Hello, dear readers.I apologize for the delay, this part has been quite hard to write(writer's block, controversial ideas, etc.), so I finally decided to keep it simple and I hope it ended nicely. That being said, enjoy.

Now, eight pairs of eyes were staring intently at him. This may be one of the hardest choices of Azure's life, a dilemma that has to be solved in a matter of 6 seconds...6 long seconds.

If he chose to join them, he would be considered a traitor by the Empire and killed if he ever gets caught. On the other hand, he already know that loyalty towards the Empire was not an option: countless innocents were killed mercilessly without hesitation, only to entertain corrupt lords of the damned land. On that thought, his decision was set.

"It would be a pleasure to join you,"he said politely.

A new destiny has been written...

It's been two days after Azure joined Night Raid and studied each one of its members, who would be precious allies and friends in a near future. At night, when everyone was asleep, Azure wrote in his journal...

Night Raid, a group of good friends that commit murder to stop the Empire from rotting away and that stupid empire should be grateful for that.

Tatsumi is a little bit younger than me, but he is still a kid. He passes his free time to quarrel with Lubbock, the philanderer among the assassins. Also, he has an idiotic side, not understanding the true meaning behind the others' words, but he has resolve, that makes him a great protagonist for a story. After a few conversations with him, it seems he came from the country with two friends and got separated in the way by a brigand attack. Then, when he finally arrived at the capital, he finds out that his friends were killed by a cruel family of sadists. That's why he joined Night Raid. We are similar...in a way.

It was a windy day of autumn, I, as a rookie in the Night Raid, had to pass a day with Tatsumi, seeing what he does, learning about him, bonding with him. We went on the mountains, where danger beasts lived.

There we found a horde of dinosaur-like beasts, easy preys. However, Tatsumi, who was trying to look strong, activated Incursio and an armor covered his whole nody, but he got blasted away after he got bumped by one of the beasts. Tatsumi easily faltered after that, losing all his concentration. At that time, I was merely a spectator enjoying the show. However, Tatsumi was in trouble.

I charged in and decapitated the first beast, the second...and I soon lost count of how many of them I killed.

In the end, we brought a ton of monster beast corpses and Suu somehow cooked it, resulting a pleasant dinner with a very special group of friends.

This chapter was very short. I promise the next one will be longer...MUCH longer.

-Exalted Hero