119

Hans Christian Andersen was remembered primarily as a prolific writer of fairy tales and written stories.

Secondly, though only known to people who interacted with Hans personally, for his bilious and quarrelsome character. Which leads logically to the fact the second point was reliably made aware of to very few people. In other words, a very limited circle of people were aware of his character as a person, while many more people were aware of his creations.

And therefore it was not so difficult to reason out why Hans' temporary dwelling was filled to the brim with a significant number of books. Some books that he still loved to re-read, lots of books that he really regrets reading to the end due to his curiosity and several large piles of unfinished manuscripts.

Still, it was impossible to separate the two facets of Andersen. Hans's writing talent and his petty, absurd character. And therefore, while bending over another manuscript for a prospective story, Hans did not think about how he would perfectly finish his current work.

Instead, Hans Christian Andersen's thoughts were much more prosaic.

"This is complete shit." Hans grimaced at what he had written.

In its very essence, every book, in addition to the primitive textual component - beginning, middle, and end - has a mental and sensory component.

In every book there is a protagonist, there is a character, there is an image, there is a thought, there is a question and an answer.

Hans' current story contained everything a normal story would need. Names, characters, events, images, and all the ingredients that would make a story. All but the most important thing was missing.

The question and the answer. The conflict and the resolution. The most important essence of a story.

Hans believed that there was a question in this book, but it's not one that is answered. It was a question the author asked of his own creation.

What for?

What is the reason for the characters' actions? Such a question has been answered in the text. An endeavour easily accomplished by a writer of Hans' caliber.

What reasons do the characters' have to seek their goals? This, of course, was also planned in advance and answered in the text. A paltry exercise in imagination and planning, child's play to one such as Hans.

Why did the author write this book? Hans pursed his lips. Unfortunately, he did not have an easy answer.

He was not touched or moved by a single line from his current endeavour. The characters did not touch his soul. Their motivations, threadbare. Their struggle, monotonous. The plot and their twists did not delight him. The prose, insipid. The twists, guileless. Worst of all, the silly puns and the jokes in the text did not make him laugh.

Taken in its totality, fundamentally, Hans' current endeavour was a waste of time. And the book, written aimlessly and emotionlessly, in the end, was not only meaningless, but also harmful in its essence. It is a verbal stream of manure splashed into reality, spoiling the paper, which could be used in any other, much more rewarding activity.

Hans' pen froze in the air, hanging over the manuscript in hesitation.

Should he cross out the last few pages completely? Cross those uninspired pages with an ugly black cross, and then write new ones? Perhaps if he were to do so he would be able to find the spark in what exactly he lacked in his creation? Or, perhaps, it was worth it on the contrary, to continue what on? Hoping that the blind creative pursuit in the end will give him the divine spark that will give his creation life?

"Why am I doing this?"

Andersen was frozen in indecision for a second, hesitating whether to scrap his work or to trudge on hoping that a flash of inspiration would salvage the drivel that he had written. Before he could decide, a terrible rumble that made the whole house shudder knocked the stool out from under Andersen's feet. Yes, he grumbled, his stature in his current body left much to be desired. His lack of vertical reach forced him to work at the desk while standing on a stool. The stool that just had just been knocked over, which caused Andersen to fall to the ground.

For a moment the very short Servant tried to figure out what had just happened. A moment later realizing that an unknown coincidence of chances and circumstances had just knocked him out of his creative trance caused him to flare up with anger and righteous fury.

"What the fuck?!" Andersen got up from the floor quickly, while spewing bile and frothing anger, accompanied by a verbose amount of curses. After he spent some time spewing forth the most colorful of curses, he pulled up his vest and dusted off his hair. A little cloud of dust seemed to puff out of the diminutive Servant. - "What idiot dared to distract an author from his work?!"

Deciding to investigate, Andersen headed towards the door leading out of his room. Descending the stairs carefully, Hans's gaze was presented with a scene that he should have expected.

Of course, who could create so much noise in this dead world, except Da Vinci? At least without destroying the house to the ground, which was the prerogative of other Servants, such as Saber for example.

Da Vinci, Andersen's recent and rather unpleasant acquaintance, was in a disgustingly cheerful mood. Although Andersen himself could also notice, not without some gloating, that in addition to the usual cheerfulness in her voice, there was also some fatigue. Though even with the weariness that he could detect, she was literally almost galloping in place from the emotions, or perhaps mania, that overwhelmed her.

Moreover, Andersen could vouch that Da Vinci, who managed to return unnoticed from the battle, was also the cause of the rumble that had toppled him over. Andersen could see her rampaging around the room where Jekyll kept his radio, oh look there it is on the ground. Leafing through the books on the table where Jekyll's radio was in the past , Jekyll is currently crying in the corner, in her enthusiasm she moved around the room like a hurricane, destroying the entire room where Jekyll had kept his possessions.

Well, it's not that the radio was at least in any way useful, but the very thought that Da Vinci in his madness caused such chaos caused an evil grin to appear on Andersen's face.

A grin that could not help but lead into a sarcastic question. - "If even in the empty head of a walking porn illustration there were thoughts that was important enough that it made her interrupt the work of the honorable author, why not share your ringing stupidity with the world in order to give at least a little pleasure to the busy people whom the empty headed broad had pulled away from work."

"Oh?" - Da Vinci found Andersen's eyes instantly, - "Who let the child in here?! Where are the parents?!"

"You are repeating yourself,", - Andersen, however, refraining from reacting to the simple provocation reacted calmly, it helps that Da Vinci had used that insult before. "Or have the great 'genius' now unable to come up with anything new? What an insult to the title of a great inventor!"

These words hurt Da Vinci much more, but before she could retaliate, Ainz intervened in the mud slinging match.

"Andersen, Da Vinci", - Ainz's voice was calm and almost soothing, - "Please, could you leave your verbal skirmishes for a while?"

Andersen gave Ainz an almost contemptuous look and was clearly going to ignore the advice of Ainz's- however, Da Vinci, surprisingly, seemed to instantly lose interest in Andersen, turning away.

"Ainz, maybe it is prudent to call all the Servants here?" After she stopped paying attention to Andersen, Da Vinci turned to her Master.

"Of course," Ainz replied calmly, after which Andersen noticed for a moment a strange emotion flashed in Ainz's eyes, "And if indeed what you had discovered was so incredible, could you explain it in simple words… So that each of the Servants understands, of course."

Ainz's plan failed miserably.

However, on the other hand, it also worked perfectly. And so Ainz was not sure if he should now curse his lucky stars or his bad luck. And therefore, just in case, he cursed both features of his existence.

After all, he had hoped that Da Vinci would decipher the secret messages given by Shakespeare. A task that the Servant had performed perfectly. However, Ainz also had hoped that it would take Da Vinci at least a day or two. Shakespeare had after all brought with him a whole stack of books, each of which was as thick as a decent reference book - and was written in such a purple prose that just looking at them would give Ainz a headache.

Therefore, when Da Vinci, after Ainz's request to deal with what was given by Shakespeare, and then sorted out everything in about a minute - Ainz sharply felt his insignificance.

In the end, when Da Vinci started flipping through the pages of books, the first thought that appeared in Ainz's mind was the thought that she was looking for pictures in the text. However, looking at Da Vinci's face, which simultaneously became both more serious and joyful - however could she combine it - as she flipped through the pages, Ainz realized that it was completely different.

And therefore, when Da Vinci, after quickly flipping through all the books brought by Shakespeare, said that she had acquired some kind of important information, Ainz immediately realized that whatever the information was, he could not easily perceive it. And so he had thought of a brilliant plan to solve this conundrum.

'We need to call all Servants and explain to them all in simple words so that they understand everything!' - Brilliant plan, why didn't Ainz use it before?

However, when all the Servants of Ainz and the Servants of the Singularity gathered in the same living room, Ainz felt just a little bit cramped, being pressed from both sides by Mashu and Medusa.

Worst of all were the looks that the other Servants occasionally cast at him. Jekyll's embarrassed peeks, and Fran's or Saber's unreadable face as they stare openly. If it wasn't for the need to interact with Da Vinci, Ainz would clearly have preferred to give each Servant some other duty and be left alone. Of course he couldn't do that because he had ordered them to gather in the first place.

But, alas, the reality in front of him was unchanging. And therefore, trying his best to distance his thoughts from Medusa's soft body clinging to him, and Mashu trying her best to mush her body as close as possible to Ainz's, he tried his best to lose himself in Da Vinci's explanation.

"So", - Da Vinci began by looking around at all the Servants present, and then smiling. - "I will say right away that I could not find any specific information about the identity of the enemy from Shakespeare's books."

"So that asshole deceived us?" - Jalter's voice was the first to express the widely believed idea..

"Yes and no", - Da Vinci shook her head, - "There was no specific information in the books, but there was information of a different type, informative in a different sense and also extremely entertaining. So, who knows about the ritual of the Holy Grail War?"

At this statement, all the Servants present looked at each other - and Ainz understood why. Even he received some rudimentary information about such an event after his summoning, not to mention the Servants, the original inhabitants of this world. So Da Vinci asking such an obvous question looked really stupid.

"What about the history of this ritual?" Da Vinci asked the next question, making sure that everyone present knew that they were about to discuss the Holy Grail War and that the first question was not a fluke.

And, unlike the last question, this time not a single Servant gave a definite reaction.

Ainz thought about it for a second trying to recall that dizzying moment when he first appeared that seemed so long ago now.

The information he received about the Holy Grail War was a rather vague information in his mind, something like a general concept. There were Seven Masters that summoned Seven Servants, they then tried to kill each other to summon the Holy Grail, like the one that Ainz now kept in his inventory, because the Holy Grail supposedly is able to grant wishes...

And, of course, Ainz did not know any information regarding the history of this ritual.

Therefore, Ainz looked at Da Vinci with interest - and as he thought, he was not alone.

"I must admit that the ritual of the Holy Grail War did not attract me in the past as a possible topic for study - and, apparently, it was a mistake.", - Da Vinci smiled, - "The fact is, that judging by the information that I managed to get from Shakespeare's books, the Servant summoning ritual used in the Holy Grail War was… not designed specifically for it."

"Hmm?" - This unspoken question was spoken out loud by Mashu, - "What do you mean?"

"I will not say that the information in the books was so glibly written out that I would be able to have a hundred percent confidence in what I had managed to discover." After such an uncharacteristic admittance, Da Vinci frowned a little, as if from an unpleasant toothache - she really did not enjoy admitting that somewhere in the world there was information that she had no access to. "However, in short, the Ritual for summoning Servants actually has little to do with the ritual of the Holy Grail War."

"Hmm?" This information was not particularly unexpected for Ainz, due to his not strong understanding of both the rules of this world and the events taking place in this world, but Medusa reacted much more eloquently, "What?"

"In simple terms, the ritual of the Holy Grail War was indeed developed later, and then the ritual for Summoning Servants were tacked on.", - Da Vinci breathed out, - "However, knowing this, here the question arises… If the fight for the Holy Grail was a later addition - then what was the point for Summoning Servants in the past?" Da Vinci reasoned out with a little bit of apprehension.

"And judging by the information that I was able to glean from the books - the answer is simple and at the same time extremely worrying", - Da Vinci paused for a second, as if to create an eerie atmosphere.

Ainz frowned. He literally felt that the conversation slowly began to move in the direction Ainz disliked as much as possible.

"The Seven Servants, according to the original ritual, were not called to fight against each other,", Da Vinci explained - "The Seven Servants were supposed to be working together."

Ainz felt a picture slowly forming in his head. A very unpleasant picture.

"Moreover, if we correlate this information with some other… worrying facts." - Da Vinci suddenly became serious, "I can assume that the original ritual of Summoning Servants was not created by Humans."

Ainz could hardly restrain himself from shouting out something stupid, like 'and suddenly, aliens are involved!' but he nevertheless restrained himself. Definitely, in this crazy world, aliens were just the right addition!

The thought of Altera, however, slipped to the edge of his mind, forcing Ainz to exhale slowly.

Although yes, aliens...

"It was a ritual created 'for' Humanity, not by them." Da Vinci sighed, "Seven Servants, seven greatest heroes of Humanity, fighting together against a common enemy. In other words, if we speak without extraneous details, it is the ultimate defense mechanism of humanity. The Servants were summoned to defend Humanity."

"Ho?" Ainz blinked, then glanced at the Servants around him.

No, of course, there were real monsters among them that could easily destroy all humanity in battle. But not all Servants summoned by Ainz and ones that he has only met were so… imposing. Actually, barring some exceptions, most were quite weak.

"However, it cannot be said that the Servants summoned by Chaldea or by other methods and the Servants called by the world itself as its last line of defense are the same." At that moment Da Vinci exhaled, - "In the end, the power that their 'container' can hold is just incomparable.. The seven greatest heroes, seven defenders of humanity. Servants - and yet something more, something 'grander'. Grand Servants."

"Grands, huh?" Nobunaga's voice brought Ainz back to reality a little, "So the best of the best."

"Exactly so", - Da Vinci nodded, - "Grand Saber, Grand Archer, Grand Lancer, Grand Assassin, Grand Caster, Grand Rider and Grand Berserker. The Seven Greatest Servants, the power that they possess is not something that can be compared to an ordinary Servant.."

"That is… worrying " Ainz said this time.

"Definitely", - Da Vinci sighed, - "Information about how strong the Grand Servants are? Absent. Who is and who can be a Grand Servant? Is also missing. The roles of the Grand Servants, motives? Complete zero. In fact, the existence of the Grand Servants themself is still not something that I can unequivocally confirm. However… the information I do have, made their existence something that I could not disqualify either." Da Vinci ended her explanation with a sigh.

"The Seven Greatest Servants, embodying the full power of their Class, an entire legend that stretches through the entire history of the existence of the seven great archetypes of heroes. In other words - Grands."

Ainz thought about it. And for the first time in his entire life in this new world - he thought hard.

So the Grands... The Grand Servants, the Greatest Servants of All. How powerful are they?

During his adventures, Ainz encountered various types of Servants. Most of them?... Hmm, in order not to offend anyone, the best way he could describe was that they were 'not invincible'. However, at the same time - some of them were not weak at all.

Still, the strongest of them were weaker than Ainz, significantly so. However, they were not separated by a completely unbridgeable chasm. Their blade could still reach Ainz if he were to underestimate them.

For example, Altera was defeated easily by Cainabel mainly due to her lack of physical protection and the lack of diversity in her arsenal of skills and methods of attack. However, other than that glaring weakness, her physical capabilities were not bad even by the standards of a hundreth-level player.

Another example would be Da Vinci. She possessed negligible physical capabilities, because of which any competent high-level archer could kill her with one shot from afar. However, her intimidating ability to acquire any skills at will, rebuilding her build in a second to almost anything would be an unpleasant surprise for any player hoping for easy prey.

And, of course, Noble Phantasms remained extremely interesting, dangerous, and sometimes, very disturbing abilities. For example, Serenity's infinite poison was nothing more than just an unpleasant trifle for a high-level player. However, say, something like Jeanne's sword was more than dangerous for a confident player with a vulnerability to fire, like, say, Ainz himself. If he did not compensate for his weaknesses and did not study his opponent before the fight, of course.

And nothing to say of Megalos. Which was, given Ainz's teleportation and his wide array of arsenal, not the most terrible enemy… But not weak either. Not weak at all, in fact to a player who failed to diversify their arsenal, a death sentence.

He was the first enemy that could injure Ainz. A slight injury, so insignificant that Ainz would not have noticed it back in YGGDRASIL. However, he was able to overcome the difference between Ainz and the Servants, albeit for a short time.

In other words, what Da Vinci had managed to find worried Ainz somewhat, as it showed that the opportunity to meet with the Servants or entities who were not in any way weaker from Ainz was still there.

Especially if Grands, the greatest of Servants, were included in the general equation.

Ainz frowned. After all, he was not a strong player. Moreover, Ainz believed that in most cases in YGGDRASIL itself, even if you count his tactics, strategy and unique abilities, he was at the very bottom of the high tier of players. Taking into account all possible training of Ainz and his inhuman supplies of both consumables and divine tier equipment, the number of which was such that Ainz could cover himself completely from head to toe - perhaps the lower rank of the TOP-tier of players... And that's all.

If we take the strongest players of Yggdrasil, like Touch Me, then Ainz had no chance against them. In the past, he never managed to defeat him in a duel after all.

Of course, if you take into account Ainz's Noble Phantasms and how much Ainz's strength had changed and improved in the new world, then one could say that he was much, much, stronger than in the past. However, even so, the Servants were not weak, and if you take into account the Grands...

At that time, Ainz felt some concern about the situation.

"Who were these 'Grand Servants' supposed to fight against?" Andersen's question pulled Ainz out of his thinking cycle, forcing him to pay attention to the world around him.

"What?" Da Vinci turned to Andersen.

"If initially the Servants were to be called up as the last line of defense of humanity, then a question logically arises", - Andersen looked at Da Vinci seriously, - "From what they had to protect it from."

"This question haunts me, too", - Da Vinci then began to frown after hearing Andersen's words.

Ainz sensed his anxiety slowly starting to grow...

The King was bored.

Frankly, he hoped that his opponent would already deal with the Servants, the chaff, by this time. But at the same time, the King was somewhat elated that at least his opponent was careful. Slowly studying the Servants, he seemed to be trying to determine the future step of the King, to find a suitable strategy for decisive victory over the King. It certainly flattered the King - but it also made him somewhat bored.

The King's gaze fell languidly at the Servant who was running about their business, making him almost sigh.

Why couldn't the Servants be better? Why did they make the King so bored?

The King did not like to be bored. And although his mind could withstand millennia of inaction, when his plan finally entered an active phase he absolutely did not want to remain inactive.

However, at the same time, something as stupid and hasty as personally appearing to one's opponent prematurely was stupid. As if he was running at the call of his opponent, like an obedient dog. This could not be allowed.

But at the same time, idleness did not please the King at all. The idleness forced him to look abstractedly at how the Servants swarm in their mud. The occupation is as boring as watching the grass grow - and just as useless.

The King raised his hand up - then snapped his fingers. The Servant he was observing correctly understood his command - after which a moment later the Servant's figure appeared in front of the King.

"Master", - The Servant's voice was cold and detached, but at the same time respectful. At least the minimum honors were observed, the King sighed.

"I'm bored" The King replied simply to the suplicating Servant, after which he turned his eyes away from the Servant without interest, realizing that she would listen carefully to his voice no matter what he said, - "What are your future plans for the enemy?"

"Master, I decided to switch to observation tactics." The Servant answered him calmly, as if reporting to his commander, - "An analysis of all enemy Servants is required, for which I decided…"

"I'm not interested in the details." The King sighed, and then looked behind the back of the Servant, looking at the monstrous figure of the machine in which the Grail was enclosed, - "Are there any living people left in London?"

"Of course, Master" The Servant replied calmly, - "Although the fog caused a significant number of casualties among ordinary people - and almost all the magi of the Association were killed during the destruction of the Association itself - most of the population of London is alive. Although it is to be noted that most of them are locked in their homes. At the moment, all mechanical dolls were ordered to ignore them, and also not to patrol the food warehouses, so hunger…"

"Start killing the people in their homes," The King replied succinctly.

"Master?" The Servant's voice did not falter, but she still looked up at the King.

"As I said, start killing people in their homes. Start where the casualties will be greatest. However, don't kill everyone. Let go of every fifth person and let them escape."

"Master?" - This time the Servant's voice was more lively, though still almost emotionless. - "However, in this case, the enemy can easily detect…"

"I have given the order," The King shifted his gaze to the Servant, - "And I do not remember the moment when I have decided to ask for your opinion."

"Of course master.", The Servant just bowed her head before the King, - "However, the other Servants…"

"I don't care whether you decide to let them go or kill them," The King also answered disinterestedly, after which, completely losing interest in the Servant, he turned away, "Do as you're told"

"Of course, Master", - Servant replied calmly, - "It will be done."

The King only sighed in boredom.

He could only hope that such actions would slightly diversify the situation, it definitely can't be more boring than just doing nothing at least.

Historical Analysis of the Factography of the life of Elizabeth Bathory, cont.:

...However, all that have been discussed in this report so far concerns only the image of the historical figure that the public possesses. A point of view which obviously has little in common with the real story of Elizabeth Bathory. Although, perhaps it is to be expected that the recounting of the Countess' life would be so distorted, the life story of Elizabeth Bathory itself is full of incredible facts after all. Many of which are more like fiction than reality.

In particular, there is many historical evidence which indicated that Elizabeth Bathory's childhood was spent in France. A baffling finding as she was a Hungarian Noble. And although the relationship of France and the Kingdom of Hungary during that time might not be so hostile as to make the finding impossible, it still didn't mean that a young noble, a female one at that, would be so easily allowed to stay in France during her childhood. And yet there is much evidence that supports such a conclusion.

Although there is still no official confirmation of such a finding. It also didn't help that during her stay in France is also when she supposedly made acquaintance with the heiress of noble blood 'not from these lands'. Elizabeth then subsequently spent an indefinite long amount of time, in particular, traveling through the territory of France with her newfound friend. The fact that the origin of the Noble acquaintance Elizabeth had befriended was later reported was of an Orient descent, made the story even more fantastical.

In general, although such findings have not been officially confirmed, it is well within the framework of the possible. However, the latter legend that said the heiress of noble blood later turned out to be a were-dragon, as well as the fact that over the castle of Csejte, where Elizabeth Bathory met her death in the end, that people witnesses a flying white dragon flying in a rage. - is, of course, remains nothing more than myth.

Unfortunately, as with the other stories about Elizabeth Bathory, it is not possible to find a specific indication of the reason for the appearance of this rumor. However, as with Elizabeth Bathory herself, a possible reason for the rumor was the personification of the Devil and Dragons in Christian mythology. As there was seemingly no end to the rumors that Elizabeth was secretly a dragon herself, it was not a large leap to make her mysterious friend to have Draconic features as well.

There was almost no end to the rumors about Elizabeth Draconic features. Testimonies written well after the death of Elizabeth Bathory said that she hid dragon horns under her hair, and a dragon's tail under her wide dress. Things that definitely belong in a section of mythology. Likewise, such 'testimonies' is also attributed as the source of the myth that the Countess possessed 'terrible voice'. Which, unambiguously, was originally meant as an allegorical description of 'a voice that is associated with evil' - and was subsequently reinterpreted as the Countess possessing an terrible ear for music and her tone deafness.

In the end it is difficult to expect an unambiguous historical assessment of the personality of Elizabeth Bathory when her existence was so shrouded in mystery. So much so that even in a rather serious historical chronicle, one that the author would not recommend the reader to read, Elizabeth Bathory was repeatedly described as the 'rebirth' of a minor goddess of the Roman Pantheon, Elizabeth. The goddess, Elizabeth, was the patroness of mediocre singers of the Romans, whose small cult was an accidental curiosity originating at the turn of the first and second centuries around Corsica. How a 16th Century Hungarian Noble, as shrouded in mysticism as she is, was in any way connected to a Roman goddess is a mystery.

In particular, perhaps it was the last bit of trivia that contributed to such a curious rebirth of interest about the 'terrifying voice' of Elizabeth Bathory...