"Here is the dinner dessert, sir."
After a while, Charlie's burly men placed the valuables they had found on the bearded man and the female assassin on a tray and brought it to Wick.
"It's his." Wick gestured toward Morin.
"...My apologies." Charlie bowed to both Morin and Wick, then gestured for his men to bring the tray to Morin.
"This gentleman looks a bit new to me," Charlie then
handed Morin a business card. "If you need anything, you can call and order dinner. We'll be there on time, no matter when or where."
"Thanks," Morin nodded, grabbing nine of the ten gold coins that had been found on the bearded man and the female assassin. "Your service is very good."
"Er..." Charlie said apologetically. "My apologies, sir. I didn't make myself clear earlier. One dinner, one person, one gold coin."
"That's right," Morin nodded, pointing to the one gold coin still on the tray. "There's one here."
"And there," Morin then pointed to the female assassin who had just been "packaged" by Charlie's men. "There's also one there."
"Again, my apologies," Charlie said, shaking his head. "I have full confidence in my men's service. There are absolutely no valuable items left on that woman."
"Haha, then you must have missed a spot," Morin chuckled. "I'm talking about the one in her head the one I punched in."
"...Oh?" Charlie paused and looked at his men.
"..." The men were stunned for two seconds, then ran back to double-check.
Charlie quickly left with his men, and he made sure to remember Morin's name.
After all, a person who could make Wick actively call for a body-disposal service, even if he wasn't an official
assassin yet, was someone whose future accomplishments could easily be guessed.
Lions do not share a common language with jackals, nor do they become friends.
Reality is not a fairy tale.
Especially after Charlie's men gave him another piece of information:
"The man's fatal injury was a severe blow to the head. Based on the marks, we believe it was a... fist, and it was likely only one punch."
Charlie's men were professionals in forensics, and their opinion carried a lot of weight.
"One punch to kill a person... Is another badass on the rise?"
Charlie thought about this, then shook his head. "Why am I thinking about this so much... I'm just a vulture.
Vultures are only responsible for cleaning up the dead..."
...
"Fancy a drink?" Morin asked, tossing the nine gold coins in his hand up and down.
"No thanks. I have other things to do." Wick refused, turning to walk back the way he came.
"I'm guessing the reason you tried to talk me out of it is because you want to leave the assassin world and found it's extremely difficult. Then you saw me, a new person, about to enter the assassin world, which is why you acted the way you did?"
When Morin saw that Wick was still unmoved, he decided to drop the bombshell and get straight to the point.
Regardless of anything else, compared to the other assassins in this world, Wick was strong and had a good reputation.
If Morin could bring Wick into the Templars, it would be a huge help for his future plans.
So, it was definitely worth investing a little time and patience.
But if he had to invest any more... Morin would feel it was a waste.
So, he chose to get right to the point.
Wick stopped, looked at Morin, and frowned. "Have you been investigating me?"
"No, I can guarantee that before this, I had only heard of your reputation and some stories," Morin said.
"It's just some simple behavioral psychology and
deduction."
The skill of lying with a straight face and sounding like a pro was something Morin had long mastered.
"Are you trying to recruit me?" Wick connected Morin's previous statement about joining the Continental to dismantle it and immediately guessed something was up.
"It seems you've admitted it," Morin said, putting the gold coins away.
"So, before you go and find out about things that will make you feel hopeless, let's grab a drink and... talk about some things?"
...
Wick eventually went to a bar with Morin. They obviously couldn't talk about what they needed to
discuss at the Continental Hotel.
As Morin had said, even Wick felt a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness about the thing he was about to face.
So, after Morin exposed his true intentions, he was willing to talk to Morin and hear his thoughts.
After all, in Wick's opinion, Morin's goal was much more difficult than his.
Wick, of course, was not a reckless person. He had once
found an information broker to buy information about assassins who had successfully and safely retired from the Continental Hotel.
But the information he got could be summed up in one sentence:
"No one has ever walked into this world and then walked out alive."
After Wick told Morin this, Morin clinked his glass with Wick's and said:
"History is meant to be broken and surpassed. So, you want to quit, and I want to overthrow it."
"Why?" Wick asked.
Since he was already here, he naturally stopped being so reserved, but due to his nature, his words were still just as concise.
"Because my mission, the mission of the Templars, is to protect order," Morin replied.
"And this world has nearly lost all order."
"Order?"
"The police, even when they know assassins exist, don't dare to arrest them. They see someone committing a murder in the street, but upon seeing a certain car, they
don't dare to step forward and just leave."
Morin said, "The world's order is on the verge of collapsing."
"What do you plan to do?" Wick asked.
"It's simple. Make what's considered normal by everyone into something abnormal," Morin laughed.
"It just needs a short amount of time and the help of a few people."
"I think you're crazy," Wick thought for a moment before saying with certainty.
"Haha, that's because there has never been a true leader until now," Morin laughed.
"Wick, look around you. Among all the people in this room, besides us, how many are assassins?"
"None," Wick answered without even looking.
"Yes, the whole world is like this. The vast majority are ordinary people, and the number of assassins is so small that calling them a drop in the ocean is an exaggeration."
Morin said, "But now, these specks of sand are threatening the entire ocean, towering over it. Do you
think... that's normal?"
"Ordinary people are just bottling up their emotions, waiting for someone to guide them and lead them."
"Even if assassins are powerful, how many people can one kill? Dozens?"
"The Continental Hotel has a relationship with the government; you and I both know this. But believe me, within the government, there are plenty of people who are unhappy with the existence of assassins. They are just worried about their own lives, so they don't dare to step up. They're just waiting for someone to lead the charge."
"Do I need one person to kill all the assassins in the Continental Hotel?"
"Absolutely not."
"Because I only need to start a fire, to establish a leader who cannot be assassinated, and give them courage."
"Courage will start a tide, and hatred will push it forward. Gradually, it will get the entire ocean moving and completely wipe out those specks of sand, drowning them and putting them back where they belong."
"In the corners of the sewer."
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