The Martial Unity

In a meditation chamber sat a man surrounded by candles.
His eyes were closed.
A sense of serenity and calm echoed in the air.
Yet, the same could not be said for his mind.
Within his mind, in the giant mind palace that lay within, Rui Quarrier struggled.
He struggled against an ocean information, gritting his teeth as he furiously processed a tsunami of ocean. The ocean was a lot smaller than the original ocean that the Angel of Laplace method produced, but an ocean was an ocean.
"Rgh!" His eyes flashed with determination.
His vision of the real world around his body shifted.
Time rewinded.
Yet, not for everything.
It reverted for a batch of candles before him, causing them to reverse their flickering while the other candles were untouched.
It was the past.
He heaved a deep breath as he opened his eyes, covered with sweat.
"Tsk, not perfect yet," He narrowed his eyes.
He had worked hard on the Angel of Laplace for about half a day continuously for the past nine months. During this time, short of absolute emergencies, nobody was allowed to disturb him.
Thankfully, the staff and administration that he had established nine months ago were extremely competent and could handle an overwhelming majority of the things that were needed to maintain a faction.
He was rarely disturbed.
Half a day was short by his standards, but it was still good enough to immerse himself in a good, long training session. Thankfully, it was good enough to make decent progress, considering that he only had half a day per day.
"Ideally, if I had the whole day, I might have succeeded with the Angel of Laplace by this point," Rui snorted, shaking his head.
This was enough time to finish this upgrade to the Void Algorithm if he didn't need to divert time and energy. But alas, he had other obligations and commitments.
Sometimes, he wondered why he bothered. Perhaps he should have just ignored the Kandrian Throne War and forsaken his family's peace and harmony. Perhaps just protecting them physically and ensuring that none of them died in the civil war was enough. Why did he set such high standards to ensure that they never suffered any anguish or misery from the civil war burning around them?
The moment that thought flashed in his head, however, he felt guilty.
"I'm an asshole," He shook his head, getting up.
His desire to protect not just their physical lives but also the lives that they had cultivated in the Kandrian Empire stemmed from the guilt of having gravely disrupted it when he exiled himself from the Shionel Confederation.
That was why he had resolved himself never to let it get disrupted again if he had the power.
Unfortunately, he did.
He heaved a sigh, quickly donning his custom-tailored Martial Art attire featuring the symbol of the Royal Family. His secretary and bodyguards were patiently waiting for him outside the meditation chamber.
"Apologies for the wait," Rui greeted them. "What do we have first on the itinerary?"
"A meeting with the Minister of Domestic Affairs," His secretary remarked. "Should you succeed in winning him over, you will have secured the support of the seventy-eighth high-
ranking government official out of a hundred and four, a perfect seventy-five percent."
"Finally," Rui heaved a tired sigh.
In the past nine months, his faction worked aggressively to leverage the economic, martial, and political capital that they had gained from their patrons, benefactors, and allies to win over as many high-ranking government officials as possible.
The effort had been extremely successful.
He managed to secure the contracted support of seventy-
seven high-ranking government officials.
It hadn't been easy.
He needed to entertain the whims and fancies of intelligent officials who knew exactly how important they were and made very tall demands of him for their
support.
One wanted two life-prolonging potions to guarantee an additional two human lifetimes.
Another wanted enormous real estate on the coast of the Kandrian Empire.
Most of them demanded wealth, among other things.
The more Rui worked with this system, the more he realized just how immensely corrupt it was. His father was right; his grandfather was indeed a power-hungry bastard who gave too much power to the Kandrian government during times of succession when founding the Kandrian Empire.
Alas, it was extremely difficult to change what had been established in stone. He was sure that his father had tried to change the foundations of the system, but the first Emperor Ra had taken away the power of the Emperor to change some
things.
Regardless, with the wealth he got from his allies and patron, the Martial power of the Martial Union, he was able to fulfill their demands and secure their cooperation in unbreakable contracts.
The allied princes worked hard to stop him, of course, but he had too much support and power. And as everybody had come to predict he managed to overwhelm the support of the princes in his campaign for the throne.
And now, it was finally time for the final hurdle before he could secure an absolute claim to the throne.
"Let's end this once and for all," Rui heaved a sigh as he headed back to his campaign headquarters.
It wasn't long before he entered his large, extravagant office with a suited man sitting opposite him.
"Minister Kramen," Rui smiled. "I apologize for the brief delay. Did you wait long?"
"Not at all, Your Highness," The man stood up, shaking Rui's hand. "I'm grateful you took the time to meet me."
They took their seats as Rui leaned forward, steepling his fingers.
"The fact that you took the time to meet me despite knowing exactly what I want from you means that you are not averse to it," Rui replied calmly, analyzing the man. "Let us cut to the chase, Minister Kramen. What is your price?" The man stared at Rui with a bitter smile. "... You remind me of your father."