The Simulacrum - Chapter 95 - Part 3 (Patreon)

The oppressive silence in the locked-up Purple Zone lasted only for a few seconds. Overcoming his initial shock, the grand elder demonstrated wuxia trope number seventy-four by rising to the air and slowly descending to the field, all the while glowing with a pale yellow aura. Grim and stoic on the surface, it was still plainly visible that the unexpected situation rattled him quite a bit.

In the meantime, the squires finished their encirclement of the contestants, and after the initial shock and confusion, they separated into three groups. The ones on the left side consisted of the Western Draconians automatically forming up around the princess. Sahi and Pascal also gravitated towards their group, and while the guy was as tense and apprehensive as expected, our incognito arc-mage looked more excited by the developments than anything. Though again, that wasn't too unexpected either, now that I thought about it.

In the middle, Zihao and Xiao formed the core of the second group consisting entirely of Eastern Draconians, and they were the most organized by far. On the other end of the spectrum, while Josh and Ammy paired up the moment they were caught up in the Purple Zone, the eclectic bunch surrounding them, while not exactly panicking, remained completely disorganized.

“Calm down, everyone! Grandfather is with us! We have nothing to fear!” odango-gill yelled out and took up her funny martial arts pose, the one where she was balancing on one leg.

“That's right! We outnumber them, so there's no need to hold back!” the spiky-haired Feilong brother raised his voice to follow up on her words, and their group got more fired up by the second… right until the grand elder poured a bucket of cold water on their enthusiasm.

“Juniors, stay your hands. Do not do anything rash,” the old man, doing his best impression of an unruffled wise master, spoke in a soft yet demanding voice before turning to Morgana with a considerably more scathing tone. “What manner of madness holds you in its grip to challenge the tiger while it's still in its den?”

Translation: You bloody idiots! You weren't supposed to do this today!

“Not madness. Necessity,” the Gorgon Knight responded solemnly. “When one's back faces the river, even a wall of spears must be charged head-on.”

Translation: We didn't have a choice in the matter.

“So, when the heavens shatter and the phoenix cries, even the winged tiger runs for shelter?”

Translation: So, the situation changed and you decided to act now, huh?

“Once the warhorse bites the bridle, it must head to the battlefield no matter who sits in the saddle.”

Translation: Yes.

“The mantis stalks the cicada while the oriole waits for its chance, but remember that when the lips perish, the teeth will feel the cold.”

Translation: … I'll be damned if I knew what the ever-loving-heck he meant by that.

Anyhow, tensions rose again while the irritating grand elder silently considered his options.

“You say you are not here to claim the lives of these juniors, yet you must have a purpose behind showing yourself like this. State your demands.”

The old man was likely, in spite of everything going on, under the impression that the Knights in front of him were still pursuing their original agenda, and simply chose to double-cross him. It no doubt gave him the impression that he had a modicum of control over the situation, which soon faded as Morgana flatly told him, “Item number ninety-six.”

“… Excuse me?”

“We want item ninety-six from yesterday's auction,” Raven Boy clarified in his usual, abrasive manner, and it was only at this point that the grand elder finally realized things were really going off the rail.

“There is no such thing. There were only ninety-five articles.”

“Yes, we know,” Raven Boy continued in the same tone. “There was supposed to be one last item, an ornamental metal box about this size, impossible to open and completely impenetrable. It was supposed to go up for auction, but it was neither in the catalog nor was it exhibited.”

That second part sounded a little stiff, but considering he recited the script I gave to him more-or-less verbatim, I decided to give him a pass.

“We require that item,” Morgana added, sounding so grave that if I didn't know this was just a red herring, I would've totally believed she was desperate to get her hands on it.

Needless to say, there really was no item ninety-six, or such a box even. However, as Bel of the Abyss, I had already hinted at the idea that he was interested in something related to the auction. The original idea was to use the fake Ascalon as bait for the Knights, while implying that it was all part of Bel’s inscrutable master plan, and then abscond with a few shinies while blaming it on him, but Raven Boy's little jaunt threw a sizable monkey-wrench into those works.

However, as I had told Naoren in the past, plans had to be flexible, so I tried my best to salvage as much of the original as I could while putting a completely different spin on it. In short, since Bel was interested in the Auction, there had to be something he wanted there. It couldn't have been the spear, because he already 'had it', and it couldn't be another item I sneaked into the catalog either. In short, I needed to come up with an alternative, and one that my freely teleporting alter-ego couldn't just casually take from the vault at the auction venue the same time he took the spear.

Hence, I came up with the idea of item ninety-six. A mysterious box that no one had ever seen, yet Bel of the Abyss desperately wanted to get his hands on it. An archetypal MacGuffin, if you will.

“Have you truly jeopardized the lives of your sworn brothers for such a folly?” the grand elder burst out, and while the onlookers probably thought he was talking about the Knights and Squires present, it was easy to understand that he was referring to Penny and company, the original targets of Morgana’s rescue efforts during their negotiations.

“It is precisely to preserve all our lives that we must do whatever it takes to acquire the item,” Morgana answered, then pointed her sword at the old man, holding out the large flamberge with only one hand. “This box was definitely delivered to you, yet it disappeared before it could be put up for auction. This means you, or one of your clansmen must have taken it. Give it to us, and no blood will be shed today.”

“I assure you, I have never seen or even heard of this item. Whoever told you of it reaching our hands was lying to you, and—”

“{Chief. We have a situation.}”

Blinking, I tore my attention away from the scene and answered, “What kind?”

“{The unexpected kind,}” she responded in a voice that was simultaneously deadpan and yet cheeky, then a customary beat later she added, “{The First Strike Group arrived at the operation area.}”

“I presume you mean the Knights, right?"

"{Yes, Chief. That's their code name.}"

"Neat. Also, wow. They must’ve been really itching for some action if they got there so soon.” I paused here, then after considering Judy’s tone, I guessed, “I imagine they weren't welcome.”

A soft groan later my dear assistant responded with, “{The situation is much more complicated than that.}”

“Complicated? Please tell me it’s not the imperial roman mole-people…”

“{The imperial roman what? Chief, stop it. This is serious. We have a coup on our hands.}”

“A… wait. Did you just say ‘coup’?”

Judy didn’t answer right away, but then she let out an odd noise and hastily added, “{Yes.}”

“You only nodded the first time, didn’t you?”

“{Chief, focus. We have more important things to consider at the moment.}” After reprimanding me, it sounded like she was about to clarify things, but fell silent instead. “{Wait a moment, please. I need to coordinate things with Penelope.}”

I responded with an affirmative grunt, and a moment later I used my Far Sight to focus on Penny.

Just as Judy said, she had already arrived at the underground amphitheatre, though it was in a considerably more chaotic state than the last time I saw it. My sister, separated from the rest of the group, was currently trying to herd the non-combatants out of the cave/mine/whatever.

“Don’t panic! Follow the lead of the Constables, and head towards the exit in an organized mann—! Hey, I just told you! Don’t push!”

Wearing her uniform made her stick out of the crowd, and combined with her attitude, most of the placeholder servants and guests followed her instructions without resistance. As for the rest, her retinue of Squires simply picked them up and carried them out of the building, whether they liked it or not.

As I watched, the whole aphitheatre was shaken by a powerful explosion, so I switched my point of view over to the closest red dot on my radar.

“Who are you!? Why are you getting in our way!?”

Before I could properly tell what was happening, my vision was filled with an enormous, glowing snake seemingly made of transparent ice. However, before I could take a closer look, it was already shattered by a bright green light and another explosion.

“We are the Ordo Draconis!” Arnwald, already nocking his next arrow, exclaimed before taking a shot at his momentarily unbalanced opponent. The middle-aged Asian man looked somewhat familiar, and it took me a few seconds to place him, during which Arnwald had another exchange with him and yelled, “Surrender at once, or suffer the consequences!” before they both disappeared in a plume of dust kicked up by Duncan.

“Gonnae-no runnin', ye yella' bellied bastards! Ye ur th' ones fa gart trooble oan uir watch, sae stain still an' bear th' ootcome!”

He was chasing around two Eastern Draconians, and while I couldn’t understand what they were shouting at each other, I could guess it was probably something along the lines of ‘What the hell is that guy saying?’.

“Stop it, Duncan! You’re supposed to break up the fight, not chase people around!” my sister yelled at the big doofus, and he grudgingly stopped waving his axe over his head and focused his attention on another group of Draconians locked in battle nearby.

“{I’m back,}” Judy reported in. {Do you still need a sit rep?}”

“I’m already at the scene. In spirit, I mean,” I told her a touch wearily. “Tell me if I’m wrong, but are the clans under the jurisdiction of the Feilongs rebelling?”

“{That’s the gist of it, yes.}”

“Figures…”

That meant I saw it right, and Arnwald really was dueling the Eastern Draconian bigshot I caught negotiating with the grand elder in the past.

“{Approximately twenty seconds after the operation started, several separate, disorganized conflicts broke out between the Eastern clans and the Feilong elders and branch family members on site,}" Judy explained, apparently hellbent to give me a situation report anyway. "{By the time the First Strike Group arrived, there were already dozens of injured. No casualties so far.}”

“Our in-laws?”

“{The Dracis personnel had already evacuated. Abram and Emese joined Roland’s squad and are in the process of subduing the group assaulting the Feilong elders.}”

Following her answer, I switched my PoV over to them, just in time to catch a transformed dad-in-law grab a young-ish man in flowing red robes right out of the air and smash him against the nearby stone bench. I thought that would take him out of commission, but after being dazed for just a second or two, the guy jumped to his feet and tried his luck again.

“Right, Draconians are tough,” I noted absently. “No wonder there are no casualties yet.”

Just as I said that, mom-in-law appeared behind the guy, and using the dislodged bench as a bludgeon, she batted the guy across the entire arena. My in-laws shared a passionate glance, then shared an utterly adorable high-five before ganging up on the next guy.

“{In my professional opinion, I believe the lack of severe injuries is rather due to the attackers being disorganized and the Feilongs being already on guard.}”

“So you're saying they were expecting something like this would happen,” I mused. “The plot thickens.”

“{You don't sound too concerned by this development.}”

“Of course not; this is great! I already assumed that there would be some chaos after the tournament contestants were taken hostage in the Purple Zone, and expected our Knights to quell the unrest as their first official act, but this is even better! This way, they are seen protecting the weak and subduing the troublemakers, and before the Draconians would even realize it, they will start thinking of them as helpful and reliable, giving us an even bigger leg up during negotiations. And the best part is, we get all of this in exchange for only some minor collateral damage to a building that should've never even existed, so it's a win-win.”

“{What about people getting hurt in the process?}”

“It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.”

“{... Chief, please take off your Bel costume. It's making you sound unnecessarily evil.}”

“It's called method acting, Dormouse. Also, I can't take it off. There could be a really opportune moment to enter the fray any second now.”

“{Maybe, but... Hold on, I've got calls from both Joshua and Morgana. I’ll be back with you shortly.}”

While she dealt with that, I used Far Sight to travel across the arena, and my cursory observations quickly proved Judy’s assessment right. There were many hot spots in the area where combatants, ranging from only two people to small groups up to eight or nine, duked it out between each other. All of them belonged to the Eastern group, and while a couple of Western Draconians, such as my in-laws and the older Smok brother, were caught up in the action, the vast majority of them decided to steer clear of the conflict and evacuate.

By sheer numbers, the ‘rebel’ Draconians had a definitive numerical advantage, and even though they didn’t form a united front and fought in small, separate groups, they still had the Feilongs on the defensive. Unfortunately for them, the intervention of Arnwald and company turned this situation on its head.

“Stain doon ye cloon, ur Ah swear Ah’ll cut ye intae ribbons whaur ye stain!”

“Duncan! We are the good guys! Stop it!” my sister tried to rein Mr. Minotaur in, though she had little success, as the big guy was too caught up in the moment. In any case, thanks to their timely arrival and decisive attitude, our Knights turned the tide in one of the larger group battles, and the Squires were already in the process of tying up the defeated combatants.

“We are done on this side!” Roland called out, his voice barely audible through the cacophony of combat, and Penny waved at him to signal that they were also in the process of cleaning up.

I had to give it to them, they were doing a great job. In fact, they were moving so fast and efficiently that I was afraid they would finish things too fast.

“Penny? Can you break the Restricted Zone?” Arnwald popped up all of a sudden, dragging the unconscious body of the middle-aged Eastern Draconian he fought before. I think he was either the representative of the Mongolian clans, or the Korean ones. I couldn't be sure, as I was still terrible at remembering non-important people.

While Arnwald handed the limp body over to the squires, Penny grabbed the unicorn horn hanging from her belt, and after a long moment, she shook her head.

“I can, but it’s an entrenched one with multiple anchors and lots of people in it. It’s going to take a few minutes, at least.”

“Work on it. We’ll clean up the rest.”

“Ah’ll bide back tae swatch efter Penny-gurl,” the big guy proposed at once, but was shot down just as swiftly.

“Nobody is fighting on this side of the arena. Please go and help uncle instead.”

Mr. Minotaur grumbled something under his breath, but in the end, he obediently followed after Arnwald and headed to the other side. In the meantime, my communicator went live again.

“{Chief? Are you there?}”

“Of course I am.”

“{Good. Listen. Negotiations had broken down inside the Restricted Space.}”

“Already?” I switched my point of view over to Josh, just in time to catch him blocking an attack from... Zihao? “... Okay, this is weird. What did I miss?”

“{When Morgana and Xinji couldn’t reach an agreement, Zihao attacked one of the Squires. Amelia tried to stop him and de-escalate, but then he attacked her, so Joshua attacked him, so Xiao attacked Joshua, so Elly attacked her, and now it's all out of hand.}”

Just as she said that, I was stunned to see Sahi grab odango-girl with one of her floaty magic hands, just as she was in the middle of lunging at Elly, and throw her across the field like she was a baseball ball. She didn't seem to mind much, as she landed gracefully and rejoined the fray with a flying kick. Meanwhile, Armband Guy deployed a barrier around the three of them, pushing back two noname Eastern Draconians, only for them to get caught in an air blast by Josh and land in the middle of the scuffle between the Squires and the Western Draconians.

On the left, Josh and Zihao duked it out without a care for their surroundings. On the right, Elly was trying to lock down the bouncy odango girl while Pascal was doing his best to drag the gung-ho Sahi out of the fray. And then, in the middle, the grand elder was being suppressed by the combined efforts of the two Entitled Knights. In other words, it was a flustercuck, and I didn't like it one bit.

The stalemate was supposed to last a little longer, and then I wanted to show up as Bel, reveal the grand elder’s connection to Morgana’s group, and then use a couple of underhanded tricks to take him down and publicly establish Bel as an overpowering presence on the field. That was more or less out the window at this point, as by the looks of it, it was only a matter of time before the two Knights would subdue him, and he wouldn't receive any support either, considering everyone was too busy being bogged down in an enormous mêlée à trois, all thanks to Zihao and his hot-blooded idiocy.

“Dormouse, please remind me to give another punch to Naoren’s brother once all of this is over.”

“{I presume that means this wasn't in your master plan?}.”

“Of course not. Morgana’s group was supposed to gracefully lose to overwhelming odds and reveal they were forced into this by Bel, then I’d show up and antagonize everyone until the Purple Zone would go down.”

“{Should I tell Joshua and Elly to focus on the Knights then?}”

“Nah, that boat had already sailed.”

“{Then what?}”

“I’m going to improvise,” I grumbled as I watched Josh pop another pill before lunging at Zihao, and then they did that dumb shounen thing where they linked their fingers together and pushed against each other while screaming from the top of their lungs. I was sure it looked very epic and dynamic and exciting and not at all monumentally dumb from up close. Maybe you also need a wide-angle lens too. And some dramatic music. Of course, we had none of those, so it just looked incredibly stupid.

“Is this a martial arts thing? Or more of a wrestling one?” I whispered under my breath, and I half expected a retort from Judy, yet she remained silent. I figured she was busy elsewhere, which she soon confirmed.

“{Chief? If you're not watching this already, you might want to keep an eye on what Roland is doing right now.}”

“Let me guess: it's another fresh hell, isn't it...?”

Mumbling so, I switched over to Mr. Griffon’s red dot, just in time to catch him yelling, “We know this is your doing! We know you are watching!” in the center of the amphitheatre, his saber held high above his head.

I was just about to ask Judy who he was talking to, but then the cat got out of the bag when he added, “Show yourself, Bel of the Abyss!”

“Oh. I guess that’s my cue,” I said, feeling less than enthusiastic by this whole situation steadily careening off the tracks. Making sure my gloves were firmly in place, I told Judy, “I’m going to show myself, so keep an eye on Elly for me. I asked Sahi and Pascal to look after her in case something like this happened, but if things get hairy for her, call me no matter what I’m doing.”

“{When did you do that?}”

“Offscreen.” My answer resulted in a palpably petulant silence from the other side of the line, so I amended, “On the last school day before the winter break, during our raid on the sweets shop.”

“{In other words, you were already expecting something like this would happen back then.}”

“I wouldn’t say so, no,” I responded absently while adjusting the mask. “I didn’t know this exact scenario would come up, but I was pretty sure something would go wrong, so I made some preparations in advance.”

“{Pessimism saves the day once again.}”

“Indeed. Please also remind me to tell Naoren to eat his heart out later. Now then, the stage calls, so off I go.”

“{Have fun bamboozling everyone, but stay safe.}”

“That goes without saying.” After saying that, I limbered up my shoulders, then strategically slacked them and whispered, “Queen moves to h5. Act two, here we go,” and disappeared from the room.