Shadow Slave novel Chapter 1356

Chapter 1356 The Last Sybil

Sunny studied the old woman's armor, hesitated for a few moments, then looked at the Chain Breaker with doubt. He felt rather impatient to meet Dusk of Fallen Grace, but reminded himself to keep calm and take it one step at a time.

"...We've yet to moor our ship."

The old warrior bowed again.

"Everything will be taken care of."

'How convenient...'

These ancient soldiers did not seem like much of a threat. The old woman was an Awakened, but the rest were mundanes. Sunny had no doubt that he would be able to escape any ambush or trap they could potentially lure him into... and it didn't even seem like there would be a trap.

Still, he didn't like the idea of leaving their only means of escaping Fallen Grace behind.

...That said, if Dusk had really anticipated their arrival, wouldn't she have also anticipated his reluctance? If she knew that he would be wary of a trap, wouldn't she have been able to construct a trap insidious enough to fool Sunny?

Suddenly, he was full of apprehension.

'Damnation...'

Sunny had mostly been blessed by finding himself on the right side of people with prophetic powers. Now that he was about to meet an unfamiliar oracle, though, he fully realized how terrifying of an enemy one could be.

His unease wasn't helped one bit by the fact that he had actually already met Dusk of Fallen Grace once... in a way. There were deep scars left on his psyche by the Terror of LO49.

'Whatever. What else can we do, demand that she comes to meet us here on the pier?'

After exchanging a glance with Nephis, Sunny shrugged and followed the group of soldiers deeper into the city. The old man who had greeted them joined, as well, which caused an irritated sigh to escape from the lips of the old woman in charge of the soldiers.

"Cronos... why are you tagging along with us, kid?"

The old man simply smiled.

"Why, I'm the one who greeted the esteemed guests first. Surely, they'll feel better having someone familiar escort them!"

The leader of the soldiers shook her head and didn't say anything else. The old man... Cronos... seemed satisfied and hurried to keep up with them.

'Kid? How ancient is this woman, to be calling a fossil like him "kid"?'

As Sunny was escorted through Fallen Grace, he couldn't help but look around with a somber expression.

Everywhere they went... they were only met by old people. Ranging from elderly to ancient, the inhabitants of Fallen Grace all had white hair, wrinkled faces, and frail bodies of people living out the last of their twilight years. They went about their business with careful steps and looked at Sunny and Nephis with amazed expressions.

He thought that it was because of their status as guests in the city at first, but then realized that it was simply because they were... young.

Apart from Sunny and Nephis, there was not a single young person in sight.

'They are all Riverborn.'

Sunny frowned, pondering the implications of this simple realization.

Riverborn did not age with the passage of time - instead, they aged by moving upstream from the place of their birth. The process was supposed to be gradual, happening over the span of generations as the city migrated into the future to allow new families to be formed. Therefore, there had to be a mix of people of different ages on the streets, just like there would be in a normal city.

So what did it mean if everyone here was... no, looked old?

It meant that Fallen Grace had migrated far upstream for a reason other than ushering in a new generation, at some point. Killing the older population and thrusting everyone else into decrepit old bodies as a result.

Sunny's face grew somber as he looked at Cronos, one more time.

...It might have been that the leader of the soldiers had called him a kid not because she was incredibly ancient, but because the old man was actually a child, or a youth no older than Sunny and Nephis at least.

He hesitated for a few moments, then asked cautiously:

"...Cronos, was it? Say, how old are you?"

The old man smiled, his face turning into a labyrinth of deep wrinkles.

"Oh, I am seventeen, my lord! Uh... I'll be seventeen in a few days, to be precise. But who's counting?"

However, it was its edge instead. _{freewebnoveℓ.com}