God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 136: Observations
AN: Thanks again for reading yet another chapter, however some news… I've started writing my own original Isekai, it's based, ironically enough, off my old Role Playing days, and adapted from a story I wrote over 20 years ago before I knew what Isekai was. I can't post 'Scales of Trust' here on FFN, however if you want to read it, it IS on my discord, or you can gain access to it through m page, 'slash tellingstories'. If this goes well and becomes popular, writing will become my full time job. If 5,000 readers do $1 per (or 1,000 do $5 or 500 do $10… you get the idea) month, I'll keep providing you with material basically till I die. You think I world build a lot with Overlord? HA! I'm still staying mostly within canon for this, unrestrained by canon… I'll be crafting diverse religions, cultures, I've even built a whole new language just for my 'new world' that is fully functional just because I'm not going to use the standard 'everybody speaks the same no matter what' approach. I've done some readings of the language on my discord already, as well as constructed some basic maps, a unique magic system, and complete backstories.
So if you enjoy my work, well... I'd love to produce it for you basically forever. Whether I can or not, falls to you. Regardless, thank you for reading!
Oh, and to the guy who left a review on 'Enemy Mine' telling me to kill myself… really dude? THAT is your contribution? Here's a little trade secret for life: When you say that sort of thing, we know that you're really saying it not because you don't like the work, because you're dead inside and have given up on producing or contributing anything of your own. You want to change that, reach out to me and I'll help you. You want to act this way, well you're not even worthy of contempt.
...Arwintar…
Jircniv finished his meal with abundant satisfaction, the Platinum Plate had the best cheesecake in the Empire, that much he was sure of, but what really made the meal grand was the company. He was sitting with his good friend, Pe Riyuro. The lights for this segment of the restaurant had been dimmed expressly so that they could see one another with minimal effort from either party, and each enjoy the meal of their choice. "It is so good to see you again my friend, it's been what, three months? Five?" Jircniv asked warmly.
"No, six." The quagoa ruler corrected him casually as he took a bite out of a meal specially prepared for him at the emperor's behest. It had almost made the best chefs of the empire scream with frustration as they struggled to understand the palate of a creature so different from themselves, but judging by Pe Riyuro's expression, they had pulled it off.
"Well, whether it is six months or six days, either would be too long." Jircniv said pleasantly.
"I feel the same, and all praises to your chefs, they are the envy of anyone in the world I daresay." While his voice had a kind of roughness that seemed endemic to his species, to so close a friend, the emperor heard only sincerity.
"I thank you, like yourself I have worked hard to nurture talent where it could be found, to my surprise I have learned much from the Sorcerer King on this matter, but these, at least, I can take credit for myself." He smiled wryly. "How are your warriors doing in the west? Reports that come to me have only dealt with those of my own deserving of reward or elevation, I have seen nothing of your own."
"They have done admirably well, I'm proud of them, though… after what happened, they be few, a mere token force to dig and scout from below…" Pe Riyuro's gaze turned away, unlike humans, their go-to gesture for sorrow seemed more to turn away than to look down, at least among friends, "...it galls still. The undead had most of my people wiped out when we resisted his call to surrender. Now our numbers rebound, but still, we serve the one who broke us and it aches." The golden hue of his fur seemed to bear a hint of the gray of age, and Jircniv sympathized with him.
"I am fortunate, it cost me fewer than two hundred to learn that lesson, I cannot fathom the ache you must feel, my friend." Jircniv answered. "Just take heart, he is treating your people well now, isn't he?"
"That just makes it gall all the more, because had we known what the… what is that saying of yours, 'the carrot' was, he would never have needed to use the stick. Our people are near one hundred percent literacy, we have unprecedented access to ores that see our young grow stronger than we ever dreamed so many could, those top performers in battle are given high honors and the mountains in which our noncombatants now dwell are being made ever better by the use of his undead labor force. Had he abused us, I could at least have comforted myself with the thought that resistance was the best choice. As it is, I can only mourn my folly." Pe Riyuro said regretfully.
"Though," the quagoa ruler added with a pleasant tone, "I am glad I at least got a fine comrade out of the deal at the end, true camaraderie is rare for those in our position, yet under the same lord, it is the only possible outcome."
"True, and you know, it makes a meal taste all the better when it is shared in good company." Jircniv said and raised a goblet, Riyuro took up his own and said, "Come what may, I can drink to that."
...Re-Estize…
Zanac could barely believe his eyes the day he saw his sister turn into an angel, and even now it was still hard to wrap his head around. Yet difficult or not, the fullness of the Sorcerer King's plans were now completely laid bare before him. "I never had a chance." He said to himself when he was alone. "But, I do have my kingdom back, my father will be avenged, and my rule may be more stable than any king in the last two hundred years." He turned the matter over in his head again and again.
He was still turning it over when the messenger's head was delivered to him from Re-Lobell, and he was about to send out the army for one more fight, when the heads of the nobles of Re-Lobell arrived not that long after along with congratulations signed by General Zaryusu Sasha and Lady Shalltear Bloodfallen on the complete and final restoration of his kingdom to it's proper borders… along with instructions to gather the host and send it to a place in the mountains where the impossible had taken place.
Nimble was always to be counted upon in moments like this one, and he asked a servant to bring the man to the private office of the king. When Nimble arrived, Zanac questioned him on his thoughts. "What do you think will happen next?"
"We will march south, meet up with the Dark Elves, Dark Dwarves, the Demihumans, Black Justice, and possibly Neia Baraja… then we will kill every Theocracy soldier from here to Kami Miyako and the war will end." Nimble said bluntly.
"That was a… succinct description." Zanac said, somewhat unsatisfied.
"That may be so, Sire, but it remains an accurate one." Nimble said, spreading his hands and shaking his head, "General Zetsumei will do her job, Draudillon will do hers, and we're going to see to the end of the Old World."
"You're awfully casual about it." Zanac said, almost accusingly.
"I'm on the winning side, should I be panicking?" He asked in a blase sort of way.
"Fine, I accept your point, but… may I ask, what advice would you give to your emperor if he were in my position?" King Zanac asked.
Nimble frowned deeply and thought a moment as he looked away. After a bit, he turned back and answered, "Surrender your independence, completely, totally, and as quickly as possible. I can only guess as to the minds of others, but if those rulers of these kingdoms do not have the brains to think of it themselves, if they have advisors worth anything, they'll give that advice the same as I am to you. Independence is a joke right now anyway, better to make the offer of total allegiance now while it is at its greatest value, rather than later when it is just the obvious end of a farce."
King Zanac nodded, "I already plan to do that, more or less, after the war is over. We already have an agreement in writing."
"Then… what are you truly asking?" Nimble asked, somewhat at a loss.
"How would you suggest I best exploit the post war peace to give my nation an advantage?" King Zanac asked.
Nimble looked at him cockeyed, "I am still a servant of the emperor, you know. Do you really trust me to tell you that?"
Zanac nodded gravely, "We rode together, we fought together, and I have yet to garner a suitable staff of advisors for myself, I trust you to be honest with me."
Nimble was humbled, "Very well, but know that I won't advise you in such a way that cripples my Emperor."
"You couldn't be trusted enough to ask this, if you would." Zanac said sagely, prompting Nimble to reflect that the Re-Estize 'province' would have good government for many years even without the Sorcerer King.
"My emperor has well established Arwintar as a place where the arts flourish, and as a result we have grown wealthy, our nations have in the past, been rivals, but it was a rivalry of violence, I advise that you turn that to the spirit of friendly rivalry, promote your own arts, culture, and development here, not in pale imitation of Baharuth, but its own. Make it unique and special and draw the praise of His Majesty, put your own coin behind it if you must. But show that you are earnest about making your people worth investing in, and the Sorcerer King will match your will."
Zanac stroked his growing blonde beard, "That is good advice, and it would be a pleasure to rival your emperor, as my father before me, but to see that rivalry grow a forest, rather than hale one down."
"Agreed, I could retire in peace, knowing that was taking place." Nimble said with a tranquil voice. "Not to change the subject sire, but… do you know what happened at Re-Lobell?" Nimble added the question curiously.
"The heads?" Zanac asked.
"Yes, the heads." Nimble repeated.
"Rebel holdouts, my guess is that they were greedy, deep in the Theocracy pockets, and not too bright, and it seems our fellows are no longer in the mood to negotiate. I don't mind, gives me a few free slots to appoint my own people too as rewards." Zanac said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "All things considered, I suppose I should be pleased, but I guess I won't truly feel at ease until I have my father's killers in hand."
"I doubt anyone would blame you for that." Nimble replied understandingly.
"No, who wouldn't feel that way about their parent's death?" King Zanac asked coldly.
"None. I think from this point forward, the rage of the Sorcerer King will see no quarter for resistance, they will remember in the south for ten thousand years, that to fight that being is to salt their own fields and slay their own children." Nimble said gravely.
"After all this, I am… very much at ease with that." King Zanac said with a grim and haunted voice.
"As am I, oh King, as am I." Nimble said with a face of stone.
...Nazarick…
Ainz was utterly disgusted by some of the things he'd read. It made him glad about his emotional suppressor, and even more glad that he was, in an abstract sense, unable to feel much in the way of empathy for most living beings. However even for all that, the list of misdeeds perpetrated by the Elf King and by the Slane Theocracy were too many to readily count, and many of the discoveries his people had reported to him in certain areas that seemed to be divided between magic education, research, and simple places of torment for the jaded sadists of money, were unfortunately reminiscent of things he'd learned of in his own world.
So it was with grim satisfaction that he signed off on the order to dispatch the next batch of prisoners to the Argland Council State for trials post-war, along with arranging transportation for witnesses and survivors to testify. One place though, had seen some of the worst behavior, Yaksun, the City of Shame. Vanysa had spent the better part of a week doing nothing but hunting the guilty of that city. It was only now that she stood before him, ready to report her completion.
"...And that was what the last of them went and did, Sire." She finished her report, kneeling before the throne with her head bowed and the last of them, down on his belly, crushed under the weight of Lord Demiurge's command mantra.
"I see." Ainz said flatly, "Vile lot they are. You are sure you got them all?" Ainz asked.
She gave him a toothy demonic smile. "Ah did, this'n was eatin with'is wife an feedin his new babe when ah smashed thew is winda all shriekin with glee. The wife, she done knowed why ah was ther, on accounta ah'd been doin it fer a bit then an word went'n spread, she broke down cryin, an the little one, she cried, ah felt a lil bad bout that. This'n though…" Vanysa's eyes were wide with utter insanity and glee, she was salivating with hunger, as she grabbed his hair at the base of his skull and yanked his face up from the stone, "he didna even try ta argue, an is wife, well she couldnae look at im. Ah snatched im up by is neck an dragged im inta the sky, he didna make a sound."
"He will make many sounds soon enough. Does the City of Shame know your work is completed?" He asked.
She nodded rapidly, "Yah, ah came back'n tole em, lotsa happy folk." She paused, Ainz waited, such pauses were now something he was familiar with when it came to her as she struggled to realign her thoughts, the insanity faded away, it was less common after capturing Astraka, but periods when she had many victims, and some of them were particularly horrible in her eyes, it seemed to bring instability back out with the rise of her hunger.
When her eyes were clear and the glassy look was gone, she resumed speaking, "But happy or not that my hunt is over, they will not hold their heads up for a generation, they held no love for elves, but that building will haunt the lot of them for the rest of their lives." Vanysa shook her head, "Brutality with purpose I could understand, but brutality for brutality's sake or for the sake of lust... I will not."
"That sees to the worst of them then, we'll see them to the head project after trial, I want everything they did on record, every scrap of paper, every work of vile art, every witness statement and every confession, get everything, preserve every building of atrocity, because someday, somewhere, some bone-headed academic will say it never happened." Ainz said with the unshakable confidence of someone who, his subordinates could only conclude, could see the far future.
"Is that everything you have to report?" Ainz asked, profoundly hoping that was it, Vanysa always seemed to have the grimmest sort of news. She shook her head.
"No sire, there is a request from Cardinal Raymond asking for some 'personnel' to assist with his own work." She said with a certain amount of dubiousness in her voice, as if she could still barely believe that Ainz had one of 'the' cardinals on his side.
"I see. What sort?" Ainz asked with an undertone of distaste.
"He says that the Thousand Mile Astrologer is active in earnest again and he fears being observed." She read off the document with a flat monotone, the name meant little to her.
"Albedo, Demiurge, what would you suggest?" Ainz looked from one to the other.
"We could kill her. It is simple and direct." Albedo said pragmatically.
"Perhaps, but if we can, I would prefer to use her, perhaps we can use high level illusion magic to deceive her?" Demiurge proposed.
"I suppose we could simply hurt her, turn her powers against her." Albedo countered.
"What is known of her?" Ainz asked.
"She bears some kind of connection to Dominic, we're currently efforting that information, but it isn't evidently common knowledge as we can't find out just what that is yet." Albedo said with annoyance at the failure.
Ainz struck 'wise ancient pose four' which had him looking off to one side as if deep into his memory, eyes fell to him and silence covered the throne room like a blanket. 'I wonder if I'll ever not need to 'act' like this?' Ainz thought to himself, 'Damn it, they're all waiting for me to say something, I should have thought of something first, then struck the pose!'
His mind raced and he grasped desperately at the first thought to come to him, a random memory of Bukubukuchagama and Peroroncino. "Family." He said quietly.
Their keen ears picked it up and three pairs of eyes went enormous. He ran with it, "Check to see if they could be in any way related, she appeared only once before going back into a state of seclusion, Dominic goes to see her and she comes out of it? Find out if they could be family, if so, we can exploit the bond." Ainz dashed to the metaphorical finish line of the random thought, hoping he hadn't said something foolish.
"Marvelous! We will be on it at once!" Demiurge said with awe in his voice.
"Who should we send? We need someone on the ground there to investigate." Albedo asked.
"I've finished my work." Vanysa said with great humility, "I can look human, and sort of 'still am' so I should pass any magic inspections they have." She proposed.
"Not alone." Demiurge said with a small frown, "I suggest we send Pandora's Actor with you, he's intelligent and has the same potential appearance as yourself."
"Sensible, good to have a backup." Albedo agreed.
"Alright, go, meet with Raymond, act as an extra blade in the dark, and find out what you can." Ainz said, "And also, how we can exploit it as well as deceive her." He added in a sadistic voice that was greeted by three very dark, sharp toothed grins.
...Argland Council State…
The Platinum Dragon Lord was watching as the first ranks of the prisoners trudged through the city. There certainly were a lot of them. "Surely all of these are not war criminals?" He asked his colleagues in disbelief.
"Judging by the documents we've seen, they surely are." The Worm Dragon Lord replied somewhat sarcastically.
"Some might be wrongly accused…" The Diamond Dragon Lord proposed tentatively.
"Feeling sorry for them?" The Obsidian Dragon Lord asked somewhat sarcastically.
"No," the Diamond Dragon Lord said bluntly, "but we're going to be on the hook for exterminating half the damn population of the Theocracy, we'll look like genocidal butchers even without ever going to war."
The Blue Sky Dragon Lord shook his head in dismay, "We fell right into his trap, it'll be centuries before we have neighbors other than him that don't mistrust or hate us, even if we record every crime in detail and render perfect justice, we'll look bloodthirsty."
"There's no sense rehashing that again now that they've started to arrive, we already mourned our folly last time." The Worm Dragon Lord pointed out.
"I can't help it, being outmaneuvered so handily is profoundly disturbing." The Blue Sky Dragon Lord replied morosely.
"Anyone have any ideas on what to do yet?" The Obsidian Dragon Lord asked.
"What about forced labor?" The Platinum Dragon Lord suggested. "Or lifelong imprisonment?"
"Well the former is profitable at least but we'll need to draw something up, perhaps we can sell their labor and donate part of the profits to the surviving victims, keeping a small 'administrative' fee for ourselves?" The Obsidian Dragon Lord built upon the idea.
They went quiet as they thought that over, the prisoners trudged by down the middle of the street, word had been spread of these 'special' prisoners, and as a result, crowds had lined the street to watch, creating a kind of impromptu parade, some boos and jeers came at the prisoners, though more because of their human supremacist ideology and the mixed crowd of races held that notion in abject contempt, than because of any innate favor towards the Sorcerous Kingdom.
The prisoners were marching in rows of five, chains hung from their wrists, and most of them hung their heads, they were dressed in crude cheap sacks and lacked footwear in imitation of the way their nation had taken to dressing their elven captives. The 'gesture' was not lost upon them, some had clear expressions of anger, wrath, outrage, or frustration on their faces. Most however, lacked such spirit and were hanging their heads and struggling to hold back tears and failing. They were also failing just as hard at holding back their fearful quaking when they beheld the dragon lords in all their glory, who were looking down on the long trudging ranks from on high atop large towering structures of stone that had been carved into solid rock. The great high arches of the Argland Council State's capital were awe inspiring to smaller creatures, as was the mixed company of races, some of which saw humans as food.
Perhaps in a formation, with weapons in hand, these had once been formidable fighters, but now? Now they were mostly shells of their former selves, being marched to holding areas pending trials, trials which could only end with most of them never having unchained wrists again, unless they were fortunate enough to die quickly.
If there were any who expected to go free, none of the council members could identify them.
...Outside of Crossroads…
Enri finished touring the circuit with relative ease, there hadn't been a single attempt to sally out by General Boabdil or his aides, and the firing on her forces by his own was halted. "Conserving ammunition." Sun guessed.
"After our little probing attack and all those arrows went wild, bows broke, strings snapped, could be they're just worried about the quality of their equipment." Enri replied as she waved her hand dismissively and looked away.
"Maybe, but I'm surprised, General Boabdil did not seem the sort to let that happen." Sun responded with cautious optimism.
"Mhmm." Enri said indifferently as they came back to camp.
"Still thinking about the dragon?" Sun asked.
"Yeah." She said, more than a little disturbed.
"The wound was minor." He said. "You knew it was possible that General Boabdill wasn't bluffing."
"I know, but… I hoped he was." She said thoughtfully.
"Everybody did." Lupusregina said from her left.
"But he wasn't, we know that now, he's tipped his hand, he can hurt dragons, we're fortunate he let us know that now, rather than when they were carrying 'lunchboxes' to deposit into the city."
"True, it would have been very unpleasant to report to the Sorcerer King that the arena champion died in a lunchbox because a dragon got shot down." Enri replied with a grim laugh at the misfortune that had been avoided.
"No, he wouldn't like that." Lupusregina said passively.
"But now that we know, we can create countermeasures." Sun replied, "He was probably thinking this would cripple a part of our plans, but he didn't instruct his men well, they used the scorpion when it was against a single scouting target, instead of against our dragons in a body when they were carrying soldiers and on the attack. Had they delayed the usage, they could have caught us off guard at the worst possible time. Now instead of killing many, he killed none and has only created a problem we can overcome." Sun pointed out as he stroked at the thin beard hanging down from his chin.
"Armor?" Enri suggested, shooting a knowing smile.
"Armor." Sun replied, returning his own thin smile.
"Rune-crafted™." Lupusregina added her two bits.
"It'll take time." Enri replied.
Sun and Lupusregina shrugged indifferently, "What doesn't?"
"Fair enough, and we have it aplenty, while he does not." Enri said thoughtfully. "Alright, Sun, would you go to the craftsmen and get them started, I should at least pay a visit to Pael'disardarc."
"You know his name?" Lupusregina asked in surprise.
"No, I asked about it, but he'll think I knew it when I go talk to him, and even with a dragon, that is good for morale." Enri said with a smile that, sweet as it was, spoke volumes about her ability to understand and influence others.
It made Lupusregina quite pleased with her friend, and she slapped Enri on the back, hard enough that Enri pouted and rubbed the spot. "Not so hard Lupu!" She griped, and Lupusregina laughed.
"Hey, that was praise, you be grateful." She grinned widely as Enri guided them gradually over to where the injured were being treated. There was a very… relatively speaking, large frost dragon laying on the ground while several human mages treated the injury.
It had its eyes closed until Enri dismounted with her companions, then walked over and stood in front of its maw, the dragon was easily twenty five feet in length, not the size of his father, but a large one relative to a small human, and had the same pale scales and sharp claws. It opened its eyes when she touched him at the nose, those standing near looked at her with surprise, that she could approach such a being so close and not fear.
Enri was terrified, standing this close to such a being, it was one of those occasions she was profoundly grateful for the presence of Lupusregina, she was sure that the maid was more than capable of protecting her even from this, and so she buried her fear deep down in the pit of her stomach, and instead focused on the sense of awe at the sleak, noble, graceful form of the frost dragon prince. She gingerly touched him at the tip of his snout, and his eyes went open.
Pael'disardarc was unsurprised when he smelled a human coming close, the little beings were all over the place, several were treating his injuries, but it was quite a surprise when he realized that one… and two other beings, were standing so close to his mouth. Long lives were not to be found near the mouths of dragons. When his eyes opened and he looked down at her, he recognized her armor and his large eyes went larger. She looked at him without any sense of fear, and touched him with a kind of tenderness that he hadn't felt since he was a newly hatched young dragonling. He'd heard rumors from the goblins of her enormous strength, and given the disturbing strength some of them showed, that made her tender touch all the more remarkable. Her eyes were good ones, having a clear sharpness to them that reminded him of his father, yet now they looked at him with gentle concern.
"Are you alright, Pael'disardarc?" She asked, "I heard of your injury, you acquitted yourself well."
He snorted chill breath from his nostrils, "I withdrew." He said, "After they put a hole in my foreleg and one in my wing." He was a little sardonic as he spoke, "I do not count that as a victory, General Enri."
She smiled in her matronly way that had been endearing her to other beings, "Brave prince, you returned alive, and revealed valuable information by the risk you took, you will fight again, and we will be girded with invaluable knowledge. We now know, thanks to you, that we need armor for the dragon corps and increased armor for the lunchboxes, we also know that we need fire support and to give priority to their siege equipment, and to change the way you move in the air. All this we know, because 'you' flew out alone against an entire city. That was very brave, and I am very grateful."
That was unexpected praise, and it was enough to make him go quiet again.
"I'm recommending you for a commendation for your exceptional bravery in providing us this vital information." Enri said as she stroked the end of his snout. "The Sorcerer King, and your father, will both know of your courage and sacrifice."
Unsure of what else to say, he replied simply, "Thank you, General Enri. How soon will I be able to fight again?"
"From what I hear, the wound was made worse by enchantments, so it may take days for all the negative magic to be wiped away, but you will be able to fly against that city again when the time comes. Of that, you need have no fear." She replied calmly, continuing to stroke his scales.
"Good, I owe them another visit." He said eagerly.
"We all do. What is done to one of us, is done to all of us. For now, get your rest, let the mages work, our craftsmen will be creating new gear expressly to protect you and your kin for the next clash." She said confidently, he craned his neck back so he could look down at her more clearly.
"Good, I will not forget this." He said proudly.
"Or them." She said certainly.
"Or them." He confirmed as Enri moved on to speak to someone else as another large rock sailed towards the walls.
...Inside of Crossroads ...
Mananak was in a good mood, not the usual mental state for somebody who was literally constantly under fire. He'd volunteered as a 'patriotic Theocracy citizen' to run food to the walls during the siege. It was considered a high risk assignment, and evidently 'the blessings and the divine protection of the six' were not as much an incentive as the administration hoped. So they'd offered high pay instead. Since he'd been an early volunteer, they offered to give him a safer post, but he replied, "No, I must do my duty, I will take the same risks as all the others." It got him the admiration of some Theocracy officers, much to his satisfaction, several had offered him other positions closer to the command staff for higher pay, which he promised to consider the following day 'after his duty and some time to rest'.
He smirked, all the way from the slop shop to the base of the stairs to get up to the wall, only there did he wipe the smirk from his face to conceal his feelings. The pot he was carrying was quite heavy, but that was no problem, short or not, he had powerful arms, often driving him to wonder if he had a dwarf ancestor somewhere in his past.
He climbed the stairs rapidly and got to the top, as luck would have it, the probing attack was coming, and he slopped stew into bowls only slowly, pretending to exercise care as he counted how many bows broke, arrows went wild, and strings snapped at the draw. Roughly ten percent of those he observed had some kind of problem, that made him happy.
What didn't, was when he was providing food to those manning a scorpion and he saw the strange etchings on some of the giant bolts it fired. He looked at them with curiosity, "What the hell are those?" He asked as he slowly laddled stew for the crew.
They laughed, "A little surprise for those damn dragons."
"Are those like, enchanted markings?" He asked curiously.
"No," the crew chief chuckled, he was a big, barrel chested burly man with a thick brown beard and tree trunks for arms. "Those are just to mark them 'as' enchanted, makes em good and sharp, good'nuff to put a hole in a young dragon's chest."
"Oh wow, that'll make things ugly, but I don't see mages anywhere. Ain'tcha gonna run out?" Mananak asked, putting fear into his voice as he dug for more information and handed out the stew.
"Nah, I don't rightly know how they make em, but they're done somewhere else an it's a little odd. I went and asked the same thing though, counta I don't want to run out either, an it seems that won't be a problem." He said with relief in his voice as he took the bowl.
"Oh, well that's a great relief." Mananak said with a big smile and a dramatic wiping away of worry sweat from his brow. "Give em hell. I've got to deliver this to everybody else."
"Thanks again." The crew chief replied and waved him away as he began to take out a loaf of bread from his satchel and dip it into the stew.
'OK this might be a problem.' Mananak thought to himself as he finished his shift.