While Prince Randal and Princess Rafia felt the mounting pressure from their factions, the other seven royals didn't do well either. Princess Ranea, too, felt the mounting heat from her most important stakeholders in a meeting in the port town of Farund.
"Princess Ranea, what is the meaning of this?" A man clad in business attire demanded.
"The revelation of my brother's royal bloodship was new to the entire world," Princess Ranea firmly replied. "What has happened has happened. It cannot be undone."
The president of the Kandrian Seafare Association narrowed his eyes. "What are you going to do about this? Even putting aside the Kandrian Royal Sword that the Emperor personally bestowed upon him, his own personal merits make him an extraordinary threat to your ambitions for the throne!"
The Minister of Maritime Affairs nodded with a grave expression. "His Highness is sure to come out of the gates storming. Has he released an announcement or issued a statement yet?"
"No," Princess Ranea shook her head. "There exists a realistic possibility that he might not bid for the throne."
"I find that rather difficult to imagine, Your Highness," The Chairwoman of Kandria's largest shipbuilder corporation narrowed her eyes. "Not only does he have a powerful chance of seizing the throne, but he is also bestowed with the heirship of the Emperor of Harmony himself. Even if he does not want to, he may very well do so because of how much pressure is being placed upon him to inherit the throne."
"We cannot control his choice," Princess Ranea remarked. "The only thing we can do is invest even more into reaching the throne."
"You mean we, your stakeholders, must invest more in reaching the throne?" The Chairman of a large luxury cruise corporation snorted.
Princess Ranea did not respond. Outside of the minute fraction of the Kandrian Royal Treasury that each royal could extract once in their lifetime, she did not have any sources of wealth of her own.
All of her faction's wealth came from across the powerful and rich seafare and maritime sectors of the Kandrian Empire. Without all of her many powerful and rich patrons supplying her faction with a steady supply of donations from their own pockets, she would eventually run out of funds.
"I understand that this is a difficult decision to make," Princess Ranea remarked calmly. "However, this is the price of the throne. The money you stand to lose if someone like Prince Raijun or Randal becomes Emperor is far greater."
Her stakeholders eyed each other before turning back to Princess Ranea.
"Do not fail, princess," A burly man seated at the end of the table growled.
Princes Ranea's winced inwardly under his stern gaze and warning.
This was Grand Admiral Geron.
The head of the Royal Navy who answered to the Royal Emperor. Bestowed with the authority to command the twelve hundred warships of Kandria at his own liberty in times of emergency and when war was declared, this man possessed a heavy voice in the seafaring sectors of Kandria.
While the Royal Navy was a branch of government directly under the Royal Emperor's control and did not profit from Princess Ranea's maritime ventures, it did indirectly benefit from the state of naval and nautical technology growing as a result which directly translated to the Royal Navy's power.
"I do not intend to fail," Princess Ranea narrowed her eyes. "Rest assured, I will be crowned Empress of Kandria."
That was a lie.
She, like Randal, already knew that her dreams for the throne were dead.
Inwardly, she was actually relieved that Rui Quarrier Kandria was revealed to be a prince. She hoped that he would put an end to the throne war by ascending the throne and letting her live out the rest of her days without the burden that she felt now.
"You've spoken to him before; tell us, what is your evaluation of Prince Rui Quarrier Kandria?"
The grand admiral asked Princess Ranea point blank.
The entire room turned towards her with askance.
She took a deep breath before exhaling. "In my opinion, Prince Rui is a highly competent and intelligent man and Martial Artist. His political philosophy is unclear. However, given that he has met up with all seven major prince factions and didn't join a single one of them, we can say that he most likely is not inclined toward the philosophies espoused by any of the seven factions."
Her eyes shifted across the room, meeting with those of her patrons. "It could be that he doesn't have any extreme vision for the nation, which could be why the Emperor saw fit to declare him his heir."
This was a possibility that the others found plausible.
"In that case, why don't we try estimating what his political appeal is going to be?" One chairman raised an eyebrow. "From that, we can establish what his primary stakeholder targets are going to be, and we can pre-emptively get the jump on him and try and sabotage his lobbying and campaigning."
This plan greatly appealed to the other stakeholders, forcing Princess Ranea to acquiesce partially.
"…I shall take it upon myself to ensure that the analyst division within my faction carefully considers the proposed plan," Princess Ranea replied. "I believe, however, that the biggest stakeholder that Rui will target will be the Martial Union. I highly doubt that any amount of sabotage from our end can prevent him from earning the support of the Martial Union."
The air grew gloomy.
The love and affection for Prince Rui Quarrier Kandria that the Martial Union had even before he was revealed to be of royal blood was deep.
Was it even possible to make the Martial Union, especially now that he represented a powerful chance for the Martial Union to bid on the throne?
"We cannot give up," The Grand Admiral declared. "This is an era-defining opportunity to grasp the power of Kandria itself. Nothing can deter us from doing our absolute best to stop Prince Rui from ascending the throne."
