Chapter 300

The next morning they were gone after the sun was barely up. "I thought we were s'posed to travel at night." Layali said with a yawn, rubbing the sleep from her eyes without any further complaint as they made it out of the gate.

Brain suppressed a sigh of relief glancing over his shoulder as if to address her, but the truth was, his eyes went to the walls, the guards made their rounds as usual, and no one seemed the wiser. 'Maybe the bodies haven't even been found yet?' He wondered, but then answered Layali.

"We need to make up for some lost time, so we'll be walking longer today. It's normally about three days travel to the border, I'd like to make it in two." Brain said and Layali pouted a little.

"Will we at least stop to fish… I want to know how to do that." She said, and then added, "We did have a deal."

"Fishing isn't wise for you, at least not out this way." Brain replied with a firm shake of his head.

"Why's that?" Zesshi asked from his side. Her hands were folded behind her head, with the road empty in the early hour and the sun just barely on the horizon. She kept her hood down to enjoy the feel of the air and the first warming rays to touch her face. She was the picture of casual cluelessness in his eyes.

"Because further downstream they get rid of river monsters, but this close to the border, where the water is wider and deeper, some still show up. A little girl would make a quick snack for one of them." Brain answered, and Zesshi was very quiet, as was Layali.

"So… monsters?" Zesshi said with a tentative glance at the open horizon, "Are they common close to the border or just in the river?"

"I usually see a few, it hampered trade a lot, or so I'm told, but since the Wolf monarchs took over and built the Kingdom of Carne, things have been improving. They have… well, they were building forts out that way before, about every twenty miles or so. The workers said they were going to put soldiers there so that every traveler would have a fortified place to rest, and could respond quickly to monster threats. They will probably spawn a lot of villages in a few years." Brain explained, and Zesshi scratched her head.

"So… what do villages have to do with that?" She asked.

Brain looked at her cockeyed, "Are you… being serious right now?"

Zesshi frowned deeply, "I don't get out much." She reminded him.

"Right, sorry." Brain sighed, his shoulders briefly slumped, "Villagers aren't all that strong as a rule, so they flock to safety, a military fort is the perfect place. Plus the fields there are fertile, good harvest land, soldiers make good husbands… usually, and since soldiers get paid, it's easy to sell things there. In five years they'll have dozens of villages all over the place and probably a few towns to boot."

It didn't stop there, for hours, Brain explained to the very differently sheltered and isolated pair how things worked in the 'real world' outside of the bubbles they knew. He was peppered with questions, and laughter was frequent, sometimes from the absurdity of their incessant questions, sometimes from their own misunderstandings of his answers… and sometimes he threw in a joke to make them laugh.

It was almost a shame when their hoods went over their heads to hide their ears.

"We won't reach another town until tomorrow." Brain said when the sun started to go down, and when he looked back over his shoulder again, he saw that Layali's steps were slower than they had been. 'She's very strong for someone her size and age… but all this walking, it's probably getting to her… she should have said something.' He thought, and then said, "But let's stop for a few hours at least, I'm… getting a little bit tired, and a lot hungry."

Layali's face immediately brightened up and she pointed to a small bend in the river along which the road ran, "Perfect, right, Brain?" She asked with a sunny smile that struck him as completely at odds with the desperate and agony filled child he plucked from the river. The extra food was doing her good, she was filling out more, and the scars were gone. In a word, he couldn't look at her without thinking 'cute'.

"You're catching on." He said, and gave an approving nod in her direction.

They veered off the road and Brain tossed his bag to the grass, Layali immediately got to work, but before he could offer to assist, Zesshi turned on him.

"Now to start keeping my bargain, swordsman. A little training from the Black Scripture might help you out quite a bit." Zesshi's wolfish grin emerged and she looked almost childishly predatory, her hood came down and she drew her hair out from beneath her cloak to hang loose at her back.

"Fine, but you don't have a sword or any other weapon." Brain replied as he took his sword out of the sheath and took his position while Layali began to work.

"I don't need one." Zesshi replied, "You can't cut me."

From any other, Brain would have found that insulting, but from her it was the plainest truth. He spared one glance at the young half elf girl, "Don't get too close to the water, no matter what you see there."

"Alright, now come at me, swordsman!" Zesshi said as soon as they saw Layali step back from the babbling noise and set out their bedrolls in place.

Queen Draudillon stood beside the elf king holding the pitcher of wine, he seemed to be in good spirits for the moment, his cup came out to her, and she stepped onto the stool then filled his cup for him, then stepped back down again.

"At least you are not as stupid as my other children." The Elf King said with his broad sneer down at her.

"Thank you, my lord." Draudillon said, keeping her eyes cast down. The reason for his praise was that she placed a stool nearby so she could stand on it and reach his cup, rather than expecting him to lower it to where she could reach without assistance.

He snorted, "Hardly a compliment, my children are such useless creatures… how am I supposed to dominate the world with such useless whelps?" He asked the question while a stone faced male helped his wife to her feet, and walked her bruised and worn out frame out of the tent. They didn't look at their King as they departed, though they cast a hopeful look at Draudillon as they left.

In her time with the elves, she'd become adept at comfort, care, and tending the injured, and there were always injured needing tending. The women doted on her, and the men looked at her with a mix of pity, regret, and gratitude when their wives and daughters were treated by the seemingly gifted hands of the human royalty.

She said nothing in response to their glance, nor did she answer the King.

"I asked a question, whelp." He snarled from atop his throne.

"I don't know, My Lord, you can't… I suppose?" She replied, and he did a double take down at her.

"People do not tell me 'I can't' girl. You live after saying it only because you haven't birthed me any whelps yet." He snapped.

"My Lord asked me how he could do it with useless children, is there a way it can be done with the useless?" Draudillon answered, putting a confused expression on her face, and it mollified the elf King almost instantly.

He rubbed his thick, broad chin with his thumb and forefinger. "Perhaps you're right… if only I could get the bitch back… and if only her bitch mother was still alive…" He groused. "They really should have at least returned my property."

"M'lord?" Draudillon asked, and when his cup was presented, she stood on the stool again and poured more wine for him.

"You wouldn't know, I suppose. A hundred and twenty years or so ago I captured a human champion and took her in my bed. She was stolen back, bothersome enough, but she did bear a whelp who seems to have developed some power." He clenched his fist, "She's mine. She's mine and she was stolen from me."

"Is… is that why M'lord chose to come for me and my people… since it was a human that bore his lordship a useful child?" Draudillon asked of him, and he narrowed his eyes down at her.

"You're a smart one. When you're old enough to breed, you might actually produce something useful… I should take more humans after all, maybe that's the missing key… maybe my own kind are even less useful than I thought." The Elf King pondered, and unable to keep from doing so, she met his eyes, they pierced through her like a sword of concentrated evil, and in them she could see his plans for her.

The wailing, the broken, hollow eyes he would replace hers with, the futility and hopelessness of the life he planned for her. 'Is this a power of his… a magic… or my own dread-filled imagination?' The Queen wondered, and in desperation, she lashed out at him with a question to distract his thoughts.

"My Lord, I've heard it said that you appeared from nothing and made the Elf Kingdom afterward… is that… is that true?" She asked with childish awe imbued into her voice.

That much, he fell for, and he gave a rough, cruel laugh, slapping his hand on the armrest of his seat.

"No, that is a stupid story. I came from another world, it was dying, and I felt a magic darkness close around me, and then I was… in this one. In the old world, I was nowhere nearly as strong as I am here, but even then, the strong could not kill me. Every time I died, I was restored and my Kingdom was mine again as if nothing had happened. Even the powerful were powerless." The Elf King laughed, "My strength could not be contained, the prisoners they sought to rescue were always in my power again, and still linger down below my home, beneath the Great Tree."

"Powerful beings… on par with… with yourself?" Draudillon felt a wild hope run through her veins. "That seems impossible, I can't believe it, I don't believe it." She pressed as her pulse raced.

He glared down at her, "Guilds, not single figures. The Wild Ones, the Farwalkers, the Lords of Rivendell, and Ainz Ooal Gown…"

Draudillon gasped, "The Allfather of the Kingdom of Nazarick?!" She squeaked out, nearly dropping her pitcher, and it was the Elf King's turn to be confused.

"What are you prattling about, brat?" He demanded and reaching out, he grabbed her cheeks at the joint of her jaw and squeezed.

Tears of pain sprang to her eyes. "The King… the Kingdom of Nazarick… his name is Ainz Ooal Gown…" She slowly pushed the words out through her lips, and he released his grip.

"Nazarick…" The Elf King thought that over, he recalled the battle where they bested him, the words that floated through the air when they had him down on all fours.

'If we can beat him this easily, do you think we're ready to take on that dungeon you found Nishiki? What was its name? The Great Nazarick something?" The birdman figure asked another dressed in all black with a strange mask with an obnoxious tone of happiness.

The memory passed and the elf King released his hold on Draudillon's jaw and demanded, "How do you know about Nazarick?"

"It's… it's the Kingdom to the north of the Kingdom of Carne… ruled by Ainz Ooal Gown, a caster of great power…" She rubbed her jaw and asked, "H-How does My-" she recalled the pain in her jaw and said, "How does My Master not know of it?"

"I don't care about anything that doesn't get me what I want, brat. The affairs of other trash lands are nothing… or were…" He said, and privately mused to himself, 'They took me down once, but that was before the gods of that world gave me the upgrade, choosing me above all others to bestow with the power I should have always had… the ones that spoke of it named themselves Nines Ooal Gown… but that could change, and one man could take the name of a guild just as I named my Kingdom after my title. I thought revenge was denied to me… but maybe I will get more out of this than I ever dreamed.'

"Nazarick… here… Nines Ooal Gown must have succeeded… were they always one man though, or a guild… could they be a threat… no not anymore… but the caster… I will crush him… then let him live and watch as I break his women…" The elf king muttered under his breath, but Draudillon caught every word.

The Queen felt the elf King's mix of anger and euphoria rising beside her, and she stared down at the floor in abject terror, her limbs shaking so much that a drop of wine sloshed out of the pitcher and onto the grass. 'Please don't notice I spilled it… don't hit me…' She loathed herself for such a weak thought, she loathed herself for her fear, she loathed herself for her failure, and she loathed that she could do nothing but endure.

But the seed of hope at his dismay was planted with it. 'Nazarick has more to it than I knew… if they're from the same world as this monster… maybe their representative can kill him.' She prayed, not to the gods who she considered to have abandoned her and her people, but to something else. 'Ainz Ooal Gown… if you are a god from another world… please… save us… don't leave us in the hands of this monster…'

"Are the humans ready for mating again?" He asked her out of the blue.

The Queen snapped out of her prayer and said, "If they were warriors, maybe, but… but no, they're mere maids, and a few courtiers… they're not speaking yet."

A flash of guilt ran through her that she was condemning someone else, but it was ameliorated by the knowledge that her first duty was to her servants, and so she kept a straight face throughout her answer.

"Tell the guard outside, whoever it is, to bring me his mate, then, and be quick about it." The elf King snapped, "And you… come back in an hour to drag her back to your tent."

"Master." Draudillon said numbly, bobbed at the knees, and made to leave his presence again.