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!"

wilderness of the Forgotten Shore and eventually reached the Dark City. The brief moment of liveliness passed, and instead, Changing

of idiot directed that stupid

Lady Nephis curiously, wondering how much of what was shown about her relationship with the heroic Han Li

relationship with

been an actual

glimpse anything from Changing Star's stoic face. The movie progressed, slowly

wall, the masculine face of the actor playing Sir Caster radiated courage and passion. Holding the grief-stricken jade beauty by the hand, he looked her in the eyes and said

fall, do not cry for me, my 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 the Dark City have hope! As long as you live, I can face

Rain shifted uncomfortably.

it me, or is it getting hot

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

however,

Rain frowned.

'Huh?'

she smelled smoke. Turning around, the teenage girl noticed a

'That's strange...'

mouth to say something, but before

The projector suddenly exploded.

***

only stayed for long enough to help Changing Star clean up the debris of the malfunctioned projector. Then,

was going to

the teenage girl was gone, Nephis was once again left alone in the empty house. She lingered for a bit, then went back into the guest bedroom and rummaged through Effie's closet. She had no clothes apart from the tracksuit that the Academy had issued to her, which was soaked with sweat

course… but she had worn armor for the better part of the last three years. Putting

to match it. Sadly, other articles of Effie's

matters again felt

in silence 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

some time, then tentatively accessed