-"Fine, I will accept." Lyra said with a shrug of her shoulders. In the end, her decision had come down to a few key aspects. Firstly, she had heard all her previous life that having a passive income was considered a good thing. So, getting paid for essentially doing nothing was rather swell. Second, she was against war overall, and thought both sides would benefit from having peace ensured. She did not want to see people suffer, so stopping any future wars was already in her own interest. Lastly, she figured that doing this would perhaps start to unravel all the negative rumors about her in the Kingdom Alliance, which would make future travel easier.
Both the Representatives from the Kingdom Alliance, bar Jennifer who had left of course, and the representatives from the Revean Empire, seemed more than pleased with this decision. The Kingdom Alliance would now have their independence secured, while the Revean Empire would no longer have to worry about their eastern border and could instead put their full focus elsewhere.
Still, the Treaty took another 2 hours to finalize, with parties talking about the legal writing and the finer details of the deal. In the end, Lyra ended up getting a 30 large gold coin yearly salary from the Revean Empire, and it was then matched equally by the Kingdom Alliance, so she ended up with a yearly salary of 60 large gold coins, or 600 gold coins. For reference, the best paid knights in the Revean Empire earned 50 silver a month, which ends up being 6 gold coins a year. For 3-4 gold you can buy a horse. 10-15 gold would be a cottage or apartment in the Capital. 100 gold would be a mansion.
Essentially, Lyra would now make 100 times the yearly salary of a knight, which was insane. Then again, she was ensuring peace between two massive factions, and both factions could now refocus their efforts away from war with one another, so to them, 360 gold respectively a year on Lyra would ultimately save them money.
There was also the case of the Oberon Wilds, which was renamed into Lunarsong Forest, taking on Lyra's surname. It was considered more or less its own independent territory and nation, despite only having 1 official inhabitant, being Lyra herself. Lyra also had no plans to actually make the place livable for people, but had agreed to deal with any issues arising from her forest in the future. More importantly, being the ruler of an independent nation now put her in the same social hierarchy as the Kings and Queens, which was an intentional play to ensure no one could strong-arm her into anything regarding the treaty by pulling rank and status.
However, as the Revean Emperor begrudgingly admitted, Lyra being the Treaty-guarantor also meant that it would be unsuitable for her to marry one of his sons. While he'd still very much like that, it just would not be fitting. The guarantor cannot be too entangled with either faction, and becoming the future Empress of the Revean Empire certainly was quite entangled. That said, she'd still be considered a close friend and ally, with land-owning rights in the Capital. Her mansion would officially become the "Lunarsong Forest Embassy" to circumvent any legal issues to having the ruler of a foreign territory owning land in the Capital City.
Once the treaty signing was done, there was a recess to talk and mingle. Lyra was not all too keen on that aspect, and retreated from the Palace, though fled might be a more accurate description. When she got back to her mansion, she first greeted the guards, before heading inside the main building. There, she was met by Sofie, and decided she ought to inform everyone working at the mansion of the changes. So, within five minutes or so, the few dozen servants stood lined up in the main hall.
-"Right, I apologize for the inconvenience of summoning you all at once. I know you all no doubt have things to do and wish to get going, so I will be brief." Lyra said, addressing everyone present.
Naturally, the Owner of the Mansion apologizing for summoning everyone, and also considering their time as valuable, was a most unusual thing, but by now most of the servants had come to understood Lyra's nature and so it wasn't as much of a shock as it had been in the past. Then Lyra continued:
-"Starting today, The Oberon Wilds has become its own independent territory, acknowledged by both the Revean Empire and the Kingdom Alliance, with me as its de-facto ruler. It has been renamed to "Lunarsong Forest", and this building is now technically an embassy rather than just a mansion. In practice though, nothing will change, other than the fact you'll now be employed by a foreign power."
These news caused a bit of a murmur going through the crowd of servants, and Sofie was the first to raise her hand:
"So... does that make us citizens of Lunarsong Forest then?" she asked, trying to understand this new dynamic. Lyra however just shook her head, before answering:
-"No. You are just citizens of the Revean Empire, hired to work at this Embassy. It will however increase your pay, but that's about the only change."
This answer seemed to please the vast majority. No additional tasks, but more pay? A very welcome change. After that, the servants were all dismissed and told to continue to go about their day. Lyra in turn asked for help with the bath from Sofie, and earned herself another head and scalp massage. She walked the mansion gardens in the afternoon, letting her hair dry in the summer sun, a she watched the gardeners pull out weeds and keeping the hedges neatly trimmed.
The garden was certainly lovely, though it was so very... orderly. Unlike her Spirit Sanctuary where life grew free and unrestrained. It had been a few months now, since she had left her Sanctuary and Forest behind, and she felt an urge to return, to unwind a bit in a way she could not, here in the Capital. Certainly one of the goals she had set for herself in this new life was to make friends and be more social, but she felt as if her social battery had drained quite a bit. She had never really had any time alone, to be able to walk around without feeling the eyes of others upon her. A week or two back in her Spirit Sanctuary would be nice, to recharge.
But she was not able to go just quite yet. She still had more papers to sign related to the treaty and the establishing of an embassy, so she'd need to be around for at least one or two weeks more, to make everything official.
And so the days passed and her time in the Capital City grew longer, just like her urge to go visit her Spirit Sanctuary and first home grew. When she was not in the palace signing papers and attending meetings so boring they could put a statue to sleep, then she spent some time watching the 7th Knight Order train out in the courtyard, or had discussions with Helena and the First Princess out in the Royal Palace Garden while drinking tea. Her time in the Capital was certainly not unpleasant in any way, she quite liked it in fact, but the desire to be truly unwind and just recharge in her small cottage out in the meadow lingered always at the back of her head.
Then, during the morning hours, about a week after the treaty had been signed, it happened. A sudden sense of unease she could not shake settled over her. Perhaps because she was in some part connected to the Spirit Sanctuary, but she could feel that it was in danger, though she did not know from what. It was like a sharp, stinging pain at the edge of her head, and then this massive sense of unease and urgency.
Immediately awake, she got out of bed and for once, began dressing herself entirely without assistance from the servants. As she did, she called out for Sofie. Moments later, Sofie opened the door, also in her nightgown, rubbing at her eyes. She slept in the room beside Lyra's, and was usually in charge of waking Lyra up and getting her ready for the day. But today, the roles were reversed.
-"Sofie, I will be leaving the Capital City, right now." Lyra said quickly as she pulled her shorts up, and then fastened the bra around her breasts.
"Wha- so sudden?" Sofie said, still fighting to break free from the chains of slumber, yet still having the awareness to go get Lyra's boots.
-"Something is wrong in my forest. If there are any other papers to sign at the Royal Palace, you may sign them as my proxy." Lyra answered, as she pulled her tunic down over her head, and then slid the belt around her waist.
"Proxy, but I can't-.. and when will you be back?" Sofie asked, clearly worried by this sudden situation.
-"I trust you, and I don't know, Sofie. You're in charge of the mansion until I return. If you need help, just ask the Princess or Empress for assistance." Lyra said in response, as she pulled the socks up over her feet, followed by the boots. She was finally ready. Sofie just looked at her, eyes widening. Lyra stepped in, pulled the young maid into a hug, then kissed her forehead gently.
-"I am sorry to leave like this, but I really have to go, right now." Lyra said gently, ruffling the Maid's hair as she took a step back. Thankfully, Sofie had gotten a bit more used to the physical contact from her, and so while she still blushed at the gesture, at least she did not turn into a full-blown tomato.
"I understand..." Sofie said gently in response, looking up at Lyra with those big eyes of hers which really made her look like a puppy in Lyra's eyes. Then, it was time for Lyra to leave. The unease had only grown further these past minutes, and she had no time to spare. So, she used her unique ability again to create a custom spell, which she called "Sanctuary Recall", which would allow her to teleport back to her Sanctuary from anywhere on Atlas. The mana-cost was proportional to the distance traveled, and from the Capital City it would cost 1200 mana, which wasn't too bad.
Wasting no more time, she summoned her mana to her form, and in a flashing light, she unleashed the spell, and vanished into thin air!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
She felt weightless, as if floating out in space, as a myriad of lights flashed around her. Then, sudden inertia as the world suddenly stopped spinning, and she found herself standing in a familiar patch of grass. However, the first thing she noticed was not the welcoming scent of flowers or the gentle sounds of the river, but rather the smell of smoke, and crackling of fire.
She looked around, and found that not only her cottage but much of the meadow itself was set ablaze! What on Atlas could have happened!?