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?"

periods of time. The appearance of the Shionel Dungeon must have completely ruined each and every single one of those plans. It also threatened to give Chairman Deacon exactly what he

could compensate for, and one of them was the sheer amount of unfathomable growth that Chairman Deacon was getting thanks to the Shionel Dungeon. The Shionel Dungeon empowered the man's field and industries to a level that it did not boost

was one supposed to do when faced with such a titanic disadvantage, when his opponent was highly competent and

extraordinarily bold risks, without willing to bleed for the sake of simply not getting trampled

Bradt's opponent was known to be a relentless bloodhound that never let go. He possessed the trait that Guildmaster

Dungeon, and his ability to create a dungeon map that allowed for efficient and swift dungeon travel, Guildmaster Bradt had

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

him down, but instead, used the opportunity to gather support from merchants that he previously competed with. Previously, these merchants were raw esoteric ore deposits suppliers like he was, they were fierce competitors and he was unlikely

were likelier to support Guildmaster Bradt, and that's just the way that

that was dominating all of them, Chairman Deacon had managed to win over

how much potential this strategy had, he went all out with it as he aggressively bought over foreign stakeholders to his side by uniting

could not directly vote in the Shionel Dungeon, their cooperation could be used to buy off voters inside the Shionel Merchant Guild who

had employed his massive economic capital to gather as much of an advantage

efforts appeared to