"Ha!? You cowardly..."
A vein pulsed on Laxus's forehead, his eyes widening like saucers.
"First, observe the enemy's strength and see if they have all returned."
"Otherwise, if we startle them and other members who were out kidnapping children come back, what if they hear the commotion and run away?" Rayn interrupted Laxus's furious words.
"Besides, that sprint just now used a lot of stamina. We can use this time to recover."
"Anything else you want to say?" Rayn looked up at Laxus, speaking calmly.
"Tch! It's not like those guys are our mission targets anyway!" Laxus grumbled, stubbornly turning his head away.
Though he said this, his original impulse to attack was temporarily suppressed.
"Tsundere is so outdated, especially for a grown man," Rayn said, taking Kanna's hand and walking forward.
"Tsundere? What's that?" Laxus didn't understand what Rayn meant, but his intuition told him it was definitely not a compliment.
Seeing Rayn already moving ahead, he could only file it away in his mind, planning to repay the insult during their next fight.
"Kanna, is anyone watching us?" Rayn whispered, keeping his voice low.
"No," Kanna answered swiftly.
"They don't even have lookouts? Are they being careless, or are they preparing to leave?"
Having no lookouts was a good thing, but would people doing this kind of thing be so reckless?
With this question in mind, Rayn looked up and around. He soon fixed his gaze on a tree diagonally in front of them.
Laxus noticed his movement and quickly understood. He glanced to his side, then bent his knees and shot up like a cannonball. Grabbing a branch, he used his arms to pull himself up again, landing on a higher branch in a single breath. He then looked ahead.
"Kanna, you go up first."
As he spoke, Rayn took her hand and forcefully threw the little dragon girl upwards.
Instead of being scared, Kanna's eyes lit up. She grabbed a branch and spun around it a few times with the momentum, a slight hint of emotion showing on her blank face as she let out a soft "Oh."
"Alright, Kanna, we'll play next time. We have a mission now," Rayn said softly as he climbed the tree, not as violently as Laxus, but using several footholds to ascend.
"Oh," Kanna let go, and her body fell like a kite with a broken string, tumbling upwards.
A swift arm reached out, grabbing Kanna's small, raised hand, pulling her back and leaping to a pre-selected spot.
Soon, they were high up, their gazes piercing through the layers of leaves and shadows ahead. A house made of vines appeared before them.
"They're hidden quite well. No wonder there are no lookouts," Rayn noted silently.
The green vines of the house blended perfectly with the forest, making it inconspicuous. Even if a mage thought to search the forest, they would need a special search spell to find it; otherwise, it would be pure luck. Ordinary villagers, who wouldn't dare cross a forest full of magical beasts, couldn't organize a large-scale search, which further reduced the chances of being discovered.
Looking through the 'door' they left open for breathing, Rayn noted, "Tsk, it's not those guys."
He had a look and immediately clicked his tongue in annoyance. Members of the Dark Arts Cult generally wore nearly identical uniforms and masks. These people, however, were dressed randomly and had no markings of the cult. They were just an ordinary dark guild.
Though annoyed, Rayn didn't forget his mission and began to scan the people.
"1, 2, 3... 13 people."
Besides the moving figures, Rayn also saw one or two children sitting in a corner. There might have been more, but his angle made it impossible to see. The good news was that they were still alive. This discovery brought Rayn a sense of relief.
"One of them uses vine magic, the others' magic is unknown."
The house they lived in didn't look natural, so it was likely created by magic. He wasn't a magical girl, so he didn't have to worry about being countered. He just needed to avoid being controlled or bound.
"The leaders should be the one in the green robe and the one with the axe."
Rayn silently deduced the relationships from their actions. Due to the distance, he couldn't judge their strength. However, since they couldn't detect him watching from here, they couldn't be much stronger than him.
"Let's wait and see."
Rayn tapped his finger on the tree trunk, his eyes glinting with thought. Since these people were all gathered here without taking any action, they were clearly waiting for something. Either they were waiting for reinforcements, or some of their members had not yet returned. In either case, it was best to capture them all at once.
With this in mind, Rayn sat down to recover his stamina as quickly as possible.
Kanna, knowing there was work to be done, sat quietly beside him without making a sound. For a long-lived dragon, this kind of waiting was normal. In the past, she might just daze off, and years, or even a human lifetime, would pass by.
Time passed slowly. Perhaps because Kanna was nearby, the mosquitoes didn't dare to approach. The non-human scent was too overwhelming for them.
The sun began to set. The softening sunlight could no longer penetrate the thick canopy, casting a darker gloom over the forest. The sounds of insects and beasts began to emerge.
"Rustle."
Rayn's ears twitched. The sound of something heavy treading on fallen leaves came from below. He glanced down without moving his gaze. Two figures emerged from the direction he and Laxus had come. One of them was carrying a little boy. They had obviously just 'abducted' him from a nearby village.
"We're back so late, you don't think Lyle will be angry, do you?" the man carrying the child asked worriedly, his tone laced with a hint of fear. He was clearly afraid of this person named Lyle.
"We brought back a piglet before we left. Lyle won't be angry no matter what," the person next to him said more casually, seemingly taking the attitude of letting his merits offset his faults. The piglet he mentioned, of course, was not a real piglet, but the child in their hands.
"That's true. It's a pity those official guild people are coming. Otherwise, we could have caught a few more and made more money," the man carrying the child said regretfully, clearly not satisfied with their current haul.
"I wonder what those guys want so many kids for."
"Who cares? As long as we get paid, that's all that matters."
"Haha! We grab a few here, a few there, and then we run. Who can find us?"
"Yeah..."
As they spoke, the two arrived under the tree. The man not carrying the child stopped and stared at the ground.
"What's wrong?" The man next to him noticed his companion had stopped and asked, also stopping. Seeing the man staring at the ground, he followed his gaze.
Above them, Rayn and Laxus naturally noticed their movements as well. They also looked down, and a footprint immediately came into view. It was exactly where Laxus had jumped up from earlier.
The air instantly froze. The chirping of insects in the grass grew louder, as if providing a soundtrack for the impending explosion.
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