The Martial Unity

"This is unacceptable!" A man banged his arm on the table as he skimmed through a few documents.

The noise drew the brief attention of many others, who glared at him for the disturbance.

"Order, Chairman Deacon," a calm deep voice suppressed the murmurs in the large hall, drawing everybody's attention to the source of the command.

The man stood at the center of the podium that overlooked the semi-circular array of chairs and tables, occupied by many people.

"The best we can do is look into the matter more extensively with our intelligence and Martial law enforcement agencies," The man replied with measured words.

His every word seemed to stick to all those who heard him. He had an aged appearance, yet it wasn't enough to hide the spark in his sharp eyes. The man's demeanor, grace, and grooming conveyed a magnetic gravitas that nearly lulled all those who beheld him into complying.

"Guildmaster Patrick," Deacon gritted his teeth and stared at him with a frustrated expression. "I'm afraid those measures are clearly insufficient! The progress reports and forensic and psych analyses are clear, there is no trail of evidence that can be used to make meaningful progress in finding out who the tax-evading culprit, who annihilated all the bloodfury rabbits of the second floor and plundered all of its loot, is. We need to do more!"

"And what exactly would you propose?" Bradt Patrick looked at him with casual boredom. "Would you rather we dispatch an even greater number of agents on the case? Dump even more resources? Do we continue chasing after this mysterious 'Voider' even if the expenses exceed what they stole from us? Are you suggesting we endeavor in making a loss?"

His eyes sharpened. "Is that a befitting suggestion from a member of the Shionel Merchant Guild?"

Deacon gritted his teeth as he stared at Bradt Patrick with a stern expression, reigning in his anger. In reality, they both knew perfectly well why the Guildmaster seemed to treat the issue as trivial, and why Chairman Deacon was taking it extremely seriously.

In reality, neither one of them gave a single damn about this particular instance of tax evasion. Yes, it was a violation of the adventurer contract that every Martial Squire signed to become an adventurer, and yes, the Shionel merchant Guild was being stolen from. However, the losses were trivial to the capital that the Shionel Merchant Guild had. In a vacuum, both of them would certainly be on the same when it came to catching the culprit who evaded the tax, however, nothing ever occurred in a vacuum.

Things always occurred within their surrounding circumstances. In these circumstances, chairman Deacon, Guildmaster Bradt's biggest rival, had plenty of reason to be concerned by this particular instance of tax evasion, and the fact that it was untrackable.

The fact that this individual could clear the second floor by themself but also evade detection and could smuggle huge amounts of esoteric resource harvests without being detected was very troubling to him, who was in the esoteric mineral and organic supply industry. Based on the capabilities that the culprit had already revealed, it was entirely possible that a new force could take the supplier market of the esoteric organic and mineral ores, thereby reducing the growth that even someone like himself would experience, killing his greatest hope at becoming the guildmaster of the Shionel Merchant Guild.

Guildmaster Bradt Patrick, on the other hand, was in a trade that was largely unaffected by such an outcome, regardless of who monopolized or dominated the supplier market of raw esoteric ores, the distribution and communication service sector would be almost entirely unaffected. Thus, he had no issue in letting a new variable that could potentially harm his biggest competitor take stal

Chairman Deacon, on the other hand, needed to ensure that this did not happen, and that necessarily began by identifying the threat. That was why he was most invested in the outcomes of the investigation by the intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The second that they identified the culprit, he would deploy the entirety of the closest local branch and have the culprit imprisoned regardless of the international pressure that he would suffer as a consequence.

Guildmaster Bradt had cleverly used the losing proposition of extensive investigation as a way to discredit Chairman Deacon's desire to pursue the investigation as aggressively as possible. The value of a merchant was measured by their ability to make money, after all, any merchant that could not make money was not even a merchant in their eyes, and any merchant that made losses was even worse.

That was the attack that Guildmaster Bradt Patrick was implicitly levying against him.

Still, he was not a member of the Shionel merchant Guild for nothing.

"The only way one can conclude that it is a losing proposition is if one only looks at the past, rather than the future," He sharply retorted. "Surely, the great Guildmaster of our Merchant Guild is not foolish enough to believe that a thief that has already stolen once, will never ever steal again."

Several murmurs could be heard in the hall. That was a valid point. What kind of thief engaged in this kind of heist only once? Especially when the end outcome was a perfect success?

"The future can be speculated, but never known," Guildmaster Bradt Patrick replied coldly. "What you are asking for is demanding this guild to allocate precious limited capital in an avenue that isn't confirmed to be needed, versus the myriad of issues that need investigation and are of national importance. Is this little thief more important than national security? Background checks and identity verification? International espionage? Are you truly saying that, Chairman Deacon?"

Chairman Deacon gritted his teeth, he had to admit, that was a really clever framing and retort. He didn't have too much of an avenue for being able to bulldoze his way through to increasing the investigative capital for this particular case of tax evasion.