...Pavilion...
"I won't let you!" Nua screamed like a banshee as she descended from above, hit the ground, rolled forward, and rose to her feet in front of the chained Raymond who waited passively for the gallows to be completed. Her knife was drawn and held in both hands, all her training was gone from mind, everything was forgotten, and she was herself as she had been before her freedom, frightened, but also after... resolved. Her knife shook in her hands as she held it out, pointing at one after another. "You can't!"
A gate opened, and from it emerged a buxom, beautiful blonde with a winsome smile on her face. "So... this is it, isn't it?" She said with her hands on her hips, "Heard you asked for me?" She studiously ignored the knife wielding elf, and approached him with sultry steps. "Wanted a quick roll with the prettiest killer you ever met?" She gave him a monstrous smile, "I'm not usually one for last requests but..."
"Lady Solution!" Nua screamed as people looked on, uncertain of just what to do, though guards began to inch closer, the beats of their hooves came down lightly, but echoed still over the stone as they began to close in. "Help me! They're going to kill him!"
Raymond's chains rattled as he held up his hand and put it on Nua's shoulder. "Nua... we both knew it would probably come to this. His Majesty promised more than I ever dreamed and more than I deserved, I'm the last living Cardinal, the others are gone, as long as I'm around, there will be elves and humans alike who can't really feel that the war has ended, that life can ever be normal, that justice was truly done. I've done too much in my life, to deny them justice now."
"I don't care!" Nua said without looking at him, as she came back to her senses, the armored elf took on a more dangerous stance and flipped her knife over and drew her hand back, her long blond hair blowing lazily behind her, a snarl began to form on her lips.
"Well, I really did a number on you, didn't I, little elf." Solution said, looking smugly self satisfied as she saw the way Nua readied herself.
"Are you going to help me or NOT?" She demanded of Solution, without breaking eye contact with the nearest guards.
"Nope." She said as she held her hands behind her head and looked out over the mixed array of nearly frozen faces. "Why would I do that?"
"Because I bargained for his life! He can't die now!" Nua exclaimed with anguished frustration as her skin began to tingle.
"One step closer..." She said to the guards who drew their heavy axes and came closer to her, being now only barely out of striking distance, "and though I have no quarrel with you, I will put you down." Nua said coldly.
"I suppose you did do that..." Solution replied and stroked her chin, thoughtfully.
"Nua... I'm sorry... I know you bargained with the Sorcerer King but... this isn't his Kingdom, he has no authority here, and this court was acting in accordance with their agreements, and has rendered their sentence." Raymond said quietly. "Please... just let me see you once more before the end, let me see your face, the way I want to remember it in whatever after life lies beyond this one."
"I'm not ready for you to go yet... I want you to live... You saved my life, so many lives, and this... this is how it ends..." She shook her head bitterly and he moved to stand in front of her, he put his hands up and held her face.
"I've lived long enough, I've done enough, right and wrong, for an elven lifetime, let alone a human one. But most important of all, I got to see the rarest jewel in the world, the birth of a free soul, got to see you go from frightened and chained, to free and happy, got to see you stronger than you ever thought you could be... that's enough. It's time to let go, I'm the last thread of your past, the last piece tying you a place you never should have been. And it's time to cut that thread for good. Thank you... for coming for me, for thinking of me, for trusting me. For everything." He said, and leaning forward, he tilted her head and kissed her forehead.
"Raymond... you dummy... you big dummy..." She said as she slowly collapsed to her knees. He held her shoulders and smiled weakly down at her.
"Maybe so, if I'd known I'd have gotten to know someone like you, I'd have burned the Theocracy myself, before I let you enter that dark and twisted city." He sniffled once, and stepped back from her. "I'm ready now." He said, and looked to Solution.
"Thank you, for everything, you were a great help, I couldn't have done it without you. I leave my body to Nua for final disposition, oh, and I have a letter for Queen Zesshi in my pocket, have it delivered to her, would you, one last favor to your favorite demon in human skin?" He asked it as casually as if he were about to go out for a meal, and she nodded.
"You were fun, and you were good at what you did. Nice knowing you." Solution said with a casual wave, "I'll do what you ask, and good luck over there." She winked at him as he went to the chair that had been brought out.
Nua whirled around, she looked with desperate eyes, "Please... isn't there anything...?" She looked up and over at the adjudicator.
The behemoth of a minotaur behind the mask hesitated... "No, after all that he's said, there can be no other end. He has condemned himself, but... as one small favor to his courage, you will bear no punishment for your attempt at violence."
Nua had no heart for gratitude in that moment, she looked up at the last Cardinal as he stood up on the chair. The knife fell from her hands and clattered onto the stone, and she fell to all fours, choked sobs pouring out.
"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to make you cry... I wish you all the happiness in the world, for you, and everyone like you." Raymond said as the noose went over his neck.
Her eyes tilted up. She whimpered and then said... "Thank you... for everything... I'll pick a nice spot, and visit whenever I can."
"I know." He said, smiled one more time, swept his dark hair back with his hands and looked ahead so he could be clearly seen by those magic casters sending his final moments to all corners of the empire.
"Last words?" The executioner asked.
Nua managed to get up to her knees and look to his face, "Raymond... I'll see you again... someday, somehow, no matter what it takes, I swear it."
"I believe you." He replied with a gentle look on his face that had, in the idealistic days of his youth, made him a comfort to those whose worship services he led.
"As to last words, just one last request, or maybe an expression of hope for those elves and others my nation wronged. I am the last guilty ruler, please... let your hatred for my people, die with me if you can. And for my surviving people, take my passing as a chance to start over. Let the past die with me, so that your children don't die tomorrow."
He turned to look at the minotaur beside him, and nodded, then held his face to the magic casters so that his death could not possibly be missed, and a moment later, the chair was kicked by a minotaur hoof, it shattered loudly, and Raymond fell, hard.
The rope snapped taut as he fell toward the stone floor of the pavilion, and his neck snapped with it. He hung there, twitching and swaying slowly before a silent world, the only sound being the rocking and creaking of the gallows... and the sobbing of a heartbroken Nua as she slowly got to her feet.
She wiped her face in her sleeve and went to stand directly in front of the body. His eyes were closed, and with a shaking, trembling hand, she reached out and put her hand to his leg, and grabbed it gently to stop the swaying of his body.
She felt the warmth lingering beneath the cloth, and for a moment it seemed to her that they were alone. The chains rattled slightly, and she stuck her hand out demandingly to one side, the question did not need to be asked, the guard handed her the key, and she undid the bonds that held him fast, letting the set fall in a heap at his feet on the ground below, and dropped the key contemptuously with them. When that was done, she took up her knife and threw it hard into the rope that was secured to the wooden beam. It snapped with an audible crack, and she easily caught the limp body and held him over her shoulder. She yanked the knife out and put it away, and with teary eyes she looked around, remembering that she was not alone, but had the eyes of the world she knew, focused on the macabre scene.
"A good man died today, that's all that happened. And that... that was justice? Maybe it was... maybe it wasn't, I don't know. But I do know this. That whether it was, or whether we just can't say... it's because a man like that could die here, this way, this day, that we must change this wretched, wretched world." She spat hatefully at the stone, and carried his body up the long stretch of stone steps, past countless watching eyes, and out into the street.
When she was gone, the adjudicator huffed uncomfortably. "We'll recess for the day, pick up tomorrow..." He swallowed hard, and shifted uncomfortably in his seat before he stood up, and with the rest of the crowd, who gradually rose silently from their seats, he and they all began to filter out, with none much in the mood to speak to anyone.
She carried his body under the wide stone arch, her dagger tapping at her side as she carried his corpse, as she did so, his limp arm lightly tapped against her back, in the same rhythm as the dagger she drew strange looks from those who hadn't been privy to the events within the pavilion, but until Solution fell into step beside her, she noticed nothing and no one but the sensation of fading warmth and slowly paling skin from Raymond's body.
Nua might not even have noticed Solution... except it was impossible to ignore the deadly maid demon and her whimsical, light steps as if she were much amused.
"What do you want?" Nua asked, trying very hard to ignore what could not be ignored.
"Not much, he was kind of a friend of mine after all, he didn't have many of those, so... I figured I'd at least see him disposed of." Solution tapped her cheek as she melodramatically looked up thoughtfully.
"That's not all of why you're here, I know what you are too well, to believe it's just that." Nua said with resignation as she went around the back of the temple to a space of empty, grass covered ground. "Tell me the whole truth, whatever else you are, a liar isn't one of those things, you enjoy the truth too much." Nua fumed as she lay the body gently on the ground.
As she knelt there, and hovered over his body, laying his hands over his torso, one over the other, she let her own hand linger there and just looked at his peaceful face.
"Well, you're right, though I can't help but say again... we really did do a number on you, didn't we, little elf?" Solution looked down the armed and armored priestess, who had eyes only for the ghost white face of the late Cardinal.
"Get to the point." Nua groused, "I have things to do."
"Oh, it's nothing big, I'd just like to point something out, something that might... one day, prove useful to you." Solution teased with her tongue slightly out.
That had Nua's interest, and she glanced sideways over at the maid demon that had warped her gentle soul... or revealed how warped it was, a question that now lingered in the back of her mind.
"His Majesty rewards good service, that much you know. But the greater the service, the greater the reward. If... for example, someone were to... hand a kingdom to his empire, he 'might' be inclined to offer a tremendous reward. Perhaps even return the dead, though given who 'he' was, I doubt he'd let Raymond return as a human, or with his own name... but, maybe... just maybe, with a kingdom to offer? He might give you an otherwise impossible reward." Solution was playing down the 'potential' for all it was worth.
"Of course, there are no guarantees, and... kingdoms aren't to be had just for the asking now, are they? You'd have to do quite a bit, wouldn't you? Who knows who you'd have to kill, or how many? You might even have to wage a war, start a rebellion, it's anyone's guess, and you could be killed at any time along the way, and then it'd all be for nothing wouldn't it? No... it's better to not even try, as an Explorer class, the best thing for you to do is just go from country to country, starting temples and laying the groundwork for those who will follow after you. You'll be much safer that way, and can live a long, long time while he rots here alone." Solution tittered a bit as she spoke, and went to stand behind the kneeling Nua.
Solution leaned over, behind her, and sank down so that her beautiful face was inches from the elf priestess's ear and whispered, "Don't you also think it's better this way? To let a demon in human skin, a killer to the core, lie alone in the ground, after all, he's the one who bought you at auction, what else does he deserve, he had a debt to you and all your kind because of how he lived, it's repaid now, since he's dead. Aren't dead humans what you wanted? That's why you came here, far from any humans, except for the two to be hanged, or am I wrong?"
Nua didn't answer, there was no need, she simply listened onward with growing interest and understanding, though she kept her face neutral as stone.
"Of course... if you 'did' want some tremendous reward for extraordinary service... well, on the far side of the center of the continent, there happen to be some... much degraded kingdoms. One of which is a kingdom of elves, the Mixtlan Empire uses them as a larder, like the Devor empire uses the minotaurs. I suppose if somebody came along with sufficient knowledge, skill, and will, they might be able seize control of a weakened place, maybe take power and perform some great service or offer it as a great prize for the Sorcerer King. But that's just too far, isn't it? Good chance of dying along the way, and dying in the attempt, and who knows what else? No, forget I said anything. You don't like to take lives, and this world... belongs to the merciful." Solution cackled with laughter as she couldn't keep her face straight anymore, holding her stomach as she let it all out.
Nua however, had heard every word, missed nothing, caught every double meaning and implication, especially the final words of the maid demon.
Raymond's body was now much colder. "Is it really possible to change somebody's entire race? I've heard of resurrection, but human to say... elf, or orc, or demon?" Nua asked quietly. "This isn't a half truth, meant to goad me into futile actions, is it?"
Solution had her monster grin on when she went to the other side of the body and crouched down opposite Nua. "No, it can be done, it was done for one very faithful servant, she got a new body, and a new life."
"I see, then... can I borrow some things from you?" Nua asked thoughtfully.
"Of course, we're 'friends' aren't we?" Solution asked with a sadistic smile on her face.
"I'd like something to preserve his body, and a stone sarcophagus to keep it in, right here behind my temple. After I'm all done with all my work in this place, when I've built the temple, established our income sources, and completed all the preparations for a permanent occupant to come and minister to the needs of our minotaur followers, I'll be moving on." Nua's voice grew more and more resolute as she spoke, and her eyes went up to meet those of her deadly teacher.
"Oh? Do you know which direction you'll go from here, since you're thinking so far ahead and all?" Solution asked with a crooked smile.
Nua met it with a determined face, eyes unblinking, her warm and living hand clenched on that of Raymond's cold, dead skin. "Yes, I'll go east, far, far east, where I think I can do a great deal of 'good'."
Solution rubbed her hands together as if anticipating a feast. "Well, if you happen to want a hand, perhaps Lord Ainz might permit me to 'serve' you, as I 'served' him. Would you like that?" The maid demon's loose, monstrous smile was broader than Nua had ever seen it.
"Since you ask, well, that might be a great help, your brand of 'good' might just be what they need to help correct their sinfulness." Nua responded.
"Are you sure, don't you hate killing entirely, don't you abhor every kind of violence?" Solution asked with a false gentleness as she tore at the chains of conscience that held back the desire she knew lay within the elven woman.
"I'll do what he did." Nua said as she moved her hand to the space of flesh that covered Raymond's unbeating heart. "I'll learn to like it. Now, if you could get me those few things, I do have things to do here first, to spread His Majesty's justice." Nua said with an edge to her voice that did not show any weakness, as she stood resolute and straight, ready to get back to work.
