Shadow Slave

Changing Star frowned. There was a hint of surprise visible in her cold, grey eyes.

"My… goal? Isn't it obvious?"

She gestured to the slum that surrounded them and the magnificent castle towering above it.

"I'm trying to help these people. What else?"

Sunny sighed.

Then, turning his face away, he asked:

"Hey, have I ever told you about my sister?"

Nephis blinked.

"No. Why bring this up all of the sudden?"

He smiled wistfully.

"I just was reminded of her recently, so I thought I'd share. You see… our parents died when we were little. She got adopted, but I ended up on the streets. Life wasn't really sweet for me. In fact, it was nothing but unsavory and bitter. So, young as I was, I simply imagined that it was the same for her. That's why I got obsessed with the idea of finding her. I had this fantasy in my head, you know, of saving and protecting her. Becoming a family again."

Sunny grimaced.

"But how could a penniless undesirable like me find anyone? You know how the city databases are. Even if they're functional, unsealing anything requires you to be a citizen, and one of a considerable rank, too. However, I was ready to do anything to accomplish my goal. So, I saved up money. A street kid can't earn much, but even then, I saved up as much as I could."

A dark expression appeared on his face.

earned through doing all kinds of horrid crap. And after four or five years of this,

He smiled.

I gave all my money to that guy and told him to find my sister. And you know what? He did. One day, about a month after we made the deal, he gave me a piece

for a few moments, then

Did you meet your

his face, glanced at the sky, and

Only at that time, I didn't recognize her. You see, despite my lofty ideas of being her savior, I couldn't even really remember what she looked like. There was this girl, around twelve years old, wearing a tidy school uniform. She was

a while, then continued, his

actually had the whole house to themselves. Just one family living in it, can you imagine? Well, I

remembered the splendor of it, his own embarrassing astonishment, and tried

food, and enough of it to never go hungry. She had pretty clothes and expensive textbooks. She even had cute younger siblings. They were all smiling, laughing,

at him and

what did you

he remembered how he just stood there, watching those happy people. How he looked down at his own frail

of dreaming of finding his sister and saving her, he was faced with the simple fact that she… she never really needed him. She probably didn't even remember that he existed. More than

that dark and rainy night, while Sunny was standing in the

himself in after this, nothing would really compare to the darkness he felt in that

remaining motionless for a long time, he slowly

began showing the first symptoms of

rest was

Sunny pretended to be carefree and

did the only selfless thing that I have ever done.

slowly shook her

the anger finally finding its way into his

like me was able to realize that the person he wanted to save didn't need his saving. So please tell me, Neph, why is it that you, with all your

at him, a deep frown appearing on her

about my intention to