"Birds die in pursuit of food, and humans die in pursuit of wealth. Humans have always been capable of both great and stupid things," Vaan casually commented.
"That said, Transcendent Sybil shouldn't be blinded by greed to the point of being that stupid. Unless she had betrayed humanity, she must have devised a solid plan to ensure the war between our kingdom and the Holy Knight Empire without involving other countries."
"Right," Astoria agreed, calming down after listening to Vaan's words. Then, she added, "To begin with, the risk of continental war is only high when any of the witch kingdoms wage war on other countries."
"We are the defenders of humanity. So, other countries will be nervous concerning our intentions and ambition if we invade another human country instead of defending against Gehenna."
"It's a different story if the Holy Knight Empire is the aggressor and the one to initiate the war," Astoria stated after some consideration.
"Exactly." Vaan nodded before adding, "The risk of a continental war is much lower if the Holy Knight Empire invaded our kingdom instead. Other countries will not act against our kingdom as we have the moral high ground. On the contrary, they might even try to mediate for us."
"However, if the Holy Knight Empire had terrible relations with their neighboring countries, a continental war would still be unavoidable. But in that event, those countries will attack the Holy Knight Empire from the back while the Holy Knight Empire is busy warring with our kingdom."
"That said, it would also be a different story if we launched a counteroffensive strategy and invaded the Holy Knight Empire after they failed against us. In that case, various countries are still more likely to support the Holy Knight Empire's war effort against us," Vaan mentioned.
In other words, the seven witch kingdoms could only defend against their aggressors and not invade them if they wished to avoid a continental war.
"Still, the Holy Knight Empire isn't stupid. There's no way they can win against seven witch kingdoms by themselves. They might have bigger and stronger armies, but the strength of an army isn't what determines the outcome of a war; it's the number of Transcendents," Solana added.
"Right," Vaan agreed.
As Solana said, the deciding factor in wars was determined by the number of Transcendents and not the strength of armies.
It was the same in his previous world. It didn't matter how powerful a country's military force was. Only a single nuke was needed to cripple it.
"So if Transcendent Sybil wants to drag Baron Chalfont and the rest of the Holy Knight Empire into the war, she must have some way to guarantee no help would come to the Kingdom of Black Rose," Vaan stated.
"Some way to guarantee no help would come to our kingdom…?" Silvaria muttered with a frown before she solemnly said, "If we consider the geography of the seven witch kingdoms, the Kingdom of Black Rose is the most isolated."
"We have the Kingdom of Verdant Woods to our east, the Great Ashfallen Forest and dimensional crack leading to Gehenna in the north, the Thousand Fog Mountains northwest, the Kingdom of Scarlet Flame surrounded by a natural barrier of active volcanoes to the west, and finally the Holy Knight Empire to our south."
"Queen Sybil only needs to seal off the small passage through the volcanic mountain range to the west and lock down her kingdom to cut off all news in our kingdom from making it to the other witch kingdoms," Silvaria said with a heavy look. "We need to inform Her Majesty about this."
"That's probably one of this kingdom's biggest problems right now," Vaan calmly stated, causing everyone to glance toward him and wait for him to continue.
"What do you mean by that, Sir Vahn?" Silvaria asked.
"Given what I have done in Sunpeak Town, news should have long made it to the capital. However, we haven't seen or heard anything about Queen Henrietta or the capital's people coming here," Vaan mentioned.
"As such, we can assume our enemies have already intercepted and sealed off all news from reaching the capital."
"If you blindly head to the capital, there's a high chance you'll be ambushed on the road by one of three possible parties: the Assembly of Silent Night, the Kingdom of Verdant Woods, or the capital's witches bribed by Transcendent Sybil," Vaan stated.
Of course, the three parties listed were only the parties they knew to be inside the Kingdom of Black Rose, not all of the parties involved.
"Then, what do you suggest we do, Sir Vahn? Are we just going to sit here and wait for a war to break out?" Silvaria asked.
"Of course, we can't let that happen," Vaan replied before adding, "However, we don't even know if Queen Henrietta is still in the capital or not."
"If I were Transcendent Sybil, I would have lured Queen Henrietta away and trapped her somewhere if I wanted to give the Holy Knight Empire any chance of winning the war against the Kingdom of Black Rose."
"And in the event that you managed to reach the capital to report Transcendent Sybil's scheme while Queen Henrietta is not present, what do you think will happen?" Vaan quizzed.
Silvaria did not answer—not because she couldn't but because she didn't need to. The answer was obvious.
Her life would be at risk.
It was unclear how many witches from the capital had sided with Transcendent Sybil. However, one thing was clear; they would try to silence her if her intentions and knowledge were known.
And if she tried to expose the truth about witches working for Transcendent Sybil without knowing their names or how many were involved, everyone would doubt each other.
As a result, the capital would plunge into chaos. The kingdom would be vulnerable due to infighting, giving enemies the perfect chance to invade them.
"Relax. There's no need to worry too much. There's always a solution to every problem," Vaan calmly assured.
"Transcendent Sybil would likely incite Baron Chalfont's rage without confirming Dorothy's death. So, if we can find a way to let Baron Chalfont know his daughter is alive, the border lords won't be able to rally up enough force to drag the whole empire to war with our kingdom."
"Furthermore, if Baron Chalfont learns of Transcendent Sybil's scheme against him, it'll be pretty interesting to see," Vaan rubbed his chin with a smile.