The Eminence in Shadow – 31 – The Black Rose Blooms

Last week we got some majestic setup for the season-closing Oriana arc, but I didn’t know we’d get so much payoff right here and now! I am not complaining; this arc is moving, but doesn’t feel rushed and still allows for plenty of quieter funny moments like the sniping between Epsilon and Margaret.

It’s when he’s with Epsilon that the Black Rose comes up, but Cid thinks she’s simply talking about a Black Rose; the flower, because of course he freakin’ does. But now that he knows Rose is holding back for her mother’s sake, his main priority is freeing Queen Reina, which he hopes will free Rose to become the Tyrant.

What he finds instead is that when it comes to Reina and Perv, things have gone from a fantasy isekai to a soap opera. He believes if Rose learns the truth, it will enrage her sufficiently enough … to become the Tyrant. I loved Cid’s inverted face as he endured what is clearly his least favorite genre.

When Cid meets with Rose again, it’s as Shadow, whom Rose assumes is there to kill her. Instead, he asks her to follow him to the balcony outside Reina’s chambers. There, they not only overhear her and Perv getting it on, but discussing all of their schemes.

Reina admits to being the one who drugged her husband the king, all so she and Perv could be together. And once he marries Rose as a mere formality, they’ll “get rid” of her too so they can rule Oriana. Rose may well be enraged later, but in the moment, she is so disgusted she starts vomiting uncontrollably, then passes out.

Cutting through this devastatingly heartrending scene (considering what Rose is going through), Cid drops his Shadow voice to lay out his intentions directly, only Rose is out cold, so he gives a half-hearted apology.

With Rose at her absolute nadir, Cid tries one more thing to push her towards rebellion: he appears on her balcony as Cid playing Moonlight Sonata in front of the moon. Rose gives an exhausted, grim smile as she joins him outside, saying she’s killed her father, betrayed by her mother, betrayed Shadow Garden, and is hated by her subjects.

But she still smiles, because through it all, Cid has never been far from her side. Cid tells her he’s split the world into “things that matter” and “things that don’t”, because he had a dream that would be impossible if he didn’t. As scenes of their time together flash by, Rose takes this to mean he’s cast everything else in life aside apart from what matters to him most: her.

Cid goes on to say the world is “too bright”, that it makes it easy to see so much that one can lose sight of what matters. He believes the light of the moon to be the perfect level of illumination, making people look more closely at what matters. He then asks her what she sees in such a moonlit world, in a voice not too dissimilar form Shadow’s, and vanishes, leaving the Black Rose ring on the bench.

Turns out Cid wasn’t trying to give the ring to Rose. He didn’t even leave it there on purpose; it simply fell out of his pocket! But as he tells Epsilon back at the inn, he gave Rose “the key”. When he says “key”, he means the truth Rose needed to hear in order for her to rise in rebellion and become the Tyrant. But Epsilon thinks he’s talking about the key—the Black Rose—which explains why Garden hasn’t been able to find it.

Speaking of the Black Rose, Perv doesn’t open the box that no longer holds it until the day of his freakin’ wedding. I love how after his initial double take, he closes it, repeats the same villainous lines, and re-opens it more than once before completely flipping out. Cid would probably recognize the game too. And like Cid, Perv intends to fake it until he makes it (through the wedding) so he gets the seat at the Rounds Mordred promised.

As a gorgeous but focused Rose walks down the aisle to an organ arrangement of Moonlight Sonata (played by Cid of course) my first thought was How did her locks grow back so fast? But my second thought was just how awesomely she would blow up this wedding and Perv’s plans.

The thing is, Rose believes the ring is a wedding ring from Cid. I don’t think she knows its significance. As Reina tries to stay awake and Perv keeps rifling through his pockets, he says “I do,” and then when presented with the same question, she says “I do not.” It’s one of the most badass moments of the entire show.

Rose lists all of the terrible things she’s done, but is ready to look past those, as long as the kingdom knows the truth about Perv. She lists his misdeeds and pronounces him guilty. Refusing to give up on love, she puts the ring on her finger.

Then, to her surprise, it starts doing all kinds of weird stuff, like glowing, flashing, and finally projecting a kingdom-wide recording of her father the king. Addressing both her and his subjects and knowing he was nearing the edge of reason, he declares Perv Asshat to be the one responsible for destroying his mind, and declares Rose Oriana to be his one and only successor to the throne.

The king’s message ends with him saying he loves Rose, which brings tears to her eyes. When Perv starts bloviating, all of his allies in the court turn on him at once. Tearing off her extensions (she didn’t grow it back!) ripping her gown to reveal her sword, she points it at Perv and prepares to, I assume, take him into custody.

But then all of a sudden his head goes flying in a fountain of blood. Rose looks as shocked as everyone else (including Perv). When the head comes to a stop right in front of Reina, she doesn’t have any reaction until the split-second before her head is separated from her body.

The culprit behind both beheadings is none other than Mordred, who was posing as the priest. Now that the Black Rose has a new master and is operational, he uses his little garage door opener doohickey to use the ring to “open the door” (but not to a garage).

Rose’s ring shoots another beam of light straight up into the sky, creating a portal through which the “Grand Ruler of the Fourth Realm” emerges: Archfiend Ragnarok, a colossal metal dragon. It unleashes its breath and destroys a good chunk of the capital. Reminder that this is the WMD Oriana used against their enemies as a last resort, and it really shouldn’t be in a big built-up city!

Rose is still trying to figure out what the hell is happening when Ragnarok seemingly tries to lash out and kill her; that was my assessment of its gesture, and that also explains why the dragon’s arm is swiftly cleaved off by Lord Shadow (revealing cables and tubes). Whatever else goes down here, he intends to keep protecting Rose, for whom he has such grand plans.

The Eminence in Shadow – 30 – Blunt Bangs’ Dream

Cid may have rushed to the Oriana capital to stop Rose’s ill-advised plan to marry Perv Asshat, but Shadow Garden actually beats him to the palace. As Lambda, Omega, and Chi discuss how 666’s judgment is in the hands of Lord Shadow, Epsilon just happens to appear just as Cid wishes to enter the palace. He now has a legitimate cover: as the famous pianist Lady Shiron’s secret apprentice, [Name Redacted].

This is how Cid, impressed by the lengths and breadths Epsilon will go to enhance her bosom (99% slime) meets Perv Asshat face-to-face, and he’s gotta respect the man’s dedication to the cookie-cutter villain role. He also notes that while the commonfolk have become downtrodden and cynical, these rich assholes are livin’ their best lives.

While Cid lacks a proper palace pass per the new security regs, Asshat allows him to stay, if he plays a song, confirming that he is indeed Shiron’s student. He whips out another lovely rendition of Moonlight Sonata (which may well be the only piece he knows).

A young maid is among those captivated by the Cid’s playing, while the rich folk are so engrossed in the music, they don’t realize Cid has sent out several slime tendrils to steal their jewelry, including a ring inside Perv’s pocket that we last saw Queen Reina retrieving from the ruins.

Cid is soon snatched away from Epsilon by the maid, who introduces herself as Margaret (voiced with her usual silkiness by Ueda Reina), who has no concept of personal space. That said, Cid learns that her bust is zero percent slime, but grows weary of her trying to “convert him to her religion”. Margaret happens to be Rose’s longtime maid, who now detests Rose after she assassinated the king.

While I initially thought Perv might have planted Margaret as a honey trap for Cid, she seems to be genuinely infatuated with him after hearing his piano. So much so that she tells him exactly where in the palace Rose is being held. Cid then comes afoul of a palace guard who has delusions of an unspoken romance with Margaret, when in reality she recoils and runs from his leering. In his exchange with this guard, Cid only says Sumimasen? over and over.

When Cid climbs up to the tower where Princess Rose is essentially being held prisoner, Rose is so goddamn happy to see him she runs into his arms. It’s a genuinely heartwarming reunion. Cid plays her concerned dear friend to the T, asking her what she means to accomplish by marrying Asshat.

Cid dramatically explains to her (all the while munching on cookies) how the two of them are the same: rejected by their peers, misunderstood, but always staying true to their chosen way of life (in her case, a fencer). But by pursuing this marriage, she’s “perverting” that way of life.

Cid isn’t putting on an act here, either: he truly believes everything Rose has done was building up to her becoming the Tyrant Queen, while Rose thinks he’s here to confess his love for her and dissuade her from going forward with her marriage to Asshat.

Cid makes clear he doesn’t judge her for stabbing her fiancé and killing her father, as he’s certain she had a very good reason for those things, but doesn’t understand why she’d undermine those actions by suddenly getting re-engaged to the fiancé she stabbed. Rose won’t, and likely can’t tell him the true reason, and instead draws away and begs him to forget about her.

Later, when the setting sun turns the sky blood red, we learn why she’s doing this, as Cid stuck around outside the window: Perv Asshat is holding her mother Queen Reina hostage, and not only is marrying him a condition of keeping Reina alive, but also being sufficiently “agreeable.” Ick.

Perv really buries himself in the despicable villain role here, choking Rose out before telling her to come with him so they can plan their wedding. Having absconded with her biscuits, Cid overhears this whole exchange. Now he knows the score, and he has a Plan B in mind.

That plan begins with him remaining undercover as Epsilon’s student. He stays at a spa hotel where Epsilon gives him a shoulder massage and an extremely eager 559 serves him fruit. Before he entered, 559 gives Epsilon her report on her failed mission to the ruins.

Epsilon says what happened was unfortunate but not 559’s fault; they should have taken greater care to ensure Rose and her mother didn’t come into contact at the ruins. We also learn that the ring Cid stole is called the Black Rose, and is essentially a last-resort WMD once used by Oriana to defeat its invaders.

That Lord Shadow met with 666 and didn’t punish her, and whatever he has planned is beyond their understanding. All they can do for now is support their Lord. Speaking of lords, Asshat has a video call with his ostensible boss Lord Mordred, assuring him he has the “Black Rose” (apparently unaware it’s not in the box).

But in truth, Perv intends to use the Black Rose to seize power for himself. We also learn that in addition to being engaged to Rose, he may have brainwashed Queen Reina to be, shall we say, more “pliable,” which, again, is pretty par for the course for a guy named Perv Asshat.

This was mainly setup, but filled with lots of great dramatic and comedic moments, often occurring at the exact same time. I was deeply invested in Cid and Rose’s talk even as I laughed at him scarfing down those cookies. Margaret made for a fun guest star, and most importantly Cid is no longer in the dark about why Rose got engaged. I’m looking forward to seeing how his Plan B unfolds.