“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.
It wasn’t as though there was anything else that he could do in the first place at all.
They conversed for a bit more before the conversation ended.
Time passed as Rui continued his briefing and training. With each passing 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 the tough and harsh linguistic training from his passionate tutor.𝚘𝐯𝔩𝐞xt.𝗰𝔪
The other aspects were far easier and quicker. Communication was an important field that he spent a lot of time on. Gaining a greater degree of awareness of his demeanor, tone, facial expressions, as well as his micro-expressions, allowed him to learn to exert an appropriate amount of control over them at all times.
He found the process of learning to exert fine control and manipulation to be quite fascinating. His tutor would engage 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 measure what his authentic non-verbal communication looked like when he was angry, happy, sad, and a number of other more elementary reactions.
Then the training team took those recordings and created an extensive training program that was aimed at teaching Rui how to bring up those authentic facial expressions 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 it on demand.
Much to the surprise of the training team, he absorbed the lessons and training like a sponge. It was just a matter of time before he reached a level that was competent even by their standards.
Rui also fleshed out his negotiation strategy and tactics 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 of their abilities. Rui had come up with plans to buy the support of every major stakeholder of the G’ak’arkan Tribe.
They 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 the month, Rui was actually proud and confident in what they had managed to hatch up.
He had also gotten acquainted with his team before his briefing and training program ended, and they soon became part of the program to establish an understanding between everyone on the team.
Even Senior Ceeran showed up when Rui’s training and briefing ended.
“To think we would meet again under these circumstances,” The man eagerly greeted Rui. “When I heard that you had been chosen as the new diplomat, I had to admit it was a great choice. Given how shrewd you are, you have a better chance of succeeding than I did!”
“Haha… Thanks for your vote of confidence, Senior Ceeran,” Rui laughed awkwardly as he observed the man.
To his surprise, he didn’t show any reluctance in his position on the mission.
“Any help you need my boy, you need only ask, those idiots got mad when I pointed out that they had much more to gain from this transaction because our techniques shit all of theirs. I hope you’ll get those uncouth savages to see reason,” He nonchalantly insulted them with a contemptuous expression. “Honestly, even to this day, I do not understand why I failed. It’s a wonder, really.”
“Yeah, I wonder why,” Rui sighed.
He would have worded that stronger, but Senior Ceeran’s immensely powerful aura, even when suppressed so as to not knock out all humans in the vicinity, was a glaring reminder that he could eradicate Rui with the slightest exertion.
“Never mind, it’s all in the past. This time, we will succeed,” His eyes narrowed as his restrained aura grew sharper. “I will get my hands on their techniques no matter what happens.”
(‘Oh boy,’) Rui once more questioned the wisdom of getting Senior Ceeran on board the mission.
He mentally prepared himself for constantly being aware and alert of Senior Ceeran, he could already sense that he ought not to let his guard down around Senior Ceeran, the man was simply not someone who could be trusted at all at this point in time.