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.

it, he found that all members of the cohort were connected with each other by invisible strings. Many things about them were like reflections, simultaneously the

lie, while Kai could not be lied to. Or the fact that Nephis was like sunlight, while he was made of shadows. Cassie could not see, while he had basically two pairs of

And so on.

making empty connections

be connected to any of them in any kind of a meaningful

sat down near Sunny, pulling him

forced out

said, the roles might have

gestured

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

for a few moments, then gave the Ordinary Stone a mental command to speak one of

same comically deep voice, the shadow seemed

"...The shadow has it."

and turned to Sunny with

have

expectantly outstretched her

sigh, Sunny put the ascended soul shard in her palm and said in

won. Great job,

grasped the shard

forward with a

"What?! That's it?!"

at the blind girl in astonishment, and then

the hell did you do

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

will always be the opposite of the correct one. That's because the Awakened would have to tell the truth

thought for a moment, then shook her

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

Cassie laughed.

you know… just beat Sunny up the next time he

away, quite

watched her go with his mouth

really just say