...…

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Arthur and Leonard ran for as fast as they could so that they could catch up with the others who were escorting the younger generations of the Military Circle. They encountered some agents of the Roku Prefecture along the way, so they were delayed for quite some time. After all, they still needed to finish off those guys first before continuing.

When they caught up with the others, they immediately swept their gazes at everyone to see what state they were in.

There were quite a lot of people who suffered some severe injuries, but they were still far from dying. What's more, the medical team already arrived before the two of them. So, there was nothing much to worry about those guys since their wounds were already being healed.

There were also a few numbers of unfortunately people who couldn't survive and died during the ambush. Some of those unfortunate ones were the victims of the leaders of the opposing group such as Silver Claw and Black Talon.

But the number of people who died was not that many, so this mission could still be considered a huge success. Especially that they killed almost all of the agents of the opposing group while the others who managed to survive were captured by the military.

Seeing that everything was under control, Arthur and Leonard finally were able to release a sigh of relief since they finally found a time to relax.

After that, they swept their gazes at the surrounding once again, trying to find their teammates. A moment later, they saw the group sitting under a tree not far from them. And it looks like those guys were currently resting now.

Arthur and Leonard turned their heads at each other before tilting their heads in that direction simultaneously. Then they started walking towards their direction to regroup with them. And naturally, the others immediately noticed the two when they were getting near the group.

Lorraine immediately stood when she saw the two and quickly started running towards Leonard. "Leo! Thank god, you're fine!"

And when she was about to get near him, she immediately leaped forward, planning to jump in his arms.

Leonard wanted to take a quick step to the side, so that he could avoid her. But when he saw the worried look on her face, he couldn't bring himself to dodge. So, he just stayed in place while sighing helplessly.

Lorraine was surprised when she saw that; she was actually expecting that Leonard was going to move out of the way to dodge her, but she was not expecting him to stay still and let her hug him. Regardless, she still smiled brightly and enjoyed the treat.

Meanwhile, Arthur watched the sight with an envious look on his face before muttering to himself. "Such a lucky b*st*rd!"

Then he turned his head to the side to take a look at Jillian. There, he saw her sitting on the ground with crossed legs and closed eyes. From the looks of it, she was currently in the middle of a mediation to mend her wounds and restore her exhausted Mental Energy.

Seeing that, Arthur knitted for a moment before turning his attention at Molton who was practically doing the same as Jillian. Then he turned his head at Angela and saw that she was also doing the same.

Due to that, Arthur became slightly more confused. He then turned his head at Lorraine while raising his eyebrows further upwards while asking. "Why do these guys seem to be beaten up quite badly while you are still fine? Don't tell me, they are the only ones who did all the hard work."

Lorraine immediately clicked her tongue the moment she heard that and complained. "Tsk! Isn't that too unfair? You know me longer than them, yet you seem to be thinking that I am weaker than those three?"

Hearing that, Arthur just shrugged her shoulders while saying. "It is just a joke, OK? A joke."

He then paused for a moment before asking once again. But with a rephrase sentence this time. "So~ ♪, what is your secret?"

Lorraine reluctantly let go of Leonard before wearing a smug look on her face and said. "Of course, it is because I have my trusted babies," while tapping the holstered pistols on each side of her waist.

And when Arthur saw that, he immediately came to a realization. Then he paused for a moment before saying. "I know that your family is for your famous gunsmithing alongside the talented gunslingers and snipers. But isn't it wasting your other talent if you keep insisting on inheriting their style?"

"What's more, Dual-Practitioners are quite rare," he added while scratching the back of his head.

Hearing him, Lorraine immediately smirked before saying. "Can't I just have both? After all, I don't want to be left behind by you guys."

Arthur shrugged his shoulders once again before walking towards the other three. And when reached under the tree, he immediately sat on the ground beside Jillian without any hesitation before closing his eyes.

Seeing that, Leonard couldn't help but smile bitterly before following Arthur together with Lorraine. But they only took a couple of steps when the latter suddenly noticed Shin's absence. "Where's Shin? How come he is not with the two of you?"

Leonard suddenly halted his steps the moment he heard that. At the same time, Arthur slowly opened his eyes as some killing intent started to leak out from their bodies.

And when the others sensed that, the trio of Angela, Jillian and Molton couldn't help but open their eyes. Meanwhile, Lorraine suddenly raised her hands to cover her mouth while saying. "Don't tell me!?-…"

But before she could even finish her words, Leonard immediately cut her words off by saying. "What are you thinking? There is nothing bad that can happen to that guy. He just got teleported away when we were battling earlier."

Arthur immediately supported what Leonard had said. "Yeah! And that idi*t probably got home already and was waiting for us to come back."

"I wonder if he is going to us some goodies for our dinner," he added while supporting his chin with his hand.

While they were in the middle of discussion, a bunch of military vehicles suddenly arrived. And the moment their doors were opened, a group of armed soldiers immediately got out from those vehicles before scattering in the would place to stand on guard.

Shiella was the last one who walked out of the vehicle. And when she got out, the first thing she did was to look for her dear brothers. It only took her a few seconds to find their group, so immediately went to their locations to check their conditions.

After arriving, she immediately released a sigh of relief when she saw that the group all seemed fine. But that only lasted for a moment before the expression on her face became solemn all of the sudden.

"Where is Shin?" she asked with a deep voice.

Hearing her, both Arthur and Leonard gulped a mouthful of saliva, unable to give their reply. And when Shiella saw that, her eyebrows suddenly raised further upwards before a powerful pressure was released from her body.

BOOM!

The group found themselves unable to move and had a hard time breathing when they felt that intense pressure. They looked at Shiella fearfully as they could clearly say that she was a lot stronger than the opponents that they had faced earlier.

Fortunately, Mariel Potter was able to arrive in time and patted Sheilla's shoulder while saying. "Relax, don't feel too worked up yet. How about you listen to their words first?"

Hearing her, Shiella immediately came back to her senses and quickly retrieved her pressuring aura. Then she took a deep breath to calm herself down before saying. "Arthur, Leo – follow me. I need to hear the details."

After that, she immediately turned her body around before walking away. Meanwhile, the others started gasping very hard as they tried to catch their breaths. They were also sweating a lot after feeling the pressure that Shiella had shown.

After recovering themselves, Arthur and Leonard immediately chase after Shiella as they were afraid to make their situation even worse.

On the other hand, Jillian and Molton simultaneously turned their heads at Mariel before the former suddenly asked. "Big sister, who is stronger between the two of you?"

Hearing Jillian's question, Mariel just shrugged her shoulders before saying nonchalantly. "I don't know. We have never fought before."

Then she paused for a moment before saying with a smirking face. "But if ever we have one, I am confident that I can hold myself against her. And even though I don't know if I can win – I can still assure you that I can score a draw at the very least."

*******

On a high ground not far from that ravenous point, Code was watching the military with amused expression while saying to himself. "So, the Roku Prefecture still failed in the end. Tsk! It looks like those old bones in the higher-ups still call the right bet, huh?"

"They sure are cunning," he added before planning to get away from this place before Shiella and Mariel picked up his presence.

But before he could even turn his body around, his entire body was suddenly frozen in place as he felt an arm suddenly wrapped around his shoulders; a person suddenly appeared on his side without him even knowing!

Code wanted to do something about it, but he didn't have time to move even his fingers when he felt an invisible chain wrapped around his body and prevented him from doing any kind of movements.

After that, he suddenly heard the man beside him, saying. "I will only give you two choices."

"The first one is to come with me and answer all of my questions truthfully – and I will give you a painless death. And the second one is I am going to cripple you before handing you to the military for their own questioning."

"So, which one do you prefer? But if you ask me personally, I will suggest you to choose the latter option since I am a lazy type of person."

...…