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The Simulacrum - Chapter 98 - Part 3 & 4
🕑 Added 2022-09-23 18:18:10 +0000 UTCPart 3
Despite mom-in-law's proposal, the meeting at the Dracis mansion somehow managed to drag on for more than an hour longer, with about half a dozen 'just one last thing' interruptions. I expected quite a bit more resistance to the merger, but by the end of it the clan leadership got so into it they were discussing things like coat-of-arms and mottos. They reminded me more of kids in the process of creating their own little tree house club than seasoned political leaders, but then again, considering the discussion was mainly led by Abram, maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.
On a side note, according to what I'd gathered, the main reason everyone agreed so easily wasn't just because the Dracis and Feilong bosses both gave their support. Or rather, it wasn't the only reason.
On the Eastern Draconian side, the failed coup caused all the branch- and subordinate clans under the Feilongs to panic, so the moment Naoren revealed his stance, they were practically tripping over each other in their hurry to show their loyalty by agreeing with him. Seeing that, I almost wanted to pat myself on the back for deciding to go against the obvious development and draw the Feilong patriarch into the scheme. If I just butted heads with him over the princess and we ended up on bad terms, the failed coup would've given him the leverage to torpedo all my plans with a few words.
As for the other side, the reason behind their cooperative attitude had less to do with the prestige of the Dracis family than the nature of the whole Draconian conference itself. In short, the Western Draconians who accepted the invitations were the representatives of the 'nicer' families who were already predisposed to work together, while the ones who would immediately reject the proposal didn't even come to the island.
On one hand, it allowed the emergency meeting to smoothly transition into a unification summit, which was an awesome development… but on the other hand, it meant there were unreceptive Draconian families out there who definitely wouldn't approve of what we were doing here. Some of them, like the ambivalent Smoks whose patriarch didn't bother to show up, might come to our side just due to peer pressure, but If I was a betting man, I'd wager my nonexistent hat on at least a couple of families refusing to join. Add in the fact that we had yet to discuss exactly what kinds of behaviors and activities would the Ordo Draconis consider unlawful, and I had a feeling even the people eagerly discussing the potential benefits of the merger would soon cool down their enthusiasm.
Oh well. At least Roland and co. would have something to do. Considering how long they had been cooped up in the secret base, they were getting a little stir-crazy anyway, so I'll just send them out to resolve the issue before the dissenters would do something silly, like creating an 'Anti-Draconic-Federation Alliance', or something equally annoying.
In any case, that was for later. I was feeling tired, both physically and mentally, and after the meeting, settling the Knights into the familiar barracks in the Dracis mansion, and reassuring Sebastian that I pulled an awesome switcheroo maneuver and he's going to get his stupid spear back, I decided to return home and take a long shower.
"We arrived," the princess announced the moment the limo stopped in front of my house, and she didn't even wait for me to open the door for her, gesturing to me to follow after her instead.
She didn't say why, but she insisted on coming with me, and she even arranged a ride for us. I didn't really mind, as I couldn't just Phase out of the mansion when it was filled with people wary of a seemingly teleporting non-villain. Speaking of which, it took an inordinate effort on my end not to chew Roland out for messing up my carefully laid out plans, but I somehow managed to even praise him for his 'smart' and 'helpful' deductions. He was so full of it, he didn't even notice the sarcasm.
I hoped I could at least vent to Elly, but after we got into the car, she remained dead silent. At first, I thought she was sulking, for some inexplicable reason, but that wasn't quite it, and I couldn't tease the reason behind the disapproving stare out of her during our short car ride. Not that I was trying too hard; I figured she'd tell me in private rather sooner than later.
When I got out, she immediately waved at the driver to leave, then grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the front door, and before I could get a word in, she already opened it with her own key.
"Welcome home," Snowy called out from the living room the moment we were inside.
"Hi, sis. Anything to report?"
"No, nothing really," she responded without coming over. Since she was in the living room instead of in her room, I figured she was engrossed with whatever was on the TV at the moment.
I was just about to kick off my shoes, but the princess stopped me by putting her foot in front of mine.
"Is Judy here, or at the base?"
"The base," I responded on autopilot, and she grabbed my hand again.
"In that case, let's go."
She was unusually direct. That meant she wasn't too angry; she tended to be a bit dotty whenever she was worked up. Yet, I couldn't help but feel even more uneasy. An irate princess was something I could easily deal with. This was something else entirely.
"Erm… Okay." I pulled her closer, then called out, "Snowy? We're going to head over to the base, and…" Pausing, I glanced down at Elly. "Are we going to be back by dinner?"
"Depends on you."
"… We're probably going to be late, so eat without us," I concluded, and my sister let out a hum on acknowledgement.
"I'll just reheat yesterday's leftovers then. Take care."
With that settled, I Far Glanced over to Judy's side and found her in the lounge area of the main hall, in the company of Galatea and Brang. Normally I would've Phased over to the fake teleport closet, just to be safe, but with the Knights and Squires staying at my in-laws, I didn't bother, and a blink of an eye later we appeared near the bar.
"Notification: grandmaster arrived," the suspiciously human android announced the moment our eyes met, and so Judy turned around on her bar stool to face us.
"Hi Dormouse, Galatea, general," I greeted them in turn. "It's rare to see the three of you together."
"She asked me to help explain her robotics jokes to Brang," my deal assistant told me with a deadpan face. "I'm afraid he's a lost cause."
"Apologies," the elderly Faun uttered with a hint of amusement.
"You can do that later," the princess cut in and used her free hand to grab Judy, only to freeze and glance around. "Is there a private place where we can talk?"
"Storage room," Brang answered at once and pointed a finger to our left. "Empty."
"Thanks," my draconic girlfriend gave him a thin-lipped smile and then tried to drag us behind her, pulling Judy off her seat in the process.
"Easy there, princess!" I called out, and stood my ground, if barely. "Let me get Mountain Girl out of my shadow first."
On cue, the floor near my feet rippled, and Rinne jumped out of it, wearing the same getup and carrying the same hiking bag from before. It startled the girls, but a split-second later the princess was back to intently glaring at me, so I quickly said, "Thank you for your hard work. Feel free to take a day off."
Rinne glanced at me, then at my girlfriends, and in an extremely rare display of reading the room for once, she gave us a shallow bow and walked off. I expected that her appearance would elicit at least a few questions, but after acknowledging her presence with a nod, Elly resumed her efforts of dragging us away. This time I didn't put up any resistance, and she didn't let us go until we reached the storage area.
At this point, the base had several rooms set aside for storing anything and everything, from building materials and food ingredients to spare weapons and all of Fred's construction-Sprockets while not in use. This particular one was mostly for storing the assets of the Research Division, which mainly meant paperwork, books, and a metric ton of incomplete or infeasible prototypes. Since each hired Research Society member had their own expertise and quirks, it meant the room was chock full of all kinds of weird stuff, including African shaman masks, half-assembled robotic endoskeletons, and potted plants with udders. That last one was extra-confusing, but let's ignore it for now.
After looking around the place to make sure we were alone, Elly casually picked up a huge wooden box filled with coconuts (don't ask, I have no idea either) and unceremoniously plopped it down in front of the door before finally exhaling a relieved sigh.
"Chief? What did you do this time?"
"I'll be damned if I—" 'knew!' is what I wanted to say, but I was interrupted by the princess marching up to me and pointing a nostalgic accusatory finger at me.
"Leo."
"Yes, princess?"
"Did the Knights know about what you were doing?"
"Well, no, not really…"
She maintained eye-contact for a couple of seconds, and just when the silence was about to get awkward, she let out a long groan and buried her face in her palm.
"So you had them enter into battle without letting them in on your plan? … Wait, why am I surprised? You didn't even tell me the whole plan!"
"To be fair, I can't really tell them that I'm Bel," I objected, but it just made her frown even harder.
"Leo, you do realize it's only a matter of time before they realize, right?"
"Not if I can help it," I stood my ground, eliciting a critically raised brow from the princess. "I put a lot of effort into my disguise, and it's practically foolproof."
"No, it's not."
She… sounded pretty confident in that declaration. Did she know about how Morgana recognized me? She shouldn't have. Ms. Gorgon couldn't tell her because of the Oath, and I didn't do it either, so I glanced at Judy. My dear assistant seemingly read my mind, as she promptly shook her head. That meant Elly probably meant something else.
"Oh, come on, princess. Would you have even recognized me if you didn't already know?"
"Of course."
"… And how exactly would you have done that?" I pressed her, and her frowny expression finally faltered, only to be replaced by a pouty one, and she dramatically pointed at her own face.
My confusion had to be visible at this point, as after another beat, she let out a small groan and said, "My nose. I could smell you."
"Oh right, that's a thing…" I mused, but then my face slackened as the realization sank in. "Wait. How common is the ability to smell mana? Could someone else at the arena recognize me based on that?"
"It's pretty rare, actually, and…" the princess began to explain in a contemplative tone, but then she caught herself and reasserted her frowny disposition. "Wait, that's not important right now! The real issue is that you did things on your own again and didn't let anyone in on what you were doing!"
"Are you… mad because I left you out?"
"Again," Judy added, and so I sent her a 'You're not helping!' glance before turning back to Elly.
"No, I'm not," she retorted, once again sliding towards the pouty end of the spectrum. "However, I would appreciate if you would at least explain which parts of what happened today were planned, and which parts were out of control."
"Oh? Okay then. I was about to do that anyway."
The gaze my draconic girlfriend directed at me was savagely skeptical, but thankfully my other girlfriend came to the rescue.
"To be more accurate, the plan was to let you in on the plot after the tournament, so he's telling the truth."
"I figured I'd tell you as soon as things calmed down a little. Which, I supposed, is right about now?"
We locked eyes for a few seconds, then at last she let me go and crossed her arms.
"Then please go ahead."
We shared a glance with Judy, but her eyes were pretty much saying 'It's a hole you dug, so climb out yourself', so I took a deep breath and said, "I suppose I should start at the beginning. So, do you remember that time I had a private chat with Naoren during the banquet…?"
Part 4
"… and so, because of Roland, now my plans to wedge Bel into the narrative to see what would happen is in tatters." I finished my explanation and glanced at Judy on the side. It took her a second to realize I was looking at her, as for the last fifteen minutes she's been sitting on one of the crates and taking notes on her phone. She didn't have anything to add, so I turned back to the princess and concluded with, "And that's the long and short of it."
Elly remained more or less silent during my long explanation, and it was only at this point that she uncrossed her arms, but only so that she could rub her face.
"I see. This is worse than I thought," she whispered, and once she let her hand down she added, "For the record, how many people know you're Bel at this point?"
"Judy, obviously. There are also the Fauns, Fred, and Galatea. Mountain Girl too. Oh, and there's also the mini-shoggoth collective, if they count."
"Only them?"
"Yeah? I mean, besides Morgana and Agrawain, but I already told you about them."
"Right, you said she figured it out on her own…" Elly whispered, and after digesting all the new information for a few seconds, she solemnly nodded and looked me in the eye. "I'm kind of angry right now. Do you know why?"
"It's because I kept you in the dark ands only explaining things to you now," I answered a tad morosely, but to my surprise, she shook her head.
"I'm a little annoyed about that, but no, that's not the main problem here!"
"Erm… Then, is it because dad-in-law and mom-in-law were caught up in the plot?" She shook her head again. "In that case… Judy?"
"I hate to admit it, but I'm just as confused and curious as you are," my other girlfriend noted on the side, and since I couldn't come up with any other obvious answers, Elly put her hands on her hips and let out a displeased 'Hmpf!'
"Leo? What was the thing I told you about leadership?" she asked, seemingly out of the blue, and it took me a few moments to gather my wits.
"That it's all about delegation?"
At this point, she narrowed her eyes and, a beat later, poked me in the chest.
"Precisely. So why aren't you doing it?"
"I'm… not following. Dormouse? Are you following?"
Before my dear assistant could respond, Elly poked me again, drawing my attention back to her.
"Let's summarize what just happened: you created an alter-ego and tried to make this Narrative thing latch onto him as a big villain, so through that, you would have more control over future events, but because Roland didn't know about this, he worked with the information he had available to him, and he ended up ruining your plan."
"I didn't create the character for thatpurpose, but besides that small objection, that's more or less the gist of it, yes."
"Do you see it now? If only you told him, things wouldn't have ended up like this!"
"But I couldn't! I used Bel to threaten them in graphic detail in the past. There's no way they would cooperate with me if they knew it was me!"
"I'm fairly sure they would have," Judy noted on the side, and the princess nodded along.
"That's right! You don't seem to realize this, but those four would jump into a burning building for your sake. So long as you explained yourself, they would've played along, no problem."
"Now, that's just exaggeration if I've ever heard any," I grumbled in return, and this time I was the one who crossed their arms. "There's no way in hell Duncan would've played along."
"That's only one out of four, and despite all of his objections, he still follows your orders to the letter," Judy spoke up again, forcing me to face her.
"Come on, Dormouse? On whose side are you?"
"The right side," Elly declared, but then continued in a much more subdued voice. "Listen, Leo. I can't believe I have to spell this out, but you are actually doing really well as their leader. You're providing them with a common goal, the means to achieve it, and you give them all the support they need. The one thing you are withholding is the bigger picture, and so long as you keep them in the dark, they are going to keep stumbling into your plans and messing them up, like what happened today. Roland is smart, right? Imagine how much easier all of this could've been if you worked with him instead of against him! You might've not even had to appear at the arena!"
"Yes, but… I mean, you saw how chaotic things were getting, right? And Bel appearing was more or less necessary to establish him in the eyes of the other Draconians, so—"
"And now they don't think Bel's that bad of a guy, which means your plan to make him more important in the narrative plot thing ruined," Elly cut in with a deep frown. "It's all because you just don't trust others and try to do everything by yourself."
"Hey, hold up! That's just straight up not true," I raised my voice this time. "I delegate stuff all the time."
"Such as?"
"Such as when I had Mountain Girl take my place in the fake duel with Naoren. Or how about the time when I put together a strike force to capture Duncan and Arnwald without my supervision? Those count."
"Actually, Chief, I don't think they do. You only did those because you literally couldn't be in two places at once."
I sent my dear assistant a sideways glance, but she didn't seem to be too bothered by it.
"Fine. Then how about how I'm leaving the organization of the Fauns and the Kage ninjas to Brang and Rinne?"
"You only do that because you can't be bothered to do it yourself," Elly pointed out. "Tell me one occasion where it was something you could do, but decided to let someone else take care of it because they were better suited for the task."
While I was sure there were countless very eloquent and convincing examples that completely destroyed her argument, I couldn't quite come up with one in the following three seconds, at which point she once again poked me.
"Case in point, you have a ninja clan, and an extra-awesome one that can hide in shadows, and you never ever used them for espionage!"
"Hold your horses, Princess. You know that I have this convenient ability that lets me spy on the bad guys without any risk, right?"
"Yes, but you can only do that one person at a time," Elly retorted. "Also, you have a bad habit of keeping everything you learn that way to yourself, come up with elaborate schemes and plans based on that, and then get shocked when the people you purposefully kept in the dark interfere with them. Case in point, if you actually had a proper intelligence network, keeping an eye on multiple people at once and discussing the findings, you might've realized the grand elder's plan ahead of time and didn't walk right into the coup!"
"For the record, I still think that the guy is guilty and just threw his co-conspirators under the bus," I grumbled, earning me another poke in the chest. It was at the exact same spot too, and it was getting a little sore.
"You think, but you don't know, because you didn't even think about delegating his surveillance to someone who actually speaks his language, or to share this information with the group so that others could try and come up with some ideas as well."
I had nothing to counter that, so after I few tense seconds I dropped my shoulders in defeat and said, "Fine, I get it. I need to get others more involved."
"Yes, you do," Judy commented on the side, and when I glanced over, she further emphasized, "You are already the boss of an extensive organization, but once this Draconic Federation starts operating, you're going to become one of the leaders of a massive, world-wide faction of the mystic world that will easily match the Schools of the Assembly. You really have to do something about your habit of trying to do everything on your own and jumping into every chaotic situation you find."
"I… can't really argue with that," I admitted. "Just… give me some time to internalize this, okay?"
"Sure! So long as you take my advice seriously and don't ignore it again," Elly declared triumphantly, finally easing up on the frowning. "All right! Now, let's discuss what to do with your Bel character!"
I didn't plan to do that right now, but since he offered the opportunity to change the subject, I would've had to be an idiot not to grasp it. At least if I wasn't beaten to the punch by Judy first, that is…
"It all depends on one question: Did Emese also notice it was the Chief?"
The princess pondered for a moment, but then she shook her head.
"I doubt it. She wouldn't have kept silent if she recognized your scent."
"I think it's safe to say that the Knights didn't recognize you either," Judy added. "What about Joshua and Amelia?"
"What about them?" I asked back, and my dear assistant let out a shallow sigh, apparently annoyed by my inability to pick up on her meaning.
"The two of them already had experience with someone wearing a fancy mask and being able to teleport," she pointed out, and it was only at this point I realized what she meant.
"Ah, you mean during the raid on Fred's place? Considering how much effort I put into my Bel costume and acting, I sincerely hope they didn't connect the dots, otherwise it would just make me feel silly."
"I don't think they realized it's you," the princess noted with a thoughtful hum. "They were overwhelmed by the events though, so maybe after they sleep the excitement off, they might get suspicious? Your Bel mask is very different from the carnival mask from back then, but Judy is right; it would be strange if they didn't notice the similarity."
"Even if they did, my alibi with Naoren is rock solid, so I doubt they would jump to conclusions. In any case, I already have some back-up-plans in place, so it should be fine. I'm more worried about your mother's nose, honestly."
"I'm fairly sure mom didn't notice, with everything else going on in the arena, but you really should be more careful around her."
Nodding, I made a mental note about paying more attention to this in the future, as I had no idea just how many other Draconians could smell mana. Maybe I'll ask Fred to look into it when designing the next iteration of my Bel disguise...
"Let's presume that my identity is secure for the time being and answer your original question: I still want to continue the plan of making Bel a villain, but I don't really know where to go from here. So long as the Draconians treated him as a big deal, I could play into that and make sure he would stay in everyone's focus, and then we could observe how the proposed Narrative would react to this. If they just consider him a neutral entity, that's pretty much FUBAR."
"What does that mean? Is that an acronym?" Elly asked with her head tilted, but before I could explain, Judy spoke up.
"If you really want to keep with this unorthodox experiment of yours, I think you should just force the villain status."
"Dormouse, dear. Bel just ruined a tournament, mind-controlled two Knights to beat up an old man, and then spooked a baby dragon. I have no idea how I could top that short of just straight up making good on the random death threats I threw around, but you know about my reservations on that front."
"Maybe you could fake a murder? It wouldn't be much more complicated than what you're already doing," she proposed, but before I could explain how that would still potentially cause the world to become more grimdark, Elly cut in between us.
"Hold on, you two! What's wrong with you!? We just discussed this!"
I shared a confused glance with my dear assistant, but she didn't seem to have a clue either.
"Delegation, Leo! Delegation!" Elly exclaimed with audible exasperation. "Come on, Judy! I know Leo has trouble with the concept, but you should know better!" She paused to rub her forehead, then abruptly pointed at me. "Who are you?"
I… was fairly sure that if I just said 'Leonard S. Dunning', I would get knocked over the head, so I considered her question a little more. She was talking about delegation, which was linked to leadership, which meant it had something to do with my position.
"The King of Knights?"
"And?" she prompted me.
"And the head of the Kage clan." She was still giving me a flat look, so I added, "Also, a future figurehead of the Draconic Federation?"
"Yes!" Elly exclaimed, seemingly perplexed that she had to explain this to me. "You have enormous influence. You don't need to come up with some kind of elaborate ploy to make everyone think Bel is a baddie; just tell them, and that's the end of it!"
"… Is that how this works?"
"Yes!"
"… Are you serious?"
"Of course I am!"
That… still sounded too simple to be true to me.
"Even so, it would be just my own word, wouldn't it? Without hard evidence, anyone could object to that?"
"And who would?" Elly asked back provocatively.
"Naoren," I answered promptly, only to pause and mutter, "… probably wouldn't. Same for dad-in-law, now that I think about it, so… The grand elder?"
"And do you think his word would carry more weight than yours?"
"Yes?" Her frown deepened, so I hastily amended, "No?"
"Of course not! You're Naoren's sworn brother! That puts you over him in the Feilong clan's hierarchy."
"Really? Huh. This 'sworn brother' thing just keeps getting better and better."
"Excuse me, Chief? This is the first time I've heard about this."
"It's a very recent development, I'll explain later," I responded to Judy and then fell silent while I ruminated over the princess's proposition. "So what you're saying is that, as long as I declare Bel to be a huge threat and the most villainous villain who ever villained in the history of villainy, everyone will just accept it and take my words for granted?"
"Yes. That's how this works," Elly confirmed, still sounding baffled over how she had to explain this to us.
"That sounds absolutely delightful…"
I followed my words up with a not-at-all sinister chuckle, at which point Judy subtly rolled her eyes and stood up, then gestured for Elly to come over to her side.
"While the Chief descends into megalomania, let's clear up a couple more things."
"Oh, okay."
She walked over and the two of them quickly got lost in filling up the holes in each other's recollections of the recent events. As for me, I couldn't help but grin as brand new vistas opened up in front of me. For the longest time, I was wrecking my head over how to test our theories about the dreaded Narrative, but if Elly was right, by using and abusing my position, I could completely side-step the whole problem. Instead of waiting for the plot to come to us and dealing with it to the best of my ability, I could finally get ahead! I could spread information and misinformation on a large scale and see how the word changes in reaction! I could not only create a fake villain, but I could also potentially set up entire fake arcs to undermine whatever malarkey the Narrative was about to throw our way, potentially even completely supplanting it!
For the first time, I felt like there was a chance to progress with our research into the Simulacrum while also keeping our necks safe at the same time.
"It's true. When one door closes, another one op—"
"Leo did what? And he has wings now!?"
I glanced over at my flabbergasted princess in surprise. Right, that's another thing that we have to look into. Later. One paradigm shift at a time, one at a time. First I had to make sure the formation of the Draconic Federation was smooth, so that I would have the opportunity to abuse my newfound influence. Also, the internal tournament. I also had to work on the chaos I caused in the Abyss. Once things calmed down, we also had to resume our experiments with my retconning ability, now that I thought about it. I also had to make gear for the two new Knights, on top of my daily enchanting quota, and...
"I need a vacation. Since I'm apparently the boss, I wonder if I can give myself paid leave…"
Comments
Egathentale
Oh... Wow, this is super-embarrassing... You're right; Elly was made aware of Leo playing Bel near the beginning of the third volume, when Sebastian came to his house to inspect his injured hand. This... might be the biggest continuity-oof I've ever made. Thankfully, Elly's core objection wasn't about that part, so I can relatively easily fix this, but it's still really embarrassing...
Steven
This will be a very fun development, I would love for Leo to create his own narrative arcs like this. Also I thought that Elly already knew about Bel, I remember reading a while back that she really liked Leo in his Bel costume. Don't know which chapter it was, so I could be wrong.
Egathentale
I'll refrain from any spoilers, but I would still like to point out that Leo's not using the same mask anymore. In fact, this is the third one. First: The random mask from the mansion in Vol.2. Second: A custom-made mask with a wig used in Vol.3. Third: An enchanted mask that changes his hair- and eye-color used in this volume.
carebear90
Hmm... was Leo the reincarnation of Bel of the Tenebrous Flames all along as the Abyssal prophecy suggested (Josh being his Herald) or did he only become Bel through a slow possession/merging process through the antique mask he always uses? Being the reincarnation of the Emperor of the Abyssals would be a good reason for not!Excalibur to reject him initially. But I guess the Sword also rejected a lot of other candidates before. Did we ever see how it reacted to Josh at all? Leo also could speak Faunish from the beginning and only in that funny ancient dialect. So that would speak against the mask-merging theory. He signed his Letter to Crowey with 'The Second True Archon, Prince of the Blade and Sovereign of the Spear'... Prince of the Blade is probably the 'not-yet' King of Knights at that point in time. Second True Archon probably hints toward him slowly subsuming the Celestial Intelligence Network. Who knows where that will eventually lead him. Now... Sovereign of the Spear. Were we ever told which weapon the original Bel used?
