Journey Across Universes

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I travelled a bit roundabout to get to the capital, so as not to cross paths with General Esdeath's army that was on its way to suppress the Northern Tribes. Several times on my way I came across bandits who wanted to take my goods from me, but everything happened diametrically opposite, they gave me their things and money, and it turned out that they were not bandits at all, but valiant revolutionaries... the faces of these revolutionaries were really bandits. Even if they were rebels, they were of the lowest rank, who were not privy to the secrets of the revolution, but were simply sent to the field to crap on the Imperials, like robbing an Imperial caravan or killing an Imperial messenger on the way.

I decided to interrogate them a little... with torture, but I didn't find out anything interesting, except where their base is, where they store 'honestly' obtained good, but there are quite a lot of 'revolutionaries'-tire-usual bandits, I don't need money much now, at first it's enough to collect from the corpses of these brave workers of sword and axe. The next attack of bandits was similar, I got some coins from them too, and since now I could pay for the hotel, I decided to rest in the nearest town. I sort of had a pocket world in the shower, only my schizophrenia wouldn't let me go there, saying there wasn't much room and it was all taken up, so I usually had to sleep anywhere, which was pretty routine for me.

I stayed in town for a few days, I managed to negotiate with the local blacksmith to rent a room. I couldn't master anything in the north, it was difficult to forge anything in sub-zero temperatures. I had all my own blacksmithing supplies, but it was uncomfortable to forge in my hotel room, and my neighbours wouldn't be too happy about the incessant sounds of hammering.

Now I needed a new sword, the last one had worn out during the hunt, cutting through poisonous acidic swamp creatures and hard ice monsters was a challenge for a blade. I had a few more weapons in reserve, but they could only be used as arrows for a metal bow. In four days I had forged two blades, Yin and Yang, one with a black blade and the other with a white blade, which my schizophrenia had tied to the Domain Core, so they were stronger, and I was several times stronger with them in my hands.

I just came out of the forge, and wanted to go to my room to rest, as I was planning to leave tomorrow, but it turned out that this town was attacked by bandits. And I don't know why they want to do that, if they are revolutionaries, it's probably to eliminate the mayor who supports the Empire, but judging by the town, he's a pretty good mayor. It's rare, but it happens when someone who cares about the people comes to power, this small town was doing relatively well, I've been to cities where things are many times worse.

The revolutionary bandits want to take over the city most likely to profit from it, it happens when rotten people cover their rotten deeds with beautiful slogans of revolution. Most likely, the mayor was trying to induce the revolutionaries to help them, but he refused, which is quite reasonable, if you remember that those cities that help the revolutionaries are simply burnt to the ground by the Empire. It is easier for the Empire to destroy a city than to sort out who is a revolutionary and who is not, and at the same time they show an example to other cities.

Everyone in the city was preparing for a battle with bandits, women and children hiding, soldiers trying to form a defence, I, having taken my few things from the hotel, got out of the city, and ran towards the bandits, just on them to try out the new swords.

The main weapons of these bandits were all sorts of swords and axes, firearms were also, but mediocre, and the new swords strengthened me enough that in the place where the bullet hit, there was a small superficial wound that quickly healed.

The population of the town was only a few thousand people, the bandits were a few hundred, given that there were less than a hundred guards in the town, the chance to capture the town of these 'revolutionaries' was very high, but they were unlucky, I was here, and I had to check my swords.

- It's raining, good, it'll wash the blood off me. - I said calmly as I slaughtered a few hundred people with my new swords, -It's strange that these revolutionaries were so weak, considering they live near the north. Maybe they came from somewhere in the centre of the empire. - I decided to search the corpses of the bandits, I found more coins, I think, for the first time in the capital will be enough. I didn't go back to the city, but went further, I couldn't sleep there now.

The capital of the Empire was located just south of the centre of the Empire itself, in my world, the largest city on Earth, called Chongqing, the area of that city was about a hundred thousand square kilometres, and the area of the capital of the Empire is twice as large. The climate in the capital was moderate, there were fertile lands and mountains with forests full of all sorts of non-dangerous animals suitable for food. In the centre of the empire, all the beasts were roughly the size they were in my past world. Really dangerous monsters near the capital are very rare.

Northwest of the capital was a mountain plateau that was home to some funny creatures, they were essentially living trees, sort of like what they are called Ents. Even though they were trees, they still wanted to eat me, but their swords cut well, so I was able to chop up some Ents for the forge furnace to burn with the bones of the monsters.

My quest for firewood was interrupted by a loud sound coming from the top of one of the cliffs, and then some kind of energy beam flew out from there. I got closer and scouted out what was going on.

There was a hut on the mountain, three people were fighting near the hut, one of them was my friend Akame, she was sent to kill Najenda, a general who had defected to the revolution, Najenda had a bodyguard in armour and a spear, and Najenda was shooting from some kind of energy cannon. Both the armour and the cannon were most likely Teygu's. Najenda apparently couldn't get away from her friend Esdeath in one piece, she was missing her right arm, replaced by a massive prosthetic arm, and had a patch over her right eye, these injuries prevented her from using the Teigu cannon to its full potential, so she was able to fire two more shots before running out of steam.

As Akame fought the armoured bodyguard, Najenda began to persuade Akame to join the revolutionary side, and then the bodyguard joined in, he was also a former Imperial soldier... and Akame was already having doubts about the Empire, so she agreed to join the revolutionaries on the condition that they would accept her sister Kurome. That was the end of the fight, the green-haired guy came out of the hut and called everyone to lunch, and they all went to lunch like they hadn't just fought to the death.

- What did I just peek at?

≪Some weird recruitment, Merryde still almost convinced Akame to leave the Empire last time, but she suggested she go to the Oaburgs, who are regular mercenaries, and in case the Empire would pay them, they'd be the ones working for them. Akame apparently doesn't want to work for the Empire anymore, either for nothing or for money.≫

- Just because she changed sides doesn't change the fact that she killed a bunch of people, including the Guardians of Putra.

≪Remember, the prime target for elimination is the Prime Minister, his subordinates we can optionally enslave if they're pretty girls.≫

- And this Akame is frankly stronger than me, I can beat her on stamina alone.

≪Actually, I was a master swordsman, but there's only a few crumbs left of my old skills. I could get some swordsmanship from the Cardinal System, but it's more feints than really useful skills, but it's more than enough against ordinary people, but to fight professionals, we need training, preferably with professionals. ≫ I was already very close to the capital.

I was already very close to the capital, a couple of dozen kilometres away, and I was in the suburbs of the largest city in the Empire, and maybe even on this planet. In the suburbs, the houses were one-storey, the buildings were not dense, but the closer to the centre, the denser it was.

From the suburbs to the very centre of the capital, where the Imperial Palace was located, was about two hundred and fifty kilometres. In terms of size, the capital of the Empire itself was like some state, the largest Japanese island of Honshu having an area only slightly larger than the capital of the Empire. I decided to go to the very centre to look at the imperial palace, it was located on a hill and was surrounded by three high walls, so I could only look at them.

Well, in general, the capital was beautiful, I can't help but admit it, it felt like I was in nineteenth-century London, there was electricity, I didn't see any cars, only carriages, and the architecture was European, even though I was in Asia.

As I looked round the city, it was obvious to the naked eye that I was a stranger and had only arrived in the capital today, so I had found a hunter, or rather a huntress, to prey on me in the form of a gullible country bumpkin from the south.

- Oh, Mr Southerner, how do you like the capital? Would you like your sister to give you a private tour? I'll show you the best parts of our city. - Some divinely beautiful blonde woman, whose divine beauty was a size six, if not seven, came up to me.

- Ah? - I shifted my gaze from the girl's chest to the beautiful smiling face of the 'sister', - I'm sorry, madam, I don't use the services of prostitutes, no matter how beautiful they were... though I'll make an exception for you, how much per night do you charge? - I asked politely.

- WHAT?! I'm not a slut! - indignant beauty.

- Ah, sorry, just you are very much like her, too sexy and provocative dressed ... or rather undressed. - I looked at the girl's breasts, which were falling out of the black bandage top... I hadn't seen such big breasts for a long time.

- What a redneck, you want to help him and he insults you in return. You know, I'm very offended by you... but if you treat your sister to a meal at that restaurant over there, I'll forgive you. - Apparently, this metropolitan bimbo wants to eat at the expense of a naive fool.

- Ahem, can I expect to get a little something from my sister tonight? - I asked in a whisper, playing the part of a shallow, horny oaf.

- Oh, anything's possible. - The girl smiled even more slyly, realising that the prey had taken the bait, 'Come on, let's go. - The stranger dragged me to the restaurant.

≪The lady's gorgeous, but I think she's just trying to screw us over. ≫

I'm of the same opinion, but she smells funny, quite appetising, and I could do with some food on the road, maybe I'll get something useful out of this bimbo.

- What's your name, mister? - I asked

- You can call me Gin.

- What do you do? Why did you come to the capital? - The girl continued to ask, but she didn't give her name.

- Well, I'm a blacksmith, I thought to get a job in the capital, there are more people here, and more work, and therefore more money, because in my village instead of swords I had to forge horseshoes, and I want to forge swords, axes, armour... in general, what in my village no one can afford.

- Is he a good blacksmith? - the blonde asked without much interest.

- Well, not bad, my grandfather was a blacksmith, so he taught me everything. - I answered, and we just came into the restaurant, where the girl ordered a trio of steaks with blood, a couple of bottles of wine, and almost in ten minutes ate it all, and then went to wash her hands, and disappeared, simply throwing me. I had to pay the bill, and the blonde clearly wanted to get back at me by buying very expensive wine.

- Yeah, I learnt a lot, yeah. - I finished eating my steak, it tasted bland, and cost as if it was a piece of super-class monster, which was extracted and cooked personally by the Prime Minister and the Emperor.

≪The main lesson is not to trust local beauties and not to go to local restaurants.≫

I paid the bill and spent a third of the money I had. When I saw the guards, I went into the back alley and activated invisibility just in case, because those guards were obviously looking for someone to harass, but I have no documents. I went to the less prosperous districts of the capital, away from the centre, where there were less guards, and there I wanted to get some papers, necessary to be able to legally walk around the capital.

In a not particularly prosperous neighbourhood, or simply put slums, there were crosses where the corpses of criminals, mostly revolutionaries, were hanging, and there were both male and female corpses.

- So much for the capital. - It was not a very pleasant sight, I was used to corpses, but to see women's tortured bodies was unpleasant, not to mention the odour that perfumed the place. But for some people these methods of intimidation worked well, but for others it motivated them to fight against the Empire, which could easily do such atrocities to its citizens.

Among the disadvantaged areas, there were most of all revolutionaries... and bandits, I don't care which of them will make me the necessary papers, preferably even ordinary bandits, who will also try to rob me, and then I can not even pay them, but just kill them, and also clean them myself.

After a couple of hours of walking around the slums with a hood over my head, I found the right person, or rather I found a person who knows who I need, and he organised a meeting for me on the outskirts of the city at midnight. It smelled of some kind of deceit, but I would win anyway, I would get either the necessary papers or the money of those who wanted to deceive me.

At the appointed time, I came to the agreed place, and just in case I kept hiding my face under the hood, soon a figure also in a cloak and hood came out to me and asked in a woman's voice:

- I was told that you need documents, five hundred coins, and you can pick them up tomorrow at the same place. - She smelled rather appetising, or rather she smelled exactly like the blonde who had lunch on me, and for exactly the same amount of money she had just asked for.

- Is it just me, or does something smell in here? I think it smells like cheating. - I took off my hood. I'd say someone's trying to screw me over a second time.

- You recognise me? It's your loss. - A clawed animal paw rushed towards my neck and tried to tear my throat, the blow was mean and fast, but I was able to dodge, the figure made a second blow with a second clawed paw, from which I was also able to dodge, while the cloak with the hood fell off the figure, revealing the same beautiful blonde, only now she had animal ears on her head, and her hands looked like dangerous clawed paws of the beast, - Blacksmith, so? I doubt a blacksmith can react to my blows.

- Oh, that's the capital's famous hospitality, first they fool you, then they rob you, and then they try to kill you... though it's like that in every other town here. - I dodged the girl who was moving at superhuman speed. My eyes saw a little bit of energy flows, so I could understand that the girl's belt is some kind of Teigu or Shingu, which gives her the ability to partially turn into a beast, as if she was using the technique of the Guardians of Putra.

- Who are you? - The blonde decided to ask.

- I told you my name. Well, have a nice stay, con artist. - I used invisibility to get away. The girl tried to follow me, trying to smell my scent, but my clothes neutralise all smells, because if I can track people by smell, there's a chance that someone else has that ability, so I treated my clothes with a special solution of monster glands.

I tried the official way of legalisation and went to the capital's administration to get new documents, telling them a sob story about how the cart with all my documents and belongings had been destroyed by a monster. I was immediately refused, saying that I should go back to my city and restore the documents there ... but, it was only necessary to give a bribe, as it turned out that the documents can be made here, but they will be made as much as half a year, but, it was only necessary to give another bribe, as the documents were ready in half an hour. In the end I had only a few coins left, enough for ice cream, but now I could freely buy property in the capital, or get a job.

I had some gold left over from Putra's tomb, which I melted down into bars and sold to a fence, and used the proceeds to buy a forge in the centre of the capital, its former owner hanging nailed to a cross next to his family because he had helped the revolutionaries. The forge was on the ground floor, with a nice little house on top, and in the basement the blacksmith allowed the revolutionaries to hide. I liked the house very much, it would be convenient to forge my artefacts here, and I could live here, and I would always be aware of what was going on in the capital.

As it turned out, Akame had recently killed several Imperials who were responsible for creating a group of child assassins, among those killed was Gozuki, Akame's teacher, from whom she had taken Murasama. After this incident, Akame took her sister and tried to run away with her to the rebels, but was chased by a girl who was on the same team as Akame. When this teammate threatened to shoot Akame's sister if she didn't surrender, Akame stabbed her teammate, as her sister was much more precious to her. Akame was shot in the stomach in the fight with her former friend, so when the chase caught up with her, Akame couldn't physically carry her sister anymore, and then they started shooting at her, and the wounded girl fell down the cliff into the river, where she was picked up in mid-air by a cloaked figure who smelled very nice. The blonde con artist with Teigu allowing her to transform into a beast was a revolutionary, which was what was supposed to help Akame with her escape.

After a while, the capital began to put up flyers with the most dangerous criminals wanted by the Empire, including Akame, Najenda, and Bulat, the guy who fought Akame in his armour, he was one of the officers of the Empire's army, who also defected to the revolutionaries, taking his Teigu Incursio, an artifact armour.