The Simulacrum

Josh and the gang spent two more nights in the village, going around collecting rumours, helping out the locals, and gathering funds in preparation. After every meal, they would also sit down and do another round of 'Okay, so what are our plans now, and how do we accomplish them?' talk, which I, as someone with lots of experience with pointless meetings, could authoritatively say was the worst bloody way to accomplish anything.

Whenever I wasn't watching over them and their various escapades, I made sure to keep track of the situation on Critias, and it was only around this time that the people in power finally started asking questions about where the group was and why they didn't have adult supervision. It was only a question of time before the cat was out of the bag, but as expected, Roland seemed to be already aware of what was going on and was sneakily increasing the readiness level of our forces on the island.

That included not only the Ordo Draconis personnel, but he roped Fred and his secret Sentai mook and robot army into it as well. That was already a sizable military force, at least by World of Mystics standards, but I was further shocked to see that the Celestials were also mustering their forces in the Elysium. The only faction that wasn't actively mobilising yet was the Magi, since Lord Grandpa and the rest were still way too busy dealing with the fallout of the Marzanna incident.

I figured that as soon as they realised that Ammy was in the Abyss, they would become just as much of a kicked-up hornet's nest as the others. They were blissfully unaware of the situation unfolding there for now, which was mirrored by how the guys had no idea what was going on outside either. Not for my lack of trying, though.

"Seriously, Dormouse. You should at least tell them that when the plan goes into motion, they'll have backup right away."

"No, Chief. That's outside-context information."

"You can be really stubborn at the weirdest of times, you know?"

"They do say that couples tend to resemble each other with time."

"Touché, but still."

I was getting better, but Cal was still adamant about limiting my talk time with Judy. Even after I fine-tuned the communication arrays a bit to make them less taxing on my mana-circulation, we could only talk for about fifteen minutes every evening. That was enough for general updates on both ends, but not much else. We even had to abstain from flirting, to the shock and horror of everyone.

Jokes aside, we tried to secretly strategise as much as possible in these small time-windows, but we didn't make much headway. The scenario in general and the finale in particular were essentially in future-me's hands now, and we could only go with the flow. One couldn't help but occasionally wonder the ethicality of all this; roping Josh and company along into a dangerous confrontation with a cold-blooded killer and his boot-lickers, but what other alternative was there?

Not have a finale? Then what? At least with future-me's retcon-fuelled scheme, we had a relatively clear outcome. Scenario ends, restrictions and enforced tropes get lifted, and then the Crowned Coalescence can come in and get us out of this mess. That last part was conjecture on my end, but again, what was the alternative?

We couldn't not finish the scenario. Let's say that I picked up Ollie, got out of the Chasm of Desolation, trekked across the whole damn Abyss to meet up with the gang, and then we extracted ourselves using a Mana Well. It would've left way too much 'tension' in the Simulacrum. Tension that had to be released somehow, either by a different climax, or stuff going absurdly, monumentally wrong. Wrong enough to warrant another retcon, like sending my consciousness back into the past as Bel, or something.

Hmmm. Food for thought.

In any case, Judy was of the opinion that since we were already neck-deep in this plot, it was better not to disrupt it and let Josh flex his protagonist credentials and resolve it on his own. Since I was our resident plot-derailer, to the point even future-me wanted me out of the picture, she argued that I should stay in my lane for now and just let others take care of things for once.

To be fair, Josh had been showing a lot of initiative ever since he stepped out of the shadow I was unintentionally casting on him, so I wasn't against leaving things to him on principle, but… How should I put it? Even though I wanted him (and by proxy, the rest of the gang) to regain their importance in the Simulacrum's plot, I was also feeling persistently nervous about them making a mistake and me not being able to bail them out on a moment's notice.

…

Was this how a parent felt when their kid was starting to get independent, I wondered.

"Chief? Do you have any other news?"

"Not much."

"Then I'm handing over the glasses."

"Okay. Love you."

"I know."

Before I could figure out if that was a reference and if I was supposed to react to it, my excited draconic girlfriend took the artifact out of Judy's hand and hastily propped it onto her nose.

"Hi, Leo!"

"Hi, princess. Good job with the snake."

"Ah, you were watching? Was I cool?"

"Yep. Very."

While she giggled, I recalled the scene from the morning. As it turned out, the Abyss not only had very big rats and humongous boars, but also some rather angry giant snakes as well. That made me further wonder about the state of the ecosystem once again, but the girls had no such concerns, and this time the princess and Snowy also joined Penny on a hunting expedition.

Elly wore her Magiformer to suppress her draconic traits in combat, but even the fact that she literally tore a snake as thick as a tree trunk in half didn't raise a single brow with the villagers. If anything, they've been treating her even better than before, which… did make some sense, I guessed? If I wasn't seeing her being her usual, sunny self, even I might've wondered if she had some pent-up anger issues and treated her with kiddy gloves.

"Say… I'm only asking this just in case, but are you one hundred percent sure we can't meet up?"

My dear assistant was in the middle of arranging her bed in preparation for going to sleep, but she stopped and turned a displeased stare at my other girlfriend.

"We talked about this."

"I know, but…" The princess pulled the glasses down so they were sitting on the tip of her nose, mainly so that she could give the puppy eyes treatment to Judy. "I miss him!"

"I miss the Chief too, but we can't help it. It's already fortunate that we can communicate like this."

I felt obligated to chime in with, "Once you get closer to Eanna, it should let us talk without these pesky time limitations."

"I know, but it's not the same! I want a hug!"

I almost told her to ask Judy to give her one in my stead, but my lovely assistant beat me to the punch. Not by hugging her, but by pinching the glasses on the princess's nose.

"You're getting fussy. Let's turn in for the night; we'll have to get up early tomorrow morning."

"No, stop! I still have my Leo-time!" Elly retreated while holding onto the artifact, then addressed me again. "Uuu… Leo?"

"Yes, love?"

My response put a silly smile on her face, but she suppressed it and asked, "Once this is all over, can we take a break? I mean, maybe go on a trip, with just the three of us?"

"You're putting the cart before the horse, and… you just want to be spoiled, don't you?"

"Yes!"

Her answer took me aback for a second, but then my surprise turned into an amused chuckle.

"Heh. At least you're honest. Sure, princess. As soon as the finale is over," 'and the world doesn't end', thought I didn't say that out loud, "I'll take you on a second vacation and spoil you rotten."

Now it was her turn to giggle.

"Hehe. Okay, I'll hold you to your word!" No sooner than she said that, she aimed a brilliant grin at Judy and proclaimed, "I got Leo to promise! Let's try to wrap everything up nice and quick! The sooner the better!"

"I admire your optimism, but don't get reckless," my other girlfriend chided her, then patted the other half of the queen-sized bed in the room. "I'm turning in for the day. Make sure to leave room for Amelia."

In the meantime, I could hear Cal clicking their tongue (don't ask how a sword was doing that; I stopped trying to figure out their vocalisations a while ago), so I hastily told her, "Actually, let's cut the chat for today. Sleep well, princess."

"Aw, fine…" She puckered her lips and sent me a kiss. "Good night."

She put the glasses down onto the plain nightstand and quickly slipped under the blankets. The girls were sharing the room (and thus the bed) with Ammy, but she wasn't back yet. Since I had nothing better to do, I Far Glanced her way and found her in the next room over, and she was…

"But listen. If you put three Nemean Lions into your deck, you need to put at least six level three Creature Cards to ensure consistency! That's way too much bloat!"

"But I don't! Look, we have searchers for this, like the Mirror of the Moon. It lets me draw any Beast-type Creature card from my deck."

"And? You're going to need multiple copies of those for consistency, too! Just ditch one Nemean Lion, and put in more hard removal spells!"

So, by the sound of it, Penny and the class rep both brought their Celestial TCG collection with them for the trip, and they were currently arguing about deck-building discipline. That was… not exactly 'new' per se, but not exactly something I was expecting to see at this hour either.

While their enthusiasm was admittedly pretty infectious, I wasn't particularly invested in their game. In the 'interested in the mechanics and lore' sense, I mean. The 'putting funds into mass manufacturing so I could sell them to the Magi for an arm and a leg' sense was something else entirely and should only be discussed behind closed doors. Anyhow, someone was missing from this picture, so I Far Glanced over at Snowy's mark, and found her downstairs in the tavern.

"Come on, Silver Missy! You're embarrassing us!" a familiar man's voice whined from one of the tables, but my sister only smiled at him and shook her head.

"No, I really don't mind this. Would you please raise your feet?"

She tapped the flat broom in her hand against the floor, and the bald man sitting at one of the tables let out a distressed noise.

"This is not how guests should behave!"

"Oh, quit your yapping," the barkeep snapped at him from the other side of the counter and jerked his chin towards Snowy. "If she wants to help, why now let her?"

"This is so wrong…"

Even though he continued to grouse, he obediently raised his feet so my sister could sweep under him.

"Thank you, I'll only bother you for a second."

"No, thank you," the barkeep interjected again when he came over to the table with a beer stein and a toothy grin. "I heard you've been helping in the kitchen as well. I wish all youngsters were as ready to lend a hand as you kids."

"And I tell you that bothering a Noble Missy with sweeping the floor like this just isn't right," the bald man continued to grumble even as he accepted his drink.

"It's not a bother. I like doing housework. It's calming." Snowy paused while she swept the collected dirt onto a small metal dustpan under the appreciative gaze of the men, and then she timidly added, "I have an… um… new mom back home, so I can't do this much anymore."

What she meant was that Morgana had taken over her cleaning duties back home as part of her role as the family's mother-figure. At least she was better at that than cooking, but that wasn't a high bar to clear, and she was trying her best to improve. More importantly, the two Abyssals took her words differently, and the bald guy at the table nodded along like he had just come to a stark realisation.

"Ah, I see! So the Silver Missy's father just remarried to a new wifey, and she's now consolidating the matters of the household in an iron grip. A tale as old as time."

"N-No, that's not it."

Ignoring her protests, the man turned to the tavernkeep again.

"Were there any Noble weddings in House Shamash as of late? I never heard of any."

"Even if there was, it's not like we're privy to the newest gossip out there," the other man responded a tad flippantly while his eyes remained on Snowy. "I reckon the kids might know what's going on in the Abyss better than we do."

"A fair point…" It seemed like that would be the end of the conversation, but then the bald man took a gulp from his beer and levelled an inquisitive stare at my sister. "Hey, Silver Missy? Are you in one of those wicked stepmother kinds of situations?"

The other man blinked in shock and snapped at him with an angry, "What kind of question is that?"

Meanwhile, Snowy was left flabbergasted for a moment, only to then hastily shake her head and wave her hands around, a habit she obviously picked up from Penny.

"A-Ah, no, no no! She's really nice! I really love my family! They're the best!"

That reaction left the men in her company speechless, and my palm just itching for a head pat something awful, but alas, I was still stuck here. A big brother not being able to headpat their little sister when they were cute was almost as bad as a boyfriend not being able to hug their girlfriend when they were needy, and I already experienced the latter today.

"Aw, that's nice. Very nice," the bald man responded in a wooden voice. He raised his beer to his mouth again and tried to avoid eye contact.

The owner of the establishment also shook his head, and feeling the awkward atmosphere, Snowy quickly looked around to find some dust at the other end of the tavern floor, and she quietly extracted herself from the conversation. She continued to busy herself for a while with that, so I decided to move on to the last group I hadn't checked yet, and I found them in their room on the upper floor.

Considering how early my girlfriends went to sleep, I was half-expecting to find Josh and Angie in bed as well, but when I shifted over, they were sitting face to face around the small table that came with their room instead.

"I'm serious about this," the Celestial girl insisted with a pout, much to her boyfriend's chagrin.

Josh objected with a grumpy, "But I'm telling you, I have nothing to apologize for!" but she wasn't hearing any of it.

"It doesn't matter. Just be the bigger man and get it over with, would you?"

I could practically hear the rusty gears turning in the guy's head, and after a long beat, he said, "But wouldn't an insincere apology only make things more awkward?"

"Oh? Are you finally admitting that there's something wrong here?"

"N-No! I'm speaking hypothetically. Hypothetically."

Angie squinted at the guy and defiantly crossed her arms with a huff.

"Listen, dumdum. You know that thing Deus always keeps saying? That the two of us are one?" She raised a hand a tapped her temple. "We're mostly not the same, but we're also kinda the same, you know?"

"… No?"

"Argh! Just listen! You two have been fighting ever since we haggled at the shop. Deus is mad at you, and because we're the same, I'm also annoyed with you. I don't wanna be annoyed with you any longer, so please just talk it out and say sorry."

"But I tell you, I have nothing to apologize for." Josh's denial fell on deaf ears, so after a rather awkward spell of silence, he blinked first and threw his hands into the air. "Oh, fine! Let's talk."

"Good!" Angie's lips bent upwards in relief, but a moment later her eye colour shifted and she immediately folded her arms again, this time with extra gusto. "So, Boy? Do you have something to say to me?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Suddenly turning defiant, Josh also crossed his arms and frowned at her. "Did you seriously have to bring Angie into this?"

"I didn't bring the Girl into this! Are you truly a dumdum, as she claims?"

"Hey! This whole thing's between you and me! Why are you being unreasonable like this?"

"Unreasonable?! Me?!" Deus rose to her feet and forcefully planted her palms on the table. "You're the unreasonable one! I have gone out of my way to support the fiscal integrity of our shared assets, and was I appreciated? No!"

"Hey, don't change the subject!"

"I'm not changing anything!"

"Yes, you do! This isn't about getting the book cheaper, but how you went about it!"

"… Are you referring to the kiss?"

"Of course I'm talking about that!" Josh burst out and… wait, what? What the heck did I miss back then?

"Are you yanking my chains, Boy? I told you it was the quickest way to prove my point, and it cornered the old fishwife into halving the price! It worked!"

I mean… how the heck did a kiss have anything to do with that? Just what kind of chain of arguments could lead to something like this in the middle of haggling with a shopkeeper? Of course, since they both knew the context, neither of them felt the need to explain squat, so I was left in the dark as their quarrel continued.

"But that doesn't mean you can just kiss me in public like that!"

"Why not? You've been kissing the Girl all the time!" Deus argued back, though at this point she was getting a bit too flushed for it to be blamed just on the heat of the moment.

"That's different!"

"How? Are you deaf, or just haven't been listening? We're fundamentally the same being!"

"But not the same person, and…" Josh tried to argue, but it was at this point that he realised the expression on the Celestial girl's face was less angry and more frustrated, so he exhaled a quick breath and showed his palms. "Okay, let's take a step back. Maybe… maybe I overreacted a bit, but you're also clearly at fault."

"How so?"

For a moment there it almost looked like things would calm down, but Deus's flippant question made the guy narrow his eyes in irritation again.

"You kissed me on the mouth!"

"It's not like it was the first time."

"M-Maybe, but that previous one didn't count, and you did it in public!"

"Oh, please. It was only that shrew of a shopkeep in there. It was hardly in the middle of a fish market."

"But you didn't ask me first, or even warn me!"

"That's…!" Deus's momentum came to a halt in the middle of her response, and after a few seconds of silence, she sat down with a soft puff. "That's actually a valid point. I suppose I might've been too worked up in the heat of the bargain."

"Yes, you were. You could've at least tried to warn me or… Idunno… Something."

"True." Deus's expression was inscrutable, and as she regained her calm, the redness of her cheeks and ears slowly receded. In the end, she exhaled a long sigh and asked, "Did my act truly distress you so?"

"Distress is… not the right word."

"So you hated it."

"No!" Josh denied without thinking, but then he hastily amended, "I mean, it was just unexpected. I would've been shocked even if Angie did it, but when it was you, I just… It's complicated, okay?" He exhaled through his nose and put his hands on the table. "Let's just agree that we were both in the wrong. I shouldn't have overreacted like that."

"And I shouldn't have crossed your boundaries without warning."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"I also apologize."

For a while, it looked like that was the end of it, but then Deus suddenly said, "In conclusion, you didn't hate it. Good."

"Good? What's good about that?" Josh blurted out, clearly baffled, while Deus looked at him with the kind of look I'd seen on Angie's face countless time in the past. The expression she often had whenever he was being a blockhead and completely missing her attempts at flirting with him before they… wait.

"You really are slow, Boy," she said as she got up from her seat again. "Do I need to repeat it again? The Girl and I are one and the same."

Josh lightly rolled his eyes and responded with a flat, "Yeah. And that's why she was annoyed with me. Because of you."

"True. It was something she couldn't abide by, because she loves you so. More than you could possibly imagine."

"Yeah, I know, and…" He was about to reply thoughtlessly, but then a belated light-bulb lit up over his head, and he blinked in confusion. "Wait. Are you implying that…?"

"It's getting late," Deus interrupted him and walked towards the bed. "We made amends, so I'll put the Girl to bed. We'll have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Hey, you can't just drop a bombshell like that and then just…!" Before he could finish, Deus used her Magiformer to shift into a nightgown, and she immediately slipped under the blanket of her bed. "… What the heck?"

He probably couldn't see it from where he was sitting, but her ears were red like a lobster again, and despite trying her best to pretend to be sleeping, she was clearly fidgeting. But back to Josh, he just sat at the table, face blank, and I could practically see the browser loading wheel spinning over his forehead in my mind's eye.

For once, I couldn't blame the guy. By the looks of it, he had some weird-ass relationship troubles on the horizon, but I supposed it was just one of those crosses protagonist-types had to bear. One that I wasn't going to touch with a standardized ten-foot pole, because yikes…