Maia Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:30 pm
Um, have you seen the whole anime? The last drabble is taken pretty directly from Episode 21.
There is no direct mention of a palace, but her father is the Royal physician and he does go somewhere to attend to the king. Also, the building that Jiguro and Kalna were sitting in front of did look pretty grandiose.
So, although I don't think that Kanbal is as lavish as Yogo, I don't think it was very simple either. Balsa even says that "Kanbal is a small country, but even in such a place, people constantly want to create conflict".
If you haven't seen the whole anime, then there are spoilers in this next part.
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The soldiers were sent by the king's brother Rogsam to kill Balsa. He had been blackmailing her father with her safety into administering a slow poison to the king. Her father asked Jiguro to take her away and protect her, but he had initially refused. Jiguro's actions weren't explained, but he did show up to kill the soldiers that were sent after her and take her away.
In the previous drabbles, I was trying to establish a previous relationship between them that might hint at why Jiguro chose to save Balsa and why she so willingly went with him.