Rui stared at her dumbfounded.

He couldn't believe that she had such an absurdly ambitious dream.

Set off a new age?

An age of sailors?

"With all due respect, Your Highness, that's a pipe dream," Rui heaved a sigh.

"Do you truly believe that, Senior Quarrier?" She stared at him. "An age is defined by the most characteristic trait in that age, and in this era, that is Martial Art. If ambition for the ocean one day drives Kandria, and then it will also eventually impact East Panama. That is how powerful and influential our country is."

Rui heaved a tired sigh. "Your Highness, you are far more extreme than I had imagined or been informed."

"Hah, I have only divulged a greater fraction of my ambition today due to the historic event. However, I do have dreams that I will fulfill as Empress."

"Is that so?" Rui shook his head lightly. "Your ambitions will definitely cripple many and potentially bring this nation to ruin. Do you think it is appropriate for an Empress to burden her nation with her personal ambition?"

"Ambition is the largest fuel for growth after necessity and fear," She firmly pushed back. "Would you rather we grow only when we need to or out of fear, or would you rather we grow out of ambition? Look at you. You're a Martial Artist driven by powerful personal ambition. Look at where it got you. You're probably the most sought Martial Senior in the Kandrian Empire."

Rui had to admit that she was quite rhetorically effective. It was not easy for him to dismiss the argument when he most certainly was driven by ambition and owed his success to his unrelenting drive to fulfill an ambition that had transcended worlds and lives.

The issue was that there was a difference between being rhetorically effective and correct. As far as Rui was concerned, there was a difference between personal and political ambition. Every individual was responsible for themselves and bore the brunt of their own choices, but a nation bore the brunt of its ruler's choices.

However, he could see that there was too much of a fundamental disconnect between them. He could keenly tell that whatever rationalization she had cooked up was ad hoc and came after her ambition. Her ambition preceded all of it; she simply formed her political ideology around it to justify it as a ruler. Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

It meant that there really was no arguing with her, which, of course, was obvious. There was nothing he could say that would shake her off her current track.

He was disappointed, frustrated even. Who could have thought that something as uncontroversial on the surface as focusing on the seafaring and maritime industry would end up being so extreme that it was just almost as undesirable as some of the other princes and princesses that he had rejected?

Of course, if forced between someone like Prince Randal and her, he would still reluctantly choose her. But he wanted a candidate he could wholeheartedly support.

"It's a shame that you don't seem receptive to my politics," She nonchalantly remarked. "After all that you did to help me in restraining Raijun's offensive maneuvers against me."

"You don't seem very grateful," Rui snorted.

She shrugged. "I am going to ascend the throne regardless. Though I suppose…I should tell you that I am grateful indeed. However, you made that agreement based on an incomplete understanding of my ambitions. It's not your fault since it hasn't remained the same. Had the submarine project failed, I would have been forced to take a less ambitious stance on sub-marine policy."

She was shamelessly confident in her victory, to the point that Rui could only heave a sigh. "I see."

"You may not agree with the outcome of my politics, but I would venture to suspect that you probably will end up finding my political agenda to be the least disagreeable out of all the seven prime candidates," Princess Ranea smirked. "Join me, Rui Quarrier. Your Martial Art. Your talent. Your magical knowledge. Your mind. Lend them to me. Help me become Empress, and I can promise you that I will accommodate your desire to maintain order in the Kandrian Empire as much as possible while I apply my designs to the empire."

"So I should support you because you're the least bad for this nation?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "And if I support you, you will do your best to restrain the magnitude of how bad I think your policies are when you act them?"

"Pretty much," She casually replied.

Her demeanor was distinctively different from the other two princesses, who maintain suffocating formality. Yet it was also different from Prince Raijun, who always had an undertone of respect and admiration for Rui. Her attitude was more indifferent now that she was out of the public eye and didn't need to maintain an image.

She had expressed the least desire for Rui among her siblings, perhaps largely because Rui's value as a supporter intersected the least with her interests.

He did appreciate the fact that she didn't try to alter her words or her rhetoric to make it more palatable to him. She was willing to accept the consequence of not winning his support.

Perhaps it was because she didn't think he could make a substantial impact beyond what he had. It wasn't a strange thought; Rui's outsized value exceeded his Martial power, but could he continuously supply the value that a Master could through his odd extra-Martial means?

It was not entirely clear. Especially to someone like Princess Ranea, who was focused on fields and domains that Rui hadn't proven competence in. She simply did not have any idea that he could offer much utility, Martial or otherwise, in aiding with her ambitions, and that reflected in her nonchalance.

Though part of it was certainly her brashness that she had done well to hide earlier, he wouldn't mind working with someone of her temperament, honestly. It was a shame that he didn't care to.