Back on Haruki's side—after leaving the city where the army was stationed—he and his group rode hard, galloping across the plains. To save time, they avoided many towns already taken by the allied forces of the foreign tribes and the Revolutionary Army.
It took nearly two full days before they finally arrived at the former site of the Assassination Unit.
But by the time they got there, the place was nothing but ruins. The air was thick with the acrid stench of burnt wood and flesh. Judging by the charred corpses scattered around and the condition of the scene, a massacre had clearly taken place.
When the Assassination Unit was first formed, the Empire had deliberately built a village near the southwestern border to keep the training grounds hidden, relocating many villagers there to live as cover.
Years had passed since then. Few officials in the Empire even knew where the Assassination Unit had been based, and none of the villagers who lived there were aware they shared their home with assassins.
The sight of the devastation turned everyone's faces grim—Haruki, Gin, Kurome, Nina, Tsukushi, and Pony.
After all, they had spent years here. For the girls especially, this was where they had grown up. During those early years, the kind-hearted villagers had shown deep care for Gin and the others, offering them warmth in what was otherwise a bleak and painful childhood.
What happened today planted a deep seed of hatred in their hearts. From this point on, their resentment toward the foreign tribes and the Revolutionary Army would only grow.
"My sister… she's going to be okay!"
Suddenly, Kurome cried out, her voice cracking with tears. As she shouted, she broke into a run, heading straight for the old courtyard where the Elite Seven once lived.
Her outburst snapped the others out of their grief. The dead were already gone—what mattered now was whether any survivors remained. With that, everyone quickly followed Kurome, rushing toward the same courtyard.
Gozuki and the others were no ordinary fighters. As assassins, even if they couldn't defeat an enemy outright, their survival skills gave them a solid chance of escaping alive.
At first glance, the place looked just like the rest of the village—scorched and broken—but after a careful search by Haruki and the others, no bodies from Gozuki's group were found. That gave them hope.
"Brother, come look! They must still be alive. They were probably just separated!"
Tsukushi called out from what remained of a house—now little more than crumbling walls. The courtyard where the Elite Seven lived had been specially reinforced, so it hadn't been entirely destroyed.
Haruki followed her gaze and spotted a strange mark carved into one of the support beams. He recognized it instantly—a covert symbol used by the Assassination Unit to convey messages, one that only the Elite Seven could understand.
"Brother, the code says to regroup at the largest inn in the town thirty li west of here."
Pony explained from beside him.
This message clearly wasn't meant for Haruki—they couldn't have known he would come. The only explanation was that during the chaos, they got separated, so they left behind a coded rendezvous point.
But this also confirmed something else—the location of the Assassination Unit's base had been compromised. Along the way, the nearby villages had shown no signs of attack, which made it obvious: this was no random strike. Someone had specifically targeted the Assassination Unit and the Elite Seven—or rather, the remaining five.
This meant many of the Assassination Unit's secrets had been exposed. There was also a chance that the code itself was a trap—bait to lure them in and wipe them out in one strike.
Even so, whoever left the message proved that at least some members of Gozuki's group had survived.
Haruki, who knew the storyline, was fairly certain that Akame should be alive. But he couldn't be sure if his presence had altered events. Despite his efforts to avoid disrupting the plot, the butterfly effect was unpredictable.
To ease Kurome's fears—after all, nothing was harder for her than not knowing her sister's fate—and to make sure the plot remained within his control, Haruki had to confirm whether Akame was alive.
He wasn't afraid of traps. In this world, Haruki believed he had the strength to overcome any ambush.
"Let's go. We're heading to the meeting point."
With that, Haruki led the group toward the rendezvous with urgency.
...
(40 Chapters Ahead)
p@treon com / PinkSnake