The Martial Unity
chapter-2254

Many found it strange that the Esocline Federation would be willing to go so far as to serve as an external strategic deterrent for the sake of protecting the Kandrian Empire. Perhaps if the Kandrian Empire and Esocline Federation had been age-old allies with a long history of cooperating with each other, it would make more sense.

However, that most certainly wasn't the case.

If anything, the Esocline Federation was closer to being an ally with the Sekigahara Confederate due to the fact that it had been the supplier of esoteric military technology to the Sekigaharans.

The Sekigahara Confederate did not conduct any R&D when it came to technology. They had no background in it and were strictly Martial. If not for the fact that being deprived of such military technological assets would have made them the weakest of the four Sage-level powerhouses of East Panama, they would have never bothered getting their hands on such technological capital in the first place.

This meant that the Esocline Federation had forsaken a long-term client for the sake of the Kandrian Empire, with which it had no prior relationship.

Not a single person in the war council could contain their curiosity as to how the Emperor of Harmony managed to flip the Esocline Federation to his side despite the odds stacked against him.

"Oh, it's simple, really," Emperor Rael calmly replied. "Interest, agendas, and objectives supersede relationships in the world of geopolitics. As long as one is able to grasp the latter, one can break up even the most solid of alliances and relationships. In this case, all I needed to do was understand what the leader and founder of Esocline Federation seeks to achieve. And it's rather simple to deduce what his intentions are."

His gaze swept across the entire table.

"According to my personal assessment of the Esoterist, this is a man who most likely despises Martial Art," Emperor Rael began. "This is a man who most likely despises the Age of Martial Art and this world of Martial Art. He believes in the power of technology, and he believes that technology not only has greater potential than Martial Art but also benefits humanity more than Martial Art..."

The air of the War Council tingled as the atmosphere grew uncomfortable; many of the members stole a glance at the members of the Martial Union, who were clearly displeased that the Kandrian Empire had allied with the Esocline Federation.

"When I analyze all the decisions that this man has made, such as banning all research and development into the Squire evolution process or banning all research into Martial Art growth and training resources while very willingly selling powerful military technology to nations around the world, even to Martial nations like the Sekigahara Confederate..." Emperor Rael's eyes narrowed. "I am able to deduce his long-term objectives and intentions. He wishes to erode Martial Art from human civilization with the power of technology. That is his true long-term objective."

"... And you chose to ally with such a man willingly?" Sage Glacken narrowed his eyes, unable to control himself from asking.

"Relax," Emperor Rael reassured. "The probability of him succeeding in fulfilling such an objective is less than one percent. What matters most at this juncture is what he can do for us and what we can do for him. You see..."

Emperor Rael smiled. "I made him an offer he cannot refuse. I offered to give him the locations of esoteric resources in the Beast Domain that are conducive to his goal, resources that, as our investigation, he has been scouring the market for."

The others in the war council frowned. "Your Majesty...doesn't that mean that you're sacrificing our gains in the Beast Domain for the sake of the alliance of the Esocline Federation?"

After all, everybody was under the impression that Emperor Rael wanted to monopolize the Elder Tree connection for himself. After all, a treasure that benefitted everybody equally was not something that could elevate Kandria above others. The more of the Elder Tree's intel they sold, the less they would benefit from it themselves.

"I can understand why you'd think that way, but..." Emperor Rael shook his head. "You're all wrong. We're not sacrificing anything."

Everybody frowned at his words, gazing at him quizically and skeptically.

"Think about it," Emperor Rael continued unperturbed. "Is it possible to extract all resources out of the Beast Domain even if we deployed each and every Martial Artist to the Beast Domain to focus exclusively on the intel given by the Elder Tree?"

The council members fell into thought at his question.

The Beast Domain was absolutely enormous, densely packed, and was extremely dangerous. Even with the exact location of each resource, it didn't change the fact that they needed to travel an enormous amount of distance, undertake great personal risk, and overcome massive amounts of adversity to finally reach the target location, extract the resource, and then lug it back home.

This took time, risk, and losses, all of which reduced both the frequency at which these missions could be conducted as well as the total number of such operations that could be conducted each month.

"On top of that, it is impossible to dedicate all Martial Artists to the Beast Domains for obvious reasons," Emperor Rael continued. "Domestic and international martial business, military operations, governmental contracts, training, and the bare minimum of Martial Artists that need to be within the Kandrian Empire for national security. The point is that it is absolutely impossible to make use of all the intel we get from the Elder Tree; at most, we can make use of ten percent. This ten percent consists of the most precious and important Sage- level and Transcendent-level resources. Information about the remaining ninety percent of resources that the Elder Tree has detected is functionally useless to us due to practical logistical constraints."

Realization dawned upon the members of the council as they understood the Emperor's reasoning.

"And since all that information is functionally useless to us, why not trade it for something that is useful?" Emperor Rael smiled. "The Esocline Federation is the perfect target for this. Esoteric technology is highly demanding of resources, far more so than Martial Art is. In other words, I am offering something that is precious enough to the Esoterist for him to discard his relationship with the Sekigahara Confederate without a second thought and readily serve as an external strategic deterrence for us."

"Your Majesty..." Grand General Aramoeous's eyes widened. "Is that why you spent the past three years building a relationship with the Esocline Federation long before tensions escalated?"

"Of course," Emperor Rael smiled. "This is all a part of my grand plan to ensure that the Kandrian Empire overcomes all adversities and reaches uncharted realms of power, glory, and prospers. Mark my words, brothers and sisters, this victory that our valiant Martial Artists have brought us is just the first of many."