"Kane?!" Rui blurted out in surprise.
"What's up Rui?" Kane grinned, as he walked forward. "Didn't expect to see me here, huh?"
"At all," Rui laughed.
The two clasped hands, exchanging a hug.
"What are you doing here?" Rui asked.
"Well, after re-mastering the Void Step technique and some others in the past ten months, the Martial Union gave me an internal commissioned mission very recently," Kane shrugged. "I was highly inclined to apply for a decline… until I learned that the mission was surrounded around you. So I accepted, and here I am."
He opened his arms with a smirk.
Rui's eyes lit up at that story.
"Of course, how could I possibly forget? You would be highly invaluable on this mission," Rui realized.
Rui wouldn't be surprised that out of all the possible Martial Squires that could be deployed with the intelligence gathering team, Kane was probably one of the most attractive candidates due to his mastery of the Void Step technique. It was no wonder that he was offered the spot, especially considering that he had most certainly shown a pattern of picking international missions in order to spend as much time away from his family's sphere of influence.
"This just makes things much better," Rui grinned. He would have a friend tagging along with him.
The four of them exchanged some words before Rui and Kane walked away from the conference room.
"So you've come here in your capacity as an infiltrator… Interesting," Rui noted. "I thought they'd send a long-range sensor."
"Well, they already have esoteric tech that can do that," Kane shrugged. "But infiltrating into the base camp of the G'ak'arkan Tribe is something that it can't."
Rui nodded. That was definitely a good asset to have at hand.
"You've improved," Rui told him. "Even right now, I can't sense anything but a normal human. This technique…"
"Mind Mask," Kane nodded. "You'd told me about it a long time ago, and frankly, it's too relevant to me for me to ignore it. So I did master it."
This meant that sensing Kane had just gotten much harder.
Rui recalled how effective the fusion of the Mind Mask technique and the Shadow Step technique that he had back when he was a Martial Apprentice was. While it still was inferior to Void Step, Rui had managed to achieve a knock-off that was not too far off.
However, he wasn't sure that he would even be able to sense Kane at all now that he had mastered both techniques alone.
The two bantered along for a bit more, talking about certain matters before they reached their current mission.
"So, diplomat mission huh?" Kane mused. "Never expected you to take this kind of mission given how much you care about pursuing your Martial Path and elevating your Martial Art. These kinds of missions never see combat."
"You're right, they don't," Rui nodded. "But what they do see are things that you could never see otherwise. The Squire Realm is all about diverging your path, well, it helps to see what others who have diverged their lives from everybody else have accomplished. The G'ak'arkan Tribe may not be able to compare to the Martial Union at all, but given what they had, they sure have accomplished a hell of a lot."
"That is true, this is an interesting mission. Not to mention that is one hell of a distance away from the Kandrian Empire so I'm happy to be here too," Kane mused. "Hell, maybe I can consider this island as my hiding spot from my family. They sure as hell won't even think to look here."
"And what? Spend the rest of your life amongst warmongering tribes who will pester you worse than your family does?" Rui joked.
The two of them bantered for some more before finally splitting ways.
"I got some protocols to follow, so I probably won't be able to see you very often during this mission," Kane informed him. "Still, anything you need, let me know."
"Will do," Rui nodded before they went apart.
Rui sighed as he focused back on his mission.
Suddenly, he heard the speakers project a voice.
[This is your captain Crartas speaking, we will be departing right on schedule for the departure of mission code MU42Wi413… Please be sure to…]
"Finally," He sighed as he felt the cruise ship moving away from the port as it head deeper into the ocean.
The mission was a lot more complicated than almost any other mission that he had ever been a part of, except for the Serevian Dungeon wars. However, back then he was simply a strategically valuable foot soldier. But now, he was leading this diplomatic mission, which meant the burden placed on his soldiers was much higher.
"Ah, Squire Quarrier," A familiar voice called out to him.
"Senior Ceeran," Rui turned, smiling. "What can I do for you?"
"Oh, it's nothing at all," He shrugged. "I just learned that you have seen fit not to put me on your counsel."
Rui sighed. "Look, with all due respect, Senior Ceeran, this is a decision that received near unanimous support from the diplomatic team. It was recommended against unless there were specific interests needed, and I'm afraid that this just isn't the case this time Due to certain incidents, I'm afraid I really cannot change my decision."
There was silence.
Rui was relatively certain that he had been the first Martial Squire that had been this blunt with him since he became a Martial Senior.
Still, Rui was relatively confident in his decision to be straightforward and honest with the man. Based on everything he understood about him, he was quite certain that Senior Ceeran was not somebody who would lose his temper and leverage his political power or, worse, his Martial power to suppress Rui and jeopardize the entire mission.
Even if he was that kind of a person, Rui was relatively certain that he had very little wiggle room as far as what he could accomplish went in this particular mission due to the past.
