Hostis Humani Generis
A/N: First work of 2017! Happy New Year! - LLS
XXVII: By and large
Back in YGGDRASIL, the Sea Witch class might seem largely situational. Since all its spells required shells as their casting ingredients, and were Water- and Wind-element in nature, or part of a Divination sub-class, most players would have opted for a more standardised job class. Sycorax, by virtue of her Gorgon racial class, had benefited immensely from the racial boosts to one of her chosen specialised jobs. Despite the fact that it required her to hold all types of shells on hand to cast spells, Sycorax was still the most flexible player that Momonga had known.
The shell she had used for a conferencing relay spell was a Triton's trumpet, known in Japanese as a horagai or jinkai. The curled conch emitted sounds, except instead of amplifying the rushing of blood in the eardrum, it amplified within the confines of the Throne Hall the sounds of an unreasonable human king bargaining with a directionally challenged pirate swordsman.
"Ah...Raido, Isaz, Perthro, Eihwaz..." Sycorax pulled a small card binder with the hand not holding the carved spear, muttering under her breath before tearing off one piece with her teeth to blow the paper. It burned in mid-air, the ashes spelling out four runes before a screen framed by smoke shimmered into existence.
"That's the annoying one!" Shalltear screeched as Caliban's back appeared on screen. "He got lost on a straight road, Ainz-sama!"
"Caliban's flaws..." Sycorax sighed, though her comment went lost as Caliban opened his mouth.
{Why would we negotiate with you? Yours is a weak kingdom. We simply need to wait.}
{For the Kingdom to split?} The old man on the throne, presumably the King, commented. {The Crown controls thirty percent of the Kingdom's land, the largest individual holding on this side of the Azerlisia Mountains. None of the six great nobles can hope to match the price the Crown is willing to offer you here and now. All that is needed is to throw in your lot with my third daughter, the light of my life... the Kingdom's Third Princess, Renner Theiere Chardelon Ryle Vaiself.}
"The Third Princess has no political backing," Demiurge calculated immediately. "Could he suspect something?"
A third voice and a third face joined the setup, and the two Supreme Beings exchanged sharp looks as Gazef started speaking:
{Your Majesty, wouldn't it be... prudent... to ask on behalf of one of the princes? It would certainly give them an... edge.}
{The future is at stake!} A fit of coughing could not get in the way of the sudden wave of impassioned words. {My sons, Barbro and Zanac... I fear grave tidings for either one that gets the Crown, for they will slaughter their siblings. Yet, Renner... Renner, who cares for the people, is the most worthy choice. Would you not agree that passing the Crown to the most worthy is the most important duty of royalty?}
{By that same argument, then, the entire idea of a dynasty by blood is discredited since the most worthy person might not even be of your blood.}
Momonga face-palmed.
"Shut up, Momonga." Sycorax did not look away from the screen.
"I didn't say anything!"
{And in fact, what you do with the throne is your business,} Caliban continued. {No matter who comes out on top, they'll still look for me.}
{You stand fast? Even with the threat of execution for being rude to royalty?}
{I'm a pirate. Disregard for authority was created in me.}
Sycorax exclaimed in some weird masochistic joy. "「Rebellious Spirit」! That's a Pirate's special passive ability. Disregards mind-control attacks of a specific subset."
"I remember that one," Momonga conceded. "It resisted 「Despair Aura」one through five at max level. Completely surprised me at that battle royale – the martial tournament, remember?"
"Because someone bypassed all your negative-type buffs to hit you?"
Albedo fumed, literal steam escaping from her temples as her amber eyes lingered on the sight of the two Supreme Beings chatting with an unprecedented familiarity. "That..."
"Albedo, you're being rude," Demiurge kept his focus on the screen projection, even as plans and plots seemed to coalescence behind the mirrors of his glasses. "Sycorax-sama is a Supreme Being now."
"There must be some ploy at hand!" Albedo hissed back. "Some plot of Ainz-sama-"
"Demiurge. Albedo."
"Ainz-sama?!" The Succubus and the Arch Devil immediately turned, backs ramrod straight under their master's intensifying glare. Aura and Mare trembled, being near the blast radius.
"Pay attention."
Shalltear snorted under her breath, gleeful in the face of Albedo's ashen discomfort.
"We should..." Ainz pondered.
"Hey, Momonga-san." Sycorax spoke up. "How much of a signing bonus do you think he would offer?"
"You mean..." Ainz quickly nodded. "Um! Do it!"
All the Guardians and their servants present stared as the newest of the Supreme Beings cast a「Message」and spoke lowly, too low for anyone to hear. On the conjured screen, Caliban's head tilted.
{I will definitely think about your offer, Your Muggy. A good day to you.}
Sycorax groaned as the audience ended with Caliban being unceremoniously escorted away. "Kapudan Pasha? Ah, never mind. Corazón, keep an eye on Caliban, that's an order. Over and out."
The sound cut off. The screen dissipated. Sycorax picked up the shell trumpet, experimentally blowing a note before the item disappeared back into her Item Box.
"Today is a bunch of surprises over surprises-" she cut off, blinking at the Floor Guardians as if seeing them for the first time up close. "...ah..."
She drew herself up. Since, being a Nagini, there was six metres of her, the full height at which she could reasonably extend with a stable enough stance to fire a bow or one of the heavily restricted firearms meant only for Pirates cleared half a metre over even Cocytus, the tallest Guardian. The「Rune-Infused Spear」 seemed more impressive since it was glowing from the spells that she had cast earlier.
"Greetings to the Guardians of Nazarick currently present. I am Sycorax – Guildmaster of Hostis Humani Generis, captain of the grand barque Queen of the Night, Fleet Admiral of the Fomori pirates. And, apparently..." a frown crossed her face. "If Punitto Moe is your creator, and I'm his grandmother, that makes me..."
"Their great-grandmother, Sycorax-san," Momonga supplied quietly.
"Ah! You have my thanks, Momonga-san." Sycorax turned back to the blinking Arch Devil, Succubus, Dark Elves, Insect Lord and True Vampire. "Well, you have my gratitude for your unconditional support of me."
She smiled.
The smile dropped once the Hall was vacated, and Shalltear bore a newly penned fragmentary order for Corazón back through the Gate for Re-Estize.
Sycorax slumped into the aquamarine throne, her writing-box packed to one side and her right hand stained with black ink. "You know," she drawled, "Hostis Humani Generis is supposed to be the chaotic guild."
"Call it revenge for that time with the Five Rainbow Buddhas," Momonga easily riposted back, leaning in his own throne. "Well... Aura and Mare don't seem to mind, Albedo and Shalltear were giving you looks that... causes my self-preservation instincts to flare up, Cocytus and Demiurge seem to be on the fence. I haven't asked Sebas, Gargantua, Victim or the Pleiades, but they seem to be following my every word so far."
"Because you're their lauded oh-so-powerful Ainz-sama~" Sycorax put a mocking tone on the last platitude.
"Umu." Momonga's hands steepled together. "What do you think of them?"
"What do you think of Nereus?"
"I think you managed to build a better rapport than I've done."
The Elder Lich sounded so despondent that Sycorax quickly thought about it. "You know... I run a pirate guild in which I'm the Guildmaster, but it gives me minimal say except as to who joins. Pirate crews – the real ones we modelled the Fleet's structures after – are, in history, people who suffered at the hands of kings, so they elect a Captain and a Quartermaster. The Captain's authority is absolute only in times of conflict; every other time, the Quartermaster is the one in control. Almost like co-captains. We have Articles and Agreement and all of that. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"We had elections too!" Momonga complained. "We decided all prospective members by majority vote... erm, sorry, Sycorax-san. I wanted you to join, but..."
"I understand," Sycorax blandly replied. "You're missing my point. In Hostis Humani Generis, we are pirates. We built the power structure of the pirates – that of a relatively equal democracy – into the structure. Sure, there's a sort of hierarchy, but I eat the same food as everyone in my crew. I work and talk my lips off and steal whole archives because it would help the fleet that we made, and my crew responds with that same understanding that they were created by us, and chose to follow our directive anyway."
She paused. "You know, that's an interesting topic, how much of their willingness to serve is voluntary. The... sentience... of our creations haven't been tested, has it?"
"No. No, it hasn't."
"Maybe we shouldn't. Well, if chance permits..." Sycorax waved. "If not, it'll work out."
"How do you remain so positive, Sycorax-san?" Momonga asked. "Aren't you worried?"
"I am freaking out. In cold sweat. Shiverin' 'n me timbers," Sycorax dropped into a pirate cant before she sighed. "But the duty of a pirate captain, and even more for the grand admiral of a fleet that is barely a squadron, is to remain level-headed throughout the whole crisis. This is why I wrote out a full five-paragraph order mandating two divisions of my whole fleet to set out and conquer the waters around the islands we took over. This is why I'm giving Caliban frankly boring orders instead of a reckless rush – you like caution, and I just... want this to go right."
"Because of your luck?" Momonga nodded. "Remember that time we teamed up with Librobum Prohibitorum and Icarus with Perorocino and Yamaiko-san?"
"The Erotic Psyche quest?"
Both of them pointed at each other. "Third-wheeling it big-time!" came the simultaneous declarations.
"What was up with those two?" Momonga complained.
"Boyfriends. Canon-san was over the moon. All that BL manga rotted her brain through." Sycorax considered her ink-stained hand. " 'The marriage system in YGGDRASIL is horribly sexist, outdated, anti-LGBT+, propagating of 19th century social norms', blah blah blah. We held their in-game wedding minutes before the servers closed. We were already planning it, but being publicly listed on the YGGDRASIL website wasn't good for them."
Momonga hummed. There was, after all, a world of difference between play-acting as pirates and being flagged for violating the Social Order Maintenance Act. The game's impending deletion had lowered a lot of risks for a gay wedding to be officiated. "I thought you needed a cathedral?"
"In a part to be culturally inclusive," the words were spoken like it caused her physical pain, "the shitty devs-" again, a curse only understood between fellow YGGDRASIL players, "-decreed that all points of resurrection may be designated for a wedding ceremony. This includes all places recognised within Japan's laws, including the one that states that captains of ships can perform a marriage ceremony at sea, but only for that country's citizens."
"And, being a pirate guild, I assume OTP Is Canon-san asked you to officiate."
"I volunteered. She decorated the ships." The colours had been literally nailed into the masts. They were still pulling them out when she had left on her trip. "Speaking of ships, is there a site I can cast 「Compass Rose」on?"
"We'll discuss it later. Umu..." Momonga paused. "I... need your help?"
She slumped. "The romantic rivalry?"
If Momonga could, he would have done a spit-take. Since his Undead body was sadly lacking in flesh – or saliva – it was the clack of his knuckle-bones which announced how he found this whole preposition.
"Don't lie." Sycorax gave him an askance look. "Shalltear Bloodfallen is practically otaku bait, Albedo caters to a very specific stereotype, and there are too many maids. With... other people... this would be attractive except..."
Momonga drooped. "Please don't say any more."
"..."
"...alright, say something, the silence prickles," Momonga complained good-naturedly.
"Do you feel up for romance?" Sycorax considered aloud. "I know evil overlords are supposed to have harems, it's a terrible stereotype, but... well, to use slang from my time, that level of thirst might kill you."
"We're... still using that expression... Michiru-san." Momonga sighed. "Except that I don't think anyone puts it like you. Maybe Perorocino-san. He would've loved you."
As he spoke, his conviction solidified. Everything could be fixed, even this. It was important to remember, even if he lost his emotions, that the care and concern and desire for his comrades did not die. He was not wrong when he said to the Guardians that Sycorax was his hope – and, with her inception into the guild, a long-cherished dream once thought impossible had been reached.
Perhaps, Suzuki Satoru reflected, another might be possible. That, though, was for another day and time. Now...
"Sycorax-san... not every one of the NPCs might accept you," he rose from the throne to stand in front of her. "I... erm... would prefer to make it clear that you are... dear to me. To my... humanity."
Still appraising her nails, Sycorax conjured a handkerchief from her Item Box to wipe at her fingers. "You want me to be your beard."
"Well, I can't have sex, and... marriage is about trust. I can only trust you." Rings clanked as Momonga raised a hand in plea. "It's like... I feel lust for them, Albedo and Shalltear, but with you... it's different."
"Is this about establishing trust," Sycorax quietly murmured, "or about control?"
Momonga fell silent.
"...I don't know."
Sycorax considered, turning the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown on her left index finger. "I think," she said at last, "I will have a picnic with... Aura, Mare, and Cocytus. Outside the Great Tomb. Should you decide on an answer, we will be at the forward base you've established with Green Secret House."
She was talking about a base-building Item from YGGDRASIL, used by players to construct secret bases to take shelter in.
"...um."
As she rose from the throne, she turned to Momonga. "Satoru-san. Please consider this: I might have applied to Ainz Ooal Gown ten times, and was rejected all ten times. I am now Guildmaster of my own guild, with rights and responsibilities to a different set of comrades – which also means Akemi-san. This is me, talking to you as an equal, even though I am standing in your territory, as your guest. You have been – you are, an exemplary host, and I hope that I would be able to offer the same level of care on my fleet as you have towards me. However, I am also a level 100 player. I have earned my level like you – through combat, quests, and many hours of work. So, please give me a chance to integrate myself with your Guardians. I have to prove myself worthy of respect too, you know."
Momonga slowly rose, descending the steps with arms spread. The Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown floated, surrounded in the effect of trapped screaming souls and floating in the air as Momonga let it go. Arms cloaked in black and ringed in jewels and precious metals closed around Sycorax in a sudden, protective hug, void of 「Negative Touch」.
"I'll still watch you."
"I know," Sycorax whispered. "We worry about each other. That's what friends do. We are, to our knowledge, the only ones from our world, who have found each other."
Momonga let go of her, taking a step back.
"...for all it's worth now, Michiru-san," Momonga said at last, the lower jaw of his skull face chattering and grinding, "I am glad that we met at last. Does your eye hurt? Do you need a healer?"
Sycorax had pressed her left hand to the left side of her face. "...Thank you," she sobbed into her palm. "Thank you, Satoru-san."
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