Chapter 146 - #145 Newcomers (1/2)

A few more weeks passed by and Akashi's marriage was around the corner. He spent those few weeks mostly in mansion and training with all kinds of things that have a sharp edge and can be used as a weapon since it was helping him gain a better understanding of his own path of blade master. During that time, a new organization named Night Raid became overly famous as far as to rumors traveling through the entire Capital about their ȧssassination of the important person inside the palace itself. There were many other nobles who lost their lives by their hands.

Wanted Posters were everywhere across the Capital with Akame, Bulat, Green, Poney, and Najenda's faces.

”Hahaha” Akashi released unusual hearty laugh while reading some documents.

”?! What is so funny?” Poney who was together with Akashi in his study was slightly startled by his sudden laugh and after she calmed down, she asked with a confused expression. In the end, she chose to remain with Akashi since she really had no idea what to do. Thankfully, the atmosphere between those two was no longer awkward, it could be said to be quite merry since Poney can be sometimes real airhead and Akashi found it relaxing talking to her.

At first, when she accepted to remain here and work for him, Poney thought that she might not be able to forget about what he told her regarding Gai but she somehow got through it. Mainly thanks to spending more time with him, she was aware that at that time they were practically bad guys so she doesn't hold Akashi responsible. More like she started to hate herself for not noticing it earlier. She kept saying to herself that if she noticed earlier, none of the ȧssassins that came after them would ever bother targeting them.

After accepting to be on Akashi's side, she got to know how he wants to reform this entire Empire and she found his idea appealing and interesting. Of course, he didn't tell her everything but only basics, and the prospering state of his territory only further helped Poney to find that idea appealing and interesting.

”Some nobles request to live in my territory, coincidentally they are the same nobles that previously liked to avoid my territory due to my harsh rules without any exceptions towards them. Night Raid is really doing a good job by scaring everyone with a lot of wealth, heh” Akashi threw the stack of documents to Poney so she can have a look herself while he explains it.

”I see...What will you do?” Poney muttered while looking over the document before raising her head and asking Akashi with a curious expression.

”I already have information collected on all of them, take a look for yourself!” Akashi said while taking a few files from underneath his table and threw them to Poney once again.

”child abuse...murder...****...human trafficking” Poney muttered while going through each file belonging to each of those nobles. She didn't even have the heart to read any further since it was becoming only worse.

”Do you think I should let them in so they can save their ȧsses from Night Raid?” Akashi interrupted Poney thinking about what she just read.

”Hm? Of course not! They are trash that shouldn't even exist in the first place!” Poney suddenly blurted out with an angered expression. When she noticed Akashi's smile, she blushed and covered her mouth and realized her unnecessary outburst.

”You are right...they aren't worth saving if they will only cause trouble in my territory plus why do you think that Night Raid very rarely ȧssassinated anyone inside my territory?” Akashi said and then rested his chin on his hand while asking with a smile.

”Because you have some kind of connection with them? You previously said that you can get me to Akame and Green and they are part of that group so...” Poney said but she still had a slightly uncertain expression.

”Nah, that's not really the main reason. I have close to none corrupted nobles here, and those that got killed were difficult to get rid of without killing them so I am quite thankful to Night Raid for making some of my small worries literally disappear while taking full blame. Normally, such things would be partly blamed at the biggest family controlling the territory for bad security but Night Raid is so infamous that no one blames anyone, hehe” Akashi explained with his legs resting on top of his table, he was currently feeling quite content. Night Raid was actually helping him quite a lot without even being aware, of course, it would have been a different matter if any of his loyal guards got hurt or worse, killed.

Akashi placed high importance on hiring loyal people into his organization but it was hard to even hire 1 person like that, therefore losing anyone would be quite irritating and he would have to have a word with Najenda.

”I see...Tell me, is there any chance that we will be fighting them in the future?” Poney asked with a slightly sad expression.

”Hard to say, we stand in the middle, we might be forced to even fight on both fronts at the same time. Our goal aligns with their goal but our paths are a bit different.” Akashi replied while looking at the ceiling with a thoughtful expression.

'I also don't want to see anyone from the Revolutionary Army in power. If they will win, they will be the ones deciding who is to be the next Emperor. They will also most likely try to take down my family since, on the light, we fully support the Empire. No way I am allowing it.' Akashi thought to himself.

”Anyway, I have a date today so I can't spend the entire afternoon talking with you, I am sorry, Poney!” Akashi suddenly said and jumped from his chair to his feet.

”Huh?” Poney who was looking at the ground with a slightly distressed expression raised her head and looked at Akashi with a dumbfounded expression.

”A d-date?” She muttered still with a dumbfounded expression.

”Yep, with that Aria” Akashi said with a smile.

”Why are you even doing it if you don't want to marry her?” Poney asked with a blank expression.

”It's my training” Akashi replied unexpectedly which caught Poney off guard.

”What? Training? Are you training how to date a girl or what? If that's so I don't mind teaching you, you don't have to spend time with her...” Poney replied with a confused expression.