Chapter 109: Reporting to Ainz
Morning light came slowly to the valley, slower than it did to the open plain.
Talbach sat in a hollow between two low hills, and the sun had to climb past the tip of the eastern watchtower before it could pour its light straight down into the town. Until then, the whole place sat wrapped in a layer of grey.
With Lucian's permission, most of the soldiers had taken the morning to go spend a little money in Talbach.
After today, theoretically, the only rest they would get would be during Lucian's audience with the queen at the Dragon Kingdom capital. After that came the fighting.
The capital had more to offer in the way of entertainment, but for political reasons Lord Lucian followed his usual practice of keeping most of the unit confined to camp while he was there. Here at the border between the Theocracy and the Dragon Kingdom, on the other hand, there was no chance of a beastman attack. In some ways it was safer than the capital itself, and there was no need to stand at constant readiness.
So most of the men had chosen to go into Talbach and share a drink with whoever was closest to them.
After all, when they came back, there was no guarantee of seeing each other again.
The young men of the Aindra cavalry drifted out of camp in twos and threes, the sound of their talk and laughter carrying far on the morning breeze. Germann the old campaigner held court at the center of a cluster of newer recruits, spinning out the story of how he had driven a spear clean through a beastman vanguard's shield last year. The kitchen boys hauled empty supply baskets toward town to pick up fresh provisions.
The noise of the camp faded gradually until all that remained was the occasional sound of a sentry's boots crunching over gravel.
But none of that easy, rowdy atmosphere reached Sebas's tent.
The flap hung closed, cutting out most of the sound.
Sebas sat on the simple campaign chair with his posture perfectly upright, but those usually steady eyes were fixed on an empty corner of the tent, seeing nothing.
He had absorbed blow after blow, hope collapsing into disappointment, and he had no choice now but to pull himself together.
Because the great Ainz Ooal Gown had opened a [Message] connection to him.
The instant that invisible thread of magic lit up in his mind, Sebas rose from the chair almost on instinct.
He straightened the collar of his black tailcoat. Even knowing Ainz-sama could not see him, he lowered his head and bowed.
"Ainz-sama." Sebas forced his voice to sound as it always did, but the fatigue still slipped through in the faint tremor at the tail of the words.
"Sebas, have you entered the Dragon Kingdom already?" Ainz's voice came through the [Message], carrying the deep authority particular to a Supreme Being.
He was seated in the Throne Room of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. The light from the magic lamps poured down from the vaulted ceiling, tracing the outline of a pale skull in the darkness.
"Yes, Ainz-sama. I am currently in Talbach, a border town where the Dragon Kingdom meets the Slane Theocracy."
"Good." Ainz gave a slight nod, the dark red light in his eye sockets burning steadily.
He had finished with the lizardman campaign. The lizardman undead had begun collecting resources from the wetlands on his orders. The only incident along the way had been Demiurge placing Crusch in his bed in a rather revealing sleeping robe, but nothing else out of the ordinary had occurred. Nazarick was passing through a relatively stable period, which gave him more room to focus on Sebas's progress.
"Sebas, did you encounter anything unusual on the journey?"
Sebas was silent for a moment.
The sunlight crept a small distance across the floor in the corner of the tent.
Sebas's fingers tightened slightly.
He had met a young man who resembled Touch Me-sama in striking ways. At times he had almost believed he could see that great person's very soul looking back at him through the boy's eyes.
But did this need to be reported to Ainz-sama?
After a brief silence, Sebas reached his answer.
It had been confirmed that the boy was not Touch Me-sama's reincarnation. And Lord Lucian had told him clearly that [Innate Ability] was the core criterion for identifying reincarnation in the legend. There was no need to trouble Ainz-sama with this insignificant episode. Ainz-sama had countless matters demanding his attention: Nazarick's defenses, the investigation into the dragon that had taken control of Shalltear. To let personal feelings bleed into a mission report, to deliver worthless intelligence to the Supreme Beings, was a serious dereliction of duty for the head butler of Nazarick.
"No, Ainz-sama." Sebas pressed the disappointment back down into the deepest part of himself. "Nothing special occurred."
Ainz did not respond immediately.
He sat on the throne, and if he had still possessed flesh, his brows would have drawn together by now.
Sebas's silence just then had been noticeably longer than usual. Not dramatically so. But for a Sebas who was at all times steady, this degree of hesitation was itself unusual.
Various possibilities flashed through Ainz's mind in rapid succession. Was Sebas concealing something? Did he think it was too minor to mention?
Cautious by nature, Ainz asked again. "Sebas. Were you attacked at any point on the way to the Dragon Kingdom?"
"No, Ainz-sama." There was a faint note of puzzlement in Sebas's voice. He did not understand why Ainz-sama would ask the same question twice, but as Nazarick's head butler, his only duty was to answer honestly.
Ainz was more confused than before. If there had been no attack, and nothing unusual had happened, then why did Sebas's voice feel wrong?
Though Sebas was working hard to conceal it, Ainz could still detect the low, muffled quality beneath the words, like the dull ache that settles in the chest after something long-awaited suddenly fails to arrive.
Ainz knew that feeling far too well.
Before YGGDRASIL's shutdown, he had experienced it countless times. Every time he had seen a familiar player ID light up in the game and thought for a moment that one of the companions who had left was back, only to realize it was his imagination. That drop from hope into disappointment had always left this same dull, quiet echo behind.
Sebas's voice today carried that echo.
Could it be...
A terrible possibility struck him without warning.
The green light of forced calm flashed through him in an instant.
That cold sensation rose from somewhere deep in his mind, like an invisible hand pressing down hard against the panic that had begun to surge upward. He felt his thoughts clear from the edge of frantic disorder, but even so, when he extended the bones of his fingers, there was still a faint tremor in them.
A single thought detonated in his mind with more violence than any Super Tier magic.
Could something have happened to Sebas too?