Penelope glanced over at Crow as he began to speak about the king. The female knight frowned slightly, quick to recall exactly who the king was to him. It had been a bit of a shock to see the viceroy take over the throne after the old king's death, especially when she knew about what he had done in the past. She hadn't been the only one to dislike the new king either. Her father had also seemed rather displeased to learn who had become their new ruler. However, like him, they didn't voice their opinions and merely went about their work as usual. 

After having just faced a failed noble rebellion, neither wanted word of their disapproval of the new king to get out. Luckily, Penelope didn't have to interact with him much at the time since most of her time back at the inner kingdom had been spent working with Mia and preparing for war. She let out a small sigh and glanced up at Crow, giving his hand a comforting squeeze. 

"There's only so much the villagers can do on their own." Gavin pointed out with a glance at Crow. "And it's not like they were thriving before either. The king is new and might be different from the last. He could just need a bit of a push before he'd be willing to help the outer villages."

Penelope shook her head. "I doubt it. Especially after a war when he's spent a good deal of gold funding it." she paused and gave a small shrug. "I know you want him to help the outer villages, Gavin, but you should know how tightly the king holds onto his money and power."

"If you believe that then why did you want to rise in status before?" Gavin asked her with a frown. "I thought you wanted to use it to help them too. Like I did."

Penelope flinched slightly at his words. There was a hint of hurt in them that was genuine that made her feel a bit guilty. They had had similar goals of helping the peasants, it was part of the reason she had grown so close to Gavin during her time apart from Crow, so she didn't doubt that her less than optimistic words stung a bit to the male knight.

"I did.." she mumbled averting her gaze. "I'm still trying to... But I just doubt it'll work with the king. If anything, I had plans to try and build a group of nobles that were willing to use a bit of their personal wealth and time to help the peasants after the war. I figure it would be the best way of approaching.. I mean, there's clearly nobles that care like us. Mia was willing to listen to me and try to protect the villagers with the new rule. Tomas is kind enough. All we would need is to get the king's permission to leave, which I figured would have been easier than asking for both time and money."

Before getting back together with Crow, it had been her plan for after the war. She had pictured her life after the war much differently than she did now. She would have married Gavin and then worked with him on the idea to help the outer villages. The male knight was rather charismatic when he wanted to be so she didn't doubt they could have worked together to convince a few nobles to pitch in. However, those plans were gone now. She only spoke of them now in hopes that Gavin might still use them after the war.

Gavin looked back ahead. "It's not a bad idea." he mused. "It might work."

"Well, after the war you should give it a try. I can help you develop it more before then." Penelope commented as she shifted closer to Crow, making it clear that she was firm in her decision.