With the provided assistance of undead overlords, Albedo was finally able to get the administrative sector on track. The four overlords could effortlessly perform most of her duties while leaving only the most critical decisions to her and Momonga. Although there was still plenty of work left to do, at least the logistics could continue at the previous speed they had before Shion's rampage. Temporarily freed from the constraints of office work, Momonga could set his gaze to another pressing matter - visiting the new territories formally to display the presence of Tempest in an official manner. He was the absolute leader of the Tempest Hegemony, stepping foot on the acquired soil and recognizing the leaders under his administration would all but affirm the new order.
The first planned destination was Fulbrosia, specifically the capital built atop the highest mountain, with a royal castle at the very peak seemingly reaching towards the heavens. The culture and architecture of the nation were built around the ability to fly, with a heavy emphasis on wings, which dictated one's role and social status in society. Those who couldn't fly weren't permitted to even enter the capital, with rare exceptions like demon lords thanks to official recognition by Frey herself.
Momonga felt a tinge of nervousness as he floated through the gate, Albedo holding onto his arms and her wings gently flapping behind them. He was the only one using a flying spell out of his entourage. Like Albedo, Rubedo could use her wings to fly, and so could Luchia, Pero, and his sprite honor guard.
Though as the Supreme Overlord, he was the absolute ruler of Tempest, Fulbrosia included, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of awkwardness at the fact that he had to use magical means of flying in his natural form. He would need to fix this somehow, eventually.
'Maybe I could take a page out of Veldora's book and give myself some sort of dragon form. True Dragons think of me as one of them anyway, I could give myself dragon wings.' Momonga was quite tempted to create one and relive his younger, role-player days. Knowing Veldora he would be more than happy to help out his youngest brother.
They appeared in a vast hall, with a nest-like throne held in the air by a metallic rope gently swinging as Frey nervously shifted around in it. Her two daughters, Claire and Nemu, were floating beside the throne as her honor guard. The harpy nobility floated around the throne, their wings creating a constant gentle breeze within the room.
Frey, upon seeing him arrive, left her throne and flew closer, lowering her head. "I welcome you, Supreme Overlord Momonga Tempest, the harpies welcome your rule," She announced.
"Speak for yourself, not everyone wants to disgrace themselves by bending the knee to this nonflier!" One of the harpies interrupted her.
Momonga used mostly spatial vision, as he had trained himself to do when outside Nazarick, observing the offending harpy without a need to turn his head. She was among the older ones, with gray streaks in her dark brown hair and a piercing gaze, arrogance oozing out of her. If he had to guess then, her power level was high enough to consider her a harpy queen candidate, which in the grand scheme of things meant she maybe could defeat one of Pero's honor guards at best. Clearly, someone who reasonably shouldn't make a scene, especially in a crucial moment like this.
She was hovering in front of a larger group, so it was a fair guess she was a faction leader and considered herself important enough to challenge the former queen who was now nothing more than the local governor, albeit a very powerful one.
"You dare to disrespect Lord Momonga!?" Albedo jerked her head with a snarl as her shriek echoed through the throne room, aura flaring out. Bardiche materialized in her arms as the succubus prepared to rip the offending harpy to shreds.
"Permit me to remove the offending one from your presence, my Lord," Frey offered, her face paling.
"You already failed to keep them in line. This already makes me question if you are suited to govern the Fulbrosia province or if we should replace you with a winged undead!" Albedo spoke frigidly without facing Frey as she glared at the rebellious harpy.
Momonga decided to let Albedo make an example of the offending harpy first and only then he would intervene and ensure the rest fully understood where they stood. As with all other monster species, they followed the simple rule of 'the weak follow the strong,' but in their isolation from the world, the harpies thought themselves to be on top of the food chain, willfully ignorant of the true power scale and likely still thinking Frey was near to the very peak. They could fly and had Magic Jamming, but that was about it.
"Think carefully, dark-winged one. I represent the majority of clans and-" The harpy gasped, her face twisting in shock as her wings fell off her back in an instant, leaving blackened stumps behind.
She started to plummet and as she tried using magic to hold herself in the air, Momonga could sense Frey blocking all flight magic in the area. Obviously, she couldn't even remotely interrupt his magic but that couldn't be said about the harpy who fell to the floor below. The harpy hit the wooden floor two hundred meters below with a loud thud and slowly stood up as her cut of wings landed near her, bloody red and missing much of their feathers.
Albedo twisted her face in a sinister grin as she extended her arm and turned the wings into ash with a blast of flame before the harpy while declaring, "It seems a cleanup will be necessary. Every single harpy who supported her and her clans should be executed, from the oldest to the unborn, while this wretch is cast in chains and sent to work in the sulfur mines."
"As you command, Lady Albedo. I will execute them personally." Frey bowed, ready to strike as she bared her claws.
Momonga felt now it was his turn to continue the show which was unwittingly caused by an arrogant harpy noble. He raised his hand and spoke calmly, "The rest have not committed crimes yet, thus there is no need to punish them."
"But they are not loyal, Lord Momonga. It is better to wipe this filth away right now," Albedo protested.
"I understand your sentiment, Albedo, if we were at war with outside forces I would not hesitate to remove all of them. However, I also believe they simply are ignorant and have failed to learn where they stand, thus a better option would be to educate them." Ainz cast mass paralysis upon the crowd, being sure to not hit Frey and anyone from his retinue. As the harpies froze up and began to plummet, he held all of them up in the air with telekinesis with a single dramatic move of his hand.
"To kill your entire species would be a simple matter to me or my closest subjects. I personally find this belief of having wings equates to being better than others, outdated and frankly foolish."
"Hey, maybe let a few of them fall to drive the point home. The floor should be strong enough to withstand a few of them hitting it like bullets with acceleration." Pero, who had been silent thus far, spoke up.
"Perhaps, but I am unaware of the inner politics of harpies to make a judgment on who would deserve it," Momonga replied.
Frey watched silently as all her court was held up in the air by the Supreme Overlord and could lose their lives instantly. There wasn't anything she could do, even if her own two daughters would be made into examples. She had failed to account for the sheer stupidity of some of the older harpies and their long-cultivated arrogance, failing to cull them beforehand even if it meant temporary instability.
"We should have taken Buku with us but… hey, Luchia, can you point out some who would be nothing but trouble in the future?" Pero turned to his concubine.
Luchia silently turned to Frey for advice and got a small nod in response. "I… if Lord Momonga wishes, I can point some out," The younger harpy replied timidly as she glanced at her mother again. Her words would end lives so she had to be careful, and it was only proper to defer to the highest authority present.
"Please do. Your input would help us weed out undesirable elements in Tempest's governing structure," Momonga encouraged Luchia to speak up.
In some sense, the power was intoxicating. The last time she stood in this throne room, she was still subject to inner politics and useless power struggles, but now thanks to her lover being one of the high lords she could end the lives of anyone who had ever crossed her within the blink of an eye. She pointed out fourteen harpies she considered too ambitious or too set in the old ways, as she pointed at them out each was shot down with frightening speed. Their bodies shattering against the hardwood underneath, crushed into nothing but splattered meat, bones, and feathers.
This one simple demonstration showed how easy it was for the Supreme Overlord to deal with any insubordination.
As Momonga canceled paralysis and simultaneously stopped keeping them up in the air, the entire group started to fall before resuming flight, resuming their earlier positions. One by one they bowed their heads, not a single harpy daring to show any sign of disrespect towards the undead overlord now. If there were any wild speculation on why Frey had relinquished her demon lord title, giving her nation away to an outsider, it was now crystal clear.
With Momonga departing and only given a warning, Frey could finally retire to her quarters with her three daughters in tow. Luchia had decided to stay behind for a few hours before returning to her lover's side, to smooth out ruffled feathers and ensure other undesirables were fluffed out.
There were a few other trusted confidants present to Frey's relief that the entirety of the upper echelons of harpies weren't purged for the stupidity of one. They had nearly lost most of the harpies' competent administrators, something she knew she had to keep a tight clutch on thanks to Tempest's expansion.
"Luchia, why did you spare so many? You could have eliminated everyone who had ever opposed you," Frey asked the most pressing question as the group settled around a dining table with food already waiting for them. As most of her kind preferred to eat meat, most of the dishes consisted of that, with a few ones on the side having fruits and berries.
"Lord Momonga prefers not to waste resources and while Lord Peroroncino would have let me do whatever I wanted, I deemed it more important to leave a good impression. How have things been since the takeover?" Luchia replied and asked a question in return.
"Chaotic. I have a long list of reforms that need to be implemented and some fools think they can keep old traditions. At least civil war isn't in the picture anymore, not after that demonstration. Their most powerful leaders have been downed." Frey let out a sigh as she grabbed a juicy, barely cooked piece of meat and cut a piece with a knife.
"For a moment, I thought Nemu and I would be goners," Claire spoke up as she wrestled a wine bottle out of her younger sister's hands, popping it open and beginning to chug.
"I would never do that." Luchia grew defensive.
"If it was a real power struggle you should have gotten rid of me as well. You could have taken my place if you wanted to," Frey commented, chewing on some fish.
"But I don't want to. I would see Pero a lot less if I took this position." Luchia shook her head and added with a whisper, "I wouldn't want to answer to Lady Albedo either."
"She was scary. I couldn't even see her move. No wonder she is the head wife of Lord Momonga." Nemu yawned and reached for a wine bottle further ahead on the table.
"Head consort. As far as I know, she and the other two aren't Lord Momonga's wives yet." Luchia corrected her.
"And that is not a business any of you should be concerned with. For once think with your heads and don't stick your noses where you aren't supposed to," Frey snapped.
Her three daughters were still young and in some regard far too careless when it came to politics. Neither of her two remaining single daughters would have any hope to join the ranks of Supreme Overlord's consorts, nor did she. The trio that called Lord Momonga their beloved were absolute monsters, and no sane woman would dare to challenge them for a spot amongst them.
It was a challenge enough to survive the new political ocean they all were tossed in from the small pond that was the former harpy kingdom; adding more problems was inviting painful death. Frey knew that the smartest thing to do was to keep her head low. During Walpurgis, for a moment she had thought that Lord Veldora had decided to keep her as his toy when she offered him her seat in hopes of gaining favor with at least one of the High Lords, but to her relief, the True Dragon, although fascinated with humans, and particularly the female form, wasn't interested in romantic or physical interactions. And simply forgot about her existence as the next exciting thing caught his attention. Insulting to her ego as a beautiful harpy, but it was for the best.
Editing by aidan_lo.
Proofreading by Stac, fvvck, IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO, mfkz_rocker, Malguis, alassandro, CakeEight, aidan_lo, Working_Stiff and clagan
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