"Tsk," Tui tutted. ('You've made my job harder, Guildmaster Bradt.')
Guildmaster Bradt probably thought he was doing a favor to Rui and to himself, and frankly, given that he didn't know that Rui had infiltrated the Voidhunters, it made sense that he thought this way.
However, Rui couldn't even tell him to stop. Because even doing that would reveal that he was involved somehow. That would instantly make the four surviving martial Squires suspicious, two of whom were women.
That would be no different from revealing that he himself was the Voider. Thus his hands were tied in that regard.
('On top of that, Guildmaster Bradt cannot stop Chairman Deacon from placing a bounty on my head,') Rui knew that.
After all, placing a bounty on someone inside the dungeon was legal, thus there was no avenue for Guildmaster Bradt to fight this with the power of the state. On top of that, he could not use his own power to fight back publically. Since that would be no different from announcing that he was associated with the Voider.
That would mean that he was colluding with a criminal who had evaded tax at one point. That would be enough to launch a formal investigation against him, even if he was the Guildmaster. That would be damning.
He couldn't intervene from the shadows either, since his own private force could not possibly fight off all the people who accepted the bounty. The losses were also not worth the gains.
('All of this means that I'm kind on my own,') Rui's eyes narrowed.
Chairman Deacon indicated that he was considering publicizing the intelligence on the Voider. That would allow all the bounty hunters to track him more efficiently and with better awareness.
('That's not all,') Rui sighed. ("Chairman Deacon, Guildmaster Bradt. Those two are undoubtedly the two most powerful people in the Shionel Confederation. But they are not the only ones around, and they are not the only ones with power, and with interests that criss-cross with mine.')
There were many powerful merchants in the Shionel Confederation who were in the supplier industries that Esosale Suppliers was beginning to dominate. After all, the Shionel Merchant Guild was comprised of the top hundred most powerful and successful merchants. Number one was without a doubt Guildmaster Bradt, followed by Chairman Deacon, yet while quite far behind, the other ninety-eight were not weak.
Many of them were undoubtedly wishing death on the Voider for disrupting the market. While none of them were as powerful as Chairman Deacon, they too could make their efforts into stopping Rui under the wing of Chairman Deacon's publicized intelligence and the giant bounty that Chairman Deacon was inevitably going to be placed on his head.
('From the very start, the Voidhunters were merely the first step,') Rui realized in hindsight. ('There are greater measures that he can and will take.')
A large portion of the Shionel Merchant Guild would willingly lend their power to Chairman Deacon in the form of their privatized Martial Squires, and other resources.
That would grant Chairman Deacon a titanic amount of power at his disposal.
('However, that's not all,') Rui narrowed his eyes. ('It's not just the disenfranchised merchants that are on his side. He also has other stakeholders supporting him. But they're just not from the country.')
The merchants of the Shionel Merchant Guild were not the only ones who had a stake in the Shionel Dungeon. The many countries participating in the dungeon raid and plundering process were all stakeholders as well, who were no doubt pissed off by the Esosale Suppliers gaining access to a dominant share of the esoteric resources from the Shionel Merchant Guild would also most likely implicitly cooperate with Chairman Deacon.
The reason for this was that it was pretty clear that the Guildmaster Bradt was a staunch supporter and partner of Esosale Suppliers. This meant that they would naturally support his rival if they wanted to hamper Guildmaster Bradt.
So that meant that not only would Rui have to deal with the many freelancer bounty hunters that would arise from the bounty, but he would also have to deal with the pressure from the many disenfranchised and disgruntled merchants of the Shionel Merchants that were quite powerful and rich themselves.
On top of that, he would need to deal with the pressure that would emerge from the disgruntled nations that were each trying to carve out a portion of the Shionel Dungeon for themselves.
"Not gonna lie," Kane said after Rui reached home and explained everything. "That's insane."
"Yeah, it seems we'll have to be even more careful than we already are," Rui mentioned.
"That we already are?" Kane emphasized with a surprised expression on his face. "Is that even possible? I haven't been as careful in any of my past covert missions as I have been in this mission. The sheer number of things that we've gone through out of care is insane."
"True," Rui nodded. "Still, it's better safe than sorry. We'll have to revisit some of our established rules and protocols and refine them even more."
Rui needed to proceed with deep care and caution. "Honestly, avoiding already discovered floors with human presence is probably the only way to avoid all of this."
"Hm?" Kane tilted his head.
"I'm saying that existing and discovered floors are going to be infested by Martial Squires who are going to be looking for us," Rui calmly analyzed their circumstances. "While we could somehow still harvest. It's too dangerous. A single mishap and it's game over."
This was true. They had gone through so much to try and keep their identities as the Voider a secret in the operation with the Voidhunters. The difficulty was only keep getting higher and higher.
Rui didn't think that it was wise to keep subjecting themselves to compete with an increasingly hostile dungeon. They were not perfect, they would make a mistake at some point or the other.
"Thus, we need to rise above this competition and ensure they can't reach us."
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