"Of course he'd kill the impostor without hesitation," Lubbock said immediately.
Najenda nodded.
"Exactly. You're right. If it were really the Prime Minister, that's exactly what he would do."
"But the person impersonating the Prime Minister didn't die. He was only beaten badly and thrown out."
"Would the real Prime Minister really be that merciful?"
Those words made everyone present freeze.
That was right.
Would the real Prime Minister really be kind enough to let someone who impersonated him live?
No matter how they looked at it, that did not fit Honest's usual style.
Unless…
"The person who was thrown out wasn't the fake."
Akame calmly delivered the conclusion.
"He was the real Prime Minister Honest."
"W-Wait, wait! You're joking, right?"
Lubbock looked completely disbelieving.
"The one who got exposed was actually the real Honest? How is that possible?"
Even Bulat wore an incredulous expression.
Neither of them could imagine the real Prime Minister Honest being thrown out of his own home.
"Gaea Foundation might be able to imitate someone's appearance, but what about their mannerisms?"
"Their little habits?"
"The way they behave every day?"
"Can that Imperial Arm really turn someone into another person so perfectly that even their expressions, posture, and tone of voice become identical?"
"And even if it can, what about memories of the past?"
Bulat slowly raised his doubts.
Impersonating someone who was already dead was one thing.
But impersonating someone who was still alive—
and not just anyone, but Prime Minister Honest—
Bulat simply could not imagine how it had been done.
Especially since the impostor had somehow replaced the real Honest right in front of Great General Budo.
It was absurd.
Unbelievable.
Inconceivable.
Najenda nodded, agreeing with Bulat's reasoning.
"You have a point. In truth, I can't confirm whether the one who was thrown out was really the true Prime Minister Honest."
"I was only analyzing what the real Honest would normally do in that situation."
"Perhaps the impostor really does possess some unexpected ability that allowed him to survive after being exposed."
Leone scratched her hair.
"So after all that, you still can't tell whether the Prime Minister who got thrown out was real or fake?"
Najenda smiled bitterly.
"No. This entire situation is simply too ridiculous."
"Without more information, we can't determine whether the one who was thrown out was genuine."
Bulat's eyes shifted as an idea suddenly occurred to him.
"There is a way."
"We can find the Prime Minister who was thrown out and test whether he's real or fake."
"If he's the real one, we kill him."
"If he's fake, we recruit him."
Leone clapped her hands.
"That works! I'm in."
Mine nodded from the side.
"Sure. I'm curious whether the guy pretending to be the Prime Minister is real or fake too."
If he really was an impostor, they could absolutely bring him into their group.
Night Raid needed talents like that.
Sheele had no objections either.
Akame nodded as well.
The more capable companions Night Raid had, the better.
Seeing everyone agree, Najenda did not refuse.
That same night, she brought Leone and Bulat to the Imperial Capital Guard headquarters.
The place was heavily guarded, but for experts like them, the defenses meant very little.
There was simply no way such a place could stop them.
However, to their surprise, after infiltrating the headquarters, the three failed to find any trace of Prime Minister Honest.
Bulat thought for a moment, then simply kidnapped one of the guards while he was sleeping and interrogated him.
Only then did they learn what had happened to Honest.
The person who had brought him back was Ogre, captain of the Imperial Capital Guard.
However, after Ogre had been dragged away during the day and executed by slow slicing, everyone began regarding the injured man as extremely unlucky.
They also did not believe that he was really Prime Minister Honest.
After all, how could the real Prime Minister ever look so miserable?
And there was no way Ogre would have brought the real Prime Minister back here.
He had to be an impostor.
So the guards threw the so-called fake into prison.
After learning Honest's location, Najenda and the others immediately entered the prison and found him.
At this moment, Honest's face was deathly pale.
His body was weak, and he looked only one breath away from being a corpse.
Najenda recognized him at a glance.
At the very least, he looked exactly like the Prime Minister she remembered.
He was simply much weaker than usual.
But whether this appearance was a disguise still required investigation.
So she opened the cell door, walked inside, and thoroughly searched Honest.
She did not find Gaea Foundation anywhere on him.
Meanwhile, the moment Honest saw Najenda suddenly appear before him, his expression changed drastically.
"It's you!"
Of course he knew Najenda.
He even knew that she had become the leader of Night Raid, the assassination unit specifically dedicated to opposing him.
What he had never expected was to encounter her inside a prison.
Wonderful.
When it rained, it poured.
How could one person possibly be this unlucky?
Could it be that the first half of his life had gone too smoothly, and now all the misfortune was arriving at once?
"So it really is you, Prime Minister."
The moment Najenda saw that he recognized her, she knew that this unlucky bastard was most likely the real Honest.
First of all, an Imperial Arm was ultimately still a weapon.
If the weapon was not present, it could not produce any effect.
She had searched Honest thoroughly and found no Imperial Arm capable of transforming him into the Prime Minister.
That meant he had not taken Honest's appearance through Gaea Foundation.
More importantly, he had recognized Najenda immediately.
Najenda had indeed once been an imperial general, but unlike Esdeath, she was not especially famous.
Not many people knew her personally.
Prime Minister Honest was one of them.
More importantly, when Honest recognized her, the emotion that flashed through his eyes was not joy.
It was fear.
That meant he was afraid of her.
And who would be afraid of Najenda?
Naturally—
the real Prime Minister.
She had joined the Revolutionary Army and become Night Raid's leader, infiltrating the Imperial Capital specifically to assassinate this bastard.
Honest should know that perfectly well.
Now that he had fallen into her hands, how could he possibly not be afraid?
Fear was only natural.
Based on all these signs, Najenda was almost certain that the man before her was the real Prime Minister Honest.
This truly was a case of searching everywhere only to find the answer without effort.
Najenda almost laughed.
Heaven had finally opened its eyes.
Unlike the delighted Najenda, however, Honest wanted nothing more than to curse the heavens.
The heavens had to be blind.
Why else would they make him suffer through something like this?
The instant Honest saw Najenda, he knew that his life was probably finished.
He was not getting out of this alive.
But even if he had to die, he refused to die without dragging the person impersonating him into trouble.
At that thought, Honest's gaze became darker and more vicious than ever.
Noticing the change in his eyes, Najenda asked,
"What scheme are you thinking up now?"
"You really think you can escape tonight?"
"Escape?"
Honest sneered.
"Why would I run?"
"I know perfectly well that I'm not surviving tonight, so I have no intention of trying."
"I simply want to warn you, Najenda."
"You think killing me means the Revolutionary Army will win?"
"No."
"The Revolutionary Army is about to face a catastrophe."
Najenda's heart jumped.
"What do you mean?"
Had anyone else said those words, she might have ignored them as the final barking of a dying dog.
But the person speaking was Prime Minister Honest—
the man who had thrown the empire into chaos and controlled the imperial court.
His words could not simply be dismissed.
She did not necessarily have to believe him.
But she could not afford to ignore him either.
Honest let out a cold laugh.
"Look at me now."
"Yesterday morning, I was still the almighty Prime Minister standing above the entire imperial court."
"By tonight, I've become a prisoner with absolutely nothing."
"Why do you think I ended up like this?"
"It's all because of that man."
Najenda's expression sharpened.
"You mean the one impersonating you?"
Honest nodded.
"Yes."
"The man pretending to be me."
The moment he mentioned Luo Wei, Honest gritted his teeth so hard that he bit his own lip.
A faint trace of color returned to his pale face from sheer rage.
Najenda could not help asking,
"What exactly did that man use to replace you?"
"An Imperial Arm?"
Honest chuckled bitterly.
"No."
"It wasn't an Imperial Arm."
"If it had been, I would never have lost this badly."
"I can tell you this much."
"That man used some kind of special power to alter people's perception."
"Perception?"
Najenda frowned.
That answer was completely beyond her expectations.
Honest coughed and slowly continued,
"That man looks completely different from me."
"And yet my servants, my butler, and my guards all believed that he was the real Prime Minister."
"What made it even more hopeless was what happened when I brought Great General Budo to confront him."
"The moment Budo saw that man, his perception was altered too."
"He actually believed that man was the true Prime Minister…"
"and that I was merely an impostor."
"It was because of that absurd, unimaginable power that I lost so completely."
As he spoke, Honest's heart filled with bitter unwillingness.
Because from his perspective, he had lost in the most unfair way imaginable.
~~~
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