Axel continued to eat, the beetle scales that he added actually helped the taste. But he would still be on the lookout for some good food additions.
Learning sowing with Grape was adamantly fun for Axel, but he would never admit it to anyone except for the lord.
With the practice, Axel actually tightened up his clothes so that they fit, though on any kind of close inspection you could still see where Axel had modified his clothes.
Grabbing his plate, he put it with the rest of them, making sure that the plates were stacked orderly.
He learned that always keeping the plates order was the best thing to do, just in case he was put onto the cleaning crew.
After that he left to go line up with the rest of the scouts.
As he stood and waited, he noticed that the number of scouts that were lining up were more than last time.
Axel doubted that any new person here were like him and snuck in, all of them were most likely just hired. Though they had much more training than Axel did.
Lilith then walked onto the platform in front of the scouts, but the sheet she usually held to give out assignments was nowhere to be seen.
"It is a wonderful day in the Emperor's Coven, we have many new members to help uphold the peace on the Boiling Iles," Lilith announced.
The scouts yelled, hollered and whistled in excitement.
"With the new influx of scouts, a decision has been made to make patrols of six scouts with one leader," Lilith told the scouts, "With this, the Emperor's Coven hopes to bring in more Wild Witches," she announced.
"Understood Ma'am!" the scouts replied, with Axel slightly behind.
Lilith made a circle with her finger and sever pieces of paper flew out from her coat and in front of the scouts.
Each piece of paper had a number on it; Axel's number was three.
"You will now go to meet up with your groups; the place you meet up will be the place you will meet after breakfast. Each group has a guard captain, they will have your mission for today," she finished.
She then threw what looked like a bottle of something on the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
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Axel walked over to the location of the number three people, and saw that a few scouts had already beat him to it.
"Another member joins us," a larger scout said approaching Axel.
The scout attire was slightly different than the one that every other scout wore, instead of swooping down like other masks, his was much more pointed.
"I will be your Guard Captain and you will refer to me as such," he told Axel.
"Oh hey! I know you," another scout said walking up to Axel.
"Grape?" Axel recognized.
"Yep! The one and only!" they proclaimed patting Axel on the shoulder.
"Sharing of names is prohibited," the captain explained.
"But isn't it ok because it's not our real names?" Axel asked.
"Sharing of names is prohibited," they repeated.
"Ignore him, he's been like this all day," Grape told Axel.
"I've been like this my whole life," the captain replied.
"Always, over there is Lettuce," Grape said pointing to another scout.
The captain repeated the thing about names again, but Axel and Grape just ignored him.
The scout was leaning on the wall nearest to the three scouts, within earshot, but was far enough away as to not notice him.
Axel waved to them, and Lettuce nodded in return.
"Sorry!" a scout said running up to the three, "You see I lost track of time and,"
"You're not late," the captain interrupted.
"I'm not?" the scout replied, "That's good, you can call me Artichoke," they said putting their hand out.
"Sharing of names is,"
"Pleased to meet you!" Grape replied grasping Artichoke's hand.
"One more and we can begin our mission," the captain said.
"How did they know who to put in what group?" Axel asked.
'I mean it's not like a came here legally'
"They counted yesterday or, so I have been told," the captain explained, "It seems that we are missing a scout, so we may have to do the mission a scout down," they said.
After the captain said that, some kind of small rat like thing dropped from the ceiling in front of the captain, causing the captain to catch the rat.
"Sorry for being late," a scout said walking up to the others, "Was trying to find a good gift for my new captain," they explained.
"Gift's do not matter, do not be late again," the captain told the scout.
"I won't Apple Shavings by the way, you can just call me Apple though," they scout says.
"What's our mission?" Axel askes before the captain can say anything about Apple's name.
"Our mission is to find wild witches in Latissa," the captain announced.
"Something simple, good," Grape sighed.
————————————————————————
Grape, Axel, and Lettuce were covering the left side of Latissa, and the captain, Artichoke and Apple were covering the right side.
"So, we have to make a name for the captain, right?" Grape asked after checking a witch for their coven sigil.
The plan was to split the town up in two and have a team of three each check their given side for wild witches.
"If he doesn't want a specific name why give one to him?" Axel replied.
'I would rather be coming up with a way to stop witches from invading the Earth right now, but I can't focus with Grape talking in my ear'
"Bah, the only reason he doesn't want a name is because he's been told that he doesn't want to," Grape replies.
"Has to be nice," Lettuce says
"Agreed, do any of you know what he puts on his food?" Grape askes.
"I don't think guard captains eat with the scouts," Axel pointed out while checking the arm of a witch.
"That's true," Grape replies, "How about we call him the big man!" Grape exclaims.
Suddenly, Grape's scroll phone buzzed.
"Hold on a moment," they said taking out their scroll.
It was a message from their captain, 'This is a warning' it said.
"A warning of what?" Grape said confused.
From the sky, like a meteorite, a small rectangular thing fell from the sky onto Grape's head.
Axel then looked around throughout the crowd.
'Is the captain watching us?'
"Good throw," Lettuce commented.
"Well, I'm glad you think so," Grape said rubbing the top of his head.
————————————————————————
"How many wild witches have you encountered or caught?" the captain asked Grape, Axel and Lettuce
"None, what about your team?" Axel reported.
"None as well unfortunately," the captain replied.
"So, the plan doesn't work, boohoo," Apple said licking some ice-scream they bought.
The captain seemed to be visually frustrated by Apple's demander.
"Amount of wild's we've caught is normal," Lettuce points out.
"It's still weird, we've spent at least six hours out here," Artichoke says.
"It's been three," Apple points out.
"Really?" Artichoke replied while going to check their watch, "Huh," they commented, seeing that they were wrong.
"So, we have three hours left until the end of the workday?" Axel asked.
"Correct, I believe we should return to our segments," the captain orders.
"Before we do that, may I try a strategy with all of us in the town square?" Axel asked.
'Maybe if we can catch a wild witch, I'll get enough money to buy a scroll phone, for informational purposes of course'
"I see no problems as long as everyone agrees and it is within the rules of the Emperor's Coven," the captain replied.
"It's at least one of those," Axel mumbled.