Rain's arms were screaming at her actions, but she couldn't stop, not when she was being yelled at.
"Rain! Rain! Are you even listening?! " her teacher shouted obnoxiously.
"Yes, teacher, I am," Rain huffed.
"Good, but just for that attitude, that's five more minutes!" Her teacher declared.
'What?! That's not fair!" Rain groaned as she felt that her arms were beginning to shake.
"Hush, brat, and concentrate on your training. The more you huff and puff, the more time I'll add, and the more tired you'll feel," Sunny, her teacher, chided.
"Yes, teacher," Rain sighed, thinking back to how this day began a few hours ago.
"Teacher, why do I have to do this?" Rain groaned, shielding her eyes from the sunlight.
"Brat! It's because you never know when you'll have to stay in one place for a long time! There are nightmare creatures who will kill you at the slightest movement you make while you're in their peripheral vision. Hell, even pollen or moss can kill you if you're not careful enough!" Her teacher berated Rain.
'Why the hell would pollen or moss kill me?'
Rain had to remember that her teacher was a saint, so he likely encountered such things.
"You must also be aware of your surroundings and the people around you! Some creatures can mimic voices. I encountered one when I was a young boy. You think being awakened is all peachy?"
"Well-" She began.
"No! It's not!" Her teacher cut her off.
"Yes, teacher." Rain sighed.
"Don't sigh, do a handstand, and hurry up, we don't have all day!"
That was why Rain was doing a handstand for endurance training, as her teacher said two hours ago.
'Endurance, my ass!'
This had to be a form of torture!
This was cruel and unjust punishment, and she didn't even do anything wrong!
"How am I doing, teacher?" Rain asked, her exhaustion beginning to take over.
"You're doing well, I guess." Teacher shrugged absentmindedly in front of her with a pondering look on his face.
'You guess?!' She stared at him in outrage while he began to pace in front of her.
Ever since last week, he had been preoccupied with something, complaining about not trusting someone; in fact, her teacher was rambling about it again.
"Help me with my plans, huh? I wouldn't trust that bastard to choose my coffee beans! Let alone something as grand as this! But then again, we do need the help, and he knows a lot about the third one as well as the mirror maze and the demon of imagination, even if he didn't mention it. He has to know about them; it would make sense considering his powers." Rain's teacher moved to pace between a few trees with a conflicted expression.
Third one?
Mirror Maze?
Demon of imagination?
What the hell was he going on about?!
Had her teacher finally snapped?
"Teacher, am I done yet?" Rain felt her arms shake more and more.
"Hm? Oh yes, you're done. Come on, let's go, it's getting dark." Her teacher nodded, walking off into the forest, and Rain immediately collapsed with a gasp.
"It's about damn time!" She cried out and attempted to stretch, but her muscles screamed in protest at the action, so she stopped instead, choosing to look at the back of her retreating teacher for support.
"No," He told her, still walking without looking back.
"Fine!" Rain groaned and hissed in pain as she tried to get up slowly.
'Damnation!'
Rain's Teacher could be awful sometimes.
She let out another groan and dragged herself to where her teacher had walked off, only to see that he had stopped walking. Hearing Rain's heavy footsteps, her teacher turned to look behind him and let out a long sigh.
"Your teacher is feeling sympathetic for his student, get on, brat." He slightly bent his knees, and she gladly climbed on his back.
"You're the best, teacher." Rain let out a yawn and allowed her head to rest on his shoulder. Despite all the badmouthing she gave him, Rain couldn't deny that she felt safe around her teacher.
"Yes, yes, I know I am, but never mind that, this will be a light jog, so you'll be fine," He informed her with a scoff and made his way back to Raven Heart.
Rain watched silently as he made his way through the frozen forest at what her teacher considered a light jog, but to Rain it was at frightening speeds. Her surroundings were a blur, causing her to become dizzy. The cold wind hit her face like small glass shards, causing Rain to have to bury her face in the back of her teacher's shoulder.
"Teacher! Slow down!" Rain shouted, hoping her teacher would be able to hear her through the sound of the wind howling past him as he ran toward Raven Heart.
"What is it?" Her teacher slowed to a stop, and Rain lifted her face from his shoulder, her expression one of dazed confusion.
"You call that a jog?!" She cried out.
"Yeah, I do! Maybe if you'd stop fooling around, you would already be awakened and be able to attempt to keep up with me!" Her teacher glanced over his shoulder at her.
"It's not that easy! You even said that it would be the most difficult task of all time!" Rain glared at the back of his head.
"Did I?" He gave her a confused look over his shoulder.
"Yes!" She snapped at him.
"That's no excuse! Maybe if you spent as much time training as you do complaining, you would have already naturally awakened!" He started walking again.
Rain gave him a hard stare and took a look around, only to be met with darkness. Night had fallen over Ravenheart, but Rain felt comfort knowing that her teacher was here.
Of course, she would never admit that to him.
After a few minutes of silence, Rain suddenly asked. "Teacher, why did you decide to move to Raven Heart and open up an Emporium?"
"For a change of scenery." His voice sounded strangely distant, and his tone held a hint of sadness.
"Oh, okay." Rain nodded but couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't being truthful.
"Well, now that I'm here, I realize that Raven Heart isn't exactly the best for scenery, especially because the weather here is awful. But then again, the weather isn't really a part of the scenery, is it? The architecture in Raven Heart makes up for the weather, so I guess it's not all that." His tone became upbeat again.
"Actually, teacher, the weather is a part of the scenery." Rain gave him a strange look.
"Well, what do you know, you actually do pay attention to what I say, I was hoping you would catch that." He let out a small chuckle.
Over the years, she had noticed that whenever there was a topic that her teacher considered sensitive, he would stray away from it with his whimsical stories or ramblings.
Rain never called him out on it because she felt like it wasn't her place to. But Rain would be lying if she said she didn't want her teacher to trust her as much as she trusted him.
Who was she kidding?
The only thing she trusted him with was being consistently inconsistent!
But she still felt the need to change the subject.
"Teacher, where did you and Princess Eunbin go?" She eyed the back of his head suspiciously.
"The beach," He lightly shrugged, passing over a small snow-covered hill.
"Where did you go after?"
"Her room, and then I went in there to lie on her bed and we-" He began, although Rain could only see the back of his head, his tone gave her the impression that he was smiling.
"No, no, no! That's too much information, you can't just go around saying stuff like that!" Rain cut him off and rapidly shook her head, watching them reach a frozen lake.
"What? We only had a conversation, quit assuming things and being so perverted, brat!" Without stopping, her teacher casually stepped onto the lake and formed stepping stones out of darkness.
"I'm not being perverted, you should have articulated it better!" Rain rebuttaled but was momentarily distracted by her teacher's form of getting over the lake.
Slowly but surely, they were getting closer to home.
"I would have if you had let me finish." He shook his head with a sigh.
Having nothing else to say, Rain chose to stay silent for the rest of the time and watch. Sunless, no, even in her head, it still felt weird to say his real name.
Rain rapidly shook her head and instead watched as 'her teacher' passed docile nightmare creatures that had been made into thralls by Princess Eunbin. Some of them even started to walk beside them as they made their way back, but eventually they strayed off, presumably returning to their original location.
After ten minutes of her teacher carrying Rain, he finally put her down so she could walk with him to the entrance guards. They were both beautiful, awakened women who greeted her with smiles, and for some reason, they smiled wider when they saw Rain's teacher, but it didn't quite reach their eyes.
"Ah, Little sister, Master Sunless getting back from your adventures, I see." Both of them held out a rose for each other.
Rain held it for a moment before giving it back, as did her teacher.
"Yes, that's right, I figured it would do this girl some good not to be cooped up in her home! I recall the moment you both greeted me when I first arrived here. How have you two been? " Her teacher smiled at them.
"We have been well. I know my way around the forest, so I can give a tour of it sometime whenever you are free, Master Sunless, so that you have no chance of getting lost." The woman smiled sweetly.
"Oh, I would love that, but I have much to do. Thank you for the offer, though." He bowed.
"Really? That's okay, maybe later~ If Lady Eunbin is what's stopping you, I can assure you that she doesn't have to know." She was stopped when an elbow nudged her side.
"Yes, really, I appreciate your help." He forced a smile and walked off, motioning for Rain to follow.
"Teacher, what was that about?" Rain eyed him as they walked through the quiet streets of Raven Heart.
"I am wondering the same thing you are." He shrugged but suddenly stopped staring at something in the darkness, then resumed walking, only this time he headed towards it.
Rain could make out a figure walking in the darkness, and just before she could wonder who it was, there was a shout beside her.
"Nightingale!" Her teacher called out, causing Rain to look at him strangely and for Nightingale to freeze in place and slowly turn around.
"Ah, Saint-uh I mean Master Sunless, g-good evening! Good evening to you as well, Rain." Saint Nightingale forced a smile and bowed to them.
***
"How are you doing? What brings you here at this time of night?" Sunny gave Kai a hard stare at the slip-up but smiled and bowed nonetheless.
"I am uh, well, I was just looking for yo- I mean, The Lord of Shadows! The queen told me to summon him; the song sisters are already in the throne room waiting as well." Kai let out a wavering smile at Sunny.
Sunny glared at him, but inwardly waved it off; he was more concerned about why the queen wanted him there at this time of night.
Did she know about their plans?
Was she planning to kill him?
Had Mordret betrayed him already?
No, not even that lunatic would do something like that so soon. Mordret still needed Sunny and Nephis.
"Alright, I'm sure Lord Shadow is sulking around here somewhere. Rain, head on home and get some good rest." Sunny gave her a pat on the head, causing her to swat his hand away tiredly.
"Goodnight, Saint Night, goodnight teacher." He watched Rain walk off before slipping into her shadow, and immediately afterward, his original body emerged from the shadows, clad in onyx armor and wearing Weaver's mask. His last avatar was too busy fighting Nightmare creatures, so he brought this one.
"We will talk later," Kai began to float in the air.
"You're not coming?" Sunny tilted his head.
"No, I have a meeting with people, it's imperative." Kai looked at him thoughtfully.
Sunny immediately knew that he was talking about Mordret's proposal that Cassie had informed them about after the Prince of Nothing left.
Sunny silently nodded and made his way to the palace, extending his shadow sense as far as he could, looking for any possibility of an ambush set by the queen. He did this all the way until he made it up to the entrance, silently stalking past the nervous guards of the palace.
He walked down and opened the doors to the throne to be met with seven beautiful women staring at him. Eunbin stared at him for a moment before a ghost of a smile graced her lips, and she, along with her sisters, turned around and knelt to their mother, who was silently staring at him.
"Lord Shadow, it is good that you arrived so quickly, I suppose I should not be surprised considering what your transformation is." The corpse of the girl sleeper on her right held a small smile.
Wanting to keep any misunderstanding from happening because of Weaver's mask, Sunny wordlessly nodded his head.
"We will get to why I brought you here in a moment but first I have a question that I would like to ask." The corpse of the boy sleeper on her left gestured for him to move closer while Ki Song's original body leaned forward.
"And what might that be, Queen Song?" Sunny walked a couple of meters past the song sisters and kneeled in front of the throne.
"Which do you prefer for me to address you as, Lord Shadow or Saint Sunless?" Both sleepers raised an eyebrow.
Sunny froze when his flaw forced him to answer.
"Neither, in fact, I have no idea who Saint Sunless or Lord Shadow is. Are you certain you haven't gone mad, your highness?"
Gods help him, he was a dead man.