"Hey… Najenda, are you planning to strike the Path of Peace so soon?"
While eating fruit fed by the little maid Sayo, Sora smiled at Najenda in front of him.
"Ah, the Revolutionary Army has now been fully integrated. If we bring the Path of Peace in, the revolutionary forces will grow even stronger, and then we can confront the empire head-on!"
Najenda nodded with a hint of excitement.
"Yes, I've heard of the Path of Peace. It's a religion with a large following, preaching that doing good deeds leads to happiness and longevity. They have a strong influence on the east side of the imperial capital and have even launched an armed uprising under the guise of religion."
While training her three witches, Aria, Kurome, and the extremely masochistic Suzuka, Esdeath interjected.
"Hehe, I'm more interested in their leader. He's said to have extraordinary charisma, with innate abilities to heal wounds and foresee the future. He can see through people's hearts and even remembers every follower's name and number. His true nature is a hybrid of a Danger Beast and a human, considered a forbidden existence."
Sora's eyes flashed with a strange light as if recalling something, murmuring to himself.
Indeed, for a human, that leader's abilities are quite extraordinary.
"If we want to bring the Path of Peace in, the leader shouldn't be a problem. But among the leader's assistants, there's a guy named Bolic, who, according to our intelligence, is a spy planted by the minister in the Path of Peace. So before taking action, we should eliminate that guy first."
Najenda folded her arms thoughtfully and shared her opinion.
"Alright, you handle that. Number 20, how's the minister's side?"
Sora nodded, recalling some information from the original story. He knew Bolic was definitely going to die. Seeing the guard girl Number 20 bouncing in, he asked.
"Hehehe, Master, that fat minister is so funny! I already told him his cross-faced son was killed by us, and he just cried a bit and then nothing happened. I only wanted to collect travel and damage compensation, but he even gave us extra compensation voluntarily!"
The girl laughed, showing Sora a pile of gold coins taken from her spatial ring.
"Alright, alright, this is your pocket money. Keep it yourself!"
"And also, don't judge people by appearances. That minister is not simple. Don't underestimate him. If he had strong combat power, even I would fear him a bit. Compared to schemers, he'd leave you far behind!"
Waving his hand at the girl, Sora said with a teaching tone, looking speechless.
That minister could make the entire empire corrupt and control everything. Without some real skill, how could he do that? Sora even suspected he was being used by the minister to get rid of that ambitious cross-faced son.
This possibility was quite real. That cross-faced brat was arrogant, ambitious, and ruthless. If he got the chance to rise, he would betray everyone, even his own minister father. Sora could see this, and naturally, the cunning minister could too!
"Hmph, scheming? I don't want any of that. If anyone makes me unhappy, I'll stab them to death!"
The guard girl clenched her small pink fists and said fiercely but without malice.
"Hehehe, by the way, just now I heard you talking about the Path of Peace. The minister also asked me to tell you that he suspects Najenda and her group's night raid is targeting the spy he planted in the Path of Peace. So he hopes we can send some people to protect that guy. He himself seems to have sent two experts."
When the girl heard the minister's request, she was amused. That fat guy didn't even know his night raid was actually inside the general's mansion!
"Hey… is that so? Since the minister said so, and there's nothing to do these days, I'll go personally."
Sora stroked his chin with a mischievous look.
"You want to go personally? To protect the minister's spy?"
Najenda was shocked. What nonsense was he talking about? If he really went to protect Bolic, what would they do?
Although they could handle thousands or even tens of thousands of enemies alone, facing Sora was another matter. Najenda knew her limits. Not to mention her, even Esdeath and all the women here combined couldn't defeat him!
Not just in real combat, even in trivial fights, these women had never lost to this guy!
"Najenda, did you hit your head on the door today? I'm not going to help the minister fight you guys while leaving my own woman behind."
Sora rolled his eyes at the panicking Najenda.
"You… you're the one who hit your head!"
Blushing, Najenda suddenly felt the urge to summon the Ame no Murakumo Sword to stab him, but inwardly she was relieved that he wasn't crazy and still knew who his real friends were.
Pfft… as if he's a friend!
…
Three days later, outside the imperial capital, a group of people were riding horses slowly along a mountain path.
"Waaah… you big bad guy, let me go! I want to go back! There are so many people at home, why did you have to drag me along?!"
Held in Sora's arms sitting in front, Miss Mine struggled with a very unhappy expression.
Mine-chan was perfectly comfortable staying at home. Taking advantage of the fact that the big bad guy had left, she could enjoy a few carefree days. But why did this villain have to drag her along too?!
"Stop messing around! If you keep it up, I'll throw you down!"
"Hmph, what good are you staying at home for? Causing chaos all over the Imperial Capital like last time?"
Sora gave Miss Mine a hard knock on the little head, a cold sneer on his face.
He recalled that last time when he went to clear the name of the northern ethnic minorities, he had only been gone for three days, yet this unruly girl had bombarded several royal family estates in the Imperial Capital, causing panic and chaos throughout the city. If it weren't for the ministers helping to suppress the situation, the army would have stormed the gates to arrest her for questioning.
Sora didn't even want to ask why. Whether it was because she was playful or couldn't stand seeing the nobles mistreating commoners, he didn't care about the trouble she caused. But letting this troublemaker continue was just too annoying. So from then on, Sora decided that if he ever left again, he would definitely tie this troublemaking girl to himself!
"Ha… haha… The last time was because… alright, I admit I was wrong."
Miss Mine originally wanted to defend herself a little, but seeing Sora's dark gaze, she wisely chose to keep quiet. She knew that if she argued again, this big bad guy would definitely bully her badly, and she wouldn't get a good outcome.
Seeing Miss Mine's expression, Sora's face softened slightly, a faint curve appearing at the corner of his mouth.
Actually, Sora quite admired this tsundere little girl. Just like the equally tsundere Miss Saya, no matter how badly she was bullied, she would soon recover fully and become even more unruly. She was flexible and resilient!
This time, his goal was to reclaim the Path of Peace. Sora didn't plan to spend much time on it. Besides Miss Mine, he only brought along Suzuka, Mez, and Akame.
Once Path of Peace was subdued, combined with the revolutionary army he indirectly controlled through Najenda, Sora could basically start his plan to dominate the continent!