Martial Commissioner was not kidding when he said that he would contact them very soon. Twenty-four hours later, Rui and Kane were greeted by one of Martial Commissioner Reze's personal assistants, who conveyed to them the location of the meeting and requested the two of them visit the location discreetly.
Thankfully, the location that Commissioner Reze had chosen was close enough to the Shionel Dungeon that no Martial Senior could be anywhere near it. Which was relieving to Rui, since he was not afraid of martial Squires.
"There he is," Rui murmured as he used Riemannian Echo to detect Martial Commissioner Reze in a small building in a busy district, accompanied by his bodyguards. "The location he chose is hidden in plain sight, huh? No one would think that an extremely important and significant agreement would be officially signed here."
Furthermore, once again, his normal senses had trouble detecting the depths of the building. He appreciated that they had taken measures to obscure the happenings of the building. Yet at the same time, it wasn't too overt to draw attention.
If they stuffed it with enough anti-sensing esoteric technology then they would definitely attract more attention. After all, any martial Squire running their senses through the area would notice the void that came with the sensory jamming technology.
KNOCK KNOCK.
Rui and Kane knocked on the door after subtly having deactivated the Void Step technique and blending into the crowd.
The door opened as a Martial Squire carefully checked out their appearance before letting them in, through a few rooms before reaching a wide room with a large table at the center of it.
Martial Commissioner Reze smiled. "Welcome, Squire Quarrier, Squire Arrancar. I look forward to finalizing the agreement officially today. Please take a seat. I apologize for the obscure location of these talks, but I couldn't greet you in the Kandrian Embassy for reasons I'm sure you're aware of already."
Rui nodded. He was sure that the Kandrian Embassy was hardly a safe spot for such talks as far as privacy went. If they did hold the meeting in the Kandrian Embassy, then the fact that Rui and Kane were present in there would be revealed pretty quickly, or at the very least, a highly confidential meeting from some visitors in-state was occurring. Just the fact that it was the foreign embassy of the Kandrian Empire meant that the state would be paying a decent amount of surveillance to it.
"Now then, let us establish what we have already agreed to thus far," Commissioner Reze began. "We have established that in return for twenty-five percent of the harvest, we will engage in all counter-intelligence measures we can to sabotage the investigation from within the alliance that Chairman Deacon has put together, well as banning sale to the third parties that we have already provided to you. Do you have any objections to these?'
"No," Rui simply replied.
"Alright, then let us specify the means by which each side will fulfill our conditions," Commissioner Reze proceeded on. "Regarding the delivering of the esoteric ore harvests, we have several proposals in mind. Though, if you have any preferred method, then we may be willing to entertain that."
Rui shrugged. "I could bury it at a particular spot every time I harvest it, leaving it for you guys to pick up."
It was what he had been doing thus far, and it had worked fine thus far. Furthermore, given the fact that the Martial Union was already aware of his identity, he didn't need to change spots each time like he needed to when delivering esoteric ore supplies to Guildmaster Bradt.
Commissioner Reze considered the idea. "That could work… it would depend on the location."
The Martial Commissioner was less comfortable with this method of delivery than Guildmaster Bradt was. The difference in power that the two of them had within the nation was drastic. Guildmaster Bradt was extraordinarily powerful within the confines of the nations, thus such a method was not problematic to him since he possessed the ability to mitigate all the risks that came with it singlehandedly.
The same could not be said for the Martial Union when it came to matters so far from the Kandrian Empire in a powerful state where it did not have much foundation within at all. There were simply too many things that could go wrong, and they did not necessarily possess the ability to prevent it.
"Rather than burying it, could you deliver it to a location similar to this, one that isn't far away from the Shionel Dungeon and one that is under the implicit control of the Martial Union?" Commissioner Reze asked Rui.
"That works fine too," Rui shrugged.
This was actually more convenient, a live handover to the Martial Union was also now possible given that the Martial Union was aware of the identity of the Voider. This meant that there were a lot of conveniences that came with it.
Martial Commissioner Reze went on to specify a few more details and establish some protocols regarding the handover.
"I refuse to work with specialized comms devices to alert you of my schedule and harvests ahead of time," Rui flatly refused that condition.
"Things will be a lot smoother if we do it this way," Commissioner Reze raised an eyebrow.
"Once again, I refuse,"
"May I know why?"
"Because it adds another element of risk that is not within my control," Rui replied straightforwardly. "What if this special communication device ends up getting intercepted, or infiltrated? What if it is the reason that I draw suspicion to myself?"
"I assure you that this such a thing is extremely unlikely," Commissioner Reze frowned mildly.
"I appreciate that, but again, no," Rui shook his head. "Please have staff or personnel manning the drop location all day and night if that is what it takes. It's hardly an extra expense."
"Fine, we accept that condition," Commissioner Reze relented, seeing that Rui was unwilling to agree to this measure that he had drafted up.
