Had it not been for the micro-expression control that he had been trained in, as well as the Mind Mask that he had put on, Rui didn't think he would have been able to remain as composed as he appeared to be.
He remained silent as he tried his best to maintain his calm and exposure, simply staring at Guildmaster Bradt from behind his esoteric ore-stuffed suit.
"Not so much as a twitch, hm?" Guildmaster Bradt mused. "Remarkable, you're not like the other Martial Artists, but I suppose that's just preaching to the choir at this point, given the series of impossible feats you've pulled off."
Rui stared at him, refusing to utter a word. There had to be a point to bringing this up.
"More importantly, believe it or not, I didn't discover your identity by myself. I actually stole it from a good old friend of mine, a few hours ago,"
Rui's eyes narrowed.
"Someone you're familiar with, Chairman Deacon," Guildmaster Bradt informed him. "He has launched his entire intelligence department into a highly secretive investigation against you, and your little friend."
Rui struggled to maintain his composure as he reeled from the impact of what Guildmaster Bradt had just told him. Chairman Deacon had already discovered his identity?!
Rui furiously thought about the means by which his identity was revealed, realizing that being exposed at the Root floor had probably been the tipping point, allowing the investigation to reach him.
An immense amount of anxiety was born in his heart.
His worst fears had come true!
Now that Chairman Deacon was confirmed to know of his identity, the game had entirely changed. He desperately needed protection, not just for himself, but also for his family, especially for his family.
('Shit!') He cursed as he realized how much trouble he was in. It wasn't that he couldn't think of any way to protect his family, he just was deeply unwilling to pay the price that the Martial Union demanded from him.
Yet, at the same time, he couldn't leave his family hanging. He loved them far too much to be able to not take great measures to protect them. But at the same time, he couldn't shackle himself. He simply couldn't
('I need another solution!') He realized, returning his attention to Guildmaster Bradt.
Although Rui hadn't said a word to him, his silence was deafening.
His senses, in addition to logical deduction, told him that Guildmaster Bradt was telling the truth at the moment. Lying to Rui, will all of his senses and understanding of patterns was almost impossible. On top of that, Rui knew that he had no reason to lie, and every reason to tell the truth. Chairman Deacon knew that Rui had a connection to the Kandrian Empire, the Martial Union specifically, it would be trivially easy for Rui to disprove his words if they were false.
On top of that, it was in Guildmaster Bradt's interest that Rui didn't get caught. For Rui still possessed the map that he had given him. That map was most valuable to him when he was the only one who had received it from Rui. The more people got their hands on it, the less it was an advantage. He did not want to see Chairman Deacon get his hands on the map.
Ideally, he would like to kill Rui himself, but in the course of their interactions, Rui had proven to be far too careful to allow for any opening. He couldn't even manage to tag Rui with a highly detectable gas inside the dungeon, which showed careful he was.
Furthermore, Rui never refused to meet anywhere else except extremely close to the Shionel Dungeon, which was no different from his natural guardian at this point. He couldn't touch Rui even if he brought an army with him. Rui could do far too much damage, it wasn't worth it.
As soon as he had discovered Rui's identity a few hours ago when his most entrenched spies deep inside Deacon's staff had managed to come across the intelligence. He had immediately conducted furtive surveillance for him and had been unable to find him anywhere, including the inn in which he resided.
Rui's mind was in a mess at the moment. Even with all his rationality, he struggled to know what to do in this situation. Even for Rui, it wasn't easy being able to come to a decision immediately. He had been thrust into a crisis that was unlike any that he had ever dealt with before in either of his two previous lives, the sheer unfamiliarity of his circumstances with the high stakes and painful dilemmas almost drove him into a panic.
Almost.
He breathed in deeply as he calmed his mind down.
"Well," Guildmaster Bradt abruptly broke the silence. "Good luck."
He got up, yet even before he could take a step.
"Wait," Rui finally uttered a word after what he had revealed to him.
The man simply stared at Rui wordlessly.
"I would like to offer you a deal," Rui narrowed his eyes behind his full-body suit. "I need your help and I'm willing to compensate you handsomely.
Rui waved his cheque statement before Guildmaster Bradt.
He knew that he couldn't hold back with money, he needed to use every ounce of capital he had in order to ensure that this crisis didn't take the worst turn. That included using the seven-point-four billion Shionel gold coins that he had earned from all of his ventures in the Shionel. He had no qualms about using all of it as a germ of an idea formed in his head.
He would not allow his family to come under harm.
But at the same time, he would not displace his life into subordination by agreeing to the Martial Union's offer. He could not stand doing that, and would rather die.
"Oh?" Guildmaster Bradt raised an eyebrow with interest, curious about what Rui had to offer. Although the man had certainly been caught off-guard by news that he had heard less than a minute ago.
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