The Kandrian Martial Festival was merely a month away. The entirety of the Kandrian Empire had begun to stir. The infrequency of the festival as well as the sheer novelty of how it was celebrated made it one hell of an experience for the average citizen.

The general sentiment in the Kandrian Martial Empire was positive, mostly because the image of Martial Artists was positive in the eyes of the average citizen of the Kandrian Empire. Most of the visible missions that occurred within the Kandrian Empire consisted of defense-class, hunting-class, royal missions and miscellaneous missions.

None of these missions were the type that would leave a bad image in the minds of the average citizen. Essentially, all they saw was Martial Artists protecting and helping others. They did not see the assault that Martial Artists committed outside the country where a large influx of offense-class missions from the many surrounding smaller sovereign state without their own unified Martial association that could supply the Martial services in demand.

Nor did they see the covert operations that occurred in the shadows and the darkness of society.

When only the positive was ushered into the light and negatives being pushed out of sight, it was only natural the Kandrian Martial Festival generated an immense amount of bustling excitement.

The Martial Contest would be held in the capital of the Kandrian Empire, the town of Vargard. The sixteen representatives would be escorted to the capital once the preliminaries were over by the Martial Academies.

That concluded all the primary information surrounding the Martial Contest that Rui had managed to easily dig up. However, there were still many issues that he had gone out of his way to clarify.

"I've heard that many of the descendants of the Martial community participate in the Martial Contest, descendants of powerful Martial families." Rui once told Headmaster Aronian. "What is the risk of being a victim of their family's retribution if I happen to defeat them publicly?"

"That is a valid concern, just not very sound." Headmaster Aronian. "Unless you kill them, or dehumanizingly humiliate them so much that it cannot be interpreted as anything other than a personal attack on that of their Martial family, you will be fine."

"Really?" Rui questioned, skeptically.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

"Really. There are several reasons for this." Headmaster Aronian nodded. "Firstly, you need to understand that as important as their heirs and descendants are to the Martial community, ultimately, the Martial World respects only strength. These Martial Families are led by Martial Artists who have vast experience in the Martial World. Every Martial Artist who has survived the Martial World knows that strength is the only thing that matters. Victory is everything and nothing less. They are very cognizant of this fact, they have to be, they would have died a long time ago if they hadn't. These people are sober to the reality of the world, if their descendants fail, they have only themselves to blame."

Rui wasn't convinced, visibly so.

"The Martial Artists of the Martial Community of the Kandrian Empire have experienced many things, boy." Headmaster Aronian shook his head. "They have gone through things that you cannot even begin to imagine. Do you think it is possible for them to have reached the higher Realms they have with a delusional mindset about their social status?"

Problem was, Rui wasn't convinced. Part of it was because there was too much risk, this kind of reassurance by word wasn't very reassuring.

Headmaster Aronian sighed. "The more concrete reason why you have nothing to fear are the Martial Academies, myself and His Honour Grandmaster Sage Damian Roschem."

"How so?" Rui raised an eyebrow.

"The Martial Academies do not tolerate the harassment or bullying of their students. We're extremely strict about this." Headmaster Aronian informed. "In the past few decades, there hasn't been even a single incident during the Kandrian Martial Festival. The price of making an enemy of the Martial Academies that is responsible for grooming their students to become Martial Artists simply isn't worth it."

Now this was much more reassuring.

"I can promise you as the Headmaster of the Martial Academy, you have nothing to fear." Headmaster Aronian confidently informed. "Still, you're getting a bit ahead of yourself, you haven't been chosen as the representative yet, are you that confident?"

"No." Rui replied. "But I am determined to give it my best, no matter what. I wanted to clarify this issue so that I can go all out without any problems."

"That's a healthy attitude." Headmaster Aronian nodded, approvingly. "I wish you good luck young man. I am quite looking forward to your performance in the preliminaries." He said, before continuing.

"You've mastered a variety of interesting and powerful techniques in the near two years you've been in the Academy, use them well." Master Aronian said.

"Thank you, Headmaster." Rui replied.

"Well, if there's nothing else, you may leave." Headmaster Aronian said, with a ton of finality.

Rui had bade farewell back then, and had returned to his dormitory room deep in thought. These were the among the many doubts and clarifications he had obtained when he was going through the final refining stage of his Martial Art, before he was finally clear on everything he wanted to be clear on.

"Now there's only the prelims left." Rui said, after he finished going through his notebook where he had noted all the important information regarding the Martial Contest.

The prelims began tomorrow. One month of fighting every single other Martial Apprentice in the entirety of the Academy, this included juniors who had broken through pretty recently as well as seniors who had been part of the Academy for years. They would all be competing against each other fairly, and by the end of the month, the strongest Martial Apprentice of the entire Academy would go onto compete with fifteen other peers.

,m Rui was so excited he had trouble falling asleep, even though he had purposefully avoided using potions so he could start off at his peak.

('I can't wait!')