Breeding Issues

by The Ruff Pusher

Momon the Dark Hero encounters Zesshi Zetsumei. mature content/smut

29. Chapter 29

This story uses the same setting as my other story "Momon, Big Black Changeling". Essentially, Ainz Ooal Gown is the same type of creature as in that story, although this and that story happen in different worlds.

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The fighting had long since ended on the Re-Estize's Capital City. It had been discovered that mercenaries and bandits hired by the Eight Fingers had been responsible for the great fire that had engulfed the city during the siege. For a whole day, Remedios Custodios led her men to hunt down the filth. It was like she was personally taking responsibility for all the lives in the city—as if she knew death would be a far better substitute for the vermin rather than being forced into the servitude of the Sorcerer-King.

After it was made clear that victory had been secured, the Sorcerer-King had then conferred with his allies for a short while. After that, he had then pulled out the majority of his armies, leaving the duty of garrisoning the city to his trusted allies in the Holy Kingdom and his own small cadre of bodyguards. The rumored army that had comprised "hundreds of dread legions" had withdrawn and disappeared as if they had never existed, back towards a place that only the undead lord knew. It had been unnerving for Remedios' paladins to think on that, to know that the great massive armies they had witnessed for themselves had somehow found a way to disappear completely without disturbing the countryside, as an army was expected to do.

With their departure, a great hush fell over the city, as of the atmosphere in a wake. The once bustling metropolis was now a shade of its former self, its many buildings and streets devoid of even the slightest whisper. The great amount of burning done by the bandits and sell-swords had reduced much of its structures to blackened, bone-like husks. The great stink of a thousand burnt bodies wafted out between the smoke, which forced Remedios to appeal to the Sorcerer-King for a solution. Apparently this solution was to take away all the corpses overnight using some unknown scheme, a scheme which Remedios did not aspire to discover when she heard about it next morning. They left the matter at that, and bid gratitude for getting rid of the stink. Yet for many years after, rumor and songs would persist about the so-called "corpses stolen in the night" and of what evils the Sorcerer-King had done to those unfortunates.

Much of its commonfolk had evacuated the city when war had broken out with the Sorcerer-Kingdom, causing them to flee and seek out safer environs. The few brave or stubborn enough to stay dispersed into the countryside well ahead of Ainz Ooal Gown's great encirclement, when it became clear that the Eight Fingers were about to burn down the entire city over their heads.

These criminals had also similarly disappeared, to the confusion of the garrisoned forces in the city. As a result, only a very scant few people actually came out to receive the promised aid of food that Ainz had graciously left behind—and they were treated with suspicion by the Holy Kingdom's paladins for being possible criminals in disguise. They were joined by the surviving nobles and soldiers in being "graciously" housed at the palatial district—the only place that hadn't been burned or destroyed in the chaos.

Currently, as one ascended the hill on the palatial district leading up towards the palace, one could easily behold the rest of the city stretching out below on the left. Once, it had been a grand sight that easily stretched towards the horizon, a symbol of the multitude that the King of Re-Estize had the right of ruling; of what decades of blood and endless foundries of iron had forged, until the Capital had become a city that was truly meant for the ruler of this vast Kingdom.

Yet now, those beholding the sad wrecks of all that remained would only be reminded of the inevitability of ruin—of how a work that spanned centuries to build could be undone in just a manner of days. The Kingdom wasn't just dying, it was already dead for all intents and purposes, and it remained to see if necromancy could bring it back to life, or if it was to be buried, forgotten, in the tapestry of life for all time to come.

Certainly, the people forming the delegation from the Slaine Theocracy could not help but feel a grim sense of futility on seeing that while they ascended the steep hill leading towards the Palace for the third time in a row.

They were the representatives sent by that nation when the Sorcerer-King had put out a call for diplomats to witness the end of the great war between the three Kingdoms, in a so-called "Peace Summit". It was a strange thing to propose, as ordinarily agreements between nations were done on a personal, secret basis, without any need to show it off to others. So if there was to be a show of it, then it could only mean that either the Sorcerer-King was sincere, or he had something sinister planned behind it all.

Naturally, being nominally opposed to any sort of malevolent undead, the Slaine Theocracy had been reluctant to push their people into what was clearly the maws of some duplicitous trap. Even the assurances that the Baharuth Empire and the Dwarven Kingdom would be present did not make them optimistic: what if this was just some sort of ploy?

Yet their spies had brought back word that other nations were not being cautious. Rather than reject the Sorcerer-King, they were also sending their representatives: especially from Argland and the Draconic Kingdom, both nations who would be nominally opposed to an undead lord. Frankly, there was still a very real chance for the undead to declare his intentions by turning this meeting into a bloodbath. Yet when even the demihuman kingdoms consented to sending their delegates, then the Theocracy couldn't risk being left behind from being seen, or heard, at the table of nations.

And so she had been sent as an observer to the proceedings, accompanied by a cadre of competent warriors to serve as bodyguards. They were equivalent in strength to a high-ranking adventurer party from the official guild, and were therefore "elites" in the eyes of the world; though they could never hope to survive should Ainz Ooal Gown decide to enforce his evil. After all, the one who butchered at the Katze Plains and had defeated Jaldabaoth in a duel would not be intimidated in the slightest.

She was well aware that she was a sacrificial lamb in this, and that this position that had once been honorable and coveted had now turned into something perilous. Oh, sure the Cardinals would declare that the Gods had decreed long ago that she would die this fated death for the sake of the nation, and so on and so forth; but she wasn't convinced, and would have protested the order had it not been for the sizable stipend they would give her family should the mission go south. (And if she did succeed, then she would be rewarded with even greater things)

Still, this was going to be their third time going into a meeting, after the first two had been adjourned yesterday. She had met the terrifying creature known as Ainz Ooal Gown on those times, and had even stared right into the abyssal flames that lit up its eyesockets. Though nothing had happened to her on those previous meetings, she yet remained at the point where she would collapse into babbling hysteria from sheer terror. And it didn't preclude some great treachery happening later, that she obviously would be unable to foresee. She likened it to being a poor animal being fed and groomed like a pet, only to be slaughtered on the day of the feast! Such morbid, gloomy thoughts spiraled through her mind as her steps took her closer and closer to the Palace, where another day of meetings awaited.

Her adjutant, some fellow she knew from the academy and who had been promoted to the Sunlight Scripture, did not share in her pessimistic thoughts, at least not outwardly. The cheerful idiot could have been the diplomat in her place, but there were some politics going on at the top, and thus was the arrangement born. She could only watch as he had effortlessly greeted and conversed with the representatives from the other side, even with the Sorcerer-King himself, as if they were lifelong acquaintances. From whence sprang this reckless optimism, she did not know. Perhaps it was even a touch of the madness that always seemed to darken the members of Sunlight, who were trained to hunt.

"What's on your mind, Cap?" said the idiot on this very moment, breaking her moment of reverie with a bold flouting of decorum. This blatant disrespect towards authority should never be tolerated, yet she couldn't bring herself to correct the man, as it would most likely never be heeded. And of course, the bubbling anxiety in her stomach had not yet gone away. "Something to do with the meetings today, perhaps?"

She sighed. "As a matter of fact, yes," she replied, glancing towards her sunny companion. "Or, to be more precise, I'm thinking about what was revealed yesterday."

"Ah, the claims of 'civilized' occupation," the man replied, his smile widening.

"Yeah, that," she said, her mind once more delving into her thoughts.

She thought back to the meeting yesterday, when someone had demanded that the Sorcerer-King release his tyrannical hold over the captured territories, for the sake of the peoples who were clearly oppressed.

The Sorcerer-King had then replied that no such oppression was taking place, and that their occupation had been completely peaceful. An outrageous claim, and one which could not possibly be taken on face value.

"You will forgive us, Ainz Ooal Gown, but we have a need to verify things ourselves, so that this eminent assembly will not become complicit in any sort of unpleasant business," the representative from the City-State Alliance said. "Not only ourselves, but I am sure that the other nations will also need to see the truth of what you have claimed." There had been a smattering of murmuring to that, though no one had seriously voiced a dissenting opinion—until Remedios Custodios, of the Holy Kingdom stood.

"Are you seriously wanting to delay our peace negotiations just so you can be convinced?" she had asked, her expression one of disbelief. "Our troops have already confirmed it ourselves. Why waste precious time with this foolishness? Our country wishes for hostilities to be formally ended NOW so we can send our tired soldiers home."

Even the word of the Holy Kingdom representatives, who claimed that they had personally witnessed the condition of the captured towns and cities, could not suffice to support Ainz's claim.

"My lord paladin, though we have no reason to doubt your people's integrity, we are also bound by the pressing need before us all. Surely you must see how it is vitally important for the King Zanac to know that his people have been treated fairly according to the usual customs of fair and just warfare between nations?" Unstated was the implication that an undead such as Ainz would actually want to violate such customs, which no one, not even Ainz, protested.

For a while it seemed as if there would be a stalemate this early in the negotiations, that would lead to quite the tension among the gathered nations. Rather than be pleased that the Sorcerer-King was being held up, she had felt her anxiety soar, along with the pain in her stomach, aware that any delays would just lengthen the time she needed to spend in Ainz's presence. Luckily, there had been an intervention from a surprising direction.

"If we may be allowed to interject to all of us gathered here," said the representative from Argland. "We have taken the liberty of also conducting our own verification. And thus far, we find no reason to contradict the truth. Rather, we are even surprised at how such a thing is even possible." She nodded to Ainz, who nodded back.

"We appreciate your candor, representative. We had our doubts at the start when we revealed our plans to the Dragon-Lord, but now we know we can trust them," Ainz said. Disbelieving looks shot all around the room, for Ainz to have so casually mentioned a Dragon-Lord. Though she didn't know why the representative's expression looked livid, as if Ainz had actually insulted them instead.

Thus, it was only when the people from Argland presented their own verification to the claims, that others were forced to believe him, albeit grudgingly. Being the domain ruled by the Dragon-Lords, it would be hard for the other nations to claim that the Sorcerer-King was exerting his sinister influence on them. At the very least, they had communicated in secret, and so the worst that could be said was that the Dragon-Lords and Ainz were collaborating. The objection would still have stood, but that would have been impinging on Argland's honor, which no one would dare to challenge. She could have done it, on behalf of the Slaine Theocracy who were nominally opposed to the non-human led nation, but if she did that, she would be wandering into the sort of political quagmire that she knew was too beyond her.

As such, the initial demand was retracted. Yet doubt remained in her mind, a sentiment she was sure was shared by the others. Without the ability to send their own people to investigate the claim themselves, they could only but nod along and let things continue.

"It is very strange for one of the undead to seem so… benign," her adjutant said, presently, tapping a finger to his head. History and common knowledge, and their own experience, told them that the undead were fierce and unrelenting with their antipathy towards life and the living who embodied it. Even the strongest of their kind, who were not mindless and could broker deals with other races as suited their insidious aims, would always have that same malevolent desire to eventually betray and destroy. Only the God of Death was above such desires, and he was a god—and a shapeshifter to boot.

"In the first place," she said aloud, "Having to witness this undead negotiating is a rather peculiar thing, wouldn't you say?"

"I'm sure many other undead have had to make similar such deals in the dark," her easygoing adjutant said. "Well… not that I would know, of course. And there's something different here—this specific undead isn't dealing with unsavory crooks behind a cemetery: Ainz Ooal Gown is all about brokering deals with entire nations…" He glanced towards the ruin of the city. "… Beside the corpse of a nation."

She followed his line of sight and scowled. "I'd appreciate it if you temper your levity with regards to this undead with which we're tangled. You have to remember: this is an undead, beneath it all, and I'll not have you or anyone else jeopardize the Slaine Theocracy just because you got deceived by that undead's charms."

Her adjutant cleared his throat. "Do be careful, captain. We are in its territory after all. We wouldn't want to insult our hosts. Not before we're thousands of miles away at least. And that's not to mention the impression you're giving the men—"

"What impression?" she demanded, shooting him a venomous glare.

"… Well," he spread his arms in apology. "They have been able to hear your words and how you… speak them, should I say, every night. They came to me with concern about your… Well, your well-being."

She snorted. "They should mind their damned business."

"I am just saying, sir, that you should be a little more mindful with how you talk," he said earnestly. "And most especially when you're up against this wily undead. Who knows how he can just twist your words into what he wants."

"You're calling me reckless?"

"Diplomacy isn't your strong suit," he replied smoothly.

"Hmph. I should be sending you back to the mansion for that."

He made a bowing motion. "And I am eternally glad that you do not."

For the third time in a row, they entered the ruined Palace, once a grand structure that honored the Vaiself line and their ascendancy to rule over this patch of land hundreds of years ago. To the Theocracy, it was a testament to the strength of a human nation if given the right tools and the time it needed to flourish. In her opinion, ensuring its survival would have been an important priority: being the largest known kingdom that exclusively had humans in charge.

But the ruined archways, the broken glass scattered all over the floor, where the marble was shattered in many places, the fallen statues with unrecognizable faces, and the acrid stench of blood and ash—only reminded her of a sacred grove after an unlucky flame had burnt it to the ground. It was a sad symbol of fallen pride and crushed dreams, of the echoes of destiny stifled in the march of time and by malicious, evil deities. And just like the grove there might be some potential to return, to regrow—but it might never be exactly the same.

Certainly the "peace summit" was already building up to that eventuality.

They presently arrived at the Throne Room, which had been converted into the meeting place for this peace summit that the Sorcerer-King had proposed. The Throne was still present in the distance, forlorn and empty. Though Zanac had been formally crowned royal in these halls a few days before the start of the summit, he had refused to sit on the Throne that should have been his. He had stated that he would prefer to be seated among the rest of the people gathered along the large table that had been brought inside the room, diminishing his own status for some unknown reason.

She looked around, and saw that they had not been the first to arrive. Each of the other representative groups were now standing in their own corners of the room, since the Sorcerer-King hadn't arrived yet to formally begin the day's proceedings. They each deigned to entertain each other in conversation, preferring to treat the occasion not as a socializing party. Which was just as well—if she was forced to share a few words with people from certain nations for more than a few minutes, she might seriously have become insane.

The nations that had been invited—and had subsequently gathered here—represented the most powerful that were close enough to the Re-Estize Kingdom for the latter's affairs to truly matter. They had been nominal trade partners and allies in the past, when things had been far more stable and peaceful. It was true that they would be very much concerned with what might happen to the Re-Estize Kingdom, considering the after-effects of the City-State Alliance's chaotic beginnings still rippled unto this day: most notably in the spread of necromantic cults, like Zuranon. In fact, it had been a long-standing hypothesis in the Theocracy that a powerful necromancer from that time had been the one to turn into Ainz Ooal Gown, but several things just didn't add up about his perceived power and goals.

Here present for the third day of the Peace Summit, aside from themselves from the Slaine Theocracy, were the group from the Argland Council State, pawns and puppets of the secretive Dragon-Lords whom they knew controlled the nation. Then there were the ambassadors from the Draconic Kingdom, a state with whom they had been secretly building a rapport. The representatives from the fragmentary Alliance stood apart, looking sullen and suspicious. And then of course there were the new lapdogs of the Sorcerous Kingdom: Jircniv's diplomats and a single representative of E-Rantel. Lastly, there was Remedios Custodios representing the interests of the Holy Kingdom, a delegation seemingly made up primarily of their military instead of diplomats, as the white-clad paladins attested. The only ones missing at the moment, and whom they were obviously waiting on, were the Re-Estize Kingdom's own representatives and the Sorcerer-King himself.

It was to be noted that each and every one of the groups were composed purely of humans—or at the least, they appeared human. Despite there being no official stance against non-humans like in the Theocracy or in the Holy Kingdom, Re-Estize was still known as a predominantly human state.

She locked eyes and nodded with the other representatives each in turn, offering her silent acknowledgement of their presence while tacitly refusing to approach and begin any sort of conversation with them. While she had been appointed to represent the Theocracy's interests, that did not mean she was strictly here to promote themselves as a diplomat. She glanced to the side, to her adjutant. If there was a need to establish communications with anyone here, then he would be the one she would call upon.

The food was already there, served, though at present no one made any move to feed from it. On the first day various magics and spells were used to test the food that the Sorcerer-King had freely offered as refreshments during the Peace Summit. Even when all of the assembled experts declared that there was nothing wrong with it, everyone still ate sparingly and carefully, fighting to keep their minds free from the temptation offered by the mouthwatering dishes on display. It was hard not to feel that way when one saw roasted pig and other various sizzling dishes right on display.

Only her adjutant didn't eat—as he was a minor player on the table, no one would notice that he wasn't eating, and therefore no one would present awkward questions about why he wasn't partaking of the Sorcerer-King's generosity. Had had grumbled good-naturedly about being left out of a veritable feast, but was professional enough to keep it as a joke.

"Well, we're all here," she remarked under her breath. Her eyes scanned the room carefully, as if she was expecting some form of trap to spring out. "Hope we're not wasting time."

"It's a little before the actual time, though," her adjutant said, producing a timepiece in his hand which proclaimed the present time of the hour. "And as the previous meetings have proved, the Sorcerer-King has always been very—" Before he could finish his words, a gong-like sound echoed into the hall, loud and ringing in everyone's ears. "—Punctual."

Many in the delegation froze as they stood to attention upon hearing the sound, as if they were expecting some sort of battle.

"Announcing the arrival of His Majesty the King of Re-Estize, Zanac!" came the voice of the herald on the far end of the room.

The formal King of the Re-Estize Kingdom, the latest (and most likely last) scion of the Vaiself line, walked in through the doors. He was once again flanked by a pair of soldiers from the Holy Kingdom. This was necessary to give him some sort of gravitas, though to the rest of them it had indicated precisely the opposite. It indicated that the man had no loyal warriors of his own to call upon, nor less the money to hire said warriors to look the part.

They had initially assumed that this was some form of humiliation conferred by the Sorcerer-King. But they had discovered that the King really had nothing and no one he could call upon to become his honor guard. The nobles loyal to him were either dead, or had fled to their own lands, declaring themselves independent from the Crown. Those who had been left behind in this Capital had also been the ones who had taken over the rulership of the Kingdom in some embarrassing debacle after the abdication of the previous King. Obviously, these were all left dead or powerless after the Sorcerer-King's victory, and Zanac did not call upon their services.

And yet it was such a statement that despite the fact that the remnants of the nobility and their entourage had managed to survive in this very city, there was not a single one who raised a finger to present themselves as loyal subjects to Zanac. All of them, whether from shame of having repudiated him or from hostility to his ascension, absolutely refused to even act as an honor guard for him. The King was truly all alone in this Kingdom—ruler of nothing at all but the Kingdom's name, and that name was rapidly becoming .

The herald spoke once more, showing to all the world who truly held the power in this Palace at the moment. Though the King ruled, it was another King who held the reins, and dictated terms with sword bared at throat.

"His Majesty the Great, Wise and Powerful, the Sorcerer-King Ainz Ooal Gown!"

When the black-colored robes swept into the room, it was as if the light within it dimmed for just a slight moment. In his every entrance thus far Ainz Ooal Gown seemed to suck out all warmth and brilliance from the world wherever he appeared. She could not suppress the involuntary shudder that went through her body. She had heard all the reports, listened to all the gossip, but nothing could ever replace the spine-chilling sensation of being near an actual undead lord that commanded such great power.

Behind him, he was flanked by humans—an honor guard from the Baharuth Empire and E-Rantel. Why he chose them as his escorts when everyone here knew about the massive Death Knights just lurking somewhere in the Palace was proof enough of Ainz's intent. He wished to make it clear to all in the room that he had conquered the two states in the short time he had made himself known to the world. And now, under the pretense of this "peace summit", he would enslave one more nation beneath his dread cloak. Ainz took his seat not close to Zanac, as if to say to them that he was not going to directly influence him, but in her opinion that was a lost cause, as everyone knew who had pulled the strings to get them this far in the first place.

"Now that we are all here, my dear guests from all over the land, let us be seated," Zanac formally proclaimed from his place at the head of the table. "We shall now formally resume this Peace Summit." They all did as the King requested, taking their apportioned seats all around the large round table. Servants and adjutants emerged from the other doors and started bustling about behind their chairs, bringing sheafs of paper and various glasses filled with water and a peculiar drink the Baharuth people described as "sweet nectar juice". Being appropriately paranoid, she didn't drink from either of those and instead brought her own small water bag, enchanted to produce water repeatedly for a limited time per day. "Yet again we remind you that you need ask it of the servants and they shall bring food for you. This is to expedite the negotiations, as we need not take breaks in between."

There was a chorus of "ayes" to that. She noticed the City-State alliance representative motion to a servant for food.

Zanac continued, as he looked around the table. "We should also like to once again thank you all for attending this Peace Summit, to help ensure the fair and equal negotiations between our nations." He glanced towards Ainz and inclined his head. "We shall also once again thank the Sorcerer-King for granting us this very opportunity to negotiate on equitable terms, and as such we personally are grateful for his brilliant example of nobility." The King's face looked dour, his smile never quite reaching his dull-looking eyes. Here was a man who seemed accustomed to thinking much, and whose thoughts now seemed quite preoccupied with other matters.

Ainz Ooal Gown's skull head returned the gesture. "I am grateful for your words, Your Majesty. With your permission, let us formally begin the actual process of negotiating the peaceful end of the unfortunate war between our nations. And I pray that our guests shall be the guiding hands and eyes to steer us towards a favorable course—all for the sake of peace in the continent, which is of course the main objective of this Peace Summit."

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"Are you hearing this?" her adjutant mumbled to her, his voice barely a whisper.

"It's unbelievable," she mumbled back, even as she continued to write furiously on the piece of paper in front of her.

They had heard the rumors, of course. And the intelligence reports from their agents on the field had been very clear about the fractured nature of the Re-Estize Kingdom. They had even assumed that these cracks had been caused by the Sorcerer-King himself, just so he could conquer the whole place easier.

What they did not expect were several things. First, the Sorcerer-King had categorically stated, in front of all of them, that he had no wish to subordinate or directly annex King Zanac's realm to himself. Despite pretty much occupying nearly all of the towns and the villages in the entire Kingdom, he had loudly made a vow, "on his honor", that he would not attempt to take all the land for himself.

"For we fear what the people of the world would conclude: that the Sorcerer-King is nothing but a conqueror who cares not but for the land taken from his enemies and the glory he might gain therein. No, as I have stated when I declared war, this was to avenge our broken honor, when enemy troops violated our sovereignty like thieves in the night." Zanac stirred, as if he had something to say, but someone interjected with a question.

"Why then did your army sweep through the whole land and seemingly conquer everything?" asked a diplomat from another nation.

"I admit that my methods of war might be flawed," Ainz said. "I wished to be thorough, you see, and that is why I bade my forces sweep through the whole nation, capturing the towns and fortresses and castles as needed. But as has been confirmed, I did not slaughter the inhabitants, and my forces never killed unless they were being resisted by an actual army."

There was some grumbling at that, perhaps mostly from those veterans who might have wanted to lecture the Sorcerer-King on what sort of plans they would have made in his stead.

Then came the second unexpected thing. They knew that many disloyal nobles had declared themselves independent even before the War with the Sorcerous Kingdom. They had expected that it would be a perennial headache for Zanac and his heirs to deal with. But they did not expect him to capitulate completely, to acknowledge that the lands were lost, that he had not the means to secure his authority over these rebellious lands for himself!

"This is one of the reasons why I have called for this assembly," Ainz said. "For I have been faced with this dilemma, and knew I could not solve it alone. I am sure all of us are aware that having such a fractured realm would only lead to further chaos, not just for the immediate neighbors, but for all nations that are just close by. It would lead to many troublesome situations which would not be welcome for any of us, I should think."

Zanac inclined his head, his eyes glancing shrewdly at the people from the City-State Alliance. "Indeed, history has shown us full well how the troubles of so many nations packed into a certain space would lead only to further bloodshed and tragedy, repeated again and again. We do not wish to see our former nation reduced to such a sordid state. The Sorcerer-King had the foresight to realize this, and therefore took steps to mitigate the oncoming disaster." The ambassadors from the Alliance glared and gritted their teeth at the thinly veiled reference to their own sordid history, but wisely said nothing.

"Therefore, all you gathered here must help us create a wise and proper transition towards a new state of affairs. We cannot stop these new petty kingdoms from growing; but we can determine how best these fragments can form, so we may finally attain peace."

"But King Zanac, are you certain of this?" asked the representative from the Holy Kingdom. "Do you know what the Sorcerer-King proposes? He would have us dismember your nation! You would willingly accept the dissolution of your mighty Kingdom?"

Zanac smiled crookedly as he faced the questioner. "Had I even a hundred loyal men to my name, I would have insisted on leaving me to sort out my Kingdom's affairs in my own way." He shook his head.

"But I do not have even that. And as such, I cannot even bring to heel these would-be kings and queens whom I can rightfully call 'traitors'. And of course, were I to seek aid from any one of you; indeed, even from the generous Sorcerer-King, I would be nothing more than a beggar with palm outstretched for the barest of scraps. A beggar King, if you please." If the King seemed bitter, he was doing a clever job of hiding it. "Nay, the Vaiself line has pride yet, and as such I must bow to the reality that is before me. One way or another, my dear paladin, my nation has been well and truly shattered, and I cannot mend it together anymore. I can only pick up the pieces and attempt to salvage something of it."

There was a host of murmuring to that.

"So what does this mean, exactly? Who will be leading these new nations? Are you allowing these nobles to declare themselves new Kings just as you?" came another question.

Zanac hesitated, before nodding. "Just so. Determining how much will be given to them and recognizing each of their specific claims will be one of the responsibilities of this gathering. We trust that you shall take up this mantle eagerly, so that we may reach the peace we all desire."

There was a pause of silence as each of the parties processed that statement among themselves. Then she cleared her throat and said, "Am I to understand, then, that we shall need to talk with these would-be monarchs? That they will need to be present here? If so… are they already here?"

"Alas, no," Zanac said. "But the word has been sent, and they are being escorted here as fast as a carriage can fly—courtesy, of course, of the Sorcerer-King."

She sat back and glanced at her adjutant, whose somber look reflected the realization that each of them had made. Suddenly, the agenda was no longer just about concluding this war and discovering what the Sorcerer-King intended: now there were far greater ramifications.

"Most of those people… these 'traitors' as King Zanac would call them, had surrendered to me, personally, and not to the Holy Kingdom, when they threw down their arms before my forces," Ainz explained. "When we questioned them about it, they said that they were independent nations, yet to be officially recognized by the Re-Estize King. Some even pledged to become my vassals in exchange for my protection." Looks of alarm went all around the table. Ainz pointed to the center of the table, where there was placed a map of the entire area, with several distinctly colored flags placed on certain territories. "You can see I had my forces mark them as the blue ones." She and the rest saw that there were plenty of blue flags—meaning that there were that many "traitors". No wonder the King felt discouraged: it was as if his whole nation had up and revolted, and he could not do anything.

Ainz continued, "But having not been aware of this situation within the Kingdom, I could not really accept their offers just yet. Now with the war's end, I put the question before Zanac, who has in turn placed the question before you. He has magnanimously allowed them to do as they wish and grant them independence, but he looks to you for aid facilitating the whole process."

"And the Sorcerer-King must again be praised for his foresight in solving what might have become a logistical nightmare. We would not have been able to afford, nor less tolerate having to wait for the arrival of these upstarts. But with his aid, he has been able to make it possible," Zanac said, with a peculiar smile on his face.

She could sense the growing interest in other representatives, when they saw certain prospects outlined so clearly before them. They could not merely just take land for themselves now—now these new states became so much more important to the ongoing history of the region.

For their part, they would be blind not to see the opportunity that they could grant to their own Theocracy. Her eyes went to the part of the Kingdom, that directly bordered them, a region centered around the city of E-Pespel, which had always been of interest to their nation.

And then the negotiations began in earnest. Despite the recent surprises, she and her adjutant were watchful for any outrageous demands or declarations from the Sorcerer-King. Being an undead, he could easily be expected to "punish" Zanac for starting the war with some cruel demands.

"And so, we must then negotiate the formal end of hostilities between the nations of the Holy Kingdom, the Re-Estize Kingdom, and the Sorcerous Kingdom," Zanac announced. It was a foregone fact that the other nations would only be witnesses to this, and should not invite or insert themselves into the negotiations.

Surprisingly, the actual negotiations were quite benign—and even tedious in a way. The bulk of the demands came from the Holy Kingdom, who had been the first to be struck in what they called a "heinous act of war".

"…For it is a clear and recorded fact, that the soldiers of the Re-Estize Kingdom struck first on that day, destroying and raiding several of our border towns and thoroughly violating our sovereignty—and all this completely unannounced contrary to the normal conventions of civilized warfare," Remedios said. "The Re-Estize Kingdom claimed to have sent a declaration of war to the Holy King. Yet even with allowing for slight delays in the conveyance of the declaration, these sudden attacks should still not have occurred. They reek of the rampant barbarism that only common bandits—and demihumans—are capable of."

Zanac had no response to that barb, but merely said, "A declaration of war was indeed sent—and it was but a twist of fate that its delay went far beyond our initial calculations, thereby turning a legitimate military strike into banditry. For that, the Re-Estize Kingdom extends its greatest apologies."

The King's explicit apology made her sit back, like all the rest. He was not obligated to be so candid, and yet he went ahead and did so anyway. There was still the possibility that the Sorcerer-King was controlling him, so she was still rather skeptical.

"It is good that you have acknowledged your mistake, King Zanac," Remedios continued. "And so, here are our… the Holy King's demands."

Reparations were demanded for the damage done to their border towns, and a small strip of land was annexed from the Re-Estize side of the border, enlarging the Holy Kingdom by a small degree.

"I wonder if the King can even pay for it," her adjutant said. "If he's really about to have his realm divided, then he won't be able to give the payment that's needed."

"Perhaps they will have a plan later," she replied.

Her words were affirmed when Zanac said, "We accept the requirement to pay, but I must stress that after this Peace Summit is concluded, the entirety of the Re-Estize Kingdom will not just be one, but many realms divided. Should we be expected then to shoulder this burden alone?"

Remedios hesitated, then shook her head. "In that case, then we shall equally demand a joint payment of reparations from all nations who occupy the former Re-Estize Kingdom's places. Before we endorse the formation of these new nations, their nations must sign the treaty that binds them to these terms."

"And I shall also insist," said the Sorcerer-King, his deep, booming voice causing many to shiver. "That these 'successor states' share the burden of payment as well. After all, it is hardly fair for King Zanac himself to shoulder the burden all alone, when there appears to be many others who have profited from the war."

"We thank you for your thoughtfulness, Ainz Ooal Gown," Zanac said. He looked around at the others. "We trust there are no complaints about the arrangement?" When both the monarch of the country and the fearsome undead lord were in agreement, then there really was nothing anyone else could see, except perhaps to accuse the Sorcerer-Lord.

Next, the Sorcerer-King made some token demands, such as a permanent embassy with every piece of the Re-Estize Kingdom that was going to be pulled free. There would also need to be a long-lasting trade agreement with those nations, in order to turn them into a primary market for the goods from the Sorcerous Kingdom. Other than that, no outright declaration of vassalage was declared, nor of any annexation of land.

"Well then, with the Sorcerer-King having concluded his demands, we can now move on to facilitating the… distribution of the new lands, pending the arrival of the emissaries and diplomats from these… prospective successors." Zanac's face looked like he was enjoying some side joke that made him both sad and happy. "And since they shall not be arriving today, we hereby adjourn this Summit until tomorrow. Please be well, everyone."

The meeting was therefore adjourned for the day, to allow time for the Sorcerer-King to escort the representatives of each of these states to come to the Palace to join them. Zanac was quick to disappear into his quarters, while the others filtered out back to their apportioned areas, to discuss matters of great import. She had wanted to talk with the Draconic Kingdom emissaries, but her adjutant convinced her that it would not be a good idea.

Later, in their own quarters, she and her adjutant were deep in discussion. They had also opened a line of communication back to their superiors in the Theocracy, asking for advice on how to proceed.

"Understood. Thy wisdom is appreciated," she murmured, as the [Message] was cancelled. She scrawled several lines of notes on the paper in front of her.

"We don't need to do anything on our end," she said. "They'll take care of contacting the border towns themselves."

"Ah. Does that mean they were prepared for this eventuality?" her adjutant asked, his brows knit in thought.

"Believe it or not, it seems our spies still remain active on those border towns, particularly in E-Pespel. Even after the war they've managed to survive, and are still sending intelligence back to the Scriptures… But now I see they'll be forced to reveal themselves as official diplomats for the Theocracy. It's the quickest way to establish communications with them, to do what needs to be done. As they said, it'll have to be quick. Apparently, there were already some rumors about their defection from the Kingdom—but now we have to formalize it as a joint effort, one would say. Though, that's something we don't need to worry about on our end. Our current mission as ever is to monitor the Sorcerer-Kin here."

The Theocracy had spies established in each country close by, and none were more numerous than in the Re-Estize Kingdom. Their secretive presence was especially prevalent in the fiefdoms close to the Theocracy border. Indeed, it was her impression that they had managed to infiltrate enough that, had war erupted between their nations, those territories and the forts located within them would have immediately turned coat. Such was the influence the Theocracy wielded in those lands.

And so, in light of this news, that influence would now need to be leveraged to push forward the necessary plans that would be a great boon to their country.

"I wonder how big the territory will be?" her adjutant wondered. "And that's just one country. Imagine all those little shards of countries broken away everywhere. The Re-Estize Kingdom is vast—that's why we rated it as an important bulwark of humanity. And now it's splintering apart."

"Then it's all the more reason for us to step in and mitigate the potential chaos," she replied. "You heard the King. He admitted he can't manage all those rebellious lords. There's too many of them for him to reconquer all by himself. And if he tried calling for aid from any of us, that would just be showing himself to be a vassal in word if not in truth, so what would be his worth as a King then?"

"Hmmm… But I had the impression that the lands around E-Pespel had been loyal to the Crown. They didn't declare themselves 'Marchers'."

She smiled. "You'd be surprised how fast things can change, especially with the right whispers in the right ear… Well, the King doesn't need to know that, I think. The less of the truth he knows, the more our nation will benefit. And after all, that is our primary aim here is it not?" She shook her head. "If there's one thing that one could possibly thank the Sorcerer-King for, it's this golden opportunity to shape a little bit of history. Who knows? The Re-Estize Kingdom started from nothing. Perhaps this new splinter ally of ours will become just as great many years from now."

Early the next day, word came that the representatives from the far-flung territories had arrived, each bearing the demands from their masters. Since not all of them were nobles who had come personally and were their chosen retainers instead, the King could not just have them arrested (which he technically could have done, by his right). He could also have done as he wished with these representatives, however that would have cast a dark pall on the proceedings, so he was wise not to do it.

Though she could sense from the King's expression that he so wanted to do it.

The Peace Summit was then reconvened, and the first agenda to be run was hear out each of these representatives in a grand audience. One by one, these representatives presented their declarations of independence and/or autonomy from the Re-Estize Kingdom, and submitted themselves to the judgement of the gathered nations there. The entire affair took up the whole day, as there were more than twenty of these territories and petty fiefdoms who wanted to break from the King. By the end of it, even she was tired from all the pomp and posturing, and was glad for the adjourning.

This also gave them an opportunity to speak with the representatives from E-Pespel.

As it turned out, the politics involved in even this went way above her head. Even the man bearing the declaration from the lord of E-Pespel could not say much of anything, only that "after some introspection" his master had eventually decided that he would indeed help form a new nation from the dust of the Re-Estize Kingdom.

The introspection had most likely come as secret messages from the spies embedded in the city, after they had received quick Message communications from the Theocracy. It was hard to believe that they had managed to iron out some form of agreement in so few time, but it seemed they had managed it.

"Things will have to be negotiated later, of course," the man from E-Pespel said. "Particularly with regards to certain prospects… and agreements between our two nations."

"Indeed, such dreary politics should be left for later," her adjutant said, toasting the man with a glass of wine. "For tonight, let us just celebrate your oncoming independence and birth as a new nation! To E-Pespel!"

"I shall certainly drink to that, sir," the man said, toasting in return.

The size of the proposed new country was considerable, as the E-Pespel lord had been given the loyalties of other minor nobles who were also in the Theocracy's pocket. All in all, the nascent confederation was to be a sizable domain, that would be carved out of the Kingdom's corpse, and it would sit there at the border of the Slaine Theocracy—a formidable bulwark and future cats' paw for their own use.

"I have also heard, from the grapevine you understand," said the E-Pespel man, "That matters will be arranged such that we shall be having a sizable army from the start."

She nodded. They had informed her the night before that the Theocracy was going to be reaching out to the scattered remnants of the Re-Estize army and bribing them towards the new E-Pespel domain. She guessed that this would be moderately successful, seeing as soldiers so suddenly dispossessed of work were quite prone to turning to banditry to make ends meet. Assuring these luckless soldiers that there would be a place for them in this new country would be a good enough carrot to bring them over.

"You thinking we'll start invading and reconquering the other nations?" the man asked.

Her adjutant shook his head. "Too soon for that, my man. After everything's settled, we're all going to be watching what the Sorcerer-King does. We'll need to see what exactly he intends before we commit to anything. And that's what we'll also be saying to whoever'll be leading you. Just sit tight, and keep the faith, is what I always say."

After that came the wrangling, primarily from those who had been hitherto uninvolved in the war, such as their own Theocracy; as well as from the prospective new nations that would be born from the ashes.

For herself, she was authorized to "buy" land from King Zanac, in the form of a lump sum of resources given directly to the now reduced nation in exchange for certain strips of land close to the border. Even for such a payment, their demands were certainly outrageous. But that was the new norm. Zanac couldn't really afford to be turning his nose up at such offers, and at this point could he really protest such a thing? Only Ainz Ooal Gown could have blocked it, but the Sorcerer-King seemed intent to allow it.

It was not just the Theocracy, too. The other nations were also butting in and making their own claims, disguised as purchases from the Re-Estize Kingdom in the form of gold or other resources. To her eyes, Zanac's Kingdom was like a freshly butchered cow, and though they were forbidden from taking the big, juicy bits, they were all still scrambling to pay for any scrap of the meat.

After that, the new nations now made their demands, presenting their preliminary plans for the creation of their new domains for all them to hear. Borders were discussed and redrawn to solidify the formation of all these new nations. In the event of any conflict of lands being jointly demanded, it was left to the other nations (including Ainz) to arbitrate this way or that. She was sure these lands would remain hotly contested for the foreseeable future.

In the end, after another day of negotiations, the new nations were heralded in a historic document signed by all the new nations and witnessed by the others. Separate documents were made by the witnesses, recognizing the independence and sovereignty of the new nations, with the wording specifically aimed at the Sorcerer-King and his unknown ambitions.

The negotiations had seemingly gone so well in the eyes of the others that the Argland representatives made the excuse of leaving early, citing that they had gotten what they wanted out of the Summit; and that they were pleasantly surprised at the peaceful conduct of the nations who had gathered there. It got to the point that they actually thanked the Sorcerer-King, a rather surprising viewpoint coming from the puppets of the Dragon-Lords, who should have abhorred him.

Still, the Theocracy would not share this optimism, and they spent some more days afterward playing the role of intermediary between their nation and the other new ones. Though the Summit was officially over, the Palace was still open for discussions regarding trade and other matters among the new states. She and her adjutant spent their hours helping pen new trade agreements and other secret protocols with each of the new nations that had been born on that historic moment.

Eventually, the other representatives went back home, leaving only the Theocracy as the last still remaining within the Capital City. As arbiters of humanity, they had their own duties to fulfill, and that was the reason why they arranged a meeting with the Sorcerous Kingdom—with Ainz Ooal Gown himself.

"Please come in, guests from the Holy Kingdom," the undead lord said, as he received them at one of the Palace's rooms. Apparently, it had once been the Kingdom's War Room, now left broken and dilapidated after the chaos had swept through the Palace.

"Sorcerer-King." She bowed slightly, as did her adjutants. She had brought her full escort today, and they stood stiffly at attention, ready to lay down their lives in case this meeting turned sour.

She could feel Ainz's gaze scythe across them, like an ill breeze whipping out from a black cave filled with negative energy. Instinct told her to flee, to resist, to do all in her power to get away. But duty held her firm and fast to her feet, even when she knew she may die.

"I must admit, I did not expect your side to arrange this meeting," Ainz said. "Were there any problems you wished to discuss? Was the outcome of the Peace Summit not at all what you expected?" He paused, as if in thought. "I would have thought having a new country under your thumb would already be enough for you."

"Sorcerer-King, I just want to know…" she began, with trembling voice. Her adjutant must have realized something from her voice, as she felt his hand on her shoulder. "Stop! Let me talk!" she cried, jerking her shoulder away.

"Hm?" The undead lord tilted his head, as if in confusion.

"It's you!" she blurted out. "You! You! Everything about you is wrong! Different! Twisted! You're supposed to be the big undead lord, master of the race of creatures who hate the living beyond all reason! It's what is natural for you! You exist to hate, hate and only hate! So what are you planning, you damned monster! What frightful schemes lie beneath your honeyed exterior, the cruelty simply masquerading as mercy! Oh, yes! We're onto you! We know what exactly you are, and even though you have successfully duped and bamboozled everyone else, we shall always be here, to know what exactly you are underneath! So why don't you just stop toying with us, and have out with it! Kill us! Slaughter the living! Isn't that what you're supposed to do! Isn't that what you were born to become!?"

She gasped, as the lack of breath in her body finally caught up with her. She almost slumped to the ground, were it not for her adjutant's strong arms, which kept her upright.

"My sincerest apologies, my lord Ainz," he said, his voice flattering and extra-unctuous. "My boss has had the most stressful day. Please, find it in your heart to forgive her unusual outburst, and please do not mind the words she has said. She has been very tired, very tired, and she does not know what she says. In addition, anything she has said does not reflect the views and opinions of our greater superiors, in the Theocracy. Please forgive us for this unseemly display. I shall take my boss back to her quarters, and then I shall return to you to apologize in full. Please do grant us this indulgence, oh great and honored Sorcerer-King, full of wisdom and power."

Under his breath, she heard him say in a much harsher voice than usual, "Let's go, you foolish woman. We'll be lucky if we survive this day. If I knew what you were planning I wouldn't have let you get this stupid…"

Then, as they were turning away, they heard the clearing of a throat. "If I could have your attention please." They froze, feeling as if an ice-cold vice had clamped around their hearts. Slowly, they turned to face the Sorcerer-King once more.

"Wha-?"

"Impossible…!"

They all stood stock-still and stunned when the Sorcerer-King's face was no longer that of the grinning skull they were all used to, but a man's. He looked like an average-looking man, with nondescript features, of an age close to thirty or so.

"This is a trick!" she shouted, tearing her arms free from her adjutant and pointing at him wildly. "You're wearing a mask to deceive us!"

"I find," the man-faced Ainz now said, looking non-plussed by her outburst. "That it is too easy for one to judge others just by their covers. I have experienced it myself." He blinked, then smiled. "I care not whether you do believe me. But understand that I will do all in my power to ensure the safety of my people, and I will go through any lengths to achieve that goal."

His face melted away, almost like it was made of hot wax, reverting back to the skull face they knew. Ainz rose from his seat, and turned away.

"Wait!" she shouted, running forward, as if she wanted to tug at his clothes, to stop him. Yet the undead lord's bodyguards impeded her path, smashing their halberds together in an intimidating manner that brooked no defiance.

"I bid you good day," Ainz said, as he departed the room without looking back.

---

"Did I do the right thing, I wonder?" Ainz muttered, as he walked through the desolate halls of the Re-Estize Palace. It was night, and everything around him was shrouded in darkness. Yet he did not feel alone, as there were many strong creatures surrounding him, guarding his back and his front, protecting him from all attacks.

It had been reckless, he was sure, to showcase off his unique talent just like that. When that impudent woman had been insulting him right to his face, accusing him of many things he didn't even quite remember, his thoughts had drifted to Ueda. She had begged him to reveal his true self to the world, to show that he was not just Ainz Ooal Gown, the undead lord, but the God and Player he really was in truth. She had insisted that by doing so he would be able to have a much easier time, what with people now fully aware he was an actual God.

And so he had recklessly changed himself in front of the Theocracy ambassadors, despite his inner misgivings about revealing a potential weakness in front of possible enemies. He had also wanted to lord it over the woman, to smugly shoot down and belittle her accusations against him by proving that he wasn't just some undead. Unfortunately, after that, he was no longer sure if he had really done the right thing.

The worst part of revealing his capabilities to a prospective enemy was that they would see a glimpse of what he was capable of, and would therefore have some advantage when it came to fighting him. Still, wasn't sure on what sort of advantage would be gained in knowing he could transform into a human. Perhaps they would assume it was only a temporary thing, and therefore plan accordingly. Or it was merely an illusion-type spell, and not a complete transformation—as was the actual truth.

If they did go off on the assumption that he could become human, then they would also come to the natural conclusions. Was he more vulnerable as a human more or less, did he have any noticeable changes from his "other" form? Did he have bodily needs that could be exploited now? Would he die if they tricked him into transforming at a crucial moment? Is it possible he might have found and impregnated someone, siring children that had to be accounted for?

That last bit made him worry the most. He had vowed to himself that he would protect the mothers and his children with all he had. Yet with this act of recklessness, he may well have jeopardized their lives in the future. Even if he kept them hidden always behind Nazarick, these people would suspect their existence, and there would be no stopping the possibility—however faint—that knowledge of them would leak. He could well envision a situation where his children would beg him to leave Nazarick and despite all his precautions, they would be captured or killed.

Perhaps all the stress of organizing the Peace Summit was finally getting to him. He had managed to fake sleep to avoid the majority of the mindless, boring speeches during the meetings, but he was still very tired from having to attend them at all. At times he had even thought of sending a doppelganger to take his place while he watched from a different room.

As he debated on whether or not to have his forces in the Capital City capture the Theocracy delegation so he could perform a mind-wipe operation on them, a Message came to him from one of the officers in charge of the local garrison.

"Yes?"

"Forgive me, Ainz-sama. The ones from before have returned to the meeting place you recently left. They are demanding to meet with you once again."

"Huh." Was this it? Was this going to be how they would try to best him through trickery?

"Shall I turn them away my lord?" asked the leader. "Or shall I destroy them instead?"

"No!" he said hastily. "Don't do anything to them." He took a breath and looked around. His immediate surroundings seemed like they would be advantageous to him, should it come to a drawn-out fight. And of course, his troops would also be present. "How many of them are there, by the way?"

"It is the woman from earlier, with the man in tow."

"The guards?"

"They are not present."

He cocked his head, puzzled.

"But there is another, new one, accompanying them. It is just the one."

He sighed. That didn't imply anything. This new one could be some sort of secret weapon they wanted to deploy, much like Zesshi had been at first. "Very well. I am currently in the west wing, overlooking the second floor. Send troops to fortify the place in secret, and direct them to my location."

"As you wish, Master."

The party arrived in due time, still well after he had his secret troops scattered all over the area, ready to strike when the opportunity came. Ainz mustered up as much of his "king-like" demeanor as he could manage. He would be needing it, just in case he would be transforming back into his human self.

The trio of visitors came, with the impudent woman and her aide flanking an unfamiliar-looking man, who was clad in white plate with golden highlights. For a moment, he was struck by a sense of déjà vu, before realizing that the central figure's features—what with the blonde hair and red eyes—were a close resemblance to Clementine. He dimly recalled Clementine mentioning she had family of sorts. Was this who she was referring to?

"Greetings, Sorcerer-King," the man said. "Forgive the late audience. I am Quaiesee Hazja Quintia., Fifth Seat of the Black Scripture."

For a long moment, Ainz just stared, and nearly forgot what he was supposed to be doing. For that same long moment, there was a tense silence. The Theocracy people stirred uneasily, glancing among themselves, as if they were equally confused by his sudden and strange behavior.

"My lord…?" Quaisse said, tentatively.

"…My apologies," he said, angry at himself for losing his composure like that. Thank goodness he was still an undead, or they'd have caught him staring slack-jawed and stupid! "It is just that… you reminded me of someone."

"Someone…? It can't be…!" Quaisse gasped, taking a step forward. "Can you—" Then he stopped, his face flickering with expression as he stepped back. He cleared his throat. "I must also express my apologies for that, my lord. Please, let us move on."

"Indeed. Why have you called for me?" He rubbed his chin with his bone fingers. He willed himself to be calm, as with any negotiation. The first one to show weakness was the first one to lose, as good a wisdom to stand by as any.

"Isn't it obvious!" the woman from before blurted out. "What with you showing us that… who wouldn't be surprised?"

Now another silence ensued, as the other two stared at their fellow, joining Ainz who was quite literally raising his brow at the loud, impudent woman. In a way, she reminded him of Remedios, who always seemed eager to speak her mind, despite the fact that it would lead to awkward situations.

"… Please forgive her, my lord," Quaisse said firmly, after staring silently at the woman. No doubt he had silently given her a drubbing without needing to say anything.

"I can see that you in the Theocracy have quite the wide assembly of people. I recall meeting some of your people in the Baharuth Empire—back then they didn't want to speak to me at all! And now here you are, spilling your words easily." He laughed privately to himself, as if enjoying a joke.

"Ah, that is to say…" Quaisse began, his expression stricken.

"There is no need to explain." He closed his eyes, and willed his transformation back to his human form. At that, he could feel his soldiers tense, having been given orders to watch for anything once this happened. For though Ainz was still protected by his own magics and the underlying mechanics of his transformation (for example, his skeleton was as hard as a dragon's beneath the human covering), he was still rather more vulnerable in this form. "This is what you were referring to, yes?"

The three gasped audibly, staring at his body with equal parts horror and fascination. He held out his hand to them, and where once it had been a skeletal hand with rings set on its fingers; now it was a fully fleshed out human hand.

"Incredible!" Before any of them could say anything, the woman had rushed forward to grab onto his hand. He tensed, almost anticipating an attack, but the woman was merely rubbing her fingers over his skin. Every bit of control was spent on not raising his other hand, which would have precipitated the attack from his troops.

While the woman was rubbing his hand, she turned to her fellows and said, "I can feel it!" she shouted. "It's not an illusion! It's a real, actual hand!"

The other two started muttering among themselves. Ainz could hear what they were saying through his enhanced ears, but he couldn't understand. He caught faint snatches of words such as "the returned one", "the Divine", "god", "Surshana has returned", and "the Six". He vaguely recognized some of the terms from the reports that had been written by Zesshi and Ueda, but beyond that he could not understand more.

Then, he heard the one word that pricked his ears the most. "Player."

Their mutterings ceased, and Quaisse stepped forward, gesturing to the woman to fall back and let go of his hand. "Once more I tender my sincerest apologies, Lord Ainz." His voice was now no longer cautious. Rather, there was now a hint of deference to it, as if he was speaking to a superior and not a person belonging to a foreign country. "Now it is plain for us to see that we have been too hasty to judge you for what you have done. Indeed, your actions at the Katze Plains should have been proof enough to us of your divinity. It is fair to see that we had been blinded by our past prejudices, never realizing that the truth was staring us right in the face."

"Eh?" He quirked a brow, unable to understand what the man was getting at. Was he trying to butter him up for something?

Then to his further shock, all three of them immediately prostrated before him, their foreheads pressed to the ground. "It is clear to me now, now that we have witnessed firsthand what you have done. None can doubt now that you are really one of the Six returned to us once more, and that you have done so to take you rightful place as the ruler over the Theocracy which you and your fellow Gods had founded. Oh praise Surshana!"

"Praise him!" cried the woman, her voice now filled with the fervent energy he had once heard in Ueda's voice.

"All hail the Father of the Dead!" cried the other, unnamed man.

Ainz could only look on as they continued to praise him, shouting out all sorts of titles and epithets towards him. The man even went so far as singing—the sort of music-less singing, and with a voice that grated on his ears. Unable to think of a suitable response to all this, he retreated to his mind and screamed himself hoarse.

Damn it, Ueda, he shouted. I should've trusted my instinct! I shouldn't have listened to you! Now there's more of you than I care to meet! All these nutjobs with a lot of loose screws in the head!

What the hell am I supposed to do now!

Ainz sighed loudly, though it was unheard by the veritable babble of words that came streaming out of the three. With everything that was happening, he wasn't sure if he really needed this to complicate his already difficult life even further.

That settles it, he decided. I think I need a vacation.

---

His fingers were stained with ink. And yet he made the conscious effort to not clean them, and instead preferred to keep it that way. Zanac knew this was no real way to atone for the monumental disaster that he was facing, but little by little he would make apologies for what he had been forced to do. He had never been a religious person, but he knew he would need every ounce of his humility in order to apologize to all the ancestors that he had failed.

It had all started with little mistakes, here and there. Pride had been their shield, but it had also been their unfortunate yoke, chaining them to keep their eyes fixed on the ground, and not on the reality that was standing right before them. It was a necessary strength for one of the nobility to have a little panache, a little daring, for Kings were not crowned by being meek and humble. One needed to rule by strength, and therefore one could not afford to look weak, even by necessity.

He should have seen it—they should all have seen it—when the Sorcerer-King had so casually destroyed a whole army with a flick of his finger. Now that was a certain different kind of strength. In that moment, even if the Kingdom had not been asked so personally, they should have bent the knee and sworn friendship with the undead lord. They would have been able to reap the benefits of cooperation as Emperor Jircniv had done, even if all they needed to do was swallow down just a little bit of their pride. There was strength there too: the strength to recognize that their might would never be enough to challenge the new power on the block. But they had been too blind to that.

They had all been well aware that Katze had been a turning point for which they had to take special care. The loss of so many veteran soldiers, the decapitation of so many promising noble scions, and the sudden fall of so many great houses, should have been a clue that they needed to pull back, to regroup and lick their wounds. Entire generations had been lost on that dread battlefield, and it would have needed years to bring them back to their normal strength. His own brother Barbro had been lost during this war, and the loss of such a promising royal heir (his feelings on Barbro aside) should have been enough proof that the gods were watching and judging them, and that fate was just about ready to deal them a crushing blow.

It had not been a time to push through and start another war when barely months had passed. Though tracts of land had defaulted to the Royal house, and mountains of gold came pouring into their coffers, much of the land remained untilled because of all the farmers dying. And with their armies eradicated they had no recourse but to use that very gold just to prop themselves up with mercenaries and Workers—fickle and untrustworthy, as liable to betray them as anything else. The Kingdom really did not have the license to do anything while standing on such flimsy, unstable ground.

That had been what precipitated the Marcher crisis in the first place. The army had been expended at Katze, and enough nobles had been lost that there were no real counter-balances to any one noble leaping upon the opportunity to start something. With all the little power vacuums littering the whole Kingdom, the situation was ripe for exploitation, which was exactly what the Marchers did. They knew that the Crown was too preoccupied with other matters, that it was still short of an actual army. These upstart nobles had been spared from the brunt of the losses, and could therefore afford to declare themselves independent, and not suffer much.

(Even the Sorcerer-King had been lenient with them in his conquest, something he still resented the undead for, for sparing those traitors)

And then they had expected that the war with the Holy Kingdom would end quickly, that the weakened enemy would capitulate with just a few simple raids on border towns. They had predicted that the Holy Kingdom could do nothing but quickly sue for peace, knowing that they were still weakened from the recent war with Jaldabaoth. They had even second-guessed themselves when they heard that Ainz Ooal Gown had been helping them; and had triple-checked that he was no longer involved before fully committing. They had been so sure that things would go their way.

The supposedly weakened Holy Kingdom had instead risen up to smash against them with full force, further adding a burden on them. A decisive battle had become a brutal back-and-forth war of attrition, with victories and defeats coming to them in equal measure. Though the Holy Kingdom had itself been bogged down in their territories, neither could they also force a decisive end with only a handful of their armies left from all the carnage.

Then of course, Zanac had seized upon the brilliant idea to bypass the front and flank the Holy Kingdom: by dipping his toe in the sovereign territory of none other than the Sorcerer-King himself.

The decision would haunt him until he died. He'd thought to be absolved from it when he had found himself up against that tall, ice-bound monstrosity, but then he had ended up surviving. In his weeks of isolation in the Sorcerer-King's clutches, he was tormented by the fact that he had been the one to mastermind this "brilliant" plot, that it had been he who had overridden his father's naturally good sense, his warrior's instinct of knowing when something was a bad idea. And he had led the doomed march that had sealed the fate of his Kingdom.

For all that he should rightfully take the rebellious nobles at the Capital to task for their treachery, he knew they were irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. True, he had not anticipated their actions. He had even raged inside his captivity when the news had been delivered to him of their sudden, unexpected plot. But they would have still existed, festering beneath his rule, whether or not he was in the Capital at his father's abdication. They were merely showing off the true colors they had possessed all along when they had decided to repudiate his father's decision. And they would still have tried to plot against him had the war ended there with him as King of a battered Kingdom.

Well, perhaps that outcome would have been better. At least he would have had a legitimate claim to a Kingdom. If he had planned things carefully, he might have been able to find a solution to their ilk after many years.

But no, it was his mistake that had ruined everything. His recklessness, his inexperience, his overconfidence had led a fearsome beast to devour his whole Kingdom, and was now spitting it back up in many horrid chunks and pieces.

It was a nightmare for any man to see what his Kingdom, his very birthright had become. To know that the nation that had been sculpted by the leadership of his forefathers had been carved up and given over to foreigners while he could do nothing but stand there and watch helplessly. It was the greatest of indignities, but his hands were tied.

As he had told the assembly of nations that had gathered in that Peace Summit, he could no more stop the butchery of his beloved Kingdom than he could beg them for soldiers to put things to right. Better to face demise with dignity than to grovel and be reduced to a mere hound for all the squabbling nations around them. Indeed, he knew he had failed his House spectacularly and would be forever recorded in posterity as the Last Vaiself. He did not want to fail them even further by degrading himself to becoming "the King who kneels".

He stared down at the piece of paper on the desk before him. Should he sign this document, he would in effect be renouncing his lordship, and become a normal citizen of the newly born Re-Estize City-State. Being a polity encompassing the former Capital City and several miles of arable land around it, it was still in the initial stages of organizing its structure. The people had been imported from the surrounding nations, peasants down on their luck who were looking to elevate themselves into a better life by participating in the birth of a new nation.

And since he could not well be a "King" of so small a territory, there was no other recourse but to accept the loss of his last shred of dignity with a rueful smile. Negotiations were in effect to begin the election of a ruling council who would oversee the governance of this new state, as well as facilitating diplomatic relations with the other former parts of the Re-Estize Kingdom that had been pulled wholesale from its carcass.

For this was not the only nation that had been propped up by the other nations during that Summit. Like stunted children they came screaming to life, an insult to the legacy of his ancestors.

Far to the west, a strange democratic nation was born, centered on the great fortresses that had once been built to watch over the demihumans that could be emerging from further west in the Abelion Hills. Now those fortresses belonged to the Re-Estizen Southern Republic, nestled right against the Holy Kingdom and their new acquisitions. He had not the means to confirm it, but he knew the Holy Kingdom had its hand in the Republic's creation, for it would make a suitable buffer-state against any form of aggression coming from the east. If the fortresses were supported enough, they would be a formidable barrier.

Centered on the city of E-Pespel, the Pespelian Unitary State now proclaimed their commitment to upholding the tenets of "chivalry" which they decried his line for forsaking. As far as he knew they were a nation built from the majority of the army that had surrendered at the Great Fortress, and who refused to be folded back into Zanac's influence. The local nobles had eagerly welcome them, even if he didn't become their lord, for they would become one of many now ruling over a nation of soldiers committed to the "vibrant cause of mankind". Whether or not that spoke to their being supported by the Slaine Theocracy, who were just nearby, was for others to discover.

At the very least, the Naru-Lorel Unified Realms did not make any secret of being a vassal to another nation. Having been formed around the former city of Re-Boulorel, they proclaimed themselves a staunch "ally" of the Argland Council State, that was just beyond their borders. Since Argland could not just annex their lands directly, they were thus given this new life as a subordinate state. They were ostensibly a new Kingdom, and would elect its new King in due time, but no one would ever forget (Zanac would not) that they had begun as unofficial vassals of another.

The United Principality of Liberaon had been Ainz Ooal Gown's answer to the other nations picking up puppets for themselves, becoming an actual vassal to join the Baharuth Empire and the Dwarven Kingdom, thereby falling under the shadow of the Sorcerous Kingdom. E-Libera had therefore joined its sister city E-Rantel in servitude, though E-Rantel remained an independent city-state, for whatever reason only the undead lord could explain. The nation was currently awaiting the Sorcerer-King's word on anointing a new Duke or Duchess to oversee the nation on his behalf. Zanac was certain that should Ainz wish to dominate the whole continent, Liberaon would be the perfect springboard to repeat his complete subjugation of the Re-Estize Kingdom's former territories.

The nation bordering his own to the east was the Malash Aristocratic Republic, and it was this particular one on whom Zanac focused his enmity. It had been hastily proclaimed by the surviving group of nobles who had repudiated his succession and had somehow survived to thumb their nose at him. Indeed, if those nobles had remained loyal, perhaps he could still have retained a much reduced Re-Estize Kingdom for himself. For now, Malash was one to watch, as they were sandwiched between other potentially hostile nations who would naturally be side-eyeing a nation filled with known traitors.

The last of the major nations born during the Summit was the Estizian Plutocratic League, which occupied the former coastline to the west. It was supposedly composed of individuals like merchants with considerable wealth to their names, and who had decided that becoming a new nation unto themselves was a rather novel thing to do. But Zanac had his suspicions that the Eight Fingers, the organization that had once plagued his Kingdom, had now bought themselves some form of legitimacy by becoming this new League. Certainly, they were in a position to re-establish that criminal organization in the other new states while possessing a "legitimate" mask of a sovereign nation.

There were other smaller nations here and there, composed of Marcher Lords who had declined to join any of the others. They were small enough to compose only their former fiefdoms, and nothing else, while being sandwiched between others like themselves and the bigger nations. Zanac was under no illusion that once things had settled down, the first embers of conflict would ignite among them. And that was why he paid them little heed—sooner or later they would either be consumed by the others or rise to prominence on their own merits, much like his own family had once done so many centuries ago.

He wondered what his father would think, to witness his Kingdom's downfall. Perhaps he would have wept, for he had done his best to hold the Kingdom together with his own strength of will, only to have his own son fail and bring it all down in a matter of months. He knew he was already in the afterlife, as the former King's body had not turned up even weeks after the end of the Summit. His father had simply vanished, leaving not a single trace of even a body.

In the end, he could not even apologize personally to his father's corpse.

And then there was his sister Renner. She had also disappeared, but he had mixed feelings towards her. On one hand, she was family, and if she had been present, he would have definitely kept her close. This, despite her apparent betrayal of their family line by siding with the nobles and their games. As the King he could never forgive her for turning on blood, yet as her brother he knew she had her reasons.

Yet on the other hand, he felt that maybe it was for the best that they had never met again. He had always been disturbed by the sort of intellect that his sister possessed, which she kept secret from the world. It was such a mind that he could not comprehend, nor less predict, and he had only gone so far as to exploit it into furthering his goals. On some level, he knew he feared her, and dreaded the day he would be forced to an act of kinslaying—if only he could protect the world from something indescribable.

Admittedly, if the nobles' schemes had somehow worked and she had become Queen, perhaps she might have been able to swallow her pride and keep the Re-Estize Kingdom as is. In time, her tremendous mind might have helped elevate their Kingdom to the greatest heights it had once reached.

Perhaps it was for the best, then, that she had disappeared without a trace. He can only pray that she has found peace in the afterlife, and if that was not true, then he wished good luck to whatever unlucky bastard was saddled with keeping her happy.

With a distinct flourish, he completed the signature on the document. He looked up and glanced at the officious-looking man, who nodded at him and took the sheet of paper, with the ink of his signature barely dry on its surface.

"Your Majesty… no, Mister Zanac," he said, blinking rapidly at the former King. "It has been an honor."

Zanac nodded back silently, as the man withdrew. The man would be presenting that document to the provisional council that had been set up to govern the new Re-Estize City State. It affirmed that Zanac was no longer King, nor less a royal. He was just a citizen of this new nation now—perhaps the first to be registered as such. But he no longer held claim over any property, and no oaths of loyalty were owed him. He had well and truly abdicated from any claims of even a reunited Kingdom. The Vaiself claim to loyalty ended with him and his signing of that document.

He wondered what the future would bring. What would this new City-State end up becoming? Would they become a republic? Would they elect a new monarch? Whichever the case might be, he would at least be absolved from taking full responsibility for everything. In that at least, he was content at being relieved.

That did not diminish the bitter sting of having lost everything that he had been for the whole of his life. But with the rest of his life still before him, perhaps he could mold himself into a better man.

Perhaps he would lay the seed for something truly great.

---

Chapter commissioned by UltraSpink of Da USA, thank you. A reminder that the story is commissioned.

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