2264  Possible Deployments

"There are many ways to accomplish that," Emperor Rael answered his question lightly. "For one, you can serve as an ambassador for Master-level nations. The East Panamic Treaty Alliance will not waste most of its time sending any Martial Sages to Master-level nations as opposed to Sage-level nations that choose to ally with us, for example. On the flip side, the quality of enemy Masters deployed to these nations will be lower, for example."

Rui fell into thought.

In other words, as long as he went to Master-level allied nations, he would be facing off weaker Masters.

Masters who he would most likely be able to handle and dominate in combat.

"I mean, if they want to kill me so badly, they can just send a Martial Sage to target me instead of the ally that I'm protecting. Ironically, because of how many people want to kill me, I'm more of a liability than an asset when it comes to protecting nations."

Rui found it amusing rather than disturbing.

Though, he would be displeased if he couldn't get into good battles that could serve as experience.

"There are ways to handle those issues as well," Emperor Rael calmly remarked as he read through a bunch of reports. "For example, we can arm you with a rare artifact that can instantaneously transport you back to the Kandrian Empire when activated and publicly announce the news."

Rui's eyes lit up with interest. "Such a thing exists?"

"The esoteric substance used to create the artifact is extremely rare, non-renewable, and can only be found in the Beast Domain, but…" A hint of smugness could be detected in his father's voice. "That is no longer an impediment to the Kandrian Empire, thanks to the Elder Tree's intel."

"Ah, I suppose your plan is to hand me such an artifact and publicize the news." Rui realized his intentions. "Doing so will make it unattractive to deploy a Martial Sage to assassinate me, because we also have my grandmother, who needs only to warn me ahead of time if they do decide to deploy any Martial Sage. The Martial Sage will have been deployed in futility because they won't ever be able to kill me."

"Correct, you have quickly understood the plan I had in mind." His father nodded. "Prime Minister Edward is not a fool. He won't deploy Martial Sages if there's a high chance the operation will be futile. At this crucial stage of the war, Martial Sages will be deployed only where their impact on the war can be guaranteed."

His father's plan was practical and a good way to keep their enemies from deploying Sages to hunt Rui.

"However, they have enough of an understanding of your profile to know that you won't back away from a war against Martial Masters. So there's a good chance that they'll be able to have you remain as long as they don't push their attempts to kill you," his father quickly offered his judgment. Owned by .

"If that's the case, then it also does not matter which allied nation or potential ally I go to. The level of conflict that I will invite upon myself will be the same due to how much the East Panamic Treaty Alliance wants to kill me," Rui realized. "In other words, I'm bound to face an immense amount of pressure no matter where I go the moment I step outside of the Kandrian Empire."

"I suppose that is also true," Emperor Rael mused. "If that's the case, you might want to be deployed to allies or potential allies where you would face a high level of pressure anyway due to their strategic importance."

Rui stirred at his father's words.

Now that the war for allies had begun, Rui had several options on how he wanted to participate in it, and he wanted to make use of the opportunity to face off against as many Masters as possible.

It wasn't going to be easy to make a choice under these conditions.

"I'll need to give it a lot of thought."

His father nodded. "Be sure to make sure you've considered all the choices at your disposal. And remember the consequences of any choice you make."

Rui nodded. "I won't forget."

It wasn't long before he left his father's office, leaving him to work on his own devices. He still had a meeting with the Sage Council of the Martial Union. He was sure that the Martial Sages had plenty to speak to him about after the recent battle with the Sekigahara Confederate.

Now that his secret of breakthroughs had come out, it was best if they collectively dealt with the local consequences of the breakthrough requests and commissions for Rui that had flooded the Martial Union.

After all, one of the primary functions of the Martial Union was to serve as a broker between Martial Artists and the consumer market in a highly efficient and effective manner to ensure that the supply was optimally matched to demand.

The Martial Union needed a clear stance from Rui on how to deal with the skyrocketing demand that they had undoubtedly been bombarded with since the Sekigahara Confederate learned and disseminated the intel about his breakthrough abilities.

There were countless powers inside and outside the Kandrian Empire that wanted him to break their Squires or Seniors through to a higher Realm, or break their children through to the Apprentice Realm.

Until Rui made his stance clear and ensured that there was a system to enforce his stance, there would only be chaos.

"What a pain in the ass…" He heaved a sigh as he headed to the Martial Union headquarters in Vargard. "Why can't people just leave me alone? Or just fight me."

Either option worked for him.

The latter certainly wasn't going to be an issue even if he didn't leave the Kandrian Empire. Ten billion gold coins were almost an order of magnitude higher than the highest bid for assassination commissions.

He welcomed their attempts.