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.

connected with each other by invisible strings. Many things about them were

Nephis was like sunlight, while he was made of shadows. Cassie could not see, while he had basically two pairs of eyes. Changing Star dreamed of destroying the Nightmare Spell,

And so on.

making empty connections because that was what

didn't seem to be connected to any of them in any kind of a meaningful way.

near Sunny, pulling him

forced out

Just like I said, the roles might have switched. So, what is your

gestured to the

Sunny which one of

then gave the Ordinary Stone a mental command to

same comically deep voice, the shadow seemed to

"...The shadow has it."

turned to Sunny with subtle glee

you have

expectantly outstretched her

the ascended soul shard in

won. Great

the shard and

Effie leaned forward with a

"What?! That's it?!"

stared at the blind girl

hell did

small fist, absorbing the soul essence. Then, she

the opposite of the correct one. That's because

a moment, then shook her

seem to be familiar, but I don't

Cassie laughed.

think about it in your free time. Or, you know… just beat Sunny up the next time he decides to tease you with

away, quite happy with

watched her go with his mouth wide

she really just say