The Simulacrum - Chapter 97 - Part 2 (Patreon)

The amphitheatre finally looked its supposed age; namely, a ruin. Good riddance, I say.

In the span of less than an hour, about two-thirds of the seats got demolished, there were three huge holes in the dividing wall around the arena, and the fighting pit itself was wrecked as well, with multiple craters and trenches gouged into it. From a distance, it almost looked like a recently shelled battlefield from a world war documentary, made even more striking by the long shadows the combatants cast on the ground.

Speaking of which, things were pretty dim, and I quickly realized that it was because only one of the four floodlights at the corners was in still in working condition. One of them was destroyed by Xiao while she was chasing me around, but I had no idea what happened to the other two. Well, on the bright side, at least there was still some lighting, so I could still see the action. Or rather, the lack thereof, as everyone was too busy talking.

"Snap out of it, Sister Morgana! This is wrong!"

"Right and wrong are but in the eyes of the beholder."

"Yes! I mean, no! I know you're only talking in platitudes when you realize you’re in the wrong, so you must also know this is meaningless! Please put down your weapon!"

"I cannot do that until I receive the order," Ms. Gorgon replied flatly, and I could practically see the veins bulging on Mr. Eagle's forehead.

"But Bel of the Abyss already left!"

"Just because the general abandoned the battlefield, it doesn’t mean the soldier doesn’t have a duty to their—"

"Please, stop that, and listen to me!"

Exhibit A: Arnwald doing his best to try and talk Ms. Gorgon out of fighting, for the second time. Unfortunately for him, my orders required them to lose properly, so a peaceful surrender was out of the question.

As for the rest, Sahi was unanimously elected as the babysitter, looking after the exhausted odango girl, and while Duncan and Arnwald kept Raven Boy and Morgana busy, the rest took a step back and clustered around Josh. Let’s make that our Exhibit B, shall we?

"Are you sure about this?"

Roland's question was the first thing I heard when I switched my POV over to their little huddle, and Josh solemnly nodded.

"Yes. We had already seen something similar in the past, and those things around their necks look identical."

"Oh?" I uttered in surprise and exited Far Sight. "Hey, Dormouse?"

Judy raised a finger to quiet me, and after giving a few quick instructions, she pulled her glasses down.

"Yes?"

"I was just curious; did you give any hints about the fake mind control chokers to Josh?"

"No. He noticed them on his own."

"Really? Attaboy."

My dear assistant let out an ambivalent hum and gave me a glance that was asking if I wanted anything else, and when waved my hand, she put her glasses back on and resumed her job as operations control. Following her lead, I also returned to the scene.

" 'Main 'en, Graw! Jist gezz back mah sword, will ye?"

"I told you I can't! Also, don't call me Graw!" Raven Boy growled back, and while both he and Duncan were yelling from the top of their lungs, plus waving their weapons over their heads, neither of them made any move on the other. Anyhow, I only wanted to take a glance at them to see what they were up to, so I quickly moved back to Exhibit B, where Roland and Josh were still discussing what to do.

"… numerical advantage, but restraining an opponent without injuring them is much harder than killing them," Mr. Griffon explained, but our resident protagonist stood his ground.

"It's still six against two. Also, we only need to get close enough to tear those things off their necks."

"Whatever you do, decide quickly," Elly commented, her eyes restlessly scanning the perimeter. "We can't know when Bel would return."

She, of course, didn't know I was playing Bel, but she was well aware that the situation was under my control, so while she remained vigilant, she was also fairly unruffled by the recent developments. Also, at the risk of going on a side-track, I had to note that she looked pretty damn amazing at the moment. To be fair, the last time I saw her fully transformed, it was during her fight with Snowy way back when, and at that time I didn't exactly have the time to pay close attention to her appearance due to the supernatural being dropped on my head like an ACME anvil, but I didn't recall her looking that cool.

The way her horns formed a small crown looked really nice, and the visible scales gave her a tough yet still cute appearance. I wondered, would she let me touch them if I asked nicely? I never had the chance before, but looking at their texture, I couldn't help but feel curious about how they felt to the touch. I was also curious about her tail, but we already established that it was something of a secondary sexual characteristic for Draconians… but then again, considering our relationship, maybe asking about it was no longer a big faux pa?

I mean, we were already doing the sexy business, so… wait. Now that I thought about it, couldn't I just ask her to transform when we were doing it? That way I'd have the perfect excuse to touch and poke her wherever I wanted. Though again, Elly was already a pretty huggy kind of girl during the act, and I wasn't sure those grabs and leg-locks were safe when talons and horns were added to the mix.

"That's right! We have to act quickly and resolve this before he returns," Josh declared, jolting my brain back onto the right track after that small detour, though not before making a mental note about discussing the logistics of this idea later.

Anyhow, ignoring my extra-hot girlfriend, for the time being, I shifted my attention over to Roland. He seemed to seriously consider Josh's words, and ultimately uttered, "Fine. We give your idea a try." He raised his hand and made a couple of gestures with his fingers. I didn't understand them, and neither did Josh, but it was something our Knights came up with by combining their own hand signals with the Fauns', and the Squires in the back wordlessly widened the circle around Morgana and Agrawain. I imagined it was to avoid collateral damage.

"Joshua, we are going to create an opportunity for you. Make use of it."

He nodded, and after locking eyes for a second, Roland glanced at Morgana and Arnwald, still locked in a one-sided argument, and made a couple of new hand gestures before heading their way, closely followed by Penny and the princess. Josh lagged behind the rest, checking the blood pills he still had on him by the looks of it, but then he hastily caught up to them.

Without warning, Mr. Griffon broke into a dash and drew his saber. It didn't escape Morgana's notice, and she broke away from Arnwald to face the incoming assault. A moment, later, a purple light flashed behind her visor, and the charging Knight stumbled after being momentarily paralyzed. Luckily, he managed to break his fall into a roll, and the two girls rushed past him.

Since Penny specialized in speed, she naturally reached Morgana first, forcing her to look away from Roland and focus on her. She thrust her blade at Morgana's shoulder, but her strike was easily parried by the older woman. By the looks of it, it wasn't something my sister put all her weight into, as she quickly withdrew her sword and pivoted on her heel, continuing to dash towards Raven Boy instead.

In the meantime, Elly used the opening Penny provided by attempting to knock Morgana over with a shoulder charge, but her opponent remained steady under pressure and stepped back while simultaneously swinging her large, two-handed weapon around. Threatened by the incoming blade, the princess interrupted her charge, forcefully changing her direction by hopping back to get out of range. For a moment, it seemed Morgana was considering whether or not she should follow after her, but then the whole area was suddenly covered by a cloud of sand, kicked up by a wind-ball Josh threw at her feet.

It naturally stopped Morgana in her tracks for a second, but she wasn't the only one who was blinded by the maneuver, as both Elly and Roland had to take a step back. That was to be expected; while Josh really liked this trick, and throwing dust into the eyes of a whole group of attackers to distract them was a sound idea, it was pretty counter-intuitive when you were part of the group with the numbers facing off against a single opponent.

That said, it still caused Morgana to momentarily pause to reorient herself, and while the other two distanced themselves from the epicenter of the sandy explosion, Josh only squinted his eyes and pushed right through, aiming at the Gorgon Knight's neck. Regrettably, for him, at this point she was running her armor in the red, so even with the distraction, she could easily dodge the hand grabbing at her. By the looks of it, the guy only considered things this far, as he didn't seem to have any follow-up moves, while Morgana already raised her blade over her head. Then, she hesitated.

I couldn't blame her. This was one of the issues about fighting to lose, but not too easily. She had to fight back, but she had a freaking flamberge to do it with, and it wasn't exactly a non-lethal implement. I told her that the Uniformers could take a whack or two no problem, but she probably wasn't so sure about Josh's Magiformer.

"Joshua, retreat!" Arnwald exclaimed, followed by an arrow.

Morgana reflexively swatted the projectile out of the air, which gave Josh the opportunity to slip away. However, while doing that, his left hand lashed out with a semi-transparent green-ish tendril that grabbed Morgana's ankle, and while it didn't trip her, the unexpected cheap shot imbalanced her long enough for Roland to enter the fray and occupy her attention. In the meantime, Josh leaped back while still holding his index and middle fingers out, and as he swung his hand, the tendril struck Morgana on her leg, though she didn't seem to notice, and it harmlessly bounced off her greaves.

So… was this some kind of magical whip? It did kind of remind me of what Crowey used back during the school incident, but it wasn't very effective. I mean, sure, when it entangled Morgana's leg, it was a good distraction, but it was probably just a fluke, and whips weren't a great melee weapon to begin with. Josh was also, apparently, fairly inexperienced with it, as after a few further futile attempts to trip the Gorgon Knight, he retracted it. Probably for the better, as it hindered Roland more than it did Morgana.

Was this a new spell that Snowy taught him, or did he come up with it on his own? He was the protagonist, so the latter wasn't entirely out of the question. In fact, if there ever was a time to reveal the super-secret hidden card special technique he mastered off-screen, this was it.

"Ah!"

And then, Morgana used her paralyzing gaze on the guy while he tried to circle behind her, and he face-planted into the sand like an especially ungainly sack of potatoes.

…

I was sure he was saving his secret technique for the tournament. Certainly.

I mean, if there was going to be one after this whole kerfuffle, of course. I didn't expect collateral damage to get this bad, but with the arena getting wrecked, and at least one contestant getting ever-so-slightly concussed, there was a good chance the whole tournament would get canceled. At least, I hoped it would, but it was best not to count my chickens before they hatched.

But back to the action: since she only glanced at him, Josh was only paralyzed for a moment, meaning he quickly got back onto his feet. In the meantime, Roland continued to pressure her with quick slashes. Considering he had a cavalry saber, and his opponent wielded a flamberge, he should've had a speed advantage, but due to the difference in specs due to Morgana wearing an authentic Knight armor, she could easily keep up with him. If not for Arnwald occasionally letting an arrow loose in her general direction, she could've probably turned things around by this point.

By the looks of it, Roland's plan was to keep applying pressure on Ms. Gorgon, waiting for the moment the armor's overdrive state ended, and then subduing her while she was weakened. I was sure the irony of using the exact same tactics Draconians developed to fight the Knights of the No Longer Existing Name didn't escape him, yet he kept on fighting with the same, stoic expression.

While Josh was still a wild card, things have stabilized on this side, so I shifted my point of view over to Penny's corner, where she was running circles around Raven Boy. As in, literally. With her hand extended behind her back and everything.

"… Hey, Dormouse? Can you tell me what my sister is doing?"

It took a second for my dear assistant to get back to me, but then she pulled her glasses down and said, "I believe she's running in circles around her opponent."

"I can see that," I grumbled. "I want to know why she's doing that."

"Then you should've asked that the first time," she responded flatly.

"Fair enough, but that still doesn't answer my question."

"In my professional opinion, she must be trying to confuse him by leaving behind after-images." She paused for a beat, then shrugged. "Or maybe not. It would at least explain why she's ninja-running."

"That was the next thing I was meaning to—"

"Sorry Chief, I've got a call," she interrupted me and pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose again, and after blinking twice, I exhaled a shallow sigh and returned to the scene as well.

"Hyah!" my sister yelled out in a spirited voice and… wait, what the actual hell? Did she just throw her sword into the air?

I wasn't the only one who was confused by that, as Raven Boy's eyes also opened wide in surprise and he tried to take a step back, only to halt when he noticed that he was boxed in by Duncan on one side and Elly, apparently deeming the other side of the battlefield covered enough, approaching from the other.

As such, my knightly sister had all the time in the world to throw her sword into the air, and then turn around in three hundred and sixty degrees before… oh. Oh no.

"Please tell me this isn't what I think it—"

"Hisho Taika… ku-ta-chi?"

Penny's uncertain yell cut my whispers off, and the moment she grabbed her sword out of the air, she slashed downwards diagonally, hitting the sword Raven Boy raised in defence just under the cross guard and nearly tearing it out of his hand in a move that was a mirror image of one of her stupidly impractical moves!

Mountain Girl! What have you wrought!

Melodramatics aside, the attack pushed the armored guy back a few steps, right into the way of Elly's incoming punch. He reflexively swung his blade at the approaching fist, but his stance was already a mess, so it had little to no strength behind it. My girlfriend didn't have time to dodge out of the way, so instead, she changed the direction of her punch, meeting the blade with the back of her scaled wrist. When the two collided, it sounded like a pickaxe hitting solid rock, and the princess followed it up by opening her mouth wide.

The sand of the arena shook as she released a short roar, the air around her face tinted with red light, and while it wasn't exactly dragon fire, I had a feeling it was at least adjacent. I've never seen her do something like that before; in the past, she always had to charge her breath attack for at least a second or two, but this one was instantaneous. That said, it didn't have the same power either, as even though the blast hit Raven Boy right in the chest, it only sent him staggering back a few steps, without any visible dent in his armor.

I wondered; was this her secret trump card for the tournament, or was she simply trying to imitate Xiao's previous display? If the former, then good, but if the latter, I was going to remind her that being competitive wasn't inherently bad, but she didn't need to try and one-up a freaking dragon.

Meanwhile, after getting hand-shocked twice in quick succession, the concussive blast finally made Raven Boy unable to hold onto the heavy executioner's blade, and it practically flew out of his grasp. A second earlier Duncan looked like he was about to lop his head off with his axe, but when that happened, the big guy's eyes lit up and he all but threw his own weapon to the side in his rush to grab the fallen sword.

"Mines!"

Diving forward, he snatched the blade up even before it would've had a chance to stop sliding on the ground, and held it to his chest like it was his baby. It would've been comical, if not for the fact that I could still distinctly remember the dude chucking the same 'precious heirloom' at my face (well, Bel's face, but same difference), which made it more irritating than anything.

Realizing he had lost his weapon, Raven Boy hastily reached for his bag and procured a short sword, followed by a kite shield. He was seemingly planning to play things defensively, and just in time, as Elly rushed in again. Planting her feet, she… oh, geez. She did one of those awkward double-fist punches.

I mean, it was semi-effective, as even though it hit him on the shield, it had enough weight behind it to push the guy back, but that was just her Draconian physique doing all the heavy lifting. Sure, I knew she practiced martial arts, but this was just impractical and only looked cool, kind of like Rinne's special techniques.

Speaking of which, I held my breath and Penny followed the princess up by rushing in and delivering three or four quick, light strikes on his shield, and only exhaled when I was sure she wasn't going to try and imitate Mountain Girl again. I seriously had to sit down with her later…

Anyhow, it was only at this point that I realized they were actively trying to push the guy up against a fairly unscathed section of the wall around the arena, though I didn't know why. Wouldn't that just make it easier for him to defend himself with his back to a literal wall? Maybe they had a plan, I figured, so I waited for it to materialize.

It didn't. What did was a large floating fist sucker-punching Raven Boy right through the shield and sending him tumbling.

"Score! How do you like that for a surprise!" a certain brown girl exclaimed, floating a couple of meters high in the air with her custom robes billowing around her.

"Sahi!" came the next new voice from the mouth of a heaving Armband Guy arriving at the scene, looking like he just ran a marathon. He paused to catch his breath, then adjusted his glasses and said, "Come down, please. I can see your underwear from here."

"And, like, why's that a problem?" the incognito arch-mage responded with an impish grin.

"Where's Xiao?" the princess cut in, and after glancing at her, Sahi shrugged.

"I left her with Amelia. I'm, like, totally bad with kids. Like, the worst. Literally."

Before anyone could figure out what she meant by that, Raven Boy managed to rise to his feet, but the moment Sahi noticed that, three more hands materialized around her and started raining punches on him, and while he was still standing, it was only a question of time before that would change.

Raven Boy getting taken out first wasn't unexpected at all, considering he was still recuperating from an injury, plus his Knightly gimmick was hard-countered by Penny's anti-Purpler-Zone artifact, so Sahi's intervention only sped up the process. On the other hand, Morgana was still holding strong, calmly maintaining a defensive stance and blocking our Mr. Griffon's attempts to corner her, while Josh used pretty much every trick up his sleeve to remain a consistent thorn in her side.

"Sister Morgana! Please, stop this madness!" Arnwald pleaded with her, yet she continued to stoically duel Roland, completely ignoring him. Honestly, Mr. Eagle's insistence on trying to talk sense into her was getting a little old at this point, but considering his personality, it was par for the course.

I wasn't the only one who noticed that he was doing more talking that shooting, as Josh circled around the duo and came to a sliding stop by the side of the archer Knight.

"Please hold onto this."

"Hm? What is this?" Arnwald blurted out in surprise, yet he still accepted the small capsule.

"The other guy is about to go down for the count," Josh spoke as he hopped in place as if limbering up before exercise. "If we don't end this soon, I'm sure she's going to escape."

"Sister Morgana wouldn't leave Agrawain behind," the older Knight objected, and Josh awarded him with one of his skeptically raised brows.

"It doesn't matter what she would or wouldn't do. If I'm right, she's controlled the same way as Lili was by her brother, and we don't know what kind of orders she had received." While saying so, he continued to hop, while also making strange gestures with his hands. "If she's ordered to run away if things started looking hopeless, we might lose our chance to save her. We have to act now."

"I… think I see what you're meaning, but… why are you doing that?"

"This?" Josh muttered while pointing at his feet. "My transformation time is almost up, and I'm burning my remaining mana to—" Just as he said that, his Magiformer outfit lit up, and he let out a relieved, "Oh, there we go. Just in time."

The light grew into a flash, and a blink of an eye later he was standing in his gym clothes. Without waiting for the glow around him to subside, Josh grabbed the Magiformer on his wrist and unbuckled it, then handed it over to Arnwald.

"Now hold this, please."

Before Mr. Eagle could even respond, Josh snatched and swallowed the pill in his hand, and then pushed the Magiformer into it and broke into a dash. As he ran, his whole body began to swell. Starting from the tips of his fingers, his hands were covered by white scales, and from his head grew a pair of elaborate horns. The transformation was finished by a thin lizard's tail poking out from his back, tearing his gym shirt in the process, and before Morgana could even react, he body-slammed her with all of his momentum.

I… was of two minds about this. On one hand, it was true that the Magiformers suppressed Josh's transformations, lowering his power output in exchange for defense and modesty. The same applied to Elly, and she was still occasionally pestering me about making a new Uniformer for her that didn't stifle her so much. In that regard, I could see what he was trying to do; use all his strength in one last hurrah to catch Morgana before she could theoretically get away.

Of course, this had one glaring issue: she wasn't going to. Not to mention, once Raven Boy was properly captured, the second group, with Sahi in tow, could just come over and resolve this battle in under a minute, but I figured he just really, really wanted to contribute. That… I didn't mind.

No, really. Rushing into danger while sacrificing defense for a small power boost was a pretty protagonist-y thing to do, and since it was in the name of quickly resolving the current 'conflict', him dramatically revealing his Draconian transformation was also deliciously tropey. At this rate, Josh might actually grow into his protagonist role. At the very least, he got the hotheaded shounen archetype down pat. So… go, Josh. Go, go, go.

So, after body-checking Morgana, Josh wrapped his arms around her, pinning both her arms to her torso. She, naturally, did her best to break free and push him off, yet despite her best efforts, Josh held onto her waist like an iron vise, and bay all appearances, he was preparing to suplex her. Normally I would've commented on the impracticality of the move here, but then he froze mid-motion as she used her paralyzing gaze on him. It only lasted for a moment though, as Roland caught up to them, forcing her to look at him instead, freezing him in his tracks.

This, of course, left Josh free to move, and since his footing was no longer ideal for throwing, I could see a flash of inspiration in his eyes, and without any warning, he stuck his head forward and bit down at Morgana's neck.

For the first time since the beginning of the battle, she let out a surprised yelp. Her shock only lasted for a split second though, as right after that she headbutted Josh with all her might. The impact caused the guy to lose his grip on her, and once her arms were free, she raised her sword to ward off a strike from Roland while simultaneously kneeing Josh in the abdomen in a move that should've completely unbalanced her, yet she remained firm like an oak tree.

Our resident protagonist, on the other hand, let out a pained hiss and fell over, landing on his back with a painful-sounding thud. Then, an unexpected sound. Josh spat on the ground, and when she did, Morgana automatically raised her hand to her neck.

On the sand, near Josh's head, there was a torn black choker.

The Gorgon Knight's eyes blinked, but it didn't take her long to figure out what happened and remember my instructions, at which point she gripped her flamberge with both hands and decisively stabbed it into the ground right in front of her feet.

"I surrender."

"Sister Morgana? Are you all right?" Arnwald rushed forth the moment she raised her palms, going as far as throwing his bow to the side in the process.

"Yeah, sure. I'm fine. Thanks for asking," Josh grumbled on the ground, eliciting a relieved chuckle from Roland, and after sheathing his sword, he walked over to help him up.

"That was a smart move," he told him once Josh rose to his feet. "Smart, but reckless."

"Well, it worked," my friend responded awkwardly, and Mr. Griffon wordlessly patted him on the back, only to pause with a contemplative tilt of his head.

"By the way, since when were you a Draconian?"

"I'm not." Seeing Roland's eyes narrow behind his visor, Josh let out a sigh and uttered a morose, "It's complicated."

"Ow! Stop! I surrender too!" Raven Boy cried out, currently pinned to the ground by three of Sahi's hands. The brown girl, no longer floating but instead standing by Armband Guy's side, with the latter's outer robe draped over her, glanced over at the already resolved side of the arena, and when her eyes met with Josh's, the guy immediately crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Don't let him go! Hold him down; we need to remove the thing from his neck first!"

"You can do that after you stopped twisting my arm!"

"Don't listen to him, keep him pinned!" Josh shouted as he made his way over to that side in a light jog, and I chose this point to end the Far Sight session and return to my body.

"Well, that was about as chaotic as expected," I murmured as I jumped to my feet.

"Are you leaving?" Judy inquired right away, and some consideration later, I nodded.

"Yeah. I better go and check ok Naoren and Mountain Girl."

"Don't forget to change your clothes."

"I wasn't going to, but thanks for the reminder."

She nodded, but a second later she was already busy coordinating the mop-up operation, so I left her to her work and headed over to the corner of the room, where the Fauns had already prepared a damaged version of the clothes I was wearing when I entered into the Green Zone with Naoren. After quickly changing, I gave Judy a goodbye peck on the top of her head, and then promptly Phased over to the duel venue.

"… still think that Guan Yu should be ranked above Lu Bu," Naoren stated between two elegant sips from his cat-printed travel cup.

"With all due respect, Naoren-san, that's absolute hogbrush!" Rinne responded quite heatedly.

"She meant 'hogwash'," I commented just a tad wearily, surprising both of them.

Since the Green Zone covered the entirety of the city district, there was no reason they had to stay outside, so the two of them settled down in the pagoda hotel's café, and based on the empty lunch boxes and ice cream buckets in front of them, they had a great time.

"Welcome back, Leonard-dono!" Rinne greeted me and wanted to get up, but I gestured for her to stay put.

"Did things go according to plan?" the bespectacled clan-head asked without batting an eye, and I let out an ambivalent 'Eh'.

"Nothing ever goes according to plan, but the outcome was pretty decent. There were a few unexpected variables, like a coup d'état, but everything got resolved."

"Excuse me?" Naoren raised his voice, so I sighed and gave him the footnotes version of events, leaving out the confidential parts and focusing on how our Knights did a great job and there were no serious injuries.

"So grand elder Xinji was doing something like that behind my back…" he mused as I reached the end of my explanation, and he slowly shook his head. "The grand elder was always a man who put the good of the clan before his own reputation, but I did not expect him to use himself as bait to draw out the dissenters… He's truly a man of integrity and foresight."

"What? Were you listening to what I just told you?" I blurted out, and this time he nodded. "Please don't tell me you actually believe his excuses? I even made sure to make them sound even more ridiculous than they already were!"

"I took that into consideration, yes," Naoren said with an awkward smile.

He completely ignored my critical gaze, so I concluded the topic with, "Whatever. Once everyone's interrogated, the truth will come out eventually, and then I will look at your unwarranted optimism and laugh."

"I doubt it will come to that."

"Just you wait," I fumed, then asked, "Also, were you aware that Xiao was a full-on dragon?"

"I… It was supposed to be a closely guarded secret, but I believe at this point it's impossible to hide it anymore." He paused for a beat, then exhaled a long sigh and added, "I told the grand elder that letting her compete in this tournament was too early, but he insisted."

"In any case, the cat's out of the bag now, so make sure you protect her well."

"From whom?" he threw a surprise question at me, then clarified it with, "I was under the impression that we are about to sign a peace treaty with the Knights."

"I don't mean them, obviously," I said, rolling my eyes. "I'm talking about the suitors from the other families."

"Oh. You're right. Don't worry, I'll take care of them." I purposefully ignored the vicious glint in the man's eyes. It only lasted for a moment though, as he then asked, "I should make an official announcement first. Are we leaving?"

"Nah, it's still a little early. Let's wait an extra hour or two to make our alibi air-tight."

"You mean your alibi."

I rolled my eyes once again, but before either of us could say a word, Rinne suddenly spoke up.

"In that case, we can continue our previous discussion!"

"… Actually, I'm also a little curious about what you two were talking about before I arrived," I noted, and while there were many much more important things to discuss, I figured we'd have to go through them later, in the company of all the Draconian family head and the Knights anyway, so there was no rush.

"Miss Rinne is well-versed in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and we were simply passing the time by discussing certain elements of the story."

Mountain Girl hummed in the affirmative and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Rinne studied the classics as part of her education, and so Rinne cannot agree with Naoren-san's interpretation."

"I still think I'm correct," Naoren doubled down with an unexpectedly businesslike expression. "Guan Yu is certainly more powerful than Lu Bu."

"Abject nonsense. Guan Yu couldn't defeat Lu Bu even when he was fighting along with Zhang Fei and Liu Bei at Hulao Gate!"

"True, but that was young Guan Yu. I believe an older, more experienced Guan Yu would have been able to win against him. And need I remind you, despite being called the most powerful warrior of the era, Guan Yu far outlived him."

"There is no relation between those two facts," Mountain Girl objected vehemently. "Zhuge Liang had outlived Guan Yu! Are you implying that he was more powerful than him, despite possessing no signature weapon or any powerful combat techniques?"

"Well, certainly not, but you have to admit that Guan Yu's legacy is—"

"Just a moment, don't forget what you wanted to say," I cut in with a finger raised at Naoren, then turned to the woman sitting across him. "The talk about techniques reminded me of something, so… Mountain Girl?"

"Yes, Leonard-dono?"

Without further ado, I pushed my arm towards her face and delivered the mother of all forehead flicks upon her unprepared noggin.

"O-Oow?!"

"What gives?" Naoren spoke up, seemingly by reflex, but by then I already pocketed my hand again.

"That was for teaching weird things to my sister. Once we're back at the base, we're going to have a private talk about this, so consider this an advance." I paused to let that sink in, then flashed my friendliest smile and simply said, "Sorry for the interruption. Please, proceed."