Chapter 311

Chapter 311: Chapter 311

"What do you mean, Prime Minister? I haven’t received any reports of an assassination attempt."

The young Emperor looked thoroughly confused.

"Whew—"

Honest had entered the hall looking terrified, but the moment he saw the Emperor sitting there unharmed, he visibly relaxed and collapsed onto the floor.

Sweat was already pouring down his face.

"Your Majesty... thank heavens you’re safe!"

He perfectly portrayed the image of a loyal minister who had rushed over in desperate concern for his sovereign’s safety.

One had to admit—the old bastard was a veteran actor.

"Prime Minister, what happened? Someone, bring him a seat immediately. And bring food and wine!"

The young Emperor was deeply concerned for the man and immediately ordered the attendants to take care of him.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Honest shakily lowered himself into the chair and wiped the dense beads of sweat from his forehead before speaking with lingering fear.

"Your Majesty, earlier today, my unworthy son encountered a group of rebels inside the Imperial Capital. They intended to infiltrate the palace, assassinate Your Majesty, and commit the ultimate act of treason."

"My son fought desperately to stop them and died in battle. Before his death, however, he managed to send word back to my estate."

"As soon as I received the message, I was beside myself with fear and rushed here at once to protect Your Majesty. Seeing you safe and unharmed is truly a blessing for the entire Empire!"

In only a few sentences, Honest had completely reversed black and white and twisted the truth beyond recognition.

He did it with remarkable skill.

Any reasonably capable emperor would probably have seen through the lies immediately.

Unfortunately, this Emperor had been born deep within the palace and raised under the care of servants and women, leaving him with very little experience of the outside world.

Worse still, he had spent the past several years as Honest’s puppet. His access to information was severely restricted, and he obeyed the Prime Minister almost without question.

Naturally, it never occurred to him to doubt Honest’s words.

"Such a thing actually happened?"

The young Emperor sucked in a breath.

"Where are those rebels now?"

"They are extremely powerful."

Honest wore the calm expression of a man who already had everything under control.

"I have issued wanted notices and mobilized resources across the entire Empire to find them. No matter what, they will be brought to justice."

"But at present, Your Majesty’s safety is the most important concern. As long as Your Majesty remains safe, those rebels will never be able to cause any serious trouble."

"You’re absolutely right, Prime Minister."

The young Emperor was still somewhat shaken, and his gaze toward Honest became filled with admiration and gratitude.

"You rushed here in the middle of the night to protect me. Such loyalty deserves praise, and you’ve gone to great trouble."

He immediately turned toward the attendants.

"Stay in the palace tonight. Someone, prepare a room for the Prime Minister."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Honest hurriedly bowed in gratitude.

Only then did he feel somewhat reassured.

As long as he stayed near the young Emperor, even if those rebels came after him, his own elite guards and the palace’s experts would buy him enough time to reach the Emperor and activate that divine weapon.

And once that happened—it wouldn’t matter how monstrously talented his enemies were.

They would all be reduced to ashes!

...

While Kiriya and the others had thrown the entire Imperial Capital into chaos, what were the culprits themselves doing?

Barbecuing on a mountain outside the northern outskirts of the city.

Special-Class Danger Beast meat sizzled over the flames, fat dripping from the surface as Kiriya seasoned it with a variety of specially prepared spices.

The aroma alone was incredible.

They ate roasted meat, drank wine, and when they were finished, there was even a warm, comfortable wooden house waiting for them.

Their evening could hardly have been more relaxing.

Once they finished eating, the four tidied up briefly and went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, however, all of them opened their eyes almost simultaneously.

They exchanged smiles, changed into black night clothes, and followed Kiriya back into the Imperial Capital.

With their extraordinary physical abilities and the darkness concealing their movements, the group traveled through the sleeping city at astonishing speed.

Before long, they reached the Imperial Palace.

The palace grounds were enormous.

Pavilions, halls, towers, courtyards, and covered walkways were scattered everywhere, with winding paths and complicated layouts connecting them in a maze-like arrangement.

Since it was their first time here, they nearly got lost.

Fortunately, all four were highly capable. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

They quietly captured a few guards, and with a little Sharingan hypnosis from Kiriya, the men immediately revealed everything they knew.

Even better—

they retained no memory whatsoever of Kiriya’s group afterward.

For infiltration and intelligence gathering, it was practically a cheat ability.

As usual, Kiriya left Flying Thunder God marks along the way.

After roughly twenty minutes, the group finally reached the surface entrance leading to the underground treasury where the Imperial Arms were stored.

Unlike most areas of the palace, this place was guarded with extreme intensity.

Security mechanisms were everywhere, and the number of soldiers stationed around it was far higher than normal.

Judging purely by the visible defenses, Kiriya’s group could easily have forced their way inside.

But doing so risked alerting the enemy.

If the Imperial Arms they wanted weren’t actually inside and the palace realized what they were searching for, the weapons might be hidden or relocated somewhere obscure.

That would only create unnecessary trouble.

Fortunately, this kind of problem was hardly difficult for Kiriya.

He was a ninja, after all.

Infiltration was one of his specialties.

So Kiriya used the Transformation Jutsu and took on the appearance of Prime Minister Honest.

Esdeath, Jeanne, and Ryuu changed into Imperial Palace guard uniforms and followed behind him as attendants.

And how did Kiriya know what Honest looked like?

Please.

The Imperial Capital had newspapers.

All he had to do was pick one up and there was a full-body picture of the Prime Minister right there.

Convenient as hell.

"Prime Minister!"

The guards stationed at the entrance immediately straightened their backs and saluted the moment they saw "Honest."

Their posture could not have been more respectful.

"Mm."

Kiriya deliberately lowered his voice into a rough imitation of Honest’s.

"How are things here?"

"Reporting to the Prime Minister! Everything is normal!"

The leading guard answered loudly.

"Good."

Kiriya nodded with an appropriately self-important expression, then pointed toward the massive door.

"Open it. I’m going inside to select a few things."

"But..."

The guard captain had barely begun speaking when he met the Prime Minister’s icy gaze.

Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

’What the hell is wrong with me? Was I seriously about to refuse the Prime Minister?’

Had a donkey kicked him in the head?

If the Prime Minister wanted something from the treasury, then just let him take it.

What was he going to do, report Honest to the Emperor?

The young Emperor would probably hand the "treacherous informant" directly over to the Prime Minister for punishment, then tell Honest to pick whatever he wanted.

If Honest still wasn’t satisfied, the Emperor might even order the whole country searched for something better.

"Please wait a moment. I’ll open it immediately."

The guard captain hurriedly took out a key.

After inserting it, he turned several numerical locks in sequence before the enormous door finally opened.

’Damn. It really is like a giant vault door.’

Kiriya secretly examined it.

’And this material... seriously tough.’

As expected of the Imperial Palace, the center of power for a thousand-year-old empire.

It had some impressive construction.

The door had been forged from an extremely durable and clearly expensive metal.

Even the surrounding walls formed a single reinforced structure.

If someone tried to force their way in from outside, the entire vault would trigger a deliberate collapse and explosion.

Every treasure stored inside would then be released through hidden mechanisms into an underground river, where they would disappear without a trace.

All of that came directly from the guard captain himself.

Under Sharingan hypnosis, the man answered every question Kiriya asked with complete honesty.

The passage down was surprisingly long.

It took them more than ten minutes just to walk to the actual treasury.

Once they finally entered, Kiriya dismissed the guard captain and ordered him to stand watch at the entrance.

Before he could say anything else, however, Esdeath had already begun walking toward one particular object.

It was a golden, two-handled vessel with a sealed lid.

A chilling mist constantly drifted from its mouth.

Yet Esdeath seemed completely unaffected by the cold.

She reached out and placed a hand against the container, a blissful expression appearing on her face.

"I can feel it."

Esdeath turned toward Kiriya, her eyes shining with excitement.

"It’s calling to me."

"Then it looks like your compatibility really is excellent."

Kiriya nodded.

"This should be Demon God Manifestation: Demon’s Extract."

"Oh, so this is it."

Esdeath’s excitement deepened.

"Looks pretty good."

She reached past the barrier surrounding it and lifted the golden vessel out.

"I’m actually getting excited."

When she opened the lid, she found crimson blood inside.

An eerie cold radiated from it, yet instead of making Esdeath uncomfortable, the substance gave her a strange feeling of familiarity and closeness.

"If you drink it, you’ll gain tremendous power."

Kiriya looked at her seriously.

"But be careful. That thing has an extremely powerful corruptive effect on the mind."

"Supposedly, many people who drank it before you went insane and died."

"Hehe."

Esdeath was completely unconcerned.

"You said that happened to other people."

Her expression became supremely confident.

"My will isn’t something a mere Imperial Arms can control."

With that, she raised the vessel to her lips—and drank every last drop of it.

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