"I'd like to see a map," Rui told a storekeeper. "Where can I find the Libraries of Gehu?"
The storekeeper rolled out a map, pointing at a spot on it. "About several hours of travel through carriage."
Rui nodded as he quickly scanned the map carefully and thoroughly, before leaving the store empty-handed. It wasn't long before Rui found himself near the Library of Gehu in the town of Veran within the Cerxeun Duchy.
In his time traveling through the Derschek Region, he hadn't been the victim of yet another assassination attempt. It led him to believe that it was most likely closer to a general measure as opposed to someone targeting him.
Or if someone did target him, they were either too weak to deal with the level of power that he had displayed, or their desire to take him out wasn't worth the price. In either case, it led him to believe that he was probably not special in any regard.
However, what truly drew his attention was the volatile atmosphere of the Derschek Region as he traveled through it. It wasn't that this region was impoverished, no. It was just that he got the sense that life was fleeting in this region.
The citizens lived as if they could die any moment anywhere. There was an immense air of wariness from the common folk, and he couldn't blame them.
He saw many corpses on the way to the Library of Gehu. He even witnessed a live murder and plenty of smaller acts of aggression. It was a place that did not convey even a shred of stability.
He sensed countless Martial Apprentices, most of them were hiding their Apprentice-level auras, not drawing attention to themselves. Rui figured most of them were freelancer assassins for hire given how they shadily brooded in alleyways. It reminded him of the Derimont Bazaar.
They were essentially cheap hitmen for hire. He bet that in the Derschek Region, unlike in the Kandrian Empire where common folk were too poor to hire Martial Artists for anything other than the simplest of tasks, even middle-class folks could easily hire assassins to kill any other ordinary people they wanted.
This led to the birth of a society where nobody was safe. The ordinary conflicts between normal people used to be generally harmless, since ordinary people were too weak to have an impact, were now quite problematic since they could just hire an assassin to take out someone that they didn't care about.
This was a direct consequence of the Silent Shadow turning the Gaha Archipelago into her Shadow Isles, and drawing assassins from across the continent.
The Cerxeun Duchy where the Library of Gehu was located was actually a lot more stable than the rest of the small states and settlements that Rui had traveled through to get there, which did explain why the Beggar's Sect chose to settle there.
"Wow," Rui murmured when he arrived at the Libraries of Gehu.
It was different from what he had pictured. The cluster of libraries was rather wide and expansive with impressively large infrastructure and architecture supporting it. It was extremely different from the shabby image of the book market of the Derimont Bazaar.
It appeared that the Beggar's Sect did not use the same cover to hide behind all the time. Evidently, they were also capable of masquerading as a cluster of elite libraries. The impressive establishment was in stark contrast to what he had witnessed thus far.
According to the information that he had gathered, the Libraries of Gehu was actually a joint endeavor of the Gehu Consortium, a consortium of powerful corporates that each set up a library together within a single cluster.
Given that he knew this place was the base of operations of the Beggar's Sect, it meant that the Beggar's Sect also basically controlled the Gehu Consortium, or at least one constituent. which didn't surprise Rui. If it needed to interact with the world, then it could not do so openly, and always had to rely on shell fronts.
When he ran his Reimannian Echo through the establishment, the sheer volume, density, and complexity of the layouts and the assortment of literature meant that it served as the perfect place to hide a library of intelligence within.
Just the absurd amount of information within the library meant that it was just too easy to bury intelligence documentation well within the ocean of information. He had to admit, they nailed their hiding spot just like last time.
He glanced around, studying the people who entered and exited the library. Surprisingly, it didn't just comprise of posh upper-class people. He could see that people of all backgrounds freely entering and exiting the libraries.
It wasn't until he entered and inquired about the fee that he understood why.
"Free of charge?" Rui frowned.
"Yes sir," The receptionist smiled at him. "The Libraries of Gehu are free of charge for all those who wish to access our vast repositories of knowledge. This whole establishment is an endeavor of public charity from the Gehu Consortium to allow anybody of all backgrounds tooo gaaaaaaaaiiiiiiii..."
Time slowed down to crawl in Rui's eyes, as he studied the entirety of the vast establishment.
The elements of the establishment required a constant supply of energy from esoteric sources.
The number of hired staff that were clearly skilled and qualified.
The sheer number of books and documents.
All of this was free?
Such a thing was almost impossible to believe. In reality, Rui was certain that the Beggar's Sect was using some of the immense revenue they made from selling intelligence to keep this place afloat.
The reason it was free of charge was so that the number of people across the entire establishment as well as those walking in and out would increase dramatically, making it almost impossible to spot the Beggar's Sect and its business amidst the genuine library affairs.
It was a good way to hide in plain sight as the Beggar's Sect modus operandi went.
