Nathan had genuinely debated skipping it.
The feast was political theater as much as celebration, and he had limited patience for rooms full of people performing their alliances at each other over expensive food. He could have spent the evening in his guest quarters reviewing what he knew about the Light Empire's current defensive positions and found it more productive.
But something kept pulling at him — a low, persistent discomfort that he couldn't fully locate or dismiss. The combination of what Ayaka and Akane had told him about the capital's tensions, what he had observed himself in the streets and during the ceremony, the particular quality of Takehiko's presence and patience — all of it sat in him like an unresolved chord, too quiet to demand immediate action and too consistent to ignore.
