Chapter 214: ~Chapter 72~ Part 2

The school's library was unusually empty today. Or at the very least it felt like so, though I admit I wasn't a frequent enough visitor to properly judge it. Anyhow, the place being a little deserted was working in my favor. I followed Elly with my Far Sight into the building and waited for her to find a secluded place, which wasn't that hard this time around. My actual body was inside one of the first-floor bathroom stalls at the moment, and I was ready to Phase over at a moment's notice, which came in the form of my draconic girlfriend giving me a not especially subtle thumb up.

"I'm here," I told her after reappearing behind her. She was hiding between two large shelves in the history section, not far away from the place where I talked with the class rep the other day.

When I arrived, the princess glanced around one more time before she gestured for me to come closer. Once I did so, she whispered, "Judy?"

"I had Snowy distract her."

She nodded in approval and hunched her shoulders, a gesture which she then followed up by whispering with one hand shielding her mouth.

"That means it is time to discuss our plans. That's good. Very good indeed."

"… Why are you speaking like that?"

Hearing my question made a frown settle on my dear girlfriend's face and she retorted, "Come on, Leo! We are doing cool, hush-hush clandestine stuff now! Act the part!"

"I've been doing a lot of clandestine stuff as of late, and trust me, it's not nearly as fun as it's cranked up to be."

"Booo… You are such a buzzkill today."

Seeing her sulk like that made an involuntary sigh leak through my lips, and even though I wasn't in the mood, I forced myself to hunch over and whispered, "Fine, fine. Let's do this your way." Since she was still pouting even after that concession, I had no choice but also add, "After what happened yesterday, I've been a little grumpy. I'll get over it by Saturday, so please bear with me for now."

"Oh, right. Now that you mention it, I've heard Ammy complaining about how you caused a huge scene last evening," she noted, the frown disappearing from her brows like it was never there.

"I wasn't the one who caused it; it was all the artificers who wanted to recruit me. The symposium ended in a bit of a stampede and most of them had to be escorted out by the security."

"Why? What did you do?"

"My usual stuff," I answered, and she immediately nodded with a face that said 'Oh, that perfectly explains it'. "At least I didn't leave empty-handed, as I got a lot of business cards and even a few stray gift artifacts to tinker with, but some of the guests were… shall we say, more insistent than the others."

"Like the Arch-mage girl?" she asked for clarification, and I promptly gave her a nod.

"Yeah. She's been pestering me every time I've put my feet outside the classroom today. She's half the reason why we had to arrange this meeting like this."

"If she's bothering you that much, do you want me to knock her out?"

"… I'm fairly sure assaulting an Arch-mage, even if she was incognito at the moment, would cause quite a diplomatic incident."

"I'd still do it. Protecting our family is part of the family creed, so I'm sure dad wouldn't mind. He might even praise me for giving her a solid one."

To emphasize her point she was swinging her arm like an old-timey cartoon sailor before a punch, which was admittedly one of the gosh darndest things I've seen in my life, but we had some serious stuff to discuss, so I only watched her do it for a few seconds before I forcefully prodded the conversation along.

"I'd still prefer if you didn't, because I still want to try and make a deal with her in the future, but either way, we're veering a little off-topic. We came here to discuss what to do on our anniversary, didn't we?"

"Right, that's why we are here," Elly responded and let her arm down, then a second later she once again came closer into a conspiratorial huddle. "I mean, certainly, we are here to discuss our secret plans. Indeed."

I decided to let her play out her spy fantasies for the time being and focused on the actual subject instead. In just a few short days, we would have our first month anniversary. That is normally not something especially worth celebrating, but in our case, considering our unusual relationship, I figured it was worth at least a little effort. Or at the very least that was my stance on the matter until Judy shared her still-present reservations about our OT3, which called for a more thoughtful approach.

"Let's discuss the schedule first. I have some plans for the morning and the evening, but I'm still looking for the main event."

"Let's hear what you have, and then we can figure out the rest," she prompted me, so I did just that.

"My current plan looks like this: We meet up at my place at nine, then we go out around ten. I found a large public aquarium just a short ride from our neighborhood, and it looks pretty neat. They have all kinds of tropical fishes, and even a long tunnel through a shark tank."

"I don't know… I don't really like that shark part…"

"I can hold your hand while we are there if you want," I proposed, and her face immediately lit up.

"In that case, like it."

What can I say? She was quirky, occasionally a bit of an airhead, and scared of the weirdest of things despite being part-dragon, but I wouldn't have her any other way. But putting the general lovability of my girlfriend aside, we still had a lot to discuss, so I pushed onwards.

"I looked into it, and apparently the place has a restaurant serving seafood dishes from all over the world, so we could have lunch there."

"Isn't eating fish in an aquarium a little bit morbid?"

"I don't think the ones in the tanks mind it very much," I told her with a shrug. "But staying on the topic of food, for the evening, I've already reserved a table at a fancy restaurant in the waterfront district."

"What is it called? I mean, the restaurant?"

"I wrote it down somewhere, but I can't remember off the top of my head. I think it starts with 'mor'-something-something."

"It must be Morceau Très Délicieux!" the princess suddenly exclaimed with a beaming smile. "You have great taste, as expected! I had dinner with mom and dad there once, and they had the best ratatouille ever!"

"Then I suppose I'll have to try it." After telling her so, I waited for a second to see if she had anything to add, but since she remained silent, I stated the obvious issue. "As you can see, there's a whole afternoon between those two ideas, so I want to hear what you think we should do to fill it out."

"Let me see…" the princess pondered aloud. It only lasted for a few moments though, and she even startled me by snapping her finger the moment she had an idea. "How about we go to the bowling alley? You said you wanted to practice some more, and I think it would be fun."

"That won't do." She reacted to my response as if I just poured cold water all over her, so I quickly explained myself. "Just so that we are on the same page: Judy is still having some reservations about our relationship. I want to ease her out of them, and while I agree that we would have some fun if we went bowling as you suggested, it would be counter-productive. You and I both know how to bowl already, even if I'm still struggling with the basics a little. If we went there, wouldn't she feel left out? It would be the exact opposite of what I want this anniversary date to be."

"I see what you're getting at," Elly responded in the company of a solemn nod, following which she fell silent once again, this time for a bit longer. "So we need some kind of activity that none of us have previous experience with."

"It should also be something readily available on the island. Moreover, something we can do indoors. We are definitely not going to play outdoor games or go to the beach any time soon."

"So something season-appropriate." I nodded, and the princess fell into deep thought once more. I patiently waited for her to come up with something while also wracking my own brain, and about half a minute or so later, she suddenly snapped her finger again. "I have an idea."

"Let's hear it."

"Ice-skating!" Her declaration was just a tad overdramatic, and she might've misunderstood my surprise for incomprehension, as she began to hastily explain herself. "A while back I talked with Judy about that one time we went on a skiing trip in the Alps, and then the conversation changed to talking about winter sports, and then we talked about ice hockey, and I remember she said she doesn't know how to skate!"

"And that's a good thing?"

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"I can't skate either. Can you?" When I shook my head in response, my girlfriend flashed me one of her rare yet precious adorably smug grins and declared, "And that's what makes it perfect! If we're all beginners, we can all learn together!"

"That idea… isn't half bad. It's not cold enough to skate outdoors yet though."

"I'm sure there must be an ice-skating ring around here somewhere."

"It's called a rink," I corrected her, resulting in a blank look.

"That's what I said."

I wanted to object, but then again, nobody likes a grammar social nationalist, so I decided to quietly drop the issue and focus on the next objective.

"Okay then, ice-rink it is. I don't think it's going to take up the whole afternoon though, so I reckon we need a backup activity too."

"The cinema," Elly blurted out right away, and I was honestly a little skeptical of the idea.

"Isn't that a bit too typical?"

"Maybe, but it's foolproof," she countered, and even though it still didn't sit well with me, I decided to humor her for now.

"Fine, I'll look into what the local movie theaters are showing on Saturday. Any request?"

"I'm fine with anything. Except for horror movies. Also, no mimes."

"… Oddly specific, but if the lady doth requests so much, I have no choice but to comply." That earned me a small giggle, which I received with pleasure, but then it was time to get a bit more serious again. "That takes care of the date side of the issue. However, we have one more thing to consider."

"What is it?"

"The Knights." The moment I uttered the word, the princess' countenance immediately changed. "Just for the record, do you remember the knight girl I talked about in the past?"

"The one that could potentially transfer to our school and I shouldn’t beat up right away?"

"The one and the same," I told her with a shallow nod, then continued with, "First off, she's already on the island. More importantly though, I have a sneaking suspicion that she and I might be more closely related than the rest of the knights."

"By closely related, do you mean… relatives?"

"Possibly, though there is a much more troubling possibility. You see, the more I observe the Knights, the more it appears that she's considerably less concerned about you being a Draconian than the fact that we are in a relationship. In fact, she seems a little too concerned about me and my affairs in particular. That tells me she is either a brocon, or possibly romantically interested in me. Or rather, the me before the amnesia. In the worst-case scenario, we might've even been romantically involved in the past."

"I have two questions," Elly cut in with a serious look in her eyes. "Does Judy know about this?"

"Not yet," I admitted right away. "If she's already feeling insecure, the last thing I need is for her to latch onto this possibility. I'll try to either confirm or disprove my suspicion first, and then I'll tell her about it."

"I see. As for my second question… what's a 'brocon'?"

For a second I could only blink at her, but once I connected the dots, I nearly facepalmed at my own sloppiness.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting that you're still new to this. In short, a brocon is a sibling, usually a sister, who is obsessed with their brother in either a possessive or romantic way. It's a fairly common trope in battle harem narratives, and that's why I think it might be a possibility."

"But to be that, wouldn't she have to be your sister?"

"It's one of the more distinct possibilities, but in this case, I want to err on the side of caution and assume that she is romantically related to me, which leads to the reason why I brought her up in the first place. Imagine that you are a narrative force of indeterminate origin, purpose, or sentience. We have a nice, friendly, nominally undercover guy in the form of yours truly who is about to take his girlfriends out for a lovely date. We also have an impulsive young girl who is really concerned about the guy's interpersonal relations, and who is part of an organization that already has a precedent of attacking people on their anniversary and getting thrown across rivers for their trouble. What do you think would happen?"

"… The narrative would make her attack us and crash our date?" she ventured a guess, and I let out a grunt of agreement.

"If I was a betting man, I'd put money on that. In order to avoid that, I'll need to figure out a way to keep the Knights busy for the time being, and I'm afraid that will take both time and effort. In other words, I'd like to ask you to take some of the prep-work off my shoulders so that I can focus on my countermeasures for the next two days."

"You don't even have to ask," my girlfriend responded with a determined look and a wide smile. "What do you need me to do?"

"For a start, I need you to prep Judy a little. Share the plan with her, work out the schedule, that kind of thing. You can even pretend that I don't know about it and make it a 'surprise'."

"I'll think abo—"

Elly's response got exactly that far before we were both startled by a yell coming from the entrance of the library.

"Guard the entrance! Make sure he wouldn't slip out!"

"As you command!"

Once I managed to shrug off the first surprise, I raised a finger to Elly's mouth and quickly used my Far Sight to check out the commotion. After switching my point of view a little, I soon found myself looking down upon the brown-skinned Arch-mage. Not only that, she was flanked by the four stooges from my class, with two of them guarding doors and the other two following after her like a pair of royal guards.

"Come out, Leonard!" Sahi yelled into the empty library with her hands forming a funnel around her mouth. "I know you are totally not in the toilet anymore! My loyal men have, like, checked every floor, and we know you must be here!"

The four creepy amigos immediately stuck out their chests when she called them her 'loyal men'. Whenever I thought I would no longer be surprised by anything anymore, this world always threw a curveball at me, didn't it?

Anyhow, since I obviously didn't answer, Sahi took another huge breath and continued with, "I only want to talk with you! And, like, have you sign a contract! But mostly talk! Also, I was kidding about the engagement, so, like, don't be alarmed!"

"Engagement?" Elly repeated after her in a whisper, and try as I might, I couldn't stop the groan bubbling up from the pit of my stomach from escaping my mouth.

"It's a bad joke. Or at least I hope it is. I'll tell you the details later. For now, I have to go. Let's continue this discussion after school."

"Okay then." To her credit, Elly accepted the situation with remarkable ease, and she even gave me a small wave followed by, "I'll see you in class."

"Yes, and… Princess?" She gave me an intrigued look, so after taking a deep breath, I emphatically told her, "Don't punch her."

We locked eyes for a second or two, but at last she gave me a small nod and a curt, "I won't punch her."

"All right then. See you soon."

After saying so, I planted a quick peck on her left cheek and then promptly Phased out of the library. In retrospect, I should have probably also told Elly not to head-butt her, but as always, hindsight was a bitch…

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