Downtime (last)
It has been a rough few months for our dear overlord, he got transported into a game as his max-level character, realized he was surrounded by monsters of his own and his friend's making, and somehow he managed to keep the charade going for this long.
He has never been more stressed in his life, but he had to admit, it wasn't bad.
I mean, nothing could be as bad as Earth at this time, with smog and toxic fumes everywhere as all other water sources are polluted so much, that it's impossible to survive without a filter that makes it barely consumable.
But still, he wondered, no, he prayed that his friends were also transported into this world, even if just a few of them, cause they deserved the comforts of Nazarick far more than him, or that's his opinion anyway.
Ainz looked at the large office room stretching around him as he pretended to read the documents at lightning speed, Albedo could be seen standing to his right, looking at her master working at lightning speed in awe.
'As expected of Ainz sama! He doesn't even need to stop to think about anything, clearly, all is going as according to his grand plan.' Albedo nodded to herself satisfied with her work, though much still needed to be done.
The Kingdom was going downhill steadily as anticipated, the Theocracy no longer exists thanks to Thoth and shall no doubt become a wonderful puppet for Ainz to command and be worshipped in, the Empire's troops will no doubt arrive soon to investigate Carne village and try to infiltrate the tomb.
Of course, Emperor Jircniv isn't absolutely incompetent, so he'll have one of his more useless nobles send some people he hired no doubt.
Ainz meanwhile, continued to pretend to work, stamping on large documents periodically.
He would love to be honest and just say 'I have no idea what I'm doing Albedo, please help me.' But that's not exactly an option is it? He would hate to disappoint the children of his friends.
His mind wandered again, this time, he felt his anger boil a bit as he remembered the Platinum Dragon Lord, who had controlled one of his precious Nazarick citizens twice now, both times being Thoth.
He needed to come up with countermeasures quickly, of course, Ainz trusted Albedo and Demiurge to already have ones planned, but as the master of Ainz Ooal Gown, Nazarick, and all things within these two things, it was his duty to do something.
'Maybe I should send Thoth, Aura, and Shalltear somewhere? Hmm. I suppose I could send them to that elven country south of us, maybe Mare would join them? But he's finishing up the dummy Nazarick at the moment...'
"Lord Ainz! Is something the matter with this proposal?" Albedo spoke up, causing Ainz to look at her, a bit confused.
Only now did he realize he slowed down as he pondered about other things, no doubt stressing the succubus with the idea that something was wrong with the proposal she most likely suggested.
"Ah," Ainz let out in realization of all of this, "Dont overthink it Albedo, I was simply thinking about other things and got a bit distracted." Ainz muttered a 'Sorry' to add to the end there, but he knew far too well that if he apologized to her, she would freak out and immediately tell him to not apologize.
He can't even be polite anymore! Ainz felt his emotional suppression kick in to lower his frustration to acceptable levels.
That cursed ability too, Ainz felt grateful he had it, it allowed him to play his role for this long, but even so... He couldn't even feel joy or happiness without it being suppressed too, he felt a bit empty at times due to the sheer lack of emotions he was feeling at any given time.
Ainz sighed as he turned back to the paperwork, causing the Eight Edge assassins on the ceiling to shudder, the maid standing by the door tensed up, and Albedo looked incredibly worried.
'I only sighed...!' Ainz thought to himself, absolutely incredulous at this behavior. The poor man can't even sigh without giving everyone around him an existential crisis.
Ainz continued to do the paperwork until it was finished, he then left the room and returned to his bed chambers, where he fell onto the bed, absolutely exhausted.
Well, he couldn't feel exhaustion, another perk of being undead, but he still wanted to lay down so his mind could play pretend and "rest."
As he did this, he continued to think.
It will take a few minutes for the maid who is supposed to take care of him to get here, so he can ramble in peace for now.
"I could send Thoth, Aura, and Shalltear on a field trip I guess, they seem to get along nicely from what I've heard so Thoth would no doubt appreciate spending some time relaxing outside with them."
"But... Knowing Shalltear and Aura... Would it even count as rest or as simply dumping two troublesome children onto him?" Ainz continued to think for a few seconds.
"Indeed, let's not do that-" Ainz suddenly felt a few metaphorical neurons in his metaphorical brain activate, "I could use this as an excuse to run away! And I might be able to get a better idea of what Thoth wants, so I can figure out if I should invite Aura and Shalltear to join us during it!"
Ainz rose from his bed, triumphantly sending a message to Thoth, who was currently on his way back to the Alexandrian Codex.
"Thoth," Thoth flinched in surprise at the sudden message "would you be alright with going on a mission to the elf nation with me?"
"Of course Lord Ainz, I see no issue with such a thing."
"Fantastic, we set out in two days."
"Understood."
The spell was then abruptly cut off by Ainz, who once again fell on the bed, at this moment, the maid entered the room.
'Goodbye, freedom of speech. I loved you while I had you for this short while.' Ainz lamented as he picked up an incredibly complicated book which he could barely comprehend, he, of course, occasionally nodded and went "Umu" to appear like he knew what the book was about.
Meanwhile, Thoth walked through the luxurious halls of the ninth floor, thinking about his sudden new mission.
'I thought Ainz would give me more time to rest honestly, but I would have to deal with the elves eventually anyways, this will be a good opportunity to kill the elf king and take over his nation, adding it to our arsenal.'
'With this, our new puppet in the south will have no more active threats, meaning it can recover from the civil war.'
Thoth was actually kinda impressed with this plan Ainz cooked up, it would deal with a few issues, but most importantly of all...
'I will finally no longer be stalked at every corner!' Thoth cheered mentally as Shalltear observed from a distance.
Thoth has had quite the headache thinking about how to deal with the vampire stalking him, he could tell her to simply "fuck off" but, since her intentions are probably good, that would just cause more damage than good.
'I should check what was in the books I gave her...' Thoth then silently cursed a certain perverted bird in his mind as he made a note to investigate the books he gave Shalltear.
Nonetheless, Thoth then decided to simply head back to the Alexandrian Codex to read some books to pass the time, it has been a while since he took some time to relax and read after all.
As Thoth took some time to chill, the most chill Guardian of all, Cocytus, could be seen walking within a large lizardmen settlement, taking notes of things that needed to be done.
The settlement is located in a swamp not too far away from the Great Forest of Tob, which is the one Carne village is next to. The settlement consists of roughly 500 lizardmen, varying in color from typical greens to more exotic oranges and reds.
Two Lizardmen, Zaryusu Shasha and Shasuryu Shasha, could be seen leading Cocytus through the settlement, which looked rather primitive and underdeveloped.
(Insert pictures of the brothers here)
Until recently, all clans of the lizardmen were divided, but after Nazarick launched an invasion against them, they united to resist.
They succeeded the first time since Nazarick barely sent anything to fight them, but the second time, Cocytus was forced to get involved directly by Ainz to atone for failing to command the army he had given him.
Cocytus was the general of the army who failed, and Ainz intended to punish him by having him kill all the lizardmen, Cocytus tried to negotiate but failed to do so until Demiurge stepped in and saved the day.
All leaders of the Lizardmen Alliance were killed. Then the brothers who were killed in the battle were revived to lead the now united and subjugated lizardmen, the two who are currently showing Cocytus around are said brothers.
All of this happened while Thoth was still in the Slane Theocracy.
The lizardmen avoided Cocytus as the air around him was noticeably cooler even when he didn't let out his frost aura, which did not bode well for the cold-blooded lizards.
Zaryusu Shasha spoke to Cocytus, "So we will need to upscale the fishing farms as all other lizardmen are gathered, also, there has been a population boom recently as the various clans intermingle, we should construct more permanent and durable housing."
Cocytus exhaled a mist of cold smoke from his nostrils, "I shall request permission from Thoth and Lord Ainz to borrow books on this matter from the Alexandrian Codex on your behalf."
Zaryusu nodded, "Thank you Cocytus."
Shasuryu Shasha spoke next, "A bunch of other monsters from the surrounding area have taken note of our unification, some rogue goblin settlements from the Great Forest of Tob have been having skirmishes with our warriors."
Cocytus paused for a second, "I see, I thought the entire forest was aware of you being under Nazarick's protection, I shall deal with these rogue tribes personally."
Suddenly, from a larger more important-looking, albeit still primitive and shabby, building came Crusch Lulu, the wife of Zaryusu, in her hands, she was holding their first child.
She took a step towards Zaryusu, but upon realizing they were probably handling important business, she walked back inside the house.
Cocytus waved his hand at Zaryusu, indicating he was dismissed.
Zaryusu walked into the cabin as Cocytus also dismissed Shasuryu, he then walked around the settlement, observing the lizardmen going about their business.
These are strong and wise people, when faced with danger, they put their differences aside and came together. When faced with an army obviously more potent than their own, they fought bravely until the very end, even their leaders, when confronted by himself, fought till they died.
They were all revived, though none of them held the power they once did, with Zaryusu and Crusch being the defacto leaders of the united lizardmen tribes since Lord Ainz took the most interest in them.
Truly, while they were weak power-wise, their spirit was worthy of admiration and respect.
Cocytus then made his way into the Great Forest of Tob, where he found the rogue goblin settlements, who migrated into the very edge of the forest, being just far enough to avoid subjugation.
Well, they were subjugated very, very quickly.
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