...Kami Miyako...a very comfortable prison...
Climb sat in a chair. That alone probably made him the most comfortable prisoner in the kingdom. But more than that it was a very comfortable chair on its own. His room however, was not ONLY decorated with a comfortable chair, it had a table. It was a very nice, polished table. Why he even had a real bed to himself. What he did not have was a weapon or the ability to leave, even if he had the former, he couldn't have done the latter. That was because of who sat across from him. A half elven woman of curious appearance who...when they'd first met, carried a large scythe and demanded he fight her, promising to get him out and even to protect his princess if he won, or even lasted a few minutes. It had been embarrassingly brief, though he'd fought and fought and fought, rising time after time. First she'd broken a rib, then another rib, then another rib, then another rib, every time she knocked him down, he was getting back up and she punished him by breaking another bone.
She had not however, taken his life when he couldn't get up anymore because his bones simply would not cooperate. That had not stopped him from trying, and her eyes went wide for a moment and she said, "Its to bad you're not both kinds of strong, but you are at least powerful in one way." She'd left him after the cryptic statement that he thought...sounded rather like praise. Though he'd believed that she had let him go, she actually returned and used a potion to restore him.
Only then did she introduce herself. "I'm Zesshi, and I'll be guarding you." She said bluntly.
He stood up in surprise, "Was that why you did all that? So I'd fear you as my jailer? Well it won't work, I have someone to get back to, I will escape from here no matter what."
She shook her head. "One thing at a time," she said, "First of all, no, I didn't do that to make you afraid...though I admit I'm surprised that beating didn't do it. No, I fought you to see if you were worth having a baby with."
He had blushed a furiously deep red and sat down at the table in surprise.
"The only man worth having a child with is the one who can give me a strong child, the only way to tell if the child will be strong is to fight him, so...I tried you out. You failed the test, just in case you were wondering." She said matter of factly. "Although..." she added, "your spirit is strong, most people can't get up after having that many bones break or being knocked down that much, and I think if I had allowed it, you'd have continued trying to get up until you'd died on the floor from your injuries." The bizarre half elf had sighed dejectedly. "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck." She said, "So if it makes you feel any better, you half passed. Now on to the second thing."
"Second thing?" He asked.
"Yes, you want to get back to see that princess of yours, right?" She asked, and he nodded rapidly and said, "Yes, and I will!"
"Do you want to attend her funeral?" She asked.
He paled.
"No huh, alright, then you don't want to escape." She replied.
"What?" Climb asked in confusion.
"OK, obviously they didn't tell you much. Here's the deal kid, you're here so that the Theocracy can keep your princess in line, so she doesn't interfere with the war, as long as you're a hostage, she'll stay in lie, but if you escape, then to keep her from interfering, she'll be killed." Zesshi said indifferently.
Climb began to tremble.
"You're getting the picture now," Zesshi said with a satisfied nod, "so if you want to save your beloved princess, then you need to cooperate with me, and with us, and stay a quiet and obedient hostage. Do that, and we'll let you go when the war is over and she can't work against us in any meaningful way. If you pose to much of a security threat, then that makes her a threat, and since you're her body guard, well who is responsible for her safety?" Zesshi said from across from him, passingly twirling her scythe on its butt as if to drill it into the stone where the butt end of it stood.
"I am." He replied.
"Well, if you escape, not that you can, but if you did, or if we thought you could, then our next step is to take her life, and before you ask, the former king was killed the same night you were taken, if we can kill a king, a third princess twice removed from the throne...is no problem at all." Zesshi finished her explanation with cold reason. "So you see, your best bet at keeping her alive, is to stay right here. We can't kill you because we'd lose our edge over her, and we won't kill her precisely because we have you. So if you cooperate with me and make this job not annoy the fuck out of me...there'll be no shackles, there'll be no binding, the food will be decent and you'll keep your comforts. I'll even have you brought some entertainment, and all you have to do is stay loyal enough to your princess to NOT try to escape. How's that sound?" She asked before adding... "If it is no good, then I can just kill you for trying to escape, and she'll be dead before she finds out you are. What will it be?"
Climb swallowed. "Fine. But if anything happens to her..." He began, and Zesshi perversely leaned in as if she were about to hear a salacious story, she put her chin in the palm of her hand and encouraged him.
"Yes...what if?" She asked, and he went quiet.
Zesshi sighed, "How boring." She'd said, and she reminded him faintly of Gagaran in that moment, he had half expected her to call him cherry boy.
Nonetheless she visited him surprisingly often, such that Climb actually began to enjoy her company...even if...even if...every single time she visited, she threw him his sword and told him she'd not only get him out, but make sure his princess was safe in the process...if only he could beat her. Which he tried to do, and every time he tried he ended up merely embarrassing himself with a failure. Granted she had him healed every single time and it couldn't have been cheap. Climb knew quite well how expensive healing potions were, but it didn't make much sense for her to keep doing this.
After her twelfth visit in as many days he'd asked her from on his back while she dumped yet another expensive healing potion on him, "Why do you visit me, don't you have more important things to do than beat me to a pulp every day?"
"Maybe." Zesshi Zetsumi shrugged and threw the expensive glass away like it was garbage. "But on the other hand, maybe I'm wondering how many beatings it'd take to break you. Or, maybe I like that you keep getting back up until your body just won't let you anymore. Maybe I'm hoping you'll get stronger, maybe I'm even a little impressed by your unwillingness to give up despite facing the most powerful fighter in all the world." She added another cryptic shrug and took a seat. She raised an eyebrow when he laughed as he stood slowly onto his feet again.
"Oh you're not the strongest, you're not even close." Climb said in all seriousness. This had her intrigued.
"Who? Who is stronger and how do you know?" Zesshi asked with a fanatical gleam in her eyes that vaguely unsettled Climb.
"A man named Sebas. I know he's stronger because I've seen him. He could have killed me with his killing intent alone, I saw him move, and he is faster than you. I saw him kill Zero in front of me, Zero is...or was...one of the strongest monks in the world, but Sebas took a blow full in the chest and did not even move an inch, and then he killed Zero in one blow. You are strong, but he is on a whole other level." Climb answered with absolute confidence.
Far from being intimidated, Zesshi began to squirm at the description as if she could not contain her excitement. "Tell me where I can find him...and I will get you out of here right now, I'll even go get your princess for you and take you somewhere safe beyond the reach of the Theocracy."
He blinked, he'd only ever half believed her promises, but when she grabbed him and squeezed his shoulders and stared him in the eyes...then he believed whole heartedly that she was completely serious.
"I don't understand, aren't you loyal to the Theocracy?" He'd gasped out in pain, and she, realizing she was hurting him, let go and stepped back.
"Sort of." She said. "They did rescue my mother after she was raped by the elf king, and they raised me, trained me to fight, and they promised that I'd get a chance to kill my father. They call me the hope of humanity." She snorted. "Truth is, all I want is a fight I can't win, and besides that, I'm half elf, which means they deem me inferior. Strange as that may seem, given their laudable praise of me otherwise. I hate my father, I love my mother, but I like myself and you can't really hate half a person. If I'd been weak my mother might have kept me, but they'd have thrown me away. So as much as I appreciate what they did for me in a way, well how loyal can I be to people who hate half my existence and consider me inferior as a matter of decree by the gods? Would you be as loyal to your mistress if she hated you and deemed you an animal?"
"OK yes...I understand that, but still...why would you turn on them for a chance to lose a fight?" He asked, dumbfounded.
"I told you before, I want to have a strong child." She replied matter of factly.
"Oh." He blushed again, prompting her to actually laugh a little. "I...thought you were just saying that to toy with me."
"No." She said with utter finality. "I want a family, a life, a child, just like anyone else. But unless it is with someone strong...well you know quite well what can happen if the mate isn't strong, what can happen to children if they're not strong." She looked at him with hard eyes, "Don't you? You may be the most innocent young man I've ever seen, but you can't have any illusions about what the world really is." Her voice turned bitter for a moment, and then she snapped back to the subject, "Now...tell me where this man is, and you'll both be safe once I've found him and fought him."
Climb sighed, "That I honestly do not know. I know where he WAS, but after the demonic disturbance he disappeared and I don't know where he went."
She sighed with disappointment, "I swear, if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all." The hard look faded from her eyes and she reached down to a pack she'd brought with her and opened it up, and then she took out a book and placed it on the table in front of him. "You can read, right?" She asked curiously.
Climb nodded, "My mistress had me taught." He said and looked down at the book, it was brown leather bound text, the title reading, "Techniques of the Survivors", after quickly flipping through it, he saw that it contained a number of illustrations, stages of different types of attacks and how to chain them together.
His eyes went wide, "Thank you." He said sincerely as he held the book delicately in his hands and looked back up to her.
"Think nothing of it. It might make you a little bit more worthwhile to fight tomorrow, so work hard." She said and stood back up to leave.
"I will, but I have to ask again, why so much time with me, you must be important, why throw me into your care, its obvious I'm no match for you. But I'm not especially strong, I'm sure they have the guards necessary to keep me contained?" Climb said.
"Probably because of who might be sent to rescue you. I asked the same thing, guarding a weak virgin twerp isn't part of my usual job description." She said bluntly, but so casually that he got the feeling she didn't really mean to be as insulting as she sounded. "Apparently the princess loves you very deeply, and they seem to think she'd hire strong people to rescue you, maybe even adamantite ranked adventurers." Zesshi grinned. "When they told me that, oh I'm happy to follow this order, and if I'm going to be here anyway, I might as well have some fun with you as best you can manage it."
"Oh, I see." He said, blushing at the mention of his princess's affection for him.
"And I guess you're more interesting than the average person I deal with around here, so...there's that. And who knows, if your body catches up with your spirit, you might be worth lying with." She said, tweaking him into an even deeper blush, and definitely reminding him very much of Gagaran. "Till next time...cherry." She said and walked out the door.
Climb sighed with exasperation as he looked at the first page of the book. "Kidnapped and taken across what felt like half the world...and somehow I still find a woman who calls me 'cherry'." He said as he took out the practice sword he was permitted, and made the first swing out of the many he would make before he would exhaust himself.
...Re-Estize Kingdom, Renner's Quarters...
The golden princess was a horrible mess. She had not left her quarters in days, she still had enough sense to say it was to mourn the death of her father, but the truth was that she barely cared about that. It was Climb she was worried about, Climb that she wanted. She'd have traded the former King's life ten thousand times over to have him back and not even blinked at the choice. Without him, she felt fragile, and she could not trust that her image would not slip. So she had her meals brought to her and ate barely any of it. Ironically it enhanced her reputation that she seemed to be so distraught over her father's death. In her more composed moments she wondered if this too was part of the Sorcerer King's plans for her, to build her reputation up so as to ensure a strong position when the last sword was dropped. From a practical level she appreciated the delicious irony of the Slane Theocracy protecting her precious puppy for her. But from a personal level being without him was a living hell from which there was no escape.
But she would endure...to have him back safe, she would endure. She saw her disheveled appearance in the mirror, her beautiful hair, her true crown and glory was as neat as a haypile and not cleaner than that either, casting every which way in countless tangles, dark circles were under her eyes for want of sleep, and quite frankly she needed a bath. None of that mattered though, not even a little, she picked up a hairbrush and flung it at the priceless mirror with a scream of frustration and enjoyed the sound of it shattering, bringing her a moment's peace as she breathed heavily. She might have broken more, but a 'gate' opened and through it stared her superior, Albedo. Renner had the sense to kneel immediately to the stunning succubus and lower her head.
"You are a mess." Albedo said bluntly.
"I do not care." Renner said swiftly.
Albedo's eyes widened. "You had better explain that." She said with rising fury.
"How much would your beauty mean to you, if your beloved was hidden away from you, beyond your reach, without a touch, without a look, without the sound of his voice?" The golden princess said bitterly.
That made Albedo go silent, she had little care for humans, she saw no real use for them most of the time, though occasional flashes of surprise came to mind, Neia's devotion to her lord was certainly remarkable, and despite their weakness relative to the forces of Nazarick, her Black Justice forces had proven their wild dedication, it had only enhanced her opinion of her far sighted king. This however, was the first time she had actually emphasized with anyone outside of Nazarick, perhaps because it had become personal, she understood...even if she was not overly attached.
"Well get yourself cleaned up anyway." Albedo said, "My lord has a task for you, and I am authorized to offer a reward for your success."
She looked up hopefully. "Can I see Climb?" She asked.
Albedo frowned. "It may be that my master has some way of making this possible. I cannot say what reward he intends."
"I will prepare immediately." Renner replied with a zeal in her voice that left her no doubt whatsoever, but also did not disguise the question of what this unfathomable master would ask of a nearly powerless princess.
"I will return for you soon." Albedo replied, in a voice no less doubtless than Renner's own.
...Southern Holy Kingdom, Northeast of the Dead City of Wenmark...Just after the extermination, but prior to Illyana's funeral...
With undead horses, a lot of hard tasks became easy. They didn't rest, eat, sleep, or resist the will of their masters. And with Neia, Skana, CZ, eighty-five surviving members of Black Justice, and around a hundred and fifty elf volunteers, scouring the area beyond the ruins of Wenmark, finding the loose Vines proved fairly easy.
Even driven by adrenaline they could only move so fast without stringing themselves out and abandoning their slowest movers, something most groups refused to do. So handful by handful the survivors who had made it over the walls were gathered together into one body was following the designated path, it took two full days for them to be sure they'd gotten nearly all those who had escaped, but it was still much better than they could have hoped to do without the assistance of the god of justice. Neia hardly said a word the entire time, except to notify others of an observation, give an order, or take a report.
CZ and Skana shared mutually disturbed expressions, though in CZ's case this would have been undetectable to any who did not know her well. But neither apparently thought it best to approach her until after they had rounded up the last group of grateful and exhausted survivors and loaded them into wagons pulled by the undead mounts.
That night however, was another matter. The fires were few and conversations dim, Neia did not offer to give a service that evening, a thing all but unheard of in the time Skana had known the woman. She watched her friend, commander...her lover...and her one good eye welled up, she'd seen Neia wounded before, when the sword of Remedios practically tore her apart. Neia had not broken. She had seen Neia weep when the fear began to shed from her as she was nearly whipped in Yanana. She had seen Neia raging when the woman had brought down the city government of Prart. She had seen her even shed tears over fallen citizens and fellow worshipers of their common god. Never though...never had she seen...or thought she would see, Neia broken in spirit.
Neia had always seemed a giantess in the time Skana had known her, older than her years, stronger in spirit even than those who could defeat her, but as she was now? Now she seemed another person, so small, so tiny, she was barely out of girlhood really, something had cracked inside her in Wenmark. She sat before the fire staring into it as if she were back at the city of evil, as if she were watching the flames consuming it all over again as her plea for a divine miracle was answered by the very wrath of the world's only remaining god.
Most of the time Skana knew or had a good idea what Neia was thinking, but now she felt like it wasn't even Neia sitting there. It was deeply disturbing. Finally she could bear it no more, the Pope of Black Justice had eaten nothing since the fall of the city, she'd had almost nothing to drink and would not have even done that if CZ had not interjected and shoved a water skin up to Neia's face and refused to let her pass without taking some. She had food in a bowl in front of her, but she hadn't taken it, she hadn't seemed to even notice. So Skana slowly stood from the rock she was sitting on, and seeing her do so, CZ stood as well and they approached Neia together.
Skana reached down and touched her shoulder, she hadn't seemed to even see Skana there, or have any awareness of her presence at all until the touch got her to look up.
"Hey...listen, you need your rest, come on, lets go get some sleep." She said to Neia.
"Yes. Sleep." CZ added.
Neia shook her head. "I can't." She said.
"Well come anyway." She crouched down in front of Neia, two eyes met one as CZ moved to Neia's side. "They don't need to see you like this." Skana whispered softly, "They're your followers, you can't shine while you sit in gloom."
"They shouldn't follow me." She said softly, looking down at the bowl in her hand and not really seeing it. "I got fifteen of my people killed, and that is bad enough, but I made a mistake and I got a lot of innocent people killed too, following me is good if you're suicidal, but not if you want to live, not if you want..." Neia's soft words were interrupted when CZ did something unusual for her. She reached down, grabbed Neia's shoulder, and squeezed it painfully tight, so tight that Neia dropped the bowl in shock at the pain, and before she could even finish raising her head to look up at CZ, the maid demon pulled up, forcing Neia to her feet, and she began to march her back to their makeshift tent.
Were it not for the darkness it might have appeared that there was a struggle, but so swift was her action and with such control did she act, it looked as if she was simply walking the pope back to her resting place.
Skana followed in surprise at the uncharacteristic action of the maid demon bodyguard, and when they were alone in the tent, before Skana or Neia could ask what that was about, CZ slapped Neia full in the face. It was cleary that it was not meant to injure, with much of the power taken out of it, but it had hurt nonetheless.
Neia touched the side of her face and looked at CZ in utter confusion. Skana questioned whether her one eye was deceiving her.
"Wrong." CZ said.
"I...failed." Neia said in a voice that was more a whimper than anything else.
"Wrong." CZ said, and slapped her again on the other cheek.
"Illyana is dead because of me! Dead! And so many others more besides! Didn't you see what happened?! I was so stupid! How can anyone follow a commander as stupid as I was?!"
"Wrong." CZ said, and slapped the other cheek. "Illyana is free. They are free."
"That wasn't the freedom I wanted for them!" Neia said as tears poured over her cheeks like waterfalls over a cliff after a great storm. "They were supposed to live free! I'm Neia Baraja! I'm supposed to serve the god of justice! I'm supposed to work his will and shape the world according to his desire! I'm supposed to WIN DAMNIT! I'm not supposed to make mistakes! I'm not supposed to trust the wrong people! I'm not supposed to get an entire city full of slaves massacred like sheep! They died because I was stupid!" She shrieked as CZ slapped her again.
Skana noticed that Neia wasn't even trying to stop the strikes, but even so she might have intervened if it had continued, but CZ reached out and grabbed both her shoulders.
"Wrong." CZ said. "Only Lord Ainz is always right."
Skana jumped in, "You did the best you could...OK yes trusting Sudaj was a mistake, but for the sake of justice tell me did you really think all this was impossible? That we were going to go on without casualties, that evil equals stupid? That they wouldn't strike back, counter attack, and that they'd just let you act with impunity? Honestly yes, Sudaj was a bad mistake, but this whole thing was a huge risk no matter what, they probably would have figured out what was happening anyway even without him."
Neia didn't have anything more to say then, and she slowly sank to her knees, the weight of the last three days, the slaughter, it was a heavy burden her body could no longer carry alone, and as she went to her knees, Skana gently touched CZ's shoulder and said softly, "I've got her...please go make sure camp is secure."
CZ didn't even bother to nod, she simply walked out as Neia fell forward into Skana's arms, her head into Skana's chest, and started sobbing like a baby, she didn't even have the strength to raise her arms to return the embrace that Skana gave her. "I got them all killed...I promised them a future and I got them killed instead...at least if I'd died back there I could have justified my failure to my god by saying I fought to the death, but here I am while their bodies are being prepared for burial. And do you know what's worse?" Neia said in a tiny voice, lifting her face from Skana's breast and looking into the eye of her lover.
Skana shook her head slowly, and Neia answered, "When the Sorcerer King delivered the miracle I begged for, and I realized I wasn't going to die...I was glad that I was still alive. So many dead because of my bad decision, but my first thought was that I'd still be here...and I'd still be with you. But how can I deserve to feel that, have that, if..."
Skana put a finger to Neia's lips to silence her and pulled her back into the embrace. "Shhhh..." Skana said softly. "Its natural to want to live, to be glad to live, perhaps most of all when we think we shouldn't have. You're not the only one to have felt this way." Skana swallowed hard enough that Neia felt it through the flesh where her head lay still and unmoving.
"While you were a squire during Jaldabaoth's invasion, I was a village girl. My entire village was exterminated, and I alone survived. Not by fighting, not even by running at first, do you know the real reason I survived the first day when nobody else did?" Skana asked softly.
"Why?" Neia asked.
Skana let a smile out that Neia couldn't see, which was for the best, because it was a bitter smile, that of a person who hates what they'd done even though they gained from it. "Its because I was in the woods nearby when they hit."
"Working?" Neia asked.
"No." Skana said. "I was going there to meet a boy."
Neia's head snapped up in surprise, for all she knew of Skana, it occurred to her in just that moment that she only truly knew of Skana's life during and after the war, but very little...save for tidbits along the way, of what her years before then had been like.
"You don't think my boldness began with you, did it?" Skana asked with some bemusement, and in spite of how she felt, Neia blushed.
"See, the woods were a popular place for the young to go and have a little fun away from the prying eyes of our elders, oh I'm sure they did the same thing when they were our age, and probably their parents before them, but at the time we all thought ourselves oh so clever to have found a way to fool around without preying eyes. There was a boy there, a man really, when I was some nineteen summers old, he was twenty-four of them, and he...well he had a wife."
Neia listened but said nothing, and Skana continued, "I'm not proud of this...but...well I wanted him, at least for some fun. It also didn't hurt that I didn't like his wife one iota. He had beautiful eyes, green as grass, dirty blonde hair, and arms like tree trunks, he made me feel beautiful, and I wanted more than he was supposed to give, since he was married and all. But I was impulsive, stupid I guess. So I flirted with him a bit, showed off a bit, you know...and then I told him I'd be in the woods at noon on the day he normally went out there to chop wood." Skana sighed heavily and shook her head, "God that was stupid." She said softly, "I waited for him out there, I thought he'd come for me, but he didn't, so I waited for a long time, till I heard the screaming, and I rushed to the edge of the woodline and saw the demihumans." She swallowed hard, "I hid there. I...Skana the bold. I was Skana the cheating temptress. Skana the coward, Skana the betrayer, Skana the fool."
Bitterness filled her voice and Neia felt the tears of her lover drip to the top of her head. She felt Skana swallow hard again. "God I was a stupid, naive girl. I hid and watched as everything and everyone I knew was killed. I'm sure he stayed with his wife, that was where I found his body when I went back to check to see if anyone had lived. The few who did were not really part of our village, none of my own survived, the man I'd hoped to enjoy didn't, and the only reason I did was because I was horrible and because I was a coward. That was the first time I ever hated myself for who I was. That was why I tried to change, because the people who deserved to live had died, and I who should have died, got a life I didn't deserve. Hiding, running, I and a few others I linked up with did our best to make it through another day, of course you know how that turned out...and now...here we are...my love." Skana said softly.
"Why did you tell me all this?" Neia asked, "Now of all times?"
"Because even terrible things can have good outcomes. Because I lived, I was able to help take down Theocracy agents, I was able to help free Prart, I was able to help kill a Scripture, I got to meet you...I was glad to be alive because there was more of life I wanted to live, maybe I didn't deserve it, but I have it one way or another, so I have to use it the right way. So do you."
Neia nodded against Skana's chest. "Its just..."
"You feel guilty." Skana finished for her, "That is perfectly natural, but the Sorcerer King himself did not hold you fully to blame, you took a risk, we all took risks, and all those who died, knew what they were risking, and all those out there..." She gestured to beyond the flap of the tent, "they know what they're risking too, and a lot more did get out than the ones we saved in the escape attempt, Tinamoc got large numbers of them himself, and we still have others we have to see to, we've got to raid the mines and the farms, and we don't have long to do it. You made a mistake, but one you can learn from. Lets get those free that we can, then see to the burial of the dead, and we'll do what we can to make sure that those who died, didn't die for nothing." Skana said and stroked Neia's hair, her gentle touch soothing the frayed and battered mind of the powerful pope.
Neia did not stop shaking, or crying quietly as Skana held on to her, even when they lay down together, Neia did not, could not let go. Skana felt like she was a teddybear being held in Neia's arms for security, and if that was indeed what it was, she lay close, bound and determined not to let her down in that regard.
...In Nazarick...
"I'm a terrible boss." Ainz said as he watched Neia and Skana talk. "I put far more on someone that young than I should have. Now I think she's got PTSD." Ainz sighed to himself as he stood alone looking into the mirror of remote viewing.
He stroked his chin as he thought about what to do about this, and as he did so, he realized he was going to have to deal with that a great deal more in the near future, so he summoned Pestonya & Mare to his side as he went to the Library of Ashurbanipal.
When the dog woman & the elf boy walked just behind him, he looked to Pestonya and asked, "What do you know of battlefield trauma?"
"Woof woof...of the physical wounds...everything there is to know...woof woof."
"What of mental trauma?" Ainz asked.
"Some...woof." She replied.
"That will have to change." He said.
"At your command sire...woof." She said.
He went to the card catalog and flipped through it with care, "Ah hah!" He said softly, and he ordered a book be brought to him, and then handed it to Mare.
"Open it." He said, and he did and began to flip through the pages.
"Your task is as follows. I want you to choose a plot of land beyond E-Rantel, any plot of land you like, and I want you to build a dreamlike place. Build gardens, fountains, create creeks of gently flowing water, flowering trees. Create buildings with comfortable beds and the safest feeling environments. You will make a paradise of grass and natural comfort. When you have finished building this, you will take your plans to the emperor and have one built there as well. Each should be large enough to hold several hundred to several thousand people in absolute comfort. And when you are done..." He scrawled out a name on a scrap of paper and handed it to Mare, "give it this name, and instruct the emperor to use this name for his own center. When the space is ready in the Holy Kingdom, be prepared to do the same thing, and give it this name." He scrawled another name on another scrap of paper.
Mare looked down at the papers. "Neia's House?", "Epizelus's Respite", "Illyana's House"? He looked at her lord in great confusion, "My lord m-may I-I ask...what is this?"
"Call it penance. Call it the right thing. Or just call it the King's will and get it done." Ainz said. Mare's eyes snapped up to his in surprise at what sounded like a rebuke. Ainz immediately realized how what he'd said sounded and he knelt in front of the little elf boy and touched his shoulder. "No Mare, I am not mad at your, only at the mad foolishness of this world that creates such pointless suffering, and that I need to impose upon you, my precious friends wonderful children, to right it all."
Mare's eyes welled up, touched. "Illyana was a female elf that my most dedicated human servant strove to help, the elf woman was killed as a result, along with many others, and it has deeply traumatized my servant. So two of these are named in their honor, to show Neia that I do not begrudge her what went wrong. The other is named after the elf woman, so that my servant will know that the woman she tried to save, will still have a legacy after her passing. The third is named for the first man ever to have been known to have suffered great trauma and personal suffering in his mind as much as his body as a result of war and conflict. To be a worthy king, I must care in turn for those who sacrifice body and mind to fulfill my will and protect my people. If I cannot care for them after they suffer, I should not send them to suffer, and the war ahead will create may victims who do not die in body, but in spirit. These facilities are built along the lines of those used to treat such conditions in ancient times, to create a soothing paradise that allows the mind to repair itself."
He turned to Pestonya, "You will gather widows who have lost their husbands in past conflicts, they are going to be in need of work, call for them to come into your service, and you will train them to provide care and comfort to the wounded of body and mind. They are chosen for this task because on countless battlefields around the worlds I knew before this one...the timeless call for a mother's touch and rescue has come from the lips of the wounded. Also, you are to gather puppies, which you will raise to offer comfort and service, the details are in this book and in others, you will learn their contents, oversee all relevant training, and when the time comes...we will do what we can to rebuild what is broken, in body as much as within borders."
"Woof woof...as you command sire." She said.
"You are both dismissed. Get to it." Ainz replied, "I have a meeting to attend to." He said, and went off to meet with Princess Renner.
AN: I'll be frank, this was not an easy chapter to write, it is HARD to write PTSD like material. Maybe it comes easily to some, but it doesn't to me, its hard practically, and it is hard on a psychological level because I live with someone who suffers from it. Survival guilt is a brutal thing, and even where guilt is minor, it can be magnified far beyond all reason, and perfectly natural emotions can become the basis for self hatred and moral recrimination, untreated, these can utterly destroy who a person is, make them into a shell of who they once were. I wanted to represent this in Neia in particular, who up until the burning of Wenmark was an unstoppable force who made no mistakes, precisely because she couldn't be who I represented her as unless she felt the consequences of her actions in the negative as well as in the positive. She's suffered pretty horribly, but if you look carefully, you'll note that over the course of the story, her reactions to this has gotten steadily worse. From the brutalization at Remedios's hands, to her emotional reaction at the burned villages and her turning to sex for comfort, to her almost total meltdown after she was nearly beaten half to death in Yanana...Wenmark served as a breaking point for her, and similarly, you'll note that while she was always a risk taker and always able to be somewhat bold, in the Wenmark arc she was desperate for every edge she could get, even to the point where she made a bad decision just to get one more edge, a decision born of her youth and her deepening trauma and the unconscious hope that she can avoid further suffering.
Ainz's response here details some of the actual measures taken past and present to help combat veterans recover from the stress of violence and suffering that is brought about in war, ancient Roman sites had large pavilions, grass and gardens, artificial flowing water for its calming effect, and young women to serve as a kind of nursing corps to help ease and comfort soldiers who had been scarred by the horrors of open conflict. Epizelus by the way, was mentioned by Herodotus, he was an Athenian spear carrier who fought the Persians at Marathon in 490 BCE, and though earlier records from ancient Babylon detail soldiers suffering trauma from war, he is the first man ever to be expressly named as having suffered such trauma.
Anyway, I have two more parts to release today, I have a promise to keep to a reader who expressed a willingness to donate to charity, (I promised a triple release) and I see a donation came in yesterday, so I assume that was them, and I've got to get to it. Incidentally dear donor, I know I said I'd do it yesterday, but I simply could not break away from work in time to write. So, I hope you don't mind the delay. :)
P.S. If you think I did a great job or a shitty job, review please. :)