Chapter 8 ~ Worker's Day

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

Mare stopped the wagon and stood up to look at the Death Knights behind him as they placed the last stone plate in place. With this, the 'highway' within the Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick is now complete, connecting all towns within the realm to E-Rantel.

'Ah! Is it slightly crooked?' ~ the young elf jumped down to the ground and, after using a low level [Floating Disk] spell to make sure he had a perfectly level surface, placed a total station on top of it, checking the road for a few minutes.

No, it was a perfectly straight line. There was no problem. Of course, he would have had the Death Knights pick the stone plates up and laid them back down if it had indeed been even a little bit crooked.

There was no way he would dare offer anything but the best work to the Supreme Being he so admired.

"Alright!" ~ he smiled and stored away the total station, folded down its tripod, and patted the two steel horses as he prepared for lunch.

Spreading a blanket with red and white squares over the grass, he sat down and pulled out several sandwiches, two apples, and an orange juice bottle as he sat down. He looked at the Death Knights, but they shook their heads.

They didn't need lunch, after all, but as creations of Ainz, Mare still treated them very politely.

~O~

It had been several months since the last battle of Carne Village, and the arrival of the goblin army. Since then, and after the news of E-Rantel's surrender to Nazarick, Jurgem and his kin had found themselves with a new job.

Acting as the 'police' of the new Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick meant dealing with monsters and bandits, watching over the population, and patrolling the fledging country's roads regularly.

Right now, Jugem was leading one such patrol. It was a group consisting of both his original comrades and the newcomers, bringing their numbers up to 30. It wasn't a particularly large amount of troops, considering the overall size of the goblin army, but it was more than enough to achieve mobility and efficiency.

In the last three months, they had been quite busy, hunting the inevitable bandits that came out of the Re-Estize kingdom's defeated army. The group he and his goblins had been hunting for a week now was just one such group.

Jugem signaled the archers, and a brief shower of arrows fell unto the brigands campsite.

"Agh!"

"Who!?"

The brigands used to be part of the Re-Estize army, but to call them soldiers was to wildly stretch and abuse the word.

They were former conscripts, peasants who, after running from the massacre site, couldn't go back to their original towns or villages, nor could they go into anywhere else in the kingdom because they were now deserters, so they really didn't had any other choice but brigandry to survive.

Well, they could have tried to cross the Kadzu plains unto the Dragonic Kingdom, but even assuming they survived the hellish plains, rumors suggested that the Dragonic Kingdom was experiencing a dire crisis because of attacking beastmen.

They couldn't go to the Empire without being captured as enemy soldiers and, at best, enslaved. And the Theocracy wouldn't accept them unless they had some special talent or skill, which they did not.

Thus, they had been forced into crime, been harassing the local villages, and were tracked by Jurgem, who was more than happy to protect the people in Enri's name.

"Now, take them!" ~ Jugem commanded the troops, and they charged the bandits from two directions.

Soon, all the bandits had been captured or killed.

~O~

Shizu wandered about, looking at the merchant's stockade while Yuri and Nabel paid for the diamond shipment they had come to collect.

Ainz had confirmed, to his great joy, that indeed, diamonds were successfully converted into gold coins with a rate based on Yggdrassil prices. This meant that Nazarick's upkeep troubles were gone, and the Great Tomb could once again run all of its systems at maximum efficiency.

As happy a discovery as that had been, he had enough of a cool head to think about securing diamonds by means other than the Dwarven Kingdom, and so Yuri and her 'little sisters' had been tasked with asking the merchants in E-Rantel for diamonds, studying the size, price and quality of the 'worthless' rocks from different areas of the region.

Ainz didn't held great hopes for such sources, however, since the dwarven king had been more than generous in his deal with him. Finding a better supplier would be nearly impossible, but he felt the need to at least check.

As Shizu moved around, she noticed a reinforced wagon going into the stockade, surrounded by a large group of mercenaries. Behind it were similar wagons.

One of the local merchants, a man well dressed in silk and cotton, well shaved and with a black berett immediately cheered up and headed towards the newly arrived group.

"Makaiel, is that you!?" ~ the well shaved merchant called

"Yes father! The war is finally over, so I could make the trip back." ~ a younger man called back, walking over from among the mercenaries, dressed in a high quality but worn travel outfit, with a long white overcoat and hood over it.

"Obviously, the beastmen were repelled, or you would have ended as their soup, right?"

"Yes, it was no less than a miracle, in many ways. I'll tell you all about it later, but for now, look at this!"

Makaiel opened a small bag hanging from his waist, and handed the older merchant a shiny coin. The man's eyes were smiling as he took the coin, but his expression immediately switched to a questioning one.

"Did the Dragonix Kingdom join us under Nazarick's control?"

Makaiel shook his head.

"I haven't heard of Nazarick. is a long history, but this coin comes from Tengoku Junzi. As for the coin itself, you can see that it is slightly larger and thicker than the average coin, but what's truly exceptional is, it is pure gold and- oh!"

Makaiel's father was holding a similar gold coin before his son's eyes. No, rather, they were identical down to the last detaul. They were the same size, weight, and had the same beautiful woman's face imprinted on them.

"Eh?"

"Uh?"

"Uwaah~"

Shizu had walked over at some point, and was looking at both coins with great interest.

Ever since they arrived on this new world, Ainz had been looking for his friends, the missing Supreme Beings. This was the first good, solid lead they had seen so far.

~O~

Albedo charged through the hallways ahead of Pandora's Actor. The castle was dusty but otherwise seemed to be more or less intact. She was looking at it with sharp, beast-like, predatorial eyes.

It was the eyes of a young wife examining her first house before agreeing to the mortgage agent's price.

"Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest. Love nest... "

Everything had to be examined, everything had to be thoroughly measured and triple-checked!

"It looks rather solid and in good condition. The floor has ivory plates, ah, one is broken!" ~ Pandora's Actor noticed as he chased after Albedo.

"Wh-who was it that dared make a mess in the love nest for Ainz~sama and I!? I'll rip their bones out without killing them, stuck a [Ring of Regeneration] in their fingers, wait until their bones grow back wrong, and force them to dance for Ainz-sama's amusement!"

"Uhmm... I wonder if a [Mend] spell could fix it?"

"Ah! I'll ask Titus Annaeus Secundus for a rack of [Mend] scrolls to fix everything, then."

They stopped briefly to discuss about the broken floor plate, then continued forth.

The hallway opened up unto a large collapsed area. As if a bomb had gone off, a huge circular space had been clearly cut in the middle of the castle, leaving plenty of rooms exposed. It was like looking at an ant farm where you could see inside every single chamber.

"Albedo, calm down! Albedo!"

"Blagr ughs agh blllr...!" ~ she was trembling in place, making unintelligible noises.

At the bottom of the huge 'chamber' there was a pile of gold and treasure, and over it, an enormous dragon.

Albedo was looking down at the Platinum dragon while holding from one of the broken walls. Her thin, delicate fingers squeezed and grinded the stone to dust, leaving clear marks on the wall as if it had been warm butter.

Otherwise, she was perfectly still. Albedo had calmed down, and was looking at the dragon as if she was a young wife who had just found a huge cockroach on the floor of her brand new kitchen as she was cooking for her beloved husband while wearing a naked apron.

The Platinum Dragon Lord felt a shiver running up and down his spine. He quickly lifted his head and looked up at the strangers high above him.

~O~

Mare held his cup with both hands as he sipped from it. A big gulp, followed by a big a sigh. His ears wiggled slightly and he lowered his cup while smiling with his eyes closed.

Well, he wasn't very sure about why it was important, but Demiurge had told him that, according to his investigation, it was apparent that working men were supposed to let out a big sigh once they were done with a drink after work.

Since the highway was complete now, it seemed like the right time for it.

He began placing things back on his pic nic basket, and moved towards the carriage after picking up the red and white blanket. Now that the road was done, he was going to head over to the villages and bless their fields before finally returning to Nazarick.

He reached into his [Inventory] and fetched a map, unfolded it and began looking for the best route for this. Since he was near the northern edge of the country, he decided to head east, then south, and finally west and north again, completing a circle before returning home.

'What should I do about the Death Knights?' ~ now that the road was completed, he had no need for them, but neither did he had any instructions on what to do with them.

After thinking about it for a bit, he decided to send a [Message] to Shalltear, and ask her for a [Gate] to send the Death Knights through.

'Yes, it wouldn't be right to force them to stay with me, after all.' ~ Mare thought of them as fellow citizens of Nazarick, rather than disposable summons or cannon fodder, so sending them home after their good work was the right thing to do.

"Thank you for your hard work." ~ he said to them as they began to enter through the [Gate] ~ "Please feel free to relax and enjoy a nice bath once you are home."

Mare bowed as they walked through the [Gate]. Once they were gone, he straightened up, climbed back into the now empty carriage, and began moving towards the first village on his list.

Freed of its heavy cargo, the iron horse easily trotted down the road as if the wagon wasn't even there.

~O~

"Jugem-dono!" ~ one of his goblin called out to him after checking the bodies.~ "We found the stolen goods. They're close by, loaded in a large wagon."

'I wonder if they ran away with one of the kingdom's supply wagons?' ~ Jugem nodded at his underling, and asked to be led there.

The golbin paladin noddes, and walking besides his white wolf (it would have been rude to ride while his superior walked, after all), guided Jugem to the hidden wagon.

Well, hidden was a strong word, it was simply placed in an area with thicker vegetation than its surroundings, and the horses that would normally pull from it where tied with a long rope so they could graze in the area.

"I see, it does look like an army wagon."

"Indeed, but we found some prisoners."

"Oh? Let's see them."

Since the deserters had become bandits, it could only mean one thing, and sure enough, it was three young women, barely any older than Enri, whom Jugem thought of as his master. They had been abused in a constant manner, and were quite weak, but thenkfully unhurt.

The girls were sitting next to each other, looking at the goblins with as much fear as they would have looked at their captors. They had refused to touch the food the goblin paladins had offered them, but had at least taken the blankets to wrap themselves with them.

"Can any of you tell me if you are from the area?" ~ Jugem had low expectatives of such. Any local peasant would already be familiarized with the goblin troops by now, so they wouldn't have reacted with such distrust.

The girls looked at him for a while, but none spoke.

"Let's try something else. One of you go to the nearest village and ask for their elder to send some people back with you."

"Yes sir!"

The paladin answered promptly, jumped unto his wolf's back, and rode off in a moment.

"I assure you, you are safe now." ~ Jugem sighed. He was used to people either being friendly or openly hostile. The villagers had already grown used to the goblin patrols, so the chance these girls were from elsewhere were quite high.

When the paladin came back with some human villagers, the girls finally broke down their silence and started crying in the arms of the men. They didn't want to board the wagon again, which was understandable, so they were gently and slowly led back to the village.

Jugem wondered if they would recover, but the chances for it were rather good.

'I am sure big sis Enri will want to check on them herself, even if she has to come all the way from Carne for it." ~ with a smile, he nodded, then called for his troop and began the return to town.

~O~

Yuri noticed Shizu excitedly talking with the merchants in the corner of the stockade's plaza (well, as excitedly as Shizu was likely to), and couldn't help but feel curious enough to approach.

"Shizu, please do not bother the gentlemen in their work." ~ she said once she was next to them.

Makaiel felt as if his heart had been pulled out through his mouth. First, an adorable, doll-like beauty with red-gold hair shows up, quietly standing next to his father and himself while looking at them, and now a smart-looking beauty had approached them, immediately capturing his heart.

"Ah, Yuri-san, she's no bother at all." - Malakiel's father says.

Since his son cleared his throat insistently and looked at him as if begging for air, the older man smiled and introduced them.

"Miss Yuri, please allow me to introduce you, this is my oldest son, Malakiel." ~ he gestured to his son with both hands.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." ~she said instantly towards the young man~ "I am Yuri, and this is Shizu. Please treat us kindly."

"YES!" ~Malakiel basically squeals out the word, then clears his throat with a deep blush and answers again~ "Yes, of course! It is a pleasure to meet you, miss Yuri. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance!" ~the young Malakiel replied while standing as straight and stiff as a tree.

Shizu lifted both hands before her and leaned 25° to the right, then emphasized her "Uwaah" for emphasis.

"What is it, Shizu?" ~Yuri looked at her

"Gold coin."

"?"

Yuri looked at the coinss the youngest was pointing at.

"What about them?"

"Not from Nazarick." ~replied the blonde automaton, and added another "Uwaaah" for emphasis.

"Ah! Yes! My father and I were talking about it, although I myself am not sure on the story behind it." ~Malakiel added, squeezing his brains for a way to carry on conversation with the black haired beauty.

She was just a thumb shorter than him, and despite knowing her for less than five minutes, he already knew there was no better girl in the world for him.

"My son has just returned from the Dragonic Kingdom, south of the Kadzu plains." ~Explained Radu, Malakiel's father~ "And he has brought back several such coins. We were just talking about them."

Yuri nodded, immediately interested.

"Could you tell me about your trips, Malakiel-dono?" ~she asked politely

"YES!" ~he answered while blushing a brighter shade of red~ "Please let me do so!"

"Perhaps over a meal? Since you've just come back, why don't you go have a meal and then you can tell miss Yuri all about it while sitting down?" ~Radu looked at Yuri~ "Would that be fine?"

"Of course, if Malakiel-dono has just returned from a trip, he is likely to wish for rest, after all.

Malakiel could feel his father's gentle support there and then. He had been rather worried when he got sent south to a kingdom at war, through a undead-infested land, but right now, he had never felt so grateful in his life.

~O~

"[Wall of Jericho]!" ~ Albedo braced her shield as the breath of the Platinum dragon blasted against her. A cone inside the AoE attack was created spreading backwards from Albedo, large enough for Pandora's Actor to stand within.

"It seems to be more impressive than we had thought!" ~ The doppelganger commented while leaning slightly and holding how his hat.

"Less talking and more blasting!" ~ called out Albedo

"Jawohl herr kommandant!"

Quickly, Pandora's Actor appearance shifted and changed. He grew slightly taller, and his face lenghtened. Two massive, sharp round golden horns grew on the sides of his head while it took on the shape of a grey goat's. His clothes changed from his military uniform into a black suit and a velvet cloak.

A rose seemed to bloom on his left shoulder, and a golden mask stretched over hald his face as he took on the appearance and powers of Ulber Alain Odie, Demiurge's creator and reputably the Supreme Being with the highest firepower in Nazarick.

"Fall down, rain of tears! Boil away, reign of chaos, let those who oppose us cry and despair, [Grand Catastrophe]!" ~ the speech was technically unnecessary, but according to Ainz's notes, Ulbert had said it was "the most important part" of chanting the spell.

Ulbert's mana would have been consumed by a whooping 60% by that spell alone, but unlike him, Pandora's Actor wasn't a pure caster. He was strong, but his strength was evenly distributed so that he would be able to transform and take advantage of the special abilities of a vast array of individuals. As such, it consumed over 90% of his MP!

A massivem almost solid blow of negative energy fell down on the Platinum Dragon Lord almost like a physical blow, peeling and ripping away its lustrous scales, causing its flesh to boil and ropt, and whithering away one of its eyes.

It was Ulbert's trump card, the final blow of he who had been hailed as the highest DPS in Nazarick!

"Waaagh! Arrgh! Whhh...-!" ~ the massive dragon twisted in pain, and began puking power out of its jaws, trying to cover the entire area with its breath weapon without caring what it hit.

"We have to create space, mein kommandant! Let's retreat and activate Rubedo!" ~ The doppelganger called out while waves of golden power washed against Albedo, distorting the shape of her shield like a plastic toy in the fire, and peeling away the first two layers of her armor!

"No! I'll buy you time, so start activating her now!"

The pure white succubus cried out and leaped down against the Platinum dragon!

~O~

The villagers stopped their daily activities to look at Mare as he rode the wagon into their village, but the cute, petite dark elf 'girl' was more a target of curiosity than a symbol of fear. Soon, he stopped the wagon and asked for the village elder, finding out the man was out on the fields.

"That works out for the best, thank you!" ~ he thanked the children who informed him of it, and headed out towards the field while holding down his skirt with one hand and his cane in the other, the children running behind him.

The elder, along with many other grownups, were busy working on the fields. Well, saying 'grownups' was a bit misleading, since children older than 9 were also participating in the village's daily tasks, both in the fields and elsewhere.

After all, it was normal for children to begin helping their parents as soon as they were old enough to understand the world around them. If you could ask for more bread, you could help in the wheat fields and make it happen by yourself. Besides, the feudal lord would typically take the lion's share of the crops.

To be honest, there wasn't much difference between a bandit and a typical feudal lord. They both used strength to take what they wanted from the population, with the only real difference, if even that, being that the feudal lord understoof he couldn't expect to rob dead peasants, so he typically offered at least a token protection, by sending soldiers after roaming bandits. Sometimes.

Not only that. That typical lord would leave the peasants with barely enough to survive, forcing them to lie and cheat when it came time to pay taxes, which in turn lead the lords to assume all the peasants would lie and cheat, so they in turn raised taxes... it was a vicious circle of misery and despair.

However, their new lord was a different story. Was it because the undead don't eat? An attempt to earn the love of his subjects? Honestly, it was simply Suzuki Satoru, as a modern japan salaryman, had a very different opinion about taxes, and perhaps more relevant in this case, a very poor impression about black companies, businesses that would explout their workers almost literally to death.

Thus, when he took over the city of E-Rantel, the territory adjacent, and all the villages on it, one of the first things he did was to change that system. Not just the merchants were benefiting from lower taxes, but the peasantry as well, going from keeping one out of every twn sacks of food, to a full half of their harvest.

With so many dead during the slaughter of Katze plains, there were not enough hands, and so Ainz had dispatched small groups of intelligent NPCs, followed by scores of lesser undead such as skeletons and the like, to help with the harvest, yielding a massive bounty in relation to the now very diminished population in the region.

Furthermore, while one such as Satoru Suzuki would normally know nearly nothing about farming, his hobbies were more than enough for him to have had access to the rather common trope of interworld travellers and reincarnators that had become a genre of entertainment as common as power levels or power creep, so he was familiar with ideas such as crop rotation and the stablishment of assembly lines.

It was not a fond memory at all. After all, his mother had literally worked herself to death in a factory.

All the same, rotating crops allowed the farmers to use their fields around the year, and it was to support such an endeavor that Mare was visiting the villages now.

"...and so, Ainz-sama has sent me to bless your fields." ~ explained Mare, looking up at the village elder as the old woman listened to him.

"How splendid. Please go ahead then, Mare-dono."

"Leave it to me!"

Mare readied himself, and used several (from his point of view) low level spells to ready the area towards a bountiful harvest.

[Control Weather] assured a pleasant season

[Plant Growth - Enrichment] blessed the fields and guaranteed that plants within a 1 mile radius would grow healthy and bountiful, yielding a 33% more food when harvest season arrived.

[Animal Growth] caused its targets, the village oxen and horses, to double in size and strength for several hours.

The animals would even gain an amazing damage reduction effect which pretty much made them immune to non-magical weapons for the spell duration, but of course this would be useless to the farmers.

However, it was more than enough to make fieldwork a breeze. A gigantic ox or horse could pull a plough as if it was a toy, and the work could of hours could be finished in a few minutes.

Once his work was done, Mare prepared to leave, but the village elder insisted he waited for a bit so they could properly thank him.

That is how, that night Mare was the guest of honor in a small celebration, and in the morning, he left with several baskets full of apples in his wagon, as well as other gifts from the thankful farmers.

By the way, he also used [Ironwood] to permanently make their wooden wagons as hard as wrought iron, making it nearly impossible for them to suffer a broken axis or wheel. It also helped in the warehouse and granary, making it unlikely that any rodent or other vermin would be able to chew their way into the food storage.

Indeed, if a rat was able to chew threough iron, it was no longer a rat, but a monster you would need to call an adventurer party to have it dealt with.

~O~

Jugem and his troop arrived at the village, and went straigh to talk with the local elder. Their presence caused the villagers to have mixed feelings, since they had been attacked by monsters in the pasts, but the goblin troops were now famous for taking down bandits and 'wild monsters' to keep the peace in the country.

It was a new way of thinking. It wasn't just monsters anymore. They were less of a beast-like existence, and had slowly shifted towards wild or civilized monsters. Or rather, non human citizens.

When Ainz heard about this shift in the population's change, he couldnt keeo from showing his good mood. Since it wasn't to a degree where his body triggered and restrained his emotions, it lasted for a good while, and the guardians took note of it. That was why almost every member of the goblin troop's 'police' now had high quality gear.

"Ah, captain" ~ the elder didn't know Jugem by name, but the leader of each goblin patrol was always referred to as "captain."~ "Thank you for taking care of those bandits, was any of your troops wounded?"

The elder had wanted to ask "were any of your men wounded?" but decided not to for risk of offencing them. It was strange to have to think of new and proper ways to talk to creatures he would never have have expected to meet outside of a violent encounter.

"No, everyone is well, thank you. We recovered the stolen supplies, and freed some captives. They should have arrived already." ~ Jugem was referring to the girls that were sent ahead to the village

"Yes, they are being taken care of. They're not from the region, so what will happen to them?"

"I do not know. I will need to send a message to big sister Enri and ask for instructions."

"Is that so? Well, there's no problem if they stay for several days." ~ the elder said right away

"That will be extremely useful. Thank you."

After that, they talked about the obvious increase in bandit activity immediately after the battle at Katsu plains, and its quick decrease once the goblins were turned into a police force, roaming over the region in the form of patrols and scout bands.

They had also greatly decreased the number of wild monsters, further increasing the security of the region. It was to the point that low level adventurers were having trouble since the merchant's requests for escort services, as well as the frequency of low risk gathering quests had decreased almost unto nothing.

Since the roads were so safe, merchants felt no need for bodyguards, and since the open plains as well as the smallest woodlands had been cleaned of monsters, herbalists and alchemists could now gather herbs themselves.

They decided that the village would keep the bandit's wagon as a form of payment for their misdeeds, and once Enri said to take the girls back to Carne village, Jugem reported it to the elder, who seemed rather relieved to hear so.

Well, there was a big possibility that the girls had been part of the train of civilian helpers that traditionally accompanied human armies. In other words, prostitutes. If that was the case, it was almost guaranteed that they wouldn't have any skills that would be useful to the village, and the elder was too busy to basically receive half a dozen grown-up-crooked daughters.

With a bittersweet smile, the old man nodded and thankked Jugem.

The goblin nodded, feeling relieves himself. In his mind, there was no safest place than near his master, and the girls wouldnt be truly 'rescued' until they were delivered to her.

Once he was out of the elder's home, he straightened his back, took a deep breath, and let out a big sigh through smiling lips.

~O~

Narberal, or Nabe as she was known by the people of E-Rantel, was walking into Momon's home in the city, carrying the mineral samples the tro had been sent to get. Momon was absent right now, having teleported back to the dwarven kingdom, so she immediately reported to Sebas through a [Message]. Since the butler was her direct superior.

"[Message]" ~ She used a scroll and contacted him telepathically.

'Sebas-sama, I am reporting as scheduled.' ~ she sent through their mind link

'Ah, Narberal, please proceed.'

'We picked up the diamond samples Ainz-sama desired. As he expected, they were much cheaper than iron ore.'

'Alright. He is currently in the dwarven kingdom. It seems he has found am acquaintance as the king there, but you probably heard about it from Yuri or Ainz-sama himself.'

Honestly, Ainz had excitedly spoken of it, first to Yuri, who had gone to the dwarven kingdom with him, and then to Aura, since [Message] was one of the spells in her repertoire as a high level priest, and therefore she could later repeat the news to the rest of the guardians.

When Narberal heard about it from Yuri, she had been initially excited, but when it turned out that it was not a Supreme Being, but a different yet similar existence, she had lost interest.

Still, for Ainz it had been a great happening, and he planned in making a formal announcement in the throne room of Nazarick later, once everyone's missions allowed for a overlapping window of oppoetunity, so that all guardians were present.

'I believe so.'

'I see... anything else?' ~ Sebas added after Narberal somewhat indifferent attitude.

Well, it couldn't be helped, if it wasn't a Supreme Being or a citizen of Nazarick, most of their compatriots shared Narberal disinterested attitude at best, and were downright hostile, at worst.

'Yuri nee-sama has accepted a dinner invitation from a human merchant, and together with CZ, agreed to go to his home.'

'Why?' ~ Sebas somehow doubted that the serious Yuri Alpha had done so for no reason at all.

'Gold.'

"Uh!?" ~ Sebas caught himself saying rather than thinking it, and then asked Narberal for further details.

As the details became clearer, Sebas understood. Was it possible that they had finally found a clue as to the location of another Supreme Being? While hoping for such was perhaps too much, it was obvious that more information was necessary on the matter.

~O~

The Platinum Dragon looked up through the haze of pain, and saw Albedo falling down on him. Her shield was gone. It had melted into a useless, twisted thing that couldn't even be held properly. Two of her armor's layers had faded away.

"What!?" ~ he didn't had the time to be surprised as Albedo fell on his face!

It wasn't really a fall. With her wings now unobstructed by (most of) her armor, it was more of a dive bomb. She swung her axe, taking advantage of the inertia of the fall, and sunk it deeply right between the eyes of the dragon!

"RAAAAGH YOU WENCH!"

It cracked his skull neatly, spraying blood over her, covering her in red. She immediately kicked down to retrieve her axe, but before she had time for a second swing, the Platinum Dragon shook his head and tossed her against a pile of weapons.

They were now fighting right on top of the Eight Greed Kings' treasure, full of enchanted weapons and other items.

Albedo stood up, gold coins and jewelry cascading off her curves as she tried to steady herself in the treasure pile, but the coins slipped over each other whenever she tried to move, and she tumbled downwards under her own weight.

With his massive weight and size, the dragon had no such problem, and quickly swung its right claw against her, causing her to bounce against the ruins of the castle lower levels, and fall back down unto the coins.

Now that her hp was critical, her armor had completely dissapeared. She felt like complaining to her creator about how it made no sense to leave her helpless when she needed her gear the most, but Tabula Smaragdina was a devoted fan of gap-moe.

Now that her armor was gone and her life was in danger, she automatically began a transformation into her 'battle form,' growing in size and strenght, her body twisting in almost all directions at the same time as she grew taller and thicker, her beautiful face twisting into that of a demonic gorilla monstrosity, a 12" tall demonic monstrosity.

The only thing that hadn't changed size were her wings, that now rested near the top of her back, and seemed completely, ridiculously all too small to bear her weight in the air.

It was such a terrible transformation that the Platinum Dragon forgot about attacking for a moment, and that was when Albedo charged forth again. Her wings, which should have been all too small for it, propelled her like a missile against her enemy, and she began a fight of tooth and claw against her opponent.

However, it had been designed to be a final surprise rather than a triumph card, and the dragon managed to keep the advantage at all times.

"Activation confirmed, all systems nominal."[1] ~ a synthetic female voice could be heard from above.

"Albedo, take cover!" ~ this time, it was Pandora's Actor, sounding genuinely worried.

Albedo ran towards a corner of the room and curled up inside her [Prismatic Sphere] as Rubedo commenced her attack. But, would it be enough to save her?

~O~

Author Notes

[1] In one of the specials, it was revealed that Albedo can summon her own personal mount, a bucorn, and that her armor was designed to peel away as she received damage, falling off by layers/sections and leaving her increasingly exposed. Honestly I am not surprised at all, taking in consideration that her creator was a huge fan of "gap moe", where two very different things were breached and welded together. Just as Albedo's mount can only be rode on by non-virgins, she herself is one. Just as her normal armor is extremely sensible and covers her from head to toe, so as she takes damage it fades away in a Queen's Blade-like manner.

I honestly had believed that the author would release the 10thvolume by now, so I delayed publishing this chapter until I could get more info through it. For example, we know that Rubedo wears a kimono, but also that Ainz had to do a test to see if she could be 'activated,' so there's a big chance that she's an automaton like Shizu. The thing is, we don't know, so I had to change this chapter to keep her off camera a little bit more, and hope volume 10 comes out before I need to post the next Nazarick chapter, though I genuinely doubt it.

If we still don't have more info by then, I will go with something like this for her. watch?v=IN5KR_PJZqk Based off a japanese ceramic doll + automaton. Plus Xenosaga, because I really like Kos-mos.

And it seems everyone else is going with "Rubedo = little girl."