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Volume 5 - Epilogue
🕑 Added 2023-11-30 13:13:25 +0000 UTC(Author's Note: For context, check my comment under the extra chapter posted before this one. TL;DR: The Hot Springs Arc is now it's own volume, and this epilogue slots in between Chapter 110 and Chapter 111)
At the same time, in a familiar not-dark not-room, things were getting just a little hectic in the aftermath of the recent events. Out of the four inhabitants, only The Woman and The Girl were visible, the two of them appearing standing next to a small round table with a spotlight illuminating the scene, drowning out the rest of the environment.
"Are you telling me he's been hiding all this time?" The Woman's voice sounded especially exasperated as she looked at what an onlooker's mind would interpret as a stack of charts and data sheets printed on pristine white paper.
"It's what we've been suspecting all along," The Boy, mousy as ever, commented from somewhere in the darkness.
"But it's still surprising, isn't it?" The Woman continued to muse as her hands shuffled the pages. "This isn't how he usually operates."
"It must be some kind of long-term plan," The Girl chimed in with a toothy grin. Her normally indistinct form was much more concrete, and beyond the image of the rainbow-coloured orbital rings, one could make out a pair of twin-tails, and even the vague shape of a frilly dress. She reached out to swipe at the papers in The Woman's hands. "I bet he set everything up, and just as when the Simulacrum is about to finish, he'll spring his trap and make everything collapse!"
"I… doubt that," The Woman responded absently even as she pulled the charts out of her reach. "That would be cruel, and while he's not known for restraint, he wouldn't be so callous to do something like that. There has to be something else going on."
"I think so too," The Boy's voice echoed again, sounding as if he was speaking from the other end of a long cave.
"In any case, I'm more troubled by the pattern of these anomalies," The Woman complained and laid out a handful of graphs onto the table. "Or rather, the lack thereof. There is no rhyme or reason behind any of this."
"Maybe we're missing some of them?" The Girl proposed.
"This is all I could find," The Boy added, sounding even more distant than before.
"Or maybe all of this is just a distraction!" The Girl exclaimed out of the blue, as if she just made a grand discovery. "Sending us on a pointless wild goose chase is the kind of thing he would do, right?"
"I'm still not entirely—"
Whatever her objection might have been, it was destined never to be heard, as the small meeting was interrupted by the thundering voice of a planet covered in sulfuric clouds.
"Everyone, listen up!" The Man yelled the moment he materialized and/or stepped into the spotlight hovering above the table. "We have an emergency! A real emergency, not just a small discrepancy in the Simulacrum!"
"Oh! Did he finally make a move?" The Girl perked up, only to reel back when The Man roared at her.
"I told you this has nothing to do with the Simulacrum! We have a real problem!"
"Just spit it out already," The Woman groaned and threw the rest of the papers onto the table.
"Someone is coming to look into what happened!"
"It was bound to happen sooner or—"
Before The Woman could finish, The Man yelled, "It's one of the Venerated Ones! The ************* is coming over to question us personally!"
The air in the not-room froze as if a sudden winter gust blew through it. The image The Man's words created was that of a solitary stellar object drifting in the darkness of space, but before any features could be made out, it popped like a soap bubble as the inhabitants of the non-room became frantic.
"Oh no! Oh no no no!" the distant voice of The Boy cried.
"I… didn't see that coming…" The Girl muttered, her tone losing all its vitality, and even her rainbow rings were suddenly lacking their usual lustre.
"How soon?" The Woman asked tersely as if trying to keep her sense of apprehension in check.
"I don't know! I've only learned of this by chance!" The Man huffed, but even he sounded less abrasive than usual.
"You told me this wouldn't happen," The Boy in the distance whimpered. "You told me everything would be fine."
"Everything will be fine," The Woman stressed and scooped up the papers she discarded just a moment ago. "We need to prepare. So long as we are prepared, everything will be fine."
The way she repeated herself sounded like some kind of mantra, and before long, everyone disappeared, along with the not-dark not-room, as if none of it ever existed. Only witnessed by a small, stray fragment of a being calling himself 'Leonard S. Dunning', and only to be soon forgotten anyway, without a trace.
