The rest of the journey to the village of the Green Claw Tribe belonging to Shasuryu Sasha was uneventful, and by Ainz’ reckoning it could even be called pleasant. The air was muggy and full of insects, but the flowering plants, and the great trees that created a constant shade under which to walk, it was enchanting. ‘Blue Planet… if you could see this, you would die of happiness.’ It was enough to put him in an excellent mood, his natural curiosity prompted him to pepper their guide with questions.

“How many kinds of plants do you have?”

“What kind of animal life lives here?”

“Do you have any rare monsters not found elsewhere?” Several questions were prompted by a kind of fatherly instinct, ‘I should bring Aura and Mare a present for when I get back.’

Shasuryu developed a spring in his step during that walk back, ‘He seems truly fascinated, enthralled even… could he really see this as the wonder that I do?’

It was a hopeful thought, the eager, even youthful voice of the caster seemed so energetic, deep, rich and flowing like the endless wine of one of their great treasures. The lizardman chief found something quite unexpected about the passionate commander of the little vampire monster.

It was hard not to like him. Like some divine glow came off which illuminated even the dark cast by the shadowy canopy.

The questions asked of him only made the lizardman chief happier, his feet picked up and tail lashed up and down with contentment. “...Yes, my Lord, our villages are very small, there are only about two thousand of us or so.”

“Why so few?” Ainz inquired, his collector’s curiosity adding value and caution alike to the lizardman before him.

“Monsters are many in the deep swamp, and within the lake as well, both can kill the unwary. Besides that, we have sometimes suffered from hunger, and war has sometimes come between our villages. We once had more than twice the numbers we did, but… not anymore.” Shasuryu’s voice became heavy, the spring left his step.

“Oh, perhaps I should not ask more… it would be insensitive of me to open an old wound.” Ainz answered.

Shasuryu shook his head. “I’m offering my tribe to you, you should know. We had years of good harvests, all of us. There was no hunger. Then we had bad harvests. We caught some fish, and what we did catch was too few. So then there was hunger, we fell fighting each other, and half of us died. The problem of hunger solved itself. Now there is no hunger again.” His fists clenched tight at his sides while Ainz remained silent at his back.

“You must think us a race of fools, my Lord.” Shasuryu finally filled the gap of words.

‘So that happens even here…’ Ainz thought as he reflected on all the stories of hunger and deprivation. Thinking of his historian friend… ‘That’s right, he told me about that once, how people would farm until they wore out the soil, their numbers growing large… fighting over the remaining food, then going somewhere else to start the cycle over.’ It sent a shudder down his spine to imagine such desperation.

‘No. No. No.’ He told himself, ‘Perhaps that’s something I can prevent.’ But there was no perhaps about it. With the knowledge in the library of Ashurbanipal at his disposal, he could pass all the knowledge of ecology they could ever want to the lizardmen under his rule.

Pity however, moved him to speak. “No. No you’re not, Shasuryu.” Ainz told him, and the lizardman stopped and turned around to face his Master.

“My Lord?” He asked the tall caster, his long face turned up toward the red and white mask.

“I’ve seen it happen before, on another world that destroyed itself, or nearly. Those vicious cycles happen when the knowledge of ecological management is absent. You offer me your people, and if your offer holds, then I will help you.” Ainz said matter-of-factly.

Shasuryu’s heart sang out with happiness, ‘Who knows what bottomless well of knowledge lies in this one…’ his mind spun with the idea of there being ‘other worlds’ but the very idea was so large, so overwhelming, and also so irrelevant that he all but threw it away in the face of the promise of salvation for his people. His immediate need, all else came second.

So it was in that positive spirit of restored optimism that Shasuryu and his charges reached the edge of the path over which he guided them, and before emerging, he stopped. “Please, wait here, this will be a surprise for them and I want a chance to explain so they understand. I’m sure by now, if my brethren survived, they will be nearly certain that I’ve died.”

Shalltear looked up into the eyes of the lizardmen, her bright scarlet red was intoxicating, so easy to be lost in, even for him. “If you lie to us, lizardman, if you betray my Master, you will beg for death for ten thousand years.”

“I do not lie.” Shasuryu replied with a steady shake of his head, “You and he saved my life. I am an honorable warrior, my word is my bond.”

That seemed to placate her, but when Ainz gave an approving nod, the little vampire still stepped in front of him, ready to shield his body with her own as his bodyguard. Her dress vanished, and in its place was a girl in scarlet red armor and replacing her parasol was a long lance with a bulb-like guard just beyond the wrist.

“Go, lizardman, and prove your loyalty.” Shalltear commanded him, and he turned around, took a deep breath, and emerged into view.

‘The village is intact at least… that means they haven’t turned on each other…’ That thought made him give a double sigh of relief, and more importantly he noticed that the earthenworks had been expanded, lizardmen youths were carrying buckets of earth into place to add new low walls from which to defend. The sound of shouting elders giving directions and grousing youths became louder and louder as he came closer to home until he was observed.

Recognizing him must have taken a moment, but the young on the walls keeping a watchful eye were quick to raise the hue and cry, immediately the entire village was soon a beehive of wild activity.

“You’re alive?! How?!” One of the elders shouted in a raspy, broken old voice that hadn’t been raised in years. His stooped body was near broken by time, but he had the ghost of his old strength in his cracked old green scales when he put his hands on Shasuryu’s shoulders and asked his question.

“I was rescued!” Shasuryu shouted, then lowered his voice as his tribe and the Red Eyes came in to hear the story. “I encountered a mighty being, who by his grace, had his servant save my life, he has power beyond our ability to even describe it! He can stop the frogmen, I have offered my tribe in fealty if he would only grant my tribe life as he granted it to me.”

This set them all to many murmurs of doubt and uncertainty. The tight grip of the oldster who held his shoulders faded, but before anyone could raise a doubt or ask a question, the Green Claw Chieftain spoke up again.

“I’ve come in first so as not to alarm you, but if you’re ready, I’ll bring our savior in so that you may see him and his servant for yourselves!” Shasuryu’s voice was full of supreme eagerness, but nobody made to move out of his way.

Whatever they were expecting him to say when he came into the bustling village, that hadn’t been it. Shasuryu carried on when they didn’t make way, “He says he can end the struggle for food that nearly ruined us, and stop the frogmen attack, I have seen his power with my own two eyes, you must believe me… let me go bring him in, and see if you can doubt it!”

Many a lizardmen’s head turned back and forth, male and female, young and old, were asking in silence what should be done. With no one proffering ideas, Shasuryu took the first step from the center of the little mob himself, and at that they moved aside.

He could feel them watching, eyes of the outsiders and of the Green Claw, fearful, hopeful, desperate, the sea of emotions that beset their small and nearly hopeless band warned him that they had not liked what they learned after his diversion. But there was no chance to ask, he had to move with the ebb and flow of the battle of words, and bring their savior inside to set their souls on fire, as his own had been before.