Legante's reaction to the clandestine meeting between the Imperial Heirs and the former Hearth Tender had made Zhen Liu realize that the plot of the assassination was much more complicated than before.
If people other than the aforementioned royal spawn knew about this meeting, then it was very possible for an enemy of the crown, or would-be successors to the throne, to plan something out in order to make use of this moment of vulnerability on both sides. Then again, the presence of that weird lantern made it also possible that the weird offshoot flame managed to influence people outside of the theocracy to do its bidding.
Hell, the False Guard invaders had old ass Erupting Dawn Empire uniforms, so it wouldn't be a massive stretch to assume the worst.
As Zhen Liu thought about all of these possibilities, he kind of wished that he had taken up smoking as a form of recreational consumption.
