Having finished his part of the story Allen stopped speaking and fell silent.

He let his words hang in the air in order to give them time to process the information he had just given them.

The tent was quiet, and the only sound present was of the soft flicker of the oil lamps. Lishia's sharp eyes were narrowed but not with suspicion anymore and rather she was lost in her own thoughts, thinking things over as she stared at the map on the table.

Eunice looked at Allen with a flicker of understanding in her eyes. Whereas Luna had a concerned expression on her face.

She knew something bad had happened with Allen and that is why she had avoided probing into his past too much, but the beans were spilled.

Allen watched them for a long moment. He had given them what they wanted and now it was his turn to get his hands on the information.

He broke the silence with his voice being polite but confident enough.

"I'm completely out of the loop here," he said as he looked at the three of them.

"I've heard you say the word 'highlanders' but I don't exactly know what you mean by that? Would you mind explaining that to me?"

Hearing his words, Luna and Eunice both looked at Lishia. They were expecting her to explain things because firstly she was the commander here and secondly, the field of highlanders was in her interest of things.

Lishia let out a long and tired sigh before she finally looked up from the map and her yellow eyes met Allen's gaze.

The look in them was not one of a commander but of a person who was reminiscing about something they'd rather not think about.

"That island you saw in the sky," she began with her voice low and steady. "That's their homeland and the place they live. There are multiple islands like that and they are of different sizes with some being the size of entire countries."

She paused and took a moment to choose her words in order to articulate properly.

"The people who live there are the ones we call highlanders. They are almost entirely similar to us humans, they look the same and have the same bodies as us aside from some differences."

"Highlanders are naturally more potent in using magic than humans. Even a single highlander is capable of wiping out entire armies of humans," she explained.

"And where exactly does this difference come from?" Allen asked.

"Well, we aren't entirely sure since we've never had a highlander to research on but there are a few theories. The most accurate one we think is the mark on their forehead."

"All highlanders are born with a mark on their forehead and upon seeing it we've realized that it looks similar to ancient runes. We suspect that it enhances their magical abilities by a huge extent, which puts them far above us humans."

"Then there's also the fact that they are far superior than us in terms of technology. Over the years they have spent a lot of time in developing and refining their capabilities to produce advanced magical artifacts."

"At the same time they have consistently suppressed any attempts we made to create such artifacts," Lishia explained.

"I see. So that's how it is huh," Allen mumbled mostly to himself, but it was loud enough for Lishia to hear his remarks.

"Then what about the governing system? You said that your countries were ruled by highlanders, didn't you? What's that about?" he asked.

"Well, yeah…" Lishia replied, her tone demeaning. "They rule every single country on this continent. We call ourselves to have countries but in reality we're just mere colonies of the highlanders."

"Our countries do have a king and queen, and the nobles who run the country on the ground level but in reality it's all just a farce. The king is under the control of the highlander responsible to manage that specific country and receives commands from them about what he should or should not do."

"All the laws and policies of the countries are made by the highlanders themselves," the look in Lishia's eyes was of disdain as she kept explaining things.

"That sounds pretty bad. I mean, doesn't this basically mean the highlanders are controlling you?" Allen asked, prompting a reply from her.

"You are right. To them, we are not people but rather like cattle that are to be harvested. We are forced to send them minerals and rare ores that can only be mined on the surface in the forms of 'taxes'. If any country fails to do that then severe consequences follow," she replied.

"Hmm. Then what if a king doesn't want to follow orders from the highlanders? Can't you declare independence from their rule?" Allen questioned.

"Technically you can but it doesn't really work out. If a king doesn't comply with their orders then they'll find the most ambitious rival of the king and back them to take over the throne. And if you really tried to oppose then… well it ends badly."

"What do you mean?" Allen inquired.

"You see, resources aren't the only thing they demand from us. What they want the most is… well, our children. Even some humans are born with innate magic talent through which they can even rival the highlanders once their powers are fully developed."

"These children are called The 'Gifted' by the highlanders and they take them away before they can reach their full potential—"

"Wait, what do you mean taken away?" Allen interrupted.

"I mean exactly what I said," she replied, looking directly at Allen. "Once those children reach the age of thirteen, they forcefully take them to the highland, and we don't know what happens afterwards. The only thing that's certain is that none of the children who were taken away were seen again."

"And referring back to your original question of why the kings cannot just disobey the highlanders. A few years ago a king had gone rogue against the highlanders because his own daughter had turned out to be a Gifted one and the highlanders wanted her."

"But not being able to assign his daughter to such a cruel fate, he chose to be a father first instead of a king and went against the highlanders. All that got him was complete annihilation from the side of the highlanders."

"Only a handful of them were required to turn the entire country into rubble. They wanted to make an example out of him so no one else dares to do the same therefore they did not show any mercy. Every single person in the country was killed, leaving behind just a wasteland of where a country used to be."

"It was a total genocide," Lishia said, her expression more serious than ever.

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