Shadow Slave

Indeed, the awkward fourteen-year-old girl was his little sister, Rain.

And indeed, it wasn't a coincidence that Sunny had bought this exact house in this exact district of the city. While the terrace neighborhood was nice and charming, the real reason he had chosen this home, in particular, was because it stood next to the place where Rain lived.

It was on this street, a year and a few months ago, that he had watched from the shadows as she was having dinner with her adopted family, their warm and happy life displayed for him to see through the wide window of their brightly illuminated living room.

…Well, now Sunny had a living room and a wide window of his own, even though there was usually only darkness behind it.

Back then, he had become painfully aware that his fantasy of saving his little sister was empty and misguided. Rain didn't need to be saved, least of all by a troubled outskirt stray like him... a ghost of the past that she most likely did not even remember. If he had knocked on her door on that night, nothing in her life would have changed for the better.

Sunny wasn't the same penniless kid anymore. He was an Awakened, one marked as a special strategic asset by the government. He was considerably wealthy, connected… even powerful.

But, deep down, he still believed that the statement held true. His clothes and circumstances might have changed, but Sunny himself remained the same. Twisted and damaged, like anyone who had seen the truth of this world would be.

What's worse, now that he had risen above his previous pathetic self, he had a whole swarm of new, much more serious problems. Nephis, the Sovereigns, the legacy of mysterious Weaver… all of these things promised a future full of turmoil and danger. He was not exactly the kind of person who had good things to offer to anybody.

So, no. Sunny had not changed his mind about keeping himself out of Rain's life. He wasn't going to approach her, and had no desire to meet her face to face.

however,

even if he

eighteen, and Rain was fourteen. Almost every person infected by the Spell had fallen victim to it while being older than sixteen and younger than nineteen, which meant that there were about two years left before Rain would be in real danger, and about four before she would be out of

if they were more or less strangers and didn't owe anything to each other, Sunny felt... responsible for her. Perhaps Rain did not remember him due to how little she had been at the time of their separation, but he remembered everything. To him, she was

her chances of surviving the First Nightmare were enhanced — be it through access to better battle instructors or something else — he couldn't just

first needed to understand

house near the place where she lived and let his shadows loose to explore the

that way, it sure

lay in shadows, deceit, and bloodshed. Before that, he was a street rat willing to do anything in order to survive. Mundane humans had no idea about what he had gone through, what he had done, and

they would probably be horrified. So, a little

in his pockets, and headed toward the public transport terminal

meters ahead, stealthily following Rain and keeping an eye on her. No one was the wiser to its

sighed and looked

to school,

***

the homes in the terrace district, Sunny