Developments

He had known it would be intense. He had even taken some measures to handle it, preparing himself psychologically.

Yet nothing could have prepared him for the waves of people that bombarded him with all kinds of absurdly long greetings.

"The Royal Ambassador of the Jaerun Kingdom greets the Virodha Champion..."

"I bid you congratulations on behalf of the Dreemont Consortium..."

"On behalf of the East-Panamic Alliance, we celebrate your victory..."

Rui briskly and swiftly dealt with each statement as well as he could. Many offers came his way, and many were declined. He couldn't afford to give due consideration to all of them.

However, he did give consideration to some of the more powerful guests. The reason for that was not because he was actually interested in joining or partnering with them.

He just wanted everybody watching to think he was.