Shadow Slave

Sleep was avoiding Sunny. For a while, he sat silently in the darkness, listening to the calming rumbling of the waves. In this rare moment of respite, memories of the past few days came flooding into his mind. However, he was too tired to seriously think about anything. He was warm, full, and relatively safe. For now, that was more than enough.

Soon, the rhythm of Cassia’s breathing changed, indicating that she fell asleep. Nephis was guarding the camp, motionless and, as always, a bit distant. With her silver hair and fair skin, she looked like an alabaster statue.

Sunny sighed. He struggled for a bit, and then said quietly:

“Hey. Can I ask you a question?”

Nephis glanced at him and shrugged. The lack of an audible response clearly indicated that she remembered about his ability to see in the dark.

“Sure.”

‘Would it be too personal?’

Sunny hesitated.

“I thought you Legacies come into the Spell with a whole inherited arsenal of Memories. I mean, that’s supposed to be your main advantage. How come you only had three?”

Nephis was silent for a few moments.

“Actually, I only had two. The rope came from Cassie.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Oh. I see.”

Realizing that her answer wasn’t really an answer, Nephis thought for a while and added:

“We lost most of our Memories when my father passed away. The ones that remained were sold one by one over the years, to keep the family afloat. This sword and armor came from my First Nightmare.”

So that’s how it was. Sunny realized that the fall of the Immortal Flame clan might have been more thorough than he had thought. Still, something about it didn’t make sense.

“Surely, with your clan’s reputation and standing, there were other ways to make money.”

Without any strong reaction, Nephis simply said:

“There were other reasons.”

Then, she unexpectedly turned her head in his direction.

“Can I ask you a question in return?”

Sunny swallowed.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Nephis tilted her head.

“How did you know that I’m a Legacy?”

‘What? That’s it?’

“Simple. I heard Caster mention it. He was scolding other Sleepers to make them treat you with respect.”

She gave him a nod and turned away. What thoughts were hidden behind her calm grey eyes, Sunny did not know.

Some time had passed before he gathered enough courage to ask the question that he really wanted to ask. Before doing it, though, he made sure that Cassie was sound asleep and lowered his voice.

ask another

getting a negative response, he

are you burdening yourself with

Star’s mouth curled

“Why? Wouldn’t you?”

gritted his teeth, feeling the Flaw pushing the truthful answer

“No.”

be honest, he wanted to believe to the last moment that the answer would be “yes”. But one

pity the blind girl or didn’t want to help her. It’s just that he knew with certainty that it was simply not something he could do. He was barely able to save himself, let alone carry a

be a little

him. She showed no reaction

“Because I want to.”

‘Because… she wants to?’

not the response Sunny expected to hear. He was pretty sure that she would either lecture him about virtue and compassion or

believe that she was putting her life in danger, to the point of sacrificing an awakened

‘Ridiculous!’

dismissed her response as a non-answer. But the more he

it was

he was doing them because he needed to. It was never a question of “want”… it was always a question of “must”.

ample as he had imagined. She had no wealth and no arsenal of relics to empower her. However, she did have a mentality that

need in favor of something as frivolous as desire, and do things that

because

that mentality was the greatest

was the real barrier that separated Legacies

think about. However, before Sunny could gather his thoughts, Nephis suddenly spoke

“My turn.”

her turn to

once again turned to Sunny and, after a long pause,

know the legend of

what… who? What sort of a weird

Sunny shook his head. Then, remembering that she couldn’t see

“No.”

away. A few moments later, she softly

ferocious even the God of War was wary of him, Ajax who was as strong as

at the silver-haired

this come from?

Meanwhile, Nephis continued:

sail home. However, the gods cursed him to endlessly wander the seas, never to return. Over the years,

strangely wistful voice resounded in the darkness, creating an enthralling atmosphere. Sunny

delights. As long as loving Calypso was by his side, Odysseus was even immortal. But… the longer he stayed, the

Nephis smiled.

leaving all its delights, the beautiful fairy, and even his immortality behind. So, my question

Sunny blinked.

‘What?’

that? He even considered that Nephis was mocking him, but it didn’t seem to be the case. It looked like she

‘Weirdo!’

and then said

it was because he was far away from

fleeting smile appeared on Nephis’s

from home. Hm.