The Eminence in Shadow: Season 1

Akane Nishino is a famous actress and good student who is friendly with her classmates; however, her behavior around them is a front she uses to conceal her own anger and bitterness, left behind in the wake of an incident in which a fan of hers kidnapped and molested her. She despises everyone around her, classmate Minoru Kageno in particular; he barely acknowledges her existence and seems to struggle to even remember her name. He is briefly shown to carry weights in his bag and clothing, to inc

In this new world, Minorou Kageno is now reborn as the Cid Kagenou, the son of minor nobles of the Kingdom of Midgar, Baron and Lady Kagenou, and younger brother to a sister, Claire. In keeping with his previous life, Cid trains in secret and resumes his vigilante lifestyle by killing bandits to become the secret mastermind that he adores so much. One day, Cid discovers a living blob of rotting flesh and, after experimenting on it, succeeds in curing the curse afflicting it, returning it to its

The Seven Shadows split up to hunt the cult all over the world; Cid believes they simply grew up and tired of role-playing with him. He enrolls Midgar Academy as Claire did, where he hides his abilities and deliberately avoids standing out, choosing two extremely average boys, Skel and Po, to be his friends. As a forfeit for doing badly on a test, Cid is forced to publicly humiliate himself by offering a fake love confession to the much higher-class Alexia, a princess of Midgar; Cid plays along

Now locked in a cell next to a mutated human girl, Alexia has her blood stolen by a cult scientist, who claims that it contains demon DNA. Cid is tortured by knights for Alexia's location, but since he has trained himself to withstand pain this amount of torture is nothing for him, he pretends to be a pathetic but innocent NPC, thinking it makes him look cool. After five long days, Princess Iris orders that Cid be released. Alpha suddenly reappears to Cid, bringing news that they have continued

Zenon identifies Cid as the one behind recent attacks on the cult and announces himself as one of the cult's core members. The demon girl rampages through the city and fights Princess Iris. Alpha reveals herself to Iris as a member of Shadow Garden, defeats the demon with a single powerful blow then vanishes. Cid duels Zenon and dominates him; Princess Alexia, who has no idea that Shadow is Cid in disguise, is captivated by his sword style, which expresses the heart of the style she has searched

The false Shadow Garden continues committing murders. A recovered cult relic is given by Iris to the pink-haired student, Sherry, the kingdom's foremost researcher. Cid's friends Po and Skel take him to a new department store, where he discovers that his subordinate Gamma opened the store to fund Shadow Garden, with branches in every city in the world; Cid is impressed but once again remains convinced that Gamma is role-playing, unaware he now owns dozens of stores and is effectively one of the

Nu informs Cid the murderer she interrogated was a typical Cult foot soldier, an orphan brainwashed with drugs and magic. One such soldier, Rex, is in the city on a Cult mission. During their conversation, Cid is preoccupied, as Skel and Po have entered him into the academy's sword tournament to impress girls; Nu mistakenly thinks Cid's rambling about the festival is him plotting to deal with Rex. At the festival, Cid duels student president Rose, a princess of the neighboring kingdom of Oriana;

Cid reveals that he was excited by the chance to look cool fighting terrorists, and saved Rose merely to appear heroic; Rose, meanwhile, mistakenly believes Cid sacrificed himself out of love for her. After the students are taken to the auditorium, leaving Cid's body in the classroom, Cid secretly revives and heals himself. Rex attacks Sherry to retrieve the relic, but Iris' Crimson Knights help her escape. Cid, who is also killing terrorists, reunites with and saves Sherry. Sherry identifies th

Sherry activates the control relic, deactivating the Eye and its barrier. Cid arrives disguised as Eminence in Shadow, and Shadow Garden begins slaughtering the terrorists. Iris, believing that Shadow Garden is responsible for the attack, is enraged by their appearance. Cid finds Gaunt Knight burning Sherry's research and reveals he is Ruslan, Sherry's adoptive father. Ruslan explains he was once a master swordsman until an illness weakened him. Believing the Eye might cure him, he cultivated a

Cid is contacted by Alpha, who requests he visit the sacred city of Lindwurm. Beta, Epsilon, and Nu also receive a mission from Alpha. While in Lindwurm to attend the upcoming Goddess Trial, Alexia and Iris visit Cid's department store, where Alexia, planning to try to seduce Cid, purchases thong underwear. A flashback shows that after defeating Ruslan, Cid pretended to have miraculously survived the injury he received while rescuing Rose. Rose, who has sworn to accept what she perceives as his

Cid visits a hot spring and happens to meet Alexia in one of the baths. Hiding her embarrassment, Alexia explains the nature of the Goddess Trial: challengers will summon and duel the spirits of famous warriors, with the strength of the challenger directly related to the strength of the summoned spirit. Since she is busy dealing with the Archbishop's murder, Alexia asks Cid to assist her by joining the Crimson Knights; Cid refuses and nonchalantly leaves, fully exposing himself to the intrigued

Alpha reveals she is an elf and a descendant of Olivier, the hero who severed Diablos' left arm one thousand years ago. Cid decides to enter the summoning circle following him and disappears within it, finding himself within the Sanctuary. Alpha appears with the rest of Shadow Garden; after they kidnap Nelson, they enter the Sanctuary as well, as do Princess Alexia and Rose. Cid meets an imprisoned Aurora, who has been trapped for a thousand years; after Cid frees her, she reveals that the Sanct

Epsilon reveals she and the named Shadows were personally brought into Shadow Garden by Cid were all girls experimented on by the Cult; Cid cured them of the demonic/cursed side effects, leaving their strength intact. They enter Sanctuary's archive and steal the records of the Cult's experiments. Delta reveals she possesses berserker-level strength, allowing her to kill hundreds of Nelson's copies without any magic. Meanwhile, Cid and Aurora reach Sanctuary's core. The core is sealed behind chai

Cid grabs Olivier and bites her coronoid arteries to kill her, revealing to a stunned Nelson he allowed Olivier to stab him in a way in which she missed his organs. He also reveals the secret he figured out: the Sanctuary absorbs magic from the air, so by compressing the whole of his magic into a solid mass within his eye, he can use his magic again. Cid sets off his atomic bomb spell, destroying Nelson and the Sanctuary core. Cid bids farewell to Aurora, who kisses him and offers him the hope t

The Bushin Festival arrives, attracting hundreds of fighters to the royal capital; Cid plans to shock the crowd by disguising himself as weak and defeating everyone he fights with astonishing ease. Using magical slime makeup, Gamma gives Cid the pathetic face of Mundane Mann, an unskilled knight who died in poverty. Annerose, a foreign knight who fought at the Goddess Trial, witnesses the disguised Cid allowing himself to be beaten by a fighter named Quinton in an encounter on a street before th

Rose's escape makes her appear guilty, which has dire consequences for inter-kingdom politics. Alexia decides to find and protect her, but Beta stalls her from interfering, already well aware that Rose is hiding in the city's labyrinthine underground ruins. Cid meets an elf named Beatrix who is searching for her missing niece and happens to greatly resemble Alpha but refrains from telling her that he saw an elf who looks like her. As Mundane, Cid faces Goldy for his first duel, watched by Annero

Cid's elder sister Claire visits, but he avoids her by pretending to join Skel in hunting Rose for a sizable reward. Cid actually respects Rose for risking everything to escape an unwanted marriage. Cid overhears the Moonlight Sonata, a personal favorite musical piece of his for its brooding tone, being played on a nearby piano and quickly finds Epsilon is the one performing it. She explains she has been able to cultivate useful connections in the Oriana Kingdom by posing as a skilled pianist. A

After sadistically punishing Cid for neglecting her, Claire reveals she has replaced the still-absent Rose in the festival and insists Cid watch her from VIP seating. Cid sits beside Iris, who apologizes for the Zenon incident. They discuss the dark knight competitor, Beatrix the Elvish War Goddess, the festival's very first champion, and Cid realizes Beatrix is Alpha's aunt. Cid sneaks away to don his Mundane disguise to duel Annerose. Perv takes his seat beside Iris, who despises him; he expre

Cid sits beside Princess Iris and Beatrix to watch Claire's next match. Perv continues drugging the King, hoping Rose will try to save him. He also plans to have the king publicly assassinate Iris and Princess Alexia's father, the King of Midgar, to cause war. Claire wins her match and furiously searches for Cid, who is again absent from the audience. Iris duels Mundane, but has repeated terrifying premonitions of Mundane killing her instantly with a single counterattack; Mundane shortly disarms

Alpha meets Rose and offers her membership in Shadow Garden, which Rose accepts. Amidst Beatrix' and Shadow's duel, Princess Iris joins the former in combat against him. After a fight that comes to span much of the city, Shadow again brandishes his atomic, city-obliterating attack, terrifying both Iris and Beatrix, but vanishes at the last second before its detonation, leaving Princess Iris enraged, frustrated, and more determined than ever to take her vengeance. Perv is forced to beg his master