The morning sun was incredibly warm, and the emperor, sitting in his study, was dealing with the work that had accumulated because of yesterday's 'hunt'.
There was no doubt that for an emperor, he was too 'diligent'. Even his wife advised him that there was no need to be like this, but he always replied with a smile, 'It's all work that needs to be done anyway, so what's the difference between doing it sooner or later?'
It could be said that it wasn't an overstatement to call such a man the empire's 'Wise King'. And at this moment, there was a man kneeling on one knee in front of his desk. Of course, before this, this 'Wise King' had repeatedly asked the other party not to kneel on one knee, but the other party refused on the grounds that 'it's not according to the rules'. Now, he no longer said anything, as it was completely meaningless.
"Your Majesty, the people who were in charge of surveillance last night have returned."
"Oh~ they've returned? What did they observe?"
"According to their observations, the other party is very cautious. Even when sleeping, he will be startled awake by the slightest sound of wind or grass. And the other party's weapon is never out of his reach. In fact, because he discovered several clues, the other party didn't even sleep in the latter half of the night and was on high alert. Later, when my subordinates found that the other party had already woken up, they didn't disturb him anymore."
Budo words brought a strange smile to the face of the emperor, who was holding a pen.
What was the other party on guard against in the palace? Was there even a need to ask? Of course, he was on guard against him, or rather, his subordinates.
What else could he do but smile about this? If he really wanted to make a move on the other party, could the other party even stand up to Budo?
"Then, combining today's information, what do you think of the other party? Is he a threat?"
"Yes! After all, even without a 'Teigu' or a 'Shingu', his combat power is in no way inferior to that of my subordinates. I suggest keeping one surveillance person to be in charge of tracking and monitoring him!"
"Alright, I'll listen to you."
For him personally, he was indeed very grateful for the other party's help yesterday, but as an 'emperor', it was impossible for him to do everything as he pleased. For example, investigating the other party's situation and judging whether the other party was a threat, after all, he wasn't living for himself alone.
However, as he nodded, he suddenly thought of something.
"Budo, what do you think about letting that Lancer join the Imperial Guards? His strength has been recognized by you, and if he's in the Imperial Guards, wouldn't you be able to monitor him better?"
Because of Lancer actions, he really wanted to give Lancer some 'reward', but giving him money was too vulgar. Maybe joining the Imperial Guards was a good 'reward'? After all, for an ordinary person who had just left a village, this was indeed a high-paying and not-so-dangerous job (he thought).
"Your Majesty's great kindness!"
There was no doubt that in Budo eyes, for an ordinary person to be able to join the Imperial Guards in one step was definitely a sign of the emperor's favor. But what Budo didn't expect was that when he told Lancer about the emperor's 'gift', the other party actually hesitated?
How could Lancer not hesitate? He still didn't know what his situation was, after all, he didn't have a good impression of the 'Empire'.
The nobles were causing trouble, the little emperor was just a puppet, the entire imperial ethics had collapsed, and the Imperial Capital was a living hell where people ate people. Of course, saying this doesn't mean that Lancer had a good impression of the 'Revolutionary Army'. Lancer was not happy with the entire world of 'Akame ga Kill!', as they actively brought foreign races into the empire. He only persevered in watching it to see how the 'Minister' would die. After all, from beginning to end, he had been feeling frustrated for several years (the same was true for Jiecao; at first, he felt very upset about the girls dying, and later on, he simply felt frustrated, as the entire world was full of malice).
Budo didn't really care about Lancer response of 'Can I think about it for a bit?' and just nodded. After all, aside from his crazy loyalty to the royal family, he was actually just a relatively serious person.
From that day on, Lancer began to 'tour' the entire Imperial Capital.
There was no doubt that this behavior was very 'suspicious'. Even Budo began to doubt his previous deduction again: Is this guy a spy sent by another region?
But upon careful thought, the places the other party went were all ordinary places. If he really was a spy who was planted, he wouldn't do something so obviously suspicious as wandering around, especially to ordinary places.
In the end, he could only come to one conclusion: because the other party had never seen anything before, his curiosity was quite strong.
Lancer didn't know what he had become in the eyes of others for the time being, but even if he did, he wouldn't care. He was just genuinely curious about one thing right now.
Although the slum areas of the Imperial Capital were equally chaotic, the normal residential areas were very 'normal'. At least, Lancer didn't see any nobles causing trouble, and ordinary people were living their ordinary lives.
'Could it be that before that 'Minister' came to power, the Imperial Capital wasn't in that state of a living hell?'
Lancer needed to stay in this world for 2 years. The simplest way was to find a deep mountain and lie low, and occasionally kill some Dangerous Beasts. In that case, 2 years would be no different from a vacation. Of course, the price was that he probably wouldn't get any good stuff.
But when he thought that this seemingly normal city would completely turn into a 'living hell' in an unknown number of years, he felt a sense of disgust from the bottom of his heart.
He wasn't a saint. He didn't have the noble sentiment of sacrificing himself for others. He was just an ordinary person, so he couldn't give up on something that was within his power to do.
'I just simply hope to earn more points. As long as I change the course of the world, I'll be able to get a lot of points. If it doesn't work out, I can still run away...'
Perhaps because he couldn't convince himself to get involved in a vortex because of 'others', a certain person simply used 'benefits' to convince himself. This is probably what a fool is, right?
After convincing himself, a certain 'fool' also appeared in front of a certain man...
"Please allow me to join the 'Imperial Guards'!"
For most people, Lancer joining the Imperial Guards was just a small matter. After all, the Imperial Guards sounded good as the 'emperor's direct army', but in reality, because of General Budo ancestral rule that 'the army is not allowed to interfere in domestic politics', the Imperial Guards did not have real power.
Generally speaking, any noble with a bit of hope would not send their heir to the Imperial Guards. Going there meant a complete farewell to a 'political future'.
So ordinary people wouldn't pay attention to this matter, and even those with ulterior motives wouldn't care about a 'country bumpkin' from the countryside. But in reality, with the other party's 'entry', history had already begun to change. This subtle change would eventually turn into a monstrous wave that would completely change the 'future'...