The Martial Unity

He was right.

Rui walked into missions knowing that his Martial Art would allow him to overcome hurdles and obstacles that ordinary humans couldn't even dream of doing so. Although he was conscious enough to know that his combat prowess did not have any direct role in this mission asides from being taken more seriously, it was not easy to alter his subconscious attitude.

Still, Rui's attitude was driven by his conscious thought, since he put a lot of thought into each and every one of his decisions when completing missions, so this wasn't too much of a problem.

"One of the biggest issues with the previous Martial Artists who had been appointed as the diplomat was that they were largely unable to shake the subconscious attitude that physical power was the answer to all missions, in a way. Or at least necessary for all missions," He sighed. "In this mission, any displays of your combat prowess will only reduce the chances of success of your mission."

"I understand that sir," Rui nodded. "Fear not, I do not intend to act in a manner that will jeopardize the mission."

"I am glad to hear that," The man nodded. "Of course, there will be some degree of psychological training regardless, but it is already a very good sign that you have so easily agreed with this."

Rui felt a tinge of sympathy for the man. How incompetent were the previous Martial Artists when it came to diplomacy for the man to be relieved by something so basic?

Of course, since he had gone through the reports so he knew exactly how incompetent they were. But he could only imagine the heat and flack this man must have gotten for the incompetence of others.

"With that out of the way, I intend to go deeper into the briefing and training program that we have put you through." The man nodded as he pulled out a device from his coat, fiddling with some buttons.

The board behind him lit up differently before an image of a flowchart occupied the screen.

"This is the progression of your briefing program," The man nodded as he pointed to the first box in the flowchart containing the word 'objective'.

"The most fundamental part of this mission is, of course, the actual objective. What is your objective when you serve as a diplomat for the Martial Union to the G'ak'arkan Tribe? I'm sure Martial commissioner Derun has informed you that the Martial Union wishes to obtain its techniques. But which techniques, exactly? What exactly about them do we wish to obtain?"

These were good questions, even if they seemed silly and pointless on the surface. The first question wanted to precisely establish the techniques that the Martial Union wanted. After all, the Martial Union did not want each and every single Martial Art technique that the G'ak'arkan Tribe was in possession of. Some of them were extremely poor that the Martial Union would rather not obtain them at all, while there were several key gems that the Martial Union sought after the most.

"The Martial Union is interested in these particular techniques," Carl nodded as he pressed a button, the slide changed and a brief list of techniques and a brief explanation for each of them covered the screen. "These techniques were observed and reported by our sensory and stealth techniques who managed to catch the occasional employment of these techniques despite the distance that was between themselves and their surveillance targets."

Rui scanned the list quickly, nodding. This list has more or less abided by his understanding of why the Martial Union was bothering with the mission at all.

"Furthermore, we want the techniques, their mechanisms, and principles as well as the training methodology used to train this technique," Carl added. "All of these are part of the goal to obtain those techniques.

"The Martial Union has ruled out a forceful approach for reasons we will go into later, although I am told that you have been briefed about that to a certain extent. But for now, that means we will be relying on a peaceful approach that involves the G'ak'arkan Tribe giving us their techniques voluntarily. The most immediate and basic question that arises is, how can we accomplish such a thing?" The man patiently explained.

"And this is where the necessity for diplomacy arises," the man continued before switching the slide to another one. "Why would the G'ak'arkan Tribe willingly divulge their Martial Art techniques, when they seem, as you have already been informed, quite protective about their Martial Art techniques?"

The man asked. "In a broader sense, why would anyone give up anything that they possess a strong attachment to and are unwilling to give up?"

Rui bore with the man's somewhat patronizing lecture because he understood why the man was beginning with something so elementary and simple, as far as Rui was concerned. It was probably the case that the previous Martial Artists were so shit at these topics that the man realized he needed to start the basics of the basics.

"Because they could be provided with incentives greater than their attachment to their belongings or given disincentives that are greater than their desire to not give up their belongings," Rui noted. "In this case, the Martial Union has already ruled out forceful methods that include threats and forceful coercion. Thus, we can effectively say that for my mission, we cannot get them to divulge their techniques via disincentives like the threat of death or pain and suffering for their loved ones. Instead, we need to levy enough a number of high-enough incentives in order to get the G'ak'arkan Tribe to willingly hand over their techniques."

Carl's eyebrows rose as he realized that Rui actually had a much more thorough understanding of the basics of diplomacy than he had given credit to the Martial Squire. He seemed remarkably sharp and had already given what was effectively a perfect self-framed answer that encapsulated the core philosophy underlying diplomatic theory very well.