Talk:Kuuderika/@comment-2607:FEA8:55E0:6E7:D9A3:CE5C:812:F1D0-20180404024731/@comment-45.56.46.26-20180601132422

I feel it was a deliberate artistic choice to take a different direction and kick the puppy, so to speak. The point is to illustrate that being killed or whatnot by AOG is not purely reserved for designated bad guys. Innocents get dragged in too.

That's especially important to understanding the events of Vol 9, particularly the massacre at the Katze Plains. On the one hand, it was the responsibility of Ramposa (and the Emperor) to choose a more friendly way of approaching Ainz rather than allowing the lives of their people to be squandered pointlessly. Even though it is clear in both cases that Nazarick is acting to tempt them to make the wrong choice, who honestly has never tested a prospective friend that way?

Or rather,  as Ainz asked Neia in Vol 12: “—Miss Baraja. Did you think I would save the boy with a spell beyond your imagination?”

Indeed, the thought had crossed her mind. However, the Sorcerer King must have had some reason for his actions. “Ah, yes, I did. It is as you say.”

“Hm, perhaps that might be so.”  The Sorcerer King nodded, and Neia listened in silence. “Indeed, I could have done so. By using the various spells I have learned, saving a single boy would be a trivial task. However, I could not do that. That was because I could not allow the Bafolk to see me rescue a boy.”

Doubt crossed Neia’s face for the first time, and the Sorcerer King gently explained to her. “If I allowed them to know that hostages were effective against us, the prisoners inside would be used as meat-shields to block our attacks in battle.The paladins would be at a loss, and they might end up being wounded or killed. Due to our dire lack of manpower, even one fewer paladin would constitute a great disadvantage…."

Ainz not only has to prioritize Nazarick over all else, he has to let the human rulers of other nations understand this clearly. They cannot ever expect to gain anything by trying to make the safety of their own people Ainz's responsibility. Otherwise they'll try that all the time, or allow others to do it. In the end that just leads to more innocents being used as pawns, and thus more pointless suffering and death.