Carrot and a spiked, red-hot, iron stick

'I wish I could say it was all as I expected… But it's more like how I feared things would be.'

If I took Etaria's words at face value, then most of my more or less pacifist plans were pretty much done for. When a prideful country set off to achieve something, stupid things like reason, rationale, or cost calculation were no longer of importance. 

And, without even a shred of doubt, the empire was a country full of pride, for no empire could exist without it to begin with. 

Still, this was all based on an assumption that I understood Etaria's words correctly and took them at face value. And hopefully, there was still some room for me to work around with. 

"So you need war," I summed up Etaria's words in a much simpler, straightforward manner. "I'm not going to ask why… because I can pretty much guess it. Just like with the topic of what I'm doing in the forest, this information is of hardly any significance here."