The Martial Unity

His Royal Secretary nodded. “Then, I shall commence the preparations for the operation.”

BZZZT

The Emperor of Harmony gazed at his comms device as a report detailing the return of Ieyasu after the completion of the operation. His eyes sharpened with a hint of suspicion as he read through the details of his operation in the Sekigahara Confederate. “Was it wise to send the Chosen One to the Sekigahara Confederate, of all people, Your Majesty?” the Royal Secretary asked him.

“…Well, he was probably the only one who could single-handedly turn the tides,” Emperor Rael remarked with a calm tone. “However, that wasn’t the reason I sent him in particular.”

“…I thought you would be too suspicious of him to send him, Your Majesty.”

“Rather, it is because I’m suspicious of him that I sent him,” Emperor Rael remarked with a sharpened gaze. “By subjecting him to different situations, I wanted to see what kind of decisions he makes.”

The Royal Secretary stirred. “The report details that he performed his role perfectly before returning to the Kandrian Empire after confirming the completion of the assigned operation.”

“Correct, it’s rather interesting that he returned at all considering he has no intention of remaining in the Kandrian Empire forever,” the Emperor of Harmony remarked. “He hasn’t formed a single friend or acquaintance, and all his interactions are either necessary or transactional in regards to his training and growth. He has a very self-centered greed for power and is only here because the Kandrian Empire has been able to supply him with power to assimilate… until now.”

He had copied almost everything, leaving only that which he couldn’t copy.

The reason to remain in the Kandrian Empire was scant, yet, it wasn’t easy for him to leave the nation in the blink of an eye due to the agreements that he had entangled himself with in the Kandrian Empire.

If those were the only things shackling him back, then Emperor Rael had calculated that there was a high chance that he would have used the opportunity to simply ditch the Kandrian Empire and run away. It was the perfect opportunity to simply escape the Kandrian Empire without them being able to pursue him very easily.

“…And yet, he returned,” the Emperor of Harmony narrowed his eyes as his mind coursed with thought. “He returned despite intending to eventually leave. That must mean he is waiting for something. Something that has yet to happen.”

This was where Emperor Rael’s deep insights into Tokugawa Ieyasu were more uncertain.

“…Is he waiting for his breakthrough?” Emperor Rael raised an eyebrow with a speculative thought.

He couldn’t help but fall upon this possibility.

Maybe he evaluated that the Kandrian Empire was the best to remain until he achieved his breakthrough.

After all, he had already traveled the continent before, according to Rui.

Thus, it was unlikely that he would make gains he didn’t make as a Martial Master by going elsewhere as a Martial Master. Anything he was able to copy as a Martial Master would already have been copied, and anything that he wasn’t able to was unlikely to be copyable until he reached the Sage Realm.

Thus, it was possible that he was just stalling until he broke through to the Sage Realm and no longer needed to stick around in the Kandrian Empire. “…Alternatively, it’s possible that he’s waiting for Rui to return.”

He knew that his son shared a special relationship with Tokugawa Ieyasu, they didn’t appear to be friends but they had fought against each other multiple times in the past and had even trained with each other multiple times in the past.

It was possible that he was waiting for Rui to return from the Beast Domain so that he could assimilate more power from him, perhaps.

“Regardless of what he is waiting for, it doesn’t change the fact that he simply isn’t trustworthy,” Emperor Rael remarked with a knowing tone. “…Was it not a risk to send him to the Sekigahara Confederate if he is such a flight risk then, Your Majesty?” the Royal Secretary asked the Emperor.

Emperor Rael shook his head. “I would rather he made a run for it then. It would have been a shame if we lost him, but it would have been better than operating with the uncertainty of whether or not he intended to leave us. I do not care for a treasure that I simply cannot trust, for they may leave us when we need them the most and when we depend on them the most. Even with the Divine Doctor…”

He turned to his Royal Secretary with a knowing expression. “Despite being the most inhumanly psychopathic monster in human skin, I have reason to trust his consistent reliability because I understand what drives him, and I understand that Rui has successfully anchored him to the Kandrian Empire by leveraging what drives him.”

The alien specimen and Rui’s role as a stethoscope to diagnose Gaia’s alleged illness were what kept him in the Kandrian Empire. As long as these conditions were fulfilled, the Emperor of Harmony had every reason to trust him and rely on him. The same could not be said for Tokugawa Ieyasu.

“…Well, I have made sure that we do not grow unshakably reliant on him for this very reason,” Emperor Rael remarked with a knowing expression. “Even if he disappears on us, we will be able to handle ourselves just fine. We have many fine Martial Masters like Sir Armstrong, Master Nel, and Master Nepomniachtchi. We will be fine. More importantly, I need to pay attention to the reports regarding how the rest of the nations have dealt with the ambushed second beast tide and the aftermath.”

Most nations had weathered damage to varying degrees, although none had come close to the kind of destruction that the Sekigahara Confederate had suffered. The most stunning outcome of all of this was that the Beast Incursion had subsided for what was thought to be a temporary break due to the overexertion by the incursion in the number of beasts and their impact on human civilization.

For the first time in more than fifteen years, the Panama Continent grew silent.

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