They did indeed reach a beastman town, however to call it a town was to be excessively generous. It reminded Ainz of the refugee camps he'd seen in the news...one in particular, it had been massacred, and like that, this town was dead. The land around the town was a wasteland like everything else, they passed by a small pond on the way to the town, but Vanysa did not even want to touch it, it had turned green with some foul thing growing over the top of it. The entry to the town was a broken wall, signs of battle were all over it, they walked in and found the first skeleton, a beastman, but of an unfamiliar variety.
The buildings they saw were scorched by flame, and bodies had been carved up, those with red patches on their fur had only been partially butchered, the rest was left to rot. Vanysa looked over the dusty remnants of a town and said, "They musta been right hungry." She pouted, she'd expected to enjoy watching her god kill all the beastmen...but they went and died first, probably just to spite her personally! She folded her arms and let out an annoyed 'Hmpf!'
"Agreed, butchered where they fell, you don't do that unless you simply can't bear to wait, so this is what it is like..." He said.
"Whas what like?" She asked.
"Trophic cascade." He said.
"Majesty ah hear yah sayin words, but ah donno what tha hell yah mean by em?" She asked further as they kicked aside a door that had been mostly destroyed already, and Ainz looked around.
"This was a business once." He said as he looked at the shelves and the counter, he traced his finger along the dust that coated the surface of the wood behind which a clerk would have once stood to serve his customers. "There is nothing here, lets move on." He said, and went back out the way he came. They remounted their undead horses and trotted onward.
"Trophic cascade is what happens when one problem begets another. Let me give you an example, suppose you and a group of people you live with lived on fish and dear, but your numbers grow so much that you eradicate the dear, now you must live off of fish, right?" He asked.
"Yes sire." She said, her eyes were clear and focused and locked on the red orbs that were his eyes.
"You are so many that you eat many more fish out of a lake, and soon there are few fish to eat...does the problem stop with just you?" He asked
"Doesn't it?" She asked.
"No." He answered, "Not only you ate the dear, wolves at them also, and the dear at vegetation in abundance, and now the wolves go hungry and die off or leave, and the vegetation grows unchecked and chokes a river, the river backs up and the water flow becomes a trickle, now all the life dependent on the river down its length is in danger as well, the vegetation there dries up, and with no vegetation, the dear leave there also, and worse, the wind now blows the soil away, creating greater erosion, the birds leave as the trees die, and they must go elsewhere. The erosion becomes worse and the river's path alters as new channels are cut, the water supply of countless others, people and animals, is all but wiped out. With the loss of fish that ate things in the lake, a terrible form of life called algae grows and chokes the waters, killing the frogs that ate insects, from standing water at the backed up river come an epidemic of mosquitoes, and they bear terrible diseases unchecked. Eventually one problem leads to another, and the entire region is completely ruined, all because one group of ate to much and grew to many." Ainz said, and shook his head sadly.
"How do you know this?" She said with awe.
"I saw it on another world. This place here, once a paradise, was turned into a wasteland, and I am certain it was due to the excesses of the overly large beastman population. Even if they had been successful in consuming half your nation and turning the other half into a giant ranch of human livestock, it wouldn't have solved the problem for long, a generation, two...maybe three?" Ainz stroked his skull and shook it. "Damn fools."
"Why wouldn't it be successful?" She asked curiously, she paused as they came to a fountain and approached it, inside it was dry and dusty.
"That's why." He said, pointing to the dry fountain.
"They'd solve their food problem, but not water, and not the behavior that lead them to destroy themselves, this 'Red Patch' disease probably resulted directly from their own behavior, at a guess, they were raising to much food to close together, a disease 'changed' allowing it to infect a neighboring species, then spread like wildfire in an unprepared population, creating a shortage that forced them to in turn consume what food they still had, then forage on the environment, depleting populations, destroying their rivers and water supplies, and compelling them to invade their neighbors just to survive, and now they're cannibalizing their own since the invasion failed." AInz said matter of factly as Vanysa got back up on her undead horse.
"If it helps you to know...your revenge began before the actions that merited it, they were destroying themselves." He said, and they rode onward, eventually finding their way out of the dead town.
"Think we'll come across whoever did that, your majesty?" Vanysa asked curiously.
"Maybe, if they got enough meat, I notice they lack farms, it seems they're obligate carnivores for the most part, perhaps some have more dietary options, but if the only thing they can eat is meat, then any population growth beyond a given point becomes locally unsustainable and they'll destroy themselves again." Ainz said matter of factly.
They were quiet for awhile as they looked over the ruined landscape, there were few of any other animals around, Ainz thought he saw a snake once, but it might have just been a stick. Vanysa covered her face to keep the dust from blinding her, and not for the first time since his arrival in the New World, Ainz found himself appreciating the benefits of an undead body.
The wind settled down eventually, and Vanys a spoke up, "My lord...do you think they deserve to be killed?" She asked.
"Don't you?" He asked.
She turned at the waist so that she was fully facing him, she raised her hands to her chest and pressed her open palms over her heart. "I truly do, with every beat within my breast I truly do...what they did...if they have no choice but to eat meat, perhaps I could understand it...given several lifetimes, I might even forgive it." She shook her head violently, "But the wanton torture and abuse of us all before hand, no...never that. I eat cattle, but I do not torture the cow before butchering it. I treat it kindly, because its life will nourish me, the least I can do is ensure that it does not live an existence of pain that it neither deserves nor understands."
Ainz briefly reflected that this was the longest she had been able to speak without reverting to her less refined behavior and speech patterns, he wasn't sure if that was good or...not, but he set that aside and asked her instead, "Well, since all of those who did that are now dead...do you think those who live here deserve to suffer your revenge?" His voice carried a curious note of inquiry, and she turned back to the front of her horse and held the reins again, she looked down at the dust under the horse's feet as it blew past.
"Maybe not...but maybe they do. They seem to be destroying themselves with all this so...maybe their punishment is self inflicted?" She bit her lip..."I meant what I said to the bearman before. That I wanted to wipe out his entire species, but should I really want to do that? Is it fair to hurt the ones who didn't do anything, just because they look like a few others who did me dirt a few times?" She ran her fingers over her head and then reached back and grabbed the long braid of golden hair that hung down to the small of her back. She brought it to the front of her body and played with it, twisting it in her hands as she thought it through.
"Ah...wants it...bad though." She said and the madness filled her eyes and she snapped her head to her right to look at her master.
"It hurts all tha damn time...ah wants it ta stop an it stops when ah hurts em...an so many of em deserve it all...and so much more...so much...much more. She held her hands up near her face and looked down into her palms...they ate everyone who loved me, and that was bad enough, but they also showed me which people I loved, didn't actually love me, cause they done left me tah die while they saved therselves. They done took everthin, everthin...an they taste so good'n...an the screams...if'n ah know they deserve it...ah love ther screams, is a right wonderful song..." She said, and laughed a little, throwing her head up to the sky and arching her back as she chuckled to herself.
Ainz let her ramble, then he asked, "But do the ones who live here...deserve it? And best of all, how do you know?"
His voice brought her back to reality for a moment and she answered, "Proly not, cept them ones that breed humans like cattle...but see, ah don't rightly think there be a choice. Some yah, some nah...but since ain't no nation gonna take in people what go around eatin other citizens. They cain't stay how they is, there be jus to many of em." She said reasonably, the stark madness was gone, but her speech...well there it was again.
"Some years ago, a servant of mine reduced a total population to some ten thousand strong, as unpleasant as that was, it was necessary at the time as they were no longer going to have the room they thought they were going to have, since I prevented their extermination of the dwarves. This population faces a similar issue, only farther along, if they could be properly supplied then they would regain their strength, but we saw where that went with your country, they grew and then invaded for more." Ainz said thoughtfully.
"Their land needs time to recover, some of it can be aided with magic, I can cause the rains to come and create fish to populate the rivers that other life might feast on, I could grow back grass and accelerate the growth of trees, yet doing so is pointless unless they are under wise enough rule that they do not repeat the same stupid mistake, so first we solve that problem." He said.
"What're we gonna do then?" She asked him curiously.
"The same thing we do every time Vanysa, we're going to destroy the ones responsible, and to that end we go to their capitol city, when that place is dead, the rest of the country will become aware of my presence here, and I will address the next set of issues." He said cryptically.
Finding the capitol turned out to be fairly easy, simply find a half dead half starved beastman, and when it saw Vanysa, capture it when it stupidly tried to charge at her for a meal.
In this case, they found a tigerman. Ainz had its arms broken and a leg to boot in a few seconds, it was neither withdrawing nor resisting anymore, but the confusion has not left its sullen and desperate eyes.
"Which way is your capitol?" He asked.
It stared daggers at him. "Shall I leave you here for your brethren to find? From what I've seen of your people, you are not kind to one another, how long do you think it will be before you are cannibalized?"
The tigerman started to tremble.
Ainz held out his skeletal hand in an almost inviting gesture. As he looked more closely the tigerman was much leaner than he should have been...and that was a weakness most profound.
"Act as my guide to your capitol, then I will heal you, and I will even give you something to eat when we stop for the evening...and when I am finished with my business there, I will allow you to go free." Ainz said putting as much magnanimity into his voice as he could. The tigerman looked over at Vanysa hungrily. She spat at him in response, he snapped his jaws angrily.
"Do that again and I will remove your lower jaw." Ainz said. "She will not be your food." He said, and unleashed a fraction of his killing intent, prompting the broken beast to attempt to prostrate himself and...manage 'something' close to it with his broken limbs.
"Will you act as my guide, or do you want to stay here?" Ainz asked.
"I...will guide you...great one." The tigerman said as he tried to survive the terrifying feeling of the skeletal figure's killing power.
A scroll later and the tigerman was restored to his former health, and Ainz reached in to his pocket dimension and withdrew a ham. "As a show of good faith." He said, and threw it to the tigerman, who looked at it almost lustfully, and consumed it with a rabid desperation that was almost pitiable for what must have once been a noble looking figure.
"What is your name?" Ainz asked.
"Rargnan." The tigerman replied.
"Then get walking Rargnan. How far away is the capitol?" Ainz asked.
"Three days from here." He said.
"And if you ride a mount that does not tire and we pause only for you to sleep?" Ainz asked.
"A day and a half...maybe less." He answered uncertainly.
A moment later Ainz had summoned an undead horse. The tigerman looked at it uncomfortably.
"Less brave than a human female?" Ainz goaded him, and with a snarl Rargnan was on the horse.
"This way." He said and they began to ride, and ride hard. A living horse could not have carried him at all, the undead one carried him easily and did not tire even slightly along the way. They ate up ground faster than he had finished the ham that Ainz had generously given him in good faith, and the day passed swiftly, eventually they came to the remnants of a road, cobblestone, but broken and obviously poorly maintained.
They paused there at Ainz's indication. "Tell me, why does your capitol not repair the road?" He asked, looking at Rargnan curiously.
The tigerman shrugged his shoulders slightly, "I have no idea. I know that when they stopped doing so, it was a death blow to many of our villages, without good roads, no trade, without that, no ties, with no ties, conflict became more violent more quickly."
"Unsurprising." Ainz said, "A nation with no roads is no nation, a nation with bad roads is a nation in bad times."
"So we follow what remains of this road to the capitol I assume?" Ainz asked.
"We do." The tigerman replied.
"Is there anywhere safe to stay along the way, where we might not be observed?" Ainz asked.
The tigerman shook his head, "Even if your female there was a beastman like myself, we're down to preying on each other now the only city that is really intact anymore is the capitol itself, I've hunted all over this country since the crisis, towns are fighting towns, villages are fighting villages, cities are...well all but gone except the capitol, and they don't want to stop the fighting, since they're the strongest remaining force, they've been 'taxing' our cannibalism, authorizing raids on our own, that city lives by taking a part of every kill a village or town makes...and if they don't 'pay' well then the capitol destroys it. Because that city is the largest force, we're all essentially bribing it to continue to exist by tributing them the bodies of our own people." He either could not or did not choose to keep the disgust from his tone of voice, his hatred with thick enough to almost be edible itself.
"I see, well then it deserves to be ended then, doesn't it?" Ainz asked.
"Like nowhere else." Rargnan said certainly, not even considering that he was sentencing them to death by his description, or if he did consider it, he was happy enough about it or at least certain it was well deserved enough that he could say it with a straight face.
"Do your people often cannibalize one another?" Ainz asked.
He shook his head. "No, this is just survival...terrible...horrible survival, but survival nonetheless." He said regretfully. "Haven't eaten properly since the last of the human meat ran out."
Vanysa stared daggers at him, her eyes were insane, glassed over like she wasn't really seeing 'him' but all the things she wanted to do to him, her hands opened and closed over the reins of her mount as if she were grasping his neck.
"Let us make haste to the capitol then." Ainz said, "You will be rewarded there." He said bluntly. "Lead on."
The gallop resumed over the broken cobblestone roads, wind swept dirt and filth and dust about, and every now and then they rushed past a single skeleton or group of skeletons, all had obviously been defleshed and consumed by their killers, based on their positions, Ainz concluded that they'd been ambushed going to the capitol city, what they'd hoped to do there he wasn't certain, but eventually Rargnan halted his mount and roared his frustration. "So THAT was it!" He snapped and snarled for several minutes.
"What was what?" Ainz asked coldly.
"When the invasion began, the capitol hoarded food for distribution, and they called representatives from various villages to come and draw supplies...shortly after that, villages started turning on one another when the capitol reported handing out rations, only for those carrying them to be killed and the rations carried off by another village. It hastened our downfall a great deal...but these are going towards the capitol, not away from it." He said with hatred in his voice.
"So they were killing the representatives, harvesting those for food to sustain themselves, then telling the villages that another village stole their food...then taxing some of the 'harvest' taken in revenge." Vanysa said, her voice was cold and a little smug.
"They deserve to die." She said bluntly.
Rargnan looked at her with surprise, "Why do you hate them, human? I have reason to feel that way, but what of you?"
She looked over at him with utter contempt, "My name is not 'human' Rargnan, my name is Vanysa, address me as such or I will turn your skin into my fucking bathrobe." Her eyes narrowed and before he could object or respond to her promise, she elaborated, "You also deserve to die...for the consumption of humans that you have raised as mere meat, but they in your capital deserve to die as well, for all the chaos their cruelty caused. Perhaps you would not deserve to die, if they had not done what they did to deserve it first."
"Your majesty, I realize it is late, but I am very eager to reach the capital...can we push on, my lord?" She asked.
He shook his head, "No, we will see it in the morning, you can get your rest, we will go to Nazarick again. "Rargnan if you are still here and alive in the morning, you will get two hams for breakfast." Ainz promised, and before the tigerman could ask where they were going, Ainz and Vanysa had dismounted their horses, a gate opened, and the pair stepped through, leaving the tigerman equal parts mystified, hopeful, and terrified as he sought a place to rest in safety.
