Chapter Ninety-Four: A Sudden Night Raid; Hil Falls, Her Chest Darkened by Wet Blood

I... don’t want to be an assassin. But if there’s no other way to make money, then I can join them.

Clearly, he had heard the conversation outside.

“If I gave you money, would you go back to your village?”

“Eh—, bu... but you... We’ve only known each other for less than two days. Why would you help me?” Tatsumi, after being deceived twice in a row, had also grown wary.

“My village had more than a hundred people. Every one of them was slaughtered in cold blood; only ten young people escaped as embers left to kindle the future... I’m not short of money. If you need it, I can give it to you. Go back in peace. It won’t be long before this empire falls, and by then your village should be able to grow prosperous little by little.”

“I... I want to stay in the imperial capital a few more days and see whether I can find some way to rise to success and make a great deal of money. If that fails, then I’ll have no choice but to go home with my tail between my legs.”

After leaving behind a sack of diamonds, he departed as quietly as he had come. That was all he could do.

The next morning, not long after sunrise, Mine came yawning into the dining room and saw Shell and an unfamiliar youth seated across from each other, silently drinking black tea and silently reading the books in their hands.

Because it seemed so natural, Mine felt no sense of oddness at all, so she took a seat nearby without any fuss. The youth gave her a smile and poured her a steaming cup of black tea.

“Thank you.” Out of politeness, Mine said it casually.

“Mine, do you know this young man?” Shell, seated beside her, asked with a tilt of her head.

Mine, who had just taken a mouthful to savor the tea’s flavor, instantly spat it out. “Cough, cough—Shell, you don’t know him?” Mine asked, eyes wide.

“Should I know him?” Shell replied blankly.

“You don’t know him, and you’re just drinking tea and reading with him?”

“Eh—, when I came over, he was already sitting here. Then he poured me a cup of black tea, and I just sat here reading.” Shell said with her head still tilted.

“You airhead, if you don’t know someone, don’t just drink the tea they make for you!” Mine cried in frustration.

“But didn’t you drink it too?”

“That was because I thought he was your acquaintance. More importantly, who exactly is he? ...Could he be an intruder?” Mine fixed the youth with a sharp look.

“I know Akame.” The youth took a sip of black tea and exhaled lightly before speaking.

“Oh, so he’s Akame’s friend,” Shell said with a clap and a laugh.

“Hey, don’t be that clueless. He said he knows her, not that he’s her friend. Besides, how could Akame possibly have friends?” Mine complained while already drawing her weapon with a grave expression: the imperial arm, Pumpkin.

It was a long-range firearm imperial arm that converted mental energy into shockwaves; its power increased in proportion to the level of crisis faced by the user.

Fighting in a place like this would be very disadvantageous for her.

“Eh—, an enemy?” Shell sprang to her feet in a panic, and in her haste, her body slammed straight into the table.

With a clatter, the black tea was overturned, and the scalding red liquid splashed across her proud chest.

“Aah.” Startled by the heat, Shell instinctively stepped back, only to have her calf caught by the chair. She cried out again and toppled backward.

“Shell.” Mine rushed forward to help, but unfortunately she was not a physically powerful assassin. As a long-range firepower specialist, her speed naturally did not surpass that of an ordinary person by much.

Just as she shut her eyes, unwilling to see Shell’s head strike the floor, and just as Shell braced herself for the impact, she felt something lightly touch the back of her shirt. Then she was slowly lowered to the ground. It was a little cool, but there was not the slightest hint of pain.

Not hearing Shell’s cry of pain, Mine opened her eyes in confusion. The youth who had been sitting opposite the table was now standing beside Shell, with the back of his foot still pinned under hers.

“Let go of Shell!” Mine shouted reflexively, raising her gun and aiming it at the youth.

Clang.

It was not Mine’s attack, but the sound of a cold longsword striking from behind and being blocked by a diamond blade.

“What’s going on? What happened?” The green-haired youth who rushed in afterward saw Mine and Akame attacking a boy from front and back, while Shell lay at the boy’s feet.

No explanation was needed; the scene made it plain enough. An enemy had intruded, Shell had been ambushed, and then surrounded by Mine and Akame. The quality of assassins showed itself at such a moment.

He instantly drew his weapon, the imperial arm Known as the Thousand Faces and Ten Thousand Changes, Cross-Tail. It was a formidable thread-like imperial arm made from the body hair of a super-dangerous species said to dwell in the clouds of the eastern sea. Not only was it resilient, it was also razor-sharp. Its strongest strand was called the World-Cutting Line, whose toughness far exceeded that of the other threads. It could be spread into traps or used to form a barrier to detect enemies, and it also possessed the ability to restrain and sever, living up to its ever-changing name.

Not knowing the enemy’s strength, the first thing he did was block the exits with threads, leaving no possibility of escape.

“Are you the hounds of the empire? You’ve already tracked us down here?” The tall man with the airplane-like hair and long weapon joined the encirclement.

“It’s you. How are you here? You actually followed us?” The wild, mature woman with beast ears and beast claws flashed into the small dining room. She immediately recognized the youth’s identity within the encirclement.

It was the mysterious young man they had encountered the night before, the one who had tried to join Night Raid. His name seemed to be Kai.

But her eyes also fell upon Shell, collapsed on the floor with a patch of red staining her chest. Her beastly eyes contracted violently, and a surge of fury swept over her at once. She roared and lunged, her sharp claws slashing downward as a tide of killing intent engulfed the wryly smiling youth.

Not giving me even a chance to explain.

Kai sighed, preparing to receive the others’ attack, when Shell had already gotten back up. Staring blankly at her companions, who had frozen in place, she thought for a moment, then tilted her head and asked, “What are you all doing?”

“Uh, Shell, are you okay?” Mine finally came to her senses. The youth must have been helping Shell land safely, not trying to do anything to her.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. I just got scalded by the tea a bit, and when I fell, this young man helped me, so I wasn’t hurt.” Shell pushed up her glasses and smiled.

“Then why were you lying on the floor for so long without getting up?” Mine shouted in exasperation.

“Eh—because I was startled! By the time I came to my senses, everyone had already rushed out. Oh, I remember Mine saying you were an enemy, right?” Shell turned to the youth beside her as she recalled what had happened.

“The details of the situation should be clear to everyone by now. Next, let’s sit down and talk calmly.” Kai waved a hand and smiled.