Late at night, deep within the Royal Capital of Midgar, incandescent light spilled from the windows of a heavily guarded mansion.
A middle-aged man in his thirties sat hunched over his desk, his expression grave as he stared at a document that had just been transmitted to him. Shock and fear spread across his face. He instinctively shot to his feet and stumbled two steps backward, sending his chair crashing to the floor.
"How is this possible?!"
As one of the absolute upper echelons of the Kingdom of Midgar and a member of the [Thirteen Nightblades], Marquis Shoddi had not lost his composure like this in a very long time.
Normally, no matter how serious the situation became, he would never panic. They stood hidden behind the King. No matter how fiercely the flames spread, they would never reach them.
But this time, he was beginning to panic.
"Most of the secret bases we established recently throughout the Kingdom of Midgar were destroyed in a single night?!"
How could that be possible?
His first reaction was disbelief.
It wasn't that he doubted anyone was capable of doing it. Rather, destroying so many bases across such a vast area would surely require a massive coordinated operation.
Yet up until now, he had received no reports whatsoever of any large groups of unidentified personnel appearing anywhere.
And this was his territory!
"No. The intelligence is right here. They wouldn't dare lie to me... What exactly is Despoht-sama trying to accomplish with this operation? How did he manage to provoke an enemy this terrifying? No, wait. Could a plan capable of provoking an enemy of this level really have been devised by Despoht himself?"
He knew his intelligence agents would never dare provide him with false information.
More importantly, the agents maintaining independent lines of communication with the various secret bases had all reported the same thing at nearly the exact same time.
The destruction of most of the bases was practically beyond doubt.
And that was precisely why Marquis Shoddi was terrified.
Having already reached the very top of this country, he knew better than most just how deep the darkness of this world truly went.
Before powers of that level, the so-called Kingdom of Midgar was nothing more than something that could be erased with the flick of a finger.
Perhaps even those forces could do nothing about Shadow, who stood at the very pinnacle of the world and acted however he pleased.
But to people like Marquis Shoddi, those hidden powers were genuine behemoths.
It was precisely because the allied nations understood this that, despite knowing Shadow was one of the reasons they had not been carved apart by the other two worlds, and despite knowing he was powerful enough to crush them effortlessly, they could only obediently follow the orders of that "Darkness" and treat Shadow as their enemy.
Shadow was too far away.
The Darkness was too close.
Back when Marquis Shoddi first understood that, he had even felt fortunate that he was hiding behind the King. If Shadow ever began settling accounts, surely the King would be dealt with before anyone else.
He had never imagined that the King would remain untouched while disaster reached him first.
"Damn it. Why did the lives of a bunch of worthless commoners have to get tangled up with forces from the darkness?"
He cursed angrily.
When Marquis Shoddi first received the order, he hadn't cared much about it.
He didn't know why such a plan had been issued, but they were only commoners. Worse, they were commoners abducted from other nobles' territories.
His own interests wouldn't be harmed in the slightest. If anything, the plan could even strengthen their authority in several ways at once.
After realizing the danger, Marquis Shoddi immediately ordered his men to seal off all information, preventing captives from escaping and causing unforeseen problems. At the same time, he instructed every remaining base to stay hidden and continue carrying out the original orders.
At this point, regretting his involvement was useless.
They had already boarded Despoht's ship.
If the plan failed now and he offended both sides, there would be only one ending waiting for him.
Death.
He had no choice but to see this through.
Besides, they had already captured more than enough commoners. All they had to do now was wait for the plan to begin.
"No. I need to gather the others immediately, explain everything, and find out exactly which force in the darkness has begun moving against us. If it's some newly risen faction, then perhaps we can still survive..."
Marquis Shoddi hurriedly pushed open the door, desperate to leave.
An organization capable of evading their intelligence network, mobilizing enough personnel to wipe out numerous bases scattered through remote mountains and forests, all while those bases were disguised as bandit and robber hideouts, could only be one of the major powers lurking in the shadows.
No matter which one it was, it was far beyond anything he could afford to provoke.
He had to spread the news immediately.
Then the thirteen of them could discuss countermeasures together and find some way to survive...
"Splash."
The peculiar sound of a foot stepping into a puddle echoed through the empty mansion.
Even Marquis Shoddi, who was desperate to inform the other twelve as quickly as possible, froze.
Only then did he finally notice that something was wrong.
The lights in the mansion corridor were unusually dim, flickering intermittently.
And the mansion, which should have been filled with guards, was utterly silent.
Marquis Shoddi stopped.
His body refused to obey his desire to flee.
It felt as though an immense weight had been placed upon him, leaving him unable to move. Trembling, he could only lower his head.
Blood.
Rows of crimson footprints stained the expensive carpet, stretching from where he stood all the way back to the bloody puddle at the doorway he had just stepped through.
"Creak..."
An inexplicable draft swept through the corridor, moving the door he had just pushed open.
Already on edge, Marquis Shoddi snapped his head toward the study.
The moment he saw what lay behind the door, he screamed.
A tall, vicious-looking corpse lay there, its throat cut open by a single bloody gash.
The man had been Marquis Shoddi's personal bodyguard.
Barely ten minutes ago, that terrifying warrior had still been alive and full of energy.
Now he lay silently at the doorway.
Blood continued pouring from the wound in his throat, feeding the crimson pool at the entrance to the study.
"Tap. Tap. Tap..."
As Marquis Shoddi screamed in terror, a series of footsteps with a strange, deliberate rhythm came from the opposite end of the corridor.
A thin figure wearing a Vampire mask appeared before him.
The figure might even have looked frail, if not for the enormous blade being dragged behind him, scraping across the floor and leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
"Could it be...?"
The distinct rhythm of those footsteps briefly pulled Marquis Shoddi back to his senses.
But as he watched the figure draw steadily closer, endless terror flooded his mind.
"Wait! Wait, don't kill me! I can be useful to you! I'm one of the people who controls this country! I know where the others are and I know their information. I'm responsible for most of the [Thirteen Nightblades]' intelligence! I can help you take control of this country! I can give you the lives of the others too! Anything you want...!"
He sold out his colleagues without the slightest hesitation.
To Marquis Shoddi, who had long been consumed by power, any price was worth paying as long as his life could be preserved.
His life was obviously more valuable than anyone else's.
Yet despite the extremely generous price Marquis Shoddi offered for his survival, the thin figure in the Vampire mask showed no intention of stopping.
The rhythmic footsteps only came closer.
Overwhelmed by fear, Marquis Shoddi's trembling body somehow broke free of the invisible pressure pinning him in place.
He collapsed to the floor and scrambled backward on all fours, sliding through the bloody puddle.
Blood splashed across the walls, staining the paintings hanging there.
His hands and feet left bloody marks one after another across the floor.
"Don't come any closer! I'll give you my money! Everything in my territory! If that isn't enough, I'll give you my daughter and my wife too...!"
The steadily approaching footsteps battered his nerves like a countdown to his own death.
His fear of dying completely shattered his final psychological defenses.
"Tap."
The figure in the Vampire mask stopped directly in front of Marquis Shoddi.
As though tempted by the offers he had made, the figure finally came to a halt with one foot planted in the pool of blood outside the study.
A pair of crimson eyes gleamed through the two openings in the mask.
For a moment, the figure seemed to hesitate.
Marquis Shoddi caught that glimmer and immediately became excited.
He knew what that look meant.
Regret.
Pity.
The person before him regretted having to kill him!
"Yes! I'm extremely useful! I can help you control the entire Kingdom of Midgar! I can help you eliminate the others too! I'll become your most loyal servant! Everything in this country will belong to you, my Lord! All you have to do is let me..."
His voice abruptly stopped.
Marquis Shoddi felt a sudden gust of wind brush across his face.
A flash of light crossed his vision.
Then everything began to darken.
A thin line of blood appeared around his neck.
"Thud..."
His severed head fell to the floor, rolled several times with a dull series of knocks, then came to rest against the wall.
His headless body collapsed shortly afterward.
"What a shame. Those were such nice paintings and carpets..."
A quiet male voice sighed through the corridor, now occupied by only one living person.
He looked at the paintings, now ruined beyond recognition by the splattered blood, and at the carpet woven with threads of gold.
The next instant, the figure standing before the headless corpse flickered like static on an old television.
Then he vanished from the pool of blood.
Only the perfectly still crimson puddle remained.
...
The next morning was bright and sunny.
Sunlight easily slipped through the drawn curtains and fell across Cid's face just as he woke up.
"Hey, Cid-kun. The sun's already shining on your butt and you finally decided to come out. What did you do last night, murder someone and bury the body? You actually made a lady wait this long."
Cid stepped out of his room and paused when he saw a cute girl greeting him with a brilliant smile.
"Kanade, how did you know I was staying here?"
As he asked the question, Cid naturally took a step backward and grabbed the door, preparing to close it.
When an enemy came knocking at your door, avoidance was obviously the safest choice.
If Kanade had been an ordinary person with even the slightest sense of shame, Cid's little plan might have worked.
Unfortunately, the person standing across from him was somehow even more shameless than he was.
By putting herself in his position, she had already predicted exactly what he would do.
"My, Cid-kun, you're so welcoming. Do you really want me to come inside that badly? Well, since you insist, I suppose I'll accept your hospitality. Excuse me."
I don't see the slightest hint of reluctance on your face.
Kanade smoothly blocked the door and slipped inside without hesitation, every movement flowing naturally into the next.
By the time Cid closed the door with a blank expression and turned around, Kanade had already seated herself on the guest sofa.
She leaned around curiously, inspecting everything in the room, then occasionally looked at him with unmistakable expectation.
Hey, hey, Cid-kun. Where are the snacks? The snacks? Where are the snacks you're supposed to serve your guest?
Kanade didn't say any of that aloud, but her eyes conveyed it perfectly.
Cid was certain because he had seen that exact look before.
It was the expectant stare children gave the adults with them whenever they spotted something delicious they wanted.
"...Black tea, green tea, a soft drink, or coffee?"
Unable to endure the stare any longer, Cid thought for a moment before heading toward the kitchen.
"You're surprisingly well prepared... I don't really like bitter coffee, so Cid-kun, I'll trouble you for a cup of black tea."
Kanade's eyes lit up as she settled comfortably into her seat.
"We're out of black tea."
Kanade, who had been sitting with perfect elegance and preparing to imitate the noble young ladies she usually saw enjoying their tea, stiffened slightly.
Still, she didn't immediately lose her temper.
Instead, she coughed lightly and calmly changed her request.
"No black tea? That's fine. Then I'll have some green tea."
"We don't have that either. Only coffee."
Cid walked back carrying a glass pot and casually sat down on the sofa across from Kanade.
"...Huh? You only have coffee? Then why did you even bother asking me, Cid-kun?"
"Just because I don't have something doesn't mean I can't ask. Drink it or don't."
Without the slightest courtesy, Cid placed a cup on the table and lifted the glass pot.
A stream of brown coffee poured neatly into the cup.
"Cid-kun, you rotten... Mitsugoshi coffee beans? How did you know I liked these? If you're really treating me to this, I love you, Cid-kun."
Kanade had already risen to complain, but the instant the rich aroma of the coffee reached her, she changed her tune.
She sat back down and lifted the cup with impeccable elegance.
"I'm broke. A friend gave it to me. I just don't really like drinking it."
Cid looked at the girl in front of him with amusement as he spoke.
"Then you have terrible taste. This rich aroma and smooth flavor are absolutely top quality. It's a luxury you can barely find on the market even if you have the money. By the way, Cid-kun, who's this friend of yours? Can you introduce me?"
Kanade set down her cup with a blissful expression and lectured him as though he were completely incapable of appreciating a treasure placed right in front of him.
"Just a friend I grew up with. She's nobody particularly important."
"Oh. Never mind, then."
Whether she was tactful or simply opportunistic, Kanade instantly lost all interest in Cid's friend after hearing that.
"Got anything to eat?"
"I have chocolate. Want some?"
"Yes."
The exchange was quick and simple.
Cid opened a drawer and pulled out the batch of bitter chocolates Gamma had given him.
"They're from Mitsugoshi too. Thanks, Cid-kun. But didn't you only just get back to the Royal Capital? Why do you have all this stuff?"
"My friend found this place for me, so she brought some things over while she was at it."
"Then that friend of yours..."
Cid looked at the girl in front of him and quietly smiled.
Someone had actually shown up for free to eat the chocolates that were going to expire if he didn't get rid of them soon.
What perfect timing.