1741 Invitation
A public addressal of the Royal Family.
Essentially, he would be speaking to the entirety of all his progeny in a formal ceremony.
He had invited all Kandrian powers to bear witness to the public addressal.
The moment the forces of Kandria learned about this, a single thought flashed through their heads.
There's more to it than meets the eye.
If this ceremony was simply a formal addressal of the Royal Family, there would be no need to invite so many people.
Not just so many people, but so many powerful people.
The Royal announcement, a public notice distributed across all of Kandria, mentioned essentially every single important person part of the ruling class of the Empire. These were people who could impact, no matter how little, the entire nation to some bare minimum degree.
A simple formality featuring a generic speech where a ruler would espouse the importance of responsibility as a ruler to his potential heirs was not an event that warranted inviting so many people.
Their time was valuable, and thus, only significant events worth their time were worth inviting them to.
Thus, the Emperor had sent a clear message to all of them through merely the act of the invitation. (C) content.
And everybody who received the invitation got the message.
Including Rui Quarrier.
"…Er, yes, I am Rui Quarrier. What is this about?" Rui asked, raising an eyebrow, staring at the man before him.
They stood at the door of the Quarrier Orphanage.
Some distance away before him stood a man clad in a uniform woven from esoteric fabric. His bearing was regal, his chest was pumped out, and his chin was raised.
He made no effort to comport himself in a less condescending fashion.
And with good reason.
Behind him was the most ostentatious carriage that Rui had ever seen in his entire life, accompanied by a squadron of Martial Artists.
The man did not respond to Rui. He instead gestured to a staff of assistants who immediately procured a small chest, bringing it before the man.
CLICK
The chest opened as the man extracted an extravagant scroll woven from glowing gold so bright what may as well have been thread spun from the Sun itself. Yet it was not the scroll fabric that caught his eye.
It was the seal of the Royal Emperor on the scroll that drew his attention.
His eyes widened as he fell down to one knee, with one fist touching the floor and his head bowed. The word of the Emperor required observing protocol.
"Bow!" Rui whispered to the few curious members of the orphanage behind him. "On both knees!"
He wasn't fond of it, but the protocol for ordinary citizens was different from what he had to follow.
"Hmph," The man snorted, his mouth curling with disdain before he conveyed the message of the Royal Emperor.
"His Majesty Second Emperor, the Emperor of Harmony, Emperor Rael Di Kandria, invites Senior Rui Quarrier to the Vargard Royal Palace for the Addressal Ceremony of the Royal Family at the dawn of the forty-second of Spring."
Rui's eyes widened with surprise.
"I, Rui Quarrier, honored by the invitation from His Majesty, humbly accept His Majesty's invitation," Rui replied.
The man carefully offered the invitation with both hands, which was promptly accepted by Rui with both hands as the ritual of conveyance of the invitation was completed.
"The invitation has been made," The man announced. "I shall take my leave, having completed my Royal duty."
The man immediately turned around without waiting for a reply, boarding his carriage with a formal gait.
Rui glanced at the sparkling and glowing scroll with furrowed eyebrows.
"WOOOOOOOAAAAAAAH!!!" Max and Mana squealed with excitement. "BIG BROTHER JUST GOT INVITED BY THE EMPEROR!!! THE ACTUAL EMPEROR OF KANDRIA!!!"
It took Rui half an hour to extricate himself from the curious and excited members of the Quarrier Orphanage before he could actually go to his room and process what had just happened.
For quite some time, he just stared at the scroll.
It was surreal.
It was a testament to the impact he made on the Kandrian Empire. Perhaps the Hungry Pain contribution, the spreading of the thought techniques, and the impacts that he had made throughout his career, including the trade influx and contributions to the Kandrian economy during the Shionel dungeon debacle.
His official status as a Senior ambassador and a constituent of the Martial Fiscal Committee of the Martial Union meant that he had a great ability to impact the Martial Union.
All these instances solidified his status as part of the ruling class of the Kandrian Empire.
"An invitation from the Emperor himself…" Rui whispered as he finally opened the scroll and read through the invitation.
It was as the royal messenger announced, but it also contained additional details such as the exact venue and time. On top of that, it served as his entry ticket to the event.
Rui breathed in deeply as a myriad of thoughts flew through his head as he considered the implications for this event.
Undoubtedly, something big was bound to happen.
Rui instantly arrived at the conclusions that other invited parties had also concluded.
This was no ordinary event.
Something was bound to happen.
'The question is what?' Rui narrowed his eyes. 'What exactly does the Emperor of Kandria have in mind?'
The probability of the Emperor inviting spectators to the address ceremony of the royal family to engage with them directly or have them partake was low; it was almost certainly the case that the spectators were definitively going to merely spectate. Rui highly doubted that whatever the Emperor had planned would be a stunt directly involving the participation of the off-guard spectators.
The most likely possibility was that the Emperor of Kandria wanted everybody invited to bear witness to something important or significant, to learn of something that he wanted to convey.
'Most likely, he wants the impact of the revelation to stick,' Rui realized. 'Not only because of the weight of the event, and not only because of all the power blocs of Kandria gathered then and there that day, but also because it will become evident that he endorses whatever it is that he wants people to see."