As everyone started leaving the meeting room, Seteth took Flayn aside. "May we speak with you for a moment?" Seteth asked.
"Of course," Flayn agreed.
Seteth waited until everyone had left the meeting room except for himself, Flayn, and Rhea. "Judging from what Link said, the votes against letting Kronya back into the Company were Dimitri and Lysithea."
"Yes, that's right," Flayn confirmed.
"And one of the ones who abstained was Edelgard. Presumably, the other was Hubert."
"Yes," Flayn agreed.
"Which means you voted to let Kronya back into the Company," Seteth said.
"I did. And I convinced some of the others who were on the fence to do so as well," Flayn said.
"When you say Kronya isn't an enemy, we believe you," Rhea assured her. "Putting aside any relationship you might have, if she intended to betray you, she would have done it already. But what made you trust her then?"
"A few things," Flayn said. "First, she didn't have to save me from the Raven. She could have pretended to be as helpless as everyone else was. But she did, even when it cost her her disguise. Second, she introduced me to Naydra and Dinraal. Neither of those would have made sense if she wanted to betray me."
"That could just have meant she wanted to destroy Calamity Ganon more than she wanted to hurt you," Seteth said.
"Maybe," Flayn said. "But I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt anyway."
"It does seem to have been the right choice," Rhea noted. "Did Naydra seem as if she was doing well?"
"She had largely recovered by then, and by now she's doing as well as she ever has," Flayn said. "Maybe I could take you both to meet Farosh, Naydra, and Dinraal at some point."
"That might be nice," Rhea said. There were so few of her kin left; if she had cousins she had never met, she wanted to meet them.
Jeralt and Byleth, meanwhile, had agreed to accompany Leonie to the balcony. "Hyoi Pear brandy?" she offered.
"Thanks," Jeralt accepted. Truth be told, alcohol didn't affect him much now, but he still enjoyed the taste.
"I'll pass," Byleth declined.
"Suit yourself. This here is the good stuff," Leonie said, pouring herself and Jeralt each a glass.
"She doesn't drink alcohol, at all," Jeralt said. He took a sip. "That is nice."
"Second-best alcohol in Hyrule, behind the Noble Pursuit," Leonie agreed. "Though Lorenz likes Wildberry wine better than Hyoi Pear brandy. Heathen."
"You are old enough to drink, right?" Byleth asked.
"Yes, I am," Leonie assured her. "I probably shouldn't have too much, though. Got banned from a few bars after drinking too much and making a scene. Though some of them really were asking for it."
"You wanted to talk to us about something?" Byleth asked.
"A couple of things," Leonie said. "At some point, I do want to show you what I've learned, Jeralt. But for now, I want to know what you two think of...all of it."
"It's certainly interesting," Byleth admitted. "A month ago, I wouldn't have believed any of it."
"World's a lot stranger than you know, kid," Jeralt said. "Though even as someone who's almost three and a half centuries old, I still have a hard time believing some of it."
"I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't lived it, but it's all true," Leonie said. "I could say it doesn't get crazier, but it gets a lot crazier. You know Bernie's writing an account of our adventures? They'll probably try to lock her in the loony bin once she publishes it. Of course, she'll knock a few people's teeth out, and then they'll get the message, but even so..."
"Yeah, a lot of people won't believe any of it," Jeralt agreed.
"Well, they'll have to believe some of it eventually, once diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Hyrule open," Leonie said.
"I do have one question," Byleth said. "The Kingdom of Hyrule. Why is it referred to as one kingdom. It seems more like a collective of several nations working together for mutual benefit."
"...Beats me," Leonie admitted. "Just another one of Hyrule's mysteries, I guess."