𝚘𝐯𝔩𝐞xt.𝗰𝔪
“Welcome aboard the Veomine Eagle, sir,” A man wearing a naval cap with the emblem of the Martial Union said as they boarded, bowing. “I am Captain Crartas, the captain of this ship.”
“Pleasure to meet you, captain,” Rui replied with a smile. “I believe the journey to Vilun Island will take ten days?”
“That’s correct sir. This ship is an Eagle-class ship with an occupation capacity of five hundred passengers and a storage capacity meant to carry goods that would enable medium to long-term inhabitation aboard the ship. Furthermore, this ship possesses battleship grade hull and thus also weighs us down, slowing us down in the process” The man replied seamlessly. “Therefore its speed isn’t its strong suit.”
“I get it, it needs to be able to handle a hit or two in case the diplomatic mission goes awry,” Rui instantly figured.
“Yes sir,” The man gave Rui a measured stare.
After all, whether it took a beating or not depended on whether Rui was able to do his job as he was expected to.
“I presume we won’t be able to take a straight route to Vilun Island, correct?” Rui asked as he looked at a map placed in the conference room.
“Not exactly, sir, there will be several deviations in our route to avoid the many landmasses in between the Kandrian Empire and Vilun Island,” Captain Crartas turned towards the map, himself.
It was large enough that even though it covered the entirety of the Panama Continent, Rui was able to have a clear view of all the landmasses between Vilun Island and the Panama Continent.
There were countless such islands in the ocean.
It was as though the Panama Continent was a half-eaten cookie with eaten edges and the surrounding islands were chunks and smaller pieces of the cookie. They grew smaller the further they were from the main continent.
It was an interesting map.
It gave Rui the impression that there only was a singular continent once, but perhaps some major geological event happened that caused the edges of the continent to break off, causing all kinds of islands to form all around the Panama Continent. Some calamitous planetary events eons in the past with such tremendous power that the very continent suffered damage.
Rui thought about it for a few seconds before shrugging.
Regardless of what it was, it wasn’t as though it would ever affect him, right?
“How much more time till the journey begins?” Rui asked.
“The ship crew have all long boarded and have assumed duty, the diplomatic team, the security team, and the intelligence team are nearly done with their final steps sir,” The captain duly informed.
“Hm…” Rui nodded.
Each of these teams was there to facilitate the mission in their own way.
The diplomatic team, of course, was the only team that Rui was familiar with. These included assistants that would help him with any and all needs regarding the actual diplomatic mission. In the past month, he had spent some time with them just enough to get a bare basic understanding of each other so they didn’t get in each other’s way.
The security team was a team of Martial Squires meant to guard the Veomine Eagle against any damage of any kind. This was a considerable investment of Martial capital from the Martial Union, but Rui understood why they had offered such a degree of security.
Without the security of a Martial Squire team protecting them, Rui and Senior Ceeran would not be able to focus on the mission of worries about their security. Furthermore, neither of them was particularly effective at underwater combat that involved fighting against powerful underwater creatures, unlike aquatic-oriented Martial Artists.
Admittedly, Rui did feel safer and at ease. Especially when there were Martial Squires engaged in constant surveillance so that he didn’t have to.
The intelligence team was there to help Rui obtain any information that he might seek in the middle of the completion of the mission in order to successfully complete it. It was reckless and stupid of him to try and obtain them himself, thus there were specialists who were assigned for this specific possibility.
The best part was that because both the technology and diversity of Martial Art of the G’ak’arkan Tribe were highly limited compared to that of the Martial Union, the technological measures and systems that were employed to gather intelligence were going to be much more effective than they usually were. The best part was the lack of awareness on their side, thus they would not take the measures that they could take with what they had and what they could.
“Ah…” Captain Crartas looked at his comms device. “The assigned heads of the diplomatic and the security team are on their way here, sir, I imagine they’d want to meet you as well,”
“Of course,” Rui nodded. “I look forward to meeting them, they are valued assets on this mission, after all.”
Soon enough, a man entered the conference room where the two of them were. He wore a Martial uniform of the Martial Union, but Rui sensed his concealed Squire-level aura coming from a mile away.
“Captain Crartas, Squire Quarrier…” He nodded at both of them. “I am Squire Captain Vermeal Clonsky, a pleasure to meet both of you.”
The two men greeted him, engaging in light topics such as the coordination of their nominal duties and teams before Squire Vermeal turned to Rui.
“Oh yeah, one thing,” He said, recalling something. “I heard that one of the Martial Squires of the intelligence team wanted to speak to you. He’s coming along with the captain at this moment.”
“Is that so…?” Rui frowned. “Are you sure it’s a Martial Squire?”
His senses told him there were only two humans walking toward the conference room.
KNOCK KNOCK
Rui turned towards the door, before widening his eyes in shock.
“Captain, Squires. I am special agent Cravis,” She said with a completely neutral tone. “And this is the Martial Squire assigned to our team…”
She gestured to the green-haired and green-eyed young man standing beside her.
“…Squire Kane Arrancar.”