The Martial Unity

Chairman Deacon went on to present a rigorous strategy that involved using brute force to eventually either find or kill the Voider inside the Shionel Dungeon, or identify the Voider, and assassinate him outside the Shionel Dungeon to minimize risks, or overwhelm him with numbers inside the Shionel Dungeon where murder was legal.

He did not come up with brand new revolutionary ways of going about the investigation and search. The intelligence that Chairman Deacon had gotten in the last operation on the fourteenth floor was a fluke and stroke of good luck. He had not gotten that information through his own merits.

At the end of the day, the information made the search easier, and he had managed to accrue enough political and economic support from various stakeholders that he had been gathering from the day he decided to take down the Voider. Brute force searching through all registered and non-registered Martial Squires and evaluating the probability of them being the Voider, aggressive exploration of the Shionel Dungeon to beat the Voider with an enormous flood of Martial Squires. Systematic capitalization and monopolization of dungeon floors with increased security to minimize the probability of the Voider harvesting from the floor.

These were all measures that had now become extremely powerful given the sheer amount of capital and resources that he gathered from like-minded allies. While Chairman Deacon celebrated the meeting as a success after it ended, the diplomat of the Kandrian Empire and the Martial Commissioner of the Martial Union exchanged words while returning from the meeting.

"Why did the Martial Union not accept the proposal?" The diplomat of the Kandrian Empire asked with a slightly less formal tone.

"We deemed that there may have been a potential clash of interests," Martial Commissioner Reze replied shortly.

"A clash of interests with Chairman Deacon? Or is it perhaps the Bradt Distribution Service? The Kandrian Empire is aware of the Martial Union's contract with the Bradt Distribution Service to access the market for Martial Arts that is west of the Shionel Confederation," The Kandrian diplomat tried poking some information from his counterpart.

"It's a potential clash of interests, the Martial Union will handle the manner the way it deems most appropriate," Commissioner Reze replied vaguely.

This drew some confusion from the Kandrian diplomat. Although the two of them had not conferred together prior to the meeting to clarify their positions, he had thought that the two of them had a mutual understanding of each other's interests and would most likely come to the same decision for the same reasons.

However, it became clear that there was something had caused the Martial Union to question whether joining Chairman Deacon's little anti-Voider club was the right decision.

The diplomat attempted to gain more information in vain a few more times before the two parted ways to their seven-star suites in one of the most luxurious hotels in the Shionel Confederation, courtesy of the Deacon Industries.

He quickly opened a portable terminal that was assigned to him as a rank-four Martial commissioner, before quickly looking into the most updated information that the Intelligence Department of the Martial Union possessed on one single Martial Squire.

Kane Arrancar.

He frowned as he went through the neatly organized and categorized information.

"Current location… Kingdom of Violis?" Martial Commissioner Reze read on with interest. "The veracity of the intelligence is rated a seven out of ten, so decent, but not entirely reliable. Hm… The intelligence comes from his border transit pass statements and a confirmed entry into the Kingdom of Violis through the official port of entry… But has not been sighted since entering the nation originally…"

He mumbled to himself as he went through the most updated information that the Kandrian Martial Union had on Kane Arrancar.

"He's researched the Shionel Dungeon before heading for the Kingdom of Violis…?" Commissioner Reze's eyebrows rose as he looked through the information that Kane accessed or purchased from the Martial Union and adjacent sources of information. (That's extremely strange. Why bother with such extensive research if he had no intentions of going to the Shionel Confederation?')

The Martial Commissioner had only decided to look into him out of a hunch and a whim, but he had stumbled across something suspicious.

He quickly pulled out the officially registered Kandrian comms device that had been issued to him. It was a special model that was capable of communicating even across the huge amount of distance between the Kandrian Empire and the Shionel Confederation.

"Martial Commissioner Reze. Calling Directive 36F-41. Conduct an immediate and urgent verification of the location of Squire Kane Arrancar. Recommended point of investigation: The Shionel Confederation," He spoke into the device, before immediately closing it and putting it away.

It could be that he was entirely wrong and this was just a misunderstanding. Perhaps Squire Kane had intended to go to the Shionel Confederation at one point, before changing his mind and instead heading to the Kingdom of Violis for whatever reason. However, he suspected that this may not be the case.

Still, even if it wasn't the case. What he truly suspected was so unlikely that he did not even bother uttering it out loud, he would feel far too silly of accusing Squire Kane of being the Voider.

Still, there was a small connection, although it was possible that he was reading too deeply into it.

('Still, if there's even a small possibility…') His eyes narrowed, before shaking his head and focusing on the many other matters he needed to tend to. Regardless of whether it was true or false, the urgent investigation that he had had the Intelligence Department of the Shionel Confederation begin using his higher authority, would reveal the facts of the matter.

He needed to remind himself that even if Squire Kane Arrancar was in the Shionel Confederation, that did not necessarily mean that he had anything to do with anything. He knew that Squire Kane did not have a good relationship with his family, thus it was possible that these measures were taken to throw them off.