Volume 1 Chapter 2

How peculiar of a sensation it was to feel the fresh air on his skin, as well as close to the skin he could have in his current body. It was refreshing and unbelievably liberating, so much so that Ainz almost forgot how long he was flying in the sky; he had already forgotten about the fact he was there to scout the area.

And when his feelings were at an all-time high, an uncaring [emotional suppressor] kicked in, depriving him of this pleasant feeling.

"Tsk, well, I guess I had fun for today. I had to find a way to control this emotional suppressor. I can't deny its usefulness, but not being able to enjoy any pleasure beyond a certain point would be annoying."

After saying that, he floated down close to the village he had saved, with no one noticing him until the curtsey of [Perfect Unknown].

Landing in the thicket of the trees, he canceled his spell and walked out of the tree line and was immediately spotted by the oldest sister of the two demi-humans—no faunas, as he later found out they were called.

As she approached him, he couldn't help but notice the worried look on her face.

"Miss Jade, is something the matter?"

"Ah! Mr. Gown, have you come back from your reconnaissance? What a coincidence that I would find you just as you had returned!"She said this while fidgeting in surprise.

'Really, because I know for a fact that you have been looking for me since I left to sightsee.'

Even if he knew that, Ainz wasn't tone-deaf enough to say it out loud, less for the sake of the girl's pride and more for the sake of hiding the fact that he had shadow demons going around the village for the last hour.

Shadow demons were weaker than death knights combat-wise, but they were more suitable for stealth.

Remembering the death knights he summoned, Ainz thought for a bit.

'Speaking of which, how come those two didn't de-spawn yet? It has been over an hour, and they are still here. Could it be because they were summoned using a corpse?' Ainz wondered about the application of this new knowledge before deciding that talking with the girl before him was more important for now.

There would be a lot of information he could gain from talking to her, right?

God knows he needs as much information as he can get.

"Yes, a coincident indeed, and you can just call me Ainz."

"I see then, sir—I mean Ainz. If you don't mind, I have a question to ask you." The girl said this after getting a little braver.

"Hmm? And what would it be?" Ainz asked the girl, probing her further, but in fact he was a bit nervous, as he lacked a lot of information; anything relating to the common sense of this world would expose him as an outsider to it.

Yet his concerns were unfounded.

"I was wondering about the reason you let that bandit go—not that I'm criticizing you or anything! It's just that the bandit queen is not known for letting grudges go, and although she doesn't usually carry out attacks like these, I doubt she would let word of this leak out unless she wants her reputation to plummet." She let out one breath, and after taking a breath, she continued.

"That's why I believe we should leave for the closest town before the bandits attack again and inform Haven Academy of this attack."

She believed he would agree with her; after all, her reasoning was flawless.

Well, from her perspective, that is.

"That would be a disaster for all of you." Ainz replied to her in a cold voice, crushing her enthusiasm.

"W-What?" She looked shocked that her suggestion was rejected so coldly, and just as she was about to defend her stance, Ainz spoke.

"Sorry, that was insensitive of me, but the sentiment stands that this isn't the best course of action. As to why, do you remember what the first bandit killed by the death knight said before he died?"

"What did he say? He said something about visiting a certain district." It took her a second to remember what he said, as she was too occupied by the presence of the 'death knight' to focus on what the now-dead man was saying, but when she remembered, she felt disgusted by the bandits and embarrassed having to paraphrase what he said.

"Oh! Sorry for that; having a young lady recall such things was inappropriate on my part. The point is that the bandit had indicated a history of visiting that establishment with his colleagues, which would mean they were secure enough to visit those establishments without worrying about the authorities."

Ainz paused before continuing.

"That would mean the likelihood of the closest town to this village being a place in which those bandits visit frequently is high; this would lead to the possibility of being captured by the bandit once you all get to the town." Ainz concluded with an easy voice, as if explaining something obvious.

After giving Jade a second to digest the information, he continued.

"As to why I let the bandit go knowing all that, well, it is simple; I had a summon stalk him to find the location of the bandit's main camp, gather information on them, and see if it would be possible to capture them all. And you shouldn't worry; once the location of the camp is confirmed, the bandit will be dealt with before making contact." He concluded.

Of course, most of what he said was a lie he made on the spot; he didn't want the girl to know his real motive for letting the bandit go, which was to get to the bandit's camp and kill them all, gather information from them about this world, and gather resources to move forward to... well, he didn't know what to do after, but he's getting there.

As for the possibility of the bandits having connections in the closest town, that was a reach on his part, but it didn't matter; he cared less about what happened to these people than himself; what was most important was his and the staff of Ainz Ooal Gwon's safety.

The reason he told her all that was to have her and the other survivors move immediately; a longer-traveling destination would have them move before sunset.

'I need to check for any possible surveillance that my counter-surveillance defenses couldn't catch. The movement of the survivors, in this case, would work as a way to move any possible observers into action. It wouldn't take long for that bandit to reach the camp if his ramblings were anything to go by, so I should move immediately. Let's nudge them to move then'.

Ainz's thoughts moved a mile a second as he thought of a way to move this girl forward.

'I don't feel that much guilt in sending those people to their possible deaths, huh? I guess that confirms that I'm no longer human anymore. This feels terrible. No!, I shouldn't give up on my humanity just yet, if not for my sake, then at least for my friends, but I have to do what I must to survive.' Ainz finally decided on a course of action.

"Now, Miss Lapis, I believe it is time for you all to move. I will lend you four summonses to safeguard you and the survivors; you can order them, and they will obey, but be careful; who knows what you will find out there?"

"I see A-no, Sir Ainz. Thank you for everything. If you ever come to Vale, please feel free to come and see me. I will try my best to repay my debt to you," she said while bowing.

"Before you go, Miss Lapis, where do you believe the survivors will go in light of the new information?" he asked, trying to see if they would take his words seriously.

"Where would we go? Well, I think informing the headmaster of Haven Academy of what happened would be for the best, so we will go to the capital of Mistral. It might take us a couple of hours to get to a town outside the territory of the Branwen tripe, but with the help of the summons, we wouldn't have to worry about the Grimm attacks, so we should make it before nightfall; from there, we can reach the capital of Mistral by a bullhead."

There were many things Ainz wanted to know about from her words, but he restrained himself for now, as a more pressing issue had reared its ugly head after the girl's explanation.

'It would be bad to have her tell anyone with authority about my existence before I gather enough information about my surroundings; should I kill them all? No, that would leave a bad taste in my mouth after I had already saved them, and there were children amongst them. But I have to get my name out there to see if any of my friends made it to this world, so this could be a good opportunity to do so. What should I do? ... Oh! I got it!'

"I would advise you against that!" he said in a commanding tone.

"W-why?" Jade was startled by his shift in tone.

He paused for effect before turning his back to her and answering.

"You see, Miss Lapis, the position you found yourself in was by no means a coincidence."

"What?!"

Ainz capitalized on her shock and continued.

"This might seem hard to believe, but when you give it a little thought, it becomes clear that this was a setup."

He said that and kept his momentum going.

"You see, a bandit tribe like the Branwen tribe wouldn't just attack a village under its "protection" for no reason that goes against their agenda and would only hurt them in the long run. However, a group of them hired by a third party could intercept the convoy of a certain someone behind their leader's back and blame it on a Grimm attack. With that in mind, the news of the survival of the target would lead the third party to organize another attack. Do you understand?"

Ainz couldn't see the girl's face as he had turned his back to her, and he didn't know if those Girmm were known for attacking villages, but from the way the girl referred to them, he could guess they were similar to monsters. He took the silence as a good sign to continue.

"That is why it would be for the best for you to not inform the headmaster of Haven Academy of what had happened, at least not directly and not now. Instead, it would be best to have someone else act as an in-between for the both of you—another headmaster, for example. Do you happen to know anyone else?"

"Another headmaster? Well, my father had some connection to headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy; would that work?"

"Oh! Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy! Yes, yes, that would work; it would be perfect too; it can only be Oz-."Ainz was so glad that his plan was going smoothly that it took him a moment to find the name Ozpin familiar.

'Ozpin, isn't it similar to that wizard in that story? What's it called, "Alice in Wonderland?" Oh! Right, it's "The Wizard of Oz." Why am I being distracted by such things? I should hurry and get this over with.'

"Anyway, you should go to the wizard and inform him of your situation. If he asks you about your reason for going through such a process, tell him that one cannot be too cautious; otherwise, our lack of vigilance would be our own undoing," he said before moving away from the girl and preparing for his attack on the bandits, not noticing his slip of the tongue.

"Well, Miss Lapis, it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but it is time for me to go. May we meet again in better circumstances than these," he said as he diapered in the tree line, using [Perfect Unknowable] and observing the movement of the survivors for any signs of trouble, which led him to not hear what Jade had to say at the end of his monologue.

"Did he say, wizard?"

For Raven Branwen, survival was the most important thing one should seek. It didn't matter what lines would be crossed, what morals would be abandoned, or what lives would be lost; as long as her life was safe, no loss was too great. That is her code in life; she has always believed that the weak die and the strong thrive in this world.

Unfortunately, she knew she wasn't the strongest around. Well, technically, she was quite strong in terms of her physical prowess, skills, experience, and maiden powers.

She was confident in beating anyone, including Ozpin, Salem, and even a disaster-class Grimm, if she had time to prepare and lay a trap for it, that is.

Okay, she might not be able to beat a disaster-class Grimm, but she could escape from one, which is a feat on its own; after all, they are legendary monsters that can destroy a kingdom on their own.

The only reason Salem hasn't ruled the world by now is that, thankfully, she cannot control those monstrosities.

Anyway, the point is that Raven is powerful and can beat the top players in the world on her own; the problem is that beating is not killing.

Raven can rip Salem and Ozpin to smithereens, but they will always come back, and eventually she will fall in this battle of attrition with the two immortals.

Salem, for all her magic and power, is not unbeatable to Raven.

From what Raven knows about her, she is a strong magic user but not a strong competent, at least not to the level of Raven.

The problem with her, and what terrifies Raven the most, is that she can't be killed. Had she been mortal, all it would take to kill her was a well-placed assassination plan. Just get to her before she can respond and chop her head off; her aura wouldn't even have the time to be pulled out before her head would hit the ground.

But Salem was immortal, and fighting her was pointless; the only thing Raven could do was run and hide, gathering more power for the sake of survival.

All that didn't matter to Raven; be it Ozpin or Salem, they could have their secret war for all eternity.

All she cared about was her tribe. She was the chieftain after all the development and survival of the tribe fell on her, and she would go to any length to ensure its continued survival.

She had sacrificed too much, left so many people behind, and killed many—those who had it coming.

And those she had killed

The image of a muscular blond-haired man, a blond-haired little girl, and a black-haired white-hooded woman came to her mind at that moment, but she shook the thoughts and images away. That ship had already sailed; there was no point in thinking about what could have been.

The reason for that long thought process invading Raven's mind is to show how much she has given to the tribe, as it has always been for the tribe.

She had changed their stagnant old ways of simply attacking and pillaging villages and towns to simply looting already-destroyed settlements; the question of whether or not they were the cause of it was irrelevant.

Consequently, she managed to turn the opinion of some of the settlements in her territory in her favor by implementing a "protection fee" on all the villages and all those that pass through the territory.

It might sound bad from the first look, but the fee wasn't enormous if anything; it was actually pretty small in comparison to the amount of loot they used to get; the fee didn't even have to consist of Len supplies; and the like were acceptable too. It helps put the minds of the villages' residents at ease; knowing they didn't have to worry about a bandit's raid, it provided the tribe with a passive income, and it took the focus of the authorities away from the tribe—at least until they find out she is not paying her taxes.

Raven would have giggled at that funny thought had she not been fuming with rage.

At what point do you ask?

Well, at the prospect that her hard work over the last 17 years is about to go up in smoke because of the actions of that fucking dumb-shit asshole named Bross,

The whole situation started while Raven was checking on Tai-Spying on Tai when the shitshow started. She had an idea about Bross's secret dealings but never paid attention to it because it had never been a serious matter.

But that was a mistake on her part; she should have nipped it in the bud before it escalated to what it currently is.

When she came back to the tribe, she found out that the idiot took his group of 30 men and went off to "hit the town," as he called it; the idiot didn't even bother to come up with a better excuse than that.

At first, she thought it was a simple case of an underhanded deal that brought him some money from some gangsters in a town—nothing much, just using the Branwen name to intimidate some thugs—annoying but not that detrimental.

And yet the feeling of unease never left her, so she had someone investigate the idiot's tent, and lo and behold, her fears were confirmed. That idiot made a deal with some insignificant businessman to attack and kill a convoy traveling through a village within their territory and make it look like a Grimm attack—a convoy that had already paid their fee to the tribe, no less.

Raven didn't care that the convoy would be attacked; she didn't care that the village would be massacred; she didn't even care if that idiot would get himself killed by the Grimm in the process.

What she cared about was the fallout of this incident, the excuse that the Grimm used—it wouldn't fly with anyone anymore, especially if it had happened in their territory. They used that method so much that it became a trademark for them at this point, and that idiot won't even make the scene well enough to fool anyone.

Once people find out what happened, the tribe's passive income will take a hit. Why would the villages trust the tribe not to attack them if they had done so even when paid?

That is not even the worst part; this situation would put a target on the tribe; many of those in the other villages would hire a huntsman to guard the village, which would make the tribe's work much harder if they decided to go back to raiding—not for her, of course, but she can't be present for all the raids.

"This is the worst. I'm going to make an example of that idiot when I find him." She promised herself that, not just to make more work for herself but to strengthen her hold on the tribe. They can't go on thinking she's getting soft.

'I'll have to make it look like the work of another bandit tribe if I want the other villages to still 'trust us', but that would mean starting a war with some random tribe, hmm? I could make it look like an upstart tribe got overconfident and decided to infringe on our territory, but that needs everyone, including the businessman and that idiot's group, to be eliminated.'

Raven sighed after making a plan of action for the future. All this stress formed a thought in her mind.

'Had I stayed with Tai, I wouldn't be dealing with all this bullshit right now.'

She shook her head at that.

'No point in crying over spilled milk; I can't go back there now, not after everything.'

The relationship between Raven and Taiyang is somewhat complicated.

To understand it, one should know that Raven was someone who had never been exposed to the world outside of the tribe before coming to Beacon Academy, so to say she had a cultural shock would be an understatement.

From students spending their free time relaxing and not training to the fact that huntsmen were expected to be pillars of virtue and not the ones calling the shots anywhere they go, that had surprised her but didn't change her view of the world, as there were some aspects that she was familiar with.

Her brother, on the other hand, took to the surrounding changes much more radically than she did, and he always had doubts about the doctrine of the tribe.

This is where Tai came into the picture; he was annoying at first, flirtatious, and had a terrible sense of humor. But above all else, he was strong, and Raven appreciated strength.

Yes! That was it. She wasn't in love with Tai at all. Get that stupid thought out of your mind. Love is for silly girls like Summar, and no, she isn't embarrassed at all. Don't be ridiculed. The red on her face is just anger from her current situation. Yes, that is all.

Raven shook her head from the weird thoughts that felled it.

Ok, maybe she had... Fine, she still has some feelings for Tai, but she knew they couldn't be together; they walked a different path.

After they had met in Beacon, she came to... like Tai, and she wasn't the only one. Summer had feelings for him as well, but unlike Raven, she was too shy to act upon them, so she lost the race to Tai's heart.

At least she should have given up, but unfortunately for her, an unforeseen common aspect of the outside world and the tribe had affected her plans for the future.

The powerful always had privileges that were inaccessible to the weak. Well, that's not how the outside world put it, but the essence was the same.

Raven believed that Tai would have to make a choice between the two of them and that she was ahead in the race and didn't worry about the possibility of losing. Little did she know Tai's choices were not limited to one or the other.

Yes, Tai chose both of them. Raven was a bit confused about that choice; she knew strong men tended to have more than one partner back in the tribe, but she thought it was only exclusive to the tribe. It turns out that it can happen outside of the tribe too; after all, Remnant's history has had a lot of struggles for the personal freedom of its citizens.

The practice itself wasn't common but wasn't frowned upon; it carried with it a lot of obligations and requirements, to the point that most of the common folk just avoided it in its entirety.

But huntsmen and huntresses were anything but common; as the defenders of humanity, they tended to risk their lives on a regular basis, so going for what you believe will make you happier was the norm.

Summar wasn't that bothered by it; if anything, she seemed to find the idea the best one in such circumstances. Raven, on the other hand, didn't appreciate such an offer but eventually relented; her brother's continued jabs at her plans failing didn't help either.

After that, they graduated, got married, and lived a peaceful life. And for the first time in her life, Raven could say with confidence that she was happy.

Life had its ups and downs, but they were happy. Yet all that didn't last for long.

Ozpin, with a simple question, had ruined their little slice of happiness:

"What's your favorite fairytale?"

With that, he had introduced them to his inner circle; he told them about the brother gods, about the maidens, about magic, about how special Summar's eyes were, and most importantly, about Salem.

Raven's worldview was turned upside down that day. Fear of the witch had her rethinking all of her choices up to that point.

Tai was conflicted after the revelation; a part of him wanted to help, and another didn't want to put their family in danger.

Eventually, it was Summar that made him choose to join Ozpin's circle, knowing that she would be targeted by Salem for her eyes, which made the choice much simpler, for him at least.

Summer, as always, had a naïve outlook on the matter; she believed there was a way to stop Salem, and that piece of shit Ozpin had the audacity to tell her that she was the way to do so.

Theoretically speaking, he was right. Summar's silver eyes could potentially stop Salem; they don't kill the Grimm; they petrify them, so logically speaking, they should work on the queen of the Grimm.

What he didn't mention is why that plan didn't work with the previous silver-eyed warriors.

The answer to that question is simple: silver eyes, like another ability, require practice and development. Summar had to continually use them on smaller Grimm before they could be effective on the larger ones; otherwise, it would affect their growth.

And the more she used them, the easier it was for Salme to find her.

All of that didn't matter to Raven; she knew Ozpin was hiding something from them, and after joining Ozpin and his little inner circle, it was beneficial for her because Ozpin had gifted her and her brother the CURSE TO BE BIRDS and many privileges that other huntsmen could only dream of.

Their little family dynamic changed a bit as certain problems started cropping up, but they managed to push through. Unfortunately, it all came crashing down when they uncovered the truth about Salem. Ozpin had failed to mention the little fact that she was immortal.

Each of them had different reactions to that revelation. Qrow, ever the loyal lap dog of Ozpin, took it too well and still believed in Ozpin. Tai took the information as a sign to leave Ozpin and his plots; Summar still had faith in the possibility of stopping Salem; Raven, on the other hand, lost all hope in there ever being a way to stop Salem.

The best she can do is run away and hope that Salem won't bother with her.

So, she planned to run, to go back to something much easier: dealing with her tribe. Taking control of them would be easy with her power, and they would be loyal to her.

What stopped her from doing so immediately was news she didn't expect. She was pregnant.

'We should have been more careful, stupid sexy blond!' she cursed.

With all the pressure piling on her, Raven decided to get away from Ozpin and his group after giving birth. She attempted to convince Tai to come with her, but he refused. He knew Summar was determined to see this through to the end, and he didn't want to leave her.

Raven felt betrayed at the time, and she held some resentment towards Summar. It felt like Tai was prioritizing Summar over her and their unborn child. So, with resentment clouding her judgment, she decided to take Yang with her and go back to the tribe; they would be safe there.

That was the plan, but something had changed.

It happened after she had given birth; it was a painful experience for her. Even with her high pain tolerance, she almost broke Tai's wrist from how hard she was squeezing it.

Anyway, when she held Yang for the first time, it was as if all her worries evaporated; her plans, her fears, and her resentment were all gone, as if they had never existed from the get-go.

Raven had heard of the concept of motherhood; she had always believed it to be just some flowery concepts to justify the protective instincts of mammals; it is just chemicals in the brain made to make sure the continuity of the species is guaranteed. However, all that became irrelevant after holding her daughter for the first time.

It took her a while before she let Tai hold her, but after seeing him hold Yang, she knew he had a similar experience to her. She knew at that time that she had misjudged him; Tai didn't betray her; from the start, he always wanted one thing, and that was to take care of his family, which made what she had to do even harder.

She had to leave and run away from it all; she couldn't take Yang with her to the tribe; she was better off with Tai and Summar; deep down, she knew she was a coward; she was afraid of losing her family, so she wanted power to protect herself and what was important to her; that is what she always told herself.

She wanted to have control over how she lost her family as illogical as that was.

sigh

Raven came back to reality, staring at the fabric of her tent's ceiling. Well, it's time to get back to work and daydream about what could have been a meaningless activity.

Just then, a shout came to Raven's ears.

"GRIMM ATTACK!"

'Just perfect; could this day get any worse?' She thought tiredly while taking her sword and leaving the tent.

Little did she know that the answer to her question was about to be answered.

Ainz looked at the corpse of the bandit in front of him; no, he now knew his name was Bross.

'Odd name' he commented with a thought.

Ainz had just used the spell [Control Amnesia] to extract information from the mind of the man, and let's just say he got way more information than he had expected.

First, he confirmed that he wasn't in Yggdrasil anymore; he wasn't even on Earth; the name of the planet he found himself on was Remnant.

Second heteromorphs like him didn't exist in this world; at least Bross had no information about any of them. Remnant had three native species: humans (no need to explain here), Faunus, a demi-human species that developed alongside humans, which has animalistic features, and all had night vision. There is a certain level of xenophobia amongst the humans in Remnant towards the fauna.

'I could relate to that; after all, heteromorphic players were always targets for discrimination by other players of different races, and the sadistic developers didn't make any better with their PVP system' Ainz sighed inwardly, remembering his past before meeting Touch Me.

The last species is the Grimm, soulless abominations that hunt everything with a soul to extinction. They are attracted to negative emotions and are the targets that huntsmen and huntresses hunt. By the way, huntsmen and huntresses are the speedo protectors of Remnant.

The last species had tried attacking Ainz while he was extracting information from the man, but the death knight made short work of them.

They were called beowolves by the locals; they resembled wolves in both appearance and behavior but had ink-like skin with bone protrusions, as well as bone masks.

Ainz couldn't get an accurate estimate of their level, as they all couldn't take a single strike from the death knight. What amazed Ainz was that, unlike he had expected, the dead Grimm had arisen undead, and after some experiments, he managed to use their bodies to summon death knights, which he theorized to be permeant based on the fact that the body of the Grimm was used.

But not all experiments were successful; a soul eater couldn't bind itself to the body of the Grimm, lending credence to their lack of souls.

Back to the subject of the level of the Beowolves, Ainz estimated from their movement and information from both the now-dead man's memories and what he had gathered from the spell [Life Essence] that they are between level 5 and 10, with their leader being around level 12 and 13 stats wise. However, he noted the lack of level-appropriate skills on both sides that would affect the combat potential of those creatures.

'No, I can't use Yggdrasil-based logic here; that was a game; this is the real world; logically, a person wouldn't gain magical skills from training or killing monsters; the best they could do is increase their physical prowess and learn how to best use their power. After all, this world has no magic.

Yes, this world had no magic, according to Bross's memories. However, it had something else.

Which is the final and most important thing he found: auras and semblances?

Aura, from what he had gathered, is the manifestation of one's soul that protects them from harm and strengthens their physical abilities to superhuman levels; the level of power gained from aura varies depending on the level of proficiency and control the user has.

A semblance, on the other hand, is considered to be a special power gained by aura users. with each user having a power that is unique to them. However, exceptions to that rule exist, as a semblance can be hereditary.

'I need to gather more information, and I know where to get it.' Ainz stared at the direction in which the bandit had been fleeing.

Ainz looked behind him, where a group of undead Grimm had gathered. After realizing that they could be turned into undead, Ainz ordered the death knight to have his zombie squares build a small army of undead Grimm for his next plan, which wasn't a problem for them being level 17 undead and having the numerical advantage.

The zombie Grimm bodies had maintained their form as Ainz didn't want to make it obvious that they were undead, not that the bandits would know what an undead is.

They were somewhat similar to undead beasts, ranging from 3 to 18, with those on the high end of the spectrum being giant bear-like Grimm.

"Hmm, I think they were called Ursa-Majors? Yeah, that's about right."

Seeing this small army that numbered around a hundred waiting for his command, Ainz felt his RP soul flaring for action, and he indulged it.

"Now, my undead army, show them despair." Ainz spared his arms and commanded the army. The eyes of the mask he was wearing glowed with an ominous red glow.

End of Chapter 2

AN: Thanks for the support, not much action in this chapter but the next one would have more for the thrill seekers.

I edited the first chapter to make it easier on the eyes, I hope you will enjoy this story, as I plan to make it an interesting read.

I welcome constructive feedback.