The Martial Unity

As Rui had expected the location of the meeting was not the personal residence of the finance minister. He looked around when he arrived, noting how remote the location was. There was not a single soul anywhere within his senses to be able to pry on their meeting.

('No one except...')

He turned to his right. Seismic Mapping had picked up a rather large horse-pulled carriage traveling in his direction. As it got closer, Primordial Instinct picked up the presence of Martial Apprentices within the carriage.

Rui walked over towards it as the door opened and a man walked out.

He was the official client, the butler of finance minister Riunge Hurut. He walked towards Rui cautiously as he sized him up.

"Mister Frindul Sentar." Rui addressed him. "I am the Martial Squire who accepted your commission. What is it you wish to discuss with me in this meeting?"

"Please provide me with the verification code for the mission." The man cautiously asked.

Since Martial Artists did not directly accept commissions face-to-face with the client and immediately commence the mission then and there, there was a necessity to verify that Martial Artists were the registered Martial Artists of certain missions that they had accepted. Thus, the Martial Union had a verification system where a random verification code would be supplied to both the client and the Martial Artist.

Rui simply pulled out a card and handed it over to the man, who carefully studied it for some time before nodding. "The Madame is awaiting you inside."

He escorted Rui to the carriage gesturing to him inside the carriage. Within the spacious cabin of the carriage were two Martial Apprentices who stared holes into as he walked in, taking his seat opposite to the three figures inside.

"Pleasure to meet you, Squire Falken." She told him, initiating the conversation.

In order to protect the identity of all Martial Artists, they had the option of choosing an alias to be conveyed as the identity of the Martial Artist accepting a particular Martial commission. Of course, this only applied to public Martial commissions, the ones that were placed in the mission libraries. It did not apply to personal Martial commissions from clients who knew his identity and wanted to commission him because of his identity.

"Pleasure to meet you, Minister Riunge," Rui told her as he studied her. She was quite beautiful, but her sharp and fierce dark eyes drew away any attention from her aesthetics. She was intimidating, and Rui felt that it was best to not earn her ire if possible. "You wanted to speak to me?"

"Yes." She nodded. "There are very few things I wanted to clarify."

Rui simply waited for her to continue.

"It pertains to the means by which you will complete the mission." She paused, before continuing. "I wish to confirm the means by which you will go about it."

"It's rather simple," Rui told her. "I will simply straightforwardly infiltrate, either through land or through the sky, and kill the target and those who stand between me and him."

She had a remarkable poker face, but Rui could sense surprise, confusion, and skepticism with the help of Primordial Instinct. Her two companions were much less subtle about it.

"Hmph." The one on the right snorted.

"You plan to straightforwardly attack?" The one on the left questioned him with a raised eyebrow. "Did the Kandrian Martial Union not provide you with information on the security measures surrounding King Fujilin Verine?"

It was Rui's turn to feel confused. Were they trying to insult him? Or were they really ignorant of how much stronger a Martial Squire was than a Martial Apprentice?

('Oh wait... They actually might be that ignorant.') Rui realized. Unlike the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana, the Kingdom of Dermile did not ever have any history of ever having birthed a Martial Squire. The Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana had retained extensive documentation on the capabilities of Martial Squires, but even that was missing here.

Of course, they knew Martial Squires were stronger, but they did not entirely understand just how ridiculously superior Martial Squires were to Martial Apprentices.

('Wow... Fucking country bumpkins.') He stifled a chuckle, feeling a little bad for finding their ignorance a little funny.

"The twelve Royal guards that are always within immediate reach are extremely wrong." She told him with a neutral-enough tone, maintaining a cordial atmosphere.

"I'm a Martial Squire." He simply said. "I'm quite strong."

This further irritated her aids. They seemed personally invested in this operation, rather than employed Martial Artist bodyguards. They were also clearly envious of his status as a Martial Squire and felt insulted when he treated Martial Apprentices as insignificant.

"If you infiltrate straightforwardly you will have to deal with the palace guards who are also quite elite, all by yourself." She told him. "You might want to consider another course of option. I have some sugges-"

"With all due respect, minister." Rui cut her off, losing patience. "I don't tell you how to manage the national treasury of your nation, I would appreciate it if you didn't tell me how to do my job."

Her eyes narrowed but the two Martial Apprentices lost control and stepped up.

"What did you say punk?"

"Apologize to her excellency for your rudeness."

Suddenly they choked as the atmosphere grew perilously taut. A maelstrom of mind-bending pressure erupted from Rui as he ripped off his Mind Mask. The full might of the fear he generated in all those of a lower Realm crashed into them.

A terrified expression appeared on minister Riunge's face as her poker face disappeared. The carriage rocked as the horses panicked.

The very next moment, the pressure disappeared.

The two Martial Apprentices collapsed to the ground, sweating bullets as they realized that the Martial Artist before them could extinguish their lives with a wave of his hand.

To her credit, minister Rinuge regained her composure quite quickly, even quicker than the Martial Apprentices. The very next second, her poker face had already taken its rightful place as her expression while the Martial Apprentices tried to pull themselves together.