The Martial Unity

“It appears that our esteemed older brother intends to choose a prince to be at the funeral, among other things.” A man reading the royal funeral invitation letter muttered with a hint of disdain in his voice. “He’s truly an eyesore.”

He sat at a round table in a small conference room with Martial Masters behind her. His clothes were extravagant and vibrant with multiple colors across their smooth and soft fabric, while his long, blue hair was tied in a bun, shining in the warm light of the evening sun that beamed through the windows of the conference room they were in.

On his honed chest was an amulet hanging from a necklace around his neck

One that bore the crest of the Kandrian Royal Family, as well as his own personal crest. The personal crest of Prince Raegard, the Human Prince. The human supremacist who believed that the homo martialus species was superior and ought to either exterminate or enslave the other races.

He couldn’t even hide his contempt for Rui for having facilitated the deepening of relationships with the dark elves and the therianthropes, who were nothing short of animals themselves, as far as he was concerned.

“He is a net negative to this country.” The expression of one of his sisters beside him crumpled with a hint of frustration. “Half-hearted asshole. Why doesn’t he just stay the hell away from the throne war and go train his Martial Art in isolation as always?! Leave the matters of the nation and the throne to the grown-ups!”

The Princess of Peace was exactly as her title suggested. She believed in establishing bilateral treaties of peace with each of the major powers, as they had done with the dark elves and the therianthropes, including nations with a serious history of violations against the Panama Continent and the Kandrian Empire.

She despised Rui Quarrier from the bottom of her heart for being the source of all the conflict in the past year. If Rui had not chosen to pick a fight with the Dragon Emperor in the depths of the Great Void Ocean, then the cracks giving rise to negatron matter would have never emerged from the depths of the planet through the cracks in the ocean floor.

Without the emergence of the negatron matter, there would not have been a deep-sea war for negatron matter resources. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he went on to solo the deep-sea war with an army of sea monsters from the Great Nam Ocean, forcing the war to come to the surface as nations pressured the Panama Continent to bring the sea monsters back.

He was singlehandedly responsible for the origin and the escalation, making him the most evil warmonger in the history of the world, as far as she was concerned. The worst part was that he disappeared for more than a year after that, making it impossible for the Panamic Alliance to pull back the sea monsters from the Great Void Ocean.

Her golden eyes, bearing a strong resemblance to those of her father, grew bloodshot with rage and hatred. “He should have died along with the enemies he fought; that would have been ideal for the future of the Panamic Civilization and all of Gaian Civilization.”

“Calm down.” A young man, no more than eighteen years old, tried to pacify his older sister. “We need him, whether you like it or not. He is priceless beyond priceless. The biggest issue is that…”

His eyes sharpened. “…he possesses the power to completely control the Kandrian Throne War. Anybody he supports is almost guaranteed to win the war. That’s tyrannical. If he truly cared for this nation, then he would be mindful of his own power and move out of the way of the organic political process.”

Several other princes and princesses gathered around the table, nodding with serious expressions.

Each of them had powerful Martial Masters behind them.

Each of them had a serious bid for the throne.

Unlike the throne war that had occurred twenty-five years ago, the number of serious contenders had increased greatly. In the past, only seven princes had any meaningful power, while the rest could only accrue scraps.

This time, however, while there were seven dominant contenders, there were also many more major contenders who could, at any point, replace the dominant favorites.

There were nearly thirty princes who had managed to gain the support of one or more Martial Sages.

The reason the number of serious contenders had risen was due to the fact that the Kandrian Empire and the Panama Continent as a whole had grown astronomically more powerful since it had been twenty-five years ago. That meant that there was more available power to monopolize, meaning it was easier for a greater number of serious contenders to emerge.

After all, the number of Martial Sages in the Kandrian Empire had nearly tripled from just a few decades ago; it was very difficult for seven descendants of the Emperor of Harmony to monopolize all this power. Martial Sages had grown less valuable individually ever since the spike in their numbers, making them more pliable to offering support in order to manifest their own agendas.

“More Importantly.” The Esoteric Princess leaned forward with sharpened eyes. “We each possess ideologies that are not amenable to the Void Prince. We cannot win him over to our camp due to deep ideological incompatibilities. I know for a fact that Prince Rui does not support my esoteric hawkishness; he is unwilling to share or trade esoteric matter with other races, for instance. We must come together to form an alliance.”

Her eyes sharpened.

“An anti-Rui Alliance. Otherwise, we stand no chance of stopping him from steamrolling us.”

The gathered princes and princesses in the little conference they had held represented a whopping forty percent of Kandria’s Martial might, and even then, they weren’t certain that they could even stand a chance at victory.

There came from different ideologies and political doctrines, often conflicting with each other in irreconcilable ways. And yet, they knew that ideological differences did not matter in the face of such an overwhelming threat to their chances of victory.