We begin our ascent to the castle.

Since they obviously have no cattle, due to someone avoiding adding anything living into this dream world, they have to move the carriages with their own hands.

Each of them is pulled by six men.

Four on the front, two from behind.

Considerately our group doesn't have to help.

In hindsight, it's another inconsistency from my side that I added such transportation devices but nothing to pull them.

In the beginning, the village looked quite puny in comparison to the gigantic fortress.

Now that new buildings have been added, the village has grown to thrice the size, but still, the monumental, gravity-defying fortress, towering on a huge cliff, is an impressive structure.

And once you're living inside it's rather comfortable.

From the village, there's only one path leading to the castle.

Something like a mountain road.

It might be a steep ascent but the path is well-maintained and runs so that the carriages can get dragged upwards.

Just then I realize something.

"Mum, is Kuri still with you? I haven't seen her since we entered the village." (I)

I didn't even try to find her.

I'm a terrible mother.

"Well, she didn't announce it, but only coming from the feel, I would say she drifted into my shadow the moment we met those kids. Since then I feel some kind of pressure from there, or rather... presence." (S)

Okay, I told her to protect mum, so she might have followed up on that order.

Yet now we can't introduce her anymore.

We would have no way to answer the questions and her sudden appearance might raise questions.

"Okay Kuri. Then don't let yourself get seen by others." (I)

* "Sure mum!" (K)

Was that telepathy?

I guess it was.

No idea if it is just this place, the small distance, or just an innate ability of hers or mine but I can like this at least have some tabs on her.

This way whoever is in my castle won't be able to separate mum from her so that the former has always a strong bodyguard.

That reassures me.

"Sure, leave her there. I mean, what could happen? Apart from me having another demonic transformation." (S)

I try to look apologetic, but mum should know as well that we can't let Kuri show up now.

Once we made it up the path we are on a cliff opposing the castle's entrance from where the sole gate is only accessible via a long stone bridge over the river, which flows twenty meters below.

At its end is a drawbridge, yet it's turned up, preventing any entrance.

I guess mum is impressed by this panorama.

Since I made this, there is a strange sense of pride.

From Chiaki, I get the vibe that she's really enjoying herself right now.

She gives the impression of someone who is a bit too immersed in a role-playing game.

The fantasy variant since we all have magical powers and there are monsters.

Mum looks uncomfortable while we traverse the bridge.

Maybe she fears heights, but even normal people would mind the raging waters below.

Meanwhile, the not-normal Chiaki is totally elated.

"What's with you?" (I)

"Huh, aren't you excited? We're basically inside an RPG world. This is so cool!" (C)

"Chiaki, your outlook on all of this might be the weirdest thing in this world. And that means something." (M)

"You should try to enjoy our vacation." (C)

"This is no..." (M)

Before he can finish that sentence he looks around and finds that some of the draggers are staring in our direction.

Well, we weren't exactly talking quietly, but I guess none of them can make sense of our words.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

At the end of the bridge, we can finally see one of the people living inside the castle.

The wall is massive, but directly above the drawbridge, there's a large balcony built from where one can easily overlook everything on the other side.

I really have no idea why my subconsciousness thought it had to make this fortress absolutely impregnable when it came into existence.

Noah, who was responsible for this tribute, approaches the entrance.

"Hello? We're here!" (Noah)

"Ah, the tribute! I will open the gates!" (guardsman)

Not surprising that they let their delivery service enter.

We arrive at the huge courtyard in the middle.

A little further forward we would enter the gathering hall where Chiaki had her training.

I ask myself if in these hundreds of years anyone took the time to spackle the holes.

Rather quickly, we're approached by some men.

They look quite trained and carry weapons, so I believe they might belong to the knight order, even if they wear no armor yet.

"And? What did you bring us?" (knight)

The man who receives us looks exceptionally well-trained.

He has a distinctive brown aura which reminds me a bit of a calm, not easily swayed tree, with an especially robust yet at the same time maybe stiff mind.

Once again I feel like reading auras is a violation of privacy.

Do the circumstances help here in any way?

"The usual. I don't think there should be any issues." (N)

"Mhm. Maybe we should decide on a larger amount for the next time. To the end of the interval it always gets quite scarce." (knight)

And here I witness how an agreement to provide goods to those who perform a task slowly turns into servitude for the weaker party.

Maybe my rolling eyes were too loud, but the next moment the knight notices us.

"Who are these?" (knight)

"Y-you see, they just appeared out of nowhere in the village. Some say that it might be a miracle from Aureas who brought them here. Many of the others are quite distressed, fearing what may happen. In any case, I thought it would be for the best to bring them here so that the scholars can investigate that matter." (N)

Excuse me?

Aureas?!

While I personally believe that religion is a private matter and everybody should be able to decide for themselves what to believe in, I am very certain that this place has no other divine influence aside from mine.

And if one thing strikes me as wrong, then it is getting replaced by someone in my own goddamn dream world, where I hold absolute power!

"Grumble"

"What? This is already the third time today that the earth shakes!" (knight)

"Iori, you have to stop this." (M)

Oh, damn.

Seems like my emotions got the better of me and I started another small quake.

Naturally, I end it instantly, since I don't wish that anyone gets harmed by this.

I want to point out here that I was only mildly agitated and not even really angry, but this world was only too eager to follow up on this.

It's not like I have any self-control issues or would become overly emotional at something like this.

The threshold before something happens is just really, really small.

Yet seen under that aspect one could say I have self-control issues.

I just doubt that therapy might help on that matter.

Wait, this means every time I was irritated they got a quake here!

Now I feel guilty.

As soon as people are somewhat sure that there won't be another quake the attention turns to us.

Well, can't blame anyone for connecting the dots between our sudden appearance and anything unusual that's happening.

"You say they just appeared? You... Do you know anything about this?! Answer!" (knight)

I try to look intimidated and bewildered at what just happened.

I don't even have to try hard since I am not used to people shouting at me.

Giant demons trying to kill me, yes, but that's something completely different.

I still try to make a difference between my normal world life and demon stuff, as bad as this works in practice.

On the other side, that's a knight in front of me.

So this situation might not really be considered normal.

"Please, what would we know? We're as lost as you are on that matter. We just found ourselves here at this place and have no memories to speak of. It's certainly strange, right?" (H)

I would say he doesn't know what to reply to this or ask us.

While linking the events isn't too farfetched, there is no way he could assume that we caused this.

I mean, we are normal people.

From an outer perspective at least.

A short time later some people exit from inside the large building in front of us.

Presumably because of the quake or because our arrival got already spread.

Rumors travel fast.

Next to some more knights and people who might be the mentioned scholars, there are also servants.

Clearly recognizable through the maid and butler uniforms.

I was sure that something like that was lying around in my castle.

My opinion of these orders does lower once again.

For the colors, as in the village, there's still a majority of grey.

The knights often sport colors like brown, blue, red, and sometimes green.

There are not many of them, but the scholars I see have often white, orange, and light green going for them.

The servants meanwhile are barely classifiable.

From purple to cyan every shade seems to be present.

Might this be a criterion?

Oh please, don't let there be color racism in my world.

And who am I even praying to right now?!

But the servants are surely just there so that the others can better concentrate on their duties.

At least that's what they were told.

There's just the question regarding why the servants would do that.

Yet it might have something to do with the luxurious castle rooms and the thick walls to keep the monsters out.

It doesn't take long and the rather confused people notice us.

"The tribute?"

"Does anyone know what happened?"

"Do you know these people?"

"Can't remember having seen them before."

"They look so weird."

"Have you ever seen such a color?"

None of them adds anything concrete.

"Ehm, what's going to happen now?" (M)

"We, we will bring you to our leader to decide." (knight)

Does this leader wear a crown or is he still trying to keep up appearances that they are a purely charitable organization?