Chapter 259

Cerebrate reclined in his seat in the carriage and watched the little girl half run, half stagger away, her tears running down her naked body until they fell off her bare skin and into the grass. That wasn't the only fluid to run over her skin, but as he lay back, satisfied and at ease, he couldn't find a reason to care one way or the other. His only regret… 'I wish I had more cocks… enough to do that to every little piece of candy in this whole rotten Kingdom.' That thought disrupted his happiness a little and he reached down to stroke himself.

'There'll be another village tonight, and then another, and then another, all the way to Arwintar.' That eased his rising ill temper a little bit, the promise of so many sweets along the way almost made up for the complete loss of work.

'When I win the throne and I'm the Emperor, I'll have a fresh one with every meal.' His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he filled his head with fantasies and approached his peak of pleasure.

But the truth beneath that pleasure was that a sea of bitterness roiled without end. 'That bitch, that bitch… fired without so much as a thank you… I was supposed to get the Queen for myself… a night with a royal slut child… I was so close…' He finished, and wiped his hand on the clothing the village girl left behind before running back to her family. There was always a villager with a child to trade for a few hours, and that ensured no trouble followed his amusements.

But nothing completely burned away the hatred he felt for the Kingdom he would be passing through soon. 'Kingdom of Nazarick…' He cursed the name and glared out the window of his carriage, the warrior teams they provided were second to none, and rendered him redundant. 'Whoever imagined an adamantite ranked adventurer could be made needless?!' He wanted to howl in his frustration, without even lust to distract him, he reached for the bottle and began to swig down what was left of the wine.

But that same resentment brought up a sense of caution about his earlier thoughts. 'Maybe it wouldn't be wise to try to buy one there… I'll be passing through the Kingdom of Carne, they're not officially part of the Kingdom of Nazarick… yet… better safe than sorry.' Cerebrate thought, and drank the last of the bottle, bitter that he reached the bottom without passing out, he ran his fingers through the scraggly brown beard and licked his fingers to savor just one more drop, before he closed his eyes and tried unsuccessfully to sleep.

Ainz pressed his lips to those of the sleeping succubus and watched her eyes flutter open. This was one of their favorite games. She wrapped her arms around his body, and then her wings as well, and drew him closer. "When do we leave, my love?" Albedo asked as he moved entirely on top of her. Her golden eyes took every inch that they could.

"Not for a while. I'd like to take a carriage rather than a gate, so we will go sooner than we otherwise would, though." Ainz answered and breathed in her heady scent.

"A carriage?" She asked, her curiosity piqued. For at least a moment that curiosity pushed aside her desires.

"Yes. In the First World, travel was not something most of us did, we each had our own… realms, and came to the Second world to meet and explore a new place and create… Now here in the Third World…? I'd like to take my time and see everything. There is no hurry, is there?" He asked and placed a hand over her belly, leaving the question unspoken.

"No… none. But if we're taking a carriage, then there is something I'd like to ask." Albedo said, and delayed his question by pulling herself up to plant a kiss of her own on his lips and duel with this tongue for several seconds before she lay back again and licked her lips to enjoy his lingering flavor.

"I'd like to ask that you bring Calca here, into the heart of Nazarick to show off your son." Albedo said with a cocky little smile.

"Are you serious?" Ainz asked, he froze suddenly and shifted to lie beside her on the bed, games and desire briefly forgotten.

"Yes, there's a ritual of the Roble Holy Kingdom she will have to undergo, and there is no place better for it than here." Albedo replied, "I'm sure you already know all about it, but I'm certain she's anxious. I think that is part of why she sent that letter informing you of her intent to travel with the Queen of Frost. She knows of your love for me, and fears for the fate of her son after I send out the announcement of my pregnancy. Poor little human." Albedo laughed, "So naive."

'A ritual?' Ainz thought and racked his brain, his anxiety hit him like an old world train. His immediate instinct was to nod along, and his head even started to move. As did his lips, prepared to lie and pretend he knew what she was talking about.

But he stopped himself. 'No.' He told himself, 'I did so much harm to my children, pretending and lying… and I wounded Albedo the most…' That old grief washed over his soul for a moment and carried away his intent at pretence, when it was gone, he answered her.

"What ritual is this?" Ainz asked, and Albedo rolled on top of him.

"Silly me." Albedo tittered out, "Of course a Supreme Being wouldn't trouble their minds with the rituals of lesser creatures. It's the Paternitius Declaratius, where Aurelion's life or death will be decided. Ordinarily this would be a perfunctory thing, but I think she fears the outcome since I am now carrying an heir to you as well."

It was several minutes before Ainz could say anything at all to that, as he could not bring himself to break the kiss he gave to her next.

The Queen of Frost chose a scenic route over which to guide her counterpart, and their carriages rolled on uninterrupted for long stretches of time, pausing only to relieve themselves, eat, or sleep. And when they slept, Neia insisted on providing the best hospitality they could manage.

It was under these conditions that Queen Calca followed Queen Baraja into the heart of a full blown demihuman town.

"This isn't Hoburns," Neia said by way of apology, flashing fierce fangs in as friendly a smile as she could. "We're still growing here, only my capital city is really established. Everything else is just towns and villages, like this place." She waved her hand around the mix of stone and wooden buildings. Curiously, unlike human construction which tended to square off, the buildings in towns were single story and focused on length rather than height. They were long oval shapes over which wood, metal, or even occasionally stone rooftops went.

"I see." Calca said and rocked her son in her arms, he laughed a little bit, heedless it seemed, of the pounding in his mother's heart. Demihumans of all types occupied the town, from orcs to zern to ones that Calca couldn't have named if her life depended on it. Four armed creatures with straight, slender bodies which seemed almost totally faceless but somehow knew where they were going. Every part of her body cried out in fear of retribution, the reflexive fear of demihumans and the violence they might do to her or her child was a part of her character.

Her host however, seemed oblivious, and that made Calca's sense of shame all the worse. Her companions were tense, but none had sweat on her brow that the Queen could see.

It was then seeing a human that caught Calca most off guard. "Humans?" She asked without thinking.

Neia turned around to face Calca, "Oh, yes I should have mentioned that, forgive me, Royal Sister." Neia bowed her head, "I assumed you knew that a number of humans chose to remain behind, I was offering free land to anyone willing to work it for five years, and made that same offer to all my prisoners of war. Most of them went home, but some, a few thousand at least, chose to remain behind."

Calca was quiet as she followed the Frost Queen to a large wooden door. "They're full citizens, of course." Neia added hastily, "I put them all under the Astraka house for their greater ease, but there's just so much land that a few like that one," she waved a hand toward the direction the human vanished into, "go off on their own. Some stake claims and mine, some farm, but they're all my people. As long as they obey my laws, they're mine."

Calca thought that over, and her own emotional response to it. "I see." She repeated herself and followed the Frost Queen into the building. It turned out to be larger than anticipated, though save for the slug-like creature behind a counter, it seemed like any other town inn. Wooden floor, a bar at which several different demihumans from goblins to elves drank, and a curious looking dwarf with dark skin and a black beard, drinking and talking.

"Room enough for all of us, and my guards." Neia said and the innkeeper seemed to shiver as if he were excited.

"Of course… did you bring your own dead to eat or shall we serve you some of our dead, Your Majesty!" The innkeeper shivered all the faster as he spoke, but his question turned Calca's face faintly green.

Neia looked over her shoulder, "Zern. They have odd dining habits, and odder ways of speaking, there are no people on our menu." The Queen of Frost chuckled, and a collective sigh of relief went up from Calca, Kelart, and Gustav all at once, as well as their guards, and some of those following Neia.

'Venison stew if you don't have any cockatrice." Neia said, "And beds suitable for humanoids."

"At your pleasure, Your Majesty!" The zern innkeeper began to slide away immediately, and while he did, a thought came to Calca that she did not like at all.

'If my reaction to demihumans is normal, and my husband's kingdom is more welcoming… we'll fall behind, sooner or later… we have to push change like she has… I can't just wait for time to ease things or we'll get a very bad reputation!' Calca rushed from thought to proposal with no time to speak of.

"After we return to our homes, Queen Baraja, we should see about moving some demihumans into my country." Calca suggested when Neia accepted the key and walked toward the far end of the building.

"We should?" Neia asked without a backward glance, doubt didn't need to be on her face for Calca to hear it in her voice.

"Yes. I'm settling the wildlands now, or rather, we will be soon. A handful of demihumans might help ease some of the past tensions between our peoples." Calca proposed, her steps quickened to put her at Neia's side, and from her side when they reached a far door, she saw a look of doubt in the dragonid eyes.

"No demihuman has ever lived in your Kingdom without being killed for being there." Neia said and reaching up, she put a hand on Calca's shoulder, the guards at Calca's back tensed, but the Queen of the Roble Holy Kingdom held up a hand at her side to stop them from responding.

Neia noticed both happen and sighed, "See? I like you, Queen Bessarez, you're the monarch the Holy Kingdom deserves, but you're asking me to put the lives of my people on the line to improve your home's future prospects. I can see no benefit to that for me or for Demalbion's people. If I send a few hundred demihumans to live in human villages, I'll get back corpses. I'm sorry, sister. But I can't do what you want." Neia said and shoved the key into the iron lock, she twisted it open with a click and then withdrew it to hand to the Queen.

"Sleep well, and we'll travel onward tomorrow, having to go around the lands that will murder me and my escorts will be… time consuming, so we have to start early. But at least the company will be good." Neia said and squeezed Calca's shoulder gently once, then stepped aside.

"S-Sleep well, Queen of Frost." Calca said, and entered the room with her escort at her back, leaving Neia to go to her own quarters for the night.