190 Chapter 190

Demiurge stood beside Lord Ainz while going over the current reports from Albedo, his hands folded behind his back, he didn't look at the documents, having already vetted them before bringing them to His Majesty's attention. All that he said of their contents was recited perfectly from memory.

This wasn't necessary to his duties, but Demiurge wanted his eyes in only one place. 'On my late father's dearest friend, the One Who Stayed… who gave up everything to be with us… father left us with the greatest care we could have asked for…' It still brought a crystalline tear to his eye, thinking of the final moment of Lord Ulbert's existence.

Faced with that, His Majesty's humanity only mattered in that Lord Ainz' mortality was a potential problem. A problem for which a solution had yet to be found. At least… a solution that was presently viable. And every day mattered in the eyes of the archdevil. Each morning he awoke, he feared that some frailty of his Master's present form, his surrogate 'father's' form might have caused his death.

Even for the genius that he was, there were unknowns. Nothing was more dangerous than the unknown.

So his crystalline eyes lingered on his Lord as he spoke.

"Has she left lipstick prints on every report?" Ainz asked as he paused his reviews and looked through the papers, their rustling noise punctuated by Demiurge's bemused chuckle.

"Yes, My Lord." Demiurge responded with an affirming nod and a casual glance toward the bright red shade in a top left corner. "It seems she is concerned that if she doesn't put it on all of them that you might think there is a limit to her love for you."

Ainz relaxed against his chair and sighed, he was unmasked in the privacy of his office, and glanced up at the seated Demiurge, unafraid to bear his face to the boy he loved as a son. 'He is my child now. No matter what kind of monster he is, he is mine, and I can never let him down.'

"Tell me something, Demiurge. How do you think she will respond to knowing what I am?" Ainz asked, and at that, Demiurge stiffened a little.

"M-My Lord, even I can't know that… forgive my ignorance, but Albedo is unpredictably passionate. She is a demon. So she may hate you. She loves you, therefore she may love you despite your humanity. We are all unquestionably loyal to the Supreme Beings, so perhaps you will be rendered neutral in her eyes, with indifferent loyalty. I simply cannot guide you properly without knowing her inner workings more clearly." Demiurge's hand tightened into a fist behind his back.

Anxiety at being unable properly to answer his Master ate at his guts.

Ainz waved it away. "I understand… but do you have a guess, however imperfect?"

Demiurge bloodied his lip with a bite. "My Lord, I believe she will love you absolutely, as I do. As we all do who have come to know what you now are. Her desire for you is absolute, she aches for you, and when we returned from the Dwarf Kingdom, I made a point of speaking with those who had to attend to her. She visited your bed many nights when she could, and I have heard from others that she was heard quietly weeping when she was alone."

'I did that to her. Every bit of misery and pain she suffers through now because of my cowardice, my insecurity, my-my 'fear', is tearing her apart inside…' Ainz felt a supreme wave of human guilt washing over his body and he leaned forward to put his head in his hand, he restrained any further visible show of emotion and took a look at the paper on his desk as a distraction.

That caught his eye, however. "A new kingdom?"

Demiurge nodded. "Albedo's manipulated hero figure, Neia. It looks like Olasird'arc survived and had quite the adventure over the months since I threw him out of the mountain. Somehow he connected with her and they've been wreaking havoc ever since. According to the last few reports, she's so far taken over the Orc tribes, forced the Stone Spitters to knuckle under, and beaten a Spidan champion to death, the expansion is getting serious, six different types of demihumans have been conquered outright and two more have joined her voluntarily. This 'Queen of Frost' is getting close to the tribes with three of the strongest demihuman champions."

"Do you think she will win?" Ainz asked.

Demiurge rubbed his chin in thought, "It is hard to say, we have only Albedo's doppelgangers to go on and the Queen rarely engages in direct battles. She conquered the Zern by taking their King hostage and then forced the tribe to relocate to her capital."

"She's human?" Ainz asked.

"No, My Lord. She was." Demiurge said and related the story as he heard it.

"A ruler, former human or not, who doesn't hate non-humans, would be useful, especially given the state of the Holy Kingdom. Remove the three champions that may bar her way if they display hostility to her rise." Ainz ordered, and Demiurge gave an enthusiastic nod.

"Of course, My Lord, you want to balance us against the non-human hating factions of this world." Demiurge said and he suddenly understood. 'A grand coalition of the non-human factions. The dark elves, the lizardmen, the dwarves, the frogmen, the quagoa, and now in the far west, the growing demihuman Kingdom of the Abelion Hills. Together we will have half the region's population under our sway. Combine that with friendly relations and a complete takeover of both the Kingdom of Carne and the Re-Estize Kingdom, plus a crippled Baharuth Empire and a dependent Draconic Kingdom? We will have it all in one sweeping blow. Assuming Albedo is successful in the Holy Kingdom, my Lord will have it all.'

"Should we reach out to them as a trading partner? They're building a city now, some support might accelerate the new Queen's success." Demiurge asked, and Ainz thought it over.

"Not yet. But monitor the situation." He said, and flipped to another page.

It filled his heart with relief not to have to think about Albedo for a moment, to just be able to relax and put it off, though he knew it wasn't going to last for much longer as the Roble Holy Kingdom continued to spiral out of control.

"What is your impression of the Holy Queen?" Ainz asked, and to that Demiurge answered bluntly.

"Vain. Intelligent, but not enough to be a threat, well meaning enough to be actively harmful. Dreadfully naive, but resourceful and an able organizer. She rules because she's the best on a short list of choices, My Lord. She can stay or go, and our long term plans remain unchanged after the civil war begins. For now it seems Albedo will keep her alive only because her naivete makes her predictable. Between Albedo's useful pawns and the growing anger of the South and the mistrust in the North, it won't be long. After that it falls to you, My Lord, to determine what will be done with them all."

"I see. And what of my… situation?" Ainz asked.

"I still believe that wild magic may provide the solution, but there are only so many sources of that." Demiurge replied, "The Draconic Queen may be of help here, as our teams have now brought the Beastman Kingdom's invasion into check. Pandora's Actor however, has requested that in his capacity as 'Momon' that you send himself, Lupusregina, and Blue Rose into the Draconic Kingdom as well. It seems he wants to spend time in the company of 'der kleine Vampir'. He has grown infatuated with her."

Ainz thought that over with a mix of fascination and dread. He groaned internally at his chuunibyou past, but there was also a sense of paternal relief at seeing a bit of growth in his creation. 'I didn't think he had that capability… I can't very well stand in the way, and it could even be beneficial…'

He nodded. "Approved. If they have nothing else going on in the Kingdom, spreading Momon's name farther can't hurt."

"I will pass word to him at once, Master." Demiurge said and bowed his head, then relaxed to simply enjoy the company of the One Who Stayed.

'I'm the luckiest one in all the world.' Demiurge thought, and listened with glee as his Master asked for his input again.