Matthew sprinted full speed, if anyone were to lay eyes on him at this moment and actually comprehend that it was an actual almost 2 meter tall, 120 kilogram man that ran this fast and not just a strong gust of wind in the cold, moonless winter night they would surely be horrified by an acute feeling of transhuman dread

‘M1, Final check’

[Good check M1, area is clear, proceed with infiltration]

‘Roger’

Matthew turned sharply while keeping his speed before he suddenly leaped off the ground and after sailing through the air for a few moments he landed on the top of the stone walls

‘So far so good…’

The city of Tweni was a medium-sized walled city in the western region of the Willmir empire, a personal holding under the newly appointed Marquis, Lea Maitner, the firstborn daughter of the late Elias Maitner who had been manipulated by an Eastern Skinwalker to attack Matthew and Alina which ended with the predictable results of the entire border fort getting demolished by artillery fire.

Matthew didn’t stop to take in the cityscape and quickly jumped on the inner side of the walls, after breaking his fall with a roll he made sure he hadn’t been detected and called out over the local net

‘M1 infiltration completed’

The next moment, a person stepped out from the coroner of the alley where Matthew had landed and greeted him as she handed him a few pieces of clothing

“Welcome to Tweni, Major”

Matthew nodded and put the clothing on over the skintight bodysuit he wore, the linen pants, wool shirt and leather overcoat disguised him well enough on their own, but a few moments after the bodysuit changed color to that of his skin, designing him further with large scars and a large black tattoo visible on his chest and neck

“Take this one two”

Matthew retrieved the sword and sheath from Ripper, which he fastened to the left side of his overcoat, then she spoke again

“And the final piece, well considering you relationship with Alina, I should say sidepiece~”

With those words she walked over and grasped his left hand, Ripper herself were dressed in a high quality linen dress along with a subdued silver necklace, she wore a smile as they walked onto the lively main street, lantern light illuminated the numerous bars and inns where the people of Tweni drank the night away, even though Matthew kept up the appearances of a young mercenary who had returned home to his wife, which Ripper had concocted on the outside he still grumbled to her over the local net

‘Why is it we have to look like this again?’

[Because people feel uncomfortable about public displays of affection~ Thus they will pay us less attention while we make our way towards the target area~]

Matthew let out an internal sigh as he kept up appearances, the first target on the list was a senior officer of the Willmir army that had been sent West and had overseen a large part of the logistics of the recent 150.000 army that had been sent to the old Basecamp

‘Which means he will know where the crystals were sent, as well as that he knows much of the inner workings of the Willmir empire’s logistics network… The fact that he doesn’t have a security detail is beyond sloppy’

The two made their way through the streets of Tweni before they arrived in a relatively quiet residential area, there Ripper let go of Matthew’s hand and scaled a building, a little over two minutes later a black balloon with a block of black ice attached rose quickly into the sky and Ripper reappeared next to Matthew as they continued on their way

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‘Easy as pie~ Let’s move onto the next item on our list~’

Matthew showed a smile and nodded, by the end of the night Matthew and Ripper booked themselves a 2-person room in an inn, they had created no less than 31 corpses in a single night and sent up 12 balloons which had already been picked up by high-flying drones, even now Matthew had a hard time believing how little trouble they had run into

“That felt a little too easy… How long until extraction?”

[13 hours, feel free to take it easy until them master]

Matthew nodded and leaned back in the armchair, the inside of the inn room wasn’t all that big, most of it was taken up by the 2-person bed which Ripper had claimed for herself about an hour ago, even now she was sleeping soundly

‘...I’ll head out for a walk then’

[Understood, but please remember that this is still hostile territory, master]

‘I am far too old to ever forget that’

Matthew got up and wore his overcoat before he left the room, after walking down the stairs he found the first floor of the inn mostly deserted, a few people were eating breakfast but didn’t pay Matthew any attention other than a few silent greetings, soon he walked down the lively streets of Tweni, however despite the beast drawn carriages the streets were mostly clean

‘That reminds me, how far along is the Willmir empire with sanitary technology?’

[Gathered intel suggests a series of sweeping sanitary policies were introduced around a century ago, most cities the size of Tweni have public bathhouses and restrooms, as well as a well maintained sewage system]

‘I see’

Matthew continued to roam around for about an hour until he arrived at a large plaza that featured a large open market with numerous smaller stalls that sold everything from food to small trinkets, he walked around and did a bit of window shopping before Aea’s voice sounded out in his mind

[M1, move 40 meters towards the Southwestern end of the market]

Matthew switched gears at once, even if he was taking a relaxing walk, the operation was still ongoing, and it seemed like Aea had discovered something worth canceling his leisure over

‘What’s my target?’

[23 meters ahead, lighting up the HUD now]

Matthew’s vision distorted for a moment before a series of seemingly unassuming wooden crates lit up in his view a moment passed before Aea’s voice sounded out again

[Thermal sensors indicate 8 covert personal hidden in the area, please hold current position and observe surroundings]

Matthew nodded and found a bench to sit down, clearly someone were up to something, and with Matthew being here anyway there wasn’t anything wrong with taking a look into what the covert personal were doing, even if Aea only used his proximity to collect some data biometric data on the covert personnel

[Please increase proximity to indicated target]

Matthew stood up and walked over to a food stall where he called out to the owner

“Hi there”

“Greetings, young man, finally let your stomach win out?”

Matthew nodded, having been sitting down on the bench and looking around at the different stalls it seemed like the stall owner had thought he were descending on what to get to eat

“Yeah, could I get 2 skewers and a bowl?”

“You got it”

The stall owner took the skewers off the grill and poured Matthew a bowl of soup, a moment later Aea’s voice sounded out in Matthew’s mind

[Close range scans indicate a high amount of weaponry, covert personal is most likely assassins]

‘Find their target before it arrives here’

[Confirmed… Analyzing high altitude drone video feed, please stand by]

Matthew retrieved a few coins from his pouch and handed them to the stall owner before he retrieved his food before he returned to the previous bench and began eating, the meat skewers were alright, a little too salty, but dipping the meat into the soup made it pretty tasty, just as he finished drinking his soup Aea’s voice echoed out in his mind again

[High value target identified, Marquis Lea Maitner is approaching incognito without any security detail]

‘...She’s what now?’

Matthew let out a sigh, he silently patched into the drone video feed and accessed the data glyph on the young Marquis, he was about to write her off when he noticed something about her cloaked figure

‘Bring up a simulated figure in my view’

[Understood, starting simulation]

Matthew nearly dropped the wooden bowl in his hand when the simulated render entered his view, even if Aea couldn’t accurately simulate the young Marquis’ facial expression it did stimulate her line of sight, and her eyes were locked directly onto Matthew, and she was taking the shortest route directly towards him, a smile slowly showed on Matthew’s face

‘...How about that’

[Mystic phenomena highly probable, R1 have been alerted and is in route]

Matthew stood up and walked back over to the food stall and returned the wooden bowl to the owner while keeping an eye on the approaching incognito Marquis, she was still clearly looking directly at him through the buildings in between them, she also sped up a little when he rose to his feet, however she slowed down again when he sat down once more

‘What do you think I should do, Aea?’

[Please evacuate master, with this powerful of a Mystic phenomena in play your safety can not be guaranteed]

Matthew mulled it over for a few moments before he shook his head and muttered

“...We won’t learn anything, I just pull back now”

It wasn’t only the incognito Marquis, there were still the assassins to worry about, if they were there to ambush the Marquis then how did they know she would come here to seek him out? Matthew felt completely out of the loop, and he didn’t like it one bit

‘Prepare for rapid android deployment at my discretion’

[Understood]

Matthew watched the incognito Marquis enter the plaza, she was still completely locked onto him and clearly oblivious to the assassins, so when she entered his view Matthew rose to his feet and walked towards her

‘...Here goes nothing’