Soon, the rich smell of roasting meat permeated the air. At the same time, the sun was beginning to approach the horizon; a loud rumble came from somewhere beneath, and first traces of the black water began to appear between crimson walls of the labyrinth.
Sunny looked east, where the skies were already growing dark. Then he uncomfortably shifted.
"Do scavengers come all the way up here?"
Nephis turned the meat and nodded.
"Yes. But… only at night. In the day, most of them seem to disappear."
Sunny grinned, having an idea of why there weren't a lot of monsters in the labyrinth in the day.
"That's because they all gather near the place I had been spending my time recently. You should have seen it — the tall cliff to the west of here. Well, it's actually a statue."
Cassia opened her eyes wide.
"A… a statue? But for you to survive, it should be…"
"Yes, it's a giant statue of a knight, at least two hundred meters tall. He is missing his head, so I hid on top of the neck. Anyway… the day we were sent here, two sea creatures fought each other near that statue. When the water receded, I saw an enormous carcass lying there, with hundreds of scavengers slowly tearing it apart."
Nephis nodded.
"That would explain the lack of Nightmare Creature in the day. How long?"
Sunny blinked.
"How long what?"
Changing Star stared at him for a few seconds, making everyone feel uncomfortable.
"How long... until they are done devouring the carcass?"
"Oh. One day more, two at most."
Nephis turned away, took the meat away from the fire, and then quickly extinguished it.
'There's definitely something wrong with that girl!'
The three of them ate in the dimming light of the twilight. The meat was juicy, tender and indescribably delicious. It was better than anything Sunny had ever tasted, even back in the Academy's cafeteria. Of course, his excruciating hunger played a part in that.
From time to time, they would pass the glass bottle to each other.
When they were finished with their meal, the dark sea was back, and the night was upon them. Everything was consumed by absolute darkness.
Of course, Sunny could easily see both Nephis and Cassia. Under the cover of the night, Changing Star remained pretty much the same. The blind girl, however, allowed her true emotions to show, thinking that no one would see. She seemed much more lost, lonely and frightened than she did in the day.
As if trying to resist these feelings, Cassia said in a bright voice:
"How about we formally introduce ourselves? I'm Cassie."
Nephis glanced in her direction and shrugged.
"Neph."
Next, it was Sunny's turn. He exhaled, glad that they didn't ask his name directly. Most likely, he would still have been able to provide his human name — however, it also might have depended on the wording of the question.
Relieved, he smiled and answered:
"I'm Sunless. But you can call me Sunny."