229 Chapter 229

Remedios' frown sat on her face in the command building as if it were part of the architecture itself. She hadn't smiled since burning the last spriggan scout. 'At least those demihumans make good firewood.' She glanced at the crackling fire, the head was still burning, the eyes were empty, but the sparks of the fire burning within, the little tongues of fire that made their way out of the eye sockets, gave the impression of life where there was none.

She felt a warmth in her spirit that had nothing to do with the flames themselves when she glanced at the burning kindling which had once been a living spriggan. But the reports she was looking at in the highest tower in Kalinsha, those vexed her.

'Why isn't she attacking? She 'needs' this city. I have a ballistae ready to deal with her dragon, I've got supplies enough for a year long siege… but why isn't she 'here'?!' Remedios stood up from her desk with such force that her chair toppled back and slammed to the floor, her hands tense on the surface of her desk, she went to the larger map on the wall.

The glow stones cast white light about the room. She folded her hands behind her back and stared at it, placing another criss-cross set of lines on the map where the next plumes of smoke rose up. 'Another village, she's burned thirty of them this week, and a dozen towns… but the casualties are very low… what is she 'doing'?!' Remedios asked herself, and struggled for an answer just beyond her reach.

She thought back to the moment on the wall, shoving her sword into the guts of the treasonous bitch. 'I should have done what she wanted, if she'd gotten a quick death this wouldn't be a problem now… but she deserved a slow end… that's the whole point of that kind of death! An example to others about treason!' Remedios exclaimed inside her own mind and her mailed fist shot out and struck the stone. Her fist pierced the rock and sank halfway to the forearm, scattering stone chips and chunks around her.

"Damn it." Remedios hissed, "I need to know what she's doing… we've fortified the cities, but if she keeps burning towns and villages then that will crush morale… I need a win, even if it's a small one we can magnify…"

She blinked, the words were so obvious. "I need something to rally people… I don't even have to win, I just have to 'do' something…"

She reached for the bell and rang it several times, calling in one of her aides. He entered, his face drawn and thick with worry, his beard less well kept than she would have liked, he snapped a salute of fist over heart, without the prewar crispness she preferred.

"Gather a battalion, we're going to launch an attack." Remedios said, and he immediately stiffened up.

"Ma'am!" He barked his enthusiastic reply.

"Nothing large, but we need to put these animals to the test." Remedios replied, "Now go, make sure they're ready to go by morning."

"Ma'am!" He said again, and departed, leaving Remedios with a smile on her face despite the sight of another distant plume of smoke rising far, far away to kiss the distant sky.

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Ainz did his best to move with the music of the Holy Kingdom, his hand held on Calca's waist as the woman moved to the sound of the music, following his lead, she kept her eyes fixed up on his. 'Thank goodness I was lucky enough to watch a ball in the Draconic Kingdom. If I hadn't seen that, I might have learned nothing… but still, am I doing this right?' Ainz wondered.

Queen Calca seemed to sense his uncertainty as he darted his eyes to look at others as they moved to the noise of the fife and the stringed instruments.

"You're doing fine, Allfather Ainz." Calca whispered to him. "You were not expected to know our dances… you can relax with me."

Ainz felt the hint of tension in his hands that he thought he'd hidden, melt away under her gentle smile when he looked down at the Holy Queen. "Thank you… I am afraid I am not a gifted dancer." It was tempting to lie, but he thought the better of it.

"I would never have guessed." Calca said, her right hand was up against the side of his chest, he was too tall for her to reach his shoulder easily. Her other hand was held on his waist, her words had the echo of sincerity, her eyes warm and kind. "But even if I had… you come to help us, we would be cruel and foolish both to make fun of you for trying what is new to you."

"That is more cynical than I expected from your reputation." Ainz said quietly as they slowly twirled away from the center.

The dance of the Roble Holy Kingdom was a particular spiral like process, while the Queen was the center at the start, the whole whirled out slowly until that which was at the center was eventually out on the far edge. No couple was dancing 'alone' but rather the whole court danced as one, and it was now that they were on the outer fringe that they could speak with quiet candor.

Calca's smile, once warm, trembled and became bitter. "You know what has happened… my idealism died the day my people came to kill me… I know better now. My dreams ruined waking lives… it brings me to where I am now. I hope," she looked away from him, "that this is not a problem."

Her words carried a great deal with them, he couldn't have missed it if he tried. His heart skipped a beat, Albedo's work was responsible for much of that, he was sure. 'I'm the villain in her world, and she doesn't know it…' He felt vaguely ill, but the events of the past left him hardier than before. A part of him ached for the woman in his hands.

'They would do the same to me… she worships the four… she would have killed all my children…' He reminded himself, but with her vulnerable smile up at him, it was hard to picture such cruelty.

"My Kingdom… you know about it?" He asked as the music slowed to a stop.

When the music died, servants who lined the walls doing nothing made their exit, and then the nobles moved to the walls instead while a long table was brought in and chairs were laid out.

Before she could answer, Ainz asked, "Are we expected to make a speech, or can we speak privately?"

The Queen said nothing at first, she simply looked around and gestured to Kelart.

It wasn't lost on Ainz that Kelart was watching alone from the wings, her eyes unblinking, her hands wringing in front of her waist.

When the Queen called her over, Kelart responded with swift clicking steps over the stone, but before she could even ask what the Queen wished, Calca put her hand on Kelart's cheek and said, "Handle the speech for me… mind the feast… I am going to speak privately with the Allfather."

Kelart gave a tiny nod, put her hand up over the back of Queen Calca's, gave the fingers and thumb one small squeeze, and when the last of the table was assembled, she went away without a word to the head of the table.

"We can go, please, follow me, Your Majesty." Queen Calca said with a whisper and put her back to Kelart, taking Ainz's arm and leading him out of the ballroom, he walked beside her in silence, passing guards who watched one by one until they were out of view and ascending a long spiral staircase which forced them to walk much closer together if one was not going to fall behind the other.

Calca's hold on his arm tightened, and Ainz did not let go to step behind her, the only noise was their gentle steps on the gray stone, and Calca's own breathing which had grown slightly louder as they drew closer to her private quarters.

The quarters were unguarded, which was reason enough for Ainz to think something was amiss, but he said nothing as Calca opened the door and stepped within. She closed the door with one swift motion and locked it as soon as they were alone.

When they were alone, Calca looked up at him, her eyes were a mix of anticipation, her body was pressed back against the door as if she worried she had not locked it.

"I know of your Kingdom." She finally answered the question he asked minutes earlier. "You treat demiumans as equals to humans, you rule over dwarves, lizardmen, some mole-like creature I don't remember the name of, and dark elves. More than that, you somehow have peace. Yes, Your Majesty, I know of your Kingdom." Calca's eyes never waved from his own, she put her hand behind her back and the sound of metal sliding over metal resounded as she bolted the door shut, ensuring total privacy.

"This isn't a problem? You worship the four, don't you?" Ainz tried to focus on what she said, not her increased breathing and the tenseness of her body, they remained several feet apart, he did not come closer.

"If it saves my nation… demons would be welcome to have farms here." Calca said with bitter frustration, she clenched her jaw, then spoke again, "My eyes are open… the elf rebellion is our fault. The demihuman invasion is our fault. So much of what we did, only made enemies, and what has our faith brought us but more conflict and misery?"

Ainz didn't answer her, he instead took a step back, and let her take another step forward, her bare leg exposed with one long stride of her own. "My brother is a pawn of the South, and I don't know whether he is willingly so or not. My temples mostly support the policies of Remedios that plunged us into this mess in the first place. I meant what I said, I offer you my hand in marriage, my Kingdom as my dowry, if you will only save it." She answered him.

"Your laws… demihuman equality, if it stops demihuman destruction, I will make them our own." Calca said and reached behind her back.

'Is she reaching for a weapon… a wand… this is…' Ainz struggled to catch up, his body was responding to her, the low voice she used was steady as that one long thigh baring step. He moved another pace back.

"Calca-" Ainz began, his eyes darting around the royal room, he took another step back as she stepped forward.

"My people are dying out there… I'm more cynical than I was, I know what that sounded like. But We are the Queen, and We have our place for a reason." Her voice became powerful, certain, she took a long step forward. "The Barajas, the mother and father of the Queen of Frost, refused to tell me their daughter's weakness, if she has any. But they told me how to defeat her anyway, even if they meant it as a mockery."

The Queen's strides picked up the pace and Ainz's heart thudded in his chest, her hands continued to move behind her back, "My Kingdom needs a new direction, a new way of doing things, a new future or we have none. Your gifts, your presence, show me what that is!" Queen Calca exclaimed as Ainz fell back on her bed to land on the thick, broad mattress with its bright shining fur blankets.

What Calca was doing was evident a moment later, her dress fell away, exposing her naked flesh beneath. She stood there, naked as the day of her birth, exposed to his eyes as Ainz sat up. She made no move to touch him, nor did she make any attempt at hiding any inch of her body from his eyes. She let him look, her breasts lacked the abundance of a succubus, but her skin was pale as cream but for the little pink nipples ther rested at the peak of her bosom. Her form was as shapely as a violin, curving in a gentle slope at the hips, her sex glistened a little in the light that came through the window as she anticipated what she brought him to her bedchamber for.

He sat up straight, nor was his back the only thing to straighten upright, he was briefly at a loss, his mouth went dry, his lips moved, her eyes looked away.

"Does… does my body not please you? Am I… not to your liking?" Calca asked, her mind waged a silent war with her hands, they moved to conceal herself from him, and she forced them back away, leaving them to tremble at a stalemate with an unspoken insecurity.

"Is it- Is it that your Lordship is like me?" Calca asked, a tiny and reticent voice came out where a powerful one had been before.

"I-I no!" Ainz stammered and half shouted, "I-I, er, that is… you are beautiful… but… what do you mean 'like you'?" The question at least would buy him time, and he mentally suppressed a sigh of relief.

"Meaning you prefer your own sex." Calca explained, and 'that' brought a blush to her face, though she did nothing to cover up. "No," she said a moment later when she saw his arousal poking against the fabric of his dark robes, "that isn't it."

"You are one of those sorts…?" Ainz asked, in his exploration of the New World, little was written on the subject except for one thing, 'The strong are expected to produce children, and so too are royalty, meaning-"

'Oh.' He realized.

"I see that my Lord understands." Calca's voice became a little more confident, a little smirk on her face as some of the previous insecurity fled with the obvious rise of his manhood.

"Kelart." Ainz guessed.

Calca approached and put a hand on his robed shoulder, seated as he was, their height was nearly equal. "Yes. But nothing ever happened. Nothing could. She is my servant, and her family is from peasant stock, so no matter how high she rises, a servant is all she could ever be. As long as I rule that is how it is, and my brother, no… nobody else in this Kingdom, is fit to rule. Even when I was a fool, a naive fool… it was because I wanted what was best for all… that is still true, if I leave the throne to anyone else, they will do only what is best for a few. So… I am trapped… We are the Queen, and so We must be until We die." Her use of the royal We, he picked up, was her formal expression of office.

'Not just one person, but all persons…' He realized, and it was difficult not to admire her in that moment, he was lost in that thought to such a degree that he did not notice she was pulling his robes off of his arms.

It set them on a common ground that Ainz had not considered, "If My Lord is not of that view then…" Calca brought her face close to his ear so that her cheek was pressed against his own as the falling robe bared his torso, "we have a bargain to seal between nations, as only Kings and Queens can do… lie with me… lie with me and make us one." She said in a dusky, throaty voice, then brought her face back and before he could say anything more as he opened his mouth, she pressed her lips to his, capturing them in a kiss.

'I've never- I don't know, but wha-' A thousand thoughts began and died in a second, and ten thousand thoughts died in two, her hands moved over his body, tearing his robe away, the throbbing of his body and its hungers left him gasping when the kiss broke, she was pressing him down toward the bed, and for an instant all other worries and fears melted away to nothing as the warmth of her skin and her breath began to mingle with his own with her body's intimate touch.

'Shut up, Ainz.' He told himself and did his best to remember what lessons he learned from Albedo, in order to seal this bargain well.