As a woodlike pigeon flew towards the sky as if he were its king, two mercenaries excused themselves from the group, entering the forest in the same direction the pigeon had flown.

"So, what is it?" asked Jared.

"You're reading the same message as me," said Leonard. "Why don't you decrypt it?"

"W-well,"—he shrugged—"you're better at it, Leo," said the Nordic-looking man as he sat on top of a large rock.

Sigh.

Leonard rolled his eyes, as he was getting used to his partner's manners. Though he still wondered how he got hired, he sat on the ground, tied his hair into a bun, and started to decrypt the message.

"It says our job is done here," said Leonard, as his brows furrowed. "It's weird, though..."

"Why?" asked Jared as he took a sip from his flask.

"I don't know."—he sighed—"It's just a gut feeling."

Hm.

"Is there another mission in it?" asked the Nordic.

"No," Leonard replied. "Don't you know it already? The bosses don't send messages and missions in the same letter for security reasons."

"So, let's stay here and see what's going to happen." He took another swig of his flask before looking at his partner and passing him the flask.

"Hmm..." He instinctively took a sip as he was in deep thought.

...

"Are you sure this is the right place?" said Raphael, out of breath as he looked towards Chloe.

Huff, huff.

"Yes, Lord," she said, "I'm certain of it."

"... A-are you sure you don't want me to carry you?" added Chloe while adjusting the long sword around her waist.

Sigh.

"Fine..." said Raphael, his pride broken.

'... I'm going to start exercising when this is over.'

As the two finally neared the caravan, the laughter of the bandits reached their ears.

"Remember, we can't leave any witn-" whispered Raphael in her ear.

"It's okay, Lord," interrupted Chloe. "I'll make sure there are no witnesses," she continued, clenching her jaw as her usually warm blue eyes grew cold.

"So, can you let me down now...?" he added, slightly stunned by her determined face.

Hmm...?

"What?" She tilted her head. "O-oh! Y-yes, sorry..." she stuttered while letting him leave her back.

After watching the camp for a few minutes, Raphael decided to start the plan.

"Let's start." He sighed while pulling a red flower from his sleeve. "Can you take the ones patrolling without drawing too much attention to yourself?" he asked, the flower in his hand turning into a sword.

"Yes." She tilted her head as he pulled out another flower and stuck it to her ear.

"It's connected to me, if anything suspicious happens, I'll know," he said while patting her back.

"Y-yes, sir."

As the elven swordmaster swiftly ran towards the caravan, Raphael couldn't help but be surprised by her skills.

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Sigh.

'I can't disappoint the Lord...' she thought, running as quickly and stealthily as she could towards her targets.

...

"What do you think happened to those two?" An older-looking man wearing light armor and a helmet asked.

"Dunno..." said the much shorter young man. "Perhaps they ran away, got married, and lived happily ever after," joked the youngster.

Cough, cough.

After taking a sip of water from his flask, the older man said, "They did disappear together suspiciously often."—he shrugged—"But, I mean, seriously, everyone was freaking out because of it." "A bit of an overreaction, isn't it?"

Thud.

"Paul?" asked the man after hearing a weird sound. "Did something happen?" The old man tensed up.

Not used to his comrade's silence, he drew his sword and started walking towards where Paul was supposed to be.

Twitch, twitch.

Just as the old man went to check up on his companion, something came out of the bushes. His head fell to the ground quicker than anyone could have reacted.

Thud.

A figure clad in dark clothing calmly entered the camp, no one seemed to notice her presence. Her eyes glowed in the dark like a predator looking at prey, and her blade dripped blood as she walked towards the men, who laughed merrily. As she got ready to pounce on them, a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"It's okay... I'll take over now," he whispered in her ear.

Noticing what she was about to do, her hands tensed up. Her predator-like eyes softened greatly as she nearly dropped her sword.

"Sorry... I got a little..."—she gulped—"excited," she said, twitching slightly as he cleaned the blood near her eyes with a handkerchief.

"It's okay..." he said calmly.

'PTSD...'

Sigh.

After glancing at the drunk mercenaries who didn't even know the danger they were in, multiple strings of mana came out of his fingers.

"H-how...?"

As the elf stared with her eyes widening, the mercenaries were all quickly butchered by the blurry threads. Their bodies were falling to the ground in pieces.

Snap.

"They're all too weak," muttered Raphael under his breath as the bodies in front of him all burned into ashes, leaving behind only their belongings.

Just as Raphael started walking towards the "commodity," he sensed two people staring at him.

"...?" Confused, he looked in their direction, as he felt them running away in a hurry. Although he couldn't see them, he would remember their mana signatures.

"Something wrong?"

"Peepers..."

"Should I-?" asked Chloe, her eyes becoming sharp as she looked in the same direction as him.

"No need..." interrupted Raphael, changing the subject.

Looking towards the carriages, he said, "There are a few magical ingredients, one mana-beast's egg, and..."—he sighed—"There apparently is a child inside one of the cages..."