The Martial Unity

"That will be two thousand Martial credits."

"You can debit it from my account," Rui replied as he picked up the product he just purchased.

[VXL-100 Monocular]

This was a rather high-quality monocular that Rui had purchased just in case he needed it. Although he was quite confident that he wouldn't, he still decided to err on the side of caution.

That wasn't the only thing he had chosen to purchase. He had also purchased several clothes that were native to the Republic of Menrea and part of their ethnic wear. Although he certainly would stand out, it was better than outright being detected as a Martial Artist of the Kandrian Empire.

He immediately headed down to the dispatch facility after changing into those clothes, finishing the pre-mission protocols before heading out.

His destination? The Republic of Menrea.

It had been only two hours since his conversation with Fauche Vigil had concluded. The Senate hearing was a little under three days away, he had plenty of time. Had it been an ordinary mission, he might have even deigned to leave later rather than waste precious time doing nothing.

However, this wasn't an ordinary mission.

This was his first Shadow-class mission. It was also the first mission where he would be testing the pathfinder technique in the field for the first time. Furthermore, he had staked a lot on the success of the mission. He couldn't help but feel just a tad little tingly inside.

('I'm going to have to be extra careful.') Rui noted.

There were several things on his agenda that he needed to complete before the time for the actual assassination came through. First, he needed to find an appropriate spot where he wouldn't be noticed, but from where he would also have a clear shot of the target of assassination.

Ideally, he would like to have a spot that has the same amount of elevation as the target, as differences in elevation increase the distance between him and the target and forced him to shoot at an angle. Not that he couldn't do the latter and still succeed, but he didn't want to take chances.

Thankfully, the senate hearing was actually at ground level, thus he didn't have to worry much about finding a good spot.

Once that was done, he needed to consider his escape route. He wasn't too concerned, the Martial Squires of the Republic of Menrea, according to the intelligence provided by the Martial Union was not a threat to him individually.

Not only was the evolution breakthrough process of the Republic of Menrea inferior to that of the Kandrian Empire, which was what Rui underwent, but their techniques were shit in comparison to that of the Kandrian Empire as well.

Furthermore, Rui was especially tough thanks to the new techniques he had developed and the VOID algorithm. He also had a symbiote empowering his cognition.

Although the impact it produced was no longer as significant as it was before as the Symbiote did not undergo as immense of an evolution as he did at all, and thus was only a grade-ten technique by Apprentice standards, it was still useful and gave him an edge over the Martial Squires of the Republic of Menrea.

Furthermore, Rui had also obtained a superior Martial body thanks to the Mind Switch technique. He could probably crush any individual martial Squire of the Republic of Menrea in a head-on fight. The issue was if he got surrounded by a large number of them. That would complicate issues significantly and he couldn't be truly confident that he would be able to escape in such circumstances.

Still, he wasn't too worried about this issue. He was most likely faster than almost all of the Martial Squires assigned to protect the target, and there would be a significant gap between them since he would be sniping his target from a long distance away and would begin running away the second he succeeded. There was surely no way that any of them would be able to catch him with him getting such a head start.

Even if one of them was that fast, Rui wasn't concerned with a single Martial Squire.

Another potential hindrance to the escape route would be law enforcement departments enforcing a shutdown of transit in and out of the country, and perhaps a strengthened border control, but that wasn't something Rui was too concerned about.

Although the Republic of Menrea was a small nation, its borders were still far too large to be thoroughly guarded, and even if Rui encountered a stationed garrison, they were unlikely to be able to stop him even if they contained a Martial Squire.

Still, he needed to scout a path first, just to be careful. He didn't want to take chances.

As he pondered these issues, he finally arrived.

As he had suspected, the border wasn't particularly secure. Though he had to admit, it was better than a lot of the other nations that he had been to. It was a rather tall fence that would make it difficult for a normal person to get in, though Martial Artists would surely have no problem.

And he didn't. He had already sensed that there were no people on the other side, so he peacefully jumped over before taking off his mask. He had covered his hair with common garb worn on the head in the Republic while wearing contacts to ensure that his abnormal features did not draw too much attention.

"Alright," He murmured. "Time to head to the site of the deed.

He didn't rush through the country at the speed of sound as he might have had he not been on a mission, but it was hard to control himself at those speeds, and he would draw far too much attention from everybody if he recklessly revealed his status as a Martial Squires that was clearly not from this nation.

He peacefully walked into the street of the nearest town, having already worn a solid Mind Mask that made his vibe feel diminutive.