Two days had passed since the incident in Kyocroch. Both the Empire and Revolutionary Army had suffered casualties once again. This time was a huge victory went out for the Empire. The Revolutionary Army had lost their beloved general, Najenda and an Imperial Arm called Susanoo.

Esdeath had Susanoo locked underground, until the Empire could find another suitable user.

The day after Najenda's death, Night Raid had held a silent funeral for her. Her body was buried on a cliff, above their hideout, her stone was a few feet lower than Sayo and Ieyasu's memorial. Her stone had "Najenda. A Hero. A General. A Leader. A Great Boss." written on it. Akame, Leone, Mine and Tatsumi stood in front of her memorial and grieved in front of her grave.

Lubbock on the other hand locked himself in his room. He knocked some books off his shelf and screamed. He took a wooden chair and smashed his window. After a few minutes of raging and breaking things in his room, he finally fell on his knees and cried. He imagined a ghost form Najenda standing before him, smiling and patting his back as he grieved.

Meanwhile, news about Najenda's death had spread throughout the Revolutionary Army like a wildfire. Instead of grieving and giving up, Najenda's death had only added more fuel to the fire, only motivating the rebels even more.

It was a normal sunny day within the capital. There were signs placed upon tall poles in the middle of each and every district, saying that "The Traitor General is Dead", referring to Najenda. These signs were placed within the lower and middle levels of the capital. There were large crowds in each different district who had seen and witnessed the news. If anyone had tried to remove the sign would be persecuted.

In one of the towns, many people were happy that Najenda were dead, there were those who didn't care. But, two spies named Pais and Ritone was shocked and saddened, learning of Najenda's demise.

"No. This can't be real..." Pais' body had silently tremble and her eyes had watered and fear within them.

Ritone was saddened, learning of Najenda's death. He glanced over at his partner and saw her body shaking. He couldn't blame her. The Revolution just lost their figure head. Ritone looked back up at the sign and thought about Night Raid.

Three months had passed and there has been no sign or mention of Night Raid, nor the Revolutionary Army. Everyone in the capital supposedly lived peacefully for the time being. The sky was covered with gray clouds, flakes of snow had floated from the sky to the ground. People had dressed themselves for winter.

Flare roamed among the streets of the upper levels of the capital, where people instantly recognize him. People responded and waved at him left and right. The citizens of the capital had given positive reactions. It was a normal winter day. Flare had worn black winter pants, brown boots, a hoodless jacket and a red scarf for men around his neck. He roamed the winter streets of the upper levels.

'I remember when I started working real hard three months ago.'

During the three month period, Flare has done a various number of missions around the capital, inside the capital and out. He would get up around Five in the morning, and go to the Imperial bulletin board where missions are usually listed, and he would take them. He took odd missions, such as catch thieves, protect people from serial killers, catch Danger Beasts, escort clients to their rendezvous point.

Thanks to Flare, crime rate within the capital had decreased to almost sixty percent.

At first, Flare knew that people would taunt behind his back when he first came to the capital. He also had a feeling that people would start to fear, once they learned of his Imperial Arms. He didn't care, as long as anyone didn't attack him.

People had first assumed that Flare would end up abusing his power and control people out of fear, but they were wrong. Now the citizens in the capital started to see the light within him and acknowledged him for his good deeds.

Flare appreciates people acknowledging him and having someone to look to. Despite all that, Flare had remembered to never let fame or power go to his head. To the citizens, Flare is the most popular Jaeger.

In his mind, Flare had decided that if he wanted to get stronger, than he would have to work even harder than anyone else.

'It really seems like a peaceful time, here in the capital. Flare thought as he looked at the clouded sky and watched snowflakes fall. The snow sort of reminded him of one of his girlfriend, Esdeath. 'I wonder, how Esdeath is doing right now? It's been a while since she left.'

Flashback

A week ago, Esdeath had been given a special mission from the Prime Minister, himself. She was to departure towards the western nation and even the odds there. The Empire had suffered many casualties against the western nation. Now her job is to eliminate or conquer the western nation.

Flare had met up with Esdeath outside the capital gates to personally send Esdeath off. Earlier, he had rejected her offer of going with her to conquer the western nations, for good reasons.

"Are you sure you don't want to come along with me, darling?" Esdeath asked her beloved Flare in concern. "I would appreciate it if you came along assisted.

"It's okay," Flare smiled and then threw his forearm backwards, pointing his thumb towards the Empire. "I'll take care of the things while you're gone." Esdeath was pleased with Flare's innocent smile and honesty, like many times before.

"I don't know..." Esdeath's eyes narrowed and started to have second thoughts for a moment. "I wouldn't feel right if anything bad happened to you. Are you sure you really don't want to come? Because I'm having second thoughts, now."

"Hey, stop." Flare softly grabbed Esdeath's hands and looked at her. "Listen. I know it might sound tough for you, but I know what I'm doing. I know how strong you are, and I'm proud of you."

Esdeath's eyes made contact with Flare's. "Really?"

"Yeah. Other than Seryu and my family back home, you actually motivate me to get even stronger. If it weren't for you training me, I probably wouldn't have gotten this strong." Flare grasped her hands and chuckled.

Esdeath gasped at the touch of his warm hands in happiness and gave Flare one last hug, placing his head on her chest. "You don't know how much those words mean to me."

Flare blushed a little as his cheek rested on her soft chest and responded by hugging back. "Please return safely."

"I will," Esdeath lifted up Flare's head to her and shared a tender kiss. "I love you." She said as she climbed on to her horse.

"I love you, too." Flare replied.

"Try not to catch any bad girls while I'm gone, kay'?" Esdeath

Flare blushed and nearly reacted. He then switched to acting a little nervous and scratched the back of his neck. "Uh... sure..." He moved back six feet to give Esdeath and her men space.

Esdeath silently chuckled to him. Then she turned to see her men on horseback behind him. "Hyaah!" She grunted, her white horse took charge. Esdeath took the lead with hundreds of Imperial soldiers following her.

Flare watched as Esdeath and her men had ventured off towards the western nation. 'I'll see you soon.' He smiled, as they left the capital. Then he turned around and headed back into the capital. 'Now I got a lot of work to do. If I want to keep this place safe.'

End Flashback

Flare saw a crowd of people gathered at once place. He was a little curious of what was gong on, until he saw his friend, Run just standing in one place. Flare then realize Run is just staring at a street performing clown that's putting on a show. 'Something's not right. Run's just sanding there...' Flare walked closer to get a better view of what Run was doing. 'He's just staring at that clown. Is that clown somehow causing him trouble?' Flare saw Run's left side only to see nothing but anger in his eyes as he glared at the clown. Flare then quickly placed a hand on Run's left shoulder to snap him out of reality. "Hey, Run!"

Run gasped, as he snapped out of the dark space and woke back in reality. "Huh? What?" He glanced to his left side only to see Flare's hand on his shoulder. "Oh… It's you, Flare."

"Is something wrong? I don't sense anything evil around here."

"No. it's really nothing. I apologize for startling you, Flare." Run apologized to Flare, then walked somewhere else.

Flare looked at Run's backside, then looked at the clown. 'That's weird. He was glaring at that clown, like he did something to him...'

Flare continued to walk the streets for a little while, until he saw a tall blonde man dressed in fancy clothing run elsewhere. 'Where's that guy going?' Flare decided to secretly follow the mysterious running man, until the blonde man had rushed inside of what looks like an abandoned theater. He found a sign that read Umatora theater on it.

"Umatora Theater?" Flare read the sign and had a little flashback.

About a week ago, back when Flare continued to check the Imperial bulletin board, Flare had spotted a paper on there, talking about the Umatora Theater conspiracy.

He looked at the old building for a moment and walked towards it. He didn't know what, but something had told him to go inside. Maybe instincts? A gut feeling? Maybe bit of foresight? He didn't know. He walked towards the steps and sensed people on the other side of the door.

Flare sighed. "Here goes." He opened the doors and walked through the dark auditorium of the theater. As Flare walked closer to the stage, he had heard wooden swords clashing and woman singing, practicing their vocals. He also saw people dressed in fancy clothing. "Hey, excuse me."

"Eh?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and all eyes had landed on Flare. Some people had noticed Flare was there. Some people started gossiping and got good vibes about him. Some of the girls in dresses blushed.

"It's him," One of the girls gossiped to one another, in a good way. Some of the girls happily gasped and blushed.

'It's Flare. One of the Jaegers. Maybe he can go easy on us.' The Troupe leader thought as he had approached Flare with a smile on his face and threw his arms out. "Welcome to the Umatora Theater. What can I do for you, FLare?"

"Well," Flare pulled out a folded paper from his pocket, then unfolded. "I heard rumors that this troupe was criticizing or plotting against the Empire through your plays." He showed the leader the paper talking about them.

Some members of the troupe had silently gasped and had worried looks on their faces, as they realized that Flare has caught on. People started to worry that they might get caught and arrested.

The Troupe Leader's body slightly shook. "That's absurd! We would never..."

"Do you mind if I look around a bit? I just want to check if it's safe."

The Troupe Leader gulped. He walked towards Flare and handed him a big pouch of silver coins. "Please, take this..."

The Troupe stared at Flare, waiting for his next move to make. Some of the people feared that their leader had made a false move.

Flare's face was darkened by shadow, as he was just handed an illegal bribe.

The troupe leader's face was a little nervous as he noticed Flare had not budged. A few orbs of sweat had started forming on his face.

"Here, take it back." Flare gave the pouch of coins back to the leader.

The troupe leader and some of the members gasped in confusion. "But, why are you-"

"I don't need money."

"But, are you sure?" The troupe leader asked.

"I came here, because I was curious. I saw one of you running here suspiciously, so I wanted to check something out."

"Sorry, that was me." A tall light blonde-haired man dressed in fancy clothing had stepped forward. "I was running a little late, so I had to run all the way here. I didn't want to miss rehearsal."

"Rehearsal? What are you performing?" Flare turned and asked the troupe leader.

The troupe leader put on a serious face and leaned forward. "Promise me you won't tell anyone. You're right. As you can see, we are criticizing the Empire. We're not apart of the Revolution, though. There's an evil man called the Prime Minister. He's allowing all this chaos to happen, while he sits in the thrown room and fills the young Emperor's head with lies. We are living in fear right now. The Minister instantly silence anyone who starts an uprising. We secretly criticize the Empire through our plays, hoping that the people would get the hints."

"I know. And I believe you."

"Y...you do?" the Troupe Leader paused.

"But if you knew, then why would you come to warn us?" A man dressed as a knight asked.

"Lots of good and innocent people have died because of the likes of the Minister. I agree with what you're saying, but you have to be careful. Sometimes the wrong person could catch the hint and everyone's lives could be ruined." He told the leader.

"So, what are you gong to do about us? I mean..." A woman in a pink dress asked Flare.

"Nothing." Flare told the woman.

Some of the members of the troupe gasped in relief.

"You're letting us walk away?" Another man in a white suit asked.

Flare nodded to the man. "Yeah. I know you're all good people and have good intentions. I want to save as many lives as I can and prevent people from being mercilessly killed."

"You want to help and save us?" A brown-haired boy dressed in a white suit asked.

"That's right. I want all of you to listen, carefully. I'm not from the Empire..."

"What? Then where are you from?" The tall light blonde-haired man asked.

"I came from a village far, far away. I traveled all the way here to put an end to his tyranny and change the capital for the better." Flare had told the entire troupe, as he turned to each and every one of them. "I know I still have a long way to go, but I promise you that things will get better." Flare's speech was a little long and it had brought smiles on the troupe's faces.

Flare looked at a clock hanging off a wall and noticed that he had to go. "Thanks for listening. I need to get going, now." Flare bowed his head, then turned around and walked to the door.

"Wait," The Troupe Leader had stretched his hand out and caught Flare's attention.

Flare heard the Troupe Leader call for him, so he stopped and turned his head. He was a few few away from the door.

"At least take it with you." the Troupe Leader handed Flare the pouch of silver once more.

Flare looked at the big pouch and noticed it was the same pouch of silver coins n his hand. "Is this the same bribe money?"

The Troupe Leader waved his hands no. "N-no! I want you to have it this time, instead of trying to run you off. Thanks to you, my people and I can start having faith now. From now on, we'll try to be more careful, Flare."

"Thanks, uh..." Flare does not know the troupe leader's name.

"Call me James." The Troupe Leader said.

"Thanks, James." Flare then looked at the Troupe on stage.

"And thank you all for your time! Hopefully, I'll come back and see your plays!" Flare waved goodbye to the performers on the stage, as they cheered and applause.

As soon as Flare left the theater doors, he was quickly confronted by a dangerous group. Wild Hunt.

"Well, look who we have here?" said a familiar voice.

Flare had recognized that voice from anywhere. A voice that he could never forget. He turned away from the doors and saw the man who almost killed him back at Mount Fake. Syura walked with four mysterious people with him, which Flare could sense were all dangerous.

Flare started to get angry, as his blood started boiling inside.

"So, you survived that fall. Pissant." Syura taunted.

Wild Hunt has come to town.