The Martial Unity

As he had predicted, the impact that his feat had was not low. The most immediate of which he could see the moment he returned.

"As expected!" Senior Ceeran grinned excitedly. "You were able to pull it off! I did not doubt you for a second!"

It was true, Senior Ceeran was one of the few people who expressed his full-fledged support for Rui's plan after he had brought it up and proposed it.

The Senior had long known and had directly witnessed Rui's spectacular long-range accuracy, he had even begun training in the technique after Rui sold the technique to the Martial Union. His support for Rui came from solid foundations as opposed to blind faith.

However, it had become clear to Rui that of all of the Martial Artists of the Longranger Sect that had been deployed to the Vilun Sect, none of them had any knowledge regarding the Pathfinder technique at all.

They all stared at Ves like he was an alien that landed from outer space. Their stares were wide-eyed, their silence was loud, and they naturally parted ways for Rui as he walked through the crowd.

"Rui, great job!" Kane grinned.

He had been quite surprised when he had heard Rui's plan. Of course, this wasn't the first time that he had heard of the Pathfinder technique from Rui. Yet this certainly was the first time he learned what the technique was capable of. Rui had merely introduced it as a long-range technique.

Of course, knowing Rui, he knew that it would be anything but a normal mundane technique, having benefited from Rui's previous original technique greatly as a Martial Squire. Still, he had been more than just a little surprised when he learned about exactly what Rui had been setting out to accomplish, and what he had ended up succeeding in accomplishing.

"Thanks Senior Ceeran, Kane," Rui smiled at the two of them, before turning to special agent Cravis. "What is the response from the K'ulnen Tribe?"

"Your feat has caused quite a bit of ruckus within their village. A lot of rage, shock, and even panic," Special Agent Cravis replied. "The body has already been retrieved by a high-grade defensive Martial Squire. It is quite clear that despite you retreating from the battlefield in an overt manner, they are still taking remarkable precautions to ensure that what happened will not repeat."

Rui nodded, having expected that. Even if Rui left, they would feel incredibly stupid if the same thing happened yet again because they let their guards down.

"We have observed a warmongering spark within the tribe. It seems that the impact that this shocking death has had on them is much greater than if he had died in an extended fight. It appears that they are highly unsatisfied with the seemingly vain and meaningless death of their Martial Squire." Special agent Cravis explained.

Rui raised an eyebrow and looked at him with a hint of concern. "Surely this won't escalate beyond the expected degree, right?"

"Rest assured sir, we are quite certain that the K'ulnen Tribe will not abandon all their pursuits and engage in an all-out war against us purely because of the death of a single Martial Squire. Though, as expected, you can rest assured that we have gained the highest priority of all of their ongoing conflicts." Special agent Cravis explained.

"Good, because it sounded like they were going to do something rash based on what you'd just described to me," Rui sighed in relief.

"They cannot afford to do that, sir," Special Agent Cravis explained. "We have not crossed their bottom line by engaging in gross violations of their purely civilian population. We killed a Martial Squire that they had deployed to a battlefield that was supposed to be only for Martial Apprentices. Considering that their Martial Squire perished on the battlefield, a battlefield he was not supposed to be a part of, they do not have much of a compelling incentive to react extremely."

"You would think the death of a Martial Squire would be a more compelling reason to lash out than the death of civilians, at least that's the way it is everywhere on the Panama Continent," Rui mused.

"On the Panama Continent, perhaps. But we are quite far away from the mainland. The culture here is different. Deaths of warriors on the battlefield are anything but unusual to them. Sometimes one side wins, and sometimes the other side does. Every Martial tribe is intimately experienced within both outcomes. However, an attack on civilians is something entirely different. If they let that slide, it would be no different from announcing to the entire island that they have grown weak, and that their warriors were too weak to protect their own people. Not only is that a disgrace that they are highly repulsed by, but being perceived as weak or soft would invite greater opposition and pressure from their rivals and enemies."

"Their values are fundamentally different from that of ours. Their strong desire for war and conflict is what allows them to cope with the deaths of their warriors since it is an unavoidable consequence of their very way of life. But a dastardly attack on their non-warrior members isn't," Rui shook his head, sighing in resignation.

It was this warped culture that had made what should have been an open-and-shut diplomatic endeavor long ago, draw out across many years.

"Never mind all of that," Rui continued. "Just be sure to update me on any and all abnormal movements of the K'ulnen Tribe. And also, keep an eye on the surrounding Martial Tribes as well, it won't be bad to cue in on their situation as well."

Rui paused in his tracks as he realized he forgot to inquire about arguably the most important party on the island.

"Tell me what we know about the G'ak'arkan tribe's reaction. We already know that there's no way they missed a conflict of this scale in their geographic vicinity, relatively speaking."