The Martial Unity

Her golden eyes widened at those words.

They were calm and composed.

His expression slackened as the smallest of smiles cracked at the edge of his mouth. “You have a way with words that reminds me of our father. I can see why he chose you to be his heir. But…”

His ethereal eyes sharpened.

“…I’m afraid that it isn’t going to work. The one to ascend the throne will be me.”

His voice was calm, but unyielding.

If he was angry at her words, he didn’t show it.

For a moment, the two of them simply exchanged a deep gaze. He simply smiled at her knowingly, conveying that he understood exactly what she was trying to do. She didn’t sense any hostility in his ethereal eyes, merely calm determination to achieve the goal she sought to achieve.

Her one and only possible scenario of victory had failed.

But her golden eyes did not lose their hope.

’A leader must be the most tenacious when all hope is lost; that is what separates a leader from those he leads,’ her father’s voice echoed in her mind.

“You do not deny that you are the cause of our father’s death,” she remarked with a calm tone. “You do not deny that you have very clearly exploited his death and funeral for your own personal gain. And when confronted with these indisputable facts, you insinuate it is a ploy to try and evade responsibility.”

Rui simply smiled at her retort. “Actually, I can freely admit that I may as well have killed our father.”

Her eyes widened at those words.

“I can also admit that I’m cynically exploiting his funeral to fuel my bid for the throne,” he continued with a calm voice. “I am not in the habit of letting opportunities slip. And if our father were alive, he would have done the same in my shoes. This is a man who actually killed his own father and then executed each and every single one of his siblings.”

It was the more ruthless side of Rael that did not come up every often after he ascended the throne and adopted harmony as a political philosophy to create as much prosperity for his people.

“Rest assured, I have no intention of killing any of you after I ascend the throne. This isn’t a game with honor rules, young miss. We’re fighting for the most powerful throne in this continent,” Rui remarked with a powerful voice. “I have already given all of you enough of a handicap by refusing to ascend the throne in a tyrannical manner and refusing to hold the nation hostage with my abandonment, but I will not allow other opportunities to fly by. My announcement to human civilization has been important enough to warrant using the opportunity to the fullest. That is all.”

It was ruthless, but hardly beyond the pale. Many of the gathered guests of honor would have been much, much more ruthless and brutal than he was if they were in his shoes.

Refusing to use his power in a tyrannical manner and trying to gain a mandate of support from everybody was already far more generous than they could have hoped for ordinarily.

Prime Minister Edward, who was seated a little behind Princess Ru among the guests of honor, grew even more conflicted. He knew that he would have seized the throne and the Empire by force and crowned himself Emperor by now if he were Rui.

Rui’s ethereal eyes bore deep into his sister’s. “Is there anything else you have to say, Princess Ru? I hope you did not interfere with my little post-funeral announcement to make such banal accusations after I gained a tide of support from those who were in favor of my vision.”

Princess Ru quickly changed gears, wisely realizing the futility of beating the dead horse of his ethics. “A tide of support? Perhaps your ethereal eyes see more than the eyes I inherited from my father, but I did not see a tide of support.”

A harmonious smile emerged on her father. “If I had to say, it was closer to a splash compared to the depth of human civilization. But…”

Her golden eyes grew serious. “What was indeed a mighty tide was the tide of silent fear that spread through our guests of honor when you conveyed the ’changes’ that you wish to bring to our civilization. Since you have taken the liberty to make a show of support, allow me to do the opposite.”

She turned towards the guests of honor with a deep, sweeping gaze.

“Leaders of Panamic Civilization, if there was ever a time in history to use your voice, it is in this occasion, for never before and never again will your voices be heard this loud.”

Her dignified and graceful tone of voice bore heavily on all of them as she sharpened her golden eyes.

“Who among you disfavors Prince Rui’s vision of change?”

For a moment, nobody said anything.

Then, a single person stood up.

It was an older woman who dressed more simply than many of the other guests of honor. People immediately recognized her as the chairwoman of the International Seafaring Consortium, one of Princess Ranea’s staunchest supporters.

“I despise His Highness’s vision of change,” the older woman declared with a bold voice. “It is no secret that recent trends threaten my sector and industry despite the fact that we are the lifeblood of prosperity. During the Era of Darkness, it was I who propped up emergency aid seafaring. I worked together with the Kandrian Empire, Chairman Bradt Patrick, and others to lead the international seafaring revolution to sustain our civilization when His Highness hogged all the glory as the ’pillar of salvation.’ We were also a pillar of salvation! And yet, what will we get in return?”

The older woman narrowed her eyes. “In return, we will be abandoned in His Highness’s vision of change. No thank you.”

People’s expressions tightened as they directed a knowing glance at her. There was no way that a woman as tried and tested in the world of business, industry, and politics would forget all of her diplomatic skills and speak with the same boldness of a Martial Artist rather than a businesswoman.

She had chosen to grandstand as a way of rallying support for the call that Princess Ru had made to the stakeholders of the continent.

And she was merely the first.