Chapter 295

After the first of Queen Draudillon's people spoke it was like a dam burst, the rest began to speak not long after. At first what passed for speaking was instead steady sobbing, but even that, the Queen was grateful for. "Drink." The small Queen said and held the cup to her maid's lips. The bloody split was wiped clean to ensure the young woman wouldn't be forced to taste her own blood in the water she drank.

The woman's head rested in the Queen's lap, and near at hand an elven woman was applying a wrap to that same maid's black and blue bruised up thighs.

"Maj-esty?" She whispered as if she couldn't believe it was her Queen hovering over her. The diminutive red haired woman swallowed the water, her bright green eyes wide open and alive at last.

"Yes… don't worry, I've convinced him that he needs to leave all of you alone for… for a little while." The Queen said in a quiet little voice, "It… it was th-the best I could do… buy you time…" The white haired Draudillon shivered throughout her body, "I'm sorry, I let you all down… I failed you…"

"Majesty… your majesty… you stayed with us…?" She whispered and reached up a disbelieving hand to touch the cheek of the Queen. There wasn't one servant in the palace that hadn't grown up with the Royal line, and yet somehow it was still not believable to her that her Lady was present.

"Of course… I can't abandon you…" Draudillion answered, she gave the strongest smile she could, but it was fragile, weak. "Drink. You'll need your strength."

The woman choked on the water she was given, it burbled past her lips and ran down the sides of her warm, flushed face. Draudillon patted the woman's back until the maid regained control, then tried to give her water again. This time it ran down the woman's throat instead. "Ahh… it stings…" She rasped out.

"It can't be helped." The elven attendant said with a tender touch that didn't linger on the bruised flesh longer than it took to wrap it. "The King has been using his mana to make us travel faster, he's rougher on us… punishes us, when he has to do any work himself. The magic casters with healing magic drain their mana quicker, so we… we must make do with herbs for now. I'm sorry."

The woman's ears twitched, and the maid gasped, "Elves… right, the fight… they, we were taken…" It slowly returned to her, Draudillon could see it behind the woman's eyes as she came back to herself.

"Where are we now…?" She croaked.

"Most of the way toward Arwintar, my husband is one of the wagon drivers. He says we'll reach the city tomorrow." The elven woman answered, "A human city… I wonder what that's like…" She said, and all three wondered the same thing. 'I wonder if there's a way to escape?'

Ainz held his son in his arms as Calca straightened her dress, concealing her breast after having nursed the boy. Aurelion was sleeping soundly, and at their side stood Albedo, the delicate looking and radiant woman who was as beautiful as she was obviously inhuman. The Allmother's wings batted a little bit, and then she spoke. "You say you wish to see the place your son will spend part of his life?"

"I do, Allmother. I do. He is the Prince and, not that I would ever doubt his father's magnificence, but what mother wouldn't rest easier if she saw for herself?" Queen Calca answered, and then asked two more questions, "Is it really possible to be there immediately? And… more importantly, do you truly want your own child to travel with mine?"

"It was my husband's idea." Albedo answered with a flippant wave, "He says they are going to be siblings and shouldn't be parted from one another. His wisdom is transcendent, so it must be right. I do see some advantages to it, but… as a concession to me, the time apart will be three months rather than six, alternatingly."

Calca put a hand over her breast and sighed with relief, "Three months isn't so much, and if that travel is truly instant, it can be longer or shorter and we never need to be more than a few seconds away…"

"Exactly. It would be cruel to make them spend most of their lives apart from one another, and Aurelion's siblings should grow up knowing the whole of the lands they will help to govern." Ainz chimed in while rocking his son a little, "Long ago, my dear friends Bukubukuchagama and her brother, Peroroncino, used to argue often, but it was always done with love and affection. They cared much for each other, and it showed even when they fought. I can only hope that Aurelion and his little brother or sister are as fortunate."

Ainz's obvious nostalgia and enthusiasm for his past friends caught Calca off her guard, it was only at that moment that she realized, 'As much as I like him, as much as I revere him as a King and the one who saved my country, as much as I enjoy him as a lover and am thankful for him as my child's father… how much, or how little, I really know him… I didn't know that until just now. I thought of him as just a foreigner who rose to power, but he had a whole lifetime before the throne… I want to know more about him.'

"These, friends-" Calca began, but Ainz didn't notice.

[Gate] He cast the spell and a whorling vortex appeared in front of him.

"When you pass through this, you will be in my home. It was built by my friends and I over the course of some wonderful years. You will see almost no humans there, but don't be frightened, none will harm my wife." Ainz promised, and when he held out his free hand, Calca took it as Albedo clung to his arm, and they stepped through the vortex as one.

"What in the name of all the gods…?" Calca looked around, disbelieving, a great tree stood in the distance, an endless sky, a perfect breeze, a lake shimmered in the light of the sun, the water lapped at the shore, and not far away a forest stood tall, thick, and strong, like the children of the great tree coming to gather. A pair of small dark elves were splashing each other in the water while a frost dragon wearing, of all things, glasses, lay curled up like a dog and napping, snoring in a steady fashion that made it sound like a cat's purr, but ramped up to a low thunderous rumble.

The noise of splashing water and shouting children was only made more idyllic by the sheer absurdity of seeing the dragon lying there asleep. "A… my husband… is that a dragon wearing reading glasses, or some kind of illusion?" Calca asked, she brought a hand up to her face and rubbed her eyes one by one and gave her head a vigorous shake, and yet the absurdity was still present for her to see.

Ainz and Albedo laughed at once, drawing the eyes of the dark elf children who waved happily from the waters and rushed to the shore, casting waves about in their eagerness to reach the quartet to join them.

"Heijinmal, come here." Ainz said, and the dragon's eyes snapped open at once.

"M'lord!" The dragon said and scrambled over to where Ainz stood waiting, the dragon bowed his head low and when Ainz held out a hand, the dragon pressed his head upward against the downturned palm.

"Heijinmal, this is my wife, Queen Calca of the Roble Holy Kingdom, you remember her from the conference where we found your father again?" Ainz asked.

The dragon turned toward the Queen, and she gasped.

"Your… your control over it- him, was permanent?" Calca asked, though her voice was calm, even regal, her eyes twitched as the impossibility was presented to her.

"Heijinmal isn't under a spell, Holy Queen." Albedo said with pride and extended her hand in a gesture toward the dragon's lowered head. "Heijinmal is a loyal servant of the Kingdom of Nazarick, grateful to the Allfather for his assistance in saving his family and himself."

"I- can that be true?" Calca looked with wonder at the creature just as the dark elf children reached them and knelt before the Allfather.

"It is, My Lady, and I am grateful to My Lord for all his help. I serve as one of Lady Aura's mounts." Heijinmal replied with no small pride. Though he couldn't 'grin' it was hard not to note the enthusiasm with which he spoke when he kept the scales of his head rubbing against the palm of the Allfather.

"That's why he's not fat anymore." Aura said with a large, childish grin on her face.

"S-Sister. It-it's mean to say that, don't be rude!" Mare answered with a sideways glance and clenching the staff he'd snatched up from on the shore, water dripped off their bodies, and Calca took a closer look at them.

They wore one piece clothing of dark blue with numbers across the chest, but notably the clothing was tight to the skin and seemed to have stretched in a way unfamiliar to her.

Noting the way she glanced at their clothes, Aura added, "This is a gift from Lord Peroroncino to our creator, Lady Bukubukuchagama." She picked at the clothing, drawing it away from her skin and letting it go so that it snapped back with a wet 'fap' noise against her body. "He called it a 'school swimsuit' though we don't exactly know why his sister was mad at him over it… she bonked him on the head with a tree… we like them."

"They're… very nice. But… creator? Like a parent?" Calca asked as her mind spun.

"K-Kind of. But we were 'created' by magic not by ah… h-hugs." Mare explained.

"I-" Calca began, and Albedo cut her off.

"With the exception of a few outsiders invited here for special purposes, such as yourself, Queen of Men, all the beings of Nazarick were spoken into existence by the Supreme Beings…"

"Spoken… but… Husband, is this true?" Calca asked and turned to Ainz in part to escape the contented serene expression of the one radiant winged woman.

"It is." Ainz explained.

"You served gods?" Calca stammered.

"No, Queen of Men." Albedo said and shook her head. Calca felt her racing heart begin to slow down in relief even as her mind continued to roil in confusion.

Her wings popped out wide and her arms went out as if to embrace the human Queen, her smile glorious as she said, "He ruled gods."