Byn calmly sidestepped, effortlessly avoiding the so-called "ambush." A move like this didn't even require him to use "Intangibility."

  Chelsea missed her mark but nded gracefully, just like a cat.

  Getting up, she gazed at Byn with a pout and compined, “Really now, why did you dodge?”

  “Why wouldn’t I dodge…?” Byn countered.

  Even though Chelsea had spent a few days with him in her little bck cat form, he had never let his guard down around her.

  Especially here, on Night Raid’s turf—staying cautious was the smart move.

  “You did such terrible things to me before, and now you don’t want to take responsibility?” Chelsea’s voice carried a wounded tone.

  “What?! You actually did something to Chelsea?!”

  Mine gasped in shock.

  “Oh? So something interesting happened in just a few days?” Leone smirked, clearly intrigued.

  “Damn, I’m so jealous!” Lubbock muttered enviously.

  Najenda, however, remained silent. She knew Chelsea well enough to tell this was just one of her pranks.

  In fact, Chelsea had even mentioned wanting to give Byn a "surprise"—which Najenda now suspected meant a series of eborate tricks.

  “Something terrible…?”

  Byn was momentarily confused.

  Then it hit him—she was probably talking about the time he bathed her…

  “Not only did you touch me all over, but you even groped me in my sleep! And now you’re acting like nothing ever happened? You heartless man.”

  Chelsea sounded even more distraught, pying the role so convincingly that, aside from Najenda, the rest of Night Raid actually believed her.

  Byn could feel Mine gring at him in pure disdain.

  Leone looked like she was enjoying the show.

  Lubbock was seething with jealousy.

  Akame, Sheele, But, and Najenda, on the other hand, remained unfazed.

  “You were still a little bck cat back then. How was I supposed to know it was you?” Byn sighed in exasperation.

  Sure, he had figured out that the little bck cat was actually a transformed human. But at the time, he had no way of knowing whether it was a man or a woman—let alone that it would turn out to be a beautiful girl.

  Her outfit stood out too, especially the over-ear headphones, which felt oddly out of pce in this world’s setting.

  Honestly, Byn was a little surprised. So this world had things like headphones, huh?

  The technology in this world was a complete mess—if someone tried to map it out like a tech tree, it would be total chaos.

  “But now you know—I’m actually a member of the Revolutionary Army. To be precise, I’m part of Night Raid now.”

  Chelsea smiled. “Let’s reintroduce ourselves. My name is Chelsea. But if you still want to call me Shady, I won’t mind.”

  “No thanks, let’s just stick with Chelsea,” Byn said, feeling a bit awkward.

  “You’re not even a little surprised? That little bck cat was actually a beautiful girl like me all along~” Chelsea teased with a sultry tone.

  “I definitely didn’t see that coming…” Byn admitted.

  “Hm~”

  Chelsea gave him a meaningful smile, staring at his face for a long moment.

  His reaction was too calm—it felt like a waste.

  “Alright, alright, let’s get back to business. I won’t mess with you anymore,” Chelsea said, ending the short charade.

  She took a seat next to Byn, and once everyone was settled, Najenda spoke up.

  “Sheele should have already told you—we want to recruit you into the Revolutionary Army.”

  Najenda’s tone was serious. “We’ve been watching your actions, and it’s clear that you’re nothing like the corrupt and tyrannical officials. You’re a righteous man with a conscience. But in the imperial court, the conscience faction has no real power. If this continues, the Empire will only spiral further into ruin. That’s why we believe the Empire must be overthrown.”

  “You’re not wrong about that, but I’ve heard that you’ve allied with foreign tribes, haven’t you?” Byn asked slowly.

  The Revolutionary Army’s cooperation with foreign tribes was no secret within the Empire.

  And in his view, that was a major issue.

  A civil war between the Empire and the Revolutionary Army was one thing. But involving foreign powers turned it into something else entirely.

  If both the Empire and the Revolutionary Army ended up exhausting each other, leaving an opening for foreign tribes to invade, wouldn’t it be just like the fall of the Ming Dynasty?

  Yes, the Qing Dynasty did establish its pce in history, but that didn’t erase the brutal massacres of civilians during the transition.

  If the situation had any chance of heading in that direction, there was no way Byn could support the Revolutionary Army.

  “Yes, we’ve allied with the Western Tribes. Our retions with the Northern and Southern Tribes are also retively good. Right now, the Empire’s so-called ‘strongest’—Esdeath—is locked in war with the Northern Tribes, which works in our favor,” Najenda admitted.

  “Have you signed any agreements with them?” Byn pressed further.

  “We have. Once we successfully overthrow the Empire, we’ll return a portion of the western territories to the Western Tribes. That nd originally belonged to them,” Najenda expined honestly.

  …

  Byn fell silent.

  Even if those nds had once belonged to the Western Tribes, history didn’t work like that.

  Take the Han Dynasty, for example—during its early years, the Hexi Corridor was controlled by the Xiongnu.

  But during Emperor Wu’s reign, generals like Wei Qing and Huo Qubing recimed it. Now imagine, after decades or even centuries, someone suggesting it should be returned to the Xiongnu—who would accept that?

  The more Byn studied the Empire’s map, the more it reminded him of his homend before he arrived in this world. The resembnce was uncanny. He could easily view the Empire as an ancient dynasty and the Western Tribes as an equivalent of the Xiongnu.

  If the Empire truly fell, how much of its territory would foreign powers try to cim?

  Byn’s concerns likely stemmed from his ingrained perception of foreign tribes in ancient history.

  The most infamous example? The “Five Barbarians Uprising,” which nearly led to the complete extermination of the Han people.

  To Byn, it was simple—an internal conflict should remain internal. Foreign nations had no pce in it.

  The phrase “those who are not of our kind harbor different intentions” might sound extreme, but history had proven its validity time and again.

  And as it turned out, his concerns weren’t unfounded.

  In the original timeline, if Esdeath hadn’t crushed the 400,000-strong Northern army, the Empire’s northern regions would have suffered the same fate as Esdeath’s own people had in the past.

  Not to mention how, during the war between the Imperial Army and the Revolutionary Army, the Western Tribes took advantage of the chaos to invade. And historically, when foreign forces invaded, massacres were commonpce.

  Even after the Empire fell, things didn’t end there—the Northern and Western Tribes ended up forming an alliance.

  The irony was undeniable.

  Esdeath had led the charge to cripple both of those foreign forces, single-handedly stopping their invasions.

  But with the Revolutionary Army taking over, the new Empire pursued peace and even ceded nd to those same tribes.

  So then, why did the Northern and Western Tribes suddenly decide to form an alliance?

  The implications were… interesting, to say the least.

  PinkSnake