Cid wants to become an Eminence in Shadow.
He can't remember what started it, but ever since he was old enough to think, Kageno Minoru has been obsessed with that single goal.
An Eminence in Shadow is neither hero nor demon king—
it's the kind of figure who steps in from an unremarkable corner of the story and reveals overwhelming power at the decisive moment.
Minoru fell in love with that idea.
Unlike kids who burn hot for three minutes and move on, he kept working toward the dream. At school, he played the part of "Background Extra A." In private, he trained nonstop to become stronger.
Karate, kung fu, kendo, mixed martial arts—
anything that could raise his combat ability, he tried, and he drove it to levels ordinary people could never reach.
He was confident that even against special forces, he'd have real odds of winning.
Minoru believed that, as he was now, he could even beat Jackie Chan.
He wasn't even scared of getting jumped in a "tool town" brawl.
But—
"Still too weak. I can't even deal with bullets. If I'm going to be an Eminence in Shadow… I should be able to face even a nuclear bomb calmly!"
Minoru hated his own powerlessness.
To break free of it and grow stronger, he needed something beyond human limits.
"Magic. I need magic."
…
In the end, he did find magic—
but only after arriving in another world.
And "Kageno Minoru" was no longer his name. Now he was Cid Raphael.
If people in Orario deliberately brought up "Cid of the Astraea Familia," every adventurer would immediately start arguing heatedly—
Who is Cid?
Does the Astraea Familia even have a man?
That kind of obscurity—unknown, unnoticed—was exactly what Cid wanted.
He checked the power he possessed now.
In this life, he was at least a thousand times stronger than before—yet he still wasn't satisfied.
"It's been over ten years… and I'm still nowhere near beating a nuclear bomb. I wonder what the power of the world-ending Black Dragon is like."
After finishing a day of training, Cid stretched and headed back toward the familia's base—the Court of Stars.
Along the way, the streets were filled with hawkers' cries.
This was District 1 of Orario: a prosperous commercial quarter.
Cid tucked away all his presence until he was no different from any other adventurer passing by.
Looking at how perfectly ordinary he seemed, anyone would have to admit the gods' nickname for him was accurate—
"Mob."
This world was packed with many different races.
And Orario—the city favored by the gods—was even more unlike his previous life.
Besides humans, there were countless other peoples:
Dwarves—short but sturdy.
Elves—proud and obsessive about cleanliness.
Prums—physically weak as a whole, yet the race that produced the Hero.
Amazons—open and uninhibited in private life…
Within Cid's Astraea Familia, there were twelve members total, including one prum, two elves, an amazon, a dwarf, and a werewolf.
Scaling that up, did that mean the non-human races together made up about half of the world?
Cid had already taken off all his equipment—everything custom-made through the Hephaistos Familia, all of it expensive.
If someone targeted him, a true Eminence in Shadow wouldn't be robbed… but Cid didn't want attention in the first place.
"Military Police!"
Members of the Ganesha Familia passed by. People hurriedly cleared the way. Cid also slipped aside.
He lived cautiously and always tried to reduce his presence, but because he was often seen with his older sister, adventurers from friendly familias could still recognize him.
The Ganesha Familia served as Orario's military police. Among the major familias, their overall strength could rank in the top three.
A "familia" meant those blessed by a god.
In this world, the gods of myth had descended to the mortal realm.
They bestowed a power called "Blessing".
Those who received it could draw out their hidden potential and gain strength far beyond ordinary people.
These blessed ones were the gods' familias.
In Orario today, the two strongest familias were the Loki Familia and the Freya Familia.
Ganesha's top adventurers couldn't compare to those two, but Ganesha had the greatest number of adventurers.
Astraea's familia—its strength and influence—was nowhere near Ganesha's, but the two sides had a good relationship.
Ganesha, known as Orario's military police, was responsible for keeping the city's order.
After the decline of the Zeus and Hera familias, Orario entered what people called the Dark Age.
During that period, it was Ganesha that held the city together.
Recently, they seemed short-handed, so they asked Astraea for assistance.
As the familia of the goddess of justice, Cid's older sister—Alise—accepted the request on behalf of everyone.
So, aside from the relatively "weak" Cid, the rest of the Astraea Familia had been out on patrol across Orario.
Cid watched the military police depart, then finally stepped back out.
There was something he had never told anyone—
Loki, Freya, Astraea, Ganesha… every god in Orario had the same names as the deities from the myths of his previous world.
"Are these two worlds connected somehow?"
In his old life, Cid had researched religion deeply in his pursuit of magic.
Not because he had faith—purely because he wanted to obtain divine power through faith.
He even once stripped naked and tied himself to a cross, hoping it would awaken magic.
It failed, of course.
Compared to Orario, it was obvious: his previous world truly had no magic.
Still, Cid wanted to return someday—to personally witness the power of a nuclear bomb.
"Ganesha's people seem pretty tense… did something happen?"
He casually bought a serving of fried potato balls and watched the Ganesha Familia and the surrounding adventurers with curiosity.
Because his surface-level strength was ordinary, nobody told him about truly dangerous matters.
But he also understood: if the largest and most manpower-rich familia was requesting help, it couldn't be something small.
"No. I can't miss something like this."
Mouth full of potato, Cid muttered through the food.
He craved battle.
Not only to verify his growth—battle also mattered for two other reasons.
First: to punish evil. An Eminence in Shadow couldn't allow petty villains to run wild.
Second: for the sake of Goddess Astraea—to repay the kindness of being raised, and to protect his companions.
In the Greek myths of his original world, when the gods left the human realm and returned to Olympus, Astraea alone remained behind, hoping to guide humanity.
In the end, she failed and returned as well.
Her departure symbolized the end of absolute purity and justice in the world.
And in Orario—the city blessed by the gods—an Astraea Familia that agreed to assist Ganesha would inevitably become the center of the coming storm.
Cid believed that if trouble was brewing, Astraea's familia would be the first to be struck.
If the enemy was bold enough, they might even go after Astraea herself.
In myth, Astraea was the last to leave.
But under the current circumstances, if someone intended to strike at Orario, Astraea's familia might be the first to be targeted.
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