The reception office happened to be near the library, so it only took a short time for Vincent to reach the reception office. Varth was already waiting there for him, as well as the twin siblings, his girlfriend, and Peter.
"Big Brother's finally here," Leila said as she looked at Vincent approaching the three of them from afar.
"Yo, I hope I haven't kept you guys waiting for long!" Vincent said, hurrying up to them.
"Not really, you are just on time," Peter replied.
After shaking hands and giving their morning greetings to each other, Varth said, "Let's head inside."
Grouped up into one party, they walked inside the office to talk with the receptionist.
"So, the four of you want to head out of the academy to complete a monster subjugation and bandit slaying mission, is that right?" said an old guy with a weary face and a white beard, using a pair of eyeglasses to look at the mission validity letter in his hand, provided by the students standing before the table.
Vincent's eyebrows raised. He hadn't heard anything about the bandit slaying mission! 'Did someone among the three accept it? It can't be Leila and Peter as they are still wet behind the ears and would be unable to kill or harm other humans.' Vincent looked at Varth and thought, 'So that only leaves him in the equation.'
The eyes of Peter and Leila blinked rapidly, clearly bothered by hearing that they will have to kill another humanoid.
"Yes, that's right," Varth replied in place of the team of four.
"Permission granted. You must complete the missions and return to the academy before the weekend ends. Otherwise, an overtime penalty will be issued to you. So, don't wander too much while on your missions."
"Yes, sir. We understand!"
After obtaining permission to leave the academy, the group left the campus and headed towards the nearest floating train station, each of them buying train tickets from the receptionist at the counter before the train stopped at the station, and they along with a lot of people entered the train and sat inside their respective cabins.
"Hey, why did you accept the bandit slaying mission without consulting with us first? Don't you know they are the worst kind of criminals and will do anything to kill their prey? Without us attacking to kill them, we won't be winning the fight." Vincent's voice rang out.
There are a lot of bandits and thieves who kill other adventurers wandering in the wilderness to loot their items, money, and so on, to make a living or simply for fun. After all, wilderness doesn't have any rules, and as long as they don't get identified, they will be able to enter and leave any city without much of a problem.
Once they get identified, however, the cities issue mission to suppress the bandits or just outright take their lives.
When facing bandits who murder and loot others for a living, how many could remain calm?
He could!
However, he wasn't sure about Varth and the twins.
Varth took a deep breath and said, "If you are worried that you'll dirty your hands by killing a few scums that deserve death, you can leave the bandits slaying mission to me."
He was talking about killing someone too lightly as if he has been doing it for his whole life.
They were sitting on the comfortable sofas placed inside of the passenger cabin suitable for a group of four passengers on board the levitating train. A few windows were on their left, showing a wonderful scenery of various forests and a few blue lines, representing several legs of the river of 108 legs.
"You mean to say I should chicken out and let you face a group of bandits alone? Are you serious?!" Vincent's eyes narrowed subtly.
"This isn't like that," Varth said, shrugging his shoulders. He didn't say anything more than necessary as he wasn't ready to reveal his murderous identity to a few teenagers.
"I think it is."
"Ahem! Let's not forget that we are a team and shouldn't intensely argue with each other. Besides guys, I am fine with dealing with psychopathic killers." Peter said, "I don't know about my sister though."
"I don't mind either. Bandits are scum who deserve to die." Leila said with an ice-cold expression on her face. It seems like she detests bandits.
Hearing their words, Vincent's worries eased.
"It's decided then! We will participate in killing the bandits once we encounter them." Vincent said. He didn't share even a trace of goodwill towards scums that like to kill others for monetary benefits.
Varth exhaled and said with a smile behind his mask, "I'm fine with that."
Peter inclined his head to the side, looking out the window. The levitating train, powered by the magic power present in nature, smoothly cut through the air with ease, shooting towards the next city's station at a very fast speed.
Several minutes later, Leila asked, "When are we going to reach there?"
"Hmm, the levitating train we are on would make several stops, eventually dropping us off in the lower city of Leslie, which is furthest away from the river of 108 legs, and established near the ends of its several legs. It would take us half a day to reach Leslie. We would arrive after dusk today, near the outskirts of the city." Vincent placed her head on his laps while saying that, and continued, "Rest for now. I will wake you up once we are there."
The touch of his hands brought warmth to her body, making her feel comfortable and sleepy.
"I am not sleepy," she said, looking at him without any intention of closing her eyes.
"You won't know if you are sleepy if you don't close your eyes," Vincent said after letting her stare at him for a few minutes.
"Aren't you sleepy?"
"Nope," Vincent said. "I am feeling refreshed since you are with me."
His words made Leila blush but also giggle happily before closing her eyes, sinking into the embrace of darkness.
Sometime later, they got off the train and arrived at Leslie, the city said to be ruled by a low-rank adventurer.