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Chapter Text

Once, Beru noticed an ant. Earth ant. Small and pitiful. He was watching over the young princess as she was in the park with one of her friends when he noticed something trying to cling onto the royalty. His immediate thought was to crush it for such a heavy sin. And he did. Unbeknownst to the princess he just slightly materilazed hid claw to crush the bug. But then he looked a bit closer to the crushed body and… the bug looked a lot like the first gen of ants of his colony. It wasn’t hard for him to understand it was an ant. Eating so many humans gave him a big chunk of knowledge. But you don’t need to eat a whole family of humans to understand to which species the bug belongs to.

He knew vaguely that a ants on earth  do not possess a thread and are rather similar to the ants from world of chaos.  But if so, do they not actually posses a thread? What if they decide to evolve like his colony did? No! He cannot allow a thread to possibly bloom! He needs to look into it more!

‘Beru, stop it.’

He heard the voice of his liege echoing in his mind. His liege did not sound irritated which was usual when it came to dealing with Beru. He sounded more…

Beru’s antennas twitched from the uncertain reaction from his liege.

‘Don’t do a whole genocide of ants. They are good for the nature. They turn aerate to soil alowing oxygen and water to reach plant’s roots. Or something like that anyway...’

‘ Ah! This lowly one cannot comprehend the wisdom your majesty has! I can only but pray and hope for your enlightment!’ Beru felt as his liege’s presence slowly departed after he let out a slight chuckle. It looked like the king was in a good mood. Ah! He couldn’t be more happy. His liege’s happiness is more valuable than anything else in the world!

But the king only ordered him to not even have the idea of annihilating the earth ants. That does not mean he cannot learn more about them, is it?

He came back to reality when he felt as his princess stepped on him through her shadow looking irriatted that the shadow was unnaturally moving.

He needs to make a note to find out more about the earth ants and the highs they can reach.

…

Ants on earth had so many species. Almost 16 thousand were found and registered. There were some undescribed ones which he needs to look more into it himself.  He even received a special perk of being allowed to have a free assessment to the internet. A human search system that can do a lot of things. For example he made a quick pause from his research on ants to read all the praise his liege’s  received from strangers. Hmmmm, looks like that is one of the things he is going to need to bring at the monthly meeting within the shadow army authority.

But now the other question arose. If the ants on earth had so many species. Wouldn’t that mean that the ants from the world of chaos would have also different species? Such a simple idea never came to his mind before! And when he went deeper into human research about different species of magic ants he did not found nothing! Only the informatio about their evolution ability…. He needs to chane that immidiatly! What if the shadow army encounters an army of ants and they have some kind of pesky skill? What if that is going to somehow bring pain to their liege? Despite his brilliance he still can get hurt.

And that is something Beru is going to allow over his soul.

“Marshal Beru?” ant king turned his head to see the knight slowly stepping in the dark room of their liege’s new apartment. Igris looked curious about what the ant was doing on the computer sligly tilting his head which made the red hair like ornament fall onto igris’s shoulder.

“Keeecheee….. Yes?” Beru turned his head to look at the other Marchal who looked as if he was uncomftabe looking at how comical the situation was.

A big ants crooked his back to look at the screen slowly typing on the keybord with big claws. What is strange about that?

“I… merely wanted to ask if you wished for something.” Ant king only twitched his wings not understanding before knight continued “Is there something i can gift you?” Beru though for a bit. Him being able to serve his liege was already the greatest gift he could have ever received. And where did that question even came from?

“There is nothing in particular which i require. But i thank you for the concern” Igris sighed and waved his hand before disappearing into the shadows.

Beru was only able to stare at the blank space before returning his attention to the screen and information written on it.

‘So earth ants can enslave ants from a different colony…. ’ He read to himself as he went deeeper into the internet.

…

Beru squeezed his eyes to look at how strangely Iron was behaving. No actually everybody were strangely behaving. Despite having a mental connection with their liege they themselves were not connected which made it harder to read the shadows who were not the ants from his colony. Everybody were trying their best to hide something from Ant marshal. Every time when he came into the room they were becoming suspiciously silent.

Even the grand Marshal said nothing to Beru’s question about it.

And it wasn’t just the shadows who were behaving unusual. His majesty was also more merciful than usual towards Beru. He even got petted for the good work and received his asses to historical dramas!

He already knew that his liege’s mercy was boundless but that was something new. He could feel that his liege was genuine when giving his praise to Beru so he decided to no longer question.

But then Shadow soldiers other than ants were completely avoiding him. And For a whole  week he did ot received a single order of participated in any battles but still got a praise for the simplest things he had done from his liege.

And then it hit him. Was he… was he getting unsummoned? It was like an execution for a prisoner. He was getting his one last meal of his choice before…..

Wait, all that praise, all that free time he had was it his… last meal?

Ah! What mistake what sin has he committed to receive such a heavy punishment?

And with such a dark conclusion he waited and tried to figure out how he let his liege down.

‘…’ unbeknown to him Jinwoo sighed with a heavy heart. Beru is not only overdramatic but also overthinker. But instead of doing something about it he just continued to wrap up the box making a little holes in it.

…

And then day of his unsummoning came. He was called to the throne room. He appeared already standing on one knee not daring to look up to his liege who sat on the black throne. It was even darker than usual, no light being lit up. Beru felt as almost whole shadow army was hire hiding in the shadows.

For Beru is seemed like a whole eternity passed before his liege got up from his throne slowly comming closer to the ant king. The last closed his eyes out of fear. His wings twiching and his antenas almost touching the floor. His smaller arms clutched together so hard he could feel it to his core.

And with no words his liege’s hand got down to Beru. He trembled before feeling as something touched his head as the room got lit up by a bright light. He heard numerous explosions and a confeti flying around him as he looked up to his liege who gave him a warm smile.

His liege put on a birthday hat on him. A birthday balloons a happy clapping from a materilazed shadows and a big poster which was hid in the darkness showed itself and gave Beru a so needed context.

HAPPY 1 BIRTHDAY BERU!

It was a birthday party. He looked around himself slowly getting up from his knees as his liege returned to sit on a throne.

“Happy birthday marshal!” Tusk clapped in his hands while showing him a bright smile with teeths showing .

“Happy birthday” Igris was way less eager than most of the shadows but he did gave Beru a slight apllaude.

Grand Marshal as always with his poker face went and stood beside king’s throne not saying anything.

Then all of a sudden Iron came to Beru and forced into his hands a present before giving ant king a thums up and running again onto the bacround. All other shadows started also comming to him giving him variously wrapped presents. Beru stood there stunned the whole time before bursting into tears.

And there was it. He had now a whole mountain of presents before the whole room became sillent once more when Jinwoo came with his own present. Not big, in Beru’s hands barely big  but still the most precioud gift today.

“I wish you a Happy birthday, Beru” He said with a gentle smile while Beru dropped on his knees cryung.

“My liege! This lowly one doesn’t deserve the precious heavenly gift gifted by your majesty the king! This lowly one is in awe of your kindness!” Jinwoo only chuckled when beru brought his hand above himself as if he was truly accepting the gift from heavens.

“And don’t leave it unopened.”  He then added already knowing what ant king was thinking about.

And that (with a cake that later one exploded. The culprit behind is unknown and shadow monarch didn’t bother with trying)

…

Beru carefully unwrapped the most precious present and the gift from his liege. The bright yellow colour with a childish little images of an animals was put aside when Beru finally saw the present. A box. A box with a leter above it. Two actually. He picked the one that looked like a book and rode it despite it being written in chinese.

“ANT FARM, A GUIDE ON HOW TO CARE FOR THEM”

Beru’s eyes bursted with him now crying for the third time in a single day. His liege’s kindness knows no bounds! All hail to the shadow monarch!

He looked inside it only to see earth ants walking in the tank doing something. If his liege put his thrust into him that would mean he needs to take the outmost care of them as they were the chosen ones from their liege.

Where should he put them? He read about earth ants but never about how to take care of them. he should probably read the guide book first and then do his own research… later on he should also probably ask the ant queen on how to take care of the colony. Would he need to show dominance? And how to even talk with them? How to make them be loyal and show respect to the supreme lord?

And now looking at it he still hasn’t unwrapped the carefully old fashioned letter. He with a tip of his claw cut the papper to see what was inside it.

It was a letter from his liege.

Chapter Text

Igris looked around to see if there was any danger nearby the library as his liege went in. People around them were gasping for air as they took out their phones to take a photo only to then discover that their camera was completely black. Not too long ago the young Princess brought up a matter of ‘privacy’ of their liege. Something he himself failed to think about. So, as they no more had the desperate need for any more shadow soldiers for combat he choose a few soldiers responsible for their liege’s «privacy». To be exact what they do, they are the ones who block the picture capturing device from harming their king’s privacy abd to prevent any harm that may or may not be done to the royal family.

“Like i have any privacy from any of you…” Igris questionably looked up at his liege not understanding what he meant. But Jinwoo did not elaborated at what he meant just walking the library trying to find something looking up at the names of every section above the numerous bookshelfs when something caught his eye and he quickly went there avoiding every person who tried to stop him.

«DETECTIVE» was written on the banner above the really big section of the library. His liege went to the bookshelf where on the side was written «detective murder» this time with smaller letters. He gave a quick look over all the books that were on the shelf before picking one and reading its summary on the back. The same thing happened numerous times afterwards, his liege picked some books, some books were put away after reading the summery. There were some which their liege liked and they were held by the shadow knight standing near him.

“Why don’t you go choose some books for yourself M?” Jinwoo asks making a pause looking down at his shadow at his most loyal knight.

“It would be unwise to leave you without an escort, my liege.”   He answers tilting his head bowing.

“That it is an order. Go find books for yourself to read” and the loyal knight could only but follow the order given by his liege.

Jumping from his liege’s shadow to other shadows and dark corners he soon walked the whole circle around the library coming to the entrance. He didn’t find any particular genre presented in here. Maybe then he should go look at the educational books? Most of the shadows picked up from marshal Beru trying to educate themselves  more. And he was the best student back at the knights academy so it was more natural for him to study than to mindlessly magic beasts who for the longest time knew only the way of destruciton.

He vividly remembered where the science section was and as he went there he suddenly stopped.

There was a kids section.  A fairytales for kids. Why did he stopped to look around there? He himself doesn’t quite know. Maybe memories of his child kicked in. Or rather the lack of them. He really didn’t spend enough time with her did he? Has he ever told her a night story? Has he ever actually had dinner? Played with her?

The wave of sadness overcame him as he unconsciously went into the kids section and picked up a book lying on the ground.

‘How a knight defeated an evil king’ he read to himself. A name rather unusual as far as he knows. Most f the time knights were supposed to defeat dragons, not kings. A cloth of something disgusting was forming in his stomach but he didn’t really gave it a second thought deciding that he would better ignore it.

‘Maybe it is normal and i just wouldn’t know’

He opened the book and begain reading. There was no pictures that kids books usually. Have. And it was rather big too for a child. He opened the last page to see the number and it was 342. Really unusual for a kids book.

But it didn’t stopped him from reading it. It began with a child who was getting beaten up. Who later on was begging on the streets for food. And then they talked about parents of the poor nameless boy. His parents sold him off to slavery and somehow they escaped.

A dark turn for kids books. He continued reading. The kid promised to himself that he would become a knight. A knight who fights for justice. And so he got into the knight academy. There he saw no mercy from neither his teachers not his classmates due to him being a lowly birth. He finished academy as one of the best students there and joined the royal guards.

And then the war between two kingdoms arose and he needed to fight there. And through that he gained popularity due to his outstanding sword skills. He killed and killed on that war until.

‘Huh?’

For the first time he saw a picture in this book on page 104. Has he read so fast or has he been here for so long? He looked up at the window only to see a dark sky.

“My liege?” He felt the faint presence appearing at the back of his mind. His liege.

“I… may have found a book i wish to continue on reading. Could we…?” He felt as someone patted him on the back and the faint presence disappeared as if it was never there. Igris closed the book making a mental note about the page he stopped on. He looked at it and only now has he saw the cover. The same picture that was on page 104.

A knight in black armour covered in blood brought his big sword to the sky. His long red hair like ornament fluttered. The sword suspioucly looked like the demon king’s longsword. And the knight himself looked quite like Igris, except maybe for the lack of his liege’s purple mana that usually surrounded him.

They made a book about him. It clicked in his mind. Somebody wrote a book about him. Or rather took him as a main inspiration.

He looked at the name in the corner of the book written in small letters.

‘Mark Bernard’ he shall remember his name.

And with the book in his hands he went to his liege at a rapid speed. His liege already stood at the reception desk taking some books. He materilazed before His liege bowing his head an holding out a book. His liege took it and gave it to the rather pale woman who looked liked she was ready to pass out.

With one eye Igris noticed a fuss outside. Reporters journalists and just « fans» were gathered at the front door.

Igris shook his head in annoyance and hid in his liege’s shadow once more.

And then their short trip ended.

…

 Igris carefully stepped into the big but empty room with really tall windows. The shadow castle got some renovations the past few months after the war and the whole island basically became a fortress. Their territory. Sadly his liege did not wished to expend the borders of their territory or to even consider the possibility of creating a nation of their own… But it was not the matter at hand and neither the reaso he was here today.

“So… you want to build a library here?” The eldest daughter of the Radiru family asks as she stays behind Igris who went a bit deeper into the big room.

“As far as i know, the Radiru clan wishes to follow my liege, correct?” Igris looks back at the demoness who nodded with a blush.

“And for that, you and the whole Radiru clan has to adapt in human world.” She nodded again but slightly opened her mouth to speak before closing it deciding in would be better to be silent at the moment.

“The Radiru family may not have been the strongest nobles in the demon world but you hold quite the history. So, view this as a… your first task under the shadow army. Right now we lack any… major structures. So i thought creating a massive library would be quite the structure to be proud about.” It was half true. His original reasoning was he liked reading and then he thought about how good it would be for other shadows to acces information more freely.

And it looks like miss Esil bought it as she already was talking with demon knights beside her on how to make this room into a library.

‘Hm, i should probably ask the queen mother about which flowers would be best suited to reside here’ Igris placed his trust onto the Radiru clan believing that they would not disappoint him as he vanished into the shadows.

…

“Huh, well that is…” jinwoo looked over the notebook written in really clean and elegant handwriting. Igris stood beside his couch on one knee waiting for the verdict of his liege.

“Quite… the story. I enjoy it, really.” Finally he said with a glimpse of a smile on his face. Igris’ shoulders twitched but he did not showed any more reaction than that still keeping his head low.

“So, i guess if i ever will have a child, you will be the one reading bed timestories to them.” he laughed giving back the notebook to Igris.

“Or… you perhaps wanted to do something?” Igris looked away holding the notebook close to his chest.

“If it to no burden to you, my liege, i would wish to… publish the book. And give it to kids that… cannot afford one themselves. And if possible to visit them” Jinwoo smile warmed as he got up from the couch.

“I will see what i can do. But it will take some time to organise the publish. And I heard from Jinho that kids these days buy figures of the shadows….” His face twisted. “ Just don’t scare them. Okay?” A quick nod was all that Jinwoo needed before disappearing into the shadows leaving Igris alone with his thoughts.

…

A few other shadow soldiers under his management decided to join him at his visitation of the orphanage. A few knights and all three mages are with him now, waiting in front of an orphanage waiting. He could hear the screaming of kids, their laughter and even a tiny whispers.

Thet stood behind one of the  hunters association workers who nervously waited at the door for somebody to open it.

And finally he could hear a fast footsteps coming to the door. A click and a door opened. Before them stood an old woman who smiled at them. Igris expected an other reaction. More terified. More severe. But that was acceptable too.

“Oh hello, sorry for the waiting. Come in. Kids are excited to meet their «surprise». “ She says as she goes back into the hall and into the room. The member of hunter assosiation followd the women and Igris followed him hucnhed over to not hit the doorframe. He clutched the teddy bear in his hand tighter. Something told him that it was a mistake to come.

As he went into the room full of kids the woman from before wa beside him. As the kids saw him they all became silent. Some opened their mouth, some fell onto their back from surpsrise. Noone said anything. The shadow soldiers behind him looked up to see whar their commander will do. Igris felt the nasty feeling forming in his stomach as the memories of his dead child arose in his mind. She was only 8 years old when she was killed. She streched her hand to him but he didn’t grabed her. Didn’t protect.

He was saved from the gloomy thoughts by the kids screaming and them trying to climb onto him. With the amusement he helped the child to climb onto his shoulder.

“Those are really shadow soldiers!” “Wow! Summons of hunter sung! Cool” Amused screams could be hear throught the house as some shadow soldiers not being able to handle the kids taht attacked them fell onto the floor getting immideatly occupied by the kids.

Igris still astonished stood on one knee to let kids have easier access to him. Some kids were touching his red ornament on the head. Some wents straight to his face and some to the cloak behind him.

They were talking all at the same time and Igris failed to caught any decent information out of their talking.

“Why the hell it is so loud, OH GOD HAVE MERCY” an older kid came out of the other door as he looked at the shadowy figrues now in the room. Behind him some more. Some with piercing some painted hair. All teriffied and surprised.

“Grandma you haven’t told us that!” The older woman quickly came to older kids shushing them. She said something to them but Igris stopped paying attention when the youn girl came to him showing the plushie of himself.

She clutched it to herself. She looked up into his eyes with sparkles in them. And his daughetr had just the same sparkle in them as this girl does. He felt as he started to tremble. As he started crying. Thankfully his helmet didn’t show his tears. And maybe he felt the distant pat on the back from his liege.

And maybe he can’t make it up for his  forever young daughter.

But at least. By a tiny bit he can help   those kids.

…

Jinho looked at the article that Hyung nimm send him.

“HUNTER SUNG SPENDING TIME WITH KIDS FROM ORPHANAGES”

In reality his hyung was not the one spending it with them. His shadows were.  Then took a look at the book siting on his desk. From not too long ago he found out that his summons, are in fact, concious. Which was scary but not so scary at the same time.

He then picked up the book to look at it. “Stories for the night for kids” “written by: knight” or aka a headache for Jinho and chairman Woo Jinchul. He wonders what it took to even publish the book written by a literal monster. He thinks it is kid of revolutionary in a way. Like- magic beasts are something more than mindless creatures.

He looks at other documents on his desk. Most of them were about charity. Something his hyung also asked him to do. Charity from Jinwoo’s pocket. And Jinho half expects it to be because of the same summoned creature who wrote the book. Just the look of the knight in black armour looking outside watching kids while he and Jinwoo talked gave him some hints on the situation.

Who knew his hyung nimm had a soft spot for his shadows

…

“Woooooow” Jinah opened her mouth slowly walking into the «Library» which was build by demons. Esill stood at the entrence looking proud of herself in her human clothing. Jinah looked back at her before running at full speed at Jinwoo who was standing near the bookshelf looking through the books there.

“How DARE you make my friend work so hard?!” She creams kicking her brother who didn’t even flinched.

“Ah! It wasn’t a big problem really and-” Esil couldn’t continue because Jinah screamed louder than she spoke. And Jinwoo just took the beating not even giving his sister a glance.

Chapter Text

Sometimes the young king reminded Bellion of the previous shadow monarch forgotten by the world as a new era came. The young and old kings were so similar but  yet so differen. The way the young king behaved, gave out orders and even looked, all that reminded him of his old friend.  He had watched the countless battles. Countless battles he himself fought.

But no battle was as special as when he fought alongside his liege. No matter the previous or the current. Both are bring an amazing feeling to the battlefield.  In their own respective way. Nobility, straightforwardness, elegantness, all that, was from the old king. Previous shadow monarch was always on his toes standing proud in front of his army on his war horse as he shouted out commands. Every battle was with him. He never let things be handled by somebody else. Never even let Bellion help.

Oh, and the young king… completely dominates over battlefield. He does not shout, he whispers commands and every shadow hears them. Sometimes he does not even needs to say anything for his loyal servants to attack. Unlike the old king, he trusted his servants, let them handle things. Let them handle battles. On the contrary to the previous shadow monarch, the current believed in them way more.

And he is not sure why he trust them so much when the first king never did. There was a story behind it. An explanation why their king looks way more comfortable  around undead than living. Why does he not explain things to his family when they ask about the grand sheme f things.

He watched as his liege looked blankly into the eyes of his mother and she shredded. His mother was not scared of him. But at the same time he could see the primordial fear in her. She was scared of the shadow monarch, not her son, she was scared of the power behind him and despite than she still accepted him despite the fear.

But why does the young king does not trust his mother? She looked like a being that could handle the truth so why?

Maybe the answer was within the old monarch and his behaviour.

Bellion understood long ago that his liege, the previous grand Marshal of the sky army, the greatest fragment of the briliant light, the monarch of shadows and king of death, was in fact, just lonely. And he never could stop feeling lonely after his siblings betrayed him. And shadow army could never fill the hole in his heart. The hole of losing a whole family.

He remembers their last battle. Where he clutched to his sword running through the bodies to his liege who was surrounded by the Rulers, by the sky army. He needed to get to him, to protect him.

But his wings did not hold him anymore. His liege did not allowed himself to get any closer. Not when the Rulers bowed before him. Not when the angels asked for his forgiveness. Not when he decided to disappear and hide. Not when the last words his liege ever spoke to him were «Look after the shadow army ».

He wonders if there was anything he could have done to help his dear friend. He thought for millenials. Waiting for his liege who never came.

But instead the successor came. And he was the one that helped his dear friend. His new liege. The new shadow monarch and newly crowned king.

Sung Jinwoo.

…

“You got a lot better from the our latest sparing match.” Pressing ant’s head to the ground with his foot Bellion find it quite entertaining to mock ant. The ant was strong. Fighting on equal footing with Igris whom he himself trained. But despite that, the ant needed some good beating.

“Kekckekkek….” ant hissed trying to get out of the  metallic Lasso. Actually a sword which can shapeshift whenever the user wishes to do so. It was a gift from the biggest fragment of the brilliant light to Bellion. When he only received it it had a white blade with golden patterns on it. Now it was stained with shadows.

“I….- i will not…. Be defeated…..kekckk”  Bellion pressed harder on the ants head receiving the more agressive hiss. He could feel the rage within the ant. It was a rage of somebody who was jealous. Jealous of Bellion and his high position. A young one wishes to receive more amount of attention from their liege. And to do that he needs to overthrow Bellion as a grand marshal who stands by his king’s side at all times.  If their liege ever needs to get advice on things the first who he will go to will be Bellion. His spar partner is also either just Bellion or all high ranking shadows including bellion.

The ant needs humiliation. It is good to strike for more, but a good humiliation can teach more than a win. So, seeing the ant being so needy for their liege’s attention, he needs to show him what it truly means to stand beside their king. And to do that, he need to suffer.

The previous shadow monarch would give permission to Bellion to fight (torture) the shadow soldiers as much as he wanted. That was mostly the main reason why the old shadow soldiers under the previous shadow monarch were way more experienced in battle. Bellion never went easy on any shadow soldiers. Or any soldiers at that if he includes the demon noble who was rather really persistent on being a part of the shadow army despite… not being a shadow.

Well, he truly doesn’t know what the demon has in mind. His liege trustes her and Igris vowed that she will be behaving herself.

And also. When he thinks about it. When he suggested training the demon Igris jumped rather quickly to protest and insisted that he would rather became her teacher. But, as long as it Igris, Bellion believes he will not dissapoint in his training.

After all, Igris was the shadow that received the most beating out of all shadows from Bellion

…

When Bellion was young, newly born from the fruit of the world’s tree the first thing he saw was the greatest fragment of the brilliant light howering above him not letting any burning light came even close to hatchling. His wings didn’t even developed at the time to be even seen. He was pitiful and weak and during that time the only being he ever saw was the ruler whom he proceeded to serve until the day he died and even afterwards. Master of light, that was his title aside from the greatest fragment. At the time master of light was himself  really young but still was protecting somebody despite it.

That was the thing Bellion admired in him. Everything Bellion ever did was in his name. In his will to serve the master of light. Even when he received the second pair of wings the only thing he could think of was how he could assist his commander. A grand marshal of the sky army at the time.

His new king reminded him of his master. Something about the tale of the “weakest hunter of all time” sat deep in his mind and the same admiration he once had for the master of light who was protecting him when he was weak became the admiration for his young king who was almost the same. «Sung Jinwoo» was almost everyday in grave danger for the sake of his family. Dancing with the death and holding onto the string of life.

He wonders how both of them felt when they died.

Was master of light furious that he was betrayed by his siblings?

Was shadow monarch angry at the people sacrificing him in fear of death?

Or did they felt hurt? Hurt at the world that wounded them? That they still need to protect it despite all the pain caused by it?

It was a burden Bellion could not have imagined how heavy it was. But if he could lift some of the weight from his liege’s shoulders. He shall do it and just as the shadow army.

…

Bellion looked from the shadows at the numerous flags that stood in a row. Every flag belonged to one of the countries that attended the international hunters convention. They stood proudly and big. And that made Bellion think for a bit.

Could the island they are right now occupying could count as a kingdom?  Sure it was small and barely could be even considered like a village but still. It was their territory making it their kingdom. Shadow kingdom.

He knows very well that his liege is here as a  representative of south korea but… it did not belonged to him. The country that is. So it would be logial to assume they would also include Shadow kingdom. Bellion took a closer look at the flags before it hit him.

Their kingdom did not had a flag. A flag. Every country and kingdom attending today had  a flag, something that showed at the first glance who it was. But not their army. They did not ahd such a thing. Bellion’s forehead wrinkled as he immideatly went deeper into his liege’s shadow to go to the realm of eternal rest.

They can not afford to be emrassed. The flag should be created now and not a minute later. His heavy footsteps could be heard from through the whole castle. He barged into the armory and went straight to the messy table that had a lot of sketched and other things.

Bellion stopped and clapped in his hands. The two angels appeared behind him bowing their heads in respect.

“We have an importance mission.” He said and the two angels looked at each other before coming closer to the table and starting doing something

…

Bellion looked up at the massive flag hanging on the top of the castle. The trouble and punishment later on from his liege were worth it. Although he still does not understand the wrath of his liege, the flag made a slight smile on his liege’s face. So even when he stood on his head it all was worth.

He could see from afar how Igris shook his head in disappointment looking up at the flag. Then the knight proceeded to leave and went straight to the training hall - behind him was a demon who eagerly followed him.   

The high orc beside him - Tusk was saying something about the making the castle more grander and to make a high level barrier spell to protect it from invaders.

…

“You know, only after he went to rest i felt lonely.” His liege said standing on the balcony looking somewhere far away at the sea. “His presence was always there, at the back of my mind. Its weird now that it is almost non existent.” He took a sip of his coffee despite it being night.

“And how do you feel? That he is not around anymore?” The shadow monarch turned around to look at his strongest shadow. Bellion took his time before answering with confidence.

“Longing. But more than that i feel grateful to you, my liege” Jinwoo tilted his head not understanding the meaning.

“Why?” He asks taking one more sip.

“Because he finally in peace. Something he alwasy dreamed of. He rests. And i am gratefull that he is no longer hurting.” Jinwoo gave him a sad look before closing his eyes taking a deep breath.

“I though… the old shadow army was serving under Ash- i meant previous shadow monarch for some time. Would you like to… say proper goodbyes?” Bellion could only ask what he meant by that receiving no answer. In the end Bellion agreed.

…

|Master of light, greatest fragment of brilliant light, shadow monarch, king of the dead|

|Ashborn|

Bellion looked at the grave with two statues at it. One of master of light, the other one of shadow monarch. Bellion held the white flower in his hand not exactly knowing what to do.

He was the second closest standing to the grave. The closest one was his liege.

Bellion looked below to read the name again. Ashborn. That how he named himself. Bellion could feel hurt about not knowing his name until now. But could he actually? All of the old shadow army was here saying their last goodbyes and Bellion…. He felt the warmth spread across his stomach. A feeling he never felt before. He is almost sure it was the influnce of the new shadow monarch and his gift to the shadows. «emotions.»

…

Having a teaparty every friday or so was very entertaining, especially to Bellion. Their liege suggested that shadow army could do something that humans do. To intergrade them into human society. That was for shadows to understand humans on a better level. And the host of this was Igris. And apparently the buffalo named Iron. Both of them were once humans. And oh, apparently the marshal Beru  was forbiden from being a host. He wondes why. The ant, after all, ate a lot of humans and gained knowledge from them. But his liege’s wisdom is beyonf him so he left it at that.

 “So, what now?” Tusk asked sipping his tea.

“Gossip. We have to gossip” Igris answered beside the orc.

“About what?” Beste asks eating the frozen cake she made.

“Well…” Igris paused before answering. “About other peoples businesses…” at that statement Bellion raised an eyebrow.

“What for?” He asks not even touching the cup before him.

“For entertainment of course!” Blades answered instead. “It is the same as torture! Just behind their backs and with words” he says chuckling.

“Wait, actually?” Tusk’s eyes lit up as he saw an energetic nod from Blades and less eager nod from Igris who looked annoyed.

“So whom are we torturing? Or rather «gossip» about?” The ice witch asks taking another desert out of the table before frozing it solid and crunching it like some snack.

“How about a human that challenhed our liege and died a miserable death from the hands of monarch of destruction?” Beru suggests holding onto the box on his lap.

“Who?” Bellion asks finally taking a little sip from his tea.

“Jay Mills, from Canada.” Beru says before his antennas twitch in irritation “he has insulted our king. Sadly he died not from out hands but from the fire breath of a emeperor of dragons.”

“How saddening. I would have had fun demolishing this vermin…” Beste says biting her lip. The fox wrapped around her neck only squecked slightly in agreement.

“Truly” Blades adds.

Bellion could only sigh at the childness of the shadows.

“But about what can talk about him?” Now Igris  spoke up.

“He had a guild and placed 17 in the worldwide ranking of the hunters…” the ant says.

“And…?” A silence.

“What about we talk about the Thomas Andre? After all he has challenged our liege and still alive… and we can ask a shadow that monitors him what he is up to.” Finally Iron said something.

“He. Did. What?” Bellion dangerously slowly turned his head to look at Iron who shuddered with fear from the sudden hostility, even if it was not directly at him.

…

“Jinwoo? What is this?” Jinah asks coming a bit closer to the statue with a curious look trying to read the plate bellow it.

“A Grave” Jinwoo answered bluntly and Jinah almost jumped away from the statue.

“You mean graves?” She asks looking at the two statues. One with wings one without. Both with a sword in their hands.

“No, those two are the same person.” With a grint of salt Jinwoo looks away from a statue instead admiring the newly seeded flowers. Apparently work of Bigrock. He looked further to see a tall walls surrounding the garden with numerous flags put on them. The work of Bellion.

Jinwoo looked up to see a barrier above them. A barrier not only protecting this place but also not letting rain in instead creating a nice warm weather perfect for the flowers Bigrock placed here. He could see some shadow angels flying around tenting to the really big garden with gardenning tools in their hands.

“Dayum, who is it then?” Jinwoo smile faded which he himself not noticed that he acquired during his quick observe of the garden. A work of all of the shadows combined. Even dragon lend their help in a way (Jinwoo tries to ignore a skeleton of a drake covered in flowers with all his might).

“Not somebody you have the right to know.” Jinah face showed her irratation as hey eyebrws came closer to the eyes as she showed her tongue.

“Boring” she says deciding to go and continue their walk.

Chapter Text

---

-Oppa, why doesn't your wyvern have a saddle?- Jin-Ah was sitting on the couch flipping through TV channels when she saw some program about horses.

-Is it really necessary?- her older brother asked while washing the dishes.

-How else! It will be much more convenient and safer.  And I'm not even talking about how cute it would look!- Jin-Woo sighed heavily, turning off the water. Maybe it's not a bad idea...

...

-So, did I understand you correctly? Do you need a custom-made saddle for your... wyvern?- Head Woo looked tiredly at the hunter who sat down comfortably on the couch.

-So... is this a problem?- One eye of the head twitched, looking at Jin-Woo and at the pile of papers he already had.

-I will put you in touch with someone who can do it.- Woo Jin-Chul took one cup of coffee and looked inside to see that all the coffee was already finished.

-Do you want me to pour you another cup?- Jin-Woo asked, and Woo Jin-Chul nodded his head gratefully.

...

-This is a great honor!- exclaimed in chorus a whole team of foreign specialists who were watching with great interest after the wyvern, who was a little embarrassed.

-So how are you going to do it?- The new head of the monitoring department translated what Jin-Woo said for the specialists.

-Here are some sketches! For a more detailed sketch, we need to examine your wyvern!- The Korean craftsman in front snapped, quickly pulling out many large mock-ups as he unfolded them and showed them off.

-Well, go ahead.- Retreating from the road, Jin-Woo showed the wyvern, which straightened a little nervously.

The masters seemed to pounce on the wyvern, touching and measuring everything they could.

-Hah, looks like you were right when you said that they were very desperate, right?- Stretching a smile, Jin-Woo patted the new chief on the shoulder.

-This is something that should have been expected. They got a chance in a million and they are going to get as much as they can from this event.-  joked the chief.

...

-Well, this is certainly... something.- Her liege cheerfully restrained his laughter, gently smiling, looking at how petrified the wyvern stood with the saddle on.

-Is it possible that this is too tight?- Esil was standing next to Kaisel, looking to see if she had secured the saddle correctly.

-It is not surprising that she behaves like this. Every time when the saddle was pulled on the fellows, they jumped like crazy. Or for the example standing like a statue-  Baruka said, checking how well he tightened the belts.

Kaisel moved a little but quickly stopped. She really stood as still as she could. She did NOT like it.

-Don't worry, you'll get used to it. And you look really pretty in that!- The monarch complimented, finally letting out a laugh.

Kaisel looked at her king, who was laughing, with treachery in her eyes.

-At least now it's safer to ride you- Igris said.

-The last time I rode you it was a nightmare. It was difficult to keep the balance on you and at the same time to hold Mr. Yoo- Igris stood next to their liege, patting him on the back so that he would calm down a little.

-By the way, where is Commander Beru? Haven't seen him for a while,- Bellion asked, changing the subject.

-Don't bother. He is in full mourning- the monarch said, finally calming down and waving his hand.

-What happened?- Igris asked curiously.

-He wanted the ants that I gifted him to be able to talk to him. Or he with them. But in the end, nothing worked out, no matter how hard Beru tried. But I don't think he will be sad for very long. He'll find something else to entertain himself.- Somewhere in the corner of his mind, Jin-Woo could hear Beru grieving. Maybe Beru should be taken to the botanical garden. There were a lot of insects. Maybe Beru liked them.

-I think we can put something softer under the saddle?- Esil asked, stroking the wyvern.

-You mean different blanket? We can arrange that but in my opinion she does not require more softer. She is a Webern after all.- answered Baruka, calling one of the ice elves to him.

-She'll get used to it in time- said Jin-Woo, walking up to the wyvern and stroking it gently.

...

-Bring it!- The shield was sent very far into the ocean while the wyvern swam after it in an instant.

-Did you saw that? She's slowly getting used to it! And all thanks to me!- Jin-Ah was sitting on a lounger sipping a cocktail.

-Jin-Ah, I hope it's non-alcoholic?- Poking his finger in her side, Jin-Woo watched as the girl's face contorted.

-Oh! There is not much alcohol in here!- Now the cocktail was in Jin-Woo's hands, who calmly handed it to Iron, who gratefully accepted it.

-Nooooooo! Wicked brother! You should thank me for being such an intelligent sister who helped you! You are indebted to me!- And indeed it was her idea to make Kaisel swim with a saddle. Surprisingly, it worked just fine.

-This debt was canceled when you took a cocktail with alcohol.-

Now the Wyvern returned with a round shield in her mouth.

-Catch!- And the shield was again sent into the air in the direction of the ocean.

-Ugh.- Jin-Ah got up from the lounger and walked towards the castle which had expanded and was still expanding due to the newly lit fire in Beru.

...

-They are like little children…- Norma Sellner shook her head in frustration.

Somewhere in the sky, she saw Zhigang doing aerial stunts with Kaiselin while Thomas below was merrily filming it all on camera.

-Come on, let them be- Jin-Woo answered, looking at the whole scene.

-I'm sure when Farlin comes she will also want to ride it.- Norma Sellner started relaxing a bit with a smile but still seemed disappointed.

-I thought I raised them better.- She shook her head as she leaves.

-Also Zhigang will fall from the wyvern soon. Please catch him- the woman said, leaving.

-I promise nothing!- Jin-Woo shouted after her, already ordering Kaisel to catch the falling Chinese.

...

-Kaisel, I have to take off your saddle... you're not going to sleep with it, okay?- Jin-Woo, already in his pajamas, looked at the wyvern, who was trying her best to beg for him to leave her with the saddle.

-Kaisel- the wyvern finally gave up and allowed the elves to remove the saddle from her.

-Good job. And now, good night.- The monarch waved his hand and went to his room.

---

Chapter Text

Blades look at the dagger gifted to him for his diligent work by his liege. Despite it being his most pleasure to help his liege his lord was generous enough to reward him.

Ah! How truly magnificent! Who knew that hunting some humans down without killing them would be so rewarding? He was assign a task of patrolling the nearby areas by his liege’s home. In the span of one winter he was able to catch so many naughty humans who dared to disrupt the peace that he can’t even count all of them!

And how proud his liege looked of him when he came back with those humans! Of course he would have loved to kill them for their sin of being naughty but.. the order that applied to all shadows was that no human should be killed. Only when a direct order is received about an execution from their lord the shadows can kill human beings. It was sooooo hard for Blades to resist the urge to at least torture the hunted humans but sadly the commander Igris has already made a complaint about his behaviour and he not only got stripped of the right to kill humans but also not to torture them. Unbelievable how one of his fellow shadows could betray him like that!

But coming back to reality the few other Hyakkis clapped in admiration of the newly gifted dagger. The dagger was even more precious because it was wielded by none other than his liege! And well maybe by the monarch of white flame but that is not that important.

Moonshadow daggers had quite a story behind them. It was said that once somebody created the mood who then split into two moons because of the crack. In the end the creator decidedd to pin against one another the moons. So one of the moons created those daggers to kill the other moon and yara yara he is sure he told the story wrong but he never was the type to like storys.

The onlt story he ever enjoyed was his liege’s. He can listen day and night about his lord’s journey on how he became the shadow monarch and he himself saw a big chunk of it.

Back to daggers he remembers  how his liege’s was excited to use them. But sadly they slowly got outclassed by others new weapons and were left just as the part of the collection pf daggers his liege cherished.

And to received such an item! He is beyond happy! He can’t even stop smilling! But he should not forget about his duties as a chief patrol. The night is still very young and there are a lot of humans doing naughty things~

…

Holding the human by his hair Blades couldn’t enjoy his entertainment more. Not so long ago his liege lighten up the ruler about not torturing humans to torture only those who wanted to commit a really really heinous crime. There were two main criteria’s for humans who could be tortured but not killed. There total of two. The first one is that if the human had tried to rape somebody then Blades is allowed to teach them a lesson without killing. And the second one is for those who tried to kidnap a child. The last criteria was applied tp the human before him. A piece of trash no less. The smile wided even more on blade’s face and even some elves beside him couldn’t wait for the show they were about to witness.

Despite being a shadow Blades still remembers his origins. He was Baruka one of the most promising soldiers in the army of the king of the snow folkes and also as one of the most cruel some soldier.

But right now his names is Blades and he serves the shadow monarch. And if serving him means to forget his cruel ways then he shall do it.

But thankfully his liege allowed him to have it despite asking to tip it down a bit.

He licks his lips in anticipation. The night is about to go but it doesn’t mean the hunt stopes there.

…

All of the sudden in the middle of a patrol he got summoned by his liege. Blades appeared in the monarch’s private chambers where he sat with a notebook writing something down.

“Blades.” his voice sounded serious and cold. He didn’t even gave  a kneeling Blades a glance!

The thousand thought came rushing through his mind. Has he done something wrong? Has he missed something during his patrol? Or the last torture was too gruesome? How should he atone for his sin.

The loud sign came from his liege as he finally looked down on the kneeling elve.

“What do you know about the king of the ice folks, monarch of ice?” and only when he lifted his head he saw his liege’s face. He was tired. As a being beyong comprehension he did not need sleep or food to survive and unction propely so it was unheard of for a monarcj to look so… exhausted.

Has something happened? Why such a question out of nowhere? Is there somebody trying to claim the title? And how does his liege looks, no, feels so tired?

“Is there any specific information your majesty would like to know?” His liege looked at the notebook giving it a long stare before grabbing it and giving in to Blades.

“Here, i wrote everything i knew about monarch of ice. Some information may be wrong and i want you to correct it and add your own information. If needed the other elves can also help.” he held the notebook as if it was a sacred thing with both of his hands before tilring his head in a deep bow.

“I will not disappoint you.“  and with no words blades disappeared into the shadows

…

Blades looked at the notebook and a moonshadow daggers beside it. When he received the notebook only two pages were fully written but now the whole notebook about monarch of ice was finally finished. He wasn’t sure if his knowledge would satisfy his liege’s request but he is going to wish that it at least is something worth reading.

He then took the daggers and the notebook as he walked out of his bedroom. The realm of rest was a world specificaly for shadows but they are not the only inhabitants in this realm.

He looked at passed out demon knight at the floor as he stepped on him to go through the hall not caring about etiquette.  If he remembers correctly the demons had some kind of celebration and that is the reason why most of the demons are now drunk and sleeping. He wasn’t the one to be really found of any events in particularly. Those were things he saw insignificant and unnecessary.

But he did enjoyed the day when they celebrated the day their liege was born. He looked through the tall window to look at the big grand statue of their liege. He with a smile remembers how much effort was put into that statue. How much sketches, how many days were they planning and then building this statue? He doesn’t actually cares. It was all worth it in the end.

He walked out of the dorm to go to the knight’s Area. Specifically to the general Igris who was right now working as a part time teacher at the shadow knight’s academy.  He wanted to get some feedback from the commander who was highly intelligent (he still remembers the time when he put a cockroach in the tank with ants and commander Beru thought his ants started evolving).  He looked up to the sky feeling as something was rapidly approaching as the dragon flew above him in the  side of the demon castle. He wonders what business one of the three ancient dragons has in the demon castle. But it was not the place where he could stick his nose in so maybe he will just ask commander Igris about it. If anybody knows something than it would be him.

The road to the knight’s area was long from all the way from the rest area but he has a lot of time and taking a little stroll isn’t a bad idea. After all their liege does it every day so why it can’t be bad right? He walked on the stone road enjoying the  black and purple scenery not seeing anything weird. Ice bears the ones born enemies of the ice elves were now enjoying themself on the path of purple grass lying on their back.  He only gave them a quick look before noticing the big figure with four wings. Grand Marshal Bellion and also the one who liked to lecture him about his “inappropriate” behaviour. Right now he was standing in front of the big canvas with the brush and paint in his hands painting something while looking like it pains him.  Beside him a few two winged shadow warriors of the sky were gesturing him and saying somethink Blades couldn’t hear. Realm of eternal rest was rather louder and busier than usual. Is that was caused by something specific or is it just an anomaly?

Beside him a few shadow knights from the knight’s academy walked right past him. He didnt give it a second thought before remembering that the lessons has not ended for the day so why are they here? Were they skipping school?

But at Blade’s shock he saw commander Igris sitting on the shadow hourse doing the radeo while the horse was trying to lose him from their back. What was happening?

There was a whole group of shadows who were trying to ride some kind of a shadow mount. Some were successful and some went flying. He went to go ask the commander Igris about what was happening and by the time he came closer the horse finally lost the rider on his back and went running wild somewhere.

Igris was sitting at the grass stunned but quickly picked up his composure when he saw Blades coming to him.

“Lieutenant Blades, Is there any bussines you need to discuss with me?”  Igris   looked at him putting his hands behind his back as his armour looked rather beaten up. Which Blades can coclud was because the fight between him and the horse was going on longer.

“Oi, our liege aske me to write about the monarch of ice and i wanted you to give your feedback about my writing before giving the notebook to his highness.”  Igris tilted his head but still took the notebook giving it a quick read before closing it.

“I shall give it a deeper look later on.” Blades slightly bowed it gratitude before looking around at other soldiers with horses.

“May i what is going on here?” Igris looked surprised at the question before it looked like he realised something before heavenly sighing.

“ Forgive me but it looks like nobody delivered to you the new order. Let me explain.” commander paused before continuing.“ Our liege ordered us to have one day off in whichever day of the week we want , and also ordered to us to think of “hobbies” we would like to do.” Igris said with a tired voice before stepping a bit forward. Ice elf didn’t understood why but then he saw how shadow soldier flew by the spot where commander previously stood.

“But as you can see… it isn’t going as we thought. Ah, while i didn’t forget please go and choose the day when you would like to have a day off. You can do that in the rest zone in the center. You will see.”  Blades thanked him and they both gave each other slight bowes before departing. Igris ran to catch his horse and Blades walked to the rest zone.

…

And there it was. The list. Monday Tuesday Saturday Wednesday… where would he like to have his “day off”? He would have loved to serve his liege without any “days off” but it was a direct order soo…

Most of the sins being committed are on friday and monday. Rarely on weekends. So not them. Then… maybe Saturday? By his observation it was the calmest day so shall it be that.

Ice elf then went and took the pen that was nearby on the table before writing his name down at the long list hang on the wall.

He gave the list a quick look before noticing that while most of the high ranking shadows already put their names there, Commander Beru was nowhere found on the list. He wonders why that may be.

So, with his job done he can return to his usual patrol.

As he teleported to his liege’s family house he looked around quickly hiding in the shadows. The queen  mother  was reading some book while the young princess was nowhere to be found. He shook his head before quickly going through the window onto the broken but still busy streets.

The earth was still healing after the war so his patrol also included clearing any dungeon break’s if any would be to occur. Hiyakki  felt as other shadows were hanging nearby but didn’t payed them much attention before noticing a suspicious looking man. He decided that for the time being he should stalk this man a bit to ensure he didn’t thought of doing something naughty.

…

That man was roaming  around the street like he was trying to find something.

“More like he is preparing himself for something.” female shadow elf was with Blades  observing the man. The man looked like he was in his late 30 or so. Maybe younger or older Blades wasn’t ever good at identifying  ages. He wore  a light blue jacket while being covered by a bit of armour. He emanated mana so a hunter. But still he wouldn’t posses any danger or whatsoever to the shadow soldiers.

The man took out his phone and while looking at it he went somewhere firstly crossing the street and then walking deeper into the courtyard of the buildings.  And then the man suspiously started walking to the side where his liege’s family resigns.  He was not a local or a neighbour. He looked nervous and Blades could smell his fear from a mile away. His hands were sweaty as the phone in his hand was held tighty. That man was thinking about doing something he shouldn’t do. That much Blades noticed in the humans behaviour.

The elf beside him went and jumped into the man’s shadow being ready at any moment to bust his head open preparing her bow and arrow to shoot him. Blades at the same time went ahead of the man to see if there was any reinforcement. After not seeing any he went inside his liege’s home to notify the shadows hid in the house about the possible danger.

To his surprise he saw one of the commanders hiding in the mother of their king’s shadow watching as she cooked.

“Marshal Beru?” he called and the ant king quickly looked at him.

“Some suspicious man is coming closer to the royal family. the alarm may be false but i wanted to notify you nevertheless.” he said and the only thing he heard was the ant’s weird noises. And the fire in the ant’s eyes.

“*squueek* return on wathicng the human.” Blades nodded as he quickly vanished to went back to the man. Meanwhile the man was already in the building walking up the stairs stopping at the floor where the king’s mother was. And the random thought came into Blades’s mind. What if that was person from the assosiation? No they dressed differently and the only man that came personally to royal family was the close friend of their liege Woo JinChul.

The man came closer and closer before stoping before the door that led to the royal house. he stood there unsure before hiding his phone and bringing his knuckle to knock before hesitating.  The man took a deep breath before he finally knocked on the door.

He then patiently waited for somebody to answer the door not knowing the danger that stood behind him.

Mother queen opened the door looking a bit surprised  with a light smile . She looked at the man carefully inspecting him.

“Hello?” she finally said not before waiting a few seconds for the man to start.

“Ah! Yes, uhm, hello. Is… Sung Jinwoo here?” he carefully asked lowering his head and looking everywhere but not at the queen. She herself tensed up.

“No, no he is not here. What do you want from him?” her tone despite being neutral had a tone of anger. For not so long time as she was awake she already experienced a ton of people finding where they live and coming uninvited. Was this man one of them.

“And you are his…?” he asked really carefully trying to make himself as small as possible. Her shoulders tensed up before looking at her shadow, to be more specific into two purple dots before answering.

“I am his mother.” she said with a grand of salt . She straightened her back to look more confident despite not feeling like that. That man wanted something and it doesn’t look to her like he is going to leave.

“I…” He opened his mouth before closing his mouth still not looking at the woman. Was it… he looked guilty. He did something. Blades tightened his grip on the two blades ready to act at any second. Despite the rule about not killing humans was to every shadow as a lieutenant he had  some perks most shadows don’t have.

All of a sudden a man bowed on a straight 90`. With his sudden movemets Blades was already half formed before seeing as a mother queen shook her head at the shadow almost materilasing behind the man. With a growl he obeyed the order to stay down. No words needed to understand that.

“I wanted to ask forgiveness personally but i will ask your forgiveness instead.” he said with his eyes tightly closed with hands that trembled and heart that was like a dram on a hardcore rock.

“I am sorry for putting your son in danger.” he said biting his lip. Park Kyunghue looked at him confused before the realisation hit. She slowly lost her smile when man stood still there.

“You are Kim Sangshik, right?” he lifted himself up before startling seeing how previously neutral gaze of the woman became something really cold.

“Get out.” she said with icy tone not even blinking at the man who opened his mouth to speak.

“Please, i…” while not being able to find the right words he looked down on his shoes.

“You sacrificed my son, left him to die.” She said not letting the tears in her eyes drop.

“I, i-! I have a family… i needed to…” he bit his lip not continuing knowing that he was trying to defend himself when he had no right.

“And you think Jinwoo doesn’t have? You are older than him. So why did he was the one to not only find an answers but save at least some people?” Queen mother stepped deeper inside her apartment.

“You left him to die. You left my SON to die! Just how dare you to…” she stopped before finally closing the door. The man stood there a bit not knowing what to do next. He then shook his head to then turn around to leave.

Blades proceeded to follow the man all the way up to his house. Such a foolish human dared to defy mother queen. And even tried to argue! The audacity.

But while at that. What did mother queen ment by “sacrificing” their liege? About leaving him? It must have happened before Blades became a loyal soldier. Maybe he is going to need to pay a visit to Igris as an oldest shadow that was with their liege.

Right now he was looking as a man called by queen mother Kim Sangshik now got greated by a two young girls and an older woman. He put on a tired smile before them. They then went and had dinner and only now did elf noticed that i already got dark outside which means he probably needs to return to his usual patrol. The man as far as he saw possessed no danger whatsoever.

He huffed at the happy family being still disgusted by the fact that this man insulted the mother queen and dares to be happy. He would have loved to teach him proper manners but sadly, his liege has now looked through his eyes on a man. His liege didn’t looked for long so when he felt the fading presence of his king he quickly jumped into the open window onto the busy street.

…

Blades looked at shadows (and a demon) seated at the round table. Right now all sergeants and everybody above were present. A rare sight to behold indeed. Not every day does the grand Marshal summons the high hierarchy of the shadows.  He wonders how this conference is about to go. And… even miss Esil attended huh? Despite not being a shadow she is the only exception for the rules still being part of the shadow army. She has a special rank too. A personal bodyguard of the king.

Is something happened that they all got summoned by the grand marshal? That was what Blades wondered playing with his blades out of boredom. The room they were in was rather big and newly created. Solely for the purpose of important meetings like this one. The room was so big in fact all three dragons were able comfortable lay there waiting for the last person to come. The one who had the highest authority in the shadows army after their king.

“Grand Marshal Bellion.” marshal Igris said leading Blades out of the trance. Elf looked at the massive figure stepping inside the room accompanied by two shadow winged beings. Once a little pieces of the brilliant light born from a world tree. White beings were thrown into the abyss becoming pitch black. He wonders how it felt finally being free from the Absolute being.

The daggers disappeared as he looked at the four winged warrior who took the only free spot. He nodded in greetings. The others aside from the two commanders slightly bowed their head de to the difference in the status. The two soldiers that came with him took a stand beside Bellion’s side standing there.

“First of all, i need to explain the sudden summon. But the topic at hand is of outmost importance.” only few faces of the shadows became serious. Blades only laughed to himself at display of a seriousness.

Bellion gave it a second so everybody would be set on the mood and began talking.

“The thing is…”

…

Jinwoo took a sip of coffee and looked out of the window. As much as he hated paper work there was no escape from that so now he spend three days straight in his office working. Jinchul would have killed him if he didn’t at least tried to do the work he is supposed to do. Despite Jinho handling most of the bureaucracy related things as a guild master ( and a strongest hunter) he still has things he needs to personally review.

It was quite boring but needed nevertheless. During his time in hell his office he noticed how everything was… quiet. They survived an apocalypse and some time has already passed and everything (as it can be) calmed down. But it was… unusually quiet. He looks at the clock and it was already too late to call somebody. Well he could try to call some of his acquaintances from the other countries (he still hasnt read the 99+ messages Thomas send him) but he really isn’t in the mood.

Maybe then one of his shadows? Igris was on duty of looking after his family, Beru has now a whole zoo of exotic bugs to tale care of, Bellion (finally left his side) now has a bickering session with Kamish, Tusk had some kind of enlightenment, Kaisel, Jima, bigrock and tank aren’t a really good talkers, Iron apparently has some business to do in the demon realm, Greed he doesn’t even wishes to see so the only one left who is free is…

“Blades?” within the shadows the figure arose standing one knee looking down.

“Your majesty.” Jinwoo waved his hand for elf to stand up. Blades as always had this sly smile on his face. Really when does that guy NOT smiles? But with time Jinwoo got used to it. With time he stopped questioning.

“Did i interrupted something?” He asks when sees that  some parts of Blade’s clothes was ripped but it quickly regenerated already.

“Of course not, my liege. ” He shook his head placing his hand on top of the place where his heart should or rather was.

“So… do you enjoy the daggers?” He asks not sure on what topic to pick. Elf’s smile widened before he opened his mouth to speak.

“They are extraordinary my liege. They are sharp and easy to hold and the effects are particularly good. Although they may be a bit tad small for me but i would never complain about the gift gifted by his highness.” Jinwoo lips parted when he wanted to answer but decided not to prefering to look at the ducoments before him.

A invitation to auction, interview, a lawsuit…, a request from professor Belzer? Well that is something intreeting.

“Has my knowledge about monarch of ice satisfied your needs, my liege?” Blades asks despite seeing his king being swooped away by the document.

“Yes. It was quite intresting reading about him not being the first monarch of ice. I guess monarchs dying was not as unbelievable as i have thought…” with how cocky they were you would have thought that they were indestructible force. But again, they were not expecting to die from hands of a human. Should have known better.

“Is there something pecking your interest in this document my liege?” Baldes came a bit closer looking st the documents in Jinwoo’s hand.

“They want to make out of you guys a genie pig.” Jinwoo laughs. “They want to make something similar to a shadow soldier.” Blades’s ears twitched as he showed hushed teeths.

“

“They are in awe of your abilities. We cannot judge lower beings for trying to catch even the smallest glimpse of your radiance, my liege.” Jinwoo only closed his eyes in frustration. ‘Lower beings’ huh?

…

“Oppa” Jinah says with a serious look.

“Yes?” Jinwoo answers.

“Why do i read about how one of your shadows exploded?” She says with irritation.

“Professor Belzer had quite the experiments.” He answers.

Chapter Text

There wasn’t a lot of things to do now that the war has deep down quite a bit. Now that there was no fighting which meant now destruction he didn’t have a reason to come up from the world of eternal rest. As the name suggests shadows (and other) rested here. There was a whole area dedicated here for dragons only.  Most shadows live together despite the race but due to dragons’ destructive nature his majesty ordered to have a special area resident just for them. Maybe it was due to that on eincident when Kamish ate Iron. Yes. Ate him. Well he wasn’t able to dissolve him into mana, because normally when shadows eat they can dissolve food into mana thus restoring it. But Iron was a shadow… and due to the non killing human policy the shadows have Kamish wasn’t able to taste human meat in a long time, and how could he resist where there was a human in the shadow army?

Well, there was another human, Greed. Greed was an unfortunate shadow who when alive made a terrible sin and now their liege doesn’t even give him a single glance, and Kamish has some decency not to make the already miserable shadow’s existence even harder. But Iron was different. Hyperactive he would say. Dumb too. But somehow really beloved by their liege on a certain level. Always trying to get praised by him Iron made a lot of… weird things. Thus he was some time on Kamish’s radar before the initial incident.

It was a calm, normal day in the shadow realm unti Kamish was fortunate enought to see how a shadow human was running straight to the mines. Why? That was exactly what Kamish wondered when he streched on a purple grass debating if he should sleep a bit more or fall into the hole of curiosity. The last obe won. He stood proudly in the middle of a  field that was close to the mountain that contained a lot of usefull materials and therefore had a mine in it. It had not a lot of visitors. Mostly the workers (who volunteered to work there) and generals visited the mine from time to time to assure everything was in order. Actually the one who was in charge of it was Iron. And he was actually a good overseer of the mines. So it would be normal to see him there, right? Well, not in such a rush which would mean two things: one he messed up big time, second he messed up on a galaxy level. Which one is it?

Kamish closed his eyes to better concentrate on his mana so he will be able to make it tighter so his physical form could shrink enough that he would look nothing bigger than a four legged creatures on earth that were rather small. What name it was? “Cats”? Ultimately it doesn’t matter as he hurried to follow iron who already was deep inside mines

As the entrance you could see black wooden pillars supporting the cave so the whole mine wouldn’t colapse. There were a lot of boxes full of different minerals. Mana crystals, diamonds, obsidian, you name it. The mine was created through their liege’s authority over this place. The vast forerst, fields, mountains were all build with the materials their liege’s authority over created. Truly a being that transcended reality.

Kamish quikcly ran on all fours following the reils and the hints of mana Iron left behind him. He passed by a few workers that were taking a break and chatting with each other. They noticed the dragon running in a rather slow pace. Maybe he shouldnt have eaten so metal from the dumpster…. But what could he say? They tasted funny and his stomach is full of lava. He can handle it.

As he made a turn to right he stepped into the room full of blue mana crystals that were lighting up the otherwise dark cave. He watched standing in the middle of the entrance how Iron was trying to find something amids the crystals.

“Whatcha doing?” The dragon asked startling Iron as he quickly turned around to face him and hide his hands behind his back. “Nothing…” Iron answered while making it seen that he was not nervous at all which he failed miserably. Kamish shrugged and as the bolt of lightning he was already behind Iron curiosuly inspecting what was in his hands.

“A necklace?” Iron quickly turned around to face Kamish who had a sly smile showing all of his sharp theeth. Iron, seemingly embarrassed started slowly backing away while not looking at the dragon directly.

“What is it for?” Kamish asked with no reaction “ Who is it for?” Bingo.  Iron broke his (not really) stoick face with a smile that he tried desperately to hide. Kamish roared in excitement from the perspective to hear some drama.

“Spill the tea, spill the tea!” Iron looked baffled at the statement not really understanding american sleng before it got to him.

“Hmph… well. Soon, our liege’s anniversary of “Accession day” comes and i wanted to uhm…. Gift something to our liege ?” He said unsure on how the dragon would react. Kamish stood there blinking slowly as he finally closed his mouth full of theeth. He contemplated for a bit. “Accession day”? The day when their king finally received the full authority as a monarch? But wasn’t it during winter? Right now is the middle of a spring. Maybe Iron is bad with dates?

“Don’t look at me like that! I am talking about the day where our liege’s anniversary took his first step on becoming the true king!” He screams to try to defend himself now that the dragon had an ubsurdlt expressionate face of complete disappointment.

“? How did you know the date?” Kamish asks genuinly curious about how the shadow got to know that. He himself joined too late to fully witness his king’s journey which saddened him but in the end eh still joined.

“…” Iron looked again at the ceilig of the cave immediately calming down.  “it is a secret….” ‘Ah, so Bellion told him’ kamihs duesses from the look of human’s face. Bellion was rather a hard person to simply talk to and he doesn’t even mention getting along. The birdie is just too controlling, does that guy know what a “Free spirit” is? Because that was what kind of person Kamish was. He was a dragon for crying out loud! They had no such things as “Generals” or “Marshals”! So he could pretty much understand why Iron wasn’t directly telling him that Bellion was the one who told him. It was just too hard to predict what to say freely without upsetting him.

“So, let me see that necklace. It should be of the finest quality to even show it to the eyes of our monarch!”  He said and unwillingly Iron slowly brought his hands to show the dragon what he had. “Oh?” Kamish amused looked throughly at the necklace trying to find even the slightest bit of scratch or something that would make the thing bad. “Surprisingly it is decent.” He made his verdict and Iron let out a relieved sigh.

“So uhhhh, i will be going. I took what i wanted.” Kamish curiously tilted his head when he noticed some pieces of crystals that were giving a bit of light showing off from his body.

“uh, sure. Go ahead pal. See ya around.’” Kamish said and the human disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“Thinking about it, shouldn’t i also prepare a gift?”

…

Powerful humans liked different things which had no similarities whatsoever. Kamish figured as much after stalking observing the hunters that killed him. The golden one liked to wear “unusual” things and was rather pleased when he was given what he wanted, through force of intimidation. The blonde girl beside him did the talking most of the times and resolved numerous conflicts. And if so happened that the golden hunter had to deal with certain things he was resolving them with force. He was a human talking with his fists and not his mouth. Meanwhile the human with long black hair  was rather cunning, people were really quite every time when he came into the room. And as he observed people were not afraid of his physical powers but the power he had in his words. He saw how a human with rather high status got humbled and escorted away just because the long hair guy said one word.  It was unbelievable how differently strong people were approaching problems.  Usually when Dragons had disagreements they were at each other’s throats trying to kill each other but those usually left their victims alive for whatever reasons. Why spare weaklings who dared to show their teeth before a great predator?

“Because it is a tabu in human society to kill other humans.” His liege answered slowly petting his head.

“And so what? You have said it yourself my liege. Rules don’t apply to powerful humans” His king tilted his head and closed his eyes slowly exhaling. “Or is there something i failed to undertand?” He added after the pause in which his liege didn’t answer.

“Not really. It just…. People weren’t born with such powers in the contrast to citizens of the world of chaos. They acquired it. But until that time they were raised with the thought that killing people is bad.” He answered after some thinking and petted Kamish’s horns. “National level hunters don’t kill as often because… they couldn’t be bothered to.” Kamish as if understood something opened his eyes wide open. “They did kill people. But mostly those who could fight back because it was entertaining and they had an excuse that could be used so nobody would bother them afterwards.” Jiwnoo opened his eyes and looked at Kamish before making a compare. “When you came to Earth you were doing your duty of destruction but national level hunters didn’t leave you alone when you were just doing your job.” Kamish nodded understanding from where his liege was coming  from.

“Understood. Thanks you for bestowing this knowledge upon this one.”

…

“No.” Igris said coldly when Kamish showed him the gift he had prepared for their liege.

“What?” Kamish asked rather calmly. He had made a quick trip to the world cracks  to find a prey good enough to be presented before the monarch. Killed it as carefully as he could to preserve the magnificent look of the beast. And brought it to Igris to have his verdict whenever he should cook (aka burn it tot the crisp) or present it in the raw form .

“No. Just no. It isn’t… our liege doesn’t like golems… and beside they can’t be cooked.” He said while slowly walking around the big humanoid golem who was one of the first golems ever created.

“…” Kamish tilted his head in sorrow. Looks like he has to go look for another gift.

“Uh, but you could gift some of the artifacts the golem has. They look rather useful but inspect them first with dwarfs before giving it to our liege.” The dragon’s face lightened up with joy  as he stared wagging his tail. “And oh, maybe check the artifacts with Marshal Beru too. He had decided to practice his blacksmith skills. Just before giving it to him say it is for our liege. Otherwise i am afraid Beru is going to…. Khm. Nothing. Forget i said the last part” Kamish looked curiously at the knight who couched in his fist and hashly said his farewells.

“?”

…

Kamish stood frozen as numerous shadow ants started climbing onto him. He watched how the ant king slowly inspected the artifacts he brought with him.

“Tshhhhhhhhh, there is nothing wrong with them and they have no curse affected whatsoever. But maybe we should recolour them to black, after all our liege does not enjoy vibrant colours…”  he said and gave the artifacts to the nearby ant. Kamish growled a bit at the numerous ants climbing him and with one swift move of his tail all of them were on the ground laying on their backs trying to get back at their legs. Beru quickly came to them and assisted in standing but said nothing to the dragon.

“So… will you do it?” He asks the ant king and the antenas on his head twitched.

“Leave such a task to me. I will attend to it with the most care for our liege’s sake.” And with that Kamish needed no open his wings so the ants would fall from him.

…

“Hm?” Jinwoo looked through text Thomas send him after his mother saw that he was ignoring him. Jinwoo wasn’t ignoring him its just…

As he gave a quick look through his text he noticed one that made him question what were shadows up to while he wasn’t looking.

Thomas:

-with how much your boys were hanging out in my guild i would think they have nothing to do-.

-I already had some of the workers making requests to call ghostbusters!-

As Jinwoo was ready to start searching for the shadows that were making a mess he read another message.

Thomas:

-Send more! Lmao it is hilarious watching people making their theories that our building is haunted.-

-The shadow slightly twitched and they are already running around like chickens without their heads!-

-LOL-

Jinwoo sighed reading the messages. Even if Andre was alright with shadows hanging around it didn’t meant Jinwoo was. He should say that to Bellion or Igris, Bellion’s hands are already full of managing the shadow army now that he had some troubles discipling them. Mostly because he wasn’t there from the beginning when they just joined to quickly establish the rulers.

“My liege.” Jinwoo looked down on the two purple dots peeking at him through his shadow.

“What is it, Kamish?” Jinwoo asks while placing down his pen and instead playing with his necklase Iron gifted him today. He wore it mostly so the guy wouldn’t be overdramatic about it.

“I have brought you a gift” Kamish too hm? He wonders if today is some kind of special day. He wathced how the shadow slightly deformed to reach his table and place a shiny thing on his desk.

“This is..?” He looked amused at the crown that was emanating quite a lot of mana.

“A gift from me — your loyal servant who wanted to celebrate the anniversary of the “Accession day”” Jinwoo closed his eyes in frustration. If the two of them already gifted him gifts it would mean that more are going to come. He already felt a headache waiting for him around the corner.

Chapter Text

Greed looked at pile of paperwork and sighed internally. As the only two shadow humans in the whole shadow army he decided to take it upon himself on helping his liege with the mountains of paper standing proud on his liege’s desk.  He wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. Never was, no matter was he in Scavanger guild or not. But he did it nonetheless because Andre was scary enough. But now as a shadow, the things have calmed down and the active war was temporarily stopped, he had nothing to do aside from the occasional sparring matches with other shadows.

And truth be told (as unbelievable as it is) he wanted to somehow gain a tiny bit of favour from his liege who was cold as ice when it came to him, a sharp contrast to the friendly bound their liege had with other shadows. He could bet his house that the things the ant did wouldn’t slide so easily if he was the one to do them. Right now he is still on probation period, and he understood it very well. Meaning one mistake and he is going to return to nothingness. Which wasn’t appealing as he still wanted to serve his liege.

He slowly came closer to the table and took the first paper to look through it. “Request for using the summons for reconstruction work for the Hapjeyoung station…” he looked at the title before sighning again but now aloud. When in Scavenger guild most of the paperwork was dealt by Laura and numerous other administrators. Here  Ahjin guild has those too but by the last time he saw them they looked more dead than the shadows. And the last time his liege took on the paperwork he locked himself for the whole week in his office and didn’t came out until the whole mountain had disappeared.

He considered why other shadows couldn’t help. The knight was helping his Liege but as far as he understood the guy is stuck in medieval times so he isn’t much of help. Not in the era of internet that is. “Request to visit “Neverend” Gala…” Immediately in trash. His liege wouldn’t visit things that aren’t really important. “An invitation to the interview “Talk with Johny!”” Yeah no, that goes in the trashcan too. Why aren’t administrators sort such things out?

Suddenly he stopped in his tracks to look at the door and the weak presence of mana and shadow soldiers appeared and they were slowly coming closer to the room. He shrugged it off and continued to rewiev the paperwork before he heard how the lock on the door was opening. He stopped in his tracks and turned around to face the person who came. With numerous documents and a pen in his hands he probably would need to hide  from the intruder but he couldn’t give a lesser shit about it.

“AH!” The person which came into the locked room unannounced suddenly let out a scream which made Greed want to close his ears . It was a momentarily before the person immediately calmed down noticing that it was a shadow soldier.

“Ha,ha… well uhm. I uhm. Will place it here….” The person slowly walked to the table and placed a pile of documents on the desk making Greed have a headache. But now upon closer inspection of the person he half way recognised who it was. Jinho. A vice guildmaster of the Ahjin guild and somebody whom his liege considered his “younger brother”. The guy seemingly didn’t recognised Greed as the one who in the past tortured and almost killed him so the fool was rather calm in his presence. No wonder it was so easy to kidnap the guy. But he gives credit where it’s due, the fool was loyal until the last breath.

Greed blinked a few times frozen in his place as Jinho waved his hand and exited the office while closing it. He saw a few shadows waving at him too as they followed Jinho’s deep black shadow. He looked at the papers which the human brought and decided to look at them first. The disaster (thankfully) was avoided because he truly did not knew what to do if the fool got scared of him. He totally would get punished by his liege and or which is way worse he will get fired. And he likes the job, if nobody reminds him about the now decreased amount of fighting. But he has sparring partners which makes it durable.

…

Greed right now hid right around the corner behind a vase their liege’s mother gifted him from the grand marshal who went on a spree of “educating” all of the shadows that came before him. Greed included and the only one able to avoid such tragic fate was the knight who was so very smug about it (he was not). Greed got the taste of the education too which… he really didn’t wanted to experience again.  Right now through the window, he watched how a former being called  “humanity’s greatest calamity” was getting disciplined on its behaviour by none other but the angelic being.

“Tsk-tsk.” The only reason why he wasn’t there with the dragon was becasue he used the excuse of dealing with documetns which temporarily allowed him to escape the gruesome discipline training. At that point he thinks the winged dude has some agenda against him with how persistent he was on making him work. Did the knight snitched on him about what he had done during his living or was it somebody else? Maybe the red orc said somehting? The guy looked like a snitch anyway.

Greed slowly started backing away from the scenery deciding to leave as fast as possible so the sharp senses of the chicken wouldn’t notice him so he wasn’t going to be disciplined but to his absolute disarray he felt a strong hand on his shoulder.

“It looks you are free right now, aren’t you?” Greed slowly turned his head around already knowing to whom the voice belonged. Despite it he still prayed to his liege it was not the person about whom he was thinking about.

“… Hello, sir….” The big angel raised his eyebrow and corrected Greed “It is “Good day to you grand Marshal Bellion.” Bellion said while tightening his grip on Greed’s shoulder. “It looks like you have still much to learn. It saddens me that you haven’t remembered anything during our previous lessons.” Bellion then dragged Greed who was trying to hold his tears. It looks like luck was not on his side today.

…

It was one of the few rare days they had a change of pace in the whole shadow army. The field day. Sometimes around the whole globe numerous gates appear, there is so many there are not enough hunters to handle all of them so their liege and by that extension the shadow army takes care of most of them while completely clearing the whole gates from any materials that could be useful. But truly sadly for him in particular he was stuck with the monster’s corpses and not just some of them. At least thousands of them were now on the smithy area making a huge pile that was probably the size of the elf tower. And there was numerous of such towers. And because he is the bureaucrat of the shadow army (unofficially) he was the scapegoat to throw all the burden of sorting and coordinating shadows on how to handle corpses while all the generals were out there fighting magic beasts. Oh how he craved for fighting! Blood! Screams of pain from magic beasts! His knuckles being torn! The overwhelming bloodlust both his and his enemies! The last time he felt all that was during the active war against dragons, he was on the frontlines with all other big shots of the shadow army. The flames everywhere the buildings crushing down to the ground and then becoming nothing but ashes from the destructive fire of the emperor of berserk dragons! Of course it was all good until his liege ordered a clean up (whcih frankly the last time he done that was when his grandmother was still around.) (he would want to meet her sometime) (maybe if he would work diligently his liege would grant him the permission to go to the seas of spirits to meet his grandmother?) .

Shaking his head he averted his attention to the dwarfs that were waiting for his orders. He may not be the biggest figure around here, not nearly (even if the dumbbell with the name that represents what his brain is made of - iron, has more authority than he does.)  And as his thoughts came to his own name he contemplated a bit. His name also suited him for the way he died. Hungry for power. Always has been. Even now he was trying his best to become as strong as possible to be useful to his liege. Right now he knows better than anyone that to his liege he is nothing more than a reminder of a bad memory and his own mistake. He realises it way sharper than any other shadow could. Most of the shadows tried to kill their liege while alive. He tried to go after somebody whom his liege held dearly. That was the difference. His liege could forgive somebody who tried to kill him. Main reason why Andre was alive because he did not want to hurt Jinwoo, the escalation of the situation and the honour of the kings prevented them from stopping the fight all together, buy if it was any other hunter than his liege facing down Andre with such tremendous power the shadow monarch held… well the Scavenger guild would be just a name in wiki of the ones most powerful guild that got annihilated by one being. One being who was a god and who brought judgment upon them, no, not the judgement, a warning to the whole world to not try to defy the god who stood above them. He learned it the painful way.  And now under his command he still suffers because of his gruesome and unforgiving mistake.

Tsk, if only he could go out and relieve his stress…. And also those proudfull shadow bastards! Those three asshole, a mage and two knights, they laughed at him! They looked his straigh into the eyes and laughed. As far as the living armour could. If only he could kill them the second time…… Sadly, he doesn’t have the same thing the bitches from the outer world had. Monarchs? Kings? Rulers? Who cares about their names? The only thing that mattered was their ability to destroy a soul and he wanted it. Wait. Maybe…. What if he could replicate it?

“Sire… what are the orders?” One of the dwarves stepped out and asked while not being intimidated by the glare Greed gave him.

“Who cares! Do what you want! I quit!” He wasn’t quitting. But that order was given by Bellion. And he was shitting on the orders of the big chicken nugget who thought he had the right to order everybody as if they were his soldiers and not their lieges.

Greed turned around and hushly walked to the exit gate that led to another area of the shadow realm, a colosseum made long before his liege acquired the crown. And probably long before the earth existed. And as he stepped into the arena he stopped. Maybe it was because of his Liege and his distrust in Greed. Maybe it was Iron who despite working in the mines (something Greed thought to be embarrassing)  was dilligently working nonetheless and due to that Iron even acquired one request of anything he wished for from their liege! And even greater gift any shadow could get - a praise from their liege. Something other shadows gossiped about how Iron was jealous of the tall knight who got the most praises from their liege. Was it rivalry? It could be. Greed and Iron were both humans but so was once the tall knight (by the words of Bellion) but somehow that rivalry existed just between Iron and the tall knight and Greed wasn’t even recognised as a worthy opponent for the completion on who gets praised.

And so he turned around and went straight back into the smith area and started ordering around on how to handle all the resources they got from the dungeons.

“Look at how the boi goes, ain’t it a cute one?” Kamish asked while lazily stretching at the arena.

“I don’t think the human man noticed us when he came. And he left right after too. Is it maybe blind or is it some kind off custom humans share with one another?” Ennio’s gaze changed its view from the purple and nearly white sky to the dragon that was now stretching his wings.

“Nah, ain’t no way it is blind. I saw how its pupils were moving from the time while it was alive so yk, and blind can’t do that shi, they are blind! They don’t have eyes for that!” Kamish said growling a bit which was apparently a laugh

“So what about a custom then? The human that visits the Sung’s domain quite often does the same. Walks into the room, stands doing nothing and leaves.” As he waited for the answer from his once mortal enemy, Ennio watched how the dragon slowly began circling around one place and in the end laid down and palced his head on the ground while his eyes slowly closed. Ennio watched it and then with the most calmest demeanor went clsoer to Kamish and bit his tale

“YOU ! RAAAH! AW” Kamish screamed in pain and immideatly went ahead to launch at the pitch black dragon that was fighting back with his horns. So as two goats they were bumping onto eachothers heads.

Which was comedic because shadows are not able to feel physical pain. Allas, the fight between two dragons began.

“Why is the two of them here?” Greed asked as he sat in the office made specifically for him in the smith area to handle all the reports about who took what weapons and what was created and now apparently what they were doing with the materials.

“Our beloved king banned the two from participating in hunting as they were unable to cooperate with one another which caused destruction of countless shadows leading to using out liege’s mana.” Answered ice elf smith who was apparently really renowned back in their dimension for the sword he wasted his whole life creating, by the words of the ice elf who had a pom pom kind of hairstyle. He was joking a lot and Greed would even like the elf if not for the constant bullying and jokes about Greed himself.

“And why are they fightin’?” Greed asked but the ice elf just ignored him and left some papers on his table before leaving without muttering another word. He hated those ice bastards especially due to their cocky behaviour towards him. He remembers one time when they tried to torture him for the fun of it. He had done the same when alive but he wasn’t going to let them do it to him. And somehow the strongest elf the one with the funny hairstyle joined them and decided to do pranks on Greed instead. Even now he finds rats in his personal room and all kinds of weird stuff. But apparently he wasn’t the only victim as Chul was also terrorised by them but not for long. The little crybaby ran straight to their liege who put a stop to the whole thing. And also because of that the ice jerk with a weird hair also got scolded. At that point the guy gets into more trouble than any other shadow does. He heard from Chul it was because the human nature and that of an ice elf were really different which made the interaction between the ice jerk and their liege diffucult. But he certainly doesn’t care, as long as he is not brought up he is completely okay with other fellow shadows getting scolded as much as their liege wished. As long as it is not him.

“Hm? Is that… Hey! Why the fuck is that shit is on my desk!?” Greed screamed at the Elf who was nowhere near him. Greed grinned his theeth and looked at the file again. It was basically a report about casualties after a dungeon break somewhere in Korea. And he wasn’t fucking responsible for this junk. He was handling most of the documents but that piece of dogshit was not his job. Maybe a hunter’s association, sure, but not the shadow army. It wasn’t their fucking concern, their job was killing magic beasts not dealing with or saving people. It wasn’t this naive believe of people who think that hunters are fucking heroes, and expect to do shit like saving kids from under falling buildings or shit. When in truth their job was to eliminate monsters not play damn heroes.

As he read through the document he shrugged to himself when his rage boiled even more. The families were demanding some shit from their liege because you see, he didn’t came sooner. Little bitches whining and whining as if high ranking hunters would give a shit. What do those people want from their liege? To stand on his knees begging for forgiveness, when in reality he came, did the only job required of him to do, and did it fucking awesome, and those bitches were just unlucky and that was it. Sure he is no stranger to sorrow of losing somebody you love but he fucking moved from it. People die every day, cry a bit and move fucking on.

Oh how much he wished that shadows could get drunk… wait. Could they?

…

“MY WINE! MY PRECIOUS, MOST EXPENSIVE WINE! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Esil cried on the floor as Jinah and Song-Yi stood by her side comforting her despite not understanding why the demoness was so heartbroken over some wine that went missing.

“I am sure Oppa could buy you more!” Jinah tried her very best to comfort her now newly acquired friend but to no avail as the princess started crying even harder.

“My wine! My beautiful wine! My precious child!” Song-Yi and Jinah exchanged looks before Jinah quickly typed something on her phone.

“Don’t worry gurl! I got your back!” Jinah said while looking down at her shadow.

“We will find you the best wine known to mankind” Jinah exclaimed and tried to lift up the demonnes from the floor.

…

“So, did you get drunk?” Kamish asked munching on some grass and received a rude comment about it “Are you a cow to eat grass?” Greed asked the dragon who just then let out a slight fire breath that turend the grass in his mouth to ash.

“And are you a tief for stealing somethin’ that ain’t yours?” Instead Ennio answered from above int the sky.