Noah took out the recovery potion and placed it on the table, saying to Akame, "This is the medicine for this time."
"Thank you very much."
Akame lowered her head as she spoke.
She looked at the medicine before her.
So far, this was the only thing she knew that could spare Kurome from torment.
"Doctor Noah... you really can't join Night Raid?"
"Mm. I'm not very interested in those things," Noah answered. "To me, who rules this country isn't important. Your starting point may be good, but this kind of national system won't work."
"System?" Akame was somewhat puzzled.
In truth, she was not stupid.
Although she had a naturally blank side, her ability to learn and understand was actually much stronger than that of ordinary people.
"Akame, a country without democracy has no future. Even if the Empire changes masters again and again, the country's most fundamental flaw will still exist. This land itself is the mother of darkness, so the darkness can never be purified."
"Democracy? Does that mean letting the people become the masters of the Empire?"
"No." Noah denied it. "It doesn't mean becoming anyone's master. It means becoming your own master."
Akame widened her eyes, feeling an inexplicable shock, but she could not say why, nor did she understand the meaning behind those words.
Looking at the girl before him, Noah said, "The Empire is currently caught in the greatest wave of its existing history. Akame, I'm sure you have your own duty in this transformation too. I have that feeling."
"Duty..."
After hearing this, Akame thought for a moment, and her gaze gradually became firm.
But after coming back to herself, she asked in return, "Then what about you Doctor Noah? What is your duty?"
'My duty?'
Noah fell somewhat silent after being asked that.
To be honest, in this world, he was only a projection.
Yog-Sothoth was a magic that allowed him to obtain knowledge from another world, not an ability to travel between worlds.
In the Blazer world, the theory of fate could be clearly witnessed in those extraordinarily gifted Blazers.
Because of that, he had also begun to believe that the world had corresponding arrangements for everyone.
That was what people called fate.
Even if he was only a projection, the world had still arranged an "identity" for him.
Relying on this identity, he came to the Imperial Capital, found Leims, and through him entered the Science Division, where he learned of the existence of Teigu.
Because he desired the knowledge of Teigu, he opened the path of alchemy, studied secret arts, and for the sake of research funds, set his sights on Minister Honest.
On the surface, he had established a cooperative relationship, but in reality, he was using the Minister.
Now, although he had successfully modified Oranides and Focalor, his path in alchemy had fallen into stagnation.
Aside from matters related to Teigu, he rarely interfered with others.
If one asked what his duty was...
"Mine? I think it should be that of an observer."
"Observe?"
'Yes.'
Only watching from the side.
The Empire would eventually give birth to its own Marx and Lenin.
It simply was not now.
"Besides, Najenda hates me quite a lot. She's Night Raid's boss, isn't she? Forget joining. If she sees me, she'll charge at me like a mad dog."
"Boss is someone who prioritizes the bigger picture. If it's for the sake of the country, then surely..."
Akame stopped there.
Noah shook his head and simply turned to return to his room.
With his back to the girl, he waved and left behind one sentence.
"You can wait until the rain stops before leaving. Be careful not to catch a cold."
Akame watched him enter and close the door, then sighed.
Catch a cold?
How could that happen?
Ever since that year, she had never gotten sick again.
Thinking carefully, after that infectious disease in Longxi Village, she and the others had never gotten sick again.
Not only that, they seemed to have endless energy every day, and the speed at which they grew stronger became faster and faster.
Thinking about it now, that definitely was not a coincidence.
Longxi Village had been a fake village arranged by the Empire, so the infectious disease must have been fake as well.
At that time, Doctor Noah must have done something to them.
Not something bad, but something good.
Whenever she was in an intense battle, she could feel a warm current moving through her body, as if her potential had been stimulated.
Thanks to that special state, she had been able to surpass her past self again and again, becoming stronger.
Akame did not wait until the rain stopped.
She draped herself once again in the pitch-black cloak she had worn when she arrived, and left through that same window.
Her figure vanished into the vast rain.
Taeko stepped forward and closed the window.
On a day of heavy rain like this, ordinary people generally would not go out.
Anyone who did go out would not be ordinary.
...
Not long after Akame left, her path was blocked by a figure.
"Yo, my adorable daughter. I've been waiting for you for a long time."
Gozuki stood in Akame's path with the Demon Blade in hand, the smile on his face gradually changing.
This was the first time the father and daughter had met since the incident with Oarburgh.
There was no emotion or touching reunion between them, only wordless understanding.
Today, one of them would die here.
...
On the dark street, dense raindrops beat down on the two of them.
Akame looked at the man before her, the man who had been her father for eight years, and she did not find the arrival of this day surprising.
Seeing that she showed no nervousness or wavering, Gozuki also realized that she seemed to have grown.
He raised an eyebrow and said, "Looks like you knew I would find you one day, Akame."
As for Akame escaping with Kurome, he had immediately read much more information from that incident.
First was the information Kurome had secretly left behind.
That was enough to show that Kurome had not willingly betrayed the Empire.
It also proved that Old Man Bill's brainwashing had worked well. In short, she still believed she was a member of the Imperial Assassination Unit.
Unfortunately, no more information had been sent back after that.
Gozuki only needed to think for a moment to know the reason.
The Revolutionary Army and those people from Oarburgh were not idiots.
Kurome's clues were cut off very quickly, and she was most likely being watched or imprisoned, leaving her unable to send out information again.
But he guessed that in order to restrain Akame, those people would not kill Kurome.
Since that was the case, Akame would definitely act for Kurome's sake.
So he narrowed it down to two possibilities and split up with the children to watch separate places.
One side was the Science Division's base.
Aside from having Nahashu and the others secretly keep watch, he had also reminded Bill to strengthen security there.
That place was the Enhancement Division's nest, and it had the medicine the enhanced ones needed.
As for Gozuki himself, he had ambushed the area near Noah's current residence alone.
If there was anyone who could do the same thing as Bill, or even something more impressive, then it could only be Bill's most outstanding student.
The result was just as he had expected. He had finally seen this rebellious daughter he had not met in so long.
"Father," Akame said coldly.
She lowered her center of gravity, turned her body slightly sideways, and reached her right hand to the left side of her waist, gripping the hilt of her blade.
Seeing that there was neither joy nor sorrow in her eyes, and that the stance she assumed had not the slightest opening, Gozuki was secretly startled.
Had this former daughter of his become so strong in such a short time?
She even gave him a sense of danger.
The last time they met, she had still been an immature child. Yet in such a short time, she had actually reached this level?
'Was it the effect of Grace elixir...'
'Hm.'
'That was the only possibility.'
'How terrifying.'
It had allowed a sixteen-year-old girl to grow so quickly that she could now threaten him.
She had already surpassed everyone else in the selection group.
Before this, she had only been ranked fourth on the elimination list.
Nahashu, Cornelia, and Guy had all been much stronger than her.
But now...
"Hahaha! Are you planning to draw your blade against me?" Gozuki laughed and shouted.
The rain was heavy, and if he did not speak that loudly, his voice would be swallowed by it.
Akame did not answer.
Of course she would not sit and wait for death.
During this period, she had completely thought through what she needed to do.
Although making this decision pained her, if she wanted to create a better future for the Empire, then facing her father and her friends as enemies was inevitable.
As long as someone was an enemy of the Empire, she could resolve herself to cut them down.
Seeing that she did not waver in the slightest, Gozuki put away the last bit of contempt in his heart.
If the girl had wavered, if she had even the slightest trace of confusion, then he would have been able to defeat her with certainty.
But now, he had to treat this daughter who once called him father as an equal opponent in a life-and-death battle.
No.
Not an opponent.
An enemy!
"At least I get to kill you with my own hands, Akame!"
Gozuki's eyes widened, and the Demon Sword Murasame left its sheath in an instant.
At the same time as he drew his sword, he manipulated his hair and made it grow explosively.
That countless mass of hair actually transformed into sharp tendrils.
The tendrils danced wildly, and Gozuki charged straight toward Akame.
Akame stared at the rain falling before her, focusing her gaze on Gozuki behind the curtain of raindrops.
She leaned forward and kicked off with one foot behind her.
In an instant, her figure broke through the rain curtain, and she passed by Gozuki in the blink of an eye.
At some point, Kiriichimonji at her waist had already been drawn.
The two crossing figures seemed to have swapped positions. Akame quickly turned around and slashed toward Gozuki's back.
Only then did the wound Gozuki had suffered when they crossed paths begin to split open.
A long, thin line of blood appeared across his chest.
The wound was shallow, but because of Kiriichimonji's ability, the bleeding would not stop.
The proliferating hair lowered his perception of what was behind him.
But Gozuki had experienced battles like this hundreds of times already.
He did not look back.
Instead, he suddenly exerted force and made his hair shoot toward his back.
The originally flexible hair turned into spikes, rising up behind him.
Akame's pupils abruptly contracted when she saw this.
She hurriedly stopped her steps and forced her body backward.
The sharp hair was as piercing as steel.
Several wounds were opened by the needle-like tips, and Akame hastily retreated, pulling some distance away.
Yet the instant one of her feet touched the ground, an afterimage swept close to the ground, using the rain curtain as cover.
She could not see what it was.
Although she could not see it clearly, an image immediately surfaced in Akame's mind.
She had once seen Father use this move.
Among everyone in the selection group, no one could do the same thing as him.
Only Cornelia could barely imitate the surface of it.
This was the secret technique of Father, who had trained his body manipulation to the extreme.
The distance between the two sides right now was about six meters.
At this distance, she was still within Gozuki's attack range.
Her old momentum had ended, and her new strength had not yet risen.
Akame could not jump again to dodge.
In her urgency, she used a Crescent Moon Kick, lifting her entire body into the air before naturally falling.
Gozuki's extended arm swept past beneath her, slicing through a row of raindrops that had not yet hit the ground.
"I didn't expect you to dodge even that move." After a brief moment of surprise, Gozuki figured it out.
"Right. I should say, only you people could dodge that move. You're familiar with me, so you had an impression of it in your mind."
Even so, it was still far from simple.
Akame fell to the ground, splashing the rainwater pooled there in every direction.
She did not dare pause and quickly climbed back up.
In reality, the force of that attack itself was very weak.
Even for Gozuki, once he extended his arm to six meters, his bones and muscles could no longer function properly.
That kind of attack only relied on inertia to swing his arm out. At most, it had enough strength for him to keep his grip on the blade.
Looking at that strike's force alone, it could not be called a slash at all. At best, it had about enough power to cut a tomato.
But if that Teigu was added into the equation, it was a completely different matter.
The one-cut killer Murasame.
Murasame's blade carried an unsolvable curse poison. Even a scratch that barely broke the skin had to be avoided.
If she had not dodged in time just now, her ankle would have been cut.
If that happened, the battle would be over.
She would be invaded by the curse poison within two or three breaths, then die on the spot.
All this time, Akame had viewed killing as an equal act.
Whether one used a Demon Sword or an ordinary kitchen knife, hitting a vital point meant a one-hit kill.
There was not much difference.
She would not become overly fixated on that blade simply because it could kill with one cut, shifting her attention and creating an opening through excessive caution.
Until now, quite a few experts had died under Murasame's blade.
Some of them had not been completely without a chance of winning, but because they were too wary of the Demon Sword, they exposed openings they should never have revealed.
Akame had thought long ago about how to guard against or seal Murasame's ability when fighting it.
But she had not found an answer.
She only felt that a blade that could kill in one strike from the slightest wound was truly unfair.
So she had to attack!
Keep attacking and suppress the other side with offense!
Take control of the battle!