At a similar time, Elizabeth returned to her cell not quite comprehending what happened. Her mind screamed that Princess Xiuying was an enemy. She was the princess of the civilization that destroyed her family! That fact repeatedly rang inside her head, destroying any sense of compassion she had. But her gut wavered and told her a different story. Something did not feel right! Xiuying sounded truly genuine. If Xiuying was a brutish angry torturer, Elizabeth could understand. In fact, she would have preferred that. It would have been simpler to hate the Xingyuu Empire completely! However, Xiuying was patient and strangely polite. The feelings of unease grew. Once the seeds of doubt were planted, they would persist through any storm!
"Did they hurt you, Elizabeth?" Shirley asked worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"Ah…" Elizabeth snapped out of her daze. "I'm fine." Saying those words made her feel strange.
"You're really fine?" Shirley wondered, inspecting Elizabeth from head-to-toe.
"What did the princess talk to you about?" Benedict asked.
"The same as before."
"And did you answer her?" Freon asked seriously.
"Somewhat… Say, do you know why the war started?"
"What brought this on?" the Arcanist added. "Was it something that the princess said?"
"You could say it's personal interest," Elizabeth found herself repeating, much to her surprise.
Freon gave Elizabeth a quizzical look before explaining, "As you might have heard, the Second Great Kingdom War started when the Xingyuu Empire's naval fleets destroyed most of the Alzar Kingdom's naval ports and fleets in the Desterina Ocean in a surprise attack. This was known as the Ambush of Sanguis Coast and it happened eight years ago in K.A. 506. As for the First Great Kingdom War, most of the history has been lost. Besides starting five hundred years ago, recorded history doesn't go back that far."
"Yes, I remember hearing about that. But why did the Xingyuu Empire decide to attack suddenly?"
"Why?" Freon frowned. "I don't remember there being a reason. Does the Xingyuu Empire need a reason to start a war? They're all…" he growled as he thought of how him and his sister had to survive through the winter homeless without time to even grieve for their parents.
"Then why would they deliberately sign a peace treaty to end the First Great Kingdom War?"
"That…" Freon was stumped. It did seem pointless to stop the war if you were just going to start it again later. More importantly, the ones who stopped the First Great Kingdom War were the same ones who started the Second Great Kingdom War! Did that make sense? If so, what did the Xingyuu Empire gain?
"Shirley, Benedict, do you know why the Xingyuu Empire started the war?" Elizabeth redirected.
"I never heard about it," Shirley shook her head. Despite being the property of Lady Malinda Star, a Grand Lady, Lour Island was relatively isolated in the Teria Sea. The flow of information was undoubtedly scarce.
"Truthfully speaking, I'm also a bit in the dark about that," the knight meekly murmured. It was a bit embarrassing to admit that even as a knight and Grand Lord he had no idea! The war started eight years ago, when he was ten. With all that happened since then, was it strange he would forget something from that long ago?
"If I remember correctly, Empress Mei Li died around the time the war started," Freon spoke up. "Everyone was very shocked when the Xingyuu Empire revealed she died. She was perfectly fine until a month prior to her death. Could it be… she was assassinated by the Alzar Kingdom?"
"Ridiculous!" Benedict shouted. "I've heard those rumors before, but the Alzar Kingdom would never do something as underhanded as that. King Harth and Emperor Lianghu ended the First Great Kingdom War together. What would be the point?"
"That's also true…" Freon fell into deep thought. "But it should be related to Empress Mei Li. Otherwise, I don't see an impetus. Of course, Emperor Lianghu could just be mad like his father, the previous Mad Emperor…"
"Why are you so curious about the war all of the sudden, Elizabeth?" Shirley asked.
"Well, to tell you the truth, Princess Xiuying gave me this," she explained, revealing the key.
"A key?" Shirley thought. "Could it be…"
Elizabeth nodded. "I think it might be the key to the cell we're in."
"What?" Benedict and Freon jointly replied.
"That's impossible! Are you sure that it's the key to this cell?" Freon stated.
"I haven't tested it yet."
"Is it a trap? Why would the princess give you that?" the knight added suspiciously.
"It has to be! She's the princess of the Xingyuu Empire! Don't forget that they captured us! Why would they willingly free us?" Freon denied.
"I don't get it. What do you think?" Shirley asked of Elizabeth.
"I don't know either. I have a strange feeling about this."
"Even if we're freed, escaping to the Alzar Kingdom is a fleeting dream," Freon brutally crushed their hopes. "There should be something more to this. We shouldn't try it."
Thus, the four did not attempt a daring escape. Elizabeth kept the key somewhere hidden and fell asleep in deep contemplation. With the events unfolding in the Alzar Kingdom, there certainly felt like something more! She thought of everything that happened thus far, trying to piece together the puzzle. However, the more she thought, the more baffled she became. Was she overthinking things? Or was her gut instinct really accurate?
Morning came and they were roused awake by the sounds of approaching guards. Elizabeth rubbed her grogginess away and yawned. Princess Xiuying must have really wanted another conversation with her! But she soon frowned when more than twenty armed guards showed up without a Xiuying in sight. Her confusion turned into fear when the armed guards marched into the cell and seized her aggressively! She was powerless to fight back. Meanwhile, Benedict, Shirley, and Freon did not sit idly by. They could also tell this was different from Xiuying's previous visits!
The three rushed to steal the guards' weapons. Benedict jumped behind a guard and tackled him to the ground while Shirley rushed for his sword. Before she could get it, she was effortlessly backhanded by a guard, sending her back. A metal gauntlet to the face was extremely painful! She saw stars forming in her vision. At the same time, Freon slipped by and grabbed the sword from the ground. He unsheathed it clumsily. He was an Arcanist at heart, not a swordsman! Freon lunged forward to impale the guard who hit Shirley. Unfortunately, the trajectory was obvious to any experienced swordsman. The guard sidestepped and using his own sword's hilt, crashed it on Freon's chin. The motion was so smooth that Freon blacked out without knowing what happened. Without proper support, Benedict was also suppressed and beaten. Despite her own resistance, Elizabeth was escorted out of their sights!