Lyle hands over the Sapphire, why would he do that if he wants to prevent him from finding Maia.
You forget there is a reason stated in the game as to why Lyle handed it over.
You all forget one thing. To fix the weather tower, you need a full blooded descendant of Orakio.
The only one that qualified to Lyle was RHYS.
The Orakian lands in Aquatica were at war with the Layan lands. No help there.
So Rhys had to get the GEM to get to Aquatica to go to Aridia to get Wren and fix the tower. How else would Rhys get to Aridia? Rhys also had to go across the sea and the only way was to fix the weather tower.
Japanese PS 3 has the Lashute Sages (when they turn evil) explaining a little more than the english ones.
The king knew the knife, monitor and 300 meseta were in the jail cell, he should of put the sapphire in the jail cell aswell. It would of been better for Rhys to go it alone then send out a whole army to go after Maia.
Actually the king was right. In the japanese PS 3 he says:
Kein:
!
What!
Mar, Marlena!
Where did you go?!
MARLENA! MARLENA! MARLENA! Marlena...
Just you wait, disciple of Laia! Knights of the lakes! Knights of the
mountains! Knights of the forests! We are going to seek out and destroy
that heretic!
King:
Fool! What do you think you're doing, calling out the royal knights and
rushing off the start a war and chase after some "disciple of Laia" that
you don't even know where it went!
Maybe in the dungeon you'll cool your head and think about your
responsibilities as a prince!
(Guards step forward to take Kein away.)
Kein:
Father!
Mother!
Marlena!
LAYANS did not exist in Landen. At the time Rhys was marrying MAIA, no Layans existed in Landen. Let's go further.. At Rhys' time, people just knew a gem could open a cave.
The King saved Rhys from using resources and chasing after something that doesn't exist. Where would Rhys find the Layan? None existed in Landel so the King reminded Rhys of his responsibilities.
As we see when Rhys marries Maia, his kingdom suffered because he didn't listen to his father.
The King wanted Rhys to calm down and go after Maia RESPONSIBLY. Not take the whole damn army and fail.
Oh, The English PS 3 added extra lines to the Rhys dialogue. See in the japanese, Rhys doesn't want to go after Maia. He wants to destroy the heretic who kidnapped her. He doesn't have the extra line he does in the english.
Rhys original anger is at who kidnapped Maia, not that she was kidnapped XD
Brings a whole nother light to Rhys