Chris and Count Dirac talked at the battlefield ruins from noon until evening. During their conversation, he learned several things that were useful to him.
First, First Prince Flower was still in Inyama and had not returned.
Second, things were far from peaceful within the Restoration Army. Open struggles and secret scheming had never stopped... during their conversation, Count Dirac repeatedly urged Chris to follow him and join the Restoration Army.
Clearly, Count Dirac was being sidelined within the Restoration Army. If he had been a leader, one of its top dogs, he would have had to be out of his mind to bring a prince back and install him above himself.
Only someone who was doing poorly and wanted to change the status quo would think of setting up a new boss, muddying the waters, and taking advantage of the confusion.
Unfortunately, Chris had no interest in that.
Third, the Republic established by the Revolutionary Party had already become corrupted. Whatever reasons the Revolutionary Party originally had for overthrowing Bagnia's royal family, the fruits of their struggle had been stolen.
The original, most principled members of the Revolutionary Party were dead or had fled. They were no more.
Only the former great nobles of Bagnia remained, openly continuing to play the grand lords in the Republic's parliament under the banner of republicanism.
Still, Bagnia's revolution had indeed accomplished something. The country had changed from a dictatorship to a republic... where one king had once called the shots, several great nobles now had the final say.
Just like France after its revolution, when it chopped off its king's head.
The two talked for a long time. Only after Count Dirac's stomach began growling, and his repeated invitations for Chris to visit the camp had all failed, did he reluctantly rise,