Shadow Slave

Following Nephis, Sunny ascended the tall tower and found himself on a spacious balcony that served as a pier for the Chain Breaker. Neither of them had spoken about the duel, and it suited him Just fine.

In any case, he had to admit that his actions had been a little naughty. He could have defused the situation by groveling a little, but chosen to antagonize the pompous Legacy instead for no good reason. Explaining the sequence of events to Nephis would have been a bit embarrassing, and SO…

Sunny went ahead and shamelessly pushed that responsibility onto Cassie.

Some would call such a move unbecoming, but he preferred to call it… delegation!

The Chain Breaker was floating in the air a few meters away, with a wide wooden plank affixed between its deck and the stone balcony. Several Fire Keepers seemed to have just finished loading a bunch of wooden crates into the cargo hold of the graceful vessel, and were now resting beneath the branches of the sacred tree.

Noticing Nephis, all of them stood up.

Then, their gazes fell on Sunny.

The Fire Keepers — especially the two women — had a bit of a strange reaction to his appearance.

«What's wrong with these people…»

Considering how devoted the Fire Keepers were to Nephis, he would have expected a more intense version of the Jealous hostility the denizens of the Castle had met him with.

However, they seemed more stunned than unfriendly.

«M-master Sunless? Why are you here?»

He forced out a polite smile.

«Good day. Oh… I am here to sign a contract. I think we'll be working together often in the future., so please take care of me.»

The Fire Keepers slowly turned to Nephis.

Then, the two women suddenly broke into wide smiles.

«Lady Nephis… thank you!»

«Nice!»

He stared at them in confusion.

«Why are they giving her thumbs up?»

The Fire Keepers frequented the Brilliant Emporium due to their friendship with Aiko. Perhaps they really liked his cooking and assumed that he would be employed as a chef?

Was the food situation on the Ivory Island that bad?

Nephis coughed.

I've invited Master Sunless to the Tower, Please get

the deck. The wooden plank was swiftly removed, the mooring cables untled, and no more than a

started to climb into the sky, Sunny

if I fed

own toward Awakening. Such was the path most of the ancient people had followed, forging their fates in the crucible

and been done with it. But what he wanted was to make her strong enough to

of safely bringing them to the Dream Realm in advance, by gaining access to

If only all the young Legacies were like Awakened

hesitated for a moment, then

them were alone at the bow of the Chain Breaker, gazing at the breathtaking view of the castle, the lake, and the city sprawling along its

casting its shadow on the ancient walls of Bastion. It would only take the flying ship a few minutes to

landed softly on the waters of the smaller lake glistening among the emerald grass of the island before Sunny could

«Please, come this way.»

the Ivory Tower, but she didn't seem to be in a hurry. On the way, they toured most

had been a few changes in the past four years, with the island looking

the clear lake, the grove of ancient trees, the sun-bleached bones of the mighty dragon… and the great pagoda of pristine

after killing the Winter Beast. Back then, he had been skulking in the shadows and in a hurry to leave, unwilling

the verdant grass in the

way onto his face — this

found their way into the tower and ascended its steps, reaching Cassie's chambers on one of the higher floors. The blind seer occupied several rooms, one of them serving as her bedroom, one as her office, and one as a parlor to receive

two of them entered the

was bathed in sunlight, with tasteful wooden furniture placed sparsely on the stone floor. Cassie herself was sitting behind a desk, her hair a little disheveled. There was a serious expression on her face and solemn focus in her beautiful blue

of a strange

Sunny frowned in confusion.

why does it smell like

Not that it mattered.

of his mind, Sunny bowed courteously and said in a polite

«Saint Cassia.»

Cassie nodded.

Sunless. Please,

the blind seer handed him a stack of papers,

asked one of the Fire Keepers to serve as her eyes while writing, because otherwise, that tidy handwriting would have

Cassie smiled.

a lot to discuss… but, please. Read and sign the contract

gave her a long

your lucky day

known how to type things before coming to the Academy. He had learned cursive later, after returning

no one had any way

over the contract and signed

his signature was put on paper, the corner