"Woah..." Rui murmured as the world around him suddenly changed. "Handy technique."
He glanced around, immediately noting the medical nature of the room that he was in.
It was clearly a hospital.
A medical team entered the room soon enough, comprising of a doctor and several nurses.
"Contestant Falken," The lead doctor smiled. "I am Doctor Veena. I have been instructed by Master Deivon to conduct a thorough evaluation of your health status."
Rui realized that Master Deivon was probably paranoid that Rui was either not as good as he looked, or had paid some price to heal the damage that Senior Frinjschia had inflicted.
'Well, he's not wrong.' Rui nodded. "Ok."
"Please wear this," She smiled, handing him a patient garb.
It was only then that he realized he was fully naked all this time, in front of an all-female staff.
"Master Deivon has also instructed me to provide you with this," She supplied him with a mask that resembled his previous one with Master-level anti-sensory esoteric compounds.
Rui was grateful that Master Deivon noticed how much Rui cared about protecting his appearance and catered to it. He was just afraid that it was not as useful as before.
'Thankfully ordinary people would have been too far to make out the details of my appearance. But the Martial Artists, barring Apprentices, will have gotten a good look at myface.' Rui sighed.
It was a predicament, but at the same time, it was almost a relief.
Until now, he hadn't realized how much of a psychological burden the constant hiding of his appearance had become. It had taxed his resolve more than he had expected.
Divulging it in front of all those people had felt therapeutic. This was also in addition to the satisfaction he felt from aiding the breakthrough of a Martial Senior, and then proceeding to eat a single attack from said Martial Senior. That was arguably the greatest accomplishment of his life as far as sheer difficulty went.
Just thinking about it put a smile of satisfaction on his face.
It was a shame that he didn't get to speak to Senior Frinjschia, but he would have time for that later.
Regardless, he had to deal with the consequences first.
The issue was that he didn't even know what the consequences were. The last time Rui had made a public appearance without any intel suppression was during the Serevian Dungeon War.
It was more than seven years ago. Since then, his missions have been incognito, or in remote isolated locations such as Vilun Island with total information isolation from the Panama continent.
The last time he had openly displayed his appearance in front of such a large audience was nearly a decade ago in the Martial Contest of the Kandrian Empire. He had grown a lot since then, even having gotten a stubble since he had long reached adulthood.
His measures of changing his hair and eye colour were a good final line of defence for his identity.
Unlike back on Earth, digital technology was far from prevalent. Had this been Earth, his image would have been all over the internet as articles, news segments, YouTube videos, and threads on various forums would have all analyzed his appearance to hell and back.
Intelligence agencies of various countries would have run simple facial recognition software and it would have been 'GG', as the kids back on Earth would say.
Thankfully, such a thing was impossible here in the world of Gaia. Digital technology was not only very primitive but also highly resource-intensive and required a regular supply of valuable esoterics.
Digital data management was even more primitive and restricted, which is why libraries still relied on scrolls and books.
Thus he knew the probability of someone tracing his appearance to the identity Rui Quarrier was highly unlikely, especially given that he was several tens of thousands of kilometers away from the Kandrian Empire. Finding a needle in a haystack was a dream job in comparison to this task.
Still, he had paid the price for getting too overconfident in the Shionel Confederation.
'Fight Meera, and then get the hell out of here as soon as the banquet is over.' Rui resolved himself.
In fact, he would have run as soon as he fought Meera, if not for the fact that the champion not attending the banquet held for his victory was an act of disrespect to the Virodha Theocracy.
Rui had no interest in potentially provoking powers much greater than Chairman Deacon. It was too risky.
'Damn girl, you better be worth all this trouble.' Rui sighed.
The health check-up was completed seamlessly, they found that his constitution held up a lot more poorly than he looked, due to the Reaper poison. Thankfully, it took several potions and he was back to normal.
It wasn't long before he got to meet Master Deivon in a heavily secured meeting room.
Master Deivon regarded him with silence for a moment.
It was as though he didn't even know where to begin.
"Has anyone figured out my identity?" Rui asked.
"We're trying," Master Deivos replied with complete honesty. "So far, we haven't had even the faintest of leads."
"That's unnaturally honest."
"You deserve that much, at least," Master Deivon smiled briefly.
"...If I deserve that much, then do I also deserve not having my identity looked into?"
Master Deivon shook my head. "Even if I did my best, I do not have the power to stop that."
Rui sighed, having expected that. With how many internal powers were interested in Rui, he didn't think a single bishop had the power to cease all investigations into him.
"What will become of the Martial Contest?"
"The Theocracy will employ powerful artifacts and esoteric resources to ensure that the colosseum will be restored in an hour," Master Deivon readily explained.
"What?" Rui raised his eyebrows. "That's absurd."
Master Deivon flashed a proud smile. "Do not underestimate us, young man."
"I'm glad to hear that," Rui grinned. "I would be deeply unsatisfied if I couldn't obtain an opportunity to the Senior Realm."
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