Rui and Kane had decided to proceed with absolute caution. They abandoned their inn and all the belongings in it permanently. Rui had decided that it was simply not worth returning anywhere near that inn.
Most of the time they traveled via Void Step, otherwise, they had retreated to one of the safehouses of the Martial Union for now.
"Have you considered our offer?" Commissioner Reze asked, throwing a pointed look toward Rui.
Rui didn't respond immediately.
Some time ago, Commissioner Reze had made an offer to Rui in the event that his identity was revealed. An offer to protect him and his family from the Underworld and Chairman Deacon, as well as the various foreign and international forces that Rui had pissed off.
In return, Rui was to become an internal member of the Martial Union and offer complete subordination to the Martial Union.
Rui was not stupid, he knew that the consequences of having his identity exposed were not something he could handle by himself.
There was no Martial Art technique project he could embark on that would allow him to handle being targeted by so many powerful forces and nations. Not at the Squire level, at least.
As a Martial Squire, he simply was powerless against too many forces.
('I need to grow stronger,') He sighed inwardly.
But until he was strong enough, he had a storm looming on the horizon that could hit him and the people he cared about the most at any moment. Martial Commissioner Reze offered him the protection of the Martial Union.
Rui couldn't dismiss the offer lightly.
The Martial Union truly possessed the power to protect him from the many forces that had a bone to pick with Rui. Even if there were other forces of similar power, such as the four powerhouse nations, none of them would pursue him if he was under the protection of the Martial Union.
It was not worth it. Although Rui certainly had pissed them off by depriving them of success in the Shionel Dungeon, he was not worth provoking a war over against the Martial Union and Kandrian Empire. Especially when he was no longer relevant since the Shionel Dungeon was basically cleared at this stage.
However, in return, he would basically have to come a few steps short of becoming a slave of the Martial Union.
Although Commissioner Reze had not phrased it this way, Rui was not a fool. He knew that accepting this deal meant that the Martial Union would have a ton of power over his life.
He was not eager to accept this arrangement. Especially after his time in his latest venture in the Shionel Confederation. He had grown to like his autonomy and freedom far too much. There were little to no detriments to adopting such a lifestyle, and the number of factors that aimed to control his life were few.
He had been satisfied with missions prior, but now that he had experienced what growing stronger for his own ambitions and goals was like, he felt missions were incredibly bland and boring. In fact, he never wanted to return to completing elementary missions again.
Ideally, he would like to undertake ambitions that were extremely difficult that could also earn him money by providing viable service to society.
Of course, with the latest amount of revenue that Rui had earned from the Shionel Dungeon, he was basically a billionaire of the Panama Continent. Thus he could forget about the monetary aspects and focus on his Martial Art and Martial Path.
It broke him from shackles that he hadn't even noticed before. It was an intoxicating feeling. That was why he revulsed at the idea of being a slave to the Martial Union with every fiber of his being.
Of course, it wasn't that he thought that the Martial Union would abuse him or act against his interests. It was in the Martial Union's interests that an extraordinarily brilliant Martial Squire as promising as Rui grew to actualize all of his massive potential to become stronger and thus become a greater asset to the Martial Union.
It was quite likely that the Martial Union would be quite careful with how they treated Rui. They did not want to give him a reason to hate them otherwise he would no longer be on their side once he grew powerful enough.
"I… won't accept your deal," Rui shook his head. "That's not who I am, not back then, and certainly not now. However, I do appreciate the offer, and the acknowledgment of my value and potential to be willing to go that far for my family. However, I cannot accept that offer."
Commissioner Reze stared at Rui deeply for several seconds before nodding. "If that's the decision you have made, then the Martial Union will respect that decision and honor it. We just hope you don't come to regret this decision.
Rui nodded. "I have been making preparations to move all my revenue from the anonymous holdings account in the Shionel Confederation to the Kandrian Empire, I will be needing the Martial Union to help me smuggle it past the borders. Once that's done, we can cleanly disengage with the Shionel Confederation, especially now that the elections have ended in the Shionel Confederation."
Rui was quite relieved that Chairman Deacon had lost the elections. It would have made Rui's life far harder if he got into office and was able to wield the might of the Shionel Confederation as a sovereign state to systematically hunt down the Voider. Thus far, Chairman Deacon had applied his power and the capital of Deacon Industries and its allies into looking into Rui.
But it would be a whole different ballgame if the entire state and its various executive departments were doing their best to find Rui.
For now, he was content with not making any radical decisions as he cautiously detached from the nation and left like a ghost.
For now, he was a lot more confident that he ought to be able to avoid any repercussions.
Or so he hoped.
