The Martial Unity

By the time he returned home, he felt psychologically tired, even if his body and mind were brimming with energy. The presentation hadn't been very long, but it drained his energy a lot, simply the subconscious pressure that it put on him with its sheer importance and the importance of the people evaluating it drained him quite a bit.

"Looks like my baby is quite tired," Lashara patted his head gently. "Get some rest. You've been running around doing all sorts of things even though you just came home."

"A lot that I can't ignore has been happening," Rui heaved a sigh. "I also need to go shopping to purchase some good formal suits."

He hadn't forgotten the invitation to the reception being held by the Raemina Foundation. Given that it was much more formal than the meeting that he had just concluded with the Martial Prince, he would need to be much more prepared.

"Take Alice with you, she loves shopping and I'm sure she'll be able to pick some wonderful suits for you," Lashara replied gently.

"Will do, mom," Rui heaved a sigh.

The following days were more relaxed. He and Julian did indeed take Alice with them to go shopping. Rui hadn't worn formal attire for so long that he had lost all fashion sense about what would be suitable and what wouldn't.

He took them all to a premium luxury fashion store in the heart of the Town of Hajin. An experience that was new to both Alice and Julian. Once they realized just who Rui was, the staff of the shop immediately tended to them, taking measurements before narrowing down on style and other minutiae.

That day, both Rui and Julian came close to death.

"Hmmmmm, this is not bad," Alice muttered. "But it doesn't match your hair."

"This is too colorful."

"This is too bland."

"The color scheme on this doesn't fit."

One by one she made them go through nearly every single one of the products that the store had, ensuring that there wasn't any stone left unturned.

"This!" She nodded enthusiastically. "This is it."

She sharply scrutinized Rui who wore a formal Martial attire with a more modern style. While the clothes were well appreciated, Rui himself stood looking like his soul had been sucked out.

That day, he swore to never bring her along ever again. They quickly finished up their business at the fashion store.

And yet, even then, his to-do list was not complete.

"Hm, where are you going?" Alice asked.

"I have some business in town, I'll be back later," Rui informed them.

"Don't be too late," Julian advised him.

Rui waved them goodbye as he set out, eventually reaching a large and vast corporate complex.

[Lambarageau Xavier Legal Services]

This was the law guild that the Beggar's Sect relied on to sell information through in the Kandrian Empire.

"Purpose of visit?"

"Same as last time."

The guards immediately opened the gates, letting him in. It wasn't too long before he found himself at the wide and luxurious office of Maiun Kayla, a Senior Partner at the law guild.

"Senior Quarrier," She smiled courteously, getting to shake his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you again so soon. To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?"

"I have a commission to make," Rui replied. "Of course," She smiled. "We are always willing to service an esteemed regular customer. How can we help you?"

"I'm not here to purchase information this time," Rui remarked. "I want to employ your counter-intelligence service this time."

The Beggar's Sect not only possessed the ability to gather information extremely well, but also sabotage its gathering. Most people were not aware of the extent of the latter, but it was just as strong as the former.

"The details?" She asked, intrigued.

"I want a complete information blackout around the target regarding Rui Quarrier," Rui replied calmly.

The elderly woman stared at him for a moment. "It behooves me to inform you that that is an extravagant service, Senior Quarrier. The target?"

"Master Uma of the Virodhabhasa Faith," Rui replied.

She didn't appear to be quite surprised. There was no reason to be considering that she was aware of the circumstances between him and her. The Beggar's Sect was far too well-connected. The only issue was that she didn't understand the nature of the reason for the conflict between them.

Of course, that wasn't relevant to the request.

"More power individuals tend to be better connected, making it much harder to create an information blackout regarding a particular topic around a particular subject," She replied. "The exact price of such an extravagant measure will require some time, but I can assure you that it will take many years of missions and operations before you can successfully repay the commission payment for this commission."

A small grin cracked at the edge of Rui's mouth. 'Looks like the Martial Union did a good job hiding the details of the Hungry Pain technique evaluation from the Beggar's Sect.'

"I won't be needing to repay it with commissions. I recently gained an enormous paycheck you see, hundreds of millions of Martial Credits. I presume that should be more than enough," Rui replied.

Mrs Kayla did not reveal anything from her reaction, but Rui could sense that she was surprised by this revelation. "That is indeed very well more than enough to cover the commission price, most likely," She replied. "We will, of course, require a credit statement from the Martial Union to verify your claim."

Rui immediately pulled out a folded sheet that the Surgeon had given him, passing it over to the Senior Partner.

She carefully studied the seal of the Martial Union in particular, nodding. "…Very well, we shall have the price of this commission quickly compiled as soon as possible. This is a complicated matter, so it will take a little while before we are able to compute the difficulty and expenses of such a commission," She replied. "We shall provide you with a bill and a blank transfer statement for you to fill in at the soonest."

Rui smiled. "Pleasure doing business with you, as always."