The fire flared up almost instantly. The buried string as it turned out was secured to three pots of burning fish oil. These pots in turn led to trails of oily rags and other scattered flammable materials that formed a kind of bridge to the stink of the village interior. With their reserves of oil all churned up into the ground, the whole place went up in a blaze.

Fire roared toward the sky and the entire body of frogmen, including Heketi, sprang for safety, she dropped the lizardman, leaving him to die screaming in the flames beneath her.

From the air she could still feel the heat chasing after her, threatening to scorch her people’s flesh, down below were a few who moved just a little bit too slowly. Their legs aflame or worse, those few who hadn’t moved fast enough even for that harm to be avoided. A handful roasted alive in the flames left to her by the lizardmen, their screams indistinguishable from those of the lizardman elder.

She could see them rolling about, or fleeing, one made it out, rushing through the flames to seek the safety of the waters. Before she or the rest of her people landed outside the village, the lone runner reached the water and jumped inside in a futile search to save the life he’s already lost.

The yellow and orange glow didn’t fade away, he’d rolled in oil that was now stuck to him, his head, still alight while boils rose from the heat and exploded, adding suffering to agony for the dying, his great wide eyes were melted away to nothing, but the screaming stopped when the burning oil hit his tongue, lit it aflame, and burned it away.

He lived a precious few seconds after that, by which time the Queen had landed with a splash in the waters. The frogman corpse began to float silently in the water, little ripples still coming away from the place where his desperate splashes died with his life.

Other frogmen were still shouting as they extinguished the flames on their comrades, burning their own hands to ease the pain of their brethren. Heketi however, lumbered around to look at the horrific flames that still leapt higher than the walls.

‘Perhaps it won’t be so easy. That old one knew he was going to die, he knew it, and yet he threw his life away without hesitation or even fear. He died screaming, that was a relief at least. They feel pain, and they can be made to run… but I had hoped to catch them off of their guard… it’s no matter. With our renewed numbers the brave will just die standing.’

Despite her attempts at reassuring herself, Heketi felt the throbbing of her vocal sac, her eyes locked on the flames, her whole body instinctively craving to recoil from them. It kept her tense, unmoving, and it had the same effect on the rest of her raiding party.

The understanding of the lizardmen’s do or die attitude was not lost on any of them.

Reality was hitting home.

She could feel the shift in her people. Their arrogance burned away in the flames.

‘Maybe it’s for the best if we don’t underestimate them, they lasted as long as they did for a reason.’ Heketi thought, and that settled her mind far more.

She gave her order without her eyes leaving the fire. “Wait until it dies down, when it does we are going to go through the remains, see if anything of value is left, then we will move south.”

“We won’t chase them right away?” One of her subordinates inquired.

“No… no we won’t, we’ll let them weaken themselves. Let them run, we’ll follow after the fires and let them feast on mud if they want. Or cannibalize each other, you remember what the witness said. They’ll eat each other if they get hungry enough, every full belly will weaken them more, and then we’ll finish off the rest.” Heketi promised.

The vision of her dream returned to her again, the great lake and the swamp around it, great villages of her own civilization rising up. Frogmen merchants spreading out, dominating the great waters, hunting down the few monsters that were a threat, forcing the Empire to acknowledge her as Queen, and her land as a Queendom all its own.

‘No more pesky humans skirting around the borders, no more threats, and we could reign supreme forever here…’ The glorious vision of the great homes she would build along the waters, an imitation of those built by humans at first, but with their own flare, adapted to the environment of her domain.

‘It will be beautiful, glorious, wonderful beyond words… and all I need to do is clean out the pests…’ Heketi thought, and watched as the flames roared on before her.

They were late leaving the improvised fortress, and outside their door, a nervous lizardman paced back and forth. Shasuryu’s entire body was on pins and needles while he waited for their potential savior to emerge from the room with his concubine.

‘I don’t care that he’s a lolicon… as long as he saves us… but what if he’s a pervert who wants our women too? Should I ask? Can I even ask, do I risk offending him…? No, best not to, from what my brother says, it’s only her type that are appealing to men like that. Wait, is he even human? I haven’t seen his face, I just assumed, but I haven’t seen a human in years.’ Shasuryu’s mind was racing like a gale force wind with every minute that passed.

‘Make it casual, make it calm and peaceful, make it seem like you don’t care, who knows, maybe it’s normal for them?’ Shasuryu tried to tell himself that, but he had his doubts.

‘What good does it do to save us from the frogmen if we find a fate worse than death for ourselves afterward?’ Shasuryu asked the vital question and with the time elapsed from his most desperate personal hour to the present, the once distant uncertainty loomed like a mountain before his eyes.

As soon as the powerful magic caster emerged, with the young vampire girl clinging tightly to his arm as they exited the building, the lizardman went down to one knee and bowed his head, “My lord, will you forgive me one small request?”

‘A request? That is unexpected.’ Ainz mused and inclined his head. “Go ahead.”

“My lord, while your humble servant would never dream to criticize your pleasures…” Shasuryu’s words caused Ainz to begin to blush beneath the mask, “the sooner we reach my village the better. So while I wouldn’t dare to challenge your desires for your beautiful concubine… could this humble one beg your indulgence and ask that those pleasures be only slightly delayed.”

Shalltear, at first baring her fangs in fury, shaking with wrath, quickly turned about in her mood when she was referred to as her master’s lover. She clung more tightly to the arm she held and beamed up at him. ‘He’s suggesting that his village would be a better place for Lord Ainz to lay claim to me… of course, of course, long tedious walks in the swamp are not going to inspire desire in anyone anyway! But a lakeside view with lots of servants, however inadequate they may be, that is different!’

‘Concubine?!’ Ainz mentally recoiled, ‘I’m not a lolicon! Alright, so yes, Shalltear is beautiful but… still, I’m not that way! Now if she had a more adult body and a chest like Albedo’s…’ He glanced down at the diminutive little vampire and seeing the eager way she looked up at him, and feeling the pressure as her powerful arms tightened around his own, he could only be grateful for his mask when he answered.

“Of course, we must hurry, but Shalltear is not my concubine, she is the child of one of my dearest friends, one of those I stayed behind to protect. Now, lead on, Shasuryu.” Ainz commanded, and the lizardman rose to his feet, turned around, and led Ainz back into the swamp again.