Citrinitas sat in her kitchen, flipping through a fairly light book. Despite her inhuman reading speeds, each page took its toll on her. Every flip grew heavier than the last.
What should have been a simple leveling guide to crafting classes, such as an alchemist, was instead a glimpse into the head of Lord Tabula. Each page was clustered with notes, most of the untaken options were buried underneath his scribbles. Math sprawled along the ledgiers, coming to conclusions about efficiency of resources or the value of output options. Rants ran off about shitty devs who had abandoned their crafters, leaving them unviable for players. All of this, Citrinitas was prepared to find. It was what she was looking for. She didn't know what she was capable of, and this explained all of it. It was somewhat underwhelming, if Lord Tabula's rants were to be taken at face value. Even being Lv100, due to 'abandonment' and 'power creep', this would put her combat prowess at around Lv50, lower than the Pleiades maids.
What she wasn't braced for, was character notes. Towards the end pages, when the build was coming to a close, there were doodles. Her previous forms were drawn up, some abandoned halfway through. There were different aesthetics, starting from a busty witch, the resemblance to her sister being immediately apparent. Moving on into an apron wearing alchemist with a gleam in her eyes and smoke rising from her hair. Ending with herself in doodle form. While she knew she was handmade, there was another character doodle as well. It stopped her in her tracks.
'Did. Did Lord Tabula know about Luther?'
"Citrinitas! Lord Ainz requests your presence in his sanctum." Albedo's voice rattled Citrinitas's skull from nowhere. Her voice demanded respect and attention, which are the last things anyone is prepared for when they're peacefully reading a book.
Having been scared half to death, Citrinitas covered her pounding heart, letting it come to a rest. 'When will Nazarick ever stop with the stress!'
She raised her hand to her temple, "Yes. Has he stated any reason?"
"Lord Ainz wishes to speak about the future. So help me Sister of mine, if you're in the lead and haven't told us!" Albedo's voice began to rise like a kettle seconds before boiling.
'Mmmm. I figured this would backfire.' Citrinitas was glad she was on the other end of a call rather than in the same room.
"I promise, I haven't done anything of note with Lord Ainz. Besides, I doubt he's interested in me. Especially with you around him all the time." She attempted to divert pressure off of her situation. Citrinitas knew Albedo was both obsessive and possessive, playing these would be her key out.
"You're trying to throw me off your trail! You may be smart, but you're definitely not sly enough to trick me. I will always know what you are thinking." Albedo growled, her voice bouncing around in Citrinitas's skull.
She had a few minutes to think to herself as she traversed Nazarick's lengthy maze. It was fairly quiet among the lower levels. The wandering monsters had left to the higher floors, as security wasn't at maximum. With such little activity, the cleaners didn't have much to worry about beyond dust. That left only silence to be broken by the rug muffled tapping of her heeled boots.
'To think we're related!' Citrinitas scoffed at the idea. 'She's so caught up in the idea that everyone's out for Lord Ainz's bone that she can't see disinterest as anything more than lies. Even I'm not that crazy and I have memories of a dead college teacher. You want to be fooled, I'll show trickery!' She tried to swallow her frustrations, but found them too raw to force down. Her pride had been stepped on, and that would never be allowed to pass.
She pushed open the heavy wooden door to Ainz's sanctum. Already, she felt the dizzying weight of what was beyond.
Ainz's room had changed nearly beyond recognition. What was once the calming cross between a lounge and an office, was now a mountainous range of parchment. Long sharp shadows were cast by towering stacks of paper. Scrolls hung off a few towers, and from what Citrinitas could gather, they were all lists of sorts. She danced around the slim sheet giants, trying to make it to Lord Ainz.
"I apologize for the mess Citrinitas." Said a relaxed sounding Ainz. His desk stood in the epicenter of the catastrophe which devoured the room. By his side stood Albedo, glaring deep into the soul of Citrinitas. "Transferring over from Yggdrasil apparently had more repercussions than first thought. But the living conditions of the imps isn't why I called you here today."
"I couldn't imagine the mess." She went to pull back the chair, but found that too had been consumed by the paperwork. "Why have you summoned me Lord Ainz?"
"Do you remember what I said a few days ago, about worlds beyond Yggdrasil feeding into the new world?"
Citrinitas found it difficult to speak under the intense glare from her older sister. 'Luther would have buckled here, but I won't. You think I can't be tricky sis. I will fit in.' Her fear became drowned out by her escalating pride. She politely curtseyed with the edges of her coat while she braced herself for the best performance of her life.
"How could I ever forget," Citrinitas's once dry yet casual tone melted away, leaving only a voice of calm love. "It must weigh on you terribly, oh Supreme One. What do you wish for me to do to alleviate your burdens?" Her voice was smooth and controlled, like a maiden consoling her battle weary knight.
Lord Ainz's jaw almost fell from his skull. 'Not her too! Is every female in Nazarick after me?!' His emotional suppression silenced his flabbergasting. "As we do not have enough information, this may be nothing more than chasing geese. Would you be willing to look into our many worlds issue? -"
"Of course she would." Albedo cut in, her brow furrowing. "A nice expedition from Nazarick in service to you, my love." Her voice shivered in frustration.
"As I was saying. You do not need to accept this mission. Your work testing out possible formulas has already brought immense benefit. Researching that health regeneration potions can affect plant growth has solved several of our food production problems." He gestured to the paper valley surrounding the coffee table. "Keeping you here or sending you out, both would benefit Nazarick. As such it is your choice."
'Out there?' Citrinitas thought, 'In a fantasy world, full of mystery, adventure, and intense life threatening danger? If I stay here, I get to remain safe, secure, and in my element. But that can all come crashing down if those worlds out there could pose a threat to us.'
"My Lord," She didn't let up her lovely voice. "If either choice aids Nazarick, and Nazarick serves you, then it is your choice to make."
"Very well. We should continue to press our early game advantage, before our presence is well known. Take whatever and whoever you need. I trust in your judgment, Citrinitas."
She gave another deep curtsey. "Very well. I shall begin my preparations at once."
Lord Ainz silently contemplated what to do next, watching Citrinitas as she left, both being scared she would bump a tower. 'Getting my researcher out early has to be the better choice. She can freely make discoveries without the pressure of opposition, which may be a problem in the future. Now, back to work. What to do about our lack of living spaces?'
'I can't believe it!' Albedo was in shock. 'I know Shalltear doesn't pose a significant threat, but to think that shut in Citrinitas would have any charm! HE'S STARING AT HER ASS AS SHE IS LEAVING! Of course, Tabula made us to perfection after all. It's only natural our beauty can captivate him. There's not a doubt in my mind that if she was in the throne room, we both would have been altered by Lord Ainz's love.'
Citrinitas cheered to herself once she was alone. 'Eat it Albedo! You're not the only one with skill! If you truly knew what I thought, you would have seen through me… Oh god, what have I done?'
AN; Few notes to make. I am changing over to a saturday posting schedule. It just better lines up with my college class schedules. Sorry that there was no chapter last week, I'm sorry this one is short. Life man, sometimes it gets ya. Next chapter, I want to focus on either Cocytus or Sebas.
This chapter is akin to last, it's set up and exploration. Citrinitas is going to begin her field research. It also explores a little of Albedo and the waifu wars. I haven't really gotten to explore any deeper levels of Albedo, as I don't have a chapter focusing on her yet and she doesn't yet have any reason to open up to anyone.
With Ainz not smurfing around as Momon, I think the issues prevalent in Nazarick would become very quickly apparent to him. Lack of living spaces, insufficient food production, lack of a lot of stuff actually. My argument for why this would be a big issue, Tabula. Tabula was the detail man of Nazarick, yet he neglected to give Albedo (and Citrinitas) their own room. The servants quarters, in the anime at least, are wooden cafeterias. My point is, I doubt that the players had spreadsheets about food intake and waste disposal of NPCs, a feature that would become pronounced in the new world.
Review Replies; I'm so glad the responses have been so positive to the last chapter. You guys are the best audience a niche content creator could ask for. Also, I've had to compress you guys down a bit, there are a lot of you with very detailed questions. I hope the underlined names help.
Bluecore & roboshark10191; Thanks bros! Simple yet positive reviews!
Lord Searing Simp; Dude, so much of the extended cast has like 2 dimensional characters. I had to go to the spin off series, ple ple pleiades to get even a grasp on these characters. That's also not adding in how little camera time Izzy, the adventurers guild, or the swords of darkness get. I read their wikis to learn more about them, but sometimes they come up dry. I'm glad you guys realize the struggle of remaining true to some of these characters.
Yoyon586; Man, you have no idea how hard it must be to work with humans. You've lived all your life in a dungeon where loyalty and order are the highest virtues, then you step out and… humanity doesn't even know what the highest virtues are for themselves! We're loud, chaotic, yet we make it work somehow. Now take culture shock and add in super human senses. Good heavens, they're going through hell.
Saintlyone; Yeah, Lupusregina is a sadist under all her charm. I love Cz and Lupusregina, can't wait for them to appear on the page again.
Guest; Getting Nazarick to be incredibly strong while not being boring is a delicate line to balance on. The original wanted to stomp on shonen tropes, yet the method taken was bloated. Instead of a shonen stomp, it became high-fantasy lovecraft. Nothing wrong with that, we love it after all. So I made a power scale a little more 'balanced'. Because Gazef fought, and I may not have put enough words into his fight (that chapter was getting chonky), if this was animated, Gazef would be comparable to a pleiades maid in strength.
Gacs; It wouldn't be wrong to say you want to see Nazarick fail, after all, there's tension now. Because this isn't high-fantasy Lovecraft, but more of a shonen stomp, I cannot promise anything.
Andoro; I'm glad you like my work. Diligence for me isn't a virtue, it's a necessity to combat my inherent laziness.
CritKhagan; Why, thank you. I plan on having more chapters with different POV's. Nazarick is a big place, full of a lot of different creatures and characters. I feel that it is appropriate to enjoy those shifts, as well as put effort into how they see the world around them, both as characters and as creatures. Lupusregina's heightened senses can make far off conversations sound super close, but turn a crowded marketplace into a sensory hellscape yet her energetic nature gets her right back up on her feet. Meanwhile Cz, being a machine, has incredible self control but struggles with organic things such as moving fluidly through a crowd.
As for canon divergence, it's just going to continue to diverge. I love where it's going and I love when other fics diverge from their canons. Fanfics are divergent at heart.
Moose3333; I'm not sure how to respond to this. Most of this is commentary on the source material. Demiurge is experimenting on humans right now, as they're what he has (and he's a demon, he enjoys their suffering). Ainz hasn't had a chance to commit huge war crimes yet and his assault in Carne Village left no witnesses (Gazef was unconscious.). Additionally, he isn't as bold and on display here as in the source. He's mainly focusing on recon right now, as the humans of this world could pose a threat to Nazarick.
Also, I can't really reply to the waifu wars, as Citrinitas hasn't had enough scenes to develop in the wars. She's also not trans. She's a full fledged guardian with human memories, and thus can relate to Ainz and the supreme ones in ways the others can't.