Shalltear ignored the village’s dismay, “So, who are you?”

“Ribitnik.” The frogman answered, not at all thinking it odd that his ‘dear friend’ did not know his name.

“Okay, Ribitnik, tell us about the frogmen invasion, how many of you are there?” She asked while the tribes watched the scene play out.

“Thousands, lots of thousands, like four hands of thousands.” He said, and the lizardmen gasped.

“Twenty thousand frogmen… you can’t be serious?” Zaryusu gasped, and the frogmen glared at him.

“More than that, lizard, more than that!” The frogman exclaimed.

“How can there be so many?” Shasuryu asked, aghast.

“Like I would ever tell you!” The frogman belched out, looking up at the lizardman chief with contempt, his tongue shot out of his mouth fast enough to smack Shasuryu across the chest before it retracted into his mouth.

“So how can there be so many, you’ll tell me, won’t you?” Shalltear asked, ignoring the mocking violence of the prisoner.

“Of course, you’re my friend.” Ribitnik answered, “It’s simple, the Empire lost a war. We’ve been fighting them off and on for generations along the coastal areas of the swamp, they had a lot of our prisoners, you know. So when they lost a war with someone else, a lot of their soldiers got pulled back, they abandoned the villages, and all the frogmen slaves they’d taken over the years were able to make an escape.”

“Oh, so… how are you feeding everybody?” Shalltear asked, “Aren’t you all going to go hungry?”

“No, there’s lots of lizard meat here.” Ribitnik answered and looked around at the lizardmen. “If we take over the whole lake in a few days, we’ll have enough food to last for a while. We can hunt out the wild beasts on this side of the lake too, and start fishing where the lizardmen did. It will be tight, but even if we take some casualties?” Ribitnik couldn’t shrug, but he could glare, “It would be worth it to take the whole lake forever, and that will just make it easier to feed everyone afterward.”

It was an ugly future laid out before the lizardmen, Zaryusu traded eyes with the other chiefs, the future opened up like a chasm beneath their feet, against so many frogmen victory looked impossible. ‘Can this one really help us so much?’

“So what is your plan, how come you’ve been moving so slowly?” Shalltear asked.

“Queen Heketi hasn’t been moving slowly, she’s been moving deliberately.” Ribitnik answered with glee, “We did hope to slaughter two tribes early, or at least drive them off, but one ran and I got caught before knowing what happened to the other, probably all dead. If they’re not, they’d run here. She wanted them to be huddled and hungry, you see, the lizardman liked to kill each other, a vicious and disgusting race. She, being a genius, realized that since they started killing each other over food once before, they would do it again. Why should a superior race like mine die at all if our inferior animal enemies will kill themselves for us?”

He answered like his superiority was self-evident, and he missed the way in which his words were erasing the boundaries between tribes with every passing second.

“So it’ll be a few days before they come this way?” Shalltear asked.

“Yes, we do still worry about the rumors of their great treasures, but it will only be a few more days before she comes this way ready to finish them off forever.” Ribinik’s ribbity laughter of glee was accompanied by the shaking of his entire body with pending happiness.

‘They lost a war… unless there was a war I don’t know about then that could only mean the war against Nazarick and the Kingdom, nothing else would make sense… and then of course they lost so many knights they would have to pull back to keep things stable at home. Any frogmen prisoners could easily escape confinement under reduced and lax guard… and they’d be mostly veteran fighters…’

“How long does it take for you to make a frogman warrior anyway, that still seems like a lot?” Shalltear pressed.

“Oh, well we lay lots of eggs, most of them used to get eaten until Heketi came along with ideas about protecting them in one place. That was about twenty years ago and since we had a lot more numbers, together we could fend off monsters better. Then she put the chiefs in charge of each other’s eggs to keep everyone honest. Then we had more than we needed between monster meat, fishing and so on, thus we sent more young to fight. A lot got caught, but it would weaken the human settlements. So the ones we got back were all full grown.” Ribitnik revealed, and Shalltear nodded along like she understood.

“Do you have any special magic or weapons or powerful warriors?” Shalltear asked.

“We have some runecraft stuff we stole from the humans or bought from dwarves, but no truly overwhelmingly powerful items. But they have the great treasures… for now.” Ribitnik made a noise he considered to be somewhat threatening, a throaty ribbit-like noise that expanded the bulbous throat several times.

Curiosity and his collector’s interest flared up in Ainz, but he held his peace and listened attentively. ‘Focus on the importance in the present… I can worry about the rest later.’ Ainz told himself while they went on.

“Wow, so you’re very ambitious, do you have any weaknesses you’re worried about at all?” Shalltear asked with a casual friendly smile.

“No, we can jump really well and we’re as strong or stronger than humans, that’s why they broke my legs, because I could easily jump as high as any ten of them standing one on top of the other.” The frogman boasted with pride, “Ground scrambling fools can’t even breathe under water, can you imagine only being able to breathe in one place? How ridiculous!” The frogman gave a snort of derision.

“Very ridiculous.” Shalltear nodded sagely, “So what is the highest tier of magic you can use?”

“I can’t use any, but the Queen can use up to the fifth tier.” Ribitnik boasted, “She’s very powerful, and tall too, she’s as tall as these walls and as wide as these gates, when Heketi comes, that will be the end of these kin killing lizardmen once and for all.”

“I’m sure, but how soon will they get here?” Shalltear asked.

“If nothing gets in her way, she’ll probably plunder the other villages and surround this one in a week. We were told to surround the village on all sides, including in the water, keep the lizardmen from fishing, and wait for them to kill each other and beg us to make them slaves in exchange for food. After that we can just work the survivors to death to make the first frogman civilization. She’ll be Empress of the Lake then, like the humans of Baharuth in the north or the dwarves in their mountains, we’ll have a true kingdom of our own. She is a truly amazing leader.” Ribitnik boasted with pride and Shalltear looked over her shoulder and up to her master.

“Is that everything, my Lord?” She asked, blinking her bright crimson eyes and using the same sweet little girl voice.

It was impossible, he had to do it. Ainz patted her beautiful head, helmet or no, and praised her. “Excellent work, Shalltear. Excellent work. I’m proud of you.”

She beamed up at him while the lizardmen gaped, open mouthed.

“Send him to Nazarick, our next task is clear.” Ainz said, and she bowed deeply before opening the gate before the still gaping lizardmen.

“My Lord, when I return,” she asked as she picked the frogman up, “what will we be doing?”

“Taking over the lake, Shalltear.” Ainz answered, and she did not lose her grin when she headed through the gate and back to their home.

When the gate vanished again, the lizardmen began to cheer.