In the early morning, Vaan found Astoria already awake—or rather, she had returned from her trip to Blackmoon Academy.
Nevertheless, she appeared to have some thoughts on her mind, causing her to lose focus and bump into him. As a result, she was greatly startled when she glanced up and saw his face.
"V-Vaan. Good morning."
"What's plaguing your mind, Astoria?"
"It's… No, it's nothing."
"Didn't we promise to communicate and not hide anything?"
"Ah, you're right," Astoria nodded with a sigh after hearing Vaan's reminder. Then, after taking some time to gather her thoughts, she suggested, "Let's go for a walk."
"Alright," Vaan agreed.
The two left the lord's estate and took a stroll around central town; their pace was neither fast nor slow. Instead, they were steady and calm.
Vaan did not rush Astoria but patiently waited for her to speak when she was ready.
"I guess by now, you have already learned about the Holy Knight Empire's imperial family and suspected my relationship with them, right? How come you haven't asked me about it?" Astoria quietly asked.
"You must have your reasons; it seemed personal, and I didn't want to pry," Vaan calmly replied. "As such, I was waiting for you to bring it up instead."
After Astoria heard that, she was touched by Vaan's considerations. But at the same time, she felt guilty for keeping quiet about it.
"It's… exactly as you think; I'm related to the Braveheart imperial family. The current reigning emperor should be my younger cousin," Astoria admitted.
"Should?" Vaan uttered before asking her, "You're not confident that the emperor is your cousin?"
"Yeah, I don't particularly pay attention to news from the Holy Knight Empire," Astoria replied with a nod. "The tension between the two countries doesn't make it any easier to receive information from there either."
"It has been many years since I broke ties with the Braveheart imperial family. At that time, the current reigning emperor wasn't even born yet. Even Gehenna wasn't a thing. Thus, he might even be my nephew," Astoria stated.
"Will you be okay fighting against the current Braveheart imperial family?" Vaan asked.
"Yeah, you don't have to worry about that, Vaan," Astoria assured with a nod before sighing. "I was bound to be forced into ending this ill-fated relationship one day."
"You see, my father was the king three hundred years ago. He was a kind, benevolent ruler who thought the best for his people. He taught me how I should live and serve the people. He was someone I respected deeply."
"However, he suddenly passed away one day, and my mother followed him in her grief, leaving me with no family besides an ambitious uncle and his wife. I have always suspected they were behind my parents' deaths. But instead of avenging them, I ran away to avoid civil war."
"You must be thinking I was pretty pathetic, right?" Astoria asked self-deprecatingly.
"Not at all," Vaan shook his head before gripping her hand tightly and saying, "It must not have been an easy decision to make at the time. You wanted to live up to your father's expectations even after his passing, right?"
"You didn't run away because you were scared; you ran away to protect the people from dying in a meaningless war against each other. I'm sure your father would have been proud of your choice," Vaan stated.
After listening to Astoria's story, he learned how she became the person she was. At the same, he also understood what kind of person her late father was.
Without a doubt, her father would have been a great king in peaceful times. But in chaotic times, not so much.
Meanwhile, Astoria felt a lot of weight lifted from her heart after she heard Vaan's reply. Perhaps, she was just waiting to hear those exact words.
"Thank you," Astoria said in a low voice with her head down.
"C'mon, let us head back to the lord's estate," Vaan suggested as he rubbed Astoria's head. "We have much to discuss and prepare. We must remove the imperial family from power if we want to stop the Holy Knight Empire from waging any more wars on human countries."
"Mm." Astoria nodded, understanding the full complications of Vaan's words.
She was no longer the same girl that ran away three hundred years ago. She was ready to make sacrifices and fight for her rightful place on the throne.
Inside the lord's estate, everyone was gathered over breakfast before Vaan shared everything he discovered during his scouting trip.
However, the mood quickly turned heavy and grim when everyone learned about the Holy Knight Empire's strength.
"There's such an overwhelming disparity in both the power of our troops and the quality of our equipment…" Silvaria said before wondering with a big frown, "When did our kingdom fall so far behind?"
"If I have to be painfully honest, it's actually not surprising that other countries have surpassed us," Eniwse said solemnly. "After all, the world seems to have this misconception that our kingdom is rich with resources just because we have access to Gehenna."
"But in truth, how many times have we managed to succeed in plundering resources from Gehenna? Only three times. And each time was led by none other than Queen Henrietta, yet we still have to share the spoils with other witch kingdoms."
"Even during the great expeditions, the resources we plundered weren't much more valuable than the scraps we collect from demons that crossed into our world. Only the Furhengir's carcass was something worth mentioning, but even that was divided and lost."
"How many times must things be taken from us before enough is enough? The only thing I can confidently say we have in abundance is mana," Eniwse stated heatedly before she soon felt embarrassed by the stares she received. "Ahem, sorry. I was too caught up in my speech."
"Don't be. What you said wasn't wrong, Lady Eniwse," Astoria stated seriously before saying, "Adding to Lady Eniwse's point, the Holy Knight Empire controls a vast amount of land. This gives them both access to richer and rarer natural resources as well as people."
"Exploiting the knowledge of reincarnators is something the Holy Knight Empire had been doing even before the existence of Gehenna," Astoria stated, shocking everyone besides Vaan and Eniwse.
Nevertheless, Silvaria quickly fixed her expression and seriously asked, "So how do we win despite such overwhelming odds against us?"