"Both of those options individually are unviable," Rui shook his head. "Especially the first one. If all the esoteric supplies go missing from the dungeon, and suddenly a mysterious source appears on the market selling gigantic quantities of those very same esoteric resources appears, every force with a vested interest in the esoteric supplies of the Shionel Dungeon would investigate the matter aggressively. I'm sorry to say that not even your stealth is enough to save us from that predicament. Furthermore, even if you magically had the ability to evade investigation with your stealth, there are two entities who would we will most likely not be able to fool even then."
"And who would that be?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"The Shionel Merchant Guild and the Martial Union," Rui explained.
The atmosphere grew more solemn.
"Do not forget that even the Martial Union is a competitor for the resources of the Shionel Dungeon, and the Kandrian Royal Family is one as well," Rui calmly explained.
"But why those two specifically?" Kane asked.
"They have too many ways to gain information on us," Rui explained. "The Shionel Adventurer Guild requires all Martial Artists to register in their guild as adventurers with valid proof of identity, even if we do not undertake commissions from the guild, to enter the Shionel Dungeon. That, along with the fact that they have information on all suppliers, consumers, and Martial Artists in the nation, means that it won't be too difficult for them to narrow it down to us even if we have Void Step covering for us every second of every day. Their intelligence and access to information will be the richest of all."
"And why would the Martial Union find out?" Kane asked.
"Because they have too much information on us," Rui sighed. "Even if we do our best to conceal our abilities, they will eventually notice patterns, starting with your Void Step."
"I see, that actually makes a lot of sense," Kane nodded, absorbed in thought. "The Kandrian Royal Family doesn't have either of those advantages though."
"True, but we are still citizens of the Kandrian Empire," Rui explained.
"Wouldn't that be considered treason, then?" Kane frowned.
"No," Rui shook his head. "Treason is the act of betraying one's country by breaking one's sworn allegiance to the state or one's oaths and vows. What we would be doing is merely engaging in the very common business of resource acquisition and sales, and we'd be simply doing it with an extreme degree of success, at the indirect cost of everyone else. This is not an irregular occurrence, and has never been treated as treason."
"Are you sure?" Kane raised an eyebrow. He was rather intent on staying far away from that line.
"Certain," Rui replied. "An example of this would be the DiVilier Martial Corp. He has severely restrained the Martial Union's and the Royal Family's share of the Martial utilities' and amenities' domestic and international market, yet he has yet to be charged with treason. The Kandrian Royal Family simply cannot justify adjusting the definition of 'treason' to include indirect harm by successful fair competition against the state's commercial ventures. If they even dare to pass such a tyrannical and oppressive amendment to the Royal Constitution, the Kandrian Empire's economy would collapse due to the mass migration of businesses that are afraid of being charged with treason. The same applies to us, especially in the circumstances that we are in right now. Our identity as Martial Squires and member of interest of the Martial Union also makes this even more unlikely than it already very much is."
"I see," Kane nodded. "When you put it that, that does make a lot of sense. Doesn't seem like it's that big of an issue though then."
"We can't be accused of treason, but do you really want to be put in a situation where the Martial Union and the Shionel Merchant Guild know that we are acting against their interests by monopolizing the resources extracted from the dungeon?" Rui raised an eyebrow.
"This wouldn't necessarily be against the interests of the Shionel Merchant Guild, right? The amount of esoteric organic and mineral resources that they would get from the fee would not change regardless of who ends up plundering the resources," Kane pointed out.
"That is true, however, if I'm not wrong, the Shionel Merchant Guild's most important priority is not the fees of esoteric resource supplies that they are obligated to from all of the Martial Artists who plunder them from the Dungeon. As the ruling body of a corporatocracy, comprised of the most powerful merchants in the state, they probably care more about the boom in business, both domestic and international, than they care about the fees that they extract from all Martial Artists. The former has far greater long-term benefits to them compared to the esoteric resource supplies themselves. This huge growth in the market is their greatest boon from the dungeon. However, what do you think would happen to their precious supplier market if a singular entity monopolized all of the esoteric supplies of the dungeon?"
Kane's eyes widened as he realized what Rui was getting at. "If we somehow monopolized even a large chunk of the esoteric resource supplies of the dungeon, then the supplier market would dwindle due to suppliers that are unable to get their hands on what we monopolized. That's not something they want to see."
"Correct. Especially when the one doing all the monopolizing is not a constituent of their guild or even a citizen of their nation. That would be highly undesirable to them," Rui nodded.
"This is such a headache to even think about," Kane sighed with exasperation. "So we absolutely cannot avoid the eyes of the Martial Union or the Shionel Guild, and we also cannot earn their support because, as you said, we're clashing against their interests, or at least the latter's interests. So what's the solution? Because it sounds like there isn't anything we can do."
"Don't worry," Rui smirked. "I wouldn't have told you all of this had you all of this if I hadn't thought of a solution."
