She suddenly coughed.
Sunny's frown deepened.
"What's with that reaction?"
Effie hesitated for a moment, then looked away.
"Uh… that… I don't know."
Sunny stared at her, scandalized.
"Effie!"
His voice was full of disbelief and astonishment.
She raised her hand defensively, a rare look of embarrassment appearing on her face.
"Hey! It's not what you think! I know this guy very well! He is really a nice and upstanding guy… he's a local of Antarctica, but went through the campaign in the Antarctic Center with the First Evacuation Army. He was wounded in Falcon Scott and shipped east with the other injured soldiers during the last round of evacuations. That's how we met, actually… I was visiting one of my wounded subordinates in the hospital, and he was being discharged…"
Sunny felt a little relieved. At least she actually seemed to like the basta… the guy. And he was from the First Evacuation Army. Sunny might have even met him...
"So how come you don't know his name, then?"
Effie coughed again.
"That… uh… that's his Flaw, actually. He is… he was a Sleeper, back then. By now, he must have already Awakened."
Her face suddenly fell, and after a short pause, she added quietly:
"...Or died. I don't know."
Sunny was suddenly speechless.
'A Sleeper… from the Antarctic Center… whose Flaw is that his name can't be remembered?'
So the bastard who kno… the father of Effie's child was the young soldier who had been infected with the Nightmare Spell in Sunny's refugee convoy?
So he had delivered the scoundrel to her doorstep with his own two hands?!
Sunny was happy to hear that the nameless Sleeper had been evacuated from Falcon Scott and survived, actually. But at the same time…
'I am definitely beating him up once I'm back!'
Sunny was preoccupied with his own emotions, but noticing Effie's forlorn expression, he pushed them down and took a deep breath.
They had entered the Nightmare not long before the winter solstice. So, by now, the nameless Sleeper was indeed either an Awakened… or dead. Much more likely dead, considering the state they had left Antarctica in.
But that was not what she would want to hear.
Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then forced out a smile.
"Oh… that guy? Bah! I know him. Don't worry too much — he's not that easily killed. I'm willing to bet that he's perfectly fine, even. We traveled three thousand kilometers together, after all… and I personally gave him literally hundreds of soul shards to saturate his core. One could even say that I practically raised him! Will a Sleeper I raised go and die without asking my permission? No, he would be too afraid..."
Effie looked at him for a while. Slowly, the sad expression disappeared from her face, and a faint smile appeared on it instead.
Noticing that smile, Sunny frowned.
"What? I know that you're thinking about something inappropriate again… cut it out."
She shook her head and giggled.
"No, no. I was just thinking... since you say that you raised him… it should be Grandpa Doofus, then, not Uncle. Right?"
Sunny blinked.
His expression froze.
His heart skipped a beat.
"...What Grandpa Doofus?! Like hell! Take it back!"
'This evil woman!'
.