Shadow Slave

‘I think... I might kill Cassie…’

Sunny kept a smile on his face to hide how startled and rattled he was. It may have looked a bit sheepish... and he may have looked like a bit of a clown... but there was nothing he could do about that.

It already took a titanic effort for Sunny not to glance at the dirty dishes scattered on the floor, or summon a swarm of shadows to quickly clean them away.

'Keep calm!'

Nephis was here, in the Brilliant Emporium.

Looking at him with a strange expression.

Well, of course her expression was strange! He had just made a fool out of himself right in front of her. And that was technically their first meeting, no less, which started with him planting on his face.

Sunny wanted to fall through the floor.

'Actually, that might be possible.

It would not take a lot for the Marvelous Mimic to swallow him into the basement.

Struggling to throw these thoughts out of his head, Sunny asked in as polite of tone as he could manage, given the circumstances:

"Indeed, I am called Master Sunless. Please forgive me, Lady Nephis, Saint Cassia did not warn me…”

Not only was Nephis here... but she was also wearing a dress.

A dress!

That should have been categorized as a crime,

Her light dress was simple and white, with not much decoration. It covered her shoulders and had a modest neckline, the hem resting somewhat high above her knees. Nevertheless, the modesty of the dress only served to accentuate the graceful line of her slender body, and the stark contrast between her alabaster skin and black hair only made her grey eyes look more striking.

Suddenly, Sunny was thankful that it was already dark outside. Otherwise, Neph's appearance might have caused the Brilliant Emporium to be besieged by a mob of admirers.

And then, he would have had to hold himself back from minting a fresh batch of soul coins.

Suddenly, he realized that Nephis had said something. He had no idea what.

Sunny blinked.

"Sorry?"

away... perhaps in displeasure at his lack of manners

here to

out another smile, then gestured to

seat, I will

a chair for her, then swiftly picked up the scattered plates and escaped into the kitchen. Before going in,

drink? We just received a fresh

She shook her head.

"Water is fine."

nodded and entered

Sunny leaned against the

‘What the hell?!'

her... but the one meant to face her was the Lord of Shadows!

was no reason whatsoever for someone as exalted as Changing Star of the Immortal Flame clan to visit the

'Calm down!'

quietly checked to see if the Nebulous Mantle

was fine. His presence was hidden, and his facade of a harmless artisan was sufficiently maintained. In fact, this year of living peacefully in Bastion

the Innocuous owner of the Brilliant Emporium with the antisocial, menacing Lord

‘...Good.’

what the hell

Cassia... what

poured water from the Endless Spring into

[What do you mean?]

almost exploded in

is Changing

the blind seer laughing somewhere across the lake, in

there? The Memory I wanted to commission is for her. She is the best person to explain

closed it again, not knowing how

told

resounded in his head, calm

can be trusted to keep a secret, and

was for the best that Nephis had been warned in advance, She would have noticed the nature of his Aspect sooner or later, anyway-it was better to Inform

the right

In any case...

a piece of cherry cake on it, as well. He had made the cake this morning to prevent the batch of Beast Farm cherries from going bad, but as to how it ended up on

Sunny's recollection was foggy.