Buried Alive

Just as Lilith had expected, after Nacita joined the Rebel Army, it became a force that could no longer be ignored.

In barely two years, Lilith received word that the Rebel Army had actually captured several cities.

Although the Empire's most elite troops were currently stationed at the borders, leaving few soldiers within the Empire itself, capturing several cities was still undeniably astonishing.

However fiercely the fighting raged within the country, it had little effect on the borders.

At the very least, that was what the Empire's internal officials believed.

But they never dreamed that, for the high-sounding cause of "liberating the Empire," the Rebel Army would actually join forces with the Foreigners.

That was because they feared the Empire would redeploy the border troops.

The soldiers guarding the borders were nothing like those within the Empire who had never experienced slaughter. They were true elite troops.

No one doubted that if those armies took action, they could wipe out the Rebel Army with ease.

To tie down those troops, members of the Rebel Army secretly crossed the border and found the Foreigners, reaching an agreement with them. In exchange for cooperating with the Foreigners, they would need Imperial land—and the Rebel Army agreed.

Even in the north guarded by Esdeath, the Rebel Army found the Foreigners living there.

After all, to relieve her boredom,

Esdeath often ventured deep into the Icefield in search of Foreigners.

Near the border, Foreigners had already become almost impossible to find.

Those small tribes had all been wiped out by Esdeath.

The Rebel Army crossed the Icefield and found the Foreigners' kingdom deep within it.

Just like the western and southern Foreigners, the northern Foreigners also dispatched troops to assault the Empire's border.

But unlike the western and southern Foreigners,

the northern Foreigners had had too many of their tribes purged by Esdeath. In this era, their hatred for the Empire ran deeper than that of the Foreigners in any other direction.

So they directly dispatched an army of four hundred thousand, intending to destroy the northern fortress that had stood on Imperial soil for a thousand years!

Foreigners attacking the Empire's borders drew no attention, and no one connected them to the Rebel Army, because those Foreigners had coveted Imperial territory for far more than a day or two.

But the northern Foreigners' imposing advance alarmed many people.

It was said that the army was led by the northern Foreigners' undefeated prince.

The morale of the four-hundred-thousand-strong army was unprecedentedly high. Nearly everyone in the Empire believed that, no matter what, it would take at least a year to defeat them.

Yet after learning of the northern Foreigners' movements, Esdeath was not afraid in the slightest. Instead, she was immensely excited.

This time, she could finally kill to her heart's content.

Facing this army of four hundred thousand, Liva advised Esdeath to have the Teigu users carry out a decapitation operation first. If they eliminated all the enemy leaders, dealing with the remaining four hundred thousand troops would be easy.

But Esdeath refused.

She wanted to utterly crush the spirits of those four hundred thousand Foreigners!

Night.

Outside the northern fortress, where the Foreigner army had made camp.

Esdeath infiltrated the camp alone and effortlessly captured the Foreigners' so-called prince.

Then, in no more than half a night, she trained the Foreigners' prince into a dog.

He had no dignity left whatsoever.

The four-hundred-thousand-strong army was awakened by cries of battle.

When they woke and emerged from their tents, they saw a towering wall of ice encircling the entire camp.

At one end of the ice wall stood a massive frozen throne. Esdeath sat upon it, and before all four hundred thousand Foreigners, she trained their pride and joy—their prince—into a dog.

It had to be said that Esdeath's move was not merely murderous, but devastating to the heart.

In just half a night, Esdeath had destroyed not only the dignity of that so-called Foreign prince, but also the will to resist of all four hundred thousand troops.

Watching the "prince" lick her boots like a dog,

Esdeath felt a wave of boredom.

"How boring." Esdeath kicked the Foreign prince to death. "I hope the Imperial Capital can bring me some amusement."

Recently, an assassin organization had appeared in the Imperial Capital, and its mission success rate was astonishingly high.

But that alone would have been one thing. The key was that nearly every person those assassins killed had some connection to the minister.

Some paid tribute to the minister, and most of his wealth came from them. Others were officials under the minister's command.

This gave the minister reason to suspect that someone was targeting him.

Moreover, the people being killed had considerable security forces, yet they were still assassinated.

There was only one possibility for someone capable of doing that—Teigu users!

Alarmed, the minister feared that assassin organization would threaten his safety, so he wanted Esdeath to return.

Esdeath was also interested in this assassin organization that had Teigu users. She had originally thought these Foreigners would let her have a little more fun.

But while the outcome had not disappointed her, the slaughter she craved was far more than this.

As for why Esdeath, who could clearly have led her subordinates through the entire four-hundred-thousand-strong Foreign army and slaughtered them all, had instead used such a troublesome method to crush their spirits—

it was because Esdeath still had a score to settle with these northern Foreigners!

Snap—

Esdeath snapped her fingers, and a violent hailstorm suddenly began within the towering walls.

Every hailstone was larger than their eyeballs, smashing the Foreigners until their heads were bloodied and broken.

With nowhere to hide from the hail, the Foreigners finally felt the threat of death. They began furiously attacking the ice walls, but the walls were unimaginably hard.

Let alone breaking them, they found it difficult even to leave a mark on the ice.

Thus, beneath Esdeath's icy gaze, the army of four hundred thousand was buried alive by hail.

After dealing with the northern Foreigners' army of four hundred thousand, Esdeath, Lilith, and the Three Beasts set out for the Imperial Capital.

This time, they brought no guards with them.

Besides, they had no need for guards.

As for why they did not have the northern fortress's troops go deal with the Rebel Army? The northern Foreigners could no longer organize a proper army, and only a small force would be needed to hold the border.

That was because it would be far too boring.

Wiping out the Rebel Army in one fell swoop, or eliminating them at this point, was not what Esdeath wanted.

After all, that would leave her no way to kill to her heart's content!