In the cafeteria of the high-school, four figures were seemed to be having lunch. Well, all except one were having the lunch. The fourth figure clad in dark robes was just watching his friends while smelling his own meal.

The meal was looking very delicious, yet the robed figure could only smell it. And why not? He was not a human like the rest of his friends. His new friends.

Ainz watched his three classmates eating the lunch to their heart content. Being an undead creature of bones only, he had no means of even tasting the food. As a former salaryman of 22nd century, he could never imagine of eating these simple, yet mouth-watering food. The only thing he could right now was to stare their expressions in hope of feeling their pleasures of eating the lunch. In order to not remember the tasteless pills and tablets, he even secretly mimicked their motions of mouth and the sounds.

Alas, he would never be able to mimic the true feelings of a human. Well, he never lived as a human at the first place. Even before the transition into the New World, he and his mother were simple livestock of the megacorps. Aside from his online friends and his late mother, he had hardly felt humanity from anyone.

His thoughts were suddenly halted as he felt the gazes of his friends at him.

They had stopped eating and put forward the half eaten food at his direction. The table was big enough to set the lunch of eight people without an issue.

"Ummm, are you all not hungry anymore?" Ainz asked to the three.

At his question, Kazuma responded with a sigh.

"Ainz, are we friends or not?"

His question lingered for a moment in the air, until Ainz could only say, "Eh?"

"Don't eh with me. We know that you are watching our plates and faces. Just because you lack a face, it doesn't mean your head can't giveaway of your expressions. You want it as well, right?" The last sentence of Kazuma had a tone that expressed pity at him.

Ainz shifted at his seat as he was silenced by the near-accurate reply of Kazuma. He, for a second, considered that they were creeped out by his stares. Anyone would give a same reaction if they were stared by an undead skeleton.

He quickly apologised for his mistake, "Forgive me, Kazuma. I will just sit somewhere." As he was about to leave his spot, he was stopped by Tanya.

"Who said that you can leave this place?" Her tone was laced with full of coldness like Narberal. She seemed very pissed off for some reason.

"This is not a battlefield and I may not be your major, but I am still your peer like these two. And I am letting you to have a bite from my plate, so rather not reject it."

If Ainz had eyes, he would be blinking at her with confusion.

"You all are... offering your lunch to me?" He concluded.

"Bingo! You may lack the necessary tools for digesting your meal, but you may never know if you can truly eat it. Why don't you give it a try?" Subaru encouraged.

It took him a couple of seconds to realise what they were trying to do with him. He took a piece of gingerbread from the plate and bit it. The feeling of sweetness never reached to his dead senses, as that piece just fell down from his mouth.

The quartet could not help, but sweatdropped at the unexpectedly obvious result.

Seeing the dejected faces of his friends' attempt to have him enjoy the food, Ainz could not help but smile at them.

Even when his online friends were not here, Ainz had gotten a new group of friends who could look past of his monstrous exterior.

"No need to worry about me. I am fine with what I am." Ainz replied.

"But Ainz!" Subaru interjected.

"It is fine, Subaru. I really don't mind it. I am just happy that we all can spend time together. Not like what we are, but where our true selves lie. It feels good that we don't have pretend like the image our fellow companions think. I am satisfied with the care you all have provided to me." Ainz grabbed the edges of the table and gave his sincere bow to them.

His respectful gesture caught each of them by surprise and embarrassment. They were aware that under this horrifying visage, a fellow Japanese was all along.

"Ugh, now you are embarrassing me." Kazuma replied.

"Well, it is true that we all are tired of the life in our respective worlds. This high school life is not that bad. I'd rather live here instead going back to the borders or in any war." Tanya explained a bit about her life.

"Yeah. It feels better to stay like this. We rarely get some extra time to talk with each other."

"Now you said that Subaru. Sometimes my party annoys me to the point where it becomes unbearable to stay with them."

"Hmm, you are not wrong about that." Tanya nodded at Kazuma's words as she remembered the number times when the whole class got a punishment because of Aqua. She would not hate her for that, if only Aqua stopped making the same mistake again.

"But we all enjoy our companies, right?"

"Don't say that Subaru. We don't own a company or corporation." Ainz interjected as the word "company" reminded him off of his black company.

They all agreed that the time they had spent together was going to be the one of the most memorable days ever.


"So, do any of you know why we are here?" Ainz asked.

"""Nope.""" The three humans replied at the same time.

Just an hour ago, they were chatting with each other. Everything was going smoothly, and yet...

...they were no longer in their isekaied high school.

They were standing in the dark alley of a bustling city. The city's architecture was that of a medieval like that of Ainz's, Kazuma's and Subaru's world. It looked pretty big when compared to the normal cities they had seen before. Not far from them, a seashore was full of ships doing their businesses with the local populace. However, none of them were familiar with this place.

"Should we ask where we are?" Subaru presented his idea.

"And what about the language? I have just covered a huge area of the city, but I don't even remember any these languages." Kazuma shot it immediately with his explanation.

"Indeed. There isn't any auto-translation magic in this world, that we can confirm." Ainz added.

"So, we have a language barrier issue? How are we going to solve this problem? Any ideas?" Tanya inquired.

On that, everyone stared at each other. For few minutes, they decided to various things. But the ideas were shot down immediately as each of them shared their own worldview of how they would get stuck in a major problem. They had their own share of life experiences that made them curious enough to stay their guards up.

Eventually, Ainz searched through his inventory to find anything worth useful here.

"Oh!" And he found it.

Four rings with emeralds embedded on each with golden base, were distributed among them. These rings were used for auto-translation in terms of verbal components. He did not know whether it would work or not, but it was the only thing he had.

Subaru, like always, decided to test it out on the locals. He quickly went to the nearby shop and spoke,

"Excuse me, what is the name of the city?"

At his question, the shopkeeper eyed him warily.

"Are you suffering from amnesia? You are in the Baldur's city. Hmph!" The shopkeeper just ignored him with an annoyed face.

"Oh, thanks." Thanking the old man, Subaru went back to the alley where his friends waited for him.

"The rings are working well. I asked a local shopkeeper about the name of the city and he called it Baldur's City." He answered.

"Baldur's City? I have never heard this name before. What about you guys?" Kazuma asked, but he got a negative answers from them.

Subaru suddenly remembered something from his conversation.

"The shopkeeper was rude when I asked the city's name. It may be possible that this city is quite famous for others to forget. It must be a memorable enough for the world, or may be the continent I believe."

"Interesting. I have tried contacting anyone from Sorcerer Kingdom and those who lived near it. But there is no response at all. We can be in my world, but too far from my home to reach there. But my Gate spell is unresponsive as well, so..."

"So, we are not even on Ainz's world. Well one is out." Kazuma concluded.

"I have read the history and geography of my world as well. Not to mention, such bustling should have something like guns or devices from my world. As you all know, my world was kinda between magic and science." Tanya elaborated, putting herself out as well.

Leaving only Subaru and Kazuma as the sole possibilities. However, neither were sure of where they could be. They neither owned a country or a military officer to have enough knowledge and connection to use anywhere. Kazuma was kind of a hero, but limited in terms of area. While Subaru was just ... Subaru.

They were about to plan for making contacts with the local police force or library, until they heard screams of the civilians.

Surprised yet alert, they reached at the top of a building and watched something very bizarre, but not too bizarre.

An alien looking ship with tentacles that was invading a city block by teleporting the civilians through a simple touch of the tentacle. The concept was... not new to them. But the application was sure something.

"Wow, I have only seen this in Hollywood movies."

"Same." Both Kazuma and Subaru said at the same time as they watched the spectacle with awe.

"Are you two going to just watch the show?" Tanya shook her head at the two boys as she prepared herself for the encounter.

"We have been enjoying our time in peace in the high school. But somehow her powers had to interfere. I am planning to follow this godly being's plans. I will write my own story." Ainz buffed himself as the ship was getting near.

Watching their two mentally adult friends, both Subaru and Kazuma were also fired up. They were not going to let the adults shine this time.

Subaru woke up his Authority and Kazuma activated his Lurk.

The quartet were unaware of their future, but the world was unaware of its future as well. The four chaotic elements had entered into the Grand Design. Only the time would tell of which side had enough guts to stay till the end.