18 Purge

The moment they returned to the Palace, the young Emperor got to work. Luckily, Budo was already gathering as much evidence against Honest and his conspirators as he could. There were quite a few. Raven took to the unpleasant task of distracting Honest by talking to him frequently. The only plus side to this was that it was her sole job so she often spent time talking to Kurome, Wave, Bols and Run in the Jaeger's quarters.

Then there was Esdeath. She was strangely quiet ever since Raven's request. Raven often found her looking at her from the corner of her eye whenever she went into the Jaeger's quarters. After talking with her newly adopted and troubled daughter, she would go out into the Capital at Night with discreet clothing and see her other, almost as troubled daughter, Akame. They would meet up in the secret Night Raid hideout, where they would first exchange information before finishing off the night with a more personal conversation that deepened their bond with each other.

Raven was gradually bringing the two sisters together once again. For Akame, she eventually convinced they would be able to detox Kurome and help with her issues if they all left the Empire and returned to where Raven came from. For Kurome, it was harder. She had to make Kurome think about why Akame would betray their 'family' without explicitly taking her side. Kurome was smart though, the suggestions, questions and statements Raven posed to her about Akame's justified motives made her start to forgive her sister. The only issue now was how to explain to them that she wasn't their biological Mother.

Something Raven was slowly beginning to dread.

With only a few days left on this world, Raven rose out of bed with a yawn. She wasn't looking forward to being Honest's Yes-man. She felt something soft and warm beside her and froze.

~No.. She definitely didn't..~ Raven looked beside her to see Kurome latched onto her waist, sleeping soundly.

Smiling to herself, she stroked her silky black hair and breathed in a sigh of relief. Content to stay like that, she looked around and saw Esdeath beside Kurome in lingerie, looking at Raven shamelessly with a sultry smile. Raven froze in the middle of stroking Kurome's hair and stared at the General.

"....Care to explain why you're here, Esdeath..?" Raven focused solely on her eyes after seeing her state of dress, trying not to ogle another woman.

"Hm..? Oh, yes! I was going to use one of my three wishes but you were asleep. Kurome was already here as well. So I decided to use the wish selflessly and allow Kurome to sleep in between her two Mothers" Esdeath smiled as she explained.

"Haaah.." Raven pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

"You aren't her Mother, first of all.." Raven's eyelids lowered as she gave Esdeath a non heated glare.

"..Yet, but go on" Esdeath rose out of the sheets as Raven's eyes avoided looking at her perfect curvaceous body and fixed on her eyes.

"Second, you... did nothing to me, right?" Raven felt her skin as Esdeath scoffed.

"Of course I did nothing.. You truly expect me to rape you in the middle of the night? This is love, Dearest. Not lust or domination" Esdeath seemed insulted at the implication.

"Ah... sorry for the suspicion then" Raven gently unlatched Kurome from her and kissed her head before standing up.

"Where's my headstrokes and gentle kisses to the head?" Esdeath fake pouted with no real expectation as she too stood up.

Though she was suddenly surprised as Raven put her hand on her head and softly stroked her blue hair. Blinking the confusion away, she turned her questioning gaze at Raven, who gave her a pretty amused smirk.

"What? I'm not so cold as to treat you like a pest. In fact, the only thing I can say I have a problem with is your troublesome plans to get me to cheat on my lover. Other than that, I think we could truly be friends, Esdeath" Raven smiled and started to get dressed but Esdeath didn't take in the sight as usual.

She was left standing there in a daze. Her mouth slightly agape as she took in Raven's words to her. Her memories going back to when she was a child. She couldn't say she had friends. The other children too afraid of her status as Chief's daughter or her strength. When serving in the army, she couldn't say her fellow 'comerads' were friends either. Not even Najenda, who she had a friendly relationship with when she began her role as a General. It was new and nice. Not enough, but it was stable enough ground to build up on. She simply enjoyed the feeling of Raven's hand rubbing the top of her head.

Raven pulled her hand back and finished dressing herself, seeing Esdeath's shocked face turn into contentment.

~Did she not have any friends? Ah.. damn my Fa-Motherly instincts~ Sighing, she thought to treat Esdeath a bit better.

~Even all she's done and her mindset was made from an impossibly difficult life. It doesn't excuse all the horrible things but I think she can get better~ Raven gave her a cursory glance as Esdeath finished dressing.

Content to leave Kurome there to sleep, Raven walked out of her room silently, followed by Esdeath. About to go do her usual routine, Raven was about to go meet Honest when Esdeath pulled her back by the arm, just in time to avoid Honest's attempted tackle. He skid across the marbled floor, tears and snot running down his face in a panic, as if they couldn't bear to stay in his fat body any longer. Raven shot Esdeath a grateful expression before adopting a disgusted one as he tried to latch onto her leg like he was some cute kitten.

"H-Help! Help me, Generals!! My.. My ungrateful Nephew is conspiring against me! He sent guards after me! To arrest me! ME!" Honest was openly weeping as everything he built fell apart around him.

Adopting an expression of understanding, Raven knelt down and put her hand on Honest's shoulder. Using the gentlest smile she ever showed, she decided to say these next words with as much vitriol in her voice as she could.

"Arrest you? Honest, no.. You'll be put to death. Not just a regular hanging either. No, that's too good for you. You'll hang by your heels, castrated and fed your own dick. You'll be burned, blackened by fire while still alive. You'll be ripped to shreds by the people you so callously trampled on. Your hair will be ripped out, strand by strand. We never managed to get Hitler but you? I'd argue you're worse than him. Because he believed he was in the right. He was a madman that propagated hate but you..? You're a madman who only cares about himself. An extreme hedonistic piece of shit who kills, fucks and tortures who or whatever pleases him" Raven grasped him by his hair and lifted him up, swatting away the gun he pulled from his robes and bringing him to eye level, her crimson irises burning into his.

"It'll be a long process too. Your death? It'll be a lesson that will go down in history, Honest. I'm not talking about karma or being evil always bites you in the ass. God knows how many evil people who got away scott-free" Raven started to drag the kicking and squealing Prime Minister through the hall as Esdeath followed and listened, hanging by her every word in anticipation.

"It's a lesson to tyrants. You may haved controlled a large Empire in the shadows behind the child Emperor. But you could never truly hide all your evil from watching eyes. People talk. People listen. People get riled up. People rebel. People gather others to their cause. You almost destroyed the Empire with the, justifiably enraged, Revolutionaries. Lucky for us all.. Budo and I were against you from the start" Raven dragged him back to the Throne room, where the child Emperor was talking to General Budo, stopping once Raven brought the Prime Minister in.

"Oh, General! Good! You found him.." The Emperor sighed out in relief.

"Nephew! There's been a misunderstanding! You see, I-" Honest's mouth was sealed shut when Esdeath freezed the lower half of his face in ice.

"Thank you, General Esdeath.. I cannot stand the sound of his lying voice any longer.. Budo, Esdeath, Raven, can you help me set up his execution? The one we discussed earlier..? I think it will greatly appease the citizens and Revolutionary army. Of course, he is the first... We have a long list of names on the executions list after all" The Emperor sighed, rubbing his temples.

"We do. But their crimes are horrendous and numerous. It will also send a message to the Revolutionary Army that we are changing and willing to open up channels for negotiations" Budo voiced his opinion, watching Raven stop Honest's attempt at getting away sneakily with a boot to his neck.

"Good. Please assist with the capture of everyone on the list and hopefully, we can hold the executions in three days. Until then, I suggest we send a friendly message to the Revolutionaries with the beginning of the execution of the monster who has wronged so many. General Esdeath, you're familiar with torture and.. er.. um.. painful executions.. I trust you have the methods?" The Emperor seemed to get a bit uncomfortable at the somehow seductive but sadistic smile on Esdeath's face.

"Yes I do, your Majesty! For one, we shall burn only the top layer of his skin black with General Raven's Teigu... Then, we will crucify him on the roof of the Palace, for all to see. Then we will hold a lottery in the Capital to see who gets to castrate him on the second day. First prize is his penis... second is his left testic-" Esdeath was cut off by Budo's gruff cough and the sight of the Emperor's pale complexion.

"Oh is that why I hadn't seen you in days..? You were.. writing a detailed list of torture for Honest?" Raven raised a brow and nodded in understanding.

"I did it for you, Darling.." Esdeath blushed and fidgeted like she was a high school girl who made her crush a bento, but cut her fingers from all the hard work she put into it.

~I've never seen someone switch from extreme torture to... that so fast~ Raven pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a short chuckle.

Meanwhile, hearing the extremely painful way he was going to die, Honest fainted.