Surrounding the castle were the dark city inhabitants. Some were demanding an imminent siege to escape the dark city, while others were demanding Sunny's head for "manipulating" Lady Nephis. Sunny turned to Pauline before sighing. He wanted to get mad at her, but he really couldn't. This was inevitable—she had only sped it up—but still... come on, man!
Sighing, he walked past Pauline, whose face was now covered by the shadow of her head tilting down. Sadly for him, she stopped him once more, this time with a smile—another sad smile nonetheless.
"You truly are a fool..."
What those words meant, he didn't care. He simply smiled back.
"Well, being a fool is better than whatever else I could be."
With those words, he left the hallway and made his way toward the gathering crowd.
By the time he arrived, things were already being hurled in his direction. Sadly for them, Sunny was so... very... tired.
Ever since Nephis had returned, he'd had to put more on his plate than he had in the past couple of months—not workload-wise, but thinking-wise. Now, he just wanted his brain to rest. That's why, when the trash thrown was about to fall on him, shadows shot out and stopped it before it could hit him.
He was oh so very tired, so maybe that's why...
"Fine then, have it your way! We will all leave in three days to escape this dark city!"
The yelling stopped. Perhaps they had expected a fight or something, but that wouldn't come. Right now, Sunny decided it was time to end this once and for all—on the day of the winter solstice, and on the day of Sunny's birthday.
They would escape the dark city.
---
Those were the only words he spoke before heading back into the castle—that is, before a rogue shoe hit his head from the crowd. Glaring back, he saw a gathering of men drilling holes into his head with their eyes.
"How dare you manipulate Lady Nephis! You damned demon!"
"What did you do to her? Is it hypnotization?!"
"Don't tell me... you mind-broke he—!"
A pillar of shadows appeared under the men, shooting them into the air—just high enough that they wouldn't break anything, though.
He was so tired... he already had to prepare for the siege now; he wasn't going to deal with this. If it were a small group, that would be different, but he could see numerous glares aimed at him.
"Nephis? Pfft! You fools! You may have her heart, but I have her body... oh wait... I have both! Sucks for you!"
With an exaggerated, haughty laugh, he walked back into the castle walls, once again cementing himself as the dark tyrant of this city.
As soon as he stepped inside, waiting for him was the star of the show herself—with Cassie next to her.
"About the body part, we haven't settled that yet. We should probably do that soo—"
Another punch was sent into her gut, once again earning no reaction.
Cassie summoned Weaver's Mask and grabbed one of his ears.
"Oh my, they're red! Are you embarrassed? If it helps, Nephis asked me to joi—"
"Don't tell me you're in on it too!"
Sunny ran off into the castle, behind him were Nephis and Cassie, holding in their laughs.
Sadly for them, once again...
This would be one of the last moments they were happy together for a long while.
---
"We leave on the winter solstice?! Are you crazy?! We haven't prepared enough at all!"
Sunny looked at Kai. The archer's worries were valid, but Sunny ignored them in favor of asking another person there something.
"Aiko! You said you looked through Gunlaug's papers, right? Was there anything that gave us hints on what's going to happen?"
Aiko, formerly a merchant in the castle, was the one they had selected to sort through all the people of the dark city in order to have their needs met. Currently, she was ordered to look through Gunlaug's journals, which she did only under the promise of monetary reward once they arrived back in the waking world.
"Well, in all honesty? We're screwed!"
Aiko groaned and covered her entire face with her hands before peeking between her fingers.
"Waves of nightmare creatures, gatekeepers, and a final big bad boss! Why don't we just find another way out? We can't deal with all of that!"
Nephis looked confused. She raised an eyebrow at Aiko before turning to the rest of the group.
"It's not that hard, is it? All we have to do is kill the nightmare creatures, kill the gatekeepers, and kill the final big nightmare creature."
Well... when you put it like that...
"No, you can't put it like that! Due to the war, we lost most of the dark city's able-bodied inhabitants! With most of Gunlaug's men dead, there's no way we can deal with that!"
She was right. Sadly, because of the war, over 50% of those who could fight were gone or unable to fight anymore. They were leaving in three days...
"How about this, then. For the first of the three days, I'll figure out a way to deal with the nightmare creatures. For the second, Nephis will find a way to deal with the final boss. And for the last..."
Aiko was already gathering papers on the gatekeepers, assuming the rest would be in charge of that for the third day.
"We'll party."
What?