Lakyus was normally happy when going out on a job she believed in, and protecting people was something she really believed in, but this job was not one that brought her the same confidence. Even if she was protecting people, she knew Caspond was working with the undead.
Evileye had done what she could to ask for information, even talking to Momon, and what she'd had to say was...strange.
"Momon tells me that its true, Remedios and a number of rogue paladins have been killing other humans around the Northern Holy Kingdom. Gustav, her former second, is now in charge and he's been trying to hunt her down with the remaining paladins. He's had only limited successes as Remedios has stayed on the move. He tells me that the Sorcerer King's information network has revealed that the Southern Holy Kingdom has been sending supplies and even manpower to support the effort at stamping out the heresy."
"What about the King?" Lakyus asked as the rest of the team listened intently.
"He's sent out soldiers to support Neia and both royal soldiers and Black Justice members have been put at numerous towns and villages, and they've fended off a number of raids, a few villages were burned, and those show incredibly powerful fighters were involved in overruning them, to powerful to be among the remaining Northerners." Evileye said.
"How can this be happening?" Gagaran asked aghast.
"Gods alone could answer that one..." Evileye said. "But it seems the Theocracy and the Southern Kingdom have turned the Northern Holy Kingdom into a battleground by proxy, the King is having trouble keeping order, the noble faction there has fractured, and he's drawing on support from the Black Justice temples resources, his contracting us means things are really getting bad down there."
"For this many adamantite teams?" Tia said, "That is an understatement, remember it isn't just us, they've hired five others as well, and several lower ranked teams besides, and the Southern Holy Kingdom is doing the same by hiring workers from whereever they can."
"A fair point." Evileye said. "Whatever the case, people are suffering and we have the power to stop it, I don't like working for the Sorcerer King even by proxy, but I can't argue against protecting people just because I don't like the employer."
Tina sighed, "It is what it is, we've just got to put up with it, its still hard to believe it is coming down to this though, tensions are only going to increase as the Synod of Arwinter approaches."
"Speaking of which, aren't you going to attend the Synod?" Evileye asked Lakyus, "I mean you're not only an adventurer, you're a noble and a priestess, and because of your rank and experience nobody would deny you entry even if they wanted to, and I'm sure they don't want to."
"I am going to attend, yes." Lakyus said. "But the synod is still a year away, priests from all the surrounding countries, are gathering information, arguments, and settling their own positions, even some demihumans are being asked to send representatives to offer their testimony about their experiences under Ainz Ooal Gown. The Slane Theocracy is objecting of course, but the priests of the Empire and Re-Estize are both demanding it be accepted, I doubt the synod will happen before that question is settled, so the one year timeline might become two. Suffice it to say I do have time to do this job, and besides...this might give me insight into my own position on the matter."
"You can't seriously be thinking..." Evileye began.
"No...but I don't know what I'll be thinking six months from now. I have to keep an open mind to anything." Lakyus said. "These are troubling times, maybe not the sort of thing I'd want to see in my lifetime, but I didn't get to pick the time I was born, so I just have to make the best of it." She shook her head and they rode on in silence, it would take at least a month before they got to the capitol, and they all had the distinct feeling it would be a very long month.
In Kami Miyako, Capitol of the Slane Theocracy...
Dominic gave his report of his meeting with Emperor Jircniv, and the table descended into chaos in a way that was now routine for them all when matters pertaining to the Sorcerer King came up.
"Our assistance to Remedios is problematic at best now, she's an unguided arrow, we should pull our support and let them take her down." Dominic said. "Without our intelligence operatives in place any longer, we don't have the same influence we did.
"The scriptures can compensate for that." Pontifex Maximus said. "As long as we keep our scriptures active there, we can influence her decisions at least indirectly by providing her with intelligence, it doesn't always have to be true, it just has to get her to do what we need her to do, and that is hunting down heretics. With the priests in the South preaching the dangers and heresy in the north, they're always drawing in new recruits to fight, and with our inquisitor priests going to villages and stirring people against their heretical neighbors, we are not without advantages. There is no reason to throw that away."
Dominic frowned, he did that a lot on this subject, "You may be right, but we're targeting worshipers of the Sorcerer King, if we do to much to fast, it may draw his direct intervention, and the Emperor has informed me that he has numerous other spells like those he used on the Katze Plains."
The table erupted into even greater chaos, but this time accentuated with tremors of terror.
"That can't be!" A voice shouted out.
"With that monster, anything can be, as far as we know." Another said with a shaking voice.
"Besides all that, our inquisitor priests are also being killed. The first one was Justicar, he was a rising star in the Theocracy, he practically invented elf breaking and his efforts propelled a great many of our most successful mass farming projects, this was his shot to move into the upper ranks, and within a week or two of his first success, what happened? His head ended up pinned to a gate. And he's not the only one, while we haven't had our supporting villages massacred in response yet, if they resort to terror, well we know how that will go, is anyone here NOT trembling in fear at the possibility of the Sorcerer King's involvement?" Dominic said.
Nobody spoke.
"And we know the gods are with us. Peasants of a nearly ruined Kingdom are another matter. The Holy King is all but in the pocket of Black Justice, we need to end this quickly, I say we take him down directly and install a new leader, someone from the Southern Holy Kingdom." Dominic said, "If we do this quickly we can expel Black Justice followers entirely, leaving no good casus belli for the Sorcerer King, and start to rebuild it in the way the gods intended."
"Whatever we do, we need to do it soon, our best efforts will not be enough if Pope Neia's power continues to increase, her travels have given her powerful connections and we cannot have that going on, plus, she's completed her text, the Preto Sabedoria...supposedly it means 'Black Wisdom' in an ancient dead language. We need to take her down, we need to strike her directly, and we need to burn every copy of her book before it is distributed" Pontifex Maximus said sharply.
A general agreement was reached, and the decision was made, Pope Neia & King Caspond would die.
...Inside Nazarick...
"It'll be time for Dopple Caspond's end soon." Demiurge said to Ainz.
"Yes, yes it will be." Ainz said, pretending to know exactly what Demiurge was talking about.
"Do you have a contact in place to help with his 'death'?" Ainz asked, hoping more information would be revealed.
Demiurge however, looked almost hurt, or perhaps distressed, and knelt with eyes downcast. "My lord if I ever failed you so greatly that I did not have such a thing ready before hand, I would end my life to atone for my mistake."
"Calm down Demiurge." Ainz said, placing his skeletal hand on Demiurge's shoulder, "I do not lack confidence in you, you are the child of my dear friend Ulbert, as the one who must care for you as he is gone, it falls to me to be as a father in his place, and a father must ask his son after his plans, not through lack of confidence in his son, but to prompt him to think, to grow, to learn, and to ensure his son knows success over failure, better that I ask and need not, than need to ask and fail to. Now please, stand up."
"Father..." Demiurge said softly, obviously deeply moved.
"Nothing to worry about, a corrupt count is ready to support the Theocracy, he's been flitting about through various factions for years like a moth dancing around a flame, but it'll be time for him to burn in the fire he's danced around, soon enough. As an added benefit, he's had a hand in some of the past thefts that Neia helped take care of some time ago, she was never able to quite connect it to him, but there is no real doubt about his guilt." Demiurge said with a grin.
"You want him for your happy farm? Don't you." Ainz asked wryly.
"I do. He's rather fat, so we can make a lot of scrolls from his skin, and he's not that old, so he can make scrolls for us for many years to come." Demiurge said.
"Wait...the scrolls of your happy farm come from humans?" He asked Demiurge.
"Of course." Demiurge said, "Well, the low tier scrolls anyway, higher tier ones come from more powerful creatures."
Ainz felt his disgust well up in him, only for it to be suppressed by his emotional dampener.
"I see." He said, "That is a suitable fate for someone who has dedicated themselves to harming Nazarick, but if there are any there who are innocent of any wrong doing towards us, or any who are in childhood, have their memories erased, put a 9th tier seal on those memories being restored, and release them somewhere with enough coin in foreign currency to start their lives over. Any experiments on living beings must be on either dull animals, on criminals, or on the enemies of Nazarick."
"As you say your majesty." Demiurge said, "Truly you are a merciful lord."
He then left to carry out Ainz's instructions, when Sebas approached bearing a document.
"My lord," Sebas said, "We have the final draft of the terms of undead rental within the Holy Kingdom, Neia Baraja has done an excellent job in detailing how the temples to your divine glory will serve as an outlet for their labor, serve your worshipers, and dispense wealth to you in return in the form of coin or resources as you see fit. With this, we will see a massive return within a few months, and all it will take are the dead, and the oversight of our human followers."
Ainz nodded and pretended to read through it quickly, turning one page after another as fast as he could, putting Sebas in awe of his master's ability to read and understand what is presented to him, and then he affixed his seal to the bottom of the document. "Agreed, it is done, see that it begins immediately, start with the criminals of the Baharuth Empire, offer to buy the dead of Re-Estize's criminal population, they're in no position to refuse coin, and provide some cheap 'create skeleton' wands to Black Justice priests to use on criminals there, that should give us thousands and thousands of undead laborers to distribute almost overnight." Ainz said with relief as he could feel the fiscal burdens on the Sorcerer Kingdom practically melt away.
...In the Lizardman Village...
Zaryusu watched as the toadmen and lizardmen laid out the pathway for the road between their villages, it was something he never had imagined before, generations of conflict had been erased with a single victory under Cocytus, and now toadmen and lizardmen hammered tall stakes into the swamp, working side by side, creating road ways between all their villages, leading from Nazarick to them, and from them all to the Empire, with this, Cocytus promised that they'd gain the ability to conduct trade with the human kingdoms in a way never before imagined. Once the path was established, the Quagoa would tunnel under and shore up the bedrock to create a dry space somewhat above the swamp, by just a few feet, then the skeletons and other undead laborers would move in with liquid rock called 'pavement' and lay it over earth mounds to create an easily traveled road, and then the dwarf runesmiths would come and enchant the road against damage and flooding, and create, at Ainz's insistence, small tunnels under the road connecting the areas of the swamp so that they wouldn't be broken apart, allowing wildlife to still traverse from one area to another. It was the latest of many great projects that Zaryusu had never before imagined, and would have called impossible if he had. Now...now it was not only known, it was almost trivially easy to undertake.
...In Carne Village...
Enri Emmot sat at the table of her office, she was reviewing the latest trade document that had been submitted to her by a Re-Estize merchant who wanted to establish an office in her town. She touched her forehead and sat back in her chair, everything was so different now. A few years ago she was an illiterate village girl, now she was a mayor, a general of a goblin army, the wife of the greatest alchemist in the known world, she was able to read and write fluently, and had learned more about trade than she'd ever imagined. Her village...which she insisted on continuing to call a village, was now a large and growing town, filled with demihumans and humans alike as residents and travelers both. The walls were manned by elves, dwarves, humans, lizardmen, while the ground was patrolled by ogres, during the day, while during the night Quagoa and goblins manned the walls. Dwarves were busy conducting experiments in runecraft...and beer production, making some of the best of both that anyone had ever used. Carne Select Beer was now traded as far away as the Draconic Kingdom, and was spoken of as proudly as Runecrafted gear.
"Gear and beer." She laughed as she said it, it was what they'd said they wanted to be known for, and it had become a virtual motto for the Dwarven district of town.
She was proud of her work, but she never seemed to run out of it, though it seldom stopped her from tiring out her husband as much as she could. She dared a lascivious grin in private as she thought about the previous evening, and then bent over the table with fresh determination to finish the day early, so that in the evening, she could finish late with him.
AN: A lot of bits and pieces here, its a big world after all, and I wanted to show at least a glimpse of all the things happening concurrently, do expect a longer look at Carne in the near future, but honestly not for awhile, its a snapshot kind of place to show what life is like under Ainz's unified rule, I probably won't give it a serious visit until the Black Justice holy book is distributed widely. As it is, I hope you enjoyed these snapshot chapter, and of course, reviews are the lifeblood of any writer, so keep me alive if you wish to see more. ;)
Also related note: One of the best writers of Overlord Fanfiction has a new chapter out, and if you're not already reading his work, you damn well should, look for the story 'Masks They Wear' and read it. I daresay his work is superior to my own, and trust me, with my ego, I do not say that lightly. ;)