Prologue of Eminence

Power.

It was one of the things what Minoru sought. In order to achieve his true, lifelong dream of surpassing human limitations, to become something more.

And to surpass human limitations, he began training, learning fighting techniques, becoming stronger than most average athletes.

He strived to become the Eminence in Shadow. The man who hunts the shadows, while being the shadows. This man was undefeated, truly.

A super secret agent that works only for himself, and said super secret agent could survive the blast of a Nuclear Bomb like Superman, or some cockroach with plot armor.

The only problem was, reality proved that it was completely impossible.

So what did Minoru do?

He searched for ways to obtain magic and kindly paid for it with his life, and it was probably his, and the Truck's fault.

[ ~ Line • Break ~ ]

He opened his eyes after he died, feeling very small as he looked around.

Someone was holding him close to her arms, looking incredibly happy. At least.

She had black hair, and although she had equally black eyes, she looked very tired.

'Where am I? Why do I feel so small?'

Looking around a little more, he noticed a man looking incredibly frustrated over something.

But, like an expert people reader, he realized that old guy was very frustrated over him.

"Fucking hell! Toss that kid away, you whore! He's just an addition to our problems!" This man spoke, before slapping his mother.

And it felt quite strange to feel worry about someone like the woman that just gave birth to him. She was distressed as she held on tightly to her child.

But because of the presence of magic, our protagonist began to immediately sense, and manipulate it.

"N-no! This boy, this boy is my child, not yours! If I had to give out my life, then I'll take you to hell with me!" His mother rebuked, holding out her arm forwards and casting some form of wind spell.

While weak, it managed to blow him away at a considerable distance.

"My son.... Please live!" His mother whimpered out, wrapping him in a comfortable piece of clothing before casting a barrier spell on him.

To put it short, his mother died, and his father will soon die because of immense bleeding.

'Mother, I pray that you have a safe afterlife.' Minoru had silently prayed to whatever God that existed in this world, before deciding something else.

While he was on a deeper part of a street between buildings, he can't just randomly survive here using magic.

Simply put, a future Eminence in Shadow like him could not merely die due to something insignificant as dying before the age of 1.

It's very humiliating, you know?

That's why he had decided to immediately learn magic all by himself, in order to begin moving towards a safer place.

Of course, it is to cry for help, that somebody, aka. a family of background characters to raise him.

Once he was in an alleyway, he decided it was time.

"Waaaah! Waaah!"

Minoru cried loudly, for several minutes until a middle aged man with his supposed daughter passed by him.

"Papa! Look!" The girl tugged at her father's hand.

"What? Is it about the baby's cry? Let's just go, Claudia."

The man felt pretty annoyed by the cries of the baby, yet due to the pestering of the girl, the man sighed in order to approach the baby.

'Who even left him here, anyways?' The man, who definitely will soon become his adoptive parent, picked the baby up a bit reluctantly.

The baby's cries began to soften, and then it tried to reach out to his beard.

'Cool beard. I suppose it would be better if I was in a family of side characters.'

He already had an adopted daughter, so why not adopt another?

Inwardly sighing, the man decided to actually adopt him, and his daughter was very happy to hear about it.

"Now... Err.... What should I name you?" His now father was a bit troubled, but in the next part he had decided something else.

"Alright, then. How about Cid? Cid Levantine, that's good enough. I expect you to be a great warrior when you grow up in order to honor our family's name!"

'Look, you have your daughter, don't put your troubles on me! I'm going to be a good mob character!'

Thus, Cid Kageno- wait, wrong family name. Cid Levantine begins his simple steps in order to become....

The Eminence In Shadow!

[ ~ Line • Break ~ ]

Ten years later....

In the garden near the mansion owned by the Levantine family, two children were in the middle of their swordplay.

Their clashes were pretty basic, yet it was very clear that one already had the advantage in strength and speed.

"Haa!"

'.... Claudia Levantine, or my sister, she looks and sounds like a Heroine! And I am just a mob in this story, that will give her some background lore! Though, I'm probably going to be a side character if I ever get too involved with her....'

"Uwah!"

Cid was thrown away by the force of his sister's swing, even though he blocked it and actually stood his ground.

When he hit the ground, he rolled for a few meters, eventually stopping with his front facing the ground filled with grass.

He was unmoving.

Seeing this, Claudia immediately put down her sword and approached him.

"Cid! Are you okay?" She asked, noticing a bit of movement from her little brother's arms.

"Em mkhi (I'm okay)!" Cid replied, getting up slowly before being assisted by his sister.

Once he was up, he decided to walk over to his sword, intending to continue because their father commended them to until he decided to stop them.

"Cid, Claudia! That's enough, one of you is already too hurt to fight!"

Just hearing those words made the two of them feel relieved, of course having different thoughts.

Claudia is relieved that currently she wouldn't be able to accidentally hit with too much force at times, thinking she still needed to train in her control of strength.

Cid, however thought that it wasn't pretty cool that Grave stopped them from fighting further as this what the 255th time he and Claudia sparred with each other.

"Claudia, I wish I was as strong as you.... But that means I want to continue sparring with you, too!" Cid almost whined out, before looking dejected while he sighed loudly.

"No means no, Cid. Come on, take a good amount of rest before continuing next day. Also, we have certain visitors that will come by the passing day, or maybe a few days."

And this roused curiosity from whoever was nearby.

"Who is it? Who's our guest?" Claudia asked, wondering about them.

Grave chuckled then smiled.

"That is of course, a secret. Now, let's go back to the mansion to rest."

'... Oh, I see. Hopefully our visitors are a part of a royal family or something similar. That would be a bit of a cliche for one of our Main Protagonist. I didn't jinx myself, didn't I?'

"Cid! Why are you just standing there, don't forget to return your weapon!"

"Yes, father!"

Later on, at dinner, Cid looked around and observed his family, thinking about monologuing about them.

Once his gaze reached his eldest brother, who really is the biological son of Grave, he inwardly sighed.

'Klaus Levantine. He looks pretty weak, and is pretty weak and passive. He doesn't even know how to fight because he didn't like to train. Pity, he could've been the Main Character but now he is a mob just like me, always in the background.'

It's strange how cliched his brother was, but aside from that, everything went along fine enough.

Until at night, after Cid gently pried himself off the sleeping Claudia from her tight grasp, he decided to open the windows and make a wide grin.

"Fufufufu.... I suppose it is time to start the very first steps of becoming the Eminence in Shadow! Two of which is, going out to hunt some slimes in order to turn them into his own outfit, and hunting some random bandits for fun at midnight!"

With a burst of mana on his foot, he leaps forward gracefully, beginning the first steps.

[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]