Shadow Slave

"Uh… sure."

One day Kai would inevitably learn that Sunny was not as honest of a person as he considered him to be, but until then, having the naive archer believe in this ridiculous notion was rather... beneficial.

Turning away with a bit of awkwardness, Sunny glanced at Caster and called:

"Next!"

The proud Legacy was looking at Nightingale with a heavy expression. Hearing Sunny's voice, he lingered for a moment and then shook his head.

It seemed that Caster did not want to play his game.

Sunny was also suddenly painfully aware that between the six of them, four people had openly shared their Flaws with the rest, be it out of necessity or because of trust. Only two had not.

One of the two was Sunny, and the other one was Caster.

Sunny knew why he was hiding his Flaw from everyone, but what was the proud scion's reason? It sort of went against his whole honorable and dependable persona. With how devoted he acted toward Nephis and the cohort, it was strange to see him keeping secrets.

Was his reason the same as Sunny's, a dire vulnerability that the Flaw would uncover? Or was there some other reason? Maybe he didn't trust the members of the cohort as much as he tried to make them think he did.

And if so… why?

With a shrug, Sunny left Caster alone. There was no point in lingering on these thoughts now. Until he had more information, any conclusion he could make would be useless, anyway.

Looking at Cassie, he smiled and said:

"Hey, Cas. Wanna give it a try?"

The blind girl hesitated for a bit, and then slowly approached him.

While she was walking over, Sunny couldn't help but think back to a conversation he had with her in the distant past. Back then, Cassie had told him that knowledge could be the heaviest thing in the world. The burden of her Flaw, while completely different from Kai's, was at the same time eerily similar.

They both longed for the bliss of ignorance, but were doomed to always bear the crushing weight of unwanted knowledge.

When Sunny thought about it, he found that all members of the cohort were connected with each other by invisible strings. Many things about them were like reflections, simultaneously the same, but also completely opposite.

Like the fact that he could tell no lie, while Kai could not be lied to. Or the fact that Nephis was like sunlight, while he was made of shadows. Cassie could not see, while he had basically two pairs of eyes. Changing Star dreamed of destroying the Nightmare Spell, but Effie dreamed of making it her paradise.

And so on.

Were these the strings of fate? Or was he just making empty connections because that was what humans were prone to do?

Come to think of it, only Caster didn't seem to be connected to any of them in any kind of a meaningful way. What was that all about?

Cassie sat down near Sunny, pulling him out of his thoughts.

He forced out a smile.

"Ah, right. Just like I said, the roles might have switched. So, what is your question?"

Cassie smiled and gestured to the shadow.

"My question is: if I were to ask Sunny which one of you has the treasure, what would he say?"

Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then gave the Ordinary Stone a mental command to speak one of the answers that he had whispered to it in advance.

In the same comically deep voice, the shadow seemed to speak:

"...The shadow has it."

Cassie nodded and turned to Sunny with subtle glee on her exquisite, doll-like face.

"Sunny, you have the treasure. Give."

With that, she expectantly outstretched her hand.

With a disappointed sigh, Sunny put the ascended soul shard in her palm and said in a listless voice:

"Congratulations. You've won. Great job, yay."

Cassie grasped the shard and giggled.

Meanwhile, Effie leaned forward with a bewildered look:

"What?! That's it?!"

She stared at the blind girl in astonishment, and then asked:

"How the hell did you do it?"

Cassie smiled and crushed the shard in her small fist, absorbing the soul essence. Then, she shook her head and said:

"It's simple, really. No matter who you ask about the other person's answer, their answer will always be the opposite of the correct one. That's because the Awakened would have to tell the truth about the lie, while the devil would have to tell a lie about the truth. Do you understand?"

Effie thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"Nope. All the words you said seem to be familiar, but I don't understand crap. What do you even mean?"

Cassie laughed.

"Well, you should think about it in your free time. Or, you know… just beat Sunny up the next time he decides to tease you with such riddles."

With that, she went away, quite happy with herself.

Sunny watched her go with his mouth wide open.

'Did she really just say that?!'

Meanwhile, the perplexed huntress was staring at Sunny with a deep frown.

"Yeah… I might just do that the next time…"

He paled.

"What's up with that? This was an honest competition! Don't be a sore loser!"

Effie grinned menacingly.

"Sore? Let's see which one of use will be sore when I'm done with you."

'What… what kind of soreness does she mean, I wonder? Wait, no! Why would I wonder about that?!'

Standing up, Sunny glanced at Effie and scoffed.

"Who's going to be done with who? Don't flatter yourself, beanpole."

With that, he walked away with contempt clearly written all over his face.

His pace, however, was suspiciously hurried.

***

A while later, the day was drawing to a close. Some of the Memories had already restored themselves, so almost everyone was wearing their clothes and armors.

Which, as far as Sunny was concerned, was a real shame.

...From a purely aesthetic point of view, of course!

However, something else attracted his full attention.

At the far end of the marble arch, Nephis and Caster were standing facing each other, with sharp swords in their hands.

They were about to clash...