Intermission
Finding this place took far longer than expected.
Tanya had heard that the cartography of this new world was something primitive, but only by actually using one of their maps did she understand how bad it was.
When it came to the map of an individual city, one could simply fly above the city to get an accurate view of its layout. Granted, finding a magic caster willing to perform such menial work wasn't always easy, but it paid well for a day's worth of no-risk work, so the job itself wasn't unpopular. These maps wouldn't be publicly circulated, but both the local nobility and country's leadership could be counted on to have a copy.
Alas, charting an entire country's worth of land was nowhere near as straightforward. Without satellites, GPS, or even a reliable compass, expecting any country to have a full world map was ridiculous. For groups of merchants to gradually have put together a relatively accurate map of the surrounding countries and their major cities was impressive.
The relevant territorial area was comparable to half of Western Europe, so in that sense, the accuracy of the map wasn't bad. However, getting finer detail out of even the royal family's maps was apparently too much to hope for.
Case in point: The location of this minor village in the western half of the kingdom was over ten kilometers off its theoretical position, despite being only a couple days away from the capital.
Perhaps nobody had expected somebody to fly according to the exact scale on the map, but when Tanya chose to do exactly that, she find herself above a small forest with nothing of note around her. She doubled back and tried the trip again, this time flying above the roads, only to find the village far from where it was supposed to be, on the opposite side of the path.
At this point, she gave up any remaining preconceptions about what a map was supposed to be, and rather than trusting the directions given to her – an approximate distance in an approximate direction starting from an incorrectly placed village – she climbed straight to an altitude of five kilometers and began to sweep the area, until she finally passed over a building, a single house within a clearing in the woods.
It was at this point, as she approached the clearing, that Tanya swore to herself that she would make better maps to use one of these days, even if she had to take on the role of becoming a satellite to do so.
She quietly landed in front of the cottage: A peculiar building, obviously built to look like a plain house. Looking closely, the construction was too orderly, the walls too clean, not to mention the fact that it was built here, so far from civilization. Let alone entire frontier villages, a single building like this would inevitably receive constant attacks by monsters, yet here stood this serene little homestead.
After giving the building itself a cursory examination, Tanya approached the door, where a cold-faced girl was already waiting, and greeted her with a deep bow.
"Welcome, Tanya-sama, on behalf of the mistress, thank you for taking the time to visit. Please, follow me inside, Renner-sama is already awaiting your arrival."
This girl looked to be no older than eight years old, yet her choice of words instead reflected those of an experienced servant. On the other hand, her delivery lacked any hospitality, frigid and emotionless. Still, her ability to calmly lead the non-human Tanya into the cottage was interesting, considering that a number of adult men would flee in terror as soon as she came into view.
Curiously, she had been waiting since before Tanya arrived. The invitation had reached her two days ago, and she had not gone out of her way to announce her arrival, yet the girl was already waiting when she landed.
Had she been waiting for Tanya to come ever since then?
The girl's servants' clothes, dark-brown hair, and pale skin, were all pristine, without a hint of either dirt or fatigue. On top of that, a glance at her mana revealed a surprisingly sizeable pool, perhaps enough for third-tier magic, truly ridiculous for a girl of that age.
Is she even human?
Tanya entertained the idea, at first as a joke, but immediately realized that she couldn't dismiss the possibility; of course, since she could simply get the answer directly from the princess, she stopped her guesswork there.
She followed the maid into the cottage.
As one might expect, the inside matched the outside: Plain and undecorated, but also clean and outfitted with enough magic items to make it clear that this wasn't some ordinary peasant's home.
When considering the amount of wealth the owner could move should she really want to, rather than this being the limit of what she could afford to spend, it seemed far more likely that this rustic building was built to suit her preferences.
Scanning the building, it had an ordinary kitchen, a living room, a few bedrooms, even a basement – Tanya cut her perception as soon as its contents came into view.
"Renner-sama, Tanya-sama has arrived."
At the same time, they arrived in the living room, where Renner stood up from a leather chair to greet her.
"Welcome, Tanya-sama, I hope you found the place without issue. Ah, Seven, please prepare some tea and snacks." (Renner)
The maid, Seven, bowed and left to the next room without a word.
Tanya waited until she was gone, then answered.
"Your choice of neighborhood is inconvenient, to say the least. The map wasn't even close, I had to map out half the forest before I came across it." (Tanya)
"Then it's the perfect location, isn't it? If even you took so long to find it, there shouldn't be too many people coming to interrupt us." (Renner)
"… Don't use me to test something like that…" (Tanya)
Tanya leaked her halfhearted irritation, to which Renner giggled.
"So, just what was that maid?" (Tanya)
"Seven? She's one of the orphans from the war, her parents were both trampled to death during His Majesty's spell." (Renner)
Tanya arched an eyebrow, uncertain of how this related to how the girl ended up in Renner's care, nor her interaction with herself as one of the representatives of that same Sorcerer King, if unofficially.
Seven returned with the refreshments, setting them on the table between the two, then standing off to the side. Without minding her presence, Renner openly continued to explain.
"Thank you. I found her purely by chance, when visits to the orphanages, and… she was just the right kind of broken, so I decided to take her in. Now, she's one of the few who know the whole truth about our two kingdoms." (Renner)
"And, what is she?" (Tanya)
"His Majesty was generous enough to lent me some 'Fallen Seeds', but since I had some left over, I had Seven take some as well. Actually, at that time I was going to take Five as well, but she fell apart halfway through, so now it's just Seven." (Renner)
Halfway through, Tanya glanced over at Seven, who wasn't showing a shred of interest despite her personal affairs becoming the topic of conversation.
"Put simply, I raised a beloved puppy, so I thought to pick up a kitten this time." (Renner)
"Your puppy, huh…" (Tanya)
Tanya's gaze turned towards the nearby door into the basement.
"… I can't understand your hobbies." (Tanya)
"It's fine if you don't." (Renner)
The purity in her wholehearted smile was sorely mismatched against the topic of their discussion.
There was a pause, with the two watching each other, but neither speaking. A few seconds later, Tanya was the one to break it.
"I am fairly busy right now. Did you really call me here just to talk about this?" (Tanya)
"Hm… I have this kind of girls' talk with Albedo-sama all the time, but, nevermind. There's somebody else here who wanted to meet you. Seven." (Renner)
Seven went into the next room, returning a few seconds later with a second woman in tow: An almost emaciated woman, thin and pale as if she had not eaten properly for months, or otherwise some disease was preventing her from doing so.
The very same instant she passed into the room, large tears began to pool in her eyes, and she scrambled forward, dropping to her knees in front of Tanya, her forehead pressed firmly into the ground.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! Thank you so much, masters!"
The way this unknown woman had suddenly started rapidly squealing those words while bawling and practically praying in front of Tanya was, frankly, revolting.
"… Who is this? Have we met?" (Tanya)
"Head of Eight Fingers' drug trade, Hilma Cygnaeus. She was one of the people responsible for executing the old plot against the Kingdom. After you arrived, her plans were scrapped." (Renner)
"… And how did that lead to this?" (Tanya)
Taking a deep breath, Hilma answered.
"Thanks to Tanya-sama, we were permitted to discard that plan. It is thanks to you, that we were finally able to get rid of that filthy, disgusting, vulgar, despicable, insane, dimwitted, pathetic, delusional, senseless, incompetent, brainless, miserable, arrogant, petty, lustful, intolerable, unreasonable, immature, shameful, vain, incoherent, repugnant, erratic, empty-headed IDIOT! Ahhh, you gave us all hope when we learned he had been turned to ash! Please, if you have the chance, pass on our most sincere thanks, from all of us, to Jaldabaoth-sama for exterminating him on our behalf!" (Hilma)
Desperate thanking quickly turned into fanatical rambling, her head now rubbing against the floor as she spoke. Despite the fact that they had been the ones made to suffer as a result of the plan to begin with, them now being provided the 'opportunity' to move away from that misery had basically turned them into zealots.
For the first time in months, they truly celebrated. Their pleading for relief from idiot-handling had been answered. When they first heard the news, for just a moment, they could forget the haunting torture and celebrate.
In other words, it was classical fraud. The Eight Fingers executives who served out of fear for their life, would now do so out of adoration for the Sorcerer King's generosity, for so long as their services were required.
Even if, in a corner of their brains, they understood the the trick being played on them, this little mercy made all their efforts worthwhile.
With time, their criminal activities in the Kingdom would slowly be decreased. Blame for the corruption of the past would fall on the declining remnants of the nobility, whereas credit for the improvement in security would naturally be given to the Sorcerous Kingdom's patrols.
After that, the organization could turn their focus on gathering information and finding talent to recruit into the Sorcerous Kingdom, which was even now suffering from a lack of capable manpower. Nonetheless, their work would never end, since it was necessary for the condition of the Kingdom to remain worse than E-Rantel and any other lands controlled directly by Nazarick.
However, Tanya's current specialization was in military affairs. The future of the Kingdom's criminal underworld no longer had any relation to her.
"Raise your head. I was simply an actor in another's stageplay, those plans were not mine. If you wish, please direct your thanks to Albedo-sama instead, when you next meet." (Tanya)
Just as an HR department was not there to listen to customer complaints, she simply had to forward this fanatic to somebody else.
"That's enough, Hilma. Go back to your work now, we'll send you back to the capital later." (Renner)
Having picked up on Tanya's intention, Renner dismissed Hilma. Upon receiving an order, her previous attitude vanished like it had been a fantasy, almost scurrying out of the room in her haste to comply.
Unperturbed by this entire meeting, Seven continued quietly serving another round of refreshments to the two girls as Hilma departed.
A peaceful break like this was nice, though finding an excuse to take one was rarely possible with Tanya's hectic daily schedule. On the other hand, this princess had managed to distance herself from her responsibilities in the capital, making a quiet life for herself in this cottage, just her and her two 'pets'.
"I really envy you, you know." (Tanya)
Renner tilted her head, unsure of the context behind the comment. Glancing at her maid,
"Do you want her?" (Renner)
"You know that isn't what I meant… You betrayed your country, set up tens of thousands of people to die in the last war, plotted to have half the nobility in the kingdom massacred, then purged a majority of the remainder. Despite all of that, rather than assassins lining up at your doorstep, you got those same people to love you, and live in peace here. Just how do you do it?" (Tanya)
"Is it so difficult? Our dealings are unknown to them, those who lost family on the Katze Plains would blame His Majesty, and those noble families were slain by Jaldabaoth, then stripped of their titles and punished for their crimes by Raeven, as he took control of the provisional government for himself. What reason would anybody possibly have to want me, a mere ornament for the crown, dead?" (Renner)
"Hah, you make it sound effortless, to have actually executed it so cleanly in reality…" (Tanya)
It was a feat impossible for anybody except Renner herself to accomplish, as it depended not only on her incredible intelligence, but the innocuous image she had carefully cultivated over the last decade. Finally, add in the sudden appearance of Ainz, then Demiurge learning and taking interest in her.
Had Demiurge not approached her, or otherwise not have appeared in this world, she would have needed to conspire against her eldest brother Barbro to place Prince Zanack on the throne. Were he uncooperative, perhaps she would instead have chosen to get the Empire involved in order to buy herself a better deal with them.
The princess in question could probably find a way to break through regardless of the particular circumstances, although it was uncertain whether any of them would have placed her in as convenient a standing.
"It really is nothing special. I don't need a kingdom for myself, nor anybody else's recognition. Personally, I think it would be easier if I had your power, then I wouldn't need to play these games. I could have gone off to another country, or even another continent, and we could live there just like this. If you want peace, wouldn't that be the obvious solution?" (Renner)
"Humans are social animals. Few of us can live alone like that, and while I could probably survive by doing that, I would hardly call that living." (Tanya)
"Hmmm… If that's how you see yourself, there's nothing else for me to say. Do you really have so many enemies with His Majesty personally backing you?" (Renner)
"There aren't, or at least, there shouldn't be, but there's always a few lunatics out there. Having even just a single one is enough for me to wear armor and raise protective barriers while sleeping. Aside from that, no combat situation is ever completely safe. As it stands, the preparations are already underway, I can hardly back out now. I doubt whether I could just retire and find a desk job here so easily…" (Tanya)
"Once it starts, the consequences will quickly spread to each country. These next few months will be busy… just when I was getting to the good part…" (Renner)
Renner's face shifted into a childish pout, though with her features, even that expression carried a beauty to it.
"Pfft, Ahahahaha!" (Seven)
Seeing that look on her, Seven fell to the ground laughing.
"It doesn't fit you at all!" (Seven)
Her previous mask had shattered, and she was now rolling around on the floor, laughing like a girl her age, caring about the social position of neither her owner nor their guest. Seeing this reaction, Renner's lips curled in a show of mock irritation, which only served to amuse Seven further.
"The first time I saw her, when I was making rounds to the orphanages in the capital, the first and only words she spoke to me that day were, "Princess, you're a terrible actor," then ignored me the entire time. Can you believe her?" (Renner)
"And you took her in for that?" (Tanya)
Renner sincerely smiled and replied,
"Have you ever kept a cat?" (Renner)
"… I really can't understand your hobbies…" (Tanya)
Meanwhile, back in the Re-Estize Kingdom…
"She really did push the entire government on me and run away… that monster."
Raeven, having gone from Marquis, to Prime Minister, and now a sovereign of sorts, all in the course of a year, once again grieved about his sleepless nights.
