Assassination? I'm an Expert at That / Mischief Never Goes Unpunished (Taking a Break Today, So Here's an Extra Chapter) ...

Yes, the two of them, one inside and one outside, endured the unceasing lightning overhead while chatting through a pane of glass. Kanna did most of the talking, while Scout listened.

As for what she said, Scout claimed he recognized every single word, but once they were put together, he could not understand any of it. Maybe it was just a child's wild imagination. After all, he was completely baffled by things like, "That trashy Hypergryph only knows how to go ALLALL," and, "The planners have no brains, so when they can't make mechanics, they just force double flashes."

Still, at least this proved that Kanna was healthy. As for whether she was normal, he had no idea.

After about half an hour, the thunderclouds finally dispersed. Scout was about to open the door when Kanna waved her hand.

"It isn't suitable for people to come outside right now. Wait a little longer and let the wind blow through." Kanna sniffed the fishy smell lingering in the air and firmly refused to let Scout leave.

After the continuous lightning strikes, the ozone concentration on the observation deck had become extremely high due to the powerful current. If Scout came out now, it would harm his body.

The people below, who had been ready to mount a rescue, saw that the lightning had stopped and that no emergency signal had come from upstairs. They all breathed sighs of relief, then followed Kal'tsit onto the elevator toward the observation deck.

When they arrived, they found Kanna sitting off to the side while Scout stood nearby wearing a gas mask.

When she saw Outcast and the others, Kanna happily waved. Once they came closer, she waved again and said, "There is a little too much electricity in Kanna's body this time. Kanna can't fully control it yet, so don't touch Kanna. You'll get hurt."

As she spoke, Kanna slowly brought her hands together before everyone. They could all see electric currents constantly forming between her palms, proving just how terrifying the amount of electricity in her body was.

Assassination? I Know This One

Over the next few days, Kanna became very "steady." The reason was naturally that previous lightning storm. Not to mention that the news of lightning striking over Rhodes Island for so long could not possibly be completely suppressed.

As for Kanna herself, no one knew where things had gone wrong, but she had practically turned into an oversized magnet these past few days. Unfortunately, Rhodes Island had an excessive amount of metal, and Kanna occasionally forgot to control her power, causing the magnetic force to grow stronger.

As a result, operators would often see a certain little dragon wriggling across the floor like an earthworm.

Kal'tsit had originally wanted to assign her a separate room and have her learn to control the power within her body there. However, Kanna was perfectly well-behaved most of the time, yet whenever mealtime came, regardless of the circumstances, she stubbornly headed for the cafeteria.

Since she had fully charged the remaining electricity this time, she no longer needed to continue that rather inefficient conversion process, so her appetite and food intake had decreased considerably. Even so, the young dragon's physique allowed her to easily eat portions that would take two or three grown men to finish.

Amiya suggested having someone deliver her meals, but Kanna refused. With her hands on her hips, she righteously declared that she got too little exercise every day. The walk to the cafeteria was already one of the few forms of exercise she had. If she stayed in her room every day, she would not only get bored to death, but turn into a little chubster.

Besides, wasn't Rhodes Island founded on humanitarian principles? How could they put a young dragon in solitary confinement? It would badly damage their image.

After Kanna's twisted logic, she finally earned the right to burrow from her room to the cafeteria every day, then climb onto a specially made dining table to eat.

Of course, to prevent outsiders from seeing Kanna lose control and maliciously twisting it into Rhodes Island abusing children, Kal'tsit had no choice but to arrange for her to stay in a room along a route rarely used by others, with the cafeteria and dormitory connected at either end.

One morning, Kanna woke up and discovered that she had finally controlled the electricity leaking from her body. She no longer inexplicably attracted all kinds of nearby metal objects. After sensing her condition for a while, she confirmed that she had completely mastered the power of lightning.

She excitedly ran out to find Outcast and share the good news.

However, when she reached Outcast's quarters, she found that Outcast was not there. She went to the nearby training room instead. Although she found members of Outcast's squad there, Outcast herself was nowhere to be seen.

When she asked the squad members, they told her that Kal'tsit had called Outcast away. There should be a mission requiring her to leave soon.

Kanna's eyes lit up when she heard that, and she wandered toward the operations management room where missions were assigned.

When she reached the door, she heard Kal'tsit's voice from inside. She vaguely caught words like "Columbia" and "guarantee foundation."

Columbia?

Kanna rubbed one of her dragon horns. Over the past few days, she had also become acquainted with some people, such as the members of A1 Squad, who would occasionally feed her when they ran into her.

From their conversations, she learned that Fen and the other two came from Columbia and had originally been reserve police officers with a good chance of becoming full-fledged officers.

Unfortunately, a Catastrophe had infected them all with Originium Infection, and on the land of Terra, ordinary people and those with Originium Infection lived in completely separate worlds.

Even though they had been infected while saving ordinary people, they were still subjected to discrimination.

Fortunately, Closure had previously interacted with a Rhodes Island operator. Under that person's recommendation, the three of them came to Rhodes Island.

From their conversations, Kanna could deeply feel the severe generation gap and divide between the infected and the uninfected.

Just as she pushed open the door and wanted to sneak inside, Kal'tsit and Outcast looked up at her.

"Hehe!"

Seeing the young dragon acting cute at the doorway, both of them could not help but feel a little more relaxed.

"It seems you've completely brought that enormous energy in your body under control, Kanna?"

Kal'tsit sharply noticed the difference between Kanna and before.

"Mhm, mhm! Kanna succeeded! Kanna came to tell Grandma Outcast the good news."

Hearing Kanna's words, Outcast smiled and picked her up.

"Good, good. Kanna is amazing... Grandma will take you out for dessert later."

"Yay!"

"All right. That's the situation. This mission mainly involves secretly taking in a group of orphans. With your squad's capabilities, there shouldn't be much of a problem."

"Grandma is going out?" After leaving the room, the two walked hand in hand through the corridor.

"Yes. While I'm away, Kanna, you mustn't be naughty, okay?"

Outcast actually knew that Kanna had been restraining herself quite well. After all, with such powerful strength, if she were truly mischievous, Rhodes Island would have been in complete chaos long ago.

Although she initially did not know how much restraint was appropriate, after learning, Kanna no longer damaged the things around her. She often did things that left people laughing and crying, but she was a child. It was normal for her to have some wild ideas, as long as they did not affect others too much.

Kanna originally wanted to ask whether she could come along, but on second thought, asking would most likely get her rejected and would also make Outcast and Kal'tsit wary. She might as well obediently listen for now, then secretly sneak into Outcast's convoy when the time came.

After following Outcast to enjoy a wonderful meal, she said goodbye and prepared to go play somewhere else.

Considering how safe Rhodes Island's main ship was, Outcast agreed to let her play on her own.

After they parted, Kanna thought about it. Last time, she had found the scenery from the observation deck atop the bridge quite nice. Unfortunately, it had started thundering and raining before she had seen enough, so she decided to go there again.

She quickly took the elevator outside, then, while no one was paying attention, shot up to the top of the observation tower.

This time, she sat on top of the observation tower, breathing in the dry air of the wasteland and admiring scenery she had never seen in either of her lives.

"The scenery is pretty nice, but seeing it once or twice is enough. If you stare at it for too long, you'll realize that although it looks magnificent, it is filled with suffering and mundanity." Scout climbed up from behind her and deftly sat down beside Kanna.

"Wow! Mister, you still noticed me even though I was so careful."

Kanna put on an exaggerated expression.

Scout could not help rolling his eyes. How much did this little brat look down on him? Though that violet gleam had only flashed by for a moment, he was still Kazdel's renowned sniper master. If he could not even notice that, he would have died long ago on Kazdel's battlefields.

"Kanna heard you're an assassin. What kind of assassin are you?"

"Assassins come in different kinds?"

"Of course! Kanna knows two kinds. One wears heavy armor, holds a greatshield in the left hand and a greatsword in the right. When the evening bell rings, everyone who hears it goes to hell. The other wears white clothes and a white robe, hides among crowds, and kills both the target and everyone around them. They come and go without a trace, but Kanna heard that if they don't train properly, they dissolve in water."

"Uh... shouldn't assassins strike once and flee a thousand miles, taking a general's head amid ten thousand soldiers? What kind of nonsense is killing everyone?" Even the usually calm Scout could not help complaining after hearing Kanna's words.

"That way of thinking is outdated. A high-end assassin kills the target and all of the target's guards to count it as a success. After all, if everyone is dead, there are no witnesses. With no witnesses, it becomes a perfect infiltration. Only an 'assassination' that achieves perfect infiltration counts as a high-end assassin."

Kanna waved her little hands in front of herself, looking as though no one understood assassins better than she did.

Mischief Always Comes Back to Haunt You

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Scout did not want to argue with Kanna over what counted as assassination. He lay down on the roof and gave up.

Kanna saw that he clearly did not believe her, and she became angry.

She walked to the roof's edge and said,

"Kanna knows you don't believe her, but Kanna can prove it. Connor once said, 'Nothing is true, everything is permitted.' Even if a high-end assassin has no protection at all, as long as there is a haystack below, they can fall safely from any height. Kanna will show you what an assassin is now."

After saying that, Kanna jumped off the edge.

By the time Scout reacted and rushed to the edge, all he saw was her figure getting smaller and smaller as she fell toward the ground... and a pile of garbage below.

The ground was nearly a hundred meters below. If she prepared to absorb the impact, then judging from the physical strength Kanna had shown in the training grounds, she should have been fine. But she had crossed her arms over her chest and faced away from the ground, looking as though she planned to crash straight down on her back. Scout was scared out of his wits.

Without regard for his own safety, Scout also dove headfirst toward where Kanna was falling.

When Kanna saw Scout jump down, she even cheerfully shouted, "I jump, you jump!" completely unconcerned about whether falling like this would hurt her.

Beside the garbage pile below, Fen wiped the sweat from her forehead, looking utterly refreshed. Her squad had received an assignment and spent the entire morning cleaning the deck until it was spotless. They had only just gathered all the trash into one pile and were waiting for the disposal cart to haul it away.

At that moment, a dark shadow fell from the sky. Accompanied by a tremendous impact and dust thrown several meters into the air, everyone froze.

"Hahaha! See? Kanna was right! As long as there's a 'haystack' below, an assassin can fall from any height without getting hurt."

A familiar voice came from the middle of the garbage pile. Before they could react, another thud landed there.

"Cough, cough, cough! At least give me time to prepare! Are you trying to scare me to death by jumping like that?" The other voice was also very familiar, though they had only heard it at the training grounds before.

As the dust gradually settled, two figures emerged from the middle, one large and one small, both covered in grime.

"You... you..." Fen looked at the garbage that had scattered across another quarter of the bridge in the wind, and her blood pressure began to rise.

When the large and small figures saw A1 Squad gathering around them, they both felt that things were not looking good.

However, Kanna was still the more skilled one. Relying on her small stature, she suddenly grabbed a handful of dust from the ground and threw it at Scout's head. While Scout's eyes were blinded by dust, she shot through a gap in the encirclement and darted into the observation tower passage beside them.

Scout had not expected Kanna to be so shameless as to sneak-attack an old man like him. By the time he reacted, A1 Squad had already surrounded him.

Unlike Kanna, he was not that shameless. Since he had been caught, he did not struggle.

Still, he had jumped down because of Kanna in the first place, and making an unprotected rapid descent from such a height still left him dizzy. That was why Kanna had been able to set him up.

As an Elite Operator, he could not accept taking this lying down. Spitting the dust from his mouth, he said, "It was my fault for delaying your cleaning, but Kanna is the real culprit. That girl jumped off the tower after one disagreement, and I only followed to save her. Catching her might be troublesome with your skills, so why don't we catch her together? Then when Kal'tsit asks, you won't be held responsible for failing to finish the cleaning."

Scout's meaning was clear: if Kanna was going to sell him out, then she could not blame him for abandoning the darkness and turning toward the light.

The members of A1 Squad also knew Scout was not the type to do something so inexplicable. Most likely, things really had turned out this way because of that little Kanna.

They exchanged nods and agreed to Scout's proposal. Then, with Scout as the lead and A1 Squad assisting, the temporary squad to apprehend Kanna, the criminal suspect who had sabotaged A1 Squad's mission, was officially formed.

Since they knew the direction Kanna had fled, Scout took the lead toward the observation tower.

"Two of you come inside with me. The rest of you stand around the tower and make sure the dragon doesn't panic and jump off the building."

After discussing it, the most agile pair, Fen and Closure, followed Scout upstairs. The other three took up triangular positions below, sealing off every direction.

Meanwhile, Kanna had no idea that she had been betrayed by a "traitor," or that he was leading the way while blocking all her escape routes.

She skipped up to the top of the tower and even used the observation deck's sink to wash the grime off her face.

She was preparing to continue admiring the scenery when her ears suddenly twitched.

There was movement below. It was faint, but there were three sets of footsteps.

She turned toward the entrance leading to the roof and saw Scout taking the lead, with Fen and Closure right behind him as they jumped out from the entrance.

At that moment, Kanna understood that Scout, with his honest-looking face, had betrayed her.

Just as she prepared to use the same trick and jump down to escape, Scout's voice rang out.

"Give up! The rest of the squad is waiting below. Your actions have also been reported to Kal'tsit, and an arrest warrant has officially been issued. There are operators everywhere around here. You can't escape."

Looking at Scout's dust-covered face, his words sounded serious, yet carried a faintly smug edge. Kanna only wanted to gracefully give him the middle finger.

Just as Kanna focused all her attention on Scout, a pair of hands landed on her shoulders.

"Kanna, why did you do this? Why?" A yandere-like voice that seemed to come from the depths of the underworld drifted from behind Kanna.

"Eek!" Kanna slowly turned her head and saw only Fen's blood-red eyes.

Ten minutes later, beside the garbage pile, Amiya looked helplessly at Kanna. Kanna was twisting her fingers together, staring down at the ground and not daring to raise her head, looking entirely willing to admit her mistake.

"Cough, cough! Since Operator Kanna engaged in dangerous actions, disrupted A1 Squad's original mission, and caused A1 Squad great fright, Kanna must independently complete A1 Squad's unfinished mission as compensation. She must also submit a self-criticism of no fewer than ten thousand words and announce it publicly over the control room broadcast. Furthermore, Operator Kanna is prohibited from going to the bridge alone until the management committee unanimously agrees to restore that privilege."

She had expected the earlier punishments, but she had not expected to be forbidden from going to the bridge by herself. Just like that, her source of happiness as a scenery lover was gone.

Fortunately, Outcast's departure date was not far away. Otherwise, endlessly wandering around the ship every day would make even a young dragon feel stifled after long enough.

The Young Dragon Makes Friends

Inside the temporary office of the Rhodes Island Young Dragon Safety Management Committee

"What has Kanna been doing lately?"

"Ever since she was punished with cleaning duty last time, that little girl has found a new game. Every day, she carries a huge broom around the ship, and whenever she sees trash on the ground, she runs over to clean it up enthusiastically. Thankfully, Rhodes Island is large enough that making one round takes about a whole day."

After the previous incident, Outcast, who had been idle at home, took the initiative to become Kanna's caretaker. She also received temporary access to Precise's permissions from Kal'tsit, allowing her to use the ship's surveillance and cameras to track a certain young dragon's location and movements.

Hearing Outcast's words, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.

After being "fully charged," Kanna had been exceptionally energetic. That was precisely why she had caused that "incident" on the bridge. A lively little girl who was full of energy, loved running everywhere, and possessed overwhelming strength was enough to make everyone worry themselves sick.

To properly manage and guide the young dragon's life and personality, Kal'tsit approved the establishment of the Young Dragon Safety Management Committee. Amiya led it, with Outcast, Scout, Red, and a number of other operators joining.