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.

Master Sunless to the Tower, Please get ready to

plank was swiftly removed, the mooring cables untled,

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

would happen if I fed these fruits to

absorb some of its essence and push her own toward Awakening. Such was the path most of the ancient people had followed, forging their fates in the crucible of combat. The fruits of the sacred tree contained essence, as well, so its existence was much more precious than the carriers of

with soul shards and been done with it. But what he wanted was to make her strong enough to survive on her own, if need be… and so,

the same reason why the Legacy Clans kept sending their children to face the winter solstice instead of safely bringing them to the Dream Realm in advance,

young Legacies were like Awakened Telle instead of

a moment, then looked at

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

shadow on the ancient walls of

the Chain Breaker landed softly on the waters of the smaller lake glistening among the emerald

«Please, come this way.»

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

There had been a few changes in the past four years, with the island looking much better cared for and settled, However, the

the sun-bleached bones of the mighty dragon… and the great pagoda of pristine white stone towering above it all like a heavenly

Winter Beast. Back then, he had been skulking in

much nicer to stroll across the verdant grass in

his

ascended its steps, reaching Cassie's chambers on one of the higher floors. The blind seer occupied

two of them entered

placed sparsely on the stone floor. Cassie herself was sitting behind a desk,

there was a bit of a

Sunny frowned in confusion.

does it

Not that it mattered.

thought out of his mind, Sunny bowed courteously

«Saint Cassia.»

Cassie nodded.

Please, have a

desk, after which the blind seer handed him a stack of papers, with the clause of the contract written

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

Cassie smiled.

a lot to discuss… but, please. Read

gave her a long

lucky day that I

things before coming to the Academy. He had learned cursive later, after returning from

one had any

the contract and signed it. Nephis watched him with intently as he

the corner of her mouth seemed