Chapter 28: Gathering Reinforcements
Ever since he had poisoned the old emperor and propped up the young child to the throne, Prime Minister Honest could be said to hold absolute, uncontested power over the entire imperial court and government.
He had seen just about every kind of scheme imaginable.
In fact, the number of bizarre and twisted scenarios he had personally engineered was countless.
He had always pridefully assumed that no matter what kind of crisis landed in his lap, he would be able to maintain his composure without so much as a flinch.
Yet, what unfolded before his eyes today was something completely outside his realm of experience.
His very own captain of the guard was addressing a total stranger as the Prime Minister.
If that guy was the Prime Minister, then who the hell was he?
At that moment, Prime Minister Honest's entire body went rigid with absolute shock.
Up on the couch, Yumesaki gently pushed away the beautiful woman who had been leaning against him to feed him fruit. He looked down at the kneeling Prime Minister Honest with an amused, smiling gaze.
"Who are you, and why have you broken into this Prime Minister's estate? Are you an assassin sent by Night Raid?"
Prime Minister Honest thought, Are you serious right now?
Do you even realize how utterly ridiculous you sound?
Since when did my home become your estate, and since when did I turn into a Night Raid assassin?
This was a complete and total fabrication of reality.
Prime Minister Honest couldn't take it anymore. He had always prided himself on being the pinnacle of villainy, but he never expected to meet an even greater master of deception—someone who could brazenly rewrite the truth right to his face while hiding the sun with a single hand.
"You absolute bastard!!!"
Prime Minister Honest suddenly unleashed a tremendous burst of physical strength, violently tossing aside all the guards who were pinning him down.
Despite his incredibly obese appearance, his body was packed entirely with dense muscle, and his raw combat capability was utterly terrifying.
He was fully capable of going toe-to-toe with Imperial Arms users.
In the final chapters of the manga, after the Emperor and Esdeath were defeated, Prime Minister Honest had attempted to flee the scene.
However, he was relentlessly pursued and heavily wounded by Leone, who had fused with her Imperial Arms, before being hurled off the palace roof straight into the hands of the Revolutionary Army.
Because there was a massive bounty on his head and far too many innocent lives had been brutally snuffed out by his commands, he was sentenced to death by a thousand cuts, sliced to pieces while still breathing.
Yet during that final confrontation, the Prime Minister had displayed a level of combat prowess that completely shattered his prior image as a helpless fat man.
Relying purely on raw physical martial arts, the obese man had managed to suppress Leone in her beast form, using his Anti-Imperial Arms, Erastone, to permanently shatter Lionel before wounding her with firearms and throwing her off the upper floor.
Unfortunately for him, Prime Minister Honest had ultimately underestimated his opponent.
He had grossly underestimated the sheer, illogical vitality of a primary character.
It was a well-known fact that main characters didn't just receive massive power boosts; they could also execute completely absurd, rule-breaking feats when pushed to the brink.
Leone, operating on the absolute verge of death, had forcefully fused with the remnants of her Imperial Arms to reclaim her power just to take the Prime Minister down.
She tracked him down and successfully broke him, though she herself succumbed to her wounds shortly after, passing away peacefully in a dark, quiet alleyway.
From that sequence of events alone, it was clear that Prime Minister Honest was anything but weak.
The only reason he had been caught off guard by the estate sentries earlier was that he never could have anticipated his own men turning their weapons against him.
Consequently, the moment he threw his counterpunch, the ordinary guards stood absolutely no chance of restraining his massive, powerful frame.
Having thrown off his captors, Prime Minister Honest charged straight toward Yumesaki with a ferocious speed that seemed utterly impossible for his heavy build.
"Die, you piece of trash!!!"
Honest roared as he closed the distance, swinging a massive, heavy fist aimed squarely at Yumesaki's head.
Right at that exact instant, a massive black dragon manifested as if dropping out of thin air, its enormous claw smashing downward with a thunderous roar to pin Prime Minister Honest flat against the floor.
A sharp, splintering crack echoed through the room as the wooden floorboards shattered under the impact.
Prime Minister Honest immediately hacked up a mouthful of dark blood, his complexion instantly turning deathly pale.
The sheer physical pressure of that single dragon claw was staggering, nearly crushing half of Prime Minister Honest's skeletal structure into dust.
Had it not been for his years of relentless physical conditioning, which granted him a body far sturdier than any ordinary human, that single strike would have flattened him into a bloody smear on the floorboards.
Even so, he had sustained an unprecedented, crippling level of internal trauma.
The surrounding guards stared wide-eyed at the black dragon that had suddenly appeared inside the hall, their faces draining of color as they trembled in sheer terror.
None of them had anticipated that the man they believed to be the Prime Minister possessed the terrifying ability to summon and control a Danger Beast. The display was simply too surreal and frightening to comprehend.
"You men, throw this garbage out," Yumesaki commanded the trembling guards with a completely flat, unbothered expression. After ordering them to discard the ruined Prime Minister, he slid his arm back around Honest's woman, continuing to tease her casually.
This entire display unfolded right before Prime Minister Honest's eyes. His previously pale face flushed into an unprecedented, angry crimson; his eyes bled red, burning with a desire to tear Yumesaki into millions of pieces.
Yumesaki cast a small, mocking smile toward him, speaking in a thoroughly relaxed tone. "Oh? You're still breathing, are you?"
...
Thud!
Accompanied by a heavy, unceremonious crash, Prime Minister Honest was physically hurled out of his own front gates by his own estate security.
He landed brutally against the stone pavement outside.
The harsh impact caused Honest to retch up yet another mouthful of fresh blood.
"Beat it, freak."
The guards looked down at Prime Minister Honest with expressions of sheer disgust and revulsion, one of them taking the opportunity to forcefully grind his boot against Honest's face.
"Take a good look at where you are. This is the Prime Minister's personal estate. If His Excellency weren't in a exceptionally merciful mood today, a low-life scum like you would have been executed on the spot."
"Now, take the Prime Minister's charity and scramble out of here. Ptui!"
The guard spat a thick wad of phlegm right onto Honest's face, turning back toward the estate gates with the proud, swaggering stride of a victorious general leading his men back inside.
Huff... huff...
Lying prone on the cold dirt, Prime Minister Honest endured the excruciating waves of pain racking his body, his gaze locking onto the retreating backs of the guards with the cold, venomous intensity of a viper wishing to swallow its prey whole.
However, he knew full well the old adage that a wise man does not fight when the odds are stacked against him.
After laying perfectly still on the ground for a few minutes to gather what little strength remained in his limbs, he painstakingly dragged himself upright, limping away step by agonizing step.
Even though he couldn't fathom what kind of bizarre method that mysterious stranger had used to usurp his position, there was absolutely no way he was going to take this lying down.
Before long, Prime Minister Honest tracked down the Captain of the Imperial Police, Ogre the Demon.
To be completely frank, under normal circumstances, a low-level character like Ogre wouldn't even register in Honest's field of view; he would usually delegate such individuals to his subordinates.
But today, Prime Minister Honest was going to throw this man a golden opportunity to climb the ranks.
As long as Ogre could assist him in capturing that mysterious intruder, Honest would willingly grant him the privilege of becoming his personal loyal hound.
To Ogre, this was nothing short of a massive stroke of luck dropping right out of the sky.
The great Prime Minister of the Empire, the man who held the absolute reins of state power, actually required his personal assistance.
It was an incredible honor.
Consequently, upon receiving Prime Minister Honest's direct orders, Ogre didn't waste a single moment. He immediately mobilized the Imperial Police units under his command, moving swiftly to surround the Prime Minister's estate.
However, he refrained from making a reckless move just yet.
Without explicit clearance from the Prime Minister himself, he didn't dare authorize a blind assault on the estate grounds.
Meanwhile, after setting Ogre's forces to secure the perimeter, Prime Minister Honest made his way directly into the imperial palace, seeking out the strongest military figure in the entire Empire: Grand General Budo.
Honest hadn't forgotten that the mysterious intruder possessed the ability to control a massive Danger Beast.
That pack of useless idiots in the Imperial Police stood absolutely no chance against a high-level Danger Beast.
Therefore, he required a powerful, decisive force capable of crushing such a creature.
Presently, the Empire boasted two pillars of supreme military strength.
One was Grand General Budo, and the other was General Esdeath.
However, since Esdeath was currently away from the imperial capital on a campaign, Prime Minister Honest had no choice but to call upon Grand General Budo to take action.
As for whether Grand General Budo would actually agree to assist him against this foe, Honest didn't have a single doubt.
The man was a textbook example of blind, rigid loyalty to the crown.
Budo might completely ignore Honest's personal requests, but he would absolutely obey a direct edict from the Young Emperor—and manipulating the Young Emperor into issuing such a decree was child's play for Prime Minister Honest.
On any regular day, Honest frequently utilized this exact method to boss Grand General Budo around.
Having received the Emperor's official decree, Grand General Budo accompanied Honest back toward the estate, though his reluctance was visibly written all over his face.
Along the way, as he gradually pieced together the sequence of events that had transpired, the look in his eyes turned into something thoroughly peculiar.
"Let me get this straight. You are telling me that someone infiltrated your own estate, brainwashed your entire staff, usurped your title, beat you to a pulp, and then had you physically thrown out onto the street?"
At that moment, Grand General Budo wanted nothing more than to throw his head back and laugh out loud toward the heavens.
To think such a thoroughly hilarious incident could actually happen in this world; it was simply spectacular.
Noticing the way Grand General Budo was desperately trying to stifle his laughter, Prime Minister Honest spoke in a dangerously low, freezing tone. "Grand General Budo, do you truly find this amusing? Today, he stole my identity and my estate. If that individual decides to slip into the imperial palace tomorrow and usurp the throne of His Majesty, what will you do then?"
The moment those words left Honest's mouth, Grand General Budo's expression instantly turned incredibly grim.
He suddenly realized that if this mysterious entity possessed the capability to seamlessly replace Prime Minister Honest, there was absolutely no guarantee he couldn't do the exact same thing to the Emperor.
And that was a scenario he would absolutely never allow to pass.
"Could it be that this mysterious individual is also an Imperial Arms user?"
In Grand General Budo's estimation, anyone capable of pulling off such a feat could not possibly be an ordinary citizen.
They were highly likely to be an Imperial Arms wielder.
Only a bizarre, specialized Imperial Arms could possibly grant someone the power to pull off such an impossible stunt.
Unfortunately, due to a massive civil rebellion within the Empire some five hundred years ago, a vast number of Imperial Arms had been lost to the civilian populace or scattered across foreign lands.
Some of these weapons were now nothing more than names in historical texts, their exact functions completely lost to time.
It was entirely possible that this man was wielding one of those lost, undocumented Imperial Arms.
"I don't know."
Faced with Grand General Budo's query, Honest subconsciously reached up to touch the ornate headpiece resting against his forehead.
This specific artifact was known as the Erastone—a gemstone-type Imperial Arms worn on the brow. It was a dedicated Anti-Imperial Arms designed specifically to shatter an opponent's weapon.
As long as an enemy came within its operational radius, the user could permanently destroy the target's Imperial Arms at the cost of shattering the gemstone itself.
Once damaged, the gemstone required a full week to naturally regenerate, during which it remained completely unusable.
Earlier at the estate, he had been so completely blinded by sheer rage that his brain had failed to function properly, causing him to forget to test whether the stranger was relying on an Imperial Arms in the first place.
But now, he had returned with reinforcements.
If the intruder truly was an Imperial Arms user, Honest would simply deploy the Erastone to shatter the weapon, seize the man, and subject him to the most brutal torture imaginable.
He swore to himself that he would make that bastard experience a fate far worse than death, forcing him to regret ever being born into this world.
And if the intruder wasn't an Imperial Arms user? That changed absolutely nothing. After all, alongside the Imperial Police blockading the area, he had brought Grand General Budo and the elite troops under the general's command.
A force of this magnitude was more than enough to completely crush this arrogant insect out of existence.
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