You are very strong, but my painting style is better than yours!

"Don't doubt it, I'm the one who pushed all of this behind the scenes, because I've bribed your superiors and seniors."

"..."

The atmosphere suddenly became subtle.

But Iori seemed oblivious and continued, "As for why I went to such great lengths to gather you all here, it's naturally because you have corresponding value."

As rare Imperial Arms users, aside from this stylish gentleman, you are all unknown individuals, unable to utilize your exceptional talents or gain promotion from your superiors.

Iori had wanted to complain about this in her previous life:

Why is it that even though he is a Teigu user, he uses it almost like a common soldier?

Furthermore, Imperial Arms like Demon Possession and Noble Chariot are clearly meant for use on the battlefield. Why use them as assassins and police forces?

The revolutionary army is a local rebellion organization, and its strongest fighting force is all stationed in the capital as assassins!

The Imperial Arms users on the Empire's side are also used like consumables... They really are a hidden dragon and a phoenix!

Perhaps it's because, in their view, what matters is the Imperial Arm itself, not the person using it. After all, people like Esdeath who can break through the limits of Imperial Arms are very rare, and most Imperial Arm users can only unleash the power of the Imperial Arm itself.

Some Imperial Arms require life-saving resources, which are literally "consumable materials".

But Iori wouldn't waste time like that. Knowing the anime's setting, he easily found these Imperial Arms users from the Empire's vast military organization.

Apart from the fashionista, who is of a higher rank, everyone else is a low-ranking soldier or a mid-to-lower-level officer. The handsome Ran, who is slightly less attractive than Iori, is even an office worker and is said to have been a teacher before.

So, before the ministers openly turned against him, while Sheila's reputation was still effective, and with a bit of financial power, he easily brought them under his command.

"But from this moment on, your fate has changed!"

I value talent over background. Anyone with ability can receive the treatment they deserve from me.

"Don't panic, sit down and have a cup of tea. We have no rivals ahead!"

Chapter 56: The Most Conscientious Boss in History

If it weren't for Iori's interference, according to the original plot, Will and the others would have been recruited by Esdeath, who had lost her three Beast Warriors, to form a special police organization called "Hunters," specifically to deal with the "Night Raid" assassin group led by Najenda.

Although they are villains in the original work, Iori doesn't feel any psychological pressure about using these people to do his work.

If we analyze them one by one, Will is a typical passionate young man, honest, hardworking and persevering, and also the kind of person who is easiest to deal with.

Polus may appear strange and sinister, but he actually has a good character. He has done many dirty deeds for the Empire in the past and harbors a strong sense of guilt. Besides that, he has a beautiful wife and a lovely daughter, making him a winner in life.

Nothing is easier to manipulate than a man with a weakness...

Although this honest man probably wouldn't dare to betray the empire, once he's on Iori's pirate ship, he has no choice in the matter!

Hey, this is for his own good. Even if he becomes a traitor to the empire by following Iori, he and his family can't possibly have a worse fate than in the original story... Maybe they can even get lucky and have their wives and children granted official titles.

There's not much to say about the blond heartthrob "Ran." He was once tortured and murdered by a pervert who cherished his students, and Ran has never been able to get over it.

Iori, using the Revolutionary Army and Sheila's intelligence network, successfully located the pervert and brought him to Ran, allowing him to take revenge himself. By then, this elegant and intellectually handsome man had already become his loyal follower.

—The only ones with some issues are Serio and Esquire.

Both of them have some mental issues; one is overly paranoid, and the other is overly hedonistic. They are the type of people who, even if you know the information, are very difficult to find a weakness in.

The fashionable gentleman is a scientist who is obsessed with human modification and has no sense of morality; he is willing to trample on any law and ethics for the sake of his experiments.

To be honest, Iori doesn't like this kind of person, but he has to admit that this guy's technological prowess is top-notch in the world. So he has already made a three-point agreement with Mr. Fashion: no civilians can be used for experiments. In return, Iori will provide him with more research funding and bring him high-quality test subjects—such as advanced dangerous species, or the Four Demon Rakshasa or something.

The gentleman readily agreed, but judging from his nonchalant attitude, he'll probably break the agreement sooner or later.

It doesn't matter. Since Iori has already decided to make a big splash in this world, he naturally won't wait for the plot to develop slowly. Maybe he'll have already ended everything before the main storyline even begins.

If Mr. Fashion doesn't know what's good for him by then... well, Iori has already done everything she could.

Seryu Ubiquitas, nicknamed Justice Girl, or Dog Girl.

This is an even more troublesome person than the fashionista, because her sense of justice is so strong that it transcends good and evil, and her personality is so naive that it's cruel—this kind of person only believes what they want to believe, has neither weaknesses nor desires, and is simply impossible to communicate with.

But who is Iori?

How could a hero who can chat and laugh with Mayuri Kurotsuchi possibly be bound by conventional ways of thinking when solving problems?!

Without any psychological burden, he decisively decided to use a hypnotic device on Sai Liu!

In addition, Iori has already sent people to investigate her background. Her parents died early, and she has always admired her teacher, the Imperial Capital Garrison Captain "Oni no Oka".

They were completely obedient to him, and that distorted sense of justice was instilled in them in this way.

However, she clearly hadn't watched "Bleach" and didn't understand what "admiration" really meant. In reality, this Oni no Ouka was an absolute scumbag who even killed Seryu's parents. Afterwards, he pretended to teach Seryu, but it was just to cultivate a suitable tool for himself.

On the second day after Seryu joined the team, Iori had someone bring Oka over and used Mr. Fashion's Truth Potion to make him confess to his various crimes, including how he murdered Seryu's parents for money and then faked that he was killed by thieves.

—Serious, who was standing outside, heard everything. He had a mental breakdown on the spot, rushed in and killed Oka, and then fainted from the shock.

Iori then used the hypnotic device to slightly adjust her twisted and obsessive concept of "absolute justice."

The reason she wasn't completely brainwashed is because Seryu has a strong will, and Mayuri Kurotsuchi's product isn't the kind that works by force, so it can only replace some of her existing beliefs.

Originally, her standard for judging "evil" was "enemies of justice (the empire)," but Iori changed it to "enemies of the shogun."

The general idea is that Iori represents the Empire and justice, so his enemies are the Empire's enemies.

At the same time, Ouka's previous "mentor" image will be replaced by Iori. In this way, although it cannot purify Seryu's heart, it can make her work for him, which Iori is very satisfied with.

On the third day, Iori used the [Shangri-La] to transfer the Polus family to the Far Eastern island nation, and then showed them her prestige in the local area.

He spoke frankly to the masked man, saying that the situation was deteriorating and that even though he was a Teigu user, he was likely to die in such a turbulent world. He added that it was easy to imagine what would happen to a young and beautiful widowed mother and daughter in such a world.

Then Iori gave Polus a condition he couldn't refuse:

He settled his wife and daughter in a city in a far-eastern island nation, a neutral zone rarely affected by war. The garrison commander and martial arts instructors were all swordsmen trained by Iori, who had witnessed Iori's power and revered him like a god.

Borus's wife and daughters will be under special protection here, which is much safer than staying in the Empire!

As long as Borus swears allegiance to Iori, he can ensure that his wife and daughter receive this protection!

Good man Borus thought about it carefully for a while, and then agreed:

if not?

Not only are you no longer allowed to do dirty work, but your family has also been taken care of in advance. What more do you want?

Such welfare benefits were absolutely unique in a feudal empire!

Besides, everyone's already moved to the Far East. If they don't agree, are they supposed to swim back...?

—And so, despite using some underhanded methods, Iori managed to subdue these five Imperial Arms users in just three or four days.

With the addition of his warriors, his strength has clearly surpassed that of the "Hunters" in the original work.

With one side gaining and the other losing, even if Esdeath returns to the capital, it will be extremely difficult to assemble another team of Imperial Arms users... If Iori manages to take out a few more Imperial Arms users, the empire will probably have no one left to use besides its regular soldiers.

-

On this day, Iori and his subordinates arrived in a certain county and, as usual, began to confiscate houses, trying to gain attention and goodwill among the people.

However, his CG was not updated immediately. Obviously, it takes a certain amount of accumulation and time to elevate "fame" to "legend" and thus provide art style value.

The reason why his character level was able to climb so smoothly when he was exterminating hundreds of demons in the Far Eastern island nation was largely due to the superstition of the local people—they were naturally fond of creating gods.

The common people of the empire are relatively much harder to please... but Iori believes things will fall into place naturally and there is no need to worry about it.

That night, he stayed at the prefect's residence, alone in his study, pondering what to do next.

"In the original work, the revolutionary army was able to quickly conquer cities and territories after the uprising, causing the empire to fall at an unimaginable speed. Besides the corruption and incompetence of the imperial army, it was probably also related to the fact that the local governors were opportunists... There were probably many of their people in the army as well."

However, I never intended to rely on ordinary troops to fight for supremacy; the most important thing was those top-tier Imperial Arms users.

Akame is strong, but the Imperial Technique has limitations. Brand, the user of [Demon Possession], is a formidable general, but that guy will probably be hard to sway. And then there's Mine with [Romantic Turret]... So, is Najenda the key?

She genuinely cares about the people, so I doubt she'll become my enemy through 'night raids'.

All that's left are General Bud and... Esdeath.

Iori pondered to himself: "The Ice Queen's own strength is the ceiling of 'Akatsuki'. She is resolute and cold-blooded with no weaknesses. She also believes in the survival of the fittest and will not listen to words. She can only communicate with force."

In addition, he has a strong personal charisma, is skilled in military command, and is a smart and aggressive fighter.

It's fortunate that she wasn't very interested in power and was simply obsessed with fighting and sadism; otherwise, if she had any ambition, becoming an 'empress' wouldn't have been too difficult.

...Hmm, so there really isn't any other solution after all. The only option is a proper fight?

This is probably the strongest enemy Iori has ever encountered; even the Dragon King of the Far East would likely pale in comparison.

Everything else is fine, but that "time freeze" move really needs to be treated with caution... However, in the original work, it seems that she developed this move after meeting the male lead, so it shouldn't exist at this point in time, right? Even so, we still need to be careful.

I'm feeling a bit irritable. Is it because I've had too many trivial things to deal with these days, affecting my mood?

"Hey, it's almost dawn, do you four still want to make a move?"

Iori clicked her tongue and said to the darkness outside the window, "I've had enough of these trivial matters and need to find some opponents to vent my frustrations on!"

boom!

The window, crafted from fine wood, shattered instantly. Amidst the shards of glass flying like sharp blades, a slender, pointed spike hurtled towards Iori like a crossbow bolt—

call!

The wind swept through everything in the room, shards of glass cut through the expensive carpet, and left knife marks on the table, but the place where Iori was stood remained unharmed, as if it were shrouded in an invisible shield.

The attacker, too, stared in shock, his pupils contracting as he looked ahead in disbelief.

Her fingernails, which she was so proud of and could extend and retract freely and easily pierce steel, were actually held in place by someone's thumb and forefinger, unable to move forward even an inch!

"that's all?"

Iori abandoned her incantation, extended two fingers of her right hand to gather a point of white light, and then waved them together—

Hado #2: Fang!

呲!

A cold, sharp light flashed, and a large amount of blood gushed from the chest of the slender assassin!

Chapter 57: Do You Have Many Questions? (Bonus Chapter)

"ah--!"

With a scream, the female assassin clutched her wound and flew backward, while Iori glanced at the fingernail she was still clutching in her hand.

Interesting ability; it seems to have complete control over every part of the body, even letting its nails fall off on its own—quite decisive.

Unfortunately, the huge gap in strength cannot be bridged by willpower and action alone.

Iori flashed to the window. In the darkness, besides the injured man, there were three other figures standing on the wall, looking down at him.

Iori glanced at them and nodded almost imperceptibly: As expected, they were the Four Demon Rakshasa.

These four men were the minister's personal bodyguards and his most capable assassins, who helped him eliminate many of his political enemies.

Incidentally, the minister and his son Sheila both trained in martial arts at the Imperial Fist Temple, and the Four Demon Rakshasa were the most outstanding successors of the Imperial Fist Temple. It's hard to say whether their appointment to serve the minister was due to this connection.

Perhaps the Imperial Fist Temple is also one of the minister's supporters.

"It seems Ernest has reached his limit with me."

Iori showed no awareness of being outnumbered, and even had the mood to joke: "Or is it that guy has taken enough money and thinks it's time to 'set things right' and hand me over to shut up the gossip?"

"..."

The four demons of Rakshasa did not answer Iori's question. On the wall, a petite and cute girl with tanned skin dressed in revealing clothes said cautiously to her companion, "This guy injured Linglu in an instant. She is the second fastest among us... This target is no ordinary person."

"That's precisely why we're needed! Let's attack together; it'll be troublesome if his subordinates react too late!"

A burly man, resembling Sha Wujing, shattered the bricks and stones and crashed down on Iori like a giant boulder!

His hands and feet were unusually large, and his clenched fists were like heavy hammers.

Bang!

A strong gust of wind blew away the surrounding dust, and Iori's body trembled as the floor tiles beneath her feet cracked and flew away!