Shadow Slave - After the Third Nightmare - A different Story

"So much essence. I'll be damned."

Aiko heard a voice coming from the basement. It was a sign that a week of loneliness had already taken effect on his mind. Her boss started to talk to himself.

Ever since he met him things were going strange. Well, things were strange even before. From a manager of Kai to a business partner of someone who disappeared, and then becoming an owner of a trade company. The name was bizarre. The reputation… At first it seemed striking, then somehow it disappeared just after two years. When the business was about to crumble, that guy came in, and declared he would take over.

And now the business is going well, better than ever. The new partner, she called 'boss' for his domineering importance, turned out to be quite a craftsman. He somehow managed to make storage Memories. Most of them weren't spatial, but for a bunch of awakened Memories it was more than enough. Many storage Memories weren't even able to move their contents to Soul Sea. That quality makes a difference between usable, and non-usable.

Before she realized she was employing like forty people. By the standards of economic law it's still a small company, but being able to gather so many Awakened to serve under her was really something. And while she has to pay them, in the long run the profits would accumulate, and exceed anything they could earn just by selling those Memories, mostly because most Awakened can't afford spatial Memories.

And it didn't stop there. Everytime, she learns something about him it seems like he's a well of untapped potential, mostly lacking the capacity to use effectively in the social context. If she didn't tell him that he can train more Awakened, not only one young girl, certainly he would do just that, train only one person. What a fool!

Now that smart fool locked himself in the basement, and played mad genius. He told her something about making an Echo. She never heard about the possibility of making one. It had something to do with the idea that Echoes are enchanted in the same way as Memories, something she couldn't wrap her head around, invisible threads existing on a different plane of existence.

Nonetheless a mad genius needs an assistant that could support him regardless of all his crap. If possible, she was going to be that assistant.

After all, it's so profitable.

She descended with a plate of food, some carrots, and peas, carefully cooked cutlery with some garlic for aroma, pickled cabbage, and a tempered glass of compote. Everything was expensive, but with their scale of profits caring about the price of green peas could be an offense.

"Boss, I'm coming in! Don't be surprised."

She opened the doors and walked down carefully. She 'held her hand' on her aspect in case she would lose her footing, it was so dark, but mostly out of habit. Recently she discovered that her ability to see in the darkness improved. There was also a strange black tattoo on her body that was moving on the surface of her skin. It was a nice trick that Boss discovered recently. The tattoo could also turn into a weapon. Very weird. Like everything with that guy.

Her boss was sitting on his Shadow Chair, waving his fingers in very strange patterns. There were several dark arms protruding from his sides.

"Oh, hey, Aiko. What's up?"

"I just thought you would have some use for a dinner. I don't recall you coming outside since the last three days. I started getting worried. Did you sleep, or use the bathroom?"

"I disregarded such things. Saints' stuff."

She summoned a table turned by Marut into Memory. For some reason the Memory had a bizarre name, 'Water Bottle'. She put the plate on the table, and looked at Sunny dubiously.

"Does Saints' stuff prevent you from getting dirty?"

"Ugh… No?"

"Okay. I shouldn't ask. I don't even want to know how taking a piss works for a Saint. Just… I don't know… If the thing you do is so important, maybe just summon your clone to replace you for a bit, and refresh yourself?"

Boss' face darkened in an already very dark room.

"Never thought about that."

"Gods… Thanks, you're dead, and don't see that. By the way Julius called. He sounded nervous. He wanted to tell you that the Great Clans put a bounty on your head again."

"I prepared some ascended soul shards as an apology for the problems. Just bring them to him, and tell to not talk with anyone about the report for at least two months. That's not a demand. I'm only worried. It's easy to get nervous or arrogant in his position."

"Anything else, boss?"

"Not really. I'll make some use of your advice, and return to what I was doing."

Then Sunless activated his another avatar, and it took a hold on whatever was happening, and she was quite sure it's beyond her perception. The original one stood up, and went upstairs, while the second one continued. Meanwhile she opened up the window. She didn't mention it, but the air was incredible. Such was the charm of the hard work.

In one of the corners there was a mannequin-like figure. It stood motionlessly, but it was somehow self-evident it could move on its own. One of the shadows was wrapped around it. The dark shade of it showed that. But considering the circumstances, there was practically no use to that.

'He came up with something again.'

Which was good. She couldn't complain. Recently there were some apprentices submitting their Water Bottles, which promised that the boutique will soon be able relieve some burden from Sunny. She was still nagging him that there were still too few people. Even if those forty would all be able to craft one Memory per two weeks, there's really no point in making it so small. The demand for Water Bottles would be endless anyway.

Together with Kim, and Luster they planned to take more, which again required Sunny to use some of his funds, not that much, to buy required materials, and to take care of the newcomers. Diamond threads needed to be ordered. Perhaps the toilet needs to be reorganized. The most problematic part is coming up with a way to check if the candidates memorized the patterns. Pattern is what it is, mostly a bunch of threads making the soul essence behave in a specific way through controlled movement. Those people need to have an opportunity to show they memorized the pattern, which poses a serious issue. The notation Sunny, and Kim invented together might not suffice…

Everything up to this point seems very artificial. The notation helps, but the mind behind it is still Sunny's one. Or maybe she overthinks, and trying to find someone qualified obscures her from using the tools they already developed?

"You're thinking about something. It's creeping me out. And I am the one to like loneliness"

The avatar was taking it from here, not the original boss, or all of them are one. It's not really hard to consider them as one person. They look the same, talk the same, and are eccentric a bit. But imagining him using at the same time his abilities to appear in his house, taking a bath was at least weird. And each of the clones had their own personality that could surface when not being controlled directly. This one… it looked morose, already complaining about the task it had to do.

"I think it's about time we should examine more people, and take them as apprentices. The first batch is still figuring out their first task. Some finished, and started working on different enchantments, but it will take a while."

That one might be a clone, but that's not the reason to disregard the boss' questioning.

"Handling them is already troublesome. And there's only fifty of them. What would happen if we tried to take a hundred more? Or two? An escape from the Falcon Scott is going to happen."

This one was so gloomy even about pretty simple things. Aiko cursed inwardly m, and started getting on its better side.

"The mess can be partially handled by veterans. Many will be soon Awakened, and you know… even one Awakened is able to keep them all in check. They can impose some order."

"But can they help with teaching?"

"Not so much."

The avatar turned to Aiko, and stopped the motions. The expression didn't change a little bit. It was still locked in pessimism, and despair, but its demeanor still followed some argumentation.

"Here's the problem. But let's consider it isn't. After all, those apprentices to some extent will be left to figure out their task for themselves while Kim can still verify their work. It should do, albeit a bit slower."

"I prefere apprentices taking things slowly rather than not taking apprentices. We will work on these things somehow. That's how things are. Our situation won't improve if we don't take the initiative."

"Even if it costs us?"

"This is still an investment. Some items, and materials are cheap while all Memories are expensive, even those luminous, cosmetic, or just-Memories you don't like to do. In the long run…"

He sighed, and returned to weaving.

"Just start somehow without me. If needed, I'll make a short appearance. Maybe I won't spend all my time here."

"Is it related to making your Echo?"

He shook his head.

"No, I'm about to finish it. But well, you never know. Many of my tasks seem to have no end."

"Already?"

"I worked many weeks on this project, long, lonely days, and was going to spend many more. Don't be surprised. That hardship is bound to bring some results. Even if in the great picture these results barely matter. Luckily I've just found a way to cheat a bit through this or rather get the understanding of what I'm doing. Otherwise all that could wait for me is more dull figuring it out"

"Can I see that? I mean when you finish."

"Are you at least interested in the process?"

"Not exactly. Every time you do something like this I can see new opportunities how to profit from that. For you, of course."

"Obviously, profit. Anyway. Looking for inspiration is a good reason. If there's any. Do you want an explanation?"

Aiko pointed at the Covetous Coffet.

"From the look of it I think you wouldn't sell it."

"Echoes are too rare to sell them. And even if I could, there's a reason to not do that. First of all it's going to be the first Echo made by me. I would like to keep my first work of this kind. In essence Echoes imitate living creatures. To make them you need a vessel that is able to perform all those actions that living creatures are supposed to be able to do. At least in body."

"Does that mean you make it sense things?"

"Yeah. At least some Echoes like swords, and armors, and automatons require such enchantments. Bright Lord's Echo had to be of this kind. Mine on the other hand is going to be a shapeshifting chest which implies some similarity. But sensing is probably an overstatement. It's mindless. And to sense something there has to be a mind."

"Producing a false mind… You know that might be actually a very good thing. Imagine you could have a mind that makes for you some very generic, predetermined reasonings like calculating taxes or payments…"

"You mean a calculator?"

"... Yes? Even that."

"Your computers can do that anyway. There's no point. And I can't even make a false mind that could control the body so that wouldn't even qualify really as an Echo."

"But what's the point then? If such an Echo itself would be useless, then why even make it?"

"Back when I was a carrier of the Spell my aspect allowed me to infuse Echoes with a matching soul. It resulted in making a minion that has both mind, and ability to grow."

"Nice. And it explains a lot. So how many did you make?"

"Only two, but strangely I have four. There are reasons, though. I know three requirements: consuming 100 of my shadow fragments, the Echo, and having a matching soul. And I suspect I can have no more than seven due to the fact that each one after dismissing resides in one of my cores."

"Selling them would be akin to selling perks of your aspect."

"We can't consider selling them, unless someone gives me thousands of soul fragments, and even that might not be enough. Mind that won't happen, mostly because I consider revealing my powers to everyone simply dangerous. Not a good deal."

"Would that Echo at least be of good Rank or have good utility?"

"Honestly I doubt it. The soul I'm gonna use is only Ascended Devil, and the Echo also is only Ascended. I am already a Transcendent. As a Memory that chest serves me great due to enchantments that let it match my power, but I don't know what would happen to its enchantments after turning into a minion. In a way it's a useless whim of mine. I just wanted to have another minion, and perhaps use its shapeshifting to make it look like a house. That way we could use it as a home after moving to Dream Realm."

Living in a Devil… Disgusting, and eerie. Her boss is definitely nuts. Only he could come up with something like this. But at least he thinks about her, and making a living place for them in the future. Something in it appealed to Aiko. She smiled warmly as if trying to comfort the gloomy man.

"May I suggest something?"

"Yes, Aiko."

"Why wouldn't you at least add some enchantments for sturdiness or something special it can do as a Memory? In case its enchantments would still work after the infusion the chest would have some additional boons. I think you want this 'Echo' to serve you for a long time. So it shouldn't be just a living chest with great capacity. In case it won't work, you could at least see more clearly that the process destroys the enchantments."

"This… it will cost me more work, and damn me more, but that's sensible. The enchantment might be bound to the soul, and I'll tell you that enchantments powered by souls tend to be much stronger than enchantments anchored to the soul shards. I can tell from the experience. I saw even an aspect ability that works based on powering enchantments with soul. Unfortunately my library of enchantments is still a very small one. Can you summon here Memories I took for an upgrade? I mean all of them. They might be crucial here. Also tell people I will take some commissions for Memories related to recovery."

"Yes, boss."

She summoned many Memories at once, which translated into huge consumption of essence. When she finished her reservoir was already half-drained. At the same time the avatar seemed to be less grim, and less everything if it comes to expression.

"Normally I would have to modify them first but thanks to that tattoo I put on you I should be able to experiment with them without binding them to me. Leave them here. I have some more hours to spend here. Probably three days will be enough. I'll note you when I will start the transformation. Now excuse me."

"I wish it goes well. I'll contact some people to borrow you Memories. We will have to return them soon, but a few days shouldn't be a problem. Can I use some of your shards?"

"You have my permission."

She nodded, and made her way upstairs.

In the world in which Memories are being used even in industries, renting them is actually not a rare sight. It's just that it's not widely used. Hunters, soldiers, warriors, and anyone fighting is too often at risk of dying, and dying leads to disappearance of Memories, which means that borrowed Memories are at risk. But they still can be rented. It just requires making a considerable deposit that guarantees that in case of being lost the owner won't be a total loser.

Of course, it's mostly about utility Memories. Those have the best potential to not being lost in a clash with some stupid monsters, so they are the easiest to rent, but in this case that's what Sunny needs, Memories with some utility.

She wasn't a craftsman, but she knew that Sunny depends on copying l enchantments. And having a wide network of connections she knew where she could rent some interesting items. Aiko took a communicator, and started calling her employees informing them about the idea to look for some recovery Memories, and lure some Awakened with the possibility of making a commission for an upgrade or earning some easy soul shards through renting.

'I use a lot of money lately. I hope it's going to be worth it.'