Chaldea and Staff: Ainz Who? (207) (Patreon)

“So…” Da Vinci folded her hands in front of her face, as she frowned slightly, assuming an unusual posture and expression for her. The act conveying a surprising amount of seriousness and concentration that seemed to make the room itself feel gloomy, causing all those present to pay attention to the usually flighty and cheerful scientist. “Any questions before we begin?”

Olga-Maria Animusphere slowly looked around the room with an attentive look, and seeing that no one seemed to be in an upfront mood, nodded slowly. It seems that she was the one that needed to ask the question that everyone wanted to ask. “Absolutely… And the first question, why the hell was I dragged out of bed to this incomprehensible meeting of the brightest minds in Chaldea!? Can someone explain to me what's going on here!”

Olga shouted and the room consisting of Medea, Tesla, Mozart, Da Vinci, and Romani seemed to preen at the praise before scowling as other than Da Vinci, none of them knows the reason as to why they’re here either.

Roman, enlivened after Olga’s outburst, brightened up a little and looked at Olga with an interested and commiserating look. “Wait, nobody told you anything either?! I thought I was the only one Da Vinci pulled out of their workplace without explaining why…”

With Romani slumping on the desk, and Olga still fuming, Medea glanced at Mozart for an explanation, who shook his head in denial. She then turned to Tesla, who was already drilling Da Vinci with his gaze, so followed his example, which was followed a moment later by everyone else present. Da Vinci, still trying to look serious in the current situation, found herself under intense scrutiny by many pairs of eyes.

“Hmm, so you didn't notice it! In all the time that has passed?!” Da Vinci realized that no one present in the room shared her discovery, and immediately her eyes widened in horror and with a certain amount of pity and regret at the same time. “I hate to say it, but…”

Da Vinci let out a slow sighed before she looked around at everyone gathered, causing them to question both the situation and their cognitive abilities for a moment. What event had they missed or failed to notice in all the time that had passed? Was Da Vinci planning to tell them some terrible secret, a terrible secret that they should have learned on their own a long time ago?!

“Ainz is…” Da Vinci paused, instantly gathering the gazes of everyone present with her masterful delivery, then, after a few long seconds, finished her sentence. "Is not just a Servant.”

Olga, hearing this, was momentarily struck silent, almost with a panic analyzing her memory for the correctness of what Da Vinci had said, before realizing an important detail.

“I thought everyone already knew that?” Tesla arched his brow questioningly. “He is already a Servant without a Master, which is a very rare occurrence, and seemed to have no trouble supporting his own existence. Furthermore, a Servant serving as a Master, which is also very rare, multiples at that, a feat that no one in this room could accomplish. At least, not without some measure of difficulty, needing to source a very powerful leyline to do so, and not for long either, before the drain would be catastrophic.”

At Tesla’s pronouncement, except for Olga and Romani, being human, most of the people in the room nodded, further cementing Ainz’s incredible power.

“Never mind the fact that he wields unknown magecraft, or perhaps even outright Magic from the Age of Gods, almost every other detail about him is abnormal to the extreme. From the scraps of information we’ve gathered, his probably identity as an Outer God, or that he most likely came from another world, not to mention that he has lived at least several hundred years… Would anything we find out now be surprising?”

Seeing the nods of assent from the others, Tesla continued on.

“The thing that we know for sure, like that he’s an undead that doesn’t hate the living, hopefully, as otherwise we’re already doomed. That he wears a human body as his suit, one that is provided by you Da Vinci, though we shouldn’t discount the fact that he could probably do it himself. What’s there to be surprised about? He has killed gods, can resurrect the dead, has a rather dubious ancient past with a vampire goddess, demon emperor, mother of monsters and fairy queen, is a prophet who sees the future, a genius of all things magical, tactics and strategy, and is currently in a relationship with several girls at once. All while trying to save the world by destroying perhaps the most famous and powerful magus in all known human history by traveling through time and space to destroy distortions of human history created by that magus… Is that it, or am I forgetting something?”

Olga listened carefully to the brief retelling from Tesla of the information gathered about Ainz, before nodding, yes, that's right, Tesla had stated everything that Olga had already known.

“Yes,” Da Vinci nodded, then shifted her gaze to the others present and frowned. “And it’s just the tip of the iceberg!”

After such a recounting of information, saying ‘And that's just the tip of the iceberg’ would have seemed to most people a mockery at best and an occasion for divine revelation at worst, overturning their entire view of the world. But Olga only nodded at these words, not even much surprised by Da Vinci's words. It was Ainz, after all, Olga had long ago stopped trying to make any assumptions about his nature, abilities, or plans, and simply floated along, nodding at another insane discovery that turned the whole of world history upside down.

At least that was how she had managed so far not to fall into the abyss of madness into which, apparently, Da Vinci had eventually fallen. Who ended up literally forcibly drawing the Chaldean people into a secret conversation with a startling and extremely innovative idea. That Ainz was Ainz.

“I apologize for perhaps cutting in, Da Vinci, but after listing what Ainz is, which is certainly true, but also looks like absolute and incredible nonsense, I have only one question.“ Mozart interjected after a moment with a sigh, turning his eyes to Da Vinci. "Are you sure you had to assemble a company of many people and Servants at this moment? I'm not trying to say that your new discovery isn't revolutionary and unbelievable, on the contrary, I'm absolutely certain that it is, but… It's the most unbelievable and unexpected things about Ainz that represent the absolute norm of his existence.”

With a tone of finality, as if to say that the sky is blue, Mozart ended his question.

“I see no reason to panic after you've managed to figure out that Ainz represents something even stranger and more mysterious than one might have previously assumed. After all, that seems to me to be what Ainz is all about, and I would be more panicked if you managed to definitively determine what he is. I remind you, it's Ainz, it would even be a little strange if, after a hundred inconceivable facts about him, you didn't have a chance to find out a dozen more.”

Mozart pretty much said out loud exactly what Olga thought internally. ‘Ainz is Ainz’, just in a much more extended and beautifully creative way than Olga herself could, who’s ready to shrug and say ‘Ainz did something incredible… again, so what’s for lunch?’

Da Vinci, however, frowned after the pronouncement. After which she puffed up her cheeks like a very large hamster that had adopted the appearance of Mona Lisa, or like a little child, offended that none of her friends wanted to play the game invented by her, indulging in her desire to show herself as a genius. Da Vinci looked down for a moment, before she suddenly looked around at everyone present, blurring into a beatific smile. “I understood your opinion, thought it over… And decided to ignore it!”

The rest of the room groaned, as Da Vinci seemed to brighten up watching their reaction, before she continued on, ignoring any and all objections.

“So, we all know that Ainz is an enigma, which can be called ‘unsolvable’ without any hesitation, right?”

Olga thought for a moment about whether she should just leave, leaving Da Vinci to her own affairs, and do her own things, not that there were many of them at the moment. Not to say that she seriously expected Da Vinci to reveal some incredible mystery to her at the moment…

Besides, even though Olga was a trained and sufficiently knowledgeable magus, she was not a genius like Da Vinci. Just as, for scientists, the discovery of another protein with some unpronounceable name could be a world-shaking breakthrough, for an ordinary man such an event elicits nothing more than an unsure shrug with the words ‘well, it must be good’. Just as it is that a completely incredible discovery by Da Vinci could fly over Olga's head without causing any reaction in her mind.

On the other hand, it was impossible to say that Olga was not interested in Ainz and in the mysteries of his nature, abilities, history, or origin, especially considering that she is… in a relationship with him. Even just thinking of such a thing caused a blush to bloom on her face, one that she tried, and failed, to hide from Da Vinci.

So, with a sigh, Olga tried to make herself comfortable in her chair, leaning back, and prepared to listen to Da Vinci's revelations. She was hoping that, at least, this information would prove to be truly as remarkable as Da Vinci had presented it. Otherwise, this meeting would be a total wash.

The other Servants and Romani exchanged glances and seemed to come to roughly similar conclusions one way or another. Finally, with a collective sigh, the group focused their attention on Da Vinci again, causing her to cheer up and prepare for her story. With a fake cough, Da Vinci returned to retelling her findings.

“First of all, it's worth mentioning that I have repeatedly tried to analyze Ainz, and I think this is no secret to anyone?” Da Vinci mock looked at everyone present, with Olga rolling her eyes at such blatant pageantry. Da Vinci trying to find everything she could about Ainz was as much a secret as saying that Archers shoot arrows, it was something so blatant that even trying to mention it would just make one look ridiculous.

“I’ve created numerous theories, then reworked them, discarded some, and created new ones, until, in the end, I found myself completely submerged under a hundred thousand different and crazy ideas, losing myself in them altogether. What I find most amusing is that it was Ainz, whose study I devoted so much time to, who first pointed out the fundamental wrongness of my attempts.”

Seeing raised eyebrows on most of the Servants, she didn’t bother remarking on their surprise, seeing Da Vinci admitting that she was mistaken in something, choosing instead to push ahead.

“In the end, my scale of thought was too limited. I tried to understand Ainz in terms of what is called ‘common sense’, in terms of our current reality. To put him in a box as a magus, as a Servant, or even as a Divine Spirit, I tried to understand his existence in respect to Alaya, Gaia, Root, and the Throne of Heroes… Not realizing that the truth is much easier and therefore much further from us all!” Da Vinci suddenly clapped her hands, making Mozart, who was distracted, more interested in staring at Medea, flinch.

“Ainz is not a creature of this world!”

Olga did not bother commenting the obvious, remarking to the excited Da Vinci that her ‘discovery’ had long been known if not even self-evident. Deciding instead, to wait for the moment when Da Vinci would come to something more interesting, letting Da Vinci speak further, lest she wanted to suffer another tantrum from the genius.

“Of course, that is something that is already evident, but what is he then? If we take away all the known frames and stop relying on the labels we know, about magecraft or divinity. And instead look only at what Ainz is in fact, and not according to what we think he is, then Ainz is… Nothing.”

Da Vinci let her statement resounded across the room a bit more as she paused, a cocky smile on her face as she looked around at the rest of the audience. She would let them break the silence first, to ask her a question on their own, letting her play the part of an ‘all-knowing genius’ a little more.

Tesla, who had clearly expected such an answer, only rolled his eyes, disapproving either of Da Vinci's behavior or her personality, and yet still chose to stay silent. Medea, however, had no such limitations. “In what sense is he, ‘nothing’? I assume that I don’t have to explain to you that he’s very much existing?”

The Witch delivered with a mocking smile on her face.

“And what I mean by that, is that he’s Nothing that can be logically justified.” Da Vinci nodded, continuing on, keeping a smile on her face, while ignoring Medea’s snide remark.

“Any living creature, or what we might call a living creature, there’s some gray area there, has some basic indicators on which to base its personality, behavior, physiology, or even the magecraft they practice. Anything could be used as a measuring stick, the connection may be strange, perverse, extremely invisible, but it’s always there. Nothing just happens for no reason at all, there must be a driving force behind them. Physical laws pull space together, while magical laws limit magical abilities, social laws shape morality, and the laws of mathematics explain the interaction of abstract concepts and real units with each other.”

Another pause, as she extracted nods of assent from everyone present, to show that they understood and that they were paying attention, Da Vinci continued on.

“That's why it took me so long for me to accept that I could not find such things with Ainz, in his nature, situation or behavior, I couldn't find any connections with him. And all because of a simple mistake!”

Romani almost fell off his chair as the excited scientist seemed to enter a state of mania, as she shouted excitedly, moving animatedly all the while.

“How could I use the framework of our world, for a being that is not of it!?” Da Vinci nodded contentedly, having said much and said nothing at the same time, and making Olga think for a moment, trying to identify the unspoken implication of Da Vinci's words, before realizing an important detail. One that Mozart expressed a moment later. “And…? As much as your finding is quite monumental, that still doesn't tell us anything.”

“Oh no, au contraire! It tells us everything! Now, instead of trying to construct an understanding in order to determine who Ainz is… We must simply understand who Ainz is and then look for an explanation!”

Olga frowned once more, feeling a migraine settle in her head, trying to understand Da Vinci was a trial at the best of times, but now? When she’s in the grip of mania from her discovery? Impossible. Tesla, however, as perhaps befitting as a genius that could stand shoulder to shoulder with Da Vinci, nodded understandingly at the seeming circular argument i. “Induction, then? Instead of trying to make rules for observations, first record the observations and derive rules from them, abandoning all theories altogether, focusing instead on gathering information.”

“That’s right!” Da Vinci nodded excitedly. “And that's why I've spent the past few days not trying once again to create a single logical thread that could tie together all the disparate facts about Ainz into a coherent theory. But instead, recording all the information we know about Ainz, not discarding any information, no matter how ‘trivial’ or ‘self-evident’ it might be.”

After a moment, Da Vinci put her hand behind her back, and then with a sleight of hand she pulled a huge book from behind her back. Just one look at which made Olga think of her days of learning magecraft in the past, of her teachers and of the Clock Tower, sending a wave of shivers down her spine. But after a moment Olga brought herself under control, as she saw Da Vinci put the huge thick encyclopedia on the desk, remembering to accompany it with her verbal commentary.“Ta-da!”

Roman, glancing at the book, and at one specific entry, looked away a little embarrassed. “I see that you did not waste time…”

“No way!” Da Vinci smiled proudly. “And this is just a glossary of all the terms that I mention in further volumes where I’ve detailed my findings, I had no opportunity to bring those with me to this room!”

Hearing her words, Olga shifted her gaze to the huge encyclopedia before her eyes, for a second doubting Da Vinci's claim. Then, remembering just who she was thinking about, a person who was so out of touch with the perception of normality, that it was easier to simply add a special category for her. It was at least much better than trying to determine exactly where, on the scale of insanity, the mind of ‘the most outstanding genius of all time’, was located.

Da Vinci was Da Vinci, Ainz was Ainz, and Olga, who was not trying to fathom the esoteric mysteries and sacred truths of the universe, who kept her psyche in order and lived day after day in peace. Trying to understand these mad creatures? Therein lies madness.

“I suppose if we're talking about not accepting a single fact as self-evident, it's to be expected that the glossary of terms will be of similar dimensions.” Medea sighed as she nodded slowly. “From the familiar terms used by Ainz in speech, to his interaction with three-dimensional space.”

“That's right!” Da Vinci clapped her hands cheerfully, enjoying the fact that another of her contemporaries had appreciated her work and understood her intent, before turning to the rest.

“I gathered countless all the things I’ve recorded into multiple records, before analyzing each and one of them, categorizing and unifying them. The next step, of course, is to turn these observations into unequivocal truths before constructing any theories or ideas, focusing not on my own conjectures, but on what exists in reality and is completely objective.”

Da Vinci then ended her findings then, even though she looked like she had things to add. Once again, Da Vinci was waiting for the popcorn gallery to comment on her findings, confident that the people in the room would be curious about what she’s planning next and on what she had found out about Ainz. In the end, Romani was the first to surrender. “And then what?”

“And then to add more contrast, rather than just creating an axiom that would not stand scrutiny, I would compare my findings about Ainz with what I know, Servants, magecraft, the natural world and so on. And after exhaustively listing it all out…” Da Vinci stopped, a dramatic pause, clearly enjoying the attention riveted on her at the moment, at least in the fact that she was the one talking the most at the moment, before smiling.

"I didn't understand anything.”

Instantly, bitterness foamed inside Olga, and she wanted to shout at Da Vinci something like ‘then why did you gather us all here!’. But, used as she was to Da Vinci’s antics, she only covered her eyes, took a slow breath and exhaled, letting Da Vinci continue her thought.

“To be more precise, I can say with certainty that there is no coherent logical theory as to how exactly Ainz turned out to be the Ainz that he is. Even if some facts or actions can be put together, one that can even form a logical ladder, another piece would soon cause it to crumble instantly. His existence just doesn't fit into a coherent piece all together. And while such a thing is only natural to expect in any legend, especially when it's about a supposed god beyond human understanding and awareness, there should still be a common through line through it all. Most things simply don't overlap, actions seemingly not following from the other, facts have no causes and no consequences, and self-contradiction lurks within almost every fact. Even the most basic concepts can contradict themselves many times when it comes to Ainz." Da Vinci smiled and nodded confidently, leaving no chance for a misinterpretation of her words.

“And then, having realized this, I created the best theory of all, my own Magnum Opus, to answer this fundamental contradiction of Ainz. Ainz is in fact!" Da Vinci raised both of her hands, with her index fingers pointing to the sky, as if she were a preacher in the throes of a religious experience. The rest of the room could only stare at her, at the edge of their seats. What paradigm shift would Da Vinci unveil?

“Not Ainz!”

Olga had to clench her teeth to stop herself from grabbing the thick encyclopedia on the table and do something unfortunate with it against Da Vinci. She wanted to scream out ‘How does that even make sense, what are you talking about?!’, but Olga simply covered her eyes and took another slow breath, and then exhaled. The act created before her inner eye a picture of a beautiful beach and a calm forest, with rustling leaves on the trees as she counted down from ten.

It is most likely that Ainz had something to do with Olga's incredible magical progress, in the most direct sense of all, but he also had something to do with the development of Olga's self-control at the moment. Indirectly perhaps, but he was demonstrating his effectiveness in terms of Olga's self-development at the moment.

Mozart, looking around at the others, accepted that it was his turn to question Da Vinci, and to contribute to the growth of her ego, as impossible as such a prospect might be, how could infinite become larger? Still, he asked the question that all the other people around were expecting… Except for Tesla, who most likely had already understood Da Vinci's direction of thought long ago and simply did not want to contribute to her vanity.

“In what way?”

“In the sense that the Ainz that everyone here knows-" Da Vinci twirled one finger in the air to emphasize her words. “And the Ainz that I've been studying all this time… They're different Ainz! I don't think I need to point out the hundreds of inconsistencies I've noticed about Ainz to… Well, anyone who's seen him at all.” Olga only covered her eyes as an answer. Ainz was Ainz, that was the sole basis of her weak, fragile psyche all this time, but as it turned out, even the simplest logical inference in this case was not axiomatic.

As it turned out, Ainz was so unique that he might not even be Ainz… somehow.

On the other hand, Olga had given up trying to figure out who Ainz really was. It was a thought crystallized so long ago that all she could do in response to Da Vinci’s theory was to shrug her shoulders and mark it as yet another unsolved mystery in her mind.

Where Olga saw only an unsolvable mystery, however, Da Vinci saw a prize that she simply had to open.

“It's funny in retrospect, but it was when I tried to piece together everything logically into a coherent theory for the umpteenth time that it kept falling apart in my hands and giving up when I found my answer. It was then when I decided to abandon logic in my reasoning, and I first saw a single logical coherent thought before me." Da Vinci nodded, then exhaled. "The Ainz we know, the one walking in the halls of Chaldea, and the Ainz we are trying to reason about, and the Ainz who performed such legendary feats and the Ainz who resolves Singularities… These are all different Ainz’!”

After another pause, with Tesla looking like he was deep in thought, Romani looking disturbed for some reason, with Medea and Mozart looking intrigued, did Da Vinci continue on.

“This is the only truth I've been able to find after studying our current situation for so long.” Da Vinci nodded. “Ainz… The Ainz that exists right now, the Ainz that existed in the past, and, I suppose, the Ainz that he was originally, all of them are different iterations of the same Ainz. That is to say…”

“Ainz really is a Servant.” Medea suddenly added, opening her eyes wide, looking at Da Vinci carefully. “To be more precise… He currently exists as a Servant, a separate part of the personality of the Heroic Spirit sealed in the Throne of Heroes. The Ainz that exists now… It's only a part of the real Ainz.”

“That's right!” Da Vinci finally sat down happily in her seat, then glanced at Tesla, who had remained silent enough the whole time, not hiding his displeasure with Da Vinci and her words and actions. “The Ainz we know and the Ainz that exists in reality are two completely different things. More than that, I would not be the least bit surprised by much of what is possible. For example, if this version of Ainz existed in the same way that Servants embody only part of Heroic Spirits, it wouldn't surprise me if this Ainz didn't have a memory of his past and encounters with other Servants summoned by him. Or, if he didn't have the knowledge that he should have, like the basic principles of his magecraft. I can tell you that it wouldn't even surprise me one bit if this version of Ainz didn't even know that he was just a part of the whole!”

Tesla seemed like he wanted to interject, before he was cut off by Da Vinci.

“Well, that last one was just a theory, a wrong one at that! As we all have already seen, this is definitely not the case, so I will not theorize on this subject more and just skip this moment of reflection. It’s just quite the treat to have some logical through line about Ainz, even if it’s wrong." Olga could only roll her eyes at these words.

An Ainz who doesn't know such basic information about himself? Ha-ha, what's next, that Ainz is really just a man in a skeleton suit who doesn't know what he's doing? Of course, even for an absurd joke, it was too absurd.

What’s next? Romani is secretly Solomon? What an absurd thought.

“In other words, the Ainz that existed in reality and the Ainz we all know are different entities," Da Vinci nodded confidently. “And the most important of which are…”

“What part of the ‘Heroic Spirit’ Ainz represents the current Ainz, who Ainz really is, and where can we find what can be called the origin of the ‘Heroic Spirit Ainz’. The original according to which this copy of Ainz was created.” Tesla sighed and shook his head. “Not to mention that this automatically leads us to think about what the level of Ainz's powers really is, whether he is a god beyond human understanding, and many others. No legends in Human History existed such an all-powerful being.”

After these words, Tesla shifted his gaze to Da Vinci before nodding. "So… Where and when could we find such a legendary figure?”

At Tesla’s question, Da Vinci looked carefully at everyone present, and then answered seriously and slowly, closing her eyes for a moment. “I don't know.”

Olga once again looked at the heavy volumetric compendium for a moment, contemplating on its potential use as a lethal weapon, before she closed her eyes and imagined lambs jumping over a fence.

The lambs, obeying her mental command, instantly began jumping over the fence… In the process turning into Ainz as they jumped, before, as they fell to the ground, turning into some kind of uncharted terror from beyond all time and human existence for a moment, then dissipating into nothingness.

Olga did not know whether it said something about her, her psyche or her mental state, but such a picture, and after repeating it several times, was calming to Olga. As she opened her eyes, staring at Da Vinci, she waited for an answer to the extremely important and interesting question.

“And… What next? Why are we here in the first place?”

After this very essential question, Da Vinci looked around at everyone present as if for the first time and closed her eyes, reflecting with her frowning eyebrows the storm of emotions raging inside her. The action wrinkled her beautiful face, before slowly, as if through force, painfully saying the words that she clearly did not want to say. “I… Please help.”

Upon hearing such words, Olga reflexively tried to grab hold of the volume lying on the table before she realized what had been said. “Whoa, what?!”

A moment later, Olga's gaze met the people and Servants around her, trying to determine whether she had actually heard what Da Vinci had said. Or whether she had gone completely mad after the genius' story, before realizing that it was not so. Olga was in a completely sane state of mind, it was the whole world around her that had gone mad.

To learn that Ainz, who was an unknown something beyond comprehension, turned out to be an even stranger, something beyond comprehension, was one thing that was quite within Olga's perception. To hear that Da Vinci, the self-proclaimed genius of all geniuses, the greatest, and far from humble, of all scientists, was asking for help… It was wild indeed.

Tesla, as the one sitting closest to Da Vinci, was clearly thinking the same thing, instantly extending his hand in a rather pointless for Servants, but quite normal human gesture, putting the back of his hand to Da Vinci's forehead. “Da Vinci, I have never agreed with your worldview, but if you have indeed suffered traumatic damage to your brain, it would be a great loss to the entire human race… Do you need some clinical help?”

“Is it so wild that the greatest genius of all geniuses would ask for help and confess their imperfection?!” Da Vinci shouted indignantly, shaking off Tesla's hand, before suddenly became silent as she thought about what she’s saying for a moment and sighed.

“Okay, I guess this is a really strange situation…”

Da Vinci looked around, at all the Servants and people present, lingering on Tesla once more, allowing Olga to discern in one great scientist's face a genuine interest, perhaps even apprehension, directed at another great scientist. She then closed her eyes and slowly exhaled before, with a clear heavy heart, beginning to speak again. “I will say this again, only once, but…  When I met Ainz in the past, he pointed out a simple thing to me.”

With a deep sigh of the damned, as if she was admitting that she in fact dislikes things that are beautiful, something anathema to herself, Da Vinci continued.

“I'm not perfect.” Da Vinci smiled an unexpectedly much brighter smile, with a little less of her usual bravado. "Don't worry, I’m not losing my confidence or anything that drastic, I'm still the great Da Vinci, the genius of all geniuses. But in the end, thanks to Ainz, I realized… That I am just one person, after all. Even the greatest man is only one man in the end. It was with this understanding that allowed me, for the first time in my life, to look at myself and ask myself…”

Da Vinci closed her eyes, then opened them with a genuine fire of conviction that Olga had never seen in Da Vinci's gaze before. “What am I doing with my life?”

Olga didn’t need to look at the other people in the room to know that they’re adopting the same expression as her, open-mouthed shock. Well, in essence anyway, the Servants in the room were not all that expressive.

“I've always relied on my extensive knowledge, on my ability to find the answer out of hundreds of lies, combining facts to find the truth. But… is that the job of a scientist?” Da Vinci grinned momentarily. “It was this insight that first made me think not of my strengths, but of my weaknesses. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link at the end. And I realized that, no matter how many times I called myself a scientist in the past, I… I probably could never call myself one.”

Da Vinci shifted her gaze to Tesla, who was looking at her, interestedly, if not even with some respect. "Processing hundreds of facts and choosing the best fit among them? It was not the work of a scientist, but just a computer. A super-computer perhaps, but not even a third-rate scientist. A scientist is not supposed to find answers to the same questions, but to ask new questions to which he has no answers and find them.”

Da Vinci shifted her gaze to the other Servant. “And so, I, for perhaps the first time in my life…  Decided to admit that there is something in the world that I do not know, and instead of trying to solve the problem again with my old method, to look at it anew with a new outlook. And that's why I gathered you all here.”

“Because all of you here are people whose intelligence I trust enough to step on my vanity and…  Ask you to help me. To ask me questions that I have no answer to, to move from my position of super genius to that of scientist for the first time in my life." Da Vinci nodded, then looked around at everyone else, opening her mouth for a moment before closing it with a snap, and shook her head.

"It was said once, and it will never be said again. Now everyone here knows what we're dealing with, so… Who wants to think about it?”

The other present, hearing Da Vinci's words, looked at each other, causing Olga to frown for a moment, trying to understand what exactly Da Vinci's opinion and her change carried…

Before shrugging her shoulders and returning to the discussion.

Ainz was Ainz, even if he wasn't really ‘Ainz; in the end. And Da Vinci was Da Vinci, even if she decided to stop being Da Vinci. This was simply the truth of life, which Olga took for granted, without trying to think it through on her own.

And the less Olga tried to delve into these mazes, the easier her life went on, that, at least, she knows for certain.