Worry, all that she could feel was worry. That dreadfully feeling spread through her, making it impossible to think straight. And how could she? Her husband and children were gone. Disappeared without any trace, left without any sign of where they were going.

The world is dangerous, she knew that well herself. Her husband's remarks regarding The Republic only made that even worse. If a bandit or other scum doesn't try to hurt them, the guards might. Many will try to take advantage of her husband's mental fragility, for what else could drive him to such an act, and hurt him and their children.

The republics' agents will likely want to take this opportunity to get their revenge. She wasn't a fool. She knew well her spouse's past sins, but she couldn't judge him for them. The pursuit of virtue is indeed the most exalted task one can take upon themselves, but everybody is capable of stumbling. She wasn't an exception to this rule, but she gave her best.

That was quite visible to an onlooker. Her voice was tempered, her clothes, although made with cheap materials, fitted her perfectly and gave an impression of elegance. Her manners were not betraying the look given. The words she spoke were always respectful, but strict. Firm enough to show her dedication, but soft enough to allow for a differing opinion, at least when it came to idle conversation. Yes, this woman in many ways personified virtue.

So with the least effort possible, she sat at the chair looking through one of the house's windows. There wasn't much to see, only people living their lives. She didn't know fully why she was watching in the first place. She hoped she would see them, but she knew that was unlikely to happen. No, the only things she could see were Lagunica's people and the Republic tri-colour flag. Nevertheless, she looked. What else could she do? She could look, she could hope, but she couldn't find them herself.

She was virtuous as a wife, virtuous as a mother, and virtuous when performing her duty. So she will show virtue now as well, she will be patient and wait for her family to be found. Once that is done, she will again, as a virtuous wife should show the correct road to her husband. That as well requires patience, just like one she had already shown, just like the one that will be needed to discover who had led her husband astray.

Just thinking about that makes her blood boil. There are those who desire to destroy her family, to take away what matters most to her. Those wretched beings existence was a crime on its own. She will see that that crime is punished, just like the divine intended for such evil to be handled.

" Have no delusions regarding your situation you wile creatures. Your anonymity has protected you till now, but soon enough it will fail. When that finally happens, I will make sure that justice is duly served."

Her thought were rather clear in the matter. Those who dare lay finger on her family will get what is coming to them. She is a virtuous wife, and as such will protect her family from any harm. But her thinking was interrupted by a voice coming behind her.

"Citizen Juukulius, may we have your attention?"

Anastasia's life with the family could be sad to have reached a state of normality, or familiarity. Her time was equally spent studying the past of the world much different from her own, and aiding her hosts with whatever she could. With the range of possible fields she could, semi-effectively, aid in increasing.

That is owed to Mary, Robert's wife and in general the uncompromising would-be, matriarch of the house. While she could not be described as the head of the family, she definitely had her voice heard and probably greatly influenced the decision-making of her husband. Anastasia could easily see that Mary wasn't particularly pleased with her husband's decision to bring her into their home. Although, she out of politeness, or some other reason, never mentioned that to Anastasia and tried to hide it. But, merchant queens sense for people was easily able to pick this up, as it was able to detect the clues that the couple had an argument regarding her. It was unlikely to have been a heated one, hence the fact that she was still here, but she could see that she was bringing unnecessary tension into their life.

That was one of the main reasons why Anastasia insisted to be given some of Mary's housework. Partially out of guilt, partially out of hope that if she proves herself useful, Mary will accept her, or at weary least, not see her as a complete waste.

She couldn't particularly blame her for the distrust shown. Truthfully, if she was in her place she would have reacted worse. To invite an unknown person indefinitely into your home, a person that had appeared out of nowhere, seemed to Anastasia to be extremely irresponsible. Although, that title didn't fit Robert. He was definitely responsible and hard-working, something that could be witnessed every day, but he was kind and welcoming, almost to the point of naivety, almost. Yes, the wife's concern was understandable as was her desire to find any use out of this problem, or more accurately Anastasia.

To that end, the two women were just finishing lunch for the family. Anastasia's efforts seem to have bore fruit, since Mary only passively interacted with her guests' work, and unlike before, didn't actively observe her actions. This, at least to Anastasia, shows that her hostess no longer distrusted her abilities with food, and more importantly her intentions. That is to say, she no longer suspected Anastasia will poison them, Intentionally or not.

Since no work needed to be done in the field today, Robert was present for the meal. This was somewhat rare, both for him and for farmers in general, but it did happen from time to time.

The food wasn't particularly good, but couldn't be described as bad either. It was decent and much better than what Anastasia had in her cell. If she would to think about it, everything was better now than it was in the cell. Despite the fact that the house she was currently residing in was nowhere near as grand or opulent as her mansion, she still found it comfortable. It was strange how her experience affected her, it almost feels like it was by design, but she knew that to be impossible.

The eating of mediocre food was interrupted by Robert's voice.

" Tomorrow I will have to go to the town." He took one more bite and continued, " I could sell some of our surpluses. It is always good to have some coins, you know." He gave his wife a concerned smile as he finished his speech.

"You are right, we should probably do that." She glanced shortly at Anastasia before finishing," I'm sure our guest and I will be fine."

"Of course, you will dear, I never doubted you."

Sensing an opportunity to scout the closets town, and perhaps get the news regarding recent events Anastasia added to the convention.

" Mr. Robert, I don't want to impose, but I have some experience as a merchant, so perhaps I could provide you some assistance."

Pleasantly surprised by the offer the host responded. " Of course, I could use any help I could get." Somewhat intrigued he added," I did know you were a merchant."

" No need to be surprised beloved, we know almost nothing of our guest." Mary's tone was consistent with the meaning of her words. She factually stated the truth, in a way that clearly showed some distrust.

"Now Mary, there is no need for such words." But, his scolding of his wife was interrupted by Anastasia.

"It's alright, Mrs. Mary is correct." She spoke in a low voice that gave an impression of shame. " I have abused your generosity without revealing anything about myself, for that I am sorry."

Taken in by her acting, Robert quickly responded. " You aren't abusing anything, we are truly glad to help anybody in need."

His voice went from frantic one to a more composed one as he finished." It is clear that you had suffered a lot, you don't need to reveal to us what happened if it will bring you more harm."

"Thank you for your concern, I am most undeserving of it. But you had been nothing but kind to me, so you deserve to know the truth."

This left Anastasia in a dilemma of a sort. One had she couldn't tell them the truth. Doing so would needlessly endanger them further. Robert would desire to further help her, something that would at best bring his marital bliss in danger, and at worst his family's life. All of that is reliant on the condition that they actually believe her, which is not something one can take for granted in this case. Her story is beyond wild, and truth be told, she is still to fully comprehend what had happened. So it is not unexpected for her hosts to not understand ether.

But on the other hand, these people had indeed only shown her kindness, perhaps not the warmest kind as in the case of Mary, but kindness nonetheless. They took her in when she was fleeing from the guards, gave her a safe place to study for her, oh so uncertain future, and helped her improve her mandain skills. Those skills will help her in the future in the same way that the couple is helping her now. Just as she had said these people deserved to know the truth. So she will not lie to them, but she will not let her words bring further danger to these people.

" I was sent here by the orders of Natsuki Subaru." Her voice was flat with tone unchanging, she gave no indication of lying. Which, from a certain point of view, she wasn't. " There seems to have been a group of influential people who betrayed him. I don't know much myself, only that the situation was tense. So he ordered me to hide, this village wasn't too far for me not to have been able to get here, but yet far enough not to be quickly found."

" If I remember correctly, you told me you were lost in the forest for three days." Robert's voice seemed not to show any disbelief, or carry any accusations against Anastasia. He seemingly merely recollected his memories of their meeting.

" That wasn't a lie, but not the complete truth either." She sighed, " I knew there were villages here, and that the forest wasn't particularly dangerous. But, I indeed got lost while searching for any humans and had to spend three nights in the forest."

Again her words weren't completely untrue. She did know about the village, and she did get lost, but she found the way out on her first day instead of the third day.

"I am sorry for my secrecy, but I was afraid of endangering you by involving you too much in this predicament." Once again she did not lie. "You can understand why circumstance would require utmost secrecy."

"We do," with a trailing voice Mary carid her thoughts."But why are you telling us now? How aren't we in danger now, and why do you want to leave the village if your life is in danger."

"It's been long enough for the situation to have been solved. But, I can't know that for sure unless I check for myself."

" There is no need for you to endanger yourself. Nobody is looking for me I can safely check."

This is precisely why Anastasia kept quiet. While she was grateful to him for his help, she knew that this man's kindness will backfire on him, so she had to think quickly. Immediately she gave an answer.

" Truth is, the information I seek you could only inquire by reveling to know me." She waved her hand disapprovingly and finished. " I will not let you endanger yourself and your family because of me."

She looked at the couple and gave finishing words. " I was indeed a merchant so will help you to sell your goods. But, at the first sign of trouble. I will attack you, so nobody would suspect you aided me."

"Did I make myself clear?"

The only response to these words was accepting acknowledgment. The lively and opinionated conversation partners, simply accepted what she had said. No rebuttals, no counter proposals, not even scolding for the manner in which she had ended this conversation. They merely obeyed, like her words were so valuable that opposing them was simply ludicrous.

This left Anastasia confused, so she just like the couple finished her meal in silence. The rest of the day went on without any irregularities.

There was a single road leading to the town, and that road was far from ideal. While decently wide, the fact that it was made from packed dirt decreased its usefulness greatly.

Such roads would in the past be concerned of the local Lords. It was their duty to maintain the traffic between towns and villages in their domain, if not for any other reason than to collect taxes from their subjects.

Now that the Republic had taken the charge of these lands it became unclear who exactly should take care of the roads. In theory, the task fell on the governors of the regions, but they would claim that the responsibility falls on the town myors. Those would, in turn, claim that the village elders were in charge of taking care of the infrastructure.

Long story short, the roads were bad, and they are only getting worse with every passing day. It was strange really after all these gourmet claims to support the freedom of peasants and other, former commoners, but when it comes to providing livelihood to its people it often fell short in comparison to their feudal predecessors.

Anastasia had her hypothesis regarding this problem. The most logical one would be disinterest. Unlike the feudal Lords who ruled these lands, the state bureaucrats had little incentive to maintain anything not directly in front of them. If a count failed to keep a proper road network, he would loose on potential taxes. Unlike the nobility, a civil servant was getting paid anyway, so he had no reason to overexert himself for some peasants' benefit.

While this made sense and was probably the partial answer to this mystery, the truth was much more sinister. It is true that local civil servants don't care, but the capital can easily make them care. So why doesn't it? Simple the problem isn't the mayors lack of incentive, it is capital's priorities that are the problem. Subaru's republic seems to have been made solely to expand. The freeway networks connecting the former Astrea domain and the Republic's capital are impeccable. To the war effort bunch of peasants are irrelevant, but the ability to transport manufactured weapons from the industrial core of the country is essential.

" We will deal with that later, now it is important that we destroy the monarchist menace."

If such was the thinking of the people who, supposedly care, then can we really hate does who don't for doing nothing more?

Of course, the bureaucrats aren't the only ones who have thoughts. The peasants who they so much like to forget also have theirs.

"Is it true that you were ordered by the king himself into hiding?" If trying to break the silence Robert asked.

"King?" Anastasia answered not sure what Robert was trying to say.

" You sad king Natsuki sent you here." Unsure himself due to Anastasia's confused expression he clarified.

His words merely confirmed the suspicion she had the first time he asked the question. It seems that he thinks Subaru was king and considering his nature and the fact that he still thinks so, it is safe to conclude that the large number of people living here think the same.

"What do you know of King Natsuki?" Intrigued by this prospect, Anastasia inquired further into this man's beliefs.

" Not much. He rules this country, he defending us from the foreign countries who desire to destroy Lagunica. He appeared out of nower and is a Great King." The man absentmindedly listed all the things he knew of his ruler.

"What do you mean when you say, Great King?" The question sounded curious and lacked any form of mockery expected.

" Everyone calls him that since he had subjugated Vollachia." Unsatisfied with his short response he added "We were informed by the townspeople that this great enemy of ours is now on our side fighting with us."

Well, that did make sense, for people like Robin who are purposefully kept ignorant all their lives in other to control them. So much that they can't seem to understand this change in governance. As far as they understand, the sage council was simply replaced with a new king. Considering the fact that according to Robert the ignorance of these people is still being used to control them, they might be correct.

According to those manipulators, a great king is the one who rules with impunity, the one who conquers other realms. So Subaru's accomplishment of pacifying Vollachia would indeed make him a great king. How ironic if he was alive he most definitely wouldn't be pleased by this title.

" He didn't seem particularly great when I first met him during the presentation of the royal candidates." Trying to prolong the conversation Anastasia decided to poke the bear a bit.

" That reminds me, since you are in the king's close circle you should know what had happened, to the royal candidates"

Genuine curiosity could be heard in his voice as he continued, " For years town folks were telling us how one of those women will rule us, but all of a sudden King Natsuki came and all talk about them stopped."

" I guess they lost their relevance," Anastasia answered shortly.

" All of them?" Strangely excited he asked, but upon realizing how he appeared Robert elaborated, " Since nobody knows where King Natsuki came from, many stories were told on how he ascended to the throne. The two most popular ones are that he was a minor nobleman who overthrow the sage council and that he somehow married a royal candidate and through that way claimed the throne."

She was surprised that such theories could come to be. The first one to her had some sense, noblemen often scheme in order to increase their power. Therefore, it isn't strange that somebody would suspect Subaru of a coup. What she found unbelievable was for her or any other royal candidate to marry Subaru. Perhaps when they first heard of him he sounded interesting and a little bit cute, but any such assessment was thuraly destroyed, when he took over the country killed Priscilla, and hunted her down to Vollachia. That being said, the half-elf Emilia seemed to like him, he apparently served as her butler, or a tutor, Anastasia wasn't sure what it was.

But, it didn't matter. Perhaps if Emilia didn't get killed by the witch cult, this would have been one of those stories of a commoner marrying a noblewoman. Instead of a story of an otherworldly man conquering the world, because he believes… because he knows it is savage.

Maybe in such a world her family and everyone else would have been spared the destruction and madness that fascinating man brought.

" He is unwed, and as far as I know he is not of noble birth." Answering her host's questions, although anticlimactic, did end this part of the conversation.

" You know he is not a king" using some of her newly acquired knowledge Anastasia continued her inquiry.

" What do you mean he isn't king, he is ruling the country."

" Well you see, he doesn't like being cold a king, he much more prefers the term president."

" What is the difference between those two" truly ignorant on the matter, Robert searched for enlightenment.

" King rules a country without any restrictions. President rules with restrictions and has to share power with others."

" Then with whom does Natsuki share power?"

" Nobody."

" Then doesn't that make him a king?"

" No, he is a president."

" But, …I…"At this point, the poor man had, started to get a headache. All this back and forth made no sense to him. What was a president what was a king, it all had no logic.

" What I'm trying to show you is that things aren't always what they say to be." Seeing the negative effects that her actions are having she decided to stop this conversation, " Remember this when you think of a "Great King" again."

" Alright, I will."

They didn't engage in conversation for the rest of the journey, preserving to spend time with their minds. Both had a good reason, Robert taught of what Anastasia just told him, and the dragon maiden of what she just observed.

On a Few occasions, Robert was just close to realizing Subaru's hypocrisy, but he never did always remaining just close. It was interesting to Anastasia how people like Robert possessed an almost unnatural ability to sense deception but for some reason, their personality just refuses to acknowledge it. It is no wonder that the kingdom spent so much effort on keeping the population ignorant if the results were this effective.

Although, she was guilty of this as well. Through her conversation, she spoke of a dead man as If he was alive, just so she could keep Robert ignorant of that fact. Or, more accurately, ignorant of the fact that she knew. There was no way to incorporate Subaru's death into the story she had told, so the only option was to pretend that he was still alive. Anastasia did find it somewhat sickening, but such were the consequences of manipulation.

Soon enough they will reach the town where Robert will learn the truth himself, so in the long run, it didn't really matter.

"It is clear that this wheat is not worth more than twenty gold coins." A rather unscrupulous man argued.

" What are you talking about, the wheat's quality is better than anything else you could find here." She was a professional so her voice showed no extreme emotion, it sounded a little bit offended, but nothing that would amply weakness of the voice's owner. " We are not selling it for less than forty gold coins."

" You are crazy, woman." After a short pause, he added," twenty-five, no more."

Once the man gave his price Anastasia could perceive a whisper coming from Robert, " We don't need more, the offer is good enough."

" No, it isn't, the guy is clearly trying to rip you off." Somewhat agitated she answered before adding, " Remember I am the master here."

" Whatever you say."

This situation was quite infuriating for Anastasia. Somebody who only showed her kindness is getting ripped off and he isn't even realizing it. In addition, there is this immoral moron who thinks she is easy prey. She is the merchant queen, and she desired nothing more now than to show this man how wrong he is. To force him to understand the true value of what he is trying to acquire. And just like when she was having Lunch with the couple a day ago, and just as it will happen every other time in the future, her wish was granted.

" Do you understand that this wheat is worth fifty gold coins? That is simply a fact." Her voice was an authoritative one, her gaze straight and domineering. But her eyes were the most noticeable, for those aqua-green eyes faintly glow red.

" Yes, you are absolutely correct. Will forty-five gold coins be enough?" For a second it looked like the man will dispute the claim but in an instant, his aggressive demeanor changed to one of acceptance.

" It will suffice, nice doing business with you.'

Anastasia wasn't sure what had happened, one moment she was frustrated, the other she is almost emotionless. She didn't know what it was It felt almost like a possession, like another her was talking. But she also felt something else, she felt power. Not any form of power, but the greatest one. It felt almost as if she was able to force her desires onto the world itself.

But her thinking was interrupted by two voices, one elated and familial, the other calm and foreign.

" Ana!"

" Well, this is rather convenient. Don't you think so citizen Anastasia?"