The Martial Unity

Chapter 3349: Resolving Conflicts of Interests

And that was how Rui ended up walking around with an Amare permanently attached to him. Her arms were wrapped around his neck while her legs were wrapped around his waist, pulling his abdomen tightly into hers.

Rui simply resigned himself to her stubbornness, carrying her around everywhere as he enjoyed her scent, warmth, and love.

It wasn’t just her who fawned over him, however.

It was also the dark elves who grew concerned about his health and well-being, trying to conduct check-ups to make sure that he had recovered just fine.

”I’m perfectly alright,” Rui tried to shoo all the dark elves who buzzed about him, trying to measure his vitals despite the Amare who had stuck to him like a barnacle. ”Really, I would know more than anybody if I had something was wrong with me. I know my body inside-out.”

It took an hour before they were genuinely satisfied nonetheless.

”We’re just worried, Rui,” Mother Alicia’s voice reached him as the crowd of dark elves separated to feature her vessel approaching him.

She reached him, gazing at him with sapphire eyes of relief as she patted his head. ”We have a right to be worried about your wellbeing as your host. Not to mention...”

She smiled at him with familial affection.

”We’re family now. You might as well be my son.”

Rui raised an eyebrow at her. ”What is that supposed to mean?”

She giggled at his skepticism. ”While you were gone, I became engaged with the Emperor of Harmony. We are to be born married soon in accordance to human and Kandrian tradition.”

Rui’s eyes widened with shock. ”...What?!”

She giggled more at his reaction. ”And so, from this day forth, you may treat me as your mother. And I will treat you as my son.”

”Stop, this is a bit much.” He felt his head ache with the revelation. ”But, well, I suppose it isn’t absurd, either.”

Marriage was one of the best ways to seal an alliance, after all. His father must have been eager to forge an unbreakable alliance by marrying one of the leaders of dark elven civilization and making it that much more difficult for the two civilizations to break apart any more.

’As expected, he has exploited my ambush to the very best degree possible.’ An amused smile emerged on his face.

By strengthening his bond with the dark elves even further, he made it difficult for the dark elves and light elves to ever reunite. At the same time, he made the dark elves more dependent on human civilization, having lost a sister to their East.

Before meeting Mother Maeria, he would have been very happy with such a result. The light elves ambushed him and got what they deserved. But after meeting her and knowing that one of her goals was to reunite dark elven and light elven civilization, couldn’t help but have mixed feelings about it any more.

He hadn’t forgotten his own interests and allegiances, of course. He was a human, a Martial Artist, and the prince of the Kandrian Empire.

At the same time, he was indebted to Mother Maeria for saving his life and hiding him from her kin at the risk of being discovered and alienated from her people even more. Even if he had helped her with priceless information about Transcendence and helped her achieve Enlightenment of Oneness, he didn’t feel like he had paid back what he owed her.

He wasn’t pleased that the interests of his father and that of Mother Maeria were mutually opposed to each other, to some extent. He wasn’t sure who to root for, even if his allegiance was clear on paper.

”Whatever.” He heaved a sigh. ”It’s not my business.”

He could only hope that there was a future where both of them could get what they wanted.

He gazed down at Amare, patting her back. ”Isn’t it about time that you get off, you big baby? Are the dark elves can see you acting like one, you know?”

She stiffened, glaring at him before wiping away her tears.

STEP

She got off him, gazing deep into his pitch-black eyes with longing.

”I’ve missed you, Amare.” Rui smiled at her gently.

He leaned in, pulling her waist into his as he kissed her softly, uncaring for any onlookers as he continued indulging himself in her warm, soft lips for several minutes straight, as if to make up for all the time he hadn’t seen.

When he pulled away, the bronze skin of her cheeks were flushed red while her expression was dazed.

Her knees grew weak as he had to catch her to prevent her from collapsing.

Her cheeks flushed red while Rui smirked at her with a hint of mischief.

”Ahem.” Mother Alicia coughed, trying to remind them of where they were. ”Now that you have returned. We have some ceremonies and official events to go through. Like a welcoming function and also a statement from the Mothers—”

”Unnecessary.” Rui shook his head lightly. ”I need to speak to one person only.”

Mother Alicia raised an eyebrow.

”And who would that be?”

Rui pulled out the letter in his back-pocket that he had got from Mother Maeria.

”I need to speak to Mother Vyia immediately.”

He intended to fulfill Mother Maeria’s request as quickly as possible. Informing her about the truth of Transcendence in the Nature Path and what the dark elves needed to do to get there.

Rui also needed to speak with the highest leaders among the elves himself to make sure that they were on the same page regarding the secrets that the letter undoubtedly shared and regarding the light elves. While he truly wished Mother Maeria great success with her ambitious goal. He didn’t want human civilization to be compromised in the process.

The ideal outcome was that the light elves eventually reformed and abandoned their ego and xenophobia, before eventually mending their relationship with human civilization and with Rui personally, and only then reuniting with light elven civilization as one single greater elven civilization that was allied with human civilization.