𝑶𝔳𝑳xt.𝑪𝒪𝕞
Rui kept a blank face as he retrieved his ID card, but inwardly he was fanboying over her and her mastery of the wind manipulation techniques.
(‘She’s like an airbender!’) He exclaimed inwardly.
He immediately wished he had wind manipulation prowess as good as hers, but she had surely spent more than a decade as a Martial Artist obtaining her current level of skill. As an allrounder, he couldn’t imagine how long it would take him to obtain that kind of prowess.
She escorted him to the Kandrian transit port leaving only after he had been admitted into the building. A while later he exited the Kandrian Empire. Thankfully, the due process needed to leave a country wasn’t nearly as extensive and annoying as the process was on Earth, where effectively half a day could be gone into merely trying to leave a country.
DASH
He immediately began running south towards the Kingdom of Violis at top speed. He chose to stick to the ground, it was too dangerous to Sky Walk outside the Kandrian Empire. It drew too much attention and left him too vulnerable and open. Within the Martial Empire, this wasn’t a problem, the probability of anything happening was too little.
BOOM!
He accelerated, picking up the pace, as a sonic boom rippled across the air. He was sprinting so fast that a sonic cone formed around him, facing the direction he was moving in. The Kingdom of Violis was only roughly five hundred kilometers away from the Kandrian Empire. It took him a little less than half an hour to reach the Kingdom of Violis.
He stopped some distance away from the border, scoping out the area with Seismic Mapping. Ever since he broke through to the Squire Realm, the same sensory techniques that he had carried along to the Squire Realm had all grown in all parameters. Even from a distance, he could accurately gain an understanding of what it was like on the other side of the wall.
(‘There’s too many people in the vicinity of this section of the border.’) Rui muttered inwardly, unhappy.
He had no intention of entering the country legitimately. Faraday Lowminer had demonstrated that he was a careful man, considering the fact that he successfully managed to leave the Kandrian Empire and run away from the consequences of his crimes. The possibility that he had a way to be alerted when a Martial Squire from the Kandrian Empire entered the Kingdom of Violis was not low.
The border was barricaded by a simple wall, as the intelligence provided by the Martial Union told him. Unlike the Kandrian Empire, the Kingdom of Violis couldn’t afford to dedicate too many resources to border security due to its poverty and lack of necessary resources.
The Kandrian Empire was rich and loaded enough to have a much more secure border barricade, resembling a fortress than the mere wall the Kingdom of Violis had to make do with. The Kandrian Empire had the Kandrian Border Patrol Force that Rui had run into, which maintained border security, capable of detecting and stopping a Martial Squire from leaving the country unauthorized. The Kingdom of Violis only had small lookouts stationed at distant intervals.
Rui could easily escape their surveillance with his speed alone, that wasn’t a concern. He just needed to make sure he was infiltrating a part of the country that didn’t have too many witnesses.
(‘Found it,’) Rui eventually stumbled across what he wanted after he circled around for a bit.
WHOOSH
In the blink of an eye, he had already closed the distance and leaped over the wall, maintaining extreme caution.
He had long put on a Mind Mask that suppressed all sense of threat and pressure that he, as a Martial Squire exerted on sentient life, reducing him to a normal seventeen-year-old boy. He had already memorized the map of the Kingdom of Violis, so he knew exactly where he needed to go.
He didn’t draw any attention to himself by running at superhuman speeds, he quickly cloaked himself with a large cloak, so that his Martial Union would not be visible while wearing a large hat, tipped over to reduce the exposure of his appearance. His mask would give away his status as a Martial Artist, after all.
The Kingdom of Violis was warmer and had more humidity than the Kandrian Empire, which was colder, having been higher up north.
The towns of the Kingdom were reflective of the economic standing of the Kingdom itself. The infrastructure was more elementary, less sophisticated, and less well-maintained compared to the town of Hajin.
Despite his desire to mesh in, he inevitably drew attention. It was clear that he was a foreigner.
Of course, Rui didn’t expect anything else, nor did he care. It was enough that he wasn’t identified as a Martial Artist. The Mind Mask technique was a lifesaver in times like these.
Because the pace of his traveling had slowed down, traveling to the town of Garten, the town where Faraday Lowminer was supposed to be basing his operations, was taking time. Rui needed to travel for a longer period of time to reach where he wanted to.
Of course, when traveling through remote routes with no human presence, he could simply sprint and pick up the pace.
It took him a whole day before he finally reached the town of Garten.
“Alright then,” Rui muttered. “Time to get to work.”
The town was a bustling one, full of energy and vigor. It made it easier for him to move around without drawing attention, something he was grateful for.
He knew the base of operations of Faraday Lowminer was in the southern part of the town, he needed to figure out a way to sniff the man out, capture him and, ideally, his band of Martial Apprentices as well, and drag them to the Kandrian Empire.
Rui closed his eyes as he computed a list of courses of action he could take to dig out his target.