"Come on, keep yelling! Give me a few more yells and let me hear them. Let's see if my hometown voice is more melodious, or if the beauties from the Southern Islands and the north are more alluring?"
This is a town in the Seventh District of the Imperial Capital.
A young girl was Syura's Wild Hunt, her body almost entirely covered in whip marks.
She was abused, humiliated, tortured, and subjected to countless inhumane treatments, all she did was go to the market to buy groceries for her bedridden mother.
Driven solely by lust for her beauty, Syura led her ' Wild Hunt ' to capture her alive and hang her.
First, ' Champ the Clown ' used the Flame Orb from his Teigu 'Great Pitcher: Chaos Scream ' to strike the girl's back, leaving scorching burn marks on her delicate, never-before-seen back.
After a scream, the swordsman Izou drew his famous sword ' Kousetsu ' and severed the girl's Achilles tendon. Seeing that the girl was in so much pain that she was about to faint and could no longer move, Syura hung her up and began to whip her repeatedly.
"You... do whatever you want, but please spare my mother..."
"Ha, you think we'd sleep with old women? What an utterly foolish thing!"
Syura spoke, another heavy lash struck the girl's back, and the girl, who had almost completely given up hope of survival, fainted completely after this lash.
" Enshin, help me check if she bit her tongue and committed suicide. If her tongue isn't severed, splash her with water to wake her up. I haven't heard enough of her screams yet!"
"Yes--I haven't heard enough yet, hehe~"
The pirates from the Southern Islands responded and stepped forward to examine the woman's tongue.
"Um, there seems to be a kindergarten nearby. I'm getting really bored here, could you...?"
"What are you talking about? There aren't any kindergartens around here. With the Imperial Capital in this state, do you really think parents can send their kids to any kindergarten?"
"Uh... but I did hear someone say that just now..."
"You misheard! That's District 15! It's too close to the Imperial Capital Palace; there's no way there would be a kindergarten there! Only remote and underdeveloped areas have that kind of backward education that doesn't require violence!"
"I see... It's probably a newly established project."
Champ and Enshin chatted casually.
In the Imperial Capital, most children face only two possible fates.
The first type is those born into nobility who receive an elite education from a young age—that is, using countless resources to satisfy their basic needs and desires to the fullest extent.
The second type is those who live in slums, lacking any particularly strong abilities, and thus never see the sun overhead in their entire lives.
Besides these two fates, there is a third fate that only a very few people will have: from a young age, due to a chance encounter, they have an inexplicable passion for combat and an extremely high talent for it, so they learn martial arts from childhood, overcome many obstacles and gain a lot of experience along the way, and finally stand at the top of the martial arts-oriented Imperial Capital official system in the capital.
As for institutions like kindergartens and primary schools, which seem perfectly normal in the ordinary world, they are often wiped out by criminals due to terrorist attacks.
After experiencing too many painful lessons, primary schools and other institutions geared towards children are now typically only established in remote areas.
"It's like there are no children here... This place is even worse than my hometown..."
Champ muttered to himself, revealing his true feelings while simultaneously fearing that Syura might overhear him.
Inside the Imperial Palace in the Imperial Capital, in the headquarters of the ' Jaegers '.
Wave, Lan, Bols, and Kurome sat upright in their original positions.
They usually go about their own business casually, very used to the relaxed lifestyle of working in the Imperial Capital.
Because Esdeath advocates the supremacy of strength, which aligns with the mainstream view in the Imperial Capital, she does not want personal desires to hinder the progress of individual strength.
But today, the four of them were more serious than ever before.
Esdeath, a girl exuding an icy aura, sat upright as the leader of the Jaegers Unit.
Just now, she learned some shocking news----
The ' Jaegers ' unit, a special security force she had built from scratch, was about to be handed over to ' Lin Feng's' command.
Lin Feng, the man she had always wanted to enslave and who had successively killed Dr. Stylish and Nyau, had actually become the Great General of the Empire.
Esdeath felt no sense of injustice whatsoever; she always cared about her own status and not about others. However, her long-cherished wish to make Lin Feng a prisoner could not be fulfilled, which made Esdeath extremely resentful.
After Lin Feng became a general, Esdeath could no longer regard him as an enemy and could only treat him as a colleague, and in such an ambiguous way.
After all, who would know that she had once shared a bed with Lin Feng?
" Honest... what are you thinking? It has nothing to do with whether you're targeting me or not..."
After a brief period of anxiety, Esdeath quickly regained her composure, for she was not a woman whose emotions could be easily swayed by external factors.
"Let's execute the order first; there will be plenty of opportunities to resolve these issues later..."
Esdeath then turned her gaze to the entire ' Jaegers ' squad.
Despite being just a young girl in her early twenties, Esdeath's eyes held the ruthlessness of a deeply cunning general.
"It seems you all know that your Jaegers Unit will be transferred to General Lin Feng's command starting today, so I won't go into details."
The entire group of Jaegers fell silent. They didn't know what joining Lin Feng's team meant for them, because that man was far too mysterious.
His intense, excessive integrity and his drive, which rivaled Esdeath's, seemed somewhat difficult for the usually disorganized and undisciplined members of the Jaegers to adapt to.
"So, starting today, I will be acting alone, and I will soon be saying goodbye to you all, but I believe this will only be for a short time."
Esdeath's words were full of confidence.
After all, Minister Honest had only informed her of a 'temporary handover'.
"If you are capable of annihilating the ' Night Raid ' force together with the Wild Hunt, I believe you will soon return to my side."
"However, if you display such strength as soon as you join Lin Feng's team, it only proves that I am an incompetent general."
"Don't say that, General..."
The members of the Jaegers Unit were all moved by Esdeath's heartfelt words.
However, there is one exception.