"This is quite the novel idea," Zeyra, an assistant diplomat of his, remarked after Rui finished explaining his initial idea.
"I agree," Stemple, the other assistant diplomat, nodded. "Did you really come up with this sir?"
"I did," Rui nodded. "I proposed it to Martial commissioner, and she approved after giving it some thought. There are many merits to the plan I have proposed, after all. The best way to demonstrate the value of our techniques to the G'ak'arkan Tribe is by putting ourselves in their position and showing them the value that our techniques bring us when we are in their position. I have already identified some areas in which we can make very demonstrable impacts that will no doubt make all of their Martial Artists quite jealous. I'll have to rely on the intelligence team to aid me in uncovering more ways in which we can demonstrate the power of our techniques. As long as we can sufficiently sway over enough stakeholders of the G'ak'arkan Tribe we can move past the biggest hurdle hampering our discussion."
They were both speechless. For a moment, Rui sounded like an actual diplomat rather than a Martial Artist. It was hard for them to reconcile his remarkable insight with his being a Martial Artist.
"So, I guess we'll be settling on Vilun island for the time being?" Zeyra asked.
"That does seem to be the case," Rui nodded.
"We'll need to be careful while selecting the location of our settlement," Stemple noted.
"That's true," Rui nodded. "Ideally, we can look to settle on a different part of the Vilun mountain, but I am unsure about how the G'ak'arkan tribe will react to that."
The G'ak'arkan tribe was most certainly not large enough to occupy the entirety of the area on the mountain. However, the mountain was viewed as the G'ak'arkan Tribe's territory. It would be a foolish move to rashly build a settlement in their own territory without permission.
Rui was sure that regardless of all the goodwill that the Martial Union had spent building with the G'ak'arkan Tribe, they would not hesitate to drive them out of their territory. It was one thing to engage in discussions and talks about the mutual trade of Martial Art techniques with the Martial Union, it was another thing altogether to start building a house in their front yard.
"I think they are quite likely to accept that, sir," Stemple said thoughtfully. "The Martial tribes of Vilun island have all demonstrated a high value for the sovereignty of their territory."
"That is the troubling part," Rui sighed. "I think getting them to agree to us building a settlement on the mountain that they have claimed as their territory is unrealistic. However, building a settlement at the mountain base or on the surrounding hills should not be that much of a problem," Rui explained.
"The further away we are, the longer it will take for this plan to take effect, sir," Zeyra chimed in. "The plan would be most effective if we are able to be as close to them for them to observe us with the greatest amount of ease and thoroughness."
She had a good point. The entire point of the settlement plan that Rui had come up with was to thoroughly demonstrate the tangible and intangible benefits and utility that the techniques that they were offering to trade, provided to them when they were in similar enough circumstances as the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
However, consequently, the time period for this plan to succeed would stretch out increasingly further away from the G'ak'arkan Tribe that they were. How could the G'ak'arkan Tribe effectively surveil the settlement if they were on the opposite side of the island? It would be many, many years by the time the G'ak'arkan Tribe naturally came about to discover the value of the techniques that the diplomats of the Martial Union were offering to trade to the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"That is also a valid point," Rui sighed. "We'll have to find a good spot that is able to fulfill our requirements. The two of you and the rest of the diplomatic team will have to help me chalk out a list of requirements and conditions for the potential locations that we could inhabit so that we can provide this to the intelligence team and have them discreetly conduct surveys across the island for locations that could fulfill our requirements."
"That's a rather large burden to place on the intelligence team, sir," Stemple remarked. "This island is small only in the context of a continent map," Stemple glanced over to the gigantic map of the Panama Continent in the conference room. "It is still a gigantic amount of area that the intelligence department will have to surveil. Furthermore, this island is dangerous not only due to the Martial Artists but the abundant fauna that inhabits the natural uninhabited portions of the island."
"I am aware of that," Rui nodded. "Thankfully, they don't have to scour the entire island literally, as Zeyra pointed out, the location cannot be too far from the G'ak'arkan tribe. This means there is a hard limit to the distance from the G'ak'arkan tribe beyond which it is no longer able to fulfill our requirements. It significantly cuts down on the area that they have to surveil, and the risk associated with surveilling the area around the mountain is lower considering that the G'ak'arkan tribe is unlikely to go out of their way to kill simple scouts of ours."
Rui continued fleshing out the list of requirements that the land that they would eventually inhabit would need to have. The list turned out to be longer than expected, but that was not entirely disadvantageous since that would mean making a choice would be easier due to the fewer choices.
Their work wasn't done just by locating a place, however. They would need to gain a very thorough understanding of the final location in order for the settlement construction process to proceed smoothly.
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