“Once you know where and what to look for, even a child’s ramblings might be able to offer some clues on what you seek.” - Haerkul of Clan Poisonrot, investigator constable from Elmaiya.

While Aideen comforted and hugged the still-worried Kino close to her, her mind spun as she considered what the girl had told her. From what little Kino had said, apparently the girl had been kept mostly isolated in a room, probably somewhere in or under the Baron’s Mansion, since she was young enough to remember, with her only contact being the visitors.

Aideen naturally had no solid idea on who “Glasses” might be, but from the girl’s descriptions she suspected that the man would likely be a researcher or mage of some sort who clearly had some interest in inspecting the girl for whatever reason. The “Old Man” was most likely the previous Baron, while “cranky” was likely the current one if she guessed right.

The previous baron seemed to treat Kino well, for whatever reason, though Aideen naturally could not fathom the dead man’s thoughts, but that treatment went away along with him. When his son took over, apparently whatever they were doing with Kino was important enough for him to keep supporting or hiding, though from his attitude Aideen wasn’t sure whether it was because he disliked it or for any other reason.

Kino’s existence also mostly cleared away her suspicions that the Baron’s house might have a rare Void mage in their employ. The girl was clearly one herself, with extremely high potential to boot. That said, the state of the mana in her body was not like that of a trained mage, but far more similar to that of a child’s shortly after their awakening instead.

It reminded Aideen of a rather rare case where sometimes children “failed” to awaken their affinity early on and were usually thought of as having very poor magical capabilities, only to awaken it when they were older. In just about every one of those cases, those youths either perished in the delayed awakening – which due to the increase in accumulated mana would be more violent and exaggerated than usual – or if they survived it, typically ended up as magical prodigies. Supposedly Lucea’s late grandfather Khaer Ul was such a case himself.

Kino might have been one such case herself, though given her Void affinity, her awakening was particularly violent and fatal, probably to more than just herself. Given the timing, Aideen was almost certain that the incident at the Baron’s mansion where part of the place collapsed and even the Baron was injured might have been related to the girl.

From what she said, it seemed like she was brought to the Baron who in turn did something that frightened and stressed the girl out. Such stimulation often triggered awakenings in children to begin with, so it was not too strange for her awakening to happen right then if that was indeed the case, leading to the incident as a whole.

Of course, Aideen could not learn the cause of it from the girl herself, or at least, not yet. Whoever kept the girl sequestered in a room clearly did not educate her that much, not since the old Baron died, at least. As such, Kino had difficulties trying to relate what had been said or done to her, something that could not be quickly remedied, but that they will probably find out if they were to raid the Baron’s mansion.

That was something for the near future, however. At the moment, Aideen had other things to worry about.

Namely how to keep the young girl – Kino – who knew so little of the world feel safe while she slowly learned to control her affinity. It wouldn’t do for the girl to instinctively blast things with void magic whenever she was frightened, after all, as that would just make her a walking hazard. Having found and in more than one way rescued her, Aideen also felt some responsibility for the girl.

Fortunately, outside of the understandable initial outburst – because coming back to life after death was a rather traumatic experience even if the death was fast and painless after all – Kino seemed to be quite friendly and personable. The girl quickly got closer to Celia when the latter brought her another bowl of stew that she happily supped on, and started chatting with her too.

Once she had calmed down more, Kino acted much like an inquisitive girl younger than her actual age, which considering her upbringing and how she was mostly isolated in a room for most of her life, was of little surprise. One of the first things Aideen had in mind for the girl was to catch her up on all the knowledge she had been missing out on, once they got to a place where it was feasible to do that in peace.

For the time being, though, the two of them simply brought the girl with them along their journey, kindly answering her curious queries about most everything and explaining further where needed even while they walked. Fortunately, for someone who had been sequestered in a room for her whole life, Kino was quite fit and could walk alongside them without much issue, probably a benefit of her therian heritage.

Aideen thus brought Celia and Kino with her as they continued their travel west, until they reached the lands governed by the Veros family. Once they reached the Veros family’s territory they could stop worrying about pursuers – not that Aideen was particularly worried about them, but she did not want to subject Kino to witnessing that sort of violence for the time being – as the Baron’s men wouldn’t dare chase them into another, stronger noble’s jurisdiction.

There, the three travelers took a direct path towards the center of the territory, towards the plains region where the ancestral manor of the Veros family had stood for centuries. It was the same manor where Artair’s family once lived, and was now occupied by their distant descendants, a good distance away from any of the region’s larger towns or cities. The family had always prized their privacy even after all those years, after all.