u/Naijal03

Aside from Sakura gaining the throne would feel rather unearned because she is completely dependent on the Seven Shadows to get her on it, which she only gets because of her connection with Alpha before her possession. I feel the biggest problem is that Alpha's former clan would get more power and authority from the girl they abandoned years ago. Alpha would also remain in a state where she is forced to be in contact with them, even if it's just Sakura, who wants her to rejoin one day. While you can say that Shadow Garden is ultimately the one in power, the Tokiseiryuno will still enjoy fame and luxuries they don't deserve.

Volume 7 ended with Lalanoa telling Nazono that she would withdraw from the tournament, unwilling to let her master die for her sake. However, with Cid, it feels inevitable that they will rejoin the tournament either through Cid convincing her or due to other events.

These are possible scenarios I think could happen:

1. The tournament goes without problem:
   • Strategy 1: Seeing that Nazono is still in the competition despite Lalanoa's supposed withdrawal, the two great factions immediately use their Divine Artifacts on him, only for him to send their attacks back on them, eliminating nearly everyone.
   • Strategy 2: Nazono and Lalanoa sneak around, eliminating many enemies before they even realize what's going on, truly fighting as assassins.
   • Inevitably, there will be a confrontation between the Mitsugoshi Faction Knights and Nazono. Potentially, a few survivors, such as Beatrix, join the fight against Nazono. However, the whole fight is a ruse: while everyone is distracted by Nazono, Lalanoa leaves to find the Mitsugoshi Faction candidates, including Sakura, whom she eliminates single-handedly, leaving her as the only candidate left.
2. The tournament will be interrupted when the Cult teleports everyone to the Sanctuary to sacrifice them to re-awaken Diablos' leg. Many end up sacrificed or mutated by the Cult, while Lalanoa and Nazono are guided by Aurora.
3. During the tournament, Lalanoa and Nazono are transported to the Sanctuary due to Lalanoa's artifact and Aurora, leaving everyone confused about their whereabouts. They will either get disqualified or the tournament will be undetermined since they cannot rule whether they are truly eliminated.

The only thing known about Alpha's mother is that she's the younger sister of Beatrix and that she's dead.

I first thought that she was killed because her daughter became a possessed. However, after re-reading volume 7, I think she (and probably her father as well) may have died when Alpha was too young to remember her.

This theory came from Alpha and Sakura's strained conversation in the carriage; Sakura talked about how "Kikyou" lost everything, explicitly how she was meant to be the Tokiseiryuno's heir and shoulder the nation's future if it wasn't for that "that incident". However, Sakura doesn't mention her dead mother at all; the only family member she mentioned is Beatrix.

Sakura has many negative traits, but even I don't think she would be angrier over "Kikyou" losing her birthright than losing a mother.

She was probably raised by the clan's leaders as heir due to her sheer talent and potential, but none of them were true parental figures or family. Beatrix was the only true family she had and Sakura was the closest thing she had to a friend or at least someone around her age to interact with.

Then all of it came crashing down when she became possessed. Those who told her that she was meant for great things threw her out without hesitation, and she ended up in the hands of slave traders. I think that before her possession turned her into a blob monster that couldn't think anymore, she had already discarded her old identity and whatever connection she felt towards her clan, since after Cid cured her, she didn't introduce herself, made it clear she didn't have a home to return to, and accepted the name he gave her without hesitation.

How will the Seven Shadows prevent the Cult from realizing Mitsugoshi's connection to Shadow Garden?

Their plan is to install Sakura as their puppet ruler and obtain the key to Diablos' right leg, which they will retrieve to get it out of the Cult's hands. As noted in volume 3 and Epsilon's volume 7 report, they must not let the Cult suspect any connection between Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi.

However, if they gain the Key thanks to Sakura, they still need to go to the place where the leg is held, which the Cult knows the location of. The sight of Shadow Garden at that location after Sakura, whom Mitsugoshi supports, became ruler and the holder of the key is way too suspicious. So if even a single Cult member escapes to relay the information, it wouldn't take much for the other factions to put two and two together.

They can't go for the option of planning a fake attack or kidnapping, since Shadow Garden's existence is unknown to the Elven Lands, including Sakura herself. The Cult could use it to pin all their crimes on them. The last thing Shadow Garden needs is more fools going after them.

Even if they go as Mitsugoshi, the Cult will probably question where they get all these "hidden" talents and warriors that could repel their forces. Don't forget that in the Corporate Warfare arc, Gettan had only the MCA's resources at his disposal and didn't have any Children under his command. So it's easy for the Cult to say that Mitsugoshi had superior forces to the MCA's bandits and mercenaries.

Since Diablos' right leg is in the elven lands. What do you think will happen to it at the end of Volume 8? These are options I can see happening:

1. Shadow Garden will actually succeed in recovering a body part of Diablos for themselves, but Zeta will discreetly take the leg for herself to fuse it with Claire another day.
2. The leg will be freed and begin travelling to find her other body parts, probably towards Claire.
3. The leg will fuse with Lalanoa, who resembles Aurora.

I personally prefer option 3, because I love the idea that Aurora's body parts fuse with different people, each with their own symbolism. In Claire's case, I can see the arms reflecting her desire to protect Cid with her own hands, and if Lalanoa were to fuse with the right leg, it would represent her desire to stand on her own.

What do you think?

Sakura feels like someone who has everything and nothing at the same time.

Everyone only cares about Sakura's connection to the Tokiseiryuno and Mitsugoshi. On the festival eve, Otoutorion asked her only about the clan's status and why they had moved away from the public eye, while everyone else was only interested in making connections with Mitsugoshi.

Her allies, Alpha and the other Seven Shadows, also keep her at arm's length. She is only given information that would get her killed if revealed and Alpha doesn't trust her enough to reveal anything about Shadow Garden. Thus putting Sakura in a position in which she has little to no authority or power over them.

However, let's face it, this is understandable; their relationship is built on aligning goals rather than genuine trust. Shadow Garden needs to put someone on the throne to prevent the Cult from getting the key to the Sanctuary, while Sakura and her clan rely on them, or rather Mitsugoshi, to get her on the throne. So, of course, they won't tell a stranger their innermost secrets until Sakura truly shows she is worthy of their trust.

Despite being the Tokiseiryuno's heir, she is left in the dark about what truly happened to her predecessor and only believes a fake story that turns "Kikyou" into a tragic figure. Also, even if Alpha were to tell Sakura the truth herself, I doubt she would believe it, considering her loyalty and belief in the Tokiseiryuno's nobility.

I feel that Sakura cherishes her friendship with Lalanoa so much because she is the only person who sees her as Sakura rather than the Tokiseiryuno's heir or Mitsugoshi's candidate. Something else I found very ironic is that the only person who tried to get Sakura to reevaluate herself is Nazono, who tried to get Sakura to understand why Lalanoa refuses her help.

Even if she were to become the ruler, I doubt she would get any respect, since, as Lalanoa notes, she would not have anyone's respect if she were to rely too much on Nazono. As we see with Sakura, she is completely reliant on Mitsugoshi to win the tournament for her. In the preliminaries, everyone talks about how strong and skilled her knights are, while she is an afterthought at best.

I really doubt she will survive volume 8 unscathed, since one of the series' themes is how connections are meaningless against the conspiracies lurking in the shadows. So the moment she is alone or separated from her knights, she will be easy picking for the Cult or other enemies. She may even end up genuinely angering Alpha or the other Seven Shadows if she were to insult Shadow, especially considering how her first meeting with "Nazono" went.

With chapter 7 revealing that Freya is the mastermind and Alexia caused the murders.

Something that still befuddled me in chapter 5 are the deaths of Freya and Rose in the first loop and Delta's death in the second and what happened to Tessera. After some thinking I finally figured it out.

Freya knew about Alexia's attempt on Delta's life, but she needed to ensure that Alpha wouldn't know about it.

So in the first loop, she killed Rose and herself to throw Alpha off. In the second loop, she secretly went to Delta and Tessera's room, where she told Delta to stay for a new roommate, while Tessera went to the woods for a "mission". During the scene where Alexia came to kill Delta, the therianthrope only asked if she is her roommate, showing no confusion over Tessera's absence.

The purpose was to cause Delta's death to corner Alpha, while making Tessera another one of Freya's agents just like Rouge, Pente, and Duet.

However, Tessera didn't agree with the plan once the three told her everything. As Lili's character story showed, Tessera is willing to disobey orders she disagrees with and, amongst the compatibles, fought the most alongside Shadow Garden along with being rivals with Delta. So betraying them wouldn't be something she could easily agree with.

Knowing that Tessera was going to reveal everything if she were to return. Rouge, Pente, and Duet silenced her. The latter two would move her body, while Rouge acted as red herring to throw Alpha off their trail.

Chapter 7 has been fully released, and we now know that Alexia is behind the murders and Freya is the mastermind, with Cid being a red herring all along. However, this means he is still out there, since we heard his voice at the end of chapters 3 and 4.

In my speculation, I go through these rules:

• Cid doesn't remember the loops, since Freya is the user of the artifact and Alpha is the one chosen to remember everything. Even if he has his own Irreversible Pocket Watch, having it doesn't automatically mean he would remember anything from the previous loops caused by Freya's Watch.
• When everyone was getting slaughtered by their demonized allies, Cid was absent during those moments, or the loop happened before he could take any action, since I don't think even he is that heartless in seeing his friends, especially the Seven Shadows, die without doing anything.

What he did on his end:

• Chapter 1: Cid remained inside Diablos for some time, possibly days, until he found a way to escape, with the demon becoming dormant. He would figure out where everyone went and see demon Gamma there, but due to the time loop, he only saw Alpha prevent Gamma from killing Claire.
• Chapter 2: Most of the heroes left to raid a vampire base or perform other tasks, with only Yukime remaining to guard Gamma, which Cid used to study Gamma as a test subject.
• Chapter 3: He kept watching the cells where Beta and Alexia were kept. Once Beta was the only one left, he abducted her, since continuing his research there would be too risky. On his travels, he would see an unconscious Claire, which is how future Aurora knows about his presence, and hear the news of Olivier killing Sodosodokotsuyon, whom he labels "Mysterious Man B".
• Chapter 4: Having finished his research, he returns Beta to her cell. At the end, he infiltrates Eta's cell to cure her and fully test the fruits of his research.
  • The only parts I'm uncertain about are whether he knocked Eta out by pretending to be one of her slimes and approached Shichy near the end, especially since we still don't know what happened to Shichy in chapter 7.
• From Chapter 5 onwards, he stopped watching the group from the shadows, since he started the next stage of his plan. He thinks the group is okay with Alpha leading everyone and him giving them three demons. He probably went to Lindwurm to continue studying the dormant Diablos or await everyone there and steal their thunder by curing Diablos before they can seal the demon. A real shadowbroker move to show off his "total domination" by disarming a threat that even the Three Heroes couldn't seal with help.

See Cid cure the Shadows from demonization.

​

I wonder if Freya just assumed it was cured in time and that the knocked out guards happened due to the demons. Regardless of what she did, Cid was too flexible to be discovered.

Chapter 7 has finally ended and we now know the storyline will end in chapter 8. Many things were revealed and explained. Alexia was a demon the whole time and was responsible for the murders, and Freya was the mastermind all along. I feel much more at ease now that Cid didn't torture everyone, and we know that the storyline will end with a Shadow saves the day end as usual.

However, these are the mysteries that remain unsolved:

• What happened to Shichy? Did Pente, Duet, or Rouge take her in? She was never shown or mentioned; for all we know, she may have even met Cid.
• In chapter 5, who attacked Freya and Rose in the first loop, and why did Tessera die in the second loop?
  • I doubt that Cid killed them, since Freya has no idea about him and only sees Alpha as an obstacle. The best theory I can think of is that she did this to ward off suspicion.
• What Cid is doing and what his plan is?

Apocrypha is a storyline that takes a long time to watch and has long release gaps, but is also mentally draining due to its dark, depressing tone.

Having had time to process everything and read other theories, I now believe that Cid isn't the mastermind. His voice at the end of chapters 3 and 4 acted as a good red herring to make the audience believe he is the mastermind. Furthermore, when Alexia and Alpha saw the mastermind in different loops, neither was that shocked upon seeing them, which further makes it unlikely that Cid is the culprit. I think he is probably acting as a helper behind the scenes, which he prefers to do, as he said in the Miku crossover.

The mastermind is probably Freya or Sarasa. Freya never showed signs of demon transformation even after Lili's death, and Sarasa mostly acted behind the scenes and interrupted Alpha before she could tell Beta about the mastermind.

I think the mastermind revealed the Irreversible Pocket Watch to Alpha, which broke after the Reset or the other time leap. This is done to demonize her through the despair that Cid/Shadow can't be brought back and everything she did was for nothing. However, I think Cid still has his Pocket Watch, but with Alpha as the one who will remember the loop if he uses it, he can't prevent her transformation like in the first chapter, and may be forced to reveal himself and take personal action.

The only mystery I can't figure out is why Rose and Freya died in a loop in chapter 5. The best I can think of is the mastermind killing them for some purpose, only for Cid to stop the murder from happening in the second loop, but at the cost of being unable to save Delta.

One of the disguised Shadows interrogates Nazono personally and mentions the Cult of Diablos, which causes Cid to think they saw through his disguise. However, he keeps up his roleplay and only reveals himself after he kills the Rounds and all other Cult members are dead.

Upon revealing himself, Cid compliments the Seven Shadows for seeing through his disguise and says that, retroactively, he should have known about it, since why else would Beta and Epsilon leave themselves defenseless when arguing right in front of Nazono and Lalanoa?

We always have the Seven Shadows misinterpret Cid's actions and praise his insight, which he goes along with, so having the reverse happen for once would be hilarious.

Girls with pink hair become unhinged and crazy(ier) after meeting Shadow.

1. After saving and curing Victoria, she became an unhinged fanatic and yandere towards him.
2. After killing her stepfather, Sherry swore revenge and became obsessed with it, her entire room filled with wanted posters of Shadow and being glad that the knights failed to apprehend him.
3. After saving her life and killing the Nightblades, Christina became a serial killer out of admiration for him.

The latest volume introduces Sakura, who has light-pink hair. Currently, she only knows about and has met Nazono, but what would happen if she meets him as Shadow? Will she desire revenge and blame him for Kikyou not wanting to return to the Tokiseiryuno? Or will she see him as a true hero and become fanatically obsessed with him, understanding why Kikyou chose to stay with him?

The meeting with the elders

The whole reason the Seven Shadows are so focused on eliminating so many competitors during the preliminaries is to grab the elders' attention and get a meeting with them. Since the Mitsugoshi Faction, Lalanoa, and Nazono passed the preliminaries, I can expect all of them to get a meeting with them.

The meeting will be where the major factions will decide their moves:

• The Cult will see which Children remain within the factions, whom they can manipulate or become test subjects for the Shadowtrapping Jaw.
• The Seven Shadows analyzes where the elders stand and their connection with the Cult. They might even discern whether Nazono is part of the Cult or an enemy and eventually decide who should be their biggest priority.
• Cid will use the meeting to analyze everyone's motives and use what he learned to convince Lalanoa to continue her participation and create a new plan.

Once Nazono has rejoined the competition, whatever plans the Cult or the Garden has made will be completely derailed, with only the Garden able to salvage the situation following their master's "genius plan".

The Sanctuary

Diablos' leg must be in a Sanctuary, where Shadow Garden will uncover the Cult's many secrets and horrific experiments within the elven lands. However, I think this will become a test for Sakura and Lalanoa, who both somehow got dragged into the otherworldly place. It will decide if they have what it takes to face the evil lurking within the country head-on and if they can become allies of Shadow Garden.

Sakura was already informed about the Cult by Alpha, but I doubt she can truly stomach and face its full horrors. Not only is she always protected by those stronger than her, but she already had chills knowing that she was targeted for assassination due to being sponsored by Mitsugoshi and the worst evil she saw is how decadent the elven society is due to their long lives and old beliefs.

Lalanoa will probably take the Sanctuary's horrors much better, since she already lived a life where everyone wanted her dead and saw her mother's corpse right before her eyes, yet despite this, she is determined to spite the entire population by becoming the next ruler. She became much stronger thanks to Nazono's training, her growth shows no sign of stopping soon, and she faced many more experienced opponents without fear or hesitation.

An old Master of Garden Character Story, showing parts of Alpha's backstory, which I feel is rather relevant after the release of the latest light novel volume.