The Martial Unity



The air grew frosty as Rui's piercing gaze met Emperor Rael's calm eyes.

"Does the Martial Union know?"

The question evoked laughter from him. "Of course they do."

Rui frowned. "So this isn't really a big deal, huh?"

"The context matters," Emperor Rael explained with a composed tone. "It would be a very big deal if I harbored such an ambition today. But not so much three centuries ago when I was merely a prince preparing for the Kandrian Throne War. It was simply a different era back then. My goals were hardly rare or uncommon. That was how much Martial Artists were hated at one point in time."

Rui sharpened his gaze.

"Did you hate Martial Artists?"

"My desire to wipe out Martial Artists was a calculated decision rather than an emotional one," he calmly replied. "In hindsight, of course, it turned out to be the wrong decision. But that was due to luck, more than anything else. My rationale was firm."

"...It's a bit of a long story, but really, it boils down to the nightmare that was the Reign of the Master Realm," Emperor Rael explained. "You should be aware of it since the Panamic Martial Federation has undoubtedly informed you about it. But, I can assure you that it was much worse than their sanitized version of it. A vast proportion of Martial Masters were downright evil. Another proportion were degenerates at best. There was plenty of evidence that Martial Art was a liability to human civilization."

"Martial Art as a whole?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "Not just Martial Masters?"

"At the time, Martial Masters were the peak of Martial Art. The Sage Realm hadn't been discovered yet. So yes, Martial Art as a whole was proving to be a liability and even an evil if Martial Masters became psychopaths due to the mental shift caused by being able to sense other people's minds. They necessarily experienced a desensitization to human emotion and came to view human beings the way that humans viewed livestock."

His gaze grew stronger. "In other words, Martial Art necessarily was evil due to the fact that most of its net power, Martial Masters, was inevitably corrupted with evil. And so..."

Rui stared at him with a disturbed expression.

Emperor Rael shrugged. "...I saw fit to get rid of it. I began researching ways to kill Martial Artists outside of combat, to protect humanity from their impending or existing evil."

"...What changed?"

"Nothing changed for a long time," Emperor Rael continued. "It was just impossible to genocide Martial Artists. Thus, out of pragmatism, I abandoned the project and focused on harmony instead. I approached the few dozen Martial Masters who were on the brink of waging a civil war against my power-hungry fool of a father and informed them of my intentions to assassinate him, massacre all my siblings to win the throne war, and create an empire where forces that once stood in opposition could exist in harmony."

He paused for a moment, nostalgically recollecting the past. "And, well, the rest is history." His attention shifted back to his son. "We went on to become a powerhouse by avoiding the horrific ruination that struck the other powerhouses, allowing us to catch up with them. I helped the then Martial Masters to create the Martial Union, and everything worked out well for the next three centuries. They knew that I had once intended to massacre all of them all along."

"...I'm surprised that you managed to befriend them." Rui shook his head.

"Like I said, the context of the era matters. Back then, it was hardly unusual, so I was able to win over their cooperation with results and goodwill. Since then, three centuries have passed. It's ancient history that doesn't even matter anymore," Emperor Rael explained with a relaxed tone. "Of course, that doesn't stop the Panamic Martial Federation from using it as propaganda. Haha."

"Do you regret wanting to genocide Martial Artists, then?" Rui raised an eyebrow.

"Of course not." His father snorted. "Had I been able to do it, I would have done it without hesitation. We were extremely lucky that the first Martial Sage was a good-hearted and kind man. If not for that, the Reign of the Master Realm would have never ended and would have evolved into an even more horrible version in the Sage Realm. It would have been a living hell. He cleaned up the madmen Masters with his overwhelming power and, with the help of all those who aided him, created the Panamic Martial Federation that would regulate Martial Artists to ensure that Martial Art never stooped to such lows ever again."

Rui grew interested as he recalled this part from his conversations with Master Gern and his grandmother. "The family and community policy."

"That's correct." His father nodded. "Those are not absolutely perfect, but they stave off the worst. How can a Martial Artist come to regard humans as livestock when his or her family and, particularly, when his or her progeny are human? The bond between parent and child offsets the psychopathy wrought by the Martial Mind. It is why the Martial Community is so vibrant and extensive. I would urge you to start your own family if you didn't have the Quarrier Orphanage."

Rui stirred at those words as he fell into thought in regard to the tale behind his father's far past. The truth compared to how Master Gern had framed him as a bad man hostile to Martial Art in an attempt to coax Rui to disclose the truth of the mass Apprentice breakthrough was so different that Rui wanted to go back to the Panamic Martial Federation and beat up the crafty old Master.

But alas, he was exiled.

"I've just received word that Sage Kole Kellin has finally arrived at the border," his father interjected. "We will have to continue this conversation another time."

"Oh, I wanted to speak to her too." Rui's eyes lit up. "I didn't get a chance to talk to her after the hearing ended."

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