Interlude: Karna (183) (Patreon)

Most of the Servants in the Throne of Heroes are selfish in one way or another.

There was, after all, nothing wrong with a little selfishness in itself, the ability to follow one's own beliefs and for one's own sake, to achieve one's own goals, was a positive trait rather than a negative one. A certain amount of willpower and perseverance were required of anyone to become a hero, someone who might one day become a Servant.

From this point of view, most Servants of the Throne of Heroes are indeed selfish. Far from being arrogant or greedy, with some exception, but at least in terms of their perception as standing above most ordinary people.

After all, it was true. The weakest of Servants was still far superior to the average human and even to the average magus – as far as the magi themselves could be called ‘ordinary’.

Most of the Servants, on the other hand, were at such a level of strength and ability that to say that they were better than the common man would be simply the truth of life.

And yet among the Servants there were strange exceptions, such as those who could not be called ’selfish’ in any way. Servants who, despite their apparent ability, are humble

Like, for example, Karna.

Oh no, he was definitely strong in his convictions, but the word ‘selfish’ just couldn't stick to his figure.

The great hero of the poor, the hero of generosity, the heroic Karna was such a person that just looking at him made any beholder want to rather apologize for all their preconceptions about Servants.

Though, of course, he could not be called the one who found contact with new people easy. For all his willingness to answer any question from anyone he just met, to sacrifice everything easily for a new friend – so long as it was not against orders, of course, Karna was not particularly good at communication. But of all the Servants, perhaps he is the closest to the common people of Chaldea, hiding in the corners from the gaze of the mighty heroes of humanity.

That is only in theory, though. It was difficult to verify such a fact in practice, considering that after receiving his first order from Ainz, Karna went to the room assigned to him and… Did nothing else.

As said before, Karna’s action was primarily guided by his allotted orders, and seeing that he was not a very social person? Well, when he received an order first from Ainz to ‘listen to what the chief says’, and then from the chief herself to ‘go to your room for now’, he did just that and nothing else.

He went to his room and, closing the door behind him, remained in the quiet emptiness of the room.

Seeing that Servants did not need any sustenance, he could stay in his room for a long time.

Karna waited for the first thirty minutes standing near the front door, waiting to see if any further orders would follow. Fortunately, as a Servant, much less being one of the strongest Servants of the Throne of Heroes, he had no fear of fatigue from such activities or even stiff limbs.

However, after waiting for a long enough time, as far as he himself could understand, and receiving no further orders, Karna did allow himself to move from his waiting place and cast a glance at the room assigned to him.

Chaldea's living quarters were almost all uniform. Furnished with a double bed, a desk with a computer on it, a screen with a speaker over it, a closet, a pair of chairs, a bedside table with a small lamp, a mirror hanging on the wall. Inside the room is another door that led to a bathroom that included a shower. In other words, the Chaldea workers, for whom such rooms were originally intended, were not supposed to be particularly luxurious. But for Karna, his current abode was already luxurious enough.

In fact, as a Servant who didn't need to sleep or even to bathe, and can exist as a discorporate spirit, he saw no point in having a room assigned to him.

Moreover, if Karna could speak his mind, he would rather say that he prefers to be at his Master's side at all times to protect him from any danger.

As his Master's brief skirmish with Scáthach had shown him, his worry was not without precedent, even in the current, seemingly calm conditions.

But Karna was not going to discuss his Master's orders, and so, after checking his new habitat, he made his way to the nearest chair and sat down and proceeded to wait for further orders.

If his Master approached him, if he needed his abilities, Karna would answer. If not, then at least he would be prepared.

Of course, he wasn't going to just sit still for the rest of eternity either; after waiting a couple of days, if he received no further orders, he would leave his room, and most likely head to his Master to see if he had any orders.

Until then, however, Karna planned to do nothing. Except watch his own room and wait to see if his Master would need to give him orders.

No, it was not that Karna was a creature without a will of his own. But in the current circumstances where he has not yet determined what relations existed between him and Ainz, Karna was reluctant to go beyond them, especially where he saw those boundaries less clearly now.

Things were easier with Edison, Edison treated Karna like a tool, and clearly outlined what attitude he expected from Karna. But now, having entered the service of the new Master, it was easier for Karna to start from scratch.

And so there was silence in Karna's room.

First for a minute, then for ten, then for an hour…

Karna felt… No, of course, he could still say that he was bored, but he pushed that feeling to the back of his mind, he could only present his best to his Master.

After two hours, Karna's mind, which at first expected some order, unexpected sound, or any other stimulus, gradually began to relax.

After three hours, Karna allowed even his posture, which was as straight as if it were a spear in his hands, to settle a little.

Four hours then passed, and Karna's mind was finally distracted from his contemplation on what was before his eyes, now turning his attention inward, to analyzing the events of the past.

Six hours later, his contemplation was replaced by thoughts and memories that flashed through his mind, one after the other.

Nine hours, in his mind’s eye he was fighting his brother again – as always, as fate itself had ordained, dancing an unstoppable dance of destruction.

Twelve hours, and his mind began to wander. Come to think of it, who was his self-appointed mother in the end?

Karna never learned her name and never saw her in battle, which might have allowed him to determine her identity by circumstantial evidence, at least. That is, except for the moment when his self-appointed mother used him, and Arjuna, as throwing projectiles…

The clock struck Eighteen o'clock.

***

Could Ainz say that he had dealt with Medb?

Well, in a sense he had. Ainz was at least able to remember exactly what events in the past had connected him to Medb, he had also found out how she was reacting to him, what she was thinking at the moment about his qualities.

But no, if ‘dealt with’, meant ‘resolution of the situation’ with Medb? Ainz definitely failed at that. How was he supposed to resolve the situation at all!?

How should he handle Medb!? It was much easier when he thought that she wanted to kill him!

Well, he could have tried to refuse Medb’s advance? Though that would hardly have solved his current problem, and might have even started a new problem.

Ainz didn't know how Medb would have reacted at all to the harem that had formed against his actions and decisions. And he certainly didn't know how he should have reacted to a hypothetical situation in which one of the girls started ‘wooing’ him!

What's next – a guy confessing his love to him!?

His suppression of emotion worked like clockwork, leaving Ainz momentarily calm and allowing him to exhale – although he didn't need to breathe at all.

Well, Ainz saw no way to deal with the current situation, he needed help here, and from a professional at that. But no image of a professional that could help him came to Ainz' mind.

No, of course, he had heard of family psychologists before – but was there such a thing as a harem psychologist? And harem psychologists specializing in his case at that?!

Of all the people and Servants that Ainz could easily recall, only Medb had anything to do with harems, but Ainz was certainly not going to ask her anything like that! That was totally against his original intention!

Ainz stopped, then rubbed his temple, trying to somehow settle the raging tides in his mind.

Another problem with his current existence. In a situation like this, another person could go to sleep, putting any turbulent thoughts out of their head for a few hours. And maybe wake up with a different perspective on the situation, allowing the facts to settle in their head naturally. Of course, there exists a possibility that sleeping wouldn’t solve their problem, but at least it allowed them to escape it for a time!

But Ainz was deprived of that possibility.

Which meant that all Ainz could do was to try to achieve a similar result, namely, to try to distract himself with something.

But with what?!

Ainz looked around, asking himself an important question for the first time in his life.

"What, in fact, have the Servants been spending their time with, all this time in Chaldea?"

***

Karna was in what might be called a meditative trance. Sitting still and staring at a random point in front of him, while remaining completely blind to what was in front of him. He was totally immersed in his thoughts and memories, both recent, about the Singularity, and those of his past life.

He was thinking about everything and nothing at all.

Of course, as a Servant, he was not subject to the many extremely negative consequences that would follow if one spent more than twenty-four hours in one place without movement. But even so, his body was almost stiff, and even his breathing seemed to become shallow and silent as he slowly lost consciousness.

Wandering among the many thoughts scattered in his mind, he suddenly stumbled upon a random sensation that forced him to come to full wakefulness.

While sitting in an almost empty and silent room all this time, Karna, somehow or other, reacted sharper to the change in his senses that had come to him at a random moment in time.

Ainz, his Master, was right there beside him.

Not in the sense of being in the same room, but in the sense that he simply came closer to him.

For most Servants, this information would probably have just passed him by, but Karna, unoccupied by anything, and could be said to have sunk into sensory deprivation, sensed his Master's approach as something new in his senses and…

Blinked.

How long had he sat in one place at all, unmoving?

Trying to move his eyes so that he could look more closely at his surroundings, Karna suddenly realized that he was so stiff in his posture that even moving his eyes had become unfamiliar to him.

But Karna's gaze focused on the clock before he moved his stiff neck, and blinked again.

According to the clock, it had been more than twenty-four hours, unless he somehow traveled to the past. It was actually more than thirty-six hours, in fact… almost all of which Karna had spent sitting in one place, doing nothing.

No, of course Karna understood that if his Master's orders were to sit in one place and do nothing, then he had to obey them. But at the same time, Karna was not stupid.

And so he was aware that without a clear order to ‘stay exclusively in this place without leaving that or doing anything else’, it was unlikely that that was what his Master had meant by sending Karna to his room.

So now was as good a time as any to at least question his Master regarding his orders.

Slowly shifting his stiffened arms and legs, Karna rose from his seat before taking a few steps to stand near the door and look out of it.

Instantly his eyes met his Master's, whose approach he had sensed, looking around at his surroundings a little thoughtfully.

However, when Ainz's gaze met Karna's, he stopped looking at his surroundings and smiled slightly, showing his immense benevolence in his expression. "Karna! Are you settling into your room well?”

Karna thought for a moment, then nodded, though his action lacked his usual concrete surety. After spending a day and a half cooped up in his room, he was indeed quite ‘settled’ in his room, but not in the sense that he suspects his Master meant.

The Servants lacked any personal objects that could be placed in their new dwelling – especially when they were first summoned, so Karna's hesitation was understandable.

As for his answer, Karna carefully tried to imagine what could be classified under the words ‘settling in’, then compared it to his own actions, and concluded that rearranging furniture quite probably fit into that word.

And he moved a chair, so that in a sense he was really ‘settled’ in.

“Okay, in that case," Ainz smiled, "Are you busy right now?”

Karna shook his head slightly, "No, Master. If you have orders, I am ready to carry them out.”

“No, no," Ainz shook his head. "I'm not talking about orders, more like… Um, I realize you haven't been in Chaldea very long, but maybe it's for the best… Karna," Ainz glanced at the Servant,

"What do you do in your spare time? Usually?”

Karna blinked. “In my spare time, um…”

It was a question that Karna, as much as it shamed him to admit, lacked an answer to. Karna doesn’t usually have much free time to begin with – and even if he did, there weren’t any regular activities that he did.

In the Singularity, he did have something that you could call ‘free time’, in there, Karna… probably spent his free time in conversations with people?

That is, in those moments when Edison was letting him go free – Karna typically spent that time chatting with Bunyan, and at other times he was chatting with his named mother…  Karna guessed that that came closest as an answer to Ainz's question?

“I talk with people," Karna considered himself a rather weak conversationalist, but this answer was the closest to the truth of all the others.

“Hmm, is that so?” Ainz was in thought for a second after Karna’s answer, was his master thinking that his answer was sufficient?

“No, not with her… and him… probably won’t enjoy idle talk? How about… no, interacting with them would rather be a problem for me. Especially if something unpredictable happened…”

Judging by his muttering, he was clearly thinking about something. Satisfied that his answer had met his Master’s expectation, he was about to ask something before Ainz suddenly looked at Karna carefully and even a little suspiciously. Has he done something wrong?

"Then Karna… How do you feel about me?”

Karna blinked at this question, then nodded inwardly afterwards. Indeed, it was a perfectly normal and proper question from Master to Servant. “I see you as my Master and will accomplish any order you give me.”

“Good," Ainz seemed to exhale, and even looked relieved after that answer, as if he had been assured from some troubling thought, and looked at Karna with a smile. "Then, would you mind if we talked a little? After all, we're Master and Servant now, we should get to know each other better, shouldn't we?”

Karna nodded, having nothing against Ainz's suggestion, though he would agree even if he did. “Of course, Master.” Karna then moved aside to let Ainz into his room.

For some reason, as Ainz passed the threshold to the room, he paused, then looked at Karna with a strange expression. After a while, Ainz took a deep breath and with a short exhale entered Karna’s room.

Karna wasn’t sure what to make of his Master's strange actions.

***

Once inside the room, Ainz looked around, trying to determine what exactly Karna had changed in his room when he moved into it, but he could find nothing but a displaced chair in his eyes.

Ainz wasn't sure if the problem was that he was just inattentive, or if Karna really hadn't changed anything in his room. But in order not to offend Karna in case Ainz couldn't see any important detail, he didn't ask, and took a seat.

Karna himself took similar action, taking a seat on the bed across from him, silence then settled between Ainz and Karna.

Looking into the eyes of his new Servant, one of many, Ainz thought for a moment.

What specifically was he supposed to ask Karna at this moment? How were such dialogues normally supposed to be structured?

Maybe he could start with an introduction? But he and Karna already knew each other…

Then, hmm…  Perhaps ask him what he was doing? No, not a good idea either – he's Ainz's Servant, that's what he ‘does’, and he was not doing anything right now.

Then perhaps… Hmm?

The pause continued to linger, making Ainz more and more anxious to break the silence – but gradually his nervousness only interfered more and more with the formation of thoughts. The more the silence lingered, leading to increased panic from the fact that Ainz could not think of anything he could ask Karna.

With a titanic effort of will, however, realizing that the pause had already lasted several dozen seconds, Ainz suppressed his impulse to run before asking what seemed to him a relatively normal question for a conversation. “Have you made any new acquaintances in Chaldea?”

“No," Karna answered without much emotion, simply answering Ainz's question before continuing.  “I went to my room at Olga-Marie's orders after my summoning and have not been in contact with anyone else since then.”

“Hmm, I see…" Ainz tried to find another question, as that venue of conversation died a horrible death. "So, what kind of people do you usually socialize with? I’m pretty sure that there would be a Servant here that would fit that criteria.”

“No one," Karna answered honestly. He didn't typically socialize with anyone, so that was a truthful answer, so he has no preference with whom he would like to talk to. Karna wasn't generally an outgoing Servant per se.

“I see?" Ainz was a little confused by the strange answer, wasn’t Karna a famous hero? Surely he must have a lot of friends, right? And then he thought about asking him more about it, and though otherwise, he didn’t want to walk on a landmine unknowingly. Okay, well, apparently the subject of socializing is not a path he should take with Karna. In that case…

“I admit that I don't know your legend very well.” Ainz tried to save the conversation by changing the subject again, something that is definitely a safe subject. Heroes like to boast about their accomplishments, right? “Maybe you could tell me a little more about yourself?”

“Hmm?” Karna glanced at Ainz. “My parameters are known to you…”

“I'm not talking about your parameters, I'm talking about something more personal…” Ainz noted, before hastening to correct any misunderstanding, he didn’t really want to jinx himself. “I mean, not too personal, if you don't want to talk about something, that's fine! Rather, what would you say is something notable about yourself?”

Karna's usual answer to this question would probably sound like ‘I don't want to talk about anything, as there’s nothing notable about me’ – but that answer would carry a negative connotation.

No, Karna would not want to tell anything about himself, not in the sense that he was against telling his Master, but in the sense that he felt no real desire to say anything about himself. He just didn't really like to talk – he could tell anything he needed to without feeling any particular emotion about it, precisely because he didn't care whether he told it or not.

However, such an answer would have carried a negative connotation that Karna did not want to convey, so he nodded and looked into Ainz' eyes. "Well, in that case, I suppose I should begin with the story of my legend – from the moment of my birth…”

***

Ainz has outgrown those childhood moments when a child asks his parents to read him a storybook before going to bed, very early in his childhood.

Unfortunately, his mother couldn't hide her problems from him – oh no, like any adult in front of her child she tried, squeezing out a tired smile every time she could.

Unfortunately, the moments when she lacked the strength to even do that were not at all rare.

So, as a child, the occasion where Ainz might have fallen asleep to his mother's words and mutterings could be counted in one hand. And that was probably why Karna's story had caused him to drift so deeply into his thoughts, thickly intermingled with the Servant's words.

However, it could also be that Ainz' mind was too tense and only too happy to grasp the possible distraction provided by Karna's story.

For the first minutes, Ainz tried to listen to Karna's story, analyzing any bit of data he could, trying to understand what kind of Servant Karna’s fate had brought him into contact with and what kind of person Karna was. But after a while, his mind gave up completely, simply taking the story from the Servant's mouth as a story rather than a source of important information.

Karna himself, however, was not the best of storytellers – which allowed Ainz to resist the siren call of sleep for a dozen minutes. But the story of distant lands, gods, heroes, and adventures managed to break Ainz’s, not so great, but still existing, willpower, making him at some point finally stop analyzing information and just start perceiving it as a kind of audiobook.

Karna himself did not care, in the sense that he had no difficulty in continuing his story even if Ainz fell asleep.

Even more so, in a way, Karna enjoyed pleasing his Master, so that, unnoticed by himself, after a while Karna began to change his style of storytelling. He gradually went from dry facts and descriptions of events – and without paying attention, he finished his story like a real storyteller.

“And at that moment an arrow from my brother, Arjuna, found me and in the last moment of my life I felt pain, so unaccustomed to me, who was forever shrouded in my eternal armor…” - Karna, displaying excellent storytelling skills, made a suitably dramatic pause before ending the story. “And so, there and then my life was ended by my brother’s hand.”

“But," Karna nodded as if to offer an epilogue. "As I passed into the wheel of reincarnation, My soul was accepted by the Throne of Heroes. Later I was called – first in the Singularity, I joined Edison's forces, and after that I was called by you, my Master, and I serve you now.”

As he finished his story, Karna paused, then suddenly realized that he had inadvertently switched to a storyteller's colorful language, coughing a little awkwardly, embarrassed by his own eagerness.

Of course, Karna was neither a narcissist nor an egoist, so telling of his own accomplishments was a strange occurrence to him. But if it somehow is supposed to make a man – or even a Servant, feel satisfied with his retelling, then he would find no objection to doing so. Especially since his Master liked to hear it.

Embarrassed for a second by his earlier uncharacteristic actions, Karna took another action somewhat uncharacteristic of him – and furtively glanced at Ainz, who had covered his eyes and seemed relaxed, sprawled out on the bed in Karna's room.

Ainz, on the other hand…

Hmm, it was hard to tell what state he was in at the moment.

Unfortunately, sleep was not something possible to Ainz - but here, lying on the bed with his eyes closed, Ainz could see alternating colorful images in his head, taking the form of a legend told by Karna.

In a way, it was like a dream.

A dream that was inaccessible to Ainz…

Even in his old world, it was extremely rare for Ainz to dream. A brief interval of a few hours of nothingness, that was all Ainz saw daily as he returned from Yggdrasil to harsh reality before he went to work again.

In other words…

It could be considered one of the rare, truly rare, moments when Ainz dreamed if for a moment. As Karna’s story ended, so did his dream.

Opening his eyes and blinking a few times, Ainz made sure that he was still in Chaldea, in Karna's room, and…

And many of the problems swirling around in his mind were…  Gone.

Not completely, of course, but in a way, Ainz could even say that this was about how he had felt in the past, after a good dream. But it was even better than that.

Instead of the usual hours-long sleep, after which Ainz would have felt empty and tired, at this moment, Ainz felt…

Rested.

Blinking a few more times, as if really trying to blink himself out of sleep, Ainz looked around before his gaze came upon Karna.

Ainz stared at him silently for a few moments before he slowly nodded, "Thank you, Karna. I really needed that.”

“You're welcome, Master," Karna allowed a small smile to his face, then suddenly continued, "If you wish, then… I know many more legends.”

Ainz only smiled at that, rising from the bed. “In that case, I'd be glad to hear them sometime…”

As he then took a few steps toward the door, he turned to Karna. “In fact… I have another order for you. If you want, you can do whatever you want in Chaldea – within reason, of course. I'm sure you'll be able to find common ground with any of the Servants here." Ainz smiled slightly and Karna suddenly realized…

That a smile reigned on his face as well.

***

Name: Karna

Race: Heteromorphic

Title: Hero of Generosity

Job: Servant of Ainz Ooal Gown

Residence: Chaldea, Karna's Room

Karma: +150 (Neutral-Good ~ Good)

Racial Level: Half-God (10)

Minor Deity (Fire) (2)

Minor Deity (Sun) (1)

Class Level: Lancer (15)

Hero (10)

Hero of the Lance (5)

Master of the Lance (10)

Others (15)

Total: 55 Class Levels + 13 Race levels = 68 Total Levels

HP: 40

Mana: 60

Physical Attack: 60

Physical Defense: 80

Dexterity: 80

Magic Attack: 0

Magical Defense: 40

Resistance: 20

Special Ability: 100

Skill: Vasavi Shakti

Level: Special

Somewhere between a special ability and a World Class item. As an attack it has an extremely powerful AOE, with the main damage composed of Fire and Light damage, capable of covering a huge area and instantly wiping out an entire group of Players unprepared for such an attack.

Its main drawback being that the attack can only be used once between lives – and at the moment of its preparation and activation, which takes at least a few seconds, and afterwards the user loses all their Physical Defense. In other words, this attack is designed to deal damage, but for the Player not to survive after that. A suicide move, in other words.

Player comments:

— I FINALLY LOST IT!!!! I SAW ‘PHYSICAL DEFENSE’ NOT AS ZERO AND THOUGHT "HMM, THAT'S WEIRD" !!!! I STARTED COUNTING PHYSICAL DEFENSE AT ZERO AS SOMETHING NORMAL!!!!

— I certainly understand that lancers aren't pure tanks, but 40 hp? And 60 phys AT? Not a DD, not a tank, and the ability for all its coolness and power are disposable. In other words, it's a very specific build, tailored for very specific situations – but… In some ways, does it even work? Somehow…

— I don't believe I'm saying this, but… HE HAS TOO MUCH PHYS DEFENSE! Yes, I said it! With 40 HP and such a problematic on and off ability activation, this is clearly a disposable character, he doesn't need that much physical defense! And with that said, 20 resistance is not enough! Reroll Phys Def and mana to Resistance, Mag Def, and increase Dexterity to a hundred. Then and only then I could at least say that this is a functional suicide bomb build. The thing that I would give for an actual build that I would entertain the idea of a ‘suicide bomb’ build… Even with that admission, this build is still shit!! Right now, it's just a bomb that some idiot tried to make useful as more than just a bomb, ending up losing on both fronts.