Shadow Slave

Before Sunny went inside, he lingered for a few moments and glanced at the magnificent castle one last time. Then, he slowly looked up.

Out there, high above the tallest tower of Bastion and slightly to the side, a beautiful island was hovering in the sky, bathed in the golden light of dawn. A great pagoda of pristine white stone rose from it, just as majestic as the colossal ancient fortress.

The Ivory Tower.

The wandering Citadel looked harmonious drifting above Bastion like a satellite. In recent years, its lady and her warriors had been sent to defend remote human enclaves on countless occasions, their fame and renown growing with each improbable victory.

The image of the immaculate white tower was slowly becoming a symbol of hope for those besieged by Nightmare Creatures in the Sword Domain.

Which was more than a little bit fitting.

Sunny looked at the Ivory Tower for a few moments, his expression remaining perfectly neutral. Then, he averted his eyes and sighed.

'She has been in Bastian for almost a month now. That is unusual... I thought Anvil would send her to some other godforsaken battlefield by now.'

With that, he went to enter the cottage. Before he could, however, there was a sound of unhurried steps approaching from further down the street.

Turning his head, Sunny saw a petite young woman with short dark hair walking over. She looked sleepy, covering a yawn with a small palm. Unlike most Awakened, the young woman stubbornly clung to wearing modern clothes. Her black slacks and white blouse, admittedly, did not stand out in the eclectic fashion of Bastion.

a person wearing a stylish business suit as a person clad in enchanted armor. The former was even more in vogue, considering that it took

and

"Hey, boss."

Sunny smiled.

a wonderful

turned even darker. A

the sun is not even up yet, for the love of

He had found Aiko shortly after returning to civilization, which happened about a year ago. Back then, the young woman was barely making ends meet. According to

a curious

and her attention seemed to

the glaring hole in existence where Sunny used to be. No one remembered that he had existed, and for events that were too important to be entirely forgotten, a vague

memory by the passage of time. People vaguely recognized that someone had

had left in the world. There was that famous movie, for example... The Devil of Antarctica. It had been inspired by his actions during the Southern Campaign. People knew that the main character was based on a real person, but were incapable of thinking deeply about who that person

was a representation of the collective heroism of countless

his citizenship status had been revoked, his

only had everyone forgotten him, but they were even incapable of becoming aware of having

His smile turned brittle.

Kai's manager when he enlisted, and

Nightmare Creatures he had slaughtered while aimlessly wandering the Dream Realm had not given him a lot of shadow fragments,