From the moment Dadatis became Zhang Heng's teacher, the first request the old man made was for Zhang Heng to hide his relationship with the Balance Blade.
In Dadatis' words, this was the way for an assassin to survive.
Especially two hundred years ago, the appearance of a traitor not only caused the Balance Blade's plan to assassinate Octavian to fail, but the core members of the organization were also exposed one after another. They were all the top assassins in the world, and they possessed extraordinary assassination skills. However, once they were exposed to the public, they would be surrounded by the state machine and assassinated by the hounds behind them. In the end, only a few of them were lucky enough to survive.
Therefore, the Balance Blade learned a lesson from that incident. The core members no longer revealed their identities to each other. Only the speaker of the Assassin Council and the priest of Kreis knew the identities of all the members. Of course, the organization did not prevent the members from communicating with each other in private. If the Balance Blade found a trustworthy person, they could tell the other party their true identity.
"You have already met the priest. The current speaker of the Assassin Council is my old friend, Faceless. Both of them know your true identity. Other than that, there is also Hyacinth."
"Hyacinth, who is he?" Zhang Heng asked.
"You should ask who she is. You haven't passed the test and officially become one of us. So, I can't tell you too much about her." At the mention of Hyacinth, the expression on Dadatis' face became a little strange. There was tenderness, wariness, and a hint of guilt. "We don't have much contact with each other, but not long ago, she visited you in person because I need more people to support you to join the Balance Blade. Hyacinth has a lot of connections in the organization. She has at least three votes in her hands, from her and her admirers."
"Ha."
"Anyway, you don't have to care about her too much. She doesn't like me, and I don't think she will like you too much. But you can rest assured that she will not betray your identity to others," Dadatis said. Dadatis said, "Except for the three people I mentioned above, no one else in the organization knows your identity. I only released your information to the public, including your potential and your lack of faith, especially your attitude towards balance. I can't and shouldn't hide it."
…
Although Dadatis had left Rome for some time, Zhang Heng did not forget the old trainer's instructions. So even though Cornu unexpectedly chose to stand on his side on the second floor of the tavern, and Zhang Heng guessed that Cornu was probably from the Balance Blade, when Cornu tried to test Zhang Heng with the Balance Blade's doctrine, Zhang Heng denied it immediately.
This was mainly because Zhang Heng did not want to get too involved with the Balance Blade, especially when the war between the Balance Blade and the Hounds was imminent. For Zhang Heng, he did not want to get involved in this war that did not belong to him. Dadatis had been sent far away from Rome, which meant that there was no one in the Balance Blade that Zhang Heng cared about.
Therefore, Zhang Heng did not intend to investigate Cornu's identity. He did not even ask the priestess to confirm Cornu's identity. This was also the reason why Cornu and the others concluded that Zhang Heng was not a member of the Balance Blade a week later. In the past, the Balance Blade had high requirements for its members to have a sense of belonging and faith. They did not expect that there would be someone slacking off.
However, Zhang Heng, who was slacking off during the war between the Balance Blade and the Hounds, was very concerned about another matter.
It had been almost two months since he came to the southeast city. In other words, the next round of assessment was coming soon.
For the next week, Zhang Heng had been preparing for this matter because the result of this assessment would determine whether he could return to Commodus as soon as possible.
Although the new force he established in the southeast city still had a lot of things to do, Zhang Heng had cleared the most important obstacles for the development of the new force. He believed that Soap, Marcus, and the others should be able to deal with the situation. And he could also withdraw from the situation and start to investigate Altrus's whereabouts.
Therefore, Zhang Heng needed to achieve as good a result as possible in this assessment.
The person in charge of evaluating the work of the patrol team was a young aristocrat in the Senate named Fabino. He was known for his integrity and selflessness, which was why he was unanimously elected as the assessor.
First, everyone felt that he was the only one who could do this job well without being afraid of offending anyone. Second, they might as well send him to the patrol team to prevent him from finding fault with them in the Senate.
Fabino began to evaluate the work of the patrol teams in each neighborhood half a month ago. He had basically visited most of the places in Rome, leaving only the southeast city as his last stop.
The reason why he put the southeast city last was that Fabino thought there was nothing to see here.
Everyone in Rome knew what kind of place the southeast city was. It was full of criminals and villains. If they could avoid that place, they would try their best to avoid it. When Fabino first became the assessor, although he heard a lot of rumors about this place, he did not know how dangerous it was. So, he only brought two guards with him to inspect the patrol team's work.
As a result, he was robbed before he could reach the patrol team's door. The two guards were no match for a group of vicious people. Not only did Fabino lose all his valuables, but he also suffered two punches in the stomach. Until now, the patrol team had not been able to help him catch the criminals and retrieve his valuables.
It was not surprising that Fabino gave the patrol team in the southeast city the lowest score every time. And to be fair, it was not even a personal vendetta. Every time Fabino gave the patrol team the lowest score, he felt a little derelict in his duty. He found that he could not find a lower score to accurately describe what he saw with his own eyes.
"That place is finished. It's hopeless, and the Senate is indifferent to it. I bet someone in it has been bribed. That's why they turn a blind eye to this situation." Fabino complained to his last friend, "I really don't want to see that damn place again."
Having said that, the dedicated Fabino still had to pollute his eyes every two months. However, after the first lesson, he had learned his lesson. Now, when he came to the southeast city to inspect again, in addition to the two guards assigned to him by the patrol team, he would also bring a team of family guards armed to the teeth to ensure that the previous tragedy would not happen again.
So early in the morning, Fabino appeared on the streets of the southeast city with his luxurious lineup of guards.
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