Shadow Slave

Shaking his head, he summoned the Covetous Coffer and produced some food from it. Effie’s eyes glinted when she saw fruit, bread, and cheese. Grabbing a handful of grapes, she sent them into her mouth.

”Oh. Oh, gods! This is it! You can’t imagine... how sick I was of seaweed and fish meat... well, abomination meat...”

Sunny watched her eat silently. It seemed that Effie’s already impossible hunger had become twice as dire, now... even though there was a lot of food stored in the Coffer, it was disappearing with a frightening speed.

He had summoned Saint and Fiend soon after realizing that escaping the abominations was not an option anymore, so they were standing guard around them, joined by Nightmare.

After a while, Sunny offered Effie the Endless Spring and hesitated for a few moments.

Eventually, he said:

”It must have been hard. To survive the Great River like that - unable to fight... or even protect yourself well, really. Both yourself and the... the child.”

The huntress looked at him for a few moments, then shrugged with a smile.

”Yeah, sure, it wasn’t easy. But Jet took good care of me.”

He lingered for a bit.

”So why did you do it?”

Effie raised an eyebrow.

”Did what?”

Sunny’s voice was somber and serious:

”Why did you come to the Nightmare with us instead of escaping with Beastmaster?”

Her expression froze.

”Oh...”

Effie did not answer for a while. Then, she looked down and caressed her protruding belly with a distant smile.

After a few moments of silence, she said in a subdued tone:

”Just, you know... the world is already falling apart at the seams. So, I thought, in a place like that... would this kid want to also be raised by a mother who abandons her friends? And the answer... was no.”

Looking up, she put on a fake grin and shrugged.

”At least that’s what I reckoned.”

Sunny studied her face for a few moments, then looked away and nodded.

Then, he smiled crookedly.

”I see. So... you challenged the Third Nightmare to set an example for your child. Okay. Alright. Are you crazy?! What kind of example is that?!”

Effie laughed.

When she answered, her voice was soft:

”A stupid one?”

...In the end, they did not make it to the Chain Breaker in time. Sunny managed to keep Effie safe, but the revolution ended before they even reached the tower.

Coming to his senses on the familiar deck, Sunny looked into the mist and exhaled slowly.

’A stupid example, huh?’

Professor Obel might have been right...

Humanity needed a little stupidity to survive.

Tiredly closing his eyes, he lowered his head and sighed.

’This... is going to be a very, very long day.’

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Erdiuls Note: Pregnancy was kinda...random. Effie shippers on suicide watch rn.