Consciousness returned to him, and little by little, he regained his senses. He felt a weight on top of him, then recognized the warmth it radiated. He also felt a strange sensation in his chest and noticed moisture.
With her breath tickling his skin, Sunny opened his eyes, waking up completely from his night's sleep. The first thing he saw was the ceiling. He hadn't seen one in months, which went hand in hand with sleeping in a room. Now it felt strange not to wake up expecting something to attack him. Of course, it could still happen, but sleeping in a bed, even a very rudimentary one, gave him a calmness he hadn't experienced on his journey here. In other words, he had let his guard down for the sake of comfort.
He looked down at the weight lying on top of him: he saw the familiar sight of Cassie, her blonde hair spread out. Still asleep, she was drooling on his chest. Sunny just smiled, appreciating the pleasant view.
The blanket that should have covered them was halfway down the bed, exposing their naked bodies. The memories of yesterday came rushing back to him, lighting up like a spotlight. He immediately felt ashamed, not because of the intimacy, but because he had cried like a little girl in the middle of the act.
He put a hand to his face, clenching his teeth.
"Shit, how am I going to be able to look her in the face now? Maybe she doesn't mind, but I do!"
He sighed mentally and accepted that he would have to learn to live with his shame.
"What else could I do?"
He felt movement on top of him. Changing the rhythm of her breathing, Cassie woke up and slowly opened her eyes.
"Good morning, Cassie," he said softly, removing his hand from his face to caress her. He combed his fingers through her messy hair, getting her attention.
She yawned, still groggy with sleep, rubbing against his skin, and greeted him:
"Good morning, Su-," she was about to say his name until an idea crossed her mind, making her smile.
"Good morning, sweetheart."
He could feel the boy beneath her tense up and his breathing quicken. For added pleasure, she laid her head on the left side of his chest, listening directly to his racing heartbeat.
'Damn you, Effie... did she teach her this? What did she say to her in private before she left?'
He blamed Effie for the new playful attitude. In his mind, there could be no other target. She did nothing but laugh at him and his reaction. When he calmed down, he got up and pressed his lips to hers. This is how their morning began.
Soon, they were forced to get up. The castle functioned and followed its own routine; it was time for breakfast. A shower was necessary before leaving the room, as sweat and other fluids clung to their bodies. The luxury of being able to wash themselves in peace again felt magical; at last, they looked and felt like human beings again.
Stepping out of the shower, Cassie was ready to go. The blind girl had discarded the enchanted cloak, leaving only a light tunic and leather sandals on her feet. She was simply stunning, as always in his eyes.
Admiring her dazzling beauty would have to wait. Sunny took her hand, and they left the room. They were both in high spirits.
Sunny guided Cassie to the main tower of the castle, following the route Harper had explained to them the night before. Finding the tower wasn't difficult, as many other Sleepers were going there for breakfast. Meals were served twice a day at the castle, once in the morning and once just before sunset. If you missed one and had no other way to get food, you would have to go hungry for the rest of the day.
Sunny watched the Sleepers with curiosity, sometimes describing them to Cassie in a low voice. The inhabitants of the castle were very different from the desperate dwellers of the outer settlement. In general, they seemed healthy, or at least well-fed. The amount of armor-like memories was also much higher here, although many still wore clothes made of mundane fabrics.
Almost all of them were young and beautiful, and only a couple of people he had seen appeared to be older than their late twenties. Despite that, few could compare to Cassie in terms of appearance.
Finally, they entered the main hall of the fortress, where long wooden tables accommodated the morning crowd of hungry Sleepers. Suddenly, hundreds of eyes turned to look at Cassie and Sunny. He felt a chill run down his spine. In that moment, most of them were looking in their direction.
Sunny swallowed hard. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that, in fact, all those people weren't looking at him. They were all looking at Cassie, clearly surprised by her beauty. Sunny didn't like this, not one bit.
'But I couldn't make a scene over a glance... or could I?'.
He could, even if he was annoyed by those looks, but making them all angry would be a death sentence. Swallowing his annoyance, he ignored them and moved on.
The blind girl, for her part, was unaware of the commotion her appearance had caused. Feeling the sudden tension in his muscles, she asked,
"Sunny? Why have you stopped?"
He narrowed his eyes, gave the crowd of Sleepers his most threatening look, and replied curtly,
"I was just enjoying the view."
Sunny then approached the young women rationing the food, received two steaming bowls of 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 looked a lot like tea.
Sunny sat down, his back to the center of the room. He handed Cassie a steaming plate and, with a deliberate movement, sat so close that their shoulders touched. The annoyance from the stares hadn't gone away; it was like a buzzing under his skin. He picked up the crudely made spoon.
He glanced with his shadow to make sure they were still watching them.
"Cassie, open your mouth," he dipped the spoon into the stew, blew on it to cool it, and held it out toward the girl's face.
"Huh? Yes, but why?"
"I'm going to feed you."
After Cassie's jokes, he of course planned his revenge; he had forgiven her, of course.
'How could I possibly be angry with her?'.
Cassie blushed slightly, but with a hint of excitement.
"Have you already forgotten that I can feed myself? It's okay, you don't have to do it."
"Just play along, I'm just trying to mark my territory."
"... I think with what we did yesterday, you already marked it."
Her teasing was interrupted by a spoonful of stew flying straight into her mouth.
'I didn't like all that attention, but if they want to keep watching, at least I'll show them that Cassie is not available.'
"Look at that, Cas! They even have vegetables. I swear there are at least two pieces of... tomato in my stew. Or is it carrot? What is that red potato-looking thing?"
Sunny had only seen vegetables in the Academy cafeteria, so he didn't know how to tell them apart very well. Teacher Julius had also only mentioned them in passing, as the chances of finding a real-world vegetable in the Dream Realm were not very high. To be precise, he had briefly shown Sunny pictures of the most common vegetables on Earth and told him that if he ever found something that made him think, "Hey, that looks familiar!", he should turn around and run away.
Sunny, taking a piece of the strange vegetable with his spoon, fed it to Cassie. She pretended to be annoyed by Sunny's abrupt joke, but deep down she was reveling in the attention. Tasting the portion, she said:
"I think it's a beetroot."
Sunny blinked.
"I've never heard of that."
As they chatted innocently, he watched the Sleepers through his shadow, waiting tensely for things to go wrong. And very soon, they did.
Sunny gritted his teeth as two rough-looking young men suddenly rose from their benches and headed toward them with nasty excitement burning in their eyes.
"Here we go."
Who would have thought that it would be Cassie's beauty that would get him into trouble? Usually, it was his sharp tongue or his nasty temper.
The worst part was that the two Sleepers approaching were clearly part of Gunlaug's gang. You could tell by their armor and the fact that they carried their weapons in holsters, like a couple of idiots. Memories could be freely evoked out of thin air, so the only reason to keep them visible at all times was to intimidate.
The young men approached their corner of the table with vulgar smiles. They were clearly undressing Cassie with their eyes. Sunny turned his head and looked at them. The Sleepers sitting nearby turned away with heavy looks, clearly frightened and uncomfortable.
'Maybe they just want to say hello.'
Sunny opened his mouth...
'Respectful... remember... be respectful...'... and said:
"What the hell are you looking at, degenerates?"
Suddenly, the entire room was enveloped in silence. Once again, Sunny had become the center of attention. But this time, everyone was looking at him instead of Cassie.
'Much better, yes... hey, am I acting too jealous? No, of course not!'
To be honest, his inflammatory reaction had taken Sunny by surprise. Anger had taken hold of him for a moment, forcing him to say those words. But the damage was already done. Sunny was upset and jealous.
'To hell with this. You want to see something dark and dangerous? I'll show you.'
He glared at the two idiots, knowing that at this point, there was no turning back. Beside him, Cassie turned her head, a look of alarm on her face.
One of the idiots smiled.
"Hey. We were just hoping to politely introduce ourselves to this beautiful little doll, but hey, we can meet the ugly clown first. How about that?"
He looked at the other Sleeper, who was watching Sunny without a hint of humor in his eyes.
Cassie frowned. She squeezed the hand she hadn't wanted to release all this time and said,
"Sunny, what's wrong? Why are you...?"
At that moment, however, the second young man stepped forward and growled, interrupting her:
"What the hell did you just say, clown? Do you know who we are? We're Gunlaug's men, you idiot."
His hand was resting on the hilt of his sword. Sunny knew that aggravating the situation was not the wisest thing to do, but at that moment he had no other choice. Backing down now would only lead to disaster. He knew this type of person well: as soon as they sensed weakness, it was all over. They only understood two things: fear and force.
Extending a hand, he frowned, looked the young men straight in the eye, and said:
"Congratulations. Now get out of here before I kill you."
Gunlaug's man bared his teeth in a menacing smile.
"Those are strong words coming from a weakling like you. You know what? I think your girl needs better company. Why don't we help her out by making you disappear?"
Sunny smiled.
"I guess I'm going to kill a couple of idiots today."
Cassie, for her part, was not at all happy with what was happening. The frown on her face deepened.
"I'll decide who I associate with. Now, please..."
However, they weren't listening to her. Sunny was already preparing for the worst-case scenario, ready to summon the Midnight Fragment at any moment.
But then, suddenly, a calm voice sounded behind him.
"Leave them alone, please. They're my friends."
Surprised, Sunny quickly shifted his perspective toward the shadow and looked back. Behind him, a tall, confident young man stood calmly with his hands on his hips. He had brown hair and a kind, attractive face. His eyes sparkled with friendly humor. It was Caster.
XXX
A little later, the couple returned to the room. Cassie looked worried. Caster had saved the day; it hurt Sunny to admit it, but without him, things would have escalated into something quite bad. Sunny thought that was the reason for Cassie's distress.
Guiding Cassie as usual, they ended up lying on the bed. Sunny reflected, 'Waking up, eating, defending Cassie from prying eyes, then going back to my room and lying down—isn't that all I needed? Of course not, but I was having a good time, at least for now.'
'Well... what should I do now?'
Sunny, of course, wasn't just going to laze around until the week of his stay was over. He soon assessed where to move with his shadow and who or what to look at.
He was about to begin his exploration, but something was bothering him. Cassie's frown didn't disappear even though the situation had calmed down and nothing more had happened. Sunny noticed that Cassie's hand, which was resting in his, was tense. Was she still worried about the altercation? It seemed excessive. So he apologized:
"Hey, Cas, the situation earlier may have escalated a little... But nothing else is going to happen! I promise, I'm sorry if I worried you."
She turned her head, showing that she was paying attention, but her reaction was puzzling. She just laughed, but at least that seemed to calm her down.
"Sure, I know, no need to apologize. In fact, I appreciate you protecting me, I always value that, even if you might go overboard sometimes!"
"Oh, then what's worrying you?"
The energy Cassie had regained vanished at his question. Cassie moved away from Sunny and sat on the edge of the bed. With a serious and calm expression, she spoke:
"Sunny, there's something I need to know."
Sunny immediately recognized that it was important. Unlike her jokes from yesterday, he could sense that this would be serious. Sitting down next to her, turning his posture so he could talk facing her, he asked:
"Tell me, what's going on?"
She seemed to hesitate before expressing what was bothering her. Sunny was firm, sure that nothing would be that serious right now, but when she spoke...
"Sunny, why are you hiding your True name?"