The Martial Unity

“And what might that be?” Rui asked. “I hope you’re not going to ask me to shut down the supply chain of the entire narcotics industry centered around the three drugs found in the Great Forest of Hypnonarak this time. Forget about it. It’s not going anywhere.”

“We are aware that that would be an absurd demand of any Martial Senior,” The man smiled. “We do not require you to destroy the narcotics industry, the only thing that we would like for you to do is to strain it.”

“…Strain it?” Rui tilted his head.

“That’s right, we would like for you to increase the risks and dangers associated with harvesting narcotics flora,” The man explained. “As long as you can do that, you will be able to significantly diminish the supply chain for a brief period.”

Rui frowned. “Yes, but it’s only going to be temporary and momentary, the second I stop, it’s going to end. There will be absolutely no long-term impact. You surely are aware of that, so that implies you’re simply looking for a window of time, rather than a permanent outcome.”

“Correct,” The man smiled. “We are aware that there is no long-term or permanent impact on temporarily causing a lot of deaths. However, there are still things that can be done while you’re active in suppressing forest raiders.”

Rui analyzed the man’s words as his mind got to work. ‘If there were something that they want to accomplish while I strain the narcotics supply chain, then it can be inferred that it is something that can only be done while it is strained. In which case…’

“…Are you trying to phase out narcotics from regions particularly afflicted by drug addiction, or are you trying to cripple drug trafficking rings with razor-thin margins?” Rui wondered. “Straining the supply chain manifests only in its impact on the supplier and consumer, so I can only infer that one of the two is your goal. I would deduce that it is the latter, considering that an epidemic of assassinations was disruptive to your intelligence-gathering operations, an epidemic of drugs in a given region is probably worse.”

“That was astute of you,” The man remarked, smiling. “Since you have figured out the truth, I shall not hide it any longer from you. We are currently engaging in an effort to stabilize our intelligence stronghold in certain particularly drug-afflicted regions not too far from the Great Forest of Hypnonarak. Unfortunately, the supply of narcotics in these regions is far too high and the price is far too low. If we are to instate stability, we will need a brief period of time where the cost of production rises far more than it currently is. We need to reduce the amount of narcotic drugs flowing into the region.”

It was just as Rui had figured. In a sense, the agenda for the Gereign branch of the Beggar’s Sect was similar to the Derschek branch’s. In general, the Beggar’s Sect’s greatest priority was always intelligence, thus anything that threatened its ability to gather intelligence was always a threat. Tremendous instability was the kind of thing that they seemed to avert in order to restore order so they could resume their intelligence gathering.

In the first place, because there were so many agents of the Beggar’s Sect across the entire continent, it meant that they had a lower threshold for failure. Any region that was in too much chaos would disrupt its operations. Because they had to maintain the covertness of their vast intelligence operations, their intelligence supply chains were more fragile than those of other organizations that relied on highly trained agents and sophisticated esoteric technology.

This allowed them to maintain intelligence supply chains even in chaotic socio-economic regions.

The Beggar’s Sect could not rely on such means. It was impractical to train every single one of their agents into a highly skilled elite covert operative. It was also impossible to equip every single one of them with covert communication technology.

These things made it much more difficult to cope with chaos and instability, even if not impossible.

Still, that wasn’t any of Rui’s business.

“Such a thing will take an immense amount of time and energy,” Rui narrowed his eyes. “I did not just come here to fulfill my commission payment.”

“We are aware of that, Senior Falken,” The man remarked. “We do not intend to attempt to prevent you from training under the Hypnomaster. You can commence the operation before, after, or even during your training with the Hypnomaster, if you do succeed in finding him.”

Rui considered the man’s words for a second. “How long do you require me to be active for?”

“For about half a year,” The man replied. “By then we can provide crucial aid to drug-afflicted regions, detox them, and focus on reducing the demand for these drugs while increasing the stability of the region. These narcotic drugs inhibit the nervous system in a manner that causes the user to be likelier to engage in violence. However, the detoxification process is much easier than one would expect, so long as one has the necessary means and measures, which we do. But it only works if the user no longer has access to these drugs.”

“So you plan to detoxify entire countries of these drugs and also reduce their demand in the time that I keep the narcotics supply greatly hampered?” Rui asked with a skeptical expression. “If it not for the fact that the Beggar’s Sect is as powerful as it is, I would laugh at that plan.”

Perhaps it was because he had seen the effects of narcotics on his home nation in his past life, but he found himself skeptical that erasing such a problem could possibly be so easy.

“It is because we are the Beggar’s Sect that we can undertake such operations with remarkable chances of success,” The man smiled with a hint of pride. “However, we do require the aid of someone highly adept at elimination. You’ve already proven yourself to be a highly elite assassin, and thus we believe you have what we need.”