The Martial Unity

There were several Martial Squires that were particularly stronger than even the other grade-ten Martial Squires,Rui could tell that even as they were trying not to stand out, they could not hide their threat level the way that he did. 

The grandma that he was watching turned, glancing at him.

('Oh? She noticed my attention?') Rui mused as he ignored her.

It was quite remarkable that she had managed to catch him focusing on her when he was merely using his senses and not even looking in her direction. She had a remarkably sharp intuition if that really was the case.

Rui had to give credit where credit was due; the Martial Contest indeed lived up to the hype in general. The many people who were certainly going to be paying exorbitant prices were not going to be disappointed. Rui didn't even need to do that much, the show was going to be hyped with or without him.

He quickly finished his meal before leaving the restaurant. He had already seen everything he could. He momentarily considered going to the training area so that he could start building predictive models on his opponents ahead of time, but ultimately shook his head.

He didn't need to, and he didn't want to develop a mindset where he was constantly dependent on such measures to win. He had abstained from doing so last match and had won quite dominantly nonetheless.

When he returned to his room, he found a guide in the room that described all the events that would be occurring during the Martial Contest, and during his stay in the Virdoha Theocracy. Today was merely considered a bit of a rest day as every Martial Squire traveled from across the entirety of the continent in order to partake in the Martial Contest. Because of the vastly varying distance differences, they arrived at different times, and an entire day was necessary to adjust them all.

The next day was the opening ceremony as well as the banquet.

Rui frowned. ('An entire day dedicated toward just those events? Meh.')

Rui hated ceremonies, and he generally disliked banquets. The banquet in particular did not seem alluring to him especially given that he was on the run and did not want to allow people to get too much of a close-up view of him. But alas, he owed Master Deivon this, so he would just have to put trust in the super high-grade mask that he had procured for Rui specifically for the sake of protecting his identity.

The next day twenty-four hours after that would be fully dedicated to the Martial Contest.

The first three rounds would be held in rapid progression, and the tournament would be held immediately after the first three rounds once the final eight contestants were decided. Rui knew that passing the first two stages was the bare minimum for him for the conversation of Senior Xanarn's medical treatment being in question. The first two rounds filtered out barring the final forty Martial Contestants from whom only eight would be selected. 

However, he did not intend to stop there. He intended to win the entire Martial Contest.

The tournament would, of course, decide the victory of the entire Martial Contest.

That should have been the end, however, when Rui flipped to the next page, he realized that there was more.

('…A second banquet?! Come on!') Rui groaned. He highly doubted that Martial Deivon would allow him to skip that either. It was highly unlikely, especially if he won the tournament as he intended to.

However, he could understand the purpose of the banquet. Given that many of the guests were people who were interested in procuring powerful Martial Art services etc., he could definitely be sure that the second banquet merely served as a way to connect the contestants and those who were interested in procuring their services.

The Martial Contest was essentially a talent show for a low of people that displayed lots of talents across the entire continent. There was always a little clash between people when it came to gaining the favor of the particularly powerful or talented ones. He had a sneaking suspicion that he would be forced to deal with lots of annoying businessmen, representatives of states, ambassadors, leaders of powerful families, and a bunch of other powerful and influential people who had vested interests in taking the initiative to contact and buy out powerful Martial Squires.

It wasn't that the Martial Squires themselves were extremely valuable, or at the very least that wasn't entirely the case. Half of the reason that many of these dignitaries would be fighting over earning the services, commitment, and loyalty of people would be because each of these Martial Squires was potentially a Martial Senior in the making.

It was usually too late, or at the very least, extremely difficult to purchase the commitment and loyalty of Martial Artists after they broke through to the Senior Realm. Most groups, states, and organizations would do everything in their power to reel in new Martial Seniors that broke through recently. 

It was much easier to find Martial Squires who had a chance of becoming Martial Seniors and reel them in when they were still Martial Squires. Once they broke through, they would have already been firmly within the organization that bet on them. As long as the organization did their best to pull them deeper in their grasp with contracts, or simple generosity with helping them stronger, the Martial Squire would remain with them even after they became a Martial Senior.

That was why he knew that he wasn't going to have a simple time if he won. People could tell that he was on the younger side even if he hid his face. That would mean that he won despite his youth against monsters of the Squire Realm that had spent multiple years in it, training for this very event!

That would absolutely draw massive attention from many of the guests who had the opportunity to interact with the contestants.