Looking at the girl in front of him, who was about to faint, Cid hesitated.
Normally, when he ran into something like this, he would just pretend he had not seen it and not bother getting involved. At most, he would call the security team afterward and let them deal with it.
Of course, that was under normal circumstances. This time might have to be an exception.
It was not because he had been swayed by her looks. It might sound a little conceited to say this, but he had known quite a lot of beautiful girls growing up. Thanks to that, he was almost starting to feel aesthetically numb.
The reason this time might be different was simple.
The girl in front of him looked exactly like the photo on the student ID inside the wallet he had picked up a few days ago.
"Hello, is this the hospital?"
After thinking it over for a while, Cid finally took out his phone and called Itogami Island Hospital.
After all, she was the benefactor who had indirectly sponsored him with 200,000 zeni. He might as well skip the security team and send her straight to the hospital.
"Grrr..."
The sound coming from the girl's stomach made Cid fall silent just as he was about to speak.
"Hello, sir. Where is the patient right now? We will arrange for an ambulance to head over immediately."
The voice from the phone snapped Cid back to his senses.
"Never mind. Wrong number."
"Eh, wait..."
Beep beep beep.
Without waiting for the other side to respond, Cid hung up.
Well then, what he had to do now was simple.
Thinking that, Cid looked at the girl who was still on the verge of passing out.
...
"Ahh... This is so good."
It was the same cafe he had come to with Kanon Kanase last time, the same corner, and Cid was sitting in the same seat as before. The only difference was that the person sitting in Kanon Kanase's old seat had changed.
"Sip sip..."
With his head lowered as he drank through a straw, Cid secretly observed the girl sitting across from him.
She had shoulder length black hair, bright brown eyes, delicate features, and was probably around fifteen years old. And as for her chest... all he could say was that it had potential.
She felt a lot like Nagisa Akatsuki. If he was not careful, he might mix them up. Not that she was his type, but he still needed to pay attention... No, wait, why was he even thinking about that? Damn it. Stupid puberty.
"Whew, I'm alive again."
After wolfing down two sandwiches and even licking the crumbs off her fingers, the girl across from him looked like she still wanted more.
"Thank you, Senpai. Senpai is also a student at Saikai Academy, right? Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm a first year transfer student who just moved to Saikai Academy. My name is..."
"Yukina Himeragi, right?"
Now that she had food in her stomach, the girl thanked Cid right away. She seemed like a good kid.
"You know me, Senpai?!"
Her introduction was cut short, and confusion and caution immediately appeared on her face. Her hand instinctively moved toward the guitar case beside her, but she quickly realized that was inappropriate and lowered it again.
Which made sense. If a stranger appeared right when you were about to starve and bought you a meal, that was one thing. Maybe you had really met a kind person.
But if that same person could accurately say your name, then it was only natural to wonder whether they were really a good person after all.
"Well, how should I put this? It is a little complicated to explain, so before I answer that, let me ask you something first. How many days have you been hungry? Your answer will determine how guilty I feel."
In response to Yukina Himeragi's question, Cid laid his face on the table and weakly asked one of his own.
"Th three... three days."
Cid stayed slumped over the table, looking half dead, but still refused to give up and asked another question.
"Why?"
"I lost my wallet."
"How much money was in it?"
"200,000 zeni."
When answering that question, Yukina Himeragi turned her head to the side, her face slightly red. After all, starving for three days because of something like that, and nearly fainting from hunger in the end, was pretty embarrassing.
"I understand now."
After hearing her answers, Cid completely gave up. He had fully confirmed that the girl in front of him was the owner of the wallet he had found a few days ago, so all he could do was accept his fate.
Lifting his head from the table, Cid took out two gold coins from his wallet. Each gold coin was worth 100,000 zeni.
"Here."
"Eh? No, that's not necessary, Senpai. My living expenses will arrive in a few more days. I can just hold out until then. You really do not have to go to so much trouble for me."
The girl, or rather Yukina Himeragi, seemed to have mistaken Cid's action for him trying to lend her money, and quickly waved her hands to refuse.
After placing the two gold coins on the table, Cid pressed his right hand to his forehead and looked at Yukina Himeragi as he spoke.
"You've got the wrong idea. This is your money."
"My money?"
Yukina Himeragi looked completely confused by Cid's words. After thinking for a moment, something seemed to occur to her.
"Could it be that you, Senpai, are..."
"That's right. I'm the one who picked up your wallet."
"Eh!?"
As he said that, Cid took a white wallet out of his backpack. When he looked up, however, he noticed the strange expression on Yukina Himeragi's face.
"You... didn't just assume I was some other kind of person, did you?"
"No, no, no."
Hearing Cid's question, Yukina Himeragi shook her head rapidly in denial.
"Forget it. It doesn't matter who you thought I was. Let's talk about compensation."
"Compensation?"
"Yes, compensation. How much do you want? As compensation for making you starve for three days, I will pay whatever amount you ask. Please forgive me."
Cid had never considered himself a good person. You could tell just by looking at where most of his Shadow funds came from.
Thieves.
In essence, what he did was not that different from what thieves did. The only difference was that thieves robbed civilians, while he robbed thieves. It was simply thieves preying on other thieves.
Sometimes, if he happened to run into a civilian who had been robbed, he might help them recover their stolen belongings.
But he would never make a habit of doing it.
After all, he was not some champion of justice.
He would not go out of his way to slaughter innocents or rob civilians, but he would kill thieves and take their wealth. If you thought about it carefully, that was pretty hypocritical.
Cid himself thought so as well.
But what could not be done simply could not be done.
If he had to give a reason, it would be this. If someone who aspired to be an Eminence in Shadow fell to the level of a third rate villain because of money, what kind of Eminence in Shadow would that be?
Cid and Shadow were both the same person and two different people.
Not because he had some kind of split personality disorder. He was simply suffering from chuunibyou.
The background character Cid and the Shadow Cid were both disguises created by the real Cid who wanted to become an Eminence in Shadow.
Imagine someone finding a wallet full of money on the street but, driven by greed, never bothering to look for the owner.
That was perfectly normal, right? Just human nature.
But let me ask you something.
Would you ever think that this person secretly possessed the mysterious identity of an Eminence in Shadow?
Of course not.
Yes, he wanted people to think that Cid the background character was ordinary.
But not in that way.
He wanted people to see him as completely ordinary, so ordinary that no one would ever suspect he could be the legendary Shadow.
That kind of contrast was exactly what he wanted.
Not people thinking, "Someone capable of such a low act could never be the legendary Shadow, but he might be some third rate villain."
Cid did not care about rumors others spread about him, because lies were still lies.
But what happened today was real.
If his identity were ever exposed one day, today's incident would become devastating evidence against his status as an Eminence in Shadow.
And besides...
Cid glanced at Yukina Himeragi and the pale look on her face caused by not eating for several days.
He decided to treat it as the faint sting of a conscience he was not even sure he still had. As long as she did not name some outrageous price, he would just treat it as paying money to learn a lesson.
It seemed the amount of information had been too much for Yukina Himeragi to process at once. It took her quite a while to piece everything together, and when she finally did, she covered her mouth and laughed softly.
"Senpai is a good person."
???
Wait. Are you people blind? One after another, everyone keeps saying I'm a good person. It is starting to make me doubt whether I really am one.
"So, does that mean you forgive me?"
That was what Cid was thinking, but the tone he used when he spoke was quite different.
"Mm, I forgive you, Senpai."
Unaware that the man in front of her was secretly wondering if she might be blind, Yukina Himeragi nodded lightly.
"Then... the compensation?"
"No need. Senpai already returned my money, didn't you? Looking at it that way, I didn't really lose anyth... actually, no. I suddenly feel like I do need something as compensation."
Cid had just let out a sigh of relief when he heard the first half of Yukina Himeragi's sentence. But when she finished speaking, his heart jumped right back up again.
Even though he felt her way of messing with his nerves was a little cruel, this was still his fault. Cid prepared himself mentally.
"What do you want?"
"Compensate me with another sandwich. I wasn't full just now."
Waving the sandwich wrapper in her hand, Yukina Himeragi smiled playfully. It gave her an unexpectedly cute look.
"Just that?"
Cid stared at her in disbelief, completely missing how cute she looked.
"Yes, just that. Is there a problem, Senpai?"
Yukina Himeragi nodded and asked in return.
"No problem. If anything, it's too easy. I'm just surprised you forgave me so easily."
"It's fine, it's fine. I've already forgiven you, Senpai. Just make sure it doesn't happen again."
For the first time, Cid looked directly at Yukina Himeragi, their eyes meeting.
"S Senpai, what are you... looking at?"
Under Cid's gaze, Yukina Himeragi's face gradually turned red, and she instinctively looked away.
After watching her for a while, Cid finally came to a conclusion.
Yukina Himeragi truly did not resent him for making her go hungry for three days. There was not even the slightest trace of resentment in her eyes.
"Alright. I still have my doubts about you calling me a good person, but you really are a good kid."
"Eh!!!???"
After saying that, Cid ignored the completely confused Yukina Himeragi and walked straight to the counter.
"Hello. If I remember correctly, customers with VIP status get an extra couple set when buying something here."
By coincidence, the employee behind the counter was the same one he had seen the last time he came here with Kanon Kanase. At that moment, the waiter's gaze kept shifting back and forth between Cid and Yukina Himeragi.
"Ah... y yes, sir. This... this is the complimentary couple set. Please take it."
Ignoring the waiter who had clearly misunderstood something and was now looking at him like he was some kind of scumbag, Cid carried the two complimentary sandwiches back to the table.
With the strange atmosphere from earlier gone, the two of them started chatting naturally.
One was a transfer student who had been trained in a special organization since childhood. The other was a second year high school student who had grown up in a world still stuck in the era of the First Industrial Revolution.
Despite their completely different backgrounds, the conversation between them quickly became lively.