Chapter 239

"So there was at least one agent, and she was killed." Ainz summarized the report and made a conscious effort not to shift in his seat at the table with Kelart and Calca. He set the document down and folded his hands together, interlocking his fingers and holding himself regally still.

"Yes, exactly." Kelart said, setting her copy down, "She had some skill with a sword, and gave nothing up directly, however…" She stopped to snarl and her fingers shook with fury, "the things she said, cursing us in the name of the Six, and other insults, they were very, very much things the Slane Theocracy would say."

"I see, were there any others?" Ainz asked, and Kelart frowned. She began tapping one finger on the table in a steady rhythm.

"No, My Lord… there is evidence of others living there, but they appear to have fled, questions for the staff revealed at least one other figure, a woman of dark hair. Dark hair is most common in the Slane Theocracy. It isn't unheard of elsewhere, but combined with what we know, it is indicative." Kelart explained and cracked her knuckles.

"It is compelling…" Calca said in a subdued voice, still holding her document in hand, her fingers tracing over the letters as she read them over and over again. She looked away from it at last and over to Ainz.

"We are not married yet, but the nature of this information… It means very well that we may wind up in a war with the Slane Theocracy, possibly soon. They have a history of meddling in the affairs of other countries, and without any guilt about how violently they do it." She warned her future husband, to which Ainz answered…

"I know. I interfered in such an attempt at meddling in the Re-Estize Kingdom a few years ago, I destroyed one of their 'scripture' units, they identified themselves as the 'Sunlight Scripture' before their deaths. Their goal was the death of Gazef Stronoff, and they were trying to ensure the defeat of the Re-Estize Kingdom by the Baharuth Empire."

The two women gasped, Kelart even sucked in her teeth and her eyes grew wide as saucers at the bold claim.

"We have our own… private information sources in the Slane Theocracy, we couldn't find out what happened to that scripture. You're saying that you-"

"Correct." Ainz answered, 'Should I have said that… no, it's minor enough information 'now' and should enhance their trust in me.' He reasoned, "I obviously expect that this will be kept secret, but you should know at least, we have already clashed with them once, and they regretted it."

"I-I see… then if it comes to a fight?" Queen Calca smiled over at her consort, and blushed when he looked her over and gave her an approving nod.

"I will support you, but it doesn't have to become a fight, if they see reason and adapt." Ainz pointed out.

"They're fanatical human supremacists. They will never accept your reforms, Your Majesty." Kelart replied with a tightening of her lips.

"Is that so?" Ainz asked the rhetorical question and let it hang.

It had an underlying question, one the two leaders of the nation picked up on.

"We were founded on the same ideals, but we have to be more practical." Queen Calca replied, if she sounded a little defensive, Ainz chose not to make an issue of it. "Demihumans are a threat, but we do have stories of good ones, and I for one have only ever cared for fair and good rule… no Demihuman has ever tried to kill me in my home." She said and squeezed her eyes shut tight for a moment.

The insurrection still rubbed her the wrong way, and Ainz reached over to her without thinking and patted her thigh, she relaxed and inched her seat closer to him. "We will make your reforms happen, We promise you, as your wife and your ally."

The voice of the Queen was one of imperious command, as if to speak into existence in reality, that which only existed as a thought.

Ainz could already foresee it, his children able to roam the whole world without his fearing that they would be hated or loathed for their mere 'being', and with the Queen's resolve, she went up another notch in his eyes.

Any further conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Kelart glanced at her Queen, and when Calca inclined her head, Kelart barked out a sharp, "Enter!"

A servant opened the door, entered, and knelt. He wore the armor of a soldier, but far from the elite guard, the smell of oil and metal was heavy on him, as if he'd cleaned up before coming to see them.

"My Queen," he said with a slightly high pitched voice, "the body of the spy has been stolen… and those guarding it were killed."

Calca immediately snapped her question, "Was there anything to indicate who took it or where they went?"

"A sewer was found broken into, footsteps underground led to a hole just large enough for two or three to pass through outside the walls on the east side, near the Theocracy's Embassy. Also, a knife blade was broken off in a guard's skull… it was retrieved, it had a jagged edge and a sharp curved tip at the end." The guard explained, and both Kelart and Calca spoke at once.

"Theocracy." The pair said, and when Ainz looked from one to the other with questioning eyes, it was Kelart who spoke to explain.

"That type of blade is standard for their covert operations, if we needed more proof that this was their work, we have it." Kelart rubbed her thumb and forefinger back and forth against the outer bridge of her nose. "A new enemy, we have Astraka in the west, Neia in the east… her lower lip began to tremble.

"If only my sister hadn't-" Kelart cut off her words and looked away from her Queen.

"Damn her." Kelart cursed under her breath.

The look she gave to the Queen, and what Calca herself had said to Ainz the night they lay together, he took initiative and looked at the soldier, "You may go."

The young man beat feet to leave as fast as he could and shut the door behind him, nobody noticed if he saluted or not.

Who Kelart blamed for Calca's marriage and seemingly losing her forever was not lost on him, and pity stirred his heart. The broken look on Kelart's face was so very much like Albedo's, 'Am I so cruel as that… maybe… but I- I don't have to be…'

"Kelart." Ainz said with a voice of resolve, drawing her eyes to him, he didn't wait for her acknowledgement, "I will not be residing here, and the Queen will not be joining me in my home… it's simply not feasible. As I am gone, of course there will be 'concerns' in some quarters about what happens when the King is away." He cleared his throat and tried, unsuccessfully, not to turn at least a little red.

"If you were to ah... keep my Queen 'happy', I would not complain. She and I have a sort of 'understanding' about certain things that need not concern you. Mind her for me ah… obviously permit no other man into her chambers, a favor to this foreign King, ah… you understand?" Ainz's statement was off the cuff, improvised, but it had their immediate attention.

"You- You would not object? I-If I were to 'mind' her fidelity to ensure the legitimacy of any heirs to the Kingdom…?" Kelart asked the question as if she were dying in a desert and wasn't sure if it was a mirage offering her water, or a real person.

"No. I would not. I trust such a burden is not too much for you, and that the Queen is not 'insulted'?" Ainz turned his focus to Calca, whose face became a bright red as Ainz essentially offered them both a blank check in their arrangement.

"N-No! Of course rumors would be abound, and it would hurt diplomacy and our bond if- if it were rumored that I might have cavorted with a knight, or a lord, or a paladin, and passed an heir off as yours by deception… but someone to eh, guard my virtue, would alleviate those rumors before they even begin! And I can promise my Lord that any heir to the Roble Holy Kingdom, will spring from him alone!" Calca's insistence was as certain as the sun, and the near crying face of Kelart became something else.

Before his very eyes, it wholly transformed from borderline broken, to such elated wide eyed happiness that her whole body began to shake with joy. "I will do everything in my power to ensure My Lord is satisfied with the sanctity of the Queen."

"I will put my faith in you both." Ainz said, studying their faces with great interest, the shining light in their eyes, brown mirroring blue, their smiles, broad, genuine, the polar opposite of the sorrow and mourning looks of misery and loss… the dull listlessness that tainted Kelart and which he wondered if Calca hid, vanished in an instant. 'Albedo.'

He only thought of her name, nothing more.

But nothing else was needed.

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A few human prisoners sat around, limp, waiting, watching as the victorious demihumans plundered everything in the human camp, some of their fellows were clearly unconscious, some from pain, others from simple exhaustion.

But a few watched, the simple small tent stakes used to hold them into the ground were nothing, if anything, it was sloppy, effective only because their wrists were bound behind their backs.

Shaba was one of those men, his wounds looked worse than they were, a head injury bled a great deal, and he pretended unconsciousness, the heavy blood coating on his face gave him the appearance, with a little acting, of a man half dead.

The demihuman guards watched him the least, while he watched them the most. His legs and arms remained intact, and though his heart raced in his chest, he kept his breathing slow and shallow, watching with one eye cracked while the demihumans took whatever they wanted.

'An attack on Hoburns, on the Queen herself?' He shivered, it was unthinkable, 'I have only one thing I have to do… carry that word home… but how…' He wondered, until he saw a demihuman hand bottles of liquor to the stone spitter guards watching over him and his friends.

His broad chest tightened to keep his face from smiling. The two guards tilted back their heads and began to drink, regardless of their duty.

First one bottle, then two, and as the camp activity declined and demihumans wandered away, slept, or otherwise occupied themselves, he bided his time.

Shaba's body was tense each time he whispered, "Pst… when I say go… we go, no questions, no time, just go, and follow where I go… pass it on."

The liquor kept flowing between the guards, they began to sway, their big, robust bodies and speech both began to waver, until the pair simply 'fell' like trees cut by angry woodsmen, crashing down onto their bellies just as a cloud moved over the moon.

"Go!" Shaba hissed, 'They can see in the dark, but they're not expecting me, or the rest of us to run… if we can just reach the woods, some of us might make it back to Kalinsha to warn General Custodio… we can't let the demihumans reach Hoburns!' He cried out in his head, and then pumped his legs as fast as he could, the other human prisoners yanked their wrists up and ran as well, the demihumans were sloppy, securing only wrists rather than legs, and so it was several vital seconds or more before any demihuman even noticed they were gone.

The prisoners' holding area was close to the edge of the camp, the woods came closer and closer, his legs were already tired, 'Curse the day… so heavy… if only I had rest!' Shaba whined, but kept his legs pounding the churned up earth beneath his feet, the other captives acted as he did, those who were able to move, at least.

The alarm went up, he could hear the roars, they rang in his ears, the cries of 'prisoner escape' and then at his back, a cry as a human was hit in the back, snapping his spine and sending him screaming onto his belly in the dark.

Nobody bothered to help him. Another rock shot past Shaba's head, the breeze and whistle it carried, 'That will haunt me till I die…' He heard a burst as a skull shattered from the impact of another stone, the sickening crunch of bone and brain matter, followed by the thud of another body that none of the prisoners would, or even could have helped.

The woods were drawing closer, so much closer. 'Just a little bit more!' He cried out as he heard two more voices scream at his back.

What for, he didn't know, he looked over his shoulder, they were clutching their legs and rolling in pain as the demihumans caught up with them, he turned away, 'Nothing you can do… just run, run and don't stop! Don't look back! Just get to Kalinsha…' he thought, and dove into the deeper darkness of the forest, out of easy reach of the larger demihuman foes, and he began to pray to the gods…

'Please, oh please don't let it be too late!'