Her concerns were very valid and sound.
There were extremely few Martial Seniors at the very highest echelons of the Senior Realm who could overcome the things that Rui would be subjecting himself to.
"My rationale is sound," Rui replied calmly. "I am strong. Far, far stronger than I was when I was training under you five years ago."
"I can see that," Master Reina remarked. "Your progress is truly astounding. I'm just cautioning you not to let it impede your judgment."
"I understand. I am doing my best to ensure that it isn't and hasn't while in regards to this decision," Rui replied with a composed tone. "My primary goal is to survive; my secondary goal is to eliminate the threat to me; I can do that by suppressing them with blackmail or even killing them then and there if I can get away with it. Thus, my goal is to exit this ordeal with the threat eliminated and no loss of quality of life where I have to be constantly protected by the Martial Union surrendering my agency."
He wasn't lying, but that wasn't the whole truth.
The truth was that he wanted to be attempted to be assassinated. He had accrued a lot of power recently. He had even gone to accrue a new dimension of his Martial Art.
The last time this had happened was when he trained under Master Zeamer, soon after that, he got to fully test the limits of his power in all-out combat against the powerful Seniors of the Carnil Mafia.
Prior to that, he had added another dimension of adaptive evolution to his Martial Art with the Metabody System, and he had gotten to rigorously test that out in the Virdhabhasa Contest.
This time, he would be testing his power out against assassins who were hired to kill him. It was not fake nor false, nor did he have to go searching for conflict and pick fights forcefully. The fight was coming to him.
He needed to find out just how powerful his Flowing Void Style had become.
Master Reina heaved a troubled sigh, shaking her head. "You're such a troublemaker."
"Hey, I'm not the one who hired assassins. I'm a victim here," He grinned mischievously.
"Hah, it's the other way around," Master Gurren snorted. "How shameless, pretending to be prey when you're actually an ambush predator. You're truly an arrogant brat, after all."
Rui shrugged, uncaring for their accusations. "As long as you fulfill your parts in this plan, I can accept anything you say."
He turned to Master Reina. "Aren't you happy to be partaking in the Kandrian Throne War?"
"How do you know this is related to the Kandrian Throne War?" Master Reina raised an eyebrow.
"Everything is," Rui replied, scoffing. "Especially in the Kandrian Empire. I guarantee you, regardless of whether it's the Kandrian government, any of the seven royals competing for the throne, a powerful corporation, or the Underworld, the motivations behind this assassination are related to the Kandrian Throne War."
The probability that the motivation to take him out was unrelated to the throne war was unthinkable. He had already concluded that the culprit was in the Kandrian Empire. That was what made him confident that it was related to the Kandrian Throne War. His impact on the Kandrian Empire was beneficial to all of its residents. He was such a golden goose that nobody in the Kandrian Empire had a reason to kill him if not for the fact that there was a throne war.
"Tsk, pesky throne war," Rui tutted. "If only Emperor Rael never fell ill. After listening to the seven royals vying for the throne, it made me realize how valuable he was for maintaining harmony without too much of a cost."
Rui didn't know what the endgame of the throne war was. He had done his best to steer it away from the worst of candidates, but alas, even for him, making lemonade out of this lemon was proving to be almost impossible.
He shook his head, putting away such thoughts.
He had more important matters to focus on in the short term.
The assassinations. He needed to survive. He needed to overcome. He needed to employ every ounce of power he had mustered in the seven years he had spent in the Senior Realm. He had grown tremendously stronger since then, and he couldn't wait to test his new limits.
The two Masters narrowed their eyes as they felt a wave of battle lust from Rui.
He was itching for it.
He grinned, turning to Master Reina. "When is the arranged briefing?"
"It's supposed to be in two weeks," Master Reina replied. "They seem to be proceeding with the greatest of care and caution without giving away even the slightest detail. The Voidreaper will be expected to be in the Kandrian Empire and they will disclose the location of the briefing on the same day as the briefing itself."
"That reveals a lot of fear of being discovered," Rui narrowed his eyes. "It gives me more clues as to who it could be, but not enough to be conclusive about my suspicions. Regardless, I'll be fine. Thankfully, I have a Master-level mask that can impede their senses."
He still had the Master-level mask that Master Deivon had given him a long time ago, and he certainly intended to use it to ensure that any Martial Master present during the briefing would not instantly discover his identity.
"I also need to put up a good little costume befitting that of the Voidreaper," Rui smirked, turning to Master Reina.
"Oh, I have a lifetime of experience with that. I'm sure we can put up something extremely convincing that will really convince people that you are the Voidreaper. After all, you truly are the Voidreaper."
Both sides began preparations for the eventual meet-off and showdown.
In just a matter of two weeks, the briefing meeting had arrived and it was time for Rui to take on his identity as the Voidreaper.
