87: Night Raid Base

A week had passed since Haruki joined the Security Department.

In a remote mountain range on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital, thick forests covered the area, and few knew that this was the base of Night Raid—the assassin group that had recently risen to prominence in the capital.

Following their earlier missions where they eliminated Aria's family, assassinated Iokal, Gamal, and several wealthy merchants and officials, Night Raid continued taking on commissions over the past week, successfully completing several more. One of them was the execution of Iokal, a distant relative of the Prime Minister.

Iokal was known for kidnapping beautiful civilian women off the streets and torturing them to death in horrific ways to satisfy his twisted desires. But because of his blood ties to the Prime Minister, he had long evaded punishment from the Empire.

Although the Prime Minister didn't particularly care about his so-called relatives, he couldn't ignore Iokal's murder. Letting it go would have been a serious blow to his authority.

So, a few days ago, the Prime Minister came to Haruki in person, asking him to strengthen the 643rd Security Unit's crackdown on Night Raid. Ever since Haruki took over as Security Chief, the Prime Minister had withdrawn all his trusted men from the department. Now, he didn't dare meddle in its affairs.

Seeing the Prime Minister sobbing and pleading, and recalling how, despite his brutal and ruthless public image, he had always shown Haruki respect, Haruki eventually agreed to step up patrol efforts.

...

Today, inside a well-hidden building at Night Raid's base, all members had gathered—including Tatsumi, who was mentioned just a few days ago. This was the briefing room where missions were assigned.

After their previous operation, the Night Raid assassins saw potential in Tatsumi's abilities and brought him back to their base—Leone had forcibly dragged him along. At first, Tatsumi was hesitant and unwilling to join.

Although the higher-ups of the Revolutionary Army harbored no real intentions of serving the people or the nation, the Night Raid members here were unaware of that corruption. They genuinely wanted to make a difference for the common folk.

Moved by their sincerity and ideals, and deeply shaken by the death of his friend Ieyasu, Tatsumi finally decided to join Night Raid. His resolve strengthened even more after witnessing the team's overwhelming strength when they repelled intruders from their base.

Both Iokal and Iokal had been executed by Tatsumi's own hand in the past few days.

"This is the mission I just took on—assassinating Zanku the Beheader, a serial killer well-known throughout the capital."

Najenda, the leader of Night Raid, held a stack of documents as she addressed the group sitting before her.

Najenda's once-beautiful long white hair had been chopped into a short crop, and the right arm and eye Esdeath had destroyed were now replaced with mechanical prosthetics. A lit cigarette dangled from her fingers—she looked completely different from the sharp, capable woman she used to be. In short, she now resembled more of a mafia boss.

"What are we waiting for? Let's head out already."

The moment Najenda announced the mission, Tatsumi answered eagerly. The success of their previous assassinations had clearly boosted his confidence.

"Tatsumi, hold on. This mission's a bit different from the others. Let Leone give us the rundown on this Zanku guy."

Seeing how fired up he was, Najenda didn't want to crush his enthusiasm, so she spoke gently.

"Okay…"

Hearing her tone, Tatsumi took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down, turning his attention to Leone. Najenda still commanded serious authority within Night Raid.

Once everyone had quieted down, Leone cleared her throat and said,

"Zanku is the Empire's executioner. Thanks to the Minister's obsession with slaughtering the innocent, Zanku had to carry out numerous executions every day. That's how he got the nickname 'Zanku the Beheader.'

But after hearing so many desperate pleas before death, he started to lose his mind. Eventually, killing became his twisted form of pleasure. He wasn't content with just executions inside prison anymore—so he stole the warden's Teigu and began murdering people on the streets.

This guy's a Teigu User, so we need to be extremely careful."

Leone's expression was grim, a sharp contrast to her usual easygoing demeanor.

"Wait—what's a Teigu? And what's a Teigu User?"

Tatsumi immediately asked, curiosity written all over his face.

He came from a small, isolated village far from the Imperial Capital, practically cut off from the rest of the world. Up until now, no one in Night Raid had mentioned Teigu in front of him. This was his first time hearing about them—and from the way Leone talked, they sounded incredibly dangerous, enough to make even Night Raid cautious. That alone was enough to grab his full attention.

...

(40 Chapters Ahead)

p@treon com / PinkSnake