Prologue
The office of the Supreme Leader of the Great Tomb of Nazarick was luxurious to say the least. All furnishings were elaborately ornate, giving the place an air of elegance and rarity. Soft, fluffy scarlet carpeting covered every inch of the floor and muffled any footsteps. Flags with various designs hung, crisscrossing over each other on the far back wall.
The desk in the room was made of dignified ebony. And the room's master sat in a black leather chair. This individual clad in a raven-black robe that seemed to suck light was the Overlord of Death.
His bare head had neither skin nor flesh: just bone. Red flames burned in his hollow eye sockets, with something black mixed in. He had once been called Momonga but now went by his guild's name, Ainz Ooal Gown.
Ainz folded his finger bones. His nine rings sparkled, reflecting the glow produced by the Continual Light spell. "Sheesh, finally today's the day!"
A week had passed since the day the Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing game Yggdrasil closed its servers and Nazarick had been mysteriously transported to another world. During that time he and Oshikuru had checked the conditions of the Great Tomb and of their minions. Then they learned lots of information in the "Day of the 4 Battles of Carne Village" and squeezed even more info out of the Theocracy's prisoners, who were now being tortured under the direction of the merciless Albedo, still mad about they injuring her love.
In spite of their still limited knowledge about the New World, it seemed that magic in there wasn't different from how it used to be in Yggdrasil, even if the high tiers were inaccessible to 99.99% people.
Still, it was required to gain extra information and resources so it were formed and trained undercover teams whose members were carefully picked among Nazarick's elite. While natives should not be a threat, it was possible that some players could be hiding there, planning to ambush Ainz Ooal Gown's forces, so the Supreme Beings decided to entrust at least the leader of each team with a World Item so they would have ultimate protection.
On this day, most of these secret agents would leave to start operations in Re-Estize, the country Nazarick was teleported to. All teams had two members, for priority was to not attract suspicion with large numbers. Still, they all had been assigned lots of high stealth level mercenary monsters, mainly shadow demons and hanzos, to act as sentries, spies and, if necessary, murderers.
One team was composed by the Overlord and the Hellking, which is why Ainz was eager to go adventuring with his friend. Their designated base would be in E-Rantel, closest large city to the Great Tomb.
Another group was formed by Sebas and Solution, headed to the Kingdom's capital mostly to collect information about politics, in addition to magic items of great power and strong people such as Blue Rose on whom Nigun had so gently provided interesting details.
Demiurge and Shalltear were given carte blanche, as long as they would not be found out by local authorities, to find Re-Estize's criminals, especially the vast organisation known as Eight Fingers they were informed on by the Theocracy prisoners. Given the malign nature of the Archdevil and the True Vampire, Ainz gave them freedom to perform all manners of experiments on the outlaws, but always remembering the ultimate goal was to take over and reform that sort of yakuza so that it would gather information and resources for Nazarick.
Aura and Mare were charged to thoroughly explore and map the Great Forest of Tob since its vicinity to Nazarick, paying attention to the toughest monsters in it, up to the Azerlisia Mountains.
The Supreme Beings had designed the operation so that no place and aspect of Re-Estize could be left ignored: from the wilderness to the two most important cities, from the king's side to to the nobles' faction, from the merchant's to the magician's guild, from the adventurers to the criminals. No stone would be left unturned once they were done investigating the Kingdom where Nazarick now was. If they were successful, of course.
"Everything will be as you wish, my lord."
The gorgeous woman standing quietly by responded to Ainz's muttering. She was flawlessly, peerlessly beautiful, wearing a snow-white dress. Her smile was like that of a goddess. Her lustrous hair was a black the exact opposite of her dress and reached all the way to her waist. But she wasn't human.
She had golden irises with vertical slit pupils and thick horns curled forward out of her temples like a ram's. Furthermore, black feathered wings sprouted from her back near her hips, arching around in a way that concealed her feet.
"Hmm. I'm glad to have your devotion, Albedo."
She was the captain of all Nazarick's floor guardians, which is why she would be the one collecting and analysing all reports compiled by them even during the undercover operations before editing and handing them over to the wisest minds in Nazarick. Or so she thought of her two superiors, especially the one she was madly in love with, the Supreme Leader Ainz Ooal Gown.
The servants the guild had created became self-aware and swore allegiance to Ainz. He was pleased about that, but it was also a burden, since he used to be just an office worker. Acting like a master before his subordinates and making sure things were running smoothly as an absolute ruler was not as easy as he once thought, the Guildmaster had a lot of duties and apparently he could not run away from them, unlike Oshikuru.
I swear my friend's real superpower is evading all responsibilities… I do need a leash to keep my dawg from hiding up in Little Hell or wherever he ran off. It seems giving him a Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown has an annoying drawback…
With the excuse of preparing himself for the upcoming undercover operation he's never around whenever it's time to go through documents I know almost nothing about!
He gave a hard look at the paper mountain on the desk. I so wish I could cast a Fireball on you…
Instead he sighed in his mind and turned to Albedo. At least she's a sight for my sore eyes…
"And the next report?"
"Here it is, Lord Ainz."
Ainz accepted the sheaf of papers and ran his eyes over the characters written in bold fountain-pen lines.
It was a report from the guardian of the sixth level, Aura Bella Fiora, who had already started her task with her brother.
Her report explained that so far they hadn't encountered any other Yggdrasil players like Ainz, nor seen any sign of them. She said that their survey of the forest near the Tomb was proceeding on schedule and that they had reached the lake at the foot of the mountains on the other side.
Ainz nodded. He was most concerned about running into other players, so he was relieved they hadn't.
"Got it. Please tell Aura to proceed under her current orders."
"Underst—"
There came a succession of quiet knocks on the door. Albedo looked at Ainz, and then, with a bow, went to answer it. Once she'd seen who it was, she announced, "Shalltear would like to see you."
"Shalltear? Sure, let her in."
With Ainz's permission, a girl of about fourteen wearing a raven-black ball gown with a full, wide skirt made a graceful entrance. She had almost waxy white skin, and unparalleled was the most correct way to describe her shapely face. Her long silver hair bounced with every step she took, as did her chest, which was big for how old she looked. She was the Guardian of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Floors, a True Vampire named Shalltear Bloodfallen, created by Peroroncino as his ideal soulmate.
"I hope you are well, Lord Ainz," she morbidly said while curtsying.
"You too, Shalltear. What brings you to my quarters today?"
"I came to see your handsome face, of course."
Ainz's skull didn't change expressions, but the crimson flames in his orbits flickered. He was about to say, "Save the brownnosing," but decided against it for he saw the smile on Albedo's face gradually change as she watched Shalltear's crimson pupils cloud over with lust out of the corner of her eye. The succubus' subtle expression remained and her beauty was unspoiled, but the thin smile was no longer real. It was the grimace of a jealous demon.
But Ainz felt all right as the glare was directed at Shalltear, not at him.
"Then you're satisfied now, right Shalltear? Lord Ainz and I are discussing the future of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Could you not bother us? This is something important we need to do alone."
"It's basic politeness to greet someone before stating your business. Don't be so disagreeable, Ms. Over-the-Hill. What's your hurry? Are you past your expiration date?"
"Food so pumped full of preservatives it doesn't have an expiration date is no different from poison! I think I'm still on the safe side."
"I wouldn't underestimate the bacteria that cause food poisoning. Some of them might even cause contagious diseases."
"Do you even have anything to eat over there? Your display is quite impressive, but when it comes to the goods…you know?"
"Display?! I'm gonna kill you!"
"So, who's past her expiration date?"
Before Ainz stood two women whose facial expressions were quite difficult to describe; those looks could put an end to a hundred million–year romance. He quelled the strong impulse to hold his head in his hands and spoke up before an appallingly ferocious battle could break out.
"Cut out the kids' stuff, you two."
They immediately apologised in unison and beamed smiles at him. Instead of whatever horrors they had been moments before, two lovely, innocent maidens now stood there.
Women truly are terrifying… Or maybe it's just these two…
Even Ainz, whose larger swings in emotion were being suppressed since becoming undead, was a little freaked out when faced with such rapid adjustments of attitude.
The reason for their conflict was that they were rivals in love. Both Albedo and Shalltear had fallen for Ainz: the latter due to him being the Supreme Leader and the necrophilia Peroroncino, being a hopeless pervert, had written in her backstory; the latter because of a joke by the Guildmaster in the last in-game moments.
In short, he was now loved by two incomparable beauties. What guy wouldn't be happy about that?
But Ainz couldn't just accept such feelings, especially after Shalltear the sticky-voiced necrophiliac had come over to whisper, "You have great bone structure; it's as if you were modeled by a god!", right his ear. Maybe to her those were words of love, or a compliment, but to Ainz, that would be always be remembered as a shock: the first compliment ever paid to his aspect was as a skeleton.
He cleared the trivial matter from his mind and repeated his question.
"I'll ask again: What is it, Shalltear?"
"My lord, I am going with Demiurge to join Sebas and Solution as ordered. It seems like I won't be back to Nazarick for quite a while, so I have come to say good-bye."
Ainz recalled the orders he had given her and nodded. "Ah, Got it. Stay sharp, do your job, listen to Demiurge, protect the World Item I gave you and… most importantly, come home safe, Shalltear."
"My lord!" a dignified voice rang out, quite different from her actual thoughts. Hihihi, he cares for me, he wants me to come back to him unharmed! It's over for you, Albedo! I'm the only one worthy of Ainz-sama!
"You can go, Shalltear. Remember not to play with too many of the humans you have been tasked to deal with. Even if they're weak and criminals, their organisation has information and resources useful to Nazarick, especially their leaders. Make sure they'll still be usable after you and Demiurge recruit them. And no matter what, don't let anyone else outside of Nazarick know about this!"
The Supreme Leader had said similar words countless times to both the vampire and the fiend, even Oshikuru had stressed the point to those two, but he was still afraid Demiurge and Shalltear would go overboard, massacring half of the people in Re-Estize.
"Yes, Lord Ainz. We won't let you down!" Hihihi, I'll come back to you after making such a good job… while Albedo's so useless she can't even leave Nazarick to make sure our Lords' will is carried out! They'll throw you away, worthless gorilla!
Ainz made a long-practiced dignified gesture to politely dismiss her. While the door closed behind Shalltear, he thought, I hope they don't mess up after we repeatedly warned them… maybe even too much. After all they're the most suitable for this task besides Oshikuru and I. At the moment, she's the strongest NPC and Demiurge should be the brightest.
He then turned his gaze back to the pile of documents on his desk. Boredom and anger filled him.
Ok, I've had enough of this.
[Message]
…
…
"Yo!" Said a cheerful voice which was soon stomped upon.
"Oshikuru-san, where the hell are you?! If you don't come to my office at once to help me go through the reports, I swear I will send you look after those two bloodlust hounds instead of coming adventuring with me!"
"Alright, fine, omw. But I'm not hiding, I'm busy rehearsing and making sure our backstory has no inconsistencies…"
Actually, he had been doing that for a short while. Most of the time, he experimented with summons, especially specimens of female succubi, finding out those demons now could actually do what he desired, which was for them to please him. Of course he had made sure nobody would find out about his dirty little secret. Not even Ainz knew about that. If he had, not only would he be much angrier, but also wouldn't let him hear the end of it. But above all, Oshikuru did not want to make it known a Supreme Being enjoyed that kind of activity or he'd have most female servants lining up on his door to have a piece of him, while his friend Ainz seemed determined to forced himself being forever a virgin.
"And I have been followed by NPCs and problems all the time. Get your lazy ass here!"
You need to relax, my friend. Perhaps I should accelerate my plan to make you have some fun with Albedo… and after that I can let everyone know about my room service without worrying any more. Or should I find myself an actual lifetime partner? Well, to create an everlasting succubus I need a high-level dead human or demihuman body, maybe I'll find or make one such corpse while adventuring in the New World… who knows, maybe I'll even find true love out there…
"Oshikuru-san, I mean it! Please come help me!" remarked Ainz as he had said nothing.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming, calm down. Don't worry Ainz-san, we'll take a nice, long and well-deserved break…"
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Knowing it was him, Ainz let out a "Come in!" while Albedo seemed annoyed by having another interruption to her wonderful time alone with the one she loved.
But once she noticed who he was, the Guardian Overseer went down to her knees.
Oshikuru entered, his huge demonic form entering with no problems thanks to Nazarick being designed for the oddest heteromorphs.
The Demon Samurai was warmly welcomed by his best friend and Albedo, but behind the facade Ainz continued the conversation via [Message].
"I am the one who truly deserves to take a break while you have been fooling around most of the time!"
Hehe, if only you knew, you'd really be running after me with the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown… "Well, now I'm here for you, Ainz-san. Anyway, I've had to do boring stuff too. At least you always have the most beautiful woman ever drooling over you!"
"Kukuku, that's true!"
He looked at his friend, once again thankful for having him by his side in the New World just like in the old one.
"Bah, I can't stay mad at you. Also, it's just due to the NPCs always looking up at us like we're all-knowing gods… Should we just come around and tell them we're not that smart?"
"Absolutely not, Ainz-san, We must keep up the act! Don't worry, together we'll make it look like we know our stuff. Let's just be patient a little more. We'll soon be on our way to have some fun in the New World!"
"Hm, easy for you to tell me to be patient… but you're right, Oshikuru-san. It'll take only a few hours to get over these documents…"
"Wait, what?! A few… hours?… Hold on, I just remembered I still have to—"
"You're not going anywhere until we're done here!"
"Ah, shit, here we go again with working our asses off like on Earth… can't we let Albedo take care of the boring stuff?"
"Well, I'd like that too, but no, we can't. We're the ones in charge, we must try to understand all of what is going on. Now sit down, or stand up, I don't care, just come here and read this stuff with me. Whatever either of us can't get by himself, I'm sure we can figure it out together.
Of course, over [Message] so Albedo won't notice we don't know shit…"
"Ugh, teamwork… I hate that. Just 'cause it's you who's asking, my friend."
Oshikuru barely refrained from letting himself fall into the armchair and from giving a hard look at the beautiful Overseer who now reminded him of an evil corporation's manager from old Earth.
Satisfied by his friend helping him out, no matter how begrudgingly, Ainz Ooal Gown turned to the beauty in the room, quite mechanically asking as earlier:
"The next report then, Albedo?"
"Here it is, my Lords."
After staring at it for several minutes, Oshikuru spoke again to Ainz through his mind.
"Bro, I'm sorry, but I absolutely have no idea what this is about."
"Damn, me neither!"