The Martial Unity

The bright light of the morning Sun beamed through the windows of their room, while the humid breeze from the oceans brought along the odor of the ocean with it. The noise of the bustling crowds in the port city and the morning rush hung in the air as the business day commenced in full force.

It was yet another busy, lively day charged with immense energy.

Amare hummed as she went on about her morning with a pleased state of mind. The previous day and night had proven to do wonders for her anxiety surrounding the relationship she had with Rui.

Rui simply smiled at her as he considered their relationship and everything that had changed with it. He realized that he needed to be more mindful of the mind sense dynamic that existed between them, where he could sense her mind and emotions, but she couldn’t. He needed to make up for the gap with words and actions of love and affection.

Still, surely there was more he could do for her beyond just simply saying sweet words and doing sweet things when they were together at night. Surely there were gestures of love, from one Martial Artist to another, that could convey his care for her more than words ever could.

He fell into thought about the matter as Amare bathed in the bathroom of the little inn they shared. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn NovᴇlFir(e).nᴇt

Several ideas came to mind, but he wasn’t sure how viable they were. He would need some time and some inspiration while working on them, but he was determined to find ways to convey his love for her with more concrete actions.

“Well, for now, we ought to travel the Hlakaschken Trade Empire and experience it,” Rui remarked, stretching as he got up from bed, cracking his joints in relief.

He thought about his conversation with the diminutive Empress Schlieffen. He had told her that he would come to visit the next day, but it was highly unlikely that he would live up to those words. He had nothing to say to her until he got his prophecy ready and used it to try to convince her to remain neutral.

“I wonder if she made a big fuss about someone infiltrating her personal chambers…” Rui muttered. “I don’t think I’ve heard any manhunts for one Rui Quarrier.”

He hoped that she understood that he wasn’t there to kill her.

At least, not yet.

Hopefully.

It would be a pain in the ass if she turned the nation upside down to find him and have him executed for spying on Hlakaschken Royalty while they were exposed. However, based on the impression that he got from her, she didn’t strike him as the type to make a huge fuss over such matters.

She understood that if he had harbored any hostile intentions toward her the previous day, she would be dead already.

That didn’t mean that Rui didn’t have half a mind to assassinate her if she still decided to continue with moving away from neutrality, but the problem was more fundamental than the Empress herself.

On top of that, if she revealed his identity, it would cause a large international problem of diplomacy, which would not be good for either the Kandrian Empire or the Hlakaschken Trade Empire. What Rui did was certainly rude, but it wasn’t something that she could afford to cause a big incident over.

He suspected, however, that the next time they met, she would likely be armed with security to level the playing field more and speak more as an equal than as a hostage.

“Go get ready,” Amare told him as she emerged from the bathroom in the inn with her brown hair tied in a towel while another wrapped around her entire body. “I can’t wait to experience the Hlakaschken Trade Empire today.”

Rui smiled at her.

“It will definitely be quite fun.”

He quickly washed himself, wearing more normal clothes that stood out less in the Hlakaschken Trade Empire than their Martial attire, comprising simple upper and lower garments that Amare had gone out of her way to get for him, while she wore a simple one-piece dress that went down to her shins.

Before long, they departed from their inn as they took off on the streets.

“Let’s avoid sky-walking today,” Rui told her as he held her hand. “I don’t want to draw attention that could potentially get me in the Empress’s sights. It would be awkward to run into her before my next visit to her.”

“Next time, just arrange an official meeting rather than doing something as uncouth as breaking into her personal chambers,” Amare huffed, shaking her head. “Come on, let’s explore the port town. We didn’t even get through halfway yesterday!”

She pulled him towards the commercial districts of the city with an excited eagerness.

They had already visited the dwarven markets, so they avoided going there, instead choosing to visit the traders from Kiriket.

While the therianthropes of Kiriket were generally not big on trade, especially with the strengthening of the War Coalition of the civilization, there were still plenty of individual clans and groups within the continent that exported goods and services produced exclusively in Kiriket.

These generally tended to be non-predatory clans centered around species that were open to cooperation and harmony, usually of the Harmonist Faction on the continent. Rui knew for a fact that these groups exported a massive amount of products across the world, growing wealthier than clans that didn’t.

The moment they arrived at the therianthropic trader market, the air changed.

It was different from the dwarven market, where the products themselves were in focus and most highlighted. The dwarves of Sirinwel were craftsmen and blacksmiths who poured everything into the products that they constructed. Thus, their work stood out front and center above everything else, including themselves.

Their market structure had been to maximize exposure to the products themselves and minimize exposure to everything else.

The therianthropes were different, however.

The moment Rui and Amare entered the market district that the therianthropes occupied, they found themselves entering a more tense atmosphere, facing crests and coats of arms of the various clans on the banners above shops, in the shops, and on the clothes that employees garbed themselves in.