Najenda wore a smile on her face.
Behind her stood four male officers with extraordinary bearing, all subordinates who had been drawn to her personal charisma and chosen to follow her.
Beside them, Merraid's brow furrowed deeply.
It was all because of the move Noah had used to block the laser just now.
Ice?
Had that been a frozen shield?
Aside from fire, earth, wind, metal, and those other strange abilities, he could even control ice?
Just what was the full scope of this man's power?
Could he... not be human at all?
Oarburgh's inheritance stretched back more than a thousand years, and the ancient books left behind recorded many legendary Danger Beasts.
However, there had never been an exception like a "human-shaped" one.
Because Noah's abilities were so varied and so powerful, Merraid had already begun to wonder whether he was truly human.
Or was he an actual monster?
"Najenda."
Noah looked at Najenda, who had suddenly entered the scene, and watched the exchange between her and Merraid Oarburgh from the side.
He now knew that her arrival here was neither an accident nor a coincidence.
A former Imperial general had actually become enemy reinforcement.
"Esdeath has been looking for you a lot lately," Noah said to Najenda.
The moment Najenda heard Esdeath's name, the smile on her face quickly vanished.
Because whenever she heard that name, it was as if hallucinations appeared before her eyes—tens of thousands of foreign tribespeople being slaughtered, humiliated, and tortured.
Their screams seemed to coil around her ears, lingering without end.
"Unfortunately, I have no desire to see her right now. However, Sir Noah, if it's you, I believe we should be able to communicate."
"Communicate?"
"Yes." Najenda placed her palm over her heart and said, "Sir Noah, you are different from the nobles of the Empire and scum like the Minister. I knew that the first time we met! I believe you have seen the Empire's current state with your own eyes. Now, the Empire has reached the point where it can no longer be purified from within. Therefore, everything must be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up."
She continued, "The young Emperor is being manipulated by the Minister like a puppet. A puppet regime like that cannot possibly save this country. But the moment we move against the Minister, it is the same as declaring war on the nation itself. That is unavoidable. War is about to begin..."
At this point, she extended the hand that had been resting on her chest toward Noah.
"Sir Noah, can you truly tolerate such a brutal Empire? The Revolutionary Army already has a strong foundation, and from here on, it will grow rapidly. We need talented people! Are you willing to join us?"
Her gaze and tone were both very sincere.
To overthrow the Empire, even the strength of a single person was precious.
Noah looked at Najenda before him and did not think for long. He directly shook his head.
He said calmly, "There are still things I need within the Empire, so I will maintain the status quo for now."
"May I ask what those things are?"
The fact that she had not been rejected outright made Najenda feel that there was still room to persuade him.
As long as his demands were not too excessive, the Revolutionary Army could consider agreeing.
Of course, rebellion was something that could cost one's head.
If people were not driven to the point where they could no longer survive, who would take such a huge risk?
Since there was risk, naturally, there also had to be corresponding benefits.
Benefits that could be seen with one's own eyes and achieved within one's lifetime.
For example, if a god suddenly appeared now and told everyone in the Revolutionary Army, "You will definitely succeed, but you must persist for two hundred years," would the Revolutionary Army continue fighting?
No.
They would only scatter.
For people with lifespans of only a few decades, spending an entire lifetime with no reward, only endless sacrifice, was not something most could endure.
To give everything, to offer blood and tears, and finally even their lives, all for some distant peace and beautiful future that they themselves would never see—only a very small number of people possessed such resolve.
Only something one could truly hold in one's hands could be called a reward.
Najenda looked at Noah expectantly.
In her view, the current Revolutionary Army did have the strength to promise certain conditions.
She was also curious about what Noah wanted.... but she was destined to be disappointed.
Because Noah slowly spoke.
"To put it simply: power, money, and strength. You understand, right?"
'What?' Najenda froze.
She had not expected that what the man before her desired would be nothing more than these things.
At the same time, she instantly understood.
Her conditions would not be enough to move this man.
The reason was simple.
Whether it was power, money, or strength, there was only one group on the entire continent that possessed them on the largest scale.
The Empire.
Even though it had been declining for years, the Empire remained the continent's overlord.
Even if she believed in the Revolutionary Army's future, she could not deny that the current Revolutionary Army did not yet possess the capital to truly clash with the Empire head-on.
Power?
Right now, the Revolutionary Army was just a group of rebels. In the eyes of the Empire, they were not much different from bandits.
Money?
The Empire's wealth and treasure could bury every soldier of the Revolutionary Army.
Strength?
The Empire controlled millions of soldiers, and it had invincible combat forces like Great General Budo, as well as that terrifying woman, Esdeath.
At least up to this moment, the group with the greatest power, strongest military force, and most wealth in the world was still undoubtedly the Empire.
If what Noah truly sought was these things, then she had no bargaining chip worth showing him.
Seeing her speechless, Noah found it somewhat amusing.
His goal was to grasp the method of creating Teigu, and during that process, he had also mastered techniques such as ancient alchemy and secret arts.
As knowledge, these techniques were a way for him to strengthen himself beyond level, ability values, and skills.
Black Nightmare was a prototype.
Its performance was powerful, but endurance was a major problem.
In this world, he could use the Forest Dragon as a power source, but once he returned to Orario, Black Nightmare would become scrap metal.
Unless he could obtain an energy source comparable to the crystallized soul power of the Forest Dragon over thousands of years.
In Orario, the only thing that might accomplish that was probably the legendary Philosopher's Stone.
So far, he had researched many Teigu and used Seeker to trace how those Teigu had been created.
However, there was still one Teigu he had to see with his own eyes.
The Supreme Teigu.
Legend said that among the forty-eight Teigu, there was one strongest Teigu.
As an absolute and overwhelming power, it was an invincible Teigu that only someone of pure royal blood could wield.
Regarding this Supreme Teigu, aside from a few fragments of "rumor" in very rare documents, there were no records at all.
At present, the only person capable of controlling that Teigu was the young Emperor.
And the Emperor was completely controlled by the Minister.
In other words, the Supreme Teigu was already firmly in the Minister's hands.
When Noah first learned this, he had considered directly twisting the Minister's soul and turning him into his puppet.
Of course, since there was a chance of failure that might turn the Minister into an idiot, Noah had not done so.
For now, he still needed the Minister to provide him with funds and manpower to help him research the technology behind Teigu creation.
Just recently, he had taken twenty million gold from the Minister.
Looking only at the surface, that was almost equal to the Imperial Capital's entire annual tax revenue.
Such a vast sum of money was something even the Emperor himself could not casually use, but for the Minister, it was not difficult.
And as long as Noah asked, no matter how rare the materials were, even if they had to be obtained overseas, the Minister would immediately send people to find them.
Thanks to him, Noah's understanding of Teigu production had been advancing by leaps and bounds.
"Pah."
After hearing his statement, one of the officers behind Najenda spat on the ground.
He said with contempt, "General, you misjudged him. This guy is no different from those beasts! Please allow me to cut him down right here and remove a scourge from the people!"
Najenda fell silent.
She still found it difficult to believe that she had misjudged someone.
Noah should have been different from those villains in the Empire.
At the very least, the man she had learned about that day had not seemed rotten to the core.
Yet he also did not seem to be lying.
Noah's gaze passed over Najenda and landed on the officer who had spoken.
"Is it wrong to want power, strength, and money? If so, then what about you? Isn't the Revolutionary Army's goal to take those very things from the Empire?" Noah asked gently.
Facing his question, the officer snorted coldly. "Don't think everyone is like you. We fight for honor and for the people of the Empire! Why we do this is something you could never understand. There's no need to think about it any further. General, please allow me to cut this man down!"
"Hehehe."
Just as the conflict between both sides was about to escalate, Merraid suddenly laughed softly.
Of course, she was not there to stop them.
She was there to make the fire burn hotter.
"That's right, this general is correct. You can't let this man go. You don't know how many dangerously powerful weapons this man has created for the Empire. The threat he poses alone is equal to an army of thousands. Killing him here is the Revolutionary Army's only chance."
Najenda was startled by those words.
She had some understanding of Oarburgh.
They were an assassin organization and never pledged loyalty to any force.
That being the case, there was no way to determine how trustworthy their words were.
Before coming here, she had heard the intelligence that Oarburgh had failed to assassinate "Noah." The two sides should have a grudge.
She could not deny the possibility that Oarburgh was trying to use them to eliminate its own enemy.
"You don't believe me? In that case, I'll let you see it with your own eyes." Merraid smiled and took out an ordinary-looking hilt.
Najenda looked at her actions in confusion, and the four officers behind her were equally curious.
"What is that?"
"It looks like the handle of a fruit knife."
"What is that supposed to do?"
Seeing their reaction, Merraid smiled coldly and suddenly activated the Air Blade.
The compressed air currents almost became solid, turning visible to the naked eye.
Then Merraid swept it horizontally toward the four men still on horseback.
Before the four officers could react, the warhorses beneath them sensed the fatal danger and suddenly panicked.
All four were thrown from their horses almost at the same time.
Three of the horses collapsed to the ground and escaped disaster by sheer luck.
But one horse failed to avoid it.
From the thickest part of its neck, the horse's head and most of its neck were severed in a single slash. The trees on both sides were cut through as well.
The four men sitting on the ground stared blankly at the scene, their hearts pounding with fear.
If they had not been thrown off, wouldn't they have been cut apart too?
They did not stand up and curse. Instead, they looked at one another, and in each other's eyes they saw shock.
And resolve.
"This... the creator of this weapon is that man?"
"What a terrifying power."
"If every soldier held one of these weapons, wouldn't the situation on the battlefield become completely one-sided?"
"An invisible blade, and so lethal... truly frightening!"
Najenda witnessed the power of the Air Blade, and combined with Merraid's words, she also realized the severity of the situation.
She looked at the man before her and said gravely, "Sir Noah, are you truly unwilling to join us? To be honest, up until just now, I could still make the decision to let you go on my own authority. But now, the situation is different."
Clang!
Shing!
Ching!
The four officers all drew their weapons at that moment and formed a half-encirclement.
Merraid pulled Akame and Kurome behind her, leaving them only able to watch from the side.
"Sir Noah, can that power truly not be lent to us?"
Noah looked at the scene, where swords were suddenly drawn and tension filled the air, and smiled faintly.
"The Empire is indeed as you say. But the brutality of your side has also left quite an impression on me."
Those words were almost the same as a rejection.
The officer who had been shouting to attack immediately roared, "Shut your mouth!"
Then he raised the giant sword in his hands and brought it down hard.
The edge of the giant sword did not cut through the air. Instead, it struck the air down as if swinging a baseball bat.
A terrifying pressure rushed straight at Noah's face.
Noah leapt sideways and landed lightly. Almost at the same time, the giant sword smashed into the ground, directly causing a small-scale tremor.
The moment Noah's foot touched the ground, he sensed a presence behind him and immediately jumped in place.
Two curved blades flashing with red light swept beneath his feet.
He stepped onto the crossed point of the twin blades, and his weight made the ambusher's wrists strain terribly.
The man barely managed to hold onto his weapons.
Noah then used that force to leap over his head, heading straight toward Najenda.
The four immediately turned back.
Najenda, however, remained calm. She raised the cannon in her hand and fired a shot at Noah.
In midair, Noah changed the direction of gravity, and his body suddenly accelerated, avoiding the straight laser beam.
After escaping the encirclement of the five, Noah stood there and calmly faced them.
All five were surprised.
They had thought the battle would end instantly, but they had not expected his movements to be so graceful and light, allowing him to escape their coordinated attack.
Najenda held the Roman Artillery: Pumpkin and gave one final warning.
"Sir Noah, please stop resisting. The four people here and I are all Teigu users. You should understand that you cannot defeat five Teigu users. There is still time to change your mind."
Noah listened to Najenda's threat with his head lowered, making it impossible to see his expression.
If they had seen it, they would certainly have been shocked.
Because not only was there no panic or tension on his face, he looked as if he were suppressing the urge to laugh, the corners of his mouth gradually curving upward beyond his control.