"Majesty," Neia said, "I...I wasn't going to say anything...not in mixed company while you were speaking of King Caspond..."

"But?" Ainz said, as all eyes turned to Neia.

"I heard...just before getting here, that Caspond is already dead, I suppose they are announcing it throughout the nation, but it was only a short time before you summoned me, so I think official notice will be sent out to all other nations soon. Though the details are not all out yet, assassination seems most likely...and as messages have already reached me in Wenmark, it can't be long before it is let out to the nations of the world."

The group froze where they stood, and Ainz spoke up, carefully controlling his tone to ensure his own knowledge of the event through Demiurge was not evident. "That will mean war comes sooner, before the Synod. The Slane Theocracy is behind his death, that much I am sure of." He looked at Enri & Leinas, "We will have the day while I am here, but when it is time for me to travel to E-Rantel, I will be sending you both to Nazarick, you will be spending abundant time in the arts of generalship. For all the folly of the Slane Theocracy, it would not do to think them inept in this."

There was a collective silence as his words sank in, "A war like this is unlike anything you will have ever seen. But I..." Ainz's arms fell open, his hands down, his eyes glowing bright as the Sun, "I have seen far...far worse. But this is how new worlds are born, through the fires of war. When it is over, the old ways will be seen by future generations as an absurd folly, and their overthrow will be regarded as the foundation for the new."

They swallowed hard, and Neia impulsively knelt before her god of justice. "It will be as your majesty says." One by one, as if driven by Neia's actions, emperor knelt with village girl, as they each one by one swore to see his vision made real, promising to lay their victories at his feet in tribute.

Ainz inclined his head to them, "I have no doubt of your courage, your will, or your abilities, whether born to rule..." he gestured to Emperor Jircniv, "or born to labor and serve," he gestured to Enri, "but in the face of great challenges to the roles in the world we know, each has had to change, and now I ask you to take on a new trial, but I will prepare you for victory as best I can, with a stockpile of runecrafted gear, intelligence, and more, you are fighting to win, not fighting to die gloriously. Now rise, we have a few hours, perhaps a day, before word of the death of King Caspond is officially relayed to surrounding nations. Who they will select in his place...well I can think of only two candidates that seem possible. For now however, until it is official, lets enjoy this day at least."

The mood was sober after that, they moved through the village of Carne, and Ainz voice became whistful as he spoke. "When you are immortal, the term 'a lifetime ago' loses all meaning..." As he began to speak, silence met him, the rare tone and subject drew their ears like a moth to a flame, Jircniv perhaps paid closest attention, feeling the onset of a rare insight in to the undead King. "...but I must use those words now, how much can change and so little time. When I first beheld this village it was near its death, men in armor with swords who saw themselves as powerful, who saw themselves as the very instruments of god, had come one and all to kill it. They didn't hate the people who lived here, they were however, willing to kill them to lay a trap for a man greater than themselves, so that they could draw him into place where he in turn could be killed." He snorted, "Had I the ability, I would spit at the dirt in disgust at their choices. But being undead, well I can't really do that anymore."

Neia took the initiative, and spat at the dirt for him. "A good servant does for their master, what their master cannot." She said.

Ainz inclined his head to her, and her heart sang.

"Still and all, my decision to save this place was not all altruism, it was the voice of a comrade much loved and long gone, heard across the years from a time when I was younger than I am now, when he helped me and said, 'saving the weak is common sense.' In his name I came to this place, destroyed the ravaging knights, a theocracy scripture, and saved the great man, whose life I would later take. And now this place has been made greater than its people ever dreamt, and the great man who came to save it has died without knowing what it has become. As I watch all this on the eve of war, I wonder if this village, which may be the seed of one of the great cities of the world, serves as a small picture of time of my rule, the small...even trivially insignificant battle that I waged here, a representation of all that lies ahead. Now, just as then...a terrible force appears to overturn lives, destroy those who have done them no wrong, and again I am ready to face it. Though this time with good subjects and allies, and it will not be one small skirmish, not this time." He chuckled slightly, "One good thing about being an immortal, the age old question, 'what happens next' is something I'll continuously live to see answered."

It was a very strange monologue, and Jircniv struggled to come to terms with it, it spoke of a highly reflective mind, one bent on analyzing the past to understand what lay ahead. Jircniv knew humans like that, scholars mostly, he tried it himself and found reflection on the past to be a very powerful thing, like studying the roots of a plant to understand what grew from them, but this one didn't have a mere six centuries to draw from, it had tens of thousands of years, its no wonder he could predict assassinations, it was no wonder he could predict that Jircniv would have sought to conspire with the Theocracy, and even the place it would occur in, as had happened at the arena years ago. "If I can see one mile ahead, this one can look tens of thousands of them." He thought to himself, but kept quiet.

Enri held those events particularly close to her heart, the day she met the magic caster was the day her parents died, the day she had to go from being just a big sister to a mother and sister both at once to raise Nemu, it was the day she was set on path to becoming a mayor and eventually a general, between she and her goblins, her husband and his alchemy...she'd become an important figure. For her, a very different line of thought came from the idle talk of the Sorcerer King. "I can never have his power, but with my army, I can imitate him, if only as a shadow." She thought to herself.

For Neia, it was as if god deigned to speak as a mortal, the notion that a god might have struggled as a mortal, might have lived as she had lived, seemed absurd, yet he spoke of himself as if he had once been a living figure instead of the unliving, and she thought...perhaps there was something to that. "By living among us once, he understands us, and in so doing, becomes our ideal ruler, able to feel our needs as if they were his own. Such is the greatness of the god of justice, only he would be great enough to come to us that way..." She thought, and as she looked around Carne, she came to consider it a sacred place, and resolved to make a pilgrimage there when the conflict was done and peace was settled.

For Leinas it was flatly bizarre, Jircniv never spoke this way around her...or anyone. She'd lived around nobility for most of her life, even as a powerful adventurer she'd been of such significance that she was frequently moving in the circles of power in the upper echelons of imperial society. Nobody...not emperor or noble, had ever been one to speak like this, and as she turned it over and over in her mind, she reached a startling conclusion. "Power...that's it. Even speaking his mind this way, whistful and reflective, he doesn't seem 'weak' or 'vulnerable' he still carries with him absolute strength...this is real power, the ability to bare a part of himself secure in the knowledge that it can never be turned against him by anyone. I thought Jircniv an absolute monarch...I was wrong...this one is." She thought.

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This was how the day went, walking the area of the village that was now only called a village for nostalgia, it had obviously grown far beyond its humble roots, Ainz walked with Enri, occasionally pausing as a villager came near to pay their respects to the Sorcerer King, while also being guided as she explained the various projects she'd had undertaken in sanitation, in construction of living quarters, she lead him up to the low but thick stone walls that comprised the exterior of the village and explained how they'd put it together using his golems and undead...and the twin guidance of elf and dwarf supervisors who blended their skills in both long term thinking and in craftsmanship into something truly unique.

"...So after we heard about how your majesty created 'workshops' for E-Rantel to explain what made your administrative center unique, we chose to copy it, its not quite visible from here, but down the road we have signs posted cautioning people that they will have to attend a brief workshop hosted by one of the former elf slaves, explaining what is unique here as opposed wherever else they'd lived or traveled to before, we had a small wooden building constructed about ten minutes walk from the main gate, and we had one of our people bring back a copy of the briefing your majesty uses at E-Rantel, so that we could provide identical guidance to visitors here." Enri said, hoping to hear he was pleased with their work.

"Very good." He said, "I am pleased you have taken the initiative to improve so much." Ainz's voice contained a hint of pride and satisfaction.

Neia envied Enri more than a little in that moment, but whatever train of thought she was about to board, was interrupted when Ainz stopped walking and pointed to a man who was walking in their direction. "You, I know you...come here." Ainz said, and the man froze. Neia had a good look at him in that moment, and she recognized him as well, she couldn't fail to recognize his face, she'd memorized it thoroughly, just as she had the faces of his fellows.

The man hesitated for barely a moment, then rushed over to kneel before the Sorcerer King. "Your majesty truly remembers me?" He said softly.

"I do. You sought to help my servant." Ainz said.

Neia clapped him on the shoulder and gave him her biggest and brightest smile. "Even if he did not, I could never forget you. I remember your words as clearly as when you first spoke them. You said, "This isn't right." When the men of authority in Yanana wanted me beaten for speaking against them."

"Stand." Ainz said, "You deserve it, that could not have been an easy thing to do."

The man hesitated, but slowly rose to his feet.

"Tell me, how has life treated you, have you settled here?" Ainz asked.

The man nodded numbly, still stunned to be remembered by the King. "I have, sire. I chose to ask for a farm, since that was the work of my father, and my whole family has resettled here with me, we've got three times the land we did, but with the undead labor we were provided, we're able to work it effectively, and with the monetary support we've been given, we're able to live comfortably until the first harvest comes in."

"Do you stay in touch with your fellows?" Ainz asked with concern in his voice, "Are they also well?"

Neia was deeply moved to see him asking after the wellbeing of those who he had only met once, but who had done a kindness for one of his countless servants, nor was she alone, the man himself was nearly on the verge of tears.

"They are, sire. They chose trade work in various fields, and are happily preparing to begin the lives they asked for the chance at, except one, he chose to become a merchant, and is preparing for his first journey." The man's voice was beaming even as his eyes welled up with tears of gratitude.

"Then you were worth it." Ainz said, "As I expected you would be. You may return to your business, and do give your family my blessing, and advise your merchant friend to avoid the South for a time if he wishes to remain safe, chaos is coming."

The man bowed deeply after he stood. "I will, and thank you again your majesty." He turned to Neia, "I'm glad you're well by the way, and thank you for what you said." He smiled as he spoke to Neia, bowed politely to her, backed away a few steps, and walked off with a story he would tell for the rest of his life about his encounters with Neia & the Sorcerer King as the proudest moments of his life.

The day went quicker after that, and Emperor Jircniv couldn't help but note how...comfortable, the whole thing was, little details made the excursion a relief from palace life, the constant stress of rule was something he bore so regularly that it became almost unnoticeable after awhile, but this small venture brought a welcome release of the pressures he had no idea he had even been carrying, and when the Sun began to set, Ainz said, "This has been a true pleasure, to see the fruits of stewardship is to know its quality, you have impressed me with your foresight and ability General Enri, you will be setting a high standard for all those who come after you to meet."

Enri blushed. "I but follow your majesty's example."

Jircniv idly wondered how much talent had lived and died working the fields for want of opportunity, where inept descendents of competent nobles stumbled forward, and redoubled his commitment to educating his people, as he embraced a moment of what might be called bitterness at what the empire must surely have lost due to its past policies and indifference to the peasant class.

"I had intended to remain and hold a feast, but I should return to await the 'official' news of King Caspond's death. Emperor Jircniv, Count Yvas, I will return you to the empire for now, I will resume my tour of my domains after official word arrives, and when all is ready, I will summon command leadership together for a more official strategy meeting. Till then..." Ainz said, and then cast two gate spells.

"Long live the Sorcerer King." Count Yvas said, and stepped through the gate.

"Until then your majesty." Emperor Jircniv said, and stepped through the other gate.

Neia Baraja was no less impressed than the Sorcerer King when it came to Enri Barear. "I suppose our brief meeting must end then, I should return, I have a lot to oversee and little time to do it. However I'll make sure to send word to our headquarters to send a few instructors your way." She stuck out her hand, and Enri took it firmly and gladly. "Till we meet again, at the turning of the world." Enri said.

"At the turning of the world." Neia said, and Ainz cast his 'gate' spell twice more, allowing Neia to step through after a deep bow to the god of justice.

"At the turning of the world." Ainz said, gracing the bowing Enri with a nod, before he stepped into the gate and returned to Nazarick to await official notice of what he already knew.

What he did not expect however, was to find as he stepped into his audience chamber, that Demiurge and Albedo were kneeling before the empty throne and waiting for him. Knowing by now what they expected, he walked between the two and stepped up to his throne, he released his staff and steepled his skeletal fingers and looked down at them.

"I knew his majesty would arrive when word did, after all, it must surely have danced within the palm of his hands." Demiurge said.

"Pah! I knew it before you!" Albedo said, "And it is more like they dance as puppets on strings!" She said, a somewhat smarmy retort as Ainz...for once, thought he knew what word he was to hear.

"Of course I was expecting the news." Ainz said confidently.

"We had no doubt, your majesty." Demiurge said with a wicked smile.

"After all, who else could have brilliantly predicted the assassination of the King of Re-Estize, the kidnapping of the boy Climb, and of course, the mass kidnappings of the children of all possible opposition leaders. This will surely draw the remains of the Kingdom into a futile war, and give you at last the justification to take it over once and for all!" Albedo said with a deeply lustful and admiring voice, her entire body shaking with desire.

"Uwwaaah..." Ainz thought, his jaw falling open, thanking his luck that he returned just in time to take credit for orchestrating it all.