Ainz felt the increasing number of eyes at his back and slowly raised a hand in front of his chest to stop the elder questioning him and looked over his shoulder. ‘Telling one lizardman from another isn’t easy yet, but I would definitely remember that weapon… and that albino lizardwoman, and that armor… new arrivals. Shasuryu’s brother must have been successful.’

Shasuryu rushed past Ainz and flung his arms around the one bearing the oddly shaped blue blade. ‘Definitely a brother.’ Ainz thought as he watched them embrace in relief.

Shalltear looked up to her lord and whispered, “Lord Ainz, isn’t it disrespectful to not pay mind to you right now?”

Ainz set a comforting hand on the red armored shoulder of his subordinate, “No, not right now.” He said, “He has to brief the newcomers so they…” His tongue defied him briefly as he sought what to say next. ‘Know who is in charge? Know who I am?’ For the former office worker it was still too uncomfortable to say he was in charge of so many unknowns, and so he said, “know who I am.” It was ambiguous enough that Shalltear accepted it and waited patiently at his side while Shasuryu explained.

Zaryusu shook his head in disbelief, “You must be joking. You raided the frogmen yourself?”

“I did, and only survived because of them.” Shasuryu said and gestured toward the King of Nazarick with one open scaled hand as Ainz turned fully around to face them.

When the caster faced him, Shasuryu went down and bent his knee in submission. Zaryusu quickly followed, bowing his head, “You saved my brother’s life, as he goes, I go also. I ask only one thing.” He held his breath, a more charismatic figure he could scarcely imagine. The figure before him seemed as godlike as the small red armored knight seemed dangerous, and yet they had never traded words so he was almost fearful of what answer he might receive.

“What is it you ask for?” Ainz asked, tapping his staff on the soft soil of the village.

“That after you secure our safety, that you secure our prosperity. I want the lizardmen to grow strong.” Zaryusu Shasha said, making a point to ask it for all the living tribes of his people and not only for the one which was now his.

Crusch Lulu descended from Rororo and joined her lover’s side, descending to one knee on her own.

With three chiefs down on one knee, it became a cascade effect which radiated to the entire assembled body.

Shalltear wore a bright and contented smile. “At least they’re sensible enough.” She offered her highest praise to the beings that were unworthy even to serve as paving stones for her master.

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“I accept your fealty and your request… but we need to know more than we do, was the captive successfully retrieved?” Ainz asked, and a lizardman raised his head.

“Yes, my Lord… I will retrieve it.” The lizardman sprang to his feet and rushed into a small hut.

There was a cacophony of shouting and a brief struggle before at last the lizardman returned. He had a rope wrapped entirely around the body of the frogman, its arms and legs were bound together and secured in a tangle of different knots. Its head and throat were visible, but the rest was essentially ‘dressed in rope’ as near as Ainz could think to call it, and the lizardman dragged it down the short steps where the bruised and battered creature thudded and grunted in pain before being dragged through the dirt and muck.

“We have questioned it, and questioned it hard, My Lord, but it has given us nothing.”

“I’ll give you a spear in the guts! I’ll give you a crack to your skulls! I’ll give you death! I’ll give you pain! I’ll give you slavery that works you till you die of exhausation and the world forgets you ever lived! But I will never talk! I will never tell you anything no matter what you do to me!” The frogman belched out his words, his slimy green skin may have been able to sweat, or not, but with its rounded head, bulging throat and the constant rumble from its ragged breaths it was hard to say much of anything about it.

‘A little like Demiurge’s alternate state.’ Ainz considered as he looked at the creature, it was tough, that much was sure. Blood seeped through cracks in the rope, the limbs were contorted uncomfortably and in angles that couldn’t have been natural for it. ‘Broken limbs, bleeding body, but still it shouts defiance… he is strong.’ The tormenting of the creature made his stomach queasy to be sure, and yet he needed information.

He crouched down so that his mask was hovering fully in the face of the frogman while around them the lizardman tribe stood up. “Are you sure you won’t talk? You won’t tell us anything?” Ainz asked.

“Never, outsider… but what are you… you’re no lizardman!” The frogman’s ribbity-like voice was coupled with huge eyes that widened as they darted back and forth from Ainz to Shalltear.

“I am the King of Nazarick, and the new master of the lizardmen tribes.” He answered glibly, then thought, ‘However that happened…’ He suppressed the snort and waited for the frogman to process that information.

“Then you’re my enemy, and just as dead as the rest of them!” The frogman struggled with desperation in his bonds, agony twisted his face very briefly from the broken parts that were bound within ropes.

“Die! Just die! The Great Chief, our first Queen, Heketi, will come and kill you all! You’re all dead and you deserve to be for barring our manifest destiny to rule all the great lake! Die! Just die!” It howled so loudly against the bonds and quiet rumbling lizardmen that Ainz might have thought it a wolfman rather than a frogman at that moment if he could not see the bulbous rounded head with its huge eyes at the upper edges of its head and its bulging throat.

“Nothing will change your mind? I can’t bribe you with riches or comforts to talk?” Ainz pressed the question home.

“No! I am absolutely loyal to my tribe and to my Queen!” The frogman belched out the words with a furious ribbiting noise that Ainz took to be frothing anger.

“I see.” Ainz said and then after standing up he put his hand on Shalltear’s shoulder again. She looked up at her master.

“Go on, question him.” Ainz gave the order.

She had a playful smile on her face that did nothing to hide her fangs as she pointed her hand down at him, [Charm Species]. “Hi there, friend, could you answer all my master’s questions, tell us everything you know, I’d really appreciate it.” She said in her sweetest little girl voice.

“Of course, my dear friend, anything for you.” The frogman said, and as one the lizardman village cried out…

“What?!”