The Simulacrum

~Chapter 148~ Part 2

After school, I bid farewell to my girlfriends and headed straight to Timaeus's Chinatown. On foot. While carrying two briefcases full of official paperwork. And it was all due to a certain someone's insistence. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

"I can't understand you," the class rep told me, her voice tinged with a mixture of impatience and irritation. "Wasn't this exactly the kind of thing you were looking for?"

"If by this, you mean a 'contract marriage plot', then no, it absolutely wasn't," I answered, hiding my own annoyance as best as I could.

The two of us were on our way to the familiar pagoda hotel, though for different reasons. I was going there to confront the guy about this asinine plot development, while she was delivering some documents about a trade agreement or something. Despite everything that happened so far, she was still acting as Lord Grandpa's secretary. I tried to explain to them that, since there's no need to worry about Celestial infiltrators anymore, they can drop the whole 'only direct relatives of the local arch-mages are allowed to access confidential paperwork' policies, but I was shot down. According to them, established rules like that had a lot of inertia and couldn't be changed all willy-nilly.

Of course, I immediately pointed out that I've been changing such rules all the time as the King of Knights and Polemos, but they just looked at me like I was some weird, alien creature who just arrived on Earth and entirely lacked common sense and self-awareness. That was rude, so I naturally stopped trying to convince them and let them wallow in their silly bureaucracy. That'll show them.

On a more serious note, we rounded a corner and were now just a stone throw's away from the hotel. I looked up at the building at the other end of the colourful street, and after a meaningful beat, I turned my head to face my companion.

"Time?"

Ammy raised a brow at that, but seeing that my hands were still occupied with the briefcases full of her documents, she obediently took out her phone and turned the standby screen towards me.

"A bit past five," she also told me, as if I couldn't see it, and I exhaled a soft huff.

"If we just Phased here like I said we should've, we would be probably heading back home already."

"And I told you that you have to stop teleporting everywhere just for the sake of convenience," she retorted, her hand already reaching for her glasses. "With how irresponsibly you use it, it's a miracle nobody started connecting the dots yet. The moment anyone collated all the times you showed up somewhere onto a single timeline, your whole secret will be blown wide open."

"Even if they do, I have like half a dozen different 'reasonable explanations' to excuse myself, so it's no big deal."

"But if you were more careful, you wouldn't need those excuses!"

We continued to bicker as we neared the hotel, and while she did make a fair point, I wasn't going to just back down now. Especially when I was about ninety-seven percent sure that the reason why she objected against Phasing over had little to do with the integrity of the cover story surrounding my publicly undisclosed abilities, but rather her aversion to the process itself. It made her nauseous, allegedly, but when I told her that she just had to get used to it like Judy and Elly did, she yelled at me that she didn't want to.

Anyhow, if that didn't make it abundantly obvious, the class rep was a bit grouchy today. Maybe it was that time of the month or something. I didn't know, and I wasn't nearly mad enough to ask, so I just put up with her confrontational attitude. Case in point…

"Wait, did you just change the topic? You still haven't answered my previous question."

"I did."

"Not properly," she retorted, her fingers tweaking her glasses about three times a second, which was both impressive and a little bit scary. "You said we need drama, and this is exactly that. You even brought up the relationship between Mr. Feilong and Miss Yamako as a potential source of it."

"Right, but this isn't it."

Before I could continue, we bumped into a bunch of bald men dressed in stereotypical pale orange Buddhist robes, and they forced a couple of pamphlets upon us before letting us go. It was nice to see that the Simulacrum's streets were getting livelier and more varied over time, but I had to admit that religious recruiters were pretty low on the list of things I wanted to see there. That was just the thing with uncontrolled development though; you could never predict where it would go.

Take my current conundrum, for example. Normally, I would've blamed the narrative for such a dumb, tropey development, but knowing that Narrative-me was out of the picture, I had no choice but to accept that this happened organically. Well, mostly organically. If I were a betting man, I would've put money on the whole contract-marriage trope being something that already existed in the scenario's framework, but since there was no outside force to enforce it now, I felt entirely justified to be outraged at Naoren's flagrant invoking of it.

That wasn't the crux of the class rep's question though, and after she carefully folded and pocketed the pamphlets (I would've thrown them away at the first thrash bin, but she was a good girl, so she didn't), I let out an overt huff to get her attention.

"Listen, there's a difference between 'drama' and 'melodrama', okay?"

"Which is?" she shot back, one hand once again hovering near her glasses.

"You really need to stop that," I pointed out, making her blink. "The thing with your glasses. It's a bad habit, and you're going to accidentally break them one of these days."

"What are you talking about? It's not a bad habit, and… are you changing the topic again?"

"No, I'm just trying to be nice," I responded with a cheeky grin. "Also, the difference is that melodrama is stupid, over-the-top, and predictable."

"How is this in any way predictable?" Right after asking that, she fell silent when we reached the stairs leading up to the hotel's lobby. The staff, seeing that I was coming, was already holding the door open for us. Ammy probably wasn't used to being treated as a VIP, but when I lightly nodded in the direction of the bellboy and continued on my way, she quickly caught up with me and continued in a slightly lower volume. "Who even heard about such a thing as a 'contract marriage'?"

"You haven't?" She glared at me, probably thinking I was making fun of her, so I hastily added, "No, I mean it. Have you seriously never run into this trope?"

"No…?"

Her response was a bit less combative this time around, but I waited until the VIP lift at the back of the lobby arrived before I would continue. It was an express elevator that only stopped here and at the penthouse level, so when the sliding doors opened, there was nobody inside. Until we stepped in, that is. I put down the briefcases and pressed one of the only two buttons on the panel to our right before facing the class rep again.

"Listen up. This whole situation is extremely tropey."

"You mean, guided by destiny."

"No, I meant 'tropey'. Some things can be tropes depending on the context of a story, while other things only exist as tropes in stories. For example, you're the smart girl of our group, and smart people wear glasses, which is a trope, but it's not the actual reason you're wearing glasses."

"Are you sure?" she was about to reach for her temple again, but after her previous exchange, she momentarily froze and crossed her arms. "But couldn't it be that I'm nearsighted because destiny decided that, as the 'smart girl', I need to have glasses?"

"Stop. Now you're the one who's changing the topic. That's not what we're talking about here." I waited for a beat, and since she didn't argue further, I continued the previous train of thought. "This is something called 'Truth in Television'. In the past, people who were smart and well-educated naturally read a lot. Reading a lot meant they strained their eyes, which would affect their eyesight in the long run, resulting in a need for glasses. As such, there was a weak correlation between how well-read someone was, and them wearing glasses, so it turned into a trope. However, that doesn't mean that wearing glasses automatically makes you smart because desti— I mean, the narrative says so."

"Okay, I get that, but how is that related to Mr. Feilong proposing to Miss Yamako?"

"As I said, there are some developments that only really exist in the context of certain genres of fiction. Contract marriages are mainly a thing in East Asian romance stories. You can think of it as a sub-type of the 'Marriage of Convenience' tropes, with…"

It was only at this point that I realized that the class rep was zoning out. I totally forgot that I wasn't talking to Judy just now. She would've got it.

"Anyhow, the point is that this development is an extremely overused and formulaic one that always leads to contrived and overblown misunderstandings, and we're not having any of that under my watch."

In the meantime, we almost reached the top floor, so I picked up the briefcases again, just as Ammy collected her thoughts.

"Right. You're acting as the new enforcer of destiny, so I understand that you want to control the situation, but I just…" The elevator doors opened, and I automatically stepped through, with the class rep following shortly after. "I just don't understand why you're so concerned with this. Don't you have more… how should I put it… important 'destiny things' to worry about?"

"Oh, trust me, I'm worrying about those too, but this is something right in front of me, and I'm not letting it slide."

I intended that as the final word of the discussion, but just as we approached the usual room where I would meet Naoren, I was stopped by a young woman dressed in a modest Chinese dress. She was vaguely familiar, though clearly a placeholder, and it took me until she spoke up that I realized she was the one who played the zither when I had dinner with Naoren a while ago. I was pleasantly surprised that I could recall her, as I had trouble with recognizing placeholder faces at the best of times, let alone foreign ones who all dressed the same.

But speaking of that, she gave me a shallow bow and addressed me with a thick accent.

"Please accept our warmest welcome, Master Dunning. I'm afraid the clan leader isn't back yet."

"Back? Back from where?"

"He's in a meeting with the elders. Please forgive us for the discourtesy, but we weren't expecting your visit."

"No, it's my bad. I should've called to say I was coming… if only Naoren had a phone."

Both she and the class rep blinked in surprise at my unexpected remark, but I was only vaguely aware of this, as my mind was already elsewhere, along with my point of view. In retrospect, another thing I should've done was to use Far Sight before we set out, instead of just confirming that Naoren's red dot was within the hotel building. In my defence, I was distracted by my initial argument it the class rep, the one about Phasing, and how was I supposed to know that he would be in an internal clan meeting at this hour anyway?

"E-Excuse me?" Ammy spoke up next to me, and I once again had to marvel as her switch flipped and she went from defiantly arguing meta-knowledge with me to timidly sidling behind me like a classic shrinking violet heroine type the moment she had to interact with someone unfamiliar. "I'm from the School, and I have documents for Mr. Feilong's eyes only. W-When is he expected to return?"

"I… can't say," the attendant responded a touch uncertainly, but after just a hint of the usual thousand-yard-stare, she pointed at another door. "If it's important, you can wait for him in—"

"Thank you, but there's no need for that," I turned her down, trying to sound as polite as possible to offset the fact I was cutting her off. "I'm going to pick him up myself."

"But… Master Dunning…"

By this time I already turned around and walked back to the elevators, so I only glanced over my shoulder to say, "There's no need for a guide. I know my way around here."

"Leo! You're being rude!" the class rep hissed as she hastily caught up with me, but I let her complaints in through one ear and out through the other.

Stopping in front of the non-VIP elevator, I pressed the button corresponding to the floor under this one, and while waiting for it to arrive, I turned back to Ammy.

"So, as I was saying before," I began, this time really changing the topic, "This whole contract marriage thing is going to be a huge source of melodrama."

She eyed me with disapproval as clear as crystal glass, but she ultimately chose not to protest and only prompted me with a deadpan, "Such as?"

"Oh, you know?" Meanwhile, the elevator car arrived, and we stepped in. "I don't exactly know why Naoren set this up yet, but I know for a fact, as surely as I know that the sun rises on the east, that Rinne is denser than neutron star. Like, so dense, she makes Josh look positively savvy in comparison. On the other hand, Naoren is your typical dark-haired Übermensch archetype."

"Excuse me? He's what?"

"You know?" I shrugged, finding it a bit awkward to elaborate on something like this. "Tall and fit young adult with wide shoulders and jet-black hair who also happens to be strong yet intelligent and well-read, incredibly wealthy and influential, but with low EQ and an inability to clearly communicate his feelings to the target of his affections." Ammy was still looking at me funny, so I stated, on no uncertain terms, "It's a ridiculously common archetype. Look it up, if you don't believe me. Anyhow, I'm calling it now; these two enter into this contractual relationship, but then Rinne will think that they aren't in a real relationship so she will dismiss all of Naoren's advances as just him putting on a show, while he'll never speak his mind and will be convinced that she doesn't like him. Then they will keep having all kinds of awkward and/or romantic situations that nonetheless fail to progress their relationship and instead will lead into a series of contrived misunderstandings that pile up until they'll have a big falling out, both of them convinced that the other doesn't like them, but then after a crescendo of more shenanigans, the misunderstanding will be cleared up and then they immediately enter into the honeymoon period." I managed to squeeze out all of that before our lift came to a halt, and let out a satisfied breath as the sliding doors began to move. "All of it is very melodramatic and drawn out, and I don't like that."

"I understand, but…" Ammy eyed me for a second or five, and then suddenly fired an armour-piercing question at me. "Why do you know so much about… what was it again? East Asian romance fiction?"

Her words nearly made me stumble as we stepped out into the corridor, and after clearing my throat, I figured I might as well tell her.

"Webtoons. Judy likes them, so I read a bunch of them, so we would have common topics to talk about."

"… Seriously?" When I nodded, her previously dissatisfied expression grew softer. "Wow. You're a good boyfriend, aren't you?"

"I'm trying," I responded just a touch bashfully.

"I admit, I thought you were only talking about things related to the world and destiny and these tropes with her."

"Hey, we can't just talk about those things all the time. It would make us the most boring couple in existence."

"Talking about those things… is boring?"

"Anything's boring if it's done too much," I quipped, and this time it really was the end of the conversation, as our destination was in sight. "Can you hold onto these for a moment, please?"

Without waiting for her confirmation, I handed the briefcases over to her and walked up to the large double doors at the end of the hallway. The two men standing guard on its sides, both dressed in traditional red-and-black martial artist tunics, were alarmed by my approach and stepped up to stop me.

First, they spoke in what I presumed to be Chinese, but then the one on the left recognized me and grabbed his colleague's shoulder with the words, "Master Dunning? What brings you here?"

"I have business with the clan leader," I responded with a very, very friendly smile. "Could you please step aside? This will only take a minute."

"But… the meeting is…"

The other man tried to object, but I just walked past them and flung the doors open, startling all the middle-aged and elderly Draconians at the long table, garbed in their fancy, colourful ceremonial robes and their hair done up in those weird hair bun things. Naoren was sitting at the head, dressed the same as always, and he looked especially baffled by my sudden appearance.

"Brother Leonard? What are you—?"

Before he could get started, I stopped and politely nodded at the gathered clan elders.

"Please excuse me, but I must borrow your clan head for a while. I promise I'll bring him back in one piece, so please take a coffee break or something."

"This is an important meeting about the recent visit of the Vritras and… W-What are you—?!"

In front of everyone's eyes, I walked up to the head of the table, picked up the guy (along with the wooden chair he was sitting on), and lifted them over my head. How? Well, I was wearing my Leoformer uniform, of course.

Ever since the assassination incident, we made it an unofficial policy that any time we were in public, we would wear our magical gear, both for safety and so that we could react faster in case of a dangerous situation. Needless to say, the class rep was also wearing her Magiformer all this time.

Anyhow, the physical enhancements of my outfit roared into action at full capacity, and I casually carried the stumped young clan head towards the door, only stopping right in front of it to lower him a little, so that he wouldn't hit his head on the doorframe. I also used the opportunity to turn around and address the elders one more time.

"Thank you for your understanding. Please, have a nice day."

"Wait, Leonard! What is this all about!?"

"You would know, if you bought a bloody phone already like I bloody told you," I hissed at him, and then after a beat, I nodded my farewell at the men in the room, along with a good-natured, harmless smile.

And with that, I manoeuvred the still-seated Naoren through the open door and jerked my head to tell the frozen girl in the hallway to follow after me, while everyone else stared at us in silence. Baffled, stumped, maybe even outright bamboozled.

Ah. Refuge in Audacity, my old friend. I missed you.