The Martial Unity

Rui turned back to the two men with a dubious expression. “So, why on earth did you want me to…?”

They grimaced, clearly not pleased they made of him. “We need to find a way to incapacitate her if nothing else, including motherhood, changes her?” Rui snorted with disbelief as his mouth curled with disgust. “…Why me? I am literally an outsider to the tribe, an ambassador from the Kandrian Empire to the tribe.”

They gritted their teeth as they found what was to come hard to even say. “In our tribe, women warriors do not accept mates weaker than them. And currently, she is by far the strongest warrior on the entire island.”

Rui found his eyebrows twitching as he massaged his forehead, closing his eyes. “So that’s the reason that you chose me because you think I’m stronger than her? Are you serious?”

“…The weight of your mind far exceeds that of hers.” N’Kulu countered. “We have reason to believe that you are stronger than her.”

Rui stared at them in disbelief. “You do realize what you’re asking of me, right? You’re literally asking me, a foreign official, to procreate with the leader of a warrior tribe who we intend to enlist in our effort because you don’t have anybody else. It’s absurd!”

He couldn’t believe that they even dared to make such a nonsensical request for him. If not for their dire circumstances, he would have been much more stern and visceral in his backlash.

Yet, he didn’t have the heart to do so when he sensed the desperation in their minds and their SOULs. They recognized how absurd of a request to make of Rui, yet their circumstances were so bad that they didn’t have any choice but to make this request of Rui.

“Please, Master Rui, we must plead with you to heed our request—”

“Enough.” Rui firmly rejected their absurd request. “Do away with this notion. It’s not happening.”

Even putting aside his deep personal qualms with such a course of action, he didn’t think that he could do such a thing.

After all, he bore royal blood.

His descendants earned the right to compete for the royal throne; giving that power to a foreign force was a threat to national security. Thus, he would never do that even if he somehow didn’t have any personal qualms about disturbing requests that N’Kulu made of him.

“Please, reconsider—”

“Absolutely not,” Rui’s gaze shifted away from them as it returned to Vilun Island. “But you have made me curious as to the plight of the G’ak’arkan Tribe. The Martial Union does have a Martial humanitarian intervention program that, under certain conditions, allows it to intervene in such circumstances if it can be determined to be in favor of the development of Martial Artists.”

However, even if he found that it did match the conditions for the Martial Union humanitarian conditions, he probably wouldn’t call for it.

The war was more important to him.

The Kandrian Empire was faced with existential destruction, being targeted by three Sage-level powerhouses that sought to annihilate the nation to ensure that it never elevated itself far beyond them. “Let’s go,” Rui remarked with a serious expression. “We need to get a good understanding on the circumstances of the G’ak’arkan Tribe when we make our offer in the first place.”

Some of the negotiation tactics that Rui had come up with involved benefits to the entire tribe. However, depending on her relationship with the tribe she came to develop a seemingly more oppressive relationship with; he might need to scrap all those plans and go for alternatives.

WHOOSH

The two Masters left the Seniors in the dust as they arrived at the island in the blink of an eye. Rui’s extraordinary Martial Mind allowed him to sense the general mental and emotional energy of the entire island even before he actually met any of them. RUMBLE…

The Kandrian Masters stiffened as they felt a deep wave of seismic energy sweep through the entire island and beyond.

“Here she comes.” Rui’s eyes narrowed as he felt a surprisingly powerful aura coming right towards them. WHOOSH

They found themselves gazing at a dot in the far distance, growing larger by the millisecond as it came straight towards them. It was her. Rui found that, physically, she hadn’t changed all that much; her muscular and toned body brimmed with power supplied by her deeply powerful Martial Heart. Her conditioned brown skin was littered with even more scars than before, serving as a testament to the sheer amount of battles that she’d fought in her life as a Martial Artist. After all, the G’ak’arkan Tribe didn’t have any way of creating healing potions with their primitive technology.

WHOOSH…

Her long hair swayed in the powerful drag generated by her speed while her eyes sparkled with the power of the Master Realm. Within the depths of her mind, he detected the presence of a surprisingly powerful Martial Mind, more powerful than most.

It was rather unexpected that a warrior from a less sophisticated civilization could end up creating such remarkably powerful systems of thought with just the Pathfinder technique that Rui had given her.

She was undoubtedly deeply talented and gifted when it came to thought and mind. He hadn’t noticed it before, for the G’ak’arkan Tribe shunned thought with its more mindless Martial culture. Her talent had been stifled by her tribe, it meant.

She must’ve learned that after Rui gave her the Pathfinder technique, having discovered a new field in combat that she didn’t even know existed. She must’ve been quite furious living in a culture that suppressed her great gifts.

Perhaps it was no wonder that she grew distanced from the rest of her tribe.

Rui expected a cold and apathetic person from the tales of her brother and father, yet what he found appeared to be far away from being the case.

Her eyes lit up with delight and ecstasy as she recognized him in an instant, leaping at him with joy.

“Rui! You’re back!”

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