068. The Late Introduction

"Her name is Nadezhda, Pierre," Andrei corrected as he took his seat, making all heads turn simultaneously toward him.
"The council would greatly benefit from the information that creature can provide, Mr. Volkov. I trust you are wiser than your colleagues," Yvette stated. Her voice carried a formal and authoritative intonation, indicating her high authority.
"That girl is possibly one of our ancestors, Miss Tautou. The ancestor of the Eastern Slavic people!" Andrei revealed. "Her actions can be characterized as fear-driven. Bayu sacrificed himself to annihilate the true peril that forced her to do what she did."
"If you watch Bayu's recording to the end, you'll hear the plea of the Vorshkony commander, asking for their crown princess, Nadezhda, to be allowed to live as an ordinary human," Oswald added with a tone that seemed to be striving hard for patience. "We want to honor his final request as we believe Bayu would."
"The interdimensional beings present with the council are not being treated differently from those with Division 96. Isn't that right, Mr. Wardhani?"
"We lived with our interdimensional brothers and sisters. We worked together, ate next to each other, and shared tears and laughter together," Kusuma replied. "But, based on what I've witnessed, it seems to me that you are imprisoning and treating them as mere research subjects."
"We are safeguarding them, Mr. Wardhani," Yvette retorted.
"You are confining them," Pierre retorted. "Ashurüss and other beings in Division 96 have the freedom to live like humans. There's no discrimination, let alone restrictions and periodic examinations like you conduct."
"The Council wants to ensure their health and safety, Mr. Balzac," Yvette retorted sharply. "It’s better than letting them be exposed to all sorts of people in our world. Without supervision, we wouldn’t know what effects could arise from interactions, what potential diseases or threats—"
"They are living beings, Yvette!" Pierre interrupted, his voice rising with fury. His face flushed with anger, eyes blazing. "Show some respect! Some of them have more heart than you!"
Andrei cleared his throat loudly, intervening in the escalating argument.
"Let me straighten out the tangle in this conversation," he said. "EPCU wants to unearth information about the Vorshkony and study Nadezhda as a whole. On the other hand, Oswald and Pierre want to honor the Vorshkony commander's request to represent our late brother Bayu."
Silence fell as everyone stared, and Andrei took a deliberate breath, intentionally creating a pause in his words.
"Nadezhda holds a strong possibility that she is the sole remaining ancestor of the Eastern Slavic descendants. Beneath the metal frame and artificial body, she is human like all of us. I, myself, will be the one to watch over her here as part of the OCK operation, Miss Tautou. And I will provide you with all the information you wish to know from her."
Satisfaction lit up everyone's faces except for the beautiful countenance of Yvette. However, before she could speak, the glass door behind Pierre and Kusuma slid open. Anna emerged from the room with a tense-looking girl by her side. The girl wore a simple white dress, resembling a patient's robe, and tightly gripped Anna's arm.
"How about we ask the girl directly?" Andrei suggested, then turned his gaze to Anna. "Is she ready to talk with us?"
The girl with cornrowed hair nodded. "She was given the ability to speak various languages, including the Eldest Tongue."
Andrei looked around but settled back in his seat, realizing that Illya and his colleagues had already left. He had initially wanted to express gratitude for their sensitivity to the importance of overcoming communication difficulties, going as far as taking the initiative to grant linguistic abilities to the girl without being asked.
"We are discussing you," Andrei began his narration before explaining the cause of the debate among the people surrounding the round table. The girl listened to every word from the man with meticulous attention. Intelligence shone clearly in the gleam of her eyes, far more vivid than before. Even Andrei himself marveled at the OCK research team's ability, led by Illya, to restore the form of the Vorshkony princess.
Nadezhda turned her gaze toward the glass room behind her, which was adjacent to the one where she had received treatment earlier. It was empty. Everything there was tidied up as if the room were never used at all. Disappointed, she scanned her surroundings, not finding what she sought. Her gaze then settled on Pierre.
"I-I apologize for attacking you," she said softly. "Are you okay?"
"Don't worry too much, Sweetheart," Pierre replied. "Thanks to our encounter, my female colleague has become more open-minded. I'll introduce you to her when you visit France again."
Pierre beamed widely, mirroring the smiles of everyone else in the room. However, Yvette differed. She stared intently at Nadezhda as if the Vorshkony girl might attack if she shifted her gaze. But even Yvette found herself spellbound when she saw Nadezhda smile. At that moment, she forgot her initial thoughts that had made her see Nadezhda as something other than human. The figure standing a few steps away from her was simply a beautiful young girl.
"So, as one human to another, I want you to decide your own future, Your Highness," Andrei said, gently shifting the girl’s gaze toward him. His eyes held a calm sincerity. "However, some of us still hope to understand you better before making their final decision."
"My name is Nadezhda Velezima," the girl introduced herself with a louder voice, feeling more at ease after sensing the friendly atmosphere around her. "I am the daughter of Gnevomir Velezima, the King of Vorshkony. My arrival on the surface is to bring as many humans as possible to our realm as the main material for the transmutation process that can restore our form as humans."
Slowly, the tense and uneasy figure of the girl transformed into one radiating the charisma of a princess. However, a clear sense of guilt remained etched on her face.
"Our initial goal was to regain the ability to reproduce. We wanted our civilization to regain our human form and continue to thrive. Our alchemists found a way to achieve what we sought after. But the process required human sacrifice. A lot of human sacrifice."
Nadezhda paused. The guilt on her face became increasingly evident, tainting her beauty as she told her life story.
"I have murdered fifty-nine innocent human beings." Nadezhda's expression hardened as she continued, "What Mr. Adiwira did to our kingdom is a consequence of the crimes I have committed. I have no right to decide a future that should never have been. My existence should have ceased along with Jalu's death!"