Emiya Shirou doesn't want to work overtime

“Esdeath didn’t kill you back then. She probably intended to use you as a trap to lure us into rescuing you, so that she could wipe us out in one fell swoop during our night raid.”

"But unexpectedly, the Revolutionary Army chose to launch an attack at that moment. Under the Emperor's orders, Esdeath had no choice but to abandon the next plan and quickly organize the army to rush to the front line to fight. So, she just put you in prison."

Najenda gazed at the bright moon overhead and slowly answered Tatsumi's question.

Although he has grown a lot, he is not as thoughtful about many things as Akame and Najenda, who have experienced so much.

Akame was able to immediately conclude that it was a trap as soon as she heard that Tatsumi was not dead.

With Esdeath's power, even Tatsumi, who has evolved to this level, would not be able to withstand it.

Just from the fact that he could be frozen, you can see that there is still a world of difference in their strength.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that since her battle with Shirou Emiya, Esdeath has been training like crazy, and it's unclear whether she gained new power or developed a deeper level of power.

To paraphrase Esdeath, the current version of herself could easily defeat her former self with one hand.

General Bud, another of the Empire's "strongest" generals, also explicitly admitted that he was no longer a match for Esdeath.

Perhaps there was some doubt about who was stronger between the two before, and without the two fighting each other, Esdeath was not sure if she could defeat General Bud.

But after Esdeath's strength increased significantly, this question completely disappeared, and she could feel that the threat emanating from General Bud had greatly decreased.

She asked the Emperor to allow Bud to unleash a thunderous attack on her, not as a fight, but simply because Esdeath wanted to test her power.

With the emperor's permission, Bude would naturally agree to this reasonable request, since it was impossible for him to defeat this terrifying woman by summoning thunder himself.

Secondly, he could also sense the qualitative change emanating from Esdeath, with an intense sense of threat constantly surrounding him.

In the presence of almost all the imperial high command, no, perhaps the entire empire, the lightning bolt that struck from the sky was completely frozen in place.

At this moment, without even a fight, everyone understood that the Empire had only one strongest left, and that was Esdeath.

That was thunder, the most terrifying thing, yet it was frozen so easily.

Moreover, the fact that Thunder was frozen is simply incomprehensible and unimaginable.

But Esdeath did it.

"Even freezing [evolution], Esdeath is capable of doing that?"

Najenda stared intently at the campfire before her, her eyes almost squinting together. She couldn't imagine any strategy that could possibly defeat Esdeath.

In Najenda's original calculations, there was a chance of killing Esdeath if she used more than 50,000 elite soldiers and more than 10 Imperial Arms users, including Akame.

However, it is currently impossible to calculate exactly how many elite soldiers or Imperial Arms users would be needed to have a successful chance of killing Esdeath.

As those Emiya androids said, numbers are now meaningless in front of Esdeath.

Even an army of hundreds of thousands could only make Esdeath feel slightly tired.

While the other members were on their way to the palace to rescue Tatsumi, who had been ambushed by Sheila, Tatsumi, Brand, Susanoo, and Leone joined forces to fight Esdeath, but were instantly pierced by ice spikes that burst from her body.

As a humanoid Imperial Arm, Susanoo's regenerative abilities are naturally quite good; he recovered in the blink of an eye.

Leone's Imperial Arm, "Lion King," which transforms into the Beast King, allows her to stop bleeding and reattach herself even if her limbs are severed or her eyes are gouged out.

The two of them recovered the fastest, but Tatsumi and Brand were not so lucky. Being possessed by evil spirits could defend against external attacks, but it could not defend against attacks that exploded directly from within their bodies.

During the retreat, with Susanoo in the state of [Manifestation of Calamity], Brand was prepared to sacrifice himself so that the other members of Night Raid could escape safely.

What he didn't know was that, under that frozen time, Brand couldn't even delay for a second.

If Tatsumi hadn't evolved to the point where he could move inside ice at the crucial moment, kicking Brand and Susanoo towards where the Night Raid team was retreating, Brand would have already died at Esdeath's hands.

Mine was already seriously injured in the direct confrontation with General Budo, and wanted to stay with Tatsumi, but Akame forcibly dragged her away.

In the battle with Esdeath, Tatsumi completed his final evolution through his unparalleled will to protect his comrades.

However, he still couldn't pose any threat to Esdeath. After a brief exchange, she froze Tatsumi.

He coldly watched the retreating Night Raid members.

If Chelsea hadn't been alive at the time, observing the movements inside the palace as a raven, and hadn't suffered irreversible injuries from wearing the projection [Possessed by Evil], thus handing [Possessed by Evil] over to Lubbock...

They are likely doomed and unlikely to escape. After all, the palace is not only home to Esdeath and General Budo, but also to the Emiya Legion.

It could be said that the entire night raid team was almost wiped out in the palace.

"I'll deal with her."

Looking at the distraught Najenda, Shirou Emiya spoke slowly.

He had a premonition that this time he would truly fight Esdeath to the death.

Chapter 359 The Calm Before the Storm

"Squeak—!"

Emiya Shirou rubbed his eyes, groggily sitting up in bed.

"Head hurts!"

For some reason, from the first day I arrived in the Empire, my head started to ache, something that had never happened before.

Shirou Emiya shook his head and, feeling slightly uncomfortable, pulled open the curtains.

The streets outside the window were already bustling with people, and the Imperial Guard had begun patrolling the streets.

Under the influence of those artificial humans, the capital city underwent slight changes to some extent.

Although such improvements are only a drop in the ocean, they are still much better than adding fuel to the fire as before.

Unless absolutely necessary, the Emiya androids did not kill the civilians, but merely took them back to the Imperial Guard for reprimand and education.

Instead of using it as material for a doctor's degree or as a plaything for nobles, it was put back in jail.

Under Shirou Emiya's tutelage, the Homunculus Emiya not only trained with Shirou Emiya in projection magic during his spare time, but also gave some of the surplus ingredients to the common people living in the alleys.

They did not show themselves, but instead delivered the ingredients to the homes of the common people in a way that they could not be seen.

If you just throw it in the alley, it will probably cause a fight, and it might even result in someone's death.

The nobles loved to leave their leftovers in the alleys and watch the commoners fight to the death.

The residents living in the alleys weren't not working; it was just that the workload was too heavy, and even after working a full day, they couldn't afford to buy a single pancake from the vendors.

Under such circumstances, these people simply have no way to survive.

The reason there was no riot was because of the powerful suppression brought about by the terrifying mobility of the Emiya androids.

The disparity in strength had already made them feel despair.

They can also go mad. Once in the empire, a group of hundreds of people, unable to bear it any longer, rushed out to kill a nobleman who had been oppressing them.

If it were before, regardless of whether they could actually kill that nobleman, it would have caused a lot of trouble for the Imperial Guard.

At least the former Imperial Guard would have had a hard time stopping such a planned operation; it would have taken time for them to arrive.

They couldn't possibly organize a pointless operation; the civilians knew the guards' route inside and out.

But those hundreds of people were all slaughtered by Emiya's androids before they even saw the nobleman.

Despair gripped their hearts.

They could only place their tiny hopes on the revolutionary army and on the night raids.

Some of the Emiya androids placed food in the homes of the commoners but did not choose to leave immediately.

Some of them seemed to have witnessed a miracle, tears welling up in their eyes, and they knelt on the ground with gratitude, devoutly eating.

Some of them cut the food into pieces, put it into jars in batches, calculated the amount they would use each day, and prayed that they could survive.

Some of them endured their own hunger to feed even younger children, or their own mothers.

They cherished these ordinary foods so much.

The Emiya androids can see that many civilians are still stubbornly surviving even in such a twisted empire.

Without any complaints or grievances, they fought with all their might to survive.

For the first time, they felt a different kind of spirit from these ordinary people.

"Captain Emiya!"

After washing up, Shirou Emiya headed downstairs from the inn and bumped into a guard who looked extremely rushed.

He did not stay at the night raid's stronghold, but returned to the capital.

After Shirou Emiya provided some of the weapons, they only gave him a general idea of ​​what they needed to do next.

Basically, the Revolutionary Army decided to capture the leader first, choosing to bypass Esdeath and conquer the Imperial Capital first.

However, he was not given the details, such as when to attack and what the attack plan was.

Shirou Emiya will never be a member of Night Raid, nor will he join the Revolutionary Army.

He is not a citizen of this country, and what happens in this country should have nothing to do with Shirou Emiya.

Shirou Emiya couldn't bear to see those common people suffer like this, so he extended a helping hand.

After exchanging words for a while, Shirou Emiya decided to return to the capital and quickly evacuate the civilians when they attacked.

Shirou Emiya didn't think the Imperial Guard would choose to evacuate civilians.

He had also advised the Emiya androids to stop serving the Empire, saying that they had become so corrupt that the inexperienced Emiya Shirou could not imagine a non-revolutionary way to revive the country.

Shirou Emiya had never even come into contact with high-ranking officials of the Empire.

"Is there a problem?"

Emiya Shirou asked.

The guard didn't dawdle; after greeting Shirou Emiya, he quickly relayed the message he wanted to convey to him.

“The other captains of the Emiya team said you could temporarily put aside your current tasks and return to the Imperial Guard, as there seems to be a new mission for you to complete.”

After all, Shirou Emiya's face is extremely familiar to almost everyone in the Empire. If there were an Imperial Guard member, Shirou Emiya wouldn't be staying at the Imperial Guard, but would instead be staying at a hotel.

Although it's not a huge problem, everyone is wondering why Emiya would choose to leave the Imperial Guard and live alone.

Therefore, those Emiya androids claimed to the outside world that Shirou Emiya was going to carry out a special mission.

The guards accepted Emiya's explanation and did not pursue the matter further.