The Simulacrum - Chapter 80~ Part 3

Limousines are great. They’re comfy, stylish, and spacey enough where three people could comfortably sit face to face even while two of them are wearing medieval armor, with legroom to spare. If that sounded like a very specific example, it’s because it was my reality. I already changed out of my gear at home while Angie treated my injury and I didn’t bother putting it back on, so at the moment I was wearing a business casual ensemble, complete with a scarf and one of my thicker coats. It was Judy who insisted I should wear both, though I honestly wasn’t against it to begin with.

Speaking of a change in attire, Penny did her hair up into a ponytail, while Sir Griffon also took his helmet off so that I could finally see his face. I was… slightly underwhelmed. By the looks of it, he was in his late thirties, had short, dark brown hair, and a very plain face with a simple dad-moustache under his nose. Put a brown checkered suit on him, and he’d look just like an average, overworked assistant professor in some backwater university. Speaking of him, the freshly de-helmeted Griffon Knight let out a thoughtful hum and slowly shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but your math still doesn’t add up.”

“It does.” My brilliant retort didn’t quite convince him, so I exhaled a long sigh and told him, “Okay, let’s start from the top. Again. So, our armors work by multiplicatively enhancing our abilities. Let’s say both Penny and I start out at a baseline speed of one. My gear adds a two times multiplier, while hers adds three, because it’s more specialized. Are we clear so far?”

“Yes. So you are at two speed, while she’s at three speed.”

I had a feeling he was subtly making fun of me, but I ignored it and focused on my explanation.

“So, at this point, we’re still fighting evenly, because I’m staying in the defensive and got a reach advantage, but then she warms up and her multiplier goes up a notch to four. At this point, she’s twice as fast as me, so I use an extra piece of gear to give myself a separate multiplier, temporarily bringing my speed up to four so that I could match her for a short time. It’s really simple.”

“On paper, maybe, but I still don’t agree with your numbers,” the armor-clad man argued back with the same, level tone as always.

“What’s wrong with my numbers? They are clean and illustrate the point perfectly.”

“They are too clean,” he pointed out with a finger raised. “For a start, I don’t think your baselines are the same. Penelope has trained herself for high-speed combat for years, so her baseline speed should be at least one point five.”

“She’s not that fast. One point three at most,” I countered, and the man shook his head.

“That would still resort in a three-point-nine multiplied speed at the beginning of the battle, making her nearly twice as fast as you. Furthermore, once the mana stream reached its peak state, it would result in five-point-two. I’m also not convinced by the capabilities of this ‘undersuit’ of yours. By your explanation, it would provide the same level of physical enhancement as your personal equipment. I find that highly unlikely.”

“Unlikely or not, you’ve seen it in action.”

“I did, and that’s why I’m still not convinced. Based on my experience with Penelope, she should’ve been easily able to overwhelm you in terms of agility, yet you managed to overpower her instead. Staying with your numbers, you somehow overtook her five-point-two when you should’ve been only capable of three to three-point-five at most.”

“Nonsense. I wasn’t faster than her at any point,” came my objection.

“You most certainly were,” Sir Griffon retorted.

“Fine, let’s ask her then. Hey, kiddo?” Once she realized I was addressing her, the spaced-out girl glanced at me, and I quickly asked, “Was I faster than you at any point during the duel? I wasn’t, right?”

“No leading questions,” Sir Griffon warned me, but I just shrugged him off.

Penny, on the other hand, looked back and forth between the two of us and her shoulders slouched.

“We’ve been captured and being taken to the lair of the wyrmbloods right now! How can you talk about pedantic things like that in this situation?”

“We’re not pedantic, we’re precise,” I pointed out, and Sir Griffon nodded along.

“Furthermore, we technically aren’t captives, and even if we were, there is little we could do now that we’re already in the car.”

She probably had a brilliant rebuttal to that, but apparently we didn’t deserve to hear it, as she turned away from us with a huff and proceeded to sulk while staring out the window. For a moment I was almost tempted to tease her, but thankfully Sir Griffon draw my attention away from her.

“But returning to the previous point, your math simply doesn’t add up.” Penny let out a quiet groan in the background, but we both ignored her. “There are two possibilities I can think of. Either your baseline is much higher than assumed, or there is another multiplier in the equation we are unaware of.”

As much as I wanted to object, I had to admit that I was also getting more and more uncertain about how I beat Penny. Thinking logically about it, I shouldn’t have been able to win as seamlessly as I did, a tiny-little stab wound notwithstanding. I didn’t really consider this at the time because of the adrenaline and things happening too fast, but even if my ‘base multipliers’ as the Lion Knight were higher than hers, save for agility, I was drawing out little more than half of those enhancements from the armor due to my injury and my broken Oaths, and yet I was still keeping up with her from the very beginning and led the fight for the majority of the duel.

Sure, recent combat experience, training, and my opponent being reluctant all played a significant role in my victory, but as our first exchange demonstrated, she expected to completely overwhelm me with her speed, and she didn’t know about any of my handicaps. This told me that as far as these two were concerned, I shouldn’t have been able to keep up with her at all even if I was in peak condition, yet I did at half power.

Now, I had two explanations for that. One was the aforementioned Watsonian one; I simply became much more experienced since the last time they saw me thanks to diligently training with Brang and constantly getting involved in other incidents, and I bridged the power gap with skill. The Doylist explanation, on the other hand, presumed that by eking out something like a deuteragonist position in the Narrative, it afforded me a smidgen on plot armor and I got a sneaky last-minute power boost to be on par with Penny. Maybe it was the power of friendship because I brought Josh along? Though again, maybe I wasn’t thinking weird enough. For example, maybe I was acting like Bel so much lately that the Narrative began to incorporate ‘him’ and so I’m slowly turning into an Abyssal Lord or something. I was personally putting my vote on the Watsonian option, but hey, this is a weird world, so anything is possible.

Anyhow, I was shaken out of my pondering by the girl in the opposing seat taking a sharp breath, and as I glanced outside, I recognized the familiar façade of the Dracis mansion. The whole building was lit up from the outside, probably because they were expecting some guests, and once we passed through the main gates, I could see a small throng of generic servants and security personnel running around like bees in a recently disturbed hive.

Our ride came to a slow halt in front of the stairs leading up to the main entrance, and at its foot, we were welcomed by Sebastian and way too many sharply dressed security guards. When the grouchy butler opened the limo door, Penny shrank back, while Sir Griffon remained stoic as usual.

“Good evening, old man.”

“You’re in unnecessarily high spirits, as usual” Sebastian stated with a vitriolic undertone before glancing at the knightly duo on the other seat. “Are these the last two guests for today’s conference?”

“That’s right,” I replied as I retrieved a canvas-wrapped sword from the storage space under the refreshment bar. “I know there’s a bit of bad blood between you and them, but please try to give them at least basic courtesy.”

“You are a hundred years too early to lecture me about professionalism, my boy,” the old lizard told me with a huff as I got out of the car, and then he looked over Knights still inside. “I was told the Bernstein boy would also be coming over, but I don’t see him anywhere.”

“That’s because he was tired, so I sent him home.”

“I see.” Sebastian hummed and gestured towards the Knights. “What should we do about the equipment these two are wearing?”

“Don’t worry about it. I already put their weapons away, but they aren’t going to cause any trouble, so the armors can stay.”

“If you say so.” He signaled for the two to get out, and Sir Griffon took the lead, with Penny reluctantly following after him. “Please wipe your feet before you enter, and leave your headgear with the maids.”

As if waiting for the words, the silent twin maids came to the forefront and took the pair’s helmets before they could raise an objection. In the meantime, Sebastian fell in line next to me, and once I gestured for the ‘guests’ to follow after us, the guards formed an orderly box around us. It was a little unnerving, and made getting through the front door more of a hassle than it was ought to be, but I couldn’t say I was entirely surprised by the heightened security.

“The family and the rest of our guests are in the conference room. Follow after me.” I nodded to Sebastian and he led us through the byzantine corridors of the mansion, yet we barely took a couple of steps before he addressed me again. “The operation succeeded without any causality. The support you procured was quite… ‘unorthodox’,” he stated along with his annoying air quotes, “yet they proved to be crucial in the swift resolution of the conflict.” He paused here for a long time, seemingly gauging my reaction, but in the end, he couldn’t help but ask, “Just where did you find a squad of Fauns loyal to you?”

“Fauns?” Sir Griffon echoed behind us, but I didn’t respond to him.

“They are technically loyal to my sister.”

“The one with the spear referred you as ‘Lord Regent’,” Sebastian continued with another pair of air quotes drawing a sigh out of me.

“It’s a long story, and not entirely relevant at the moment.”

“Fair enough, but one of these days you have to recount it to me in detail. I’m also curious why they would be wearing such strange outfits.”

He gave up unexpectedly fast, and some thinking later I gave him a nod.

“Next time I’m here to hang out with the princess, I’ll make sure to set aside some time for a chat.”

“Would you prefer Moroccan mint tea or masala chai for the occasion?”

“Surprise me.”

Sebastian acknowledged my comment with a small grunt and just the barest hint of a smile, and we wordlessly continued down the hallways, all the while ignoring the duo behind me burning holes into the back of my head with their eyes. It didn’t take us long to arrive at our destination, as the conference room was on the ground floor, and I could tell we were almost there by the presence of the braided maid standing ramrod straight in front of a large double-door.

“Good evening, future young master.”

… Of course she couldn’t resist calling me that in front of these guys. As if the way they were scrutinizing me wasn’t already bad enough.

“Hello, Melinda. How are our guests doing?”

“They were treated well, as per future young master’s orders. We are just about to serve refreshments, future young master. Does future young master have a request?”

“I’d request that you’d stop calling me that, but I know it’s pointless, so no, I don’t.”

“Future young master is wise beyond his years.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go inside.”

The moment I said that she opened the door for us, and I quickly entered while pointedly ignoring the quietly snickering old man at my side.

The conference room was about the same size as the parlor, but significantly less lavishly decorated. Maybe it was so that all the glinting gold foil wouldn’t disrupt negotiations? More importantly, the space was dominated by the large oval table in the middle, with two people sitting on one side, and two on the other. Besides them, there were about ten more security guards on top of the ones coming in with us, about a dozen or so placeholders wearing identical gray tracksuits sitting on dining chairs along one wall, and finally, Mountain Girl in her usual purple suit standing at attention next to the fancy chair at the head of the table, at least as much as such term applied to ovals.

As for the people around said table, on one side sat Abram and Emese, with one more seat next to them which I presumed was reserved for Sebastian. On the other side, there were four chairs, with two of them already taken by a pair of men dressed in similar business casual clothes that looked too small on one of them, and too loose on the other.

When they noticed out arrived, the Dracis couple beamed at me, while the men became crestfallen at once.

“Ack, sae thay captured ye tae… ”

I think that made it abundantly clear that the bigger man way Sir Minotaur. On closer look though, I had to reconsider whether I should call him that, as despite his voice and size, his face was shockingly young, possibly not even twenty yet. He had cropped black hair and thick eyebrows sitting over a pair of dispirited eyes, and his clean-shaven face had a prominent jawline.

The man sitting next to him was considerably older, probably in his late forties, and his long brown hair and bushy mutton chops gave the impression of a seasoned biker.  By process of elimination, he had to be the Eagle Knight.

“Good evening, everyone. Sorry for being late, but we had to discuss a few things amongst ourselves,” I greeted everyone present and walked over to the head of the table, and then casually leaned the covered up sword in my hand against the table before turning to Penny and Roland still standing by the doorway. They looked a little uncomfortable, so I gestured towards the empty chairs next to their comrades. “Go on, take a seat. We can’t exactly get started while you’re still standing.”

They were still hesitant, but after some further prodding, the two also came over to the table. In the meantime, Sebastian already took his own spot next to the hosts, and  Rinne wordlessly pulled my designated chair out as well.

“There, Leonard-dono.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you have any further orders?”

I was just about to sit down, but that question made me pause.

“Not right now. Please stand by.”

“Understood.”

Mountain Girl gave me a deep bow, and without any further ado, she more or less ‘fell’ into my shadow and disappeared from sight.

“Wow! That’s a neat trick, isn’t it, honey?” Papa Dracis exclaimed in amazement, and in the meantime, I succesfully took a seat.

“Brother Leonard. What exactly is going on here?” Sir Eagle inquired the moment he got the opportunity, but before I could formulate and answer, Sir Minotaur joined the fray.

“Richt, whit th’ hell is gaun oan ‘ere? We wur amboosd in oor field base by some ninja wifie, a lassie wi’ floating hauns, thae twa wyrmbloods, ‘n’ a gaggle o’ abyssal beasts, ainlie tae be tellt that we hud tae attend a meetin, ‘n’ then ye juist saunter in lik’ ye ain th’ steid! Explain yersel’, noo!”

“… Hey, son? Do you actually understand what he’s saying?” Abram whispered to me the moment the echoes of the big guy’s bellows died down.

“More or less,” I responded with a shrug, and this time it was Sir Eagle who directed an accusatory frown at me.

“‘Son’?”

“I’ll get to it in a minute, but how about we get this meeting started first?” Nobody objected (not that I gave them time to), so I hastily continued with, “How about we start with the introductions? From left to right, it’s Sir Duncan, Sir Arnwald, Sir Roland, and Penny, my sister.”

“Oh, she is? Hi,” Emese greeted her with a wave, completely bamboozling the girl, only to then subsequently let out a sigh and turn to her husband. “I don’t know how to feel about this, dear. Christmas dinners are going to be strange enough with an Abyssal at the table, and now he has another strange sister.”

“Now, now, honey. I’m sure we can accommodate her as well.”

The knightly side of the table was getting increasingly fidgety, so I drew everyone’s attention by tapping my fingers against the table.

“Moving on to our hosts. As you are assumedly well aware, it’s Abram and Emese Dracis, the heads of the Dracis bloodline of Draconians, as well as Sebastian von Fraenir, the steward of the Dracis household, among many other things.” I waited for a beat to see if anyone had anything to say, and once I was in the clear, I took a deep breath and turned to the Knights. “Now then, it’s been a long time since you’ve last met me, and a lot of things changed since then, so allow me to introduce myself as well.”

Saying so, I stood up from my seat and picked up my sword again. I inhaled deeply to calm my nerves, and a suitable long tense silence later I slowly exhaled and forced a solemn expression onto my face.

“I’m Leonard ‘Blackcloak’ Dunning, Chimera Slayer of Critias, acting head of the Kage clan, the so-called future young master of the Dracis family and, last but not least…” At this point, I undid the binding on the sword’s hilt and drew Cal out of its canvas swaddle and held it out in front of me at chest level, and they played along by releasing a soft light and a thrumming hum. I let everyone take a good look, and then concluded my introduction with, “the current wielder of Caledfwlch and this generation’s King of Knights.”

By then Cal got really into it and they let out a high-pitched sound that reminded me of the stereotypical noise a sword makes when drawn from its scabbard in video games and movies. It made no sense in this context whatsoever, but it suitably impressed everyone in the room, so I decided not to complain about it, and instead I carefully placed the blade onto the table in front of me.

“So, now that everyone’s aware of exactly who they are dealing with…” I said that with an amicable smile and sat down, only to then morph it into a wolfish grin as I placed my elbows onto the table and assumed my ‘diabolical mastermind’ pose, and then culminated the whole act with an ominous, “Let’s have a chat, shall we?”