The Shionel Confederation was more than what Rui had pictured. He had initially thought that he would not be surprised or overwhelmed by what he saw since he lived near the town of Hajin, which was a popular and dense trade and Martial hub in the Kandrian Empire, but he was extremely wrong.
"This is…" Kane murmured, his voice trailing off.
"We haven't even entered the nation yet," Rui's eyes widened.
The rush to enter the Shionel Confederation was absurd. Even outside the walls of the country, there were huge swathes of people trying to enter.
Rui glanced around them, scrutinizing the many people outside. A large chunk of the population seemed like a makeshift flea market. A lot of the market seemed like small-time merchants, making a living out of a small-time business selling a small set of goods or offering some basic manual labor services.
There were also small housing units that offered stay to people who were trying to enter the Shionel Confederation, yet had failed, for one reason or the other.
Rui's eyes narrowed as he spotted a ton of Martial Squires as well, unsurprisingly enough. Their grade wasn't too low, either, based on the sense of pressure and danger that they generated in him.
"I'd read about this… But it's more than I had expected," Rui admitted as he took in the sheer population of people outside of the borders of the nation.
"How can the Shionel Confederation allow such a large proportion of people to stay outside its borders in this fashion?" Kane frowned. "Isn't that, I dunno, not good for a nation?"
"You're not wrong," Rui replied. "It's just that the Shionel Merchant Guild implemented a policy of taxing all these people for infringing on the domain of the Shionel Confederation."
"Ugh, is there nothing that these people won't extract money from?" Kane frowned.
"No, actually. Not at all." Rui smiled wryly.
"Why don't these people actually enter the Shionel Confederation and sell their goods and services there, rather than outside the nation? Seems like a weird choice to choose sell here rather than in there" Kane wondered.
"That's because it isn't a choice," Rui calmly explained. "These people aren't able to sustain their small-time sales in the Shionel Confederation. They're people who got crushed and shoved out of the nation by more fierce competitors that monopolized estate, supply lines, distribution capital, etc."
"What does that actually mean?" Kane raised an eyebrow.
"Every nation has a hard limit to the amount of resources and capital that can exist within the nation," Rui explained. "Normally, this maximum amount is extremely high and is usually enough that most of the supplier market can get a share of it. However, the competition in the Shionel Confederation is so extremely high, that only the best can actually obtain the resources needed to sustain and allow their business to thrive."
"I see," Kane looked around. "So, all of these people couldn't cut it inside their nation, so they're losers who have no choice but to make do with scraps outside of the nation?"
"That's a harsh evaluation, but it is true,"
"Wait, we intend on participating in this competitive commercial environment?" Kane jerked his head back. "Are you sure this is going to work? How can we compete?"
"The market for the esoteric resources is currently the biggest at the moment, any group of Martial Squires that achieves a reasonable amount of success can compete fairly well," Rui explained. "On top of that, we don't just intend to succeed, we intend to dominate. There is absolutely no way that, as long as our plans in the Shionel Dungeon succeed, we'll fail."
"If you say so," Kane shrugged. "Alright, what do we do now?"
"We can enter the nation for starters," Rui smiled wryly. "We'll have to go the legal way this time."
"That would require registering with our actual identities, correct?" Kane frowned. "Wouldn't that be too dangerous?"
"Yes, but it's inescapable unless you want to have our identities forged with a fake identity card," Rui sighed. "Not that it's far harder for Martial Squires to fake our identities because we're massively more high-profile than normal citizens. I can assure you that every nation in the geographic vicinity of the Kandrian Empire probably has a file on both of us."
Kane's head jerked back as he turned towards Rui, surprised. "Wait what?"
"Did you really think countries didn't keep tabs on the Martial Artists of other countries?" Rui glanced at him with an amused expression. "We're no different from walking weapons of destruction in the eyes of not just other nations, but also our own nation."
"Damn," Rui murmured.
"Yeah, so it's better to just stick to our real identities for the paperwork," Rui noted. "Thankfully, the Shionel Confederation has been pressured by all nations participating in the Shionel Dungeon raid for a higher level of data security since the Shionel Merchant Guild did set up the Adventurer Guild that requires information about the Martial Squires of other nations. So it is unlikely that the documentation of our identities will spill easily, or be easy to acquire. The Shionel Merchant Guild is trying to create an attractive avenue for commerce, and being able to enforce its own rules and its own data security is necessary for building up the trust in its services."
"If you say so," Kane shrugged. He was content leaving the details of the plan to Rui, without butting in too much. Had he been partnering with anybody else, he would definitely not have left his fate in their hands and would have involved himself deeply with the plan. However, with Rui, he could trust his intentions, and most certainly his competence and intelligence. Rui was cautious and careful, usually. And he certainly would not do something that would be detrimental to Kane for his own benefit.
They quickly got into a massive line of people inside the transit port department. The process was even more rigorous than the entry to the Kandrian Empire.
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