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.

about it, he found that all members of the cohort were connected with each other

like sunlight, while he was made of shadows. Cassie could not see, while he had basically two

And so on.

Or was he just making empty connections

seem to be connected to any of them in any kind of a meaningful way.

pulling him out of his

out

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

smiled and gestured

is: if I were to ask Sunny which one of you has the treasure, what would he

the Ordinary Stone a mental command

the same comically deep voice, the

"...The shadow has it."

turned to Sunny with subtle

you have

that, she expectantly outstretched her

ascended soul shard in her palm and said

won.

grasped the shard

Effie leaned forward with a bewildered

"What?! That's it?!"

at the blind girl

did you

smiled and crushed the shard in her small fist, absorbing the soul

answer, their answer will always be the opposite of the correct one. That's because the Awakened

for a moment, then shook her

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

Cassie laughed.

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

that, she went away,

watched her go with

really just