The Layden estate had probably not been this lively in decades.
Three ministers of high standing, the trusted aide and private soldiers of Pri Minister Honest—the Empire's foremost favorite, a man capable of blotting out the sky with one hand—and the army led by the Imperial General Najenda.
Half of the Empire's highest authority had gathered here.
Noah looked at the streets, now packed so tightly with soldiers and ministerial private troops that not even water could pass through, and wondered how the situation would develop from here.
Clip-clop—clatter, clatter.
Riding a magnificent warhorse, the Empire's female general, Najenda, arrived before the front gates of the Layden estate.
Her silver eyes and long hair seed to glow beneath the moonlight, making her look almost like a goddess of the moon.
"My apologies for disturbing you so late at night."
Under Noah's surprised gaze, the Empire's female general was the first to speak—and the mont she opened her mouth, she expressed an apology toward the Layden family.
The smile on her face was strikingly approachable.
Noah was not being self-absorbed.
He could sense that she held a certain goodwill toward him, but it was not affection between a man and a woman, nor anything of that sort.
It seed more like an expression of curiosity.
After that smile, she turned her gaze toward the minister's aide and spoke again.
This ti, her expression cooled, and her tone sharpened as if she were conducting an interrogation.
"Who are you? How dare you mobilize this many private soldiers in the Imperial Capital? State your identity!"
As she spoke, she aid the muzzle of the Teigu she had just used directly at him.
Noah's eyes settled on that massive Teigu.
Roman Artillery: Pumpkin
Gun-type Teigu
Wielder: Najenda
Converts spiritual energy into shockwaves and loads them as ammunition, Its power increases in proportion to the danger faced by its wielder
'What gun-type Teigu? That thing is clearly a laser cannon! Still, being able to convert spiritual energy into shockwaves is a pretty interesting design.'
That shot just now had most likely been a warning shot, yet its power had already been far from weak.
If she fired it at full output, just how much destructive force could that weapon produce?
Co to think of it, Esdeath had ntioned last ti that she was also going to be granted a Teigu.
If it was that woman, Noah wondered what kind of Teigu she would end up receiving.
With the muzzle pointed at him, the minister's aide instantly felt a surge of humiliation.
He clenched his fists.
Even when facing an Imperial General, he still roared, "Najenda! How dare you point a gun at ? I am a man of Pri Minister Honest!"
The corner of Najenda's mouth curled slightly.
She swung the enormous launcher—not pulling the trigger, but using it like a club—and slamd it viciously into the man's face.
Bang!
The blow struck him so hard that stars burst across his vision.
He clutched his swollen, distorted, aching face.
Even his speech beca slurred as he pointed at the female general in disbelief.
"Y-You dare to hit ?"
"Hmph."
Najenda snorted coldly.
"You lunatic. Not only did you attempt to abduct the Empire's important ministers within the Imperial Capital, you even planned to fra Pri Minister Honest for it. Did you think I would fall for such a trick?"
"Hah?"
'Pfft.'
This female general really was different on the inside from how she appeared on the outside.
The minister's aide understood as well.
This woman intended to play dumb despite knowing exactly what was going on.
No.
He could not let it end here.
The Pri Minister held his subordinates to extrely high standards. If he failed, even just once, his fate would be unimaginably miserable.
He absolutely could not allow that to happen—even if it ant going to war with Najenda.
He shouted, "Move! Bring those three old n back!"
At his command, the minister's private soldiers instantly surged forward together.
Before they could make their move, Noah lightly leaped onto the top of the wall and quietly observed the situation below.
Among the private soldiers sent by the Pri Minister, five had so degree of skill.
The rest were rely there to make up the numbers.
However, the three ministers only had seven or eight guards on their side, and they were slightly inferior even to those five.
Seeing both sides clash at close quarters, Najenda did not imdiately order the army behind her to charge.
Instead, she frowned and raised Roman Artillery: Pumpkin in her hands.
Under Noah's watchful gaze, Najenda split the gathered energy into nine parts, scattering the orbs of light into nine arcing laser shots that fired toward the enemies' feet.
A roar rang out, but the range of the blast was not particularly wide.
Even so, under that single attack, nearly twenty of the minister's private soldiers were instantly put out of action.
"Damn it!"
The minister's aide trembled with rage at the sight.
As an Imperial General, Najenda was naturally no weakling.
In his eyes, she was even the strongest person present.
He understood that she had no intention of giving him any face today, so he imdiately split off half of his n.
"You lot! Hold that woman down with everything you have!"
"Yeah!"
A large number of enemies rushed toward her head-on, yet Najenda smiled faintly, as if things had gone exactly as she had planned.
She aid the Teigu in her hands straight ahead.
This ti, the spiritual energy gathering within it was on a completely different level from before.
Noah imdiately saw through what she was doing.
She was refusing to let the army behind her help while deliberately facing many enemies alone.
She was intentionally creating a dangerous situation in order to heighten her sense of crisis—and thereby increase the power of Roman Artillery: Pumpkin.
"Blow them away."
Najenda murmured the words under her breath.
In the next instant, a brilliant flash tore through the night.
The enemies charging toward her were hurled into the air all at once, falling from above like dumplings dropped into a pot.
They crashed to the ground and lost consciousness.
'So that was… a deliberately dispersed shockwave.'
With that level of power, if she had fired a focused beam like before, it probably would have pierced straight through human bodies.
After eliminating more than half the enemies with a single shot, Najenda waved to the army behind her, and the troops imdiately charged forward.
"Go!"
"For General Najenda!"
It was not hard to tell that quite a few of this female general's subordinates were devoted admirers of Najenda.
Watching the one-sided battle unfold below, Noah sighed with emotion.
"This really is a complete rout."
But there was nothing that could be done about it.
Leaving aside the obvious gap in numbers between the two sides, Najenda's presence as a Teigu user had already destroyed any balance between them.
Once the army joined the fray, Najenda stopped using the Teigu in her hands.
It seed she had no intention of turning this into a massacre.
The clash lasted less than three minutes.
By the ti it was over, the minister's aide had been beaten so badly that his original appearance was almost impossible to make out, and the three ministers had also been rescued by Najenda.
Seeing that both sides were about to withdraw, Noah hurriedly stepped out.
"Wait. You spilled quite a bit of blood in front of my house, and now you're planning to leave just like that?"
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