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"Is that so? No reason is needed..."
At Anthony's words, Letty Orr's pale blue eyes first widened, then dimmed little by little. She clenched her teeth, her lashes and disheveled bangs casting heavy shadows over her forehead.
"Not because the Highlands are dangerous, nor because you yourselves have been harmed. You attack another country, another people, simply because you need to..." Audrey murmured. As she spoke, she raised her head, looked straight into his dark eyes, and asked solemnly, "Then, esteemed Archbishop of the Northern Continent, tell me: once the Highlands have been occupied as a colony again, will life improve for the people of Loen?"
"Will the homeless be able to find work?"
"Will impoverished children receive subsidies to attend school?"
"Those unemployed people, those workers in East Borough who cannot find jobs, those disabled soldiers the country cannot afford to support, those poor patients who can only wait to die when they fall ill... will their lives and suffering improve because you have acquired a colony?"
Partway through saying this, Audrey suddenly felt the fingers on her shoulder tighten.
Enduring the intermittent, excruciating pain, she stubbornly voiced her questions aloud.
If all of that really could be achieved... no, that was clearly impossible! Even if they seized the entire Southern Continent as a colony, commoners would remain commoners, and the poor would remain poor! Acquiring a colony would not improve their lives, because they had been like this before, too... but some people, perhaps even a large number of people, would still gain new jobs and new lives because of it, wouldn't they?
Saint Anthony displayed the virtues of tolerance and patience. He listened to Letty Orr's questions, then sighed with feeling.
"You are a kind lady, Doctor. Your virtues would be enough to earn you a