"So today's the meeting day, hah? We should head to castle. I need to settle my payment for the work I did." Sunny said, as he cooked some meat for two people.
"Yeah? Let's head out, we can still make it there before the meeting finishes considering how far we are." Raine said as he got his portion.
"But who cares? You know what they say, either be early, or be late, only NPCs come on time." Raine said.
Sunny started at him with a deadpan.
"I don't think that's how it works.. but either way, we are important enough to make them wait anyway. ...And those bastards deserve this after ditching us for this long." Sunny said enjoying the meal.
"Well, anyway, let's go, or they might have to explain things to us privately." Raine said he and Prisma moved out.
"WAIT FOR ME!" Sunny followed.
....
....
Inside the castle throne room, a meeting was going on.
All kinds of people were invited to know what was to come.
Seisan was sitting on the throne, where she had put a bloody head, just a few days ago.
The main seats were reserved for important people.
Gemma, Tessai, Kido, Stev were there.
Even Aiko was sitting on front seats with her goons beside her.
Nephis and her cohort was there too.
Nephis, Caster, Effie, Kai and other members.
Giving mean looks to the short women and her goons
Only two seats remained empty.
"How long are we gonna wait for them? Can't we just start without them?" Effie asked.
"....Fine... Let's discus-" Seisan started but paused as two people entered the room.
One like a dark night, and one like a bright day.
Followed by a Glowing greatsword that glowed like a bright night sky.
'Are they family?' Someone thought.
"Yo, folks, sorry for the wait, we live really far from the castle, so we got a little late, hope you don't mind." Sunny scanned the room and faces of gathered people.
He saw Aiko waving at him with a smile on her face.
Sunny wasn't sure how he felt about her.
On one hand, she had took all his memories and left him broke. ...But on the other hand, it was his fault anyway, and she even spared him from something even worst.
He gave an awkward smile to Aiko and looked away.
He saw Nephis and her cohort sitting on front seats.
"Oh, how kind of you to reserve us some seats, it's nice to feel being important once again." Sunny gave Nephis cohort a look as he moved toward the empty seats.
Raine followed, Prisma followed beside him.
People were eyeing Prisma with curiousity and caution.
"Are you the one who killed Gunlaug? Why do you have your weapon out? ...This is a meeting, not a battle." Tessie said as he addressed Raine.
"Oh, Actually I wasn't the one who killed him... It was Prisma..... " He gestured at his blade.
"You can think of her as a person, so she will also attend the meeting with us. ...And don't stare too much people... She likes to put a hole in people head, you see.." Raine said with a smile.
Everyone turned their heads away from the blade.
"Is she your wife? The one Sunless told us about? I'm sorry to hear about her-" Kai started.
"She is not my wife!" Raine didn't let him finish.
All heads turned to him again.
Sunny was staring at him.
Even Prisma turned to him as if daring him to say that again.
Raine looked at Prisma with a bit of panic.
"Ok, ok, we aren't married yet, but we will, ...soon, soon ok? We even went on a date the other day.... So don't worry, ok? I don't have anyone else in my heart, and you know it." He told Prisma.
Everyone was looking at him.
"Mhhmh... If everyone is here, we will start the meeting now..." Seisan brought the attention of everyone to the topic again.
"So as-"
"Hold on, your majesty.... I would like to say something before that." Sunny stood up and bowed towards the throne like he had seen in some movies.
No one knew this was him showing respect or he was making fun of them.
"You see, after we did all the work in defeating Gunlaug and Harus, I don't think we received enough payment for our work."
"So before we continue further, I'd like to receive that payment, you know, to maintain the faith in our work." Sunny said with a smile.
"You know what 'they' say, talent should never left unpaid." Sunny used that dialogue again, even using the mysterious 'they' to make a point.
"How dare you? And after you two stol-"
"Tessai! ..." Seisan stopped Tessai from speaking further.
"....You speak the truth, Sunless. Your achievements are nowhere near paid." Seisan said in a calm voice.
She had to maintain her image as a ruler so she could lead these people to their deaths. ..so she couldn't let people notice her weakness.
"But as you know, we are going towards a battle soon, so I don't think it will be wise idea to spent our remaining Soul shards on a single person, don't you think?" She played the people card.
"You don't need to worry about that, your majesty. I'm very generous person... when I feel like it... ...So all I want as my payment is a single memory. ...A storage memory." Sunny gestured towards Effie with his eyes.
"You!" Effie stood up. Wanting to curse this greedy bastard.
But she couldn't.
They were in meeting. An important one. Not like those that Nephis held daily.
And most importantly, This man has killed the fearsome executioner of Gunlaug as if it was nothing. He killed him without any resistance from the man himself. People didn't even knew what was happening back then. And all they saw was the headless body of Harus and This man standing there with his bloody sword.
That's why she didn't want to go against this man.
'But why is this basterd going after all my memories?'
What Effie didn't knew was that this man also held strong grudges, and being called Shorty in front of everyone, he was going to remember that even in his death.
"A storage device, hah? ...I don't think we have any, maybe you can ask for anything else?" Seisan said.
She knew that Effie got a storage memory. But she couldn't just force her to give it.
"Well, that's bad... Because I really need one to take my hard earned treasure out of forgotten shore. ...and since you people are planning to leave, I better hurry up to get one by defeating some creatures." Sunny said.
"...It might take months or even longer... but I will take my treasure back with me."
"So you guys can continue without me. ... let's go Raine." Sunny turned to Raine who also got up suppressing a laugh.
Nobody knew what to do.
Sunny had Midnight shard.
If he didn't join them, how were they going to break the seals of the spire?
Sunny knew that too.
That's why he used this.
Everyone looked at one another.
Effie became the target of those eyes.
They wanted her to do something.
Something that will keep the plan going.
A storage memory was a small sacrifice for greater cause.
"FINE!" Effie shouted, as Sunny and Raine stopped.
"You can have it, bastard.... After the meeting. I need to empty all the things inside first." Effie said as she glared at Sunny.
...
"Actually there's a problem with that." Sunny said with a smile.
"I simply don't trust you." Sunny said in front of everyone.
Effie was controlling herself to not blow up.
"You see, I'm very cautious when it comes to trusting someone, I had some bad experience in the past, you see. ...and we aren't close enough to leave this kind of thing for future." Sunny said to Effie.
"And if you want to establish trust then how about you trust me to return the things afterwords, kinda same thing if you ask me. Don't you think?" Sunny said.
Effie was grinding her teeth, while Sunny was enjoying the look on her face.
After murdering him thousand times in her mind, Effie finally moved forward.
"Here. You can have it." She extended her arm.
Sunny watched the hand suspiciously but he had the upper hand on this deal so he chose to go for it.
CRACK
Sunny felt some of the bones in his hand got fractured.
But he still maintained a smile on his face as if he didn't feel anything.
The pain was nothing, nothing compared to the satisfaction he felt from seeing the fury on her face.
Sunny received the memory.
"No need to return anything, bastard." Effie said.
Effie was about to head back when...
"Just so you know, I'll also take all the shards memories as per our previous deal. Hope you guys didn't forget that." Sunny said it loud enough for everyone to hear.
Effie froze in place.
She wanted to turn this bastard into meat paste....
...But she couldn't.
Sunny laughed as he and Raine returned to their seats.
Effie also returned to her seat, controlling herself not to break things around her.
...
...
Silence took place for a long time.
Seisan wanted to continue.
But she didn't wanted to be interrupted again. So she waited to confirm that nobody wanted to say anything else.
"Dreamers of forgotten shore..." She started her speech...
"You and I,.. we have lived in this dark world for years, only hoping to see the real world again..."
"Our previous ruler held us back from getting out of here..."
"He held us back from reaching out homes, our families, our loved ones in waking world..."
"And he paid the price for it..."
"Now no one is holding you back anymore..."
"And now we have brave and strong people to guide us towards success..."
"That's why I'm going to leave this place. ...we are going to leave this hellhole and return to our original homes, to our families, to our friends..."
"We will fight for freedom and we will succeed..."
She got up from the throne.
"I have lived long enough in fear, fear of nightmare creatures, fear of dark sea, fear of ..death..."
"I had enough. I had enough of hiding behind these walls in fear. I had enough of being afraid of death."
"So I'm going to challenge that death itself... who'll come with me?"
"AAAAAAAAAYYAY" A loud shout was heard from people.
(They were actually paid actors, but no one needs to know that.)
"WHO'LL COME WITH ME?"
"AAAAAAAYAYYAY" The voice came louder then before.
"WHO'LL COME WITH ME?"
"AAAAAAAAAYAY" The voice came louder then ever.
"We'll March towards Crimson spire tomorrow, so tonight will be our last night under this cursed Castle...."
"So eat tonight, so you will have strength for what is to come..."
"TONIGHT WILL BE A FEAST...." She announced loudly.
People once again erupted into Cheers.
Some worker didn't join the cheers, already imagining the work ahead of them.
"So-" Seisan wanted to continue when she saw someone moving towards her.
It was Raine.
She became quite, confused of his actions.
Everyone also quited down seeing this.
When he had everyone's attention, Raine cleared his throat and said....
"I actually have a better plan."