'I can't believe it's the Eminence in Shadow world,' Lioro thought with a hint of nostalgia on his face.
Eminence in Shadow was by far one of his favourite series. Not only did he follow the anime, but also the light novel and web novel.
Unfortunately, the author hadn't updated the web novel for years, which sucked.
The story wasn't some crazy masterpiece like some famous peaks, but it held a special place in his heart due to its goofiness and generally funny, mindless plot.
It was like Konosuba — dumb, stupid, but at the same time very enjoyable to watch and read.
Coming out of his reverie, Lioro looked back at the newspaper in his hand.
'Shadow Garden's first appearance was a few days ago?... hmm, just after Shadow saved Alexia? Tsk, unlucky, I just missed "I Am Atomic"...'
'"I Am Atomic" is definitely a super-tier magic.'
He wanted to learn it.
"Hey, give me back my newspaper!"
The middle-aged man suddenly regained his senses and quickly shouted at Lioro.
Without a second thought, Lioro threw the newspaper back to him, and then he started walking through the streets of the Midgar Kingdom's capital.
'Now which way is the Midgar Academy...'
He could have just imbued an arrow with the effect of finding Shadow, but since he wanted to enjoy this world, he decided to take things more casually.
'So many guards are roaming around... hm, must be because of the Shadow Garden's attack.'
Lioro thought as he walked towards one of the guard teams.
There seemed to be a magic knight of sorts leading them.
The magic knight had a big scar going across his face, which made him look intimidating.
"Hello, sir."
Lioro greeted the guard in a polite tone.
"Yes? What is it, kid?" The guard, who seemed to be in his thirties, looked at Lioro in curiosity.
"Can you tell me the way to the Midgar Academy? I'm somewhat lost."
"Midgar Academy? Are you a student?" The guard looked at Lioro's young face and asked.
"I'm not a student. I've heard it's the most famous academy in the Midgar Kingdom, so I wanted to take a look," Lioro replied in a calm voice.
"Is that so..." The guard slightly narrowed his eyes, thinking.
Some time ago, a new terrorist organisation calling itself Shadow Garden had infiltrated the capital and caused chaos.
Due to this, the capital was currently in a state of high alert, trying to find suspicious individuals.
And now a random clueless kid was asking him for directions to one of the most famous places in the capital.
The guard felt his imaginary seventh sense tingle.
"Kid, where are you from? How about you show me some identification?"
The nearby guards seemed to have sensed something wrong and silently surrounded Lioro from all sides.
Beside them, the man leading the guard group — who seemed to be a magic knight — looked at Lioro with a dignified expression.
As if unable to sense the atmosphere, Lioro innocently blinked his eyes and replied in a casual tone.
"Identification? I don't have any."
The guards' faces instantly hardened after hearing his words.
They discreetly looked at each other and nodded, about to take action.
But before they could move, a dignified voice entered their ears.
"Be at ease. He's not a threat."
The magic knight said in a calm voice, instantly making the guards stop.
The guards quickly moved away as the magic knight stepped forward and stood before Lioro.
Looking down at his innocent expression and his carefree demeanour, the magic knight could instantly tell that he was just a random citizen who seemed to be lost.
There was no way in hell this youngster, who appeared as harmless as a kitten, could be a terrorist.
'There are more important things to do right now.'
Shaking his head, the knight said to Lioro in a calm voice,
"Kid, my name is Glen. I am currently heading to the Midgar Academy. If you want, then you can follow us."
"I can? Then thank you, Sir Glen," Lioro replied in a grateful voice.
"Hmm," Glen nodded, thinking: 'Polite kid.'
Then, following Glen, Lioro made his way towards the Midgar Academy.
He even saw an interesting place while traversing the capital.
'Mitsugoshi Company.'
There was a large crowd gathered right outside the shop's entrance.
Even after the recent terrorist attack, their popularity didn't seem to have diminished one bit.
Lioro gave it a few more curious looks before looking away.
The shop reminded him of his burger dream in Overlord...
Quickly getting rid of the sad thought, Lioro followed the guards while looking curiously at the capital city like a tourist.
It didn't take long for them to arrive at their destination.
----
Midgar Academy.
Looking at the large structure before him, Lioro was wondering if he should use invisibility to infiltrate the place when Glen suddenly asked if he wanted help getting inside.
Lioro couldn't help but give Glen a weird look, wondering why he was letting a totally random individual just follow him inside the premises of the kingdom's top knight academy.
But since Glen was too weak to harm him in any way, Lioro simply thanked him and followed along.
The Midgar Academy had a much more beautiful and dignified architecture than what he saw in the anime and manga — after all, it was the kingdom's most esteemed dark institution.
As he was following the guards, Lioro looked at the students. He checked their mana and found them all quite weak.
Just as he was trying to find Cid, he sensed a drastic change in the environment and stopped.
Glen sensed Lioro's movement and also stopped, asking in confusion,
"What's wrong?"
Lioro glanced at Glen before saying in a plain voice,
"Mana has been blocked."
"What?!" Glen was taken aback by the sudden words and instinctively tried moving his mana.
And to his horror, he found out he couldn't do it.
Something was interfering with his mana.
Glen's pupils contracted.
With quick movement, he pulled out his sword and pointed it towards Lioro.
The guards around him quickly followed and also pulled out their swords.
Lioro, unconcerned by their actions, was using his Six Eyes to find the source of mana disruption.
Seeing his calm demeanour, Glen's expression hardened.
It seemed he might have been gravely mistaken about this innocent-looking youngster.
"Who are you? How did you know the mana was being disrupted?"
The only thing that came to Glen's mind was the artifact that Princess Iris had handed over to the academy for deciphering before.
"I believe those guys will be able to better answer your question," Lioro replied as he pointed behind them.
Glen and the guards hurriedly turned around, only to see a group of black-robed individuals rushing towards them with weapons in hand.
"Be careful!" Glen shouted as he quickly moved to the front and intercepted the attackers along with the guards.
Even with the lack of mana, he was fighting pretty impressively against the attackers who could use mana.
Alas, being unable to use mana, they were quickly suppressed.
The guards were knocked away in no time.
Glen was thrown back with great force, slamming against the wall.
He gritted his teeth, seeing the attacker swinging his sword at him.
But just as he was about to be hit—
Bang
The attacker's head exploded, followed by a loud noise.
The unexpected scene stunned everyone.
And then, before they could understand what was happening—
Bang Bang Bang Bang—
Several loud noises rang out as every attacker's head exploded in quick succession, leaving none alive.
Witnessing the unbelievable scene, Glen slowly turned his head towards the source of the sound.
There, he saw the young man he had brought along on a whim, holding a mysterious silver weapon in his hand, pointing it at the dead attacker.
"Tsk tsk tsk, this is truly a military-modified Desert Eagle..." Lioro said as he marvelled at the gruesome sight before him.
One shot — head gone.
And that too when they were enhancing themselves with mana.
Of course, these mobs were too weak to properly use mana, but still, this gun was pretty decent, especially after he enhanced it a little.
The mana disruption actually had an effect on him, but unlike others who couldn't move their mana at all, he faced around 50% mana disruption in utilization.
This was because of various passives, as well as his high magic defense stats.
'Mana disruption — this concept is very interesting. I should get my hands on this thing.'
He was fully capable of vastly increasing the effects of the device that was disrupting the mana around the area.
At the same time, Glen managed to get back up on his feet and was looking at Lioro with a vigilant expression.
"You saw it too. I'm not with them." Lioro shrugged helplessly, pointing at the dead attackers.
Glen stared deeply at Lioro before slowly nodding his head and saying,
"I understand... thank you for your help."
"It seems there are more attackers. How about we go and save the students?"
"Yes!"
After the guards stood up, they quickly made their way towards the centre of the disturbance under Lioro's lead, killing all attackers in their way.
*Bang*Bang*Bang*
As Lioro was casually practising his shooting skills, he felt several hidden auras observing him.
But he didn't shoot or call them out, having a guess about their identity.
'Shadow Garden?'
He could sense much stronger mana from them compared to these weak attackers.
'Did I catch their attention because of the gun?' Lioro wondered as he changed his magazine while casually sidestepping to dodge an incoming sword attack.
Ignoring the attacker's horrified face, he placed the muzzle of the gun on his chest and blasted a hole through it.
'Using a gun is fun, but since they are humans, killing them is slowly reducing my faction value.'
His faction value, which had peaked after killing the One-Eyed Black Dragon, was slowly decreasing.
So Lioro started targeting non-fatal parts of the attackers, such as their legs and arms, leaving the killing blow to Glen and the guards.
Along the way, several students from the academy they saved also joined them in confronting the attackers.
After some time, they arrived outside a church-like building.
"Stop right there! Or we'll kill them!"
Seeing a large group of students being held hostage inside, Glen and the guards quickly stopped.
"Surrender! If you surrender now, then you might avoid punishment..." Glen said in a loud voice, trying to get the attackers to lay down their arms.
"Hah! Do you think we're stupid?? Hurry up and drop your weapons, or we'll kill them!"
One of the attackers shouted as he placed his sword against a female student's neck, making her scream in terror.
"You! Do you understand you're making yourself an enemy of the Midgar Kingdom—"
The attacker and Glen clashed back and forth in a battle of words.
Lioro, on the side, was slowly losing his patience.
And just as he was about to stop time, someone dropped an artifact from the second floor.
As it fell near the captured students, the artifact glowed brightly, sending specific magic waves of indescribable wavelength, negating the effect of mana disruption in the environment.
Instantly, Lioro felt the 50% mana disruption vanish, returning him to his optimal state.
"Mana has returned! Everyone charge!"
A heroic female student shouted as she punched an attacker using mana and stole his sword.
"Oh!!!"
The students of the magic academy instantly went crazy; they quickly attacked the perpetrators, feeling their mana return.
"Kill them!" Glen shouted in a spirited voice as he charged at the ambushers with a sword in his hand.
Lioro looked at the scene, then calmly raised his Desert Eagle Mark III and provided support fire.
*Bang*Bang*Bang*Bang*
The attackers fell quickly under the combined siege of students, guards, and Lioro.
Just as they were gaining the upper hand—
Two new groups of black-robed cultists rushed in from the doors, instantly changing the dynamics.
The students instantly fell into a disadvantageous situation.
Lioro had to stop shooting due to the large crowd gathered together.
His shooting skills weren't good enough to hit foes without risking allies when they were in such close proximity.
"Ah!"
Several painful voices rang out as students were hit by the cultists.
As the situation was becoming more and more chaotic—
Several terribly fast slashes of condensed mana hit the cultists, instantly cutting their bodies into several parts.
At the same time, a loud, heavy voice entered everyone's ears.
"My name is Shadow, he who lurks in the shadows to hunt the shadows."
Lioro raised his head, hearing the familiar phrase, and looked at the figure in a black slime suit floating in the air.
It was Shadow!
---------------
Give power stones.
If you're interested: patreon.com/nkc_reaper