The air grew tumultuous and uncertain. The two Martial Masters narrowed their eyes at Rui.

Yet he didn't so much as budge or twitch.

Of course, he felt shivers crawling up his skin.

He felt chills going down his spine.

But he maintained an impeccably calm demeanor despite the pressure that they exerted on him.

Naturally, Prince Raijun stared at him in disbelief.

His eyes sharpened. "Did you just misspeak? Or did I mishear you? Maybe I should get my ears checked."

Rui simply stared at him impassively. He had conveyed his demand, and he knew how outrageous it was. It was, frankly, an absurd demand.

How could he possibly demand Prince Raijun to stop fighting against Prince Ranea and Prince Raul for the throne?

"Senior Quarrier," The prince's demeanor grew intense. A single question escaped his mouth.

"Do you understand the gravity of the demand that you have made?"

His friendly facade disappeared. His demeanor and posture changed, revealing an aristocratic and royal bearing. One that came with being part of one of the most powerful families in East Panama. Untold wealth was at his disposal.

Immense Martial Power thrust him forward towards the throne.

Yet Rui didn't back down.

"I made my conditions clear, Your Highness," He bowed his head lightly. "You can accept them…or refuse them. The choice is yours."

"You want me to cease offensive campaigning measures against Ranea and Raul?" The prince growled. "That's patently absurd!"

"Not nearly as absurd as the ability to refine Martial Art for another person," Rui replied calmly. "That is the service that I am offering at the moment."

"Even still," The Martial Prince narrowed his eyes. "How can you demand me to cease offensive campaigning measures against two of my prime competitors?! We aren't playing a card game, we're fighting for ultimate authority over a powerhouse Sage-level nation!"

"I didn't demand it," Rui replied calmly. "You don't have to take the deal. But what is non-negotiable is that this is the deal. If you don't like it then…"

Rui shrugged. "We can go our separate ways. That's fine by me as well. But…you won't ever be able to become a Martial Squire."

"I don't necessarily have to rely on you," Prince Raijun remarked. "Now that I have been enlightened on the problem, I can rely on other methods. Surely a powerful mind Martial Master should be able to rely on some hypnosis to compensate for experience."

"Hypnosis targets the subconscious mind, not the conscious mind," Rui replied. "It cannot replicate the state of both the conscious and the subconscious mind simultaneously in a particular circumstance. It suffers the same problem as exposing yourself to bloodlust. It cannot change your conscious mind without manipulating your memories."

"Then altering memories is a viable solution?" Prince Raijun.

"It is," Rui confirmed. "However, the difficulty of altering your memories to believe that your life is in danger is extremely high. And the reason for that is because you have many memories to believe that you are not in danger."

Rui raised a finger. "First, you are a Royal Prince. This memory alone severely contradicts the idea that you would be in danger because there are very few forces in the world that can threaten you since you are protected by Martial Masters. Any threat that can bypass your security should easily be strong enough to kill you too, so how would your mind address this discrepancy?" This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

The Martial Prince narrowed his eyes as he considered the issues that Rui brought up. "In general, there are huge contradictions with you being able to fight off something that even managed to reach a position where it could threaten your life in a fair fight that you somehow have a chance of winning. Unless you are unintelligent, your mind will notice the discrepancies across its memories."

"Are the discrepancies such a problem so long as I actually fight thinking my life is at threat?" Prince Raijun asked with a serious tone.

"The mind is more delicate than you can imagine, Your Highness," Rui replied. "Conflicting core memories with experience can cause deep psychological stress and post-traumatic stress disorders," Rui replied. "Your memories are a crystallization of who you are. They are also built upon one another, the more you take away, the more you lose sight of who you are. On top of that, one's Martial drive emerges from memories, which means that it is liable to be impacted for the duration of the memory loss."

That stirred Prince Raijun, putting an end to his enthusiasm for mind manipulation solutions. The fact that none of his Martial Masters had rebuked Rui was proof that he was not uttering unsubstantiated falsehoods.

"What about a Martial Sage?" Prince Raijun asked with a pointed look. "The Kandrian Empire has a mind Martial Sage. What if I enlist Her Excellency Sage Farana's services for my training? Surely she will be able to handle my memory more delicately."

Rui shrugged. "I don't know. But you can give it a try if you want."

Prince Raijun's expression flickered with a hint of surprise. "You're not going to try and convince me otherwise?"

Rui shrugged nonchalantly. "Why would I? If everything works out, good for you. I highly doubt it will though."

"Why is that?"

"Because mind Martial Artists understand the nature of their field the least out of any and all Martial Artists, Your Highness," Rui heaved a sigh. "The human mind is far and away the single most inscrutable and esoteric phenomenon and existence in the entire universe. They don't understand the mind as well offensive Martial Artists understand offense, or defensive Martial Artists; defense, or maneuvering Martial Artists; maneuvering. To them, the mind is a black box, and they possess some understanding of its mechanisms through which they can tinker around with it to produce some potent effects that could be applied in combat. I would not trust anybody to mess with my mind to such an extent, even if I believed in their intentions, which… can you?"

That was a definite concern to Prince Raijun.

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