformation on a large scale and see how the word changes in reaction! I could not only create a fake villain, but I could also potentially set up entire fake arcs to undermine whatever malarkey the Narrative was about to throw our way, potentially even completely supplanting it!

For the first time, I felt like there was a chance to progress with our research into the Simulacrum while also keeping our necks safe at the same time.

"It's true. When one door closes, another one op—"

"Leo did what? And he has wings now!?"

I glanced over at my flabbergasted princess in surprise. Right, that's another thing that we have to look into. Later. One paradigm shift at a time, one at a time. First I had to make sure the formation of the Draconic Federation was smooth, so that I would have the opportunity to abuse my newfound influence. Also, the internal tournament. I also had to work on the chaos I caused in the Abyss. Once things calmed down, we also had to resume our experiments with my retconning ability, now that I thought about it. I also had to make gear for the two new Knights, on top of my daily enchanting quota, and...

"I need a vacation. Since I'm apparently the boss, I wonder if I can give myself paid leave…"