Chapter 27: Brainwashing and Usurping the Throne
While the Four Rakshasa Demons were sizing Yumesaki up, Yumesaki was doing the exact same thing to them.
These four didn't actually get much screen time in the manga.
Even though they had proper names, they left about as much of an impression as any run-of-the-mill background character.
The reason was simple enough: none of them were Imperial Arms users.
Anyone who had watched Akame ga Kill! knew that Imperial Arms were forty-eight powerful, irreplaceable weapons created by the First Emperor to secure his nation's rule for generations to come. Using the Empire's vast wealth and authority, he had gathered the finest craftsmen from across the globe, harvested materials from legendary Danger Beasts, added rare metals like Orichalcum, and infused them with secret techniques that had long since been lost to time.
Every single Imperial Arms possessed a unique and devastating effect.
Take the heroine Akame's weapon, the One-Cut Killer: Murasame. It was a blade perfected for assassination; a single scratch from this cursed sword would cause a deadly curse to spread from the wound, bringing swift death with absolutely no antidote available.
Then there was the protagonist Tatsumi's Demon Armor: Incursio. This armor-type Imperial Arms was forged from the flesh of a ferocious, dragon-like Danger Beast known as Tyrant. Once summoned, the heavy armor would manifest instantly around the user, granting a massive boost to their physical capabilities.
Its hidden ability was the capacity to inherit the biological traits of its original component creature, granting the user short bursts of total transparency. A skilled user could even utilize this to completely mask their presence.
Another noteworthy detail about Incursio was its ability to continuously evolve.
In the original storyline, Tatsumi actually ended up evolving into a literal dragon by the final chapters.
Man, was that supposed to be Dragon Slayer Magic or something?
Long story short, it was the sheer variety and color of these Imperial Arms that elevated the manga's action scenes to a whole new level.
Naturally, the core plot always revolved around those who wielded them.
As for the Four Rakshasa Demons, they could admittedly go toe-to-toe with some of the weaker Imperial Arms users out there. But because they lacked weapons of their own, their presence in the story was pitifully brief.
That was why they felt like mere extras to most people.
Still, there was no denying that their raw combat strength was actually quite impressive.
If they weren't capable, the Prime Minister wouldn't have kept them around as personal bodyguards, let alone used them as a secret trump card.
Besides, each of them possessed a rather unique set of skills.
Take the girl named Mez, for instance. Her name sounded a little cheesy, but she was genuinely attractive—a pure, beautiful teenage girl.
She was petite with sun-kissed skin, a cute face, and a remarkably voluptuous figure.
More importantly, she certainly knew how to dress herself, opting for an incredibly revealing outfit.
Even by modern standards, her fashion sense could easily be considered avant-garde.
It was worth mentioning that among the Four Rakshasa Demons, she fell squarely into the high-speed category, relying on quick, nimble movements to dodge incoming attacks during a fight.
She also wore her hair in twin tails, though it turned out those hair ties were actually two incredibly heavy, horseshoe-shaped iron weights.
The moment she discarded those weights, her speed could skyrocket even further.
Unfortunately, she was the textbook definition of a glass cannon.
Her smooth, delicate skin was incredibly sensitive to damage.
In the original timeline's fight against Night Raid's Lubbock, she caught a flying dagger right in her exposed back—manipulated by Lubbock's strings—and immediately began coughing up blood, losing all her strength before collapsing helplessly to the ground in a near-death state.
She was ultimately finished off by Lubbock.
When Yumesaki first read that part, he hadn't even known how to react.
If a main character or a heroine had taken that kind of hit, it would have been categorized as a minor scratch at best.
Yet this poor girl completely lost all combat capability and ended up dying from it... Wow, talk about having low defense, but he had never seen anyone with defense that paper-thin.
Standing in stark contrast to her among the Four Rakshasa Demons was a bearded middle-aged man.
His name was Sten, the muscle of the group. He possessed absolute confidence in his physique, boasting incredible physical durability at the cost of being relatively slow.
In the original plot, this guy was also killed by Lubbock.
Lubbock bypassed his external defense entirely by threading his strings inside Sten's body, ultimately crushing and twisting his heart to pieces from the inside out.
As for the remaining two, one was named Suzuka, and the other was Ibara.
Suzuka was a slender woman who wore culottes and boots. Her outfit was easily the most modest among the four, and she specialized in a bizarre body manipulation technique that allowed her to control her own fingernails. She also had heavy masochistic tendencies; due to this nature, her body was constantly covered in scars, though her physical durability was actually quite high.
She harbored a deep, fanatical devotion toward the sadistic General Esdeath.
Notably, she was the sole survivor of the Four Rakshasa Demons.
In the final chapter of the manga, Suzuka took Esdeath's severed hand—which had been treated with preservatives—and vanished without a trace.
She was never seen again.
Lastly, Ibara was a strange individual with a tall, gaunt frame. His body was exceptionally flexible, allowing him to manipulate his joints and limbs entirely at will.
He was also the strongest member of the Four Rakshasa Demons, even giving Akame a run for her money in a brutal showdown.
During his battle with Akame, he managed to wound her and temporarily seize her Imperial Arms. However, due to a severe mismatch between himself and her weapon, he ended up getting injured by it instead. Right after that, Akame reclaimed her sword and promptly chopped him into pieces.
His death could certainly be described as utterly tragic.
"What were you guys whispering about just now?" Yumesaki asked casually, recalling the grim fates of the people standing before him.
Mez let out a sharp scoff. "What business is that of yours?"
Sten glanced at Mez with a stoic, unmoving expression, though he was secretly sweating bullets. We're facing an opponent this powerful, so could you please stop blindly picking fights, you idiot?
Ibara, on the other hand, didn't hesitate. He lunged forward in a sudden burst of movement, his five fingers hooking slightly to form a vicious claw strike aimed directly at Yumesaki's chest.
It looked like he intended to rip Yumesaki's heart right out of his ribcage.
The moment he moved, the rest of the Four Rakshasa Demons pushed aside their reluctance and sprang into action as a single unit.
Suzuka leapt high into the air, her fingernails extending drastically as she clawed down toward Yumesaki's neck from above.
Mez materialized from the blind spot behind Yumesaki, driving a heavy fist straight toward his spine.
Meanwhile, Sten moved to pin Yumesaki's arms, ensuring he wouldn't be able to mount a counterattack.
The four of them synchronized flawlessly. It was abundantly clear that this wasn't their first time executing such a maneuver; their teamwork had been forged through thousands of battles, reaching a level of flawless mastery.
Had it been anyone else standing there, they might have genuinely been beaten to a pulp on the spot.
Unfortunately for them, their opponent today was Yumesaki.
Yumesaki simply curled his finger and delivered a sharp snap. A beam of piercing light shot from his fingertip, boring straight through the center of Ibara's forehead and killing him instantly.
Without slowing down, the beam of light curved sharply in midair and pierced right through Sten as well.
Immediately afterward, the light split into two separate ribbons, tightly binding the two remaining teenage girls, Suzuka and Mez.
The two women collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud.
This was Light Magic, an arcana that granted absolute control over light particles.
It was a spell Yumesaki had copied from the Magic King, August. It was versatile enough to obliterate enemies or serve as a highly effective binding tool.
It was an incredibly practical magic all around.
Collapsing onto the floor, Suzuka and Mez stared blankly at the lifeless bodies of Sten and Ibara, their eyes filled with unadulterated terror.
It wasn't that they had never encountered powerful enemies before, but meeting someone this absurdly powerful was an absolute first.
Their opponent had done nothing more than flick his finger, and just like that, two members of the battle-hardened Four Rakshasa Demons were dead, while the remaining two were rendered helpless captives.
It completely defied all logic.
"Who the hell are you, you bastard?!"
"Me? You could consider me your incredibly strict father," Yumesaki replied with a thoroughly amiable smile. Right after that, he activated Memory Magic to alter the recollections of both girls.
The sheer terror in their eyes instantly vanished, replaced by a deep, unwavering sense of reverence as they looked at Yumesaki.
The moment Yumesaki released his Light Magic, the two girls scrambled to their feet, instantly bowing low in a respectful salute toward him.
"Greetings, Prime Minister."
Within the Fairy Tail guild, there lived a legendary figure by the name of Mest Gryder.
His specialty was Memory Magic, which allowed him to alter the memories of others as well as his own.
In the original storyline, in order to infiltrate the Magic Council's intelligence department and gather intel on the Western Continent, he had used his own magic to completely wipe his own memories regarding the assignment.
During his infiltration, he went by the alias Doranbolt.
Later, during the Tenrou Island arc, in an attempt to uncover Fairy Tail's weaknesses to secure a promotion, he posed as Mystogan's disciple and used Memory Magic to rewrite the memories of everyone in the guild.
He made everyone believe that back in the year X783, he had participated in the S-Class Mage Promotion Trial and had come incredibly close to winning. It was an incredibly unnatural distortion of reality, yet whenever anyone tried to look back on the details surrounding him, their minds would only find a hazy, indistinct fog.
What Yumesaki was doing right now was practically identical to that technique.
By using Memory Magic to modify the minds of Suzuka and Mez, he made them recognize him as the one and only Prime Minister.
The two girls accepted this reality without a shred of doubt.
Everything that had just transpired was rewritten in their minds as a sudden, rigorous test orchestrated by the Prime Minister himself.
As for the deceased Ibara and Sten, they had simply failed to pass the Prime Minister's evaluation.
Yumesaki gestured casually toward the bodies of Ibara and Sten. "Go ahead and take care of those two."
Suzuka and Mez immediately moved forward, dutifully dragging away the corpses of their former comrades.
Taking advantage of the lull, Yumesaki systematically rewrote the memories of every single person residing within the estate, ensuring that every servant and guard fully believed he was the genuine, rightful Prime Minister.
With that taken care of, Yumesaki waited patiently.
It didn't take long before the real Prime Minister finally made his return.
The moment he stepped into his own home, he was greeted by the sight of a complete stranger lounging in his seat, casually wrapping an arm around his favorite woman as they enjoyed themselves.
The sight left Prime Minister Honest standing frozen in sheer bewilderment.
It was worth noting that he had expended a considerable amount of thought and effort to acquire this particular woman.
Yet here she was, acting completely subservient and catering to a total stranger.
More importantly, by what right was this guy sitting in his chair and playing with his woman?
This was turning the entire world upside down.
At that exact moment, Prime Minister Honest felt as though a massive, vibrant green hat had been slammed directly onto his head. The muscles in his face twitched violently, and a dangerous crimson glare began to bleed into his normally cunning, muddy eyes.
His eyes bloodshot to the point of nearly dripping red, his head practically steaming with rage.
"Where are the guards?! Get in here, all of you!!!"
Prime Minister Honest let out the loudest roar of his entire life. Never in all his years had he experienced this level of unbridled fury; he wanted nothing more than to hack the stranger before him into eight bloody pieces.
In response to his deafening roar, a squad of patrolling guards instantly burst through the doors.
Prime Minister Honest pointed a trembling finger at Yumesaki. "Seize this man for me! I want him sliced into a thousand pieces!"
The guards swarmed forward, but instead of rushing the stage, they instantly tackled Prime Minister Honest to the ground.
One of the guards delivered a brutal kick right to the back of Honest's knee, forcing the massive man to drop heavily to his knees right in front of Yumesaki with a dull crash.
Prime Minister Honest thought, What?
What kind of twisted situation was this?
Before his brain could even process what was happening, the captain of the guards—the very man Honest usually favored and trusted the most—offered a perfectly deferential salute to the stranger sitting on the couch.
"Prime Minister, how should we dispose of this intruder?"
Prime Minister Honest's mind went entirely blank.
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