Chapter: 27, Flashback
In the previous life…
After all the sleepers left the Forgotten Shore. Sunny was working in the Academy as a teacher. Her days were smooth, peaceful. But there was something missing. Her freedom was gone because of Nephis, and Nephis herself was gone, maybe roaming the unknown areas of the Dream Realm.
But the confirmation that she was alive gave her some relief. The unknown dangers of the dream realm were not something she should not care about. But another thing made her sigh of relief. The most skilled and supposedly the strongest sleeper of the academy during their time as sleepers, Jin was also stuck in the dream realm.
Aura, who was rumored to be Jin's sister said that Jin 'forgot' that the spire would collapse, so he just, out of nowhere decided to stay. Aura herself didn't try to convince him, She just said, "Okay~" and done. She had no worry on her face as she recounted the encounter.
Even though Aura confirmed that they were relatives, Sunny doubted it.
Anyway, Sunny knew that she had feelings for Nephis; it was early but she knew she loved Nephis. But her feelings were conflicted with another similar feeling.
The target of the familiar feelings was also strange. Noir, A fellow outskirt rat who shared the ritual of weird names, but at least her name can be turned into something normal, guess he wasn't so lucky.
But the feelings she had for him were strange, very strange. It was as if the feelings did not come from within her, they were strong but not genuine. These feelings were first noticed by her when she first met him, back in the police station with Master Jet.
But the strangest thing was that, right after they came back to the waking world, Master Jet, the cold and deadly Soul Reaper, announced that she was in a relationship with Noir. Obviously it not only surprised Sunny, but the Entire Government was baffled.
Aura on the other hand, was in a relationship with Cassie. But not only Cassie and Jet, Kai and Effie were also with Noir.
Sunny was completely speechless at the absurd situation where a woman would share her man.
**
After the Second Nightmare…
Sunny had finally become an Ascended, a Master. Even though her body has started to look more feminine than before, she still hid her gender by various means.
Her body and soul had become more perfect than before, but with it, her unknown feelings for Noir had increased significantly.
She had started to notice his scent every time they met; she remembered all of his movements and encounters. His voice soothed something within her, his smile made her smile involuntarily. Everytime their skin touched, she would become sensitive. She would recall his face every night and her body would suddenly go into heat.
After becoming an ascendant, her prowess increased significantly, but her suffering from this strange feeling increased as well.
Then after some time of enduring the feelings, great news reached her ears, Nephis and Jin were back to the waking world.
She rushed to meet them, by the time she reached the room Nephis was resting; Both Nephis and Jin were awake. They came back to the waking world by challenging the second nightmare and became ascended like them.
She should've been happy, but she wasn't. The strange but intimate atmosphere around Nephis and Jin made her jealous.
Nephis, who was known to show less emotion, was full of smiles around Jin. She expressed much more emotion than she did in the entire time they were in Forgotten Shore. It made her jealous, 'why can't I be the reason for those smiles, those emotions?' she asked herself.
Nephis had reassured her that she would never use the authority she had over her with the help of Shadow Bond.
It should've made her feel relieved, but she became angry. Maybe it was because she couldn't see her and Jin together, or something else. But the fact was that she was furious and without thinking, she decided to join the Antarctica siege.
It was a long, perilous and hard period, and she had gained much from it. But there was still something that made her feel incomplete. She wanted answers as to why her feelings for Noir kept intensifying.
And after the fall of the Falcon Scott, She reached Central Antarctica with master Jet, where she met Noir.
She was desperate for answers, so she asked him the moment they were alone. Her heart was racing to the possibility of the feelings being genuine, from her. But the first thing from his mouth shattered all that anticipation.
"You see… I did use an otherworldly spell to forcefully awaken those feelings in your heart. But I didn't know you were a girl, if I knew, I would have never used that on you." He tried to explain and explained all of his harem system abilities, but that made her even more furious.
'Why! Why! Why!' She thought. Why did she have to endure those sufferings, those cravings for his touch, those desires that she desperately kept hidden, have to be a mistake? All those suffering were just because of a misunderstanding.
Noir also explained about his clones. Sunny also was enraged, suspecting that they might've used that skill on Nephis as well. But Noir clarified that they didn't use it on her. Nephis had genuinely fallen in love with Jin, there was no outside influence.
The hope that appeared in Sunny's heart shattered instantly. She couldn't believe that Nephis found her true and genuine love, but the feelings of love within her heart was either unachievable or just fake.
She lost her Freedom, The person she loved and now she had to live with the suffocating feeling of love that genuinely wasn't hers, but a mistake.
At that moment, she knew, knew that she hated Noir, his existence, everything about him for ruining her life. But she wasn't one to give up easily.
She was an outskirt cockroach that would never die… No matter What.
To be Continued…