Satoru was sitting on the Throne of Kings, struggling to keep a calm demeanour in front of the subordinates kneeling before him. It was because the mission they all just returned from, the one in the Great Minotaur Nation, had given him exactly what he wanted, and he felt anxious to make use of that something as soon as possible, even though some preparations were required first.
He looked over all the people gathered in the room. There were of course the Guardians involved in the operation, those being Demiurge, Aura, Mare, and Pandora's Actor. But other than them, he also utilised many of the minor NPCs specialised in stealth, most which would normally be part of Neia's personal guard, except she was currently safe in Nazarick.
And so, he borrowed most of her Hanzos, all of the Eight Edge Assassins, and some of the Kashin Koji. The last of those groups was particularly useful due to their specialisation in concealing illusions, which helped those among them who did not have good stealth abilities of their own. There were also some summoned creatures present.
He breathed in deeply one more time before raising his hands in a grand way.
"... Everyone. I want to congratulate you on this successful mission. Truly, I am very happy with your performance."
The looks of pride which then appeared on everyone's faces had given him some amount of happiness. He wanted his children to be proud of their good work. It was only deserved.
Still, he felt the need to cut this short. After putting his hands back on the armrests, he spoke again.
"Now, I will ask you all to return to your previous duties. Except for Demiurge and Pandora's Actor... you two will remain here."
...
After the rest had left as instructed, he was alone with those two.
He sat in silence for a little while before finally getting up and somewhat hastily walking towards them.
"Rise, both of you."
When they obeyed and were face to face with him, he turned to Demiurge.
"How do you think this operation will impact the Minotaur Nation and our plans for it?"
"Lord Ainz, I believe this was a most advantageous manoeuvre. Due to these losses of both treasure and strong individuals, they will be desperate for allies, and will likely seek quick ways to restore some of their wealth and stores of powerful magic items. This will make them easier to manipulate and also quite predictable, at least to us, as we are aware of their situation. The group of strong minotaurs we were able to capture will of course be interrogated to see what we can extract from them."
"Hm. Hm... Sounds good... But as for the main issue..."
He reached into his inventory, and pulled out the item in question. The object of his search.
He wasn't looking for anything in particular when it came to a race change item he could utilise, but this specific one might've been one of the best things to find. It was a golden pyramid about as large as a man's head, and was covered in extremely intricate carvings.
"I entrust this item to you. Do some experiments with it to ensure its functionality hasn't changed after coming to this world, and give me a report later... and obviously, do not damage or otherwise compromise the item's functioning in any way!"
They both bowed at the same time, and spoke the same words.
"Yes, Lord Ainz!"
When they raised their heads again, he extended the item towards them, and Pandora's Actor slowly and carefully took it, not looking away from it for a single moment.
"... Hm. I suppose that's all. If so, I'll be leaving now."
The two Guardians nodded, and Demiurge answered.
"Yes, Lord Ainz."
Seeing this, he teleported to his room.
And now that he was alone again, some amount of anxiety and unhappiness overtook him.
When finding the item, he was initially so excited that emotional suppression had to activate twice, but now it was simply time to wait. Before he could be with Neia in a human form, those two needed to conduct some experiments to confirm the item still worked as Satoru remembered...
And this waiting was quite unpleasant indeed. He wanted to be with her like that as soon as possible...
Well, he could still be with her normally. That was surely going to cheer him up.
After letting himself rest and calm down for a few more moments, he used [Message].
"Sebas? I assume everything is well?"
"Lord Ainz? Indeed, all is well."
While there probably wasn't anything to really worry about, he still felt some relief as he heard that.
"Ah, excellent. Will Neia be ready to depart soon? Assuming she wants to leave... Tell her I'm ready for a date, if she is interested."
"One moment please, I will ask her."
...
Satoru teleported to a hallway on the 9th Floor, while adjusting his robe one more time to make sure it looked good as he was about to meet his beloved.
When feeling that it seemed good enough, he knocked on the door.
There was a pause before Neia was the one to respond.
"... Come in, darling!"
Opening the door and coming inside, he saw Neia, Tuare, and Sebas standing in wait. The latter two bowed, while his dear wife stepped forward.
"Hello, darling."
He stepped forward as well, and there was joy in his stride.
"I'm happy to see you, my love. I hope you enjoyed your visit?"
He spoke as he walked, and only stopped when he was within arm's reach of her.
"I did! It was really nice talking to Tuare and Sebas again."
He then slowly stroked her cheek, making her blush, and forcing her wings to flap around a few times.
"Speaking of, you two may raise your heads. Thank you for your time."
Sebas replied immediately.
"There is no need, Lord Ainz. We enjoyed ourselves too."
"Hm. That's good. Either way, I suppose me and Neia should be leaving now."
Neia turned around to face her two hosts.
"Thank you both for the fun morning!"
Sebas once again spoke for both of them.
"Of course. It was an honour entertaining Lord Ainz's wife."
Satoru thanked the butler internally for not mentioning his marriages to the others in Nazarick, while Neia simply smiled at them both, with her wings moving ever so slightly to a calm rhythm.
"Now then, goodbye, both of you."
"Goodbye, Tuare and Sebas!"
"Goodbye Neia, Lord Ainz."
"Goodbye!"
Everyone except him then waved at each other for a moment, until he teleported himself and his wife to the latter's bedroom.
And there, she immediately hugged him with a chuckle.
"I love you, Satoru."
He chuckled too, and hugged back with one arm, while using the other to stroke her hair.
"So, shall we spend the remainder of the day together?"
"Yes, I would love that, darling."
"Hm... ah, and though I don't mean to excite you too much for your own good, if everything goes well, I will have a gift for you soon."
"Still spoiling me, my beloved?"
"Of course. Your smile is the most beautiful thing in the world, after all."
In response, she buried her face in his chest with a noise of happiness, and her wings started flapping vigorously.
… ... ...
After several hours of cuddling, small talk, and just generally relaxing with Neia, it was getting a bit late.
But Satoru had an idea.
He looked to his dear wife, who was laying against his side as they were both in bed.
"... my love?"
"Yes, Satoru?"
She perked up as he suddenly spoke, her full attention on him.
"Your mother has recently told you she wants to accept me, right?"
"Yes!"
He nodded. Neia really wanted him to get along with her parents, as was evident with how happy she was to tell him, so this was great news.
"Hm. That's good. Say, perhaps we should all have another dinner?"
"I was wondering about that too. When do you think that should happen?"
"Well, I suppose we could have one tonight. It'll be time for that soon, won't it? I hope they don't mind me being very sudden with it yet again... But the worst thing that can happen is them refusing, right?"
... ...
As Neia put her own, Nazarick-made meal on the table, she felt that things were very similar to the first time.
Too similar.
Her mother, who was standing a bit further away, seemed just as uneasy as she normally would be when dealing with Satoru, which confused her. Seeing this, Neia went over to her and Pabel, and spoke in a concerned tone.
"Mom... are you alright?"
"Yes, yes... I'm fine."
"You don't seem fine..."
She sighed.
"It's just that... I have been rude to Ainz before. Do you think I need to apologise? Will he hold it against me?"
"Ah, no, don't worry! He's not that type of person at all, I think. If you feel you need to apologise, he will definitely be touched and accept it."
"... Yes, that's very reassuring..."
"Should I get him now, or wait for a bit?"
"Let's not keep him waiting."
...
Satoru breathed in deeply one more time before the young maid opened the door for him, at which point he saw the Baraja family standing next to the table, welcoming him.
"Hello again, darling."
"Greetings, Ainz."
Sofia sighed.
"... Hello, Ainz."
He nodded, trying to appear more confident than he truly was, which was probably not necessary on second thought, as Neia was the only person in the room who could read him.
"Hello Pabel, Mrs. Baraja."
"Please, call me Sofia."
"Ah, thank you, Sofia."
He noticed a faint smile appear on her lips for but a moment.
"... Well, let's eat before the food gets cold, hm?"
...
After sitting down, everyone except Sofia started eating. She seemed to be looking at her food in a somewhat unhappy manner. As he was considering asking her what was wrong, she suddenly spoke up while looking up at him.
"Ainz, I want to say I'm sorry."
If he had a face, his expression would be one of surprise.
"For doubting you like I have. For being rude. For not accepting the man my daughter loves... I am sorry."
He honestly felt a little shocked. Neia's mother really changed her perspective on him, huh?
But while this was very good indeed, her apology wasn't. And so, he breathed in deeply and prepared to speak seriously.
"There is no need at all to apologise. I am very well aware of how undead are widely perceived, and how a paladin especially would feel about my kind. Not only that, you have died in an awful war for your country's survival, only to be brought back to life in a world you did not quite recognise...
And even if none of that were the case, how could I ever blame parents for being suspicious of the man their daughter is marrying? It'd be odd if you weren't suspicious of me, with parental instincts to ensure I am a trustworthy man who will make her happy and not mistreat her in any way... Yes, I would act the same if this happened with any of my own children."
After he finished, he once again focused his attention on Neia's parents, and found that they both stared with their mouths hanging slightly open. Pabel was the first to correct this and speak quickly after.
"... Ainz, thank you. Truly."
"... Yes, thank you."
"Like I said, there's no need for that. I am just glad that a wonderful girl like Neia has caring parents that want to protect her."
As smiles appeared on the faces of both parents, he also heard the distinct and very pleasant sound of Neia's wings flapping to his side.
"But let's talk as we eat. Wouldn't want the food to get cold, after all."
...
"... No, it is quite a bit different. Normal lizardmen have very large scales covering their whole bodies instead."
"Hm hm."
Neia was watching her mother nodding along and happily eating.
And so, she smiled.
Her parents' relationships with Satoru were developing well...
She took her attention away from her mother for the first time since the start of the dinner, instead joining in to listen carefully to her beloved's explanation as she took another bite.
... ... ...
Satoru was standing still in his room, holding a certain golden pyramid in front of his large mirror.
The item, called Loki's Ultimate Deception, was a rare yet fairly useless tool in the game of Yggdrasil. Back then, it allowed the user to temporarily convert all their racial levels into only one, single racial level of another basic race type. If he were to use it, for example, he would be temporarily sacrificing his 40 racial levels for a single level in another race. This would fully make him that race, but also completely cripple his build, because while he would maintain his raw stats, he would also lose his abilities and other bonuses gained from those racial levels, which any proper build needed.
And so, this item only really had a few niche uses, such as bypassing monsters that would otherwise be aggressive, but aren't to other members of their race unless attacked first, such as various types of undead mobs.
But even that was apparently considered too powerful by the shitty devs despite the existence of stealth, so they also put a sort of cooldown in place. After its use, a player was stuck in their new form for at least 20 minutes, unless they choose to remain in it for longer than that, which they almost certainly wouldn't.
They could also take the item out of their inventory to immediately transform back, though this would pause the counter, and they would go back to that form once they picked the item back up.
And now, in this world, its functionality has changed only slightly. Most significantly, one seemed to have some sort of limited control over their new forms, which were also seemingly based on one's perception of the races in question to some extent.
But most exciting to Satoru, in their experiments, those undead that were created out of corpses would assume their original form if transformed into the race they were while alive.
Satoru breathed in deeply one more time before finally deciding to use the item for the first time...
... transforming himself into a human.
A golden glow enveloped him, and he felt himself shrink as flesh began to surround his bones.
When it was finished, only seconds later, the golden glow disappeared, allowing him to look upon his new form in astonishment.
His old body was back.
He put the item back into his inventory, and stepped closer to the mirror. It really was his old body. He touched his cheeks with both his hands, only to feel the warmth.
"Haha... hahaha!"
And then, joy overtook him, now unable to be suppressed by some racial trait.
He was very excited. He could now be with Neia properly, in every way he previously couldn't have... No more emotional suppression ruining their most perfect moments.
Neia... His beloved wife. His darling. His sunshine. His dearest. The love of his life.
But as he was thinking about her smile, and how happy this gift would make her, his thoughts also wandered to the new applications of his new body in the bedroom.
And just like that, he felt a long lost sensation.
Blood rushing to his crotch.
He panicked a bit, trying to stop thinking about that sort of thing. This was no time for it. He still needed to verify everything worked as expected...
But it was hard not to lose himself in fantasy... He couldn't wait for all the fun they'd soon have…
…
Hello. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Sorry for slowing down with the releases again, but I've been dealing with some personal issues, and also helping edit the works of some of my good friends. I don't expect I'll be speeding up again anytime soon. I just need to slow down to deal with stuff. I'm sorry, hopefully that's not too upsetting.
But speaking of the works of my good friends, I recently realised that it was a good idea to help promote those, so I'll be doing that from now on. Here's the first:
Saurian Dawn, by Floor Licker
Another Neia fic, one that's very early in its run. There's no Nazarick/Ainz. It introduces an OC player as the main character besides our beloved pope, and will focus on the Holy Kingdom, with a little bit of some familiar Slaine Theocracy characters. A currently short, but very pleasant read.
Summary: "The people of the Holy Kingdom have been raised to believe that demihumans are monsterous beings, and Neia Baraja is no exception. However, a chance encounter with a reptilian warrior from beyond the wall starts to shift her beliefs, he almost seems... human…"