Shadow Slave

In the end, Sunny was not killed. However, he did receive a few bruises... considering that his skin was not easy to bruise due to the Marble Shell, it went to show just how much his little stunt had angered the three women.

Luckily, they calmed down pretty fast.

Even luckier, Sunny had wisely finished his breakfast before drawing their ire... in the aftermath of his punishment, the mess deck was in complete disarray, and there was nothing edible left on the overturned table. The wrath of three infuriated Masters was a frightening thing.

'Ah... I don't get it... it was just a little joke...'

Rubbing his sides resentfully, Sunny stared at Nephis, Cassie, and Jet. Of course, he was smart enough to keep these thoughts to himself. Otherwise, a few bruises would be the least of his problems.

His companions, in turn, were staring at the surrounding mess.

"We... should probably tidy up."

Cassie's voice sounded uncertain. Jet gave her a glance and shrugged:

"Won't it tidy itself up at the end of the day? Everything will go back to how it was."

The blind girl hesitated.

"Still. Let's clean what we can now."

Sunny was not really keen on cleaning on his day off, but he could always make Fiend do it for him. Before he did, however, Cassie suddenly said that he and Nephis should leave it to her and Jet.

Neph was still suffering from the symptoms of essence exhaustion, while Sunny was supposed to be resting. So, the blind girl told them to go enjoy the dessert on the upper deck.

Nephis seemed unconvinced, but Sunny was shaken. He remained silent for a while, then asked solemnly:

"There's... dessert?"

After that, the two of them were sent out of the devastated mess deck.

shade of the sacred tree, having an improvised picnic with Neph. There was indeed dessert on a cloth in front of him, as well as another pot of freshly brewed tea. Drinking hot tea while surrounded by the chilly mist was

was tired of having the same conversations over and over again, and Nephis seemed to be keeping her

let out a satisfied

great...

to one of the bowls, causing Nephis to glance at him. She

didn't have time to make anything fancy. Plus, the

his

included in the

then looked away and remained silent for a while.

go brew

disappeared,

stared into the mist, then lowered his gaze and looked at his hand. Soon, a black flame appeared above it.

a few moments after that,

radiance and slowly healed itself. Then, he summoned the flame again. His hand was burned once

process several times. Each time, he couldn't keep going for more than a dozen seconds before

can get used to

His expression turned somber.

"I'm back."

tea. Noticing the black flame on

"What is that?"

fire

Ability. That is how I healed Jet on the

contemplated for a

"Good decision."

her with a complicated

burns me. It

was no active threat, his shadows were always out and about, either serving as his eyes or augmenting his body. Many routine tasks were

used her Aspect as rarely as possible. She did not even summon its powers in most battles, relying solely on

then, it seemed like too much. The pain of her Flaw was

She shook her head.