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 a

Sunny blinked.

"...Never heard of it."

observing the Sleepers through

pretty soon, they

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

'Here we go.'

thought that the thing that landed him in trouble would be Cassie's beauty, of all things? Usually, it was either his sharp tongue or his general

not even once, had it

I shouldn't be jealous,

from their armor and the fact that they carried their weapons in actual sheaths, like a pair of idiots. Memories could be freely summoned out of thin air, so the only reason to

that detail after meeting

Gunlaug's people, remember that

words, swallow

their corner of the table with vulgar smiles. They were clearly undressing Cassie with their eyes. Sunny turned his head and looked up

with

just want to

Sunny opened his mouth...

'Respectful… remember… be respectful…'

...and said:

the fuck are you degenerates

***

Once again, Sunny had found himself

actually

'I… guess that's better?'

who had pretended to not notice anything a few seconds earlier lowered their heads, as though trying to become smaller and

turned back to the pair of young men who were currently towering above

better of him for a moment, forcing the words out of

his brotherly instincts were

this. They want to

at the two idiots, knowing that, at this point, there was no way back. Beside him, Cassie turned

of the

doll, but hey, we can get acquainted with the ugly little clown

looking at Sunny with no humor in his eyes

Cassie frowned, then said:

"Why are you…"

second young man took a step forward and growled, interrupting