Even though the farewell party had been held and the parting gifts had been received, Cid wasn't going to leave the Astraea Familia's territory immediately.
Originally, Cid planned to go off on his own and find a new familia.
Ideally, it would be a small, inconspicuous one—something that would let him move freely without anyone paying attention.
But after Astraea heard his requirements, she said she wanted to recommend a particular god.
And she added that, barring unforeseen circumstances, if all he wanted was freedom of action, that god would absolutely agree.
The only problem was that the god in question wasn't currently in Orario. Astraea hoped Cid could wait.
Cid didn't object.
"At this point… I might as well learn magic first."
He accepted reality in the end.
Sure, once he learned magic, continuing to play the role of a background extra would become a hell-difficulty challenge.
But he also had no reason not to learn it—otherwise, he'd have no way to explain himself.
If he tried to look on the bright side…
Acting like a nobody while being Level 3 would be a pretty interesting challenge in its own right.
After all, even the LPL got bullied by Faker at Worlds for over a decade—only recently did rumors start spreading that it might disband.
So what reason did Cid have not to stay optimistic?
If he could become Level 3 and still convincingly pass as a background extra, that would be true veteran acting.
"Grimoires… If I have the Development Abilities 'Mystery' and 'Grimoire,' could I make them myself?"
Cid, of course, had studied this world's magic in depth.
In his previous life, he couldn't learn magic, so he'd spent a long time researching it alone.
Now that he'd been born into a world overflowing with mana, there was no way he wouldn't take it seriously.
Put simply, in this world, learning magic generally fell into two categories:
Innate racial ability—and the blessing granted by a god.
The first applied mainly to races like elves.
You could say "elves are good at magic" was practically a stereotype here.
Orario's strongest mage at present was the royal elf of the Loki Familia—Riveria.
And a swordswoman like Ryuu was also a spellblade, trained in both magic and swordsmanship.
Seen that way, the so-called "stereotype" about elves wasn't exactly baseless.
As for everyone else, most races could only hope for magic through a god's blessing.
No matter how high or low someone's talent was, once they received a blessing, they would gain a magic slot.
If their aptitude was exceptional, they could have as many as three slots—and might even awaken magic without a grimoire.
Cid's mana talent was extremely strong. From the start, he had three magic slots, and later awakened two spells on his own.
The purpose of a grimoire, meanwhile, was to help an ordinary person with no aptitude fill their single magic slot.
Magic awakened through a grimoire was still guided through the framework of the divine blessing—and followed the same rules as blessing-based magic.
Cid already understood the divine blessing well enough to update it on his own.
If he could decipher the principles behind grimoire construction, it might not be impossible for him to produce them himself someday.
"But for now… I only get one shot."
He remembered that each grimoire could only be used once.
After it was used, all the text inside would vanish, and the power to awaken magic would be gone.
At an upscale restaurant, a plate of noodles not much different from pasta cost only three hundred valis—yet grimoires typically cost tens of millions.
That price disparity existed because they were limited in number.
Cid wasn't willing to spend the money he'd worked so hard to "earn" on a grimoire, so he only had this one chance.
"Magic awakened through the blessing usually comes from the deepest desire in a person's heart."
Which meant that even if two different people used the exact same grimoire, they would awaken completely different magic.
Cid couldn't help feeling curious.
What kind of spell would he awaken?
And what, exactly, was the deepest desire in his heart?
He opened the grimoire and skimmed a few lines.
Very quickly, drowsiness washed over him.
He wasn't some legendary "can't-get-dizzy king." He could tell this fatigue wasn't normal, and he had the ability to resist it.
But he guessed this was the grimoire's guidance, so he didn't resist—and let himself sink into sleep.
Somewhere in the haze, a voice seemed to ask him questions.
It felt as if he was questioning himself.
What does magic mean to me?
In his previous life, magic had meant the ability to stand against nuclear weapons.
That longing was what led him to obtain a spell that compressed mana—and eventually to create something that simulated a nuclear blast.
So what did magic mean to him in this life?
"As the Eminence in Shadow, I naturally need the ability to face any enemy—be it powerful adventurers, heroes of the age of myth… or even gods."
The voice in the darkness seemed to chuckle.
If it wasn't Cid's own voice, then the laughter would have sounded like mockery.
To me, what should magic look like?
"Like a nuclear weapon—unmatched destructive power, but far more convenient than actually launching a nuke."
With the gods' divine power sealed and with Cid having never seen the world-ending Black Dragon, the strongest power in his mind was still the nuclear weapon of his previous life.
To him, magic was something like a nuke—yet beyond a nuke.
What do I want to seek through magic?
"Become the Eminence in Shadow."
Cid answered without hesitation.
But after he said it, he felt something was missing.
If it were only his previous life, that answer would have been enough.
But with this life added in…
Faces flashed through his mind—
Alise. Kaguya. Ryuu. Lyra. Nize. Maryu. Asta. Celty. Leanna. Iska. Noin.
All his companions, one after another… until the images finally settled on Astraea's smile.
Every time he returned to the familia's home, he saw that smile.
"I also want to seek my justice—my justice as Shadow… the coolest kind of justice."
Wrong. That isn't just 'cool justice.' Or rather, you haven't said it clearly enough. 'Cool justice' has two parts.
The first part is the justice of the self.
To put it bluntly, Cid wanted to become a cool, shadowy eminence—that was why he pursued magic.
That yearning for "cool" was influenced by justice, but it was still a profoundly self-centered kind of justice.
The second part is the justice of ruling over all.
The Eminence in Shadow fears no opponent—whether it's a nuclear weapon from a previous life, or gods and a world-ending Black Dragon in this one.
To maintain that cool composure, it's not enough to effortlessly defeat every enemy.
You also have to protect the companions who matter to you.
That was the ability the coolest Eminence in Shadow would naturally possess.
And to reach that point, it required more than simply becoming the strongest—
It required ruling over all.
Before he fully woke, Cid seemed to hear one last murmured line—like someone speaking to themselves:
"Go… become the Eminence in Shadow."
…
Astraea stared at the sacred letters on Cid's back, her gaze fixed on the new spell that had appeared in his magic slot.
Infernal Peerless Blazing Heat Wave-Motion Cannon
The more mana poured in—and the higher the quality of that mana—the greater the spell's power.
Its power had no upper limit.
Short chant: I am king!
…
"No upper limit…? I've never seen a spell like this before." Astraea was awed—and then couldn't help wanting to laugh. "Cid, don't tell anyone about this magic."
"And I've also never seen a spell name this long," she added, the corners of her mouth curling. "It's longer than the chant."
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