(‘What they don’t know won’t hurt them.’) Rui casually leaped past the fence that had marked the territory of the Kingdom of Grahal. The security was pitifully weak, but then again, he had expected this.
Even back on Earth in the twenty-first century with all the civil engineering capabilities of the technologically advanced first-world countries, perfect border security had not been accomplished and was quite difficult.
Even superpowers like the US had not achieved even satisfactory border control as illegal immigrants, smugglers and traffickers routinely burrowed into its territories.
It wasn’t that these nations in both Gaia or Earth were doing a particularly bad job, the problem was not with the administration or initiative.
The problem simply was that nations were absolutely enormous. The sheer distance that was covered by the borders and circumferences of these nations was huge, it was an incredibly difficult task to try and achieve high security across every inch of one’s borders.
This was especially true for smaller and more impoverished nations. Although their borders were also smaller, the inadequacy of the number of Martial Artists due to emigration, the lacklustre technological development meant that achieving security across borders was far more difficult despite being smaller.
Larger nations like the Kandrian Empire were much better, although not perfect. More powerful nations had an abundance of Martial Artists; thus, these nations could afford deploy a certain number of Martial Artists with sensory capabilities patrolling the borders as well as a sophisticated anti-infiltration system in place thanks to their highly developed esoteric surveillance technology.
Although it was certainly not impossible infiltrate the Kandrian Empire. One had to be far more careful, equipped, specialized and prepared in order to infiltrate the Kandrian Empire. This was in sharp contrast to Rui who infiltrated the Kingdom of Grahal with ease.
The Kingdom of Grahal had a different air to it than the Kandrian Empire did. It exuded a gloomy and desolate vibe.
Rui couldn’t put his finger on a single element, it was a combination of things that made him feel that way.
He could see it in the energy of the people that he walked past. He could see it in their eyes; tired resignation. He could see it in the poorly maintain infrastructure, the number of homeless people who slept on the streets, these were people who were just trying to get by day-to-day without much of an eye on the distant future.
The Kandrian Empire, on the other hand, was generally a more vibrant nation. Especially commercial hubs like the town of Hajin. He walked through the steets, having covered himself in a robe that hid his affiliation with the Kandrian Martial Union.
Soon, he reached a commissions office of the Kandrian Martial Union.
“Purpose of visit?” One of the Martial Apprentice guards asked him as he approached the building.
“Mission.” He replied as he showed them his mission bill and learner’s license. The guard frowned when he saw Rui’s grade, before nodding after having verified the legitimacy of the documents and the mission.
“Okay, clear.”
They let him in without any problem.
(‘I guess it’s odd for a grade-ten Martial Artist to still have only a learner’s license.’) He guessed as he reached the reception.
“Excuse me.” He approached one of the receptionists.
“Hi! How may I help you.” She cheerily replied.
“I’m a Martial Artist of the Martial Union here to meet with a client.” He told the receptionist. “She lives in another city, I was hoping to contact her via the Martial Union.”
“Alright, I need your license and mission bill please.”
He duly handed her the documents as she fiddled with a device on her table. Rui guessed that the Martial Union employed a certain degree of information technology in order to manage its data. However, he suspected that the information technology was highly limited and also not viable for mass production due to relying on uncommon or highly valuable esoteric resources.
The same was true for all the esoteric technology he had seen in this world. They were capable of replicating a lot of Earth’s most common technology, yet they relied on scarcer wondrous esoteric resources instead of science to accomplish it, making it impossible for it to be mass-produced and fully integrated into the structure of society because of scarcity and value of the esoteric resources used.
“Your client is miss Fria, correct?” The receptionist asked.
“Yes.”
“She resides in the town of Frungeur, which is about a little over two hours from here on carriage.” The receptionist. “I can give you her address.”
“Isn’t there any issue with disclosing her personal details in that manner?”
“Not at all, the commission contract indicates consents to it in order to meet the Martial Artist who undertook the commission.”
“I see, then please do.”
She scribbled down an address on a piece of paper before folding it and giving it to Rui. “That’s the address. You can visit the commissions office of the Martial Union in the town of Freunger for guidance if you want.”
“Will do. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Rui immediately set out for the town of Freunder.
The receptionist had told him it would a little over two hours on carriage, which meant he could easily reach in under an hour as long as he exerted himself a little.
He took the off-beat path away from the public to avoid as many prying eyes, and in about half an hour, he had reached the town of Freunger.
It took him a longer time to actually reach the location in the address, since he needed to ask around. Thankfully there enough people who spoke Sanskrit, the international language of the Panama continent. Julian had helped Rui become proficient in the language when he was growing up.
Eventually, Rui found himself in a rather slummy area. The infrastructure of this part of town was particularly bad, and the people were much poorer too.
Rui was a bit confused. His remuneration pay was thirty gold coins, which meant the mission must have costed sixty gold coins. How could someone who could afford to pay for such a mission live in such an area?