Lake Leucippe was situated on a plateau on the southern side of the island of Critias. Its surface, currently completely frozen over and covered in a thin layer of fresh snow, glittered brightly in the rays of the early afternoon sun. The air was cold but fresh, and the snow-capped mountain and the brilliant blue sky painted a breathtaking background to what promised to be a memorable group date. Some could say everything was just perfect.

They would've been wrong.

"… first hold it between your fingers, like this, and then you take the hook and… pay attention, beansprout."

"But it's icky!"

"You've seen worse," Sir Percival told my sister and raised showed off the earthworm to her again. "To catch a big fish, you not only need good bait, but you also have to prepare it well and use it properly. Isn't that right, girlie?"

"I… don't know. This is my first time fishing like this," Snowy answered him a tad guardedly, and Percival let out a hearty chortle.

"Then I'll teach you too. Come closer."

My Abyssals sister still wasn't entirely comfortable, but she obliged anyway and joined the old Knight and my other sister around the hole in the ice. Needless to say, Percival was still pretending to be a nice, genial chap, the bloody two-faced snake of a—

"Leo, stop scowling! You're going to get wrinkles!" the princess knocked me out of my annoyance spiral by poking the spot between my brows. "There. Much better."

"Don't move around too much. You scare away the fishes," Judy spoke in a low voice while baiting her own hook with a grain ball. "I do agree that you should glare less at Sir Percival though."

"I can't exactly help it, and he definitely deserves it," I grumbled back, prompting Judy to look up at me with deadpan eyes. "What? He's obviously a bad guy!"

"It's possible, and I'm not trying to doubt your judgment, but by antagonizing him, you're creating your own self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Also," Elly chimed in, "even if he's a baddie, it doesn't mean he's going to stay one. Didn't most of our acquaintances start out as baddies?"

"She's not wrong," Judy pointed out and paused while she carefully lowered the fishing line into the hole in front of her. "It's also possible that he's our Token Evil Teammate, and you're just overreacting."

"Hey! Whose side are you on?"

"Yours, obviously," she answered with an odd look in her eyes. "You originally hired me to serve as an impartial observer, just in case your own point of view is biased on twisted. I'm just doing my job."

"True, but…"

I tried to object, but the princess cut in by wrapping up the conversation and putting a neat bow on it.

"In other words, forget about that old man for now and help me with my fishing rod! I never used floaters before…"

Lacking any other option, I had no choice but to drop the topic for the time being and help my draconic girlfriend with her fishing gear. That didn't mean I stopped thinking about it though.

For a start, let's address the elephant in the room: why was Percival with us on our grand ice-fishing-trip-cum-group-date? For an explanation, we had to go back only a few days. As it turned out, Penny was rather interested in ice-fishing, for some unfathomable reason, and after I clarified that this time it was for us three couples only, she spent the rest of the day sulking.

This didn't escape Sir Percival's notice, he contacted Judy, and before I knew it, he wedged himself and my sisters into the program. My dear assistant said she only agreed because with them, our headcount reached ten, and that not only meant further discounts, but an extra tour of a nearby ice cave. That was, admittedly, a pretty cool experience, but still not worth having him around.

Putting her (somewhat pointless) penny-pinching rationale aside, I had to wonder if Judy actually bought the old bastard's act. He certainly did his best to butter her up whenever they were in the same room, evidently still trying to find out exactly why I held her in high regard, but as much as I hated to admit it, his surface demeanor was certainly disarming enough to get his hooks into anyone, my girlfriends included. Heck, even Elly wasn't as guarded against him as she used to be, and only my Abyssal sister kept up her vigilance like I asked her to.

But looking at it from another perspective, could it be that Judy was right? Maybe Percival really was just our Token Evil Teammate archetype and could be safely ignored for the most part. However, the alternative was that he was an actual, credible threat, and my girlfriends were just too complacent. I couldn't exactly blame them; as the princess aptly put it, I already had a long track record of allying with, subordinating, or in rare cases, adopting people who were originally our antagonists.

It started with Snowy, then the Fauns, followed by Fred and Galatea, then Mountain Girl with her entire clan in tow, and then the Knights, closely followed by the major Draconian families as a whole, including Naoren, who was about as obviously set up as my love-rival as it could get. In fact, at this point I could probably add Lord Grandpa to that list as well, despite our mutual enmity. When looking at all of that in a vacuum, it was very tempting to chalk up my hostility towards the old Knight as just another point in the established pattern.

Worse yet, I couldn't exactly explain myself properly, since invoking my gut reaction to Sir Percival was as good as admitting that my animosity was irrational, and while they believed me when I told them about him being a two-faced bastard in general and his comments regarding Snowy in particular, I had a feeling they were altogether too ready to write them off as either me overreacting, or it being a misunderstanding stemming from him not knowing us well enough yet. While I couldn't exactly object to that, considering how many misunderstandings I'd already encountered (or caused) in the past, I still couldn't help but feel a little hurt over it.

So, long story short, I mostly ignored my girlfriends' advice on this occasion and continued to keep my guard up against Percival. In this case, it was better to create my own self-fulfilling prophecy of sudden-but-inevitable-betrayal and be prepared for it than to hope for the best and get caught with my pants down. In other words, practical pessimism was still the way to go.

"Oh! Oh! Josh, I've got a bite! What do I do?"

"Reel it in! Reel it in!"

My train of thought was derailed by a certain loud childhood friend couple struggling with their fishing rod. They were dressed warmly, befitting the season, but Angie's mittens got in the way of holding the rod properly, and when Josh tried to help, it just led to the fishing line getting tangled. That said, despite the Celestial girl having her reservations at first (apparently, ice-fishing wasn't romantic enough for her tastes), they seemed to be having a lot of fun, complications and all.

Compared to them, Ammy and Mike were the picture of tranquility. The guy was sitting on one of those three-legged portable fishing stools, and he was holding the class rep in a hug while she was sitting in his lap, holding the fishing rod. They seemed to be lost in their own little world, whispering between each other with occasional pecks on the cheeks serving as punctuation, and they looked stomach-churningly adorable.

"They are doing it again," Judy noted a touch absentmindedly, and it didn't take long for me to realize she was also looking at those two.

"It looks nice," the princess noted with dreamy eyes. "Do we have any chairs like that?"

"You can borrow one from the tour guide," I said, and while the princess vacillated, Judy let out a soft grunt.

"I almost want to try that, but at the same time, I'm not sure I want to look like those two."

"To be fair, even if you sat in my lap like that, I sincerely doubt we could look half as snug and fuzzy as them." My comment made my dear assistant hum, which I decided to interpret as agreement. "I don't even know how they are doing it."

"Doing what?" Elly asked, still unable to decide whether she should ask for a chair or not.

"That." I vaguely gestured toward them, but since she still didn't get my point, I did my best to put it into words. "They are just so openly in love and lost in it, it goes all the way around cute and becomes off-putting. Not to mention, seeing the class rep bubbly like that is also weird, isn't it?"

"I don't think so," Judy responded with yet another thoughtful hum. "Her archetype is the introverted heroine with a sad childhood who craves affection and imprints hard on the first person who gives it to her. It makes perfect sense to me."

"It's kind of hard to sell her as an introvert, considering how much she'd been nagging me over the months."

"It's because you're Leo," the princess quipped, and my other girlfriend was in complete agreement with her.

"What is that even supposed to mean?"

"It's not important," Judy said and gestured for me to come over. "Please hold the rod; I have to go to the toilet."

"It was over there," Elly pointed at the small building by the lake shore and sidled up to her. "Let's go together; the tour guide should be around there somewhere."

She apparently still didn't give up on borrowing a chair. There was little I could do about that, so after they left, I checked the bait and cast the line into the hole again. Then, just as things were about to become nice and quiet again, there was suddenly a trout in my face.

"Look, Leo! Look! We caught one!" Angie bragged while waving the fish in front of me. "I didn't think fishing would be this much fun!"

"I'm glad to hear that, but be careful."

As if on cue, the friendly Celestial slipped and Josh had to rush in to catch her before she fell.

"Careful, you dolt. You nearly dropped our catch."

"Boo! You're supposed to care more about my safety than a fish!" she complained, but then right after that she planted a peck on his cheek. "Thanks, by the way."

"How are things on your end?" Josh inquired while rubbing his face with a glowed hand. "Did the girls get bored already?"

"Nah, they just have other business. They should be back in a minute or two. What about you guys?"

"I love it!" Angie declared, and considering she was an outdoorsy type of girl, her opinion taking a one-eight turn wasn't that surprising. "It's a little cold, but the ice cave was gorgeous, and this place is amazing, and we already got a fish!"

For emphasis, she waved the poor, traumatized trout around like it was a floppy sword. I nodded in acknowledgment and turned to the guy, and he was still considering the initial question even while his girlfriend was fish-fencing.

"It's a nice change of pace, but it's a little too quiet."

"Spoken like a real city boy," I jested, and it earned me an indignant huff.

"Whatever. If Angie likes it, I'll like it too."

His comment made the energetic Celestial stop playing with their catch and she flashed a pleased, if somewhat dopey, smile at her boyfriend. Meanwhile, I couldn't help but raise a surprised brow at him.

"Oooh? That's one of the classic idiot-couple lines. To think you would be already spouting something like that… You've come a long way, haven't you, pal?"

"Oh, can it," Josh grumbled with a bashful grimace. "You're the last person who can accuse us of being that."

"I resent that remark," I stated flatly, then after a long beat, I quietly added, "If it makes you feel any better, you have a looong way to go before you can reach those two's level."

I didn't even have to name them, yet the childhood friends automatically turned their heads in the direction of Ammy and Mike, and we just caught them having a good laugh about the tiny little fish they just caught.

"Would it be rude to say I don't want to?" Josh muttered, and Angie reflexively planted her elbow in his side. "I guess that's a yes."

"They are just precious," she said with a delighted smile, in stark contrast to the elbow still poking Josh's torso, and let out a captivated sigh.

"Sure, sure, let's go with that," the guy grumbled and stepped out of elbow-range, after which he peeked at Ammy and Mike again and clicked his tongue. "On the way here, he boasted about how he will show me what a real date is all about, but then they just got wrapped up in their own little bubble. I don't get it."

"Maybe that's the point," I nudged my friend with my best 'wise Taoist sage' impression, but he only looked at me funny.

"Me not getting it is the point?"

"Not that, you silly-goose," Angie cut in while putting one hand around his waist and using the fish in the other the vaguely gesticulate at the scenery. "It's all about living in the moment, enjoying yourself to the fullest, and spending time with the people you love the most." Normally this would've been the point where the audio engineers inserted some kind of inspirational symphonic background track, only to then cut it short with a record scratch when she limply let her arm down and muttered, "Or… I think that's the point? I'm not entirely sure I've it either, but that has to be it, right?"

It took me a while to recognize she was talking to me, and I reflexively shrugged.

"Sounds good enough to me."

"Yeah, good enough," she nodded along and then started waving her poor fish like the previous intermezzo never happened. "Let's do that! Come on Josh, let's catch more! Whoever has the most fishes by the end of the day is the winner!"

"This isn't a competition," Josh retorted but followed after his girlfriend all the same.

In the meantime, I reeled in my fishing line, but there was nary a nibble on the bait.

"I guess they just aren't biting today."

"Or you're using the wrong bait," a certain sneaky old man uttered from my blind spot.

Glancing over, I did my best to keep my face from cramping up as he walked over and stood next to me. Great. Just what I needed.

"Are you done teaching my sisters how to fish?" I inquired through clenched teeth, eliciting a chuckle from the old man.

"They should manage. Unfortunately, even after you went above and beyond for setting this up, she didn't seem to get it. Or was it even aimed at her, I wonder?"

I had a distinct feeling we were having two completely different conversations.

"What are you talking about?"

"What else could I be talking about but this?" He gestured at the hole in the ice in front of me, and when I didn't react right away, he shook his head. "I see you've picked up the bad habit of teasing your elders since we last met. Can you at least tell me what you're angling for?"

"Fish," I told him with my best Judy impression, and he actually snorted.

"Okay, I admit I walked into that one. However, my question still stands. Is this about the girl, the Inannas, or the Nergals? Or maybe a message to that Bel of the Abyss fellow?"

By this time, I was one hundred and one percent sure we were talking in parallel, and it was freaking me out a little. However, I couldn't show it, so for the time being, I pretended to be completely unperturbed and forcefully twisted the corners of my mouth up.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. This is a completely innocent ice-fishing trip I organized for the sake of my friends. There's absolutely nothing nefarious, underhanded, or devious about it. Scout's honor."

"Oh, fine, you sneaky scoundrel." Despite his words, Sir Percival sounded genuinely amused. "If you went through all the trouble to set this up, I'm sure you have your reasons. Let's just pretend I never asked, and then I'll act completely surprised when it turns out this really was all about sending a message."

"Sounds fair enough."

The old bastard snorted again, followed by a few stifled chuckles, and at last he asked, "By the way, where's the toilet?" I sent him a skeptical glance, and he added, "What? I really have to go, but there are too many young girls around."

"It's that way," I pointed toward the cabin on the shore, and Percival gave me a thumbs up in return. I followed after him with my eyes, and then my gaze came right back as it followed the girls returning. As expected, Elly managed to procure a portable chair and was showing it off to me with an ear-to-ear grin.

"No bites?" Judy inquired as I handed the rod back to her, and I shook my head. "Hm. Maybe we should switch to earthworms after all."

"But those are icky," my princess complained, and while this was another opportunity to point out how strangely similar she was to Penny from time to time, I had something more important to do, so I refrained from that.

"I'll be right back. I want to check something with Snowy."

"But I just brought the chair," Elly protested, so before leaving, I planted a peck on her head.

"I won't be away for long. In the meantime, warm up the seat for me."

She nodded, and after kissing Judy's forehead (just the usual balancing stuff), I headed over to my sisters' fishing spot. Penny was sitting on the fishing box Percival brought along, while my other sister was crouching nearby and looking at something on the ground.

"Brother, look! We've already got two!"

I followed Penny's gesture and nodded at the two small fishes on the ice near Snowy. They seemed like some kind of salmon at first glance, though I admittedly wasn't an expert. In any case, it was nice to see that they had better luck than I did.

"Nice job, kiddo. Would you mind if I borrow Snowy for a second? I have something I need to ask her."

"Yes? Can I help?" my Abyssal sister stood up and walked over before Penny could even respond, and we walked a few steps away before I gestured for her to lean closer.

"Say, sis? Does ice-fishing have any kind of special significance or meaning in the Abyss?"

She ever-so-slightly cocked her head to the side after hearing my question, but then after some consideration, she opened her mouth.

"I'm not sure it's significant, but… um… Do you know the term 'cement shoes'?"

"Isn't that a thing in gangster movies?"

"Yes, that one," she nodded, and then awkwardly told me, "Saying that someone had 'gone ice fishing' has more or less the same meaning. I don't know why though. It's actually fun."

"I'm glad you like it, but—"

"B-Brother! Snowy! Help! I've got a big one!"

Before I could finish that thought, we were interrupted by Penny's cry for help. Once the huge trout was reeled in, it ignited Angie's competitive spirit, which then jumped over to the princess, and so our laidback trip soon turned into a fishing contest, and so I had little time to wonder about just how Percival knew about an old Abyssal euphemism, or what he thought I was trying to imply with it. One thing was for sure; it didn't help my impression of the bastard one iota.

Oh, and on a side-note, the winner of the competition was the class rep couple, even though they didn't even really register what was going on. It must have been the power of love or something.