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PS: Here's another picture of Xi Lian.

Kerritt & Hazel: Akame ga Kill! Chapter 14: Operation Begins!

The cities of the northern ethnic minorities looked virtually identical to those of the empire, with the only differences being minor variations in customs and clothing, and the cold weather being the only drawback.

With three hostages, Krystal and her two companions had no problem living in this city. Although the three children were all assassins who had experienced a lot of suffering, the northern climate was quite favorable.

Without an accurate map, it's easy to get lost in the freezing cold outside, just like those who were once ignorant of the dangers of the world and ended up as corpses buried under the snow.

Moreover, Crydella and Hathaway are not to be trifled with. With two demigods here, how are you three little guys going to escape?

It seems that Heather has received Caesar's orders, as she has been leaving early and returning late every day. Apart from Crydela, even Esdeath doesn't know what she's doing, let alone the three little hostages.

However, even with Caesar alone, Chelsea and her two companions had no way to escape. Even the disguise of Gaia Foundation could not fool the wise Crydella.

"How long will this continue? How much longer will we have to stay in this city?"

Almost two weeks have passed. Just as Heather returned, Merad, the leader of the three hostages, finally wanted an answer: how much longer would they have to be hostages?

"Don't worry, it won't be long. Maybe in the next day or two, you'll be free!"

Compared to a few days ago, Krydella's smile has become increasingly confident, a fact that anyone could see.

So, Melard, Chelsea, and Taeko eventually realized something was wrong, but they had no way to leave and could only place all their hopes on their master, Barbara…

Finally, before the dawn of a new day, Heather followed Caesar's orders, waking everyone up and leaving the city before sunrise, heading into the desolate snowfields…

"Have we been here before?"

"It seems so. I passed by here with my master. Back then, there was nothing here..."

Looking at the familiar surroundings, the three of them whispered to each other. It was supposed to be a snowy place, but now there were countless footprints on the snow!

More and more anomalies began to appear, and the expressions of the three hostages became increasingly grim. As if they had thought of something, their voices grew softer and softer.

As demigods, they could naturally hear the mosquitoes clearly, but they paid no attention to it. Instead, Cerudela led Sword Banner Lord and Cold Shadow Lord straight to the valley ahead.

"My God, is this... an army?"

Upon entering the valley, apart from Crydela and Heather, the three hostages, including Esdeath, stared wide-eyed, completely unable to believe what they were seeing.

And the clever Melard finally figured out why Heather had been leaving early and returning late for the past two weeks…

So they were recruiting soldiers outside!

In the end, they raised an army of no less than a thousand men!

"Caesar, the initial army of 1531 men is assembled and awaits your command!"

Heather bowed slightly and reported to Caesar the exact number of troops in the army, all of whom she had gathered from the surrounding areas of the city during this period.

At first, no one took Heather seriously, since she didn't have much muscle and didn't seem to have any aura of strength.

However, when Heather displayed absolute strength and overwhelmed the crowd, no one objected. After all, people admire strength, and being able to follow a strong person like Heather is, in a sense, an honor.

So in the past two weeks, Haisein has raised a strong army and also taken down several bandit strongholds in the surrounding area, which brought the army's size to 1531.

Although the army was hastily assembled and its combat strength was definitely not as strong as that of the regular army, Caesar did not care about that, because she would only be able to use these troops tonight.

When the sun rises tomorrow morning, Krydira will have a regular army of over 100,000 men under her command!

"Now that we have assembled, let us march together!"

"Caesar's personal campaign must have a corresponding objective, and his name... just happens to meet that requirement!"

"Become my stepping stone to the throne!"

An army of a thousand men moved through the northern kingdoms unnoticed. Compared to the regular army of the northern kingdoms, their numbers were far too small to attract the attention of the nobles.

But no one could have imagined what astonishing things this army, which set out in the morning, would do during the night.

—

night.

A dark figure stealthily infiltrated the northern kingdom, moving through the palace like a shadow, unnoticed by anyone.

As she rested on a skylight, the moonlight happened to illuminate her cheek, revealing a slightly aged face with an indescribable chill in her eyes.

This person is none other than Barbara, who separated from Crydella and the others two weeks ago.

During this time, Barbara had joined forces with the rebels and gone directly to the royal palace of the Northern Kingdom to confront the King of the North…

Nusnek Seka!

The goal was to persuade the other side to form an alliance with the resistance and jointly attack the empire.

However, the North had suffered too much damage before, and it was estimated that it would not be able to form an effective force for at least ten years. Therefore, Nusnek directly rejected the alliance agreement with the rebels and ordered them to return home as quickly as possible.

This is a good choice for the northern regions.

But for the resistance fighters, that was terrible!

Barbara was still wondering whether she should assassinate Nusnek as Crydella had suggested... She was still hesitant, but Nusnek's attitude immediately dispelled Barbara's last concerns.

He's just a foolish ruler from the north; how could he possibly compare to his three disciples?

So Barbara came!

A semi-transparent fishing line slowly descended from the ceiling, stopping only a decimeter away from the sleeping king's mouth.

Barbara skillfully took out the poison she had concocted and poured it down the fishing line. After witnessing the poison fall into the other person's mouth, Barbara put away her tools and prepared to leave.

"This is supposed to be the royal palace, yet the guards nearby are so weak? It seems they truly have no hope of defeating the empire..."

Barbara was not discovered by anyone from the moment she infiltrated until she was about to leave, which indirectly shows that the Northern Kingdom was weak at the time and did not have enough strong people, and could not even protect the king.

If Barbara leaves like this, no one will know when the king died tonight or who killed him... but this is not the situation Crydella wants!

So before Barbara left, Crydella deliberately instructed her: "If your assassination goes exceptionally smoothly and goes unnoticed by anyone... then make a big fuss! It would be best if everyone in the palace knew that their king had been killed!"

Barbara was somewhat puzzled by Crydella's intentions, but if she wanted to find her three disciples, she had to do as she was told.

So before leaving, Barbara set fire to the king's room.

At this moment, the entire palace was alarmed!

Seeing the dazzling flames, all the soldiers and officers in the palace realized…

The King is in trouble!

P.S.: In the work "Akame ga Kill!", there are not many characters from the Northern Kingdom. I only know one, "The Hero of the North" Numa Seka, so I created an original father for Numa Seka.

In the Chinese zodiac, the animal preceding the horse is the snake.

The English word for snake is "snake".

So it makes sense that Numa's father was named "Nusnek".

Kerr & Hazel / Scarlet Eyes: Chapter 15 Liu Numa Seika Xie

The northern kingdoms were feudal states.

The highest-ranking official was the king, followed by the feudal lords who were granted fiefdoms.

When the Northern Kingdom was at its most powerful, the king was naturally able to suppress the numerous lords. Even if some lords harbored rebellious intentions, they could not openly show them.

However, this balance was completely shattered by the empire's war against the north a few months ago. The king's faction suffered a severe blow and was no longer able to suppress the surrounding lords.

This was precisely the scheme of Imperial Minister Ernest. By weakening the power of the King of the North, the entire North would naturally descend into chaos. Then, with the Empire intervening, it would be easy to bring the entire North under its rule.

The rebels understood this, which is why they hoped to form an alliance with the King of the North before the Empire intervened, to jointly fight against the threat from the Empire.

But this king doesn't seem to be very smart?

At this critical juncture, when the Northern Kingdom had to make a choice, the king chose to do nothing, an action that only worsened the situation and brought the entire kingdom to the brink of destruction.

So when that wisp of light appeared in the palace, everyone in the North knew that tonight would be a sleepless night. The northern lords, in particular, guessed almost immediately that the king had passed away and swiftly began to act…

Anyone with half a brain can see that the Northern Kingdom is currently facing an unprecedented crisis, but also a tremendous opportunity. If they don't seize this opportunity to expand their power, they'll become stepping stones for others' expansion!

In the eyes of all the feudal lords, the threat that prevented their expansion was the descendants left behind by the old king.

As a king, he naturally had many wives and dozens of children, but among them, only one was the most threatening and the most talented…

Numa Seka!

Although he is not very old now, and according to the age of the Northern Kingdom, he is not even an adult, his talent and ability shown in his childhood have successfully won the attention of all the nobles.

Of course, this concern is not well-intentioned; rather, if something were to happen to the old king, the feudal lords would use all their power to ensure the complete annihilation of the old king's lineage!

If there is even a sliver of hope for the future of the Northern Kingdom to be revived, the only person capable of doing so is Numa Seka.

So when the lords realized that something might have happened to the old king, they all sent small armies to Numa Seka's fiefdom in an attempt to nip the threat in the bud.

As a prince of the North, Numasekha's fiefdom had an army of over 100,000 men, but in the eyes of those lords, this army of 100,000 men was clearly not enough.

Which of them isn't a seasoned veteran with decades of experience? Their experience and background are naturally unmatched by any newcomer who has just entered the political arena... Even if they are princes, they still have to obediently serve as stepping stones for others.

Thus, the armies of the feudal lords, though from different backgrounds, but sharing the same goal, charged menacingly towards the prince's territory...

There were a total of 60,000 people!

Moreover, given the marching speed of those dangerous species, one night would be enough for them to arrive!

It wasn't that the feudal lords underestimated Numasekha; after all, this army of 60,000 men was the elite of the elite, including many of the feudal lords' personal guards, whose strength was undoubtedly many times greater than that of ordinary soldiers.

Just like the Imperial Arms users in this world, one person can be equivalent to a thousand troops, so dealing with the prince's 100,000-strong army would definitely be enough. Moreover, after defeating Prince Numasekha, these 60,000 troops might immediately clash together...

After all, these feudal lords were on the same page, but after the complete collapse of the royal family, could their relationship ever return to what it was before?

Of course not!

Strengthen yourselves and conquer the world!

This is what they really think!

—

late at night.

The young prince Numa Seka awoke from his dream and looked out the window in disbelief.

Even from within his own castle, he could clearly see the army outside his territory carrying torches.

"So they really came for me? I didn't expect it to be so fast..."

As the old king's most capable child, Numasekha thought about restoring the Han dynasty every day... ah, no.

Numa Seka dreamed every day of restoring the Seka royal family and regaining power in the North, but the empire shattered the North's dream with just one war.

"Although the timing was sudden, those troops were clearly well-trained! We must quickly lead our troops into battle!"

Although Numasek is still a minor, he has practiced his martial arts a lot and his gun skills are superb. He can handle anyone who is not a top-level master or a Teigu user.

There are even people who vaguely refer to him as the "Little Gun King of the North," which speaks volumes about Numasek's excellence.

With time running out, Numasekha rushed to the room where weapons and armor were stored, changed into his armor, and prepared for the upcoming battle.

During the time he had been running through the castle, countless screams had come from outside, and many of them were familiar to him…

This made Numasekha's expression grow increasingly grim, for he knew his men were putting up a fierce resistance, but their tenacity was futile in stopping the attacking enemy forces, merely buying them some useless time.

"If I join the battle, can I really turn the tide?"

Based solely on the sounds coming from the outside, Numasekha realized that his army was in complete disarray and utterly outmatched. If he were to charge out at this moment, wouldn't that be tantamount to walking into a trap?

Even if he has considerable personal strength, how could he possibly deal with tens of thousands of troops?

"So the best option now is definitely to run away..."

"How can I run away?!"

The thought of escaping only crossed his mind for a moment before Numaseka rejected it outright. He was unwilling to be a deserter, even if death awaited him.

A resolve beyond what a young boy could possess flashed in his eyes. Numasekha raised his spear and prepared to leave the castle for a desperate battle.

Just then, an extremely unusual commotion caused the boy to freeze in place.

The screams outside the castle suddenly became unfamiliar, all replaced by sounds they didn't recognize...

"Is it possible that someone will come to our aid at this time?"