The Simulacrum - Chapter 134 - Part 1 (Patreon)

"Would someone be gracious enough to explain to me what exactly happened on the grounds of my school, without myconsent?"

The air in Lord Grandpa's familiar study was positively crackling with ambient mana reacting to its owner's foul mood. More importantly though, it's been quite a while since the last time I've been here, hasn't it? The room was solemn yet fancy, as always, and the elderly arch-mage had even done some re-decorating by adding a few more wooden cabinets and a small table with padded chairs around it. Probably for the convenience of the other arch-mages.

Speaking of which, Lord Taika and Lord Barnabas were flanking Endymonion, standing beside him behind his large desk, and looked… Well, maybe not furious, but at the very least quite irate. As for why I could remain so easy-going despite their piercing stares, the answer was quite prosaic: they weren't directed at me.

"See? I told you this would happen," Lord Gulliver, looking none the worse for wear and rather nonchalant, whispered to the stubborn man by his side, and Lord Ambrose let out a rumbling, dismissive grunt in return.

"Like, I don't see what the big deal is," Sahi grumbled, much to the undisguised trepidation of the guy standing by her side.

"The rest of you, I can understand, but Pascal?" Lord Grandpa continued to gripe and levelled a disparaging gaze upon his… What was their official relationship, anyway? Unofficially, I was pretty sure Armband Guy was the end result of the same homunculus program that gave us the class rep, and I was about eighty percent sure that he was a clone of the old man, or at the very least in the same ballpark, but I never got around to properly confirm that, mainly because it wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. So… protégé? Let's go with protégé for now, and ask Ammy later. I was planning to have a chat with her later anyway.

In any case, Pascal was definitely being stared at. Veeery disapprovingly. As in, the kind of look a stereotypical Asian parent would give to their kid before reaching for the slipper. Dreadfully scary.

"I am disappointed," Lord Grandpa emphasized in a low, grave voice, and he swept his gaze across the rest of the group. "In all of your conduct."

Oddly enough, even though I said 'the rest of the group', he avoided meeting my eyes. That was slightly weird but not entirely unexpected either. After all, I technically wasn't being scolded with the rest of them and only accompanied everyone out of a tiny little kernel of solidarity.

"You're making a mountain out of a molehill," Lord Ambrose scoffed crossing his arms defiantly. "It was just a friendly sparring match. Nothing less, nothing more."

"On my land," the old man behind the desk hissed between clenched teeth. "Without my permission, and after we have unanimously agreed upon sparing no effort to preclude any and all potential sources of friction with our Celestial guests and their…" He paused to send me a glance, and concluded with a profoundly unenthusiastic, "… leadership."

"Bah! You sound like a naggy old mare!" Ambrose argued back, his eyes thundering and his nostrils flaring. "There was no 'friction'. As a matter of fact, it was an educational and entertaining experience, wasn't it?"

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize he was talking to me.

"Sure. Let's go with that," I responded half-heartedly, but it made Ambrose repeatedly nod all the same.

"Absolutely. Our young friend here was a sporting opponent, keeping escalation to a minimum and avoiding vital strikes in a very gentlemanly manner." He paused and let out a hearty laugh, which I once again found uncharacteristic. Why was he only in high spirits when he was talking about combat? Maybe I pegged his character wrong, and he was more hotblooded than I thought. Anyhow, he patted his beard down and added, "It was a refreshing spar, all things considered."

"That is not the issue here," Lord Barnabas commented from behind the desk with a finger on his temple, but Lord Ambrose completely ignored him and turned to me instead.

"So, Leonard? Now that you have ample hands-on experience, what's your opinion on Invocation's obvious superiority over Conjuration?"

"I… can see how it would have a clear advantage when fighting against certain opponents," I granted him, and the old guy let out a satisfied grunt.

"See, Amadeus! He gets it!"

The other old man in the room, sitting behind the desk, buried his face in his hands, and after taking a deep breath, he looked up and focused his attention on Sahi, seemingly ignoring his smug colleague.

"And you."

"Like, what did I do?" the brown girl responded demurely, fluttering her eyelashes and trying to act all innocent.

Before Lord Grandpa could respond, Lord Barnabas cleared his throat and said, "From what I've heard, instead of reporting the incident, you not only remained silent but provided popcorn to the onlookers."

"H-Hey! Uncle Barnabas! Like, on whose side are you on?" Sahi whined and pointed at the lanky redhead by her side, who was acting like none of this was any of his business. "And, like, the popcorn was totally Gulliver's idea, you know?"

"That's Lord Gulliver to you," Ambrose complained with a huff.

"I don't mind, really," the subject of the conversation noted, causing his bearded colleague to glare at him.

"Silence, you clown! Can't you see I'm standing up for your dignity!?"

In the meantime, Lord Taika put a finger on her chin and asked, "But speaking of onlookers, what about the rest of them?"

"They are not under our direct jurisdiction," Lord Grandpa answered morosely. "At most, I can only file a formal complaint to their direct superior."

"I promise I'll at least read it," I quipped with a not-at-all cheeky smile, eliciting a groan from the old arch-mage.

"And, like, what's this? Why is Leonard getting off totally scot-free? This is so bogus!"

Endymonion levelled a flat stare at the rejuvenated arch-mage, as if to see if she was serious or only pulling his leg, but when she returned a defiant glare, he softly closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I am of the opinion that only an utter imbecile would attempt to remonstrate a natural disaster for the damage left in their wake."

"Why, thank you!" I responded in a chipper and still not-at-all cheeky smirk.

"Leonard," Barnabas cut in with a frown. "That obviously wasn't meant as a compliment."

"I know."

I followed it up with a wink, and the dark-skinned man soon buried his face in his palm while muttering something about diplomatic training. In the meantime, Lord Grandpa tapped his fingers on his desk, and soon the large doors leading into the study swung open.

"This discussion will remain unproductive as long as you keep venturing into irrelevant tangents. Sahi and Pascal, you two stay here. The rest of you, please wait outside."

"What! Gag me with a spoon!" Sahi complained, and Ambrose wasn't far behind her.

"Are you ordering me around now, Amadeus!? Who gave you the right!?"

"Technically, it's his School, so it's his rules," Gulliver pointed out, followed by a lazy yawn, and then he grabbed the still protesting stout arch-mage by the back of his robe and started dragging him outside.

"Take your hands off me, lout!" Ambrose yelled, yet didn't try to stop the gangly arch-mage.

I watched their show for a bit, and only belatedly noticed that Lord Grandpa was staring at me.

"Oh? You meant me too?" I asked, and when he curtly nodded, I shrugged. "Oh well. Have fun."

"This is sooo bogus!" Sahi cried after me, while Armband Guy remained stoic.

In any case, I didn't have much of an opportunity to respond, as the moment I stepped over the threshold, the wings of the door practically slammed shut behind me, startling the arch-mages squabbling in the hallway. It didn't last long though, as Ambrose soon shook off his colleague's hand and turned to me with an eager look in his eye.

"So, Leonard!" He addressed me like we were old friends, which sent a shiver down my spine, and then he rubbed his hands together with a friendly, if currently somewhat unnerving, grin. "Now that you have seen the basic principles of Invocation, and as the resident Chimera expert, I would like to hear your opinion on the potential efficacy of my spells against the creatures."

Suddenly getting put on the spot like that, especially after what just happened, gave me a bit of a whiplash, on closer look, I could kind of see where it came from. When I told him it was more effective on 'certain opponents' back in the study, I was obviously referring to myself. Yet, because of the context, it wasn't surprising he thought I would be speaking about a Chimera. Or a Colossus? I was pretty sure those were also supposed to be magic-resistant, but then again, the only one I fought was a bit of a jobber, so I kind of wrote them off in my mind.

My internal ramblings aside, I raised a finger while I contemplated Lord Ambrose's question, and ultimately told him, "The laser beams, or heat rays as you called them, would probably inconvenience a Chimera, but they lack the penetrating power to sever limbs, and it can regenerate the burns. As for the rail-gun thingie, sustained fire could probably suppress it for a while, but it didn't have the raw power to put one down. I guess the two combined would work well enough, at least until it developed a carapace to protect itself or something, but you would still need something big to deliver the killing blow. Something with a huge impact, or dealing more damage in quick succession than it can regenerate."

"You're ignoring my fusion spell," Ambrose pointed out, and that made my brows descend into a glare at one.

"No. That's just a big, fat no," I declared on no uncertain terms. "Molecular fusion and radiation are not toys. Unless you can fully contain it, you're just going to kill everything and everyone in a mile."

"See, I told you," Lord Gulliver spoke with a chuckle, and poked the other man with his elbow, much to Ambrose's annoyance.

"You've told me nothing but meaningless conjecture, ruffian, so stay out of this!" After his angry outburst, the bearded arch-mage turned back to me, and his demeanour turned on a dime once again. "I have to admit, the fusion Incantation is still in its early stages of development, but as for the rest, I naturally have bigger and more powerful versions of them!"

"Do you now?" I responded with a brow raised high.

"Of course! Among many other powerful Incantations!"

"… Then why didn't you use them?"

Lord Ambrose paused for a second and looked at me as if I asked a silly question.

"Isn't it only natural that I wouldn't lay all my cards on the table in the first round? I have to leave some surprises for our next encounter!"

"Oh dear. Here we go again," Lord Gulliver uttered some very familiar words, but he was summarily ignored by the increasingly enthusiastic older mage.

"You haven't brought everything you had to bear either, right? The lass kept complaining that you didn't fly, and you refrained from using your famous illusions as well. You're a man after my own heart, aren't you, Leonard?"

Before I could protest, or even just ask for clarification, Lord Ambrose roughly patted me on the back.

"Next time, I'll show you something good!"

Looking at the excited, wolfish grin hidden under his bushy facial hair, combined with the expectant and almost affable look in his eyes, finally made me recognize what was going on here. I just gained my first rival! And he was… a battle-maniac old arch-mage. Yay?

Seriously though, rivals were a pretty common trope (heck, I had a bit of a rivalry with Josh, though only confined to the basketball court) in battle harem shounen narratives, so the fact that one appeared wasn't that surprisingly, but Lord Ambrose of all people? The grouchy, antagonistic old man in a slapstick relationship with the laidback arch-mage of all people?

"Just humor him," the aforementioned Lord Gulliver noted on the side, drawing my attention to him. "Ambrose here has a bit of a reputation, you see, so he's just happy to have a new sparring partner."

"Reputation, you say!?" the stout arch-mage burst out indignantly and raised his damaged cane threateningly. "I'll show you reputation, you good-for-nothing! Just wait until I get my hands on you!"

Despite that, the red-headed man only chuckled, as if looking at the embarrassed tantrum of a kid. In any case, while watching these two wasn't exactly boring, I felt like I had more than adequately fulfilled my obligations, at least as far as showing solidarity was concerned.

"Gentlemen," I spoke up to get the attention of the bickering pair. "I wish you the best of luck when dealing with Enydmonion, but I'm afraid I have prior obligations to attend to." I tried to sound fancy, but they just looked at me funny, so I reiterated with, "In other words, I've got stuff to do, so I'm leaving. Bye."

Normally this would've been the point where I did the whole 'I was an illusion all along' gambit, but that was getting a bit old, so after waving my hand, I simply turned on my heel and marched down the corridor, not even waiting for their responses. Luckily, the elevator leading to the surface was on this floor already, so I only had to hop inside… and thenPhase away while it was going up.

Not right away though. Not before I took a couple of breaths to decompress, sorted my priority list again, and enjoyed the muzak playing from the speakers. Well, maybe not the last one, but the first two were definitely necessities.

As such, once I've got my head on straight, I summarized the effects of this magical intermezzo: Lord Ambrose was, despite his initial impressions, a bit of a battle junkie and was angling for a, by the looks of it, mostly friendly rivalry with me. His power-set was seemingly designed to counter my usual tactics, but I sincerely doubted the Narrative tinkered with that just to mess with me. If anything, his last question sounded almost too much like a clue to his true calling in our 'plot' by any other name: to counter Chimeras and Colossi. Now, since Crowey and his ilk weren't exactly on the brink of invading the island at the moment, I could probably scratch off the former from the list, which meant Ambrose and his Invocation spells were supposed to counter-balance the alleged anti-magic properties Celestial Colossi, which in turn meant those were going to make a comeback in a scenario that involved him.

All in all, while I might have been overthinking this, I had a hunch that I was on the right track, and our inevitable end-of-Angie-route-clash would involve them somehow. That would've meant the Celestial Directorate would have to come to Timaeus to cause havoc, as I couldn't see a scenario where I would take Lord Ambrose in particular into the Elysium to have a scrap with some porous magical statue monsters.

The question was, did this information imply that I should push the 'do something about the Celestial leadership' up or down on my priority list? Both had good arguments for them. On one hand, if I acted swiftly, I could get ahead and potentially even prevent any big, dramatic final battles from breaking out in our neighbourhood, which was not only safer, but a nice, fat middle finger to the Narrative. On the other hand, it was also a bit of a 'the devil you know' situation, and since I now had a solid hunch about what was coming my way, I could prep not only myself but also everyone else to swiftly deal with it, essentially allowing me to take the Narrative's cake while technically letting it eat it too, potentially avoiding any further unforeseen complications.

I also had to decide what to do with Percival before that… but I was still dragging my feet on that one due to many very nuanced and entirely rational reasons, and we're going to leave it at that. However, before I could get to the end of my contemplations, the elevator cabin reached the ground floor, so I put everything else on hold and Phased away to deal with the current top item on my priority list before the doors could open.

A moment later, I reappeared inside the teleport closet of the underground base, and when I stepped out, I was startled to see that the class rep was already waiting for me in the reception room, sitting attentively on one of the padded benches, her eyes trained on me like a bird of prey noticing a movement in the underbrush.

"Hi," I greeted her reflexively and closed the door behind me. "I didn't expect you to be here so early."

That wasn't just idle talk; it's been only a little more than an hour since I'd last seen her at school, and I so wasn't expecting her I didn't even bother to check where her mark was before Phasing in.

"I didn't wait long," she told me and stood up.

On closer look, I noticed that she was still wearing her school uniform (the normal one, not her Magiformer), and had her bag hanging from her shoulder, meaning she probably came here right after we last talked. That was a bit suspicious, and so was the unusually tense look in her eyes.

"Let's head to the lounge, and I'll—"

"That wouldn't be wise," she cut me off, sounding just a little stiff. "I already locked and secured the door here, so we can talk in private."

That… certainly raised a couple of red flags in my head, so I forced a harmless smile onto my face and asked, "For the records, am I about to be scolded?"

"No, I don't think so," she answered listlessly and reached into her bag. "Not unless you try to play dumb."

"Play dumb about what?" I blurted out, only to suck in a deep breath when my eyes landed on the item she pulled out.

There was a torturously long beat of silence hanging in the air as I started at the worn-out spiral notebook in her hand, my mind racing to connect the dots until I felt like I would soon start giving off steam. Before I could ask anything more, she held the notebook out to me.

"I've found this inside the box of research notes I entrusted to you," she said in a low, almost droning voice. "This is your handwriting, right?"

"Yes," I admitted, lacking any other option. "Did you… read it?"

She silently nodded, and suddenly her recent odd mannerisms started to make a lot of sense. I really, really wanted to beat myself up for forgetting about something so important, but in my defense, I was kinda-sorta insanely busy in the past couple of weeks. It was a weak excuse at best, but there was no point crying over spilt milk, so I proceeded to take my old notes from her hand and exhaled a long breath.

"Let's sit down," I proposed and pointed at the nearest bench. "This will take a while."