"A retired soldier came to my village. He was a great martial arts master and taught me swordsmanship; I also learned blacksmithing from him."
"At that time, I thought that to earn a living in the Capital, I had to learn as many things as possible."
"Hmm, you must be quite talented to be able to learn so many things."
"But... Esdeath, you look like the type of person who can do everything as well."
Esdeath leaned down slightly, her expression looking a bit troubled.
"Not really, I'm not very good at the arts. When Nyau plays the flute, I don't feel its beauty at all."
The conversation stiffened. Suddenly, Tatsumi thought: why not use this opportunity to get more information from Esdeath? Even the vision of pulling Esdeath to Night Raid's side appeared in Tatsumi's mind.
If only she could become his ally, how wonderful it would be.
"Esdeath, weren't you born in the Capital?"
"That's right, I'm from the northern frontier. Have you ever heard of a tribe called the Paltas tribe?"
Tatsumi shook his head. Esdeath explained that the Paltas tribe was a race of people specializing in hunting dangerous Danger Beasts. She was a member of the tribe and grew up there. Not only that, her father was the chieftain.
"Since you spoke of your past, I shall do the same. Back then..."
In Esdeath's mind, she recalled the days of her childhood. At that time, though she was still a child, she was strictly trained to kill dangerous Danger Beasts in an environment full of wind, frost, and snow.
"Father, I've caught the prey!"
The prey here wasn't a common chicken or deer, but a lizard with sharp teeth and twice Esdeath's height. Even so, she easily killed it by slitting its throat with a knife.
"Oh, you did well! It's quite impressive for your age. But Father is even better."
Esdeath's father was a very strong-looking man. He pointed behind him to a lizard at least five times larger than the one Esdeath had hunted. The smell of fresh blood was still new on its neck; the lizard could only move feebly.
"Waa!!"
"We are preparing to butcher it for materials. So come here and lend a hand."
"Yes!"
"The lizard has been weakened and tied up so it cannot resist; do it quickly."
The lizard let out a few final roars, the piercing sound making Esdeath cover her ears. Her father, however, calmly pulled something glowing out from inside it.
"As always, the scream is terrible..."
"We need to take the core out from the Danger Beast while it is still alive, otherwise it will be worthless. I know it's very painful, but there's no other way."
"This thing attacked and preyed on other species, but this time we are the predators and we are stronger. This is its fate for being on the weaker side."
"Alright, Esdeath. Take its eyes and scales."
"Yes, I'll do it quickly."
Being born and raised in an environment of eat or be eaten, kill or be killed, had formed part of Esdeath's dominant personality later on.
It wasn't just shown in the act of hunting, but also in how she observed the world. Like when she was watching two ant colonies fighting.
"Oh, a battle between bugs?"
"Yes, Father."
"But it seems there is a winner. Look, the queen has been dragged out and executed by the enemy army."
"Is this the fate of the weak, Father?"
"That's right. Your mother was also killed by a Danger Beast in the same way. But what can be done? Your mother was hunted because she was too weak. And that was the result."
The strong always win and survive; the weak will be eliminated. That was the truth she always heard, always absorbed, always practiced.
Esdeath could strike down any prey without hesitation. She was a born hunter, but something was still missing at that time.
A tragedy, a turning point, a sublimation.
"It was worth waiting in the mountains for days. I finally caught a rare evil bird."
"I bet Father will be very proud."
Esdeath excitedly dragged her large prey along. But when she returned to her familiar tribe, it had turned into a patch of crimson.
"What... what is this?!"
Esdeath didn't care and threw the prey she had worked so hard to hunt onto the ground, rushing in to search for survivors. A trembling man raised his hand upon seeing her.
"Are you okay?!"
"A tribe from the north crossed the border and attacked... the chieftain took the lead... defeated dozens of them... but in the end, they still overwhelmed him..."
"Father!!"
She ran in panic to where her father was lying. Blood was splattered all over his body, with three arrows lodged in his chest. She had never seen her father so battered from the time she was little until now.
"Esdeath, as you have seen... we were weaker... so we lost... what can be done..."
"Become the strongest, Esdeath. So... you... can... survive..."
His final words were the trigger that made Esdeath explode. Combined with the things he had hammered into her mind since she first began to perceive, it formed this brutal Great General.
"After that, I continued hunting Danger Beasts to survive day by day. But because the amount of prey became increasingly scarce, I joined the Imperial Army."
"That is my past."
"So... you had a grudge against the northern tribe from before. Is that why you took revenge on them?"
"Hmm? They are my enemies, but I didn't do it for revenge."
"But... but I heard you buried hundreds of thousands of people from that tribe alive..."
"That was only to cut costs and set an example for others. I would still do it whether they had a grudge against me or not."
"I deeply regret the death of my father and the tribe, but it was also because they were too weak. Is there anything else you want to ask? If it's about me, I'll answer anything."
Tatsumi silently swallowed his saliva; this was a perfect opportunity to understand Esdeath's power, he couldn't pass it up.
"Then... I want to see your Teigu, is that okay?"
Esdeath didn't answer. When Tatsumi thought she wouldn't agree, she pulled his hand up and placed it on the black symbol mark on her chest.
"It's here."
"Eh?"
"It's been a few years. At that time, I had just become a Great General, and I tried to accept the Teigu that the Empire currently possessed that no one owned yet."
Esdeath said that back then she didn't find any that were suitable; those Teigu later ended up in the hands of her subordinates: Daidara's axe, Liver's ring, and Nyau's flute.
Until she saw it.
A jar preserved in a hermetically sealed glass cage; however, the horrific chill it radiated still filled the surroundings with frost.
Demon's Extract. This Teigu was very special because it wasn't a fixed object, but the blood of a Super Danger Beast that lived far to the north mixed with liquid Orichalcum. If one drank the blood and was compatible with it, they would gain the ability to manipulate ice.
Those who had tried it before all lost their minds to madness, even with just a small cup. At that time, Esdeath made a bold decision, which was to chug the entire jar of blood.
Demon's Extract called out to her, just as Incursio called out to Tatsumi. So she couldn't let it down. The Prime Minister at that time witnessed this process with his own eyes and, from then on, became extremely wary of Esdeath.
She drank the blood, feeling the urge to kill and destroy that had overwhelmed those who tried it before. But this time, she subdued it in return with an even more terrifying instinct.