The Martial Unity

"That was unexpectedly not tiring," Rui murmured when the ceremony ended.

"There are too many people to keep waiting for too long," Master Deivon explained. "We Martial Masters alone make it not worth stretching the entire event for too long. Our time is too valuable, when we're not training, we're still working on important matters and fulfilling our duties."

"Then that means this so-called banquet is also not going to take too long, right?" Rui asked with a hopeful look.

"Ah, I'm afraid I might have to disappoint you," Master Deivon smirked. "The banquet is a part of our duties, so our time is well-spent."

Rui sighed. He had been fine with the banquet before, but after listening to what Sage Sariawar had to say, Rui didn't want to bother with such boring stuff. In fact, he wanted to skip forward to the Martial Contest immediately. He felt quite impatient to push himself against his peers, especially after listening to what Sage Sariawar had to say.

But alas, he was not the organizer of the Martial Festival, unfortunately. He would have to make do with it. 

The banquet hall was gigantic, bigger than any other he had ever seen, not that he had been to many banquet halls in the first place.

An entire layout of food was present, and an absurdly luxurious buffet had been organized for all of the guests. Many began pouring into the hall, most of them being contestants who looked forward to having a hearty deal.

Rui couldn't help but feel sympathetic to the Martial Squires who didn't manage to get a patron that could increase their appeal to scouts and potential employers. These contestants would have a much harder time trying to find attractive organizations or individuals to be employed by.

For most Martial Squires, the challenge of finding a powerful organization that possessed the resources to help Martial Squires grow stronger was quite great for most Martial Squires. Many Martial Squires were born in parts of the continent that did not have many Martial Seniors, meaning that the region they were in did not possess the resources to make reaching the Senior Realm particularly viable.

The Kaddar Region was actually one such region. Martial Squires in that region were not foolish enough to believe that their chances of reaching the Senior Realm were high. There was a proportion of them that left the Kaddar Region to seek superior parts of human civilization, much to the dismay of the Kaddar nations.

They sought more powerful organizations that were capable of giving them the training and growth resources they needed like the Martial Union of the Kandrian Empire or the Virodhabhasa Faith.

And there were those who merely used the contest as a way to advertise themselves to the guests. The main contest didn't even need to strictly begin, the fact that each of the thousand of them had managed to overcome hundreds of Martial Squires in a chaotic rumble was proof that they were worth employing.

Most of them were grade-ten Martial Squires, and the minority that were grade-nine were cut from a different cloth from other grade-nine Martial Squires. 

Regardless of who won the contest, the thousand that were attending the banquet were the best of the best. It was just that those with patrons would receive far better opportunities than those without patrons.

Soon enough the various non-Martial Artist guests began pouring in. Businessmen and women, envoys, representatives, delegates, directors, and even heads of state began pouring into the banquet hall.

Each of them had impassive facades but Rui could easily sense that they were keenly scouring through all the contestants, looking for ones that they had already targeted.

Rui's eyes narrowed as he actually spotted some familiar figures.

Commissioner Reze.

He did not dare make eye contact or show any special attention to the man. It wasn't that he was opposed to the man finding out, he had already decided that that was a trivial outcome, but he did not want to tip anyone off that he was connected to the Martial Union. There were too many powerful people in here for him to dare take such a risk.

If they did interact, it would have to be in a subtle manner. At the very least, Rui could not express any intention to want to speak to the commissioner.

A faint feeling of suspicion welled up within him. The Martial Union had countless envoys, diplomats, commissioners, and other officials and dignitaries, any of whom could have been picked to attend this event.

Why Commissioner Reze? Why was the same Martial commissioner that Rui had interacted with three years ago in the Shionel Confederation present here? If the chosen dignitary was randomly selected amongst those qualified to represent the Martial Union in such a big event, then what were the odds of Commissioner Reze being selected?

Rui narrowed his eyes. Of course, he had realized the truth the moment he laid eyes on the man.

His being chosen wasn't a coincidence. 

It was a message from the Martial Union that they were aware of him, a message that only he could possibly understand. 

He had expected this, of course. The Martial Union would be incompetent not to notice, thankfully, the Martial Union understood the risks and the predicament that he was in, thus they did not try to contact him directly. Instead, they chose the risk-free method of simply sending Commissioner Reze to send a message.

Of course, the man had not even so much as glanced in their direction. Instead, he began chatting up with other important dignitaries and some contestants who were worth scouting and stealing away to the Kandrian Empire. The Kandrian Martial Union was definitely one of the most powerful Martial Art organizations in the entire event, second perhaps to only the Virodhabhasa Faith. Becoming an internal member of the Martial Union was nothing short of a dream for many of the contestants.

Very soon, a small crown of grade-ten Martial Squires formed around Commissioner Reze, each interested in earning his favor and approval!