Aravel

Chapter 93

Lunaria collapsed to the floor upon listening to the executive decision made by her father. Her legs instantly turned jelly as she lost all lower body strength from the decision.

"Luna!" Kaze grabbed Lunaria before she fell hard, one of the maids in the room also rushing up front to help the princess.

"Lunaria," Laevia hastily got to her daughter's side and checked on her condition. "Come on, Kaze. Take her to the side."

Together, the three brought Lunaria to a nearby chair where she could lean her body. Laevia casted some sort of magic on Lunaria's forehead, where her uneven rapid breathing began to settle down. With her hand clutching her chest tightly, Lunaria's face turned pale white as she was made to stop hyperventilating. Clearly, this was a case of panic attack, one that Lunaria was vulnerable to from her anxiety still not healing.

"K-Kaze..." Lunaria wheezed, leaning her body towards his where she buried her face into his chest. "Kaze..."

"Laevia-sama, will Lunaria be okay?" Kaze asked the Empress as she commanded the maid to bring over a glass of water.

"She will, it's probably the shock that she has to part ways with you that overcame her rationality," Laevia sighed. "I feel bad that she has to suffer because of the news, but it was better than directly announcing it without you two having prior knowledge first."

"Kaze, please ask any questions you may have, and we will try to explain everything to you," Reginsleif walked over and sat in an armchair opposing them. "I understand this is not fair for you, especially my daughter, but it is what that has been discussed."

"Lunaria not returning was already something we expected when discussing about the end of our trip here," Kaze started explaining his stance. "Since it would be too big a risk to allow Lunaria to return to a foreign nation where her safety is easily compromised, the obvious solution is for her to remain here and probably only leave the nation heavily guarded. We now know the devils are involved, only that we don't know whether they have any more need for Lunaria and when they will strike again."

"Precisely," Reginsleif nodded firmly. "I'm glad you took the initiative to discuss the near future with Lunaria already, so that eases things for me. Sir Ethan agreed that it would be too much trouble to allow Lunaria or anyone from Aravel to enter Czech again in a public form, meaning that all meetings and visits between our nations are postponed. For the time being, the most we could do is send you and your friends back before cutting any means of normal communication."

"... Reginsleif-sama, would it be rude of me to ask if it is possible for me to stay in Aravel?" Kaze asked in a low, unsettling tone. "I... know this is probably a dumb idea, but I don't want to let Lunaria suffer from potentially being unable to see me for years."

"If you think we haven't considered THAT possibility, you should know it opens a whole can of worms," Reginsleif smiled wryly. "First of all, that would mean withdrawing you from school in Czech and having you study here. How are we to explain to the school board on this? Does this mean that Aravel is now open to the public or only allows people entry to the nation as long as they have connections with the royalties? How would this affect your friends? Secondly, the public on both sides might not react well to allowing a human to stay in Aravel after all that happened. By allowing you to stay here, not only will we have to provide an explanation for the people in Czech, but we also have to explain to our citizens as well. You and your friends coming is probably the talk of the town by now seeing that no one has ever been into Aravel for decades, so they would know if even one of you is missing. For people on our end, some would not be pleased to learn that we are willing to accept a human just because he has ties with us. This would also mean we have to announce your relationship with Lunaria publicly earlier than we expected, making it a double-negative what would do no good. Thirdly, our relationship with Czech has not... been the best it has in years."