Shadow Slave

The Sleeper part of the compound was relatively small and situated in the southern part of the Academy, surrounded on all sides by training fields and parks.

It was a low, modern building constructed with reinforced materials. Like the majority of buildings in the Academy, most of it was hidden below the ground, leaving only a couple of floors above it. With its white, pristine alloy walls and wide windows, it must have looked beautiful in the summer, contrasted against all the greenery around.

Inside, the building was spacious and well-lit. Sunny and the silver-haired girl were taken to a large hall where a hundred or so of young men and women — Sleepers of the same unfortunate timing as the two of them — were already waiting for the beginning of the induction ceremony. Most of them were nervous, tense and excited.

Logistics of the Academy were a constant headache for the administrators since the rate at which the Spell infected people was always chaotic. There was no way to orderly structure for batches of Sleepers to undergo any type of standardized education on a shared schedule: some of them had a full year to prepare for the Dream Realm, some only months, some even mere days.

That's why these induction ceremonies were held each month at the beginning of the year and then every week once the winter solstice began to loom near. Some of the Sleepers in the hall had to wait days to be inducted, while Sunny had lucked out and was delivered to the Academy just hours before the scheduled event.

Once inside the hall, he understood two things.

Firstly, everyone was well-dressed and in possession of a suitcase, a duffel bag, or at least a backpack carrying their personal belongings. They were obviously coming prepared, most likely from home, sent off by their families. So Sunny and the silver-haired girl, who came empty-handed and wearing simple police-issued clothes, were not a norm like he had assumed, but actually an eye-catching anomaly.

'Right. That makes sense.'

Secondly, Master Jet was not being overly humble when she called herself below average by Awakened standards. Even though these young people were just starting their paths as Awakened, their looks were dazzling. Everyone was handsome, beautiful and radiated health.

He swallowed.

'Still, I feel like none of them compare. She might not be as perfectly shaped, but… I don't know… she has a presence. It's like shadows become deeper and the temperature drops by a couple of degrees when she's in a room.'

Was this the difference between a Sleeper and a Master?

But all of these thoughts were just him trying to postpone the inevitable. Sunny already knew that he was in for a wild ride.

Because he could not lie, and all of these excited youths, regardless of their clothes, gender and looks, wanted to do one thing.

Talk.

Every one of them wanted to talk with fellow Sleepers. They wanted to discuss their Nightmares, their future journey into the Dream Realm, and everything in between. They wanted to ask questions. They wanted to be asked questions. They wanted to discuss something important or just chit-chat about stupid things.

Everyone wanted to share.

Sunny moaned, disturbed

with a bit of grim determination,

trial. You survived the black mountain,

villains, monsters and even gods. Was he going

might have underestimated how

everyone in the room hated his

slapped a few times and even punched once. He also discovered a couple of new

went something like

people. How many do you think will return from the Dream Realm? How many will perish? What do you think our own

pretty sure that a pompous fool like you will

Or:

Nightmare. It's an enchanted robe. Would you like to

I would prefer to see you

Or:

rob the bodies. It was disgusting! They even

took

What? You killed someone just

were other reasons. I also took his

avoiding him. Unperturbed, he found a quiet corner and stood there, glad that no one wanted to

However, he was smiling.

process of turning the whole batch

to control his

a question, he could not keep quiet. He also couldn't lie. However, after a lot of experimentation, Sunny had found

produced a truthful answer. After that, the Flaw would force him to say that answer aloud. Refusal to speak would result in the

answer could be changed. The more it strayed from the initial thought, the more resistance he would meet — once again in the form of pressure, then pain. It still had to be truthful, but it didn't have

if Master Jet were to catch him staring again and ask what he was looking at, instead of embarrassing himself Sunny would have been

would still be the truth, however, the result would

corner, Sunny grinned as he observed the

This is

to deceive a person. Sometimes, truth was the

***