The Martial Unity

She had regained her composure rapidly, earlier than her Martial Apprentice aids. Her fortitude earned Rui’s respect, she was quite impressive for regaining her calm.

“My apologies,” She told him.

While she did not possess the sensitivity to understand exactly what the pressure Rui exerted on her meant about his power, she could make indirect inferences about how strong he was by looking at the state that her subordinates were in.

Her subordinates were not weak or ordinary Martial Apprentices by any means. The fact that they had such exaggerated reactions to his aura meant that he was likely more than just heads and shoulders above them. That put her at ease that he was indeed qualified to complete the mission.

“No worries,” Rui replied. “Is that all you wished to talk to me about?”

“I wanted to make a request,” She told him. “I want you to kill him publicly.”

Rui raised an eyebrow under his mask. It was an odd request since most assassination commissions were requested to be done covertly normally, rather than publicly. But Rui now understood the reason why this mission wasn’t in the shadow class section. All shadow class missions needed to be covert in nature, and any mission that didn’t fulfill this condition, no matter what, was immediately excluded.

Thus, she had likely specified that she did not want a covert mission where the death would be silent and swift. As for why she wanted a public death, Rui could think of several reasons, but it didn’t matter.

“…That can be done.” Rui straightforwardly said. “How public do you want his death to be?”

“As public as possible.” She told him.

“Hm… Alright.” Rui eventually agreed. “Is there anything else?”

“No, that will be all.” She told him. “When do you plan to complete the commission?”

“Well, my plan was to begin immediately,” Rui told her. “But your condition complicates it a little bit, but I intend to end it at the soonest no matter what.”

She nodded. “Understood. If you need any help of any sort, please let me know and I will do my best to aid you.”

Rui nodded. “Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?”

“No, that was everything I wanted to cover.” She told him.

“Alright then, I’ll take my leave.” Rui got up. “Goodbye.”

He left after having exchanged farewells with her.

“What do you think Surn, Azazel?” She asked the two of her subordinates once he had left.

“He is… very strong,” Surn admitted. “This is my first time seeing a Martial Squire’s aura, and they are much stronger than I had ever expected.”

“I agree…” Azazel sighed. “Had I known he was that much stronger than us, I would not have been nearly as cocky as I was with him.”

“Hm…” She nodded. “What do you think are the odds that he will smoothly complete the assassination?”

She was worried about what would happen if there was a failure. If Rui failed, then she would no longer have any chance of doing it again. The king would take extreme measures to protect himself, and the cost of killing him would rise drastically.

This would be especially rough because the Kingdom of Dermile was poor, hiring Martial Squires from the Kandrian Martial Union, that too with international taxes, was not cheap. Services tended to be exponentially more expensive in richer countries compared to poorer countries, the commission fee for even a low-grade Martial Squire was absurdly expensive by the standards of the Kingdom of Dermile.

This was why she was incredibly paranoid about whether Rui was qualified to handle the mission, and whether the seemingly hazardous strategy of just running inside and killing him was going to work or not. But after experiencing the momentary horrific fear that Rui generated in her and her subordinates, she realized that the Martial Union wasn’t messing around when it said it guaranteed that Martial Artists who happened to accept commissions were not unqualified.

“Well, let’s wait and hope.” She said. “The preparations for both success and failure have already been established.”

“How long will it take him to actually complete the mission?” Azazel wondered.

“Well, I assume that he has to gain a good understanding of the king’s schedule and find a good time for when the king is exposed to enough eyes and ears that his death cannot be concealed.” Surn voiced a reasonable inference.

“Indeed.” She nodded. “Which means he should likely take at least a day.”

They spent a lot of time trying to figure out how he would go about it as they traveled back to her mansion.

It also depended on how much information he had been provided by the Martial Union. They were aware that the Kandrian Martial Union provided Martial Artists with intelligence. Perhaps he didn’t need to spend too much time engaging in reconnaissance.

Just as she was absorbed in her thoughts, she received a message on her communicator. Her heart skipped a beat as she read the message with a shocked expression.

“The king is dead!” She exclaimed. “He was murdered!”

One of her informants had sent her a message regarding credible information he had just heard come across.

“What?!” Surn and Azazel simultaneously exclaimed.

She wondered whether Rui botched it up by killing regardless of the circumstances.

What were the odds that the king was in the public eye the very moment Squire Falken reached him? Very low, to say the very least.

She grew worried that the king’s death would be hidden. It was not enough to remove him, he needed to die in specific circumstances, otherwise, it could be covered up and the rest of her plans would be put on halt due to that.

(‘How did Squire Falken even get there this quickly??’) She wondered, gritting her teeth. (‘Are Martial Squires that absurd?’)

“New destination!” She snapped at the coachman. “We’re heading to the Royal palace!”

The carriage accelerated as it corrected its course, heading towards the new destination.