Tsukushi grew tense, and her heavy breathing made the huge curves of her chest rise and fall.
Merraid's eyes lit up.
Despite her appearance as a seductive older-sister type, on the inside she was absolutely a shameless pervert.
As a lesbian, the places she focused on when looking at girls were honestly no different from a man's.
"Tsukushi!"
Cornelia sounded anxious.
She could not shake off the enemy named Cassandra.
Tsukushi was not suited for head-on combat.
Her strengths were surprise assassinations, providing firepower for the team, and using her outstanding appearance to infiltrate places.
In close-combat training, she was always at the bottom of the class.
That was why Cornelia knew Tsukushi had no chance against the enemy boss!
"You still have time to look around? Looks like you're taking me pretty lightly." Cassandra narrowed her eyes slightly.
Two candleholders suddenly appeared in her empty hands.
They were made of brass, with sharp points like tridents.
She had collected them from inside the castle.
As weapons, they were nowhere near sturdy enough.
But as hidden projectiles?
Cornelia was already struggling to block Cassandra's twin blades.
When the candleholders suddenly flew at her, all she could do was twist away with everything she had.
Even so, one of the candleholders stabbed into her lower abdomen.
The sharp pain made her movements freeze and warp for a split second.
By the time she snapped back to herself, Cassandra had already crossed her two blades like an enormous pair of scissors and trapped Cornelia's neck between them.
"Don't move. Unless you want me to cut your head off."
"Tch."
Cornelia stared tensely at the blades in front of her.
Her left hand grabbed the candleholder lodged in her body, and the pain made her grit her teeth.
She forced herself to look toward her companion's side, only to find that Tsukushi had already lost consciousness and was being carried over the black-haired woman's shoulder.
"Hm?"
Merraid's gaze swept across the ceiling and the walls.
She stopped walking, her brow furrowing faintly, and remained silent for several seconds.
Cassandra asked in confusion, "Lady Merraid, is something wrong?"
Merraid kept staring at the wall, as if there were flowers blooming on it.
Only after a long while did she finally come back to herself.
"It's nothing. Let's go, Dora. Lock these girls in the underground cell with the other Imperial assassins."
"Yes... Lady Merraid."
Cassandra's expression turned a little strange.
'Underground cell?'
'Did this castle have something like that?'
Keeping her doubts to herself, Cassandra quietly followed behind Merraid.
...
After they left, Guy, wearing Thousand-Layered Clothes, emerged from the wall.
His expression was dark.
He had almost been discovered just now!
Worse, Cornelia and Tsukushi had been captured.
This was bad.
Those two women were terrifyingly strong. He had no confidence he could beat them alone, so he had not made a move.
For now, he needed to regroup with the others and act together.
With that thought, Guy first headed toward the rear where Akame and Kurome had gone, but he could not find them.
Then he passed through the castle and went to the front.
All he found there were traces of battle.
"What the hell is going on... Where did everyone go?"
Guy began to feel that something was wrong.
Had they been defeated too?
No way.
Nahashu had been there!
Although he hated admitting it, Nahashu was stronger than him. He was the one ranked first in kills.
To take him down in such a short amount of time—how was that possible?
'No.'
'Calm down, Guy.'
If that was true, then it meant the enemy's strength was far beyond their estimates.
This was not the time to play hero alone.
After the counterattack at Putra, he had gained more than just confidence in his own strength, he had also learned to judge the situation more carefully.
Right now, he believed the best move was to retreat temporarily.
Thinking that, he used Thousand-Layered Clothes to sink into the ground and hurried back to Gozuki.
Gozuki, who had been waiting for news, almost instantly sensed the presence moving beneath the ground.
He snapped a branch off a tree and threw it straight down, pinning it into the earth and scaring Guy so badly that he jumped out.
"It's me! Father!"
"Guy?"
Seeing him return alone, Gozuki immediately frowned.
He asked, "Why are you back? What happened to the mission?"
"Well, about that..."
Guy described the strange situation inside the castle to Gozuki. Cornelia and Tsukushi had been defeated and captured, though they were not in immediate danger.
And the others had vanished?
Nahashu, Poney, Gin, Akame, and Kurome—five people had all disappeared?
After listening to the report, Gozuki fell silent for a while.
"If my guess is right, they were probably defeated too. You said there were signs of battle, correct? It seems we still underestimated the enemy's strength."
"You mean they were all captured?" Guy still found it hard to believe.
Gozuki knew that these children had mostly faced second- and third-rate opponents since their debut.
It was good to have confidence.
But they also needed enough humility!
He did not find it strange that those children had been defeated separately.
Because if it were him, he could have defeated them all in a short amount of time as well.
Simply put, this time's enemy was fully comparable to him, a former member of the Four Rakshasa Demons.
Still, this was confusing.
Why?
If they only needed to kill the pursuers to escape, why had they chosen to stay and fight here?
Why had they only knocked their enemies out and captured them instead of killing them?
Why not run away immediately?
Were they really that confident the Empire could not do anything to them?
...
Inside the castle...
In a huge bedroom, Akame and Kurome slowly woke up.
The first thing they did was confirm each other's safety. Then they began examining the room.
"Oh my, you're awake?" Merraid stood beside the bed, smiling at the two of them.
"You are...!"
"Ah, introductions, right? Then let me introduce myself. I'm Merraid Oarburgh, the current head of the assassin society Oarburgh."
What!
This woman was the enemy leader?
The moment Akame heard Merraid's self-introduction, she focused her strength into her wrists.
They were only bound with ordinary rope.
If she concentrated her strength, she could break free immediately!
The enemy leader was right in front of them.
This was the perfect chance to take down the commander first!
"I'd advise you to give up on that idea." Merraid smiled coldly.
She pointed toward the corner of the room.
Akame and Kurome both looked over.
There was another person tied up there.
From the look of it, he seemed to be a scout from the Enhancement Division.
"Watch carefully." Merraid smiled and snapped her fingers.
In the next instant, the scout's body swelled in a grotesque way, bulging with lump after lump of flesh.
"Eek!"
Under Akame and Kurome's horrified gazes, the lumps on the scout's body burst open, and countless insects crawled and flew out of him.
One of the insects flew over and landed on Merraid's finger.
Looking at the sisters, who had been scared stiff, Merraid smiled coldly.
"I'm an insect user. I can control these insect-type Danger Beasts. That man's body had been implanted with insect eggs. Once I give the order, those eggs will absorb flesh and blood, then hatch rapidly. The result is exactly what you just saw."
'Gulp.'
Akame and Kurome felt a chill crawl up their backs.
"Don't tell me... you put them inside us too..."
"That's right!" Merraid spoke in a bright voice about something utterly horrifying. "So as long as you try anything reckless, I'll make the two of you end up like that too. Of course, I'm sure you don't want that, do you? So be good, all right?"
'Damn it.'
Akame had no choice but to settle down.
She did not dare to gamble.
Even less could she gamble with Kurome's life.
"I really don't want to hurt either of you," Merraid said. "You're both so cute, exactly my type! So first, I'll only ask one question."
As she spoke, she put away her smile and took out an ordinary-looking hilt.
Raising it, she asked, "I found this on you. It can compress air and release invisible slashes."
"That attack is just like the technique of a certain man I know."
"Where did you get it?"
"Hmph."
Kurome snorted and turned her face away.
Akame did the same.
"What certain man? I don't know what you're talking about."
Merraid narrowed her eyes and asked in a colder tone, "Then let me put it another way. Was this given to you by a man named Noah?"
'Noah?'
Akame froze.
Because that name... should not have appeared here.
"Why do you know Doctor Noah's name?"
"Doctor?"
Merraid thought for two seconds before continuing, "You said doctor?"
At that moment, Merraid noticed that Kurome's expression had become strange.
Compared to Akame, Kurome clearly knew something.
So Merraid reached out, pinched Kurome's chin, and brought her face close.
"Tell me. This dangerous little weapon was made by that man called Noah, wasn't it?"
"..."
Kurome did not answer, but Akame was startled.
"Kurome, you know Doctor Noah?"
She was shocked.
Kurome had not grown up in Longxi Village, so how could she know the village doctor?
"Hehehe."
Merraid found it funny.
"Doctor? You actually called him a doctor? There's no way someone like that is just a doctor."
"Although I don't know his real identity, he definitely has an unusual connection with the Minister. On the surface, he may only be the second-in-command of the Science Division, but I know even the Minister cares about him very much."
"This blade, while this is my first time seeing the real thing, I've heard the rumors more than once. The invisible slash it releases is exactly the same as that man's technique."
Science Division.....second-in-command?
Akame felt confused.
Wasn't Doctor Noah just an ordinary doctor?
Science Division...
The Air Blade was indeed a product of the Science Division.
So Doctor Noah was the one who made it?
Why had Father never told them?
Although she was confused, Akame did not think too deeply about it.
Even if it were true, so what? Even then, Doctor Noah was still their ally.
"It looks like you really don't know much about that man." Merraid sounded a little disappointed.
In her view, if she could not get more information about Noah, she had no way to defeat him.
At the very least, she needed to figure out his methods.
If he was a Teigu user, then they needed to know that Teigu's ability.
"Sis...ter..."
Suddenly, Kurome's condition worsened, and she looked to be in terrible pain.
Cold sweat broke out all over her body, and she collapsed weakly against Akame, as if all strength had left her.
Akame called Kurome's name twice, then glared furiously at Merraid.
"You bastard! What did you do to my little sister?!"
Merraid did not look surprised by Kurome's sudden symptoms.
She was an insect user, but also an assassin, and Barbara had taught her techniques for identifying poisons.
From the smell alone, she could tell that Kurome was a drug-modified human.
And not just once or twice.
Kurome had undergone drug enhancement hundreds of times.
For her to survive at all was basically a miracle. An ordinary person would have died long ago.
Even so, Kurome was already near her limit.
From Merraid's judgment, Kurome did not have much time left. No matter how many drugs she took, her combat power would only remain at this level.
It could no longer break through, and soon, she might not even be able to maintain her current condition for long.
Once the drugs could no longer suppress the side effects, her combat ability would drop sharply, and even moving would become a problem.
"I didn't do anything. You should be asking what the Empire did to your precious little sister."
"What did you say?!"
"You think I poisoned her? Hehehe, wrong. Your sister is suffering like this because the Empire used life-damaging drugs to forcibly increase her physical abilities. Those drugs don't just harm the organs; they're addictive too. What you're seeing now is withdrawal. Actually, I'm surprised you didn't know. This can't be the first time you've seen her in this much pain, right?"
Withdrawal.
Akame suddenly remembered what had happened when she reunited with Kurome after the battle at Putra.
Back then, Kurome had also suddenly been overwhelmed by terrible pain.
At the time, Akame thought Kurome had been hurt while fighting the people of Putra.
Could it be that the truth was the complete opposite of what she believed?
The Empire had done this to her little sister?
"No..." Akame felt as if her skull was splitting.
On one side was her suffering sister.
On the other was the Empire she had been taught since childhood was righteous.
Was she really supposed to believe the enemy's words?
No.
NO!
The important thing right now was Kurome!
How could she stop Kurome from suffering like this?
What had happened last time?
Akame suddenly remembered the masked doctor named Lamur.
Right.
She needed a doctor!
"Merraid Oarburgh! Let me take Kurome away! I need to take her to a doctor!" Akame stood on the bed like an enraged leopard, glaring at the woman before her as if she might attack at any moment.
Merraid watched her agitation and listened to her threat, her expression gradually turning cold.
She raised a finger, letting an insect fly over to her fingertip.
At the sight of the insect, half the fire in Akame's heart was immediately smothered.
"Calm down. Don't forget, your lives are in my hands." After saying that coldly, Merraid took out a small bottle.
She said, "This is the medicine your sister was carrying. If she takes it, it should stabilize her body for the time being."
With that, she opened the bottle and fed Kurome one pill.
Just as she said, after taking the medicine, Kurome's condition seemed to ease almost immediately, and she slowly fell asleep.
Merraid poured another pill into her palm and showed it to Akame.
"This is the drug the Empire uses to control your sister and the other enhanced soldiers. It contains more than forty kinds of poison with severe side effects. If you fed one pill to a small animal on the roadside, it would kill the whole litter."
"How could..." Akame's pupils trembled violently.
She stared at the pill for a while, then looked at her little sister's pitiful, adorable face.
Kurome had been enduring this kind of pain all along?
And that pain had been forced on her by the Empire?
Had this been happening for all eight years?
While Akame had been enjoying the warmth of family, had Kurome been treated like an animal and tormented by the Empire again and again?
"Hehe. It seems you really knew nothing." Merraid's voice was soft but cruel. "Then let me tell you. Your sister's condition won't hold much longer. If she leaves the Empire now and receives proper treatment, she might still live another five years. But if this continues, at most two years... no, at most a year and a half. She'll die from drug poisoning."
'A year and a half!'
After hearing that, Akame's pupils shrank sharply, and her face turned terrifyingly dark, like a wrathful demon...