By that time, he and Phloria had long broken up, plus they hadn't talked to each other until Jirni's last birthday. Phloria had no way to know and Friya had completely forgotten that shapeshifting was supposed to be kept a secret.
"Probably." Friya corrected herself in time.
"Headmaster?" Quylla asked.
"Your sister is right." Marth said. "It's rare, but some Emperor Beasts can change their appearance. I asked for Kalla's help because the White Griffon lacks a Necromancy expert and even though she is young, she runs circles around even the Professors of the Black Griffon.
"Everyone in this room knows, since its common knowledge among the upper echelons of all the three great Countries. But it's a major secret among the general population, so keep it for yourself."
Marth didn't like the idea of sharing state secrets with children, but Kalla was still very clumsy, both physically and socially. It was only a matter of time before they found out anyway.
'Neither Lith nor Friya were surprised. I must report to the Kingdom how deep the bond of those two with the Emperor Beasts is.' Marth thought. Humans with a good relationship with beasts were even rarer than shapeshifters, or so he thought.
All countries were looking for ambassadors capable of talking Emperor Beasts into sharing their secrets.
"I need a drink." Phloria sunk into the nearest chair, quickly followed by Quylla.
Friya kept biting her tongue to not share Protector's secret in front of the Headmaster, nor to laugh about how similar her sisters' reaction was to her own.
"Kalla? Is that you?" Quylla asked once the two Awakened returned.
She had never talked much with the Wight, but she had cried a lot during Balkor's attack when she had thought that both Kalla and Protector had died to save the White Griffon students.
"Who else could I be, little one?" Kalla replied while making her flesh turn into darkness and revealing a glimpse of her human skull.
"Dammit, Kalla." Marth said in frustration. "Why do you keep doing that? I told you to keep your identity a secret for the good of both the Kingdom and your own. Most researchers refuse to work with you because you scare them with your shenanigans…"
"They refuse to work with me because they are close-minded cowards." Kalla's voice was calm and soft, yet echoed throughout the lab, making more than one Healer flinch.
"This is not a shenanigan." She pointed at the half of her body covered in darkness while the other half was still flesh and blood. "This is who I am, what a Wight would look like if they were born human instead that as a Byk.
"I've no reason to be ashamed of my origins nor I'm here to coddle their prejudices about Mogar. If my presence is unwanted, I'll gladly leave."
"Well said. It's them who should be ashamed of their childish behavior." A strong, feminine voice said, accompanied by the sound of clapping hands.
Milea Genys, the Magic Empress of the Gorgon Empire, stepped forward with her hand extended towards the Wight, who promptly shook it.
She was a 1.75 meters (5' 9") tall woman, with long wavy honey-hued hair who looked like to be in her mid-twenties. She was wearing the ample deep-blue mage robe of the healers from the Empire, making her indistinguishable from her colleagues.
Her blue eyes lingered on the anomaly a second longer than she would have liked, but curiosity got the better of her. Milea didn't expect to meet Lith in person so soon and had no idea how to introduce herself without sounding creepy.
Kalla had given her the perfect opportunity and she seized it.
"On behalf of the Gorgon Empire, I apologize for my mages' rudeness. I'm always looking for competent allies, so if the Kingdom lets you down, my door will always be open."
Milea was still the only Awakened the Empire could rely on. Unlike the Kingdom, Leegaain refused to produce fake Awakened and she had yet to find someone she trusted enough to share her gift.
Thanks to her relationship with the Dragon Guardian, Emperor Beasts had a favorable opinion of her, yet they refused to follow her political ambitions. She deeply longed for someone capable of understanding her burden.
Power and isolation didn't corrupt her, but they were still eating at her from the inside. The fact that the Council refused any contact with Milea, considering her to be nothing more than an appendix of Leegaain only worsened her loneliness.
There was not a single Awakened member of all the races that didn't resent her for her luck. She was barely past her thirties, yet Milea already had a purple core and a mastery over all branches of magic that would take decades to obtain even to a genius.
Over time, the gap between her and the centuries-old elders of the Council was only getting thinner, which made their resentment grow stronger.
"My dear students, allow me to introduce you to Milea Genys, also known as the Magic Empress. Your highness, these are Friya, Quylla, and Phloria Ernas. Also, this is Kalla the Wight and Lith Verhen."
The girls were so shocked that they needed Marth's help to stand up from their chairs. The woman in front of them looked barely older than them and yet was the ruler of one of the Kingdom's greatest rivals.
If not for having met Faluel just a few days before, Lith would have been in the same situation, even though for completely different reasons.
'By my maker! This woman has the brightest purple core I have ever seen and her physical prowess matches Faluel's. On top of that, she is an Awakened with a monstrous mana flow.' Solus said, shaking in her mind-boots.
"Are you here to help as well?" Lith asked while giving Milea a deep bow and avoiding her extended hand. Invigoration was the only thing that could spot Solus.
"I thought you were too busy with the Lich."
"I still am." Milea sighed. "I came just to check on the progress and to see if I can provide some insight. I was the one who found a cure to Jiera's plague and this undead outbreak is clearly just a variation of it."
She had actually just helped Leegaain, but she had been forced to take all the credit since he demanded for his existence to be kept a secret.
"It's not an undead outbreak, it was just staged to look like one." Kalla said.
Lith had told her that he didn't want to be credited with the discovery and it would give her the opportunity to humble all those jerks that giggled every time she broke something due to not being used to such a flimsy body. Two birds with one stone.
Kalla shared with those present Solus's analysis and her own theory about how the undead tissues worked. To explain everything, she just pretended that she had developed a powerful diagnostic spell.
"This is an amazing piece of news, dear Kalla." Milea's eyes sparkled like stars. "It gives us a completely safe route to save Laruel from this pinch."
"Which is?" Kalla asked, expressing the curiosity of everyone. Solus's discovery was important because it allowed the research team to realize their mistake and pointed them in the right direction, but at the same time, it made the matter much more complicated.
