[XenahortCharybdis]

Aye, agreed. The thing about Madan no Ou is that most of its characters follow a more realpolitik line when it comes to affairs of the world. Which is as it should be in-universe.

Zhcted has its Vanadis and the Viralts but they're not all-powerful in spite of everything. Its king is more paranoid than all our mothers put together; he just does his best Gendo Ikari cool-dick impression while he's at it.

Brune has its heavy Frankish cavalry, as well as its Two Treasures, but it's internal situation is pretty royally screwed, pun intended.

Muozinel has a massive army as far as we've seen so far, and it seems their only Achilles' Heel is their not-so-awesome navy.

Asvarre is described to be a viable ally to Zhcted despite being in a massive civil war, so you can bet your bottom dollar that for all the mess they're in they would still be a formidable force on the battlefield and off it.

And then there's Sachstein and whatever faction you want to call Ganelon and his demon friends right now. We haven't the foggiest what they're up to or what they're capable of. Okay, fine, the latter tames dragons. That's bad enough already, granted that one or two dragons can mow down an entire formation of soldiers.

Whatever the case may be, the balance of power is awfully delicate. Tigre is a rising star on the scene: he wields the Black Bow, is a brilliant general, and worse he's just drawing powerful women in left and right. I think the king of Zhcted has a lot of reason to be worrying about him granted that his 7 best commanders are all powerful, ambitious women, not all of whom like him very much. Luckily for him they don't all like each other either. Phew!

And then there's Ellen's own personality to consider. The Vanadis as far as I've seen are at the very least loyal to Zhcted or their own people even if they don't like the King himself. Any half-assed attempt at taking power is going to mess their country up - and right now they don't need that. Ellen's sense of duty is particularly strong, as is her pride. She'll go the whole hog or not at all, and she'll need a very good reason to do it. That's a rare opportunity to have in a game of politics.

In fact, I think the whole relationship thing was actually easier to solve a few volumes ago (naturally counterfactual, they weren't even that close then). But now that Zhcted has pissed off Muozinel and Tigre is too important to ignore 2 wars later, everyone's either going to be gunning for his services...or gunning for him. Same for Ellen, granted that he is her guest. Being in the spotlight sucks, I guess.

But it's okay. Doesn't anybody appreciate the story of star-crossed lovers anymore? It's just that in this case they're being realistic about it rather than outright trying to oppose the will of the world at large in every thing they do (the dumb choice really, only mitigated by the fact that not all universes are so 'hard' in their nature.) I think everyone here with a pair of Shipping Goggles(tm) manufactured in the last 10 years is rooting for Ellen and Tigre at least somewhat (or Tigre x harem, whatever the case may be); the world's opposition is only going to make this trip more interesting, not worse.