Shadow Slave

Projected onto the wall, a languid jade beauty with a slim waist and long eyelashes was traversing a labyrinth of crimson coral, her voluptuous figure barely covered by a flimsy seaweed attire. A teenage boy of about thirteen years of age was scurrying along as he shouted:

"...Are you crazy?!"

Sitting on the sofa near the real Changing Star, Rain felt like sinking into the earth. As the movie went by, her cheeks slowly turned bright red. The daughter of the Immortal Flame clan, on the contrary, became increasingly more deadpan and devoid of emotion. By now, her face was so still that it seemed paralyzed.

Rain awkwardly cleared her throat.

"Uh… come to think of it, the actress they chose does not look like you at all. You are much prettier!"

Nephis shifted and briefly glanced down. Then, she said evenly:

"Thank you."

After a while, she added:

"Why would they cast a child to play Sunny? What a strange decision. Only a complete fool could mistake him for a young boy."

Rain let out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah! Yeah… definitely…"

She looked away in utter embarrassment, and then forced out:

"And what is up with that stupid catchphrase? That does not sound like something Sunny would say at all!"

Changing Star moved, suddenly becoming a little more lively.

"Oh, no. That actually happened. A lot!"

The three Sleepers braved the wilderness of the Forgotten Shore and eventually reached the Dark City. The brief moment of liveliness passed, and instead, Changing Star seemed to grow more rigid and cold with each scene. Rain felt so uncomfortable that she could not bring herself to say

of idiot directed

a handsome young man with broad shoulders and a noble bearing appeared on the screen. Rain glanced at Lady Nephis curiously, wondering how much of what was shown about her relationship with the heroic Han

apparent relationship with Sunny

be… that there had been an actual love

anything from Changing Star's stoic face. The movie

Sir Caster radiated courage and passion. Holding

lady. My life does not matter… but yours does! Immortal Flame must never be extinguished! As long as it burns, humanity still has hope! The Dreamers of

Rain shifted uncomfortably.

or is it getting

single muscle moved on Changing Star's face. She looked at the projection with

however, suddenly

Rain frowned.

'Huh?'

that she smelled smoke. Turning around, the teenage girl noticed a thin stream of it rising from inside Sunny's

'That's strange...'

say

The projector suddenly exploded.

***

help Changing Star clean up the debris of the malfunctioned projector. Then, she found

what was going

a bit, then went back into the guest bedroom and rummaged through Effie's closet. She had no clothes apart from

but she had worn armor for the better part of the last three years. Putting on something mundane was

she found a pair of gym shorts to match it. Sadly, other articles of Effie's clothing did

again

for a while, trying to deal with the disturbing oddity of not being in danger. Then, she shifted uncomfortably, looked around, and took out the state-of-the-art communicator the

some time, then tentatively