'Kill Akame?'
Noah looked at Gozuki, whose entire body was radiating murderous intent, but he was not surprised.
If anything, he had been thinking, 'So it's finally reached this point.'
At that moment, the image of that somewhat blank-looking girl appeared in his mind.
Akame.
Among these children, she had the best talent.
As the one who had personally implanted Falna into them, Noah had a certain understanding of each child's potential.
Among the seven from back then, Akame had possessed the highest latent ability.
If one were to break that so-called potential down in detail, it would probably come down to several things.
Base ability, willpower, talent ceiling, and growth rate.
In terms of base ability, Guy ranked the highest among the seven, followed by Nahashu, and then Akame.
As for mental strength, Akame's willpower ranked second among the seven.
But when it came to talent ceiling, she surpassed the other six by a large margin.
Finally, there was growth rate.
The value of this attribute could be roughly guessed from everyone's current strength.
The strongest, Nahashu, ranked first, while Guy and Akame were tied for second.
At the current stage, Nahashu and Guy might still have the advantage of sex and physique, but as her latent ability continued to be awakened, Akame's strength would soon overtake both of them and leave them far behind.
And that day was not some distant future.
Perhaps it would only take two or three life-and-death battles.
Or perhaps only one.
It all depended on how much of her latent ability was forced out.
After all, even ordinary people could sometimes unleash all of their potential in a single instant.
It was just that, afterward, they might be unable to endure the consequences that followed.
Kill her.
Or perhaps calling it a purge or erasure would be just as accurate.
It seemed Gozuki had noticed it too.
That was right. Akame possessed unmatched talent. She could be called a born assassin, but she had one enormous flaw.
Herself.
Under Gozuki's careful teaching over the past eight years, the seven members of the elite unit appeared to have different personalities and obvious individual traits, but in truth, all of them were under his control.
To allow them to grow as outstandingly as possible, once Gozuki noticed each child's personality, even if that personality was unsuited to becoming an assassin, he would not forcibly change it.
Otherwise, they would only become the same as the mediocre members of the Enhancement Division—high-grade cannon fodder, nothing more than better-equipped small fry.
Poney was not smart enough.
Perfect.
That made brainwashing her much easier.
To prevent that brainwashing from failing, all he had to do was make her develop absolute dependence on "Father." After that, he only needed to use his identity as "Father" to carve rules into her soul.
The same applied to the other girls.
Because the thoughts of little girls were mostly similar when they were young, he could control all of them with the same method.
Except for one little girl.
Akame.
She possessed a true self, something even Gozuki could not twist.
He could only influence it.
He had done his best to cover up the true face of this world.
All for the sake of keeping Akame ignorant for longer.
He could not brainwash Akame.
So he planned to make her ignorant instead, lowering the difficulty of controlling her.
But as the missions continued, the world she saw became wider and wider, and the self that had once been kept in darkness began to awaken again.
Facing this scarred and broken land, as long as she was not blind, she would certainly notice the Empire's lies.
It was only a matter of time.
This was the longest Akame had ever been away from Gozuki's surveillance.
As for how much influence that had on her, although Gozuki wanted to confirm it immediately, he had to fight that insect woman again.
Aside from him, no one here could deal with that terrifying woman.
So he could only entrust this to one of the few people who knew the truth.
Perhaps the only one.
Noah understood that Gozuki's request came from helplessness, and he could also guess how his thoughts had shifted to this point.
After hesitating for a moment, Noah gently nodded.
Seeing that, Gozuki turned and left, quietly saying, "Thanks."
That left Noah stunned for a moment.
He looked in the direction Gozuki had gone, then shook his head and raised a hand to rub his neck.
'I was only stretching my neck. Did he misunderstand me?'
...
When he returned to the camp, Noah immediately noticed an intense gaze.
He glanced over and found that it came from Dr. Stylish.
It seemed Stylish had already learned that Noah had casually dealt with the insect eggs inside Nahashu's body.
Earlier, he had been so confident and said things that were embarrassing just to hear.
Now, he was probably feeling as if his face had been pressed into the ground and ground back and forth.
At that moment, Gozuki had already gathered all members of the elite unit, along with half of the Enhancement Division's forces.
He decided to launch the attack on the castle at exactly one o'clock.
At that time, they would split into two units.
Learning from the previous mistake, where their combat strength had been too scattered and they had been defeated one by one, both units this time possessed "overwhelming" combat power.
That was assuming the enemy had no reinforcements.
Regarding that point, Gozuki believed it was unlikely no matter how one looked at it.
After all, this place was so close to the Imperial Capital.
For an assassin organization to continuously pour soldiers into battle here was impossible.
How many troops could a mere assassin organization have?
Trying to fight a war of attrition against the Empire was no different from suicide.
The fact that these people had not retreated even now meant they definitely had some special objective, but it absolutely could not be to fight them head-on.
However, since they had not withdrawn, it meant their objective had not yet been achieved.
Then they would take this chance and finish everything in one go.
...
One o'clock.
The two units moved out at the same time.
Noah followed the unit led by Gozuki and entered the castle directly.
At the top of the castle, Merraid calmly looked down at the many enemy soldiers below.
"Oh my, they really brought quite a lot of people this time."
"Lady Merraid, should we hide first?"
"Yes. After all, there are a few rather powerful people among them. If it's just us, we'll probably be killed." Merraid was very decisive.
She immediately had Cassandra bring Gilberda along and informed the sisters Akame and Kurome as well.
She strictly followed an assassin's principles.
If they could run, they would not fight.
"The Revolutionary Army people still haven't arrived? The meeting point has already been invaded, and they're still not here. What a sloppy bunch." Merraid shook her head, feeling deeply disappointed in the Revolutionary Army's quality.
Could such a mob really overthrow the Empire?
Forget it.
It had nothing to do with her anyway.
No matter the era, assassins could survive and continue on.
She only needed to take payment and complete the job.
"Wait, Lady Merraid. There's movement from the west. It's them!"
"They finally arrived."
Merraid smiled faintly, a cunning glint flashing through her eyes.
The Empire's assassination unit.
They had been chasing her all this time.
Now, they would have to pay the price!
With one gesture, countless flying insects covered their bodies.
When the insects scattered, both of them had already vanished from their original positions, disappearing without a trace.
...
Tap, tap, tap, tap—
Dense footsteps came from the forest.
Gozuki frowned and shouted, "What's that sound?"
A scout on the castle wall looked at the approaching army and said in shock, "It's an army! An army is heading this way!"
"What did you say?!" Gozuki froze.
An army?
He had not heard anything about the Imperial Capital sending troops here.
What was going on?
Could it be that the Minister had lost patience and made a recommendation to His Majesty?
"Who's leading the army? Can you see?"
"Sorry, if they get a little closer... Ah, I can see now. It's..." The scout's voice suddenly stuck in his throat.
His eyes widened in shock as he stared at the face that appeared through the telescope.
How... how was that possible?
It was actually that person?
"Hey, what's going on? Report already!"
The scout swallowed, cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.
"It's... it's General Najenda!"
"What?!"
Gozuki's pupils shrank, and for an instant, every hair on his body seemed to stand on end.
Because the one who had come was actually Najenda.
The former Imperial general who had recently been declared a traitor to the Empire.
Rumor had it that she had joined the Revolutionary Army and had become one of the enemy forces the Empire currently valued most.
If she had come here, it definitely was not to support the Empire's troops.
Could it be?
That woman was actually connected to Oarburgh?
Were they cooperating?
No.
There was no time to think about that.
The question was what to do now!
If they stayed here, they would be surrounded.
"Damn it!"
When Noah heard that Najenda had arrived here with an army, he was also very surprised.
Earlier, Esdeath had said Najenda had escaped with her troops while she was asleep.
Noah had originally thought she would have already moved toward the border, and Esdeath had judged the same. But it seemed she had been wrong this time.
Najenda had taken such a large force, yet instead of rushing straight for the border, she had been moving around near the Imperial Capital.
'How bold.'
'As expected of someone even Esdeath acknowledged.'
Noah silently praised her in his heart.
Suddenly, Gozuki looked at him.
'Mm.'
Seeing that look, Noah understood what he meant.
He wanted Noah to fulfill their earlier agreement.
Noah sighed at the sight of Gozuki completely misunderstanding him, then walked straight into the castle.
As it happened, he had business with Oarburgh too.
He was very interested in both the Crawling Ones and those two special individuals showing signs of ancestral reversion.
Although their last meeting had been very unpleasant, since they were an assassin organization, that meant they were hired for jobs.
If it was gold they wanted, he could create as much as they needed.
The problem was the grudge between them.
Among Oarburgh's older members, the old woman named Barbara Oarburgh had been killed by him. Then there was also the old man from last time.
Two Oarburgh lives were on his hands.
And their Taeko was still on his side.
If that grudge could not be eased, then there was definitely no way to negotiate.
In any case, he would try first.
Noah searched the castle for traces of Oarburgh and the others.
Gozuki, meanwhile, changed from offense to defense, actually turning the castle into their side's fortification and using the assassins as guards.
He also had people close the main gate and bar it shut.
Noah moved through the castle leisurely, as though touring a famous ancient building, and eventually reached the fourth floor.
This was already the castle's highest level.
In the large room on this floor stood a massive table.
The enormous table was more than fifteen meters long, with chairs placed neatly on both sides.
It seemed this had once been the place where the castle's owner held meetings.
Noah lightly touched the table.
Truthseeker activated, and memories related to this table flowed into his mind.
He had not done it intentionally, but unexpectedly, this allowed him to learn where the woman named Merraid, her two maids, and the Akame sisters had gone.
He walked to the wall facing the head seat and pushed the old painting aside, revealing the passage hidden behind it.
Back then, the castle's owner had escaped through here.
He had not expected the passage to still be intact after all these years.
It seemed Merraid had discovered this place long ago.
Noah did not think too much about it, he entered the passage directly and continued forward.
This passage had no forks and no traps.
It had been built purely for escape.
After walking for less than ten minutes, Noah noticed traces of greenery appearing on the walls, and weeds growing from the cracks in the ground.
That meant the exit should be up ahead.
Because of the air near the exit and the effects of changing weather, signs of natural life had begun to grow here near the opening.
The smell of the air had changed as well.
Noah walked with light steps toward the exit.
He pushed aside the piled-up vines and stepped out.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves before his eyes, and the scent of soil and fresh grass entered his nose.
Before he had completely stepped out, several insects crawled toward him along the vines.
"Yo."
Noah lightly snapped his fingers.
The black crawling insects suddenly trembled.
Then their bodies stiffened, lost all strength, and dropped from the vines to the ground, where they lay motionless.
For creatures with a body size like insects, their mass was far too small compared to humans.
Naturally, compared to controlling humans, controlling these little things was countless times easier.
With just a thought, he could crush their organs. He could also instantly coagulate their blood, easily killing them.
"This really is quite a warm welcome. Should I say long time no see, or we meet again, Merraid Oarburgh?"