Shadow Slave AU: Fluid Fate

[31]Viva, Lost City

When morning came, Sunny had an interesting time integrating himself and familiarizing himself with hundreds of people trapped outside the city walls.

Sunny knew he might not remember a lot of these names.

'Alice, Jackson, Keichi, and so many more. How many people died all because we were reckless and ignorant?'

Just thinking about it made Sunny's head hurt. He did not stop looking around the settlement though. There was someone he had to find.

***

Nephis POV:

This. . . was all a little much.

Shortly after Nephis was helped by Seishan, the castle was thrown into an uproar. It was especially chaotic after that bastard Caster showed up and announced her true name.

Because of Caster's praise, both girls received invitations to the Host.

Nephis received offers to join the Handmaidens, Hunters, Castle Guards, and also Gunlaug's harem.

Cassie similarly received offers from Gunlaug's harem, as well as from the Artisans, and Handmaidens.

Of course, they received their invitation to the Handmaidens from Song Seishan herself when she drug them to her wing of the castle to talk.

Other than that incident, Nephis did not speak much to anyone, forcing Cassie to play negotiator time and time again.

At some point on the first day, Sunny's shadow had left Nephis to wander on its own.

The girls spent their nights mostly alone in their room, with Nephis practicing social skills with Cassie or working on enduring her flaw.

Cassie had developed a habit of hugging close to Nephis when she was near, so she knew that when Nephis wanted alone time, it was mostly for that, and thus Cassie would always bury Neph's head in her chest when Nephis was done.

"You're really warm Cassie."

Cassie laughed and stroked Nephis' head like a little puppy, which Nephis acted not too happy about, even though she basically fell right asleep to it.

By the time the week was over, Nephis was looking forward to Sunny's report. She had noticed his Shadow pop in on them from time to time, but there were some times when it disappeared for hours, so she was confused about what Sunny was up to.

***
Sunny found who he was looking for around midday. Sunny weaved between animal skin tents and rotten wood shacks to come up and talk to two random people. He was secretly watching someone else.

Dressed in a flexible armor made out of red scales covering his body, complete with a winged helmet and a kite shield. In his hand, a curved scimitar weaved itself from the sparks of light. Its blade was as sharp as a razor.

Jubei was on the edge of the settlement closest to the eastern edge, talking to his hunting party. There was a man dressed in rags with a Naginata like spear. He had a scruffy beard and a muscular physique. Two more men made up the rest of his party. Both of them were lanky and starved, but no less athletic looking than Jubei himself.

The four of them were currently haggling with the residents of the outer settlement. They received offers to clean and cook the meat, as well as processing the leather and such all in exchange for sharing their spoils with the residents of the settlement.

Sunny watched as the hunting party came to an agreement with the misfit bunch of Sleepers and the winning bid group dragged away the corpse.

Sunny's job was to figure out which of these young men Jubei's party interacted with was about to be killed in the labyrinth.