Cid was sitting in a carriage.

To be honest, he would rather go to Lindwurm on his own, but…

But he still had to play the role of an average mob, and their academic break after terrorist attack was over. He took a lot of time with all his magic researches, anyway, and didn't know what to do next yet. Like, where the hell will he find a fire dimension? He will need to find something like a volcano first, or drill underground in order to reach mantle and core. In short, he decided to stop with practice and focus on theory.

Which led him to taking the carriage to Lindwurm. Coincidentally, his school was willing to send some students to the Goddess' Trial. And by "some students" he meant…

"Cid, say 'A-ah'," yeah, Rose Oriana.

The current champion of the academy, the princess of Oriana kingdom, was currently sitting with him and trying to feed him.

"Excuse me?! He's my boyfriend, not yours!" Alexia Midgar.

Younger princess of Midgar, his girlfriend, was sitting from the other side and fuming at Rose's actions.

"Oh, by the Goddess…" Iris Midgar.

Heir princess of Midgar, the previous champion of the academy (only because she finished studying), sat across them and facepalmed at the two girls' actions.

"I shouldn't have agreed to that…" Cid sighed and leaned back.

Yep, at first he was riding another carriage, fit ideally for his mob personality (Gamma once again delivered), but then the girls found him and, well… At first he refused, but then Rose said "I insist", and he couldn't do anything.

"Cid, are you saying that you're unhappy with being in presence of three gorgeous women?" Alexia squinted.

"That's precisely what I am saying; you're too noisy," he stared at the ceiling.

"Hmm, your courage in saying that is admirable," Iris nodded at him, smiling.

"Ehh, so-so," he waved his hand, "I would rather be in some quiet place and think about important things."

"Hoh, so you can think and not just lunge at the coins falling out of pockets?" Alexia giggled.

"Alexia!" Iris' eyes widened.

"Miss Alexia, that's-" Rose tried to chastise the princess, but he didn't actually care for her insults, so…

"I'll have you know, I am not some kind of beggar that is after any ownerless Zeni," snatch! "Thank you for your donation," and smile.

"Anytime, my dearest boyfriend," and smile.

"So that's how couples act with each other…" Iris' shock slowly subsided as she went into thinking mode.

"Cid?" Rose called out.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Here," and she threw him a gold coin.

Catch!

"Thank you very much, princess Rose!"

"O-Oh, just Rose is enough, Cid…"

"O-Oi! That's my privilege! Rose, why are you going out of your way to snatch someone who is mine?! Cid, why did you accept that?!"

"Money is money," he nodded sagely.

"Because I believe that Cid Kagenou is someone that was preordained for me by fate," Rose seriously answered.

Wait, the hell?

"Oh, and what makes you think that?" Alexia heated up.

"He saved me during attack on academy when I was the most vulnerable. If it was not for him, I would be long dead, yet he still decided to protect me with his body."

No, it was a bit different-

"Cid?" Alexia turned around.

"I only jumped in because-"

"…So you actually did it."

"Yeah, I did," well, if they don't want to listen, their problems.

"…I did not expect you to actually be so brave… To go all-out on tournament where it's a given you will be given medical attention and there are rules established is one thing, but in a death situation… You have the spirit of a true knight, I commend you for that," Iris nodded with respect.

"Damn, alright, princess Rose, but I found him way before y'all got attracted for these qualities! He's mine!" Alexia fumed.

"I do not intend to be a third wheel, but know this: I will not back down. Cid Kagenou was preordained for me by the Goddess herself, and I shall pass through every obstacle in order to secure our happy ending," Rose locked her gaze onto Alexia.

"Gr-r-r…"

Alexia glared at him.

"Stop staring at me, I am not at fault here. I only did what was needed to be done," he replied nonchalantly and stood up, "Have fun, girls, I am going to my room."

"M-m-m, I wish you good rest, Cid," Iris smiled at him.

'Right, I can write some theories on my magic research while I am alone. What should be the next topic since I can't access other elements yet?… Oh, I remember I wanted to do something with teleportation, and even though my Shadow Core allows me to travel in shadows, I want a pure teleportation. Right, let's do this!'

Iris tapped her cup in frustration.

"You both do realize your childish behavior, correct?" she spoke calmly.

"I am ashamed in what I did and sincerely apologize for my actions," Rose hung her head in shame.

"Iris, but- but Cid is my boyfriend-!"

"Alexia," Iris pressed.

"…I am sorry for being so rash, princess Rose…"

"You are not the ones who you should apologize to," Iris shook her head, "and neither am I."

"Ah…" Rose's eyes widened in realization while Alexia looked confused.

"It was your idea to invite him to our carriage, yet instead of making sure he feels comfortable you started quarrelling with each other, moreover with the topic being him," Iris sighed.

"Ah… Uh… Well…" Alexia paled.

"It's alright, I can see he wasn't offended that much. Just take my words into consideration, both of you."

"Uh, yeah, so…"

"Not now. Later. If you go now, he will only get frustrated more. Let him relax, alone."

"…Sure…"

"Now, let us talk about something else."

"Is it gonna be about Shadow Garden?" Rose guessed.

"Correct," Iris nodded. "As of now it is clear that whatever these terrorists actually are, their goal was to destabilize the kingdom, moreso with the fact that they personally attacked the foreign princess and promising researcher. And Shadow Garden opposes them. What their goals are, that I do not know, however they did help us in ensuring safety. We did not have any… meaningful meeting with them after that, but at least we know that one group suppresses the other, allowing us to grow our powers in peace."

"Hmm…" Rose blinked, "You know, I have noticed something…"

"Continue," Iris encouraged her.

"Back when they were escorting students out, their swordplay was unlike anything else… It is not one of Midgar's recognized styles, neither I saw anything similar to Velgalta's Seven Blades. However, there is one style that strikes horrifyingly similar to theirs…"

"Hm?" Alexia looked up.

"Mine."

"…Princess Rose?" Iris asked, dumbfounded.

"I have never told anyone the reason why, exactly, I took the sword. You have heard that I consider the swordsmanship to be the most beautiful art in the world, correct?" upon receiving nods of confirmation Rose continued, "That's because back in my childhood I was saved by someone, who showed me how beautiful swordplay can be. I became enamored with this vision since then, endlessly pushing myself to create something similar to it. And now I saw this style again, albeit less perfected, at hands of someone other than him…"

"…So you met Shadow back in your childhood," Alexia concluded.

"Shadow, that's how he goes now?" Rose blinked.

"Now? He went under another name when he met you?" both princesses were surprised.

"Oh, right, back then he was… somewhat my age, I think. And his name was…"

Rose leaned in.

"Stylish Bandit Slayer."

"Achoo!"

Oh, he felt like someone was talking about him. Eh, probably Claire and Shades speaking out their opinions on him. Right, magic.

Even racking his brains at full speed, with his knowledge about physics, including (but not limited to) quantum physics, with his innate talent for magic, with his insane work… He still couldn't quite realize how to create pure teleportation magic, without relying on shadows, or light, or anything else.

Well, it's not like he was gonna roll on his luck forever, now did he? Quite frustrating, to be honest, but he probably can find something related to teleportation in this world? He surely hopes he can. Shame, though, he wanted to finish with it as fast as possible, but until then he can use Shadow Trail.

You see, upon kicking that poor Shadow Spirit out of Shadow Realm Cid realized that the material world he found himself in back then was… Kinda different. It was way after he realized that it was a completely different material world, and so he took a bit of time to check out how, exactly, that worked. Thankfully the Shadow Spirits became extremely docile and helpful after he obtained Shadow Core, so he quickly learned how to travel in Shadow Realm and use it as shortcut to any place he wants. Unfortunately, he deemed the travel to another world too dangerous as of yet, so he decided to postpone it until he understood how teleportation works, but it's still a great ability for fast travels, and he wanted to use it to get to Lindwurm before settling on mob style.

Alright, teleportation locked, too. What's next?

Blood Magic? Definitely not here, what if they walk in while he practices? His whole mob career will be ruined! Not like it's not ruined already with his princesses' connections, but if he does something this outrageous, it will definitely be game over.

Air Magic? Doable, but he's already proficient in that.

Light Magic? Yeah, if he wants to quite literally make a shining arrow on him, then sure.

Elemental Magic?… He could meditate on fire? Like, lit a candle and try to feel the flame? It's… possible. Alright, let's try this.

Candles, candles… Oh, here's one! Lit it up and focus on it…

What is fire? Hard question. Most people would say it's something that happens when you burn flammable materials, but how, exactly, does that happen? Science says that it requires fuel (obviously, duh) and oxidizer, typically oxygen. They both need to be exposed to heat in order to start fires, and after some point the fire itself will provide sufficient heat, allowing the chain reaction of flames producing heat in order to produce more flames, granted that the fuel and oxidizer are constantly provided…

Well, that's how he understands it. What he gets from that? He always has oxidizer around him — oxygen, yeah, — and he could, theoretically, increase the heat via using magic. How can he work around flammable materials?…

Let's start with adjusting the already existing flames. Inflict a bit of mana in the fire and… It went off. First try failed, second try… Flickered, but still going. Alright, next step: in order to increase temperature he has to… Right, give the energy to it. No, seriously, if you apply the kinetic force to something the temperature will increase! Don't believe it? Try rubbing your carpet real fast and see what happens!

He doesn't need to rub anything with magic, though. He simply directs his energy into the ongoing flames and slowly increases intensity… Alright, that's enough, he doesn't want to burn everything, the candle literally melted in seconds. Take away that energy!

Nice, he took it back… Wait, he got more than he gave away. Now hang on a second… Something is not right here… Let him check real quick…

Cid touched the still warm coffee cup. In the next instant, the coffee has gone cold as he felt the energy flowing from it into his body.

He stared at the ceiling. Then he heated up the coffee back and sipped it.

It's not every day you break multiple laws of reality that you once thought to be fundamental, after all.