The scene in front of the Layden estate now looked like the entrance to a slaughterhouse, or perhaps the front of a Huainan beef soup shop.
Blood ran in streams before the gates.
The bodies had been dragged away by both sides, but the stains remained behind.
Hearing Noah's complaint, Najenda finally reacted as well.
She glanced over at the Pri Minister's side, where hardly anyone remained, and simply gave an order to her subordinates.
"Leave so n behind and clean Lord Noah's front gate properly. No slacking off."
After issuing the order, Najenda said, "Lord Noah, I have urgent matters to attend to, so I won't stay any longer. Let us speak again soday, should the opportunity arise."
With that, she left with the three ministers.
Noah had the maids bring cleaning tools to the soldiers outside, then returned to the house.
When Leims saw him return unhard, he first let out a sigh of relief.
Then he asked, "Noah, those three n?"
"General Najenda took them away."
"General Najenda!" Leims exclaid in surprise.
At present, when one spoke of the youngest general in the Empire, the na that ca to mind was undoubtedly General Esdeath.
Before her, however, that position had belonged to Najenda.
To beco a general at the re age of twenty, Najenda was an exceedingly rare talent.
It was only that Esdeath was too much of a monster, having beco a general at only eighteen.
"Before she arrived, I had already made it clear that we had nothing to do with those three n. The Pri Minister won't regard the Layden family as an enemy, so relax, Uncle Leims."
"Is that so? Then… that's all right, I suppose."
Leims seed like he still wanted to say sothing, but in the end, he only said that it was all right.
Noah guessed that he was most likely worried the Pri Minister would settle accounts afterward.
However, based on Noah's understanding of Leims, if he said that he actually had a relationship of mutual interest with the Pri Minister, Leims would only worry even more.
Therefore, Noah kept silent about that part.
...
Half an hour later, Pri Minister Honest expressionlessly tossed his subordinate, who had failed his task, into a fish tank.
Although it was called a fish tank, what was being kept inside were crocodile-type Danger Beasts.
Three to five crocodiles bit down on the man's limbs. Amid death rolls, the human body was torn apart.
Watching that cruel scene, the Pri Minister rely continued savoring the red wine in his hand.
"Hmph. That little girl Najenda actually dared to protect the people I wanted dead. She truly doesn't know the imnsity of heaven and earth."
Pri Minister Honest snorted coldly, though in truth, he was not especially angry.
Because in his eyes, the other party's thods were far too immature.
A confrontation of that level was no different from children squabbling. It was not worth taking seriously.
Compared to that…
"Rember this. If anything similar happens in the future, don't drag the Layden family into it. Don't waste Professor Noah's precious talents on such pointless matters."
As he spoke, Pri Minister Honest grabbed a high-quality steak and stuffed it directly into his mouth.
Those who stood in high positions often restrained their behavior in order to appear noble.
But for him, there was no need for that whatsoever.
Everything he did would redefine what nobility ant, rather than him having to obey rules created by others.
"Yes."
...
Early morning.
The eldest sister of the maid corps stood by Noah's bed and softly called him awake.
"Lord Noah, there is an invitation for you. It was delivered by Pri Minister Honest's n…"
"Mm."
Noah sat up in bed, his hair falling over his eyes, and yawned.
"Lord Noah, your hair has grown a little long. Shall I trim it for you?" the older maid asked, raising a hand to brush up his bangs and asuring the length with her fingers.
"I'll leave it to you."
"No, this is only what I should do."
While reading the contents of the invitation, Noah sat motionlessly in front of the mirror and let the maid tidy his hair.
After so many years, he had beco completely accustod to this kind of life.
Although to ordinary people, he was practically omnipotent, if the mbers of the maid corps were to suddenly disappear one day, he would surely feel quite unused to it.
Pri Minister Honest was holding a banquet tonight.
The reason was that he was going to marry his thirty-fourth wife.
That was rather interesting.
After all, the Pri Minister was not the type to take responsibility for won.
For any woman he wanted, all it took was a single word.
Whether the other party was willing or not, she would be sent to his bed imdiately.
And becoming the Pri Minister's bed partner was hardly a fortunate thing.
With the Pri Minister's varied and peculiar tastes, he often killed his partners by accident.
In reality, accompanying him was an extrely high-risk job.
Under such circumstances, why would the Pri Minister waste ti holding a wedding for a re "consumable"?
Since he had sent out invitations, it ant this woman had escaped the fate of being a "consumable."
Most likely, she possessed sothing unique.
'Is he planning to use this opportunity to formally recruit ?'
Noah analyzed the intention behind the invitation.
It was not difficult to guess.
Pri Minister Honest truly was a capable man.
He was suspicious and dissatisfied with their ambiguous cooperative relationship, and without showing it outwardly, he was planning to use this chance to lay the matter bare.
He was different from those fools who were easily deceived and would imdiately begin imagining things on their own.
Still, that was not a problem.
Cooperating with him was not sothing Noah found unacceptable.
After all, the other party was the true holder of the Empire's highest authority.
There was obviously nothing wrong with forming a mutually beneficial relationship with such a partner.
...
That evening.
Honest sent a luxurious carriage to pick him up.
Noah boarded the carriage and discovered that three young and beautiful noble ladies were already inside.
After he got in, the three noble ladies all gave him polite greetings, then began introducing themselves.
While appraising them and listening to their self-introductions, Noah discovered that all three were relatives of the Pri Minister. One of them was even his niece.
Noah chatted with them normally, while also finding it sowhat unexpected that the Pri Minister would use this sort of thod.
'Is he trying to win over completely?'
Then again, it made sense.
Although Noah was only an adopted son, given his noble background, it was relatively rare in the Imperial Capital for an eighteen-year-old to remain unmarried and not even have a marriage engagent.
The Pri Minister had probably investigated his interpersonal relationships in detail.
After they chatted for a while, the jolting of the carriage left all three won sowhat tired.
And so, as they waited for the carriage to reach its destination, they began to rest.
Noah also closed his eyes, pretending to nap, and allowed this "carriage sent by Pri Minister Honest" to leave the main road and carry him into the wooded gardens of the palace.
After quite so ti—
Rattle, rattle.
The wheels suddenly stopped turning.
Noah slowly opened his eyes and used Weaver to sense the area around the carriage.
A cold glint flashed through his gaze.
He looked out the carriage window, then pushed open the door and stepped down.
At the sa ti, the three noble ladies in the carriage also woke up together, each of them startled by the scene around them.
"W-Where is this?"
"It's so dark…"
"Have we not reached the banquet venue yet?"
Snap!
The coachman cracked his whip, and the carriage imdiately began moving again, leaving amid the noble ladies' screams.
Noah, however, did not even glance at the carriage.
His gaze remained fixed straight ahead, on the trees before him.
Then, one figure after another erged from behind the trunks.
Noah swept his eyes across them and found ten enemies within his sight. Their number and positions matched what he had sensed.
It seed this was all of them.
"You're much calr than I imagined, Young Master Layden," a masked man whose entire body was hidden beneath a cloak said first.
'Ah.'
'They ca for the Layden family?'
'No… is it the Pri Minister?'
'Their goal is the invitation?'
'I see. My luck really is sothing else.'
Noah mocked himself inwardly, then began speaking with the other party.
"My mory is fairly good. Halfway here, I already knew this wasn't the road to the banquet."
"Oh?"
The leader of the n in black laughed.
"And yet you obediently stayed quiet and followed us here. Don't tell you're going to say you did it on purpose."
"That is exactly what I did," Noah answered frankly.
But the leader only felt that he was bluffing.
"Hmph. In that case, do you also know why we ca after you?"
When Noah heard him question him, he casually reached into his pocket.
Such a simple movent made the other party extrely tense.
Whoosh!
A crossbow bolt shot from behind him, grazing past his face before lodging itself in the ground in front of him.
Then ca the other party's sharp question.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Noah chuckled softly.
It was a laugh of ridicule.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? The banquet is about to begin. If you want to replace and enter the venue, you don't have much ti left."
The leader's pupils contracted violently.
He said in shock, "You! How do you know that?"
After his shock passed, he sucked in a cold breath and took half a step back, then began looking back and forth among his own n.
"Who is it? Which one of you is the traitor? Step forward!"
It seed he believed a traitor had appeared among them.
That made Noah find it even more amusing.
"Don't be so nervous," he said, soothing him as if coaxing a child. "I rely used the process of elimination and made a simple deduction. After all, your pattern of action is far too simple, and your plan is shockingly crude. Leaving aside everything else, what exactly do you intend to do about those three relatives of Pri Minister Honest?"
"Shut up!"
The leader of the n in black waved his hand.
"Take him down!"
Whoosh!
Whoosh, whoosh!
The n in black moved as one.
Aside from the leader, all nine drew their weapons.
They were all using identical dual short swords, each sixty-three centiters long.
The blades had been treated to suppress their reflections, so in the dim grove, it was almost impossible to see that they held sharp weapons in their hands.
Their physiques were also extrely similar. They were clearly warriors who had received standardized training.
A vicious thrust shot straight toward Noah's face.
Noah turned sideways to avoid it and drove his elbow into the man's chest at the sa ti.
Thud!
A muffled impact sounded.
The first man in black to launch an attack went limp and collapsed toward the ground.
That blow just now had already shattered his heart.
"One down… hm?"
Noah, who had thought he had killed him in one hit, suddenly noticed that the fallen man in black had begun moving again.
He swung his short swords with all his strength, slashing toward Noah's legs.
But Noah moved second and arrived first. He kicked the side of the blade, and the terrifying force sent the man in black spinning into the air.
After rotating several tis, he finally crashed back down.
Because his head hit the ground first, his cervical spine snapped, leaving the corpse in an extrely twisted and horrifying shape.
Clang!
Seeing the miserable state of their companion, the remaining n in black changed their approach. Instead of closing in one by one, they began surrounding him in groups of three or four.
Facing enemies coming from multiple directions, Noah flicked up the weapon dropped by the man in black with the tip of his foot and caught one of the short swords in his hand.
"Less than third-rate."
Noah casually evaluated the piece of junk, then amplified it to 3 without hesitation.
After being amplified three tis, the short sword gave off a razor-sharp aura.
Facing the n in black who pounced at him next, Noah easily avoided their attacks with his superhuman dynamic vision and reflexes.
Three short swords slashed toward him head-on.
With the now utterly different 3 short sword, Noah swept once horizontally and cut all three blades apart as easily as slicing tofu.
"How is this possible? You bastard, why are you so skilled in combat?"
The leader of the n in black was both shocked and uncertain, but he also drew the sword at his waist and joined the others in launching a coordinated assault.
While Noah swung his sword and t the many blades at close range, he used each clash to divert the paths of his enemies' weapons, forcing them to slash toward their own companions.
Their weapons struck against each other again and again, until in the end, they cut one another's wrists and lost their grips.
Only a few breaths later, the leader of the n in black stared at his subordinates, who had all lost their ability to fight, his face ugly and his breathing ragged.
"You bastard… Where in the world did you learn swordsmanship like that? The intelligence never ntioned this!"
The leader staked everything on a single thrust.
It was a self-sacrificial sword.
Because he had judged that with his own strength, it was nearly impossible to defeat the boy before him in a direct fight, he decided to risk everything on one desperate strike.
As his eyelids trembled, he saw the disdain on Noah's face.
His heart quivered, and the attack he had poured everything into gained a trace of hesitation.
When an irresistible force suddenly traveled through the sword gripped in both his hands, he stared blankly at the boy before him, who had pinched the tip of his blade between his fingers.
"Impossible! With your bare hand, you actually—"
Crack!
Strength and defense reinforced by magic power were not things that ordinary swordsmanship and scrap iron could break through.
Noah exerted just a little force, and the sword in the leader's hands beca covered in cracks, as if it would shatter into pieces in the very next second.
---------
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