Afalia's Father had been deeply conflicted lately.
By all rights, he was a native of Bunta City. Even though he now worked for the Xinfei Merchant Guild in the Stantin Duchy, he would surely return to his roots eventually and spend his remaining years in Bunta City.
That idea had seemed rather unrealistic back when the Lampari Kingdom was in turmoil, so Afalia's Father had kept it buried deep in his heart.
But ever since Her Majesty Queen Servini's coronation last year, the situation throughout the Lampari Kingdom had improved day by day, and the news from Bunta City had grown steadily better. The hope Afalia's Father had thought long dead stirred to life again.
He had been born in Bunta City and lived there for nearly fifty years. The thought of dying anywhere else always left him uneasy.
Now that things were going so well in Bunta City, the Xinfei Merchant Guild and many of the other merchant guilds that had withdrawn from the city had returned, opening all kinds of factories and shops there again. Little by little, Bunta City was becoming prosperous once more, and it might well regain its former dazzling prosperity.
There were plenty of job opportunities in Bunta City, too. If he went back, finding suitable work would certainly be no problem.
Although the work might not earn him as much as staying here would, that was his hometown, after all, and many of his relatives and friends still lived there.
But his wife, his son Yaqi, and his daughter-in-law Leia, who lived with him, all opposed the idea.
As his wife put it, their family had lived here for several years already. They had long since grown accustomed to life here and thoroughly enjoyed its relaxed, pleasant pace.
Besides, everyone in their family