The day the departure was announced publicly was as unhappy as it was proud. Unhappy, because sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, would bid farewell to their kin knowing full well that some of them would not be coming home. The former village was not a place made up of cowards though, and tears or no, brave faces were put on for the occasion.
For the original inhabitants of the village on the crossroads between East, West, and South, this was a chance to truly repay their lord for all his support. For those who settled there, it was a chance to demonstrate their loyalty to their new home. For those who accepted him as their god, this was a chance to show their devotion. For the ambitious, it was a chance to show their bravery. But for everyone who had family or friends, not only human, but nonhuman, those who had become comrades with demihumans, beastmen, elves or dwarves, it was much, much more.
For those it was a fight for the future and a way of life that had been born from the will of the Sorcerer King, eyes had been opened to the common bond of community that could exist, and now DID exist, where they were not blinded by a different flesh any longer.
Or so he was saying as they stood in the new arena, watching him speak.
Ainz stood before tens of thousands of pairs of eyes from his personal dais in the arena, inwardly, the long time office worker sighed, he was stressed, so much was at stake…but when was that not the case?
"Just do it Ainz." He said to himself and looked down at the units arrayed below. This was the unit that made up the elites, a single band formed out of the many volunteers, the winners of contests of combat. A practice taken from Neia when she built her elite unit, he did the same, and these were honored by being allowed to form up in the arena's center during his visit, they stared up at him in rapt attention, minotaur, human, vampire, elf, dwarf, or something else, membership in their ranks required victory and nothing more. Ainz took a deep breath that he didn't need, and began.
"Wars have for thousands upon thousands of years, been fought for land, for wealth, for power and for hatred." He began, his voice carrying to every ear, with a noble ring to every syllable.
"This however, is not one of those wars. We fight this war to end folly! We fight this war that your brothers and sisters be judged for who they are, not what they are! We fight this war because if we do not, some of you will be hunted, many will be slaves, and many others would be dead! We stand against the tide of a failed past that divided you by the flesh of your birth and not the content of your spirit!" He raised his skeletal hand and drew a pointed finger around the arena.
"You who stand here will not be fighting for me alone, but for your homes! For your kingdom! For your futures! Every day you have trained and grown in power not for petty personal ambitions, but that you be a shield for what is yours! You who stand there below, in disciplined ranks bearing sword and spear, bow and shield, fang and claw… You are rightly honored! You are honored because you place your bodies between all that you love… and war's desolation! People of Carne! Salute your soldiers!" He shouted, and he rendered his own first and fastest to the massed ranks before him, placing his fist where his heart would have been.
As if compelled by some spirit of unflagging will, the arena stood as one, feet clapped together with the sound of thunderous unity, and salutes were rendered by big and small, young and old, and from the massed ranks of the elite division, cheers erupted that cracked the very skies.
Within the arena's stands, a white haired boy stood beside his mother, when the salute was broken, and the cheers began to fade, a little whisper passed from parent to child. "That's him Goan. He's the one who made you what you are." Her hands folded in to clasp one of her son's as she spoke.
"I understand mother." He said in the serious tone he often had. "Will you try to present me to him today?" He asked, looking back at her with his shining dark eyes.
"Yes, but he is a king, we can't simply approach, we will go to the house of the General Enri, he's sure to come and see her. Then he can see what his blessing forged inside me." She said with breathless anticipation.
"I will make him proud mother. I will make you proud. I will repay our debt." He said in a voice of absolute confidence.
As he finished speaking, from behind him came General Enri, she stepped up and two paces to his left.
"All of you know who I am, so I will make this brief! I am not the profound speaker our divine lord is, so listen well. Not all of you may make it home, but I promise you, you will not face a danger that I am not willing to face myself! You will not be left for the crows if you fall, abandoned and forgotten as so many of our past leaders treated us all…" As she spoke that sentence, the common ground between those who been conscripted under the kingdom, and those who had been compelled to serve Jaldabaoth, was that both experienced sadly similar memories. "If you fall, you will not fall for nothing, and you will be remembered for your courage and so long as our banner flies, you will never truly perish!"
Cheers met her final call, and she turned on her heel and faced the Sorcerer King just as the strategist Sun had taught her. She held herself rigidly to attention and he said, "I entrust my children to you General Enri, bring them victory first, then bring them home again." He rendered a salute, which she returned.
"I accept the command sire." She said, and they lowered their salutes in unison.
Ainz turned to leave, but as he did so he paused and looked down at the soldiers one more time, "Oh and one more thing, departure is tomorrow, so tonight, drinks are on me for every soldier in uniform! But don't be late tomorrow!"
That brought a fresh round of cheers as General Enri dismissed her soldiers and the arena began to empty.
As they walked out of the private access route, Ainz chose to speak with her. "You are ready." He said.
"I am." She said confidently.
"I wasn't asking. I was reminding. When you doubt it, and doubt it you will, remember that I told you, you are ready." He said and touched her shoulder.
The touch of this supremely powerful being broke apart her old world and remade it into something new, better, happier, and for that reason Enri found it comforting.
"Thank you." She said sweetly. "That means a lot coming from you sire."
He nodded sagely, "Tell me General Enri, do you see me in the way they do, as a god?" He asked as they passed through the long tunnel that curved slowly down to the ground floor.
In the shadow's cast by the soft blue continual light torches, she pondered her answer.
"Permission to speak freely sire?" She asked.
"I would have it no other way." He said in abundant relief, this was what he wanted.
"Sire, to me that doesn't really matter, not in the least." She said, he paused in mid step, and as she walked one pace further and turned to face him, her arms opened at her side.
"You go to war over the issue, but it doesn't matter?" He asked.
"Yes, your majesty." She gave a gentle, motherly smile that reminded Ainz of the one he lost. "You see to me, you are the only king worth serving. You don't use our bodies as toys, you protect our children, you teach us as if we were your own little ones, you give us a future. You're more a father or grandfather to us than a god, even with all your power. If you are a god, if you're not a god, it doesn't matter to me, because we will serve you anyway."
He looked at her in surprise, so she continued to speak, "Yes you're powerful, and that alone might be enough to draw service to you for safety, but we will always give you our hearts because you mean so much to us, you call us to be more, better, greater, and set an example for us to follow. If that is what it is to be a god, then you're a god, and if it isn't, well we're your people anyway, right to the bitter end, because you show you deserve it. If what you want is for us to kneel in prayer, then we'll kneel and pray. If you don't, well I think some will do that anyway." She gave him a little smirk and brushed away a stray hair from her face.
"In the stories of past kings, the good kings were the fathers of their people and not just the ones barking orders. In the stories about gods, the gods came down and saved people in trouble from dangers they couldn't possibly defeat. You've been both a father and a god if we go by what stories say, but more than that, you've given us the means to greatness, we're not just peasants scrabbling desperately at dirt to exist, to live another day as we claw desperately away from the edge of death. Maybe that makes you a god, maybe you are just the greatest king to ever be. All I know, all I need to know, is that you deserve your place and our service, my service, even if it costs me my life." She took his skeletal hand in one of hers in a bold affectionate gesture.
"Not just because I owe a debt I can never repay for the life of my little Nemu, but for everything you're doing every day!" She said passionately and clutched her hand to the cloth over her breast, she breathed heavily for a moment, her words had tumbled out like a wave crashing on the shore. "So please, if you ask because you doubt yourself, don't, because just like you said to me your majesty, you're ready for this!"
Ainz touched her cheek gently, "Thank you, General Enri. I will not forget what you've said." He could not smile, not with that face, but she sensed that if he could have, he would have. "The truth is though, I have found doubt to be a gift, it is when we question ourselves that we sometimes find the most unexpected and most helpful answers. A little self doubt is sometimes all that stands between a man and the monster he might become. Think of the ones who came to your village. The man who lead the scripture, and the scriptures themselves, all believed they were doing the right thing by killing you all, just like they'd killed the other villagers before you. They never doubted the rightness of their choice, they never questioned their path, and that let them wreak any havoc they wished, with absolute certainty that they were the heroes of this world."
He shook his head solemnly, "You may be confident, and still question yourself, you may be certain and still leave room for doubting too. And that goes for me as well. Shall we go to your home now, General Enri? I should like to see how Nferia, Nemu, and Kuuderika are doing before I return to my duties."
"O-Of course your majesty!" Enri said as she blushed red.
They wound their way out and mounted a pair of undead horses and rode back to the interior of the city, eventually finding their way back to Enri's home in amiable silence.
Outside the house, Enri and the Sorcerer King saw Nemu and Kuuderika were sitting on a bench talking. When they saw Enri, they jumped up and waved, and when they recognized that the Sorcerer King was with her, they began waving harder.
As they drew closer and he dismounted, the pair knelt in deference until he told them to rise. Before he could say anything, Enri looked at them curiously and asked, "Why are you two out here?"
"We were just figuring out something to do, see Nferia said he had a surprise for you, and it was just for you and he needed privacy." She had a mischievous grin on her face that told Enri exactly what the surprise almost certainly was.
She saw the Sorcerer King's blank face out of the corner of her eye and began to blush a very deep red. "Ahhh, excuse me your majesty, let me just um… check the house OK?"
She didn't wait for an answer but scurried in and slammed the door behind her.
"So, how are you two?" The Sorcerer King asked.
Inside, Enri looked around, a trail of rose petals on the floor leading to the bedroom, a stamina potion on the table, and… some hanging on various places along the walls, she slapped her forehead. "Of all the times…" she thought to herself and she strode along the path the roses made and yes, there it was a very naked Nferia on the bed…with a dozen stamina potions in a stand on the desk.
"Hello dear…" He began, then he saw her face. "Uh, something wrong?" He began.
His question was answered with the sound of the Sorcerer King's and Nemu's voices as she opened the door.
"I know you don't mind a little mess, it's only a few stray flower parts after all, so please come in your highness." Nemu said archly.
"Well thank you Nemu, Enri you should know well enough by now that I don't find your home dis…grace…ful…" He trailed off, Enri stood at the doorway to the bedroom and looked over to where he stood. Her jaw dropped as she saw him looking around. His gaze fell on the petals. Then over to the table. Then over to each of the various stamina potions handing from the walls, and finally on the beet red and very embarrassed expression of Enri, while from within the room there was the furtive sound of somebody trying to set a speed record for getting dressed.
Ainz's mouth stayed open, and Nemu pointed at her big sister and laughed.
"Neeeeemuuuuu!" Enri said as the door opened behind the pair.
Kuuderika poked her head in to say, "I told her she shouldn't do that." She tugged on the Sorcerer King's robe, and he discreetly backed out the door.
He waited outside with Kuuderika for a few minutes while Enri shouted her embarrassment and the trio frantically got the house looking like it was not prepared for a marathon session between husband and wife.
Ainz was very glad he could not blush at that moment, the sound of petals being swept up had never been louder, of that he was sure. It was while he was contemplating that, that a young woman approached with a young boy in tow.
She looked familiar, though he didn't know the boy. Of course, however, they knew him, and knelt in his presence as they came closer.
"Your majesty." The woman said with a significant amount of reverence in her voice. "It is an honor to kneel before you."
"You may rise." He said to them and he looked at Kuuderika. "Friends of yours?"
She grinned. "Yes, this is Goan, and this is his mother, Moira." She said, gesturing to the pair.
"Goan?" Ainz asked curiously.
He was about to question further when the front door was yanked open and a red faced trio standing within said, "Please come in."
Nemu, Ainz noted, looked redder from laughing too hard than from embarrassment, and on some level, he wondered if Pereroncino had visited one of her ancestors and passed on his twisted sense of humor.
Nonetheless he felt grateful to his emotional inhibitor as he went back in for a second time. Nferia bowed politely, "Sire I hope we didn't offend you by keeping you waiting."
"Not at all." He said and waved it away, "Please, don't mention it, and believe me, I mean that." He said with some discomfort evident in his voice. Nferia blushed again but nodded earnestly, eager to forget what had just happened. A look at Nemu's face however, told him she had no plans to let that be forgotten anytime soon.
When Enri saw Goan and his mother outside as well, she immediately called them to enter as well. "Moira, good to see you." She smiled softly.
They entered and took seats around the table. "I can't believe I'm sitting across from the Sorcerer King." Moira said, her entire body was shaking.
As Enri laid out places for tea and began to pour, Ainz spoke up. "There is no need to be afraid, I will not hurt you." He said in a noble voice.
She screwed her eyes shut and shook her head rapidly. "No sire, no, no it isn't that, I'm not shaking because I'm frightened of you, I could never be frightened of you."
He looked at her curiously and chuckled a little. "Not often I hear that either."
"You… did save us after all." She said in a motherly way and touched Goan's hand. The boy stared intently at the Sorcerer King, there wasn't a trace of hostility that Ainz could detect, it was more like he was trying to commit to his memory every line of his face.
"Oh?" Ainz said. "You do look familiar, but I don't think I've met your son, was he not with you at the time?" He asked.
The woman's eyes welled up with tears of joy, "Yes sire…he was… but he was… he was… he was here." She said and placed her hand over her belly.
"We were at Ha'ak Pale… years ago when your majesty drove away the beastmen with his overwhelming power. I was younger then of course, I was due to birth my boy in a week or two…the beastmen taunted me about it, how…how good he would taste. Every night I prayed to the gods for a miracle, as did the other mothers to be…many never got that miracle, but then you appeared, you killed them all and saved us. Then, you blessed my son." She said, her voice in a reverent hush as Enri and Nferia heard the story for the first time.
"Blessing of the Dark." Goan said helpfully.
Ainz touched his chin thoughtfully, "So you're the woman from that time, and you," he gestured to the solid white haired boy, "would be the result."
"I am, your majesty." He answered in a serious voice.
"I admit I did wonder what happened to you both, I am glad to see you are well." He said.
"Yes, your majesty, your servant is well, as is the child you shaped within her according to your will." She said proudly, and he wished very deeply that she had phrased that differently than she had.
Goan got up from the table and went to where the king sat, and he took to one knee with his head bowed. "Though I am… younger than I may appear, know majesty that I make this oath as any man would. The life you saved is yours, work your will through me until it is ground to dust."
Ainz didn't really blink, in fact he couldn't make any expression at all other than opening or closing his mouth, sometimes that was annoying, but now he was grateful, the entire room was watching him as this unexpected wrinkle appeared, and Moira was beaming proudly with her hands clasped in front of her.
"Sire, you were more a father in five minutes with my unborn child, than my worthless husband ever was, please know that my son's fealty is also mine, I am a citizen of the Sorcerous Kingdom now, and all we are is yours." Her voice had the same fanatical devotion as a certain diminutive pope he knew, there really was no way out, with no plan, all he could do was wing it.
"I accept your oath." Ainz said and touched Goan upon the top of his head. "For now, though, you are still young, so know that it is my will that you grow up wise, strong, and healthy, that you are able to carry my justice with you wherever you go."
"I will, sire." He said in an unflinching voice.
Moira sighed heavily as her body relaxed. "Now I can go to war, confident that no matter what happens, my son's future is set."
"War?" Enri asked, "You enlisted?"
Moira nodded.
"But who will take care of Goan?" Ainz asked.
"I have…made arrangements with another couple in the village, they will look after him, I have a debt your majesty, one I can't repay from behind the lines, you saved me, you saved my son, you gave him a godly gift, even if it was just some divine whim, to be done and forgotten, it all meant everything to me and to us." She said with a kind of fanatical passion.
"I know that in your grace you would ask that I stay behind, but Goan understands far more than a boy his age normally does, and he supports me in this, I can only be satisfied if I face your enemies head on, as you faced those who came to rob us of our lives…please do not try to talk me out of it, and please…though I will follow your orders, I beg you not to order me to abandon my heart's oath." Her tone of voice was equal parts proud and pleading, and Ainz let out a sigh.
"If I am a god, it is not the god of eloquence, because I do not think I could talk you out of this, and that is what it would take to do so." Ainz said gently.
She shook her head in denial. "Not even that, your majesty." Her voice was quiet and motherly again.
"Very well, though I suppose I should take responsibility as well." He said reflectively, "I'm sure TouchMe would scold me if I separated three friends, as well as allowed a mother to be parted from her child all over the same meal, so how about this? Since you insist upon this choice Moira, I will allow you your wish, however Goan will spend at least some of the time while he's gone, under the tutelage of my guardians, and the same will go for Nemu and Kuuderika, assuming they wish it and their guardians accept the offer." Ainz said, turning to Enri and Nferia as he brought up the two girls.
"I think we can all drink to that." Nferia said as he raised up his cup of tea.
"Ahhh, did you forget I can't drink?" Ainz asked archly.
There was a collective sigh and Enri said what the rest were thinking, "God of jokes your majesty, you are not."
AN: Well that was fun, hope you've enjoyed the ride along the way and everything, like I said, needed a break from the serious stuff for a few days. :) Might do God Rising tomorrow, but it has been a long week so I might just take a break for the day. Thanks for reading and by all means, tell me what you thought, I feed on reader interaction. If you would prefer to just show your appreciation by donating to charity, you can do so at bdgiving dot org.