Eminence in shadow is absolute shit

I'm already losing steam

You read the title, I ain't lying. It's an hour from new years and I fucking hate this. Only reason I'm doing this is cause I'm petty.

Spite is a powerful motivator.

But moving on, we see that Cid at the start of this chapter might be developing feelings for Alexia...

Who am I kidding? We all know he's a piece of genuine human garbage, so as you can expect he doesn't even care for her. Funnily enough, he notes that she drops her facade of a princess every now and then and it disgusts him.

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Say it with me now, Hypocrite!

It also doesn't help that he just let's her walk all over him simply because she has money. The man has no dignity to speak of. The slightest drop of money allegedly makes "his body act on its own" No, you're just a money grubbing twat.

Alexia is then reasonably complaining as to how her fiancée is suspiciously nice, which is fair enough. Being suspicious of someone you're engaged to due to politics is reasonable.

Anyway, we then are shown Alexias own thoughts to her skill, that in comparison to her sister, she has no talent. This is honestly a wonderful scene, because it shows how Alexia is keenly aware of her own potential and how she's but a cog in the machine of society. It shows she knows that she'll never have the impact that people like her sister can have.

We're also shown how she loathes and envies her sister for complimenting her mediocre swordsmanship as she can't understand how pitiful Alexia feels. This is genuinely phenomenal writing, which is so fucking infuriating to see the authors abilities wasted on this dogshit protagonist.

Then Cid does the worst possible thing he could do, and even after hearing her say she hates her swordsmanship, he, with the same mediocre level of swordsmanship that is just acting, compliments her swordsmanship.
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She hates her swordsmanship. So you compliment it?

Why? If someone's hand writing is unreadable, they know this and don't like it, you don't then say its great. Goes to show how Cid as a person lacks empathy. In the previous panels, he directly states that if a million people died, he wouldn't care.

Need I say more? How are we supposed to like this? He's just a psychopath with no redeeming qualities other than his own delusions.

Then the scene cuts to him and his friends, he's insulting them for getting them into this situation. Not like he could've avoided this by trying a bit harder on his test. Now, Zenon, Alexias fiancée shows up saying that she never returned home and signs of a scuffle were found on her way home.

Is our good protagonist concerned? Of course-

"Heh, serves you right." No, of course he isn't. Now this moment is supposed to be comedic because he previously said directly to Alexia that if she got kidnapped, this is exactly what he'd say. Now, this could've been funny.

If it wasn't a genuine kidnapping. Someone has just been kidnapped. And you have no thoughts of concern like "Is she okay?" Or "what happened?" No, you're only thought is essentially, "good".

If I see a guy I don't particularly like, and it turns out someone shot him in the chest, am I going to be concerned?

Of course I am, cause this means there's now a murderer on the loose. Even if he didn't care about Alexia, he should at least understand that this could complicate his "role" as a background character. But no, he's just an asshole.

The scene then cuts after Cid is pulled away as the main suspect.

This is where zenon confronts Alexias sister Iris. He tells her that it's unlikely that Cid actually did it as he's mediocre. After iris suggests letting him go but keeping him under watch, his sister Claire bursts in declaring his innocence.

To say I am genuinely upset by this is an understatement. The mans sister may seem cold, but she genuinely cares for her brother. Whereas Cid couldn't give less of a fuck when she was kidnapped.

Even after this, Iris isn't upset but laments how Claire loves her sibling just like she loves Alexia. Cid let's himself get beat up, and I can calmly say that was a good decision as it supports his innocence and doesn't cause complications.

Alpha is very concerned about him, and once again, this is highly undeserved. He couldn't give less of a damn. If alpha was to die, his biggest concern would likely be his reputation as the eminence in shadow.

Now, Alpha explains that the knight order aims to frame him as members of the diabolos cult have infiltrated it.

Cid still believes it's an act.

I'm once again going to draw a comparison to Mashle. Mash burnedead from the very first chapter is shown to do ludicrous things with his physical abilities. Like juggling powerful spells that were launched at him.

This is obviously ludicrous. But it was funny. Then he did it again.

And again

And again

And again.

You get me? It gets old really quick. Because we no longer care that he's stupid enough to think it's an act.

Its just gotten irritating and repetitive.

Now, for once Cid makes a good inference that if she's been kidnapped, it must be for her blood, meaning she's still alive because they need her blood for the demon kings resurrection. Granted, there are some flaws to this. Because they very well could've just drained all the blood from her body like a capri-sun.

Now, another victim of Cids delusion is introduced as Delta a "balls to the walls suicide charging loose cannon". Now, I don't know about you, but if my employer described me in such a way, I am losing my job.

As Alpha did well she asks to be treated the next time they go out. Now I dunno about you, but this is pretty clear foreshadowing of romance.

Remember how I said Alpha was a case of Stockholm syndrome? Yep. Because he fully intended to mutilate her with a saw and hammer that he had in hand at the time.

See how fucked up this is? Personally, this doesn't bother me.

If this was meant to be a story where the main character is a villain. But its not. So why the fuck would you portray your protagonist in such a way if you wanted them to be likeable?

Now being the pretentious bastard that he is, he prepares the room for betas arrival, having all sorts of fancy stuff. Because this story tries to be overlord and fails, Beta is enamoured by all the fancy bullshit and interprets it that he's somber despite all these riches, he must carry a heavy burden.

Massive fucking reach. At least in overlord, they're understandable. Saying in passing that it might be fun to take over the world, and then your servants not understanding that it wasn't serious start planning it out.

Thats understandable.

But this is just like an English exam. "Johny doesn't have a pen" he must be living in extreme poverty!

Now Cid acts all cool, showing that he's gotten a letter saying if he wants to get Alexia back meet us at so and so.

The dumbass actually goes and some knights go to kill him. He responds in kind, murdering them both without an inkling of hesitation.

He then declares the beginning of the raid to all of the bases of the diabolos cult.

Each chapter, i hope you understand more and more why I thoroughly despise this character.

Anyway, happy new years.