Shadow Slave

Sunny sat silently on his bed for a while, irritated by the fact that someone had disturbed his sleep. With singing, no less!

Slowly, however, his expression softened.

'Well… at least they have good voices… yeah…'

The young women sang beautifully. Their voices flowed and resonated with each other, creating harmonies that made him feel tingly. The song was neither sad nor happy — instead, it made Sunny feel a deep, poignant longing. A wistful sigh escaped from his lips.

'Maybe… maybe I should go introduce myself?'

Since these beauties were having a party, surely they wouldn't mind some company?

Sunny lingered for a few moments, then frowned. Slowly, he looked down and studied his shadows, which were silently trembling. His face darkened.

'There is just this one problem…'

How the hell was he able to hear the singing so clearly? His cabin was separated from other neighboring compartments by thick alloy bulkheads. The entrance hatch was securely fastened, isolating him from the rest of the battleship. No sound should have been able to penetrate inside so easily.

Suddenly, an old memory surfaced from the depths of his mind. For some reason, Sunny remembered how the members of the cohort had sealed their eyes with wax before traversing the dark river below the Hollow Mountains.

'Odysseus…'

His frown turned into a deep scowl. Sunny hesitated for a moment, then summoned the Undying Chain. As the lusterless, bleak steel of the slender armor weaved itself from light and encased his body, his thoughts seemed to have turned a little clearer.

The [Chains of Longing] enchantment provided the wearer with a high amount of protection against mind attacks.

However, contrary to his expectation, the beautiful singing was not affected at all. Sunny could still hear it clearly. He still felt moved by the alluring voices.

'Wait… what language are they singing in?'

Strangely, Sunny found himself unable to understand the words of the melodious song.

Even stranger, he had somehow failed to notice that fact earlier.

mind, unobstructed. They echoed and resonated with each other there, making him feel a bit weird. However, their influence was

Sunny blinked.

'I'm hearing voices.'

tilted his head a

voices constitute an auditory

there a rule concerning exactly these circumstances in the safety manual? Right… he was

heart desired to meet the beautiful singers, there was no way he was going to follow the call of

aggravatingly adept at tugging on his heartstrings. His heart was all but

made a splash, as if it landed into a shallow puddle. Looking down, Sunny saw a thin layer of clear

His scowl deepened.

battleship were mostly empty. Of course, activity never ceased on a vessel of this size. The crew slept in shifts to make sure that a complete complement of

was right ahead, behind a corner. There was not a soul around, and the thin layer of

his relief, the security checkpoint seemed in perfect order. A junior officer in a blue uniform was standing near the wall, studying the panel mounted

not see all

water a hallucination,

walked forward and approached the

"Excuse me."

turned around and looked at him without

"Yes?"

skin and dark, slicked back hair. There was nothing particularly

sighed, and

manual says to inform the nearest officer if I

suddenly became more lively. A strange gleam appeared

do you

Sunny rubbed his face.

hear beautiful

him for

In that case, please

slightly to the

it was supposed to appear. It swayed slightly on the surface of the water, staring at Sunny as shadows often

for some reason. His intuition was not exactly ringing an alarm, but it had become