The Martial Unity

Rui found it truly regrettable that he was unable to hide the fact that he could fix the Martial Prince's problems. But when the cat came out of the bag, he swiftly came to a decision to offer some means of cooperation instead of refusing to cooperate.

This was because he truly did not want to earn the enmity of an entire faction by operating in bad faith.

After all, he had promised that he would do his reasonable best to help the prince. The Martial Prince had acted in good faith this entire time, and it was Rui who went against the spirit of their deal.

Breaking out of their deal with the severance pay would mean breaking ties with the Raijun Faction on bad terms. That was a level of pressure that he could not handle even as a high-grade Martial Senior. Had he been a Martial Master, he would have been able to get away with it, but alas, he was not.

That was why, in fear of pissing off many wealthy patrons, Martial Masters, and even a Sage, he ultimately decided to cooperate. The Kandrian Throne War was important, but not worth pissing off people astronomically more powerful than him.

Of course, the Martial Union was very pleased with Rui at the moment and that included the Martial Supremacist Faction, so he didn't think they would instantly become hostile to him., but it would undoubtedly sour his relations with the Martial Union. He also needed a lot of support to be inducted into the Fiscal Committee as a constituent.

Prince Raijun was the Martial Union's ticket to the throne, or a good chunk of the Martial Union, anyway. Rui essentially sabotaging Prince Raijun would not fly over well with a lot of people.

Such was the nature of the dynamics. On one hand, the Martial Union would never allow an outsider, who too of royal blood, to bully Rui. On the other hand, the Martial Union would not be pleased if Rui refused to give them the key to winning the Cold War.

Both Prince Raijun and Rui were smaller than the Martial Union and the Martial Supremacist Faction in this case.

That was why Rui wisely left open a path forward to cooperation.

Furthermore, in this path, he still left some hope for Prince Raul and Ranea to win, since he would be taking away crucial methods for Prince Raul to push back against those two competitors. It was still possible for them to win the Kandrian Throne War.

deal also reduced the probability that the remaining four princes and princesses; the Underworld Prince, the Corporate Princess, the Military Prince, and

use the resources spared by abstaining against the People's Prince and the Sea Princess against

if Prince Raijun accepted Rui's proposal, then the princes and princesses with the highest

those three was an undesirable candidate as

do with the cards that he had been

to become historic. If Prince Raijun accepted Rui's deal, then he would become a Martial Squire, which could ultimately prove to

the consequence of having extraordinary

well, they should understand that this is something that can't

Martial Apprentice, but it became increasingly difficult the more experienced a Martial Artist was and the higher their Realm was. It was basically impossible for him to do it

of that, but he didn't possess Rui's keen

to prove your words. If you cannot do it here and now, then I'll assume you have been deceiving

have not," Rui heaved a troubled sigh. "Come, allow me to

training ground once more. Thankfully, Rui had seen more

stances, standing

the Martial Prince, but also the

movement, every attack, every maneuver, gesture, and even twitch of movement had become

expressions matched that

was fighting a mirror image

and more reined

THUD!

Martial Prince over his shoulder, slamming him