Isabel looked at Iver in confusion. Iver smiled and explained, "Because Stibium is currently mired in intense internal strife. If something happened to Avalon now, and they launched a war against Avalon and won, that would be an excellent way to ease their domestic tensions."
"Why?"
Isabel pressed him for an answer. "Generally speaking, aren't countries unable to launch wars when they're in the middle of internal strife? Why can't we simply announce that Meg has regained her youth and stop them from launching a war?"
In the past, if she knew the answer, she would neither have asked nor dared to ask again.
But now she had also begun trying to probe the principles behind things—not relying on explanations from her "teacher" or "staff," but attempting to think for herself.
Queen Sophia also looked over with interest. Ligeia directly sat sideways on the Queen's lap, boldly wrapping her right arm around the Queen's shoulders as she turned to look over. The tail behind her swished back and forth, rhythmically tapping against the stool leg.
They were clearly curious about Iver's answer as well. But compared to Isabel's questioning, their interest was closer to an examination and test.
Iver saw through their intentions, straightened up, and answered seriously, "The core problem with Stibium is that they expanded too quickly.
"The Stibium Kingdom, Iris Flower Kingdom, Narcissus Principality, and Black Eagle Principality were all split from the Herasul Empire. Even the Round Table Knights who founded Avalon were once people of the Herasul Empire... That's why their languages are so similar.
"But the empire's division happened centuries ago. The fact that they split back then means they had irreconcilable differences. If they reunified without resolving those differences, that rule was bound to be unstable.
"Especially the Narcissus Principality, a nation of