While the Four Rakshasa Demons carefully scrutinized Rowan, he was also examining them.
These four had not appeared very often in the manga.
Although each of them had a name and identity, they left about as much of an impression as ordinary cannon fodder.
The reason was simple.
None of them were Imperial Arms users.
Anyone who had watched Akame ga Kill! knew that the Imperial Arms were forty-eight powerful and irreplaceable weapons created by the founding emperor of the nation to ensure the empire's lasting rule.
The emperor used the empire's immense wealth and authority to gather the finest craftsmen from across the world. They used legendary Super-Class Danger Beasts as materials, combined them with rare metals such as Orichalcum and numerous secret techniques that had long since been lost, and created forty-eight unique weapons that could never be reproduced.
Every Imperial Arm possessed a special and incredibly powerful ability.
The female protagonist Akame's Imperial Arm, One-Cut Killer: Murasame, was a cursed blade forged specifically for killing.
Anyone cut by the blade would be infected with a deadly curse from the wound and quickly die. There was no antidote.
The male protagonist Tatsumi's Imperial Arm, Demon Armor: Incursio, was an armor-type Imperial Arm created using the ferocious dragon-shaped Danger Beast Tyrant as its main material.
Once summoned, the durable armor would automatically fly toward its user and enhance the wearer's abilities.
Its hidden ability was to awaken the biological traits of the creature used as its material, granting temporary invisibility.
Once the user became sufficiently skilled, they could even conceal their presence.
It was also worth mentioning that this Imperial Arm possessed the ability to continuously evolve.
By the end of the original story, Tatsumi had even evolved into a dragon.
Good grief.
Was this Dragon Slayer Magic too?
In any case, the wide variety of Imperial Arms raised the entertainment value of the series by several levels.
That was why the story always focused primarily on Imperial Arms users.
Although the Four Rakshasa Demons could rival some weaker Imperial Arms users, they did not wield Imperial Arms themselves, so they received pitifully little attention in the story.
That was why they felt like cannon fodder.
However, there was no denying that these people were fairly powerful.
Otherwise, the Prime Minister would not have used them to guard his residence or treated them as secret weapons.
Each of them also possessed their own special abilities.
For example, the girl named Mez.
Her name might sound a little unimpressive, but she was genuinely beautiful—a true young beauty.
She was a petite girl with wheat-colored skin, an adorable face, and a sensual figure.
More importantly, she knew how to dress herself.
Her clothing was extremely revealing.
Even by modern standards, it could be considered bold and fashionable.
It was worth mentioning that Mez was the typical speed-type fighter among the Four Rakshasa Demons. In battle, she relied on her swift and agile movements to evade attacks.
She also wore her hair in twin tails, but her hair ornaments were two heavy horseshoe-shaped metal pieces.
Once she removed those weights, her speed increased even further.
Unfortunately, she was also a genuine glass cannon.
Her delicate skin was extremely sensitive to injuries.
In the original story, during her battle against Lubbock of Night Raid, she was struck in her exposed back by flying blades controlled through his threads.
She immediately coughed up blood, lost all her strength, collapsed to the ground, and was left on the verge of death.
Lubbock then killed her.
When Rowan saw that scene, he had not even known how to react.
If the same injury had happened to the male or female protagonist, it would have counted as an extremely minor wound.
Yet this girl immediately lost all her strength and nearly died.
Well…
Rowan had seen fragile characters before, but never one this fragile.
The complete opposite of her among the Four Rakshasa Demons was a bearded middle-aged man.
His name was Sten.
He was the muscular type among the four and possessed absolute confidence in his muscles. His body was extraordinarily durable, though this also made him comparatively slow and cumbersome.
In the original story, he was also killed by Lubbock.
Lubbock manipulated his threads to attack Sten from inside his body, eventually crushing his heart and killing him.
As for the remaining two, they were Suzuka and Ibara.
Suzuka was a thin woman dressed in trousers, a skirt, and boots. Her clothing was the least revealing among the four.
She specialized in a body-manipulation ability that allowed her to control her fingernails.
She had masochistic tendencies and was always covered in wounds because of her love of pain, although her physical durability was actually quite impressive.
She was deeply infatuated with the sadistic Esdeath.
It was worth mentioning that she was the only survivor among the Four Rakshasa Demons.
In the final chapter of the manga, Suzuka disappeared while carrying Esdeath's severed hand, which she had preserved to prevent decomposition.
She never appeared again.
As for Ibara, he was a strangely thin man whose body was incredibly tough. He could freely manipulate every part of his body.
He was also the strongest among the Four Rakshasa Demons and had even forced Akame into a difficult battle.
During their fight, he injured Akame and stole her Imperial Arm.
However, because he was incompatible with Murasame, the Imperial Arm wounded him instead. Akame immediately reclaimed it and sliced him into several pieces.
His death was exceptionally brutal.
"What were the four of you discussing just now?"
Rowan asked while recalling their respective endings.
Mez snorted coldly.
"What does it have to do with you?"
Sten quietly glanced at Mez, feeling anxious.
Could this idiot please stop provoking such a powerful enemy?
Ibara, on the other hand, suddenly lunged forward.
His five fingers curled slightly into the shape of an eagle's claw as he reached toward Rowan's chest.
He seemed intent on ripping Rowan's heart out.
The instant he moved, the other three Rakshasa Demons also sprang into action, no matter how reluctant they might have been.
Suzuka leaped into the air. Her fingernails extended sharply as she clawed toward Rowan's neck from above.
Mez appeared behind Rowan and punched toward his spine.
As for Sten, he attempted to restrain Rowan's arms and prevent him from counterattacking.
The four cooperated with flawless precision.
This clearly was not their first time fighting together. Their coordination had been refined through countless battles until it had reached perfection.
Against anyone else, they might genuinely have succeeded in killing their target.
Unfortunately, their opponent this time was Rowan.
Rowan flicked his finger.
A beam of light erupted from his fingertip and pierced straight through Ibara's forehead, killing him instantly.
The beam then curved through the air and pierced Sten as well.
Afterward, the light split into two and wrapped around Suzuka and Mez, binding both girls tightly.
The two collapsed to the ground with heavy thuds.
This was Light Magic, which allowed the user to freely control light.
It was one of the spells Rowan had copied from the Magic King August.
It could be used both to kill enemies and restrain them.
It was an extremely convenient form of magic.
Lying on the ground, Suzuka and Mez stared at the dead bodies of Sten and Ibara, their eyes filled with terror.
It was not as though they had never encountered powerful enemies before.
But this was the first time they had seen someone this overwhelming.
The man had merely moved a finger, yet among the battle-hardened Four Rakshasa Demons, two had died and the other two had become prisoners.
It was simply unbelievable.
"Who exactly are you?"
"Me?"
Rowan replied with a smile.
"You could say I'm your strictest father."
He then activated Memory Magic and modified their memories.
The fear in their eyes as they looked at Rowan gradually transformed into reverence.
After Rowan released the Light Magic binding them, the two quickly stood up and bowed respectfully.
"Greetings, Prime Minister."
Within the Fairy Tail Guild, there was an extraordinary man named Mest Gryder.
The magic he possessed was Memory Control Magic, which allowed him to alter both his own memories and those of others.
In the original story, to infiltrate the Magic Council's intelligence division and obtain information about the Western Continent, he had used Memory Magic to erase the relevant parts of his own memory.
During his infiltration, Mest Gryder used the alias Doranbolt.
During the Tenrou Island Arc, he sought evidence against Fairy Tail so he could earn a promotion.
To accomplish this, he pretended to be Mystogan's disciple and used Memory Magic to alter the memories of everyone in Fairy Tail.
He made them believe that he had participated in the X783 S-Class Mage Promotion Trial and had nearly succeeded.
He was an extremely unusual existence.
Whenever anyone tried to remember events involving him, their memories became vague and unclear.
What Rowan had done was similar.
He used Memory Magic to alter Suzuka and Mez's memories, making them believe that he was the Prime Minister.
The two believed this without the slightest doubt.
Everything that had just happened became a test personally conducted by the Prime Minister.
As for the dead Ibara and Sten, they had naturally failed the Prime Minister's test.
Rowan pointed toward their corpses.
"Dispose of those two."
Suzuka and Mez immediately dragged away the bodies of their former companions.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Rowan modified the memories of everyone within the Prime Minister's estate, making them believe he was the true Prime Minister.
Then Rowan quietly waited.
Before long, the real Prime Minister returned.
Upon entering his own home, he discovered an unfamiliar man sitting in his seat, embracing his woman and enjoying himself.
The sight left Prime Minister Honest completely stunned.
He had gone through considerable effort to obtain this woman.
Why was she now acting so intimately and flatteringly toward a stranger?
More importantly, what right did this man have to sit in his seat and play with his woman?
This was completely outrageous.
At that moment, Prime Minister Honest felt as though an enormous green hat had been forcefully placed upon his head.
The muscles on his face twitched uncontrollably, and streaks of blood appeared within his treacherous, murky eyes.
His eyes turned so red they looked ready to bleed, and steam practically rose from his head.
"Soldiers! Get in here immediately!!!"
Prime Minister Honest released the loudest roar of his entire life.
He had never been as furious as he was today.
He wanted nothing more than to tear the unfamiliar man before him into pieces.
At his roar, a group of patrolling soldiers immediately rushed inside.
Prime Minister Honest pointed at Rowan.
"Seize that man! I want him cut apart by a thousand blades!"
The soldiers swarmed forward and immediately restrained Prime Minister Honest.
One soldier kicked him behind the knee, forcing him to collapse with a thud and kneel before Rowan.
Prime Minister Honest: "????"
What was happening?
Before he could react, the soldiers' commander—the subordinate he usually trusted and valued the most—bowed respectfully toward Rowan.
"Prime Minister, how should we deal with this intruder?"
Prime Minister Honest: "???!!!"