After hearing Xiao Ran's words, Otto hurriedly had someone bring over the Zabi family princess. Xiao Ran also had someone bring up the other prisoner, who had been confined aboard the Burning Legion and had even received treatment for an illness while there.
While they waited, Captain Otto seemed to realize something and said, "I see. It seems Second Lieutenant Liddy had known that princess's identity all along. The two of them suddenly tried to leave under cover of night, but were stopped. They never said anything afterward, but at the time, I only thought Second Lieutenant Liddy wanted to return to the Federation because we had become targets of the Federal Army.
"I tacitly allowed them to leave, but the people from the Cosmic Era group intercepted them. After they were brought back, I felt I could understand Second Lieutenant Liddy's actions as a Federal Army soldier, so I did not make things too difficult for them afterward. But I never expected that to be the real reason. The reason they wanted to leave back then must have been because of the princess. She probably wanted to speak with Second Lieutenant Liddy's father, who was a council member."
Everyone participating in the video conference should have known about Second Lieutenant Liddy's attempted departure. However, that had only been an issue aboard Captain Otto's Nir-Akama. The people the Cosmic Era group had mentioned—Kira, Athrun, Graham, and the others—had already gone out of their way by intercepting them and sending Second Lieutenant Liddy back, so no one paid any further attention to the matter.
Now that Captain Otto had brought it up, everyone remembered Second Lieutenant Liddy's attempt to leave and realized there had been another layer of meaning behind it.
Not long afterward, Minerva Lao Zabi appeared on the bridge