Chapter Text
The room is cold.
Truthless Recluse is lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He is deep in his thoughts.
Ever since his friends were thrown off the Spire of Deceit, he hasn’t spoken to Shadow Milk Cookie.
Even after two weeks has passed since everything happened, he is still angry with him. Whenever they meet in the tower, he keeps ignoring him. Even when Shadow Milk tries to talk to him, he doesn’t respond or only answers his questions briefly sometimes.
From the very beginning, trusting him is a huge mistake. Now he doesn’t even have his Soul Jam anymore. How could he have trusted him? After all, he is the Master of Deceit. How could he have been so naive?
His head starts to ache from thinking too much. It's already too late and there is nothing he can do about it, so there is no point in dwelling on the past anymore. This is where he belongs now. He has already made his decision.
He sighs deeply and turns to his left. He looks out the window. The sky is painted in shades of pink and orange as the sun sets. Another day has come to an end.
While Truthless Recluse is absentmindedly gazing out from his bed, a face suddenly appears in his vision.
Shadow Milk is floating just above him, his body and face turned toward Truthless. There is less than an inch between their faces.
Truthless flinches when he sees him. That makes a grin spread across Shadow Milk’s face. He speaks in a teasing voice, “Aww, are you scared?” He moves to Recluse’s left side and crosses his legs in midair.
“Seriously? I mean, are you really going to keep staying in your room and ignoring me all the time? You’re sooo boring, y'know?” he says, looking over at the cookie lying in the bed.
Truthless Recluse frowns slightly and turns his back on him. He’s tired and doesn’t want to deal with him.
Shadow Milk gets irritated. “Hey! I’m talking to you, hello!?”
His tone becomes more aggressive. “You know I have patience too, and if you keep acting like this, it will run out."
Recluse props himself up in bed and responds wearily, “What do you want from me? You already took my Soul Jam, so why do you keep disturbing me?”
For a brief moment, silence falls.
Then Shadow Milk says playfully, "What? Can't I play with my new toy~? I'm bored and looking for new cookies to mess with, and hey, there you are!" he smirks.
Truthless sighs wearily. "Can't you see I'm tired? Besides, I'm not your toy or something. Stop messing with me."
Shadow Milk grimaces slightly, “Pfft, really? How are you managing to be tired when you haven’t even done anything?”
Truthless stares at him for a moment, then frowns, “Just leave me alone.”
He grimaces. “Ugh, fine. Do whatever you want! I don't care. I already have more important things to do, anyway.”
A portal opens and before stepping through it, Shadow Milk sticks his tongue out at him, then steps through the portal and leaves the room.
Truthless Recluse is all on his own again.
Maybe staying here has been a bad idea. It definitely would have been better if there wasn’t an annoying cookie like him constantly bothering him. Is he really going to keep showing up out of nowhere and bothering him all the time?
As he gets lost in thought, he starts to grow sleepy. Even though he doesn’t want to sleep, there is nothing else for him to do.
After a while of silence, he eventually falls asleep.
The next morning, Truthless goes down to the kitchen to make some tea.
His daily routine might not be the same anymore, but he never skips his morning herbal tea. It's one of the few things he still enjoys.
On his way to the kitchen, he comes across Shadow Milk.
Shadow Milk’s expression turns cold as soon as he sees him, and he turns his head away, avoiding him.
Huh..? Is he really going to ignore him now?
Sometimes he is just like a little kid.
Truthless ignores him and walks into the kitchen. Shadow Milk becomes slightly annoyed when he realizes he isn’t paying him any attention. But he quickly fixes his expression, as if he has decided he won’t care anymore.
If he doesn’t want him around and finds him annoying, then he will just leave him alone. Maybe if he ends up alone, he will miss his presence and his jokes.
It's worth a try.
Truthless makes himself some chamomile tea. It is a good choice for calming down. While he is in the castle, he can’t really relax because Shadow Milk keeps bothering him. It's like he has no privacy left at all, definitely not a pleasant situation.
Still, he doesn’t care all that much and continues to stay there. Where else can he go anyway? He no longer belongs to the Vanilla Kingdom. A coward and liar like him doesn’t deserve to be a king. At least, that is what he thinks.
He sighs and goes back to his room with his tea.
A few days pass after that. Truthless Recluse barely comes across Shadow Milk at all. Normally, that beast would constantly appear out of nowhere just to bother him, but strangely, he hasn’t bothered him even once for the past few days.
It’s unexpected. Ever since he ended up at the tower, Shadow Milk has been coming to bother him every single day.
At first, he doesn’t think much of it. Indeed, he is actually somewhat glad since he is happy not to be bothered anymore.
Now that Shadow Milk isn’t bothering him anymore, he feels much more at ease. He can even say he has started to let his guard down.
With that, he can do whatever he wants and wander around freely. He sees it as an opportunity and starts wandering around to explore the parts of the castle he hasn’t seen yet.
He steps out of his room and begins wandering through the hallways. The corridors are filled with shades of blue, white, and navy. The floors are patterned like a checkerboard. Even though there are windows along the left side of the corridors, not much light reaches inside. The floor is cold, it is cooling his bare feet.
After walking for a while, the portraits on the left wall catch his attention. There were so many portraits. They all look like Shadow Milk, yet somehow different.
One is an old man with a long beard, another is a young man with short hair, and one is a small child.
As he examines the portraits, one portrait of a woman with pure white hair catches his eye.
The woman’s beauty and flawless skin catch his attention. Is this really Shadow Milk Cookie himself? It is hard to believe it is him. How beautiful and innocent she looks…
After spending a long moment looking over the portraits, he continues walking.
Not far ahead, he notices the door on the right side of the corridor. It looks slightly different from the others.
Just as he is approaching that room, Black Sapphire appears from the other side of the corridor. As soon as Truthless sees him, he quickly changes direction and keeps walking as if nothing has happened.
As they walk, their eyes meet. Black Sapphire sizes him up briefly as they pass each other, but neither of them says a word. Then he turns at the end of the corridor and disappears from view.
Truthless lets out a sigh, as if he has narrowly avoided being caught doing something wrong.
He looks at the door, then turns his head away and keeps walking. Wondering what could be inside the room.
He continues exploring, anyway.
After exploring a few more places, he returns to his room. He takes off his hat and hangs it on the rack next to the nightstand. Then he lies down on his bed.
He clasps his hands over his stomach and starts fiddling with his thumbs.
The castle looks truly grand and beautiful, but it still feels cold and empty. It is an unsettling kind of coldness that he doesn’t like very much.
Once, during the time when the Fount of Knowledge rules, this place is filled with cookies. They spend most of their time here, living their lives and they admire Shadow Milk—or rather, the Fount of Knowledge. They are constantly gathering around him, asking questions and talking about how magnificent he is.
But now it has become completely empty—a place where cookies are afraid to even step foot. A deep silence lingers over it.
How strange… that a place that was once splendid has now ended up like this…
Also it has been nearly two months since he came to the tower, and he has already started to feel lonely.
Sometimes, while wandering around, he crosses paths with Candy Apple. She talks about how she can’t understand why Master Shadow Milk Cookie is interested in someone like him, saying that she is much better and deserves his attention.
And sometimes, he comes across Black Sapphire. There is usually silence between them, but occasionally, Black Sapphire is the one who speaks first. He asks him how much longer he is going to stay there and tells him that he doesn’t deserve Master Shadow Milk Cookie’s attention.
Despite all that, he doesn’t care much about what they say and mostly ignores them.
After spending a while thinking in bed, the door he saw while wandering around comes to his mind. He begins to wonder what is inside the room.
Normally, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but his days have become so empty that he starts thinking about the room. After such a long period of monotony, he wants to see something different.
Besides, there is no harm in taking a quick look, right? He is just going to take a small peek, not a big deal.
He steps out of his room and heads toward the room he saw earlier. Once he reaches the door, he hesitates. After glancing around to make sure no one is there, he grabs the doorknob and turns it.
The door isn’t locked. He slowly pushes it open and takes a quick look inside the room.
The room is fairly large and a little dark, but he can still see the room with ease.
Opposite the door, there are two tall windows and a smaller one. Also a large writing desk, its surface covered in various items. The left side is filled with bookshelves. On the right, there is an armchair, a small table, drawers, a vase, and several framed paintings. Is this Shadow Milk’s chamber?
He probably isn’t supposed to go in, but his curiosity is bigger than his fear of getting caught, so he steps inside. With slow, hesitant steps, he approaches the writing desk.
On the desk are several spellbooks and magical ingredients. There are also crumpled papers tossed to the side, a fountain pen, and stains of ink.
There is an open journal in the middle of the desk. He looks over the page. There is a date written at the top of the page—it is from a few weeks ago. As he looks over the lines, he notices his own name.
"..Nilly is so boring! I go to him just to have fun, but all he does is sulk! Communication shouldn’t be that hard—he doesn’t even try. He just lies around all day and does nothing. Doesn’t he ever get bored?
Even that puppet show I did the other day didn’t catch his attention at all! He still doesn’t like me. So why did he come to my tower of his own free will? Was it just to run away from his responsibilities and laze around all day? I even took his Soul Jam, so there’s no reason for him to stay with me. Then why—?"
A hand suddenly grabs him tightly by the shoulder and turns him around. The curtains in the room are pulled open, filling the room with light.
A small gasp of surprise escapes Truthless’s throat as his eyes meet Shadow Milk’s. It looks like he is caught, and Shadow Milk doesn’t seem very pleased.
Truthless stares at him, flustered, “Shadow—”
“YOU LITTLE-!!! What do you think you’re doing!? Sneaking into my chamber without permission and reading my journal? You’re unbelievable!! Have some respect for privacy!” Shadow Milk says in an angry tone, looking him straight in the eye.
Truthless says nervously, “I just- I was wandering around and it caught my attention-”
“That doesn’t mean you can just read anything you find!” He brings a hand to his forehead and rubs it, lets out a deep sigh, “Witches…”
He glances at him and then snaps his fingers. The two of them are teleported through a portal into Truthless’s room.
When Truthless lands on the ground, he stumbles, then quickly regains his balance.
Shadow Milk looks at him. Recluse averts his gaze and loosely grabs at his clothes with his hands.
After a moment of silence, Shadow Milk lets out a sigh and breaks the silence. “You won’t be leaving your room for a week. You’re grounded.” He floats toward the door. “And I'll think about the rest later.”
He holds the doorknob, “Also, if I catch you doing something like this again, I won’t be responsible for what happens next. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” he says.
Leaves the room and shuts the door a bit forcefully.
Truthless stares at the door, stunned. After taking a deep breath, he thinks, “Thank the witches he didn’t get so angry, I guess..?”
He shouldn’t have gone into the room, but he still can’t say he regrets it. For the first time in days, he feels a small spark of excitement, even if he has been punished for it.
He glances around the room. Looks like he will have to stay here for a while…