The Martial Unity

Guildmaster Bradt was a powerful individual. No matter how capable and competent Rui was at clearing dungeons, the second his identity was given away, he would be at a disadvantage when interacting with someone of his stature and power.

He had command over the intelligence, military, and agencies of the Shionel Confederation. He could easily have Rui assassinated if he knew his true identity, and Rui did not want to put himself in that position.

Thankfully, it seemed he believed Rui’s words, for the most part.

“It’s quite impressive that you managed to make this within a reasonable timeframe at all,” The man nodded. “You have completed the task quicker than a team of cartographers from the intelligence department of my company would have, and you seem unbothered by the jamming effect of the dungeon. That would explain your ability to be able to gather the information needed on the layout and structure of the dungeon without too much difficulty.”

He turned towards Rui, taking his eyes off the map.

“That’s also why you have stuffed that ridiculously oversized attire with the esoteric substances of the Shionel Dungeon that also jam senses, correct?” The man gave Rui a knowing look. “I have been unable to gather any information on your appearance ever since you arrived at the guild branch.”

Rui didn’t reply, but his silence was an answer enough.

“I’m quite optimistic about the maps that I’m seeing here,” He said, turning back to give them another look. “Although it is true that I cannot verify their accuracy this very moment, I cannot see anything that would cause me to discredit it, and the sheer amount of detail there is in it raises their value significantly if accurate.”

He turned back to Rui. “All in all, I am quite appreciative of them as a token of sincerity. Now then, let’s get down to business. How confident are you in your ability to dominate the supplier market of esoteric resource supplies?”

“I am quite confident of that,” Rui shrugged. “I possess the ability to bypass monsters in the same way that I bypassed human surveillance when I sneaked my harvest uncaught. My combat ability is at the peak of the Squire Realm, and beyond those of any gathered here in the Shionel Confederation to raid and plunder the dungeon. I have already demonstrated what would take teams of Martial Squires to accomplish, I can accomplish by myself.”

He did not even hint at the existence of Kane and was quite careful to not drag him into this particular matter. He knew that his friend was exercising a lot of trust by giving him free rein on such a sensitive matter.

“True, still, your ability is not as rigorously proven as I would be most comfortable with,” Guildmaster Bradt replied.

“Perhaps,” Rui shrugged. “That’s an issue that can very easily be fixed, but regardless, it’s not an issue in the first place.”

“What?” The man stared at Rui.

“I have already proven my ability to map the Shionel Dungeon, or will have proven the moment you have confirmed it,” Rui explained it. “That is a powerful bargaining chip that is worth making the deal over by its own merits.”

Guildmaster Bradt did not deny Rui’s words. In reality, he was already quite pleased with this meeting, regardless of what else he could make of it.

“If my ability does not nearly pan out as I so claim, you still gain a lot, after all, you gain fifty percent for handling all matters of ensuring that my esoteric harvests reach the consumer market and I get paid the remaining half. That’s quite a profitable deal in and of itself. You stand to make a profit in all scenarios. If I live up to my claims, then you make a large sum of profit, and you also hamper your political rival’s growth significantly, if I don’t, you still stand to make a profit off the deal. In both circumstances, you stand to gain.”

Guildmaster Bradt knew that that was true. “Yet your demands are not limited to distribution and transaction management, you also wanted a bill passed that allowed you to operate anonymously officially, and legally. That’s an extremely high demand to make, and I cannot simply do something like that in return for appreciable but ultimately trivial profits.”

“My condition for you to pass the bill is quite high, I admit,” Rui nodded. “But would you truly say that the map is not worth it? That transaction exists separately from the transaction of obtaining fifty percent of the profits of the esoteric resource sales in exchange for managing distribution and the transaction itself. The latter also has the added bonus of hampering your political rival, which is actually quite the benefit.”

“I still haven’t verified the map yet,” He pointed out.

“Then perhaps we ought to continue this conversation when you have verified the map,” Rui shrugged. “Or to save time, why don’t we draft a conditional agreement that can proceed once you are convinced of the legitimacy of the maps that I have provided to you?”

“That sounds agreeable, still, it will require convoluted conditions to objectively lay out the conditions for whether the map can be said to be legitimate,” He remarked.

That was true, it was difficult to draw a clear line between whether the map could be considered legitimate or illegitimate. At what level of inaccuracy does the map become illegitimate? No one would say a map is illegitimate if its accuracy is at ninety-nine percent just because of the remaining one percent. However, everyone would agree that a map that is fifty-percent inaccurate was a worthless map.

The question was where the line was between one percent and fifty percent.

“I don’t need an objective criteria laid out,” Rui clarified. “As long as you’re satisfied with it, I’m also satisfied. I believe you are more than capable of evaluating a map’s value and coming to the right decision regarding whether this deal is worth it or not.”