Published at 23rd of January 2026 7:07 am

Chapter 3793: The Path Forward

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Rui frowned. "Wormholes cheaper than seafare? That seems hard to imagine."

"Is it truly hard to imagine?" she raised an eyebrow. "The market price of negatron matter is falling with each day because of how many negative tons you are extracting from Gaia, yes?"

"Yes, but still... wormholes are unfathomably energy-demanding. You could power a thousand ships in continuous seafare with the energy it takes to maintain a single normal wormhole," Rui remarked with a conflicted tone. "However, I suppose there is a critical point where the surplus of negatron matter is so great that it could become easier to open a wormhole than to ship goods and services through the seafare."

She nodded. "Precisely, and when that day comes, the seafaring folks of your nation will revolt if you ever decide to do the logical choice and shift to wormholes as a means of transport and shipping. An ordinary emperor of Kandria would likely fold and give in to their demands for subsidies to keep their costs down, to make seafaring competitive. This would be an example of how stakeholder interests prevent a nation from adopting the change, the ’adaptive evolution’ as you call it, needed to prosper in new circumstances."

"I could just disregard their interests, could I not?"

Rui raised an eyebrow. "I mean, it’s not like they could hurt me or destabilize my regime. My power is absolute."

"You could do that, but if you do, you will lose a lot of support from the people," she continued with a firm tone. "Roughly thirty-eight percent of the citizens of Kandria are employed in the seafaring and maritime industry, and even more indirectly. They will lose their jobs if you decide to replace seafaring with wormholes. No matter how much the common man loves and adores you, if they suffer economic hardship because of you, then you will lose their support."

"...This is quite realistic, too," Rui realized, directing a pointed gaze at the Shepherd. "Did you know this would happen? Is that why you used this as an example?"

She smiled with a wise expression. "Your father was undoubtedly aware of this, which is why he wouldn’t need me telling him this. I imagine he had some clever plan to overcome this hurdle, as he always does."

Rui thought back to Project SeaPhase that Princess Ranea had shared with him. At the time, he thought it was just a clever economic plan to gain an absolute stronghold on global seafaring and maritime, but now he realized that it likely had greater significance than he had realized.

’It most likely was a way to protect seafaring from the economic threat of wormholes,’ Rui realized. ’She must have known that wormholes are an existential threat to commercial maritime affairs. She also must have known that with the continuous negatron matter being extracted from Gaia, ships did not stand a chance of victory in the long run. Thus, rather than trying to replace ships, she decided to merge shipping with wormholes. By merging them, she could ensure that they wouldn’t have to compete.’

Rui heaved a deep breath, shaking his head with a slightly humbled expression. "I’ve grown rusty at this. Politics is... complicated. I haven’t thought about this stuff in a quarter of a century."

"That is excusable, considering you are a Martial Artist, but if you have decided to become Emperor, then you need to either think of this yourself or surround yourself with people you trust to think of this on your behalf," she remarked knowingly. "In that regard, you are wise to seek me out. And even wiser to reel me in with powerful bait."

Rui smiled wryly at those words, not denying her accusation.

"Coming back to the main point," she remarked. "Your vision of a nation that can adaptively evolve as you can only be achieved with a political framework that systematically overcomes the many hurdles to change that nations experience. You will need to ensure that your approval ratings with the people always remain high so that they are more willing to accept the changes you bring about. You will need to ensure that your stakeholders are either appeased or overcome when change is disadvantageous to them. The ideal outcome would be to melt every impediment to change inside out, removing the reason for resistance peacefully and harmoniously, which was something that your father was extraordinarily good at."

Rui heaved a deep breath as he felt the weight of expectations that rested on him.

It was a burden indeed, not just because of how excellent his father was as a ruler and how difficult it was to fill his shoes, but because being a ruler itself was burdensome.

Rui’s goal to turn this burden into a source of Martial growth was not going to be easy.

"You cannot match your father’s political finesse," she remarked with a knowing tone. "You are a genius and a titan of intellect, but you have directed all of that intelligence and intellect towards Martial Art, leaving you less extraordinary at statesmanship. You were correct when you said that you have an advantage that your father doesn’t, however."

Her expression grew serious. "But it is not that easy to turn one man’s power into the power of an entire nation and into an engine of prosperity. You are insistent on this condition so that you can make the Kandrian Empire stronger just by growing stronger, aren’t you? You want to be able to spend most of your time on Martial Art and have that benefit the country in a very powerful way. You want to have your cake and eat it. To be a full-time Martial Artist and a full-time Emperor."

Rui nodded with a deep eagerness. "That sums up the essence of my desire, yes. I want growth in my Martial power to cause growth in my nation. I have very... loose ideas on how such a thing is possible. But if you can show me the light... If you can show me the path forward on this one criterion of my vision, I will be eternally grateful."

Those words hung heavily in the atmosphere as the Shepherd fell into deep thought, sensing the sheer importance of this matter to Rui. She knew that if she failed in providing him an actual solution... it could harm the future of all of human civilization itself.

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