Shadow Slave

With Saint seemingly falling into a daze, Sunny threw a glance into the rearview mirror and studied Morgan for a few moments.

The Princess of Valor… looked different from how she had been before.

Morgan had always given off a sharp and deadly aura, and all her actions had been calculated and precise. She had carried herself with the reserved elegance of a born noble, maintaining a neat appearance in all circumstances. She had been a person who preferred to maintain strict control of both herself and everything around her at all times.

That Morgan… would have never allowed herself to sprawl on the backseat of a ramshackle PTV in a perfectly comfortable pose, not even trying to maintain the rules of decorum.

She was still sharp and dangerous, just much more… relaxed and at ease.

As if she could not be bothered to care anymore.

…Granted, Morgan Steel managed to look elegant and like she owned the place even when wearing a nurse uniform and lounging in a rusty PTV. It was just that she brimmed with a decadent kind of elegance now instead of her usual refined poise.

Sunny sighed.

”So, why did Mordret come here, and why did you follow him to Mirage City?”

All the pieces to the odd puzzle of the Great Mirror were held by three people: Mordret, the other Mordret, and Morgan… the children of the late King of Swords.

’King of Swords…’

Sunny tensed.

He was not going to receive two ”you killed my father” speeches in one day, was he?

Luckily, Morgan seemed entirely indifferent to the fact that she was sitting next to her father’s killer. Hearing his question, she lingered for a few moments, then smiled.

”You got it all wrong… Sunless. It wasn’t me who followed Mordret here. It was the other way around.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

”You entered the Great Mirror first?”

Morgan nodded.

”Back then, after you and Nephis killed Ki Song… and my father… things were in utter chaos for the first few months, weren’t they?”

Sunny nodded. The first months of the newly established Human Domain had indeed been hectic. After all, it was not easy to build a new world order on the ruins of an old one… luckily, they had received a lot of help.

Ironically enough, the Legacy Clans had played an important part in putting the world back on track. The government had been nothing short of instrumental, as well, with Jet mobilizing the great bureaucracies of its various arms to smooth out the transition.

Effie had taken control of the Sword Domain and Bastion. Kai had taken over the Song Domain and Ravenheart…

Morgan had spent those first few months there with him, helping the charming archer build a solid foundation for his future rule.

Then, she disappeared without a trace.

Sunny frowned.

”What about them?”

Morgan shrugged lazily.

”While you were busy conquering the world… well, Nephis was busy conquering the world. You were busy playing dead. Congratulations on your resurrection, by the way.” Ṟ𝒶Ｎo͍ꞖЁŝ

Sunny smiled.

”You don’t sound that surprised.”

Morgan deigned him with a scoff.

”Please. Learning that the comely Master I had knighted was the Lord of Shadows was a bit of a shock. Inferring that you did not really turn on Nephis or die by her sword was a piece of cake.”

Sunny grimaced.

”Almost everyone else truly believes that I’m dead, you know?”

She shrugged.

”Everyone else is not me. Anyway… while the two of you were busy putting out numerous fires and dealing with the fallout of the war, Mordret and I were busy doing something else. The King of Swords and the Queen of Worms had left certain things behind — things that very few people knew existed, and even fewer were in a position to retrieve.”

Morgan sighed.

”Mordret plundered our father’s secret inheritance while hunting down the members of the extended Valor family. I tried to intercept them and extend at least some measure of protection, but… you should know that man by now. He is elusive, indestructible, and utterly deadly. And I was not in the position to protect anyone, really. I was busy trying to stay alive myself.”

She remained silent for a few moments, then shook her head.

”So, I plundered pieces of Ki Song’s inheritance instead. Her daughters got to most of it eventually, but I had the advantage of being in Ravenheart before they returned — due to being kidnapped by Nightingale.”

Morgan paused, then asked in an indifferent tone:

”How… is he doing, by the way?”

Sunny smiled.

”Who, that guy? Oh, he’s doing great. Better than anyone with a drop of shame would have the audacity to, really. He lives in a stunning palace, surrounded by stunning Transcendent princesses from all sides. It’s like a flower garden. What’s not to love?”

Somehow, Morgan did not seem particularly glad to hear that.

’I guess she is still resentful of Kai because of the kidnapping.’

Sunny shook his head.

He knew a thing or two about spite, but some people were just too vindictive!

”So what was it that Ki Song left behind?”

Morgan remained silent for a few moments, then shrugged somberly.

”This and that. Information, among other things. For example, she left behind a piece of information I was aiming to find, to begin with. I knew that Mordret would come for me sooner or later… I also knew that Ki Song would have never accepted him into the Song Domain without investigating possible countermeasures against his betrayal first. Turns out, she managed to learn more about my brother than even our father had.”

She smiled faintly.

”Our father tried to obliterate Mordret quite thoroughly, you know. His body was destroyed… his soul was destroyed, too. But he still refused to die, maybe because his reflections remained intact. In the end, all we could do was imprison him in a mirror trap. Well, as it turns out…”

Morgan looked out the window at the vista of the Mirage City and exhaled slowly.

”Turns out, he couldn’t be killed because his death was somewhere else. My brother Mordret was split apart when he conquered the First Nightmare. Different versions of him inherited different parts of his being... and only one of them inherited his death.”

She raised a hand and pointed at the lights of the sprawling city.

”He must have brought that version to the Great Mirror after returning to Bastion, and hid him inside.”

Morgan turned to Sunny and smiled.

”So, you see… if we kill the CEO of the Valor Group, we can finally be rid of my dear brother once and for all.”