The Simulacrum

~Chapter 151~ Part 3

During the ride to the upper-levels of the School complex, I couldn't help but notice that Roland was giving me a very distinct 'What is going on this time?' kind of stare, but for the time being I ignored him. Not just because we were squeezed into the elevator like sardines, but also because I wasn't one hundred percent sure about it either.

Once we arrived and everyone burst forth from the lift like their lives depended on it, I lagged a bit behind and took out the message to give it another look-over. The moment I did so, the class rep immediately sidled up to my side and tried to take a look as well.

"What exactly does this say? Did Bel steal Grandfather's Grimoire Key? What's going on?"

"It would take too long to explain it here."

That wasn't just me deflecting, as even as we spoke, I was trying not to lose sight of the hectic group of arch-mages at the front. Even so, she stuck to me like my shadow and continued to gripe in hissy whispers.

"I knew this would happen! Even though Grandfather finally agreed to let me try his Grimoire Key, we kept putting it off because you were busy!" She let out a groan and grabbed onto my arm. "If Bel of the Abyss took it, I'm telling Judy it was your fault!"

"Amelia, please do not harass Dunning in the open," Pascal commented on the side, earning himself a glare.

I, for one, was more confused by the second half of what he said.

"In public? So it's fine if she harasses me in private?"

"Leonard, this is not the time for joking," Roland politely chided me, and I had no choice but to defend myself.

"No, I'm serious. Is that how we're seen from an outsider's perspective?"

"Can we discuss this later?" Ammy grumbled and tugged on my arm to get me to walk faster. "Hurry up! My fireballs are at stake here!"

Due to her urging, we got ahead of Pascal and Roland, and when we settled down somewhere halfway between the arch-mages and their duo, I gestured for her to listen.

"You know, I can't decide if you're taking this situation too seriously, or not seriously at all."

"That's rich coming from you," she snapped back, but after making sure the others wouldn't overhear, she quietly added, "I mean, I'm not afraid of things going too badly. You're destiny, so I trust that everything will turn out fine, but it's still my future at stake here!"

"Your future of being able to throw fireballs," I noted a touch flatly, and she nodded without a hint of shame. "How about we get back to this after we see what's going on with the Grimoire Keys?"

"That's why we should hurry up," she argued back, and seeing that I wasn't getting anywhere with her, I unfolded the letter again.

We were getting close to Lord Grandpa's study, so I only had time for a quick skim, but the contents remained the same, and just as confusing.

To paraphrase it, the message went something like this:

Hi, Polemos,

Sorry about the mess. I wish I didn't have to rush things like this, but this had to be done to arrange the board. I'll put the pawns from the basement to good use, so don't worry about them. Here's today's keyword: Grimoire Keys. That should be enough to tell you what's coming next, but remember to keep your friends close!

Don't worry. After this, I'll be laying low for a while; an Axis of Evil won't just build itself on its own after all. Just sit back, relax, and focus on training. Also, the Elysium has nice beaches. Just saying.

Yours,

Bel of the Abyss

P.S.: Don't hire the French guy, I didn't take him with me for a reason.

That was definitely, one hundred percent certainly written by future-me. Of course, the exact verbiage was very different on the paper; Celestial script was a bit ambiguous and flowery even at the best of times, but that was the gist of it. I had… so many questions.

Why did he have to rush things? What good use was there for a bunch of wannabe assassins? What did he do to the Endymonion's Key? What was an 'axis of evil', and what did it have to do with a training arc? Or beaches?

…

Actually, that last bit was ingenious. I've been joking about having a beach episode for weeks now, but travelling off the island was tricky due to it being the center of the universe (or at the very least the Simulacrum's current scenario), and due to geography we probably wouldn't be getting beach weather even in July. However, due to their artificial climate, the Elysium had a much warmer climate which better fit its Mediterranean agriculture.

On second thought, didn't the same apply to the Abyss as well? The pocked dimension magitech was literally the same, down to being fueled by the Mana Wells, so I figured they would have the same kind of climate control. Maybe next time I'm there, I should check to see if there are any nice beach-side spots for a weekend home or something.

Joking about turning the prison-dimension of the Abyssals into a vacation destination aside, we just reached the door of the study, and the whole group bunched up again while waiting for Lord Grandpa to turn off the security wards one by one.

"You have fortified this chamber quite thoroughly," Lord Barnabas noted, trying to make small talk. Lord Ambrose must've mistaken it for sarcasm, as he stifled a guffaw, prompting the lanky man behind him to lightly kick him.

"Be civil," Lord Gulliver whispered, but it only made the bearded man more furious.

"Civil?! Since when is kicking someone considered civil, you hypocritical lout!" He crossed his arms and let out a harrumph. "I keep saying that none of this aetheric magical construct malarkey is worth a damn! If you listened to me, you would invest in proper defenses, like mine. Good, solid steel with cold iron inserts to thwart mystic art attacks, plus some more 'mundane' surprises to deter the would-be burglars! For the rest of their life! Which would be short! It's the way to go, I tell you!"

Nobody stopped his yapping, mainly because it only served as background noise while the tension in the hallway slowly rose to a crescendo, triggered when the owner of the study finally took out a key and turned it in the lock with a solid click. There was a rush of air as the last of the enchantments disengaged, and when the huge wings of the door automatically opened wide…

"Ah, finally! I was just about to get bored!"

There was an unmistakable voice on the other side, and when I finally managed to elbow myself to the front, I saw Bel sitting on Lord Grandpa's desk, his legs crossed and his chin resting on his knuckle, like that famous statue. It was called 'The Thinker', I think? Unimportant.

"See, I told you! I told you aetheric defenses are— Mfff!"

Thankfully Lord Gulliver was quick on the uptake and swiftly covered Lord Ambrose's mouth. Meanwhile, Endymonion, Taika, and Barnabas lined up next to me, almost like we were presenting a united front or something, and after a brief moment of hesitation, I turned on my Leoformer, settling on the school uniform mode. It felt fitting, and I needed it to be online in case future-me wanted to message me.

"But where are my manners!" Bel exclaimed and hopped off the desk, followed by a customary scraping bow. "Bel of the Abyss, at your service." He paused and then struck a flamboyant pose, one finger pointed right at me. "Come now, Polemos! Don't look at me like that! Can't you say a few nice words after not seeing each other for so long?"

That… was mildly confusing, but before I could squeeze in a comment, Roland spoke up in the back, where the rest were grouped up behind a magical barrier hastily erected by Armband Guy.

"Haven't you already met today at the banquet?"

Bel abruptly teleported to the other side of the room and started walking up and down with arms crossed and an index finger tapping on his mask.

"Hmm? No, I don't think so. I would've remembered if we met. Unless…" Without warning, he suddenly appeared in front of us and snapped his finger, startling everyone and disrupting whatever spell Lord Taika was sneakily trying to prepare on my left. Dear god, was I also this disorienting when I played the character, I wondered. Not for long though, as he suddenly declared. "Oh, wait! I get it! He must've met future me! I apologize, it's hard to keep up with myself sometimes."

Blinking, I hurriedly extended a phantom limb towards his gear, and I quickly found the communication arrays.

"{Hold on. Are you serious?}"

After a brief moment of static, I received an answer.

"{No, of course not. I'm just acting, as usual.}"

"{Don't scare me like that. One temporally displaced version of myself is bad enough.}"

Bel let out a chuckle. Whether that was in reaction to my message, or part of the act, I couldn't tell. Then, before anyone else could respond, he was suddenly sitting on the desk again. Wow, that was smooth. I guess all my time spent practising the 'land seated right after Phasing' routine wasn't for nought.

"What are you doing in my office, interloper?" Lord Grandpa cut in with a low hiss, the air around him roiling with accumulated mana and practically crackling with power, to the point Lord Barnabas had to take a step away from him and summon his semi-transparent armour plates for safety. "Depending on your answer, I may have to evict you by force."

"Oh, Endy, Endy, Endy! Don't be like that!" the Bel on the desk responded with a chuckle and carelessly waved his hand. "You shouldn't say embarrassing things in front of your friends like that, or they'll think you have dementia. What's next? 'If the tide doesn't listen what I say, I'll beat up the ocean!'? Please…"

Seeing that the taunting was only causing the old man to get more fired up (and consequently, for the air to get even heavier with his magic), I took a step forward. While I was sure future-me was more than capable of running verbal circles around the people here, I still had to get back home and do a debriefing with Judy, so I couldn't waste much time on the usual song and dance routine.

"What are you up to this time?"

I tried to sound deadpan, with just a hint of aggressiveness. Bel let out an appreciative hum and opened his arms wide.

"You see, my dear Polemos, I just recently remembered that the Wingless Ones have this really fun toy, but I couldn't play with it because it's all locked up. They are such spoilsports, aren't they?"

"So you're after the Grimoire of the Last Truth," Lord Barnabas stated blandly, also drawing in power.

"Ah, such a wonderfully silly name it has!" Bel sighed wistfully and reached behind his back. Nobody seemed to have noticed it before, because everyone was focused on the masked man (me included), but there was a small wooden box on the desk all along, and he presented it like a magician would show off a prop before he would use it. "Lookie! The Key of the Grimoire! One of them, at the very least! How mysterious! How majestic!" He paused and lightly shook the box. "How light! Seriously, this is some cheap craftsmanship here. Was it made in China?"

That made the arch-mages stop in their tracks, only to be startled by a voice from the back.

"You see? You see it now?! I told you that the Keys need better protection!"

Lord Ambrose finally managed to get into the room, despite Lord Gulliver trying his best to restrain him. He was probably afraid that the volatile old arch-mage would burn down Endymonion's office if left unchecked. He let out a loud harrumph and pointed a finger at the box in Bel's hand.

"The joke's on you, fiend! You might've put your dirty hands on Amadeus's Key, but you can never get the rest! Give it up now, while we're—"

He abruptly bit back his words, eyes bulging, and Lord Gulliver behind him also let out a mildly distressed, "Oh dear."

Following their gazes, I returned my attention to Bel, and lo and behold, he now had two boxes in his hands. The second one was identical to the first, except its hinges and the decorative metal plating were a slightly different colour.

"Oh, look at that! Where did this come from? What a mystery! It surely cannot be one of those things I can't get my hands on, right?"

Bel mimed shock, and then casually started juggling the boxes like they were balls and… Wait. Wait just a minute. I can't juggle!

Do… Do I have to learn how to juggle for this? But if I do so because I now learned that I would need it here, then wouldn't that cause a temporal paradox? A bootstrap-paradox, to be precise? Why would I even do this?

"{Don't overthink this, and focus,}" future-me warned me through the communicator.

He must've remembered that he had also been confused by this situation because he was really quick on the uptake… but wait. If he could remember being confused here, then doesn't that mean that he also didn't know how to juggle at this point in time, and learned how to do it because of this? But then we're back to the paradox again! Goddamit, I knew it! I knew this bloody timey-wimey crap is going to lead to something like this eventually!

Ignoring my inner turmoil, Bel snatched the boxes out of the air and lightly shook both of them before hopping off the desk again.

"My, my. Such a fancy way to safeguard your secret little toy, but do you know?" He cocked his head to the side a little, and added, "I wonder what happens to a lock once its keys are broken?"

"No! Stop him!" Lord Grandpa roared, but he was too late.

In a moment, the room was filled with the blinding magical flare of a dozen spells being cast at once. None of them reached Bel in time, and with a loud crunching sound, both boxes were crushed simultaneously. It happened so fast that I couldn't even properly react, too busy trying to untangle what just happened.

The arch-mages fell dead silent as the wooden fragments of the boxes fell to the floor, but… that was all. There were no magical marbles, either in whole or pieces, and the sight made everyone freeze in confusion. Including myself.

"Oh. Oooh?" Suddenly, Bel's attention snapped to me, and he exclaimed, "Polemos, you naughty boy! You tricked me, didn't you?" Before I even had the time to feel any more baffled, he amended it with an outwardly silent, "{Just play along.}"

"Did I?" I responded on autopilot while simultaneously messaging, "{What do you mean 'play along'? Why didn't you warn me?}"

"{Spoilers. Now, pay attention,}" the impassive voice in the communication array spoke curtly while Bel dusted his palms and squared up in front of me. "You didn't even try to stop me just now, did you? It's almost as if you knew the boxes were empty all along…"

In the end, I resigned myself to figuring out what all of this was about after-the-fact, and turned my full attention to the conversation. From what I understood, future-me set this up to look like I tricked him into stealing a pair of empty boxes. Let's improvise from there.

"I'm surprised it took you this long to realize," I responded, doing my best to maintain my calm and collected Polemos persona. "I expected that you would try something like this, so I took some precautionary steps in advance."

"Hey! That's unfair!" Bel exclaimed, acting like a child throwing a tantrum. "It's the second time you did this! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, still shame on you, you dirty, dirty magpie!"

"What… is going on?" Lord Taika muttered nearby, so caught up in the proceedings she forgot to prepare any spells. The other arch-mages weren't so passive, and while their first salvo was neutralized by future-me's phantom limbs (even if I couldn't see them), I didn't want to further escalate things, especially when I still wasn't entirely sure about the plan.

"Polemos just stole my fanfare!" Bel cried out in response to her murmurs while waving his hands around, fingers pointing at me from different angles. After a while, he let his arms down and exhaled a regretful sigh. "And I worked so hard to get those silly things and set up this whole scene! … Well, okay. Maybe not that hard." He glanced at Lord Ambrose. "You just put your precious Grimoire Key into a mini-safe! Even a child could open those with a crowbar!"

"But… what about the explosives!?"

I'm not going to lie, I didn't expect that response from the bearded arch-mage, but Bel just shrugged.

"I said a child could open it, not live afterwards." He turned his attention back to me, and added, "Seriously, Polemos, old chap? When did you take them? Did you also take the third one? Wait, don't tell me, I'll check!"

He didn't go anywhere, and I had a feeling he was waiting for me to respond, so I hastily said, "Do you want to make an even bigger fool of yourself? Be my guest."

"Aw, dammit," he hissed and crossed his arms. "You're playing me, aren't you? If I go and check, I'll be walking into a trap, but if I don't, it's going annoy the living bejeezus out of me for the rest of the day! Ah, you diabolical bastard!" Suddenly, his demeanour and body language changed, and he levelled a chilling glare at me. "I'm almost tempted to twist that smart little head of yours off your shoulder, right here and now, but…"

He trailed off, so I assumed an aggressive posture and growled, "But what?"

"But it's not time yet," he responded offhandedly and then threw up his hands. "Fine. I'll be the bigger man, and accept my loss today. Maybe you won't be so lucky next time." This time, his hands moved to the lapels of his tailcoat, and after tugging on them, he added, "Now, if you excuse me, I better let off some steam before someone dies. You said we met at some banquet today, right? That sounds fun. See you a few hours ago!"

And with that, future-me bowed out, leaving me with this whole mess on my hands. He didn't even send me a final message, or tell me what this was all about! God damn. Was I also this infuriating?

"Is he gone?" Lord Grandpa asked in a quiet voice, his eyes locked on the remains of the wooden boxes on the floor. They were nothing more than some broken wood, warped metal, and torn velvet padding, with all of the original enchantments completely wrecked. At last, he turned to me. "What did he mean?"

"By what?" I blurted out by reflex, and Lord Barnabas quickly wedged himself between the two of us.

"From your exchange with Bel of the Abyss just now, it almost sounded like you have taken the Grimoire Keys in Lord Amadeus's and Lord Ambrose's custody before he could get his hands on them."

While it was a statement, there was a very clear implicit question in his words, and once again, I couldn't help but curse future me for leaving me behind without explaining anything. The least he could've done was to write it into the letter!

"It was… a reasonable precaution," I squeezed out, and this time Lord Ambrose hopped between me and Lord Grandpa, nearly knocking Barnabas open.

"Did you take my Grimoire Key, Leonard?! How could you?! I mean, literally! How did you take it? I need to know to perfect my countermeasures. Was the pressure sensor not sensitive enough? Or are the plastic explosives too old? Or…"

"That is not important right now," Lord Grandpa cut in with thundering eyes. "Leonard, I thought we have already developed an understanding regarding the Keys."

"Yes, but… It was an important preventive measure," I said the first thing that came to mind, and I've got support from an unlikely place.

"It isn't the first time he's done something like this," Roland noted with just a hint of distaste. "The same thing happened with Ascalon."

"The famous dragon slaying spear?" Gulliver asked on the side. "I've heard the story of that from the Dracis patriarch during last week's party. Let's hope our Grimoire Keys won't meet the same fate."

"Please don't joke about that!" Ammy suddenly burst out, drawing everyone's attention to her. "I-I mean… It would be terrible if the Keys were destroyed, right?"

"Indeed," Barnabas spoke with extra gravitas. "While it is possible to recreate a Key, were it misplaced or destroyed, it's a time- and resource-consuming process that requires the remaining, intact Keys. If two of the Keys are lost, it would render the Grimoire of the Last Truth fundamentally impossible to operate, even if the Conduit were to be found. It would be a catastrophic loss for the Assembly, and the World of Mystics as a whole."

"Meaning," Lord Grandpa hissed, unusually worked up. Maybe because the situation reopened some old wounds. "Meaning we all sincerely hope that the Keys you have taken for safekeeping are safe."

"They are."

I said that with as much confidence as I could muster, but they clearly weren't convinced. I couldn't blame them.

"Where are they right now?" Ammy pressed me, not reading the room at all.

"Safe. Somewhere where Bel wouldn't look for them."

"Specifically?" Endymonion joined his granddaughter in pestering me, and I really wanted to scream 'How the hell should I know!?' at them.

This whole situation just made me want to punch future-me the next time we met. How could he leave me hanging like this!? We even had the communication arrays to sneakily exchange info, so he had no excuse… unless he literally couldn't tell me.

I mean, I pretty much understood that when he said 'spoilers', he meant 'me telling you this would cause a paradox' (as if the juggling didn't already do that, but I digress). If I presumed that was the case, it meant that this exact scenario had to play out for whatever retconned state of the world he was working towards. So… was I meant to be confused right now?

Let's look at this objectively: the letter said two things regarding this situation. One was the Keys, and the other was a warning to keep my friends close. In this case, that probably meant Ammy. Maybe Pascal too, though we weren't close enough to be called 'friends'. Let's just go with Ammy.

If future-me wanted me to keep her close, it meant that her presence here was necessary. Why? Well, our working hypothesis was that she was related to the Grimoire, potentially as a plot device in her own route that never came to be, so it meant she would be relevant to the Keys. For that, the Keys had to be here, but they weren't in the boxes. Now, if I was future-me, and I wanted to make sure I would find them here without any further information, where would I hide them?

My eyes scanned across the arch-mage's office, and before long, I locked onto the liquor cabinet in the corner. After my first stint here, which ironically also involved Lord Grandpa's Grimoire Key, the cabinet was taken away and completely dissected, looking for an explanation of how it could've disappeared and reappeared like that.

It was not long before the day of the Angie-retcon that it was finally returned to the room, though at the moment it didn't hold any alcohol and was filled with just various decorative bottles and glasses. Under the watchful eyes of the small crowd, I followed my instincts and walked over to it.

The moment I opened the door, my gaze was drawn to the back of the middle shelf. There was a bright magical glow there, clearly visible even in the magically overcharged room, and when I reached behind the rows of shot glasses, my fingers traced across something round. While everyone was holding their breaths, I pulled my hand back and opened my palm to show its contents to everyone.

"Here."

The silence was broken by a whistle from Lord Gulliver and an impressed, "Well, I'll be damned."

"Hiding them in plain sight, instead of trying to lock away or disguise them," Lord Taika followed him up, sounding just as impressed. "The thought process of a true Illusionist."

I presumed that was supposed to be a compliment. Meanwhile, everyone took a good look at the orbs in my hand and were visibly relieved. The Keys were round, white marbles; each one the size of an eyeball, and faintly glowing with otherworldly light. The last time I had seen one of these, it was embedded in a hexagonal amulet, but future-me chose to extract them from their socket for some reason.

In any case, I offered the Keys to Lord Grandpa, and he gingerly reached out to touch them.

"There is no mistaking it. These are the Grimoire Keys, yet… their glow appears to be rather unusual, considering the circumstances."

Now that he mentioned it, the two marbles weren't only letting off the usual, normally invisible light of magic, but they were also pulsing with an eerie purplish glow. They were not only synchronized, but the visible light was getting brighter with each cycle, like a heartbeat that was gradually getting stronger.

"Is… everything all right? They aren't broken, are they?" Ammy inquired, and when I was just about to present them to her to take a look, the two marbles began trembling in my palm.

"Amelia, look out!" Pascal jumped in front of her, just in time when the Key abruptly flared up and flew right at her.

I was so startled that I almost reflexively swatted at them with my phantom limbs, but I managed to stop myself in time. Instead, I watched as the two orbs not only avoided Pascal, but also the barrier made of small hexagonal shields he erected, and after going almost full circle, they whizzed right up to the class rep's ears.

Their lightly died down as silence enveloped the room, and then, like a supernova, they flared up so hard I had to guard my eyes with my hand, and Ammy let out a startled yelp. She would've most likely fallen over from the shock, if not for Roland grabbing her at the last second, and once the light died down, she found herself in the crossfire of all eyes on her. Or rather, the pair of marble balls, covered in glowing purple arcane symbols lazily circling her head like planets orbiting around a star.

"W-What's going on?"

Surprised out of her wits, Ammy looked left and right in search of support.

"Well, I'll be damned," Lord Ambrose muttered, his hand absently tugging at his beard. "I'll very well be damned! Amadeus, you old fool! You had the Conduit in your family the whole damn time!"

"Now, now. Calm down," Lord Gulliver tried to rein in the old guy, but he had none of it.

"Calm down my foot! Look at that! There's no mistaking it!"

"It… really does seem to fit the descriptions I've heard, but…" Lord Barnabas tried to interject, but he was out-shouted by Ambrose.

"Argh! I can't believe if it wasn't for what happened today, we might've never learned about this!"

Meanwhile, Lord Taika grabbed the hands of Ammy and gently squeezed her fingers.

"Congratulations are in order, Amelia."

"Wha…? What just happened?" She looked out of it and seemed to be more bothered by the marble balls going in and out of her field of view than anything else.

"The Keys have recognized you," she told her with a smile. "You're the Conduit of the Grimoire."

"Really?" The class rep finally stopped trying to get the orbs to stop orbiting and stared at Taika and wide-eyed disbelief. "J-Just like this?"

"There's no question about it," Lord Barnabas joined in after he gave up on the attempt to calm Ambrose. "We should quickly send a message to the Tower of Restoration in Ottawa and ask Lord Marzanna whether the Key in her custody has also responded."

After saying that, the dark-skinned arch-mage politely turned to the still-studded Lord Grandpa, waiting for his approval. When he nodded, Barnabas immediately turned on his heel and headed outside, not even bothering to dispel his magical armour first.

In the meantime, now that he was finally shaken out of his stupor, Endymonion looked me in the eye. We held eye contact for a few seconds. He might've been searching for something in my gaze, though it was a futile effort, as I was just as taken aback by the suddenness of this development as he was.

"Did you know this would happen?" he asked at least, and after a long beat, I nodded.

"I had a strong inkling, yes."

He didn't respond right away. Instead, he glanced at his granddaughter, who was still in the process of accepting what just happened (and trying to halt the circling marbles even as we were speaking) and then back at me.

"Why does everything keep happening on my island?" he blurted out at last, sounding almost pitiful in the process.

I gave it some thought, and the best I could say was, "I could tell you, but you wouldn't believe me anyway." That wasn't exactly an uplifting note to end things on, so after mulling it over a bit, I added, "Just roll with the punches, and don't look the gift horse in the mouth. It's easier that way."