Enri rode out with her soldiers with unutterable rage in her heart and the shine of her youth in her eyes the vigor and sparkle that her Enfi had fallen in love with, that had been illuminated by the moon or a candle in the darkness on the many nights they'd lain together, happy in their love making. She sighed, she missed her husband very much, she wanted children, but she withheld herself from that joy at the request of her king, who foretold a time of terror and war in which she would be called upon to commit to building a future, before creating children to inhabit it. So, she'd always finished her husband off in ways that made them both happy, even if she wanted…just a little something extra for herself.
Now that time was on her, the time the Sorcerer King had prepared her for through countless hours of studying in the library under the tutelage of war masters like Aureole Omega and the Goblin strategist, now she…who a handful of years ago could not even read her own name, had consumed a hundred tracts of war from men who stood as gods of an ancient past, she could calculate the required tonnage of supplies for an army of any reasoned size to march over any known distance with and without forced marching required. Now she was a woman who her own mother would scarcely recognize, no longer the frightened child who had darted for the woods to flee a single knight, now she called on dragons and had the backing of a god.
Now her eyes were hard, perhaps not cruel, but hard and scary enough that ogres looked away from her anger. That anger was now turned outwards as word had come of the Latifundiums, the great farming estates. Only the wealthy in Ikari had slaves at all, and those reacted in diverse ways when slavery was ended. A cruel, smug snicker came over her as she thought about the last trick she'd played on those asking for some semblance of it to be retained, it got them right out of their enthusiasm for the institution.
Others had been passive and calm, some had wept for the loss, some elves had turned with a vengeance on their owners, while others had sought to protect them. Trials were underway and hangings were already taking place for those found guilty of rape or torture.
The mutilated slaves who the more sadistic had hidden away were shown to the population, and many of those citizens had expressed at least a modicum, if not more, of disgust at the sadism displayed. That had left Enri somewhat hopeful that a sense of shame might prompt reform.
The temples had remained untouched, but the priests were called to her office for her return today, it was going to be an unpleasant meeting, but one she was prepared for. Hard eyed General Enri for now had another task…the gates closed behind her as her forces fanned out, there were a dozen or so Latifundiums and she'd dispatched forces to each of them that had failed to surrender their slaves.
It took over an hour to get to the first estate, within only half that time she was marching her army down a narrow road flanked by acre after acre of wheat, the fertility of the area was incredible. Elf slaves worked naked except for their chains , and they stopped work to stare in awe, confusion, and fear. Enri was quick to act, sending soldiers from among her elf ranks to inform their brothers and sisters, many of whom bore terrible scars on their bodies, of their liberation. Many fell to their knees in shock, others wept, some fainted, the word was shouted out and many of the slaves began to throw aside their tools and run to watch the army of Hard Eyed Enri march past, an army of wonders, with elves, ogres, men, and numerous other species, not to mention the undead. Were it not for the sight of elves riding near to the beautiful hard eyed general they might have fled in terror, it did not hurt that a few recognized the garb of the long rumored Black Justice among the ranks of their liberators. Enri did not pause to look at them, she had a duty to perform, it became immediately obvious what that duty was.
She was advancing towards the massive estate, overseers began to approach down the center of the road in response to hearing the calls of freedom from the elf slaves, when they saw just what was approaching them, they dropped their whips and ran.
"Seize them!" Enri ordered and pointed in the direction of the fleeing overseers.
Several dozen elves in black armor mounted on undead horses were happy to oblige, their rapid mounts rapidly caught up to the fleeing people and…mindful of her instructions to capture them, they used their mounts to knock the men down, or the blunted ends of their swords, history could probably forgive them if the blows to the slave drivers were a mite bit harder than was strictly necessary, Enri however, definitely did. They were quickly corralled and were horrified to see the type of elves they'd never seen before. Elves with pride, elves with powerful bodies and full armor and deadly weapons and dangerous eyes, all these weak overseers had ever had to be strong compared to were groups of elves who had already been broken in to service. Not these, never these. When these elves said to kneel, the overseers obeyed as if they were the slaves.
"Bind them and have them thrown in a cart in the back, we'll take them back for trial when we're done." Enri ordered firmly, and though the overseers protested, nobody listened. They were dragged by ropes on their wrists or the hair on their head, all the way to the back of General Enri's column and thrown into the back and secured under guard.
There they found themselves facing a vampire with blood red eyes who did not even try to hide who and what he was.
"Please, try to escape, I will be happy to weaken you so that you can't, I haven't fed since yesterday." He said and licked his lips, baring his fangs and prompting the weaker overseers to lose control over their bowels. They chose not to test the laughing vampire , they did not have the will to meet his gaze.
When Enri finally reached the estate itself, she did not bother with niceties. She dismounted from her horse, as did Lupusregina Beta, and the hard eyed general with her dear friend, the smiling sadist, approached the door. Though thousands stood behind them, the silence was so profound that as they mounted the white wooden steps, they could hear every creak of the wood under their feet. Enri stepped aside.
"Lupu dear, would you be so kind?" She said with a smile.
Lupusregina Beta grinned sadistically and kicked the door open so hard that it flew clean off its hinges, inside the house, people were screaming. Enri held up her hand and waved it forward, calling some of her soldiers inside, they responded quickly enough, rushing up the stairs and stepping in behind the two women. "Gather everyone in the foyer of the house, I have words for them." She said abruptly.
Elf and human soldiers marched from room to room, they dragged people from under beds and out from closets, they checked the attic and the cellar, they gathered elf slaves and humans alike, and brought them together into a single large room. Enri looked around, the wealth of the house was obvious not only by way of the luxurious objects found within, but also through the many slaves that had been found within and brought to the same place from around the house.
Lupusregina held her weapon over her shoulder smiling nicely from behind General Enri, and looked the picture of paradox, a lovely face, a pretty smile, and eyes that said, 'please give me a reason to hurt you'. The human children that had been found, clutched to the legs of their parents, the slaves took up the back of the opulent room. Unusually, the slaves within the house, while they wore manacles, they were also well clothed and well groomed and well fed, they did not have the filth and nakedness of the slaves in the field. Enri wasn't sure if she should feel less incensed or more over this distinction.
"Do you know who I am?" Enri asked.
"No." The humans looked around at one another, they were a family of seven. To aged grandparents, two parents, and three children who clung to the legs of their parents, shaking in fear as they picked up on the anxiety of the adults, there were none of the three could have been older than ten and the youngest of which was only around three to four years of age herself. It was a pitiable site to behold.
"I am General Enri Emmot-Barear of the Sorcerous Kingdom serving under the authority of his majesty, Ainz Ooal Gown. I am the one who captured the city of Ikari a few days ago, and I am the one who sent out the edict to all the Latifundiums in the area that all slaves were to be immediately freed. Do you know who that makes you?" She asked, leaning forward slightly with her hands on her hips and staring hard at them one by one.
"Ahhh…" The younger man began and trailed off.
"That makes you the ones who decided to defy the woman with an army outside your house and armed soldiers a few feet away. Do you think it was wise to be the ones who are in that position?" She asked.
The younger children started to cry and Enri's heart broke at their fear, remembering the feeling of it herself, she however, was not going to be as cruel as when the Slane Theocracy came to her home.
The father and mother clung to their children as if to protect them, it would have been more moving to her had she not seen the slaves in chains and nakedness and filth in the fields laboring to further enrich the already wealthy.
"Please…don't." The children's mother said in desperate plea.
"Don't what?" She asked them.
"Don't kill us…don't hurt the children…they're innocent." Their father said with somewhat more voice.
Enri raised an eyebrow. "So…even filth can love." She said and straightened up.
"Filth?!" The grandparents snapped out.
"Yes." Enri said, staring at them till they blinked and looked away.
"I saw the state of the elves outside, you kept them in muck and mire, misery and filth, naked like animals and many had terrible scars from abuse and violence. You had your chance at some form of amnesty for what you've done, perhaps not total, but some. But now you've thrown away that chance by defying my orders." Enri said, fairly daring someone to try violence.
"You are all under arrest. I am not empowered by the laws of war under my lord through the Draconic Accords to execute you, but you will be arrested and imprisoned for violating the accords and for violating military orders of the acting governorship of our military command." She said as if from a script.
The children clung tighter to their parents, and their parents to the children. The elves behind them had a mixed set of emotions from fearful…among the older who knew no other life, to elation among the younger and more recently ensnared.
"What of our children?!" Their mother asked with fear in her voice.
"Your children do not share your guilt and will not be punished, they will be fostered out into the Sorcerous Kingdom to be raised by volunteers who will be held accountable for the education, care, and general treatment that they receive. The Sorcerer King is offended by the mistreatment of children, so you can be assured that their lives will be decent ones. Assuming you are found innocent…" She paused, she looked at the chained slaves and then walked away from them and looked out the window to where many naked slaves in chains had begun to gather, then back to the four adults with an expression that said that was NOT going to happen, "they will be returned to you immediately. If you are found guilty, you will go for punishment for your crimes, after that, they 'may' be returned to you depending upon your ability to properly care for them or rear them to not do as you have done. This home you have here will be sold, as will all the land around it, and everything within it, and it will be used to compensate the slaves for the labor that they have performed under your lash. Do you have any other questions?" She asked.
"What might our punishment entail?" The grandmother of the group asked.
"That depends on just what you're guilty of." Enri said gravely. "It may be years of imprisonment, it may be hard labor, it may be death by hanging…" She looked at the various human adults of the family, "So…just how harsh were you, when you were masters?" There were some uncomfortable expressions turned her way, but none could hold her gaze and nobody answered her.
"Get them out of here, separate the children, but do not be cruel to them, then have several go around and begin to take name and witness statements from the slaves, inform them that they are free to live, but it is recommended that they stay so that we can question them further and provide for them on site. Tell them also that if they wish to go elsewhere, we have land for them far away from here." Enri gave the instructions to one of her soldiers, and both he and several others went to carry them out. The former elf slaves hugged one another, and several more soldiers approached and began to pull the children away from their mother and father and pull mother and father away from the children.
The grandparents protested urgently and the adults at last began to struggle, it was futile: the elders and the children were too weak, and the parents couldn't compete with the battle-hardened soldiers. Enri wanted to turn away, to not see what she was ordering so she could pretend it wasn't there. But the edict of the Sorcerer King's faith was clear, if you can bear to order, you can bear to see it done, never turn away from the consequences of your actions, for good or ill, necessary or not. So she watched, and her heart all but broke for the children, but this was the harvest evil had planted in the fields around this house. It did not take long, for all their wailing and protests, the parents and grandparents were bound firmly and escorted out, leaving Enri alone.
"Who is best fit to run this house?" Enri asked the elves who remained. They looked at each other, and then turned to the one in a very nice butler's uniform.
"You?" She asked politely.
He nodded, "Tese at your service general Enri, I have been here since those grandparents were children. I know the ins and outs of this place, I can make it work." He said.
"Very well, Tese…I leave this place in your command, for starters however, have the chains removed from every person in it, then, find them clothing. After that, work out what you need to sell in order to pay these slaves for their labor and ensure they receive it. I will have some of my soldiers stay behind to support you and serve as guards just in case any Theocracy scouts should come along and try to cause trouble, I don't expect it, but I don't take chances." Enri added.
"It will be done, and gladly…and also…thank you general, from the bottom of my heart." He said sincerely.
Enri bowed politely, then she held her hand up over her head and circled her finger three times, at her signal, her soldiers whirled around and walked to the doorway, Enri did the same and headed towards the broken entryway. As she was about to walk out she looked back at the elves who still had not moved. "Welcome back to the land of the living." She said with a gentle smile that chased away the hardness from her eyes, and as reality hit home, some of the elves could only sit in stunned silence as, out the window, their struggling masters were taken away. And forced into a cart, the master had gone quiet, but the mistress was still calling for her children, unsurprisingly the slaves felt marginal sympathy at the sight as the military forces of General Enri began to withdraw from the area.
She rode out from the manor with mixed feelings, she felt far too much like the villain separating children like that, but what can you do when the parents are being arrested? If only they'd just followed the orders sent out about freeing slaves…well they hadn't and now they were paying the price, it was a deep regret however, that the children had a part in that price, despite having done nothing wrong themselves.
She tried to shake off the thought, a lot of slaves were set free today, and that was cause for considerable satisfaction about a job well done. She shook the negative thoughts off, the children's names would be recorded as well as the estate from which they came, they would be fostered out, probably to a village family somewhere and at least they'd be taken care of. In her private thoughts Enri very much doubted that any of those four adults would see those children again until the youngest already had children of her own, if ever. She turned her mind away from the unpleasant thought. It was only when she'd finally done so that she realized she'd zoned out for the entire ride back to the city.
"Back with us -su?" Lupusregina asked with her trademark smile.
"Yes, sorry Lupus, it's just the kids…I felt like a real villain back there, I didn't like it. I guess it had me preoccupied."
"Well, look, you want some advice?" Lupusregina Beta asked politely.
"Uh…yes?" Enri replied uncertainly, prompting Lupusregina to stick a tongue out at her briefly before she laughed.
"Alright look…you're feeling guilty about the kids…but why should you? Maybe those parents did love their kids, but all they were going to do was make more masters out of them, and eventually turn them into the kind of monsters that draw the ire of Lord Ainz, they were getting their children killed, even if they didn't realize it, so you saved their lives. They just didn't know it, you should no more feel bad about that than if you'd removed them from the care of a serial killer. -su" Lupus said as she closed her eyes, smiled, and shrugged. "Or that is how I see it anyway."
"Thanks Lupus. I appreciate it. That actually does make me feel better." She said as they approached the city, it opened just as it was supposed to and the units, she had with her gradually broke off to perform their assigned tasks. Enri however, rode ahead with a handful of the remainder of her cadre until she reached the manor of the former iron governor. She went inside, found her office and took a seat as Lupusregina Beta went to lean against the wall behind her.
She'd be seeing the reports from the other units to inspect the Latifundiums soon enough, and she was not disappointed. A stack of reports was brought to her desk by an elf woman, who Enri thanked politely before she began reading through them. She sighed and called after the woman, asking for some tea, and after a quick acknowledgment she went back to reading. A few minutes later a cup of piping hot tea and a saucer was placed on the table for her, and she flashed a grateful smile to the girl, who smiled back in turn, bowed, and exited.
The tea made the reading more tolerable, some of the reports were very plain and straightforward, the estate had followed instructions, or it had not. Some had amusing commentary, such as the place being abandoned by the owners and the slaves having gotten into the wine cellar and getting plastered until there was nothing left. Others had owners negotiate deals with their former slaves, getting them to stay for pay, another hadn't even told the slaves of the edict, leaving them shocked because they'd been kept in such isolation that they didn't even know there was a war on. Enri rolled her eyes, could the owner have really been so ignorant as to think nobody would ever come by their estate?
When she was halfway through her cup, a knock came at the door to her office. "Hello?" She asked.
"The priests, General Enri." Her aide's voice said.
"Send them in." She replied and set her documents aside.
Three priests and three priestesses entered the office slowly, they were older all of them, dressed severely and wearing even more severe and disapproving expressions, it wasn't hard to know what she was dealing with now, and she knew exactly what to do.
"Please, sit." She said kindly.
The six approached her desk but did not sit. Lupus began to move from her position with her large and terrifying weapon. Enri quietly gestured for her to wait, so she went back to leaning where she'd been, again disinterested and probably bored.
Enri then, just stared at them, her eyes hard and her body stone and her expression blank. They did not seem inclined to move, but it was quickly evident, that she was having none of it from them. Eventually their discomfort with her silent stare forced them to begrudgingly sit.
"Better." She said sweetly as a warm smile graced her face. "Now, down to business, you all want to know if your temples will remain open." She asked.
Their expressions said that they did.
"The answer is that they will be," relief flooded their stern visages, "however that is conditional upon three things." She said and raised three fingers up in front of them all.
"And…those are?" An elderly male priest asked cautiously.
"First, you will not attempt to incite rebellion, per the Draconic Accords we will not destroy your city or your people, however if a rebellion begins the fighting will claim many lives, so if you want to continue to hold services, you will not attempt to start a fight that…trust me, you cannot win." She lowered one finger. "I trust that one comes as no surprise?" She asked sardonically.
It did not, they nodded slowly and continued to listen. "The next condition, you will not preach in support of slavery or genocide. The reasons for this should be obvious, you have seen my army, such preaching is sure to cause an incident to occur, and I want to avoid that." She said flatly, "Do you?" She asked, and there were some uncomfortable looks and then nods of silent assent as she lowered another finger.
"Lastly, you will not preach the doctrine of human superiority, at all, not even slightly, if any one of your temples breaks this rule, all of your temples will be shut down." She said bluntly. A cacophony of noise and complaints erupted, and that was when Lupusregina Beta acted, she popped off from the wall with a gentle push of her elbows, drew out her massive weapon, and swung it down on the desk between the two sides with such force that she split it in half with a powerful slamming sound. That stilled the servants of the old gods, and Enri almost lost her cold mask for a moment. The desk lay in two halves in front of the six priests, who looked down at the now angled halves on the floor and up at her with expressions that had changed to one of noticeable fear.
Enri spoke up, and she kept her eyes hard and her voice cold as ice. "I will be plain with you, I am not asking you, I am telling you, informing you, ordering you to withhold from those three things in order to keep your temples open and serving the public. If any one of those are broken, all of your temples will be closed and yourselves imprisoned for inciting rebellion. Test me if you want, but you cannot complain that you were not warned. Now get out of my office…I need a new desk before my replacement arrives." She said nonchalantly, and the priests and priestesses got up unhappily, and not a little fearfully, from where they sat and headed to the way out.
Enri looked over her shoulder at Lupusregina Beta. "Lupus…was it really necessary to destroy my desk?" She asked with a smirk.
"No, fun though. -su" she said with a smile as Enri rolled her eyes.
The following morning she called her forces together, ten thousand were set to remain behind her, and had commanders appointed to rule the city until relieved to come and join her, the remainder of her army was moving out, and now was her chance to speak to them all. "Today we begin the next phase of winning peace in our time, we are yet a long way from our final objective, yet with our parting ways with this city, as with our arrival in it, we take ourselves one step closer, not just towards another city, but a whole other world, a world where all will have space for themselves, and all will have a future, I am proud of all you've done, and proud of all you do, those who remain to secure our backs, and those who move out with me, well done, well done one and all!" She said to loud cheers, she took a deep breath and stepped back.
"You did alright." Lupusregina said with a grin, you're no Lord Ainz, but not bad. -su" She added with a wry grin.
"Uh huh, thanks Lupus." She said as the formation broke apart and formed up for the march. When they were finally on their way out the gate, she looked over her shoulder at the city she was leaving behind, this was farther than she'd ever been in her entire life, and now she was prepared to see more of it, and remake all she saw, it was an intoxicating feeling, as if she were breathing the air of a better world already. As the city faded behind her, she inhaled the clean air happily, and found that as far as tomorrow went, she could hardly bring herself to wait.
AN: Well that was fun. But of course a little Q&A time.
Q. You've started writing the Synod...when is that taking place?
A. Post war period.
Q. What happened to Astraka?
A. You'll find out in about 20 chapters.
Q. How do you judge Ainz's actions?
A. I think of him as a kind of bronze age near eastern monarch. Not entirely evil, not entirely good. Utterly ruthless in pursuit of his goals but not motivated by malice itself. Is he a good guy? Not really. Is he evil? Also no. The actions of someone who leads a nation are not always going to be good or saintly, even leaders we remember well, did or believed horrible things. George Washington owned slaves, Alexander the Great, who wanted to forge one people out of both east and west, a laudable goal, slaughtered entire populations and invaded his neighbors. FDR ordered Japanese American citizens imprisoned in internment camps because of their race, and so on. Ainz is no saint, far from it. However if he holds to his 'goal' of project Utopia, his 'sins' such as they are, needn't be for nothing, and his desire to not see the New World become his world, and the memory of his better friends, may help him grow up a bit, and that is how I've written him, a little older, a little wiser, a little more confident, and driven by a single aim.
Also...feel free to join my discord server, invite code is on the author page. :)