Even though it was a small unit, with my team and Fistina’s team totaling several hundred machines, it was still difficult to move stealthily as instructed. For now, we avoided flying and instead moved on foot, trudging along at a slow pace. Maiyu was grumbling and complaining about the slow march.

“Big brother, why don’t we just fly off quickly? Even if the enemy notices us, I’ll take care of them all, so it’s fine.”

“Listen, Maiyu, it’s not that we’re trying to avoid the enemy out of fear. It’s because if we get spotted, we’ll raise their alert levels, and it could mess up our later plans.”

“Hmm, I see… That sounds troublesome.”

Maiyu responded in a way that made it hard to tell if she understood or if she was just uninterested.

“Yuta, we’re about to enter the enemy’s detection range. They probably haven’t noticed us yet, but we should prepare for combat just in case.”

Following Fistina’s warning, I ordered the troops to prepare for battle. As we got closer to the enemy’s position, their reconnaissance units would increase. I made sure the troops were in a combat-ready stance, ready to respond as soon as we were detected.

In stealth operations, avoiding detection is important, but what’s even more crucial is detecting the enemy first. Fortunately, we have a high-performance, wide-range detection radar made by Rafishal. Thanks to this, we could identify potential enemy positions early and avoid them, significantly reducing the chances of encountering them.

However, in a fully hostile territory, it was impossible to avoid every enemy. In such cases, we send ahead a small squad equipped with stealth-oriented magical machines like Emina’s Artemis.

The leader of this squad was Zajuna, a former key member of the swordsmanship group. He was also the disciple of the traitor Skullfy. Originally, Zajuna had admired the leader of the swordsmanship group and had joined the organization because of that, but after Skullfy’s betrayal, he broke off from him and joined us.

Although he admired his former mentor, for some reason, Zajuna requested to join my squad. He never told me the reason, but given his past as a former disciple of Skullfy, it might be awkward for him to interact with my father or Kiyone.

“To the northeast, at 4, 2, there’s an enemy reconnaissance unit with three machines. Avoidance is difficult, so I request Zajuna’s squad to swiftly eliminate them.”

“Understood.”

Zajuna was a man of few words. He gave a brief acknowledgment and immediately moved to take action. His subordinates, similarly, followed his orders without exchanging a word.

Zajuna’s magical machine, called “Kaze Kage”, was a small machine with stealth capabilities. It was known for its swift movements and high attack power, using an electronic knife as its weapon.

Zajuna’s squad approached the enemy silently and swiftly, taking them out with remarkable efficiency. With that level of stealth, there was no time for any communication.