"What's your impression so far?"

Mountain Girl considered my throwaway question way too seriously, seemingly paying little attention to where she was walking. Unlike with my girlfriends, I didn't bother with her safety, but to be fair, there weren't any lampposts she could bonk into here.

The two of us wandered through the rustic Celestial settlement all night, this time starting from the outskirts, but despite my best efforts, I didn't make any new discoveries. On this occasion, I didn't bother any of the inhabitants, and since we didn't find anything significant, I expected that Rinne would be bored by our excursion.

"Rinne likes this place," she declared after mulling over my question for a long while. "It reminds Rinne of Rinne's childhood."

"Let me guess: you grew up in some rural Japanese hidden ninja village."

My companion twitched, and if I could see her face, I was sure she would've been blinking at me.

"Did Rinne already tell Leonard-dono about it?"

"No, it was just an educated guess," I told her with a shrug, and she smoothly accepted it.

Seriously though, her backstory was somehow getting weirder the more I learned about her. Apparently, she grew up in a ninja village, then went to high school, was part of both the handicrafts and the literature club, all the while hunting monsters, and then after that she somehow got a freaking teaching license of all things. I knew little about the time between that and the moment she showed up to complicate my life, but considering the rest of her background, I wouldn't have been surprised if she told me she spent a year crab-fishing in the Pacific or something.

"Rinne really likes this place," she suddenly echoed her previous sentiment, drawing my attention back to her. "Rinne didn't expect the Celestials to live this way, but it's very serene."

"Maybe you can retire here, or something," I noted a touch absently and gestured for her to follow closely. Daybreak was just around the corner, and we were heading back to the tower on foot for a reason, namely so that I could organically introduce her to everyone else.

There was no deeper meaning behind my comment, yet Mountain Girl momentarily froze up before she hastily caught up to me.

"Retirement? Rinne had never considered such a thing…"

"Because of the whole monster-hunting business?" I asked just to keep the conversation going, and she nodded at once.

"Yes. Rinne was supposed to keep fighting vile beasts of corruption and savagery until Rinne drew her last breath and Onikiri could be passed over to the next generation, but now that Leonard-dono freed Ichiko-neesan…"

Her words trailed off into silence, and the way the rising sun glinted off her helmet gave her a kind of forlorn impression. It was definitely different from the usual Mountain Girl I knew, though to be fair, I only knew her for a few months. More importantly, her words reminded me of something.

"We already talked about this in the past, but for the record, are you still okay with how I'm keeping you from hunting monsters and whatnot?"

"Of course. What Leonard-dono is doing is more important." The speed and ease with which she answered me were a little surprising, but then she also dropped, "Once Leonard-dono unites everyone, we'll have all the time to spill the blood of the abhorrent creatures investigating the dark underbelly of the world!"

"… It's 'infesting', I'm not really uniting everyone, and most importantly, by 'we', do you mean you and the Kage clan, or…?"

"Rinne naturally means Rinne and Leonard-dono," she declared matter-of-factly. "Leonard-dono promised to accompany Rinne on the hunt for the mokele-mbembe!"

"Did I…?" My perfectly reasonable question made her direct a stare at me I could feel it on my skin even through the visorless visage. "Erm… Let's get back to this discussion around the summer break, shall we?"

"Sounds good to Rinne!" Sounding genuinely excited, which only made me feel more apprehensive. "Ichiko-neesan will be coming too, so we should invite Naoren-san and Xiao-chan. Duncan-san also said he wanted to wrestle a mokele-mbembe, and Rinne's sure that Leonard-dono's sisters would also…"

"We're going to invite everyone, all right?" I grumbled, but she ignored my tone and nodded with the same enthusiasm.

Trying to ignore how I was supposed to introduce the idea of spending our vacation jungle-trotting in search of some cryptid in the middle of Africa to the girls, I increased the pace, and in about half an hour, we successfully reached the precipice of the central tower. As expected, there was a small crowd of guards, their polished bronze armours glinting in the morning light, running all over the place like a whole flock of headless chickens. It all looked plenty hectic, yet somehow things seemed considerably less chaotic than the morning before.

Once we got closer, I whispered, "Stay silent, no matter what."

Mountain Girl nodded and stood tall, and if I didn't know her already, I might've even considered her imposing and reliable at a glance. In the meantime, a squad of guards noticed our approach and rushed over to our side. It took me until they got closer to realize that they weren't just random placeholders either.

"Lord Archon, sir!" the armour-clad man in the front raised a hand and then clenched it into a fist, causing the rest behind him to form an orderly line. They were all sweating like they had been running a marathon. "We were waiting for your return."

"Were you?" I asked back, adopting my aloof persona, and he gave me a curt nod.

"Prefect Arpachshad informed us that you would most likely leave for the night and return in the morning," he explained, and after a long beat, he turned a pair of questioning eyes at the hastily disguised woman standing by my side. "Who is this?"

"She's with me," I told him curtly and began walking. Mountain Girl automatically followed behind me, while the rest of them quickly formed a loose formation around us, with armour-man falling in line on my other side.

"Lord Archon, sir? With all due respect, you can't just let anyone—"

"That's not something you need to concern yourself with," I told him on no uncertain terms.

After a bit of brainstorming over the night, I concluded that the simplest way to deal with Mountain Girl's identity was to simply ignore it. Sure, I could've come up with some elaborate and internally consistent backstory, but dammit, I was the Second True Archon, wasn't I? That kind of authority gave me Refuge for Audacity fuel for days, so it was about time I started using it. After all, who would have the balls to call Polemos out on being unreasonable?

"Sir, that's unreasonable."

… Huh. Would you look at that? That didn't take long to be subverted.

"She's my…" I began, then froze for a moment a whispered, "Teeny? What did you call her?"

"{Response: If Archon Polemos is referring to the individual designated as 'Rinne' and 'Mountain Girl', then her current classification is somatophylax.}"

"Thanks." I cleared my throat to mask my impromptu conversation with my weapon, and then I told armour-man, "She's my somatophylax, and she has my full confidence. That's all you need to know."

"Sir, yes sir."

While we talked, our little group reached the entrance of the tower, and as we encountered more guards and the news of my return spread, things became progressively less chaotic over time. It was only when we crossed the threshold of the entrance hall that I noticed something peculiar.

"Where's the rest of the squad?"

"They quit," midriff-woman, previously hovering a bit behind us, butted into our conversation with audible distaste.

"Sir. After yesterday's spar, some members of the Praetorian Guard found themselves wanting, and turned in their resignation, sir."

"So, it's only…" I glanced around, and besides armour-guy and midriff-woman, I could recognize sci-fi-dude, tunic-man and wetsuit-chap on the left, while on the right, we had hammer-lad, uniform-bloke, and… damn, I was running out of synonyms… Ah, got it! Facemask-fella, the sneaky one! That meant there were… "Eight left."

"Sir, yes sir."

In retrospect, the four that left didn't make much of an impression on me, so it wasn't much of a loss, though I had to wonder whether they really left because they felt inadequate, or because of a more nefarious reason. For example, maybe those four were sent here by Savir, but since she was now under the impression that I was working with her, she no longer needed eyes on me. Alternatively, there might've been some kind of Narrative-related reason, like that introducing twelve new side characters at once was too much. Or maybe, just maybe, I was overthinking this.

In any case, I figured we would be headed to the elevator, or at the very least to one of the displeased Directors. Instead, my little gaggle of bodyguards led me to their barracks-cum-mustering-grounds. We were already halfway there by the time I noticed, so I decided to just go with the flow.

The newly renovated area changed a lot since the last time I'd been here. The half-finished walls had been smoothed out, the area in the middle got turned into a small gymnasium where people could train, and based on the signs, the lodgings of these guys were behind a door at the far end. However, that wasn't the surprising part.

"Who are all of these people?"

I gestured at the hundred or so similarly dressed men and women filling the place. Some of them were running laps, others were doing push-ups, while a separate group in the back were standing in a line and shooting energy arrows at stereotypical red-and-white targets. The moment I came into view, everyone stopped in their tracks and turned in our direction to salute.

"They're volunteers," hammer-lad answered my previous question in a surprisingly androgynous voice, and he was followed up by tunic-man's considerably more masculine baritone.

"The Department of Military Affairs didn't approve at first, but Primus Khurshid convinced them to allow the formation of a new guard regiment."

"I think I was clear when I told you that I have no need of guards, let alone this many." It was at this point that I noticed that everyone was still frozen in position and saluting, so I raised my voice with a wave of my hand. "All of you continue as you were."

"Sir, let me clarify, sir!" Armour-guy interjected while the small crowd resumed their activities in the background. "They are not part of the Praetorian Guard. Only we are duty-bound to protect—"

"Support!" midriff-woman cut in, practically knocking the armoured man over in her hurry. "We're to support you and ensure that you remain unhindered in case of an emergency."

At this point, Mountain Girl drew everyone's attention by nodding and letting out an approving hum, but before anyone could start questioning her again, I let out a dramatic sigh and shook my head.

"Very well. Did you lead me here to show them to me?"

"Partially."

The terse response came from facemask-fellow, his voice sounding raspier than sandpaper, yet before I could ask him to clarify, midriff-woman was pushed out of the way by armour-guy reasserting his position.

"We hoped you could provide us with guidance, Lord Archon, sir!"

"Guidance," I repeated after him a touch flatly, and he nodded with full solemnity.

"Yes, sir. Primus Khurshid assured us of your intent to do so, sir."

I couldn't remember explicitly promising anything like that, which meant Mike's father either took something I said out of context, or he was trying to use this excuse to make sure I would keep these guys around. Either way, I was soon knocked out of my train of thought by a pair of familiar voices in my head.

"{No, young knight! You cannot train with these warriors! Think of your injuries!}"

"{Assent: I agree with Interface:Cal's assessment. I advise against any activity requiring mana-usage until Archon Polemos made a full recovery.}"

"I get it," I murmured under my breath, followed by a melodramatic sigh. "As yesterday's test had already proven, you do not possess the capability to face me. I cannot teach you to run before you even learned how to crawl, but fortunately, I have an opponent here who's slightly closer to your level."

I turned to Rinne, and it took her an embarrassingly long time to realize I was talking about her. Once she did, she stood ramrod straight, at which point I turned back to my alleged honour guards.

"She'll serve as your opponent for today, while I'll observe you from the sidelines. Once I have fully gauged your individual abilities, I'll provide you with a few words of advice."

They looked slightly skeptical, as expected, but as far as Rinne was concerned, she took my suggestion in stride and unsheathed Onikiri.

Leaving them to figure out the rest on their own, I adopted an aloof expression and walked over to the nearby training field, and wordlessly watched as uniform-bloke and wetsuit-chap… or was it wetsuit-dude? Damn, keeping their nicknames consistent was going to be a pain in the neck…

Anyhow, the two of them cleared out the area, and all the 'volunteer guards' formed a circle around the field, with one big gap. That's where I was standing, and for some reason, nobody dared to get closer than three steps away from me. I didn't mind it much; it just meant I wouldn't be bothered by any bystanders. Not that I was afraid I would get distracted from watching the sparring matches, since I wasn't planning to do that to begin with.

Since I'd already gauged their levels earlier, I knew for a fact that none of them posed any real threat to Mountain Girl individually, and it wasn't like I could give them any meaningful advice even if I paid full attention to them. Instead, I was going to use the opportunity to do some Far Sighting, to keep staying on top of things as much as possible.

As such, the moment midriff-woman took center stage in front of Rinne, I immediately tuned out and turned my attention to distant targets. First off, I checked on the three chief directors, though there was nothing much to see this time. Savir was in something resembling a church building near the top of the spire, giving a sermon to a whole lot of starry-eyed Celestials of various ages. Tsephanyah just received news that I returned, and directed his subordinates to pay closer attention to my comings and goings. Mensah was… building one of those miniature boats in a bottle. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't expecting that of all things, but hey, everyone needed a hobby.

Moving on, I checked on the gang, but there was nothing interesting happening, aside from my girlfriends taking a morning shower together. Insert snippy comment about how Judy was doing a terrible job at dissuading the baseless gossip spreading among the Dracis servants here. Anyways, ignoring that distraction, I proceeded to my next target, and the difference between the previous scene and watching Lord Grandpa doing callisthenics in his bedroom gave me a bit of a whiplash. Apparently, it was too early to catch anything interesting on that front.

Next, I checked on Crowey, but pretty much the same applied there. I made a mental note to keep a closer eye on the guy, since I really wanted to catch the moment when he finally learned that I was allegedly kidnapped by a rival Abyssal family. After that, I Far Glanced at the people in the secret base, and when I didn't find anything particularly captivating, I swiftly moved on to the Knights.

To my surprise, I found all of them up and about. Duncan was drilling the squires, Morgana and Agrawain were already in the back-up extra-secret hideout in the dock district and preparing the place, and as for Roland, I found him in the guest room of the Dracis mansion of all places.

"I tell you, I'm fine already!" Sir Percival professed while striking a pose, pretending to show off his biceps through his pyjamas. Our one and only Mr. Griffon, currently in a casual attire including a genuine red-and-black plaid lumberjack shirt, remained unimpressed and shook his head.

"I still think you should rest for a few more days."

"Nonsense! Even if just temporarily, I'm the leader of the Ordo Draconis! We must show the world that the chain of command is intact!"

"We already made the announcement, and your well-being is much more important than the optics of the organization."

Getting stonewalled like that made the old man's expression waver, but he maintained his kindly façade with a disappointed sigh.

"Roland, please. We can't put my health above the smooth operation of the organization, especially at a time like this."

"There's no need to worry about that," the Griffon Knight reassured him with a pat on the shoulder. "Leonard was rather hands-off with his authority, and we're already used to operating with tacit approval. There's no need for you to prematurely return to duty over such concerns."

"I… But…"

Before he could object anymore, Roland gently but firmly pushed him towards the bed.

"Just rest up. Knowing Leonard, it's only a matter of time until his captors will be begging us to take him back before he completely destabilizes their entire realm." Pausing, he allowed himself a cheeky little grin and added, "Who knows? He might've already escaped for all we know."

"It's not so simple to escape the Abyss," Percival muttered with barely disguised irritation, but before I could listen to Roland's response, I was jolted out of my Far Sight by a round of loud applause.

Blinking, I gazed at the middle of the training field, where wetsuit-chap was sitting on the ground with Rinne standing over him and Onikiri pointed at his jugular. Wasn't she fighting midriff-woman just now? She was going through them pretty fast.

"Just as expected," I whispered, and to my shock, someone actually responded to me.

"Yes. Your somatophylax is remarkable." Glancing over, I found Mike's father standing by my side. I had no idea when he showed up, or for how long he'd been there. He was wearing a different set of uniform than the day before, but his well-trimmed beard and piercing gaze remained the same. "If I may be so bold to ask, who is she?"

"Do not poke your nose into matters that aren't yours, Primus."

My warning was rather harsh, but he accepted it without any pushback.

"I understand, O Archon. Please forgive my impertinence."

I acknowledged his reply with a shallow nod, and glanced back at the field, where Rinne was about to engage armour-guy next. I paid close attention to her movements, but she seemed none the worse for wear. As expected, these guys weren't quite at her level, and while I was a little worried that she would get tired out before long, the power nap she took in my shadow around midnight was apparently enough to keep her going.

Meanwhile, Kane continued to scrutinize my face, and after an agonizingly long time, he cleared his throat and addressed me.

"O Archon, if I may be so audacious to ask…"

"Yes?"

I prompted him without looking away from the fight, and he took a deep breath before he continued.

"You still possess the memories of Leonard Dunning, do you not?"

"I'm sure that is already common knowledge," I responded in my best disinterested tone, but truth be told, I was getting a little curious.

"Does that mean you remember my son?"

"Michael? Why wouldn't I?"

The Primus blinked, apparently not expecting me to answer so casually.

"In that case, are you also aware of his relationship?"

After some consideration, I took this opportunity to dramatically turn my face towards him and raise my brows a notch, which outright startled the man.

"Oh? He told you about her?"

"Yes, O Archon."

"Good for him. So?"

"So… Erm…" Stumped, the normally hardened military man looked rather lost as he vacillated. He first stroked his beard, then scratched the back of his neck, and tried to say something, but then thought better of it and instead put his hand down and straightened his back. During all of this, I kept eyeing him, and when he couldn't bear it any longer, he blurted out, "She's the granddaughter of the arch-mage of Critias… is she not?"

"Yes," I granted him and gestured with my hand for him to get on with it.

"Director Savir told me you shared her vision of the future, but if so… Is a conflict between the Draconic Federation and Assembly truly inevitable?"

Ah? So that's what this was about.

"You're worried that your son and his sweetheart would have to choose their allegiances and could get caught in the crossfire."

"I admit, that is precisely the case," he told me in a low voice, and for a moment, I didn't know how to respond.

Considering what he knew, his worries weren't unfounded. In Savir's grand design, I was going to use my authority to lead the Draconic Federation to war on the Assembly. Since Mike was associated with me, he would be torn between joining my side and sticking with Ammy. Similarly, she would have to choose between following her grandfather and forsaking her family to join Mike's side.

That was all veeery dramatic, all kind of star-crossed-lovers stuff and whatnot, but only so long as we ignored a few loose variables. Such as the fact that Lord Grandpa was already on my side, at least nominally. Or that if Mike was okay with that whole senseless homunculus business, he obviously wouldn't have much trouble picking sides in this scenario. Or that, well, I was a variable here.

"Primus." Upon getting addressed all of a sudden, he looked downright startled, so I softened my voice a bit. "Know that I do not condone meaningless bloodshed. What you fear will not come to pass."

"But then… what about Director Savir and her—?"

"Have you ever heard the idiom 'The frog in the well knows nothing of the sea'?" I gave him a second to think, but then quickly continued before he could get a word in. "I think it describes the Directorate rather succinctly, and I do not wish to engage in their narrow-minded games when there's a much bigger world outside."

"… Can I trust your word on this?"

That was a weird question, but since I was on the faux-profound roll, I tried my best to keep going.

"Would you, if I simply told you that you can?"

Kane didn't respond right away, but after mulling things over for a while, he sombrely uttered, "I am also reminded of a saying. Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is foolish, the latter a mark of prudence."

Trying my best not to frown, I was still wracking my head over how to follow that up with some similarly sagacious-sounding bullcrap when I was saved by Rinne finally beating the last Praetorian Guard. She looked a little tired, but otherwise perfectly fine, and I took the opportunity she presented without any hesitation by flashing a meaningful smile at the man by my side.

"Wise words to live by, Primus."

And with those final words, I walked towards Rinne and the eight Celestial bodyguards, only just realizing that I was supposed to give them pointers now. Which was pretty hard, considering I was barely paying any attention to their bouts. Staying on the theme of idioms, this was definitely one of those 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire' moments, wasn't it?