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.

was, however, a

Spell herself had grown. But even if he forgot about that statistical correlation, there was still a

it while being older than sixteen and younger than nineteen,

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

First Nightmare were enhanced — be it through access to better battle instructors or something else — he couldn't just sit

needed to understand how well Rain was being prepared

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

that way,

was a street rat willing to do anything in order to

they would probably be horrified. So, a little hint of creepiness was only

outside, hid his hands in his

was a few hundred meters ahead, stealthily following Rain and keeping an

sighed and looked at the cloudy

to go to school,

***

the terrace district, Sunny knew that her adopted family was reasonably well-to-do, but it seemed that he had underestimated either their wealth or