Ainz emerged from a [Gate] walking into a nicely made log cabin. It wasn't a mansion, but one would not call it small either, having multiple rooms and even a basement. This was his current base of operations, and he found the aesthetic a pleasant change from the palaces of the Sorcerer Kingdom.

"AhHh, Lord AiNz, you Have reTurned. WelCome bacK." A wispy distorted voice called out to him.

The undead in front of him was wearing a ragged formal trench coat with an equally tattered suit underneath. Its long face was half-rotted with its eyes bulging out and a giant grin ripping through the little cheek muscles that were left. His entire body was floating inches off the ground and had a magical shimmer surrounding it.

"Horrow Lich. Any disturbances?"

"NoThinG yOu…" The undead paused making some extremely unpleasant noises trying to force itself to speak as clearly as possible.

"Nothing you did not account for, Lord. As you predicted, those Humans have been checking up on 'you' every few hours." Ainz moved his hand to grab a wooden chair that was nearby. As soon as he touched it, he quickly pulled his hand back.

"How annoying." He turned his hand over to see it bleeding profusely. Ainz looked at the lich's form before furrowing his brow.

"Remember to dispel your illusion when I am here, I would like to remove this… layer as soon as possible." The shimmer around the lich immediately disappeared as he bowed deeply.

"I apologize, Lord Ainz! It will never happen again!"

"It's fine, just try to remember for next time." As Ainz forgave the lich, he removed a fleshy ring on his pinky finger. This removal caused the flesh that covered his bones to immediately start shriveling up and turn to dust.

This ring was a prototype of something Demiurge called the 'Successor Project'. While the ring created a human layer around the wearer's body, the layer was quite fragile, so much so, a small cut would cause it to bleed profusely. It also couldn't handle certain… activities with other level 100 beings.

"Ha, much better." Ainz clenched and unclenched his now skeletal hand a few times before sitting down on the wooden chair and turning back to the lich.

"Any news on the Queen?" The giant grin on the lich's face immediately disappeared at the mention of the royal.

"She still is in the country of Faubrey, negotiating with their king. So far, she has made little progress in that matter. Though, she has been keeping regular contact with the Shadows" A dark halo started to emerge from Ainz's body.

'Faubrey… In a world full of magic, why must humans continue to follow the path most destructive, inefficient, and IDIOTIC?! …I will never forget my old life and I swore to destroy any traces of non-magic industry. But if I start acting rashly, I will only endanger myself to unknown threats.' The lich watched Ainz think patiently so as to not disturb him.

"Continue to have the shadow demon observe the Queen. Are there any significant updates on the three other Legendary Heroes?

"None that warrants your direct involvement, my lord. But the demon observing the Spear has made notes of the First Princess contacting the Three Heroes Church multiple times during their time in the capital."

Ainz figured the church was directly influencing the king, but the princess, why? Was the king using his daughter to be the in-between or was the king just a means to an end? If the church was trying to gain political favor from the future queen, they should be trying to influence the second princess not the first. Ainz continued to ponder this for a moment before giving an order.

"Inform the shadow demon to change targets to the First Princess and ensure that he reports on any communication between the princess and the Three Hero Church." The lich bowed.

"Right away, Lord Ainz."

Ainz leaned back into the chair. Nothing out of the ordinary. A few exceptional beings here, a few conspiracies there, but overall, this world seemed relatively peaceful, well, except for the Waves of course. Regrettably, Ainz couldn't make any major moves without Nazarick here with him, and even if he did, he still hasn't fully investigated this world's leveling system. At the thought of his levels, Ainz pulled up his stats once again.

[ERROR! FAILED TO LOAD SKILL SCREEN!]

[LOADING "Yggdrasil" MECHANICS…]

[CREATION PROCESS CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS…]

[PROCESSING: 88.5%... 88.6%...]

'Hah, still processing. Am I really level 1 again, or was that because the system didn't recognize Yggdrasil's mechanics? I know I still have all the abilities I had during the old world, and they didn't change like the first time I was transported from Yggdrasil, but that still leaves so many questions.' Ainz continued to think of all the possibilities this world's leveling system could have on his character, but before he could delve too deep into speculation, the lich spoke up.

"I apologize for interrupting your thoughts Lord Ainz, but you instructed me to inform you immediately about the experiment. The one regarding those bodies you provided."

"Ah, yes. I assume you were able to produce some results?" The lich's grin grew even wider and started ripping through his flesh as he began cackling.

It has been over two days since the duel at the castle and Naofumi and Raphtalia were currently traveling towards the town of Riyute. Before they left, they were able to get the reward from the king for defeating the wave, even if he tried to skimp out on doing so. With those funds, they were able to obtain magic books, new potion recipes, and a monster egg Naofumi got from the slave trader.

Suddenly Naofumi stopped in the middle of a clearing with a confused look.

"This area was a part of the battle, wasn't it?" Naofumi looked around the area.

"I think so, why?"

"I was hoping I could see if my shield would accept any of the enemies that came from the wave. But I haven't seen a single corpse."

The villagers might have cleaned up some of the corpses left behind from the wave, but not this far out from the village. They were probably too concentrated on the village's reconstruction rather than some corpses in the middle of the forest. Naofumi continued looking around for any remains, making sure he didn't miss anything.

"Mr. Naofumi, we should probably get going. The sun should be setting soon and Riyute is right past this hill."

Raphtalia was quite a distance ahead of him already. He checked one more time, before sighing in defeat.

"Hah, whatever... I'm on my way!"

For the rest of their journey, they didn't find a single monster corpse, but they did find a large, cleared area with some devastation to the nearby trees. A large pool of dried blood could be seen in the center, with dragging marks going towards the village.

As they approached Riyute, the sun was starting to set but they could still notice how devastated the village was. Half of the buildings were destroyed with some villagers trying to salvage any materials they could. The other somewhat intact buildings had dozens of people running around trying to repair them.

A villager, who was examining a large monster corpse, waved over to them.

"Oh, Shield Hero! Welcome back."

"Was this the boss of the wave?" Naofumi gestured toward the corpse in front of them.

"Yep, we were able to move it into the village earlier today. Though, there's not much left of it."

The corpse in front of him was of a chimera, or what was left of it. Its skin was torn apart, the heads were missing, and only its meat, bones, and viper tail remained.

"Do you mind if I take a little bit of it?"

"Yeah, that should be fine. Just don't take too much. We planning on giving the rest to a visiting knight." Naofumi and Raphtalia started taking pieces of what was left of the chimera.

"A knight?"

All the knights Naofumi has ever met have either threatened or straight-up attacked him, like the ones from the wave. They wouldn't assist a village for something they could just take by force.

"Yeah, nice guy. Apparently, he's from a foreign kingdom that uses a different currency than we do, so he asked if he could get a free room at the inn if he helped with the restoration process. He has been a huge help in clearing all the monster corpses, so we thought we could offer him the parts of the chimera that we can't use."

"We just came from the capital and didn't find a single corpse. Is he the reason there weren't any remains in the forest?" Raphtalia asked. The villager just shrugged.

"Must be. I haven't seen him go in that direction, but he's been moving around so much since this morning, I'm not surprised he got that area cleared already. He really is amazing. You should meet him!" Just as Naofumi was going to decline, the man shouted towards the village.

"Sir Momon! Could you please come over here!?"

A large figure near one of the houses raised their head and started to walk over to them. Naofumi and Raphatalia recognized the figure. Two greatswords, black and gold armor, and a large red cape with an unknown insignia. The same knight that the weapon shop owner warned them about, but also the knight that tried to help them at the castle. When he got to the group, he gave a small bow.

"Ah, the Shield Hero. It's a pleasure to meet you again."

To say Naofumi was surprised by Momon's attitude would be an understatement. Sure, the guy may have 'helped' him during the banquet, but he wasn't defending Naofumi, he just questioned the royals' actions.

"That duel with the Spear Hero was quite entertaining. The fact that you were able to have an edge over him throughout most of the duel was impressive, considering how you couldn't directly damage him in any major way. You did exceptionally well."

"..." Thinking about the 'duel' irritated Naofumi to no end.

Momon looked over to Raphtalia and bowed slightly.

"Raphtalia was it? I am glad to see you are doing well. I am sure the whole dueling ordeal was quite stressful on you." Raphtalia seemed surprised to be called out directly.

"Y-yeah, it was. Thank you for trying to help us during the banquet." Momon just shook his head.

"It was no big deal; I just wish I did more to help your situation."

"You mean her being my slave?" Naofumi asks.

Momon might be acting nice, but he has not been shy about his dislike for Raphtaila being his slave in the past. The sudden change in his attitude just made Naofumi suspicious of his intentions.

Momon hesitated.

"…You are not completely wrong, I still do not approve of sentient beings being used and thrown away like garbage, but your companion here is no slave. In name, she still is, but she clearly is not being treated as one. So, no, I have no problem with her being your 'slave'."

"Wow, thank you sooo much for your permission, sir knight." Naofumi rolled his eyes.

Naofumi knew a direct fight with this guy would probably result in his defeat, but something about his sudden change in attitude just got under his skin.

'If this guy thinks some nice words and him 'not having a problem with me having a slave' is gonna make me fall over his feet in appreciation, he's got another thing coming. I've already fallen for that trick once. Never again!'

Momon just stood there, presuming in shock at his words. The villager, worrying things might get out of hand, backed away from them. Then out of nowhere, Momon started laughing.

"The Shield Hero, a hero that goes around threatening shopkeepers with monsters, yelling at the country's royalty, and disrespecting knights to their faces. Ahahaha!" Suddenly, he stopped laughing, his tone becoming much more serious.

"I tried to make up for previous aggression towards you, Shield Hero, I've done my part. If you are unwilling to accept the fact that your reputation in the capital will cause people to make assumptions about your character and are unwilling to give those people a second chance, then those rumors might be more accurate than I expected."

Before anyone could respond to what he said, Momon started walking away.

"Gibson, make sure to let them know why they should not go into the swamp. I would hate for a friendly warning to be misinterpreted as an order." Momon walked back towards one of the many destroyed buildings. As he did, Raphtalia gave Naofumi a concerned look.

" … I understand we haven't had the best experience with royalty, but not all knights or nobles are bad people. He's not even from Meltromarc."

"…" Naofumi didn't respond but looked conflicted about how he handled the situation.

'She's right. Maybe I shouldn't have reacted the way I did, the shop owner was the same way, but… Ahhh! He sounded just like how Bitch and the king talked to me before stabbing me in the back!' Naofumi sighed before turning to Gibson.

"So, what's this about the swamp? Why shouldn't we go there?" Gibson jumped at being called out.

"Umm, Y-yeah, uh…" He took a moment to calm himself, before continuing. "Just like how Sir Mo… I mean, Momon said, it's not safe to go in there right now. We've been hearing loud, I don't know, roaring lately. It was distant at first, but it's been getting louder since this morning." He turned to the swamp.

"Some adventurers went out to see what it was, but they never came back. The swamp has never had any strong monsters appear there before, just the normal frog monsters. Momon offered to head there tomorrow and deal with it for us."

'Wait, could that be a unique monster that only appears after the first wave? Considering how much the other heroes want to Min-Max their leveling, it would make sense they wouldn't come back to a low-level town.' Naofumi gave a sly smile and nodded in understanding.

"We'll make sure to keep that in mind. C'mon Raphtalia, let's get a room at the inn before it gets dark."

Gibson waved goodbye as they both started walking towards the inn. Most of the villagers they met were more than glad to see them, with even the innkeeper offering free room and board. When they got inside, they decided to discuss what they were going to do moving forward.

"Mr. Naofumi, are we going to be leveling up in the forest tomorrow or are we heading to the next town?"

"We'll be heading to the swamp and try to find that monster the knight guy is going after. If that monster is unique, we should be able to level up a few times after just one fight."

"Don't you think that's a bit too much for us? I know that we need to get as strong as possible as fast as possible, but I feel like this is too much. If Momon is dealing with it personally, that must mean it's a high level."

Naofumi looked at her confused. Raphtalia has never backed away from a fight before, well except for the dog and the undead from the wave, but one was traumatic for her, and the other was something they clearly couldn't defeat.

"Does that guy still scare you?" Raphtalia looked away ashamed.

"It's not that I'm scared of him, I think he's a good person, it's just… I feel like no matter how strong I feel like I have gotten it means nothing compared to his level of strength." She continued to look away from him, fearing what he must think of her. Naofumi tilted her face towards him.

"Don't worry, I am not saying we should risk our lives trying to defeat a monster that we can't beat, but we should still see if it's a unique monster. If it's more than we can handle we will just retreat and let that knight guy handle it, alright? I won't put your life at risk."

"… Alright." She seemed to move closer as she answered. Naofumi wondered why for a moment before figuring it out. He pulled her close for a hug.

'She probably feels bad about the whole situation. Geez, she really does act like a kid sometimes.'

When the hug ended, her face was bright red. Naofumi put his hand up to her forehead.

"Do you have a fever? You look a bit red." The redness seemed to spread as he mentioned it and she turned away.

"I-I'm fine! I-I'll be right back, I forgot something outside!" She ran out of the room at full speed as Naofumi sat on his bed, utterly confused at what had just happened.