Steel Eyed Faker

Chapter 29: Save The Lord Part 4

Beta read by Shigiya, Gamercrusher55 and Paragon of Awesomeness

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-Kyoroch, Path of Peace Headquarters-

Had they been played for fools? 

This thought crossed his mind as soon as he saw the body, and Tatsumi couldn't shake it away. The leader of the Path of Peace probably had plenty of enemies from all sides, regardless of his stance on helping people. Or perhaps, were they really just that unlucky? Did they simply happen to stumble onto the scene at the worst possible time? He tried to figure out the truth, but there were no answers to be found, only the chilling sight of the headless corpse on the floor.

While he pondered on what could have happened, Akame made her way to the corpse. Walking over to the body, she casually turned it over with her boot. Blood had pooled on the floor, and her steps sent small ripples across the red surface. She then walked a couple of steps to the right and picked up the man’s severed head. His last expression was utterly stoic, as if he hadn't even expected the attack.

"A quick and clean decapitation," Akame stated. "It happened so fast, he wouldn't have felt any pain. From the cut, this was clearly done by a long blade made for slicing."

Tatsumi grumbled back, "Analysing it won't do us any good right now, since we weren't the ones who did it. We should leave now. It doesn't matter if this guy was innocent or not… It's already too late." He grabbed his Imperial Arm firmly; teleporting along with another person would consume far more energy if he tried to get out of the city in one go. Less so if he took several small jumps, though it would take longer. "Akame, we should leave."

Before she answered, the girl stared at the body for several more seconds, clearly hesitating. This confused him. "Is something the matter?"

“Nothing, just need to check something,” she turned her attention towards the office desk in the room. Heading over to it, her eyes began scanning the scattered papers for several seconds, and she even began to go through them one by one.

"Akame?"

She shook her head. "Nothing helpful is here, and nothing about people being traded into slavery. We can't consider this a mission accomplished, since the assassination wasn't done by our group and we are left with more questions than answers."

"But our goal was to kill this guy if he was bad, right? Isn't that the same—oof!”

Pa!

Suddenly, Akame's eyes widened, and before he knew it, she rushed towards him at breakneck speed. Her steps broke the wooden plank underneath her foot while he struggled to react in time, by which point she had already crossed the distance between them. Both of her palms pressed against his chest, pushing him back. 

“—!” 

As the world slowed down to a snail’s pace, the brown-haired young man gazed in astonishment as a blade appeared from the corner of his vision, thrusting into the space where his head had just been. The near encounter with death made his mind momentarily go blank.

“Gah!” 

With Akame not being able to adjust her strength to save his life, Tatsumi’s back ended up getting slammed against the wall rather harshly. 

'D-Damn it… What the hell? I didn't notice their presence at all!' he thought, his mind racing, tracing the katana back to its wielder. ‘Eh? She's…’ It was a small, young woman with black hair. Though the thing that caught him off guard was the uncanny resemblance to Akame, but younger. One who wore similar high school-like clothes and had the same crimson eyes.