After eating the Super-Class Danger Beast, the world of Akame ga Kill! no longer held any particular meaning for Rowan.
He immediately began thinking about leaving.
So the next morning, he summoned all of his maids and had one final meal together with them.
Then, right there at the table, he announced,
"I'm leaving. You're all free."
Esdeath, Sheele, Leone, Mez, and Suzuka stared at him blankly.
Esdeath put down her knife and fork and asked curiously,
"Where are you going?"
"Leaving this world, of course," Rowan replied calmly.
"Huh? You're going to die?" Leone exclaimed in shock.
Rowan was speechless.
He activated Shadow Magic, manipulating Leone's shadow to bind her arms and legs before hanging her upside down.
"You dare disrespect your master? You deserve punishment."
"What do you mean, I'm going to die? You'll die long before I do."
"With my current lifespan, forget outliving you—I could easily live long enough to watch your great-great-grandchildren die of old age."
"When I said I'm leaving this world, I meant it literally."
"I'm not from this world. I'm a visitor from another world."
"I've gotten bored of this place, so I'm planning to leave."
"You can all go back to wherever you came from."
Esdeath froze, her pupils contracting sharply.
"Another world?"
"That's right."
"So what you use really is magic?"
"One hundred percent genuine."
"Hahahaha…"
Esdeath suddenly burst into laughter.
All this time, she had been wondering exactly what kind of ability Rowan possessed.
And in the end, it really was exactly what he had told her—
magic.
She had refused to believe that magic existed in this world.
But the bastard was from another world entirely.
That was just ridiculous.
"Since I'm your spoil of war, then naturally I'll follow you to another world," Esdeath said without hesitation.
In this world, she was already considered one of the strongest.
Aside from the monster known as Rowan, there was essentially no one stronger than her.
Yet her battle against Rowan could not even be called a crushing defeat.
It had been an instant kill.
There had been no satisfaction in it whatsoever.
But if she went to another world, perhaps she would encounter countless powerful experts and finally enjoy some truly exhilarating battles.
More importantly, she was also extremely curious about what another world looked like.
"You want to leave with me?"
Rowan looked at Esdeath in surprise.
He had not expected her to make such a decision.
"Am I not allowed to?" Esdeath asked.
"It's not like you can't."
Rowan thought for a moment before readily agreeing.
"Fine. I've gotten used to ordering you all around these past few days anyway. If you want to come, then come."
"As for the rest of you…"
Rowan looked toward Leone and Sheele.
"Go back to Night Raid."
Leone and Sheele were instantly startled, their muscles tensing instinctively.
"Y-You… You knew who we were?!"
"What's so surprising about that?"
Rowan calmly replied,
"Did you really think you were hiding it well?"
Seeing that Rowan had no intention of attacking them, Sheele patted Leone's shoulder, signaling for her to calm down.
She then asked curiously,
"When did you figure it out?"
"The first time we met," Rowan replied.
Leone covered her face.
"So you knew who we were from the very beginning?"
"Of course."
Rowan nodded.
Leone looked confused.
"Then why did you keep us around?"
"I had no grudge against either of you, so why wouldn't I?"
Rowan countered,
"Besides, two beautiful girls voluntarily came to work as my maids. Why would I refuse?"
Leone momentarily had no idea how to respond.
That actually sounded annoyingly reasonable.
Still, she protested,
"We weren't exactly volunteering. You forced the maid jobs on us."
Rowan immediately hit the nail on the head.
"But you didn't leave either, did you?"
Leone: "…"
Sheele: "…"
"Alright. You two can go."
Rowan waved his hand.
Leone and Sheele had no choice.
Although they were also curious about another world, they cared far more about the Revolutionary Army.
There was no way they could abandon everything and follow Rowan.
So the two stood up and left.
As for Suzuka and Mez, after thinking about it for a while, their curiosity toward another world eventually won out.
They decided to continue serving Rowan as maids and accompany him into the next world.
Seeing this, Rowan was not stingy with rewards.
Using Archive Magic, he gave Mez, Suzuka, and Esdeath several forms of magic each.
He also gave Mez a Zoan-type Devil Fruit.
After all, Mez was simply far too fragile.
The moment she suffered any real injury, she was basically finished.
A Zoan Devil Fruit was perfect for her.
And it was not an ordinary Zoan either.
It was a Mythical Zoan—
Phoenix Model.
Not only could it heal her injuries, but it also granted tremendous vitality.
As for magic, Mez learned God-Speed Magic and Slow Magic.
One increased her own speed.
The other slowed down her enemies.
Apparently, she intended to push her speed to the absolute limit and walk straight down the path of becoming the Flash.
Suzuka, meanwhile, learned Separation Magic.
It was a lower-level version of the Crush Magic wielded by Gildarts of Fairy Tail.
Crush Magic was an extremely high-level destructive magic capable of instantly breaking apart the atomic bonds of any material the caster touched.
When used on living creatures, depending on the caster's intention, it could either reduce the target to dust on the spot or split them into hundreds or thousands of miniature copies.
Even Gildarts, after mastering this magic, frequently caused accidental destruction.
It was the reason the city of Magnolia had developed the infamous "Gildarts Shift."
Therefore, Rowan did not teach Suzuka the full Crush Magic.
Instead, he taught her the lower-level Separation Magic.
Its destructive power was inferior to Crush Magic, but it was still extremely formidable.
It suited Suzuka very well.
As for Esdeath, she learned Ice-Make Magic.
She felt that the magic suited her perfectly and could allow her to advance even further beyond her existing abilities.
In addition, she learned Gravity Magic and Teleportation Magic to improve her mobility while suppressing her opponents' movement.
With this, the strength of all three women increased dramatically.
Compared with their former selves, defeating who they had once been would now be effortless.
After making all the necessary preparations, Rowan took Esdeath, Mez, and Suzuka and left the world of Akame ga Kill!
They headed toward a new world.
As for what would happen to the world of Akame ga Kill! afterward, that had nothing to do with Rowan.
Still, he estimated that the Revolutionary Army would probably win.
After all, he had killed Honest and taken Esdeath away.
If the Revolutionary Army could still somehow lose to the empire after all that, then every last one of them might as well collectively slit their own throats.
Keeping them alive would only waste food.
Judging from the original story, though, the Revolutionary Army was not nearly that incompetent.
Overthrowing the empire and establishing a new country should not be a problem.
As for where that newborn nation would eventually go, Rowan could not care less.
After all, no matter how bad a newly founded country became, it could hardly be worse than what had come before.
Thus, Rowan left without hesitation.
…
After passing through the air door, Rowan arrived in the new world.
This time, however, things were different from his previous two arrivals.
The last two times, Rowan had been dropped into forests with no one around.
This time—
he appeared inside a dungeon.
The instant he arrived, he saw a group of minotaurs wielding axes charging directly toward him.
Uh…
Before Rowan could even raise a hand, countless ice spears shot forward like cannon shells, instantly piercing through the minotaurs' bodies.
Esdeath had attacked first.
After the minotaurs died, their bodies turned into ash and vanished without a trace.
All that remained on the ground were several pitch-black crystals.
Could these things be magic stones?
So what kind of world had he entered this time?
Rowan was curious.
After all, dungeons were practically standard equipment in fantasy worlds, and plenty of other worlds had monsters that dropped magic stones after dying.
He activated farsight magic and looked around.
The dungeon was enormous.
And it did not consist of only one floor.
There were countless levels.
One floor after another descended downward, with every level larger than the one above it.
He could not even see the bottom.
A powerful force existed deeper underground, blocking Rowan's vision.
With no other choice, Rowan looked upward instead.
He discovered that the dungeon also extended upward through floor after floor, each one becoming smaller than the one below.
There seemed to be more than a dozen levels above him.
And at the very top of the dungeon stood a magnificent and majestic city.
Directly above the dungeon itself was an enormous tower that also served as the center of the city.
Inside the tower were large numbers of adventurers—
along with a group of very familiar gods.
Yes.
That was right.
Gods.
The moment Rowan saw those gods, he immediately realized where he had arrived.
The world of DanMachi.
Its full title should be—
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
And the magnificent city built above the Dungeon was undoubtedly the Labyrinth City—
Orario.
As for the enormous tower standing at the heart of the city,
that was Babel.
Once Rowan realized what world this was, he immediately withdrew his gaze.
If he continued staring at the gods so blatantly, he might easily attract their attention.
Of course, anyone familiar with the story knew that the gods living in Orario had essentially sealed away their divine powers.
They could develop fevers.
They could be injured.
They could catch colds.
They could grow tired.
On the surface, they seemed almost no different from ordinary humans.
But they were still gods.
They could distinguish human lies and possessed all kinds of incomprehensible abilities.
A God of the Forge could use peerless skill to create weapons and equipment capable of growing alongside their wielder.
A Goddess of Beauty could use her charm to drive the monsters of the Dungeon into madness.
And wine brewed by a God of Wine could make practically anyone lose themselves in ecstasy.
For the moment, Rowan had no intention of dealing with the gods.
However, at that exact moment—
the Dungeon suddenly began shaking violently.
It was almost as though it had become enraged.
Countless monsters were spawned by the Dungeon in an endless tide.
Every single one of them had become berserk.
And the gazes they directed toward Rowan were overflowing with killing intent.