The Simulacrum ~Chapter 164~ Part 1

The stars looked pretty tonight. Not that I could rember a ti they weren't pretty, but standing here, in front of Judy's ho, and looking at the sky while caressed by the cool spring air did feel oddly nostalgic. Maybe because it reminded of the ti when I first started accompanying Judy ho during the autumn. Or maybe…

"Please focus," my dear assistant told sternly, even as she was busy tucking the ends of my scarf under my coat. "And rember: No dallying, no frolicking, and absolutely no cavorting. Got it?"

"Yes, yes, I got it," I placated my girlfriend the best I could, but she was still looking at with unusual intensity. "Co on, Dormouse. Rember what Tajana said? She's like eighty-sothing years old."

"If anyone in the Simulacrum should know that age in here is just a number, it's you," she scolded like I was a preschooler who couldn't tell a sheep apart from a goat, but then she finished arranging my outerwear and tugged on my lapels one last ti. "Also, since you brought up her apparent age, pay close attention and write it down in a ssage to as soon as you're able."

"… Why?"

"Because we have a bet going with Elly," she told without any reservations. I must've had a stumped expression, as she soon let go and elaborated. "We talked about vampire tropes earlier today and how their appearance rarely reflects their age. Even if our vampires are weird, it should apply to her, but we disagreed on the degree."

"Okay, now I'm even more curious," I admitted and pocketed my hands. "What did you bet on?"

"Lolibaba," Judy stated, and because I didn't respond right away, she added, "It's when an old, possibly immortal woman looks like a young girl or a child."

"Yes, I know the trope, but… Don't we already have Ichiko for that?"

"She doesn't count, because she also acts like a child," she insisted. "A lolibaba that doesn't act like a llow, world-weary grandma is not a real lolibaba."

"I'm pretty sure so people would argue you on that point."

"They're welco to be wrong," she stated bluntly, which made wonder if she'd been spending too much ti on the Hub's ssage boards and the Celestial netizens' style was rubbing off on her. In any case, she soon continued with, "Elly bet on her being our age in appearance, but since that would potentially require anti-harem counterasures, I'm still backing my prediction."

"May I point out that, despite anti-harem counterasures being evoked left, right, and center all the ti, I never had the intention or the opportunity to build a harem, regardless of whether there were any pretty girls around or not?"

"That just ans the counterasures are working," she declared firmly and then rose to her tiptoes to give a peck on the cheek, concluding our discussion. "Don't stay out for long."

"Not planning to." I returned her gesture, though in my case it was on the top of her head. "Goodnight, Dormouse."

"Bye, Chief."

She turned on her heel and entered the house, and after one last exchange of waves, I also turned around and began strolling down the sidewalk. For once, I decided to walk to my destination. Partially because the weather was nice, but mostly just because I didn't exactly have any convenient marks in the park, so I would've only saved a few minutes by Phasing closer. At that point doing so was pretty much aningless.

Anyhow, I was about to et the matriarch of House Shamash, and while we didn't agree on a precise ti, I figured it was only polite to show up relatively early. It was already after dark, if my previous musings about the stars didn't make that abundantly clear yet, but it wasn't exactly proper night-ti yet, so quite a few placeholders were idling on the street. I liked how much livelier Timaeus felt right now, especially compared to the artificial, almost sterile atmosphere in the beginning.

My ponderings about placeholder developnt and the state of the Simulacrum inevitably led my thoughts towards more ta topics, and I was soon reminded of sothing that had been bugging for a while: the Free Actor. I had a basic understanding of what the term ant after rging with other-, but to be honest, it was kind of confusing. If I had to put a definition into words, it would've been sothing like 'soone with the ability to do otherwise'. That sounded kind of banal, and while I had lots of ideas about what it ant, I would've liked to hear a simple explanation for once.

Alas, The Girl still hasn't contacted yet, and after her last cryptic warning about the Predator Moon doing sothing or the other, I didn't try to reach out to her either. That said, considering everything that happened since then, including future-'s shenanigans, I was more tempted to contact her by the day, even against my better judgnt.

The outskirts of the park ca into view while I was pondering, so I shelved these thoughts for the ti being and headed in the direction of the familiar information board. As I passed by, I was once again stumbling upon all kinds of mories. That was the spot where I t Snowy in private for the first ti, way before I adopted her. That was the vending machine where I had a long argunt with Rinne about drinking too much coffee, back when we were hunting the second Chira.

Which… now that I thought about it, we never properly figured out whether that was a separate beast or just the reanimated corpse of the one I'd slain during the school incident. Lord Grandpa had a hand in it either way, but he was pretty tight-lipped about the topic, and transplanting Ichiko into it erased all the evidence, so I couldn't properly call him out. I an, I ssed around with him in return, just to piss him off, but that wasn't the sa as going through the actual official channels to demand a proper explanation, using evidence and due process against him, and…

…

Wow. Maybe I should stop doing so much official Draconic Federation work. I could practically feel myself turning into a cog in the machine. I should go and steal the arch-mage's cabinet again, just to recapture a spark of my youthful exuberance from the magical olden-tis of six months ago.

Jokes aside… Ah, lookie. That tree still had the tattered remains of the poster warning against the wild animal set loose in the park. Looking at it now, the rumour probably started because soone caught a glimpse of one of the Fauns. Oh, and further down that path was where I spoke with Angie and she introduced the Celestial Hub to .

Seriously, today was just one hit in the nostalgia-bone after the next. I usually wasn't this sentintal. Was I getting old, I wondered as I finally ca to a halt in front of the information board, and… there was nobody else around. I looked left and right, then up and down, just for good asure, but this part of the park was completely deserted tonight.

I checked the ti and then waited for about five minutes. There were no movents, and standing out in the open like this made feel a bit awkward, so I honed in on the closest park bench and sat down. In retrospect, that might not have been the best idea. Not because I thought we could miss each other, but because now that I was sitting, I was imdiately starting to feel restless and my thoughts were drawn to making Far Sight roll calls. I bla Pavlov.

That said, since there was still no movent, and since I was sure that I would notice if soone approached in the open, I decided to give into my self-conditioned reflexes and Far Glance around a bit. I wasn't expecting to see anything important happening at this hour, yet the very first scene I peeked at turned out to be mildly intriguing.

"… you an he already left the island?" Lord Grandpa growled, sitting at the coffee table in his study. Not the fortified office under Blue Cherry High, but the one inside his mini-mansion at ho. "He did not notify about this."

" I only learned about it this evening," Lord Gulliver spoke apologetically, and from this context, I quickly figured out they were talking about Lord Ambrose. "He sent a text ssage just before boarding the plane."

The rest of the arch-mages were also present, and Lord Barnabas let out an exasperated groan while massaging his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

"Please tell he didn't go to Ottawa…"

"I don't know. He didn't write where he's going, and phones have to be turned off on planes, so I can't reach him now," the lanky arch-mage responded softly, still sounding as apologetic as if the other man's actions were sohow his responsibility.

"This is going to be a disaster," Lorg Grandpa sighed with his head thrown back. "I believe it is pertinent that I notify Lord Marzanna about this."

"Why?" Lord Taika blurted out, drawing all eyes to her. "If Ambrose chose to act on his own, it isn't our responsibility. In the best-case scenario, he might even manage to convince Marzanna to hand over the last Grimoire Key, and that would finally resolve the problems your granddaughter's facing at the mont."

"And in the worst-case scenario, he might start a fight with her," the dark-skinned arch-mage pointed out, sohow sounding even more exasperated than before. "Glasgow is already scrutinizing us due to our close ties to the new Celestial hierarchy. An inter-School fight between two arch-mages of the Assembly, nay, two Keyholders, would inevitably turn that into a full-blown investigation."

"I'm sure that Ambrose won't…" Gulliver started, but then he paused for a long beat and slumped his shoulders. "Actually, never mind. I can't guarantee that he won't pick a fight."

"If you're so worried, maybe we should ask Leonard to pick him up?" Taika proposed, and when everyone gave her sideways glances, she quickly continued in a more defensive, "Don't look at like that. I can't be the only one to consider that."

"No." The local arch-mage sounded extra-deadpan as he patted his beard. "Even if we were to successfully convince him to intervene, it would be akin to detonating a house to stop it from burning down. While I have a hard ti imagining Ambrose reaching a diplomatic resolution with Marzanna, I scarcely dare to even fathom what could happen if he was at the scene as well."

A heavy silence settled onto the room for a while, and after glancing between each other to see if anyone had a better idea, the red-headed arch-mage raised his hands.

"I can't argue with that, but… Let's not get too overdramatic just yet. I'll try to contact him first and find out what he's planning to do, and then we can act depending on what he has to say."

"I concur," Lord Barnabas said, and Lord Taika nodded along.

"Very well. In that case, I shall refrain from contacting the School of Ottawa until we are perfectly clear on the motivations of Lord Ambrose. Are we in agreent?"

Everyone nodded along, and then the impromptu eting quickly dissolved, with Barnabas and Taika discussing making tests papers ahead of ti, in case they won't be able to do so later due to any potential ergency, while Gulliver was poking his phone and muttering sothing about long-distance calls and roaming fees.

Since there was nothing else to see here, I Far Glanced at Ambrose as well, and… yup. He was on a plane all right. It wasn't particularly riveting either, so I quickly moved on, though not before returning to my body and looking around.

…

Nope, still no movent. Okay, next target.

I quickly skimd through a couple of other marks, but there was nothing interesting to see with the childhood friend couple, Ammy was already in bed, and nothing was happening at the base or with my in-laws either. I caught a glimpse of Rinne and Naoren awkwardly trying to kiss (potentially for the first ti, knowing those two), but while that looked funny, it was also an intimate matter, so I didn't linger.

But then…

"… not condone your slander, Dolion!" Savir exclaid so hard it outright startled for a mont.

She was talking to nsah, but Tsephanyah was also in the room. As in, the 'secret' chamber where they used to hold their private etings in the past. I had no idea why they were still using it after I showed them it wasn't as clandestine as they thought, and they had no reason to hide their collaboration from the rest of the Elysium either, but I guessed it was a force of habit. On other words, that was also Pavlov's fault.

Anyhow, the three of them were sitting around a familiar table, though at least this ti the room was well-lit and they weren't wearing those silly cowls, aning there was so progress. They were also in their usual togas, and while that should've gone without saying, considering that the blonde ex-director spent most of our vacation dressed like a stereotypical angler from a fishing reality show, I figured it was prudent to ntion it.

I only caught the tail end of so kind of argunt, and seeing how vehent she was about this, nsah quickly raised his hands and relented.

"I'm only saying that she's, technically, on a biological level, still an Abyssal. You can't argue with that."

"Abyssal or not, I won't stand for this!" Savir's scowl was sothing to behold, but before the younger ex-director could say anything else, she folded her arms and declared, "As far as I'm concerned, she's an exemplar, and I refuse to hear any words to the contrary!"

"… So after your attempt to get close to Lord Polemos's fiancée failed, you're now aiming for his adopted sister?" Tsephanyah supposed, and for a mont, I could practically see the sparks flying between the two.

"How dare you!?" Savir cried out, but then she put her hands onto the table, took a deep breath, and started again. "No. You're correct about my attempt to befriend soone in Polemos's inner circle resulting in a… less than satisfactory results, but this has nothing to do with that." Her eyes soon returned to nsah, and she hissed at him in a low voice. "While I agree that we must be vigilant against the movent of the Abyssals under Bel's control, I will not entertain the notion of extending that policy to her, and that's final."

"All right, I understand," the bespectacled ex-director spoke with a sigh and crossed his arms. "It was just sothing I thought we would all agree upon, but I guess we aren't on the sa page. What were we talking about before that?"

"The redistribution of the funds set aside for road infrastructure and maintenance," Tsephanyah said in a detached, nonchalant tone, as if saying that the previous topic had nothing to do with him. "As I was saying, since Lord Polemos lifted the ban on personal flight, we're expecting the roads to lose most of their significance, so we should propose a plan to the Archon to shift that portion of the budget to hire more flight control officers and to establish an education and certification system to reduce the current prevalence of flight-etiquette violations and fall injuries."

"Ah, indeed," nsah nodded along. "And I said that if we have a surplus of funds, we should allocate that to surveying the Abyssals instead, and—"

"Dolion, stop," the blonde ex-director cut him short, just before Savir could get a word in. "That's what started the previous tangent. We don't have all night for this, so let's stay on topic."

And that's exactly what they did. I listened to them for a bit longer, but they were only talking about air-traffic rules and whatnot, so I tuned out and returned to my body. There was still no movent around , so I took out my phone and fired up the ssaging app, because there was sothing about the exchange between those three that bothered .

"God of Grilled Cheese: Hey, sis? Are you awake?"

She apparently was, because I got a reply after just a few short seconds.

"Best Little Sister: Is everything all right?"

"God of Grilled Cheese: Yes. I just wanted to ask you sothing."

"God of Grilled Cheese: Did you talk with Savir during our vacation?"

I could see her type, then stop, then type again, so she apparently had a hard ti deciding how to respond.

"Best Little Sister: Yes. We talked for a while when I set the Camouflage Sigils around her."

"Best Little Sister: I also"

"Best Little Sister: put a parasol over her so she wouldn't get a sunburn."

"Best Little Sister: And I gave her sothing to drink too."

"Best Little Sister: I shouldn't have?"

"God of Grilled Cheese: No, it's fine. You didn't do anything wrong."

"God of Grilled Cheese: What did you talk about?"

There was another quiet spell, during which I could see her type a lot, yet the resulting response was surprisingly short.

"Best Little Sister: Just about life. Looking on the bright side of things and trying to be happy. Those kinds of things."

"Best Little Sister: Did I cause a problem?"

"God of Grilled Cheese: Don't be so nervous. I told you; you did nothing wrong."

After so thinking, I added another line.

"God of Grilled Cheese: I'll tell you the details tomorrow. Don't stay up late."

"Best Little Sister: Okay. Did you already et with Lady Fidèle?"

"God of Grilled Cheese: Not yet, but she should better show up soon. My butt is getting cold."

"Best Little Sister: XD"

"Best Little Sister: Penny's calling. Goodnight."

"God of Grilled Cheese: Goodnight."

"God of Grilled Cheese: And tell her not to play her mobile ga under the blankets and go to sleep properly, or I'll give her lots of head pats tomorrow."

"Best Little Sister: XD XD XD"

That was the end of our texting, and so I put my phone away, looked around, and…

…

Still nothing.

Seriously, was I that early? Or maybe when our local flavour of vampires said 'after dark', they ant 'waaay after dark'. Like, after midnight, or sothing. Speaking of 'vamps', I still knew very little about them. According to Judy's refresher course, Abyssal vampires were an exceedingly rare breed. The sa applied to most other Abyssal sub-species as well (for example, the entirety of House Inanna had exactly two Seducers, naly Snowy and Tajana), but vampires were especially so. They also had a mixed reputation, both in- and out-of-Abyss, because of the whole body-snatching business, so it was hard to tell the truth apart from the exaggerated rumours.

As far as I knew, it could've been that she literally couldn't co out until after midnight and she just thought I would know about that. I hoped that wasn't the case; I wasn't joking when I said my butt was freezing. We had mild spring weather, sure, but it was still getting late and the temperature wasn't exactly balmy.

Hoping that I wouldn't need to sit here for half the night, I searched for a distraction, and my mind soon reached for my Far Sight again. Once again: it's Pavlov's fault.

Since I was thinking about Abyssal stuff, I figured I might as well give them a peek, and to my surprise, I found Crowy in his study, surrounded by his usual cronies, and… wow. Did I miss the announcent that today was declared 'international impromptu eting day', or sothing?

Joking aside, the atmosphere in the room was more tense than usual, and at least part of the reason probably had to do with the bandages covering the left side of Crowy's exposed upper body.

"House Gula reinforced the defensive periter around their castle, My Liege," an older man stated gravely. He had a bushy, greying beard, a receding hairline, and a prominent gut that couldn't be fully restrained by the wide belt of his dark army uniform.

I didn't know his na, but I've seen him enough tis to recognize him. From what I gathered, he was sothing of a military advisor and soone directly in charge of the Fauns of House Inanna. His expression was bleak, and he nervously gulped when looking at the injured patriarch.

"I don't think we'll get another opportunity to wrestle control of their Mana Well away from them any ti soon," Crowy's right-hand man, the guy wearing a grey navy uniform, stated with a sense of grave finality, and another mber of the entourage let out a low huff.

"What happened?" the old woman in the back asked, sounding rather accusatory compared to the tone of the others. She wore a black gothic dress and her hair was done up into a wide, elaborate bun on the back of her head. She was also holding one of those long pipes and she used its stem to point at the man behind the desk. "You said you could do it. What went wrong?"

"Matron…" One of the less significant underlings tried to calm her down, but a single withering glare made him slink back.

As for Crowy, he let out a heavy breath and pulled his coat over his bandaged shoulder.

"Getting to the Gulas' Mana Well was simple. It's simply that taking control of it took much longer than expected, and it allowed Manchot to regroup. He hit while my guard was down, together with Éclair and her sons."

"And why was your guard down?" the old woman kept drilling him, and the bastard let out an uncomfortable groan.

"Because taking control of another Mana Well, while also keeping my grip on the others firm, was more difficult than expected." He paused and he rubbed the side of his head, as if recalling a painful mory. "As a matter of fact, it was much harder than taking over the Ashurs' Mana Well. I believed my experience would let dominate it much faster, but it turned out that each additional Mana Well increases the difficulty of the process."

"'More difficult than expected'. 'You believed'. 'It seems'," the woman they called 'the matron' echoed him with a squint. "aning you rushed in without being certain."

"I couldn't be sure," he answered impatiently. "No one has done sothing like this before ."

"Then why didn't you ask the 'Emperor' for advice?" she continued to question him relentlessly, prompting Crowy to groan in exasperation.

"I did. He told it was sothing I would have to experience myself."

"So it was a test?" Dimas, the guy in the grey uniform, blurted out seemingly without aning to, and after a long beat, Crowy shrugged.

"Maybe."

"But if taking the third Mana Well is already so difficult, then how is our liege expected to conquer all of them?" the bearded old man asked the question on everyone's mind, but Crowy silenced him with a gesture.

"I don't know. Not yet." As he said that, both his eyes and his hair lit up with an eery purple light, and as he raised his hand, a ball of crackling purple ball of light manifested over his palm. "There has to be sothing, so way, to control them other than brute force. Sothing with more finesse. I just have to figure out how, or what I'm missing to achieve it."

"Well, you'll have plenty of ti to think about it while you recuperate," the old matron stated dryly. "We can't push our luck while you're injured, so I propose we halt our offensive for the ti being and focus on reinforcing the front lines."

Everyone went along with what she said without resistance, including Crowy, which made wonder just who she truly was. 'Matrons' were distinguished older won in high social positions, often widows of n of high esteem who still had lots of influence in a family, so… maybe she was Crowy's grandmother? No, that would've made her Snowy's grandma too, and she would've told about her.

I returned to my body and was just about to send one more ssage to my sister to ask, but then I noticed a lone figure on a nearby footpath, so I stood up and quickly walked over to the information board. As expected, the newcor was heading this way, and once she got closer, I could finally make out her features.

She was a pale woman in her mid-to-late thirties, with long, flowing silver hair and piercing red eyes that seed to softly glow whenever she wasn't under the direct light of one of the lampposts. She was wearing an elaborately laced black gown with matching elbow gloves, and if that wasn't enough, she was also holding a similarly coloured parasol in her hands. Even more peculiarly, she had a kind of incorporeal, hazy black mist following in her wake, as if she was gliding on top of it.

"Good evening, Lord Dunning," she greeted without much change in her expression. Her voice was deep and lodious, and it was worth pointing out that she had no audible accent to speak of. "Or should I call you Lord Polemos? Lord Archon? Which one of your titles do you prefer?"

"Neither. Just Leonard will do," I responded laconically and her lips bent into a mildly amused smile, which was… wow.

Okay, so, I didn't want to overstate this or anything, but even ignoring the fact that her appearance was suspiciously similar to an older Snowy's, she was also damn pretty. As in, I was used to people in the Simulacrum being unreasonably attractive, but she in particular was straight up main character level beautiful, and if she showed up earlier (and was a little younger), I would've instantly pegged her as an eleventh-hour addition to Josh's harem. However, since that boat had already sailed, it only made feel all the more confused.

Thankfully it must not have shown on my face, because she gracefully nodded and told , "In that case, you may address by my given na as well."

"Fair enough."

"Co, Lord Leonard. Walk with . We have much to discuss."

"Indeed, just… Give a second."

While saying that, I was busy typing on my phone, and she gave a curious look in reaction.

"May I ask what you're doing?"

"Nothing major," I reassured her and I pocketed my phone with a smile. "I just inford my fiancées that they both lost a bet."

And also reassured them that the anti-harem counterasures were firmly in place, as always, but she didn't need to know that.