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

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 result was an absurd notion. She was certain that the Lowminers had a Martial Apprentice, since the Martial Union would never agree to accept such a

had long prepared a will, in the event he was to die. He had passed on all of his ownership of the Hier Industries to

degree. Part of their goal was to cannibalize the remains of the Hier Industries

who had been groomed and raised as the successor of her father, grew pale when she read her father's will as she

one hand, her father had passed on his

other, she bore immense responsibility, and

father's dominant shares of the Hier Industries was effectively putting a target on her back. The Lowminers would come for her without a

had broken into her estate. She

The Lowminers were too powerful within the town of Hajin, if she stayed

Hajin aiming to use her connections to the 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 whole endeavor would be no different from announcing

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 that is exactly what

was a

because staying in her current location for too long 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

KNOCK KNOCK

her attention. She glanced warily as she heard a muffled

and our

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

voice insisted, ignoring