After letting her words sit in the air for a while, Lishia looked at Allen with a profound hope in her eyes.

With her gaze completely focused on him, she leaned forward slightly, laying her hands flat on the table as her expression turned serious.

"Allen, today you've not only fought a highlander head on but also defeated him," she said with a sense of deliberation in her voice.

She then paused, letting the weight of those words sink in.

"What you have done is something only the Gifted ones are capable of doing. In fact, I'd say that your feat is even a level above them because while the current generation of Gifted ones are able to stand their own against the highlanders, none of them have defeated one alone," she explained.

Her yellow eyes scanned his face as she searched for some sort of reaction on his face through which she could guess his reaction, however, there were none. But despite that, she continued.

"I have observed that your magic works differently compared to what we have here but it is in no way lacking in power, and is on par with the best knights we have," she said.

Lishia's voice then dropped, becoming low and filled with a pain that felt old and deep.

"I already told you what they do, didn't I? Those bastards treat us worse than animals. They take our children whenever they want as if we aren't people but rather their playthings. They have been draining our lands dry of resources and forcing us to die in the mines while they comfortably sit in their flying castles…" her gaze lowered as she recited those words.

She clenched her fists on the table, her nails pressing on the skin of her palm so much that just a little more and she would have bled.

"It is madness, you know…" she said. "Despite all the atrocities they do… the majority of the common people still are not against them. They have been so used to this way of life that their minds cannot even comprehend the option of living in a world without the rule of highlanders."

"Didn't you say that the contempt against the highlanders is growing though?" Allen interrupted, presenting a question.

"Well yes, I did, and yeah the resentment against them has increased. But that is compared to a time where speaking against them was treated as blasphemy. The people who oppose them now have increased, but our numbers are still in the minority," she replied.

Her gaze flickered towards Luna and then back to Allen with her eyes now burning with a flicker of anger yet showing the hint of grief.

"Imagine having a child, Allen. Watching them grow, loving them more than anything in the world. And then suddenly one day, you find out that they are gifted. That they are more capable in magic than most people.

"Normally that should be something to be proud of, right? But here under their rule it is a death sentence because that's when you know you are never going to see your child again."

Her voice trembled slightly, filled with emotion. "Because they will find out. No matter how much you try to hide it they always find out. And when that child turns thirteen, they'll come and walk into your home surrounded by guards and they take your child away.

"Just like that. They don't care if you beg. They don't care if you cry. They don't care if you try to fight. They just take them. And you never see them again.

"You don't even know what sort of life they will live now, and seeing how the highlanders don't even treat us as human beings it's something you don't really want to imagine either."

She let out a sigh, realizing she had been clenching her fists too hard and released them. She calmed herself down and regained her composure before speaking again.

"Anything could be happening to them out there, anything. Slaves? Experiments? Food for their magic? We don't know. All we know is they are gone forever. Stolen from us. Erased."

She pointed a finger towards the map and towards the blackened and empty space that represented the destroyed kingdom. "And if you resist and try to protect your own child, they'll burn your world down to ashes. They kill everyone you've ever known and turn your home into a wasteland just to prove a point. Just to remind the rest of us cattle who is in charge."

She looked directly at Allen with a pleading look in her eyes, but still filled with that unyielding commander's will. "This is the world they have made for us, Allen. A world of fear and loss and stolen children. We are fighting to end that. We are fighting for a future where parents don't have to pray their children are born without talent. But we are losing. We lose good people every day. But we still continue to resist and keep fighting because that is the only way forward.

"A world like this is just unacceptable and should not exist. I know this may be a little hard for you to understand since nothing like this has happened in your home country but this is the reality of things here."

Her voice grew stronger again and was filled with a desperate conviction.

"And I know this is an unreasonable request but would you lend us a hand, Allen?" she asked, looking directly into Allen's eyes.

"You have the strength comparable to a gifted one and you also seem to have the fighting experience necessary to go against the highlanders. With your help, we would be able to not only stand against the highlanders but push them back.

"Of course, you would be compensated fairly for that. We don't have much to offer but I'll personally make sure that you do not have a problem with anything," she proposed.

Allen listened while his face still carried the same neutral expression as always. He didn't look that surprised by the offer since he had seen it coming more or less.

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