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.

yes, I've invited Master Sunless to

swiftly removed, the mooring cables untled, and no more than a minute

the sky,

I

Such was the path most of the ancient people had followed, forging their fates in the crucible of combat. The fruits of

done with it. But what he wanted was to make her

kept sending their children to face the winter solstice instead of safely bringing them to the Dream Realm in advance, by gaining access to a Sovereign's Gate, Sunny often

If only all the young Legacies were like

hesitated for a moment,

the lake, and the city sprawling along its shore.

shadow on the ancient walls of Bastion. It

indeed, the Chain Breaker landed softly on the waters of the smaller lake glistening among the emerald grass of the island before Sunny could think of

«Please, come this way.»

seem to be in a hurry. On the way, they toured most of the island, with her showing him around and explaining how the

and tranquil as Sunny had remembered. There had been a few changes in the past four

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

the Winter Beast. Back then, he had been

verdant grass in the open, and in Neph's

smile found its way onto his

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

of them entered the

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

a bit of a strange smell in the

Sunny frowned in confusion.

does it smell like

Not that it mattered.

thought out of his mind, Sunny bowed courteously and said in a

«Saint Cassia.»

Cassie nodded.

Sunless. Please, have a

of her desk, after which the blind seer handed him a

serve as her eyes while writing, because otherwise, that tidy handwriting would have been skewed and

Cassie smiled.

discuss… but, please. Read and sign

her a long

day that

coming to the Academy. He had learned cursive later, after

no one had any way of

over the contract and signed it. Nephis watched him with intently

put on paper, the corner of her mouth seemed to curl upward