In a room of the academy, two people were sleeping silently.
Their arms wrapped around each other. From the looks of their faces, they both seemed at peace.
Nephis body twitched. She slowly stirred from her slumber and began to wake up.
Her eyes still closed. She felt that she was hugging a soft pillow. The pillow was soft and comfortable to hug.
She slowly began to open her eyes. When she fully opened her eyes, she saw Sunny's face.
Some of her silver hair on his face. Thay lay on the bed side by side, facing each other and their heads on the same pillow.
She realized that the soft pillow she felt she was hugging was none other than Sunny.
The memories of the past night flooded her mind. Her body tensed, and she hurriedly looked toward the window.
Outside the window was a little dark.
She released a breath of relief. 'Still three hours left before everyone slowly wakes up, as long as I remember.'
Nephis turned her head toward Sunny.
He was still sleeping with a peaceful expression on his porcelain skin face. His arms were still around her body, his face a few centimeters away from her face.
Her lips curled up a little.
'He looks cute when he sleeps like this'
Nephis sighed.
She didn't want to wake him up, but she had no choice. There were only three hours left and she needed his shadow's help to reach her room without anyone seeing her.
She gently shook him and whispered into his ears.
"Wake up Sunny~"
He just moved a little but didn't wake up. Nephis now spoke a little louder and shook him a little harder.
"Sunny, we only have three hours before everyone wakes up. So wake up now, please."
Sunny, still half asleep, replied,
"Ten more minutes, please."
With that, he again extended his arms and hugged her. Instinctively trying to find a comfortable place on her body to rest his face.
She sighed again.
Well, she understood.
They were always fighting something. They always had to remain vigilant as humanity's rulers. Fighting cursed creatures every day. Clearing zones, finding citadels, working every day without breaks.
And now, after a long time, they finally had a break. If not for the fact that everybody would wake up in three hours, she also wouldn't have wanted to go.
'Anyways, ten minutes won't hurt.'
With that, she guided his head to her arm and his face to her neck and let him rest on it.
He comfortably rested his head on her arm, and his face leaned on her soft neck. His hands were still wrapped around her waist, and back, pressing her smooth body against his.
Nephis used her free hand on his neck and wrapped around it. Gently pressing his face into her neck.
And her other hand, where his head rested. This arm went from under his head and reached toward back of his head.
Her hand placed on the back of his head and started stroking his hair.
She rested her jaw on his head. His black hair brushed against her jaw.
They cuddled in the bed like this for a long time. Sunny's warm breath lightly touched her neck.
Bodies fully relaxed and comfortable.Their heart beated in sync. Feeling each other warmth, a sense of security washed over them
Nephis, now relaxed, thought about the future after everything ended and if they were still alive.
'After everything ends we will live in peace... though this is still weird to think about, a world without fighting a nightmare creature. Anyway, then we can again...progress our relationship and spend days like this.'
But she was not naive. She knew that wouldn't be easy, heck there was still a pretty high chance that they would die before anything. Plus Sunny also didn't want to challenge the 7th nightmare and she clearly understood him. After regaining her memories, she also hesitated a little bit.
'Anyway, we will see that in the future.'
When she was moving on from this thought, suddenly another thought appeared in her mind.
'When everything is over and if we are still alive then we can also have... kids.'
She started imagining a porcelain-skinned and raven-black-haired girl with onyx eyes and a slender body. And an alabaster-skinned and silver-haired boy with calm grey eyes and a slender body.
Her face turned fully red. Hot blush covered her entire face.
And this was not even the first time a thought like this appeared in her mind. After finding out that the Lord of Shadows was actually Sunny, a thought like this appeared in her mind. Then she quickly discarded it, but that thought never disappeared. It just stayed back in her mind, appearing from time to time.
And now after regaining her memories, the thought was stronger than ever.
'This is still too far away Nephis. Plus as much as I care about my life with Sunny, I also care that much about conquering the 7th nightmare and completing my long awaited goal. So after I complete my goal then I can think about our relationship plans. So there is no point thinking about the future right now'.
Well, atleast this is what she told herself. But she knew that deep down, she cared about Sunny more than conquering the 7th nightmare, and it wasn't even close.
But before she could think any further, Sunny's body twitched below her head. He slowly began to open his eyes. Pushing his face a little bit backward from her neck, just enough to see her face.
Nephis gave him a small smile.
"Good morning. It has been thirty minutes, instead of ten."
Sunny finally fully opened his eyes and said in a lazy voice,
"Good morning. And sorry, I didn't sleep this well in a long time."
"I understand, but I have to go to my room before everyone wakes up."
He nodded.
Before that, he shake his head little. Rubbing his face in her neck.
Nephis didn't also didn't released him. Still gently pressing his face against her neck.
To Nephis disappointment, Sunny finally took his head from her neck, and reluctantly moved away from their embrace.
He sat up on the bed and turned his head toward her and looked at her eyes with a mischievous smile forming in his face.
"Why? What's the problem if everyone finds out about us?"
She also sat up and looked at him with her usual indifferent face and aloof expression.
"Well if everyone found out about us, you will get a lot of attention and you don't like attention. And everyone will suspect that you're not as weak as you tried to make yourself. Caster would take you seriously and do something unexpected. When you came from the Forgotten Shore, great clans would try to recruit you and try to get close to me and make your life hell. Time an—"
Sunny put his hand on her mouth and moved toward her face with a mischievous smile.
"You do know that I was joking?"
Nephis put his hand away and, giving her own little playful smile, she also moved toward him.
"I know."
With that, their soft lips met and they kissed.
After that section, Nephis finally leave his room. With help of his shadow she reached her room.
After that, everything went almost the same. He chose wilderness survival classes to get connected with Teacher Julius again and didn't take anything else.
Because of his flaw, he had to answered every questions. Teacher Julius was delighted by his knowledge. So he teaches Sunny advance course.
Sunny was surprised to find out, that there are still something in the world he didn't knew.
Nephis also went to combat classes, but this time she had beaten everyone with zero effort. Like sometimes she didn't see if the opponent was moving or not. She just moved forward and beat them.
She even beat Caster this time easily. Everyone was shocked but not much, she was the daughter of Broken Sword and Smile of Heaven after all.
Even though she had won, no one approached her like Caster. Because of her cold aura and still fanboying and fangirling over him.
And Caster had expected to lose, so he was not too disappointed. So fate didn't notice this small change.
And Nephis send Sunny death stare, time to time.
Because girls are looking at him to much and flirting with him. But he secretly liked it. Because how Nephis act all jealous and possessive toward him. It make him happy that she cared.
Sometimes Sunny talked with Cassie in the cafeteria but this small change wasn't going to stop her from betraying him.
Nephis didn't talked to her. It would go against her persona of aloof and distant, legacy. So she buried her desire, to talked with her friend.
He had also unlocked his aspect legacy in an hour, because of his knowledge.
They didn't talked in public. Keeping their relationship hidden.
Every night, Sunny and Nephis met to talk and plan things. Sometimes she teleported to his room. And sometimes he teleported to her room.
They had also thought about Sunny awakening with the help of Serpent, but Nephis found it very risky and Sunny agreed.
Because what if after awakening Sunny returned to his physical body and left the dream realm? They couldn't take this kind of risk.
And after planning, they slept with each other like before, but couldn't go further, and both of them were displeased by this.
Days went in a blur and finally, winter solstice came.