I love time travel the most!

"Great, we caught up."

Hill smiled with satisfaction at Mine.

Mine, relieved to have survived, smiled in response... but her expression immediately froze, her pupils dilating and contracting repeatedly.

Snapped!

The sound of a gunshot suddenly interrupted this brief, warm moment, and the careless Hill failed to guard against the sneak attack from behind.

A bullet pierced her chest, staining her soft, pale purple silk cheongsam with bright red spots.

Not finished yet.

Even more despairingly, after Hill was shot and rendered immobile due to the neurotoxin in the bullet, and with Mine's bones broken and unable to provide assistance, a vicious dog broke in.

--throat!

It opened its mouth wide and tore at Hill, tearing off the girl's upper body without any mercy!

"Hiss, Hill—!!!"

Mine screamed in disbelief. She never expected that Hill would die here while saving her, and anger instantly filled her mind.

"You actually dared to... give Hill... a mere fracture or something... I'll definitely overcome it and show you!"

Mine forced herself to her feet, picked up her Imperial Arm, and tried to fight back with all her might.

But how could she possibly defeat the Imperial Arms, which can heal itself, when she is now almost completely exhausted?

With the security forces constantly closing in, it was a hopeless situation.

But at this time

"—So exquisite!"

Bright light burst forth again, obscuring everyone's vision.

"Run, Mine!"

The gentle voice was very soft, yet it reached her ears like a dying mother's heartfelt words of advice and instructions to her child.

It was only then that Mine understood why Hill had been telling her to run away.

It turns out that Hill knew all along that they couldn't defeat their opponents, but she insisted on doing things her own way, which led to Hill's death.

Now, even in the last moments of her life, Hill is still illuminating a path for her to live on, and Mine must not let her down!

Her professional ethics compelled her to suppress her anger in an instant. After giving Hill a deep look, she turned away, shed two glistening tears, pressed her sobbing shoulders, and took advantage of the moment when the light obscured the enemy's vision to turn and flee.

"Damn it! Little Bi, eat her!"

The light was too strong, so Seryu gave the order to eat Hill. Seeing Mine's figure getting smaller and smaller, Hill smiled with relief again, and the revolving lantern of her dying moments kept flashing by.

It's great that it finally came in handy.

I love you all the most.

Life during night raids is so much fun!

...Kobayashi, can my death really save everyone?

If only we could save it.

……

In the distance, two figures stood on a tall tower.

"That's why I told you to run away as soon as you encountered her! Besides, I already told her that as long as she takes down the user, the Imperial Arm will stop immediately. Why did she have to rush to the rescue out of concern?! It's even stranger to put yourself in danger. What was that confused girl thinking?! Doesn't she understand the importance of finishing off the enemy?! ...

One of the dark figures angrily tugged at his hair while muttering something loudly, seemingly very dissatisfied with someone's actions.

but!

The shadowy figure that had glimpsed into her heart confidently shouted back, "Death is just another beginning. You can absolutely save everyone, I promise you!"

At the moment when Hill was about to be completely devoured by the Hundred-Handed Giant.

Time has stopped.

—[Imaginary Number Mechanism], activate!

What can I do? At most, I can change the plot slightly when the tragedy occurs, so it doesn't look like the original story where the character is killed off by plot.

Chapter 54 People's joys and sorrows are not the same

It's raining heavily tonight.

I don't know if they're weeping for the dead, or trying to cleanse the filthy capital, or simply doing it for the occasion.

In short, it will rain heavily tonight.

"Hill... is dead."

When the battered and bruised Mine uttered those words in helplessness and despair, the rain poured down even harder.

Sadness was growing wildly.

But strangely enough, I can accept it.

"Who...who...who is it?!" Tatsumi staggered a few steps in disbelief, grabbed Mine's shoulder, and shouted, "Answer me, Mine! Hey, Mine! Who is it? Tell me now!"

Mine remained silent. Having lost her companions many times, she knew what she had to do now.

"What good will it do you even if you know?"

"Needless to say, of course we'll avenge her!"

"Forget it. If we rush in recklessly, it will only increase the death toll needlessly."

Najendan offered calm words of comfort.

Everyone knew this, which is why they remained silent. Having lost too many companions, they were saddened but gradually became numb.

However, Tatsumi, who values ​​emotions, was losing his comrades for the second time. Coupled with his impulsive and hot-blooded nature, he naturally could not accept this outcome, especially when his other comrades chose to do nothing.

He shouted, "Hey! You've lost your comrades! Why are you all silent?! Are you just going to accept this?! Go get revenge!"

Suddenly, he was punched in the cheek.

"What a disgrace!" Brand punched him and angrily rebuked, "Don't panic! It's not surprising that someone will die one day. Didn't I tell you that, and you joined us only after you were aware of that?!"

It's precisely because we know this that we are even more heartbroken, isn't it?!

Everyone bowed their heads in mourning for the deceased Hill.

half an hour.

The group returned to the lobby, soaking wet, and saw someone sitting at a table reading. For a moment, their serene and elegant demeanor made them mistake Hill for her.

Unfortunately, it was Kobayashi.

"Thank you for your hard work on the mission, Kobayashi."

Najenda offered her usual compliment, and was about to deliver the somber news of Hill's death when Mine stopped her.

She wanted to tell him herself.

Mine pursed her lips and said in a low, sorrowful voice, "Hill... she's dead."

After she finished speaking, she closed her eyes, as if waiting for something.

however--

"Ah, really?"

Kobayashi's calm and collected voice came through, so calm and collected that everyone was momentarily taken aback.

He acted as if he were saying, "Pork chop rice is fine tonight," completely unconcerned, and even his flipping through the book was effortless, as if he were turning the page on Hill's life.

"Hill is dead! Did you hear me?!"

Tatsumi stared wide-eyed in disbelief, mistakenly believing that Kobayashi hadn't heard him, while still harboring a sliver of unwarranted hope.

The next second, expectations were shattered.

“I heard it, Hill is dead.”

"You guy-!"

Tatsumi rushed forward in a rage, grabbed Kobayashi by the collar, and his fierce expression seemed to be questioning why Kobayashi was so calm.

After all, in their eyes, Kobayashi and Hill were the closest.

Although he was the last to join Night Raid, he and Hill got along very well, especially recently they've been inseparable, their relationship seems to be heating up so fast that people thought they would become a couple.

"Why did you accept it so calmly?!"

"Then what should I do?"

Kobayashi instead questioned Tatsumi: "Shouting out your grief over Sheer's death? Blaming and resenting Mine for not bringing Sheer back? Or like you, yelling about revenge and then being told to stick to your duty?"

"But……!"

"Didn't you already know how it would end?! Now you're saying you can't accept it? And you call yourself an assassin?! Don't make us laugh!"

But that's not the problem!

Kobayashi, who is closest to Hill, is the calmest. Doesn't that make him seem the most immature?

"Kobayashi is right."

Najenda agreed, saying, "We are just expendable resources, our fates already sealed. But Sheele will not die in vain! This should also awaken the Empire; we must use Imperial Arms to fight Imperial Arms! Battles between Imperial Arms users may increase afterward, but this is also a good opportunity to collect Imperial Arms! This is the beginning of an even more intense death, Tatsumi!"

Upon hearing the Boss's words, Tatsumi gritted his teeth and reluctantly let go.

At some point, the rain stopped.

Kobayashi also disappeared, along with the book he was holding.

……Book?

Tatsumi was slightly taken aback, because the book Kobayashi had just been holding was "One Hundred Ways to Cure Natural Idiots," not his favorite "A Thousand-Year History of the Empire."

In other words, he was actually quite concerned about Hill's death, but he had just suppressed it, which is why he appeared so calm.

But I yelled at him instead...