The Martial Unity

This realization assured that at the very least someone so shrewd would most likely not make blunders under pressure, most likely. That on top of the fact that Martial Artists were generally capable of retaining composure under the threat of life changed his mind about allowing Rui access to the investigation being a bad idea.

Shortly after, the two of them fleshed out the details of the agreements, as well as how the agreement would proceed in certain cases. Commissioner Reze negotiated for the ability to update the list of mafia-related companies, as the Underworld would certainly adapt quickly to the bans and restrictions.

In return, Rui obtained a promise to help him smuggle the wealth he earned from the Shionel Confederation back to the Kandrian Empire.

Unfortunately for Rui, digital transactions were not really a thing on the Panama Continent. This meant that all transactions required a physical exchange of currency and goods/services to some degree.

This was where Rui was in a pickle. He needed to somehow transfer all of the revenue he made in the Shionel Confederation to the Kandrian Empire. This was one of the few things the difficulty of which he hadn't entirely foreseen. He had expected to rile up the market, most certainly, but he had underestimated how violent of a reaction there would have been. He most certainly did not expect a jaw-dropping bounty to be placed on him that early, nor did he predict Chairman Deacon literally forming a gigantic alliance as though the man was preparing to wage an all-out war.

This vastly raised the difficulty of Rui withdrawing the fruits of his labor and successfully leaving the nation with it. The hardest problem would be using it anywhere. Thanks to the new system that Guildmaster Bradt had put in place. He had the ability to withdraw money for his expenses thanks to the anonymous withdrawal in place in the new protocols that Guildmaster instated with Bill C-16.

However, withdrawing all of his income in one go was not something that was easy to hide. He would need to be extremely careful with that, such a drastic reduction in Esosale Suppliers' net worth would not go unnoticed. If Chairman Deacon was really aggressive he could immediately launch a thorough investigation near the Merchant Guilds to gain a list of all people who were in the bank at the time of withdrawal.

Meaning Rui would need to use Void Step to a certain extent when he did leave. On top of that, he would need to immediately evacuate to the dungeon.

However, that was only the first problem. The second problem was how he would eventually get all of that wealth past the borders and finally deposit all that money in his own personal account in the Martial Union with as few people realizing what had happened.

These were all future problems that were becoming increasingly difficult to solve. Furthermore, some of these problems couldn't simply be solved by Martial Art techniques. What Rui needed was an organization to aid him with ensuring that the consolidation of his money could happen without alerting Chairman Deacon.

"We can certainly aid you with that, Squire Quarrier," Commissioner Reze smiled. "Rest assured we can transfer the revenue you've made from the Shionel Confederation to your personal account in the Martial Union without revealing your identity. This is a bit out of protocol, but we can accommodate that in this particular case."

The Martial Union had no qualms about aiding Rui to transfer the fruits of his labor to his holdings account in the Martial Union. Considering that Rui would basically be the effective equivalent of a billionaire once he successfully consolidated all of his revenue, this would definitely impact the Martial Union in a positive manner.

The details were hashed out rather smoothly from then on. Both sides had gotten what they wanted and proceeded to flesh out all the details of their agreement.

Soon enough, it was time to draft the contract.

"… And there we go," Rui lightly commented as he finished signing the documents after Kane.

"It's official now," Commissioner Reze smiled. "We look forward to working with you, Squire Quarrier. As long as we both do our respective jobs, we will both mutually flourish."

"I will strive to ensure that happens," Rui nodded, shaking his hand. "Now then, if there's nothing else, we'll take our leave. We have a dungeon to clear."

Rui and Kane bade them goodbye as they Void Stepped away from the location, heading back towards their inn together.

"Good thing we got the support of the Martial Union huh," Kane commented lightly. He simply let Rui hash things out, this whole thing had been his idea and endeavor in the first place. Kane was just tagging along for the ride for a variety of reasons.

"Indeed, but that doesn't mean that our problems will all just disappear," Rui remarked lightly. Think about it, they're just making it much harder for Chairman Deacon to find us, but we may run into new problems with this contract if we're not careful."

('The Underworld… They might be even more dangerous than Chairman Deacon, especially when I return to the Kandrian Empire after all of this is over,') Rui narrowed his eyes.

He wasn't familiar with the Underworld of the Kandrian Empire and how it was, but if it was anything like how it was back on Earth, then he didn't dare underestimate them. He needed to be even more careful now since he was effectively turning them into his enemies by continuously hampering them. The good news was that they were even much less likely to find Rui than Chairman Deacon was.

"Are we going to head back to the dungeon immediately?" Kane asked.

"Yeah, Chairman Deacon has been ramping up his exploration efforts," Rui remarked. "We need to work even harder to ensure that our exploration is always ahead of his. We have an edge due to a headstart with my Riemannian Echo, but that won't remain forever. It needs to be maintained."