The Kandrian Martial Festival had arrived!
The festive atmosphere in the entire nation had built-up for nearly a month prior until it erupted in full splendor. The streets were littered with decorations of various kinds as the emblem of the Martial Union; the face of Martial Art in the Kandrian Empire.
There a huge number of events being held in all major towns, and Hajin was certainly no exception. As a populated urban trade hub of a town, as well as home to one of then sixteen Martial Academies in the Kandrian Empire, an immense number of festive activities had commenced throughout the entire town.
The Martial Academies had all held demonstrations of Martial Art in public, demonstrations of feats that Martial Apprentices were capable of, flashy entertaining spars and other demonstrations that appealed to the average citizen.
The local businesses also took full advantage of the Festival, setting up large fairs with Martial Art festive ornaments and other domestic products of various kinds. These attracted an enormous number of people who attended them every day.
“Hiyaah!” Fae threw a palm attack at a boulder with an exaggerated yell.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
Several visible cracks spread across the entire boulder.
The crowd watching merrily erupted into cheers and applauses. It wasn’t everyday ordinary citizens got to witness what Martial Apprentices were actually capable of. The ordinary citizen rarely ran into Martial Apprentices on a day-to-day basis.
Asides from manual labour, Martial commissions were far too expensive for most of them! The only reason they could hire lower Realm Martial Artists for manual labour was because those commissions were rather cheap because most Martial Artists completed them rather quickly, and the value of labour was quite low to begin with.
Otherwise, it was a rare sight. Most citizens lacked a nuanced understanding of what Martial Artists were capable of, the Martial Festival would, of course, renew their memories, but because of its infrequency, the awareness of the matter never stuck.
“Woooaah!” A child in the crowd squealed in awe and amazement. “Martial Artists are awesome! Is big brother Rui also like that?”
“Indeed.” Julian smiled. “Your big brother is also a strong Martial Artist.”
He turned back to the demonstration with a wistful look. “It’s a shame he isn’t able to join us yet, however.”
Rui had already long informed the orphanage of the fact that he was chosen as a representative of the Hajin branch of the Martial Academies. He had expressed his need to immerse himself in training and mental conditioning for the Martial Contest that would be held in Vargard, the capital town of the Kandrian Empire, in two weeks
The Orphanage was quite ecstatic. Julian even promised to bring as many as he could to the town of Vargard as possible, although it wouldn’t be easy. However, none of them had wanted to miss this event.
Rui would be participating in a national level event!
Jus the very thought of it made all of them very excited.
Furthermore, they would be travelling outside of Hajin and the Mantian region for the very first time in their entire lives! Most of them were born in Hajin and had been taken in by Lashara at a very young age, settling just outside the town of Hajin in the Quarrier Orphanage. Visiting the very capital of the Kandrian Empire, the town that housed the Royal Kandrian Palace was something they would normally not even be able to dream of.
Julian had already begun making preparations for the lengthy four-day journey. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to bring as many people as he would have liked. The recent expansion of the Orphanage he himself had funded meant that the current functioning of the Orphanage was rather tight.
Only he Farion and Myra among the adults could go, that also limited the number of children they could take, since there only so many children three adults could manage. They had decided to bring as many adolescents as they could.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t bring the younger children, it would simply be too much. Furthermore, the journey would be too burdensome and difficult for the children.
Julian’s only regret was that Rui wasn’t able to join them today, but he understood how important this event was to Rui. Now there wasn’t much that could be done about it either, Julian would have to settle with spending time with Rui in the latter half of the month.
There were numerous events going on, and Julian would have liked to visit them with Rui. Thankfully, it was likely this wish would still be fulfilled even in the latter half of the month. The Martial Families went all out with these kinds of events throughout the entire month. The demonstration they were watching was actually organized by the Dullahan Family, a prestigious and powerful Martial Family in the Mantian region of the Kandrian Empire.
Later today, an open Martial Apprentice tournament was being held by the Arrancar Family, another prestigious Martial Family that was actually based in their very own town of Hajin.
The entirety of the Martial Community as a whole had been very proactive about their presence in the Martial Community. As the biggest proportion of the Martial Artist population of the Kandrian Empire, this Festival was literally centered around them, how could they sit around quietly?
An immense amount proactive initiative was taken by these Martial Families to increase the favourability and impression of Martial Art to the population of the entire Kandrian Empire. In a way, the Kandrian Martial Festival was an avenue to advertise the power of Martial Art. Ultimately, Martial Artists were service providers, demonstrating the degree to which they were capable of providing the service. The influx of Martial Art commissions always increased substantially after every Martial Festival.
The Martial Festival was a complex web of emotions and interests that interconnected in deep manners. No one knew the depth of it in its entirety, that was the true festivity of it to many.