"Why do you keep attending high school?"

The question made me raise a brow and glance over at Sir Percival, currently sitting on the couch in my living room, wearing a fluffy blue bathrobe, playing on his phone, and generally acting like he owned the place. It was early in the morning, and after a whole night's of enchanting work resulting in an absolute bitch of a headache, I didn't quite have the patience for him, but it would've been odd to completely ignore him. I sent a glance at the stairs, hoping that my sisters would show up soon, and then turned to the old man.

"What exactly do you mean?"

My question was sounding polite even to my ears, the result of several days of unwanted emotional control training, and the old man scoffed at me with a smirk, like my response was cute.

"Don't play innocent with me, young man. You're thirty years too early, and you know exactly what I meant." He said all that without looking up from his phone, but when I didn't respond right away, he glanced over and added, "You gain nothing from going there every day. It's a complete waste of time."

"Maybe from your point of view, but as for me, I think it's a worthwhile endeavor."

"Oh, don't you dare to say it's to 'experience the childhood you never had'. I swear, if you try to pull that sappy crap with me, I'll throw my phone at you. And then you'll have to buy me a new one, plus pay extra for emotional damages." That was followed by a long beat, then a series of barely stifled snickers, and finally him waving his hand dismissively. "Don't look at me like that. I'm obviously kidding. Who in their right mind would accept a phone from you? I bet you'd bug it anyway."

"Or at the very least put a parental control lock on it so you can't make in-app purchases," I retorted, and the old man's face twisted up like I just punched him in the gut.

"You're a monster, aren't you?" After pretending to be shocked and outraged for a while, Sir Percival shook his head and leveled a skeptical gaze at me. "You still haven't answered my original question. Does it have something to do with the Magi headquarters under the school?"

"Maybe," I answered with a shrug.

"Last I've heard, their whole leadership is coming to the island to antagonize you."

"Yes. So?"

"Brazenly going into the den of the lion like that is bloody stupid, and you're many things, but stupid isn't one of them. What's your angle?"

We locked eyes for a moment, and after considering my options, I lightly shrugged and said, "I like to keep my enemies close, where I can see them."

"I've already noticed that," he muttered, no doubt still laboring under the misconception that I adopted Snowy as step ninety-four of some nefarious master plan. I had no reason to correct him on that, at least not until I could trust him as far as I could throw him, and for the record, with my full gear, I could throw him very, very far. Potential one-man space programs aside, Sir Percival contemplated my words for a while. "I already told you this, but a conflict with the Magi is not in our best interest at this point in time. I went ahead and pulled a few strings, and with some luck, my insiders can get some dirt on the arch-mages coming to the island. Until then, I recommend you lay low."

"Noted, but what was that about dirt? Are you planning to blackmail the Assembly?"

"Is there a problem with that?"

After some consideration, I made an ambivalent noise.

"Eh? No, not really."

The old man let out a hearty guffaw and flashed a devilish grin at me.

"Trust me; it's going to be fun."

I really wanted to question his definition of 'fun', but before I could, our conversation was interrupted by Penny thundering down the stairs. Maybe it was for the better.

"Sorry!" she apologized the moment she barged into the living room. "I overslept a little. We aren't late, are we?"

"A little, but if we pick up the pace, we should get to school before the first bell without much trouble. No time for breakfast though."

"Awww…" my knightly sister grumbled, sounding altogether way too disappointed, but by then Snowy also arrived downstairs.

"It's all right. We can just get some pastries from the cafeteria during the first break."

"Y-Yes, but… they cost a lot…" Penny griped, and it made me raise a brow.

While her wages as a Knight of the Ordo Draconis were still up in the air, thanks to a deadlock in the negotiations between the newly formed HR and financial departments of the Draconic Federation, as far as pocket money was concerned, I was rather generous with my sisters. No matter how I looked at it, a couple of Jens here or there shouldn't have even registered on her radar, which meant…

"Kiddo? Did you already spend your allowance?"

"N-No, of course not! It's just… erm… It's in the bank."

"You're a minor. You don't have a bank account yet," I pointed out.

"Uncle Roland's account! I put it there for safekeeping!"

I was still skeptical, but since we were late, I decided to drop the issue. For now. If my suspicions weren't unfounded, and she really did spend all her money on what I think she did, then someone was definitely getting some parental controls set up, and it wasn't going to be the annoyingly grinning old man on the couch.

"Good for you, beansprout," he injected himself into the conversation with a genial chuckle. "You must make sure you start saving up when you're young, so you won't have to worry about your finances when you're older."

"Y-Yes! That's exactly what I'm doing!" Penny grasped at the lifesaver thrown her way, but by then, Sir Percival was already focusing on my other sister.

"What about you, girlie?"

"I… let Leo take care of it," Snowy answered a tad guardedly. "I don't need much money, to begin with."

"And I keep telling you that you don't have to be so frugal," I commented without much meaning, yet Penny immediately doubled down on it.

"Brother is right! We aren't poor, so we can let loose every once in a while, right? Right?" When nobody agreed with her, she awkwardly cleared her throat and added, "So, erm… Can you treat me today? I promise, once I get my first paycheck, I'll treat you back! I'll take you to a restaurant, and… no, nonono, that's too… I mean, I'll buy you a whole apple pie in return! You like apple pies, right?"

"Y-Yes."

Snowy was audibly taken aback by the direction the conversation took and sent me a glance that said she didn't know what to do, so I unceremoniously rubbed her head and raised my voice.

"You can figure this out on our way to the school, you two. At this rate, we'll have to run."

"R-Right! We should head out at once! Bye, Uncle Percy!" my redhead sister sputtered out and escaped ahead of us.

After a stunned beat, Snowy hastily followed after her, leaving me alone with Percival.

"I'll hold down the fort here, as usual," he told me with a cocky grin.

"Just don't break anything."

"You worry too much, Leonard. Trust me."

I really wanted to point out that I would've had a much easier time to do that if he wasn't a shifty bastard, and that I had already caught him red-handed while he was trying to inspect Snowy's wards around the house, but I held the retort on the tip of my tongue and only nodded. Following the girls, I slipped into my outdoor shoes and put on my winter coat, and then the three of us were finally on our way.

"Brother?" After only a few steps, Penny called out to me. I was half-expecting that she would try to excuse her sublimated allowance all over again, but instead she asked, "How long until Uncle Percy's office is done?"

"Beats me, but it'll probably take a while," I answered offhandedly. "He's going to be in charge of recruitment, and that's a low priority right now, when we already have our hands full with Draconian applicants. All in all, I guess it'll take until the Draconic Federation's budget gets fully ratified. Why?"

"I was just curious about how much longer he's going to live with us. Or… is he going to move to the mansion once his office is done? Can't he continue to stay with us?"

"… Do you want him to?"

In a rare display of non-tsundere sincerity, she nodded without any hesitation, and my inner feelings must've momentarily shown on my face, as her expression immediately wilted.

"He can't?"

"It all depends on him," I said with as much restraint as I could muster, and my knightly sister's face lit up right away.

"All right! I'll talk with him about it after school then!"

She apparently didn't get the true meaning behind my words, but that was probably for the better. In the meantime, we reached the familiar crossroad, where Judy and Elly were already waiting for us. Remarkably, Ammy and Mike were also there, and they were so immersed in discussing something, it took until we were almost right next to their little group that they noticed our presence.

"Leo!" my overly affectionate draconic girlfriend caught me in a hug and buried her face in my chest. It only lasted for a moment before she took half a step back and declared, "Guess what! We're going on a group date!"

"Hi, princess, and what do you mean by 'we'?"

After a quick round of standard morning greetings, it was, surprisingly enough, the local Celestial agent who awkwardly shuffled forward.

"Let me explain," he began, but then he fell silent, apparently unable to decide where to begin.

"We were invited by Josh and Angie," the class rep helped him out, and with that, mike finally found his dialogue sea legs.

"Yes, right. That's how it started!" he proclaimed with a profound nod. "Little Angie asked me first, because she was troubled by something, and wanted a second opinion."

"Before you continue," I cut in and theatrically glanced around. "Where's the childhood friend couple in question?"

"They've already left," Judy replied in everyone's stead while simultaneously entwining our hands, as is tradition, and Elly hastily followed her example as well, and before long, we all started walking again. "She had outdoors tennis practice this morning."

"In the middle of January," I noted a tad flatly and Judy actually considered my response seriously.

"Maybe it's a setup for one of those scenarios where one of the lovers catches a cold and the other one has to take care of them."

"Oooh? We did that a lot, didn't we?" the princess exclaimed on the other side, only to then add, in a much lower voice, "Though in our case, Leo was bedridden for other reasons."

"We're going into a tangent," I pointed out and turned my attention back to Mike. "So they asked you about something, and… why are you here, in the first place?"

"Hm? Oh, that's because I had some business in Timaeus, so I rode an early train so that I could accompany my sunshine to school. We never got to do that, so I thought it would be fun."

"Mike! Don't call me that in public," Ammy complained with a reddened face, but her protests were made a little anemic by the way she was clinging to the guy. If I did that to her, I would've been punched, but apparently being unnecessarily handsome let him get away with it. It might've got something to do with that whole 'being in love' thing, but that was none of my business.

"Where was I? Ah, right! Little Angie asked me about dating. She told me she didn't feel like their dates were romantic enough, so she asked me for advice, and then I had this idea to go on a group date to serve as an example."

In all honesty, I felt a little odd about this whole situation. Wouldn't Angie normally ask any of the other girls in our group first, or failing that, me? But then again, they were distant relatives (though I couldn't figure out if that was literally true or just on paper), so… maybe it did make sense? After all, out of all the people I knew, Ammy and Mike were the best example of the classic 'honeymoon period' couple, with the pink atmosphere surrounding them and everything.

"I get it so far. Where do we enter into the picture?"

"I told Amelia that I found a company that specializes in ice-fishing trips," Judy told me like it was self-explanatory.

"I was half-joking about that. Did you seriously look into it that much?"

"We didn't just look into it, we already made a reservation!" Elly proclaimed with a smug little smirk. "Our group is larger than six, so we get our own tour guide and a separate fishing spot!"

"Also, a discount," Judy noted, but the princess completely ignored her comment.

"I've never done anything like this before, but it sounds fun!"

"Hopefully it will be, but…" Addressing the Celestial x Homunculus Magi couple, I said, "Didn't Angie ask for advice about more romantic date spots? I don't think she was thinking about an ice-fishing trip in the highlands when she did that."

"That's what makes it perfect," Mike told me with a sense of wholly undeserved gravitas and pulled the class rep closer. "We're planning to teach them about how the important thing isn't where you are and what you do, but that you do it with someone you love from the bottom of your heart. Isn't that right, sunshine?"

"… Keep that up, and I'll start calling you cutie patootie in return," Ammy grumbled while shyly averting her gaze.

"I don't mind!" the usually hapless Celestial declared with a devil-may-care grin. "I told you I would accept everything and bear anything for you, so bring it on!"

"Ah, you're such a dunce!" she complained and pinched his nose, then they both laughed from the bottom of their hearts. As for the rest of us…

"Chief? Did we ever look like that from the outside?"

"I really hope not," I answered without delay.

Meanwhile, the princess let out an amused giggle, and said, "Amelia is like a completely different person when she's with her boyfriend, isn't she?"

"Yes, and that's just another reason why trying to nail down her character archetype is infuriating," I whispered, but it didn't get any response.

In the meantime, we reached the street leading uphill toward the school gates, and Mike let out a disappointed noise when he laid his eyes on them.

"This was fun, but I'm afraid I'll have to go now. Let's talk again on the weekend," he said to our group as a whole before stepping in front of Ammy. "As for you, my sunshine, I'll meet you after school."

"Oh? What are the plans for today?"

"Penguins," the guy answered with a toothy grin. "The zoo has a special exhibit on them, and they look very cute!"

"Surely not as cute as my cutie patootie," she answered with a mischievous smile, and after a chuckle, the guy not only gave her a bear hug, he lifted her up so that their lips could meet in a rather chaste kiss… followed by about half a dozen more, which caused my redhead sister to hide behind my other sister in embarrassment. She was weird like that.

Anyhow, once they were satisfied, he let her go and said his goodbyes before heading down the street leading to the city center. I had no idea what kind of business he had in the city, but just to be safe, I made a mental note to periodically check up on him with Far Sight.

Meanwhile, my dear assistant had a sour look on her face and uttered, "I really hope we never looked like that from the outside."

"Hush, you. Let them have their romance," I chided her, and with the princess's giggles serving as background ambiance, we made our way up to the school gates, with only a few minutes to spare.

"Hey, guys!"

Unfortunately, it seemed like those few minutes would be soon consumed when a certain unruly brown girl greeted us at the gates. More curiously, she had a bright red armband pinned to the upper sleeve of her uniform, and she looked rather smug about it.

"Morning, Sahi," Snowy greeted her first, and for some reason, she looked rather impressed. "Did you really join the disciplinary committee?"

"I told you I totally would, didn't I?" the ex-arch-mage answered with a shit-eating grin, but before we could explore the topic, she pointed a finger at me. "Leo, I have news for you!"

"For me in particular?"

She nodded so hard it looked like she wanted to give me a long-distance headbutt.

"Yes! Like, this is supposed to be a secret and stuff, but I thought you should know that the old dweebs are going to arrive on Monday."

"By 'dweebs', I guess you mean the Assembly," I deduced, and she nodded again.

"Fer shur."

"And why's that a secret?" Elly asked, seemingly just to move the conversation along, but then Sahi rolled her eyes.

"Like, it's because they want to make it this big dramatic-o-rama thing! They didn't even tell Endy about it just to be, like, melodramatic and stuff! Ugh! They are such posers."

"But if the arch-mage doesn't know about it, then how do you know?" Penny leveled a serious question at her, only slightly undercut by the fact that she was, for some reason, still hiding behind Snowy.

"Ah, that's because I called one of them, and totally pretended to be my innocent granddaughter, and acted totally cute, and he told me eeeverything."

"Did you seriously honey-trap one of the arch-mages of the Assembly?"

Sahi didn't take offense at my question, and she struck a gravure pose instead.

"Like, I'm cute to the max, so why wouldn't I use it?" She threw in a wink at the end, to which I responded with a flat stare, and so she finally stopped posing and waved her finger at me. "But seriously, they are coming soon, so, like, make sure you have all of your stuff sorted out by Monday."

I answered with a curt, "Thanks for the heads up," followed by a slightly friendlier, "I owe you one."

"Nah, don't mention it!" It was at this point that the warning bell rang, and she let out a gasp. "Ah! I have to close the gates, or Paz will be totally mad at me! See you guys later!"

We waved our goodbyes and quickly entered through the automatic glass doors at the main entrance, and while my sisters rushed ahead, I turned to the princess, still attacked to me.

"You said you already made a reservation for the ice-fishing trip, right?"

"Yes. It's on Saturday."

"Convenient," Judy noted on the other side, and I had to agree with her.

In retrospect, I wasn't especially thrilled about the whole ice-fishing thing, but I also figured that maybe I should take a page out of Mike's book, and instead of the 'doing what', I should focus on the 'doing it with whom'. At the very least, it should serve as a nice punctuation mark and one last laidback hangout before the proverbial shit was about to hit the proverbial fan.