The Martial Unity

"Charles DiVilliers...The Underworld Prince..." Master Reina considered his words thoughtfully.

"I can confirm that he is one of my conspiring death-wishers," Rui replied.

"One of?" Master Reina raised an eyebrow. "How do you know there are more?"

"...I am eighty-nine percent certain that the little briefing was not arranged by Rajak or the Underworld," Rui replied, narrowing his eyes. "It's not their modus operandi. No...this is the work of someone who is not nearly as accustomed to covert and furtive operations of the kind that is being attempted. The Underworld would have sacrificed the luxury in favor of practicality. They would have briefed us in the middle of a trash valley if it meant lesser probability of being tracked."

"That's true," Master Reina nodded thoughtfully.

Rui narrowed his eyes defiantly. There was still something that didn't add up. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like this was not an initiative from the Underworld so much as an initiative that came from elsewhere and made use of the Underworld's services.

'Yes, that better describes what's happening,' Rui realized. 'The Underworld wouldn't need to use Charles DiVilliers' place as a getaway if it truly was intent on killing me with everything it had. Their own capacity to hide the Kandrian Empire far exceeds that of Charles DiVilliers. The resources that were employed were more reminiscent of someone powerful who is working with their hands tied.'

That suggested a force that had a lot of power at their disposal but was not under their absolute control, such that they could use it to get rid of Rui without the Martial Union noticing.

'...The Royals...' Rui's eyes widened as he arrived at his final deduction. 'The modus operandi I have witnessed from my death-wishers ever since being informed about them perfectly fits that of a group of individuals with immense power at their disposal, which they cannot employ against me because of a lack of absolute control over it and because of a conflict of interests with my death.'

Only the royals fit that description. Aside from Raul, none of the royals had gained true loyalty from their faction. The royals lacked control over their faction the most than any of the other three options.

The Underworld, a powerful corporation, and the Kandrian government would have handled this very differently, especially in their manner of getaway. These three had much greater control over their power and resources than the royals did, and while they all feared the Martial Union too much to use their own Martial resources, which would lead to them being identified and caught, there would be more refinement in their modus operandi even in their hiring of international assassins."

"A corporation would not have demonstrated the nuanced understanding of the operation that I witnessed in the briefing," Rui narrowed his eyes. "These are organizations who are accustomed to outsourcing services to the experts and leave the matter entirely to them with the constraints and objectives specified. They would have simply asked for my covert death and body and let the assassins figure it out. Yet they have proactively partaken in the planning of the assassination."

That reduced the probability of the true culprit being a corporation.

"The Kandrian government would never rely on DiVilliers Enterprises. There is too strong a conflict of interests between the two parties for them to trust each other," Rui realized that the probability of the Kandrian government being the true culprit was limited as well. "They also would not be able to transfer such large sums of money abroad with the Martial Union not noticing something fishy."

He had also noted the inconsistencies with the modus operandi of the Underworld and what he witnessed, thereby reducing the probability that it was the Underworld. By comparing the known modus operandi of the four suspects and the actual culprits, he was able to revise his evaluations of the probabilities of the four suspects.

The only option out of the four possibilities that he had shortlisted two weeks ago was the royals.

It became increasingly likely that one or more royals had cooperated to take Rui out.

The only royals he could trust not to take him out were Prince Raijun because Rui was his ticket to winning the Kandrian Throne War and Prince Raul. Since, as hard as it was to believe, the man was fit to be considered a saint.

"Well, do you want me to assassinate them?" Master Reina asked curiously.

An amused smile emerged on his face. Had anyone else offered, he would have scoffed, but when Master Reina did, he knew that she wasn't jesting in the least. He would not bet against her being unable to assassinate somebody not protected by a Martial Sage.

"…No," Rui heaved a sigh, shaking his head. "That will make things worse."

If it came to light that he was indirectly involved with the mass assassination of the royal family, he was dead. Not even the Martial Union could protect him from the gravity of such a situation. It was completely over.

On top of that, even though he knew she probably wouldn't get caught, he didn't gain anything from their deaths. In fact, it just allowed Prince Raijun to become Emperor with zero competition.

Rui needed the other princes and princesses to restrict him so that a bit of a deadlock could return. He would rather delay the unofficial victory of any one prince or princess as much as he could by ensuring that they kept each in check.

It was quite likely that multiple royals and factions would need to come together to actually successfully keep each other in check. But alas, that was the best he could do for the time being.

Regardless, his own priorities took precedence, and he needed to suppress the threats that the royals represented without getting himself into major trouble and completely throwing the Kandrian Throne War sideways and ruining the country.

At that moment, Rui couldn't help but feel like the Kandrian Empire was a little child, depending on him, the adult, to sustain it.