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.

enchanted armor. The

stopped and stared

"Hey, boss."

Sunny smiled.

a wonderful morning,

change, but her gaze turned even darker. A

opening so early... the sun is

year ago. Back then, the young woman was barely making ends meet. According to her, her Memory shop went out of business because the main inventory supplier disappeared somewhere in

a

even that her partner had been responsible for providing the Memories for the shop. However, her memories were vague at best, and her attention seemed to wander away every time she tried to concentrate on who that partner had been, exactly. She would even forget

world covered the glaring hole in existence where Sunny used to be. No one remembered that he had existed,

erased from memory by the passage of time. People vaguely recognized that someone had been there, side by side with them, but as soon as they concentrated on these memories, their minds naturally

for the material traces he had left in the world. There was that famous movie, for example... The Devil of Antarctica. It had been inspired by his actions

assumed that the main character was a representation of the collective heroism of countless soldiers who had

remembered. Therefore, his citizenship status had been revoked, his accounts

had everyone forgotten him, but they were

His smile turned brittle.

government. She had lost her job as Kai's manager when he enlisted, and the Brilliant Emporium was on the verge of going bankrupt. That was when Sunny found her and purchased the ownership of

Realm had not given him a lot of shadow fragments, they had