"And all of this is just a practical analysis.
If I add my personal understanding of the princess to it,
I can never believe that someone like her was Corrupted."
Elira spoke, her eyes looked so confident that even Kael was taken aback.
"You look quite certain of it."
Kael couldn't help but comment.
"You seem close to her, the Princess, I mean."
"I taught her Magic."
Elira revealed, and Kael widened his eyes in surprise.
"What? You think I can't?"
Sensing the scepticism in his tone, Elira raised her eyebrow, ready to punch the brat's face.
"N-No, of course not. You are an excellent teacher.."
Elira nodded in satisfaction. Soon, however, her expression turned solemn again.
"I knew that girl, Kael.
I have interacted with her.
She had a Heart Of Gold, she loved everyone around her, to the point it was almost worrying. I always felt like people would take advantage of her.
Think about it, Kael.
A woman who was incapable of hate and loved even a random person she just saw, how much love would she shower on the Bonds who lived with her all her life?"
Elira then looked into Kael's eyes, and her tone got more and more confident.
"Kael, I assure you, that girl would readily throw her life away for the sake of her Bonds.
Do you think someone like her would let her Bonds fall to corruption? And for what? Meager Power?
That is just not who Lavinia was.
Kael, it is said that corrupting a Bond is similar to subjecting it to lifelong torture. Corrupted Beasts are in constant pain; however, since they are being controlled by the Power of Corruption, they can never convey it to their Tamers.
As the Tamer continues to use this Power of Corruption, the Bonds suffer even further.
It is a constant cycle of torture that weakens the connection between the Tamer and the Bond, and the Bond slowly loses their mind.
Once they are strong enough, they break free from the control and go on a rampage, wanting to kill Tamers and the world that subjected them to such torture.
Lavinia knew all that.
Someone like her would never subject her Bonds to such torture, even if one threatened her life.
I will never believe it."
Elira opened her heart, not hiding anything.
"If you are so sure, then why didn't you oppose the King's decision? With how you talk, I assume you and the Princess were friends.
Why didn't you stand up for your friend? Instead, you seem to be following the King's orders to the dot till now."
Kael questioned, and the answer he received was quite surprising.
"I didn't oppose because it was the King's decision."
"So because it was the King who said it, he must be right? Or were you just…"
Kael didn't complete his sentence, but he wasn't disappointed.
No, actually, he wasn't disappointed either.
He understood it as well—going against the King was… foolish.
Even he wouldn't have done it if he was in Elira's position. After all, to him, other than Igni and Cirri, no one else mattered.
He was in no place to blame Elira, and just as he was about to explain himself,
"You don't understand."
Elira shook her head.
"That man loved the Princess more than anything in this world."
"The King loved his daughter to the point where his health was related to the Princess. When the Princess falls ill, he falls ill with her. The Princess's absence makes him lose his appetite and sleep.
More than once, he had created policies for the Princess's sake alone. It was a clear misuse of power that affected his status and power, yet he still went for it because it made his daughter happy.
The King was crazy for his daughter. If anyone loved Princess Lavinia more than anything,
That man would willingly step down from his throne if it would put a smile on the Princess's face.
The King's Advisors were often worried about how the King would react once the Princess married another man and left the Palace.
The Princess pretty much held all the power in the Kingdom because it was said her father would turn the world for her."
Elira stared at Kael and,
"Trust me when I say it, Kael. If the King had even the slightest suspicion that his daughter was innocent, he would use all his resources to prove it and would keep the Princess with him till the investigation was over.
The only reason the people even accepted the decision was because the King made it himself, and that man seemed twenty years older when he passed that decision.
No one in the Hall, no matter how close they were to the Princess, had the gall to question that man's decision because of how broken he looked that day."
"So you trusted the King's decision because of his love for his daughter?"
Elira nodded confidently.
"So you trust both the King and the Princess when they stand on opposite sides?"
And once again, Elira nodded, her eyes brimming with determination no matter how foolish this sounded.
"As I mentioned, the King would do anything for his daughter's sake. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had used his authority to make sure the case regarding the Princess's Corruption never came to light.
The fact that it did and the King was forced to banish her from the Kingdom, as a Slave no less, is strange.
Elira hesitated again.
After all, if she said this out loud once, there was no going back from here.
Elira, however, stared at the Hero again and decided to trust her instincts.
"I suspect there is a Third Force at play here."
Kael raised his eyebrow.
It definitely made sense.
"Do you… have any suspicions regarding who this Third Force could be?"
Kael questioned after a slight hesitation.
"I suspect the Crown Prince."
Elira's answer was almost instantaneous.