Shadow Slave

Chapter 36

The rest of the way to the tall hill did not take a lot of time. With Nephis leading the way, taking all theright turns at all the right places, there was no need to explore the labyrinth and backtrack afterencountering a dead end. Additionally, there were no scavengers around.

In fact, they could have moved ever quicker if not for Cassia, who walked slowly even with the help ofher staff. Guided by the golden rope, she carefully explored the ground ahead before taking each step.The uneven paths of the crimson forest were not an ideal surface for a blind person to walk on.

Sunny didn’t say much, periodically casting an incredulous glance at the strange pair. No matter howhe looked at it, Cassia seemed to be dead weight. Perhaps it was cruel to say, but in the mercilessreality of the Dream Realm, misguided kindness was a sure way to end up dead.

Before meeting and observing the girls, he still had hope that Cassia’s terrible Flaw hid an unexpectedand powerful Aspect. But from what he saw, it wasn’t the case. If she couldn’t even walk properly, whatkind of power was there to hide? Nothing could outweigh the ruthless fact that the blind girl couldn’tprotect herself, and thus would only drag her companions down.

One had to be a fool or not fond of living to allow that to happen. So… which one of these descriptionssuited Nephis? Somehow, he felt that neither did.

The sunset was not far off when they reached the hill. After climbing it and approaching the massivegrowth of coral, Nephis dismissed the golden rope and immediately summoned it again. This way, itwas untied and appeared in her hands in a neat bundle.

‘Ah. So it’s a Memory.’

Sunny wondered what qualities the magical rope had. Soon, his curiosity was satisfied: right in front ofhis surprised eyes, the length of the rope suddenly began to increase. Soon, it was thrice as long as itwas before.

Nephis calmly tied both ends of the rope into loops and then threw one of them into the air, accuratelycoiling it around a prominent protrusion near the top of the coral pillar. Then, she tested if the ropewould hold, swiftly climbed up and waved from above, giving Sunny the signal to follow.

After hesitating for a second, Sunny approached the rope and grabbed it.

He couldn’t help thinking that this would be the perfect opportunity to cut his head off. With himhelpless while climbing and Nephis standing on the top of the pillar… yeah. The vivid picture appearedin his mind.

‘Stop being paranoid!’ Sunny thought, trying to calm himself down.

It’s not that he was sure of Changing Star’s impeccable moral qualities. Instead, he was certain of onething: if Nephis really wanted to kill him, she wouldn’t have needed to wait for an opportunity. She couldhave just cut him into ribbons whenever.

Simultaneously scared and reassured by this though, Sunny nimbly climbed up and joined Nephis atthe top of the coral mound. He then turned around and watched curiously, wondering how Cassia wasgoing to get to them.

The blind girl dismissed the wooden staff and approached the rope. Then she caught it in a hand,traced it down to the loop at the end, and placed her foot inside. As soon as she was done, Nephisgrabbed the rope and started pulling, lifting Cassia little by little until she had reached the top. She onlyhad to grab Nephis’s hand and make a step to join them.

‘Huh. Efficient.’

The coral mound was much larger than the circular stone platform of the giant knight’s neck. In fact, itwas almost like a small island. At the highest point of the island, hidden behind some coral blades, the

girls had made a little camp. There were piles of seaweed to sleep on, strips of scavenger meat dryingunder the sun, and a firepit.

Sunny pointed to the makeshift firepit.

“Was it you two nights ago? I’ve seen an orange light in the distance.”

Cassia’s face darkened.

“Yes, this was the first time we made a fire. But it turned out to be a really bad mistake.”

Nephis sighed.

Sunny raised an eyebrow, surprised.

“Why?”

The blind girl touched her hair and turned her head to Nephis.

“At night, any light will attract monsters. We were attacked by scavengers first. And then… then…”

She paled and didn’t finish. But she didn’t have to: the memory of the colossal tentacle was still fresh inSunny’s mind.

It seemed that he was lucky to meet these two when he had. If not, he was certainly going to make afire tonight to roast some scavenger meat.

“Uh. I see.”

Nephis looked at the sky and cleared her throat.novelbin

“It should be fine now. We still have time before the sun sets.”

After that, she got busy making the fire. Cassia simply sat on a pile of seaweed and waited. Notknowing what to do, Sunny lowered himself to the ground and let his tired, bruised body rest.

After a while, he said:

“I have fresh meat in my rucksack. Do you have water?”

Cassia smiled.

“Yes!”

After that, she extended an arm to him. A second later, a beautiful bottle made of patterned blue glassappeared in her hand.

“That’s a Memory I have. It’s always full.”

Sunny took the glass bottle and looked at it with envy.

‘An endless supply of water, huh? Sure beats my super loud bell!’

“Thank you.”

He brought the bottle to his lips and greedily drank the cool, delicious water. Indeed, no matter howmuch he drank, the amount of water inside did not seem to decrease.

“Is it really endless?”

Cassia touched her hair again.

“Uh… not really. If you turn it upside down and let the water flow, it will stop in half an hour or so. Butthen it will be full again pretty soon.”

At that time, Nephis was already done making the fire. Without looking up, she took Sunny’s rucksackand opened it. Immediately, the soul shard rolled out. The tall girl looked at it, then at Sunny. Then sheput the shard back in and pulled out the meat.

Sunny became tense, preparing a misleading answer. But Nephis did not ask. So, he pretended likenothing had happened and continued his conversation with Cassia.

“It’s still a great Memory. Getting drinkable water is not an easy task!”

Cassia nodded and smiled, pleased by his words.

Soon, the rich smell of roasting meat permeated the air. At the same time, the sun was beginning toapproach the horizon; a loud rumble came from somewhere beneath, and first traces of the black waterbegan to appear between crimson walls of the labyrinth.

Sunny looked east, where the skies were already growing dark. Then he uncomfortably shifted.

“Do scavengers come all the way up here?”

Nephis turned the meat and nodded.

“Yes. But… only at night. In the day, most of them seem to disappear.”

Sunny grinned, having an idea of why there weren’t a lot of monsters in the labyrinth in the day.

“That’s because they all gather near the place I had been spending my time recently. You should haveseen it — the tall cliff to the west of here. Well, it’s actually a statue.”

Cassia opened her eyes wide.

“A… a statue? But for you to survive, it should be…”

“Yes, it’s a giant statue of a knight, at least two hundred meters tall. He is missing his head, so I hid ontop of the neck. Anyway… the day we were sent here, two sea creatures fought each other near thatstatue. When the water receded, I saw an enormous carcass lying there, with hundreds of scavengersslowly tearing it apart.”

Nephis nodded.

“That would explain the lack of Nightmare Creature in the day. How long?”

Sunny blinked.

“How long what?”

Changing Star stared at him for a few seconds, making everyone feel uncomfortable.

“How long… until they are done devouring the carcass?”

“Oh. One day more, two at most.”

Nephis turned away, took the meat away from the fire, and then quickly extinguished it.

‘There’s definitely something wrong with that girl!’

The three of them ate in the dimming light of the twilight. The meat was juicy, tender and indescribablydelicious. It was better than anything Sunny had ever tasted, even back in the Academy’s cafeteria. Ofcourse, his excruciating hunger played a part in that.

From time to time, they would pass the glass bottle to each other.

When they were finished with their meal, the dark sea was back, and the night was upon them.Everything was consumed by absolute darkness.

Of course, Sunny could easily see both Nephis and Cassia. Under the cover of the night, ChangingStar remained pretty much the same. The blind girl, however, allowed her true emotions to show,thinking that no one would see. She seemed much more lost, lonely and frightened than she did in theday.

As if trying to resist these feelings, Cassia said in a bright voice:

“How about we formally introduce ourselves? I’m Cassie.”

Nephis glanced in her direction and shrugged.

“Neph.”

Next, it was Sunny’s turn. He exhaled, glad that they didn’t ask his name directly. Most likely, he wouldstill have been able to provide his human name — however, it also might have depended on thewording of the question.

Relieved, he smiled and answered:

“I’m Sunless. But you can call me Sunny.”