In a sense, while she was dramatically opposed to the Merger Faction that Colonel Geringan was a part of, their end goals had some commonalities. The Merger Faction wanted to merge existing institutions of the government with that of the Martial Union to create a hybrid singular ruling structure with a division of power that placated all of its constituents so that the constraints and restraints on and from the government, and on and from the Martial Union would go away, strengthening the nation as it became more unified.
Martial commissioner Derun, on the other hand, also wished to retain the constraints that the two groups placed on each other, however, she believed that only one of the two groups possessed the ability to truly unify a country and draw out its full power. She even extended this philosophy to the entirety of human civilization.
"Your propositions make sense," Rui admitted. "When the biggest stakeholder interest group with unshakeable hold over military do not possess legislative power, then they do end up hampering those in seats of legislative power with conflicting interests. The most straightforward solution to prevent this conflict of interest is to place such said Martial Artist stakeholders in positions of power themselves."
She nodded. "But…?"
Rui smiled wryly. "While it is true that lack of political opposition from stakeholder interest groups leads to a less fragmented political power dynamic, that is not necessarily a good thing."
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow at his words. "And why do you say that?"
"Such a power system lacks too many checks and balances. Conflict of interest groups may slow down a country, but it also prevents any one stakeholder from extreme exploitation of others. This is a bit of a guess since I've never studied political philosophy all that much, but the nations that are Martial Kraterocracies most likely also have greater occurrences of human rights violations and economic exploitation of the lowest classes of society, am I wrong?"
When legislators were constrained by conflicting interest groups with comparable influence and the ability to compete for political power, it became much harder for the former to exploit the citizens of the nation.
She simply stared at him for a bit, before finally replying. "Perhaps, but I do not believe that it is inevitable. And even if it were… I believe that the pay-off is worth the benefits."
Rui furrowed his eyebrow in confusion.
Why did he, a Martial Artist, seem to care more about the average person in a tyrannical system than her, a normal human being?
It was rather odd.
"I might have to disagree with you there, commissioner Derun," Rui shrugged. "I can't dismiss the costs so easily I am afraid."
"There's no need to be apologetic," She shook her head. "We are all entitled to our own opinions, after all."
Well, she was at least open-minded. She didn't try to spend too much time trying to persuade Rui. She accepted that he disagreed with her, and moved on.
For now, at least.
"I'm surprised that you are willing to be within a system run by people who would die from a single attack from you. Would it not feel better to be in a system where people at the top have the power to crush you effortlessly? Martial power proportional to their political power?" She seemed genuinely intrigued.
"I'm just worried that they'll screw things up if I'm being honest," Rui shook his head. "We Martial Artists are not entirely normal in the head. And that becomes increasingly true the higher we go up the Realms."
Martial Artists were driven to pursue power for whatever core reason it was that any Martial Artist pursued power. This meant that they would be willing to go to insane lengths to obtain what they wanted to obtain. Who knows if some Martial Sage would be willing to let a country go to ruin just to become stronger or something like that?
They could very well destroy a country without batting an eye. Furthermore, with how strong Martial Seniors were, it was not entirely inconceivable that Martial Sages may be able to destroy a country if they let loose and fought within the borders of the country.
They were two Realms of power above that of Martial Seniors, after all. Rui could not even possibly imagine that he did not have any clue as to what degree their power would exceed.
With these considerations in mind, how could he possibly feel comfortable letting these beings take rule over the country, he would be unable to sleep at night with just paranoia alone.
Of course, he was cognizant that this was paranoia, rather than a well-justified fear. There were countries ruled by Martial Artists, and they did not befall calamities and catastrophes caused by Martial Artists. Regardless, it just wasn't a good idea, and certainly one he wasn't willing to entertain at the moment
The conversation proceeded a bit more before it ended.
Rui sighed as he put his communication device away.
('The average person sure has a lot to fear with people of her mindset,') Rui couldn't help but sigh as he thought of the tumultuous world that his family back at the Quarrier Orphanage lived in.
Frankly, if not for them, he would not be too opposed to the Martial Union taking over the Kandrian Empire and establishing Martial law.
He was not a saint. He helped people immediately within his capacity to help, but he did not go out of his way.
He shook his head, he was never interested in political lobbying in the first place. Multiple Martial Sects and factions had already approached him, hoping for support for their cause or goal or whatever.
('Don't care,') Rui shrugged.
He immediately got back to work. Given that his training and teaching would both begin tomorrow, he had a lot to sort through. He needed to plan and flesh out Senior K'Mala's crash course to ensure that she had learned the necessary and relevant theory.
