As we returned home two days later, the pile of reports on my desk was unusually tall. It reminded me of the days I stubbornly tried to manage everything personally. I quickly looked through the reports with considerable suspicion but they were mostly fleet-readiness reports, which I read with great delight. While Vestargo was still licking his wounds, my forces were returning to the field. With a fully modernised Dauntless and a brand new Relentless, it was time to upgrade Valiant. The additional resources promised by my allies allowed me to give a green light to the shipyards to begin construction of the fourth dreadnought.

The fleet returned to the Ancient Forest to support Galahad and they managed to retake all the land we previously conquered. It seemed that Vestargo made a very poor decision and spread his forces too thin in a vain attempt to regain control of his previous borders. His denizens were mercilessly butchered though his numbers weren't even half of what they were in the beginning. Especially his 'people'. The Vespids seemed to realise that their time of rule was coming to an end. They weren't dying so eagerly and broke ranks and fled at the first signs of losing the battle. That, additionally, weakened Vestargo's armies and caused his losses to be much more severe than ever before. The Vespid-like denizens weren't as flexible and strong as their bigger kin.

However, that could quickly change.

The new Vespids that replaced the lost warriors were weaker, smaller, and far less intelligent than the Vespids we had encountered so far. One of the most likely explanations was that they were denied more women slaves to reproduce. We knew they could reproduced like regular hornets so it wasn't a big shock. However, I can say it was satisfying to watch them being reduced to slightly bigger bugs. Of course, I couldn't be sure that Vestargo wasn't preparing the old types of Vespids and amassing a huge army somewhere at the rear, far from my reach. In fact, once that thought crossed my mind, I was sure he was doing just that.

Still, the blow I dealt him was incredibly satisfying.

However, the remaining reports weren't so good. The main subject of concern was the situation of the rescued people. They struggled greatly to adjust to their new lives and the fact that we were in winter wasn't helping. The return of a lit sky slightly helped to ease their anxiety but the overwhelming cold of winter after generations in a controlled Dungeon environment was too much for some. Their depression and a wave of attempted suicides were only averted thanks to the Dungeon Cores who recognised the danger themselves, listened to their Mortal advisors, and forcefully shifted the localized season. The mana expense was steep, but it was acceptable. With a forcefully invoked summer, the rescued people calmed down and very slowly started adapting. However, there were a few successful cases of suicide. Mostly among men and older women. The older women practically worshiped Vu'kaar as their god. They hated me and, basically, everyone associated with me. Before we could separate them to ensure they did not hurt anyone, they committed suicide.

I took it calmly because, realistically speaking, there wasn't any way to prevent it with so many people we needed to help. Besides, fixing the broken minds of men who had been reduced to mindless creatures in slavery whose single purpose was to make more slaves was impossible by normal means. Vestargo's male slaves served as nothing more than breeding animals and their minds were reduced to their basic instincts. The men were becoming increasingly aggressive and tried to fight the Arcadian soldiers aiding them. For obvious reasons, they weren't allowed near the women without supervision.

Only the deeply invasive, mind-altering powers of the Succubi Psychologists gave us any hope of helping them. However, even then, the ethical discussions about this method was complicated, lengthy, and fully justified. I authorised the first few tests personally and, even then, I gave written orders to perform early treatments using various degrees of invasiveness to the best of our abilities. The effects were concerning. Only one case could be considered successful, if we considered success a complete mind-wipe. Currently, that man was at the same development level as a five-year-old child.

That caused an even longer but important debate about whether we should go that far, even with the best intentions to help. Was a complete erasure of someone's mind an acceptable solution if the only other alternative was lifelong confinement? Should we seek other means of helping them? Could we spare time and resources to help people who had been reduced to animals? Probably, the most tragic thing was those who chose suicide had the best chance to be helped. The fact that they chose death most likely meant they were aware of what they had done and how disgusted they were with their existence. The subject was difficult... Difficult enough that I needed Irene, Cahrona, and Fleur to meet me in my office so I could ask some questions that required answers. No matter how sure I was I would hate those answers.

"I simply don't know, Theon..." Cahrona shook her head as she sat to my left at our round coffee table. "I expected this subject to come out sooner or later, but I swear, I don't know what to do."

"It's easy to make a horrible mistake." Irene took a sip of a caffe latte and sighed. "Even Gods can't help them because those men didn't become insane but were raised that way. They were denied even the little dignity the women received as they were raised. After all, Vestargo needed women for his Vespids so they were always numerous enough to pose a threat. Minimal, but a threat nonetheless."

Irene slowly shook her head and Fleur sadly agreed.

"That's why Vestargo used some sort of systematic population control to help keep all those women in line." The Half-Elf said with a slightly shaking voice. "They even used the natural instincts most women develop as they grow up against them."

"That is why all of the village elders were obsessed with teaching girls to be perfect wives." Cahrona continued with a grim and sickly expression. "The so-called Elders were usually girls no older than forty years old and they are also as broken mentally as you might suspect."

"Of course, it wasn't perfect because most of them knew that they were going to die, but mostly they didn't know how horrible it was going to be. The lack of formal education and the constant pressure to learn to be a perfect wife for a creature that was hailed as their master... It is as disgusting as it is imperfect." Irene trembled and closed her eyes, which were shining from held-back tears.

"However, the process was enough to keep them in check." Fleur continued with a wooden voice. "Even now, after we managed to help most of the first girls we saved, they can't abandon the idea that they are going to be perfect wives. Fortunately for them, that's not a big problem or a life crippling issue in Arcadia. At least here, they should find happiness."

"Should?" I asked, suddenly alarmed.

"Well... Even in Arcadia they, simply, might have bad luck and find themselves a jerk for a husband."

"Fair point..." I stiffly nodded. The crime problem in Arcadia wasn't very high but it existed. Arcadia wasn't some utopia after all. "What about the men we freed?"

"The male slaves? From the moment they were born, they were treated like cattle and even kept in barn-like structures." Fleur trembled and lowered her head. "Everything we know about them and what they went through we learnt from the village elders."

"Exactly. This is not because we didn't try but because they don't know how to speak. Their cognitive functions are basically nonexistent." Cahrona opened her arms in a powerless gesture. "I know that erasing their minds seems wrong but what choice do we have?"

"We can observe them but I seriously doubt they will improve on their own." Fleur sighed and took a small sip of her coffee. "I still live by the oath to not harm my patients. But, realistically speaking, I know no method of saving someone who was treated like a breeding animal for their entire life. It's challenging enough to undo the process in the youngest males who were meant to replace the older men. At ages between three and nine years old, they might learn. The older? Already quite impossible. The younger the child, the easier it is to save them. But the fully grown men? I'm sorry, my Lord. I can't help a person if there wasn't any person to begin with..."

"So we can safely assume that wiping their mind is the only chance they have to get a normal life at all?" I crossed my arms in front of me.

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"Life? Maybe. Normal? No, my Lord. No matter what we do, they will be children and teens trapped in bodies of thirty, forty, and even fifty-year-old men. As far as I can tell, that's hardly normal." Fleur cringed slightly and I saw how hard it was for her. "It's hard to admit that being an Ibrevellian slave wasn't that bad... Whatever I suffered, it wasn't as bad as the treatment Vestargo's slaves received. God... I hated them for making me believe that my name was Orina. But this..."

"But it was bad enough." I shook my head in disagreement. "I hope you don't mind that we changed your name..."

"No. I like it." She smiled and looked at Cahrona who seemed pleased. "Thank you, my Lord, my Lady."

We sat in an uncomfortable silence as I tried to sort everything they said. We sipped our drinks slowly and I finally took a deep breath.

"Now... There is one more question I need to know the answer to." I sighed deeply. "How the mind-erasing process influences the Succubi who conducts it."

"It's a very demanding and complicated process," Cahrona admitted. "It is physically exhausting and mentally challenging but it's safe for the caster. There is no possibility for these men to resist a high-level Succubi and only a successful mental defence could cause a dangerous backlash for the caster. After all, we are attacking the mind of people with the intention of completely erasing who they are. And that is the real problem, Theon. It is a violent mental attack and not a subtle attunement of someone's mind."

"Hmmm... I see." I took a deep breath. "So it's a question of whether we have the right to erase their memories and the mutilated persona they developed, only to force them, afterward, to learn how to live again, so they could join society. Even if we do that, they have lost most of their lives and, most probably, they will never be able to integrate normally. Am I right, Fleur?"

"I'm afraid, yes, my Lord..." She closed her eyes and lowered her head sadly. "But what else can we do? Close them off from society for the rest of their life? That's just indirectly killing them!"

"There are more options," I said calmly. "I could create a world of illusion for them. A subspace of the Dungeon where they should live in the world they understand..."

"That's still confinement, my Lord. Yes, it's much better for them and everyone else... God... I... I never expected that I would have to make such a decision..." Fleur hid her face in her shaking hands.

"No. You won't be making this decision nor any of my wives." I said calmly. "Have you forgotten already, Fleur? I'm the Emperor of Arcadia. This decision and all responsibility for it is mine and mine alone."

She cringed but slowly nodded. I rose from my chair and approached the huge window. I closed my eyes as I stood holding my hands behind my back. I felt their gaze on me as I took a deep breath.

"We are going to treat every child and young man up to the age of twenty. Even if we have to wipe their minds, they will have a chance to have a life. Maybe even a normal one." I said with a grim voice. "Men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty... We will assess them individually. Everyone else... I will put them into stasis until we find a cure or another way to help them."

"Stasis? Like cryo-sleep? I didn't know we had such technology!" Fleur tilted her head in surprise making both Irene and Cahrona look at her in confusion. "Sorry, my Ladies... It's a term from our old world."

"Exactly." I nodded and turned towards them. "It's one of the magitech our teams recovered in Vanushka and we can already replicate it. It's also considered a state secret but don't be surprised, Fleur. Your clearance is high, but not that high. Anyway... The system was tested and it is working flawlessly."

"Tested?" The Half-Elf's eyes widened in discomfort. "On whom?"

"If I remember correctly, I allowed Ian to use some slavers and murderers to test things in Vanushka. So I believe it's fifty-fifty what kind of criminal was a test subject." I shrugged and she immediately relaxed. There was exactly zero compassion in her for such scum. "What do you think about my idea, Irene, Cahrona?"

"While I personally don't believe we can find any way of helping them, it's a marginally better solution than killing them immediately or by confining them for life." Irene sadly nodded. "I can't use a Miracle to cure them. However, I'm pretty sure that the problem lies with how I word my prayers. I will have to think about it."

"I try to guess what they would like..." Cahrona admitted and lowered her head. "But, out of all the decisions we have to make, that one seems the most merciful. They will fall asleep and one day they will wake up as normal people. I believe it's the best solution."

"If I had known about it earlier, I would have recommended it in the first place. Still, there is also one more thing that makes it the best solution..." Fleur finished her coffee and looked very uncomfortable. It seemed she was trying to gather her thoughts. "I think that we should freeze the boys over fifteen or fourteen."

"Huh? Why?" I looked at her in surprise.

"As soon as they were strong enough and mature enough to reproduce, Vestargo used them to rape a lot of girls to maintain the population. Such girls were kept in a separate enclosure and they were destined to give birth yearly until they died during labour."

I pinched the bridge of my nose but stayed silent. Honestly, at this point, I should have expected to hear something like that.

"We, of course, saved those girls. They are some of the most scarred and mind-broken of the former slaves." Fleur continued with a numb voice. I only just realised that it was her way to cope with the degree of cruelty she had to address. "I believe that we need to keep those girls away from the men who hurt them so much, even if said men had zero choice in the matter. Freezing them and keeping them in stasis for a few dozen years would likely allow the girls to forget."

"Of course..." I covered my eyes as I heavily sat down. "Anything else I should be wary of?"

"Hmmm... We still haven't fully confirmed it because it isn't something we can confirm overnight but will take a few years." Irene swallowed heavily the last sip of her latte with a facial expression suggesting that she had no idea how to feel about what she needed to tell me. By the looks she gave to the poor table, she couldn't decide if disgust would be enough to express her feelings. "I dug through the library and consulted with Freya and Fleur, it seems like the slaves were selectively bred."

"Just fantastic..." I leaned heavily in my chair and covered my eyes. "What has he done to them?"

"How can I put it? It's all about biology. We can safely estimate that the slave population was meticulously bred to achieve some common traits and, as I said, it will take years to figure out everything. For now, we can safely assume that their overall attractiveness was an intended outcome but we can't figure out its purpose. As far as we can tell, Vespids don't even find other Vespids attractive. Perhaps it was some early experiment to determine the Vespids' preferences, if they had any, and the results persisted to this day." Irene put away the empty glass. "Then, we have their statistics which are very strange to put it lightly. The girls are intelligent, have high charisma, and an increased wisdom, but their strength, dexterity, and constitution are below average."

"Why?" I asked even though I was sure I was going to hate the answer.

"Well... Since the children usually inherit some bonuses from their parents' statistics, I personally believe that Vestargo did it to improve his Vespids. Normally, they were probably as dumb as any other bug so it would explain why he used women to breed his pets." She said with disgust and, of course, I was right. I hated the answer.

However, I smiled with satisfaction after a moment as I pieced together the report about the new, inferior Vespids and what Irene just told me. I quickly went to grab the said report from my desk, and I gave it to Irene.

"That report confirms that your theory is correct," I said as she read it, sighed, and passed it to Cahrona and Fleur.

"Right... Then we have something not so obvious. I believe that Vestargo, somehow, improved their immunity system. The girls were remarkably healthy despite all the abuse they suffered and, even now, after we removed them from the Ancient Forest, they are not getting ill from illnesses they were not exposed to in slavery."

"A small blessing I guess but let's be real. He didn't do it for their comfort but to reduce their overall mortality. After all, they were supposed to die only when he allowed them to." I shook my head.

"I think you are right." Irene sighed. "There are many other minor things we will have to confirm, but there is still one very important one and a big result of the selective breeding. It's very important for Arcadia as well so I'll make sure to confirm this as quickly as possible."

"Are you telling us about it now or only after you confirm your suspicions?" Cahrona asked with an uncertain voice.

While Irene was responsible for the physical aspect of the medical help we gave to the rescued slaves, Cahrona and Fleur were responsible for psychiatric care. The Saintess considered her question for a moment and shrugged slightly.

"I can say it now because, if I'm correct, the implications will be very severe if we don't plan accordingly." She nervously put together her hands. "If our observations, so far, are correct, we suspect that every single woman kept in Vestargo's slavery will have a nearly guaranteed chance to give birth to twins or even triplets..."

"Of fucking course..." I groaned and looked at my already cold tea with an empty gaze. " Just keeping slaves wasn't evil enough, he wanted to curate a uniform and quickly growing population. Of course, Vestargo had to add selective breeding to the list of his crimes."

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