(A/N): y'all know the drill not mine
Original author: ImperialCalculator
Read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58445218/chapters/148874761
Chapter 1
I was expecting another boring day at school. More classes that weren't worth paying attention to, followed by my fake girlfriend Alexia taking up my lunch time. After that would be more classes where I have to hold back in the advanced classes. And at the end of the day Alexia would drag me somewhere suitably date-like to be seen and show me off. So I thought I had that to look forward to.
Instead, upon arriving to school that morning I was confronted by a squad of three dozen fully armed knights looking tense and ready for a fight, led by fellow cultist-larper, Zenon Griffey. His hand is on his sword and ready to draw it in an instant.
"Cid Kagenou, Princess Alexia never returned to her dorms last night," he says with a smirk, the kind a chess player has when they announce they've got you in check. "Upon investigation we discovered signs of a struggle. A witness has come forward testifying that you were the last seen with her. As such we would like you to come with us."
"Me? I'd never hurt the Princess!" I shout, putting some panic into my voice for dramatic effect. Internally I'm fist bumping. Heck yeah! Zenon's giving me the opportunity to play a mob scene I've been looking for, mob character gets interrogated and tortured! And as a bonus I won't have to deal with that annoying two-faced Princess for a couple days. Taking advantage of a kidnapping to give me the opportunity to play more secret society games? Truly Zenon, you are a friend beyond measure. I will repay this favour.
"That remains to be seen, I trust you'll come quietly." He says in his severe voice while holding up some anti-magic shackles. While his voice is quiet there's a glint of barely concealed triumph in his eyes. Someone give this man an Oscar already. His act of "backstabbing cultist framing one of his rivals for a crime" is perfect!
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A couple hours later sees me stripped of all my weapons. I'm chained to a chair by anti-magic shackles which are restricting my magic so it's difficult to channel properly. Fortunately, after a few minutes of experimenting I discover that if I compress the magic into fine enough fibres they can sneak through.
So far nothing has happened, they just shoved me in this cell and left me to stew in isolation. It's been pretty boring actually, which just makes it the perfect interrogation tactic for a nobody background character like myself!
I keep my senses open for when a named character is inevitably brought through here so I can appear in the background wallowing in misery. They haven't been brought in yet, but I have faith in my good friend Zenon not to let this opportunity go to waste.
After a bit more waiting for the scene to start I pick up on the familiar magic signature of Zenon approaching my cell. I quickly get back into character, letting my muscles loosen and hanging my head forward limply as if I'm beaten.
He enters the cell, flanked by two mob character ass looking guards. I don't recognise them, which tells me why they're with Zenon. He's really going all out, going so far as to hire actors to improve his scenes. But I won't let him outdo me!
"Wakey wakey, Lord Kagenou ," he says in a mocking voice. Okay I need to figure out what scene he's running so I can act appropriately. He's not leaving this to his henchmen so this probably isn't a scene for my mob persona. Rather it's a scene to further flesh out our cultist personas.
He and Gaunt are actually pretty dedicated to their roles, they never break character when we're in private and look a little annoyed with me when I don't take every opportunity to act as my cult persona. So basically I need to stick to my cultist act for this.
"How do you like those shackles?" He asks. "Premium magic suppression, they cost me a fortune. Not even you could break out of those shackles.
But how to play it? There's so many options. I could be all "you fools think these chains are enough to contain my power?" and bust out of them. Nah, that would end the scene early. Since Zenon is going all out for this I owe it to him to not undercut his performance.
How about 'badass was captured by his enemies but even under torture he refuses to break, all while biding his time for the right moment to escape'? Yeah, I like that.
"Not responding I see. Disappointing, I was hoping you'd beg for your life. Face it. You've been outplayed and now I, Zenon Griffey, shall become the next Knight of Rounds!"
Still I don't react, refusing to so much as look at him.
He grits his teeth and gestures to one of the henchmen.
"Let me introduce you to my associates, the Hench brothers. Masters of interrogation. They cost me a pretty zeni, but I think you'll see they were worth it."
Said henchman steps forward and punches me in the stomach. It's so weak as fuck that I barely feel it. But I have to act like it was a good hit so that when I barely wince it establishes how much of a badass I am. I let the punch carry me an extra 20% of the distance and let out a small grunt.
"I warned you to stop pursuing the Princess. And now you shall see the consequences for ignoring my warnings."
Did he say something to me about the Princess? I vaguely remember him mentioning her a couple of times when discussing cult business but to be honest I tuned most of that out. Though he is sort of her fiancé I suppose. Could it be that he's actually mad at me for stealing his girl? Nah, from what Alexia told me she wasn't interested so I don't think he really had a chance. Sorry buddy. If anything he's probably happy I freed him from that obligation.
"Still refusing to beg?" He gestures to the other guard who steps forward and like his buddy punches me with all his might. And this one-
-is even weaker.
Seriously, where did Zenon find such mob-like actors?!? My hat off to their performance, I wish my hands were free so I could start taking some notes.
I barely wince, though I do pretend there was more force behind the punch than there actually was. I subtly tear open the front of my shirt as if it had been ripped with the force of only the two punches.
Then I let out a dry chuckle. Without raising my head I begin to speak.
"The Princess. Knight of the Rounds. All of these are outside the reach of someone so cowardly as to leave the torture to their underlings."
Well that was just okay. I need to make my next line more mysterious so that it sounds better.
"Why you!" Henchman 1's face turns red with anger.
"Show him who he's messing with Boss!" Henchman 2 shouts.
Zenon grinds his teeth together. "Even now you talk big. But with those shackles you can't use magic. You're trapped. And after you're executed for the crime of kidnapping the Princess you'll stop being such a thorn in my side."
"Yeah, you tell him Boss!"
Henchman 1 goes in for another punch, and for the first time I raise my head. My eyes meet the eyes of the man and his heart stops. All momentum of his punch ceases as he steps back, eyes wide and shivering in his boots.
"What are you stopping for Uno?" Henchman 2 asks him. "He's helpless-"
I turn and make eye contact with Henchman 2 who shuts up immediately and gulps.
"Both of you stop acting like fools!" Zenon commands through gritted teeth. "If I can't trust the two of you to do your jobs then I'll have to replace you with someone who will."
"There's no need for that, Boss!"
"Yeah Boss. The Hench brothers won't let you down!"
"Good. I need to go handle business elsewhere. Uno, Dos, I leave this to you two. Get a confession out of him."
They both give sloppy salutes in unison to Zenon's back as he turns and exits the cell. The door slams behind him while the two turn back to me, suddenly a bit more nervous.
Perfect time to say a badass line. Something like…
"The carnage will soon begin, Zenon will not be able to protect you. Where will you stand when the time for action comes?"
Okay, better but not quite there yet. I'll be able to get into character better once I start doing some Eminence in Shadow stuff.
After a few seconds Henchman 1 seems to get some of his nerve back.
Excellent. Zenon got to flesh out his character motivations and show off his actors. And now I get to roleplay my, 'badass doesn't give up under torture' moment. It's a win-win.
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Another hour or so of these weaklings' half-hearted attempts to intimidate me followed. After a short while of this I'll slip the restraints, then when they leave I'll use their distraction to make my getaway.
I'm barely paying attention and practising letting my magic get small enough to be used under anti-magic conditions when I sense a large magic signature approaching. This must be the main character finally making their entrance. Perhaps they'll be thrown into the cell next to mine and I can serve as the mysterious fellow prisoner that helps them do a prison break.
For some reason many of the guards' magic signatures go silent whenever they intersect with the oncoming protagonist.
"Are you ready to confess yet?"
Then henchmen are still trying to punch me. One punches me in the face, but if anything his knuckles took more damage than I did.
The signature stops just outside the cell door and knocks. The two henchmen look over at each other and argue for a bit, until finally Henchman 2 goes over to check on it. Actually, that might be Henchman 1. I've forgotten which was which.
He opens the door and is promptly skewered as the point of a rapier emerges from the back of his skull.
His friend shouts in alarm and tries to draw his sword, fumbling it. Before he's able to get it all the way out a figure steps into the room and finishes him off with a quick strike. His body hits the floor. Within less than 3 seconds of the door opening both of them were dead.
Eh. They were actors, dying for the role is what they would have wanted.
Probably.
I take a look at the newcomer. She's an elven woman with long blond hair. She's wearing a white and red bodysuit that has golden highlights, along with a matching domino mask that hides her facial features.
I have to give her points for style at least.
Okay Cid, get your head in the game. You've been practising for this exact moment for the past 15 years. Mob time.
"EEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!" I scream pathetically at the sight, making sure to slow my reaction down. "Wh- wh- wh- who are you??"
"My name is Alpha, I'm here to rescue you from the jaws of evil," is all she responds, before destroying the chains with a single strike.
Her power is actually a little impressive, more than most of the people I've met. She would demolish Zenon and Gaunt in a straight fight I was pretty sure. Still, as much as she seemed to be trying to make a quick flashy strike, I had time to observe before it connected.
She's definitely going for some sort of hero vibes judging by her outfit. Not a sole protagonist by any means. In fact this strikes me more as being some sort of a power rangers type deal, so she likely has teammates operating nearby. That's good, she's strong, but compared to me she still has a long climb to reach endgame level and a party of heroes will make this more interesting. Three, five, or seven would be the traditional group sizes, erring towards larger numbers based on the vibes her outfit's giving off.
They'd be a perfect group to try my Eminence in Shadows routine on, a mysterious benefactor that appears every now and again to test them and nudge them towards a direction only he knows. And only later do they realise each time they encountered him their teamwork grew stronger, as if he were training them for some mysterious purpose.
I love it. She'll never expect that the mysterious figure she keeps encountering is none other than the side character she rescued from prison.
Actually, why is she rescuing me from prison? Could her plotline be that she's a revolutionary fighting against the corrupt feudal government by freeing the innocents that were thrown in prison for political reasons? Heroes need a villain to fight against and an absolute monarchy slots right into the evil empire role that a hero might decide to overthrow and bring democracy.
Or maybe one of their allies has also been imprisoned here for reasons unrelated to their heroics, and she couldn't just bust only them out since that would make the link too obvious. Meaning she had to free me and probably every other prisoner in here to disguise who her real target was. That would make sense. Certainly more than her coming here specifically to bust an unimportant background character like me out.
Observations done I switch out of bullet time and let the strike destroy my bonds. I make sure to let a second pass before reacting, then pretending to be shocked I rub my wrists.
"Th- thank you!"
"You can thank me by staying alive," she says as she sheathes her sword. It's not bad. Pretty impressive mana efficiency actually, better even than that one time I saw mithril which is the sorry limit of efficiency most others settle for. Still not as good as my slime equipment however.
"I- I will!"
"Lie low until everything is over. Your name shall be cleared by tomorrow morning."
With her final comment she darts out to continue her mission. I make my way out of the prison, which is free of guards. I guess they could all be on break, but I'm not complaining.
A few minutes after I exit the building the rest of the prisoners start fleeing. That confirms my suspicion about them trying to break one of their allies out. I watch everyone leave from the roof of a nearby building, but they're all background characters. Not a confidant then, it was probably one of her teammates then as they wouldn't leave with the rest of the prisoners under that scenario.
Having said that, the current events going down in the rest of the city are much more interesting. Knights are running about in a panic and I can hear people screaming. A few blocks down from me a warehouse explodes into flames, followed shortly by a wolf therianthrope wearing one of the power ranger inspired suits jumping out of it into an alleyway. I squint my eyes. Yeah she's definitely fighting a group of people. Viva la revolution my friends, viva la revolution.
Still, I can't just be an observer to an event like this. This carnage is the perfect opportunity to debut my Eminence in Shadow. Thankfully they're doing this at night which will make my Shadow outfit look that much cooler.
"The moon is out. Blood stains the streets. The carnage has begun," I mutter.
There we go. It totally sounds like I know what's going on now.
Time to get started.