The Martial Unity

"You seem skeptical," Martial commissioner Derun noted.

"Writing isn't much of a guarantee. Especially when we're thousands of kilometers away from the Kandrian Empire," Rui replied, with a measured tone.

"That is true, but you can rest assured about Senior Ceeran's sincerity. He has vowed not to overstep his boundaries to his direct superior, Master Haloen, the co-leader of the Longranger Sect," She informed him. "I can assure you that Senior Ceeran would not break his work against that personage for any reason."

Rui raised an eyebrow at her words. The fact that Martial commissioner Derun went this far to obtain a guarantee for his compliance meant that the Martial Union had considerable interest in the mission succeeding.

"Alright then," Rui shrugged. "I suppose I'll just have to be content with that."

He turned towards the first document that she had given him. "And how do I know that these members assigned to my team are going to respect my authority? What if they naturally defer to Senior Ceeran?"

"You can rest assured that that won't happen," She reassured him. "Those diplomats were present when Senior Ceeran nearly jeopardized any chance of the mission succeeding. And it was they who did their best to prevent that from happening. They do not have any natural inclination towards following Senior Ceeran's leadership, instead, as long as you show them that you are level-headed and are going to execute this mission rationally, they will undoubtedly follow your lead and support you when you need it."

Rui nodded.

else that he could do in the first

a bit more before the

day, he would become increasingly adept at the Vilun dialect. The biggest problem with him was not memorizing the language and the script but being able to fluently pronounce all the words. He simply gritted his teeth as he bore

of awareness of his demeanor, tone, facial

in a number of honest and earnest discussions with him at all times. Each discussion was meant to evoke certain emotions and reactions out of Rui to record and

and micro-expressions identically. Rui not only learned exactly what he looked like when he was genuinely experiencing a particular emotion or particular sets of emotions but also learned to replicate

to the surprise of the training team, he absorbed the lessons and training like a sponge. It was

with Carl in long and extended meetings with the man. They had already fleshed out the broad big picture with him long ago, but now they filled in every chink they could find to the best

focused on opening statements, initial persuasion, and negotiation tactics as well as the initial presentation of their case. By the time they were done at the end of

gotten acquainted with his team before his briefing and training program ended, and

showed up when

greeted Rui. "When I heard that you had been chosen as the new diplomat, I had to admit it was a great choice. Given

Senior Ceeran," Rui laughed