"All right, time's about up. According to the information Akame obtained while undercover, Governor Rakiri, who has been colluding with the foreign tribes, will come to this forest to hunt today. We're not hiding here for fun."
As the team leader, Nahashu became far more serious once a mission began, all to prevent any mistakes.
His sharp gaze turned to Guy.
"Hey, small fry. According to the plan, you're going to drive the animals in the forest away now. That way, the target will move deeper into the woods in search of prey, making it easier for us to strike."
"Got it. Leave it to me!"
With that, Guy put on the Shingu Thousand-Layer Robe and sank beneath the ground.
Nahashu then looked toward Tsukushi.
"The target's life is yours to end. You can do it, right, small fry?"
"I-I'll do my best!"
Tsukushi nervously clenched her fists.
Although she had already carried out missions before, the target this time was a major figure, a governor of a province.
The guards around him were sure to be skilled. The difficulty of her previous missions could not even be compared to this one.
With Akame's help, she found a concealed position, hid among the branches of a tree, and took out her gun-type Shingu, Prometheus.
After Akame left, Tsukushi pulled a metal tube from between her chest and attached it to the muzzle of Prometheus.
"Now is the time for this to make its debut. My special equipment, custom-made for me by the people from the Science Division at Father's request."
Tsukushi recalled what Gozuki had told her.
This was a kind of "suppressor." Not only could it eliminate the sound of gunfire, it could also suppress the muzzle flash, allowing her to fire in the dark without exposing her position.
Before this, Tsukushi had always used a piece of cloth wrapped around the muzzle to hide the flash.
Compared to specialized equipment like this, that method was obviously extremely crude and primitive.
After installing the suppressor, Tsukushi controlled her breathing, calmed herself, and carefully concealed herself in the tree while waiting for the target to appear.
Before long, a group of riders rapidly approached from one direction.
She could even hear someone cursing angrily.
"Damn it, where did the deer herd go? We've been searching for so long, but we haven't even seen the shadow of a Lelang deer!"
Hidden in the tree, Tsukushi looked toward the irritable man surrounded by the crowd not far away.
As a marksman, her eyesight was excellent. Even in the dim forest, her vision allowed her to clearly make out the enemy's appearance.
'Found him.'
'The mission target, Rakiri.'
Tsukushi's spirit sharpened, but her breathing did not become disorderly, nor did her heartbeat accelerate.
She remained calm as she raised Prometheus in her hands and thought, 'The deer herd must have been driven away by Guy.'
The target had successfully taken the bait.
First, she confirmed Rakiri's position with her eyes.
Then she raised Prometheus, but instead of aiming in Rakiri's direction, she pointed toward a completely unrelated direction and pulled the trigger.
Under the suppressor's effect, the recoil, gunshot, and muzzle flash were all suppressed to the utmost limit.
If she had not seen the bullet's trajectory herself, even Tsukushi might have doubted whether she had actually fired.
The bullet shot out from Prometheus's barrel.
Under the effect of its specially made rifling, after flying for a certain distance, the bullet suddenly curved, bypassing several large trees before drawing a wide one-hundred-and-eighty-degree arc.
Whoosh—!
After piercing through the skull, the bullet's kinetic energy was greatly weakened. Once it lost speed, it dropped to the ground.
Rakiri's expression remained frozen in the furious glare he had worn a moment ago. His open mouth had not even had time to close before his entire body went limp and collapsed to one side.
The guards noticed something was wrong. When they saw their employer fall, their expressions changed instantly.
However, what appeared on their faces was not fear at this silent assassination, but anger.
Someone had actually dared kill their target.
The governor's household servants' first thought after seeing the governor die was to catch the killer.
Otherwise, if they could not give an explanation, none of them should even think of surviving.
One of them looked at the governor's wound, then glared in the direction the bullet had come from.
"It came from over there! The killer can't have gone far! Chase them!"
"Yes!"
The group immediately split in two.
The governor's servants all ran toward the direction the bullet had come from, but the hired guards did not move.
Instead, they looked toward the tree where Tsukushi had been hiding earlier and saw several drifting leaves.
One of them sniffed.
"The smell of gunpowder is coming from this side. This is the direction the assassin escaped in."
"After her."
"She dared assassinate our employer. This concerns our reputation. We can't let this go."
The hired guards quickly pursued Tsukushi in the direction she had retreated.
By now, Tsukushi and Guy had already regrouped with the others.
"That was great! We succeeded! Thanks to you, Guy, the mission went very smoothly!" Tsukushi said happily while moving through the trees with everyone.
Guy smiled too.
Akame, however, wore a strange expression.
She suddenly asked Nahashu up ahead, "Boss, what about the pursuers?"
"Pursuers?"
Tsukushi froze slightly.
She had deliberately used Prometheus's bullet to kill the target from the opposite direction. The enemies should have all chased the wrong way.
At least, that was what she had thought.
But after hearing Akame's words, she also extended her senses behind them.
As a result, she truly detected several intense waves of killing intent rapidly pursuing them.
Nahashu snorted coldly.
"So not all of them were fooled. Perfect. Let's teach the small fries who noticed a lesson."
Pony asked in confusion, "How did they figure it out?"
Akame explained, "The smell of gunpowder. Tsukushi's Prometheus can make bullets change direction, but the smell of gunpowder produced when firing still remains at the original position, and it can cling to the body."
After hearing that, Tsukushi hurriedly sniffed herself to check whether the smell had stuck to her.
As expected, she really did catch a faint trace of gunpowder.
Nahashu's expression did not change. In midair, he suddenly turned around and shouted sharply.
"Everyone, prepare to engage."
Cornelia, who was more cautious, reminded them, "They can keep up with us, so they're not weak. Everyone, be careful."
Almost the instant her voice fell, several figures filled with killing intent shot out from the forest behind them.
When they saw Nahashu and the others, they were slightly stunned at first, because these children were far too young.
But then they thought of the world they lived in now.
In this age, even children would do anything to survive.
Since they were enemies, there was only one thing to do.
Kill them.
"Brats, I'll only say this once. Before we kill you, hurry up and tell us who's behind you."
These people wasted no more words and immediately attacked.
The numbers on both sides were not equal.
Because the governor's subordinates had all foolishly been deceived into going in another direction, only five people had caught up this time.
But they did not think they would lose.
After all, their opponents were nothing more than a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears brats—
Or so they thought.
The moment they clashed, all five were shocked.
Because these brats were strong!
"Too strong!"
What kind of joke was this?
How could a few mere children possess skills like these?
Each of the five was being suppressed one-sidedly, and in one-on-one fights at that.
Seeing that the difference in strength between both sides was so great, Nahashu simply gave up on joining in and said directly, "Finish them quickly, then leave this place."
"Got it!"
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
Akame, Pony, and Guy each faced one opponent.
Akame held Kiriichimonji in her hands, and her fierce swordsmanship forced her opponent through several brushes with death in the span of mere seconds.
In the end, his footwork became disorderly, and Akame seized the opening, slitting his throat with a single slash.
"Burial."
With one swift cut, Akame's gaze held neither joy nor sorrow. All of her killing intent had been poured into the blade.
"Burial" was her 'spell.'
It was what Father Gozuki had told her to chant whenever she could not make up her mind.
Ever since then, every time she killed, she would whisper it.
It was also a way of hypnotizing herself.
All of this was for a better tomorrow.
Pony's opponent was completely toyed with by her speed. After only a few exchanges, she kicked his head apart.
Guy was even more simple and brutal.
He grabbed his opponent's head and smashed it into the ground, directly crushing it into a bloody mess.
"Damn it! What the hell is wrong with these brats? They're too strong!"
Of the two remaining pursuers, one turned his attention toward Nahashu.
Because he had realized that this cold-looking boy was the leader of the enemy group, so he intended to capture the leader first.
Feeling the man's desperate momentum, Nahashu's figure flashed and vanished from where he stood.
"What?!"
The pursuer who had lost sight of his target heard a voice from behind him in the very next second.
"Where are you looking?"
Before he could react, Nahashu had already driven the Water Dragon Sword through his chest.
An instant kill.
Now, of the five pursuers, only the last woman remained.
She set her sights on Tsukushi.
Seeing the gun in Tsukushi's hand, she knew this girl was the true culprit who had killed the governor.
As long as she captured her, that would be enough.
If she was a marksman, then she should not be very strong in close combat.
"Sorry about this, little girl!"
When Tsukushi saw the woman charge toward her at incredible speed, she was startled. Because of that, she failed to notice the vines underfoot for a moment.
"Ah."
Tsukushi tripped and lost her balance, falling onto the ground. In an instant, she had become a lamb waiting for slaughter.
Seeing this, Cornelia tried to rush to her aid, but the distance was a little too far, and her speed was inferior to that female pursuer's.
"Tsukushi!"
"Huh?"
Just as everyone called out in worry for Tsukushi's safety, the woman wearing a terrifying smile suddenly had her upper body slide off from the waist.
Her lower body, seemingly unaware of anything, continued running straight past Tsukushi.
Her upper body fell to the ground, and she stared in horror at her own fleeing lower half.
Only after several seconds did the blood seem to realize what had happened, bursting out in great quantities from the severed section of her body.
Tsukushi stood up and rubbed her aching backside, then revealed the air blade in her hand.
"Whew, that scared me. Good thing I had this…"
Creak—
Before she could finish expressing her relief at surviving, everyone heard a miserable groan from a nearby tree so thick that it would take two people to encircle it.
Slowly, it began to fall to one side.
Seeing that, everyone's mouths opened slightly. For a moment, they had no idea what to say.
Tsukushi also realized that she had made a mistake.
"Ah… um, it was an emergency, so I think I forgot to adjust the power. I accidentally set it to maximum…"
Nahashu walked over to the severed tree. Looking at the smooth, mirror-like cut across the trunk, his gaze turned serious.
This kind of air blade, just like Tsukushi's suppressor, was actually one of the "small tools" developed by Noah.
They were all things he had created while building his reputation.
At present, most of them had been supplied to the elite unit.
Precisely because each of them had one, and because they had all personally trained with these weapons, Nahashu found it terrifying.
Normally, when they used this thing, they would not employ such exaggerated power.
The reason was simple.
Power like this was only needed on a battlefield.
To kill a person, all one needed was the right timing and a strike to the vital point.
Making it so excessive, as though intending to grind the target's bones to dust, was completely unnecessary.
They did not even have a personal grudge against their targets.
Akame said in surprise, "So it can actually produce this much killing power. No wonder Father always tells us to use it cautiously…"
As the brains of the group, Green thought about more things.
His gaze flickered as he swept his eyes across his companions. In the end, he felt that only Nahashu, as their leader, might know something.
So he asked, "Boss, is the Science Division really that impressive? They can actually develop something like this?"
Nahashu understood what he meant and said directly, "No. I heard these were all created by one genius scientist in the Science Division. Tsukushi's suppressor as well. They're that person's works."
"Eh? Is that so?" Tsukushi was surprised too.
When Father gave it to her, he had only said it was a supply item obtained from the Science Division.
"A genius… huh," Green murmured, falling into thought.
In his eyes, Nahashu himself was the very definition of genius.
He learned everything quickly and always produced the best results. He was also Father's favorite and most trusted child.
For even Nahashu to call someone a genius, just how extraordinary must that person be?
"All right, move out. Father is already waiting for us at the rendezvous point. Hurry if you don't want to be scolded."
"Ah, crap. Then we really need to hurry."
"I don't want my allowance docked."
...
Several days later, a spy from the foreign tribes arrived at the scene.
Looking at the traces that had already been mostly erased, his gaze changed repeatedly as he reconstructed most of what had happened during the battle in his mind.
Then he saw the severed tree, and his mind went blank for a moment.
'Damn it. Are the Empire's assassination units all monsters?'
'It was just killing one person. How in the world did they cause this much destruction?'
This was important intelligence.
It had to be spread as quickly as possible.
As a result, in less than a month, information that the Empire possessed some kind of terrifying lethal weapon spread throughout the entire territory.