200

For Angrboda, fighting was… It was hard for her to say if she really liked fighting or not.

No, it's not like she disliked it either. Breaking her enemy's head on the battlefield, ripping out his spine and grinding his bones with her teeth, the squeal of pain from the minced meat that was still alive. Or even when the blood, boiling with adrenaline and pain flowing down her throat, was something she enjoyed. Especially the last moments of agony as the mutilated body that had once been alive tried to escape from her jaws, it was all exhilarating. Who could not enjoy such a thing?!

It was another common joy of life that Angrboda enjoyed, just as others enjoy a nice light breeze or the shining sun caressing their skin.

But on the other hand, Angrboda didn't consider such pleasure something special. She wasn't a battle-crazed maniac, she didn't get any special pleasure from torture and if she has to make a comparison, she probably saw fighting her opponent more like killing cockroaches, or hunting game, like hares.

Do you, after all, enjoy torturing, breaking the crust of good bread?

Of course, she could enjoy a battle like one appreciates food. All those mountain-crushing blows, blood bubbling excitement, and the split seconds that decided the fate of a battle, all of it were enthralling to her, as was perfectly normal for people to enjoy any activity. If something was interesting and of quality in itself, why not enjoy it?

But she did not seek such a thing separately, such entertainment was not for herself, valuable or more valuable simply by the fact of the battle.

No, Angrboda liked a lot of things other than combat, so she wasn't worried about Ainz going to the new Singularity without her.

She was a little annoyed that Ainz went to Singularity with Medb, that harlot, but Angrboda could only shrug it off. What can you do, yet another girl in Ainz' harem? At this point, Angrboda didn't even particularly care anymore. One more, or even one less, for Angrboda the situation would only change when the number of Ainz's concubines crossed the threshold of a few dozen and began to approach a hundred. In which case, Angrboda herself would need to start selecting suitable servants for herself.

Not that Angrboda needed to do that, not that she even particularly wanted to do it. But, as Ainz's official wife, it was certainly worth it for her to maintain a certain standing and reputation. After all, it would just be weird if Ainz had a hundred concubines and his wife didn't have a single lover on the side.

On the other hand, this was all a problem for the future, only faintly related to Angrboda's current situation. For the moment, she could afford to relax and, instead of contemplating the harem she was entitled to, do what she loved! That is taking care of her wonderful, adorable children!

"Jack, your tossing isn't bad, but you're avoiding direct confrontation too much! I realize you're not as big and tenacious as your mommy, but you can't act like a frightened kitten, you're the famous Jack the Ripper, the terror of the London streets, after all! Use it to your advantage – instead of trying to get them from behind, sometimes it pays to appear ahead of the target! While moving straight at them, you'll have a clear view of their throat, heart, and lungs, the biggest weaknesses, and it's easier to cut them off! Besides, you can use the additional pressure factor of approaching from the front on your opponent. Especially taking into consideration that he will forget about you anyway as soon as you step back, and you can repeat the tactic time and time again and after that without decreasing the effect! And besides, seeing you, a little girl, approach, many will doubt you as their target even for the barest of a moment and this may delay their hand or throw off their accuracy, securing your kill! This will not happen in case of attack from the back. Most likely the Servant will still feel you approaching, but they will not see you, which means you cannot use this factor to the fullest! That's right, sometimes the best killer tactic, especially given your ability – is not to attack from the back, but to attack head-on! Then, you can use your advantages and even choose the right one for the situation!" Oh children, truly, the joy of life!

"I got it, Mommy!" Jack nodded enthusiastically but with no small part thoughtfulness, proving that she's listening to Angrboda properly. She then frowned slightly and rushed forward to her target, another of Angrboda's children – Alice.

Alice was not an ideal target for the little Assassin. Of all the Servants in Chaldea and in general, she was one of the few exceptions that was capable of ignoring Jack's skill, depriving the victim of the memory of the Assassin's attack. In other words, Alice was capable of ignoring an important part of Jack's battle strategy. And if it was only that, as a Caster, she would still be in a great advantage against Jack, an Assassin, perfectly countered by Casters, but at the same time. Worse for Jack, Alice also had another significant advantage over her, even several, over any other Servants.

For example, Alice could perfectly simulate an encounter with Jackie, perfectly. Alice could create a simulacrum, not a full person but a non-human mind woven by the unknowable Unnamed Book God Alice that could simulate Jack's attack. Perfectly reproducing a normal person's reactions to Jack's actions, adjusted for her skill, as if she was fighting against Alice. Surprise attacks, in other words, don't work on Alice.

It was like beating someone in chess by plugging their moves against an extremely smart computer and then acting accordingly.

The second advantage was that Alice was a target of unconventional size. She was so small that it forces Jack to change her attack trajectory against an opponent of Jack's size, something very unusual and rare, instead of the usual average human targets.

Even so, a fight between Servants is very rarely dependent on something as static as advantages and disadvantages.

Moments later, Jack's sharp movement caused her blade to appear like a flash, Alice only managed to jerk sideways before the blade ripped through her throat. The cut spews scarlet blood onto the cold gray floor, cutting Alice's air passage alongside it, causing Alice to reflexively try to close the opened cut with her hands, while raising it in an attempt to defend herself.

Still, as a Caster, Alice's physical combat abilities left a lot to be desired.

Jack, using her incredible dexterity, was already prepared for the flailing, the blade in Jack's other hand plunged into Alice's ripped throat, cutting through the flesh without effort. The greatly devastating wound caused Caster's head to swing sideways, almost tearing it completely off her neck. And then, like a puppet with cut strings, Alice's dead body tumbled to the ground.

It made for a very grizzly picture.

"He-he, it's my victory!" Jack grinned triumphantly in a way that only children could. Her grin was filled with pride, as it stretched across her face, she even stuck her chest forward while placing her arms at her sides, looking adorable. It would make for a very cute picture, except for the mangled, bloody body of the little girl with her head almost off her neck, lying at her feet in the pool of her own blood.

"Not bad." Alice's voice echoed a moment later, and her body, previously lying in a surreal picture fit for some particularly high-quality horror movie, disappeared. Without any sound or visual effect, the mangled dead body turned back into the standing figure of Alice, who was staring intently at Jack.

"But when I shook my head because of the first hit, you missed just a little and slammed the second blade into the vertebrae instead. It broke, of course, but you didn't manage to cut the head off completely, if I had 'Battle Continuation' or a similar skill, I could have hit back at that moment. And, given your vulnerability…"

"Meanie, meanie! Meanie, doesn't want to admit that I won, boo!" Jack stuck her tongue out in a perfectly childish gesture, looking at Alice with a glare.

"No, Jack, I just wanted… " Alice tried to explain her reasoning to Jack, but she clearly wasn't listening to Caster anymore. Sticking her tongue out, Jack had found a new source of entertainment, showing her tongue to Alice, not even trying to prove her point anymore, but just for fun. "Booooooooo!"

Alice, seeing such a childish attitude from Jack, only sighed and turned her gaze to Angrboda, to which Angrboda only smiled warmly and shrugged, so that Alice was left to deal with Jack alone.

Alice's third major advantage was that no matter how many times her body was killed, as long as she had a minimal supply of mana – she could indefinitely continue to resurrect. Using some sort of time manipulation, forever returning to the 'beginning of the book', denying her current 'finale'.

A very important trait for Alice, and for Jack, too, and for Angrboda, too. Though, if Jack were permanently killing her children while playing, Angrboda would have to step in and ban such games entirely. Angrboda was ambivalent about death, but that didn't mean that Angrboda wanted her children dead, even if at the hands of her other children. At least in the current gaming situation, she would be less 'calm' if it were a fight for real.

"Ah, children, what mother wouldn't enjoy watching her offspring have fun…" Angrboda smiled warmly, looking at Jack and Alice, who were now running around, with Alice trying to catch an escaping Jack. She had almost brushed a small tear out of the corner of her eye before she shifted her gaze to her companion, to her more moody children. "Cainabel, don't you want to play with your little sisters?"

"What am I, five?" Cainabel furrowed her brow in response. "And besides, you're not my mother, I am a goddess. And I am older than you."

"Don't the gods have parents?" Angrboda only smiled warmly at these words. "Not to mention that age is just a number."

Altera had the opportunity to comment on Angrboda's words, but in addition to that realization, there was also a deep understanding that sometimes opportunities were worth leaving unexploited.

This understanding had been hammered into Altera a little earlier, literally and figuratively, by Cainabel. Whether Altera was grateful for this understanding was hard to say.

"I have no parents – I was born with the birth of the world, and so I will remain after its death." Cainabel, however, did not surrender under Angrboda's onslaught, who had only cast a slight condescending glance at her. Like a parent watching their child first begins to show signs of 'rebellion' after becoming a teenager, but then says nothing more. Something which made Cainabel slightly clench her teeth, but refrain from commenting more.

Exactly, it was this condescending manner of communication, as if from a wise adult to an unintelligent child, that annoyed Cainabel the most. But at the same time, Cainabel could do nothing about it. If she began to show resentment, or any such strong reaction to Angrboda, she would only prove to her that she was the rebellious child that Angrboda saw her as. This annoyed Cainabel – immensely so, but Cainabel saw no way out of this situation either, stuck in this unstoppable cycle and forced to endure Angrboda's attitude toward her.

Besides, Angrboda was stronger than she was. This, too, affected Cainabel's attitude toward her.

In a way, it was ridiculous, a goddess born with the creation of the world against some giantess who had appeared less than a thousand years ago, the balance of power should be lopsided in her corner. But the bitter irony of the situation was that Cainabel, even as one of the oldest gods and goddesses born with the creation of the world, was simply not strong enough. No, it was more accurate to say that she was too weak. In the Nine Worlds, Cainabel was just a minnow. Not exactly dust under the giants' feet, but no more than a pesky fly whose salvation lay in the fact that killing her would have taken far more effort and time from the giants around than it was worth. By comparison, Angrboda was one of the players of the world.

She was also not a big player, unlike Ainz – but compared to Cainabel she was far more worthy of the title 'big fish'. And while it was silly, for Cainabel, a goddess, to feel her inadequacy compared to Angrboda, she was finding it very frustrating.

If Cainabel was in her full power… She would still be worth less than a glance from Angrboda.

In the current situation, as far as Cainabel herself understood, Angrboda was stripped of most of her powers, making her much, much weaker than when she was in YGGDRASIL. But even so, stripped of her powers and left with only her own body and basic skills, Angrboda could still turn Cainabel into a little ball of mincemeat, bone, and expensive cloth with a few moves.

If Cainabel had used her third Phantasm, forbidden by Ainz, perhaps… No, definitely!

Undoubtedly, she would last three minutes in the fight with Angrboda!

And three minutes later, she would be turned into a bloody meatball – this time even smaller and more pathetic than before she had used her Noble Phantasm.

The sound of a glass placed on the small table, from which Angrboda had just taken a small sip, caused Cainabel to divert her thoughts and look away.

Of course, Angrboda only took a 'small' sip by her own standards. In one 'sip' the glass was emptied completely, causing Altera to rise from her seat and pour another helping of coffee into Angrboda's glass. The action causes the giant to look a little more closely at Altera before returning to looking contemplating at her 'children'. At the moment she seemed amused by Jack's action, who had completely forgotten about her childish resentment towards Alice, and now joyfully scribbled colored markers in a book.

Judging by the look of concentration on Jack's face, she was very preoccupied by whatever she's scribbling on the book. And judging by the detached smile on Alice's face and the title printed on the book, 'The Great Encyclopedia of Britain', it was not a coloring book at all.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Angrboda's voice brought Cainabel out of her musing, and almost immediately, she found almost everything else to be more important. Almost yawning at the boring subject of the conversation, which Cainabel had never gotten to in all that time, Angrboda could only chuckle mirthfully at Cainabel's cute actions.

Cainabel could only grit her teeth in response, the topic that she would like to discuss with Angrboda was something sensitive, something that would determine her position in the future. As much as she didn't like to admit it, she was nervous.

Cainabel turned her gaze to Angrboda's merry 'children' to delay answering, of course, it was hard to say how that paternal relation works, before taking a sip of coffee from her cup. Of course, Cainabel would have preferred to sip expensive red wine, it suited her style far more than a mug of coffee, but the current situation made such indulgence impossible.

Angrboda didn't want Cainabel to set a 'bad example' for the children by consuming alcohol in front of them.

Altera could have made a little note that it was somewhat unusual to encounter a mother who considered the display of alcohol more dangerous to her children's psyche than the decision to let one of her daughters kill the other. But, as was said, Altera had been taught enough to know that not every discovery should be said out loud.

"I'd like to know…" Cainabel finally spoke up, preferring to rip off the band-aid once and for all.

"What do you plan to do after the whole Singularity situation is resolved?"

Angrboda glanced at Cainabel, then smiled a little, teasing. "Do I have to do something?"

Cainabel waited a moment and a second, waiting for the thought to continue, like 'do I have to do something when Ainz has already promised me to conquer the world' or 'I am already the future queen'. But instead of continuing on, cementing Cainabel's future plans, Angrboda returned to watching Jack, who continued to joyfully use the markers on the encyclopedia, despite Alice's many complaints.

Seeing that Angrboda was not going to talk further, Cainabel was forced to continue on talking. "But… You do have some plans, don't you?"

"Hmm…" Angrboda seemingly thought about her answer for a moment, then shook her head. "No, not really."

Cainabel frowned, now even showing more signs of aggression – no, more like irritation, which Altera had learned well enough, Cainabel was quick and open in her irritability. "You have something planned, don't you? I mean, any plans at all? You're not going to keep sitting still after the whole outside world is back in place and humanity is restored… are you?"

Angrboda only took another sip of her coffee mug as an answer, allowing Altera to refill the glass again before shifting her gaze to Cainabel and shrugging slightly. "No. I mean, I don't specifically plan on staying in one place, but I don't plan on leaving the confines of this Chaldea. I don't see the point."

"Don't see the point?" Cainabel frowned even more, but still kept any hostility at bay. "But… What about your ambitions? Plans? Your hatred of Humans?!"

"My hatred of humans?" The last word finally caught Angrboda's attention, causing her to turn to Cainabel and smile slightly. "No, I don't hate them, I just think of them as cockroaches… True, a smarter, more tenacious, and more palatable likeness of those odious insects, but cockroaches nonetheless."

"If you wake up to a cockroach crawling on your leg, you feel disgust, irritation, anger, and you flick that cockroach away. Whether it kills the bug? Does it matter?" Angrboda did finally condescend to explain her opinion to Cainabel – and, indirectly, to Altera.

"If you find a cockroach in your house, you also squash it, and if you see a cockroach nest in your house, you will do anything to destroy those. But on the other hand, if you were to walk down the street and saw a whole pile of cockroaches crawling – you're likely to only feel disgust, and just try to avoid them. Maybe if you're in a bad mood, you'll squash a dozen of them – and people are tasty enough, so you can snack on them if you want. But, in the end, only a fool would decide to devote their life to destroying all the cockroaches on this planet, all the people in this world. And only a pathetic person would decide to rule over cockroaches by conquering their realms, wouldn't they?" Angrboda lifted her mug slightly to her lips before looking at the cup of coffee before pausing and setting it back down for some reason without taking a sip.

Cainabel, as a vampire, had to agree, humans were a good enough and tasty snack – why Angrboda would compare them to such unpalatable things such as cockroaches, almost ruined her appetite.

Angrboda slightly regretted her comparison of humans with cockroaches… Come to think of it, cockroaches didn't whet her appetite at all. Maybe someone considered such dishes delicacies, but certainly not Angrboda, so her appetite, even in relation to the coffee, was definitely hurt by this discussion. The memory of foul arthropods, forced Angrboda to distract herself by watching the children, trying to regain a favorable frame of mind.

The silence seems to carry on, Cainabel, contemplating what was said, took a sip, along with Altera taking a sip from her own cup.

Altera wasn't used to concepts such as 'like' or 'dislike' – especially not in regard to instruments of war or people, and especially about food.

Strong black coffee, what was the point of it? Many people consume coffee to get their dose of caffeine, to gain a brief energy boost, allowing them to suppress their desire for sleep for a while, to boost their productivity for the brief foreseeable future. For Altera, this effect was meaningless. Her Endurance and Skills, ensured that she was in her absolutely perfect condition at all times, which, coupled with her Servant nature and Master's mana, allowed her to ignore any negative conditions affecting her body and psyche altogether.

Something like sleep deprivation was an alien concept for her.

So, with its intended effect as an energy booster useless for her, only the joy of appreciating the taste remained.

The taste of black strong coffee was disgusting.

A very strong odious taste, hitting all her taste receptors with a tart and bitter taste, coursing through her throat, with the bitter taste remaining on her tongue.

Bitter, strong, unpleasant – the three words with which Altera could describe the taste of coffee.

Altera set her cup of coffee aside before reaching for the sugar bowl, and beginning to add sugar to her coffee. Altera loved sweet things – so the taste of coffee could only be boosted with more sugar she added. The volume of her sip was only ten milliliters, which meant there was another one hundred and sixty-four milliliters in the mug… Hmm, the ideal proportion in that case would be…

"You mean, no plans at all? No desires? No ambition?" Knocking Altera out of her optimum plan of just adding the coffee to the sugar, Cainabel looked at Angrboda as if with challenge and condescension. But Altera noted that it was difficult for Cainabel to do so.

Given the way Angrboda had treated and behaved toward Cainabel, which made Cainabel's attitude more like that of an arrogant teenager, insulting their parent as an 'old wreck' not keeping up with the most fashionable trends. An expression which made Cainabel look away – before realizing that by doing so, she even looked more like a child who had suddenly realized that he was a child, and therefore had to act like an 'adult.'

Altera, noting this fact, shifted her gaze to Angrboda.- 'I wonder if this was Angrboda's special Skill, her Noble Phantasm – or a personal ability? Perhaps it wasn't Angrboda's ability at all, but that of any 'mother'? In that case, this scene was especially improbable, since Angrboda was by no means Cainabel's mother, though Angrboda claimed otherwise.'

"Depends on what you mean by ambition." Angrboda only grinned slightly at Cainabel's question, showing, for the first time, something more than her 'motherly' side for this conversation.

"Is living well with your family something ambitious or not? Is taking care of the kids a future plan or not? Dealing with all the people who will get in the way of my quiet happiness – I think I'm quite willing to do that. In other words, if the question were 'what's your specific plan of action after the Singularities are over', I would answer it like this…" Angrboda thought for a moment, before taking one sip of coffee, finishing the cup. Altera took her eyes off the sugar to pour a new cup of coffee for Angrboda, her assigned role in this conversation, then looked at the coffee pot, empty. And before Altera could brew another pot, Angrboda began speaking.

"I would be in Chaldea with my children, living a good life in which I could raise them decently and with a decent education, before letting them fly free, but never letting them forget that their home was here. Speaking specifically of me, I wouldn't leave this place until another apocalyptic event like the Singularities began, or until Ainz called for me. The children, however, after they are old enough, are free to leave the nest, I will not follow them or keep them safe. If they don't want to come home or ask for help, I won't force them. If they die, then that is the cruel price of their experience. But if they want to come back to me, I will always welcome them with open arms."

"And nothing more?! No quest for secret knowledge, no hunt for humans, no revenge on humanity and heroes for killing your children?!" Cainabel looked at Angrboda as if she'd never seen her before, and apparently her perception of the giantess before was quite different from what she was seeing now.

"Oh yes, of course, how could I have done otherwise? That, for example, that Beowulf…" Angrboda's eyes flashed with a sneer, as if the name was too 'big', too good for the legendary hero of the world, as if Angrboda saw him as nothing more than trash.

"That hideous beast, I'd kill a hundred of them if I saw them… Except, of course, unless Ainz decided to let them live for some plan of his – although even then, I would need reasons for not killing such 'large cockroaches' on sight. But the answer to that is simple – 'only if they appear before my eyes.' If such a creature appears within a dozen kilometers of Chaldea, my home, I'll bash its head in as soon as I feel its presence. If it exists on the other side of the world, as long as it doesn't piss me off, or do anything to attract my attention, it can continue existing – it's simple."

Angrboda shrugged, as if she couldn't understand how Cainabel couldn't grasp such a simple thought. "Everyone has a niche in this world – even deadly and horrific diseases that need to die out for the good of society. But not all people devote their time to fighting cancer or rabies, and as such, I won't devote my life to destroying 'monster killers'. I can only clap in admiration for my ambitious children if they decided to take on this responsibility and consider it my duty to help those when I see an opportunity before me, nothing more. After all…"

Angrboda took another sip, causing Altera to stare silently at the emptied coffee pot, juggling her need to brew another pot with listening to the conversation. "Scáthach still hasn't been eaten by me – and there's plenty of blood on her hands."

The last note, that Angrboda would happily kill one of the Servants if not for Ainz's presence, caused a chill to appear in the actually quite warm room.

"Children, who wants some candy!?" And just like that, Angrboda was easily distracted from her conversation with Cainabel, before rising and moving toward Jack. Who had instantly discarded the book and coloring pens, tossing towards Alice, who clearly felt grateful to Angrboda for being able to interrupt Jack's act of vandalism to Alice's favorite things, books.

"So Angrboda is out of the competition, that's good. Medb is ambitious, but she's completely useless with only Ainz in her mind – her plans for controlling the world come in at the millionth place, right after her plans to hold hands with Ainz." Cainabel returned to her musings, speaking under her breath, clearly having long since stopped seeing Altera as anything more than some kind of furniture or silent robot pouring coffee into her empty mug.

"So… Huh, it seems that my position as Ainz's Lieutenant is completely safe for lack of other applicants! Perfect!"

Grinning at her unexpected good fortune, Cainabel looked towards Altera, then frowned. "Aren't you putting too much sugar in your coffee, tin-can?"

"The limit of solubility has not been reached." Altera replied, nodding as she continued to stir the sugar in the mug and watch it dissolve in the coffee. Before, satisfied that the sugar was sufficiently stirred, she brought the drink to her lips and took a sip, noting inwardly with satisfaction that the bitter taste of the coffee had been overcome, and the drink was now sweet enough.

"Hmm, give it to me," Cainabel held out her hand without waiting for a response, already knowing what Altera would do in the next second. And indeed, Altera gave the drink easily, it's not like she enjoys the coffee enough to contest Cainabel on it.

Cainabel took a small sip, and immediately her face twisted in disgust that was hard to convey with human emotion. Unconsciously, her smile stretched inhumanly so that the corners of her lips stretched to the back of her head, contorting her face in a grimace of contempt. "How much sugar did you add to this?!"

"Two hundred and ninety-four grams," Altera answered calmly and honestly. "A full sugar bowl."

"This… This… " Cainabel frowned, but contrary to Altera's expectations, she did not toss the cup away, but instead set it aside and… How strange, Cainabel was not in any way gentle as she slammed the cup, but only a few drops spilled? How strange.

"Tin-can, I want to see you drink that crap!"

Did it seem to Altera that Cainabel tried not to spill Altera's drink, placing it on the table in disgust? Probably so, but… As was said, Altera had learned perfectly well that not every opportunity for a comment had to be taken – and so Altera placed her cup of coffee to her lips and took a not so-small sip, finishing the cup.

Indeed, the sweet things tasted the best… Now, if only Cainabel could stop looking at her as if she was eating a baby or something, that would be better.