The Martial Unity

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"Regardless, we've gone into the basics of general diplomacy, the uniqueness of the G'ak'arkan Tribe as well as their warped primary interests, how we could negotiate with them based on these warped interests, and finally, the reasons for why those negotiations failed," Carl paused, for a few seconds, inhaling and exhaling deeply. "That brings us to the heart of our talk; your mission. Your goal is to successfully trade techniques with the G'ak'arkan Tribe. Based on the conversations we've had all this while, how would you go about the diplomatic negotiations of the G'ak'arkan Tribe?"

...

Rui's eyes wandered as he spent some time considering the question.

It was a difficult question to answer, even for Rui.

"The principle of the negotiation strategy that we have previously employed isn't necessarily wrong... The issue is the execution that has caused previous failures. Specifically, we need to execute our negotiations in a way that leverages their competitiveness and pride in our favor," Rui carefully stated. "Senior Ceeran caused their competitiveness to be riled up against us while wounding their pride with his aggressive insistence on superiority. That needs to be avoided at all costs."

Carl nodded as he waited for Rui to continue.

"Let us consider their primary interests that we have established so far," Rui said as he raised three fingers. "The desire to dominate their enemies, the desire to engage in physical conflict, and the desire to take pride in all their decisions and actions. These are the three primary interests that we will have to contend with. We need to appeal to each of these interests strongly in our negotiation strategy."

He paused for some more time as he gathered his thoughts. "The desire to dominate their enemies is the easiest interest to levy in our favor. The power that our techniques in combination with that of theirs will produce should allow them to become overwhelmingly stronger in the long run."

Any third party that desired more power to dominate its enemies could not resist the allure of new and powerful Martial Art techniques as long as it was handled properly. The foolish Martial Artists that went before he screwed up by clashing against their competitiveness and pride.

Rui did not intend to do that.

As long as he demonstrated that he could give them the power they desired to dominate their opponents, he will have already taken a major step toward earning their cooperation.

"The desire to engage in physical conflict isn't something we can necessarily directly levy, unfortunately. But the good news is that it cannot work against us as long as we are careful. It will most likely work out to be a neutral variable." Rui noted. "In ideal circumstances, it could work in our favor if they recognize that they can engage in a much greater amount of conflict by gaining more power. But that will depend on whether I am able to effectively paint a compelling picture for them."

It could not be leveraged in a direct fashion since it wasn't as though Rui could fabricate new and more native tribes out of thin air for the G'ak'arkan Tribe to fight against. In the worst-case scenario, if their desire to engage in physical conflicts would turn against the diplomatic team of the Martial Union, then this diplomatic endeavor would be as good as screwed.

This was one of Rui's biggest concerns.

On the flip side, if he could create an alluring image of even greater and more successful physical clashes with their enemies, then it could be leveraged as a positive force that would drive the G'ak'arkan Tribe further into cooperating with the Martial Union.

"The last element is, of course, the trickiest out of all of the three abstract interests of the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui sighed.

Their pride was the least understood variable out of all the three. Their pride caused them to deny military aid from the Martial Union despite possessing a strong desire to defeat and dominate their enemies and rivals. It also caused previous diplomatic endeavors to fail, Rui understood all of this, but it still wasn't clear what exactly might offend their pride in a detrimental fashion and what wouldn't.

At the very least the previous variables were well understood. Rui wasn't entirely sure what he ought to say to manipulate them such that their pride would work in his favor. He was highly intelligent, but he wasn't some mastermind manipulator!

"I'm not entirely sure how to levy their pride in our favor. I guess we can pretend their techniques are superior. That feels extremely insulting and disrespectful as a Martial Artist of the Martial Union though," Rui sighed. He wasn't the most prideful of people, but even he found it very unpleasant to have to lower his head to this degree.

"Your predecessors reacted along the same lines, except they were intensely vehement to employing such measures," Carl mused. "It is unfortunate and even a bit strange to me personally because if I were in your position, I would have been extremely happy and joyful rather than insulted."

"Why's that?" Rui frowned.

"Because if all it takes is lowering pride to achieve our goal, then we diplomats would have done so without hesitation. One of the key necessities of being a diplomat is knowing when to drop your pride and humble yourself when representing your group or nation in certain circumstances. Pride is not as important as concrete benefits from success. While you find pretending our techniques are inferior as a strategic means to achieve our goal, we diplomats are trained extensively to have no problem and even consider such means a boom because of how simple they are," Carl sighed. "It seems that even for rational and intelligent Martial Artists like yourselves, such a thing is still not possible. It's a shame."

"Well, sorry about that," Rui smiled wryly.

"Oh, it's no matter. Besides, that strategy still isn't the best at hand. Though it probably wouldn't hurt to employ to a minor degree."