The Martial Unity

Rui raised an eyebrow at his words.

"He was sharp, just like you," the man shook his head. "His ailment is Kandria's greatest curse."

"I understand you feel strongly about it," Rui replied. "I do, too. It is because I feel strongly about it that I require your support to ascend the throne and maintain the harmony that my father created, the harmony that elevated the Kandrian Empire to a powerhouse."

The man heaved a sigh. "I'm afraid I cannot help you."

Rui narrowed his eyes. "…And why is that?"

"…Had I known that you were a son of the Emperor, I would have made different choices, but…" The man shook his head.

"Get to the point, Minister," Rui stared at him intently.

"I have signed a permanent exclusive contract with Prince Raijun where I forfeit the right to officiate the coronation ceremony of any royal other than him," The man lowered his head.

Rui's eyes sharpened.

He clenched his fist.

In other words, the minister could not attend Rui's coronation ceremony without violating his agreement, allowing Prince Raijun to summon him to a court and negate his officiation of Rui's coronation ceremony, voiding Rui's claim as Emperor.

Prince Raijun had complete control over the minister's officiation power, in other words.

"…How could you?" Rui growled. "That's the highest agreement that a royal can secure from a high-ranking government official. Very few of the high-ranking government officials of even my faction have signed that."

Minister Kramen sighed. "…I had no choice. Only the Martial Union had the power to fetch me the Heavenly Makara Flower needed for the esoteric disease that I had contracted. Prince Raijun demanded permanent exclusive support of him in writing."

A contract specifying permanent exclusive support was extremely valuable to royals because it meant that they didn't need to worry about those high-ranking government officials defecting. That contract would effectively prohibit them from doing so.

"…I am sorry, I do wish to support you. I do believe that you are far and away the best candidate for the throne," The man heaved a regretful sigh. "But only Prince Raijun reserves the right to terminate our agreement and he would never do that."

"Perhaps my legal team can find a loophole," Rui suggested in vain.

The man laughed mirthlessly. "Surely you are aware that there is no such loophole, Your Highness. The legal division of Prince Raijun's administration is not that incompetent."

Rui heaved a sigh.

The man got up. "…I am truly regretful and bitter about this turn of events, but I am unable to help you. I shall not waste your precious time anymore. I hope you find someone else and ascend the throne as your father intended you to."

Rui watched the man leave his office with a soft gait.

"Mila."

"Yes, Your Highness?" His staff immediately responded.

"Have the intelligence division send me a report on all of the other twenty remaining high-ranking government officials," Rui narrowed his eyes.

"…Yes, Your Highness."

It wasn't long before he got the report in his hands.

"Nine of them are in Raul's faction, eight in Rajak's, and eight in Raijun's," Rui narrowed his eyes.

In the past nine months, he had slowly chipped away at each of the remaining three prince's factions with his overwhelming factional power. There was almost nothing they wanted that he could give their high-ranking government officials, winning them over remarkably swiftly.

The progress that they had taken many years to make was unraveled by Rui very quickly. Yet, unfortunately, not all high-

ranking government officials can be bought with Martial and economic capital and powerful favors.

"All of the remaining twenty-five support my three half-

brothers for ideological reasons?" Rui tutted.

"Yes, Your Highness," The director of his analyst division told him when he met up with her. "Over the past nine months. Those that can be moved by powerful incentives and benefits have already been wrung over to our faction; these remaining government officials are… hardcores that support the ideologies and policies that the three princes espouse."

"Tsk," Rui tutted. "So they cannot be moved by powerful favors from the Martial Union or large sums of money."

"Unfortunately so, Your Highness."

Rui narrowed his eyes as he considered the dilemma.

Martial Supremacy, the abolition of all restrictions and regulations, and the pedestalizing of the people's interests were doctrines that many found attractive. Thus, Rui was not surprised that a minority of high-ranking government officials were deeply supportive of one of the three.

Unfortunately, that also meant that he could not bring them over to his faction the easy way.

"Have Mikhaila set up an appointment with one of each of the most amenable supporters of each faction," Rui replied. "I will test how ideologically fixated they are and evaluate the prospects of bringing them over to my side."

If there was any hope in pulling them over to his faction, then it was best to work with the people who were most open-

minded.

"I will be sure to do that, Your Highness," she bowed to him.

Rui nodded, taking his leave.

It was annoying that he had stumbled into a roadblock at the final step of the journey to reach seventy-five percent. But alas, things couldn't go smoothly forever.

Unfortunately, he needed seventy-five percent even if he didn't intend to ascend the throne. In case he failed and the Emperor died, it would light ablaze the cold war and turn it into an active war.

While he didn't think Prince Raul would trigger a civil war in an attempt to use force to make high-ranking officials forcefully officiate his coronation ceremony, the same could not be said for Prince Raijun and Rajak.

He knew that these two were capable of falling to any depths to reach the throne.

If he failed in healing the Emperor and also didn't have seventy-five percent of the support needed to immediately crown himself Emperor, then the longer that went on, the greater the probability that Prince Raijun and especially Prince Rajak would rely on desperate measures of force, inevitably triggering a civil war even if their chances of reaching the crown was slim.

He also knew that Rajak would love nothing more than to kill as many members of the royal family as possible.

'I need to get seventy-five percent as soon as possible,' he narrowed his eyes. 'Only then can I leave the Empire without concern.'