Chapter 225

A dozen humans of Queen Calca's army were riding on light, young horses. Far from being the most heavily armored scouts, they wore little armor, favoring speed and maneuverability. They were scouts, wearing leather helmets with only a little metal sewn into the lining to offer some protection. The road they marched over was simple hard packed earth, funding for paving it was simply never available.

If anyone asked the nobles why not, the answer would always be, 'Peasants don't need to travel that much'. But it made the going much slower for soldiers who did, not that the nobles gave that any real thought before.

The humans carried bows and short spears, good enough for defense, self provision, and intimidation if they encountered any of the usual hostile elements.

The elves smiled from the shadows, happy in their good fortune. These soldiers left a village behind not long before, nobody would come for them for some time.

Six elves nocked their arrows, drawing their bows so slowly that the creaking noise of the bending wood was almost nonexistent.

"Are you going to let them have you again?!" The giant bear of an elf bellowed, and the marching humans turned their heads toward the sound of his shout…

Arrows flew from the wilderness and pierced the eyes of the armored humans. A second flight of arrows was in the air to pierce the eyes of those who survived the first volley before they could even open their mouths to shout.

Bodies fell over, dead without ever knowing what killed them or why.

"Search them!" The largest elf barked, "See if they have any information, then take any food, arrows, or anything else we can use, then leave the rest behind."

He barely needed to utter the command, some of the smaller elves rushed out to do as he ordered, their feet silent as the distant rising sun as they ate up the ground under their rapid steps.

Nobody expected to get more than a handful of extra arrows out of it…

And of course…

Some satisfying payback on the way to the east to meet the Queen of Frost.

And that was plenty.

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Ainz held his head high, the messenger he dispatched in the form of a young boy was one of his doppelgangers, cheap summons, their loss in the event of death was fairly meaningless. 'In no small part thanks to that girl and her teacher. Sebas found someone very useful in her. The Baharuth Empire's magical research was more than a little noteworthy, with means of scribing scrolls quickly… though at some cost in animals, it offers great potential for the future.' And so the use of doppelgangers to simulate the 'Royal Procession of a Visiting Monarch' went smoothly, nobody was the wiser that it was almost a total fiction and Ainz was in fact spending most of his time in Nazarick.

'It should reach demihuman ears before long, and in accordance with my plan… Albedo's plan…' Ainz corrected the thought and paused for a moment to let his heart find its rhythm again, 'They will set out to capture me or disrupt me… finding a few scraps of runecraft to spark their interest…' Ainz looked at the mirror of remote viewing, he couldn't read lips, but the doppelganger attendants were explaining the Kingdom of Nazarick's view of nonhumans, that much he was sure of.

'Another path that may worm its way to the ear of the Queen of Frost.' Ainz considered, and looked over his shoulder when he felt the gentle touch of Albedo.

He immediately stopped caring when he saw that her yellow eyes, bright as the sun, were dulled and wet with pools of tears. "M-My Lord…?" She had weak knees, they were clearly shaking, the hand she put up on his shoulder was the only thing holding her up. In her other hand she held one of the letters dispatched to him…

Ainz knew what it was. 'The request for aid from Queen Calca.' The document included an offer of marriage.

"My Lord… is she… are you… if it pleases you so much, I don't have to look like me! I can be her! I am a succubus! I can be anything you want me to be!" She half cried out, half whimpered, [Aspect of the Succubus], [Object of Desire]. And then 'Albedo' was not Albedo. Instead the slender blonde, the radiant and beautiful Queen of the Roble Holy Kingdom, Calca Bessarez, was in her place. A perfect likeness, she smiled a tiny bit.

"You see… I can offer you endless variety… I can be anything… everything… as long as I am in your arms…" She dropped the paper while he turned to face her, and wrapped her arms around his neck, rising up on her tiptoes to almost hang off of his body. "I don't care if I am me or not… as long as I am yours."

"Albedo… that isn't… yes, she offered but…" Ainz felt sweat spring to his face, part of him wondered if he should call for guards, or restrain her before she lost all reason. 'Nobody knows I've come back yet, but if I- no. I can handle her myself if I must. Privacy is such a rare thing… I should have sent her away again.'

Never did he hate himself more than when he had that thought. "Albedo," he tried to speak again, "The Queen doesn't know me. I do not know her. She offers me marriage for diplomatic purposes… to unite our Kingdoms rather than to lose her own… I-"

"If my Lord did not find her beautiful, this would not have worked." Albedo whispered, "I can only appear as…" She let the statement hang, her Lord's shaft was obviously speaking its own truth, undeniably, from such close proximity.

"It is true." Albedo said those three little words with the quiet voice of someone who has been condemned.

"Am I not beautiful enough as I am… My Lord? It isn't for me to criticize your desires but… tell me how I failed you-" She begged to know until he took her by the wrists and disengaged her gently from his grasp. She did not resist as she was set down, nor did she step closer when he stepped away.

"Albedo…" Ainz tried yet again, grasping for words that no level of wisdom could ever have offered, he threw off his mask so that she could see his face, "You're the child of a dear friend… I should think of you like a daughter! I can only let myself love you that way! And I do! I love you all… my precious children…"

Albedo did not shrug off the illusion of Calca's body in place of her own, "My Lord's manhood does not see me that way." It was hard, even at that moment, not to smile a little, she licked her lustrous ruby lips as if contemplating a fine meal.

Ainz could hardly have denied it, much as he wished to. "Albedo… I can't…"

"Will you be… with…" Albedo started to ask, then stopped, her knees gave out and she went to the floor. "Will you have her then?"

Ainz' mind raced, 'I'm a virgin damn it! I'm not prepared for this kind of thing! This is worse than when she and Shalltear argued over who would be the first wife!' He screamed it in his head as he tried to find an answer.

He went to her and put his hands on her cheeks, "Albedo… I love you in levels that no numbers can measure… but I am a King. I will never love the Queen, whatever happens, it is all for the sake of making a world my children can be safe in, and a world my friends would be happy in."

"I can never be happy, and never be safe, if I am not nestled in your heart." Albedo said through shimmering eyes, it was strange to hear it in a voice he knew had to be Calca's. "A God such as you… every woman you desire, as many wives as you like… have them all, even if it includes that flat chested lamprey. But let me be one of them…"

The words of the priest came back to her, "I would feel this way… no matter what happened before the end and our new beginning… none of it would matter… please, My Lord… My Love…" The heart of the succubus raced like a fireball over a battlefield, 'If I can just make him understand that what he did was meaningless… if he could just see that…'

"Albedo… leave me to my thoughts… I have to prepare to meet the Queen…" It was an excuse in his own mind, and not a particularly good one. The succubus however, accepted his words.

She got up to her feet, and said, "My Lord… when you meet her, and are alone with her, you will be a man with a woman, she will have… certain expectations. If I-I have to accept this, by your will, I do. She is only a human toy and will die, while I endure forever. But the most important thing will be that first kiss. She will appraise everything about you at that moment. Tender, gentle… savage… brutal. Are you selfish or giving, a creature of lust, passion… reserve… she will judge my Lord without even thinking about it."

Ainz had no idea what to expect her to say before leaving, this though, wasn't on the list of possibilities. But the instant she drew herself up, he saw the why of it. 'She is my advisor, still, the supervisor of all the Guardians, effectively my Prime Minister. Her job… is to help me in everything, even in things she doesn't like.'

He nodded along with her, and tried very hard not to think about the impassioned dreams he was sure to experience again if he slept in his bed that night.

She walked toward him, it was a sultry walk, even though it was barely two or three steps, it might as well have been a runway. Then she was in front of him, rising on her tiptoes. "I am Queen Calca Bessarez… ruler of the Roble Holy Kingdom. The key to easy dominion over millions of humans. I have offered my body to the Allfather of Nazarick, I will be his wife, and give him title to my Kingdom to save it from destruction. But I don't know him. I know nothing of his character, his will, his strength… in his first kiss, I will know more than in an hour of conversation. Now… kiss your Queen…" Albedo whispered in a dusky voice, her pheromones dialed up to eleven…

Ainz put his arms around her, using his strength to raise her up just enough on her tiptoes, he brought his lips to hers, and let them part. He did not act the part of the aggressive, savage conqueror, but rather as the novice explorer of a new land, growing bolder with familiarity, savoring the warmth, heat, and taste of another person, the sound of deep breaths coming from both, until the moment passed.

Albedo was the one to break the kiss, and he allowed her to do so, barely realizing what he'd done until she stepped away, just out of reach. The face of the foreign Queen was a mask of professionalism. "As expected of my Lord. Do it just like that, and she will see you as she should. Now… as you will it, I leave you to your thoughts."

Ainz touched his hands to his lips as if he could not believe where they had been, and held them there for a long time after Albedo was away. 'Did I… what have I done?' He asked himself, unsure of even how he should have felt about the moment, while absolutely certain about how he did feel.

Albedo's return to her room went by the most unused paths. She was able to easily avoid interacting with anyone at all, making it back to her quarters unobserved by any and she closed her door as stealthily as she could so that nobody would have even that light click to know she was there.

She rushed into her inner chamber, the place where no maid was allowed to go, and flung herself down on the bed, her legs and arms spread out, she gazed at the ceiling above. "My first kiss…" Albedo sighed, and lay there all night unsure of whether to sing or cry or give in to her lusts until sleep came at last.