"I thought you didn't care about the elections," Kane asked one day when the fateful day was arriving sooner, raising an eyebrow as he watched Rui reading one of the campaigning ads of Chairman Deacon.
"I didn't before, but…" Rui's eyes narrowed. "That was because I thought Guildmaster Bradt had it in the bag without any shadow of a doubt."
"You're telling me he doesn't?" Kane raised an eyebrow. "I thought Guildmaster Bradt was the most kick-ass merchant in the Shionel confederation and no one could possibly trounce him head-on."
"These things don't work like a Martial Art fight, you know," Rui replied, amused. "Political and economic competitions are such that their personal capabilities matter less than you think. Yes, Guildmaster Bradt is extremely competent as a merchant, but the same can be said for Chairman Deacon. They have their own strengths in the way that they operate. The differences in their personal capacities as merchants and political leaders are not going to be tie-breakers. There are other variables that are arguably far more important."
Kane glanced at him. "Like…?"
"Circumstances," Rui replied shortly. "Opportunities. Even plain old luck."
"Circumstances like the Shionel Dungeon?"
"Yeah," Rui nodded. "I bet Guildmaster Bradt hates the Shionel Dungeon ever appearing, given his nature, he had probably constructed an extremely elaborate long-term strategy to maintain political power over longer periods of time. The appearance of the Shionel Dungeon must have completely ruined each and every single one of those plans. It also threatened to give Chairman Deacon exactly what he had wanted all these years; a wide-open opportunity to break Guildmaster Bradt's unshakable political dominance."
There were some things that nothing could compensate for, and one of them was the sheer amount of unfathomable growth that Chairman Deacon was getting thanks to the Shionel Dungeon. The Shionel Dungeon empowered the man's field and industries to a level that it did not boost other fields and sectors, especially not Guildmaster Bradt's field.
What was one supposed to do when faced with such a titanic disadvantage, when his opponent was highly competent and would certainly exploit and abuse it to the very maximum?
Without being willing to take extraordinarily bold risks, without willing to bleed for the sake of simply not getting trampled over.
Yet even then, it most likely would not be enough in and of itself. The reason for that was that Guildmaster Bradt's opponent was known to be a relentless bloodhound that never let go. He possessed the trait that Guildmaster Bradt needed to exhibit to maintain his increasingly tenuous position.
Rui was nothing short of a godsend to Guildmaster Bradt, with his ability to steal Chairman Deacon's dominance in the Shionel Dungeon, and his ability to create a dungeon map that allowed for efficient and swift dungeon travel, Guildmaster Bradt had found his opportunity.
Even Rui had initially evaluated that the Guildmaster had the next elections in the bag when he had signed the deal with the man. What he hadn't expected was how well Chairman Deacon would be able to cope and keep up even after the major setbacks that the Voider caused him.
Chairman Deacon had not simply let the loss push him down, but instead, used the opportunity to gather support from merchants that he previously competed with. Previously, these merchants were raw esoteric ore deposits suppliers like he was, they were fierce competitors and he was unlikely to have ever been able to gain their political support. After all, he dominated them in the market, they were certainly not friends with goodwill to each other.
They were likelier to support Guildmaster Bradt, and that's just the way that things were.
But with a common obnoxious enemy that was obviously partnering up with the Guildmaster that was dominating all of them, Chairman Deacon had managed to win over his previous rivals and competitors with a common enemy, buying more political capital.
When he realized how much potential this strategy had, he went all out with it as he aggressively bought over foreign stakeholders to his side by uniting the many foreign and international elements that were dissatisfied with the Voider's dominance.
While these parties could not directly vote in the Shionel Dungeon, their cooperation could be used to buy off voters inside the Shionel Merchant Guild who had interests tied to them.
And Chairman Deacon had not held back even one bit. He had employed his massive economic capital to gather as much of an advantage as he possibly could.
And his efforts appeared to have paid off greatly.
Rui's eyes narrowed as a glint of uncertainty flashed across all of them. "I'd like to be done with all matters surrounding the Dungeon as soon as possible, ideally before the results come out."
"What's the hurry?" Kane's eyebrows furrowed.
"If Chairman Deacon becomes the Guildmaster, it will be bad for us, that's for sure," Rui narrowed his eyes. "The first thing he'll do is undo the amendments to identity verification and registration requirements and get rid of all the anonymity that we have been relying on this entire time."
Kane's eyes widened as he realized the ramifications of this possibility. "We'll be screwed big time if that happens, our entire operation relies on the legal veil of anonymity."
"That's right, I want to make sure that we're prepared for the worst. Although it's not too likely, Chairman Deacon does have a definitive chance of winning this election. I want to make sure that we're prepared for the worst. Because I guarantee you that if he gets elected, the second he gets officially sworn into office, he will undo the bill and try to expose us."
Rui knew that dealing with the Voider would be the very first order of business for the man, he needed to make sure that he had already consolidated all the wealth that he had made and made sure that he was ready to take them.
It wasn't that Rui cared for the actual sum of money, but he didn't want to give Chairman Deacon any chance to seize the fruits of his efforts.
