Chapter 91: A Monster's Mercy
Crusch knelt in the wet earth, white scales showing through the gaps in the grass camouflage, catching the sunlight in a dull gleam.
Her head was lowered nearly to the level of the marsh.
"I accept."
The words came from somewhere deep in her throat, dry and rough, as though she had spent everything she had just to produce them.
But for the continuation of her people, she had opened her mouth.
Ainz Ooal Gown stood before her, feeling something quietly pleased moving through him.
"Good."
He turned. The hem of his black robe swept over the wetland, trailing a faint current of air.
"Lead the way."
The Red Eye Tribe's settlement was larger than Ainz had anticipated.
Simple wooden structures were scattered across the wetland, each one built with its foundation sitting in the marsh or shallow water, supported by roughly ten thick wooden posts. The design was practical, suited to the wetland's moisture and shifting water levels.
The walls of the chieftain's dwelling were painted with white totems, and the interior had no windows, only several ventilation openings, keeping the inside dim. It had been built that way to protect Crusch from prolonged sunlight.
But Ainz's gaze wasn't on any of this.
He was looking at the space beside Crusch.
There, standing together, were forty-odd small lizardmen hatchlings.
Their scales still carried the soft sheen of the young, their colors running from pale green to deep brown.
Some were clinging to Crusch's legs. Some were hiding behind her, or pressing against each other, looking up at the tall skeleton before them with cautious eyes that still held the round quality of the very young.
Ainz's jaw dropped open slowly.
Even for reptiles, they breed a lot.
The sheer number had actually triggered his undead forced calm.
He had assumed "children" would mean a handful at most. Not this.
"Daring to deceive Ainz-sama."
Albedo's voice came from behind him, cold as the ice that never thawed inside the Ice Prison.
She stepped forward. The hem of her white dress dragged a faint line through the mud.
"These are clearly the entire tribe's hatchlings."
Her gaze moved across them. Every small lizardman her eyes touched drew back involuntarily. A few of the youngest had retreated entirely behind Crusch, only the tip of a tail still visible, trembling.
Albedo turned toward Ainz.
"Ainz-sama, this foolish and ignorant creature has betrayed your generosity. Please permit me to deal with it."
Her voice was so gentle it was almost sweet. The words that came out of it were entirely without warmth.
Crusch's body shuddered.
She raised her head. Unmistakable panic moved through those red eyes.
Her words came faster than before. She was afraid that if she spoke slowly, she wouldn't get to speak at all.
"No, that's not it, Ainz-sama."
She drew a deep breath and worked to steady her voice.
"As chief of the Red Eye Tribe, every child in the tribe is my adopted child."
The Red Eye Tribe lizardmen around her began nodding, almost simultaneously.
Ainz raised his hand, finger bones pressing against his skull.
Slightly miscalculated.
He let out a quiet internal sigh.
"But I already made you a promise. I'll allow all of you to live."
The moment those words reached her, Crusch's body seemed to expend its last reserves. She nearly folded where she knelt, but inside her, something long clenched finally released.
Ainz's gaze shifted from the hatchlings to the other side of the settlement.
There stood the adult Red Eye Tribe lizardmen.
Their numbers were considerably greater than the hatchlings'. Their scales were marked with battle totems, and they held bone spears in their hands.
Fear showed in their eyes. But more than fear was a wooden blankness, the look of creatures that had already accepted their fate.
Ainz looked at them.
"As for you."
The moment he spoke, a deeper silence fell over the entire settlement.
"I grant you the special right to take your own lives."
The instant those words landed, nearly every Nazarick member present turned to look at Ainz.
Demiurge's mouth curved into a genuine smile. He tilted his head slightly toward Cocytus beside him and said quietly: "Ainz-sama's mercy truly exceeds all imagination."
Cocytus exhaled a breath of cold air. His compound eyes remained fixed on Ainz's back.
"Indeed. For a warrior, granting defeated opponents the right to end their own lives is the preservation of their final dignity."
Albedo, both hands folded against her chest, gave an involuntary small motion.
"Ah, Ainz-sama~"
The adult lizardmen looked at each other.
But not one of them chose to resist.
They had seen the aftermath of what Nazarick had done to the other tribes. If the wetland hadn't already been sealed, cutting off any possibility of the whole tribe relocating, they would never have come to gamble on a demon's mercy.
But now, at least the hatchlings could live.
The older priests stepped forward out of the formation first.
Their scales had lost the luster of youth and were marked all over with the traces of years.
The old priest at the front stopped, turned, and took one last look at the small figures gathered around Crusch.
Those children were the continuation of his life.
He brought his gaze back. He raised his weathered hand.
[Lion Heart].
The effect was a strengthening of courage.
It was the last gift he could give his people.
His hand came down.
He gripped the bone spear at his side and pressed its tip against his own chest.
The spear went in.
The younger lizardmen tightened their holds on their weapons.
They looked at the fallen priests and offered them their final blessing.
Then they raised their spears and turned them on themselves.
Blood fell.
Crusch knelt on the ground, her white scales splattered with the blood of her people. Her hands trembled, pressing over the eyes of a hatchling in front of her.
"Close your eyes. Don't look."
Her voice was shaking.
The other hatchlings around her closed their eyes.
Demiurge stood a short distance away, watching this.
His eyes were alight with something that looked like genuine pleasure. The look of someone watching a carefully staged drama, savoring every turn.
Albedo stood beside him. Her own smile carried the same satisfaction, her fingers tapping lightly against her chin, as though tasting something fine.
Ainz stood at the front. He watched the lizardmen fall, one after another, their blood soaking into the mud.
Strange. By any logic, I should be disturbed by this.
The thought came up from somewhere beneath his consciousness. But it arrived with the detachment of an outside observer.
If it had been his original self watching this scene, he thought, the reaction would have been one of speechlessness.
But now, in Ainz Ooal Gown, there was nothing stirring.
Well. These are ultimately minor concerns.
He pushed the confusion aside.
For Ainz now, the only things that mattered were his companions' work and his companions themselves. Everything he had done was simply to deal with the threats to that work, and to find those companions who might also be somewhere in this world.
I believe you'd understand my actions. Touch Me-san. Peroroncino-san. And Takemikazuchi-san.
Ainz raised his hand and activated his undead creation.
Dark red light poured from between his finger bones, moving through the air as though alive, then splitting into countless fine tendrils that burrowed into the bodies lying in the mud.
The fallen lizardmen rose again. But their movements were mechanical. Whatever had lived in them before was gone.
Crusch forced herself not to cry. Tears turned in her eyes without falling.
She was afraid that tears would anger Ainz, and those living hatchlings would face death again because of it.
The last adult lizardman rose from the mud and walked, stiffly, into the undead formation. The bone spear in his hand still carried his own blood from before.
Ainz surveyed this newly formed undead unit.
Green Claw, Sharp Tail, Small Fang, Red Eye: the undead of four tribes had become a single force, standing in precise formation across the wetland.
He gave a satisfied nod and turned to Crusch, still kneeling.
"From now on, you'll be responsible for directing them to collect resources in the area."
"As you command, Ainz-sama." Crusch's voice held nothing but a stillness like death.
Ainz said nothing more.
He thought to himself that having Crusch continue working alongside her tribespeople would probably please her.
Then he turned and moved out, leading the remaining force toward the Dragon Tusk Tribe.
The sound of the undead army's footsteps rose behind him, uniform and heavy.
The sound faded gradually and was swallowed by the treeline at the wetland's edge.
Stillness returned to the settlement.
Crusch stood up slowly.
Her legs trembled slightly from kneeling so long, but she straightened.
She reached out, slowly, and began wiping clean the bodies of these lizardmen undead, one by one.
Like carrying out an ancient rite, praying that the spirits of these lizardmen who had gone to their deaths with courage could find their way back to the ancestor spirits.
When Crusch performed the rite for one of the Green Claw tribespeople, her composure collapsed. Tears came without stopping.
It didn't make sense. Why was this happening.
Her chest ached.
She hadn't even known who this person was.
Her tears fell onto the undead lizardman's chest. A mark surfaced where they landed, the symbol of the lizardman traveler's seal.
*
On the other side, Ainz stood facing the Dragon Tusk Tribe's force.
More than two hundred adult lizardmen were gathered on open ground at the wetland's edge, their scales catching the sunlight in variations of dark green.
Standing at the head of their formation was a lizardman of exceptional size.
He stood over two meters thirty in height, and his right arm was enormous beyond proportion, nearly the length of an adult human torso. His face extended forward in the manner of a crocodile's snout, showing two rows of white teeth.
The Dragon Tusk Tribe's chieftain, Zenberu Gugu.
Ainz stood at the head of his undead army, the dark red light in his eye sockets watching this final line of resistance with a steady calm.
The emissary sent to surrender had been refused without question.
The young lizardman had knelt on the ground and described in a trembling voice the Dragon Tusk Tribe's willingness to submit, promising every possession they had and annual tribute going forward.
Ainz had only shaken his head.
"That won't be necessary."
This, too, served to deepen Demiurge's certainty.
He stood roughly three steps behind Ainz, his gaze moving between Ainz's back and the Dragon Tusk formation in the distance.
The corner of his mouth rose in a knowing smile.
Just as he had thought.
Only the white lizardman from the Red Eye Tribe had received special treatment.
And this Dragon Tusk Tribe before them now had also had their surrender refused.
This was precisely the confirmation of what Demiurge had concluded before: Ainz-sama held a particular feeling toward the white lizardman.
Ainz-sama's conduct had been entirely consistent. His subordinates had simply been too slow of mind to see the depth of it.
Ainz-sama truly was unfathomable.
"Ainz-sama."
Albedo's voice came from behind, carrying a trace of hesitation unusual for her.
"This subordinate still believes there is too great a risk in you personally casting Super Tier magic."
She paused, her gaze moving involuntarily across the surrounding treeline. Those deep green shadows, as though something unknown could emerge from them at any moment.
"The probability is low, but if the dragon lurking in hiding were to strike during the casting..."
Casting Super Tier magic required time. During that window, the caster's defensive capabilities were significantly reduced.
If the dragon that had controlled Shalltear was genuinely nearby, this would be the ideal moment for it to act.
Cocytus stepped forward as well. All four of his arms dropped to his sides, their blade-edged tips catching the light in a cold gleam.
"Ainz-sama, Albedo's concern is not without merit." His voice was deep, carrying the characteristic resonance of his kind. "This subordinate also believes the risk of you personally acting is too great. Perhaps instead allow me to lead the undead armyâ€""
"That won't be necessary."
Ainz raised his hand and cut Cocytus off. His voice carried a weight that left no room for argument.
"This is a duty that must be fulfilled in the name of Ainz Ooal Gown."
Albedo's eyes widened very slightly. In those golden vertical pupils, the worry was gradually displaced by something more layered.
"Yes, Ainz-sama."
Ainz took a step forward.
He raised his hand. Magical energy began gathering around him. The air seemed to react to it, a fine resonance beginning in the space around him.
A vast, dome-shaped three-dimensional magical formation expanded outward from Ainz at its center, covering roughly ten meters in radius.
The formation's edge held a perfect circle, enclosing Ainz within it.
Its surface was made of countless layered semi-transparent light-veils, each rotating at a different speed, their intersections producing sounds like glass touching glass very gently.
A paid item could have triggered the Super Tier spell immediately, but Ainz didn't reach for one.
So the dragon really isn't here.
He thought it quietly.
And I haven't received a distress [Message] from Antima, who is in the guild. That one is being overly cautious.
Ainz let out a quiet internal sigh.
Though it didn't particularly matter. At minimum, converting this many lizardmen into free labor would bring Nazarick a meaningful supply of resources.
Compared to the scale of the overall deficit, this contribution was a drop in the bucket. But a drop was still something.
***
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