Vanysa took enthusiastically to her new book, and she clutched it to her like a child did a teddy bear when the lesson was over. She'd read her first word, "Cat". And then she'd asked, "Ow do I spell 'Sor'cer King'" She said as she looked up at him with awe on her face.
He wrote the letters down patiently. Had her reference her book, and had her write them out many times.
"We'll work on it some more at the next city." Ainz said, "Go make sure that people are either going or gone, and meet me at this entrance, I'll wait for a bit." He said.
"Yer not leavin me r'ya?" She asked hesitantly, "If'n ya tell me ya don't need m'no more...tha I'm a botha...salright, yah did s'much an..." Her eyes began to well up as she backed away.
"Hurry." Ainz said, and he walked down the stairs as she rushed off to check on the departures.
When he walked out of the gate he leaned against the wall, mentally he was dual minded, he was exhausted in a sense, but at the same time he was really enjoying himself and his 'vacation' from all the paperwork waiting back in Nazarick.
"I'm a terrible boss." He said out loud to himself as he contemplated all that paper on the desks of Demiurge & Albedo.
"Well at least this is good for us. And I have to admit...Vanysa is an...interesting one." He said, her bouncy energy was energizing and her enthusiasm refreshing. But the glimpses beneath...it was like a sea of madness was just bubbling up in her brain, kept at bay by some serious form of head trauma, be it emotional, physical, or both.
Still he preferred not to go without her at this point, she was easy to get used to.
Some time later, he saw her burst out the gate running like a foal that has found its legs and proved them to be good, she ran so quickly that she passed the portcullis and did not even notice Ainz standing against the wall beside it. She looked left and right frantically and when she did not see him, she fell to her knees and let her arms flop to her side. Even from behind he thought she was going to start crying.
"Why are you down there, tough to ride like that isn't it?" Ainz asked as he summoned another pair of undead horses for the two of them.
She jumped up and spun around, and if she had a sad expression on her face, he didn't see it now. She bouncd up on one leg, kicking the other behind her and waved a cheery, "Hya yer majesty! Thought I'done lost yah!" She skipped over and hopped on the horse, while Ainz mounted the one beside her, and they rode off down the long road.
It was quiet for awhile, but it felt...boring even with beautiful scenery, to simply say nothing while with someone else, so he asked her, "What do you think you'll do after this?"
He remembered his travel time with Neia, how he'd thoughtlessly asked about her dead parents, and he did not want to do that with someone who was obviously already damaged, so instead he focused on the future.
"Ah toldja dinnt ah? Gonna open up a sanich shop!" She grinned.
"What'll you call it?" He asked her.
She touched her forefinger to her chin and looked upwards in thought, 'Teats and meats'? She asked, and turned in his direction and 'wiggled'. Ainz's jaw dropped.
"Can tha undead be pervy sire?" She asked with a kittenish smile on her face.
Ainz wasn't quite sure what to say.
"Ah knew a pervy once, ad a store, kep pet bear an named it Yeddet. Got ate to, snuggled it one tam to manny an ah tole im not too!" She laughed, leaving Ainz with no idea whether she was joking or not, so he pretended to laugh and let it pass.
"Ah say its good tah know." She said with an almost smug smile on her face as they rode.
"Good to know what?" He asked.
"Ah good servant yah know, I don know much ahbout it, but ah thin a good servant supposed to know what'r master likes yeah?" She gave him a knowing look, and Ainz prayed that neither Albedo or Shalltear were using the mirror of remote viewing on him right now because if they were...it would be hell to pay.
He was...glad of the silence that followed as she hummed a little tune with a satisfied smile on his face. They rode for hours before they heard something other than the normal noises of the birds and the wind in the trees. For Ainz...that by itself was a wonder, his own world's wrecked state was not forgotten, so this unspoilt nature was like an eternal garden, one he would not allow to be destroyed. The noise they heard was that of argument. It was from around a corner, and it had suddenly stopped as they came close enough that their horses could be heard.
"Stay here." Ainz said, and she went quiet and nodded, Ainz trotted his horse further around the bend, there he found a pandaman, an alligatorman, and a bearman. They had obviously been arguing over a cart, there was a wheel broken and laying in the dirt and a human lay dead a few feet away, his arms torn from his torso, he had obviously bled to death in terror and pain, two more cowered in the dirt, their wrists were chained to the front of the cart, a quick glance told Ainz they had been used as beasts of burden, pushing the cart from the crossbar they were chained to, whether by accident or intent the wheel went into a hole and snapped on impact. That one had clearly suffered the punishment for it.
The cart however was more interesting, because it was obviously not an ordinary cart, rather than being open in the back for simplicity, it had walls around it and a small door, and noises and crying could be heard from within, human voices. When Ainz came around the corner on his horse, they turned to face him, whatever they had expected, he was not it.
Ainz was the first to speak. "Release them and it will be quick. Refuse and it will be slow."
"Why, so you can eat em?" The alligatorman laughed, "They're ours." He finished.
"You got marrow in your bones still? Always wondered that about skeletons." The pandaman said.
"Well you're kind of cute." Ainz said. "I always liked pandas."
If the pandaman had skin, he would have blushed, he apparently didn't take it as a compliment.
The bearman seemed to think it was hilarious, and he immediately burst out laughing, throwing one arm to his chest as if to stop himself while pointing with his other hand to the pandaman. "Ha! He called you cute, the skeleton called you cute!"
"I'm...not...cute." He said flatly.
"Well that is a matter of relative taste." Ainz said.
"Nae sire, yah right, he' sacutie that'n." A voice said behind him that could be no other, not with that much bubbly cheerfulness to it, and he rolled his eyes.
"Did I not say to stay where you were?" Ainz asked.
She looked a little glum and put on a somewhat pouty face. "M'srry sire, jusscarry th'out you an...don wanna be'way." She pulled a firm and resolute expression as her face turned up to his. "Servan gots to stay w'master n'matter what! Humpf!"
He rolled the red orbs that served for eyes, and the beastmen seemed to take an interest briefly in their interplay, from inside the box like prison of the cart, voices were asking what was going on, shouting for help, only to still to a whimper again when the bearman pounded on the wall. "Quiet meat! An make room, we got another one to put in there with you!"
The bearman looked at Vanysa and licked his lips. "Bet you taste good, breast meat nice an soft, to good to eat raw, gotta cook you."
Ainz saw her freeze and guessed readily she was flashing back to the moment a bearman had held her upside down and licked at her skin. She started to shake, her bouncy eyes turned dull, and this did not please the Sorcerer King.
"Mass pain number five." Ainz said, and the tenor of their voices and the looks on their faces changed, at first it was nothing, then it was a wince, then the winces grew, as if they were first being 'poked' by pins, then stabbed by knives, and then it spread from a small part of their bodies, to all over their bodies, the three of them fell one by one, first to their knees.
"What...did you do?" The bearman asked.
Ainz looked down at them coldly. "I've killed you, one of the slowest ways I know how."
Horror filled their gazes. Ainz dismounted and approached the trio, it was clear they couldn't even strike at him, the pain was obviously growing as they clawed at the places that hurt, as if they could dig it out of their flesh like an arrow broken off within it. He knelt in front of them, "Did you know that you can die from pain? I'll bet you didn't know that, it takes a long time though, weeks, months, eventually the body just starts to destroy itself, the stronger you are, the longer it takes, and that is what is happening to you. See the pain isn't going to stop, its going to build...and build...and build, until the total amount of pain sensory data that your body can generate has been reached. Then you'll stay that way, the only way to stop it is for me to cancel the spell, or someone to cast a healing spell more powerful than the spell I used."
He went quiet, he watched them writhe on the ground for awhile, a question in their agony filled eyes.
"You want to know how powerful a spell? You are thinking maybe you can crawl your body to the nearest healer?" the expressions on their faces said that this was what they hoped.
"Do you have anyone who can use eighth tier magic? Because that was seventh." He said.
They knew enough about magic at least to look on in horror as they understood what was going to happen.
Ainz looked over his shoulder, Vanysa's eyes had started to return to normal as they made noises of pain. "Vanysa?" Ainz called, and she got off her horse, and bounced over in her favorite way, with her gingerly skips and cheerful toothy smile. "Hi hi sire, whatcha need?"
"Feeling better?" He asked. She looked down at the beastmen, and Ainz saw an overjoyed expression on her face, but she didn't say anything, she looked at them and her smile grew and changed, her expression looked almost lustful.
"Ayam." She said with a giggle, the beasts on the ground were now in to much pain to cry out, their backs arched as their bodies tensed.
"No...more...pain..." One of them managed to beg.
"D'he say tha too?" She asked sweetly as she pointed to the dead man with the missing arms.
There was no mercy in her, she actually crouched over the bearman, looking him in his face. "Wancha to know somethin, sin yer gonna die and all, can't tell n'body. Yer kin, ya taste good too, I atecha before, an I'll eat nother, an whena get strong, gonna huntcha, gonna killya, allayah, t'aint never gonna be no bearmen left'n all th'world that ain't in a stew or shat out in a pile a'shit. Maybe yah be the last one left live, rottin ere in pain, an I come see'yah, cut some pieces off, ave some you stew right next'yah where yah can watch me eat yah shoulders, maybe yah be grateful, cuz if I eat yah shouldas then they aint gonna hurt n'more." She looked over him with wide, staring eyes that did not blink, they held only obsession and an endless light that for the first time in his life, left the bearman in a state of absolute terror.
"Wan'that, wan'somthin hurt less, 'll cut a toe off, that be kay?" She giggled over him, and stood back up, "Nah, yah stay there, I'll come see yah soon though, just lay quiet till then." She giggled and bounced over to Ainz and gave a pretty salute, then said, "S'rry there majesty, want'd ta say some stuff to the bearman there, what about these?" She asked, and touched the wall of the cart where human voices stirred again.
"Open it, but tell them not to run right away, I will be unhappy if they do." Ainz answered.
She skipped happily over to the back and put her face up to the barred window suddenly, startling the person nearest it back on his heels. "Hiya. I'm Vanysa, and guess what, its yer lucky day, yah get ta live, all cuzza mah god, he's helpin out the Queen and gettin rid of all them beastmen what been eat'in us all this time." She grinned.
"Are...are you mad?" The man asked, wondering if he was talking to a crazy person.
She cocked her head and gave a toothy grin, and insanity returned to her eyes for a moment. "Gee, maybe, but mad'r not yah still free, now I'm gonna open this thing and letcha out, but..." She stuck her arm through the bars all the way to the shoulder and wagged her finger back and forth, "absolutely no runnin away, m'master, he wants ta talk to yah first, K?" There were some nods from the trapped humans.
"Pinky promise?" She said, and raised her pinky, utterly befuddled, the prisoner nonetheless closed his pinky with hers.
"Kay! Be just a sec, member, yah promised me!" She stepped back down from where she was and unlatched the door, opening it, and allowing a batch of naked and not exactly well fed but not quite starving men and women to stumble out.
They saw the beastmen writhing on the ground and the man who had done the 'pinky promise' heedless of his nudity asked..."What is happening?"
Ainz over at them and said, "Oh, they're dying."
"Of what..." He asked in shock.
"Of pain. It will take a very long time, perhaps weeks, perhaps months, maybe even years, but it can never be cured and it will not stop until they die." Ainz said.
Several of the peasants fell to their knees in shock, but one, a woman, saw the body of the dead man and rushed over, "Jorin...no...no..." She grabbed the torso of the man and as she knelt, she pulled him in so that she was cradling him at the neck. "Jorin...no..." She said over and over and over again.
"Who are you?" One of the peasants asked.
"Ees mah savior, mah god, ees the Sorc'r King." Vanysa grinned leaned forward, "Didnah tell yah he's kinda scarry lookin?" She asked as fear of the undead began to dawn on them.
"He's a good'n though, th'Queen asked fer him tah help us, an he said yes." She grinned, it was an infectious smile, and the fear began to melt away.
"Thank you Vanysa, that will be all, I'll carry on from here." He said.
Ainz dutifully let the woman mourn whoever the dead man was, and spoke to the remainder, "I am on my way to the next of your cities to eliminate the beastmen there."
A hand went up. "Next?" The hand raiser asked when Ainz inclined his head in the woman's direction.
"Yes. I have already killed the beastmen at Ha'ak Pale and Hearthlight." He said.
This created a buzz of conversation that cut off when Vanysa bounced her way behind them and put her hands on two heads an said perky as she could, "Nuh uh, yah don' talk while god is, 'mkay?" She said, and much beffudled, and a little concerned, they went quiet.
"Now, can you tell me anything about what lies in the direction you came from?" Ainz asked.
The man who first spoke, answered immediately, "The city of Forton. There are...were...lots of us there, probably not lots now." He said with a sad expression, large place, once held over eighty thousand people."
"Why were you put to cart?" Ainz asked.
"They sound out small 'supplementary rations' to village occupiers, I overheard them talk about that much, but honestly I can't say anything else for sure." He said.
"Are you from Forton? Can you tell me anything special about it, entries, exits, types of beastmen there?" Ainz asked.
"I was, I was a clerk there working for the mayor, but as for layout, well it has only one gate facing away from the beastman border." He said thoughtfully, "But as to how many beastmen, I don't know."
Ainz nodded, "Good enough, travel on, head to Hearthlight and grab some clothing and whatever supplies were left behind, then head to your capitol as fast as you can."
"We will sire, and thank you." He said, and two of the women went to the mourner and gently got her to her feet, and slowly she moved on, bowing slightly to Ainz as she passed behind him.
When they were out of sight, and Ainz could see them no more, Vanysa bounced her way closer to Ainz and said, "Tha was fun, the panda still cute though. So fluffy." She said and bounded over to the panda and began to stroke his fur, adding the indignity to the pain, though if he was even aware of it, he gave no sign.
"I like fluffy." She said as she turned back to the Sorcerer King, still bent at the waist and petting the once terrifying beastman.
She blushed, "But, oh don thin that means I don like you sire, I like you alot." She said and skipped back over to him and prostrated herself in the dirt. "Yer mah god, I like cute n'fluffy," she said as her face hovered above the dust, "but yer m'god, you I gotsa to love, cause you gimme life 'gin."
Ainz sighed, "Would you like to eat now Vanysa? I can teach you another sandwich if you like. This one is called a roast beef with french onion dip."
She didn't rise from her prostrate position, but she did tilt her head up so that she was looking up from level with his feet. "Soun's great majesty, but uhhh..." She looked uncomfortable.
"Yes?" He asked curiously.
"Not that I don like doin this, yah d'serve it'n all, what with yah bein a god but..." She winced a little and shook her hips some in discomfort, "But it kinda hurts ta hold this position yah know..c'n I get up now, then yah can show me nother san'ich?"
He kept his 'Wuaaagh' entirely in his head as he sputtered approval for her to rise and again hoped that the mirror of remote viewing did not have Shalltear or Albedo at it just now.
She sprang up to her feet like a cat and gave him a mischievous wayward look, turning partially to one side and presenting a profile, she cocked her head slightly and asked... "Yah liked it though, didncha sire?"
He coughed into his hand and reached into his pocket dimension for the sandwich materials, and decided to leave that question unanswered while thinking... 'Please don't be at the mirror, please don't be at the mirror, please don't be at the mirror...'
