Chaldea and Staff: Rules of Conduct in Chaldea (241) (Patreon)

There were never that many doctors in Chaldea. Of course, as a relatively large institution located far from the rest of civilization, Chaldea could not function completely without a medical wing, but it was not very large. Never mind the fact that the Magi’s body themselves contained secrets that each family of Magi would prefer to keep secret.

After all, most magi could take care of themselves with their own powers, that's one of the reasons why, for example, the Masters of Chaldea were selected, not only for their potential to be a master. And if all else fails, and self-care was not possible, the doctors were somewhat constrained by their surroundings anyway. 

Yes, the influence of the Animusphere family allowed them to deliver a dozen MRI machines to Chaldea, but what was the need for those same MRI machines in Chaldea? To spend time checking if another worker had rare genetic diseases, just in case? Lord Animusphere, in the end, remained a magus, one that is focused on Astromancy at that, the complexity of the human body and what malaise could befall it were the least of his worries.

And besides, he could always replace the worker with a new one that did not require any additional costs, right? Who could gainsay him from doing this? The government, unaware that Chaldea even existed as a sovereign entity on territory that the government mistakenly considered its own? Or other magi who considered Lord Animusphere even too soft for such an attitude towards his workers, as most magi in general did not like to rely on independent workers? Why would they if they could just instill a thought in some random person they need, and then erase their memory?

Therefore, the medical wing of Chaldea looked quite small when compared to the other facilities, that it seemed almost comical. Even equipped with the latest magecraft and technology, for the most part it consisted of wards for patients to rest and mundane medicine and sedatives. Though of course, now it has become hosts to a multitude of people, and its supplies running dangerously low thanks to the tragedy that had befallen Chaldea. 

Of course, in theory, the medical wing of Chaldea could instantly increase several times in size if needed, but only if it was ‘needed’. Well the loss of over 70% of Chaldea staff, with all the masters either dead or in need of substantial medical help certainly qualified. And yet, no one could even foresee that Chaldea would unexpectedly find itself cut off from the rest of the world in one fell swoop. 

And yes, the irony of that statement is not appreciated at all, and Olga has made promises to punish anyone who would make a joke out of that.

Therefore, Chaldea's supplies were not as limitless as it might seem. Huge, of course, but not limitless.

The reserve of doctors in Chaldea themselves was also quite small almost as befitting their small facilities, only a dozen people under the leadership of one, relatively, unimportant deputy. Was being the operative word here.

On the first day, the day when Chaldea suffered its worst betrayal, they were all swamped with their duties. Some were administering sedatives to those that could not stomach the claustrophobic Coffin, some were overseeing the vitals of the masters as the rayshift progressed, and some were near the epicenter of events, wanting to personally witness the monumental event.

Therefore, after the explosion, after the beginning of the Singularity crisis, only one doctor remained in Chaldea. Dr. Roman, head of the Chaldea medical service.

Still, after the explosion, only a couple of dozen people remained in Chaldea anyway, so Roman was not buried in work. On the contrary, after prescribing a course of extensive sedatives, a couple of antipsychotics for those whose minds were clouded, and treating the wounds of several people who were struck by debris or just suffered a bad fall after the explosion, he was mostly done in his job as a doctor. And as for the Masters that were inside their Coffins? Well, the name for the Rayshifting pods suddenly seemed appropriate, and Roman had done what he could to preserve those that could still be saved when the Singularity ended and proper medical care could be afforded to them.

Thus, after the ‘excitement’ of that first day, he found himself with so much free time. He was even transferred by Director Olga to the position of monitor for Ainz’s progress in the Singularities and to offer support if needed. A position that lost all meaning after only a couple of weeks, before all the inhabitants of modern Chaldea realized one simple thing. 

There was simply no point in monitoring Ainz.

Ainz could defeat any opponent, and watching him, although it was a form of entertainment, was ultimately the prerogative of fans, not official work. And if Ainz could not defeat some opponent, then all the more so, no one in Chaldea could help anyway, so was there any point in such observation?

As Roman wants to claim it? Yes. But Olga quickly discovered that rather than doing his job and observing the ongoing in the Singularity, Roman was instead more concerned by what colored panties his favorite idol was wearing that particular day. In fact, Roman was using so much space in the hard drive of Chaldea’s disk storage to store very high quality, and therefore space intensive, clips, and videos of that same idol. 

Olga’s wrath was quite legendary… Even if she could understand some of Romani’s points. Not the perverted idol stuff, but the unnecessariness of observing Ainz’s progress in the Singularity.

With Ainz having brought the strongest Servants possible into the Singularity, was there really any need to observe Ainz progress at all? Or, at least, that's what Olga-Marie reasoned, pulling Roman out of his extremely important mission of recording virtual idol concerts, gathering a not-so-small amount of satisfaction as she used the doctor’s own point against him, and sending him to do his professional work as the only doctor in Chaldea.

He has a patient waiting for him, after all.

True, Roman was a doctor, not a psychoanalyst, or even a psychologist, but the difference between those was not noticed, or rather, ignored by Olga. 

And that’s why, at the moment, rather than watching Magi☆Mari, Roman was sincerely trying to come up with a worthy starting point in order to start a dialogue with his ‘patient’.

What could Roman even say to the great ruler of a past kingdom, Semiramis, and how exactly could he convey to her Olga-Marie's thoughts. And quote ‘impress on her not to try to establish her own ruling bloc in Chaldea, we already have two dozen rulers and commanders without her, whom Ainz keeps in check, and Semiramis is clearly not the best of them’, end quote.

Of course, Roman couldn’t just say those words outright, he might be a bit boorish, but even he was not that blind.

"Esteemed Semiramis, I understand that your strictness comes from your desire to make Chaldea a little better, but…" Fortunately for Roman, it was not he who had to start a conversation with Semiramis. To Roman's great misfortune, Jeanne, who was pulled in by Olga to join in with Roman, just in case, on a mandatory basis, took up the necessity of starting the conversation with her.

"In short, you won't leave this office until you understand that Chaldea is not your kingdom, or we'll just call Ainz, and he will thoroughly ‘explain’ this fact to you," Of course, Jeanne could not go to help the good doctor without her fraternal twin, Jalter, who would not allow her twin to have the upper hand against her. And so, if Jeanne was going to be helping Roman, then she would be doing the same. And she was indeed helping… In her own way.

Semiramis, hearing Jalter's words, for a moment threw a withering look at her, clearly preparing to respond to the rude treatment against someone of her august position, but the mention of Ainz made her flinch slightly before averting her gaze. She was trying to save face even in the current conditions, when her fear of Ainz was obvious to anyone who even took a bare look in her direction. 

Not that Roman could fully blame her for this, Ainz was a terribly scary creature… When he wanted to be so.

Semiramis simply did not have a chance to spend time with him and make sure of his complete trustworthiness, even Scáthach had taken a step back, a little step sure, but it’s something, from her hatred of Ainz…

She would still be happy to kill him, but that's why Roman said ‘a little’.

"Your Majesty, I know that adapting to Chaldea can take some time, but it is still…" Roman, the only one who tried to at least slightly butter up Semiramis by addressing her as her station demanded, still hesitated at the last second. "Necessary. But that’s not the reason why we are here, nor is it the subject that we need to talk about."

"Hmm," Semiramis tried again to pretend that the current conversation hardly touched her, before shifting her gaze to Roman, quite rightly considering him the weakest link. "For what reason am I even here, detained, like some kind of criminal?"

Of course, the moment the word left her mouth, Semiramis grimaced. Before remembering that in the current conditions and with the threat of Ainz looming behind her back, she was deprived of the divine mandate to rule, and therefore. And so, instead of a decision, she now had to make excuses… No matter how humiliating it was for the Queen of Assyria.

"You tried to poison Archer, with the reason you haven't been torn apart by the other inhabitants of Chaldea yet, and yes even the human staff would try, is because the Director had decided to suppress this information." Jalter, without trying to hide her own irritation, cut straight to the chase, listing out the reason why the Queen of Assyria is being observed for mental instability. For which Roman was even a little grateful to the girl.

"Fortunately, I managed to find it out before Archer could be poisoned, but the question of ‘who exactly did it’ became very… Problematic to say the least." Jeanne tried to smile, as if convincing Semiramis that there was nothing wrong with her act, although in Roman's opinion there definitely was. 

Even if it was just a relatively weak laxative, one that was concocted to affect Servants, such a small act, barely a prank really, could seriously affect the atmosphere in Chaldea. Anyone that would witness Archer collapsing, even if it was just because he was stuck in the toilet, would remind them of the recent betrayal of Lev. Not exactly something that anyone wants to remember. 

There would be literal calls of execution to the legendary poison master, with accusations of wretched assassination in the mouth of the people… Not that the laxative could do such a thing, and neither is death the end for the Servants, not in Chaldea, as Caster had succinctly shown when he was revived after dying in the Singularity.

But even so, it was impossible to miss such bad blood between two Servants in Chaldea, so Olga sent Roman to deal with it… Who just wanted to drink coffee and watch Magi☆Mari's latest performance!

The universe was sometimes terribly unfair.

"Why me and not Serenity? Her whole body is full of poison, she could have left it completely by accident," Semiramis shifted her gaze back to Roman, justifying herself even in an absolutely no-win situation, like this one, when all the circumstances already proved beyond a doubt that such an excuse would not work.

"Da Vinci analyzed the poison," Roman sighed, remembering how Da Vinci, who was going about her business, stopped literally for a moment, looked at the toxicological report in front of her, as she identified the poison. 

‘This is not Serenity's poison, not a deadly poison, but a painful one…’ Hearing the report, and ignoring Da Vinci babbling on some unimportant aspect of the poison, like how to create it for instance with household products, only one suspect remained. Of course, the poisoning target has a lot of things to say as well…

"Archer pretty much had already pointed us your way for who it is had tried to poison him, as according to him ‘your Presence Concealment is pathetic, whereas Serenity could have hidden her actions much better, as befits a true Assassin’, so yeah no really talking your way out of this one.” Jalter intervened again, wanting to squeeze a couple more words of accusation into Roman's speech, before catching Jeanne's disapproving gaze. "What?! It's true!"

Roman could tell that Jalter had decided to ‘spice’ up Archer’s words, the man was too diplomatic to be that blunt.

"I am a real Assassin, a servant of the Assassin class…" Semiramis threw a withering look Jalter’s way, which she easily brushed off like an annoying fly, the Dragon Witch had suffered more withering glares than that. Perhaps Semiramis really did not have a very outstanding level of Presence Concealment, given that in her legend she was always in the spotlight as the queen of Assyria. But her unique situation, being summoned simultaneously in two classes, as an Assassin and a Caster, was a source of pride for Semiramis. 

Therefore, even if speaking about her capabilities, Semiramis could open herself up to a metaphorical opponent, she could not so easily let go of the insult. Besides, it's not like in the current conditions, her attempts to deny the obvious would lead to her being declared innocent. She was truly and clearly already cornered.

"Semiramis, I can't understand it? Why did you decide to try and poison Archer?" Jeanne tried to interrupt the rudeness of her ‘sister’, forcing Semiramis to roll her eyes at the rather obvious good cop, bad cop farce going on. Well, good cop, bad cop, and one useless cop just taking space.

"The poison was not deadly, so we can exclude any punishments for a deadly offense, but in the end, had you succeeded, the effect would be… Extremely unpleasant," Roman tried to address Semiramis again, forcing her to breathe out of her nose. In any case, there was no point in her attempts to deny it at all, and the blade of the executioner had been sharpened. Even if such a fate was unlikely to happen to her.

And so, all she could do now, is to get her story out. Who knows, with how many gluttons there are in Chaldea, she might get a sympathetic ear.

"Archer refused to cook what I told him to cook, instead he put my order in a queue… A queue that would last for a week." Semiramis gritted her teeth at the humiliation she was forced to utter. A week of waiting for that damned Archer to simply carry out her order, unthinkable! 

As the Queen of Assyria, Semiramis could have any dishes she wanted at her first command, even if such a dish needed material sourced from all over her kingdom, and even abroad! Prepared by an army of cooks at her disposal.

"And that’s why…" Jeanne, not quite sure what exactly Semiramis wanted to say, continued uncertainly. "You decided to take revenge on him? By poisoning him?"

"Hmph! My revenge would not have made Archer work faster, besides, for revenge I would have chosen something not only painful, but also deadly. Perhaps paralyzing," Semiramis answered by rolling her eyes at the mistaken belief of the people around her. 

"No, I decided to make him execute my order first, by promising him an antidote. Just a few such unfortunate ‘accidents’ and Archer would soon learn to carry out my orders first." It was a very brilliant plan in Semiramis’ opinion, low risk, but high reward.

"That's why the director said that someone should stuff this…" Jalter's words were quickly shut down as Jeanne rushed to her, covering her mouth with her palm.

Still, just from what had slipped out, Semiramis could tell the rest, grimacing, before shifting her gaze to Roman again, objecting to the man with much more confidence than to the possible Servant opposite her. Without her Noble Phantasm, Semiramis was not at all sure of her abilities as a fighter.

"Ahem, I see…" Not quite sure what exactly he needed to say in this case, Roman uncertainly raised his hand to the back of his head and scratched it before sighing slowly, trying to pick words suitable for the occasion. "Your Majesty, Chaldea… Doesn't work according to such a principle."

"Why?" The question from Semiramis made Roman instantly choke on the answer that had not yet formed in his head, and Jeanne looked at Semiramis in horror. 

"Because it's wrong! Torturing another Servant because they refuse to listen to you is just… It’s wrong!"

Roman could only internally praise Jeanne for at least being able to object to Semiramis's surprisingly stupid words, but Semiramis only shifted her gaze to her and frowned slightly, "Why? Isn't this Ainz's place of power, under his complete control?"

"Um…" Jeanne, obviously confused by Semiramis's words, allowed her hands to weaken and Jalter to finally get out of the grip of her sister, throwing a scathing remark at Semiramis. 

"Ainz doesn't try to pit the Servants against each other! If you have any problems, challenge the enemy to a duel, non-fatal of course, and prove your superiority there!"

Roman preferred not to point out to Jalter that it was not for her place to talk about controlling her own anger. He especially didn’t want to remind her about the several battles that took place outside the training room, perpetrated by Jalter. 

Instead of those suicidal thoughts, Roman decided that concentrating on Semiramis's words, who, as if not expecting such a simple answer, recoiled slightly, was much safer. 

The Servant looked at the Servants in front of her with wide, unbelieving eyes. "So Ainz doesn't… Doesn't he force you to follow him?"

"Of course not," Jalter, contrary to Roman's expectations, hastened to defend Ainz even ahead of Jeanne. Jalter, clearly realizing this fact, immediately looked away, embarrassed, before loudly snorting and raising her chin up, as if the blush on her cheeks was non-existent, and Roman was definitely not going to point that out. 

"Of course I have no sympathy for Ainz, I don't even like him, but a fact is a fact!"

"Yes, as Jalter said," Jeanne hastened to support her sister, putting her hand on her shoulder and forcing Jalter to twitch, trying to throw it off, but Jeanne held on, and Jalter quickly gave up. "Ainz… Really is a good person. I know he looks scary and can sometimes act quite… Harshly, but he is not a bad person. He's even saving humanity at the moment, didn't he do the same in your Singularity?"

"He did, but there can simply be a very pragmatic reason for a tyrant to save people. It's hard to be a dictator without a dictatorship and a king without a kingdom." Semiramis dismissed the two’s words, then frowned again, unable to reconcile what was said to her at the moment with the picture in her head. 

"So in Chaldea he doesn’t, hmm… But then, how are rules created? How is Order maintained?"

"In this case, ahem…" Roman, having recovered a little from Semiramis's words, tried to express his opinion. "The director allocates the rooms, and Ainz determines who goes with him to the Singularity…"

"I suppose that could work… But who monitors the people in Chaldea to institute order? Provides the apparatus of government-appropriated violence? Issues instructions and orders?" Semiramis, still not entirely sure of the truthfulness of what the trio were telling her at the moment, frowned a little more, allowing a deep vertical fold to appear between her eyebrows.

Even Jalter stopped after that to look at Jeanne a little uncertainly, and then shift her gaze to Roman, who had to intervene again. "Your Majesty, it seems to me that… You don't quite understand how Chaldea functions…"

Semiramis twitched her lip slightly from these words, most likely displeased with the words that she might not know something so important, but refrained from giving her own venomous remark in response. 

"And how exactly?" It felt like she was forcing herself for Semiramis to squeeze out such words, but she could not as easily countenance ignorance as well. Such things are terminally stupid for any ruler, and Semiramis was proud, yes, but not stupid.

"The Servants in Chaldea do not carry out any special orders in between Singularities. Usually they just…" Roman uncertainly waved his hand in front of him, as if trying to pull the right word out of the air. "Mind their own business?"

"Semiramis, Chaldea is not an army, least of all a state, but rather… A gathering of like-minded individuals? More like the Argonaut than anything more organized." Jeanne looked at Semiramis with poorly covered pity, forcing Semiramis to look away, as if scalded by the meaning of Jeanne's words. 

"After all, we are all allies here with a common goal of saving humanity, aren't we?"

Semiramis clearly wanted to object to these words, but, opening her mouth, realized that this was most likely true, and therefore closed it in response, allowing Jalter to interject with her own words. "No one in all of Chaldea before you tried to torture another Servant and subjugate them!"

Roman, instantly finding an example in his head, preferred not to mention Ainz's other Servants, like Baal, and his actions with Medea, mentioning such events would definitely not help him in his current mission of conveying the idea to Semiramis. Instead, Roman had to scramble his brain to try to find the words to speak.

"I understand, Your Majesty, that you are accustomed to a certain level of comfort, however… It is quite difficult to provide decent living conditions for you in Chaldea, even the gods have to put up with the problems of life in Chaldea," Roman corrected the phrase ‘everyone’ on the fly in order not to further irritate Semiramis with a comparison to other people and a reminder that in Chaldea her position was little different from the position of a simple technician. 

Ainz was, of course, a good person, but Roman did not want to unexpectedly get an upset stomach for the next week if he managed to piss off Semiramis. After all, he was not Archer, and it would be much more difficult to notice the presence of Semiramis or her poison in his mug of coffee. 

For the same reason, Roman chose not to concentrate on the fact that in Semiramis' perception, even if Chaldea really was a strict military organization, her words about poisoning another Servant would sound even stranger. It would also elicit a much more severe punishment in any case.

"In other words, everyone is allowed to go about their own business, but some rules still exist… And one of these rules is the absence of influencing other Servants, and no fights outside the training rooms?" Semiramis raised an eyebrow, to which Roman was forced to commit another sin, and lie. 

"Something like that."

"What kind of person would you have to be, to not understand this very simple fact from the very beginning?!" Jalter rolled her eyes, causing Semiramis to give her another derogatory look, and a glance at Jeanne who could only give her an apologetic look, after which Semiramis exhaled and looked at Roman again. 

"Fine. This information has been taken into account, now you can proceed to the next part."

"The next part?" Roman blinked, confused, forcing Semiramis to raise an eyebrow in slight incomprehension in response, "Isn't that why I was forced to come here, a prisoner under the guard of two Servants? My punishment?"

"Semiramis, we are not here to guard you, or prevent you from doing anything.," Jeanne tried to intervene, but was forced to abandon that thought under Semiramis' mockingly raised eyebrow, and Roman was forced to agree with the queen's words at least partially. 

After all, it's not as if Roman could independently bring Semiramis to his office, what threat could he represent to force her to do anything she didn’t want to? As if he wanted to be next to a Servant who had recently tried to poison another Servant, without someone that could stop her from doing anything untoward towards him.

"Even if everything is really so rosy, then in any case I violated one of the laws of this place and was exposed, right?" Semiramis looked at Roman mockingly and at the same time with some determination. "At least after my new summoning, I will know not to try it again."

"Ahem, Your Majesty, uh… What were you expecting to happen that you would need to be summoned again?" Although Olga was somewhat harsh in her statements as befits the director of Chaldea, after all, her order was to ‘to have a conversation with Semiramis. If necessary, you could rough her up a bit… Well, not you, but you know what I mean’, Roman chose to rephrase this in his head towards ‘psychological help’, so at the moment he was not particularly sure that Semiramis understood him correctly and was ready to open up to him now, and he could solve the issue with that… In the presence of other Servants for his safety, of course.

"Execution, are you being purposefully daft now?" Semiramis answered simply, forcing Jeanne and Jalter to simultaneously choke on their tongues and look at her in confusion, if not in horror. 

Semiramis herself, however, continued while maintaining a cold expression, uncaring of the reaction her words have on the trio. It was her that was about to suffer after all. "Maybe torture before that."

"Semiramis, we just said, we are all allies, united in one goal of saving this world, all acting according to a common goal. No one is planning to execute you, let alone torture you!" Jeanne and Jalter were outraged at the same time at Semiramis' words, uncharacteristically for Jalter for those that didn't know her. 

However, Roman was not particularly surprised by such a reaction on their part. After all, it was not for the saints, who were executed and tortured before that, to support torture and executions.

"But I did violate a cardinal rule, didn't I? I don’t think poisoning someone, and indirectly almost impinging on the goal of saving humanity, could be any less serious, resulting in an equally serious punishment." Semiramis raised one eyebrow, clearly not fully understanding the thought expressed to her by the Servants.

"Punishments don't boil down to executions!" Jeanne was indignant at these words, forcing Semiramis to think for a moment.

"I suppose so…" Semiramis nodded, but before Jeanne could support her thought, Semiramis angrily twisted her face as a thought occurred to her. "But if you think that I would agree to be Ainz's concubine like these girls…"

"Hold your horses, no one has agreed to that yet!" Jalter interrupted Semiramis' thought before she could finish it, Roman even glanced at her for a moment before nodding to himself, as if confirming a theory he had previously pondered on. 

"Not that I'm interested in Ainz's love life, but you think too highly of yourself if you think that other people will so easily agree to you joining in as one of his girls! And Ainz himself needs to have a say in it, by the way!"

"Agree?" Semiramis frowned her eyebrows again, something that had happened many times in the course of this conversation, she admitted that she rather disliked it. She was clearly trying to match some part of her view of the world with the information unfolding before her, "So Ainz's harem… is not his requirement for help with saving humanity?"

"W-well, I wouldn't call it a harem!" Jeanne immediately interjected, catching the word that interested her the most. 

"It's the manifestation of love and closeness, true love! Everything is exclusively by the desire of the girls and Ainz, in full mutual consent!"

"Yeah, sure." Semiramis replied in the tone of a person who was extremely far from being convinced of such a fact, before raising her gaze up and exhaling, "Well… Okay. Let's assume. In that case…"

Semiramis fell silent, clearly picking words she wanted to say next, before closing her eyes and slowly exhaling, letting the deep crease between her eyebrows finally smooth out and shifting her gaze down to Roman, "It seems… I made a fundamental mistake in my understanding of how Chaldea operates."

"Amazingly, Sherlock! Right on point!" Jalter reacted with a loud exclamation, forcing Semiramis to throw an annoyed look at her once again, but refraining from commenting. If Jeanne and Jalter had the glibness of showing their true nature, then at least Semiramis would not sully her own pride by trying to speak with forked tongues.

"In any case, this does not answer my question," Quite easily dodging further indignation about her situation, Semiramis changed the subject again, shifting her gaze to Roman. "If execution and torture will not be my punishment, then what will?"

"I wouldn't call it a punishment per se, Your Majesty, just… The Director is concerned about your life in Chaldea," Roman again chose not to mention in what specific words the director was concerned about Semiramis, and especially of her proposed ‘solution’ 

"Maybe just… A little conversation?"

"We have already had a conversation. So I'm free to go now?" Semiramis did not bother with verbal nicety and grasped the essence of Roman's words.

"Um, ahem, Semiramis, maybe you could… Apologize to Archer?" Jeanne tried to steer the conversation in a positive direction, but was only able to get a mockingly raised eyebrow from the queen.

"For what? I performed a subversive action, my plan was uncovered, and as punishment assigned to me by a representative of the authorities in Chaldea, I had a conversation." Semiramis replied calmly, clearly not regretting the events that had occurred, which is the last thing that two of the trio wanted to happen. Jalter was okay with just beating her up in the training room.

"What do I have to apologize for, then?"

"No, ‘conversation’ was used not in the sense of one specific conversation, but in the sense of a discussion of sorts? A continued conversation that would last for uh… An unspecified amount of time?" Roman tried to salvage what he could before Semiramis just decided to leave without any punishment leveled her way. Roman would imagine that Olga would be very unhappy with him if such a thing happens.

But, judging by Semiramis’ mocking gaze, she definitely knew about this without his faltering explanations. The Queen was just mocking him, and also trying to bull rush into getting her way off of punishment scot-free.

"I understand this fact, but I still see no reason to apologize to Archer. I tried to poison him, but it didn't work out. I don't feel obligated to him, and I definitely won't demean my dignity by asking a commoner for forgiveness." Semiramis answered in an even voice, not even paying attention to Jeanne, who for the first time during the entire conversation looked outraged by Semiramis' words, 

"Why do you just think that you can poison someone?! Or is it because in the end, Archer didn't get hurt, so I'm not guilty of anything?!"

"Why should my participation in these events be related to my reaction to them?" Semiramis only slightly raised one eyebrow. 

"If I was forced to pay compensation to Archer, that would be fair. To humiliate myself in front of a commoner is not."

"And what if, after those same apologetic words, Archer prepares something for you?" Roman was desperate now, if Semiramis managed to get out of this without at least some recompense, it was his ass on the line! He was not in any way capable of making Archer do anything, but if he begged with a dogeza, some kind of miracle might happen!

And, unknown to the panicking Roman, his words had struck an unexpected blow to Semiramis, causing her to fall silent for a moment. 

Jalter clearly tried to express her personal opinion, but was stopped by Jeanne a moment later, forcing Jalter to roll her eyes, but keep her tongue silent.

Semiramis, after hearing the desperate proposal from Roman, clenched her teeth, clearly thinking deeply about the offer, before slowly and unhappily sighing, a decision was made. 

"Okay. Let's assume that with that as the price… Then I can accept it, albeit only because I tried to poison him in the first place…"

"That's great!" Roman smiled whooping in joy, relieved greatly, at getting such a concession from Semiramis, clapping his hands. "In that case, go ahead, while Archer hasn't left the kitchen yet!"

Internally, Roman could only sigh even as outwardly he was full of joy, looking as the joyless Semiramis marches out of the room as if she was walking to her own execution rather than just apologizing to Archer.

Managing dozens of such personalities…

How did Ainz not only do it, but also make it look so simple!