The journey of a thousand leagues begins with but a single step.

Or so it was told- Ainz vaguely remembered hearing that somewhere.

He was also pretty sure whoever said that was absolutely dead wrong- because his journey began with about three thousand steps backwards.

It started off normal enough. Or at least, as normal as it could get after the events of the morning, which Ainz was still doing his best to not cringe from. He had dismantled the fortress he created, and they set out.

Remedios did not speak to him much throughout the first legs of their journey. He had assumed that was because she was still mad about the events of the morning.

The thing was, he had no idea how he could try and fix things with her. Sure, while he had enjoyed the view, he really hadn't done anything intentionally. It still made things awkward between them however.

But how could the two of them recover from something like that?

One thing that they could do was just simply ignore it and hope that it would go away- and perhaps, even Remedios would prefer that. That was why he had not apologized once again. It might be worse to bring it up again, like tearing the scab off a recent wound.

"You know what you should do?" Peroroncino, who appeared in his head again said. "You should let her see YOU naked too- that way it'll be even!"

'Get out of my head!' Ainz screamed mentally. Seriously, had Peroroncino always been an exhibitionist? Or was he just quoting something from an anime or H-game he'd seen? Oh wait- the 'Peroroncino' inside his head wasn't real and just something that Ainz had created so truth be told he was just making things up-

-Ainz was so lost in thought he almost ran into Remedios as she had suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Ainz asked after a minute of silence in which she did nothing.

There was a slight blush to her cheeks- something he found to be rather cute. However, this thought was wiped away by the next sentence she said.

"I don't know where we're going."

"EHHH?!"

Remedios had no way to hide her embarrassment.

After all, she had acted all tough and mighty by storming off right after Ainz had disassembled his house (by the Four, that kind of magic was incredible! A mobile fortress could've easily turned the tides in any number of fights) because she was still mad about certain things he had done. She found the earlier explanation that he thought she was in danger which is why he rushed into the hot springs suspect of course, but now he was saying that one of his friends was named 'Touch Me?' And that this man who had chosen that kind of name for himself was apparently a paladin of great virtue?

What did he think, that she was five years old?

However, as she stormed off something quickly dawned on her- she had no idea where she was going.

The plains all looked alike, and while earlier on her journey she had had some way of telling where she was going using certain landmarks. However, her memories were now hazy after what she had experienced, and also, this wasn't the same place she had been fighting the Bafolk because that mage had teleported away from that place.

Had she been going east of north, or west of south?

Given she didn't want to speak to her companion and let him stew for a while, she hadn't brought it up, but the more she walked, the more she was certain that she was heading the wrong way.

And now, finally, she had to speak up.

"I don't know where I'm going," she said. "I... the details of where I was heading are a bit hazy."

"Why didn't you speak up earlier?"

"That's... because I... well, because I thought I knew!" she said defensively. She couldn't see Ainz's expression behind his mask, but he must have been disappointed. Or angry. Most likely both.

Perhaps he would even leave her behind now.

That would be the best outcome, after all.

Why was it that she wanted Ainz to abandon her?

The reason wasn't that she didn't like Ainz- it was on the contrary, however, she knew that no matter how powerful he was (from what she had seen, he could use magic of the Sixth Tier- he was on the same level as that Imperial Court Wizard of the Baharuth Empire) he was no match for that Night Lich she had faced.

Her desire to go on this journey alone was really her saying 'Your life is forfeit if you follow me. I can't abandon this chase because of my duty, but you have no such obligation. Please run away while you can and do not throw away your life.'

There was another piece to the puzzle. She did recognize that he was extremely powerful, though not as much as that Night Lich, he was most definitely stronger than her. In all honesty, as a paladin of the Holy Kingdom, she should've done everything in her power to get him to go with her if it increased her odds of finding and rescuing the Holy Queen by even a fraction of a percent.

She should lie, she should offer him gold- any kind of reward to get him to go with her.

But, she didn't want to.

'Saving someone in trouble is common sense,'- the moment he spoke those words, she couldn't bring herself to condemn him to death. The world needed someone like him.

She also didn't have anything real to offer him. She couldn't hand over Safarlisia, a treasure of her kingdom, after all. She had no current access to wealth with the Holy Queen out of the equation. So what could she offer him?

The image of Kelart Custodio, her sister, popped into her head. "You know, there is ONE thing that you could offer her sis... many men would be happy to have YOU as a prize!" Her sister then winked slyly.

'No, no, no!' she shouted to her own inner hallucination. 'I do NOT want to bone him!'

As it was, those kinds of things happened only in fairy tales. And this world was no fairy tale.

She was no weak princess who needed a strong man to rescue her- she was a warrior who held the burden of her kingdoms upon her shoulders. No powerful knight in shining armor would appear out of thin air to save her and whisk her away in his strong arms- that was patently ridiculous. The bards who sang of such stories were idiots, she was certain of that.

As it was, no one had come to save the three of them earlier- they had always only had each other.

Of course, if Ainz hadn't given up on her earlier seeing how hopeless her situation was, he would certainly do so now.

"I see... why is that... no, wait, what is it that you're chasing after?" Ainz asked her.

"The Holy Queen was carried away by Harpies, a species of flying demihumans," she replied. "They went... that way..." she said, pointing in one direction. She then pointed in another. "But... I'm not sure anymore... my memories are hazy... after all this time..."

She felt worthless as she said it. If only they had someone with Ranger-type abilities with them, they would never have fallen into this kind of problem.

"In that case," Ainz said. "Would you mind if I take a look?"

"A look?" Remedios asked.

"I have a spell that can scan memories," Ainz said.

"What?" Remedios asked. She had never heard of such a thing being possible.

"Yes, it's difficult, but I think I can do it," Ainz said. "With your permission, I would like to go through your memories and see if it is possible for me to locate where you were going."

"Oh, you don't want to look at something else, do you? Maybe my reflection when I'm in the bath?" It was a bad quip, but she was only saying so because she wasn't so sure of the idea and wanted to buy some time to think of an excuse.

"What?! No!"

She sighed- in the end, it looked like little could be done otherwise. They needed to know where they were going.

"Now, relax," Ainz said as he cast a spell. "I need you to think about that moment."

She didn't want to- she had done her best to suppress it. But, there was no way out of it now.

"Captain Custodio, there are too many of them, what are we to d-" a paladin began to speak before being impaled on a lance.

This was not good. Not good at all- around her Remedios could hear the screams of civilians and soldiers being massacred alike. They had attempted to gather most of the civilians in the Cathedral of St. Thomas, but they had been unsuccessful of doing it in time.

The undead advanced like an endless horde, and while Remedios could cut through a thousand normal zombies with ease, there were too many of them. Fatigue... she could already feel her arms getting heavy.

In a situation like this, there was only one thing to do.

"Regroup! Reform! We must abandon the city! Gather your soldiers and surround the Holy Queen!"

They would cut out a path through the undead and escape through a postern made for such a situation- with that they would try to survive to fight another day.

The paladins around her were surprised but knew better than to question her battle sense- an area in which she excelled in. As it was, Remedios knew that they had no hope of winning- even if she could use Safarlisia's ability multiple times a day she would not be able to get them out of this predicament.

Her eyes met those of her sister's- the two of them seemed to understand what to do without having to say anything out loud. The priests surrounded the paladins with a blockade of angels- a living wall to protect them. The paladins in turn surrounded the priests, forming a layer so that they could summon and cast spells without having to place themselves in the line of fire. It was a simple arrangement- but effective so long as-

"[Chain Dragon Lightning]!" a cold voice whipped through the air as after a brief flash of light, half of the outer perimeter of paladins was taken down.

The undead parted like a river around a rock as a figure appeared in the distance. It had two heads joined in the middle, and three pairs of arms. She had heard of some Demihumans such as the Magelos who could cast multiple spells simultaneously using their many arms. She had no idea of this one could do the same, but before she could say something, it spoke again, its two mouths speaking in a disharmonious timber.

The lightning that coursed around him struck her, and she saw red. Thankfully, as a paladin she resisted magic to a large extent, but she had never felt pain like this form a spell before. "[Reinforce Resistance]!" she said, casting a spell which barely numbed the pain.

As it was, she fell forward onto her face nonetheless, her entire body burning as if it was on fire. She didn't need to look up to know that the rest of her team had been slaughtered- if she could barely handle this spell no doubt the others had been burned to a crisp. The malodor of burnt flesh had already reached her nostrils. The angels above her winked out of existence, because their summoners had been slain.

Still, she raised her head defiantly. She was the leader of this nation's paladin order, and she would not spend her last moments with her face in the ground. She was determined to go out fighting.

As she lifted her head, she saw the Night Lich pick up a body in his arms. The body of her Queen...

He then handed it to a demihuman beside him. Demihumans... now that the undead had invaded as a vanguard, the demihuman tribes were quick to take advantage of the situation and rush in.

She tried to get up, but the last thing she saw as the world blacked out was a harpy flying out into the sunset...

"Ah, things are a bit more clear now," Ainz said.

Remedios was shaking. She had relived those moments several times before in her dreams but this... this was seeing them as real as they were once again.

The magic caster didn't seem to notice at all as he mused to himself. "Ah, that would mean... based on where the sun was, we should head out in that direction..."

"Got it," she croaked, not willing to say anything more lest a sob escape her lips. She went to storm off before he caught her on the shoulder.

"Wait... there are better ways to move around you know," he said.

He pulled out a horse- but not an actual horse. The wooden kind that children would play with, but it grew to the size of a regular one and to her shock, began moving around.

"A... golem?" she asked.

"Indeed," Ainz said as he nonchalantly pulled a carriage of all things out of thin air somehow. "We'll get there faster this way."

She shrugged. "Well, we can conserve our energy at least."

Ainz had a lot to think about as their carriage rolled around the grassy plains.

For one, he had expended nearly all of his mana by using the spell [Control Amnesia]. This was not something he had expected, as it was, right now he was almost completely out of juice. A strange sense of fatigue had overcome him as he had watched his mana whittle away- this was something that he would need to make a note of in this world.

He had also not expected to witness the horrors he had while going through the paladin's mind. Those sights of sheer brutality could never be recaptured, he felt- even in those old war movies he had seen. If he still was human, he would no doubt be screaming in the middle of the night as he recalled those horrors in his nightmares- or be so shocked he would be unable to move or think.

As it was, he was thankful for his undead body in a way- for it let him see that kind of atrocity without feeling anything else than a slight sense of unease. But it did make him worry about the mental health of his companion- no one could emerge from a situation like that unscathed. That was probably why she had been screaming in the middle of the bath. She had PTSD or something along those lines- didn't they call it Shell Shock in the old days?

There was someone who worked at the same company that he worked at in the real world- that man had been an old soldier, which was how he had risen to the position that he had within middle management. As it was, he was not a very good worker or boss. He would often be seen staring out into the distance during meetings, thankfully, Suzuki had the good luck of not having to work under him for too long.

Then, one day, out of the blue that man threw himself out of the window. It killed him instantly, and Suzuki remembered that the window was fixed long before the man's corpse was carried away.

He had never paid much mind to that situation as it was, he was too busy working himself into an early grave to care. But now, his mind went back to the man. What had he seen? What had made him so desperate that he had chosen to get rid of himself like that?

With a gulp, the thought occurred to him that Remedios might wish to one day end hers- no, she wouldn't do that, he was sure of it. She had the optimism and conviction of a Shounen protagonist from what he had seen.

Still, he couldn't help but be worried.

His train of thought was broken as he felt something soft fall onto his lap- it was the head of Remedios Custodio. She had fallen asleep.

Ainz shook his head- she was like an overgrown child in a lot of ways. Unbending, thinking the world worked in a simple, straightforward manner.

Then again, this was probably why people considered paladins in many RPGs to fall into the 'Lawful Stupid' alignment category- or at least, that was something that Ulbert had once said about them, very likely in reference to Touch Me.

Ainz adjusted himself so that she wasn't resting on nothing but bone, and so cushioned her head as she rested. One might think that it was odd that one could fall asleep in a moving carriage, but this was magical, as such, Ainz barely felt the bumps on the road. As it was, the fact that she was so tired over the weeks leading up till this point also likely had a role in it.

She did look rather cute like this, he noticed, though he also noticed once again how emaciated she was.

Was there a spell he knew that could help her? Was there a spell that he could use that would make her have sweet dreams for once? There was a race called the Baku in Yggdrasil who could manipulate dreams, but he was unsure if even they could do something like make someone have pleasant dreams. Or perhaps the spell [Cure Insanity] could help her, as it might heal all mental illnesses including PTSD?

He didn't want to do something right now unless he was absolutely sure of the outcome, so for now, he contented himself with watching over her while she slept.

For once, Remedios didn't dream of the horrors she had experienced. At least, none of her dreams were very vivid.

She had glimpses of images of course- of screaming people mainly. But they were short and thankfully disjointed enough that they didn't bother her too much.

She did have a dream that she had never had before, however.

She dreamed that she was being carried up the steps of a large castle by a knight in armor so black it looked like it was cut from the night sky itself. A large red cape trailed behind him, making him look like the paragon of a hero.

In this dream, curiously, she found herself wearing a white dress for some reason.

She reached up with her hands to remove the knight's helmet, but before she could, she was shaken awake.

"Eh?!" she said rather stupidly as she felt a bit of drool stuck to the corner of her mouth when she jolted right up.

"Please be quiet," Ainz said. "I have seen something."

He pointed out of the carriage, which was currently parked behind a line of trees. Deeper in the woods, she could see something, but she wasn't sure of what it was.

"What is it?"

"It's a campfire," Ainz said. She had been asleep for quite a while if it was dusk already, she realized. "There is someone there- but the shadows don't look like they are human."

In the breath of an instant, Remedios went from a deep stupor to completely battle ready. It was one thing that she had prided herself on- she had trained herself to be able to do something like this, because duty could call on her at any moment. Her hand reached for Safarlisia and drew it noiselessly.

"Wait," Ainz said. "We don't know how many of them there are. We should scout ahead, note their abilities, and then we can-"

He didn't get a single more word out as Remedios bolted from the carriage and ran into the woods, sword drawn.

"Oh god, Ulbert was right about them being 'Lawful Stupid,'" Ainz mused to himself. He motioned to the undead. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

To attack an enemy without gauging their strength fist was the height of idiocy- Punnito Moe would be chastising him all day if he could see what Ainz was doing.

But, he couldn't leave Remedios to fend for herself.

Screams reached his non-existent ears, thankfully not a one was a human scream.

It became clearer to him what he was fighting as he got closer- they were demihumans whose upper bodies resembled that of saber-toothed tigers. Where they called... Zoastia? Each one of them stood at above six feet tall and would've sent human Suzuki Satoru running away and hiding under a bed athe the mere sight of them.

However, to Ainz Ooal Gown they were nothing but flies. When he was able to kill one with the spell [Magic Arrow] he realized that even if one of them was ten times stronger than the one he had killed, it would make no difference. Still, he would normally be cautious in this sort of situation and let his Death Knight do most of the fighting while he would watch from afar, preferably under the cloak of [Perfect Unknowable].

But, as it was, he had Remedios to do the risky business for him. She swung her sword like a berserker with suicidal nonchalance regarding her own safety. She was even struck a few times, something he was sure should not have happened if she were to be fighting regularly. The blows did nothing to deter her though, as she danced and created a whirlwind of death that finished off anything foolish enough to come near her.

The fight was over in a few minutes, however, before Ainz could process it all, Remedios began screaming. She kicked a corpse so hard the head was decapitated cleanly, and with another one she began stabbing it over and over with her sword even though the demihuman was long dead.

"Remedios," Ainz said, approached her and placing a hand on her shoulder.

She whirled around, and for a second he was afraid that she would strike him, but she stopped just short of that. Her eyes were widened like that of a wild animal's, and there was something distinctly... inhuman about her expression. However, her face then softened. Ainz had earlier thought of her as being cute, but now, with her covered in the blood and guts of her enemy, she looked nearly as terrifying as the undead he commanded.

Hell, he wasn't entirely sure that she was perfectly sane now, to be honest.

"That was a good fight," she said.

"It was a dumb fight," Ainz chastised her. "We shouldn't've ran in like that- we should've made a plan first!"

"We go in and we kill them," she retorted. "What plan do we need for that? They are our enemies and they should die."

"Still..." Ainz said. Before he could get any further, he saw that Remedios was examining the campsite.

The place looked like it had been only recently occupied, with slabs of meat still hanging over the campfire.

Ainz had a sinking feeling that he knew what kind of 'animals' that meat came from, and it was likely that Remedios had also figured it out.

"There are footprints," she said. "They're leading off in that direction."

Ainz did not have any Ranger-type abilities, so his skill of tracking things was not much better than Remedios's. It would be a good idea to find someone who did have those kinds of abilities though, he though.

"If so, I say that we scout out the area first," Ainz said. He cast [Perfect Unknowable] first on himself, and then on her.

Given her low stealth abilities otherwise and his nature as a high-tier undead, Ainz could still tell where she was. However, the opposite wasn't true and Remedios couldn't even hear him.

But this was nothing that couldn't be solved by using a simple [Message] spell to talk to her.

'Follow me,' he instructed her telepathically as they walked along the woods.

About thirty minutes from the campsite, they came upon a large clearing by a stream. Built next to it was a large wooden fort. It did not look elegant in any way and had probably been an overnight job, but it was still complete with search towers and patrolling demihumans.

Below, near the ground around it, were several stakes attached to which were human corpses. Many of them were hollowed out, as if they had been eaten, and judging by the terrified appearances on their faces- it was likely that they had been consumed alive.

Ainz gulped again- just what kind of horrors would this world show him? Even with his undead suppression of emotions, he felt that this was a bit much.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed movement. A group of demihumans were escorting three human prisoners. The humans looked disheveled and starved, but alive nonetheless.

And sure as he was expecting, Remedios ran out to greet them with her sword.

She advanced ten paces before something latched onto her right leg- it was a bear trap, cleverly hidden among the leaves. It looked vicious enough to chomp off the leg of any human that walked into it, but it appeared that her armor protected her well enough as she broke it with a single blow from her fists.

Now freed from the trap, she swung her sword. It appeared that even with that minor delay she had the element of surprise with her, as the demihumans could not react in time before she was upon them, leaving them dead before they could even get their weapons out.

A horn rang in from within the wooden fort- and shadows rushed towards the edge of the wall. The alarm had been sounded, and no doubt soon soldiers would be rushing out of the gates.

Arrows hissed through the air at Remedios, who cleaved them effortless with her sword. She bounded to the gates, when a demihuman screamed out at her.

"Halt!" he said. He held up a human child in his hands, a girl who could have been no older than three years old. He placed a claw to her throat. "If you so much as twitch, this kid gets it!"

It was so cliché that Ainz wanted to face-palm, but to his immense surprise, Remedios actually stopped in her tracks.

What? What on earth was she doing?

The demihuman seemed to smirk as he realized that he know had leverage over her, which was why it had been a mistake to do so.

"Lower your sword."

Hesitantly, Remedios obliged.

And then the demihuman tore out the child's in a single fluid motion.

"BASTARD! I DID WHAT YOU ASKED ME TO!" Remedios screamed.

"And what do you intend to do about it, bitch? We have more where that came from," the demihuman said as he was handed another child, a boy this time. "If you so much as breathe wrong, human, this boy gets it as well."

To add insult to injury, it then took the corpse of the girl it had slain earlier, placed it in its mouth, and began to chew.

'This is not good,' Ainz thought. As it was, the demihuman now had the upper hand. Soon, Remedios would be taken down. She looked completely frozen, as if someone had used the [Petrify] skill on her- but there was no magic involved here. She simply didn't know what to do and her mind had completely shut down.

Ainz recalled a joke he had heard once before in the guild chat.

"So, the joke goes like this... the Dungeon Master says 'You run into an enemy-' but before he can finish, the mage says, 'I cast [Fireball]!' and the Dungeon Master asks, 'Wait, let me describe the situation, how many enemies there are, and if there are any allies nearby-' to which the mage says, 'Did I stutter? Cast [Fireball]!'"

Ainz wasn't entirely sure what the punch line of that joke was, but regardless, the correct option was clear to him.

He would cast [Fireball] killing both hostage and demihuman. Once the demihumans realized that their hostages were worthless, they would not waste time attempting to kill the hostages while they fled. In the grand calculus of warfare, this was clearly the right decision to make.

A decision that Remedios probably could not understand, but that did not matter. He would make that decision for her.

It would save her soul from having to carry the guilt of killing a hostage.

'Strange... why do I care about saving her from guilt so much?' Ainz thought as he raised his hand.

"Children are our treasures, Momonga-san, and we should treasure, protect, and educate them," Yamaiko said. She then went into a story regarding one of her students, a kindergartner who had managed to somehow sneak past the school gate and onto the street, only narrowly avoiding both a car and a lawsuit for the school.

The reason the child was safe was because Yamaiko had run out, disregarding her own safety to rescue her. Someone else in her position might've paused to think about it, but the muscle-brained sensei had chosen to act, which at that point was the right decision.

The right decision now was obvious to Ainz. It was to strike the enemy before him down, disregarding what collateral damage it would cause.

However...

'Yamaiko-san... no, Yamaiko-sensei... I guess this one is for you then,' Ainz thought. He cancelled his [Fireball] spell.

"[Time Stop]!"