DELTAREI: A Deltarune AU. [16+] (NOW COMPLETED)

Chapter 34: Castle Town vs. The Dark Occupation and the King

-THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9TH, 2023.-

Major temperature drop today. Just when I thought things were finally warming up for February, it's 5 degrees above zero, snow everywhere, but at least it's walkable/drivable, and we still have to go to school. Is all of Colorado like this, or is it just Hometown? Okay, either way, we still make it to school, just another boring day as usual, and after school, at 3:20 as usual when it ends,  I go to the Dark World, for the first time in a few days, but right before that, as I am at the door, I sense someone behind me at the doors to the closet, so I turn around just to see none other than Noelle. Of course, as usual, she talks to me about going to the Dark World together, but at the moment I can't really deal with her, it's too much pressure, so as she goes up to talk to me, about to ramble a bit, I cut her off and say:

"Hey Noelle? Listen appreciate your enthusiasm and you being for me and all and I get you wanna go with me, but right now I think Kris and Susie are hanging out at the home of Toriel at the moment and I feel like even though it's been days you know uh.... they're still trying to get through these hard times losing Berdly... so if you can pay them a visit I'd greatly appreciate it, thanks."

Then, Noelle, before she could say anything quickly took into consideration of what I said, nodded, and told me she'll do it, as she waved bye to me running off and exiting the school, bidding me farewell. That's one way to get her off my back, obviously I know I caused Berdly's "missing case" but I couldn't reveal that, and I love Noelle, don't get me wrong, now that Berdly's out of the way, she's all mine, at least for now. Kris and Susie can be stingy about Noelle too, she's one of the most valued in the friend group, don't get me wrong, but UGH! Berdly! Annoying I know. Glad I took out the trash while I was at it. The snowstorm was the perfect cover up, and the fact nobody knew I went with him, yeah, I'm sure I had this in the bag, enough of that though. Either way, I went into the Dark World, passed the cliffs as always and went Castle Town, no Ralsei there as pure usual, he was too busy helping Kris and Susie cope with the events of Berdly's disappearance, since of course Darkeners and Lightners could now travel in between and even MOVE and integrate into each others worlds freely, just like what happened to the Monsters back in 2013, except these "people" weren't even people, they were moreso just figures, "figures" that were once toys in an abandoned classroom with a magic curse on it, transitioned into real, LIVING people, and although of course most darkeners did stay in their world, some moved out or at least VISIT the light world, so in all honesty, it was a bit more "weirder" especially since these darkeners came from one specific area, the closet, and most of them not dare venture/settle anywhere further than Hometown, since HT is the only place in the world that'll accept them, especially knowing how most of the humans even in HOMETOWN NORTH treat the monsters, why on earth would they wanna leave Hometown? But again, enough of that, so yes, getting back on topic I did see no Ralsei and a pretty much empty Castle Town as always, since 99% of everyone who lived there moved out due to constant raids by the kings Royal Guardsmen, harassing the townsfolk and demanding that even independent shop owners, most who even manufacture their own goods/services pay rent in D$ to the king, and it's kind of strange how Ralsei allegedly is the "prince" of Castle Town but not the king, even after the king and queen died making him the ruler and the only one left in the Castle Town ruling family at that. You'd think he'd be king at this point, but no, he still identified as "prince", of Castle Town that is, not of the Dark World, but it's also ironic how Castle Town is considered to be part of the Dark World, but at the same time it's THE ONLY place in the Dark World that has its own royalty INSIDE of the Dark World, and it's been trying to declare itself a separate division of the Dark World away from the main division as well, in order to escape King's aggressive ruling authority, but regardless, that never happened due to the "occupation" as they'd call it. (sound familiar?????) There was nobody there, I saw a light in one of the shop's on, for some strange reason, but I did not bother going in, I didn't want to, and the windows had a blur tint on them meaning I couldn't see what was inside, or who was inside. Either way, I was getting creeped out by the silence, so I left. I went onto FOHAD and Seam's shop was closed, and the bake sale was closed too, but there was still an old looking Darkener with a paper boy hat and glasses on sipping on coffee in one of the back tables by himself, and there was a leaf-blower with a face mask and protective goggles on as well, trying to clear out the leaves that fall from the trees on the pavement of the usually crowded, Field Of Hopes And Dreams, as I then looked in the back of Seam's shop, graffiti on the walls and litter and trash left by the dumps as usual, nothing new, whether it's darkeners or lighteners doing the tagging and littering, not my problem. I walked past it all, going through the empty forest as well. Something was definitely going on in the Dark World, until I then saw it: They were constructing a military base for the King's Royal Guard right next to the Scarlet Forest. Who's surprised? Either way, of course the King wants to spend more time training the Royal Guard to make his kingdom look all powerful and mighty and overspend money on military funding rather than helping his own people. Him and Kim-Jong Un would be good friends, I should've kept him dead so Lancer could take things over, since even his dad abuses him and he's the only good one out of the bunch, poor guy. Either way, of course now I knew why the Dark World was so empty today, King probably forced everyone to close down their shops and remain in their homes until construction is completed, as I saw many workers, cranes, a wrecking ball for the trees even, bulldozers, and many other road blockades and things being placed and moved around for the construction of this "high end" base. A flag was raised over the base, tall and high right above two-mini flags, all three of the flags proudly displaying the same symbol on my heart locket against white banners with two black stripes above and below the "SOUL" symbol of the Dark World, as the construction men worked hard and rough to build this base, one of them looked at me suspiciously, so I quickly ran off, then after that of course made it out of the Dark World with no problems, I check the time. 10 PM and late at night as usual as I get out, hopefully it's easy to walk home on this snowy night once I go outside.