One of them was the Shield of East Kandria, an original Martial Sage of the Kandrian Empire, while the other was of non-Kandrian origin, evidently having pledged his loyalty to Princess Ranea.
Rui did not acknowledge their existence. Bodyguards were not to be acknowledged, as common courtesy went in high society. Their goals were to protect their charge, and they were not to reciprocate the attention they received.
Yet, Rui could feel the rising tension tingling at his words, from the anxiety of her bodyguards and Princess Ranea’s own seriousness.
"Ah, yes, your ability to read minds." She closed her eyes, heaving a deep breath. "It is true..."
When she opened her eyes, a blood-curdling malevolence boiled in their depths.
"If I could kill you, I would."
She spoke with a deep, deep hatred.
A mature hatred, one that had had ti to solidify into a sturdy force.
"You have courage," Rui replied with a calm tone. "Or perhaps not, since you know those words would not earn you a punishnt from . But you knew I could read your mind, and yet, you chose to appear before in person, arriving at the Vargard Royal Palace ahead of ti just to ensure you could. It seems like you wanted to sense your bloodlust and hatred towards ."
"I did," she spoke with a serious tone as she subdued her emotions, returning to her perfunctory self. "Because what I seek from you will require complete honesty and sincerity. Unlike the younger princes and princesses of this generation who have not faced you before, I am not under the delusion that you can be deceived."
Rui smiled wordlessly. It appeared that Princess Ranea had internalized the lessons she had learned from the fiascos and failures of the previous Kandrian Throne War.
The lesson that Rui Quarrier could not be opposed.
With just the Beggar’s Sect alone, he could find out everything he wanted to know. He had the man by the balls with his knowledge of an alien world, but even then, they had a pretty decent friendship and common interests. That, along with all the nurous other ways he could gain access to the truth, and there truly was no point in trying to hide from Rui, especially in the Kandrian Empire.
"That is bold and wise of you," Rui replied with an unfazed tone.
He didn’t care if she hated him.
He felt he had a stronger reason to hate her, but he didn’t harbor any emotions for her. It was like trying to hate an ant or a single-celled microorganism. She was so insignificant to him that he could muster no negative emotions for her.
"So? What did you want from ?" Rui asked with a knowing tone.
"Why ask questions, the answers of which you already know?" She huffed lightly. "I seek your political endorsent. I know you have no intention of ever becoming Emperor or taking charge of the nation. Which ans you must be searching for a prince or princess to endorse, just like you were searching last ti before your royal heritage was revealed by our father. I am here to do whatever I can to earn your support."
"That’s quite the decision from soone who hates my guts."
"My emotions are irrelevant," she spoke coldly. "I will do what I must to ascend the throne of this Empire, even if that ans kissing the ass of the man I hate the most."
"I respect your commitnt and conviction," Rui remarked. "But, the question is why would I support you? Your ambitions of an Age of Sailors are even more absurd in the current era than they were before."
"Twenty-five years have passed since the last Throne War, and I have changed much since then. I don’t have the sa ambitions as before, and I’m sure you can sense that." She shook her head. "My current ambitions are as follows: to turn the Kandrian Empire into the most dominant force in the seas and in international mariti affairs, and the sa is true for the Panama Continent. I want to dominate ship-building and submarine production, in both quantity and quality. I want to have a stronghold on naval power. I want to have an ironclad grip on seafaring, on shipping, transport, and other mariti comrcial affairs. I want to leverage naval might to secure shipping routes from giant attacks, evolutionary, or Tekorian assaults, and other threats, so that our soft power increases trendously. I want to adopt the sa position that the Hlakaschken Trade Empire used to adopt when it was the center of the world more than two years ago."
She raised a hand in the air, upon which her secretary imdiately pulled out a set of charts and blueprints, spreading them across the table before them.
[Project SeaPhase]
The blueprint featured a map of the Panama Continent as a whole. Much to his surprise, he thought she was going to make an appeal to him regarding the Kandrian Empire.
But instead, Project CorePhase relied on cutting-edge modern high technology and negatron resources to turn the Panama Continent into an extraordinary singularity of mariti and seafaring activity, the likes of which was unprecedented in the history of Gaian Civilization.
"You..." His eyes widened. "You want to deploy massive ship-sized world bridges across the coasts of the Panama Continent to allow ships to pass through the continent on one side and erge on the other side. This... this is extraordinarily ambitious, but if realized, then the Kandrian Empire will own all shipping routes in the world!"
A ship could go to East Panama and erge from West Panama, or any other point on the border of the Panama Continent. It would revolutionize the fundantal paradigms of seafaring in Gaia.
She smiled for the first ti as a hint of anticipation erged in her eyes. "We will beco the economic center of the world, along with the geographical center. All sovereign nations, all private, comrcial, and personal entities will have no choice but to rely on us. After all, currently, shipping routes are curved in semi-circles, forced to travel around the giant Panama Continent. But the shortest path between two points is a straight line, allowing us to cut their shipping expenses by half through this thod, forcing them to beco beholden to us if they want to remain profitable. We will beco a singularity of trade, and our soft power will reach astronomical heights, to the point where our word will beco international law."
"This..." Rui murmured. "It uses significant amounts of negatron matter, but the benefits are totally worth it. This would rig the entire ga in our favor! We could literally never ever lose if we managed to turn this vision into reality."
They would beco the de facto leader of the industry and international markets.
He turned to Princess Ranea with respect in his ethereal eyes. She had indeed grown up a lot from when she spoke about the Age of Sailors as a young adult. Her visions of the future were more powerful than such a paltry dream, and much more compelling and viable.
If he weren’t of royal blood, he would have supported her in a heartbeat.
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