Walking down the bustling street, he replayed the events from earlier in his mind.
His relationship with Natsuki Minamiya could only be described as that of a normal student and teacher. They barely interacted. But if he had to name the person at school he trusted the most, it would be Natsuki Minamiya. After all, a puppet could never go against its programming.
Natsuki Minamiya was a puppet. Although she was usually friendly toward students at school, even when someone called her "Natsuki-chan" she would only lightly smack their head with her fan. That was simply part of her programming.
He was certain of it. Deep within Natsuki Minamiya's eyes was a hollow chaos. She acted convincingly, but what wasn't there simply wasn't there.
If that alone only suggested she was someone cold by nature and skilled at hiding it, then the fact that her body was entirely composed of Magical Power was the decisive proof. Although he didn't know where her core was located, Natsuki Minamiya was unquestionably a puppet.
At least, that was what he had believed.
But could a puppet lie?
Although Natsuki Minamiya said she had just arrived, he had sensed her presence there an hour and a half earlier. Thinking about it now, would a puppet really stand there doing nothing but watching him practice swordsmanship for an hour and a half out of boredom? Was its brain really that broken?
Forget it. Why was he thinking so much about it? It had nothing to do with him anyway.
As he was thinking this, a silver-haired figure rushed past him and disappeared from sight within a few seconds.
"Was that... Kojou? That was fast. What is he running from?"
Cid recognized the person immediately. It was the older brother of the Akatsuki siblings living next door ever since he moved to Itogami Island.
"BOOM!!!"
An explosion rang out from the direction Kojou Akatsuki had come from, mixed with a surge of Magical Power. The sound instantly threw the surrounding crowd into panic.
"What happened? Why was there suddenly an explosion?"
"No idea, but whatever it is, we should get out of here."
"Yeah. If it's the Demon Clan and we get caught in the crossfire, no one is going to help us seek justice."
At a time like this, as an extra character, he should just follow the crowd and leave.
But there were always some extras who thought too highly of themselves. Extras who believed they were strong enough to investigate the commotion or play the hero.
Was he that kind of stupid extra?
Was he?
He could be.
His strength was perfectly balanced at B rank, not too high and not too low. He also happened to be carrying a wooden sword. With a bit of luck, he might unlock another extra achievement. And besides, he was genuinely curious.
So he went.
Unfortunately, by the time he arrived at the scene, all he saw were two Demon thugs lying on the ground. Judging from the situation, everything was already over.
He had come for nothing.
Unless you counted the wallet on the ground.
"Sniff, sniff. I smell it. The scent of money."
Cid's eyes sharpened instantly as his gaze locked onto the wallet lying on the ground.
There was a surveillance camera positioned above it on the upper left.
But that did not matter. He had more than a dozen ways to avoid being caught by a camera.
The simplest one was...
"The World."
Time stopped.
It was a spell he had learned after the worlds fused. Since he thought a certain anime character from his previous life was incredibly cool, he named it "The World."
He casually walked over, picked up the wallet, and returned to his original position.
"Release. Time to go."
Everything remained exactly the same as it had been before time stopped.
Except the wallet was gone.
After returning home, he closed the door, turned on the lights, drew the curtains, and pulled the wallet out of his pocket.
"Now it's time to check the spoils. Let's see… one, two, three, four, five… 200,000 yen, and… a student ID! Yukina Himeragi?"
After confirming there was nothing else inside the wallet, he casually tossed the empty wallet and the student ID into a drawer, then lay down on the bed.
Two years ago, whether he returned something he found on the ground depended entirely on his mood.
To become an Eminence in Shadow, wealth was necessary. After all, you needed money to purchase top-tier collectibles to maintain appearances. In his original world, most of the funds for his Eminence in Shadow activities came from hunting down bandits and taking the valuables they had stolen.
In Cid's view, picking up money from the ground was no different from robbing criminals. Both came from wealth others had lost through misfortune. The only difference was that one relied on luck, while the other came from preying on thieves.
Sometimes, if he happened to be in a good mood, he would not mind looking for the owner of whatever he found.
That changed a year ago.
The three worlds united under the principle of securing the home front before dealing with external threats, launching a large scale anti bandit operation. From that point on, his stable source of funding for Eminence in Shadow activities disappeared.
Although he had also joined the operation and raced against the anti bandit forces to snatch a huge amount of money, losing a stable source of income meant eventually living off savings. As for borrowing money from Gamma, he simply could not bring himself to do it.
So for someone like him, who had spent the past six months desperately searching for a new source of funds and was now extremely short on money, there was absolutely no chance he would return it.
Besides, a student ID could easily be reissued. The amount he picked up was only 200,000 yen. No matter how he thought about it, that woman named Yukina Himeragi was not going to starve to death.
He might as well treat it as the price she paid to learn a lesson.
"Grrr... grrr..."
The sound of his stomach rumbling pulled Cid back from his thoughts.
"Time to eat."
To be clear, he had not bought any groceries, and the refrigerator was completely empty.
He got off the bed, walked to his desk, and opened another cabinet. Inside were several flyers printed with magic circle patterns. Without even glancing at them, he grabbed one at random, walked into the living room, and tossed the flyer into the air.
The flyer floated up on its own, forming a magic circle roughly one meter in radius. A tall female figure slowly appeared in the center.
"Hello, I am... Oh, it's you, Cid. I was wondering why you hadn't summoned me for almost a week. I thought maybe I took too much of your desire last time. Seeing you this energetic puts my mind at ease."
"So it's you, Tsubaki. Same price as usual, same request. I'll leave it to you."
"What's with that unmotivated look? Besides me, do you even know any other Devils?
But whatever. Since you're a regular customer, I'll take a little less this time."
"No need. You said it yourself, Tsubaki. It's been a while since you were summoned. I'm in good condition right now. Take as much desire as you want."
"You... I'm serious. Just look at yourself, always half dead every day. Trading away your desire like this will eventually affect your body."
"But desire is the only thing I have to trade. And if the deal isn't fair, you wouldn't be able to explain it to your master, right?
Besides, desire can recover after resting for a while. As long as it's useful to you, Tsubaki, that's enough."
"Sigh... fine. But this time I'll take a little less. Once or twice won't bother my master."
The woman standing before him had long flowing hair like a waterfall. Her pretty face was framed by glasses, and although her expression was serious, it carried a quiet intellectual charm.
Her name was Tsubaki Shinra, a Reincarnated Devil and one of the unfortunate targets he frequently freeloaded from.
In most people's imagination, Devils were cunning, treacherous, cruel, and merciless creatures. Dark and evil beings who traded with Humans in exchange for lifespan and souls. Those were the Old Devils.
As mentioned before, in World No.1 there was once a massive three way war between Devils, Fallen Angels, and Angels. During that war, all three sides suffered enormous casualties. Their numbers dwindled so drastically that they eventually had to rely on Humans for reproduction.
That was where the Evil Pieces came from.
These pieces allowed Humans to be reincarnated into other races. Humans who underwent reincarnation became half breeds, gaining increased strength and potential in the process. Although the cost was high, the results were worth it.
This did not mean Humans could not possess pieces themselves. Having the bloodline of another race provided certain advantages. But looking at it from another angle, even some individuals with partial pure blood heritage could not obtain pieces.
In that situation, a pure Human being granted pieces was itself proof of their talent, potential, and strength.
Each set of Evil Pieces could only have one King. The stronger the King, the greater the boost provided by the pieces. All the other pieces served as the King's servants.
The number of pieces a King could possess was limited, which meant reincarnation could not continue endlessly.
For every owner of a King set of Evil Pieces, when the number of pieces was limited, the choice was obvious. Would they recruit people with ordinary talent, or those with exceptional ability as their servants?
The answer was clear.
Because their races now depended on Humans to reproduce, continuing the Old Devils style of transactions would only damage their reputation.
So they switched to using human currency instead.
The scope of their deals also changed. Instead of granting power, wealth, or fame, they handled tasks like helping clear video games, offering psychological advice, or finding lost pets.
It felt less like dealing with Devils and more like hiring a general purpose service shop.