“Sometimes a few words spoken in a secluded room might determine the fate of thousands.” - Old folk saying.

“Aideen! Glad to have you back!” greeted Lucea Miel Tessarii, Empress of the Third Elmaiya Empire when Oleg brought Aideen, Celia, and Kino before her as he made his report on the crimes he discovered in the Deyos Barony. The meeting was more private this time, with the Empress only accompanied by Adelheid, set in a private room in the palace.

After all, it wouldn’t do to discuss the sort of work Oleg had just done for the Empress in public.

“Somehow, I’m both surprised yet not that you passed by the region and ended up playing a part in solving a case like this,” commented Lucea as she leafed through the report that Oleg had prepared for her perusal. “I guess some people are just attracted to things like these regardless of what they wanted, don’t you think so?”

“I mean, I did go there with some curiosity over what you told me, but it wasn’t like I went there expecting to find the truth about the issue either,” replied Aideen with a shrug. While she did end up with enough clues for Oleg to mobilize his forces, it was mostly things acquired through luck. “I guess coincidences do happen every once in a while.”

“When you lived for as long as you have, I imagine that such coincidences would happen quite often indeed, no?” Said Lucea with a toothy smile. “If I remembered correctly, you also met with Celia here at an opportune moment back then, did you not?”

“I guess,” admitted Aideen. In Celia’s case, Aideen had saved her before the girl lost all hope and decided that death was a better alternative, so it was in the nick of time, in a way. Kino’s case was similar, though there was arguably a good bit more leeway there as far as time went. “Fine, maybe fate conspired to have our paths cross on purpose, given how many times I’ve helped other unliving in dire straits before.”

“Wouldn’t put it past them,” joked Lucea as she shook her head and continued reading the document.

In the end, Oleg’s estimation about the punishments that the Empress would dole out turned out to be quite accurate. Baron Deyos, Inge Lauda, as well as two of the higher-ranked officials involved in their shady dealings, were turned into examples. The men were hung upside-down by their leg before each of Sabaya’s four gates, one in each direction, and were left to rot there for two weeks before their remains were fed to wild dogs.

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The rest of the officials who were found complicit, as well as the Baron’s wife, two older sons, and one of the concubines, were sentenced to a life of hard labor in the mines. Officials who were not complicit but had failed to notice the illegal dealings around them were stripped of their position and had to pay a heavy fine. As for the Baron’s other concubine and younger children, they were stripped of their title and belongings and exiled.

That only left one problem unaddressed.

Aideen and Lucea discussed that exact problem in private, with just the two of them present in the room, the room already secured from all known forms of scrying and eavesdropping via enchantments. The subject of their discussion was as such that neither woman felt comfortable with thinking of it as a problem, despite how it was definitely a big one.

Namely what to do with Kino.

The unliving girl was young, naive and innocent for her age due to her sheltered and lacking upbringing, which further made both Aideen and Lucea feel bad about addressing her as if she was a problem to deal with. The fact remained however, that Kino had the potential to grow into one of the deadliest existences in the world.

She was a Void mage, one with prodigious talent and mana at that, considering how quickly and easily she managed to master rudimentary expressions of magic after she rose into unlife. From her perspective, she had only awakened her magic mere weeks prior to that, so her rapid adaptation was a show of great talent, one only further confirmed by her delayed awakening.

People who experienced delayed awakenings either died due to it or became some of the greatest mages in history. There was no middle ground, and Kino not only fulfilled that criteria, but did so as a Void mage, the rarest of affinities due to how few people blessed with it survived their awakening.

Sure, technically she did not survive hers either, but as she became an unliving, that brought another tangent into the problem. The best method to deal with a void mage was always to kill them before they could get to you. That solution was impossible to enact on Kino, as she was unliving, and thus would just shrug off injuries that would be mortal to any person with ease.

In essence, fate and happenstance had conspired to create a monstrous existence that was heretofore unheard of in the world, one that could likely kill anything in her path, while being unkillable at the same time. Viewed from that perspective, it was difficult not to see her mere existence as a problem to worry about, as secrets could only be kept for so long, after all.

Her existence would come to light one day, and people would then attempt to use her to further their own desires. That was a fate that neither Aideen nor Lucea wished upon the girl. That she was born with such potential was arguably a blessing, and most definitely not something anyone could fault her for. As such, they couldn’t help but to attempt to devise a solution that would allow the girl to receive something they both believe she deserved.

Namely a happy, peaceful life, one to make up for the years she missed out on while she was locked up beneath the mansion. A life the girl could truly call her own.