"If I said yes, what would you do?" Eriri didn't directly deny it but instead tested the waters.
"We could cooperate."
The Reincarnator team leader's eyes showed strong hope. By now, he had realized that Eriri was the representative of her group.
He had no courage to provoke her. Just from the defensive ability Eriri had casually placed on Leone and Sheele, it was clear how terrifying her true strength was.
He had long since abandoned the idea of earning points from the mission. Now, all he hoped for was to complete the mission and leave this world. Even if that wasn't possible, at least he wanted to save his own life.
The three female Reincarnators beside him quickly chimed in, hiding their jealousy deep inside.
"Yes, we can help your team complete the mission."
However, in their current panic, none of them realized that the situation of Mine, Akame, and Kurome was not that of prisoners.
Seeing the hopeful expressions in the Reincarnators' eyes, Eriri's face showed a hint of amusement as she spoke words that would plunge them from hope to despair.
"Sorry to say, but we're not Reincarnators, and you're not leaving here today."
Eriri then turned her gaze toward Leone and Sheele.
"Leone, Sheele, actually, the short swords you're holding were also modified by me. If you focus and imagine shooting out sword energy, you can make it happen."
After saying that, Eriri paid no more attention to either side, continuing to leisurely eat her watermelon with a spoon.
Hearing Eriri's words, Leone and Sheele's eyes immediately lit up, while the expressions of the Reincarnator team also changed.
Yet they weren't too worried. They knew that the strength lay in the swords, not in Leone and Sheele. They believed they could still easily avoid the sword energy, even if it came at them.
However, in the next moment, they realized just how naïve their earlier thoughts were.
Leone tightly gripped her short sword, closed her eyes to concentrate, then opened them and swung the sword sharply toward the Reincarnators.
A brilliant, glowing white blade of energy shot from the sword, reaching the Reincarnator team leader almost instantly.
The speed of the energy blade caused the Reincarnators' faces to pale. The team leader swiftly moved to dodge the attack, though no longer with the same ease as before.
The other three female Reincarnators broke into a cold sweat. They hadn't even had time to react to the sword energy. If Leone had targeted them instead of the leader, they had no confidence they would have dodged in time.
The team leader could feel the deadly threat posed by the sword energy. One blade wasn't too bad, but if multiple came at once, he wasn't sure if he could keep avoiding them.
The sword energy struck the walls of the palace hall, but Eriri's barrier stopped the impact, preventing the walls from being destroyed.
"Amazing!" Leone gaped at the short sword in her hand. "So this is the real power of the sword..."
If she had known how to unleash the sword energy earlier, she wouldn't have had to go through so much trouble killing Ogre and Honest—one slash of energy would've been enough to settle it.
This turned her from a close-range fighter into a long-range attacker with several times the firepower.
"Sheele, this sword is incredible! You should give it a try too," Leone said excitedly to Sheele.
At the same time, she focused again and swung another sword energy blade toward the Reincarnators, this time aiming at the bespectacled female Reincarnator.
Unsurprisingly, the targeted Reincarnator was instantly split in two by the energy, joining the other four who had already fallen.
Meanwhile, Sheele successfully unleashed her own sword energy, cutting down the ponytailed female Reincarnator in one strike.
The remaining Reincarnator team leader and the long-haired female Reincarnator were immediately panicked, their faces showing extreme fear—a stark contrast to their earlier arrogance.
"Please... please spare me. I won't do it again," the team leader tearfully knelt on the ground, begging Leone and Sheele for mercy.
In the face of death, dignity meant nothing.
Before becoming a Reincarnator, the team leader had been an ordinary person, indistinguishable from the crowd—living a mundane life, doing a mundane job.
In the beginning, after he became a Reincarnator, he had vomited and suffered nightmares for weeks after killing someone for the first time.
But at some point, he had become numb, able to kill innocent people without batting an eye, even taking pleasure in the act of slaughter.
As he became a national-level strongman and a Reincarnator team leader, his personality became more and more arrogant. Perhaps it was the years of mediocrity in his previous life that made him enjoy showing off and being idolized.
As for the long-haired female Reincarnator, her situation was even worse. She sat on the ground in despair, her mind blank.
Leone and Sheele had no intention of showing any mercy. They were not the type to spare their enemies just because they begged.
Their close friend had been killed by the Imperial Guards. But it was this group of Reincarnators who had ordered the guards to capture Leone in the first place.
Without hesitation, Leone and Sheele swung their swords once more, sending sword energy toward the Reincarnator leader and the long-haired female Reincarnator.
The Reincarnator team leader barely managed to dodge Leone's strike, but the long-haired female Reincarnator, who had already given up, was killed by Sheele's attack.
The two then teamed up and attacked the Reincarnator leader. Unable to dodge in time, the leader was swiftly cut down by their combined assault.
Thus, the eight-person Reincarnator team that had descended into the world of Akame ga Kill! was completely wiped out!
And with this, the mission for the chat group was completed without a single member having to lift a finger. On top of that, they recovered all eight fragments of the Lord God.
Since no one actually had to intervene, the mission's point reward was shared evenly among the participating members like Arifureta and the others. However, with each of them already receiving 10 million points from the Lord God's Shard, the mission reward of just over 10,000 points seemed almost insignificant.
Since Eriri had started a live broadcast when they entered the palace, all the members of the chat group had watched the entire event unfold.
[Chika Fujiwara (Level 4, Stage 5): 100 million points from a single mission, I'm so jealous!]
[Erina Nakiri (Level 1, Stage 9): Jealous +1]
[Ruri Gokou (Level 4, Stage 3): Those Reincarnators were pretty weak, huh.]
[Arche (Level 4, Stage 7): Not really, it's more like we're too strong!]
[Yuuki Asuna (Level 4, Stage 5): Something feels off about what you just said.]
[Arche (Level 4, Stage 7): It's just your imagination.]
[Eriri (Level 8, Stage 6): Everyone, come out! Time for some rewards! @everyone]
[Kaguya Shinomiya (Level 4, Stage 2): Thank you, Nee-san!]
[Elaina (Level 4, Stage 6): Here I come!]
Without any delay, Eriri divided the 10 million points earned from the Lord God's Shards into 21 portions and sent them out as a lucky red envelope in the chat.
Soon, 20 of the envelopes had been claimed, with only Myne's portion remaining unclaimed.
But Eriri had a good guess as to why. Ever since Myne finished reading Volume 1 of A Certain Magical Index two days ago, she had been asking everyone in the chat for more books. She was likely buried in reading and hadn't been paying attention to the chat.
So Eriri claimed Myne's share for her, figuring she would keep it safe for her. After all, she treated Myne like her daughter anyway.
The final red envelope Eriri opened contained a generous 500,000 points, which was enough to elevate an ordinary person to the peak of national power.
It was yet another reminder of how unfair the chat group was to those who worked hard at cultivation. While others would spend a lifetime unable to reach such heights, here, all it took was a lucky red envelope.
Apart from Eriri, the other members who participated in the lucky draw received tens of thousands of points each on average. The luckiest of all was Luo Hao, who snagged more than a tenth of the total—over a million points.
However, this was only a drop in the ocean for her.
Meanwhile, Chika Fujiwara, who had the worst luck, only received a little over 40,000 points, prompting her to loudly accuse the group of rigging the draw, nearly earning her another "ban hammer" from Little Skirt, her favorite punishment.
...
"Ah... what happened to the short swords?"
After Leone and Sheele had finished off the Reincarnators, the short swords in their hands suddenly turned to dust.
Both of them were dumbfounded. Just moments ago, the swords had felt so real in their hands, and now they had vanished without a trace.
Leone looked at Eriri with an apologetic expression, "I'm so sorry. It seems like we broke the swords you modified."
Leone was feeling quite distressed. After personally experiencing the power of the swords, she knew just how amazing they were. And now, they had disappeared in her hands. If she had to compensate for them, there was no way she could afford it—not even if she sold herself.
With other people, she might have tried to come up with a clever excuse to avoid paying. After all, tricking and stealing money in the capital was second nature to her.
But Eriri was her savior, the one who had helped her avenge her friend. Leone's conscience wouldn't allow her to deceive Eriri.
Besides, Eriri was far too powerful. In the face of such overwhelming strength, any tricks she might try would be pointless.
Standing beside Leone, Sheele also looked apologetic. Though she could be a bit ditzy, she wasn't completely clueless and understood the value of the short sword.
"Oh? So, what do you think you should do? It took a lot of effort for me to modify those weapons, you know," Eriri said with a mischievous smile, watching as Leone and Sheele grew more nervous.
Beside her, Arifureta and the others smiled knowingly, letting Eriri tease the two without saying a word. They were curious to see what kind of solution the two would come up with.
"Well..." Leone and Sheele both looked conflicted, their minds racing as they tried to come up with an answer.
After a moment, Leone's face suddenly showed determination as she spoke to Eriri, "I can't afford to repay you for the swords, so I'll offer myself instead. From now on, I'm yours. You can do whatever you want with me."
She sneaked a glance at Eriri's stunning face, which made her feel a bit dazzled. Honestly, the idea of becoming Eriri's possession didn't seem like a bad deal. In fact, it felt like she was getting a bargain.
With this thought, Leone felt a little pleased with herself.
Sheele quickly added, "Me too! I'll also offer myself to you, just like Leone."
Seeing how serious they were, Eriri couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Of course, she had noticed Leone's little glances.
"Alright, I was just teasing you. Those short swords were just some trash I modified on a whim, and their disappearance has nothing to do with you. So, no need to offer yourselves as compensation."
In fact, the material of the two short swords wasn't even able to handle the modifications Eriri had made to them. She had only been able to maintain their form by forcibly using her energy. Now that the energy had dissipated, the swords, though powerful on the surface, had crumbled away.
"Uh..." Leone was left speechless, while Sheele blinked in surprise, feeling a little disappointed.
Inside, Leone was screaming, I wasn't forcing myself! Not at all!
She had been an orphan living in a slum, and now, her best friend was dead, and the entire slum had been wiped out by Ogre. She was effectively homeless.
Becoming Eriri's subordinate was the best possible outcome for her.
Now, everything had fallen apart, leaving her wanting to cry.
"Well... okay, I understand..." Leone said reluctantly, biting her lip.
But before she could finish, a sudden idea sparked in her mind, and her expression changed from frustration to determination.
"Sister, you saved my life. If it weren't for you, I would've died under that bald guy's axe. So... please let me stay by your side and repay you!"