Volume 2

The Mage General

Prologue

Part 1

Near the eastern border of the territory once controlled by the Holy Kingdom, inside a forest too far away from any major city to ever be approached by soldiers on an official mission, stood a small fortress. From the look of the broken, moss-covered walls, it had long-since been abandoned, having gone decades without any sort of maintenance. Curiously, the country itself would not have a single record of this fort's existence, no matter how far back one searched. After all, this century-old fortress had only been constructed around one year ago.

The real purpose behind this appearance was for the fortress to serve its purpose as a flytrap of sorts, luring in bandits, highwaymen, and other such thieves. They would find the 'abandoned' fort, occupy it to serve as a base, and usually celebrate with a drink. Come night, they would disappear from the continent, never to be seen again.

Two tall figures walked side-by-side down the long stone staircase leading into the dungeon. Despite the complete lack of lighting, neither had any issue navigating the corridors, nor with looking into the rows of cells at the recent arrivals within. Those within were either actively in the process of experiencing all sorts of atrocities, or temporarily being allowed to recover from said atrocities.

One particularly fat man had wavy patterns along his skin, one of the side effects of slight errors during the healing process over thousands of iterations. Roughly once every hour, the entirety of his skin would be flayed, stretched over a rack and carefully processed into parchment by a small insect-like monster. After a few minutes of processing, his wounds would be healed by another monster, a thin wooden humanoid covered in grasses. Afterwards, he would be left alone for some time while the insect carefully worked the skin into a usable parchment.

The most favorable description that could be given for the man was that he was still recognizably 'human', but not even that could be said about some of the others. Another man had all his limbs and appendages removed, before being force-fed until he was weighed nearly 400 kilograms, turning him into a living meatball which would be regrown when more meat was needed.

Aside from the humans, there were also cells containing demihumans, monsters, human-like monsters, monster-like humans, and even one with a living blob of flesh which would drive biologists and magic casters alike insane trying to understand its biology. Only the most recent group of thieves who made their way into the dungeon were still in reasonably good condition, mostly just because the experiments they were planned to become the 'stars' of had not yet started. At least, that was the case until today.

Any sapient creature with the slightest trace of humanity who came across this scene would certainly pity the individuals in the cells, transcending differences between species in the name of mutual empathy. Unfortunately for them, the two visitors did not fit into this category. Two demons who more than deserved the title of 'Extreme Evil'. Barely sparing a glance for the people suffering in the cells, Demiurge and Albedo casually carried on their conversation.

"I don't think it's been that long since I last visited, but your breeding experiments have come a long way in such a short time, not to mention the parchment production you've been working on perfecting. It's an impressive sight to behold." (Albedo)

"Thank you, Albedo. While I am truly proud at having received Ainz-sama's trust by being allowed to run my experiments independently, I must admit that it is also somewhat lonely without anybody else here. It's nice to have somebody with whom I can discuss my experiments." (Demiurge)

"Of course, I am also interested in seeing your results." (Albedo)

Albedo gave a kind smile, while watching a pair of cells the two were approaching. On one side: skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghasts, corporeal spirits, half-ghosts, lesser vampires, and liches standing idle in an unlocked cell. Across from them: dozens of bound women and girls, representing all ages and a collection of species, their eyes unfocused in the complete darkness.

"I can't thank you enough for setting up the experiment I asked you about. There's nothing I look forward to as much as the day we can report our success to Ainz-sama." (Albedo)

The two continued walking while making small talk.

"When Ainz-sama first told me that I should restrict my actions by not capturing human civilians excessively, I didn't understand what he intended. If it weren't for that requirement, I would not have gotten the idea to establish this outpost in the warzone between the Holy Kingdom and their demihuman enemies. Not only would our experiments have been limited without the variety of subjects, but the location even became the perfect base from which to control the war using Jaldabaoth." (Demiurge)

Demiurge's face carried an expression of ecstasy from having his plans corrected by his master. No matter how much effort he put into trying to comprehend Ainz's various plans, he would still be delighted every time he found yet another of those seeds – which Demiurge himself had overlooked – sprouting towards their ultimate goal.

"Unfortunately that particular experiment has yet to make any meaningful progress. It would not surprise me if it took the better part of a century for us to see success. In the meantime, my focus has been on researching the concept of levels as it applies to this world. For instance, how is it that simple humans can gain levels without fighting, or whether the strengthening they gain by training their bodies translates into levels." (Demiurge)

Albedo appeared considerably disappointed hearing Demiurge's response.

"Is that so? Is there really a use for paying attention to something like that? Even if we learn how lesser species grow in this world, at best it would mean strengthening the Pleiades or our Area Guardians. What benefit could Ainz-sama and us Floor Guardians who have already reached level 100 gain from this?" (Albedo)

"Now, don't jump to hasty conclusions. Between our observations of individuals of interest, combined with reports from insiders turned to our side, we have already taken note of some exceptions and irregulars: The assassins from Blue Rose who are all but confirmed as having the 'Ninja' class, or the Empire's four knights, two of whom are a 'Cursed Knight' and 'Shield Lord'. Even more interesting would be the girl who was Landfall, who became a 'True Vampire' without fighting a single monster." (Demiurge)

"Those are all advanced classes with a minimum level of 60, are they not? I do not recall any of them being anywhere near that level." (Albedo)

"Precisely, that is so. It may be possible for individuals to access advanced classes without reaching the minimum level, perhaps even without the classes which would normally be prerequisites for the advancement. If that is indeed the case, then the upper limit for what an optimal class selection would immediately become far more powerful than anything we could have achieved before, if we could only learn how to direct growth in a target direction." (Demiurge)

Originally, she had thought that this might just be another instance of Demiurge playing around with the inferior species he was keeping. Having heard Demiurge's explanation, Albedo's disinterest quickly disappeared, replaced by a fascination as she too began to consider the many possibilities.

"Assuming that we are able to do so, then – with Ainz-sama's permission – even those of us at who are already at level 100 could begin to replace prerequisite basic classes with advanced classes, or even… Could it be that the reason Ainz-sama had us all participate in the battle against that pseudo-god was so that we could save up unassigned experience points so that we could reassign classes, all in preparation for this?" (Albedo)

"From the very moment that he first recommended this field of study to me, that was likely already part of his plan. Ainz-sama has already entrusted us with the tools for strengthening ourselves to better be of service to himself, so naturally it is our duty to achieve the results he seeks." (Demiurge)

The two subordinates' ringing praises for their master's unwitting plans continued to echo through the corridors of the lightless dungeon. Although Ainz had similarly accounted for the possibility that such an opponent would grant them an immense volume of experience, he had already demonstrated that growing beyond level 100 was impossible, and had largely lost interest as a result. In his mind, spare EXP points would only be used for special EXP-consuming spells like [Wish Upon a Star] or high-level undead summoning.

Ever since he had first learned how the effects of [Wish Upon a Star] had been changed from YGGDRASIL, he had been looking for an opportunity to test the superior wishes which would cost five full levels. Without any game-like UI, he couldn't tell just how much experience he had saved up, but it was likely more than enough to lose five levels' worth without actually dropping below level 100.

The main reason he was still hesitating was because he was uncertain just how much he could wish for, as the effects were no longer multiple-choice, but could grant nearly any impossible wish. It was likely that even raising his level cap was an option, but he couldn't help but worry that there was a better choice he hadn't thought of yet. Worse, he suspected that making a wish which got rejected would still drain his levels, much like failing to dispel Shalltear's mind control had still consumed one of the ring's three charges.

Whether it was indecisiveness or patience, Ainz had yet to decide on whether to make a wish, or what sort of thing to wish for. He was reluctant to ask any of the guardians for suggestions, as their own values were far too different from his own. If they gave him ideas for how to strengthen himself, it would help, but once he asked it would be difficult for him to refuse any particularly villainous ideas. Since he was in no particular hurry, he was planning on letting Demiurge run some experiments related to leveling to see if it could give him some ideas.

Instead, he had set himself to figuring out the other half of the spoils of war. To Ainz, discovering the many secrets of YGGDRASIL had been one of the biggest draws of the game, a view shared by many of his guildmates. Every single of of the 200 World-Class Items had its own unlocking conditions, and they had hunted for them like nobody else. Many evenings would be spent trying to think of where a secret location might be, or some challenge the developers might have considered interesting enough to make a World-Class Item into a reward.

Days would be spent spying on hostile guilds who had their own World-Class Items which could be stolen, trying to spot some weakness from watching its use. During work, his thoughts would often drift towards the game whenever his job calmed down. When he came home to find YGGDRASIL undergoing server maintenance, he would browse the few wikis maintained for the game in search of new information.

Once, during a break at work, he had stumbled upon a forum where some players were bragging about the powers of the World-Class Item their guild had discovered, even going so far as to paste its flavor text and detail its powers. After lightly provoking them to confirm its legitimacy (he got them to post a screenshot from the game by calling it a fake), he showed the post to the rest of the guild, who could only laugh at the players' stupidity. Before the end of that week, Ainz Ooal Gown had taken custody of [Billion Blades], the sixth entry in their collection.

Their guild's collection of World-Class Items was arguably its greatest strength, so gaining more of them was an obvious path towards empowering Nazarick. Specifically, there was one World-Class Item whose acquisition conditions had been accidentally leaked by a YGGDRASIL developer, but nobody had managed to claim, to date: Defeat a World-Class Enemy with no more than 24 players, only 2/3 the members of a full legion, the maximum allowed by the game.

The leak had sparked all sorts of debates about its legitimacy. Some argued that considering how difficult each World-Class Enemy was in a normal battle, the devs wouldn't go out of their way to make such an impractical requirement. On the other hand, Ainz had firmly believed that those devs would prefer using an impossible requirement to debasing their World-Class Items by making them too easy to acquire.

Back then, it had just been arguments about empty theory, since even the top-ranked guild in YGGDRASIL never came close to succeeding, despite attempting the challenge four times. He had long since put the idea out of mind, but recalled it once again upon hearing Tanya's assessment of the self-proclaimed god she called 'Being X'.

Certainly, the plan required several assumptions: An external god had to be recognized as a World-Class Enemy despite not being one of the original 32 bosses, this world which wasn't exactly YGGDRASIL still had to provide item drops, and of course, the dev's comment from however long ago had to be legitimate.

Much to Ainz's amazement, the plan had gone even more perfectly than he thought possible. Not only was a World-Class Item awarded for winning with no more than 24 participants, but there was even a second one awarded for having fewer than 12 players fighting, something he doubted was possible in YGGDRASIL even if every single one of those players somehow had multiple World-type classes and equipment on par with Touch Me.

Putting his resulting doubts for the developers' sanity aside for the time being, Ainz had completely thrown management of Nazarick and their surface territories to his Guardians, told them that he would be running experiments for a coupe days, then locked himself in the Treasury while he tried to figure out how the two new World-Class Items worked. Only Pandora's Actor had been allowed in as the foremost expert on magic items, in no small part because Ainz didn't want the others to see the maniacally-obsessed personality he had written for his NPC, which would definitely come out when newly-discovered World-Class Items were involved.

The first item he had figured out quickly enough: The [Divine-Binding Chain] was, exactly as its name suggested, a chain which could tie down any enemy. The effect was plain enough, but a reusable rooting effect which could not be resisted was fearsome nonetheless. Against a warrior, the chain could bind them in place, taking away their ability to ever close into melee range. Unless the opponent was on the level of a 'World Champion', there was little they could do to avoid being taken out of the fight in an instant. Likewise, a bound ninja or assassin would make their stealth useless and evasion nearly impossible, magic casters could be prevented from teleporting or flying away, and so on.

Unfortunately, the second item was not nearly as forthcoming with its secrets. It looked like a pair of perfectly smooth tubes of increasing thickness, with the clarity of glass but the texture of a rough basalt. On one end, the tips of two cones met at a sharp point, sharing an edge around a meter long, then intertwining to form an ornate knot on the other side. Depending on how it was held, it could reasonably be a staff, spear, sword, or club.

Even more unusual was his inability to appraise the item with his magic. [All Appraisal Magic Item], the very same spell which had given him the details of the [Divine-Binding Chain], had been completely unable to provide any details as to the item's use, or even its name. Whatever the item was, it was so clear that it could be called invisible, a perfect black box.

Since magic was not an option, Ainz fell back to having to test the item's effects by hand, but this came with its own dangers. Some World-Class Items carried penalties which affected their user, the most famous example being [Longinus], the weapon which would annihilate both its target and its wielder. According to YGGDRASIL's rules, he should be immune to any negative effects because of the World-Class Item he kept on him at all times, but since the item was already defying the rules of identification magic, it might well bypass others as well.

They had started out small. Just wielding the item had not produced any notable effects, nor had he been forced to drop it like when he tried to equip an ordinary sword, so was it supposed to be a staff? He created a simple skeleton to hand off the item to, which was able to hold it without issue, so at least the item didn't have any noticeable usage restrictions. He took back the item, then used it to hit the skeleton, which shattered into shards of bone and disappeared.

Taking into account the strength difference between the level 100 Ainz and level 2 skeleton, this was the obvious result – a solid poke from his finger could do the same. Still, the item had not appeared to trigger any sort of special effect.

Like this, Ainz continued testing various effects. It did not appear to have any magic-boosting effects like a staff, but nor did it restrict him from holding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown in his other hand and using it. It dealt no extra damage when used as a melee weapon, but it appeared to have no issue penetrating all sorts of damage resistances and immunities, even when wielded by the weakest of monsters. Physical barriers constructed from magic or even ordinary shields could stop it, but only by their material properties, rather than any enchantment: steel was steel, whether the shield was relic-class or an unenchanted sheet of metal.

Among the only properties he was certain of was that it qualified as a World-Class Item providing the same inter-immunity as all others, and that the item itself was completely indestructible against anything he was capable of using, up to and including a direct hit from Super-tier magic.

No matter what he tried, he couldn't come up with a satisfactory explanation. Was it some kind of bug? An unimplemented item which was accidentally left in? Was it a useless joke item put in by the developers, or was it a special item so powerful that it transcended even the Twenty, one which resisted all magical effects, even appraisal?

He thought about it, he discussed his theories with Pandora's Actor – who was even more confused than Ainz – but never came to a conclusion. Before he knew it, a week had passed, at which point Albedo had practically battered down the door of the Treasury out of concern for his safety. After reassuring her that nothing had gone wrong and sincerely apologizing, he finally set aside his experiments until he either got some new ideas or came across relevant information.

It wasn't until almost a month later that Ainz heard Tanya's side of the story, learning about the self-proclaimed evil god whose timing was far too convenient to be a coincidence.

Immediately after the end of that conversation, he returned to his bedroom, cursing D for not giving him an instruction manual.


Part 2

Tanya tore through the air at the highest speed she could reach, trying to evade the many hundreds of projectiles falling towards her. Ignoring the fact that it was coming from the wrong direction, she could reasonably describe the situation as being under moderate anti-aircraft fire, the sort which she could visually evade with her already inhuman perception further augmented with the use of magic, but continuously doing so meant having to both burn magic power to keep up her flight speed, plus the upkeep required to prevent the effects of repeated extreme acceleration on her body.

The glowing needles she was desperately weaving through were created as part of the 10th tier divine magic, [Purification Storm], which buffeted its target with waves of searing light, dropped a massive volume of holy rain, and randomly struck with bolts of lightning. Dodging through the visual spectacle of an area-of-effect spell was an impressive feat, but since she was critically weak to every projectile involved, she could not afford a single direct hit, which would impede her evasion enough to very quickly turn her into a pincushion.

Three or four shots could be absorbed by her magic shell without issue, but if she had enough spare mana to guard against this kind of firepower, she would be much better off using teleportation to escape the area of the storm instead. That was unfortunately not an option, as the last time she had attempted using teleportation to evade, she had nearly been run through by her opponent's lance the instant she reappeared.

Still, Tanya knew that she would not be able maintain this status quo for much longer. Between the growing exhaustion from pushing her concentration to the limit and her rapidly depleting mana reserves, she would definitely become unable to fight before her opponent.

Although invisibility magic was unlikely to work, the storm she was caught in the middle of made for an excellent source of cover. Since she was unable to spot her opponent from the inside, Tanya should likewise be unrecognizable among the clouds of light. Calling up a decoy, she had it charge straight towards her waiting opponent, while she herself flew in the exact opposite direction.

From the combination of the 'gifts' given to her by D and the white girl, she could still see what was on the other side of the storm with perfect clarity, regardless of the blinding lightshow and roaring thunder. Tanya's decoy did its job of attracting attention, while she herself used one spell to hide her magic, alongside an offensive formula in their direction. Without waiting for the storm to clear, she fired off a penetrating bolt with as much velocity as she could put into it.

Since the shot was constructed out of materialized mana without a physical shell, it could largely be disassociated from the conventional laws of physics, flying off at a speed well past forty times the speed of sound, aimed perfectly on target. She had timed it to the exact moment when her decoy was about to be attacked, and her opponent's balance was at its worst. Between when the formula round exited the storm and hit the target, only two milliseconds passed. Yet, the round meant to hit her opponent's center only scraped her side as she twisted away from its path.

"Are you kidding me, that's basically precognition…" (Tanya)

That impossible evasion draw a frustrated mutter out of Tanya. Exceedingly few individuals could ever perform such a feat, but her present opponent – Shalltear Bloodfallen – was one of those scarce few. However, not even she was not able to fully evade the attack, taking a considerable volume of blood due to its speed, causing her to grimace.

Tanya began constructing another formula for a followup attack, but Shalltear counterattacked before she could finish. Since the storm was still preventing her from properly aiming a direct single-target attack like [Brilliant Radiance], she responded by creating a [Purifying Javelin], throwing it back along the exact path she had been shot from.

Once imbued with magic, the attack would be guaranteed to hit its target, no matter how she attempted to evade or how many barriers she put between them, a lesson she had learned the hard way the first time. At best, she would be able to delay how long it took to reach her. The massive white stormcloud took up the majority of the graveyard they were in, and escaping it had forced Tanya to retreat into a corner of the room, leaving her only one direction to escape: down.

She dove towards the ground, then leveled off and sped along the ground, but as expected, the javelin sped up with her and continued to catch up. But, this was fine. As long as she kept up this speed, not even Shalltear could keep up with her easily.

Although she could neither block nor evade the javelin, she could limit its damage, to a degree. Maintaining her momentum, she put her left hand forward, directly in its flight path. The instant it made contact, she accelerated upwards, pulling herself out of the way of the remaining length of the javelin.

The [Purifying Javelin] had only been in contact with Tanya's palm for a fraction of a second, yet the damage it dealt was far from negligible. Had it been an ordinary spear, she could have just masked the pain and ignored it, but it was a mass of holy-element mana, not a physical object. She may have had equipment providing resistance, but that was only enough to reduce a demon's critical weakness to an ordinary weakness.

Rather than piercing through her hand, it instead burned through her whole body, spreading an acute pain to every functioning nerve she had, suffering so intense that it could not be masked with a simple pain-negating formula, at least not without numbing her entire body. Still, she grit her teeth and bore the pain, healing off the damage without interrupting her flight.

Tanya took aim and returned fire to put some pressure on Shalltear, who effortlessly evaded each shot while throwing back spells of her own. Neither was in a good position to gain an advantage, so the two simply continued to exchange equal blows. Although neither could get a solid hit in, they did not want to leave the other uninterrupted long enough to let her set up something stronger.

This was an incredibly disadvantageous exchange for Tanya. Although the ordinary attacks she was throwing out were much cheaper than the ones Shalltear was using, Tanya only had barely more than 10% of Shalltear's mana capacity. A continued battle of attrition would mean her defeat, yet she had no way to press an advantage. Of course, both of them were well aware of this difference.

""[Time Accelerator]""

Shalltear's shout and Tanya's mutter overlapped perfectly. The spell was 9th tier, and while it was not nearly as expensive as a full [Time Stop], it still had a very high MP cost, even higher than the average 10th tier spell. Because equipment granting immunity against time-based effects was divine-class or above, she had never received such an item, a fact Shalltear could take advantage of.

When both of them used the same spell, Tanya's lower mana capacity meant that she would disproportionately lose out in the exchange. That being said, ignoring it would let Shalltear close into melee range and set up an ambush once the effect expires would be far, far worse. Thus, she could only accept the exchange.

The world slowed, leaving only the two of them moving at full speed in the glacial environment. No matter how many times Tanya had used this magic since she first recreated it, she could not get used to the effects: the air resistance increased tenfold, to the point where her flight speed made the air strike against her barrier; her movement became sluggish, as if returning to being an ordinary human after getting used to a demon's strength; projectiles slowed, making them trivial to dodge even at point-blank range.

A moment later, her eyes widened as she realized her mistake. The difference between their physical abilities was just too great, and weakening them both equally only made it worse for her. Tanya's speed and maneuverability were her only solid advantages, something not one of Nazarick's Guardians could come close to comparing with. That is, under ordinary circumstances. With the obstruction from the effects of [Time Accelerator], she would not be able to accelerate the way she needed to.

Shalltear activated the highest-tier teleportation spell, [Gate], stepping through the portal to place herself directly in Tanya's flight path without any delay, only a few meters in front of her. Tanya had prepared an attack formula in response to the telegraphed attack, but in the slowed world, Shalltear lightly swiped it aside with one hand while smiling. Tanya decelerated with full force, but since her attack couldn't stagger Shalltear even slightly, it was impossible to evade.

Damn, I shouldn't have answered that provocation. Even if it let her set up a perfect ambush, I could have used the time while she can't attack to set up a more destructive formula, one she can't ignore or evade at the range she would stay in to attack. It looks like no matter how many years of combat experience you have, no matter how much you practice and study the effects of any sort of magic, it doesn't necessarily transfer to having experience with using tiered magic in combat.

Her speed of thought had been accelerated enough for her to think about her error, but her body could not keep up enough to avoid the situation. She could only let out a resigned sigh as her momentum carried her forward.

Shalltear casually released the Spuit Lance, letting it disappear, simply thrusting her hand forward, impaling Tanya through the abdomen with one arm while pulling her into a gentle embrace with the other.

Tanya was aware of the fact that she had just been stabbed. Though Shalltear's arm was considerably thin, but the same could not be said about the armor she wore, which had a considerable girth to it. Although it had not gone through any internal organs which would result in instant death, there was absolutely no doubt that this would be a fatal wound for a human. Most likely, the size of the wound was enough that the one who received such an attack could not be saved even if they were already waiting on a surgery table, surrounded by the world's best doctors.

Thankfully, Tanya was no longer human, and her current body was substantially more durable than it had been a year ago. The gaping hole in her center was another wound, the metal gauntlet occupying that space was just an unusual sensation. A plain physical injury was not nearly as painful as her gently touching a high-level holy-element ability, such as the [Purifying Javelin] she had been forced to accept.

While maintaining her serene expression, Shalltear slowly pulled the armored hand out, continuing to lightly hold her up with the other. Tanya's raw body weight wasn't high, but accounting for all her equipment, she should weigh around as much as a large adult man, but to Shalltear she may as well have been a feather.

"[Maximize Magic: Heal]" (Tanya)

The words were somewhat distorted due to the blood which had made it into her throat, but the intent was still transmitted, and the spell activated. Viscera and organs reformed, covered with tight muscle and skin, and finally the self-regeneration common to high-level armor took effect, closing around the location of the wound without a trace. As a useful side effect, the blood and gore scattered around dissolved as they returned to their rightful place, and the scene of carnage around them vanished without a trace.

That is not to say that the traces of the battle itself had vanished. This large graveyard chamber on the 3rd floor of the Great Tomb was grand but plain, yet now it was covered with broken stone, holes in the ground, and large tracts of scorched earth littered the entire chamber. Despite that, nobody took note of the chaotic state of the room.

Having once been a normal dungeon, the first six floors of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had inherited a potent self-repair property at no additional cost. So long as the floor was not completely annihilated with a World-Class Item, it would repair even the most severe damage within a week. Damage on the scale of a single room would disappear within a single day.

In this battle-scarred underground graveyard, the scene of two young girls in an embrace made for a surreal scene.

"Do you truly not get tired of doing this sort of thing? The result is exactly the same each time." (Shalltear)

"I have general combat experience, but a battle in this world is too fundamentally different to what I am used to. This is by far the most effective solution." (Tanya)

"Even when you end up in this state after a few minutes?" (Shalltear)

"Of course." (Tanya)

Tanya did not hesitate before giving her answer. They had had eleven mock battles just like this before, and every single one ended with the exact same result, a crushing defeat for Tanya. Although she had healed off any physical damage from the battle, severe mana exhaustion meant that she would be unable to move properly for at least the rest of the day. Were she not being held up by Shalltear, even standing up by her own strength would prove difficult.

She had been given the opportunity to learn hundreds of different tiered spells from the Guardians, but there was a clear difference between knowing magic and being able to put it to effective use in real combat. Besides, few if any offensive spells could outperform her standard selection of formulas.

Out of the full set of spells and abilities she had successfully recreated, only a disappointing minority were immediately useful. Time manipulation was situationally useful, but often too expensive to be practical; divination would only help defensively, but being inside Nazarick meant already being under its defensive grid; offensive buffs would only be applied to tiered magic, not her own magic formulas; defensive magic could be useful, but in terms of cost-performance, it was at best comparable to a common mage's defensive shell.

The useful spells were primarily those used for healing and assorted utilities. Aerial mages would maintain a formula to prevent shock due to injury and pain, so as to avoid losing consciousness while in the air. This much was a standard practice to reduce casualties by increasing the proportion who could make it back to base for treatment, and was only made more effective by the addition of healing magic. As long as an injury was not immediately fatal, it could be accepted and healed off immediately afterwards. Right now, she would be able to work through getting shot through the heart or neck, maybe even recover from being a severed head, though she had no intention of going that far for testing.

Teleportation was exactly as useful as it sounded, whether for combat or strategic transportation. As a former soldier, she could easily argue that being able to ignore all logistical restrictions to strike at any undefended target would make for an terrifyingly potent assault force. Failing to protect any one location would leave it vulnerable to sudden attacks, whereas trying to defend every target would be the same as having no defenses at all. It would make for a truly unwinnable situation, so much so that she might have been able to single-handedly turn around the Empire's disadvantageous military situation with that ability alone.

Besides those, she was also grateful for being able to use the personal inventory. For reasons unknown, she had to spend a small amount of magic to open it or extract items, unlike Ainz or any of the Floor Guardians. Using a Magic Bag was exceedingly better than actually carrying objects, and pulling them out of empty space was faster still. This would have been far more beneficial were she still using a weapon with physical ammunition, but still far from useless.

This was among the many unknowns about how YGGDRASIL's game systems interacted with her as an outsider. She clearly had some connection to it, as one of the game's rituals had allowed her to become a 'Lesser Devil' and gain the stat boosts tied to that change, but it was difficult to tell how the rest of her levels were distributed, if she even had such a thing. Ainz could use the guild's Master Source to examine each of the NPCs and their status, but she and anybody else from outside who was now associated with Nazarick were not included in that list.

She did not appear to be restricted from using class-restricted weapon types, and her magic could in some cases bypass level restrictions, resistances, and immunities. At best, they could try to guess at her level distribution from changes in her health and mana, but this was a rough science at best.

In an effort to study these effects, Tanya's effective position within the organization that is Nazarick was changed to something along the lines of "Demiurge's Experimental Subject". After some carefully worded complaints directly to Ainz, she made sure that he would at least follow the principle of informed consent, for what good that did.

Since she was by far the weakest out of everybody who fought against Being X, the experience gained should have translated into an extraordinary number of levels, perhaps as many as 30 levels based on Ainz's rough calculations. In reality, she did not appear to have gotten more than 10, so they were trying to find the cause for the discrepancy.

Demiurge's current working theory was that getting new levels required real knowledge corresponding to the class's abilities, rather than just experience. Her previous abilities were already translated into job levels, meaning she now lacked the ability needed to have her experience allocated into new levels.

This experiment was meant to prove whether mock combat would allow her to gain more levels in whichever classes she already had. Failing that, they would next try to give her some new job classes by making her accomplish whatever YGGDRASIL would define as the requirements for some new classes she did not already possess. Remaining experience could then be spent on more devil race levels, which they had already confirmed could be done, so doing so would not prove anything.

Although the reasons behind it were a questionable, she saw no reason to object to something which would strengthen her ability to defend herself. Combat ability appeared to be a significant part of how people were valued around here, so getting herself to the point of being able to beat at least a few of the Floor Guardians should help her chances at promotion.

To that end, building relations with them was also an important step. Though there was nothing she could do about the most important factor – not being created by the Supreme Beings – getting Ainz's recognition made for a passable substitute. Gaining his trust was vital, of course, but making enemies of the rest of the organization just to get ahead would certainly come back to ruin her. With one major exception, her relation with the Guardians should be good, but that was only as a subordinate; getting respect and recognition as an equal would be decidedly more difficult.

Over the past few weeks, Tanya had fought against Shalltear repeatedly, and with each attempt, she would end up immobilized just like this, after which they would spend some time speaking casually, often about meaningless personal topics. This was the end result of her fights to win Shalltear's respect, though at the end it had turned in an unexpected direction.

Which is why she was currently being held like a doll by Shalltear.

"It's too much of a waste, when you don't take care of yourself like this." (Shalltear)

She slowly ran her fingers through Tanya's hair, which was disorderly scattered behind her. She had kept it roughly tied up before, but the simple hair tie had broken off at some point during their superhuman acrobatics.

"It's unavoidable. Even if I wanted to, it was hard enough just keeping mud out of it, let alone properly cleaning it on the front lines. Clean, hot water was a luxury, so the closest thing to taking care would be letting my adjutant cut it with a combat knife." (Tanya)

"The front lines? I'm not sure exactly what you are describing, but that doesn't really excuse you anymore. Nazarick's facilities for beauty are second to none in this world. Don't you feel ashamed appearing before Ainz-sama without first making yourself look proper?" (Shalltear)

"I admit, I never gave it much thought, or much effort. Back then I was more focused on getting people to look past my age, but now, it just makes me stand out around here…" (Tanya)

Tanya's objective impression of her own appearance would describe her as above average, though her complete lack of care for taking care of it did make it worse. Looking back, that had only been by human standards. When everybody around her was literally hand-crafted to be a perfect beauty, even the ordinary maids looked better than her, which made her lack of effort all the more apparent.

She was not nearly idealistic enough to claim that one's appearance was unimportant in a meritocracy. Were she applying for a job, the clothing she wore and the way she presented herself would both be an important part of making a good first impression. A good interview would still focus on qualification, but that was no reason for her to shoot herself in the foot just because she was still reluctant to accept that this was now her body.

"What is it?" (Shalltear)

Shalltear asked, spotting the subtle frown Tanya had inadvertently let slip.

"At first I got through it by telling myself that I would eventually grow up, but now, I really have no choice but to accept that this will be my body forever. I hadn't put much thought into what that really meant." (Tanya)

"What, was that it? Why do you care?" (Shalltear)

"I'm seriously troubled over this, what's with that response?" (Tanya)

Her identity crisis has been promptly rejected. Although her physical discomfort had already vanished over a decade, she could not accept the change so easily. To her, the knowledge and memories from her past were her last ties to the quiet life she once had in the peaceful, technologically advanced world of her original life.

"I mean exactly what I said, what reason do you have to be concerned with that? Neither Ainz-sama nor anybody else within Nazarick would care for something like that, and I doubt anybody outside us exists who is capable of troubling you over it. Were your appearance causing trouble with a romance, I could still understand, yet that does not appear to be a problem in your case. So I ask again, why do you trouble yourself over such a petty issue?

I was created at this age by Peroroncino-sama, and I shall forever remain at this age, such is only natural. Do you believe I haven't noticed how Ainz-sama sees me? I have no intention of letting that get in the way of our love, yet you complain about mere appearance? Are you mocking me, or do you have some other reason you can't become a young girl?" (Shalltear)

"I apologize. I hadn't thought that far into it." (Tanya)

Although she had a considerably unusual problem, the two of them were among the few who shared similar concerns, though for different reasons. She may have been too exhausted to think clearly, and had said too much. Almost reflexively, she apologized for her mistake. Thus, she missed Shalltear's wordplay.

"Then it's being a girl which is actually troubling you, after all? Other worlds have some unusual people." (Shalltear)

Simply letting the comment slip without confusion was a tacit admission, enough for Shalltear to confirm her suspicion.

"It's obvious enough from the way you act. At very least, I wouldn't miss it easily. Demiurge probably noticed, but I doubt he cares. Albedo… probably never even looked at you." (Shalltear)

"If you already knew that much…" (Tanya)

"Does that past matter enough for you to abandon your future, and pretend to be something you no longer are?" (Shalltear)

"It was my objective since I was born, and still is, even now, no matter what changes." (Tanya)

Her original plan to get revenge against Being X had gone off without a hitch, but the other half of her goal was not merely to survive, but to escape to her own civilized world.

"You gave up being human easily enough, but sex and age are so important that you can't accept changing those? Those values of yours are truly incomprehensible. From how Demiurge described you, I expected you to be better at adjusting your priorities to your environment." (Shalltear)

"Thank you for the words of advice, Shalltear-sama." (Tanya)

The answer sounded forced, and intentionally detached, but Shalltear accepted it as evidence that she was in serious thought.

"Think nothing of it. You were never a rival for Ainz-sama's affection, so there is no need for hostilities. Ah, yes… if you need somebody to teach you how to enjoy that body, I'll welcome you anytime." (Shalltear)

Still somewhat unsteady from her mana exhaustion, Tanya got up to leave. After a few steps, she whispered a response.

"… I'll consider it." (Tanya)


Part 3

Following several months of stagnation, the economy in the city of E-Rantel gradually began to recover, and over time even started to flourish. Predictably, trade had been entirely cut off along with the end of the war, leaving only the surrounding agricultural villages. Even those were often too fearful of the undead in the city to travel to the city unless they were truly desperate for help.

With that being said, the number of villages which were desperate for help was not small. Many years of carefully-timed war declarations by the Empire had done their job of drawing away their manpower. Starvation and attacks by monsters had compounded to wipe out a sizeable number of villages, plus several more which had been burned to the ground by the Slane Theocracy long ago.

As of last year, the total harvest collected by these villages had dropped below half of what it had been twenty years ago, and while the effects had yet to really affect the cities, deaths by starvation were not rare. To their amazement, their undead conquerors opened their granaries and began selling off large quantities of food at reasonable prices, enough to at least survive until the first harvests of winter wheat.

With the coming of spring, a remarkably volume of grain suddenly began to flood the market from an unremarkable village by the name of Carne, which had inexplicably grown into a fortified town of some 10,000 residents. Large stone golems constructed roads and walls, well-built orcs and goblins worked the fields, which had been fertilized using the magic of third-tier goblin magic casters of unknown origin. Before anybody noticed, the town which had sprouted out of nowhere and the extensive fields which surrounded it were producing half the food in the entire province.

Around the same time, teams of dwarf craftsmen appeared to settle in the city, government-sponsored merchants from both the Empire and the Kingdom began to pass through the city, which sat along the sole highway between the two nations. Goods could once again flow, artisans restarted their businesses, and the economy finally started to bud. The recovery of the city was miraculous, almost as if it had been in planning since long before the war even began.

Due to the policies implemented by his subordinates, the Sorcerous Kingdom's reputation was incomparably better than it had begun, but no matter how much goodwill they bought through public works and urban development, many still feared that this peaceful occupation was all part of some nefarious plot. Furthermore, those citizens who had lost family during the war were unlikely to forgive them so easily.

The best case prediction gave two years until the city was stable enough to no longer depend on Momon, but full integration with the demihuman and nonhuman races was unlikely to make progress in any less than a full generation of humans. Staging a show in the Kingdom's Capital had made for excellent propaganda to this end, but it would not be possible to repeat without drawing needless suspicion about their involvement.

To the members of Nazarick involved in its management, E-Rantel was primarily viewed as an experimental ground in preparation for future conquest and assimilation. Perhaps a hundred years from now, it could become a shining beacon for inter-species relations, but currently the city was mostly of interest because of its famous residents:

Needless to say, the best known by far was the enigmatic Sorcerer King himself, Ainz Ooal Gown, the strongest magic caster in the world against whom any army was worthless. Second was certainly the Dark Hero Momon, the hope of humanity who could stand against him, the invincible guardian of the city.

Aside from those two living myths, there was also the prime minister Albedo, whose demonic beauty could gain international renown by word of mouth alone; the dark elf sisters whose incredible power was only known to a the upper echelons of the Empire; the strange demon girl Tanya, who had been recognized by the Golden Princess as a hero of the Kingdom. Finally, the newest arrival, the ancient vampire Landfall, who had unceremoniously showed up and taken a room at the Golden Pavilion Inn after revealing her identity a few weeks prior.

The unexplained arrival predictably sparked waves of rumors and conspiracy theories. Allegations included her being a disciple of the Sorcerer King, a diplomat and princess from an ancient kingdom, or a villain seeking revenge against the Thirteen Heroes. It didn't help that the vampire in question never showed any interest in the stories, or much of anything not related to Momon. This in turn led to gossip of its own, now focused on the nuance behind the meaning of Momon's mission to 'chase' two vampires.

Though these rumors were malicious in the eyes of those trying to spread them, their actual effects were underwhelming. To the people of E-Rantel, Momon's presence was irreplaceable, and the act of standing against the Sorcerer King in the defense of the people could not be washed away by some scandal. This was not the first time he had been slandered by his opponents, it definitely would not be the last, but the masses of evangelists for his heroics were a testament to the faith they had in him.

As for Keeno, simply being associated with the history of Landfall meant that her infamy was at its peak, while the identity of Evileye simultaneously made her one of the most famous names in the surrounding countries. If anything, overlaying the heartless and inhuman monster of nightmares with the innocent little girl in love before them did wonders for her image. A few fanatics still whispered about conspiracies, but all in all, public opinion swiftly shifted towards "at least she's not the Sorcerer King," which could be said to be an improvement.

For anybody who had lived in the city since before the war, having been numbed to the concept of common sense, she was just another unreasonable individual with unfathomable power. Ultimately, even if ordinary people learned that the sun would not rise the next day, there was nothing for them to do about it. They had already committed to remaining in the city when it was first conquered, and would not so easily abandon their livelihood due to the arrival of an ancient vampire or two.

The Sorcerous Kingdom did not reach the same conclusion, and neither would the many foreign nations observing them. When contrasted against Ainz, the Guardians, or even ordinary high-ranking servants, her combat ability would be ranked somewhere between 'mediocre' and 'pathetic'. Admittedly, this was an underestimation which did not take into account her talent and experience, but it was not fundamentally wrong. Foreign entities might be cautious or fearful, but those who had witnessed the Sorcerer King's power recognized that her individual power was of relatively little worth.

Of greater interest were her centuries of knowledge of and experience in performing research about magic. Being one of only two known (former) humans who had attained the status of fifth-tier arcane magic casters through her own effort, her expertise was priceless. Yet, this too was hardly of note to Nazarick, which contained dozens of subordinates capable of using magic of the tenth tier.

In truth, Ainz did have some interest in her personal magic, as the idea of creating magic of his own appealed to him greatly. Practically speaking, there were numerous issues with trying to get her help, foremost among which was her straightforward hostility towards himself, ironically caused by the conflict between himself (Ainz) and himself (Momon). Although they had spoken amicably once before and would not become enemies, there was also no way to access her insight without breaking character.

Per Demiurge's advice, he had abandoned actively trying to recruit her. Using Shalltear's ability as a superior vampire to dominate her was one option, but doing so would needlessly make more enemies if discovered. She had some worth, but the cost of acquisition would outweigh the benefits. Besides, they had already gained Fluder Paradyne, who was utterly loyal and likely had much of the same knowledge that she would.

Last but not least, there was the value of her fame and unique nature. Unlike anybody associated with the Sorcerous Kingdom, who could be said to have ulterior motives behind doing so, she already had an established history of being a non-human who had taken the side of humanity. The symbolic nature of this could not be understated.

Simply by existing, even if she herself did not support their cause, Keeno became the perfect counterargument against human-supremacist nations like the Theocracy and Holy Kingdom, who lost their position of being the sole defenders of mankind against the mindless and barbaric demihumans. Naturally, Albedo and Demiurge's joint proposal, the Plan for World Domination (revised) took advantage of this extensively.

The standing recommendation from the higher-ups was to avoid unnecessary contact, lest they cause additional friction. Precisely because it was a recommendation and not an order, one Tanya Degurechaff had absolutely no issue with disregarding it.

"You… were supposed to be the strongest adventurer in the Kingdom, so why is it that you are always lazing around in this city instead?" (Tanya)

She caught Keeno outside her room in the inn just as she was splitting away from Momon. After a slightly jump at the demon who had literally appeared out of invisibility behind her, she composed herself and tightened her expression, which had melted from her time with Momon.

"What, it's just you… was that supposed to be a joke? Your Sorcerer King's undead are already wiping out every monster in the countryside. There's no work to do either way, and Lakyus doesn't need my help to drink tea with the Princess." (Keeno)

Keeno gave her complaints while opening the door and walking into her room, but since she left the door open while entering instead of slamming it shut, the visit wasn't entirely unwelcome. Even without monsters around, adamantite-ranked adventurers could always find work one way or the other, not that anybody from Blue Rose was in need of money.

"Soldiers not having work is a good thing for the world. As much as I'd like to say that it's nice to have some peace and quiet for once, with my luck it probably won't last." (Tanya)

No, she already knew it wouldn't last, but saying any more would violate an actual order, so this much was the limit. Whether Keeno could understand the hint would be her own responsibility, but part of her certainly hoped she would. Tanya had only heard fragments of her story from others, but her tenacious survival from such an age, alone, without the knowledge and memories that she had started with herself earned her a considerable amount of respect.

"So, I don't imagine you came here just to make jokes, what exactly did you come here to do?" (Keeno)

"Of course not, I'm properly here on business. There's a job for you." (Tanya)

"No matter how strapped we are for employment, I have no interest in whatever work the Sorcerer King would need done." (Keeno)

"The request isn't from him, it's from me, personally. There's a special sort of magic research I need done, and from what I heard, out of all humans, you're the best at this work." (Tanya)

Keeno didn't immediately answer, briefly pondering what she had been told.

"… I admit that is a specialty of mine, but don't you have your own experts for that?" (Keeno)

"Sure, if I reported what I was doing and got permission for it properly, I might be able to throw liches at the problem until it gets solved, but that approach has its own problems. Bureaucracy is fine when it works, but learning how to plan around it is even more useful." (Tanya)

"Without permission… what are you planning?" (Keeno)

Tanya shrugged in lieu of answering.

"Well, can you do it? You've been stuck at the fifth tier for over 200 years now. Can you ever reach the level of being able to stand by Momon-dono's side with just that?" (Tanya)

"What a blatant attempt at manipulation." (Keeno)

"Yes, and what of it? If the research succeeds, you should be able to reach sixth or seventh, perhaps even higher with time. Isn't that the important part here?" (Tanya)

It was the devil's whisper, plain and simple. Keeno may have centuries of life experience, but the majority had been spent in isolation, and nothing revealed her immaturity quite like bringing up Momon's name. Still, the offer wasn't a lie.

"Fine, I'll take a look if I have time. What's the project?" (Keeno)

As planned, she gave in. Tanya suppressed a smirk while walking over to the nearby table. Then, she reached into the void of her inventory to pull out a bundle of papers.

"First-tier arcane magic, [Magic Arrow]." (Tanya)

She set down the bundle, which was made up of roughly ten sheets of paper. Each was covered in intricate patterns, at times rigid and geometric, at times smooth and organic, and yet at others utterly random. From the attention to detail alone it might be worthy of being called art, if not for the lack of any recognizable meaning. While Keeno picked one sheet up to examine in more detail, Tanya continued to reach into the pocket of space and take out more bundles.

"First-tier healing magic, [Light Healing]; Second-tier healing, [Cure Light Wounds]. First-tier, [Floating Board]… [Lesser Strength], [Poison], [Blindness], [Fly], [Magic Shield]…" (Tanya)

After the first few, she gave up on the supplementary details, since Keeno was no doubt already familiar with them, so she listed just the names. She continued to stack bundles of varying sizes, each layered with their own unique patterns. Some were more orderly, others had the consistency of a toddler's crayon drawings, but each had been carefully formatted and drawn out.

"… Wait, wait, explain all this properly. What are all of these?" (Keeno)

"Hm… they're not exactly formulas, if I called them programs…" (Tanya)

She paused to glance over at Keeno, who seemed more confused by the explanation.

"… doesn't translate, huh. Well, think of them as translations of magic in their most complete form. The problem is, I can create them like this, but I can't understand what is actually being written down." (Tanya)

These bundles were the end product of Tanya's effort to meticulously transcribe the spell data recorded on her now-internal Type-95. As she had been given the ability to perfectly analyze everything in the world around her, she could copy over the spells she saw used, and with some effort, activate them herself. Regrettably, she had no way to interpret that data in any detail.

Having been an Imperial aerial mage, she had been taught how to perform routine maintenance on a computation orb, as well as how to use said orb to interact with the world by making use of the various formulas which had been perfected over the years by teams of dedicated researchers. In her brief tenure as Doctor Schugel's guinea pig, she had picked up on some of the finer technical details of magic engineering, so her knowledge on the subject should be superior to the average mage.

That being said, if asked to construct a computation orb from raw materials, her answer would be a definitive 'no'. By the same reasoning, she could make use of a formula given to her, but interpreting their meaning was beyond her. Trying to understand the meaning of these spells without so much as a textbook was too far outside her range of proficiency.

As evidenced by her inability to do anything more than recognize a few duplicated patterns even with the aid of the Type-95's computational ability. Once she had a starting point to build off of, she would be able to apply the full power of the white girl's thought acceleration and parallelization to start compressing years worth of study into only a few days.

Right now, she had been given a library of books in a language she could not read, and was told to translate them without so much as a dictionary. The hundreds of tiered spells she had learned were raw programs, yet she was no programmer. At this point, handing off the problem to somebody with a better understanding of this type of magic was the obvious answer from a human resources standpoint.

Tanya took out more bundles to continue her explanation.

"Unfortunately, there isn't much help I can offer in this regard. The only guarantee I can make is that these are indeed spells which translate into the effects of the magic listed." (Tanya)

Keeno's doubt was understandable, given the monumental task presented to her. Though Tanya didn't know how this compared to creating original magic, she was certain that no matter what their research looked like, it would look nothing like the data format presented by a computation orb. Thus, she gave up on explaining that which she didn't understand, and began to take out more bait.

"Provided you can get through those and get some understanding of these…" (Tanya)

She withdrew a bundle far taller than any before, this one containing no fewer than 100 sheets,

"… there's the fifth-tier [Teleportation]…" (Tanya)

Followed by a brick of at least 300 sheets,

"… the sixth-tier [Heal]…" (Tanya)

And ended with a stack thicker than her arm, which probably reached four digits of papers.

"… and the seventh-tier [Greater Teleportation]. These are your payment." (Tanya)

This payment which would be useless to Keeno without her first achieving results would serve as motivation as well as compensation, and from the gleam in her eyes at being given copies of magic straight out of this world's mythology, it was working exactly as intended. Producing more of them would cost her nothing but a few hours of her time, something she could already do with one hand while paying attention to something else thanks to the effects of [Parallel Minds]. If those could be used to purchase Keeno's aid, then they would be more useful than actually printing money.

Were she able to get a few of her favorite tiered magic spells optimized to the point of being at least comparable in efficiency to formulas, her utility, survivability, and combat ability would soar to transcendental levels. The only remaining issue was how well she could hide this from Nazarick, lest they suspect her of treachery.


"You don't trust her? Even though she's your creation?" (Albedo)

Albedo tilted her head in response to Demiurge's explanation, questioning the meaning behind his denial.

"Trust? No, of course not. While I suspected that this might be the case ever since the pact failed to fully control her, I had expected at least partial success. Her resisting without a mental change was, I admit, a consequence of my miscalculation." (Demiurge)

Though admitting his own mistakes, Demiurge did not seem particularly bothered by the results. To an outsider his expressions would be difficult to read, especially if they couldn't tell the difference between which of his emotions were controlled and which were genuine, but Albedo could mostly understand him. From his tone and choice of words, this was not the most expected outcome, but it was not outside his range of predictions. Perhaps this was even something he considered to be a beneficial miscalculation, such as when Ainz's actions had improved on his plans in the Holy Kingdom.

"Moreover, nobody aside from the flawless Supreme Beings themselves could ever be trustworthy, including ourselves. The day you would say that I am beyond doubt is the same day that I report you for sedition, and I would expect you to do the same." (Demiurge)

"Of course. If you ever stand against Ainz-sama, I would destroy you with all my power. Despite this, why do you continue to support her when you cannot control her?" (Albedo)

"My interest is to see the greatest possible benefit to Ainz-sama and Nazarick. From what I can see, allowing Tanya Degurechaff a considerable degree of freedom would both allow her to grow, while instilling loyalty in the form of mutual benefits. It is precisely because I do not believe that I can control her that I suggest that we should not do so." (Demiurge)

"I do not understand what you are suggesting. You objected so vehemently to allowing Sebas to keep his pet, yet you allow yours to run around without a leash." (Albedo)

"Really? I thought you of all people would understand the importance of balancing freedom with consequence when raising children." (Demiurge)

"You don't actually believe that to be necessary, do you?" (Albedo)

At Demiurge's last comment, Albedo's voice turned hostile.

"There's no need to take my joke so seriously. When I brought the matter to Ainz-sama, he told me that it would be fine even if she continues acting like a human instead of using our standards for loyalty. If it's not too much, we can even overlook a little treachery." (Demiurge)

"You think she will betray us?" (Albedo)

For the first time, he hesitated before answering.

"No… no, I don't. Though I cannot consider her a full demon, she is a markedly rational individual, as far as humans go. She will never consider us her masters, but she does recognize Nazarick as her employer. Provided we continue to provide the best terms for her employment, she will not turn against us." (Demiurge)

"That is not an acceptable sentiment for a servant of Nazarick to hold." (Albedo)

"This too is Ainz-sama's will. It was originally his proposal that we recruit her under terms of employment, not enslavement, and based on my interactions with her up until to that point, I accepted that as the best approach. I believe that the results speak for themselves." (Demiurge)

Albedo did not let up on her intimidation towards Demiurge, who in turn did refused to budge on his argument. Neither spoke while each pressured the other with their specialty.

"Demiurge. When Shalltear was controlled and Ainz-sama went out to fight her, do you recall the terms we exchanged?" (Albedo)

"… I do." (Demiurge)

"Even if it was personally approved by Ainz-sama, I cannot approve of your allowing such a dangerous individual loose within Nazarick." (Albedo)

"Understood. In the event that Tanya Degurechaff's actions go beyond my predictions and become detrimental to Nazarick, I will assume full responsibility." (Demiurge)

With a sigh, Demiurge gave in to Albedo's demands. The temperature in the room, which had frozen from the clash of the two auras, gradually began to return to normal. Her angry glare vanished like it had been a lie, and instantly reverted to her neutral smile.

"Very good. Then, I will not criticize your judgment any further. Is that girl really worth this much devotion on your part?" (Albedo)

"It's a shame that she rejected the ritual, else I could have made her into a full devil, but she had already exhibited the ability to resist control spells once before. She's perhaps a half-demon, or something entirely new, even I can't tell for certain, it's natural that I'd be interested. The best way I can describe her would be, if I were to put it into so few words, a human in the skin of a demon." (Demiurge)


A/N: Hello, this is nullmana. First, thank you for taking the time to read Archdevil's Contractor. This story came about on a whim after watching Isekai Quartet, since there were so many great possibilities for character interactions and serious developments which inevitably wouldn't be possible in a series of comedy shorts… this got way more attention than expected.

Although I can't make any guarantees due to real life, I'll try to keep up monthly releases of at least 10k words through this second volume, though that is contingent on having ideas for what to actually write.

I noticed that FanFiction crops out a considerable amount of the formatting that I had in the documents, I went back to fix them but it might well have messed something else up.

If you have some time, please take a few minutes to fill out a opinion short survey about the story: (Sorry, FF breaks links, remove the space before .gle): [forms .gle/1YvPLLraMsL43vYn6]