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?!"

"This is deeply risky and dangerous! You might truly never ascend the throne, Your Highness!"

Of course, Rui expected his advisors to erupt into protests at the terms that Rui had proposed. He would question their reliability if they didn't push back against such absurdly imbalanced stakes against him.

Unfortunately, it was not enough to deter him.

"I don't intend 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 to share your bright ideas."

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

That was a very pertinent question.

Unfortunately, it was not one that Rui could truthfully answer. However, he had already primed himself for this question, having prepared for it.

"It isn't 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 I establish my victory, the lower the probability of a civil war ensuing once my father dies."

These were technically true, and thus, 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 nuances regarding the truth factor.

His advisors were deeply unconvinced. "Your Highness, you have an overwhelming advantage against them; your probability of victory over the span of five years and beyond is greater than ninety percent. If you challenge them with the aforementioned conditions, you're evening the odds in their favor to fifty-fifty."

That wasn't the only critique they had.

"On 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 would still not be nearly as disagreeable."

Rui shook his head. "Prince Raijun would never agree to the deal if it was equal on paper because the value of him voiding Minister Kramen's deal is much greater than the value of me voiding the deal with one of the high-ranking government officials that support me."

Prince Raijun was undoubtedly aware that his permanent exclusive contract with Minister Kramen was the only final defense against Rui's unstoppable campaign in the past nine months.

The allied princes had realized the sheer overwhelming campaigning power that Rui had. The way in which he swept through them when it 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 or fairly.

Most likely, they were simply holding on to dear life, stubbornly unwilling to give up while also knowing deep down in their hearts that they had no chance of victory.

By some turn of luck, this one random permanent exclusive contract that Prince Raijun had extracted many years ago turned out to be the final line of defense, but it probably could not stop Rui forever, nor could it bring them any closer to the throne.

"That is why a Martial duel will be extremely attractive to Raijun," Rui narrowed his eyes with a soft 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 victory after I turned him into a Martial Squire to being an oppressed candidate who needed to rely on alliances to barely handle my campaign."

He turned to each of his advisors. "Can you imagine how much desperation and frustration he must have felt when he went from being the shining Martial Prince who was all but destined to win the throne to being the shadows of my campaign?"

Rui closed his eyes. "In such a state of mind, what do you think he would do if he saw a realistic chance of kicking me out of the Kandrian Throne War?"

His eyes opened, filled with certainty. "He would take it. That's why it needs to be what he perceives to be a realistic chance. Of course, rest assured that I have no intention of losing."

"Why not have another Martial Senior take your place?" One of his advisors asked. "There are only twelve grade-fifteen Martial Seniors in the Kandrian Empire, but I'm sure we can get one of them to support you. It's highly unlikely, but we might even be able to get the Ga-"

"Absolutely not," Rui gruffly interrupted him. "I will not allow any Martial Senior to represent me as my champion. I cannot tolerate that. I will fight for myself. With my own power."

His advisors stared at him with a hint of exasperation.

It was clear that Rui was being irrational at the moment.

In the first place, it was not rational to bet one's bid for the throne of a Sage-level powerhouse, one that was all but settled to be his, in return for a simple termination of an agreement. On top of that, he intended to participate himself.

These two things were definitely not a rational course of action that someone in the winner's seat would take, but alas, it appeared that Rui Quarrier Kandria was determined to follow through.