The Simulacrum - Chapter 137 - Part 2 (Patreon)

A family outing. It wasn't that odd of a thing to consider; after all, I'd already taken my sisters for one of those escape room attractions a while ago, though back then, I was accompanied by my girlfriends. This time, it was a 'pure' family experience only involving the Dunning household.

By the way, let's stop this train of thought and ruminate on this point for a while longer. 'The Dunning household'. On the surface, we might've looked like a suburban family right out of an old sitcom espousing the 'American dream', but… none of us were actually related. By blood, I mean. Not only that, but technically none of us were 'Dunnings' either; it was just a cover identity pre-amnesia me used, but I decided to stick to it, because it sounded less over-the-top than my alleged true name of 'Leonard Pendragon'. Everyone else was just piggybacking on that, using forged identities to fit into the family, and in the case of our two senior knights, it was only supposed to be a short-term ruse.

"This is surprisingly difficult," Arnwald mused as he raised the short golf putter to his eye level and held it out horizontally, like an artist or architect trying to calculate distance or some angles, even though he was staring at a hole just a couple of meters away from where he was standing.

"Good luck, dear," Morgana encouraged him with a smile, and the man let out a determined grunt before anti-climactically standing over the small orange ball on the green felt under our feet, and doing a couple of practice swings.

"Brother! We got it!" Penny exclaimed from another course, and she waved her putter over her head to get my attention.

"Careful, Penelope. You're going to hit someone," Morgana chided her, and my sister stuck out her tongue.

"No, I wouldn't! I'm always careful, right, Snowy?"

My Abyssal sister didn't respond, because she was too busy fishing out their ball from the cup at the end of the twisty course.

"Ha! I've done it in one try!" Arnwald exclaimed in delight. "Did you see that?"

"Ah, sorry dear. I was paying attention to the kids," Morgana apologized, and the dejected man looked at me for validation.

"I saw it," I told him with a semi-enthusiastic thumbs up. "Good job."

That was enough to turn his frown upside down, and handed his club over to Dame Morgana with a grin.

"It's your turn next. Give it a go."

"What about His Majesty… Oh, I mean, Leonard?"

"I'm good," I told them as I politely turned down the offer, and in the end, she took the putter and walked up to the tee with her ball in hand.

If the previous events didn't make it blindingly obvious, let's state it for posterity: the Dunning family, dressed warmly for the weather, was currently in the middle of a family outing at the biggest (and as far as I was aware, only) World Minigolfsport Federation approved putter-golf field. With over thirty interlocking felt and eternite courses, ranging from simple straight tracks with a few obstacles in the way, to mechanize Rube Goldberg machine-esque contraptions with turning windmills, opening and closing dragon mouths, and long twisty plastic channels ferrying the balls between the courses, it was a sight to behold.

The weather was both sunny and fairly balmy for the season, but because this was the off-season, only a few placeholders were idling around (mostly older people), meaning we had pretty much the whole place for ourselves. A fact my sisters both appreciated and exploited to its fullest.

"Penny! Don't climb onto the props!" Snowy warned by my knightly sister, trying to get on top of the cartoon dragon statue guarding the entrance of the tiny castle hiding the next target hole within its walls.

"I just want to take a look!"

"If you lose your footing, you'll hurt yourself."

"Naah! I'm a Knight! There's no way I would fall down from—"

I closed my eyes and counted back from three. Two. One.

"A-A-Awawaaah!"

"Look out!" Snowy cried out, and then a blink of an eye later, Penny landed on top of her. Thankfully, the aforementioned dragon statue was only about a meter tall, so while Penny's fall knocked my Abyssal sister onto her butt, neither of them was hurt, and they soon broke into giggles.

Once I was sure they were fine, I shook my head and closed my eyes again. I was glad to see that they were having fun, but as far as I was concerned, I, unfortunately, could not share their merriment due to a constant source of annoyance gnawing at my nerves. Speaking of which, I far glanced over at the Elysium, and barely managed to stifle a groan.

"Is this truly necessary?"

The question came from Tsephanyah, dressed in plain, earth-colour clothes and walking through the farming settlement surrounding the central tower.

He wasn't alone, or the only one underdressed at the moment. On his left, Mensah let out a grunt in agreement, clad in the same style of brown tunic as the blonde director, and he wasn't even wearing his weird magitech earpiece for once. On the literal other hand was Savir, her long hair let loose and without any makeup on her face, dressed in an unadorned green dress with a long skirt, and she promptly rolled her eyes.

"Yes, it's entirely necessary," she hissed in a low voice, close to a whisper, and glanced around to make sure nobody was paying attention to them before facing Tsephanyah again. "It's the only way we can be sure that our discussion won't be forwarded to the Archon."

Mensah sighed and swept his hair back, then rested the heel of his hand on his forehead.

"I still can't figure out how he discovered our meeting spot."

"He didn't do that," Savir answered, then paused to smile amicably at a passing Celestial farmer, only to then immediately return to her previous sour expression. "He must've subverted part of our inner circle, and that's how he learned of its location. It's the only logical explanation."

"You do have a point, but then shouldn't we try to plug the leaks?" Mensah proposed, and it was Tsephanyah who dismissed him first.

"No. We have no way of knowing who is reporting to Polemos, and how many of them are in the Migdál. Acting against just one or two of them would only cause him to suppress us once again."

"Precisely. And that's why we need to get away from the Migdál to have this talk. We can't let any of this reach his ears."

"Oh, screw you…" I muttered under my breath, causing Arnwald to look at me with mild concern.

"Pardon? Did you say something, My Liege?"

"No, I was just talking to myself," I told him while barely managing to keep the mother of all groans bottled up in the pit of my stomach.

"Understood." He didn't sound convinced, but when I didn't say anything else, he shrugged and returned to Morgana's side, who was trying to get her ball into the hole at the other end of the course in one go by bouncing it off one of the obstacles. Or at the very least, that was the impression I was getting from the way she was measuring distances with her putter. These two were taking the game way too seriously, but they looked like they were having fun, so it was fine.

On the flip side, my sisters were much less meticulous about their play, and after yet another failed attempt to get their ball through the mouth of the dragon, Snowy slouched her shoulders in defeat and walked over to me.

"Leo. Help."

"No!" Penny scurried over in a hurry and made an X-sign with her hands. "Asking for Brother to do it for us is cheating!"

"But you already tried to cheat by using your foot," my Abyssal sister pointed out, causing her to flush red.

"T-That wasn't cheating! I was just exploring new tactical possibilities!"

"You know, girls," I interjected with just a hint of a shadow of a facsimile of a smile, "I never played minigolf, so I have no idea why you think I would do better than you two."

"But you're good at everything," Snowy pointed out with the kind of frank naiveté that made her sound sarcastic to the more cynical listener. Of course, I knew that she meant it honestly, but since under the cynical exterior, I had an even more cynical interior, I couldn't help but automatically narrow my eyes at her.

"Except at video games," my other sister pointed out, drawing my squint at her.

"Nonsense," I grunted, arms folded and brows furrowed. "I'll let you know, by all meaningful metrics, I'm downright average at games!"

Snowy covered her mouth to hide her giggles, but then she tugged on my sleeve with a pleading look, and before long, I found myself on the next course, putter in hand, and standing over a yellow ball on the felt. Sighing, I looked down the lane spotted with small, round protrusions serving as obstacles, and a cartoon dragon at the end, and silently calculated the best way to putt my way to victory. Or rather, my sister's way, but it was a distinction without a difference.

Before committing though, I first Far Glanced at the directors again and found them still walking the dirt roads of the settlement while arguing about something insignificant. I shook my currently non-existent head, but before returning to my body to make the short, I first flipped through all the other usual targets, just to be safe.

It should've only taken a second or two, but I got unexpectedly bogged down when I reached Josh, as I found him at an unexpected place. Granted, the last time I checked on him was a couple of hours ago, but I didn't expect to find him at the underground base, let alone in the company of the younger Feilong brother.

"Catch," Zihao said and threw one of those cylindrical plastic flasks you'd see on sports bicycles, and Josh caught it without any trouble.

The two of them were at the edge of the training grounds segment of the main hall, and they were both sweaty and bruised, no doubt the aftermath of a vigorous sparring session. Josh was wearing his modified Magiformer, though it was currently in the shape of his Justicar disguise from the Elysium instead of his usual school uniform, while Zihao was naked from the waist up and wearing loose pants, his muscles glistening with sweat and his spiky red hair still softly glowing after their presumed bout.

"You've got weaker, Joshua," the Draconian guy spoke with a smirk, causing my friend to glare at him.

"Fuck you, I'm getting better."

"You're still weaker than when we fought in the finals," Zihao responded with the cockiness of a prize rooster.

"That's why I asked for your help, against my better judgement." Josh hissed and took another hiss from the flask. "I need to get used to this," he said, gesturing at his outfit, meaning he was referring to his Celestial powers. "And to do that, I need someone to fight me seriously and push my limits."

Spoken like a true shounen protagonist. I would've been proud of him if it wasn't so clichéd.

"If these are your limits, then you better watch out, or your girlfriend might just get snatched by a stronger, faster, and more handsome guy," Zihao joked (I hoped) and struck a bishounen pose, at which point Josh unceremoniously tossed the empty flask at his head.

"I'd like to see you try," he growled, and the other guy responded with a boisterous laugh.

"Maybe I will! But first, pass me that towel, asshole."

"Here you go, shithead," Josh responded curtly and tossed the fluffy cloth at his side over to him.

Ah. The beauty of the battle shounen rivalry. It was such a picturesque sight.

…

Oh, who was I kidding? It was absolutely—

"Amazing!" Penny exclaimed, and before I knew what was going on, Snowy practically jumped onto me to hug my neck.

"You see! I told you that you're great at everything!"

She beamed at me from just a few centimeters away, and I was left completely confused about what just happened. At least until I glanced over at the dragon statue, which was making dinging noises out of a casino game, its eyes replaced my large X-es, and both its mouth and the castle gates behind it were wide open.

"Did I just hit it in one go?" I asked, ever-so-slightly flabbergasted, and Snowy nodded, nearly headbutting me in the process.

"It was truly impressive, My Liege," Arnwald noted from the court over, with a competitive light in his eyes. "We must strive to match your excellence!"

"Take it easy, dear," Morgana commented and patted his shoulder, but it did little to quench his enthusiasm.

In the meantime, Snowy let me go, and Penny took the putter from me with a grudging, "Hmpf. Beginner's luck," before she grabbed hold of my Abyssal sister's hand, and the two of them zipped over to the next course.

Meanwhile, I looked at my hand and was lost in thought. So, according to empirical evidence:

Wiring enchantments in a non-euclidian space plus Far Sight equals easy.

Playing minigolf with my eyes closed plus Far Sight equals easy.

Walking home plus Far Sight equals difficult.

…

"In what universe does that make any lick of sense?" I griped under my breath but then stepped off the felt track and walked to a nearby bench.

Ignoring the ridiculousness of the situation, I Far Glanced at Josh, and just as expected, I found him sparring with Zihao, while being overseen by Brang. It was a visually stimulating battle, but I didn't really care for it, and I had more important things demanding my attention. Such as the three directors, and when I shifted my point of view, I found them skulking in an empty house on the outskirts of the settlement.

"... safe here," Tsephanyah noted flatly as he looked through the window and then promptly closed the shutters, plunging the room into darkness. It only lasted for a second, as Mensah hummed a solemn tune, and conjured a dozen or so small candle-lights that floated around the trio, illuminating them as they took their seats around the rough wooden table.

"I never imagined that we would be forced to hold a meeting under such circumstances, but desperate times—"

"Leave the platitudes for later, Acacius." Savir's interruption made the oldest director frown, but he didn't protest, and after they settled down, Savir took a deep breath. "We all know why we are here, so let's not beat around the bush. We need to investigateArchon Polemos, without his knowledge."

"Oh, for the love of…!" I hissed, once again drawing Arnwald's attention, but I waved for him to ignore me and returned to the extra-clandestine meeting.

"Do you still think that he's withholding the whole truth from us?" Tsephanyah asked, and Savir all but scoffed, as if the question itself was distasteful.

"Of course he does. I once thought that he was more Leonard Dunning than Archon Polemos, but his recent actions speak otherwise. If so, it's only natural he's trying to manipulate us. It's only a question of how deep the well of his deception runs."

Oh? Did I hear that right? Was that, maybe, just maybe, a hint of self-awareness I've just heard, acknowledging the Celestials' downright pathological obsession with skull-duggery? Nah, it couldn't have been, or could it?

"First, let's look at what he wants us to think," Mensah followed her up with a frown and he linked his fingers on the table. "He's saying that Bel of the Abyss is, in fact, Bel of the Tenebrous Flames, and the two of them are locked in a war of schemes and subterfuge where they are even making use of each other for their ultimate ends."

"Of which, we know nothing," Tsephanyah added.

"Indeed," Savir agreed with an ambivalent expression, and she began to absently draw circles onto the table with her index finger as she spoke. "For now, let's ignore what Polemos may be planning, and look at this Bel, and his latest actions. According to Polemos's words, Bel came to me on his own, knowing that I was attempting to trap him. What was his goal?"

"Easy," Mensah responded before she even finished speaking. "He showed himself in front of you to read that paragraph of Ancient Celestial Script and plant the idea of a grand conspiracy in your head."

"But why?" Savir stressed. "For what reason did he do that?"

"If we presume that Polemos tells the truth and they are not in cahoots, maybe it was to turn us on the Archon?" Tsephanyah proposed, and his countenance darkened. "And he almost succeeded."

"But that's only true if we presume Polemos tells the truth," the bespectacled director raised his voice, along with a finger. "But what if that's not the case?"

"Then he betrayed the Archon?"

"Not necessarily," Savir commented with a thoughtful hum. "What if we're looking at this from the wrong perspective? Polemos had obviously done his research on us, and he knew how we would react to Bel's actions."

"How you would react," Mensah stressed, earning himself a scoff.

"Don't try to weasel out of this, Dolion. It's beneath you." Shaking her head, Savir continued. "However, if we presume that he knew how we would react, then could it be that he took it into consideration, and crafted the scenario with that in mind."

"Are you proposing that it was all a ruse?"

The blond director sounded incredulous, almost mockingly so, but she nodded all the same.

"Precisely. First, they misled us into thinking that Bel was a Celestial in disguise aided by others, to lead us to conclude the existence of a conspiracy. Then, Polemos would debunk it, making us focus on Bel alone, while turning a blind eye to the even the potentialexistence of a conspiracy."

"But that presumes that Bel of the Abyss is purposefully acting as a distraction to draw our attention away from the Archon and this proposed conspiracy," Tsephanyah argued with audible skepticism. "Yet, you have to remember that we wouldn't be aware of the possibility without his involvement, in the first place."

"And your point is?"

"What if it was all part of his plan?"

"Bel's?" Mensah blurted out, and the other man nodded. "In other words, Bel purposefully revealed the conspiracy to force Polemos to act, and he predicted that we wouldn't trust him and think they were still working together."

"It's possible," Tsephanyah declared with a sagely nod. "In fact, it would be most prudent to presume that he expected us to come to that conclusion, with the implicit goal to make us suspicious of Archon Polemos and oppose him in the future."

"But if we say that," Savir cut in, her fingers no longer drawing circles but tapping impatiently instead. "If we say that, then isn't it just as likely that Polemos expected that we would expect Bel to do that, and thus using those expectations to hide the true ploy behind it all?"

"It wouldn't be unexpected, that's for sure," Mensah answered, and I just…

"I just can't," I blurted out, and cut the Far Sight. "I just can't with these people…"

"Leonard? Is everything all right?" Morgana called out to me and walked over to my side, and I immediately shook my head.

"No, it's fine. Everything's fine."

She looked me over, and her expression was hard to read.

"It appears you aren't enjoying the family trip."

"It's not that," I responded in a hurry, accompanied by a dismissive wave of my hand. "I just… I guess I just can't separate myself from my worries. Like whether or not I should do a coup tomorrow."

"My Liege?" Arnwald addressed me from a nearby course, his brows furrowed. "I thought you promised Brother Roland that you wouldn't do anything rash."

"I won't," I groaned and waved my hand again. "It was a joke. A joke."

Or was it? To coup, or not to coup? That was the question.

"My Liege? Maybe instead of dwelling on your quandaries, why not play a few courses?" Arnwald proposed, and held out his putter. "You should try to put your mind at ease. Isn't that what this family excursion is all about?"

"You heard your 'father'," Morgana quipped with a voice full of jest and mirth, as if trying to give me an example of how to leave our daily selves, weary and weighted down by myriad troubles and tribulations behind, and enjoy the moment in good company. Or maybe I was just overthinking this, and she only said it to tease the man awkwardly shuffling while still holding out his putter.

In any case, I gave up and took the club from him. Honestly, I was starting to feel that getting worked up over the chief directors like this was like getting angry over an old dog pissing on the carpet. It's not like I could change that now, short of throwing them out of the house altogether, and in a way, that was exactly what I was planning, so maybe there really was no reason to get hung up on them. For now, let's just adopt a zen attitude, and putt some balls.

"Speaking of family, we should invite your cousin next time," Morgana proposed, halting me in my tracks.

"My what?"

"Agrawain," she explained with the same smile she had just given to Arnwald a moment ago. "He's my nephew, and I'm acting as Your Majesty's mother, which, by logical extension, would make him your cousin."

I blinked at her, but she seemed entirely serious.

"… Shit. I didn't think this whole 'family' thing through, did I…?"