"I don't have that kind of thought!" Akame immediately retorted.
"That kind of 'training'… I would never treat Kurome like that. As long as she can break free from the Empire's control, that's enough."
'But I hope you do have that kind of thought,' Iori rubbed his chin.
A sisters bowl really is very immoral. As a true gentleman, Iori would absolutely never do something so shameless and without a bottom line.
'But!'
If Iori didn't take the initiative, and instead an aloof tsundere little sister who couldn't live without her big sister insisted on following along… then Iori could only reluctantly accept it.
After all, he's a responsible good man, right?
'Sigh!'
Let Iori suffer a bit, let Kurome take the blame.
Of course, for now this was just a beautiful fantasy. Forget the sisters bowl, he hadn't even managed to deal with Akame alone yet.
"By the way, where's your maid, ah no, your good little sister?"
Iori asked curiously, "You didn't bring her with you?"
"I brought her," Akame replied. "It's just that her drug intake has been restricted recently, and both her physical and mental condition are unstable. I was worried something might happen, so I didn't bring her downstairs."
She glanced toward the second floor of the inn. "My companion is in the room watching over her. Nothing will go wrong."
"Entrusting your most important little sister to someone else… There aren't many companions you'd trust that much, are there?"
"That's right. You should have heard her name too."
Akame hesitated for a moment. "Kurome's condition is already very bad. I'll take the antidote upstairs right now… My companion will come to find you later. But you don't need to worry, if you don't want to talk, you can just leave."
"I'll remember this kindness forever. No matter when you come to me for help, I will never refuse!"
Iori originally wanted to tease her a bit more, but Akame didn't wait for him to speak and hurried upstairs with the items. It seemed her sister's condition really was urgent.
After a while, just as Akame said, a woman came downstairs. She had short silver hair, her right eye covered with a black band, and her right arm replaced with a mechanical prosthetic.
She had a tall, full figure. Even wearing a man's suit couldn't hide her charm. Her face combined heroic sharpness with allure, giving off a unique appeal that was enough to make people overlook her missing parts.
Watching her walk toward him, Iori showed a look of "as expected." So it really was her, Najenda, the Empire's defected general.
She had once been an outstanding general and a formidable Imperial Arm user. But when she decided to defect, she was pursued by the "Strongest of the Empire." As a result, she not only lost two Imperial Arm-using subordinates, but also ended up losing an arm and an eye.
That didn't mean she was incompetent. On the contrary, being able to escape alive from the pursuit of that "Strongest of the Empire" was already an incredible achievement.
Now, although Najenda no longer had her former combat power, her talent as a general remained intact. She still held an important position in the Revolutionary Army, running around recruiting powerful allies… Why she came to see Iori was obvious without even asking.
"There's no need to introduce yourself. This isn't a place where secrets can be kept,"
Iori had no intention of probing or playing word games and spoke bluntly right away. "I have no intention of joining the Revolutionary Army, and no one can give me orders. But if it's a mutually beneficial cooperation, I'm quite interested."
"Oh? Mutually beneficial?"
Najenda had seen plenty of storms. Faced with Iori's distant attitude, she didn't mind at all. She calmly sat down and asked with interest, "For example?"
"For example… the Chief Minister Honest has a son named Seryu, no, Syura. That kid is said to be even more vicious than his father, and sooner or later he'll become your major enemy. I'm quite interested in that person, or rather, in what he has in his hands."
Iori smiled slightly. "If you can provide me with information on Syura, I can carry out one hunt for free."
———
This world doesn't have only one country, the Empire. A thousand years ago, the first emperor unified the richest central region of the continent and drove the other races into poor, harsh lands.
The Western Kingdom, the Southern Islands, the Northern Frozen Tundra, and the most mysterious Eastern Island Nation.
Although the Empire was the strongest power, it couldn't ignore threats from all sides. For a thousand years, it implemented a loose control policy over the other races.
But in recent decades, repeated upheavals within the Empire's ruling class made the surrounding non-human forces restless. Still, since the Empire's military strength hadn't declined, it could forcibly suppress rebellions.
Especially one female general known as the "Strongest of the Empire." Over the past few years, she had slaughtered the other races until everyone feared her.
She was only twenty years old, yet her vicious reputation was already enough to stop children from crying at night.
However, even under such circumstances, there were still those who dared to challenge the Empire's authority.
That was the race occupying the Northern Frozen Tundra. Fierce in custom and valuing martial strength, they were led by their prince and had gone back and forth with the Empire in multiple clashes, even gaining the upper hand at times.
They hadn't officially gone to war with the Empire yet, but after years of preparation, they had already gathered three to four hundred thousand troops at the border. It wouldn't be strange if they rose up at any moment.
This made the Empire's northern provinces extremely tense. From the provincial capital to the border towns, almost everyone knew that winter was coming, and they spent every deep, dark night in anxiety.
Woo~ Woo~ Woo~
This was another unsettling night. The capricious goddess of blizzards descended upon the northern lands. The biting cold wind didn't just blow, it charged like cavalry at every passerby.
Bare tree branches screamed in the wind, like the howls of unknown danger beasts. The vast white snowfield seemed endless in the darkness, making one feel as if they had reached the end of the world.
A group of four people, along with their luggage, rode on pack beasts that looked like giant ground sloths, trudging through half-meter-deep snow against the wind and snow.
Even though each of them had extraordinary skills and weren't ordinary travelers, they were still no match for the might of nature itself.
The leader was especially irritated.
He possessed an extremely powerful Imperial Arm that could instantly teleport him across great distances, with the restriction that he could only move to locations he had marked beforehand.
And this was his first time going to the Northern Tundra. To reach his destination, he had no choice but to walk there honestly, an annoyance beyond measure.
"Your Highness Syura!"
At this moment, one of his subordinates shouted loudly, "There's light ahead! We've found that town!"
"Oh, oh, I see it too. Great, I thought we were lost."
"Hurry, hurry, I'm about to freeze to death!"
Led by Syura, the minister's son, the group of four perked up and urged their already exhausted pack beasts to move faster.
As the points of light ahead drew closer, they discovered it was a two-story tower specifically meant to guide travelers, with people assigned to watch over the fire source.
The guards only questioned the four briefly before letting them pass. In weather like this, and with only four people, it was impossible for them to be bandits or scouts from another race.
Judging by their appearance, they were travelers, so the guards enthusiastically pointed them toward the only inn in town.
They arrived at the inn, settled the pack beasts in the stable, and knocked on the door. The one who came out was a simple, rugged middle-aged man with a typical northern look, seemingly with a bit of mixed blood.
"What is it, staying the night?"
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, bring us a hot meal first, we're practically frozen solid," Syura said with a slightly exaggerated smile.
"Seriously…"
In weather like this, the innkeeper clearly didn't want to open for business. But thinking that this group had nowhere else to go, he let them in anyway.
There were clearly no other guests inside, except for three cloaked figures sitting around one table, looking rather mysterious.
Could they be scouts from the other races? Syura narrowed his eyes and glanced at them.
But that had nothing to do with him. Did the combat power of his group of four need to fear a few mere outsiders?
As long as those three cloaked people behaved themselves, it was fine. If they dared make any suspicious moves, they'd be killed on the spot!
Bold and confident in their abilities, Syura's group chose a table in the middle of the hall without any concern. They took off their cloaks and coats, revealing their true appearances, each with a very different style, making the innkeeper freeze for a moment.
Syura himself had brown skin, messy white hair, a well-built body, and a twisted, unruly look on his face.
His three subordinates were a young man with gloomy eyes, a mature beauty with a frivolous expression, and a middle-aged warrior with an aloof demeanor.
Especially the warrior, the innkeeper had never seen someone dressed like that before… But then again...
"You're wearing way too little! Even indoors, that won't do!"
Aside from the warrior, Syura and the other two were dressed quite… fashionably. It felt like they'd run out of some improper costume ball. The two men exposed large areas of their chests, while the woman's outfit was basically fetish wear.
This was a huge shock to a northern guy who'd grown up in icy lands. "Aren't southerners afraid of the cold?"
"It's fine. This much is nothing," Syura waved his hand, smiling gently on the surface, though he was extremely impatient with the innkeeper's concern.
"More importantly, hurry up and bring us some food..."
"You're from a big city, right?"
The innkeeper suddenly looked curious. "At least, no one in the north dresses like this… Don't tell me you're from the capital?"
"Uh… half right. I'm from the capital," Syura pointed at himself.
Under normal circumstances, the innkeeper interrupting him like this would already be a capital offense. But with the blizzard still raging, he had no choice but to stay in this town… At the very least, he'd wait until he'd eaten his fill before killing.
"But why come all the way to the north… Oh, I get it. Life in the capital must be pretty rough these days, right?"
The innkeeper showed a knowing expression, which made Syura feel amused.
The beautiful woman beside him became interested. "Why would it be rough? I'm from the Western Kingdom. I haven't been to the capital yet, but shouldn't it be the most prosperous place?"
"You're not from the Empire, huh. No wonder you don't know."
The innkeeper let out a "heh," turned around to fetch a wine jug, cups, and a small stove for warming wine, and complained angrily as he lit the fire. "Isn't it because the capital is being run by the ministers now, making everyone furious?"
"Ministers? Which minister?"
"Who else could it be? Chief Minister Honest, that purebred dog of a minister! I don't know how many people hate him to death!"
"Oh? A dog of a minister?" Syura grinned, smiling pleasantly. The firelight cast his shadow onto the wall, making it look like some beast opening a blood-filled maw of sharp fangs.
"But I heard he's a pillar of the Empire."
The people traveling with him also subconsciously looked his way, each with a playful expression.
"Isn't Honest just a dog minister, a dog noble?"
The innkeeper showed no awareness of anything wrong and continued cursing. "That dog minister's son, Syura, is an even bigger bastard! The worst kind of beast!"
"Heh heh…"
The brown-skinned young man smiled even wider. "The worst kind of beast? Haha, what, do you have a grudge against him?"
"Of course! My cousin and her husband used to teach in the capital. If that bastard Syura hadn't slaughtered innocent people, how would my cousin's husband have died? If he hadn't allowed his subordinates to commit violence, how could those students have been tortured to death?"
The innkeeper lifted his chin. "Look, that's my cousin. She had no one to rely on, so she came to seek refuge with me."
Everyone turned their gaze and saw a gentle-looking, plainly dressed, long-haired woman on the second floor. She wore a confused expression as she slowly came downstairs.
The closer she got to Syura's table, the more uncertain her eyes became, until they finally filled with terror, her legs faintly trembling.
"Yo, your cousin is pretty good-looking~"
Syura narrowed his eyes, revealing a predator-like ferocity. In his mind, he was already planning how to ravage this woman later.
Come to think of it, he really did have some impression of this face. It seemed he had indeed seen her in the capital… But he'd killed too many people to remember which one was her husband.
What a pity. Otherwise, finding the husband's grave and ravaging his wife in front of it, letting the wronged soul watch how the murderer who killed him enjoyed himself, would have been even more satisfying~
Well, he'd just use this cousin's head instead.
"I'm telling you, that bastard minister and his beast of a son, after they die, they'll definitely go to hell and never be reincarnated!"
"That beast Syura better never have sons. If he does, they'll be born without a*sholes!"
"Cousin… these guests are…" the woman carefully approached, her voice trembling as she asked.
"Oh, they're just passing travelers. Don't stand around, come help and see what they need."
As he spoke, the innkeeper suddenly seemed to remember something. "Right, you must be hungry too. I'll make a pot of noodles for you. A cow fell to its death the other day, you're in luck. I'll make braised beef noodle soup!"
"Sounds good~ Just don't add cilantro. I don't like it," Syura said.
"Got it!"
The innkeeper hurried into the kitchen behind the curtain to cook. The cousin who had been asked to help, however, stood there in fear.
But Syura simply said lightly, "Come here," and she shuddered all over, trembling as she walked to the table.
"Mmm~ Nice figure~"
Syura and the gloomy young man leered at her with obscene gazes, but didn't act right away. In their eyes, the game wasn't over yet, the prey tastes best when enjoyed at the end.
"You know who I am, don't you?"
"Chief Minister Honest's son… Syura," the cousin took a deep breath, as if gathering courage, with hatred mixed in her voice.
"Since you know who I am, you should also know I won't let you go, right?" Syura teased.
The others laughed along, delighted by the woman's desperation.
"Ugh!"
The cousin seemed to despair. "Why… why do you do this? Is killing people fun?!"
"Do you need a reason to kill people?"
Syura instead looked completely matter-of-fact as he said, "What matters most is that I feel good!"