The sight of countless Quagoa in silent prostration was quite bizarre, and as Gondo saw this, he croaked hoarsely.
Ainz was about to make the same noise himself, but he could not do such a thing in front of his Guardians, whose brightly smiling faces seemed to say, “We worked really hard!”
“Ainz-sama! As you ordered, we’ve finished the selection from the Quagoa. There are 4’000 males, 4’000 females and 2’000 children. The rest are all corpses. Also, we allowed them to recover the intact bodies and place them elsewhere.”
“I see. So they rejected my compassion, but now they cling desperately to their final chance for survival. What a bunch of fools.”
The clothed Quagoa kneeling in front of all the others shuddered visibly.
“Then, where is their king?”
“Over there,” Shalltear pointed. As expected, it was the trembling Quagoa. Before Ainz summoned him, he activated his halo of obsidian radiance. According to his research, that effect best suited a ruler.
As he listened to the mutterings and whisperings from the Dragon flight, he called out to the Quagoa Lord.
“King of the Quagoa, raise your head.”
“Yes!”
The Quagoa Lord’s body shook violently as he raised his head. Then, his eyes went wide, and he went still, as though he had been frozen.
Ainz could clearly hear him going “Hiiiiiiiieee…”
“…I am known as a merciful king. The sin of not immediately accepting my proposal shall be absolved by the blood of your people. Yet, if you will give your lives and your loyalty to me, I shall guarantee your prosperity.”
“Understood!! We are your servants, and all our children and our children’s children shall grind ourselves to dust in Your Majesty’s service!!!”
“A good answer. It pleases me.”
“Yes!!!! Thank you very much!!!!!”
As though to terminate the conversation, Ainz waved his hand, as though to indicate that the Quagoa Lord could resume his submissive posture.
Excellent! It seems all my practice paid off.
The endless repetition of lines and poses before the mirror had finally borne fruit. After striking a victory pose in his heart, Ainz turned back to his two Guardians, who had flawlessly discharged their duties.
“You have done very well. I am very proud of the two of you.”
“Thank you very much!”
“Your words have cleansed my heart of the shame of my previous mistake, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
“Hm, hm…”
After seeing Shalltear’s delight, Ainz was sure that he had used the right words.
“Then, is this amount alright? If it’s too much, we can cull them again until their numbers please you, Ainz-sama.”
“No, there’s no need for that… this ought to be a good number. Come to think of it, could any of them become powerful adversaries? Not by our standards, of course, but by those of the people of this world.”
“My deepest apologies. Those people were─”
“No, that’s not it. The Clan Lord whom you spoke to was considered quite strong, although we never saw his strength.”
“Is that so…”
While he was not sure how the Death Knights had been defeated, it was most likely a coincidence. For all he knew─
They might have fallen into the Great Rift…
As he thought of that, Ainz felt deeply ashamed. Realizing that he had been mistaken after lecturing Shalltear so passionately made his face feel like it was about to erupt in flames ─ and then, the shame was gone. In its place was a smoldering depression. And then, as he thought about how Shalltear had been taking notes, it deepened ─ and then he was back to normal.
Should he try to bluff his way through this?
However, if he messed it up, they might tell the others, “Ainz-sama said this, but actually~” and so on.
This is bad! This is really bad! I shouldn’t have gotten carried away by my joy and lectured them like that! I feel like crying now.
Ainz sighed deeply.
Well, come to think of it, isn’t this a good chance to tell the Guardians that I can mess up too? From there, I can move from the position of an incredibly wise ruler to an ordinary ruler, and that might free me from my emotional torment. And if I do that, the Guardians might notice my mistakes and warn me about them.
He ordered the Dragons to leave, because he knew they had very keen senses. Then, he had the Quagoa move some distance away. Gondo looked very lonely all by himself, but he would just have to bear with it.
Once the three of them were alone, Ainz gulped.
What he would do next might well send all his hard work down the drain. Ainz felt uneasy over how the way the situation would change and what might happen in the future. His body ─ which knew no fear ─ started to feel afraid. Despite that, he gathered up his courage to speak.
“Ah, you two, listen up…Do you remember what I said about the possibility of a being in this place that could easily defeat the Death Knights?”
The two of them looked at each other, and their faces suggested that they had realised something.
“Yes, that. It seems I was mistaken. Maybe the Dragon I killed could have destroyed the Death Knights, but it doesn’t seem like anybody else could.”
“I understand, Ainz-sama. Your words were intended to make me learn. To think that you had to disgrace yourself on account of my inexperience… I, Shalltear Bloodfallen, tender my utmost gratitude to your exalted self for your merciful considerations!”
“…Eh?”
Much to Ainz’s surprise, they were looking at him with respect in their eyes. In particular, Shalltear’s face was flushed red, her eyes were moist, her lips were pressed flat and her mouth was quivering as though she was on the verge of tears.
What part of that deserved respect? It baffled Ainz. Had he touched their hearts in some way?
Also, I should deny what Shalltear said, right? No, Shalltear learned a lot from this journey. Then I’ll put my faith in you, Shalltear!
“It seems you realized it, Shalltear.”
“Yes!!”
Their eyes seemed to shine even brighter.
Say what─? Ainz thought that, but he still had to clarify himself.
“Still, even I can fail, and I can make mistakes. I hope you will keep that fact in your hearts.”
“Yes! While I don’t think it’s possible for our great ruler to ever make a mistake, I understand, Ainz-sama!”
Shalltear seemed to have reached the limits of her endurance. She sank to her knees and began sobbing. As she clenched her teeth and wept copiously, Aura put her hand on Shalltear’s shoulders, her own eyes brimming with tears. While it was a touching scene which illustrated their friendship, Ainz had no idea what was going on, and all he could think about was where Shalltear ─ as an undead creature ─ was secreting her tears, saliva and other bodily fluids from. Thus, he took refuge from reality by thinking about biology.
While Ainz had no idea how things had gotten this way, he decided to leave things as they were for now. Yes, there were far too many things in this world which defied understanding, or rather, they were situations where he had to feign said understanding. That was how he felt when he listened to his CEO explain important cases.
Ainz felt that this was merely kicking the can down the road, but at the same time, he felt that his future self who would encounter the problem again would be a better person. Thus, Ainz did the only thing his present self could do now.
After kneeling down in front of Shalltear, he wiped her tears away, like a parent would for their child.
And then, in that moment, even more tears coursed down her cheeks.