Hearing this, Anna and Wilem wondered if they could even stay here at all, even for a day. If it were a simple marriage, the enemies might not waste resources on them.

But if trade of resources for one side and safety on another was included in the equation, then the two of them were thrown at an even harder place than they thought.

"What do you think we should do?" Anna couldn’t help but ask Althea. Instead of a proper answer, however, Althea gave her a look.

"Are you asking us to think for you?"

"No, I—"

Garan did not like it when others pressured his wife for anything, even simple advice. He frowned and grabbed her shoulder, looking at the two with a frown.

They could only avoid his gaze.

Althea patted her husband’s leg, calming him down, before looking at the young couple. They were indeed young, both just around 20 years old. In Terran, this was just entering university age.

In this world, people had longer natural life spans, and the children’s personalities could go two ways. One was precociousness developed after having to fight for their lives early on, or late maturity due to being protected by their families. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Althea looked at them. "What do you want to do?"

"I...we just want to be together," Anna said, and the man nodded."

"We want to be together and live peaceful lives," Wilem added. "Ideally, without causing the deaths of hundreds."

They did not want to step on the corpses of others, including causing wars, but they truly did not want to go back and live their old lives.

"I am willing to elope, but I’m afraid we wouldn’t live peacefully, even if just with our conscience."

At least these two nobles had a conscience, which was relatively rare among locals, and this caused Althea and Garan’s stances to soften a bit.

"You are willing to leave your birthright behind? You have to know, you can do a lot of things if you have power. This includes protecting the people you love."

Wilem nodded. "I am aware," he said, his eyes clear. He was not greedy for power, but he also wanted it. But right now...he had to ask whether he had the capability.

"I...I hope to grow stronger first," he said. "As long as I am with Anna, I know I can handle whatever comes my way. As for power and my birthright, if it’s fated, they will come."

If he weren’t with Anna, he doubted he’d have the energy or willpower to fight. Miss Althea was right, power was needed to protect the people he loved.

However, the premise was that they had to be alright while he was in the process.

Althea’s eyes flashed a trace of appreciation. She nodded.

"Hmn, first of all, we have to know our timeline. Whoever posted the mission would be alerted that it was completed already. Fortunately, this place doesn’t have a Post Office, but sending messengers wouldn’t be too hard."

This meant that people could be looking for them now and would therefore be alerted that she had already arrived. That would squeeze their timeline by a lot.

Unexpectedly, Wilem raised his hand. "It’s me."

"What?"

"It was me who posted the mission," Wilem said, blushing as he avoided his lover’s gaze.

"They...they didn’t want to give you so many guards. So I hired mercenaries with the help of my loyal servants, in the guise of my father.

"I also asked them to send a fake letter telling the Klast Family not to embarrass the Town by sending a pitiful bride, so that the mercenaries would coordinate directly with the bride’s family."

This made it so that no one would question why mercenaries were suddenly appearing with a job order.

This also meant that the Illyan side wouldn’t have an idea of any abnormality for a while.

Hearing this, Anna’s eyes glistened, and her heart warmed. She held Wilem’s hand. "Wilem..." she said, tone very soft, and the man grasped her palm, smiling back.

Althea ignored the pink bubbles in front of her and thought of a few things. Now that they only had to deal with this side, there might be a few entrance points they could take.

For now, these two did not have the capability to head too far, and it seemed like the man still had some attachments to his hometown, just unwilling to be in the same powerless situation.

It would also be good for Althea that Wilem regained his position in Illyan, so they would have allies.

"Then...why don’t you secure a good deal of the metals. Return home and demand that if they want this deal, you have to have a say about your own wedding."

"So...what would you be able to offer the Lord of Acero Town? What would you be able to offer that hasn’t already been?"

Wilem fell into deep thought. He was the heir of Illyan town, so he naturally could not be so helpless that even this would be asked.

Fortunately, he really figured it out after some time, and with some help from Anna as well.

The couple went around by themselves to figure things out, knocking on Althea and Garan’s room a few hours later to talk about it.

"First of all, according to my investigation, the Illyan side didn’t really promise much to Acero except the vague status of an ally," Wilem said.

Anna was sacrificed to solidify it on paper, and at no loss to Illya’s side, because his parents had been wanting to get rid of Anna anyway.

No matter what, Acero was the losing side. However, they did not have a choice because it had been through several wars over the past few years. What it wanted now was some sort of stability. The Lord was probably regretting not choosing a Post Office by now as well.

"Illyan is an old Level 2 town. It is also the nearest proper settlement. On its west and southern areas are already drying zones, and the desert was not far from there. There are fewer and fewer settlements there.

"We can create active caravans between the two territories. One to take the metal to our area, and then supplies coming in from ours."

"The land here is also drying up, and the farms are a bit less productive than those in other places. They could use the fertilizers and soil improvement potions we have from Holt," Wilem said, obviously thinking about this a lot. "Holt is far but is easily accessible to Illyan, but almost impossible and dangerous to go to for the people of Acero."

"Illyan also recently discovered the Maso plant," Anna added. "It is one of the raw materials for that fertilizing potion that Holt uses."

This made Wilem look at her.

Anna smiled. "I believed I was to marry you, so I studied a lot so I could be of help."

At this, Wilem’s eyes glazed in warmth, forgetting the previous professional topic they had just been discussing. "Anna..."

"Wilem..."

Ahem.

Althea rolled her eyes. Why are people so easily distracted? So frivolous..

If people from Alterra knew what she was thinking, they would also roll their eyes. The number of times Althea and Garan kissed and hugged in public was no joke, okay?!