'Kurome only had a year and a half left to live...'
'Something like that...'
"Impossible! You're lying to me! Who would believe an enemy's words? Stop trying to mess with my head!" Even with the facts laid out in front of her, Akame could not accept it so easily.
Or rather, she did not dare accept it.
Father had told her before.
Enemies could lie without the slightest change in expression if it helped them achieve their goal.
The moment she allowed herself to waver, it would be over.
That had to be what was happening right now.
She was facing exactly that kind of enemy.
It had to be!
Merraid looked at the shaken Akame, and the corner of her mouth curved faintly upward.
She stopped persuading her.
Instead, she took Akame's hand and placed the small bottle of Kurome's medicine into her palm.
"Then I'll give this to you. The next time your little sister has an episode, if you still trust the Empire that ruined her body, you can feed this medicine to her with your own hands."
Merraid liked Akame.
But training subordinates properly was also an interesting game.
Even if this was cruel to the girl, Merraid felt no pressure at all.
Just by looking, she could tell Akame had already wavered.
She had begun to doubt the Empire, and even her own comrades. Even if that distrust lasted only a moment, it had already opened a crack in her heart.
Once that crack grew larger and larger, sooner or later, it would swallow her whole.
Akame stared at the small bottle in her hand, her fingers trembling without stopping.
Because if this really was poison, then giving it to Kurome would mean she was hurting her.
If things continued like this and Kurome really died, wouldn't that make Akame the killer?
The killer who personally murdered her own little sister!
Akame clenched her teeth and looked at the unconscious Kurome.
She had sworn that the meaning of her life was to protect her adorable little sister.
But now it seemed she had failed completely.
Even if Kurome hated her for it, wouldn't that be normal?
And yet this girl still called her "sister," still cared about her, still treated her as the most important family she had.
Was this gentle Kurome really left with only a year and a half to live?
What could she do to save Kurome?
Tell Father... No.
Not only would he refuse to help, he might even kill Kurome.
He might even kill Akame along with her.
With her current strength, she was no match for Father.
Doctor Noah?
If it was him, could he cure Kurome?
But if that woman named Merraid was telling the truth, then Doctor Noah was also part of the Empire.
In that case, he would probably stand on Father's side too.
'Damn it.'
'Why?'
'Why did this world have to be so cruel to Kurome?'
'Was it the Empire's fault?'
During earlier missions in the city, she had overheard people saying the Emperor and the Minister were the root of the Empire's corruption.
Could those people actually have been telling the truth?
Otherwise, why did she see poverty and suffering everywhere she went?
What was she supposed to believe?
Should she believe this woman named Merraid, or should she believe Father?
Or...
Should she believe her own eyes and ears?
Seeing that she had successfully disturbed Akame's heart, Merraid told her to think it over herself, then left.
She had captured quite a lot of people this time, and several of them were beautiful young girls.
Not only did each of them have her own unique charm, but every single one of them happened to be Merraid's type.
Unfortunately, their conditioning was extremely severe. Influencing them the same way she had influenced Akame would be very difficult.
After hesitating for a moment, Merraid chose to head downstairs.
She went down to the castle's basement.
It was called a basement, but in truth, it was only a wine cellar.
After descending into the wine cellar, Merraid lit up the room with a firestone.
With a light source, the dim cellar that sunlight could not reach finally revealed itself.
A boy was chained there.
It was Nahashu.
He lifted his head and saw Merraid, but there was not the slightest fear in his eyes.
He simply lowered his head again.
In his current condition, even keeping his head raised was exhausting.
Merraid smiled and said, "Sorry. I'm not interested in men, so I had you locked up in a place like this. Since we're short on time, you can be glad that I won't be torturing you."
"Hmph."
Nahashu let out a disdainful sound.
He would never leak information.
"For the trap I set earlier, I need you to stay quiet like this. That's the only way the fish will take the bait."
Merraid controlled the insect inside Nahashu and made it crawl upward.
Nahashu felt something squirming in his throat.
He gagged violently, and an insect actually crawled up to the edge of his mouth!
Before he could panic, the taste of rusty blood and sharp pain spread through his mouth.
His eyes widened at once, and blood flowed out through the cracks between his lips.
Nahashu understood.
His tongue had been cut off.
And it had been eaten directly by the insect inside his body!
The pain made the corners of his eyes twitch.
He clenched his teeth tightly, his hands balling into fists so hard that veins bulged on both sides of his neck.
Nahashu lifted his head and glared at the woman who had tortured him. Even so, he showed no sign of submission or begging.
Merraid did nothing more.
She simply left the wine cellar in silence.
No one knew how much time passed before a strange sound came from the wall.
Guy quietly surfaced from the wall, though the wine cellar was pitch-black and he could not see anything.
Even so, he noticed something was wrong.
"The smell of blood..."
Guy caught the scent of blood and quietly separated himself from the wall.
He took out a glow stick he carried with him, snapped it, and tossed it to the floor.
As the light slowly rose, the scene before him made Guy freeze for a moment before shock gradually overtook his face.
He saw the boy chained up and hurried forward to check on him.
"Hey! Nahashu!"
Guy shook Nahashu, who had just passed out, and his heart filled with horror.
Nahashu had been defeated?
How was that possible?
This was Nahashu!
How could he lose and end up locked in a place like this?
Just what kind of monsters were these enemies?
At that moment, Guy suddenly noticed the blood constantly flowing from Nahashu's mouth, as well as the pool of blood that had already gathered on the floor.
He said anxiously, "Hey, Nahashu, pull yourself together! What the hell happened?"
Nahashu struggled to open his eyes and saw Guy beside him.
In that instant, he understood.
He understood why the enemy had kept him alive, why she had deliberately locked him in a place like this, and why she had cut out his tongue.
He had been turned into bait.
This was a trap!
Realizing that, Nahashu slowly opened his mouth.
The moment he did, blood kept pouring from his mouth.
Even so, he forced himself to speak.
"...Run... thra... trap..."
Without his tongue, Nahashu could not pronounce words properly, and the blood spilling from his mouth muddled what he was trying to say.
But Guy immediately understood what he meant.
"A trap?"
So what if it was a trap?!
How dare they do this to Nahashu!
He would make the enemy pay!!
Guy tore the chains apart, held Nahashu in his arms, and roared up toward the ceiling.
"Hey! I'm right here! Get your asses out here, you cowards!!"
Guy felt as if his anger was about to blast through the top of his skull.
Snap.
Guy looked at Nahashu, who had grabbed his collar.
Nahashu opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
He stared anxiously at Guy, and there was something strange in his eyes.
Guy still had not understood what that look meant when, in the next instant, a huge tumor swelled on Nahashu's neck.
'What... was that?'
There was no time to react.
The tumor on Nahashu's neck suddenly ruptured!
A swarm of black flying insects burst from the torn flesh, and under Guy's horrified gaze, they rushed straight toward him.
At the same time, black tides of insects poured out from the corners of the walls in every direction.
In the blink of an eye, Guy was already trapped in a sea of insects.
He looked left and right, only to find there was no way out.
"Damn it!"
Thousand-Layered Clothes did not only let him pass through walls and merge with the earth.
It could also manipulate soil.
Guy stomped hard, and a wall of earth rose from the ground, cutting off the insects in one direction and briefly blocking them.
But at the same time he raised that earth wall, several insects landed on him and bit into his body without hesitation.
Thousand-Layered Clothes was not armor, and its defensive power was extremely limited.
Against insect-type Danger Beasts like these Crawling Ones, it could not stop their bites.
Feeling sharp stings from several parts of his body, Guy swung his arms again and again, trying to drive away the insects closing in on him.
...
While Guy was struggling against the insect swarm, Merraid was seated in the garden on the first floor, leisurely tasting the hot black tea Cassandra had prepared for her.
"Did you notice back then that someone was hiding nearby?"
Cassandra held the teapot and looked at Merraid with a little admiration.
Merraid was multitasking.
While controlling the insects attacking Guy, she asked Cassandra, "How is Gilberda?"
"Yes. Gilberda's condition has stabilized for now, but it will take at least a month of rest for her to recover completely." As she spoke, Cassandra said resentfully, "The main problem is still the injuries that man caused. The boy's slash was deep, but with Gilberda's constitution, that wasn't much of an issue."
That man.
The helplessness of that day flashed through Merraid's mind.
Her expression darkened as she gripped the handle of her black umbrella.
"We'll definitely make that man pay. For now, we'll collect a little interest first."
Suddenly... the tiny noises of birds and insects vanished.
Merraid noticed it sharply. Cassandra did too.
"Lady Merraid... this is?"
Merraid stared toward the front gate for a while.
A tall figure appeared there.
Gozuki stepped into the garden and immediately saw Merraid drinking tea, along with the maid at her side.
He snorted coldly.
"Hey, you seem to be enjoying yourself."
"Hehe."
Merraid laughed disdainfully.
"It's a little hobby for girls. If you even have to complain about that, uncle, I'm sure you're not very popular."
"Girls?" Gozuki placed his hand on Murasame's hilt. "All I see is a pair of murderers who kill without blinking."
Shing!
The cursed blade was drawn.
The instant Merraid saw Murasame's eerie blade, she felt a strange sense of danger.
Even so, she did not lose the verbal exchange.
She said proudly, "Those two things don't conflict, do they? A girl is only more mysterious when decorated with blood."
Even Gozuki did not know how to respond to that kind of statement.
So he said directly, "Enough nonsense, you lunatic."
With that, he gripped his sword with both hands and took a stance.
Merraid looked at Murasame and said, "What a beautiful blade. That's a Teigu, isn't it?"
"No comment!"
Gozuki spoke no further and charged straight in.
Cassandra flashed in front of Merraid. Kiriichimonji and Kurome's long blade appeared in her hands at the same time as she directly intercepted Gozuki.
The two sides exchanged several sword strikes, and Gozuki quickly recognized that one of the blades in her hands was Kiriichimonji.
Although it was only a Shingu, Kiriichimonji's ability was still somewhat troublesome.
Of course, it could not compare to Murasame.
Gozuki gradually began to look disadvantaged in the blade exchange. Cassandra was about to press the attack when she caught the curve of his lips.
In the next instant, Gozuki's arm actually dislocated from his shoulder, then stretched like a whip.
The blade's path suddenly turned strange, and Cassandra could not adapt in time.
Murasame's edge was already falling toward her head.
Cassandra quickly retreated.
Judging by the speed, she would not suffer a fatal wound. At most, it would break the skin.
But Gozuki was exuding a terrifying pressure, as if that one cut could kill her outright.
Sensing that something was wrong, Merraid stepped forward herself.
She held her closed black umbrella and clashed with Murasame's blade, knocking the cursed sword aside.
Gozuki clicked his tongue.
His arm then rapidly contracted, returning to its original length, while the bones all slid back into their normal positions.
Merraid recognized that technique at a glance.
Her expression turned serious. "That technique that lets you freely control your body... You're one of the Four Rakshasa Demons, aren't you?"
Kōken Temple.
The Four Rakshasa Demons.
They were peak fighters who had refined their bodies to the limit, standing at the very top among those who were not Teigu users.
And this man was not merely one of the Four Rakshasa Demons.
He was also a Teigu user!
Without question, he was a formidable enemy.
"Looks like I'm pretty strong, huh? To think Oarburgh would take me this seriously." Gozuki glanced at the castle behind Merraid and asked, "My children are in your hands, aren't they? How about this? Hand them over, and I'll let you go. What do you say?"
"Oh?"
"Let us go?" Merraid found it funny.
Covering her mouth, she said, "This father over here should worry about how he's going to survive me first."
Before her words had even fully faded, Merraid opened her black umbrella and pointed its tip at Gozuki.
Gozuki was about to strike first, but the moment he saw the pattern on the umbrella, a wave of dizziness slammed into him.
The four of them fell into silence.
As a veteran of countless battles, Gozuki immediately realized that this was no coincidence.
This was probably... Hypnosis.
This woman actually knew hypnosis!
---------
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator