egathentale
patreon
The Simulacrum - Chapter 125 - Part 1
🕑 Added 2023-09-29 14:24:59 +0000 UTC"I'm sooo pooped…" whined a certain Celestial girl as she fell onto the bed like a sack of potatoes.
"Tell me about it," his boyfriend muttered with overplayed trepidation as he removed his helmet and placed it onto the nightstand.
"Boo! You only had to stand around!"
"Precisely! I've been standing all day!" Josh argued back and sat down on the bed as well. "My legs are killing me…"
"At least you didn't have to play nice with all of those creepy bureaucrats," Angie continued to complain unabated and hugged a pillow to her chest. "They're so annoying!"
"You know you're preaching to the choir here, right?" I asked as I entered the bedroom of my (or rather, our) Celestial suite.
It's been a long day, and although I wasn't at the center of the attention this time, I got exhausted by proxy just by staying close to the childhood friend couple.
This was the third day of Angie's Grand Elysium Tour. It was unlike the time when I was attending the military exercise. For a start, it didn't involve any parades or chariots. Due to her insistence, the no-flying rule was indefinitely suspended and the first day's program consisted of an aerial round-trip around the Elysium... in a giant bloody flying palanquin of all things, carried through the air by a dozen burly Celestials. It was a good thing none of us were prone to sea-sickness, because that was easily the most unstable ride I'd ever been on, and I had ridden in a car with Judy's mom driving.
Jokes aside, it was another one of those 'traditional' things the Directorate in general, and the Cult of Deus in particular, insisted upon. In other words, Savir most likely had a hand in it, so I told everyone to refrain from discussing any sensitive info, just in case there were some hidden listening devices in the litter. In retrospect, my worries were a bit misplaced, as Josh and Mountain Girl maintained their silence, while Angie was too busy 'Oooh!'-ing and 'Aaah!'-ing at the scenery to talk about anything else.
In any case, the trip confirmed a few suspicions I had about the pocket dimension, such as that it had a definite ceiling just a couple of hundred meters above the highest mountain peak of the copied Critias, and that the sea surrounding the island was cut off at a certain point visible on the horizon. With all of that put into consideration, I also had to conclude that the population density of the Elysium was shockingly low.
If the census data of the Directorate was to be believed, the whole of the pocket-dimension had just a hair's breadth less inhabitants than Timaeus, all of it concentrated around the towers dotting the landscape. The rest were either farmlands or uncultivated wilderness, with a few rustic flagstone highways snaking through them and connecting the settlements. That said though, while 'only' having a couple hundred thousand inhabitants might've sounded underwhelming on paper, it still meant that there were an order of magnitude more Celestials in the Simulacrum than Draconians, Magi, and all other mystical folk combined. Abyssals notwithstanding, of course, as I had little grasp on their absolute numbers, but considering how their citizenry had access to modern conveniences, I wouldn't have been surprised if they were even more numerous.
Let's put the Simulacrum's magical demographics aside for the moment, and return to the Grand Tour. Day one was mostly just sightseeing from above. Day two, in contrast, had Angie visit three of the other spiral towers and their inhabitants. There wasn't much to see there, as they were just as empty as the Migdál Glaukós with which we were all intimately familiar already. If anything, it felt like we were ushered from one party in celebration of Deus's return to another. It wasn't until today that Angie got her request, and the palanquin-Celestials ferried us around the various rural settlements of the Elysium.
"It was a little fun though," Angie stated, apparently following a line I thought I might've missed while pondering the recent events. She was lying on her stomach now, with the pillow under her chest and her hands propping up her head under her chin. As for Josh, he was massaging her calves, causing her to giggle. "Sure, it was tiresome and stuff, but everyone was so excited to meet me."
"You were unexpectedly popular with the kids and the elderly," I noted absently as I walked over to the large windows and pulled the curtains open. It was already late in the afternoon, and the simulated sun was getting noticeably redder with each passing minute.
In the meantime, Angie let out a mirthful little giggle and adjusted the pillow under her.
"It's because kids and cute, and old people are kind!"
Glancing over, I couldn't help but narrow my eyes and say, "The fact that you can say that with a straight face tells me you haven't met enough kids and old folk yet."
"Boo! Party pooper! Booo!" Her complaints came to an abrupt end when she let out a startled hiss and looked over her shoulder. "Hey! Be gentler, please!"
"You should be happy I'm even doing this for you when my legs are stinging too," her boyfriend grumbled, yet it was blindingly obvious that he started handling her legs like they were made of porcelain. "Why do I have to do this, anyway?"
"Because I'm Deus, and you're my Joshticar!" Angie declared with a toothy grin, and I couldn't help but bury my head in my palm.
"I can't decide what's the more depressing interpretation: that you insisted on calling him that just to make that pun, or that you wasted your one and only chance to capitalize on it like that."
"Boo! To the last I boo at thee; from hell’s heart I boo at thee; for boo's sake I boo my last boo at thee!"
"… Could you please stop butchering Moby Dick, please?" I cut in, hand still on my face.
"Can't. Couldn't think of anything else. Too tired."
She punctuated that by sticking out her tongue, and Josh sighed in the background again.
"You say that, but you were pampered all day long. You barely even had to walk anywhere."
"I'm mentally exhausted," she responded with just a hint of a pout.
"Then why am I massaging your legs?"
"Oh, stop it, you dunce!" Angie exclaimed, this time with a full pout. "You talk like I've never given you any service just to be nice."
"Well… erm… I can't argue with that," Josh mumbled, and his movement turned a bit mechanical, which told me he was getting embarrassed. He quickly shook it off though, and let out a pent-up breath. "But I'm also mentally exhausted, you know? I had to play this Justicar role all day long, without speaking a single word, all the while everyone was looking at me funny."
"Not everyone," I pointed out as I made my way over to the bedside. "The Praetorian Guards seem to have an inexplicably good impression of you."
"Yeah, but that's just more trouble," he continued to grumble. "They keep asking me to train with them."
"You know, they are going to follow you to Timaeus, so you might as well accept the offer and build up a good relationship with them," I commented half-heartedly, and my friend looked at me like I just showed a whole lemon into his mouth.
"Sure. And how am I supposed to do that without using my Celestial abilities? Or speaking, if we're at that?" Pausing, he stifled an annoyed groan and started kneading his girlfriend's other leg. "I'm pretty sure they just want to interrogate me about my relationship with Angie. Like that annoying reporter."
I was just about to tune out of the conversation and start considering my plans for the rest of the day, but that yanked me right back in.
"Annoying what now?"
"Reporter," he repeated himself with audible distaste. "She approached me in the morning, while you were inspecting that flying carriage thing, and asked about where I came from and if something was going on between us."
"As in, you and me?" Angie perked up, finding the topic interesting.
"Nah. That was the weird part! It was like she was implying that there was this soap opera thing going on with us and Leo and Ms. Yamako! It was creepy as hell!"
"Did you tell her anything?"
I might've sounded a bit more severe than intended, as the guy immediately averted his eyes and let out an awkward chuckle.
"No, of course not. I mean, I might've nodded once or twice just to get her out of my hair, but I didn't speak a word to her. Seriously, I didn't."
"The laddie doth protest too much, methinks," Angie teased him with a fake British accent, and in response, Josh started kneading her calves more vigorously. "Ah-ouwie! I was joking! Time out! Time out!"
While the couple on the bed continued to horse around, my brows descended into a frown of their own accord. A woman going around and asking thinly veiled questions about our relationships, huh? Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern. Maybe I should look into this a bit more, I decided just as the childhood friend duo finally calmed down once Angie caught her boyfriend in a headlock.
"Can't you two cuddle like normal people?" I murmured as I watched the two of them, but I got no response. As such, I opted to shake my head and say, "Whatever. I'm going to step out for a moment. You know the drill, right?"
"Stay put, don't talk to any of the important people without you around, and ask Ms. Yamako if we need anything," Josh answered even while his face was turning into an unhealthy shade of red.
I was about to nod, but then he suddenly frowned and tapped on Angie's shoulder. She immediately let him go, as if they agreed upon the signal ahead of time, and he turned a pair of skeptical eyes on me.
"You know, it's been bothering me for a while, but can you really just teleport in and out of this place whenever you wish?"
"Right. Didn't you need that weird carnival mask to do that?" Angie followed him up by poking at my old cover story. "Didn't Ammy say that it's a really difficult magic?"
"Sure, it's not easy," I lied through my teeth. In truth, ever since I grew my extra phantom limbs, Phasing became as easy as breathing, and it no longer came with headaches or any other adverse effects. Of course, they didn't need to know that, and luckily for me, I had a brand new, much sturdier cover for it. "Turns out, it's a Polemos power."
"Is it?" Josh pressed me with a critically raised brow, while Angie seemed a bit more thoughtful.
"I dunno… That just doesn't sound right to me."
"The facts are the facts," I stressed mirthlessly, implying that I didn't want to discuss the topic in detail. "It's an unusual ability I could use after my amnesia. I could barely do it with the help of support enchantments before, but since the Polemos memory transfer, I can do it much easier. Therefore, it's a Polemos thing. Q.E.D."
"Fair enough, I guess," Josh finally relented, but his gaze was still critical of me. "But then why did we have to use that freakin' unstable sky-carriage thing to come back instead of just teleporting home?"
"It's not a power meant to be used for convenience," I continued to tell not-exactly-truths without batting an eye, and while Josh grudgingly accepted my words, Angie remained unusually stern.
"I still feel like something's amiss. Are you sure you can do that?" She paused and tried again. "I mean, are you sure Polemos can do that?"
"Isn't asking him if he can do something he's already doing a silly question?" Josh teased her, and she immediately puffed up a cheek in return.
"Muu! You know what I meant!"
"Just accept it as it is, will you?" I cut in, and Josh fully gave up.
"Fine, whatever. I just wanna know when I'll get my cool quarter-Deus powers too, that's all."
"Don't worry, buddy. I don't have any super-special-awesome powers yet either."
Angie patted him on the shoulder with a smile that wasn't entirely sincere, causing the guy to roll his eyes.
"Whatever. Where were we?"
"Around here?" Angie suddenly flashed an impish smile and caught the guy in a headlock again.
"Oh, come on!" Josh protested, if weakly, and I quickly left the two of them to their games before they could ask any more inconvenient questions.
Once I returned to the living room, I gave a few basic instructions to Mountain Girl, currently lounging on the sofa at the back of the room and reading a doorstopper of a book. Done with that, I closed my eyes and picked a mark for Phasing. While I was pretty sure that 'reporter' had something to do with Savir, she was currently preaching from a pulpit in what looked like a small church in another tower at the other end of the Elysium, so I left her for later. First off, I had a soft appointment at home, so I Phased there first.
"Heyo, girls! I'm home!" I declared loudly as I walked out of the teleport closet, eliciting very different reactions from my audience in the living room.
"Eeek!" a certain Abyssal spymaster cried out in alarm and literally fell off the couch in front of the TV.
"Brother!" another loud voice called out, and my danger sense gave me a soft warning as my knightlier sister, still in her school uniform, dashed down the stairs and nearly tackled me off my feet.
"W-W-What is going on!?" Tajana whimpered while cradling her head. She apparently hit it on the way down. She was dressed casually, with her long hair tied into a ponytail, and her eyes opened wide as saucers the moment her gaze landed on me. "L-L-Leonard D-Dunning?!"
"In the flesh," I jested as I tousled Penny's hair, and it was only then that she looked up at me with a startled expression.
"Wait! Brother! What are you doing here?"
"I'll explain in a moment, just…"
"Leo? Is that you?" my other sister poked her head over the railing of the stairs, and her face lit up into a delighted smile the moment our eyes met.
"Hi, Snowy. I'm semi-officially back."
"What does 'semi-officially' even mean?" Penny inquired with a genuinely confused expression, and I patted her head a bit more to comfort her. It, unfortunately, had the opposite effect, as the moment she noticed that the Abyssal woman still sitting next to the couch was looking at us, she let out a loud 'Awawa!' and stepped away from me. "N-Not in front of strangers!"
"Tajana is hardly a stranger," Snowy noted as she reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to me. She was also wearing her uniform, and her trademark twin-tails looked even fancier than usual.
It must've had something to do with the aforementioned spymaster insisting on brushing her hair every evening like she was a princess in a shoujo story. Though again, the first part of that was kind of correct, so who was I to judge?
"You know what I meant!" Penny fumed and waited until I gave our Abyssal sister the customary head pats before waving to get my attention. "Hello? Brother? You still haven't told us what you're doing here?"
"I told you I'll get to it in a moment," I chided her, causing her to sulk, so I reached into my pocket and handed her a small confectionery wrapped up in faux gold foil. "Here you go, kiddo."
"I-I'm not a kid to be distracted with candy!" she complained, yet she still took it without any hesitation.
She quickly unwrapped the small package, revealing a round chocolate ball covered with chopped hazelnuts. Once the Celestial higher-ups realized Angie had a sweet tooth the size of Mount Everest, we always had at least one platter of sweets around us at any given time, and since I was planning to visit my sisters today, I unapologetically pocketed a few of them. Speaking of which…
"Got one for you too," I said as I handed another confectionery to Snowy, and she accepted it with a beaming smile.
"Thank you."
"Enough stalling," Penny grumbled, though it was hard to take her seriously while she was also licking the melted chocolate off her fingertips. "Are you coming home? For real this time?"
"As a matter of fact, I am."
Her fingers stopped mid-motion, and her face practically lit up, washing away her previous peevishness in one go.
"Really?"
"Yep. I'll be back in a couple of days, along with Josh and Angie."
"Wait! Are they also in the Elysium? What are they doing there? I thought they just got a really nasty flu, and that's why they didn't come to school!"
Ignoring my redhead sister's outrage, I noticed Snowy giving me an odd look, so I prompted her to speak up.
"Yes? Is there a problem?"
"No, not really, just…" She paused to glance at the silent woman by the couch. "You don't seem surprised by Tajana's presence."
"Just because I wasn't here doesn't mean I wasn't paying attention to you guys," I told her with my best Big Brotherly Smile™. "I naturally know about her too."
"Y-You were 'paying attention' to us?" All of a sudden, Penny became flustered, and pulled Snowy aside. "S-Sis? Emergency meeting! If Brother knows about her, then she might know about… you know?"
"That we borrowed his PC to play multipl—?"
"Psst!" She put a partially chocolate-covered finger on Snowy's lips and let out a forced cutesy laugh. "T-Tee-hee?"
Ignoring their act, I shook my head and turned to the Abyssal woman, still sitting on the floor and nervously eyeing me.
"Miss Sukkal."
"Y-Yes, sir… erm… S-Sir Dunning?"
The way she addressed me gave me goosebumps, but I ignored it and unceremoniously walked over to my favourite comfy chair.
"Please get up and sit down."
"A-At once!"
She was frantically trying to rise to her feet even as she said that, and before long, she was sitting ramrod straight on the couch, hands clenched, and staring at me without blinking.
"As I have just said, I'm returning home soon," I told her blandly, pointedly ignoring the way my sisters were trying to remain low-profile while sneaking upstairs. Resisting the urge to chuckle, I looked Tajana deep in the eyes, linked my fingers in my lap, and added, "Let's discuss what to do with you, shall we?"
