As the doors leading to the school's roof opened, I couldn't help but stop in my tracks and suck in a deep, nostalgia-filled breath. Only to nearly get knocked over for my trouble.

"Sorry, coming through!" Angie called out well after she bumped into me, followed by her boyfriend. He was, once again, designated as the group's mule and was carrying a whole bunch of lunch boxes, all of which came from the cafeteria. In any case, once out in the open, the Celestial girl looked at the sunny sky and exclaimed a delighted, "Nice!"

She was probably referring to the weather, and she wasn't wrong. We had an unseasonal hot spell at the moment, bringing the temperature up to… well, maybe not 'balmy' per se, but at least 'reasonably pleasant'.

"This brings back memories," my dear assistant whispered by my side, and before I could respond, my other girlfriend poked her head between us.

"Good ones or bad ones?"

"Mostly good," Judy responded after a short delay, and Elly nodded along with a grin.

"Same here."

"Brother! You're in the way!" Penny complained in the back, and so we stepped aside to let my sisters and the class rep through. The former were about as energetic as expected, considering that this was Penny's first rooftop lunch with the rest of us, while the latter was… well, Ammy looked a bit out of it, but I figured it probably had to do with her officially joining the homunculus project during the weekend. She must've been tired.

We soon followed after them, and once again, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the significance of this place. The doorway was where I had my first major (if silly) encounter with the princess. The roof itself was where I met Judy for the first time. The spot over to our right was where the protracted chase with the first Chimera ended with us falling off the roof… though it was in a Purple Zone, so maybe it didn't count. As for our left, there was the bench where we had a talk with Elly when I failed to 'let her down gently'.

I would've probably continued to ruminate for a while, but I was jolted out of my thoughts when I noticed a pair of familiar faces already occupying that very same bench.

"Ah! Hello!"

The enthusiastic greeting came from the red-headed arch-mage sitting there, with a huge hamburger in his hands. His companion, the ornery Lord Ambrose, only scoffed at first, but when Lord Gulliver gave him a sideways look, he let out a low groan and nodded in my general direction. There was a whole pile of fast foods between the two of them, so I figured they also took advantage of the weather to have an outdoor lunch.

However, before I could properly respond, I was pulled along by my girlfriends, and they led me to the corner of the roof, where Josh and Angie were already setting up our usual spot. I had to say, the wind was a bit chilly, but so long as we were in the sun, and I had the girls to warm me, I imagined everything would be just fine.

"This one is yours, and this is yours, I think," the Celestial girl muttered as she handed out one lunch box after another. My sisters graciously accepted them, and while they weren't as fancy as the ones my girlfriends usually brought to school, they were still high-quality, so I didn't mind trying one out for a change. Meanwhile, Ammy accepted her lunch, and Angie turned to us with a beaming smile. "And last, but not least, these are yours!"

With those words, she handed a big, multi-layered box over to us.

"It's a red-letter day," I declared with unnecessary gravitas as I accepted the pack. "For the first time since time immemorial, we are the ones mooching off Josh instead of the other way around! We've come so far!"

"Bite me," the target of my jab hit me back, eliciting a giggle from his girlfriend.

I wasn't lying though. It was the very first time that Josh, contrary to his usual MO, treated us to a cafeteria lunch. It naturally had to do with him finally receiving his Draconian tournament prize money. Even then, he had to be volunteered by Angie, but I wasn't going to complain. I appreciated the novelty.

In any case, once everyone got their food, we sat down on the usual benches in the corner, hitting me with another wave of strange nostalgia. But then, the banter started.

"So? How did your Valentine's go?" Angie asked with expectant eyes aimed at my girlfriends.

"The Chief was really proactive," Judy responded and rested her head on my shoulder.

"I don't think that's what she was asking about, Dormouse," I whispered, but she continued to nuzzle up to me, so I dropped the issue.

"I was more curious about the chocolate," Angie continued, and when we didn't respond, she narrowed her eyes into suspicious squints. "You gave Leo Valentine's chocolate, right?"

"We didn't," Elly admitted a touch sheepishly, focused on unpacking our lunchbox so that she didn't have to look up.

"Seriously?" Josh chimed in, and this time, my other girlfriend shook her head, even while still attached to my shoulder.

"The Chief made us promise that we wouldn't."

"What? Why?" Angie pressed on, so I had to step in and explain things.

"It was to get ahead of any novel ideas Judy would come up with."

By that, I meant trying to invoke one of the sillier (and lewder) tropes associated with the occasion. Namely, the one where the girl would wait for her love interest (in this case, me) in the bedroom, with only her private parts covered in molten chocolate. Yes, that was a trope, and a messy and potentially unhygienic one that I shut down the moment I got a wind of Judy looking into the matter. Of course, the others didn't need to know the granular details, yet as always, my dear assistant read my mind and turned to me with a frown.

"I told you; I was only looking it up for research purposes."

"Then what about the order of five kilograms of low-melting-point chocolate?"

"Also research."

"And the special plastic bedsheet covers?"

"Also also research," she insisted, and let out a long sigh. "To think our relationship had fallen so low you automatically presume I was up to something eccentric just because of such circumstantial evidence. What happened to trust?"

"Says the girl who's been hellbent on giving me a maid fetish."

Judy narrowed her eyes a bit, and flatly stated, "Don't be silly, Chief. I can't give you something you already have."

Our small argument came to a close when Elly placed our individual lunches into our laps. Meanwhile, the confounded Celestial decided to ignore us and moved on.

"I gave Josh a big chocolate heart!" Angie declared with a toothy grin.

"It wasn't just big, it was enormous," her boyfriend followed her up with a shake of his head. "Where did you even get something like that? No, scratch that. How did you even bring it into the house?"

"I asked Mister Jaakobah, and he got it for me," she answered off-handedly before focusing her attention on my sisters, blissfully snacking on the next bench over and pretending they weren't part of the conversation. Apparently, she would have none of that. "What about you two? Did you give chocolates to anyone?"

Momentarily stumped, it was Snowy who recovered first, and she answered in a soft voice.

"I'm not very familiar with the custom, so I used my allowance to buy a lot of small chocolate truffles and gave one to everyone." She paused for a second, and then added, "One for Leo, one each for Uncle Brang and the Fauns, and then I gave one to each of the Knights, and—"

"I also gave some homemade chocolate to Snowy in return," Penny cut in with a grin. Then, as if only realizing how that sounded, she hastily backpedalled. "A-Awawa! Wait that sounds wrong! I meant I gave her appreciation chocolate! It's a thing, I looked it up! There's nothing weird about it, so don't read anything into it!"

"You're the only one who does that, kiddo," I commented on the side, much to my fuming sister's chagrin.

Meanwhile, Angie moved on, and she focused on the class rep sitting next to my sisters. She was completely quiet until this point, trying to stay out of it, but when she caught Angie's eye, she had no choice but to put her fork down for the moment.

"I tried casting homemade chocolate for Mike." She spoke in a low voice, followed by a sigh. "It didn't turn out how I wanted, but he was really happy about it, so I think it was a success. Maybe. I have to try harder next year."

"You see, Chief?" Judy poked me in the side and pointed at Ammy. "That's how a good boyfriend should act; just accept any chocolate given without a fuss."

"Does that apply to fiancées?" Elly chimed in, and my other girlfriend nodded with a determined look.

"Doubly so."

"Speaking of which," Josh interjected, much to my appreciation, and pointed at the princess's hand. "Did anyone else notice the rings?"

"I did, but they're against the dress code of the school, so I didn't want to bring attention to them," the class rep commented with a hand on her glasses, yet it somehow lacked the usual menace.

"Oops?" Josh responded nonchalantly and repeated the question. "So, since the cat's out of the bag, you might as well explain what they're about."

"It was our special gift from Leo," the princess said and extended her hand to show off her ring.

"One of our gifts," Judy corrected her, but at the same time, she was also showing her own ring to the childhood friend couple.

"Wow!" Angie exclaimed with stars in her eyes. "I wonder when I'll get one of these?"

As per the unwritten laws of comedic timing dictated, she said that just as Josh was taking a swig from a can of soda he bought on the way to the roof, and he nearly made a spit-take. How very stereotypical of him.

"Ack! That's… too soon," he said in a strained voice, trying to keep himself from coughing, and her girlfriend rolled her eyes.

"I didn't mean it like that, silly." She patted him on the back, and once Josh was no longer wheezing, she exhaled a sigh. "But still, I didn't think an engagement ring would make such a huge difference."

"Difference in what?" Snowy inquired on the side once she finally managed to calm down my other sister. In response, Angie vaguely gestured in Judy's direction.

"You know? That." Seeing that none of us understood her, she waved her hand even harder. "I mean, it's like Judy's completely different now! Almost like she's glowing or something."

"Chief?"

"No, the enchantment doesn't make you glow," I explained before she could get the wrong idea. "She must mean your makeover."

"Right. She did get prettier," Josh noted absently, only to get for his childhood friend to hit his back like it was a drum. "Ow! Hey, I'm just telling the truth!"

"It's still not something you should say in the open, especially when your girlfriend's sitting right next to you," Angie pouted, and soon the two of them descended into one of their customary, bickering back-and-forths.

In the meantime, the class rep seemed unusually interested in my lovely assistant.

"Did you change your hairstyle?" she asked, and Judy responded with a nod and a soft 'Mm.' "It's a subtle difference, but it looks good. It gives you a different atmosphere."

"I said the same thing this morning!" Penny interjected, and even Snowy agreed with the assessment.

"Actually…" Elly flashed a smug smirk, as if she was proud of some achievement. "I've overheard some boys talking about Judy after science class. They also noticed!"

"You hear that, Dormouse?" I put an arm around her waist and flashed a cheeky grin. "You've been officially recognized as a heroine. Even the placeholders spotted it."

MY whispers were rewarded with an eminently flat 'Yay', but then she rested her head on my shoulder again, so maybe she was just embarrassed by the attention. Elly must've come to the same conclusion, as she let out a soft giggle, and since the childhood friends also concluded their argument with a kiss, we were on the fast track to finish the customary bantering phase and enter the 'actually eat your lunch' phase, if not for the sudden and unannounced arrival of a new face.

"Ah, Leonard! Here you are!" Sahi called out to me from the rooftop access doors and quickly marched over to our side. "I have, like, big news!"

"Big news?" I repeated after her with a curiously raised brow, and her lips parted into a huge grin.

"I talked to Endy, and he, like, totally approved to let me take all my research and resources over to your place! It should speed up the job by, like, a million percent!"

I figured she must've been talking about the homunculus project. It was going along nicely, and if she truly managed to convince Lord Grandpa to let her move her already existing research materials from the School to the base, it would certainly serve as a boost. Not to mention, it would hopefully alleviate some of the financial strain it was putting on my wallet. Who would have thought that rushing a special project that would've normally taken about a year to be finished in a few weeks would be costly, am I right?

Self-deprecation aside, my bucket list was finally getting a bit less crowded. The dates were a big drain on my time and mental resources (or rather, setting them up, arranging the venues, and making the rings were), so now that I could finally strike them off the list, I had some much-needed breathing room. With the secret project proceeding smoothly, and the security around the School and our neighbourhood solidifying, those also required less of my attention, so I could finally focus on other issues I'd been putting off till now.

Such as dealing with Percival, retiring Bel, and dismantling the Directorate… though not necessarily in that order. In other words, I was still going to be busy. Story of my life, really.

In any case, since she was here already, I was just about to be polite and ask Sahi if she wanted to join us for lunch, but I was beaten to the punch by an indignant harrumph.

"That's 'Lord Endymonion' to you, at the very least, young lady!" Lord Ambrose fumed as he walked over to us after overhearing what she just said.

"Oh, please!" Lord Gulliver followed on his heels, leaving the rest of their food behind on the bench. "Don't be a grouch. Cut the girl some slack."

"Who are you calling a grouch, you fool!" the older arch-mage thundered at him, and then pointed at the brown girl by our side. "And what do you mean by 'cut her some slack'?! Do you want her to end up like you?"

"Sure, sure." The lanky man only grinned at his colleague and turned to Sahi. "Seriously though, what was that thing about moving away from the School?"

"I'm… Uh… Like, I'm trying to complete grandma's research?" Sahi responded a touch timidly. Whether that was an act, or she really was taken aback by being approached by these two, I couldn't tell.

"Ah, yes. The late Saahira," Gulliver spoke with a wistful sigh. "She was a strong woman of integrity taken from us too soon."

"And you say you want to finish her research?" Ambrose butted in with a skeptical look in his eyes. "Big shoes to fill, isn't it?"

"I'm sure she's up to the task," Gulliver followed him up with a good-natured smile. "I mean, look at her. She's the spitting image of her grandmother at this age, and shares her talent too."

"She's sounding more and more like her with every passing day as well," the other arch-mage continued to grumble, and Gulliver let out a soft chuckle.

"It must run in the family!" He paused and then levelled a pair of questioning eyes at me. "But why are you leaving the School again? I don't think you answered that?"

I had no idea why he was focused on me. Maybe looking for my reaction? Anyhow, after a long beat, Sahi gathered her wits and told them, "It's because Leonard, like, has a lot of cool enchantments that are indispensable for my research."

"Ah, yes. The enchantments," Lord Ambrose muttered as he also turned to me, with one hand patting his beard. The gesture reminded me of Percival, but I tried not to let my distaste show on my face. "I've heard a lot about those. They say you're both a genius enchanter and illusionist." He remained silent for a beat and then shook his head. "A talent wasted on hollow schools."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I blurted out, and Lord Gulliver quickly stepped up to clarify.

"Oh, don't mind him. He just has very strong opinions about the different schools of magic. A bit of a pet peeve of his, really."

"Silence, lout! It's nothing like a 'pet peeve'! My distaste for the aetheric branches is founded entirely on decades of expertise, hard evidence, and common sense."

"Oh dear. Here we go again…" Gulliver noted with an exaggerated slumping of his shoulders.

"What are the 'aetheric branches'?"

To my surprise, the question came from Judy, who sneakily picked up her phone and started taking notes. Since the two acting arch-mages were still squabbling, it fell on the shoulders of the incognito one to answer her inquiry.

"It's, like, an unofficial way to divide the schools of magic. It's totally not accepted by the Assembly, but, like, some people just like to use them, I guess?" Sahi shrugged, and seeing that Judy was still looking at her attentively, she soon continued. "It's dividing the school depending on, like, whether they interact with the material world directly, or indirectly. Like, the material branch has Invocation, Alternation, and Restoration, while the aetheric branch is stuff, like, Mysticism and Conjuration and Illusion."

"Mysticism?" I interjected, genuinely curious.

"It's, like, magic that creates magic. Like, you know? Enchanting and stuff." She concluded that with another shrug. "It's a totally lame and arbitrary division, if you ask me."

"There is nothing arbitrary about it!" Lord Ambrose rejoined the conversation, apparently completely forgetting about why he started it in the first place. "The aetheric schools are just cheap parlor tricks compared to the concrete reality-altering power of the material schools!"

"Let me guess," I spoke up, trying to sound neutral. "You practice the latter."

"Naturally," he declared with a huff.

"He's the head of the Tower of Invocation, the department of the Assembly that oversees all Schools of Invocation across the globe," the lanky arch-mage explained, though nobody was asking. "Lord Amadeus used to be the head of the Tower of Conjuration until he moved to Critias, by the way."

That was another thing nobody asked about, but just the mere mention of it made the bearded arch-mage let out a loud scoff.

"Conjuration is nothing but a fool's errand! A school of flash but no substance, wasting the power of the ley-lines on creating false phenomena to affect the world instead of doing it the Invocation way and acting upon the material world directly!"

That made me raise a brow. Did that mean that the Magi had a way to directly change the surface layer of the Simulacrum? How was that different from what enchantments or any other type of magical malarkey was doing? I would've been lying if I said I wasn't curious.

"Can you give me a demonstration?" I asked, and the old man's eyes suddenly snapped to me. At the same time, Gulliver looked startled, and then immediately buried his forehead in his palm.

"I'm not here to perform for you, young man! … But since you asked, come find me after school hours! If you dare!"

With that, the old man turned on his heel and marched back to his bench. Meanwhile, the red-headed man let out a long sigh and said, "Now you did it, Leonard. Ever since he heard you dueled Amadeus, he's been itching to get a piece of you, and you just gave him the excuse."

"That wasn't what I meant to do, but…" I paused and glanced at Lord Ambrose, already sitting and impatiently waiting for his lunch companion to return to his side. "I'm also a little curious about the differences in magical approach, so it works out for both of us."

"If you say so." Gulliver finished with a shrug and bid us goodbye.

"Chief? Did you just set up a magical duel with another arch-mage?"

"Seems like it," I answered with a smile that was supposed to reassure her. It didn't work.

"I can distinctly remember you promising not to do any unnecessarily dangerous stunts anymore."

"I can remember too," Elly backed her up, much to my surprise.

"Don't worry, girls. It's for research, and I have two magical weapons now. I managed to hold my own against Lord Grandpa with just Cal, so what's the worst thing that could happen?"

"That's—!"/"You're jinx—!"

I hastily raised my palm and cut both of them off.

"Yes, yes. I realized by the time I said it. Let's just eat, and forget about it." For emphasis, I picked up my fork and stabbed it into my side dishes. "Not much we can do about it at this point. Maybe if we ignore it, it will go away."

Of course, knowing how the Simulacrum operated, there was no way it wouldn't give me grief over this, but it was a bed I made myself, so I'd just have to lie in it and get it over with.