Chapter 363

Queen Baraja handed the empty cup to the Allfather as they watched the match unfold. The Allfather accepted it and held it out for the servant to fill, he took a sip, and handed it back to the Queen of Frost, who drank in turn. The same cup made the rounds from one royal to the other until it was empty again.

"It's a nice custom." Ainz said offhandedly to the dragonid. "Did you come up with it?"

"Yes and no." Neia said with a sardonic little smile that bared the tips of her fangs. Down below, sword swung against sword and the clang echoed up above, but as the combatants were mere novices with overinflated opinions of their skill, few took real notice of them. "Back when I was on suicide duty hunting the forests of the wild for the incursions of demihumans, I didn't have much on me. Just one bowl and one cup to eat and drink with. So when I took captives and showed some mercy, I would share my bowl and cup with them when sending them back the way they came. Unbeknownst to me, the orcs mistook it for a gesture of good faith and started doing it among themselves, and other tribes took it from them… but really I just didn't have anything else to offer but what I had on me." Neia chortled a little as if she were recalling fond memories, which in the Allfather's eyes, she must have been.

Calca however, visibly winced until Ainz put his hand on her back, the mistreatment her nation leveled against the Queen of the Demihumans was weighing heavily on her still. When his hand touched her back, she looked over to her husband and gave him a little wink before reaching over and placing her hand on top of his.

"Do you think Cocytus will be impressed with anything he sees today?" Calca asked, glancing over to her husband's other wife who sat at Ainz's right hand.

"I don't believe so." Albedo said with a shake of her head, "These are not impressive specimens even for humans. We won't see anything impressive until these are weeded out. At least it won't take too long, even against each other, most don't last a minute even when they survive."

A scream began and was cut short, the roar of the crowd went up, and a body fell down without even a thud.

"When does the elf King fight, Divine Lord?" Queen Draudillon asked, her eyes were glued to the sands, to the blood, and her thumb was up to her mouth with her teeth chomped down on the nail. "I'm going to face him soon, I want to see him… I need to see him before he dies…"

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow. After the final round of preliminaries for men and women of the nameless, the winners will face off against ranked adventurers who have shown up. And the elf King- no, the elf Peasant, will be here then. He's expressly asked to fight the woman champion from today." Albedo answered.

Draudillon began noticeably shaking, "The woman champion… he- he- he's going to… right there, in the arena… in front of everybody…"

"No, he won't. The elf Peasant will never rise to the occasion again." Ainz promised, "It's already been arranged."

"My god, my god, I will never forsake you." Draudillon whispered and lowered her thumb, she put her hand to her face and briefly covered her eyes as if hiding it from the daylight, then lowered it again. "Forgive me, friends, comrades… things… after everything settled, it seems it's all catching up to me."

Much to the surprise of those present, the vicious eyed dragonid reached out to touch the woman's forearm, her talons only touched enough to draw the Queen's eyes toward her and she said, "I know what it's like, to feel everything is against you, to be hopeless and in pain. Even when you're saved, it's hard to accept it. I still feel the swords sometimes when I sleep. Just do your best, you'll be alright."

"Th-Thank you." Draudillon said, and the dragonid's talons came away and the shoulders of the small Queen went up in a shrug.

"For what?" Neia answered as if she'd neither said nor done a thing.

Any further conversation was interrupted when there was a knock at the door to their private box.

A guard opened the door, "Lord, Ladies, Cardinal Raymond of the Slane Theocracy wishes to see you."

"Send him in." Ainz answered without looking back, striking royal dignity pose number nine and focusing on what lay ahead, indifferent to interruptions at his back.

"Allfather." Raymond said as soon as he entered. "I need your help."

Ainz stood up from his seat, even after a few years of this, it was still odd to be taller than most. But he did his best not to look awkward as he came around from his throne.

To his surprise, and the surprise of the others who turned to look, Raymond went down to one knee and bowed his head. As the representative of his nation, he was at least nominally the equal to any royalty, yet there he was as if he were a subject.

The elven slave at his back seemed no less shocked than the royals at the breach of protocol, but she quickly followed suit to fall to both of hers as well.

"Help?" Ainz asked, he glanced from one Queen to the other, and they did the same to one another, confusion, canted faces, and suspicious narrowed eyes were everywhere from the Wolf Queen to the Golden Queen. From Dragonid to Draconic, and from Holy to Demon, knowledge of the Cardinal's purpose was lacking.

"Yes. This is Nua… she is… was… is…" He beat his fist down on the stone floor as he went forward, and he relayed everything. From start to finish, from her arrival, to the very moment he presented himself at that moment.

"So now you want my help to remove the collar, without killing her." Ainz asked.

"That's right." Raymond replied, "I've been quietly praying to the Six to remove her collar, all the way here I prayed and prayed, and they wouldn't answer me." He tilted his face up, his trimmed brown beard still had flecks of dirt from his humbling himself to Zesshi, and a wet spot of blood from tending Nua's injuries, but his eyes were a haunted and confused thing, the pupils expanding and contracting as if a light were brought closer and taken away and then returned again. "I've been a faithful servant all my life, to all the Six… I carried out atrocities in their name to protect mankind, everything they asked of me, I did, and never… never did I ask a thing. I even helped manipulate a girl I love like a daughter… and now, now I ask this one single thing, a trivial thing. Help one captive slave escape a torturous death before it's too late. And what have they said?! Nothing! I call on them and they don't answer me, I can't feel them as I did when I was young, and the spell is in a crystal laid by one of our Godkin casters… I can't break it."

"But because I'm the most powerful magic caster in the world, you've come to me." Ainz deduced.

"Yes… Allfather." Raymond said, "I don't know what I can offer you, I don't have wealth, and because of my letters, I won't have the same political clout that I did. I can-"

"Give him your soul." Queen Draudillon said, and broke from her position. "I called on the gods too, the same as you, but they didn't answer, they left me as my maids wept and their bodies became empty, living husks. They bled while I cleaned them and took care of them, and while I bowed and scraped for my life and did my best… the elves helped me, and the gods who supposedly chose me, they did nothing." She hissed the final word with the utmost contempt.

"Give him your soul, your loyalty, and all the faith you used to give to those dead statues and dead words. Then maybe he will consider it." Queen Draudillon's interjection was pitiless and full of spite.

Nua's hand went up to her collar, she swallowed hard and felt the lump press against the inside face of the metal.

Raymond looked over to her. And Nua down at he, for a moment he could envision it all so easily, a single moment, her face caught by surprise, her golden hair wreathed in red and orange as fire spread over her body, her lithe, slender, scar riddled back engulfed in flames, her scream swallowed up as the flames burned even inside her lungs, the swelling inside her body as fat boiled and exploded through her very skin. 'Dominic… you bastard…' Raymond thought, and cursed the man he called a comrade.

He took a slow, deep breath, and using the prayer he offered to the Six with every step on the way to the Allfather, he all but shouted the prayer, lifting it up to the Allfather of Nazarick, "Divine lord, your servant calls on you for clemency, the punishment for my sins is more than I can bear, and now one innocent of all my guilt is being held to suffer for my guilt. I beseech you, I offer my soul to you. Save her, and I repent of everything I have ever done, and will spend my life atoning for it, no matter the cost!"

Nua paled as she watched the cardinal give up his faith. 'I'm going to live?' She realized and closed her eyes.

Ainz put one finger to the side of her collar. [Dispel][Greater Break Item]

The cracks began almost immediately, like tiny thuds of tiny pounding hammers, it spread around the gray metal, and quickly accelerated, twisting, spreading, and then…

It shattered into particles of dust.

On the sand below, a cry of pain died with its maker, the roar of the crowd went up, and the breeze that blew through the daias, picked up the dust of Nua's shattered collar and carried it away to fall into the arena's sands, or be scattered all over the world.

"I'm… free?" She whispered. "I'm free?" She said it a little louder, it was a more serious question, her hands darted up to her throat, they moved over the span of skin she hadn't been able to touch for almost two hundred years, her eyelids went wide apart, her vibrant blue sparkled like sapphires caught by the sun, her body began to tremble as the understanding hit her and she felt the two inches of skin that had been kept away from her, her fingers went all around her throat from front to back as if she could not truly believe it.

"I'm free?! I'm free?! I'm finally free?!" She jumped to her feet and screamed it for all the world to hear. She shouted loud enough that she hoped the Slane Theocracy itself could hear her. "Do you hear that you bastards?! I'm not yours anymore! I'm free and I'll never be yours again!" She laughed and began to dance as if there were music playing, as she had not moved since girlhood, the ringing bells of her voice were matched by priceless tears of happiness before she approached her liberator, though she didn't kneel, she lowered her gaze and put her hand over her heart. "Name anything I can do… anything, and I will do it for you, my god of liberation."

"He traded his soul for you." Ainz pointed out, "I only carried out my side of the bargain, but if you insist on doing something for me…"

Nua bobbed her head up and down, "I do." She said while Raymond slowly rose up to look at the now collarless elf.

"The elf Kingdom has now been conquered by my subordinate, tomorrow the former King of the Elves will be killed. I need an ambassador to the Slane Theocracy to ensure they withdraw their soldiers from all contested zones and negotiate the return of any stolen lands. Perhaps it is… petty, but an elf would, as we said in First World, really 'stick it to them'. Also, you would have to negotiate the return of all prisoners of war taken in the last one hundred and twenty some years-"

"I'll do it!" Nua said with a gleeful ecstasy in her voice.

"You… conquered the Elf Kingdom?" Raymond asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes. I sent two of my servants, it took a few weeks to convince the elves of our power, but they've surrendered now. The taking of Queen Draudillon offended me, I took it as an attack on my Kingdom, as she and I were in negotiations which were to be concluded on the journey here. Now the elf King is a homeless peasant." Ainz said, and Raymond's mouth opened and closed with no words coming out.

"I-I have no words. For everything… but… what do I do now?" Raymond stammered out, his words like driftwood which moved without aim, all direction lost and with no safe port in the world's storm.

"Warn your country, because they've run out of allies, and they're going to run very short of labor." Ainz said, "Now, unless you'd care to watch the match with us, you can go." Ainz extended the invitation, pointing to the rail, and then to the door.

"I… I'll go. I have a lot to- Nua will you?" He asked.

"Yes, I will." Nua said, then reached for his hand, and headed for the door, almost dragging him behind her.