The Simulacrum

The sleepy little village in the North-Eastern reaches of the Abyss didn't change much at all in the wake of the civil war. At least on the surface, that is.

The buildings of Coepi Urbs stood exactly on the same spot as when Josh and company visited the settlement, though I figured that was more or less a given. While we had seen many a weird thing, houses sprouting legs and walking away wasn't one of them. Yet, in any case.

One obvious change was the lack of any new constructions, and for good reason. The village was essentially a side-project I put together as Bel-me during the retcon, and it served two purposes: a base of operations in the Abyss, and a friendly, JRPG-style 'starting village' kind of area for the guys to acclimate to the Abyss upon their first arrival. It also pulled triple-duty as a kind of refugee camp for all the prisoners, citizenry, and hapless incapaciteted combatants I nabbed from the various fronts during the civial war, and that last part was the reason why its expansion came to a halt.

Not just because no more people were getting displaced by battles between the Noble Houses, but also due to a lot of the inhabitants deciding to return to their old lives once the war was over. Of course, many of them would bring stories about how they were saved and spirited away by Bel of the Abyss, but that was fine. Bel already had a reputation for being an eccentric element with time-bending plans that defied allegiances and common sense, so a few rumours about him saving a couple of people here and there wouldn't change much.

It wasn't like it could be kept permanently under the lid either. Since the gang knew about this place, they naturally told others about it, and above all else, it was only a question of time before the Ninhursag patriarch would have to admit making a deal with Bel and reveal the details of the settlement. The cat was already out of the bag, and while I wasn't planning on rehabilitating my alter ego's reputation, rumours of him acting like a vigilante and saving people for inscrutable reasons didn't damage the post-war consolidation.

At the end of the day, only the Axis of Evil knew about my connection to Bel, and even they only tenuously, so it should be fine. Or rather, the late Axis of Evil. Since the civil war was over, and many of them held important positions in their Noble Houses (heck, some of them were now on the fast track to become the new heirs and heads of their respective families), having them maintain their role as masked minions was a waste of human resources, so I unceremoniously disbanded the group.

That didn't mean all of them returned to their previous lives, though. Just like with the ordinary citizens, a couple of them decided to set up residence here. All things accounted for, the village only lost about a third of its population, and if anything, I've heard some of the inhabitants were talking about bringing their families over instead, so there might even be an influx of new faces.

All in all, Coepi Urbs might even become a proper settlement with time… though maybe not under that name.

"I recommend 'Emperor's Rest'," the black-haired woman on my left posited solemnly, causing the large man on my right to scoff.

"Bah. That sounds like he died here. I say we go with 'Emperor's Retreat'."

Now it was the woman's turn to roll her eyes and point out, "And that sounds like he ran away here. It makes him sound cowardly."

"Better than sounding like he's dead," he argued back, and it was at this point that I decided to chime in.

"Bel is dead. Technically."

That made them both mutter something along the lines of 'Oh, right,' and for the time being, neither of them argued any more.

The three of us were strolling around the main square of the village. There had been a small shower of rain in the morning, so the air felt fresh, and there were still some puddles between the rough cobblestones lining the ground under our feet. I decided to visit this morning, and I was quickly flagged down by this duo.

The man was, unsurprisingly enough, Chayson Enlil, the self-appointed (and tacitly approved) ex-leader of the Axis of Evil. Since the group disbanded, he was no longer in his colour-reversed Bel guise, but a fairly standard green and grey frock coat with a cravat and an honest-to-goodness top hat. It looked somewhat incongruous on his large frame, but he somehow pulled off the style.

As for my other companion, that was Hameau Nergal, a distant cousin of the Nergal patriarch and dressed very similarly to Chayson, just with different colours and without the hat. She apparently discovered a fancy for suits instead of dresses during her stunt with the Axis. More importantly, while she was part of House Nergal, the official story was that she 'mysteriously disappeared' a few years ago, and I found her near the bottom of Castle Nergal's version of the Chasm of Desolation; the result of some succession drama, no doubt. A tale as old as time, really. Once I got her out of jail, she was an eager conspirator and provided her experience with logistics and management, a dance-like style of fighting, and some terrible acting chops to the cause. That last one was something she still hadn't realised, but nobody had the heart to tell her.

Anyhow, neither of them was a permanent resident here, but when they heard I would visit to tie up some loose ends, they both took time out of their busy schedule to welcome me here, and… Honestly, it all felt a bit weird.

I mean, I knew these two. I knew all the Axis of Evil guys, but I didn't really know them. Yes, I had interacted with them daily for literal months, through thick and thin, but that was Bel-me. Sure, it was technically me; I experienced all of it first-hand, but it wasn't really me, just an avatar I kind of remote-controlled from the recton-space, which was… what even was it? Some intermediary layer between the 'firmware' and the 'software' of the Simulacrum, to use programming terminology?

But that's beside the point. The important part was that I felt weird about all of this. Not just talking to the Axis guys, but also walking around on the square and beholding the familiar buildings and such. I've done this a hundred times, yet it also felt like this was the first time, and it was just…

"Hey!"

My existential musings about the nature of perception and the qualia of experiences through a proxy were interrupted by a small group of kids I was familiar with. Or rather, I used to be familiar with, as Bel, but again, no time for ruminating on that.

"Children? What are you doing?" Hameau asked with an audible hint of disapproval, but the little ones ignored her.

There were five of them, and I could recognise each, recall their names, and I even remembered where and how I rescued them as Bel. Speaking of which…

"Weren't you supposed to return home already?" I asked, but once again, the quintet didn't respond to questions and only continued to stare at me intently, like they were trying to bore into my head with their eyes.

Then, just as I was about to run out of patience, the oldest kid of the bunch stepped forth and pointed at me. Very menacingly.

"If someone stands on the edge of the A-3 Hoopla, and someone else jumps over to the D-1 Quadrant without anyone else being present anywhere from the D-2 to F-5 Rigamaroles, then how is the situation resolved?"

At first, I could only blink in confusion, but then Chayson blurted out, "Are you already playing Paradox-Billiards-Siberian-Roulette-Fourth-Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Hopscotch this early in the morning?" and it jolted the rusty gears of my mind.

"Ah, right…" Despite never actually playing the game as 'myself', I could still immediately picture the whole playing field in my mind's eye, and I automatically calculated the results. "Everyone can declare an attack on the player on the D-1 Quadrant and can throw their left shoe at them, but if they miss, they have to take two steps back and lose a turn."

The kids' eyes opened wide, then they started clamouring.

"It's him!"

"I told you he wasn't dead!"

"Yay!"

Oh, snap. Did I just blow my cover? But then again, they were just kids making an inference based on whether or not I was familiar with the rules of Paradox-Billiards-Siberian-Roulette-Fourth-Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Hopscotch, so it probably wasn't a very—

"Scram, you little devils! The Empe— I mean, the Peacemaker is here for official matters, don't pester him!"

…

Real smooth, Chayson. Real smooth.

Anyhow, the kids listened to him this time and ran off, giggling and waving at me all the way, so I asked again, "No, seriously. Weren't they supposed to go back to their homes?"

"The ones with families already did," Hameau explained, her eyes watching their retreating backs. "The only ones remaining here are the children without relatives."

"Or the ones who like it better here," Chayson added in an afterthought, and then abruptly moved the conversation along (or rather, backwards) with, "How about 'Emperor's Redoubt'?"

"The village is hardly fortified enough for that," the other Abyssal argued back, and…

Seriously, were these guys not worried at all that the cover of my Bel retirement plan could get blown wide open by a bunch of rambunctious kids of all things?

…

On second thought… eh? I mean, if you think about it, there were already a whole lot of people who knew that I was Bel, in one way or another. Sure, some of them, like Morgana and Agrawain, were bound by literal Oaths not to tell anyone, but then there were the likes of Fred and Galatea, who were considerably less obliged, plus all the Squires under Morgana's command we roped into the operation during the first tournament arc. The latter weren't clear in the salient details, and were kind of placeholder-ish at the time, but if one really wanted to dig into them, it wasn't impossible to put all the pieces together.

That's one of the reasons why the presence of Bel-me was crucial in the finale; by being present at the same place at the same time, and the two of us interacting with 'each other', it made the idea that we were two different people self-evident. Even the more conspiracy theory inclined minds would find it difficult to theorise that Leonard S. Dunning and Bel of the Abyss were the same person when there were hundreds of reliable eye witnesses and even recorded footage of the two of us fighting in public.

So… maybe I was just overreacting. Yeah, that's it. It's not like a couple of kids thinking that I was Bel in a different guise would suddenly tip the scales and unravel the whole cover story.

"Ah, look at that!" After walking down one of the streets exiting the main square, we were suddenly greeted by a familiar voice. It was an elderly woman with a flower-printed headscarf sweeping the porch of her shop, and she flashed a smile of gappy teeth at me. "Good day, Your Majesty! My, my! You look mighty fine without that silly mask of yours!"

That made me stop in my tracks and squint at her, then the two Abyssals accompanying me.

"Chayson? Hameau?"

"Yes?" the woman responded promptly, while the big man awkwardly averted his gaze.

"Does everyone in Coepi Urbs know?"

"It's an open secret at this point, I believe," she responds, followed by a nonchalant, "Also, how does the 'Emperor's Enigma' sound?"

"Can you be serious for a moment?" I asked, and Chayson backed me up.

"That's right. That just draws attention to there being a secret. How about 'Emperor's Beacon'?" When I squinted at him next, he somehow misconstrued that as me not being happy with the proposed name, and he hastily added, "You… or, I mean, the Emperor did bring us all together here, and that's what beacons do, so I think it's fitting."

Hameau, on the other side, chimed in with an unnecessarily thoughtful, "Hm. I hate to admit it, but that's pretty good."

…

Okay, so I apparently couldn't expect these guys to realise the problem on their own. Was it my fault, I wondered. Just like how, for a while, Josh and company would just think 'If things get dicey, Leo will figure something out', maybe my bravado and surface-level omniscience as Bel made them think that nothing could go wrong, and they let their guard down?

Ugh. Yet another thing to sort out later. I'll probably have to work out a new cover story to counteract any rumours of me being Bel in the Abyss, and stop them from spreading. Maybe even make up a few fake conspiracy theories, while I was at it, to dilute the pool even further.

"Don't just stand there," the old lady beckoned us from her porch, jolting me out of my considerations, and made a gesture towards her shop. "I've got some new tea leaves, if that agrees with you."

"I… would love to, but we don't have the time right now."

My excuse made her a bit disappointed, but she didn't insist. Instead, it was Hameau who spoke up next, saying, "True. We still have to inspect the fields before the meeting."

Right. The 'meeting'. We decided to have a walk around the village, so I could see what had changed in person, but the actual goal of my visit was to meet with someone. The fact that this trip also made me realise I needed to have a stern talk with… literally everyone here, I supposed, about my identities, was an entirely unexpected and unplanned side-benefit. If you could even call it that.

"Let's chat another time," I told the old lady, and the three of us swiftly moved on. We weren't addressed by anyone else on the way, though we did meet a lot of curious gazes and even a few distant greetings here and there. Surprisingly enough, some of the Fauns remained in residence. I figured they would return to their homes as soon as the war was over, but I was apparently mistaken. Wouldn't be the first time.

Most of the important buildings were around the main square, and we already checked out those, so that only left the outskirts of the village. Beyond that, I could also see that the new farmlands surrounding the southern fringes of the settlement were taking proper shape, though I wasn't sure they were enough for self-sufficiency.

"The turnips should be ready for harvest soon," Hameau noted with just a hint of a smile. "It might become a staple crop."

"Hm… I don't know…" the man muttered on my other side, "'Emperor's Turnips' just doesn't sound good."

Since they brought it up, I figured I might as well ask, "The surplus rations I brought should tide everyone over until next year, but what about after that? The people can't survive on turnips alone. Does the village council have any concrete plans for self-sufficiency yet?"

"There are plans for a fishery," Chayson told me, followed by a soft huff reminiscent of a stifled laugh as he made a sweeping gesture towards the village. "However, some of us have grander ideas in mind. This land might not be rich in crops or natural resources, but it has something else: historical significance."

"Historical significance," I repeated after him, and he nodded with a stoic determination that didn't fit the tone of the conversation at all.

"Indeed! It is only a matter of time before the fame of the village spreads. It was not only founded by the Emperor himself, but also where the Herald and his companions arrived in the Abyss. There are going to be countless travelers interested in the sights and first-person accounts of the people. Since the field hospital is no longer necessary, some floated the idea of repurposing the building into a sanatorium resort and promoting it to the nobility. Maybe we can even entice some guests from outside the Abyss as well."

"So you're betting on tourism?"

They both nodded, and despite being busy with their own matters in their own Noble Houses, it was clear to see that they were both heavily invested in this idea. Should I put them in contact with Tsephanyah, I wondered. The ex-Directors' plan to diversify the Elysium's economy with a service sector and focus on tourism was still going ahead with full steam, so maybe this project could be woven into it. Not to mention, getting here was a bit of a pain in the neck still, due to the lack of proper road infrastructure, so having a small Portalport would help with the logistics of the village tremendously.

Of course, all of that was dependent on how well I could convince the residents to keep my 'open secret' to themselves, because if they couldn't be persuaded, then getting the ever-paranoid, skullduggery-obsessed ex-Directorate members to get even a whiff of the idea was a recipe for a major headache.

Anyhow, all of these development plans required some concerted effort, not to mention someone with at least decent business and fiscal acumen to oversee the whole process. Which was, at least partially, the reason why I was here. I had delayed the inevitable long enough, so I exhaled hard, and we started walking towards an unassuming building at the edge of the settlement. It looked like a small storehouse, and if one looked closely enough, one might even have recognised it as the place where the class rep helped the villagers make a bunch of custom bricks with her magic.

Many of those were used for their intended purpose, lining one of the communal wells or part of the foundation of a building or two, but just as many were used for a different purpose.

We walked in, while ignoring the duo's debate over whether 'Emperor's Hospitality' or 'Emperor's Resort' would better fit the proposed trajectory of the settlement, then headed down a flight of sturdy wooden stairs to a rather well-lit holding area. There were about a dozen compartments down here behind iron bars, all of them small but well-furnished, more like spartan boarding house rooms than jail cells. As of now, all but one of them were empty.

"I did not expect you to come in person," the man behind the bars noted with quiet resignation.

His dull silver hair was tied up in a low tail at the back of his neck, and instead of his familiar white uniform, he was clad in a simple grey tunic and brown pants. Less of a navy admiral look, more of a dockhand. He was also sitting behind a desk and writing something with a fountain pen, but he stood up when he noticed our approach.

Dimas Ekhtear. Crowy's right-hand man and, from what I gathered, House Inanna's majordomo. He was essentially in charge of the House's business operations and assets, which, considering that the Noble Houses each ruled their territories as independent micro-nations before the civil war, meant he was effectively the equivalent of a minister of finance.

Of course, he didn't look the part at the moment. Since he was a non-combatant, despite his imposing looks, he was left behind in Castle Nergal while Crowy and his allies made their big end-game assault on Castle Shamash. We all knew how that turned out for them, and while the subsequent counter-invasion saw the Nergal territory taken over in a matter of hours, Diman successfully managed to escape in the chaos and slip away. He was so successful, in fact, that I had to personally pick him up using my Far Sight mark for guidance, though he didn't know that.

As far as he was concerned, he was discovered and captured by a surprise raid of the Axis of Evil, effectively their last mission before I told them to get on with their lives. As such, while he treated me with suspicion on apprehension, the look in his eyes turned outright hostile when looking at Chayson and Hameau.

"Good day, Sir Ekhtear," I greeted him first, and after a long beat, he gave me a shallow bow. Despite the circumstances, the man was still as courteous as ever.

"Have the day of my execution finally arrived?" he asked with a detached, almost resigned indifference, and it made my prepared words die in my throat and be replaced by a squint.

"Execution?" I repeated after him, and then turned the same narrowed eyes at the two at my side. "Who told him that?"

"We didn't tell him he wouldn't be executed," the Abyssal woman stated, as if that was an excuse, and I let out a long sigh.

"No, Sir Ekhtear. You're not getting executed," I told him on no uncertain terms, yet his weary expression didn't change, and his body language remained tense.

"I have a hard time believing that," he stated bluntly. "Eliminating your political opponents after a takeover is common sense."

"For a start, you aren't really my political opponent," I pointed out by literally pointing at him, followed by an off-the-cuff, "Also, for the record, I don't hold any grudge against you personally."

In fact, while I only interacted with him a few times as Bel, and I even bullied him a bit here and there, I've never seen him do anything particularly outrageous. At worst, he was a yes-man enabler of Crowy's over-the-top ambitions, but that wasn't a crime worthy of execution in my book.

"Listen, Dimas. By the way, I'm going to call you Dimas, because Sir Ekhtear is too stuffy. Anyhow, listen." I stepped closer to the cell and looked him in the eye. "You were complicit in some pretty nasty events, including the borderline extermination of House Ashur. Now, I grant you that I knew nothing about them effectively until after the fact, and being willing Celestial collaborators doesn't paint a great picture of them either, but still, not cool."

"You are also a Celestial, with your own collaborators," he hissed, looking at the two behind me.

I dismissed him with a curt, "Semantics," but since that obviously wasn't going to convince him, I also said, "Listen, Dimas. Do you think I would've gone out of my way to dismantle and rebuild the entire governmental structure of the Elysium if I approved of how Celestials were conducting business up till now?"

"Political purges are a given during a regime change."

"No, no. You still don't get it. I didn't purge anyone, even though in retrospect I really should've, because I'm a big believer in second chances. I had… mixed results, so far, but I'm trying."

Of course, it wasn't entirely because of the goodness of my heart. To put it bluntly, I was well aware that the scenario, Narrative-me, and later on Id-me, or whatever you want to call it, was responsible for setting up antagonists for us to fight. Because of that, I made it a policy to offer an olive branch to pretty much everyone. The results were mixed, ranging from full turnovers like Fred and Galatea to complete rejections, like Crowy, but the important part was that I provided them at least a modicum of agency to determine their own fate. It really was the bare minimum.

"What exactly do you want from me?" the man behind the bars asked, and I tried to flash an amicable smile in return.

"Well, Dimas. I want to make a mutually beneficial deal with you…"

I was here to offer an olive branch once again, and probably not for the last time. Whether he would take it was his own prerogative.

…

Also, this exchange somehow also added 'Emperor's Deal' to the list of proposed new names for Coepi Urbs, but that was a story for another time.