And so, the days passed. Sunny divided his time between managing his Brilliant Emporium with Aiko and Steve, hunting in the depths of the Dark City, and tending to his ladies.
Surprisingly, despite his initial apprehensions, Lost from Light managed to balance his relationships without a hitch. Both during the day and, of course, throughout the night.
Cassie was incredibly sweet and loved to tease him by acting like a spoiled child desperate for affection, demanding to be kissed at least seven times a day and to sleep securely in his arms after they made love. His dynamic with Seishan was more mature; though she certainly had her own demands for his attention, they often shared brilliant intellectual conversations alongside their frequent carnal pleasures. Sunny felt he was successfully rebuilding the bond with the Princess of Song that he had lost in the previous timeline—only this time, it was far more intense.
Then there was Saint. Ever since she had recovered her memories, he and the proud stone warrior alternated their time between fighting ferocious battles side-by-side in the ruins and engaging in passionate, private skirmishes against one another on the bedsheets. With her, he didn't need many words. They had forged such a profound bond over time that one could easily intuit what the other was thinking, acting upon it before the thought was even fully formed.
'I am happy,' Sunny told himself one night, staring at the ceiling of his hideout in the Dark City, with Saint resting peacefully beside him after an intense nighttime session. 'I am truly happy. Confused, yes. Conflicted, even more so. I never thought I could feel this way, and I genuinely want this kind of happiness to last forever. Because I absolutely refuse to ever let it end.'
Finally, there was Aiko. As for his sweet, greedy, floating assistant... well, in truth, Sunny hadn't yet found the courage to take that final step.
She had made her feelings for him abundantly clear, and Lost from Light had no qualms about returning them; he fully intended to repay every single ounce of love Aiko gave him. And yet, he found himself hesitating. It was as if he was afraid of something, and Sunny knew exactly what that something was.
When he compared his current life to the past, the thing that tormented him most was his relationship with Nephis and the collateral damage it had inflicted on those closest to him.
When Changing Star had taken control of Sunless through the [Shadow Bond], she hadn't just chained him; she had actively prevented him from forming other attachments. Over time, due to the influence of the original Dreamspawn—who mercilessly exploited her weakness for him and their fractured relationship—she had even started harming those close to him, especially the women. Aiko and Saint had been among them.
She had forced him to kill Saint with his own two hands. By ordering him to do it.
'Never again. I will never let that happen again,' Sunny thought, clenching his fists fiercely as the atrocious pain of the memory gripped his chest.
Therefore, his primary fear wasn't ruining their current relationship, but rather exposing his precious assistant to dangers she knew nothing about. Seishan was more than capable of protecting herself, and Cassie was safe because Nephis cared about the blind seer just as much as she cared about him, albeit in a very different way.
So, for the time being, Sunny decided to let his relationship with Aiko progress naturally, just as it was. Little did he know that his adorable assistant was already scheming behind his back to turn the situation entirely in her favor.
As for everything else, his plan was proceeding smoothly.
Gunlag and his lieutenants—Seishan, Harus, Gemma, and Kido—managed to Awaken using his method in a very short time, largely because their soul cores had already been fully saturated for ages. They were quickly followed by their most trusted and capable subordinates, who possessed similar advantages in terms of essence accumulation. This confirmed that the time required to Awaken using the essence circulation technique Sunny had learned from Eurys was approximately one month.
Now, excluding himself, the Bright Castle boasted a total of thirty-five Awakened. All that remained was to perfect the runic circle and the technique used to accelerate the process further.
For now, they were keeping the natural Awakening method a fiercely guarded secret. The goal was to reveal it to the public as the ultimate hope for conquering the Crimson Spire and returning to the Waking World, right when Sunny's strike team returned from the Hollow Mountains with the final Shard Memory. Gunlag would serve as the public face of the entire operation, hailed as the hero and ruler of the Bright Castle who would bring everyone home.
The last King of the Forgotten Shore would be a savior this time, not a deposed tyrant. And Nephis wouldn't be able to eliminate him, simply because she would no longer have a valid reason to do so.
'Without a casus belli, Changing Star will never become the guiding light of humanity, and consequently, she won't acquire the fame needed to amass a loyal army of followers. This time, no bloody civil war will break out. There will be more survivors, and therefore, more manpower to fight for our return home. How ironic!' Sunny told himself as he reviewed his meticulous plan, a quiet chuckle escaping his lips. 'She, who was destined to shine so brightly, will fade into the background, while the tyrant King is hailed as a hero and savior. This time, Nephis, I won't let you have your way.'
And so, amidst all these preparations, three more months slipped by. Exactly four months since Sunless had left Nephis's cohort—just as it had been in the very beginning.
***
"What the hell do you mean you can't find him?" Sunny asked, shooting her a bewildered look.
He was currently sitting in the backroom of the Brilliant Emporium, simultaneously weaving new Memories and reviewing the ledgers detailing the progress of his plan. Today was supposed to be the fateful day when he rescued a certain dashing, stunning and beautifull nightingale, cementing their lifelong friendship.
However, thanks to his proactive meddling and the butterfly effect of his actions, Sunny had ended up encountering Kai much earlier. The two had instantly hit it off. Lost from Light had simply regaled him with tales of his "mundane" daily adventures and "ordinary" exploits. It was the perfect match: a young man utterly incapable of lying, conversing with someone to whom the truth could never be hidden.
Sunny had even entrusted him with the details of his master plan regarding Gunlag and the assault on the Crimson Spire. He had also revealed his secret identity as 'Faraam,' the enigmatic founding blacksmith of the renowned Memory boutique that had been taking both the outer settlement and the grand halls of the Bright Castle by storm. He had even gone so far as to offer the pop idol a job as the Emporium's official poster boy.
Everything was going swimmingly that morning—until Aiko barged in, frantic, declaring that his dazzling, stunning and beautiful best friend had suddenly vanished without a trace.
"That is exactly what I meant," Aiko stated, standing rigidly in front of him. Her hands were clenched into tight fists at the sides of her Handmaiden dress. "Kai is gone. No one has seen him since the day before yesterday."
'How is that even possible?' Sunny wondered, rubbing his chin as his mind raced to put the pieces together.
Recently, during one of their sweet, intimate nights together, Cassie had casually mentioned that Effie and Kai had become an item. The news had initially left Sunny utterly bewildered. He clearly remembered that in his previous timeline, Effie had married a nameless Awakened soldier from an evacuation squad during the Antarctica campaign.
However, he had slowly come to accept the change. After all, Kai and Effie had always been quite close. In fact, back in that original timeline, when Sunny first found out the Raised by Wolves huntress was pregnant, Kai had immediately been his number one suspect for the father.
The point was, now that the two of them were together, Effie was perfectly capable of protecting him. Furthermore, Kai was closely associated with Sunny, Gunlag's lieutenants, and even the Bright Lord himself. Who in their right mind would dare lay a finger on him?
'Wait a minute!' A sudden, chilling possibility hit Sunny like a bucket of ice water. He bolted upright, his eyes widening in absolute horror. 'No. Please, gods, no. Don't tell me... Effie ATE Kai!'
It was supposed to be a ridiculous, exaggerated joke in his head, but knowing the voracious huntress's appetites... it was entirely within the realm of possibility.
Heart pounding with dread at the terrifying prospect of finding his best friend dried up like a human prune, Sunny sprang to his feet and bolted toward the door, determined to march right into the outer settlement and save him.
"Where are you going, Boss? We have customers waiting!" Aiko called out, spinning around to block his path just a second before he could cross the threshold.
"Kai might be in terrible danger. I have to go," he urged, looking down at her with genuine, uncharacteristic panic etched across his face.
Smack.
Leaving a swift, sweet kiss squarely on the lips of his surprised little assistant, Sunny immediately spun around and dashed out the door.
'I'm coming, brother! Hold on!'
Time was of the essence, and so was the life of his dearest, dashing, stunning and beautiful friend.
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