Ronan increasingly felt that he had made far too many assumptions about the Tian Yuan Empire and the Han Guang Star System. He urgently needed to gather more "facts," even if they were only Xian Zhu's side of the story.
He kept assembling the prosthetic limb, but could not help asking:
"Then Her Netherworld Highness..."
"Her Highness is certainly powerful. I never saw how magnificent the State Lord was back then, but I admire Her Netherworld Highness's abilities. Truly admire them. Yet the more I admire her, the more regrettable it feels, and the angrier I get."
Xian Zhu waved the steel rod in his hand and returned to those same questions. "Why does it have to be this way? Why fight a war like this? Why fight at a time like this..."
Ronan could only ask again, "Why?"
Xian Zhu shook his head. "I only gradually began to understand. It isn't actually that complicated. You don't need anything else. Just read the War History of the Tian Yuan Nations and make a simple comparison."
"Huh?"
"You study history, so you should know. When the empire was founded, never mind territory or military strength—just look at the powers at the top. We had the Zhanhe State Lord and the Forty-Four Founding Great Monarchs, every one of them a towering hero of the age. And now? Even if Her Netherworld Highness can match the Zhanhe State Lord, how many Great Monarchs does the Han Guang Star System have now?"
Ronan felt awkward. He genuinely could not answer.
Fortunately, Xian Zhu did not need an answer. "Six, all told! And two of them can't readily be deployed... How does that compare?"
Six is still pretty impressive.
Without realizing it, Ronan had made another estimate by Earth's standards.
Of course, it was utterly