Chapter 251
The first matter attended to on the return to Hoburns was the public marriage of Ainz Ooal Gown and Calca Bessarez, given the wartime situation and the still unsettled matter in the Southern Holy Kingdom, only a week was spent in preparation, and it involved an elaborate feast and abundant alcohol provided by the crown to the entire city.
Decorations were plentiful, bards sang praises to the Gifting King who offered victory to faithful allies.
And on the night of the wedding's end…
Ainz joined Calca in her private chambers, "You're leaving tomorrow, I assume?"
He nodded, "I have been away from my affairs for some time, I can't leave them forever."
"And the woman you love, she is waiting for you there?" Calca asked as she undressed again.
"She is." Ainz answered as he did the same.
"And you are…" She hesitated, he came close and touched her cheek.
"I've learned what I needed, and then some. I have done a lot wrong, as a man, as a King, some couldn't be avoided, but what could have, all I can do is make up for it, you were helpful in that." He said to her, and she covered his hand with her own.
"Promise me something… I know how it is with men and the women they love, I'm not the fool I was, but will you keep your word with me?" Calca said without meeting his eyes, though she did rub the back of his hand with her palm. "The child I bear, ensure that this throne is always theirs, theirs and those of all the descendents you live to see, as long as they're worthy of it. Typically… the first born of a King gets the whole of his rule, but I see it in you, you have eyes for only one, and you won't deprive her child of that. But don't deprive our child of this, this will be his country, his home… never take it away."
"I promise you, as long as the Bessarez blood endures, and so do I, that one of them will sit on the Throne of the Roble Holy Kingdom." He said as they lay down slowly on the bed.
"Then tonight, we make them." She whispered into his ear, and began to do as she said.
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Ainz was up and ready before dawn, he placed a small kiss on Calca's forehead, a twinge of guilt touched him for his role in the chaos of her Kingdom, 'I was a fool, but I was right, in the long run, for all the harm, this will create the best possible world for 'all' my children.' He told himself, and cast the [Gate] spell at once, stepped through it, and was gone.
The rest of his retinue would leave on their own, the empty carriage receiving abundant adulation as it made its long journey home.
When he stepped through the other side and back into his throne room, he found Albedo waiting for him, and a small, slender elf that was clutching a body.
Even without asking, he knew it was the one who died. "Have you… been here this whole time?" He asked, forgetting all formality in dismay at the scene.
"Myself, no, my Lord. I have of course tended your holdings." Albedo remained formal, but he could see her body twitching, itching to dive at him as if they were alone. "But this one… tell your story." Albedo gave the order, and words rushed past the radiant elf's lips.
"She gave up her life for me, to let me be safe… I didn't even know she loved me until then… I… didn't know I loved her either… not till I saw what she did… please… master… she wasn't truthful before… it wasn't just money that she wanted…"
"She didn't like being human! She didn't like how people were… she wanted to be something else… but she felt bad about saying it, like scum next to you… please… if there is anything I can offer… even if I have to give you my life in exchange… Can my Skana be restored?"
Illyana clutched the corpse a little tighter to her body, and Ainz looked from her to Albedo. "Have a maid take them to Demiurge, just make sure he knows that neither are to be harmed."
Illyana's face lit up bright as the sun when Albedo pulled on a nearby golden silk rope.
"When it's done, join me in my quarters." Ainz said and coughed several times, clearing his throat, "We have… something to discuss."
Albedo's face fell, "I-I understand, master." She said in a small voice.
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Demiurge stood over the brown haired human woman. "So, Remedios, is it? My my, you are an unusual one."
Remedios didn't answer, those under paralysis generally didn't.
"You're so unusual in fact, that you earned a punishment that only a Supreme Being could have conceived." He said and patted her cheek with light, almost tender slaps.
The dense idiot only gave off an aura of confusion. "We're not allowed to torture you, or kill you, but… you will still suffer on your own, and it will be all you that does it to yourself. Can you believe it?" He asked, and watched as she struggled to shake her head.
All she managed was a tiny wiggle.
"Now… let me ask you this, would you prefer we start off by turning you into an 'elf' or a 'ratwoman'?" Demiurge inquired.
Though she couldn't do much, he could feel her eyes fill with horror even while the expression remained unchanged.
"Just kidding!" Demiurge said with a playful voice, "You won't get a choice, we have no idea what transformation will be permanent, so who knows what you'll be spending the rest of your life as. But given that you despise everything but humans for some absurd reason, I believe you'll be plunged into your own personal hell no matter how long it takes, or what you end up as, wouldn't you agree?!'
She tried to scream, to move, to shake her body, and when her body was covered with fur and he showed her what she looked like as a ratwoman, her screams became mouse-like squeaks. "Now, off to the frozen prison to see how long this takes before it wears off, maybe we'll try an elf next, you like those, don't you?" He asked and called for a maid by pulling on a rope before wheeling the table she was bound to, over to the door. "Just kidding, don't care either way, we'll just see what happens, all for the greater good, of course." He said, and when Entoma entered and took the cart away, her wailing squeak quickly faded away.
Before he even had the time to get bored, CZ Delta entered carrying a very dead human and an elf woman following closely behind. "What is this?" Demiurge asked the blank faced battle maid.
"One raise dead, not as a human. One who gets it as a reward." CZ said in her clipped fashion, and for a moment Demiurge's face was disappointed.
"Oh… well it's fine, I did need to perfect that routine anyway." He pointed to another smooth metal table on wheels. "Put the body on there and bring me more scrolls. I'm almost out."
"Yes, Lord Demiurge." CZ said, and flopped the limp body on the metal table with a loud clang, and said to Illyana, "Wait outside when you're done. I will take you to Lady Albedo's room when I return." She then made her exit.
Illyana fidgeted, sniffles still going while the curious slender demon in the pinstripe suit fiddled with various mana crystals and stuck them on various places of Skana's corpse.
"What a-are those for, Sir?" Illyana asked.
"Data." He answered with cryptic indifference.
He then held a scroll over Skana's head and said, "[Morphomancy five change status wood elf]."
Before Illyana could process what he said, the scroll burned up with mystic blue flames, and the body began to change. Then with another scroll in hand, [True Resurrection].
Skana shot up to a seated position on the table, green eyes and wild hands flailing in a defensive position.
"Feisty, the most responsive one yet." Demiurge said offhandedly, "I'd say that works." He added and went to pick up the blue crystals that flew off her body and clattered to the floor.
"Skana!" Illyana replied and wrapped her arms around the woman, embracing her all over again.
"Illyana, I was… the soldiers… what… I feel different…" She caught a glimpse of herself in the polished steel pieces around the room, "My ears… my- my skin…"
She was cut off from speaking further as Illyana laid a fierce kiss against her lips, that was something Skana was more than ready for and familiar with melting into, but all kisses must break, and when at last they stopped to breathe again, Skana asked… "Can someone tell me what's happening?"
"You were dead, but now you're not. You were a human, now, thanks to my genius, you are an elf, and probably permanently, but I can't be sure about 'that' until you've lived at least one elven lifespan." Demiurge explained, preening contentedly, "My first thought was to turn you into a catwoman, or an angel, or even a demon, but given the circumstances, knowing you came from a human supremacist nation that enslaved elves by the thousand, the irony was just toooo delicious."
"I-I'm an elf…" Skana said, and Illyana cupped her cheeks and turned the former human to face her.
"I didn't make that decision… I know how your race feels about my kind, most of them… and-" Illyana stammered out a bit, until Skana's eyes brightened and she pressed her lips against those of her partner in espionage, it was long, lingering, and her tongue delved and dueled with the former prostitute using her considerable experience as both a wanton amateur and a professional, and when that kiss broke, leaving Illyana wide eyed and quiet, Skana answered…
"If I'm with you, I'll be happy being anything. But where do we go from here, our work is done, I assume?" Skana's eyes would not move from where they remained locked on the woman she loved.
"I vowed to serve Lady Albedo for as long as I live. As she hasn't gotten rid of me, I assume she accepts that, and as she chose to let me beg for your life… I'm sure she'll have enough work for us both." Illyana suggested, and then she took Skana's hand and helped the woman down from the table.
"I hope so." Skana said emphatically.
"I'm confident she does." Demiurge said and pointed to the door after laying his crystals out on the counter along with many other implements that had a wide variety of uses, most of them not at all nice. "Now go wait outside until CZ returns, I have work to do!" He snapped in annoyance, and put his back to them before they were even out the door.
Neither woman let go of the other's hand for hours thereafter.
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Ainz stood outside the door to his room, his heart pounding in his chest. 'She's probably naked in there, or ready to jump at me… or both… I can't avoid this forever… I did this to her… I have to face up to it… go on in you coward… you said you were ready!' He sighed at his self-defeating thoughts, ignoring the voice in his head that kept him avoiding her for so damn long, he pressed the door to his room open, and found…
Albedo, sitting on a chair, hands folded demurely in her lap, legs closed, eyes down.
He closed the door as quietly as he could and approached her.
"Albedo." He said, and touched her beneath the chin with his forefinger, then gently raised up her face so that her golden eyes were up to face him.
"Master." She said.
"A lot happened out there, didn't it?" He asked. "You did very good work, and I am very proud of you."
She nodded, her heart sang at the praise, but broke at the paternal tone of it.
"It was for you." She said succinctly, without outburst.
"And it was for all of you. A world where all of my children can live happily and safely, where nobody will want to hurt you." Ainz said with his hand roaming her cheek.
"I saw everything… My Lord. Your time with the human Queen, Calca." Albedo jumped straight to the subject, "I didn't care that you mated with her, and I don't care if you produced a child with her, you are a God, our God, the whole world is yours, and you can do as you like." She swallowed, her golden eyes pooled.
"But I do not love you as a child. I am a woman, a demon succubus woman, but a woman, and no matter what you did the day the second world ended, I would have loved you anyway. That is the truth." Albedo said emphatically and she took his hand at the wrist and drew it away, she folded his fingers in like a fist and kissed his knuckles.
"We can't lie to you, 'I' can't lie to you. So you know that what I'm saying now is absolutely so… don't you?" She almost begged him to know, a tiny crack in her voice as she asked for him to understand.
"Albedo, I can't undo what I did, and I can't erase my sense of guilt for having done it… but I can… well I got some experience with the nature of a woman's heart, seeing what absence of a loved one does, what it means… and I took what I did to hurt you, then made it worse, and I'm sorry." He replied to her, she opened her mouth to speak, but his forefinger came out from his fist and covered her lips.
"The truth is… I've dreamed of you almost every night, and…" he almost mentioned his and Calca's 'pretend' time, but thought the better of it and said, "and the truth is, I'm in my own way… I don't know how long I'll be human, or what I'll be next. I've been a fool for years now, since the change, I feared they wouldn't accept me for what I was, and you most of all. And because of that, I pushed everyone away, my own fears did that. But I was obviously wrong, nobody cared, nobody… I was in my own way the whole time, and now if you can accept that I'm sorry for all of that… and how I am, and how I will be one day…?" He trailed off then he crouched down, took a breath, and then lurched forward to capture her lips in a kiss.
Their hearts beat in sync with one another almost immediately, their tongues dueled and explored one another as he dreamt many a night, only their clothing got in the way of what was to come, and both hastened to remove every scrap of fabric in the way without breaking the locking of their lips, Ainz' hands moved faster than they ever had in battle, and one thought thrummed through his mind as they flashed faster than the eye could follow.
'I don't want to keep her waiting anymore…