"Are you sure the security is adequate?" A bald bearded man asked, glancing at the Martial Apprentice sitting opposite to him in the carriage.
"Do not worry, My lord." The Martial Apprentice replied. "Our Earthen Shieldforger party is one of the most reputed bodyguard parties in the Karjakin Confederate. We have a well-balanced team of Martial Artists, and most importantly, me, the most powerful defensive Martial Apprentice in the entire region as well as an excellent sensory Martial Apprentice here." He said, patting the Martial Apprentice sitting beside him.
"Hm." The man nodded. "That's good to hear."
"Still, I have to say. It's an honor to be assigned as the guard of a feudal lord like yourself, lord Faishon." The defensive Martial Apprentice smiled.
"Mm. It is an important and consequently risky occasion. I am enroute to declare war. There are those who oppose war. The pacificists will no doubt attempt to kill me, if they know about this journey. Fortunately, I have all of you. They should be unable to successfully take my life en route to the Haraul Region." He replied.
Feudal lord Faishon Durant was a feudal lord of the Karjakin Confederate, a tiny sovereign state some distance away from the Kandrian Empire. The Karjakin Confederate was a state rife with internal conflict. Due to its nature as a confederate state, its political power was divided among many militaristic leaders known as feudal lords.
The state was always on the brink of civil war over the issue of monopoly and distribution of resources.
Recently, it was pushed over the brink when an irreconcilable disagreement caused one of the feudal leaders to decide to declare war.
Feudal lord Faishon Durant. He was currently en route to the Region ruled by another like-minded feudal lord.
However, he wasn't a fool. The pacifist faction formed by feudal lords with the goal of settling disagreements through peaceful means would do everything in their power to prevent him from sparking war.
Including ambushing and killing him.
He'd hired the most powerful and largest bodyguard party in his region.
A team of nine elite Martial Apprentices led by a vaunted defensive Martial Apprentice that the Martial Union had evaluated as the equivalent of grade-nine.
Nothing should have possibly gone wrong.
Should, being the keyword.
The sensory Martial Apprentice sitting beside the defensive Martial Apprentice froze. "Something is coming!"
The defensive Martial Apprentice immediately heightened his alertness as he turned to the sensory Martial Apprentice. "Which direction?"
The sensory Martial Apprentice closed his eyes before his opening them with a pale face, turning to the ceiling of the carriage. "UP!"
BOOM!
The carriage exploded the very next moment as a fearsome wind blast crushed it. The sensory Martial Apprentice was knocked out. The defensive Martial Apprentice was unharmed, yet he quickly turned back in alarm and panic.
His eyes widened when he saw the crushed corpse of feudal lord Faishon in front of him.
Rage pulsed through his body as he looked around, looking for the killer. "WHERE IS HE?!"
The entire guard force scanned their surroundings yet none of them had been able to find so much as a peep of the culprit.
A kilometer away;
BOOM!
"Mmm." Rui sighed as he walked out of the crater. "I still suck at aerial maneuvering."
He had used Tempestuous Ripple to elevate himself to a great height by firing downwards and using it as a propeller system, similar to a rocket, to reach directly above the carriage of the target of his mission and launched Tempestuous Ripples down once he reached close enough.
It was the most efficient and effective way to kill the feudal lord Faishon through the heavy-duty bodyguards the man had hired.
Unfortunately, his aerial maneuvering through Tempestuous Ripple was crude and embarrassing. He was still heads and shoulders below Ana Mariane, who had mastered aerial maneuvering through a similar method to an extremely high degree. She could dance elegantly and smoothly in the air whereas Rui resembled a drunk caveman, in comparison.
"Well, at least it allowed me to complete the mission quickly." Rui shrugged, consoling himself. He pulled out the mission tracker device and hit the successful mission completion button, before setting off in the direction of the Kandrian Empire.
He was especially impatient to reach back home because of a message he had gotten from Julian.
[I've finished.]
Rui's eyes had twinkled at that message. It had been a little over a month since Rui handed over the completed transcripts of the research data he had procured from the research facility to Julian to read, understand and help Rui understand all the heavy esoteric science and technology that the research logs he had procured from the research facility used.
And now, Julian had finally finished and would help Rui completely understand the secret to the Squire Realm.
His eyes flashed with greed.
It had been far too long a time, but Rui had managed to patiently endure the entire time.
But now, he was ready.
He had originally planned to take his time with the assassination mission that the pacifist faction had commissioned, to be absolutely careful and execute the mission with surgical precision. But once he saw the message from Julian in the middle of the mission, he decided to go all-out and complete it as soon as possible.
He sprinted back to the Kandrian Empire with speeds that far exceeded that of even the fastest of cheetahs on Earth.
It took him only an hour to reach the Kandrian Empire. And merely another two hours to reach the town of Hajin.
He rushed to the Martial Academy before racing through all the post-mission protocols with a frenzied vigour.
It had taken him only five minutes to reach the Quarrier Orphanage once he sprinted back to the Quarrier Orphanage.
The sheer amount of energy he'd burnt in total was tremendous even for a Martial Apprentice of his caliber. He'd arrived a sweating wheezing mess when he walked into the Quarrier Orphanage.
"Julian!" He urged. "Tell me. What's the secret!?"
