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.

four princes and princesses; the Underworld Prince, the Corporate Princess, the Military Prince, and the Communist

would use the resources spared by abstaining against the People's Prince

princesses with the highest probability

those three was an undesirable candidate as

shrugged inwardly. This was the best he could do with the cards

the two of them had the potential to become historic. If Prince Raijun accepted Rui's deal, then he would become a Martial Squire, which could ultimately prove to be the

consequence of having extraordinary capabilities. Rui had even fully

is something that can't

was and the higher

Ieyasu would be capable of that, but he didn't possess Rui's keen ability to process

training session ended. "I'm going to require you to prove your words. If you cannot do it here and now, then I'll assume you have

have not," Rui heaved a troubled sigh. "Come,

got onto the training ground once more. Thankfully, Rui

took identical stances, standing opposite

Martial Prince, but also

the prince. Every movement, every attack, every maneuver, gesture, and

his expressions matched that of the

fighting a mirror image of

reined mirror

THUD!

his shoulder, slamming him onto