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.

you see

to remember. Then, her face

leading me through the gates of the

her doll-like face, beaming with so much joy

was that, when talking about reaching the castle, the blind girl only mentioned the two of them. Was there some meaning

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

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

we

***

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

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

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

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 more she seemed to know. That silent, indifferent confidence was arresting, and

out to be

aloof. After talking to her a bit more and observing their interactions with Cassie, Sunny almost fainted when he

to people. Every time she tried to convey something, she would either use the wrong words or stumble in the middle of the sentence

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

talk as little

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

fact, she was just shy and completely

that realization, Sunny tried with all his might but still failed to stop himself from staring at Nephis with wide eyes.

line

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

line of thought was also wrong. The fact that Changing Star had problems with expressing herself and lacked social skills did not mean that she was not

She was still dangerous.