Rui found it truly regrettable that he was unable to hide the fact that he could fix the Martial Prince's problems. But when the cat came out of the bag, he swiftly came to a decision to offer some means of cooperation instead of refusing to cooperate.

This was because he truly did not want to earn the enmity of an entire faction by operating in bad faith.

After all, he had promised that he would do his reasonable best to help the prince. The Martial Prince had acted in good faith this entire time, and it was Rui who went against the spirit of their deal.

Breaking out of their deal with the severance pay would mean breaking ties with the Raijun Faction on bad terms. That was a level of pressure that he could not handle even as a high-grade Martial Senior. Had he been a Martial Master, he would have been able to get away with it, but alas, he was not.

That was why, in fear of pissing off many wealthy patrons, Martial Masters, and even a Sage, he ultimately decided to cooperate. The Kandrian Throne War was important, but not worth pissing off people astronomically more powerful than him.

Of course, the Martial Union was very pleased with Rui at the moment and that included the Martial Supremacist Faction, so he didn't think they would instantly become hostile to him., but it would undoubtedly sour his relations with the Martial Union. He also needed a lot of support to be inducted into the Fiscal Committee as a constituent.

Prince Raijun was the Martial Union's ticket to the throne, or a good chunk of the Martial Union, anyway. Rui essentially sabotaging Prince Raijun would not fly over well with a lot of people.

Such was the nature of the dynamics. On one hand, the Martial Union would never allow an outsider, who too of royal blood, to bully Rui. On the other hand, the Martial Union would not be pleased if Rui refused to give them the key to winning the Cold War.

Both Prince Raijun and Rui were smaller than the Martial Union and the Martial Supremacist Faction in this case.

That was why Rui wisely left open a path forward to cooperation.

Furthermore, in this path, he still left some hope for Prince Raul and Ranea to win, since he would be taking away crucial methods for Prince Raul to push back against those two competitors. It was still possible for them to win the Kandrian Throne War.

Furthermore, this deal also reduced the probability that the remaining four princes and princesses; the Underworld Prince, the Corporate Princess, the Military Prince, and the Communist Princess, would succeed.

This was because Prince Raul would use the resources spared by abstaining against the People's Prince and the Sea Princess against the remaining four.

Thus, if Prince Raijun accepted Rui's proposal, then the princes and princesses with the highest probability of victory were Prince Raijun himself, Prince Raul, and Princess Ranea.

Only one of those three was an undesirable candidate as far as Rui was concerned.

He shrugged inwardly. This was the best he could do with the cards that he had been dealt at that point in time.

The first training session between the two of them had the potential to become historic. If Prince Raijun accepted Rui's deal, then he would become a Martial Squire, which could ultimately prove to be the deciding element in the Kandrian Throne War.

It was a heavy burden, but alas, this was the consequence of having extraordinary capabilities. Rui had even fully processed the ramifications of being known to refine individuality.

'Oh well, they should understand that this is something that can't be done for everybody,' Rui heaved a sigh.

He could do it for a Martial Apprentice, but it became increasingly difficult the more experienced a Martial Artist was and the higher their Realm was. It was basically impossible for him to do it for most Martial Seniors.

Perhaps only Ieyasu would be capable of that, but he didn't possess Rui's keen ability to process to identify micro-flaws.

"One last thing," Prince Raijun had told Rui before the training session ended. "I'm going to require you to prove your words. If you cannot do it here and now, then I'll assume you have been deceiving me this entire time."

"Rest assured I have not," Rui heaved a troubled sigh. "Come, allow me to demonstrate."

The two of them got onto the training ground once more. Thankfully, Rui had seen more than enough to have created a predictive model.

They took identical stances, standing opposite each other.

What followed stunned not just the Martial Prince, but also the Martial Masters behind him.

Rui had… become the prince. Every movement, every attack, every maneuver, gesture, and even twitch of movement had become identical.

Even his expressions matched that of the prince.

It was like he was fighting a mirror image of himself. This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

A stronger and more reined mirror image of himself.

THUD!

Rui flipped the Martial Prince over his shoulder, slamming him onto the ground.

WHOOSH!

His fist stopped centimeters away from the man's stunned face.

"That should prove my words," Rui replied calmly. "I reduced reaction time to match yours, as well as my other physical parameters. Aside from basic modifications to your movements to account for the different bodies, I have also corrected almost all of the micro-flaws in your style, and this is the outcome."

Rui had completely demolished him with the same techniques and movements.

"…Is this how unrefined I am?" The prince murmured with shock.

"Indeed," Rui replied with a composed tone. "I believe there should be no problems with the credibility of my claims."

He glanced at the two Martial Masters who had been observing their spar attentively. They didn't respond to him, but their silence was a good admission of their approval.

"And so…that leaves my decision," Prince Raijun murmured as he got up, staring deep into Rui's eyes. "And…this will be the means through which you refine my Martial Art for me?"

"Yes," Rui replied calmly.

"And…you're confident it will work?"

"Quite."