"I'm truly flattered."
Lubbock laughed, but cold sweat trickled down his face. As a former nobleman, he was very familiar with this kind of joking remark.
However, this woman is indeed not easy to deal with.
At this moment, Lubbock's mind was racing, having long since forgotten about Cosmina's sexy outfit, and was focused on how to change the perilous situation where the Teigu were effective against him.
Syura and Dotya looked at the white-haired woman in front of them. Neither of them showed any panic; on the contrary, they seemed quite at ease.
"Yes, yes, old woman, I remember you..."
Syura looked at Najenda's face, seemingly recalling some childhood memories, and then, as if suddenly realizing something, pointed at Najenda and said repeatedly.
"General Najetta! Is that right? Yes, that's right, it's General Najetta!"
"General Najetta?"
" Dotya, you probably don't know, but this old woman was a former Imperial General. Back then, Esdeath crippled her right hand and right eye, so she defected from the Empire, taking a whole bunch of Imperial confidants with her. Isn't that ridiculous?"
"That would be utterly ridiculous. To hold a high position and yet oppose a powerful empire is simply overestimating one's own abilities."
Dotya put her hand to her mouth, adopting the affected manners of a wealthy young lady, and said...
' Najetta ', that was Najenda's former name.
Najetta and Esdeath were once two of the Empire's most renowned young female generals, but their differing beliefs led them down different paths.
After a northern expedition, Najetta, who was preparing to defect, brushed past Esdeath, who then noticed her and easily crippled her right hand and right eye.
From then on Najetta changed her Najenda, fitted herself with prosthetics, wore an eye patch, and secretly ran the revolutionary assassination squad ' Night Raid,' hoping to change this absurd country through a tortuous path.
Najenda expressed extreme anger at their sarcasm.
What angered him wasn't that she was overestimating herself, but rather because—
"Who are you calling an old woman...?"
Najenda unleashed a powerful fighting spirit; being called an old woman was the most taboo word for her, without exception.
Najenda raised her mechanical right arm, and the machine gun mounted on it suddenly fired bursts of bullets.
However, the mechanical arm was not as fast as the human body; almost at the same time she raised her arm, Syura made her move.
"Dimensional Array - Shambhala!"
Syura's Teigu is the Shambhala, a powerful Teigu Teigu spatial movement, unparalleled in the entire Empire and with unmatched practicality.
It is said that this Teigu can teleport people within its range to any space it designates, and its ultimate technique can even teleport people to another world from which they can never return.
Syura simply pointed the disc-like Teigu downwards, and a purple dimensional array immediately appeared on the ground, emanating bursts of fluorescent light that looked quite beautiful on the war-torn battlefield.
The bullets that had just been fired at Syura and Dotya were all swallowed up by this ' Shambhala ' and sent to other dimensions, Najenda's attacks completely ineffective against them.
"What's wrong, General Najetta? Aren't you going to use your ' Romantic Artillery Pumpkin'?"
' Romantic Artillery Pumpkin' was originally the Teigu used by Najetta when she was an Imperial General, but after Night Raid was established, she gave it to Mine to use, making her the sniper in the team.
"Since you don't have that cannon, you pose no threat to us. It's laughable that you're still coming to your death! Dotya, go and finish her off."
"I'm just about to go~"
Seeing Najenda's current state—unarmed and utterly wretched— Syura felt utterly disillusioned and silently turned away, not wanting to look at her again.
'Is that Shambhala- La? I can't believe Honest would give that Teigu to his son. And who is this little girl...?'
Najenda analyzed the current situation; at present, this little girl was the only one she didn't understand.
With blonde hair, a round face, and an exquisite lace dress, she was only 1.5 meters tall, yet her face looked like that of a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl. The bow headband and black and white striped socks added to her sweet and charming appearance.
Yet this very girl possessed a strange expression on her face, as if she had witnessed countless killings; her smile seemed to proclaim her fearlessness in the face of death.
"Nice to meet you, and probably the last time. My name is Dotya, and I'm an alchemist."
Dotya politely lifted her little skirt in a public trial, gave a standard aristocratic bow, and then revealed her fangs—
Those weren't tiger teeth at all, but rather long, thin, and incredibly sharp fangs like those of a bat. Such teeth looked extremely strange in the girl's mouth, and Dotya's eyes turned a chilling scarlet red.
'This is Teigu, I remember it...'
Najenda once served as an Imperial Shogun, has seen almost all Teigu, except for Teigu of Honest and the Emperor.
She remembered this Teigu— "Blood Absorption: Rapid Absorption ".
With her teeth attached, she became Bloodsucking -like being, able to suck the blood of others and turn her opponents into mummies.
Normally, Bloodsucking only has the effect of healing oneself and replenishing one's own blood; however, the power of this Teigu goes far beyond that.
It can enhance its power by Bloodsucking; the more people it sucks blood from, the stronger it becomes—powerful to the point of being invincible.
Dotya walked step by step toward Najenda.
"Were you angry just now because you were called an old woman? Heh... Let me tell you the truth, I'm decades older than you, you know?"
As she spoke, Dotya suddenly kicked Najenda in the direction of the kick.
This kick had absolutely no fighting technique whatsoever; it just looked like a little girl stomping her foot on the ground.
But Najenda dared not relax for a moment; instinct compelled her to retreat.
Sure enough, this kick was earth-shattering; the little black leather shoe with the lace bow actually smashed a crater half a meter deep into the ground.
The gray gravel and pebbles collapsed one after another, continuously expanding the surrounding area of collapse. If Najenda hadn't taken those few steps back, she really would have fallen in.
"You bastard, you've probably sucked the blood out of countless people by now..."
"Hmm~ If it weren't for those men, how could I have maintained my current appearance?"