The aftermath of the fight was beyond anything Ninya had ever dreamed of.  ‘A battle of heroes or monsters, something like this.’  She thought, clutching her staff and staring around her in a daze, ‘people don’t even get to see this once in a hundred years.  And it took place here, in a little village…’  

When Momon returned through the gate and Lupu walked away from the corpse of the blonde killer to go and greet him, the spell was broken and cheers erupted.  Torches were in many hands by then, the resolute words of Enri Emmott electrified the crowd, and from it was born a confidence not one village of humans had held in itself for six hundred years.  

‘If my own village had been like this one, would Tuare have been taken?  No… no not a chance.  Lupu was right.’  Ninya thought to herself, her eyes transfixed on the blood soaked cleric who traded words that Ninya couldn’t hear over the cheering in the night.  Torchlight cast shadows and light about, making every man and woman taller and stronger and more active by their shadows.

Ninya turned her attention to Enri, the resolute villager’s entire body began to shake as she shed the fear from the prior events now that things had calmed down.  Calm or not however, the village was not going back to sleep.  The wounded were gathered and brought forward, it was difficult not to pity them when she heard the village elder say, “Momon, sir, we suffered many injuries in the fighting against the undead, could we ask for your partner to heal them?”

‘They know about the ban, now.  So sad, they’ll…’  Ninya stopped the thought cold as a corpse when she heard Momon’s answer.

“Lupu, go ahead, as long as nobody at the guild finds out, it will be no problem.”  His majestic voice when he looked down at the red stained, red haired cleric was like oil thrown into flames, there was nobody who didn’t know what was being asked.  

‘He’s risking his career as an adventurer, just to help some pathetic nothing village…?’  Ninya clenched her jaw and jogged over, ‘It hurts, but… I have to stop him, or at least warn them…’

“M-Mr. Momon!  Miss Lupu!  If you do that and the guild finds out… you’ll be expelled!  You won’t be adventurers anymore!”  Ninya stammered out her objection over the groans of the dozen wounded.  They had long, deep tears in their flesh, bite marks where entire chunks of flesh had been torn away in the most desperate moments when only raw courage kept the wall from being overrun.  Shame washed over Ninya when she stood in the way of his effort at healing the wounded.

‘Someone like that, so noble, strong, there are many lives they’re destined to save, many great things they’re destined to do!  I can’t just let them throw it away for people like me!’  Ninya screamed in her head and silently begged for forgiveness from herself and from the groaning men and women.

It was enough to give Momon pause, however, and he glanced down at Lupu.  

“That’s true.  But it is not true if they are part of our Party.  Am I correct about the laws here, you can heal party members without concern for the temples?”  Momon asked her, and Ninya gave a shaky nod of her head.  

“Yes, but you…”  She snapped her jaw shut.

“Then we are taking the entire village into our party.  There is no limit to the number of members a party can have, is there?”  Momon spread out his hands, and even the wounded ceased their groans to stare.

“Ah, no, not technically, but…”  Dyne interjected.

“And you can add party members whenever you wish as long as you register them afterward, right?”  Momon pressed on.

It was Brita who was the first to start laughing, she clutched her belly and lost all control, doubling over with outrageous laughter, and from there, Lukrut joined her, followed by Peter, Dyne, and at last, a disbelieving Ninya.

From there it spread to the whole village.  “Momon, sir, what is your party called?”  Enri asked, struggling to hold back the laughter at his outrageous proposal.

“Axel.”  Ainz replied in an instant.  

“I don’t understand, why ‘Axel’ sir?”  Enri asked, “It’s such a small thing.  Most teams go for something fearsome or large.”

“Because the wheel turns on it.”  Ainz replied, and then it became a whisper.  

The whisper became a chant.

The chant became a cry like those of warriors in a battle line.

“Ax-el!  Ax-el!  Ax-el!  Ax-el!”  The word became more in the eyes of those who breathed it like a sacred name.

“Get to work, Lupu, heal the team.”  Momon ordered, and the bloody cleric with a broad and vicious grin went from body to injured body, restoring them to their full strength and health again.  Bloody wounds vanished and the wounded were whole once more.

The victory, the healing, the unexpected salvation from unexpected danger, an ocean of confidence was theirs and they had energy to boot, nobody wanted to sleep.  Instead, the many torches came together to form a bonfire and an impromptu festival was held.  Food and drink went about, music was played by those few with instruments, songs carried into the darkness around the village, and carried on till beyond the break of dawn.

It was only with the coming of the light, the piercing rays of the sun as they chased away the night and illuminated the true nature of what the village had survived the night before that brought home how close they had truly come to annihilation.

Nemu clung to her big sister and whimpered when she saw the bodies of the zombies being loaded into carts, Enri clung to the little girl, and felt her own sense of relief when Nfirea clung to her in turn.

“They really saved us there, didn’t they?”  Enri asked without looking up at him.

“They really did.  I owe them everything.”  Nfirea said, his words and face more grim and resolute than Enri had ever known him to be.

“We owe you also, Enri Emmott.”  The village elder said when he approached her, a hand folded behind his back, and the other held in the hand of his wife, she turned her attention to him and picked up Nemu to clutch her close.

“What?”  Enri asked.

“Without that wall, without the goblins, we would have suffered terribly.  You insisted on both, and that bought time for salvation, I argued against both the use of that item and against the extra work spent on the wall.  I thought archery practice was enough, I was wrong.  I was wrong and I think my time as elder is done.”  The old man added, Enri’s bright eyes widened.

“Why are you telling me?”  She asked, the heavy thud of a zombie corpse being dropped onto a pile was louder in her ears and in her own mind than it probably was in reality.  Past the old man, in the distance, the remains of the two skeletal dragons loomed larger than she imagined any creature could ever truly be.

“Because I think you should be the next chief.  You were the mind behind the work we did, the whole village will support you.  And if you need an old man’s advice, I’ll offer what I can.”  The old man said in a self deprecating fashion with a little wry smile on his wrinkled face.

“You don’t have to answer right now, dear, things are still hectic and… a lot drunk.”  He chuckled, most of the villagers were not busy working on clearing out the bodies, they were instead clearing out their bellies by throwing up the hours of alcohol consumption.  “Think about it for a bit.”

“Ah- I- I will.”  Enri stammered, and the couple left her alone.  

“You looked like you’ve seen a ghost.”  Lupu said when she eventually approached.

“Thank you… thank you… thank you…”  Enri shot the words out with divine reverence and fell to her knees in front of the red haired cleric.  She looked up at the blood soaked woman, “I don’t know how you fought like that, and I don’t care.  You saved us… you fought for us.  I can’t thank you enough.”

Nfirea went down to his knees beside the woman he loved, “She’s right… without you two, I’d have lost everything, probably even my life, she was definitely after me, but… why?”  

“Heh,” Lupu chuckled a little, “You two put on a good show, I couldn’t very well let her ruin it.”  She paused to let their blushes return.  “But as for why they wanted you?  I don’t know, but I’ll bet there’s a way to find out.”

Hours passed and the many bones of the skeletal dragon were hauled toward the outskirts of the village under Peter’s direction, Ainz saw the young warrior giving instructions to a score of peasants working with their carts, lining them up in a caravan formation.  Curious, he approached the youth.

“Peter, what exactly are you doing?”  Ainz asked, watching the peasants load the bones into the cart, the constant clatter and rattle grew loud as burly peasants, some less sober than others, worked to tie square cloths over top of high stacks of the remains.

“Gathering the evidence for your promotion of course, Mr. Momon.”  Peter said with absolute deference in his voice, fully respectful, when the young man looked up, Ainz saw that Peter’s eyes shone like he was staring at an idol.

“I don’t understand.”  Ainz replied and took off his helmet to scratch his head.

Peter laughed, “You’re too humble, Mr. Momon.  Forget chopping ogres in half, you alone killed two skeletal dragons and a magic caster.  Your partner killed a woman who I can only assume was an adamantite ranked warrior…”  His eyes fell, “If we’d had to face her… she would surely have killed us all.  Her armor was covered in adventurer plates, trophies, I guess.  There’s copper, iron, silver, gold, mithril, and even orichalcum.  That narrows down her skill level a great deal, and Lupu not only beat her, she beat her easily.  So, we’ll transport all this back to E-Rantel with us, get signed witness statements from the whole village, and you’ll get the plate you deserve.”

“I see.”  Ainz said and thought, ‘That will make spreading my name much easier.’  Gratitude rose up, so he reached down and put a heavy armored hand on the young warrior’s shoulder.  “I won’t forget your thoughtfulness.  But do you think we’ll be leaving today?”

Peter thought that over, “That’s up to our client, but… I think we will, yes, at least long enough for him to go back and see his grandmother.  The roar of those skeletal dragons was really something, who knows how far away they were heard?  They were also very clearly visible against the moon when they were up high, so they were visible for miles around.  Anyone who saw or heard them would go straight for the adventurer’s guild.  If we wait too long, they’ll send an investigation and suppression team.”

“Right, we shouldn’t waste time then.”  Ainz answered with a decisive air and drew his hand away.

“Oh, and by the way, we found this on the ground next to the magic caster’s body.”  Peter said, and held out a pouch.  “I had Dyne tap it with a staff into a pouch, we don’t know what it does, but it looked dangerous and definitely magical, you killed the man though.  By common adventurer custom, you keep what you kill outside of a team fight.”

Ainz reached down and took the little brown cloth pouch, his respect for Peter went up another notch.  ‘Loot law for parties in the game seems to have been picked up here by adventurers, good for him to keep it up.’  The appreciative thought was quickly concealed by his collector’s avarice and when the pouch was in hand, he opened it up.

A little black ball sat at the bottom of the pouch.  ‘Yes, that’s right, I remember it now… he held this out and used it to heal the skeletal dragons.’  Ainz called up the image to his mind and then sealed it up and cinched the pouch tightly to his belt.  “Thank you, Peter.”  Ainz said with the utmost sincerity.

If Peter planned to say anything in return, Ainz never knew.

Because in the next instant, a gut wrenching, heartbroken wail stopped everybody in their tracks, and it was coming from just inside the walls.  

roberthbutlerwriter

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