The Eminence In Shadow In Multiverse

Bound to the same sinking ship as the others.

But now that Gamma was aware of their schemes, everything changed.

All she had to do was uncover the traps they'd planted, disarm them, and then—if the opportunity arose—turn the tables.

Lord Shadow's words echoed in her mind again.

"I'll clear the darkness from your path to the light. And Gamma, think carefully about the things I've told you before."

No, they hadn't been abandoned.

He wasn't discarding them.

He was still giving.

Giving without asking for anything in return.

Because to him, they were still children—people to be protected, not relied upon.

They were the ones who had misread the situation.

Gamma clenched her fists and stood up.

….

"Asagi, wake up. Class is over."

"…Huh? Oh, Cid? School's done already?"

Asagi sat up groggily, brushing her black hair out of her face.

Her crimson eyes blinked behind an outdated pair of glasses, giving her the look of someone who was eternally stuck in the past.

She was wearing a plain, unfashionable outfit—something that practically screamed "background character."

Cid couldn't have been happier when he met her.

Because Asagi Aoi was one of the rare few in this school who fit the role of a mob character perfectly.

Asagi was a local resident of World No. 2's Itogami Island.

Before the world fusion, she had been just another top student with decent grades and no magic whatsoever.

But after the fusion, her latent magical talent had surfaced, and she had been transferred to the academy.

A sudden leap from ordinary to extraordinary.

Cid thought it sounded like the plot of a bad light novel.

Not that he'd ever say that out loud.

"School's over, huh? I better get going—my shift's starting soon," Asagi said, already packing her bag.

She was working part-time to make ends meet, balancing school and her newfound magical studies.

Cid watched her go, a hint of admiration flashing through his eyes.

A proper mob character, through and through.

And like any good mob character, she'd unknowingly earned her place in his world of Mobs.

The fusion of worlds had brought more than just political turmoil and cultural clashes—it had also forced the creation of a new power-ranking system to standardize strength across the merged realms.

From lowest to highest, the ranks were as follows: D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, and at the very top—Dragon God.

Unfortunately, even with her natural talent, Asagi's rank sat at C+.

Not bad for someone who'd only had a little over a year to train.

But in this academy, where practical combat ability mattered more than grades, her ranking left her stuck firmly in the lower-middle tier.

Even her strong performance in written tests couldn't change that.

"Busy lately? You slept through the entire day and still look exhausted. Good thing Natsuki-sensei didn't have class today. The other teachers probably just gave up on you. Otherwise, you'd be drowning in written apologies right now."

"Yeah… It's been hectic. Something came up at work—a minor issue, but it's taking longer than expected to fix. I've been pulling late nights trying to sort it out."

"A minor issue?" Cid raised an eyebrow. "You don't usually let small problems drag out for days. And sleeping through class isn't exactly helping either."

"Relax. It'll be resolved over the weekend."

Her voice lowered to a murmur—soft enough that most people wouldn't have caught it.

"Not like telling you would help, anyway."

Packing up her things, Asagi rushed out of the classroom before Cid could respond.

Watching her hurried retreat, Cid let out a small sigh.

He'd heard her.

Every single word.

She probably thought she'd muttered too quietly for him to pick up, but Cid Kagenou wasn't most people.

He had always had an acute sense for details.

Not that it made him feel any better.

It wasn't like he wanted to pry into her problems.

But having his rare display of genuine concern brushed off so easily still stung.

Not that it was entirely selfless concern.

Asagi was, after all, his source of campus gossip.

And her constant napping over the past few days had left him out of the loop.

Cid slung his bag over his shoulder and grabbed a wooden practice sword before heading toward the school's training grounds.

Passing by the magical practice field—which now resembled a disaster zone—he walked straight into the empty swordsmanship training room.

He didn't start training immediately.

Instead, he moved toward a blind spot in the surveillance system.

From seemingly thin air, he produced a white crystal block.

Only after stowing it away did he turn to the training dummy and begin swinging his wooden sword.

"Swish… swish…"

Cid Kagenou.

In his carefully crafted backstory, he was nothing more than a minor noble's son—a mediocre student stuck in the lower-middle ranks both in grades and combat ability.

A nobody.

A mob character.

Someone destined to fade into the background.

But the new world had thrown his plan off track.

The standards at this academy were much higher than his previous school.

Suddenly, his once passable results were at the bottom of the barrel.

And that just wouldn't do.

A proper mob character couldn't be too weak.

So what was the solution?

Training.

If he worked hard enough, he could climb his way back to lower-middle tier—right where a mob character belonged.

But then came another problem.

Spending hours every day on pointless training just to maintain appearances?

Unacceptable.

For Cid, the solution was simple.

If he needed to increase his training intensity without anyone noticing, he just had to do it in a way that was invisible to others. (Obviously.)

Take his current routine, for example.

To any outside observer, it looked like he was swinging a plain wooden sword.

But in reality?

That wooden sword was secretly packed with magic.

Its weight fluctuated wildly—oscillating between the lightness of a sheet of paper and the crushing heaviness of a mountain.