In Prime Minister Honest's opinion, there was only one person in the entire empire capable of standing against Great General Budo.
Esdeath.
General Esdeath was his best possible ally.
Even more fortunately, Esdeath was currently away from the Imperial Capital, so she had not been brainwashed by that mysterious impostor.
As long as Honest could leave the capital and find General Esdeath, he would still have a chance to turn the tables.
Unfortunately, the journey from the Imperial Capital to the front lines was extremely long. Honest was also badly injured and had difficulty moving.
The only person he could rely on right now was Ogre.
Therefore, he had to keep Ogre reassured, fill his head with promises, and above all, never let him discover that Honest had already lost his identity as Prime Minister.
Just as Honest was thinking about how to use Ogre to reach the front lines, a sudden commotion came from outside.
Ogre immediately flew into a rage.
This was his opportunity to curry favor with Prime Minister Honest.
And someone actually dared cause trouble on his own turf?
They clearly had no respect for him.
Ogre immediately decided that he would arrest these troublemakers and torture them thoroughly, allowing Prime Minister Honest to witness his methods.
Bang!
However, before Ogre could even stand up and go outside to arrest them, the door to the Imperial Capital Guard's room was kicked open.
A group of soldiers charged inside like wolves and tigers.
Ogre froze when he saw them.
Every one of the soldiers had predatory eyes, and the way they stared at him was filled with unprecedented greed.
A bad feeling immediately rose in Ogre's heart.
"W-Who are you people? Why are you barging in here? Do you even know what place this is?"
Ogre straightened his body and questioned the soldiers with an imposing expression.
But the soldiers did not answer.
Instead, they swarmed forward and seized him.
It was not as though Ogre had no intention of resisting.
The problem was that he was alone and was not an Imperial Arms user, while his opponents were more than a dozen battle-hardened soldiers.
The moment Ogre resisted, they beat him to the ground.
Even his already fierce-looking face took several heavy punches, leaving him bruised and swollen.
"What the hell are you trying to do?!!!"
Ogre finally lost his composure.
This was the headquarters of the Imperial Capital Guard!
A group of ordinary soldiers had actually stormed into his headquarters to arrest him.
They had unbelievable nerve.
Did they not realize that with a single order, Ogre could summon a large number of subordinates?
However, the soldier leading them merely sneered.
"You're Ogre, right? I suggest you surrender obediently and stop resisting."
"The Prime Minister personally issued an order to have you cut to pieces and executed by slow slicing."
"Your men aren't going to offend the Prime Minister for your sake."
"The Prime Minister? What Prime Minister? Which Prime Minister?"
Ogre could not help asking.
"Prime Minister Honest, of course."
The moment he heard that name, Ogre went completely stupid.
He instinctively looked toward the real Prime Minister Honest lying on the bed.
He had faithfully served Honest this entire time, yet Honest had turned around and ordered his death?
What kind of twisted logic was that?
No—
wait!
In the next second, Ogre suddenly realized something.
After Honest had been thrown out of his residence yesterday, Ogre had personally brought him back and carefully treated his injuries.
No one else had come near him throughout the entire process.
Ogre had not allowed anyone else to interfere or help.
He had personally handled everything because he wanted to increase Honest's goodwill toward him.
And ever since Honest woke up, Ogre had remained beside him every moment.
Aside from Ogre, Honest had not met anyone else.
How could Honest possibly have issued an order to kill him?
Even if Honest truly wanted him dead, how could he have transmitted the order?
"You've made a mistake! You've definitely made a mistake!"
Ogre suddenly roared.
"Prime Minister Honest is right here! How could he possibly order my death? He would never kill me!"
Hearing Ogre's shouting, the soldiers instinctively looked toward the real Honest lying on the bed.
But there was one problem.
They were merely low-ranking soldiers.
How could they possibly have ever met Prime Minister Honest?
They did not even know what he looked like.
Furthermore, the obese man lying half-dead on the bed looked nothing like the mighty and imposing Prime Minister Honest they imagined.
More importantly, the order to execute Ogre had come directly from the Imperial Palace.
How could Prime Minister Honest possibly be lying in a place like this?
The soldiers burst into laughter.
They thought Ogre had completely lost his mind.
He had randomly pointed at some man and claimed he was Prime Minister Honest.
He was clearly insane.
"Take him away! Take this lunatic away!"
The soldiers stopped listening to Ogre and dragged him out of the Imperial Capital Guard headquarters.
Not a single person dared stop them.
Ogre desperately stared at Honest lying on the bed and roared,
"Prime Minister! Save me! Prime Minister, hurry and save me!"
But Honest remained completely silent.
He knew very well that these soldiers did not recognize him.
If he dared claim that he was Prime Minister Honest, these bottom-rank soldiers would almost certainly arrest him as well and torture him brutally in order to curry favor with the fake Prime Minister.
He was already severely injured.
If he suffered another round of torture, he might genuinely die.
Therefore, Honest said nothing.
He simply watched as the soldiers dragged Ogre away, completely ignoring his desperate pleas for help.
Not long afterward, Ogre died.
The soldiers dragged him to a public square and executed him by slow slicing in front of a crowd of citizens.
The spectators applauded and cheered.
To ordinary citizens, Prime Minister Honest was far too distant a figure.
They rarely felt the evil he committed firsthand.
Ogre was different.
As captain of the Imperial Capital Guard, he dealt with ordinary citizens every day and constantly abused his position to bully others.
Countless people had been ruined by him.
Some had lost all their wealth.
Others had seen their families destroyed.
Now that Ogre was being publicly executed, the people were naturally overjoyed.
No one noticed that an assassin from Night Raid had mixed into the crowd.
Leone watched the scene with a strange expression.
She knew Ogre.
But she could not understand why the tyrannical captain of the Imperial Capital Guard had suddenly been arrested by soldiers and executed by slow slicing.
What had Ogre done to end up like this?
Out of curiosity, Leone asked around.
And she soon discovered something strange.
The person who had ordered Ogre's execution was none other than the thoroughly corrupt Prime Minister Honest.
Uh…
Someone like Ogre actually had the courage to offend Prime Minister Honest?
Seriously?
So Leone waited until she found an isolated member of the Imperial Capital Guard, kidnapped him, and interrogated him thoroughly.
After that interrogation, Leone discovered something utterly ridiculous.
Yesterday—
just yesterday—
Ogre had actually led members of the Imperial Capital Guard to surround Prime Minister Honest's residence.
And even more absurdly, the person who had issued that order was none other than—
Prime Minister Honest himself.
Not long afterward, Prime Minister Honest had returned to his residence together with Great General Budo.
Then, some time later, Prime Minister Honest had been thrown out of his own residence covered in injuries.
Ogre had then brought him back to the Imperial Capital Guard headquarters.
But today, an order suddenly came from the Imperial Palace.
Prime Minister Honest had personally ordered Ogre's arrest and execution by slow slicing.
To be honest, after learning all of this, Leone felt like her brain was starting to grow from the effort of understanding it.
What did it mean that Prime Minister Honest had ordered his own residence surrounded?
And what did it mean that Prime Minister Honest had been beaten half to death and thrown out of his own residence?
Even more absurdly—
if Honest was currently staying at the Imperial Capital Guard headquarters, then why had an order come from the Imperial Palace under Honest's name ordering Ogre's execution?
What the hell was going on?
It was ridiculous.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Leone had never heard of anything this absurd before.
Her instincts told her that there had to be some secret behind all of this.
So she hurried back to Night Raid's secret base and found her superior, Najenda, along with the rest of her companions.
Then she told them everything she had discovered.
After listening, Najenda fell into thought.
"What you've described is certainly bizarre and contradictory."
"But if we approach it from another angle, perhaps everything can be explained."
Leone asked curiously,
"What angle?"
"What if there are two Prime Ministers in the world right now?" Najenda said.
Leone laughed and shook her head.
"How could that be possible? How could there possibly be two Prime Ministers?"
At that moment, Akame suddenly spoke.
"What Boss means is that one of the two Prime Ministers is fake."
Lubbock's eyes immediately lit up, and he clapped his hands.
"I get it!"
"A fake Prime Minister took over Honest's residence."
"When the real Prime Minister discovered it, he ordered Ogre to surround the estate, then brought Great General Budo back with him."
"They captured the fake Prime Minister, beat him badly, and threw him out of the residence."
"Ogre mistakenly believed that fake Prime Minister was the real one, so because he wanted to curry favor with Honest, he brought the fake back to the Imperial Capital Guard headquarters and cared for him."
"Then the real Prime Minister discovered what Ogre had done."
"So he issued an order to have Ogre arrested and executed by slow slicing."
After hearing Lubbock's explanation, Leone suddenly understood.
"I see! That makes sense."
"But still… someone actually dared impersonate Prime Minister Honest?"
"Who the hell is this guy? He's got guts."
Najenda said,
"Among the forty-eight Imperial Arms, there is one known as Gaea Foundation."
"The wielder of that Imperial Arm can freely transform into other people and can even transform into animals."
Bulat said,
"You mean someone used that Imperial Arm to impersonate the Prime Minister, but the real Prime Minister exposed them, beat them half to death, and threw them out?"
Najenda shook her head.
"Based on what you know about Prime Minister Honest…"
"If he discovered someone impersonating him, what do you think he would do?"