[41st Year of Foresai, Lower Fire Month, Day 4]

“‘I have unbound the first finger- the first’… what is she saying? ‘the first knuckle of the- of its first finger. You must tear away the’… ‘the rest’? What the fuck is this?!”

No responses came. Hilma’s capos were as dumbstruck as her.

“Fucking say something!”

Eishra sputtered out a response first.

“It’s a declaration of war.”

Hilma could muster no words, giving a frustrated huff before scrunching her face and rubbing it. She was in her office along with two of her capos - Eishra and Feldhop - long after midnight. She had no intention of sleeping, being filled with an agitated energy that would ruin any attempt at rest. The only thing that kept her from tossing away the parchment she held in her hand was the pipe in her mouth, the steady inhale and exhale of flue-cured leaf the one thing she could hold onto.

“If it’s a declaration of war. Then whom are we fighting?”

Not just on us, on half the fucking nobility.

Hilma stayed silent, too exhausted to convert her thoughts into words. Renner’s speech seemed to mark a massive escalation. Feldhop’s question didn’t hang for long, Eidra responding immediately.

“Her, the Blue Roses, maybe she roped in some other members of the royal faction.”

“Still, I don’t think that would be enough.”

“It wouldn’t be.”

“That girl is mad. She’s in way over her head if she thinks she can run us through with just that.”

“What if she isn’t?”

“What do you mean?”

“If she’s certain she can win? She’s taken us to the brink already, clearly she has some idea of our compositions.”

“She’d be wrong!”

“Not if she has more support than we think.”

Hilma realized what Eidra was getting at, and chose to intervene.

“Feldhop, belligerence doesn’t look good on you.”

Feldhop forced himself to pause and ponder their words, before continuing quieter.

“You think she got the support of one of the Great Six?”

“I do.”

“I don’t see how.”

“But it would be necessary if she’s mounting such a large operation.”

“We don’t even know if she’s doing that! All we have to go on is a single raid on a slavery division brothel.”

That was the only thing keeping Cocco Doll afloat, the income from blackmail was always a steady stream. If that was all, it would be bad enough, but the slave girls were rescued. Who knows how many noblemen she now has leverage against. I guess she really is aiming for the throne.

“One she felt confident enough to make.”

“Fine. Whatever. Let’s say she does have support. Who would it be? Bolloupe’s in deep with us, we would know if he was trying to break away. Fuck, I don’t see her going cross faction, that rules out Lytton too.”

I’m not so sure he hasn’t turned traitor. If he wants to sever ties, he would do it like this.

“What are the factions, again?”

“Who’s for and who’s against the king.”

“Got it.”

“Raeven’s on payroll, as is Blumrush. That leaves Urovana and Pespea.”

“Urovana’s got Theiern.”

Hilma had abided silently by Eidra’s points up until now, but this she couldn’t bear.

“It’s not Theiern. We’ve gone over this.”

“Well what if she’s only now got his-”

“It’s not Theiern, it’s not Urovana. Urovana is loyal to Ramposa, and Ramposa wants Barbro on the throne. Giving any more support to his daughter will only jeopardize that. She’s destabilizing court politics enough as it is. My vote is Pespea. He’s already married to a princess, and Boullope makes it seem like Vena and Renner are fairly tight.”

“Alright, what are we facing, then?”

“How am I supposed to know? I doubt any of us have been keeping track of their forces.”

“Yilre has.”

On my orders. Having him start keeping watch was a lucky guess on my part, and I could use all of that I can get.

“He has? Well, he’s not here right now. In any case, the enemy forces can’t be any more than four score men, can they?”

“They will be.”

“He has that many house forces in the city?”

Hilma clicked her tongue, pulling her pipe from her mouth as she realized she needed to correct her subordinates.

“No, both of you misunderstand.”

“Then whom are we fighting?”

“Everyone.”

Eidra lurched, Feldhop taking on a sardonic tone.

“I’m sorry?”

“We’re fighting everyone.”

“You think they’re all in on this? Hilma, I know my doubts earlier about Renner being this ‘mastermind’ of yours, but to say that the six are-”

“I didn’t say the six, I said everyone.”

Eidra got it first.

“You mean the other divisions.”

“The council has always run a very fine line between being allies and rivals. We’re way over that now. Keveleos is either in bed with her, or she’s in bed with him.”

The door to Hilma’s office flew open, and a breathlessly panting man entered the room. This was Yilre, Hilma’s third capo. She sprung forward in her chair, pulling her pipe from her mouth a second later and immediately began badgering him for answers.

“You met him?”

“Him” here referred to Endio Maranai, the divisional head of Assassination. Yilre had been sent as an impromptu runner - the task too sensitive to be handled by anyone else - along with two sellswords. Yilre gulped down a little more air, and swallowed before answering.

“Yes.”

“What number?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Are you daft?! What number is he asking for?”

“He refused.”

Hilma slammed her desk violently, causing her inkwell to spill and splatter her desk in black ichor. She didn’t care, instead choosing to turn in her seat and take a full hit from her pipe, blowing it out to ease her growing rage.

Of course he would . They’re all fucking running.

“What about Six Arms?”

“Accepted.”

“Payment?”

“A trade standard.”

“What, just for keeping all their forces in one place anyway? It’s not like they’re going to run from ‘a good fight’ or whatever those madmen think. Fine, whatever. It’s worth it to keep the rest of the divisions from splitting them up. And the plan to bait the Blue Roses into their compound, or villa, or whatever the fuck it is, they assent to that?”

“Also accepted. Zero seemed excited about it, actually.”

“Oh? Y’know what? Good! We could use a battle-fiend right now.”

“Though, they asked for a concession.”

“What do they want?”

“They want the freedom to conduct a kidnapping and ransom.”

“What?”

What would they be asking for? Property? Dust? I’d give both if they asked.

“It’s something about revenge. Apparently, the brothel wasn’t just hit by the Princess’s pet.”

“I would sure fucking hope not! Who else?”

“A butler and Brain Unglaus.”

It was Hilma’s turn to lurch. She hadn’t dealt with his band since the Black Night, they having fled back east almost immediately after the conspiracy’s failure. The last she had heard of them came not from merchants talk, but from worker chatter. Apparently, their entire outfit had been rumored slaughtered by a powerful undead by the name of Honyopenyoko.

“Brain is alive? The news that filtered out of E-Rantel made it sound like his hideout was torn to bits by that vampire.”

“I wouldn’t know, but he’s here.”

“In the service of the Princess?”

“Apparently.”

Hilma half laughed, half cried. It was too much for her to bear.

“A-and this butler. A fencer?”

“No, a brawler. I think- I think it’s related to what you mentioned this morning.”

“Why Six Arms was hired by Cocco in the first place, right. I guess they plan on luring this butler in too.”

He must have combat prowess as a monk if he was able to fight alongside two swordsmen unarmed.

“Yes, actually, they wanted your help on the merchant's side. They’re trying to run down said butler who’s serving as a proxy for a female noble visiting the area and making trade deals. He’s older, apparently handsome too.”

“Oh, the rumors of that haughty heiress and her dashing knight in shining gray; I’ve heard of it. That’s the man? Anyway, we’re off course. My answer is yes, to every condition. Return tonight with payment, and mention my support in hunting down the visiting merchant. Have they gotten Succulent out yet?”

“He broke free in a prisoner transfer, I heard.”

“Good, at least they’ll be at fighting strength.”

“Do you want to order this place cleared out?”

“No.”

“What?”

“We aren’t evacuating. We’re ending this tomorrow night.”

“How? We’d need the princess dead, and assassination turned down the request.”

“I’ll send Luca.”

“What? No offense, Hilma he’s going to-”

“They have a wizard. He bestows invisibility on their rogue, hands him a crossbow. It’ll only take a single poison bolt fired through a window. I’ll pay them well. I’ll pay them a fucking fortune, and if they refuse, I’ll cut them off from my product. You forget, last time, we deployed en masse as a buffer against a civil war. She’s just a princess with a gift from heaven. She isn’t a fucking hero, she isn’t some pox from the Greed Kings, she isn’t a monster in the flesh. She’s just a sixteen-year-old in over her head, and I am not going to allow some morally righteous teenage girl topple my fucking opperation!”

—

[Transference T+0000年01月27日]

“Summary on full report on movements of person of interest AA-4 (hereon referred to as ‘subject’). Observation period began at time 18:01 on day plus 56 and ended at 23:23. Subject initially observed in room 3.3-35-B (hereon referred to as subject’s quarters), in Special Location AA-1.

From start of observation period to 19:13, subject worked on mathematical studies (note: appearance of work congruent with descriptions of region AA's arcane script, it is believed this was magical study with no practice of spells). At 19:13, maid entered subject’s quarters to inform them of the return of person of interest AE-1136. Subject spoke to member of Sociopolitical Bloc of Interest 8 (hereon referred to as maids) until 19:14, who then left, then spent until 19:18 pacing room, at which point she then prepared an additional brew of tea. At 19:32, subject was given report written by AE-1136 by person-of-interest AE-975, accompanied by two of AE-975’s subordinates (Note: Armed Force of Interest AE-6). After reading report, subject left room at 19:35, observation specialist following, to room 3.2-12-A (here-on referred to as strategic forum), arriving at 19:42.

Subject then spoke to on-duty maid, requested stationary (full list of items listed in Appendix I), and that she summon representatives of Sociopolitical Blocs of Interest 2, 3, and 4 who were stationed at Special Location AA-1 at 20:15 (full list of representatives summoned listed in Appendix II). Maid returned with requested items by 19:52, subject requesting porridge as supper. Subject spent period from 19:52 to 20:16 drafting document based on report, representatives arriving from 20:13 onward. Subject then delivered speech concerning the document she had just drafted (full speech is written in transcript below), finishing remarks by 20:19. Subject spent until 20:31 answering questions, at which point she then returned to her quarters by 20:38, and spent until 20:49 drinking tea. At 20:49, subject stood and made for room 3.3-35-C, then interrupted by arrival of person-of-interest AE-1136. Subject and person-of-interest spoke until 21:05 about the activities of AE-1136, person-of-interest IU-86, and the Head Butler. AE-1136 then retired, subject summoned maid through use of magic bell (see subject inventory below), where-upon subject spoke to maid about AE-1136’s report until 21:12. Subject then dismissed maid, and proceeded to bed, completing nightly routine by 21:38. Subject fell asleep by 22:16, and remained asleep for remainder of observation period.

Analysis: Subject has obtained second-hand capacity and capabilities information of Exposure Hazard - Class 7. Direct threat assessment is considered to be 0; Subject is humanoid of a level range consistent with Region AA, with expected physical parameters (note: Mana level is elevated over baseline by 11.11%, this level is insufficient for minimum viable resolution, Subject is incapable of magic casting). Subject is not believed to have obtained any actionable intelligence, nor have the ability to act on said intelligence of Exposure Hazard Class 5 or below if obtained.

Recommendations: A further operation to acquire copy of subject's written statement is advisable. Subject is not recommended for further enhanced observation. Subject is not recommended for retrieval, capture, interrogation, or termination.

Observation Specialist Nineteen, Intelligence Compilation and Synthesis Officer Twelve, Provisional Office of Nazarick Extended Special Defense.”

Demiurge drew his mouth to the side. The summary had been written in the typically curt hand of the unliving, the sort of rigid adherence to procedure that left no room for prose - not merely ignorance of it, but an active rejection. He fanned forward a few pages and browsed the full report, experiencing a pang of disappointment as he saw row after row of block text, each character written without regard for the weight of its strokes, and each word written without care to metre. Dismayed, he raised his gaze level to the door of his office, deciding for the moment to simply digest what he had read. Over the last half-day and most of the night, Demiurge had found a new subject of interest: Princess Renner of Re-Estize.

In less than an hour, she managed to turn a surprise action - no, a setback - on the part of her subordinate into a political victory. Combine this with her secret war against Eight Fingers, her policy proposals, and her penchant for light troublemaking, and it produces quite the picture. Impressive for a human.

That he was now sitting in his office on the seventh floor dedicating his time to the study of a human was a testament to the quantity of work he had accomplished and the productivity he had achieved over the last eleven days. The month previous had been spent in exploratory capacity, searching for and testing species to best suit his needs in the making of scrolls; these had gone well, and Demiurge had felt ready to advance the project. The project in Tob had been slowing for some time, daily balance sheet reports from the Guardian Overseer showing a steady fall off in the consumption of resources and labor. This seemed to tie in smoothly with his experiments entering their concluding stages, and he contacted Aura intending a gradual handoff of construction teams and engineers as he prepared to transition from laboratory proof-of-concepts to full-scale production.

What he had instead gotten from her was a cheerful “I’m done,” and thus eighty-percent of Nazarick’s labor pool dropped into his lap in the course of a twenty-seven conversation. Severe under-preparation was - to him - a barely adequate descriptor for the situation. Further, his master had suggested some weeks prior the potential utility of his newly created undead in fabrication, Demiurge only understanding the intention behind his words after the conversation with Aura; it was a command to work tirelessly, one he joyously accepted.

Each second he spent idle meant wasting roughly six lich, imp, golem, and skeleton minutes, so he threw out any concept of rest and dove wholeheartedly into his work. By hour two, he and the Elder Lich engineers had scaled up the plans twelve-fold to account for his master’s unspoken orders; by hour eight, they had clearcut, stripped, and leveled the farm’s footplant; by hour eighteen, the first buildings had gone up. This pace of work had gone unbroken until yesterday, this just in time to be given the reports Sebas had compiled on the Kingdom, which in turn was just enough time to read them before being summoned by his master to Re-Estize for a second matter with the head butler; mainly, the fallout from an ill conceived plot to have righteous vengeance on the humans that had harmed his new pet.

Somehow, the rescue of a single human female on day-plus forty-nine - by the human calendar, the twenty-sixth of the previous month - had turned into an assault on a brothel alongside two humans, one a ronin at the lowest point in his life, the other the personal bodyguard of a princess. Sebas in his heroism had either failed to question the latter; mainly, why a boy with equipment a step above those around him in the personal service of a princess would only have one name, or - and more likely to Demiurge - he had wholeheartedly accepted the situation as some grand act of valor on the part of that boy's mistress. Sebas's love of that concept, then, had blinded him to several points of import. Those being, that for some reason, a princess in a patrilineal society had somehow acquired a commoner as a bodyguard, granted said commoner a panoply of equipment that far and away exceeded the typical kits of this nation's men-at-arms, and somehow that this boy had had the time to join him for a raid. This was entirely unexpected, highly unusual, and deeply intriguing.

It’s not unusual for the reputations of royalty to proceed them, but the particularities of hers are so divergent from those of her siblings that I can't help but suspect greater hands at work. Her title is an enigma in its own right; not the pompous, self inflationary praise that high bloods tend to lump on themselves, but one she has genuinely earned. She is not Her Highness, The Third Princess; she is Her Highness, The Golden Princess, and that is in its own right an anomaly.

She’s as competent as Jircniv, or slightly ahead. He seems to copy her policies, national situation permitting. How has she ideated any of this? Many of these concepts aren’t known to the nobility’s zeitgeist. As an example, her ban on slavery. Her words were typically abolitionist, but the actual text of her proposal, the way she wished to dismantle the systems through incentive structures both to the emancipated and the owners shows a clear understanding of the actual inefficiencies of the system. That she advocated for the granting of tenancy to those guards who would lose their employment shows at the very least an understanding of humanity’s neuroticism, or potentially the more abstract concept of surplus.

Still, a ban on slavery, construction of highways, tax incentives for adventurers, all were framed in the light of helping the common man. None of her proposals have strengthened the nobility relative to the peasantry, only an absolute improvement over the breadth of the nation itself. I half expect her to find her advocating for healing-service subsidies to the churches. Perhaps this could be an experiment in control. Rational, intelligent, practical, forward-thinking, duty-bound to her people; all qualities that would make her possible to predict and outmaneuver. Her and El-Nix; it’s as if each human civilization gets one individual like that in or close to power - though the Roble Holy Kingdom and Slane Theocracy still bear investigation.

Demiurge sighed, deciding that he shouldn’t put off reading the report. It would be a different matter if the author had been somebody else - another lich, a different fel or fey beast, or one of his own subordinates - but the one that had written it had been a creation of his master. To delay reading it was, at the very least, an insult to Lord Ainz. He was left with an instant sensation of regret, inner guilt at his impropriety. He looked down to it again, but before his eyes could catch words on the page, the oddest of revelations came barreling into the moment and right through his train of thought.

Except she hasn’t. She hasn’t advocated for subsidizing divine practitioners. Why? Many commoners are priced out of medical services. Further, in cities with both an increased ratio of divine casters - a higher per-capita mana pool - and a higher workplace accident rate, even small amounts of spending would have significant impact, raising productivity and reducing losses of partially educated individuals. It’s not simply a matter of marginal social benefit, but hard economic surplus. Why hasn’t she seen this?

There was no immediate answer to this question, his mind spinning fruitlessly for a time. On a flit to break this, he decided to go through one of his focus rituals, and pulled his glasses from his face. Gently pulling a folded cleaning cloth off his desk, he went about cleaning them. With a spritz from a small bottle of distillate and a quick rub, he wiped down the ins and outs of his prosthetic. Finished, he raised them to eyelevel to inspect, the lenses catching the light reflected by his gemstone eyes. Satisfied, he set them back on his face and refolded the cloth.

Her lighting proposal. She clearly recognizes the value of city laborers, of artisans and craftsmen. She understands the importance of urban industry, the entire scheme was a rather ingenious conclusion that humans do not need the whole night to rest; once again a material reality that she has recognized ex nihilo and formed into policy. This insufficiency in medical care is easier to identify and find a solution too, so why hasn’t she proposed it?

Demiurge was preempted by a baseline urge to label this irrationality on the part of the Princess a typical “human” error. She being a human, and humans being fleshy things fashioned by a steady whetting of biotic and abiotic selectors, imperfection was a thing written into her blood. Their very existence in this world puzzled him, this was not made easier by the fact that by no means were humans anywhere near its pinnacle species. They were weak, and though perhaps more intelligent and more inclined to the practices of civilization - agriculture, animal husbandry, and division of labor - they were not enough so to challenge the true powers that soared o’er mountain tops and lurked ‘neath the waves. Even had they been, they would then never come close to matching the power of Nazarick, be it the synthetic beings of which he was counted among, or the platonic supremacy of their creators. Perfection was a thing known only to the Supreme Beings and only a shadow of that given unto their creations. Compared to that, he could not blame a human for making such an obvious mistake.

Perhaps when my master finally feels fit to clean that place of lessers and appoints a battered and broken administrator, I could explain it to her. She would have quite the delectable expression, no? That sort of panicked look in the eye that even if the act was rendered moot by the razing of her nation, for a few years she could have given her people a brighter mote of hope to cling to. By that token, I ought to inform her now - the higher the leap, the harder the fall. Delicious, but impractical.

Hazard of exposure aside, the consequences to the Royal Family and to the Royal Faction of sending money to the churches in a secular state is an issue by itself. This, of course, would mean nothing to a merciful woman who's more interested in “the common good” than the political miasma of her kingdom - she’d probably dissolve into lamentations on the spot. A proper shame I could not go and push her into it myself; I’ll have to settle with watching from the side as she once again strikes a barrier of her nation’s inner ineptitude.

For a reason he couldn’t identify, his usual sadistic fantasies fell flat in his mind, getting none of the reliable entertainment they typically provided. Imagining the tear streaked, panicked, and fearful face of a human was only enjoyable when he could do so properly. Play of the mind without solid foundation in reality was almost always vapid, and Demiurge that all the joy of the moment had already been sucked out by just such a problem.

It ought to be a well-worn grievance for her by now, which makes her failure all the more egregious. I don’t see how she could fail to know.

Time went trundling onward, yet his mind was stuck. The thoughts he had just uttered to himself echoed again and again in his head, blurring into a lingering continuum of unpleasant sensensations that told him something was wrong. He made a few more futile swipes at the problem, trying to concoct a solution. This didn’t work, and the sense that something was incorrect grew. The deadlock dragged out for a full minute, and he turned his head about halfway through to look out from the terrace where his desk sat to the netherine realms beyond. The ruined columns that surrounded him framed the red eruptions of his home; swooping imps silhouetted by jets of magma dove from perches in the kraggy ceiling above. Despite his frustration, Demiurge couldn’t help but feel a mote of wonderment; the sight was a testament to the care and meticulous effort of his creator, a monument of such splendor and beauty that it could only be called love.

She does know. She has yet to suggest it because of the political implications of providing funds to the churches directly. Still, it seems as if she's the type to chafe against such concerns, not bow to them. Is that not what sets her apart from her contemporaries?

A large explosion came, a bubble of vapor in the magna bursting at the surface and throwing pyroclasts into the air. The ejecta streaked in all directions, the highest globules striking the ceiling; imps and quasits rushed for cover, nestling in the vulcanized pores above as the liquid slowly dripped away. The molten rock reversed in the air, becoming a sharp downpour as it returned to the lake. Some droplets launched parabolically from the explosion reached the shore, causing a pitter-patter as their half-frozen forms splattered against the basalt sand.

I've misread her character, but in what way? Is she shrewder than I thought on first appearance, with a higher affinity for the zero-sum gamesmanship of court politics? No, most of her policies are rejected on the very basis that they would weaken Vaiself relative to the other houses. She is aware, and yet she has not acted. Strange.

Demiurge watched for a moment longer, before opening and plunging one of his hands into a drawer in his desk. Running his fingers along the parchments inside, he felt for the texture of swine’s skin, pigmen being one of the species whose epidermis had proven suitably strong to inscribe second tier spells. Finding it, he withdrew the vellum, closed the drawer, and tossed it into the air. It ignited and consumed itself in azure flame, and he felt his mind brush up against another.

“Yes, Lord Demiurge?”

“Reassign Observation Specialist Nineteen for round-the-clock tracking of person-of-interest AA-4, effective immediately."

“Duration of assignment?”

“Indefinite.”

“This will require changes to patrol patterns. To avoid gaps, the area each specialist will need to observe will increase by 5.88%, and increases the duty on the courier by-"

“I am aware. I will summon a replacement whom you may assign to the lowest priority observation area. If observation period continues to its time of expiry, I will authorize the transfer of a demon from NDZ-1. I believe the Pleiades have that location well at hand.”

“Affirmative. Please allow me to apologize for my hasty suggestion.”

“Apology accepted. I wish for updates each half day… no, each quarter day. That is all.”

“Understood.”

The adjacency dissolved, and he was once again alone.

Perhaps her motivations are more complex than they first appear.