Her words passed through the shadows between her and the door, and beyond it, she listened, she waited, nothing happened.
"Well...was worth ah shot." She said with a shrug. "Kinda hoped he might be a lil pervy, nuff for me tah ketch'im." She muttered in annoyance under her breath. In truth she had not heard a thing, but she hoped perhaps he might be there, and she could perhaps trick him into thinking he had been caught, but it was a futile hope and she had expected it to fail anyway, so she slipped under the covers, glad to be out of her travel clothes, and she closed her eyes for a rest.
Of course...she could not see in the dark, nor was anyone around who could, but if...such a being had been present, one that could see her eyes as if they were in the daylight, they would have seen the happy, bouncy, mischivious eyes of the little peasant girl, go wide and stare up with sadistic glee behind them...for several minutes, before they closed and she drifted off into her slumber again.
The night for her was uneventful, when she woke, she dressed herself and packed her clothing, changing in to the garb that the previous owner had left behind...what she could fit of it anyway, and regretted the shirt that didn't fit.
The sun was barely peaking over the horizon, and she walked out the door and stretched, then moved to the gate through which they'd come. As she came around the corner, she saw the Sorcerer King in conversation with someone, a man in a suit with a...frog head...oddly enough.
The frogman being, if he noticed she was there, did not care to acknowledge her, he simply stepped through the hole in reality and vanished.
When the figure was gone, Vanysa waved and hopped up and down, and jogged over to the Sorcerer King.
"G'mornin sire, whosat?" she asked curiously.
"Demiurge, a servant of my kingdom, I was instructing him to being clearing beastmen camps from out of the villages that surround the cities." Ainz replied.
Her eyes widened, "Yah got servans that c'n do the same thin you do sire?" She asked in awe.
"No, but close, definitely good enough to bring down these beastmen, they're very weak so..." He shrugged.
Her eyes did not go back to normal, "Sire if these'r weak, what's strong to yah?"
He stroked his chin for a moment and thought, "You know...I'll let you know when I encounter it...maybe the demon emperor...but when I was at full strength he could not even damage me so...I suppose not." He shook his head, "I'll just have to let you know when I find something that counts as 'strong'. He said casually.
"Will tha beastmen really still be ther?" She asked uncertainly.
"Some I think." Ainz replied, "It seems likely to me since they're very tribal, some will venture farther into human lands...but in small numbers, while others will stay put, and others will withdraw back to their homes or inspect these now empty cities."
"If'n they gonna withdraw, how come they ain't been seen much on tha road?" Vanysa asked dubiously.
"Abundant supplies most likely, their advance was rapid and recent, so the ones staying in place will have enough to last for awhile, by contrast those who withdraw, have fewer supplies, while those who advance while farthest along, have the fewest supplies." He replied.
"Howdja know that?" She asked, incredulous at his statement.
"Simple, those with abundant supplies can afford to wait for more. Those with few supplies that can still reach the border will not take the chance of running out, and those with the fewest supplies are those farthest away, meaning they don't have enough to get home and so they must advance, or be hunted as they weaken during the long march home. Demiurge will target those on the move, and set a lower priority on those with abundant supplies that do not move, while we will take our time and allow the rest to make it back into their home country." He replied as he ticked off his answers on his boney fingers.
"But sire...whysat?" She asked. "Ain'tcha gonna kill em?" She asked hopefully, a sadistic gleam in her now clear eyes sharp eyes.
"Because a lesson must be learned here." Ainz said, his voice growing cold, "I will share a border with them, and I must make sure they know...to the marrow of their bones, that I can break them as easily as twigs, they will not even want to consider crossing the border for a lifetime or more, and the strain I will subject them to will be mitigated.
He began walking to the gate, and when he passed through, he summoned them their undead mounts, they got back on the beasts and resumed the ride.
They were quiet for awhile and then Ainz asked, "Do you know anything of their country?"
She shook her head, "No...I...don't." She answered, carefully forcing herself to shape her words properly.
"Nothing?" He asked carefully.
She shook her head, "Rumas onlah...rumors...only." She corrected herself again.
"I'll take them." He answered, "I will just compensate for the possibility they may be wrong."
Her eyes shifted again and she continued...
"Well, its supposed tah be a paradise of jungle an forest and wide open plains. Like a paradise for nightmare creatures." She said, again carefully shaping how she spoke, and as she did so the intelligent keen intelect that Ainz's observations of her behavior seemed to indicate, was slowly taking shape again.
It was bizarre to observe, her manner of speech seemed to change with her eyes, she struggled to pronounce her words as someone with a good education would, but whenever she made the attempt...she was successful. So he listened to her talk about the things she'd heard about the beastman country, the stories of the breeding pens where humans were raised and slaughtered like sheep or cattle, how these organized 'ranches' were a common trade between the beastman kingdoms. Trade did not flow outwards from them to many other kingdoms, and they seemed to have had a cordial relationship with each other. Strength seemed to be their founding principle, and they obeyed nothing that was not stronger than they were.
It was fairly limited knowledge, unsurprising, given the nature of their relationships with humans. They rode in silence for a little while, and then she asked, "Sire, wha wasat spell yah used yeserday?" She asked curiously.
"That was 'the angel who is bringing destruction'." he replied. She looked at him funny.
"Ain't angels s'posed ta be good, ow can somethin be an angel...an d'stroy? Ah mean killen beastmen is fine an all, but...ifn yah wanted ta, couldnae it have been used on humans?" She asked curiously.
"Yes, it could." He answered.
"Then ah don't get it." She said glumly, and Ainz went quiet for a time before saying...
"Tell me Vanysa...am I good?" Ainz asked.
"Ah thin so." She said. "Yah coulda killed me, butcha didn, yah saved me." She stared at him with moony eyes of awe, and he looked ahead pensively, seeing her look out of the corner of his eye. "Yah c'n do anythin, butcha teach me tah read an write, yah lemme follow yah, an yah savin all mah people." She answered. "If'n thats nae good, wha'is?"
"I have killed some two hundred thousand humans. At least." He said bluntly.
"Am I still good?" He asked.
She went pale.
"I have killed more humans in one hour than the beastmen killed in one year. So I ask you...am...I...good?" He asked again.
She shook..."Am ah gonna be one?" She asked in a small voice.
"No." He said in a voice that spoke of the finality of his answer. She relaxed a bit.
"Well...whydja do it?" She asked.
"It was a war." He answered, "My ally asked me to cast the most powerful spell I knew, so I picked one of them, and seventy thousand died in one instant, the remainder died from the after effects."
She relaxed more, and her eyes took on a sadistic gleam, and the exacting intelligence he'd detected hints of seemed to come out in her face. "Well, then you did what ya had to. Who can call ya bad for that?"
"Are the beastmen bad?" He asked.
She nodded firmly. "Very."
"Why?" He asked.
"Because...they kill us and torture us and eat us." She answered.
"Would they be bad if they just killed and ate you?" He asked.
She nodded firmly.
"What if they have no choice but to eat humans, are they still bad, aren't they just trying to live?" He asked.
She didn't answer.
"Wouldn't that just make us the villains who are killing them for just doing what they have to do to survive?" He asked.
She was still quiet, pensive.
"So the question is...what does it mean to be good, isn't it?" He asked. A fox darted across their path, and Ainz pointed to it, "That fox must eat rabbits and other small creatures to survive, the rabbits and other small creatures might think of it as evil, but it is just trying to live, this is the only way it has to continue to exist and feed its children, if we go from beast...to beastman...what changes?" He asked, spreading his hands and inviting answer.
"Ah...I don't know." She answered.
"I am counted evil by many, and not without good reason. I could have refused my allies request, I could have abandoned my desire for independence, I could have made many other choices, but instead I killed." He put one hand up, bent at the elbow and level with his chest, as if holding the option in place. "On the other hand," he said, bringing his other hand up to the opposite side, "I also fed many who would have died as a consequence, my food aid saved far more lives than I took. When I attacked the lizardmen, they were guiltless of harming me, but I chose to take them as my citizens, I killed a goodly number, but at the same time I have improved the lives of the survivors many times over, feeding them, educating them, and preparing them to take a larger place in the world. Left as they were, sooner or later they were going to be wiped out, if not by the frogmen they warred with frequently, then by other species who are larger, stronger, and more advanced. By killing some and seizing the rest, I have given them a future they could not have possibly had. So which act was evil? Leaving them...which I did not do...or building them up after taking them?" He asked.
"Ah..." He could see the wheels turning in her head as she worked out all the things he'd said.
"Perhaps I am evil...but that evil is directed to a positive end, a desire for things to be better than they were before, if evil is directed towards a good aim, is it still evil?" He asked.
"Ah don't see how..." She began, but stopped as she considered the scale of lost life.
"First tell me this," he said, "What does the word 'good' mean?"
The undead horses hooves clipped and clopped as they moved along the dirt road through the open grassy field, and for a long time it was silent, he wondered for a time if she'd given up, but a glance at her face showed she was still thinking.
"Well...tha priests say it means ta do what the gods say." She replied.
"And if the gods command that you kill those you loved before, would that be good?" He asked.
"Ah don't know..." She replied hesitantly.
"Why not? Is it not their command?" He asked.
She paused, "Supposed ta be but...tha gods wouldnae say that, so..."
"Don't they? I have heard the teachings of the priests, they routinely justify exterminating demihumans, or even killing innocent humans for their notion of a greater good, and they cite the teachings of their gods to do it. They assert a special place for themselves, as directed by their gods, and anyone outside of it has to die. I have met goblins, and lizardmen, and many species, and though they are of a different flesh than you, they have hopes, dreams, loves, fears, and they just want to live like you do. And remember, I am an undead, your gods teach that I am evil and must be put down...just because I exist." He replied.
"Oh..." She scrunched up her face but then brightened and said... "But yer ma god now, them gods didn't do nothing for nobody when the beastmen came, so ah don't care bout what their priests say."
He chuckled, "Well, if I gave you two completely opposite instructions, one to kill a person you knew to be innocent of ever harming anyone...and one instruction to protect someone who had never harmed anyone...would either order determine whether or not I am good or bad?"
She went quiet again.
"So is it good because the gods command it...or is it commanded because it is good, or are the gods irrelevant entirely to the question and good means something different?" He asked her, she could feel him grinning at her even without a face.
"Aight sire, whasee answer?" She asked.
"If I don't know, how would you find out?" He asked.
She pouted at him and he laughed, throwing his head back, his skeletal jaw bobbing as he found great humor in the moment.
"I do not laugh at you Vanysa, I was merely remembering one of my friends who used to do this with me, you reminded me of my own reaction to something he said so long ago, and it was refreshing." He patted her hand, she didn't tense up when his undead, fleshless bones touched her, another refreshing thing.
"I say that what we call good and evil are labels, we call things good when they benefit living beings...improving their lives, their health, their happiness. We call things evil when they are harmful to those things. If we ask ourselves how to tell right from wrong, well the beastmen may follow gods of their own, while the humans have gods of their own, and you have a god of your own...if we all say different things about what it is to be good, then the word 'good' has lost all meaning, indeed it means whatever who is in charge wants it to mean at any given time. Not very useful to call something good or evil in that case, is it?"
She shook her head, and he continued, "So for good and evil to have meaning...persistent and worthwhile meaning...we have to examine the results of our behavior and determine what is good based on that." He said in a reasonable voice, "After all, that is at least something you can say is measurable."
She thought it over for a moment..."But...what if'n you're wrong?" Her voice had a curious air about it, but her face was intense as she absorbed what he was saying.
"Then you learn from it." He answered, "Then do something different next time, if the consequences of a choice shift, then whether it is good or not, will also shift if we define good as rooted in the positive benefit to those living beings." He said patiently.
"But..what if'n there are no consequences, does nae hurt nor help nobody?" She asked.
He shrugged, "Then its not really a question or good or evil then, is it? After all, thats all we really mean, that we've done something to impact someone else, and they are better or worse off as a result, and if nothing changes, then it doesn't matter and we have no reason to care about the choice."
"Ah guess not." She said.
They went quiet again and she spoke up. "If'n yah coulda spared all them people yah killed an still gotten yer way...would yah'v killed em?"
Ainz shook his head. "No. I do not seek out meaningless slaughter."
She brightened up. "Well there yah go kinda...see...yer a king, yah gots ta make choices where ther is no good ta be had, doncha?" She asked.
"I do." He answered.
"Well, if'n yah make the best choice, the fewest die 'n suffer, right?" She asked.
"So...mebe yah just can't be all good an also be a good king all at once, mebe yah gotta be bad sometimes ta do some good cause the world sucks like that." She said, and pouted realizing her answer did not make her as happy as she thought it would when she began it.
He chuckled. "You may be right." He replied. "You may be right."
"But...can yer servan beg somethin from yah please?" She asked, looking suddenly vulnerable.
He nodded.
"If'n yah ever...yah know...hafta kill me...if'n I ever...hafta die fer somethin fer yah...please make it quick...ah can't bear more'n what was done...can do it 'gin...ah can't." She looked at him with eyes filled with memories of pain, and the more those memories seemed to rise up, the more the light in her eyes died, they lost their luster and their bounce, and the haunting tone of her voice was filled with agony.
Ainz did not meet her gaze, instead he looked up to the heavens and said softly, "If you ever have to die for me...whatever made you to do that will suffer as no one ever has before, I spare no wrath for those who harm my servants." He said.
As suddenly as it was there, the emotion was gone, she'd snapped back to herself, and rather than risk it's return he looked around and finding the spot to be as good as any, he said, "Lets stop here, you haven't eaten, and you can work on your book some more. Go and make camp."
She grinned, her bouncy eyes returned and she hopped off her horse, took a hatchet out of her pack and began cutting wood. Ainz played the role of king to a hilt, staying on his horse and waiting while his servant worked, but his inner worker and inner adventurer hated just sitting there, doing that would have been fun for him, a novelty, not a chore...but he once again found he had a role to play, and so he waited patiently for her to finish.
She bent over at the waist chopping branches off a fallen tree and carried them to an open space, she stacked them into position, then went back and dragged the tree with a steady groan of effort, she pulled with all the might in her small frame, and inch by inch the hunk of wood gave way. "Do you require assistance?" He asked, seeing her struggle.
She gave him a bit toothy smile and said, "No sire, ah gots this, yah just wait there, let yer servan do the servin!"
"As you like." He said, and she managed to haul it into place, then went and found some rocks, large ones, and flipped them one by one over to the opposite side of the tree, with the bundle of sticks between them. He watched while she dug a hole and stacked the wood in a pyramid shape for the fire, with ample brush and other dry materials underneath to catch the flame. Within a few minutes, they had a fire going.
She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "Sall ready sire, yah can relax!"
She stood by, stiff as she could with her back as straight as she could make it, he could see she was trying very hard to imitate what she must have seen coachmen and groomsmen and other servants do for their lords, and he accepted her effort as a tribute to him. "Well done, a fine camp. Now, would you like another sandwich?"
She beamed, "Aye sire! I wanna learn another sanich!"
"This one is called a BLT..." He began, and drew out what he needed to make it.
A few minutes later, he was looking at stuffed chipmunk cheeks and eyes watering from either joy...or the effort put into such enormous bites, and he could not keep back his laughter.
AN: Well, another day, another double release. :) I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you've found Vanysa to be an interesting character to watch. I love the way she interacts with Ainz, they're a very dynamic pair in very unique ways that...not to toot my own horn 'er nuthin' as she might say...but in ways that I just don't see elsewhere with any other characters. Kudos to those who recognized Euthyphro and other philosophical musings, I hope this chapter has entertained you and made you think, its got several more to go of course, as they're about to cross in to the beastman kingdom...but I'm afraid you're going to run out of double release days before the story reaches its climax.
Tomorrow will be 'God Rising' double release day so look forward to that! :) See you soon!