The Martial Unity

Bella Hier was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Her father had moved to Town of Hajin, decades ago in hopes of making it big, and through many years of sustained effort and clever business, he had managed to achieve immense economic success.

The Hier Industries was a premium esoteric material supplier, this trading company acquired high-grade esoteric matter and resold them in manufacturers at remarkably high markups, earning huge profits with each exchange. Its journey to the top of Hajin was textbook execution, it established robust supply chains that minimized logistical and inventory burdens while maximizing supply.

It even managed to grasp retired Martial Artists to permanently join the company, drastically reducing the cost of acquisition of certain high grade esoteric resources that could only be acquired through Martial Artists, which would be quite expensive if done through the Martial Union.

The Hier family grew in wealth and commercial prosperity for quite a long time, even until recently.

Until recently, that was.

When the company began expanding into other esoteric resource industries, aggressively encroaching onto the space of more accomplished companies. It had bitten off more than it could chew, the Lowminers esoteric suppliers was a company that had competed against the Hier family. The entirety of the market of the Town of Hajin and the surrounding lands were the battle ground between these two behemoths.

However, their bitter struggle ended when the Lowminers managed to expand and monopolize certain esoteric markets quicker. The Lowminers managed to eventually to corner and suffocate the Hier family commercially, and eventually had enough capital to buy a huge proportion of the shares of the Hier family through various third-party entities, effectively ripping apart a chunk of its rival from it.

And that is when Bella Hier's life crumbled.

Her father passed away.

('No, he was murdered.') Bella clenched her fists

that he was assassinated without a doubt. Her father was an extremely careful man. The idea that he would clumsily trip to such a degree that he died on the spot as a

was that her father had long prepared a will, in the event he was to die. He had passed

the remains of the Hier Industries to achieve complete dominion over the esoteric

the problem was no closer to being solved, not as long as Bella Hier was still alive. She, who had been groomed and raised as the successor of her

hand, her father had passed on his legacy

she bore immense responsibility,

Industries was effectively putting a target on her back. The Lowminers would come

immediately. Her fears were confirmed when she received word that the Lowminers had broken into her estate. She immediately when into survival mode and began planning for her

too powerful within the town of Hajin, if she stayed here, she would simply be too powerless to accomplish anything, and

best she could, but the problem was that it was not really possible by herself, she would almost certainly be caught. Going to law enforcement wouldn't help, companies with economic might usually had ears inside the law-enforcement branches and even some degree of influence. Furthermore, without concrete evidence of threat to her life she would not be able to obtain protection, the

Martial Union.') She sighed inwardly. The Martial Union was the strongest private association in the Kandrian Empire, a local behemoth limited to a single town or two had no influence on it. She would be able to commission a Martial Apprentice bodyguard through a third-person, her trusted attendant, and

was

was too risky. Because of her sudden departure, and lack of the elaborate preparation she would have ideally liked, she had been unable to move in a discrete manner. She knew it was only a matter of time before the Lowminers

KNOCK KNOCK

drew her attention. She glanced warily as she heard a muffled dispute on

into our establishment violating our and our customer's privacy!

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Another gruff voice insisted, ignoring the man's