Shadow Slave

The initial series of tests, the interview with the government specialists, the somber conversation with Cassie, and the hours Sunny had spent pondering about his past, present, and future took up almost an entire day. A new dawn was already bathing the world in soft sunlight, which Sunny knew because one of the walls in his underground room was made into a false window, with a vista of one of the parks in the Academy being projected onto it from a remote camera.

He was experiencing mild mental fatigue, but was not sleepy at all, at least not yet. Truly, the physique of an Awakened was much more resilient than that of a mundane human.

There were still a few things he had to do. In all the turmoil of the past twenty-four hours, he had not gotten a chance to take a proper look at his Memories, for example…

Sunny was about to summon the runes when, suddenly, there was a knock on his door. He flinched.

'...What? Who can it be?'

For a moment, a mental picture of Effie and Kai appeared in his mind, but then he dismissed it. The two of them must have been as busy after their Awakening as he was. Much more, most likely, considering that they probably had friends and families to deal with, too, on top of everything else. With them being in different facilities, coming to the Academy just to pay him a visit was not a likely scenario.

Certainly not that soon.

Hiding one of the shadows on his body to appear like a normal person, Sunny walked to the door and opened it.

Standing there was a striking, confident woman in her late twenties.

Immediately, it seemed as though the temperature inside of the room dropped by a couple of degrees.

She had short, raven-black hair and icy blue eyes. Her flawless skin was smooth, supple and as white as snow. The woman was dressed in a dark blue uniform with silver epaulets and black leather boots. The jacket of the uniform was casually unbuttoned, revealing a tanktop that was currently drawn taut against her full…

'Crap!'

"...What are you staring at, Awakened Sunless?"

Sunny looked up with wide eyes.

"Master Jet! I was just… uh… appreciating your fashion sense."

Ascended who worked for the government and had welcomed him back to the

Master Jet had given him ended up saving his life on multiple

not only survive, but even thrive in the ruthless reality of

what was she doing at his

Jet, suddenly

she had a year ago, the only difference being that her uniform had more wrinkles, and there were now dark circles under

watched, she

you to my tailors. You will have to sign a

out a

see. Those tailors are slightly out of my price range, I'm afraid. But thanks for the

short pause, he cautiously

is very nice to see you again, but… to what do I owe the pleasure? I am sure that you are too busy to visit

then suddenly yawned and

still have to go through and we already know each other, I thought that I'd do the

looked around the deserted corridor of the hospital complex with a dubious expression, lingered for a

"Wanna eat?"

***

the ground level of the Academy hospital. Sunny had thought that Master Jet would take him to the

where are we going? I thought

with confusion,

the Instructors Lounge. That's where they

Sunny coughed.

you're

smiled, then pointed to the three-star insignia on

I'm not. But the Academy is a government facility, so I outrank most of the people here.

blinked a couple of times, then

going to do? Tell a Master