"Talk"

'Thought'
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'This fucking sucks…'

At the middle of the night, there was a cliff near the forest where a small kingdom and a military base were located. Cid Kageno could be seen sitting on the cliff's side, wearing an annoyed and bored expression. The person who forced him to be there, Esdeath, sat next to him, gently holding his hands with her own and shyly looked away with a small embarrassed and blushing smile.

'Not only did I not receive my mother fucking money from getting into 2nd place, but now I'm someone's slave, I mean, it's a normal Mob thing to do, to be sold off and used as a toy or tool for the Main Boss, or maybe 2nd or 3rd mini villains, but, ugh…'

Cid then glanced at his newly acquired owner and noticed she was in the middle of talking to him

"- If I were to be completely honest, I haven't been myself lately, I've been experiencing, 'Love', it's such a pleasant feeling-"

Unfortunately for Esdeath and her rambling, Kageno could care less about what she had to say to him as placed his chin on his hand and just zoned out and ignored her completely, all the while being in deep thoughts

'Usually I would've escaped by now, but then I would be putting myself through all this trouble for nothing, and I just hate having my time wasted.'

Cid sighed and casually laid down on his new Mistress's lap, making her gasp and blush even more in embarrassment. She didn't reject him, so she started to pet his head softly. He wasn't paying attention to that, though, and was just getting ready to take a nap or something in order to pass the time while thinking of a plan for the future.

'Once we get back to the Empire, I'm just gonna blow that shit up and take everything that the King owns, no one would mind since they're corrupt or whatever, so win-win for me and everyone I guess.'

Though before Cid could 100% ignore the entire world around him, the cold blue woman suddenly said something that captured his attention and made him look at her for once.

"- I've just been bored lately, that could be another reason I suppose for being interested in love, I mean I still crave a good war and fun fights, but all this political stuff and the Cult of Diablo nonsense that the Prime Minister keeps spewing out, I just can't help but want to escape from all that and just have some actual fun…"

Esdeath sighs softly and glances up at the starry night, with the big moonlight being at the center of it all, she wore a expression that shows absolute unfulfillment and being completely unsatisfied with life, which only caught his attention even more so

'Cult of Diablo?... Did Alpha hire her to play with us too?'

Cid couldn't help but see this Ice General in a completely different light than he expected to witness, which only made him curious and wanting to know about her role in all this.

"C-Cult of Diablo? Escape from all that? What do you mean by that?"

Cid decided to act like a mob character, but only to make sure he wasn't misunderstanding something and suddenly revealing himself to a random stranger.

"Right you wouldn't know, though since you're my lover and I don't really care about keeping it a secret, it's a Cult thing or whatever of wanting to take over the world by using or releasing some demons or whatever from the past, I wasn't actually paying attention to all that to be honest."

Hearing what Esdeath just said only confirmed that she is also just following the script of the 'Cult of Diablo' storyline just like Kageno is, or at least that's what he thinks.

'So she is part of Alpha group, because I made all that up and I only told the Shadow Garden about that fake plot idea that we use when hunting bandits.'

Cid couldn't help but feel touched by what his first real friend, Alpha, was willing to do when humoring his dream of becoming an Eminence in Shadow. She even hired someone to be his villain. He definitely needs to find a way to repay her the next time they meet.

"As for wanting to escape? Well it's more accurate to say that I would like a break from all these tedious things, 'Kidnap the possessions', 'Train the awaken', 'Kill everyone who knows our secret', all that, of course I'm loyal enough to play along, but I have my own desires too, something I wish to do and explore, and not doing all this boring stuff constantly…"

Esdeath sighs, wearing a slightly drained, tired and bored expression, something that Kageno couldn't help but look at and sympathize with

'So in other words, she has no desire to play the role of a Shadow Broker spy, or even a main villain in this play, she just wants to have fun, pure, genuine and real fun.'

Cid took a moment to look away from her and glanced up among the many stars and the giant moon at the center of it all

'I can't help but relate to it in some way, even if my dream is to become a real Eminence In Shadow, a dream I would never give up on.'

Cid then reaches out a hand and pretends to grab the entire thing in the sky and hold it in his hand

'But it would be hypocritical of me to deny that I do have moments of just wanting to take a break from all this and just having some nonsensical fun with no rhyme or reason… Especially with what I've been through lately…'

Cid couldn't help but have some flashbacks of his past stressful and annoying moments in his life, like dealing with his sister, pretending to be someone's dog, having his mob friends be annoying constantly, and saving a principle daughter from death for being too noisy around the enemy, even his own playmate from the Shadow Garden was starting to annoy him just a bit, Gamma and Beta stealing his knowledge to get rich without him, Eta constantly wanting to do experiments with his body when he wasn't looking, and Delta, well, just her being Delta was making him mentally and physically tired lately. While he wouldn't regret having those people in his lives, he would also treasure those types of friendships for the rest of his life. But it was still something that he could sympathize with the Ice General.

'So yeah, I absolutely get what you're saying, LezDeath, or whatever your name is, you're not obligated to play along with my fantasy, and you definitely deserve some 'You Time' to yourself, you don't need my or Alpha's permission to do so.'

Just as Cid was about to comfort the Frozen Soldier and say something to make her feel better, the two were quickly interrupted by the sound of talking and movements, which caught both of their attentions and made them look to see what was happening

"Oh look, the Jaegers have begun their mission."

Esdeath couldn't help but boredly point out, but still watched them with interest to see how well her team would do. However, all Kageno could see was an opportunity, which made him smirk lightly as he looked at the cold blue woman with a devious expression.

"Hey? Wanna have some fun?~"

The Ice General looked down at Cid and quickly noticed the unusual face he was giving her, which made her raise an eyebrow in slight confusion

"Hm?"

Meanwhile, with the Jaegers, they were currently in the middle of resting up for a bit after killing everyone in the vicinity and destroying or burning down the entire area that needed to be brought down to ruins, one of the members, specifically Wave, decided to walk around and started to hand out some refreshments to his fellow teammates and partners

"Please take some water, don't want us to suffer some dehydration during our first mission together."

Wave decided to give the familiar blonde man, Run, the first water bottle he had in his bag

"My many thanks Wave."

Run bows his head slightly in thanks as he takes the water, the waterboy just smiles in response and walks up to another member

"And one for you."

Wave then gave water to an orange girl, who seems to be either around or younger than him, wearing a green uniform, having metal hands and was in the middle of petting and feeding a dog like creature a random hand that she stole from her enemy

"Thank you, my fellow friend of Justice!~"

The orange hair girl, who is known as Seryu Ubiquitous, smiles happily at him in appreciation as she accepts the water bottle, as the doggie thing, named Koro, just barks and nuzzles his hands in response to treating its master kindly, to which he smiles and pets Koro before walking to the next person

"Another one for you."

Wave then gave a water bottle to an older adult man, who had blue hair with a white streak through it, wore a lab cloak and special gloves on his hands, and just had a natural aura and presence of pure 'Elegance' and 'Beauty'

"My my, what a kind fish man you are, how about I return the favor and make you just as gorgeous as my adorable Seryu is, hm?~"

The mad scientist, who goes by the name of Dr. Stylish, gave the one he calls 'Fish Man' a flirty wink as he took the water from him, he couldn't help but shiver and quickly move on to the next person

"Can you drink through that mask?"

Wave couldn't help but tilt his head and genuinely ask the other adult male, who was very tall, muscular, and carried a large flamethrower like weapon on his back, all the while wearing a white mask over his face

"Yes I can, and thank you very much, I'll repay you when we return to base."

The muscular man, who is known as Bols, happily accepted and promises to return the kindness in a later date, which made the waterboy smile bashfully and continue to walk to the next person

"Sorry that I don't have milk, but would you like water with your cookies?"

Wave gave an apologetic expression as he gave a water bottle to another young looking girl, who had black hair, black clothing, a red sword, and a very large bag of cookies on her lap, which she was currently eating with such eagerness

"Hmph."

Was all the young girl, named Kurome, had to say to him, as she just took the water rudely, he could only sigh and shake his head as he moved in from her

"And lastly, one for you."

Wave then gave the last water bottle to the last person he saw, which made the entire Jaeger team notice and suddenly tense up greatly, unfortunately the person giving the water was the last one to notice, as he just barely looked at the one he was giving the water to, to which he drank, and went wide eyes in shock when seeing who it was

"I am Shadow."

The one who wore all black, who lived by the name of Shadow, let out a refreshing sigh once drinking all the water, and looks down at everyone, who did not hesitate to surround him and got ready to attack him all at once without a moment's notice

"I lurk in the Shadow."

Shadow smirks as he crushes the bottle in one hand and summons a longsword in the other, to which he points at them mockingly

"And I hunt the Shadow~..."
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Do you think that Cid would realistically get along with Esdeath or not?

(What type of Imperial Arms, aka Teigu, would Shadow and the Shadow Garden have?)