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!"

movie, meanwhile, continued. 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

kind of idiot

with broad shoulders and a noble bearing appeared on the screen. Rain glanced at Lady Nephis curiously, wondering

her apparent relationship with

there had been an actual love triangle between

Star's stoic face. The movie progressed, slowly

of the actor playing Sir Caster radiated courage and passion. Holding the grief-stricken jade

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

Rain shifted uncomfortably.

or is

Star's face. She looked at the projection with a

however, suddenly

Rain frowned.

'Huh?'

thought that she smelled smoke. Turning around, the teenage girl noticed a thin stream of it rising

'That's strange...'

say

The projector suddenly exploded.

***

Star clean up the

what was

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

had worn armor for the better part of the last three years. Putting

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

such matters again

simply sat 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

stared at it for some time, then tentatively