The silver sword easily knocked the black sword aside, then seized the opening and drove straight along the length of the blade. In the end, its tip sliced through the black sword user's clothes and stopped right over his heart.
"Uh... Kiba, you're not exactly in great shape today... are you?"
Staring at the scene in shock, Cid asked cautiously.
Normally, his sparring matches with Yuuto Kiba always ended with him being suppressed, but today the result had completely reversed. If he had not reacted in time just now, his sword would already have pierced Yuuto Kiba's heart.
As for whether he had simply made a mistake and accidentally shown his real skill...
Impossible. Absolutely impossible. His ability to hold back was unmatched, and his perfect disguise was flawless.
"I haven't been sleeping very well these past few days, so I was a little off today..."
After glancing at the tear across his chest, Yuuto Kiba showed no concern at all over the fact that he had nearly died. He simply gave a distracted explanation, then walked off to the side to change clothes.
"Sorry, Cid, can we stop training for today? I want to recover a bit."
"All right. If you're not feeling well today, I won't force it."
Cid nodded casually. He was more than happy to slack off anyway. This kind of training was useless to him.
"By the way, do you know where President Rias and the others went? Kind of strange. Besides the two of us, none of the others have shown up yet."
Looking around the empty training ground, Cid let out a sigh.
After spending the whole night using the unconscious Xenovia as Asia's guinea pig and putting her through a rough time, he had managed to clean up all traces of the performance just in time for Irina Shidou to wake up.
Then, after sitting through a whole morning of magic class with everything going in one ear and out the other, he arrived at the training ground of the Rias squad he had officially joined, only to find that aside from him and Yuuto Kiba, not a single member of the Rias squad was there.
"Yuuto, you don't think we're being left out... do you?"
Rubbing his chin, Cid thought back to how he had once been excluded from the Seven Shadows' inner circle, and the situation in front of him suddenly felt weirdly familiar.
"No way, Cid. President Rias and everyone else in the squad aren't like that. They probably just have something they need to discuss among themselves..."
Since it concerned his master's reputation, Yuuto Kiba turned his head and defended Rias despite still looking distracted.
"Relax, I was joking..."
Knowing better than to press it, Cid just laughed it off, and silence settled over the field again.
"Cid, do you think people should throw away their past?"
While they waited for the others, Yuuto Kiba, who had looked troubled from the moment he arrived, finally broke the silence.
"Wow, that's a pretty tough question to throw at me. I don't think we're close enough for that kind of talk yet."
"Sorry, but you're the only other guy on the team besides me. I thought it over again and again, and in the end, you were the only person I could ask."
"All right, I can answer, but let me say this first. This is just my personal opinion. No guarantees it's actually reliable, so don't take it too seriously."
Picking up on the implication behind Yuuto Kiba's words, Cid raised a brow as he looked at him squatting there on the ground and began scrambling to come up with an answer.
Back when he was training for his Eminence in Shadow role, he had never bothered thinking about how to answer questions this vague and grandiose. So now he had to make something up on the spot.
"It's been almost a year since we met, Cid. Go ahead. I trust you. At the very least, give me something to think about so I can figure out what direction I should take from here."
Cid gave an awkward laugh. He had no idea where Yuuto Kiba got the confidence to say that, since even he himself did not trust his own words.
"Your past is what shaped your present. Forget your past? How exactly are you supposed to forget it?"
"Cid, are you saying..."
"Don't get the wrong idea. That's not what I meant. If it's in the past, then let it stay in the past. In the end, people live in the present, right?"
"Then does that mean I should..."
"You're misunderstanding me again. What is the past? The past is something you can face calmly.
If you're still hung up on it, then you haven't really reached the present at all. You've just chosen to avoid it or leave it unresolved.
Face it head-on. Walk through it. That's what it means for something to truly become the past."
"Face it head-on..."
As Yuuto Kiba murmured those words to himself, Cid grabbed the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea. His talent for talking in riddles was as sharp as ever. Another one successfully fooled.
That was right. Cid himself had no idea what he was even talking about. He had just made everything deliberately vague and covered every possible angle.
As far as Cid was concerned, there was nothing wrong with that. Yuuto Kiba's question had been abstract and lofty to begin with, so naturally the only answer it deserved was one just as abstract and lofty.
"Thank you, Cid-kun. I think I know now what I need to do."
Cid had no clue what Yuuto Kiba had figured out, but seeing the smile on his face and the hand firmly gripping his shoulder, he simply returned an encouraging smile.
He had no idea what exactly was going on, but it did not matter anymore. Judging by the look on Yuuto Kiba's face, he had already made up his mind about something. Cid could only say, perfect, keep it up. He would be more than happy to become Yuuto Kiba's scapegoat later.
After interrogating the criminal and forcing out the motive, the hero side discovers that this shocking incident was actually set off by a seemingly ordinary background character. Because they cannot find any real evidence, and because of their own preconceptions, they dismiss it as a coincidence and never even imagine that the plain, unremarkable extra is actually the mastermind.
Yes, this was exactly how a background character played by an Eminence in Shadow should be. There had to be just a little chance of being exposed, yet never actually be exposed. Only that kind of thrill, like walking a tightrope high above the ground, truly suited an Eminence in Shadow.
This identity is very convenient, but that is all it is. I never went out of my way to hide who I really am. If you had just paid a little attention, you would have noticed. The only reason you failed to notice is because you were too arrogant.
Ah, when my identity is finally exposed, I am definitely going to say that line. It is just too Eminence in Shadow.
As for whether his habit of constantly talking in riddles might cause someone who could have stayed on the right path to go astray instead, Cid simply smiled and said nothing.
Do you even understand what a riddle is? A thousand people have a thousand different Hamlets in their hearts. Maybe not a single one of those Hamlets is the real Hamlet, but every one of them is the Hamlet that best fits that person's own imagination.
By the same logic, if someone still ends up going down the wrong path even after he has made his words this ambiguous, then that can only mean one thing. Even without him, that person probably would have gone down the wrong path anyway.
"Tap tap tap..."
Cid's thoughts were wandering when a burst of noisy footsteps from the entrance to the training ground interrupted him.
A puzzled look appeared on his face almost at once. Judging by the sound alone, there had to be more than a dozen people out there, but even counting him as a half member, the Rias squad only had six people.
Creak...
The heavy doors opened from outside. Cid looked over and saw Rias entering first, followed by Sona Sitri and a burly man who looked heavily built.
After them came more than thirty men and women. Koneko and Akeno Himejima were among them. Cid also recognized a few others, like Tsubaki Shinra and Loup Garou, all of them Sona Sitri's Peerage Members.
Judging from where everyone was standing, that burly man, who held the same leader-like position as Rias and Sona Sitri, was probably also a Devil noble from the Underworld.
Following that logic, among the thirty or so people behind the three of them, quite a few were probably this burly man's Peerage Members as well.
Cid frowned. Aside from a small number of people, most of them seemed to be carrying injuries of one kind or another.
"Cid, Yuuto, so you really are here. You did not have to come, but I honestly thought only Gasper would skip it."
Seeing Cid and Yuuto Kiba sitting on the ground resting and recovering their strength, Rias held her forehead with a look that said exactly as expected.
"?"
"Hm? Cid, do not tell me you did not notice the message I sent you."
Noticing his confusion, Rias's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Mm..."
Cid fell silent. He glanced at the phone he had not checked in several days, then quietly looked away.
"You..."
At that point, Rias understood immediately. For a moment, she did not even know what to say, so she turned toward Yuuto Kiba instead, who had also come to the training ground just like Cid.
"President Rias, I have not been in very good condition these past few days..."
Before Rias could say anything, Yuuto Kiba took the initiative and gave his excuse.
After hearing that, Rias looked him over from top to bottom, then nodded.
"Yuuto, your mental state really does look a little off. Is something wrong with your body?"
"No. I just have not been sleeping well these past few days."
Seeing that Yuuto Kiba said so, and that he did not appear to have any visible injuries, Rias shifted her attention back to Cid. She was just about to speak when Sona Sitri, standing beside her, cut in.
"Rias, if you want to lecture your own Peerage Members, you can do it later. Right now, the important thing is dealing with the matter at hand."
"Right, right, Lady Sitri is absolutely right. We should hurry and discuss countermeasures against these attacks."
The burly man on the other side chimed in as well. Noticing Cid looking at him, he even greeted him.
"Hey there, one of Rias's people. I'm Sairaorg Bael. Just call me Sairaorg."
Cid did not answer. He only smiled. He was not very good at dealing with this type of social monster.
"All right, come with me."
Rias responded briefly, then motioned for Cid and Yuuto Kiba to follow as she led the group toward the reception room beside the training ground.
Given the instruction, Yuuto Kiba quietly merged into the larger group at the back. Seeing that, Cid could only follow along as well.
Once the conference room doors were opened, the large group behind them split up with perfect coordination into four sections representing Rias, Sona Sitri, Sairaorg, and the other Devils.
Cid really wanted to sit with the other Devils, but after feeling three different gazes on him, he wisely chose to sit beside Koneko instead.
"Koneko, do you know what this is all about?"
Keeping his eyes outwardly on the three people discussing things in the middle of the room, Cid spoke to Koneko, who was eating something.
"I do not know."
Without pausing her chewing, Koneko simply shook her head.
"Then what happened to all the injuries on you people? Did you all hold some kind of no-rules fighting tournament or something?"
"...We got into a fight with someone over the weekend. We were not good enough and got hurt."
Koneko glanced at the bandage wrapped around her hand, fell silent for a moment, swallowed the snack in her mouth, said that in a perfectly calm tone, then pulled out more snacks from who knew where and kept eating.
"Did a whole group beat you up?"
Cid muttered under his breath, thinking back to the masked people who had blocked his path in the alley over the weekend. They had only made their move after confirming that he had ties to Rias. And now, everyone here who was injured was either a Devil Peerage Member or connected to Devils in some way...
"A campaign targeting Devils? But why?"
That thought crossed Cid's mind, but it only left him more confused. The people who had blocked his way back then had belonged to multiple different factions.
Sure, it was normal for a major power like the Underworld to have plenty of enemies, but no matter how you looked at it, there was no way that many factions would join forces to target them. Not to mention that being part of a major power was itself a kind of protection.
"My, my, Cid-kun is quite sharp, is he not? You figured that out very quickly. Do you want to know why? Call me Nee-san and I will tell you..."
Just as Cid was puzzling over it, a seductive voice drifted over from nearby. Akeno Himejima rested one hand against her cheek, her expression full of teasing amusement.
"Himejima Nee-san, can you tell me what happened?"
"Mm."
Akeno Himejima froze for a moment, caught off guard by how fast Cid changed expression, how completely unhesitating he was, and how he even managed to make his voice sound a little younger.
Then she smiled.
"Cid-kun, you really are far too practiced at this."
"That is because I really do have an older sister. I learned all of this from dealing with her."
Thinking back to how Claire's face always changed whenever he tried calling her by name instead of Nee-san, Cid gave a slight shrug, then switched expressions again and spoke with the skill he had honed through experience.
"Himejima Nee-san, I already called you Nee-san like you asked, so can you tell me what exactly is going on now?"
"It is a little boring when you agree to call me Nee-san that easily..."
She sighed theatrically, then rolled her eyes as if some wicked little idea had just occurred to her. When she spoke again, her tone was openly tempting.
"How about this. The next time Claire comes here, call me Nee-san right in front of her."
Cid's expression stiffened. He looked at Akeno Himejima, conflict appearing on his face, then finally nodded.
"All right. It is a deal."
"Hehe..."
Seeing Akeno Himejima hum to herself in satisfaction, Cid laughed inwardly.
The hesitation had been an act. With a sadist like Akeno Himejima, you had to resist first and only then give in. Otherwise, the teasing would never stop.
"Ahem. As for these recent attacks on Devils, it probably starts with Rias's last Rating Game..."
The moment the conversation turned serious, even Akeno Himejima, who had looked rather pleased just a moment ago, showed a trace of difficulty on her face..