Trembling in Fear

Although she had yet to figure out what was suspicious about this cat, Lady Lilith would not joke with her about something like this.

Besides, they had clearly set up an inescapable net. The Night Raid thieves should not have been able to escape so easily, yet there was still no movement outside, as though the Night Raid thieves had vanished into thin air.

Seryu recalled the four words Lilith had said: "Gaia Foundation." This should be the name of some kind of Teigu, right?

Only a Teigu could possess such a miraculous ability.

In such a short time, Seryu had already arrived at the equation: cat = Night Raid thief.

"Koro!"

At Seryu's command, Koro opened its blood-filled maw and bit down on Seryu's left arm.

As Koro gradually detached from Seryu's left arm, her mechanical arm had transformed into a massive cannon barrel.

Seryu aimed the huge cannon at the kitty.

"Now then~ little kitty, sacrifice yourself for justice!"

In Seryu's eyes, as long as this cat had anything to do with Night Raid, it deserved to die. Even if she was wrong, it would still be a sacrifice for justice, so there was no such thing as killing by mistake!

Just as Chelsea was about to meet her death.

"Wait, Seryu. She can't die yet. I still have questions for her."

As soon as Lilith finished speaking, the savage expression on Seryu's face instantly calmed.

"That's true. We can't let a Night Raid thief die so painlessly."

Seryu held her left arm, which had become a huge cannon barrel, before Koro.

Awoo~

Koro bit down on the cannon barrel. When it released its jaws, the left arm had reverted into a somewhat more normal mechanical arm.

"I would very much like to force you to tell me where Night Raid is now, but I imagine you won't say anything, so..."

With a crook of Lilith's finger, a stream of water wrapped itself around the neck of Chelsea, who had transformed into a cat.

"I'm very curious. Just how far can a creature transformed with Gaia Foundation go?"

Big Wolf released the skin at the back of Chelsea's neck, but Chelsea did not fall to the ground. The water around her neck held her up instead.

"Meow~"

Chelsea felt as if a noose had been placed around her neck and she had been hung up, while the "rope" around her neck kept tightening.

The agony of suffocation flooded Chelsea's mind. In her cat form, her tongue lolled from her mouth, while tears, snot, and everything else streamed down.

With a bang~

As though she had reached some limit in her transformation, Chelsea returned to her original form.

Seeing this, Lilith loosened the water around Chelsea's neck a little.

"Looks like even after transforming, once they suffer a certain degree of damage, they'll revert to their original form."

"You... demon!"

Tears and snot covered her face as the utterly bedraggled Chelsea forced out those words.

"A demon? I thought you'd ask how I saw through your transformation." Lilith smiled.

"Though in some sense, I am indeed rather close to demons, but... aren't there demons wearing human skin everywhere in this world?"

Lilith had no interest in talking to her further. She made the water controlling Chelsea's neck sway back and forth.

The Gaia Foundation hidden on Chelsea's body fell out.

It looked just like an ordinary makeup compact.

Although this Teigu possessed no offensive power whatsoever, its disguise capabilities were extraordinarily powerful.

When Chelsea had used it to turn into a cat, even Big Wolf had not smelled anything unusual.

After all, humans and animals did not smell the same.

However, Big Wolf's eyes were not merely for show.

Though it was not as skilled as Lilith, it could still see that the flame of life on Chelsea's body differed from that of an ordinary cat.

Not to mention Lilith.

Before she had even entered the room, Lilith had already seen through Chelsea's true identity.

Lilith examined the Gaia Foundation in her hand, growing more satisfied the longer she looked at it.

After all, the unusual charm she possessed as a vampire had caused her quite a bit of trouble.

Now that she had Gaia Foundation's disguise, there would be far less trouble.

Watching her Teigu being played with by the enemy, Chelsea was furious, but there was nothing she could do.

Her being alive now was already due to someone else's mercy.

"Oh, right. Since you provided me with a Teigu that satisfies me, I won't kill you."

After all, someone who delivered a Teigu to her was a good person too.

"My companions... will avenge me...!"

Chelsea stared fixedly into Lilith's eyes, which were filled with hatred.

She had never expected to be captured just like this.

However, it was not as though she had never considered such a situation.

From the moment she obtained her Teigu and chose to become an assassin, she had prepared herself to be exposed during some assassination and then die.

Still, she could not help feeling somewhat unwilling.

There were still many cancers in the Empire that had not been removed, and the Revolutionary Army had not yet overthrown the Empire. She really wanted to see that day.

Amid her unwillingness, Chelsea also worried for her new companions.

"Take her back. Hand her over to Esdeath. She should be able to get something out of her."

Lilith set Chelsea down. Four droplets of water struck Chelsea's limbs with perfect accuracy, breaking all four of them.

Though this woman might have undergone professional training, with Esdeath's methods, perhaps they really could get something out of her.

When that happened, Night Raid would have nowhere to run.

"Aah!!!"

Chelsea let out a cry of agony. The pain of having all four limbs broken was not something just anyone could endure.

But that was not what truly pained Chelsea.

Interrogation?

So she truly could not escape.

The final shred of luck Chelsea had held onto was gone as well.

If she was handed over to Esdeath, she would truly be better off dead.

Without Chelsea making any visible movement, Lilith sensed her life force rapidly fading. In less than a few seconds, she was dead.

"Poison?"

Lilith pried open Chelsea's mouth and found that one of her "teeth" had shattered.

For a moment, Lilith did not know how to react.

All this time, she had thought Night Raid was a group of "assassins" who openly carried out assassinations using Teigu or Subordinate Arms. She had never expected there to be a qualified assassin like Chelsea among them.

Lilith helplessly rubbed her forehead. "Really... I almost got led astray by this world."

Koro pawed at the corpse nearby.

"What a pity. If she hadn't died, we could have pried some clues about Night Raid out of her."

Seryu stroked several other little cats in the room that were trembling in fear because of Big Wolf's appearance, soothing them.

At the same time, she wondered whether these cats might be disguised too.

If they were...

Seryu's expression turned savage.

"Meow~~~"

Those poor cats became even more terrified, trembling like frightened kittens.jpg.