AN: I meant to get this out sooner. I really did. Life got in the way. I got sick, my mom needed a lot of help moving, and the Advance Wars remake came out. It all distracted me. Sorry for the wait.

This was absurd. How was Mitsugoshi a part of Shadow Garden? It was bad enough that he didn't know enough about the Cult, now he was more aware of how ignorant he was of Shadow Garden's activities. At the very least he now knew how Shadow Garden could afford to function as an international organization.

Cid was walking to his dorm, carrying a few boxes of chocolate. He left Mitsugoshi with Iris and Alexia after they had an early dinner. He was looking forward to what the girls could make of it, today all they had fresh was tuna and salmon.

Still, now that he got away from Alexia and her sister he could make his way back to Mitsugoshi, he would need to be properly stealthy. He wouldn't be able to blend in as a mob with Shadow Garden. He would need to suppress his magic, and if Delta was there he just couldn't hide. Her nose was too good.

Also the chocolate he was carrying, did he really want to go all the way back to his dorm just to drop it off? He owned Mitsugoshi! He had all the chocolate he wanted! He could ditch it and move on.

He shoved the chocolate onto a pile of books someone was carrying, "Take this," and he ran off.

He needed to figure this out. Cid made his way back to Mitsugoshi. He needed to get in there without anyone knowing it's him. He stopped two blocks away, making sure to avoid the line. Now for the fun part. Cid suppressed his magic as much as he could, to the point that it was nearly imperceptible. The only one with the proper control to feel him would be Epsilon, and he didn't feel her magic anywhere close. Now the only vulnerability would be smell. Hopefully the crowds and perfumes would cover him.

Cid made his way down an alley and climbed a nearby building, peaking over the edge. Mitsugoshi's building was bigger than all of its neighbors. Cid was thankful for all of his experimentation with magic on himself as he was growing, he had much better vision, especially for long distances. His sense of smell was also incredible, but still not as good as therianthropes.

Cid watched. He didn't see any security. Then again everyone was Shadow Garden. The roof was completely exposed. They needed better security but Cid wasn't going to complain. It gave him an opportunity.

He looked at who he could see from his perch. They were all busy working. He might be able to sneak in, in the middle of the day. Cid was about to take a risk. A brief spike of magic to power a massive jump, he flew high through the air and approached Mitsugoshi's roof. Another brief spike of magic and he landed silently.

Cid waited, feeling to see if anyone approached. From what he could feel no one was coming. The building was big, very big. The roof was lowered in the middle, and there was a hidden garden with its own building. Cid knew what he wanted to check out.

He jumped down, and circled the building. It was mostly bedrooms, barracks for the numbers, and a few offices. One of the offices was saturated with Gamma's mana, clearly she spent a lot of time there, but for now she was probably cleaning up any disruptions caused by the special service she gave the princesses.

The front door was, thankfully, unlocked. Cid reached to open the door, but froze. He felt magic on the other side. He dashed and hid around the corner. The door opened, and two elves walked out. Cid waited for them to enter the main building before making his way into the building.

The halls here were nicer than the main building. Most of the rooms were barracks for housing dozens, but a few seemed to be the 7 Shades rooms. He opened a set of massive doors and froze. He had a throne.

It was a great hall, magnificently decorated, and at the end was an epic throne. No one was in the hall, there were no windows so the hall was hidden from the outside. Cid sat on the throne, in his hidden hall, and felt like a real Eminence in Shadow. All of this was his.

He got up, he should be close to what he thought was Gamma's office. He could wait on the throne later. He made his way to what he was certain was Gamma's office. He opened the door and it was an immaculate office, clear of clutter with a nice view of the garden. There were a few reports on her desk but one grabbed his attention.

It was an expense report for Tuna King.

Tuna King was a Shadow Garden front.

He didn't think anyone working at Tuna King were Shadow Garden, their magic didn't feel right.

He had a lot to look over. Thankfully the financial information wasn't encrypted.

Although the chocolate and coffee were more expensive than he thought. He gave some random person carrying books a chocolate bar and a box of truffles. Together those were worth more than 35,000 Zeny. His school lunch, the cheapest they sold at his school, was 980 Zeny. They did have monopolies so they didn't have any competition on those products, they probably had monopolies on other things he didn't know about.

So he read document after document. Very deliberately putting back where he found them. Trying to figure out everything he could. It was pretty boring. Unfortunately being a true Eminence in Shadow had these moments of boredom

After a couple hours, Cid wasn't quite sure what Mitsugoshi's total expenses were, but he had an idea of how much money they were taking in. They were taking in over a billion Zeny a month. If he had to guess after expenses Mitsugoshi could be bringing in tens of millions each month. It could be higher than that, considering that he didn't know if there were more businesses he didn't know about and that they seemed to at least have monopolies on chocolate and coffee.

Then he felt it. Gamma's magic. He put everything back, she would never know he was in here. He dashed out and into the throne room. He allowed a bit of magic to flow so his slime suit came out and he took on his signature Shadow look. He fell back into his throne and was ready to own the room.

Shadow stared at the door, waiting for Gamma to enter. As the great doors opened he gave a self-assured smile. "You did an excellent job today Gamma." Gamma and the young woman next to her froze. They stood paralyzed by indecision. "I'd like to speak with you for a moment Gamma."

"O-of course my lord!" Gamma shouted before turning to the woman next to her and whispering something to her. The woman rushed off, and Gamma tried to strut over confidently, but Shadow knew she would trip at some point. "What do you need my l- ahh… My lord." She's getting better, she only almost fell on her face.

Shadow rose from his throne. "I wanted you to know that the Cult is targeting Mitsugoshi."

Gamma's eyes widened. "How did they learn who we are! We've been so careful! I need to get-" Gamma slipped, falling forward.

Shadow was ready. This was expected. Gamma had no coordination. He caught her before she could hit the ground. "Relax, Gamma. I don't think you understand."

"O-of course, my lord. However, they are targeting Shadow Garden's funding!" Gamma was quick, for her, to regain her balance.

"It's okay, they don't know Mitsugoshi is Shadow Garden."

Gamma froze at that. Shadow was sure she could understand that this was useful. As annoyed as he was that he somehow didn't know Mitsugoshi was actually Shadow Garden, it was also great! The massive business was secretly a cabal working in the shadows! Their enemy was lashing out at what they thought were weak merchants, but would instead be his agents!

"I need to inform Lady Alpha." Gamma muttered.

"Of course. They plan to use the businesses under their control, they have yet to actually get organized. They haven't even decided how to attack Mitsugoshi yet." Shadow remembered a few of the larger businesses that would supposedly lead this business oriented attack.

"Get to the Throne!" Nu ordered as she ran through the halls of Mitsugoshi. It was the end of the day, the doors were all locked, and 606 was busy cleaning. She had been working all day and she was exhausted. It was almost time for her to get to the barracks and finally get some sleep.

She didn't get to really participate in the recent operation, kept back and healing her fellow numbers. That was an incredible operation. Just the feel of Lord Shadow's magic was magnificent. The only comparison was Lady Epsilon's magic when she was healed, and that was such a divine event that she understands why she's known as Epsilon the Faithful.

That was nothing compared to feeling Lord Shadow's power from a distance. Anytime she had trouble giving a radiant smile whilst performing her duties at Mitsugoshi, all she had to do was think of that incredible magic.

Before that night, she was uncertain. The more she learned about the Cult the more she feared that Shadow Garden couldn't stop them. Now? She didn't know how it would be possible for Lord Shadow to fail.

606 entered the throne room and saw the girls lined up and kneeling. She saw Gamma standing beside the throne. With Lord Shadow sitting in it.

606 rushed into position and kneeled. She had thought this was canceled when Lord Shadow left earlier today. She was horrified, she probably looked terrible right now and it didn't help that she was exhausted, in no way proper for her Lord.

"Thank you my Lord. I assure you we will be watching our competitors. We will be ready for the Cult's machinations."

"Excellent." He is cool and collected. 606 is certain that everything is certain with him.

"Though, I must say, my Lord, I thought you had come for a different incident."

"Oh? Why did you think I came?"

"I had thought you came for the slasher issue. The fools in ebony pretending to be Shadow Garden. We're currently investigating but we haven't caught the culprit." Gamma said. 606 hadn't been assigned to investigate that, she was ashamed to say she was nowhere near the skills of many of the others.

"Our enemies are so desperate to discredit us that they are attacking random people, claiming our name?" Shadow was shaking his head, a light chuckle blessing everyone in the throne room. 606 didn't realize what that strategy meant, their enemy must be desperate or evil if they are taking such a strategy.

"Worry not my Lord, we can handle it." Gamma assured their Lord.

"I trust the capabilities of you and everyone here. In fact, the work for Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi deserves some reward…" Lord Shadow raised his hand, the violet magic dancing in the palm of his hand.

606 was transfixed. To emanate his magic in quantities that are visible to the naked eye takes not only power but skill. She struggled to make magic visible to the eye for a second, Lord Shadow could hold it with no effort. Shadow blasted it into the ceiling, making it dissolve into a myriad of light flooding the room in his magic.

She felt it. Lord Shadow's magic flowing through her. Before this, 606 thought that nothing would compare to Lady Epsilon healing. It was a divine force that restored her to life from a mass of rotting flesh. It was nothing compared to Lord Shadow. Every ache accrued over the day was gone. Her arm felt slightly different, so she rolled up her sleeve. A minor scar she had was gone. Even the flow of her magic was better.

"I'll treasure this day forever." She looked up to see Gamma kneeling at Lord Shadow's side, her voice wavering. 606 had to agree. She could see that the other girls definitely felt the same, some were even crying.

606 wasn't sure if she could exaggerate Lord Shadow's power and skill. She understood how hard it was to heal others. In every aspect of healing she learned, direct contact was required. Not only that, you had to identify what you were fixing. Lord Shadow healed her scar she covered up, healed muscle pain, and somehow removed the feeling that she needed to sleep. She didn't even know that the last one was something you could heal with anything other than sleep.

Lord Shadow just healed all of that for everyone assigned to Mitsugoshi without making physical contact with them. He wasn't even trying. Before this moment, maybe somewhere in the depths of her heart, she held doubt that they could defeat the Cult. She thought it was too big a task. Failure didn't even seem like a possibility now that she understands the skill of Lord Shadow.

"One more thing, Gamma. Could I get some chocolate and coffee beans?"

Skel was rushing over to Cid's room with Po. He hadn't had any real chance to see his friend since the Princess started taking all of his time. Skel pushed the jealousy down. The pair reached his dorm and Skel banged on his door. "Cid! Get up, we have things to do!"

"I'm coming." Cid muttered as the door opened. His room smelled great. He looked as nonplussed as usual, though he was carrying a steaming mug. "What's up?"

"Skel wants to go somewhere." Po chimed in.

"Not just anywhere, a special store!" Skel added with a grin.

"S-special shop?" Po stuttered, taking ragged breaths through his nose. Seeing Po's reaction made Skel realize a correction was needed.

"Not that kind of special. I meant the Mitsugoshi that everyone's talking about! They've got all sorts of new items, and one of them is called chocolate." Skel explained.

"I went there yesterday."

Skel froze. "What."

"I went there with Alexia and Iris."

Skel could feel his eye start to twitch and his teeth grinding. Cid got to hang out with BOTH Princesses! They probably even paid for everything! It was unfair! Skel knew he was way better looking and taller than Cid!

"You're hanging out with both Princesses!" Po gaped at the news.

"You two want some coffee and chocolate? I got it yesterday." Cid offered three boxes of chocolate to them. Skel shoved the negative thoughts out of mind and grabbed the chocolate. He was getting it for free. He had spent more than a month saving up for just one box.

As jealous as he was of Cid, he was a great friend. "We can have coffee later! First we gotta use these treats!"

"I can't wait to try the chocolate!" Po said

"It's not for us you doof! We're gonna give them to girls. Y'know, women go gaga for you if you give them something sweet!" Skel said as he slapped Po's back. He grabbed the boxes of chocolate, shoving one of them into Po's arms.

Cid swiped one of them back. "One's for me."

"Fine, but let's go! It's time for me to make my move." Skel said as he gazed at the chocolates, apparently they were chocolate truffles.

Alexia found Pooch. Iris was going to start a meeting soon for her new order of Knights, and she was going to make Pooch a part of it. Despite how much he claimed to not be a good swordsman he was actually decent. Nevermind that he didn't even need to be decent to be more notable.

"Pooch, let's go."

"Pw-Pwincess!" One of Pooch's friends shrieked, the tall skinny one. She didn't remember his name.

"Just a moment Kitten." She wanted to punch him right now. "He's going for an upperclassman. Go Skel."

"Ri-right!" His voice cracked. This was going to be pathetic. This might be fun.

"Can't succeed if you don't try. Isn't that right, Pooch?" Cid gave a light glare at that.

"Right, wa-watch me!" Voice still cracking, Cid's skinny friend went toward Millicent. This was going to be good. She had a very aggressive fiance. "Uh, um… here." He held out the chocolate.

"Hey, you got some business with my fiance?" There was her future husband, a giant of a man who compensated for his lack of skill and magic with massive muscles. He was in Section four for the Royal Bushin. Well, Section two now. A lot of students changed styles after Zenon was revealed to be utter garbage.

"Oh…I…Um… Just."

"Let's take this outside. Y'know, to talk it out."

We all ignored his distressed stare and left him to his fate.

"Let's go." Cid said as his short friend and Alexia left.

She could hear Skel screaming behind them. This would be fun, but she needed to get moving. "Pooch, we need to head over to the Academy of Science wing of the school."

"I-I'm going there t-too!" The short and slightly less repellant of Cid's friends said, voice also cracking.

"Then lead the way Po." Cid said, letting Po lead them to the library.

That was fine, it was pretty close to where she needed to be. She could watch Po make an idiot of himself.

"So you don't want a knight?" Cid asked.

"I'm not taking Skel's approach. See, I did a thorough investigation on her." Alexia's eyes widened. This was going to be bad. "I know her Friends, her favorite foods, her schedule, her dorm room number, which bathroom she uses, her shoe size and the smell of her feet, the color of her underwear, her his, bust, and waist measurements, and I used a cup she drank from to…" Alexia now felt bad for even considering that Po was less repellant than Skel.

"That's enough, just go." Cid said as he shoved Po into the library.

"I've got this!" Po said as he walked to the poor girl.

Alexia shook herself out of her shock and disgust. "We need to arrest him, right."

"It'll be okay." Cid said.

"EEEEEEK! It's that guy! My stalker!" She threw a book, nailing Po in the nose leaving it bloody.

Po fell to the floor, and she started stomping on him. A few of her friends joined in, one specifically targeting his privates. It was… satisfying to watch. It was oddly fun watching those two fail horribly.

"You didn't help either of them?"

"...Would you… prefer it if I helped them?"

"No, it's better this way. Now let's go." Alexia dragged him off. They needed to get to the conference room, they were going to be a part of the investigation into Shadow Garden and the Cult.

"Sure, want a truffle?" Cid opened up his box of chocolate.

Sherry was terrified. She was called to a meeting, sitting in front of Princess Iris and two other large knights named Glen and Marco. Thankfully the Assistant Principal Lutheran Barnett was with her. The meeting had proceeded mostly well. Sherry was a little uncomfortable with how highly they were speaking of her. It sounded like they were going to ask her to do something bigger than she was ready for.

She really wished she had some of the chocolate a stranger gave to her yesterday. Just one piece would calm her nerves. She didn't see his face, she had no idea who to thank.

"We'd like to ask you, the most distinguished scholar in the kingdom, to interpret this artifact for us." Princess Iris asked, holding out a box with a large cross shaped pendant with a red gem in the center. It also had ancient runic writing on it, but she could tell at a glance that it was in code.

"B-but I'm just a student," She wasn't sure if she was the best for this. She wasn't her mother, and certainly there were others who knew more than she did, like the architect and researcher Madame Wright, and there were probably some who were closer than Madame Wright who knew more about this.

"Everyone in the world knows about your incredible work. You're Sherry Barnett, the best researcher in your field. No one could do it better than you."

"But…"

The door slammed open, and in came the Second Princess Alexia and some boy carrying a box of chocolates she didn't recognize. "I'm sorry we're late!"

"Alexia, sit down." Princess Iris pointed to the seat beside her.

The boy peered over and looked at the artifact. "Is that runic stuff in code?"

Sherry stared at him. It seemed everyone else in the room did as well. He could tell it was in code at a glance? Was he a researcher?

"Cid, we should leave it to the expert." Princess Iris said, looking slightly annoyed.

"Well, yes, it is." Sherry picked up the box the artifact was in. "You can see here, these four runes next to each other, they don't really work together. The real question is what kind of code is it."

"Cid, do you know the runic script?" Princess Alexia asked.

"It was a lucky guess, I studied it a little bit." Sherry smiled as he downplayed his knowledge, it was nice seeing a researcher having some humility. Maybe he could do this instead of her.

"Sherry, this is a good opportunity for you. You should give it a try and work with the young man." Lutheran said.

"Me?"

"Assistant Principal Lutheran Barnett…"

"You can call me father you know," He nudged her gently with a light chuckle.

"While I wasn't expecting Cid to know runic script, Sherry, we need your help." Princess Iris said.

"Sherry, it's your time to go out into the world of professional research. Princess Iri's request will bring you closer to the bright future that's waiting for you."

"B-but… I'm not…"

"Don't I say it all the time? Have confidence. You are more than capable of doing this and you will have help." Lutheran rested a hand on her shoulder.

Sherry takes a deep breath. She had Lutheran's support and belief. "Fine, I'll do it…"

Iris handed over the artifact, "This artifact was recovered from a Cult. We only know that an organization called Shadow Garden opposes them. The Cult seems to be doing research on ancient civilizations, but we don't know the details. There must be a connection between the code and the ancient civilization."

It was nice having more information, it would be helpful. It also all came under her expertises in the runic language and history. It would take time to know if it also fell under her magical knowledge. "You came to the right person. Um… Cid, was it? Do you want a look?" She needed to be polite to her fellow researcher.

He looked confused for a moment, "Um, sure?" He came over and glanced at it. This was a bit difficult. It was hard to focus on the artifact with an open box of chocolates right next to her. "You can have one if you'd like."

Sherry quickly snatched one up and popped it in her mouth. Chocolate was delightful, and she was ecstatic to have some more. "Thank you."

"What am I supposed to see? I'm not a researcher."

"You aren't?"

"Alexia, did you even tell him what we're doing here?" Princess Iris sighed.

"I wanted to see what he could figure out about the artifact! Cid go stand with the knights." Princess Alexia groaned.

Cid moved to the other knights, looking around a bit nervously. "Alexia, send him away, we don't need him here. I only let him stay for as long as I did since he's definitely not with the Cult or Shadow Garden."

"Cid can help with the Crimson Order's investigation of the Cult and Shadow Garden!" Princess Alexia insisted.

AN: I am sorry, I really wanted to make 2 chapters this month. I only got one out. Don't expect it to get better next month, not with Tears of the Kingdom coming out. I'll probably stream it on twitch when it comes out. I'll try to get more than one chapter out, but no guarantees.