70

After the War Chapter 18

March of 4AA.

With most urgent tasks concerning the Empire's restoration either finished or set in motion, the daily workload had lessened significantly.

Ainz took another thick folder from the top of documents labeled as unreviewed.

Save for a maid at the door and the everpresent invisible guards on the ceiling, work hours were spent in relative solitude.

Of course, some days Splendora was in his care and would use his office as a playground, sometimes even joined by her playmates. Those days usually were a lot more eventful as the small children didn't have the full grasp on the ranks and protocol and mostly addressed him as Splendora's dad and were not as restrained as adults in his presence.

Buku's report on the Empire's expansion in the central world was as detailed as ever. Knowing that no remaining nation could offer any sort of meaningful resistance, there was little need for diplomacy.

'Let's see… Culling of the Troll Kingdom proceeds as planned. Eastern human nations surrendered unconditionally within an hour after the start of the invasion. I'll have to check if I need to summon more liches for administration.' Ainz set a mental reminder and stamped the report.

The next in the pile was Blue Planet's report.

The southern desert was almost fully terraformed into lush grasslands. The druids led by Blue Planet himself had made extensive topological changes to create a sustainable environment.

Countless small lakes and rivers were made for vegetation to have enough water in previously arid lands. One problem did arise as a result. A lot of snakemen and scorpionmen fought back and had to be either moved to the desert area that was left intact or exterminated.

After that came the scientific and industrial report compiled by Mariposa, who did all the paperwork her husband was supposed to.

With the moon colonization project and the first steps of modernizing the central world, they were the hardest-working branch of the government at the moment.

Considering the need to be careful with which of Earth's technology could be implemented heavily depended on deep research of all possible side effects, the whole process was moving forward at a snail's pace.

The fact that the central world was only at late medieval advancement meant that the education of the citizens needed to be reorganized from the ground up.

Ainz skimmed over report after report, stamping them one by one and putting them in a pile of reviewed documents. After the reports, he could go over requests and suggestions which had no lesser pile than reports.

As he worked, a message from Ulbert came in. { The preparations are finished. I'm coming over with the whole plan. }

Before Ainz could even respond, Ulbert barged into his offices and dropped a massive hardcover book on the table grinning from ear to ear. "Sign it and we can proceed."

Ainz carefully opened the book and started to skim over the text, only stopping at the important parts. "Do I have to read every single line to be sure I'm not signing off on the nuking of half of the Earth?"

"Put some trust in me. Buku and Punitto drew the military plan and they intend to test four nukes and seven arcane bombs. And none is going to countries that will sign themselves over to Nazarick."

"I see. Anything else I should know?" Ainz asked.

"Page one hundred seventy-eight," Ulbert said as he sat down on the guest chair. Melborios appeared by his side and offered a cup of Ulbert's favorite drink, coffee laced with rum, to his master and then disappeared just as quickly.

Ainz found the right page and looked it over. "Expanding the farm to accommodate an influx of subjects." He looked up from the book and added with suspicion in his voice. "Are you pulling wool over my eyes again? Is this seriously the worst thing you have put in this document?"

"I don't need to. Demiurge and I are getting close to a million new animals within the first purge, and boy do we plan to go hard on those assholes." Ulbert continued to grin. "Every shitty thing those scum had done will be repaid tenfold. I made sure to round up a few of my former bosses for VIP treatment."

Ainz stared at the demon goat in silence, as if trying to get a confession out of him.

"I'm serious. I don't have any hidden plans. Even Renner didn't try to sneak her ideas into the plan." Ulbert assured him.

"I just don't want any surprises," Ainz said.

Ulbert leaned forward, theatrically looked around, and whispered. "You didn't hear it from me, but Buku already gave the green light for Pandora to start building your flagship. If you think her seven hundred meters long one is overkill, yours will make it look like a tugboat."

"Wasn't he supposed to build regular jet planes?" Ainz asked with his right arm over his face.

"The plane production plan is executed at one hundred and twenty-eight percent efficiency. From what I heard, they found titanium on the moon and most of it is going toward your ship. It even has a skull decoration." Ulbert cackled.

"Of course it does." Ainz groaned. "Is it too late to stop Pandora?"

"Do you want to crush his heart?"

"No…" Ainz let out a defeated sigh.

"Don't stress about it. Everyone is getting a ship. Yours just have to be the most impressive. Besides, Pandora is making them be easily upgradable, so it's not like every single ship he is building will be out of commission in twenty years."

"And now I have to pretend I know nothing about it?"

"Of course. You know how happy Pandora will be to present you a finished ship that dwarfs everything built before."

"I know." Ainz said, defeated. Pandora absolutely loved theatrics and grandeur. If he could, he would likely try to make bigger and bigger flying ships. Until one would reach the size of a moon.

'I guess a massive flying ship is kinda cool.' Ainz mused.

"So you want to read it through or can I get your signature and be on my way." Ulbert asked, pointing at the book.

"I'll sign it under the impression that you are not hiding anything from me." Ainz said, flipping to the very end of the book.

"Don't worry, I want to keep my skin." Ulbert said while Ainz signed the plan.

"Anything else you need from me?" Ainz asked while handing the book to Ulbert.

"Oh, if it's not too much of a bother, could you empower Renner? It would save me a lot of time if she could cast the interdimensional gate by herself."

"I assume you have absolute confidence, she won't do anything unplanned with her new power?" Ainz asked.

"Let me tell you, she may be the daughter I never had and I am showing a lot of preferential treatment but I know for sure she is loyal to us to the core.

"I guess if you trust her it's good enough for me. You can bring her over."

"Great. I'll bring her tomorrow." Ulbert said, leaving Ainz's office.

"Back to paperwork." Ainz said to himself and picked up the next report.

‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›

The fifth floor of the Great Tomb was as unforgiving as ever. Even with a protective shield, the harsh winds chilled her to the bone.

As the Apostle of Life and Death, Neia needed to make her retinue reflect that. Summoning angels was the easiest part. Now she needed a proper representation of death as well.

Followed by three virtues and eight flames, angels she summoned herself, Neia walked towards the corpse distribution center where seven corpses with requested traits awaited her.

Renner had suggested making undead that would resemble her, and thus, all the corpses were of blonde teens who either died during the short war with the Great Old One or during the purging of Slane.

Neia walked among the mountains of corpses that were sorted by semi-translucent ice elementals, native to the fifth floor.

More than a year after the war, the work was still ongoing. To a rough estimate, there were about eight million dead bodies stockpiled for further use.

'So many tools to use. Maybe I should visit more often and create more undead for the Empire.' Neia mused. After all, as the most devoted servant of Emperor Ainz, she needed a lot more practice to be a necromancer her master would be proud of.

"Lady Neia, the bodies you requested are this way." A night lich in charge of the facility greeted her the moment she entered the building.

She returned a greeting and followed the lich to a smaller room. The seven young naked bodies were put on tables. One was missing half of the head. Another one had her throat slit. Each had met their death in a violent way.

Five females, among whom three were human and two were elves, and two males, one human and one elf. Every one of them was around mid to late teens by human standards.

"Prepare their gear," Neia ordered virtues.

The angels that looked like living white stone statues, gently put the bags they were carrying on the ground and one by one took out heavy leather outfits, longbows, and shortswords.

Neia looked at the first corpse with morbid curiosity. The human girl had died from a blow to the back of the head. 'Her death was quick. May her soul find her next life longer.'

She gently put her arm on the forehead of the corpse and started the restoration process. The body a newly formed soul would inhabit needed to be flawless. The cracked skull regrew, filling the head fully with long blonde hair. The frail body grew thicker, gaining noticeable muscles.

The final step was the most complex one.

Neia closed her eyes and after a long exhale crafted a blank soul that would be devoted to her above anyone else. This empty soul was quickly filled with sentience and necessary skills. Overall, the newly crafted undead would be about equal to a Death Knight, which by Nazarick's standards was nothing special, but for someone of Neia's level, crafting such a being was a great accomplishment.

Lastly, Neia activated the soul with a spark of undeath and stepped back.

The dead girl slowly opened her eyes and sat up. She slowly turned her gaze towards her creator and then jumped off the table, kneeled before Neia, and spoke in a soft voice. "Mistress, I'm ready to serve."

"Take your gear and get dressed," Neia said and turned her attention to the next corpse. The procedure needed to be repeated six more times.

'I should have enough mana reserves to finish in one go.' Neia mentally checked her reserves just in case. Of course, there was no need to hurry as her appearance on earth was planned after two weeks.

One after another, her new servants were added to the roster that patiently observed her working. Their faces were pale as they were before reanimation, with the only new feature being a subtle red glow in their eyes.

Once the last of her new servants took his place among the others, Neia let out an exhausted sigh. The job was done for today.

‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›

"Pavel, why are you still in your battle gear?" Acilia's domineering voice filled the air.

"Will you stop stressing? Neia is not even here yet." Pavel dismissed her as he slowly took out his evening suit from the dresser.

The servant staff as always just stood aside and watched. The stubborn couple rarely let them do their jobs and assist with dressing up.

While Pavel put on his suit without hurry, Acilia combed her hair as one of the maids bravely straightened out the dress her mistress was wearing.

'I guess it really did take a Goddess for her to get into a dress.' Pavel observed his wife.

All her life, his wife either wore her full plate armor or casual pants and shirt. To see her wearing a dress was a novel experience for sure.

Unlike both of her parents, Neia arrived dressed in her leather and chain armor with a bow strapped to her back. So much she cherished the Emperor's gifts that she was never seen without her iconic gear. Her only follower today was one of the undead she had created herself.

The moment she entered their quarters, she bolted straight to Pavel. "Dad, ready to go?" She asked with excitement while embracing her father in a hug.

"Sure am." He chuckled at Neia's enthusiasm.

Only then did Neia put her attention toward Acilia. After a moment of just staring in silence with her eyes wide, she asked in sheer disbelief, "Mother… What are you wearing?"

"What's wrong with my outfit?" Acilia asked.

"N-nothing." Neia hastily replied. "I just never seen you wearing a dress."

"I would have thought you of all people would understand my devotion to Goddess." Acilia said dismissively, returning to combing her hair.

"Sure…" Neia said, glancing at her father.

Pavel gave her a shrug and continued to put on his suit.

Once both her parents were ready, the group, with Neia in lead, walked towards the imperial castle wing.

With Emperor Ainz and Empress Albedo already waiting for them, they entered the imperial quarters right away.

Ainz greeted them at the door while Albedo sat on a nearby sofa with Splendora in her lap.

Neia was first to kneel, shortly followed by the rest of the group and waited for the Emperor to speak.

"Rise. There is no need to be so formal today." Ainz spoke in his deep regal tone.

The group rose and quickly split up. Acilia and Pavel went to speak with the Empress while Neia and her created servant sat down with Ainz.

"Master, my first try at creating an undead was successful." Neia enthusiastically presented her servant to the Emperor.

"Not bad. But don't you think she is rather weak at the moment?" Ainz asked, inspecting the undead girl critically.

"I plan to empower them slowly till all of my creations are above level fifty-five," Neia replied while accepting a cup of tea from the maid. She took a sip, adding, "As I understand, even their current power level is enough to guard me against nuisances while I'm acting as your voice on Earth."

"Indeed. Regular humans, no matter how well armed, should pose no threat to you." Ainz took a sip from his cup. "Are you ready for the trip?"

"I made all the preparations I could. With Renner providing transportation there should be no problems."

"In that case, make me proud." Ainz said as if talking to his own child.

"I will do my best, master." Neia replied with determination.

Failure was not an option and with her fellow Apostles aiding her there was little need to worry about any sort of failure.