Robert's POVAfter that, we all went to the estate's main meeting room to have a meeting. There we all sat down and throw in papers containing notes about the scene of the crime back at my clan estate. I was sitting next to William while Emma was sitting next to Peter.
"So, we recently had a few leads." Nate started while crossing his fingers on the table. "It might be an act of vengeance for our victory over Vanworth, a simple robbery, or, a smuggling operation."
"But we had good relations with Lightningheart clan," Caz argued back. "How is this possible?"
"I think it was an act of vengeance," William chimed in, "by the government of Vanworth for the Lightningheart clan's contribution for our nation's victory."
To that I thought, "Possibly. I mean, my parents are the heroes of the war."
But, I couldn't chime in because of the seriousness of the discussion, so I just became silent for a while.
"What if it was a smuggling and robbery operation?" Peter made a suggestion. "I mean, there are cases of robbery of precious items and sold them to would-be buyers from rivaling nations at auction sites in a higher price."
"Possibly," Caz partially agreed with Peter, "but I don't think that's the case."
"Yeah, I mean," Augustine added, "some of the stolen items that were illegally auctioned were precious stones and jewels. How come a weapon would be auctioned off?"
Upon hearing that, I suddenly had a thought, and immediately joined in the discussion. "I think weapons are the reminders of those who contributed to the victory of a nation, and the act of stealing them was an act of vengeance against them."
"What are you doing, Robert-kun?" Emma asked me.
"Come on, Emma-chan, he's just speaking out what he was thinking," Peter said to her.
"Are you taking his side?" Emma asked him in response.
"No."
"Alright, alright, no arguing during the discussion," Caz gave them a mild scolding for arguing. "If you want to do that, do it outside."
Hearing their clan head's scolding, Peter and Emma became silent and just listened to the discussion."
"So you're saying that it is an act of vengeance?" Nate asked me.
"Well, yeah, logically, revenge, for a losing nation, is a common motive for their agenda," I reasoned, "and a coping mechanism for their shame and humiliation."
"That might be it," Augustine partially agreed with me, before rearranging the papers into one stack, "but we had a few more leads."
"Okay then, I'll listen," I responded back normally.
"Another lead is simple desperation for money," Nate gave out another reason behind the robbery. "Although the poverty rate in this country is lower, there are few people who were desperate financially, despite our government's advocacy for homes for the homeless and jobs for the jobless, and robbery and theft are two of the acts to cope with their financial instability."
To that I partially disagreed, knowing that vengeance is a common motive for rivaling nations.
Then suddenly, I had a question in my mind: Why Vanworth would go to war with Saverfort? But I couldn't ask that in front of everyone in this meeting, so I just waited for the right opportunity.
Then, the discussion went ahead to the third possible lead: Smuggling operation.
"We have a few nations that had problems with illegal smuggling operations," Nate started the third part of their discussion, "and Vanworth is the biggest one."
"Do you think their government would be conducting these kinds of crimes?" Caz raised a question.
"Well, in fact, I don't know," Nate responded back. "We only had little information from our spies in Vanworth."
"I see. That would be possible."
"Yeah, you're right." William sipped his cup of tea, "despite our government's crackdown of smugglers in this country."
Then, while listening to their discussion, I suddenly had another thought: What if it was an act of both smuggling and vengeance by Vanworth?
While this thought lasts, I immediately grabbed a pencil and scribbled it on a piece of paper, before passing it to William.
Upon reading it, William nodded and passed it to Augustine.
Upon receiving it, Augustine reads it at first, then passed it to Nate.
Nate then reads it, and eventually verbalized it to everyone in the meeting room.