“Even if it was because of me, you still shouldn’t come to such dangerous places. You are still a cadet and not trained and experienced enough.”

“I am telling you, this is a mission. I really wouldn’t come if the team leader didn’t ask us to tag along.”

That wasn’t an excuse this time. He was angry and worried back then, but he didn’t have any intentions of forcefully coming to help.

Kain gave a smile at his words.

“That is still dangerous. Well, I am pretty sure nothing would happen to you if you are with team leader Dains, but you should be more careful. You are not a kid, think carefully before doing something.”

“Ha!”

Gosh! These people think as they want and reach a conclusion on their own. Do you even hear me?

“What are you guys doing?”

Serria hopped between them. She completely ignored Reyan and instead stared at Kairen and Kain. To be exact, he was staring at Kain.

“Oh, you! You are the one with the water attribute skill, right?”

She pointed at Kain with her finger. She seemed too excited all of a sudden. Kain smiled awkwardly and nodded his head.

“Yes. I am.”

“Wow! So cool!”

Serria’s eyes started to sparkle as she looked at Kain. It was as if she was meeting with a celebrity or something. Well, people who could wield the main elements of nature such as water, fire, or any other elements were really rare, so her reaction was understandable.

Serria looked at Kain and Kairen, who were sitting together with Kain’s hand on Kairen’s shoulder in a friendly posture, and raised one of her eyebrows.

“You sure are quick befriending with strong people, Kairen.”

“Huh?”

“Look, your two friends are the academy’s- Ahem.”

She stopped her words, straightened her back, and placed her hand on her hip. She looked forward with proud eyes and smiled.

“The academy’s two best students.”

“….”

“And now you are being friendly with that super cool dude. Tsk Kairen tsk.”

“….”

“….”

“Ahem!”

Kain coughed awkwardly and covered his mouth with his hand.

“There seem to be some misunderstandings. We are not friends.”

“You aren’t?”

Serria tapped the ground with the tip of her sword. She looked between the two of them and tilted her head.

“Yes. Kairen is my little brother.”

“….”

‘NO KAIN! You just made the matters worse!’

Serria’s mouth opened wide. She blinked a few times then narrowed her eyes and observed them carefully.

“Liar! You don’t look alike at all! How can Kairen be such a handsome man’s little brother?”

“Wha-”

“Pfft. Haha- argh Ahem Hahaha!”

Kain burst into laughter. He grabbed his injury that hurt because of laughing and coughed a few times to stop his laughter. Even Reyan was trying hard to surpass his laughter.

‘That wasn’t funny at all!’

Kain bit his lower lip and stopped laughing after seeing Kairen’s displeased face. He then patted Kairen’s shoulder once again.

“We are not related by blood.”

“Ah!”

Serria nodded her head as if understanding the situation.

“That would make more sense.”

‘That hurts! Stop it please.’

She parted her lips to continue saying bullshit again when someone’s loud voice gathered everyone’s attention.

“Don’t let down your guards. More forces may come back at any moment.”

Team leader Dains sat down near the unconscious guard that was captured by Kairen and searched his pockets. He took out everything and checked if there were any communicative tools.

“Remove the spells.”

This time, his words were directed to Kairen. Kairen got up and walked towards team leader Dains. He thanked the team leader inwardly for saving him from that shitty conversation.

The process of removing a spell wasn’t hard. Some of the spells that were meant to be active for a period of time had reverse spells for themselves to help lift the spell if needed. Once you cast a reverse spell, the effects of the wanted magic would be canceled.

Kairen cast the reverse spell and the paralyzing and binding magics were removed from the man. The still unconscious man came to his senses after receiving some slaps from team leader Dains.

“Umm?”

He opened his eyes with a groan. He tried to touch his sore cheek but his hands were tied. He blinked a few times after seeing a bunch of people sitting around him and staring right into his eyes.

“….”

He looked warily at them, cold sweat formed on his forehead. Team leader Dains placed the tip of his gun’s barrel on the man’s throat.

“P-please, don’t kill me. Please.”

He got terrified and started begging for his life.

“Answer my questions quickly. You know what will happen if you lie, right?”

“Will you l-let me go after that?”

“I won’t kill you, that is what I can say for sure.”

The man bit his lip and nodded his head.

“How many more guards are in this building?”

“A-About 40.”

“What is this building for?”

The man shut his mouth and avoided the team leader’s gaze. Team leader Dains pressed his gun on the man’s throat stronger.

“Answer.”

The man closed his mouth. His whole body was shaking.

“I d-don’t know.”

He shivered under the team leader’s gaze and closed his eyes.

“I am new here. I h-heard that this place was used before for some reach o-or something like that… b-but it’s now empty with only some documents and b-broken machines remaining.”

“Why haven’t they moved the documents?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

Team leader Dains frowned after hearing his words. The situation seemed suspicious. He asked one more question.

“What was their plan after noticing that the building was discovered?”

“T-they said they had to leave the building. Nearly half of the guards were sent to deal with the intruders and the rest were told to help the staff to run away.”

Leave? Run? Kairen was also confused. Why would you leave some documents in a building in the middle of nowhere and place guards for them, then leave the same documents behind and run away? Shouldn’t you at least take them with you? Or maybe destroy the whole building?

‘And what about the remaining guards? How were they supposed to get out of here?’

“I told everything that I knew. C-can you- Argh.”

Team leader Dains hit the man on a spot on his neck and he lost consciousness immediately. He motioned to Kairen again. Kairen cast his spells once more on the helpless man, making him unable to move even if he wanted to.

Team leader Dains looked at the destroyed stairs once more. If what the man said was true, then there wasn’t anybody in the building to attack them anymore. That meant they could go up and look for anything they wanted.

But the team leader hesitated. He couldn’t trust the man’s words completely. The man didn’t seem to lie, he would notice it if he told any lies. However, not lying didn’t mean that he was telling the truth either.

Things didn’t seem right. What the enemy had done didn’t seem reasonable at all. Were they really a bunch of fools? Or did they have another plan? He wasn’t sure.

Furthermore, unit 6’s members’ situation wasn’t really good. It was possible to go check the whole building with the members he had brought as a rescue team, but it wasn’t wise to drag the injured people here and there while they didn’t know about the situation on the upper floors. Unit 6’s safety should be their top priority now.

He thought for a while and then turned towards the others.

“We are leaving.”

“Yes, sir.”

No one opposed his order. Team leader Dains was known for his wise and calculated decisions, so everyone trusted him and obeyed his orders.

The seven members of unit 6, alongside the members of the rescue team and one captured guard, left the building.

It wasn’t possible to teleport to SMF’s main building straight away. There were some rules and safety measures set in all countries about teleporting to prevent any possible harm that may happen because of it. As a result of these rules, it was hard to flee and retreat from a dangerous situation immediately and it led to some unfortunate events in the past. That was why many different kinds of devices were created to help the agents in this teleportation issue.

They first had to send some notices and codes using special devices to inform the other side about their location and identity, they would then be allowed to teleport to the requested location. The process didn’t take too long actually.

The reason that unit 6’s members were unable to use the same method was because of the barriers set around the building. They had to place another device outside the barrier that would automatically send a help request if they didn’t come back in a set amount of time.

Such precautions were done in a lot of places and not only in SMF. The methods were different but the goal was the same, security.

Anyway, they all teleported and returned back to SMF safely.. Their goal was to rescue the unit members so their mission today was a success.