Governor Aemilia sighed. Oh, her province had just won a great victory at impossible odds. Under normal circumstances, this was cause for great celebration. And, well, she could very much celebrate the fact that she was still alive, and still had a province.

But beyond that, things got messy.

One of the main reasons Governor Aemilia had been assigned to Castra Turannia was her complete lack of military experience. In what was practically a military colony, that meant she had very little opportunity to showcase her skills, and was entirely dependent on her local Legion commanders. In that, she was blessed by the Aesdes that Dux Canus had come out of retirement and taken up command of the limitanei, else the surrounding tribes would have chipped away at her province by now.

But that is to say…no one in Corvanus would attribute this victory to her.

Likewise she can be said to have ended the war with the Dobhar permanently…but her enemies in Corvanus would instead focus on her giving away Imperial land to a race that had not acknowledged Imperial authority. She was hoping making friends with a wandering hero might give her some opportunities…but the issue of that hero now ruling a Dobhar army as an independent state would raise eyebrows. It had become a double-edged sword for Aemilia. Or worse, as publicly announcing details of the hero's personal status (and thus the fact that she IS a hero in the first place) was...impolite at best, and so not an option if she wanted to actually maintain positive relations with said hero. So her enemies would be free to focus on what she did without concerning themselves with why she did it.

So, no, she probably wasn’t making a triumphant return to Corvanus anytime soon.

And now she had to figure out how to clean up the province, negotiate with the now largely independent Selkies, and rebuild their defenses given the changes in the borders. All of which had to be done in a province where she had few connections (or rather, a province that had few social elites for her to even connect with). She didn’t know where the money for all this would come from either, Turannia’s tax revenue wasn’t the highest to begin with and now a good portion of it would go directly to the Selkies. And many of the farmers being limitanei meant they were getting paid by the Empire, not the other way around, so their taxes were substantially reduced as long as they actively served, and Turannia had few industries or trade goods to make up that difference. She would probably have to dip into her own personal reserves…again.

Maybe the Dobhar could open up additional opportunities for trade…but the Dobhar were never interested in trading before. Even if trade developed now that the conflict had ended, it would likely take time. It would not solve any of the short term issues.

Just then a clerk slammed open the door of her office. Aemilia sighed. Once again, these frontier militia displayed a complete lack of decor and etiquette. And were probably about to tell her something she didn’t want to hear.

“Governor!”

“Why exactly have you burst into my room, soldier?”

“It’s…the wandering knight!”

Aemilia tilted her head.

“NSLICE-00P? What do you mean?”

“She just paid the indemnity!”

Aemilia blinked.

“Um, what?”

The soldier took a deep breath.

“She went to the treasury and filled it with Idrint!”

Aemilia blinked again. The point of that condition was to have the Dobhar pay tribute for their loss, it was only stated as a donation from NSLICE-00P due to the reality of the Dobhar ‘vanishing’ as a separate political entity and falling under the rule of an Amicitia Populi Elteni. The expectation was NSLICE-00P would gather that ‘donation’ from the Dobhar over time.

So the fact that NSLICE-00P paid it immediately was a surprise. She would have had to squeeze the Dobhar for all they're currently worth to achieve that.

Then Aemilia’s eyes widened.

“Wait, did you say she paid in Idrint?”

The soldier nodded.

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Anything else?”

“No, ma’am!”

Aemilia’s eyes went even wider.

Because that meant…NSLICE-00P almost certainly paid out of her own pocket. The Dobhar had access to Idrint, as did anyone with access to at least one dungeon, but as an ocean-going hunter-gathering people who didn’t trade much they didn’t often use it. They certainly wouldn’t have carried large stores of it on a conquest, and Aemilia knew for a fact the Imperial settlements between Castra Turannia and the coast wouldn’t have had enough for them to loot.

“How much did she pay, then?”

“All of it, ma’am!”

Aemilia froze.

“...what?”

The soldier nodded.

“Legate Curio is double-checking now, but the preliminary count was the entire indemnity!”

It took Aemilia a few minutes to process that information.

But then she shook her head.

She had no idea how NSLICE-00P came up with that much money, much less solely in Idrint. She had no idea why NSLICE-00P would just hand it all over to them like this. But those questions didn’t matter.

What mattered was that the treasury was now full of Idrint. An indemnity intended to be paid over years by an entire tribe.Stolen novel; please report.

Slowly, she started to smile.

It was originally intended to help cover the compensation to the families of lost soldiers and ongoing repair costs…but again that was under the assumption of being paid slowly over time. And being paid in kind, as it was expected the Dobhar would not pay directly in Idrint. So a premium had been added to account for the need to sell off or find a use for whatever trade goods the Dobhar might give them.

She now had access to all of that, right now, in fully liquid cash, before it was actually necessary, and without losing any of it to merchants and middlemen.

And best of all, since it was technically a ‘donation from a friend’ rather than a tax or a war indemnity…none of it needed to go the rest of the Empire. Turannia could keep the entire sum…and use it as the governor saw fit.

As she saw fit.

She grinned.

She now had an opportunity. She could do more with this than just rebuild and maintain. She could actively invest some of it, try to develop Turannia a bit. And as long as the Dobhar remained pacified, the Turannian coast had just become much safer. Even the interior lands would become safer, in fact, now that Dux Canus could focus all his attention on the border with the Wulver.

If she played her cards right, she might actually have something to work with in the future.

And so Governor Aemilia dove into her work, poring over reports and determining who she needed to talk to.

It may not have been what she first imagined, but it turns out making a hero friend had given her an opportunity after all.

NSLICE-00P left the treasury. Ateia and Taog were staring at her. Taog took a step forward.

“Seero, I have a question.”

“Acknowledgement: What is friendly Taog’s query?”

“Where exactly did you get all that money?”

“Statement: This unit has been conducting monster termination in exchange for financial compensation, as friendly Taog suggested.”

Well, most of it was actually from the Item Foundry, but NSLICE-00P had marked all dungeon-related information as classified for the time-being, so she couldn’t say that.

Taog, on the other hand, furrowed his brow and rubbed his chin. He was certain she couldn’t have made that much hunting monsters, at least not in Turannia, but he had no idea where else she would have gotten it. Maybe she dove into some dungeons and just looked for treasure instead of wiping them out immediately? Unlike literally every other time she had entered a dungeon?

The more Taog thought about it, the more his head hurt.

Ateia…decided she’d let Taog handle that question.

“Seero, what are you going to do now?”

“Answer: This unit will regroup with new subordinates, and ensure they have a sufficiently secure home base.”

“I see.”

Ateia frowned…and then nodded.

“Seero, you’re coming back here, right? At least so they can officially declare you an Amicitia Populi Elteni, right?”

“Affirmative.”

Ateia glanced at Taog. He nodded at her, and then she turned back to NSLICE-00P.

“I think Taog and I will stay here then.”

“Requesting Elaboration.”

“There’s a lot of damage that needs to be cleaned up here, I’d like to help out with that.”

Taog glanced at Estrith and frowned.

“And I’m not sure we’d be…welcome over there.”

NSLICE-00P calculated briefly…but she calculated very low risks of danger in Castra Turannia at the present moment. As such, there was no reason she couldn’t leave her friendlies here.

“Acknowledged. Statement: This unit will check in with Exploratores authority ‘Magister Tiberius’ upon her return if she cannot locate the friendlies.”

Ateia and Taog nodded.

“We’ll let him know. Stay safe, Seero.”

“Take care, Seero.”

“Request: This unit also requests the friendlies avoid damage.”

With that, NSLICE-00P left the legion keep, finding a clear area to take to the skies. Since she had already displayed flight capabilities during the battle and had since developed friendly relations with the local Imperial military, she no longer had any need to hide that ability, and so was going to travel in the most efficient way possible. She was right about to form a Mana Barrier around Estrith when she caught sight of something.

“Status Report: Hostile detected. Engaging termination protocols.”

Suddenly her combat mode activated and she ran into a nearby alleyway, preparing to form her magic circles.

There…in the alleyway…was the cat.

Magic circles started to form…

“Wait!”

She stopped.

R bowed his head inside the monster hangar.

“This lowly servant apologizes for his insolence, wise-mighty-gracious boss-queen. But…if you would grant-offer this lowly servant a word…I would like to face-fight this foe myself. I would show-display the might of your servants, yes yes.”

NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered. Letting 01R face this hostile on his own was inefficient in terms of termination…but it would be useful in terms of combat data. As when she battled the Ursanus Alpha twice, facing the same opponent under similar conditions would provide a good comparison to determine the efficiency of his latest upgrades, and whether or not 01R and the others were ready for independent operations. Likewise, since NSLICE-00P was present this time, the risk of 01R being terminated or the hostile escaping was acceptably low. So she ultimately determined the request was reasonable.

“Positive Response: Request acknowledged, and determined as acceptable. NSLICE-01R, please prepare to deploy.”

“Yes yes, wise-mighty-gracious boss-queen!”

R leapt out of the monster hangar and rushed down the alleyway, stepping in front of NSLICE-00P. The cat’s eyes narrowed as it saw him, and it meowed at him. He squeaked back, narrowing his own eyes.

They both stood still, staring at one another.

And then…

They both leapt forward, claws extended out.

The two passed one another.

A light scratch appeared on 01R’s back armor.

And a light scratch appeared on the cat’s stomach.

They turned to face one another.

The cat sat down and meowed once again.

R nodded and squeaked.

And then the cat quietly ran from the alleyway.

NSLICE-00P moved to engage but 01R shook his head.

“It is ok-alright, wise-mighty-gracious boss-queen. It is no longer an enemy.”

“Requesting Elaboration: NSLICE-01R was damaged by the hostile multiple times, including in the current engagement. Protocols indicate termination is the required response.”

R turned back to face the running cat.

“Before this…the vicious cat-thing attacked-hunted us as its prey. Now…it has acknowledged-learned the might of your servants, wise-mighty-gracious boss-queen. It will go and train-prepare as this lowly servant has…and the next time we fight, it will not be as predator and prey, but as fellow warriors, yes yes.”

NSLICE-00P didn’t really understand 01R’s reasoning. He seemed to imply the hostile was temporarily retreating to install additional upgrades and would re-engage them at a later date…which her protocols indicated still necessitated immediate termination. Immediate termination was an even more ideal response if the hostile would return at greater strength, in fact. But as NSLICE-00P linked up with 01R’s cybernetic components, 01R seemed strongly convinced the target had ceased hostility at this point and that they shouldn’t hunt it down in the immediate short-term. So she analyzed the situation once again.

In any case, 01R displayed the effect of the upgrades. By NSLICE-00P’s simulations, 01R would have won that fight without issue, given the cat’s inability to pierce his armor and inability to defend from his claws. In fact, given the data she had recorded from that short exchange, all of her subordinates were predicted to emerge from that engagement without serious damage. As such, the cat became a lower-priority target. Her subordinates wouldn’t be threatened by it even if engaged while operating alone.

She still did not find a reason not to terminate it, but found it reasonable to defer termination to an on-sight basis rather than an immediate search and destroy mission, given that the cat had already exited the alleyway. The implication the cat would be growing in strength was concerning, but as long as she continued to upgrade her subordinates that risk could be mitigated. So regrouping with her new subordinates and establishing a secure home base for them once again became the higher priority.

NSLICE-00P thus turned around to face Estrith, who had entered the alleyway with her spear clutched.

“Queen of the Dobhar, what is happening?”

“Command: All units, please prepare for strategic transit.”

“Yes yes, wise-mighty-gracious boss-queen!”

Estrith’s eyes widened as she saw a rat monster jump on NSLICE-00P’s back. She was about to step forward to deal with it when she was surrounded by a spherical Mana Barrier.

“Um, Queen of the Dobhar, what are you doing…”

And then once 01R returned to the hangar, NSLICE-00P shot into the sky, pulling along a screaming Estrith.