Shadow Slave

Sunny returned to the Brilliant Emporium as the sun was rising above the eastern horizon. If someone had seen him coming back home at the break of dawn, they would have probably assumed that he had spent the night elsewhere… and with someone else, engaging in revelry.

Of course, being mistaken for a philanderer would have been the least of his problems — many people already considered him a lecher, anyway. It was better to be seen as a profligate than as someone who had a habit of sneaking into the forbidden parts of the royal castle at night.

«Now, wait… what does it sound so wrong?»

In any case, his goodbyes with Cassie had felt a little hurried. She had seemed to be a little dazed and a little rattled, acting strangely around him… well, it was not surprising. Sunny doubted that she had expected him to dump two years worth of memories into her head in the span of a few hours.

But he had no other choice… initially, Sunny had wanted to share his memories with Cassie little by little. But the war was approaching faster than he had expected, and so, he needed her to trust him sooner.

Cassie was smart. With what she had shown her this time, she would be able to figure out many things. Most importantly, she would understand that he had been a companion to her and Nephis for a very, very long time.

Even if their relationship had been turbulent and rocky for most of that time…

Knowing that, she would lower her guard around him more. She would also advise Nephis to trust him better.

Well, and…

The things Sunny, as the humble shopkeeper, might do in the future would not look as outrageous. Which wasn't to say that he was planning on doing something outrageous, of course! But he had also not planned on participating in scandalous duels and being publicly embraced by Nephis because of a candy wrapper, so…

Things just sort of happened when Sunny was around her. He could put a leash on his emotions and control himself better, but… he didn't want to.

«Ah, so many things to do…»

Entering the Brilliant Emporium, Sunny yawned, stumbled sleepily to his bed — the very same bed he had taken from the hidden chamber of the ruined cathedral — fell on it, and closed his eyes blissfully.

At the same time, his avatar in the basement of the Marvelous Mimic looked up in disbelief.

«No way.»

They had so many things to do, and the original body decided to just go to sleep?!

Sunny couldn't believe himself.

Shaking his head, he sighed and continued pouring over his notes.

a

design of the soul sword for Nephis… oh, and by

not suffering enough

was looking forward to their date. Even if

Before that, however…

had to work on the

weapon was

parts to it, each presenting

was perhaps the simplest to solve, which was not to say

disposal — those harvested from Great abominations would be ideal. He also needed a set of powerful

did not seriously consider using materials harvested from Cursed beings… even if he managed to get something like that, his

was entirely different this time

soulbound weapon, so there was no point in making its Rank higher than Nephis' own. Actually, it was impossible since she was a Saint, the sword would inevitably become

Ascension. Really, there was no one better suited to wield a soulbound weapon than her since its power would depend on the power of her soul, and her soul was bolstered by the radiant lineage of Sun

the strongest material. What he needed was the material with the highest affinity to Nephis and her Aspect. Her weapons and armor had a tendency to melt when she went all out so, he needed something that would

he already had the

spot in the material storage of the Brilliant Emporium. Just by looking there, Sunny felt

shards of the mystical ice that had once been the heart of the Winter Beast. It seemed a little odd, using ice

its base? A lot of experimentation was needed to answer that question. He had been experimenting

the Mantle of the Underworld well, and had come a long way in

needed to kill them… just defeat them. How did that work? How could a weapon grow

by its creator? Sunny wasn't sure. All he knew was that once

that enchantment had turned the Mantle of

was fulfilling the demands of the [Prince of the Underworld]

was a titanic task, and Sunny wasn't even sure that what he wanted to achieve would happen on the first try. Once again, more

he was considering temporarily manifesting more avatars

problem, meanwhile, was not as elaborate, but

what other enchantments he wanted to include, and constructing the map of

lot to

accomplish something that he had been trying to do for a long time recreate the [Unseen] enchantment of the Moonlight Shard, which allowed the ghostly stiletto to appear instantly in his hand, without any delay between the summoning

an enchantment that augmented the

Beyond that, however…

much to