Shadow Slave novel Chapter 38

Chapter 38 Questions In The Dark

Sleep was avoiding Sunny. For a while, he sat silently in the darkness, listening to the calming rumbling of the waves. In this rare moment of respite, memories of the past few days came flooding into his mind. However, he was too tired to seriously think about anything. He was warm, full, and relatively safe. For now, that was more than enough.

Soon, the rhythm of Cassia's breathing changed, indicating that she fell asleep. Nephis was guarding the camp, motionless and, as always, a bit distant. With her silver hair and fair skin, she looked like an alabaster statue.

Sunny sighed. He struggled for a bit, and then said quietly:

"Hey. Can I ask you a question?"

Nephis glanced at him and shrugged. The lack of an audible response clearly indicated that she remembered about his ability to see in the dark.

"Sure."

'Would it be too personal?'

Sunny hesitated.

"I thought you Legacies come into the Spell with a whole inherited arsenal of Memories. I mean, that's supposed to be your main advantage. How come you only had three?"

Nephis was silent for a few moments.

"Actually, I only had two. The rope came from Cassie."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh. I see."

Realizing that her answer wasn't really an answer, Nephis thought for a while and added:

"We lost most of our Memories when my father passed away. The ones that remained were sold one by one over the years, to keep the family afloat. This sword and armor came from my First Nightmare."

So that's how it was. Sunny realized that the fall of the Immortal Flame clan might have been more thorough than he had thought. Still, something about it didn't make sense.

"Surely, with your clan's reputation and standing, there were other ways to make money."

Without any strong reaction, Nephis simply said:

"There were other reasons."

Then, she unexpectedly turned her head in his direction.

"Can I ask you a question in return?"

Sunny swallowed.

"Yeah, go ahead."

Nephis tilted her head.

"How did you know that I'm a Legacy?"

'What? That's it?'

"Simple. I heard Caster mention it. He was scolding other Sleepers to make them treat you with respect."

She gave him a nod and turned away. What thoughts were hidden behind her calm grey eyes, Sunny did not know.

Some time had passed before he gathered enough courage to ask the question that he really wanted to ask. Before doing it, though, he made sure that Cassie was sound asleep and lowered his voice.

"Can I ask another question?"

Without getting a negative response, he continued:

"Why are you burdening yourself with her?"

A corner of Changing Star's mouth curled up slightly.

"Why? Wouldn't you?"

Sunny gritted his teeth, feeling the Flaw pushing the truthful answer out of his mouth.

"No."

To be honest, he wanted to believe to the last moment that the answer would be "yes". But one of the things he had lost after the Nightmare was the ability to lie to himself. Truth was merciless.

It's not that Sunny did not pity the blind girl or didn't want to help her. It's just that he knew with certainty that it was simply not something he could do. He was barely able to save himself, let alone carry a helpless person across the Dream Realm. If he tried, they would just die together.

Still, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed in himself.

Nephis, however, did not seem to judge him. She showed no reaction at all. After a few moments, she simply said:

"Because I want to."

'Because… she wants to?'

That was not the response Sunny expected to hear. He was pretty sure that she would either lecture him about virtue and compassion or disclose some obscure way to make Cassie's seemingly weak Ability incredibly useful.

However, she did neither. Nephis expected him to believe that she was putting her life in danger, to the point of sacrificing an awakened armor-type Memory, because that was something she simply wanted to do.

'Ridiculous!'

At first, he dismissed her response as a non-answer. But the more he thought about it, the more disturbed he felt.

Because, maybe, it was actually the truth.

Due to the circumstances of his life, Sunny had never really done things because he wanted to. Most of the time, he was doing them because he needed to. It was never a question of "want"... it was always a question of "must". For him, this was a basic rule of life.

But was it really? Or was it just a matter of perspective? Nephis had certain advantages in her upbringing, but they weren't as ample as he had imagined. She had no wealth and no arsenal of relics to empower her. However, she did have a mentality that was different from Sunny's.

It wasn't impossible for her to have the audacity to disregard need in favor of something as frivolous as desire, and do things that a normal person like Sunny would never do.

Like helping a blind girl simply because that was what Nephis wanted to do.

Perhaps, that mentality was the greatest advantage of all.

Perhaps, that was the real barrier that separated Legacies from the rest of them.

That was a lot to think about. However, before Sunny could gather his thoughts, Nephis suddenly spoke again.

"My turn."