Sunny woke up from the oppressive feeling that drowned the whole world. The sunset was drawing near, and with it, the abyssal shadow of the Crimson Spire had once again fallen on the cursed city.
The distant spire could be seen from anywhere in these somber ruins, looming over the Forgotten Shore like an eternal dark omen. It was cyclopean and unimaginably high, with its roots growing from the endless sea of crimson coral and its peak lost somewhere beyond the veil of grey clouds.
In these past few months, Sunny had gotten accustomed to its presence and learned to not pay it any attention. Thinking about the Spire was a sure road to madness.
After all, somewhere inside that inconceivable structure lay their only hope of ever returning home.
And hope was a poison.
Yawning, Sunny stood up and stretched his arms. His good mood, which he had momentarily lost for some strange reason, was already returning.
Now that he had some time to put the events of the previous night into perspective, he understood even more clearly how amazing his luck had been recently. The acquisition of the Stone Saint and her following transformation into a Shadow were nothing short of miraculous.
His life was about to change for the better!
However, Sunny had to think things through thoroughly. He was in uncharted waters in regards to how to cultivate his pet monster.
The initial excitement he felt after realizing that the Shadow Saint was capable of consuming Memories to collect shadow fragments was gone. In its place, there now was a series of uncomfortable questions.
Sunny had spent somewhere around six months on the Forgotten Shore. In all this time, he had only been able to collect three Memories that were suitable to be fed to the Shadow, giving her mere six shadow fragments.
With the current speed of progression, he would have to wait for sixteen full years to see his labor bear fruit and find out what exactly was going to happen once the Stone Saint had accumulated all two hundred shadow fragments that the runes demanded.
Even among the elites of Gunlaug's army, the was no one who had survived on the Forgotten Shore for more than ten years. The King of the Castle himself had only been here for eight, and only lived that long in large part due to luck.
Granted, Sunny's battle ability would grow dramatically once the deadly stone knight was added into the equation, but still, it was too long. He had to think of something.
While he was doing the math, Sunny's eyes fell on the iron chest that stored his painstakingly accumulated fortune of soul shards. Distracted, he froze for a few moments, then hesitantly approached the chest and stared at its lid.
By the standards of the Forgotten Shore, he was an incredibly rich man. His fortune could buy him a lot of things in the castle, from comparatively simple to increasingly rare and hard to come by.
…Some of the things that could be easily bought in that pit of despair he didn't even want to think about.
What interested him the most, however, was the possibility of acquiring a large amount of Memories. Powerful Memories with useful enchantments were not cheap. In fact, they were extremely expensive. But he didn't really care about the quality.
Since Stone Saint could get the same amount of fragments from the most useless of Memories, all he needed was quantity.
If he were to spend all of his shards, her power would instantly leap by a considerable amount. In the future, he would be able to cultivate the Shadow at double the speed, too — half of the materials coming from the Memories he would be acquiring from slaying monsters, the other from the Memories he would be buying with the soul shards the monsters had left behind. That would potentially reduce the overall timeframe to a somewhat sensible period.
However, there was a big problem with this plan.
Once Sunny began to spend a large number of soul shards, he would inevitably draw a lot of attention. Dealing with random daredevils who would try to rob him, while not pleasant, was not a big problem. But if Gunlaug himself were to become interested in his exploits… that would spell disaster.
And then there was Nephis, whose presence made any sort of planning futile for reasons that only she and Sunny knew.
Everyone else seemed to be blind and deaf to the truth, which was the source of the problem.
Sunny frowned and turned away from the chest.
"I might come back to this idea later. But first, I'll have to check if consuming Memories is the only way for a Shadow to grow stronger."
He still wanted to know if the Stone Saint could absorb shadow fragments by slaying Nightmare Creatures, just like he could.
***
Some time later, Sunny was cautiously moving through the stone maze of the forsaken city. Able to become one with the shadows, he had a certain advantage over anyone else who would dare to explore these cursed ruins in the absolute darkness of the night. However, even he was always just one step away from death.
Attracting the attention of the real masters of the streets, the Fallen creatures who dwelled here from the ancient times, would be the end of him. Sunny had no illusions about that.
Humans only survived here by learning how to avoid the Fallen Ones and seek out weaker monsters to hunt. There weren't a lot of lesser creatures who were able to secure a foothold in the cursed city, so hunting them was always dangerous.
Nevertheless, that was what Sunny had made into his profession, and that was what he was doing now.
Finally, he reached the area where he had observed a particular creature in the past. Surprisingly, Sunny was intimately familiar with that type of monster.
After all, one of them had almost cost him his life in the past.
Somewhere around this particular street, a lone carapace centurion had made its lair.
Climbing atop a tall stone column, Sunny stood motionlessly in the darkness and waited for his prey to appear. Time moved excruciatingly slowly, but a good hunter had to have a lot of patience. His dark eyes pierced the veil of night, observing the ghostly ruins.
One hour passed, then another. Sunny waited.
Soon, his patience was finally rewarded.
From the deep darkness of one of the toppled buildings, a familiar hulking shape appeared in all its menacing beauty. The carapace centurion stepped onto the cobblestones, his black carapace decorated with crimson patterns, two terrifying bone scythes scraping against the stone.
Sunny smiled.
The carapace centurion only had time to take a single step before two crimson flames suddenly ignited in the deep shadows that consumed the ruined street.
Then, a graceful stone knight stepped out of the darkness. Raising her shield, she rested the blade of her sword on its rim. Wisps of ghostly grey fog were seeping from under her armor, a strange dark radiance emanating from her skin. The darkness around seemed to move, as though wanting to embrace her like a dark mantle.
The two monsters — one massive and savage, one small and steadfast — froze opposite each other.
…And then, all hell broke loose.
Chapter 112: Duel of the Monsters
Just like in the battle against two Fallen beasts, the Stone Saint attacked first. Striking her sword against the rim of the shield twice, she dashed forward without fear or hesitation.
Of course, Sunny was not sure if Shadows were even capable of feeling fear.
The carapace centurion reacted swiftly and savagely, lunging at her in a furious onslaught of adamantine chitin and jagged blades. In front of this towering creature, Shadow Saint looked meager and slight.
The two monsters collided in the middle of the street, a small shockwave spreading outward from the point of their impact. Dust and small pieces of gravel were sent flying through the air.
Sunny watched the battle with vigilant eyes.
He suspected that these two Nightmare Creatures were somewhat equal in terms of power. The centurion was much bigger and heavier, the impenetrable carapace making it an especially deadly adversary. All carapace creatures were unnaturally tough and strong. It also had the advantage of reach and mass.
The Shadow Saint was equally as resilient due to her heavy armor and stonelike nature. Despite her small frame, the graceful knight possessed a stunning amount of strength. Sunny also had to keep reminding himself that she was not actually human, and as a being made of stone, weighed much more than a human would.
The disadvantage of her size was bridged by battle awareness and skill, making the outcome of the fight unpredictable.
However, that was only true if he failed to account for the dark embrace of his shadow. With its reinforcement, the Stone Saint was unimaginably more powerful.
Sunny was pretty sure that the centurion stood no chance.
Meanwhile, the two monsters were entwined in a ferocious battle. The Shadow Saint withstood the onslaught of bone scythes by bashing one away with her shield and evading the other. Not losing her momentum, she brought the shield down and slammed its edge into the centurion's carapace, causing the hulking creature to stagger.
The force of the impact was so grievous that it sent cracks running through the impregnable carapace. Sunny marveled at the sight, congratulating himself on the decision to not test the augmented monster's strength on himself.
Using the opening that she had created, the Stone Saint twisted her torso and delivered a backhand blow with the boss of the shield, striking the same spot again. The already damaged chitin plate splintered, revealing the soft flesh beneath.
A moment later, she was already moving to evade the fierce retaliation of the savage carapace creature. The graceful knight was miserly in her movements, dodging each strike with measured precision.
Although Sunny was only a novice in the art of combat, he had learned enough to be able to recognize the hints of a distinct battle style in how the Stone Saint fought.
Her whole technique was based in simplicity and economy of movement, each action calculated and efficient. Combining hard blocks, dodges and deflections with grounded footwork and well-timed ripostes, the Shadow was able to create a stark contrast between defense and offense, the former being solid and indomitable, the latter abrupt and inevitable.
It was very different from the flowing and unpredictable style that Nephis had used, and that he himself had been taught. Only now did Sunny realize that the basic katas and forms he had practiced were, in fact, very unique and unusual.
Where did his fighting style come from?
There was a lot to consider here, both in terms of how to improve his current technique and how to incorporate new elements into it. However, that was a task for the future.
Right now, he was more interested in the outcome of the fight.
The Stone Saint was already suppressing her monstrous enemy. A few of the centurion's legs were either broken or severed, streams of azure blood gashing out of the terrible wounds. However, it was still resisting furiously.
But no matter how enraged it became, the silent and menacing poise of the graceful shadow knight was much more terrifying.
Just at that moment, the Shadow Saint sidestepped a downward slash of one of the centurion's scythes and then pinned it under her greave. Using her weight to immobilize the enemy's weapon, she delivered a vicious blow with the rim of her shield and shattered the bone blade into pieces.
The carapace monster screeched, dazed by the loss of its scythe, and immediately tried to eviscerate the loathsome little fiend with the remaining one. However, he was a fraction of a second too late. With one side of its body left defenseless, the Stone Saint now had much more space to attack.
Deflecting the scythe with the shield, she dashed forward and lashed out with an upward slash, severing it near the joint. Continuing the motion, she then stepped through the rain of azure blood and mercilessly thrust her sword into the opening in the centurion's armor that had been created by her at the start of the fight.
The stone blade pierced through the flesh of the monster and devastated its spine. The force of the blow was so immense that the tip of the sword broke through the chitin on the centurion's back.
Pulling the sword out of the dying creature's body with one sharp motion, the Shadow Saint shook the blood off the blade. Then, she indifferently stepped back and froze, seemingly turning into a dark, motionless sculpture. Only the crimson fire still burning in her ruby eyes betrayed that the Shadow was alive.
Sunny held his breath, waiting for the Spell to speak. Soon, he heard its faintly familiar voice:
[You have slain an awakened monster, Carapace Centurion.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
Slightly disappointed, he summoned the runes and checked the number of the shadow fragments in his possession.
Shadow Fragments: [307/1000].
'Ninety-three left to four hundred,' he thought automatically.
Then, just to be sure, Sunny glanced at the description of the Stone Saint.
Shadow Fragments: [6/200].
So… just like with the Echoes, the kills performed by the Shadow benefitted her master instead of the monster herself. It seemed as though consuming Memories was truly the only way to feed the Stone Saint.
Sunny frowned.
"Well. That complicates things…"
Chapter 113: Dark Well
After the Shadow Saint had ruthlessly eviscerated the carapace centurion and confirmed Sunny's suspicion that he wouldn't be able to cultivate her in that way, he was left with nothing much to do.
The night was still young, but he had already achieved his goal. Now, he was free to do whatever he wished… however, there weren't very many options available in the cursed city.
He could continue to hunt, reveling in the newfound power. With the Stone Saint at his command, Sunny would be able to bathe the ruins in monster blood. However, that thought, no matter how seductive, left him uneasy.
Hunting in this hellish place required patience and preparation. He only survived this long by carefully scouting the potential battlegrounds in advance and studying his prey from the shadows to learn its strengths and weaknesses, not rushing into a fight until he was absolutely sure that there was a solid chance of victory.
Shadow Saint or not, betraying these principles would still get him killed. And with his mental state, uh… slightly unstable, Sunny didn't trust himself to stay cautious once the easy wins kept piling up. He had to proceed slowly.
Looking around the quiet ruins, Sunny smiled slightly. Actually, he wasn't that far from the Library…
He had indeed turned hunting Nightmare Creatures into a sort of profession, but it was just that: a job. Like any well-adjusted young man, he also had a hobby.
In his free time, Sunny liked to explore the ruins.
The warm feeling of satisfaction he had experienced after finding the hidden nest of the Vile Thieving Bird never left his memory. There was something deeply engaging in uncovering fragments of long-lost history and piecing them together. Maybe Sunny had inherited this passion from Teacher Julius, or maybe it had always been slumbering deep within his heart.
In any case, he enjoyed exploring the ancient city a great deal. It was full of all kinds of mysteries, both large and small. After thousands of years had passed, most traces of the past had been erased by the merciless flow of time. But by looking in the right places and exercising critical thinking, insight and imagination, it was possible to piece together tiny shards of truth.
Every time the seemingly disparate clues clicked into a coherent picture, Sunny felt a pleasant rush. Interestingly enough, it didn't matter whether that picture pertained to something important or completely useless.
In fact, he enjoyed learning about the small details of the daily life that the inhabitants of the ancient city had once led much more than he enjoyed learning about the possible origins of the catastrophe that had befallen them — despite the fact that the latter was directly related to his own survival.
For example, he was very curious to learn more about the young priestess whose private quarters he had made into his secret lair. The things she had left behind told him a lot about how the people of the city used to dress and think about the world, filling his imagination with colorful pictures of crowded streets and solemn cathedrals. But it was still not enough.
His latest exploration project was the ruins of a grand library. Of course, none of the books and scrolls had survived the thousand of years in the cursed darkness. Luckily, the people who used to live in the city before its fall were very fond of stone engravings. He spent a lot of time studying the intact wall carvings, as well as fragments of surviving frescoes.
One fresco, in particular, was especially grandiose and tantalizing, covering the entire floor of the library's main hall. Sadly, it was almost completely buried under rubble. Sunny had managed to clear some of it away, but most pieces of the collapsed roof were too heavy for him to lift. Maybe the Shadow Saint would have more luck.
It was a suitable plan, but, for some reason, Sunny felt strangely reluctant to return to the exploration of the library on that particular night.
'Huh… what else can I do?'
He jumped down from the stone column and approached the dead carapace centurion to carve out some meat and the soul shards.
Come to think of it… come to think of it, the spot marked on the crude map that he had found on the body of the strange hunting party's leader was not that far away, too.
Maybe he could check it out.
Sunny vehemently shook his head.
'No, no… the map has to be fake anyway. Right?'
Trying to suppress the unhealthy fire of curiosity burning in his chest, Sunny concentrated on the task at hand. Once the meat and the shards were in his possession, though, the persistent desire to follow the map returned.
'And if it's not fake, that's even worse. Who knows what kind of horror those fools were searching for?'
Surely, there wouldn't be any treasure or important secrets hidden there. This whole thing smelled of nothing but peril. In fact, it reeked of something sinister, terrifying, and utterly evil.
Sunny sighed.
'But honestly, what's the harm in taking one tiny look? It's just one look... what's the worse that can happen?'
***
Quietly stepping through the stone rubble, Sunny cautiously approached the spot marked on the map. For some strange reason, very few Nightmare Creatures seemed to choose this remote part of the city as their hunting grounds. It was as though they were compelled to avoid this place.
Come to think about it, that fact alone would be enough to scare Sunny away. In normal circumstances. But with the Stone Saint hiding in his shadow, he felt a bit braver.
He would be able to run away if anything happens, at least.
Approaching a large building that had been magnificent once, Sunny climbed over the collapsed wall and found himself in a dark and secluded courtyard.
In the center of the courtyard, there was a well. Its round mouth loomed like an open wound in the stone, filled with nothing but empty blackness. The well was covered with a strange, ornate iron grate. It must have weighed several tones at least, as though someone desperately wanted to prevent anything from ever lifting it from its place and leaving the well open.
Sunny gulped before approaching and looking through the grill of the grate. The silent well was so deep that he couldn't see its bottom.
…Maybe there wasn't one.
Picking up a small stone, Sunny dropped it down. The black mouth of the well swallowed the stone, making it disappear.
Many seconds passed, but there was no sound of the rock hitting anything.
Sunny was almost ready to try again, but then…
The well spoke.
A melodic, strangely enchanting voice resounded from its dark depths, filling Sunny's ears with sweetness.
"Ah, a guest…"
He staggered back, his eyes opening wide in fear.
'Nope. Not doing that!'
Sunny wanted to turn around and run away, but something stopped him from following his instinct. He sensed that leaving without finding out more was going to be a wrong decision.
And the voice sounded so… so human-like…
It was like the voice of someone you would want to be your friend.
He shook his head, breaking free from the reverie.
'What were those damned fools up to?! What are they doing there in that damn castle?! I need to warn Nephis… no, wait… I need to find out more first. I'll try to understand what is going on here, but if there's any sign of danger, I run.'
Greeting his teeth, Sunny forced himself to stay still.
A moment later, the well whispered:
"How wonderful. I haven't been fed in a long, long time…"
Chapter 114: Voice of Darkness
The enchanting voice came from the well in a wave of whispering echoes. It was soft and charming, flowing like a smooth silken melody. It seemed to belong to a young man… if mere humans could even possess such a voice. A divine being would suit it more.
…Or a profane one.
Sunny wasn't in the mood to appreciate the smooth and rich texture of the voice, though.
He was covered in cold sweat.
The echoes whispered:
"...time, …time, …time."
In all his time on the Forgotten Shore, Sunny had only met one other creature capable of mimicking human speech. The memory of that encounter still made him tremble.
The thing that had come from the depths of the dark sea in a mantle of fog and stolen Cassie's voice was by far the most terrifying being he had ever met. He didn't even want to remember the utter horror he had felt when the swarm of whispering voices had surrounded him. On that night, Sunny had only been able to keep his sanity intact because of the blind girl's timely warning.
He had only survived the meeting with the creature that possessed a human voice by keeping his eyes tightly shut.
And now, here was another.
'Why were those hunters searching for this ancient horror?'
He frowned. If something sinister was brewing inside the castle, he had to warn Changing Star. But he couldn't do anything before establishing at least some understanding of the entire situation.
That's why Sunny forced himself to stay still despite the fact that every instinct in his body screamed for him to run away. Instinct was not always the best advisor. Humans possessed intelligence for a reason.
…The black fissure of the well loomed in front of him like a pool of darkness. Suddenly, he was incredibly grateful for the immensely heavy ornate grate that kept the charming talker imprisoned in the lightless depths.
Sunny licked his lips and tried to regain his composure. Ready to summon the Stone Saint and the Midnight Shard at any moment, he took a step forward and gazed into the dark emptiness once again.
Then, he slowly said:
"It's… nice to meet you."
He couldn't quite believe that he was trying to communicate with the terrifying prisoner of the well instead of running away without looking back. Life was sure full of surprises.
Until the moment it gave you the last one, of course.
A soft chuckle resounded from the well. After its melodious murmur disappeared in the darkness of the secluded courtyard, the voice said:
"Oh, no… the pleasure is mine…"
The echoes whispered:
"...mine, …mine, …mine."
Sunny was considering his next words very carefully.
'My life might be depending on what I say next…'
He couldn't help but remember old fairy tales about terrible monsters that liked to play riddles with lost children. One wrong answer, and the children were devoured, never to be seen again. Was he going to end up in similar danger?
It was still not too late to turn back.
However, before he could ask his question or make the decision to retreat, the thing in the well spoke again. It said:
"So… are you guys going to feed me or not? Not to offend anyone, but lately, you've been very tardy. I have been sitting here by my lonesome for three days already. Or have you decided to try something new?"
Sunny blinked.
'What?'
That… that wasn't exactly what he expected to hear from the mouth of an ancient evil. The thing sounded so… human. He was almost tempted to believe that it actually was.
'That's how it gets you, fool!'
Sunny forced himself to remain vigilant. What did he know about how primordial evils were supposed to talk, anyway? If it was able to steal the knowledge of human language from his head, it would surely be able to steal some other things too.
While Sunny was trying to comprehend what was happening, a few seconds flew by. The voice waited for a bit, then returned:
"Oh, I see. So we are going with starvation now. Well… I have to give you guys some credit, this is your best idea yet. Sadly, it won't work. Do you even know what type of diets we trainees have to follow to debut? I guess not. Actually, I have to thank you. This is a great opportunity to work on my BMI."
The echoes whispered:
"...BMI, …BMI, …BMI."
'Wait… what?!'
Sunny stared into the well, dumbfounded. His eye twitched.
'Don't tell me… don't tell me that there is really just some guy sitting on the bottom of that damn well!'
Feeling like the world suddenly stopped making any sense, he rubbed his temples, then asked in a strange tone:
"Who are you?"
The well fell silent.
Sunny tried to remember what the charming voice had told him before. Something about not being fed in a long time. It surely sounded ominous and creepy in the moment, but if he looked at it a bit differently… if the group of hunters he lured to their deaths had been on its way to deliver food to a prisoner… then that would explain why the poor guy had to skip a few meals…
But why would they keep someone imprisoned in this remote area of the ruins?
Meanwhile, the voice spoke again. This time, it sounded tense:
"Wait, you're not one of the… you're not… oh! Oh, gods!"
Sunny covered his face with his hand, realizing what was going to happen next.
"Oh, gods! It's not a human… heavens, I'm going to die. Those damn fools finally got me killed!"
From the perspective of a Sleeper locked inside a well in the middle of the ruins, only two types of beings could come here to find him: either his captors or… Nightmare Creatures.
Sunny revealed that he wasn't one of the captors by asking his last question, which left only one other possibility. The fact that he came to the well during the night, alone, and not using anything to light the way only made the conclusion easier to make.
"Wait, it speaks… oh, gods! I've only ever heard of one other creature on the Forgotten Shore that can mimic human speech… no, no, no! Not like this…"
'Damn, he really does have a nice voice. It's beautiful even when full of despair… huh, what? It's just a voice! Why am I so enamored with… uh…'
Was he so desperate to hear a human voice? Why? He was doing fine on his own. Great, even! Better than ever.
'Focus on the task!'
But what exactly was the task?
Sunny had never expected to find a human at the end of the crude map. What was he supposed to do now?
'I guess the first step would be to find out who the guy in the well is, and how he got there. Then I can decide what to do with him, or if I should do anything at all.'
But there hid the problem… first, Sunny had to convince the young man in the well that he was actually a human, too.
Sunny glanced at his shadow, feeling somewhat helpless.
The shadow was bent over, holding its stomach. Its shoulders were shaking.
Chapter 115: Nightingale
Sunny could really understand how bad the situation looked from the perspective of the young man with a beautiful voice.
The only thing that could be worse than approaching a terrifying dark well while thinking that there's an ancient and utterly evil creature hiding inside was to actually be locked inside that terrifying dark well while thinking that some abominable thing was looking down on you from above.
At least Sunny had a chance to escape if things were to turn really bad. The poor guy in the well literally had nowhere to run.
Of course, there was still the possibility that all of this was just a cunning act performed by some incredibly horrifying monster. Sunny had to keep that in mind while exploring the other theory.
'So… if he is indeed a human, how do I make him believe that I'm not a monster?'
That wasn't a very simple task for Sunny. He had never been good at communicating with people in the first place, and three months of complete isolation did not make things any better. In fact, they had made everything worse.
Now, even Sunny sometimes felt uncomfortable when talking to himself.
'Uh… what would Cassie say?'
He cleared his throat.
"Are you a… human? I am too. I am a human, too. We are both… humans."
'Great job, idiot!'
After that abhorrent attempt, Sunny wouldn't be even surprised to find out that he was not, in fact, a human. Who talks like that?
The young man in the well grew silent. Then, he silently said:
"Yeah, it's definitely all over for me. Oh, well. I had a good run, I guess…"
Sunny sighed heavily.
"Stop panicking, you idiot! I really am a human!"
The owner of the charming voice laughed:
"Please forgive me if I don't believe you."
He was using respectful honorifics, as though recognizing Sunny as an elder. Which was logical, given that he believed him to be an eldritch horror. An eldritch horror would technically count as an elder, all things considered.
Sunny groaned inwardly.
"Why are you using honorifics? I bet I'm younger than you."
The young man imprisoned in the well hesitated.
"Wait, you really are a human?"
Sunny smiled with excitement, feeling that he was making progress.
"Yes. I really am."
The voice returned a dozen seconds later:
"How come you're here alone and in the middle of the night? You also don't seem to have any source of light with you. Please don't get angry, sir monster, but that's not exactly something a human would be able to do. Maybe you should work on your story a bit more next time you venture out to devour innocent souls? Just a, well, a piece of friendly advice."
Sunny sighed.
"Very funny. I'm able to walk around the city at night because my Aspect allows me to hide in the darkness. I can also see through it, too. How did you end up in this well, anyway?"
The young man lingered before answering.
"How does one usually end up in these situations? A bunch of thugs decided to shake me down for my Memories. I politely refused, and here we are. They've been keeping me here for a couple of weeks, trying all kinds of methods to get me to transfer the Memories to them. But I must say, their attempts were very clumsy. In terms of knowing how to terrorize people, these fellows are not even anywhere near the laziest of sasaengs."
Sunny didn't know what a sasaeng was, so he just assumed that it was some kind of a horribly malevolent Nightmare Creature. The rest of the story was somewhat easy to believe. Of course, it would take a very special kind of fool to choose the ruins, of all places, to keep a prisoner, but thugs were not known for their intelligence.
Plus, their plan seemed to have worked pretty well right until the moment they had the misfortune of stumbling onto Sunny.
Well… now he knew what this whole thing was about. Just some tiresome human business.
'How disappointing.'
Nephis and Cassie were also not in any sort of danger, at least not with regard to this mess. The mystery was solved. He had wasted a whole night on this nonsense.
"I see. Well… goodbye."
With an annoyed sigh, Sunny turned around and began to walk away. However, the owner of the beautiful voice stopped him:
"Wait! Wait! Are you… are you really human?"
Sunny grimaced.
"I am! I've told you already!"
The young man imprisoned in the well hurriedly asked:
"Can you maybe get me out of here? Those guys are not coming back tonight, I think. If you help me escape, I'll make it worth your while!"
Sunny scratched the back of his head, then frowned:
"In what way?"
After a short pause, the charming voice returned again, this time somewhat hesitant:
"Well, you might not know this, but I am quite a rich person. I have a whole stash of soul shards back in the castle. Some might even say that I have a small fortune. Half of it is yours if you get me out of this pit. That's ten shards, at least!"
Sunny suddenly got an idea. Of course, he did not need the ten shards that the young man was offering. The fact that he had these shards, though… that was potentially very useful.
If he wanted to avoid unnecessary attention when buying Memories with his hoard of soul shards, he would need a suitable proxy. A Sleeper with a lot of shards of his own, one that was indebted to Sunny no less, was a perfect candidate.
He smiled.
"Do people know that you have a fortune?"
The young man answered, a bit of surprise in his voice.
"Do they… know? Yeah, I guess they do. I am known to spend a lot from time to time. On entertainment, as well as, uh... some other things. I'm a patron of arts, one can say."
'Perfect… so no one would be surprised if he suddenly begins to spend shards on Memories.'
However, there was a small problem. Sunny could remove the grate, but he had no way of helping the poor guy climb out of that unimaginably deep well. Even if he was to use the Prowling Thorn, he doubted that the invisible string would reach that far. Its maximum length was not that impressive.
And he certainly was not going to climb into the creepy well himself.
Plus, he still held a bit of suspicion about the charming young man's identity. He was almost certain that he was human… but the remaining tiny bit of doubt was enough to make his paranoia ring the alarm.
After hesitating for a bit, Sunny said:
"What's your name?"
The melodic voice answered:
"It's Kai."
Sunny sighed.
"Well, Kai, I don't know how to tell you this… but unless you can fly, I won't be able to help you escape."
The young man grew quiet. After a long pause permeated with deathly silence, he then said in a strange tone:
"...I can."
Sunny blinked.
"What?"
Did he hear wrong? No, that was unlikely.
…Maybe Kai was just willing to say anything in his desperation to escape.
The prisoner of the well chuckled.
"I can fly. That's my Aspect Ability."