23. Sore Loser

These days, for her, passed quite differently. While previously she spent time with her knights, completed paperwork for the establishment of a new garrison, or filling the empty spaces of job in her castle. She now had free time even more than ever. Ainz's bureaucratic knowledge was enough to offload quite a lot of work onto others in the name of more positions.

The plan allowed her to get quite a bit of popularity from people and Ainz provided her with individuals with the required talent for the post. Because of her hard-working personality and the fact that no country had yet to directly move against her nation, she found herself once again gravitating towards him.

Ainz himself was an enigma that kept her mind occupied more than ever. 'Who was he? a devious intelligent undead? A holy knight or a protector of the weak?' He clearly showed all aspects of the good and the bad making it hard for her to judge who he was even. In the battlefield not a shred of mercy is seen on his eyes. Like his enemies, lives mattered so little that they don't even exist for him or in other times where he pats and sings a lullaby when putting sakura to sleep or starting a religious crusade to throw Camelot into chaos. 'Just who is he?'

Arthur Pendragon became a common household topic for her relationship with Ainz. If in the past she was but a naive idealistic individual now she stood as a pessimistic one. The kindness shown to others in her past turned now to derision. A woman who sought to protect others, shouldering their problems as their own, a true king, protector of man, the one who was loved by Shirou Emiya in an alternate time, A deluded self-serving individual was nowhere present now.

She let Ainz reign in her domestic affairs while she put on show in front of others. The concept of fame and popularity was first manifested through Ainz in her time. For a king required obedience not to look good for others. But Ainz insisted on such activities. He taught her to smile all the time even in her pain and sorrow. She honestly felt offended for in her mind Ainz was insisting for her to become a wallflower. Ainz seeing her seething rage clarified quickly for he had yet to buff himself at all today. The damage although minimal would reduce their already horrible reputation if came to light.

"A-Arturia, being a wall-flower is not necessarily bad. Moreover, apologize to all those queens for degrading their cunningness as petty wallflower "

"..." She stared at Ainz weirdly for making such a comment. The image she had of him was 'The ruler of death, An individual whose knowledge knew no bounds' or she heard from sakura and his people. It still came to a shock for Artoria on how easily Ainz received their adoration as well made them docile.' The thing she tried to accomplish her whole first life and continued on to the second was easily done by him in a matter of years. While she was heralded as the one chosen by God, he practically started with nothing but his wits and magic and even then she felt that Ainz accomplished more than her.

Honestly, it was aggravating. She had more resources and more loyal individuals than him than why was she losing? 'It has to be his broken luck stat. I swear in the last game of chess some of my pieces actually disappeared.' Yes, she was petty. for how could Ainz win consecutive 10 games without losing one at all.

Arturia was quite well versed in the game. After all, she played round after round against sakura. Then went around challenging other noble houses in the game. Most of her important decisions nowadays depended on a game of chess. After all the notion of democracy would backfire on her quite easily for her astute reputation.

Ainz's demeanor changed just then. His eyes sharper as a smirk rounded his mediocre handsome face, " Artoria.tsk.tsk.tsk. How naive. I'm disappointed in you"

"W-w..ha.." The sudden change of body language served as a plot twist for Artoria. It was time for her to express her righteous fury not get looked down upon by him. For some reason, she felt that Ainz did that intentionally to avoid answering her question. But then quickly denied the notion,'For why will such a smart individual shy away from her?'

She began pondering with a small pitiful brain. Searching for answers unknown. Thinking deeply and deeply, deeper than Mariana's trench. Going through the three stages of enlightenment.

'The answer is.." denial to accept defeat."h-how dare you not answer my previous question" acting like a sore loser "I don't know..." and finally acceptance.

Ainz deadpanned. Looking at her act like such while Artoria buried her face in shame feeling as if she lost something in front of him.

With menacing eyes, she looked at him as if promising vengeance for earlier transgression.

Ainz gulped in his mind, moving closer to the window. The serious expression donned by Ainz was making Artoria uncomfortable now. Silence ensued for a while. Finally, he spoke,

"E-emotions are quite a fickle existence. Sometimes you are happy while others you remain sad. These emotions also allow others to read you well. For example, if you are happy at a certain time that means you guard is low and people can easily capitalize on it and use you for their means"

Ainz POV:

Arturia immediately lost all expression on her face. Ainz looked on at wonder 'How the hell does she do that. Is she a real-life yandere?!! Tell me that's not true'. While Ainz was scared shitless for his life his expression was serene like placing a challenge to Artoria for breaking Ainz's 'Kingly persona #36'.

"A-Ahem.Likewise having a smile all the time would be comforting to the masses and your disgusted expression would have all the more effect on others" The idea was plausible even outright genius knowing from Artoria's expression.

'And you'll have more idols to worship the ground you walk' was added by Ainz in a small whisper.

"What was that?"

Ainz in his fluster answered "N-nothing"

"Now onto the next topic. What do you know about the surrounding conflicts?"

Artoria paused for a while then replied, " The Romans are closing in on us. After the initial political debacle, few of our neighbors are quite upset with Camelot entirely. Before due to having the religious influence they could not directly attack us, for the church will not mandate such acts but now they have full clearance to attack this nation. Justinus Ceaser, the current emperor, quite a few rumors flew around about this current king. It's said the lazy prince found the great sword of Julius Caeser and such stood forth as the True King of Rome. Alexandria the Great his newly appointed general, although people might think as a conqueror, the man currently has no thirst for such actions. For his devotion to the king is too much of a hurdle for him. No one knows exactly just what Julius did to make that pig-headed man loyal as a dog and then there are the Saxons, barbarians coming to Briton in order for the search of new land. Politically they are unexpectedly neutral. "

"The Saxons seeing the roman aggression towards Briton might try to create a hidden alliance between the germanic tribes and Rome. Their alliance would pose a great issue though as currently the nation is too occupied in fighting itself and what about merlin has the said anything about your actions?"

Artoria's expression grew a bit somber, "No. There is total silence from him. Before I might seek his counsel but with the current circumstances, it feels that the man might betray me just to progress towards his own goal. His expression says it all."

"Hmm...Now, why not threaten the nobles? Before they had a value in existing for their talent in logistics and weaponry which currently stands for their downfall, as the demands can be fulfilled by my personnel or just cut their food supply, after all, the current Camelot is supplied food from your pockets. "

"That idea has some merit. It's settled then, that would be our next objective."

"Now who are you gonna throw under the bus, first? The Saxons or Romans?" Ainz asked in order to know what she would do now. The support of the common folk is pretty much secured. With its completion now all that's left is to create a scapegoat in order to throw all aggression towards them.

Briton is laying on the fauna of magical leyline. For such reason, magic is easily accessible for Arthur and his knights in the past and even now. Giants roamed here once making the place quite the historical structure. But because of the regression of the age of gods and Gigamesh in his time making sure to keep them away caused magic to slowly disappear. After all, without God's influence towards the mortal realm it remains pretty much impossible to sustain humanity with a renewable source of mana. In the end, the hunt for the grail in Arthur's time was to ensure the prevalence of mana onto the world which utterly failed as her rule ended before she could make such a wish. So, now the same problem came to haunt her back. Creating a near-infinite leyline of magic is suppose to be impossible but doing so has its benefits. For one it ensures the loyalty of humanity for thousands of years in the future. For magic is a miracle and such a miracle would result in dependence on it. After a few years, it would easily become their greatest shackle without even their knowing they would walk the path paved by him and allow him as well as Gaia much more independence in regards to their activities. Divine spirits will become a common phenomenon as he is thinking of using the trees and leaves as a catalyst.

"So we are gonna do that, huh...Tier 5" She heaved a sigh knowing what he would do. By killing more and more individuals Ainz would overload the cycle of life and death. After all, in the original timeline, Artoria and her kingdom were destroyed but it paved a way for the survival of millions of individual coming after her but now with her altering the world with her very existence caused quite a staggering amount of lapses in the system of life and death, overloading it would buy Ainz enough time to fix the leyline and connect it to his cathedral entirely turning it into a source of magic and using their deaths as a distraction, Ainz would allow the world a limited amount of magic for centuries to come. This was still a world connected to Alaya, even though she currently is not much active it would still make it to history her know of his action. So his only option is a grand spectacle of slaughter in order for historians to diminish this as hearsay.

God exists. That remains the only reason for Ainz to go through all these stages. Gaia even warned him that doing such would attract the unsavory bunch of gods and such both came up with a plan to overcome the issue.

Now it would be the time to execute it.

A few days later:

Arthuria donned a silver armor with rhongomyniad sheathed in her back. Arthurian sacked Excalibur for she felt not herself worthy to wield the weapon anymore. It was once more another day but not the same entirely.

"You know Arthur being moody all the time is bad for your health" Arthuria frowned. A common expression found in the king the knights. Before she never smiled or looked at others in derision. An emotionless face was what graced Camelot for the running eight years since her accession to the throne. Now though sometimes it slips from her facade.

"Don't mind me, friend. After all, this is my perpetual state of emotion." The one speaking to Arthur is Beria Stroneford. He was the fourth son of a farmer working in the field. Since he had a good mind in his head, he got himself recruited by Ainz. Providing him some good knowledge and battle tactics. His ingenious mind came to light and after some harsh training and few mock campaigns, he found himself beside the king. A commoner who could imagine himself in such a position was the second in command to Arthur's knights.

Even though he received such a position his loyalty to Ainz never faded. The teachings deeply engraved in his mind. After all, he was one of few acolytes of Ainz's religion who enjoyed Ainz x Arthur written by Archibishop Sakura.

"But in front of lord Ainz a small crude smile is there but for us, small folks even that is a commodity beyond our expense?" He spoke with mirth in tone trying to hitch them together. Manga was not a common item at this time. As such sakura went on and wrote a steamy doujin about them which exploded in popularity on the entirety of Camelot. Selling like hotcakes and butter which was the reason for her initial frown.It gained so much popularity that the bards of her neighboring nations wrote songs on this matter just to mock her. Shame was what marred her face since those times but Ainz had told her to not act upon it and if someone mocks her to just smile at them. Seeing her smile terrified those who questioned her sexuality but even than Lady Beatress, her chamberlain, seeing her smile began breathing heavily and instantly began asking for an autograph.

She was supposed to be a ruthless knight who stood stalwart against her enemies not get featured in smut. She will have words with sakura to stop circulating those heinous books or she will do something. She has plans, evil plans.

Coming back to his question she had no words to say, and such donned her everlasting silence like always. Merits in a war mattered anyways, socializing was mentally tiring for her.

"Hoh. Is it like that, my liege? You have not ever made a move towards women. The only friendly banter you have is only with our great God. Is there truly nothing between you? After all, I'm not one to judge"

The world was cruel. Filled with misery and despair, people were butchered for no reason and here she was getting questioned about her sexuality? Maybe its a divine punishment for her to stray from the path of God?

"Huh..."

Like such another day past although she should unhappy about such developments, a small smile made its way on her face.

.......................

I thought and thought and thought but imma gonna make an epic battle between Rome and Camelot. I'm having too much fun with 'True God Ainz Oowl Gown' arc to consider the fallen arc now. All I can say that It will come after it.

Tried to write a long chapter as for such took this long to update. 2500k words one of the longer chapters I've written, Still cannot get used to it though.