Jircniv rubbed his temple, he rubbed it hard, he often did when dealing with issues related to those stiff necked fanatics of the Slane Theocracy. As he waited in his private office, he had the most recent reports brought in from what was happening in the Holy Kingdom.

'You have GOT to be kidding me.' He said to himself as he read. 'Not only did they approve the temple and hang a priest in the capitol, but the Black Justice religion has spread to the merchant class thanks to the conversion of Tinamoc? Black Justice guards are now the only ones merchants will hire or trust, after seeing the results of something called 'powerleveling' under the guidance of the Sorcerer King?' It was so unbelievable that he couldn't stop himself from reading it out loud.

His brilliant mind raced as he thought of the implications. If the merchants were united under one religion, that meant all money flowed through the hands of those loyal to Ainz Ooal Gown, if the merchants were guarded by fighters skilled enough to eliminate hundreds of demihumans, then the only people to be attacked while traveling will either be those who are alone, or those who travel while not under the banner of Black Justice. That means that most of those who travel, will do so while under the protection of the temple of the Sorcerer King, the other temples will not like that.

He picked up another trade report...a priest of Surshana has proposed that Ainz Ooal Gown is in fact the father of Surshana, descended from the realm of the gods to take up the work of his son and become the true savior of the world...he sighed, 'They will not like THAT in the Slane Theocracy...and with this upcoming synod, and the official recognition of the cult of Ainz in the Holy Kingdom, well...I am glad only priests are going.' He said under his breath. He wrote a note on a piece of paper beside him to establish Black Justice temples in the major cities of the empire, it would not do for the empire, the first vassal, to fall behind in this.

'...But why is this in a trade report?' He asked himself, before realizing why as he read on, the undead were being used for farming and mining throughout the areas where Black Justice membership was highest, and these were all areas that Neia Baraja had traveled throughout the northern part of the Holy Kingdom, food was growing more plentiful, and with more free time, people in the villages and towns that had taken up the practice of using the undead for that labor were pursuing new things, building more in their villages and towns, expanding infrastructure, even the sale of books had begun to take place as a collaboration between Neia & Tinamoc resulted in a literacy program being established, and supported by Ainz Ooal Gown.

Then he read the report from Prart...and his jaw hit the floor. The execution of the regional governor, theft of supplies from Ainz Ooal Gown, the corruption of the priesthood and the almost total abandonment of the entire city by the paladin order and most of the priests dead in riots...and...Neia Baraja had taken control, sent all the evidence through Ainz Ooal Gown...he paused at that and rapped his fingers on the desk. 'Neia Baraja...his squire during the campaign...she's accomplished quite a lot, its either the best move they've ever made, or the worst, depending on how they respond to her success, but passing that through Ainz meant that he knew the contents and every crime the nobles and merchants in the city were guilty of. Clever, very clever, it means they can't just sweep the whole thing under the rug or blame Neia for the whole thing'.

He chuckled, remembering that he was not the only intelligent man in the world, and read on: ...witnesses and the citizens of Prart are universal in putting the blame on the priests of the gods and the corrupt noble administering the city. The temples were all scrubbed, painted, and rededicated to the worship of Ainz Ooal Gown...and the city of almost 150,000 has almost without exception converted to the faith of their savior.

His head hurt.

He pushed aside the pain and reached for a book he kept in his office, it contained what he knew of the surrounding kingdoms, and he flipped to the page about the Roble Holy Kingdom, he traced his finger down the page...it needed to be updated, with Calca replaced with Caspond, and her information replaced with his...but what he wanted should still be reasonably accurate, even with the massive losses during the war.

Population: 3.5 million.

He put the book down, and leaned back in his chair, he covered his eyes with his hands, and sighed deeply, his estimates put the total deaths at one quarter of a million on the low side, to four hundred thousand on the high side, a huge number of dead, worse than just bodies, the loss of vital skills and experienced fighters and all the knowledge therein was profound and would cripple the country for decades, generations.

He began to run through his numbers, Neia had been to dozens of villages, she had done amazing work at numbers of them, and converted people all along the way, before the journey her supporters for the Sorcerer King who favored annexation was around thirty thousand, most of whom were war veterans. He began to think out loud as he tried to solve the problem...'Since her time in the capitol, she had expanded that considerably, she probably had a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand...that would put her at about one hundred eighty thousand people, the mass conversion of Prart...she's converted almost ten percent of the population of the entire country, at a minimum, and possibly more.' He shook his head.

'Sorcerer King...if I had subordinates as capable as yours...I'd have ruled the world ten years before you got here.' He laughed and squeezed the bridge of his nose.

'This won't bode well in the Theocracy.' He looked at himself in the mirror and started to speak to his reflection, and reached down to pull out a glass and a bottle of wine. It was the only place he ever poured his own drinks, and it was honestly a bit of a relief to do something for himself, idly he wondered if any other rulers felt that way, then shrugged, and thought the better of it.

'Well...what'll they do?' He said to his reflection.

'What can we do?' He asked himself.

'The Theocracy will hear about the declaration of the temple soon if they haven't already, and before the ink is dry on whatever report they're writing about that, they'll hear about the mass conversions to the temple of Black Justice, they'll hear about the dead priests in Prart, and they won't care that the priests almost certainly deserved it.' He looked himself over in the mirror as he drank.

'Did they deserve it?' He asked himself.

'Yes, probably, from what that said about the riots', he gestured to the document on his desk, 'the people hit a boiling point when they tried to arrest Neia Baraja and she barely had to say anything to get the frenzy whipped up. That doesn't happen in a contented city.'

He looked at the map on the wall on the other side of his desk.

The Holy Kingdom didn't border the Slane Theocracy anymore, since the Sorcerer King had laid claim to the Abelion hills and conquered the demihumans there, they'd have to go to war against the Sorcerer King himself in order to reach them to conduct a crusade.

'Good way to die quickly.' He said to his reflection as he remembered what he read about the massacre on the Katze Plains.

He finished his drink and poured another, and just then, in walked the man he wanted to see, 'Come, sit, I have a letter to dictate and I'd like your thoughts along the way.'

It was going to be a very long day.

AN: As you've probably noticed, 'Memory & a Message' is an after the fact reflection story meant to show the responses to the actions that occur in the main story 'God Rising' told chiefly through the eyes of Jircniv, its a small divergence along the way and gives me the opportunity to provide contextual data to the things that are happening elsewhere that would just crowd the main story or would be jarring or awkward otherwise. I do of course, appreciate reviews, and if there are things you'd like to see or know, include that in your review and I may include it. This chapter was intended to be longer, but after 10,000 words on the latest chapter for 'God Rising' I'm a bit tapped out. Updates on this story will continue, but because they take place later in time, they may have to wait awhile until after the events have happened in the main story so I avoid spoilers.

Thanks for reading!