She is thinking that if she and Ares are in good terms then he can help her gain more political power. as a result she can help Kai become a better ruler
so why are they trying to get engaged? Like right now they’re trying to make their later engagement seem authentic to Kai.. is it because Alicia knows Ares wants her and is trying to please him so he’ll be on Kai’s side?
for her, it is only to gain power. Ares is the only aristocrat she knows plus he is hella powerful. So right now the only thing matter to her is the gain power and educate Kai. Kai may be a huge fanboy of Ares but he is not an idiot. He'll know right away if Ares and Alicia suddenly get engaged and will make a huge fuss. So that's why they are doing this in front of him.
Okay so she’s using him to secure her life because previously he would have killed her if he fell for Edith?
So Alicia first wanted to get the hell away from Ares so she could survive, but then decided that...as long as she was on Ares's good side as his weapons adviser she'd survive? And she also wants to make sure Kai isn't getting mislead by Edith? So Alicia and Ares are pretending to court so that they can get engaged and...what? why? Its funny none the less and I love the the character art when someone is pissed off lmao