It was a very warm morning considering the time of year. Neia Baraja was currently sitting by one of the windows in her and Satoru's room in Arwintar's Palace. She had only a bathrobe to cover her as she admired the view, drinking a bottle of coconut milk. The warmth of the sun felt very pleasant on her skin, but not as pleasant as the presence of Satoru, who was still reading a book in their bed.
She then took one last sip, savouring the taste, before starting to slowly stretch.
After that, she closed the blinds and headed for the table, where she put the now empty bottle along with the rest of the dishes from today's breakfast.
They had plenty of time still left before they were supposed to leave the Empire, so for now, she just headed back to bed.
She wanted to cuddle some more.
... ...
After bathing and drying off together, it was time for their fake breakfast with the Emperor.
Making their way past the bowing Nimble and other servants, they entered the room where Jircniv was waiting. He, too, bowed as they entered.
"Greetings, Your Majesty, Your Holiness..."
"Raise your head."
Following her husband's words, all three of them sat down at the large table, where a meal and a drink was waiting for each.
Jircniv let Neia take a bite in silence first. She swallowed the extremely expensive food, which to her was completely bland and oddly-textured. After swallowing her saliva twice to get rid of the aftertaste, she spoke in a casual tone.
"Was there anything else to discuss before our departure?"
"I do not believe so. Only..."
He breathed in deeply, and then spoke with words that were clearly practised.
"... I truly hope the two of you have enjoyed your stay here, and that I was able to be a good host."
He lowered his head as he said that.
She waited briefly, but it seemed her husband wasn't saying anything, and so she once again took charge.
"Raise your head... Yes, this trip was..."
She then chuckled quietly, and with a smile.
"... Yes, this was great... an excellent vacation. Isn't that right, darling?"
She cuddled up against his side.
"Indeed. Perhaps we might visit again at some point, hm?"
Jircniv froze a bit before laughing nervously.
"Haha, of course..."
... ...
Neia was looking around, seeing the familiar sight of a parting ceremony. Honestly, it looked just like a welcoming ceremony, except it happened backwards.
Either way, she walked with Satoru to the carriage under the rows of raised spears bearing the flags of the Empire and Sorcerous Kingdom.
After reaching their destination and having the carriage door opened for her, she breathed in deeply.
Soon, they'd just go back to normal again. Just meeting up every day or two, and only for some time.
She hesitated one more time before finally lifting her leg and starting to get inside, holding Satoru's hand until the last moment, which was when she entered fully.
Once she was inside and seated, she waited for Satoru to do the same.
When he did so, sitting down next to her, the carriage started moving immediately.
She sighed, and looked out the window at what she was leaving behind… a wonderful little period of time, spent doing nothing but relaxing with her beloved.
"... Neia?"
"Hm? Ah, sorry darling. It's just... ugh, I wish it was even longer."
"Yes, I wish that too... But we've already extended by quite a bit. I have duties I need to tend to now..."
She felt the great exhaustion in his voice as he said that.
"I'm sorry you'll have to deal with a bunch of work now... I wish I could help with it..."
"Ah, no, don't worry about that at all, alright? You'll have your own duties, too. I'll handle mine..."
Neia couldn't help but wonder what's changed in recent times to make him seem so fatigued from his work.
... ...
After the carriage was teleported back outside the gates of Hoburns, she did start to feel somewhat better. While their separation for the time being was nearing, she was also going to be reunited with her parents, and other friends.
And now, the carriage was stopping.
As always, the door was opened for them by a servant, at which point Satoru got out first, and then offered his hand to her as she followed a bit after.
Immediately, she saw her father and mother standing not far from the gates of her property.
She and her husband made their way over to them, at which point he released her hand, letting her step forward to hug both parents at the same time.
"Dad, mom."
"Neia, how glad I am to see you again."
"Welcome back, sweetheart..."
She squeezed them a bit harder, which made her father speak with a chuckle.
"Oooh, got quite the strength in those arms, huh?"
"Ah, sorry about that."
"Don't worry about that at all, my daughter."
They then held the hug for a few more moments before she started pulling away. It was rude to let Satoru wait, after all.
Surprisingly, her mother then spoke unprompted, which Neia did not really expect, considering how she normally was around Satoru.
"So... did you enjoy yourself?"
Neia chuckled.
"Of course I did! It was absolutely wonderful! I'll tell you all about it once we're inside, okay?"
Her mother then made some sort of complicated expression, but Neia felt she didn't have time to think about that, as her husband was still standing there.
She turned to him with a smile.
"Thank you for the vacation darling. It was truly amazing."
"It really was, yes..."
He paused to breathe in.
"... Hopefully you'll be open to having another soon... I might need it..."
He then shook his head.
"Nevermind that... Mr. Baraja, I hope you'll be ready for your transformation? Unless you've changed your pick since the last time we spoke."
"Ah, not at all. I'll be ready on the agreed day... And I must once again thank you from the bottom of my heart, Ainz."
They were of course talking about the process which will stop her father's ageing. Sofia will be the third and last of them to undergo it, shortly after Pabrl. The reason for there being gaps was to allow observing for any side effects in each individual person, as watching multiple people at once would be harder for everyone.
"Of course. There's no need to thank me at all, Mr. Baraja."
... ...
Satoru was currently sitting in his carriage, watching Hoburns disappear in the distance.
He really should have opened a [Gate] to E-Rantel by this point, but...
He sighed.
A cocktail of some rather mixed emotions was swirling inside him right now.
While he was happy to return to his dear children in Nazarick, this particular goodbye felt like it had a lot of weight to it. He already missed Neia. The vacation was really fun, after all…
Well, he'd probably have to make sure not to immediately jump back into work, and instead spend some time with the NPCs in peace.
... …
Demiurge was currently on the 9th Floor of Nazarick, reading over the texts provided by the librarians. Pandora's Actor was sitting across from him, doing the same, as were the many liches summoned by Lord Ainz for this specific purpose.
And then, he reached the end of the book he was reading.
Disappointed that it got them no closer to reaching their goal, he closed it with a sigh.
He then reached for another one, but before opening it, he stopped himself, instead looking at the doppelganger.
Pandora's Actor seemed to sense his gaze, and looked up to face him as well, speaking in a tone that was about exactly in between serious and casual, yet also quite determined.
"Is something the matter?"
Demiurge thought for a bit before finally deciding to speak his mind.
"... I must admit, Lord Ainz likely trusts me far less due to a recent mistake of mine, and so… Well, I wanted to know if he told you anything about this. About why we are devoting so much time to investigating such a thing. There's of course many possibilities, but… did he tell you which it is?"
The doppelganger then sat there for some time, completely silent and unmoving. It was impossible to read his species' expressions, and so Demiurge could not tell at all what might be going through his mind.
In the end, he shrugged.
"... Who knows?"
And with that, he moved his gaze down back to the book.
With a nod, Demiurge did the same. If Pandora's Actor wasn't told, then it was likely nobody was. Normally he would speculate about it more to understand to a greater extent the glorious plan surely being weaved, but that was not something he could really do, as it would be taking his time and energy away from the task at hand. He did not want to allow that, especially after his recent failure.
He had to prove himself worthy of serving Nazarick again.
...
Satoru was currently sitting in his office on the 9th Floor, going through all the documents that had piled up during his vacation.
He was barely skimming through them at all, and with great displeasure.
He didn't understand almost any of it. He didn't understand the intricacies of economics, the complicated political manoeuvring...
He didn't want to have to bother with any of this. He wasn't even really helping anything anyway, just pretending to. And yet, he always went with it. Just to keep up appearances. To pretend he was someone he wasn't. To keep his children's image of him as it needs to be.
But over the past months, it has only gotten harder.
The more time he spent with Neia, the more he loved her, and the less he could pretend and lie about who he was.
Well, this also applied to the horrible things he did to Neia and her family through Jaldabaoth, but... well… That was something to think about another time.
Right now, he felt frustration building up within him. Frustration with Nazarick's-
"My beloved? My beloved!"
"H-hey! Stop pushing, Albedo!"
He heard a furious banging on his door, followed by the voices of both Albedo and Shalltear.
With a sigh, he slowly ran his palm across his skull, before letting it fall limply onto the table.
He then spoke towards the door with a pained, exhausted tone.
"... enter."
... ...
"... but the fourth and last theatre we went to was also very beautiful! It had so many shades of blue all over! It was also quite dimly lit, like the first one."
Her parents had finished their dinner quite a bit ago, but they were still listening to Neia gushing about the vacation... and also about her husband.
"Ah, and it was always so romantic... I sat in darling's lap during every single play... I'm just so happy he took me... Hahh, he's so amazing and loving and wonderful and caring and thoughtful..."
And with that, her thoughts went from how the trip was to how much she loved her husband. She'd probably said some variation of "he's amazing" about Satoru at least 20 times since she got back, but that was simply how she felt.
Those thoughts were interrupted by her mother's sigh.
"... Sweetheart, there's... There's something I wanted to talk about. You said you'll have the rest of today free?"
"Oh? Well, yes. I'll get back to work tomorrow. If you want to talk about something, then tonight is fine."
Her mother nodded deeply.
"Yes, thank you."
"O-of course, mom!"
... ...
After the dinner was properly ended and praises were sent along to the cooks through the maids, Neia and Sofia split off from Pabel. She didn't know what her mother wanted to talk about, but felt that it was probably nothing good.
They silently walked together to Neia's bedroom, and after they entered, they sat on the two opposing sofas, facing each other.
Neia waited for her mother to say anything at all, but she simply stared down at the table separating them with a pained expression.
In the end, she decided to simply wait in silence. Whatever was on her mother's mind, it must have been something difficult to say.
And so, she waited for several more long moments before Sofia finally breathed in deeply, and spoke without looking up at her daughter.
"... You remember that one time we all went to my hometown? The one during which you saw a crab at the beach, and it gave you a small cut on your finger when you tried to touch it."
Neia smiled as she remembered those distant childhood memories.
"Yes, I remember, mom. It was a really nice trip."
"... And do you remember that part when you were rude to that seafood merchant? How I gave you a small beating right there in the street..."
"Uhm... yes, I remember that too..."
Sofia sighed once again, still not looking at her.
"And remember how I reacted to you telling me that you wanted to be a paladin?... I had you take up a sword and defend yourself from me… Pabel had to block for you, and even then, I gave you quite a few bad bruises."
"Yeah..."
"And that time I found out you complained to your father about your eyes... I gave you quite the beating then, didn't I?"
"... Mom, what is this about?"
"I..."
Sofia sighed very deeply. There was pain in it.
"... Sweetheart, was I too harsh a mother?"
Neia partially expected something like this, but she was still a bit stunned now, not knowing how to respond.
As she opened her mouth, hoping to say anything at all, her mother continued.
"And now you have a husband you love, and I've... Well, Pabel's already become friendly with him, while I... I just..."
Sofia looked into her eyes for the first time now.
"Neia, I-"
She knew what this meant.
Instead of letting her finish, she sprung up, and rushed over to hug her.
Their bodies clashed with some force, and they both held each other tightly.
After only a moment, Sofia broke the silence, and it was clear from her tone that she was holding back tears.
"... Neia, my daughter... I'm sorry... For being too harsh as a mother... for not accepting your husband, but... I want to do better."
Neia tightened her grip, and tears were starting to appear in her eyes, too.
"Of course, mom! I'll forgive you for the mistakes you might've made while parenting... I'm just happy to have you back... I love you, mom."
"I love you too, Neia... My precious little girl..."