The remainder of the meeting was spent on minor theological matters before Ainz reached into his pocket dimension and pulled out a book, "This is the sacred text of my temples, you are in fact the first to receive a copy, I grant this to you because you are also some of the few humans to see my home, and you are among the best educated humans I have yet to meet. If you are going to argue for me, or against me to your fellow priests during the Synod, you should know what it is you argue over." Ainz said simply, then he placed the book on the table, and slid it across with both skeletal hands.

Sudon took the book gingerly with both hands and slid it closer to himself. "Majesty I can only promise that we will read this with the most sincere of motivations, more than that I beg you not to ask."

"More than that, nobody could ask, not even a god, and still remain just." Ainz said, his noble voice echoing against the walls. "I will take my leave of you gentlemen, there is more of the city I would see. Leinas, Emperor Jircniv, we should go. These men have much to discuss." As he stood, so too did the priests, and they bowed to him, then held that bow until the last of the party left the room.

When the door closed behind Ainz, the shaking started.

"If he's not a god...I don't know what is." Sudon said. "Did you FEEL that? The things he said, the way he said them, the way he carried himself, he must be truly ancient to have developed such an air about himself."

"True..." his colleague said, "But more than that, his wisdom...he has given deep thought to things that we had never considered...he is an ocean of wisdom, and we but mere puddles wishing to be oceans."

There were heavy sighs of agreement. "But," Sudon noted, "He has given us only one copy, the only true solution then is for us to read it together...which perhaps was his intent, that we read and learn together as one. Truly his thoughts are so far beyond our ken that we can only comprehend them in retrospect."

"Then," another priest replied, "We should begin immediately, just let a junior priest be made aware that they will conduct ceremonies today."

There was agreement all around at that, and one man went out to do that, as the rest settled in and waited, staring down at the book and waiting eagerly to open it.

As Ainz walked out of the temple, he cursed himself for forgetting to have more than one copy of the book delivered to him. 'I suppose my luck stat can't give me a 100% success rate...' He thought to himself.

"Where to now, my lord?" Leinas asked as they descended the stairs.

"I believe its time to visit the Arena...as a spectator this time, rather than as a participant." Ainz replied. "How does that sound to you, Emperor Jircniv?" Ainz asked.

"Enjoyable." Jircniv answered, "I believe Osk will be in attendance, if your majesty would care to give your greetings to the man."

Ainz could not truly smile, but after years of coming and going before him, Jircniv had developed a sense of the aura of Ainz Ooal Gown, and knew when the Sorcerer King was pleased with an idea, his sense did not fail him today, as Ainz replied, "I would find that pleasing."

The walk to the Arena was not especially short, however nor was it overly long, and the massive arena was viewable from most places in the capitol. This meant that even without Leinas and Jircniv along to guide him, Ainz would have had no trouble finding it. As they took their time on the walk, Jircniv relaxed to enjoy this unusual perspective on his capitol, the people looked strong and vigorous, the merchants along the streets were prosperous, it seemed to Jircniv that his vision for the empire's future prosperity was coming true.

Then something spoiled that pleasant moment, Ainz stopped cold and looked ahead across the street, a baker struck a child hard across the face and yanked something out of her hand, the child was a young girl with dirty blonde hair and wearing filthy clothes that might once have been very nice, she fell hard on her backside and before she could scramble away, the baker set aside the bread had come out and grabbed her unkempt hair and made to hit her again. Jircniv could feel the aura change in the Sorcerer King, he felt an oppressive weight come down on him, and found he had difficulty breathing, nor was he alone in this, others on the street, including Leinas and his own attendants, felt the same sudden crushing weight driving them down. It cut off almost as quickly as it had appeared, but the Sorcerer King was clearly angry.

What Jircniv did not know, was that running through Ainz's mind was a memory of being out with his mother and watching her getting hit...hard, because the young Suzuki Satoru had taken a piece of bread in a shop when he'd been hungry. Anything that reminded him of his mother's abuse and the way she suffered, drove him into a rage that made him at once annoyed with and grateful for his emotional dampener. He diverted course and approached the now sweating baker and the weeping child without alerting Leinas or the emperor of his intent, forcing them to rush to catch up with him as he planted himself behind the young girl. As he neared them, he got a closer look, she was clearly young, not quite a teenager, what people in his world had called 'tweens', and though her eyes closed as she braced for the blow, when it did not come, she slowly opened them and saw the baker's terrified expression. The man held his grip on her hair and kept his hand high as if about to bring it down, but he didn't. She struggled to twist her head to look at what had given him pause, but he held her so close to the scalp that all she could see was a part of an impressively expensive looking robe.

Ainz said only one thing. "What has she done?" His voice was calm, tranquil as a still lake, but it was the voice of death made manifest in the world.

The man didn't answer, his mouth opened, but no sound came out.

"What...has...she...done?" Ainz asked again.

The emperor caught up to him, and the baker managed to move his eyes back and forth between two of the most powerful figures in the world he knew, and began to stutter and stumble over his words.

"S-she's a-a th-thief...t-t-tried to ta-take this." He said and pointed to a loaf of bread.

Ainz pulled out a coin and put it on the counter, it was worth several dozen loaves at least. "She's paid for it now, and another one besides, and so have the next customers until that coin's worth has been traded in full. You will not cheat me of my generosity I trust, since you loathe stealing so?" Ainz looked at him with glowing red eyes, and the baker slowly released his hold on the girl's hair.

"It is as your majesty says." The baker rushed the sentence out almost to fast to follow and then shrank back and returned behind the counter.

Ainz looked down at the girl, who now that she was free of the painful grip, was turning to look up at her savior, and she froze the way the baker had.

"How old are you?" Ainz asked the girl.

Perhaps left more bold by the rough life on the streets, she answered with easier clarity than the baker had, and she replied, "I don't really know, time lost all meaning when I was sold into slavery, perhaps a year passed, perhaps two or three or four beyond when my birthday last mattered...sire." She said softly.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Ainz looked at Jircniv, "Was slavery not banned?"

Jircniv nodded firmly. "It absolutely was, so she must have been sold before that."

"It was a long time ago when I was sold." She said from the ground, "I was much smaller than I am now."

Jircniv felt a flash of gratitude to the girl, it would not have been good for Ainz Ooal Gown to think that Jircniv had ignored his edict on slavery.

"I escaped before...see...my sister and I were sold into slavery because of our parents debts, not long after our older sister disappeared, we ended up on a farm. The overseer was cruel, and we worked and worked, until at last we collapsed and couldn't get up. The overseer thought we were dead, so he threw us both, my sister and I, into a hole and left us to rot. He was only right about one of us though...he carried my sister's body over his shoulder, but me he dragged by my clothing, otherwise he might have known I was still alive. I guess I was the lucky one. I thought I was going to die in there, but I wasn't and I didn't. When I had the strength to move, I tried to wake my sister. She never woke up though, she's still there in that hole I assume." Her eyes filled with tears, but she tried to continue, "When I realized she was dead, I wanted to be too...but I realized then nobody would remember her at all, she'd just be a dead girl in a hole, and I couldn't let that happen...but, I still couldn't get out of the hole, it was too deep, I had to wait until they threw more bodies down so I could stand on them. I guess I got lucky twice, because several slaves apparently got sick and died and were thrown into the pit the next day. I managed to get up on top of the now higher pile, and climb out, then I ran and ran, and I've lived on the streets here ever since."

"Why here?" Ainz asked curiously, "Wouldn't it have been easier to go to an orphanage somewhere along the way?"

"I wanted to kill my parents." The girl said bluntly. "They sold my sister and I like objects to pay their own debts, and the debts they had...I remember my sister yelling at them about it, they were nobles who lost their place, but they still spent money and they expected our big sister to pay for everything, then she disappeared, but she wouldn't have disappeared...she wouldn't have been out there adventuring for coin, if it weren't for their reckless neglect of their responsibilities. I assume our older sister is dead now, but I wanted to make them pay."

"Did you?" Ainz asked. The baker, who had shrunk back before, had been unable to avoid hearing the story and he began to sympathize with the girl, looking at her as if he'd seen her for the first time, and noticing her pitiable state. He looked at the hand he'd hit her with, and he began to hate it as he continued to listen.

"No...they were already gone and the house was sold, I don't know where they are, hopefully in a gutter or a mass grave somewhere. I never did find them, but now what else am I to do? Nobody hires girls my age for anything but...well..." She looked aside unable to look at any male, giving away her meaning, "I'm not a noblewoman anymore, but I'd rather starve than come to that. The orphanages are barely livable even if they do have space, and its not like I know the emperor and can bring that problem to his attention. Even if I could enter the palace without getting killed for dirtying a rug, Who listens to dirty homeless peasant children wearing the mocking rags made from the cut up and restitched material of their once fine things?" She actually laughed at herself. She threw back her head and laughed as tears of pain ran down her face.

The baker had been watching all this, and felt a swelling of pity for the girl, who he now noticed was absurdly thin for her age, she was half the weight a girl her age should have been and clearly malnourished, quietly he promised himself he'd look more closely at people in the future before assuming greed instead of desperation, he reached down and took out another loaf of bread, and held it in a shaking hand over the counter. "H-here." He managed to stumble out. "I'm sorry for hurting you...I didn't...didn't see." He said.

The girl took it in surprise, unable to say anything, she nodded swiftly several times as the gesture snapped her back to the present.

Ainz looked over to Jircniv. "Would you have seen this from within the closed off walls of a carriage?" The emperor shook his head.

"The value of walking the streets on occasion is not lost on me now sire." Jircniv replied, somewhat chastened, "I can say with certainty that the subject of these orphanages conditions will be brought to the interior minister's attention immediately, and hard questions will be asked about why they are in such a sorry state that starving on the street is preferable. He'd better have good answers. Also...perhaps it would be a good idea to permit commoners to petition before the throne, at least periodically, so that I can hear from the people themselves what troubles their lives."

He sensed Ainz was very pleased with his answer, and then it occurred to him..."My lord...those reforms were your plan for me the entire time...weren't they? You just wanted me to come up with them myself?"

Ainz groaned internally, but he chose to wing it, "You have seen through my plan." He said, putting a note of pride into his voice, "You are not the emperor without good reason it seems."

"But...how could you know this girl would be here?" He asked in shock.

"I didn't, however I knew that if these reforms were necessary, an example would present itself, and it has." He said, thanking his luck stat that the emperor didn't ask his advice on what should be done, but had instead come up with a solution on his own and then simply handed the credit over by his own initiative.

Jircniv shook his head, a feeling of shame came over him as his empire's troubled side was laid open to his superior, and he resolved to tear the interior minister a new asshole for allowing a problem like this to grow and fester enough that the Sorcerer King saw it before him.

The girl blinked as she turned from one face to the next. "You're...the emperor?" She asked in awe.

"I am." He said, and continued, "I am sorry that my throne failed you so greatly, I will ensure that conditions are improved, but is there anything else I can do to make it up to you?" He asked, reaching out and touching the girl's dirty hair softly.

"Give my sister a good burial, and take the head of the overseer who threw us in that pit." She said softly. "I would also beg for you to kill my parents...but it is probably to late for that."

"It will be done." The emperor said, and called for one of his attendants, the girl quickly spilled out all the information she had, where she'd been taken to, roughly where the farm was located, what the overseer looked like, and so on, when the information had been written down, Jircniv sent that attendant back to the palace to see to the keeping of his promise.

Ainz approved of those measures, but what of the girl? He thought for a moment. "What is your name?" He asked her.

"Kuuderika, sire." The girl said softly.

"You have had little luck here, so why not come to my realm? I will allow you to stay with one of my commanders and her husband, they live in a nice place called Carne Village, you will get a good education and then do as you wish with your life when you are grown." Ainz said...sounding kinder than his skeletal face looked.

The girl thought for a moment, and then said, "Thank you...may I eat the bread now though...I haven't eaten in two days?"

"Please do." Ainz said and he looked back over to Jircniv. "I assume you have no objection to her leaving with me?"

Jircniv shook his head, "No, I do not. If a country fails a citizen, it cannot complain if that citizen wishes to go elsewhere. Take her with my blessing, and gratitude in doing what my country did not. Shall I have another attendant take her to the palace to await your return there? He asked."

"Yes, and please ensure that she is also allowed to eat, bathe, and dress in something new as well." Ainz added.

Jircniv called up another attendant, "You heard the Sorcerer King, see that it is done, then send two more attendants to meet me at the arena, and ensure they have the means to take notes, there may be much more to write about before the day is done"

The attendant touched the girl's shoulder, and she stood, still clutching the bread like it was a lifeline and she was drowning, she bowed deeply as she backed away, until she had gone some distance, then she turned and walked beside the attendant, taking enormous bites out of the crackling fresh loaf in one hand, while holding the other under her arm...Ainz was quite sure she would finish both long before she reached the palace.

The baker for his part, looked deeply ashamed, and bowed to the two rulers as they turned to look at him again, as if waiting for him to speak. "Your majesties have taught me something today, and I will not forget the lesson." He held his bow until the two silent rulers began to walk away, returning to their course towards the arena.