Xiao Ran hosted Athrun, Lunamaria, and Heine for breakfast. He roughly understood that the three of them had surely already eaten, but they could not easily refuse because of his arrangements, so they ate again. At the table, Xiao Ran did most of the talking; Athrun, Lunamaria, and Heine mostly listened and spoke little.
Not long after breakfast, Athrun and the other two bade Xiao Ran farewell and left. Only after they had gone did Xiao Ran look at the closed door, lean lightly against the sofa, and tap the armrest beside him. Athrun aside, if ZAFT began a war against Orb, Durandal would find a way to deal with him before he could take the initiative to defect. At that time, Athrun would surely return to Orb no matter what. Even if he was unfortunate enough to be captured by Durandal's people, neither Xiao Ran nor Lacus would leave Athrun in ZAFT and ignore him.
But through his brief interactions with Lunamaria and Heine, Xiao Ran had at least left them with a good impression. The next step was to turn that impression into trust. As for whether those tiny seeds of impression could ultimately grow into towering trees, that was not something Xiao Ran could decide. Still, three of the five pilots aboard the Minerva would eventually defect to Orb. As for Lunamaria and Heine, the remaining two pilots, influenced by Athrun, Shinn, and Ray, and building upon their impression of and trust in Xiao Ran, there was also a strong chance that they would eventually leave ZAFT and join Orb's embrace.
Thinking of this, Xiao Ran smiled and shook his head. ZAFT and Orb had only just truly finalized their cooperation treaty, yet he was already plotting against Durandal. It was merely preparing for the worst, but