Shadow Slave

Sunny had never seen a few words crush a man's spirit so thoroughly.

...Except for maybe himself, when Nephis had spoken his True Name and commanded him to leave her for dead on the Forgotten Shore.

The soldier managed to remain standing, but he looked like a marionette with its strings cut. All light was extinguished from his eyes. He remained motionless for a while, and then turned slightly, throwing a forlorn glance at the small, battered fleet behind him.

Sunny could imagine how he felt. After surviving the cataclysmic destruction of the siege capital, these people weathered untold horrors to make it this far alive. What had kept them going was probably the hope that salvation was drawing closer and closer. And now, when they almost reached the destination, that hope was cruelly crushed.

He sighed.

"It just happened a few days ago. The news would not have reached you. My people and I are the only ones who survived."

The soldier looked down, silent.

Eventually, he asked:

"If I may ask. What are your plans now, sir?"

Sunny looked at him with a deadpan expression.

"My orders are to proceed to the Erebus Field siege capital to rendezvous with another cohort of the First Irregular Company."

Suddenly, a tentative spark appeared in the soldier's eyes.

"Master Sunless, sir. Will you consider..."

Sunny knew what he was going to say. It was not that hard to guess.

...He wanted to laugh.

self-control to remain outwardly calm. A bitter, familiar, unhinged laugh got stuck

for the last week without any Awakened to protect the handful of transports from

but one of the most deadly ones in the First Army, accompanied by a cohort of absolute elites. The Irregulars

leave defenseless civilians

Surely...

The flimsy and damaged civilian transports, however...

its

agreeing to take charge of the convoy, Sunny would not only make his task several times harder,

why he wanted to

stalwart Master had told him that it was impossible to get hundreds of civilians through the mountains alive. Back then, Sunny had responded by saying

had to either leave

his own words, and put his money where his

one. This one is great! I

on his lips as he watched Sunny's unmoving

he supposed

soldiers and Professor Obel? Or follow cold logic and do what had to be done, abandoning them to fate?

was the right

smile appeared on his

Ah, a man of conviction would have probably stayed at LO49

any success in that regard yet. He still stood for nothing and was as unmoored as he had been at the start of it. Some people might have had an unwavering moral compass, but he was not one of them. Sunny mostly acted

what was

However...

well. Just a few days ago, he had sat on the roof of the Rhino, full of contempt for the bastards who could have saved countless lives in Antarctica, but decided not to.

following that logic... wouldn't he be doing the same by leaving the refugees to die in order to

perverted way of thinking