Martial Online.

Casper and Ambrose were perched on a rooftop across a street from a nice-looking cafe that had very nature-friendly decor.

They were basically invincible, as Casper used magic to cloak them in the shadow of nearby buildings.

They were waiting for their target to appear.

"That's him." Casper suddenly said and pointed at a horse-drawn carriage that stopped in front of the cafe.

"How do you know?" Ambrose asked curiously.

"The carriage has his family crest engraved on the door, you see?"

Ambrose looked at the door and saw a crest with a peacock and a crown on it.

At that moment, the door opened, and a slightly overweight man with a handlebar mustache stepped out. He had a gold-handled cane in hand and round-circled glasses perched on his nose.

Everyone would be able to tell that he was part of high society.

"Is he part of the Gold Circle?" Ambrose asked curiously.

"Yes." Casper replied and then mentioned. "Keep an eye on which booth he is going. From the information I've received, he should be on the third floor's east wing.

"It is exactly the direction we're facing, but be prepared for anything to happen during assassinations. The intel is not always right, so don't blindly believe everything."

"Got it." Ambrose nodded.

After the target entered the cafe, they lost sight of him, but they patiently waited.

Casper had a pocket watch on his hand that was slowly ticking.

After a certain amount of time, he would go search for other booths in case their target went to another section of the cafe.

In this case, it wasn't needed as their target entered the cafe alone and took a seat on the sofa, where there was a daily newspaper awaiting him to read.

He took a newspaper in his hand and began flipping through the pages until he found his favorite section of the crossword puzzle.

Casper and Ambrose waited patiently until another carriage stopped in front of the cafe.

From there, a very discreet-looking woman stepped out with a slight smile on her face and sunglasses hiding her eyes.

Immediately after, a broad-shouldered bodyguard followed after her, and they both entered the cafe together.

After only a short moment, Casper and Ambrose noticed the door in their target's booth opened, and the discreet-looking woman alongside her bodyguard entered.

As soon as they arrived, their target put the newspaper down and helped the woman take off her coat before putting it aside and gesturing for her to sit.

While the discreet-looking woman sat down on the other side of the table, her bodyguard stayed standing with his arms behind his back.

"There's definitely something fishy going on." Casper said.

"Is this an affair, though?" Ambrose asked with a frown. "Who would bring their bodyguard if they were about to have an affair? It doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know, but if they show any intimacy, we'll finish him off swiftly." Casper said with a sinister look.

"…" Ambrose stayed quiet but had a deep frown.

In the room, they continued to have a talk; the woman continued smiling while the man kept composure during the talks.

Soon, their coffee came, and they continued talking while warming their mouths with the hot coffee.

After a half hour, they both stood up and hugged each other goodbye before the woman and her bodyguard left the room.

"That does it, I suppose."

Casper closed one of his eyes, pointed his finger at their target, and was about to fire his magic missile, but then Ambrose lowered his arm and shook his head.

"That does not look like an affair."

"Does it matter?" Casper asked.

"What?" Ambrose frowned.

"We have enough proof to kill him." Casper said. "If his wife asks for further confirmation, we can tell what we saw, and it is enough to make the judgment."

"So, you don't mind killing an innocent soul?" Ambrose asked.

"Innocent soul, hah, hardly." Casper chuckled and raised his arm again. "No one in Gold Circle is innocent."

"Is this your bias talking?" Ambrose asked. "I thought a professional assassin would be thinking with a clear head and do his job with professionalism, not with clouded judgment."

"This job is very low on our importance list." Casper said with annoyance. "I only took something this easy because of you. You want to know where Zane is, right? This is the fastest way.

"Also, don't you want to get paid? The target's wife has to pay either way, and if we go to her after a few hours of accepting the mission and say he wasn't having an affair, would she believe us?

"Hell no. In that case, she would be expecting us to have a week-long investigation. I don't fucking want to do something like that.

"Let's get paid; I'll show you where Zane is, and we return happily to the home. Deal?"

"No." Ambrose firmly shook his head. "What if it comes out that Black Hand is doing loose investigations? It would harm our reputation."

"No one would know." Casper said in annoyance.

Ambrose frowned, but at that moment, his eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly pointed down.

"Look!"

Casper turned to look at the streets and saw that several masked individuals appeared from the alley and attacked the discreet woman's bodyguard.

The bodyguard fought valiantly back, but suddenly one of the assailants used magic and put a hole in the bodyguard's chest.

The discreet-looking woman screamed and tried to run away, but one of the assailants knocked her out and tossed her inside the carriage while one of the other assailants took the reins of the horse and drove away with the other assailants.

The blatant kidnapping was witnessed by several cafe workers, who started screaming for guards.

At that moment, the overweight man left the cafe with a shocked look and joined in shouting towards the guards.

The guards soon arrived and started investigating.

However, in the midst of all the investigating, the overweight man disappeared into the crowd and started running down the alleyways in one specific direction.

"He is in an alley. No one would find his dead body in a few days." Casper said coldly. "It is a perfect chance."

alleyways in one specific direction.

"He is in an alley. No one would find his dead body in a few "What if we tail him instead?" Ambrose suggested. "He seems to be heading in the same direction as those kidnappers did. Maybe he knows where they took her."

"Tch, fine." Casper grabbed Ambrose by his collar and then vanished into the shadows.

…

At the hidden location, tucked away behind dozens of buildings and at the end of twisty alleyways, the horse-drawn carriage came to a rushed stop, and one of the kidnappers pushed the woman out and forced her to enter the building.

Not even five minutes after their arrival, the overweight man panted heavily as he jogged down the alleyway. Somehow, he knew exactly where to go.

Swoosh!

On top of the building where the kidnappers went, Casper and Ambrose emerged just near enough to hear some talking inside the house, coming from one of the open windows.

After witnessing the overweight man enter the building, they moved near the window and eavesdropped with keen interest.

Inside the building, the overweight man entered the room, where the woman was tied in a chair with a serious look on her face.

She was surrounded by three masked individuals who were speaking in hushed tones.

"So, you were after this." She looked at the overweight man with great anger. "So much about the deal, huh?"

"Whew…" The overweight man wiped the sweat off his brows and smiled humbly. "You should've accepted my first offer. Our weekly cafe meeting was just for me to see whether you were still interested in your own offer.

"After seeing that you had no intention to accept my first offer, I signaled my friends here to take you here forcefully, then."

"How could I accept your offer?" The woman asked with a scoff. "Your offer sucked. We had way better offers from other sources, and yours was one of the worst ones!"

"I was the first one to give you an offer, though, right?" The overweight man smiled creepily. "After other fuckers from Gold Circle showed interest in your business, they jumped in like hungry sharks.

"They know I have a good eye on business and try to steal my ideas whenever they can!"

"My work will change the way of transportation soon enough!" The woman screamed. "Others would've discovered it sooner or later, even without you!

"My creation, bikecycles, as I call them, will make the use of carriages useless!"

"Yeah, it is truly magnificent, and that's why I want it." The overweight man pulled out his chair and took paper, ink, and a pen from his bag. "You will sign this contract for the first offer we had."

"T-there is no way…" The woman whispered. "This is my life's work, and your offer will be barely enough to cover living in this absurdly expensive city!"

"Tch, tch, greed won't get you anywhere." The overweight man said with a scoff. "Your other option is to end up at the bottom of the Grand Lake with cement shoes."

"No way…" The woman whispered, her eyes widening in fear.

…

Outside the building.

"I see, it wasn't an affair, huh." Casper nodded slowly and shrugged his shoulders. "I guess that is enough for our investigation."

"Wait." Ambrose touched his shoulder and stopped him from rising.

"What?" Casper asked with a frown.

"What if he had an affair instead?" Ambrose asked with a smile.

"Huh, you mean…" Casper narrowed his eyes, but then a small smile appeared on his lips. "I think you're right. This whole situation might be some fetish shit."

"Yeah, kidnapper and victim roleplay." Ambrose rubbed his chin with a smirk. "I guess it is enough for us to deal with judgment."

"Yeah…" Casper pulled out his dagger with a dark smile.