Chapter 336

Ainz looked away as if deep in his memories, recalling the stories of his guild days, "The elf King, as I said, is not of this world. Nor am I. I am… from another world, beyond the one he came from. My friends and I used his world as a kind of… hunting ground. I believe the ones you refer to as 'players' are like me, like my friends. Though they must have been weaker if they chose not to kill him. My friends' creations and mine, refer to that original world as 'first world'. We would travel to the second world, a world of first world's creation… it was a place for us to play games. To hunt, to explore what each other made… we waged battles and forged bonds… second world, it was the happiest time of my life. Traveling worlds, it may seem strange to you, as it was to me when I-" Ainz briefly swallowed his heartache before he chose to incorporate Demiurge's story into his account.

"When I first found this world in the most ancient of times… before we sealed everything away… protecting this world from the evils of its own making. In this 'second world' the elf King as you call him, had a kingdom of his own, and my friends and I… the nine of us, killed him." Ainz explained, and Raymond felt his body become as stone.

'The spell, the spell he used… it makes sense, perfect sense…' Raymond realized as he began to put the pieces of the puzzle together. "You said you killed him, was he… resurrected?" The Cardinal's mind ran faster than an arrow loosed from a bow, and Ainz answered him…

"No. He could not be permanently slain. Once killed, he would revive again after a set time period. He has been killed many times." Ainz explained, and despair briefly washed over Raymond and Nua alike.

'We'll be his playthings forever…' Nua thought, her stoic eyes held steady, but without thinking about it, she put herself a hair closer to Raymond when the thought came to her.

"No. That was in Second World. He can be permanently killed here." Ainz said and pressed his forefinger against the table to reference the New World. "More importantly, I can kill him."

"Are you… perhaps… a god?" Raymond asked.

Calca and Albedo's backs stiffened at once and Albedo's wings spread out to their maximum extent. With the impassioned voices of offended royal women they rebuked the Cardinal by almost shouting, "Of course he is!"

The table waited after that, it wasn't hard for even Raymond to know why.

'They're waiting for me to erupt. Waiting for me to start shouting about blasphemy and that I was expecting him to deny something so outlandish. But…' The Cardinal's thoughts were busy ones, agitated ones, he began scratching on the surface of his hand as if it itched.

"You may be. My whole life I served the Six. I did it to protect mankind, because it was the only way… the only way I knew at least. But we know the Six came from another world, and that others, the Demon Gods, the Greed Kings, they came here from somewhere else. Another Player, another God? It isn't beyond possibility." It was almost a relief to acknowledge the buried truth that at the least, a new god was a possibility.

"If you are a God, you're different from the ones I know. My own loathe the undead, except for the death god, you use them as tools. My own… they protected humanity. You… you protect…" Raymond's body felt weak, if he'd had to stand, he couldn't have managed it, he looked over his shoulder to the elf who stood close at hand, "you protect more."

"The greater the God, the more he can guard." The Queen of Frost answered.

"So you believe him to be a deity, then?" Raymond as the Frost Queen.

"I've never met a God." Neia answered, her vertical slit pupils hidden briefly by a blink, "I don't know if I'd recognize one if I did. I only know that I protect my people as best I can. I have a lot of types of people. Humans, elves, orcs, goblins, snake people, dwarves, and more, so many more. The Allfather has the same… a more natural alliance than one with his Kingdom, I can't imagine. If it takes calling him a God to secure us, I'll go with that. And if he can accomplish it? That's good enough for Godhood as far as I'm concerned. If someone else wants to argue the point, let them show up and do it."

"A lot of words there for 'yes'." Raymond muttered, and the Frost Queen flashed a fang filled smile in his direction.

"Okay, then 'Yes.' I suppose I'm starting to think that way. Nothing else explains what I've seen." The Frost Queen drummed her talons on the table, but otherwise fell silent after giving him her answer.

Raymond took that in, "I saw your power at the Katze Plains. I wondered then if I was seeing a new God rising in the world. But this is still a lot to think over."

"There's time enough for that. But for now, we need the Queen rescued. Thankfully the elf King is as dense as he was in Second World. Albedo," Ainz looked up to his right, "send a distraction to the elf King, and have the Queen removed to Nazarick at once."

"Wait… no… plan? That's it…?" Raymond asked, snapped out of his reverie by the abrupt order, his eyes wavering from Allfather to Allmother.

"I was created to be the ideal administrator, so of course I can handle something as simple as a minor rescue." Albedo's feathers ruffled just a little, which led to Raymond's eyes goggling.

"You're a… a golem?" He gasped out the word, only for the 'pregnant golem' to laugh uproariously, putting a hand on her ample chest she tried to regain control over herself.

"No, silly human. I'm a living being, not some petty golem, my creator was one of the forty-one, whom my beloved lord led. Each of the forty-one supreme beings created living things to serve them, I am one of those beings." The unworldly beauty of the winged woman beside the Allfather was all too believable in what she said.

'A God.' Raymond thought the words, and it grew ever more likely in his mind.

"So then… what did you want to meet with me for, why are we gathering at all?" Raymond asked as he regained his mental footing.

"First, our agents will be collectively withdrawn from your country." The Golden Queen said at once.

"Even my Goblins." The Wolf Queen added when Raymond glanced her way.

"But there's another problem." The Frost Queen said, her lips drew thinly across her face, and Raymond felt his heart pick up its pace just a little.

"The things our… agents, have seen of your country. The treatment of your slave population, the stories about it are spreading through our ranks. And more than that, by your own admission, the Draconic Queen's capture is on your country's head. It wouldn't have happened if you had properly guarded her, or even just permitted a more direct route." Calca quipped.

Raymond sat silent, there was nothing he could say, all his theology, all his training, all his apologetics and defenses… he looked over at Nua who stood so close he could smell the fragrance of her hair, it was forgotten. It fell away in the memory of her desperate terror when he was grabbing for her ear to make the cuts that would mutilate her very identity.

"What do you want?" Raymond asked the question without any hint of a diplomatic flourish.

"A change in policy for your country." Ainz answered for the lot of them.

"I can't do that. I'm here to represent, not to rule." Raymond protested at once, he opened his hands out to stop his scratching on the skin and spread them out in front of him, "You know this, you all know this."

"But you can tell your comrades." The Wolf Queen pointed out. "Things will carry on for now, but send word home while you're here, and please understand, when we return to our respective nations, our relationship with your country will change. Mine will be the first to make that happen, I promise you." Enri's eyes were hard and fixed on the Cardinal, the lingering question on her mind… 'Did he authorize the slaughter of my village… is he one of the ones who made that happen?' Just sitting close to him, she longed to claw out his eyes, but this, this was a start at least.

"I will… have something drawn up." Raymond said and pushed himself upright, giving himself a few seconds to steady himself he then said, "Nua, come with me, we're leaving. There's nothing more to be done here." The Cardinal then gave a polite half bow with his hand over his chest, and left them behind as he exited.

"I think that went very well." Ainz remarked when the Cardinal was gone. "Now Albedo," Ainz said when no one ventured to disagree, "See to the Draconic Queen, and afford her every courtesy of Nazarick until I arrive to speak with her myself."

"At once, my love." And with that, the table rose as one.