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.

to the

The wooden plank was swiftly removed, the mooring cables untled, and

rustled as the Chain Breaker started to climb into the sky, Sunny looked up and studied it for a while, his gaze lingering on

happen if I fed these fruits to

followed, forging their fates in the crucible

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

instead of safely bringing them to the Dream Realm in advance, by gaining access to a Sovereign's Gate, Sunny often clashed with Legacies, but he had to admit that they did a lot of things

Legacies were

moment, then

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

the sky above the lake, just shy of casting its shadow on the ancient walls of

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

«Please, come this way.»

hurry. On the way, they toured most of the island, with her showing him

as beautiful and tranquil as Sunny had remembered. There had been a few changes in the past four years, with the island looking much better

the mighty dragon… and the great pagoda of pristine white stone towering above it

had been skulking in the shadows and in a hurry to leave, unwilling for anyone to

across the verdant grass in the open,

way onto his face

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

them entered the

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

a bit of a

Sunny frowned in confusion.

it smell like

Not that it mattered.

unnecessary thought out of his mind, Sunny bowed

«Saint Cassia.»

Cassie nodded.

Sunless. Please, have

front of her desk, after which the blind seer handed him a stack of papers, with

one of the Fire Keepers to serve as her eyes while

Cassie smiled.

discuss… but, please. Read and

gave her a

lucky day

but Sunny had only ever known how to type things before coming to the Academy. He had learned cursive later, after returning from the Forgotten Shore

no one had any way of knowing

he looked over the contract and signed it. Nephis watched him

moment his signature was put on paper, the corner of her