That declaration came as a bit of a shock, but, in hindsight, it shouldn't have.
('I can see why she wants to leave the place whose negligence and enemies caused the death of the people she cared the most for,') Rui completely understood her decision.
The other two surviving Martial Squires also followed suit when they saw that even the strongest Martial Squire among them refused to continue working under Chairman Deacon.
"I think I too can't afford to continue under this contract,"
"I did not come to the Shionel Confederation to get embroiled in some kind of political conflict,"
The three Martial Squires left the room, leaving only Rui left.
To his credit, Chairman Deacon did not seem fazed by them leaving. He turned towards Rui with a blank expression "What about you?"
Rui considered his next course of action, he had not expected that the three other survivors would exit the equation this quickly, and that was a bit of an unexpected outcome.
At the moment, he could choose to stay or leave. Regardless of which outcome he chose, he did not have much to say.
"I'm not too inclined to leave just yet," Rui replied.
"I'm surprised. You just saw three Martial Squires stronger than you leaving the Voidhunter team," Chairman Deacon commented.
"I didn't say I was going to stay yet," Rui added. "If I don't like what it is to follow, I just very well might decide to leave as well. So, I suppose I am interested in hearing what you have to say. I also do have some conditions."
"Like what?" Chairman Deacon raised an eyebrow with interest.
"I do not wish to partake in official operations such as this anymore, since it's already been made clear that you are unable to keep such things covert from your enemies, whoever they are. I don't mind staying as a part of the Voidhunters if you are willing to grant some guarantees as a bare minimum. For one, I do not wish to partake in any official mission since it's clear that whoever your enemy is, they can access information through your people somehow. In which case, I would rather operate independently without informing anyone of my plans to allow for a potential leak in information," Rui explained.
"That level of independence makes it pointless to even stay," Chairman Deacon snorted.
"Don't you grant independence according to the contract?" Rui raised an eyebrow
"We do, but at the very least, you're registered as a Voidhunter in official documentation," He replied. "With this arrangement, you're no different from a distant mercenary."
"I think that's a more viable way to go about this," Rui replied. "At the very least, I can't be officially paraded around as a Voidhunter anymore after what happened."
"…" Chairman Deacon sighed. "Alright, fine. But your remuneration goes down. And we won't be covering expenses."
"Deal," Rui nodded. "However, I need access to intelligence on the investigation in order to keep up. There's no point in doing this otherwise."
"That's a given, I intend to be more liberal and reduce the level of coordination and partnership anyway, after this incident," He mentioned. "You can look forward to that."
"Reduce the level of coordination?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "What exactly do you mean?"
"To a certain extent, it's similar to what you're proposing, but the Voidhunter idea is a flawed way to go about it," He replied. "A dungeon bounty is a better way to go about it, you might even be interested yourself."
Rui's eyes widened as he understood the man's plans. "You plan to gather more people with a more free and independent engagement. You can gather more people using a bounty, but you have far less control, you still can mobilize a greater amount of Martial resources. Furthermore, the legality is not a problem since it would be a bounty to kill the Voider inside the dungeon. Whoever is after you cannot possibly hamper so many independent agents."
"It's quite shrewd of you to have realized all of that in an instant," Chairman Deacon remarked, giving Rui a look of interest.
Rui cursed himself inwardly as he realized he got carried away with his analysis. It was careless, however, he had been momentarily taken aback, losing his cool.
"But you're correct," Chairman Deacon continued, without giving it much further thought, causing Rui to sigh in relief. "Thus, if you want to work as a bounty hunter, that can be considered as well. It's just that you won't be a Voidhunter anymore. You can choose to go either way."
He got up. "Give it some thought, you can contact my secretary directly and inform them of your choice. For now, we can put a pin in this discussion as I have some other pressing engagements."
"I understand," Rui got up.
"For what it is worth, I am quite sorrowful about what happened," He replied with a hint of emotion flashing across his face for a moment before disappearing.
"Thank you," Rui replied, before leaving the office entirely absorbed in his own thoughts.
('This isn't good. He is handling this more prudently than I had expected,') Rui tutted.
Chairman Deacon quickly realized that the Voidhunter model alone wasn't enough to succeed, seeing as how Guildmaster Bradt had interfered heavily at a crucial juncture. Word of the devastating loss suffered by the Voidhunters would have undoubtedly spread, either naturally or forcefully by Guildmaster Bradt's own doing.
Once that happened, Chairman Deacon could kiss any chance of trying to reel people into the Voidhunters. It was a losing battle.
He too had realized this and had decided to take another road altogether.
By simply placing a gigantic bounty on Rui's head, he could gather a large amount of manpower working to locate and track down Rui. Although these people would not be under their own direct control, which was certainly vexing to someone like Chairman Deacon, at the very least he couldn't be hampered that easily anymore.
('Damn, it was a great move,') Rui sighed. ('No wonder he is considered a rival to Guildmaster Bradt.')