CHAPTER 2255  FINALLY READY

As the world reeled from the commencement of the third Great East Panamic War, the polities of East Panama grew grave as they were faced with choices that they would undoubtedly have to choose from.

Wars of such scale were rarely waged among just the core participants. More often than not, smaller nations were dragged into the war between the primary powerhouses that sought to destroy each other.

After all, Sage-level powerhouse nations possessed immense power, especially within their primary domain of influence. It was quite easy for powerhouses to use their influence to either implicitly blackmail, threaten, or bribe nations in their vicinity to pressure them into lending them their power and credit.

While nations with military power limited to the Lower Realms were too weak to even bother with, the same could not be said about the Master-level and Sage-level nations. It was entirely worth it to gain the power of these nations and deploy it in war.

Every Master mattered.

Every Sage most certainly mattered.

War was already underway.

Everybody knew that. The Gorteau Congress was most likely going to pass President Raymond's declaration of war, and the Britannian Empire was second only to the Sekigahara Confederate when it came to propensity to wage war.

In other words, the four powerhouses had already begun fighting for influence and support from the other Sage-level and Master-level nations.

"But…" Prime Minister Edward narrowed his eyes. "Rael is definitely prepared for that as well. In the first place, he has an advantage in that regard. After all, the Kandrian Empire has a much greater relationship with nations in East Panama than any other powerhouse."

The Republic of Gorteau ensnared nations with debt traps.

The Sekigahara Confederate triggered local and civil wars across the entirety of North-East Panama to increase the demand for Martial Artists.

The Britannian Empire colonized nations with its imperialist ambition, turning them into colonies that were forced to work for the greater good of the Britannian Empire.

In comparison to these monsters and tyrants, the Kandrian Empire was beloved for its mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreements and the philosophy of harmony that underlied its approach to foreign nations.

While the former three evoked fear and hatred from the nations of East Panama, the latter of the four was the only powerhouse that was pleasing and desirable to engage with.

Thus, when it came to war for allies, Kandria had a dominant advantage.

"Hmph, he planned for this to happen from the very start," Prime Minister Edward mused knowingly. "If it was just the Kandrian Empire alone, then there would have been no need to bother with allies; after all, the three of us could just gang up on the Kandrian Empire. But with Sekigahara Confederate put in check by the Esocline Federation and the National Democratic Party of Gorteau in Rael's pocket, he has found a way to just reduce the disparity between himself and his enemies just barely enough so that we have no choice but to seek allies, because he certainly will." Owned by .

When the Prime Minister weighed in reports of the additional seven Martial Sages that shockingly appeared out of nowhere and the fact that the Sekigahara Confederate would no longer be able to contribute to Master-level battles due to few Masters left, he realized what Rael's plans were and what long-term strategy he was planning from the very get-go.

The worst part was that it was very difficult for him to disrupt these plans.

The core reason is that he had too little intel until very recently, which was too late to disrupt these plans.

If he had been aware of the treasures of the Kandrian Empire prior, he would have been able to do much more, but alas, even he had limits upon learning of such crucial knowledge too late.

"Still…" His gaze sharpened as he read through the intelligence reports. "This is not enough, Rael. Bribing half the Gorteau Congress with your recent surplus of longevity potions and leveraging the Esocline Federation to cripple the Sekigahara's freedom are certainly genius military strategies, but even if you cripple them by a whopping fifty percent, that's still two Sage-level powerhouses against one."

However, Prime Minister Edward knew better than to kick back and relax. The fact that Emperor Rael had gone through with his plan was proof that he had almost certainly figured out some strategy to overcome.

Prime Minister Edward has already computed the most promising strategies by putting himself in his rival's shoes. The two of them had reached a level of intellect and mastery over military strategy where they could not only predict each other's strategies but even predict their counters to the counters of their strategies.

"We cannot deploy all our Martial Artists to destroy the Kandrian Empire. However, the Kandrian Empire can deploy all its Martial Artists to protect itself."

Even if not all, it could certainly deploy far more to protect itself.

After all, even the Britannian Empire needed to ensure that a few Martial Sages remained in the homeland to ensure that none of the vassals that it had colonized decided to rebel in the absence of any Martial Sages on standby.

"Even accounting for that, it's still one-point-seven-five Sage-level powerhouses against one," Prime Minister Edward closed his eyes as he ran the numbers. "Hm, surely this and an advantage in ally-seeking isn't all Rael has planned. Because if it is…"

His eyes opened as they flared with perilous will. "…Kandria will meet its destruction without any shadow of a doubt."

He needed to not only find out what else Rael had planned for the war but also to ensure that his side had its strategy rigorously planned.

BEEP BEEP

His attention was drawn as a call on his comms artifact drew his attention.

"Finally," Prime Minister Edward smirked when he saw who sought to speak to him. "It appears that the recent battle has shaken all those fools out of complacency."

He accepted the call as it projected three-dimensional images of nearly thirty people around the prepared table in his office.

On one side of the table was the grave and severe projection of President Raymond, accompanied by leaders of his administrative staff. On the other side were murderous and enraged projections of the leaders of the ruling clans of the Sekigahara Confederate.

"Well well well…" Prime Minister Edward grinned, savoring the moment. "Look at what we have here."

Both sides glowered at him even as he took pleasure in their displeasure.

"Are you idiots finally ready to get serious and burn Kandria to the ground?"

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