A massive permanent change to his life had happened abruptly a short while ago.

He hadn't even fully processed it, certainly not emotionally.

But on a rational level, he obviously understood that the Emperor had some high expectations of him.

The Emperor wanted Rui to succeed him and ascend the throne.

"Why me?" Rui's voice grew solemn.

The Emperor stared at him calmly.

"Because you are worthy."

"…"

A deep silence echoed through the throne hall.

Sage Sayfeel had suppressed his aura entirely, reducing his presence to that of an ordinary human being.

He, more than anybody else, understood the depth of importance of this moment.

It was a moment that would alter the future of Kandria for the rest of time.

Nothing could be allowed to disrupt it.

"Worthy…?"

"Worthy." The Emperor reaffirmed.

"I am worthy even though I do not desire the throne?" Rui narrowed his eyes.

A soft smile appeared on Emperor Rael's face.

"You are worthy because you do not desire the throne."

Rui's eyebrows rose at those words, stirring in response.

"I told you," The Emperor continued. "I have watched you your entire life. In some ways, I know you better than yourself."

The Emperor closed his eyes. "You understood the core of the Kandrian Empire. You understood our greatest strength. You understood the pillar that sustains this powerhouse of a nation."

Rui stared at him. "…The delicate balance between the many forces and powers of Kandria is what allowed this nation to rise. This delicate balance that you yourself hand-crafted three centuries ago is the reason our nation does not collapse into the civil war you averted long ago. In other words, balance is the Kandrian lifeline."

The Emperor smiled. "Indeed. Thus, in the Kandrian context, harmony is the most important thing a ruler must have. Harmony is not just in their policy but in temperament. The correlation between temperament and political philosophy has been empirically demonstrated and quite rigorously explored at length in the research literature of political psychology."

His tone grew instructive.

"For example," He continued. "You have people like Raul with high trait neuroticism and high trait agreeableness, traits that statistically correlate with dovish and pacifist political philosophies, on one end, and people like Randal, who have low trait openness, high conscientiousness, and low trait agreeableness, have a seventy-eight percent chance of having a hawkish foreign policy."

His eyes met with Rui's. "Thus, a balanced temperament is highly desirable in my chosen heir. None of the seven possess a balanced temperament, and their political philosophy reflects that."

"…And I do?" Rui asked, curious. It became evident to him that one of the many areas of expertise that the Emperor had was in the domain of psychology. Some of the jargon that he uttered reminded Rui of that of psychology back on Earth.

The Emperor considered the question. "Not inherently, no. In some ways, you are worse than Randal. You have extremely high trait conscientiousness, as driven martial artists often are; you are extraordinarily driven—extraordinarily driven to this so-called Project Water. If not for your consideration and care for your family, you most likely would be extreme. The only difference is that your sheer competence and extraordinary intellect mean that there is a high chance that you have a high chance of actually succeeding in an extreme endeavor. Far more so than someone like Randal and Ranea, for example." This is from .

Rui shrugged, considering the Emperor's evaluation.

He didn't strictly disagree.

If not for his family, then he would have gone for whichever route helped with Project Water. Perhaps he would have more open to prince Randal's or Princess Ranea's ambitions to increase his experience as a Martial Artist.

The impact on the average Kandrian citizen would be a much smaller concern for him. Certainly nowhere near as it was now.

"So I'm only a worthy candidate so long as nothing happened to my family?" Rui stared at the Emperor with a judging gaze.

"Normally, that would be the case," The Emperor remarked. "In your case, however, your competence is so abnormally high that virtually any extreme inclination can be justified. For example, the strategic and tactical insight and capability that you demonstrated when you completely overturned an ambush assassination into a trap to gain complete control over those who sought to eliminate you was perhaps the greatest counter-trap that I have seen in the past century."

An appreciative, impressed expression appeared on his face. "On top of that, not a single Martial Master has contradicted the report that your capacity for thought is extraordinary. Your Martial Art possessed a degree of information processing that is hitherto undreamt of in the Martial community…"

He paused before continuing. "That isn't the extent of the reason for my confidence in your competence, and it's an evaluation based on a large amount of data. Your remarkable diplomatic success in Vilun Island and your current status as Senior Ambassador of the Martial Union are the brilliant powerplays underlying your success in the Shionel confederation, and many more have led me to the conclusion that you are deeply gifted mentally and possess what is needed to ensure that the Empire doesn't burn down."

Rui stared at him silently as he considered the Emperor's words.

"So I possess the right inclination and the right competence to be Emperor…but without desire to ascend the throne…" He remarked. "You ruled out my many other half-brothers and half-sisters as candidates because they didn't desire the throne, did you not? Why do you not rule me out for the same reason?"

"The reason I ruled them out is because they know they do not possess the temperament nor the competence to successfully win the Kandrian Throne War even if they tried," The Emperor scoffed. "It is not because of a lack of desire for the throne. Almost every prince and princess is raised with a deep desire and admiration for the throne cultivated from childhood. A brutal set of psychological programming tactics is employed to ensure that the princes and princesses inherit a drive for the throne. Those that are unable to sustain it do so because their incompetence makes their drive untenable."