#162 Talk about the Future 2

---Northern Tribes---

A battlefield in front of one of the biggest cities was painted with red color and decorated by numerous ice sculptures and ice meteors.

"General Esdeath, we have won this battle with ease! The only remaining thing to do is to capture the city and the North will be once again under the Empire's control!" The soldier reported to Esdeath standing in front of the corpse with severed limbs and shocked expression.

The sorry state corpse used to be the so-called hero of the north and Northern Tribes's prince. It was said that once he took a spear into his hands, he hadn't lost any fight. Seeing him in such a sorry state made all others from Northern Tribes lose all hope.

Esdeath herself looked quite bored despite just killing thousands of people and breaking their prince's will just by severing his limbs.

"General Esdeath, your orders?" The soldier asked when he saw his general just standing still without moving at all.

"We are going back, initiate our retreat back to the Empire." Esdeath replied after looking at the clear blue sky for a while.

"?! B-But what about the city? Aren't we going to capture it?" The soldier asked with a confused expression.

"Go, now!" Esdeath shouted while sparing him a glance out of the corner of her eye which was enough to completely scare the soldier so he hurriedly bowed down and went back to inform everyone.

'There are only civilians...Look at their faces filled with despair, there is no fun in crushing them right now. Plus...After such a long battle I think like I am missing something...' Esdeath thought while looking at the walls of the biggest city of the Northern Tribes with a bored expression before she turned in the Capital's direction while putting her hand close to her heart.

'What is this feeling? It makes me completely forget about that rubbish hiding behind the walls. I have sudden desire to go back so I won't waste any minute by slaughtering that city.' Esdeath thought with a slightly opened mouth and confused expression, looking completely cute if she wouldn't be standing in the middle of a battlefield filled with thousands of corpses and remaining.

.

.

"General Esdeath! Is there any problem?" Three Beasts asked while kneeling, they were slightly surprised hearing that their General wanted to retreat before finishing the job.

"We are done here, we are going back. There is something back at the Capital that I need to take!" Esdeath replied with a cheery smile which completely shocked the trio since she never had such a cheerful smile even during the battles.

'What is going on?' The trio couldn't help but think with dumbfounded expressions.

---Near the Putolu Tombs---

*huff* *huff* "This transformation takes a big toll on my body but I was able to kill each one of them." Najasho muttered when he was finally done hunting those 2 who had Cornelia in control. It took much longer than he anticipated since they discovered that they were being followed, they started bribing all kinds of bandits to slow Najasho down, however, in the end, he was able to catch up to them.

Killing Mashiro who specialized in shooting and barehanded martial arts wasn't that hard but they still had the support from Cornelia who was still under their control but Najasho was only constantly improving when he had to kill numerous numbers of bandits each day so fighting 3 of them while making sure not to kill Cornelia was no longer problem.

"AAAGHH!!" However, when he killed the one who was controlling Cornelia after questioning him how to get rid of that parasite without getting any results, Cornelia regained consciousness and screamed of the pain while holding her head.

"?! Cornelia! Do you still remember me?!" Najasho immediately rushed to her and gripped both of her shoulders.

"Ughh!! N-Najasho?" She muttered but her face except for showing that she is in great pain also showed a bit of uncertainty.

"Tch! We can't go back to the Capital, it's too dangerous. Let's try to find something to ease the pain in the town near the tombs since the parasite originates from there, maybe we can find something here" Najasho suggested while helping Cornelia to her feet.

---Back to Akashi---

"...Whaaat?!" There was complete silence for more than ten seconds before Mine exclaimed aloud, making everyone turn at her.

"What makes you think that you are worth so much as to disperse the entire rebellion?!" Mine asked with a dumbfounded expression while pointing her index finger at Akashi.

Akashi just threw her a glance before turning back at Najenda.

"You-!!" Mine was getting out of control so Sheele came to calm her down.

"That's something I can't decide on that on my own. I am only a leader of this assassination department, no one so important that I can call shots of getting the entire Rebellion to disperse. And if I was able to do that...what would you do once you take care of Honest and the current Emperor? There will be chaos." Najenda shook her head.

"I am aware of the chaos that is to come with killing Honest and Emperor. I will also take care of that problem for you, isn't that kind of me?" Akashi asked with a teasing smile.

"So your goal is to become the next Emperor?" Najenda narrowed her eyes and asked with a serious expression.

"Hell no...I don't want any more paperwork, keep the shitty throne away from me. What I truly want is to not see anyone from the Revolutionary Army in charge of the Empire." Akashi said while waving his hand in front of him to deny Najenda's words.

"So you want there someone you can control..." Akame muttered from behind.

"That's right" Akashi turned at Akame and agreed without any hesitation with a big smile.

"How are we even supposed to trust you? Your family isn't that clean either...It's just that good deeds that you have done in your territory spared us targeting you." Lubbock said however even he knew that it wasn't just good deeds that made them not to target Akashi or his family.

"You can't trust me, that's the most amusing part here, at least for me. Will you blindly put your trust in me or will you risk fighting Esdeath and possibly even me?" Akashi said with an amused smile before asking with the same smile.

"Why do you say that? If you were intending to help Esdeath and Empire, we wouldn't be talking right now." Najenda asked with a curious expression.

"Well, I said something about wanting to marry Esdeath to Honest during the party just to get rid of him and I think that he might even bring it up before Esdeath. And if I were to marry her by any chance...What kind of husband would I be not to help my lovely wife?" Akashi said with a silly smile saying "oops"

"WHAT?!" Everyone exclaimed at the same time, however it was unknown what exactly shocked them the most. The fact that Akashi described sadistic Esdeath as lovely wife or that he might marry her.

"...Have you grown impatient that you use threats now?" Najenda asked with a complicated expression.

"To be honest with you, it would be easiest just to kill all of you right now, take your Teigu and arm my own army with them before taking over the entire Empire. You see, I don't particularly need you, you can just disperse and I can do what is your main goal...kill Honest without your help. And I am not impatient, it is called being prepared, my dear general Najenda." Akashi said with a casual tone while laying on his back with his hand behind his head and putting his leg over the other.

Everyone tensed up when Akashi said those words and they were once again prepared to draw their weapons at Akashi. While Lubbock was the only one biting his nails with a nervous expression when he saw how Akashi "flirted" with Najenda but his entire image of those two sitting there was extremely distorted.

"...Even you can't be serious to take all of us at once. There are 6 Teigu users here...I can believe you taking care of 3 Teigu users at once but this is too much..." Najenda said.

"Would Esdeath be able to take care of all of you?" Akashi asked with a smile.

"...No" After a bit of hesitation, Najenda answered with an uncertain tone.

"Even you don't believe it yourself. You don't want to believe the disparity between Teigu. One Teigu being able to overpower 6 of them...However, you forgot the fact that Esdeath is someone from the borders with the Northern Tribes. I have met her even before she had her Teigu and I must say that she was extremely strong even without it." Akashi said since he was able to notice the fact that Najenda was only comparing the Teigus instead of people wielding them.

"I have even been present during her accepting that Teigu. She is strong, mentally, and physically yet that Teigu almost destroyed her mind, it is not your half-assed Teigu that anyone can try and in case he is not strong enough or compatible, he will be rejected gently." Akashi continued

"..." Najenda didn't say anything but it was apparent that she was thinking about something.

"Tell you what...Relay this talk to the Revolutionary Army's headquarters. I am willing to "forgive" everyone who defected once I am in control. Everyone will be able to return back to their original posts, they will be only judged after that by their actions. And let's be honest, you have only 2 choices here, either you try to kill me right now or you do as I suggest you since you can't fight both me and Esdeath." Akashi said with a serious expression.

"...*sigh* How can I know that these aren't just empty words?" Najenda asked with a troubled expression, if everything could be solved easily, she would try to take that way but there was too many at risk to just blindly trust someone.

Everyone was surprised that Najenda even considered his words but what shocked them even more has yet to come.

"Boss, I trust him." Hearing this, Najenda turned around with a dumbfounded expression.

"?! Akame?" Najenda asked and even Akashi was slightly puzzled by this.

"My sister would never work for someone evil and as Lubbock said...he has done many good deeds in his territory. To be honest, if he could change the entire Empire like he changed his territory, I think it would be wonderful." Akame explained and everyone looked at her with shocked expressions.

"As Akame's best friend I must agree! I saw him avenging his 4 guards that were killed by Zank. What noble would bother himself to go and avenge some guards? He even used 4 weapons previously used by those now deceased guards." Leone joined in with a big smile while throwing her arm around Akame.

"Well, he helped us..." Ieyasu and Sayo muttered in low voice but everyone heard them.

"...If he is as strong as everyone claims him to be, I guess I am still alive just because he spared me?" Sheele added but her face was uncertain since there could be many reasons why he just ran away at that time.

"Well, I would like to avoid fighting Poney." Green said while looking sideways.

'If they knew some of my deeds, I guess not everyone would be so willing. Wait, now that I remember something...' Akashi thought just to recall something that Kana and Tetsu mentioned when Akashi rescued them.

"Hey, Akame. There is something I want to ask you." Akashi interrupted this series of shocking moments and turned at Akame.

"Hm?" She tilted her head to the side with a confused expression.

"Do you know kids named Kana and Tetsu?" Akashi asked with a curious expression.

"?!!! How?!" Akame's eyes widened as much as it was possible and shouted with a confused expression, wanting Akashi to know why he is asking. After all, there should be no way for him to know them because she saw the town in flames with her own eyes, therefore, there was a bit of hope in her eyes now that she heard Akashi's question.

"Akame?" Everyone except for Green and Akashi looked at her with confused expressions since this was the first time they saw her being so worked up for just information.

"It seems like you do know them...Simply put...I rescued some brats from the town engulfed in flames." Akashi casually said but everyone was shocked by Akame's reaction.

"Akame?!!" Everyone's eyes widened when they saw tears pouring down her cheeks with a relieved smile.