...In Arwinter palace, Baharuth Empire...
Jircniv sighed. He did that a lot, he knew. When it came to the Sorcerer King, well that was especially true. Though he had to admit this was now on a more positive basis where he was concerned, and now it was frustration only with those who as he saw it, were still on the wrong side. As he reviewed the report of Neia Baraja's trial from his spies, he was 100% certain that the Sorcerer King had taken a personal hand in her protection and in the death of the one who had approached her. He was less certain about his spy's reported suggestion that one of the priests was actually in the employ of the Theocracy...but he did not really have a choice about submitting it to the Sorcerer King anyway.
So he dispatched Leinas Rockbruise with the original document. He could have taken it himself, he could have sent a common messenger, but as he thought about it, this was a small way of helping Leinas, she'd served for years in the hopes of alleviating her curse, and he had yet to be able to keep his word, and blood emperor or not, a noble who made a habit of not keeping his word was not one that tended to last. So before he dispatched her he chose to have a short conversation in his private office.
"Have a seat Leinas." Jircniv said.
It almost caused her to do a double take at his words, he was an emperor through and through, he would sit, those attending him would stand, so this was unusual. Still, hesitant as she was, she obeyed and sat on the opposite side of his desk.
"You've served me for years, and as loyally as I could expect of you given the...terms of our arrangement." He said.
"I cannot argue with that, your majesty." She said simply, glossing over her overt expression of general disloyalty if another party were able to fulfill her desires.
"However," he said, "I haven't really been able to fulfill my end of the bargain to you, and speaking truthfully, I do not know if I ever will."
This put a cloud on her face, but she listened intently nonetheless.
"Given a choice, I would prefer to see a positive outcome for you. So if you you'd like the chance, I'll send you to the Sorcerer Kingdom, you'll nominally be there to deliver some intelligence to the Sorcerer King, but this is also a chance for you to leave a positive impression. The Sorcerer King is a collector of talent, and he has...as strange as this sounds, an unusual fondness for the works of humans, if you offer your services to him, he may be willing to remove your curse. I can't say that he definitely can do this, but if he can't, I do not believe anyone else in the world ever will. The only thing I ask is that if he accepts your service and cures your curse, is that you return here to select your replacement, and train them if necessary, and also, that you consider that I have fulfilled my promise to you."
Leinas was silent for a long moment after the emperor spoke, and he slid the intelligence report across the desk. She took it up quickly and put the rolled up paper in the pouch at her side. "It will be done, my Emperor. And by the way...thank you." She said, then stood, and then rendered a salute, which she held for almost a minute, it was probably the only sincere one she'd ever given, he thought.
"Very well, prepare to leave within the hour, stop by my secretary and pick up a recommendation from me for your quality of service, that may help you gain a position with the Sorcerer King if you need it." He said, and with an acknowledging nod, she left.
When she was gone, he went over some of his other materials, he could not believe the Slane Theocracy had been dumb enough to send the Gray Scripture to assassinate Pope Neia. "What could you fools have been thinking. Your intelligence operations were demolished, even if the information didn't yield information about the scriptures, you can't move blind..." He said aloud to himself in private, it was by itself, just cause for the Holy Kingdom to call for war, but it was also reason enough for the Sorcerer King to get involved. "Murdering peasants, targeting Ainz Ooal Gown's personal squire, its like the Slane Theocracy wants to be exterminated...desperate fools." He said aloud. They were going to give him a lot to sigh over before the Synod of Arwinter, of that he was sure.
...In the Southern most part of the Northern half of the Roble Holy Kingdom...
"Its been pretty quiet lately." Lakyus said.
"You're surprised?" Gagaran replied. "We're Blue Rose, not many will seek out a struggle against us if they can avoid it instead."
Tia and Tina shrugged in unison. "Its an easy job, frankly the only thing that makes it an Adamantite grade quest is the intimidation factor we have to use. Tia said. "...And...the fact that Remedios is out there somewhere." Tina added.
"Still strange though, isn't it?" Evileye said. "When I spoke to Momon, he believed this to be sincere, he even said he planned on going himself when his time allowed. He's so noble..." Evileye started to moon, and to cut her off Lakyus interjected.
"While it is strange normally for the undead to fight for the living, nothing about that one has been normal since he first walked out of whatever tomb they found him in. I can't deny that his forces have been effective, and I can't deny that his agents in Black Justice have been equal parts helpful and skillful. When this is all over, I want to visit E-Rantel. I have to see that place for myself." She said.
"If Momon is there, I'm sure it will be fine." Evileye said happily.
Tia and Tina rolled their eyes.
"I just want to try out that training area they've constructed, everything I hear about it seems to defy imagination." Gagaran added.
"At this point I don't see why not, we're already sort of working for him anyway by patrolling roads near villages populated by his worshipers, and the undead we see are all nonhostile. Even Gustav mentioned that people were thriving alongside undead ripped straight out of legends, and the people here are going about their business as if they don't exist. Its only been a few months since Black Justice started renting out undead labor, both to the people and to the crown, and its already like this. What must E-Rantel be like?" Lakyus asked.
Their conversation was cut short when they saw a Black Justice scout coming out of the forest, they waited as he approached, and when he was near he said, "I've located the camp, there are about fifty renegade paladins there, and around two hundred squires and other foot soldiers."
"With fifty paladins of uncertain strength, I don't think we can be sure of taking them all ourselves, we'd better use backup." Lakyus said. "Objections?" She asked. There were none, not like there had been at first, then there had been protests, but after several uses, the reliability and trust they had in the efficacy of the Sorcerer King's tools had gone up greatly. Lakyus took out a series of scrolls, and used them one by one, and around her, a number of high ranking demihuman summons appeared, a few goblins, a few orcs, and a number of beastmen. It was enough to tip the odds in her favor by a long way, they wouldn't last long, but they didn't need to, and she could replace scrolls, but she could not replace her precious friends.
"Lets go, we've got to put them down before they can do any more damage." Lakyus said, and the now larger team moved into the wood, following the Black Justice scout.
...In the Slane Theocracy capitol of Kami Miyako...
"So let me see if I've got this straight." Dominic began. "The Gray Scripture was wiped out down to five members two months ago, their attack on Neia Baraja was a complete failure and the few casualties that were inflicted were going to be personally resurrected by the Sorcerer King. On top of that, our attempt at having Neia Baraja publicly tried, humiliated, and silenced not even two weeks later was not only an embarassing failure, but actually gave her an AUDIENCE for her views that included thousands of citizens, and it let her advertise her views and the free healing of Black Justice, the result of which within one month of her departure, had people clamoring for Black Justice to open a temple there, because our temples, the ones to the true gods, began to be seen as exploitative. And for good measure, the noble judge, and all six priests, and the two punishment officers, all disappeared...from their own fucking homes! Now we've got our former stronghold of support in the South divided into two...no...three parts. One part wants to immediately start a holy war, the other won't act at all without body guards, and the third part is drifting closer to Ainz Ooal Gown's side thanks to the fact that they're not taking a single coin for their services in healing people. Did I miss anything?" He asked sharply.
"Yes." Maximillian said. "The undead AND adamantite adventurers are now protecting villages and King Handor hasn't been able to to consolidate his power with the nobles enough to expel them. He's given the order and he's stopped paying for them out of the treasury, but the nobles first hired some themselves...renting the undead through the Black Justice temples...and the Sorcerer King started paying the adamantite teams themselves with something called 'writs of opportunity'.
"What the hell is a 'writ of opportunity'" Raymond asked.
Yvon let out a groan of frustration and said, "I just recently got a look at one of them, he's offering them not only a reasonable but not extravagant sum of gold, but also offering to allow them to consider the job to be the equivalent of several 'dungeon runs' through training, with every two weeks worth being the equivalent of tokens that allow them to trade for advanced rune crafted gear through his nationalized adventurer's guild, or to have pieces customized for their team's use. As the latest runecrafted weapons and armor are said to have four runes on them, this is a powerful incentive to keep them in the Holy Kingdom. Even if it means fighting humans."
"So now he's going to be advertising the quality of his military equipment and his adventurer's guild to the most powerful teams in the human world. It'll create a powerful incentive for them to come over to his side, some of them probably won't, not the ones with established ties like Blue Rose, but younger teams will be drawn to that power like moths to a flame, and that is a lot of potential lost in a lifetime." She sighed with frustration.
Dominic's knuckles turned white in his clenched fists. "We never should have backed Remedios, or manipulated her into targeting humans with all that 'Spiritual heteromorph' talk, we should have known she was unstable."
Ginedine said. "At least we successfully killed off King Caspond before he could go over to Black Justice completely. We have that much going for us, and we were able to get Count Handor onto the throne, even if it did cost a few lives."
"Granted." Berenice replied, "But at least it kept the Southern nobles from a full fledged secession and a civil war for the time being, those fools...well most of them...think that the talk about Jaldabaoth and the Sorcerer King are just gross exaggerations from ignorant peasants and people pumping up their conquerers so they don't look weak for losing. The only ones who know better are the ones who went North for the last battle of Jaldabaoth's invasion. The sad reality here is that King Handor shouldn't reign for too long, his ties to the South are the only thing propping him up, but he's not well liked or trusted by the Northerners where he actually rules, we need a more reliable candidate before the whole thing falls apart."
"The war with the elves is at least winding down, we're within only a few days of their capitol now, and despite being very defensible, its also easy to surround. We'll be able to redirect our forces soon, and I suggest that we start readying a fleet to land in the Holy Roble Kingdom soon, that place is a spark in a dry forest, and if we don't want it to fall into the Sorcerer King's hands, we'll need to move before he does." Dominic said.
The dickering went back and forth long into the night, and in the end it was agreed that they needed to expand the fleet and prepare for the first seaborn invasion in Slane Theocracy history.
...In the palace of Hoburns...capitol of the Roble Holy Kingdom...
Handor drank deeply. He did that a lot these days. The death of King Caspond had been a tremendous opportunity, but he found as King he hadn't quite escaped trouble quite the way he thought he would. He growled, "Every time I do something good for one noble, I create ninety nine malcontents and one ingrate. But one thing was going right. He'd managed to draw the Southern nobles in to a private discussion, wherein he promised lands and titles for their sons by eliminating the challenges he faced in the North. They would be brought in nominally to help stabilize the region, but he knew how Northern nobles were, they were prickly, the North & South were practically different countries in many ways, there was still a lot of resentment against the South for failing to provide proper aid against Jaldabaoth, it would create plenty of opportunities to get rid of rivals.
He grinned as he thought of putting some of their heads on pikes. It was a pleasant thought, he liked those thoughts almost as much as he liked carrying them out. He threw his golden goblet aside like trash, which it might as well have been as far as he was concerned, now that it was empty. He saw a maid enter the chamber discreetly, clearly hoping to remain unnoticed as she went about her work. His face took on a nasty, lecherous expression, he had other work in mind for her as he looked over her curves, he got up, and approached her, she looked up from what she was doing just in time to see him reach for the top of her dress. The fate of the last maid to resist the Holy King came to mind, and she started to cry quietly, not daring to make a sound that might anger him, and hoped has he dragged her along to his chamber, that he would finish soon.
...In Nazarick...
"Well that worked incredibly well." Ainz said casually.
"What is that my lord?" Albedo asked sweetly.
"Remember a few weeks back when I visited Neia Baraja and let one of the scripture members go?" He asked.
"I do my lord." She replied.
"The tail on him proved very effective, each time he contacted someone, we had someone new to follow, and I've had a flow chart created based on who spoke with whom, when, and for what, and through continuous monitoring, we got each person they talked to, and so on, and them, and so on, and by monitoring letters, we even got family information and are building dosiers on every single one of them." Ainz said, and slid the document over to Albedo. (*AN: Chapter 16 of God Rising)
"A 'flow...chart'?" Albedo asked curiously as she pronounced the previously unknown term, but when she took the document and saw the pictorial references of individuals, names, and saw the lines connecting from one person to the next, the description snapped into place.
"As expected of my genius lord, this is an amazing invention, innovative, simple, clear, why it even contains references to other documents about every individual we're building information on, I see this one...Parkins...file A42-13..." she got up and went to a nearby filing cabinet, opened A, sorted to 42, then sorted from there to 13, and found his file containing family, home town, vices, the man's life as he knew it was sitting in the private office of the Sorcerer King and he was utterly oblivious. Albedo's heart swelled with love and admiration for her King, and it sent her desire spiralling almost out of control, her breathing intensified as he said, "As soon as the Theocracy attacks, we're snapping up all of them, like gouging out their eyes before the fight even begins, but before that, we'll capture a few through manipulation of their weaknesses, threats, bribery, blackmail, whatever it takes to get false information planted to start them moving in the worst possible ways for them, and the best possible ways for us." Ainz said, drawing his boney fingers together, and a dark aura surrounded him for a moment, which was to much for Albedo. "Oh my lord! I can't bear it!" And she leaped at him suddenly.
"Albedo NO! Guardians, contain her!" He shouted as he clambered back in surprise.
AN: I hope you enjoyed this installment of the retrospective. I'm trying not to give out many spoilers along the way, since it necessarily has to take place at least somewhat after other events that haven't taken place in the main story, but I'm trying to keep it to just the things you already know are coming, while also keeping the timeline intact. As a result I had to skip some material I'd planned to reveal in this one which will instead be released in the next retrospective chapter. A few of you already guessed a little bit in some of your earlier reviews, such as the reviewer who guessed that the people at Neia's trial were in the pay of the Theocracy. Of course I don't mind some successful guesses, its fine, it just shows people enjoy the story enough to speculate, plus nobody has guessed some of the more important details that'll come out as the story unfolds towards its final climax. Till then though, I hope you enjoy the ride. I will be taking a two week vacation in late March early April though, so don't expect any updates during that time. :) My kids asked if they could be character inserts for at least one chapter, and I'm an indulgent dad so...maybe. You'll just have to forgive me my one indulgence along the way if I do that. Anyway, thanks for reading, and most especially, thanks to those who are reviewing! ;)