Chapter 332
"Night Raid?"
Noah listened to Taeko's report and confirmed the name.
'Night Raid, huh.'
Taeko explained, "Yes. This Night Raid suddenly appeared in the Imperial Capital recently. Just like its name, it's a group of assassins that launches attacks at night."
The girl handed over the newspaper.
Noah accepted it, swept his eyes across the news, and began reading.
After looking through it briefly, he found that this organization really did have some ability.
They had appeared three times, and all three targets had been slave merchants.
Each attack had been launched at night, and aside from the slaves, the merchants themselves and all their subordinates had been killed.
They had also released the slaves who had been deceived and captured.
Judging from the scene, the thugs under those slave merchants and the hired fighters they had employed had all been killed in one blow.
It was clear that the assassins were quite skilled.
Logically speaking, assassins who killed all their targets should have remained unknown, with no one knowing their true appearances.
In the end, however, after escaping, the freed slaves repaid kindness with betrayal.
When asked about the assassins' appearances, they told the Imperial Guard everything.
One of those appearances had been printed in this newspaper.
Turning to the page with the wanted notice, Noah blinked several times and looked carefully for a while.
Because...
No matter how he looked at it, this face was Akame's.
Although it was only a portrait, it looked extremely similar to Akame herself.
Rarely enough, the portrait had even reproduced the murderous look Akame had during missions onto paper.
Noah had a guess, so he placed a finger on the portrait and activated Truthseeker.
However, aside from learning which company had printed this newspaper and that the auntie in charge of the printing was forty-eight years old and unmarried, he obtained no information about the artist.
Although he did not Appraise the artist, the person's identity was not difficult to guess.
After all, if someone only relied on descriptions of her appearance, especially descriptions from witnesses at night, it would be nearly impossible to draw Akame with such accuracy.
This drawing was very likely the work of someone from the selection group.
Only those who had once spent every day with her could draw a portrait this close to the real person.
...
Rumble!
Crash...
Today, the Imperial Capital was caught in a storm so heavy that one could barely see through it, with thunder rumbling from time to time.
Inside the apartment, Taeko poured Noah fresh tea.
Suddenly, she keenly sensed an aura coming from outside the window, and her gaze immediately became dangerous.
She reached toward the sword placed beside her.
"Wait."
Noah stopped her, then stood up and said, "Don't worry about it. She's here to see me."
"..."
Taeko withdrew her killing intent and sat properly where she was, while Noah walked to the window and pushed it open.
He said toward the outside, "Coming here in such heavy rain? There are still three days left, aren't there? What an indulgent older sister."
Whoosh!
A black shadow flew in through the window.
It was like a night owl entering the room.
The pitch-black cloak was like the wings of a night owl, fluttering in the wind before slowly folding after she landed.
Raindrops fell from her entire body onto the luxurious carpet, wetting and dirtying it.
Seeing this, the black-robed girl shifted her feet unnaturally and lowered her head. "I'm sorry."
Noah waved it off. "It's fine. Take that off first and sit on the sofa. I'll dry you."
The girl nodded, then removed the pitch-black cloak.
Noah took the cloak and hung it on the coat rack.
With a casual motion, he gathered all the rainwater clinging to it, as well as the water that had fallen onto the carpet, into his hand, condensing it into a ball of water.
After casually tossing the water ball out the window and closing it, Noah looked at the girl who had removed her cloak.
"You've become the most famous person in the Imperial Capital lately, Akame."
"Eh?"
Akame stared blankly at Noah, seeming not to understand what he meant.
Noah brought the girl to the sofa and had her sit down, then used the same method as before, separating the cold water on her body into droplets before evaporating it with fire elements.
Warm power wrapped around the girl, making her unable to stop herself from letting out a comfortable sound.
In only a few breaths, both her clothes and body were dried, and her long black hair became fresh and smooth again.
"Sorry for troubling you, Doctor Noah." Akame thanked the man before her.
Ever since their previous meeting at the Great Prison, she had brought back the recovery potion Noah had given her and fed it to Kurome.
After that, Kurome's physical condition had improved greatly, and she looked almost as healthy as someone with no problems at all.
Unfortunately, the good condition did not last long.
About a week later, Kurome showed withdrawal symptoms again and spent each day tortured by pain, suffering so much that she wished she were dead.
Although Night Raid's boss, Najenda, helped her find many skilled doctors, most of them directly gave Kurome a "death sentence."
Everyone said that Kurome had little time left, that she only had a few days to live
The failure of her internal organs was already irreversible, and even her nerves had suffered damage that could not be repaired.
Kurome herself also seemed to have accepted her fate.
Not only did her cute smile disappear, she would also occasionally look at Akame with hatred, treating her as a traitor!
This once drove Akame into despair.
In the end, she could only think of one method: disobey orders and act alone, entering the Imperial Capital to find someone who could help her little sister.
She only knew one person.
That's right.
Noah.
To her surprise, Noah did not make things difficult for her at all and directly gave her the same medicine as last time.
He also told her frankly that this medicine could not cure Kurome's body.
Using it was merely extending her life.
Through her observations, Akame found that once Kurome drank this medicine, she could escape from the pain.
Although its effect only lasted roughly a week, Kurome's condition did not continue to worsen, which gave Akame a little peace of mind.
The only problem was that this medicine could not be stored for long, so she had to sneak into the Imperial Capital every week to collect it.
She did not ask Noah to deliver the medicine himself, because she had attacked this benefactor more than once before and felt guilty.
She did not want Noah to fall into danger.
At least if she personally came to pick it up, she could lessen her guilt a little.
In the blink of an eye, two months passed, and she had already come here many times.
It reminded her of the life they had back in Longxi Village, when they would collectively go to Doctor Noah once a week for physical examinations.
Because of that, she finally understood that this person had never changed.
He was definitely different from those cruel people in the Empire. He was absolutely not the Minister's dog.
Akame sat there obediently and happened to see the newspaper on the sofa, or rather, the wanted notice printed on it.
She picked up the wanted notice and placed it in front of herself to examine it.
"Is this me?"
Akame looked at her own portrait and felt that it was very similar. It also gave her a familiar feeling.
"This... is Father's drawing."
Hm?
"Gozuki knows how to draw?" Noah asked casually.
Although he had dealt with that man quite a few times, he had not known Gozuki had a talent like drawing.
Or rather, it was surprising he even had time to draw.
After all, every day, he was either killing someone or on his way to kill someone.
"Mm. He said mastering several popular artistic skills helps with approaching important targets."
'All right.'
'So it was a professional requirement.'
Come to think of it, Noah seemed to have heard someone say before that the better the assassin, the more versatile they were.
To real assassins, as long as a skill was useful for assassination, it probably had value.
Looking at it from that perspective, perhaps he was rather suited to being an assassin too.
After all, when it came to versatility, his mind contained the experience of thousands of people, including, of course, experience in things like painting.
In Noah's eyes, Gozuki's drawing skill was at most ordinary.
At the very least, it was still far from being art.
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