PSA: Sorry it's been a while, I've been busy with uni.

-I've edited chapter 1 a bit. It's still a shitpost, but should be a bit more enjoyable to read now.

-I also added some breaks in the previous chapter to better signify perspective/setting shifts.

Steel and Sorcerers – Chapter 18

Ainz opened a pack of bacon and began frying it, the fat sizzling away in the saucepan. The first customers for the day had arrived, and he had begun cooking their orders. Grenouille was working alongside him in the kitchen, scrutinising every move he made while making demeaning facial expressions. Just before they started work, Grenouille had found a couple of uniforms for Narberal and himself. Although they were spares, they fit alright. Although, there were some suspicious stains on his one. From the kitchen there was a small window and countertop where they would place dishes to be delivered to the tables. Through this, Ainz had a view of the dining area and could keep an eye on Narberal.

"Wow, are you the new waitress? You're so beautiful!"

A small group was converging around Narberal since they weren't very busy at the moment.

"Yes."

"What do you use for your skin? Tell me your secrets!"

"Um…"

'Narberal seems to be getting along well with the others so far, that's a relief' thought Ainz. 'Although aren't her responses a little short?'

The voice of Grenouille came from behind him. "Ah, that reminds me Satoru-san. You should introduce yourself to the others as well. Go do that now before it gets busier."

Ainz looked out over at the group huddled around and fixated on Narberal. How could he just walk over there all of a sudden and introduce himself?

Ainz hesitated for a few moments before making his move. He walked over to the crowd before addressing them in a loud and clear voice.

"Hello everyone, my name is Satoru. I'm also starting work here today, so I will be in your care." He then took a short bow.

There was a brief silence. "Oh, ok" said one of the waitresses. They then all went back to fixating on Narberal.

'Ha… That could've gone a lot worse' thought Ainz, before making his way back into the kitchen.

It was now about an hour into the day, and it looked like Narberal was about to serve her first customer.

"Nabe-chan, look. Go serve that guy over there" said one of the waitresses.

"What? Absolutely not. And stop addressing me in that way."

"Come-on Nabe-chan, I know you've got what it takes!" they said, pushing her forwards.

A middle-aged man was seated at the table, reading the newspaper.

"What do you want?" asked Narberal.

The man looked up, and jumped a little in his seat upon seeing the expression of utter revulsion on her face.

"Erm, could I get some scrambled eggs on toast please?"

"Yes" replied Narberal, before walking over to where Ainz was working.

"Ain- Satoru-san, do I really have to serve these lower life-forms?"

"Yes, you must for the sake of the mission. I understand it may be hard, but we need to maintain our cover and build relations if we are to survive here."

"…understood."

"Now, what was it that he ordered?"

"I don't remember."

Ainz sighed. "Go and check, then come back and tell me."

"It will be done." Narberal then walked back over to where the man was sitting.

"You there."

The man looked up. "Yes, what is it?"

"What did you want?" asked Narberal with a strained expression on her face.

"Ah, it was two scrambled eggs on toast."

Narberal then abruptly left and came back to Ainz.

"He wants eggs on toast."

"Did he say what kind?"

"Scrambled… I think."

"Well, that should be close enough" sighed Ainz.

It was now getting further into the evening, and the relatively simple breakfast dishes were being replaced by more and more complicated ones. Ainz had only had time to practice making the more basic dishes before coming here, so he had no clue about how to make the most recent one that had just come in.

Looking around to check that Narberal wasn't looking or nearby, Ainz walked over to the manager, Grenouille.

"Excuse me, but do you have a moment to help me make the Salmon Meuniere?"

Grenouille looked down on him with a derisive grin. "Hon-hon. So you have failed at even such a simple task? Very well then, allow me to impart my wisdom upon you."

He then began running through the steps on how to prepare the dish, making sure to be as obnoxious as possible while doing so. Still, he didn't seem annoyed at Ainz. Rather, he seemed to be enjoying it. This was one of the reasons why Ainz had selected this café. Even though Demiurge and Albedo insisted that it wouldn't happen, Ainz knew that due to the limited time he had to prepare he would inevitably make mistakes. Grenouille's personality meant that these mistakes would be more beneficial than costly.

Throughout the day, the waitresses would come to the counter to collect the orders he prepared. However, just like in his past life they paid little attention to him, only having as much interaction with him as what was necessary. Although this hurt a little, it at least meant it would be easier for him to maintain his cover.

A few hours later and it was finally time to close up for the day. Ainz and Narberal had gathered their things and were about to leave, when they heard a voice from behind them.

"Hey guys, do you have any plans after this?"

Ainz turned around to see a familiar face with sharp eyes, framed by long light-brown dyed hair.

"Ah… Yotiaru, was it? Well, actually-"

Before Ainz could say anything else, she continued "Let's all go to karaoke together!"

Narberal stared at her in confusion.

Ainz replied "Sorry, but we have other things we need to do. You could go with some of the other girls instead maybe."

Yotiaru looked down and began fidgeting. "Well, I could easily go with them instead if I wanted to… But, since we're all new here we should go together!"

'It didn't seem like you were new to me' thought Ainz. He was about to decline once again, but he suddenly had an idea.

This could be an opportunity to better acclimatise Narberal to human society. In addition, Ainz knew the value of networking. If they could gain the trust of this individual, she may be able to help them in the future.

"Well, it's fine. Let's go then" announced Ainz.

As the trio walked along the evening streets, Yotiaru couldn't help but get a little excited.

Nabe and this Satoru guy made for an odd duo despite claiming to be relatives. While Nabe was extremely pretty, she had a fairly bad, albeit cute attitude, as well as a strange name. Although, Yotiaru admitted she had a pretty weird name herself. Satoru on the other hand was fairly average in terms of looks, had a fairly amicable attitude, although he did speak like an older guy at times, and had a very common name. Satoru seemed to be the one who made decisions for the two, as Nabe didn't have any input in their conversation from earlier. Another weird thing about Satoru was that he was wearing long baggy clothes even though it was summer, and fairly warm even this evening.

Basically, they seemed very mysterious, and Yotiaru wanted to learn their secrets. Thus, while at karaoke she would hopefully get them drunk, and in the lively party atmosphere they would surely let slip a thing or two. 'Heheheh, sometimes my genius is… it's almost frightening.'

"Have you guys been to karaoke before?" asked Yotiaru.

"No" replied Nabe.

"Yes, I have in the past" said Ainz.

'The past?' thought Yotiaru. 'You're only in your twenties now aren't you? Hmm, so Satoru definitely seems to have more life experience than Nabe. Maybe Nabe's secretly the daughter of a rich and influential family, and Satoru was hired as her bodyguard.'

Although, looking at him Yotiaru couldn't help but think a bodyguard would have a bit more muscle. It looked like he might be all bones under those baggy clothes, so maybe her current theory needed more work.

Another theory was that they were government agents sent to hunt her down after her spying incident, where she released that video of the troll attack. The two of them seemed like an odd choice to send after her though, so maybe she was safe.

After a few minutes further, they arrived at the karaoke place. As they walked inside and selected a booth, Ainz noted how similar it was to the ones back in his old world. It seemed that some things didn't change much. In the past, Ainz had come to places like this with the company he worked for. These events were meant to promote relations between employees, but usually ended up being fairly stiff and awkward.

As they got themselves accustomed to the small room, Yotiaru announced "Shall I order some drinks then?"

"No thank you, that won't be necessary" replied Ainz, but Yotiaru didn't seem to hear him.

"I'll get three Myth & Roids then" she said, entering the order into an electronic menu.

"Now, if it's alright with you guys, do you mind if I go first?" She was already cycling through the various menus on the TV.

"Umu, that's fine with me" said Ainz.

Yotiaru then started up the song. By its opening tones and visuals, Ainz recognised it as an anime opening theme. A bit of an unconventional choice in the company of people you had only just met. When the part with the vocals kicked in though, Ainz had to admit that she was pretty good, for an amateur at least. Bukubukuchagama would definitely give her a run for her money. Ainz glanced over at Narberal to see what her reaction was, but she seemed to be staring off into space, somewhat disinterested.

After a few minutes the song was over.

"Whew, I feel a lot better now. Do one of you guys want to have a go now?" Yotiaru asked.

"Umu, no, I'm fine. Perhaps Nabe would like to have a go?" suggested Ainz.

"I have no interest in performing such an activity" replied Narberal flatly.

"Come on Nabe-chan, I really want to hear you sing!" pleaded Yotiaru.

Narberal looked over at Ainz as if searching for an answer.

"This would be a good experience for you Nabe, you should give it a go at least once" Ainz recommended.

"Urgh… fine."

"Yay!" Yotiaru rejoiced. "Let's sing one together since it's your first time. Do you have any song preference?"

"Anything is fine…"

Yotiaru then selected one and hit play, handing a microphone to Narberal who looked down at the object as if wondering how to use it.

"Just follow along with me Nabe-chan!"

"Stop addressing me that way…"

When the vocal section started, Narberal tried to follow along as best as she could but Ainz noted that compared to Yotiaru, her singing was pretty dreadful. She had a nice voice, but she only sang monotone and her timing was all off. Still, all that came with practice so there was hope yet.

When the song finally finished Ainz applauded. "That was a good first try Nabe."

This caused her to blush, and a smug smile formed on her face. "It was nothing."

"You should have a go now too Satoru-san" said Yotiaru.

"Yes. I would also like to see Ain- Satoru-san sing" concurred Narberal, looking up at Ainz with her hands clenched tightly.

Ainz had put it off for as long as he could, but now that he was the only one of the group that hadn't sang yet, pressure was mounting on him. Hopefully Narberal wouldn't think any less of him after this.

"Alright then, I'll do it."

"Yay!" celebrated Yotiaru. Narberal's eyes seemed to sparkle as she stared intently at Ainz.

As Ainz began searching through the list of songs he could feel their intense gazes burning into his back. 'Hah… What to choose.' If he were back with the company he would've probably chosen whatever was one of the more popular songs at the time, which he would've made sure to practice well before the event to avoid making a fool of himself.

'Hmm?' He actually recognised a few of the songs on this list. 'I guess it wasn't uncommon for people to choose older songs in order to reminisce on the good times… I think I remember some of the lyrics for this one.'

Ainz entered the song into the device as Yotiaru and Narberal waited eagerly for his performance.

'Well, here goes nothing.' Ainz began singing the song as best as he could remember.

"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down…"

By the end of it, Ainz found he was surprisingly calm, likely thanks to his undead traits. 'Did they think it was ok?'

"Amazing, as expected of Ain- Satoru-san" beamed Narberal.

'Ahh, well that was a relief. Now what did Yotiaru think. Oh no.'

Yotiaru looked up at him with an empathetic expression. "I'm sure with practice you can improve Satoru-san, it wasn't bad."

'I want to die.'

"Anyways" added Yotiaru, "I've noticed that you two seem to be very supportive of each other. Is your relationship really just that of relatives?"

Ainz felt a twinge of anxiety. He would prefer to avoid going too deep into their fabricated backstory in case inconsistencies appeared. He answered, "She is the daughter of a relative. I'm looking after her now since her parents had to go overseas for work."

"Oh, really? That's so kind of you. How long are they going to be away for?" asked Yotiaru.

This was the kind of response Ainz dreaded. Now he had to establish a time-frame in which her supposed parents would return.

"Around a year probably, although circumstances may change."

"What kind of circumstances?"

'Why was this woman being so damn persistent? Wouldn't it normally be rude to ask this many questions to someone you just met recently?' Ainz thought to himself.

"Umu. Well, you see…"

"Yes?" pressed Yotiaru.

There was as sudden knock at the door. "Oh, that must be our drinks!" exclaimed Yotiaru.

Ainz was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but suddenly remembered another important issue. As an undead he couldn't eat or drink anything, as it would simply fall through his bones and onto the floor.

After Yotiaru collected them and placed them on the table in the centre of the room, she invited them to have a drink. Both Ainz and Narberal declined, causing Yotiaru's expression to droop a little, but she didn't press them further, muttering something about 'not being able to underestimate them'.

After they sang a few more songs, their allotted timeslot was almost over.

"Wow, you guys still haven't touched your drinks huh?" remarked Yotiaru. "Well, I don't want to waste quality alcohol."

She then began rummaging around inside her bag before producing a plastic bottle, shielding it with her body and making sure to stand in a certain direction. She then began miming drinking the left-over cocktails while discreetly pouring them into the container.

"Umm, is that legal?" asked Ainz.

"Well, no" replied Yotiaru. "It's fine though, I've seen tutorials on this. They only have one camera in these rooms so it's fairly easy to avoid detection."

"Right…"

"By the way," continued Yotiaru, "Where are you guys staying for the night? A bunch of people recently moved out of the apartment I live at, and the rent is pretty low, so I would definitely recommend it."

"Thanks for the offer" replied Ainz, "But I have a 'place' in the area already."

"Oh, really? Well…" Yotiaru seemed to be having some internal conflict. "It's fine then. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

'At last, we'll be free of this woman' thought Ainz with a sigh of relief. Throughout the rest of the karaoke session, she had continued to ask probing questions about himself and Narberal. He was pretty sure he didn't let anything slip, but it was good to finally not have to worry about that anymore for now.

Ainz walked down the streets of Ginza with Narberal by his side. Even though it was night-time, there were still a few people around, and the area was brightly lit by streetlamps. He noted that this was a huge contrast compared to his old world, where people were usually too afraid to go out at night on their own, and the mega-corps usually didn't bother wasting electricity on outside lighting.

Ainz actually had a place in mind for where they would stay during time they were here in Tokyo. It was another pre-scouted location specially chosen for a number of reasons.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a transmission from one of his Hanzos.

"Ainz-sama, you are being followed by the woman you were with earlier."

Ainz discreetly looked over his shoulder, but couldn't make her out amongst the numerous individuals lining the streets.

"Are you sure? I can't see her, how far away is she?"

"She is about 50 metres away, wearing a disguise."

"I see, thank you."

This was certainly very suspicious behaviour. Ainz would have to find out later who this Yotiaru was, and if she was working for someone. For now though…

As they walked along, Ainz spotted a side-street and pulled Narberal with him over into it.

"Ain- Satoru-san! What's going on?"

"We're being followed by that woman from earlier."

"Shall I deal with her then?"

"No, we'll investigate her later."

Looking around, this street seemed deserted and he couldn't spot any cameras.

"We'll cast [Invisibility] and wait for her to pass by."

"Affirmative."

The two cast their spells on themselves and became invisible.

After waiting for a few minutes Ainz cast a [Message] spell. "Is she gone yet?"

"Yes, she is now about 100 metres away from your location and continuing further."

"Good. Have someone tail her for me, and let me know if she does anything unusual."

"Unusual?"

"Sorry. You should look out for anything related to Yggdrasil, the portal, or if she has someone she is exchanging information with. Also, let me know if she tries to follow us again."

"Understood!"

Shifting his attention back Ainz announced "Nabe, she's gone now."

The two of them then deactivated their [Invisibility] before heading back on their way.

About 10 minutes later they arrived at their destination. A neon sign over the entranceway read '24-hour Net Cafe', and 'Services available inside'. Stepping through the front door Ainz walked over to the counter, where he paid to stay for the night with the money he had obtained from Grenouille. He found that it was cheaper to pay for the whole night rather than by the hour, as there was a discount associated with it.

As they walked through the venue, Ainz could see a number of tired-looking and bedraggled individuals. Many of them still had suits on from their work, their ties hanging loosely around their necks. 'Net-café refugees.' Ainz thought was the term for them. People who couldn't afford rental housing so they instead stayed at a place like this, which offered facilities such as showers and food. They were a common sight in Ainz's old world, a fate he was luckily able to avoid. To think they still existed here though.

They finally came to their cubicle. Opening the door, it was a fairly cramped space. There were two desks equipped with chairs and computers. They walked in and Ainz closed the door behind them, taking a seat. Narberal decided to kneel down on the carpet in front of him, for which there was barely enough room to do so.

"Ainz-sama, surely such a place is not fitting for a supreme being such as yourself" said Narberal.

"I said to not call me by that name while we're here. There could be people listening in."

"Understood… Satoru-san."

"Anyway, it isn't the most extravagant of accommodations, but it has its advantages. It's cheaper than regular housing, comes with all the services we would need, and most importantly it doesn't require a proof of ID to stay at."

"I see…"

Ainz sighed. "Anyways, one of the main reasons why I wanted to stay here was because of these." He gestured at the devices set up on the desks. "These are called computers, and through them I should be able to access all kinds of information about this world."

"That sounds… useful."

Ainz suddenly found he had an incoming transmission. "Yes, who is it?"

"Ainz-sama, this is the scheduled report," the gentle voice of Albedo spoke within his head.

'Ah, of course.' He had almost forgot.

Ainz explained the general situation to her.

Albedo was silent for a moment.

"What is it?" asked Ainz, careful to not use her name while in the net-cafe.

"It's not fair! How come Narberal gets to stay in such tight quarters with you for so long!"

"Alb- I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable, but it's necessary for the mission."

It took a few more minutes of convincing, but Albedo eventually seemed satisfied and ended the [Message].

'Now, where was I?' thought Ainz.

The computer set up on the desk was archaic by his standards, but he was able to boot it up, and was familiar with the general interface. Although he used a deep-dive system for Yggdrasil, he would often use more conventional systems such as this for work. Opening up the search engine, he began searching for key topics such as the general global situation, the current weaponry and technologies, and any information about the portal between the new world and Earth.

He quickly realised that this would take some time, and he would have to take notes to avoid forgetting key information. Luckily, since he was undead he could afford to work all night without break until he had to go to work the next morning. 'Ha… Herohero-san really could've used a body like this.'

Looking over across the room, Narberal was sitting in her chair, staring off into blank space.

'Maybe I should try to teach her how to use a computer too.'