When the people gathered per the direction of Ainz, he took a different direction, allowing Vanysa to take the role of introducing him. So he jotted down a few notes and handed them to her behind the stage, only for her to look at them as if they were pointless scribblings. She looked up at him, "Ahma sorry sire," she said, shaking as she realized she was going to fail him. "Ah can't read."

Ainz paused. "Oh. Well then that is something we shall have to remedy, isn't it?" He asked, her shaking froze and she looked up at him in surprise.

"Any good servant should be able to read the instructions of their master. Wing it for now, and we will begin our lessons tonight." He said.

She nodded, and her bouncy nature returned, she fairly lept out in front of the masses and leaned over facing them, and raised one finger to tell them to be silent."

"Hiya!" She had a radiant smile on. "As ya mighta noticed, all the monsters, they're kinda crispy!" That drew a round of cheers and clearly some were sobbing in disbelief.

"Taint but one left an he's gonna die too!" That lead to another round of cheers as she let that sentence out in the sweetest way she could, like a child announcing Christmas or showing off a lolipop she'd been given.

"See he's alive b'cause he's gotta message to deliver, ta tell the monsters to go away or they're next! Now wouldja like to hear from the one ta do all that?!" She asked the crowd.

They cheered. Ainz listened as she hyped him up, she was actually very good, in a peasant kind of way, but then, such was her audience.

"Well b'fore he comes out, guess I should tell yah, see he's not much fer breathin, bein an undead king and all, so don't be to scared, b'cause even though he's verrrry scary, he's come ta help us all, kay!" She bounced aroundon the stage with childlike energy as she spoke, he wondered just how many years the beastmen had knocked out of her head, but it played well.

"Master! Will ya come speak to them, I know they'll listen!" She said, turning behind and fairly wiggling with anticipation.

Ainz saw this from where he stood and was fairly sure that Albedo & Shalltear would want to tear the girl apart for being a temptress.

Her perky demeanor seemed so at odds with everything that the preparation laid out for him was almost enough to throw him off, but after years of this, he was now accustomed to speaking before the public, and he instead generated oohs and ahhhs instead of terror, thanks he was sure, to Vanysa's unusual introduction.

"I am Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom." He let that sink in for a moment, and then he continued. "Now, as my servant has stated, the beastmen are gone from this city, just as they are gone from Ha'ak Pale. Tomorrow I move on to the next city, having dispatched their lone survivor to warn them to release your brethren and withdraw. If they disobey, they will all die." There were cheers at that statement.

He raised his hands to call for silence. "I have come here because your queen sought my aid, she has all but ruined herself trying to save you, and now saved you are...but you cannot remain here! You will have to leave this city and move towards your capitol. There are beastmen in the villages, and when they do not find that they are getting 'shipments' to them for sustenance, they will come to this city looking for answers, if they find you, well then I have saved no one. Here are my rules that you WILL follow." His voice grew firm and uncompromising, "Whether you be noble or peasant I do not care, these apply to all. Nobody carries more than what they need, persons can carry survival goods for others, however the very old, the very young, the pregnant, and the sick take precedence. I will be calling forth one of those capable of healing to care for any injuries that you may have, but those who are not injured must prepare to go. Carts will follow at the back of the line of walk, and should only be used for those who can no longer move under their own power. The strongest and fastest should rush ahead and alert any forthcoming assistance as to the direction of your line of march. Are there any questions?" He asked.

"Why are you doing this?" Someone said with breathless awe.

"Power exists to be put to use for the benefit of the whole, not merely for the selfish benefit of the powerful themselves, that is my justice, and that is why I am here. The beastmen have forgotten this, if they ever knew it, and have made themselves into true monsters, so they will be humbled for their misdeeds." Ainz said, his voice taking on the philosophical voice of an educator.

"We have little more time, and every minute is precious, go, gather your things and prepare to move." He said to the crowd, letting his voice carry to the very back, and when they began to rise, and move as directed, Ainz turned to Vanysa. "Very well done. Most of the time I have to spend some time easing the crowd's fear of me."

She grinned widely, "Ah just did whatcha said, an it worked out didnit?" She bounced away with her customary skip with her arms at her sides and her palms out, happy to be praised, "C'n I go get somthin to eat sire, the smell of all that cooked meat sure is good fer the appetite!" He saw the flash of sadism in her candy like eyes, and he nodded in approval.

"Go, eat, but wherever you go, be at the gate in the morning at sunrise or I will leave without you." Ainz said with mock seriousness, prompting a giggle from the girl, and she skipped away with hands behind her back, her golden hair bouncing around behind her, and her ample breasts bouncing in front of her, drawing eyes from men who had their first positive distraction since their nightmare began. With her eyes closed with happiness, she skipped to the nearest well cooked beastman corpse and started cutting up some meat.

"Who's eatin who now?" She grinned at the corpse. "Heh, almost not even madatcha, if I tasted as good as you do, I'd eat me too!" She giggled as she cut the shoulder meat off a minotaur that lay sprawled where he fell. There was another corpse under his feet, obviously he'd tripped over it, fallen, and then been consumed by the fire. She stared at the body, madness filled her eyes for a moment as a memory came flooding back...

"Run away! I'll hold it off!" A boy with wavy brown hair and skin as fair as sunlight, with a smile as warm as a summer day and a freckled face, shouted over his shoulder at her as he recklessly charged a minotaur with nothing but a kitchen knife. The blow of the minotaur knocked the boy senseless, then the minotaur had grabbed his legs and he shouted for her to run again, but there was nowhere to go, and she froze as the minotaur grabbed each ankle and ripped his legs wide apart, so that they were a straight line, tearing numerous muscles and tendons, before dropping one and twisting between the knee and the ankle, so that the leg snapped and he would not escape. That was when she fainted, when she woke up, she was bound and saw his face...in the hands of a rat man that had cut it off, and was presently chewing on it as she watched.

The memory retreated and she shook her head, and she resumed cutting into the meat, the blood, far from bothering Vanysa, felt...so very good.

There was nothing really for Ainz to do at this point, so he walked the streets and watched as people prepared for their departures, many were cutting up beastmen corpses for meat for the trip, others were preparing bedrolls, still others were loading extra supplies into carts, in a way it was inspiring, seeing them all work together that way.

Such a shame that such cooperation required such dire circumstances. As he walked the streets he could see the wealth had been hoarded by a powerful handful, while the majority of homes were barely livable hovels, his red orbed eyes narrowed as he saw how poor the city must have been, how divided between the nobility and the peasants.

As he contemplated this, he found Vanysa around a fire smoking some meat with other peasants and explaining the wonders of the 'sandwich'. When he saw her, he called out, "Vanysa, walk with me will you?"

It was phrased as a question, but the tone said that it was not. The other peasants looked up in awe, but he paid them no mind, and she bounced up like a rabbit and spun around. "Course m'master!" She said cheerfully as he began to walk down a narrow road, she fell in step beside him.

"Tell me, what is life like in these cities?" He asked. "You were a city girl, were you not?"

"Aye ah am sir, is nota good life ah can tell ya that. See the kingdom's gotah lota trouble, people get called up ta fight, they don't come home or come home with their arms missin if they lucky, an they live on tha streets cause they ain't got no money an ain't nobody hirin people what can't do normal work no more." She had her hands held behind her and her voice had a bizarre mix of chipper and depressed, the happiness of being alive and safe, the sadness of the state of her people, it was very strange to hear.

"Are the veterans not provided for?" He asked.

"We gots the temples, they gives some food out an all, but it ain't like healin potions grow'n trees is it? An lots of em who come back...when we lucky an there is lots of em...well they comes back with ther eads all messed up, screamin in the night an startlin at every sound, a dog's bark'r a bird's call or even see'in a cows orns an they cry'n collapse n'can't do nothin. So they can't work but they needta eat right? Well so lots of em beg on the streets, the temples, we gots some gooduns, but they still don't eal for free, the Queen, she tries ta pay fer it, but ain't got enough for all, an then the beastmen comin back...well so to make it easy, the lords, they run things. The taxes got high an most people can't really own nuthin, so the lords own all the land so we don't pay no taxes, but then they own everthing so we can't work cept for them. Nobody can tell em no, not even the Queen, cuz she needs em to help fight the beastmen. So wha'ever appens to us...well we stuck tween a rock and an ard place." She said in frustration.

"I see, so the wealth is concentrated with the nobles, they control all the means of administration, including the justice system, giving them a monopolistic control over the entire kingdom economy and they tax everything and everyone else out of existence to keep money flowing up, limiting the care and services that can be provided to everyone else, and stifling anyone else who tries to start up a new business and build up their wealth independently without cooperating with the existing cooperative monopolies." Ainz said as he put it into terms he'd learned reading economics texts. "Then because they control the production and distribution of goods, they can set prices and prohibit competition, which the Queen can't prevent because they're vital to national defense."

"Aye thas...I think...what'ah said iddnit?" She said quizically.

"I'm going to have to make time to talk with your Queen about how her economic policies are undermining her nation's ability to protect itself. Though sadly things being what they are, it may be awhile before I can do so." Ainz said as they walked past a particularly depressing looking hovel.

"What'd you do diffint?" She asked curiously.

"Well for starters..." he sighed, this was tough to explain, so he reached into his pocket dimension and pulled out a loaf of bread. "Her view of wealth seems to be like this, let us say that this loaf of bread represents all the present wealth in the kingdom, by hoarding it all in one place she has access to a pool of resources to draw from for national defense, thus she allows an oligarchy like arrangement in her economy, with a few holding sway over the greatest part of the wealth." Ainz then tore a few pieces off and handed them to Vanysa. "Each little bit torn off represents an expenditure, with only a small part going to you in the peasant population, and her view seems to be that what is used, is lost, and in a way, she is right, because that small bit only sustains you, it does not allow your growth or prosperity, and it is arranged in such a way that this little bit you receive, must come back into the whole, because you are having to buy food and other goods from the same people who essentially own you." He took the pieces back and stuck it back on to the loaf.

"However, this view of wealth as if the total amount of money were static and unchanging, is false. Instead of a single static loaf that remains unchanged, it is far more productive to see it like a garden, where seeds planted from one, will grow into many and produce much more of itself. Suppose you began your sandwich shop, you require space to run it, you require ingredients to make it, and you may even require an employee or two in order to help run the place. You have created an increased demand for goods, and when you pay your employees, they use that money for their own ends, buying goods and services in turn, which then creates a need for new employees in other businesses to meet their needs." Ainz stroked his chin for a moment as he watched her grow wide eyed. "Each expenditure of a small sum, creates greater than the larger sum, and the flow of money becomes multi-directional, instead of simply flowing up and enriching a few, it becomes more like vines growing on a tree, always finding new niches and places to grow and opportunities to achieve. If the Queen instead used her government to promote openness by limiting barriers to trade and allowing people to invest in themselves and pursue wealth on more or less their own terms, there could be many growing wealthy, not by exploiting the poor, but by serving them and lifting them out of their current poverty." His voice vaguely reminded him of his dear friend who worked as a teacher, he mentally laughed and wondered what he'd think of Ainz now if he could hear him.

"Her judicial system should enforce fair contracts, dismantle exploitative organizations that oppress, abuse, and manipulate those who they are meant to serve and those whom they employ. Instead with her fixation on stability her national economy has become stagnant, its no wonder she is running out, she has crafted an economic system that simply cannot grow. There is nothing wrong with growing wealthy or turning a profit in coin, however when this pursuit of wealth becomes directly harmful through corruption, manipulation, and fraud, it hurts the entire population in the long run, therefore strong legal repercussions should exist that prevent economic tyranny by a few and ensures justice for those who buy from or produce for such organizations. If this were done, then her tax base would increase over time as wealth began to be 'farmed' from a larger pool of producers, and instead of one static loaf, it grows and grows and grows, this would in turn do a much more effective job of funding her military budget." Ainz said, and tossed the loaf back in to his pocket dimension.

"If I were to guess, her nobles constantly lobby for laws that ensure their continued dominance and oppose anything that provides common relief or limits their ability to draw more wealth from the population, and the more poor the population becomes, the more desperate they are to continue this process because the amount available to extract is always less. If the beastmen invasions were not constantly culling the population, quite frankly you'd have had mass starvation as the state failed to provide relief from the increased costs always being imposed on you." Ainz concluded. "Does that make sense."

Vanysa looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "No eh?" He asked.

He looked at her a moment and saw what his old friend once described as, 'seeing the light go on'. As she scrunched up her face and thought about it, he saw a dawning of vague understanding emerge on her face. "I get it, is like seeds, I gots ten apples and you take all of em, ain't gettin no apples next time, but if I plants em an they grow trees, an people buy em an plant more trees, well apples get cheaper cause there lots of em, an everybody can buy em, so people spend more money on other stuff, an that means with all that money growin, why when you need ten apples, you can get em every time cause they everywhere an always growin, somethin like that?" She asked with a beaming smile.

"You begin to understand." He said with a grin his face could not show.

"Now, you go get some rest, we're leaving in the morning and I am going to watch from the top of the wall, I want to see if we have any visitors." Ainz said.

"But weren't you goin to teach me ta read t'night?" She asked in disappointment.

"Ah yes, we will, but later, for now get some early rest, when you wake well before the dawn, come see me at the wall, I will begin to instruct you." He said kindly.

"Appily mah savior!" she said and left his side. She skipped off quite happily, humming a jaunty tune as her eyes danced merrily, she giggled when she came across a beastman corpse, and she hopped on its head and jumped off like a kid skipping over a rock. "Intelligent girl, shame she's not educated. Looking forward to see what she does with it once she's got it."

Ainz made his way to the wall and sat there, between the two towers where defenders had obviously died brutally in a desperate defense. They hadn't bothered to clean up the mess, and both blood and bones were scattered about. The bones had been snapped to get at the marrow, and the marks on those bones indicated that they'd suffered very violent ends. Ainz had become innured to violence over the course of his time in the new world, but he didn't enjoy it for its own sake, and some behaviors still sickened him, and some people he was happy to kill. The beastmen had earned his disgust and his ire, and though he lacked a firm connection to humanity, this went over the line for him in some profound ways, not least because despite everything, he retained his connection to the memory of his mother and her desparation. The violation of such a connection brought out his sadistic streak, and the more he thought on it, the angrier he got, it was only because of his emotional dampener that he was able to control himself at all, but no sooner than he was calmed, than his wrath built up again.

That was why it was a great pity for the beastmen who arrived when they did, he had just been calmed, and his wrath was rising once more, and then there they came, five thousand fully armed beastmen, moving in the darkness as if to take the city by surprise. His message had clearly been recieved and had not been believed.

He sat on the wall and drummed his fingers on the stone as they approached, "I see you over there, there is no point in trying to be stealthy." He shouted, and they halted in surprise. Realizing it was pointless, one of them used some kind of magic item that brightened the night, as if hoping to intimidate him with numbers.

"You received my message I assume!" Ainz shouted, his legs kicked idly as if bored by the whole thing as he sat on the stone crenelation.

"We did, and this is ours!" one of them, a strange beastman covered with feathers said loudly.

"Message received." Ainz said simply.

"You're going to run away? You think we'll let you!" The bird creature laughed.

"No, I'm going to kill all of you." Ainz answered, and before the thing could ask how, he pointed to the center of the formation, "Fire of Sainai!" He shouted, and a pillar of flame shot down from above and struck where he pointed, incinerating several hundred beastmen, he then began to guide the flame with his finger, dragging it across the beastman line. The shrieks were palpable as they tried to respond by throwing rocks, but as Ainz noticed, they really didn't have much in the way of projectiles. They were close up predators, claws, talons, only a handful, mainly apemen, seemed to have hands suitable for gripping, as he noticed the way they moved their arms, it was clear that they were meant for swinging, this was excellent for powerful blows, but very poor for throwing, their arms just could not 'hook' quite right, and as a result they were almost helpless against the devestating pillar of flame Ainz had called down from a distance, it spun like a tornado and drew others into it like a vacuum as it moved at his direction, when most of the punitive expedition was dead, that was when their spirits broke, and he cast an additional spell, 'auto target, beastmen' he snapped out, and his current spell began to move on its own, chasing them down one by one. Ainz laughed, if the city they came from was lucky, none of these were capable of running all the way to it before that caught up. If it killed them all quickly, then there would be nothing to target nearby and the spell would disappear on its own a few minutes later. If however, one of these beastmen managed to outrun it all the way to the city, then it would have many more targets to pursue and the killing would be greatly expanded and begin all over again.

It was when he lost interest in this that Vanysa approached and watched the pillar of flame as the light died, she saw how it sucked up beastmen and burned off their flesh down to the bones, and she giggled with glee and clapped her hands and bounced up and down at their suffering, when the light was gone and she could only see one or two at a time die, she stood next to the seated Sorcerer king, went down to both knees, lowered herself slowly to all fours, then lowered her head to the stone, prostrated before him. "Yah gots the powers and knowin of a god, so yah gotta be a god." She said from her prostrate position, "Nuthin else could knowin all the stuff yah know, and be doin the stuff ya do, yer my god, not them other ones that do nothin." She said, it was not the eloquence of Neia Baraja, who had some education to her name, but it shared her sincerity.

Ainz chose not to dispute her assertion, but instead he bade her to rise as he opened his pocket dimension and drew out a book he had assembled based on the version he knew of in his own world. When she got up, but only to her knees, he held it out to her, he then used a light producing stone and held it out. "This book is called 'D is for dog'." He said, and he began to read to her, explaining each letter of the alphabet of the new world, while beastmen screamed for mercy they would not get, a human girl learned to read by way of light given from her god's will.

She grew so enthralled that she no longer heard the screams except as white noise, and did not even notice when they faded to nothing as the last beastman died.