A dark office. A knight in heavy armor entered such office. Immediately, he began throwing books to the floor. Once several books were piled up on top of each other on the office's fine carpet, he set them on fire. For some scarce seconds, the knight stared at the fire as it slowly spread.

As he turned to leave, he heard someone's voice coming from the window. "Funny getup you've got there. What brings you here dressed like that," as the knight turned his gaze towards the familiar voice, the young man sitting on the window finished his sentence, "Assistant Principal Lutheran Barnett?

"Cid Kagenou…" The knight, or rather, the assistant principal Lutheran took off his helmet. "How did you figure it out?" The former Knight of Rounds asked in an even voice, though on the inside he was genuinely surprised.

"It's obvious from a glance," replied Cid, pretending to read the book he held in his hands. To be honest, he had picked it up just for the extra cool points.

"From a glance, huh…," Replied Lutheran, slowly freeing himself from his armor. He sounded mildly amused. "Is it the way I walk…? Or my posture?" Once he had fully removed the armor from his body, he turned to fully face Cid with an amicable smile that was no different from the one he had when the two first met. "Whatever gave me away, your keen eyes deserve praise. Cid Kagenou".

The compliment did not soften Cid's tone, who continued undeterred, "You're the one behind this incident, then." A small moment of silence followed. Lutheran did not even bother to pretend he was innocent. Cid resumed. "For my personal reference, would you tell me why you'd organize an attack on the academy? You don't strike me as the sort who'd do this for fun."

"Do you want to know?" The old man fixed his glasses as he asked. The fire was still spreading, but he guessed he still had some time to indulge in some idle chatter as long as his companion didn't mind it. "It might take a bit long to explain."

"By all means, do explain," By this point, Cid wasn't even pretending to read anymore. He was just casually flipping through the pages as he maintained his composed look.

"To put it short, it's because I longed to reach the top. The top I had once reached through my victory at the Bushin Festival," Lutheran sounded nostalgic as he told this to Cid. "That thrill is not something you'd ever forget. That's a story from before you were even born."

"Yes, I've heard about that. You fell ill later and had to step back." Added Cid.

"Yes… I was devastated," he laughed then. "The Bushin Festival… The true peak was much higher than that, though I doubt you'd understand that." Without giving Cid the chance to answer, he continued. "I worked so hard to attain glory, but because of an illness, not only did I lose it all, I became unable to even fight. Finding a cure would've required extensive research and vast knowledge…"

The flames were quickly consuming the office. However, since Cid looked nonplussed by them, Lutheran assumed he could entertain the child some more. It was the least he could do as a sign of respect for the young man that had seen through his disguise.

"Then I met Lucrecia, Sherry's mother. She was an unfortunate woman who was despised in the academic world for being too smart. I started collecting Artifacts under the pretext of supporting her research. We got along very well!" He spoke as if he was reminiscing about an old friend, but his next words took a much darker tone. "Then I saw potential in a specific Artifact… The Eye of Avarice," smiling, he showed the aforementioned object to Cid. The eye-shaped Artifact was overflowing with red/black magic. "Using this, not only can my illness be cured… I can have all the fame and the riches I desire."

At that moment, Lutheran's smile disappeared. "Just when I thought I'd reach the top again… Oh, that foolish girl. She wanted to entrust the Eye of Avarice to the country, saying it was too dangerous."

A pause. Lutheran's smile slowly spread as he fondly remembered the events of that fateful night. Surrounded by fire, the demon smiled widely.

"So, I killed her".

Casually, he described his nefarious actions with luxury of details. Cid did not miss the joyful undertone Lutheran's words carried as he spoke them. "I cut her open. One stab after the other, starting from the limbs, making my way to her internal organs before finally delivering the final stab to her heart and giving it a good twist." He said "twist" with such an intense glee even Cid, who was no stranger to murder, had to put in effort not to show his apprehension.

Cid kept quiet throughout the entire recollection of Lutheran Barnett's villainous deeds. To be honest, he was quite fed up with him. He was beginning to regret asking him to explain things when the old man resumed his confession. "The research on The Eye of Avarice was not yet complete, but I had a spare. Her lovely… and foolish daughter, Sherry."

As he saw Lutheran smile, something sparked in Cid's chest. Wrath. It was small. Really, it was small, but this man had managed to irritate him.

However, Cid was aware of what that emotion was.

Blissfully unaware of the fact that he was pretty much dead now, Lutheran continued talking, adding fuel to the fire. "She served my goals without knowing or doubting anything. Having no idea that I killed her mother. My lovely, dear, foolish daughter…"

"So, did my answer satisfy you?" Concluded Lutheran, feeling refreshed after telling the story.

"More or less." Cid replied, calm on the outside, but with an I Am Atomic begging to be used on the inside. He really wanted to return this man to dust but he had one more question to ask of him. "There's only one more thing I'd like to ask."

"And that is?"

"Did you truly only use Sherry for your own selfish reasons? Is that all she ever was to you?"

"Of course, it's the truth. Does that make you angry?" Lutheran taunted him as he picked up his sword.

"I'm not sure," was Cid's simple reply. Then he began ripping out pages of the book he had been holding. "I make a point of having a clear distinction between what's important to me, and what's not." Six, seven, eight pages. "So I can achieve my goals…" Eleven, twelve. "Without losing sight of them." Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one.

Lutheran silently watched as he listened. Cid's calm demeanor was odd considering the situation. He was incapable of telling how he felt, or what was going on inside of his head. Truly, this young lad was unusual to Lutheran.

Thirty.

Forty.

"As people go about their lives, more and more things become important to them. They make friends," fifty, "fall in love," sixty, "start working… But I'm trying to cut down on all these important things."

"No need for this," another page is ripped out.

"Throw that away," one more. The broken pieces of paper fall on the fire as one single page is spared. "And as I go about discarding things… I realize what it is that I can't let go of."

Cid stood up, still holding whatever remained of the book. "I live my life for the sake of those few things without caring much for anything else…"

"You mean to say you don't care about what happened to the foolish mother or her foolish daughter?" The old man spoke with severity.

Cid's face remained emotionless. He was feeling something, but he couldn't discern what that emotion was. All his life had been dedicated to his dreams. This single-minded focus didn't leave much room for emotions other than determination, so Cid had never felt what he was currently feeling before.

Cid just couldn't understand wrath. In his confusion, he simply stayed silent. The closest thing he could compare this to is the frustration he felt when he couldn't find a way to survive a nuke by punching it. His face was completely devoid of emotion as he stood face to face with the object of his wrath.

And this moment changed everything.

"Then it seems," added Lutheran, "that we are alike". The assistant principal smiled a smile darker than a cave as he spoke those fate-altering words.

Time seemed to come to a sudden stop for Cid. Barnett's words dealt an immense blow to the youngest of the Kagenou siblings.

Eh?

Cid couldn't properly process Lutheran's words.

"You don't care about the world around you! Just like I would sacrifice everything for my own goals, you would sacrifice anyone for your own!" Lutheran spoke animatedly, almost blissfully.

"That's not true," is what Cid wanted to say, but no words came out of his mouth. He didn't argue because, in his heart, he knew he couldn't.

The bad guy, for once, was right. It almost seemed like Cid was a bad guy too! The thought that he could become someone like Lutheran, like that criminal, bothered him greatly.

"Say, Cid Kagenou… would you like to come with me? The path will be difficult, I'm sure, but if you can endure it, your ambitions will—"

Cid couldn't listen to Lutheran's words anymore.

His eyes lost focus.

His mind was in turmoil. Memories of both his life as Minoru Kageno and Cid Kagenou flooded his head. In both of his lives, he had lived by the same philosophy he just shared with Lutheran. Everything he ever did was for the sake of becoming the Eminence in Shadow. To that end, he had discarded countless things. For his dream, he had killed scores of people.

How was that different from Lutheran's own actions?

How was Lutheran different from the Eminence in Shadow he aspired to be?

He had used Sherry's mother, then when she became an inconvenience to him, he killed her viciously. Then he used Sherry, who trusted him with her life.

He had allies. He had managed to gather enough people to launch the attack on the school with no one being the wiser. He had tricked everyone. He pulled the strings from behind the scenes, all to achieve his selfish ambitions.

Lutheran… was an Eminence in Shadow. A real one.

The moment Cid healed Alpha from the demonic possession, the first thing to come to his mind was to role-play as the Eminence in Shadow. He used that moment, when the poor elf was at her most vulnerable, to tell her a tale that was nothing more than a fantasy. A fabricated fiction to satisfy his own selfish desire.

And as a result, he ended up turning her into a killer, just like him. Worse yet, he hadn't stopped with Alpha. Beta, Gamma, Delta, Zeta, Epsilon and Eta, all of them had ended up being dragged into his mess.

They were just children back then. Lonely, abandoned little girls with no place to call home or some place to go to. And what did he do to them?

He robbed them of whatever childhood they could've had. He lied to them. Because of him, their hands were now as bloody as his own.

"How is that different from what Lutheran did to Sherry?"

He used the Seven Shades to live up his own fantasies. To feel like the Eminence in Shadow.

"But I helped them! Because of me, they have lives they can live!"

You lied to them.

"Because of what I taught them, they have jobs! Because of me they're thriving in life, so much so they even have their own business! And no small business at that, but an entire financial empire the likes this world has never seen before!"

You turned children into murderers.

No matter what he tried to think to lessen his sudden guilt, those two facts were absolute. They'd worm their way to the front of his mind as intrusive thoughts, shining like the fire surrounding him. No matter the excuse he tried to use, these facts would always come back to the forefront of his mind.

Is this what his dream was?

No! Of course not!

But it is.

This was exactly the kind of thing an Eminence in Shadow would do, right?

After all…

All the things Cid had done since coming to this world were things that, if given the chance, Lutheran would certainly do.

Sacrifice anyone. Lie to whomever he needs to lie to; he would do whatever it took to achieve his goal.

"Just like me…"

The entirety of Shadow Garden! A lie that grew day after day. Something that continued to turn children into killers. To turn anyone who took part of it into killers!

And for what? Cid's selfish whim..

And even outside of Shadow Garden, Cid took advantage of everyone.

When he agreed to become Alexia's fake boyfriend, he only did it for money. And for what? Just to buy some expensive items to set up a stage befitting an Eminence in Shadow.

And the moment he got what he wanted, he simply cut off whatever possible friendship he could have had with Alexia. After all, being friends with someone like her would attract too much attention. Attention his NPC persona shouldn't receive.

Only now did Cid realize how little he cared about the people around him.

Even if one person thought they were close to Cid, in reality they were almost as far away as everyone else.

People? Friends? They almost seemed more like objects for Cid to use. Little decorations in his little game of make-believe.

His parents.

His sister.

Alpha.

Beta.

Gamma.

Delta.

Zeta.

Epsilon.

Eta.

His NPC friends.

Alexia.

Sherry.

A rumble.

The entire building shook. Cid was well aware of the fact that Sherry was on her way to where they are. He could feel her magic approach Lutheran's office. She's probably worried about… her father.

The very same father he was going to kill right now.

"It's good I managed to sense her… I was about to turn this whole place into a wasteland…" He wanted to kill him like he killed Sherry's mother. The overwhelming killing intent filled the room, alerting Lutheran of Cid's shift in demeanor.

Lutheran's left arm was cut off before he could even move.

He stared in utter horror as his arm fell off, only for his right arm to follow. Then his legs were cut off too. Then, finally, he was stabbed in the heart.

Or that's what it felt like to him.

Lutheran took several steps back, desperately trying to put distance between the two of them.

"Didn't he just…?" Cid hadn't even moved to reach for his sword. "And yet, he, just now…"

Lutheran understood in that moment that Cid could kill him whenever he wanted to. So, feeling cornered, Lutheran took the Eye of Avarice out of his pocket. "This item alone is capable of absorbing magic! But when it is combined with the control unit—"

While Lutheran was busy doing his third-rate villain monologue, a slime tendril made its way across the room, and in an instant took the Artifact from his hand.

Lutheran didn't even realize the Eye of Avarice was taken from him as he shoved his empty hand to his chest, trying to activate the Artifact's true functions.

Cid quickly placed the artifact into his slime suit.

"Uh?" Lutheran was surprised to see that nothing happened. Until he noticed that the Artifact was missing from his hands.

Then it was over.

Usually, Cid would've indulged in some banter with his kill before ending it. However, unfortunately for Lutheran Barnett, playtime was long over.

It had taken an incredible level of self-control not to kill Lutheran in the same fashion he had killed Lucrecia, but, in one moment of clarity given to him by the feeling of Sherry's magic, Cid thought that if he killed Lutheran like that, it would only serve to reawaken Sherry's trauma. So instead of that, he simply used his inhumane speed to rush to where Lutheran was and, using the momentum, drove his open palm to the man's heart.

Lutheran Barnett's heart had stopped beating before even hitting the bookshelves he himself had set ablaze. His body limply fell to the floor, followed by the bookshelf itself.

His clothes quickly caught on fire, but the old man could no longer feel the flames. Lutheran Barnett had been lucky enough to not even realize he had been killed. However—

"That's out of consideration for Sherry, not you. If hell exists, then when we meet again there, I will really make you suffer".

Cid picked up some of the photos of Lutheran and Sherry. The two of them were smiling next to each other in each one of them. "Now there's only one thing left to do," Cid muttered as he prepared the scene.

A few moments later, Cid heard the sound of footsteps coming from the stairs.

Sherry Barnett was greeted by what she herself might have described as hell.

His father's body lay on the ground, engulfed in flames, and next to him was…

"No way… Cid?!" Sherry braced herself for the worst. She couldn't understand why Cid was there, standing next to her father's corpse. The sight was too much for her. She wanted to go to her father, she wanted to ask why Cid was there. She wanted to ask the world why all of this was happening.

Before she could finish that train of thought, Cid looked at her with nothing but sadness in his eyes, "I found him like this…" Cid then handed her the photos he had picked. "He was holding onto these. I guess he rushed here to salvage them..."

With trembling hands, Sherry took the photos from Cid's hands. Some of them were partly burnt. She promptly fell to her knees, crying her heart out as she hugged the pictures closely to her chest.

Cid didn't know what to do. In front of him was another girl he had lied to, but at least this time it was for her own sake. "Sherry… you're better off not knowing anything…" Cid thought.

As he was having these thoughts, Sherry continued to cry. She felt as if the entire room was collapsing on her—

Something that was actually happening.

"Sherry!" Cid screamed.

A piece of the roof collapsed directly above Sherry. The poor girl looked up to see the large piece of debris falling on top of her, and as if accepting what was to come, she closed her eyes, but…

Some seconds passed.

"Eh?" Sherry wondered to herself why she didn't feel any physical pain. She slowly opened her eyes…

As Cid was about to move to protect Sherry, Nu had shown up in her slime suit. In an excellent display of skill, she sliced the falling piece of concrete to oblivion before it could even touch the pink-haired girl.

"We are Shadow Garden. We are the ones who lurk in the shadows to hunt shadows."

"Shadow Garden?! As in the ones who attacked the school?!" Sherry thought, overwhelmed. Too many things were going over her head for any of them to make sense to her right now.

"Perfect timing!" Cid shouted in his mind, feeling an immense sense of relief at seeing Sherry safe. Due to his internal turmoil, he had failed to react in time. Nu's arrival had saved Sherry's life.

"Follow me. We need to leave. This place is collapsing." Said Nu, quickly urging Sherry and Cid to leave the room.

"B-But… m-my… father…!" Sherry managed to speak between sobs as she turned to see her father's corpse, only to immediately avert her gaze.

Nu quickly inspected the room before analyzing the situation. On the floor, she saw the heavy armor that the leader of the cultists was using. Adding that information to the fact that Lord Shadow was there, she arrived at the conclusion that Lutheran Barnett was the man behind this incident. Shadow had realized it first, then he quickly took care of the situation. Her Master was truly always one step ahead.

However, if Lutheran was the one behind the incident, then where did that leave his daughter, Sherry Barnett? Lord Shadow hadn't tried to save her, so maybe she had done something she shouldn't have. Nu was debating whether or not to kill the pink-haired girl when Lord Shadow grabbed Sherry's shoulders.

"It's dangerous here," Cid knew the next line was going to put his acting skills to the test, but he had to do it, "he… wouldn't want you to be hurt…" To Cid, putting that man in any kind of positive light was sickening, but seeing Sherry's reaction to his words, Cid guessed that he was deserving of an Oscar. Little did he know that his award-winning performance had just saved an innocent person's life.

Sherry was visibly devastated, but she knew Cid was right. So, she nodded slightly, wiped her tears, and stood up.

The few minutes that took to leave the school, now transformed into hell on Earth, seemed like an eternity for the young researcher.

And as soon as everyone was out, Cid could breathe a sigh of relief. Even if this story seemed over, in reality it had only just started…

"Why?" Asked the pink-haired girl. "Why did this have to happen?" As her tears continued to flow freely now that she was out of danger, she hugged the pictures of her with her now late father close to her chest.

"We will be leaving now," announced Nu. "There are still more of those fools using the name of Shadow Garden running around. Try to be safe, you two," she said that, knowing all too well that her almighty Master was in no danger at all.

Now that the two of them are alone, Sherry wouldn't stop crying. Cid was visibly uncomfortable. The parallels between Lutheran Barnett and himself were still breaking havoc in his mind. Add to that the fact that he didn't even know what to do in this kind of situation to even try to help Sherry and you had a very tired-looking Cid. His face was twisted in pain and he looked pale.

The sudden truth, which Cid did not want and could not see, had been revealed. Cid felt bad. Being compared to a villain of that caliber absolutely sucked.

Until that moment Cid had a linear plan in mind, one that would never stop. And now his world was falling apart. All his certainties, all his ideologies, were now put into question.

There was something deeply unsettling about being told that they were basically the same (Lutheran hadn't told him that, but that's how Cid understood those words.)

How could Cid be so blind? How could he not understand that what he was doing was wrong? When a person puts themselves first of anyone this is what happens… No, it would've been fine if he had done all of this by himself. If he hadn't involved anyone else, then he wouldn't be feeling like this now. This Eminence in Shadow game was one he should've played by himself from the very beginning.

But instead... Cid realized he had ruined everything... He realized he had ruined people's lives…

"Why did I even lie to Alpha that day?"

It was at this point where Sherry took notice of Cid's awful state. He was wounded. A large cut went from his left shoulder all the way down to the left side of his hips. He looked pale, tired and in pain.

She couldn't be useless here. She had to help. After all, Cid was now all she had left in this messed up world.

"Cid-Kun... Is something wrong?" The girl asked him, sounding very worried.

Cid sighed slightly. Of all the things that were happening now, one of the things he did NOT want to do was worry Sherry.

"It's still dangerous here..." The pink-haired girl continued. "And you're injured... We have to go and treat your wounds…"

Cid gasped. He had forgotten that he had "died" when he tried to save Rose's life.

"Ugh... My part of the person who died is ruined now…" Cid thought, now unhappy that almost everything was going wrong. Well, not like I was planning on staying dead forever, anyways.

What do you do when you remember you have a "fatal" slash wound in your chest that you miraculously managed to survive? You pretend it hurts now!

Cid dropped to the ground, putting his hand to his chest, and began to writhe in pain. "I think I overestimated my physical resistance…" Said Cid, now in the role of the "injured Mob character". He actually sounded like he was in pain. His chest hurt for some reason, but it was yet another one of those "emotional pain" things Cid was unfamiliar with.

Sherry quickly helped Cid up, putting his arm over her shoulder.

After a few meters they stumbled onto the medical tents for the injured students. The place looked hectic as hell with knights running around, setting up more tents, bringing in more students and running to secure more supplies to help save whatever lives could still be saved. The loud voice of Iris Midgar could be heard barking out orders as she held Alexia by the wrist. Cid idly noticed that Alexia seemed to be trying to escape from her sister's grasp. She couldn't mask the fear in her face.

"I understand you, Alexia. My sister can be like that too." Thought Cid in a strange moment of sympathy towards the second princess.

Cid found space among the many people wounded in the battle, and lay down in one of the many beds. Ironically, Cid felt devastated mentally rather than physically…

Sherry took a seat next to Cid. She wouldn't leave him alone under any circumstance. She gently took Cid's hand, squeezing it reassuringly as the two of them waited for one of the doctors to treat him. "You will be fine," she told herself as much as she told him. "You h-have to be fine".

Sherry was trembling in primal fear of losing yet another important person in her life, completely unaware of the fact that these actions were hurting Cid more than any blade had done ever since he was reborn in this world.

"Yes," he told her. He tried to smile reassuringly at her, but it didn't seem to do the trick. His smile looked pained, which only made Sherry more worried, which made Cid feel worse. It was a perfect, self-sustaining machine of "making each other feel like shit".

Soon the doctor arrived. He was "amazed" by Cid's physical condition. After all, the wound was very deep and, normally, a person would already be dead by now.

However, since the danger of bleeding was now over, the doctor limited himself to applying bandages to Cid's chest.

The doctor left Cid with Sherry. After all, there were other people who were worse off than Cid, and who needed immediate help.

Cid thought that the calm had now arrived after the storm... It wasn't like that…

Just before Cid closed his eyes to nod off, two screams were heard in the room.

"CID!" Two girls shouted Cid's name at the same time.

The first girl was Alexia Midgar, the second princess of the kingdom. And the second girl was Rose Oriana, the first princess of the kingdom of Oriana.

"This is a medical tent!" Said one of the doctors. "Please don't raise your voice." He reprimanded them.

"I'm terribly sorry." Said Rose, being the honestly good person that she was. Alexia, in true Alexia fashion, simply said "Cid Kagenou. Black hair, plain-looking. Is he here?" Though she tried to sound calm, there was an undeniable undertone of genuine worry she couldn't hide.

The doctor felt a violent shiver run down his spine. Alexia's voice had something to it that made it seem like he wouldn't survive the girl's ire if he didn't immediately direct her to Cid. He promptly signaled to where Cid and Sherry were.

They both walked briskly to where Cid was resting, and began talking to him.

The first to speak was Rose. "Cid... You're alive..." The princess told him with tears in her eyes.

"Yo..." Cid simply saidb as he waved at her with the calm of the Buddha. After being treated, the doctor had assured Sherry that he only needed rest. This had calmed Sherry, which in turn had calmed Cid to the point where he could act more like his Mob persona.

"I was so worried... When that guy slashed you…" Rose didn't seem to want to even finish that sentence. "I-I thought you were dead..." Finally concluded the princess of Oriana, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

"What?! Someone slashed Po-Cid?!" Asked Alexia, visibly shaken by the news.

"Yes. Cid, he almost died protecting me..." Rose remembered that fateful moment.

Alexia, despite the precarious situation, became jealous. Had Cid almost died protecting Rose? Seriously?! Why?! "Would he do that for me, too?" The answer she arrived at was "no". To begin with, she couldn't believe her Pooch would do something like that for anyone. Unless... "Has Rose-senpai been giving Pooch money?!"

Simultaneously, Sherry had very similar thoughts to Alexia's (minus the part about Cid not being willing to risk his life for others. Also, the money thing). However, she simply squeezed Cid's hand a little harder as if to reassure herself. At the time, Sherry was still unfamiliar with the ugly feeling of "I'm-going-to-stab-a-bitch" jealousy.

"Cid Kagenou... You saved my life... In return, I offer you my heart." Rose said as she took a firm hold of the young man's other hand.

"EEHH?!" Alexia and Sherry thought in unison.

In this disastrous situation where Rose had basically confessed to him publicly, and with all the other things that had happened that day, Cid was left but with a single choice.

Tactical faint.

Cid promptly closed his eyes, his head now fully resting on the pillow as he pretended to sleep. Of course, with two princesses and a young researcher now arguing around him, catching some sleep was something not even Shadow could do.

Author Notes:

Kyotō Yasuri: Hello! This is a collaboration between yours truly and my good friend Ricky the Sixth. Hope you like it. That's all from me.

Ricky06: Hello to all of you! It is with great joy that I begin this new FanFiction together with my friend Kyotō Yasuri! New chapter will be coming soon. Stay tuned, comment, and we'll see you in the next chapter! Goodbye!