“I do not understand what went through this lunatic’s mind when he did all the horrible things he had done, nor do I want to understand him.” - Nicolette Aurvan, Executioner from the Clangeddin Empire, shortly before executing infamous mass murderer “Ripper” Jacques.

As Aideen walked into the room, she immediately noticed that Oleg wasn’t alone, as his head maid – a female therian of leopard-like breed – was in the room together with him. It was pretty much common practice for a traveling noble to bring some of their servants with them, so likely nobody else would have thought her presence odd.

Aideen knew that Oleg was there on business, though, and had deemed him unlikely to be the sort to mess around with his servants. As such, the maid’s presence likely meant something else, as she recalled another side to the Veros family. While Artair’s father Illyvich had been a high noble and Minister of War for the Empire, he also had a secret identity on top of that.

Namely as the head of the Empire’s “cleanup” department.

The family had been entrusted by the then-Emperor Khaer Ul to control a group of assassins who worked for the Empire. Their task was to clean up messes where it was less suitable for the Empire itself to take charge. People who were deemed troublesome for various reasons, like remnants of those who still favored the Second Empire, or corrupt nobles, often met their end in the hands of that shadowy group.

And Oleg likely inherited that position as well from his own parents, who likely inherited it from theirs, and so on.

“We can speak openly. Jacilqa there knows to keep what she heard to herself, and besides, she’s not just a maid,” said Oleg, which pretty much confirmed Aideen’s guesses about the maid and Oleg’s own position in the Empire. “Was the search fruitful? You sure returned quite quickly. At least, faster than I had expected.”

“It was, and I had thought that your head maid looked a bit too trained to be just a servant,” replied Aideen with a smile as she took a seat. She had naturally noticed that some of the servants in Oleg’s manor moved like they had a lot of physical training and discipline long ago. The cues were subtle, but for someone who had trained as long as Aideen had, they were noticeable.

“Damn. I guess they’ll need to shore up on that,” replied Oleg with a frown. “Can’t have them be noticeable when they’re off at their other work.”

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“Eh, to be fair, most people likely won’t notice. Just got to worry for really old people who trained heavily for most of their long lives. For me it’s mostly the way they carry themselves that I find noticeable. They carry themselves the way strong and confident people do, even when trying to hide it,” explained Aideen as she shrugged her shoulders. “Shouldn’t be an issue against most people, though.”

“Still something to keep note of,” replied Oleg. “Anyway, what did you find?”

“Cells with women and children in them, a big laboratory, and these research papers,” replied Aideen as she handed Oleg her findings. “There’s also an old human I assume is responsible for the shit they’re doing down there, though the Baron’s certainly either in the know, either as his patron or the one who wanted this shit done to begin with.”

“Let me see…” Said Oleg as he brought out a monocle and placed it over his left eye and began to read the documents Aideen gave him. Aideen calmly waited as Oleg perused the documents, his eyebrows raising in surprise on some occasions, while at other times she noticed his frowning in abject disgust of what he had just read. It only took the nobleman thirty minutes to skim through the sheafs of records and documents she brought.

“I had not expected to see Inge Lauda’s cursed work here,” lamented the man after he finished reading, with a big, sorrowful sigh. “It is partly my fault that something this vile happening so close to my place went on for this long unnoticed, so I will make certain to rectify that.”

“Inge who?” asked Aideen in confusion, as she was wholly unfamiliar with the name.

“Ah, right, Aunt wouldn’t be familiar with him as he became infamous while you were away in Alcidea,” replied Oleg with an understanding nod before he went on to explain. “Inge Lauda used to be considered a genius scholar in Sabaya until he started… getting rather unsavory ideas that most everyone found repulsive. Back then there were even calls for him to be arrested, but he disappeared before any of that could happen. That was maybe four decades ago.”

“Ideas about selectively breeding people, huh?” said Aideen, though she was almost certain that was indeed the answer. Still, it was good to have confirmation.

“Indeed so,” admitted Oleg. “We had no idea that he apparently had some relations with the late Baron Deyos and sought refuge here in the Barony. Apparently the current baron wanted Inge to experiment on ways to mass-produce Void mages using those kidnapped women… so I would assume that the children you saw were the products of that experiment.”

“And there were no older ones because they’ve gotten rid of the ones that either died in their awakening or only awakened a pittance of power,” noted Aideen grimly. All the children she saw in the cells were young, with none of them older than eight or nine by her best guess. Considering how the disappearances had gotten worse after the old baron died over a decade ago… there were likely some children produced who had since been disposed of. “The bastards.”

“I do not disagree with that statement in the least. Everything I see here is enough evidence to get Baron Deyos drawn and quartered several times over, in my opinion, so if you’ll excuse me, Aunt, I’ll be gathering my guards and strike before the baron has any idea what’s going on.”

“Oh, I’m coming along,” replied Aideen. “I certainly don’t want to miss out on this.”