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Interlude: Two Warrior-Queens (181)
🕑 Added 2022-07-14 18:44:21 +0000 UTCLuckily for Ainz he managed to return to his room without once again encountering any urgent problem. Or rather, knowing his own luck, it wasn’t because of it at all – maybe there were some invisible laws, according to which there was a maximum concentration of events that could be distributed according to Ainz's schedule. Even Mashu had left his chambers, and for a time, Ainz wasn't even prepared to speculate on its duration, he was actually alone.
Just in case, though, having closed the door behind him and checked his inner dwelling for any intruder, and, to his satisfaction and even faint surprise, found no Servant inside his room. There were no Kiyohime ready to jump out of the shower at a moment's notice, or Da Vinci hiding under his bed, scribbling on her notebook, nor was there Roman screaming that he was needed for some urgent matter.
At least, for now, seeking to not tempt Murphy anymore, Ainz simply accepted that he was indeed, even for a short moment, free.
Ainz wasn't going to look for the secret prerequisite for acquiring this rare event – he simply took his chance and a moment later plopped down on his bed, carefully placing his head on the pillow – all without undressing first. Again, knowing his luck, the number of people who could suddenly burst into his room in the middle of the night was too many to count.
Ainz closed his eyes, then, after fidgeting a little to find the best position for comfort, tried to clear his head of all thoughts.
To some regret, and even to Ainz's dismay, he could not sleep.
For many other things, this was a positive feature, considering the fact that it added hours to Ainz's ability to do things. But, Ainz was also deprived of the extremely appealing opportunity to be deprived of his thoughts for a few hours, to cool his head – and to wake up a completely new person, approaching old problems with a new perspective.
In addition, another issue was that his mind simply could not cope fully with all the information he received while awake, thus adding to his mental load. Even though his body could ignore the physiological need for sleep and while his thoughts were not confused after several days of wakefulness – these thoughts tended to accumulate. People managed to accumulate so many thoughts in a single day that they began to be distracted, returning again and again to the same dilemma as they began thinking in circles. So was also the case with Ainz.
After many days or even just a week without sleep, Ainz had to go to bed and clear his mind of past thoughts so that they would not distract him even more than necessary.
It wasn't ideal – it was always harder to make a man not think about things than the other way around, but, unfortunately, without the ability to actually escape his problems – he had no other choice.
Besides, it’s somewhat good that an occasion where he could clear his head came so rarely, constantly forcibly clearing his mind of thoughts, sometimes Ainz fears that he forgot about important things… He guessed. It was impossible to say with absolute certainty what he was forgetting – that was the phenomenon of forgetting, after all.
But that was simply a risk he had to take, there was no other way for Ainz to go either, being a raid leader being confused would spell doom. So, as much as he could to rest well, he covered his eyes and first massaged his temples, then stroked the bridge of his nose and tried to make himself a little more comfortable. Relaxing as much as he could, trying to clear his mind of everything, leaving only a pleasant emptiness afterwards.
In fact, as he thinks about it a little more, there’s actually no more source for more difficulty at all!
Medb probably wouldn't kill him… probably. For all her reputation, in YGGDRASIL she showed no desire to actually destroy the player, not directly at least. I mean, of course, actually doing her quests would definitely end in the Player dying, but they were quests – and all Players had the option to refuse to do them, without any problems later on.
With Mashu? He had, in fact, dealt with her concern.
Da Vinci never showed up at his doorstep, demanding answers from Ainz that he didn't have, to questions he hadn't even thought about.
That… what was his name again? The mage who was to blame for everything – Salmon? Whatever his name is also, apparently, was not going to attack Chaldea directly. After all, other than the Singularities, he had never actually directly attacked Chaldea… well there was the bombing, but for whatever reason it is, for which Ainz couldn’t even imagine, the guy hadn’t attacked Chaldea again…
Well, what more could have been said in this case? He didn't know what the future might bring, and he didn't care. Everything ends well that ends well, after all – so Ainz saw no reason to worry or think about the future in any way, at the very least about that Salmon guy. So that thought, too, could be marked with a kind of ‘done’ tag – and so he simply forgot about that one.
Relationship troubles? Well, relationships and love troubles. While yes, he would have liked some comment from a professional on exactly how he needed to build a relationship of this type, and more importantly, with so many participants… But who could he turn to with such a question? Ainz didn't know.
Medb sort of kept a harem, he thinks? But if he were to ask her how she managed it, she would probably lie to him, and in such a way that even knowing it’s a lie, Ainz would still fall into the trap and do everything wrong…
And that's not to mention the fact that the very communication with his subordinates, the Servants, about something like that seemed shameful to Ainz.
So he also put that thought out of his mind for a while, too.
What else? Magic? Hmm…
Ainz had stolen a whole library filled with all sorts of magical books, but through the short read he had, meaning the titles, he hadn’t found a proper textbook in any of the books he had looted. Not a single one. So nothing to do, but to just give it to Da Vinci? No, for Da Vinci, those books were probably useless drivel, after all to the self-proclaimed greatest genius, she must already have a copy of all of them… Olga-Marie! Yes, Ainz should dump all the books to Olga-Marie, and then grumble to himself that he could never find a proper self-help book for himself.
And no, not just because all the books he found looked more like door stoppers than actual books – their titles were just as unhelpful, they looked like Greek to him! And he could actually read Greek thanks to one of his items, it still looked just as alien!
The reason Ainz was in this world? No idea there! And it seems that there was nothing Ainz could do to find this information at all. Furthermore, thinking about this topic for too long could only lead him to panic and doubt, not to a solution.
What could he do at all with the information that something immeasurably more powerful than himself might exist in this world? In the first Singularity, he assumed that every living being he encountered was immeasurably more powerful than he was – and that got him nowhere, and he doubted that it’s going to start now.
So without any answer to such issues, he could only continue to do what he had done before – deal with the Singularity crisis and increase his own powers by summoning new Servants. Given that some such entity might exist somewhere… Or such a thing might not exist, it was all just Ainz's assumption, after all.
For all he knows, he might have just gotten here through a random experiment of a random Megacorp back home.
And if that were the case, in a position where Ainz couldn't even know where to start – the best course of action was not to think about it at all.
Hmm, what else is there…
Ainz exhaled, now almost reaching that pleasant state of sleep that was now beyond his reach – before stumbling upon what seemed to be the last problem that might have nagged him.
Scáthach… The servant he had summoned only a couple of hours ago – the girl with the spear… A spear that she had tried to drive into Ainz's heart the first chance she could – immediately demonstrating both her level of enmity against Ainz and her willingness to turn against her Master.
What could Ainz do about it?
Well, the easiest thing for Ainz to do, of course, was to just kill her and not bother to revive her. An ally – or rather, someone who is supposed to be an ally but who makes no secret of the fact that they are actually an enemy and are willing to try to kill you, is just a liability. Actually no, not even just a liability, but an active danger.
What would happen if Ainz took her with him into Singularity – for whatever reason? No, even outside of Singularity, just being in Chaldea – what if the enemy tries to influence her to sabotage Ainz in any way? Even if we rule that possibility out, even just leaving Scáthach behind when he goes to a Singularity, Ainz couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't try to kill some other Servants for serving Ainz.
Especially if we're talking about someone like Angrboda, who looked like a natural enemy of Scáthach.
Killing Angrboda would be easier said than done – but who could imagine how much destruction she would cause to Chaldea until she was restrained. A rampage that might even cause some casualties – Servant or not…
On the other hand – to kill a Servant he had just summoned, and one as famous as Scáthach… Ainz did not want to.
At the very least, his instincts as a collector who did not want to get rid of even the most useless of exhibits would rebel incessantly in his head. Or maybe his attitude as a hoarder affected him here more. He didn't get rid of even the cursed items in his inventory, reasoning that it was hard to find such items again in the game.
That and, in some very rare circumstance, the cursed items had actually served some use.
Once in a quest, one of the cursed items actually made completing the quest much easier. Another time, a cursed item was the trigger necessary for starting a rare quest. And once he even got lucky when a high-level thief player tried to steal from him, and unknowingly snatched a cursed item, which killed the hapless thief later when he tried to put it on.
So just killing Scáthach was the last option. Perhaps he can just freeze her in ice when he goes into the Singularity? Ainz thought he had a spell he could use…
No, that was almost as bad as just murdering her. It was unlikely that trapping her in ice would ‘warm’ her up to him, literally and figuratively. And if by some chance, or by sabotage, she got out of the ice – she would definitely want payback.
At that point, he might as well just kill her… but Ainz didn’t want to.
In that case, hmm?
Ainz rolled over onto his side.
Maybe he needed further observation, perhaps? Yes, definitely, gathering more knowledge was a good option, but he can’t do it himself… so perhaps a Servant? Hassan or Serenity could… No, no, Ainz doesn't think sending an Assassin Servant would be a good image. So a Summon?
But in that case, Ainz still needs to watch over the summon himself. The problem in this case was that Ainz's summons were temporary – and, of course, he had enough problems and worries himself to waste time observing a potential enemy twenty-four seven.
But then who could be assigned to watch over Scáthach?
It had to be someone whose loyalty to Ainz was in no doubt, someone who wasn't constantly busy with other things, and someone who could stand up for themselves in case Scáthach tried to kill them. So in the end, Ainz had to choose a Servant but not an Assassin. A mighty Servant who wasn't busy either and was loyal to him…
Hmm, and where was Ainz going to find such a Servant?
***
Oda Nobunaga was languishing in idleness, but she wasn't going to object to Ainz's order – if Ainz wasn’t giving her any orders, there must be a reason for it. Soldiers might not understand their commanders' orders, but they had to follow them anyway, while commanders didn't have to report to soldiers. And so, if Oda Nobunaga did not understand the reason Ainz did not give her any orders, it did not mean that there was no such reason, only that Nobunaga herself could not see that reason from her position.
After all, a soldier had to understand that sometimes there was a time for action and sometimes a time for inaction…
But still, understanding the reason, did not mean that she didn’t become any less bored.
And, when the mind becomes bored, it begins to fight that boredom – and unluckily there wasn't much entertainment in Chaldea that would be to Nobunaga's liking. So, when she overheard a conversation between the Servants hurrying somewhere on their business, – the two identical copies of Nero to be exact, that Ainz had summoned a new batch of Servants?
Well, Nobunaga just found a way to alleviate a bit of her boredom, and if she were blessed with a bit of luck, the new Servants might be a way to alleviate even more of her boredom.
And so Nobunaga decided to act to find one of the newly summoned Servants…
Even if she couldn't find entertainment in talking to them, at least just looking at the new Servants would already be entertainment in itself, especially when Nobunaga saw no other entertainment in front of her.
And really, what are the chances she had to meet the only Servant that Nobunaga could talk to?
Knowing the number of Heroes that resided in the Throne, she doubted that she would be that lucky.
***
Scáthach had killed so many and for so long that her battle reflexes had long ago been honed to a razor sharpness, even more ingrained to her than breathing or even blinking. In other words, Scáthach couldn't help being a killing machine simply because it was a core part of her personality, beyond her control or even awareness.
Of course, everyone can, if they want to, hold their breath or try to keep their eyes open to the point of pain. And so, Scáthach could also take control of her killer instinct for a while, to stop trying to kill her opponent. Who in this instance was only Ainz, but it requires great effort and control on her part. Especially since the enemy was one of her mortal ones – the undead.
Every time she was distracted, her hands would immediately try to reach for her spear, and her mind was filled with plans for how she could take out Ainz.
And who could blame Scáthach? For a millennium of her life she had done nothing but kill all sorts of dark creatures – each of which, in one way or another, wanted to destroy humanity? Naturally, faced with another of the dark creatures again, her first reaction was not an attempt to communicate, but for a spear aimed precisely at the creature's heart.
But Karna had protected Ainz, and so their conflict hadn’t been finished, one way or another. Though, to be frank, Scáthach herself did not believe she could deal with Ainz so easily – and this led to the current situation.
After Medb had been summoned, and not at all the one that Scáthach remembered from the Throne of Heroes – Ainz had simply disappeared, and, through the efforts of Olga-Marie, chief of Chaldea, she had been assigned a room. A room in which Scáthach continued to walk from corner to corner, as if she were a cornered animal.
What was she to do? Kill Ainz? No, not that – but Ainz was a threat to humanity, even more dangerous than the Singularities, more dangerous than Solomon, he had to be destroyed, her mind kept whispering to her…
But how could this be accomplished?
A quick check, one highly unexpected by Scáthach who usually didn’t care about others opinions, revealed the fact that…
No one saw anything wrong with Ainz!
The Servants, the mighty heroes and defenders of humanity, all of whom were aware of Ainz's real nature – Scáthach even made sure of this separately, what lies and tricks were up Ainz's sleeve, simply saw nothing strange about Ainz.
Yes, the super-powerful undead and the dark god were in their midst, using magic, the mere mention of which would either cause Magi to die of aneurysms or more likely kill you for lying to them, and badly at that. According to Ainz's entourage, he was really just dealing with the Singularity crisis and, in between, dealing with the Servants' internal personality issues.
He was even in a relationship, they said! A romantic relationship! An Undead!
There were only two explanations for this – either her thousands of years of experience and learned skills that had saved her life, and quite possibly the life of humanity thousands of times, meant absolutely nothing when confronted by Ainz…
Or Ainz was smarter than all the Servants, including the great geniuses Da Vinci and Tesla, and had fooled them all.
Both options have very unfortunate conclusions.
While Scáthach was extremely confident in her skills and knowledge, she was humble enough to know that she’s not as intellectually inclined as those geniuses.
And so, as she continued to walk from one corner to the other, she tried to think of the most perfect plan that could destroy Ainz.
Things were not going so well though, just one single encounter between Scáthach and Ainz – excluding the moment of her summoning, had shown her that Ainz was incredibly powerful. And so Scáthach needed to prepare as best she could and to gather information, but then, again…
No one could tell her anything about Ainz's power!
No, Scáthach had certainly lost most of her social skills, but even so, she wasn’t autistic enough to start a conversation to dubiously loyal Servants with ‘tell me about your Master's weakness’. So while she probably hadn't gathered the full information, to have nothing at all?
Though that’s not true, she did acquire a lot of intelligence about Ainz, but none of them are actionable intelligence!
Ainz had a large arsenal of magical attacks, had a particular love for fire, could fly, and, from all the information, was somehow able to rewrite reality at such a level that the Singularities themselves corrected at his own will.
Oh, right, he could also raise the dead, stop time, and grant immortality – how could she forget that!
And other than that, nothing – no information about his weaknesses, not even a hint of it! He has an incredible arsenal of magic, and supposedly has a bottomless supply of mana.
And as a Servant connected to that supply of Mana, she could tell that this was not a lie.
Furthermore, he was also supposed to be the most intelligent and farsighted creature in the universe.
How could anyone kill such a creature at all!
But Scáthach did not give up so easily. And so, after analyzing all the information available to her, she began to formulate a plan in her head.
No one was perfect – everything had to have a weak spot. And she would find Ainz's!
Stopping after another step in the center of the room, Scáthach, with an excess of emotion, struck her open palm with her fist, as if to mark the exclamation mark of her internal monologue, before unexpectedly hearing a voice. “I see you're having fun here…”
Scáthach didn't flinch at the unexpected remark – but the very fact that the voice was unexpected made her turn around. If she hadn't noticed the appearance of the new figure, then she was incredibly deep in her own thoughts, a situation that is untenable when she’s planning to kill such a dangerous foe.
Luckily for her, it was not Ainz looking to assassinate her… or more probably one of the Assassins.
“I never thought I'd see you again… and here, of all places." Scáthach turned to the speaker. "Oda Nobunaga.”
“Same for me," Nobunaga's figure, as Scáthach herself remembered it, was lounging in the aisle, as she watched Scáthach with a sneer.
Scáthach only squinted at the Servant’s presence – her relationship with Nobunaga was… somewhat unusual.
They, in a way, actually got along quite well – as well as people like Scáthach and Nobunaga were capable of communicating at least. At least Scáthach herself, unabashedly, enjoyed their spars.
Of course, they soon found themselves on opposite sides, and tried their best to kill each other, and in the end Scáthach died. Well, or rather, her body and consciousness were destroyed for a short period of time while it was restored back in the Throne of Heroes as the Land of Shadows had disappeared with Humanity’s Incineration. In the end, Scáthach still could not fully die.
“Did you want something?” Scáthach finally replied to Nobunaga after a second of silence.
There was a pause for a second, while Nobunaga herself looked around at Scáthach’s empty room, before she finally answered. “No. Just bored.”
“Hmm," Scáthach exhaled, and glanced across at Nobunaga in front of her.
There was a silence, and it might have seemed to an outsider that this lull was a precursor or even a form of conflict. Two extremely powerful, closed off and cold Servants, standing opposite each other, one having killed the other in the past, but the apt description of the silence established was…
Awkward.
Nobunaga and Scáthach were simply uncomfortable in each other's company.
Both saw the metaphorical elephants in the room, namely Ainz and their past battle – but neither of them could find the right words. Or, to be honest, even muster the courage to start talking about it, instead the both of them continuing to look past each other, pretending that that was what they were absorbed in for the moment.
They were acting like awkward teenagers.
“Ahem." Nobunaga was the first to interrupt the prolonged awkward pause, talking while not looking Scáthach in the eye, still taking her gaze away. "I heard that you tried to kill Ainz…”
“And I'll do it again," Scáthach replied with a sudden harshness. "I can't understand how you all allowed him to just walk around unmolested, nor why you're following him.”
“Hmm…” Nobunaga sighed at those words, though she couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “Unmolested… heh. He… I don't expect you to believe me – but he's not as simple as you think.”
“He's strong, undoubtedly." Scáthach was forced to agree, "But not all-powerful.”
“No, that's not what I'm talking about." Nobunaga sighed and shook her head. "I'm not talking about his strength – that's true, but I'm talking about something else… His, um… Personality.”
“Personality?” Scáthach cocked an eyebrow at the strange non-sequitur.
The personalities of all the various dark creatures she encountered along the way were of little interest to her – after all, her calling was to kill them, not to learn their minds. So the very idea that Ainz had some kind of special personality? Not unexpected – but such a subject clearly had not appeared in Scáthach’s mind before.
“He… huh, how should I put it?” Nobunaga pondered, trying to find the right words. “Well, I wasn't particularly interested in that either when I first came here, but a little later we had an… argument.”
Remembering that humiliating fight, when Ainz had just wiped the floor with Nobunaga, she preferred not to remember. But that final speech of Ainz could not be erased from her memory – as well as the lesson taught to her in the same Singularity.
“And I was able to hear his thoughts," Nobunaga exhaled.
“I'll be honest, I don't have a lot of thoughts about where he came from or where he plans to lead us to in the end – but don't think he just wants to destroy humanity.” Nobunaga grinned crookedly. “He doesn’t have the personality for something like that. Not to mention that if he wanted it, he would have achieved it long ago.”
At Nobunaga’s awkward, stilted, words, Scáthach shifted her gaze to Nobunaga.
No, of course, convincing someone that all their millennia of experience meant nothing was a lot harder than just saying a few phrases – but Scáthach wasn't planning on ignoring what Nobunaga had said, either.
After all, if Ainz really did have such power that he could rewrite the reality of the Singularities with a snap of his fingers – then destroying humanity shouldn't be a problem for him either… Though, with him being the Last Master, he simply just has to stop solving the Singularity, and it would accomplish the same thing.
But that didn't mean that he suddenly thinks that Ainz suddenly is a good person, either. No, on the contrary – Nobunaga herself said that she had no idea what Ainz was planning to do, increasing her caution.
After all, conquering the world and putting it perpetual slavery was not much better than destroying humanity, either.
However, as soon as Scáthach opened her mouth to say so, the door to the room opening caused her to look that way – and then reflexively try to fumble for the spear that should have been near her. The appearance of Ainz evoked very simple emotions in her.
However, Ainz himself, as if not even noticing her presence, instead looked at Nobunaga instead, and then instantly smiled at her. "Oh, Nobunaga, just the one I was looking for!”
“Good afternoon," Nobunaga bowed in what could even be called a shallow bow, though she was clearly not practiced enough to make it look natural. Scáthach, who it seemed Ainz had decided not to greet for some reason of his own, shifted slightly to the side.
Though perhaps Ainz just didn't want to communicate with Scáthach – she had, after all, tried to kill him not even hours ago.
“I wish that you…” Ainz began speaking before stopping suddenly, as if he had just noticed Scáthach’s presence.
And there was silence for a moment before he continued speaking as if nothing had happened. "I want you to make sure that our new Servants get to know Chaldea… But I see that you're already busy with Scáthach – good day to you.”
Scáthach just nodded her head, slightly wincing, catching the unmentioned meaning in ‘escorting’ her. To guard her, huh? It sounded logical.
“It's just that I need…” Ainz continued speaking without pausing, “To attend to an urgent matter, and there is no one but you to whom I can entrust it. I beg your pardon.”
A moment later, with one singular motion, as if he was actually just a mirage, Ainz instantly disappeared behind the door – and Scáthach turned her gaze to Nobunaga.
She only smirked in response, looking at Scáthach challengingly, at which Scáthach herself frowned, "So… You're my overseer now?”
“What makes you think that?” Nobunaga suddenly looked surprised.
“How else would one interpret his order?” Scáthach frowned. “Unless, of course, he assigns each Servant a pair from the new arrivals…”
“You'd be surprised, but that's exactly what he does." Nobunaga smirked, recalling all the different circles of communication formed thanks to Ainz's nudges, before sighing.
"Not to mention the fact that asking me to follow a suspicious person in front of that very person is stupid enough – do you think Ainz would make that mistake?”
Scáthach frowned; she wasn't sure of Ainz's personality, but she certainly didn't plan to think that he was an idiot.
That way lies dying very stupidly
“Either way, the fact remains that we still have one more unanswered question," Nobunaga smirked slightly. "Because when I show you Chaldea, I have to take you to the sparring ring as well…”
Scáthach, hearing this, shifted her gaze to Nobunaga before nodding. It definitely sounded logical – and she couldn't deny the fact that with just one easy intervention, Ainz had solved the unfinished fight between Scáthach and Nobunaga either…
Frowning, Scáthach glanced in the direction of the door, and at the eldritch-like mind just beyond.
Ainz was really smart, which meant that determining his plan might take her an eternity and a half… But she will do it nonetheless!
***
Name: Scáthach
Race: Human
Title: Queen of the Lands of Shadow
Occupation: Servant of Ainz Ooal Gown \ Defender of Humanity (self-appointed)
Residence: Chaldea, Training Wing
Karma: +50 (Neutral ~ Neutral-Good)
Race Level: -
Class Level: Lancer (15)
Monster Hunter (10)
Undead Hunter (10)
Witch (10)
Guardian of the Shadow Lands (5)
Others (14)
Total: 64 Class Levels = 64 Total Levels
HP: 80
Mana: 40
Physical Attack: 60
Physical Defense: 0
Dexterity: 80
Magical Attack: 0
Magical Defense: 80
Resistance: 20
Special Ability: 90
Skill: Gáe Bolg – Alternative
Level: 60
A long-range attack ability that always hits an opponent (at least if he has zero Resistance, which is questionable in practice) and procs an instakill. If the instakill doesn't work on the target, the target will still take damage instead.
Player comments:
— The undead hunter chose an ability that focuses on instakill. Against the undead. Lol
— Whoa, a melee-witch! And I thought I'd seen all sorts of crap by now – but choosing for a mage knight the only mage class that doesn't combine with melee damage is just… lol, that's just awesome. What's next, a scientist\ berserker? Well, for maximum class unsynergy!
— Day twenty-eight, I'm still trying to find a working build in these archives. Today I stumbled upon a witch-melee-monster-undead-hunter… with instakill. Asked about how she plans to curse the undead and monsters, all of which have automatic protection against darkness and curses.
Still looking…
Comments
alassandro
To one of those comments I can just say that it's easy to get her Instant Kill to proc off.... pair her with an Eclipse and have said Eclipse activate and resolve The Goal Of All Life Is Dead..... don't think about why an undead hunter would be working with an Eclipse.
Bob
Lol the player comments instakilled me
