"Shadow-sama!"
"Master!"
The moment Cid appeared, the silver-haired elf and the blonde Therianthrope stopped arguing and dropped to one knee before the suddenly arriving boy.
"I could hear you arguing from quite a distance away. What happened?"
Cid walked over casually, sat down on the sofa inside the private room, and addressed the two women, whose expressions were still somewhat grave.
At his words, Beta and Zeta exchanged glances. Their expressions grew even more tense, and after a moment of consideration, Zeta was the first to speak.
"Master, it's the Cult of Diablos. After lying low for more than a year, the Cult of Diablos in the Kingdom of Midgar has recently begun making its move..."
Huh? The Cult of Diablos again?
Cid blinked so quickly it was almost impossible to see.
He had finally decided to do his friends a favor for once, yet this was the answer he got.
So... it must be an enemy they can't conveniently name outright?
Cid instantly understood the hidden meaning behind Zeta's words. Don't underestimate his emotional intelligence. He just usually couldn't be bothered to use his brain!
The Cult of Diablos might only be part of the game between him and his friends, but just like any lie that had grown too big to take back, there was no way he could admit at this point that the Cult of Diablos didn't actually exist. His pride wouldn't allow it.
Whenever his friends humored him and asked him for help, they would usually do exactly this, lump all of the Mitsugoshi Company's enemies together under the label of the Cult of Diablos.
Cid got to fulfill his dream of playing the Eminence in Shadow, while Gamma and the others got to expand their business.
A perfect win-win situation.
Having understood the implication, Cid realized he might be able to earn himself another Eminence in Shadow achievement while solving the problem at the same time. His spirits immediately lifted. His eyes brightened almost imperceptibly, and he straightened his posture.
Still, after so many updates and patches, the current version of the Cult of Diablos has gotten so ridiculously overpowered that it could probably crush the version I originally made up with one finger. If I keep milking the same villain forever, it's getting a little hard to keep pretending not to notice.
The thought suddenly occurred to Cid, though he didn't care all that much.
Who knew? Maybe the Cult of Diablos, already buffed beyond recognition, would receive yet another upgrade and start plotting some grand plan to destroy the world.
Ha. As if.
The world had only survived an apocalyptic crisis a few days ago. There was no way it would end up on the brink of destruction again so soon.
Cid couldn't help chuckling at the thought, feeling that even he was overthinking things.
He would certainly love to see the world descend into chaos, and he was currently standing comfortably on the moral high ground while preparing to put some pressure on the whole world.
Even so, expecting another world-ending crisis to happen this quickly was pure fantasy.
Unless...
Unless there really was a Cult of Diablos with terrifying intelligence, an infamous reputation, absolutely no conscience, absurdly high initiative, and a habit of going completely insane whenever it took action.
Otherwise, the world would probably enter a period of peace before Cid started causing trouble himself.
While Cid's thoughts wandered as usual, Zeta stopped speaking.
Not because she had finished her report, but because her revered Master's sudden chuckle made her instinctively wonder whether there was something wrong with her intelligence.
Afraid she might disappoint him, Zeta's mind raced as she desperately searched through everything she had said for possible flaws.
Huh? Did she notice me spacing out?
When Zeta's cool voice suddenly stopped, Cid noticed immediately.
Then he met Zeta's gaze, which looked almost angry, and instinctively realized what must have happened.
But in all fairness, while he admitted that his thoughts had wandered off, he had remembered every word Zeta said.
She was one of the friends willing to play this game with him. If he couldn't even be bothered to listen to the basic setting, then he might as well stop playing altogether.
Let's see...
What Zeta had said was that after spending more than a year hiding and reorganizing itself, the Cult of Diablos had finally begun using its full strength. It had activated the pieces it had planted throughout the various nations and laid out a scheme that encompassed the entire alliance of World No. 3.
After obtaining information from the long-lived races of the other two worlds and freeing themselves from their dependence on Diablos's power, outside pressure had forced the previously suspicious and loosely united factions of the Cult of Diablos to finally start operating as one.
In a sense, this was the first time the massive organization, rotten after surviving for thousands of years, had truly brought all of its power to bear.
The simultaneous movements within multiple nations proved as much.
For factions that had divided up their territories and normally operated independently to suddenly act together meant that they had finally reached a unified decision internally.
Under those circumstances, the Kingdom of Midgar stood out immediately.
Among all the Cult forces that had begun moving, Midgar was clearly positioned at the center of this mysterious plan.
In theory, Shadow Garden had absolutely no intention of submitting to the Cult of Diablos and also shared a blood feud with it. Whatever the Cult wanted to accomplish, Shadow Garden should simply act like an opposition party and sabotage it without hesitation.
Yet this time, even Zeta, the most extreme when it came to dealing with the Cult of Diablos, had shown an unusual amount of hesitation.
Because the whole thing was far too suspicious.
The risks were too great, while the potential gains were nowhere near proportional.
From the moment Zeta first discovered the Cult of Diablos's secret activity until tonight, she had been unable to uncover either the purpose behind this operation or the reason they were carrying it out.
All she had managed to determine was that the entire operation appeared to revolve around some special experiment.
If that were all, Zeta would have had nothing to hesitate over.
Whatever the experiment was for, they could simply destroy it.
But even now, despite the Kingdom of Midgar clearly being one of the key locations in the Cult's experimental plan, Zeta had yet to find any obvious trace of the Cult of Diablos itself.
Every operation was being carried out through pieces the Cult had planted among high-ranking officials in the Kingdom of Midgar.
A piece and a player were two completely different things.
Those pieces might look like important figures standing at the upper levels of the kingdom, but to the Cult of Diablos, it wouldn't matter how many of them died.
That was what pieces were for in the first place. They were manipulated from a distance and used to take blows on behalf of those controlling them.
They did not even have the qualifications to know any real information about the Cult.
And that was exactly where the problem lay.
A plan that had mobilized resources from the entire Cult of Diablos was being executed entirely by expendable pieces, without a single obvious high-ranking Cult member appearing.
Was that really... reasonable?
That was why Zeta had grown suspicious.
Perhaps the pieces carrying out the experiment were nothing more than bait, bait meant to lure Shadow Garden out.
Or to put it another way, perhaps Shadow Garden itself was the real target of the Cult of Diablos's experiment.
The entire operation could be an elaborate attempt to lure them into the open.
That possibility was precisely why Zeta had hesitated.
If Shadow Garden were eliminated, the kings still wavering over whether to side with Shadow Garden or the Cult of Diablos would immediately fall in line behind the Cult.
And if the Cult of Diablos completely seized control of the Inner World before disappearing back into the shadows, producing a second Shadow Garden to oppose them would become extremely difficult.
Shadow Garden was already in a precarious state.
One wrong step now, and not only would Zeta fail to accomplish her plan of offering the entire world to Master, Shadow Garden itself could be utterly destroyed.
They would become nothing more than a stain upon Master's glory.
If that happened, even death would not be enough to atone for their failure.
That left Zeta with only two apparent choices.
Act, or do nothing.
Was this bait, or was it an empty fortress?
It was a difficult decision.
Emotionally, Zeta leaned toward doing nothing.
Without Master, the current Shadow Garden simply couldn't afford such a massive gamble.
Neither side could properly locate the other anyway. The less they did, the fewer mistakes they could make.
If they could avoid causing trouble for Master, that alone counted as a victory.
But rationally, Zeta knew that their conflict with the Cult of Diablos could only end with one side's destruction.
Especially now that Master had left Shadow Garden, bringing the organization almost to a standstill.
The Cult of Diablos had been the one forced to deal with all the outside forces. From their perspective, Shadow Garden had driven them out of the Inner World and forced them to serve as a weapon against outside enemies.
There was no way the Cult would simply let that go.
Eventually, they would track Shadow Garden down and destroy them.
Of course, although there seemed to be only two choices, Zeta actually had a third.
And technically, it was the best option.
Do nothing.
Leave everything to Master.
With Master's limitless wisdom and overwhelming power, the Cult of Diablos was destined to be nothing more than a minor nuisance that could only hide in the darkness.
But Zeta rejected that option outright.
What kind of joke was that?!
Master's mercy was not something they could abuse as an excuse to do whatever they pleased.
Their noble Master had saved them.
Were they really supposed to use that as an excuse to abandon the fight entirely, sit around doing nothing, wait for Master to destroy the Cult of Diablos by himself, then inherit the Cult's wealth and influence afterward while contributing nothing more than cheering "well played" from behind him?
Damn it.
If anyone in Shadow Garden actually dared to think that way, Zeta would personally be the first to eliminate her.
What they were supposed to do was rule the world, offer the entire world to Master, and have Master lead this utterly rotten world into becoming a proper one.
If anything, Master's order had finally released them from their restraints.
They would not become a second Cult of Diablos hiding in the darkness.
Because unlike the Cult, they knew that a truly perfect God existed in this world.
"Well, that's quite a coincidence..."
Cid spoke in a calm, gentle voice, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his lips.
He hadn't expected Zeta and the others' target this time to align perfectly with his own.
It seemed he could solve his own problem while conveniently helping his friends at the same time.
"In that case, leave this matter to me."
Yes.
Cid understood.
He had completely grasped the hidden meaning behind Zeta's words.
Most of the information about the Cult of Diablos this time didn't matter much. It was just another routine lore update meant to strengthen the Cult, so there was no need to think too deeply about it.
The real point was what Zeta had mentioned afterward.
Those pieces controlled by the Cult of Diablos.
The setting might sound incredibly elaborate, but it essentially boiled down to two things.
Gamma and the others couldn't conveniently deal with those pieces themselves.
And if those pieces were left alone, they would eventually target the Mitsugoshi Company.
What crime had they committed?
What justification was there?
None at all.
They could just make something up.
Well, it's probably something like some nobles getting in the way of Mitsugoshi's expansion, making Zeta angry enough to want them dealt with secretly. But she's worried about being exposed, so now she needs a peerless powerhouse with overwhelming force, a terrible reputation, utterly unpredictable behavior, and a habit of doing whatever he pleases to help her out.
What an evil company Mitsugoshi is.
Normally, I'd definitely rob them too.
But for the sake of our friendship, I'll let it slide this time.
I like it.
And the fact that those pieces just happen to belong to the [Thirteen Nightblades] makes it even better.
"Master, could it be...?"
Zeta's eyes suddenly widened, and she couldn't stop herself from speaking.
From the few words Cid had said, she understood that her Master had once again seen through everything.
She stared at him with undisguised admiration, her determination growing even stronger.
"Truth mixed with falsehood. Reality hidden within illusion. What an interesting opponent. Not bad."
With nothing more than Zeta's report, the boy who had supposedly seen through the entire situation offered his judgment with a faint chuckle, as though he were speaking to someone far away.
"Shadow-sama, could it be...?"
Beta carefully considered those words and suddenly felt a sense of unease.
Judging from Shadow-sama's tone, it seemed that both she and Zeta had been wrong.
"Beta, do you know that when people in this world look up at the starry sky, every shining star appears to them as nothing more than a tiny point of light? Only when you draw closer can you understand that those so-called stars are actually enormous celestial bodies in the universe, each radiating immense light and heat."
"Eh?"
Beta froze at Cid's explanation.
Please forgive her.
The topic had suddenly jumped from the Cult of Diablos's conspiracy to outer space. Even her mind struggled to understand the connection.
"By observing the smallest details, one can understand the whole. Never allow yourself to be deceived by appearances. Everything in this world follows its own trajectory..."
Beta's mind raced.
She knew Shadow-sama was trying to teach them something.
Yet even after understanding the general principle, she still couldn't grasp the deeper meaning behind his words.
Seeing that Beta still looked completely lost, Cid realized that he had probably gone too far off topic.
After thinking for a moment, he decided to speak more plainly.
"I've gone a little off topic. Zeta, as for those pieces from the Cult you mentioned, I already went out and looked into them earlier. It's quite an extraordinary plan..."
Thinking about the bizarre terrorist groups building those ridiculous monuments that had infuriated him all night, Cid decided to pin the blame on them.
After all, it was all the Cult of Diablos's fault!
"As expected of Master! You had already noticed everything beforehand?!"
Zeta was shocked by Cid's words, and at the same time deeply ashamed of her own intelligence-gathering ability.
She had investigated for so long without uncovering even the slightest clue, yet Master had merely gone outside once and already seen through the entire situation.
The gap between their abilities was obvious.
"That's enough about this matter. I'll take care of it. But before that, could my friends give this friend of yours a little help?"
The moment Cid said that, Beta and Zeta both became visibly excited.
For the first half of his statement, they had assumed it would be just like before, with Shadow-sama handling everything himself.
They never expected that this time, they would actually be allowed to participate.
"As you command, Shadow-sama!"
"Master, please give us your orders!"
"...I only need you to give me an address."
Cid stared at the two women as their excitement instantly turned into disappointment.
He paused.
What was wrong?
Wasn't free help supposed to make them happy?