The Martial Unity

His advisors glanced at each other, confused. Even the four Martial Masters behind him turned towards him, intrigued.

"…'Martial gamble'?"

"Yep," Rui looked pleased with his idea. "That is the only way to coax Prince Raijun into terminating Minister Kramen's contract."

His eyes shifted across the room, meeting with those of his confused advisors.

"A Martial duel."

His eyes swam around in thought. "I will challenge him to a Martial duel. If I win, Prince Raijun will terminate the contract. If I lose, I will forfeit my bid for the throne. I'll partake myself and give Prince Raijun the right to appoint a champion to fight in his place."

The expressions of his advisors darkened.

"You're risking too much, Your Highness!"

"How can Your Highness possibly risk the bid to the throne?!"

deeply risky and dangerous! You might truly never ascend the throne, Your

Rui had proposed. He would question their reliability if they didn't

not

to lose," He calmly replied. "Of course, if any of you think you can overcome this hurdle in a reasonably short-term frame, feel free

frowned. "Your Highness, why are you so hell-bent on getting this done in a short amount of time? The Emperor isn't

was a

could truthfully answer. However, he

just that a matter of getting it done soon," Rui replied. "There are no other feasible solutions of any kind, including long-term ones. This one can potentially be executed very quickly. Another reason is that the sooner

none of his Martial Master allies, inside and outside the Martial Union, saw anything wrong with it. While Martial Masters could detect emotion, they could not detect complex

of victory over the span of five years

only

top of that, the stakes are also not equal. Voiding a contract is not equal to forfeiting your claim to the throne! If your intentions were to have the stakes be equal, then this

of him voiding Minister Kramen's deal is much greater

his permanent exclusive contract with Minister Kramen was the only final defense against Rui's

came to buying high-ranking government officials with immense Martial, economic, and political capital quickly made them realize that they didn't have any hope when it came to beating him quickly

likely, they were simply holding on to dear life, stubbornly unwilling to give up while also knowing deep down

ago turned out to be the final line of defense, but it probably could not stop Rui forever, nor could it

smile. "What you need to understand about his psychology is that he went from being the most powerful contender for the throne and the one with the highest probability of