It took until the third break for the misunderstanding to get cleared up, which was coincidentally around the same time Ichiko was moved over to Judy's shadow. By lobbying with my girlfriends, Penny claimed that she had already 'paid for her sins', and threatened to go on a hunger strike if her demands weren't met, ultimately forcing my hand.

That was a bit of a scene in and of itself, but back to Ammy. After fuming all through the following class, she disappeared the moment the bell rang, and we didn't see her until lunch break was over. Other than that, nothing particularly interesting happened during the school day, and so I was taken quite aback when Gowan suddenly brought her up.

"I've heard that Amelia got into an argument with the Lord today," the friendly artificer noted, seemingly just to make small talk, but the way his eyes were glued to my face told me he was looking for a reaction.

"It must have had something to do with the stunt the old man pulled yesterday," I noted with disinterest, focusing on the small metal disk in my hand. Apparently, after the arch-mage ordered him to 'support me', Gowan spent all night manufacturing the base array I requested from him a while ago, and judging by the bags under his eyes, he likely worked on it until the morning.

My sisters were still waiting for me upstairs, so I wanted to wrap this up quickly, but I held back and inspected the enchantment array from front to back, inside out, and in many other less Euclidianly intuitive ways. It was better to be thorough now than having to return it later when it turned out something was out of order.

"It was truly surprising. Amelia always used to be such a quiet, obedient girl. I never heard her raise her voice in the presence of the Lord before this day," Gowan said while still staring at me, and once the artifact base in my hand passed another round of inspection, I shrugged before starting on the next,

"What can I say? Children grow up fast nowadays."

It was only after I had already uttered the words that I realized they must've sounded really cheesy to the ears of the stocky artificer, coming from the mouth of someone who was legally still a minor. Contrary to my expectations, he considered what I said with undue solemnity, and even nodded to himself, like he just solved a part of a difficult problem.

"You might be right. She most certainly is at that age, but… I don't think it's a good idea to raise tensions in the current situation."

I very nearly asked what he even meant by that, but I figured he was probably referring to the Assembly's new 'delegation' coming to the island to flex their magical muscles. I still didn't know how that was related to an argument between the class rep and Lord Grandpa, but maybe he already considered her part of my 'faction', and imagined that the two of them fighting over his stupid challenge from the day before was some kind of political stand-off? It sounded silly, but to be fair, every single Magi or Magi-related person I've ever met had a bad tendency of overthinking very simple things, so I couldn't completely rule out the possibility.

"To be fair, the arch-mage did trick me into a duel against my will, and who else on this island was going to scold him for it if not his only relative on the island."

I tried to make my answer as diplomatic as possible, yet Gowan continued to nod along like it was some kind of exquisitely profound insight.

"Yes. Yes. If you put it that way, it certainly makes sense. Yes."

I'm not going to lie, I was getting a little tired of his responses, so after one last round of quality check, I placed the metal plate into the handy little carrying case it came with, and after I securely locked it, I turned back to the senior artificer with my friendliest of smiles.

"The enchantment seems perfect for my purposes. Thank you for your hard work, Meister Gowan. How much do I owe you again?"

"Oh, don't even mention it!" the man responded in the company of a chuckle, but his eyes told me that he had been waiting for me to ask about that all this time. "However… I hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries, but could I ask for, or rather, request, one of those plaques you had on auction not too long ago?" Before I could even open my mouth, he hastily raised his palms and sputtered, "Of course, I don't dare to ask for one for free! Goodness gracious, no. I'm naturally going to pay for them, naturally. It's only natural, after all. It doesn't have to be anything remarkable, just… Just roughly equal to the ones previously exhibited."

"If it's you, it's really not all that much to ask for," I told him with a practiced smile. "I would've given you one for free, in light of our continued cooperation, but if you insist on paying for it, the least I can do is to give you a discount."

Gowan's face visibly relaxed, but then he softly cleared his throat and lowered his voice.

"If that's the case then… can I maybe ask for two of them?"

I waited for a beat before theatrically raising a brow, and I was admitted amused by the way he vacillated between whether he should backpedal or soldier on. For the record, I didn't dislike the man; quite the opposite, really. However, if he was doing such sneaky work for Lord Grandpa, it was only fair that I made him sweat for it a little. Not too much though, as at the end of the day, their plan was at least nominally beneficial to me.

"Of course. Do you want to give one away as a gift?"

"Y-Yes. Someone I know is very interested in your work, and—"

"No need to say anything more. Any further requests?"

Once again, Gowan hesitated for a while, but then he sheepishly asked, "Can you also sign them?"

Pretending to be amused by the request, I stifled a chuckle and patted the man on the shoulder.

"Sure thing."

He exhaled a pent-up breath, like I just took a huge weight off his shoulders, once again proving that the amicable artificer really wasn't cut out for this kind of deceptive stuff. For but a split-second, I wondered if Ammy would get into another argument with the old coot if I told her he put poor Gowan up for this, but I just as quickly decided against it.

"Thank you. Let's discuss the details at a later date. I don't want to hold you up longer than necessary."

"Let's do that."

After concluding our 'deal', I bid my farewells and left the workshop. On the way out, I didn't run into any familiar faces, though I did notice that I turned a few heads. They belonged to artificers, researchers, and other assorted School personnel, or in other words, placeholders. Normally they didn't pay me much attention, so their hushed glanced and the wide berth they gave me became all the more apparent. Were there some rumors floating around already, I wondered as I reached the elevator and rode it up to the surface?

It was a mostly inconsequential concern, so I more or less forgot about it by the time I walked out of the basement of the main school buildings. Looking back, I couldn't help but wonder about the logistics of the underground School complex. By my reckoning, there were about a hundred Magi and support staff working there, yet the only two entrances were this elevator and the stairs Fred used to infiltrate the place that one time, which seemed to be for emergencies only and locked off most of the time.

You'd expect that, with the breakneck pace at which our school-mate placeholders were developing, someone would've raised a fuss about dozens of non-staff adults moving in and out of the school's basement. Presuming they ever left the School to go home, of course.

"Maybe they live underground," I muttered as I headed toward the school entrance. "Plot twist: the Roman fire-mole people were the Magi all along."

Putting my silly conjecture aside, the core point remained a small concern still. Many of the weird and counter-intuitive things relating to the supernatural masquerade in the Simulacrum could only exist as they did because, just as 'main characters' were completely oblivious to placeholder behavior, said placeholders were not only unaware, but lacked the development to do anything about any of the uncanny stuff going on around them. However, if they kept on developing like they had been doing for the past couple of months, it was only a question of time before we would reach a tipping point.

Once that happened, I had a feeling there were only two options left on the table: we would either see the whole 'secret world of mystics' card house crumble down, or the Simulacrum would be forced to engage in large-scale modifications to keep things under wrap, with unpredictable means and results. I wasn't looking forward to either possibility, but it wasn't a cat that could be stuffed back into the bag, so I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst, as usual.

Anyhow, I just reached the school gates when my feet stopped by an unexpected sight. Penny and Snowy were waiting for me, as we promised beforehand, but strangely enough, they weren't alone. The two of them were standing under one of the bare cherry trees, just outside the gate, and were flanked by three guys. They weren't wearing our school's uniform, but one of those all-black ensembles you would see on delinquents in Japanese fiction, which meant…

"Holy crap. Do we have a new Goldfish Poop Gang?"

These guys looked way more generic than the original trio, who, for some inexplicable reason, switched careers to the service industry, but at least one of them had something resembling a pompadour, so they got a passing grade in my book. I was half-tempted to sneak closer and listen in on what they were talking about with the girls, but at the very least Snowy looked uncomfortable, so I dropped the pretenses and walked right over.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"Ah, brother!"

Penny welcomed me with a bright smile, and the three delinquents exchanged surprised glances before they lined up slightly behind her. At the very least, they didn't seem hostile.

"Hi, kiddo. Is there a problem?"

"No. We were just talking."

This time, I turned to the trio behind her, and the moment our eyes met, they all made ninety degrees bows and loudly exclaimed, """We greet anego's big brother!""" in unison.

"… Are you bloody serious?"

"Brother, don't bully them!" my knightlier sister stepped between us and graced me with one of her world-class pouts.

Seeing that their 'anego' was standing up for them, the three delinquents also straightened their backs, only to slink back when I frowned at them. During the stalemate that followed, I looked over at Snowy, and once our eyes met, her exasperated expression told me essentially everything I needed to know.

Turning back to Penny, I said to her, "I'm sure there's a story behind all of this, so let's hear it later. As for you three…" Pausing, I leveled my finely honed Chilling Glare ver. 1.23 at the trio and uttered, "Scram."

 I didn't need to say it twice, and after mumbling something about a promise, they ran away like the entire Timaeus police force was on their heels.

"Brotheeer! Why did you do that?"

"Na-ah. Don't 'brother' me. First, tell me what all of that was about."

Penny glared at me for a while, followed by an irritated 'Bah!', and then concluded with her defiantly crossing her arms and turning her face to the side while still pouting. The eagle-eyed might've already noticed that there was no explanation in that chain of events, but thankfully, my other sister came to the rescue, sounding unusually deadpan.

"Apparently, Penny met those three back when she first came to the school, and they have been following her since then."

"Following, huh? How exactly did that happen?" Instead of answering, Penny continued to sulk, so after waiting for a few seconds, I turned away and gestured for Snowy to follow after me. "Well, someone's not getting desserts tonight, I suppose. Come, sis. Let's pick up the pace and burn some calories; we'll have extra pudding to eat after dinner."

"Hey! Holding my pudding hostage is unfair!" the troublesome girl called out after me, and after a long pause, she let out a soft groan. "Oh, fine. I'll tell you. Are you happy?"

"Less complaining, more explaining."

Following a soft 'Hmpf!', Penny took a deep breath and launched into her explanation, just around the time we started walking down the hill.

"When I was scouting out the school's neighborhood, I found those three being picked on by a group of bad students, so I taught them a lesson. After that, I promised to teach them how to defend themselves, so that they wouldn't be bullied again, and then they invited more of their friends, but then there was a whole bunch of troublemakers from this other school who came over to pick a fight, and they were inconveniencing the people around the neighborhood, so we all got together and chased them away."

"… Oh, great. My little sister is a gang leader now. Marvelous."

Putting that revelation aside, just when did all of that happen? I had a close eye on her ever since I first managed to mark her for Far Sight, so all of this either had to go down before that, or the Simulacrum was exploiting the hell out of my blind spots, but for what reason?

"You see. I told you," Snowy noted on the side, causing my other sister to act like she was hit in the nose.

"Not you too, Snowy! I told you, they aren't scoundrels! They are just misunderstood!"

"You just said they beat up delinquents."

"It was self-defense!" Penny protested, but when we both gave her the cold shoulder, she stomped her feet and pointed a finger at me. "Just you wait! I'll gather them all, and have them bring all their motivational flags, and you'll see how they are all good guys, and then you'll feel really foolish!"

"Sure, kiddo. I'm sure that's exactly what's going to happen."

Penny continued to fume for a while longer, but then I noticed that she kept sending furtive glances at the small case I was carrying, and once she noticed that I noticed, she discarded all pretenses and directly asked, "Sooo… What's in that?"

I had a feeling that she was trying to change the subject, but I didn't really mind.

"I'm going to make my own Magiformer, and it's the base for that."

"Oh, wow! It's about time!" Penny exclaimed, and surprisingly enough, my other sister looked equally excited and relieved at the same time.

"You really should pay more attention to your own safety," Snowy told me sternly, and Penny agreed with a series of nods.

"Yes, you should! Especially after what happened yesterday!"

"Yeah, I know. I put it off until now, because your gear is more important, but I'm going to make it tonight."

"Good. Nothing is more important than your safety," my dear Abyssal sister stressed, and I couldn't really argue. "We almost finished adapting one of my protection Sigils for human use. We should put one onto you as soon as possible."

"Great idea!"

Penny sounded pretty enthusiastic, and before I knew it, the two of them began making plans for another 'experimental session'. I was half-tempted to tease them a little by complaining about the noises, but decided against it. It's been a while since the last time we walked home like this, just the three of us, and I didn't want to ruin the atmosphere by putting Penny into hedgehog-mode again.

But thinking of which, I suddenly recalled something and interrupted my sisters' discussion with a question.

"I forgot to ask, but did Judy or Elly say anything before they left?"

"Nothing much," Penny answered offhandedly, but then her eyes opened wide, and she snapped her fingers. "Wait, no! There's something. She said they'll buy fishing equipment."

"Was that a code for something?" Snowy mused a touch uncertainly, causing me to chuckle at her.

"No, I think she meant it literally. We're planning to go ice-fishing one of these days."

Penny sent me a sideways glance, and wondered, "How can you even think about something like that with everything else going on?"

"Priorities," I answered with a cheeky smile. "Girlfriends first, family second, everything else a distant third."

"Are we second?" Snowy blurted out with innocent eyes, so I reflexively pinched her cheek.

"By a hair's breadth."

"Then when are you taking us ice fishing?" Penny asked, and while it was probably meant to tease me, I considered her question seriously. Maybe a little too seriously even, as Snowy gently pulled my hand away from her face and held it in her own to get my attention.

"You don't need to overdo it. Just walking home and talking like this is plenty."

"I'm not going to argue with that, but still, I won't turn down an ice-fishing trip," Penny noted on my other side, and the three of us broke into chuckles more or less at the same time.

Unfortunately, that cozy atmosphere only lasted for a few more seconds, as the moment we turned the corner leading to our street, the smile withered off my face.

"Is that…?" Penny gasped, looking at the man sitting on a brown hard-shelled suitcase, furiously poking at the phone in his hands. Beside him, there was a whole pile of other assorted luggage, and while I couldn't see his face from this distance, my knightlier sister had no problem recognizing him. "Uncle Percy!"

In the blink of an eye, Penny broke into a dash, and her voice caused the man to look up and put his phone away, rising to his feet just in time to catch the girl leaping at him like she was trying to tackle him. The two of them laughed from the bottom of their lungs as they hugged each other, and after Snowy and I shared an uncertain glance, she stuck closer to me and we also made our way over.

"Beansprout! Did you grow again? I could barely recognize you!"

"Hehe!"

Ignoring my sister's silly laugh, now that we got closer, I could take a better look at our visitor. He was about a head shorter than me, with a stout build and a short-trimmed full beard, white as the snow on the ground. His bright blue eyes had a gentle slant to them, and combined with the wide smile plastered onto his face and all the smile lines etched into his skin, he was just a red robe and fur-trimmed hat away from being a professional Santa Claus impersonator.

"I thought you would only arrive tomorrow!" Penny continued to fawn upon the man, and he responded with a good-natured chuckle.

"That was the plan, but there was a last-minute change, and I managed to hitch a ride with some people I knew."

Putting aside how one could 'hitch a ride' onto an island, Snowy and I got close enough that he could no longer ignore our presence, he turned to face me and let out an impressed whistle.

"Talk about growing! Just how much taller are you planning to get, you rascal? At this rate, my neck will get sore from looking up at you all the time!"

"It's not something I have any control over," I told him as flatly as I could manage, and the elderly man blinked in surprise. Using the momentary silence as an opportunity, Penny wedged herself between us and dramatically gestured at the newcomer.

"Brother, this is un— I mean, Percival Pendragon!" Before anyone could get a word in, she turned around, and this time she waved at my other sister. "Uncle Percy, let me introduce you to our new sister! Her name is Neige and she had a… complicated history, but she's with us now, so please treat her well!"

"I-It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Snowy greeted our visitor while practically hiding behind me, and after a glint of recognition flashed in the old man's eyes, he broke out into hearty chuckles and slapped his own stomach.

"A complicated history indeed! I'm happy to meet you, little missy! We're all a big family here, so feel free to call me Uncle Percy, like this little scamp over here!" He waited until Snowy acknowledged him with a nod, and only then did he turn to me. "As for you Leo, I guess the rumors are true. Did you really lose all of your memories?"

"More or less," I answered curtly, and 'Uncle Percy' let out a forlorn sigh.

"Sometimes even silence holds a lie."

I had no idea where that comment come from, and after studying my face for a few seconds, our guest exhaled another sigh.

"It's a crying shame."

There were about half a dozen questions of various levels of indignation right on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them all down. In the meantime, he shook off our previous exchange and theatrically rubbed his upper arms.

"Brrr! Won't someone let me in already? My ears are about to freeze off!"

"Ah, right! I'll open the door!" Penny offered right away.

My other sister seemed a bit more reluctant, but when I nodded toward the house, she said, "I'll… open up the wards."

"Well, I guess that leaves you with the bags, Leo!" Sir Percival exclaimed in the company of a good-natured chuckle and followed after the girls.

As for me, I had a much bigger issue to deal with than a few measly travel bags.

By this point, I wanted to believe that I had already acclimated to the irrational, primal irritation that occasionally reared its unwanted head whenever I was around certain people. In some cases, like with Sebastian, Naoren, or the Kage elder, it abated to the point where I barely even noticed it anymore. In the case of the likes of Lord Grandpa and the Feilong grand elder, I got to the point where I could regulate my feelings to the point I could at least converse with them without the constant urge to punch them.

Out of all the people I'd ever reacted to this way, the only person whose mere presence gave me outright 'strangle him, right now, ask questions later' vibes was Crowey, and for good reason. That was true… until today.

…

This did not bode well.