Chapter 5

The second part is here

January 16th ,Heberts house

A cracking noise brought the conversation to an end, in the stairs they found Taylor slowly making her way down. She looked to have resolved herself, not that she had fully conquered the fear and doubt, but was determined to make her way forward. At least she seemed ready to deal with her situation without the need for magic.

"Tay" putting as much strength as he could "your power, I mean Ainz told me about what's going on… I". He paused at how uncertain she became, pushing forward ." I know I haven't been here for you and I'm sorry".

"I haven't been well since Annette died". Once more he had to take a breather, it hurt to just say her name out loud. "But I do care, I want you to be safe and happy"

A bit of a smile appeared on her face, which gave him some relief. "Dad, I'm glad. You're taking this better than I had thought". He winced, thankful she hadn't been downstairs with his earlier outburst.

"No problem honey, so I was thinking did you really want to be a hero".

Making her way to join them, she responded "yea, I got powers now and Ainz said he would help me. I Can help".

" Ok, We can go down to the protectorate and have you join the wards" To this, her mood took a negative turn, obvious to both others. "Tay, is something wrong? I just thought it would be safer there."

"I don't want to join the wards" there had she said it.

"Taylor, you need to join. There aren't any other options. Wait, don't tell me you were thinking of going alone" he seemed upset, "Taylor, it's too dangerous, you have to join them if you want to be a hero"

Her dad seemed to have decided joining the wards was the best option. This is what she had feared, the wards were branches of the protectorate composed purely of underage capes. She knew it wasn't likely, but after a year of suffering from her own peers, she could only imagine that this wouldn't be any different. He didn't know that and she couldn't trust him to listen.

Her only hope was in Ainz, looking over at the undead who she had just recently met, she wondered what he was thinking. He hadn't said a word, since she came down, maybe he wanted to give them space. But what if he agreed, what if he didn't care about her thoughts, why would he care?

Without thinking about it, she began to close herself off, just nodding to her dad's words.

"Taylor won't be joining the wards", her dad was shocked by how final Ainz's words were. She wasn't any different, she hadn't suspected he would agree. Sticking out a hand to hold back Danny's anger, "The wards will only place her in needless danger, Honestly, she is in higher risk there than you think".

Those words held back Danny's frustration, he just wanted to keep Taylor safe, why couldn't they understand? Slowly, he said this trying to avoid agitating his daughter " you, whatever you are admitted to only existing thanks to my daughter, so you may not understand but this city is dangerous. I've lived here long enough to know capes will be endangered, the wards are made to keep children like her safe"

"I can't" hearing his daughter's small voice he looked at her. It hurt to watch her real back by his attention. Pushing forward she explained, " the wards, they are just more kids, it would be like Winslow all over again, I don't think I can handle dealing with both".

Ainz continued when she finished. " Taylor is correct, let's just say I've confirmed the wards program isn't all it's cracked up to be" looking into Danny's eyes, his voice deepened." You are right about me being new to your world, which is why I will assume you already know what I've seen in just a day, you are either denying it or an idiot. Which is it, Danny"

"These wards you think are kept safe from danger, are actually placed in a dangerous situation as common as protectorate heroes, I'm unsure if it's just Brockton, to be honest, but it doesn't matter. It's simply that the wards will throw your daughter into more many dangerous situations than she would with me".

His words were true, Danny knew it, but had wanted something to reassure himself with. Giving up hope, he looked at ainz "so what, I can't help her at all, she is stuck risking her life, while I'm stuck worrying about it".

Ainz just placed his hand on Danny's shoulder reassuringly. "Danny, my life is connected to your daughter, so you can rest assured no one is more willing to keep her safe than me" standing back up, Danny could feel the conviction of each word. " I'll keep your daughter safe, this I swear In the name of Ainz Ooal Gown" with that proclamation, the Heberts were silent.

After a while Taylor finally got the nerve to talk, "so when do we start".

Ainz seemed to deflate to these words, something she must have imagined. " Well first, you will need to study everything you can of the local capes, in the meantime, I'll figure out how to help you fight. This isn't a game" He felt himself wince 'coughing', "yes this is real life, running in is what idiots would do. When we go out, I promise Danny, your daughter's safety will be guaranteed. Not what she wanted to hear, but she couldn't disagree with him now. Danny was just glad they weren't planning to start immediately, he needed the time to process this.

"But, what about the school, I'm glad we figure this all out even if I'm not happy about it, but how will we deal with them." Ainz just nodded to this, but Taylor shot up from her seat

"For the first time in the day, Taylor expressed anger "what about them" In that, Danny told her about the earlier call and how they blamed her for a locker.

"they have been allowing everything to happen to me, they can go to hell for all I care", she didn't want to go back.

"Taylor, you can't stop going, I'm sure we can figure it out. Give me a moment, I'll call Alan, I'm sure he will know what to do."

"Hahaha, dad. Alan" she spat his name "won't be helping you, why would he when my bully is his daughter" With that, she ranted over who had been bullying her this whole time, how Emma had gotten more people involved, and liked to use her secrets to make her suffer. Once more Danny had been shaken, all this was going on and he was blind. 'I didn't even notice Emma stopped coming over'.

"Don't worry Taylor I'm sure we can try something". He didn't sound convinced himself

"No we can't" "they can win, they always do, Emma's dad's a lawyer and the school will just take their side".

Interrupting their discussion, Ainz spoke up "Killing them would solve the issue" both stared at how casually Ainz said it, "of course, we can't do that". ahh so he had just been kidding, good. Taylor got scared he really would think murdering regular people was right. "It would have the protectorate investigating, It's not worth the risk, for now." Ahh, she wasn't sure what to think. Sure he wasn't human but he seemed on board with being a hero, surely he saw the wrongness in it.

While thinking that and knowing she was right. A part of her agreed, but that definitely small and nonexistent part did savor the thought of it. That thought of Ainz entering her school, the horror they would show at being hunted down one by one, relishing at their pitiful pleading for her to stop ainz from ending them. It would be beautiful, they would surely deserve it.

"No, we ain't doing that" her dad spoke up quickly, ending her mind from going to a dark happy place" we can talk to Blackwell, we can explain. She is the principal and I'm sure she would listen to me".

"That won't work, Blackwell won't do anything without proof. She will just trust the words of Emma, Sophia, and Madison over me" she yelled, this is why she hadn't said anything, her dad didn't get it. Yeah maybe it was because she hadn't told him before, but he wouldn't have understood. "I've gone to her hundreds of times, she never once did anything".

"Can I just, stop going to school" she could focus on her training and leave her horrible life behind.

Danny turned to Ainz for help, hopefully, Ainz could convince his daughter, he was ashamed to say, but he couldn't bring himself to argue anymore. Everything so far had exhausted him. Seeing this, Ainz just sighs internally.

"No" it hurt her how disappointed he sounded at her.

"Taylor, don't you want to be a hero? If so, you can't draw attention outside of cape life, by skipping school". In truth he wanted her to go to school, he knew from experience learning helped one on the corporate ladder and had wished to have a higher education himself. 'Maybe I'm unfair, but I feel its a waste to just give up that education'

"As for your meeting tomorrow, don't accept anything. Your daughter is the clear victim and you need to fight for her". It was clear from Sophia's memories that the school and directly the principal were covering up Taylor's issues from the protectorate. As any manager in that position, she would do anything to keep the problem from escalating to the point the higher-ups had to get involved. " Danny, the school is clearly not doing anything legal. When you go, you need to ignore any threats."

" Don't worry, they won't follow up with any of it. Lawsuits or jail, nothing they say will go anywhere " Ainz was confident of this, Sophia had already realized this fact, so now he knew it. It's why she focused on the easiest one to threaten, the one not able to get help or be noticed. "Just trust me, the school and your bullies have something to hide and can't afford to do anything more than give you detention, if they push for anything more, just say you will fight it in court. They will back down, the school doesn't want your situation public". Halfway through his statement, he wondered if he messed up, he could be wrong .'well I can probably resolve it with magic in the worst case'. It likely wasn't needed, he knew it was being public the school feared but anything that would make the Protectorate take notice

His confidence must have shocked them, "hahaha, don't worry Taylor. Just trust me and I'll insure it all works " with force if need be

"You can't just say something like that and then walk away, what is the school hiding? I thought they didn't care, but this. This is why nothing was done to help me isn't it, you have to tell me"!

Ainz just shook his head, " Go to the school and meet that principle. For now, take the day off, both of you. Just get coffee, see a movie, anything cause you guys need to destress and talk these things out more. You both seemed to need it. Now, for the reasons, well it is best if I don't tell you, can't have you show any reactions in the meeting, I'll tell you later. As I said,for now, trust me". With that said, Ainz vanished. He wouldn't actually run off on them, he planned to be around for the meeting. He just wanted to avoid answering more questions or coming up with a better reason.

January 17th. Winslow

They sat there facing Blackwell, knowing this was a waste of time, didn't stop her from feeling irritated. She had sat here multiple times, sometimes for issues, she didn't commit and others to report actions against her. Each time it was like speaking to a wall, no that wasn't right. A wall would at least be unbiased, unlike Mrs. Blackwell, who sided with the trio each time. She had assumed it had to do with Emma's dad being a lawyer or Sophia being a star in track and field, not a great accomplishment but maybe Blackwell felt any recognition was worth it. It had even been possible both reasons played a part in her actions. Now though, it seemed something else was in play. Annoyingly Ainz wouldn't go deeper than saying it was big enough that Blackwell preferred her situation stay quiet.

Worse off, she couldn't do anything with this new information. Ainz pointed out that if she wanted to keep her two lives separate she should be avoiding, gaining any attention.

For now, all she could manage was to show her dislike, by staring hatefully at the one in front of her. It had been a few minutes since they sat and Blackwell had been going over her " obviously self-attempts for attention". The anger she felt at each word, she knew came from her Hebert genes, but she stayed calm. It hadn't been easy, not by how equally smug and uncaring the principal looked.

"I don't want to take legal action, but as you can see we can't allow these types of childish behaviors to go on. We will need to be compensated for the damages, and with that, we can put this behind us". She smiled as if, knowingly forcing them to pay for something they hadn't done, was reasonable.

Had they not talked it over, she felt her dad would have rolled over to the principal's request. But after going over everything the trio had done, he was fuming. It had been Ainz's words to calm him down, saying they had to be in control or Blackwell would use it against them.

"Fine, take legal action. I won't back down when I trust my daughter"

"What"?

For the first time in the conversation, Blackwell lost her confident attitude, Ainz had been correct. Seems her dad saw it too, as he sat up a bit more confident, She could rember Ainz saying to trust him but hadn't been sure then. She wasn't sure how he figured this, he hadn't been here for more than 24 hours, yet he could anticipate Blackwell better than her, someone who constantly dealt with the bitch for over a year. It made her feel like a naive child, not that her dad was better, Unlike them, Ainz felt in control even when finding himself in a new world. The words "trust me" ran through her mind.

"As I said, I won't be paying for damages which Taylor didn't do, you should be finding those responsible instead of calling us here."

Losing her bravado, she tried "As I said. We know what happened, your Daughter."

"Bullshit" both her dad and Blackwell stared in shock, while Blackwell was pissed to be interrupted again. She didn't care, she just couldn't keep listening to all the bullshit. " What, do you really believe I did that to my own locker for fun? I know it was Emma, Sophia, and Madison. I've told you over and over yet you won't listen

"Enough!" She now looked pissed. "This is the type of behavior I'm talking about"

"Is it true" This time, his voice had become emotionless,

"Is what true"

"Has. my. daughter. come in multiple times about her getting bullied"

"Well yes, but she had no proof only her own statement. And that is a separate issue to this"

"Then where is your proof"

"I have multiple testimonies …

"Ah ah ah, yes. But do you have any real proof" Stretching the word proof, to emphasize it " I need solid proof, maybe a video recording, not the word of children or I won't believe you" To this, they got to see Blackwell try her best to burn them with her hateful eyes, she wasn't sure, but a sound like grinding teeth was emanating from her?

"I don't have any". She finally said, sounding defeated.

"Then that settles it. Unless you plan to call the cops and have them investigate what is clearly abusive behavior towards my daughter in this school". He paused to see if she would, when she showed no signs to want to " No, then we have nothing else to talk about."

They both smiled leaving the office, one since he felt like a real father once more, the other for seeing Blackwell's face. They didn't win anything and in truth only prevented getting screwed over more. Yet after a year and a half, Taylor Hebert had successfully gotten one over Winslow. Now if only she could do the same to the trio.

So one more chapter before I have a time skip/ training chapter. I Was stuck figuring out how to not just have multiple chapters with ainz training, till canon events decided to have a chapter to time skip/training montage forward to a closer to canon events. Don't worry, I won't skip straight to the lung fight, just closer to it.

At first, I was thinking of some great ainz spell or action to fix her school problems, but unless Taylor lets ainz get revenge, there isn't anything he can help therewith. I could have a Hanzo sneak in somehow to get proof, but once more it would just get the prt/protectorate to investigate Taylor.

Right now I want to give Taylor a staff with a few spells included. Negative touch and low-tier summon. Feel negative touch be cool to heal summons and can be used to weaken those she fights. Now recommend others spells for her to use and what powers her equipment will have. For example, her necromancer robe will buff undead and make her stronger (low-level brute).

Reviews

Draco0905- I was worried about having too much talk, without progressing the story. But my apology is just that I felt bad splitting the chapter as the conversations were all one big part.

RavenousKing- Thanks. Yeah, I am worried about not finishing the story as well. I won't just disappear though, worst case ill write a notice, best case ill write a skimmed story and include the parts of the final battle I have been writing.