The Martial Unity

Rui spent the entire day reading through all the files and documents that the Martial Union had sent him before finally putting his accounter down, massaging his forehead.

He had already memorized the data and stored them in his mind palace, organizing them most appropriately.

The data could roughly be divided into a number of categories:

Surveillance data which was obtained through low-risk and low-yield surveillance.

The diplomatic history between the tribes of Vilun Island.

Analytical reports from various departments and divisions regarding the data procured.

Surveillance reports could be divided between that of the surveillance of the G'ak'arkan Tribe and the other tribes of the island as well as general discreet surveys conducted of the island itself. The surveillance reports could further be bifurcated into surveillance surrounding their Martial Art and non-Martial Art surveillance.

Rui still needed to take time and process all this information thoroughly.

It was one thing to memorize them word for word, it was another thing to have properly processed them and derived and inferred all the information from them that he could. He couldn't do that in a short amount of time. He would need to spend an extensive amount of time immersing himself in the information before he was content

Fortunately, he didn't really need to. A few days later, he received a message from the Martial Union regarding the preparation for his briefing and training program had been completed, which was sooner than Rui expected, but the Martial Union could not keep him waiting for too long.

"Squire Quarrier," An aged man bowed to him, greeting him with a smile once he reached the briefing office where he was supposed to be. "I am Carl Sullion, a senior diplomatic trainer for the Martial Union. I am a former diplomat of the foreign affairs department, having served for twenty years as the assigned representative of the Martial Union to the Town of Xeron before retiring and spending eighteen years as a trainer. I have been tasked to provide you with the basic training to help you complete your diplomatic mission in the G'ak'arkan Tribe."

Rui studied him and the men and women behind him. The man possessed grace and dignity while still maintaining an appropriately modest and adequately deferential attitude. He managed to convey the respect that ordinary employees of the Martial Union ought to have for Martial Artists while still maintaining a sense of pride and self-esteem. He gave Rui an impression of a wise man who had a wealth of experience.

Rui could instantly tell that the man must have been one hell of a diplomat when he was occupying his post. Rui was very adept at reading non-verbal communication, courtesy of a combination of his shrewd awareness as well as his mastery of the Fauna Flow technique. Rui got the impression that the man had impeccable control and mastery over his demeanor.

Rui smiled. "Thank you for your help, it seems that I am in good hands,"

"Thank you," The man responded with a gentle smile. "I was the assigned diplomatic trainer for your predecessors. I have a lot of experience with this particular mission and am the most qualified faculty of our internal training department to aid you with it."

"That's quite reassuring to hear," Rui nodded. "Well, if there are no other matters at hand, can we begin the training and briefing immediately."

"Of course, though since this is your first day, we will begin talking about the actual objective of the mission thoroughly and deeply, before naturally shifting to basic diplomatic theory and its relevancy here. We will also look at the broad and basic information and the facts surrounding the mission, including information about Vilun Island, and the martial Tribes, including your target; the G'ak'arkan Tribe. We will also touch upon the constraints that you will be expected to abide by as a representative of the Martial Union."

"I see," Rui nodded. "That will set up a good foundation in aiding me to actually understand what is necessary to succeed, and how I can ensure those conditions are fulfilled."

"Indeed," Carl smiled. "I have prepared a presentation for you focused on ease of assimilation of the understanding that I aim to convey."

Rui nodded. "I shall endeavor to learn as much as possible."

Rui didn't try to disrupt the plans that Carl had made by pointing out that he had already memorized and considered pretty much all the relevant data surrounding the mission. Carl's familiarity and expertise on all relevant matters were much greater than his, and there were plenty of insights that he could gain from Carl's presentation.

Although Rui was aware that he was very intelligent, he was not arrogant enough to assume that he could beat a veteran specialist in their intellectual field of a specialist. Intelligence alone was far from enough to beat education and experience.

The only reason he somewhat broke that rule when talking to Julian about research and science was that he had spent a lifetime as a researcher and a scientist, thus he had the qualifications to speak to Julian as an equal on this matter. Of course, he restrained himself as he did not want to expose his alien degree of understanding of science beyond cutting-edge Kandrian theoretical physics.

"Have a seat," Carl gestured.

The room was large with many chairs and tables facing the podium where Carl promptly walked over to as his assistant faculty prepared the table with the necessary stationery.

"Today we will begin the training and briefing program that we have prepared for you, Squire Quarrier" Carl began with a solemn tone. "I have personally gone through your profile and created a training and briefing program that is best suited for you. I was very pleased to learn that you have particularly high cognitive parameters, this makes both our tasks much easier and greatly increases the probability of success. Your mission requires your finesse more than it needs the standard parameters that you are most accustomed to using in Martial missions. Acknowledging and completely accepting this fact is the first step that you need to take."