Darius didn't think that coming there was a pure vacation, just like the last time. He might not be stuck in the kitchen preparing for a banquet or in a meeting room discussing with the boar-headed elders, but he was touring the greenhouses with Cara. She was showing him the changes they had ever since they started engineering more than what they readily had.
For some reason, Darius didn't know why the Shadow Castle suddenly felt so connected to him and Nicholai. They weren't even subjects of the Shadow King, but their presence in the castle had become something that made the people breathe easier. Even the people began eating with a little more flavor as they erected salt farms at the edge of the island.