"HUH?!" Chuck’s face twisted as he sat at the table, Scarlet on his left and Haji on his right. Shock was written all over his face. "What the hell did you say this is?! You mean—"
"Keep your voice low," Scarlet whispered, taking a sip of her warm coffee. "We just told you this is classified information, but with that voice of yours, you might as well announce it to the world."
"I don’t know this person named Yuri," Haji remarked, "but based on her name, she sounds like a sweet and cute girl. Of course, I’ll rescue her."
He grinned, his side molar glinting.
Both Chuck and Scarlet looked at him with disdain.
Cute and sweet? The only cute thing about Yuri was her name. Otherwise, that woman was... the only one who could match Atlas in terms of big boss work-mode intensity. Even Allen gave up on Atlas if they worked for three days straight.
"It’s a three-man mission," Scarlet ignored Haji and continued in the same even tone. "Haji knows the guy, and he can lure him out. If not, then he’ll go there and meet him in person."
Haji nodded, only to freeze and scrunch up his face. "Huh? When did we agree on that?"
"As for you, you’re good at long-distance cover," she continued, turning her attention to Chuck. "Our main goal is to investigate the place, see how things are moving, and keep real-time reports back to the Order."
Regardless of Haji and Chuck’s reactions, Scarlet had already laid out the plan she had come up with while Haji was busy complaining about their "date" like a fool.
"If you have any suggestions, feel free to say them now. Otherwise, we’ll go with this plan," she said with finality. "Our priority is to find Yuri."
She paused, her expression stiff, eyes on Chuck. "This time, there’s no space for failure. We won’t have any backup, and it’ll be only the three of us. If one of us dies, the others continue the mission. But if all of us die, then we can only blame ourselves. However... dying in such a place is not my intention."
"Do we agree?"
Haji leaned toward his straw, sipping the last of his third can of soda. "I just managed to get my grandma out of Ravah. I’m not planning on leaving her when she finally agreed to step out of that territory."
Scarlet nodded, then both of them shifted their eyes to Chuck. The latter sat quietly in his seat, fiddling with his fingers with a grim expression.
"Fine," he huffed, lifting his eyes, which slowly sharpened with determination. "But I want to rank up if we succeed. Otherwise, this isn’t worth anything."
"You got it."
Haji flinched a little as he looked at Scarlet. "I don’t think you’re in a position to agree to that."
"I am not, but it’s a condition we are free to negotiate," she answered coldly. "We’ll move out tomorrow. Make sure others won’t be suspicious about why the three of us aren’t around."
Haji thought about it. "I wonder what kind of excuse I’ll have?"
He didn’t think any excuse would work, not when Himari was in the Order. The reason had to be logical enough for him to leave her alone for a while.
"Don’t worry about that," Scarlet gave him a side-eye. "Since everyone is interested in this non-existent relationship, we’ll give it to them."
Haji blinked innocently. "Huh?"
But Scarlet didn’t answer, emptying her cup of coffee.
The next day...
She paused and glanced over her shoulder. "Just... come with me."
Despite being confused, Izu nodded and followed her. He didn’t think much of it until he reached the big boss’s study and walked in on Atlas, Hugo, Slater, and Allen.
And all of them looked... exhausted. Even Atlas had dark bags under his eyes!
"Hmm?" Izu’s brows rose, but he flinched when Lola clapped and announced,
"This guy is our new member!" Lola giggled almost diabolically, raising her thumb. "I... trust him."
On a normal occasion, hearing that from Lola would be a great honor. However, for some reason, when Izu heard that and turned to her, all he saw was her mouth twitching and her eyes squinting evilly. Then he looked ahead, only to see everyone’s eyes shining like hungry wolves being introduced to a piece of protein after a long time.
*****
Meanwhile, in a deserted place...
"Boss, they left."
A voice echoed near Vito, who was idling under an open tent while eating some grapes. The sand and desert stretched endlessly around the tent, with no one in sight except the people working for him.
Vito chewed a grape, eyeing the ceiling of the tent before the corners of his mouth curled up. "Secret Society..." he whispered. "What an interesting dynamic. I’m thinking... where to place my stake."

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