"Cough..."
Run slowly opened his eyes.
"Where am I...?"
His injuries were lighter than Wave's.
He had mostly exhausted himself by overusing his flying Teigu, so he regained consciousness first.
"You're awake, Run. Have some water and calm down." Bols offered him a cup.
The moment Run saw Bols, some of the tension left his body.
He drank, and his condition visibly improved.
Once Noah confirmed that he was fully conscious, he asked, "How did the two of you get injured?"
"Hm..."
Run concentrated, quickly sorting through his memories.
"Wave and I were assigned to locations fairly close to one another, so we agreed on a signal beforehand in case either of us ran into trouble. When I reached my destination, though, the entire place was empty."
"I flew into the air with my Teigu to survey the area, and that was when an attack came from the forest below."
"There were three enemies. All of them wore masks and claimed to be members of Night Raid."
Noah immediately noticed Run's choice of words.
They claimed to be Night Raid.
Aside from carrying out most of their assassinations at night, Night Raid had another noticeable trait: they rarely bothered hiding their faces.
Noah had encountered the organization several times.
Bulat and Tatsumi wore helmets because of their Teigu, but none of the others normally used masks.
He did not know why they were so unconcerned about concealing their appearances, but it made him doubt that Run's attackers were genuine members.
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Did the three of them have any distinctive traits?"
Run pretended to search his memory, but a flash of dark murderous intent passed through his eyes.
After organizing his thoughts, he answered, "One was an extremely skilled swordsman, though I'm certain it wasn't Akame. His build was completely different from the information we have on her."
"The second was a man who used highly aggressive hand-to-hand combat."
"And the last..."
Run stopped.
Only when Noah placed a hand on his shoulder and asked whether he was all right did he return to himself.
His clenched jaw and fists slowly loosened.
"Sorry. I suppose my head still isn't completely clear."
"The last one was an enormous, overweight man. He wore a clown mask that was different from the other two, and he fought using thrown weapons."
"They were very strong. I couldn't determine whether two of them were Teigu users, but they still pushed me into a desperate situation."
"If Wave hadn't found nothing at his own destination and come to help me, I would have died."
Run looked toward the unconscious Wave, gratitude filling his eyes.
By the time he finished, Noah was almost certain those three had nothing to do with Night Raid.
The reason was simple.
Night Raid's numbers were heavily skewed toward women.
Before Tatsumi joined, the organization had possessed only two male members.
After his arrival, Bulat had been crippled badly enough that he was almost certainly retired, leaving them with only two active men again.
And both of those men had been inside the cave with Noah at the time, serving as his test subjects.
The attackers were probably Syura's subordinates.
They also seemed to know the intelligence claiming that Run relied more on his mind than his combat ability.
Unfortunately for them, that information was inaccurate.
Run was anything but weak.
Noah had seen him slip away to deserted places several times to train relentlessly.
The ferocity he displayed during those sessions made it seem as though he carried some terrible hatred that had yet to be avenged.
It was completely different from the warm, pleasant impression he normally gave others.
Two against three.
Run had been injured, and they were outnumbered, yet those enemies had still defeated both him and Wave badly enough to force them to flee.
Where had Syura found people like this?
Did that scumbag truly possess enough charisma to gather so many capable subordinates?
Together with Dorothea, it appeared Syura had secretly assembled a force no weaker than the Jaegers or Night Raid.
Noah chose not to share that conclusion with the others.
He could not be certain there was no spy among those present.
Wave was probably the only person above suspicion.
His intelligence was simply not sufficient for him to perform that kind of covert assignment.
"Mr. Noah, you should go home," Bols said. "I'll stay and look after them."
"If you don't return, won't your family worry?" Noah replied. "Their injuries have already been treated. They're only unconscious because they exhausted themselves."
Bols deeply loved his wife and daughter.
The Empire was far from peaceful, no matter how generously one described its condition, and his concern for his family was never far from his mind.
"In that case, thank you, Mr. Noah."
Before leaving, Bols prepared a large dinner for Wave and Run. He was worried they might wake up hungry, so he made more than enough.
He also replaced the tea with soup that would be easier for recovering patients to drink.
Perhaps it came naturally to a married man with a family, but Bols was remarkably thoughtful when caring for others.
There was only one thing he had failed to consider.
The true enemy was also inside the palace.
Night Raid would find it nearly impossible to infiltrate the palace, but Syura and his followers were entirely different.
As Minister Honest's son, Syura could treat the royal grounds almost like his family's private garden.
Honest himself regularly entered the Emperor's harem and took the former ruler's consorts for himself.
If Syura's people were dissatisfied with failing to kill Run and Wave during the day, they might attack them inside the Jaegers' headquarters that very night.
Still, the greatest reason for their confidence was probably Esdeath's absence.
No matter how reckless they were, few would dare provoke the tiger while she was present.
'Hm?'
Through Black Nightmare's vision, Noah noticed that Bols was being followed after leaving the palace.
The pursuers carried none of Noah's marks, meaning they were people he had never encountered.
However, they clearly knew Bols was a member of the Jaegers and had prepared an ambush along the route he needed to take.
Their identities were obvious.
'So that's their plan.'
Killing someone inside the palace carried too much risk.
If anything went wrong, the Imperial Guard would discover them immediately, and they would make an enemy of the Empire's other strongest warrior.
Great General Budo would never tolerate anyone behaving so brazenly inside the palace.
Unless the culprit was the Emperor himself, death would be unavoidable.
Rather than committing murder there, it made far more sense to exploit the Jaegers' scattered and weakened condition, eliminate isolated members one at a time, and then blame Night Raid.
"They really do underestimate us."
...
On the streets of the Imperial Capital, Bols was choosing gifts for his wife and daughter.
He would be returning home later than usual, so he wanted to make it up to them.
Filled with thoughts of his family, he had no idea that danger was already following him.
After purchasing the gifts, he hurried home, only to find several hostile-looking strangers standing outside his front door.
"Oh, you're finally back."
A man with an unnaturally long tongue greeted Bols as though welcoming him home.
Beside him stood a swordsman wearing traditional robes and an overweight clown who kept rubbing his hands together.
Bols's heart jolted the moment he saw them.
Not only did they match the three attackers Run had described, but they were standing directly outside his home.
"Night Raid! What are you doing here?" Bols demanded anxiously.
The long-tongued man froze at the accusation.
He glanced around before suddenly remembering something.
"Oh, right. I forgot. We're supposed to be pretending to be Night Raid!"
He burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha! People really shouldn't try doing things they're bad at."
He pointed to himself.
"My name is Enshin. The swordsman is Izou, and the big one is Champ. As for the last person..."
Enshin smiled strangely and entered Bols's house right in front of him.
A moment later, he returned while dragging out a beautiful woman who was struggling fiercely against him.
She was Bols's wife.
A little girl ran after them from inside, crying as she tried to stop him.
"Let go of her!" Bols roared.
Champ dropped to his knees the instant he saw the little girl.
Sweat poured from his body as he stared at her with sickening excitement.
"Ahhh, she's so adorable! I can't take it anymore! Come play with me, and then you can become an angel!"
The clown, who had seemed restless from the beginning, completely lost control at the sight of the child.
His enormous body twisted with excitement like an animal in mating season.
Enshin made no attempt to stop him.
He already knew about his companion's tastes.
"Relax," Enshin told Bols. "We haven't done anything yet."
"Our orders only said to kill you, but the moment I learned you had such a beautiful wife and daughter, I made a decision."
His smile became thoroughly depraved.
"We're going to have some real fun. We'll ruin both of them right in front of you and keep going until there's nothing left."
Bols's fury reached its limit.
He was unarmed. Rubicante was far too large to carry casually through the city.
Even so, only one thought remained in his mind.
He would kill these animals!
Bols stepped forward with his left foot.
In the next instant, his entire body fell toward the ground.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
His left foot had been severed cleanly at the ankle.
He had not seen who attacked him or even how the strike had been delivered.
Bols collapsed onto the street.
Rip!
The sound of clothing being torn came from directly in front of him, followed by his wife's scream and his daughter's sobbing.
Even with only one foot remaining, Bols forced himself upward with all his strength.
His eyes locked onto Enshin's obscene grin.
A blade cut through the air.
This time Bols barely saw it—a gleaming sword flashing through the night.
Izou had attacked.
Too fast.
The slash was far too fast for Bols to evade!
He was going to die!
He would die here without protecting the wife and daughter he loved.
The thought of what these men intended to do to them afterward drove him nearly insane.
'God...'
No.
A demon from hell would do just as well.
Whatever price it demanded, Bols would pay it. Even if he had to die and return as a vengeful spirit, he would slaughter these bastards.
As long as he could protect his family.
The edge of Izou's blade touched Bols's neck.
It sliced through skin and began cutting into muscle.
Even then, Bols's bloodshot eyes remained fixed on Enshin, who was preparing to violate his wife, and Champ, who had seized his daughter's arm.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
Boom!
The air itself seemed to explode beneath the force of a fist.
Enshin had no chance to react before the savage punch crushed the obscene smile on his face.
His right eye was forced from its socket.
His nose shattered completely.
Fragments of broken bone drove into the flesh of his face, reducing his smug expression to a mangled ruin.
"It hurts!"
Enshin was launched backward and smashed through a wall, which collapsed on top of him.
Champ stared in shock.
The little girl in his grip seized the opportunity to grab a handful of dirt and throw it into his eyes, making him recoil in pain.
Champ staggered several steps backward.
Bols immediately seized the chance to gather his wife and daughter into his arms, shielding them behind his body.
Even if he wanted to escape, running was impossible with only one foot.
"You... How did you do that?"
Izou was the most astonished of the three.
His blade had already cut into Bols's neck.
It had pierced the skin and muscle.
From there, it should have passed cleanly through and taken his head without any resistance.
So why?
Why had the blade suddenly been repelled by his neck?
Bols himself was even more shocked.
He touched the thin wound across his neck, finally confirming that what had just happened was real.
His head truly had nearly been cut off.
Could this possibly be...
The power of love?
Seeing his terrified wife and daughter, Bols quickly banished the ridiculous thought.
They were still in danger.
Before anyone could move again, a streak of red light too fast for the naked eye struck the ground between Izou and Champ.
A small mushroom cloud immediately rose from where the three attackers stood.
Bols stared speechlessly at the blazing explosion that seemed to illuminate everything around it.
...
One kilometer away, Noah pulled back the rifle's bolt.
An enormous spent casing fell to the ground with a sharp metallic ring.
The first shot had carried a Physical Barrier formula.
It struck Bols before Izou's blade could finish passing through his neck and neutralized the slash.
Izou's sword could cut through stone with ease, but the barrier's resistance against physical attacks was even greater.
The second round carried the power of Danger Beast blood.
The angrier its recipient became, the greater the strength it granted.
That shot had also struck Bols, which was why his punch had carried such devastating force.
The final round contained a Bombardment formula.
Its impact zone had been wide enough to engulf all three attackers at once.