At the inn, Astolfo and Lonely Man did not see Annan return.
"Maybe the kid's lost himself in the city's wonderful nightlife," Uncle Murmur teased.
"...He's not that kind of person," the Girl knight spat at him.
As midnight approached, the Girl knight and the reclusive man decided Annan probably would not be back that night. They returned to their rooms and dreamed their separate dreams.
No more guests arrived at the inn. The attendant propped his broom behind the door and dozed at the counter. In the silence, a wisp of pink slipped beneath the door, lingered before the counter, drifted past the attendant and floated upstairs into the first room. A young woman lay asleep there, her leather armor removed and a short sword beside her pillow. The pink wisp quietly entered her dream.
A handsome boy of about fifteen or sixteen sat on the Throne, his tousled black hair falling loose and his legs crossed. He looked down at the Girl kneeling below the steps in a bloodstained white dress.
"Francois... I'm disappointed. You're my subordinate, yet you spied on me!"
The frail Girl looked up and pleaded, "King of the North, Olmedo said you needed protection."
Crack!
The Black Hair boy lashed out with a whip, leaving a welt across the Girl's cheek. A moan of pain escaped her lips.
"Are you my subordinate or Olmedo's?"
"Humans these days certainly know how to have fun..."
The pink wisp let out a teasing remark, left the dream—whether sweet or nightmarish was hard to say—and slipped into the second room, entering the dream of the man sleeping on his side.
The Black Hair boy who had occupied the Throne in the last dream was a prisoner here, his limbs bound by four ropes as he lay on a