I see that my infodumps have failed to kill you off, so I suppose that I should thank you for time reading the story so far!

As it is said, 'middles are hard'. While not anywhere near the middle of the story, Act 2 is definitely a middle and, upon deciding to what it would cover and how to do so, I had inadvertently combined several deadly things without realizing it. I shall now outline just how stupid I was.

Act 2 - aka Spice and Lamprey - is essentially a single day in the course of ~70,000 words. While this is not bad in itself, the bad part is that nothing overly exciting can happen - at least not within the context of what Overlord readers might expect from this setting. We are one week into Spring, which is one week after the end of Volume 9. This also means that this act takes place three weeks before the events of Volume 10. Nazarick's side is still figuring out what to do with the newly created Sorcerous Kingdom, the citizens are still digesting their new reality...actually the entire world around them is still in shock, for the most part. We are left with two protagonists, who each have a pile of their own problems stewing in their minds, and a scattering of other characters who are able to function in some way. The characters stay in character, so there is no side quest to go wrestle horny dire porcupines when their respective jobs takes priority over everything.

Shalltear Bloodfallen:

Shalltear is basically still down on herself, and this underlying feeling bleeds out from time to time to the degree where Ludmila can notice - though she has no idea why Shalltear appears to have such a heavy burden in her heart. Still, Shalltear manages an admirable effort to put her best foot forward, which happens mostly through the beginning half of the Act. Knowing that she sucks at trying to explain anything like smarter guardians would be able to, she instead puts together a list of things that she can show Ludmila and prepares various things. She also tries to show off to her new vassal how cool she is...which sometimes works, but sometimes it results in a charisma break. She leads Ludmila around, showing her the state of the city and it's citizens, as well as Ainz's wishes for the nation, which has a lasting impact on Ludmila's approach to, well, everything. Shalltear summons some skeletons to show how Skeletons can be used for labour, but ends that one on a catastrophic note. She makes many attempts along this vein, sharing her knowledge through the ways she that knows how. As Pandora's Actor points out in the end, her being out of sorts with her usual, confident self ends up working to her advantage, allowing her to bring out her best qualities without the blinders that she would otherwise have.

I will note, however, that some people say that My Shalltear Can't Possibly Be This Nice. Especially for an anime viewer, where her casual behaviour is not often showcased, she is perceived as this super evil (-450 karma!) monster that acts/reacts violently more often than not. But, well, what you see in Act 2 is how Shalltear Bloodfallen actually behaves when she's not agitated or excited in the LNs and canon bonus stories. Though loaded up by a long list of fetishes by Peroroncino, he also modeled her behaviour to be that of a courtesan of impossibly high calibre, with the refinement and mind for protocol that such an individual would have. She even goes out of her way to hassle Aura and Albedo on their conduct when she finds that they are not acting appropriately, or lack appreciation for high class luxuries. Her Vampire Brides also canonically act like their mistress in this regard, though they lack her accent. This means that, when put together with a noble like Ludmila, Shalltear is actually in her element when it comes to casual interactions. There is little to agitate or excite her here: only her new vassal, who conducts herself in a manner that Shalltear appreciates by design.

Since the NW's auto-translation function will not translate her Yoshiwara(arinsu) dialect to anyone who doesn't understand Japanese, or is aware of a similar sort of accent in their own language, many just mistake her for a high noble rather than a high-class prostitute. It also results in several misinterpretations of her behaviour, such as healing the girl in the alley or her diagnosis of Lluluvien. Those who observe her believe it to be an act of charity: a priest reaching out to heal someone regardless of their disreputable position. In reality, Shalltear thinks being involved in the sex industry is perfectly respectable work, and the NPCs are supposed to be taking care of their Master's property anyways.

She and Ludmila mesh well and reciprocate each other's behaviour due to a mix of polite conduct, overlapping duties/attitudes and a few misconceptions, but they are different enough that I think they play off one another well. Because of this, Shalltear's evil nature tends to leak out in a nice way, politely saying things that would give good characters pause. Ludmila, however, is not a good person...she is a 0 karma individual who repeatedly displays a stalwart personality. Ludmila unironically considers Shalltear as her liege, her mentor and her lifeline, so this in turn paints Shalltear in a more positive and productive light. As such, she tends to give Shalltear the benefit of the doubt when it comes to many things. Act 2 is mostly told from Ludmila's perspective, so this attitude is projected onto the reader.

This is, as many have noted, very different from the usual NWer perspective in the Overlord LNs that see Nazarick as an evil force and their behaviour is influenced accordingly. It is an underlying irony in Ludmila's story: she can always see what Shalltear is because of her Talent, yet she still considers her to be a trustworthy ally. Others, as demonstrated in canon, are blinded by Shalltear's cosmetic appearance and end up in unfortunate situations because they allow their preconceptions to colour their behaviour - before and after they realize the truth. Even the NPCs of Nazarick tend to recognize her mainly for her destructive tendencies, because the other aspects of her character do not produce quick and decisive results in their eyes. But, well, she's somehow in charge of a set of crucial duties in the Sorcerous Kingdom by Volume 14, and Valkyrie's Shadow is an attempt to plausibly tell a story of how that came to be, and where it goes. She certainly didn't come into her expanded responsibilities by destroying everything. Probably.

Ludmila Zahradnik:

I think I was a bit mean with her PoV from a writing perspective. I honestly expected more 'Mary Sue' callouts than there actually were(so far), but I will say now that this is a result of the point she is at in her personal development, as well as her being the PoV and the general situation she finds herself in. The way she reads right now is actually a due to several flaws and strengths mixed together. The flaws, I think everyone has had(or will have) at least once in their lives. There are a many hints of these flaws scattered throughout the act as she interacts with various people, which in turn hint at some of her greatest strengths. There is nothing out there that slaps her down with reality in an overtly bad way, however, so these traits can slip under the radar since there is nothing that forces them to pop out in the narrative.

As for her reactions, they are kept in check by several things so you don't see the usual freak-out that most NWers have when they encounter bits of Nazarick. Both her bloodline and her culture are known for their stoic nature, and riding around with Shalltear - who Ludmila constantly sees in both her True Vampire form and cosmetic appearance due to her Talent - sitting right beside her all day tends to make other stuff seem tame in comparison. As with everything, class mechanics also come into play here, and there are many subtle fantasy elements present in Overlord woven into the apparent grounding in realism portrayed thus far.

I think characters' reactions to her are, for the most part, also relatively realistic. They are either merchants who are polite because she's doing business with them, people in the service industry, or government workers who assist her in producing the results that they, too, desire. There is no automatic falling-in-line when it comes to her interactions, and people express their own opinions(or just outright ignore her like a certain Count, since she has nothing that he wants). Any sort of belligerent enemy that pops up on their little trip around the city will be unceremoniously exterminated, so that sort of person just wouldn't appear.

I guess, in short, if there is no direct conflict/opposition/antagonist and no negative consequence in a very large span of chapters, it's easy to perceive that everything is going Ludmila's way and her being read as a Mary Sue. This act covers a roughly 24 hour period, so there are no drastic changes as nothing is really changing around her. The status quo is maintained by Nazarick, and Albedo is very thorough about keeping things under control.

I won't go out and say that she doesn't have a relatively easy time starting out so far, though. Being a subject of the Sorcerous Kingdom where Nazarick has a vested interest in helping you to provide crucial data for their administrative processes basically ends up in something like easy-mode...as long as you're willing to cooperate, and you're not attempting something terminally idiotic. In essence, she's the PoV for a tutorial, complete with the explanatory walls of text that people impatiently click through.

Because she is a stalwart character, only adversity tends to make her grow. Ludmila, while remaining flat in figure, will figuratively flesh out as events help her to establish her adult self. Maybe she can borrow some pads from Shalltear to help with the former.

So yeah...deadly things to keep in mind as a writer when creating a 'middle'-type act: many slow, flat elements combining into something like 'passive action' that ended up reading more slowly than intended. While the Shalltear and Ludmila are both being proactive in their own ways, the events tend to focus on character establishment rather than character-driven action or development(Shalltear nudges Ludmila along, but Ludmila is mostly reacting to certain points in her proactivity). For those reading the act for the world/kingdom building aspects, I think it's sort of passable, but you're bound to fall asleep around 2/3rds of the way into the act if you're not. Especially if you're bingeing it.

Pandora's Actor:

I think most people forget by this point that he is actually the one that set all this up in the first place. Hopefully the Act 2 finale is a reminder that he is always lurking around the Sorcerous Kingdom figuring things out. Hopefully I have not disappointed anyone in my portrayal of everyone's favorite member of the Nazarick Treasury staff. He is very fun to write, and he will continue to make his appearances when he has reason to involve himself. I'll try to achieve at least the same energy I've imbued him with so far.

Other Things:

How did Shalltear open a Gate to send Ludmila's things through in Act 1 if teleportation is blocked in the central district?

It is a limitation in security measures. Dimension Lock has a limited radius, forming a sphere around a point in space. The spell does not extend infinitely into the sky or the ground. In the LN, the defensive measures around the mayor's house where Ainz is currently hiding out require many casters to maintain 24/7, so in this story it is limited to the surface level to protect the administrative district . People can teleport into the warehouse if they want, but some nastiness is waiting for them if they've come uninvited.

Where's the Arinsu?

As I noted above, and in the Act 1 Notes, NW's Auto-translate only works if the concept exists in your own understanding. There are also situations where dialogues can have double/triple/quadruple meanings or more, so while some characters can understand what is being said to certain degrees, others only hear the advanced MTL (eg. Satoru, who is an unlearned pleb vs Keeno, who is an educated crown princess, when they are listening to bards perform in the Evileye Sidestory). This is why Ludmila doesn't hear the 'arinsu', while Pandora's Actor does. Conversely, she will also hear accents for languages she does know while Nazarick characters that haven't learned them will not.

The words are too big!

I'm sorry! Act 2 won't happen again, though. Big words will have less of their bigness, as the various plots advance. Unless the plots involve big words.

PA messed up his Shakespeare Quote, the German is wrong.

He directly quotes things in period language, just like he used "Wenn es meines Gottes Wille!" in canon where he is quoting a cantata by Bach.

Not being able to post images sucks!

Character sheets and maps are notably absent on FFN...I drew a nice little map of Warden's Vale for the next act, too :|

Anyways, that's the end of my ramble. Onto Act 3!