Shadow Slave

Some time later, they were hidden in a small cave at the bottom of a deep canyon, sitting in front of a fire. A piece of monster meat was roasting on it, filling the cave with a delicious smell. Sunny was a bit sullen, because it had taken all his knowledge of wilderness survival to make the small fire... snowy reaches of Antarctica were not exactly the best place to search for fuel.

He had almost been forced to use the divine flames of the Cruel Sight to cook, which would inevitably result in an atrociously burned dinner for him.

Currently, Sunny was passing time by trying to play a simple melody on a flute made of emerald bone. Kai would have probably become ill if exposed to his musical talent, but Jet didn't seem to mind.

She stared at the fire, flames reflecting in her icy blue eyes. After a while, she suddenly said:

"...I can smell things too, you know. When I am sufficiently full of essence. My Aspect might only give me a semblance of life, but it's a faithful imitation."

Sunny lowered the emerald flute and looked at her gloomily.

"What I'm hearing... is that you want to rob me of some of this meat. Right?"

Jet lingered for a moment, then grinned.

"Right. That was exactly what I meant. I am hungry, too."

He sighed, then hung more meat above the fire.

"Should have just said so. Gods... what is up with me always ending up with gluttonous women? It just never ends..."

Sunny turned the meat over. After a while, following a whim, he asked:

bad... but if I survived the First Nightmare only to be killed by the Spell during the assessment, I would have been pretty

did not understand how it

roof of the cave. She sighed, then shrugged

not survive the First Nightmare. I was young, and weak,

head and looked at him across

I played in the Nightmare, or maybe my innate Attribute, created the possibility of something like that happening... it

First Nightmare. If he had not been sent into the body of a temple slave, Shadow God would not have responded to his unintentional call. And if he

come together to create the possibility... he had been

Flaw. What would happen if he gave her Weaver's Mask? Would

intuition about these things. Jet would indeed come back to life... but her soul would remain shattered. And like all living beings with broken

the only thing that allowed her to

his own

for the inability to lie. Would it have been easier? Would it have been

gotten close to other people, choosing to lie and manipulate them instead of trusting them, out of fear of being rejected and betrayed. And for that reason, he would have probably died a long time ago. Or at least turned into something ugly and

the lesson he was

you yourself the

a waste of time. He would still choose to get rid of his Flaw in

sighed, breaking the

you can imagine, it's not easy for a Sleeper to find things to kill before entering the Dream Realm. I ended up

Sunny shifted slightly.

"Who did you ask?"

She chuckled.

the Academy after becoming a Sleeper. And just like you, I've been asked for the details of my Aspect... on a voluntary basis, of course. But what would an ignorant kid from the outskirts know? I told them everything, and from that moment, they had a wonderful