Chapter 407

Jircniv knelt before the throne, it was a strange feeling still for the former Emperor, yet here it was and there was no other way around it. The Allfather, much to his surprise, was very open faced and even descended the steps of the throne to greet him personally. Jircniv had to blink back his dismay at such an open display of welcome when he heard Ainz say, "Welcome to my home, international man of mystery."

"I'm sorry? My Lord? Man of mystery?" Jircniv asked and when Ainz nodded to indicate that Jircniv could rise, he pointed his finger at himself while looking up at the Allfather. "I don't understand?"

Ainz chortled a little, "Forgive me, a small joke from another world. It seems you mystified a great many people with your vanishing act." He rested a hand on Jircniv's shoulder as if they were old friends. "My servants had a betting pool on whether or not you were alive, and the three geniuses were even in conflict with each other over it one way or the other. My son waxed and waned between the two positions, while the Allmother and Demiurge were divided."

"Should I be concerned, My Lord?" Jircniv asked, suppressing a wince at the forcefulness of the hand on his shoulder. Ainz looked the smaller human in the eye, there was a lot to be found therein. The previous ruler of the Baharuth Empire was something of an enigma to the Allfather.

'His policies and skill earned him the begrudging respect of the Golden Queen of Re-Estize, and his skill was such that even the Wolf Queen and Wolf King of the Kingdom of Carne had heard word of his accomplishments when they were just foreign peasants. In fact every ruler I know spoke well of him… yet it came to that end for him anyway.' Ainz' reflections on the matter sank home, and whether he wanted to or not, he couldn't help but think of the way employees were hostages to their companies in his own homeworld.

'One wrong move, and a person's whole life is over.' He reflected and a twinge of guilt rose in his chest. 'I did that to him, whether I meant to or not.'

The situation was clearly not lost on the former Emperor either, he was clearly trying to hold his shoulders back and his eyes level but he had the air of a man who waited for the headsman's ax.

The twinge of guilt in the Allfather forced him to relax his hold on Jircniv's shoulder immediately. "You have nothing to fear. We were on opposite sides, but that doesn't make us enemies. You will be afforded a comfortable retirement in a part of the Empire of your choosing, you will have to be watched of course, but that is for your protection, to make sure no old grudges find you." Ainz promised, and Jircniv had to blink back his shock.

"I didn't expect this." Jircniv's words were barely a whisper, "It's more common to kill the members of fallen houses, no, I'd say it's an obligatory tradition, even."

"My power is secure, why should I take lives without any need?" Ainz asked and gave an almost casual shrug, "Besides, if people don't fear my victory, they won't resist as hard. Am I wrong?"

It struck the fallen emperor like a lightning bolt out of a clear sky, he nearly stumbled back as if struck, and for a moment he rethought everything he thought he knew about games of power.

Somehow the Allfather's habit of flipping the game board was summed up in a single string of words.

"I- I suppose not. The girl, the Princess, Layali, she said something about changing my face?" Jircniv asked, his eyes roving the luxuriant and massive throne room. 'So this is what I faced? No wonder I lost.' He acknowledged, it was almost a relief to know that it took the impossible to defeat his armies, artisans were a hallmark of power, and whoever made this place was among the best. While Ainz rubbed his jaw in thought, Jircniv chose that moment to offer praise.

"Your home, it is something to behold. I've never seen anything like it. You must have had the most marvelous artisans in the world to produce it." Jircniv's appreciative wandering eyes, oddly, seemed to galvanize the Allfather to speaking.

"It was the work of my friends and I who did it together, a labor of love among the finest of companions." Ainz said it with a reverence that seemed to Jircniv to be the same as one would offer to the dead.

"They were amazing, then." Jircniv added truthfully.

"They were." Ainz whispered and a spell of silence seemed to hang between them before the Allfather spoke again and broke it like a rock through shattered glass. "You will have your face altered, be given a new name, a new identity, even a new voice, and we will arrange a job for you if you like."

"A new voice?" Jircniv reached up to his throat and spread his hand around it as if he were going to choke himself, "That is… something."

"It will be painless, I promise. If Princess Layali brought this up, she must want this for you, and she has been of great help in Demiurge's experiments…" Ainz paused and scratched his head, "Though I suppose I can admit, I have no idea what they do. Still, he and the maids seem to have taken to her."

"I-I see." Jicrniv said, a faint hint of the eldritch teased its way up his spine, like he'd stepped too close to the foggy divide between life and death. 'Some people have said he has the power of the gods… maybe they're right, maybe I am standing before the next of the gods to come into this world…'

Before he could ask any questions, before he could comment further, before even another thought could enter the head of the former Emperor, a butler appeared at his side seemingly from nowhere, though the old butler, the very picture of dignified reserve, paid no mind to the Emperor when he showed himself and said…

"My Lord, I have received word abroad, your deification has finally been proposed."

"My deification?" Ainz asked and raised an eyebrow, "From what countries?"

"Most of them, My Lord. Most of them."