The room fell silent as the people left and it was only when he and Asuna were the only ones in it that he asked.

"What did they mean by kingdom?"

Rafael doesn't like the way that Asuna looks at him, he can only describe it as a combination of pity and worry, he doesn't say anything as Asuna walks up to him.

"It's hard to say this but Aincrad is a kingdom or an empire made of different kingdoms." she answers before she walks to a nearby desk that has several books on it.

Asuna finds the papers that she is looking for and walks back to where Rafael is sitting.

Rafael can only listen to the sound of her armored boots echoing through the room as she approaches him, and he can't help but feel a small amount of fear because the sound reminds him of several of the battles that he was forced to be a part of.

Asuna hands him the sheets of paper and begins to explain what's written on them.

"Silk- spices- meat- glass -rubber -gold and silver are just some of the things that pass through here before they reach the center of Aincrad and then they pass into the east side of Aincrad until they leave and enter the eastern kingdoms."

"Then there are the things that people can get here that they can't get anywhere else, Aincrad's so big that there's always more room and anyone can find work, no matter how talentless they are.' she says to him.

"Okay, but that doesn't tell me why they said that." Asuna glares at him and forces him to stop talking.

"The Romans invaded your side and you drove them out, the Arab Empire tried to burn the mountain, but their army was destroyed by the monsters."

"The Mongolians invaded our side but we forced them out by letting them in, the monsters hate anything and anyone that isn't from Aincrad." she says to him.

Rafael wants to say something but Asuna's cold eyes tell him to keep quiet.

"I didn't want to believe it until Kirito came home. This war, I mean the one that the two of you just fought left a deep mark in your souls. Rafael you helped build a kingdom where people can be happy, why not enjoy it." she says to him.

"Because I can't." Rafael answers Asuna with a voice that has barely any strength in it.

Asuna hugs the man who saved her husband's life more than once, and the man that her daughter grew to believe is her uncle because of how close he has become to their family.

"Don't die, Rafael, those kids still need you." she says to him as she tries to remind him that there is still something for him to live for.

She lets go of Rafael and smiles as she remembers something that Knowing Rafael doesn't know.

"Did you know that the people here are always looking forward to you coming back?" She looks at Rafael whose eyes have lost most of the light in them.

'They say that whenever you come back everything gets better, that's why there were so many people here to see you sit on your throne." she says to him before she claps her hands once and remembers the people's reactions.

"It's not a throne, it's just a chair." Rafael says to her.

'It's a chair that everyone wants to sit on and people would kill to have, If that's not a throne what is?" she asks him.

The door to the meeting room opens before the two kids from earlier walk in, they are covered in bandages and are now wearing the armor that the orphan players have grown out of.

"I am pleased to say that they are both in good health, but neither of them has anywhere to go back to, as they were considered to be unsellable merchandise and were left behind." the butler says to him.

"What do you mean by unsellable merchandise?" Rafael asks the man.

'What I mean is that they were both slaves that were left behind. From what I know all of the slave traders either left Aincrad with their slaves or were paid for the slaves that they set free before they left."

"Most of the slaves joined the military and looked for work doing the things that they did before they became slaves.

The children that didn't have someone to look after them they weren't o one of the many orphanages that the different faiths control.' his Buttler explains to him.

"So why didnt they?" Rafel begins to ask his Buttler but the man's eyes become hard and he immediately knows that he isn't going like the answer.

"They were thrown out because they were considered to be tainted and were told to have dirty blood."

"From what they told me the children that arrive at those orphanages are being forcefully converted by whoever is in control of the orphanages and some are even being forced to serve those that are believed to be higher than the others.' Rafael had heard enough.

He ignored the kid's frightened faces as he began to walk towards the door, that the people had left through.

"Guards!" he heard Asuna yell behind him as several knights and soldiers ran into the room and began to follow Rafael out of the mansion.

"What are you going to do!?" Asuna says to him as she runs after him.

"Tell the guards to surround the orphanages except the one that I usually visit, tell them to find the children that don't belong to the faith that the orphanage believes in."

"And I want whoever is in charge interrogated." Rafael orders the guards behind him, who immediately run out of the mansion grounds.

'Rafael you can't just do something like this, if you attack like this the way that the people see you will be affected." Asuna warns him.

'Asuna, if this is what a pair of kids who were thrown out saw with their own eyes, what else have those people been doing?" he asks her.

Rafael doesn't say anything else as he walks in the direction of the nearest orphanage.