The Martial Unity

Rui sharpened his eyes at the Emperor's ruthless eyes.

The Emperor shared a nuance that he hadn't considered before. In hindsight, Rui wasn't surprised that part of the grooming, education, and raising of royals included instilling a drive to inherit the throne.

In that case, it was true that the royals who had still failed to retain a drive for the throne simply were not temperamentally inclined towards inheriting the throne. In that case, Rui understood why the Emperor had simply dismissed them as candidates for being his heir.

"Regardless of the reason, the fact of the matter is that I do not desire the throne in any way," Rui narrowed his eyes. "You, who claims to know me better than myself, still chose to name me as your unofficial heir. What am I to infer from that?"

"You can infer what you want, my son," The Emperor replied.

The air grew electric.

"Alright then," Rui glared at his father. "What I am to infer is that you stayed out of my life my entire life, and now that you need a good heir for the throne, you have decided to drag me out of my previously normal life and exposed my identity as a prince and crowned me an unofficial heir in order to make me participate in the Kandrian Throne War, win, and become the next Emperor of Harmony."

A tumultuous tension boiled between father and son.

The Emperor met Rui's accusatory glare with clear eyes.

single remark escaped his

have

admitted to exploiting Rui to fulfill

the

at Rui, heaving a deep sigh. "A good father would do the opposite. He would

closed his eyes. "I am not a

good emperor. An emperor who does what is necessary for the

to exploiting his son for politics. "At least you admit it. You're not nearly as

affirmed. "However, your well-being and the life that you led up until now do not entirely

snorted. "You think I can pursue my Martial Path while simultaneously running a Sage-level

Empire and ensuring that you push it in the right direction.

narrowed his eyes. "That will still be an enormous responsibility even if things go as smoothly as you think they will. Worst of all, I will be shackled to the throne. I will not be able to explore this world and expose myself to it on my voyage to fulfilling my ambition. I will be

Emperor came flooding back

delicate tending to…" Rui snorted. "The theoretical absolute best-case scenario is

well, perhaps even less depending on how much of how large the error parameter centered around your inexperience with administrative and

Martial Artist," Rui growled. "Spending sixty percent of my day on the duties of the throne is not something that I am inclined

day, he

kind of resources that I can get my hands on. Resources so unfathomably precious that Martial Artists would