Monday evening. The end of yet another long and hectic day.
"I'm ho…"
My voice sounded a tad morose even to myself as I entered the house. To be fair, I was pretty exhausted, in the ntal sense of the word. Keeping track of the play was taxing at the best of tis, but I also had to uphold my public image at the sa ti. The latter required to skip school for the day, which… was becoming too much of a habit if you asked .
More on that later. For now, I walked into the living room, where Morgana and Arnwald were poring over so docunts on the coffee table. They were dressed in their usual indoor ensembles (read: red plaid shirt and black pants on one, white knit turtleneck sweater and jeans on the other), and they both perked up in my presence.
"Welco back! Did you get him?" Arnwald enquired right away, sounding hopeful, only to wilt the mont I shook my head.
"No. He's slippery, as always," I answered flatly and walked over to their side. "What are you looking at?"
"We're trying to find a pattern in the attacks," Morgana told matter-of-factly, accompanied by an odd glint in her eyes. She was one of the few people aware of playing the role of Bel, and while she wasn't in on the full plan this ti around, she shouldn't have had any reason to do this… other than playing along with Arnwald, of course. In a way, it was almost sweet.
"I doubt you'll find anything, but don't let stop you." I intended that to be the final word on that and leave, but Morgana reflexively reached after , so I halted in my tracks and faced them again. "Yes? Is there sothing else?"
"Dinner's in about half an hour." She gestured towards the kitchen first. "Eleanor and Judy did most of the cooking, I'll just have to reheat it." Then she pointed a forefinger directly up. "They're waiting for you in your room, as usual." Finally, she made a vague sweeping notion towards the back. "Penelope and Neige just ca back from visiting Percival, and they said they wanted to talk with you. You might want to visit them before dinner."
Before I could get a word in, Arnwald let out a soft harrumph and crossed his arms.
"I tell you, spending so much ti with a traitor like that is a bad influence on the kids."
"They go there to learn from him," Morgana spoke softly, only to then add. "At least… I'm certain that Neige does."
"That's the problem! If she wants to learn, I'm sure there are less dishonorable sources to draw upon, such as…" He said, but then he faltered, visibly stumped. "Such as… many others I can't readily na right now. I'm still certain they would serve them better than interacting with him."
"While I share your sentint, the only reason I kept him alive is to do that, so trying to find a different ntor for her at this stage would be a bit counter-intuitive."
My comnt got him groaning, so Morgana grasped the back of his hand.
"It should be fine. Even Leonard says so, and Percival has been behaving himself until now."
"Once a traitor, always a traitor," the man fud, only to blink and look at . "Extraordinary circumstances notwithstanding, of course." He must've felt like he stepped on a landmine, because he quickly grasped Morgana's hand back and cleared his throat, trying his best to shift the topic. "Nevertheless, I'm uncomfortable about what manner of skullduggery and treachery he's teaching the girls. Not to ntion, those phone gas!"
Okay, I admit that gave a whiplash, and I blurted out, "The what now?" without aning to.
anwhile, Morgana glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the stairwell, then gestured for to co closer.
"Penelope didn't want you to know, but we're not very familiar with these things," she admitted in a hushed voice and urged to lean in so she could whisper. "It's a ga on their phones, and Penelope admitted that she was using her allowance to buy sothing called 'Value Bundles' for Percival so that they could keep playing together."
"I think the ga they play is called 'Ga-cha'," Arnwald joined in with a conspiratorial whisper. "It's a strange title. I don't know what it ans."
"… And you're saying that Penny's been paying for Percival's microtransactions?"
"What's a 'microtransaction'?" Arnwald asked back with mild bewildernt, while Morgana just nodded along.
"She said she felt bad for him because he had his bank accounts closed and his savings confiscated, and since he's not receiving a pension, she said it was the only way they could keep playing together."
"What do you an he 'doesn't get a pension'? That crafty old—!" I stifled a curse and took a deep breath as I straightened my back again. "Thank you for telling that, I'll look into it later. It's getting late, so I'll go and do the rounds before dinner first."
The two senior Knights nodded in unison, and since they didn't add anything else to that, I hefted my bag over my shoulder and headed upstairs. I considered visiting my sisters' room first but decided against it and walked into mine first, without knocking. I an, it was my room after all, yet…
"Welco back, Chief," I muffled voice greeted from the bed.
Judy, topless, was lying on her stomach, with Elly straddling her butt.
"Oh, wow. For a mont, I just thought that it was weird that Leo ca in through the door. Is that weird?" my princess spoke with a giggle, while also in a state of relative undress, and continued to knead my dear assistant's shoulder blades like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"And you two wonder why you aren't beating the allegations…" I grumbled as I closed the door behind and threw my bag in the corner, next to my school bag. It only had towels and so other stuff from my morning rehearsal with future-, so nothing fragile.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Judy responded, still muffled by the pillow, and I had a hard ti deciding if she was being cheeky or genuinely didn't understand my point.
In any case, Elly finally got off her and put on a shirt. Judy followed her example, though she didn't bother with a bra, and… Why did I have a feeling there'd be copious amounts of lewding in my near future? And more importantly, since when did I start looking forward to it like this? It must've been the stupid spring hormones and whatever.
"How's the situation?" my lovely assistant asked while buttoning up her shirt. That is, my shirt she took for her own and occasionally used for the 'boyfriend shirt' trope when staying over, but that was beside the point.
"We had three more incidents today," I responded normally, then added, "As planned," in a low voice.
"Isn't this overdoing it a bit?" Elly asked on the side while helping my other girlfriend put on her hair ribbon. "Rember when Friedrich and Galatea were threatening us? We only got pulled into a Restricted Space every other day, not all the ti."
"I know I said we're doing sothing similar, but we have a strict titable to keep. He didn't."
"So? Who was involved this ti?" ca the next question from Judy, and I was pretty sure that she was showing off her cleavage through the unbuttoned top of the shirt on purpose, so I pointedly walked over to my PC and sat down. Dinner was around the corner, so I had to make sure not to get sidetracked by those pesky hormones.
"One attack on the Feilong elders and Xiao, one ambush on Josh and Angie on their way back from school, and one final bout with the arch-mages and the new Assembly delegation at the docks." I paused and turned my chair around to face the girls. "The last one was right after ssing with Josh and Angie, and it was quick because the Magi were escalating things hard. The rest went just as planned."
"You didn't make little Xiao cry, right?" Elly levelled a sudden question at , and when I automatically averted my eyes, she puffed up her cheeks. "Leo! You know that she was traumatized by her last encounter with Bel!"
"I know, but it was necessary to show that Bel had no specific interest in her," I argued back. "It's not like future- hurt her, and I gave her lots of head pats afterwards, so it should be fine."
The princess still didn't seem convinced, but then Judy ca to my support.
"I'm sure it was a necessary evil. It was probably better than the Feilongs hiding her away in fear of Bel targeting her."
"Precisely! Thank you for understanding."
Elly still didn't look perfectly convinced, but she let the topic drop for the mont. anwhile, Judy shifted on the bed and asked the next pivotal question.
"I'd already got a text ssage from Angeline, so I knew that there was nothing special going on with the two of them. I also learned that our texting app has a profanity filter enabled by default and that Deus learned how to use it, but that's a different matter entirely. What about the Magi? Did you encounter Lord Marzanna?"
"Nah. I was very emphatically told that I'm not allowed to et her. By Roland… and Barnabas… and everyone else, really." I shrugged. "I an, it's not like they can stop , and I can et whoever I want, but they weren't unreasonable about it, so I did as I was told."
"Really? I thought she would be with the other Assembly delegates," Elly chid in curiously, so I shrugged one more.
"Nah, again. She apparently arrived separately for one reason or another."
"Can't you tell where she is?" ca the next question from her, and this ti I didn't shrug, though my response remained the sa.
"Nah, three for three. I never got around to marking her back in Ottawa; I was more important things to consider at the ti."
"So we have a rogue arch-mage on the island with an axe to grind with you, whose location you can't track," ca the next remark, this ti from Judy.
"When you put it like that, it does sound troubling, but future- assured that she won't be doing anything stupid for the next couple of days, and by then, I won't be on the island anymore."
"Which conversely ans that she will do sothing stupid later," my dead assistant concluded.
"Should we be worried?" my other girlfriend asked, already sounding worried to my ears, and I sadly couldn't reassure her.
"I have no idea."
"Didn't future-you tell you the details?"
"As hard as it is to believe, I have a very strict no-spoilers policy." My joke didn't land well, considering the deafening silence I received in return, so it was my turn to change the topic. "Anyhow, I'm sure our protagonists are more than up for the task of dealing with her, and if not… well, there's always so wiggle-room for supporting the actors from off-stage with so props or a well-tid poke with a broom handle."
"Chief, you're getting carried away with your theater-analogies. Please, stop."
I capitulated to my girlfriend's objection, and it was only at this point that I noticed that the princess was a bit fidgetier than usual.
"Are you still worried about Marzanna?"
"Hm? No, not really," she spoke off-handedly, and it didn't sound like she was putting up a front. "I'm just… do you really have to stay in the Abyss for this plan to work?"
"Officially? Yes, absolutely. But…" I leaned forward and put a hand next to my mouth. "If you're lonely, I'll co visit. I did it when stuck in the Elysium, so it wouldn't make much difference."
"Oh, right. You did." She flushed red, realizing that her worry sounded silly in retrospect, so I got up and reflexively hugged her. I always did that when she was getting flustered or worked up, so it beca a habit.
It soon turned into a group hug when Judy joined it, and I couldn't help but freeze up for as soon as we made contact.
"Dormouse, my love? You really need to put on a bra ASAP."
"Why?" she asked back, pretending to be clueless.
"Because the bumps on my arm are very distracting."
"Are they?"
"Yes."
We stared eye-to-eye for a while, then she finally pulled back with a hint of a smile and added, "We have reached a new milestone in the Chief Libido Developnt project. I must add this to my observation records."
"What project?" I blurted out by reflex, only to pause and start over. "Wait, scratch that. Did you just say 'observation records'?" She nodded. "You an the ones from way back? When we first started working together?" She nodded again. "You're still writing that?"
"You hired to do it, and I was never fired." She paused and gave a clumsy yet endearing wink. "It's going to make a fun story for the kids."
"Oh, I can already imagine that!" Elly burst into giggles, though only for a second. "Wait. Are we going to tell them about it? The whole Watsonian and Doylist narrative trope things?"
"How about we cross that bridge when we get there?" I said a touch wearily and got up. "We don't even have kids."
"Yet," Judy stated defiantly. "According to statistics, less than one percent of high-school relationships lead to long-term marriage without divorce. I'm dedicated to beating the odds, so get ready to have a nice nuclear family unit, kids and pets included."
"I want a doggie," Elly chid in.
"Or we can go for a cat. Potentially a parrot."
"Oh, I like that! Parrots are funny, too!"
While the girls were busy planning our future household, I rolled my shoulders, got my hormones under control, and once I felt nominally calm and unaroused, I jerked my head towards the door.
"Let's get back to this, and other things, after dinner. My sisters wanted to talk with , so I'll go visit them, and we'll et downstairs."
"That's a plan!" my princess exclaid and turned to Judy. "I think we have enough ti to finish the massage first. Do you want to continue?"
"Sure," Judy told her and was already in the process of unbuttoning, with her eyes slyly looking at , so I hastily left the room before she could tease more. Note to self: tease her back after dinner.
For now, I had other things to do, and I didn't have to go far either, as my sisters' room was just next door. I couldn't hear anything on the other side, though it wasn't surprising; Snowy already sound-proofed all the rooms in the house with her Sigils. It was also the reason why I felt comfortable discussing things in my room while it was only separated from theirs by a thin wall, but I digress.
I knocked, and it only took a few seconds for the door to open.
"Brother, you're back!" Penny greeted with a grin. She was still in her school uniform, and she grabbed my hand and practically dragged in. "Co inside!"
That choice of words, while innocent, triggered all kinds of Freudian connections in my brain thanks to Judy's teasing and the talk about children, so I had to forcefully still my face.
"Easy there, Kiddo. Why are you so excited?"
Once I was in the room, I saw that Snowy was sitting cross-legged on the bed, with a whole lot of hand-written notes spread in front of her. Were they school notes, I wondered at first, but then my other sister skipped over and she presented with a couple of pages.
"Look! We've got a whole lot of intelligence reports from Uncle Percy!"
"Have you now?" I whispered with so reservation, but my Abyssal sister also insisted.
"We asked him about what he knew of the Abyssal Houses and their recent ploys, and we cross-referenced them with what Tajana and I knew to make these." She showed off another densely written page. "I-It's a bit ssy, but I'll clean it up later."
"I wasn't worried about that, but…" I squinted to take a better look at the page Penny gave . "What exactly is this?"
"It's docuntation on all the secret alliances, feuds, and ploys between the various Noble Houses of the Abyss," Snowy explained plainly, but then she averted her eyes and muttered. "The ones we know of, at any rate."
"And since you're going there," Penny took the reins of the conversation with enthusiasm and presented the scattered pages on the bed the sa way a television quiz show host would show off the car the contestant just won. She paused for a aningful beat, then exclaid, "We put this together so that you would be prepared to face those schers and backstabbers!"
"That's very thoughtful of you, but…"
"Ah, and before I forget!" my redhead sister barrelled on without letting get a word in. "We explained what's going on to Uncle Percy, and he had so advice for you!"
"… Is that so?"
I glanced at my other sister, and she nodded in the affirmative.
"Yes, and I… I agree with his assessnt." Snowy took a deep breath and pushed so of the docunts aside so she could sit properly. "Fidèle Basmu Shamash is known as a woman of integrity, but after looking at all the available evidence, we ca to the conclusion that the Nergals might be using her influence as a tool, with or without her approval. The Ashurs don't have a great reputation either, especially now that everyone knows of their collusion with Elysium, so we…"
"All three of us," Penny interjected for emphasis.
"… are of the opinion that they might end up betraying you once you're in the Abyss. We're not sure of their exact plans, so we can't tell whether they would do so before or after your rescued Éolienne Serua Ashur or after, but in either case… You need to watch your back."
"Right! Abyssals are a treacherous lot like that, and Uncle Percy said this whole situation reeked of betrayal!" I wanted to say sothing along the lines of 'Well, he's certainly an authority on the subject,' but Penny didn't let , because she pushed another couple of papers into my hands. "That's why we wrote these down! If they turn on you, you can just go to their enemies, and pit them against each other! It's not the most honourable thing to do, but when in Ro, do as the Romans do!"
"It's not complete yet, but by the ti you set out on the rescue mission, it'll be finished," my Abyssal sister concluded with a solemn mien, and while I could've pointed out that I had more intel on the Noble Houses, thanks to the Celestial Intelligence Network than I ever needed, I obviously wasn't going to rain on their efforts.
"Thank you, I appreciate this, and keep what you said in mind."
"Just… stay safe, okay?" Snowy whispered, her serious surface cracking and letting so of her anxiety seep out. If she was in arm's reach, this would've been the point I tousled her hair, but since she wasn't, I put my hand on Penny's head instead.
"Don't worry, sis. Everything's under control."
My reassurance didn't work perfectly, but she still looked better. My knightly sister, on the other hand…
"B-Brother! Why are patting my…? W-Wait, let go!"
"No can do, kiddo," I spoke in a level voice and gently guided her onto the edge of the bed, making sure not to squeeze her noggin too hard in the process. Once she was sitting, I let go of her and crossed my arms in front of my chest with a disapproving, yet still brotherly, frown. "We still have a few minutes until dinner, so before that… let's talk about your allowance and your spending habits, shall we?"
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