บท 28: #26 Ice

------Night Raid's base------

Leone just came back from Capital and was explaining what she saw.

"So you say that Ren was together with Esdeath....but the question is why?" Akame said.

"That's what I would like to know too but to from my perspective it looked like they were on the date" Leone said in a confused voice.

"Date?!" Everyone shout out at the same time.

*silence*

"HAHAHA, impossible, don't you remember how Najenda described her? There is no way someone like her would go on a lovely date." Lubbock laughed at the image of Esdeath on the date.

"Then what else were they doing? She was also dressed up like for the date." Leone said while being irritated by Lubbock's distrust in her report

"Stop! We need to deal with it somehow. Ren is strong and if he was to join Empire we would have problems. There are a few options for what to do. First, we will plan the assassination on Ren. Second, we will wait until the leader comes back and hear out her opinion. Third, we can try to hire him." Akame calmed down everyone.

"What?! We can't hire him!!! Did you forget that he almost killed Sheele?!" Mine immediately cried out when she heard the third option.

"If we can have one less enemy, I wouldn't mind." Sheele said in a quiet voice.

"No, we can't trust someone like that... he didn't choose any side, be it rebellion, empire or neutral. He does what he wants." Bulat disagreed with Sheele.

"I agree with Bulat, although I am grateful to Ren for saving my and Sayo's life but when he saved us he had absolutely no reason to do that and even through he saved us, he didn't ask for anything. I assume that he thinks about this civil war as a joke, as an entertainment." Leyasu said out his opinion since he was no longer weakling like in the past.

Of course, both Sayo and Tatsumi sided with Leyasu's opinion.

"I see that hiring is not an option, so that leaves us with the first or second option. Also, there have been few incidents where some people tried to frame us and make civilians against us."

------In the forest near Capital------

Everywhere could be seen ice shards, be it on the ground or on trees simply everywhere. Two human figures could be seen amongst the shards. They were Ren and Esdeath during their sparring. The forest was already quite devastated and it seemed that they weren't planning to stop anytime soon.

Ren was only using water energy in this sparring because he wanted to gain a better understanding of Esdeath's ice control. This was already 6th day since he started working with Jaegers but it was more like a training rather than working not like he complained.

Esdeath's rapier and Ren's saber were exchanging blows in inhuman speed. All the strikes could cause mortal wounds but they didn't feel their life being threatened because they trusted each other. Not trust like when someone would be unable to dodge blow the other would stop in time. They trusted each other strength therefore they could go all out. Of course, Ren wasn't using his entire strength but neither Esdeath used everything so she had few aces in her sleeve.

Esdeath herself was pretty interested in Ren's water control, she wanted to know if it was Teigu similar to one she has but every time she asked Ren, he just changed subject to something else.

Esdeath was slowly getting an advantage in the fight since Ren didn't use wind energy on his saber, therefore his blows weren't as fast as Esdeath's blows. He was able to dodge most of them but he was slowly losing control. Esdeath created a few ice spears and threw them towards Ren's leg and shoulder, leaving him no other choice Ren was forced to sidestep to avoid them but ice spears were just a diversion and Esdeath quickly appeared behind him.

"I guess it's my win this time." Esdeath cheerfully said while her rapier went for Ren's shoulder. Ren just coldly smiled and when it looked like rapier will pierce through his shoulder it got stuck in something. When Esdeath saw this she was shocked beyond belief and cried out: "What?!"

The thing that blocked Esdeath's attack was a block of ice. Esdeath was too shocked and let her guard down, it wasn't long before she could feel the blade pressing on her neck.

"You let your guard down. It's my win" Ren said while putting his sabre away from Esdeath's snow white neck.

Esdeath could only release a sigh to calm herself. After a few seconds she calmed down and narrowed her eyes because she didn't like being loser.

"How" Esdeath asked for an explanation.

"Maybe I will tell you in the future but for now I will keep my abilities in dark. Thank you." Ren said without explaining anything.

"I understand but what are you thanking me for?" Esdeath asked in confusion.

"Just accept it " Ren said with a smile and went with Esdeath back to Capital.

Ren was in a great mood, he was finally able to create and manipulate ice. Even through he didn't master it perfectly yet he was still happy with his progress. He was also quite grateful to Esdeath and thought how to repay her since he didn't like feeling of owing to someone.

'Finally, just a bit more time and I will be able to transform. Just you wait, Ren!' Shell thought to herself while planning what she will do when she transform to humanoid figure.