It was true.
He would not have gone to Sekigahara Confederate if not for the Emperor of Harmony convincing him to put aside his emotions and think logically of the consequences of the Sekigahara Confederate falling or not willing to let go of their Sages due to how weak they were in the Master Realm.
The clan leaders stared at him with an impassive expression.
Whether they were surprised or not was entirely indistinguishable.
"Prince Rui, what about this alliance do you find intolerable?" the matriarch of the Kaze Clan asked with a truly sincere tone.
"...Are you serious?" Rui scoffed with disbelief. "You launched a double-pronged Sage-level assault to destroy the Kandrian Empire when you learned of one of our treasures, triggering a war that ca this close to destroying the Kandrian Empire. You have hard our people and our Martial Artists with your continued participation in the third Great East Panamic War. And now you dare to sit there and seek an alliance?"
"We didn't take you for soone who would let emotions overtake rationality, Dawnbringer."
"Don't play stupid. This is not about letting emotions impede rationality and you know it," Rui snorted. "These will be the consequences that you face for attacking the Kandrian Empire. Just be grateful that we have decided to play it safe with the Beast Incursion by agreeing to give you a boost through ."
One of the greatest deterrences against provoking a war with a nation was the consequences of enmity. If provoking war with a nation and becoming their enemy ant a slim chance of short-term reconciliation and loss of trade for important goods and supplies, then that served as the deterrence.
After all, waging war with that nation would an a loss of all the benefits that ca with being amicable with them. This was especially so if they produced important goods and services like potions, for example.
However, if a nation was known to forgive even the worst of offences, then that would no longer be a deterrence.
After all, the surrounding nations knew that no matter what they did, they would most certainly be forgiven no matter what.
This was precisely what the Kandrian Empire was avoiding.
It could not forgive the Sekigahara Confederate for its war cris against the Kandrian Empire easily.
There had to be a price.
A painful price.
One that needed to be broadcasted to the entire world.
Only then would the Kandrian Empire be able to establish a deterrence towards any other force in the world that dared to attack them.
The fourteen clan leaders fully understood this dynamic; they were just hoping that they could avoid it by being sneaky and a little forceful.
Unfortunately for them, the Dawnbringer shot their hopes out of the sky.
The air in the conference room grew tense with Rui's indignant refusal of their deceitful goodwill.
"Then, how would you like to proceed with these negotiations, Prince Rui?" the patriarch of the Tanaka Clan asked.
Rui directed a sweeping gaze at all of them. "You might have assud that I ca here to help you for free as I have with all the nations that I stopped by on my journey here."
That was indeed what they had assud.
In fact, that assumption had been sowhat truthful up until a few monts ago.
That was when Rui's diplomatic acun kicked in and he realized that it was politically untenable for him to help them for free.
This was not a small and weak nation that was just entirely helpless without him.
This was a Sage-level powerhouse.
They had been a threat to the Kandrian Empire very recently.
He needed to shift his ntality to fit the target he was dealing with. It was not worth squeezing the Ucrean Kingdom for anything because they truly had nothing of value to offer to the Kandrian Empire and were not an enemy to the Kandrian Empire. Frankly, it had been better to just help them out of pure self-interest.
These sa dynamics were not true for the Sekigahara Confederate.
Rui made up his mind then and there.
"Reparations."
The clan leaders stiffened at those words.
"As long as you display your sincerity through reparations, we will be open to the strong possibility of an alliance," Rui replied. "Additionally, if you want my Hellbringer model hypnotic embedding and my breakthroughs, you will have to commit to the unified Sage assault plan that my father has proposed. I will not help you if you don't agree to help human civilization by participating in an assault that will ultimately benefit all of us, including you." These were not light demands, but Rui's strong tone made it very clear that he was not willing to compromise.
This put them in a tough spot and their silence was revealing.
Rui realized that they had never been too keen on the plan that the Emperor of Harmony had co up with. They just hadn't voiced their compunctions out loud in the Human Summit since that would have put them in opposition with literally every other Sage-level powerhouse in existence.
That was politically untenable.
However, Rui understood now that they were truly not open to the idea of letting go of their Sages due to the fact that their Masters were few.
That was not good enough.
He needed to secure their commitnt, among other things.
He also needed to make sure that he looked out for the Kandrian Empire's interests.
And most importantly, he needed to secure his own interests in the negotiations.
"... We are not absolutely opposed to reparations. What do you propose?"
Rui smiled mischievously. "Partial ownership over the Tree of Healing.
Their expression darkened as their eyes sparkled with fury. "That is preposterous! How dare you make such a demand over our national treasure?! Do you have any idea just how precious and priceless this treasure is?!"
Rui smiled. "Do you have any idea how precious the treasures that I am offering to you are? What is more likely to save you, that tree or my Hellbringer model and my breakthroughs?"
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