#164 A proposal

---Oarburgh's hideout in the mountains---

"*sigh* It's really boring past few days..." Chelsea muttered with a bored expression while observing Taeko training once again. That is until she heard a loud cry from the Danger Beast that landed not too far away from them.

"Hm? Isn't that- Ah!" Chelsea wanted to approach it but she was suddenly pushed away by Taeko.

"She came from Akashi!" Taeko exclaimed and rushed towards Kiyomi despite almost knocking Chelsea off her balance.

'This girl...All the time she has just stoic expression but when there is a mention of Akashi, she becomes like some love-struck girl' Chelsea thought while glaring at Taeko's back with an irritated expression.

Kiyomi, of course, welcomed Taeko by pressing her head to Taeko's body. Taeko cuddled with her for a moment before noticing the papers fastened to her by the leather belt so she decided to take them and look at them.

"Hmm, looks like we finally have a mission!" Taeko said with a slightly excited expression since even she was feeling extremely bored except for the time when she was training.

"Really? Good! We should go back to inform others!" Chelsea was extremely glad that they finally have something to do, she felt that training was only torture for her.

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"Hm..." Mera read the content of the papers and couldn't help but release an excited smile that intrigued everyone else.

"At first, that man hires our loyalty and then he doesn't give us any instructions of what we should do, and when he needs something it's something grand." Mera said with an irritated tone but a big smile was visible on her face.

"What is it, don't keep us waiting any longer." Babara urged her while rolling her eyes.

"Impatient, aren't we? Is this because of your advanced age? Anyway, we need to take care of someone who is in possession of Teigu and most likely he is also gathering other Teigu users so it will be quite a challenge...Worthy work for us Oarburgh, wouldn't you say so?" Mera teased Babara a bit before explaining the situation while licking her lips.

*Smack* "Finally worthy job, fighting Teigu users will make our name even bigger and more fearsome" Gil said with a slightly crazy smile while bumping her fist into her palm.

"Ugh, where is the location of our target?" Babara groaned and asked without arguing with Mera.

"The kingdom to the west!" Mera replied with her one eye closed in a playful manner.

"Hm? That's quite a long distance from here..." Chelsea said while her shoulders dropped in disappointment.

"Don't be so unmotivated or I will be forced to give you some motivation if you know what I mean" Mera said while winking at Chelsea who immediately straightened herself.

"No problem here! Full of motivation!" She said while saluting.

"It's not like we don't have any Teigu users, right Taeko?" Mera ignored Chelsea and asked with a teasing smile.

"...Akashi said that I should not consider this a Teigu." Taeko replied since it was impossible to hide the ability of her new weapon in front of Mera and she was sure that Akashi wouldn't mind it too much.

"Of course, it is a bit weaker in regards to Teigu but to think he would be able to upgrade your weapon like that... I might even say that I slightly envy you and your sexual orientation." Mera said with a fake sad expression and a playful tone.

"...Anyway, who is the target specifically?" Babara asked after waiting for the awkward air to disappear.

"This man!" *thud* Mera said as she slammed a poster to the table with her hand.

The said man had a very noticeable X-shaped scar on his face and his entire expression was enough to tell others that he is an aggressive type of person.

"Syura, the son of the current Prime Minister!" Mera said while opening her arms wide with an excited smile.

"It's been a while since we received a job regarding the life of someone important from politics." Babara muttered but it was visible that she was also wearing a bloodthirsty smile. Due to Murasame's poison, she had to rest for a long time without even training and she recovered just recently therefore she was still feeling a bit rusty.

"Who are we sending out for this mission?" Taeko said while tightly gripping her katana.

"Everyone." Mera replied and shrugged her shoulders when she noticed their bewilderment.

"We have no further information on our targets and we should make sure not to fail this first mission or it will make our employer very disappointed and we don't want that to happen, right Taeko?" Mera explained and asked Taeko who just nodded her head with a stoic expression.

"I will call for Loris and Meela" Babara said while excusing herself.

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---Revolutionary Army's HQ---

Numerous people were gathered around the round table, discussing important matters brought up by Najenda.

"What are you saying, general Najenda? Do you really want us to abandon all that we have built together in several years of hard work just because of one promise from one man? Not to mention he has guts to say that he wants his father to become the next emperor...It doesn't make any sense." One of the men asked with a completely confused expression and anger was visible in his eyes.

"He isn't just "one man". If he were to join with Esdeath, we won't be able to win and if we can use his influence to stop Honest, it will be much easier and also without much bloodshed." Najenda explained with a firm expression and folded arms.

"Then make him your primary target for the assassination. Esdeath is in the north, she won't be coming back in less than 1 year. And if he wants to help us so much, why won't he simply join us, him not joining us only shows that he has some ulterior motive." Another man said with folded arms.

'That's practically impossible now...Akame might not agree to it since Kurome is on his side and he even rescued some kids that Akame cared for...I highly doubt we would be able to even win without Akame's Murasame. Plus he truly isn't that bad person, we must also take into consideration that he had to act like he is loyal to the Empire while improving the state of his territory...What would have happened if he was completely free and could do whatever he wants to? Some of his ideas that he realized in his territory are truly interesting.' Najenda thought with a frown.

"Impossible, Esdeath herself admitted that he is even stronger than her. Our ultimate idea was to kill her with Murasame's poison because I can't imagine that woman to stop fighting from just a few wounds and she is too dangerous, not even 6 Teigu users will be enough." Najenda closed her eyes and replied.

'I hope I am not doing a bad decision here...' Najenda thought with her eyes shut because she just came up with those things she just said.

"Then this is problematic...Not to mention if you can't assassinate him fast enough, others will come to help him and some of them can be also Teigu users, tch!"

"I would rather completely forget about targeting the Phoenix family, their power is still unfathomable. I suspect that they have a few Teigu users themselves so we definitely should avoid attacking their Heir who is even stronger than Esdeath or it could come back at us" Najenda added.

"What about making Honest turn his eyes at them?" One of the many men and women among the meeting asked.

"...I don't think they would mind because he said that we can all disperse right now and he will still take care of everything which means he already has plans on how to overthrow Honest. Still, hearing that you even considered "helping" Honest by bringing him some kind of message about the Phoenix family is...slightly disturbing." Najenda said with narrowed eyes.

"Don't misunderstand me...I just don't want everything we built through hard work and our blood to disappear."

"How about this general Najenda, he can do whatever he wants and we might even help him a bit but we won't disperse our group until the chaos is quelled and the Empire is once again a nice place to live at." One of the most respected members who helped to start the entire Revolutionary Army idea said with a calm tone.

*gasp* "?!" Everyone turned at him with surprised expressions, some of them even gasped and even Najenda was slightly surprised.

"He is planning to make Chouri the next Prime Minister which is extremely good choice so I think we should give him and his father a chance. After all, general Najenda gave us reports of what changes they have done in their territory and I must say they are spectacular and some ideas would have never come into my mind. We also have to consider that they were constantly under Honest radar so it was inevitable for them not to do anything cruel and evil. To be honest, it's good to have someone inside within a high post." The same man continued his explanation when he noticed shocked faces of other people looking at him.

*bang* Suddenly a door to the meeting room was abruptly opened with a great force as one man run inside and immediately kneeled, catching his breath.

Everyone glared at him but waited for him to relay the message or give some explanation.

"E-Esdeath has returned to the Capital!!" The messenger said with a horrified expression that everyone was puzzled about until now, however, when they heard his expression, their expression became completely the same.

"What?!" Najenda exclaimed with a shocked expression.

'He was right...It took her only around a month to conquer Northern Tribes unless she returned without capturing it but that's impossible.' Najenda thought with narrowed eyes before making eye contact with the man who partly supported her.

"Then we have a big problem right now. General Najenda, please relay our talk to the Heir of the Phoenix family and ask him if these terms are acceptable. He shouldn't have any problem with us just sitting around before he patches up the entire Empire, once he is done and we are satisfied, we will disperse and go on living our lives." The most respected member hurriedly said with a serious expression before he ended the meeting, telling others to leave the room.

Najenda nodded at him before leaving HQ.

---The Palace---

Esdeath was partially kneeling before the Emperor with her general's hat in her hand.

"General Esdeath, your conquest of Northern lands was superb and faster than any of us could ever expect. We are prepared to reward you with 10.000 gold coins for your efforts." The emperor said with a calm tone.

"I am grateful, your majesty." Esdeath replied shortly with a small smile.

"There are other pressing matters we need to attend to...There is a certain dreadful group known as Night Raid running rampant around the Capital. They are targeting whoever they want and they are endangering the safety of the entire Capital. I would like you to take care of this group."

"I understand...I would like to ask of your majesty for gathering a few more Teigu users I can use against such a group. I have heard that they are also using Teigu so normal soldiers are useless here." Esdeath nodded her head without any hesitation and requested.

"...I-I understand, it is indeed the truth that none of the soldiers were able to stop this group even when they outnumbered them. I will take care of it, however, I doubt giving you gold will be a suitable reward for this task. Tell me, general Esdeath, is there something special you desire? Lands, titles?" The emperor asked with a slightly nervous tone at the beginning.

"? ...There is something I would like to ask of your majesty." Esdeath said with a slightly sly smile.

"What is it? Go ahead..." The emperor said with a curious expression.

"Does your majesty have power over the marriages of nobles?" Esdeath asked with a calm smile.

"Hm? Well, I can propose marriages between nobles but I guess if it's really important I can even force them onto someone." The emperor replied with a thinking expression, completely clueless why would Esdeath ask for something like that.

"I would like it if your majesty could use your influence to propose marriage to someone" Esdeath said with a calm tone.

"?! I-I see, which person with whom?" Both the emperor and Honest were surprised to hear such a request but they quickly recovered.

"Me with the heir of the Phoenix family, Akashi!" Esdeath said with a wide smile and closed eyes while putting her hand on her heart.

Esdeath was a person who would take anything she wants with the force if needed but in this case with Akashi it was different, she was aware that he is a noble and extremely strong one at that which forced her to change her ways. Any other noble could also propose to him or the emperor could propose marriage between two people so the first thing she had to secure was the emperor's approval. After getting his approval, he won't even think of proposing any marriage involving Akashi's name.