“...So that is the situation.” Ainz said, looking down at Lakyus. “The King of Re-Estize has hired me to bring down Eight Fingers, his intelligence tells me about a subgroup within their leadership comprised of some particularly dangerous people referred to as ‘Six Arms’. More importantly, the organization is simply too large for just two to bring down.”

‘As expected of Momon! Bringing down a team of mighty killers is a trivial afterthought!’ Evileye looked through moony red eyes hidden by her white mask.

“So, will you help me?” Ainz asked, opening his onyx armored hands and resting them on the table.

“Sir Momon,” Lakyus spoke calmly, evenly, and in a businesslike manner, “your reputation for your care for the weak has spread quite widely, and it is a sentiment that I myself share.” She lightly touched the red shirt she wore, resting a hand on her breast, it was a friendly indication of how heartfelt she intended to be, but her tone was calm and not at all enthusiastic. “But first and foremost we are adventurers, and if I start putting my team at risk for free, very soon everybody with a sob story will expect it. Ultimately that will only hurt my profession and get more people killed for not being able to afford good equipment. I can cut our pay for a single mission, but… I can’t and I won’t do this for nothing.”

“Toldja Momon, chuunibyou is stingy.” Lupu smirked knowingly and put her feet up on the table, and dared the beet red Lakyus to argue.

“Evil boss.” Tia and Tina said at once in a deadpan voice that only made Lakyus turn more purple.

Ainz put a hand on Lupusregina’s wrist. “She’s not wrong, adventurers can’t eat fame or repair their armor with legends or buy weapons with exposure. If we want the skills of the talented, we should provide suitable compensation.” Lakyus began to visibly relax, and her sisters with her.

“I never said I wanted your help ‘for free’, Lady Lakyus. Only that I wanted it.” Ainz said with a little wink, to which Lakyus raised a finger, opened her mouth, thought about it, and then closed her mouth and lowered her finger back down to lay with her hand flat on the table.

“Alright, that’s true, I apologize for the misunderstanding.” Lakyus said, darting her bright blue eyes up at the giant Gagaran and down at the diminutive Evileye when they chortled at her expense. “What are you offering, Sir Momon?”

“I’m being offered a lordship, I will give you fifteen percent of the net revenue from taxes at the end of my first year.” Ainz promised, “What do you say?”

Every member of Blue Rose spun their head toward Lakyus. However, the hard nosed adventurer did not immediately give in. “On top of paying for the replacement of any disposable items we use.”

“Naturally.” Ainz inclined his head toward his counterpart.

“Fine, we have a bargain.” Lakyus said and put out her hand.

Ainz clasped her forearm, she was warm to the touch even through his gloves, and from her the barest tease of an expensive perfume enticed his senses. The light scent of lavender, and at a glance closer, his sharp senses detected the use of makeup. ‘So she has a bit of vanity… or is this just to give her an advantage in negotiations?’ He didn’t know, though he suspected a little of both.

Lakyus and Momon both reseated themselves when their agreement was made, and with the job at hand, the teams were united in their focus, even Lupusregina put her feet back on the floor and sat up straight, the disinterested look gone from her face. “So, what do you need us to do?” Lakyus asked, “You do have a plan, yes?”

“I do.” Ainz stated, “I need you to launch a series of burning campaigns on farms where the plants that make black dust are grown. Hit them and hit them hard for the next two weeks. Then… wait.” He said and closed his hands together.

“Just… wait?” Lakyus looked back and forth to her team, they didn’t scratch their heads, but their confusion was evident.

“Wait.” Momon answered, “I will take care of the followup, and then our allies will be used in mop up operations.”

“That isn’t much of a plan.” Gagaran said gingerly.

“This isn’t much of a problem.” Lupu grinned up at her mountainous counterpart, “Not to worry, we got this, don’t you worry your adorable virgin head about it.” The adamantite ranked red haired cleric winked playfully up at the blonde square headed giant who blushed for the first time since the rest of them had known her.

“You’re a virgin!” They shouted as one over her arm waving protests and Lupu’s outrageous laughter, and not much business was discussed after that.

Barbro breathed in the scent of smoke, waving over from a burning village that belonged to a noble who was not part of the Royal faction, and that same noble also had no connection to Eight Fingers and so had no value to the Prince. Allowing his soldiers a little plunder was extra honey on the cake, it allowed him to keep their loyalty to him up. ‘Bought loyalty is the easiest kind.’ He drew himself up with a smug expression, as an excuse, he wrote a short letter home announcing that he’d caught some of the traitors that had killed a lord’s son, and that the village had attempted to hide them.

“Is my tent ready?” He asked one of his officers.

“Yessir, and… so is Lakyus.” The officer said with a passive voice and blank eyes.

“Good.” Barbro muttered and went into his tent. The slender blonde was a little bit better fed, but she shrank from him, no more grateful than before. He stared down at her while she groveled like a dog with her belly up and fingers folded into her palms like a dog’s paws. She looked up at him with eyes full of fear.

“Beg for your supper, Lakyus.” He said with a smirk, she was dressed in a close approximation of the adventurer’s expensive clothing, though much, much cheaper. Mere red wool clothing with the cheapest red and gold dyes, a caricature.

“Please let me eat! Please let me eat, sir!” Tuare whimpered and held still when his foot went down to her throat, very little pressure came down, but very little needed to.

“Then hadn’t you better apologize?” Barbro asked rhetorically. “I’m sorry I was rude! I’m sorry I was disrespectful! I’m sorry I was bad to you!” Tuare screamed her sorries until she felt her breath cut off and became a gurgle. His foot slowly eased up again. Her bulging eyes stared at him. “Forgive me…” She begged as he called her Lakyus and spat down into her face, the noise of his grunts were accompanied by the roaring fires of the ruined village and the crashing noise of broken homes tumbling inward onto their foundations.

When Prince Barbro finally released his bruising hold on his plaything, he was happy and sated, though breath came labored enough that he immediately thought, ‘I should get more exercise, I don’t want to end up like my idiot younger brother.’ It led him to another thought, erasing this place completely might take another day or two but… ‘Yes, worth it, an object lesson to the absentee lord and an object lesson to the peasants he sends to reoccupy the place. Murder a noble, and everything you ever were, will cease to exist.’

‘Time well spent.’ He mused with satisfaction, such a destructive act would intimidate the more weak willed, and increase the likelihood of ascending the throne. ‘Time well spent indeed.’ He praised himself one more time, and looked at the curled up little ball of pale flesh that was trying to look anywhere but in his direction, until he stepped into her view, and she couldn’t avoid it again.

Enri was more than a little pleased, and with good reason. The newly arrived ogres and lamias were followed by a small tribe of goblins that encountered Jugem and his warriors hunting in the woods. Suspicious at first, this faded when the various groups began to work together over the course of several days. Ogres proved quite strong, while the lamias knew so much about plantlife that Nfirea found himself relying on them as harvesters in the woods, and in turn he spent more time on lifesaving potions.

“That festival certainly worked like a charm, didn’t it?” Peter asked as he strolled beside the chief speaker of the village. With his eyes forward, he barely noticed the dust that was kicked up by their walk toward the walls.

“It really did.” Enri acknowledged and watched as a Runner woman and local Carnian chatted as if they’d known one another their whole lives, bows in hand, they were lining up beside a goblin instructor, and from where Enri and Peter stood, they could both hear the pair call the goblin by name.

“What’s the population up to now? We might actually need to do a census in order to work out who gets what land next.” Peter suggested after the question.

Enri didn’t know quite how to answer, and she didn’t have to, from a distant tower, a bell began to go off in earnest. She paled and her fist clenched. “Either our numbers are going to go up, or they’re going to go way down… come with me!” She shouted, and took off at a dead sprint toward the wall.

Her arms and legs pumped like they hadn’t since the day her parents died, her mind screamed for her to not do what she was doing now. ‘Go, find Nemu! Run! Run away and don’t look back!’ Her bright eyes shimmered like sapphires as she feared the horror that lay ahead, but despite her urges, she ran toward the wall where two watchmen rang a large bell.

The entire village was like an anthill that had been kicked over, but with nowhere to go but to fight and defend their homes and families, and dreading what would happen if they failed, peasants rushed to their positions.

Enri reached the simple wooden ladder and scrambled up to the top, “What’s going on?!” She shouted and the bell ringing stopped, the peasants pointed to a distant coming cloud. Enri squinted, it was difficult to tell just what she was seeing.

“Peter?” She asked, her heart beginning to calm little by little.

“Sorry, no, I can’t tell.” Peter answered.

“Lukrut?!” Enri called, but she needn’t have shouted, he was scrambling up the ladder only a few feet away.

Lukrut shaded his eyes, then activated his martial art, [Farsight] and what was making the cloud came clearly into view. “Relax! False alarm!” He shouted. “It’s a group of peasants! No weapons but farm implements, and it’s mostly young children!”

The sigh of relief that went up in one body from the village gave way to laughter as the absurdity of their fears hit home.

“They’re just the next ones, you know that, don’t you?” Ninya asked, clutching her staff in her hands.

Enri whirled around to find Ninya standing there behind her, but not looking at Enri, rather she watched the dust people become visible as just ‘people’ and desperate ones at that. “I’ll bet my staff they’re on the line of march straight here.”

“Ninya… you can’t know that.” Enri said, but doubt was thick in her voice.

Ninya answered without blinking or nodding, she only stared out at the coming little herd. “You’ve done a lot here, and with Momon, Nfirea and Lord Ainz all having made this place famous, people are searching for safety. When I was a little girl, and my big sister was taken away by a lecher, I prayed for a noble hero to come and save us. But the only nobles I’ve ever met were the ones who would do like the one who took her chose to do.” Ninya spat over the wall and into the dust, her knuckles white as she tightened her hold on the staff, her entire body shook with outrage.

“I saved one girl, one single girl, and damned who knows how many innocents died for it. How stupid… if I’d just let him take her, she’d be home crying right now, maybe. Or dead, or maybe worse, but it would only be one person.” Ninya ground her teeth and muttered her recriminations.

Enri could think of nothing to say to that, ‘She’s not wrong, but… isn’t that what’s wrong?’

Ninya turned her attention to Enri again, “I’ll go out and talk to them, and explain what they’ll find in here and what’s expected of them… assuming… assuming we’re not going to keep the gates closed?”

“No, no we’re definitely letting them in.” Enri said, surprising herself with her certainty, “But talking to them first is good, explain it all, then they can decide if they want in or not.”

“Fine.” Ninya said, and went down the ladder, the few guards at the gate lifted the heavy wooden barrier and the gate groaned open to allow her out, and the young magic caster went out to face the living consequences of her choice.