A week after becoming an official member of the department, the three of them were called out in to the Commander's office.
"Well.... You three, this is what you guys have been waiting for! You guys have a mission!"
"Oh!"
"Finally!!"
Exclaimed Eiji and Marco, although not vocal, Akai nodded his head in agreement.
The three of them had been waiting and asking for the commander if there were any mission for them these past few days!
But they were always rejected with various reasons like, either the target is too strong, too far away or needs more information.
And now what they have been waiting for has arrived.
"This is a quick elimination mission, you three have to finish it within this day!"
Commander Sadou told them seriously.
"""Yes sir!"""
"Good! Now, there have been a bandit group at one of the routes near the capital.
It would have been fine as they would be eliminated by the Warrior Department as one of their missions.
But this bandit group wasn't here just randomly, they were specifically given a task from a certain merchant!
This merchant group.. well who they are, is irrelevant at this point, is a medium level merchant. From what the IAI Department had given us, the head of this merchant group wanted the daughter of a certain small time merchant, and was obviously rejected."
!!!
The three of them frowned and can infer what had happened next.
"And as you might have expected, that merchant didn't like the rejection so he hired some bandits to target that merchant group every time they have a dealings with other cities.
But as they are bandits, they just targeted all the merchant groups except for that 'employee' of theirs.
Well.. this caused quite a few out rage from the merchants and well, bad luck, they also struck one of the Kingdom's envoy passing through that road.
They were defeated, but as they were being protected by that merchant group, well.... No one has caught them.. well.. not until tomorrow, and for you three...
Your mission is to eliminate that merchant head! According to the IAI Department, once a week, he would head to their lair to give them their 'pay', and that day of payment is scheduled today!"
"Alright sir! We'll prepare now!"
Marco excitedly said.
"Wait now! I'm not done yet! This is an important information, that merchant has 5 swordsmen as Bodyguards, and two of them are at the elite level, while the other three might not be elite yet, they should not be far off and has a lot more experience as they are older than you three guys!
Here are the information read it then proceed!"
Handing the scroll, commander Sadou then nodded at the three and then sat in his chair to continue his work.
The three of them looked at each other, bowing to the commander and then exited the office.
"Let's go!"
Akai said.
The other two had no qualms either, they have their gears on ready, so they just ran out swiftly, eager to finish their first ever mission.
---
A few hours passed by.
It was near ten in the evening, the three of them had read the information in the scroll as the ran.
They knew that the merchant would only pay the bandits at night, so they formulated a plan and looked at the road at the map and then looked for places to hide for ambush or for a retreat if there was ever something unexpected happens.
They had even went to the merchant's store bought a few things and found out what the target looked like.
*Clap! Clap! Clap!
Then the sound of a horse clamping in the road was heard.
The three of them knew that the merchant was now passing by.
The horse carriage was slow, it was just a normal single horse drawn carriage, and the merchant head was inside with two of his trusted elite level swordsmen, while one of the three was the driver, the other two was at the either side of the carriage walking and acted as a look out.
*Swoooshh!!
Then Akai suddenly appeared behind one of the swordsmen at the side and silently beheaded him.
*Thud!
Then the sound of his head dropping was heard.
"Huh?-ah!!"
Before the other swordsman at the side could react though, his vision suddenly vanished, then a katana pierced through his heart as akai also appeared behind him.
"Enemies!!!-"
*Psshhhh!!
As the driver shouted, Akai's katana was already at his neck slashing diagonally upwards, cutting enough just to kill him and not entirely behead him.
It was not that Akai couldn't do it anymore but more like there was too much blood, he doesn't want too much blood on his clothes! Even if he wasn't the one who's going to wash them!
"What's happening?!"
Then the fat middle aged merchant head, emerged from the carriage along with his two elite swordsmen guards.
"W- what! Did you do?! Do you know who I am?! This is a crime! I am one of the merchant groups in the kingdom of Masamune!
You two bastards could get executed for this!"
The merchant couldn't distinguish Akai and Marco's faces as they had their hoodie on, and the face stealth was on, which makes it so that unless they took off the hoodie, no matter how less the hoodie covers, the other party could only see darkness in it.
Because of that, the merchant and the two swordsman didn't know that their enemies were just a group of teen age boys. As people who always trains and are always healthy with abundant food supply, they already have passed the height of average eleven year old kids.
"Go! Go! The two of you! Kill these bitches!"
"Yes sir!"
The two men agreed with their employer and unsheathed their katanas.
*Ziinng!
Akai and Marco positioned themselves as they prepared for the next course of action!
*SWOOOSHH!!!
*PSSHHHTTT!!!!
*Thud! Thud! Thud!
Then a sound was suddenly heard behind the two swordsmen.
"Huh?!"
"What's that?!"
Then as they turned around to see what happened to their employer, the only thing they could see was a headless fat body.
The head of the merchan has already rolled down below their feet.
They stared at the wide eyed merchant head's head then..
*Swoooshh!!!
*PSSHHHTTT!!!!
Then their hearts were pierced from behind as Marco and Akai sneaked behind them!
The two of them didn't even see Eiji and they died not knowing what happened and who killed their employer.
*Thud! Thud!
The two bodies then dropped to the ground.
Eiji looked at their 'handiwork' and he could only say.
"Tonight,.. is a little too red isn't it?!"
Marco chuckled and while Akai didn't laugh, he smiled under his hood.
The three of them then took out the red clothe inside their treasure pouch and then took out the heads of the target as proof of completion.
Then the three of them rode the carriage back.
The mission did not tell them to give back the 'pay' of the bandits, so in hindsight, this was their spoils of war now!
This was also the reason why Eiji was excited when he read the information about the mission.
With this much money inside the carriage, he can pay all the tuition and subsidies he had to pay in one go and would probably even have a lot to spare! And this was having it split three ways!
Eiji happily sat inside the carriage and looked at the gold and silver bars inside the chest.
Marco was the one who was driving, Eiji didn't know how to drive a carriage and so did akai, so this fell on Marco who knew how to.
Marco and Akai, despite also having a lot of money was happy about their spoils, as this was considered their first 'earnings' as a swordsman!
And so they happily went back to the Headquarters to report the success of their first official mission!
*End Of Chapter.