The first things to meet them after they crossed the boundary of the Castle were fresh cold air and the first rays of the rising Sun.
Nephis took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second as she just stood before the stair leading downwards into the City, letting that feeling wash over her skin.
That felt good.
Even beyond that — it felt liberating.
The week inside those dreadful walls of the Bright Castle was beyond maddening.
The stares, the ridiculous rules, the atmosphere, and especially the people who controlled it — all of it made her sick.
Nephis clenched her jaw almost painfully.
She wanted to set the wicked place on fire and let those weak-willed monsters inside it burn with it, cleansing their sins in the process.
At some point she even got into a short brawl and was just a few moments short of beheading a few lustful guards, who had a delusional belief that they were some kind of big fish there and subsequently untouchable.
She smiled internally.
They were wrong, of course.
‘Sunny’s tip was good…’, she mused.
She admitted that she might also have overreacted a fair bit and could have gotten both herself and Cassie into big trouble and — as they had no real support inside those walls — that would have been a death sentence for sure.
That was also how she met her new companion — Han Li Caster.
The person she believed was the assassin sent by the Great Clans to kill her when she least expected it.
And also the famous spice-thief with very… dubious kinks and preferences.
Not that she judged, of course… too much.
She barely managed to hold back a smile from slipping on her face when she threw a short glance at him to her side as they were silently moving through the Dark City’s streets.
Of course she knew — she would be a complete fool if she didn’t — that it wasn’t the Legacy Clan’s heir who was at fault for that incident.
After almost two months in the company of one crazy shadow — with thieving tendencies as it turned out — that also happened to possess an unreasonable amount of spices within that bed of his… Yeah, that was obvious.
She frowned for a short moment as her thoughts wandered towards that… unusual storage Memory of his.
If Cassie and the rumor mill of the Academy were to be believed, then that particular shadow was also a very naughty one.
Her frown deepened, before she controlled her expression.
A very, very naughty shadow, indeed.
She had no idea why Sunny would need to play such a cruel prank on a person that he had no interactions with as far as she and Cassie were aware… Well, Cassie said that at some point he had promised to bite off his head or something in irritation for making too much noise.
Yeah…
But wasn’t that too stupid of a reason even for him?
Was Sunny really that crazy and most of all that petty?
She chuckled internally.
Yeah, he might be.
Nephis slowed her pace a bit, and tightened her grip on Cassie’s hand as her gaze shifted towards Caster for a moment once again.
His attempts to get into her good graces were obvious even in the Academy, but here, in this dreadful place, he had abandoned all subtlety entirely.
Considering the fact that Han Li was a lesser clan associated with Song, the reasons for his behavior were obvious to her.
Yet somehow he believed that he had fooled her anyways.
Well, he was a very sociable person who was on friendly terms with half the Sleepers — if not more — back in the Academy, before the vengeful gremlin decided to destroy his reputation.
And he was a good liar and an exceptionally good actor after all.
But still, Nephis could see right through him — her lessons with Sunny weren’t for naught after all.
So she had to be careful with her words and her actions too.
She also needed someone to have her back at all times, and thus it had been an even more unbearable week without knowing that the crazy shadow would have it.
She threw a glance at the blind girl, following at her side and holding her hand.
Even Nephis could tell that her mood was at its highest point since they separated a week ago.
Poor Cassie looked like an abandoned puppy the whole time — well, at least Nephis thought she did, and the analogy wasn’t that far from reality…
Her thoughts wandered off again towards the black haired boy.
And she… wasn’t sure how to feel about him still.
Even after all those weeks of constant life or death situations, having each other’s backs and him even opening up a bit at some point.
She just couldn’t understand him at all.
His personality, his values, his driving force and most of all his strength and knowledge.
A young man from the outskirts, who had no education whatsoever and was even a year younger than her.
One would expect an untrusting, scared, and maybe even absolutely ruthless person.
Oh, he was all of those, of course, but there was so, so much more than that.
He was kind and sharp-minded: she heard the story — probably a dozen times from Cassie’s mouth — of what he did to save her on their first day on the Shore.
Of how he was the first person to extend a hand to her, when she barely managed to hold herself back in the Academy.
Nephis’s own experiences had proved it too, as he was also the one who jumped into the cursed monster-infested waters of the Dark Sea on that tiny boat to help her — a person that was an absolute stranger to him — get to safety.
He was also very smart.
Too smart for a kid from the outskirts.
He could come up with the most efficient strategy on the spot, knew a lot of history and many useful tricks that no person of his background had any right to possess.
Even now she could barely believe it, but after all this time together she had no reason to deny that his Flaw was exactly what he said it was.
But the first thing that would probably come to other people’s minds when they’d need to describe that crazy guy would be ‘strong’.
Yes, he possessed a lot of wondrous abilities, a Divine Ranked Aspect, and an unlocked Legacy, became an Awakened, and was skilled beyond anything that should be possible considering his age and background, but his true strength came from how he behaved.
He wielded that strength with confidence and experience, posture always straight, mind sharp, and look calculating.
From just a simple look you could understand that a different breed of Awakened stood before you.
That was the thing that made her look at him warily for a long time.
Well, to be honest, she did even now.
But could you blame her, considering her circumstances and his background, or absolute lack of it, to be clear.
All in all, from her perspective he would be a perfect assassin, created and trained specifically for missions where no traces should be left.
That idea was disproved a long time ago — he could have killed her many, many times.
Now that she thought about it, the idea was stupid from the very beginning — an assassin should stay hidden and not… do whatever comes into thier mind.
But then again, the reason she knew he wasn’t the one sent to kill her was simple — she was still alive.
He could have killed her or simply let her die in battle countless times, and yet he didn’t and put his all to achieve exactly the opposite.
And he didn’t even need her to survive.
Not really.
After he became an Awakened and received that shadow teleportation ability of his, both Nephis and especially Cassie became even more of a burden to him even in his weakened state, as he and Nightmare alone would have made it to the City, much, much sooner.
He would have probably already slain the Crimson Terror by now, had he decided to abandon or kill them, and would have been back in the Waking World reconnecting with his sister.
But he hadn’t.
And it was all that mattered in the end.
Yet, he was so infuriating!
Nephis just couldn’t figure him out at all.
Even Cassie, who knew him longer, was as confused as she was, if not more.
She just couldn’t understand the reasons behind his actions.
And there were reasons for that, she was sure.
After all, he himself admitted that he was a very selfish person.
He definitely had his own agenda, and she had no idea what it was, while she probably danced to his tune all this time.
Even their recent separation had some purpose behind it.
Nephis didn’t like it at all and could only hope that their end goals aligned in the end… but she had to admit that she was impressed a fair bit.
It seemed that a strategic mind was also one of his many talents.
That or he was that chaotic and crazy and there was no hidden agenda at all.
And crazy he was!
She mused with a smile.
What kind of idiot would fry his brain twice in a day, then crush his Soul Core in a moronic idea to try and Awaken and, most incredulously of all — succeed in it.
She would be lying if she said that she wasn’t jealous of both his confidence and the fact that he made it feel so easy.
But she wasn’t stupid enough to try and crush hers too…
There were other ways, it seemed, as he had tried teaching them ways of Natural Awakening, but with little to no success, as neither she nor Cassie had made any progress at all on how to make the damned essence move according to their will.
That didn’t mean that she stopped trying though.
Apparently such a thing — a Natural Path of Ascension — existed, which was logical as the ancient humans had no Nightmare Spell to help them, but still somehow managed to achieve Transcendency and even higher Ranks too from what she knew.
How he had managed to possess such knowledge, though, remained a complete mystery.
One of those many he refused to elaborate on, until they were back in the Waking World.
But she digressed.
Where was she anyway?
Oh yeah, Sunny was crazy, indeed!
He was chaotic, with an unhinged sense of humor — well, it was hard for her to judge but she believed she was right — spiteful, and many other things too.
Sometimes the little gremlin would even go so deep into his thoughts that he would mumble complete nonsense in reality!
One such scene immediately came to mind from a time when they were still on their way towards the Dark City – a bit more than a week or so before they had arrived.
***
It was an evening just a few hours before nightfall when they had arrived at the next high ground they would spend the night on.
And so they decided to take it easy and relax a bit.
Just for the day.
They quickly made a fire and seasoned the meat and began preparing it.
Even if all of them preferred when Sunny was the one to cook their dishes, that evening she wanted to let him rest and be a substitute, as he had looked beyond exhausted for the past few weeks, spending hours improving his Memory Creating Technique.
The little gremlin could do that too…
She exhaled loudly, bringing attention of Caster and Cassie to herself, which she ignored completely, as she thought of how unfair life was.
But anyways, as she was preparing the meat, Sunny and Cassie once again decided to play cards — blackjack this time.
And even though the game had barely started, all of them already knew the result — the blind seer would rip him off completely in no time.
She was a cheat and all of them knew it.
But as neither Nephis nor Sunny could prove it, they went along with it in the end like usual.
Nightmare, their faithful and beautiful guardian, was lying a dozen meters or so to the side from the fire, silently protecting them from any danger that could come from any direction in this hell.
Even now, Nephis could barely believe that the stallion had somehow managed to retain his memories of Sunny from his First Nightmare and follow him in this region to save all of their skins in the most desperate moment.
Honestly, she was jealous.
He was such a beautiful, lustrous, and loyal steed after all, with his own proud personality.
And he also shared a very deep connection with his master — much deeper than she initially believed — and even deeper than she and Cassie had, it seemed…
Still, she didn’t pry, even though she wanted to.
After all, in all their time together, Sunny had barely asked any questions about her.
And so, as the meat was slowly cooking over the fire and she had nothing left to do, Nephis decided to close her eyes for a few minutes and simply sunbathe in the last rays of the setting sun.
Was it her, or had it started to become hotter these days?
When she opened her eyes again to turn the meat and decided to look at the duo at play afterward, she was met with an unexpected picture.
Cassie was no surprise, having that — innocent on the surface, but completely devilish and all-knowing underneath — smile on her beautiful face, indicating that she already had the game but he didn’t know it yet.
Sunny’s expression, though, was different than usual for some reason.
He was deeply thoughtful with his brows furrowed and eyes distant.
He even bit his lips slightly.
That was kind of cute, she had to admit.
Then suddenly he turned his face to Nephis, meeting her gaze for a second and then back at Cassie and then back at her, and then a few more times after that.
His brows furrowed even deeper as he pinched his chin thoughtfully, while mumbling something under his breath.
A few phrases that she caught sounded like ‘makes a lot of sense’, ‘completely relatable’, ‘would too’, and then after a minute of silence more loudly — ‘that blind freak’.
Her breath got caught in her throat, as Nephis completely forgot about their dinner, diverting all of her attention to the scene at hand.
Cassie blinked and opened her mouth, her expression morphing into a slight shock.
As she was the one with the better hearing in the group and was closer to him, she must have also caught more than Nephis did.
And then Sunny at last decided to speak as he concentrated on the blond girl’s face.
“Cassie my dear blind friend…” he started, making some strange accent on the word ‘blind’.
“Do you happen to be into… ahm… a scissor play, by any chance?” he asked, his tone dead serious.
Nephis frowned, not understanding what scissors had to do with anything, but it seemed that Cassie — The Coughing Girl — did and decided to live up to her nickname once again.
She looked at him with shock and indignation on her face, as she tried to speak up, her voice shaky.
“Sunny, what th…” but he interrupted her, nodding to himself seemingly already getting his answer from her reaction.
“I see, I see. Now I’ve finally cracked that infuriating riddle,” he chuckled as he snapped his fingers.
“Completely understandable indeed…” he continued more quietly and then shifted his gaze back at Cassie.
His expression turned serious once again, something cold resolving itself behind his eyes.
“Cas, if I ever find out that all this time, you could see perfectly well, and decided to play freaky with us,” he mumbled once more under his breath, something that sounded too much like ‘again’, making her blink as her mind started to spin in on itself.
“…then I swear I’ll buy out that whip from Jet and then…” he made a gesture indicating the lash over her… backside that Cassie definitely couldn’t see, but could probably imagine from the context.
Or maybe she did… maybe she did see?!
Nephis couldn’t be sure of anything these days!
“…well, you know.” he said in a simple tone as he finished his… depraved showing.
Cassie looked at her with a plea written on her face.
She definitely didn’t know, and neither did Nephis.
Then suddenly Sunny stood up, throwing the cards he had left on the table, forming a perfect twenty-one somehow — maybe that was his plan all this time?
— and then left for a walk along the carcass of the dead leviathan, refusing to elaborate any further.
“What…” Cassie started hoarsely, her blind – or were they?
– pupils slightly fluctuating.
“What the hell was that?”
She wished she knew.
The damned madman threw the bomb like that on them and then left like nothing ever happened!
There was also one more part that caught her attention.
She was already somewhat aware that he was s… in some kind of relationship with that Government Master… Jet.
Her face twisted in disgust for a moment.
To think a person of such renown would use her authority to… take advantage of a minor.
The new circumstances of their… relationships that were discovered that day made it only worse, but Nephis decided not to dive into those kinds of thoughts for her own good.
Well, now she was actually interested.
But really, a whip?
That shadow turned out to be even naughtier than she imagined… ‘Damn it, Sunny, who is even the freak here?!’
Nephis suddenly turned her gaze behind her, her eyes widening, as she remembered something important, her eyes landing on the fire.
She moaned in disappointment.
There was no need to say that their dinner that day was completely ruined too.
***
Now that she was remembering the scene, she could barely hold back her laughter.
Sunny was indeed a fair bit crazy and chaotic, but it was never boring to be around him at least!
There was a problem in their group dynamics though.
One that she couldn’t completely put her finger on.
It was like something was separating all three of them even after all those experiences.
Initially she believed that she was the one at fault — it was hard for her to interact with other people, after all — but after thinking about it more profoundly, it didn’t seem to be the case.
At least it wasn’t the only reason.
As time flew by, she started to see that all of them had their own set of problems.
Cassie had a very low self-esteem, caused by her blindness and feeling of being a burden to them in a deadly environment, which improved somewhat after they reached the City, but was still too low, in Nephis’s opinion; there were also some kind of strange feelings between her and Sunny that neither the shadow nor the blond girl wanted to act on for some reason.
But Nephis wasn’t too sure about that, as she was anything but an expert in human relations.
She might as well have understood it all wrong.
It would be better that she did.
Nephis herself was a walking socially-inept disaster, she could admit, with a severe trauma from her childhood, so she knew it must be hard for both of them to truly connect with her, even though she was trying her best… Most of the time.
Then there was Sunny himself, and Nephis wasn’t sure how to categorize his behavior.
He possessed a vast amount of knowledge and somehow knew how to always make things right.
He was kind and caring towards them both, but also distant.
He barely talked with them, unless it was necessary.
And when he did, it was usually either about fights, their future plans, or some crazy stuff.
He was also a great teacher, she could admit.
In a lot of subjects too.
And while he almost never gave her a direct answer to her problems, his tips gave her directions and useful ideas where to look and how to improve, making her dive deeper into the subject and gaining a deeper understanding by herself.
She frowned slightly for a moment as an amusing thought entered her mind.
If she had to give a one-word characterization of Sunny, then it would probably be an ‘uncle’.
One of those cool uncles that the books used to describe: the one that is barely ever there, but when he comes for a visit, he showers the kids with gifts and attention, while still being awkward with them slightly, not sure how to behave.
And while it was not a one hundred percent correct description, it was fun to imagine Sunny as an uncle.
He did behave older than he looked, after all, when he wasn’t acting like a madman, she had to admit.
But still, despite it all, she could tell that for some reason he didn’t want to shorten the distance between them, always being close enough, but almost never too close.
She didn’t know the reason for that, but she guessed that it might have something to do with his hidden agenda.
That thought irritated her somehow, even though it was very hypocritical of her.
After all, she did possess her own plans that she still didn’t share with them.
For the City.
For its inhabitants.
And for her friends too.
Wasn’t it only right for him to use her in turn?
Logically it was, but…
Maybe she was the reason, after all?
She did behave strangely, had problems interacting like a normal human being, and both he and Cassie knew very little about her, besides the fact that she was the Immortal Flame Clan’s ‘princess’.
Well, at least Cassie didn’t know much about it, for sure.
And what a joke it was…
Her daddy dearest and his flock of friends made sure that there was no such thing as Immortal Flame.
She wanted to curse.
At her moronic father; at her selfless mother, whose all-but-dead body was the only thing she remembered her by; at the Ghouls, who made it their life goal to destroy her family and kill her, just a child!
At the Government for not intervening.
At the Spell, on whose authority all of them had to suffer to begin with.
And at this rotten world in general.
She despised it all!
Nephis let out a slow breath, taking hold of her emotions.
It wasn’t good to let herself be burned by her hatred.
She wasn’t like that after all and didn’t want to turn into… that.
So long story short — the dynamics in their group were very confusing.
But still… she wouldn’t sell it for the world.
No matter how awkward and sometimes distant they were, they were real.
With their own personalities, their plans and sets of problems.
With their own opinions on life.
And they still cared about her, somehow.
That thought filled her chest with pleasant warmth.
And both of them were hers.
Her first and only true friends.
The mere thought made her feel lighter as she walked through the streets of the dead City towards the outer settlement, where they had decided to meet.
Well, actually they had decided to do it at noon, but a few more hours inside that dreadful place would definitely make her do something stupid, so it had better be that way.
Maybe they would even meet the crazy shadow this early by chance, if their luck was good today.
The rumor mill of the Castle was very particular about the fact that Sunny was very busy this past week.
Running around the City, killing hordes of monsters and buying out junk memories from Sleepers for mere pennies, giving away tons of food as a bonus.
Nephis chuckled internally.
She knew that this was Sunny’s way of showing care, somehow, but not too much, for some reason.
Probably an outskirts thing, she wasn’t aware of.
Yesterday there was even news that he and two other Sleepers had managed to slay some famous Nightmare Creature – Lord of the Dead – and a Fallen Tyrant at that.
Nephis wasn’t surprised much, as she knew better than anyone what that lunatic was capable of, but it seemed others were.
And still to no avail.
As if they could ever get hold of him, she mused with a smile.
And so, as they finally reached the settlement and stopped to look around, a sudden booming voice rang through the waking streets, getting all of the attention of its inhabitants.
“Du-o-o-o-fu-u-s!” a voice that was distinctly of a woman rang hoarsely and shakily.
“Ma-a-ry me, doo-o-fu-us!”
By the looks of it, the sound came from the other alley that ended just on the other side of the massive building they were standing beside.
What madness was happening this early in the morning?
Then the voice continued still.
“Didn’t you say that you like kids? Just imagine, those little dark haired doofus-lings ru-u-nning around that Café you wanted to open.”
At that moment Nephis decided to spare her poor mind from whatever was happening there and was about to leave when suddenly she stopped as a very familiar voice rang through it unsteadily.
Her eyes grew wider.
“Effie, if you’ll keep screaming in my ear I’m really going to drop you on the ground, I swear! And yes to that question and no in general. Also I don’t believe that there can be anything that could be called ‘little’ when it comes to you…”
Cassie beside her strained too and turned her head towards the place where the voice came from.
Suddenly the blind girl turned around, facing Nephis, and mouthed.
“Neph, am I crazy, or was that Sunny’s voice right now?” the blond girl trembled at some point, as she turned her blind gaze towards the place where some kind of depravity was happening at the moment.
So she didn’t imagine it after all?
Was it… really Sunny?
Her mind had short-circuited for a second.
“I… I think I heard it too,” Nephis said simply, her voice completely flat, not betraying her inner turmoil.
Caster looked at them questioningly and decided to say something, but she didn’t even try to acknowledge it as she was already dragging Cassie with her towards where the voices came from, full of resolve.
“Ha-ha! Too tru-u-e!” the female voice laughed again.
“And if you we-e-re to come into my humble abode, then I would show you some other big things too!” the mad promiscuous woman giggled in a drawling voice.
“Can you even imagine what things this body can do? I tell you — no other can compare to me in a freakiness department! Oh, the things I would do…” she mumbled dreamily something Nephis couldn’t quite decipher — and she was glad she couldn’t!
— and then continued more loudly again.
“So, wha d’ya think, doofu-us?”
After a second of silence — of what she could only imagine to her horror was consideration — the familiar male voice grumbled and then — she believed — sighed tiredly, before answering.
“I can… Oh, and believe me you’re not even close! From my own experience, the freakiest ones are the lonely women with existential crisis and family troubles in their thirties… ” the voice continued to say something, but it was too low, so she couldn’t hear.
Nephis quickened her pace as a vein started to bulge on her forehead and just before she turned around the corner a third voice shouted.
One that she was deeply familiar with too.
Had she gone completely crazy inside the Castle walls?
“Brother! Oh, what a blessing! Now, I know I’m not alone in this world. Only you can understand my pain! Oh what thi—”
“Neph, was that Night’s voice just now?” Cassie shouted to her side incredulously, muting whatever the voice continued to say.
Was that the only thing that interested her now?!
“Kai, where do you think you’re trying to fly?! I’m not going to save your ass again if y…”
And then — when they ultimately reached the other side — the most incredible scene she could ever imagine appeared before her eyes.
Her facade crumbled.
She could only imagine what her face looked like right now.
Right in front of her, Sunny — that mad shadow — was standing in the middle of the alley, giving a piggyback ride to a tall woman she remembered seeing in passing, when they had come to the settlement on their first day in the City.
It looked almost comical, the way she had to cross her legs around his torso so she wouldn’t fall, how closely she had to press her body to his from behind, and how she had to hide her face in his nape, for… she could only imagine for what!
Almost…
The whole attire of the shameless woman consisted of only one extremely short white tunic that left little to the imagination.
With his left hand, he was trying to balance the woman on his back, holding her under her bare thigh, and in his right hand, bound to a golden rope, was Night from Night&Gale, trying and failing to fly off into the skies.
All three were completely drunk, with the girl being the worst of them, she presumed, and Sunny somewhat… somehow… still standing.
She could smell the alcohol even from here — more than ten meters away.
Sunny looked right at them and blinked like an idiot he was.
And after a few seconds of staring silently he tried to wipe his eyes with his right hand, pulling down Night with it towards himself even more, the drunk idol letting out a surprised yelp in the process.
She touched her face and pinched her arm to confirm that she wasn’t sleeping — even if she was, she shouldn’t have dreams inside the Dream Realm, and especially not… whatever she was seeing right now!
But Nephis was wide awake, it seemed.
Maybe she had gone crazy, after all?
Maybe Sunny had infected her somehow?
She turned her face towards Caster, who looked at the trio with a shocked expression, and then at Cassie, who twisted her face in disgust because of the apparent smell of alcohol.
So she wasn’t seeing things.
Which only left one thing.
That scene in front of her was real, somehow.
“Oh hey guys!” Sunny shouted after a few more seconds of silence from both sides.
“Didn’t expect to see you this early in the morning, but it’s a welcome surprise — I missed you a lo-ot this week!” Sunny said with a grin on his face, eyes glassy.
She couldn’t take it anymore.
“Sunny, what the hell is going on?! You’re drunk, running around with… I don’t even have a word in my vocabulary to describe the woman on your back. And is that Night ?!” she even shouted in the end, the world spinning slowly in her head.
The drunk black haired idiot, oblivious to her irritation, just smiled and shouted excitedly.
“Oh, those are my friends! Effie…” he threw the woman on his back slightly into the air as she giggled drunkenly and waved at them with her hand, though she hadn’t managed to say anything coherent this time.
“And that is Kai!”
Sunny pulled the rope with his friend once again as he waved too and shouted his drunken greetings.
Was that really her idol?
Nephis’s world was crumbling once again.
“Oh, I see you brought a friend too! He even looks somehow familiar… Have we ever met by chance?” he said with furrowed eyebrows.
If Nephis didn’t know what that crazy gremlin did, she would be completely oblivious to his play.
She was impressed… and disgusted at the same time.
“Ehm…” the Legacy heir to her side mumbled, unsure of how to proceed.
“I’m Caster, we attended the Academy together, I believe.”
“Oh-oh,” Sunny’s eyes widened in recognition.
“…the guy with the spice addiction, now I remember!” he shouted, making Nephis forget about his previous grievances and hold back her laughter.
Damned crazy shadow and his profane sense of humor.
She could hear Caster to her side grinding his teeth in irritation.
“Not gonna judge, we all have our weaknesses, as you can see,” he gestured to himself and his current company with a smile.
“Name’s Sunless, but you can call me Sunny if you want. Welcome to the cohort, I guess…”
The woman on his back, Effie — as she’d just come to know — whispered something into his ear with a giggle.
Sunny chuckled, but decided not to respond verbally.
It was also the moment when Cassie finally decided to break her stupor.
“Sunny… Are you okay? What the hell happened to you and why are you… drunk and doing whatever you did right now. Did you get into bad company? And was that really Night’s voice just now, or are all of us here having a severe case of group madness?” she shot her questions so quickly that she was out of breath by the end of it.
Sunny simply listened to her and then chuckled.
“Oh I’m better than okay, I’m actually having a lot of fun! The hangover might be bad, this time though,” he muttered barely audibly at the end of the sentence and then shouted next.
“No matter! As for how it came to be… We were celebrating our last big hunt and got carried away a bit. Then a bit more. After that we went for another short hunt, as we ran out of food, thanks to Effie.” The woman on his back, who seemingly fell asleep, mumbled something with a smile as she heard her name.
“Then we drank some more… Anyways, you have the idea! Oh, and I’m actually in the best company imaginable — those guys are gold, I tell you! You’ll love them in no time! And yeah Kai goes as Night in some circle — apparently, he is a famous singer on Earth!” Sunny looked at the guy who was flying around him with glassy gaze bound to a rope and then mumbled something incoherent.
“Ahh… he doesn’t look like one now, though…” he coughed awkwardly, his drunken eyes rolling in exasperation, which led him to almost tripping and falling on his face.
“Anyways! That is how we ended up here, with me driving back home those two irresponsible drunkards.”
“Who are you calling a drunkard, you lunatic?!” A shout rang from above him.
Kai seemingly gave up on trying to fly away after that and decided to descend.
That was a mistake as the ground couldn’t hold him in his state and he had to lean on Sunny too.
The black haired boy sighed tiredly as he almost collapsed from the sudden collision with the drunk idol and looked at him with irritation.
After that the two started to banter and Effie-woman suddenly woke up too, so it turned into a complete cacophony of drunk noises.
Sunny tried to give her — them — excuses in short pauses of lucidity, but was always interrupted in the end.
So her half of the newly expanded cohort stood silently and watched the show in front of them.
At some point Cassie — the famous traitor — even started having fun with them too, leaving her and Caster behind.
The Legacy heir decided to stay quiet, mostly, only giving small remarks from time to time, as by the looks of it, whatever training he went through hadn’t prepared him for that.
And just like that she was starting to appreciate the cold facade she built for herself even more, because she had nothing to say.
Nothing appropriate at least.
But her mind was still running into very dark waters.
She clenched her teeth.
‘That despicable.
Hot-headed.
Completely degenerated and skirt-chasing!
Addicted to alcohol.
Murderous.
Moron!
Oh, when I put my hands on y…’ And then her eyes widened in horror.
Her heart stopped as a realization hit Nephis suddenly.
That sentence sounded too familiar…
Did she… Was she… No, she hoped not.
But… Had she really started to turn into him?!
Her gaze shot towards where the three of the drunkards tripped and turned into a massive ball of intertwined limbs and shouting sounds.
She exhaled, already exhausted despite waking up not that long ago.
That… definitely wasn’t how she imagined she would learn about human interactions at all.
Hello to y’all!
As promised, new chapter less than a day later.
Next two are also going to be POVs too.
Which character is going to be the center of those you can try and guess, as I’m not telling 🙂 Next chap should be out by Thursday, I guess, but it may be sooner, as I’m planning to make it much shorter than this one.
Nothing more to add, I think, so…What do you think about my take on Neph?
Would like to hear your any and all thoughts as always, so don’t be shy) That’s it.
See you all soon.
Bye!