The Martial Unity

Lashara smiled at those words, turning to Rui with an affectionate gaze. "…It is my favorite past-time."

Rui's smile was melancholic, for he knew that soon he would be departing from the Kandrian Empire and would not see her for several years to come.

"Then, you'll have to pardon me while I borrow this young man for a brief," Matriarch Nephi got up, withdrawing her hands from Lashara. "We have some important matters to speak about."

Rui waved the dumbfounded Quarrier Orphanage. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

The two of them sky-walked across Kandria toward the Ilvilia Forest, where the Silas Clan was settling.

"You have been blessed," Matriarch Nephi remarked with a profound tone. "That bastard Rael did a good job finding a family for you."

Rui smiled wryly. "Grandmother, when I'm gone…"

"Don't worry," she remarked. "I shall ensure that no harm shall befall the Quarrier Orphanage. Not now, not ever. Rest assured that my power will protect them always.

Rui heaved a deep sigh of relief. "…Thank you."

With that reassurance, Rui could probably stop worrying about the Quarrier Orphanage entirely. With the protection of a prophetic Martial Sage, the Quarrier Orphanage was essentially untouchable.

"Now then," Matriarch Nephi narrowed her eyes. "What did the Martial Sages of the Martial Union say to you?"

"They were naturally shocked by your citizenship in Kandria," Rui remarked. "At the same time, they were deeply interested in winning over the Silas Clan to the Martial Union. Now that the Silas Clan has settled in the Kandrian Empire, everybody wants a piece of the pie."

"Hm, and you're sure that the Martial Union is the place most suited for us?"

"Without a doubt, the other options are governmental institutions that require loyalty and some amount of compliance with orders from superiors or the Underworld, where you will then become the enemy of the Martial Union and the Emperor," Rui informed her. "Of course, you can also go 'his' route and swear an oath of loyalty to the Emperor."

He didn't dare utter Sage Sayfeel's name aloud. He had already warned the Matriarch of the importance of the secret and had reluctantly got her to agree to allow Sage Sayfeel to wipe out his memory from their minds with some hypnosis while she herself agreed to never divulge the secret.

"Hmph, no thank you," she snorted. "We refuse to make enemies inside the nation or swear loyalty and comply. The Martial Union seems like the best place, without a doubt."

"It definitely is," Rui admitted. "As I was saying, they were deeply interested in obtaining the Silas Clan's partnership and even giving you all a say in the Union's Fiscal Committee, which decides the allocation of the Martial Art budget. They are also proposing a mutual aid agreement where both parties will come to aid the other in times of unprovoked conflict."

Matriarch Nephi's eyes nodded with enthuse at that. "We are very much willing to enter such an agreement unless the Martial Union is frequently attacked. Is it?"

"The last time it was attacked was more than eighty years ago during the Second Great Panamic War," Rui shrugged. "Only a minute proportion of the peak of human civilization, the Sage-level powerhouses, around the Panamic Continent that have the balls to attack us. And frankly, the incentive is not strong enough. They'll lose far more than they could possibly ever gain."

It was simply not worth it to lose half one's Martial Sages and Martial Masters just to get one's hands on the power of prophecy. Both classes of Martial Artists were too powerful to be worth sacrificing en masse for the sake of the power of prophecy.

"Hm, that's quite attractive, then," Matriarch Nephi remarked.

"Do you want me to provide you with a more detailed report regarding the Martial Union and its Sages?"

"Hmph, that won't be necessary. It has been a long time since I've read in the continental dialect, and I prefer to rely on more own judgment rather than second-hand intelligence."

"Understandable."

It simplified his job, certainly.

STEP

They arrived at the Silas settlement in the Ilvilia Forest.

Rui glanced around, inspecting the progress of the clan. Considering how short a while it had been, they had made significant progress in building initial settlements for everybody in a short amount of time.

"Come," she remarked to her grandson, entering a particularly large hut. "Give me all the information you have about the Divine Doctor. I shall fulfill your request to me now that it is clear that you have obtained all the information that I require."

Rui nodded before proceeding to tell her everything that the information package covered. He also showed her several pictorial representations of data, including a map featuring the Divine Doctor's migration patterns in the Human Domain.

He made sure to congest and present her summaries and distilled shreds of information that were particularly pertinent.

"Hmmm…" Matriarch Nephi narrowed her eyes a few hours later. "How fascinating. To think that he has managed to conquer death in this fashion. I wonder if the Silas Clan could employ their soul transfer technique to overcome the shortcoming of the Eye of Prophecy technique?"

Her eyes flashed with greed at the revelation of this new information.

"I doubt that the Beggar Sage is going to offer up the key to immortality," Rui shrugged. "But that's about all the relevant information about the Divine Doctor. So what do you think, grandmother? Can you use your Eye of Prophecy technique to locate the Divine Doctor?"

He gazed at her with enthusiasm and anticipation.

"Remains to be seen," Matriarch Nephi. "I will need some time to digest and process everything that you have told me."

Rui tilted his head. "Is that how the technique works?"

"Of course. I suppose I can tell you now."

Her tone grew solemn as the air almost instantly grew heavier.

The intensity in her eyes reflected the importance of what she was about to disclose.

"It comes from the soul."

Rui narrowed his eyes.

"Every living creature is able to instinctively discern the future, whether it's something as simple as instinctively predicting the motion of moving objects or more complex instinctive estimations of the future of matters relating to people," she continued. "The origin of these instincts regarding the future is the subconscious mind. Sage Silas developed a sophisticated set of hypnotic training techniques that trained and honed that future instinct, elevating it far beyond instinct. Elevating it to the Eye of Prophecy."