Chapter 1743 Stuff
"Have you all heard about the royal address?" "My, how could I have not? It appears that, on his deathbed, His Majesty the Emperor will surely be passing on his wisdom to the royals, to the emperors and empresses of the future."
"Sounds boring."
"Agreed. I'm glad I don't have to attend such a boring event!"
"Do not look down on it; it's an important event."
"Ah, Damia! Don't play with your food."
Rui smiled wryly as his eyes wandered across the table.
Fae had organized a short get-together, inviting Kane, Fiona, Nel, Hever, Milliana, and Dalen to an evening gathering at a place in the town of Hajin.
"It's a shame that the Emperor of Harmony may not be the emperor for too long," Fiona heaved a sigh. "I can only imagine the chaos that will ensue after he passes away."
"It will be a rough and uncertain time for the Kandrian Empire," Fae heaved a sigh. "We can only hold tight and hope for the best."
"Boring!" Nel grumbled out aloud. "Kane, let's spar again!"
"No," Kane snorted. "Why not?!"
"Go train if you have time to spar with me."
"Fighting is more fun."
"Enough, you two," Hever calmly quelled the spat.
"Hever will you...?" The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))
Kane, having sparred with Rui routinely, had been thoroughly amazed by how much stronger Rui had become with the Roaring Dragon Blood Potion. He had resolved himself to purchasing a potion that improve his speed and agility.
"So what have you been up to, Rui?"
The question was innocuous and sincere, yet it had caught him off-guard.
Suddenly, everybody was looking at him.
"Ah..." Rui smiled wryly. "You know. Stuff."
This conversation made him feel surreal.
It highlighted how he was worlds, even universes, apart from Martial Artists his age, let alone people his age. His friends talked boisterously about careers, occupations, promotions, commissions, jobs, and a variety of things that were so disconnected from what he was dealing with and used to dealing with.
Their dreams, ambitions, and objectives were objectively not even in the same order of magnitude of impact as his.
He envied them even as it became increasingly difficult for him to relate to them. He found it hard to engage with and reciprocate with them.
What had he been up to?
In the past two years, he had presented a seminar for the Hungry Pain technique that led to the Martial Union adopting the technique on a national scale, increasing the power of new Martial Squires by fifty percent on average across the entire nation, resulting in a dramatic growth in power at the lowest level that would eventually snowball into a huge amount of power, altering the power dynamics of all of East Panama.
He had formed an agreement that produced a power imbalance in the Kandrian Throne War that could very well affect the future of all of Kandria and, consequently, all of East Panama.
He had been inducted as a constituent of the Kandrian Fiscal Committee and then went on to plant the seeds of a new sect, earning thirty-one trillion Martial Credits for the techniques that he had created. Techniques that would increase the probability of Master breakthroughs, substantially increasing Kandria's power.
Having earned the ire of the royals, he then went on to scheme a clever strategy to sabotage their assassination, gain leverage, and eventually complete control over them, gaining the power of kingmaker in the Kandrian Empire.
And now, the weight of Kandria's future was on his shoulders. The decision he was to make would alter the future of not just the Kandrian Empire but, to a certain extent, all of human civilization.
"Stuff?" Fae raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah..." He smiled bitterly. "Stuff."
