The Martial Unity

1555 Agendas

Of the seven of them, only two of them appeared to have their own political ideologies that they genuinely espoused. Princess Raemina with her communist dictatorship ambitions and Prince Raul with his people-first doctrine.

The rest of them appeared to be shilling for the power blocs that backed them up.

For instance, it didn't appear to Rui that Raijun had a strong drive to pursue Martial power. He had become a Martial Apprentice at a remarkable age but then had never proceeded to reach the next Realm.

To Rui, that suggested that whatever his Martial drive was, the power that he possessed as a Martial Apprentice was enough to fulfill it.

Yet he also had the ambition to rule the nation. The only way he could have a strong drive to rule the nation but still be satisfied with the power of an Apprentice was if the reason he pursued his Martial Path was not the Martial power, but something else.

"He most likely became a Martial Apprentice only to have the status of a Martial Artist," Rui realized. "Once he had the status of a Martial Artist, he would gain more trust from other Martial Artists who distrusted normal humans to represent their interests well."

Yet he didn't realize that just becoming a Martial Apprentice was not enough. Martial Apprentices were children within the world of Martial Art, regardless of what their actual age was, they were treated as children on their Martial Path.

Most likely, he had conceded to all their demands in exchange for their support. His biggest supporters within the Martial Union were the Martial Supremacists. Rui had run into this faction before. Commissioner Derun who had commissioned him to serve as a diplomat to Vilun Island was a part of this faction. She had even invited him to join this faction.

He had ultimately refused. He did not want to live in a nation that ran on the laws of the jungle where the strongest ruled and the weakest cowered and were consumed. Martial Artists running the country usually ended up as a nightmare, as far as was concerned.

Most likely, the Martial Prince would make legislations that were highly favorable to the Martial Union and to Martial Artists in general if he ascended the throne.

The same could be said for most of the others of the seven prime candidates.

Rui shook his head, centering his thoughts. 'I'm approaching this non-systematically. I need to define what my agendas are. There is no point in thinking about what Prince to support until I have full clarity on that. So what is it that I hope to achieve?'

He didn't have too much of a stock in the race. However, he strongly wished for his family's life to not be disrupted. Some of the princes and princesses had ideologies or shilled for power blocs whose interests diverged from the interests of the lowest class of society.

'That's not all…' Rui realized. 'Whoever ascends to the throne can certainly disrupt my family's life with crazy azy legislation. But it can also be disrupted if I earn the enmity of a prince or princess.'

The seven prime candidates for ruler had already accumulated more power than he was capable of fighting back. He was sure that a solid proportion of Martial Seniors, Masters, and Sages had already distributed their support among the seven candidates. This meant that they had the power to make his family's life miserable.

That was why Rui's number one goal was to avoid earning the enmity of any of the princes and princesses. What he was confident about was the fact that they would not overstep their bounds unless they had completely lost all sense.

The Kandrian Throne War was a race to gather support. The entire nation and beyond were watching each of the seven candidates closely. Antagonizing others needlessly was a good way to lose a race of gathering support. It ruined their credibility, trustworthiness, and reliability.

This succession battle was a phase where each of the princes and princesses had no choice but to focus on pleasing others to earn their support, rather than antagonizing them.

Thus, as long as Rui did not antagonize them first, the way he did Deacon, then there was little to no cause to worry about his family being endangered.

'Though I do need to speak with Julian and make sure that he doesn't antagonize any of the princes and princesses,' Rui made a mental note.

With the concern of short-term acute threats out of the way, Rui began thinking about long-term priorities. In the long term, he did not want any prince or princess to pass legislation that would hurt his family.

That automatically put Princess Raemina out of any consideration. He would never allow the Quarrier Orphanage to be taken away from his family.

It also put Princess Rafia, the Corporate Princess, out of consideration. He didn't think a corporate shill would do anything that would benefit his family.

He was less certain about the rest, but he didn't think he could gain much by supporting Prince Randal either. A militaristic man was probably pro-increased defense spending, maybe even for more aggressive and domineering hawkish foreign policy.

"Princess Ranea doesn't seem bad…" Rui shrugged.

The coastal and sea sectors of the nation were very important. On top of that, she had a good chance of winning with just how important they were. Not only were they economically vital to the nation, but they were strategically important because litoral gold, the gold that was used to create the Kandrian Gold coin currency, was found in the parts of the Nam Ocean close to the Kandrian Empire's coast.

Being supported by the sector that controlled the supply of this strategically important resource meant that she had a lot of power. Her stance and policies were also probably going to be slanted toward this sector.

If that was the case, then she didn't really impact his family in any way by ascending the throne, most likely.