egathentale

The Simulacrum - Chapter 83 - Part 2

"How's the Peking duck?"

I glanced up from my plate, and blurted out a flabbergasted, "Excuse me?"

"The Peking duck," Emese repeated from the other side of the dining table. She was wearing a simple beige dress, but at the same time she had her wavy hair loose, giving her a kind of wild, unbridled look that contrasted with the elegant way she was eating her meal. When I didn't respond, she let her fork down and asked, "Could it be that it doesn't fit your tastes?"

"Oh no, no...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 83 - Part 1

Let me see. Phone? Check. Keys? Check. Coat? Check. Beany? Check. Bag? Check.

After concluding that I'd got everything, I slipped into my outdoor shoes and called out, "I'm off to visit the Knights!" towards the first floor.

"Take care!" my sister responded with a muffled voice from behind the closed door of her room.

There really wasn't much else to say, so I promptly Phased out of my living room, and a blink of an eye later I was looking at the cloudy skies hanging over th...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 82 - Part 3

"Welcome home," Snowy greeted me from the living room the moment I opened the front door. She only had five classes on Mondays, and she had no club activities, so she came home ahead of me as usual. "I ordered Chinese for dinner, and—" She froze mid-sentence when she poked her head around the doorway and noticed the guest behind me. "Oh, hello."

"Hi," Mike greeted her back with an awkward smile, and my sister remained silent for a while.

"Should… I order another portion?"

Update

I'm sorry this isn't a chapter update, but unfortunately I've been sick for the past week. As in, constant coughing and a 39 degrees Celsius fever, with a dash of insomnia and some nasty diarrhea as the cherry on top. This has been going on since Christmas, and while it's not the Koof Vaarus (TM), at least if the quick test is to be believed, it doesn't make me feel any better. Needless to say, feeling like shit and not getting enough sleep is not good for writing, so I only managed to force ...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 82 - Part 2

"And remember children: the most important part of the school festival is fun!" Mrs. Applebottom exclaimed with an unusually energetic smile, and the classroom nodded along. Well, most of the class. Our little group was already neck-deep in the preparations, so we all had our own opinions about her trite advice, while at least one of the four creepy amigos was too busy swooning to give any other reaction.

Then, like clockwork, the last chime of the day sounded, ending our homeroom class...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 82 - Part 1

"The ninja maids are really into the holiday season, huh?" I spoke softly, just loud enough for the girls to hear.

"Christmas is just a few weeks away," Elly told me as she nuzzled closer to me, her arm already entwined with mine as we walked the morning streets. Judy, on my other side, let out a small huff.

"If you keep using that term, don't be surprised when your actual, non-theoretical ninjas misunderstand you and start dressing accordingly."

"In my defense, the...

Volume 4 - Prologue

"Your terms are pretty damn acceptable. Not to mention, I like the cut of your jib! Count me in!"

I'm not going to lie, I couldn't decide whether I should feel happy or annoyed by that answer. Ignoring a certain mad scientist going 'Kihihi!' behind my back, I focused my attention on the slightly less mad scientist in front of me and forced an amicable smile onto my face.

We were sitting in a restaurant at the moment, as it was the only neutral meeting place I could arrange on shor...

Volume 3 Extra 7: Man proposes, dice disposes, DM opposes, common sense decomposes

Childhood friends were often similar. It's one of those inevitable things, where they constantly influence each other as they grow up until they end up settling into an equilibrium. Similar temperaments, similar interests, a similar sense of humour, and so on. However, this was the first time I've heard of this phenomenon extending to interior decoration as well. Either that, or I was overthinking this, and the Simulacrum was just lazy as usual.

As for what prompted this observation, it...

Day 18 Evening - Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable

“This turned out better than I expected,” I mumbled to myself while I used a borrowed silver fork to pick a piece of meat out from the stew, and then I carefully placed it onto my borrowed porcelain plate.

“Mmm. Mmm.” Smaragd fervently nodded, her mouth too full to talk. Back when we were cooking, Little Flame was sitting on Liselotte’s shoulders, but by this point he returned to Smaragd’s head and was frantically trying to hold onto his swaying perch.

“I-It’s not ...

Day 18 Interlude - Liselotte

I was really surprised to see Eriza alive. We were friends. No, maybe not quite friends, but closer than just acquaintances. I first met her years ago, during my time at the Healers’ Pavilion. I was only fifteen at the time, and she was two years younger than me. So thirteen. I was considered talented. She was considered a genius. Unfortunately, she had no talent for healing magic in particular.

I remember trying to help her. Maybe my encouragements in regards to using potions instead...

Day 18 Afternoon - It's a small world

“All right, it’s just beyond that hill,” I stated and closed my map.

“Really… Haaah… Are we really there?” Eriza muttered as she staggered forward, her legs visibly shaking with every step.

She was obviously worn down by our journey, and it was probably partially my fault. During one of our longer breaks, I mentioned to her my hypothesis about a "surge" (read: gaining a level) making her stronger (read: raising her Body attribute) depending on how much she physically...

Day 16 Evening - A long trip with ups and downs

“Hmmm… According to my map, we should go this way,” I told my slightly unwilling companion as I closed the DMI and pointed towards an unbeaten path through the mushroom forest.

“A-Are you certain, Mistress Mafter?”

I sighed and waved at Eriza dismissively. “I told you to stop calling me that. Also, watch out, the ground is uneven over there.”

“Th-Thank you for the warning, Mistress Mafter.”

“Argh, whatever…”

Saying so I turned around and c...

Day 15 Interlude - Eriza

It was morning. There was no sunlight on the windowsill or rooster crying out in the backyard, but somehow my body could still tell. I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes. I was still tired. I was on night shift the day before, so I didn’t get much sleep, and some of the fatigue carried over even though I went bed earlier than usual. I had no idea how the others could keep up with the shifts, though again, they've been doing them way longer than I have.

I got out of my bed and tidied ...

Day 15 Evening - Plans, food, and slight misunderstandings

““““We are terribly sorry! Please forgive us!””””

I looked over the four maids lined up in front of me and bowing in unison, and I couldn’t keep the sigh from escaping my lips.

“I told you already. I'm not angry.”

“Our conduct was truly shameful,” Sera, the self-appointed head of the group, spoke up, completely ignoring my attempts at dismissing them. “I can only hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive us. However, if you can’t…” ...

Day 15 Afternoon - The devil in the details

“So you can’t see the details?” I muttered as I crossed my arms.

I was still talking to Razzie, thought the scenery have changed. At the moment, we were sitting around a fancy wooden round table on the open veranda. Honestly, the more I saw of the estate, the more it reminded me of some quiet mountain hotel at a ski resort, except instead of a mountainside, it was built on a ridge in a remote corner of the dungeon cavern.

We moved outside after my host complained about the a...

Day 15 Morning - Dungeon economics 101

Even though the host struck me as something of a muscle head, the reading room of the Raznok estate was surprisingly large. In fact, it was about the size of the public library old me used to frequent in elementary school except, well… red. Red covers, red bookcases, redwood chairs with red velvet cushions… Razzie had a thing for the color, it seemed. On the same note, unlike the rest of the mansion, this one room was lit by fist-sized glowing orange orbs in sockets on the walls instead o...

Day 14 Afternoon - First impressions are important

"Whoa!”

I let out an undignified cry as I nearly stumbled and fell on my face. The transportation magic itself was fairly nauseating, as it made the world around me disappear into rainbow-colored fractals like I had a gigantic trip, but when things normalized again, I found myself about a centimeter above the ground. The small drop surprised me, but I managed to quickly regain my balance and I hastily looked around.

I obviously wasn’t in the dragon’s chamber anymore. Speakin...

Day 14 Interlude - Liselotte

I woke up to the smell of smoke and burnt flesh. I had trouble opening my eyes. They felt like they were made of lead. Since I couldn’t see, I tried to listen. There was a commotion around me. Heavy things being dragged on the ground. Fire crackling. Moans of pain. Some of it was mine. Then I heard a voice.

“…ame, plea… …. go fi… … … Mafter!”

I couldn’t hear it properly, but I thought it was a young girl’s voice. What was she doing here? What was...

The Dungeon Mafter Series - Days 12 to 14

Day 12 - Expedition

The next morning started with a bombshell. After I peeled the sleeping Smaragd off me (while trying to ignore that she was still naked), she told me that she was going to the lair of the White Widows to try and rescue the goblins. When I asked her why on earth she would do something as dangerous as that, she said…

“Because the chief is supposed to help the other gobbis, and Smaragd is the chief now, so Smaragd has to do it!”

“No.”

“Ugu...

The Dungeon Mafter Series - Days 7 to 11

Day 7 - A meal of meat and fire

In the end we spent the entire last day resting while we waited for Smaragd’s Stamina to recharge. Unfortunately, even with the food, her Health was slow to recover. My mental stamina was having a hard time recovering as well, as she insisted on sleeping while clinging to me, so I couldn’t get a good night’s sleep either.

Anyways, I decided to have some breakfast before we set out, so I once again summoned the blue Will-o-Wish I used to roas...

The Dungeon Mafter Series - Days 4 to 6

Day 4 - Note to self: Goblins, unexpectedly, a

2021-12-02 17:27:59 +0000 UTC View Post

The Dungeon Mafter Series - Days 1 to 3

Day 1 - Toto, I've a feeling we're not on Earth anymore...

“Hhhh…!”

I could feel my chest rise with a sudden jerk and my mouth opened wide into an involuntary gasp. Soon after that, my mind was also shocked into motion as the same breath left my lungs. I tried to look around, but I couldn’t see a thing. An embarrassingly long moment later I finally realized why. My eyes were still closed.

So, I opened them. It took way too much effort, or at least it felt harder th...

The Simulacrum - Volume 3 Epilogue

Sometimes, asking philosophical questions is inevitable. Not necessarily big ones, and certainly not the scary existential ones, though sometimes that can also become unavoidable. No, I'm talking about the simple, dare I say, mundane philosophical questions. The kind that make sense in the moment, and nowhere else. Such as, 'how come I'm still a virgin'?

I mean, let's just think about it for a moment: I'm in bed right now, with two beautiful girls clinging onto me in their thin...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 81 - Part 4

It was a little unexpected, but my room was quite lively when I arrived home. The lights were still on despite how late it was, and both Judy and Elly were in front of the PC. They were watching funny animal videos by the looks of it, the universal language of wasting time. Go figure.

"Hi girls, I'm back."

My girlfriends glanced away from the screen in unison and Judy sprung to her feet not a moment later.

"Welcome home, Chief. Do you know what time it is?"

"I little p...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 81 - Part 3

"We have a toilet!"

Penny's excited words raised a couple of intrigued brows in the spacious guest room of the Dracis mansion.

"I expected as much," Roland noted while absently airing the bedding of one of the two beds. By now, both of them were out of their armours and wearing the same style of tracksuit as their colleagues. "This really does feel like a four-star hotel, doesn't it?"

"It does!" the Knight girl exclaimed and made her way over to him. "The bathroom even has t...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 81 - Part 2

"Kihihi! Marvelous! Absolutely marvelous!"

"Master, you're drooling again."

It said something about how excited Fred was that he didn't even bother to snap at the android standing next to him in her pajamas. I'd like to say I couldn't blame him, but even I had to admit that the obsessed look he was giving to the four sets of armor laid out on the table in front of him was a little creepy.

"You can inspect these, but make sure you don't break anything," I warned him, just to ...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 81 - Part 1

Normally this was the point where I'd say something along the lines of 'The silence in the room was palpable', except it wasn't. There wasn't even a long, meaningful beat after my declaration. Some were only whispering, like the knight mooks in the back, while others were letting out thoughtful hums, such as my self-described in-laws. And as for a certain Mr. Minotaur...

"Na pumpin' wey !"

"Brother Duncan, watch your language," Mr. Eagle whispered to his colleague, result...

Volume 3 Extra 6: After-raid afterglow

The culture and class structure of Timaeus made no sense whatsoever. Well, fine, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, and I admit there's still room for research into the topic, but I definitely wasn't wrong in that assessment.

"So, like, there was this abandoned office building…"

First off, the island's culture was at least possible to explain using our narrative theory. Since the Simulacrum (or at least this corner of it) was unapologetically running on Japanese tropes, f...

Minor update

Hello, Dear Readers.

Long story short, the final edit of the first volume is done, and the actual audiobook is in the recording phase. That's the good news.

As for the bad one, I got a pretty severe case of the flu at the moment (fever, shakes, nausea, the whole nine yards). I originally planned to finish a quick extra chapter this weekend, elaborating on what exactly happened "off-screen" during the duel, and then start working on the proper chapter next week, but I'm just too ou...

The Simulacrum - Chapter 80 - Part 3

Limousines are great. They are comfy, stylish, and spacey enough where three people could comfortably sit face to face even while two of them were wearing medieval armor, and there's even legroom to spare. I already changed out of my gear at home while Angie treated my injury and I didn't bother putting it back on, so at the moment I was wearing a business casual ensemble, complete with a scarf and one of my thicker coats Judy insisted I should wear.

Speaking of a change in attire, Penn...