Shadow Slave

"Draw! Aim! Endure!"

Just as Night shouted these words, Aiko tripped and fell. The bundle of arrows she was carrying in her arms scattered on the ground.

"Ouch…"

Picking herself up from the coral, she hurriedly gathered the arrows and dashed to the nearest archer, then placed them near his feet.

In this battle, the role of people like her — those who were too weak to fight and did not possess a useful Aspect — was simultaneously the most simple and the most chaotic. They were charged with supplying the Sleepers participating in the battle with everything they needed, be it arrows, crossbow bolts, stones for their slings, or anything else.

There were several teams of runners doing different things. Initially, she was supposed to help carry the wounded from the first and second lines to the makeshift hospital at the back of the formation. There, a few people with Aspect Abilities having to do with healing waited, ready to help. Her friend Stev was one of them.

…But as it turned out, there wasn't a lot of wounded in this battle. Most simply died on the spot. So she was left with nothing to do and ended up here, helping to supply the archers.

She had just brought two quivers to Night, and was on her way…

…Wait, how crazy was that?

Trying to catch her breath, Aiko glanced around and shivered.

'Crazy, this is crazy…'

The scene in front of her was just too bizarre to be true. Several hundred Sleepers were besieged by a horde of Nightmare Creatures on the ground, with another falling on them from above. All that in front of an ugly, endless tower of crimson coral. Surely, she was dreaming…

'Of course you are! This is the Dream Realm, you dimwit!'

all... was that she was stuck in all this craziness with none other than Night from Nightingale, the breathtakingly beautiful idol whose posters hung on the walls of most girls her age back home. Despite the fact that the two of them had known each other for more than

was exactly the kind of weird dream a teenage girl like her would

meters away from her. Turning her head to the sound of a muffled curse, Aiko saw Stev and another Sleeper carrying a crude stretcher. On it was a young woman, covered in blood and pale as a ghost, her leather armor torn apart and on

albeit not too seriously. Running up to them, Aiko took over and

was not easy, but she

the back of

exhausted crews of the siege engines, who were slowly but

of it, things weren't going well for the

line was in the process of being completely eviscerated. Three islands of resistance still persisted in the sea of monsters, but Aiko didn't know how much longer those poor people would be able to hold. The second line was now entangled with

iron net. Despite that, the number of the flying abominations did not seem to diminish at all. The metal

we all

body, Aiko trembled and involuntarily turned her head to the tallest point in the Dreamer Army camp. There, on a

herself. The other was her blind oracle. And

is that guy

Sunny, the strange young man who

the Changing Star's faction, Aiko had quickly learned who the important people were and what positions they held in the

…Except for Sunny.

played was entirely unclear. People seemed to consider him a member of Lady Nephis's cohort, but Sunny himself always insisted that he was not. He was thought to be

just knew him for his tendency to keep to himself, ridiculous bragging, and carefree attitude. They

think that Sunny was harmless. She had seen him appear from the shadows and kill the Guard who had

was very mysterious.

Nephis now, she suddenly felt a tiny

Star had

they were going