Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 13

The tapping of metal on metal sounded in the air outside of Lord Mare’s tree house on the Sixth Floor of Nazarick. After securing her tent to its pegs, Ludmila took a step back to examine her work.

See? It came in useful.

It was perfectly reasonable to bring camping equipment with her. One never knew when one would need it. Packing a small armoury’s worth of cosmetics and personal items as her friends did was nowhere near as practical.

“You sure you’re alright out here?”

“Yes, my lady,” Ludmila answered. “Forgive my saying so, but those Maids are just too much trouble. I prefer staying outdoors whenever possible anyway.”

“I know, right?” Lady Aura said, “I sleep on the branches up there. Those three can’t come and bug me when I’m hiding out there.”

“They seem overly protective of Lord Mare.”

Lady Aura’s expression soured.

“…have they tried something?”

“Not yet. But in four or five decades…it’s just a feeling, you know? Whenever I see them together, it’s less like they’re serving him and more like they’re trying to monopolise him. Like they’re trying to be the only eligible women he’s around.”

Ludmila frowned at the implication. It wasn’t unheard of for members of a household to become involved with their masters or mistresses. Sometimes, it was even used as a matchmaking technique, giving the candidates time to get to know one another in an everyday setting. Other times, it was the product of more nefarious or selfish motives. In the case of the three Elf Maids, they should have realised that Lord Mare was far out of their reach.

“Since my lady seems to disapprove of their behaviour,” Ludmila said. “I take it that this is frowned upon in Dark Elf culture?”

“Dark Elf culture, huh…” Lady Aura crossed her arms with a frown, “If you haven’t noticed, Mare and I are the only Dark Elves around here. I just don’t like what’s happening.”

“In that case, why not release them from your service?”

“Because Lord Ainz said that we can’t get rid of them.”

She wondered why that was. Lady Aura and Lord Mare’s mother wasn’t around anymore and she hadn’t heard anything at all about their father, so was it because the Sorcerer King wanted some adult Elves around? Having parental figures around was certainly important, but, as far as Ludmila could tell, the trio of Maids weren’t in any way fulfilling the role.

Is that why we treat Lord Mare and Lady Aura the way we do?

Though their station was far above theirs, Ludmila and her friends tended to act like surrogate family members for the two Dark Elf children. This was well before Ludmila had learned a bit about their family life, so maybe they could all sense that the twins were missing something in that regard. For Lord Mare and Lady Aura’s part, they didn’t react negatively to the treatment…or perhaps they never stuck around long enough for it to become unwelcome.

“Does His Majesty perhaps wish for you to have some adult role models?” Ludmila asked.

“Lord Ainz is the only role model we need!” Lady Aura asserted, then paused, “Well, I guess it’s true that there’s a problem when it comes to the women around here, but those three definitely aren’t the answer!”

“So they haven’t passed on any of their customs or values?”

“Nah, all they do is snivel when we get mad at them and try to pamper us when we don’t. Makes you wonder what their lives were like before…or maybe it’s because they were broken in as slaves?”

Lady Aura fell silent for a moment, then shrugged. She clearly cared little for her unwanted servants. A part of Ludmila disapproved of her attitude; no matter how problematic a house’s members were, the head of a household had a duty to keep them in line. It was unreasonable to expect children to have a good handle on household affairs, but, at the same time, they were ultimately responsible for them.

“So,” Lady Aura said, “what are you going to do tonight?”

“I thought I’d take the opportunity to make a record of what I’ve seen so far, my lady,” Ludmila replied. “So much about this place is entirely foreign to the world that I’ve known. I can only hope that my understanding is sufficient to describe everything.”

“Didn’t Lord Ainz say that you could come back to play whenever? You can just visit again if there’s something you can’t remember.”

“It isn’t just the memory of this place,” Ludmila said. “The thoughts that come along with it are just as important. Nazarick has inspired many ideas that I’d like to explore in Warden’s Vale.”

“Like what?”

Ludmila pulled the front of her tent open and started unloading furniture from her Infinite Haversack.

“The scale of my subterranean farms, for one,” Ludmila said. “It never even crossed my mind that it was possible to raise entire forests underground as you have here. The fact that it is literally allows us to create new frontiers.”

“You’re going to try to recreate the Sixth Floor in Warden’s Vale?”

“I doubt that we could achieve anything remotely like the Sixth Floor at the moment. I’d consider something on the scale of a small copse a success. Speaking of which, what’s holding up the ceiling here?”

“The walls.”

She frowned up at the starry night sky. Was it possible to have such a vast ceiling with only walls holding it up? The closest ‘structure’ to the Sixth Floor that she could think of was the Dwarven Capital of Feoh Berkana and even that place had a huge central pillar.

It doesn’t have to be the same. A few supporting pillars here and there are perfectly fine.

What mattered was that they could create surface ecologies underground. A hybrid ecology that transitioned into a subterranean one would be even better, as it would create some much-needed room for a few of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s member races.

“What other types of environments does Nazarick have, my lady?” Ludmila asked.

“Plenty,” Lady Aura answered. “Above the Sixth Floor is a land of eternal winter that Cocytus rules. Above that is the subterranean lake where Gargantua is stationed. Below us is something like an active volcano and there’s a wasteland after that.”

That’s far beyond my reach…

She could probably sustain a small frozen area with enough Elemental Ice, but he had no idea how to create a volcanic environment. Would obtaining Elemental Fire do the trick, or would that simply result in a chamber of scorched stone?

“Am I correct in assuming that the variety of environments in Nazarick is meant to provide its inhabitants with living space? How will this be accomplished in the Sorcerous Kingdom for the more extreme cases?”

“Um…”

Maybe it wasn’t possible on such a large scale. Then again, they were somewhat close to it on a national level – they just didn’t have it all conveniently near the capital.

After she finished setting up the furniture for her tent, she invited Lady Aura inside for tea. The Dark Elf looked around the interior curiously.

“This is pretty nice,” she said.

“Isn’t it?” Ludmila smiled, “I prefer being outdoors to being indoors, and a tent like this is a good compromise between being outside and having some privacy. It keeps the elements out of your stuff, as well.”

“I wonder if we have something like this in the Treasury…”

Why would her first option to get a tent be the Royal Treasury?

“Out of curiosity, my lady, do you know much about the Treasury?”

“Not really,” Lady Aura replied as she tested Ludmila’s cot. “If you want to know more about the Treasury, asking Pandora’s Actor would be your best bet…though I wouldn’t recommend that.”

“Who is Pandora’s Actor?”

“The Area Guardian of the Treasury.”

“The Treasury is an Area?”

“Yep!”

Is the Royal Treasury so large that it requires its own territory?

Having a large budget surplus for centuries might very well justify the need for one, but it still couldn’t be that large. Maybe it was something similar in scale to Lord Holenyot’s cave. That aside, she couldn’t exactly voice her concerns to the very person she was harbouring suspicions about.

“Perhaps I’ll have the opportunity to meet him later,” Ludmila said. “How about we discuss the operations of your territory? I’m particularly interested in what it takes to maintain such a wondrous place.”

To Ludmila’s surprise, Lady Aura didn’t immediately respond with enthusiasm on the subject. This was strange, considering that almost every Noble was more than happy to talk about their land. It was not only their life’s work, but also a precious heritage passed down to them by their forebears.

“I’m not sure what there is to say about it,” Lady Aura said. “You said you wanted ideas to take home with you, right? Not much of what we do here is relatable to what you people do out in the Sorcerous Kingdom.”

“Is it due to the magical technology involved in running this place?”

“I guess you could say that. The food and livestock that we produce here go towards feeding the people in Nazarick who need to eat. Everything else goes towards funding, uh…infrastructure. We don’t have any of the other stuff that you guys have going on out there.”

“Not even compensation for labour and various services?” Ludmila asked, “How do people make a living?”

“Everyone gets everything that they need,” Lady Aura told her. “It’s all free of charge.”

Had she misunderstood the Sorcerer King’s policies again? Or was she on her way to realising them?

One of the – rather vague – domestic policies of the Sorcerous Kingdom could be paraphrased as ‘From each according to their ability; to each according to their need.’ With so many races and varying aptitudes across the citizenry, it was best to allow people to do what they were good at. The rural population mostly embraced the sentiment behind the idea, but it resulted in quite a bit of controversy in urban circles. Of course, any criticism of the policy was voiced strictly in private.

Ludmila’s attempts to practically enact the policy resulted in her chartering companies for every industry active on her lands. Each company was mostly directed by its employees and had a profit-sharing program that secured a comfortable standard of living for everyone. Ludmila’s input was limited to what she believed to be the responsibilities of a lord, which revolved around the development and well-being of her territories as a whole.

So far, things were working out well, but the entire system she was overseeing was still new. It wasn’t anywhere on the level of Nazarick where everything that happened was treated as a given.

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As she was unpacking the cake she had brought as a gift from Warden’s Vale, a knock sounded against one of the tent posts holding up the entrance. Ludmila looked up to find Lord Mare standing outside, timidly clutching his black staff.

“Welcome, Lord Mare.”

“H-Hello…I was just checking to see if it was safe.”

“Safe, my lord?”

“Don’t mind him,” Lady Aura told her. “He’s like that even at home. I thought you’d be staying with Lord Ainz for longer.”

Several members of the Royal Court had converged on the Sorcerer King after the match, so Ludmila had quietly withdrawn in the face of such lofty company. It wasn’t a gathering that she had any right to attend.

“Albedo and Shalltear started fighting,” Lord Mare said, “so I ran away.”

“Ah~ What a pain,” Lady Aura said. “That’s why I didn’t stick around. That Albedo really stirred the pot with that stunt of hers.”

“Please come in, my lord,” Ludmila said. “We were just about to have a late-night treat.”

Lord Mare removed his boots before coming in to sit down on the cot beside his sister.

“When my lord says ‘that stunt’,” Ludmila said, “does it refer to the fact that she changed her equipment?”

“Y-Yes.”

“In that case, I don’t understand the controversy. Why is changing one’s equipment a ‘stunt’? What makes it so strange and unconventional? Those with the means should change their equipment to best deal with the situations that they find themselves in, shouldn’t they?”

The two Dark Elves exchanged a look.

“Because…”

Lord Mare’s voice trailed off and he squirmed in his seat a bit.

“Our equipment was left behind by our parents, you know?” Lady Aura said, “How could Albedo even think of replacing it?”

“I understand that such things would mean a great deal to someone,” Ludmila said, “but would your parents be happy if the items that they left behind for you caused you trouble? And though you say ‘replacing’, it’s only temporary: it isn’t as if you’re throwing everything away.”

The twins exchanged a silent look, but didn’t offer any reply. Ludmila came over, bearing two slices of cake on polished wooden plates. Lord Mare raised his plate to eye level.

“This looks familiar…”

“The cake has layers of panforte, marzipan, and ricotta,” Ludmila said. “It’s something one usually only finds in the riverlands, but our Rangers brought in plenty of ingredients this year. The Cooks in Warden’s Vale have been experimenting with recipes for the autumn harvest festival.”

“So they learned it from the Cooks in Corelyn County?” Lord Mare asked.

“It’s a recipe from the Theocracy,” Ludmila answered. “I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this to you before, but, culturally speaking, the southern parts of the Duchy of E-Rantel share more in common with the Slane Theocracy than it does with Re-Estize.”

“Does that include Warden’s Vale?”

“Yes. I don’t mean to suggest that we’re the same, but things like food and practical customs tend to spread readily. As far as Warden’s Vale is concerned, we also had shared security concerns on the Abelion Frontier.”

The two Dark Elves’ ears wiggled slightly as they munched on their cake. They seemed more interested in their food than what she had to share.

“How’s the cake?” Ludmila asked, “My cooks have been looking for feedback.”

“It’s yummy!” Lord Mare said around a mouthful.

Lady Aura swallowed.

“It’s good,” she said. “We’ve had cake from E-Rantel before, but this is different somehow…”

“Either our Cooks have gained enough levels to make a difference,” Ludmila said, “or what they say about ingredients harvested in the wild also applies to food.”

“You should bring that up with the Head Chef,” Lord Mare said. “I think he’d at least want to take a look around your Area.”

“I will keep that in mind, my lord,” Ludmila said as she refilled their tea. “Is Master Tokitsu interested in anything in particular? What sort of accommodations are appropriate for someone of his station?”

“He just likes fresh ingredients, I guess? The higher the tier, the better, but he’ll even use the low-level cattle grazing outside of Nazarick. As for accommodations, I think he’d just go back to Nazarick if he needs to rest.”

“Will he need any help procuring ingredients?”

“I wonder…he’s pretty strong so the local wildlife shouldn’t be a problem, but I can’t recall if he has any Job Classes that help with foraging. If any materials need specialised collection skills, he’ll need help with those.”

Ludmila tried to recall whether anything like that existed in her territory. It wasn’t as if anyone who wasn’t a Ranger went out into the wild to forage. She could probably have some of the trainees act as guides.

She served her guests another slice of cake. As she went to refill their tea, a trio of familiar figures appeared from the direction of the treehouse. Lord Mare and Lady Aura sighed and pointedly tried to ignore their approach. The three Elf Maids started raising a ruckus as soon as they spotted them.

“Lord Mare, Lady Aura, please come away from there!”

“It’s dangerous!”

“The Human gave them food? Quick, check it for poison!”

Perhaps the true reason behind the Theocracy’s war with the Elves was that they were insufferably annoying. The Cleric came straight into the tent and tried to take Lord Mare’s plate away. The Ranger tried to do the same with Lady Aura, but Lady Aura deftly kept her plate out of reach.

“Wh-What are you doing?” Lord Mare cried, “This is my cake!”

“My lord shouldn’t accept food from strange women!”

“Ludmila isn’t a ‘strange woman’,” Lord Mare protested, “we’ve known each other for a long time now!”

“That’s right,” Ludmila said, “we even have a daughter.”

Everyone in the tent froze and stared at Ludmila. The Druid fainted.

“That was sort of funny,” Ludmila said.

Lady Aura burst out into laughter. The Cleric released Lord Mare’s plate to shake him by the shoulders.

“Is that true?!” She screeched, “Tell me it isn’t true, my lord!”

“W-Well,” Lord Mare pointedly avoided the Cleric’s wild-eyed gaze, “it is from a certain point of view…”

The Cleric sank to her knees and broke down. To be fair, it was how members of a household might behave if they found out that its young master had fathered illicit offspring.

“What in the world is going on here?”

A terrified squeal rose from the two conscious Maids. They fled to the corner of the tent, clutching at Lady Aura.

“Lady Shalltear,” Ludmila lowered her head in greeting. “We were having tea, which somehow became this.”

Lady Shalltear’s crimson gaze went from Lord Mare to the collapsed Druid, then to Lady Aura and the two other Maids in the corner.

“Since we’re having tea,” she pointed to the Elf sprawled on the ground. “Can I have that one?”

“Of course not!” Lady Aura told her, “Lord Ainz said that we weren’t allowed to kill them.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily kill her,” Lady Shalltear said. “We could just have a little bit of fun.”

Lady Aura’s lip curled at the Vampire’s salacious smile.

“What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I came by to see if you knew where Ludmila had gone,” Lady Shalltear replied. “Those three weren't even aware that you had returned, so they went looking for you.”

“You!” Lady Aura scowled, “You’re the one that ruined our dessert!”

“They’re your attendants. Why should their behaviour be a problem of mine? Anyway, it’s time to retire to my chambers. Let’s go, Ludmila.”

A chill went up Ludmila’s spine. Lady Aura untangled herself from her two Maids.

“You did something weird to her, didn’t you?”

“Whatever do you mean?” Lady Shalltear smiled innocently.

“Holenyot appeared with her earlier today…”

“That wasn’t me! She went to Holenyot on her own!”

Lady Aura sent Ludmila a questioning look.

“It’s true, my lady,” Ludmila said in a slightly puzzled tone. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“N-No, if that’s what you’re into…still, Shalltear did something, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t be pitching a tent here.”

“That’s…”

Ludmila cast her gaze downward. She didn’t like what had happened, but, at the same time, she couldn’t bring any shame upon her liege over a personal matter.

“Out,” Lady Aura said.

“But–”

“Out!” Lady Aura shouted, “If she’s like this, I can’t even imagine what you did to her.”

“I just–”

“I don’t want to know! Out!”

Lady Shalltear sniffled before turning to leave.

“Perhaps she could stay for tea,” Ludmila said.

Lady Shalltear turned back around with a smile.

“Nope!” Lady Aura crossed her arms, “You can’t coddle her! If that dummy does dumb things, she needs to understand the depths of her dumminess!”

“Hmph!”

Lady Shalltear turned again and flounced away. Lady Aura popped the last bit of cake into her mouth and went to put on her boots.

“Let’s go,” she said.

“B-But I haven’t finished my cake yet!” Lord Mare cried.

“You may take the plate with you, my lord,” Ludmila said. “What are we doing, my lady?”

“There was a bunch of stuff we wanted to test out,” Lady Aura replied. “Since Mare’s with us now, we should get it done.”

With plate in hand, Lord Mare stepped over his fallen Maid. The Ranger and the Cleric went to help him put on his boots.

“Let’s see…” Lady Aura scanned their surroundings, “This way!”

They went straight into the forest, leaving the two Elf Maids to tend to their fallen third. After walking a few hundred metres, they stopped in front of a brightly-coloured plant crawling up the side of a tree. It resembled a type of Ivy, but the leaves were a bright blue colour.

“Here we are!” Lady Aura gestured to the plant, “Try foraging this.”

“Will it do anything, my lady?”

“That’s part of the test!”

“Why is the colouration of this plant so glaring?”

“Probably so people can differentiate it from all the other plants.”

Was it something like having flowers or brightly coloured fruit, except for a whole plant? Ludmila cautiously approached the vine, recalling the one that had bitten her back near the entrance of the Adventurer Training Area. The vine didn’t show any signs of moving, however, and she came away with a handful of snow-white berries.

“Will this suffice?”

“Hmm…”

Lady Aura and Lord Mare frowned down at her outstretched palm.

“Why just the berries?” Lord Mare asked.

“Why would I harvest the whole vine, my lord?” Ludmila frowned.

“Interesting…”

“What is?”

“How people try to harvest this plant seems to depend on what they are,” Lord Mare said. “This one is hard enough to forage that people can’t randomly get it right without high enough foraging skills. People without them usually try to pluck the leaves or pull the entire vine. When that happens, it counts as a ‘failure’ and the plant attacks them. People with foraging skills that are too low can sense that the plant is dangerous, so they don’t try unless we insist.”

“I see,” Ludmila emptied her palm into Lord Mare’s plate. “What are the berries for? I can sense that they’re edible, but…”

“They’re a Third-tier alchemical reagent. If we go by production skill rules, it means you should have at least Second-tier equivalent foraging skills to have a chance to forage them.”

A queasy feeling formed in the pit of Ludmila’s stomach.

“But I’m supposed to be a Captain,” she said. “I mean, I’ve always been a Ranger, but I was supposed to focus on my growth as a Captain.”

Had her efforts to raise her new Ranger Corps inadvertently caused her to gain Ranger levels? Since she was acting as an ‘officer’, she thought the experience would go toward her Captain levels. In light of the new information, where was the line between ‘Ranger’ and ‘Captain’? Was it even possible to be one or the other? Maybe she was just both at the same time and it was impossible to avoid build contamination.

“I guess I’ll die,” Ludmila sighed.

“Huh?” Lady Aura blinked.

“I think she means she wants to fix her build,” Lord Mare said.

“Does she need to?” Lady Aura asked, “I thought she was supposed to be a Ranger-Noble-Captain or whatever.”

“A Revenant is pretty Ranger-ish, too,” Lord Mare said.

“So this is unavoidable?” Ludmila asked.

“Maybe,” Lord Mare said, “but it’s not necessarily bad!”

“Yeah,” Lady Aura said, “you guys get all sorts of crazy unfair stuff.”

“Or they could just be Prestige Classes that combine bits and pieces from different archetypes,” Lord Mare offered. “Is there anything that Rangers should have that you feel lacking in?”

Ludmila furrowed her brow in thought. She simply was what she was, or at least that’s what she always thought.

“Demihumans stopped being terrified of me after I changed,” Ludmila said. “Does that count?”

“You lost your Favoured Enemy bonuses?” Lady Aura frowned, “That kinda stinks. Have you noticed it working on any other types of targets? Not just unreasoning fear, but uncanny insights about certain species and whatnot.”

“Not that I can recall,” Ludmila replied. “My peers have always been wary of me because of what I am, but that has been the case since I was young.”

“Well, you should have noticed something like a Favoured Enemy bonus by now,” Lady Aura said, “so you must have some crazy Ranger-ish Prestige Class without it.”

“If you figure out what you’re missing and what you have,” Lord Mare told her, “I bet you could figure out the ‘theme’ of your Prestige Classes and determine what each of them gives you.”

“I see…that does make sense, but I never thought to use the theming concept to help identify my Classes. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

Having a solid idea of what Classes she had would go a long way toward helping her shed the trepidation she felt over doing one thing or another. She was deathly afraid of doing something she shouldn’t be and accidentally contaminating her build.

“I bet we can figure a lot of it out right now,” Lady Aura grinned. “Let’s get to the next test!”

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