The Martial Unity

"That sounds like a great idea!" Senior Ceeran declared without hesitation. "Let's rally our troops and rush down and attack another Martial tribe immediately."

"No, we're not going to do that, will all due respect," Rui tried to hit the breaks on his enthusiasm as soon as he could. "We've painstakingly built an image of a peaceful and friendly group over many, many years of sustained diplomatic efforts. We cannot destroy all of that in the blink of an eye by provoking a conflict out of the blue. It will destroy our credibility."

Senior Ceeran frowned. "Then how do we engage in conflicts with the other tribes?"

"Oh don't worry about that," Rui smiled. "There are many ways to indirectly provoke a conflict without actually aggressing it."

"What ways are those?" Senior Ceeran raised an eyebrow.

"Well, for one, infringing on their interests is one. Ordinarily, this alone wouldn't lead to conflict, but given how violent the natives of Vilun Island are? They won't hesitate to lead an assault on us."

Senior Ceeran frowned, throwing a puzzled look at Rui.

"Don't worry about the details, we'll handle that. I'll inform you when the preparations are made," Rui nodded.

The two split ways as Rui headed towards the diplomatic office to flesh out the plan with his assistants.

He initially planned on telling commissioner Derun but eventually decided against it. The reason he had called her regarding the settlement plan and the sabotage plan was that he needed her authorization for it to work.

He needed her to dispatch the necessary Martial Artists, skilled labor and manpower, supplies, and the necessary means of production. And he still needed her to make all the preparations for the sabotage plan that she hadn't yet approved.

However, this was still his mission, and he had the autonomy to operate within the confines of his mission.

"And that is the plan," He said, after having explained all of it to the diplomatic team.

They were taken aback, wordless, at his bold plan.

"I don't know boss, there are risks to this plan, and there definitely will be losses," Zeyra was the first to reply. "You don't spark conflicts if you don't want to suffer losses."

"That is absolutely correct," Rui nodded. "What we need to do is be very careful, and be highly calculated. Thankfully, we've collected a lot of anthropological data on the Martial tribes of Vilun Island. We can use it to ensure that whatever conflict arises will be controlled, and limited to the degree that suits our interests."

Rui was quite confident that this plan, albeit difficult would be quite successful as long as they acted with scrupulous care.

"Well, if we're going to provoke them to trigger hostilities to break out, then we need to cross the lines of the right target just enough," Stemple nodded.

"Deciding the target is more important," Zeyra interjected.

"That's right," Rui nodded. "There are several conditions that the target would need to fulfill in order to serve as a viable target for us."

"Such as?"

"Well, for one. They need to be unable to dedicate all of their war capital against us if push came to shove," Rui replied. "They need to be in already constrained circumstances that prevent them from escalating any conflict with us to the peak."

The members of the diplomatic team frowned. They hadn't quite caught on yet to what Rui was suggesting in a pragmatic sense.

"I mean, that they need to be in existing ongoing, long-standing, and continuous conflicts with other Martial tribes," Rui said. "That is the only thing that these damn tribes are ever preoccupied with in the first place; conflict. So, we find a Martial tribe that cannot afford to go all out against us because they are already fighting against preferably two or maybe three other Martial tribes."

The diplomatic team nodded as realization dawned on them. Rui's suggestion was a good way to minimize risk and inevitable loss. If they waged an all-out war against a Martial tribe with no other militaristic preoccupations, then they would end up eventually having to withstand all of the militaristic power of the Martial tribe.

The losses would be devastating, the Martial tribes on the island were almost all highly aggressive folks that fought like there was no tomorrow. On top of that, they had more militaristic capital than the small settlement of the Martial Union on the island, meaning there was a chance that the settlement that they were building would lose, and even if they didn't many Martial Artists and people would die without a doubt. The only reason it was a fair fight at despite the difference in numbers was that the quality of Martial Squires of the Martial Union was much greater thanks to a superior Squire breakthrough and evolution procedure. Maybe one Martial Squire of the Martial Union could manage to fend off two of the native Martial Squires at the same time. That is what it would need to come to if a focused all-out war broke out.

Ultimately, even if Rui did succeed in getting the techniques from the G'ak'arkan Tribe in the long run, it would be a highly pyrrhic victory, and Rui doubted that his efforts would be appreciated.

And if he failed to obtain the techniques even after all of the time, energy, funds and resources, and most importantly, all the Martial Artists lost. Then that would be a complete and utter fiasco with no redeemable outcome whatsoever.

That was why Rui was extremely paranoid about getting everything absolutely right. They could not afford to make a single mistake, at all, whatsoever. Rui had already resolved to personally double and triple-check all the work and data that he would be making crucial decisions and judgments upon, while also making sure to double-check the entire team's work as well. If they made a mistake that blew the whole operation away, it wouldn't matter, he would be fully and completely liable and responsible for the outcome.