The Eminence in Shadow

Prologue

It’s Time for a War in the Oriana Kingdom!

Sometimes, people realize it when they’re having a dream.

For Rose Oriana, it always happens at the same moment.

In the dream, she’s at the Bushin Festival.

Her father is standing before her.

She draws her blade and stabs him with it.

Slowly but surely, slowly but surely.

The world is quiet, and the only things gently moving are Rose, her father, and the sword.

Slowly but surely, slowly but surely.

The blade runs her father through.

She can’t stop it. She can’t pull it back. Time just flows forward, cruel in its slowness and its surety.

For as long as she lives, Rose will never be able to forget the way his flesh felt as it gave, or how warm his blood was as it sprayed her.

She can’t cry. She can’t scream. She certainly can’t run.

Her father looks at her. He’s trying to tell her something.

Then, he extends his arms toward her—and wraps his hands around her throat.

“I will never forgive you.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m…”

Every morning, Rose wakes to the sound of her own voice.

All her room has in it is a bed and a small desk. She’s in a Shadow Garden base in the Oriana Kingdom.

“Father…”

Tears stream down her cheeks.

The image from the nightmare is burning into her retinas.

What had her father tried to say to her on that fateful day?

Had he resented her?

Had he hated her?

Were those words he spoke in her nightmare truly how he felt?

Rose clutches at her sweat-drenched sheets.

Then, someone knocks on her door.

It’s Number 664.

“Number 666, it’s time.”

“On my way.”

Rose dries her tears and gets changed.

She takes off the thin shirt sticking to her sweaty skin, and a mound of black slime coils its way across her bare flesh.

It’s her slime bodysuit.

It conducts magic at a tremendous rate and can be molded freely into any shape or form. When Rose runs her magic through it, it strengthens to the point where the average dark knight would have trouble so much as scratching it.

The bodysuits are groundbreaking enough they could revolutionize the entire dark knight world, and yet they’re only one of the many innovations the Shadow Garden has made.

When Rose finishes changing and steps out into the hallway, she finds her usual squadmates waiting for her—Numbers 664 and 665.

“Good morning,” she greets them.

“Let’s get a move on,” Number 664 replies.

“Mooornin’, 666,” says 665.

Number 664 sets off at a brisk pace, and Rose and 665 follow her.

The hallway’s walls and ceiling are artificial, gray, and unadorned. They’re made of a secret material the Shadow Garden is researching called “reinforced concrete.” It’s unimpressive to look at, but that just makes the carpet and lighting stand out all the more.

The lights are made from specially cut, highly transparent crystal glass. Their glow casts radiant shadows across the hallway.

They, too, are the fruits of a manufacturing process exclusive to the Shadow Garden, used to make Mitsugoshi’s high-end chandeliers.

The cheapest models cost a whopping ten million

zeni

, but even so, they fly off the shelves like there’s no tomorrow.

Rumor has it that, someday, Mitsugoshi, Ltd. plans on putting its myriad techniques to use in the construction industry.

Rose lets out a small sigh at the sheer degree of engineering prowess on display in just that one hallway.

It still amazes her how all of it originally sprang from Shadow’s Shadow Wisdom. Not only are his combat skills ferocious, his intellect seems nigh bottomless, too. She wonders how he came to be that way.

“I heard that,” Number 664 says. By “that,” she means Rose’s sigh. “If there’s something weighing on you, you should tell me about it. I can tell you’ve got a lot going on.”

“No, no, it’s nothing.”

“…If you say so.”

Number 664 is a petite elf a year older than Rose. She’s strict but responsible, which is why she was chosen as a squad leader.

Number 665 is an elf with a lazy streak who’s the same age as Rose. She always looks like she’s about to doze off.

Not only are they both attractive, most standards would rate each of them as a first-rate dark knight.

Within their organization, however, both of them are closer to the bottom of its rankings than to the top.

Rose is Number 666.

The numbers refer strictly to the order in which they joined. They aren’t a ranking system.

However, each set of 100 tends to be a good deal stronger than the next, so the numbers end up being a decent measure anyway.

That said, there are exceptions.

Rose got a chance to see Number 559 spar once.

Her opponent was Number 89. With a four hundred–plus numerical gap, Number 559 shouldn’t have stood a chance.

Yet she won all the same—an overwhelming victory.

This earned her the right to challenge the Numbers.

The Shadow Garden is surprisingly regimented.

Rose felt like her magic had gotten stronger. She felt as though joining the Shadow Garden would let her start changing things. She felt that if she became strong, she could save the Oriana Kingdom.

But she hasn’t been able to change anything.

“I need to work even harder…,” she murmurs to herself as she chases after the two elves ahead of her.

Today, Number 559 will be heading up their mission.

The three of them leave the base in the dead of night and silently race across a snow-covered field.

Rose spots a fortress off in the distance.

An attractive girl stands on a small hill overlooking it.

“There you are,” she says as she turns around.

Her strawberry blond hair sways elegantly behind her. Illuminated in the moonlight as she is, even a fellow girl like Rose can see how sublimely beautiful she is.

She’s the Shadow Garden’s one and only Number 559.

“Our apologies for keeping you waiting.”

“You know the details?” 559 says, succinct as ever.

“No, we were just told that it would involve Fort First.”

“I see.”

Number 559 exhales a puff of white as she turns her back to them and begins explaining.

“Two days ago, Fort First fell into the Perv Faction’s hands.”

At the moment, the Oriana Kingdom is locked in a fierce conflict between the Perv Faction and the Anti-Perv Faction. No major battles have broken out yet, but minor skirmishes in outlying regions are becoming a regular occurrence.

“Fort First is a small fortress near the Midgar border of little strategic value. The important part is that the Cult secretly mobilized the Children of Diablos to take it.”

The First Children are the Cult’s cream of the crop. Using them to take an unimportant fortress would be a complete waste of resources.

“There’s more to Fort First than meets the eye,” Number 559 goes on. “Our job is to sneak in and find out what the Cult is after. I take it you know why you were chosen for the mission?”

She turns her gaze toward Rose, who replies, “Because I already know the fort’s layout.”

Fort First lies cradled in the mountains, and the royal family often uses it as a vacation home to escape the summer’s heat.

“That’s part of it. But not all.”

With that, Number 559 descends the hill and starts making her way across the snowfield as gracefully as a bird soaring through the sky.

Rose and the others hurriedly follow her.

“I was the one who nominated you, Rose Oriana.”

Rose falters for a moment at being called by her real name.

Among the Shadow Garden’s ranks, the identity of Number 666 as Rose Oriana is something of an open secret.

“Master Shadow granted you power.”

Numbers 664 and 665 look at Rose in shock. “What?”

The only ones granted power by Shadow himself were the initial seven—the Seven Shadows. The Seven Shadows stand in a league of their own in the Shadow Garden, and that blessing Shadow had given them is part of what makes them so special.

Rose gives them a small nod. “…It’s true.”

Sure enough, Shadow was the one who saved her from the ravages of the possession.

“He did the same for me,” Number 559 says.