━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Emilia had to admit, this guy really knew how to enjoy life. Even while 'running way' like this, there were still multiple hideouts and a vast amount of resources at her fingertips.
She chuckled. 'Looks like someone's been using the public funds for their own welfare, huh…'
Not that she was complaining. After all, if this guy hadn't been so 'resourceful', she would have definitely needed to go through a lot more trouble to gather all her opponents up.
'Hopefully they all will show up… It's a pity that he didn't keep any records of their conversations and discussions, but... it's not like I really need it.' Emilia smiled while idly sipping on some tea.
Against people in this world who were completely unguarded against 'unscientific' things such as her being able to shapeshift, Emilia was simply like an incurable poison.
The time of their 'meeting' was two days later, just to make sure they had enough time to make the arrangements, but not enough to think about it too much.
Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to inform Noelle and the others about her current movements, but Emilia felt it was much safer not to use any of her own resources.
After all, even if she had the ability to observe her surroundings using chaos energy, there were other ways of 'monitoring' that went beyond her senses, and there was no point in taking needless risks.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Two days later, eleven of her 'targets' arrived at the designated meeting spot one by one, and Emilia couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
The ex-president of Red Dusk hadn't come, but to be fair, she would have been more shocked if he did, given all that had happened.
Plus, only five of the Federation's leaders had been 'impeached' from their original positions, and most of these people were still very much in power in their respective territories.
With their ego, even if she mentioned that she had a way to get rid of 'Empress Emilia' without making anyone suspicious, there was no guarantee that they would take the risk or find it worth their time to come.
After all, the one calling for the meeting was one of their worse off colleagues, and it wouldn't be shocking if most of them looked down on Emilia's current persona in one way or the other.
Of course, the terms of the treaty in Phoenix forced them to more or less give up all their power, but Emilia wasn't stupid enough to believe that they'd really do such a thing for real. Most likely, they just gave up their rights on the surface, but were still controlling everything from the shadows.
Luckily, whether it was those who were still in power or those who had 'fallen', they all hated one person to their core. And since she knew this full well, Emilia naturally used it to her advantage.
"Isn't it too much for you to arrive last despite being the host, Jeffrey?"
Emilia smiled, though it wasn't particularly attractive considering her current form. "My apologies. The resources I have at my disposal are no longer what they used to be, and I didn't want to take any chances of being discovered and putting us all at risk while coming here."
Her words more or less soothed the disgruntled egos in the group, though there were still mostly unfriendly gazes around.
"It feels like it's been so long since all of us got together, even though it's not been that long since the Federation was forced to disband."
"Right? It almost feels nostalgic."
"Let's not argue about pointless things."
"True, we're not here to fight each other. "
"Let's not waste time. I understand that some of you have nothing better to do, but I still have a country to run."
The man's words instantly infuriated a few people around the table, but none of them dared to speak up.
"Jeffrey… you better be right about your plan being able to get rid of Emilia, otherwise…"
Jeffrey was naturally the name of her current 'persona', and the smile on Emilia's face vanished. "Otherwise what?"
The man who spoke up just chuckled and waved his hand in dismissal. "You don't need to worry too much about such things. I'm sure a smart man like you wouldn't be fooling around anyway, right?"
No one else came to defend 'Jeffrey', and it could be assumed that they were silently acquiescing to the man's threats.
Their enemies and rivals were watching them so closely now, and they still took such a great risk to come here. If Jeffrey really dared to mess around… there was no need for him to leave this place alive.
'Jeffrey' just rubbed his bulging belly and smiled. "How chilling, but luckily, I have nothing to fear."
"Oh, looks like you're quite confident?"
"Don't keep us in suspense, then!"
Just as everyone was getting a little excited and hopeful, however, the next words from 'Jeffrey' left them completely dumbfounded.
"Don't get me wrong. The reason I have nothing to fear isn't because I have an impeccable plan to kill Emilia, but because none of you… will be leaving this place alive."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The security that some of the 'guests' brought had already 'disarmed' everyone before entering the 'secret' meeting all, and were keeping each other in 'check' outside.
Of course, not only did very few people know about this meeting, but they also had the place completely surrounded, so they weren't particularly worried about any intruders.
Not even a fly could get in without them noticing... or so everyone thought.
Screams of terror and horrified screeching shattered their confidence like brittle glass, and almost immediately, all of them tried to rush in to check on their respective bosses.
Unfortunately… it was already too late.
Emilia hadn't been able to silently kill them all with some undetectable poison, since trying to set it up in advance would have risked alarming her targets, but to her, it was more of an inconvenience than a dilemma.
Being allowed into a 'secret' meeting with her enemies being so undefended was like letting a ferocious, bloodthirsty wolf into the sheep's pen.
In fact, the disparity between a regular person and herself after her evolution was now so great that if she truly wanted to kill all twelve of them without even letting them squeak, it really wouldn't take much effort at all. She would just need to shift into a form that had more swift and lethal appendages to make things easier.
But Emilia wanted them to die looking at her face, so she only shifted back to her original form stored in one of her stacks before starting her slaughter.
Of course, she didn't bother explaining herself much, since they would all be dead soon anyway, and she still needed to take care of them all before the security was able to break the door and rush in.
Which left her with... less than a minute.
Her enemies didn't even have the time to wonder if the familiar obese man in front of them changing into a gorgeous crimson-haired beauty was just them hallucinating on the spot.
"You—?!"
Emilia's hand tore through the throat of the man closest to her, and the calm smile on her face turned excited as blood splashed all over her now baggy clothes.
The dying man clutched at his torn throat in disbelief and desperation as blood kept flowing out uncontrollably, and his vision faded away.
"M-Monster!"
"HELP!"
Of course, no matter how the sheep panicked, how could they possibly flee from a clever wolf while still being stuck in the same pen?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Visit freewe𝑏no(v)el.𝘤𝑜𝓂 for the best novel reading experience