75 Chapter 1

No matter how hard Momonga tried, he could not get used to the lack of privacy. Each and every moment of solace needed to be fought for. Even now, during his bath, a mere cough would make the maids and guards, stationed outside, rush in.

But other than such inconveniences, taking a bath with his recently created energy body on was quite a divine experience. His only companion was a mindless slime he used for clearing his skeletal form, and its silent presence was not bothersome.

Though, something was strange. These slimes tended to end up missing, and he then needed to fetch a new one from the sixth floor, where they spawned, almost on a weekly basis. Albedo and others who had offered to help him wash, claimed innocence on the matter and put the blame on the careless maids who displaced the creatures. 'I know it's one of them, but I can't just accuse anyone without any proof.' He mused, sliding deeper into the hot, soothing water.

'Five more minutes.' He convinced himself when the timer went off. 'I think I can afford that much.' As busy as he was lately, Momonga was not above enjoying life a bit.

Unfortunately for him, not even a minute later an insistent knocking on the door erased any hope of spending more time relaxing like this.

"What!" He shouted through the door leading to his private bathing area.

Rubedo barged in and bowed, Momonga deactivating his human form on instinct at the same time. "My Lord, I needed to be sure nothing had happened to you."

Since newly acquired territories took most of Albedo's time, she had reluctantly allowed her younger sister to take her place as Momonga's personal guard. Unfortunately for Momonga, Rubedo took her new duty way too seriously and didn't want to leave him for a moment, even when he was within the Great Tomb. The only way to get rid of her, even if temporarily, was to send her on menial errands.

"I am fine, I decided to extend my bath for a few more minutes. You can wait for me outside." He said as the emotional suppression kicked in. 'That was a close one. She almost saw me.' Rubedo may have been a golem, but her outward appearance was that of a beautiful winged woman.

"As you command, my Lord." Rubedo replied and walked out, closing the door behind her.

'There was something different about her tone? Come to think of it, she also had a different facial expression. I didn't know she could change it. Ah, it probably is not a big deal.'

Either way, Momonga decided that there was no point in continuing soaking in the bath if there were going to be constant interruptions. With a plan to next time give himself more time to relax, he stepped out of the bath and cast a simple drying spell. Trying to dry all the bones with a towel was not only impractical but also time-consuming.

Of course, he could not avoid getting dressed by the maids that waited outside, so putting on the bathrobe was more of a polite formality on his part. The group of seven maids waited for him besides a full-size mirror.

'How does Pero and Buku deal with this? It can't be easy for them to expose their more natural bodies to the servants…' Momonga wondered as maids helped him put on his usual black robe. 'Who am I kidding? Knowing those two, they likely enjoy it.'

Once again, he practically had to push away the maids who religiously straightened out every wrinkle and picked off even the tiniest specs of dust from his clothing. "This is good enough."

"But Lord Momonga…" One of the maids started to protest.

"I need to go, otherwise I will be late for the meeting!" Momonga interrupted her and tried to maneuver through the maids who reluctantly gave way.

His first stop was the council building where the newly formed Tempest's High Council had gathered. With the constantly expanding territories and new species being added to his monster nation on a regular basis, the leaders of each group had gathered under Albedo's leadership to form an administrative body.

Finally free of his overbearing servants, he teleported right to the entrance of the building, Rubedo following closely behind him. The architectural marvel was an awe-inspiring sight. Albedo had taken the liberty to allocate resources and choose the style of building, and from what he gathered in the report, it was based on a historical German building called the Reichstag.

'It looks like something Pandora's Actor would design!' Momonga remarked to himself in consternation as he wondered if his son had any involvement in the project.

"Lord Momonga!" Albedo's pleasant voice interrupted his musings. He looked down and saw her approaching him. She once again had seemingly 'forgotten' what a polite distance was and invaded Momonga's private space, her generous cleavage in full view. "The representatives have gathered and await you, my Lord."

"Ahm, yes." He said, trying to sound like the calm and collected supreme leader he supposedly was. Even with the help of his emotional suppression, his senses were failing against her presence. She wore a warm, almost seductive smile, her fragrance hit him like a hammer, and even with his almost non-existing libido, he had a hard time not looking down at her cleavage. 'What is going on? Why am I reacting to her like this? Huh?! Why is her Seduce active?'

"Albedo, your skill…" The words stuck in his throat. How should he go about pointing out what she was doing? Luckily, she realized what he was trying to tell and turned it off with her cheeks reddening.

"I am sorry. How unsightly of me to have such a lack of control over my own abilities." Albedo said with a bow. Even someone as inexperienced as Momonga could tell that there was not a shred of regret or embarrassment in her voice. She clearly did it on purpose.

"Right. I will let it pass for now. But please be aware of how you affect others." Momonga said, and with a tactical cough motioned for her to accompany him inside.

Albedo flipped around to walk beside him but for a moment stopped and stared at Rubedo. Curious about what had caught her attention, Momonga turned attention to Rubedo as well.

"What is she doing?" he mumbled as he watched Rubedo touching and sniffing the leaves of a small tree growing in a pot just outside the main entrance.

"Rubedo, is something wrong with that plant?" Albedo asked with a worried and confused tone.

Rubedo straightened out and assumed her default neutral expression. "No. Everything is in order."

Albedo raised her eyebrow at her sister's odd behavior but decided against addressing it for now. With a smooth motion she stepped beside Momonga, practically touching his arm with her shoulder and motioned for guards to open the door.

'She is too close. I can feel her wing on my back. What has gotten into her? Maybe Pero and Buku are actually correct and she is interested?' As always, he decided against taking any sort of action in that regard. After all, he was Albedo's superior and misinterpreting her intentions could be seen as inappropriate behavior on his part. The last thing Momonga wanted was to give the impression that he is taking advantage of his position.

After a short, if somewhat anxious walk, they finally arrived at the central conference room. Momonga instantly noticed three distinct thrones - the central being the biggest by far, and a small chair beside the central one. Albedo, predictably, guided him to the central throne and sat down in the smaller chair. 'Oh, she is finally getting used to sitting down in my presence. At least that effort was not wasted.'

Not wanting to dwell on the topic, he looked around. About five meters in front of him was a podium that was constructed in a way that a speaker could choose either side to stand and still reach furthest away of the fifty chairs prepared for delegates. Although at this point, there were only twelve racial leaders. The latest newcomers were the mermen and halflings, both of whom had offered servitude in exchange for protection.

Momonga hadn't personally interacted with either race yet, but since most were unnamed he could look forward to naming and giving titles to them. The Halfling leader was the first to talk. He bowed deeply, while his subordinates put wooden steps behind the podium for him to be able to look over it.

It came to no surprise that the halfling had prepared a long speech praising the leaders of Tempest, and expressing an undying gratitude for being given a chance to serve.

With the speech being long and boring, Momona started to zone out and read a book with his mind's eye. In moments like these, the abilities of Dark Sage were a godsend.

When he despaired in thought that the whole thing could not get any more boring, a figure suddenly appeared in the room, to the right of the throne Momonga was sitting on. "Hey Chief, guess what I can do now?" Veldora's loud appearance left the rest of the room in a stunned silence.

Rubedo was already between them. But the moment she realized that it was Veldora, she stepped aside. The dragon, meanwhile, just leaned back in a slouching position with a casual expression.

"Veldora?!" The emotional suppression came to the rescue once again. Combined with the accelerated thinking, Momonga quickly figured out how to approach the situation. "Glad you could join us."

{ Veldora, what the hell? I thought you couldn't manifest outside the Nazarick? }

Veldora just let out his trademark laugh as the room continued staring at him in shocked silence. Treyni was the first to snap out of her shock as she quickly kneeled and said with a noticeable excitement. "It is an honor to be in your presence once again, Lord Veldora."

{ Seriously, how did you manifest here? } Momonga was not about to let the dragon just steal the show without giving him any answers.

{ Because of you, Chief. When you gained that shiny new skill, our connection got a hell of a lot stronger. I can manifest anywhere now! I still can't use most of my power, but walking outside is great. }

{ That's good to hear. Can you at least not drop in without any warning? }

{ Sure thing. I just wanted to thank you, that's all. Oh, the scary one is getting angry again. Welp, it's time to make a tour around the lands I'm supposed to guard. } Veldora said and jumped to his feet. By this point, the entirety of the racial leaders were kneeling in reverence.

"Be at ease. I just dropped in to say hi. I'll leave the political dealings to my good friend Momonga." Veldora said and promptly marched out of the room.

Seeing that Albedo once again was ready to explode in a rant about the Dragon's disruptive behavior, Momonga grabbed her hand, and with a quiet voice, went for an improvisation. "There is nothing to worry about. Him suddenly showing up worked better than I expected."

Albedo turned to stare at Momonga and then said with admiration. "I should have known it was your plan all along, Lord Momonga."

The room was still in a silent shock. What they experienced was not only the return of the Storm Dragon Veldora, but his open declaration that Lord Momonga was his friend.

The only downside of it was that the two new delegates were reduced to an incoherent state and could only mumble unintelligibly for the rest of the meeting.

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Veldora's sudden ability to appear everywhere needed to be investigated. Same as all the previous times when he investigated his skill, Momonga sat on the Throne of Kings at the very heart of Nazarick.

After a moment of hesitation he took a deep breath and visualized Nazarick. The skill was still a nightmarish mess, but at this point, he had some routes mapped out and could navigate it a bit more easily.

He easily located Veldora's core and turned his attention to the prison it was held in. The point where the cord went through had noticeable tear.

'Hmm, it seems the net has been damaged? I thought it was impossible.' With determination, Momonga grabbed a few of its strings made out of pure mathematical paradoxes and pulled at them. As before, they could be only stretched and didn't give in to his brute force attempt at tearing them apart.

{ Veldora, can you see the net from your side? } He messaged the Dragon who likely was busy stuffing his face somewhere within the capital of Tempest.

{ Huh, my ability to use my skill, Investigator, is still very limited. I can see the net just fine but that's about it. }

{ I see. Did you notice the small tearing in it? }

{ I sure did, I could not break it any further though. }

As usual, Veldora wasn't much of a help. 'I guess he had done something by accident.'

Either way, Veldora's power was seeping through the barrier a lot faster, and it wouldn't take decades anymore for him to fully get through.

Proofreading by I AM THE STRING CUTTER, Somnium Hypnos, Saphy and Sad_Smiles

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.