Even as Ethlyn speaks, it occurs to Claude that, much like the fact that she can only learn about the land that he comes from from himself and Marianne, he can only take Ethlyn's word for it. Was her father a good, kind man, with only honour in his heart? So few Kings are. But it is a bitter pill to swallow, that your own parents may have been flawed - though these days, Claude finds himself ruminating on his own royal parents more and more, their follies, their flaws, the errors that their kin will pay for - and certainly not one he'd ever ask of anyone who had tragically lost those that they had loved.

He decides to take her word for it. That her father was a kind and just man, and raised a kind and just daughter. And that he had suffered for it, apparently, as kind and just men are wont to do.

"An internal rebellion... I'm familiar with that sort of thing." He thinks about offering his condolences, but holds his tongue. He wants to hear the whole story first. "Sometimes the enemies that you hold close at hand can be even deadlier than those from afar. What happened next?"