Chapter 25 (1/2)

I opened my eyes and exhaled. Well, it was actually more of a gasp, really. The breath escaping my mouth felt heavy, almost like it was trapped in my chest for months. After refreshing the insides of my lungs a couple of times, I closed my eyes again and carefully massaged my temple. I had a feeling I had a weird dream just moments ago, but when I tried to recall what it was about, it felt like dry sand slipping through my fingers. It was something about rooms and heads and stars or something...

Anyways, after a few short minutes, I decided to stop being lazy and I sat up. Since my eyes were already adjusted to the darkness, I quickly found my clock and realized it was past one in the afternoon. Did I sleep in?

“... That sounds subtly wrong,” I muttered under my breath as I was trying to get my rusty brain to start working properly, and after a few seconds of prodding, it finally switched into gear.

Right. That made no sense because I never sleep in. As in, it is logically impossible, since I do not sleep. At all. In the past, I stayed awake for more than a month straight. But if so, then why was I sleeping in my bed anyway and dreaming about star-stuff or something?

The answer came to me with a flash of stinging pain in my abdomen. Right, I remembered. I poked my nose into a climactic fantasy battle and got an ice-spike shoved into my stomach for my trouble. I cautiously rolled up my pajamas to check the damage. It wasn’t particularly gory as far as I could remember, and I received magical emergency treatment, but something like that should've left a mark.

To my sincere surprise, all I found was a single patch of pink skin on my abs. I let out a soft ‘huh’. I supposed magical first aid was even better than I imagined. The spot was a little tender, but considering I had the equivalent of a spear stuck in there not too long ago, my recovery still blew all my expectations out of the water. I allowed myself a satisfied smile before it withered as a new question appeared in my head: I said ’not too long ago’, but for how long was I unconscious?

My first idea was to look the date up on my phone, but I couldn’t find it in arm’s reach. As such, I groggily threw off my blankets and put my legs down the side of the bed. For a moment I felt a little lightheaded, probably because of the blood rushing to my head after lying down for too long, but I still rose to my feet without much of a problem.

First I walked over to the window and opened the curtains, then after a few seconds of thinking I did the same for the actual windows as well. Some fresh air never hurt anyone. Since now the room had better lighting conditions, I looked around again and finally found my phone on my desk. I turned it on, and while the battery was low, it seemed to be in working condition, which was surprising after all the abuse I put it through that night.

Speaking of ’that night’, what was the date again? That was the whole reason I looked for my phone, wasn’t it? After some fumbling, I opened up my calendar and grunted in surprise. It was the 15th of October, meaning I was out cold for... let me see... three days? That wasn’t too bad.

Still, it meant I didn’t take a shower for three days, so I decided to rectify that. It also provided me with a great opportunity to check the rest of my body for scars, so I picked up a clean set of clothes and headed for the bathroom.

My house was incredibly clean, as always. By the looks of it, my theoretical ninja maids worked overtime even while I was unconscious. First I headed for the toilet (for obvious reasons) then I walked over to the bathroom right next to it. There, I stripped down to my underwear and stood in front of the mirror.

My face was smooth without a hint of stubble, which wasn’t surprising. I didn’t have to shave or cut my hair once since I woke up for the first time, so I figured this would be the case. It must've been because of the whole either-simulation-or-a-dream-or-whatever nature of this world, and while I had many discussions about its implications regarding my biology, it was still pretty convenient. I checked my skin and found that, besides the already mentioned pink spot on my stomach, I had a couple of similarly colored scars on my left calf and my left shoulder was a little bruised. Aside from those, I was completely fine. I did a few simple warm-up exercises, just to make sure my body was really all right. It was better to be on the safe side about these things.

First I did a few squats, then I leaned forwards to touch my toes, I circled my waist, then my neck, and then finally I stretched my three arms. Everything seemed to be in—

“Three arms...?”

I froze mid-stretching and I slowly loosened my posture. I looked at my right hand. Yep, that was definitely one arm. Same on the other side. Two perfectly normal human arms with perfectly normal human hands topped with perfectly normal human fingers.

“So what the hell is this?”

I waved around my ’third arm’ or whatever, and the longer I did, the more squeamish I felt. I couldn’t see it, either normally or through the mirror, but I was completely aware of its position the same way I could feel where my ’normal’ hands were even when I closed my eyes. When I moved it around I could feel some wind resistance, and I could even faintly hear a whistling sound as it cut the air, though the latter part might've been just my imagination. More importantly, whatever it was, it didn’t have any joints. In fact, it felt more like some kind of invisible tentacle rather than an actual human limb. It could also pass right through solid objects, such as my actually visible limbs. When I did that, it delivered a strange sensation akin to my skin being jolted by a mild electric current.

After waving it around a little longer, I realized that it could either stretch a lot, or it didn’t have a spot on my body it actually grew out from, as I could ‘touch’ anything within a roughly two meters wide sphere around me. After a couple of short minutes I finally stopped messing with it and let out a tired groan. This was so typical.

When other people woke up after being asleep for too long, the worst they would find was a bump or scar they couldn’t remember. Me? I wake up with an extra bloody phantom limb! And the saddest part? This probably wouldn’t even break the top five on my ’weirdest stuff I experienced in the last two months’ list.

Since it didn’t feel like a pressing problem, I decided to temporarily ignore it and enter the shower, but then my ears picked up some sort of commotion coming from the outside. I pulled my underwear back up, and just in time, as a moment later the bathroom door was thrown open with a bang.

“Leo!” came the panicked cry from the girl standing in the doorway. I let out an unsubtle groan and frowned at her.

“What is it, princess?”

For a few long seconds, the familiar blonde girl only opened and closed her mouth repeatedly like a fish out of water. At last, after an embarrassingly long time, she let out one of her customary cutesy cries, covered her beet-red face with her hands, and hid behind the doorframe. The whole thing felt somewhat nostalgic; she rarely had these kinds of over-the-top reactions anymore. Anyways, at first I thought she might've run away, but a second later she poked her head around the frame while sputtering at record speed.

“S-S-Sorry! I wasn’t peeping! It wasn’t on purpose! I swear on the name of the house of Dracis! It was a completely honest accident and I…”

And so on and so forth, her motor-mouth kept making excuses without end.

“Did you find him?” A question interrupted the princess. She glanced back and nodded twice. A moment later the face of Judy, my dear deadpan research assistant, also appeared from behind the doorframe. She gave me an outwardly expressionless look-over, though from the way the corner of her eyes twitched and her cheeks got slightly flushed I figured she was also somewhat flustered. After a long moment of silence, she pointedly cleared her throat and flatly greeted me with, “Good morning, Chief.”

“Back to you,” I answered off-handedly as I directed my frown at her. “So, what exactly are you doing here?”

“We were looking for you,” she answered immediately without averting her eyes.

“Y-Yes!” the princess nodded repeatedly, and it only just registered with me that instead of her usual ringlets, she now wore her long hair loose. It was a refreshing look that suited her just as well, but more importantly, she started sputtering again. “We went to your room to check your condition, but you were gone and the window was open, so we thought you were kidnapped! I didn’t barge in to peep, I was just worried! I swear!”

“… You know, I would have an easier time believing you if you would stop peeking through your fingers.”

The princess blinked in incomprehension, but after a few seconds she let out another cutesy yelp and she once again disappeared behind the doorframe. I shook my head and returned my attention to the other girl, who in the meantime came into the bathroom and was earnestly observing my abdomen.

“Does it hurt?” she asked while poking at the tender scar on my stomach. I let out a hiss, more in surprise than in pain, but she immediately retracted her hand like she was touching fire.

“Only when you poke it,” I answered a tad ruefully as I rubbed the spot.

“Sorry,” she apologized flatly, but I've known her well enough to understand that she was genuinely regretful.

“Hey!” The princess once again poked her head through the door and she blindly reached out for Judy, as her other hand was firmly clamped over her eyes. After a few misses, she finally managed to grab hold of the back of her blouse and firmly tugged on it. “No touching! We had an agreement!”

“What agreement?” I asked reflexively.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” my assistant answered just as quickly as she looked me over again, completely ignoring the other girl pulling on her, and ultimately she asked, “Are you all right?”

“Mostly.”

“Does it hurt anywhere?”

“As we already established, only when people poke me.”

“So you don’t need help washing yourself?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“… Are you sure?”

At this point, the princess grabbed hold of Judy with her other hand as well and she tugged on her hard. She lost her balance, and before I could do anything they both tumbled backward and fell on their butts by the door.

“Ow!” the princess whined while rubbing her hip, but then a moment later she raised her hand and pointed an accusatory finger at my assistant while still sitting in place. “Stop right there! You cannot offer such l-lewd services! It’s against the agreement!”

“Lewd?” I asked while trying to raise only one of my eyebrows. It was harder than one would think. Anyways, was she talking about Judy’s offer to help me wash myself? I’d say that was a fairly innocent thing to ask from someone who recently got bitten by a monster, fell off a roof, and then got skewered by an ice spear. But then again, the princess was always easily embarrassed, so maybe she read something into it.

Anyways, at this point I subtly rolled my eyes and said, “I would like to have a shower now if you don’t mind,” and closed the door. I could hear some kind of scuffle from the other side, and the princess repeatedly complaining about some kind of agreement, but I decided to ignore them and whatever love-comedy antics they were up to, even if just for a little while.

“How’s the tea?”

“It’s good, thank you,” I answered before taking another sip from the cup in front of me. I savored the taste as I leaned back in my favorite comfy sofa in the living room, then I breathed out in satisfaction and glanced at the young woman in a French-maid outfit standing beside me. “By the way, what exactly are you doing here?”

“I'm looking after Lady Eleanor, naturally,” Melinda, the princess’ chambermaid, answered with a mild-mannered smile. “Meister von Fraenir decided it was improper for our lady to spend the night over without supervision.”

“I see,” I nodded before turning my attention towards the lady in question. “Speaking of which, what are you doing here?”

“I was here to look after you,” the princess answered with a slight pout, like I just asked something stupid.

“So was I,” Judy added while repeatedly blowing on the cup of tea she held in both hands.

“Which reminds me, just how did you even get into my house?” The moment I asked the question, I noticed that the princess immediately and pointedly averted her eyes. I gave her a scrutinizing look, which only made her act even more forcedly nonchalant. “… You know, if you are acting that innocent, it only makes you look even more suspicious.”

“H-Huh?” She turned back to me with an astounded expression. “Really?”

I nodded and told her, “Yes. So, do you have something you want to tell me?”

After a bit of fidgeting, she gave me a pitiful smile.

“Ehehe… Y-You see, I might have been a little spooked at the time, so when we couldn’t open the door I… I broke the lock a little.”

“You did what?” I raised my voice, and she immediately began waving her hands defensively.

“B-But we fixed it! I mean, Ammy fixed it! With magic! It’s as good as new! No, it’s even better!”

I kept frowning at her for a while, but in the end I let out an exhausted breath and took another sip from my cup instead.

“Fine. I’ll let that slide. I will also not ask how you can break a lock only a little, but I cannot ignore how you are still ignoring my original question. What are you doing inside my house, on a school day?”

There was a short silence, but probably only because Judy was finishing up her tea. After she did that, she placed her cup onto the table with a barely audible clank and she took out her familiar pink smartphone from her pocket. A moment later my phone on the table let out a jaunty little tune, so I picked it right up, then I opened up the messaging app and accepted the attachment.

“What’s this?”

“My report. It will explain why we are here.”

“Oh?” I quickly skimmed through the text file and nodded in approval. “You are diligent as ever.”

“Of course.” She nodded with the closest thing to a proud smile her face could produce and then added, “I want back pay.”

“Back pay?”

“For the last three days.”

“… Still in sandwiches?” She nodded, and I could only sigh at her eccentricities. “Fine, my treat as usual. As for this,” I paused and shook the phone in my hand while pointing at the screen. “Could you give me a moment?”

“Sure.”

“So, let’s see…” I subtly glanced around the room for a second, then I began scrolling through the file while holding the phone close to my chest. ”According to your report, after we left the purple zone I collapsed. Angie applied healing magic to my wounds, but since I didn’t regain consciousness, you took me home.”

“Yes,” the princess confirmed.

“Why not the hospital?”

“It would've been hard to explain where you got your injuries,” Judy supplied the answer.

“Oh, and they were half-healed too!” the princess added in a hurry, desperate to contribute to the conversation. “It would've been impossible to explain those.”

“I see,” I spoke half-heartedly before I returned to the text. “So you took me home, where I was put to rest. I stayed unconscious until just this morning, and you two stayed over to watch over me.”

“Indeed!” the princess declared proudly, for some reason.

“Did I really need guarding?”

“Yes,” Judy stated emphatically. “Amelia said that the mages would suppress any information about what happened in the Restricted Space, but some people might still try to take advantage of the situation and try to kidnap you.”

“You already said that when you barged in on me in the bathroom.” When I mentioned that, the princess instantly flushed red to her ears, but I ignored her and continued, “But who would kidnap me? The Abyssals are gone, aren’t they?”

“Not all of them,” Judy stated, and it took me a moment to catch onto her meaning.

“Speaking of which, how’s Snowy?” The three women in the room sent meaningful glances at each other, immediately raising the warning flags in my head. “Is she all right?”

“We don’t know,” Judy answered dryly. “After she woke up she ran away and we couldn’t find her.”

“Judy!” the princess hissed while glaring at my assistant, then whispered, “We agreed not to tell him yet!”

“I can hear you,” I interjected, but I got totally ignored as Judy shrugged her shoulders.

“The chief would find out in no time anyway. I told you.”

“But he is still injured! What if he tries to find her and gets into a stupidly dangerous situation again!” the blonde girl whispered in a still clearly audible voice.

“I said, I can hear you,” I told her again, this time a little more forcefully, but I was still ignored, so while they continued arguing I simply closed my eyes and slipped into Far Sight.

My extra-sensory ability, which I still didn’t completely grasp due to my lack of understanding in regards to magic in this world, quickly found purchase on the red dot in the distance. After a split-second, I could feel my vision blur, as if I was being dragged across space itself, through walls and everything, and after another split-second, I found my disembodied consciousness in a small room.

It was a tidy place, a fairly high-class hotel bedroom by the looks of it. The curtains were closed, but I could still make out the shape of a human body sleeping in a fetal position on the large bed. She had several layers of blankets piled on her, so only her head could be seen, but it was obviously Snowy. Her pure white hair was hard to mistake. Her sleep was somewhat shallow, as she tossed and turned around twice during the time I studied her. At first I thought I might've woken her, but then I remembered that I could only observe things like this. Speaking of which, spying on a sleeping girl longer than absolutely necessary was rude, so with a flick of my mind (don’t ask me how that worked, it just did) I was back in my body.

I opened my eyes and beheld the two girls in front of me, still glaring at each other. Well, okay, in Judy’s case it was more of a tiny frown, but considering it was on her normally deadpan face, I judged it had about the same severity as the princess’ scowl. I let out a long breath and reached out for the teacup on the table, which got refilled during my time out. I gave an appreciative nod to Melinda on the side, then I took a sip and cleared my throat.

“She's fine for the time being, so don't worry, I won't rush out the door and get into any ‘stupidly dangerous situations’ just yet.”

The princess twitched and gave me a skeptical look, ignoring the way I threw her words back at her, before muttering a similarly critical, “How do you know that?”

Before I could answer, Judy let out a satisfied huff and answered in my stead, “I told you he would figure it out in a moment.”

“But why is he so certain about—?”

I cleared my throat again, this time a bit harder.

“Excuse me. I'm still in the room. Stop talking about me in the third person.” To my sincere surprise, not only the princess, but Judy had fallen into a sheepish silence as well. I shook my head and continued with, “So you two have been keeping an eye on me because you thought she might try to kidnap me? Really?”

“Technically I was only keeping an eye on Eleanor,” my assistant raised an objection.

“Hey! What is that supposed to mean?!” the princess flared up again and pointed an accusatory finger at the other girl. “If anything, I was the one who had to stop you from u-undressing him all the time!”

“I was only wiping his sweat,” Judy retorted with the frown back on her face.

I let out a long sigh and gestured for the maid to get closer.

“Were they like this all the time while I was asleep?”

Melinda pondered for a moment before she showed me one of her businesslike smiles and whispered, “Milady and Miss Judy actually get along very well.” After a moment of pause, she leaned a little closer and added, “I believe they are only expressing their relief this way.”

“I see… I think.”

She gave me another smile that felt maybe just a little bit mischievous. I've never seen this side of her, though to be fair, I only met her a couple of times in the past. It was oddly refreshing. Anyways, I cleared my throat for the third time and waited for the two girls’ attention to return to me.

“So, back to the report and what happened while I was out cold. Where are the others?”

“Amelia was only lightly injured, so she's already back at the School,” Judy answered after sending one last pointed glance at the other girl. “The last time we talked, she said she was writing official reports about the incident.”

“I see. Now that you mention injuries, what is my cover story?”

The two of them blanked out on me for a moment, but then the princess quickly spoke before Judy could answer, apparently still desperate to be a part of the conversation.

“We said you had the flu!” After noticing how loud she was, she toned her voice back a little and repeated, “We told them we had the flu.”

“We?”

“You, me, Judy, Josh, and Angie,” the princess spoke while counting on her fingers in a surprisingly cute display.

“So I was out, you two were keeping watch, Snowy is in hiding and…” I paused for a moment as I scrolled through the text file before glancing up in surprise. ”Angie is under house arrest?” The two nodded in unison. “By the mages?” They nodded again, and I let out a troubled breath. ”Another thing to fix. Great. … What about Josh?”

“You should ask him,” my assistant stated, earning a raised brow from me. She turned her phone towards me and added, “I messaged everyone that you got better. He said he's coming over.”

I wanted to ask ‘when?’, but then I remembered I had a better way to learn these things as I swiftly entered into the first stage of Far Sight, the ‘radar mode’ in which I could sense the rough location of people I could observe. To my surprise, I found Josh’s ‘dot’ coming over at a very high speed, and when I got out of my trance, I could already recognize the sound of his moped.

I stood up without any further ado and walked up to the front door while in the crossfire of the confused gazes of the other people in the room. I stood there for several long seconds, but just as the princess was about to finally break the ice and ask me what I was doing, I casually opened the door. Unsurprisingly, as per the unwritten laws of convenient timing, Josh was already standing in front of it, one hand raised and balled into a fist in preparation to knock.

I was planning to make this one of those amusing ‘how did you know that’ situations, but my intent flew out the window when I actually saw him. Josh was, frankly speaking, haggard. His short brown hair had a serious case of bed-head and his clothes were strewn over him haphazardly as if he just put on whatever was at hand. As far as I knew, he did just that. He also had black circles under his eyes, and as our gazes met, he finally let his arm down as his entire body tensed up like a piano wire about to snap. He took a deep breath and, after relaxing his posture a little, he spoke to me in a hoarse voice.

“Leo, we need to talk.”

I couldn’t help but smile at his overly serious voice as I stood aside and gestured for him to enter.

“Yes, we do.”

There was a heavy silence in my living room. I was sitting in my comfy chair, and since the girls were still on the sofa, we actually had to bring in a wooden chair from the kitchen so that Josh would have a place where he could sit. Once we all got comfortable (or at least as comfortable as we could get under the circumstances), I lightly cleared my throat to break the ice.

“So, I guess you want me to explain what the hell is going on, right?” I asked as cordially as I could manage.

“Yes,” Josh nodded, but then his eyes seemed uncertain for a moment and he added, “If you are well enough to talk.”

“Oh, I’m fit as a fiddle,” I told him with a reassuring smile. “Thanks for the concern.”

I was tempted to say he looked worse than I did, but I refrained. In that moment of pause he clasped his hands in his lap and said; “You told me that once I get ‘roped into this mess’, you would finally spill the beans. I think I am very much roped into…” He paused for a moment, looking for the right words, but in the end only let out a feeble groan and settled on, “Into this weird-ass nightmare.”

“Now, now,” I soothed him with a raised hand a smile. “It’s not that bad.”

He gave me a flat look and then crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Dude, I got kidnapped from my own bathroom by a literal demon, I was tied up and gagged with invisible rope, then I was nearly dragged to literal hell until the people I thought were my friends showed up, turned out to be…” He paused again, but eventually he just let out another groan instead. “The point is, my reality is literally falling apart, and you are telling me it’s ‘not that bad’.”

I ignored the barbs in his voice and answered as evenly as I could manage.

“First off, let me correct a few misconceptions: You were kidnapped by Abyssals, not demons.”

“What’s the difference?”

“I’ll be damned if I know, but apparently there is one,” I answered nonchalantly, which earned me another flat look, which I once again ignored. “Secondly, you were not going to be taken to ‘literal hell’, but the Abyss.”

“Again, what’s the difference?”

“Oh, I can actually answer that: Hell doesn’t exist, but the Abyss does. It’s something like a pocket dimension copy of this island, and it’s something of a prison to the Abyssals. But anyways,” I raised my voice before he could interrupt again, “As for your third misconception: the people who saved you are still very much your friends.”

Josh visibly twitched for a moment. He gave me a dubious look at first, but after a few seconds of silence he slowly exhaled, and I could see the tension leave his body like an overwound spring finally finding release. He closed his eyes for a moment and then gave me a look that was decidedly less dubious.

“I get it,” he said softly. “I’m listening.”

“Good!” I answered with a grin as I leaned forward. “I’m glad we cleared that up. However…” I stood up at this point and gave a meaningful look to the maid by the couch. “Before we continue, since these are confidential matters that could land Josh in quite the right pickle, I'd like to ask everyone not directly related to leave the house.”

After a moment of pause, Melinda cleared her throat.

“I presume that refers to me.”

“Indeed,” I answered.

“Wait!” the princess interrupted with a glare that I haven’t seen on her face in a while. “Melinda is my chambermaid since I was eight! She is completely trustworthy!”

I gave her my best imitation of Josh’s brand of flat looks and shook my head.

“This is not about trustworthiness. While I'm sure she would not gossip about what I am about to say, she is still part of the Dracis family.”

“So am I!”

“Yes,” I answered while raising my hands to indicate she should calm down. “However, you are the heiress. You can say no if, say, a nosy old butler told you to expose everything said in this room. She can’t.”

The princess opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say anything, the maid took a step towards the door before she turned on her heels and gave us a small bow.

“I understand. I shall return to the mansion and tell Meister von Fraenir about your recovery.”

I gave her a small smile and an appreciative nod in return.

“Thank you for your cooperation and give my greetings to the old man.”

Melinda returned the nod and then faced the princess.

“Milady, I shall go ahead. I’ll make sure your dinner will be ready by the time you return.”

“Y-yes.” The princess answered by reflex while seemingly dazed by the maid’s decisiveness. I waited for Melinda to grab her bag and leave, and I only let out a pent-up breath after I heard the door click.

“Well, that’s one down,” I said as I stood up.

“One down?” Judy repeated after me while looking over us and pointing at the princess. “Do you want her to leave too?”

“What?” the blonde girl snapped back at her. “If anyone should leave, it’s you!”

“Hush,” I interrupted them while gesturing for them to be quiet, then I walked up to Josh and whispered, “Could you stand up for a moment? I need the chair.”

“Um… sure?” he responded a touch uncertainly as he got onto his feet.

I grabbed said chair and, while being followed by three pairs of skeptical eyes, I moved it to the corner of the room. In said corner, just under the ceiling, floated a small, softly glowing green eyeball. Well, not a physical one (that would have been creepy), but more of a magical… something. I was still not certain of the terminology, but I've seen enough magic lately to recognize the glow. It was apparently another unique ability, as others weren’t able to see magic, or at least not the way I could. Either way, the stupid thing has been bothering me for a while, but I couldn’t do anything about it while Melinda was still around. Call me paranoid, but I decided to start playing my cards close to my chest, so the fewer people knew about my unusual abilities, the better, especially since even I didn’t know how they worked.

But I digress. At this point I positioned the chair just under the curiously swiveling translucent eyeball, then using another of my currently still unexplored abilities, I took a deep breath and extended two fingers before I made a quick cutting motion through the eye. There was a numbing tingle on my skin when I made contact, then it faded as my fingers passed through the eyeball, and as they did so, it disintegrated into green smoke. After a few short seconds even that dissipated, with no trace left behind. I let out another breath and got off the chair, returning it to Josh, who was giving me a weird look.

He wasn’t the only one, as the princess was looking around the room with a strange expression on her face.

“What did you do?” she asked while still fidgeting. “I got goosebumps all of a sudden.”

“Still hush,” I repeated myself, which made her cover her mouth for some reason. I gestured for everyone to stay put, then I left the living room to systematically check every part of the house, which took about ten minutes. The results were two more green magical eyeball things, seven tiny balls of blue fire, and something that looked like three oscillating white rings turning around each other like a gyroscope. After I got rid of all of them I returned to the living room and then immediately I fell back onto my comfy chair with a tired sigh.

After a few seconds of awkward silence the princess (who, for some reason, was still covering her mouth) asked the question that seemed to be on all of their minds:

”What were you doing just now?”

I shrugged my shoulders and answered, “I just dispelled some magical surveillance. Or at least I guess that’s what they were.”

“Wait, since when can you do that? And how?”

I raised my palms once again, and after she quieted down, I used them to point at my increasingly confused friend on the chair next to us.

“We'll discuss this in detail, but I think we should get Josh up to speed first.” For a moment she looked like she might object, but then she glanced over to Josh and nodded her head. Following that, I also turned towards him and clapped my hands to punctuate the change of topics. “Now then, here’s the footnotes version of this whole mess.” I paused for a moment and glanced at Judy before I added, “You may interrupt if I miss something.”

“Mm.” Judy mumbled with a nod while she fished her phone out of her pocket and began poking at it.

“What about me?” the princess interrupted with an indignant frown, but I simply ignored her. “Hey, don’t just ignore me!”

I let out a short sigh and nodded towards her with, “Naturally you can do that too.”

Elly puffed up her cheeks in an admittedly adorable display that didn’t really fit her age while mumbling something about not being an afterthought, but by that time I returned my attention to Josh, so I didn’t really pay attention. I took a deep breath and began.

“So, let’s start at the beginning, shall we? First off, as you might've noticed, there’s a bunch of supernatural stuff in this world. You didn’t notice it, because there is a masquerade in effect.”