Chương 544: 54
After the War Chapter 2Zanac rubbed his temples with a tired sigh, looking over piles upon piles of paperwork.
"You seem tired, darling. How about a short break?" Zalarta asked with a smooth and seductive voice.
Zanac looked up at her. His wife was indulging in her hobby of painting, while he was tirelessly working to deal with the after-war rebuilding of Re-Estize. He glanced over her perfect figure, clad in an elegant dress, knowing what sort of relaxation she was suggesting.
"I'm sorry, but I can't. I have to finish all this today." He answered, contemplating if maybe there was a time for a break.
Zalarta walked behind him, leaning over the large chair he was sitting in and massaged his shoulders "You work better when your mind is rested."
"I…I know, but I can't. The Emperor wants to restore the empire as fast as possible, and I can't let him down."
Zalarta moved even further down, gave his neck a slow lick, stopping by his ear, and whispered. "You know how worked up I will be by the evening, don't you?"
A pleasant shiver went up Zanac's spine as his mind was giving in to the temptation. She knew far too well how to play him. However, a knock on the door interrupted any chance of playtime.
"Come in." Zanac said, trying to not sound annoyed.
"My apologies for disturbing you, your highness." The head butler of the castle came in and bowed. "Lady Renner has arrived and requested an audience."
'Request? That's what she calls it now.' "Very well, I will meet her in the main reception room."
There was little time to prepare to face his monstrous sister, and knowing her, she had come for a reason. What that reason was he had no idea.
Zanac arrived in the reception room ten minutes later with Zalatra by his side. He could feel his wife's grip on his hand tightening as they came face to face with the Apostle of Trickery. By her side, as always, was Climb, if the rumors were correct he would soon become Renner's husband.
Renner's face twisted into a smile as she and Climb lightly bowed. "Zanac, Zalatra, it is good to see you both again."
In the current situation, it was hard to tell who outranked who, as in a technical sense, both directly served different Gods. Once she was his sister, but Renner had denounced her family name, and even mentioning her relation to the Vaiself family was a grave insult to the former princess.
"Likewise, Renner. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Zanac said, motioning for both Renner and Climb to sit down.
"I thought we were close friends? Wouldn't it be natural for me to visit you from time to time?" Renner said as she sat down, pulled Climb closer to her, grabbed his arm, and put it around her waist.
Zanac raised his eyebrow but didn't fall for the bait and kept a polite smile on his face, waiting for a follow-up as he sat down with Zalarta, who also kept a strained smile in the presence of a monster that had caused her falling out of the good graces of Lord Ulbert.
After the Great Mother was summoned, Zalarta received an official apology from the Demon God about his harsh treatment of her, but there was no doubt in her mind it was only because he wanted to appease Lilith and be on her good side.
"The reason is work-related I'm afraid."
"Work? Our lines of work don't exactly cross."
"It is about new settlers that are coming to our world. A race called jinn had come to serve my lord as his agents, and we need to discuss where their village in Re-Estize could be built.'' Renner started as she pulled a map out of the void, adding, "Lord Ulbert taught me an inventory spell."
"I see. Do you have a specific location in mind?" Zanac asked.
The map that Renner pulled out had a light glow about it. He saw one of the figures depicting an army move to another location.
"Does that map show what is happening in real time?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Yes. A recent creation of one of Lord Tabula's servants. This copy is for you. Now then, I think the best location would be here. They need a remote location as another addition to the intelligence wing."
"I assume I can request whatever is necessary from the empire to build the village for them?"
"Of course. The next group is the children of Lilith that have migrated to the empire because of an agreement between her and Emperor Ainz."
"Do they need a special location built for them? As I understand it, most would prefer to live in the large cities." Zanac said, glancing at his wife.
"True, but there is a request from a high-ranking incubus to make a village just outside the capital with an additional request of building a statue of Empress Albedo for them to worship."
"Noted. I'll see it done. Anything else?"
"My, you are eager." Renner said with a smirk.
'Not going to let her get a rise out of me.' he promised himself.
"We both know that the Emperor wants to repair the empire as fast as possible, and I, for one, would like to carry out his will to the best of my ability." he said in a flat tone.
"As expected.'' Renner said with a wide smile, showing her needle-like teeth.
'I thought she could make them look like human ones? No matter, I am not letting her win.' "Is there another reason for your visit, dear sister, or was it purely for work-related purposes?"
Renner's smile faded for a moment, but then returned just as quickly. 'Who would have thought that Zanac out of all people would grow a backbone, how amusing. He even dared to call me his sister! I better not antagonize him too much, a feud between him and me will not benefit the Empire. The Emperor might get angry if I disrupt the work of his servants.'
"No, Climb and I have a few other regional leaders to visit, so we will be on our way." Renner said, standing up. "Farewell, for now, King Zanac."
Before Zanac could respond, she was already gone.
"I'm proud of you for standing up to that monster." Zalarta said, pressing against him with a predatory smile.
"I should…"
"You are not going anywhere." She said, leaning in and extending her right arm towards the door. "Lock!" The door lock snapped shut with a loud click. "You will relax now, okay? I insist."
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Ainz pushed the pile of documents he needed to go over to the right as Splendora got onto his lap and put crayons and sheets of paper in the middle of the large office table.
To make her more comfortable, he activated the energy body over his legs and moved the chair closer to the table.
"Thank you, papa." Splendora said and picked up the crayon to start drawing.
Ainz just chuckled and leaned a bit to the side to do his own work. The restoration process after the short but devastating war was ongoing, not to mention the absolute onslaught of various beings wanting to make deals, requesting permission to live in the empire, or simply asking for employment.
'Being at the head of a pantheon is hard!' Ainz remarked to himself and picked up the next report.
'Demiurge wants to use the armies he and Pandora prepared, and expand east. Hmm, I thought this one was put on hold. I better send this to Buku, so she can decide what to do.' He quickly teleported the document away.
"Papa, look! I drew the palace." Splendora tugged his sleeve
"That's very nice, Dora." he absentmindedly answered, giving a slight glance at the drawing.
After the incident, Dora was either with Rubedo or in his and Albedo's care at all times. Even if she was capable of defending herself, the prospect of inviting the attention of some unknown beings lurking beyond the worlds was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. Not to mention, the presence of Regoz was also not exactly welcomed, even if he said that his duty was to protect Splendora.
Just as he was picking up the next document, Tabula barged in without knocking as he had the tendency to do.
"Papaw! You should knock, it's not polite to just come in." Splendora scolded him, stopping the brain eater in his tracks.
Ainz barely managed to stop himself from laughing as Tabula sheepishly said "Sorry."
"Did you need anything?" Ainz asked once his emotional suppression kicked in and stopped his urge to laugh.
"Ahm, yes. The souls gathered in the war and in Slane have been spent."
"Do we need more?"
"Not necessarily. I modified the summoning spell using the knowledge you gained from the traveler, and we can summon and reshape the rest of our friends with our mana, however, if a war is planned we can use souls as well."
"Not at the moment. How many still need summoning?"
"Fourteen, not to mention the closest friends and relatives of everyone, which, at this point, is over one hundred."
"But we don't need to uplift them, just empower them so they don't age."
"I know. Also since, you told me to let them choose if they want their game or human forms, I must inform you that besides Nishikienrai, the others chose to remain human."
"So they don't even want the divinity?"
"Some do. Sophie is conducting interviews and will provide you with the list once everyone has acclimatized and given coherent answers."
"Oh, that reminds me, could you provide the list of people who are still on Earth and should not be harmed?"
"Why?" Tabula asked.
"Pandora is starting the operation on Earth and will soon establish a base of operations in New York and Tokyo. I would prefer it if we didn't harm anyone important by accident." Ainz said, giving a pat to Splendora who was listening in on the conversation.
"He is on Earth already?" Tabula asked.
"Yes. The sooner he can start, the sooner we can start figuring out how to handle Earth."
"When will big brother Pandora be back?" Splendora asked.
"Maybe in the next few days. I will tell him to come to play with you once he has a moment to spare." Ainz said.
"Yay!" Splendora said, swaying in his lap from side to side happily.
"That means we need to start constructing the test site on this world's moon."
"Huh? Why do you need a test site on the moon?"
"Do you want to detonate a nuke somewhere within the Empire or drop one on some neighboring nation then?"
"Right, nukes. I guess a test site on the moon will be the best option." Ainz said, remembering why the open invasion of Earth was put aside. Even though conventional weapons could still harm anyone below level seventy, the armies of Earth could be overwhelmed with undead wielding the weapons Pandora had set up for mass production.
That wasn't the case with the nuclear blast. A guardian and player would survive it with nominal damage, but they needed to be sure that the remaining radiation could be removed with magical means, otherwise one mistake and the Earth would be an irradiated wasteland as, it was public knowledge that about forty countries and a few corporations owned nuclear weapons.
"Please prepare an undead workforce for me. Setting up an artificial atmosphere for living workers would be a waste of time unless we want to start colonizing the moon for resources."
"Can we do that?"
"With the help of Blue Planet, we can turn it into a forest-covered paradise if we want to. Also, the other druids, in his service, are slowly growing in power as well."
"Put that idea aside for now. We have enough to do as is."
"You better write it down if you have such plans for the future. I will stop caring the moment I leave your office." Tabula said with a chuckle.
'Of course, you will forget. I wonder how often Mariposa has told you to put on pants before leaving your quarters!'
"In either case. I will wait for the requests and reports so we can move on with the plan."
"I will take care of it." Tabula said and walked out of the office.
Conquering Earth would not be the hardest task. Nazarick had enough geniuses that they could easily adapt to mass-producing advanced technology, not to mention there were thousands of beings above level seventy that would be unstoppable in conventional warfare. The truly hardest part would be to repair all the damage that was done to the planet in the name of progress and corporate profits.
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