=== CHAPTER 162: LOST FROM LIGHT ===
Chapter 162: Lost from Light
Pushing the knife into Harper's weak body, Sunny lunged forward. The flimsy wooden table flew aside and shattered into splinters once it hit the wall. With his other hand, he violently grabbed the young man's face and pressed him onto the floor, making sure that no sound would escape from his lips.Harper's wide eyes were full of pain and terror, staring at Sunny with a silent, but deafening question.…Why?Feeling hot blood streaming down his hand, Sunny finally let the pain of the Flaw overwhelm him.His whisper was hoarse and barely audible:"Lost from Light! I am… Lost… Lost from Light…"Harper's trembling fingers found his face and smeared it with blood, which then mixed with tears. He weakly tried to push Sunny away, but there was no strength in his arms anymore.Biting his lips hard enough to break the skin, Sunny held the gaunt young man down and twisted the knife, praying for all of this to be over soon.'Don't look at me… please, don't look at me…'Finally, Harper's terrified, accusing eyes grew still and lightless. Sunny could feel the beating of his heart stop through the thin fabric of the young man's robe. Making sure that Harper was, indeed, dead, he finally let go of the knife and crawled away.'Oh, gods…'As though summoned by these words, the voice of the Spell whispered into his ear:[You have slain Dreamer Harper.][Your shadow grows stronger.]Contorted in a painful spasm, Sunny bent over and violently threw up. Then he weakly fell on the floor and tried to wipe his face, only to realize that he was spreading blood all over it.'I killed him. I just killed a real human...'A strange stillness took hold of Sunny. Sitting on the cold stones, he stared at the corpse of the young man that he had just killed and struggled to form a cohesive thought. After a while, he finally succeeded:'Too much… oh, this is too much…'All of this was too much for him. Why did he have to go through all of this? The slave caravan, the Forgotten Shore, Changing Star, and now Harper. What sin had he committed to have to go through this nightmare? Was he actually already dead, and imprisoned in the depths of hell?'...Bullshit. He deserved it.'Sunny gritted his teeth and forced himself to concentrate on that thought.'Why do you even feel guilty? The bastard was going to sell you out to Gunlaug. He knew that he was helping to kill you. And not just you alone. Neph, too. And Cassie.'But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself that he had the right to kill Harper, deep down, he could not accept it. There were a million ways to deal with the timid, pitiful spy. No… there was another reason…'Come on now… there's no one else here. Why don't you be honest with yourself, for once? Just admit it. Don't you dare become a hypocrite.'Sunny grimaced and ground his teeth against each other.'Say it!'Reluctantly, he opened his mouth and whispered:"I killed him because I wanted to survive. I killed him… because it was easy."And just like that, he suddenly felt better.What's the big deal? He was already a murderer, anyway.He was planning to help Nephis kill hundreds of people.Affected by the irony of the situation, Sunny barely stopped himself from laughing.He didn't want to make too much noise. Breaking that table was already a mistake. What if someone comes to check on the commotion?That would be bad. That would be embarrassing.Right… what was he going to do with the body?Instead of coming up with an answer, Sunny leaned forward and threw up again.…When he sat straight after a while, the door of the hut was open.And there, in the doorframe, his face pale, stood none other than Caster.With a stunned expression on his face, the proud Legacy was taking in the sight. The broken table, the smell of alcohol in the air, the bloodied body with a knife sticking out of its chest, and disheveled Sunny kneeling on the floor, his hands and face smeared with fresh blood.'Oh, no!'"This… this is not…"However, no words came to his mind. No matter what he would say, the situation was not going to appear any better.Looking him straight in the eyes, Caster asked with horror in his voice:"Sunny… what did you do?"***Sunny blinked and stared at the handsome young man. After a few moments, he opened his mouth and said:"What do you think? I killed the bastard."His voice was calm and nonchalant. It didn't matter how Sunny felt inside. In front of Caster, he couldn't show any weakness.He didn't trust the proud scion of the Han Li clan one bit. There had always been something off about him.So… if there was ever a time for acting, it was now. Especially because, unlike everyone else in the slum, Caster already knew that Sunny wasn't as useless as everyone believed. He had known it ever since that night when the three of them fought a devil together."Killed the… why did you kill him?!" Do you want to read more chapters ? Sunny stood up and shrugged."He was asking too many questions."Caster opened his mind, stunned, then closed it again. After a few moments, he suddenly frowned:"What kind of questions?"It seemed as though he had realized something.…Come to think of it, what was he even doing here?"Oh, you know. Do I know Nephis well, what her Ability is, how did she get her True Name, stuff like that."Without giving Caster the ability to react, Sunny wiped his hands with a bit of seaweed and added:"Actually, this guy, Harper, was sent over to spy on us by Tessai. I caught him making a report to a Castle Guard officer this morning."Caster remained silent for a while, then asked quietly:"Do you have any proof of that?"Sunny glared at him and raised an eyebrow."...Is my word not proof enough?"A wild thought suddenly appeared in his mind.'Will I have to kill Caster, too?'Would he even be able to, if it came to that?Not likely."Why, you don't believe me?"Bad, bad. The situation was really bad. Depending on Caster's next words, Sunny could find himself in a sea of trouble. And he was powerless to do anything about it. Anxious and uneasy, he stared at Caster. The proud Legacy lingered. After a while, he came inside and closed the door behind him."No, I believe you. Actually, I suspected this kid myself. That's why I came here after hearing that the two of you were seen going somewhere together. But, Sunny… the others… the others might not think the same."He smelled the air and grimaced."I am sorry to say that, but you have a reputation for having a bad temper. With alcohol added into the mix and no proof to connect Harper to the Castle… you can see how this does not look good."'That piece of crap!'Sunny scowled, trying to pretend that he was calm. He saw where this was going..."So? What are you going to do?"Caster gripped his shoulder. Then, in a serious and grave voice, he said:"What else? I will help you conceal everything, of course. We are comrades, after all. But, Sunny… no one can ever know what you have done here. Especially Lady Nephis. This will be… this will be our secret. Alright?"Saying that, he looked Sunny right in the eyes... and smiled.
=== CHAPTER 163: THE PAST ===
Chapter 163: The Past
Sunny stared at Caster with a grim expression. Despite the amiable smile and reassuring voice, he knew what the handsome Legacy was doing. He grew up in the outskirts, after all.Caster had said "I will help you."But what he actually meant was "I will own you."Because there was no better leverage than a gruesome secret. This help of his was going to come at a price. But what choice did Sunny have, really? Unless he was ready to fight and kill Caster right there and then, thus silencing the only witness of his crime forever, he couldn't refuse. Plus… what Caster thought was going to happen and what would really happen was not as set in stone as it seemed. As long as Sunny was alive, there was hope of turning things around, somehow. He just had to get through this, one step at a time. Sunny forced out a smile. "Thank you, Caster. I won't… won't forget it."Then, he glanced at the dead body lying at his feet and took a step back, escaping the quickly growing puddle of blood. His face remained calm, but a small, almost imperceptible shiver ran through his body. "So… what do we do now?"The proud Legacy lingered, then said in a solemn tone:"First things first, we can't let anyone see you like this. Wait here for a while. I'll bring something for you to clean yourself."Sunny sighed. He didn't really want to stay anywhere near Harper, but Caster was right. Walking around covered in blood was a bad idea. "And then what?"Caster hesitated. "Then we will need to get rid of the body. But… it won't be easy to do without being noticed, if not by slum rats, than by Guards. Don't worry, though… I'll think of something. Just wait for me to return."Sunny hesitated, wondering if he could trust the Legacy. What was going to stop him from returning with a crowd of people? But no. Having Sunny in his pocket would benefit Caster more than getting rid of him completely. Still, he sent the shadow to keep an eye on things after the handsome young man went away. Left alone with the corpse, Sunny sighed and sat on the floor, resting his back against the flimsy wall of the hut. He was so tired. The night was slowly descending on the ruins, drowning everything in comforting darkness. Of course, he could still see the bloodied body lying motionless on the stones beside him. For the first time, Sunny wished that his eyes weren't able to pierce through the shadows. Harper's eyes were still open, staring at him accusingly.'I am… I am stuck with you forever, aren't I?'Without even looking into the Soul Sea, Sunny knew that a new shadow had joined the silent ranks of every creature he had ever killed.All he could do was wait. Time slowly crawled.It was taking Caster a long time to gather everything needed without raising any suspicion. He had to avoid prying eyes and waste a lot of time conversing with people who constantly wanted to win his attention. At some point, even Cassie talked to him:"Hey, Caster. Have you seen Sunny?" Do you want to read more chapters ? Away from their lodge, sitting on the floor near the corpse of a young man he had killed, Sunny smiled darkly and listened to what kind of excuse the Legacy would come up with to account for his absence. After a while, his thoughts began to wander. He listened to the sound of rain falling on the stones outside and scowled. Rain always put him in a bad mood.Because of it, Sunny was always reminded of the past.Unlike Nephis, whose past was clouded in mystery and screamed of tragedy, he came from a simple background. His story was more mundane than tragic. A trivial story of unfortunate people living hard and bitterly in a dying world. Sunny's parents were both menial workers. They were poor, but not destitute. His dad was employed by one of the numerous maintenance crews that took care of the city's outer barriers. His mom worked in an underground factory that produced air filtration systems. Together, their income was barely enough to afford a small cell in one of the human hives in the outskirts. Several months after his sister, Rain, was born, when Sunny was around four, his father was killed in a work accident, which was not a rare occurrence among the city maintenance workers. Three years after that, his mother got sick and eventually passed away. Factory workers like her often got sick and died due to the harsh conditions, so it wasn't a rare outcome, either. Sunny and Rain were sent to a government child care facility. His sister was young and cute, so she was eventually adopted. Sunny, however, was older and had "behavioral problems", which made him pretty much completely undesirable. After enduring a few years in a series of increasingly vile foster homes, he finally managed to run away and learned how to survive on the streets of the outskirts.Out there on the streets, there were a lot of kids just like him, who had to do all sorts of distasteful things every day just to live to see another sunrise. However, even then, most of them didn't last long. It took a very special kind of creature to survive there.Sunny was one such creature. A part of this was pure luck, a part of it was that he was smart. But mostly, it was because he had a goal. Sunny refused to die before finding his sister. Somehow, he had convinced himself that she was waiting for him to find and save her. One day, they were going live happily again, like a family, together. This misguided goal kept him alive more than anything else. …Of course, it didn't end well. Nothing ever did in this damn world. Sitting just a few centimeters away from a puddle of human blood, Sunny chuckled and rubbed his face. Was there even such a thing as a happy ending? 'What is taking that bastard so long?'Granted, he knew exactly where Caster was, and what he was doing. Currently, he was raising his hand to open the door of Harper's hut. Sunny tiredly picked himself up from the floor and shook off the weight of reminiscence. What was the point of remembering the past? He had to survive the future…