Shadow Slave

There was a crack in the windshield where the thug’s body hit it, but other than that, the PTV seemed fine. It started, at least, and sped away into the rain without problem.

Leaving the three corpses behind.

Sunny was driving, Saint was sitting stiffly in the passenger seat, while Morgan stretched on the backseat.

She looked around and grimaced.

”This… is your PTV?”

Sunny looked at her through the rearview mirror.

”Sure. It trembles and roars like a dying abomination, but gets the job done. Actually…”

He smiled smugly.

”It uses flammable fuel and propels itself with a series of tiny explosions. Wild! Did you know?”

Morgan gave him a long look.

”Are you... describing how an internal combustion engine works? Of course, I know. It is one of the most important milestones in the history of technological development. Who wouldn’t know that?”

Sunny’s smile dimmed.

”You are no fun. Not everyone has time to study the history of technological development, damn it.”

At that moment, Saint, who had remained silent that whole time, finally spoke:

”Excuse me… but is it okay to just leave three dead bodies behind?”

Sunny gave her a brief glance.

”Seven.”

Saint arched her exquisite eyebrow, a silent question in her eyes.

He shrugged.

”Didn’t you hear Morgan saying that someone sent four people to deal with her? So, there are seven corpses, not three. She wouldn’t have let them live.”

Sprawled comfortably on the backseat, Morgan nodded nonchalantly.

Sunny gave Saint a reassuring smile.

”Don’t worry, though. The rain will wash away all the traces. It might even wash away the bodies. Those in the hospital will stay where they are, of course, but that is not a problem either. Valor Group will never allow the news that their heiress massacred four people and escaped a mental asylum to spread — they won’t let the news that Morgan even was in a mental asylum spread. So, the investigation will be handled.”

He did not add that the mental asylum in question was a shady place in and of itself. Considering how affluent the families of its patients were, what happened within its walls stayed within its walls, most likely.

He was sure that many horror stories no one ever learned about had taken place in the private wing of Saint’s workplace.

Well… maybe not.

Other Mordret’s fantasy was that of a nice and friendly place where his family loved him and prospered, after all. Why would he have imagined a dirty, rotten city where dark and ugly things happened in the shadows? Then again, Sunny did not know a lot about the other Mordret. If the original Prince of Nothing had been split in two, it would have happened when he was twelve. Before that, he had been given away by his father and raised by Asterion in the Dream Realm. Who knew what his childhood had looked like, and what his idea of a nice place was? ṟΆℕՕꞖƐṢ

But if Mordret’s good twin had not imagined Mirage City as a dark city full of injustice and corruption… the question was, who had made this place into a twisted garden of sin? Whose thoughts had the Castellan faithfully woven into the fabric of the Palace of Imagination to change it into a den of horrors?

It could have been the real Mordret. That guy’s head was full of nothing but vile and ghastly things, gods knew…

What was it that he had told Sunny once?

A mirror could only reflect what was in front of it. Was it his fault that the things in front of him were cruel, vile, and deceitful?

But it could have been someone other than Mordret, as well.

It could have been Morgan… or Effie. It could have even been Sunny himself.

All three of them had come from a world where nightmares were real. All three had spent most of their adult lives spilling blood and crawling through the bloody mud of numerous battlefields. They had killed numerous living beings — monsters and humans alike — and experienced far too many terrible things not to be changed by these experiences.

Maybe Mirage City had become the dark, dirty, deadly place it was today because none of them could imagine a world that was anything but.

Sunny groaned slightly.

It was not because of this brief moment of self-reflection… rather, it was because the wound he had hurriedly patched up before rushing to find Saint opened sometime during the recent fight, and was seeping with blood.

Saint lowered her gaze and noticed the blood stain slowly spreading across the black fabric of his shirt. She frowned, a hint of unhappiness twisting the beautiful lines of her bewitching face.

”You are bleeding… why are you bleeding?”

Sunny forced out a smile.

”Oh, it’s nothing. I was stabbed.”

Her eyes widened slightly.

”What? But… but I did not see you being hit during the confrontation with those people.”

Sunny waved a hand dismissively.

”No, not by one of those amateurs. And it wasn’t the professional, deadly, highly skilled assassin sent to kill me — I threw that guy out of a window.”

He turned his head to glance at Morgan and grinned.

”I was stabbed by her brother. After I dealt with the assassin and before I dealt with the amateurs.”

Morgan grinned.

”Busy day for you, huh?”

Sunny shrugged nonchalantly.

Saint, meanwhile, seemed to be struggling with maintaining her aloof exterior.

Her eyelashes, at least, quaked a little.

”You were stabbed… by the CEO of the Valor Group?”

Sunny chuckled.

”No, not him. His evil twin from the real world.”

Morgan’s relaxed gaze grew sharper all of a sudden.

”Oh… you’ve met him, then?”

Sunny nodded.

”I did. And he stabbed me. Ah, but don’t misunderstand — I wasn’t the only one bleeding when we parted.”

Saint looked at him, then to Morgan.

Then, she looked back at him and bit her lip, as if unsure whether to say something.

In the end, however, her indignation seemed to have defeated her taciturn personality.

”Excuse me… is that important right now? Miss Morgan, why are you playing along with his bizarre statements? Did you not hear what Detective Sunless said? An evil twin from the real world! Why is your reaction so lackluster?”

Morgan gave her a strange look and blinked a couple of times.

After a few moments of silence, she shrugged.

”Because everything he said is true? The man playing the CEO role in this illusory realm, my brother, has a murderous twin from the real world. Who, I guess, is also my brother.”

She shifted her gaze to Sunny and asked in a confused tone:

”Does she not remember anything?”

Then, Morgan frowned and looked at Saint.

”And since when is the Lord of Shadows, the dark Sovereign of humanity, the commander of an undying legion of dead souls… a detective?”

Saint inhaled slowly, closed her eyes for a moment, and then turned to the window.

Sunny could just barely hear her mumble under her nose:

”Shared delusional disorder… it must be. Fascinating…”