Chapter 2
Earlier
Lumière had the honour of serving Lord Ainz today. "Squee." This was not her first time serving as The Supreme one's day maid but it was always an honour to be cherished. Truthfully she didn't expect there to be much to do unless lord Ainz decided to change Garments. It was always a challenge to find ways to serve a being that neither ate, slept or perspired. Never the less Lumière was confident that she would be ready to spring into action if Ainz-sama actually wanted anything.
Arriving for her shift she gave the special knock to tell the maid on duty that she was there to relieve her. And then something that had never happened before in the history of Nazarick occurred, the on duty maid opened the door to switch with her 2 minutes before the official shift change. Why would she willingly give up 120 seconds with their master? Perhaps she had displeased the Supreme Being in some way and was heading off to feed herself to Kyouhukou's family? Wow, I get to spend extra time with Ainz-sama! How could this day get any better?
Spinning around the office door she expected to see Lord Ainz's orderly office. She didn't. There were stacks of books. Reams of note paper and even some of the ultra high, deluxe quality, magic scroll parchment from Yggdrasil piled around the room. There was even a death knight holding two books open so that Lord Ainz could simply glance up to see their contents. And off to the right, could it really be, the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown! Lumière tried to swallow the lump in her suddenly dry throat. All the NPCs of the Great Tomb of Nazarick were voracious for any new information on their creators. Thusly when the leader of the 41 Supreme Beings had spoken to the Guardian's of the 6th floor about the staff; it had been spread like butter on a freshly baked scone covering every nook and cranny of Nazarick. The Staff exceeded god level and thus represented incomprehensible power to a level 1 maid NPC. Maybe I'll be allowed to polish my master's staff? If that came to pass even the maids of the Pleiades would be jealous of her. To touch an item of such splendour, it had taken the 41 Supreme beings years to craft the penultimate weapon, what else could possibly compare? Her entire homunculus frame was filled with a terrible desire to run an asgardian silk cloth along its twisting shaft. Might she a lowly maid be permitted to clean the head of the staff. She resolved to work her fingers into every nook and cranny created by the bodies of the seven snakes each of whom held a god level gem in their mouths. But such desires were truly terrible because how could a trifling matter of dust be an issue for such a high level item? The gleaming gold of the shaft seemed to mock her desire to clean it, as it floated beside its one true wielder.
"Bring me a small frying pan suitable for cooking a single egg." Lord Ainz requested without looking up from the tattered book he was making notes from.
"At once Lord.", Replied Lumière. As she hurried off the maid wondered about the book. All the volumes that the Supreme beings had entrusted to the Great Library of Nazarick were kept in immaculate condition. So where had this one come from?
After several hours of fetch quests for Lord Aniz-sama Lumière was starting to realize why the earlier maid had been so quick to leave. As a homunculus she required more calories to operate that a comparable human. Thus when serving the Supreme One she concealed a number of snacks about her person. These had served her well, until today that is. She was starving for a bite to eat. Her hunger had gotten so bad that she had been tempted by the leather book cover that adorned the top most volume in the stack she was returning to the Grand Library of Nazerick. She had wondered if it would taste like beef or bacon. But the thought of getting chewed out by the head librarian for chewing on one of his precious magic books had kept her teeth sheathed.
Hence Lumière was running to the kitchen rather than the dignified progression befiting one serving the supreme beings. If I hurry I can be back at Lord Aniz's side at the same time as if I walked strait there after delivering the books.
Once in the 9th floor kitchen Lumière began to pack her pockets with portable food stuffs. An apple here a muffin there a sweet roll in her mouth.
"I trust Lord Ainz found the pan acceptable?" inquired the Head Chef.
With a mighty swallow Lumière cleared the mostly intact sweet roll before clasping her hands to turn and address the head chef. "Yes, he was quite pleased. It took the chisel marks quite well."
Blink. Blink. "Uh. Chisel marks?"
Lumière beamed, "Yes, I think it is yet another example of Ainz-sama's brilliance. He carved what I believe are called runes, since they look similar to what the Dwarves are working on, into the pan's bottom so that food cooked in the pan would also have the runes. Only the Supreme One knows what buffs he can add to ordinary dishes with such a technique!"
Head Chef Chuckles, "My word that truly would be revolutionary. If unskilled cooks can make food with buffs then that may alleviate our staffing shortage." The Head chef gasped again, "Just think of the applications. A stack of pancakes fed to the soldiers of an army on the morning of battle, each stack conveying a precise set of buffs, the stat increases might triple the effectiveness of the force!", Exclaimed the Head Chef the excitement clear in the his voice.
Seeing as Ainz Ooal Gown didn't eat the head Chef had sometimes wondered if the Supreme Being ever thought of him and his staff toiling away to keep Nazarick fed. And then the undead calls for one of my pans that sees little use and changes the world of provisioning. I was a fool to suspect that any aspect of Nazerick would escape the gaze of the leader of the Supreme beings. "Ah, but such greatness can be expected from a Being that looks down at Gods and considers them as prey. Just amazing don't you think Lumière." The Head Chef glances around. "I wonder when she left?"
Lord Ainz's office.
Lumière opened the door to see who was petitioning to enter the Supreme One's office. Ah, it is Albedo! Then closing the door again on the head administrator for the Great Tomb of Nazarick she turned to appraise Ainz-sama of the identity of the caller.
"Let her in, she is expected." declared the ruler of Nazarick.
Lumière once again opens the door to Albedo, "Lord Ainz will see you now." She then stepped aside while holding the door for the other woman to enter. A slight rustling reached the homunculus's ears coming from above. Do spiders get sore feet?
Albedo's perspective
The time is finally here, but will it be here? Maybe we'll retire to the master bedroom. Or maybe he'll want to go back to my ... Oh crap! Can't let that happen. Knowing the master one look and he'll see through everything. If that comes up I'll just suggest he take me here on the desk. The image of Lord Ainz sweeping the desk clean with one broad swing of his hand and then hoisting her up on to its polished surface sent pleasant shivers down to the sensitive end of her tailbone. There was a bit more of an audience than she had expected for her first time but no matter. If my lord desires it we could do it in the grand arena on the 6th floor. And I'll finally be able to ride that level 100 bicorn. That'll show Shaltear who's only played around with girls. Although, there did appear to be affair amount of kit on the desk. Toys perhaps? She noted a red healing potion as well as a high level blade, a jewel of death and 3 bowls. A purple cloth covered something to Ainz's right.
Albedo bows slightly while raising the egg up as an offering. "Lord Ainz, the dragon egg you requested."
"Thank you Albedo." Ainz takes the dragon egg and begins to examine it.
A frisson of concern passes through the head floor guardian. What if there was a flaw? One might not have been apparent to her. She certainly was no expert on dragons. She had allowed her excitement to interfere with serving her lord! What if Lord Ainz had intended for her to have Aura and Sebas look over the egg before she presented it to him? Maybe that was the true reason for the specification of dusk. The Supreme one had provided her with more than enough time to complete her task and she had squandered it standing around in the corridor. Albedo bit her lower lip, the only outward sign of the storm of anxiety hidden behind her yellow cat like eyes.
The day's duty maid moved from her position at the door around the desk to stand at Lord Ainz's left. It only took a moment to recall her name, Lumière. The maid seemed to be heating up a small skillet over a magically generated blue flame. It was on the guardian's tongue to ask what the maid thought she was doing when the thought was blown out of her head by her love's voice.
"Excellent." Ainz's skull face smiled up at Albedo. Then he cracked the egg into the biggest of the 3 bowls.