"I'm not sure what you mean your majesty." Celeste said with feigned innocence.
"Cut the crap woman." Toro III responded.
"There's no point in continuing to try to lie to him." Ren said.
"Yes, I suppose we should go ahead and tell him why we're really here." Celeste said.
"What? No! You can't do that!" Leona blurted out.
"That's enough. The jig is up. Even you must have felt how powerful this guy is. The best we can do is come clean and hope for the best." Ren said.
"He's right. So get on with it already." Toro III said.
"Well, the truth is that we are from the planet Artnosia, and we've come here to smuggle in our wares." Celeste said.
"If that's the case, then why make the story of coming in here to talk to me?"
"We did so, so we could look for some corrupt officials that we could bribe to get our goods into the country without paying your expensive tariff that you place on foreign goods. The meeting with you was just to distract your attention."
"I see, well it should be clear that I won't allow you to do anything of the sort."
"Of course sir. If you would just allow us to leave with our lives we promise we won't attempt to smuggle anything thing into your country again."
"There is no crime in this country for attempted smuggling. As long as you don't bring your goods into our country without paying the necessary tariffs I don't care what you do. After all, executing insignificant criminals like you is a task that is far beneath someone like myself." Toro III told them.
"We are grateful for your mercy sir." Celeste said as she bowed.
"It is more so indifference than mercy you fool."
"Either way we are glad to be allowed to leave with our heads attached." Celeste said as the three began to leave.
"Wait, there's another thing that's been bothering me." Toro III said. "Do I know you from somewhere? I can't seem to shake the feeling that I've met you before." He said as he pointed at Ren.
"Me? Certainly not sir. Where would someone like me ever cross paths with the crown prince of Vanda?" Ren asked in return.
"Hmm, I suppose you're right. I definitely wouldn't ever bother to remember someone as inconsequential as you."
With that the group was allowed to leave and promptly left Vanda's orbit. After they had left, Toro III reported back to his father.
"The intruders that worried you have left father." Toro III reported.
"It's a great exaggeration to say that I was ever worried, though I did feel that something was off about them. What did you get out of them?" King Toro II asked.
"They said that they were smugglers from Artnosia. That's nothing that's a threat to us."
"And you believe that?"
"No of course not, some of what they said was true but it was mostly lies. That being said, I still don't find them to be a threat to us at all. If they don't have the guts to fight us head on and have to resort to tactics such as sneaking around then they aren't any threat at all."
"Bahaha! I couldn't agree more."
Meanwhile, back on their ship, the group gathered to discuss their next move after their trip to Vanda.
"Well that was a bust. We didn't get anything that could help us." Leona said disappointedly.
"On the contrary, I believe we gathered some extremely valuable information." Ren said.
"Yes, I agree." Celeste added.
"How can you guys say that? We didn't get anything out of this."
"It's simple. For one, not finding anything can be as useful as finding something. It allows us to now focus on other avenues." Ren said.
"Ok, but that still doesn't help us now." Leona responded.
"As per usual, you're missing the big picture." Celeste said condescendingly.
"We actually did gain two valuable pieces of information through our exchange with Toro III. Actually there's three." Ren said.
"What would that be?" Leona asked.
"The first is that it's unlikely that we can find any allies on Vanda. Even if there are factions that oppose the Fernandez clan, if they're endorsing a marriage alliance between the two factions it's unlikely that they'd be willing to lend us any support. If we had carelessly approached them before then at worst we could have gotten ourselves captured or killed." Celeste explained.
"The second is that we actually got intel of where Toro Fernandez will be next." Ren said.
"We did? When?"
"Well, it might not exactly be where he's going to be next but it's at least a place that he will be eventually." Ren replied. Leona seemed to still be confused by what he meant. "Don't you remember what he said? Toro III is getting married. Don't you think that his grandfather would be interested in attending the wedding?"
"Oh! So you think we could catch him at the wedding?"
"Exactly, it also stands that the security would be lighter here than on Vercheg."
"Yes, and I'm sure that I could use my connections to get us into the wedding." Celeste chimed in. "Although I'm curious about what the third piece of information that we gathered would be. Even I can only think of the two."
"The third is that we found out that Toro III is impossibly strong. He's an opponent that we absolutely can't afford to take on head to head." Ren answered.
"I'm not worried about it. I'll crush any Toro Fernandez that gets in my way." Leona said, confidently smashing her fist into her hand.