Chapter 7: The Damned & the Dead
Ainz thought furiously over the question, while Neia waited patiently at the base of his throne. Finally, a thought occurred to him. "If you were to ask a lion to explain something to a flower, would you expect the flower to understand?" Ainz asked.
"No, sire." Neia said, her voice revealing her uncertainty about his meaning.
"If a lion were to explain something to another lion, do you think they would understand each other?" Ainz asked.
"Yes, sire." Neia answered.
"Are my followers...like me...or are they mortals?" Ainz asked again.
"Mortals, sire." She answered, her voice growing in confidence as she began to understand.
"Then it should be written by mortals. You are best suited to explaining my will to them, and you will write the lessons you have learned from me. You may correspond with me on our journey. Simply send your letters back to the Capitol, and I will have someone pick them up and respond accordingly, but in general, I see no need to do more than review your work and ensure you have truly understood my ideals. Understood?" Ainz said.
"As you say, your majesty." Neia replied enthusiastically.
"Then you may go, I understand you have much to do, and...also here...give these to the families of those who died in defense of sacred ground and sacred lives." He said, and he gestured for a maid to come forward. She held a small chest in her hands and a long sack strapped to her back. When the maid, who appeared to be handling it easily, handed it to Neia, she almost buckled from the surprise, she knew that weight...it was gold.
"Majesty...is this truly...?" Neia began.
"If people give their lives for you or for your ideals, it is the same, is it just to let their families grow weaker because they have expended themselves on your behalf?" The Sorcerer King said. "The coins will ensure that they have the means to live, despite the loss of the patriarchs and matriarchs of their houses, and inside that sack there is a set of blades, so that they will always have a means to protect themselves."
Neia openly wept, and barely managed to get out an intelligible "Thank you, your majesty." before the gate opened and she was forced to depart again.
In a private room in the castle...
"Now that Remedios is to be executed, what happens to her mission?" Gustav asked Count Handor.
"Most likely, his majesty will give that task to you. There's no way he'll cancel it completely. The problem of the decline of the paladin's reputation has only been made worse now. It's been a little over two weeks since Neia was notified of her impending mission to escort Tinamoc, and even though I don't expect her to do much out beyond the Capitol when she leaves, I am not going to underestimate her ability to make waves HERE while she remains. That will be a problem, as long as Black Justice is seen presenting its best face, there's nothing that can be done that won't make their opponents look worse." Count Handor said pragmatically.
"When is she supposed to die?" Gustav asked.
"Tomorrow." Count Handor replied. "The priest's execution has been bumped to the right a little, he is going to be hanged at the end of the month, the day Neia leaves the capitol, they don't want to many of the religious factions being punished at once, so he'll die without much fanfare, being executed among a handful of other criminals so that nobody takes much note of him, but Commander Remedios can't be delayed long, her attempt involved over a thousand people, and among the great houses who backed her action, there's a desire to see her pay for it."
"By pay for it, I assume you mean killer before she can speak about who backed her, and make it possible to just bury the memory of their involvement in the public mind? Gustav said sharply.
"Exactly." Said Count Handor. "I lent my troops too you know, at least a few of them, though unlike some fools I had the sense to have my men wear unmarked armor, of course none of those who were dumb enough or to confident or to cheap, are also dumb enough to not know the implications of what will happen now that they've failed, when the bodies of their people wearing their insignias, are identified. If they hang Remedios quickly, they can move to have the bodies recovered and disposed of before any real investigation begins, just laying the whole thing at the feet of Remedios and hoping that is enough."
Gustav pounded his hand on the table in frustration. "DAMNIT REMEDIOS!" he shouted, "How could you have done something so stupid!" The table broke and fell under the force of his blow, and he turned away in frustration and brought his hands up to his face, covering his eyes as his head turned up to the ceiling. He knew his question was as foolish as her actions, and part of his anger was directed at himself for not seeing it coming and preventing it.
"I assume you're going to support those nobles in that effort as well?" Gustav said.
"Of course." Count Handor replied. "If I don't and it gets pushed through, I'll be remembered as opposing them, but if I do support them, and I tip the scales in their favor, they will owe me a debt when the time comes."
Gustav nodded. "I understand. You've backed the Paladin Order in the past, and you gave your support to the commander when she asked for it, and assuming you back me as her replacement, I will remember your support when the time comes."
Count Handor clapped his hands together. "Grand. Then we have a bargain." Handor stuck out his hand, and after a long sigh, he said, "I still can't believe it's come to this, after all we've endured..." And he reached out and clasped Count Handor's outstretched arm. Gustav noticed how soft the nobleman's hand was, it had no more firmness than a bowl of oatmeal. This, however, was what it had come to. They parted ways, each set upon their course.
That night, while Neia was presiding over the funeral of her people's fallen, a fire broke out in a supply dump, and both Black Justice and city regulars formed bucket brigades to put it out, and as it rose, two more fires broke out nearby, forcing more and more residents to participate in fighting the flames, that might have been bad enough, but when the stables caught, the horses went wild, causing chaos throughout the city.
It was not until the morning that the true cost of the fires was known. While relatively few buildings had in fact been burned, and only a handful of supplies had been lost thanks to the quick actions of the citizens, the horses took hours to round up, and roughly a hundred of them were missing. But that still was not all, when the relief shift went to the prison in the morning, they found two guards and a torturer dead, and most of the prisoners that had survived the attack on black justice were completely gone. Several lay dead, indicating a struggle, but in the chaos and noise, nobody had noticed the alarm being raised. When Neia was informed of this, her first question of Robel and Gilcrest was, "What is the status of Remedios Custodio?"
They hesitated for a long moment, and then Gilcrest replied..."She's escaped."
Pieces clicked into place...the convenient fires that forced numbers away from their positions, the burning stables, so nobody would notice the missing horses until hours later, it all served as a means to get her out.
From experience, they were able to read her face, and Robel spoke first. "You don't think it was a coincidence."
"I hope you're not asking." Neia said, "Of course it wasn't. But Remedios didn't arrange this."
"How do you know?" Gilcrest asked.
"Because I know Remedios, I served under her, I served beside her, she's a great fighter, but she is an idiot, single minded, she's not adept at creating complex plans, let alone plans that involve deception, her only redeeming mental quality is that she knows she's not the smartest of people and she lets others do her thinking for her, she'll happily take the credit for their thinking, but she's not going to do any real thinking herself. This took brains, and more importantly, it took outside help. I'll bet my bow that there are free paladins who just happen to be 'missing' also right about now. It looks like she still has some loyalty to her, even after all this." Neia said.
"What do we do?" Gilcrest asked.
"What can we do?" Neia asked.
Robel scratched his head.
"We were outmaneuvered this time. I didn't think anybody would take a chance like this for her, but that was stupid of me. I pulled a Remedios by not thinking as they would think. Paladins are deeply loyal to each other, even a fool can be deeply treasured if they share the common bond of standing in the same order. I overlooked the obvious, the only saving grace here, aside from the fact that they didn't burn down the whole city, was that we were not personally responsible for securing the castle dungeons. Unless we're personally appointed to chase her down, there isn't much we can do, and even if we were given the authority to pursue her, it would cost a butcher's bill to bring her down. I don't doubt she'll be a problem, but at least for now, there is nothing we, or she, can do about each other." Neia said, leading to collective but also unsatisfied shrugs.
"What of the priest who tried to kill me? What was his name...Gindist, Gindi..." Neia asked.
"Gindis." Gilcrest replied. "He was held in a different area of the prison, three guards were found dead, but so were six attackers, four of them with arrows in their bodies, so I suppose they failed to get the element of surprise, and the guards managed to wipe out that team before the last of them died himself. Gindis is still secure in his cell, no doubt much to his disappointment." Gilcrest said.
"Were there any paladins among any of the bodies?" Neia asked.
"None that were not prisoners." Robel replied. "That was the first question I asked when I was in the throne room receiving this information, however, if any were killed in the attack, the bodies were taken."
Neia nodded, "This is just a guess, but I suppose none of the other prisoners, the thieves, rapists, murderers, that kind of thing...none of them were freed?"
"...That's right." Robel replied. "How did you know?"
Neia gave a knowing smile, "Because they're paladins of justice. They weren't going to free "real" criminals, even as a distraction." Her voice carried the contempt she held for the hypocrisy she saw in their actions.
"I have only a few more trips to the Sorcerer King's realm, and then I depart. While I am out on my escort mission, I will keep a...casual eye out for any indication of trouble from Remedios or her people, but I doubt we'll see any. Tinamoc, as far as Remedios knows...and as far as I know, either has only been assigned as my duty to escort because I have the skills necessary to scout and establish mobile defenses. So to her, he's innocent since he's not affiliated with I or the Sorcerer King. She won't risk him. In the meantime, when I leave, ensure that you continue regular training, remember the fundamental rule: one can train ten, can train one hundred, can train one thousand. Those who exhibit talent for combat are assigned as instructors and focus on extra training with them to refine their skills. What's more, look for those who have gifted voices and are interested in spreading our service to the god of justice. He has chosen to allow the wisdom of his will to be taught as I am taught in his home, to gain a wealth of knowledge in what is in reality only a moment in time, they will be few in number, but will serve our cause in serving him, far and away better than anyone could, merely figuring things out as they go." She said.
"Amazing." They said in unison. Which thing they found amazing, Neia wasn't sure, but she didn't ask, instead, she said, "You haven't seen anything yet. Come to my office, I want to show you something privately before we distribute it."
They followed her amiably to the privacy of her office, and she pointed to a small chest, "Open it." She said.
They approached, curious, and opened it. They didn't say anything at first, and the moment of silence stretched out as they stared at the coins.
"What is...this?" They said.
Neia didn't answer that question, and instead she closed the chest and pointed to a nearby sack that was drawn shut and upright. "Look in there." She said.
They went to the sack, undid the knot, and then drew out a set of magnificent swords.
"What is...?" They began, and Neia cut them off.
"These are the gifts from the Sorcerer King to the families of our dead. The coins to provide for their lives, and the swords to defend themselves against all threats." She said.
"But that is...how can he...did he know how much is in HERE?!" Robel asked. "Those swords bear runes! These are the sorts of things we hear about high-ranking adventurers owning...and that chest was full of GOLD COINS!" He exclaimed.
"No, not only gold." She said.
"Oh, he just put the gold on top, it's got silver or copper underneath?" He said, settling down as he thought he understood.
"No, underneath those are platinum coins." She said as she shook her head in awe.
"PLATINUM?!" Robel and Gilcrest exclaimed.
"I'm distributing this tomorrow at a public ceremony where their family members died in our common defense. I have to divide up the coins now to make sure I give them out equally per family member, and I will present the swords to the eldest survivors. Please ensure the word has been passed." Neia answered.
They nodded numbly and walked out, so shocked that they didn't even acknowledge Sebas as he entered.
"You intend to distribute all of it?" He asked.
"I do." Neia said.
"You would not be considered wrong for keeping some of it, you know." He said.
"Yes, I would. My orders put those people where they died, my cause brought them to a place where they'd die before their time, yes, it was necessary, but I don't intend to profit from getting my people killed, even if it wasn't possible to save them all." She answered. "Maybe nobody would notice if I held back a single platinum coin. But I'd notice, and I wouldn't like myself for it."
Sebas stroked his chin in thought, "I see. You're a very...interesting human, Neia Baraja." He said.
"Thanks...I guess." Neia said with a slight smile. "But you didn't come in here just to say something nice to me, did you?" She asked.
"No," Sebas replied, "Lord Ainz has informed me that you'll be spending twice as long at training this time, and wanted you to be mentally prepared for it. Also, you'll have several days of rest at the end, instead of just two."
"I see," Neia said, "Is everything alright?" She asked.
"Nothing terrible." Sebas said, "It's simply that when time is frozen, Lord Ainz must remain to maintain it, if he leaves the area, it will be dispelled, and he has things to do elsewhere that will take him away from Nazarick."
"I understand," Neia answered, "I had no idea we were imposing so much on him."
"It isn't an imposition," Sebas said, "it is an investment. Lord Ainz has often said that people are more valuable investments than things. He expects you to accomplish great things, and so he wishes you properly prepared."
"Please convey to him how moved I am, and that I will grind myself into the dust if that is what it takes to live up to his expectations." Neia said.
She thought it over a moment and then asked, "You heard about Remedios and the renegade paladins?"
"I did. They executed the operation flawlessly, or nearly so anyway." Sebas replied.
"They're paladins." Neia said. "Professionals, even if they're wrong in what they do. Should I be concerned?" She asked.
"No more than usual." Sebas said. "They didn't have long to prepare for this, so they almost certainly have only the supplies on them that they can carry, and some of them are probably wounded, and I doubt they'll take the chance at healing the wounded until they're away from anyone who might notice and find it suspicious. There also aren't that many places they can go in the Holy Kingdom, not after all this."
"I agree." Neia said, "That being the case, I'll get some rest."
"Goodnight then." Sebas replied and walked out.
The next day was a flurry of activity, with rumors and stories being bandied about, the reputation of the Paladin Order plummeted ever lower. The evening culminated in two short-notice evening ceremonies. One by the crown, bestowing the title of Commander of the Paladin Order on Gustav in place of the renegade paladin commander, Remedios Custodio...this one attended by thousands of citizens.
The other, a ceremony by Black Justice led by Neia Baraja, attended by tens of thousands, commemorated the dead. One by one, the names of the dead were read off, and as each name was called, the family of the deceased would come up, and the eldest member would say, "They are scouting the way ahead." In response, Neia would say, "This is the reward of the god of justice for his service, that you live well until you meet again." and she handed over a small sack of coins that she had proportioned out. "And this also, that you may defend your lives while they are away." And she would hold out the sword by the hilt to the eldest of age to wield it."
When all the names were called, Neia stood in front of them all and said something she learned in the realm of Ainz Ooal Gown, "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for a brother. They put their bodies between all of us and the desolation of evil's wrath, they knew the risks and did what needed to be done anyway. They represent what is best within us, and among us, and their names will live forever. As they have cared for us, so we must care for those who they left behind. This is the wisdom and the will of the god of justice." There were tears aplenty among family members of the dead and those who knew them, and Neia said, "I open the floor to anyone who wishes to speak of the deceased, and then pay your respects to their families." She then turned around, approached each one, shook their hands, and embraced them before she moved out of the way.
An elderly man stepped forward, his back was hunched and his fingers gnarled, his speech was hoarse, but nonetheless he managed to make it loud enough to carry, "I won't talk about the death of my son, he was not a lover of death, he was a lover of life, instead I wish to tell you, about how he lived. They say you can tell a man by who they were as a child, and my son showed the truth of this. When he was only seven, he fought a bully of ten who was picking on a girl of five. When he found a coin dropped by a street vendor, he returned it. When Jaldabaoth attacked, he volunteered for combat before conscription rolls were called up, and when the Sorcerer King faced his defeat by Jaldabaoth, my son volunteered for the rescue squad. He always said that death was inevitable, but nothing else in life was, including how we'd die. He didn't believe in acting in fear, and that was how he managed to get his wife. When nobody else dared approach someone of her beauty, he did, and they married, and gave me a granddaughter..." He picked up a little girl who was not even old enough to properly walk, "now he's gone, but he didn't have his life taken...he gave it, and gave it freely, for her, for you...for me. He never much liked pity, and neither do I, so I won't ask it, instead, just let me ask this...make sure that this was worth his dying for, make sure all this..." He gestured to the gathered multitudes, "and all of you, do something worthwhile, so he didn't die for nothing. Thank you." He said, and aided by a young woman, probably his daughter-in-law, he hobbled back into place, his grandchild clinging to her mother, bearing the confused obliviousness all infants and toddlers have to the goings on around them.
There were other speeches, one by one that came and went, and when it was all over, many stayed to pay their respects to the family members. Neia, however, was exhausted, she found she looked forward to her time in Nazarick, if only because training for the real world was easier than dealing with the real world. She slept like the dead.
And the next morning, she found her waiting for her, and arrived just in time for the gate to open, it was a profound relief to step through and find herself immediately in the training grounds, and she found it an even greater relief when she was able to lose herself in motions, throwing a lizard man off balance, was easier than being thrown off balance by the ever changing nature of life in the capitol. Through the endless frozen moment, they moved with ever-increasing grace, in the attack routines, Black Justice had increased their survival rate from almost nobody to eighty percent or more, and in team combat against summoned monsters, they found they could now easily take on giants as long as they worked together.
"Remember," Cocytus said, "the process IS the result, it is by grinding away at your weakness and imperfections, that you will refine yourself into the ideal warriors, the ideal protectors, you will not get there in a day, a week, or a month, but by constantly testing yourself and practicing over and over, you will achieve the fullness of your potential. Weakness is your enemy, fear is your enemy, you needn't fear strength. If you are stronger, and if you fear for those you protect, do not let them be struck, and if you fear being struck, strike first, and avoid being struck."
The lessons were hammered home over and over and over again, in scenario after scenario, bridge battles, forest ambushes, mountain paths, open fields, rolling hills, they faced constantly changing conditions for longer than they'd ever known them to last.
Until finally it came time for Neia and Zaryusu to return to the library. They painted, they read, they wrote, they answered questions, this time, they began to learn advanced logistics and the difference between 'moving forward' and 'victory'. Scorched earth tactics appealed to neither of them, but they grasped the utility of it with a training exercise wherein one side retreated and destroyed the environment as they did so, and another tried to pursue them. Supplies dwindled faster, frustration escalated, and the power of these methods was clear.
The age of training came and went, almost to soon for Neia, even though she enjoyed the reward of free time when it was done to take her ease in a paradise, she knew she had to go back, and this time the customary farewell was brief and to the point, but wellwishes were said nonetheless, and the found themselves restored to the land they called home.