"Hey, Leo! Leo!" Angie rushed up to with sparkling eyes the mont I opened the door of the 'teleport closet', almost pushing back in with her childlike fervor. "We're really underground, right? Right?"
"Um… Yes?" I answered after a mont of understandable hesitation.
"See, I told you!" the hyperactive Celestial girl flashed a victorious grin as she turned to the only other guy in the room. "It's a secret underground base! It's so cool!"
"I already told you that," Snowy quietly sulked on the side after apparently being ignored by the childhood friend duo, and I found it my big brotherly duty to pat her on the head to reassure her… except a certain deadpan girl was just a step quicker than . Judy ducked under my arm as she exited the closet, then she began to woodenly tussle the Abyssal girl's hair with an equally flat 'Don't worry about it.'
I didn't have ti to be bothered by her stealing my thunder though, as the mont I stepped forward, I was startled by a certain class representative abruptly popping out of my blind spot, and she imdiately requested, "Can I look at the circle now?"
"No!" I denied her on the spot after the first fright. It had been a while since she caught off-guard like that, so it took a mont to collect myself, but then I told her, "We have more important things to do."
"But… this could revolutionize transportation theory! If I could figure out how it works, I could even get a research grant from the Assembly!" Ammy pressed on as she pleaded with upturned eyes and her hands in fists in front of her chest. "Co on Leo! Just a tiny-little look! I will only take four… no, wait, seven! Seven samples! You already promised you would help with my psychic research!"
"I don't rember ever doing that," I answered her after just the briefest of baffled pauses.
"Actually, you are right. You never helped , so now's the perfect ti to make up for it! Just nine samples, it's all I ask!"
"No, I ant I don't rember making a promise!"
"The number of samples also went up," Judy casually added on the side while still petting my new sister.
"Judy, please don't interrupt the negotiations," Ammy suddenly lapsed back into her strict authority persona, only to turn back at and continued in a pleading, "Please, Leo! If I get a research grant, I can finally have my own workshop! Then I'll no longer have to do grandfather's paperwork! Speaking of which, you owe this much for all the paperwork you caused!"
"I thought we were over this already," I groaned and took a step away from the class rep, but she followed right after .
"Co on! Just ten samples!"
"The number of samples rose again," Judy helpfully inford while not even trying to help . So typical.
"I said no, and that's final," I told the class rep on no uncertain terms. "I told you already, but I cannot replace this circle, so if it's broken, we are screwed. No tinkering with it. Are we clear?"
If glares had weight, I would've been flat as a pancake under the one Alia was sending my way, but after a fairly short stalemate she finally relented with a dispirited, "Yes, we are clear."
I had a feeling that she would hold a grudge, so I was just about to give her an olive branch. Unfortunately, my efforts for upholding sothing even remotely resembling a coherent conversation were once again torpedoed, this ti by the princess all but pushing Ammy to the side just to stand in front of and declare, "Leo, this place slls weird!"
I gave my draconian girlfriend a wry look (which was, I would like to stress, fairly low-key considering the circumstances), and after taking a huge breath I courteously asked her, "Would you please elaborate?"
Elly scrunched up her nose as she took a few overt sniffs, then she stated, "This whole place slls like Abyssals."
"Well, that's not surprising at all," I told her with an affectionate voice, as she just happened accidentally hand the cue required to move things forward. "You see, this place originally belonged to Crowey," I revealed our cover story with just the right amount of nonchalance to make it sound legitimate.
"It did?" Elly and Ammy leveled the sa question at almost simultaneously.
"It's true. Right, Snowy?" I threw the ball into the court of the Abyssal girl, and while her acting was quite wooden (to put it very mildly), she followed her script to the letter. Maybe even too closely…
"Y-Yes. This abandoned u-underground facility was m-most certain a hidden hideout that my other older brother, who is not Leonard Dunning, ap-appro…" she paused here for a mont, then she suddenly exclaid, "Appropriated! That's the word!"
I gave my relieved sister an appreciative nod, then smoothly continued my explanation to the rest of the gang… although, technically it was only Ammy and Elly, as Judy and Snowy were already in on the gig, while Josh and Angie were too busy marveling at a pile of old tables in the corner to pay attention to us. Those two were weird.
Anyways, I began to confidently recite my own script, saying, "So, as she said, since Crowey is out of town, and we are not exactly on good terms anyway, I decided I might as well take this place and make it our little secret base where we can plan, train and just generally hang out without any prying eyes hovering over our heads."
That last comnt was mainly aid at the class rep, but instead of responding to , she faced Snowy and said, "Was this where you were hiding?"
"I… um…" Snowy stamred for a mont when faced with the unexpected question and sent a helpless glance at . I lightly shook my head as a signal, so she answered in kind. "No, I wasn't."
"And since when did you have this secret base on our island? Was house Inanna preparing to establish a foothold here? What was your plan?" ca the next series of increasingly incriminating questions from Ammy, not even bothering to respond to the first answer.
"I… I don't know," Snowy muttered with round eyes, just about to cave under the pressure. I figured it was about ti I intervened, so I quickly inserted myself between the two of them without further ado.
"Easy there, class rep," I reproached her while gesturing 'tone it back' with my hands. "You already know about Snowy's situation, so you can't expect her to be privy to Crowey's plans."
"She was still her sister," Ammy countered, making shake my head at her defiance.
"Yes, and now she is mine, so I would appreciate it if you stopped bullying her."
"I'm not bullying her; I'm asking perfectly legitimate and reasonable questions!" Alia protested as she, for the first ti in a while, reached her hand up to her face and tweaked her glasses in a strangely ominous fashion.
"Here, here," I turned my back on her as I reached for my visibly confused adopted sister's head and gently rubbed its crown with my warst smile on my face. "Don't worry about the an class rep. Your big bro won't let her bully you."
"I'm not bullying her!"
"You better not," I told her with a stern voice hiding my satisfaction. Another day, another uncomfortable topic derailed. Anyhow, after confirming that I still had my touch, I cleared my throat and raised the hand previously on Snowy's head over my own to get everyone's attention. "Listen, guys! At this rate, we'll be stuck in this room till the cows co ho, so how about we leave the legitimate and reasonable questions for later and focus on why we ca here for once?"
"That reminds , why did we co here again?" Josh inquired as he returned with Angie, who sohow already managed to get a giant smudge of dust on her face.
Judy also noticed it and was already taking care of the spot, so I decided to only focus on Joshua, thus I told him, "I think I already ntioned this, but just to be clear: we're here to experint with our abilities and train for the possible dangers we might face in the near future."
"Train?" Elly, who was in sothing of a strange stupor while I was talking with Elly, suddenly perked up at the re ntion of the word. "Are we going to work out?"
"Not really," I told her, at the risk of disappointing her. "My plan was to dedicate the rest of this day discussing our abilities, testing any synergies, experinting with Josh's transformations, and if we had the ti, we would then do so light sparring to put things into practice."
"You want to spar here?" Elly looked around, and I could tell by her expression that she wasn't exactly satisfied with what she was seeing. "We don't have enough space."
Actually, the cleaned-up communal room we were standing in easily had an area of fifty square ters, minus the space that was taken up by the furniture in the corner. For normal people, that was probably more than enough for 'exercising', but considering how high-spec the gaggle of supernatural scions I had around , the chamber did feel a little stifling.
"Well, it's a good thing we aren't going to be training here then!" I responded with a flippant voice and a toothy grin, and Elly's eyes opened wide for a mont, but then she averted them with a blush. I had no idea what I did to make her embarrassed like that, but I decided not to dwell on the mysteries of her mind for long, and instead I raised my voice again to address everyone at once, "Listen up! We are now going to move on to the main hall. I want to remind everyone that this place used to belong to Crowey. Everyone got that?" I waited for them to voice or gesture their confirmation before I continued with, "Okay then. I just want to warn you that the place ca with staff, so don't get too surprised when we go over, okay?"
"Staff? What kind of staff?" Ammy latched onto the word, but for the ti being I only waved for her to follow .
"It'll be quicker to show you," I responded with a fairly clichéd (yet accurate) line and gestured for everyone to follow after . I led the group to the steel blast door separating the two areas, and after so fiddling (I had Brang and company oil the hinges, but they were still a little stiff) we found ourselves face to face with a row of Fauns.
Now, to be perfectly clear, I did not actually tell them to form an orderly line in front of the door, and while I did find their display imposing, at the mont it was pretty much the worst impression they could've picked to convey, as the surprised gasps behind my back testified. In the end, I couldn't help but let out an involuntary groan.
"[General,]" I addressed the big bloke in the middle, and he imdiately responded with a toothy grin that made the guys behind audibly inhale once again. I held back another groan and instead told him, "[Your display is impeccable, yet entirely unwarranted.]"
If his expression was any indication, Brang obviously had so kind of fitting answer on the tip of his tongue, but before he could grace us (or, considering only I seed to be fluent in Faunish here, just ) with its brilliance, we were once again interrupted by the class rep dryly asking, "Aren't these the Faun from last Sunday? Didn't they go back to the Abyss?"
"… Why do you have to be so damn observant today?" I glanced over my shoulder in exasperation, only for Ammy to once again adjust her glasses and reply with a question of her own.
"I don't know. Why do you have to be so uncooperative today?"
My instincts told to say 'Touché', but that would have been as good as admitting defeat, so at the end of the day we just stared daggers at each other for a few seconds. It didn't serve any purpose though, as I couldn't co up with any snappy retorts at the mont's notice, so I ultimately just clicked my tongue and told her, "Yes, they are one and the sa, but no, they are obviously not in the Abyss. You can think of them as Snowy's retinue."
"Are you sure they are not spies," the Magi girl questioned aloud, and to his credit, Brang's only reaction to the accusation was his left ear swiveling in a curious manner.
"They are definitely not spies," I replied by filling my voice with so much conviction I hoped it would browbeat her into compliance.
"Are they safe?" ca the next question, this ti from Angie, who was for so reason hiding behind Snowy of all people.
"Yes, they are," I answered her, this ti a bit more naturally. "They might seem scary, but they are nice guys." Saying so, I stepped forth and began to introduce the group one by one. "This is Uncle Brang, ex-general and the current leader of this group. The others are, from left to right: Gram, Rabom, Hrul, Vurrok, and Pip." I could hear Josh mutter 'Pip? Seriously?' in the back, but I ignored him and continued, "They can understand you perfectly, but for so reason they can only speak in caveman-syntax. Don't ask why, nobody knows. Still, you should be able to communicate with each other well enough. If you hit a roadblock, call for and I will translate."
"Actually, that reminds : since when can you speak their language?" ca the next unwanted question from the class rep.
Judy must've realized I was getting quite fed up with her questions, as she stepped up to the plate and told her, "The Chief is a man of many talents. Linguistics is just one of them."
"I think I've heard that before…" Josh pondered, but before anyone else could cut in again, I promptly turned my back on them and gestured for Brang to co closer.
"[I'm afraid our training excursion shall forever be akin to a fish aground so long as your kin is present. If I may be so presumptuous, might I request that you vacate the premises of this hall, if ever so temporarily?]"
The large Faun let out a slow, subdued chuckle and gave a small bow, much to my surprise.
"[Nay. There lies no presumption in thine words. We shall follow thine command.]"
I wanted to point out that it wasn't really a command per se, but I had a feeling his insistence most likely had to do with my adoption of Snowy and consecutively wedging myself into their hierarchy. I really wasn't in the mood to clear that up at the mont, so I let it slide and instead told him, "[I require your aid shortly, so please equip yourself for battle and return to my side at your earliest convenience.]"
Instead of a proper answer, Brang and company gave a salute, followed by another one aid at their actual liege in the back, then they turned around and marched out of the main hall and into one of the side chambers with a striking and yet at the sa ti borderline comical lockstep. I waited for them to close the door behind them before I faced my friends again and clapped my hands to hype myself up, making them shudder so hard I was afraid so of them (read: the princess) might fall over.
I waited for the echo of my clap to die down, then finally told them, "All right guys, I had it with these distractions! I want you to change into your spare clothes and then we'll get started! The girls will change in that room, Josh and I will change here. Any questions?"
"Do I have to change?" Judy raised her hand, and I gave her a deadpan glance in return.
"Why would you?"
"Just checking," she answered unabashedly before grabbing hold of Snowy and pulling her back into the room where we ca from. They were just about to close the door behind themselves when I rembered sothing, and I quickly called out after them.
"Just a reminder: don't let the class rep ss with the magic circle!"
"Understood," my assistant responded, followed by so unwarranted protests from the Magi in question cut rcifully short by the closing of the door, leaving just and Josh behind. I glanced at my hapless friend, and I couldn't help but let out the mother of all groans. If I was already this tired before even got started, I had to wonder just how busted I would be by the end of this day…
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