The Martial Unity

WHOOSH

The sixteen Martial Masters disappeared along with their four marks.

All that was left behind was silence.

The three of them simply remained as they were for a few seconds.

"Shame," Master Reina admitted.

"Speak for yourself," Master Gurren snorted, heaving a sigh of relief.

He turned to Rui. "You better give me that parallax technique as promised."

"Will do," Rui smirked.

The Master nodded before sky-walking away.

"What now?" Master Reina asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, most importantly, I need to get this to a safe place," Rui turned off the recording artifact.

He had gone for a rare recording artifact. It was based on potent esoteric substance that was highly reactive to light and was uniquely altered by the color, intensity, and angle of all light that hit it. Each second of light permanently altered a layer of the orb. Thus, a sphere could store an entire video that could later be reconstructed by doing detailed examinations of each layer.

Thus, it effectively functioned as a video camera.

It was also the only real leverage he had over the royals. So, he needed to ensure that nothing happened.

"Where are you going to keep it?" Master Reina asked, curious. "If they get to it, then all this will have been for nothing."

"Well, first, I'll have to make several copies," Rui replied nonchalantly. "That massively reduces the probability of a fiasco. It's never a good idea to have a single point of failure. I will entrust each of the copies to several secure and trusted individuals, with specific instructions on what to do with them under certain circumstances."

His eyes closed. "With that, they can kiss any hopes of getting rid of the evidence goodbye. I have them by the balls."

His voice was firm.

Master Reina smirked, amused. "Nice. But wouldn't it be better to get rid of them entirely by handing in the evidence to the Martial Union?"

"It is an attractive proposal," Rui replied calmly. "But it has issues. Their trial will not entirely restrict their ability to exercise their soft power, not all of it; that is what scares me. The Martial Masters loyal to them will not cease their loyalty just because they're being tried. After all, those same Martial Masters were complicit. They will still obey their commands, most likely to the very end."

Rui narrowed his eyes. "Someone who has nothing to lose is far more dangerous than someone who has everything to lose. What if they…decide they want some revenge before they go down? What if they snap and decide they want to see me suffer even if it only hastens their inevitable fate?"

In particular, he was most worried about Princess Rafia and Princess Raemina.

Both of them were patently insane.

It was not impossible for them to instruct their Martial Masters to kill Rui. Or, they might decide to target his family before commanding the Martial Masters loyal to them to go annihilate the orphanage.

Raemina, in particular, was known to be a viciously vengeful woman. Rui did not want to see what she was capable of when she was no longer shackled by any constraint of any kind.

There was no telling what they would do.

"On top of that, if I do as you suggest, I will likely earn the hatred of the Kandrian Seafare Association, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the Royal Army, the commercial sector of the Kandrian Empire, the Kandrian government, international forces and powers…" Rui heaved a sigh. "To them, these royals are vessels to achieving their greatest ambitions. A realistic chance to achieve some of their wildest dreams. An enormous amount of power is at stake."

He turned towards Master Reina. "How would you feel if a young Senior brat destroyed your only hope of achieving your greatest ambitions and wildest dreams?"

"Pretty pissed," Master Reina admitted.

"Exactly," Rui replied calmly. "I don't need that pressure. I don't need that hostility. Yes, I have the Martial Union, but that gives them more leverage over me. The more I need their protection, the more they can demand of me."

He shook his head. "As satisfying as it would be to see the royals sentenced to life imprisonment…the risks of them harming me or my family, the dangers of pissing off their backers. These are things I cannot contend with. There are limits even for me. That's not all…"

He got up, putting the chair back. "The outcome of the Kandrian War will be negatively affected by this. The fact of the matter is, I don't want any of them to become Emperor or Empress, including Raijun. I avoided pissing off his faction by yielding to aiding him, but I don't want Kandria to become a Martial Supremacist nation. That is why I cannot get rid of the four royals. Because the moment they're gone…"

He closed his eyes. "Prince Raijun will have won the Kandrian Throne War. Rajak and Raul cannot stop him by themselves. Not after the power that I have bestowed upon him. The only one who can stop Raijun…"

He opened his eyes. They flashed with a glint of determination.

"The only one who can stop him is me."

His eyes sharpened. "I will use my leverage over the royals to turn them into my puppets. They will stop Raijun at the cost of their own dead ambitions."

"That is why I cannot turn in the evidence," Rui replied. "In the short-term, the mid-term, and in the long-term, it is an objectively sub-optimal decision, even if very satisfying. On top of that, the probability that-"

"Enough," Master Reina raised her hand with a tired expression, massaging her head. "My head hurts. Is this how it always is inside your mind? Your thought process is nauseatingly tiring. It must be a nightmare being you."

Rui narrowed his eyes. That was the second time he had heard that.

"Still, couldn't you have at least revealed that you were the Voidreaper in dramatic fashion?" Master Reina smirked. "Seeing the dumbfounded expressions on their face would have been a treat."