Chapter 139

When the dwarven survivors made their way back inside the city, it was at a trudge behind the visiting King. He didn't ride his mount, rather he walked at the head of the little column. When the gates began to groan open, cheers drowned out the noise as dwarves saw the quagoa leave their people alone. The streets were clean again, allowing for the steady, even stately passage of Ainz, Hejinmal, and the dwarven survivors within.

The commander fell in at Ainz' side immediately, "The council has to be briefed… I know they're exhausted but…"

Ainz shook his head, "No, I understand. Just have food and wat- no- beer brought to them where they're going, maybe have some wagons brought, they're clearly exhausted." Ainz replied with a practical nod following his statement.

The commander of all dwarven soldiers was halfway through the process of obeying the foreign King, having procured a small wagon and begun to bring it back before he even wondered why he was taking orders the way he was.

Ainz looked over his shoulder to check on the following dwarves when he saw the wagons approach, and there he saw something unexpected. The people hiding in their homes had all emerged, but unlike his initial passage, they did not immediately go back to using the street.

Instead, they remained quiet and still, soldiers lined up on the walls, put their backs to the rift and faced within the city itself. Thousands of eyes were centered on the visiting King.

'One small gesture can make for one great gain.' Ainz thought, and remembered seeing the way Queen Draudillon had used her white handkerchief to wipe the blood from a soldier's face during a visit to the wounded hospital, the look of utter devotion that followed was one Ainz would not soon forget. So when the wagon came up, he extended a hand and helped the broken, weary dwarves to rise into the wagon one by one.

His pure white glove was slowly dirtied by their sweat and grime, but he showed no evident care for the stains or smell, instead waiting until the last of them was in the cart and a pair of rams began to pull them along. The dwarves looked at Ainz with eyes of the utmost reverence, some had sheens of salty water in their eyes after the help was given. They flopped down where they could, some too weary to even keep their heads raised.

Only when the wagons carried the survivors away did Ainz remount Hejinmal again.

The proud dragon trotted forward behind the wagons with its overweight belly swaying until they reached the council chamber again.

The dwarves themselves already began to dismount on their own, Ainz couldn't quite hear what the commander was saying, but it was enough to urge the survivors to ascend the stone steps with urgent swiftness despite the way they slumped forward. Some had to help one another along the way, but assisted or not, they made it within the great wide doors.

Ainz followed them. The council itself was already quite assembled. They were wide eyed, some of them dressed in their night clothes still, fear painted over their once grousing faces, they waited with fidgeting hands that tapped on the stone table. Some kicked their feet back and forth as if they were going to run away while still seated.

But none of them spoke while the survivors found seats before the assembly. Their military commander, for his part, had rushed through the center aisle and spoke with hushed whispers disguised by the groans of the weary, sweat-stained and stinking warriors.

When he was done speaking, he pointed to the back of the room where Ainz stood standing at the center aisle between the many filled chairs and the door.

Ainz glanced down, the dwarven warriors had uniformly chosen to seat themselves as close to Ainz as they could, and those farther away frequently looked back at the one who left the city on the back of a dragon to bring them back to their homes.

The commander finally made his exit, "Go on," he said, "tell your stories, I'll only be gone a moment."

The dwarves in their many stone chairs nodded, and chaos erupted as the whole lot of them began speaking at once, their exhaustion didn't seem to impact their limbs as they gesticulated with wild flailing and shouted their stories to the council.

The eldest of their number stood up and held both hands out in front of himself and over his head to urge for quiet. "Calm yourselves!" He said in the gruff voice all dwarves seemed to possess. "We can't hear any of your stories if you all talk at once… start at the beginning with…" He scanned the room and pointed to a dwarf at the far corner on the far left, "you. Stand up if you can, tell us who you are, and then tell us what happened as closely as you can."

So it began, Ainz listened in silence while the stories began to tumble out from fumbling dry lips.

The words were halting, punctuated with deep gasps and echoes of bemoaning fear whenever a difficult moment was reached.

"But… then… th-that is when we saw the demon… nine meters tall… a m-monster… he set to killing the quagoa… b-but also us… his n-name. Jaldabaoth. Jaldabaoth…" The dwarf covered his face when he leaned forward and wept.

"So much fire… blood…" The young dwarf whimpered with shaking lips and then said nothing more.

Another took up the story, the flight, the escape, Jaldabaoth seemingly had no interest in them, a few recalled seeing him looking for something, more interested in what lay around him than in actually killing anyone.

The stories matched uniformly, and as the stories went on, the council members one by one turned to Ainz, even with his mask on, they weren't complete fools and sensed by his easy stance and quiet demeanor, that he was waiting on them to ask questions.

"You know something, don't you, Your Majesty?" The old councilor asked.

"Yes." Ainz replied, his now filthy glove was exposed for its dirty state to the council when he swept his hand in front of his body in a decisive chipping gesture to pair with his one word answer.

He followed it up with more, "Jaldabaoth is a very ancient and very powerful demon… from… another realm, you might say. In ancient times when dwarf and quagoa were almost united, we three faced him here beneath the mountain. Your armies bought me time to seal his forces, your runecraft weakened him, and I locked him away."

"Could you be the reason he was awakened?" The forgemaster asked with a sharp look.

"I doubt it." Ainz covered immediately with a shake of his head, "When we were awakened by the invasion of my home, one prompted by the Baharuth Empire, it may be that the seal he was under had already begun to weaken. It was only a matter of time before he emerged again."

The dwarves began a universal grumbling of low anger against the Baharuth Empire.

Ainz mentally sighed, 'Poor Emperor Jircniv, everybody is going to be blaming him for quite some time… the lizardmen, the frogmen, the dwarves and even the quagoa, not to mention his own people. I should go and visit him to establish friendly relations and maybe make amends of some sort with him for making his empire the villain or the fool in this story.'

"Now," Ainz said as he returned them to the matter at hand, "the runesmiths have all sworn their allegiance to me, so I intend to take them to safety. I had hoped for trade and good relations with you at least. However, I can't embroil my nation in a pointless war that puts my people at risk for nothing."

"But-but you said you fought with us in the past!" The Minister of Commerce exclaimed and shot to his feet, his hands held out with palms upturned and shaking. He was dressed in plain white ram's fur night clothes, he even had his little white nightcap still on his head, and the little poofy round top bounced around as he trembled and spoke. "Can't you do that again!"

"I have to live in the present. Not the past." Ainz responded, "I am sorry, but it is best that I go, I will have to fight Jaldabaoth eventually, but I have no army here and we've just recently finished a war with the Empire. It will take time to-"

"What if we offer ourselves as vassals!" The voice came from behind them all, and Ainz looked down over his shoulder to find the commander had returned.