Chapter 4: A Brush with Fear
Her next two days in the capitol were uneventful, she went over the logistics of supply with Robel and Gilcrest, throwing in tidbits about proper accountability and distribution of materials, and she made a point of touring the city with several people in tow taking notes about particular details of the reconstruction that were quickly written down, and speaking with the people to learn their concerns, she was the face of the rebuilding, and unsurprisingly, many asked about the assassination attempt by the priest of Alah Alaf, which Neia confirmed, prompting outrage from not only those who followed her beliefs, but even those who did not, who saw the hard work and relentless incorruptible efforts she put into reconstruction of homes and utilities depended upon by the common people. The story of how she'd killed the corrupt guard out of hand and recovered the supplies had become very well known. And of course, at each step of the way, she credited her work to the Sorcerer King. Sebas walked in a dignified position just behind her and silently approved of her continued praising of his master.
He, incidentally, drew many a curious glance. Dressed immaculately and with perfect posture, he radiated the aura of the perfect servant, and it enhanced Neia's reputation just to have him near. When she was not walking the city and meeting with the people, she spent her time at the headquarters area overseeing combat training of those who pursued strength, and in a moment of inspiration, she said, "Sebas...would you be so kind as to offer some of your excellent instruction to those present?"
And just like that, Black Justice gained the deadliest of instructors they could ask for in the combat butler.
Her speeches that evening drew new eyes, eyes that radiated hostility, she could feel them on her, and from his position nearby, Sebas could sense the hostility as well, and he scanned the rows of people to find its source. It did not take long, several armed men, presumably paladins, and several priests were watching the gathering. As they remained hostile...but not violent, Sebas considered his options, but ruled out actually culling them. Instead, he waited until Neia's covert search for the hostility caught up with his own, and when she removed her visor and stared at them, Sebas unleashed his killing intent directly at them, while concealing his own presence. The priests, being the weaker of the two groups, fell to their knees, while the paladins were barely able to stay on their feet, and only managed that by holding each other up. They beat a hasty retreat, and Sebas terminated his 'warning' as soon as Neia's visor went back on.
There were no more threats present, and Sebas was able to enjoy the rest of her speech uninterrupted.
The priests and paladins who had been radiating their hostility, however, were only glad that nobody interrupted their dead sprint to get the hell away from the growing gathering of Black Justice followers. They felt like they had sprinted over half the city when they stopped and caught their breath in a nearby alley. They leaned against the walls and gasped for breath, or simply collapsed onto the ground and hunched over.
"What...was that? What WAS THAT?" one paladin said, his voice filled with horror.
"I...I don't know." A priest said.
"She's a monster, no wonder she was the Sorcerer King's squire." Another managed to gasp out as he beat his own chest and coughed.
"She's the one who killed the Grand King Busar, that's why she wears his armor, and she actually avoided a blow from Remedios Custodio, remember...this is what we're dealing with. Do you doubt me now?" Gustav said to them, his face dark with reproach.
"No...no we do not." A priest said, "But what the hell are we supposed to actually DO? She's the liaison for the Sorcerer King, who has been providing ALL of the reconstruction supplies, and he's been doing so at no cost. From his Kingdom comes the very grain our people turn to bread, if something happens to her, it's an insult to him! And even if that weren't the case...that fool DID try to assassinate her!" His gaze went down to the dirty ground on which he had flopped himself, "Damn it all, that stupid fool...both of those stupid fools...they might as well have cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony for her temple!" The priest snapped and punched the ground, leading to him rubbing the now sore knuckles.
Gustav looked at his fellow paladins. "Ideas?" He asked.
One of them shrugged, "Try not to die?" He said with a weary half-smile.
Gustav stared daggers at him.
He continued, "Look, its not all bad, OK so Remedios screwed up...and so did that stupid priest, but Neia Baraja will be gone in less than a month, sure she's been...a boon in the capitol, like her or not, but outside of here she has no influence, she"s just going to be guarding a merchant caravan for three months, we can take advantage of her absence to do more ourselves and win back the trust of the people, we just can't make a big deal about this trial, that priest is already dead, the only thing we could do to change that is to put ourselves under the axe with him, give up on that, and focus on trying to grow our support here and in the court. She may be a monster at combat, but she was never more than a squire. What could she possibly know about intrigue and political manipulation?" The paladin said.
Gustav thought it over as the man finished, he tapped his fingers on his armor as he pondered what he'd just heard. It was a fair point. "Alright, it runs against my preference, but if we can't just kill her bodily, we can at least erode her support."
Back at the gathering...
Neia completed her speech to profound cheers and then went out among the people, offering advice and comfort. Sebas made mental notes of approval on how Neia treated those she encountered. When it was over, he returned to her side and said, "You show great concern for their well-being." It might have been a mere comment, but his voice carried a hint of praise, and Neia accepted it gracefully.
"Of course," she said, "helping the weak is common sense." Sebas barely concealed his pleasure at what she said as she reminded him of his maker's words. "True, they may be weak now, but so are children, help them now, they may grow strong, guide them now, they may grow wise, build them now, and they may endure tomorrow." Neia said as they walked back to her quarters. When they arrived, Sebas asked, "Have you always thought this way?"
Neia laughed and shook her head negatively, "No. I mean, I did want to help my country...but I gained most of this understanding as a result of my time with the Sorcerer King. I do not refer to him as 'the god of justice' just because it is a cool title." She giggled a little at the way she put it. Sebas let out a rare smile and said, "I believe my master, and my maker, would both be very proud to hear how you spoke just now."
"Thank you, Sebas." Neia said with a deep and clear sincerity, "I'm heading to sleep now." She said and closed her door as he stationed himself outside.
The last day of her time in the capitol before returning to her training, was spent merely socializing, a day of ease was sorely needed, and for once, she got it...but the truth was, even though she needed it, she couldn't help but be eager to return to the realm of her divine god of justice, and she practically skipped out the gate to meet her chosen elites.
The gate opened as expected, and Sebas stepped through, followed immediately by Neia and then the remainder. They found themselves on the training grounds, where a series of armed skeletons stood in perfectly spaced rows, and standing in front of them was Cocytus.
Both humans and lizardmen formed up in rows in front of him, and Cocytus did not waste time on formalities, "Repetition is the key to mastery. According to the books of the supreme ones, it takes roughly five thousand repetitions to remove the necessity of thought before action and turn combat maneuvers into instinctive responses. So guess what we'll be doing."
They could practically hear his grin. He was clearly enjoying himself.
"You will start with the most important maneuver in combat. That would be...not getting stabbed." The curious looks were quickly replaced with laughs from both the humans and lizardmen alike at his on-point humor.
"It is funny, yes, but being stabbed is not, and even if your armor is excellent, better not to be stabbed in the first place, so getting out of the way of an attack, is better than surviving it, this action will be followed by your response to avoidance, you will begin to chain your actions together, until every single act becomes second nature, and then you will do unit maneuvers and practice concealment, evasion, and distraction..."
It was...a very long session, made possible only by virtue of the rings they were given that negated fatigue and the need for sleep or food, or water. The skeleton Neia's face tried to stab her in the face, and she quickly avoided it. She was getting better at that. Gradually, she noticed how she could predict the skeleton's actions based on his motions, raising his sword to stab her, had certain precursor actions that had to be taken, raising the sword to position, and as it grew faster, knowing in advance what it was going to do became ever more important. Others she saw around her clearly had begun to grasp the same things, and the grinding effort began to pay off. The timeless moment had given them unlimited time, and Neia was certainly profiting from it.
One exercise transitioned into the other, which itself transitioned into the other, as instincts were forged by grinding away at weakness and incompetence and inexperience in the lot of them, until the time came for Neia and Zaryusu to go to their own tasks as leaders, and they were again in the library.
The stack of books was still waiting for them, as were their copies of 'manga' for recreational reading. Neia picked up a book by Vegetius, while Zaryusu began reading a book on a conflict called 'The Peloponnesian War'. Hour after timeless hour again they ground away at what they had come to recognize was their incredible ignorance by constant study, and the goblin strategist, at every step, was questioning and quizing them about what they read, until he was satisfied the knowledge had been internalized.
How many books they read, they could not say, but Zaryusu and Neia shared a common look of awe as they began to understand how little they really knew about anything, and how much they believed they had known before coming to the library of a god.
Oddly enough, the goblin strategist had walked away from them for a moment and was fiddling at a table for several moments, and they watched curiously until he called them over. As he turned to them, a pair of undead brought over two easels and canvases. "As commanders in battle, you must learn take everything in from the battlefield, as swiftly as you can, even instantly, in order to know how to properly order your forces, this is counter to nature to do, so it must be trained into you, as surely as the instinct to get out of the way of a sword must be honed, so too must this be, and to that end, I have laid out a portrait of a landscape borrowed from the supreme ones. You will have only three seconds, and then you may not look again, you must recreate that scene as accurately as you can by painting it. For now, your sword is your paintbrush and your armor is your memory, BEGIN!" he snapped, and they glanced at the landscape, "Time!" the goblin strategist said, "Eyes only on your canvas until you are ready for me to judge your work."
Unsurprisingly...their first attempts were...not good quality. They actually laughed at each other's work, not only because the painting job was really bad, but because, to their surprise, they had missed so much in what seemed at first to be a simple exercise.
However, if at first you don't succeed...try...try...try again...and again...and again...and again...until success. Beside and behind them were stacks of canvases as fresh landscape portraits were brought out, each of them beautiful to behold in its own right, but none of which had scenes that looked even remotely familiar. Oddly enough, Neia found that she actually 'enjoyed' painting, she found it to be peaceful, and after so many attempts at recreating scenes, she found that she was gradually developing an affinity for it, and her work quality was improving, not only in the details remembered but in the realism with which she could represent them. Zaryusu, for his part, seemed to find it very strange, and Neia wondered if lizardmen had the art of painting in his homeland.
The chance to ask did not come for quite some time, not until the goblin strategist was satisfied, and allowed them time to read some recreational materials. Both of them finished their respective series, and Neia chose another called 'Record of Lodoss War' while Zaryusu chose something called 'Monster Musume'. They each enjoyed their respective choices and began to appreciate the idea of reading purely for pleasure. However, eventually word reached them that Ainz was ready to send them back.
While departing was regrettable, they would both agree that the feast beforehand was not. The varieties of fish that Zaryusu and his lizardmen were able to consume and the manner in which they were prepared had become the stuff of legend in the lizardman village, and a revolution in food preparation and cooking had been set off, to say nothing of the ideas they were bringing with them along the way whenever Zaryusu spoke of the things he read in the divine library. The humans were no different in that regard, as on their free time they tried to learn how to recreate the dishes they enjoyed most, using whatever they could find within the capitol, several, having had the concept of grills explained to them, had begun trying to create grills out of the scrap they could find in the ruins, and experienced some mixed successes.
As always, Ainz took a moment to speak to Neia and find out how things had progressed in her time in the Capitol, however short it had been. Neia didn't question it. When it rained, it poured, and events could turn on a dime. She informed her god of the impending council meeting and the trial of the priest, and he nodded sagely and said, "Everything will be fine. Go, and do great things."
Neia grinned with enthusiasm. "In your name, my lord." She said, and when the gate opened, she walked through with a smile on her face.