Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “I plan on leaving for the Beastmen Kingdom tomorrow.” Ulbert explained to the table, “The bride price of a Queen can be nothing less than a Kingdom,” he said it as grandly as he could, allowing his sense of drama to run short and role playing as he did in the game days he missed so much, “so I will go and force the Beastmen back, I will take as far as their capital.”

  The table of nobles, Torald included, gasped. “You would rule over Beastmen?” A portly older man asked, and Ulbert shook his head.

  “I didn’t say they would get to stay. I want the land. Not them. I think after I burn the population out of the first one, the rest will get the hint.” He chuckled, and Torald interjected.

  “M’lord- ah, Ulbert… does that mean you’ll let most of them live?” He asked, and the rest of the table shifted uncomfortably.

  “I suppose,” he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “the answer is yes but technically no.”

  “What?” The collective confusion shared by the nobles was not shared by Demiurge or Albedo who watched from their place at the wall with glee as Ulbert explained himself.

  “Beastmen need a great deal of food. The only reason they invaded was because they had no other choice, or so I concluded by looking at their bodies. All those I looked at, excepting their leaders, were clearly hungry. So your kingdom was a last ditch effort to prevent mass starvation. I’ve driven their army back, this is probably already causing problems. When I force their population to flee with nothing but the fur on their skins, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, will run farther and farther east. Cities and villages will empty overnight. Most won’t even have time to take whatever their version of salted meat is out of their cellars. What happens when half the country is forced into the other half of the country, and both halves of the country were already hungry before that happened?”

  The specter of starvation wasn’t lost on those who sat at the table, and as they understood his meaning, smiles spread in all directions. Ulbert was promising a famine that would be spoken of by the descendants of survivors for a hundred generations. With famine came conflict, if they couldn’t expand west for food, they would go east, or north, or south… or turn on each other, eating each other to survive.

  As retribution went…

  The gleeful laughter and applause that went up from the elites of the Draconic Kingdom were as good as an endorsement of their new champion, and of Ulbert himself, along with any lingering doubts about a union with their Queen.

  “Draconic Empire has a beautiful sound to it, doesn’t it?” Ulbert asked, and the table of heads bobbed up and down with glee.

  “Too long have we been beholden to those stuck up Theocracy snobs. They send us retirees rather than armies and plead poverty in everything except when we need something. We spend our blood to keep their border safe and they expect us to kiss their feet for it.” A noblewoman hissed with loathing. “They do nothing until they’re directly threatened, always a day late and a silver short in the end.”

  “Now, now.” Queen Draudillon said with a reproving voice, “They always have a surplus of excuses. As if the fighting between King Ramposa III and the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown has anything to do with them.”

  Ulbert gasped so loudly that the table turned their full attention toward him.

  “Did you say the Sorcerer King of Ainz Ooal Gown?” Ulbert asked and racked his brain. ‘It’s been about four years, but I don’t remember a player by the name or title ‘Sorcerer King’ but then maybe Momonga brought a new player in after I left? There were still other guild members…’

  “No.” Draudillon answered, “His kingdom is called ‘The Sorcerous Kingdom’ and his name is ‘Ainz Ooal Gown’. Why? Do you know him?” She asked. ‘That shouldn’t be too shocking, powerful figures often move in the same circles, it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising if the two encountered one another as friends or foes in the past.’ Her heart seized up in her chest, ‘If they were foes, can he defeat the Sorcerer King if he had to fight him?’ There was an unfortunate thought.

  “I know the name ‘Ainz Ooal Gown’ but not as the name of a person.” Ulbert replied, “It was the name of a guild in another world. I never expected, no… never believed I would hear it here as someone’s name.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Demiurge and Albedo traded looks at one another. Lord Ulbert was ignorant of the politics, too much could be revealed too easily, ‘At least I prepared for the possibility.’ Demiurge thought and reached into his pocket dimension.

  Ulbert felt it before he saw the effect.

  Mouths open and hands filled with bread or holding spoons stopped in midgesture, Draudillon’s full lips were pursed and about to speak, but did not move. A candle flame’s dancing flicker no longer moved.

  “My creator. My father.” Demiurge said and began to walk away from the wall where he waited to serve. In the timeless world his footfalls echoed like thunderclaps, each step drawing him across the world wide divide that was in reality only thirty paces distance.

  Ulbert rose to his feet and turned around to see for himself the source of the voice. When they said, ‘creator’ he knew instantly there could be only one being that would have come for him.

  Ulbert’s appearance faded back to his original form as time stop magic was considered to be an intro to an attack… and in his demonic glory, Demiurge basked. His and Albedo’s illusions faded in turn, revealing them for who and what they were.

  “You’re alive… here…” Ulbert said, almost disbelieving it as Demiurge came near and knelt to his Lord and Maker. “And you… you are Albedo. I remember.” Ulbert’s words were almost reverent in their disbelief.

  ‘Where did you go?! How could you hurt Lord Momonga so much?! Don’t you know what you did to him?! Don’t you have any shame?! Don’t you know how he suffered and agonized over those he loved best, leaving him for who knows where and never so much as saying hello again?! How could you treat him like he was dirt beneath your fingernails?! How could you treat him like… like human filth?!’ Albedo wanted to shriek and rage and assail the Supreme Being with questions that were more accusations than requests for answers.

  But she kept it all hidden behind a smile, a downward gaze, and a curtsey.

  “We are, my lord.” Demiurge answered, his tail lashing wildly behind him, “My father… please… will you let your creation beg you answer before I tell you what you surely wish to know…?”

  “If we have time…” Ulbert answered, and Demiurge hastened to nod.

  “I am extending the spell in the mana crystal by using my own mana as a backup, and I will burn through my life if I have to. Now since you grant it… please… why did you abandon us all… all of Nazarick… why did you leave me behind… why couldn’t I come with you wherever you left? Were we inadequate… did we fail in some way? Was I flawed? A disappointment, perhaps?” Demiurge’s questions cut deeper into Ulbert’s heart than he expected after the shock he just endured.

  But it was a familiar question, one he’d asked himself though he never had the courage to speak it to his parents himself. But he answered it as best he could. “I left because I had no choice. And I did not come back because I couldn’t. The way was blocked.” He closed his mouth and took a deep breath to buy himself time. ‘That is sort of true, I was too poor for a subscription, even to get a day pass was only possible because they were outright free on the last day…’ He swallowed the lump in his throat, despite being created as the wisest and most cunning of all beings, Demiurge seemed more than anything to be a boy who was abandoned by his father, and needed answers.

  “And I could not take you with me. The place I went to, you would have died there. None of you could have survived, and there was no way to change that.” That answer also had the added benefit of being true, as no technology existed to move game NPCs into robots, except for the richest of the rich who put H-Game characters into sexroids… something Ulbert could never have afforded for himself, and he knew it.

  “But now, if you’re here, then the name Ainz Ooal Gown…?” Ulbert let the question hang.

  “Lord Momonga changed his name to that of the guild, so it would be recognized. He is truly great and magnanimous, and hoped it would help him be found by his friends.” Albedo answered, sweet smile still plastered on her face.

  “Then Nazarick is here…” Ulbert thought of the Guardians, the NPCs, the maids and Pleiades, the treasury… ‘Oh my, that guy…’ He almost laughed as he recalled Momonga’s flavor text and wondered how the doppelganger turned out in this world with his own voice.

  “Yes, father, and we’ve come to bring you home. Lord Ainz’s words to us were simple. Bring my friend home.” Demiurge answered.

  That gave Ulbert reason to hesitate. ‘Is it home, though? We made it. I have a room there… it’s… but then, I’m about to be a King in my own right, why serve in Heaven when I can be a King in… here? Or…’ So much to think about, and he saw the first wince indicating that Demiurge sacrificed some HP to keep the spell going.

  He quickly improvised. “Demiurge, Albedo. Return to my friend. Tell Momonga to meet me above the last city I destroyed. We can do a ‘speedrun’ together, like the old days. I’ll wait for him there tomorrow, I can think of no better reunion than an all new game to play together.”

  “Naturally, My Lord.” Demiurge said with delight in his eyes. “May I… accompany you?” It was audacious, even to the point of disrespectful, but his heart sang as Ulbert spread out his wings as Demiurge’s were spread and said…

  “A son should learn from his father how the game is played. Yes. Come along, if Momonga doesn’t mind.” Ulbert promised and clapped the demon on his shoulders, “Now go, your HP is declining and that’s not unlimited. I’ll change the subject here to something else. And tell my friend… I can’t wait to see him again.”

  “Lord Ulbert.” The pair of emissaries of Nazarick said, repositioned themselves, and a delay magic spell later…

  Everything was as it had been before the time stop spell began… with no more than an instant of time between changes, so that the few who might catch a glimpse of the demonic shape, the tail, the horns, the wings and all else would lose sight of it an eyeblink later.