Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2527

Some time prior, Effie returned home... the home of her counterpart, which felt both familiar and strange.

It was different from her own family home in Bastion, but shared the same feeling of coziness with it. The nature of life in Mirage City was vastly different from the real world, of course... but Effie vaguely remembered how her counterpart had lived, which was why she did not feel particularly alien to this fantastical place.

If anything, she felt a little bit too at home here.

The people quietly following her in the shadows were troublesome...

It was the people inside, however, who were the problem.

Opening the door, Effie took off her coat and shook off the drops of water from her hair. By the time she was done with that, the sound of little feet drumming excitedly on the floor was already drawing near.

"Mommy!"

She put on a smile.

Her children... her counterpart's children... were upon her a moment later. She crouched to hug them, burying her face in their soft hair.

“Mommy's home!"

“Mama! It was raining a lot, mama!"

The boy was a little older, while the little girl was still a toddler. He was boisterous, while she was shy. Both of them were full of the irresistible, innocent sweetness that only children possessed.

Neither of them was real.

Effie kept reminding herself of that fact, but it was of no use. Cold rationality was powerless in the face of blazing emotions, and it was especially powerless in the face of those fundamental feelings that lay at the foundation of human nature.

Like the affection a mother felt for her children.

Despite only knowing them for a few days, she did not want to let these kids go. She couldn't.

“Hey, you rascals. Your mom had a very long day. Give me a minute to catch my breath.” The kids reluctantly let go of her and took a couple of steps back. The girl glanced up at her with wide eyes, which suddenly started to water for no good reason.

‘Uh-oh.’

“Mama... d—did you get an ouchie?"

Effie glanced down at herself. She had been in pretty bad shape after the car crash, but most of her bruises and contusions were out of view. There were a few scrapes on her arms and face, though, covered by adhesive bandage.

She smiled and patted her daughter's head. “Yes... but just a tiny one."

Then, she winked at the little girl.

"Mama is too awesome to get really hurt, pumpkin."

The boy clenched his fists.

“Our mom is the awesomest mom in the world! Of course she won't get hurt!"

Effie laughed.

“Alright, settle down. Let's prepare you for bed..."

The kids protested in unison:

“Noooo! I want ice cream first!"

"I want to watch cartoons!"

She let out a theatrical sigh.

"No ice cream before bed. Where did this idea even come from? Cartoons are negotiable, though..."

Soon enough, Effie found herself on the sofa with two soft bodies pressed against her, hugging the kids gently as they watched a colorful cartoon with enthralled expressions.

"Look, look! It's Tali!"

"Go get them, Tali!"

On the screen, a pair of precocious kids somehow got themselves into trouble with a band of clumsy bandits while trying to obtain ice cream from a magical ice cream stand. At the last moment, the owner of the stand — a pink dragon named Tali — revealed herself to save the day.

She dealt with the bandits, huffed and puffed until they ran away to surrender themselves to the police, and then treated the kids to waffle cones full of delicious ice cream.

"Ah, I want ice cream too!"

"Tali is the best!"

The name of this popular cartoon was, apparently, "Talitha's Ice Cream".

The titular Talitha, strangely enough, resembled a young Awakened girl Effie had met in Bastion once or twice — one of the Shadow Clan members operating there in secret. Considering that everyone in Mirage City was based on reflections from outside the Great Mirror, that wasn't too peculiar...

Effie did not know why that girl's reflection turned out to be a pink dragon, though. That was a mystery.

‘Ah. I want ice cream, too...’

She smiled and hugged her kids tighter. Then, her expression froze.

‘What am I doing?’

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