Knock, Knock, Knock. 

Tatsumi stops after lightly pounding the door three times. ‘‘Can I come in? Let’s have a talk.’’ There was no immediate reply nor did he hear any movement that would suggest Sayo was coming to open the door.  

But he didn’t lose his patience and silently waited for a few dozen seconds or so. Only after a dozen or so seconds passed did he hear steps moving to the door. 

The door then opens slowly afterward, and from behind the half-open door, Sayo's dark hair and fair skin, with beautiful looks and figures appear in his line of sight. Her countenance was normal, it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with her. 

However, upon observing her face closing Tatsumi discovered that she was a little pale, and her hands were slightly trembling and the normal look on her seemed forceful. It was obvious that she wasn’t okay like how she tried to show it. 

Being scrutinized by him, Sayo quickly hid her hands behind her back, she then said softly to him.  

‘‘You want to talk with me, can we wait until tomorrow?’’  

‘‘Sorry, I want to speak with you now. It's fine for me to come in, right?’’ Tatsumi shook his head at her request, instead asking her to let him in. Sayo seemed hesitant for a moment but decided to let him in the end.    

He went in after receiving the permission to enter, and before choosing to say anything he let her take a seat on the bed, allowing her to settle herself down first. 

‘‘Um… what do you want to talk about?’’ Sayo asked, looking a little nervous.    

Lately, she tends to lose her confident nature quite easily. Tatsumi sighed when catching the nervousness in her voice. He didn’t choose to poke fun at her for that and went straight to uttering what he wanted to say.  

‘‘Killing a person for the first time really shook you up more than I had expected.’’ He took a seat next to her when saying that. From his words, Sayo's hands and body trembled more noticeably while her head hung low. ‘‘I’m all ears, pour out everything.’’ Not beating around the bush he directly said.   

‘‘...’’ Sayo didn’t immediately do as he said, her slight pale complexion seemed to be lost in thought, and her trembling hands would fluctuate between slow and fast. ‘‘After shooting and killing that person with my arrows, I can't help but remember his dying face vividly. Everytime I do, my hands would tremble and I would feel terrified of what I done…’’ 

Sayo looked up at Tatsumi, her voice low and afraid. 

After trying to adjust her emotions as best as possible and calming her trembling hands, like he requested, Sayo poured out the things that were bothering her.    

‘‘I’m a-afraid… if I’m this shaken up about killing someone. During next time, would I be of help?’’ Sayo looks especially frail when saying this. ‘‘What was your experience taking life for the first time like?’’   

Listening to her without saying anything and allowing her to pour everything that troubles her when finally being asked about his first experience killing someone. Tatsumi was in deep thought, seemingly hesitant to describe it, but the hesitation only lasted for a short instant.   

‘‘Mm, in my case, I hesitated even before I killed that mercenary. In fact, while fighting him I didn’t even know my hands were shaking, I only knew after the mercenary pointed it out for me, and then…’’  

Tatsumi pauses for a second and proceeds to continue. ‘‘And then… I killed him. When I did — I wasn’t hung up much on the matter, nor was I shaken up about taking that mercenary’s life.’’ 

‘‘If you were afraid to take a life before killing him, why weren’t you shaken up about it after… you kill him?’’ Sayo couldn’t help but ask after listening to him. 

‘‘That’s because I resolved myself too, so I was able to do it without a heavy heart.’’ The answer surprised Sayo deeply, her gaze which was attentively looking at him wanting him to explain more. 

‘‘Before ending him, I thought back to Uncle and the rest of the village. We set out to save the village and something like this is unavoidable, especially when we’re currently assassins fighting for the greater good.’’

‘‘Greater good, heh heh, I didn’t think you would say that.’’ Sayo's mood became slightly better after hearing him explain his reason for not minding much about his first kill. ‘‘Oh, is my word funny to you.’’ Seeing her feeling better so fast, Tatsumi was quite happy. 

‘‘So tell me, since you were hung up on killing the person on the mission. Do you feel regret and guilt over ending his life with your arrow?’’   

Despite noticing her mood seemed to get better, Tatsumi still asked this. The reason for it was because he wanted to make sure she was really fine, and not being haunted by guilt over killing someone for the first time. 

‘‘...’’ Sayo fell silent when faced with this question. 

She was trying to understand her own feelings on the matter. While the image of the person she killed did repeatedly show up in her mind, as she continued to think really hard about it, Sayo shook her head and said. 

‘‘No. That man was a monster when Leone and I went to assassinate him. We saw him and his man commit a lot of inhuman deeds, a monster like that is better off dead for the rest of the people!’’                            

Sayo's voice rises higher and higher, brimming with anger. The memories of the cruel things the person she killed did were something unacceptable and completely inhuman.   

Watching her pale and frail-looking face filled with anger, Tatsumi smiled, secretly feeling relieved. He didn’t want his childhood friend to feel guilt or regret over her first kill, which would undoubtedly affect her state of mind in the long run.      

‘‘Since it looks like you are better now, there is no need to continue to stay and miss the feast we worked so hard to prepare.’’ Tatsumi stood up and said. ‘‘Let’s go, Akame and Kurome might eat everything if we’re taking so long.’’ He turned around, about to walk toward the door. 

Looking at his back, Sayo smiled happily. She whispered to him, ‘‘Thank you.’’ Tatsumi heard her but didn’t say anything back. However, when he touched the doorknob and was about to twist it open, her next words caused him to freeze from the unexpected question. 

‘‘So which kiss was better, mine or Leone?’’ Sayo's expression became a little red from feeling embarrassed over her own question.      

Shocked at what she was asking him, Tatsumi didn’t know what to say and continued to stand frozen for a little while, and during that little amount of time, Sayo was also nervously waiting for him to answer.  

Eventually, after the moment of shock from her unexpected question passed, Tatsumi sighed, looking back at her. ‘‘If I say her kiss is better would it make you feel depressed?’’ He inquired, looking her directly in the eye.

‘‘Mm,’’ Sayo slowly nodded her head, clenching her hands at his words. ‘‘Then yours are better.’’ Tatsumi flashed a smile while saying.

‘‘A-are you telling the truth!?’’ Sayo exclaimed excitedly, a wave of happiness rushed over her at that instant. 

‘‘Yes, let’s go eat with the rest if you're satisfied with the answer.’’ Seeing how happy she was looking, Tatsumi didn’t feel any guilt lying to her.  

If it makes her happy, there’s no problem with letting her hear what she wants to hear. But damn brat, I can’t believe she would suddenly spout such a question out of nowhere! During our training, she can forget about having a good time!   

What Sayo had asked had taken him completely off guard and because of that it left him unable to form a response for a while.   

With that said, twisted the doorknob Tatsumi pulled the door open and gestured for her to go first. Sayo didn’t continue to make him wait and immediately walked past him, but when she did, she smiled confidently at him and said. 

‘‘I know you're just telling me what I wanted to hear but next time I’ll make you say those words again, and this time, truly mean it.’’

‘‘And I’ll make sure our training is extra fun later on.’’ Tatsumi replied back, his face containing a dangerous grin. 

Sayo's smile immediately became petrified. Satisfied by her reaction, Tatsumi chuckled and strode on without waiting for her to get over it.          

…

The Capital Empire Street. 

‘‘Hey, are we really on a mission?’’ Tatsumi calmly asked the girl, who wore mostly a pink coloring dress and had a long twin-tail, she had below average height and a beautiful-looking face. ‘‘Of course, we are on a mission, why do you ask such clueless questions?’’ Mine immediately said. 

‘‘Mhm, I don’t know, maybe because we are randomly wandering around, and you, dragging me to one place after another. Although I had fun since you bought me food for free, I’m skeptical if this is really what we should do.’’

Sitting on a small table and taking a seat opposite of Mine, Tatsumi said while gazing at the street filled with people wandering about. 

He was quite confused by the entire mission so far. 

Their mission was to assassinate a man named Iokal, who was a blood relative of the current prime minister. 

According to the report that they obtained before being requested to complete the mission, Iokal, using the minister's name, abducted innocent girls and beat them to death. The five guards protecting him also share in the guilt. 

However, this was what caused Tatsumi to feel confused. Instead of trying to assassinate the minister's relative, Mine had basically dragged him around to every place. From shopping, going to the aquarium, hanging out at the park, and eating together in a fancy restaurant.

If Tatsumi had to sum up the hold things, he would say instead of being on a mission they seemed to be on a ‘date’, or to put it differently. Instead of taking the mission seriously, they were basically playing around. 

During the hold mission so far he hadn’t said anything despite wanting to voice out his doubt, because Mine was supposed to be his superior and he had to follow her order. But in the end, he couldn’t hold himself back from asking. 

‘‘What are you talking about! What we’re doing isn’t randomly wandering about, but doing a very important inspection. Remember, knowing your environment is the key to victory as well as surviving as an assassin.’’ 

Mine tilted her head to the side, avoiding his gaze while strictly explaining to him that what they’re currently doing is very important. Looking unconvinced, he stared at her and said.

‘‘Let’s say I believed you, but why are we inspecting this area when the target is located more than a mile away? Moreover, what’s with taking me to so many unnecessary places.’’ 

‘‘T-that's because we need to have a place to escape to if we fail the mission, and it’ll work to our advantage to know the area. And as for taking you to those places, they weren’t unnecessary.’’

‘‘How so?’’ 

‘‘Tch! What’s with all these questions? Of course it’s to bland in so nobody who might spie on us would suspect we’re assassins. I’m your superior so just follow what I say.’’                 

After being continuously questioned by him, Mine became mad, standing up and shouting at him while slamming her palm on the table.    

‘‘Bland in? Maybe it would work better if you don’t make a commotion that can cause people to look at us with strange gazes, don’t you think?’’       

             

Unfazed by her outburst, Tatsumi calmly uttered quietly for only her to hear while unnoticeably roaming his gaze at his surroundings, emphasizing his words.  

‘‘Ugh, you can be so annoying!’’ Mine gnashed her teeth in frustration, crossing her arms and sitting back down, also noticed the attention people were giving them. ‘‘Besides, what’s wrong with me wanting to spend a little with you?’’ The pink hair murmured. 

I figured that was her goal… Tatsumi heaved out a sigh. 

With his understanding of these girls, even before he heard her murmur he could already form a guess as to the true reason why she was so excited for this mission in the first place and taking him to so many places... 

A chance to be close to him alone!         

‘‘Here is the drink you ordered. A couple drinks with two straw just like you asked.’’ 

Right at this time, the waitress came over with their drink and left while winking at Mine, an encouraging look could be found in her eyes. 

After the waitress left, Tatsumi blankly traced his gaze back to said girl sitting across from him. The atmosphere between them fell into an awkward silence, and Mine faced rapidly heating and became rose.    

‘‘I-I-I d-didn’t—’’ Mine stammered to form a complete word. 

‘‘Ha… I can’t understand why you girls like me, just like I can’t explain why I found you all very familiar even now. Forget it, it shouldn’t be a problem to slightly indulge you in this since I’m right now doing the same for the other two.’’   

Tatsumi silently murmured, moving forward to suck on the straw that was leaning his way. Taking a few sips through the straw, he said to her. ‘‘You’re the one buying the drink, aren’t going to also drink.’’ 

Mine’s face, which was already very red became even redder, but aside from the embarrassment, after hearing him, an elated look immediately surfaced on her.  

She directly moved her mouth to the other straw and hummed contently in a joyful manner while staring at him.

In her eyes, every person around her seemed to disappear and only he was left.  

... 

‘‘People are gathering around in large masses over there, something important going on?’’ When seeing the commotion, Tatsumi expressed curiosity over the masses forming. 

The once street that was filled with people moving about had now formed into masses of people. Whispers among the masses could be heard, and nervousness and fear seemed to preside over every person.  

‘‘Oh that, it's probably another public execution order by the prime minister.’’ Noticing that his attention was pulled away from her, Mine stopped sucking on the straw and snorted at the masses growing as they spoke.

‘‘Public execution order by the prime minister? What’s that?’’ Tatsumi frowned as he inquired. ‘‘Instead of explaining it would be better if you go take a look yourself.’’ Mine responded calmly, but he could see her gnashing her teeth hard when staring at the masses.    

Judging by her gnashing her teeth like that, this public execution thing can’t be anything good… Tatsumi stood from his seat and said to Mine. ‘‘Alright, I’ll take a look.’’ Not waiting for her response, Tatsumi took a long stride toward the masses.  

As the masses were large and with people close together in a tightly packed manner, Tatsumi had slight trouble squeezing in to get closer to the public execution ground.  

‘‘Phew, so many people.’’ When finally going through all those people and arriving at the center of the masses, Tatsumi heaved a breath, feeling like he had built up sweat from just moving through them. ‘‘Mm, now let’s see what this public execution is all—  Ugh, this…!’’ 

The moment he looked up, Tatsumi's expression instantly became shocked at what he saw. 

From the front row to the back he saw tens of people being nailed onto a cross with missing limbs and sign of torture left on them. There was an extremely excruciating look on all of them, along with a paining moan for all to hear.  

Gazing at the sight intently, the shock still didn’t leave him even after moments passed. It was just so unbelievable and cruel that he couldn’t utter any other word than this, 

‘‘W-why…!’’ 

After being in the empire for a while, although he knew the empire was dark and corrupted. He still couldn’t fathom how such cruelty could be made into a public display like this. 

‘‘This could be allowed to happen because the prime minister ordered it. Using his shrewdness the minister won the throne for the young emperor and used him like a puppet to control the entire empire.’’ 

Mine appeared beside him and answered his burning question. 

‘‘He's the source of the corruption currently eating away at the empire, and these people that are currently being executed are people that rise up against him. They are being tortured and put on display like this so the minister could show the fate of those who oppose his rule.’’ 

As Mine continued to explain, her face became full of firm resolve. With determination, she said. ‘‘I won’t become like them, I’ll definitely survive and see through this fight to the end.’’ 

The minister… This wasn’t the first time Tatsumi heard about how the minister controlled everything through the young emperor. 

The last time was when Aria’s guard mentioned it to him, he didn’t think he would hear about him so soon again.  

‘‘And the source of the corruption, huh, which means he’s the one responsible for the overbearing tax placed on our village. Hmm, the tears that Uncle shed that time… was all because of him then…’’ 

When he started speaking, Mine looked over at him. In spite of hearing him speak calmly and his face showing no clear emotion, Mine could feel deep seething anger and hatred in his voice.  

To her, the hatred she felt in his voice wasn’t something that could be produced after seeing this sight of cruelty being put into display. 

The hatred seemed to be harbor deep inside for years, but not knowing who to truly direct it to. It slowly accumulated over the course of the years, and only now the target of hatred appeared, causing the rage and hatred to be fully released.  

‘‘I’m here. Remember to not let anger overwhelm you, it’ll affect you in battle. Keep a level head.’’ Mine couldn’t help reaching her small hands to grab him, she tried to comfort him with her voice.          

Mine knew him for a long time inside the dream. When she heard him mention the word ‘Uncle’, how could she not know where the source of extreme hatred was coming from?  

‘‘Me losing my cool, you should worry more about yourself in that aspect. After all, you don’t seem like someone with a cool head.’’ 

Tatsumi smiles at her, teasing. However, the smile lacks any trace of warmth that could be found.    

After being teased, Mine didn’t rebuke back, because she could still see the hatred in his eyes, along with that... She would admit, if she hadn’t liked him so much and knew him so well, even she would be slightly fearful of the pure coldness and murderous intent from it.