Martial Online.

"So, what will it be?" The overweight man asked with an ugly smile that made him look like a second-rate villain from a cheesy action movie.

"Grr…" The woman gritted her teeth and looked at the contract paper in front of her.

As she lowered her gaze slightly, she saw a flintlock pistol dangling from the overweight man's waistband.

'This bastard.' She thought hatefully.

'Seeing him sweating like a pig, he must've run all the way to here. When I was kidnapped in front of the cafe, they did it so boldly that there were many witnesses.

'But he has a good alibi, as there were waitresses who witnessed us being together in that booth, and when he is being questioned about me in the future, he can weasel his way out of it.

'If he had kidnapped me without wasting his time in having this morning meeting, he would've definitely been one of the main suspects.

'I didn't take him as a smart person, or perhaps he has some lackeys in his payroll that whisper ideas into his ear!'

"Final chance." The overweight man moved his coat slightly to reveal his flintlock pistol. "I suggest you start writing before I lose my patience."

"Tch…" She hesitantly grabbed the pen, dipped it in the ink, and hovered the pen over the contract paper.

If she signed this, she would lose the fruit of her life's work for minimal payment.

She was certain that her idea was worth millions of gold, but she was just being offered measly 5,000 golds.

'I have family to take care of. I've invested more than ten thousand golds in my project, so I would lose money if I signed this…'

She thought with a despairing look, but she knew that if she didn't sign this, she would be discovered a week later in a lake with a bullet wound in her head.

'I can't die…'

With a sad look, she pressed the pen against the contract paper and was about to start signing the contract.

The overweight man's smile deepened, and his eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

At that moment, some strange shadows gathered over the heads of his three lackeys, who were the kidnappers, and then the shadows metamorphosed into dark, smoky tendrils that enveloped them in a suffocating embrace.

"Ngh!" The three men gasped in terror as they struggled to break free from the tendrils, but it was of no use.

"Ah!" The overweight man watched as his three lackeys were pulled closer to the ceiling, strange shadowy tendrils choking them out.

"What the hell is that?!"

"Eh?" The woman froze and turned around in shock.

Her view of reality crashed down as she saw an impossible scene.

Most of the people in the Great City didn't know about the existence of magic; she was one of them.

After seeing this sight, she lost the feeling in her arm, and the pen gently dropped to the ground with ink spilling all around.

At that moment, the tendrils snapped their necks and dropped them right in front of the overweight man.

"I-Impossible…" The overweight man stumbled backwards, realizing that this could only be the work of a powerful magician!

He didn't think kidnapping the woman was a difficult job, so he hired some third-class magicians to help him.

As he expected, it was an easy job, but now something unexpected was happening!

Shatter!

The window shattered, and a black-clothed figure jumped through with a dark dagger in hand.

At the same moment, the door smashed open, and another black-clothed figure stepped through with a cheaper-looking dagger in hand.

"W-who are you two?" The overweight man asked in a shaky voice.

The woman watched in shock and then looked at the contract before ripping it apart with all of her pent-up anger.

"Your death has been signed." Casper, with a masked voice, said and stabbed the overweight man through his heart.

"Aaaah!" The overweight man screamed in agony and struggled to remove the dagger from his chest.

At that moment, Casper pushed him against the wall and twisted the dagger in his chest before slicing through his heart.

"Ah!"

With a loud scream, he fell to his knees, tears of blood running down his cheeks.

Never in his wildest dreams did he think that his day would go like this.

He expected it to be a not-so-nice day, but he thought that the woman would willingly sign the contract after scaring her a little bit and then use her creation to usher in a new era of transportation in the Great City.

He was dreaming about the future for the last night, and now his future has come to a sudden stop.

"W-who…" He whispered with pain in his voice. "W-who signed… my death…"

"Your wife did." Casper said with a chuckle.

"W-what… V-Victoria did?" His eyes widened in shock, and then he whispered in betrayal. "W-why… did she do this to me? I gave her everything…"

"In your afterlife, don't go visit other women behind your wife's back." Casper said with a laugh. "It will give a bad impression, you see."

"A-ar…" Without being able to finish his final sentence, the overweight man fell to the ground with his eyes still wide open.

The woman, hunched near the three dead lackeys, watched everything unfold with a look that made it clear that she wasn't sure whether she was dreaming or not.

The whole day seemed unreal.

"You."

"Eeek!" After hearing a voice calling out to her, she screamed and backed off to the corner while clumsily taking one of the lackey's knives to protect herself.

Ambrose looked at the frightened woman and said, "You didn't see us; did ya hear?"

"E-eh?" The woman whispered in confusion, too terrified to even think straight.

Ambrose crouched in front of her and said, "Say to the guards that when you woke up, you found yourself in a random alleyway, the kidnappers were already gone. Do you understand?"

"A-ah, y-yes…" She replied, but he wasn't sure whether he really understood, as she seemed out of it.

Ambrose shrugged his shoulders, as he didn't really care what she would say. No one would be able to find out their identity anyway.

At that moment, Casper appeared behind him, grabbed his shoulder and disappeared into a black mist, both of them vanishing like they were never there.

The woman shakily stood up and walked over to the overweight man before kicking his dead corpse. Then she left the house, limping slowly down the alley as she had accidentally twisted her ankle during the previous struggle in front of the cafe.

…

Ambrose sat on a rooftop, hidden in shadows, and then saw Casper leaping out of a window of one of the buildings across the street.

It was a very fancy-looking house with three floors, a yard with a nice-looking garden, and a pure white fence to surround it. This whole area was very fancy.

It was clearly a high-class neighborhood.

It was also right next to Golden Knife Street, where Zane Grimm the Third lived.

Casper landed beside him and said, "I gave the information to the client and got paid as well."

"How did she react?" Ambrose asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Very calmly." Casper replied with a scoff and took a handful of coins from the pouch before handing it over to Ambrose. "This is your cut: 300 gold coins."

"Thanks." Ambrose said, and he put them inside his own pouch in the pocket. "So, there wasn't much love between the two, I suppose."

"It is a rare sight if there is actually love in the families of Gold Circle." Casper said with a laugh. "They only marry each other to raise their status.

"This Victoria, the client, was born into a silvertongue family, which wasn't bad by any means. However, she was born very pretty, and her family raised her to marry into Gold Circle one day.

"In the end, she indeed married Gold Circle, but clearly her husband was not what she wanted.

"I guess she finally got a good enough reason to assassinate him, which isn't that uncommon among Gold Circle. They often kill each other, so they have to be on guard against even their own sons and daughters.

"It is a cold world indeed."

"Victoria was afraid of her being replaced by the mistress, I suppose." Ambrose said out loud. "She didn't want to lose her current status, is that right?"

"That's right." Casper nodded. "The target was still useful to her, but after realizing the potential of being replaced, she lost it."

"In the end, he didn't have an affair and seemed to love Victoria." Ambrose sighed and scratched the back of his head. "We truly did something horrible today, didn't we?"

"He deserved it." Casper said. "I know the type. That bastard would've killed that woman off to cut any ties. As long as he had the contract, it didn't matter whether she was alive or dead.

"As alive, she would've definitely fought back in court and would've tried to expose him. Even though he would've won the case, it would've damaged his reputation.

"He wasn't a fool by any means, so she would've died.

"Also, fuck Gold Circle. No one is innocent here, and they all deserve to be burned. Don't feel bad."

"You really hate Gold Circle, huh?" Ambrose said with a sigh and asked, "I am from silvertongue, so don't you hate me?"

"Silvertongues are only the main tools of the rich." Casper said with a scoff. "While I don't find you bastards pleasant either, you're also used by Gold Circle for their own gain."