The Martial Unity

The revelations and the mass Apprentice breakthroughs of the Kandrian Empire sent shudders across the political landscape of East Panama. The geopolitical dynamics between Kandria and its peers had already been strained even prior to this provocative revelation, but now? Many nations in the geopolitical vicinity were terrified of the prospect of war between the powerhouses.

After all, this would be a war so massive that none of them would be able to evade it. It would swallow every nation in East Panama into it regardless of whether they were willing or not.

Thankfully, however, war did not erupt immediately.

Although the news had undoubtedly reached the Sage-level powerhouses, it appeared that war would not break out immediately. That didn't necessarily mean that it wouldn't eventually, of course. It could even be that the Sage-level powerhouses were simply preparing for war.

This was not far from the truth.

At least half of the powerhouses were preparing for war as an inevitability, while the other two had decided to exhaust lesser options first.

"Things have gone largely as planned."

Emperor Rael sat in his office, reading through some reports that his intelligence bureau had been supplying him on the aftermath of the mass Apprentice breakthrough.

"Hm, both the Sekigahara Confederate and the Republic of Gorteau have fallen for it," he remarked as he accurately assessed the situation. "Good."

Any attempt to discern the truth about the Apprentice mass breakthroughs was doomed to either fail or be stalled for a large amount of time. Emperor Rael had spent the past three years setting up many false avenues of investigation that were meant to deceive all those who attempted to learn about the truth.

Part of the reason he was able to do this was because he knew the modus operandi and the profiles of the intelligence-gathering facilities of his enemies. The Sekigahara Confederate would be effectively blind without the Nindo Clan that served as its intelligence wing.

In other words, the intelligence wing of the Sekigahara Confederate was its own political power that competed with the other clans for authority. The other clans thus could not trust the Nindo Clan with certainty despite relying on it for intelligence.

In turn, the Nindo Clan had its own interests and agendas and could not be expected to act to benefit the Sekigahara Confederate at its own expense.

This was a crucial flaw in the political structure of the Sekigahara Confederate that Emperor Rael could use to his benefit.

By supplying them with the right 'ammunition,' he could manipulate the Nindo Clan to act for their mutual benefit, even if it came at the cost of the Sekigahara Confederate as a whole. He knew that the Nindo Clan would rather avoid war due to being the weakest clan as far as combat power went. In a war, it would lose most of its nominal authority since combat power was the only thing that the Sekigahara Confederate valued.

"Foolish." Emperor Rael couldn't help but shake his head lightly as his eyes shifted to the reports coming from his spy network in the Republic of Gorteau. The Republic of Gorteau had its own flaws that were quite different. The intelligence agencies and bureaus were not independent of the power blocs of the nations, for the heads of these organizations were appointed by the president, while their budget allocation came from Congress.

In other words, if he could manipulate enough Congressmen of this legislative body, he could manipulate them to cripple the intelligence wing with lowered funding, thereby stalling the intelligence gathering operations trying to discover the secret to mass Apprentice breakthroughs. This would give him more time to prepare for the war.

"Ensure that we have enough life-prolonging potions in stock."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

His attention momentarily returned to the reports from the Sekigahara Confederate and the Republic of Gorteau.

"These two are manageable, but…" His eyes narrowed as he shifted his gaze to reports coming from his spies in the Britannian Empire. He always found this to be the most troublesome of the three Sage-level powerhouses.

"Looks like he's not falling for it, instead…" He tutted. "He's wholeheartedly preparing for war. A wise decision."

He had always known that the prime minister of the Britannian Empire was not someone to be trifled with. He was a deeply insightful and perceptive strategist and statesman who could not be tricked so easily, especially when they had known each other for a long time.

Prime Minister Edward had already shifted his attention to preparations for war. One would think that war was just on the corner with the way the man began redirecting a large portion of the Britannian Imperial Treasury to war.

However, Emperor Rael knew better.

"He won't declare war until the other two powerhouses also declare war."

There was no point in declaring war against the Kandrian Empire alone. Both Emperor Rael and Prime Minister knew that if they waged war against each other, the only winners would be the Sekigahara Confederate and the Republic of Gorteau.

In order to ensure that the Britannian Empire wasn't the sole bearer of the burden of war and to ensure that the probability of victory was maximal, the prime minister would undoubtedly wait until the other two powerhouses were done playing cat and mouse with the mass breakthroughs.

Only when they were frustrated by their constant failures would they be ready to just wipe the Kandrian Empire off the map.

"Until then, he will have to settle for a cold war."

Tensions between the Kandrian Empire and the other Sage-level powerhouse would undoubtedly continue to rise as the Republic of Gorteau and the Sekigahara Confederate continued using any and all means to uncover the truth of the Apprentice breakthroughs.

However, Emperor Rael knew that they wouldn't be able to uncover the truth. Rui had taken all the right precautions to keep both his identity and the process a complete secret. The only ones who knew outside of Emperor Rael himself and the Sage Council were the Martial Masters of the Academy, each of whom he had secretly vetted with Sage Sayfeel.

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