Shadow Slave

"Uh… sure."

One day Kai would inevitably learn that Sunny was not as honest of a person as he considered him to be, but until then, having the naive archer believe in this ridiculous notion was rather... beneficial.

Turning away with a bit of awkwardness, Sunny glanced at Caster and called:

"Next!"

The proud Legacy was looking at Nightingale with a heavy expression. Hearing Sunny's voice, he lingered for a moment and then shook his head.

It seemed that Caster did not want to play his game.

Sunny was also suddenly painfully aware that between the six of them, four people had openly shared their Flaws with the rest, be it out of necessity or because of trust. Only two had not.

One of the two was Sunny, and the other one was Caster.

Sunny knew why he was hiding his Flaw from everyone, but what was the proud scion's reason? It sort of went against his whole honorable and dependable persona. With how devoted he acted toward Nephis and the cohort, it was strange to see him keeping secrets.

Was his reason the same as Sunny's, a dire vulnerability that the Flaw would uncover? Or was there some other reason? Maybe he didn't trust the members of the cohort as much as he tried to make them think he did.

And if so… why?

With a shrug, Sunny left Caster alone. There was no point in lingering on these thoughts now. Until he had more information, any conclusion he could make would be useless, anyway.

Looking at Cassie, he smiled and said:

"Hey, Cas. Wanna give it a try?"

The blind girl hesitated for a bit, and then slowly approached him.

While she was walking over, Sunny couldn't help but think back to a conversation he had with her in the distant past. Back then, Cassie had told him that knowledge could be the heaviest thing in the world. The burden of her Flaw, while completely different from Kai's, was at the same time eerily similar.

They both longed for the bliss of ignorance, but were doomed to always bear the crushing weight of unwanted knowledge.

found that all members of the cohort were connected with each other by invisible strings. Many things about

the fact that he could tell no lie, while Kai could not be lied to. Or the fact that Nephis was like sunlight, while he was made of shadows. Cassie

And so on.

strings of fate? Or was he just making empty connections because

be connected to any of them

Sunny, pulling him out of

forced out a

the roles might have switched. So, what

smiled and gestured

is: if I were to ask Sunny which one of you has the

mental command to speak one of the answers that he had whispered to it in

the same comically deep voice, the shadow

"...The shadow has it."

and turned to Sunny with subtle

you have the

that, she expectantly outstretched

Sunny put the ascended soul shard in her palm and said in a

won.

grasped the

forward with a

"What?! That's it?!"

stared at the blind girl

hell did you do

and crushed the shard in her small fist, absorbing the soul essence. Then, she

of the correct one. That's because the Awakened would have to tell the truth about the lie, while the devil would have to tell a

a moment, then shook

the words you said seem to be familiar, but I don't understand crap. What do you even

Cassie laughed.

Or, you know… just beat Sunny up the next time he decides to tease

she went away, quite happy with

her go with

she really