The Martial Unity

The Martial Academy gave an impression of wealth and prestige, it was quite ostentatious and large. Yet it stood in sharp to the Martial Union headquarters. The Martial Union headquarters had a no-nonsense militaristic approach to its structure. Rui could feel that it was designed for absolutely efficiency without even the slightest care for aesthetics.

All major and semi-major towns had a branch of the Martial Union in them, and the town of Hajin was no different. It wasn't even all too far from the Martial Academy, thankfully.

They'd soon arrived and immediately headed inside towards the commission department of the Martial Union.

"Please wait in office Three-twelve." The staff member said. "Commissioner Frelmaunt will join you and begin the briefing as soon as possible."

The briefing room was a lot more earthlike than Rui had more expected, then again there were only so many ways to make a briefing room.

"Booooring!" Nel sunk in a chair. "This is boring! I'm going back."

"That's a bad idea." Kane told him. "The royalty contract we signed specified an agreement to mandatorily accepting at a certain frequency annually."

"Screw that!" Nel spat, standing up. "I'm going back to the Academy and fighting strong Apprentices."

"There are no Martial Apprentices left that are strong enough to fight you either." Rui pointed out. "The only ones from the Academy who can are all sitting in this room. Do you want to fight weak Martial Apprentice you already beat?"

"Tsk!" He tutted as he slumped back into his chair. "UuuUurrgh! Hurry up already."

"Be patient you child." Kane glared at him.

Fae through him an amused look as she scoffed.

Kane turned towards her. "What?"

"My, nothing at all." She shrugged.

Kane knitted his eyebrows. "That didn't feel like nothing at all."

"You're overthinking."

"Am I?"

"You are."

Rui sighed, exasperated as the exchange continued. Fae's and Kane's ability to bicker over literally nothing was truly something to marvel at.

('We're so far away from anything resembling a team.') Rui sighed inwardly. ('Let's hope this mission isn't too demanding on coordination and cooperation.')

Finally, the door opened.

A man in a suit-like garb with the emblem of the Martial Union walked in.

"Sorry for the delay." He said as he walked into the room with a box files. "Apprentices Rui Quarrier, Fae Dullahan, Kane Arrancar, Nel, and Hever Mendelieve?"

"Yes sir." They all affirmed.

He nodded, taking the files and distributing them to each of the Martial Union.

"The mission that you're all going to be commissioned to complete is an offense-class mission." He told them "Naturally, this means it's an international mission. The target of the mission is a research facility in the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfarna. One of the smallest sovereign states that orbits the Kandrian Empire. Your goal is to kill all of the researchers of the research facility and extract all the research data that of the research facility and bring it back to the Kandrian Empire."

Rui frowned. He didn't expect a research facility in a foreign nation to be the target of the mission.

"The research facility's existence is classified information of the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfarna. It's built and located far and away from the populace and even underground in order to conceal its existence." Commissioner Frelmaunt told them. "The intelligence provided by the Martial Union covers rather extensive data on the research facility. Our spies have managed to acquire general intel on its structure, security measures as well as the location of the desired target. After carefully evaluating all this information, the difficulty of this mission has been evaluated as among the highest even in the grade-ten range, requiring atleast one grade-ten Martial Apprentice and four other Martial Apprentices above grade-eight."

He paused before continuing. "Of those four, we have evaluated the need of atleast one Martial Apprentice with high offensive power and one Martial Apprentice with high stealth capabilities. The sensory prowess of the team cannot dip below a certain threshold as well."

"To reiterate, your mission has two objectives. The first objective is to ensure the deaths of all researchers of the underground facility. All of them. Not a single one may leave. This is of absolute paramount importance. Failure to complete this objective will be considered a complete failure for the mission. The second objective is to acquire all the research data of the facility. The means of which is detailed in the mission bill." He spoke. "The mission commences immediately, once you're done being briefed, you'll immediately head to the dispatch facility where you'll immediately travel to Vinfarna on foot. The successful remuneration is a six hundred gold in total."

Rui's eyes widened. That was twenty times his remuneration from his Ruyloken Gang mission. The sheer amount of money the Martial Union was willing to fork over for this one mission was astounding.

"That covers the most significant parts of the mission. The less significant but important details are all thoroughly detailed in the mission bill. Be sure to memorize it." The man told them.

"Ah." He suddenly remembered something. "The native language and script of the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana is Vinfranese. The mission includes a length list of Vinfranese words and phrases that need to be memorized."

"Ideally, all of you ought to memorize it." He told them. "But at the very least, one of you needs to memorize it."

Rui skimmed through the mission bill as he quickly inputted and stored them in his mind palace.

"Ah, one more thing." He said, turning to Rui. "You, Apprentice Quarrier, will lead the mission, clear?"

None of them were surprised by that. Rui was more or less the strongest, and he was absolutely the smartest.

Rui nodded in response. "Yes sir."

"Good. Memorize the mission bill inside out and once you're done, proceed with the necessary protocols and head out. If you need any further clarification, you may consult me in the commissioner department."

"Excuse me." Rui interrupted his departure. "Is it possible to know why the mission is being commissioned?"

The man stared at Rui thoughtfully. "Well, if you have to know, it's because the research facility has engaged in gross violation of human rights. The Martial Union cannot tolerate it, simple as that."

He said, leaving.