The morning sun had woken us up timidly, shining bleakly through the thick curtains. Although I quite missed the joyful sun of my hometown, waking up with a splendid woman in my arms somehow made up for it. The fact that she was naked didn't actually spoil it, surprisingly enough...

I'm not going to lie, the thought of doing something with her, or to her came to my mind. But after all the force of will I had to deploy the day before not to do it, it felt like a shame to just throw it all away in the morning. I got out of the bed despite Aïko cutely clinging to me in her slumber. Once fully dressed, I came back to the bed and rearranged a lock of her brown hair with the tip of my fingers, softly brushing her cheek in the process.

"John..." She mumbled, before waking up.

"Good morning Aïko, would you like to go for a walk?" I asked as she sat, exposing her upper body. Ever the gentleman, I looked her in the eye.

"Good morning Lord John, it would be my pleasure. Would my Lord wish me to get dressed before? Or would my Lord prefer to enjoy my breast a while longer?" She asked, referring to the hand I had brought to her chest.

"Five more minutes then?" I asked meekly, then got a hold of my Demon Lord self and declared, confidently. "Five more minutes." She seemed to smile to both versions, but I wasn't looking at her eyes anymore, trying to make the most of these five minutes.

Six minutes later, I stopped caressing her and she went to get an elegant white dress that came to her knee. I looked at her as she put it on. Even if her coloured cheeks showed some kind of embarrassment, she didn't complain in the least and, soon after, we went out of the room.

It felt a bit like we were going on a date, although I have to admit going on a date after having spent the night together felt strange to me. You know, I never had a good first date. Like somehow they always went south and ended up in disaster. Not that it forbade me to get it on or something, but my first dates always prove disappointing...

Do I have too high hopes on what a first date should be? Maybe, I'm not sure. Am I being petty if I consider spending the whole date listening her talk about her ex to be disappointing? If I don't enjoy having a waiter pour the whole content of a teapot on my pants, thus nearly burning my private parts? If actually not recognizing my tinder date and going off with another girl doesn't feel like a success? Yeah, shit happens, and that's not even the worst of it...

I'd tell you not to talk about it to anyone, but seeing as we're not in the same world anymore, I guess it doesn't matter anyway, does it? Never mind that, it was in another world, it didn't matter anymore. I was sure I had left my curse back on Earth, and it was time to prove it! I wasn't sure calling it a date was the right thing to do, but I was going to behave like it was and dare this blasted curse to come my way!

We took turns at random, and I enjoyed the fact that, so far, nothing was really wrong. Sure, the décor was a bit lacking, too dark, too high of a ceiling (I couldn't begin to imagine the heating bill), too empty. But apart from the fact that I had no idea where we were, it wasn't as bad as I had expected. There were no demons lurking in the shadows, no fanged beasts ready to pounce on us, no eyes glowing red in the dark... Well not yet at least. The walls were made of some black stone that reflected very little light, despite the torches here and there.

"Do you know where we are Aïko?" I asked, trying to sound more nonchalant than I was, a task I would have succeeded in, if not for my stomach growling for the lack of breakfast. My dear slave girl was kind enough to pretend she hadn't heard a thing, which was quite the feat as, with how much echo there was in these corridors.

"I do not, my Lord. I'm afraid I do not know the castle very well, aside from the slave quarters that are quite a few levels down." She replied.

We had erred some more, and my hunger was starting to get annoying, when we suddenly heard a loud and creepy creaking. It felt like a huge beast was waking up and making the wooden floor complain. The fact that the corridors had marble floor only made us shiver all the more, imagining the size of this thing.

Sure, I was the Lord of this castle, but was everyone informed of that already? I only had arrived the day before after all! Beads of cold sweat began forming on my brow, I took Aïko's hand in mine and started walking faster.

From then on, it was a real nightmare. What we supposed to be bat-like creatures flew over us in flock, higher than what the rare torch allowed us to see, but not high enough to feel safe. Red eyes glimmered in the darkness, glaring at us. Shadows danced in unnatural ways on the walls.

We started running, turning at random in that maze of corridors, until we arrived at a dead end of sorts. An old door was all that stood before us, it looked battered and the wind was howling through the cracks. I put myself in front of Aïko, motioning for her to stay behind me and telling her to run if need be.

The door creaked when I opened it, and a strong gust of wind blew through it, making me close my eyes. Aïko's awed response made me open my eyes again as we crossed the door. We found ourselves in what had to be an old garden. Although the plants were in dire need of some care, this was by far the most wonderful place I'd seen in the castle so far.

"The hanging gardens of Babylon." I whispered to myself as a shred of memory from an old book came to my mind. "This is wonderful..." I said, to myself more than to Aïko.

The garden was attached to the main tower by one of the physics-defying bridges that I had seen from the outside. Hanging hundreds of meters high, it offered an amazing view on the castle and the grounds below. Mountains, surrounding the castle on two sides, then, as far as the eyes could see, meadows and forests, lakes and rivers, small towns and villages in various shapes and sizes... Sure, there was a particularly large cemetery here and there, bleached bones flourishing in some meadow... But from up here, it was simply beautiful.

"Thank you, my Lord, for protecting me, and for letting me see this." Said Aïko as she came close to me. Hunger didn't seem all that important anymore, at least I had forgotten about it until my stomach reminded me...

The Fae found us there, staring over the edge, bathing in the sun. She accompanied us back to my chamber and I was surprised to see that it actually took only a few minutes with the proper path. I asked her if we could do something about the garden's condition and she bowed. A few minutes later, a warm and mostly good-looking breakfast was brought to us. I decided not to pry and ask what the things we had encountered were, nor did I ask what the bowl with round gelatinous globes was. They looked way too much like eyes and I was afraid of the answer, so I made do with the cheese, bread, marmalade... Some questions are better left unasked, I thought.

As I got ready to go to my meeting with the generals, I heard the voice of the God in my thoughts.

'How do you like it here then?' He asked. I thought about home, my small apartment, my coach and my burger and my computer with a touch of nostalgia. Then about the unknown horrors lurking in the shadow of my own castle, about the mission thrown upon my shoulders, about the fact that I might never see my family and friends (yes, I did have friends! At least a handful). I thought about the fact that I was the only human around if you excluded slaves and tax collectors (but could they really be considered human?).

'No, I don't like it here...' I replied, before other thoughts bubbled violently in my head like a Mentos meeting a bottle of Coca Cola. I thought about Aïko and her kindness, even if it might be forced, of her sleeping face whispering my name, even if it might be a coincidence. I thought of her supple breast under my hand. I thought of the fact that the last time I had held a door for a woman on Earth, I had been glared at and insulted for being a misogynistic pig, that the last time I had been able to see a landscape going farther than a few dozen meters was on a photograph. I thought of the breath-taking view from the hanging garden and smiled. 'I might grow to like it though...'