6 Another War

Seika immediately put thousands of the empire's soldiers to work in mines which greatly increased the productivity of his country and greatly strengthened his military. Thanks to partially sharing the original owner's emotions, he had absolutely no remorse about working them to death. They were basically treated worse than slaves.

He also retrieved all of his dead soldiers and compensated the relatives with part of what the empire soldier's earned him in the mines this caused his reputation and respect among his people to skyrocket. This also increased the number of the empire's spies reported daily to the authorities thus limiting the empire's information network in his country.

This might have caused the empire to grow much more cautious and as their frustration grew several assassination attempts at Seika took place in quick succession. Most of them were intercepted by his people but the very few that were skilled enough to get near enough were disposed of by either Doya or Seika himself.

During several weeks of "peaceful" time, the two of them two grew a bit closer but that much was expected after Seika appointed Doya as his bodyguard. He knew that in the original Doya has been killed and later resurrected as a puppet by Kurome so he wanted to keep her safe and let her grow stronger before confronting such strong opponents.

He also couldn't deny the fact that she was great stress relief just by being around her due to her cheerful and confident personality.

"Does it really help you with anything?" Doya asked Seika as she was watching him sitting in cross-legged position with closed eyes. She was sitting on his desk while carefreely swinging her legs back and forth.

Seika found it weird that everyone in Akame Ga Kill always focused on physical training but mostly ignored metal training. There were several known Teigu that could induce illusions and mess with the others' minds so he wanted to not only protect his body but also his mind from such attacks. One of the reasons of course was that meditation also helped him with control of the black mist, he could just calmly and slowly experiment with it which already proved effective.

The previous black mist was now resembling more a solid aura that could be used for both defense and offense.

"You ought to try it out too. It could greatly help with your concentration as an assassin and marksman" Seika calmly replied.

"Hmm, I will think about it" Doya nodded her head and started intensively staring at Seika's expresionless face.

"What is it?" Seika's words suddenly woke her up from her trance causing her to blush.

"W-What do you mean?"

"You have been staring at my face for good ten seconds without saying anything. If there is anything on your mind there is no need to hold back with me"

"How did you know I was staring at your face specifically without even opening your eyes?" Doya asked curiously despite being emberassed from being caught red-handed.

"I already told you meditation isn't good just for keeping stable mind"

'If talented people who train very hard can transcend what humans physically are capable of, why wouldn't the same apply to one's mind? Just from one month of continuous and diligent daily meditation I can feel much stronger than the time before my first battle with the empire.'

Suddenly, Dora walked inside his room, briefly looking at Doya who was behaving as if she was at her own room before turning her attention to Seika.

"Dora, what's the problem?" Seika asked without even opening his eyes to confirm who just walked in.

"Wow, you truly weren't lying!" Doya exclaimed and had to hold in the laugh when she noticed Dora's confused expression.

"How-"

"How did I know it was you? Your steps are lightest right after Doya's, your perfume is also quite unique and the moment you opened the door I could feel that air of seriousness you carry with you." Seika interrupted her and quickly explained it, leaving her quite speechless which only served as amusement for Doya.

"I see. The Empire is on the move once again and this time it seems like they are serious about destroying us. They have sent one of their renowned generals, General Esdeath with her army to deal with us" Dora explained and Doya stopped carefreely swinging her legs in the air before turning her head to Seika to observe his reaction to the grave news.

"So the time has come" Seika slowly opened his eyes revealing incomparable calmness like a still lake.

He got up and grabbed the spear Doya offered him and he spun it a few times in his right hand to let his hand get used to it after the moment of rest.

He once again met up with his generals and told everyone that instead of waiting for the army to arrive at them like before, they should meet them as soon as possible.

'Going deeper into the northern region is going to just give Esdeath a bigger advantage!'

"Why not re-use our previous tactic? Wasn't it quite effective?" One of the generals asked.

"I had our spies gather the information we know about Esdeath and all indicates that she wouldn't just ignore the small strongholds, she is going to use any chance to fight and see blood. To her, it's not about how long she and her army will have to fight to conquer us, to her, it's how long she will be able to enjoy us."

"Everybody has to be careful when it comes to her, she is stupidly powerful" Seika warned everyone before leaving the room with Doya and Dora in row.

"Is she really that strong?" Doya asked with her hands behind her head.

"Yes"

"Stronger than you?"

"...I don't know neither do I want to find out the hard way" Seika's answer greatly surprised Doya.

"Anyway, how is Henter?" Seika asked about Henter, the survivor of Ban Tribe who decided to join Seika's side after witnessing his victory and the way he handled the prisoners. Ban Tribe could have been said to be much more barbaric than Northern Tribes but Henter took a liking to the way Seika handled the empire's prisoners, working them to death for their own benefit.

"He isn't much talkative and it's still apparent that he misses his tribe but he adapted well. He is ridiculously fast and nimble, and his mastery over knives is also nothing to scoff at. He is probably the worst match against me." Doya said with a frustrated expression, clearly disturbed by the appearance of someone who could threaten her position.

"That's good, we will need you two to work together in the upcoming battles. I don't wish to engage in a head-on fight with Esdeath right from the beginning" Seika explained.

"What will you do, prince?" Dora asked, curious about his strategy to fight Esdeath.

"You found out that she is mostly a sadistic and bloodthirsty woman, however, she doesn't let those emotions cloud her judgment. For someone like her, she treats her soldiers quite well and isn't afraid to call for a retreat for the sake of her soldiers. There is only one clear answer how to fight her...Guerrilla tactics"

"Guerrilla tactics?" Doya muttered with a confused expression.

"Striking swiftly and unexpectedly, raiding enemy supply depots, ambushing patrols and supply convoys. Basically, avoiding head-on confrontation by delaying the enemy army with all kinds of mishaps" Dora explained in Seika's stead.

"So you want us to keep ambushing them and destroying their supplies...Sounds plausible but won't Esdeath take action? Even if we manage to achieve our goals, will we be able to run away from someone like her?" Doya asked after she understood his intentions for this upcoming war.

"You obviously won't...that's where I come in" Seika narrowed his eyes and tightly gripped his spear.

"That's..." Doya was rendered speechless, she was touched that Seika would go out of his way to confront someone he isn't confident in winning against just to cover her retreat but she also felt quite worried.