"This is why I told her to pair with me!" One Martial Senior gritted his teeth. "But she said no, and went and got herself killed! How many Martial Seniors must fall before it becomes clear that we are dealing with a high-grade Martial Senior?!"
The man's words rippled across the table. A table featuring high-level executives, chairmen, directors, and Martial Seniors.
High-grade Martial Seniors were rare. Because the depth of the Senior Realm was considerably greater than the Squire Realm, the difficulty of reaching the high grades was as proportionally high as the difficulty of becoming a grade-ten Martial Squire.
Just because there were five additional grades above the tenth grade did not change the fact that grade-ten Martial Seniors could dominate any Martial Senior below them. A high-grade Martial Senior assassin was a terrifying foe to face if one was not that deep within the Senior Realm.
"For now, I believe it is prudent for all remaining Martial Seniors to start pairing up." A director of Navar Assassination Guild spoke. "Although it does not bolster defenses too much considering this assassin has bypassed the senses of a Martial Senior in their passive state indiscriminately, it does serve as a greater deterrent."
"Unfortunately, it is constrained by the fact that an assassin can prepare for retaliation from the remaining Martial Senior as well." Another high-level executive sighed. "In that case, it is better to increase the number of Martial Seniors huddled up together. Perhaps three or four in a group. Ideally five. In fact, it is best to have all the Martial Seniors of each assassination organization stay together at all times."
"I don't tolerate my peers well." One Martial Senior hissed coldly. "I operate solo. Always have, and always will."
"He's right." Another remarked. "I don't do 'together'. I only joined a guild so that annoying menial management work can be taken care of by skilled people."
"I don't trust them." Yet another remarked. "I don't trust any of them. I would rather rely on, at most, one person that I have personally vetted."
"Speak for yourselves. I don't want to die!"
This sentiment largely continued to echo around the room with little exception. The powerful egos, distrust, and entrenched solitary temperaments typical of assassins prevented them from coming together and huddling up without caring for silly things like pride.
The normal humans in the room could only sigh in resignation. Although they were heads of the top assassination organizations of the Shadow Isles and the Derschek Region, they did not have any power over the Martial Seniors of their respective organizations. Being too antagonistic with them could potentially cause them to leave and join one of the top assassin organizations in the room.
Although they had gathered in the room to deal with a common enemy, they were not friends.
"Lady Crina." One man remarked. "Please, talk some sense into them."
Everybody in the room glanced at the elderly woman sitting at the head of the table. She appeared to be the gentlest grandmother anybody could ever hope for.
The type that would gently tuck their grandchildren into bed.
Yet there was a depth in her eyes that they did not notice.
A depth deeper than what they were capable of comprehending.
"I am not an assassin," She remarked gently, sipping some tea. "I trust assassins to know how to deal with their fellow peers better than anyone else."
She glanced around at everybody at the table with a soft smile. "Why don't we trust them to do what they do best?"
The many human officials of the various organizations did not look satisfied with her response, yet the Martial Seniors around the table expressed approval.
"As expected of you, Lady Crina. You understand us best."
"We should endeavor to find a way to assassinate this upstart."
"Ha! That is the only thing we can agree on."
The Martial Seniors were delighted that they did not end up being pressured into measures that they did not wish to take. They would rather find and kill their targeter themselves than huddle up with others that they did not trust to protect them.
The various officials in the meeting could only sigh helplessly as their Martial Seniors drove them down paths that they did not wish to go down, yet were powerless to help.
"I propose we set up a joint intelligence task force to gather information on our target." One official suggested. "Even if the Martial Seniors refuse to cooperate too deeply. Our organizations can pool our resources to find and combat a common enemy."
The other officials in the room nodded thoughtfully. "This is a prudent measure. Given that we unanimously agree. Let us finalize the matter in this meeting while we are gathered here."
Soon enough, the Shadow Intelligence Task Force was constituted. A network of intelligence-gathering resources and manpower was soon put in place, and its operations began.
Yet, it wasn't long before Rui got a hold of the transcripts of the entire meeting.
"What do you think?" Rui asked the professor calmly. "You're senior intelligence analyst. How good is this SITF that they have set-up?"
"It's shit." The professor snorted. "At least, by our standards. It's pretty decent otherwise."
"Hmmm..." Rui nodded. "Things more or less went as I expected except for a margin of error of around seven percent. Namely..."
His eyes narrowed. "Lady Crina... Based on the conversational dynamics, her soft and hard influence is extremely high. She could have compelled the Martial Seniors to go for the sensible route and work together and defeat a common enemy. Yet she didn't... For someone whose alleged goal is to find the Silent Shadow, she was remarkably hands-off about the entire issue. Almost as if she actively did not want to interfere even though I am surely a threat to her goal."
"What are you trying to get at?" Professor Carl asked.
"You said that the Beggar's Sect conducted a thorough investigation on her that lasted seven years, right?"
"Indeed. I was personally involved in that investigation." Professor Carl remarked.
"And there was nothing suspicious about her?"
"Not at all. We found nothing."
Rui narrowed his eyes. Not only were her actions not logically consistent with her alleged agendas and profile and the model of behavior that Rui had constructed on her, but even his instincts told him something was off.
