The Simulacrum - Chapter 137 - Part 4 (Patreon)

"So, we're not invading the Elysium today," my dear assistant stated, much less asked, as we walked down the street.

It was early in the morning, and I decided to pick her up ahead of the usual schedule to discuss a few things in person. I'd spent the whole night stewing over what to do with Percival, and I wanted to hear a few other perspectives before I made up my mind. But first…

"No, Dormouse, I'm not invading the Elysium yet after all."

Disregarding the hint of annoyance in my tone, she nodded and grabbed hold of my hand.

"Good. If you do something like that, you have to do it properly."

"You already told me that," I grumbled as we walked down the usual streets on our way to school. "And it's not even the thing I really want to talk about right now."

"I know, but this takes priority. A coup would affect all of our schedules for the rest of the week, so we should clarify everything ahead of time."

It would've done much more, but I guess she was making light of it on purpose.

"Sure, sure…"

She squeezed my hand, and finally asked, "So, have you decided what to do with Sir Percival?"

"That's the problem. I haven't."

I already gave her a footnote version of my discussion with the bastard over the phone last night, so didn't need to do it all over again.

"You know that he's trying to manipulate you, right?"

"Sure, but what he said was still annoyingly reasonable." I exhaled a shallow sigh. "I mean, he's an opportunistic turncoat and a spy, so letting him stay close to us, let alone giving him an official position after all this, is just asking for a sudden yet inevitable betrayal, but he wasn't explicitly wrong about what he said. Urgh... It's exactly why I didn't want to talk to him..."

"Have you thought about exiling him?" she proposed. "The Brotherhood of the Most Heroic Bloodlines must've had a protocol for that."

"And where would I even exile him? Even if I send him off the island, I'd bet it would only take a few days for the bloody Directorate to track him down and get him involved in a multi-step plan to annoy me."

"Then exile him into the Elysium, with the express intent to keep him under house arrest," Judy proposed.

"Yes, because the Elysium wasn't bad enough already. It obviously needs another annoyance there."

If the flatness of my voice wasn't a solid enough indicator, my grimace must've made my attitude towards the idea abundantly obvious, as my lovely assistant lightly shrugged.

"I'm just trying to give you ideas."

"I know, and I appreciate it, but if it was so simple, I wouldn't need advice in the first place."

It looked like she wanted something to say, but we put a hold on the conversation when a comet of familiar blonde ringlets appeared at the corner.

"I'm here!" the princess declared as she dashed over, with an entire toast hanging from her mouth and…

"Déja vu?" Judy spoke my mind, but by then, Elly quickly finished up her food and was looking at me with just a hint of a seed of a pout.

"You could've texted me ahead of time if you wanted to go to school early! I had to rush my breakfast, and Melinda even scolded me."

"Sorry, it wasn't really planned. It just turned out this way," I apologized, and that was enough to lift her mood enough to line up next to me and entwine our arms.

"So? What did I miss?"

"The Chief's not invading Elysium today," Judy noted, and my other girlfriend nodded.

"Good. You can't do surprise attacks so haphazardly."

"Isn't a surprise attack, by definition, something you do in a hurry?" I objected, and she shook her head.

"No! You have to time it right, and you have to notify all your allies ahead of time, and you have to plan it all out so that everyone understands the goals of the operation," Elly lectured me, and I felt like it would permanently derail the conversation if I let her do that, so I pulled her closer to interrupt her.

"It doesn't matter, because we're not doing that yet, and I'm currently focused on what to do with Percival."

"Oh, right!" The princess looked at me with expectant eyes, and asked, "So? Did you decide to deal with him?"

"That's the problem. The Chief is still undecided," Judy noted on my other side, causing my draconic girlfriend to open her eyes as wide as saucers.

"But why? You can just change his Oaths, cripple him, and then kick him out. Even better, send him into Elysium, and let them sort him out."

"For the record, that was also my advice."

Judy sounded vindicated, but I shook my head.

"No, I can't do that. Remember, his Oaths are a Plot Device, so I can't touch them."

"Oh, please!" Elly playfully rolled her eyes and snuggled up to me even closer. "When did that ever stop you? Wasn't mom's wound also one of those 'Plot Device' things?"

"And the spear," Judy added.

"Yes, and Ascalon as well! I'm sure you can do something about this one too!"

I was silent for a while, but ultimately shook my head.

"Not that simple." My girlfriends were naturally less than fully convinced by my genius rebuttal, so I had to elaborate. "First off, the method to deal with Plot Devices is to do it in a roundabout way, using 'plausible' existing factors and external forces, which is hard in his case, as I can only implant new conditions by directly interfacing with the Oaths. More importantly, even if I did manage to do it somehow, I'm not sure I should. Remember that whole thing with 'other me' I told you about?"

"The one where you blackmailed yourself into revealing information about the Simulacrum to yourself," Judy responded flatly, and when she put it like that, it did sound kind of silly. Anyhow, I ignored her tone and doubled down.

"Precisely. I was warned not to mess with the plot. Whatever said 'plot' may be, the only unambiguous traces of it we could find so far were precisely these Plot Devices."

"So you're saying…" Elly interjected with a thoughtful look in her eyes, "… that since Sir Percival's Oaths, and only his Oaths, are these Plot Device things, it means they are relevant to the plot, which means he's relevant to the plot. Did I get that right?"

"Exactly. And that's why I can't decide what to do with him."

"To me, it sounds like you already decided though," Judy pointed out, and when I directed a baffled glance at her, she explained, "You are expecting him to be part of the plot of the Angeline Route, and you don't want to disturb the plot too much because of the warning you received… which is, I would like to point out, contradicts your previous plan to forcefully evict the Directorate."

"Now that you mention it, it does sound like something that would disturb this 'plot'," Elly agreed, and her comment made me groan aloud.

"Girls? Girls. Please, can we please drop this topic? Can we just agree that I was caught up in the heat of the moment and I didn't think it through?"

"Meaning you aren't going to take down the Directorate?" Elly asked, and I reflexively shook my head.

"Nah, those guys can't be left alone, I'm just not doing it through a military coup."

"Good. You should make sure to do it thoroughly," Judy nodded, and I couldn't help but feel I was getting mixed messages from them. Before I could point it out, she continued with, "As I was saying, since you are expecting him to be an important part of the Angeline Route, meaning he's a piece you cannot remove from the game board, you might as well let him fulfil his designated role while keeping a close eye on him."

"Ah. It's one of those 'Better the devil you know' kind of situations, isn't it?" Elly chimed in with a grin. "Maybe you should just extradite him to Elysium after all, huh?"

"I'll… consider it," I responded a tad grudgingly, mostly because I couldn't object to their conclusion. There wasn't much of an opportunity to do so anyway, as just as we rounded the corner, we encountered yet another familiar face.

"Good morning," the class rep greeted us, looking as prim and proper as usual. She was alone, which wasn't that surprising. Even though we took our sweet time walking slowly while we talked, we were still much earlier than usual.

"Hi, Ammy," Elly greeted her back with a smile and a wave. "Did you wake up early?"

"You could say that," she said, her eyes locked on me. "Can I borrow Leo for a while?"

My girlfriends looked at her funny for a moment, but soon enough, Judy let go of my hand, and Elly grudgingly followed suit. Without further ado, the class rep came to my side and waited for my girlfriends to walk ahead before she whispered to me.

"Can I ask you for advice?"

"Sure." She glanced around, and seeing that Judy and Elly were already a few steps ahead, she automatically followed after them, and I lined up next to her so we could talk. "So? Is this Magi-business, relationship-business, or meta-business?"

"Yes," she responded with altogether too much seriousness. "I've talked with Judy about this, and I made a lot of notes, but I want to run some of my ideas by you first."

"Shoot."

She adjusted her glasses, and opened with, "I was told you have this hypothesis about various tracks destiny could follow, based on Josh's choices as the 'Chosen One'. Judy called them 'Routes' if I remember right."

"Yes, that's the working idea at the moment."

"So that means there was, at least theoretically, a potential chance that Josh would hypothetically enter into a possible relationship with me," she said, suddenly sounding a little awkward. "I mean, if I didn't meet Michael and Josh didn't… you know?"

"Yes, yes. Relationship stuff affecting the fabric of the plot. It's a pretty common trope, so we figure it was in play here."

"Right, but that's not really what I'm trying to get at." She paused to collect her thoughts. "So, my actual point is this: because of destiny, events would've drastically changed depending on Josh's choice. He chose Angie, so she turned out to be the leader of Celestials while pulling you in as well, and if he chose to be with Elly, then he would've most likely ended up in a conflict with the Feilongs and the Brotherhood. Without your intervention, I mean."

"That's likely, yes."

"Then what would've happened if he chose me, colloquially speaking?"

Actually, that was a good question. Since she dropped out so early from the race, due to Mike's courting, we never really considered that particular scenario before.

"It would've most likely had something to do with the Grimoire," I posited. "You know? Because Josh's constitution would take the attributes of the person he's 'exchanging fluids with', he would've most likely gained permanent Magi powers, and those would've given him access to that Grimoire thing in the Assembly, while also putting him in conflict with the Celestials, who would've tried to keep up the status quo."

Ammy furiously blushed at the mere mention of fluid exchange, but she pushed it down by just as furiously tweaking her glasses.

"Y-Yes, I thought so, and it's why I've been wondering: what would've been my role in that track of destiny?"

I wanted to tease her by saying 'his girlfriend', but it would've been a little inappropriate, so I gave it more thought.

"That's a good question. Probably a sub-plot related to homunculi? Or maybe…"

I paused as I've got a sudden idea, and mulled it over a bit. Let's look at this objectively: Josh's prophecies were vague, but in retrospect, there was a bit of a trend there. The Abyssal prophecy signified him as a 'herald' of the Emperor of the Abyss, not the emperor himself, and the Celestial one ended up with him playing second fiddle to his girlfriend, who was the true second advent of Deus. The Draconian prophecy was about reviving the bloodline of the dragons, which would've naturally required Elly's 'contribution', to put in in PG-13 terms, which meant…

"Have you ever tried touching one of those Grimoire Key marbles?" I asked, and her eyes lit up.

"Yes, I had the same idea!" she proclaimed with a determined look on her face. "Since Josh would've been copying my powers, wouldn't that mean that they would be compatible with the Grimoire? And if so, wouldn't it mean that I could be compatible with it as well?"

"It's worth a try."

"I'll ask Grandfather about it as soon we arrive!"

I blinked at her enthusiastic declaration, and couldn't help but smile a little.

"Well, someone's eager."

"Of course. I would've never considered this as a possibility without learning about the tracks of destiny, but if we're right, I might be… I might even be able to finally throw fireballs!"

"… Everyone needs a goal in life, I suppose," I muttered, but she didn't seem to hear, and she looked so unusually excited I could practically see the sparkles around her. "Was that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Ah, right." The sparkles vanished and she readjusted her glasses again. "There was one more thing I wanted to ask you about. It's… related to Michael."

"As in?"

"T-Three things," she began, suddenly sounding awkward again. She's been swinging between emotions way more than usual, hasn't she? "First, since you're the resident relationship expert…"

"Since when?" I blurted out, but she ignored me.

"I'd like to ask what you think about our relationship. I mean, between me and Michael."

"You're… a cute couple?" I muttered, but she shook her head.

"No, I mean, if we're together because of destiny, or if it was… natural."

This time it was my turn to awkwardly scratch the back of my head. Just how was I supposed to know that? Still, considering they started not-yet-dating-but-actually-totally-dating way before Josh started to be conscious of Angie…

"It's a meaningless question. I personally think the Narrative was unrelated to your relationship, but if you're happy, would it even matter if it wasn't?"

"I… guess you've got a point." She digested my words for a few seconds. "Then… can I ask you to give Michael a day off?"

"… Sure?" I was a little baffled by her request, as I didn't know why he needed my permission for that. It wasn't like he was officially working for me nine-to-five. "Do you want to go on a date or something?"

"That's the plan," she admitted. "I'd also like to ask you about how to take the… next step in our relationship."

I was once again stumped by the way she worded things, and while it was hard to interpret it any other way, I had to make sure I wasn't running headlong into another one of those 'misunderstanding comedy' tropes.

"You mean sex?"

The class rep froze up and put a hand on my mouth, but then when she realized what she was doing, she immediately retracted her arm and pulled back.

"Y-Yes, but you didn't need to say that out loud!"

"I just had to be sure, but… why are you asking me?"

Wasn't this one of those things that she should've inquired about from Judy and Elly? Heck, even Angie was getting enough experience in the field where she could've given her decent advice, so coming to a guy like me was…

"It's because you're the relationship expert," she insisted. "Do you think it's too early? I mean, we already met his family, and his mother is already considering me her daughter-in-law, but I don't want to rush things too much, but the world could end at any moment the same way it began, and I wouldn't want to miss out on this, but I don't know what Michael is thinking, and are you listening?"

"Yes, yes. I hear you loud and clear."

"Okay. So, as I said, if we weren't tied together by destiny, or even if we were, I want to take our relationship further, because I do love Michael, but…"

And so on and so forth. I listened to the class rep's relationship woes, belatedly noticing that my girlfriends hurried ahead to give us more privacy. Or at least so I hoped, because the alternative was that they ditched me to my fate, which was just cold. In any case, while I wasn't sure I was the right person to help her in this regard, I dutifully listened to Ammy's words, though I couldn't stop myself from wondering about other things.

Such as whether it was a good idea to send Percival over the Elysium or not. Or if I should do so while pretending that he was a quadruple agent to mess with the heads of the chief directors. Or if doing it as Bel, while loudly declaring that Percival definitely wasn't my spy, would've been hilarious, or trying too hard. Or if I really should take Lord Barnabas up on his offer and take his diplomacy classes. Or if Ammy could really hijack her own defunct route and start throwing fireballs in the future. Or why I ended up as the resident relationship expert.

So many things to consider, and all of them were equally important. All of them.