God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 207: Questions & a Death March
...Kami Miyako...
"Welcome to your 'temporary' residence, Misu." Raymond said as soon as he entered the front of the carpentry workshop that was their temporary headquarters.
"Th-Thank you, Master." Misu said, shivering still from the cold.
"Solution, please have Nua come down with clothing suitable for a young woman to wear. I'll... explain things to Misu." Raymond said wearily as he went to a small table and flopped himself down in the chair beside it. His right arm rested on top of it and his fingers drummed the surface absently. Misu was shifting nervously on her feet, unsure of what to do.
"Come, sit, let's talk." He said gently.
"Master." She acknowledged and sat on the floor at his feet.
He drew his hand up and swept it over his face in exasperated remembrance, and cursed himself privately for an instant. "I meant... in the chair. Please." He added reluctantly.
As if fearing trickery, but fearing disobedience more, she did as he said, and slowly rose, then pulled out a chair and sat down, her hands folded in her lap, she didn't look up, she focused on her fingertips, which danced nervously around one another.
"It's easier for me to talk to you, if you look me in the eye." He said in a quiet tone, carefully phrasing his coaxing in such a way that it seemed to be for him.
"In a minute or two, a girl is going to come downstairs, her name is Nua. She's been with me for what seems like a lifetime now, even though it's not even been a full year. She'll have clothes for you to wear, and she'll confirm what I tell you now. There are no slaves in my service. No, not even one. Every elf you see around me, is free, in fact if not by law. She's been helping me, and later, you'll meet another great help, another elf named Enlaith, she's been helping as well. You can stay here, and here you'll be safe, until the city falls." He said keeping his hands far away from her body, he sounded out every word slowly to let them sink in.
Misu furrowed her brow, but took care to show no other reaction as she listened, not until he finished, then she brought her hands up to her mouth to cover the shocked parting of her lips. "Your gods... your gods are strong, surely you..." She trailed off at his silent stare.
"I am an apostate. I no longer follow them, I can't, I won't. I don't know how powerful they were in their day, but they're 'not' as powerful as the god that is coming for us. Even if they were, and I'm sure they were not, the gods are gone. Dominic is a fool, and so are those who follow him. All I can do, the only option for me, is to save whoever I can from the revenge of the one you've probably heard referred to as the Demon of the West. I don't have a lot of options, but that is what is happening. In a few days, I don't know for sure that I'll even be alive, but I do know that you, Nua, Enlaith, and any slaves who live here still, will cease to be slaves." Raymond explained patiently.
"Really Raymond, are you so eager to die as that? You've got a lifetime to atone for, you can't do that by throwing it away." Nua's voice rebuked him, her eyes had a harder look to it than she'd had before, and her tone a bit more confident since the death of Kasa, but the affection in her voice was clear enough that he smiled at her.
Misu watched the interplay like she was walking through a dream as Nua came downstairs holding some thick winter clothes of mottled black and deep blue.
"No, I'm not eager, but just like I won't be a hypocrite, I won't be a liar in my own home, even if it is a borrowed residence." Raymond gestured to the elven woman dressed in nothing but the long coat Raymond had worn previously. "This is Misu, she'll be staying with us for a few days. Please explain everything to her. I'm exhausted and need some rest."
"I see. Would it have to do with all that chanting outside?" Nua asked pointedly.
Raymond listened for a moment, and faintly heard what she meant, the cries of "Dominic! Dominic! Dominic!" barely reached his ears, but they were growing louder.
"Yes." He acknowledged bluntly. "Yvon is dead, and Dominic has taken back power for himself, for all the good it will do him. Speaking of, before I go to bed, are Enlaith and Boabdil back?"
She shook her head, "No, they've been running back and forth since before the riots started. Along with the twenty and some of Enlaith's contacts, we're getting more and more in this district, I can tell you that much. But it's still just a drop in the bucket."
"I'm somehow, not surprised. I never did say that 'all' of this city was worth saving, only that some were." Raymond replied calmly, a tiny hint of rebuke in both their voices.
Misu watched frozen in awe as a human male in the height of power, conversed with an elven female as if she were his equal.
"It's fine, though. They're competent, they'll get back when they get back, I'll go out in the morning, but right now I feel like I've been hit with a smith's hammer... a few dozen times, and I need to rest." Raymond sighed and pushed himself up from his chair, bracing a hand on the table as he got up and headed for the stairs.
Nua held out the clothing she carried, "Here, come into this side room and put this on, I'm sure you have questions, but let me get the obvious one out of the way."
Misu quietly followed the evidently senior servant, and tossed off the coat as soon as the door shut behind them, she thought nothing of her nakedness most of the time, but this surprised even Nua, enough that whatever she was going to say, she didn't.
Misu saw, and answered the unspoken question, "I belonged to Yvon, he did not permit us to wear anything but chains, he thought it blasphemous for us to dress 'like people'." She said with long resigned bitterness.
"Oh. I've heard of humans like that but... I've never belonged to a house like it." Nua replied, then went on, "To answer what you were going to ask, no, I am not sleeping with Raymond. No, I have no plans to do so. Nor has he ever required that I endure any kind of cruelty in order to speak to him as I do now. He's my friend, a very, very close one, but that is all it can ever be. I guess... I guess I should start at the beginning, go ahead and get dressed, I'll tell you everything." Nua said and pulled over a chair and sat down to explain.
Solution stretched out where she stood as Raymond ascended the stairs and Nua led the new elf away to get dressed. Finally alone, and sure that there was no danger to her charge, she called for a gate, stepped through it, and was gone.
On the other side, she found herself breathing in the perfect air of her perfect Nazarick, the only place she called home. The only place with those she loved. She walked through the familiar halls, her lithe footsteps echoing gently off the walls in the rhythm she knew and loved, a genuine smile of happiness on her face as she passed by maids and butlers and other monster staff on her way to her master's office.
She knocked on the door as soon as she arrived. "Enter." Ainz ordered, and she opened the enormous, heavy doors just enough for her to pass through, and closed them behind her.
Ainz looked up from his paperwork as Solution approached and knelt before her master with her head reverentially bowed. "Welcome home, Solution." Ainz said, gesturing around the room, applying 'Kingly Gesture Number Thirteen' as he spoke to her.
"Master. Thank you for allowing this humble battle maid to have a moment of your precious time." She said with loving reverence.
"A poor master is he who gives nothing of himself to those who give their everything to him." Ainz remarked as he blatantly stole the quote from somewhere else and pretended it was his own.
"Truly, you are the wisest and greatest of the Supreme Beings..." Solution praised him deeply, "but I would not take too much, so my lord," she carefully chose her every word, dropping the informalities that she used with lesser beings, and keeping her every word equal to the highest of courtly manners, "I have come to keep a promise. I engaged in a wager with the slave you met before. The one you tested. She 'won' the little wager, and in return for her victory, I promised her that I would ask you to spare Raymond's life when all this was over. I had intended to ask that he be turned into something useful to Nazarick and brought to your service. But... with her winning the wager, I believe her intent was that he stay as he is."
"I see. You did not make any promises on my behalf, I trust?" Ainz asked with a hint in his voice of potential displeasure ahead.
"Never would I presume so. But I promised I would ask." She answered calmly, certain that she had done it all correctly without overstepping her bounds.
"What was this... 'wager'?" Ainz asked with curiosity.
"I wanted to test her... 'affection' for him. I remembered the expression of the Supreme Beings, about laying down one's life. She is a very gentle little thing, not without spine, but without malice at all. So... I had her act... more like me. If she was willing to mutilate a part of her soul for his sake, to forever taint her own mind with memories of torturing someone, I would 'ask' that Raymond be spared the penalty of death for any past crimes in the service of the Theocracy." Solution had a wide monster smile filling her face at the joyful memory of the way Kasa wailed as she was cut.
"Oh, yes, his past crimes. There are plenty of those to justify his execution, in spite of his recent service to us." Ainz said swiftly, with seeming decisiveness. 'What crimes? What did he do?' Ainz wondered to himself as he pulled pose twelve into place by stroking his chin as he looked at the kneeling battle maid.
'So wise a lord, he knows everything there is to know, about us, our enemies, and even our tools.' Solution marveled and shuddered joyfully at his skills as a King.
"Well, I have no special want for his life, and there may be a 'use' for him in the future that requires that he be alive." Ainz said nobly, adding a cryptic tone to the word 'use' to cover his uncertainty.
"As you say, My Lord." Solution grinned as if she had been let in on a secret.
"Take a few hours to relax here, if it is safe there for the time being, then return afterward." Ainz suggested, "You've been away for so long, you deserve a little rest at least."
"Thank you! Thank you, Master!" Solution grinned, "Though I would grind myself into sludge for you, I am grateful, and will go visit the bar for a little while before I return to Kami Miyako."
"Have fun, then." He said, ending the discussion and bending over the document he was pretending to read when she entered, only to fling himself back in his chair and take a needless heavy breath when he was alone again. "I swear... I may be better at this than I used to be... but I wonder if I'll ever not fear embarrassing myself with my subordinates. When do I get to 'that' stage of skill?" He asked the empty room.
It did not answer. It never did.
...Northeast of Kami Miyako...
"Something bothering you -su?" Lupusregina asked, glancing to her left where Enri rode beside her in her full panoply of rune crafted gear. Struck again by how much the woman had changed, from a slightly gutsy girl that could barely write her own name, if that, to one who cowed ogres with a look, to one who could crush armies and command respect from kings and queens, and face off against the chosen voice of the Sorcerer King. The white armor reflected the light, and on her head, a white helmet with a large white plume that would stand out on the field. Behind her hung a red cloak that clashed against the white of her armor, and at her side a single sword with which she was not overly skilled. 'I'm going to miss you, one day.' Lupusregina thought, as the memory came unbidden to her mind, she crushed it angrily.
"I was just thinking about Wenmark, what happened there, and what happens tomorrow." Enri replied calmly. She rocked side to side on her horse, holding the reins in her hand as her eyes held the road.
"Are you worried about a massacre -su?" Lupusregina asked, inching her horse a little closer to her friend. "I promise I'll handle the fun stuff for you, you can keep your hands clean. -su" She smiled sadistically, though Enri seemed not to notice.
"No. Neia didn't lie to me, she meant what she said, though I expect a lot of people will die. I don't mean 'that' tomorrow, we're actually two days away, not one. I mean the other tomorrow. The tomorrow where I go home. I haven't seen my husband in... well... awhile. And I'm not the same girl I was. I haven't seen Nemu, or Kuuderika, and... I'll have to face Goan, I let his mother die. What if my husband doesn't want me anymore? He fell in love with the girl who left, not the one who is coming home." Enri bit her lip tightly.
Lupusregina tapped her cheek as she looked up at the clear spring sky the scrolls had given them to march beneath. "I suppose I could have you all for myself then... I don't see a downside. -su" She turned and winked and lewdly licked her lips as the blonde peasant general blushed again.
Enri sighed after her blush faded with the laughter of her bodyguard, "I'm being serious, Lupu. This is another area I envy Neia. Her wife is with her, they go through all this 'together' every battle, every fight, every experience, even every trauma... they're together. They know one another in an intimate way that Enfi and I never will. In a strange way, despite my belief in all this, my faithfulness to His Majesty, I... you know... I regret the chasm that has to exist forever between my husband and I because of it."
She blinked hard several times, "What if it is too big a gap to cross, what if we can't bridge it, what if..." She started to say, and Lupusregina touched a finger to her lips.
"That's enough of that." Lupusregina said, her red hair danced behind her to the rhythm of her words. "If you ever tell anyone I said this, I will deny it. But that man is better than you're giving him credit for. I saw his affection for you in every gesture, every look, every moment of my time with both of you. I'm not as wise as Our King. But he'll still see 'you' when you go home again. -su." Lupusregina said confidently, and then smirked, "Though I doubt anyone else will be, judging by those steamy letters the two of you have been writing back and forth, you'll be locked up in your bedroom alone together for months. -su"
Enri's blush was the deepest it had ever been, "Damn it Lupu! Don't read my mail!"
The sadist with a smiling mask laughed uproariously for a very long time, and did not stop until Enri had begun to do so herself, and then, and only then, did their laughter fade as one.
...Northwest of the Ruins of Wheaton...
Neia rode at the head of the combined armies as was her custom. At her left, rode CZ. At her right, rode Skana, and to the wings rode Queens Draudillon and Zesshi, while to Draudillon's left, rode her undead General Oma and her comrade, General Musan. The quiet was amicable and a warm smile, satisfied and even joyful, was painted on Neia's face.
"You're happy today." CZ said succinctly.
"Very observant of you." Neia teased, but offered no information.
"I think she's asking, 'why'." Skana answered with a smirk.
"Because yesterday was a good day, and because we have nothing to worry about today. Do we, Queen Zesshi?" Neia asked.
"Nothing. Not a village or town has offered more than a scattering of resistance, a few minor skirmishes, but the losses are negligible and arresting the priests and taking the children hostage seems to keep things very passive." Zesshi said with almost hesitant disbelief.
"I actually, agree, I expected the Agante would be doing more at this point to slow us down or buy themselves time." General Oma remarked, turning her head entirely around behind her and back to facing forward again. It startled a few who saw it, giving her a brief laugh before she focused again.
"I'd say they're being hunted. Something has been killing them in the area, and they've probably been driven off, or driven into hiding at least. It gives us a free hand here, one we'll have until the city falls, which is fine by me." General Musan said with a sharp and enthusiastic nod. "I don't really fancy a knife in the dark."
"Who does?" Neia answered bluntly. "Burning down the rest of Wheaton seems to have done the trick. They never saw that coming." Her expression turned deadly and the grip on her horse's reins tightened. "They should have. I'm glad they didn't, but they should have. I wonder if the black water has reached Kami Miyako by now?"
"I'd say it's likely that it has." Skana said thoughtfully, "The 'Spring' weather we gave ourselves, melted a lot of snow, no doubt a lot of the water found its way to the river, and made it flow faster. Not sure what they'll make of it when black water overflows its banks among their refugees."
"Nothing good. But that'll be their problem." Neia answered glibly, and grinned. "Order the band to start playing, let them hear us coming, all the way in Kami Miyako. I want the sound of our drums to reach their ears."
Skana's gave the signal, and within a few minutes, the rapid beating of military instruments began to echo along the line, and hundreds of thousands of feet and hooves shook the ground beneath their feet, telling everything for miles around, of the march of death's heralds.