Shadow Slave

In the ensuing silence, the smile slowly disappeared from Cassie's face, replaced by confusion. Feeling the sudden tension, she asked:

"Uh… what's wrong?"

Sunny sighed.

"No, nothing is wrong. It's just that that direction is the one we wanted to avoid."

After some thought, he added:

"That's where I came from yesterday. There's a lot of scavengers down there."

The blind girl's face fell.

"Oh."

Nephis, who was quietly listening to them, gave him an indecipherable look and finally spoke:

"Tell us more about the castle."

A shadow of the previous excitement returned to Cassie's eyes. With a serious nod, she began describing her vision.

"I dreamt of a vast, ruined city built of weathered stone. It was surrounded by tall, impregnable walls. Various monsters were wandering its narrow streets. In the center of the city, the was a hill, and on that hill stood a magnificent castle."

She smiled.

"But there were no monsters in the castle! Instead, it was full of people. I think… no, I'm sure that they were Awakened. Some were guarding the walls, some were going about their lives without a care in the world. There was food, safety, and laughter!"

'Well, that sounds great.'

then all of their problems would be solved. Sunny

see

trying to remember. Then, her face

through the gates of the castle! That means we will make

so much joy that Sunny couldn't help but

detail of Cassie's vision. It was that, when talking about reaching the castle, the blind girl only mentioned the two

and secretly glanced at Nephis, trying to discern if she had picked up on that little discrepancy,

was as enigmatic as ever. Without showing much emotion, she thought for a while, and then slowly

Then we will go

***

sea was still retreating, they had their breakfast and then spent some time planning for the journey and preparing to abandon the temporary camp. In the process, Sunny had a

a sudden realization, which almost made his head explode from bafflement.

had formed a certain impression of the confident, distant girl. Later, her behavior and the different

from the world. She was mysterious, aloof and rather cool. Her taciturn character and strange speech patterns made people interacting with her feel unnerved and rattled, often revealing more than they had been planning to. The less she talked, the

turned out to be

behind the matter had nothing to do with being cool and aloof. After talking to her a bit more and observing their interactions with Cassie, Sunny almost

talk to people. Every time she tried to convey something, she would either use the wrong words or stumble in the middle of the sentence and fall silent. Her tone never matched what she was trying to say.

that, like many introverted people, Nephis was not in a habit of openly showing her emotions. It's not that she

chose to talk as little as possible or not to

added up together, then multiplied by her general weirdness, was ultimately responsible for creating the false image of a

she was just shy and completely

with all his might but still failed to stop himself from staring at Nephis with wide eyes. He

line with

had definitely been the type of person to be the main character of any event. At the center stage, there were always confident, strong people like her and Caster. People like himself and Cassie, on the

social skills did not mean that she

She was still dangerous.