The Martial Unity

“Is that everything?” Rui asked from under a mask.

“No, just a few more signatures here and here,” A support staff member of the Shionel Merchant Guild replied, pointing to where he needed to sign. Rui quickly nodded, following through.

“And that’s everything, Mr. Falken,” She replied with a smile. “Congratulations, you are now officially a merchant of the Shionel Merchant Guild.”

“Thank you,” Rui replied, smiling.

“Here is the guild-issued key that will allow you to identify yourself as the owner of your new company,” She handed him a key. “Be sure to never lose it, otherwise your identity can be usurped and your company could potentially be taken.”

“I understand,” Rui nodded. “I do appreciate the warning.”

About three days had passed since Bill C-16 had been passed in the Shionel Confederation. A rush to anonymously create a company in the Shionel Confederation without the need for identity registration had formed. It was clear that, for whatever reasons, a lot of people had compunctions about registering their real identity in the Shionel Merchant Guild, thus this new amendment was quite welcome to all these people.

Rui walked out, before running towards the inner ring of the Adventurer Town. He didn’t want to take any chances, in case Guildmaster Bradt managed to track his location, being near the dungeon increased his security since he could use it as a threat, and quite the effective one at that.

“You’re here,” Kane noted. “Is it done?”

“Yep, I’m officially a merchant now,” Rui grinned wryly.

“A Martial Artist merchant,” Kane scoffed.

“They’re not even unheard of in this nation, quite strange, isn’t it?” Rui noted.

“What’s going to happen to your new company when we leave though?” Kane asked.

“It’s going to die, of course,” Rui snorted. “It will serve its use while I’m here, but I have no care for it once we leave the Shionel Confederation.”

The two of them disappeared into thin air before returning back to their inn in the outer ring o the Shionel Confederation.

The dungeon served as a good gateway to lose any trackers or surveillants since no Martial Squire could possibly track them with the Void Step and the Riemannian Echo, that Kane and Rui possessed, and Martial Seniors couldn’t go anywhere near the Shionel Dungeon without destroying it advertently.

Thus, they could be relatively certain that nobody knew that they were associated with the identity of the Voider.

“So, what now?”

“Now, we finally go all out and begin doing what we originally came here for,” Rui explained. “We have the cover for our identity as well as sufficient backing. We have the means of selling our harvests without anybody interfering, while Bradt Patrick handles all the distribution and sales on behalf of us.”

“What’s the name of the company, again?” Kane asked.

“Esosale Suppliers,” Rui replied, earning a frown from Kane. “That’s surprisingly down to Earth, I thought you would call it the ‘Void Supplies Company,’ or something like that. Your naming sense genuinely sucks, after all.”

“Naming it Void is stupid, that would be a very direct association with the Voider and would fulfill the standards of probable cause for investigation, not even the guildmaster will be able to protect us in that case without being charged with obstruction of justice,” Rui replied calmly. “Being lowkey is better in this case. Although some people will still figure it out, it won’t mean much since there is no avenue for starting an official investigation.”

“So that means that they are completely unable to do anything to us?” Kane grinned.

“It’s not that simple,” Rui explained calmly. “They may be unable to use the resources of the guild and the state to track us, but they can still engage in their own investigations, the people who will be pissed off by us are not incompetent and incapable. Each of the hundred cabinet ministers of the Shionel Merchant Guild is a chairmen or president of the top hundred companies of the Shionel Confederation across all industries and sectors. Including distribution, suppliers, manufacturers, firms, media companies, brokers, weapons contractors, Martial contractors, etc. These people possess a great amount of power and influence and usually have established investigative or intelligence departments or divisions inside their companies. Do not underestimate them, if we slip up, we’ll be caught.”

“Damn, and here I thought we could relax,” Kane sighed dramatically.

“That’s not true,” Rui raised an eyebrow. “You knew that this would be far from a fun little trip.”

The two of them immediately began preparing for their next dungeon raid after they reached home. The time for politics was over, and the time for plundering the Shionel Dungeon in earnest had arrived. Even their previous dungeon raid could be considered to be a part of the preparations.

But now, all preparations were done.

“Ready?” Rui asked him when they were nearly done. He had equipped himself with his sword and his air pipe, as well as his dimensional storage ring.

“Yep,” Kane adjusted his attire, nodding. “Let’s head out.”

He put his arm on Rui’s shoulder, before inhaling deeply.

The two of them vanished into thin air as they left their inn, heading for the Shionel Dungeon.

No one knew that the two of them were inside the dungeon at this point in time, and thus no one could possibly suspect their true identities as the collective identity for the Voider, this was another safety measure that Rui had come up with, since he was officially always with Kane and the Voider was probably strongly suspected to be acting individually by Guildmaster Bradt. This way their real identities as registered in the Shionel Adventurer Guild would probably be removed from the suspect pool quite quickly by Guildmaster Bradt.

“We’ve arrived,” Rui noted as they crossed the inner barrier. “Let’s get to work immediately.”

“You said you didn’t want to go for the third floor, right?” Kane carefully asked.

“That’s right,” Rui replied. “We’re going to have to show off a bit more this time.”