Brando coughed softly..
To be serious, he truly had no idea how to begin this topic. Was he supposed to tell these people outright that the Supreme One of the empire had betrayed the empire and invited the wolves inside? But what would she gain from that? Anyone who did something had to have a motive. If the Silver Queen had invited the Jorgendigonians and Toquenin to invade merely to purge her domestic rivals, no one else would believe it—and he probably would not believe it himself. How politically naive and immature would someone have to be to do such a thing?
Unless the Silver Queen was willing to let the empire lose a huge swath of territory forever in exchange for securing her own throne. That idea might sound enticing to certain madmen, but in reality it was laughable, because it meant she would have to keep the entire affair a secret forever. Otherwise, her throne would be a castle in the air. More importantly, both the Jorgendigonians and the lionfolk could use this to force her to submit. Given the Silver Queen's character, she could never make such a choice.
No matter how mad Her Majesty the Queen might be, one thing was undeniable: she was an empress who had ruled a vast empire for decades. No one dared treat her like a fool.
Brando thought it over and over, and decided there was only one possibility that could produce the situation Chiara had described.
That was, Her Majesty the Queen possessed supreme authority among the Jorgendigonians and Toquenin's lionfolk. Therefore, she could naturally use her own direct forces to come to the emperor's aid and protect the throne. Yet the idea sounded like something out of the Arabian Nights. After considering it for a while, Brando finally