The Martial Unity

"I thought you didn't care about the elections," Kane asked one day when the fateful day was arriving sooner, raising an eyebrow as he watched Rui reading one of the campaigning ads of Chairman Deacon.

"I didn't before, but…" Rui's eyes narrowed. "That was because I thought Guildmaster Bradt had it in the bag without any shadow of a doubt."

"You're telling me he doesn't?" Kane raised an eyebrow. "I thought Guildmaster Bradt was the most kick-ass merchant in the Shionel confederation and no one could possibly trounce him head-on."

"These things don't work like a Martial Art fight, you know," Rui replied, amused. "Political and economic competitions are such that their personal capabilities matter less than you think. Yes, Guildmaster Bradt is extremely competent as a merchant, but the same can be said for Chairman Deacon. They have their own strengths in the way that they operate. The differences in their personal capacities as merchants and political leaders are not going to be tie-breakers. There are other variables that are arguably far more important."

Kane glanced at him. "Like…?"

"Circumstances," Rui replied shortly. "Opportunities. Even plain old luck."

"Circumstances like the Shionel Dungeon?"

to maintain political power over longer periods of time. The appearance of the Shionel Dungeon must have completely

one of them was the sheer amount of unfathomable growth that Chairman Deacon was getting thanks to the Shionel Dungeon. The Shionel

such a titanic disadvantage, when his opponent was highly competent and would certainly

willing to bleed for the sake of simply not getting trampled

even then, it most likely would not be enough in and of itself. The reason for that was that Guildmaster Bradt's opponent was known to be a relentless bloodhound that never let go. He possessed the trait that Guildmaster Bradt needed to exhibit

Dungeon, and

bag when he had signed the deal with the man. What he hadn't expected was how well Chairman Deacon would be able to cope and keep up even after the major setbacks that the

were raw esoteric ore deposits suppliers like he was, they were fierce competitors and he was unlikely to have ever been able to gain their political support. After all, he

and that's just the

partnering up with the Guildmaster that was dominating all of them, Chairman Deacon had managed to win

aggressively bought over foreign stakeholders to his

the Shionel Dungeon, their cooperation could be used to buy off voters inside the Shionel Merchant Guild who had interests

even one bit. He had employed his massive economic capital to gather as much of an

appeared to have