Shellshocked by her words , all 5 of them stared at the young woman with pale faces. Levi felt all hope drain out from his being.
'I knew it..'
Ever since he came here , in the back of his mind , he knew that he had learned every 'discovered' region by heart. And a region , as rare and as beautiful as the forgotten shore would have definitely been mentioned in their lessons.
Unless.. it was not a place humans like them were supposed to survive in..
Somewhere beside him, Cassie suddenly said in a tiny voice:
"What do you mean, there is no Gateway?"
Effie shrugged.
"It's very simple, really. I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but deep down inside you must have known already. Didn't you? The Forgotten Shore ... it's not really a place where humans are supposed to survive. That's why you have never heard of anything like it in the school or the Academy."
Levi's face remained expressionless , however on the inside , his hateful heart was burning with rage.
The world was a predator that always waited for an opportunity to devour you.
Why would he even expect anything else?
Meanwhile, Effie continued in a gentle tone:
"Fifteen years ago or so, a group of powerful and desperate Sleepers managed to reach this city and claim the castle for themselves. Not because it had a Gateway, but because it was the only place that could keep them safe. At least for a while. Ever since then, a few lucky or resourceful people would find their way to the castle each solstice, only to get stuck here with the rest of us."
Nephis was sitting quietly, with only her clenched fists betraying the storm of emotions raging in her heart. Shashi seemed to have fully woken up from her daze. There was a deep frown on her face , she was not taking it well..
Sunny , he looked especially angry. The two of them had made it here , thinking they would be finally free from the outskirts.. and now they were trapped inside a Death Zone..
Cassie was taking the news harder than any of them, though. After all, it was her vision that led them into this trap.
Her face was deathly pale, with an expression of pain and shock contorting its delicate lines. Closing her eyes, she whispered:
"But that's ... that is not fair!"
Effie looked at her with pity. Then, she chuckled, smiled darkly and said:
"When was anything ever fair?"
... She was right, of course. Justice didn't really exist outside of the ethereal realm of human imagination.
Effie's smile suddenly lost its grim undertone and turned into a happy grin once again. Leaning forward a little, she said:
"But it's not all bad! At least you have met me. You guys are incredibly lucky, really. If you hadn't run into a local, you would have been dead already."
Shashi stared at her and asked in a flat tone:
"Oh yeah? Why would that be?"
Her tone was a bit too cold..
Effie sighed.
"The Dark City is simultaneously the safest place to be on the Forgotten Shore, and also the deadliest. It is safe because no sea monster can cross the wall, let alone reach the castle. But at the same time, it is far more dangerous than the Labyrinth because almost every Nightmare Creature here is of the Fallen rank."
Levi's face paled. Right next to him , he felt Sunny shiver.
Fallen creatures were immeasurably more powerful than Awakened ones. Dormant humans like them had no business fighting against the latter, let alone the former. One awakened demon was already more than they could handle without resorting to summoning a true terror from the depths of the cursed sea.
Something much more powerful than the Carapace Demon would simply wipe them out from existence in a matter of seconds.
How would anyone survive even a day in this cursed city? They would have to be insane to even try!
Effie smiled.
"But you guys managed to stumble into me before descending from the wall. Otherwise, the Fallen Ones would have been feasting on your souls already. Lucky, very lucky! There are very few people in the castle who go out hunting in the ruins, let alone venture so far away from it. Meeting an experienced hunter like me was probably your only chance to avoid finding out about the true face of the Dark City a second too late."
She shook her head.
"That's, like ... one to one thousand? Ten thousand? A million? At any rate, the odds were really not in your favor. Fortune is definitely in love with at least one of you, guys. So ... cheer up! Do you want some meat? I had a truly amazing hunt today. It was so amazing that I don't even mind sharing."
Nephis didn't even look at the roasting meat and instead leaned forward, her words filled with intensity:
"If there is no Gateway here, why didn't you try to leave?"
Effie blinked a couple of times and looked at her with sincere confusion.
" ... Leave? And go where?"
The meat was about to become burnt, so she leaned to the fire and removed the skewers, then replaced them with a couple of new ones. Then, with a sigh, she turned to Changing Star and said:
"You've been to the Labyrinth, so you know what it's like. There's nothing else but that damn coral and cursed sea for months of travel in every direction. You can't go on foot, you can't swim. You can't even fly, because there are swarms of dreadful flying abominations hiding in the clouds. But try to leave? Yeah, many have tried. They're all dead now. Actually, that's how the initial master of the castle had perished."
Sunny gritted his teeth.
"So, what? You guys just hide in the castle and wait for death?"
The beautiful young woman laughed.
"Of course not, doofus!"
'Doofus..?' Levi tilted his head at the nick young woman gave to Sunny.
Then she pierced Sunny with an unexpectedly grim look of her hazel eyes and said:
"Most of us can't even get into the castle. The king demands his tax, you know? So we just wait for death outside."
***
Sunny stared at her, trying to understand the meaning behind the strange words.
"What do you mean?"
Effie shrugged.
"The castle belongs to a man named Gunlaug. If you want to enter and live in the safety of the castle walls, protected and provided for by his hunters, you need to pay a tribute. One shard each week."
... Of course there was exploitation going on even in this pit of despair. What else did he expect? As long as there were people, someone was going to end up as prey.
Levi also decided to ask a question..
"What happens if you can't pay the tribute?"
The huntress glanced at him with confusion.
"What do you think? You are not allowed to step anywhere near the gates. There's a small settlement for us unfortunate wretches beneath the castle walls, where we make do with what little we have and tremble in the night, hoping that nothing comes out of the darkness to devour us. That's pretty much it."
Levi narrowed his eyes.
"do they expect people to slay fallen creatures?"
Effie gestured to the corpses of the monsters she had slain.
"By hunting one can find Awakened creatures here and there in the city. The trick is to find and kill them without stumbling into something far more deadly. Gunlaug's people form parties and go out to hunt, with experienced pathfinders leading the way. They bring back food, Memories, materials and shards. Nothing stops people from attempting the same."
She fell silent for a few moments, and then said in a darker tone:
"Of course, without good Memories, vast amounts of accumulated soul essence and intricate knowledge of the city, those people usually don't live long. Most of them either die or turn to other ways of earning shards. There's very few independent hunters with more than a couple of successful hunts to their names. Ones that are still alive, I mean."
Sunny glanced at the dead monsters, each of them large enough to give him pause.
"What about you? How many did you survive?"
Effie smiled.
"More than a couple."
With a chuckle, she raised her hand and began folding fingers, a thoughtful expression on her face:
"Let's see ... one, two ... uh, five ... "
Running out of fingers on one hand, she scratched her head and said with a bit of uncertainly:
"I'm not really sure, but it should be around a hundred or two. Yeah."
'Damn , I guess.'
The easygoing huntress was not as simple as she appeared.
Levi frowned.
"If this is true, then you should have had no problem paying the tribute to stay in the castle. This doesn't make sense. Why haven't you?"
Effie shrugged with ambivalence. The topic didn't seem to interest her.
"Let's just say that I don't like the ... ambiance there."
Levi wanted to learn more, but suddenly, Shashi spoke again, her voice strangely tense:
"You said that there were other ways of earning soul shards. What are they?"
The huntress turned to her and was silent for a while, a hint of some dark emotion in her eyes. However, it was quickly erased by her usual laidback smile:
"Well, there's a few ways. If you have a useful Utility Ability, you can become a craftsman or an artifex in the castle. There's not a lot of such Sleepers, so they are well-regarded and cared for. If not, uh ... there are other opportunities, too. Boys can become Gunlaug's soldiers, while girls ... can enter his harem. Pretty ones like the two of you especially. No one will force you, of course."
Nephis scowled , as well as Shashi. Nephis spoke up:
"So ... you can either become his soldier, his servant, his plaything, or die. But that is ... your own choice. No one is forcing anyone to do anything. Of course."
Effie grinned.
"Smart girl. You get it."
Changing Star looked down, her indifferent face turning hard and cold. Her fists were clenched so hard that they seemed bloodless.
"So why hasn't anyone ... killed him yet?"
The huntress laughed.
"Kill Gunlaug? Oh, many have tried. Great people, terrible people, and everyone in-between. You can see their skulls above the castle gate, actually."
She shook her head.
"I like your train of thought, princess, but you should forget it. Just consider him to be immortal. He practically is. Believe me when I say that no Sleeper can defeat Gunalug, ever. It's simply impossible."
Effie sighed.
"Plus, no matter how much I hate the bastard, he is the only thing that holds this place together. Despicable as he is, without him, we would have all been dead already."
Levi glanced at Nephis.. Well what he saw was not very bright , he could basically tell she wanted to kill that man.
It was the same expression he had seen on it before the battle with the carapace centurion first, and the Carapace Demon later. Without even needing Cassie's prothetic Ability, he could easily imagine what was going on in her head.
As though sensing the same thing, Effie grimaced.
"No, seriously. Trying to go against Gunlaugh will only get you killed ... if you're lucky. Don't even think about that. Thinking too much is not good for your health here in the Dark City, anyway."
Then, she smiled and gestured to the fire.
"Just have some of this delicious meat instead. Life is good when your stomach is full, right? Let me tell you, this is most likely your last chance to eat anything for free. Food is a real rarity in these parts. Can you believe it?"
To his side , Sunny sighed, then leaned forward and picked up a sizzling piece of meat:
"Of course I can believe it. I'm from the outskirts, you know. I didn't even know what real meat smells like before entering the Academy!"
Sunny gestured to the two of them.
With that, Sunny handed the piece of meat to Cassie, took another one, and began devouring it greedily.
Nephis lingered for a bit, but then followed his example.
Effie giggled.
"That's the spirit! See, doofus gets it."
Levi also.. hesitantly reached out to get a piece of meat with narrowed eyes.
"Make sure it doesn't bite your hand , pretty boy." Effie said with an amused tone.
Levi , however , did not look amused as he stared at her expressionlessly. He rolled his eyes , then got to eating his meat. Shashi soon followed their example.