Fauche Viril was having a good day.
He had found himself in the middle of a good deal, with only two possible outcomes, and both outcomes were just fine by him.
If Squire Falken ended up succeeding, then he would have successfully destabilized the loyalty of the shareholders and stakeholders towards the president significantly. It didn't matter if there was no proof, the timing of the attempt given the friction between the president and Herguson Meine would, at the very least, sprout significant doubts and distrust toward the president.
If Rui failed, then the situation would be less ideal, albeit more volatile since the director would still be alive and would also suspect the president above all else.
No one would dare suspect Fauche, one of the staunchest supporters of the director and a close friend of his.
Furthermore, if Rui failed, then Fauche would gain ten free commissions from Rui. That was not a small amount!
Although Fauche was wealthy, commissioning Martial Squires from the Kandrian Martial Union was not a light matter. There were taxes on any transactions and exchange of services that he had to pay to both the Kandrian Empire and the Kandrian Martial Union, on top of the actual commission fee for the mission.
Furthermore, the Kandrian currency was a heavyweight compared to the paltry currency of his nation. A single Kandrian copper coin was equivalent to a hundred and twenty-seven crolls! The latter could get you three meals a day in the Republic of Mernea.
Commissioning Rui had cost him over a dozen million crolls! Even for a multi-millionaire, within the Republic of Mernea, this was not a trivial sum.
That was why he found it hard to believe that Rui promised ten free commissions. He had gone through all the paperwork exceedingly thoroughly, trying to find a loophole that Rui was perhaps thinking of exploiting in order to get out of doing the ten free commissions that he promised, but he found nothing.
It seemed that Rui was actually serious and earnest.
A small part of Fauche prayed that Rui would fail. That's effectively how alluring the fortune Rui was offering was worth.
He didn't understand why the clearly young man made such a rash deal, but he chalked it up to youthful recklessness. He surmised that Rui was likely a young, but talented, Martial Artist who had recently broken through to the Squire Realm. It was rather clear that he had let his newborn power and status get to his head and inflate his ego.
Fauche was not intimately clear with the power of a Martial Squires, after all, the Republic of Mernea had only obtained the secret to the breakthrough less than ten years ago. However, he was relatively certain that Martial Squires were not capable of the feat that Rui claimed he would accomplish. In his perspective, it was possible that extremely high-grade long-range accuracy Martial Squire veterans would be able to accurately snipe targets from nearly a kilometer away, despite highly unfavorable atmospheric conditions. However, for a meager grade-four all-rounder Martial Squire to be capable of this feat?
('It's impossible.') Fauche shook his head lightly.
"Next, I call upon the chairman Herguson Meine to the speaker's podium." A senator invited him, to which Herguson deftly made his way to it.
Fauche moved his hand atop his pocket within which the button of the comms device, when pressed, would send the signal to Rui to assassinate Herguson. Rui had already informed him of the time delay, so Fauche had to judge the timing ahead of time.
He listened to the man's words carefully as he droned on with an official statement.
"Last but certainly not least, I would like to bring up the issue regarding the current president of Caruntel Company, Herguson Meine..."
Fauche had already pressed the button the moment the man began to utter the president's name.
"... poor judgment and igno-"
BANG
The wall blasted open.
The Martial Squires in the vicinity jerked back, startled. They began moving as per protocol once they saw that something had somehow managed to bypass their senses and break in.
Yet, it was too little too late. Even though they could reach the speed of sound themselves, that was at top speed, not when they were stationary.
Not that they even knew that an invisible projectile was moving at the speed of sound.
SPLAT
Herguson's head, which was still in the middle of making a passionate point against the president, blasted.
Gore violently sprayed across the hall, covering every single dignitary in the room.
"AAAAAAAAH!"
"OH MY GOD!
"WHAT THE FUCK!"
At that moment, the sheer shock and panic that beset these highly important individuals caused their otherwise trained demeanor to crumble. These were people who were used to feeling personally safe due to the security measures in place to protect them. Exploding heads were not something that they were accustomed to.
The Martial Squires of both layers immediately formed a sort of physical barrier between the direction the shot came from and the dignitaries they were obligated to protect. Until their charges were safely evacuated, they could not afford to move.
Easier said than done, with the sheer chaos in the Hall. The only person who wasn't scrambling around or panicking was Fauche. His face was covered with shock, and blood, but mostly shock.
('He succeeded!') Fauche was frozen. ('Nearly a kilometer! Strong winds! Dozens of Martial Squires!')
He felt a deep surge of regret, in hindsight. He strongly wished that Rui failed, he would have gotten himself ten commissions out of this unfathomable Martial Squire!
('DAMMIT!') he cursed inside. ('Ten free commissions from him could give me a tremendous amount of power! Nothing could possibly get in my way had he failed!')
"SIR! GET DOWN!"
Fauche jerked back as a Martial Squire shouted at him in his face.
"I know you're in shock! But your life is at risk!"
The Martial Squire had a strong urge to shove the man to the ground, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to get away with it.
