"Kurome!"
Seeing her little sister suddenly suffering like that, Akame instantly panicked.
"Kurome, what's wrong? What happened? Are you hurt somewhere? Were you poisoned?"
'Not good.'
The moment Gozuki saw Kurome's reaction, he knew exactly what the symptoms meant.
He cursed inwardly and quickly said to Akame, "Akame, let go of your sister. Even if the two of you are sisters, you belong to different units now. Don't interfere with another unit's affairs!"
"But!" Akame did not listen to Gozuki.
Instead, she hugged her sister even tighter.
Eight years.
Ever since the two of them had passed the Empire's selection and been assigned to different units, they had not seen each other for eight whole years.
As her older sister, she had abandoned Kurome for so long and had never been by her side to look after her.
How could she let go now?
But Father's order...
She did not dare disobey him.
If this went badly, Father might punish her along with Kurome!
Akame found herself trapped in an impossible situation.
At the same time, she suddenly realized something.
That boy named Green, the one she had treated as family, had always stepped in to help her out of situations like this.
It seemed like every time she made Father angry, Green would stand forward and smooth things over for her.
But now, he was gone.
Killed.
Dead.
'Who can help me?'
Akame's heart was in turmoil.
She could not disobey Father's order, but she could not abandon Kurome either. She no longer knew what she was supposed to do.
Then, on her cold body, a small bit of warmth suddenly appeared.
On her shoulder, a hand had been placed there.
Akame turned her head and saw not a gentle smiling face, but only a cold mask.
"Mr. Lamur?"
The girl's nose twitched.
From this person named Lamur, whom she had only met once before, she could always sense a certain familiar scent.
It was a scent that gave her the tiniest bit of peace.
Noah placed his hand on Kurome's forehead and quietly brought her symptoms under control.
Then he said, "Leave her to me for now."
Akame also realized it then.
There was a doctor here!
So she immediately placed all of her hope in Noah.
"Mr. Lamur, please! Please help my sister Kurome!"
Noah silently took Kurome from Akame's arms, held her, and turned to leave.
The girl was very light.
For a fifteen year-old girl, this weight was far too low. She would not even pass a basic physical exam.
"Appraisal."
[Kurome]
Human / Female
15 years old
Affiliation: Imperial Assassination Unit — Enhancement Unit, First Squad
Drug enhancement
Body modification
Drug poisoning
Internal organ failure
Withdrawal reaction
Muscle breakdown
Taste disorder
Mental disorder
Visual disorder
Her condition was terrible.
And symptoms like Kurome's could not be healed with a recovery potion.
Because her problem was not "injury," but "depletion."
The "vessel" itself had become badly worn down. No matter how much was poured into it, everything would still leak out.
Judging by Kurome's current condition, she had roughly four or five years left to live.
If Akame knew that, she would probably break down on the spot.
...
After treatment and medication, Kurome recovered enough to move for the time being, and Bill immediately called her over.
Bill gathered Kurome, Gin, and Remus, the only three survivors.
With a dark expression, he pointed at Kurome and Gin. "Kurome, Gin, from now on, the two of you will be transferred into the Elite Unit and operate with the selection group."
With that one sentence, both Kurome and Gin were stunned.
"Transferred into the selection group?"
Did that mean she would be able to be with her sister every day from now on?
The surprise came so suddenly that Kurome looked both disbelieving and overjoyed.
Gin, on the other hand, felt that with her strength, she might fall short compared to the members of the selection group.
After all, she had personally seen how strong that man named Guy was, and the impression he left on her had been incredibly deep.
If she joined the selection group, then the enemies she faced in the future definitely would not be any weaker than that perverted old man Venegu.
With her half-baked fighting ability, could she really be useful?
Would she not drag everyone down instead?
"Huh?" Remus stared blankly at Bill. "Then what about me?"
Bill looked at Remus with a terrifyingly calm expression.
Even his gaze did not look like he was staring at a subordinate. It did not even look like he was staring at a person.
"Remus, starting today, you are dismissed."
"Dis... dismissed?"
"You have never succeeded in a single mission you took part in. Not only that, after being captured, you accomplished nothing and immediately lost the will to fight. I have no need for a useless piece like you."
"No need... dismissed... Then what am I supposed to do?" Remus still had not grasped the situation.
She knew she was stupid and that she could not do anything well.
But she had always been trying.
This time, too.
She had wanted to help, but in the end, she had been captured and had only held everyone back.
Bill glanced at Remus.
His face remained stiff, without the slightest expression, and he only said flatly, "Come with me."
Then he walked out of the temporary tent and all the way to the edge of the abyss.
Remus followed him and stood beside him.
"In any case, thank you for your contributions to the Empire until now."
Bill's words made Remus freeze.
By the time she came back to herself, all she could feel was the roaring wind and the world rapidly receding around her.
She was falling.
Falling very fast.
'Huh?'
'I... was pushed?'
Standing at the edge of the abyss, Bill watched as Remus was swallowed completely by the darkness.
His expression showed neither joy nor sorrow.
By handing Kurome and Gin over to Gozuki, their abilities could still be used even after they entered the Elite Unit.
But Remus was different.
She could not do anything properly, yet she had become the only survivor.
She would absolutely become the primary target when responsibility was assigned.
If she fell into the hands of the interrogators, she would be subjected to inhuman treatment and, in the end, still be unable to escape execution.
Remus was not a good work.
So, at the very least, he would dispose of her himself.
He would personally discard her.
With that, the enhancement units deployed in this operation had all "died in the line of duty."
As a result, both Gozuki and Bill were demoted as punishment, and their units' budgets were reduced to three-fifths of their original amount.
...
After that, another month passed.
During this month, Noah had been researching the secret arts of the tomb guard clan.
"Sleeping in the lab again?"
Chelsea, who had been watching the laboratory for the entire day, saw that Noah still had not come out. Quietly, she left.
As usual, after leaving the Science Unit, she took the same route home that she took every day.
Only today, she stopped by a dessert shop along the way and bought a high-grade cake.
Carrying the cake, she cheerfully returned to the luxurious apartment.
The moment she entered, she saw Taeko staring at her.
Chelsea showed no fear or surprise.
She said very naturally, "I'm back, Taeko. Want to eat cake together?"
...
At the same time, a massive intelligence network had already begun to operate.
Through shops, pedestrians, clock towers, fruit stalls, and even a passing gust of wind, a piece of information was delivered to a certain woman at the Empire's border.
If one asked what the borderlands lacked the least, the answer was obviously bandits.
And also... Assassins.
Right now, the two had encountered each other.
Amid a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, the only survivor of the bandit group, a young girl, trembled as she begged desperately for mercy.
"D-Don't kill me. Please, I'm begging you! I was captured and brought here. I'm not one of the bandits!"
She looked at the people before her in terror.
If she had not seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed that these women, each more beautiful than her, could be so ruthless.
In only three short minutes, every member of the bandit group had been killed by them.
The woman who seemed to be their leader, dressed entirely in black and carrying a black parasol, walked up to the girl.
With one finger, she gently lifted the girl's chin and said warmly, "Don't be afraid. I know you're a good girl, so I came to save you."
As she spoke, the woman licked her lips.
"My name is Mera. I came here specifically for you. After all, if a cute girl like you were defiled by those ugly men, it would be a loss for the whole world."
"M-Miss Mera, you said... you came here specifically to save me?" The girl looked at the beautiful woman in disbelief.
Her black hair was smooth and elegant, her charming eyes curved like crescent moons when she smiled, and the beauty mark near the corner of her eye gave her an intoxicating allure.
This beautiful and powerful adult had actually come all the way into such a dangerous bandit den just to save her?
The girl had not yet realized that she had been placed under a fairly strong hypnosis.
And this hypnosis also carried the effect of stirring affection.
This was Mera's hobby.
She adored love between girls!
'Hehe, this went smoothly.'
Looking at the pure girl she had already captured, Mera revealed a satisfied smile.
Suddenly, her gaze sharpened and turned toward an insect that had appeared on the wall.
After staring at the insect for several seconds, the smile on her face grew even wider.
"I see. You found Chelsea, did you? That really is good news. After all, that girl is also one of the members I had reserved for my harem. And besides... she may be the only one who knows what happened to Barbara. Every single day, I've been thinking about slicing the killer into pieces. Finally, I'll be able to make that foolish wretch who dared disgrace the name of Oarburgh pay the price."
"Hehe."