The elder Martial Master said hospitality, but it appeared that he had a very different idea of what it was. He simply sky-walked high-up into the icy freezing winds of North Kandria.
Rui followed suit, elevating with the Martial Master.
Both of them had Martial Bodies, of course, they were unaffected by the cold.
He turned to Rui, opening his mouth to address him.
Yet Rui was faster.
"Before you begin, please allow me to inform you; that I have no interest in supporting Prince Randal's hawkish ambitions." Rui raised a palm in a distance gesture.
He had already seen through the truth. The truth regarding the Master's intentions.
Master Krakule's eyes sharpened with a hint of surprise. "…How did you know?"
"Your posture naturally gravitates to the Royal Army's military stance at ease," Rui replied. "Your tone and parlance betray a military background. The fact that you retained such heavy militaristic body language even as a Martial Master allowed me to deduce that you were recently discharged. For, such body language does not last the test of time as a Martial Artist that undergoes many changes as they ascend to higher Realms of power, especially the Master Realm which causes heavy shifts in demeanor." This belongs to : ©.
He thought of how Master Ceeran's entire demeanor and vibe changed from the perilous nature he possessed to that of the softer demeanor he had as a Martial Master. It appeared that the breakthrough to the Master Realm was truly something that altered a Martial Artist.
Rui's sharp mind had deduced that he was undoubtedly discharged from the military well after he became a Martial Master.
Then there was the fact that a Martial Master was assigned to a barren and deserted region with no civilization, by the Martial Union. This one was less certain, but Rui had keenly inferred a hint of distrust.
Why would a Martial Master be discharged from the Royal Army in the first place? They were so valuable that they could get away with anything short of treason or mass murder. Rui highly doubted that someone who practically radiated discipline and control would fall to that level.
It meant he was honorably discharged.
But why? And why join the Martial Union? And why would the Martial Union distrust him enough to assign him to an insignificant region where he could not employ his authority to make any impact on anything important?
The final hint was the first hint; the fact that he arrived to greet Rui before Rui could even state his name to the security guards outside the gate.
There were two things to be inferred.
The first was that he was undoubtedly waiting for Rui.
The second was that he undoubtedly really wanted to speak to Rui.
"Even that little excuse of the Martial Senior not having been prepared yet was a falsehood, was it not?" Rui asked calmly. "You wanted to get the opportunity to speak with me privately."
That combined with his military background, recent military discharge, and the distrust of the Martial Union gave Rui enough information to make an educated induction.
That and this was the third time that he was being solicited by a Martial Master in favor of a Martial Faction. It was a tiring pattern that he was getting used to now.
"Realizing your background, political inclinations, and intentions was but a few seconds of observation and a simple exercise of thought."
"…I had heard rumors of your genius intellect, but only now do I realize that they precede you," Master Krakule remarked softly. "You will make a terrifying Martial Master one day, Senior Quarrier. Your Martial Mind will engulf the Master Realm, perhaps even beyond."
Rui didn't respond, simply staring at the man wordlessly.
"Since you have sharply arrived at the truth, I will not deny it. I am indeed a member of the Randal Faction," The Martial Master stared into Rui's eyes. "And indeed, I am here to solicit you and to win you over to the Randal Faction."
Rui inwardly sighed. It seemed that his attempts to preemptively shut down the man's lobbying attempt had failed. It seemed that he would have to bear through this.
"We have but one reason to invite you to our faction, Senior Quarrier," Master Krakule remarked. "And that reason is that you have already greatly supported our faction more than any other political faction in the Kandrian Empire!"
Rui narrowed his eyes. "What…?"
"The Merger Faction, the Martial Supremacist Faction, the Capitalist Faction…none of them have been supported by you nearly as much as our Hawk Faction has," The Master boldly declared.
"I have not supported any faction to this date," Rui retorted sharply.
"Ah, young man, but you have," Master Krakule grinned ferociously. "We of the Hawk Faction believe in Kandrian Supremacy. The Kandrian Empire has both the right and the responsibility, to itself and to others, to intervene in the geopolitical sphere around the Kandrian Empire."
Rui narrowed his eyes. This was typical of the hawk political ideology, which referred to a political stance on geopolitical that advocated for aggressive foreign intervention, including war, colonization, and even genocide, to protect national interests.
Rui knew exactly what this looked like, having grown up in the Cold War in his previous life in a nation under the rule of Presidents that had an extremely hawkish foreign policy. By the time that he had passed away in 2022, the world was on fire geopolitically as an eventual result of it.
"What does that have to do with me? When did I ever support such a maniacal warmongering policy?"
"In order to secure what is best for our Kandrian Empire, we dominate to ensure that the world around us is most fit for it. In order to dominate, we must be dominant, in order to be dominant, we must be overwhelmingly stronger than our neighbors, our allies, and most importantly; our enemies." The Martial Master declared with firm ferocity.
Rui's eyes widened as he realized where this was going.