(Audun's POV)
After leaving Sunny for the demon that would inevitably come his way, I made my way to the meeting spot that Cassie and I agreed on.
Well, I call it a meeting spot, but it was the same spot that we had met the night before, Cassie's room.
She had proposed other, more private spots, but I wasn't about to make a blind person trek out to some secluded area of the outer settlement, much less by herself.
Arriving back at the lodge in a blink, I hastily made my way up the stairs and entered Cassie's room under the veil of starlight I had conjured to hide myself from prying eyes.
For the sake of her reputation, we deemed it necessary to make sure that we weren't caught in the same room alone.
Regardless, when I entered, Cassie was already waiting there for me.
I closed the door rather crudely, making enough noise to catch the oracle's attention.
"Audun, is that you?"
"Nah, it's Caster."
"Hah~ Come on, we don't have that much time."
I gave Cassie an exasperated sigh as I walked closer to her.
"So, boss? How much time do we have exactly?"
She shrugged.
"When I foresaw them having their spat, it was sometime around sunset, so about 4-5 hours give or take."
"That's... more time than I thought."
"It's just a guess, though. If we're unlucky, our actions might have inadvertently accelerated the quarrel."
I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, about that. What were you thinking, giving Sunny the [Endless Spring]? When I was doing sword training with him earlier, he was ranting to me about how suspicious you were acting-"
Cassie scoffed, interrupting me.
"You can't be talking."
She mimicked my voice mockingly.
"'Just look at the rabbits, my sweet, oblivious summer child'"
My brow furrowed.
"You... heard that?"
She nodded.
"And Sunny did too. You're lucky he doesn't read."
A chuckle escaped my lips.
"Alright, alright. That was a little hypocritical of me. But in my defense, I couldn't help myself! We're sending lil ol' innocent Sunny into the argument of doom and despair, y'know?"
Cassie couldn't suppress a small, amused smile, but she quickly regained her serious expression as she coughed into her fist.
"Hey, on the topic of the argument, what do they even end up fighting about?"
The oracle shrugged.
"Just ask Sunny. You'll be staying with him for a few months anyway."
"Fair enough."
Cradling her head in her hand, Cassie let out a tired sigh.
"So, how are you're preparations going?"
"Not bad, honestly. I already found a place to live, found a sword style that suits him, and I secured a few training partners-"
"Training partners?"
"Yeah, just a couple of nightmare creatures."
Cassie gave me a weird look, but I just shrugged it off.
"What about you? You almost done?"
The oracle sighed tiredly.
"Yeah... I guess you could say that. I finished writing down the timeline for you."
She fished out a roll of parchment from a pouch tied around her waist.
Handing it to me, Cassie gave me a serious look.
"If any big changes happen, I'll contact you and we'll figure it out. But for now, I think that's about it."
"Alright, got it."
Cassie gave me a hesitant smile.
"Uhm... since we're finished with that... you should probably leave soon. Neph is going to storm up here after their little argument, and I'm pretty sure you could go without hearing what she's gonna say..."
"Fair enough."
I turned around, but paused, remembering something.
"Before I forget-"
I walked over to Cassie and held up her hand as she gave me a confused look.
A jolt of electricity passed from me to her as I transferred over a memory.
She frowned.
"[Oath of Patience]?"
"It's a memory I bought in the Bright Castle. I thought it'd make it easier to communicate, y'know? When you put it on, you'll be able to send messages to me no matter how far I am."
Cassie gave me a faint smile.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it... Well, I should probably finish furnishing my new residence. I'll leave Nephis to you."
"Hah~ don't remind me..."
I let out a chuckle.
"Well, just call me with the ring if you need me~"
I turned around and briskly walked out the door, hiding myself from Nephis' helpers.
Though unbeknownst to me, if I had decided to linger for a few seconds longer, I would've borne witness to Cassie's face lighting up like a Christmas tree as she read the Memories description.
Or at least, so I've been told...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(A Few Hours Later)
I had finally finished cleaning the upper floor of the cathedral, in no small part thanks to my unfriendly roommate downstairs.
I swear, every single time I come down the stairs, Blackie is already there waiting to shred me apart with his big, inconvenient sword.
Well, to be fair, it was more of a minor annoyance, the kind that you could kind of just brush off, rather than a serious threat.
But it still made tidying up the top floor more of a hassle than it had any right to be, something that I made abundantly clear when I socked the fuck out of the cosplaying abomination.
And now, as the sky darkened and the forgotten shore entered into the early hours of the night, Blackie and I were ready to welcome a new roommate.
'They should've finished their argument by now... right? Cassie only gave me a general idea of when I'd have to pick up traumatized Sunny.'
Scanning the ruins from a nearby window, I picked up no traces of the sleeper, and thus a small grain of worry embedded itself in my heart.
Acting quickly, I left the Cathedral, not forgetting to cut off a couple of blackies limbs, and darted into the ruins.
I ran around frantically, using the Star of Memory to guide me through the ruins.
Eventually, after about half an hour of sprinting, I found the blank-faced form of my target.
Sunny was walking in the dark with an empty look on his face, the mask of an expression he wore betraying no emotion.
He was empty, thoughtless, and though he wasn't wounded physically, his psyche had taken a devastating blow.
Nephis had clearly, for lack of a better term, fucked his shit up, and the profoundly vacant look on Sunny's face was the result.
'Oof, he looks like he just got broken up with... I guess Cassie was right.'
"Sunny!"
I leaped from my observation spot, landing gracefully behind the depressed looking sleeper.
"...Audun...?"
His voice was quite hollow, but there was still a hint of inexplicable emotion embedded in his tone.
I jogged up to him and gave him a quick scan, a genuine frown spreading across my face.
"Why're you out here this late at night? And... what happened? You look awful!"
Sunny blinked, his expression regaining some of the dimension it had previously lost, warping his mouth into a bitter smile.
"I've just had a lot on my mind, and I'm taking a walk to calm myself down."
I nodded slowly, the beginnings of a worried frown tugging at the corner of my mouth.
"Are you ok..?"
Sunny hummed in agreement.
"Yeah."
"You know, what I said still stands. If you ever need anyone to talk to, if it feels like the entire world is against you... You can always come to me. You know that, right?"
He fell silent as he turned his gaze to the distant silhouette of the Bright Castle.
"Yeah. I know."
He hesitated for a moment, his expression shifting into something more complex... more conflicted."
"I just- I just had a talk with Neph. That's all."
My brow raised subconsciously.
"It doesn't look like that talk went very well."
Sunny's expression twisted into a grimace.
"...yeah."
I just fell silent, flashing the sleeper a more serious look.
"Are you... going back?"
He gave me a blank look.
"I... Don't know."
A sigh broke free of his lips, one that shattered the emptiness blanketing his form.
"I don't think I can go back... Not while knowing what I know now."
I closed the distance between the two of us, firmly clasping my hands over his shoulders, and stared him dead in the eye.
"Then don't. Don't go back."
He gave me a confused look as I continued.
"You weren't happy there. I could tell that every day that you spent being a part of that cohort was hurting you, even if you weren't aware."
I shook my head lightly.
"I've spent the last month watching as you're smile slowly faded from your face, watched as you were hurt by the indifferent way that everyone treated you. It hurt me too, y'know? It genuinely hurt to see my friend fade into the background, unwillingly stripped of the spotlight that we were all supposed to share. Nephis is too caught up in her own schemes, in her own grand ambitions, to realize that what she's doing is tearing everything apart, though, I'm not sure if she even cares."
A bitter smile spread across my face.
"I tried, I truly tried to keep everything together, and yet, despite all my strength, I was rendered powerless, forced to watch as my friend was hurt... by my other friend."
"But... I'm done now. I'm tired of it all."
My mind unconsciously drifted back to the talk I had with Cassie a day ago, but I focused back on the topic.
"So-"
I gestured in the direction of the Bright Castle and the Outer settlement with a crude finger.
"Fuck them. Fuck those desperate, self-righteous pricks and their stupidly hypocritical ideals."
Sunny blinked, and a vicious sneer spread across my face.
"Let's leave those assholes behind. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty done with all of this political bull shit."
For the first time, Sunny spoke up with a meek tone.
"But... Neph-
I barked out a laugh.
"Why do you care so much about her, huh?"
I jabbed a finger into the sleeper's chest.
"Nephis and all those like her stand atop towering mountains of ambition. Mountains so tall that they can't see those below them."
My mouth morphed into a scowl.
"People like her refuse to acknowledge ambitions or ideas less grand than their own, much less from people they perceive to be weaker than them."
I shrugged.
"Sure, Nephis may care about you. Sure, she might listen to what you have to say, but at the end of the day, you are nothing in the face of her goals."
Sunny frowned.
"What are you trying to say?"
I grinned at him.
"Cassie's vision and Nephis' goal- Those aren't things that you, as you are right now, have any right to worry about-"
The spell whispered something in my ear, but I ignored it and continued.
"Because you, my friend, are too weak. Too weak to change the future Cassie saw and too small to be seen as an equal by someone like Nephis-"
I extended a hand towards Sunny.
"So, follow me. Follow me and leave all this shit behind. Follow me, and I'll give you the power to change the future, the power to look Nephis dead in the eyes and tell her she's wrong."
Sunny gulped audibly, his eyes hesitantly locked on my hand.
The look in his eyes, the hunger and desperation, reminded me of the look present in the eyes of knights contracted to demons, but I didn't dwell on it.
"Can you... Promise me that?"
Sunny stared me directly in my eyes, his obsidian gaze glowing with a newfound determination.
I let out a chuckle, my eyes leveling with his as a faint purple aura gleamed in my irises.
"Promise? Nah, I'll do you one better."
I shook my head, invoking the Star of Vocalization.
"I stake my identity as a Grand Constellation to make this vow."
"I, the Star of Solitude, swear to forge the sleeper before me into a warrior. To mold this man into a swordsman befitting my station as a transcendent chasing perfection."
I gave Sunny a beaming smile.
"Sunless, accept my vow and bear with it the mantle I bestow upon you."
The Star of Vocalization gave power to my words, and the Star of Memory immortalized this moment in its archive.
"Rejoice! For you have been accepted as the first student of a swordsman who has achieved transcendence!"
__________________________________________________________________________
(A/N: Thanks for all the support, y'all.
I've been busy, and I thank you guys for sticking with me up till now.
I'll keep this short since I wanna release the chapter soon, but if you couldn't already sniff it out, there's a three-month time skip coming.
I won't delve into the details much, but I just wanted to give you a quick warning and a chance to change my mind if you really don't agree.
Anyway
Thanks for reading and for all the support, and leave a comment, review, or possibly a couple of stones if you have some lying around!
See you guys in the next chapter!)