“Talk to most people, and they would suggest for you to compromise, to de-escalate and seek out more peaceful solutions to problems you encounter in life. The thing is, there existed people out there who would only view compromise as a sign of weakness, and thus push for more and more when met with it instead.

Me? I very much favor nipping any problem in the bud right on the spot. With extreme prejudice.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“Oh, you’re done?” came a nonchalant voice even as Celia stared blankly at the dead eyes of the man whose life she had just taken with her own hand. She looked up slowly, and was only met with a sight that immediately broke her out of her stupor, as she saw seven more men - the other five of the noble’s men, as well as the two gate guards that were nearby - squirming in pain on the ground with some very obviously broken limbs.

The culprit of the sight Celia saw was none other than Aideen, who nonchalantly stepped on the chest of the largest squirming man with one foot while she held her staff in one hand. Her other hand was wrapped around the throat of the young noble that had accosted them, as she raised him high enough above the ground he had to stand on his tiptoes to support himself.

“You familiar with this guy?” asked Aideen, while she gestured with her eyes towards the young nobleman who she held in a chokehold as if she was simply holding a chicken to be slaughtered. Celia was forced to snap out of her thoughts by the question, and nervously she took a good look at the noble’s face, along with the faces of the men that had accompanied him.

“He’s the son of the landlord of the region south of here,” said Celia after a while. She realized the noble’s identity after a closer look. It only took her a while because she was too busy to pay attention to his face earlier, and had never seen him in such a sorry state either before. “Including my place. Remember the friend I told you about? It was one of his… knights that did that.”

“In fact… That knight is right here as well…” said Celia as she finally took in her surroundings properly, all the excitement and nervousness finally taking a backrow seat in her mind for the time being. The implications of the situation she found herself in was a shock to her, but she quickly shook her head and cleared her thoughts. She was considered dead, and would likely leave the region along with Aideen soon anyway, so it would not really be her problem for much longer. “You’re stepping on him, actually.”

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“Oh, I see. So nothing good out of this lot,” said Aideen with a decisive finality in her voice. The young noble in her grasp still tried to free his throat from her vice-like grip to no avail, and made unintelligible noises that was likely either threat or pleas for mercy, but she took no heed of it as her grip tightened and the noble’s face turned purple as his air supply was cut off and he began to suffocate. “Might as well clean them up before we leave, then.”

The noble’s struggles in Aideen’s grip became more frantic as he tried to claw her hand off his throat, and his limbs began to spasm and jerk around wildly as she tightened her grip even more. Towards the end the man even lost control of his bladder and wet his pants, before his eyes rolled backwards and he lost consciousness for the last time.

When Aideen dropped him, he no longer breathed.

As for the five men that accompanied the nobles, some of whom Celia had identified as knights that served his household, she had not spared them either. From Celia’s confession they were prone to abuse their status and privileges anyway, so she’d likely leave the area a better place by getting rid of them. Four of them she killed swiftly, with a blow of her staff to the neck.

For the one knight Celia recognized as the one who was the cause of her friend’s misery and suicide, she left him with a fate many would say was worse than death. Aideen decisively crushed the man’s limbs as well as his nether regions, then healed them wrong on purpose. As a result, any time those areas were touched or moved, the man would be in agony, and would likely stay that way for the rest of his life.

A very good healer could likely fix the damage she had done, but given the poor conditions of the area, Aideen doubted there was any such healer present. If there were any, she further doubted that the knight was important enough for his lord to shell out the payment to cure him, as it would have been a difficult, arduous task for most healers, one where it wouldn’t be odd for even philanthropic ones to ask for some repayment for their efforts.

The gate guards she had left alive, as she brought Celia with her and just strolled out of the unmanned gate. Fearful eyes peeked out from the houses around the neighborhood as she left, only to see the corpses strewn on the street, then hide once more. None of the locals wanted to get mixed up in whatever would follow the murder in broad daylight.

As she walked alongside Aideen, the thought of what she had just done finally hit Celia with its full weight. The weight of a life taken with her own hand, the way the light faded from the man’s eyes as he stared accusingly at her, to the way his gaze turned to a pleading one, that of a man who did not want to die, at his final moments of life.

She suddenly felt nauseated by the weight of the thoughts and braced her hands against a tree before she retched and dry heaved for a good while. All the time, Aideen merely gave her a thoughtful look and stayed close to keep guard around them.