"They should be down here by now," Ainz thought idly to himself, standing in the lobby of the inn. It was currently 9:15 AM, and there were some guests milling about enjoying the food and drinks set out on the tables. He (obviously) didn't partake in them, only enjoying the wafts of smells they emitted.
After another fifteen minutes of nothing he decided to cast [Message] on all three of them, [Hello? Is anyone awake?]
[What is this, Ainz-dono? Is this your Null magic?] came the question from Yae.
[I'll explain later, just meet me in the lobby of the inn. We're running behind on our quest,] Ainz reminded, finding it interesting that the spell seemed to be instinctual to people who've never used it.
[Me and my sis will be down soon, Ainz,] Linze told them through the spell.
After waiting five minutes the twins and Yae came walking down the stairs, the three of them looking well-rested and refreshed as they wore their signature outfits. "Ainz-dono," Kokonoe spoke up as she approached him, "What was that spell you used earlier? I've never seen, or rather, heard anything like it before," she admitted.
"It's called [Message], and it was a useful spell for any magic caster to learn where I come from," he answered through his mask.
"Um, Ainz?" Linze suddenly entered the conversation. "Would you, uh, mind showing us your face?" she asked demurely, looking shy while also trying to appear brave.
The disguised skeleton, while outwardly showing that he was unbothered, was internally freaking out over her request. "That certainly came out of nowhere."
"It's just…me and my sis have been adventuring with you for a while now and we've never seen you eat or drink and never seen you without your mask and gloves and we and by we I mean me I've been wondering what you looked like and…I'm rambling, aren't I?" she blushed, looking to the floor in slight shame.
"My little sis is right, I am also curious on what you look like, Ainz," Elze agreed. "We promise we'll treat you the same way, just like we've always had."
"Me too, Ainz-dono. While it's only been a day since I've met your party, I can tell you're not a belligerent group, and that you, Ainz-dono, are not evil. I too wish to see your face."
"Fuck," was what he thought in that moment. He was sweat dropping over their simple request, not really trusting them to not freak out over his appearance. But then a spark of genius washed over him as his emotion stabilizer kicked in. Now able to think more clearly he silently conjured a [Gate] and gestured to it, urging them inside. One by one they entered, with Ainz being the last one to go inside. On the other side of the portal they were at the isolated area behind the Silver Moon Inn, with Ainz silently casting [Mirror World] to once again make sure no one would intrude on them. "Are you truly sure you want to see my face? I will tell you now that it's not for the faint of heart," he warned, only for the ladies to nod resolutely in response. With the spells [Time Stop] and [Control Amnesia] on the tip of tongue, he let go of his Arcane Focus Staff (which proceeded to float next to him while slowly spinning) and then took off his gauntlets, casting them aside into his inventory, showcasing his bony hands. With his bony hands he brought a hand to his red mask and then took it off, revealing his skeletal face, his eyes bright red and his immaculate white bones prominent.
"Oh my god!" the twins shouted, hugging each other as they walked backwards a step in fear. Yae, meanwhile, put a hand on the hilt of her katana but did not pull it out…yet. One of her eyebrows were raised in alarm while her face remained surprisingly neutral.
"Ainz, is that truly you?!" Elze asked, scared of his appearance.
"Yes, this is what I truly am. Tell me: Are you afraid of me?" he asked bluntly.
"A little! Actually, make that a lot!" Elze honestly answered. "What are you? You're a skeleton, right?"
"Technically I'm an overlord, the highest rank of undead," he explained calmly.
"Were you human once? Or have you always been an 'overlord?'" Linze asked, getting out her sister's embrace. Seeing him for so long in his true form was having the horror aspect of the overlord go away, slowly but surely.
"I was a human, once upon a time. But it's been ages since I've had flesh," Ainz omitted some of the truth. "I imagine you don't want to travel with me anymore, is that correct?" he questioned with some melancholy, as his emotion-stabilizer wouldn't allow for greater emotions.
"I-I don't k-know," Linze managed to get out. "You're not gonna kill us since we've found out your secret, right?"
Ainz paused for a second before letting out some laughter, before it immediately got squashed by his emotion-stabilizer, the green glow enveloping him lightly. Now back to a neutral mood he replied, "Of course not. You are my friends, and even if you don't want to be anymore, I'll respect that and leave you alone," he promised, gripping his Arcane Staff ever more tightly at the fear of rejection.
"I've heard enough," came the sudden voice of Yae, who walked over to the undead overlord and stood by his side. She turned her head to the side to look at him as she said, "He's said enough. He's not a danger to us, only our enemies. His appearance may be frightening, but he is still the Ainz-dono I met the other day who helped saved me. I will stand by you," she vowed before looking to her new friends, raising an eyebrow at their indecisiveness.
Without a word one of the twin sisters, that being Elze, shook her head and slapped her cheeks before joining Ainz and Kokonoe. "I trust you, Ainz. You saved me and my sis that day with the horn, and even provided backup when we went hunting together. You've had plenty of chances to kill us, and yet you didn't. I trust you," she repeated with zeal.
Linze sighed as she approached the undead overlord, reaching up to touch his skull before stopping. Ainz gave her a nod of encouragement so she could continue. She grasped his skull, it feeling pristine and blemishless. She especially took note of his eye sockets, which had a red dot in each one that seemed to burn to life the more she stared at it. "It's immaculate," she noted before retracting her hands, having a smile on her face. "I trust you, Ainz, just make sure that trust isn't misplaced."
"I won't betray your trust, Linze. That goes for all of you," he declared, an imaginary smile on his face. "Now, I believe we have a carriage to ride, don't we?"
After the reveal and subsequent return to the town they left, the party departed the town that (most of them) slept in, venturing off to the Royal Capital. Yae offered to be the driver on the way there, so the party took her up on the offer as they waited in the back of the cart. Both sisters were sitting on the left side of the cart, with Ainz sitting by himself on the right. He was now without his Mask of Envy and his gauntlets, showcasing his skull and ribcage in the process (along with it the World Item that was cradled in his body).
"How long is this going to take?" Elze bemoaned, already bored not even an hour into the journey. "Why does everything have to be so far away?"
"Sis, be patient," Linze urged. "It's not like the horses can go faster or anything."
Her older twin sister suddenly got an idea as she tried to casually ask from her seat, "Ainz, do you know any magic to make this go by faster?"
"Yes, several in fact," Ainz answered, enjoying the greenery and nature itself. The sun was almost high overhead, the birds were chirping and tweeting, and the smell of mildew was fresh in the air as the scenery rushed by. There were thriving trees and grass off the path they were on. If he had to estimate the speed they were going at he'd have to say around 25-30 MPH, almost as if they were in a residential zone.
Elze put on her best pleading face (that of puppy-dog eyes) as she asked, "Ainz, can you please make this go faster? I'd be happier if you did," she added, her lower lip quivering.
The undead overlord sighed as he silently casted [Fly] on himself and flew in front of the horses pulling the cart before holding out a skeletal hand to them. "[Mass Haste], [Mass Lesser Strength]," he casted, the yellow and then red glows engulfing both animals for but a brief moment. "Miss Yae, tell the horses to go faster as they can now."
"Okay, Ainz-dono," responded Kokonoe as she whipped the reigns to urge them faster. They listened and they were off, going twice as fast than they were originally going.
"There, happy now?" Ainz asked as he got back into his seat, the ride much bumpier (or rather he perceived more bumps and skips because of their speed) and much less calming.
"Yes, thank you, Ainz," Elze thanked, loving how fast the scenery was now going by. The ride to the Royal Capital went by much faster than beforehand, until Yae suddenly urged the horses to stop, causing one of the silver-haired twins to question, "Yae, why are we stopping?"
"Danger," she simply replied as she pointed ahead of them. All of the party looked in-front of them, seeing that there was a stopped black and yellow carriage on the road. There were three guards wielding swords against four green humanoid monsters (perhaps a variation of lizardmen, if Ainz was correct), and they too wielded swords but also shields.
"Should we help them?" Ainz asked as he donned his mask and gauntlets while hiding his ribcage, just to make sure nobody accidentally saw his true form.
"Of course we should!" Elze shouted as she put on her blue and yellow punching gauntlets, jumping out of the cart and into the fray by uppercutting one of the baddies.
"I agree with Elze-dono!" Yae affirmed as she got out of the driver's seat and rapidly approached the lizardmen on foot, unsheathing her blade to deliver a diagonal cut along the torso of her adversary. Blood practically gushed out from where she struck and the lizardman fell, now dead.
Linze wordlessly got off the cart in a hurry as she joined the fight, casting a Fire-based magic spell at the monsters, who quickly screamed at the all-consuming pain of being charred alive. They tried to pat themselves off of the fire, some even rolled back and forth on the ground to no avail as they all died.
As Ainz mustered up the effort to join the battle (even though it was now over), he happened to notice that the ground was being covered in dark spouts of purplish-black mist before more lizardmen appeared from them. "So there's a summoner nearby?" Ainz thought as he watched his friends begin battling again, although he quickly scanned his surroundings, trying his best to find the summoner before giving up and casting silently [Sense Enemy]. Instantly knowing where every enemy was on the battlefield, he identified all the ones he could find in his vision before finally locating the one that was hidden. "Found you. [Teleportation]," he said as he then appeared magically behind the black-robed magic caster. He was of medium height for a human and his clothes helped hide his scrawny physique as Ainz approached him and laid a gauntlet-clad hand on his shoulder before saying, "[Energy Drain]." The man spasmed uncontrollably as he felt his life force leave him rapidly, before it was stopped and he was halfway dead on the ground. Not wanting to chance the magic summoner getting away Ainz also casted [Hold Person] on the man before picking him up and stowing him on his right shoulder.
As Ainz and the paralyzed assailant walked back to the clearing the skeleton noticed that the guards were conversing with his teammates, expressing gratitude for coming to their aid. With his superior hearing he managed to hear them far away, one of them saying, "Unfortunately we lost seven good men. I just wish we could bring them back to life, damnit!" the man laments, his eyes closing in frustration over his lack of control of the situation.
Before Ainz could even think about possibly helping, however, everyone heard a female voice shout from the black and yellow carriage, "Somebody, please help!"
Ainz dropped the summoner off on the ground as he, his party, and the remaining guards approached the carriage, seeing two individuals inside, one old man and a young teenager. The old man was wearing a stereotypical butler's outfit and had grey hair with an impressive bushy mustache to match. His face was contorted in pain while he profusely sweated, bleeding from his sternum area as he laid on his back on the seats, dirtying his uniform in the process with bright red blood.
The young woman was kneeling next to him on the floor while wearing a pink and red outfit with a hat, her green eyes tearing over the man. Her clothing was also adorned with various red ribbons, but none on her pink gloves which had a ball of yellow thread on the back of the palms.
"Leim is dying!" she tearfully shouted, squeezing the man's hand in desperation and, perhaps, comfort. "His chest, there's an arrow in his chest!" she informed them.
"Linze-dono, can't you heal him?" Yae asked, turning to her party companion in alarm.
The young woman in question approached the old man before shaking her head, "I can't. If I try to heal him now with the arrow in his chest, it'll be stuck in there…" she trailed off.
"Giving him an even slower death," the samurai finished forlornly.
"My lady…" the old man gasped out, opening his eyes a bit and turning his head to face his liege.
"Leim! Leim!" she greeted, holding onto his hand for dear life.
"It's time I said farewell," he weakly uttered. "The time I spent with you was…" he coughed suddenly, blood coming out.
"Leim! No, please don't leave me!" she begged.
"…it was unforgettable," Leim finally finished with a strained smile, as he closed his eyes for seemingly the last time.
The green-eyed girl covered her mouth in horror, unable to accept that the man was going to die. "Someone, anyone, please help him!" she begged.
All seemed lost, that was until a deep regal voice spoke up:
"I believe I can help," Ainz suddenly joined in the conversation, seeing as it was the perfect time to do so. All eyes locked onto him as he made his way into the carriage, ducking his skull from the roof. "You said there was an arrow lodged in his chest?" he asked before getting a confirming nod from the girl. With the information in mind he held out a gauntlet-clad hand to the old man's chest as he said, "[Lesser Break Item]." Everyone saw a sparkle of blue magic rise from Leim's chest before he pointed his Arcane Focus Staff at the old man and then casted, "{Reset}." The man's wound instantaneously closed to the point before he got shot, causing him to open his eyes in relief.
"The pain is…gone? Like it was never there?" Leim asked, seemingly to himself. He sat up suddenly before he got tackled into a hug by the green-eyed lady as she cried into his chest.
"Incredible work, Ainz!" Linze praised, while the others all nodded in confirmation.
"Thank you! Thank you so much for saving Leim!" the young girl thanked profusely as she hugged her butler tightly.
"It was no big deal, miss. I did what anyone would do," Ainz said, trying to downplay his success to seem better than he actually was.
"Sir, you are humble to a fault," the butler said when he got a breath of air. "You have saved us, I thank you," Leim said with a smile.
"Of course I saved you, for I am Ainz Ooal Gown, and I do not know defeat," he regally said.