After spending a long time with them, Noah had basically learned each of their personalities.
At the same time, he slowly understood why Gozuki had spent so much effort and money to raise them.
When people thought of assassins, they usually had two images.
The first was someone with amazing skills, countless killing methods, quick thinking, high criminal intelligence, and because they had killed too many people, they always gave off a terrifying killing intent.
They gave danger signals to everyone around them.
One look from them could make a weak-willed person collapse.
The second type looked completely ordinary.
They could disguise themselves as a normal person, or even a passerby, without seeming strange.
They did not have a strong aura.
They acted only to kill the target and did not mix in personal feelings.
From a professional point of view, assassins could roughly be divided into those two types.
But Gozuki did not want that kind of assassin. He already had as many of those as he wanted.
If Noah had to label these seven, the words would be "pure" and "natural."
They understood how serious killing was.
They also knew how precious life was.
But driven by justice and duty, they carried out the great work that "someone had to do."
They kept their innocence and kindness.
They had values and common sense close to normal people. But they could still kill their targets without blinking.
At first, it looked like a contradiction.
But behind it was Gozuki's carefully prepared plan.
He had raised these children into perfect weapons that killed only for the Empire.
They could think for themselves.
They had even been taught ethics.
They had strong self-awareness.
Compared to the third-rate disposable tools used by others, they were on a completely different level.
Even so, Noah still thought Gozuki was too idealistic.
Once a person's own will awakened inside a group mindset, trying to control that will with the old values would be impossible.
It might even backfire.
"Hey, Dr. Noah, can we roast and eat the Earth Dragon meat?" Akame asked with shining eyes.
She even wanted to eat this ugly thing that looked completely unappetizing!
"If you want to eat it, then take it. I only need the blood, eyeballs, and parts like that. You can do whatever you want with the meat."
"Yay!"
Noah had paid them the normal reward for defeating the Danger Beast.
So technically, the entire Danger Beast should have belonged to him.
But after receiving the reward, Akame still got all the meat too. She was extremely happy.
"Tsukushi, barbecue! We're having barbecue!"
"Uh, I-I'll pass. I've been on a diet recently." Tsukushi brushed her hair and carefully glanced toward Noah.
Hearing Tsukushi mention wanting to lose weight, Akame seriously examined her friend's chest and upper arms.
"You're right. Tsukushi, you've clearly gotten a lot fatter recently."
Her tone held no trace of a joke, making Tsukushi feel as if she had been struck by lightning.
She froze completely. "I... I..."
Noah watched in silence, realizing Akame really was missing a filter in her head.
Tsukushi's expression darkened.
"I only got two kilograms heavier recently!" she stammered. "I haven't even gotten taller, and I've been eating the same as usual."
Glancing at the girl's increasingly dangerous figure, Noah suspected the problem was not what Tsukushi imagined.
He recalled her recent complaints about her shoulders always feeling sore.
The child's physical development was simply too good, a hardship someone like Akame had no chance of understanding.
"Uuuh... Akame, you idiot!"
Feeling deeply wronged but unable to argue back, Tsukushi ran away in frustration.
Akame stood there in confusion for a moment before finally reacting and hurrying after her.
Noah smirked, 'it seemed friends were still more important than meat.'
Looking at the abandoned Danger Beast meat, Noah decided to send it to Martha's restaurant so everyone could share it.
A beast this large was enough to feed the entire village for two meals, likely with leftovers to spare.
...
Meanwhile, inside the Capital, Minister Honest marveled at the power surging from the Grace Elixir.
His entire body felt refreshed.
"Wonderful! Professor Noah really is a genius. I can feel it. The line that used to be unclear is becoming clear." The Minister clenched his fist so hard the trapped air audibly popped.
Looking at his gluttonous appearance, many assumed the fat pig would eventually choke to death on his own meat or succumb to an obesity-related disease.
They considered him useless beyond his appetite, but the truth was the exact opposite.
He held immense power.
While someone in his position would normally drown in daily pleasure, Honest remained exceptionally clear-headed.
To ensure he could enjoy his vices for as long as possible, he took meticulous care of his body.
In his youth, he had forged his physique through rigorous training at Kokenji Temple, the Empire's premier martial arts sanctuary.
As a martial artist, he rivaled first-rate fighters.
Having survived the exact same brutal training methods used by the Four Rakshasa Demons, his body had been reborn.
Had he focused solely on martial arts, he could have easily stood alongside those top-class warriors.
With such a robust constitution, he expected to live comfortably past one hundred and twenty, keeping the Empire's power firmly in his grasp.
The Grace Elixir revealed an even greater possibility: reaching one hundred and fifty was no longer a pipe dream.
"I should tell His Majesty to give Professor Noah a huge reward. Kehahaha." The Minister let out a strange, guttural laugh.
As long as he opened his mouth, the naive little Emperor would obediently do his bidding!
...
The next day, at the foot of Longxi Village's mountain, Noah received a sheathed long blade from Gozuki.
The deep red sheath and the eerie, talisman-wrapped handle radiated a cold, unsettling aura.
This was the Teigu: One-Cut Killer: Murasame.
"I don't know what kind of research you plan to do, but no matter what, don't let this thing's blade cut you," Gozuki warned. "Even a scratch will kill you on the spot."
Murasame's steel carried a lethal curse poison.
No matter how shallow the wound, the curse would invade and execute the target.
An immediate amputation might save a victim struck on a limb, but a torso wound offered zero time to react.
Noah, however, understood the blade's true nature: it killed the soul.
He also knew of Murasame's hidden technique, a trump card even Gozuki could not activate.
Much like the previous female assassin with her poison-type Teigu, Gozuki possessed good compatibility but had not been fully accepted by the weapon.
Murasame's hidden technique required the wielder to offer themselves to the blade.
Once initiated, the curse would flood the user's body, irreversibly mutating their soul into something no longer human.
This monstrous transformation granted power beyond human comprehension, but doomed the user to suffer pain worse than death until their final breath.
Absolute power always carried extreme risks, a side effect equating to drawn-out suicide guaranteed the resulting ability would be devastating.
Noah secured Murasame at his waist, concealing it beneath his loose coat.
While ordinary people wouldn't notice the hidden blade, any passing expert would instantly recognize he was armed—a detail Noah deliberately displayed for Gozuki's benefit.
...
After hiking five kilometers from the village, Noah shifted into a weightless state.
He hovered low to sweep the surrounding area before launching himself into the sky.
Pushing the atmosphere aside, he rocketed upward, encased in a giant bullet of compressed air.
As he angled his descent toward the Capital's southern forest, his atmospheric disturbance attracted the attention of massive creatures circling above, prompting them to give chase.
Free-falling speeds are rarely as fast as people imagine; even with gravity focused entirely in one direction and minimized air resistance, Noah's current velocity only matched a high-speed train.
Anyone who has skydived understands terminal velocity limits a human's descent, making most birds significantly faster.
And these creatures were no ordinary birds.
They were Special-Class Danger Beasts known as El Monda.
Resembling colossal manta rays swimming through the clouds, each beast measured over ten meters across.
The massive predators aggressively pursued Noah, quickly drawing his attention.
"Did they mistake me for prey?" he mused, glancing back.
A trio trailed him—two adults and a juvenile.
Perhaps they were teaching their offspring how to hunt mid-flight.
"How unlucky." Noah rested his hand on Murasame's hilt. "You really are a doomed family. Before I deal with Hylalsoles, I do need a few targets to test this blade's power."
Shifting gravity's direction, he reinstated his weightless state and braked to a dead stop in midair.
He drew the cursed blade, the smooth steel reflecting the incoming family of monsters as Noah locked onto his targets.
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