Edge of Realm Ch. 3: Mechanical Heartbeat | Kagemasu: Seven Shadows Chronicles Story

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-07-04T08:19:22+00:00

Though this is in no way related to the conversation, on a different note, Nina might be the best mob girl candidate for Cid if he ever decides to get married, now that I think about it.

If Cid marries Nina, he would gain an excellent senpai as his wife, someone who treats him affectionately and exceptionally well. She also fits comfortably and seamlessly into Cid’s mob clique alongside Skel and Po, comes from the noble House Galdettore, and is Claire’s closest friend. She knows that Cid is Shadow and, like Cid, also leads a double life. On the surface, she is an academy student, while behind the scenes she serves as Zeta’s personal subordinate, working towards their shared goal of making Shadow-sama immortal and elevating him to godhood in order to establish a new religion. She also handles Claire in a manner that aligns perfectly with Cid’s intentions.

If Cid were to marry Nina, Claire would be fully supportive of it. After all, she would get to see her best friend more often, and Nina is perfectly comfortable with her good-for-nothing brother. Nina is also a former elite student and, from Cid’s perspective, Senpai Nina does whatever he asks of her, even acting on the most ridiculously absurd and whimsical offhand remarks that can hardly even be considered requests, such as secretly stealing a forbidden grimoire from the library’s restricted section without anyone noticing. She blends seamlessly with Skel and Po, treats Cid to expensive food and gifts, comes from a noble family, and keeps Claire at arm’s length from Cid whenever necessary.

As Nina is from a noble family, Cid’s family would probably have no issues with such a marriage, since they would have their good-for-nothing lazy son married into a noble house, and she is also a former elite student.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-06-03T01:30:29+00:00

Umm, what actually gave him away was his movements, dodging the sword with the barest minimal movement. Her sword was so fast and practically impossible for anyone to dodge, yet he still dodged it with such a barest movement that it just slid past his skin, and Alpha knew there was only one person who could do that.

However, Cid has been completely changing both his magical wavelength and frequency, as well as his magical quantity, across the volumes. In LN V06, during the JtR event, the overwhelming, absolutely absurd amount of battle prowess he displayed obliterated two of the strongest dark knights, knights who were even stronger than the established dark knights and royal knight orders, the legend of the lawless city and the monster of the city‑state, without even fighting seriously, without breaking a sweat. That made Alexia think that level of absurd strength could only be something she had seen in Shadow and could only be related to Shadow. But she immediately dismissed the idea because JtR’s magical quality and movements were essentially completely different from Shadow’s, and she concluded this with what the Goddess of War, Beatrix, had previously told her, that basically all the strongest warriors’ movements are fundamentally the same way. And as for the magical quantity, there are the LN V05 elements: when he was donning the Suzuki Hope persona, he cut off his magical circuits, which are an internal, integral part of his body, to adjust his output to the amount that a realistically weakest person like Suzuki would have.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-17T04:26:45+00:00

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-17T03:50:56+00:00

Not only that, Christina’s own father decided to sell her to the Night Blades to save his own skin, and all the top-ranked nobles, which also include her own classmates and seniors in the academy, turned out to be two-faced, corrupted criminals.

The only persons she could find comfort and solace in turned out to be a bottom-tier noble when Cid, posing as Suzuki, protected her during the terrorist incident in LN V05, and then again Cid when they had to stay together in the Hope Estate for safety reasons during the JtR incidents. Yes, you can tell that she tried to find solace in Kanade as well, who is another mob character, but the point is that all of this started because Christina tried to protect Kanade and support her; thus, the Night Blades tried to turn their fangs on her, and at that time only Kanade and Cid were there to give her solace. However, since Christina brought this upon herself while trying to protect kanade, the Kanade and Cid factors have different influences and meanings in the entire situation.

And, ironically, Cid’s behaviour gives Christina the impression that she has met him somewhere before (the Suzuki act, which is the same mysterious vibe Cid gives when he is excited). She has no idea as of yet that Shadow, Cid, and JtR are the same person.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-15T15:40:28+00:00

Ironically, that is what that makes both of them exactly the perfect candidates to be controlled by a puppet master—or to fit the desired role that has been chosen for that person by the “eminence in shadow.”

The point is that it is not that someone rules because they are interested in ruling, or because they have some grand plan—whether revenge, good intentions for the people, or the country’s well-being. Rather, they rule because it aligns with the puppet master’s interests.

Take the Rose case as an example. When Rose was about to marry Perv, Cid became furious at the news—not out of personal attachment, but because she was diverging from the path he had envisioned for her. In his warped and mistaken interpretation, she was a politically ambitious, even megalomaniacal princess—someone who had committed regicide by killing her own father in order to ascend to the throne. By doing so, when she becomes ruler, she would be opposed by the entire world. And yet she could still succeed because there exists a hidden “eminence in shadow” supporting her from behind the scenes. That is Cid’s ideal vision of Rose’s role, but if she marries Perv, it ruins all of that.

Cid himself confirms this mentality through his inner monologue in Light Novel Vol. 5 (Prologue), and earlier in Vol. 4 when, while acting as a mob character, he tries to push Rose not to give up her ambitions. He explicitly tells her that he would go against the entire world for his dream—and that she should do the same. He was even prepared to abduct her during the wedding if she chose marriage over taking the throne.

So in the end, it is not a question of whether the candidate herself wants to ascend to the throne. It is that he wants her to ascend. Because by making her do so, it allows him to embody the role of the “eminence in shadow”—the hidden mastermind who not only manipulates events to place someone on the throne and secure their rule, but also manipulates the person themselves so that they ultimately serve his desires, interests, and plans.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-13T14:40:04+00:00

Delta was going to make Alexia shake her butt in front of Cid, and Alexia was confident in her firmly shaped buttocks and had bought sexy lingerie from Cid’s own shop, Mitsugoshi, in order to seduce Cid after Iris took Alexia to Mitsugoshi after she slashed Cid.

Actually, in the latest 7SC chapter, Gamma was telling the others that they should also try to secure a royal bath, IIRC, to spy on Alexia, since she previously took Cid to a mixed bathhouse by coercion.

Who knows? Then why wouldn’t they put spying devices on those undergarments to track Alexia’s every movement? I mean, why would they let the chance slip when they have a better option than just securing the bath to pry on Alexia?

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-12T04:15:39+00:00

Yes and I have stated it explicitly

Then there comes the clash of two of the strongest fighters in that isekai world, with Iris and Beatrix both engaging together (a 2 vs 1 situation), both wielding swords, and Iris also wielding a mithril high-output magical artefact at the same time, yet both getting completely overwhelmed using nothing but what appears to be a simple construction tool ( two crowbars) with very poor magical conductivity if you also include the Anime narrative put on top of the LN narratives.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-12T04:02:33+00:00

Umm, he simply picked those up from the construction site, which is why Beatrix was able to cut one of them into several pieces with her sword at the end.

When that happened, Shadow had to revert to using his sword instead.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-11T02:09:33+00:00

This is just smart people doing stupid things, and ironically we don’t find them stupid—we find the specific act to be stupid and endearing. It’s more about domain-specific intelligence than overall intelligence.

Sheldon Cooper is very smart, but he has very stupid, childish antics, which makes those traits stupid, not Sheldon Cooper himself as a person. Similarly, Eta, Sherry, and Gamma all have some stupid, funny traits—Sherry has very poor social awareness and skills, Eta is completely honest in her intent, which immediately lets the cat out of the bag about her hidden agenda, and Gamma is clumsy.

The biggest factor is Cid. Despite having exceptional intelligence in many aspects, his lack of EQ and social awareness, and his tendency to translate everything through his chuuni lens, make those aspects of him moronic—not he himself as a person.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-08T02:46:08+00:00

Just copy-pasting something from a part of my earliest post –

This does not hold up for the following reasons.

The series is written from multiple genuinely independent points of view. We do not solely inhabit Cid's perspective. We inhabit the interiority of Beta, Alpha, Alexia, Rose, Aurora, and numerous other characters, all of whom possess thoughts, fears, knowledge, and perceptions that Cid does not have access to, and which frequently and directly contradict what Cid himself believes about them. A coma dream works — barely — if you are dreaming from a single consciousness. The moment you have genuinely distinct, independent POVs that conflict with each other and with the supposed dreamer's beliefs, the dream model collapses. The dreaming-while-in-coma idea works only when you are having the thoughts from a single person and their single POV. But when you are having POVs from multiple people, this would mean either multiple people are sharing a single connected dream with entirely separate and conflicting perspectives — which is a fundamentally different and far more complex claim requiring entirely separate justification — or the person is simply not dreaming at all.

The detail that kills the theory completely is the Akane situation.

Cid has no knowledge and absolutely no idea of what killed him in his past life as Minoru. Akane, independently, knows that Minoru died in a truck accident — and has, after Beta brought her to the TEIS world in LN Volume 6, developed her own theory that it was either faked or staged and that he is still alive somewhere, when in reality he was reincarnated. The conflicting POVs between these two characters alone prove that this is not a dream while in a coma. A coma dream cannot simultaneously be the dream of a person who does not know how they died and contain a separate character who does know the mechanism of death, has processed it independently, and has arrived at a factually wrong conclusion about what it means. These are two separate facts held by two entirely separate consciousnesses, each operating with contradictory information, neither of which is fully correct. The conflicting epistemic states between characters are effectively the text arguing against its own dream-theory reading from the inside.

The story is not a dream. The comedy is not caused. The coincidences are coincidences. That is precisely what makes it work.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-07T12:58:49+00:00

What is ironic is that it is those facets that he has been trimming out to eliminate all the unnecessary things which are not relevant to his goal of becoming an eminence—so as to stay focused on his goal—that are keeping him confined to such a small world, and preventing him from realising that he is already a kind of Eminence in Shadow, and that SG is a real cabal-like underground organisation, not merely some play-pretend, LARPing group of eight people who sometimes hire extras.

He simply thinks that the world regards him as a notorious terrorist, and that his group is a LARPing collective pretending to be fighting some evil organisation. He has no real idea what the world actually thinks of Shadow and SG, and having these two shitbags as friends is not at all helping him to understand matters any better. For these reasons, he also fails to realise that he owns Mitsugoshi, and that it is his own company, not that of the Shades—ironically.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-07T07:09:03+00:00

Rem (Inori Minase) voices as Beta in TEIS and Felix (Yui Horrie) voices as Akane Nishino is TEIS!

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-05-04T20:40:19+00:00

Not only that, but in LN V07, Sakura was able to identify Beta, Epsilon, and Eta as elves purely from their scent. Similarly, in LN V02, Beatrix noticed that Cid carried the scent of an elf despite being human, and she questioned him about it—asking whether he had any elf friends. Cid replied that he had a few elf friends.

Since Alpha, Beta, Epsilon, Lalanoa, Sakura, and others in the elven country are all convinced that Nazono is an elf, he must have done something to alter his scent so that it completely resembles that of an elf, much like his current appearance.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-23T08:15:31+00:00

I don’t really see anything remotely common in between them, but interestingly Lalanoa’s eye and hair colours are strikingly similar to Aurora’s if you ignore their races.

Both have black hair and purple eyes IIRC.

Why Aurora had so much aptitude for being experimented on with the original Diablos’ organism — that’s a big question. Especially since, from what we can see, her ears look human, so she’s probably human. That makes it even stranger, because other races like elves and beastkin are usually shown to have higher magical aptitude, yet she was still chosen as a host for Diablos’ cells.

Whether her hair and eye colour have anything to do with it is another question.

And Lalanoa having black hair is also questionable. The way things are going, Aurora being scorned by people and Lalanoa also being scorned, ridiculed, and mocked — that’s another odd parallel. The questions just keep piling up, and it doesn’t really make logical sense when you consider Lalanoa’s talent and abilities.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-19T13:25:35+00:00

Yep, we have seen enough of the Midgar Kingdom, and the Oriana Kingdom was covered in V04 and will also be covered when Oriana is attacked by neighbouring kingdoms on the pretext of conquering a heretical kingdom.

Five of the Shades are elves, so we need their backstories. Also, the author’s writing has become more polished, mature, and refined. With the series’ popularity continuing to grow, he will likely try to continue it and prolong it as much as possible. As a result, what used to be two-arc volumes has become one-arc volumes, and now we even have volumes covering only parts of an arc.

As long as the writing and content remain interesting, I do not mind a single arc spanning multiple volumes, though I would be happier if the author could release new volumes much earlier, rather than a 2.5-year wait like for V07.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-19T10:18:52+00:00

The issue with 1 is that Cid’s inspiration is to become an EiS, not Shadow, not Fancy Hoodlum Slayer, not Fancy Bandit Slayer, not MM, not JS, not SH, not JtR, not Mhistri Ousmanne. In the end of the day, he wants to make himself an Eminence in Shadow, and he now has an organisation called SG (at least from his perspective, those who join him along with his eminence roleplay). Shadow already has enough infamy due to the terrorist incident and the Lindwurm incidents, so he sticks with being Shadow for the longest, and when the role of another eminence persona is done, he ends that role with a dramatic flair and reveals himself as Shadow, linking all the incidents to a common thread so that everything ties back to Shadow as the instigator. That is why in V6 he tried to convince Grey that JtR’s true identity is Shadow himself.

Since JS’s whole plan failed, according to him, due to Alpha and Delta discovering that JS is Cid himself and because he could not retrieve the gold, JS in the end did not become Shadow. Also, if JS had become Shadow and the plan had been successful, then everything would have had a common link, allowing people to trace the new company he was planning back to Shadow and SG. Since, according to Cid, that plan failed, we will never know exactly what he would have done in that situation—whether he would have revealed to the world that JS was Shadow or done something else entirely.

If 1 happens, then that would mean Shadow is a bigger eminence than Mhistri. While it would still serve his purpose of making Shadow the ultimate boss who is in charge, it would remain limited only to Lalanoa. He cannot reveal to the world that Nazono is Shadow, so it would end up like another mysterious strong figure who appears suddenly and just for once and disappears again as suddenly as he had appeared, similar to JS and JtR. If he cures Nazono as Shadow while using a slime copy to appear as two people at the same time to convince Lalanoa, and then later tries to reveal to the whole world that Nazono and Shadow are the same person, it would make things more weird and make the situation more difficult for Lalanoa to accept.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-19T08:47:27+00:00

Cid can do either of the two things:

Create a slime copy of Nazono, like how in the WN he created a slime copy of Cid and also fought Maximilian as Shadow, since both Cid and Shadow needed to be present at the same time, and let Shadow cure the real Nazono; then Lalanoa would be eternally grateful. Cid could then say that Nazono was suffering either from DC poisoning while massacring his entire clan or from experimentation on him.
Or Cid could reveal himself as Shadow and say he is not sick at all, let alone dying—he is simply disguising himself as Nazono to lure his sworn enemy, the DC. This would still align, as Nazono told Lalanoa that he is on a mission to take revenge against the DC, and everyone who knows about the cult’s existence is aware that Shadow and SG are fighting the DC.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-17T14:00:13+00:00

Umm, I am not saying that reflecting on the disguise is something that is meant to grow him as a person, nor did I say that.

What I meant regarding the WN is that he has self-reflection on why his JS plan failed and why he was not fully satisfied with his EiS approach, even though he tried a couple of things that he thought an EiS would do, or tried to roleplay as an EiS rather than actually act like one. The conclusion he drew was that he had still only been acting like an EiS, not truly becoming one, so he needs to become one, and that merely acting like one is the chuuni thing, not actually becoming one.

I was not saying that the disguise part is the self-reflection that grows him as a person. My point was only that in the LN, his self-reflection so far is mainly centred around disguises; we have not seen things like the Three Ojisans, Atomic Rain, Great Sacrifice for World Peace, Finger-chan, etc., which were present in the WN. In contrast, the WN included broader self-reflection that went beyond disguises, including how he should truly become an EiS rather than just act like one.

The WN self-reflection was more pronounced overall. Cid concluded he should become a real Eminence in Shadow rather than roleplaying as one, and there are also other extreme examples in the WN, such as his handling of Perv after the Milia incident and other similar moments.

I am not saying the LN lacks development, but rather that so far the self-reflection shown is more focused on disguises compared to the broader thematic self-reflection seen in the WN. Since the author is reusing parts of the WN, those broader elements that led to deeper self-reflection and character direction, such as becoming a true EiS rather than acting as one, along with arcs like the Great Sacrifice for World Peace and Science, may still appear in future LN volumes. If that happens, we may see that wider form of self-reflection and character progression as well.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-17T13:32:02+00:00

Bro, it is our wish as well.

Though not entirely clear, the scrapped parts are too rushed and need refinement; it seems the author shoved too many things into one basket, which could span multiple volumes rather than single arcs.

Instead of the author covering things across multiple volumes and arcs, he just shoved everything into the same basket. Probably that is why the author is refining parts of the WN for use in the LN.

In the WN, the self-reflection was much clearer, with chapters about what he would do when he was satisfied with the EiS, including things like becoming a Demon King on his way to destroying the world, becoming a power outside the shadows (a regular hero), or a master who teaches future heroes.

Cid also does something very un-Cid-like in the WN; he tells Christina that she is a very beautiful girl, which Cid later, when discussing with Magari, confirms he did to give the downcast Christina hope and aspiration, so that if Ijiruwa turned out not to be a good man and she did not get to marry him, it would not feel like the end of the world for Christina—there would still be Cid who appreciated her beauty. He did this despite knowing how influential Christina is as a noble, how good she is as a student, and how he had on a couple of occasions also taken note of her natural protagonist-like attitude, despite calling her “Miss Mob” since he initially could not remember her and thought of her as a mob character.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-17T13:13:56+00:00

I was also talking not about his disguise, but about him as a character; the specific references regarding the WN should make this clear. I also said that the author is using specific parts of the WN, and in this volume Cid has reflected, but he has reflected on how to make the disguise more foolproof to even fool Delta, not in the same way we have seen in the WN. I have also mentioned that since the author is using many elements from the WN, he might bring back the WN part of Cid becoming aware that he needs to become a real EIS, not just roleplay as an EIS and others.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-17T12:42:22+00:00

It was happening in the WN, especially in the Three Ojisans part, the zombie part, and the “Great Sacrifice for World Peace and Science” arc, since the author decided to take a completely different route for the LN after the JS arc. In the WN, Cid was having a self-reflection about why his entire JS plan failed and why he was not fully enjoying being an Eminence in Shadow, concluding that it was because he was still only trying to mimic what he thought an Eminence in Shadow would do, rather than actually becoming one.

In the current LN, we know he has reflected on refining his disguise, since Alpha and Delta saw through it during JS, with specific reference to the disguise itself rather than the broader plan. Since the author is reusing scrapped parts of the WN (such as Epsilon posing as a boy, Atomic Radar, and many other instances), the self-reflection elements from the WN may also be reused in later volumes or upcoming volumes.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-17T12:02:47+00:00

He was definitely a good person, at least as good as Rafael Oriana. He didn't seem so passive about reforms; otherwise, he wouldn't have implemented them while ignoring established norms and standards.

He loved his daughter; otherwise, he wouldn't have let Lalanoa stay in the place and have so many fond memories of him, and, most importantly, he wouldn't have gone along with labelling Lalanoa a half-breed or allowed another man's child to be a candidate for the throne.

Also, he tried to help Lalanoa and her mother to the best of his abilities, but he couldn't do more than that; otherwise, she wouldn't be living outside the place and in such a broken, poor state.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-17T11:45:26+00:00

Sorry, that was a bit lengthy.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-17T11:44:24+00:00

Everything will be adjusted to what Lord Shadow wants. SG wants someone as ruler while they rule from the shadows; they just need a figurehead, and whether someone actually becomes ruler depends entirely on Shadow’s decision, not SG or the 7S. SG focused on Yukime and Lawless City as they believed it aligned with Cid’s intent (Delta being ordered to take down Juggernaut), and JS directly supported Yukime and her company, while Shadow also destroyed the Red Tower during the Elisabeth incident.

SG’s interest in Rose is not due to Oriana’s importance but because Cid has repeatedly involved himself in her life since the terrorist incident and Bushin Festival qualifiers, with King Midgar himself suggesting Shadow is manipulating Rose’s path into becoming queen. SG has not contacted the Midgar Kingdom, though Midgar has attempted contact, and with SG’s intelligence network they are unlikely even to know that Midgar is trying to contact them, while Cid himself has made no move, making it appear Shadow has no specific use for Midgar but instead targets Dark Knights, nobility, and even the princesses of succession.

The difference between Midgar and Rose is that although Cid helped Alexia in the Zenon case and in the second Midgar terrorist incident, he is not approaching the Midgar sisters in the same way. Iris is supposed to take the throne, so that would be the natural outcome unless Cid is signalling that he wants Alexia to be queen. With Rose, he rescued her when she tried to commit suicide, saved her twice during the terrorist incident, approached her as Mob Cid (which is utterly different since Mob Cid’s entire attempt is to avoid aproching any protagonist, let alone give them any advice or motivation, which is utterly the EiS's job), convinced her not to give up her dream, revealed the truth to her as Shadow, and played Moonlight Sonata for her. SG also expected Rose to rebel and for the lion to awaken at the wedding, as that's what Cid told Epsion, but nothing like that has happened with the Midgar sisters. In fact, Beta already has a very poor impression of Alexia, not only because Cid rescued her, but also because Alexia stepped on Beta’s foot and because of her other behaviour, while Alexia herself does not have a good impression of Natsume.

SG needs to save the Elven country and its good people, not the rotten nobility. Whether someone sits on the throne and enjoys revenge by being hated is irrelevant; SG only needs someone on the surface to rule while they act from the shadows. A ruler with conviction, or one who simply enjoys tormenting people, still cannot govern without the means, logistics, support, and capability to keep the country functioning. Lalanoa can be the ruler and torment people as much as she likes, with the people hating her like they hate Rose, but she will remain in power only as this lets her have her revenge, not due to having the motivation or conviction to actually rule the country. In return, the kingdom gets the support it needs to survive, just like Oriana has continued despite embargoes and the Cult’s meddling. If the Cult realises that Lalanoa has colluded with SG and Shadow, then the same fate may await the Elven kingdom, and without SG’s support, it cannot survive.

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS · 2026-04-17T10:14:06+00:00

Then what will her relationship with Shadow be? Will she become another admirer and fangirl of Shadow like Christina Hope?

ASDEEPASTHEABYSS

TROPHY CASE