Despite mom-in-law's proposal, the meeting at the Dracis mansion somehow managed to drag on for more than an hour longer, with about half a dozen 'just one last thing' interruptions. I expected quite a bit more resistance to the merger, but by the end of it the clan leadership got so into it they were discussing things like coat-of-arms and mottos. They reminded me more of kids in the process of creating their own little treehouse club than seasoned political leaders, but then again, considering the discussion was mainly led by Abram, maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.

On a side note, according to what I'd gathered, the main reason everyone agreed so easily wasn't just because the Dracis and Feilong bosses both gave their support. Or rather, it wasn't the only reason.

On the Eastern Draconian side, the failed coup caused all the branch- and subordinate clans under the Feilongs to panic, so the moment Naoren revealed his stance, they were practically tripping over each other in their hurry to show their loyalty by agreeing with him. Seeing that, I almost wanted to pat myself on the back for deciding to go against the obvious development and draw the Feilong patriarch into the scheme. If I just butted heads with him over the princess and we ended up on bad terms, the failed coup would've given him the leverage to torpedo all my plans with a few words.

As for the other side, the reason behind their cooperative attitude had less to do with the prestige of the Dracis family than the nature of the whole Draconian conference itself. In short, the Western Draconians who accepted the invitations were the representatives of the 'nicer' families who were already predisposed to work together, while the ones who would immediately reject the proposal didn't even come to the island.

On one hand, it allowed the emergency meeting to smoothly transition into a unification summit, which was an awesome development… but on the other hand, it meant there were unreceptive Draconian families out there who definitely wouldn't approve of what we were doing here. Some of them, like the ambivalent Smoks whose patriarch didn't bother to show up, might come to our side just due to peer pressure, but If I was a betting man, I'd wager my nonexistent hat on at least a couple of families refusing to join. Add in the fact that we had yet to discuss exactly what kinds of behaviors and activities would the Ordo Draconis consider unlawful, and I had a feeling even the people eagerly discussing the potential benefits of the merger would soon cool down their enthusiasm.

Oh well. At least Roland and co. would have something to do. Considering how long they had been cooped up in the secret base, they were getting a little stir-crazy anyway, so I'll just send them out to resolve the issue before the dissenters would do something silly, like creating an 'Anti-Draconic-Federation Alliance', or something equally annoying.

In any case, that was for later. I was feeling tired, both physically and mentally, and after the meeting, settling the Knights into the familiar barracks in the Dracis mansion, and reassuring Sebastian that I pulled an awesome switcheroo maneuver and he's going to get his stupid spear back, I decided to return home and take a long shower.

"We arrived," the princess announced the moment the limo stopped in front of my house, and she didn't even wait for me to open the door for her, gesturing to me to follow after her instead.

She didn't say why, but she insisted on coming with me, and she even arranged a ride for us. I didn't really mind, as I couldn't just Phase out of the mansion when it was filled with people wary of a seemingly teleporting non-villain. Speaking of which, it took an inordinate effort on my end not to chew Roland out for messing up my carefully laid out plans, but I somehow managed to even praise him for his 'smart' and 'helpful' deductions. He was so full of it, he didn't even notice the sarcasm.

I hoped I could at least vent to Elly, but after we got into the car, she remained dead silent. At first, I thought she was sulking, for some inexplicable reason, but that wasn't quite it, and I couldn't tease the reason behind the disapproving stare out of her during our short car ride. Not that I was trying too hard; I figured she'd tell me in private rather sooner than later.

When I got out, she immediately waved at the driver to leave, then grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the front door, and before I could get a word in, she already opened it with her own key.

"Welcome home," Snowy called out from the living room the moment we were inside.

"Hi, sis. Anything to report?"

"No, nothing really," she responded without coming over. Since she was in the living room instead of in her room, I figured she was engrossed with whatever was on the TV at the moment.

I was just about to kick off my shoes, but the princess stopped me by putting her foot in front of mine.

"Is Judy here, or at the base?"

"The base," I responded on autopilot, and she grabbed my hand again.

"In that case, let's go."

She was unusually direct. That meant she wasn't too angry; she tended to be a bit dotty whenever she was worked up. Yet, I couldn't help but feel even more uneasy. An irate princess was something I could easily deal with. This was something else entirely.

"Erm… Okay." I pulled her closer, then called out, "Snowy? We're going to head over to the base, and…" Pausing, I glanced down at Elly. "Are we going to be back by dinner?"

"Depends on you."

"… We're probably going to be late, so eat without us," I concluded, and my sister let out a hum on acknowledgement.

"I'll just reheat yesterday's leftovers then. Take care."

With that settled, I Far Glanced over to Judy's side and found her in the lounge area of the main hall, in the company of Galatea and Brang. Normally I would've Phased over to the fake teleport closet, just to be safe, but with the Knights and Squires staying at my in-laws, I didn't bother, and a blink of an eye later we appeared near the bar.

"Notification: grandmaster arrived," the suspiciously human android announced the moment our eyes met, and so Judy turned around on her bar stool to face us.

"Hi Dormouse, Galatea, general," I greeted them in turn. "It's rare to see the three of you together."

"She asked me to help explain her robotics jokes to Brang," my dear assistant told me with a deadpan face. "I'm afraid he's a lost cause."

"Apologies," the elderly Faun uttered with a hint of amusement.

"You can do that later," the princess cut in and used her free hand to grab Judy, only to freeze and glance around. "Is there a private place where we can talk?"

"Storage room," Brang answered at once and pointed a finger to our left. "Empty."

"Thanks," my draconic girlfriend gave him a thin-lipped smile and then tried to drag us behind her, pulling Judy off her seat in the process.

"Easy there, princess!" I called out, and stood my ground, if barely. "Let me get Mountain Girl out of my shadow first."

On cue, the floor near my feet rippled, and Rinne jumped out of it, wearing the same getup and carrying the same hiking bag from before. It startled the girls, but a split-second later the princess was back to intently glaring at me, so I quickly said, "Thank you for your hard work. Feel free to take a day off."

Rinne glanced at me, then at my girlfriends, and in an extremely rare display of reading the room for once, she gave us a shallow bow and walked off. I expected that her appearance would elicit at least a few questions, but after acknowledging her presence with a nod, Elly resumed her efforts of dragging us away. This time I didn't put up any resistance, and she didn't let us go until we reached the storage area.

At this point, the base had several rooms set aside for storing anything and everything, from building materials and food ingredients to spare weapons and all of Fred's construction-Sprockets while not in use. This particular one was mostly for storing the assets of the Research Division, which mainly meant paperwork, books, and a metric ton of incomplete or infeasible prototypes. Since each hired Research Society member had their own expertise and quirks, it meant the room was chock full of all kinds of weird stuff, including African shaman masks, half-assembled robotic endoskeletons, and potted plants with udders. That last one was extra-confusing, but let's ignore it for now.

After looking around the place to make sure we were alone, Elly casually picked up a huge wooden box filled with coconuts (don't ask, I have no idea either) and unceremoniously plopped it down in front of the door before finally exhaling a relieved sigh.

"Chief? What did you do this time?"

"I'll be damned if I—" 'knew!' is what I wanted to say, but I was interrupted by the princess marching up to me and pointing a nostalgic accusatory finger at me.

"Leo."

"Yes, princess?"

"Did the Knights know about what you were doing?"

"Well, no, not really…"

She maintained eye-contact for a couple of seconds, and just when the silence was about to get awkward, she let out a long groan and buried her face in her palm.

"So you had them enter into battle without letting them in on your plan? … Wait, why am I surprised? You didn't even tell me the whole plan!"

"To be fair, I can't really tell them that I'm Bel," I objected, but it just made her frown even harder.

"Leo, you do realize it's only a matter of time before they realize, right?"

"Not if I can help it," I stood my ground, eliciting a critically raised brow from the princess. "I put a lot of effort into my disguise, and it's practically foolproof."

"No, it's not."

She… sounded pretty confident in that declaration. Did she know about how Morgana recognized me? She shouldn't have. Ms. Gorgon couldn't tell her because of the Oath, and I didn't do it either, so I glanced at Judy. My dear assistant seemingly read my mind, as she promptly shook her head. That meant Elly probably meant something else.

"Oh, come on, princess. Would you have even recognized me if you didn't already know?"

"Of course."

"… And how exactly would you do have done that?" I pressed her, and her frowny expression finally faltered, only to be replaced by a pouty one, and she dramatically pointed at her own face.

My confusion had to be visible at this point, as after another beat, she let out a small groan and said, "My nose. I could smell you."

"Oh right, that's a thing…" I mused, but then my face slackened as the realization sank in. "Wait. How common is the ability to smell mana? Could someone else at the arena recognize me based on that?"

"It's pretty rare, actually, and…" the princess began to explain in a contemplative tone, but then she caught herself and reasserted her frowny disposition. "Wait, that's not important right now! The real issue is that you did things on your own again and didn't let anyone in on what you were doing!"

"Are you… mad because I left you out?"

"Again," Judy added, and so I sent her a 'You're not helping!' glance before turning back to Elly.

"No, I'm not," she retorted, once again sliding towards the pouty end of the spectrum. "I would, however, appreciate if you would at least explain which parts of what happened today were planned, and which parts were out of control."

"Oh? Okay then. I was about to do that anyway."

The gaze my draconic girlfriend directed at me was savagely skeptical, but thankfully my other girlfriend came to the rescue.

"To be more accurate, the plan was to let you in on the plot after the tournament, so he's telling the truth."

"I figured I'd tell you as soon as things calmed down a little. Which, I supposed, is right about now?"

We locked eyes for a few seconds, then at last she let me go and crossed her arms.

"Then please go ahead."

We shared a glance with Judy, but her eyes were pretty much saying 'It's a hole you dug, so climb out yourself', so I took a deep breath and said, "I suppose I should start at the beginning. So, do you remember that time I had a private chat with Naoren during the banquet…?"