Critias had its own Chinatown. This wasn’t news to me, considering that’s where I first managed to track down Mountain Girl. However, I was still a little stumped by the literal pagoda in the city outskirts, where the Eastern Draconians set up their lodgings. Though again, the Dracis had a huge-ass mansion in the middle of a perfectly ordinary picket-fence suburban neighborhood, so maybe I was overreacting.

But let’s ignore the ostentatiously Chinese outside, and focus on the ostentatiously Chinese insides of the building instead. In one of the spacious, richly decorated chambers near the top of the pagoda, a pair of brothers were sitting on the ground, their legs crossed and eyes closed. They were shirtless, and the older one had his hands pressed against the younger guy’s back. Based on the colorless light undulating around them, they were in the process of doing… well, something. At last, they both let out long breaths and the light show quietly died down as well.

From what I gathered, the two of them were 'cultivating', which in this context meant using the power dormant in their bloodline to strengthen themselves and learn magical martial arts. I expected they'd be sparring, or doing those fancy dance-like movements, but instead the duo spent most of their time cross-legged and meditating, and while they were obviously doing something productive based on all the invisible light they kept generating, I hadn't the foggiest idea about what it was. As for why I had a hard time deciphering their actions even though I had a mark on that Zihao guy? Well, I kind of ran into an enormous blind spot that I never had to deal with until now: they were speaking Chinese.

Now, in retrospect, that made perfect sense. They were among themselves, so they would naturally use their mother tongue in private, but I was so used to everyone, from Abyssals to Celestials, just defaulting to English that their entirely reasonable behavior left me stumped for a good while. In short, while marking Naoren was still on my priority list, this discovery pushed its necessity way down.

Anyhow, after training, the Draconian brothers had an argument, and the words 'Lenore', 'Dracis' and 'Blackloak' came up a couple of times, but since I didn't speak Chinese, I had no clue what they signified. At least from their body language and tone, I could tell that Naoren was telling off his younger brother, and the latter was grudgingly accepting the lecture, but that was all I could gather.

So, since there was nothing to really see here, I got out of Far Sight and stretched my back on the bed before sitting up with a soft huff.

"Are you done, Dormouse?"

"Just a minute," my dearest assistant answered from in front of my PC. "I just have to apply the transition effect to all the slides and save it, and then we can leave."

"Neat."

We came home after a deceptively uneventful day at school, and while waiting for the others to arrive, Judy decided to make a few slides to illustrate today's discussion, and I lent her my PC for the time being. Snowy, Josh, and Angie were already downstairs, and a quick Far Glance told me Elly and the class rep were already on their way. I would've done a quick roll call on the usual suspects, but Judy beat me to the punch by pushing herself away from the PC desk.

"I'm done. We can go now."

"Not everyone's here yet, so there's no need to hurry."

"In that case, I'll go and refresh myself in the bathroom."

"Why? You look perfectly fresh to me already?"

Judy gave me a flat look and stressed, "It's a girl thing, Chief."

"Oh, that? In that case, do as you see fit."

She let out a soft hum and left the room, leaving me all alone. My first reflex was to continue the roll call, starting with my self-ascribed Celestial contact, but after some consideration, I stood up instead and took the seat Judy just vacated in front of the computer. Opening the hub, I checked the newly submitted reports, and near the top of the list, I found the one I was looking for. Mike was a bit of a goof, but he had a solid work ethic it seemed.

Well, until I actually read the contents, that is. Put simply, his account of the events transpiring at the Draconian banquet was spotty at best. I skimmed the paragraphs, and most of them were just a headcount of the attendees. It only mentioned my altercations with the guests in passing, the tournament announcement was described in just two sentences, while Ammy was suspiciously missing from the recounting of the events. If I had to guess, he just got so focused on her the rest of the ball barely registered with him, and then he overcompensated when writing the report by pretending she wasn't even there.

Since I was here already, I also checked a few other recent reports and resolved an argument between two of the regulars about some tag definitions. There was nothing really noteworthy here, so before I closed the browser, I sneaked a peek at my own high-priority file, just in case there was any kind of change. A quick scroll didn't show anything new, aside from my file being cross-referenced with Bel's due to our 'connection'. There were a lot of holes in the latter, probably due to the Celestial healer not giving a full report thanks to the idea I planted in his head as Bel. In any case, so long as they weren't suspecting me, and I was still on their 'befriend for mutual benefits' list, everything was fine.

"Elly just arrived," Judy announced as she came back in, and I acknowledged her with a nod before I shut down the PC and got up.

"That leaves only Ammy." I checked on her dot, then added, "She's in the neighborhood, so I think we can start preparing."

Judy nodded and sidled up to me before she grabbed hold of my arm with a proud hum. In retrospect, telling her about the misunderstanding Naoren had about our relationship might not have been one of my most prudent decisions… but on the other hand, the way she was acting right now was kinda cute, and it only made Elly more fired up to show her affection as well, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all? History will decide.

Anyhow, we walked downstairs hand in hand, and the princess also attached herself to me the first opportunity she had.

"Hi, Leo. Did you miss me?"

"We just parted at school less than two hours ago," I pointed out, but a beat later I added, "That said, the answer is naturally yes."

My draconic girlfriend giggled and went for a full hug, which I bore like a champ. In the meantime, I looked over the group in the living room. Snowy just let the newly arrived class rep in, with Ichiko pattering around them in her fox form. Angie had already raided my pantry, as usual, and she had a box of cookies in her hand while arguing with her childhood friend. Speaking of Josh, even though he got his face healed already, he was still wearing an adhesive Band-Aid across the bridge of his nose, and with his sleeves rolled up, he was steadily becoming the spitting image of a hot-blooded shounen protagonist. That was probably a good thing, right?

"Hi, Ammy," I greeted the newcomer, pulling the girls along in the process.

"Hello. I'm sorry for being a little late; I had to organize some of grandfather's documents."

"I thought you no longer had to do paperwork," Josh commented on the side as he stood up, and the class rep slumped her shoulders in response.

"Things are just especially busy because of all the Draconians on the island." I thought that was the end of it, but then she directed a sharp gaze at me and added, "Also, we still have to deal with the other Schools bombarding us with requests about you. At this rate, you might become a topic at the Assembly."

"That sounds annoying," I grumbled, and she reflexively tweaked her glasses.

"In that case, you shouldn't have caused a stampede during the last Symposium."

"I never intended to. Things just kind of spiraled out of control."

"That seems to happen a lot around you, huh?" Josh quipped, and as much as I wanted to deny it, I couldn’t find the words.

In the meantime, Ammy let out a soft sigh and shook her head.

"The gears of bureaucracy grind slowly, so I don't think you have anything to worry about for the time being, but there's a distinct chance you might have to attend a hearing in the future."

"Because of my enchanting?"

She nodded solemnly and explained, "Some voices in the Assembly want to make sure that what you're doing is based on your own abilities and nonreplicable. If it wasn't, they'll try to use the monopoly act of the nineteen seventy-eight charter's preservation laws to force you to share your techniques."

"Force?" Elly echoed her with a strong hint of disapproval, and the class rep shook her head.

"Sorry, that's not quite the right word. In practice, it would boil down to imposing sanctions on you and restricting the Schools from doing business with you until you comply. It was an Assembly law put into practice to ensure that certain breakthroughs wouldn't be lost when their developer maintained secrecy to the point they took it to the grave with them, but it's mostly used like this."

"How about we worry about this later? I think right now we have a bigger fish to fry," I pointed out, and the class rep hurriedly nodded along.

"That's right. Sorry, I got caught up in the topic."

"No biggie. Let's just get going."

I filed the possibility of such a hearing in the overstuffed cabinet at the back of my mind and proceeded to ferry everyone over to the secret base without a hitch. By the time I was finished with the last round-trip, the main hall of the base was getting a little rowdy, and we found the whole population of the secret base, from Fauns to Knights, all clustered around the operations meeting segment of the place, the one with the big dry-erase board.

We walked over, and the quartet of Brang, Fred, Rinne, and Arnwald welcomed us in turn. Those four were in charge of their respective groups, and while we never made it official, they were acting like department heads when I wasn't around. I didn't mind their self-organizing one bit, as it took dealing with the running of the secret base more or less off my hands, and considering how much I've already had on my plate, I welcomed their initiative.

"Is everyone present?" I asked out of courtesy, even though I could tell that a few faces were still missing.

"More or less," Fred answered as he followed my example and looked over the small crowd. "Verne said he would finish his job soon, but he probably lost track of time again. No, wait. There he comes."

"Shall we scour the complex for stragglers, Leonard-dono?" Rinne inquired, and I shook my head.

"No need, let's just get started."

Everyone nodded along, and after seating the gang in the first row purposefully left empty for them, I walked up to the dry erase board and forcefully cleared my throat to get the crowd's attention.

"Welcome, everyone, to our first general meeting. Before we discuss the recent events, let's hear the operational report of the base first."

I gestured for Fred to come up, and after an unusually awkward 'Kihihi…', he took stood by me and fiddled with a bunch of papers in his hands.

"I suppose we should start with a report on our recent achievements," he began and shuffled his notes. "First off, just last week we officially inaugurated our second mana-reactor. Operating at ninety-six percent efficiency, it now supplies the workshop with both electricity and water, making us functionally self-sufficient." There was another pause here while he looked for one of his notes, but then his face lit up. "Kihihi! Speaking of the workshop, the bio labs are now functioning at full capacity, and with the testing chambers scheduled to be operational by the end of the week, we can start on the prototyping and optimization of our new General Purpose Mana Enhancement Undersuits! We're also happy to announce that our first, homemade industrial oven design is already installed in the main kitchens, as per head chef Pip's request. I speak for the entire research department when I say that we're eagerly looking forward to tomorrow's lasagna."

There was a long round of applause, causing the wolfish Faun in the back to awkwardly scratch the back of his neck. In the meantime, Fred signaled that he didn't have much else to say for now, so the duo of Rinne and Arnwald took his place.

"On our end, I must say our accommodations are more than satisfactory, and both us and our squires resumed our training regimen in preparation of our liege's future plans," the Knight with the epic sideburns stated, but then he turned to Mountain Girl. "However, as I have already discussed with the commander of our esteemed comrades, the central training grounds have proven to be insufficient for our needs."

"Rinne concurs with Arnward-san's assessment. We are currently maintaining a strict schedule for the dojo's usage, but if the number of Leonard-dono's subordinates keep expanding, we believe such arrangements would no longer be practical."

"Because of this, we have put forth a request for a new expansion, and our liege approved the excavation and construction of a new training area with enough space for both our interception drills and the Kage warriors' vertical mobility exercises. The construction will begin next month, and is scheduled to finish by the end of January."

That earned another round of applause, mostly from the Knights and the Fauns. I glanced at Brang to see if he had anything to add, and when he shook his head, I took center stage again.

"Thank you for your hard work. Now, let's discuss the recent events and how we're going to proceed forwards. Dormouse?"

My girlfriend stood up, and my other girlfriend quietly encouraged her from the back as she headed… to Galatea, and handed over a USB drive to her. While the androidess fiddled with that behind her neck, Judy finally walked over and stood right next to me. As in, close enough where our shoulders touched. Maybe she was a little nervous in front of the crowd?

Either way, she remained glued to me as she produced one of those pen-sized laser pointers from her pocket and gestured towards Galatea. Soon, the lights dimmed in the entire main hall, and from a small trap door on the ceiling, a projector descended. I… didn't remember ever seeing that on any of the requisition forms. Or anyone installing it, now that I thought about it. Could it be…? Was the secret base really becoming my kitchen, version 2.0, where convenient things just appeared like they were always present?

…

Nah, I probably just missed it. Not everything had to be some kind of convenient simulation shortcut. I hoped.

Anyhow, once the projector turned on, using the board behind us as a canvas, my dear assistant cleared her throat and began her presentation.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Let me briefly explain the current situation." She gestured with her finger, and the first slide, packed with letters, appeared behind us. "Our current goals are as follows: the unification of the Draconian clans, the dissolution of The Knightly Brotherhood of the Most Heroic Bloodlines, and creating a new law-enforcement organization out of the latter to serve as an internal peacekeeping and police force for the former."

Judy made another gesture, and a new slide came into view, this one with a large diagram with my face in the middle of a series of interconnected bubbles with various people's and organizations' names written in them.

"To achieve this goal, the Chief will serve as the linchpin to tie everyone together. Our main obstacles to the plan include the members of the Brotherhood currently unaccounted for, as well as the recently arrived Eastern Draconians led by the Feilong clan."

Another slide followed, this time showing three photos.

"The key members of the Feilong clan are Naoren Feilong, Zihao Feilong, and Xinji Feilong, in order. For now, we must maintain cordial relations with them, so we request that you refrain from antagonizing either of them. As for the progression of the negotiations and future plans, you'll be notified on a need-to-know basis. As of now, there are two developments which indirectly concern you all."

The projection behind us changed to the picture of a high-class casino, and I took the opportunity to insert myself into the presentation.

"This is going to be the venue of the grand auction that'll be held two weeks from now. In case we want to put something up for sale, the items have to be registered before the end of this Friday, and the list will be made public on Sunday." Turning to the gaggle of mad scientists, I emphasized, "So long as I vouch for them, my father-in-law assured me that anyone can participate both as sellers and bidders. In other words, if you wish to bolster your operating funds, this is a great opportunity to do just that."

My words caused quite a stir, predictably enough, and Fred, in particular, waved to me to get my attention.

"Yes?"

"Kihihi! I'm just curious. Are you also going to participate, boss?"

"Should I?"

My thoughtless words made the buzzing scientist fall silent for a while, and a long beat later they all rose in unison to vehemently declare some variety of 'Yes!'

"Come on, boss! Don't kid around," Fred continued once the clamor died down a little. "If you put up some of your handiwork for sale, you're going to make a killing!"

"That's right!" the man with the high-tech plague doctor mask exclaimed. "It doesn't even have to be revolutionary! Those fools from the Assembly would pay a premium just because your name's attached to it!"

The rest of the crowd loudly agreed, so I raised my palms to calm the flood of encouragements and relented with, "Fine, fine. I'll think of something, but you guys should also do the same."

"Kihihi! That goes without saying!" my chief mad scientist declared, and we left it at that.

"Good. Now then, once the ledger is finalized on Sunday, I'll get you a copy, and you can all look it over. If there's anything that catches your eyes, inform me, make your case, and if your argument is convincing, we'll add it to the list of items we'll be bidding on during the event. Any questions?" Everyone remained silent, so I turned back to Judy. "Please proceed."

The next slide was, unexpectedly, a series of connected brackets, most likely serving as an illustration, and after sneaking a glance at me, Judy took a deep breath and addressed the elephant in the room.

"The second recent development is the announcement of a martial arts tournament, sponsored by clan Feilong's grand elder Xinji. According to the preliminary discussion held at the banquet last night, it's going to be a double-elimination tournament. Each Draconic clan is allowed to nominate up to two participants, with Lord Endymonion's School given two more spots as special guests. The winner will receive a set of valuable elixirs, as well as a one million Jens provided by Abram Dracis."

"Elixirs?"/"A million?" Rinne and Penny exclaimed in shock, but quickly quieted down when they found themselves in the center of attention.

"Is that Zihao guy going to participate?" came the next response from Josh, and I shrugged.

"I don't know. Probably, but it doesn't really matter."

"It doesn't?" Snowy whispered on the side, and I gave her a huge nod.

"Nope. You see, if I can help it, there won't be any tournament to begin with, so the whole question is moot."

"Why not?" Josh spoke up again, and his sudden question threw me on a loop.

Sure, I knew why I absolutely wanted to avoid a tournament arc, because it was a tired old cliché and all, but how was I going to explain it to them without talking about tropes and how long, predictable, and boring these things tended to be? In the end, I decided to just ignore the dilemma altogether and emphatically stated, "Because it's dumb."

"That's not an answer."

"Just take it and move on, okay? Nobody wants to do this thing anyway."

"And what if I do?" Josh pressed on and provocatively crossed his arms.

"You what?"

"I asked what if I actually want to participate in this tournament. What then?"

It took me a few long seconds to understand that my friend was entirely serious, and with a sinking feeling, I slowly realized that my anti-tournament-arc countermeasures might have hit an enormous roadblock right at the starting line…