Chapter 11

When Lupusregina held up the head of the hamster, they all took a step back in shock, eyes wide as stars, "Even dead, those eyes radiate power and wisdom. How could you ever kill such a beast?!" They exclaimed.

"I used my sword until it stopped moving." Ainz answered the question with a dry tone. As fights went, it had been frankly disappointing, but they detected none of that disappointment.

"Amazing…" Ninya and Brita replied together and with slow, sometimes flinching motions of their hands, they reached out to touch the fur of the head.

"The Wise King of the Forest has taken down Orichalcum ranked teams before, few survive their encounters with him. To think you two alone could kill him…" Dyne said with breathless wonder.

"Nah, I didn't do anything. Momon killed it, I just stood by in case he needed me. It was easy for him." Lupu said proudly of her partner, her chin raised as if daring them to deny her claim.

Nobody did. "Amazing… you're amazing…" the praise came from multiple quarters as the others clustered around the head of the beast to take turns touching it, unperturbed by the blood that still dripped from the beheading with a bit of spine still dangled down. Nfirea appeared a bit green at the sight, and declined to handle the head, but he wasn't short on praise either.

Or with curiosity.

"Peter, Brita, Mr. Momon, if it's alright, could we stay another day in Carne when we get there? I'd like to study the fur and see if I can apply it to any potions. I'll pay you all extra for your time of course." Nfirea practically pleaded.

Ainz quickly called up his salaryman experience and rattled off conditions. "It's fine by me, as long as you compensate us for the extra supplies we use as well, and any expenses we incur while there. And of course pay for the materials and let me benefit from anything you develop by studying the fur."

"Were you a merchant at some point?" Peter half joked, only for Ainz to laugh at him.

"Yes. You might say that." Ainz answered, and the laughter stopped.

"Yes, of course, that's all fair, Mr. Momon, how about the rest of you?" Nfirea pressed the rest of his companions.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Brita added, "To be honest, I've been thinking about giving up on adventuring anyway, and I'd like to check the village out, it's getting harder to find teams, and if this has taught me anything, it's that I'll never reach the top, not with a peak that high to head towards." She pointed up toward Momon's head and looked up at him. "You're amazing."

"Fine by me, an extra night in the village won't be a problem. It'll even be nice to relax for once." Peter answered for the rest of his team, who nodded along with him.

The trip toward Carne Village was uneventful with warm sun, fresh air, and thanks to a little preservation magic from Mr. Bareare, the head didn't stink up the journey. All in all, it was just a pleasant stroll, right up until it came into view when they reached the top of the dusty road that went up the hill overlooking the village.

"There wasn't a wall here before… what happened here?" Nfirea looked down on the village, saw a series of burnt up homes, toppled timbers, and the charred remnants of places where people onced lived and slept. "An attack? Then how is it still here…?"

"You won't find out from the top of the hill, Mr. Bareare, we'll have to go down there and ask." Lupusregina said with flat out sarcasm.

"Right, Mr. Momon, could you take the lead? You know, just in case." The young alchemist asked, and without criticism, Ainz did just that.

"There are goblins ahead, should we kill them, Momon?" Lupusregina asked.

"No, Lupu, you smell humans down there too, don't you?" Ainz asked, and she gave a slow nod.

"Humans, but no fear. They're probably not hostile." Lupu said to the group, sounding almost disappointed.

"Then we go forward, but no sudden movements." Peter instructed, and the wagon rolled forward.

The goblins sprang up to their feet with barely a rustle among the high grass, arrows nocked and drawn, ready to shoot. "Wait! I'm here to trade!" Yelled Nifrea.

"Someone go get the boss, nobody get arrow happy, we don't want to fight… especially not against that big guy there." The largest of the goblins ordered the rest of them.

A moment later Ainz saw her, the familiar face of the girl he'd rescued before he was turned back into a human. "Nfirea!" She shouted when she saw him and clapped her hands together just below her mouth, "Everybody relax! He's a friend."

And the tension passed away to nothing.

Demiurge stopped at the door as soon as he heard moaning sounds. 'This is Lord Ainz's room… who would be…' He stopped that line of thought and simply opened the door. Beneath the sheets a shapely form writhed and undulated, clinging to something. He reached up and pushed his glasses against his crystalline eyes.

"Albedo… what are you doing?" Demiurge let out a weary sigh as the nude succubus pushed herself up and rested on her hands.

"I'm putting my scent here, so that it will be the first thing he experiences when our lord returns." She had a fanatical smile on her face and her wide yellow eyes bored into the solid crystal of his own.

"Yes I… I see. But don't you have things you should be doing? We must live up to our lord's expectations after all. And he is undead, it isn't as if he needs sleep." Demiurge pointed out as reasonably as he could to the disturbing sight in front of him.

"Of course! Why this is only 'one' of my duties! Right, Lord Ainz?" Albedo grinned down at what she clutched and for a moment Demiurge was forced to do a double take at the skeletal visage that greeted him when she raised it up.

The likeness was flawless, it was indeed Lord Ainz… on a pillow. "Is that… a body pillow?" He asked. His sense of exasperation growing, he kept his pulse even despite the mild annoyance on display.

"Yes, of course! I've had lots of practice sewing! I've made enough clothing for children both male and female up to the age of five, but… I don't know what to do if they have no gender." Albedo pouted a little, distressed when she looked down at the pillow's face. She touched it reverentially as if it were the lord himself.

"To think, The One Who Stayed… abandoned everything to be with us, I must give him many children, and all happiness, it's the very least we weak guardians, we servants, can do." Albedo said when she traced her fingers over the skeletal jaw.

"I do agree, but if the twins are any indication, the Supreme Beings had no issue with boys in girls clothes and vice versa. Therefore, it seems unlikely that a genderless child would require anything unique." Demiurge answered, annoyance replaced with sympathy for her desires, since he shared them himself.

"Thank you for the insight, Demiurge, that is a relief." She reached up and touched her breast, exhaling deeply with relief over the answer to the question that had troubled her so. "Speaking of serving him, what have you to report?" Her voice became professional, as one would expect of the Guardian Overseer.

"I've established a small facility, a farm you might say, where we can use human stock for experiments of all kinds. My 'loyalty' experiments have been telling. That is to say, humans have little of it." Demiurge's disgust was palpable not only in his tone, but in the way he tensely held his hands behind his back. Disloyalty was the worst of sins for those created to be loyal, and it heightened his hatred for the human captives even further from where it had been when everything began.

"Oh, how have you been doing this?" Albedo's brilliant mind began concocting all manner of possible scenarios, but before she'd gotten through three of them in her head, Demiurge explained.

"After our conversation the other day, I snatched up some humans from village survivors, just some places that had already been raided and destroyed, that way nobody would miss them. I then separated them by family. After that, I took children from one and put them with another and so on. After a short while, I informed each group that the ones who had their children had started abusing the ones placed in their care. The result was that each group started abusing the children given to them as revenge. I continued to come up with ever more elaborate things, and then broke them down into hierarchies and let them decide the punishment since the 'abusers' had broken the rules."

He broke into a very broad grin, "Of course they settled on various mutilations, and I had each one of them watch as it was done to one another. By sunset, these neighbors that had once been friendly with each other, were eating each other's roasted bodies simply to torture their companions with the knowledge. In less than a day, loyalty was ruined, those pathetic wretches." Demiurge spat with both amusement and contempt. "Interestingly, the magic experiments showed that we could feed the prisoners indefinitely just by feeding them their own severed limbs and healing them, as long as the limbs were consumed first, the nutrition remained."

"I see. That is useful, very useful." Albedo acknowledged with obvious pleasure, "Are you going to show Lord Ainz what you've done when he returns?"

"Dirty the Supreme One's feet in a place like that?" Demiurge shook his head, "No, I'll keep Lord Ainz informed of everything of course, but the foul stench of human waste and such low 'company' is beneath his notice. Though perhaps if he would like a tour… maybe he could improve my work. I suppose I'll just have to bring it up to him and ask what he'd like to do."

"That would be for the best." Albedo replied with patient understanding. "Our lord is far, far beyond us. Surely he can offer insights we can't even imagine. Now if you will excuse me, this will take a little longer." She sighed and pulled the blanket over her skin again. She was already writhing in the bed before Demiurge even left the room.

Clementine ground her teeth. "Everybody dies so easily." She groused to Khajiit. "It's no fun when they just take it. Adventurers have more spirit."

"Then target adventurers." Khajiit said as a zombie got up from where a still corpse had lain a moment earlier. He drew back the black orb in his hand and stepped aside to let it pass.

Clementine spread her arms and watched the zombie lumber away. "Yeah, yeah. Listen Khajiiiii, I'm getting bored. I've gone by their place three times so far and the brat still isn't there, what if I grabbed the granny instead."

"She's a third tier caster. You might lose." The old man pointed out, to which Clementine cackled.

"I'm Clementine, I've stepped into the realm of heroes. An old granny is no match for me, and magic casters are always physically weak. I can handle her. Besides, she's starting to get suspicious, I think." Clementine closed her mouth and drew her lips tight. "If she thinks something's up, she might make this harder. I'll give it a few more days, but I want to see this as much as you do." She sighed with orgasmic bliss, "What was it called?"

"A death spiral. Yes, and if you have to take her, then you have to, but don't do anything to put my plans at risk, or you will be one of my zombies next." Khajiit said to her with a long, steady look while two of his acolytes carried another corpse into the room for him to turn.

"A hundred and fifty now, right? That orb sure is impressive." Clementine said with a begrudgingly favorable tone.

"It is. Thanks to this we'll gather enough undead to draw even 'more' powerful undead, and then more, and then more until they spawn on their own, and once finished, we'll have enough to destroy the entire city…" Khajiit showed the first traces of excitement, 'Then I will have enough power to turn myself into an undead of supreme power… and bring my mother back.'

"So they're gone… I'm so sorry." Nfirea said with sympathy. He was sitting in Enri's home, a small house like any other in any village in the Kingdom, it was nothing but two rooms. A bedroom shared by her parents, her sister, and herself… and the kitchen, living, and dining area all combined into one that had no real furnishings to speak of other than a single crude, rough table that would give you splinters if you weren't careful.

"They were fine people, they shouldn't have died that way…" Nfirea said and took Enri's hand in his, the warmth of her hand and the life flowing beneath was a comfort when he hung his head. 'Idiot, you don't have a right to mourn them like they were your parents instead of hers.' He cursed himself, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Thank you." Enri replied, her head hung like his own, she didn't draw her hand away, but rather let her fingers interlock with his. "At least they were avenged. That magic caster, Ainz Ooal Gown, killed nearly all of them. Though I heard his companion… Albedo, killed almost as many herself when they tried to kill the Warrior Captain."

'Serves them right.' Nfirea thought, then caught the name she'd said. 'Albedo… Albedo, didn't I… yes, I passed Lupu and Momon in the alley, Lupu mentioned that name.' It could have been coincidence, but he wondered, it tickled his brain, 'Was it?'

"We're very grateful to them both. The magic caster, Ainz, even gave me a red potion to heal the wound that the knight gave me. I should have died, but instead I was healed instantly." Enri stopped talking when she saw the open mouth of her friend. "What?"

"R-R-Red? A red potion? Are you sure?" Nfirea stammered.

Enri touched a finger to her cheek and looked up and away while she brought back the memory. The warmth of the sun shone through the window and caught her long vibrant blonde hair, for a moment Nfirea forgot all of his curiosity and suspicion, and just lost himself in the sweet vision of the flower of youth. 'I love you. I'll take care of you and Nemu and we'll be a family and…' The words hung on his tongue and would not leap past his lips.

"Yes, definitely red. I thought it was blood and it was scary, but it was a healing potion." She answered him. "If he hadn't come, we'd all be dead."

'Bastards.' He gritted his teeth. 'Kingdom nobles are so utterly worthless, they're trash, complete trash. They don't care what happens to anyone as long as they can drink and eat and laze about doing nothing.'

He kept his anger suppressed as best he could, feeling Enri's sadness return through the trembling of her hand in his, she wiped her tears, "My sister is with me still, I can't lose myself in sadness forever, and we'll get by. We still have our home, our farm, and wonderful friends like you." Enri gave him a weak, fragile smile.

He felt his heart both grow and break at once at the words, and he wanted to say more. His aching heart was racing through the wound she'd unknowingly given him. 'I have a good life as a herbalist, I make plenty of money, I can be more… I can… if you… it would be easy to look after Nemu, or even more children.' The promise of a family in his dreams was so tantalizingly close, she was looking at him with those wide, beautiful blue eyes. 'I love you, you could live with me, everything will be safe there.'

"Enfi?" She asked haltingly, using her favorite pet name for him, and the courage in his heart died.

"Anything you need, I'll help you." He said as he failed to close the gap between his wish to speak and his will to do so.

"You're the best friend a woman could ask for." Enri said, and brought him in for an embrace. He returned the hug she gave him, breathing in the scent of her clean hair and enjoying a warmth he feared he'd never have the wish to ask for more of.

When the moment passed, he forced himself to another subject. "So, about those goblins?"

Enri finally smiled, "Those came from a magic item the sorcerer who saved us gave to me. The horn of the goblin something, they follow my orders and are completely loyal. They've been a big help rebuilding the village, they're why we have an actual wall now."

Her enthusiasm for the one who saved her stoked a bitter jealousy inside Nfirea that shared space with his gratitude to the man, and yet more importantly, she mentioned using it shortly after he left, which had been a fair while ago, relative to how long summons lasted. Yet they were still here, summons were not normally permanent. The more questions he asked about the item and the magic caster, the more he had to ask.

"So he used lightning magic, that's at least third tier." Nfirea said, and his suspicion that there either could simply be two people named Albedo, or they both knew the same person increased. 'Yes, that's right, terrific warriors typically associate with each other like master craftsmen do. It would make perfect sense.'

"Is third tier good?" Enri asked innocently. To which Nfirea could only chuckle.

"It's better than me. I can only use second, and Granny can only use third, anything higher requires talent. But since he had such a powerful item, maybe he can use as high as fifth tier, that's the realm of heroes and the limit for humans other than Fluder Paradyne." Nfirea acknowledged, his manly competitive spirit was somewhat annoyed that the mysterious Ainz had not only saved the woman he loved, but was so much more powerful as well.

'Wait, could this Ainz have been Lupu? She's a cleric, but also crazy strong, and clerics usually keep healing potions for when their mana runs out.' It was an absurd thought. Utterly absurd. 'What if she's a magic caster from another country and Mr. Momon was her escort, that would make sense, and she had him asking all those questions for her so she could learn the magic of another country without sounding ignorant.'

Strange, but not impossible. One powerful person was amazing, two powerful people together were heroic, three was beyond unlikely. Four, all in the same general area, all at once, without being a team? No way. 'Something stinks worse than my alchemy shop on brewing day.' Nfirea stood up slowly, "Excuse me, I'll be back soon."

'They are definitely the goblins from the Horn of the Goblin General that I gave to the girl… Enri, I think her name was.' Ainz realized after watching how the goblins behaved. They were stronger, larger, better equipped, and definitely higher level than the scrawny malnourished ones Ainz and the Swords of Darkness defeated in the previous encounter.

One of those goblins stood in front of a line of villagers who were drawing bows. He was giving them instructions, and though they were following them imperfectly, they were following them. The creaking of wooden bows bending to human will was followed by the noise of their twang as they loosed their arrows at straw targets.

"They're not bad." Ainz acknowledged.

"They're not, Momon?" Lupusregina asked from where they stood overlooking the sight. For reasons not clear to her, her master had chosen to visit the graves of the villagers he hadn't saved before, and this gave him a perfect view of the practice of the living.

"No, not really. They're not warriors, but… look at them." He waved a hand out to encompass the line of middle aged and young people, "They saw their loved ones killed and nearly lost everything, now they're determined not to suffer that same fate again. Resolve, even in the weak, is admirable." Ainz answered. "Ten days ago they were nothing but sheep to be slaughtered, now they've resolved to become wolves and protect themselves. In time they may become worthy of standing in a battle line. Remember, even Nazarick was not made in a day."

A quick and quiet spell of level assessment informed him that several had already gained a few levels. Two had gone up a level with swords, another two with spears, and the rest had all gone up a level as archers. 'At low levels that is to be expected, but it seems there's a natural cap. Brita mentioned having been adventuring for four years, and yet she is only level seven. Peter meanwhile has been at it for half that long and is level nine. Ninya is even younger and has reached level ten. Though that talent… I want to study it.' Ainz thought, his greedy collector's mind at work.

'And for that matter, what about the great gods? They were probably players like me, and some of them could have been immortal races, could they be hidden and quietly power leveling humans? If there are humans who can rise above me, one day we might not be able to defeat them. I need to study this at length.' Ainz concluded, just as Lupusregina addressed him.

"I understand, Momon. But we have company coming." Lupusregina answered him, and they stopped talking until Nfirea approached.

"Excuse me, but… Miss Lupu, do you have a healing potion?" Nfirea asked.

"Is someone injured?" Ainz asked, and inclining his head toward the red headed beauty, she reached into the pouch at her side and took out a red potion.

Nfirea gasped and stared at it, "Miss Lupu, are you Ainz Ooal Gown?!" He exclaimed, and she took a step back, her jaw dropped and she stared up at her companion, completely dumbfounded.

Before they could say anything, Nfirea continued, "It's just, I saw you both once before, Miss Lupu mentioned Albedo, I wasn't eavesdropping, I promise, and all I heard was the name… but then Enri told me that Ainz had a companion by that name. A black armored warrior… so, ah, Mr. Momon, would that make you, 'Albedo?'

Ainz's jaw fell as far open as Lupusregina's jaw at the profound misunderstanding that had just occurred. He almost didn't know what to say, and so, he laughed. Deep and rich, 'I see, he only heard of Albedo as a black clad warrior, Enri never actually saw her, so now he sees me, Lupusregina is a caster, so…' It all made a twisted sort of sense if you misunderstood things a certain way, so he answered, "You caught us. Yes, she is Ainz, and my name is Albedo. What you heard before was us discussing the names we'll use in this country. We prefer to remain anonymous, can we trust you to keep it to yourself?"

"So that's why you asked for this, huh boyo?" Lupu said to him and tapped the potion in her palm.

He gave a rapid series of nervous nods, "Ah, yes of course, it was just too impossible to think of there being four powerful people all in the same area and not having anything to do with each other. Either they'd be on the same side or rivals, sooo… please forgive me!" Nfirea said and suddenly bowed.

"You saved the woman I love and escorted me here and I've gone and pried too much, but also… that potion, even knowing what I know, all I can think of is how much I want to make it!" Nfirea exclaimed.

Lupusregina caught the feel of the eyes of her master on her, curiously, without his undead nature, he was easier to read, especially now that she understood his transformation. "I see, well I guess it's fine." She shrugged, "But giving up secrets like this isn't something I'd ever just do, you know. But if you'd work for me, that's another thing."

"Work for you?" Nfirea asked, "But I have a shop and you could just buy whenever you like from Granny and me."

"If you've got a gold mine, do you let just anybody work it?" Lupusregina asked, "Besides, think about it, this village is really grateful to me for saving it, so obviously you'd work here. Who else lives here, virgin boy?"

He blushed, "You mean, I'd be close to the woman I love?"

"Right, I swear you stank more of lust when she came into view than any ten men fresh from whore houses." Lupu crinkled her nose and Nfirea blushed a deep crimson. "She has to be a virgin too or she'd have noticed, but that won't last long if you go wandering off. Maybe you're better hung than the pervert, but I'll bet it can't reach all the way here from E-Rantel." Lupusregina's hammering of the young man kept him blushing and off kilter.

"There's other men, men who are here, and she's at the ripe age isn't she, just lost her folks, a farm is a lot to manage, and I swear I saw a few men watching her rear when she walked by. Work for me, set up here, and you'll get a chance at the girl. Or don't, they've got whore houses in E-Rantel, maybe that'll be enough for you, eh?" Lupu's wolfish grin wore him down.

"I'll have to talk to Granny about it, but she's been looking at retiring, if I throw the promise of making a new potion into the mix, I'm sure she'll be okay with me moving here." Nfirea replied, "It's still a lot to take in, ah... I guess I should call you Miss Lupu. But… but thank you for saving the woman I love."

"It's nothing." Lupu waved her hand away, dismissing his gratitude. "It's easy for people like Momon and I, and it was kinda fun."

Nfirea bowed deeply again, "Still, thank you. Your secret is safe, and I'm your man, both of you, forever, for what you did to help my Enri."

"Go get her tiger, before someone else does." Lupu said and pointed toward the village again, and he jogged away after slipping the red potion she'd offered, into his pouch.

As soon as they were gone, Lupu bowed her head. "I screwed up, master. Will my life be enough to make up for it?"

Her hand 'turned' and a sharp claw stronger than adamantite was pressed to her own throat, but to her surprise, Lord Ainz was laughing again.

His armor clinked with the force of his shaking laughter, "It's fine, Lupusregina, it's fine. He didn't find out the truth, even if he was a little closer to it than comfortable. But still, be more careful. We're safe for now, besides, who knows how he might have reacted if he'd learned that Momon was Ainz? As it is, a false secret not only won't hurt us, but his keeping it will be a true test of his gratitude and loyalty."

"Yes, master." Lupusregina replied and her red furred hand became normal again.