The Simulacrum
~Chapter 104~ Part 1

"Ue-sama? Are they here yet? Are they coming? Ue-sama?"

"Easy, Ichiko. Easy. They're almost here."

"Really?"

At last, the lively tiny miko stopped pestering me and returned to the nearest window overlooking the parking lot of the resort. She had been glued to it ever since I told her that Naoren was coming over for a visit, and that he would be bringing Odango Girl along.

"Are they really coming? Rinne can't see them," our resident highly visible ninja noted, seemingly absent-mindedly, yet under the nonchalant facade, she seemed just as expectant as her… Actually, we never really figured out the relationship between these two, did we? For the time being, I was inclined to go with 'sisters', though the age gap was maybe a bit too big, and not in the direction one would automatically expect.

All of that was beside the point though, and after telling them to keep looking, I turned my back on them and walked over to my dear draconic girlfriend in a fluffy white bathrobe, currently limply sprawled over one of the lobby's divans.

"Are you feeling better?"

My question made her twitch and pointedly turn her face away.

"I told you I had no problem!"

"Sure, sure." I sat down next to her and put a hand on her forehead. She was still sweaty but no longer pale as a sheet. "It seems like you're no longer overheating. Do you want me to grab you another bottle, just to be safe?"

"No need," she grumbled, but at the same time she pulled my hand down from her forehead and placed it on her cheek, meaning she was only sulking on principle.

Chuckling, I caressed her face for a while, then planted a quick peck on her forehead and stood back up.

"For now, just rest, and no more steam baths for the day."

My princess continued to huff and puff, but didn't actually argue, so I left it at that. She went into the special sauna with the rest of the girls in the morning, which turned out to be just a fairly standard Turkish bath, and while they were busy talking about all kinds of girly things, like weapons-maintenance and avoiding helmet-hair, she apparently nodded off in the corner. By the time the others noticed, she was already suffering from heat exhaustion, so I had to carry her out to get some fresh air.

She recovered fast, but I was still pretty surprised by the affair. I figured that her Draconic physiology would make her resistant to heat, but I was apparently mistaken. Either that, or she just wasn't in the right shape to enter in the first place, but was too proud not to. I mean, the girls were really evasive about it, but just the other day, Duncan and company tried to challenge me to see who could stay inside the regular sauna the longest, so it wasn't unthinkable that they were doing something similar. Back then, I refused their invitation because I was busy with observing Josh's anti-peeper side plot, but knowing Elly's personality, there was a good chance she wouldn't have shown the same prudence upon being challenged by someone. It was just a hunch, but there was at least one competitive redhead in the sauna, so I had a feeling I wasn't too far off the mark.

In any case, nothing serious happened, and if anything, 'rescuing' my disheveled girlfriend from the clutches of overheating by picking her up and taking her outside in a bridal carry was going to make a nice anecdote to reminisce about in the future.

"Morning!"

Suddenly greeted out of the blue, I glanced over to the newcomers entering the lobby. Josh and Angie, seeming unusually awkward, came over to our side while holding hands.

"Hi, guys. Did you have breakfast yet?"

"Yep!" Angie answered with gusto. "Hey? So, I heard there was a medical emergency! Do you need help?"

"No, I'm fine," Elly answered in my stead, followed by a modest smile. "Thank you for the concern."

"Don't sweat it!" She paused, then hastily added, "Or on your case, do sweat it? Also, take lots of fluids!"

While the two of them talked, I couldn't help but notice that Josh was strangely silent and kind of fidgety.

"Hey, pal. Is everything all right?"

"Y-Yeah. Everything's fine. Nothing happened. I mean, something happened, but it's nothing."

His response didn't exactly inspire confidence, but before I could press him, I was startled by Ichiko.

"Ue-sama! They're here!"

I glanced over my shoulder, then back at the sheepish guy in front of me, and patted him on the shoulder.

"Let's have a talk later. I'll go and welcome our guests first."

"Sure. You do that," he answered, as if on autopilot, and then looked over at Angie… only for the two of them to lock eyes and then immediately and very visibly avert them. Huh. Suspicious, but an issue for another time.

By the time I returned to the window, I could already see the fancy limo in the parking lot, and a quick Far Glance told me our visitors were just about to arrive at the reception desk. I gestured for Ichiko, still very excited, to follow after me, and Mountain Girl also automatically trailed behind me as we walked over to the entrance of the lobby. After less than a minute, the swinging doors opened wide by two burly martial artist types (probably bodyguards), and the young Feilong patriarch leisurely entered, closely followed by a sparkly-eyed Odango Girl and his spiky-haired younger brother. Last, and certainly least, there was also a surprise guest, in the form of Raven Boy.

Well, fine. It wasn't a 'surprising' kind of surprise, considering I had already Far Glanced their way, but him showing up uninvited was still outside of my expectations. The fact that he looked positively miserable after sharing a long ride with those three was nice to see though, so I wasn't too bothered by it.

"Hello there, Nao—"

"Xiao-chan!"

My greeting was cut short by a certain tiny miko darting past me, and she was met by another blur coming from the other direction.

"Ichi!"

For a moment it looked like the two little girls were about to tackle each other, but then they both came to a sudden halt, as if they practiced this in advance, grabbed each other's hands, and began jumping up and down. It was slightly over-the-top, as far as greetings were concerned, but it was cute, so I didn't complain.

"Good morning, Leonard," Naoren said his part, accompanied by one of those martial artist salutes, and after returning the greeting, I gave a curt nod to the two guys behind him. Needless to say, the Chinese Draconians were wearing their usual garbs, cold weather be damned, while Raven Boy was in a more sensible winter ensemble, with a black long coat that could've been straight from my closet. While my attention was on him, Naoren turned to the woman by my side and gave her a salute as well. "Lady Rinne. I'm glad to see that you are in good health."

"Rinne greets Naoren-sama, and is similarly pleased."

The bespectacled patriarch's lips bent into a pleased smile, but then he caught himself and his attention returned to me.

"I was told it is customary to bring gifts upon these occasions, so please accept this."

For a moment I didn't know what he was talking about, but then one of the bodyguards came to the forefront with an enormous gift basket.

"Erm… Thank you, but you really shouldn't have."

I meant that, and was still in the process to figure out what to do with it when someone tugged on my sleeve.

"Ue-sama? Can I show Xiao-chan around the onsen?"

"I've never been to a place like this before!" Odango Girl followed her up with an expectant look, and before long, I was on the receiving end of their combine puppy dog eyes treatment.

Glancing over at Naoren, his expression said he wouldn't mind, so I gestured for them to get going.

"Thanks, ue-sama!"/"Thank you, Elder Brother!"

After saying so, the two turned on their heels and skipped over to the massage chairs, only to be immediately replaced by Arnwald and Duncan coming over. After the customary round of greetings, the big guy solved our sudden gift-basket crisis by taking it from the bodyguard. In the meantime, Naoren was inspecting the lobby, and let out a thoughtful hum.

"The environment of this establishment appears to be remarkably pleasant."

"That's a long way to say 'cozy'," I jested, then waved for them to come along. "How are things going back at the Federation?"

"Annoyingly."

The way Naoren spat out the word made me freeze for a moment, and barely stifle a chuckle.

"So you can be direct like that, huh? What exactly seems to be the problem?"

"There are currently some debates over the exact jurisdiction and scope of the Ordo Draconis, as well as the rights and obligations of the clans." Pausing, he let out a sigh and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Needless to say, things only became more heated since you left on this vacation of yours."

"How so?"

"One group believes the way you completely disregard the proceedings and do things like this shows disdain towards them. Another group considers your actions to be a show of confidence, claiming that you feel so secure in your position that you can afford not to involve yourself in these matters. The third group agrees with the second, but instead of viewing your actions as a show of force, they consider it hubris. Needless to say, the three parties have spent more time arguing about this during the past three days than getting anything done."

"Wow. They sure love to read nonexistent motivations into everything, aren't they?"

The bespectacled clan head shook his head and uttered, "They are political animals. It's what they do."

"Well, it's none of my business."

"Of course it is!" Raven Boy suddenly burst out, startling everyone. Even I was a little surprised, though considering how his head was getting redder by the second, I was half-expecting something like this. "This is the height of irresponsibility! Do you have any idea how much these… these… people are scheming behind your back!?"

"I imagine a lot," I answered offhandedly, and Raven Boy practically blew a fuse.

"You imagine?! Do you have even the faintest of clues of just how many fine prints I had to meticulously read through just to make sure they don't hide some kind of malicious clause in their legislation?! Do you have any idea how much sleep I lost over all of this?!"

"Actually, I was meaning to ask, but weren't you supposed to stay at home and do just that?" I leveled the question at him, and the guy honest-to-goodness scoffed back.

"Which I did, but guess what? I don't have the authority to actually sign any of these papers! For pity's sake, for some of them, I don't even know who has the authority to do that! What kind of irresponsible—?"

By 'these papers', I presumed he meant the contents of the paper bag he was carrying around. Cutting his tirade short, I pointed him in the direction of the second building.

"Talk to Roland, then. He should be over at the restaurant. Just follow the signs."

"Then don't mind if I do," he hissed at me, then stomped away.

"Are you sure it's wise to leave your paperwork in the hands of someone who both actively and publicly detests you?"

Naoren's question made me raise a brow, but after thinking it through, I simply shrugged.

"I've been told to delegate more, so I'm just practicing with him. It's not like he can betray me."

"Can't he?" Naoren sounded pretty skeptical, but before I could explain, Arnwald beat me to the punch.

"Naturally. Brother Agrawain might be young and brash, but he swore the Oaths in service of our liege. His loyalty is assured."

"Yeah. What he said," I hastily agreed, and decided that I probably shouldn't mention that I volunteered him to serve as my guinea pig for experimenting with the Oaths, and so I made sure he absolutely, categorically couldn't betray me. It was uncomfortably close to mind control, but to be fair, the guy was still near the top of my shit-list, so I wasn't feeling that bad about it.

Anyhow, it was around this time that Elly came over, closely followed by the still curiously intimate childhood friend couple. There was another round of greetings, and once that was done with, my princess casually linked arms with me.

"I'm glad to see that you're close as ever," Naoren noted, then theatrically glanced around. "But speaking of which, where is your other fiancée? I can't seem to find her."

"Judy's sleeping," Elly blurted out, oddly flustered, and when he turned a curious eye at her, she hastily explained, "We stayed up late last night, and so she went back to our room to take a nap after breakfast."

"Heh! It's coz ay his burds are—"

Before he could finish the sentence, Mr. Eagle firmly planted his elbow in his colleague's side, hard enough that he nearly dropped the gift basket.

"Brother Duncan, please stop. That joke stopped being funny a while ago."

"Was it ever funny?" Josh muttered, which drew Naoren's attention to him. The fact that he was holding hands with Angie also didn't escape his notice, and after an amused hum, he turned to his other side and patted his brother on the back.

"Zihao? I believe this would be a good opportunity, wouldn't you agree?"

"In… front of everyone?" the (until now suspiciously silent) guy sounded really alarmed, and for some reason, he sent a glare at me. In response, the bespectacled Draconian's eyes literally flashed with colorless light and hit him in the back another time.

"I believe it's best to show your sincerity by expressing your regrets in front of as many witnesses as possible."

"Witness? What?" Angie paused her mumbling when she noticed she was in the center of attention, then awkwardly added, "I… was zoned out for a moment. What were we talking about?"

"Good question."

Following her up, I turned to Zihao, and when our eyes met, he clicked his tongue and turned to Josh.

"Hey, you."

"Mind your manners, brother," Naoren warned him, and the younger guy stifled a long groan before unceremoniously doing a ninety degrees bow.

"… What is he doing?" our resident protagonist asked the obvious, prompting Zihao to straighten his back and yell, "I'm apologizing, you cretin! What else could I be doing!?"

"You could be looking for a coin you dropped on the floor," Elly commented absentmindedly, causing the younger brother's face to contort in barely constrained fury.

"Zihao, be more specific. Was this not the reason you came along? You should not leave any seeds for future misgivings."

Following his older brother's words, the spiky-haired guy's expression went from furious to merely annoyed, and after some further prodding by another pat on the back, he grudgingly started from the beginning all over again.

"I'm sorry for my remarks in the past."

It sounded like there was more to it, and we kept waiting, yet he remained silent.

"And?" Naoren prompted him with a precariously raised brow.

"… And I'm sorry that I attacked you during the banquet," he mumbled.

"He doesn't sound very sincere," Elly noted, earning her a red-hot glare from the guy. This, in turn, forced me to glare at him in return, and after locking eyes for only a second, he clicked his tongue again and averted his gaze.

"Fine. I'm genuinely sorry for doing that."

"And?" Naoren echoed himself, causing his brother to look downright miserable.

"And I would also like to apologize for attacking you during the tournament." This time the bespectacled clan head didn't speak up, but his eyes did the talking, and after a long groan, Zihao muttered, "And I also want to apologize for hitting on your girlfriend in public."

"Oh, that? I wasn't actually Josh's—"

Before she could finish that, my free hand reflexively lashed out and clamped over Angie's mouth.

"What she meant to say was that while your apology was overdue, it's better late than never, right?" Our resident Celestial nodded, so I removed my hand and addressed the childhood friends as one. "The better question is, do you guys accept his apology?"

"Should we?" Josh asked, and Angie shrugged like it was none of her problem, so he looked back at me in turn. "I dunno. What about you?"

"Hey, I have no horse in this race," I told him just a touch flatly. "He's your rival, not mine."

"He's no rival of mine!" Zihao burst out, but nobody gave him the time of day.

In the meantime, Josh rubbed his chin and also shrugged.

"I don't really care, to be honest. I mean, I don't like him, but we're going to be working together, so I guess we should bury the hatchet ASAP."

"What does he mean by that?" Naoren asked me, and so I briefly explained to him Josh's plan to join the Ordo Draconis. He listened to me closely, occasionally nodding along, and when I finished, it seemed like he just got an idea. "I understand now. If you were to join our fledgling organization, there would certainly be many more opportunities for the two of you to meet in the future."

"… Elder Brother? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Completely ignoring Zihao's complaints, Naoren continued to stare at his face with a thoughtful expression, which lasted exactly until a new group approached ours. Raven Boy, in the company of Morgana and Roland, was coming over with only slightly less stompy steps, completely disregarding the disapproving glances the other Knights were sending his way. Speaking of them, they had their casual clothes on, and Morgana was carrying not one, but two gyroses.

What followed was, naturally, another round of greetings, during which Ms. Gorgon handed one of her gyroses over to Agrawain, and Roland checked out the contents of the basket Duncan was still carrying along. Once we were done with the pleasantries, Mr. Griffon lightly cleared his throat and motioned at me to get my attention.

"Leonard? If you have some time, I'd like to borrow you for a moment."

"Is there a problem?"

"Not a problem, no. It's just that Agrawain brought over some documents that require your signature. They're well-organized, so it shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"Of course they are well-organized," Raven Bow scoffed. "I spent all morning gathering up the most essential papers!"

"Yes, yes, you're veeery diligent. I like that about you," I told him, then after a pause I added, "Well, technically that's the only thing I found so far, but hey, at least the list is growing."

He naturally didn't appreciate my jab, but before I could heckle him some more, Roland impatiently cleared his throat again, so I turned back to him.

"Give me ten minutes, then I'll meet you in the library."

"Why the library?" Elly mumbled while leaning over my shoulder, practically half-asleep.

"It has proper tables," I answered her reflexively, but when she responded with a huge yawn, I decided to pick her up again, much to her surprise, and tell Roland, "Make that twenty minutes. I'll go and tuck her in first."

"I'm not that sleepy," my princess protested, if feebly, as she was too busy trying to keep her bathrobe from slipping off her chest. Not that it would've mattered, considering she was wearing a one-piece swimsuit underneath, but the nuances of modesty always confused me, so what did I know?

"Is Lenore sick?" Naoren inquired, though he sounded more curious than worried.

"No. I just couldn't sleep last night, and so the girls stayed up with me."

Duncan, naturally, let out a guffaw in the background, but was summarily ignored. That said, this time, he was wrong about the situation; we were on a lewding break last night, but because I didn't need to sleep, the girls decided to take turns staying awake and keeping me company, so that I wouldn't get bored. It was a fun night, but they didn't sleep a lot the night before either, so it obviously took its toll on them.

Anyhow, my explanation was apparently sufficient enough for Naoren, so I concluded with, "Now if you excuse me, I'll get a few things done and be back with you in about half an hour." I didn't plan to say anything else and get going, but then I noticed the intent stare Mountain Girl was giving me, so on a whim I added, "Rinne will show you around until then, if that's all right with you."

"Sounds delightful," the young patriarch's face lit up with a pleased smile. "We have much to discuss."

"Do you?" I asked back, by reflex, and this time it was Mountain Girl who spoke up first.

"Certainly! We couldn't finish our debate about whether or not Song Jiang lost the blessing of the heavenly lady due to failing the prophecy or not!"

"Even after reconsidering it over and over again since the last time we talked, I still believe your reading of the story is too textual," Naoren noted in a thoughtful tone, completely ignoring me.

"Yes. That is how a book works," she responded, and before long, the two of them started talking about how the 'one-hundred-and-eight heroes' were fighting something called a 'Fang La', and how that was them failing their destiny by mistaking one internal threat for another, and something about some books handed out by some heavenly lady… Honestly, I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was exposed to enough similar arguments through Josh and Angie to infer that it was probably about the plot of some novel or something.

I wasn't the only one who tuned out, and I was getting ready to start moving again… when I was interrupted once more, this time by a pair of small girls weaving between the legs of our group of come to a screeching halt in front of me.

"Ue-sama? Can I take a bath with Xiao-chan?"

"I've heard the springs here are full of yang energy!" Odango Girl followed her up with sparkling eyes.

At first, I wanted to point them in Naoren's direction, but he was already in a heated argument about whether a 'Wu Song' was better than a 'Lu Zhishen', whatever the heck those were, so I decided to leave him be and asked, "Do you have a swimsuit?"

"I can lend one of mine!" the tiny miko offered on the spot, and raised the edge of her hand to her forehead, then did the same to Odango Girl. "We are about the same height, so it should fit, right?"

As a matter of fact, Odango Girl was a touch shorter, but I didn't point that out, and instead just gave them the go.

"In that case, go ahead. Just make sure you wash up properly, play responsibly, and if you see a peeper, don't throw any rocks at them and call an adult."

"What did you just say?" Zihao butted in, but before I could explain anything, Ichiko beat me to the punch.

"There's a creepy man who peeped on the bath, but Elly-ue chased him away by throwing a stone at him, so now we're on the lookout to see if he comes back!"

"You had something like that happen, and you didn't track him down yet!?"

"Josh already put together a team to catch him," I pointed out, and after I did, I could see the gears slowly turning in his head.

Before long, he turned on his heel, and after finding Josh and Angie, already in the process of trying to slip away, he dashed after them. That sounded like a recipe for some shenanigans, but I had other things to worry about, so I gestured for the still-present little girls to get going.

"Have fun."

"Thanks, ue-sama!"/"Thank you, Elder Brother!"

The words barely even left their mouths by the time they were already running up the stairs, no doubt to get one of the tiny miko's spare swimwear. Looking around in the lobby, I couldn't help but shake my head. On my left, Rinne and Naoren were still lost in their own little world and arguing about a dynasty of songs and black whirlwinds being poisoned or whatever. On my right, the Knights were having a pleasant chat while discussing what to do with the bottle of whiskey they found at the bottom of the gift basket. In the back, Josh and Zihao were glaring at each other, while Angie was holding her head behind them.

Then, at last, I glanced down at the quietly snoozing princess in my hands. At some point, she even put her arm around my neck and was holding onto me even in her sleep, which was just plain damn cute. However, as much as I would've loved to stare at my lovely girlfriend's face, I had things to do, so I headed to our room with light steps, all the while mentally preparing for the loud day this one was promising to be.