"Welcome to the Abyss, Lord Dunning." I was greeted by a rather unconvincingly amicable voice as soon as I stepped out of the magical portal tunnel thing, and when I didn't respond right away, it was followed up by a slightly anxious, "Or would you prefer to be addressed as Archon Polemos, instead?" "Either works, just give me a second," I responded with a palm raised and another hand covering my eyes. "Is everything all right?" a more familiar voice, coming from Corbeau at my side, made me glance at her, only to squint and return to massaging my eyeballs. "Yes, I'll be fine in a moment." I recognised that this wasn't exactly the most dignified way to make my first official appearance in the Abyss, but I couldn't exactly help it. Worse yet, this was something I'd done to myself. Long story short, boring a tunnel through the seal around the Abyss required a metric crapton of power. That power came from the Mana Wells. Those, by definition, used ridiculous amounts of mana to push against said seal and thin it enough to allow the gateway made in the Purple Zone to 'poke through' and create a channel through which we could enter the Abyss. So far, nothing unexpected. The part I didn't see coming was that all that mana was still inside the gateway, creating a sort of elevated ambient pressure to keep the tunnel from collapsing. It was kind of like the pressurised insides of a deep-sea submarine. This also explained why there was a limit on the people who could pass through; these passageways existed in a precarious balance maintained by the mana-pressure on the inside, and magical folks would naturally absorb ambient mana. The stronger the person in question, the more mana they would absorb, and the faster they would cause the pressure to drop, destabilising the tunnel. Made perfect sense in retrospect, but that was the hindsight speaking. At the time when I stepped through the gateway on the Purple Zone side, couldn't care less about any of this, because I just entered a tunnel full of hyper-concentrated mana. Which my senses always interpreted as wispy, colourless light. I wasn't expecting any of it, so I just casually walked inside, eyes wide open with curiosity, and got myself magically flash-banged for my trouble. Of course, my extra-sensory perception had nothing to do with my eyeballs, as I could see it even while astra projecting during Far Sight, but my physical body was still reacting as if I did, and my eyes were tearing up like a whole army of ninjas were cutting onions around me. It took me about half a minute to get my psycho-physiological reactions under control and properly behold the place around me. When Tracas told me there would be a 'small reception in my honour', I immediately resigned myself to one of those needlessly fancy high-society parties right out of a Victorian-style shoujo romance story. For once, I was pleasantly surprised. The chamber around me was very much following the general aesthetics of the Abyss; dark stone walls, high vaulted ceilings supported by richly carved columns, and large stained-glass windows n all sides, with an especially large, circular rose-window dominating the wall behind us. I had no idea what they depicted, because it was dark outside due to the day-night cycle of the pocket dimension being synchronised to the outside world, the same as the Elysium. As for the inside, the reception hall was lit by three large wrought-iron chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, their orange light currently overshadowed by the bluish glow of the portal behind me. That aside, I could only see a couple dozen people at a quick glance. All of them were idling around either the small round tables holding the refreshments, or lining the edges of the long, gold-trimmed red carpet connecting the spot where we arrived to the arched doorway at the other end of the hall. About half of them were nobles and ladies dressed up for the occasion, while the rest were guards and soldiers, with the occasional Fauns here and there. That was a bit surprising, though not too much, considering that the Abyss was technically in the middle of a war. Heightened security was to be expected. In any case, these were rookie numbers, but it all made sense in retrospect. Future-me would've probably informed me ahead of time if there was a huge party with hundreds of people in attendance… But then again, he didn't warn me about the magical tunnel-flash-bang either, so who the heck knew at this point? "I'm fine now." I straightened my back and looked the man at the head of my welcoming committee in the eyes. "I had to restrain myself to ensure the pathway wouldn't collapse before we arrived, and it left me somewhat disoriented." "Is that so?" Tracas muttered on one side, while Corbeau nervously swallowed. They were probably trying their best not to imagine what it would've been like if the tunnel caved in in on us. "Yes, we have noticed that the gateway remained… remarkably stable," the man at the front stated in a neutral voice and subtly gestured to a group of simply dressed Abyssals to attend to the portal. Once they began their interpretive dance routine (which I presumed was the equivalent of the multi-instrumental malarkey of the Celestial portal-technicians), he turned to me again. "Please forgive me for the discourtesy of the late introduction, Lord Archon Polemos Dunning. I'm Belette Ugur Nergal, the patriarch of House Nergal. I welcome you to my land." He didn't bother to bow, nod, or even offer a hand, so I didn't do so either and silently observed him for a while. The head of House Nergal was more than a head shorter than me, but he had a solid athletic build with wide shoulders accentuated by his fancy gothic-style outfit, all in black and dark reds and complete with a similarly coloured cape. His face was a bit angular, with shoulder-length platinum-white hair that was fashioned into that 'attractively unkempt' look and a matching goatee. Overall, he looked every bit the sinister power-hungry regent of a typical tabletop RPG campaign, but I digress. "I'm flattered that you arranged this reception, but time is of the essence," I told him flatly. "I want to fulfil my promise and wrap everything up as soon as possible." "Now, now, Lord Archon Polemos Dunning, I implore you to wait," Belette responded with his palms raised and a good-natured smile on his face. "At least until all the guests have arrived and can meet you in person." "Is this really necessary?" "Quite," he insisted, carefully straddling the line between friendly and imperious. "You can't imagine how many of my kinsmen, not to mention our guests and allies from the other Noble Houses, have awaited to meet the famous Peacemaker in the flesh. As the host, I strongly implore you to humor them." "There goes that title again," I sighed, but the Nergal patriarch's attention was already on my two companions. "Ah, it's good to see you again, Lord of Ashur." "I'm not the head of my house yet, but—" "Oh, don't put yourself down," Belette cut him off with a smile and patted his shoulder hard. "With the Lord Archon Peacemaker Polemos Dunning here, your ascension is but a formality, is it not?" The goateed man didn't wait for his response and pulled him along, even as his eyes were already on the woman at our side. "Good work, as always." "I live to serve, my Lord," she responded deferentially, much to the man's delight. "Yes, indeed. Come, you two. Why don't we have a chat with some fine bourbon on the side? It's awfully hard to receive news from outside world nowadays." "But what about… him?" Corbeau tried to protest while glancing at me, probably unsure how to address me after the patriarch insisted on including all my titles with my name. "I say we should allow Lord Archon Peacemaker Polemos Dunning to mingle and receive some traditional Abyssal hospitality." All that comment was missing was a wink in my direction. There wasn't any. As a matter of fact, Belette Nergal remained completely and utterly serious, and as much as he wanted to project a sense of laidback friendliness, his shifty eyes betrayed his act from the very start. Was subtlety a dead art nowadays? That would've normally annoyed the heck out of me, but this was entirely expected and within the plan, so I was only mildly miffed. The trio conspicuously walked over to the nearest of the round tables scattered in the hall, specifically the one with nothing but bottles of alcohol on it, leaving me alone in front of the portal. At least until it suddenly popped out of existence, cutting down the ambient lighting to just the chandeliers above. It was as if the closing of the gateway flipped a switch, and everyone suddenly focused their attention on me. If I weren't used to this kind of thing, it might've been daunting to receive all those gazes at once, but as is, I just sighed and walked forward with a 'Let's just get this over with' kind of mindset. It didn't take long for the first 'guest' to approach me. "Good evening, Lord Archon Peacema—" a young lady, about the same age as my sisters, greeted me with a curtsy, but I stopped her before she could finish. "Stop. Just Leonard will do. Polemos, if you insist." "I-I wouldn't dare!" the girl sputtered in a fluster. "B-But I would be most flattered if I may address you as… erm… L-Lord Dunning?" I continued to silently eye the girl for a bit longer. She had long purple hair and she was a bit on the lithe side, yet her demeanour kind of reminded me of Snowy's, so I couldn't just rudely bounce her off. "That sounds fine," I compromised, and her expression eased up a bit. It didn't last for long though, as the moment it was seen that she cracked the ice, it was like the whole damn dam broke and the rest hurriedly approached me all at once. "Lord Dunning! Is it true that you're here to end the war?" "Can you tell us about the outside? Do people really have tiny computers in their pockets nowadays?" "Don't crowd Lord Dunning like that! Don't you see you're inconveniencing him with your banal questions?" a young man with a pair of tiny horns on his forehead snapped at the rest, only to turn a (clearly fake) adoring smile my way. "Lord Dunning? Could you tell us how you united people on the surface? I'm sure it's a dashing and heroic story we'd all like to hear!" After some shared glances, the rest of the group encircling me started clamouring for the same. "Yes! That sounds very impressive!" "Please, tell us! In great detail!" "I-I'm sure Lord Dunning would love to boast about his great deeds…" "Don't say 'boast'," another girl hissed. "He'll… um… regale us with his greatness, right?" "Right!" the boisterous young man from before agreed, and they all stared at me full of anticipation. In the meantime, all I could say was… "Wow. I didn't expect it would be this bad…" "E-Excuse me, Lord Dunning?" the girl from the start mumbled, visibly tense, so I reassured her with a wave of my hand. "It's nothing. I was just thinking aloud, everything's fine." That made her (and by extension, much of the rest of the group) exhale in relief. In the meantime, I quickly scanned the hall one more time. As expected, Belette, Tracas, and Corbeau were standing around the same table, glasses in hand and quietly discussing something. Similarly, the adults and guards all kept their distance from me, only sending the young ones to pester me. "Have we… offended Lord Dunning?" another girl, this one about Elly's build and height but with strawberry pink hair, asked while cutely tapping her index fingers together, clearly looking for a reaction. "No, nothing of the sort," I responded sharply and continued to observe the situation as impartially as possible. The main discrepancy that caught my attention had to do with the difference in appearances. Namely, the fact that all of the adults in the back (both the 'nobles' and their 'guards') were fairly average looking. By the Simulacrum's standards, at the very least, meaning they were 'just' placeholder attractive. In comparison, the 'youngsters' surrounding me were considerably more well-defined. Not to a main-character degree, to stay with our usual classification, but they all had unique hairstyles, hair colours, and defining features to make them stand out from the crowd. Not just that, but the girls were unusually cute and graceful, and even the guys looked like bishounen types from the cover of a shoujo romance manga. "In that case…" One of the aforementioned guys, a rather effeminate-looking fellow with delicate features and long cyan hair, smiled at me provocatively. "Since Lord Dunning doesn't seem to boast about his great accomplishment, may we enquire about something less… political?" "As in?" I asked back with a brow raised high, and I kid not, he did that 'fox-eyes' thing, where he smiled at me while narrowing his eyes into slits. I didn't even think that was possible without being drawn… or very Asian, but I would rather not wade down into that rabbit hole. "Pardon the personal question," he began, trying to sound reserved, but then he immediately shifted to provocative again. "Is it true that you have multiple wives?" "Fiancées, yes," I corrected him, but it only threw fuel onto the fire of everyone else's interest. "How many wives do you plan to have?" "So the rumors were right all along?" another girl, this one with fiery red hair done up into two large buns, blurted out while covering her mouth with a colourful hand-fan. "I wonder who's going to be the lucky one this time?" "I don't follow. What rumours?" My question made everyone fall silent for a moment, but then the first girl, the one who kind of reminded me of Snowy, hesitantly spoke up. "It… It's said that wherever Lord Dunning goes, he seduces women in power, and that's how he keeps uniting the warring powers of the outer world." "… Excuse me? What kind of rumour is that?" "Is it wrong?" the cyan-haired guy from before spoke up again, still doing the whole fox-eyes thing like it was perfectly natural. "They say you've united the dragonbloods with the dragon hunters through marriage, and that an entire clan of shadow-warriors from the far east have pledged themselves to your cause after you were seen spending quality time with their lady-on-command at night." "Oh, my…!" the girl with the hand-fan exclaimed with a swoon. "Ah… And I've heard that the new leader of our Celestial cousins is a young girl," the foxy guy continued unabated. "Coincidentally, soon after she was seen with Lord Dunning in public, the Celestial Realm ceased all hostilities with the outside world. Coincidence?" "No, but the order of events is wrong." They apparently couldn't hear me right, because everyone was already too caught up in the gossip. "Lord Dunning is definitely a man among men!" "I wonder if he's here to choose another wife…" "No, I'm… Listen to me!" My attempt to interrupt them fell on deaf ears, as they barrelled on, completely ignoring me. Which was both annoying and blatant, but not as irritating as their random speculations. "W-Who among us could stand a chance?" one of the girls whispered shyly while also fluttering her eyelashes at me, but the first guy, the non-foxy-on, let out a scoff. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the N0veI.Fiɾe.net "For someone of Lord Dunning's standing, it should be at least a direct descendant of one of the Noble bloodlines." "So, one of the Noble Ones?" "Or their direct blood relatives?" the pink-haired girl from before posited, causing the chief troublemaker to let out a delighted huff. "Now that you mention it," fox-eyes raised his voice, and as he did, his smile widened even further. "Isn't the estranged sister of the Lord of Inanna living under the same roof with Lord Dunning?" "H-How scandalous!" the reserved purple-haired girl muttered while hiding her flushed face behind her hands. "Listen, you're completely misunderstanding and misconstruing the situation," I cut in, trying to remain as calm and civil as I could. "She's my sister." My words caused the circle around me to fall silent, only for one of the guys to declare, apropos of nothing, "I respect Lord Dunning's preferences." I was just about to snap at him, but then the whole conversation came to a sudden halt when the entire building shook, causing the chandeliers overhead to swing left and right. Then, just as everyone finished paling, there was an ear-piercing cacophony of shattering glass and metal as the large tinted rose window exploded into a million pieces. By the time I glanced over, there was already a hole in the middle, and I just barely caught a large ball of black haze coming to an abrupt halt in the air, just over the spot where the portal used to be. The middle of the ball flashed in a deep crimson-orange light, and it rapidly unfolded, revealing a human figure held aloft by two large bat-like wings made of the same dark fog. Her white hair and elegant gothic dress billowed behind her as her eyes frantically scanned the hall, and as soon as our gazes met, Fidèle Basmu Shamash abruptly produced a giant black scythe (the fantasy weapon kind, not the farming implement) and cried out, "Look out! It's a trap!" Her sudden appearance and words made everyone in the chamber freeze up, but as for me… "Oh, thank god the plot is here. This was just starting to get really awkward…"