SHADOW SLAVE

Eventually, Sunny climbed out of the bath, dressed himself, and moved to the kitchen to make himself something to eat.

After the intense gauntlet of the Gate battle, he was hungry like a wolf. Ravenous, really…

Cooking calmed him down a little, and the pleasant smell made his mood a bit better. Now that Sunny had some time to think, he saw the whole situation in a new light.

Yes, his hope for Mongrel to be forgotten was utterly shattered. But there was a bright side to this fiasco — now that he had completely failed to keep a low profile… there was no more reason to. Which meant that he could resume practicing Shadow Dance in the Dreamscape, and hopefully master its second step before winter came.

He just had to rethink how he viewed the persona of Mongrel.

Initially, Sunny had planned for it to be unseen and anonymous, merely a camouflage he would put on to accomplish certain things — things that were inconvenient or too dangerous to be tied to his own name.

…Well, that ship had sailed. He was pretty sure that from now on, anything having to do with Mongrel was going to be at the center of people’s attention.

But that wasn’t necessarily bad. There were ways to remain unseen even in the spotlight. In fact, sometimes it was easier — all magicians knew that the secret to pulling off a flawless trick was not to become invisible, but to direct the crowd’s attention toward something eye-catching and away from the hand performing the switch.

Sunny was not a magician, but he did consider himself to be an experienced cheat. The principle was more or less the same.

So if he played his cards right, the more attention Mongrel received, the more freedom he would have to move unseen in the shadows, accomplishing his goals under everyone’s noses with no one being the wiser.

“Maybe…”

Such a thing was hard to accomplish and hid more risk, but also promised a greater reward. So, not all was lost.

Plus, he had protected Rain. That was the only thing that really mattered. Everything else paled in comparison.

Sunny finished his decadently generous dinner and moved to the porch. Sitting in the shade, he relaxed, grimaced a little due to pain, and took a sip of tea.

He was suddenly in a great mood. And why wouldn’t he be? It was finally time to take a look at his spoils. The battle might have been hard and had almost cost him his life, but he had not fought for nothing.

Summoning the runes, Sunny glanced at the familiar string of them and smiled.

Shadow Fragments: [1814/2000].

‘Incredible…’

In just ten or so minutes, Sunny had gained more shadow fragments than he usually did in weeks.

From what Sunny remembered, he slaughtered almost a hundred Nightmare Creatures in front of the Gate. Granted, most of them were of the Dormant Rank and had not contributed any fragments to his growing cores, but still, it was a monumental accomplishment.

It made him think back to the first abomination he had ever slain, the Mountain King’s Larva. How tense and terrifying that fight had been, how convinced he was that the perverse creature would kill him. Who would have thought that one day in a not-too-distant future, he would be able to slaughter a hundred Nightmare Creatures of similar and greater power without being torn to pieces?

Sunny had come so far…

Lowering his gaze, he glanced at the runes describing his Memories and couldn’t contain a delighted grin.

‘Oh, I was so lucky today…’

Without even counting the obsidian spear he had gotten and then swiftly lost to the tyrant, there were six new Memories in his arsenal, most of them of the Awakened Rank.

Sunny studied them for a bit and, coming to the conclusion that none were better than his current ones or performed something he wasn’t already capable of, dove into the Soul Sea.

He fed the Memories to Saint and looked at her runes, satisfied with what he saw:

Shadow Fragments: [179/200].

‘So close…’

At this rate, he would probably be able to reach the full two hundred before having to go into battle with the vine creature inhabiting the wreck of the ancient ship. If Saint grew even more powerful before then, her presence was going to change a lot of things.

Sunny drank his tea in the peaceful silence of the terrace district, grimacing from time to time because of the pain in his bruised body. But even the pain couldn’t spoil his mood.

“Ah, today was a good day…”

He watched Rain be brought home in a PTV, made sure that she was fine… well, as fine as a young girl could be after experiencing a close brush with an opening Gate… and went inside.

He was due for some well-deserved rest.

***

In the evening, when the sun hid behind the horizon and the street lamps were flooding the city with pale white light, Sunny was resting in his living room, doing nothing in particular. He was lazily scrolling through the pages of a popular webtoon and appreciating the twists and turns of its simple story.

‘Crazy. Do people really think about such stuff?’

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a strange sound. It took Sunny a couple of seconds to realize what it was, since he had never heard it in this house before.

Someone was knocking on the door.

‘What the hell…’

Who could be visiting him at this late hour?

Putting the communicator away, Sunny sent his shadow to take a look and scratched the back of his head in confusion.

…Standing on his porch was none other than Rain, wearing her cozy home clothes and looking uncharacteristically nervous.

‘What is she doing here?’

For a moment, Sunny considered pretending that he wasn’t home, but then sighed and stood up. There was no point in hiding, since they literally lived almost next to each other. Walking over to the door, he lingered a second or two, made sure that none of his bruises were showing, and then opened it.

“Uh… yeah? What’s up?”

Not knowing that Sunny had already seen how nervous she was, Rain pretended to be calm and gave him a polite smile.

“Hey, Sunny. I… the food container? Mom wants it back.”

He stared at her for a couple of seconds.

“Oh. Wait here…”

He walked to the kitchen, retrieved the container from the dishwasher machine, and returned to the porch.

“Here. Tell your mom that her cooking is delicious. We really enjoyed it!”

Rain took the container, but didn’t leave. Instead, she just stood there silently, looking at him with a tense expression.

Sunny frowned.

“Can I…”

But at that exact moment, she suddenly blurted out:

“I know who you are!”

If Sunny had a drink in hand, he would undoubtedly do a spit take.

‘What?!’

As his heart almost stopped, he looked at Rain with a deadpan expression. Maintaining it cost him a lot, though.

‘What does she think she knows?!’

“…Well, of course you know who I am. I introduced myself when we met for the first time, didn’t I?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. After a bit of an awkward pause, Rain said:

“No, I mean… I know that you are an Awakened.”

Sunny blinked a couple of times, but before he could come up with something to say, she hurriedly continued:

“Sorry! It’s just… my dad works for the government, so he knows such things. You are so young, with no parents, but are able to afford a house in this neighborhood. Plus, you don’t go to a university or to work. So… you are an Awakened, aren’t you?”

‘Solid reasoning…’

He hesitated, then simply shrugged.

“Sure. Not like it’s a big secret, anyway.”

Rain remained silent for a few moments, and then asked:

“…Are you any good?”

Sunny stared at her for a bit. Then, a grin slowly appeared on his face.

​ “Me? Oh… the best of the best! Probably the strongest Awakened in the world, really. No one else can even compare.”

A slight scowl appeared on Rain’s face.

“I’m being serious! Are you any good or not?”

Sunny lingered for a moment, then sighed.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Why are you asking?”

Rain looked at him for a while, as if gathering courage.

Then, she clenched her fists and blurted:

“Can… can you train me?”

Sunny stared at her, dumbfounded.

‘Well, I’ll be damned. That took an unexpected turn…’