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Interlude: Jacques de Molay (225)
🕑 Added 2023-12-01 13:13:36 +0000 UTCAfter saying goodbye to Semiramis, or, to be more precise, leaving her in some strange middle state between hysterical cheerfulness and unwavering determination, Ainz had to leave awkwardly. Pensively, his mind is occupied, repeating the strange encounter he had had with Semiramis.
Ainz had no idea what he did to cause her to be in such a strange mood. To be honest, no matter how he looked back at it, there was nothing strange. Such encounters must be happening all over the world, well with how the world outside is, in Chaldea every day. It was something not worth mentioning!
Only, Semiramis' reaction to what had happened was strange.
Ainz actually apologized to Semiramis, but it was as if she didn't even pay attention to his attempts to apologize for the incident. She seemed to have been completely lost in her own head the whole time, not even reacting to Ainz's words.
In the end, luckily, she seemed to accept Ainz's apology, albeit with too much pathos for the situation, and Ainz was able to walk away from Semiramis… Still a little embarrassed by his own lack of understanding, but determined to forget the incident as just another awkward little thing he had experienced in his life. There’s many of those, after all.
And there’s something much more important in the future. His meeting with Ozymandias.
No matter how he ruminates about it, or even tries to avoid it, it’s unchanging, unclear, and now hanging above his head, threatening to fall on top of him.
Given that Ainz was not particularly eager to think about his impending meeting, he was even tempted to turn around and try to talk with Semiramis again, no matter how uncomfortable it might be. Though he was even less eager to ignore a problem he was facing, hoping that it would resolve itself is a fool’s hope.
Therefore, his plan of action was unambiguous.
Immediately after leaving Semiramis's room, Ainz oriented himself by the visible and tangible trail of negativity spreading from Ozymandias's room. Whose demand for additional rooms had been ignored, and whose meeting had been postponed not because of Ozymandias's demand but for the sake of Ainz's own convenience.
Once again, thinking it over, Ozymandias’ demand, in general, is just a small problem, but certainly one that would set the tone for Ainz's further communication with Ozymandias. After all, to go along with Ozymandias' demands was to give in to a subordinate who clearly saw himself as a far more privileged elite than the rest of the Servants. Something Ainz could not agree to, at least for the sake of his own status as leader and for the sake of the rest of his Servants and subordinates who did not receive such privileges.
Though they surely would not refuse such a thing… But it’s the principle of the thing.
On the other hand, to simply refuse Ozymandias’ demand would mean entering into conflict with him, something that Ainz, given the possibility of such a thing, was also unwilling to allow to happen among his subordinate Servants. He preferred them all to get along, after all.
However, on the other hand, after just how long he had put off the meeting with Ozymandias, conflict was beginning to seem more and more inevitable to Ainz.
And it did not matter that the reason for this was another series of unbelievable events, coincidences and happenstances connected with Ainz's strange luck, whatever the reason might be, he had indeed put off his meeting with Ozymandias. Especially when the arrogant Servant had been the one to request the meeting.
Neither did Ainz want to justify himself to Ozymandias, neither as a superior, busy with his own affairs, nor as a person who felt a certain negativity towards the Servant.
For a moment, Ainz even thought of an idea, one that would allow him to not meet with Ozymandias at all, and might even lead to a more successful meeting. Maybe he should have delegated such a meeting to his subordinates?
Perhaps not Olga, at least because she was Ainz's technical superior, who was busy with her own problems; he didn’t want to emulate Ozymandias. Not to mention the fact that Olga would be in a much more vulnerable position than Ainz in case of a fight breaking out. Even in the most catastrophic outcome of his conversation with Ozymandias, Ainz was at least confident that he would be able to quell it quickly enough without causing too much destruction. Olga? Ainz wasn't even going to ponder on the subject, the very existence of a risk, already meant that he couldn't allow such a thing to happen. At least not to his girlfriend.
But what if Ainz asked someone other than Olga to talk with Ozymandias? A subordinate of his… Like Medb perhaps?
Medb was his subordinate, after all, simply by the fact that she was his Servant. She was strong enough to stand up to Ozymandias in a fight, yet smart enough to at least try to prevent such an outcome from happening in the first place. Moreover, she was already familiar with Ozymandias, as far as Ainz himself could tell at least. Medb had encountered Ozymandias in the past, and had even brought him into alliance with Ainz himself, and even had a good relationship with Ozymandias!
Furthermore, she used to be a queen! She must be used to dealing with egoistic blowhards.
Ainz considered such a scenario for a moment; it was not at all unbelievable if he thought about it seriously, but that did not mean that he would rush into such a choice. At least because Ainz still wanted to deal with the Ozymandias problem on his own, at least to try to do so. He could leave Medb as a backup.
In addition, there was still also the question of his trust in Medb.
I mean, sure, his incredible discovery of Medb's nature and her relationship with Ainz in YGGDRASIL, at least on her part since he had no idea how that would look from her side. All he remembered about Medb was the many quests he had done for her. But she seemed to like him, so it had largely blunted his paranoia about YGGDRASIL's most disliked NPC… There was even a popularity poll done, well infamy poll.
But even a declaration of love on her part, received by Ainz as an accident, one that he no doubt Medb wanted to keep secret, failed to convince him completely.
Almost completely, perhaps, yes. Completely? Well, maybe in a couple of decades of loyal service he could fully accept Medb as she was now before his eyes, forgetting about the millions of suffering souls cursing her on the forums. But not now, definitely not now.
But even so, having a backup was certainly a lot better than not having one, wasn't it?
So, buoyed by the thought of competent backup, Ainz walked away from Semiramis' room and set off down the corridors of Chaldea with far more spirited strides than he did before. Given that he was heading towards Ozymandias’ room, inwardly, he started picking up strategies to use and what spells to start the battle with. Just in case.
Ainz did not manage to go too far through the corridors of Chaldea, though. Luckily for him, however, this time at least he avoided colliding with a figure, which would lead to yet another heart-to-heart talk. He was quite tapped out at the moment.
Instead, after taking a few steps, Ainz found his eyes drawn in by a strange sight at the end of the corridor he was standing in. A dark blur, contrasting deeply with the white, immaculate walls of Chaldea.
Stopping and taking a closer look, however, Ainz immediately determined that the spot was not simply dark, but possessed a distinct color scheme. What Ainz thought was just a shadow, was in fact a black and purple dress that left no room for imagination, revealing more than hiding the details of its wearer's figure. Yellow-gold eyes, skin of unhealthy color, as if a tanned girl with their light coffee shade added to it and unhealthy violet-blackish color of a long-standing injury, widespread throughout the body. And crowning it all was a small, neat mess of light pink hair, like that of Mashu’s.
Additionally, and considering the color schemes, in Ainz's eyes, the unknown stain quickly turned from a stain into a Servant, a Servant that he had seen not so long ago.
“Jacques?” Ainz greeted Jacques de Molay with a nod of his head out of politeness, causing her, who had also noticed Ainz's appearance, to smile back in a big, happy, almost cheerful smile and wave her hand back at him as if Jacques were in the distance or in the crowd, trying to attract her Master's attention, “Ainz!”
A moment later the shoeless and therefore barefooted girl, looking more like a demon, a succubus, Servant approached Ainz. Allowing him to once again examine both her more sexualized mock dress and her claw-like wings and crown on her body, slightly shuddering and pulsing like a living being with every step she took.
“Ainz, my Master, you are surprisingly hard to find!” Jacques immediately started talking to Ainz without a preamble, almost in a friendly manner. “Even for Mother! Surprising, is what I would say in other circumstances, but to expect otherwise from you would be the strange thing to do instead! I wonder if you're hiding yourself, or is it just a random effect of your existence? It is strange to speak of such a thing, and yet even to the Black Goat you seem unusual, obscure, hidden, and that in itself speaks volumes!”
Finding himself under the unexpected verbal assault of his new Servant, Ainz reflexively shifted his weight onto one of his legs, as if preparing to step back. In the Singularity, Jacques hadn't seemed all that talkative and emotional to him at all… So why the stark difference of personality now?
Though, to be fair, in the Singularity Ainz had barely noticed Jacques' existence at all, having only met her, as well as Ozymandias, only before the general attack on Camelot had begun. But Ainz had kept in touch with his Servants, including Medusa, who had informed him of exactly how Jacques seemed to her, and there was nothing about her being so chatty in her report…
However, Ainz did not keep silent for too long, his reactions, from the algorithm he had already practiced for many weeks of such routine, worked ahead of all his other reflexes. "Jacques, how are you settling in Chaldea? How is your condition? What are your thoughts after the summoning?”
“I'm fine!” Jacques also instantly responded to Ainz's words, smiling a smile that was probably nothing more than a smile of joy. But her incredibly revealing dress and succubus-like appearance made her look like something between the maniacally menacing smile of a dark god cultist and the seductive grin of a seasoned seductress. “The Dark Mother is delighted! However, her questions multiply like her Younglings, do you have a moment to answer those?”
After Jacques’ request, Ainz frowned. Once again, it was as if an evil mystical force was unwilling to allow him to talk to Ozymandias, literally throwing distractions at his feet in the form of other Servants and other problems. But on the other hand, if that was the case, then what was the point of Ainz resisting the will of the universe or an unknown god if it could really play with his life?
Besides, he had clearly earned the wrath of Ozymandias, if not by refusing to follow his demands, then at the very least by neglecting him, putting off seeing him for a long time. Was it so bad for Ainz to then take a chance and distract himself by interacting with the Shub-Niggurath in this world?
Especially considering that while Jacques before him was the first representative of that mythology that Ainz had seen in this world, this must be a very rare event despite the certain prevalence of that mythology in YGGDRASIL… Even one of his Super-Tier magic was literally referencing the abilities and nature of Shub-Niggurath.
So, having made his decision, Ainz sighed and nodded at Jacques' request. “Sure, I have a minute…”
***
Jacques de Molay, at the same time as being the last Grand Master of the Templar Order, she was also a pseudo-Servant connected to the spirit of Shub-Niggurath, the Great Black Mother Goat. She was no ordinary Servant. Which, of course, could be understood and realized simply from the fact that she was a pseudo-Servant in service to an Outer God, an unknowable horror from the depths of space and from beyond the edge of reality. Who, in fact, was the origin of the strangeness of Jacques de Molay.
In this particular case, though, Jacques wasn't talking about a form that denied all the laws of real space. A sight that forced any who sees her form to scratch the obscene symbols of the Great Terror into their flesh with honed steel. Or something equally dramatic, like her incredible powers and her maddening attempt to realize the true nature of Shub-Niggurath.
Jacques wasn't even talking about her pulsing bone-like living offshoots of her body, created from the reality-denying flesh of the Star Gods. No, Jacques was talking about the most ordinary oddity that was allowed to all ordinary humans, Servants, and even avatars of unknowable ancient evil. The oddities in her behavior.
The thing was, because of her connection to Shub-Niggurath, although it was only a connection, and not even a broad one. As the Servant system had its own, and very significant, limitations on the nature and level of power that Servants could display when summoned, and the Black Goat did not fit into those by any stretch of the imagination. Jacques saw the world a little differently than other Servants did.
Not enough to consider it incredible enough to speak of her non-human thinking and perception, but enough to say that she did see the world differently than many other, far more human Servants did.
An example of this warped perception was Jacques' understanding of what was ‘boring’ and ‘ordinary’, and what her reaction to said ‘ordinary’ things was.
For example, Jacques had a peculiar admiration for humanity. An interest that turned into a paradoxical misunderstanding born from the fusion of the echo of an ancient god from beyond and a representative of that humanity. Looking at the world from two wildly different perspectives, but existing between the two. She did not understand and was intrigued by the strange movements of humanity, striving both for its preservation and prosperity and for its self-destruction.
For growth and limitation, for the violation and maintenance of morality at the same time.
When people's emotions contradict their reason, or when reason overwhelmed emotion, changing their importance from time to time. Sometimes in a single moment, or even gathering bit by bit until it all exploded, stopping or guiding the hand forward, doomed laughter expressing only desperate anger, and furious shouts following triumphant victories. They were things that Jacques was fascinated by humanity for.
And as much as she was fascinated by humanity, just as little as she was interested in people as individual units, building blocks of that humanity. While humanity seemed to her a marvelous paradox, people seemed to her boring meat machines, grains of sand driven by the wind through the world.
So how could such fascination explain Jacques's behavior in the Singularity? Interested in humanity, she took control of it, created a crusader state, and spread her Goddess-Mother's net around it. And then she stopped, idly watching the people in that humanity suffer, letting them wallow in poverty or try to grow into heroes. Both of which were as commonplace and banal to her as the unhurried hands on a clock counting down.
Jacques could not allow humanity to perish, and so she opposed the Goddess of Camelot. But the individual humans, as a component of that humanity? Every one of them could die in a ditch; Jacques had no interest in their lives, so primitive and obvious from the pinnacle of her existence as the spirit guide of the Black Mother Goat to this world.
And it was because of this fact that Jacques was so intensely interested in the parts of humanity that she cared for. That is, those existences that can move Humanity by every breath they take.
Ainz was one of them. But, of course, a certain, in fact very large, stratum of Servants also interested Jacques for that reason also. In one way or another, almost all Servants had left their mark on human history, most of them not even as a result of random coincidences.
They are Heroes, after all.
But Ainz was above even such a lofty station, not just an amazingly powerful magus, currently determining the future history of all mankind by his actions, solving the crises of the Singularity.
No, Ainz represented more than just a man, he represented an… Unknown Variable.
And as an embodied spirit guide of the Outer God, the Black Goat, Shub-Niggurath, she could not often say that she had encountered something unknown. Initially, the very concept of the unknown was a bit strange for a being that was literally spawned from the unknown, unknowable even. A canvas of reality and outer space woven into a single non-bodily horror, able to look with full clarity at the people swarming in its world. As, a being of greater dimensionality is able to see all the reflections of a painting of lesser dimensionality at once.
Ainz was an oddity. An oddity, in that even what was unknowable to lesser humans, for beings like Shub-Niggurath themselves, was completely commonplace and understandable to her. Natural, in fact. Ainz, on the other hand…
Shub-Niggurath saw similarities, significant enough similarities between Ainz and her kind. That fact alone meant that Ainz could not be ignored. He also brought the laws of an existence alien to this world with him, operating according to principles unsuited to this world. Laws that, sometimes crudely and sometimes subtly, interfered with the basic constants of the current reflection of the Root in this world.
That interference, the nature of Ainz, was similar to that made by her species… But still different.
Such reflections were not based on strict knowledge and equations. If the existence and nature of Shub-Niggurath could be explained concretely, she could not be called unknowable, can she? And so it was extremely difficult to explain, in specific detail, the differences between Ainz and the Outer Gods.
An underlying feeling? An elusive odor hovering in the air? A magical knowledge born of Shub-Niggurath's natural observation? Yes, but not quite, something unattributed in words, existing, but she’s without the ability to point to that existence.
And this made Shub-Niggurath, and so, the agent of her will in this world, Jacques de Molay, interested in Ainz.
Jacques de Molay, after all, was of a very sensual and curious nature. Not in the sense of being romantically interested, but in the sense of her irrepressible desire to know the unusual, the strange. Something that Shub-Niggurath could not simply dismiss as something boring and already learned.
Before her encounter with Ainz, there were only three such things. Humanity, the First Hassan, and the Goddess of Camelot. And since Jacques could not study the first because of the absence of Humanity as such, and the second and third because of the resolution of the past Singularity. It was the encounter with Ainz that seemed to Jacques to be the most interesting development at the moment.
So Jacques' reaction, so calm in the Singularity and so pleased with Ainz, could be considered very much within the bounds of her normal behavior. It was just that Jacques had not been given the opportunity to show the other side of her personality before. But now? There was no urgent event like the destruction of Humanity and the Singularity looming. And so, she was able to drag Ainz by the hand and lead him to her room, then look up at Ainz as she settled down on her bed.
A gesture to which Ainz responded with a look of his own… And silence.
A silence that lasted quietly, due to the fact that Jacques wasn't eager to start the conversation, or, to be more precise, didn't know which question she should ask first.
Try to inquire directly about his nature? Jacques' more human side suggested that such a question might be considered impolite. And while the concept of politeness was foreign to Shub-Niggurath, Jacques' own said that it would be impolite to ask such a question at the outset of a conversation with someone of Jacques' interest.
Maybe ask about his powers? That could be considered even more impolite than trying to know his nature directly.
His plans for humanity in the future, perhaps? In that case, Jacques was well aware that she would probably not get an answer either. Even if not out of Ainz's desire to withhold this information, then because the plans of beings like her, and, as Jacques herself believed Ainz also is one, could rarely be defined by a simple sequence of actions. The ability to see the world from above, perverted the construction of ordinary plans to a great extent, making it quite hard to express in simple words.
The silence gradually dragged on, forcing Jacques to go through question after question in her head… A silence which made Ainz speak first. “Ahem, Jacques… I realize I've already got an answer to my questions, but… Perhaps you could elaborate? Your state of mind after the summoning, I mean…”
At Ainz’s question, Jacques frowned, as if assessing Ainz's question from the same angle she had been assessing her own, that of propriety. Before concluding that Ainz had definitely asked a question perfectly suited to start a dialog, which meant Jacques should answer it.
“I’m fine, but I can't say that I've acclimatized meaningfully to Chaldea. I haven't met the other Servants or spent enough time with them for one… And I certainly haven't met the common workers, nor do I plan to. So I can say that I have no problem with the fact that I am currently here, though I can't say that I have a meaningful love for this place.”
“Certainly, the opposite would be strange, I find that the ordinary workers of Chaldea mostly avoided the Servants.” Ainz only nodded before turning his attention to a particular part of Jacques' answer.
“Well, I am here, so I suppose we could get to know each other well?” Seeing that Jacques hadn’t complained, Ainz continued.
“Do you have plans for things to do after the Singularities are over?”
Ainz's question suddenly made Jacques frown, as she had no immediate answer to that question.
Did she plan to stay in Chaldea after the Singularities ended? Definitely not. But did she plan anything specific after the Singularities? Probably not, either. At least, she hadn't made any concrete plans for that at the moment.
“Hmm?” Jacques let out a hum of thought as she tried to imagine the situation after the Singularities were resolved… What were her plans?
Give up her summoning and disappear? No, too foolish, lose the chance to be in the world of the humanity she was interested in because of simple indecision? A waste of opportunity.
Maybe she could travel among humans incognito? Jacques was interested in humanity, but not the individual humans she would encounter in such a case. She would probably drive herself mad… Well, madder.
Conquer a small piece of land that she could call her own kingdom? She might have the chance to observe more parts of Humanity as a whole, but why would she want to do that by giving more work for herself? In that case, she'd just be bringing on more responsibilities and problems, but she'd barely get any closer to her goal of observing Humanity, by getting completely bogged down in routine. Jacques had already gotten a glimpse of that option in Singularity, and she didn’t want a repeat anytime soon.
“Is there something wrong?” Jacques’ continued silence worried Ainz that he had asked an inappropriate question, making Jacques look up at him, then frown a little wistfully.
“I'm not sure about what to do in the future…” Jacques replied after a few more seconds of thought before speaking again. "I'd like to see humanity up close… But not so close as to have to meet the humans themselves.”
Jacques did not bother to clarify what she meant, at the very least, Ainz should have understood her somewhat, being of a similar nature to her.
Ainz, however, didn't answer instantly, thinking for a second before asking another question. “Hmm, I see… With what you want to do in the future, in that case, an appropriate job, maybe… Management?”
Jacques considered the idea for a moment, a huge corporation under the ‘Shub-Niggurath approved’ seal of approval, before dispelling the thought with a slight smile. As CEO, she would be able to observe the humanity of her corporation, and she wouldn’t have to interact with most of her subordinates… “No, though it is an appropriate line of thought…”
Business and public policy did not interest Jacques, but what was it like to be in that relationship? What could interest Jacques, who wanted to see humanity up close, but not close enough to know it personally, other than political intrigue and government…
“A private military company, then.” Ainz's words flew past Jacques's mind, causing her to look up at him, to which Ainz replied again. “A Private military company. Chaldea will definitely need its own military in the future… And running a military force, something that I’m sure you’re already used to, will definitely allow you, in fact it would actually require you to travel a lot, won't it?”
“A Private military company…” Jacques said slowly, as if probing the slowly spoken words, trying to match them with her perceptions.
An opportunity to see humanity from all sides? Absolutely. Proximity to humans? Not too much. Politics and governance? Only if Jacques herself was foolish enough to try to become more than the head of a military company, something Jacques herself definitely did not aspire to.
Such a position definitely checked all her boxes…
Pensive, Jacques glanced at Ainz before slowly opening her mouth. "Hmm, I think… There's something to that…”
“Besides," Jacques thought for a moment before smirking, "I was a Grand Master in the past, which isn't that far from a military company. And is there any better opportunity to get even with my accusers than reviving the Templar Order centuries later?”
“Hmm, I'm glad you liked the idea," Ainz's own pensive voice made Jacques imagine the future for a moment.
A private Templar military company.
And in the midst of those, in the midst of people so close to death, it would be so easy to originate the idea of worshiping the Outer Gods.
Jacques blurted out a smile in response to Ainz's smile.
Vengeance, after all, was also a part of humanity – one of her favorite parts in fact, and therefore…
She was beginning to like the idea more and more with each passing second!
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Ильдес Бактибаев
А почему новые главы не выходят
Abaddon Lucifer
Shub-Niggurath approved’ seal of approval
* Falgur *
Разве Шуб-Ниггурат не знала Аинза?
