He couldn't display Squire-level techniques, or he would certainly be caught. Knocking them out also would definitely put him on a clock as they would certainly be noted to be missing sooner or later.
He made a split-second decision.
CRACK
One of the wheels of the carriage cracked a bit once Rui got onto the carriage. He timed the damage with a flick of his foot to make it look like the wheel had already been damaged prior and broke when he stepped back in.
"Tsk, the wheel…" Rui murmured as he got off.
"What happened?"
"Seems like the wheel of the carriage has broken down a bit," Rui replied as he took a good long look.
"If your carriage has issues, then you should report them," The man growled. "We don't have anything here to help with that."
"That's fine, I have a spare wheel and some necessary tools, it will take me a bit, but I can definitely fix it,"
The workers glanced at each other before looking back at him. "Make it quick."
"Will do,"
Rui happily got to work as he took his own sweet time slowly elevating the carriage to a fixed position while patiently inspecting the wheel.
Meanwhile, his mind was busy listening to all the information he could get from the underground area.
"Sir, the quality checks have been…"
"The royal family has invested…"
"The Felmakgium stabilizer will be functional as soon as…"
Rui worked on his wheel as he documented all of the conversations. He also paid a good amount of attention to the layout, the infrastructure, the instruments, objects, and machines. He didn't bother analyzing their words, for now, he only made sure that he documented everything.
That was until he heard something that drew his attention from his menial wheel replacement task.
"The king has personally informed me to make sure that nothing goes wrong with the production process. This weapon is the key to taking down the Ajanta Island, and destroying the Floating Sect."
Rui paused for a moment as he processed that, still keeping up the documentation. Yet he couldn't help but focus on that for a minute.
('It seems I underestimated how important this purchase from Frigga Industries was.')
He knew that the nations of the Kaddar Region were determined to take Ajanta Island down, but he had thought that for the most part, they had given up because their hands were tied.
After all, there wasn't much they could do. If they tried destroying the island, it would only bring about their own destruction since the debris would split up and rain down on the Kaddar Region in an unstoppable hail of meteorites. The destruction would be incalculable.
The only way they could get rid of the threat was by taking control of the island and gently moving away from the Kaddar Region, before destroying it, but the Floating Sect refused to allow that to happen.
Although there were skirmishes from both sides, both sides avoided an all-out war because it would cause too much damage to the island.
They were basically unable to do anything.
('Yet it seems that they haven't given up,')
Whatever this weapon was, it was something that was supposed to allow them to be able to deal with this issue.
('Persistent, aren't they?') He tutted to himself as he fitted the new wheel.
He could understand why they were, of course. He had heard that the economy of a nation often hit a bit of a slump whenever the island passed over it. The reason for this was that the citizens were paranoid about the debris falling from the island.
Apparently, this was not infrequent. The island bottom often dropped rocks of varying sizes on nations, that had, in the past, resulted in anywhere from merely injuring a person to massacring schools of students. Although given the diminutive size of the island compared to the nation, it could not rain debris across the entire nation, it did not matter to the citizens. An understandably deep phobia and paranoia had developed in the hearts of the citizens despite the governments of the Kaddar Region taking measures to ensure debris didn't reach the ground.
('It's not just a hypothetical possibility of the island dropping and wiping out the nations of the Kaddar Region,') Rui realized. ('There's a very detrimental impact it has on the nations even if it never falls.')
With that in mind, he could see the Graheria Kingdom going out of its way to purchase some kind of superweapon from one of the biggest weapons manufacturers across the continent to deal with the island once and for all.
('It isn't just the Graheria Kingdom,') Rui realized as he picked up more from the conversations of the people in the underground facility. ('It's the Kaddar Treaty Organization as well,')
The Kaddar Treaty Organization was an organization that was formed around the Kaddar Treaty signed by all seventeen of the nations in the Kaddar Region to put an end to the collective existential threat of Ajanta Island.
"Hey, how long are you taking?" One of the workers growled.
"I'm almost done," Rui replied as he fitted in the last screw. "There we go."
"Good, now get going, you've already been here for far longer than authorized!"
Rui quickly got onto the chariots before setting the horses into a trot as he delved into his own mind and reviewed everything that he had just learned.
('The Floating Sect will likely undergo tumultuous times in the future,') Rui narrowed his eyes.
For a brief moment, he considered leaving the island. If the superweapon was some absurdly powerful laser that vaporized the island without leaving anything behind, then he did not want to get caught up in it.
('It's unlikely it's something like that.') Rui mused. ('I don't even know if Martial Master has attacks that erase the island out of existence. They might be able to destroy it with a single attack, but it would still cause too much collateral damage.')
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