The Martial Unity

Four members of the Royal Family sat around a large round table covered with all manners of documents.

This time, they were not as alone as they were last time.

In the room, in addition to sixteen Martial Masters, were another sixteen people: analysts, executives, and personal advisors. Each was vetted by a high-grade Martial Master who was also vetted to have no allegiance to the Martial Union.

This was the limited task force that the four princes and princesses decided to put into place for the minutiae of the alliance between them.

Due to the furtive nature of the tentative alliance that they had formed to curb Prince Raijun's growth and, specifically, to assassinate Rui Quarrier, this was the limit of the personnel they could allocate to the alliance.

Any more people than this, and the risks of an information leak increased exponentially. The Martial Union, the Beggar's Sect, the Shadow Guild, and any other number of local, national, and international intelligence organizations.

Thankfully, the task at hand was not managerially burdening.

"In the past two weeks, we have identified one hundred and eighty-six Senior assassins whose track record indicates the qualities that we seek," One woman, appointed as head of the anti-Rui task force, remarked. "I have provided Your Highnesses with the relevant documents."

She provided each of the four members of the Royal Family with a document reporting the findings of the task force.

This work could not be done by their regular staff because it was simply far too sensitive. They needed to be absolutely clean when the assassination occurred. Otherwise, they would lose a lot of support.

"Hm, I recognize some of these names," Prince Randal nodded as he skimmed through the document that listed the profiles of the various prominent Senior-level assassins of the Underworld across Panama.

"Have you made sure to avoid any Martial Artist with affiliations to the other three powerhouses of East Panama?" Princess Ranea inquired as she went through them.

"Of course, Your Highness," The head executive of the task force bowed her head.

"It would not do if it came out that we were collaborating with our chief enemies, after all," Princess Raemina lightly remarked as she went through the listed assassins.

"These assassins are quite impressive. Their success rates per unit difficulty are statistically much higher than the average of their verified Realm," Princess Rafia monotonically highlighted as she didn't so much as twitch or blink while she skimmed through the reports and profiles.

"There are a ton of powerful Martial assassins on here," Princess Ranea remarked as she went through them. "It's a shame we can't just hire all of them for a guaranteed done deal."

"That's not how it works," Prince Randal snorted, glaring at her. "If you didn't fill your head with ocean brain rot and actually studied Martial Art as a field, then you would not know how stupid your statement is."

She snorted, glowering at him. "That's why I brought over Martial Art scholars in my part. I trust the experts."

"And they have given their word," He narrowed his eyes. "While the wealth needed to commission all of them is trivial to us, it is doomed for failure. For one, neither the Martial Union nor the Kandrian Border Patrol Force will fail to notice the entry of a hundred and eighty-six Martial Seniors. That's an absolute pipedream. In the first place, the port of transit is monitored by one Martial Master at all times, so stealth is not enough. They need to rely on disguise to sneak into the Kandrian Empire."

While infiltrating the average and assassinating a target was bread and butter for these Senior assassins, the Kandrian Empire was a whole other ballgame. The same could be said for any of the other three powerhouses of East Panama.

Each of these nations was powerful enough to deploy powerful Martial and technological forces to secure their borders.

Of course, nothing was impenetrable, and the Kandrian Empire had an absolutely gigantic territory to protect. Thus, while infiltrating was not easy, it was possible.

As long as the number was not a hundred and eighty-six, that was absolutely impossible, one hundred out of one hundred times.

"It's a shame we can't deploy Masters either," Princess Ranea heaved a tired sigh.

Martial Master assassins were extraordinarily rare given that the number of Martial Masters across the world was already extremely scarce; of them, those who were assassins were even fewer, and of them, those who were freelancers and not associated with any nation were even fewer.

Kandrian Martial Masters had no chance of even getting away with assassinating Rui and not being caught since the Martial Union knew every single one of them inside out and backward front. They would be exposed, as would their allegiance and affiliations, and the Martial Union would not spare the culprit unless it was the Royal Emperor himself.

Not only were Martial Masters out, but large numbers of high-grade Martial Seniors were also out.

"In fact, we probably can't do more than a few at the most, according to my personal Martial Art advisor. Too many Martial Seniors fighting will release too much energy that the Martial Union will immediately detect." Prince Randal remarked. "Thus, whosoever we choose, we must choose wisely. But none of the four of us are experts in the nuances of Martial assassins."

He turned to a handful of members of the staff, nodding.

They immediately pulled over a board with some figures and other data on it.

"There are several constraints to the assassination of Rui Quarrier," The head of the task force began. "First, if we want to ensure that the assassins are not compromised before or after the assassination attempt, then that automatically constraints the numbers even further than what His Highness pointed out."

Prince Randal raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, precisely?"

"We have been studying location behavioral patterns of Rui Quarrier, and unfortunately, it does not bode well," The head of the task force remarked, pointing at a particular pie chart. "He spends a large majority of his time in Great Jrava Mountain Range with a Martial Master, thus that automatically rules it out as a potential venue to conduct the assassination."