Shadow Slave

The main hall of the mighty castle was grandiose and majestic in appearance. The gentle light of the morning sun was cascading through the tall windows and reflecting from the white marble walls, filling it with a bright radiance. The walls were decorated with intricate carvings that span dozens of meters, creating a regal tapestry.

At the far end of the hall, a set of stairs led to a dark alcove. The back wall of the alcove had numerous small holes cut through it, and with sunlight shining through them into the deep darkness, it seemed as though a fragment of the starlit night sky was somehow locked within the castle.

Beneath that light stood an empty white throne.

Sunny stared at the throne for a few moments, then lowered his gaze and glanced at the several hundred people that were looking at them.

Long wooden tables were placed along the length of the grand hall, with a motley crowd of Sleepers sitting on crude benches behind them, busy consuming their food. There was some sort of hierarchy in how they were grouped, but Sunny couldn't understand it yet.

Currently, most of them were staring in his direction.

Sunny gulped.

It took him a couple of seconds to realize that all these people were not, in fact, looking at him. They were all looking at Cassie, clearly startled by her loveliness.

'Crap.'

Just as he had thought, this smelled like trouble.

The blind girl, meanwhile, was oblivious to the commotion her appearance had caused. Sensing the sudden tension in his muscles, she asked:

"Sunny? Why did you stop?"

He narrowed his eyes, gave the crowd of Sleepers his most menacing scowl, and answered in a flat tone:

"Just taking in the view."

Then, Sunny walked over to the young women rationing the food, received two plates of steaming monster meat stew, and guided Cassie to a relatively empty spot at the end of one of the tables. He even got two cups of something that closely resembled tea.

Sitting down, he put the crudely made utensils into Cassie's hand and stared at his plate.

He didn't like all this attention one bit.

"Look at that, Cas! They even got vegetables. I swear there's at least two pieces of a… uh… tomato in my stew. Or is it a carrot? What's that thing that looks like a red potato?"

Sunny had only seen vegetables in the Academy's cafeteria, so he was not well-versed in differentiating them. Teacher Julius had also only mentioned them in passing, since the chances of encountering a vegetable from the real world in the Dream Realm were not very high.

To be precise, he had briefly showed Sunny pictures of the most common Earth vegetables and said that if he ever was to find something that makes him think "huh, that thing looks familiar!"... he should turn around and run.

Cassie smelled her stew and said with a smile.

it's

Sunny blinked.

"...Never heard of it."

chatting, he was observing the Sleepers through his shadow,

pretty soon,

gritted his teeth when two rough-looking young men suddenly rose from their benches and headed across the hall toward them with unpleasant excitement burning in their

'Here we go.'

in trouble would be Cassie's beauty, of all

not even once, had it been his

shouldn't

they carried their weapons in actual sheaths, like a pair of idiots. Memories could be freely summoned out of thin air, so the only

had noted that detail after

If there is a "misunderstanding" with one of Gunlaug's people, remember that these

words,

were clearly

turned away with heavy looks, clearly afraid

want to say

Sunny opened his mouth...

'Respectful… remember… be respectful…'

...and said:

the fuck are you degenerates

***

suddenly enveloped in silence. Once again, Sunny

this time, everyone was actually staring at

'I… guess that's better?'

to not notice anything a few seconds earlier lowered their

men who were currently towering above him, a dark and dangerous light

by surprise. The anger had taken the better of him for

brotherly instincts were not only still alive,

want to see dark and dangerous? I'll show

that, at this point, there was no way back. Beside him,

the idiots

introduce ourselves to this lovely little doll, but hey, we can get acquainted

the other Sleeper, who was looking at Sunny with

Cassie frowned, then said:

"Why are you…"

the second young man