"Udug Blood Amalgam?" Snowy's voice sounded quite startled, to the point I could perfectly imagine her face even through the phone. I waited for her to continue, and after a few long seconds, she whispered, "It's very dangerous, and highly restricted. Only the Lords of the Abyss can have it, and if found on anyone else, it's grounds for execution."

"Okay, next question then," I muttered as I leaned back in my seat and rubbed my temple. "How did Percival get his hands on it?"

"I… Don't know."

Softening my tone a little, I told her, "Don't sound so down, sis. It was a rhetorical question." She responded with a hum in acknowledgement. "Is it also dangerous to others, or only Abyssals?"

"S-Sorry, I don't know much about it. I don't think it's toxic to others, but I would be careful around it, just in case."

I sort of expected this much. While Snowy was technically one of the highest ranking Abyssals, in practice, she was exploited by his brother from a young age and purposefully kept in the dark, so it wasn't surprising she couldn't tell me anything I haven't already heard from the Fauns. Still, it was worth a try.

"Thanks for the advice. I'll tell everyone to take it seriously. I still have some things to take care of, so I have to hang up no. Stay safe, sis."

"W-Wait! You're the one going back to the Elysium! That's something I was supposed to say!"

"Yeah! Don't do anything stupid over there, brother!"

"… Was that Penny just now?" I asked with my eyes squinted, but I only met with deafening silence. "Tell her it's not nice to listen in on other people's conversations… and that I'll be careful. Take care, you two."

After the customary goodbyes, I put my phone down onto the table and let out a shallow sigh. I was sitting in the secret hideout, in the company of Roland and Morgana, and both of them were giving me expectant looks.

"Snowy had no idea either," I told them a touch dourly and slouched over a bit. "Either Percival had connections in the Abyss as well, or this whole web of intrigue goes further than expected."

"It's the Celestials we're talking about here," Roland commented, his voice tinted with a hint of annoyance. "You have mentioned that one of the Abyssal houses took credit for your kidnapping. Maybe the poison is from them?"

"Could be, but then that would mean that the Celestials have subverted one of the Lords of the Abyss."

"They had subverted us without our knowing for who knows how long," Morgana noted with a distinct sense of distaste. "I would not consider the possibility beyond their reach."

"The biggest issue is that Percival is with the Unorthodox faction." A groan later, I added, "They are the guys who are all about waging war on the Abyss. I sincerely doubt that they have agents among the Abyssals, let alone an entire house."

"Maybe he had been secretly working with another faction?" Roland posited, and it drew another groan out of me before the echoes of the last one even died down.

"I'm getting sick and tired of this bloody double-triple-whatever agent crap. I'll interrogate the Celestial higher-ups about it, and see what shakes loose." Pausing, I lightly tapped against the tabletop and murmured, "But speaking of interrogation, we have to find out where Percival kept the rest of this Blood Amalgam stuff. The last thing I need right now is something like that hanging over Snowy's head."

"You won't be interrogating him any time soon," Raven Boy butted in the moment he returned to the room with an open first aid kit in hand. "I patched him up as best as I could, but he's still unconscious. Let's hope he didn't suffer any brain damage." Grumbling, he all but threw the box onto the table and glared at me. "Did you really have to rough him up like that?"

"He's a traitor," Morgana cut in, but the young Raven Knight only rolled his eyes.

"He's also his mentor! Our mentor! And he still beat him half-dead!"

I expected Roland to come to my support, but instead he said, "Leonard might have used excessive force, but you have to understand his perspective. His sister was threatened. Even if we agree that the way he captured Sir Percival was unnecessarily violent, I can't blame him for overreacting."

"Whose side are you on?" I asked in the company of a sideways glance, but Roland remained completely impassive. At last, I shook my head and picked up the sword leaning against the table. "Cal?"

"[Yes, young knight? Do you require my services?]"

"Potentially, but first, a question: can you diagnose people other than me?"

"[If you're referring to injuries, then yes, to a limited degree, and only Knights with intact Oaths.]"

"What about healing?"

"[I… have never attempted the feat, but it should be possible.]"

"Good enough." I raised Cal over my head and shook it slightly to draw Raven Boy's attention. "Go tie Percival up, and then put the sword on him. Keep the blindfold on him for now." Before he could respond, I turned back to the chatty sword and gave a few simple instructions. "Make sure he lives, but nothing more."

"[Wait, young knight! You can't just abandon me! What about your internal injuries? You can't—!]"

"Please?"

I could feel Cal hesitating through our connection, and at last, he let out an annoyed grunt.

"[Fine. But if you don't come back for me and start cavorting with that self-absorbed wench, I'll curse you and all your descendants! For seven generations! I swear I will!]"

"Very scary."

With that, I tossed the blade over to Agrawain, and he caught it with ease. He glanced between me and the sword in his hands a few times, but when I waved for him to get going, he let out a loud "Bah!" and left the way he came.

In the meantime, Roland had been rubbing his chin, so I figured he had something on his mind. I had no reason to keep him in suspense any longer, so I gestured for him to speak up.

"I was thinking," he stated quite redundantly and followed my lead by tapping on the table before he continued. "We can't interrogate Percival, as it would reveal our connection to you and Bel. However, once he wakes up, he will be disoriented by the presence of the Fauns. I have an idea of how we could use that to our advantage."

"I'm listening."

After my prompting, he inhaled deeply and braced himself, as if expecting instant refusal.

"We should use your sister."

"… You don't mean Penny, do you?" He shook his head, and it made my brows descend into an involuntary frown. "I don't like the idea of having him and Snowy in the same room."

"Hear me out," Roland cut in with a raised palm, as if expecting the objection. "The Fauns, as multi-talented as they are, would make lousy interrogators. However, your Abyssal sister would find the job natural, and her presence would further confuse and unbalance Percival, opening him up to make mistakes and let certain things he normally wouldn't speak about slip through the cracks."

"I'm also sure the young lady would be more than thrilled to be useful," Morgana added, forming a common front with Roland. "Also, correct me if I'm wrong, your majesty, but is she not a Seducer? We could hardly find a better interrogator on the island on such short notice."

"I see what you're getting at, but…" I tried to object, but soon shook my head and told them, "Fine. You can ask her, but if she doesn't want to do it, then don't press it. If push comes to shove, I'll just put on my Bel disguise and rough him up again."

"With all due respect, your majesty, that is the scenario we wish to avoid," Morgana stated in a flat voice, and the other knight shared the same sentiment.

"I don't know if it's stress, your protective instincts, or a side-effect of that memory transfer you talked about, but you are unusually vindictive when it comes to Sir Percival. In my opinion, it would be best if you interacted with him as little as possible, and leave dealing with him to us."

"Maybe…" I whispered, and while I was far from full agreement with him, I had to admit that I'd been feeling high-strung ever since I came back to the hideout. If I met Percival right now, I wasn't sure I would be able to stop myself from punching him out cold again, let alone play mind games with him to draw his secrets out of him. "Maybe… I should wind down a bit."

My half-hearted proposal made the faces of the two Knights light up at once, and Roland even reached over the table to pat me on the shoulder.

"A fine idea. With this, the most pressing issue is resolved. The Assembly is still a problem, but with the help of Lord Endymonion, we could stall them for a while. You should rest up, and then focus on taking over the Elysium without worrying about the state of affairs on the island."

"For the hundredth time, I'm not staying there to take over the place," I grumbled and shook off his hand. "As for the rest part, I guess I'll do just that."

With that said, I picked up the other sword leaning against the leg of the table and hung it from my belt.

"[Status: Direct connection with Archon Polemos re-established. Welcome back, Archon.]" There was a short beat, during which I could feel Teeny's mana wash over me from the inside. "[Observation: Unable to detect Interface:Cal. Has Polemos decided to finally abandon him?]"

"… Couldn't you two talk with each other even without touching me?" I blurted out, and the silence that followed in its wake felt strangely indignant.

"[Explanation: Interface:Teeny and Interface:Cal have mutually agreed not to communicate due to Interface:Cal's inability to accept that his various assessments are incorrect.]"

"In other words, you had another quarrel, and you're not talking to each other," I surmise, and Teeny didn't deny it. Thousand years old sword-spirits my ass. These two were just a pair of bickering kids.

Ignoring the short-sword's sulky silence, I stood up, pocketed my phone, and turned to the Knights at the table.

"I'll be back for Cal before long. Until then, hold the fort, and if there's a problem, improvise."

"As you command, your majesty," Morgana responded solemnly and tried to give me a bow, made slightly awkward by her still sitting.

Roland, on the other hand, only nodded. Seeing that he had nothing to add, I returned the gesture, and after a moment, I Phased out of the hideout and reappeared inside a familiar yet still eclectic room, filled with antique furniture, mountains of animal plushies, and walls covered with heavy metal band posters. More importantly, it also contained a certain girlfriend of mind, though not the one you would've expected.

"Chief?"

"Hi, Dormouse," I greeted my dear assistant, currently sitting on Elly's bed, dressed in a casual jeans-and-shirt outfit and with her phone in her hand.

By the looks of it, she had been furiously typing on it until very recently, but she set it aside the moment I came into view.

"I didn't expect that you would be back so soon."

"I've just done catching Percival," I told her offhandedly and unceremoniously sat down beside her. "I thought I would stop by here and catch my breath before heading back to the Elysium."

"One of the best ideas you had in ages." Following that declaration, she caught me in a hug, and raised her face, obviously asking for a kiss. I had no reason to refuse, and after indulging her for a while (not that I was against it either), she let out an unusually delighted sigh, and even her face flushed a little, which was always a rare treat.

"What were you doing before I came here?" I asked just to keep things going, and she picked up her phone to show me the screen.

"The Hub," she said with unexpected trepidation. "I had to compile all the data we had on you as Admin, and send it over to your superior."

"Oh? So Methane Whatshisname is looking into me, huh?"

"It's Ammon Jonaraja, and…" She was about to continue, but then she turned a critical eye at me. "Methane?"

"Methane, ammonia, whatever," I responded with a wave of my hand. "They're both gases."

My dear assistant rolled her eyes, as if asking 'What else did I expect?', and said, "More importantly, I'm having a hard time explaining to him why I can't go to the Elysium."

"You mean Admin," I stressed, and she nodded. "Once I'm back, I'll get him off our case."

"Please do. While it's not nearly as vital as it used to be, losing the Admin account and its benefits would be a waste." While saying so, she put her phone away and turned a questioning gaze at me. "When are you going back?"

"Not yet, but soon. I decided to take a short break, so… about an hour? One-and-a-half at most."

"Too short," she grumbled and snuggled closer to me.

"Where's Elly?" I asked the next obvious question, and Judy answered without interrupting her cuddling.

"There was a commotion not too long ago, and she left to investigate. I presume it must've had something to do with 'catching Percival'."

"Probably."

After I returned to the hideout, the first thing I did (aside from putting Pudding-kun down) was to call Naoren and tell him that I took the old bastard into custody, in a manner of speaking, and that he should have the room quarantined until we figure out how dangerous the Udug Blood Amalgam could be the non-Abyssals. I figured that would cause a bit of a hubbub, but the plan was to outwardly pretend that Percival was still recuperating in the mansion, so I imagined he was already busy sweeping the whole incident under the rug, along with Sebastian and my in-laws.

I was just about to Far Glance at Elly, but then the door opened wide as she walked right in. Wearing a pink light dress and her hair once again done up into the classic ouyo-drills, she looked extra cute, though the image was slightly ruined by the dumbfounded expression she had on her face when her eyes landed on me.

"Le—!" Her expression lit up, and she was about to call out to me, but then she immediately clamped a hand over her mouth and poked her head outside. Looking around, she let out a melodramatic sigh of relief and closed the door behind herself before turning a blindingly brilliant smile at me. "Leo!"

"Hi, prin—" Before I could finish, she practically tackled me onto the bed, and since Judy was still clinging to me, she followed suit. "… cess. Also, ow."

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming? When did you arrive? Did I miss anything?"

While she continued to bombard me with her questions, I glanced at Judy, but she was still stoically snuggling up to me, so I couldn't expect any help from her.

"I just came here, after snatching up Percival," I told her, and her previous elated expression was immediately replaced by an exasperated one.

"We noticed! Couldn't you be a little more subtle about it?"

"I was subtle."

"You took the bed!" she protested with a finger poking my chest.

"But I did it very subtly," I responded with a cheeky smirk, hoping to distract her, but it only raised Judy's curiosity.

"Bed? This is the first time I've heard about that."

Glancing between my curious girlfriends, I exhaled hard and sat back up, dragging Judy with me, and then patted the bed on my empty side to signal the princess to sit down. After everyone was ready, I collected my thoughts and gave them a quick recount of the events, as well as the short discussion that followed in the hideout.

"… and then I came here to spend some quality time with you, and that's the gist of it."

When I finished everything up, I expected that they would have some questions, but my girlfriends remained silent and gazed at me with difficult expressions instead.

"I didn't want to mention it, but you seemed to be bothered by something ever since you came here," Judy spoke up first, her voice unusually quiet. "I guess it was because of that."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Elly asked, and while at first I wasn't entirely sure what she meant, my mouth soon started moving, as if on its own.

"I… I'm not sure if talking about it will do any good, but…" Pausing, I closed my eyes for a moment, and once I felt resolved enough, I continued with, "This was the first time I ever snapped like that, and it… didn't feel wrong. Not at the time."

"And that's bothering you," Judy stated, not even bothering to make it a question. "Are you suspecting Narrative influence? Or something similar?"

I was about to respond but was cut off by Elly letting out a low hiss.

"Judy! Not now!"

"Not now what?" she asked back, incredulous, but the princess completely ignored her and slid a bit further away from me.

At first, I didn't know what she was doing, but then she patted her lap, and when I still didn't move, she just outright grabbed hold of my head and guided it onto her thighs, much to my, and to a lesser degree, Judy's confusion.

"This isn't about something grand, like the Narrative," Elly whispered while stroking my head, and it felt… strange.

"Maybe not," I mused in a low voice and closed my eyes. "I think I'm just…"

"Scared?" Elly spoke tenderly, and after tasting the word in my mouth, I nodded.

"In a way, I suppose. I just… I think this was the first time I realized how easy it is to lose control. I could've very easily killed Percival, and…"

"And that scared you. Why do you think that is?"

Elly's voice remained calm and gentle, and her hand never stopped stroking my hair.

"Because if I did that, then it could shift the narrative, and it could cause—"

"Now you're doing it," the princess grumbled and pinched my nose.

"Hey!"

Ignoring my protests, she moved her hand back to my hair like nothing happened.

"That's not the real reason why it rattled you, is it? It's a rational concern, but only because you keep looking at the world through this lens of meta-something."

"Metanarrative," Judy corrected here, and the princess let out an appreciative grunt.

"Yes, that! The truth is, even if you killed Percival, nobody would've blamed you. He admitted that he wanted to hurt Neige, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"If someone like him, someone vicious, traitorous, and unrepentant as him, told me that he was planning to poison you, or Judy, or mum or dad, I would've done the same as you did." The princess's voice slowly descended into a whisper, yet every word sounded like a thunder-crack to my ears. "And I wouldn't have stopped. Not while they were still drawing breath. Because losing any of you would have been even scarier."

My mind was blank, and my thoughts felt sluggish. Was she confessing to me, or condemning my weakness? What was her ultimate point? Feeling anxious, I opened my eyes and tried to get a word in, but she covered them with her hand and gently hushed me.

"The reason why you are so unsettled, even though you haven't crossed the line, is because you are a good guy. And I don't mean that in the meta-sense or what have you." That last part was added hastily, as if she was trying to get ahead of something. Maybe Judy was trying to interject? Before I could find out, she took her hand off my eyes and stroked my head again. "I mean that on a fundamental level. You are the type of person who's fundamentally motivated by trying to save everyone and resolve everything without bloodshed. Most people in your shoes would have never even considered saving the girl who nearly killed them with an ice spear, yet you adopted her and gave her a family. Some would have simply killed Rinne when she invaded the base and threatened the Fauns, who were only there because you chose to venture into the Abyss just to save them. Most people would have gotten rid of Friedrich and Galatea and snuffed out the threat of the Brotherhood when they had the chance. You didn't. Do you know why?"

That sounded like a theoretical question, so I didn't even attempt to answer.

"It's because it's your nature. It's why everyone's following you, it's why we love you, and it's why the prospect of nearly killing someone with your own two hands is bothering you so much."

"I know that you're trying to praise me, but I don't know how to feel about being described as having Chronic Hero Syndrome…"

My comment was followed by a long beat where, if we had any crickets in the vicinity, we could definitely hear them. Then, Elly bonked me on the forehead with her knuckle.

"How is that a bad thing!?" she cried out as if what I said was the most unreasonable thing she'd ever heard. "Being heroic is a good thing! It's the best thing ever! Why would you ever consider it bad?"

"Because it implies that I'm some kind of goodie-two-shoes who's more concerned with doing a good thing than being practical."

"Argh!" Elly groaned out loud and rubbed my head again, this time much more aggressively. "That's what you've been doing all along! Judy, support, please!"

To my surprise, my until-now silent assistant grabbed hold of my hand and earnestly told me, "Sorry Chief, you do have Chronic Hero Syndrome. I'm sorry you had to learn it this way."

"That's not helping!" Elly complained with an epic pout, but my other girlfriend remained dead serious.

"It if makes you feel any better about it, you should know that nine out of the Judys find heroic Chiefs very attractive."

"What about the tenth one?"

"After data cleaning, it was discovered that the tenth Judy likes all kinds of Chiefs without discrimination, so she was removed from the data pool."

"Come on, you two! Be serious!" Elly continued to sulk, so my dear assistant shook her head and addressed her.

"The Chief is the kind of person who doesn't react well to heartfelt conversations. Making them light-hearted like this makes it much more likely that he would internalize what you just said." Pausing for a bit, she turned back to me. "Also, for the record, I agree with Elly."

"Do you now?" I asked back, and she nodded with a serious hum.

"Yes. At least as far as being in love with you and willing to put up with your antics because of your fundamental nature is unquestionably good."

"… I guess I can live with that," I surmised a tad flatly, and while it still felt weird, I had to admit that Elly's speech did make me feel better.

"All right. Now that we're done with that, let's decide on what to do next," Judy proclaimed and pulled me back to a sitting position. "You said you would stay for about an hour, right?"

"More or less. Why?" I answered a tad suspiciously, and my dear assistant let out a thoughtful sound.

"Hm. Should be good enough." She turned to my other girlfriend, still pouting over how her heartfelt moment was ruined, and called out to her to get her attention. "Elly? It's plan three slash B."

My draconic girlfriend blinked in confusion at first, but then the proverbial light bulb lit up over her head and she dashed out of the room.

"Where's she going?"

"Making sure that we wouldn't be interrupted for the next hour," Judy told me as she leaned into another kiss.

"Wait, you can't seriously—?"

As if to prove me wrong, Elly soon returned to the room, practically slammed the door shut, locked it twice, and then took a beeline towards the bed while simultaneously peeling herself out of her dress.

Maybe it was because they were pent up after all this, or because it's been a while since the last time we did it all together, but let's just say that the next hour felt both very long and yet very short. I won't go into details, but the fact that my dear assistant came prepared and not only had protection with her, but even brought over a bottle of lubricant from my stash spoke volumes about how this was a pre-planned operation.

Not that I minded. To be perfectly honest, after just a few short days, I was starting to miss the intimacy and didn't have a reason to protest against a short bedroom rodeo. That said, I had a sneaking suspicion that the noises, combined with Elly sending the servants away, were probably going to give more fuel to the gossip-machine operating in the mansion, but I decided to leave that to the girls to sort out.

Anyhow, once that short and intense session left the girls tuckered out on the bed, I got dressed and gave them a few goodbye kisses before Phasing back to the hideout to pick up Cal. It was only around that point that I finally got time to seriously consider the princess's words, and I still didn't know how to feel about them.

After all, while she put it into very endearing terms, being a goodie-two-shoes was usually considered to be boring and one-note, wasn't it? Not to mention, I wasn't entirely convinced that her interpretation of my character was accurate, or just her own vision of me heavily skewed by her rose-tinted glasses. Not that I had first-hand experience, as I was still pretty bad with the whole 'heart racing, mind filled with pink mist, vision blurred like a tacky chat filter effect' aspect of love, but last I've heard, it made some people's reasoning skills go the way of the dodo, and while I didn't want to insinuate anything about the princess's thought processes…

In any case, once I picked up Cal and clasped the sword onto my belt, gave Roland a short shopping list (including a cooler and some delivery food), and said my adieus to the Fauns and my Knightly collaborators, I returned to my quarters in the Elysium, with my head still full of conflicting thoughts and not really paying any attention to my surroundings. In retrospect, I probably should've, because that way I wouldn't have been shocked into silence when I arrived in the bedroom.

The place was a wreck. At a glance, I found about half the furniture broken, including the bed itself, one of the windows was blown out, and the walls were covered in cuts and holes, with some of the latter swill having yellow energy-arrows lodged in them.

Then, in the far corner, I found Rinne, Onikiri raised high over her helmeted head, facing off against a familiar agent-cum-Praetorian-Guard in his hoplite-cosplay, currently sporting a short sword and an oversized magitech pistol. Both of them were frozen in place and staring at me, and once I drank in the scene, the heel of my hand automatically sought out my forehead as I groaned, "… Can't I leave you alone for just an hour?"