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.

cohort were connected with each other by invisible strings. Many things about them were like reflections, simultaneously the same, but also

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 because that was what humans were prone to

it, only Caster didn't seem to be connected to any of them in any kind of a

down near Sunny, pulling

forced out a

said, the roles might have

smiled and gestured to

ask Sunny which

then gave the Ordinary Stone a mental command to speak one of the

same comically deep voice, the shadow seemed to

"...The shadow has it."

nodded and turned to Sunny with subtle glee on her exquisite, doll-like

you have the treasure.

she expectantly outstretched her

shard in

You've won. Great

grasped the shard

leaned forward with a bewildered

"What?! That's it?!"

blind girl in astonishment, and

hell did you do

small fist, absorbing the soul essence. Then, she shook her head

matter who you ask about the other person's answer, their answer will always be the opposite of the correct one. That's because the Awakened would have to tell the truth about the lie,

for a moment, then shook her

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

Cassie laughed.

in your free time. Or, you know… just beat Sunny up the

that, she went away, quite happy

go with his mouth wide

really just