Becoming a Shadow in the New World

Seeing that the girl wanted to ask other people, the old man stopped her.

"Young lady, don't bother looking. I've been here all day, and the person you're talking about hasn't come here today."

"But, but he was just here a moment ago."

"You must have seen wrong. In this kind of weather, if someone is wearing a black overcoat, I will definitely remember them. Even if you ask other people, they will most likely give the same answer."

Watching the old man leave, the blonde nun was lost in thought.

"Am I hallucinating? But God told me that it was him just now."

She wasn't hallucinating; it was someone else who was. If Sid had seen this ridiculous scene, he would have completed one item on his list of things he "had to say if he wanted to become a Shadow-level user."

"Those who see through illusions live in illusions. Will they drift with the tide and willingly sink into depravity, or will they stand tall and uphold their own beliefs? It's truly something to look forward to."

Hmm, Sid would probably say that.

Chapter Sixteen: Annihilating the Teacher

"Petting, little kitty, come here and let me pet you."

Inside the monastery, Sid stroked a cat in each hand, a sweet smile on his face.

"Don't worry, don't worry, we'll find you adoptive families soon. Stop licking me."

Sid stood up, put the two kittens off his lap, took out a piece of paper to dry the spots the kittens had licked, turned and moved to a secluded corner of the monastery, where he took out a bag of cat food.

Don't ask if the kittens will steal the cat food if you put it in the monastery. If these tiny creatures, no bigger than his palm, can break his seal, he'll change his name.

As he poured the cat food into the bowl, Sid began to call out to the kittens around him.

"Hey, hey, time to eat."

Hearing his voice, the kittens that had been playing around gathered together to eat.

Watching the kittens lying on the ground, nibbling on their cat food, a heartwarming scene unfolded before Sid's eyes, but something felt off.

“1, 2, 3, ... 23”.

"…………???!!!"

"1, 2, 3, 4... 23!!!"

Sid instantly snapped out of his reverie of petting the cats; it seemed like one of the cats was missing.

If he remembered correctly, Xia Yin had a total of 24 cats, 23 of which were on the field.

Damn it, he just gave Natsune Yese an example yesterday, saying that one of the cats wanted to run away from home, and today one is missing. What kind of luck is he? Does his word become law?

No, it should be said that he had some bad luck all day.

His body turned to mush after being disturbed in the morning, and then his sister appeared out of nowhere and seemed to be staying on Itogami Island. It was expected that he would be bothered for a while. Next, he failed the weekly Shadow Trial dungeon due to an illusion, and Kojou Akatsuki's suspicion level rose. Finally, one of the cats that Natsune Yase paid him to take care of mysteriously disappeared.

Ahhh... Tonight, I'll sneak out of Itogami Island and do my old job to relax. Hopefully, I can catch a big fish tonight to soothe my frustrations from the day.

Despite his thoughts, Sid's feet moved quickly as he ran straight towards the monastery gate. After all, if this runaway cat ran down the mountain and some idle person notified the stray animal control team, he might be lucky enough to find it at the animal shelter, but if he was unlucky, he would only get a corpse.

After running out of the monastery, Sid paused and looked back at the monastery.

He never marked the kittens or remembered their scent, because a pile of ruins blocked the exit of the monastery. Humans could easily cross it, but for the kittens, given their current size, it was impossible for them to cross the ruins and leave the monastery.

The fact that this one cat ran away from home may just be an accident. It's just that this one is developing faster than others, and in his opinion, the other cats are not yet capable of crossing the ruins.

But what if? What if after all his hard work finding the runaway cat, another cat is missing?

But there's not enough time now, and I don't have time to mark them one by one, so...

"Knot."

With a casual wave of his hand, Sid conjured up an illusory barrier that enveloped the monastery, only to vanish into the void a few seconds later.

Magic, isn't it amazing?

"Got it, find it soon and come back soon."

After setting up the barrier, Sid ran down the mountain without looking back.

If a magic student were here, they would probably be astonished by Sid's actions. He didn't make any movements or chant any spells; he simply waved his hand and created a barrier. The barrier's point wasn't in reality; it was in the void. Could this be the god of magic himself?

Magic was Sid’s greatest gain after the world merged. In Sid’s understanding, magic only needed to be divided into three parts, which were also the three most important parts: magic power, knowledge, and control.

Magic power is the foundation of magic, knowledge is the structure of magic, control is the filling of magic, and the rest of gestures, hand seals, and spells are merely auxiliary.

That's right, these are all auxiliary means of the third part, "control".

Magic and knowledge are unchangeable; if either one is substandard, one cannot cast magic. One can only honestly train these two skills and cannot use any tricks or shortcuts.

The control is different, and this can be enhanced through other means. Hand gestures and seals facilitate the flow of magic for better control, while spells are a combination of psychological suggestion and physical memory to form an instinctive reaction.

But for Sid, these tricks were essentially impure things—sacrificing melee capabilities for ranged attacks—and a lowering of his standards.

Hand gestures and hand seals occupy the movement of the hands, and incantations will remind the opponent. Some very complex spells may take several years to prepare. Only those who can release spells at close range in the instant of battle are true magicians. Others are at most just tools that can cast spells.

Of course, this was Sid's requirement for himself. He knew that if he released these words, he would be wanted by the entire magic world. After all, according to this requirement, more than 99.99% of people in the magic world would have to be kicked out of the ranks of magicians, including the top ones. They might be able to cast low-level spells instantly, but they would have to use tricks to cast high-level spells.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Damn it, where did they go?"

Several hours had passed, and it was almost dusk, but Sid still hadn't found the cat that had run away from home.

During those hours, Sid searched all the places in the vicinity where cats might be hiding, and also went to animal shelters and places where cats were euthanized, but to no avail.

Now he regrets taking Ye Se Natsune's money. If it were two days ago, he would most likely have given up by now, since the cat left on its own and it had nothing to do with him.

But now that he's taken the money, if the cat dies because of him before finding someone to adopt it, he'll not only have to apologize to Xia Yin and get a full refund, but he'll also have to keep taking care of the cat. It'll be a huge loss. Why didn't he think of this yesterday? Money really isn't that easy to earn.

Just as Sid was about to give up on himself with these thoughts, he narrowed his eyes. He sensed that two humanoid life forms had entered the barrier set up outside the monastery.

Damn it, when it rains, it pours. Now I don't have time to look for the cat, so I'll just have to pay up. He set up a binding barrier, the kind that allows you to enter but not exit.

He didn't know what those two people were doing at an abandoned monastery, nor was he interested in knowing, but he knew with his eyes closed what would happen when they tried to leave but found they couldn't get out.

First, he will make a phone call to summon someone. Then, the barrier will be discovered and reported to the Itogami Island Guard. Next, the Guard will investigate one by one. With modern technology and the fact that he has no way to hide, they will probably find him very soon. At that time, his identity as a Shadow Power will be discovered.

No! No way! His true identity as a Shadow Power user was discovered for such a ridiculous reason, and he was destined to become a comedic character who went out of control and destroyed the world. No! No! He couldn't accept it at all.

Thinking of this, Sid ran up the mountain even faster. If he could, he would have loved to transform into a shadow and run to the monastery right now.

"Tap, tap tap..."

Finally, after more than ten minutes, Sid arrived at the monastery gate. Looking at the barrier that had not yet been triggered, Sid was so moved that tears almost fell from his eyes.

He casually dispelled the barrier and looked into the monastery. He was quite curious who would come to this abandoned monastery. In all this time, he had only seen Natsumi Yase and him come here.

Looking around, Sid saw a man dressed in black missionary clothes kneeling before the rusty cross in the monastery, with a small man in a black cloak standing behind him, holding a pom-pom in his hands.

Hey, wait a minute, that furry ball looks like the lost cat number 24.

"Um…!"

Attracted by the sound of footsteps, the man who had been praying stood up, his tall figure looking at Sid.

Chapter Seventeen seems to have encountered a scammer.

"I never expected to meet someone blessed by the Lord in this blasphemous place. It's both an honor and a joke to me."

The tall figure showed a hint of surprise when he saw Sid, then shook his head, marveling at something Sid couldn't understand.

"Um... hello, sir, who is this 'person blessed by God' you mentioned? Are there any other people here?"

Sid looked around to make sure that there were only the three of them there.

"No doubt about it, I am addressing you as Your Majesty. May I ask how Your Majesty is addressed?"

"Um... Sid, just call me Sid, uncle. Um... uncle, I don't have any money."

Sid felt like he had encountered a con artist. He had seen this kind of trickery used in his previous life to deceive the elderly or teenagers with adolescent delusions.

After all, he had been pursuing supernatural powers in his previous life, and his family was quite wealthy. This led to him occasionally encountering people who tried to swindle him out of money. Of course, he beat them all up. It wasn't that they didn't believe; if they didn't believe, they wouldn't have pursued it. It was just that they couldn't even beat him, yet they had the nerve to teach him magic. It was truly laughable.

“Your Majesty, I am Rudolf Ostach, a teacher from the Church of Western Europe. I am not deceiving you; you are indeed a person blessed by the Lord. If I had met you sooner, I would have brought you to the Church and recommended Your Majesty to be the new Son of God.”

This is such a familiar tactic. Next, will they say that because of a health problem, my divinely blessed talent has been sealed? Originally, it would have cost a lot of money to unseal it, but since they want to take me as their apprentice, they only need to give me a few million or even hundreds of thousands of Zeni as an apprenticeship gift to unseal it.

Seriously, you even came up with the name and titles of the church, and it's an existing church! How dare you do that? Aren't you afraid the church will find out and come knocking on your door?

"Unfortunately……"

Ah, here it comes! Hurry up and tell me, my fists have been itching for a punching bag all day, finally I have a punching bag to let me vent.

"I have important matters to attend to right now, and I am unsure whether I will be able to continue fulfilling my duties afterward."

Have you eaten? If not, then eat one of my... You're not following the script, which is making things difficult for me. Never mind, just in case I accidentally hit the wrong person, I'll let you sober up a bit more.

“Your Majesty Sid, I must fulfill my duty and forgive me for being unable to take Your Majesty to the church, but Your Majesty should not continue to live in this cursed land.”

Oh, oh, oh, here it comes, it's really here this time. Oh, so it's just a different way of saying it to fool people. I was worried that there might be a mistake.

Let me guess, are you going to say next that the island is about to sink, and that Noah's Ark is about to arrive, and that I should go and buy a ticket to board Noah's Ark?

"And I will use my own body to drag this cursed land into the sea..."

6. I was right! Let's get started. Let's begin my favorite part from my past life: beating up swindlers. Swindlers like you should be beaten up and handed over to the police.