The Simulacrum

Chapter 27

"Are you all right now?" I asked the nervously fidgeting girl sitting on the edge of the bed while I was in the process of wiping the front of my coat with a towel I found in the bathroom. She gave me a nod so insecure she might as well had shaken her head, but I didn't say that out loud, lest it would prompt Snowy to grab me again and start sobbing for another ten minutes. Speaking of time, I quickly checked my phone and noted that it was almost eight in the evening. I promised Judy we would be back in two hours, so we weren't late by a long shot, but that didn't mean I shouldn't hurry things up a bit. Anyways, the silence in the room was getting a little heavy, so I put my phone away, put down the towel, and then put on a smile as I nonchalantly asked, "Hey, Snowy? Where exactly is this place?"

She glanced up at me with eyes that couldn't tell whether I was serious or not, but in the end she answered with, "It's the a hotel near the docks. I think it has a name, but I can't remember."

"Really?"

My casual question somehow made her visibly flinch and she quickly averted her eyes while whispering, "I I knew I couldn't stay in the room brother rented, so when I ran away, I just looked for a place to stay and picked the first hotel I could find."

"Is that so?" I responded noncommittally while making sure that my clothes were in order, but then I raised a single brow as I remembered the most obvious question, "Speaking of which, why did you run away?"

The girl on the bed only bit her lips for a while. In fact, it took her so long to answer that I almost asked her again, but then she blurted out, "I'm from the Abyss."

"Yes," I replied by reflex. "Everyone knows that. So what?"

She took a deep breath and finally looked me in the eye.

"Leo, I I hurt you. At the time, I even thought I killed you. You can say it was because of brother's orders, but it doesn't change the fact that I, an Abyssal, hurt someone. And on the grounds of a School too. The Magi only tolerated my presence because brother was here. Without him around, and after breaking the laws like that, they would hunt me down for sure."

"Well, they can try," I told her with a smile I hoped was decently reassuring, "but then they would have to deal with me and our friends."

"I know," Snowy answered with a small smile that didn't touch her eyes. "But at the time I thought you were dead. Do you think the others would've protected me like that?"

"Sure," I answered with all the baseless confidence in the world. "They are your friends, and they all knew you were under mind control or whatever. They would've helped you out without batting an eye."

"If you say so" she said weakly and lowered her head. I could totally see her sobbing in a second, so as a preventative measure I swiftly sat down beside her.

"Come on, Snowy!" I told her while I reached my arm around her and patted her shoulder. "Do you think we went out of our way to rescue you and Josh just to abandon you at the finish line? Is that the kind of people you think we are?" She shook her head without saying anything, and I couldn't help but grin at her even if she couldn't see it.

I was just about to continue my pep-talk, but then she slowly turned her head back to me and asked, in a mousy voice, "How's Josh doing?"

"Oh, him?" I mumbled as I wiped the grin off my face and replaced it with a very dignified pondering expression that was in no way taken aback or dopey for a moment. "All things considered, I'd say he is doing fine. He was a little rattled by the whole kidnapping thing, and he is still a bit freaked out about the supernatural, but he should settle down after a good night of sleep." I paused for a moment, then I playfully added, "He was also worried about you, you know?"

"Really?"

Seeing the girl immediately perk up made me stifle a chuckle.

"Yeah. I told him you were fine."

"I'm glad" she began, but then she curiously tilted her head to the side and asked, "How did you know I was all right?" She paused for a moment to blink, like she just realized something, then she continued with, "And how did you even find me?"

I raised a finger to my mouth and replied, "It's one of my little secrets. It might or might not be revealed in due time."

She didn't seem to appreciate the answer, so I did what I always do in situations like this and switched topics like a pro.

"Anyways, you should be able to talk with Josh tomorrow. We already agreed to have a tactical meeting with everyone to discuss the situation, so you two can catch up before that. Or after. Or during. I don't think anyone would mind either way." Snowy only looked at me funny, so I patted her on the shoulder again and then stood up, pulling her along. "Before all that though, let's go home. You look like you also really need a good night of sleep."

She gave me a sheepish nod as I stepped forth and took a look around the place.

"First of all, let's gather your stuff."

"Stuff?" she repeated after me a touch uncertainly as she followed my example and looked around as well, as if searching for something.

"Yeah. Clothes, bags, that kind of thing," I answered off-handedly, but instead of moving to gather her belongings, she kept looking at me like I just said something weird. "What? Don't tell me you don't have anything."

"All my luggage was taken back to the Abyss," she stated like it was obvious.

"When? Before the incident at school?" She nodded her head, and that made me pause for a moment. "So you have no clothes?" That earned me a head shake this time. "No toothbrush? Favorite mug? Plushy?" Shake, shake and shake again. "What about your purse?"

"I don't have one. All my belongings were managed by brother, and he took back my money and the fake ID last Saturday."

"Wait," I raised a hand to make her stop. "You say you have no money on you? At all?" She shook her head for the umpteenth time, and I could only gawk at her. "Then how did you pay for this room?"

Snowy gave me another strange look, then she looked away with what I presumed to be embarrassment before she muttered, "I didn't." I urged her with my eyes to go on, and she continued, "I was in a hurry at the time, so I kind of seduced the receptionist and she let me stay for free."

"Wait, you did what? You seduced" I began, and then paused with my mouth still open as my brows slowly descended into a frown before I continued, "Did you just say 'she'?"

Snowy nervously nodded, and for a moment I had so many questions I couldn't decide what to ask first. Eventually I decided on none, and instead I let my palm cover my face as I exhaled an exasperated groan, followed by, "You know what? I don't even want to know."

After collecting my thoughts for a moment, I let my hand down and shook my head to clear it from stray thoughts. "Okay, so you have no money, no ID, and we need to get you some clothes. On the bright side, that means you don't have any luggage, so moving in should be easy-peasy. Silver linings, am I right?"

"Err Yes?" The girl at my side spoke timidly, but I was already too preoccupied with the logistics of the situation to mind.

First things first, we should call a taxi. Since it was just the two of us with no baggage, I figured it wouldn't cost that much. Not that it would matter; I still had a bad habit where I kept way more cash than necessary on hand, specifically for situations like this. I reached into my coat's inner pocket and took out my phone. I decided to first look for a local taxi service, then I would call Judy to tell her we were coming. I couldn't wait to see the look on her face when I told her my teleporting ability got even more bullshit and it was at this exact moment when my hand stopped typing into the search bar of my phone's browser as a realization hit me like lightning out of a clear blue sky.

"Snowy, come over here for a moment," I instructed the girl at my side while I hastily put my phone away. "I want to try something."

She wordlessly stepped closer to me, and I held out a hand. She glanced at it, then gave me a skeptical look, but ultimately she obediently grasped it. From the outside, it might've looked like we were shaking hands. In fact, it looked exactly like that. I should know, as I was looking at us from the above and a little to the right at the moment using Far Sight.

Now, here's what this was all about: I could teleport. When I did that, I could take all my clothes with me, and even miscellaneous items, such as a certain borrowed spear. So, if I could take inanimate objects along for the ride, could I do the same with a person as well? Or was there a limitation, like in that movie where an AI could only send organic matter back in time? And if there was, was the limitation as easily circumvented as covering a metallic endoskeleton with organic tissue? But wait, I was getting ahead of myself again.

First I had to see if it was even possible before I started thinking about ways to exploit it. As such, I closed my eyes and focused on the area around us using Far Sight on Snowy, as it allowed me to see myself in the process. First test: I tried to teleport to the other side of the room. The moment I did that, I could see my body become hazy and somewhat transparent, but Snowy stayed the same. I sharply exhaled, and my body immediately regained its solidity. That made me blink in surprise, breaking my concentration, and the Far Sight with it. So, teleportation can be canceled. That was good to know.

"What happened?" came the flabbergasted question from the girl in front of me.

"Oh, that?" I said nonchalantly. "I'm just experimenting with something; please humor me for a second."

"But You were transparent," Snowy stated while squeezing my hand. "Are you?"

"Please tell me you are not going to ask, 'Are you really a ghost?'" I interjected, and she visibly twitched and averted her eyes.

"I won't."

I let out a sigh and closed my eyes again, repeating the early steps of the previous experiment. What went wrong? Well, my first guess was that I used my ability as usual, but that was for transporting myself. So, what if I had to consciously try to take Snowy along? This time I tried that, and after taking a deep breath I triggered my teleportation ability again. The change was readily apparent from the first moment, as I could feel a tug that was resisting my efforts to move. That resistance came from the hand clasped around Snowy's, unsurprisingly. I let out the breath I was holding and told her, "Don't move."

Saying so, I stepped closer to her and hugged her. She stiffened for a moment, but then when she realized I wasn't doing anything else, she relaxed and leaned onto my chest. With that, it was time for the third experiment, and as they say, the third time's the charm. Well, except in this case, as I failed to teleport once again.

Now, here's the thing: I got a glimpse of it on the second try, but this time I had a very strong and distinct sense that I could actually do it; I could definitely take someone along for the ride, I was just missing something. I tried a few more times, sometimes holding Snowy closer, or holding onto different all-ages rating compatible parts of her anatomy, but nothing seemed to work. Credit where credit's due, Snowy was a real trooper, as she put up with all my unreasonable demands without any complaints.

I was just about to give up on the whole endeavor when something came to my attention. Well, that might have been a bit misleading, as it was always on my mind ever since my dangerous stunt this afternoon, but I was ignoring it exactly for that reason. At the end of the day, I was getting desperate enough for results to start incorporating my Phantom Limb into the equation.

Now, this wasn't just me blindly grasping for straws and hoping for the best. I had a distinct feeling that my new appendage and the thing reaching out towards the 'dots' during my Far Sight were similar, if not the same thing. Because of this, it was not far-fetched to think that, considering that I could already find a synergy between my Far Sight and my as of yet unnamed teleportation ability, there could be something similar to discover here as well.

As such, I slowly stretched out my phantom tendril thingie, and carefully wrapped it around Snowy's waist, making sure it only brushed the surface, lest I would be treated to the images of infinite overlapping Snowies followed by my favorite just-kill-me-already brand of headache. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened. I took another deep breath, then I snugly held onto my test subject with all three of my arms before I crossed my proverbial fingers and triggered teleportation again.

There was the tugging sensation once again, but to my surprise, it felt entirely manageable this time around. If I had to make an analogy, it felt like that until now I was trying to lift a grocery bag from the floor using only my pinky finger, while now I was using both my hands. It was such an obvious difference it made me wonder why I even bothered trying to do it the other way around.

Anyways, when I opened my eyes, we were in the same room, only a few meters to the right.

"It worked!" I exclaimed, startling the girl in my arms.

"What? What happened?"

"You didn't see it?" I asked incredulously as I glanced down at her.

"My eyes were closed," she told me, earning her a curious look, so she shyly clarified, "It felt comfortable"

That was unusually forthcoming of her, and also a bit embarrassing, so I quickly cleared my throat and flashed a toothy smile to ease the mood in the room.

"Never mind then. As for what happened... Let's just say you are going to learn about one of my secrets sooner than anticipated." That line earned me another quizzical look, but I ignored it for the time being and let go of her. "So, just to be clear: You have nothing of importance here, right?" I waited for Snowy to shake her head again, then I continued, "That means we can leave right now if we wanted to, right?" This time there was a brief pause, but after a short while she nodded in the affirmative. "Great, now give me a second."

Saying so, I took out my phone and quickly dialed my dearest assistant. As I did that, I also quickly entered into Far Sight and my vision arrived back at my living room just as she was entering from the kitchen with her mug in hand. Perfect. A moment later her ringtone sounded (which was the theme song from some obscure anime about a blonde robot girl or something), and I watched on as she skillfully took out, unlocked, and picked up her phone using only one hand with a single smooth motion.

"Chief?" she spoke in an echoing voice that resulted from hearing her through the phone and my Far Sight at the same time. It was a little spooky, to be honest, but I ignored it and greeted her back.

"Hi Dormouse. I found Snowy," I told her in a chipper voice.

"Good. Is she all right?"

"Yeah, she's fine," I answered while I absent-mindedly reached out with my free hand in an effort to rub the head of the subject of our conversation, an endeavor that was made needlessly complicated by the fact that my eyes were closed and I was looking at someone else a couple kilometers away. Anyways, I continued with, "She has the panda-eyes, but otherwise she looks okay. Some shuteye should fix that."

"I see. When can I expect you?"

"Wait," I interrupted her as a new idea brought a smile to my face. "First put down the mug."

I could see her glance around the room for a moment, then she looked up (which was not at all where my point of view was located, by the way) and asked, "Are you Far Seeing me right now?"

"Yup," I answered while I gently pulled Snowy to my side again, and then I quietly wrapped my phantom limb around her waist.

In the meantime, Judy let out a small sigh and she obediently placed her mug on top of the usual coffee table.

"There, are you happy now?"

"Tremendously," I answered while ignoring the confused fidgeting of Snowy at my side. "Now say what you wanted to say before."

" Why?"

"Come on, Judy! It's going to be funny, I promise."

My girlfriend promptly rolled her eyes at my comment, but in the end she still uttered, "When can I expect you back home?"

"In a moment," I answered, then I immediately ended the call and was about to put my phone away, but then another idea struck me, and instead I turned on the camera app. After preparations were complete, I told Snowy, "Stay calm. This might be a little strange at first, but it should be safe."

I could see that she wanted to ask what I was talking about, but I ignored her in favor of capitalizing on the moment. I entered back into Far Sight and focused back on Judy, then once I was sure everything was in order, I immediately used my teleportation ability to appear in my living room.

This time the tugging sensation was more pronounced, but it still wasn't particularly bad, and a literal blink of an eye (plus some mild nausea) later we were standing right in front of Judy. The moment we appeared, I immediately snapped a photo of my astonished assistant and said, "We're back."

For a moment Judy kept blinking at me with eyes wide open, then she cleared her throat and simply asked, "How is this funny?"

"What are you talking about, it's hilarious. Look." Saying so, I tried to show her the photo I took, but when I looked at it, I couldn't help but burst out laughing myself. "Look, look! Your expression!"

My assistant frowned at me and then pointedly gestured towards the white-haired girl clinging to me while glancing around the room like a rabbit that just got placed in an unfamiliar pen.

"I'm happy to see that you are enjoying yourself, but don't you think there is something more important to do right now?"

I glanced down at Snowy and gave an affirmative nod.

"You are correct. Hey, Snowy?" I called out to her, and she gave me that classic deer-in-the-headlights look in return.

"Wha? How did we?"

"I will explain shortly, but first You also think that Judy's expression is priceless on this picture, right?"

She looked at the screen I pushed in front of her, but after a few seconds of staring at it, she only shook her head.

"I I don't see what you mean. I don't know what's going on"

"What? But look! She looks so freaked out!" I retorted while pointing at the screen in my hand. "Look, you can see that her eyes are slightly wider than usual! And here, her mouth is a little open, which means she is shocked! On top of that, can you see how the tips of her ears are a little flushed? It means she is flustered and doesn't know what to say! It's so silly it's downright adorable!"

"Chief!" Judy exclaimed while the tips of her ears were turning red. See, I told you that's how it is. Anyways, she grabbed hold of me and told me, "Stop trying to embarrass me and let go of Neige already."

"I'm not trying to embarrass you, I just find your over-the-top reactions really cute," I answered while casually removing my hand from Snowy's waist.

"It wasn't over the top, or cute," my assistant denied with a tiny pout that didn't help her case.

"It was. Look, we have evidence. Right, Snowy?"

The other girl, apparently still confused by the situation, once again looked at the image on my phone and ultimately shook her head.

"I don't think Judy's expression is any different than usual."

"Really? You can't see it?" I asked back incredulously while I looked at the photo myself. "Huh. I guess you had to be there to get it."

"She was there, and you are just being obnoxious at this point," Judy fumed while she grabbed hold of Snowy and pulled her away from me, then she added, "Also, we are going to have a talk about your prank later, just the two of us. Prepare yourself."

I gave her a flat look and then muttered, "Well, that was ominous."

"E-Excuse me?" came a sudden interjection from Snowy, who was finally getting to the point where she didn't look like she wanted to jump and hide under the sofa. "Are we in Leo's house?"

"Yes," I answered with a grin.

"But We were in the hotel just now"

"I said we would be home in a moment, didn't I? It's a neat trick, right?"

Snowy blinked at me again, apparently still confused, but before she could ask another question, my assistant grabbed hold of her again.

"Stop confusing the poor girl even worse than you already had done with your entry." She paused for a moment, then sent another subdued glare at me. "Speaking of which, I can't believe you revealed another of your abilities just for a joke. We just talked about this a few hours ago."

"I didn't just do it for a joke," I pointed out with a small huff. "It was also an experiment that opened up some brand new possibilities, and on top of that, it helped me get Snowy home ASAP. The surprise photo was just an icing on the cake and completely normal couple stuff."

Judy locked eyes with me, but when it became obvious I didn't show even a hint of remorse, she promptly rolled her eyes and grumbled something along the lines of, "You are incorrigible."

"No, I'm not," I replied with a chuckle. "I'm just fulfilling my boyfriendly duty of teasing my girlfriend without having to hold back."

My dear assistant gave me a sideways look, followed by a defeated sigh and the line, "This relationship is already off to a rocky start. Sometimes I wonder why I put up with your antics."

"Because you love me a bunch?" I asked with a cheeky smile, and Judy returned the gesture with another roll of her eyes.

"Against my better judgment."

I let out a mirthful little chuckle, but before I could continue, I noticed Snowy tapping on my upper arm, so I turned a curious glance at her.

"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but Did you say 'girlfriend'?"

"Yup," I answered with a toothy grin.

She glanced over at Judy next, and after a long sigh and acting like this was the most bothersome thing in the world, my girlfriend stated, "We are going out."

"Really?!" For some reason, this seemed to perk our Abyssal guest and she grabbed hold of Judy's hand with both of her own. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks?" I answered, feeling a little awkward by her enthusiasm. Judy shared my sentiment, as she only gave her a nod.

In the meantime, Snowy leaned closer and asked my assistant in a whisper that I probably wasn't supposed to be able to hear, but I did anyway.

"Since when? And who confessed first? Wait, no, first tell me how Eleanor took it. Was she mad?"

My girlfriend let out a tired sigh and she pulled on the other girl once again while saying, "The bath is ready, so let's go there first. I will tell you the details there."

Saying so, the two of them left without saying as much as 'see ya later', leaving me all alone in the living room. I let out a long breath and walked over to my favorite comfy chair, then I sat down with a satisfied noise escaping my mouth. So, what did I learn just now? I could teleport long distances with others in tow, I had poor impulse control, and I was going to be scolded by my girlfriend for revealing the former because of the latter. That said, I raised my phone to my eye level and took another look at Judy's dumbfounded face on it, and I could barely hold back my chuckles long enough to save it into my backup folder.

"Still worth it," I whispered as I serenely glanced up at the stairs leading to the first floor, a serenity that not even the shouts of 'You and Eleanor are both going out with him?!' coming from there could break.

"Is she asleep?" Judy asked me the moment I reached the bottom of the stairs, without even looking up from her phone.

"Yes," I answered lightly as I walked over and sat down beside her on the couch.

After Snowy took a quick bath, we realized she had no clothes to change into, so I lent her a shirt, while Judy procured a set of brand new underwear from somewhere (and when I asked her about it, she said she was carrying it around just in case, whatever the hell that meant). Now, I'm pretty damn tall, so Snowy was always petite to me (just like the other girls, now that I thought about it), but when she was wearing my comparatively circus-tent-sized shirt, she looked positively tiny. Anyways, after we explained to her how our new polyamorous relationship came to be with the princess, a conversation in which she was weirdly invested for some reason, I decided to lend her one of the empty rooms in the house for the time being, and she went to sleep pretty much the moment she hit the bed.

But back to the present: After I sat down beside her, Judy put her phone aside and turned to me with a serious expression.

"Chief, let's talk."

I closed my eyes for a moment. Ever since this morning, I could see something was eating at her, and some of the throw-away jabs made it clear she wasn't in a good mood either. I had a sneaking suspicion about what she wanted to discuss, so I prepared myself and gave her the go.

"Sure."

My assistant took a deep breath, then began with, "Let's start with your new ability. You said you can teleport to anyone you can see with Far Sight?"

I was a little surprised by her opening topic, but I quickly collected myself. Maybe she was trying to ease me into it? Either way, there was no point in pondering on her thought process at the moment.

"Pretty much, yes," I replied in a neutral voice.

"And you used Neige to test it?"

"Indeed."

"Even though we agreed that you would be more careful about revealing your abilities."

I expected this line of criticism as well, but since I had time to think about it, I was prepared with a rebuttal.

"Yeah. I mean, I had to test it somehow, and considering it was Snowy, I thought it was safe to use her as the guinea pig." I paused as I glanced up the stairs, making sure her 'dot' was still where I left her, then I continued with, "She was sleep-deprived and pretty shaken at the time, so I figured it wouldn't hurt if I could take her home in an instant. Win-win."

"That sounds like post hoc rationalization to me," Judy grumbled, but I dismissed her objection with a shrug.

"Well, I already did it, so there's no point crying over spilled milk." My girlfriend seemed less than satisfied by my words, so I hastily added, "Okay, then how about this: I had this idea for a while, but how about some misdirection?" That earned me a curious look, so I told her, "Since people are bound to be interested in my abilities, why don't we tell them some consistent false info? Like for example, let's tell Snowy that it was some kind of emergency-escape skill that teleported me back to my house?"

"According to my knowledge, teleportation spells are very complicated and take a lot of time and resources to set up."

"Perfect," I said with a smirk. "I had to mess around a bit to get it working, so we can say I was preparing it."

" That could theoretically work," Judy finally conceded.

"Yeah. I think we can do the same for my other abilities too. Make them think there are some limitations to them, I will use them consistently with their expectations, and when the situation calls for it, they might turn out to be great aces in the hole during the next life-or-death situation."

Judy gave me a flat look after hearing my words.

"I would prefer if you tried to avoid such situations, if possible."

"Yeah, yeah, naturally," I answered while thinking about the next thing. "So, for my magic vision, we can call that a unique ability of some kind."

"What kind?"

"Well" I paused for a moment, then I tentatively said, "Psychic?"

"Psychic," Judy repeated after me.

"Hey, don't look at me like that! You were the one who insisted on it just this morning! Not to mention, it's already something the class rep suspects, so we might as well keep rolling with it. In fact, it's pretty much the only thing we can use. I remember Crowey once said that I had no mana whatsoever, so I can't really claim to be a hedge wizard or the like."

"He said that. He also said that his plan was flawless and we stood no chance against him."

"Those were just villain dialog," I rebutted. "Seriously though, I'm inclined to believe him on the mana part. He said it to Brang while I spied on him; there was no reason for him to lie there."

"Very well," Judy conceded the point after writing down a few more lines, "So, what is your cover for your abilities again?"

"Well" I began, and the discussion didn't stop for a good twenty minutes.

At the end of it, Judy put her phone down and let out a long breath before she said, "So, just to summarize: You have no mana because you are psychic. You can see and dispel magic because of that. Your precognitive reflexes should be hidden, so we explain them by saying you..." She paused, seemingly just so that she could theatrically glance at her phone, then she continued with, "'know kung fu'."

"Well, maybe not kung fu, but some kind of martial art. Let's be vague about it."

"As always," my assistant nodded, then continued. "The information gained through Far Sight should be explained by you being an information trader on the side, and your teleportation is a" She trailed off, probably just to annoy me, considering her memory.

"It's a secret artifact that can only be used once every 72 hours," I said a little begrudgingly.

"Yes," she nodded again, then she looked up at me and said, "So according to your cover story, you are a psychic anti-magic martial artist with an unknown intelligence network and equipped with a rare reusable teleportation artifact." She glanced down at her phone, then back at me, then at her phone again, and finally she asked, "How is this supposed to bring less attention to you again?"

"Oh, come on!" I threw my hands into the air in protest. "We both know this is the best we've got."

"Indeed," Judy nodded, again, "Since you already dug yourself into this hole, I think we have to work around it."

"Ouch," I muttered flatly, "You are being grumpier than usual."

It was supposed to be a throwaway comment, but instead Judy gave me a sharp look, followed by, "Then maybe you should think about your actions a bit more."

" Is this still about my abilities? Are you still mad at me because I revealed them to Snowy?"

By this point her eyes were positively withering, and she only said, "Among other things."

That made me stop in my tracks for a moment. I felt like I somehow stepped on a landmine, and I had a feeling it was the one I knew was right in front of me for a while now, but at present, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and ask, "Could you be a little more specific? I think I'm missing something."

I received another frown from my assistant, then she pointedly put her phone down and changed her posture on the couch so she would face me more directly.

"Yes Chief, you are." Seeing how the atmosphere in the room took a sudden turn to the serious, I involuntarily swallowed, but Judy didn't seem to care as she continued with, "You see, I'm fine with our current relationship."

I blinked at her in surprise. I expected some kind of bombshell to fall considering how serious she looked, but that was quite ordinary. Deceptively so. As such, I couldn't help but hesitantly say, "I'm glad to hear that, but"

"But," she interrupted me before I could say my piece. "I'm not fine with how you are treating it." I must've looked supremely baffled, as she shook her head and let her shoulders slouch as she began to explain, "Chief, I knew what kind of world we live in. I also knew where your repeated interactions with Eleanor would lead. I tried my best to be more aggressive, so that we could enter into a monogamous relationship before things would get more complicated with Eleanor, but I've prepared myself for an outcome like this from the very beginning. It's not my preferred result, but I could see things potentially turning out much more 'crowded', so to speak, so I accepted the compromise."

"I see," I muttered, somewhat humbled by the way she spelled things out for me, but she ignored me and continued completely unabated.

"However, I don't think you are taking this relationship seriously enough." She paused, and I was tempted to look away from her intense stare, but I forced myself to stay still. After a short while, Judy's voice softened into a whisper and she said, "Leo, tell me honestly: did you decide on this polyamorous relationship because it was the path of least resistance?"

"I... would be lying if I said it didn't factor into my thought process," I admitted, my voice sounding a little bitter even to myself.

"Chief, I love you. Eleanor loves you too. But do you actually love either of us? Have you ever said the word out loud?" Judy asked, her voice ever so slightly wavering with every word. "I'm willing to compromise, to put in the effort necessary to make this work, to make this something more than just a convenient way to avoid romantic tension between the three of us. Even now, I'm taking this relationship seriously." Judy paused for a moment, and her voice became very heavy as she asked, "Can I count on you to do that same?"

I tried to formulate an answer, but I couldn't. It didn't matter though, as my silence was condemning enough. Judy looked at me for a few long seconds, and the fact that she didn't seem like she expected an answer right away made it both relieving and humiliating at the same time.

At last, my assistant stood up and took a step back.

"It's getting late," she told me flatly while glancing at the clock. "I should go home, or dad will worry." Saying so, she said grabbed her coat and told me, "Let's continue this discussion tomorrow."

Then she left, as if escaping the oppressive silence, without saying anything else. Not that it mattered, as I was still in a bit of a guilt-induced stupor at the moment. For several silent minutes, I sat where she left me while holding my head in my palm, listening to the ticking of the clock on the wall of the lonely living room as I was in the process of getting my wayward thoughts in order.

At last, after feeling adequately composed, I let out a self-deprecating groan and I leaned back on the couch with the nape of my neck resting on the top of the back cushions. For a few seconds I stared at the ceiling, then I closed my eyes and retreated into my mind for a much-needed session of self-reflection.

As much as I hated to admit it, Judy hit the nail on the head. Hard. So hard, in fact, that I was still reeling back from it. Hindsight is always 20/20, but in this case, it was doubly embarrassing, as I more or less spelled this out to the girls when I asked them out. I told them I was taking drastic measures because I was expecting future troubles and I didn't want our love triangle to interfere. That was as good as admitting that I considered our love triangle bothersome and I wanted to exchange it for a less troublesome relationship. Not because I liked them, or because I wanted to be with them. In short, I made the choice for the wrong reasons. Judy could see that from the get-go, but the princess was simply too excited to notice.

After a moment of thinking, I stood up and headed towards the kitchen. I decided to make myself a big mug of tea, as doing menial tasks like that often helped me think more clearly.

As I did so, I began to ponder: if I entered into this relationship for the wrong reasons, then what were the right reasons? Let's discard all the external factors about harem narratives and annoying/comedic love-triangle situations. The first question was this: did I like Judy and Elly?

The answer to that was a resounding yes. Judy was my assistant, my closest confidante, and we were practically always on the same wavelength. I loved spending time with her, I loved talking with her, I loved how amusing her expressions were once you figured out how to read her, and I loved both her serious and cute sides.

As for the princess, I always had a lot of fun teasing her, and as much as she denied it, I'm sure she didn't hate it either. I loved her awkwardness, I loved her cuteness peeking through her faade of confidence, and I loved how nice and sociable she was behind all those verbal thorns.

The spoon in my hand stopped midway in the air, sugar still tricking into the mug in my other hand, as my brows furrowed with a small yet alarming realization. Yes, there were many things I loved about both my girlfriends, but did I love them? The answer should have been obvious, yet

"Do I?" I wondered aloud as I finally put the spoon into my mug.

I mean, I obviously liked them both, a lot, but as for 'love'? I wasn't so sure. Not that I had much experience in the subject, amnesia and all, but wasn't love supposed to be I don't know. More intense? People always say it's like a yearning, or a burning sensation, but I couldn't say I ever felt that. I didn't remember feeling love-struck or exceptionally giddy when they were around me, nor do I recall suffering heartache when I haven't seen them for a few days. Sure, lately I often felt strangely content when I was in their company, but wasn't love supposed to be more passionate than that?

I shook my head and took a sip from my mug. It was still missing something, so I went over to the cupboard and took out a jar of honey I saved for occasions like this. But back to the topic at hand: I actually didn't know how intense love was supposed to feel. Realizing that, I decided to look at the problem from another angle: did I want to stay with them in a relationship, potentially for the rest of my life? I thought long and hard about it, but for a slightly peculiar reason: I was immediately one hundred percent certain I wanted to do that, and it made me wonder why that conclusion came to me so readily.

I mean, I just spent the last couple of minutes hesitating about whether my feelings would qualify as love or not, but if they asked me if I would like to get married and settle down tomorrow, I would probably say yes on the spot. Did that make sense?.

I picked up my mug with a small sigh and left the kitchen. I walked up the stairs and I made extra sure I was very quiet as I walked past the room where Snowy was sleeping. At last, I entered my room, carefully closed the door behind me to make sure I made as little noise as possible, then I sat down in front of my PC and placed the mug on the desk before exhaling a pent-up breath.

So, what was my conclusion? I liked them as people and wanted to have them close to me. In other words, I wanted this relationship, whether I was clear on the whole 'love' thing or not. I also realized something else important during my self-reflection: Judy was right about one more thing. A relationship required compromise, effort, and sincerity. A relationship like ours required all three in droves. However, I was no longer hesitant about it.

Compromise? The two of them were already making the biggest one by agreeing with my selfishness, so it was only fair that I would follow suit.

Effort? I'm the man who never sleeps. If I would need to sacrifice those extra hours to make this work, it would be a small price to pay.

Sincerity? Well, okay, maybe I didn't have the cleanest track record when it comes to that, but if it's about our relationship, I was more than willing to compromise with my habits and make the effort to be more sincere. For a start, I really had to start using the damn L-word more often, even if I wasn't entirely sure about the exact nature of my feelings yet.

With my mind finally clear, my enthusiasm renewed, and my computer booted, I let out a small chuckle after taking another sip from my mug, then I opened my personal folder and created a new file titled, 'Operation: OTT'.

Hey, it might not have been perfectly accurate, but it sure as hell was snappier than 'a semi-platonic subtype of the polyamorous Type 8 Triangular Relationship'

I was right in the middle of finishing up my comprehensive and airtight explanation as Admin to cover my conspicuous absence from the Hub over the past few days when I was interrupted by a guitar solo. I blinked in surprise as I took my headset off and reached out towards my phone without paying much attention to the caller ID.

"Hello? Leonard speaking."

"Leo, please let us in," came the answer from a familiar voice, and I couldn't help but frown at the request.

"Class rep? What do you mean 'let us in'? Where are you?"

"In front of your front door," she answered in a decidedly impatient voice. "We've been banging on the door for minutes now."

"Really?" I mumbled as I turned off the power metal song still blaring from my headphones and sneakily checked the time. It was a little after 8 AM at the moment, but it was still fairly dark outside, so I didn't notice it was morning already. Anyways, I told her, "Weird, I didn't hear you. I'll be down with you in a moment." I put down the phone before she could answer and I quickly finished up my excuse on the Hub, sent it, then I immediately logged out, locked up my machine, and hid away my written notes.

Once I was sure all the incriminating evidence was out of sight, I quickly checked to see if I was in a presentable condition, then I exited my room, skipped down the stairs, and opened the front door in quick succession.

"Hi" I began my welcome with a bright smile, which then turned into a surprised one as I finished, "Angie is here too?"

In retrospect, the class rep was talking in plural on the phone, but I wasn't expecting Angie to be the one with her. They were both dressed casually, which in Angie's case consisted of a gray turtleneck sweater with some kind of woven pattern on the chest under a light jacket, jeans, and a beanie, while the class rep was dressed in a white long coat that didn't let me see the rest of her clothes, a plaid scarf plus a pair of white mufflers on her head. More importantly though, they were followed by two floating eyeballs similar to the ones I dispatched the day before, except these were blue. Lovely.

"Hi, Leo," Angie returned the greeting with a smile considerably more upbeat than what I expected under the circumstances. "Are you all right? How are your injuries?"

"I'm fine, fit as a fiddle," I answered while checking her over. "How about you? I was told you were under house arrest."

"I" she began, but then the class rep cut her off.

"I convinced my grandfather to put her under my custody. Now, would you please let us in? It's cold out here."

"Sure," I began, but then I frowned and raised my hand to stop them on their tracks. There was something I thought about yesterday after I dispelled all the surveillance, but I didn't have the opportunity to try it because, well, I already dispelled all the surveillance. I wanted to try it right away, but then I reflected on Judy's words from the day before, and I decided to be a little less overt. As such, I told them, "One at a time."

The two girls looked at me funny, but then the class rep stepped forward, followed by the blue eyeball floating a little over and behind her head. I waited for it to get closer, then as she crossed the doorstep, I casually extended a hand as if welcoming her in. From that hand, I extended my Phantom Limb, and with a quick and nimble lash, it sliced right through the magical eyeball. To my deepest satisfaction, the effect was exactly the same as if I did it with my fingers. I'm not going to lie, as skeptical as I was about this phantom limb, it was slowly turning me around. This thing was handy.

Anyways, I did the exact same thing with Angie and her unwanted stalker, and then I closed the door behind them.

"What was that about?" asked the celestial girl as she took off her beany, her long auburn hair falling freely on her shoulders instead of her usual, tidy ponytail. This look suited her as well, though I couldn't help but wonder: the princess started to wear her hair in its natural waves instead of her drills, and now it was Angie who changed her hair. Maybe it was significant? I mean, their hair was significant to begin with, so changing it should be that too. Speaking of which, I glanced over to the class rep, and after she removed her muffled, I noticed that her long forelock was also left unbraided and she simply tucked it behind her ear. Yup, three for three, definitely not a coincidence.

Anyways, I shelved this under 'write this down in the notes later' while I shrugged my shoulder and told Angie, "Just a bit of precaution, nothing for you to worry about."

She still looked at me funny, but at the end of the day she shrugged her shoulders as well with a nonchalant 'If you say so' and she put her coat on the hanger. In the meantime, the class rep peeked at me over her foggy glasses, as if waiting for me to say something, so after a little thinking I decided to bite and ask, "So, what do I owe the pleasure of your early visit?"

"I'm glad you asked," Amelia huffed as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Do you know how much paperwork I had to fill out to cover your back?! Do you have any idea how many people I had to lie to about the Chimera?! And when you finally wake up, you couldn't even bother to call me!"

"Right," Angie agreed while crossing her own arms to mirror the class rep's pose. "You didn't even tell me there would be a gathering today! I only learned about it because Josh told me on the phone!"

"Okay, okay!" I raised my hands defensively in the face of their combined assault. "First off, I sent you a text message. You told me you were busy, so I didn't call you back." The class rep huffed at my reply, an unusual reaction from her for sure, but I ignored it for the time being and turned to the other girl. "As for you, as far as I knew, you were under house arrest, so of course I wouldn't invite you openly like that."

"Openly?" Ammy asked with a raised brow, and since her glasses finally cleared up, I could see the suspicious glint in her eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I would've smuggled her out without prior notice, obviously," I told her with a wink, which made both of them freeze up for a moment. "What?"

"Do you have any idea how much trouble that would have caused?!" the class rep finally burst out. "If you did that, we would be lucky if we would be only put under twenty-four-seven surveillance! Do you want to live with a scrying spell over your head and your house filled with recorder orbs for the rest of your life!?"

I gave her a long, hard look, but since she seemed to be entirely serious, I tentatively asked, "Was that a trick question?"

"No!" she yelled, startling both me and Angie in the process. In the end, her shoulders slouched like she just gave up on something, then she looked back up and readjusted her glasses before she told me, "Seriously, Leo, you need to lay low."

"Please elaborate," I told her as I gestured for them to follow me to the living room.

"First off, if someone other than me tries to contact you from the School, don't answer," Ammie began speaking with gusto. "Next, stay indoors and don't wander outside, especially not after dark. We don't know how many allies the Abyssals left behind, so you might be in danger. And if we are at Abyssals," She paused as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, "Don't go out to look for Neige." She might've misunderstood my expression at the time, as she once again stressed, "I'm serious. She is on the top of the most wanted list of the School right now. If you tried to look for her, even if you found her, you would just lead others to her at the same time, and it would also make things more difficult for you too. Just give me a few more days, and I should be able to convince my grandfather to let me handle her as well, then we can work something out."

"Well, I would like to promise that, but there is a tiny little problem with"

"Leo," she interrupted me as she gestured to Angie. "We both think this is for the best. Promise us you won't look for Neige. Now."

"Yes, this is important," Angie agreed while nodding several times. I looked at the two concerned girls in turn, then I groaned aloud.

"You know what? Fine," I put a hand on my heart and raised the other like I was taking an oath, and then I told them, "I hereby solemnly promise that I will, under no circumstances, go outside and look for Snowy. Are you happy now?"

"Good enough," the class rep stated, though based on her expression, she was still far from satisfied with my answer.

"All right. So, remember that tiny little problem with your request that you didn't let me explain?" The two of them shared a meaningful glance between them, but before they could say anything, as per the unwritten rules of comedic timing, I could hear a door open on the first floor, so I turned towards the stairs and yelled, "Good morning!"

I could hear the sound of soft steps approaching, and a moment later Snowy came into view at the top of the stairwell.

"Goo mowning," she replied as she stifled a yawn, then she began rubbing one of her eyes with the long sleeve of my oversized shirt, which reached down below her knees to the point it looked like some kind of malformed gown. That, combined with her bed hair, made her look pretty comical, though I obviously didn't laugh at her. Only smiled. She was still a little groggy, as she didn't register the two flabbergasted girls behind me and simply asked, "Weers de toiled?"

"Second door on the left, the paper's in the holder on the wall."

"Thank yuu," Snowy muttered while she pattered away in a pair of never-used kitten-slippers that were about five sizes too big for her. None of us said anything until we could hear the door closing behind her, at which point the class rep turned towards me with mechanical motions.

"What was that?"

Her voice so flat it would've given my dear assistant a run for her money.

"Snowy, obviously?" I answered with my most innocent smile.

"But you said" she began, but then Angie interrupted her.

"I get it!" she exclaimed as she did that thing where you drop your closed fist into your open palm. "You said you won't look for her because you already found her! I see what you did there."

"Thank you, thank you. It's nice to have a perceptive audience," I tried to pass it off as a joke, but then Amelia slowly closed in on me.

"Leoooo" She growled in a low voice as she reached out to my shirt and pulled me down to her eye level. "Are you doing this on purpose? Do you want to make my life more difficult? Are you an assassin hired to kill me by burying me under a mountain of paperwork?!"

"Easy there, easy" I spoke while I grabbed her hands and gently peeled them off my clothes. "You are waaaay too high-strung. You are not even acting like yourself anymore."

"And whose fault is that?" she retorted in a hiss.

"Guys, don't fight!" Angie interjected in a hurry. "Ammy, look at the bright side! This means Neige is all right, and we don't have to look for her! Leo is all right too! Everyone is all right!"

"Yeah, listen to her," I agreed with the enthusiastic Celestial. "Everyone is fine and safe. What else could you ask for?"

Amelia gave me a withering look in return, but after a while she simply walked over to the couch while murmuring, "A good night's sleep, for a start."

"Huh," I chuckled as I watched her sit down. "That seems to be a common problem nowadays."

In the meantime, the other girl came to my side and asked, "Hey, Leo? How did you find Snowy?"

"I have my ways," I answered off-handedly.

"Oh, come on, don't be a tease!" The overly spirited celestial poked me in the side, but my lips remained sealed, so she just puffed her cheeks and grumbled, "Fine, keep your secrets. But can you at least tell me if you have any snacks?"

I glanced at her, and she flashed me a toothy smile that made me chuckle again.

"The cookies are in the big cupboard on the left. You can find some instant cocoa in the drawers of the large cabinet. Milk's in the fridge."

"Yay," she exclaimed with her usual childlike enthusiasm, and she headed right for the kitchen, only to stop midway and ask, "Ammy, do you want anything? Leo's treat!"

While the two of them discusses what to plunder from my pantry, I noticed a series of knocks coming from the main entrance. I walked over, and to my sincerest surprise, I found the princess standing on my front porch. She was also very red. I mean, not in the usual, embarrassed way, but in that she wore a bright red pea-coat, red boots, and red mufflers. Hell, on closer look, she even had some lipstick and even some eyeliner on. The moment our eyes met she beamed a brilliant smile and greeted me with a passionate "Good morning, Leo!"

"Um yeah," I answered in a daze. "You are early."

"Yes," she confirmed while still smiling. "Melinda told me that in a new relationship, it's best to start the day by greeting the one you love with all your heart in the morning! Did you like it?"

"I sure did," I told her with a smile while I gestured for her to enter. "Come in, it's cold outside."

Elly let out a satisfied giggle as she came in. Once she was beside me, I suddenly recalled one of my entries in my 'OTT' file. I did a lot of research on how to do it properly, and this was a good opportunity to put the theory into practice, so I waited for her to take off her outerwear while I positioned myself beside her, then I softly said, "By the way, Elly?"

She tensed up for a moment, probably because I called her by name, and then when she turned back to me, I used one hand to lightly raise her chin as I leaned closer so that our faces were in line, then I planted a quick kiss on her lips. It was a chaste one, but for some reason I could still feel my cheeks burning. My reaction was still nothing compared to hers, as she just locked up with a deer-in-a-headlight stare, so I added, "Good morning to you too."

For a moment I really didn't know what kind of reaction she would give to me, but then her lips slowly parted into a familiar dopey smile, and even though her face was exactly the deep shade of crimson I expected, she still gave me a giant hug while muttering something about how 'it worked'.

"Oh, what do we have here?" came an intrigued question from inside, and when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Angie peeking around the corner. At the same time, the princess stiffened for a moment, then she let go of my waist and cleared her throat before she casually said, "O-Oh? He-hello Angie. I-I wasn't expecting to see you here"

I was honestly impressed. Sure, she stuttered, her face was red as a tomato and her smile was more than a little strained, but she managed to say all that without any cutesy exclamations or running away. My princess has come a long way, didn't she?

Anyways, Elly quickly peeled herself out of the rest of her winter wear and placed them onto the hanger, where she quietly noted she should've realized others were around by the number of coats already on it. As a fellow victim of hindsight, I empathized with her a lot, and after she got ready, I offered her my arm. At first she didn't seem to know what I was doing, but then the proverbial lightbulb finally lit up over her head and she immediately clamped onto me. Like that, we entered into the living room, much to the apparent joy of a certain Celestial with an entire cookie jar in one hand.

"See, I told you!" she exclaimed from beside Amelia while gesturing towards us with her free hand.

"Well, I'll be damned," the girl with the glasses whispered in a low voice.

"Ehehe," Elly giggled at their reaction while holding onto my arm even tighter before she asked in (what I hoped to be) a mock haughty tone, "Just what could you find so hard to believe, if I may ask?"

The other girls looked at each other and then shrugged more or less in unison. However, before they could say anything, a new voice entered the fray as Snowy, dressed in her (washed and dried) clothes from the day before, yet for some inexplicable reason still wearing the oversized pair of kitten-slippers, pattered down the stairs in a hurry.

"S-Sorry I didn't greet you before! Good morning!" she sputtered towards the girls on the sofa without sparing us a single glance. On closer look, I had to conclude she must've been in quite a hurry to get downstairs, as she still had some toothpaste on her chin. After some more apologizing her eyes finally came our way, and when she noticed my girlfriend, she put on a strained smile and told her, "Um Good morning, and congratulations?"

The princess raised her hand to her mouth and let out one of those cheesy laughs stuck-up high-class ladies used in period dramas, so I guess (read: hoped) she was still doing the whole fake haughty shtick.

I was just about to interject, but then someone knocked on my front door. Again.

"Ugh, let go for a moment," I told Elly, and as I disentangled our arms, all of a sudden she started giving me an abandoned puppy look. I promptly rolled my eyes and told her, "Don't give me that look, I will be back in a moment."

With that, I turned around to answer the door, but I could still catch the moment from the corner of my eye when Angie grabbed hold of her hand and began dragging her towards the couch, probably for an impromptu interrogation session, while the class rep was gesturing for Snowy to do the same. Anyway, I momentarily put the situation in the living room off my mind as I opened the front door once again. There was a fifty-fifty chance by now, so I was prepared, but I still twitched a little when I was face to face with Judy wearing a puffy winter coat and an honest to goodness ushanka with the ear-flaps down.

"Morning, Chief," she stated in her usual voice, as if yesterday's discussion didn't happen. I knew better, of course, so I waited for her to continue, but all she asked was, "Is Eleanor here already?"

"Yes," I answered honestly. "How did you know?"

"I saw her limousine down the street."

"Figures," I muttered, then I stood aside to invite her in. She gave me an appreciative nod and entered without a word.

So far things were fairly normal, but then she took her winter hat off and said, "Chief, about yesterday"

I didn't let her finish, but instead I used the same motions as with the princess not too long ago to quickly lean down and plant a small peck on her half-open mouth. To my astonishment, the look on her face was a mirror image of Elly's. Well, maybe not on the surface level, but functionally. Anyways, I let out a dry cough and simply told her, "I took what you said to heart yesterday, about effort and taking things seriously, and well, that's my answer." I waited for her to react, but instead she just kept staring at me like she was seeing a ghost, so I poked her side with my finger and asked, "Any comments?"

My question (or the poke, one or the other) finally snapped her out of it, and after she lightly cleared her throat and got her expression back to her baseline, my girlfriend simply stated, "Chief, that was low. You can't just take a girl's first kiss without warning."

"The princess didn't mind," I retorted, which only earned me a huff.

"It's because she has low standards," she said before she slightly raised her face and closed her eyes, and told me, "Now give it back."

For a second or two I honest to goodness froze in the face of the unexpected situation. I was just about to feel awkward when suddenly a blonde head made its way between the two of us.

"What are you doing?" Elly exclaimed, probably voicing the thoughts of the peanut gallery in the back, but then her next words probably only plunged them into even deeper confusion as she told her, "That's not fair! If she is getting a second good morning kiss, I want one too!"

Saying so, she also closed her eyes and puckered her lips in anticipation. And then, as the unwritten rules of comedic timing dictate, the door behind me opened followed by the words, "Im letting myself in?"

It was probably because of the whole commotion that I never noticed the sound of his moped, but when I turned around, I could see a much more presentable Joshua standing in the doorway while cautiously eyeing me and the two girls in front of him. After a short while, he scratched the back of his head and sheepishly asked, "Is this the wrong time?"

I looked at him, then at three in the back, and finally the two girls in front, and I let out the groan to end all groans as I proclaimed: "You, get in here already and close the door. You three, stop gawking and get back to the living room. As for you two" When they realized I was addressing them, my girlfriends stopped puckering their mouths and looked at me questioningly. I exhaled, then I simply told them, "Rock paper scissors, best out of three, the winner gets their kiss first. Are we clear? Go!"