CHAPTER 13: New Perspectives


Reuploaded on 05/08/2019

Hackslashbash: Heavy AU territory starts here. Also, we finally reached 100k+! Chapter 2 had also been reuploaded.


Mix.

Cook.

Repeat.

Mix.

Cook.

Repeat.

Throughout the week, Tiamat entertained herself through the wonders of baking.

Not just dessert. Everything from breakfast to dinner, was exclusively prepared by her for the denizens of Nazarick.

Funnily enough, the monsters here had roughly the same flavor as corresponding animals back on Earth did. Orcs and boars tasted similar to pigs. Rock birds or any bird in general tasted pretty much the same as chicken. Cows, well, they had cows here, so that didn't matter.

But the amount of cattle that people raised were limited since no one thought of farming cows for meat in this world. Instead, they used the cows for their milk.

On the first day, breakfast was omelet au fromage with a plate of toast and stir fried broccoli and carrots. Lunch was sausage soup with bread. For dinner, they had stir fried pork with ginger using one of the monstrous red boars she killed in the pandemonium with vanilla panna cotta as dessert.

On the second day, for breakfast she made a quick jam from the fruits she had received from the grateful citizens of E-Rantel, and prepared a large amount of croissants. Lunch was rock bird teriyaki with onion soup. Using the remaining boar, she cooked gyudon made three flavored mochi ice cream for dessert.

The third day was rather simple. Using the jam she made yesterday, she baked a variety of pastries for breakfast. Since the theme of the day was western food, she cooked spaghetti with minced orc and boar meat for lunch. For dinner, she made salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables, as well as cheesecake topped with lemon curd.

When she woke up, she knew exactly what to do. She had prepared all the ingredients she needed last night then soaked in her bath and fell asleep with a smile on her face.

Early that morning, as per instructed in『Message』last night, she found Aura and Mare already waiting in the kitchen.

"Ah, good morning My Lady!" Aura, the extroverted one out of the twin, greeted her first as always.

"G-good morning, My Lady!" Mare stuttered out.

She petted their soft blond tufts of hair.

Gentle touches, hugs, and kisses on the cheeks were staples for them now. Since Tiamat always lavished them with her affection when she came to visit, it would be weird if none of them had done their usual routine.

"Good morning!" she greeted the both of them with a wide smile on her face.

'Ohmygodtheyresocute!' She cooed inwardly, hugging them tightly against her.

"Hehe," Aura laughed, tickled, while Mare just smiled.

Out of the two, Aura was the most ticklish. That was why she usually wouldn't tickle Aura unless she was feeling particularly impish.

"By the way, what are we doing here, My Lady?" Aura asked once she was out of her grasp.

Tiamat remembered she wasn't there to coddle the twins. They had to finish breakfast on time so that the denizens of Nazarick could do their job properly.

Breakfast was the most important meal of the day afterall.

She cleared her throat, "That's right, I need your help to cook breakfast this morning, do you wanna help?"

Surprisingly, Mare was the first one to speak this time.

"W-will we get c-cookies too?"

Tiamat smiled at Mare knowingly. Ever since the first 'mock picnic' she had with Aura and Mare with the cheese cake, she brought different types of cake or cookies whenever she visited them.

Aura was fond of things that were savory.

Mare was fond of sweet things.

"Eh, cookies again? You had them yesterday didn't you Mare?" Aura put her hand on her hips, a childish scowl on her face.

He cradled his hands against his chest, "U-uhm, I-I can't?"

"Of course you can," she gently smiled at Mare, "In fact, should we make them after we make breakfast?"

Immediately, Mare brightened up, eyes twinkling and a small grin adorning his face.

She was actually thinking that if this went on, they would actually get spoiled. But that was fine, they deserved to be spoiled.

The breakfast for the day was Chicken and Waffles, and since she had prepared the batter needed for the waffles and had already marinated the chicken, all she needed to do was bread the chicken and cook the waffles using a waffle iron she created with 『Create Lesser Item』.

The way『Create Lesser Item』worked in the game compared to the New World was totally different. In YGGDRASIL, she was limited to things that were inside the game, which were mostly armor pieces or decorative items.

But in the New World, she could make any 'lower-ranked' item, as long as she could imagine the item itself.

'This is pretty nifty...' she thought to herself.

She assigned Aura to bread the chicken, and Mare to cook the waffles, instructing them carefully as they did so.

It was a fun activity for all three of them.

Laughter filled the kitchen as Aura and Mare splattered batter across the walls as they futilely attempted to control their strength while whisking.

While Tiamat was preparing the oil they needed to fry the chicken, someone cleared her throat by the kitchen door.

"Oya oya," Shalltear grinned while watching Aura and Mare cooking together with the Dragoness, "Chibi, you are cooking? How cute~"

"Morning, Shalltear," Tiamat responded with a dumb grin, batter splattered all over her face.

"My Lady! Ah~ to see your face so early in the morning brings joy to my heart! Moreover that apron you are wearing~," she gushed over the white frilly apron Tiamat usually cooked with.

Tiamat just laughed at Shalltear's antics, while Shalltear gushed on and on about the apron she was currently wearing and how much she wanted to sniff it. It honestly felt like Perorocino was still there with them.

"They are not mere maids, Shalltear, they are Nazarick's maids," Tiamat corrected the vampire in front of her, "They are the ones who take care of Nazarick, and if not for them, I couldn't even imagine what Nazarick would look like."

Yes, she could actually imagine it happening.

Cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, dimmed lights, dark corridors, the whole place would look like a scene straight out of a horror movie.

She inwardly shook her head at the thought.

"The effort you put to keep mere maids happy is simply sublime My Lady!"

"Go away shortstack," Aura shooed Shalltear away, "Can't you see we're busy here?"

"Piss off chibi, can't you see I'm having a nice conversation with my precious Goddess?"

Tiamat looked on fondly at the scene before her while Mare had an expression of confusion as to why his sister was fighting with another Floor Guardian. From what she remembered, Peroroncino coded Shalltear's lore so that she would continue feuding with Aura just like how Peroroncino and Bukubukuchagama had that sibling relationship in the guild.

"Hmph, Lady Tiamat asked us personally to join her in her usual activities," Aura bragged to Shalltear.

Almost immediately, a look of disbelief formed across Shalltear's features.

To have a Supreme Being including them in their activities was the highest honor possible. It meant they wanted you to be included in the things that they loved.

Aura stuck out her tongue out to the vampire in front of her.

Tiamat giggled at her childish pride.

Immediately Shalltear turned towards her and clutched her apron, "My Lady, I want to join too!"

Aura gasped in surprise, not expecting Shalltear to throw away her pride to beg the Supreme Being, knowing that the kind Lady Tiamat would probably accept, "No! That's cheating. This is our time together! Help me out Mare!"

"T-Th-That's right!"

"Now, now…" Tiamat finally decide to jump into the fray, "I think the twins are right, Shalltear. I did promise them that we will cook breakfast and cookies for today."

When the vampire heard what the Dragoness said, her excitement deflated and her eyes became sullen in a heartbeat.

As soon as Tiamat saw that, she immediately corrected herself.

"B-But, we could do other things together on another day! We can do things other than cooking, what would you like to do Shalltear?"

The liveliness returned to Shalltear's ruby eyes as she began panting, her breath becoming hard and rough. Tiamat almost thought she was ill.

"Uh, Shalltear?" she immediately put down the batter filled bowl on the counter, the situation reminded her of when one of the children at the orphanage had an asthma attack, "Shalltear, are you alright?"

"My Lady!" Shalltear grabbed both of her hands, "Do you mean it, do you really mean it?!"

"Of course," she said with a confused smile.

Her eyes twinkled like a sparkling gem, her cheeks rosy against her pale skin. Shalltear was an ethereal beauty, but her smile…

She smiled so widely that drool started to fall down to her chin, and then she said something Tiamat would never dream to come out from her pretty little mouth.

"Then please sleep with me!"

The distant sound of someone scratching a vinyl on a recorder was heard as everyone else went silent in shock.

Unaware of the response to her statement, Shalltear continued, "To have a Supreme Being sleep with me, ah~ just imagining it...I fear that my underwear has gone through a bit of a crisis."

Tiamat immediately realized, 'Ah, I said the wrong thing…'

She should have known that Peroroncino's child would be like this.

"M-Maybe other than that?" Tiamat said, her voice small against Shalltear's as the vampire sang about what would happen tonight.

"Oi, know some shame. Can't you see how burdensome your request is for Lady Tiamat?" Aura said to Shalltear as she pulled Tiamat's hand away from Shalltear.

Sadly, her warning fell on deaf ears, "To have your body pressed against mine in the heat of ecstasy! Ahn~"

"What if I bake you cookies instead?"

"Oya? But a cookie is just a cookie right? It holds no value at all."

Aura and Mare gasped.

"How could you say that Shalltear? Each and every baked sweet was made by Lady Tiamat's bare hands!"

"O-oh my, I didn't know that…"

"T-that's right! Lady Tiamat didn't use any skill or mana to cook anything, that's why it holds more value than any sweet baked in Nazarick," Mare frowned with his eyebrows furrowed.

Tiamat just gaped at Mare in disbelief, this was the first time she had actually heard him say something that long.

'I didn't know Mare was so passionate about sweets…' she thought to herself.

"I certainly didn't know that!" Shalltear immediately kneeled on the kitchen floor. "Forgive this Floor Guardian for not knowing! I deserve to be punished My Lady."

Tiamat waved at Shalltear, "Maa, it's fine Shalltear. You're right, the cookies are nothing special," at this statement Aura and Mare gasped again and were about to rebut her statement until Tiamat raised her hand to stop them. "However, I like making them, and if anyone would be happy eating them as much as I love making them, it would bring me so much joy."

Tiamat smiled at Shalltear.

The Floor Guardians who were present could only think of one thing.

'How generous is the Supreme Being…'

She took the time, her important time where she should have been resting, to personally make something for the denizens of Nazarick to eat. In fact, she shouldn't have to lift even a single finger. A Supreme Being such as her could just order them to make them, but she didn't do so.

If she was this kind right now, their minds already wondered at how they would be rewarded if they did a good job.

To be perfectly honest, it wasn't like they were expecting something out of their job. To them, serving the Supreme Being was its own reward. However, with the Dragoness lavishly spoiling them, was it wrong for them to want more?

"O-Of course, My Lady!" Mare started speaking, "Anyone would be happy to eat whatever you cooked."

"I agree! If it's you My Lady, I'm sure they'll finish everything, and if they don't, we'll finish them, isn't that right Mare?"

At his sister's statement, Mare nodded his head vigorously.

Tiamat looked at the twins fondly. It warmed her heart to see them reassuring her in their own way. She petted both of them at the same time, as her heart gushed with joy.

"Awh, I'm really happy you think that way."

"Then…" Shalltear said, "For you to bake cookies for me will be the highest honor My Lady."

Tiamat breathed a sigh of relief, at least that was better than sleeping together with Shalltear.

"Then what kind of cookies would you like Shalltear?"

"What about blood cookies?"

Tiamat's eye twitched.

'How the hell am I supposed to make that? I never made something as crazy as that back on Earth…'

She could imagine, as the blood contracted and became firm, the myoglobins expelled from the cookie, the flour left to dry, resulting in a metal coin with the stench of blood.

Perhaps for Shalltear, it would taste like an unimaginable, indescribable sweet-a heavenly piece of ambrosia. But there was no way Tiamat would procure human blood just to test that out.

"Err, I don't think that's possible Shalltear, it could probably ruin the oven…" Tiamat pondered as she continued dipping chicken to fry in oil. "What about red velvet cookies? At least they're maroon. That's close enough to blood, don't you think?"

"Then, I will eat whatever you prepare for me, My Lady!"

"Even better, you'll join the twins in making cookies this morning!"

That morning, after cooking and serving breakfast to the homunculi maids and the Pleiades, she asked Yuri to deliver one portion to each of the Floor Guardians, while Aura, Mare, and Shalltear ate breakfast together on the sixth floor.

Afterwards, they baked cookies together, and she believed it was safe to say that Shalltear wouldn't be joining her in the kitchen anymore after this because of the cookie dough that kept on getting into the crevices of her long nails.

But she still enjoyed that cookie.

To the disappointment of the twins, Tiamat didn't allow them to eat the cookies so early in the morning, but she promised them that they would get the cookies by dinner time.

Leaving the twins and Shalltear to their duties, Tiamat continued cooking lunch. She prepared some clam chowder with sourdough bread. For dinner she piled on layers and layers of lasagna.

For the fifth day, she parted the sea.

Nah, she chose the healthier option for the day. Avocado salad with eggs for breakfast, shrimp taco for lunch, and quiche for dinner, along with cinnamon rolls for dessert.

All in all, she cooked twenty meals for forty one homunculi maids, eight floor guardians. She made sure to make bite sized portions for Victim, the Seven Pleiades sisters including Aureole, Sebas, and herself.

That was sixteen-hundred meals in total.

Why did Tiamat make this calculation you ask?

Well, that was because on the sixth day while she was preparing breakfast, she heard a small ding!

She immediately spun around, and saw Yuri in the middle of helping her with cooking preparations.

"Yuri, did you hear that?"

"I didn't hear anything, My Lady," Yuri confusedly answered.

She stopped everything she was doing and immediately checked her messages.

『No messages』

'Just what is that sound?' she wondered. She checked the oven, but none of the ovens were even turned on. She checked the timer, and none of the timers were turned on as well.

Her stomach churned, and she whispered something into thin air. Something that she hadn't even opened once since they arrived in the New World.

"Status…"

『STATUS:

Tiamat, the Goddess of Dragons

Level: 101 (20/999999)

HP 『Exceeds Limits With God Beast 』

MP 90

PHY. ATK 35

PHY. DEF 『Exceeds Limits With World Guardian 』

Agility 45

MAG. ATK 55

MAG. DEF 『Exceeds Limits With World Guardian 』

Resistance 100

Special 100

Total 725+

You have acquired the『Cook』class.

Congratulations, you have acquired a new skill!

『Cooking』

You can cook and make something to eat. It may not be edible

Bonus 80% chance of success to all food items you make

Congratulations, you have created 60 new recipes! They will be recorded in your 『Cooking』skill!』

The sudden level up notification threw Tiamat off guard and she hurriedly put down her whisk and pancake batter filled bowl on the kitchen table.

"Yuri, I leave today's meal preparations to you. The pancake batter is ready; all you have to do is cook it and put some fruit on it. For lunch, please use the marinated meat from last night, and for dessert I have prepared Tiramisu for everyone to enjoy. I'll prepare for dinner later."

"As you wish My Lady," Yuri replied. "But if you would excuse my impertinence, is something wrong?"

Tiamat was just about to cross the kitchen door when she halted and turned back to look at Yuri. At her request, she had asked the kitchen staff to take a break, so it was just her and Yuri who occasionally helped her with cooking.

The kitchen felt a lot bigger with only her and Yuri in it.

"I need to talk to Ainz about something. Once again, I'm sorry Yuri. It's alright if breakfast gets delayed. Please ask Sous-Chef for help," with that, she left the kitchen and with the familiar tone of 『Message』, she quickly asked where her friend was.

(_ _|||)

Both the Overlord and the Goddess where in the Throne Room. The heavy atmosphere of the Throne Room fit their current mood as Tiamat told Ainz what had just happened.

"Are you saying you can't look at this?" Tiamat frustradely asked him.

She was pointing to the square in front of her, while moving it about with her index finger. She jabbed at the writing that was so clearly displayed by the square in question.

The Dragoness stood over to his left while he was sitting on the Throne itself.

Ainz just stared at her calmly and explained, "Yes. I'm aware that status screens still exist, but you do know you couldn't share status screens even in YGGDRASIL right?."

"Okay, then can't you check? Since you're the Guild Leader, you could check the status of every player in your guild right?"

Ainz shook his head. "No. Ever since we have arrived here, the only thing I could check was my own 『Status』. I couldn't even see whether you're with me or not or where you are."

"What?" she replied, clearly confused. "That's not possible...we're players from YGGDRASIL. Shouldn't the features the shitty devs added transfer over? Everything else has so far..."

Ainz remained silent as he put his skeletal fingers on his chin, thinking. After a long pause, he replied. "I have a theory from earlier, and if what you said is true, this means that my theory is correct."

Tiamat just waited in anticipation as she listened intently to her friend.

"To be honest, when we first arrived in this New World, there were some things that were not in line with YGGDRASIL rules. Such as your Dragons."

"My dragons…?"

"Yes, since your dragons are summons, their summoning time should have expired. However all of your dragons are still here, including the 『Seraphim Empyrean』 you summoned when you defended Carne Village. Just like my『Death Knight』, once summoned, they can exist indefinitely in this reality. However, I also have the power to dismiss them whenever I want."

At the slight implication, Tiamat immediately responded, "No!"

"Hm?"

"If you're saying that I have to dismiss my Dragons to test a mere theory, then no," she firmly replied. In a fit of rage, she unconsciously activated『Phobos Ambience』.

A cosmetic effect of her passive aura was golden eyes, a feature that Ainz didn't really pay attention to back in YGGDRASIL, but one that he couldn't take his eyes off now. Her eyes turned gold were one of the most gorgeous things he had ever seen. Back when they were still playing in YGGDRASIL, even though the setting of her character was one of the most generic he had ever seen in the game, he couldn't deny that it worked well with her.

Her ever shifting golden eyes refracted light like a kaleidoscope.

"They're just summons. You can always summon them again afterwards," he couldn't understand why she was acting this way.

Tiamat scowled at Ainz and something bubbled inside her. Just the thought of having them disappear made her feel a surge of protectiveness, her body shook with unusual rage that kept building and building, threatening to spill out of her.

She had never felt this angry before.

She quashed down her anger before it could blow up. There was no use in getting angry; she knew what Ainz said was just a theory and it wasn't like he was asking her to kill her dragons in front of her.

"No means no. I wouldn't trade them for anything."

Ainz sighed. "Very well. It doesn't matter anyways. Your summons and mine would probably work the same way," he said, trying his best to diffuse the situation.

As soon as he said that, her eyes lost their golden color and returned back to their usual peaceful amethyst.

"Then, that's settled. Unless they die, which I'll make sure myself they're not, I'm not going to dismiss them at all."

"That is fine," Ainz relented. Too bad her friend was much more emotional than he was. "Unless your summons die, or are dismissed, they will still be in the same reality as ours."

"Alright, that makes sense. But what about the level?"

"Since I couldn't see it, I will use『Appraisal』to check your『Status』. Try not to resist it." Tiamat nodded and as soon as she did, he raised his right palm at her and said, "『Appraisal』."

The reason Ainz had told her not to resist was because Tiamat had the highest Resist stat in Ainz Ooal Gown. As a result, she automatically disabled most debuffs or even certain types of divination spells such as『Higher True Appraisal』.

As soon as Ainz raised his hand to use the spell on her, he could feel her slightly resisting the spell. It felt like scooping water with his hands, only for the water to slowly seep through the gaps.

Tiamat felt a shiver of discomfort. For her, it felt like someone was trying to find something, as if rummaging through her innermost secrets. Reflexively, she resisted the spell and the magic circle that Ainz casted shattered into glass like pieces and faded into thin air.

Ainz's hand hovered above her head for a while, but suddenly a 'crack' was heard.

"Oi oi, I told you not to resist didn't I? This spell is hard enough to cast with your high resist you know..."

She just gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, it just feels so... uncomfortable," she shook her body as if to express the discomfort she experienced. "It felt like a bunch of worms were crawling through my body, urgh…"

Once again he casted the spell only for it to break again.

Ainz could only sigh.

"Sorry…" Tiamat sheepishly apologized.

"Have you disabled your passive Resist skills?"

"Yes, 『Scale of Virtue』is off and I didn't resist your 『Appraisal』either."

"Umu, that means there's no way my 『Appraisal』 would ever work. Let me call Albedo. Since she's the administrator for Nazarick, she might have a way to view your Status."

The soft ding of 『Message』echoed through the Throne Room as Ainz called Albedo to the room. A few seconds later, a 『Gate』opened before Tiamat and Ainz and the winged overseer stepped out.

Immediately after the『Gate』closed, Albedo lowered herself in a bow and asked, "What may this lowly one do for you, Supreme Ones?"

The only thing Tiamat think was, 'Holy shit that was quick.'

Literally, it only took Albedo a few seconds of her time to immediately teleport to the Throne Room.

Albedo looked up to see the Dragoness that stood by the obsidian throne, while the Overlord was sitting upon the throne, while giving them a smile befitting of the Overseer of Nazarick.

Ainz nodded at Albedo. "I hope I did not disturb your work Albedo, but there is something that I wish to check."

"Not at all, My Lord. I will do anything you ask of me," was her sincere reply.

"Then, please open Nazarick's status page,specifically Tiamat's."

"Certainly."

She walked up to his right, her designated place as the Overseer of Nazarick and immediately did what Ainz asked of her.

Thankfully, through Albedo, Ainz could see the status of the players currently in Nazarick, which only included Ainz and Tiamat at the moment, as well as the Floor Guardians. Albedo then opened her screen and clicked on Tiamat's Status.

Ainz looked over the text box before him and compared it to his own.

He saw clearly with his undead eyes, written next to her name:『Level 101』

As soon as Albedo saw this, her yellow eyes widened and she immediately applauded. "Congratulations My Lady, we must celebrate!"

"T-Thank you Albedo…" Tiamat awkwardly replied, stealing a glance at Ainz who wasn't listening to Albedo.

"How...just... how?" Ainz stared at the screen in wonder.

"How am I supposed to know…" she lamely replied.

He sank further down into the throne.

"So," he sighed. "You were cooking."

"Yes."

"For the homunculi maids."

"Yes, and for the Floor Guardians and the Pleiades Sisters as well."

"And somehow you gained a new job class by cooking."

"...yes."

He sighed even harder into his skeletal palms.

"You're at max level, right?"

"Yes. Well, my excess experience pool was just about full anyways until this happened."

"How is that possib—you know what, never mind. We have more to do now that we know about this."

He straightened his back, his red orbs unfocused as he stared up at the ceiling.

"To think that you'd get to level 101 before me…"

At his statement, Tiamat tried to console her friend, "It's not like I wanted this to happe-" before she was suddenly cut off by Ainz's uproarious laughter.

He laughed and laughed until a green aura shone around him.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not upset at all. On the contrary I am excited," Ainz chuckled. "To think that we still have not hit our limits… just how much more can we level up?"

Tiamat stared at her friend as he laughed for the first time since they came to the New World.

"Anyways," Ainz continued, "With your racial class maxed out, there is no way you can increase your racial skills."

"True. Dragons for the win, I guess."

Ainz carried on, "Then that means we can gain levels through new job classes. In other words, through grinding...huh. Fairly simple."

"Momo-chan, it's not like I deliberately did it, you know…"

"Find other skills that you don't have and try to repeat related activities until you get more job classes."

She stared at him with such disdain that he flinched a bit.

"What? Did I do something?"

"Are you suggesting that I...grind?" she asked him in disbelief.

"Yes, what else could it possibly be?" he replied, confused.

"B-but, it's my week off Momo-chan, and I really don't want to spend it grinding…"

"Umu, understandable. But you still have to do it because I can't. I tolerate your summons so you have to do your fair share."

"Nuuuu," she groaned, "Are you insane?! I cooked four meals a day for five consecutive days for most of Nazarick! If I have to grind manually…" she felt queasy just at the thought of it. "Ah, is this my punishment for never working in the first place?" she asked no one in particular.

"Perhaps." Ainz replied flatly.

"Killjoy Ainz. Even after you changed your name, you're still a killjoy…" but she relented, like she always did. "Fine, then I'll try wielding a weapon. What do you want me to do? Pierce a straw doll with a sword a thousand times?"

Ainz was ignored her sarcasme as he replied, "Go to Ashurbanipal and try to read more about spells. Then try one specific spell to see if you can gain a new job class."

"You...you are unbelievable."

"Then please go ahead. I still have to go to E-Rantel to instill my reputation."

"Huh? But aren't you Mythril?"

"Yes," Ainz sighed, "But you are currently the talk of the town, so it's harder for me to build anything with my reputation…"

"Pfft," A small giggle escaped her, "Sorry about that."

"At this point, it might be even better to put you in E-Rantel instead of me. I was actually thinking of going to the Kingdom."

"The Kingdom…? Why?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"I have decided that ever since I changed my name to look for our guild mates. They are probably somewhere in this world. The more reputation I have, the easier it will be for them to find me. To find Ainz Ooal Gown."

Tiamat just stood there, silent.

"I have to go. I look forward to your results."

She waved him goodbye, and Ainz teleported to his room.

Now it was just her and Albedo.

"Albedo, you heard that, right?"

"Yes."

"Then please answer my question honestly."

Albedo who was situated at the right side of the throne immediately kneeled. The pressure that the Dragoness exerted was maginifect in magnitude. Someone as lowly as her couldn't possibly tell what was on the mind of a Supreme Being, or even to presume her current emotion.

"Yes, My Lady. As the Overseer of Nazarick I will answer any of your questions honestly."

"What do you think about Ainz's plan?"

Tiamat just looked at the empty throne, her eyes devoid of emotion. When Albedo looks up to meet her gaze, she saw a never ending wave of coldness.

"I-I think that Lord Ainz's plan is perfect, My Lady. If Lord Ainz's goal is to look for the other members of Ainz Ooal Gown then we will do anything to make it happen."

Tiamat shifted her gaze towards the kneeling Albedo. "Then… another question."

"Of course My Lady."

"Who is more important? Me or Ainz?"

(_ _|||)

Yuri walked towards the 10th Floor, specifically to Ashurbanipal, the great library of Nazarick.

As soon as she opened the heavy double doors, she could immediately see the Dragoness of Nazarick sitting on the floor with mountains of books stacked up on the floor around her. She was currently reading one related to divine magic, and Yuri saw that she was on the last few pages of the book.

Yuri bowed to greet Tiamat but she was far too engrossed in the book she was currently reading.

"Good afternoon My Lady. I came to inform you that it is lunch time. Are you perhaps planning to join the homunculi maids again?" she asked.

Tiamat hm-ed in reply. Ever since she ate with Albedo she made it a habit for her to eat at the cafeteria instead of eating in her own room to form close relationships with the homunculi maids. Following her example, the Pleiades started to eat in the cafeteria as well.

She managed to bond with some of the homunculi maids who ate at the same table as her, asking them what they liked or disliked about Nazarick. The replies Tiamat had been getting had been overwhelmingly positive. The maids claimed that there was nothing they hate about Nazarick, a fact that made her feel fuzzy inside.

However, she felt like the maids were employees just trying to please her, their manager.

But apparently that wasn't the case.

The maids did take great pleasure in working for the well being of Nazarick. They considered it the highest honor, the reason for their existence.

She had asked one maid to teach her how to sew, and one maid was about to teach her today during lunch.

"No Yuri. I won't eat lunch for today, please apologize to the homunculi maid in my stead."

"If you don't mind me asking My Lady, how long have you been in Ashurbanipal?"

Tiamat finally looked up and moved her gaze from the pages of the book to sheepishly look Yuri in the eye, "Uh, since this morning."

"Please take a break My Lady." Yuri immediately chastised her.

Such incidences happened all the time. Once the Dragoness was invested in something, she focused on it until she finished. Yuri feared that this would be detrimental to the Supreme Being's mental health.

One time she cooked cheese cake from night till dawn.

Yuri knew that it was rude for her to give a Supreme Being advice. But to Tiamat, this meant that Yuri was comfortable enough in her presence that she would tell her what was wrong and steer her back to the right path.

That was why when Yuri had chastised Tiamat out of frustration for the very first time, Tiamat's eyes jerked open and she leapt up to hug Yuri.

Usually at the prospect of food, she would stop everything she was doing. But this time, Tiamat was undeterred.

"Later," she simply replied and closed her book to take another one from her pile.

As the hours passed by, the sound of turning pages would occasionally break the silence of the corner she was occupying. Tiamat bore a serious expression, all traces of playfulness gone from her amethyst eyes as she poured over the pages of the books related to magical skills.

She had read through countless books that she thought could have been related to magic, from fantasy novels, to skill books, to even magic-type mercenary summon books, she had almost read them all.

All the while, Yuri patiently stood behind her, unmoving like a statue, as she waited until the Dragoness finished.

'I wonder what could have distressed the Supreme Being so,' Yuri worried to herself. During the morning everything had been fine, but the Dragoness had suddenly claimed that she had heard something and immediately ran out of the kitchen.

She wondered what could cause such a reaction.

Tiamat let out a small sigh behind her book as she felt Yuri's heavy stare watching her slightest movements.

"I'll eat later Yuri. I promise I will be back by dinner," Tiamat smiled at Yuri. She knew that Yuri was assigned to accompany her, but it didn't make her feel any less uncomfortable to make her wait with her. Driven by guilt, she tried to reassure Yuri.

Yuri responded with a skeptical gaze before letting out a deep breath and then bowing.

"As you wish My Lady," she didn't want to leave the Supreme Being, but she still had to prepare for dinner.

With that in mind, Yuri bowed again and left the library. Tiamat let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in as soon as Yuri was out the door.

There were several different types of books in Ashurbanipal ranging from monster data, magic items, event items, cosmetic skins, novels like fanfiction about the world of YGGDRASIL, game guides, or even public domain books from earth.

Tiamat was currently looking through the latter.

With the wide array of game guides duplicated into in-game books, it was very difficult to find specific works from Earth that she wanted to read.

She hadn't paid too much attention to it since they arrived in the New World, but her memories and cognitive abilities as Tiamat were so much better than back on Earth. As long as she focused hard enough, she could easily understand the contents of the book in no time.

In a few hours, she had effortlessly sped through half of the books.

As soon as she finished reading, she was going to decide what to grind in particular.

Time passed by and Titus, the Chief Librarian of Ashurbanipal, could only stare at the Last Supreme Being who was currently sprawled out on the floor, reading.

Even though Titus knew about the Last Supreme Beings, this was actually his very first time to have laid his eyes upon the Dragoness's form, since the Supreme Being herself had never made her way to the tenth floor before.

He had read about her lore. Tiamat, the Goddess of Dragons.

The legendary records from the books of Ashurbanipal mentioned the Dragoness when she was first born into the world. At first, she was just a fragile youngling, but as she grew and grew, more and more people were threatened by her.

Together, the despicable humans and elves conspired against her until her soul was scattered across the nine realms, making it impossible for the young Dragoness to be resurrected..

However, Lord Touch-Me somehow managed to do the impossible.

He travelled far and wide through freezing plains and scorching oceans of magma, looking for her soul that was spread across all nine realms. After months of hard work, Lord Touch Me had finally managed to summon the Dragoness to Nazarick.

Shortly afterwards, she was invited to join Ainz Ooal Gown as a Supreme Being.

That was the beginning of the story of how Ainz Ooal Gown helped her to wreak vengeance on her persecutors and how she ascended to become a Divine Being, the Goddess amongst all Dragons.

He could still remember two particular lines in the book called "Forum".

One was, "Bruh, that chinese knock-off bitch ass dragon was so fucking hard to kill man."

And the other, "She tanked like 7 reality slashes wtf. How tf is that fair shitty ass devs?"

Even Titus, with his vast knowledge and abilities as the Chief Librarian of Ashurbanipal, had no idea what he was reading. The profanities written about her made his blood boil in anger. He could not understand why the Supreme Being was treated this way. Moreover, he had no clue what the abbreviations in the books meant.

He knew so little about the Goddess even though he spent countless hours combing the Grand Library for information. He wanted to know more about the Supreme Being, but there was so little lore surrounding her and the most information that he could obtain at best was public knowledge in Nazarick.

Because of that, he immediately asked the Dragoness if there was anything he could help with when he noticed that she had come to visit the Grand Library. After all, that was his duty as Chief Librarian.

But not once had she even called on him.

Afraid of disturbing the Supreme Being, he stood far away, observing her.

Hoping that he that the Supreme Being would eventually call on him, he thought of the questions he desired to ask her.

A few more hours passed before Tiamat suddenly stood up from where she was lying down and began to return the books one by one to their designated places.

Grateful for a chance to help, Titus immediately approached her.

"My Lady, please do not troubleth thy holy being with such a plebeian task."

"No, it's alright Titus," she gave him a warm smile. "I'm the one taking them out, so I should be responsible and return them to where they originally belonged."

"O I beareth no intention to contradict thy divine will, nevertheless, please allow thy humble servant to aid thee in thy task."

Tiamat stared at him for a few seconds before nodding."Very well," she pointed to her right at a pile that was untouched. "Please don't move those books. I will return later tonight after dinner to continue reading them."

"Thy word is mine will, My Lady."

Titus nodded and with that they moved the books she had read back to the shelves before she teleported to the kitchen.

'Oh, how foolish I must be to hath forsaken the blessing of conversing with a Supreme One,'Titus forlornly thought to himself as he stared at the spot where Tiamat once stood.

(_ _|||)

Upon arriving, she baked a rather messy-looking pizza for dinner, Each pizza has a different topping so that those who ate them can choose whatever they liked. Even though the shape of the pizza was mangled, it still tasted delicious.

As usual, Yuri was helping her around the kitchen, the atmosphere more somber than usual. Usually she hummed as she cooked, but at the moment, the air was suffocated with a long silence.

Later on after dinner, Yuri had heard that Albedo-sama was also spacing out during work which wasn't like her at all.

She wondered what happened between those two.

After her last conversation with Albedo, Tiamat stayed quiet for two whole days. She even stopped cooking entirely after that day.

Her actions, or rather lack of action, raised a lot of concerns from the Floor Guardians and Yuri as well.

Even when Sebas left for his mission with Solution in the Kingdom, she just smiled at them and nodded, but didn't say anything.

Aura and Mare even came down to her room to visit her, but she couldn't bring herself to smile.

Tiamat spend the rest of her vacation by reading almost half the books in Ashurbanipal, she still hadn't decided on what she wanted to grind. Since job classes could only be raised or obtained through leveling up, she had to grind a ridiculous amount of EXP to generate a new skill.

This caused her a lot of headaches.

As she flipped to the word printed on the books, her memory keeps playing back to what happened two days ago at the Throne Room with Albedo and the ringing in her head grew sharper and sharper, and she tried to dismiss them. The ringing sounds were making it hard for her to focus.

She sighed. Her head was spinning and she felt something in the pit of her stomach, as if she had eaten something distasteful. Her stomach churned with anxiety, but she didn't know from what. All she felt was a strong but vague sense that something wasn't right.

The familiar feeling of her body shutting down flooded her being. She stopped whatever she was doing and her brain froze. It felt like an invisible wall suddenly descended around her and started to close in. Her breathing became ragged, and she felt helpless.

Trapped.

It was a strange feeling of wanting to break out and being unable to move.

Yuri heard the Goddess's irregular breathing and immediately ran towards her. "Lady Tiamat?!"

Titus also came to approach the Dragoness, "What ails you My Lady?"

But it was of no use; despite having a keen hearing, Tiamat couldn't hear anything. All she could hear was the deafening sound of her heart slamming against her chest and how cold the room was.

The biting cold against her skin.

The absence of sunlight.

It was so coldcoldcold.

Just like her room back on Earth.

Without any warning, she pushed Yuri away and teleported to her room in Nazarick, making sure the place was locked before she cried herself to sleep despite having a『Ring of Sustenance』.

(_ _|||)

Sebas walked through the red carpeted hallway. He walked past countless doors before he stopped and knocked on one of them.

"Mistress, it is me, Sebas," he announced to the person on the other side of the door before opening it.

He was greeted with the sight of Solution dressed in a yellow dress fit for nobility, and as soon as he laid his eyes on her, she immediately bowed.

"Forgive my unsightly conduct from earlier, Sebas-sama."

"There is no need to apologize. You were simply doing your job," Sebas kindly explained to Solution.

Currently Sebas and Solution are staying at the『Shining Golden Pavilion』because they were on a mission given to them by Lord Ainz to travel to the Re-Estrize Kingdom. He assumed that Solution felt guilty because of the scene in the dining room from earlier.

If anyone from the dining room had compared her then and now, they would probably be stunned. But of course, it was impossible for the loyal servant of Nazarick to make that kind of blunder.

After a brief silence between the two of them, Solution raised her head to ask Sebas, "Sebas-sama, How is Lady Tiamat?"

Sebas shook his head. "I have no idea what happened to Lady Tiamat. I could only guess that something truly disastrous happened if it was enough to cause such distress in a Supreme Being."

"Actually I heard from Yuri that Lady Tiamat had been locking herself in her room every night. Yuri tried knocking, but she hasn't received any reply as of yet."

"It is not like her to act in such a way, did anything else happened?"

"I have asked, but Yuri is as lost as we are Sebas-sama…"

That night, most of the denizens of Nazarick were awash with worrying thoughts regarding their Last Supreme Being. But despite all their concern and good will, they could only wait.

(_ _|||)

Tiamat slowly opened her eyes to a familiar ceiling.

Her bleary eyes lethargically focused on the white washed curtains that hung atop her bed, and she curled herself even further into a ball.

She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

'How childish…' was the thought that had been shamefully running through her head all the time.

She had a panic attack in front of Yuri.

She buried her head in her pillows. The soft pillows bounced against the frame of her face as she buried herself deep inside the softness and the fluffiness of it.

"Nuu…" her voice was muffled by the softness of her pillows.

She didn't know how to face Yuri anymore. She was supposed to act composed and wise beyond her years, but apparently Hannah was interfering with her mental state.

She finally sat on the bed.

'You know, let's just forget this ever happened. Yup!' But everytime she tried to brush it off, the memory stuck to her like a leech and her face burned scalding hot from the shame.

Finally, she decided to escape to E-Rantel for a few days and return to Nazarick once she got a hold of herself. Immediately she activated the『Scale of Ragnarok』and teleported to the Sixth Floor.

When she landed, as usual, she was swarmed by her baby dragons. After giving them many hugs and kisses, she reluctantly jumped on Pentakrisis, opened『Gate』on top of the Colosseum and flew through the portal to E-Rantel after waving a brief goodbye to Aura and Mare.

When she finally arrived, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was like putting on a mask, so that no one knew who she was. A mask that let her escape all the expectations of the Guardians.

Her heart filled with ease as she landed before the Gates of E-Rantel, surprising a few merchants who were trying to get into the city, while the guards who were already used to it merely flinched.

"Good morning," she greeted the guards as Pentakrisis assisted her in getting down from his back by lowering his head. As a gesture of thanks, she rubbed the scales on his cheek, which he happily received as his tail thumped against the ground.

"Hannah-sama!" the guards excitedly greeted her.

It had been exactly a week after the Pandemonium and the last time they saw the Silver Priestess was when she was at death's door. Even after being nearly killed from such an incident, her skin bore no sign of conflict and they could only gape at her in awe.

They were elated that the Priestess was recovering well.

"How are your injuries, Hannah-sama?" one guard asked her, wanting to make sure that she is indeed healthy.

Tiamat looked at the guard and covered up her worries with a smile, "Yes, as you can see…" she twirled for them. "I am perfectly fine. Thank you for worrying."

"By the way, have you heard Hannah-sama?" one guard said, excited to get a chance to talk with the Savior of E-Rantel.

"Heard of what?" she asked, as she dismissed Pentakrisis with a nod of her head. An immense gust of wind interrupted the staggered guard.

"Right after you left, a new team popped up and got promoted to Mythril in one day, just like you!"

She chuckled at his excitement. "Is that so?"

Seeing the pretty lady humor their idle chat they immediately began to swarm Tiamat, but she hastily escaped from the front gate and into the city.

She waved them goodbye and went on her way to the Adventurers' Guild.

There was only person who could've jumped all the way to Mythril and one day: Ainz. He promised her that he would rise to Adamantine faster than her anyways.

She wondered what kind of disguise he was using.

She assumed that it was most probably his『Perfect Warrior』seeing that he left with a suit of armor on, while Nabe was going to back him up using her magic.

Compared to the other armors they had in the guild, Ainz's armor was, sorry to say, not up to par. But if he brought some other flashy armor that belongs to their guildmates, they ran the risk of drawing unwelcome attention.

'Wait, didn't I already do that with Pentakrisis…?' she shrugged and shook the thought out of her head.

The metals used to create Legendary Items were apparently unknown in their current location. Instead the greatest, strongest metal they had seen so far was Adamantite, whose grade was obviously lower than the Prismatic Ores.

If someone was to use『Higher True Appraisal』on Ainz and found out that the armor he had was not made from native materials, it would definitely become a troublesome matter.

As she walked through the streets of E-Rantel towards the Adventurers' Guild, she was greeted by countless citizens to whom she nodded her head and smiled in acknowledgement.

Since it was late morning, the city was lively and filled with the shouts of merchants promoting their goods.

There were also children running around her playing hide and seek, to which she chuckled warm heartedly.

Funnily enough, just outside the Adventurers' Guild, a bunch of children were playing with one another and it seemed that one of them was casting imaginary spells. As soon as he spotted Tiamat, he pointed the spell towards her.

In response, she dramatically pretended that the spell hit her in the stomach. The kid was shocked, he didn't expect the Silver Priestess to react to his joke, but soon the shock was replaced with joyous laughter.

The scene warms the hearts of the people who saw it.

She laughs and waved the children goodbye, to which they responded with vigor, and went into the Adventurers' Guild.

As soon as she entered, guild hall erupted into a flurry of activity. Met with the familiar sound of boisterous adventurers, Tiamat let out a small exhale of happiness.

Stories and tales of what happened during the Pandemonium had reached each and every adventurer's ears.

There was not a single soul in E-Rantel who didn't know about the Silver Priestess.

But after the incident she mysteriously disappeared for an entire week. They thought that her wound was so great that she either died or was in critical condition. However, they never expected that the Silver Priestess would return after just one week.

"Morning everyone," she beamed, and walked straight to the receptionist's table.

"Hannah-sama!" She greeted her with such enthusiasm, that Tiamat was shocked at the shrillness of her voice.

"Yes, good morning to you too." Tiamat smiled at her.

"Did you come here to take the letter?"

"No, I only came to take quests. Why? Is there a letter for me?" she asked the receptionist with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, Hannah-sama." She rummaged through her desk and found a silver key to her drawer. Once she opened the dark wooden drawer a single letter with the wax insignia of a blue rose stamped on top of it.

"This letter is from the Adamantine Team in the Kingdom under the name Blue Rose," the receptionist explained.

"Blue Rose?" She muttered unconsciously.

"Oh my," the receptionist gasped in shock. "You haven't heard of them? They're an all female Adamantine Ranked Adventurer Group in the Re-Estize Kingdom, Hannah-sama."

"Is that so?" Tiamat replied as she looked at the letter. The blue insignia was a stark contrast against the fading yellow brown of the parchment.

Assuming that it had something to do with the guild, she thought it would be better for her to read the letter right away. But when she looked behind her, she was met with a horde of curious eyes.

Afterall, Blue Rose was a famous Adamantine Ranked Group. For them to be sending a letter to the Silver Priestess would pique the interest of anyone who heard.

"Can I borrow one of the guild's private rooms? I want to read this letter as soon as possible," she asked wrly, as she looked at the adventurers crowding around her.

"Of course, Hannah-sama! Right this way."

The receptionist immediately led her towards one of the empty rooms, elated to be in the Silver Priestess's good graces. Especially since a rumor was being spread around that the Priestess wouldn't be staying in E-Rantel anymore because of the Guild Master's blunder. Though she had no idea of what Pluton-san did.

She brought her to a simple room with a wide window, where two sofas sat adjacent of each other and a simple wooden coffee table.

She opened the door so that Tiamat could enter the room. "You can use this room for as long as you wish, Hannah-sama."

Tiamat walked inside the room and turned back to look at the receptionist. "Thank you."

She sighed in relief as she closed the door and sat on the sofa. No matter how many times it happened, she still couldn't get used to the awed gazes of the people around her. Now that she was all alone, she had never felt more comfortable.

Tiamat looked at the letter in her right hand, flipping over the parchment and breaking the seal wax. She opened the letter to see that inside it was another piece of parchment.

The size of the smaller parchment was identical to the size of event invitation pamphlets back on Earth. The aroma of ink struck her nose as she flipped through it. The invitation was written using the language of the New World. Thankfully, she was much more educated regarding the language of the New World compared to when she had arrived. At least she could read most children's books, but it was still fairly difficult to write in the language of the New World as she didn't get much practice.

The style of writing on the parchment was extremely neat and elegant, adorned with cursive and decorative lines, indicating that the person who wrote it was likely of a high status.

"THE Company of Hannah Annafelowz, the Silver Priestess, is requested at the Rose Garden. Please visit when you are able. -Blue Rose." below it was another insignia of the Adamantine team stamped on the lower right corner.

'The hell…' Tiamat initially thought that Blue Rose had found out that the Pandemonium was staged by her so that she can rise to Adamantine, but apparently it was just a mere summon.

She thought long and hard before finally coming to the decision that she could just ignore the letter. It wasn't something that she really wanted to do. She had her reputation in E-Rantel afterall, but the smallest part of her mind screamed out that perhaps it was alright to look into it for a little bit.

Judging by the reaction of the other Adventurers who eavesdropped on Tiamat's and the receptionist's conversation, they seemed to be a famous Adamantine team.

However, there was no set time or date for the summon, so yup. She was just going to ignore this invitation.

She stood up and left the room, closing the door behind her and went out to thank the receptionist who suddenly appeared from around the corner.

"Oh," the receptionist was surprised to see her leave the room so early. She glanced at the clock, it hadn't even been ten minutes. "Was the room not to your liking?"

"No," Tiamat smiled and the receptionist breathed a sigh of relief. "I finished reading the letter. But it wasn't anything important…"

At this, the receptionist balked. Were her ears fooling her? Did the Priestess really just say that the greatest adventurer team in the Kingdom weren't important?

"By the way, I also wanted to ask, where's the Rose Garden?" she ignored all the excited chattering behind her. "Is it somewhere near E-Rantel?"

The receptionist couldn't believe what she was hearing. For a moment, the receptionist didn't even realize her jaw was open before hurriedly closing it. "H-Hannah-sama, you really don't know?" she nervously laughed it off. "You must be joking...right?"

"Nope." she smiled at the receptionist sweetly while having a slight panic attack. She smiled brightly, hoping that most people in the room would think that she was most definitely joking. But to the adventurers, it looked like she really didn't know as they watched her wait for the receptionist to answer her question.

The adventurers thought she was most probably lived under a rock before coming to E-Rantel.

"T-The Rose Garden, is the Golden Princess's personal garden, Hannah-sama, located inside the castle."

"Is it a popular tourist spot?"

'No! Definitely no! It's where Blue Rose and the Princess meet to address the problems of the Kingdom!"

"I see!" Tiamat said excitedly. "Well I definitely won't go, so it's alright. By the way does the guild have any Adamantine level requests?"

The Priestess changed the topic as easily as if she was breathing, while the adventurers curiously listened with bated breath. Truly she existed on a different scale.

The receptionist took a moment to compose herself. "Yes, w-we have two different Adamantine requests for today. Which one would you want?"

"Perfect! I'll take both of them." Adamantine quests are so much harder than her previous quests that could take days at best. She wanted to get away from Nazarick for a few days anyways.

"EH?!"

"Are you sure Hannah-sama? Adamantine quests are so much different from the quest you have taken before. I'm afraid it could take you weeks, or even months depending on the difficulty of the quest itself."

"That's fine," she firmly replied.

It was practically unheard of to have a solo Adamantine adventurer take two adamantine quests at the same time. Such quests were so difficult that the adamantine ranked team sometimes had to recruit teams from the Mythril or Platinum rank to work together to finish the quest.

As soon as the receptionist heard those words, she scrambled to grab two adamantine quests from the board and gave both of them to Tiamat.

"Here you go, I wish you the best of luck, Hannah-sama."

Tiamat smiled warmly at the receptionist, beaming while looking at the two pieces of parchment in her hands.

One was a quest to relocate or to completely subjugate the small remainder of the monsters from the Pandemonium. She grew increasingly confused as she read the quest's details. If she wasn't mistaken, the remaining monsters shouldn't even add up to one hundred. Even so, the quest was classified as adamantine ranked?

Well, it wasn't like she was going to complain. All she had to do was recall all of them with 『Åsgårdsreien』.

She put the first parchment behind the second one and began reading the second quest.

The second quest requested someone to move the remaining Quagoas back to the Azerlizia Mountains.

'Am I reading this wrong?' she wondered to herself.

Both of the quests sounded easy. She didn't understand why they were classified as adamantine ranked.

She shrugged. It wasn't her job to tell the receptionist that she did her job wrong.

Contrary to her belief, the receptionist actually did her job correctly. Both of the quests were indeed classified as Adamantine ranked.

Regarding the first quest, the monsters were much more feral than regular monsters which caused a lot of difficulty in subjugating them. Moreover, with them spread out around the entire forest, the Adventurers were having a hard time locating all of them. Plus, the fact that the monsters from the Pandemonium all had golden eyes caused the Guild to believe that the monsters were buffed with some sort of spell to make them stronger.

Most importantly, they feared that the unknown Red Demon was still lurking around protecting the monsters. That was why the quest went to the Adamantine ranked adventurers instead.

The second quest was actually submitted by the great unifier of the Quagoa race, Pe Riyuro, through a third person out of concern. He was aware that hundreds of Quagoas had suddenly disappeared from the Mountain and went down to the Forest, in broad daylight no less. Such behavior was completely out of the norm since the Quagoas lived deep inside the mountain.

In the end, Riyuro just wanted those from his clan to be returned safely and was willing to pay any price for it.

Tiamat left the guildhall and travelled to the Forest of Tob by foot. Thankfully, she still remembered the path from where she and Hissing Vipers first went to the Forest, so once she was certain that no one was around, she immediately unfurled her wings and flew towards her destination.

Tiamat landed at the same clearing and reached out through the mental link of 『Åsgårdsreien』to all the controlled monsters spread out across the forest. Instead of going to each and every one of them one by one, she called all of them to the place she was right now and waited.

After a few minutes, a small batch of monsters appeared out of the bushes towards her as if hypnotized. Their eyes were gold from her skill, and even though some of them were injured, they dragged themselves towards where she was.

When she was sure that all of them were there, she opened a『Gate』to the Sixth Floor and directed the monsters through. As the monsters passed through the rift, she『Messaged』Aura.

[Hey Aura, I'm really sorry to be bothering you, but I just sent a bunch of monsters to your floor. You can do whatever you want with them.]

[My Lady! Finally! We've been trying to contact you!]

[Oh...yeah, sorry about tha-] she was cut off by Aura.

[Please return to Nazarick soon. Ainz-sama's been looking for you. I'll take care of the monsters you sent to me in the meanwhile.]

And then Aura cut off the message.

'Fuck, I think I caused some trouble this time…'

Turning her attention back to the task at hand, she looked at the Quagoas that she had not sent through the rift. She quickly ordered them to return to their homes, and monitored them from above while using an『Higher Invisibility』scroll. Once they disappeared into the depths of the mountains, she dismissed her mental domination completely.

Well, she couldn't do anything for the corpses of the Quagoas that had already been killed in battle, so she ordered the Quagoas to drag the rotting and burnt corpses of Quagoas back home.

The only thing time consuming about the whole affair was the wait. She had to wait until the monsters arrived to where she was and she has to wait for the Quagoas to return to the Frost Dragons' palace.

She had no idea how to explain to the guild about the sudden departure of the Quagoas, so she was just going to say that the Quagoas had all disappeared. She didn't really need the payment either, since the reward for the return of the Quagoas were only an eighth of the amount of money she currently had on her.

Yes, she was filthy rich by the New World's standard. Currently money was not an issue for her, thanks to the ridiculous number of quests she had completed. On the other hand, she donated most of her hard earned money for the required day to day activities of Nazarick. At this point, with her current reputation, it was okay to not finish one quest.

Not finishing one quest and failing one was different of course. That was how she convinced herself that it was alright.

In the end, it only took her a few hours and before she knew it, it was only a few hours before noon.

After deciding that she had avoided Nazarick more than enough, she decided to return. She had worried everyone for long enough.

She returned to the adventurer guild, telling the receptionist that there were some problems with the second quest, and flew with Pentakrisis away from E-Rantel before finding a secluded clearing to activate a『Gate』back to the Sixth Floor.

And as usual, her baby dragons swarmed her. A lot more gently this time.

She stroked one of them lovingly, as she thought to herself, 'They've matured.`

But her musing was disturbed when Aura shouted out to her in a distressed voice. "LADY TIAMAT!" Aura screamed out, running towards her and dove right into the Dragoness.

Even without Aura telling him, Mare jumped down from the VIP box and ran towards his sister to hug the Supreme Being as well.

At their sudden action, Tiamat opened her eyes wide in surprise. It was not like the twins to suddenly hug her like this, and from the sound of Aura's voice, something was definitely off.

Tiamat opened her mouth, about to say sorry to the twins for making them worry about her.

However, Aura beat her to it.

"We were looking for you everywhere My Lady!" Aura cried into her stomach, clenching her dress tightly with her fists, and when her brother heard his sister crying, he also began crying.

Both twins hugged her tightly.

She furrowed her eyebrows, disappointed in herself that she had caused them to shed tears when they were supposed to be happy. She didn't deserve to explain herself.

"I'm sorry, I was wrong. I won't do that again…" she assured them as she hugged the twins back, tighter than ever before.

Aura was the one who released the hug first before dragging Tiamat away from the Arena. "That's not important right now, My Lady," quickly wiping away her tears with her sleeves. "Ainz-sama had been looking for you since last night!"

Mare also wiped his tears and nodded. "T-that's right My Lady...something bad happened."

She thought to the events of last night. The ringing in her head, was that...was that『Message』?

"Why? What happened?" she asked the twins, dreading the answer.

A wave of realization slammed into her. What Aura was talking about in 『Message』 was not about her running away from Nazarick. There was no way it was about her; she had been given the freedom to go wherever she pleased, as long as it did not threaten Nazarick.

"It's about Shalltear, s-she…she..." Aura whimpered, her ears lowered as another stream of tears cascaded down her face.

Nothing had prepared her for what Mare said to her, continuing his sister's sentence. When she listened to what Mare had said, she unconsciously cut off her mental link with her Dragonlings. They hissed in disappointment, feeling the loss of the connection.

"Shalltear betrayed Nazarick last n-night, My Lady."

(_ _|||)

A/N: We have finally reached this point in the story, FINALLY! What did Albedo say? How did she answer Tia's question, and why did Tia react that way? Anticipate for what's about to happen in the next episode.