The Martial Unity

Chapter 3401: Fighting Back

The crowd was impressively big and impressively dense, filled with hybrids and members of all six races that swarmed around with severe and grave expressions. The press mobilized their equipment like they were snipers on the prowl, waiting for their prey to fall.

The air was tense.

The atmosphere was electric with peril and uncertainty.

The mood was charged with negativity, despite the bright light of the late morning sky, as the sense of anticipation only grew.

Before the press, past the manned barrier was a giant podium with a small speaker’s stand placed at its very center. Behind it was the local city council building, armed with more security than usual and with several layers of protection and restrictions than normal.

Rui’s eyes sharpened as his attention remained fixed on the entrance.

”Here she comes.”

The noise of the crowd only grew louder as two pathwalker bodyguards emerged from within the building with incredibly heavy presences.

A tekvore with a body largely comprised of nanites. His body was smooth and black, as if carved out of marble, and yet every motion he made was inorganic and non-biological. The muscles in his body were non-existent and purely aesthetic.

His power was greater than that of the average Martial Sage, as tekvores were known to be.

The other pathwalker was an evolutionary woman with a highly transparent body, indicating that she had gone deeper in the Path of Adaptive Evolution than most evolutionaries. Her power, however, didn’t even remotely compare to Anthea, clocking in at about as strong as the average Martial Sage.

Only one person in the entire country warranted such protection.

”And now, Her Majesty Empress Schlieffen graces you with her presence!”

Rui’s eyebrow rose as the diminutive woman walked in from within the building, taking small but heavy steps with a royal gait. She looked a lot more impressive and powerful when prepared than when he caught her completely off guard in her own personal chambers.

He maintained a neutral expression as he felt Amare’s attention on him, trying to study his reaction.

”Citizens of the Hlakaschken Trade Empire,” she immediately began upon taking her spot at the speaker’s stand, which catered to her height. ”I, the monarch of this country, am here to present my official address on the catastrophic incident that happened yesterday at the port city of Halsch. As all of you know, roughly twenty-four hours ago in the Kiriket market in Halsch, several therianthropes went berserk and unleashed a destructive onslaught upon the entirety of the market. As of right now, we have confirmed the death of seventy-eight individuals who were unable to evacuate in time before elven intervention saved the day and the city. My heart and condolences go out to the families of each of the seventy-eight, and I am truly grateful to the first responders who mitigated the death and destruction by many orders of magnitude.”

She began with a brief summary, condolences, and expression of gratitude to those who saved the day to avoid being seen as cold or heartless, before moving on to the meat of her address.

”Although merely twenty-four hours have passed, the local investigative divisions and the Imperial Inquisitors have already thoroughly combed through all evidence and witness testimony. We have relied on scrupulous high-definition and three-dimensional satellite data to confirm what happened. We have also relied on super-long-range entropic surveillance technology, along with elven flora surveillance technology from across our empire, to further gain a deeper understanding of exactly why what has happened.”

Her tone was stern.

Amare turned to Rui with a raised eyebrow while Rui remained calm and unperturbed in the face of her words.

”Our finest investigators and analysts have come to the conclusion that the therianthropes of the Ryu Clan initiated aggression against the civilian clientelle while commencing their auction for low-grade dragon scales, before it rapidly escalated to all-out destruction and assault in a one-sided frenzy.”

The crowd erupted in noisy murmurs and even bursts of rage, grief, and hatred while Rui simply heaved a sigh of relief.

He wasn’t foolish enough to forget that the true world had an atrocious amount of insight into everything with highly advanced technology, both conventional and unconventional. He had manipulated the data that his little scene with the dragons had sent, allowing him to paint a different picture than what had happened.

A feat that would be considered impossible otherwise.

But for Rui, it was relatively simple and straightforward compared to many of the feats he normally accomplished.

Such was the power imbalance between Rui and most entities in the world. As one of the most powerful Martial Artists in the world, he could easily get his way, and there was very little that anybody could do about it. He could get his way without people even knowing about it.

It made life a little boring.

It was why he subjected himself to crazy tribulations, like allowing the light elves to ambush him without trying to prevent it from happening.

Only in such moments could he feel the thrill of uncertainty.

The noise of the crowd grew louder and louder as the head of state and government herself confirmed the entirety of the moral blame falling on the dragons of the Ryu Clan.

And now that she had confirmed that, she had no choice but to hold back on the punishment, lest she lose all public support and credibility.

”As a result, from this day forth, effective immediately, I hereby prohibit any and all members of the Ryu Clan from setting foot in the Hlakaschken Trade Empire!” she declared with a bold voice. ”And until the Ryu Clan compensates us for our losses, the Hlakaschken Trade Empire will impose a tariff of fifty percent on all goods imported into the Hlakaschken Trade Empire from Kiriket Continent!”

The crowd erupted in cheers and triumphant roars of approval as Rui smiled knowingly.

Things had gone exactly as he had expected and predicted they would.

With this, the Ryu Clan was undoubtedly bound to experience a heavy impediment to their ambition of taking over the Kiriket Continent and, eventually, the world.