"The Land of Putola?" Kaede, dragging her exhausted body, sat down beside Esdeath.
"Ah, yes. A mission came in, asking me to support a unit. Oh, that's right!" Esdeath's eyes lit up as she looked at Kaede and said, "That unit seems to be the Reinforcement Squad you were in."
"Eh?" Kaede was stunned for a moment, but she didn't feel much. After all, she didn't have any close friends in the Reinforcement Squad. She had more friends like Kurome, and besides, she wasn't in the Reinforcement Squad anymore.
"I'm no longer in the Reinforcement Squad," Kaede said. Then, looking at the lazy-looking Esdeath, who showed no sign of wanting to set off, she couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you planning to go?"
"Why would I go there? It's abroad." Esdeath said, smiling, and her smile widened as she looked at Kaede.
"Uh..." Kaede was puzzled by Esdeath's expression, but the next moment, Esdeath cleared up her confusion.
"If you hadn't come, I might have been bored enough to rush over there alone. But now~" Esdeath stretched. Life now, with a barely decent opponent to fight with every day, what was there to be bored about?
Moreover, Esdeath didn't believe she would find an opponent stronger than Kaede there, so naturally, she had no interest in this mission.
"Oh, suit yourself." Kaede hadn't had any thoughts on it to begin with, and after hearing Esdeath's words, she felt even less interested.
"By the way, what would happen if you didn't do this mission?" Although she knew Esdeath was the empires strongest and that nothing would happen even if she refused directly, Kaede still asked out of impulse.
"Nothing would happen at all. Besides, there are other teams assigned to this mission. It seems to be an assassination unit, the Elite Group, I think. But calling them elite—what kind of elite could come from just training there?" Esdeath said with a mocking smirk, not noticing the person beside her suddenly stiffen.
"I... am in the Elite Group."
"..." Esdeath was silent for a moment, seemingly feeling a bit awkward, but upon further thought, seeing the look on Kaede's face, she raised an eyebrow and asked, "You want to go help?"
"Ah, my younger sisters are all in there." Kaede nodded.
"It's not good to pamper your sisters like that," Esdeath said.
"It doesn't matter. It's enough to leave the enemies for me to handle." Kaede took a deep breath, turned to look at Esdeath, and said, "Can you give me a map of the Land of Putola? I'm leaving for it immediately."
"Hmph~" Esdeath thought for a moment, and finally, looking at the expression on Kaede's face, she didn't make things too difficult and said, "Fine."
"Thank you." Kaede nodded. Although she didn't like the way the empires strongest tortured her enemies, in normal times, she was surprisingly decent.
Well, provided you aren't her enemy. If you are her subordinate, you should be even happier, because she is definitely a good captain.
Thus, after getting the map, Kaede didn't pause at all and headed toward the Land of Putola.
However, to Kaede's speechlessness, Esdeath followed her, claiming that if Kaede wasn't there, she would be bored, so she might as well go and take a look.
Well, one could see this coming from the initial questions. Moreover, Esdeath's presence was undoubtedly the most powerful sedative; with her there, as long as they arrived in advance, would they really be in any danger?
A two-person squad and an eight-person squad, with the same destination, were both moving forward at high speed.
Although it was abroad, their travel speed was unimaginably fast. It didn't take much time before Kaede and Esdeath arrived at the Land of Putola.
"It seems there are unexpectedly many guards here." Kaede said with a cold face, looking around.
"Yeah, just a bunch of clowns." Esdeath had obviously also discovered the fleas hiding in the shadows.
"Let's finish this quickly." Kaede didn't have time to play with them here. Her body flashed, and she hid in the shadows. When it came to hiding, no one here could compare to her.
The poor fleas were still searching for the figure that had suddenly disappeared, not realizing that the figure had already quietly arrived behind them like a grim reaper.
Without leaving them any time to react, she drew her blade, slashed horizontally, and then sheathed it. Her figure hid in the shadows once again, leaving behind only several corpses that hadn't even realized what happened. Each one was cut in half; there was no other outcome.
"You're really in a hurry~" Esdeath was also surprised by Kaede's hiding skills. Hiding right in front of those people—was it possible to be that strong?
However, you can't take all of them~ Esdeath finally made her move at this moment. The chill on her body erupted instantly, and this cold air ultimately condensed into ice spikes out of thin air, which then pierced toward the side Kaede hadn't gone to.
The ice spikes shot out, creating a clearing effect, breaking all the trees nearby that could be used for hiding.
"Don't think about running away in front of me. Let me see how you struggle, shall we?" Although she could kill them directly, Esdeath clearly didn't intend to do that. It seemed she wanted to play for a bit.
Therefore, even though Esdeath's Teigu could easily slaughter a group of people, it was Kaede who finished them off first.
However, Kaede knew Esdeath's habits, and as for trying to persuade her... well, forget it. Indeed, she couldn't try to persuade her; she didn't want to go looking for death.
However, from the mouths of these people, Kaede also learned that they seemed to have arrived a step too late. The Elite Group had already arrived here, but not through this entrance.
As for how she got it out of them, well, she had to thank that Guy Bill for his drugs. It could be said that as long as they were alive, using those drugs could pry their mouths open, regardless of whether they wanted to or not.
However, it was better to use these things sparingly. After all, she had already left the Reinforcement Squad, and the source of the drugs was gone. It could be said that every bottle used was one less. But in this current situation, she couldn't worry about that.
She looked at those still being tortured there—well, they had turned into some kind of "people" that looked like chimeras. Some of their body parts seemed to have turned into parts of animals, and those animal parts seemed to possess the characteristics of said animals.
Well, Kaede hadn't seen it when she killed them, because they died... before they could transform.
Feeling that it would take a while for Esdeath to finish her torture, Kaede wanted to enter this mausoleum alone. However, the next moment, an ice wall appeared in front of her, with Kaede's nose only a few millimeters away from the ice wall.
"Don't even think about going alone." Esdeath understood very well that these were all just small fry, and while she was somewhat interested in their animal transformation abilities, the big monsters inside were definitely more attractive.
"Then hurry up." Kaede said, feeling a bit helpless.
"Mm, okay." Esdeath didn't intend to play anymore. Even though she was quite happy, since she would be able to play even more enjoyably later, there was no need to dwell on it.
The moment Esdeath made up her mind, ice spikes immediately began to appear on the ground over there, growing directly from the ground and piercing the small fry who hadn't reacted.
In that instant, the battle ended.
"As expected..." Looking at the scene before her, Kaede wasn't surprised at all. After all, the person walking toward her, name: Esdeath, occupation: Imperial General, strength: the empires strongest!
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the fanfiction has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 or more chapters in advance over on my patreon: patreon.com/FTLGenBen
Also every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone, Thanks.