Shadow Slave

A beautiful smile illuminated Neph's face, making her look much softer and younger than she usually seemed. In all the time they knew each other, Sunny had only seen her smile a few times, and every time he did, a hint of regret brushed against his heart. It was a shame, for such a brilliant smile to appear so seldom…

Maybe in her dreams, Changing Star allowed herself to show it more often.

Looking at the reception desk serving as her cover, he tried to make his voice sound calm and asked:

"What are you doing here?"

Nephis lingered for a moment, and then looked down.

"...Hiding."

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"From what?"

Her voice grew quiet as she answered, still looking at the ground:

"Bad people."

He sighed.

It seemed that the memory this nightmare had spawned from belonged to a much younger Nephis. Something similar must have happened to her when she was a kid… and so, although Changing Star looked like her adult self, she was simultaneously a child. That meant that she was not supposed to have any memory of meeting and getting to know Sunny, and yet, she did.

Dreams were strange that way. All kinds of contradictions could exist within them, merging things that could not coexist in reality.

Sunny lowered himself to the ground and sat next to Neph, leaning on the surface of the desk beside her. He remained silent for a while, and then said with a reassuring smile:

"Well… don't be afraid. I'll hide here with you. I am very good at hiding, you know. If bad people come, they will never see us."

Nephis slowly shook her head.

"I don't know…"

Sunny crossed his arms.

do see us, I'll deal with them. I am very good at

for a long time,

is a dream, isn't

then tried very hard to suppress a

the Awakened Terror of her First Nightmare had

composure, Sunny simply nodded.

nice to be real. Strange… I haven't

into something different. The darkness was dispelled by the radiance of an incandescent sun. The cold waters receded, making

later, they were surrounded by a vast, scorching

of a tall tree. Its bark was as white as the pristine sand, and its leaves were scarlet. Tens of thousands of skulls hung from the beautiful branches, fastened to them by glistening

hair, dressed in

was for

but then froze, realizing

they had to discuss that had to do with their future, the great clans, the Sovereigns. There were matters they

as well. His resentment, his anger, his pain, his joy,

her emotions, as

even though only three years passed, those years contained lifetimes of bitter lessons he had learned. He had never been good with complicated feelings, and although he did make some progress on that front, Sunny was still far from

what was he supposed to

he looked at her and said the only thing that came to

The most truthful one.

"I missed you."

and looked at him as

"...I missed you, too."

and slumped a little, full

moment later, however, his face turned dark

glared at her

you really missed me… then why the hell had