Any ordinary man would be in a cold sweat being surrounded by so many intimidating grade-ten Martial Squires, that many would have fainted on the spot.
Yet Commissioner Reze did not appear to experience even the slightest hint of discomfort. His pleasant perfunctory smile was unperturbed in the face of the powerful Martial Squires that could end his life with the slightest exertion.
Of course, he knew such a thing would never happen.
Any Martial Squire that killed a high-grade Martial commissioner like Commissioner Reze was dead. They would die before they even left the building. They might as well kill themselves to at least die painlessly.
Rui knew the Martial Union well enough to know that they would never tolerate such an offense, least of all by a measly Martial Squire.
Furthermore, the Virodha Theocracy would also never allow such a thing to happen. Not only would all of the Martial Masters within the banquet hall notice such a thing and stop it, but the many Martial Senior guards in place who attentively scanned the entire crowd would never allow such a thing to happen.
He firmly spoke with each of them making offers, rejecting requests, negotiating terms and agreements.
He wasn't the only one. Many of the other dignitaries had already begun speaking to contestants one by one, trying to win them over.
It was hard to say who was competing for who.
Were the contestants competing for patrons, or were the patrons competing for contestants.
('I suppose both are true to a certain extent.') Rui mused while watching them. "I'm glad I don't have to deal with this."
"Don't be so sure about that," Master Deivon smiled as he turned towards a man that had been approaching them. "Ah, it truly has been a long time, Sir Guildmaster Patrick"
A shockwave exploded inside Rui as he beheld a man he thought he wouldn't see.
('Guildmaster Bradt…!')
He had been too fixated on Commissioner Reze to miss the man among the next wave of guests.
('But why? Why is a head of a powerful state visiting a trivial event like this?')
The Martial Festival was important to the contestants, it was decently important enough to other powerful organizations to send some envoys. It was important enough for the heads of smaller and weaker states to send their heads to personally try and scout powerful Martial Squires.
But such an event was beneath Guildmaster Bradt's personal attention. Martial Squires were pebbles to the guildmaster. The only reason Rui had been able to earn his attention and cooperation was that Martial Squires were extremely valuable for some time due to the Shionel Dungeon, and because Rui offered him a map to the Shionel Dungeon, something he doubtlessly had been putting to good use in the past three years.
"Master… Deivon, I believe," Guildmaster Bradt didn't even bother hiding that he didn't strongly recall his name. "It has been a while, indeed."
"We are honored by your personal presence, the Theocracy has gone out of its way to increase both the security and the luxury arrangements of the event in your honor." Master Deivon smiled.
"Hm," The man nodded, acknowledging him. "I didn't intend to personally attend, however, I was already in the Theocracy negotiating and finalizing the Bradt-Virodha Dungeon Treaty with Her Excellency, so I decided it was worth attending the event since I was already here."
He uttered those words rather nonchalantly, however, neither Rui nor Master Deivon missed the significance of what he had just said.
('Her Excellency? As in Sage Sariawar? He's been negotiating with a Martial Sage?') Rui was amazed. ('Also, did he say Dungeon Treaty? The Shionel Dungeon raid is complete since all floors have been completely scouted. That means that any agreement does not have to do with esoteric ore deposit harvests, but the actual dungeon itself.')
Rui realized that he genuinely had been making the best use of the three-dimensional map that Rui had made for him.
"Ah, yes, I did hear about that from Her Excellency," Master Deivon courteously smiled. "We of the Virodhabhasa Faith will never forget the Bradt Distribution Service's favor for selling an entire floor of the new Shionel Dungeon City to the Theocracy for occupation and religious practice."
Rui needed to exert himself to ensure that his reactions did not leak out into his demeanor or his movements when he heard that. owns this.
('He sold an entire dungeon floor to the Virodha Theocracy?') He gaped. ('Also, 'Shionel Dungeon City'? The man made a literal city out of the entire Shionel Dungeon?!')
That was an incredibly ambitious and bold plan that would have required immense capital investment. However, he couldn't even imagine the sheer amount of profit that he would have gained from selling an entire city to the Virodha Theocracy.
He couldn't help but be impressed with him. It was true that this wouldn't have been possible without the map that made the transport and travel through and in and out of the dungeon viable in the first place, however, it appeared that Guildmaster Bradt had squeezed both the map and the dungeon for maximum value, utility, and benefit. He could hardly imagine himself doing even a comparable job with the man, considering that just three years after he received the map, he was already signing such gigantic deals with international powerhouses across the distant continent.
"Ah, allow me to introduce the Martial Squire that I have been patroning, Squire Falken," Master Deivon smiled. "It isn't official yet, but I can inform you that he is a Virodha seed."
Guildmaster Bradt directed a look towards Rui for the first time. It appeared that Rui did not even register in his mind until Master Deivon pointed him out.
It wasn't pleasant, but Rui recognized that this was reality. The only reason that he had been able to speak with Guildmaster Bradt even remotely as an equal was that Rui was able to offer him some extraordinary benefits due to the circumstances of the dungeon and his personal abilities relative to it.
Now that that was gone, the two of them were far away from each other.