The Simulacrum - Chapter 86~ Part 3

“Okay, so now that we’ve all settled down, can someone please explain to me what exactly happened in the ballroom?”

“Not yet!” Angie objected. “We need to set Josh’s nose first.”

“Wait, is it that bad?” the guy sitting on the armchair I occupied just a few short minutes ago asked in alarm, but instead of an answer, his childhood friend only waved her hands over his head while humming a jazzy tune.

“You’ll live,” I reassured him, though it didn’t have much of an effect. “If you want to get it fixed, use a Draconic pill.”

“That’s right!” came the enthusiastic agreement from the princess standing right next to me.

“It’s worth a shot,” Josh mumbled while searching his pockets.

We figured it out early on that, since the Magiformers technically summoned the outfits out of a pocket-space every time they were activated, we could store some of the blood-pellets required for Josh’s power-ups in them. Since they were small, they would be unsummoned along with the clothes, and since time was wonky in the pocket-space, they would stay fresh indefinitely. It was a small yet useful discovery, since it meant that we could cut down on the number of times we needed to draw blood from the girls, though the ones Josh carried on him for emergencies still had to be replaced every once in a while.

That tangent aside, he finally found the case and popped a little red capsule into his mouth. There wasn’t much of a change, but that wasn’t surprising, considering he was already in his Magiform, but he let out a relieved sigh.

“It’s a little better.”

“Wow… your bone just popped back into place,” Angie mused as she closely inspected his face. “Draconic vitality is something else all right.”

Seeing that I wasn’t going to get roped into trying to set my friend’s nose anymore, I tried to raise my initial question again, but I was beaten to the punch by Judy tugging on my sleeve.

“Yes, Dormouse?”

“Elly said you had a discussion with Naoren Feilong.”

There was an implicit question in her statement, and since the childhood friend duo was still busy, I figured I might as well bring her up to speed.

“We mostly just talked about our engagement. I also floated the idea of bringing the Knights into the fold, in vague terms, and while he found the idea crazy, he wasn’t entirely unreceptive. Unfortunately, we got interrupted before we could discuss the topic in detail, but I guess I should arrange another meeting after the banquet and hit the iron while it’s hot.”

“Did you at least mark him?” Elly asked in a whisper, and after a long beat, I sheepishly shook my head.

“Didn’t get the opportunity, but that just means I have another reason to talk with the guy again. On the bright side, I’ve marked his brother.” I waited for some kind of reaction, but when I didn’t get any, I continued with, “So, that’s what happened on my end. Did you guys have any new findings on yours?”

“I wasn’t looking much. I was too busy with Vivien,” the princess admitted.

“As for me, I listened to the discussion between Emese and Xinji.”

There was a long pause, so I prompted her.

“And?”

“And I’m still considering which would cause less of a scene; if I tell you about it now or if I let you learn about it naturally.”

“… So it’s something that would be revealed today, and it’s something that would greatly annoy me.” Before I knew it, my brows descended into a frown. “Don’t tell me it’s what I think it is…”

“I’m not saying anything yet,” my dearest assistant left me hanging, but before I could press her, the childhood friend pair got up and came over, putting this entire conversation on ice for now.

“I finished with the first aid. His nose should return to normal in a few hours, I think.”

“My Magiform still needs some repairs though,” Josh added and waves his hand, showing off his burned cuff.

“I’ll take care of that back at the base. More importantly, can either of you finally tell me why you got punched off a balcony?”

“I was kicked, and it’s a short story,” the guy in the middle growled, his expression suddenly turning grim.

“We found ourselves this nice, secluded place upstairs,” Angie cut in.

“What were you two doing that required a secluded place?” I asked the obvious question, and they glanced at each other before the Celestial girl hastily explained herself.

“We weren’t doing anything strange! We just kinda needed a quiet place to digest all the food and stuff.” Josh nodded in agreement, so she continued with, “Also, to… you know? Discuss stuff?”

“What stuff?”

“Just stuff, okay?” Angie pouted, then forcefully waved her hand. “It has nothing to do with what happened anyway!”

“Right,” Josh said in the company of another nod. “We were minding our own business, and then this guy just came out of nowhere and started hitting on this blockhead here.”

“You must mean Zihao,” Judy noted on the side, but she was completely drowned out by Angie’s objections.

“I told you he wasn’t, and I’m not a blockhead!”

“Yes, he was, and the fact you didn’t realize it makes you a blockhead!” Josh shot back, and things were about to descend into one of their usual spats, so I raised a hand to forestall them.

“Focus, you two. You can figure out who was or wasn’t a blockhead later; first, tell us what happened.”

Josh let out a low grunt but did as I asked anyway.

“He grabbed her arm, and then I got between them. The rest was kind of a blur.”

“Who threw the first punch?”

“That was definitely Josh,” Angie answered, and this time my friend let out a softer, yet not any less indignant huff.

So, to summarize, these two were having another of their events, but then Naoren’s brother showed up, he pestered Angie, and Josh got jealous, after which they briefly fought before we intervened. That… was almost certainly some kind of engineered, plot-relevant event. It also made a couple of pieces fall into place, now that I gave them a second thought.

For a start, this Zihao guy. Considering his unique appearance, I was sure he’d play some kind of role in my future headaches, and this encounter placed him into the ‘rival for Josh’ category. Whether that was the ‘love-‘ or the ‘run-of-the-mill-‘ variety was still up in the air, but it made a lot of sense in retrospect. The presence of Josh and company at the banquet was screaming Narrative shenanigans from the get-go, and since I was always going to be focused on Naoren, it made sense that the other important newcomer would be involved with our resident protagonist instead.

In any case, I exhaled a long sigh and told the gang, “Listen up. Making a commotion like that is apparently not that big of a deal among Draconians, but you should probably lay low for the time being anyway. You two should stay here, and after the banquet is over, I’ll ask Sebastian or Melinda to pick you guys up.”

“If you think that’s best…” Angie mumbled, but then looked around and added, “But what are we supposed to do until then? We don’t even have a TV in here.”

“I’m sure you can come up with something.”

“I have an idea!” Elly called out and walked over to the cabinets in the back, and after rummaging for a while, she let out a triumphant ‘Hah!’ and raised a rectangular box over her head. “I knew it! Dad loves to put cards into every guest room!”

“So… what are we supposed to do with a pack of cards?” came the next question, this time from Josh. “It’s just the two of us.”

Elly glanced at the pair, then at the poker set in her hands, then finally over to me.

“Do you want to stay here and keep these two company?” I asked, and my girlfriend shuffled her feet for a while before answering.

“Only if you don’t mind…”

“It’s not like we’re glued together,” I told her, but then I recalled something and added, “Just don’t get too engrossed and lose track of time. I still owe you a dance.”

“That’s right! In that case… how about I join you once I showed them the ropes?”

“Sounds fine to me.”

The childhood friends also seemed receptive to the idea and were just about to set the table when we were interrupted by someone knocking on the door.

“Please excuse me.” Melinda entered the room without waiting for anyone to let her in and did a small curtsy. “Lord Abram requests your presence.”

“Do you mean all of us?” Elly asked with just a hint of disappointment, and the blonde maid instantly shook her head.

“I believe he meant future young master in particular.”

“Is there a problem?”

She once again shook her head and told me, “I believe the esteemed guests have an announcement to make, and they are insistent about your presence for the occasion.”

My eyes narrowed at once, and I glanced at Judy.

“An announcement. Is this really what I think it is?”

“If I told you at this point, it would just be anti-climactic.”

“I’m fine with that,” I pointed out, but my dear assistant remained staunchly silent, so after bidding the others farewell, we followed after Melinda, leaving Elly to explain how the blinds could be omitted when playing Omaha with just three players or whatnot.

The moment we arrived back at the ballroom, all eyes were focused on us. I didn’t really care though, as I was too impressed by how well the place got cleaned up in a few short minutes. If not for the hairline cracks on the floor panels, and the balcony covered in black-and-yellow warning tape, one couldn’t tell there was a fight taking place here just a few minutes ago.

We didn’t gawk though and followed the maid up to the elevated area with the long table, where the Dracis couple and the annoying grand elder were already seated.

“Where’s Naoren?” the question slipped out my mouth the moment we arrived, and Abram overheard it.

“Oh, they had to leave early,” he told me with a sigh. “He said Zihao suffered some kind of backlash and his meridians have to be realigned before he would suffer from deviation.” He paused here for a beat, then turned to the grand elder and asked, “Did I get that right?”

“In the broad terms,” the old man granted with a hint of annoyance, and dad-in-law let out a relieved sigh.

“Good. I never fully understood how this cultivation thing works, so I wasn’t sure I got it right.”

In the meantime, we got seated, and I couldn’t help but let my displeasure known with a soft groan. Well, there went my plans to continue my discussion with Naoren. I’ll really have to set up a meeting with him ASAP, before he changes his mind on the topic and I’d have to start persuading him from the ground up all over again. I mean, it was a small miracle he didn’t categorically reject everything I said on principle because of our disagreement over the engagement issue, so I really had to capitalize on the surprise headway I made, and do it soon. The fact I couldn’t mark him yet was also annoying, but on the other hand, I still had to tag this old bastard over here, so I decided not to stress too much over it. In fact, maybe if I punched him, it could work both and stress relief and mark him which would be an efficient way to—

Oops. My temper was slipping again. I took a few deep breaths, and once I felt collected enough, I turned to the grand elder and told him, “It’s unfortunate that the clan head had to retire from the party so early. Please tell him if he’s still open to further negotiations, he should contact me through Abram.”

He only gave me a slow nod that somehow managed to be disapproving, and after waiting for a few seconds to see if he would want to say anything, dad-in-law roughly cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention and stood up.

“Dear guests! Before we continue the ball, grand elder Xinji Feilong wishes to address everyone present!”

He gestured for the old coot, and he also rose to his feet, crossing his arms and hiding them in his loose sleeves in the process.

“Thank you for the opportunity, clan head.” Even though he was speaking softly, the old man’s voice resonated as loudly as Abram’s did a second ago. “I wish to address the assembled families with a simple proposal. We are all gathered here to deepen our bonds of solidarity among our dragon-blooded families. It’s a precious occasion that scarcely comes by more than once every generation, and being able to witness such a fortuitous and auspicious event had this old one thinking. As the previous incident involving this young man’s friend and my clan’s second heir had shown, our younger generation is full of vigor. I ask, what better way is there to use this fervor, and to further elevate this rare occasion, but to let them test their mettle and grow their fellowship through competition?”

“Bloody hell… I knew it…” I whispered so low that not even Judy could hear it.

“I propose a grand tournament!” the grand elder exclaimed, his voice shaking the whole room. “Furthermore, our clan is not only volunteering to establish the venue and the rules of the contest, but I’m also willing to present three bottles of hundred years old Yaohei Elixirs to the winner, directly from my personal vault.”

I had no idea what that yahoo-whatever was, but it certainly drew a lot of eager gasps from the peanut gallery, so it was probably something special. Not that I cared, as while the old man explained who, where, and how could participate in this ad-hoc martial arts competition, I pulled Judy over.

“You know what that means, right, Dormouse?” Before she could answer, I lowered my voice and growled, “The second war on the Narrative has officially begun.”

“… You see, Chief? This is why I didn’t want to tell you about this in the guest room. I knew you’d react like that.”

“Hush, you, and focus.” My girlfriend unsubtly rolled her eyes, but even that couldn’t stop me from declaring, “The whole sentai-shebang was bad enough, but this really crosses the line! We’re not, I repeat, we are not going to have a tournament arc!”

“Is there a problem, son?”

“Nothing, everything’s fine,” I told dad-in-law with a smile before returning to Judy.

“Is this really a hill worth dying for?”

I gave my girlfriend a flat look, then uttered an emphatic “Yes,” before I immediately dived into planning anti-tournament counter-measures, because no haywire Narrative’s going to just drop a bloody tournament arc on us on my watch, and expect me to take it lying down.