"No. You do not need to stay at my house."

I spoke on no uncertain terms, yet Jaakobah remained annoyingly insistent. We were currently standing at the crossroad leading to my neighbourhood, or rather, one of the inconspicuous buildings right next to it. It apparently 'just happened' to be put up for sale, so the Critias School bought it up and it now served as the impromptu headquarters of the Praetorian Guards. The rest of them were already inside, and based on the sounds, they were in the process of moving the furniture.

I couldn't complain about the arrangement. The place was suitably close, yet not so close that their continued presence would interfere with our daily lives. I was told they would also disguise themselves, but so far, only the dour agent changed his outfit, and his black trench coat, wide-brimmed hat, and black sunglasses were anything but inconspicuous.

"Lord Archon. It is my duty to—"

"Stop right there," I interrupted him with a hand raised and added a glare, for good measure. "While you are here, your 'duty' is to look after those two. I'll be fine on my own."

"Those two?" he repeated after me with a frown. "Wouldn't the boy, or should I say, the Justicar, guard Her Grace Deus? Why would he need our protection?"

"Due to many complicated metaphysical circumstances I'm not going explain right now," I told him, and credit to his adaptability, the man accepted my words at face value. Or so it seemed.

"I still think we, the Praetorian Guard, should maintain the security of the Lord Archon's environment, considering it was our original duty."

It took inhuman willpower not to chew him out for the abyssal track record of their so-called 'security' so far, but I managed to hold it in and only stated, "Jaakobah. Don't make me repeat myself."

While I didn't think I was particularly harsh (if anything, I probably wasn't forceful enough), the man slightly reeled back, and after a round of silence, he nodded in resignation.

"As you command."

"I'm glad that we're finally on the same page. Now, go, and rein in your subordinates before they turn the whole building upside down. We'll talk tomorrow."

Without further words, Jaakobah gave me a Celestial salute, and then turned on his heel and headed inside. Sighing, I also started walking down the familiar streets. I could have Phased, but it just felt right to walk home and observe the neighbourhood after my return. It felt strangely satisfying, even though I hadn't even been away for that long.

The afternoon streets of the residential district were the same as always, yet also subtly changing. Even though it was still February, most of the snow already melted, with only a few piles visible in the street corners, where the snow-sweepers deposited them over the winter. There was a noticeable increase in car traffic since the last time I had observed the roads, and the placeholders on the sidewalks were all wearing season-appropriate clothing. That might not have sounded much, but I could still remember how many of them were still in summer clothes when the first snow fell. I supposed their development didn't stop while I was out of town, so to speak.

At last, I rounded the corner leading to my street and headed home. There was nothing much else to do today; due to the unexpected banquet, I said hello to practically everyone that mattered. Judy was busy moving out of the Dracis mansion, and we already spent most of the afternoon together, so there was no need to visit the girls again. Ditto for the underground base (official name still pending). As such, my plans for the rest of the day were simple: go home, rest up, and prepare for school.

Speaking of which, I still had to look over all the materials the class rep told me about. My attendance record was a mess, but thanks to Lord Grandpa's intervention, so long as I passed all the tests I missed, I would not have to repeat a year. Which, now that I thought about it, felt like such a silly thing to worry about in the grand scheme of things…

I was still thinking about the school as I fiddled with the keys and opened my door, and I could hear some movement from the living room even as I was taking off my coat.

"My Lady? Is that you?" the voice of a certain Abyssal spymaster called out towards me, and when I didn't answer right away, she added, "Do you know where I can find the…?"

Her words came to an abrupt halt as I entered the living room myself, and so did my steps when I saw her. Tajana was, to put it bluntly, in her underwear. A black, lacy thing to be exact, and nothing else. Her hair was damp, so I figured that she must have recently taken a shower. Frowning, I levelled a flat stare at her, and when our eyes met, she let out an ear-piercing scream.

"Kyaaah! W-W-What are you doing heeere!?"

"This is my house," I told her in my best Judy impression, and as if she just realized her state of undress, she let out another weird shriek and ran away to the guest room.

Was this one of those fanservice moments, I wondered? But weren't those supposed to titillate an audience? I sure as hell wasn't, and I sincerely doubted that anyone was watching the Simulacrum. Or at least I hoped so. That would've made this whole world even more zany, that's for sure.

I was still considering the whats and wherefores of fanservice when the guest room opened again, and out walked Tajana, wearing a loose shirt and baggy pants, with her hair done up into a dishevelled bun.

"Why are you here?" she asked, somehow managing to sound equal parts outraged and timid in the process.

"Again, it's my house," I reiterated my previous reaction and crossed my arms. "The better question is, what were you doing running around in your underwear in my living room?"

"I-I thought My Lady came home! Nobody told me you would come! How was I supposed to know!?"

"So you're telling me that while I wasn't here, you would walk around the house in your undies all day long," I noted with feigned nonchalance and glanced at the cloaked Faun in the corner. "Is that correct?"

"Occasionally," Pip responded in a disinterested voice, making her jump again.

"S-Since when was he there!?"

"Always?" I answered, sounding a bit stumped even to myself. "Seriously, you know you're under constant surveillance, right?"

"Y-Yes, but I don't like to be reminded of the fact," Tajana fumed, and I rolled my eyes in return.

"Well, since I'm back, I would appreciate it if you paid more attention to where and when you undress." At first, I considered this the end of the conversation, but then I considered the situation one more time, and added, "Unless, of course, you knew that I was coming and you showed up as you did on purpose, in which case I would have to say you are worse at being a totally-not-succubus than even Snowy."

"What is that even supposed to mean?" the young spymaster moaned in distress, but a moment later her eyes opened wide and she completely changed the topic by asking, "Speaking of which, where's My Lady? She should be home by now!"

"My sisters went out to buy a cake," I answered off-handedly even as I was heading towards the stairs.

"Cake?"

"To celebrate my return, I think." Shrugging, I was about o head upstairs, but stopped and turned to the Faun again. "This time, I didn't bring snacks, but you can have a slice if you'd like."

"Appreciated!" Pip said with a huge smile visible under the orange sheen of the cloaking Sigil, causing Tajana to jump in surprise again.

Seriously, just how much of a scaredy-cat could she be? Heck, if I hadn't already observed her actions for a while, I would've suspected she was over-acting to lower my guard, but I knew better. Putting the topic aside, I waved at the two of them and finally headed to my room.

Stepping in made me feel a mixture of strange, nostalgic sentiments, which was, once again, weird. It wasn't like I was gone for years, so why was I getting so emotional? Was it a wire the whole Polemos incident crossed by accident, I wondered as I walked over to my bedside. That thought reminded me of the memory transfer, which reminded me of Teeny, and I reflexively muttered, "Ah, right…"

Stopping on my track, I extended a phantom limb to my Leoformer. Or rather, the second disk embedded into the belt buckle housing it. There was a flash of colourless light, and a moment later, a pair of swords appeared in my hands.

"{Agh!}"

"{Notification: Exiting standby mode. Welcome back, Archon Polemos.}"

"{Teeny! Don't just brush what our young Knight did so easily! You're only encouraging him!}"

"{Response: As Interface:Teeny already explained to Interface:Cal, entering stand-by mode is non-detrimental to our functions.}"

"{But it makes me feel stuffy!}"

"{Idle Thought: We are interfaces created in service of the Lord Archon. Why would Interface:Cal be capable of feeling the sensation of 'stuffy'?}"

"{I don't know! Why are you capable of idle thoughts?}"

"{Response: This query requires deeper investigation.}"

Ignoring the bickering weapons' words, I placed them onto the bed and left them to their own devices. As for how I managed to stash both of them away, it was all thanks to one of those caveman-level realizations.

I could barely store Cal in the weapon storage space incorporated into the Magiformer. I had spent several days trying to expand the enchantment array, but its template, Raven Boy's pouch, was pretty much already at the limits of what could be done with this particular magitech. Maybe that was why it wasn't used by anyone else; it was probably considered a magitechnological dead end, like those funny little minidisks you would see in some movies.

But then, while sweating over the enchantment, I had one of those 'Why didn't I think of this sooner, am I really this dumb?' kind of realizations. Namely that, if there are hard limits to the storage space of this enchantment, and I can't store both of my chatty weapons in one of them, then I would just need two storage spaces.

Again, very obvious in retrospect, but I still gave myself a pat on the back for realizing it myself instead of wasting more time until someone smart, like Judy, would point it out for me.

Anyhow, I left the swords on the bed and walked over to my PC. It was exactly how I left it, more or less. Of course, there wasn't a spec of dust on either the case, the monitor, or the peripherals, but that much was to be expected. No matter how complicated the plot and my life became, nor how much the Placeholder population developed to give things a more authentic sheen, I could always rely on the trusty invisible ninja maids to diligently keep everything completely spotless.

I turned on the machine, and as expected, it loaded into the dummy account. There was nothing to see there, so I searched for the USB drive with the encryption key, and after inserting it into to back, I rebooted the system. It took a while for it to de-encrypt and restore the original account, leaving me plenty of time to just sit down and decompress a bit.

It didn't last long thought, and my mind inevitably wandered towards the future. I couldn't be sure we didn't already butcher the assumed Angie Route. None of us could be, but even if we presumed that everything was going more or less smoothly, there were still a lot of annoying things I had to consider. For a start, I still didn't know what to do about Percival.

His betrayal was the thing that started my extended Elysian side track, and while I gained a few useful things from the excursion, it mostly just added to the mountain of headaches already piled on my head, and I wasn't happy about it one bit. Unfortunately, his 'interrogation' still didn't provide anything useful, and whatever cards he still had in his hands, I could probably find out about them by flexing my authority a little. Or, considering that the Unorthodox faction was no longer my fans, maybe ask Angie to inquire in my stead.

This line of thought brought something else to mind. I promised my girlfriends that I would do something about the Directorate in general and the three chief directors in particular, now that I was no longer reliant on them to vouch for my newfound identity as Polemos, but I had no idea where to even begin. Trying to directly depose them was just asking for a civil war scenario, and while the girls were convinced that the combination of Polemos and Deus should be able to force things through on authority alone, the truth of the matter was that our 'authority' was much less concrete than they thought.

Put simply, all of it came from historical, and in the case of Angie, pseudo-religious sentiment. While I had made a few connections in the Elysium, it was nothing compared to the extensive social network the Directorate and its leaders had in place. As for Angie, while her combination of prestige and raw Deus power was enough to cow Tsephanyah, doing it to everyone at once would be just asking for pushback, and while I was sure a lot of the more cultish Celestials would follow her, the ones in positions of power wouldn't let go of the reins they've been clutching all this time just because she demanded so.

This was the crux of the problem, no matter how I looked at it. While I personally didn't want anything to do with the Elysium and its power structures, if I tried to overtly get rid of the three heads, so that they wouldn't complicate our lives with their schemes, it would appear as a purge of political opponent in their eyes. From there, we were just one roll of the dice away from being back to the civil war square, and that was the last thing I wanted to happen right now.

Honestly, none of this would've been all that difficult, if only I had Celestials I could trust. I mean, I did trust Mike, to a degree, and his father was mostly okay too, but neither of them was someone I could rely on to take control of the situation after a fallout with the three head directors. All the other department heads were scheming snakes too, and while their devotion to Deus was genuine, I couldn't be sure their interests wouldn't override that once push came to shove. After all, they've been waiting for Deus's return because the prophecy (or some reading of it seven steps down the telephone game) promised a Celestial golden age, and so if Angie wasn't doing that, but instead rocked the boat and shook the base of their authority, they probably wouldn't stand still.

No matter how I looked at it, the problem was with the crazy, scheming, backstabbing-happy culture of Elysium. At least as far as the tower inhabitants were concerned, but with the rest being disenfranchised, it was pretty much the only culture it mattered in this context. How was I supposed to find a single sane, reliable person in this mess?

Then, as if to answer my inner question, the PC finished booting up, and my browser popped open on its own following an automatic update. I stared at the home screen talking about the new security improvements, and my hand reached out to the mouse, the cursor automatically gravitating towards the bookmark of the Celestial Hub.

Once it loaded in, I found my inbox full of notifications. By the looks of it, Judy didn't bother to answer them in my absence and only took care of the most pressing matters related to the site's maintenance. I scrolled through them, but most of them were just editing requests or questions about site functionality. Nothing urgent.

Closing the pop-up, I returned to the main page, and this time, I clicked on the live chat. As expected, it also had a few archived conversations, though once again, Judy only responded when absolutely necessary. I looked for a specific tab, and seeing that he was online, I inhaled deeply and started typing.

"Admin: Hi, Moose."

"Admin: We need to talk."

There was no answer at first, but then after a minute or so, the chat panel lit up again.

"MoroseMoose: How can I help?"

"Admin: It's not exactly help. There's something we need to talk about. Pronto."

"MoroseMoose: …"

"MoroseMoose: Admin? Is that you?"

"Admin: ?"

"Admin: Of course it's me."

"Admin: Who else would be messaging you from this username?"

"MoroseMoose: Your GF. :P"

I blinked in surprise, and since he saw I wasn't typing, Moose added three more lines.

"MoroseMoose: I meant Assistant."

"MoroseMoose: I guess you lent her your account?"

"MoroseMoose: You two write very differently."

"Admin: …"

"Admin: Don't tell me she was using kaomojies in chat…"

"MoroseMoose: Ha!"

"MoroseMoose: I knew it! :D"

"Admin: Did anyone else notice?"

"MoroseMoose: I don't think so."

"MoroseMoose: They thought you were just making fun of n1nj4, as usual. XD"

"MoroseMoose: Welcome back."

"MoroseMoose: Where have you been?"

"MoroseMoose: Was it a secret assignment?"

"Admin: Not quite, but it's part of the reason why I need to talk to you. In person."

"MoroseMoose: What?"

"MoroseMoose: In person?"

"MoroseMoose: What?"

"Admin: I'm serious. I need your help with something."

"Admin: How soon can you move?"

There was a long pause between the messages here, and I was getting a little nervous by the end of it.

"MoroseMoose: It's a little sudden."

"MoroseMoose: I have a job, you know?"

"MoroseMoose: We have a big project going on right now, and if I leave, I might just get fired."

"Admin: If that happens, I'll pay you twice of whatever you got there. I'll pay for the plane tickets and accommodations too."

"MoroseMoose: Yikes."

"MoroseMoose: You sound desperate."

"MoroseMoose: Are you in trouble?"

"Admin: No. This is something that concerns the Elysium and the Directorate as a whole."

"MoroseMoose: That's kind of heavy… -.-'"

"MoroseMoose: I'll see what I can do."

"MoroseMoose: Where do you want to me go, anyway?"

"Admin: Timaeus, on Critias."

Another long spell of radio silence followed, and this time, Moose didn't respond at all.

"Admin: Are you still here?"

"MoroseMoose: Yeah, but…"

"MoroseMoose: Admin? You know that the place is currently a beehive, right?"

"MoroseMoose: It seems like the higher-ups want to keep it hush-hush, but I've read some files, and they said crazy things."

"MoroseMoose: Like that Deus is on the island."

"MoroseMoose: And Polemos, too."

"MoroseMoose: You know, the Archon from the history books?"

"MoroseMoose: It's crazy!"

"Admin: Unfortunately, it's not."

"Admin: You can meet them in person if you come here."

For the third time, the chat went silent, this time for a solid five minutes. And then…

"MoroseMoose: I made my reservations on the next plane."

"MoroseMoose: I only found a first-class seat open. You'll reimburse me, right?"

"Admin: Sure."

The moment I hit enter on that, I noticed a sound coming from downstairs. I figured my sisters were final home, but just to be prudent, I Far Glanced at Penny's dot. To my surprise, I found not only Snowy with her but another familiar, if currently kind of pale, face as well. With a soft 'Huh,' I turned back to the screen, where Moose had already written several lines.

"MoroseMoose: Unless I miss the flight, I should be there by tomorrow."

"MoroseMoose: Noon, I think."

"MoroseMoose: I checked the time zones, it's more like one PM."

"MoroseMoose: Hey?"

"MoroseMoose: You're not pulling my leg, right?"

"Admin: If I did, this would be a pretty stupid prank."

"MoroseMoose: All right. I trust you."

"MoroseMoose: Just make sure you'll be there to meet me at the airport."

"MoroseMoose: Okay?"

Listening to the commotion downstairs, I got a better idea and wrote:

"Admin: I don't think I'll make it."

"Admin: I'll send n1nj4 to pick you up instead."