Chapter 123

Hejinmal and Ainz walked out and remained quiet in their stroll for some time. Ainz couldn't help but feel a little bit claustrophobic within the hollowed out segment of the mountain. The hairs on his skin stood on end as they walked through the empty city.

It was quite beautiful, but notably the glowstones scattered about it seemed queerly placed. The illumination was haphazard at best, casting ample light in some places while being wholly inadequate in others. 'At least my vision is not seriously impacted.' Ainz thought before finally asking as they came to an intersection with no illuminating stones at all, "Why is the light the way it is? I assume these were for the dwarves' usage, but… it seems so oddly placed in so many areas."

"When the dwarves fled the area they took many glowstones with them, but there wasn't time for them to take all, so some were left behind, My Lord." Hejinmal replied, and they fell quiet again.

"Do you know what lies in the dwarven treasury?" Ainz asked, trying to conceal the avarice in his voice.

Hejinmal almost shrank to the stone beneath his feet again, his head at least, hung in apology. "Nobody knows. One of the first things my father did was have me search for a list or inventory of materials within, I scoured the books… It was the only time he valued them as I do. But other than a few legendary runecrafted items, some with four or even five runes, or stories told of more… but other than some specific gear? Nothing, no intact record survives in the capital city. Unless of course…"

"Unless?" Ainz asked.

"Unless it exists inside the treasury itself." Hejinmal answered the question and continued to lumber along.

"My Lord…" Hejinmal asked when they entered a more brightly lit area that revealed a long dark column that lay in the distance, a kind of dwarven highway, really just a narrow road wide enough for two carts to travel.

"Yes?" Ainz inquired. 'It really is impressive what they've done, but I don't like the cold… still, they've done an amazing job using every inch of space. The garden terraces, the well laid out cities… a biodome engineer couldn't have done better.'

"What will you do with me, when you're done with what you came to do here? Will I go back with you, or will you send me elsewhere?" Hejinmal asked.

"What would you like to do, if I gave you a choice?" Ainz asked the big waddling dragon.

"I want to read more books, if I have a choice, I want to go somewhere to do that… if you have a place where I can do that, then I would be overjoyed to enter your service in that capacity." Hejinmal replied, his tail actually 'wagged' almost as a dog's might.

"I think that can be arranged. I will put you under my dark elf twins. Aura tames magical beasts and would be delighted to have your service… Mare is an avid reader. Serve me well, and there will be more books to read than you could read in a thousand elven lifetimes." Ainz could make that promise easily enough, knowing that the Library of Ashurbanipal was in fact a text file dump from every non-copyright book known to human history.

Hejinmal began to trot, even skip, not ahead, but around Ainz, "Would you like a ride, My Lord?!" He asked with happiness overwhelming his heart.

A brief flashback came to mind of sitting on Shalltear, but given that this was a dragon, his innate gamer and adventurous spirit took over, and when the dragon flopped down onto the stone, he climbed on.

"Books, books… unlimited books… happy happy book time…" Hejinmal's head bobbed back and forth as he went on in a sing-song way and began to trot ahead again with Ainz on his back.

'Willing obedience versus forced obedience…' Ainz thought, and recalled the words of Punito Moe about a western ruler, 'What was his name… King Richard the something…'

'...So Richard went off to campaign in Ireland, and as soon as he, the one everyone was afraid of, was gone… everybody rose up in rebellion and brought him down. He ended up dying of thirst, locked up alone in a room.'

'Loyalty, love and loyalty… Fear has its place, but making myself a ruler revered by my subjects is the best way to ensure I rule no matter how strong I or others are.' Ainz reiterated the lesson in his heart, and that turned his mind to Demiurge.

'He didn't get to answer me before… perhaps he avoided it… does he suspect anything?' Ainz asked, but he ruled that out. The looks he caught of the archdevil were closer to worshipfulness, though it felt like more lay there than was evident on the surface.

'This is the problem with the clever ones, you can never tell what's really true about their inner thoughts…' Ainz sighed, his heart was aburst with affection for Ulbert's son, but it was impossible to be unaware of the inner darkness that lay within the Guardian.

Ainz tried to remain neutral, but the horrific and brutal conflict between the lizardmen and the frogmen left its mark, the blood and brutality, the entrails, the screams of horror, the pain… the way the lizardmen rushed through the frogmen homes slaying everyone they could get ahold of.

The retching feeling of vomit coming up was still fresh in Ainz' mind. 'To secure control I have to play these games… I can't be just a conqueror… but it's a sickening thing to do. I'll have to keep Demiurge under some degree of control however. If I leave it to him, who knows what he will do?'

It was easy to drift off into wayward thoughts, they passed through the long dark shadows beneath endless miles of stone sky, occasional lights of glowstones cast their endless brightness over an area only to fade away to nothing minutes later when Ainz left them far behind.

Shadow and stone with bits of light became repetitive, interesting as the architecture was from an aesthetic perspective, and what it told him about dwarven society, it didn't get him what he needed. Nor was it enough to occupy his mind.

'What plan? What plan does Demiurge imagine I've got… since when has there been a plan?! I just thought Runecraft was interesting and useful as a product and wanted to gain control over it… why must they always make me more than I am?!' His fingers shook so hard that he removed them from Hejinmal's back and balled them up into fists to rest them on his own thighs instead.

'Okay… think, Ainz. Think. First… we have to find some way to break it to Demiurge about what has happened. I have to minimize any harm he might do… without ruining whatever plan he thinks I have. I've got to form a friendly agreement with the dwarves. And I've got to do something about the quagoa so they don't pose a future problem for me, or maybe even turn them into an asset. Okay… 'great' now how do I do all that? You've got time to think about it at least.' Ainz felt his fretting diminish as he laid out his objectives in simpler terms, and thought about the blessing of having time to do it. Distant problems were always easier on the mind than present and close ones.

Then Hejinmal curled his neck around to look back at his rider, "My Lord… we'll be at the dwarven capital in a few hours, I hope my jogging for a little did not disrupt your comfort, but when you tensed up a few hours ago I assumed you were impatient."

Ainz snapped out of his reverie, "No… no it's fine." He said with haste, giving approving nod number two, a half nod toward the dragon's face.

But within, despite forcing himself to relax, all he could think was, 'Oh… great.'