One of the things that Rui had prepared the most was a counter to the Maneater. He knew that she was definitely the biggest individual threat to him. In fact, if they had a random encounter, Rui definitely wasn't confident he could defeat her.
He had spent the most amount of time developing a powerful counter to her.
The solution was more simple than he had expected, however.
He simply had to hypnotize his perception of her.
Over the two weeks that he spent preparing himself to fight her, he hypnotized himself to alter his perception of her.
It was a hypnosis technique that he designed to be passively triggered by her appearance. His mind would warp her beautiful appearance into the ugliest woman he could possibly imagine.
This would curb her hypnosis and stop any visual psychological manipulation.
What he had underestimated, however, was how beholden the male brain was to odor and sound. The second he smelled her pheromones and her painfully sexually arousing voice, he almost lost control despite his self-hypnosis technique.
'That was close…' A cold sweat had overtaken him.
Yet despite her death, her odor still lingered in the air, causing all sorts of… awkward, undesirable outcomes that slathered mud on his dignity.
Yet, he wasn't eager to complain, considering he had almost died yet again.
Of course, he had almost died against many other assassins after he grew more tired and hurt.
And if he had to choose, he would rather die at her hands than any of the other assassins.
On the exterior, he appeared to grow even more alert and paranoid.
After all, he still had one more assassin left to survive.
…!
THUD
Rui fell to the ground, seemingly lifeless.
It was as though he had dropped dead out of nowhere.
WHOOSH!
STEP
A hooded figure appeared out of nowhere.
Had any of the other assassins been alive and conscious, they would have recognized the hooded figure.
The Voidreaper.
An assassin of assassins.
The most feared figure among assassins of the Lower Realms across all of Panama.
A distorted voice identical to the one that the Voidreaper had had during the briefing escaped from his mask.
"Mission complete."
The Voidreaper had struck again.
He never failed.
He never missed.
Everybody he set in his sight died.
Rui Quarrier had been set in his sights.
And just like all those that came before, Rui Quarrier, too, died.
"…Is what the scout surveilling with the long-range sensory artifact from the distant town says," Sierra calmly informed the four tense royals. "The operation has succeeded. Rui Quarrier is dead."
Yet the four royals were too stressed to celebrate immediately.
"Unbelievable…" Prince Randal whispered. "He almost succeeded. He almost got away. He almost survived despite running into all those assassins!"
"This must be part of why the Martial Union valued him so much," Princess Ranea narrowed her eyes. "He was extraordinary. In every sense of the word. If he hadn't died today…I can't imagine just how far he would have gone. Just what heights he would have reached."
A tinge of regret could be detected in her voice. "Our nation has lost a precious asset."
Princess Rafia nodded. "It is not a cause for celebration."
"I beg to differ," Princess Raemina narrowed her eyes.
"As do I," Prince Randal snorted. "He should have lowered his head and stayed low."
Princess Raemina heaved a sigh, shaking her head. "Enough about this. We need to ensure that the Martial Union never finds his body. As long as the body is not found, the Martial Union will know that he was involved in the tiny skirmish outside of the Great Jrava Mountain Range. They won't even know he's dead. He'll be put on the missing Martial Artist list."
This was what the royals were hoping for. As long as they could hide the fact that he had even died, then the probability that the Martial Union would find who killed him was extremely low.
After all, one wouldn't look for the murderer of a victim if one still believed that the victim was alive.
In this manner, they could very effectively evade the Martial Union's scrutiny.
More Martial Artists went missing than they died.
This was because Martial Artists possessed an extraordinary ability to travel; thus, a whimsical decision could easily land them tens of thousands of kilometers away in a matter of a week at a comfortable pace.
"On top of that, Rui Quarrier has a history of unannounced departures," Sierra calmly remarked. "Has done so multiple times in the past. Thus, the tracking department of the Martial Union will not instantly assume the very worst."
The four royals nodded, relieving themselves.
"What of the Voidreaper?" Prince Randal asked. "Has he retrieved the body? Is he heading to our location?"
"Yes, sir," Sierra nodded. "On top of that, we have taken extreme precautions that nobody is tailing the Voidreaper. We have ensured that no Martial Master or Senior is tailing him. Our analysts have paid a lot of attention to ensuring that he has not betrayed us by tattling. The fact that he completed the assassination itself is the biggest proof that he has no intention of using it against us."
After all, the fact of the matter was that Rui Quarrier had indeed died. He had indeed been murdered by the Voidreaper.
If he, for example, tattled to the Martial Union or the Kandrian government in some sort of malicious scheme against the royals, he would suffer just as much as they did.
Now that he had actually physically killed Rui Quarrier, he was complicit. Anything bad that happened to them would also be extended to him. Thus, he had no reason to harm them in any way.
The reverse, however, was not true.
Prince Randal glanced around the room at the sixteen Martial Masters. The second the exchange of the final deal was completed; Rui Quarrier's body for their true identity, they would kill him on the spot.
The Voidreaper would meet the same fate as Rui Quarrier.
