That brought them to the modern day, Momon had reached the peak of humanity, Adamantite. He had upheld his promise to Touch Me and stayed true to his mantra of protecting the weak. Although it was too soon to say, he'd like to think that he was truly strong, maybe even a hero.

He had even adopted a little girl, not formally, but in essence, he was Ninya's surrogate father.

Touch Me would be proud, he was sure of it.

The Overlord frowned, "but why do I feel like I'm not doing my job as a father correctly?"

The former salaryman always thought that he was underperforming in the parenting department. After all, Ninya had witnessed all of her friends die, she was clearly still reeling from some sort of trauma. There weren't any therapists, so he was the best Ninya had at the moment. Oh and how woefully qualified he was.

There was also the issue of Ninya only wearing boys' clothes. Suzuki was by no means a traditionalist, he didn't necessarily care enough to debate the importance of adhering to gender norms. Saying that, there was clearly more behind Ninya always wearing boys' clothes.

Although the thought of Ninya wearing boys' clothes gave him fond memories of Aura and Mare, the dark elf twins. He knew that it was better to address the issue now and at least find out the reason why she dresses and acts like a boy.

If she said it was just her preference, he would drop the issue in an instant.

A wooden door creaked open, speak of the devil.

"Mr. Momon, I delivered the coins to the orphanage as you ordered."

"Good, I assume that there were no problems?"

Ninya nodded her head kindly, "no problems at all. Everyone knew who I was so no one with bad intentions approached me. The kids were happy when I came. Some of them went as far as to hug me."

"That's good," Momon paused to think of something inspirational to say, "it's good that you find joy in earning the respect and appreciation of others. It means you have a noble and generous soul."

"M-Momon…" Ninya whimpered in reverence.

Coughing into his armored fist, Momon followed up his advice, "r-right. Anyway, please, sit next to me, I have something I want to discuss with you."

Ninya rebounded from her reverent haze and nodded her little head. With staff still in hand, she walked toward the bed and sat next to her comrade.

"What would you like to discuss Mr. Momom?"

The dark warrior placed his hand on Ninya's back, trying his best to act like a father, "I fear that your mind may be clouded, young one."

The tiny magic caster chocked on her spit, "w-what ever do you mean Mr. Momon?"

"There's no need to hide it, I understand that you're under a lot of stress. It's been a rough few months." Momon paused to gently rub her back like a consoling mother, "but I'd like it if you would tell me what's clouding your mind. Not just as your comrade, but as your friend and guardian."

Ninya's shoulders became less tense and her head slumped, "I… I guess nothing can get past you, Mr. Momon."

She began clutching her staff rather aggressively, "the reason why my mind has been clouded is because I keep thinking of… something. Or to be more accurate, someone. Someone that I've been looking for ever since I first lost her."

Ninya frowned, "no… I didn't lose her. A bad man took her when I was very young."

Momon continued to rub her back, trying his best to replicate what he thought a good parent would do.

"Who was taken from you?" Momon paused to add some venom into his tone, "and who took them?"

The tiny magic caster shivered, clearly intimidated by Momon's tone. He always had such a noble voice, to hear something so far from it was disheartening.

Noticing the little girl's shaking, Momon stopped rubbing her back and instead took her shoulder in a firm grip, "I'm not mad at you Ninya. I just want to know so we can solve this issue… together."

Ninya sniffled, a few tears leaking out of her eyes, "I l-lost my older s-sister. I don't know who the man that took him was, but I do know that he was a noble."

Betraying the maturity that she always tried to show off, Ninya sniveled like a child, "h-he talked about making her his concubine and throwing her out when he was done with her."

Placing her hands over her head, as if it was painful to just remember the memory, Ninya continued, "our parents passed away years ago… it was just me and Tuareninya. No matter how hard we worked, there was rarely enough food on the table. Despite that, she always made sure I was full before she allowed herself to eat. She always looked out for me… protected me."

She began tugging her hair, "but I couldn't do anything for her. I felt so useless when they took her. So minuscule. The way that noble looked at me like I wasn't a threat, like I wasn't worth his attention, like I wasn't even worth selling to some slave driver."

Momon gently placed his hand over Ninya's small hands, "stop tugging your hair. You shouldn't hurt yourself when you've done nothing wrong."

"Nothing wrong!" Ninya threw off Momon's hands, "I let a monster take my sister and you think I did 'nothing wrong'!?"

Seeing that physically comforting his charge wasn't the wisest move, Momon tried his best to formulate a proper response, "yes. I think you did nothing wrong."

The tiny magic caster shook in anger, her tiny hands closed into fists. Before should could respond with an angry retort, Momon spoke up once more.

"But I do know who did something wrong. That noble who took your sister. You said it yourself, he's the monster." The warrior let out a heavy sigh, "Ninya, do we blame the cowering villager who gets eaten alive by a troll because he's weak?"

"Do we blame the slave for getting beat by his oppressive master for their weakness?"

Momon stood up with zeal that would make Touch Me take a step back, "Do we blame the crying mother who lost their son to a pointless war because they're weak?"

Momon rose his fist, "no! For it is not the fault of the weak that they are not strong! But the fault of the ones who parade the illusion of strength to push around the weak."

Making sure he kept a comfortable distance from Ninya to not intimidate her with his size, Momon exclaimed, "have you learned nothing from what I always told you? That weakness is not a sin, but an obstacle to overcome!"

The dark warrior gradually lowered his voice in a caring manner, "so no. You did nothing wrong, but someone clearly did."

He knelt down and went to Ninya's eye level, "will you let me help you? Help you punish the monsters that haunt your dreams? Help you reach the goal that you've been yearning for like a starving hound? Help you overcome your weakness?"

Like a newborn child, Ninya began to cry. Collapsing to her knees and hands on her face.

Ah crap! She's crying! Was that the wrong thing to say? What are you thinking!? Of course it was the wrong thing to say! Who the hell tells a kid who lost her sister to overcome their weakness? Damn you Touch Me! Why did your corny one-liners have to fail me now? Momonga thought in a panic, not sure what to do with his crying comrade.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when he felt a small body slam into him. He was still kneeling so he took the full brunt of the hug as Ninya wrapped her arms around his helmet.

"Thank you, Mr. Momon! Thank you!" Ninya cried as he hugged his guardian and savior.

Although confused, Momon was just glad that his comrade wasn't mad at him, so he did the only thing that he felt was right. He hugged her back.

Ninya felt Momon's large arms wrap around her in a tight embrace. Which only incentivized her to cry harder, knowing that he wouldn't cast her aside.

This went on for a few minutes till Momon thought it was enough.

Using his cape to wipe off the tears and boogers from his comrade's face, Momonga told her, "We will begin this new quest of ours as soon as possible. For now, you must rest. It is late, and I need you to be in tip-top condition for tomorrow."

Ninya only responded with a tired yet determined nod, she didn't resist as Momon picked her up and placed her on top of her bed, tucking her in.

"What about you Mr. Momon? It's going to be dark soon, you should rest too."

"I plan to, I just need to turn in some of our old mission statements and gather the materials for your pilgrimage."

"Pilgrimage? I'm not a monk, stupid."

Momon chuckled, "a pilgrimage of strength little one. A pilgrimage that will require only the best weapons and armor. I shall ensure all are accounted for, now sleep."

Ninya bid her guardian farewell and allowed a smile to grace her face before falling asleep.

After a few minutes, the dark hero stood up from his spot next to Ninya's bed and walked outside of the room, making sure to lock the door.

The Overlord sent a mental command to his various summons. In almost an instant, his Wraith summons appeared. It was an amalgamation of regular Wraiths and various High Wraiths, undead creatures that boast translucent forms and the ability to move through walls.

"You all know what I want. Look for the man that I want but don't kill him, I want that pleasure for myself. If you see the woman that I want as well, simply watch and ensure her location for the time that I arrive to save her."

Without another word, all of the wraiths flew away from the Overlord and went in every direction imaginable to search for the man that gained their master's ire. All that was left were two High Wraiths.

"You two shall stay here and guard the room, preventing anyone from entering. Ensure Ninya's safety, your death comes first before even a scratch lands on her head, understood?"

Such a command was a formality, for he knew that his summons knew his will and were fully prepared to execute it.

Nonetheless, his summons listened, took their place in front of the door, and became invisible so no passerby would see them.

Once everything was said and done, Momon walked outside of the inn he was staying in, which just so happened to be the most expensive and high-end inn that the city had to offer. Its name was Golden something, he didn't bother remembering the name.

As expected of any high-end establishment, they bid the dark warrior farewell with the class of veteran customer service workers. Momon responded with the typical amount of courtesies that was expected of someone of his station and bid the staff a farewell.

The sun was already setting, however, the streets were still alive with countless E-Rantel citizens enjoying the nightlife that the city had to offer. Despite this, everyone cleared a path when he walked by. Everyone from lovey-dovey couples to drunks made a path for him when he showed up. When this first happened, he had thought that he forgot to disable one of his passives, however, that wasn't the case. People just seemed to move out of the way when he walked through the street either due to respect or awe.

Not paying them any mind, besides the occasional greeting, Momon eventually made his way to the adventurers guild. Upon entering, everyone in the guild simultaneously held their breath. Nearly every adventurer stared at him in awe and envy while the various staff straightened their backs, hoping the dark hero would approach them.

Walking toward a certain table in an isolated section of the guild reserved for high-ranking adventurers, one of the adventurers greeted the dark hero, "Sir Momon! It's good to see you, it's rare for you to be out so late. What's the occasion?"

"Business. It's good to see you as well Igvarge." Momon responded while greeting the other three adventurers of the four-man adventurer team.

"Oh? And what does the high and mighty 'Momon the Great' want to do with us?"

Momon scoffed internally, despite showing his strength to Igvarge and earning his respect, the man was still peeved that he had become an Adamantite adventurer so quickly. Luckily, that envy evolved into begrudging respect, the bastard was still snarky though.

"Information."

Igvarge rose an eyebrow, "oi, who the hell was stupid enough to piss off you of all people?"

"I don't know his name, but I do know he's a noble and kidnapped a village girl."

The mithril adventurer's expression softened, despite his borderline manipulative personality, he could always sympathize with the smallfolk and the oppression they so often faced. "I'm afraid that's too broad Momon. Stuff like that happens every day in the Re-Estize. Do you know where the village was? May shorten the list of possible suspects."

Fortunately for Momon, he had picked up the name of Ninya's hometown due to their previous conversations. "LoosiegLuso village."

"LoosieLuso village huh? I've been there before, it's a fair distance from here, but it's between E-Pespel and the capital. When was she taken?"

Momon frowned under his helmet, not necessarily sure how to answer, "I'm afraid that I'm not sure, but I do know it's been for an extended amount of time."

Igvarge sighed, "days, weeks, months, or years?"

"A few months at least."

The various adventurers in Igvarge's party all visibly cringed when those words escaped Momon's mouth.

"What?"

One of the adventurers muttered, "I'm afraid that—"

Igvarge raised his hand, cutting off his comrade from finishing, "look, Momon. You're an honorable man, that much is obvious. You've been nothing but a hero for this town and the smallfolk, but as a coworker and acquaintance, I'm not going to bullshit you." The mithril adventurer sighed before continuing, "drop this search now."

Momon's mind struggled to comprehend why the adventurer was so serious and adamant that he stop his search. "Under what pretexts?"

Igvarge shook his head as if debating with himself, "look, that noble more than likely raped that poor village girl till she broke, mentally and physically, in the first week. Which by all means shouldn't be the reason why you should end your pursuit. But if it's been months, it's all but guaranteed that the deadbeat aristocrat got bored of her and either sold her or killed her."

Still clinging to the possibility of saving Ninya's sister, Momon asked, "what if she was sold? What then?"

The adventurers at the table all but froze, even Igvarge struggled to respond.

What? What's so frightening to make these veterans struggle to answer this simple question? Momon thought.

"Then you really should drop the search, not just for your sake, but for the sake of all those you hold dear as well."

Momon frowned underneath his helmet, "that's not an answer to my question."

Igvarge understood that the dark hero wouldn't drop this, so with a quick glance at his surroundings to make sure no one was listening, he all but whispered, "if she was sold, it's almost a guarantee that she was sold to Eight Fingers, the criminal organization controlling the Kingdom behind the scenes."

The mithril adventurer paused to think, "I'd say that there's an 80% chance that she was sold to one of the underground brothels in the capital and a 19% chance that she was sold in an equally shitty brothel in E-Pespel."

"And the 1%?"

"You don't wanna know. Just know that I'm serious this time when I say that you can't save her if that was her fate. In fact, saving her may very well be akin to torture. And for her sake, I can't with good conscious tell you."

Although he wanted to know, he decided to take Igvarge at his word just this once. "Fine… how do I save her then? If I do get her location?"

Looking around once more to make sure no one was listening, Igvarge responded, "Eight Fingers isn't to be trifled with Momon, not even you can face them all willy nilly." he paused before continuing, "but to answer your question, the best way to do this is by bribing the guy in charge of managing the traffic of girls and convincing him to depart with one of his products."

Igvarge frowned, "but that may not be possible. Only an idealist idiotic fool would up and bribe a member of Eight Fingers and expect them to not report you. Their men are bound by fear, none of them will betray their employers. They'll still accept your bribe of course, but expect them to snitch on you."

The mithril adventurer pointed at the tall dark-plated man, "and when they do, the higher-ups will have a field day blackmailing you. They'll make you do their dirty work or look the other way for the rest of your career as an adventurer. If you refuse their attempts to blackmail you, they'll threaten to destroy your reputation and more than likely kill everyone you hold dear. Hell, they'll even make some stuff up and have you in jail for the rest of your life."

Momon raised his hand, signifying the man to stop his long explanation, "I understand, it would be foolish to bribe them. What other options do I have?"

"Well there are a number of things, you can publicly denounce Eight Fingers and take the fight directly to them, there's a rumor spreading around that Blue Rose, an adamantite group stationed in the capital, is performing secret raids on Eight Finger establishments as we speak." Igvarge shrugged, "of course, those are just rumors."

Blue Rose huh? It'd be wise for me to make connections with them in the future as coworkers.

"But that carries its own risks that I already stated. They'll target your families and all those you hold dear. The only reason why the members of Blue Rose haven't suffered such a fate is because the organization hasn't confirmed if they were truly the ones behind the raids. None of the seats want to get tricked and leave themselves exposed for a surprise attack from the other seats."

"So you're saying that if I want to rescue this girl, I'd need to destroy… no… eviscerate this entire organization to avoid a counterattack? Regardless of how I want to approach this quest."

Igvarge snapped his fingers, "exactly! That's why it's an impossible task! So you're gonna drop this search right?"

Momon chuckled, "no my friend, I'm afraid that I'm not."

"What!" the chair under Igvarge made a loud screeching sound as it was aggressively pushed against the ground, "after everything I've said! You still want to save this girl? You'd throw away everything!? Your life? Your rank? A rank I've been dreaming of achieving ever since I was a village serf myself!? All for a girl you don't even know!?"

The entire guild looked at Igvarge, their attention switching between the heated man and the stoic black warrior. If either warrior noticed the fact that they had become the center of attention, neither paid it any mind.

Despite the mithril adventurer's outburst, Momon was unfazed. He simply began walking away from him and toward the door. However, he didn't leave without giving his acquaintance the courtesy of answering his question.

"Yes. I would risk everything if it meant saving someone in need."

Without another word, the raven black hero left the building.

The minute Igvarge saw Momon's luscious red cape escape his vision, he all but collapsed back into his seat.

For whatever reason, he began to laugh, garnering weird looks from everyone inside the guild, "haha… I guess that's why I'll never become an Adamantite, huh?"

—x—

Having sent silent commands to his summons, all of them sped towards E-Pespel and the capital to search every nook and cranny. None of them were interrupted during their search, which was to be expected.

Now, he simply had to attend to the final task of the night while he waited for his summons to report back to him, a rather personal one.

Re-entering the room he had rented to share with Ninya, he made sure to not wake up his charge and made his way to his workbench. Momon pulled out several items from his inventory: beginner magic staffs, redundant magical garb, and miscellaneous magic items.

Yggdrasil items that were mediocre at best and trash at worst. But considered valuable gear in the New World that'd catch a high price in any magic store.

He idly thought about the idea of opening a store and selling magic items. Perhaps in another life, he would have become a merchant in this world and sold the trash gear from his inventory. Hell, maybe his store would have been so great that he'd somehow gain the attention of the royal family.

Momon disregarded those fantastical thoughts and focused back on the various magic items that he laid on the table.

After a few seconds to deliberate, he picked up one of the various magic staffs he clumsily dumped unto the table. It was a staff typically used by Yggdrasil players between the levels of 20 and 30. The magical foci had the name of Grâce de Fey, a fairly tall magical staff that was said to be carved from one of the many trees that surrounded the Lady of the Lake's little pond. Beginning players were able to get this weapon after defeating the Fey Enchantress, it was a guaranteed drop item.

The staff was iridescent white and gave numerous bonuses against entities with negative karma. The bonuses were scaled with how much negative karma the entity had. It even increased the user's magic pool by a minuscule amount and greatly decreased the cost of casting 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier magic.

It was, without a doubt, a trash item in every sense of the word for a high-leveled Yggdrasil player. However, it would fit Ninya's needs.

Momon placed the rest of the magic staffs into his inventory and pushed the Grâce de Fey to the side. Averting his attention to the magical garbs he had pulled out, a certain robe caught his attention.

It was a unisex magical item that would adjust to the user's body shape and gender. For women, it would try its best to highlight their feminine features and choose a pastel color that would best highlight their outfit. The same applied to men, but the colors that it would change to were far more spartan and dark.

The robes had the name La protection de Fey, and it was also a drop from the Fey Enchantress. It wasn't a guaranteed drop but they were still fairly common on the Yggdrasil player market because so many new players farmed that miniboss. It boasted impressive stats and some players had used it till they reached level 40.

It would increase the user's magic pool by an impressive amount and provide the castor with a minor resistance to physical and magical attacks. However, the most impressive feature of the La protection de Fey was its ability to instantly revive the user if they died once every 24 hours.

Although this sounds impressive, in execution, it was fairly useless. You may get revived, but you'll only receive a quarter of your health points and due to the revive animations, the revive time took up to 10 seconds. Which was plenty enough time for your opponent to prepare or charge up an attack to instantly kill you once you did revive. This ability also had a cooldown of 24 hours, so one had to wait a whole in-game day to make use of it again.

Due to this, it was typically only used by mages in PVE situations, since NPCs wouldn't charge up an attack in preparation for the player's revive.

Either way, it would serve Ninya well and pair well with the Grâce de Fey.

The dark hero put the magical garb aside and finally placed his attention on the last components he would give his charge. Magical items.

There were so many to choose from that it was somewhat daunting. He could give her a ring that would give her a limited number of casts of [Fireball] every day or a necklace that could allow her to utilize the spell [Fly] without wasting any mana.

All of them were good choices, but they may be overkill, especially in this world. So with some reservation, he decided to just give his comrade a ring that would boost her magical reserves and speed up her magical regeneration. It also had an EXP modifier that would prove useful.

This beautiful yet intricate white ring had a unique golden-colored gemstone. It was truly a sight to behold and matched perfectly with the Grâce de Fey and La protection de Fey. It was a fairly common ring known as Belfast.

Momon also decided to give Ninya the Circlet of Iron Will, a white-gold ornamental headband with an intricate crest in the front. It provided the user protection from charms, fear, and other mental attacks. That protection didn't apply to high-level mental attacks or someone's innate fear, however, it was still quite an effective tool.

(A/N: The Circlet of Iron Will was a magic item given to Neia)

The headband also matched perfectly with the rest of Ninya's new equipment. So with a satisfied hum, Momon separated all the items he wanted to give Ninya to one side of the table and put everything else back into his inventory.

"I hope she likes them… this'll help her break out of her shell as well. Embrace her more feminine side and tackle this obstacle that has been haunting her."

"Momon~"

The Overlord jumped in his seat, worried that he may have woken up his charge by clanging magical items everywhere. However, those worries were unfound as he realized that she was just whispering in her sleep.

"Mm… Momon~"

The undead sighed, "you're still such a kid…"

Momonga took a second to reminisce about his guildmate Yamaiko, who was an elementary school teacher in real life, "Maiko… what am I supposed to do?"

She had often lectured him and the other members of Ainz Ooal Gown whenever they did or said something stupid. However, Momonga never minded, he actively listened whenever he was being reprimanded, absorbing whatever advice he could from his friend.

It was because of her that he was so adamant about helping Ninya and donating to the local orphanages. After all, Momonga had often been the victim of Yamaiko's long-winded rants about the world's social inequalities and how children deserved better. How children should be treasured, educated, protected, and looked after.

He had often wondered why Yamaiko always vented to him and when asked, she had stated with the most nonchalant voice that it was because he was a good listener.

At the time, he decided to take the compliment in stride and just labeled it as one of his very few strengths.

Nonetheless, even with Yamaiko's advice, he truly felt lost as to how to help Ninya. He may be adhering to his friend's wishes and ideals but that didn't exactly mean he was doing a good job at it. What use was it to give a child in the slums enough money to buy a meal when he would just get hungry the next day?

Was he truly following Yamaiko's ideals? Was he even helping?

And what about Ninya? Was he raising her properly? Turning her into a proper adult?

At first, he had used her to learn more about this world and performed several experiments with her as a lab rat. In exchange, he protected her and taught her as much as he could. Even if most of what he taught her were just quotes ripped straight out of Touch Me's mouth.

It was a fair exchange in his eyes, but the concern was that he was approaching this whole 'parenting' situation with too much callousness. He had tried to incorporate more physical touch in the form of back and head pats to console and reward his charge. It seemed like the right thing to do, his mother had done the same for him after all.

"..."

Mom… it had been so long since he even acknowledged her existence. When he lost her, it truly was just him and the world. He had lost her too soon, at too young of an age to truly process it. Worse still, she left him with nothing, only a few scattered memories and whatever was left in her bank account.

Perhaps she would know how to approach this situation. After all, he turned out alright! He may have become a shut-in but he still grew up to be a functioning adult!

"..."

The armored skeleton facepalmed, "I'm doomed."