Once I came out of the shower and sat down in my room, with Cal laid across my thighs, I was hit by a tsunami of fatigue, to the point I wished I could just sleep it all off. Sadly, we still couldn't figure out what caused me to sleep through the night that one time, and it never happened since then, so I had no choice but to soldier through it the same way as usual.

"{We must reflect on your battle, young knight!}" the nosy sword declared the moment my butt touched my bed. "{I have memorized all the spells the Lord of Magic used against you, and I'm eager to discuss each and every one of them, so that you shall be more prepared the next time you were to meet such an opponent!}"

"… Cal. You know you're lucky you have this whole 'accelerates regeneration by proximity' thing going for you, right?"

"{Well, yes, young knight. Although, I would rather consider it something that is fortunate for my wielder instead for myself, but…}" They paused for a moment, as if they just realized something, and then tentatively asked, "{Was your question one of those word-plays you are so fond of?}"

"No, it was just a rhetorical question. Don't mind it." After muttering that under my breath, there was a fairly long beat of silence, but when I instinctively felt Cal was about to speak up again, I hurriedly uttered, "Please stay silent for a while. I need to think."

"{Oh? Are you planning to internalize your battle experience on your own first? Very well. It shall serve your growth well, so let's resume our discussion about the Magi's spells at a later date.}"

"Sounds good to me," I said in a jovial tone that was only slightly strained, and when Cal remained quiet, I let out a pent-up breath and relaxed my shoulders.

Truth be told, my injuries were superficial at most, with only a few purple bruises here and there. I have ascertained that much by inspecting my body in the shower, and while that was good news, it didn't mean I was completely fine. Even putting the exhaustion aside, my hands were still raw, and my feet hurt so much I was afraid I sprained something but didn't notice at the time because of the adrenaline rush. Thankfully nothing was swollen, and after continuously holding onto Cal until now, the pain mostly subsided as well.

Still, I was annoyed. Not just because I was caught flat-footed by the old bastard, but because this incident had once again shed light on how bothersome and complicated it was to play the role of Leonard S. Dunning. It was already tricky to keep my public power-set consistent on a day-to-day basis, but being forced to handicap myself in a battle like this was especially irking.

I seriously needed to talk with Roland again one of these days, and figure out a way to get rid of Bel in a way I could merge Phasing into my core move set. Doing so would've not only helped me deal with this bloody 'purposefully unwinnable battle' scenario, but being able to openly teleport around without having to excuse it with artifacts and whatnot would've gone a long way to simplify my daily life as well. At the very least, I wouldn't have had to constantly keep track of who knows about my Phasing ability and to what degree anymore.

But putting all of that aside for a moment, I was also annoyed by the fact that, due to the old man's random demonstration of the Magi's eclectic magic system, we didn't actually finish our discussion about burying the hatchet, let alone talk about any ways to mitigate the potential threat of the Assembly to our daily lives. Also, our literal lives, though I was slightly more ambivalent on that one.

I mean, he did say that this Ley Line Nexus of theirs caused his spells to be weaker due to some obviously contrived yet probably lore-consistent factors, but even so, those attacks were no joke. With my ability to close the distance between us under a self-imposed seal, I had to remain on the back foot during the whole ordeal, and while I got out of the encounter without any injuries, the magnitude and variety of the magic he threw at me were still pretty impressive. I couldn't help but wonder who else in my fairly sizable net of friends and allies could stand up to that kind of barrage.

If he was telling the truth, and all of the arch-mages of the Assembly could output that many destructive spells in quick succession, fighting them was probably a bad idea, if for no other reason than the absurd collateral damage such a battle would cause. Which, of course, meant it would've been all the more important to actually reach a proper consensus and figure out a way to defuse the situation, but alas, apparently throwing flaming faces and water hydras at me was more important. Of course, if push came to shove, I still had the option to just throw caution to the wind, Phase on top of them, disable their defensive wards, and just beat them into submission, but that was probably at least a minor diplomatic faux pas, and doing it to every arch-mage individually sounded like an enormous pain in the neck.

Thinking about that, a groan escaped my mouth on its own, which made me realize just how quiet the house was. I didn't turn on my PC yet, so the lack of its quiet hum was very audible, and after my previous chiding, my sisters in the other room also toned things down and had been silent as mice. These moments were pretty much designed to allow me to use Far Sight in peace, and after some consideration, I decided I might as well go with the flow.

First, I started with the usual suspects, and this turned out to be one of the slowest weekends ever, as there was literally nothing to see. Jaakobah was back in his crystal-spire hotel suite room and reading. Crowey was going through some kind of ledger in his office, and it didn't look particularly interesting either. His spy master, the young woman with the two-colored hair was outside and… ice-fishing. As in, on an actual frozen lake, with a hole in front of her, surrounded by portable chairs and everything. She wasn't alone, but I couldn't recognize anyone else around her, so… maybe this was her off day? Ice-fishing in the middle of the night was an odd hobby, but hey, I wasn't going to judge her.

Either way, there was nothing to see there, though I did put a small note in my mental filing cabinet about looking into whether ice-fishing was a thing on realspace Critias as well. It looked decently interesting, so I imagined it could serve either as a wacky date idea with the girls, or some bonding exercise with my father-in-laws.

Putting all that aside for the moment, I moved on to check our own little group next. Judy was relaxing at home, Elly was doing singing practice with Melinda, while Josh and Angie were… currently arguing about whether she should sleep over at his place, or vice versa. In other words, couple stuff.

Speaking of couple-shenanigans, by the looks of it, the class rep and Mike had a movie date after she left my place, and I just caught them walking out of a cinema. They also looked incredibly wholesome together, and I was half-tempted to keep spying on them and take some notes, because the guy obviously had to do something right to maintain that cozy atmosphere. In the end, I respected their privacy and moved on for greener pastures.

My sisters were in the next room over, so there was no reason to Far Glance at them (plus, considering Penny's state of undress, it would've felt like I was genuinely peeping), and I was planning to head over to the base later anyway, so Fred, Brang, and everyone else was also out of the race. That meant that I only had one target left, and I left him for last on purpose.

In a moment, my vision was back in the arch-mage's office. The old coot was sitting behind his desk, as usual, but more surprisingly, he was not alone. Not only Sahi and Pascal were in the room with him, but Gowan also showed up at some point, and even more surprisingly, the school nurse was also there with them and was currently in the process of examining the old man with one of those magical monocles.

"You're, like, not just pretending to be weak to make me stop questioning you, are you?" the brown girl in the middle huffed indignantly, but instead of the arch-mage, it was the portly nurse who answered in his stead.

"Saahira, please. Amadeus is obviously suffering from mild internal injuries."

"How bad is it?" Pascal inquired before Sahi could get a word in, and Peabody answered with a thin-lipped smile.

"O-ho-ho. Nothing major, I assure you. A few days of rest and lots of fluids should sort it out in a jiffy." As he turned back to the man behind the desk, his jovial attitude quickly withered and he quietly added. "I mean that, old friend. You should rest. You shouldn't let the rest of the School see you shaken like that."

"It is not something I can help," Lord Grandpa griped and took out another bottle of mineral water from a drawer. "I have just been through one of the most harrowing experiences in my entire life."

"Was Leonard really that scary?" the chief artificer, standing a few steps behind the rest and distinctly feeling like a third wheel, threw in a question that raised everyone's brows, and their momentary apprehension soon turned into confusion when the old man let out a tense chuckle.

"Scary? No, nothing of the sort. He was downright terrifying."

"Are you serious?" Sahi blurted out in surprise, and the arch-mage solemnly nodded.

"I had already told you once, but let me repeat myself for the sake of clarity: I invited Leonard Dunning to the Nexus Chamber in order to permanently impress upon him the might of an arch-mage of the Assembly, so that he would not even think of antagonizing our peers once they arrived on the island."

"O-ho-ho? This is the first time I've heard of this," Peabody noted on the side, and Gowan also nodded along, meaning they probably weren't entirely clear on what went down between the two of us less than half an hour ago.

"In that case, I reckon both of you should pay close attention," Lord Grandpa told them in a flat voice, then finally took a huge gulp from his water bottle and placed it onto the table. "I intended to use the unlimited power provided by the Nexus itself to one-sidedly overwhelm him, and I failed. I failed miserably. I have no idea how it was possible, but he cut my magic like it was entirely natural to do so, and even after I resorted to elevated casting, despite the strain it put on my body, and bombarded him with combination spells, I barely managed to inconvenience him."

Everyone in the room was stunned silent, which was weird, considering I didn't think it was that big of a deal.

"My Lord? Have you tried to apply a holding spell on him?"

"Of course I did!" the arch-mage burst out with a scowl. "Who do you take me for, Gowan? That was one of the first maneuvers I had attempted upon him, while obscuring his vision with another spell, yet the magic bindings unraveled the moment they came into contact with him. It was maddening!"

"What about mind spells?" Sahi cut in, suddenly excited. Whether it was genuine, or just the schadenfreude talking, I couldn't tell.

"Saahira. Was that a serious question?" She nodded, and the old arch-mage responded with a drawn-out groan. "I naturally attempted to cast several different spells to hamper and confuse him, but I had the impression he did not even notice."

He… wasn't exactly wrong. I really didn't know what he was talking about.

In the meantime, the old man took another sip from his bottle and rubbed his face before he continued.

"The most terrifying thing of all was that, during all of this, Leonard Dunning remained completely unmoved by the power I displayed. The amount and intensity of magic I discharged upon him could have leveled half of Timaeus, yet he was never impressed or even startled. It was as if he had seen every spell and charm coming, even before I finished the incantations, and even the most sturdily weaved invocations were disintegrated by the merest touch of his sword, as if he could see the weakest threads to cut to have the entire spell fall apart like a frayed cloth. And his eyes… those indifferent eyes looking at me during all of this. It was almost as if he was looking through me the entire time."

…

Well… wow. I didn't expect to unnerve Lord Grandpa like that, but by the looks of it, I just did. Serves him right, I supposed? Still, I really didn't like how he was spinning this whole thing like I was some kind of bully who was tormenting little old him during the fight, when he was the one who started it in the first place, and was throwing firestorms at me like they were discount coupons at the grocery store.

"I... think I know what happened," Gowan raised his voice in the back, and everyone focused their attention on him all over again.

"Then speak up," the arch-mage hissed, sounding somewhat skeptical, and after some hesitation, the artificer steeled himself and stepped up.

"I had my suspicions beforehand, but since I had no evidence, I did not speak of it, yet under the current circumstances, I have no choice but to, at the very least—"

"Oh, stop that!" Sahi exclaimed and pointed a finger at the man. "Like, can't you just say it without beating around the bush like that?"

"I… will try," Gowan muttered, and after a long beat, he cautiously stated, "I believe Leonard Dunning is in possession of the Oculus of Trismegistus."

"Excuse me?"

Lord Grandpa's murmur made the man raise his hands defensively and hastily explain, "As I said, I only suspected such a possibility, and that's why I never shared my impression with others, but wouldn't it explain how he could counter Lord Endymonion's spellcraft with but a single sword?"

"O-ho-ho? That's quite intriguing, isn't it?"

"Oooh? That totally explains a lot!"

While the peanut gallery acted like this was some grand revelation, without actually explaining what this whole 'Oculus of Trismegistus' thing even was, the owner of the study remained silent and continued to absently stroke his beard while his eyes glazed over, apparently so deep in thought he couldn't even hear the first time Pascal called out to him.

"My Lord? What is your opinion on this matter?"

Looking over at him, the old man remained silent for a few seconds longer, clearly contemplating.

"Under any other circumstances, I would have dismissed such a notion without any further considerations, but after experiencing the abilities of Leonard Dunning on my own skin, I can hardly do the same anymore. It also places our current dilemma in regards to our peers into a completely new light."

"Does it?" Peabody wondered, and Lord Grandpa firmly nodded. After drinking all that water, color was finally returning to his face, and he seemed downright invigorated as he looked over the room.

"Indeed. We must do everything in our power to avoid any and all conflict between Leonard Dunning and his allies and the Assembly delegation. We can not let them even suspect him." Sahi was about to interject, but then he cut her off by directly addressing her. "Saahira, Pascal. You two have a more amicable relationship with Leonard, so try to influence him to stay hidden and not antagonize the Assembly."

"Hey! Like, since when are you ordering me around!?"

"Sahi, this is important," Armband Guy interjected, and even put a hand on her shoulder for emphasis. "Please cooperate."

The incognito ex-arch-mage glanced between the guy's face and his hand, and then let out a soft 'Bah!'

"Fine. I'll play along, but only because Paz asked nicely."

Without even acknowledging her response, the old man moved on to the artificer next.

"Meister Gowan. Please continue to support him, and as soon as the opportunity presents itself, make a request for a few more of those plaques he exhibited during the recent auction. The more complex and impressive, the better. I will personally pay for all the materials and your expenses."

"I… will make an honest attempt, but… may I ask you why?"

"We will utilize them as bribes," the arch-mage responded like it was self-evident. "I know for a fact that Lord Barnabas desperately wants to put his hands onto one of them, as much for the sake of his research as to soother his wounded pride over losing the last plaque to the New York School during the auction. Similarly, we could use them to gain the support of Lord Gulliver and Lord Avid as well. So long as I managed to convince the other senior Keepers of the Keys to see things our way, we might be able to stop the Assembly from moving its forces to Critias altogether. That should buy us enough time to come up with a more all-encompassing solution."

"O-ho-ho. What about me?" Peabody spoke up, sounding like he was joking, but when Lord Grandpa gave him a flat look, he tentatively asked, "Do you… actually have something for me to do?"

"As a matter of fact, I do, Archibald." The old man placed his hands on the table and linked his fingers. "Leonard Dunning expressed his intent to employ you."

"He did?"

"Indeed. If he were to make his offer to you in person, I would like to ask you to accept it."

The school nurse slightly narrowed his eyes at the request.

"Are you telling me to infiltrate his organization?"

"You can certainly look at it that way, but it is not my core intent. I do believe that the opportunity might prove beneficial to you, not to mention I would finally no longer have to listen to you complaining about how much you miss your nephew and his mechanical creation. More importantly, I want you to make sure whether or not Leonard truly possesses the Oculus of Trismegistus. That is my only request. Beyond that, you may do as you wish."

"O-ho-ho. Well, I admit I do miss Galatea. Friedrich too, I suppose, but… why would he even think of hiring me? For what reason?"

"I reckon it has to do with your research into—"

And then, a guitar solo.

Opening my eyes in surprise, I blinked a couple of times and then hit my forehead with the heel of my hand.

"Yeah. I knew I forgot about something."

"{What is it, young knight?}"

"Nothing, never mind."

Saying so, I set the sword aside on the bed and walked over to my still-ringing phone. This wasn't the first time my Far Sight session was interrupted by a random phone call, so I decided to mute it before I would do so in the future, but because I was so out of it after my impromptu 'power demonstration' with Lord Grandpa, I completely forgot about it. It was fine though; I'd already heard all the more important details, and I didn't think I was missing anything vital.

More importantly, I glanced at the caller ID and then raised the phone to my ear.

"Hi, Dormouse. What's up?"

"Chief, are you really hurt?"

That made me narrow my eyes and unconsciously glance at the wall between my sisters' room and my own.

"What gave you that idea?"

"I've got a text message from Penelope saying you fought Amelia's grandfather. It also said I should tell you that you're an inconsiderate jerk."

"Yeah, that sounds like her all right," I said with a sigh, and quickly explained the situation to my dear assistant, from Ammy's request to my very recent Far Sight activities. She listened closely, and after a got the broad strokes across, I finished things with, "In short, because of yet another mysterious magical misunderstanding, the whole Assembly-sub-plot might actually sort itself out without us having to lift a finger."

"Don't jinx it."

"I've already heard that one today," I answered in a deadpan voice, but it only elicited a soft hum. "Anyhow, do you know any good ice-fishing locations nearby?"

"… Where did that come from?"

"I just thought it would be a nice, quirky date opportunity," I told her with a cheeky smile she obviously couldn't see, yet I imagined she could hear it in my voice.

"Are you sure you're not just trying to divert my attention away from your injuries?"

"It can't be that, because I don't have any injuries."

There was a long moment of silence on the line, but then she frankly stated, "I'll see that for myself tomorrow. Also, I'll look into ice fishing."

I didn't think she would take that seriously, but apparently the idea hit a chord with her. However, just as I was about to respond, my phone started vibrating again, and after checking the new caller ID, I said, "The princess is also calling me, so I have to put it down. Love you."

"Same here. I'll see you tomorrow."

After that short exchange, I pressed the red button on the screen, and a moment later, I was connected to the second caller. Unlike my suspicious assistant, my other girlfriend sounded downright excited.

"Leo? Is it true? Did you beat up the arch-mage?"

"… Did Penny send you a message too?"

"Yes!"

Sighing, I began my explanation from the ground up, for the second time today, and I couldn't help but feel that it would be some time before I could head over to the base. On a completely unrelated note, was it appropriate to spank one's younger sister at this age, I wondered? Even if not, I was sure I would be able to come up with an embarrassing punishment for her. I was good at those.