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.'

castle really existed, then all of their problems would be solved.

see

frowned, trying to remember. Then, her face

gates

on her doll-like face, beaming with so much

on a certain detail of Cassie's vision. It was that, when talking about reaching

at Nephis, trying to discern

however, was as enigmatic as ever. Without showing much emotion, she thought for a

we will go

***

the journey and preparing to abandon the temporary camp. In the process, Sunny had a chance to get to know the girls a

then that he came to a sudden realization, which almost made his head explode from bafflement. That mind-blowing realization had

the confident, distant girl. Later, her behavior and the different revelations about Changing Star's past only served to

unnerved and rattled, often revealing more than they had been planning to. The less she talked, the more she seemed to

that impression turned out

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 fainted when he realized that Nephis was simply an

no idea how to talk to people. Every time she tried to convey something, she would either use the wrong words or stumble in the middle of the

the fact that, like many introverted people, Nephis was not in a habit of openly showing her emotions. It's not that she didn't have feelings: it's just that

simply chose to talk as little as

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

shy

failed to stop himself from staring at Nephis with wide eyes. He just barely

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 other hand, were relegated to exist far away in the

lacked social skills did not mean that she was not strong. In fact, it might have meant the opposite. She still achieved everything that

She was still dangerous.