Letter

Esdeath had fought her way to the rank of general, one kill at a time.

Such immense strength naturally drew the attention of many people.

Before, her rank had simply been too low for her to enter certain people's sights.

But as Esdeath's position rose higher and higher, the Empire's upper ranks naturally came to know of her.

When Minister Honest learned that Esdeath possessed such overwhelming strength despite not being a Teigu user, he was overjoyed.

He immediately found a way to contact Esdeath, intending to win her over.

Without knowing Esdeath's preferences, Minister Honest could only use a Teigu to recruit her.

During her years in the army, Esdeath had naturally heard of Teigu.

But she had never encountered a Teigu user at the border and knew little about their true strength.

In her view, those people had exaggerated the power of Teigu far too much.

They were nothing more than powerful weapons...

Still, she truly did need a weapon worthy of her.

The slender sword she currently used had been forged by a master smith and was an exceptionally fine weapon.

But it was still only an ordinary weapon, without any special power.

"What do you think?"

Esdeath handed Minister Honest's letter to Lilith.

Lilith took the letter. Its contents were much as she had expected: he wanted to recruit Esdeath. What surprised her, however, was that the letter mentioned her as well.

Still, that was only natural. Over the past few years, civilians throughout the Empire had learned that a powerful general at the border had repelled Foreigners' invasions more than once.

They knew very little about Lilith.

But that did not diminish Lilith's prestige in the army. Though she could not compare to Esdeath, she stood second only to her. In fact, most soldiers feared Lilith even more than Esdeath.

Though Esdeath was exceedingly cruel to her enemies, she was quite generous toward her own people.

The reason things had turned out this way was entirely because Lilith had been deeply dissatisfied with the army's discipline.

She had long been unhappy with the troops' lack of discipline, so after rising to a sufficiently high rank, she began training the army in the direction she desired.

She did not ask for much. At the very least, they had to obey military discipline, right?

By now, the soldiers under Lilith's command had become excellent troops with strict discipline and fine conduct.

Whenever Esdeath led soldiers to wipe out nearby Foreigners, Lilith would look at the troops she had trained with immense satisfaction.

It was not as though no one had gone to Esdeath to complain while Lilith was training the soldiers, saying Lilith's demands were excessive and impossible to meet.

But it was useless. Esdeath was not an idiot; she naturally understood that Lilith's actions would benefit the army's overall strength without a single drawback.

With Esdeath's support, those soldiers became even less able to voice their anger.

Then, during one battle, a unit led by Lilith was ambushed by Foreigners. Just when everyone thought they were finished, certain to die, Lilith slaughtered her way through the ambushers alone and led them out of the trap.

Only then did they realize that Lilith might not be weaker than Esdeath.

After that, no one dared object to Lilith's training any longer.

Incidentally, after that ambush, Lilith led her troops back and destroyed a military camp established by the Foreigners.

Minister Honest naturally would not overlook someone as powerful as Lilith.

Moreover, Lilith had a close relationship with Esdeath. He surely intended to recruit both of them.

Then he would have two immensely powerful Teigu users!

Lilith said, "We can meet him."

After reading the letter, Lilith understood that this was when Esdeath would reach an agreement with Minister Honest, obtain her Teigu, and vault straight to the pinnacle of power in this world.

"Teigu? I've heard of them for a long time, but what they actually are has always been nothing but unreliable legends. This is the perfect opportunity."

Esdeath decided to take this chance to meet Minister Honest.

As for the rumors surrounding Minister Honest, Esdeath did not care about them.

So what if those rumors were true?

She had a feeling that when she went to the Imperial Capital to meet Minister Honest, they would get along quite well.

"Compared to Honest, those people are far too stingy."

Esdeath was referring to the so-called Conscience Faction.

Naturally, they wanted to recruit Esdeath, a powerful general who commanded an army of hundreds of thousands.

But their letters were filled with lofty righteousness and supposed loyalty to the Empire.

Unfortunately, Esdeath had no interest in any of that and found those people especially irritating.

Without exception, Esdeath tossed every one of those letters into the fireplace and burned them.

"The Imperial Capital? I wonder what it's like there."

Esdeath had always lived in a tribe, and in recent years she had remained at the border. It was impossible for her not to be curious about the Imperial Capital, the Empire's most prosperous city.

In contrast to Esdeath's curiosity, Lilith was quite indifferent.

Honestly, she could not appreciate the architectural style of this other world, which resembled medieval Europe.

Esdeath walked to the window and opened it. A bone-piercing cold wind from the Icefield blew into the room.

Yet neither Esdeath nor Lilith cared about the frigid wind.

Several years had passed, and Esdeath had fully grown into her looks, becoming even more enchanting.

She wore a white military uniform. Her ample chest pressed out a deep cleavage, while long white boots climbed all the way up her thighs, leaving a strip of bare skin between her skirt and boots.

It had to be said that soldiers serving alongside Esdeath were under tremendous pressure. She truly was a beauty, and her provocative clothing made it easy for hot-blooded young men to lose their composure.

As for Lilith, over these past few years... she had not changed at all!

She looked exactly the same as she had several years ago.

At this moment, Lilith, like Esdeath, wore a military uniform.

However, her uniform was black and red, with a black cloak draped over her shoulders and a vivid red lining. Lilith also wore long boots, though hers were red. Unlike Esdeath's leather boots, Lilith's looked more like metal battle boots, extending all the way to her thighs and leaving a strip of bare skin between them and her skirt.

Yes, do not worry, she wore safety shorts beneath her skirt.