The wind carried them up towards the third floor. They entered through the hole and set food on the crumbled floor. Everywhere was still covered in dust so it was hard to see.

SWOSH

But before they could even grasp the situation, something flew towards them at a high speed like an arrow.

DANG

The flying object hit the shield and made it shake. Cracks appeared on the shield where it was hit.

SPLASH

Then the sound of water splashing was heard.

‘What was that? At attack?’

It happened so fast that Kairen couldn’t even react in time. If not for the shield, someone would get really hurt.

Kairen moved the wind that was created by his spell and swept away the dust. Now they could see the situation clearly.

Two of the guards were sprawling on the ground, not moving at all. Someone on unit 6’s uniform was leaning against a broken piece of who knows what with his eyes closed. Standing in front of him was someone else from the unit. Other guards were surrounding the two of them.

“Huff… Huh? Huff…”

The man standing between the guards looked at them while panting heavily. His eyes stopped on the team leader for a moment before his expression lightened and he smiling slightly.

‘Isn’t that Kain?’

Kairen narrowed his eyes a bit. He could recognize who he was with a glance, but he was still surprised. Kain’s body was wet with blood and water. Blood was oozing out of his turn lip and his arm seemed to be broken. He was panting and seemed to be barely standing up on his two feet.

“….”

‘HO! He looks like shit…’

The others moved as soon as the dust was lifted. Serria wrapped her sword in her aura And rushed forward. The agent cast attack spells and the team leader aimed at two of the guards with his guns. The enemies turned towards their new opponents and raised their weapons.

Kairen also didn’t sit still. He cast a spell creating numerous magic arrows, and sent them all towards the nearest enemy to Kain.

The guard jumped back and dodged some of the arrows while getting injured by the ones he couldn’t dodge. He stood up and rushed towards Kairen when he suddenly lost his balance and fell down.

“F*ck!”

He looked down at himself, a transparent blue whip was wrapped around his ankle. He glared at the person who was holding the other side of the whip. The whip in Kain’s hands seemed soft and harmless, but it actually wasn’t. Kain pulled the whip as the man tried to get up again, he was unable to move and fell down on the floor once more.

Kairen used that opening to attack again. He cast a spell strong enough to knock out the enemy, combined with binding and paralyzing spells. He didn’t really want to kill people even if they were enemies, he still felt guilty for what he had done on his first mission.

‘Let’s defeat the enemy, but let others do the dirty things.’

The spells hit the fallen enemy and he lost consciousness instantly. He looked at the man to make sure he wouldn’t get up again before turning his eyes towards the whip.

‘Is that whip made out of water?’

Kairen looked at the whip again. It really looked like water. The whip then suddenly lost shape and disappeared. Water splashed on the ground at the same time.

‘Wait, were you the one who attacked us just now?’

Kairen remembered the water arrow that was sent towards them and looked at the person responsible for it, his eyes met with Kain’s at the moment.

“…..”

“…..”

Kain’s eyes widened at seeing him and his lips parted in a sign of his great surprise. He looked at Kairen blankly for a moment then his face got filled with question marks.

“..?????”

“…..”

“..?????”

He was sending questions towards Kairen with his gaze. ‘Man, I don’t understand what you want to say.’ Though Kairen and averted his gaze.

He looked towards Serria this time. She cut her opponent’s side with her sword and hit him from the other side with a magic spell at the same time. The poor man was sent flying helplessly like a broken toy.

The other four were also being taken care of by team leader Dains and the agent.

“….”

Kairen could still feel a gaze on him. He wanted to get closer to Kain to see what he wanted to say, but he was told not to move without the team leader’s orders, so he could only avoid the intense gaze.

Everything was taken care of in a few minutes. Team leader Dains checked the situation on the second floor as well, they seemed to have defeated the enemy as well.

The agent rushed towards the unconscious member of unit 6 to give him first aid. Team leader Dains walked towards the unconscious guard that was Kairen’s opponent and opened his mouth.

“Was that all?”

He was asking that question from Kain.

“I am not sure. We couldn’t check it all as we were discovered and had to retreat.”

“You mean there may be guards left on the upper floors?”

“Yes. I was them communicating with others and getting orders from someone.”

The team leader looked at the staircase of this floor. They were destroyed and blocked as well. It was probably done by the unit members in order to prevent any more enemies from attacking them.

“They must have thought that those guards are enough to take care of you. They will come down if they don’t receive any reports from them in a few moments.”

“Yes.”

“Have you found out what this building is for?”

“No…”

“Did you get your hands on the documents that you were after?”

“We searched the first three floors. There were other useful documents here but not the ones we were looking for. We were discovered when we went to the fourth floor.”

Team leader Dains closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Why did you enter the building without confirming the situation inside? Why didn’t you contact the support team first?”

“T-that…”

Kain scratched his cheek and voided the team leader’s eyes.

“That was our team leader’s order.”

Team leader Dains frowned at those words. He clicked his tongue and clenched his fists.

“I guess I should have a serious talk with him later.”

Everyone around became silent for a moment. They all peeked at the team leader before continuing their work without making any noise. An eerie silence filled the room.

“We have taken care of everything, sir.”

The one who broke the silence was one of the agents, that was moving up through the hole. The ones left on the second floor passed through the hole and gathered together.

“Hey!”

Someone pulled Kairen’s sleeve and whispered to his ear.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Kain’s voice carried a mixture of anger and confusion. Kairen frowned and looked at him with a serious face.

“I was just passing by.”

“What the-Ah?”

Kain stumbled and his body started to fall down. He was barely standing till now, he was injured and tired from the battle.

“Hey!”

Kairen hurriedly grabbed him and helped him sit. The agent that was giving everyone first aid rushed towards him to check Kain’s condition.

“I guess you were really out for a walk with your friends, huh?”

Kain said while staring at Reyan in the distance. Reyan turned his head as he sensed a gaze on him. His eyes widened when he was Kain. He blinked his eyes before hesitantly walking towards them.

Reyan opened his mouth with a smile as soon as he arrived before them.

“I was wondering why you agreed to come to such a mission so easily without even nagging hmm…”

He looked at Kairen with a meaningful gaze.

“Now I get it… If it was for your brother then…”

He nodded his head with a proud face like an old man who has seen his grandson’s perfect grades for the first time.

“Wh-what?”

What is with that look?

“Ah? Really?”

He turned at Kain. He was looking at him with a surprised expression at first, but it then turned to a proud and happy face. His eyes were shining for some reason and his lips were twitching as if he was holding back himself from smiling.

“I shouldn’t say this, but I’m kinda glad. Ahem!”

“No, wait-.”

Kairen didn’t really have a good feeling about those faces. ‘STOP!’ He screamed inwardly and tried to give an answer to solve the misunderstanding.

“I am not here because of you… oh no, wait… I… but not like… I mean…”

He didn’t want anything to happen to Kain, but he wasn’t the kind to jump into the fire to save others either. He was dragged here by the uncontrollable emotions of Kairen 1 bastard.

“It was a mission for the academy. Not that…”

“Yes Yes.”

Kain patted his shoulder while answering in a teasing tone. Kairen was shedding tears inwardly. He hated these kinds of situations where he couldn’t come up with a logical reason for his actions. He could say things like “I am really stupid to act like this.” or “I didn’t think deeply beforehand.” as an excuse for his unthoughtful actions, but this wasn’t his fault this time! Kairen felt really wronged!

‘I should start subduing that bastard’s stupid emotions as soon as possible.’

HM! A new goal in his life! An essential thing he had to do once he left this place.