"Talk"
'Thought'
'Ughhhhh… I should've just used my 'Tryhard Dash' instead…'
Cid Kageno couldn't help but look beyond annoyed, as he sat next to a curly blonde hair girl, who leaned up against him and held his hand close to hers, as she wore a expression of calm happiness and relaxed love
"Even though the status between us is different, especially with me being a princess and you a low common noble, that doesn't mean we can't be friends, or maybe a friends with benefits, I heard some of your friends mentioned that term before, I don't know what that means, but I would like it if you treated me like that, also-"
The blonde princess, also known as Rose Oriana, continues to speak on about 'Becoming More Than Friends', 'Destine To Be Together', and 'Love Will Soon Bloom', all of those fancy words, but Kageno just blocked them all out and tried his best to ignore it all
'I need to improve my Mob-Fu skills, so that I can avoid these kinds of situations…'
However, before Cid could start planning and coming up with a way to get away from this situation like a typical background character, Oriana asked a question that definitely caught his attention for once
"-Though I have to ask, what made you decide to come to the Empire, don't you realize how dangerous and corrupt that place is?"
When Rose mentioned 'Corrupt' and 'Dangerous', the 'Mob' couldn't help but look at her with a very interesting and curious expression
"Oh? What do you mean by that?"
Cid now wanted to learn more about the place he was about to visit, at first he thought it was gonna be a simple quick cash thing, but now he was slightly excited that he might be able to do more than just that
"You don't know? Though I guess that makes sense, as someone with a lower rank compared to me, you probably never had a chance to explore outside of your home."
Rose lets out a small curious hum as she thought about who she was actually talking to, to which said person was in a even better way from what she said
'Yes! Brownie Points!~'
Cid silently and mentally cheered, even if he was riding with someone who looked like a 'Protagonist', he was still recognized as a normal background character by her, which was good and reliving to him, not perfect, but good enough for now
"I envy your limited awareness and carefree freedom…"
Though the Mob Boy was brought out of his thoughts when Rose leans against his shoulder and wore a pity but still smiling expression
"Erm, yeah, uh, so what's this about the Empire that's so bad?"
Cid cleared his throat and slightly moved away from her, has no idea what she is doing and wanted her to stop and continue what she was saying
"Hm? Oh yes."
Rose sat back up and gathered her thoughts, even if she just wanted to spend her moment of peace with him in complete silence, she knew that she had to tell him about the place that they were going
"The Empire is beyond corrupt, crime half heartedly cared about, anything illegal basically made legal, robbing or body selling is the only way to make money, and death, death is such a common place, either by execution, or by other, much more horrible, ways…"
The more Rose explained the state the empire was in, Kageno started to look much more 'Worried' and 'Scared', as if the Mob Boy didn't realize until now what he was getting himself into
"Y-You make it sound like common knowledge, w-why is this even allowed to happen? Shouldn't the King be handling this? S-Shouldn't the neighboring kingdom be stopping them?"
Cid was confused and lost on why the Empire was allowed to be such a corrupt and evil place without anyone attempting to stop them
"Sadly, the reason the King of that land isn't doing anything about it, well, it's because he's just a child with no experience of how to rule, you could probably guest how easy it would be to take advantage of that kind of situation which is what exactly what the Prime Minister: Honest did, without any hesitation and with definite eagerness."
Rose clenched her fists as she wore a ugly, disgusted and unhappy frown, which surprised Kageno from seeing such a rare face, but it quickly went away as soon as she realized what she was doing, taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself down
"And as for the reason why the other ruler's of different lands are allowing this to happen, well, it's because they're too powerful to deal with, it might be ruled by a evil man, but he isn't an idiot, he knows how to control his military forces, not only are they large in numbers, but have better training, equipment, and lack of honor, picking a fight with the Empire, even if we win or lose, would only result in absolute destruction, and that's not even considering someone like Budo, Esdeath or the Jaeger, it's just simply not worth it, to start a war with them."
Rose now sounded sad and defeated, to which Mob pet and rub her back and shoulder, in hopes to 'Comfort' her, which worked and couldn't help but smile from his kindness and gently held onto his hand, though he didn't care or pay attention to that, as he was now in deep thought and was thinking about what he was just told
'Fucking Awesome! Finally! I've been itching to take down some kind of super evil, obviously corrupted and insane Kingdom! This is totally the perfect opportunity to actually feel like an 'Eminence In Shadow' for once, taking out something much bigger and less boring than just some random bandits, not to mention I'm pretty sure I'll be able to loot more there too~...'
Cid couldn't help but let out a small but beyond very eager smile, though he tried his best to hide his excitement
'Maybe I should call in the girls, to have them ready to raid the Empire and maybe start some kind of secret war, hm, no, I should take it slow and carefully, can't end something like this to quickly, I'll probably never get another chance like this again, also there is that tournament…'
Cid was putting in a lot of thoughts on how to handle this, though while thinking of a way on how to have the most fun in this trip, his thoughts were quickly cut off by the sound of paper, which made him look and see what Oriana was doing
"But luckily, we don't have to do anything about it, thanks to the 'Revolution Army' and these assassin named 'Night Raid', I wouldn't really call them my hero's, since sometimes they're as bad as the Empire, but it's a necessary evil that I'm glad that exist."
Rose then showed Kageno the wanted poster to him, which had a picture of a young female, maybe around his age, probably older or younger, and her named must have been Akame if trusting the accuracy of the poster, either way, every new information he heard, it was getting so interested, more and more, so much so that he had to cover his mouth, to which made Oriana think he was traumatized, to which made her hold him close in hopes to comfort him
"I'm sorry for scaring you, how about once we get to the Empire, I take you somewhere that you can relax, I know a cafe that's nice and safe, would you like that?"
However, while Rose was trying to comfort a Cid that she thought was upset and scared, though in actuality, he was hiding a very large and excited evil smile underneath the hand that hid his expression
'This is gonna be so much fun~...'
Meanwhile, at some kind of secret base that was located at the cliff or mountain side, a certain group of members of assassins couldn't but shiver and worry, more specifically a certain someone with long black hair, red eyes and holding a red sword, she frowns when gripping the handle
'Bloodshed will be spilling in the near future…'
"Hey Akame, I'm thinking of not using my name, 'Tatsumi', for the Tournament, what are your thoughts on me calling myself the 'Stylish Country Boy', sounds cool right?"
I'm just gonna say that those with those special weapons from Akame Ga Kill, Teigu or Imperial Arms I think they're called, will be equal in power with the Eminence In Shadow, some stronger, some weaker, my excuse being that the weapons give them a magical upgrade and boost, but yeah.
(BTW, the only people that can actually pose a threat for Cid, aka Shadow, will be Esdeath, Budo, full powered Susanoo and full powered Akame)