The Martial Unity

Rui made his way through the island with his badge pinned to his chest, making it clear to the Beggar's Sect that he was looking for them.

A child walked up to him, handing him a slip of paper. "I believe you wanted this, mister."

Rui sighed, accepting the slip before watching the child scamper away melancholically.

On the slip of paper were numbers, one corresponding to the island number, and the other corresponding to the area code of the island. He also got more specific street coordinates, ensuring that he could pinpoint the man's location.

'Island Fourteen, and area twenty-nine.' Rui noted, before immediately heading in the direction of the area.

He had memorized a map of the entirety of the Shadow Isles, thus he was perfectly comfortable walking through the archipelago. The deeper he went into the archipelago, the denser the activity got. Despite it being a collection of islands, he didn't see a single fishing boat or line from people along the coasts.

It appeared that they had been scared off by the various assassins that increasingly began dominating the archipelago. He also couldn't feel any degree of political control from the Derschek Region. He suspected that that hadn't always been the case.

Prior to the arrival of the Silent Shadow, the region would have undoubtedly been a strategic location that could serve as a powerful outpost location for maritime trading and seafare.

Yet the claim of a notoriously powerful Martial Master assassin made the entire archipelago immediately lose all its allure. No one in the Derschek Region had the capital to make an enemy of out of a Martial Master.

As Rui made his way through, he came across endless groups of assassins offering assassination commissions. Yet he couldn't feel any of the spirit of exploration that he had expected from a group of people searching for the Silent Shadow.

It appeared that the entire area had been turned into an open assassination industry.

He could see why assassins would be content with this alone. It was very rare that something like an assassination industry could be fostered out in the open. They were outright illegal in most parts of human civilization and thus needed to operate in the shadows.

The same way that they did in the Kandrian Empire, forming the underworld of the empire.

However, here in the Derschek Region, they could set up shop and even hand out flyers. Perhaps many assassins had come to grow more attached to that than he had thought. Perhaps most of them were here because of that rather than finding the Silent Shadow.

If so, Rui felt pity for the Silent Shadow. She had gone through all this effort simply for it to fall flat.

It wasn't long before he arrived at the specified location, before spreading Riemannian Echo across the entire place. There were plenty of anti-espionage measures taken, but they didn't stop him.

Eventually, he found a man who resembled the image that Rui had seen of him.

His target; Sam Sevian.

The man was currently inside a residential building, lying down on a bed. Rui felt like quite the stalker, but he doubled down, taking a seat inside a simple bar while observing the man.

What he was doing was getting a gauge for his Martial Body and paying attention to how it responded to sound. Although he himself couldn't produce sound of different frequencies and measure how his opponent was going to respond to it, he could rely on existing sound and noise to, at the very least, rule out what it wasn't.

It was a thankless and tedious process, but it couldn't be helped. Until he found out what the man's innate resonance frequencies were, he wouldn't be able to assassinate him.

What followed were long periods of supervision over the man, ruling out frequency by frequency as he paid attention to the acoustic dynamics within the room. It was especially difficult because Riemannian Echo had great range and penetrative ability, but it was not good with detail.

Thus he had some difficulty making do with it until the man came out, much to Rui's relief, before heading off somewhere sky-walking.

'Tsk.' Rui tutted as he followed him on foot. He was far too unwilling to reveal his status in front of his target. Thankfully, now that the man had exited, Rui could also use Tempestuous Feel to get a much better understanding of how his body responded to various sounds.

However, when the man finally stopped sky-walking to enter a large establishment. Rui paused as he read the name of the establishment.

[Area Crina]

Rui narrowed his eyes with suspicion as he read that name carefully. Regardless, it appeared that the man was part of the collective hunt for the Silent Shadow. Or the alleged hunt for the Silent Shadow.

Regardless, the organization was not his target this time. He focused on Sam Sevian, keeping tabs on the man throughout the day as he tracked his various movements.

It wasn't half a day later until the man finally left the Shadow Isles, before heading towards the Derschek Region with a suppressed aura and simply disguise.

He had received a commission.

Unfortunately, it was too risky for Rui to follow him this time. On the Shadow Isles, he could blend in much better, but that changed the moment he started following the man to places outside of the archipelago.

He would need to wait for the man to return.

He followed this routine for the next few days, always making sure to keep a huge distance between himself and his target. He didn't want to get caught. His life was not at risk, being a Martial Senior himself, but he did not want to lose his anonymity or cover.

It would be extremely difficult to start over if he did.

'Maybe I should hire a musician to play some music near his place.' Rui wondered.

That way, he could accelerate his understanding of the man's innate resonance frequencies.