The moment I returned to my quarters, I couldn't help but exhale a lung-rattling sigh. It was a long day, and I was feeling pretty out of it. My limbs were hurting, no doubt the result of my bout with my 'honour guard' in the morning, made worse by my head still throbbing, nearly two days after the whole memory-transfer incident. Though again, having headaches became part of my daily life at this point, so it bothered me much less than my sore feet.

It hasn't been that long since I returned from the underground base, so I was still satiated, but I was feeling a bit parched. To remedy that, I headed into the small bathroom and, after operating the magitech faucet, washed my face and took a few gulps to quench my thirst. I wasn't entirely sure how healthy that was, considering that these fancy Celestial gadgets were conjuring water out of mana instead of just regular plumbing, but Fred built a similar (if slightly less sophisticated) system in the base, and everyone was still alive after drinking the water created by that. I figured I'll live too.

Anyhow, once I returned to the main room, my shadow wavered, and Rinne jumped out of it. The way she landed made me wonder if there was a small trampoline or something in the shadow dimension that propelled people out of it, but such questions were left by the wayside by the first sentence that came out of her mouth.

"Rinne thinks Leonard-dono was too lenient."

Her muffled voice, combined with the faceless helmet she was wearing, gave her a very different atmosphere, and it caused my brain to enter into a loop that took a few seconds to break out of.

"Do you mean… the kitchen staff?"

"Of course Rinne means them!" she declared with a huff and grabbed the disguised Onikiri. On second thought, 'disguised' might've been overselling it a little, as it was literally just the purple shroud covering up the hilt combined with a makeshift scabbard to hide the blade from prying eyes, but I digress.

"They were just following orders," I told her as I made my way over to the bedroom. "I'm not here to make friends, but that doesn't mean I should antagonize some random working-class schmucks."

There was also the fact that they were obviously placeholders, which meant they had very limited agency to begin with, but I didn't spell that out to her. Following behind me, she continued to fume and tug on her sword.

"If it was up to Rinne, Rinne would have emasculated them for daring to poison Leonard-dono's food!"

"And that's why it wasn't up to you," I pointed out as I sat down, and after a long beat (and realizing that Ichiko wasn't around), I morosely added, "Also, I'm pretty sure you meant 'eviscerated'."

"Yes. That's precisely what Rinne meant!"

I couldn't help but imagine that behind that featureless faceplate, she was sporting one of her usual slasher smiles, and it drew a tired sigh out of me. The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?

"{Comment: I agree with the skeuophoros.}"

Blinking, I glanced down at the short sword hanging from my side and raised a finger towards Mountain Girl.

"She's not a…" It was only at this point that I realized that I had no idea what the word meant, but it felt subtly demeaning, so I doubled down and told Teeny, "Consider her a bodyguard."

"{Response: Updating database entry to somatophylax.}"

"That's better," I muttered, though I still had no idea what the word meant. My gut still told me it was more accurate, so I figured it might've been a Polemos memory fragment talking.

In any case, once that semantic argument was resolved, I turned back to Mountain Girl. While I brought her along, partially due to her own insistence, and partially just to make my girlfriends feel more at ease, I didn't know what to do with her. Sure, her Celestial disguise could probably fool people at a distance, especially considering how eclectic everyone's outfits were in the Elysium, but I couldn't just introduce her out of the blue without raising a lot of skeptical inquiries in the process. On the other hand, I couldn't exactly just keep her in my shadow all the time either.

While pondering that, she walked over to the large window taking up the majority of the nearby wall. It was late, so the scenery outside was hard to see in the moonlight, but it must've still left an impression on her, since she let out an impressed 'Oh?'.

While she was drinking in the panorama, I decided to put her usefulness aside for the moment and focus on other issues. For a start, there was that whole 'poisoning' incident.

Since I told him to do it, Jaakobah dutifully sampled the dinner he delivered to my room, and according to him, immediately realized that something was off. In his words, there was a faint smell that reminded him of something he used to put guards out of commission during one of his missions. I didn't ask for details.

He then proceeded to apprehend and interrogate the kitchen staff in charge of my food, and by the time I got there using the old 'enter the elevator, and then Phase to the scene' trick, things have escalated to the point where threats of summary executions were thrown around. I wasn't a fan of those, and after listening to both sides of the story, I let the cooks and serving staff get away with a slap on the wrist. Or at least as much as house arrest could be considered that, but as far as I gathered, Celestial laws were on the more draconian side (as in, in relation to the lawman Draco, not my dragon-connected affiliates), so that was probably considered rather lenient.

As for why I didn't make too much of a fuss about this incident… well, maybe if it was 'real' poison, I wouldn't have been so blasé about it, but the compound used was pretty much just a fancy, partially magical tranquillizer, so I couldn't really get too worked up about it. That said, I would've been lying if I said I wasn't curious about who tried to sedate me, and since Rinne was still admiring the view, I decided to do a Far Sight roll call and see what I could find.

Between my discussion with the Orthodox director and resolving the hubbub in the kitchen, time passed in the blink of an eye. Of course, due to the lack of clocks in the room, I could only guess, but I figured it was somewhere around half past nine by the time I returned to this room. It wasn't too late, by my standards, but I didn't think I was going to catch much movement at this hour.

That said, my very first Far Glance found a rather remarkable development.

I started with the other Celestial Directors, and while I expected that Tsephanyah would at least hear about the whole poisoning incident, I didn't expect him to be discussing it in the company of the other big director. No, scratch that. It was less 'discussing' and more… well, getting yelled at, really.

"What were you thinking?!"

Mensah's voice shook the spacious room. It was about the size of the main room of my quarters, and it even had a similar décor, including a large conference table. There sat the blonde director in his usual purple toga, while across the table stood the bespectacled Unorthodox leader, his hands planted on the surface and glaring at his colleague. Besides the two of them, the room was completely empty.

"I already told you. I simply wished to make sure that Archon Polemos would remain in his accommodations for the night. Neither of us wants him to wander around."

"You tried to drug him! And got caught!" the younger man in the green toga objected, though he seemed to put more emphasis on the latter part.

"I underestimated his vigilance, that's all," Tsephanyah responded calmly and gestured for the other man to sit back down.

"I sincerely hope you covered your tracks," the green-clad director grumbled while he took his seat, and after an unnecessarily long beat, the blonde man shrugged.

"It's only natural, but in any case, the Archon's attitude towards the culprits shows that he considers the incident beneath him."

"Either that, or it's a message."

"To me?"

"To all of us," Mensah stated gravely, and after some consideration, the other man nodded in acknowledgement.

"Maybe. In any case, his actions show that he wishes to sweep the incident under the rug. Whether he knows that we're behind it or not is irrelevant."

"You. You are behind it. I wash my hands of this affair," Mensah huffed, and the other director shook his head with an exasperated grimace.

"There's no 'I' in 'league', Dolion."

"Oh, so now we are in a league," the bespectacled man huffed and placed his hands on the table again. "Were we in league when you interrupted my subordinates and took the Archon for yourself?"

"Let's not be overdramatic. You would've had to bring him to me either way to access the Spear of Destiny. I simply streamlined the process."

"And while doing that, you shifted the blame for breaking the agreement onto our side!"

"It was a necessary sacrifice," Tsephanyah stated in a disinterested tone. "At the very least, it helped maintain the illusion."

A tense silence fell in the room, and after what felt like ages, Mensah lowered his voice into a threatening growl.

"Don't be mistaken, Acacius. Our goals might alight for the moment, as far as keeping Savir and her Orthodox lapdogs in check is concerned, but we aren't one. There's no illusion here, and the moment the Archon fully understands the situation surrounding Bel of the Abyss, there will be no such thing as 'our side', only mine. You better make up your mind by then."

"You take that for granted, but what if the Archon's interests don't align with yours?" Tsephanyah asked back, still collected and seemingly in control of the conversation. "Worse yet, what if he chooses to side with the Orthodoxy? One of my men reported that before his sudden appearance in the kitchens, Polemos was last seen in the company of Eris. From what I've heard, it was a private meeting, and they were rather cordial."

"What? How did you—?"

"Just placing the right man in the right place at the right time," the blonde director uttered as if stating something so self-evident was distasteful. "We can't let our guard down just yet."

"… I agree. We can sort out our differences once Director Savir and her conservative cronies are dealt with." After a brief pause, the younger director cleared his throat and continued in a softer voice. "Did you also discover what they discussed in private?"

"No. Unfortunately, my reach doesn't reach so far, but if I was a betting man, my shekels would be trying to use the Archon's connections on Critias to wage a proxy war on the Magi."

"You think?"

"I've known Eris longer than you're alive. I know how she thinks," Tsephanyah stated, and for a moment, I couldn't help but wonder how old he was. He was far from elderly, but then again, he had six wings, which meant he was one of the more 'pureblooded' Celestials, and since the Celestials of old used to live for hundreds of years, maybe he just looked young. Kind of like how Draconians operated, now that I thought about it.

"We can't let that happen," Mensah declared emphatically, and while at first I thought it was the good Samaritan talking in him, he immediately clarified his intentions. "We'll need them to bear the brunt of the damage during our war on the Abyssals for us! We can't waste their military power like that!"

"I'm afraid the Orthodoxy is not nearly as concerned with the threat of the Abyss as you are. If anything, they will most likely pour all their resources into the Department of Divination in order to find the Second Advent of Deus, and elevate him over Polemos as soon as possible, before the Second True Archon could entrench himself and pose a threat to them."

Ah. So… maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought, huh? While wondering whether that was ironic or not, Mensah repeatedly tapped his finger on the table, his face slowly darkening with each passing second.

"What about you then? What are you going to do about Critias?"

"Me? I can't say I care. Whether they fight each other, fight the Abyss, or waste away together, doesn't matter to me. My first priority is, and always has been, the prosperity of Elysium. The rest of the world could burn for all I care. In many ways, it would be the preferable outcome."

"You say that now, but when the Abyss marches its armies upon us, you'll—!"

"If that happens," Tsephanyah cut him short, "then, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you and hold the gates. However, we live in the present, and right now, keeping the Orthodoxy in check is the only factor with which we should concern ourselves."

"And to do that, we need Polemos," the younger man said, and his colleague nodded in tacit approval.

"Yes. We need to make him see things our way. If he truly retained the memories of Leonard Dunning, then he should naturally recognize the plight of the Malakim, and what an affront it is to have our kinsmen live such a simple existence while the mortals get to enjoy easy lives."

"And on the same note, his experiences should tell him how much of a threat Bel of the Abyss and his co-conspirators pose to all Celestials."

"Yes, I'm certain he will share your concerns," Tsephanyah granted the younger man, though I could feel just a hint of tongue in his cheek. "We simply have to make sure his eyes are focusing on the right things; to see how wretched the Malakim truly are compared to those arrogant mortals, and guide him until he would join us of his own volition."

"Do whatever you want, so long as it does not affect the readiness of our military," Mensah noted with thinly veiled distaste. "The last thing we need right now is a peasant rebellion to create a chink in our armor for the Abyss to exploit."

"You have such a one-track mind," Tsephanyah commented with a smile that definitely didn't touch his eyes, and the two men stared daggers at each other for a while.

"As I said," the director in green spoke up again, still defiant. "As I said, I don't care what you do, so long as it doesn't undermine the Archon's trust or our defenses. Or at the very least, tell me if you are about to do something precarious, like sneaking drugs into the Archon's meals, so that I can prepare in advance."

"That much, I can promise," the older man acquiesced, and on that note, Mensah stood up.

"Now, if you excuse me, I have to leave and make my preparations for tomorrow."

"Are you still planning to use this 'Praetorian Guard' to approach the Archon?"

"Naturally. You already have one of your men in the Archon's good graces, so I can't slack off either. Not to mention, who else is better to instil the threat of the Abyss in his mind than the men and women sworn to protect him?"

"A rather orthodox strategy," the purple-clad man noted, and the other director apparently didn't appreciate the wordplay, as he left with a huff, not even saying his goodbyes.

I lingered for a little longer, but once the meeting was over, Tsephanyah didn't do anything noteworthy. Mensah, true to his word, was down in the newly constructed barracks by the time I caught up to him, and was lecturing the rather exhausted guards about how to talk to me. Only about half of them were present, and while I was nominally curious about where the others went, I had more important things to consider than to look for them.

Just to round things out, I checked on Savir, but she was already asleep, and so was Sir Percival, still pretending to be injured. Once I concluded that there was nothing else to see there, I also Far Glanced through the ranks, and the only semi-interesting things I noted were the fact that Judy ended up sleeping in the princess's king-size bed, despite her protests, that my sisters were having something reminiscent of a sleepover-party in the base with the semi-unique ninja women and Galatea, and that Josh, despite his reservations about its effects on his ability to transform, was still happy to continue 'experimenting' with his girlfriend.

That last one was their private business though, so I didn't stare. Last, but not least, I checked out Crowey, who was swamped with paperwork and burning the midnight oil late into the night, as usual, and since I was there, I also checked out my mark on his young spymaster.

I half-expected to find her sleeping in her quarters, but to my surprise, I not only found her wide awake but in a circle with a few other conspirators. At a glance, I recognized the elderly matron in the Victorian-era dress, the long-haired man in the grey navy uniform, and the balding military man with the bushy beard, though I could vaguely recognize a few others as well. It wasn't strange, considering I had been spying on Crowey's inner circle for the better part of four months, but I didn't expect all of them to be gathered in one place.

"… of Lord Bel's involvement," the young woman with the mismatched hair stated, and after a wave of murmurs ran through the group, and the old lady drew everyone's attention by tapping a fancy folding fan against her palm.

"Are you certain it wasn't the Ashurs?"

"Yes, matron," Tajana responded a touch uncertainly, but then she took a deep breath and clarified, "While the Ashur family claimed responsibility, my spies didn't report any movement within the estate that would indicate that they were holding a VIP. I think it's just a ploy trying to draw attention."

"Is it aimed at our liege?" the uniformed middle-aged man cut in; his handsome face marred by a deep frown.

"It would make sense," one of the younger members of the group spoke up in the background. "This way, they could say they dealt with someone he couldn't even touch."

"True, but it still makes little sense," the old woman mused as she continued to tap her fan against her hand. "If they weren't the ones to kidnap him, and he happened to return, it would prove their claim false and make them a laughingstock."

"It makes sense if they know for a fact that he cannot return yet," the young man argued back.

"Are you saying they are covering for the real kidnappers?" the man with the bushy beard asked, though it was obviously a rhetorical question. "But then we're back to square one! Who was the one who kidnapped our liege's arch-nemesis!?"

"A-As I was saying, I don't think that Lord Bel was involved," Tajana cut in, flustered. "He… most likely wouldn't need help to accomplish something so simple, and he would have done so in the open, in front of everyone. To assert his dominance."

The way her eyes were sparkling while talking about my Bel persona was a touch troubling, but then the conversation moved on when the man in the navy uniform let out a soft grunt and pinched his chin.

"In that case, there's only one likely culprit left."

"The Celestials?" the young man in the back blurted out, but the man in the uniform didn't seem to mind the interruption.

"Yes. Them. And they not only shifted the blame, but the Ashurs are playing into their hands as well."

"That's a troubling development," the matron noted, though, despite her words, she sounded rather disinterested. "What are we going to do about it?"

"We need to go outside and collect more information!" the young woman with the two-toned hair declared with unnecessary enthusiasm.

"And let me guess? You're nominating yourself, am I right?" the older man with the big beard guessed, and it apparently hit the mark. "You've been trying to come up with excuses to leave the Abyss ever since the day you met this Bel of the Abyss."

"But… But listen! Based on the pattern, he's much more likely to show up on Critias again! This way, I could collect information, while also having a much higher chance to meet him and ask him about his… um… intentions."

"Speaking of intentions, you should keep yours closer to your heart, my dear," the old woman commented a tad derisively, and the young spymaster fell silent right away.

"All of this discussion is pointless," the long-haired man noted with a shake of his head. "So long as our liege doesn't allow it, you can't leave the Abyss, and I doubt any of us could convince him otherwise."

"I'll try!"

"You do that then," he concluded dryly before addressing the others. "We should focus on the more immediate concerns, such as how our liege would react once he learns of Leonard Dunning's disappearance."

After this, the discussion slowly devolved into a back-and-forth argument about how they should break the news to Crowey, and as much as I tried, I couldn't quite get the image of a group of kids arguing how they should tell the teacher they broke a window. The whole thing had about the same energy.

Anyhow, once I was sure I wasn't missing anything pivotal, I exited Far Sight and let out a shallow sigh.

So, what did I learn today? Apparently, Savir and the Orthodox are opportunistic bastards, Mensah and the Unorthodox were not only single-minded warmongers, but also in cahoots with the Reformists, while Tsephanyah was jealous of humanity's toys and wouldn't mind watching the world burn so long as the Celestials got to play with them too. In other words, so far, all three of them were pretty high on the bastardry-scale, and it put my plan of 'find the good guy' on shaky legs.

Oh, and apparently Tajana was planning to come to Critias to look for Bel. Because why not?

All in all, things weren't getting any simpler, but for the time being, I gestured for Rinne to get back into my shadow, I stretched my legs and then sprung to my feet before immediately Phasing into the village. I doubted I could learn anything new about the Celestial agrarian idyllic life, but if Tsephanyah wanted to keep me from exploring, I felt duty-bound to do it anyway. If nothing else, I figured the fresh air should help me clear my mind and figure out how to cut through this whole Celestial Onion come the next morning.