Journey to Find Oneself

Leaving the Midgar Kingdom where I was born and raised to check myself into an Oriana Kingdom Detention Center all by myself turned out to be the perfect opportunity for some soul-searching.

After all, the whole point of this trip was a Journey to Find Oneself.

I’ve always wanted to be an Eminence in Shadow, and I’ve spent my life acting the part. But I had to wonder: was my current trajectory really the right one? Was I missing a crucial ingredient?

As I pondered the possibilities, I hit upon the one thing I’d been lacking until now.

That thing was—magnanimity.

Obviously, an Eminence in Shadow is strong. The real question is how to express that strength during a fight. One-shotting everyone? Simple, sure, but I’d get bored of that eventually. Showing off overwhelming power? That’s a given, but it’s not enough.

Nullifying every single thing the enemy throws at me? That’s the one!

I’ll make them realize that no matter what they do, it’s all utterly futile against an Eminence in Shadow. Once they’re drowning in despair, then—and only then—will I end them with overwhelming force.

The key is to let the enemy give it everything they’ve got, then completely neutralize it. That’s how you inflict true, bone-deep despair and defeat. That’s how you carve the image of an Eminence’s absolute power into the souls of those who witness it.

Have I really been letting my enemies go all out lately? Have I truly been granting them the gift of absolute despair?

The answer was a resounding no. What I lacked was the magnanimity to stand there and take it!

I’d been so excited about the idea that I tried to neutralize the attacks of those five Prisoners earlier, but it just didn’t cut it. That’s the problem—there’s no point in letting Level 1 Prisoners "give it their all." Trash mobs are meant to be one-shotted.

I was really hoping the last four would pull off a Combined Self-Destruct Attack or something, but no luck.

Mobs get one-shotted; that’s the way of the Eminence in Shadow. And letting the boss give it their all; that’s also the way of the Eminence in Shadow.

An instant kill is fine every now and then, but you can’t be a true Eminence in Shadow unless you have enough tricks up your sleeve to adapt to any situation.

With this realization, I was one step closer to my goal. I strolled through the Detention Center’s courtyard, reveling in my own growth. The frost crunched under my boots. My white breath drifted into the crisp air.

Oops, looks like a Prisoner froze to death right there.

What a refreshing morning.

As I was blending in with the rest of the mob Prisoners, I suddenly sensed a familiar presence and turned around.

"Hm?"

The other person must have felt me looking, because they turned around too.

"—Eh?"

We stood there staring at each other for a long moment.

At first glance, he... no, she looked like just another male Prisoner. She was dressed in ragged clothes, her face wrapped in cloth, with only her Honey-colored Eyes peeking out. She was clearly hiding her feminine silhouette. While Epsilon uses slimes to pad things out, this girl seemed to be using them to slim things down.

A stray lock of Honey-blonde Hair poked out from a gap in the rags.

It was her, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"Senior Rose..."

"S-Sid...?"

We were both equally stunned. Since she’d messed up at the Bushin Festival and ended up on the wanted list, she was supposed to be working part-time for the Mitsugoshi Company. What was a Mitsugoshi employee doing in a place like this?

No... I see. She’s made her choice. You can’t stay a part-timer forever; there comes a day when you have to get serious about your future. She was on a Journey to Find Oneself, too.

And she—she’d decided to quit her job and go take over the country. Well, she did start this whole mess by stabbing the King, so I guess this was inevitable.

"Senior Rose... So, you’ve really..."

I was so moved by her rebellious spirit that I couldn’t find the right words.

Incidentally, her Magic-Sealing Collar looked like a fake, too. That meant she’d successfully infiltrated the Detention Center. When you put all the pieces together, the answer is obvious.

Rose Oriana is—the Owl.