Shadow Slave

Sunny stumbled and looked at his companions in utter shock.

Nephis and Cassie were each holding a large, round, glistening fruit. The skin of these fruits was smooth and black as onyx, while the succulent insides were red as ruby. Their hands, chins and lips were smeared with red juice, making it look as though they were feasting on blood.

The air was filled with an alluring, sweet aroma.

Sunny recoiled...

But his stomach involuntarily growled, reminding him how hungry he was.

Nephis looked at Sunny and offered him a relaxed smile.

"Hey."

He stared at her, lost for words. Finally, after a few seconds had passed, Sunny collected himself and screamed:

"What do you mean "hey"?! What the hell are you doing?!"

His voice was loud, full of disbelief and anger.

Both Neph and Cassie turned to face him. They were visibly confused.

"Why are you shouting?"

Sunny gaped at them, feeling like he had lost his mind. Why were they so nonchalant about this? What was going on here?!

Trying to find some sense in the situation, he took a cautious step forward and looked at Nephis. Did she… wait… what was he thinking about?

He was so hungry. It was hard to concentrate on anything except for food…

Shaking off the unexpected memory lapse, Sunny remembered what he was about to say and pressed:

"Why did you change your mind?"

Changing Star frowned.

"Changed my mind? About what?"

He clenched his teeth, thinking that she was trying to fool him.

"About the fruits! I thought we had agreed to avoid eating them!"

Nephis blinked, a confused expression appearing on her face.

"Did we? ...Why?"

Sunny opened his mouth to answer, but then froze.

Actually, why did they make that agreement?

I can't quite

memory was completely

moments ago. Now, however… huh… did he imagine the whole thing? There really was no reason not to eat the alluring

wait… that's not

"Are you alright, Sunny?"

and glanced at Nephis, who was looking at him with concern. Suddenly, Sunny felt lost and confused. What were they talking about? Something… something about some

What agreement?

stood there with a frown on his face

this is embarrassing. Did I completely space out

Cassie quickly came to his rescue. She always knew how to

you angry because we started

the big, delicious fruit

'So hungry…'

"Uh… I guess?"

pointed to the ground, where another fruit was placed on the pile of fallen leaves. Her teeth were smeared

worry! Neph brought three of them,

'How nice of her…'

picked up the fruit, looked at it, and took

succulent, juicy fruit was probably the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. It was both nourishing and refreshing, with rich texture and soft, lingering aftertaste. The ruby flesh practically melted on his tongue, making his whole body tingle. It was pure joy in

'Wow!'

for some reason. Something was very wrong about the whole

and tried to understand the source of this anxious feeling. It was hard to think about anything except for how heavenly the fruit of the Soul Tree tasted, but he forced himself to

Tree? Since when... wait, don't get

was finally able to pinpoint the source of the strangeness. It was his shadow. When he reached out to pick up the fruit,

it was motionless, refusing to mimic him eating the

is it

more bite and looked at

temper, but it rarely did something without a reason. If it

sense of dread

something… something wrong

why is it so hard

was something wrong with the fruit? Why would

is this why I screamed at Nephis? She broke an agreement… what

the precipice of remembering something very important. He felt as though he just needed to pull on the thread,

was going to happen if he

Sunny

something that required his

he somehow forgot all about the problem with

that moment, the Spell was talking into

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

'Wh—what?'

The Spell announced the

raised his head and looked at

with a strange expression on her face. Feeling his gaze, she

Sunny licked his lips.

"Did you…"