Shadow Slave

A few days passed in pleasant tranquility. Eventually, however, the time ran out. Nephis gathered her things and left for the Immortal Flame manor, leaving Sunny alone.

It was a bittersweet feeling.

Sweet because he finally had the house for himself once again. Bitter because… well… Sunny was not sure that he enjoyed his home being so empty anymore.

Nevertheless, he had chosen not to follow her to join the rest of the cohort yet. Sunny felt like the looming ball was going to change a lot of things, and had to prepare a few contingencies. If the worst happened, there was a big possibility that he would be gone for a very long time again.

There were several things he had to do, just in case.

His lecture course at the Academy had just started, but at this rate, it was under threat of ending prematurely. Sunny spent some time imparting his students with the best and most essential knowledge he could relay in such a short amount of time, but other than that, there was not much else he could do to prevent his academic reputation from potentially receiving a hit.

Luckily, all Masters led hectic lives. The administration was long accustomed to their star lecturers disappearing for months on end without much of a warning, so his case was not unique.

His second worry was the Brilliant Emporium. The Memory store was already in a difficult position because of the invisible blockade that had prevented Sunny from visiting the Dream Realm and hunting down Nightmare Creatures for half a year. Their inventory was running low.

a straightforward endeavor, however. Sure, the idea of having a toothbrush Memory sounded pleasant… but he had to use a soul

and toiletries to luxury items. That way, he could price them high enough to earn more than the price of a soul shard. Rich clients already had access to mundane items in the Dream Realm due to their connections to Masters and

Memories and then met with Aiko

provided either warmth or resistance against cold as possible. The second priority went to Memories that could serve as a source of light, which were usually cheap and plentiful. He

themselves for the harsh realities

hoped that the Brilliant Emporium would survive for a while thanks to these

Lastly… there was Rain.

other hand… there were not a lot of things left that he could teach her. Of course, Rain still had

to do was to truly internalize and assimilate the skills and knowledge that he had already imparted to her. While Sunny could help his sister along, most of the work had to be done by

before the ball to the fullest extent. The teenage girl might have been sour about how intense their lessons

be enough, he

was not a lot for

for a long expedition. He fought against Saint to clean

been for nothing… but Sunny

the fateful day