The group stopped in front of the gigantic city walls. There, Sunny stumbled over an ordinary stone, which was strange—there was nothing ordinary about this place.
'We meet again.'
He looked at the stone like a man reuniting with a pet after a long time.
Then, the stone suddenly stirred and sank its teeth into the Puppeteer's Shroud boots.
The others looked on in confusion, but Sunny was looking at it with something akin to… tenderness.
It didn't take long for him to summon his weapon and put an end to the weak monster.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Rolling Stone]
[Your shadow grows stronger]
[You have received a memory]
Jack approached him curiously.
"What was that, boss?"
Sunny flattened his expression and replied dryly.
"That rock was an awakened monster. It gave me a memory."
He quickened his pace before the boy could ask more.
They walked until they were directly beneath one of the secondary bases.
The boys stayed still while Kai flew up to announce their arrival.
Silence reigned for a few seconds, until he finally grew bored.
"Aren't we goi—?"
He cut himself off when he heard the sound of metal clashing and wood creaking.
When he looked up, he was surprised to see a platform several meters wide descending slowly.
'I suppose that's a solution too.'
The platform went down until it hit the ground, and Effie gestured for them to get on.
Sunny settled calmly on one edge of the platform while he looked out at the horizon. There were still several hours of daylight left, and although it wasn't the most beautiful landscape he had ever seen, it had its own charm.
Maybe now he could enjoy it much more, since he no longer had that constant pressure of death hanging over him like in his past life.
If he was honest with himself, so far this had been nothing more than a stroll—a very pleasant one for him. After all, all he had to do was kill nightmare creatures and spend his days with Nephis and Cassie.
For now, there were no sovereigns to face or gods to stop.
'How long had it been since life was this easy?'
Probably never… or, well, one moment did come to mind.
Back when he was an Awakened, when he fought in the Dreamscape arenas and explored the Chained Islands. Of course, that time wasn't perfect either—there had been his situation with Nephis and damn Mordret.
But compared to the rest of his life, that was perhaps the most pleasant moment of all.
The platform reached the top of the walls, bumping lightly against two metal supports.
There were two stone towers from which the mechanical arms that held the platform hung. Further back, he could already hear the noise of people.
A sound he had missed a little.
The group walked through what seemed like a camp of happy hunters, who drank what he identified as beer and chatted cheerfully.
From time to time, curious glances were directed at them. Several people greeted Effie, and others mocked the pair of idiots.
'Quite a bit different, really.'
At one point they ran into Kai, who took the two idiots with him to make a report.
Meanwhile, Effie, Nephis, Cassie, and he headed toward one of the towers, where a receptionist Sunny knew well was waiting for them.
Harper was sitting in front of a pile of papers, with a tired but satisfied look.
His body now looked well-fed, and his complexion revealed his good health.
Sunny's heart ached a little. Although he had long since processed Harper's murder, reliving those events still felt uncomfortable.
'Now he's here, and he seems fine.'
Effie sat down on the table and spoke.
"Hi, dummy. I brought these three. Their names are: Sunny, the handsome black-haired one; Nephis, the gray-haired princess; and Cassie, the pale-haired maiden."
Harper didn't seem fazed by Effie. He simply began writing several things on a paper, although his abnormally long shadow in one corner gave him away to Sunny.
'Oh, poor boy.'
After a few seconds, he raised his gaze to them.
"Alright, let me tell you a couple of things. First of all, if you want to stay and use our facilities, you'll have to share details about your appearance and attributes, so we can assign you to a suitable work camp."
Harper turned his attention to another set of papers.
"If you'd rather be on your own, you can still use our facilities in exchange for a soul fragment every two weeks."
Effie stood up and waved her hand.
"That's fine, it doesn't matter for now. The Lord said he wanted to meet them personally. Let them rest today."
Harper looked slightly surprised.
"The Lord? In that case, go ahead, I suppose. I'll assign three roo—"
Nephis stepped forward and spoke.
"Just give us two rooms."
Harper smiled and started to jot something down, but then he was interrupted by the hunter's shrill voice.
"Oh? And who would those rooms be for?"
A smile spread across her face.
Nephis looked at her calmly.
"For Sunny and for me, of course."
Behind them, Cassie squirmed uncomfortably and put on a face of absolute betrayal. She was being completely left out.
Effie grimaced and said awkwardly:
"Ah… sure."
After Harper gave them directions, they left the tower. Effie had split off from them to go make a report with Kai and the others.
Sunny looked at Nephis.
"Was that necessary?"
She smiled.
"Absolutely."
He laughed. He couldn't do anything about it—she had completely let loose.
"I'm going to look around a bit. I'll be back tonight."
Sunny headed down a fairly crowded path. Even at this time of day, there were still plenty of people working. For the most part, they were transporting materials or running various errands.
Everything was so lively—it reminded him much more of the inside of the castle than the outskirts.
He turned his gaze to the other settlements. On the walls, he could see lights and people.
What was strange was that the shining castle was the same. He could understand it in the other bases, since they were in high places with good defenses and could foresee an attack.
As his thoughts wandered, he had sent his shadows to gather information, which wasn't very useful. Most conversations were about the same things—how someone had taken down a powerful nightmare creature, or about men and women.
Just what one would expect from… real-world conversations.
It was surprising. Not only had they transformed the dark city into a safe place, they had also made it into a comforting one, a place where people could live.
Even so, they were going to escape. A good imitation of civilization was still an imitation.
The sun was already beginning to set and the sea was rising. He started walking back toward his quarters when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye: a somewhat short boy was holding a sheet of paper as he scribbled things with a pencil.
He approached slowly to take a better look. What had caught his attention was a drawing—or at least what looked like one to him—of a humanoid figure that resembled one of the nightmare creatures he had once faced: the giant metal robot from Ariel's game.
Once he was almost on top of the boy, he could see clearly what he was doing. He seemed to be sketching some sort of blueprint.
The drawing had several notes and other sketches of more precise parts. What caught his attention most was that the blueprint seemed to include what he recognized as a cockpit.
'A cockpit? Why would someone want to pilot a robot?'
But after thinking about it for a moment, he came to the conclusion that it might actually be pretty cool.
His moment was interrupted by two somewhat annoying voices.
"Boss!"
The boy who had been drawing, upon hearing the voices, immediately hid the notebook.
Jack and Mick peeked in.
"Huh? What are you looking at?"
Sunny shot them an annoyed look.
"Nothing important."
The boy, who at that moment was trying to slip away, was called out.
"Ah! You're Patrick."
Before he could do anything, he was grabbed by the shoulders by the goateed man and pulled toward them.
"Boss, this is the specialist from the Architects division. He was recognized by the Lord himself."
Sunny looked at the frail boy. He seemed to shrink more with each passing second. He clearly didn't like this very much.
At that moment, several people called out to the idiots—well, idiots.
They stood up angrily almost at the same time.
"Who the hell are you calling an idiot!?"
And just like that, they were in a fight, even though the guys who had provoked them looked pretty scared.
He turned to Patrick.
"What's wrong with them?"
The boy flinched.
'What a strange kid.'
"Uh… well, even though most people make fun of them, they're actually pretty strong."
Sunny was surprised. Effie herself had said they were strong, but hearing they had a reputation for it meant something—though it seemed their reputation as idiots was greater.
"I once heard that Jack beat Effie… although they say it was just a lucky hit!"
The boy looked afraid that someone might overhear him.
"Immediately after that, he got beaten up pretty badly."
Sunny looked at the boy in surprise. He had thought he was shy, but he was actually quite talkative.
He noticed that the sea was almost done rising, and at that moment, he realized something strange.
Even though the sea was almost at its peak, nobody seemed worried. They kept on with their activities as if nothing were happening.
"Why isn't anyone hiding?"
Patrick looked at him with a raised eyebrow, not understanding his words at first. Then it dawned on him.
"Oh! You must be new around here. Let me explain—one of the Lord's lieutenants knew runic magic and managed to set up a spell that hides the walls and the castle, so it allows us to work without too many inconveniences."
Sunny nodded and then looked over as the two idiots finished ganging up on some poor guy.
"Well, it's time for me to go. I didn't formally introduce myself—my name is Sunless, but you can call me Sunny."
The boy looked at him with a trembling smile.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Patrick."
They shook hands and walked away slowly.
- - -
Sunny entered his room. It was located inside one of the towers, and it was quite nice.
Nephis was already on the bed, lying in a somewhat sensual position.
"How was it… dear?"
Sunny stumbled over her words. He couldn't imagine Nephis using that kind of vocabulary. Even so, he pulled himself together quickly.
He cleared his throat.
"Good. I discovered a couple of interesting things, and I met someone peculiar."
He was about to tell her about it, but he noticed a slight frown on her forehead.
'She doesn't seem interested in the slightest.'
She stood up, placed her hands on his cheeks, and pulled him toward her, kissing him as they fell onto the bed.
She slowly moved her mouth to the side and whispered in his ear.
"I've been feeling a little lonely lately…"
Sunny prepared himself mentally. It didn't seem like he was going to sleep peacefully tonight.
- - -
Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie were led along a surprisingly clean path in the city, straight toward the castle.
He managed to see multiple Sleepers around, either patrolling or simply guarding the surroundings.
Effie walked carelessly, as if she were in a safe place.
He himself managed to relax a little—though it was still strange to be able to walk calmly through the city.
Nephis was as impassive as ever, and Cassie looked like a caged mouse, about to bolt at the first sign of danger.
Daring to walk through this place as if it were their home showed just how much of the Dark City they had conquered.
"Is the city completely clear of nightmare creatures?"
Effie yawned and replied flatly:
"No, there are still some Fallen and several tribes of Awakens. We had to leave them alive so they could keep each other in check, but we've been trying to eliminate them all for quite a while now."
Sunny nodded.
He hoped Seishan had done him the favor of not killing the stone statues.
'Speaking of old acquaintances…'
In the distance, he spotted the bell tower of the priestess's temple. His shadow sense wasn't able to detect anything inside it.
He smiled maliciously. He was going to get another chance to finish that damn knight off.
After walking for some time, they finally arrived at the outer area of the castle. The place had changed a lot compared to his past life.
Now there was a well-built wall, made of stone and steel plates, manned by ballistae and Sleepers.
Instead of a crowd of poorly built houses, there was now a large, clean plaza with several well-made structures, among them what he recognized as a kind of reception area and a café.
The place was full of people—mostly guards, but he also spotted a group of around fifty people eating in the café, and several Sleepers doing various jobs like cleaning and repairing the walls.
Above the gate, he saw what he assumed were craftsmen building an enormous device that resembled a ballista, although it had a few differences.
Effie greeted several acquaintances before continuing toward the castle.
Instead of heads at its entrance, the castle now had several torches. Its walls were covered in vines that ended in fruit-bearing bushes.
The great gate of the castle was wide open. On each side stood a guard. None of them had memories summoned—it seemed more like a formality than anything else.
When they saw that it was Effie who was passing through, they simply nodded in her direction and returned their bored gaze to the horizon.
'How useful.'
They entered the castle's old reception hall, which had now been turned into a decorative corridor.
A rhythmic tinkling began to reach their ears, which he recognized as the sound of hammers striking steel.
As they walked toward the throne room, more sounds blended in—the sound of wood being carved, a chisel being struck against stone, and several others he couldn't fully identify.
They passed through the doors and the great hall was revealed before them. Instead of a gigantic dining hall, they found themselves facing a gigantic workshop, where hundreds of people were working on many different things.
In one corner, he saw a couple of workbenches where four Sleepers were working in a rhythmic, robotic fashion to make arrows. Other stations were being used to make various objects such as tables, chairs, beds, clothing… but most of them were forges, where weapons, armor, arrowheads, and huge objects of unclear shape were being produced.
'Looks like they haven't been wasting time.'
Effie stopped and looked around, puffed out her chest, and gave them a proud look.
"Welcome to the largest workshop in the Dark City. From here come the stone blocks for the walls, the arrows for the archers, and many other useful things in general."
Nephis didn't seem very interested, and Cassie looked overwhelmed by the amount of noise.
But Sunny was different. He found himself frowning and shooting sharp looks at several places.
'Idiot, you're putting too much force into your arms.'
A man carving a piece of wood suddenly felt uncomfortable.
'Your hammering is uneven!'
Someone forging a sword suddenly lost his rhythm.
As an expert craftsman, seeing all this was both gratifying and frustrating.
"Hey idiot, are you going to stay here?"
Effie and the girls were already heading toward one of the side corridors of the hall.
He gave one last severe look to a guy working on a piece of armor before joining them.
When he crossed the door, he found himself facing a spiral staircase. They climbed for a couple of minutes before entering another corridor. Finally, they ended up in front of a pair of large wooden doors.
Without knocking or waiting for permission, Effie simply pushed the door open.
"Hey, Vaen! I'm back with the people!"
Sunny walked in without hesitation, although inside he felt somewhat nervous.
He was about to come face to face with an incredible man, someone who—if he had gotten out of this hell—would without a doubt have been a formidable and incredibly important Awakened.
His eyes adjusted to the light of the candelabras. In front of him was a wooden desk that reminded him of the one his master, Julius, had owned.
The room had nothing out of the ordinary. There were empty shelves and a few minor decorations, like a vase with a red flower.
To the right of the desk stood a tall, mature woman, with pale skin and strangely red lips.
To the left stood an equally tall and imposing man, wearing golden armor that covered him from head to toe.
In the center, sitting absently, was an adult man with long, messy brown hair, a several-day-old unkempt beard, and a pair of fantastical light-blue eyes.
Sunny came to a sudden stop and stared at the man in front of him, who shattered all of his illusions.
Instead of a noble and imposing lord, he found a man with dark circles under his eyes, unkept, and absurdly tired or bored.
The man raised his head toward Effie. He didn't even bother scolding her, nor did he look at the others behind her.
"You're back. Good job."
He cast a quick look at the trio, inspected them briefly, and then turned to the right.
Without any delicacy, he turned to Gunlaug and waved his hand.
"Go with Effie to the southern station. They need both of you there. Oh, and take that girl to a room first."
Both Effie and Gunlaug nodded and complied. Despite Cassie's complaints, she was taken as well.
The doors closed behind them.
'Not what I expected at all…'
He glanced at Seishan. She simply shrugged.
She stepped forward and stopped between them, bowing slightly to him and Nephis.
"Lord Sunny, Lady Nephis, it is a pleasure to see you again. Allow me to introduce the Lord of the Castle — Vaen."
The man shot them both a bored look.
"Well then? Am I supposed to believe these two were gods, or what?"
He frowned at his words, and before Sunny could object, he spoke again.
"It doesn't matter. I don't care if they were gods, demons, or just a couple of nobodies."
He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, looking distressed.
"Just tell me what the hell I have to do to get out of this place."
'I suppose spending so much time here took its toll on him.'
Sunny didn't know if his attitude was the result of some flaw or simply his situation—probably both, he thought.
Without realizing it, he had lost his excitement about this man. He had come here expecting to find a strong lord, someone capable of facing everything head-on—someone incredibly powerful and brave.
Instead, there was a man who had failed without being able to do anything, knowing that any attempt to win would have been useless, able only to wait patiently for a way out, just like…
'Us.'
He clenched his fists. He understood that feeling very well—the pain of helplessness, the sadness of weakness, and the rage of being unable to change one's situation.
It was like a cruel reflection of what they themselves had once been.
Vaen looked at them, noticing their distressed expressions, and then he laughed.
A calm, yet noble laugh echoed through the chamber.
Vaen chuckled weakly in his chair.
"Oh, what a cruel joke. By the gods! Seishan was right!"
The woman flinched and slowly retreated into a corner.
"You too—you know despair. You know pain."
His laughter slowly died down, turning into a plain smile.
"But it doesn't matter. None of that matters, does it?"
Sunny looked at the old idol, confused.
At his side, Nephis took a step forward, then another, until she reached the table.
With contained fury, she slammed her hands down, shattering it and sending splinters flying everywhere.
She lifted her head and looked at Vaen with determination.
Flames danced in her eyes. Her body shone so brightly that every other light source seemed completely overshadowed.
"That will never happen again."
The old lord looked at her with grace and gestured downward with one hand.
"Of course. Because you will take care of it personally."
His hand dropped heavily onto his leg.
"I will get out of here."
His calloused hands clasped together, and he bit his lip.
"Right?"