27 Chapter 27

"So it's like that, is it?" King Rampossa asked from his seat on the throne. The massive room was empty by the King's own order, at the express request of the Royal Head Warrior.

"Yes, my King." Gazef said from his kneeling position a few feet from the throne. Alone as they were, the aged king with his loose white hair allowed the Royal Head Warrior to stand and speak as one would to a friend, but in such times as this, the formality was done at Gazef's own will.

"So much power emerging into the world… it is like something out of the stories drawn from the mists of time." King Rampossa said, rising from the red cushioned chair and its ornate golden frame. He stepped away and approached the warrior, placing a hand on Gazef's head he added, "It is good that you came back alive. It is a great relief to my heart."

"Thank you, my King." Gazef said, closing his eyes briefly, "And yes, it's like something out of legends. Ainz Ooal Gown driving off a Scripture, Momon and Axel defeating two skeletal dragons, ending a Zuranon offshoot threat, and taking down both a Black Scripture and a necromancer on par with an adamantite mage… this is… quite a lot to take in."

The King's aged hand slipped away from Gazef's head and fell back to his side, and the old man began to pace. Gazef rose to follow him, the red and gold robes fluttered around the king's legs as he walked, it was a curious habit of the old man. 'He likes to think in motion.' Gazef acknowledged with no small approval, though old now, the old man remained fit and ready to do his duty. Despite his age, he was still an echo of the vigor of his youth of which Gazef had heard only stories.

"And you say that this 'Momon' is likely to visit here soon?" King Rampossa asked.

"So Momon pledged, and I believe he will. I gave him my word that he would be well rewarded for his service to Your Majesty." Gazef's voice was somehow both imposing and humble at the same moment, and Rampossa gave a sagely nod of understanding.

"Yes, yes something like this, we want him to be friendly to the crown." The King said with patient thought as he paced about the massive columned hall, he never drifted too far from Gazef, as though the warrior was a kind of anchor, and like a good anchor, Gazef never wavered.

"The noble faction has used our annual war with the Empire to keep their privileges high, and it is killing us." The King said and snapped his head down toward the Head Warrior.

Gazef met the proud eyes of the old man, it was the first open acknowledgement of what the warrior had long suspected. "How long?" He asked.

"Long enough that if I live ten more years, even if nothing else goes wrong, my sons will inherit only the headsman's axe. If I were to have twenty years in me, I wouldn't see the last of them without living on the run." King Rampossa admitted, "Something has to change."

"When a man says that, my King, they're typically about to say what bothers him." Gazef said, and though it felt as if the world was opening up beneath his feet with the king's words, he did not tumble into the black pit of despair that lay beneath.

"Yes, the appearance of Axel and an unknown mage of great power, offers a chance we didn't have before. A chance for new nobility to rise. Even the finest of the old guard are almost all worthless to the Kingdom's prosperity, and some are… harmful." The King said the last word with great bitterness, and what he meant was no secret.

'Eight Fingers.' The criminal organization was beyond brutal, distributing Black Dust, an addictive narcotic, throughout the kingdom and eroding its wealth. Corrupt nobles sometimes grew the plants used to make it in their own villages. Attempts at eradicating the practice had been ineffective, and many a judge had been threatened or killed. Many nobles were either bought and paid for or intimidated into silence, and thus nobody stood against them. "Your Majesty, do you wish to hire them to eliminate the criminal organization? They are only two, they need spies, intelligence, leverage…"

The amount of things needed for something like that… Gazef's mind was spiralling as he considered the matter, "My Lord…" The Royal Warrior trailed off.

'Nobility, they're adventurers, but new and very powerful, they just barely registered, the guild might be upset but if they were given a title and retirement and a task that the guild would covertly favor?' Gazef's mind flew to the obvious, the king was looking down at him, speaking without saying anything, by his side again, the relationship of years spanned the silence to reveal the truth.

"Ainz, you wish to hire Ainz to help in the war against the Empire, and to ennoble all three." It was a guess on Gazef's part, but not one he considered unlikely, and when the subtle nod came from the white bearded old King, Gazef was again grateful to have such a lord to serve.

"If we can arrange for them all to be here at once, that would be better. But that requires predictability that the powerful typically don't have." King Rampossa gave a mild laugh at his own expense, but Gazef didn't share it.

"My King, Sir Momon indicated that he would make Carne Village his base of operations, and Master Gown may have kept a watch on the place after rescuing it, if we send a message to E-Rantel, we can have word sent asking for both to a formal ceremony in the capital. I can't imagine they would refuse such a thing." Gazef's voice was somewhat uncertain by the end, but he began with confidence.

"It is worth a try, if it works out, we may have powerful allies to spring on the Empire when the time comes. If only…" King Rampossa killed his own words, but the thoughts, unspoken, went on. 'If only one of my sons had your vigor and strength, if only one of them had all the qualities of my Royal Head Warrior, I would be able to retire now. If only I had my own lost youth back, if only, if only, if only… things were not as they are.'

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Sebas knelt before his liege with the greatest reverence. "My Lord, I am prepared to receive your orders, how may I serve you?"

The faint scent of Albedo's perfume lingered in the room, though it was cleanly made, there was no doubt of why the scent seemed to linger strongest there. Her visits to Ainz's room had become so regular that one could have told time based on that alone. What struck the aged, dignified looking butler as strange was that they met in his room, and not in the throne room itself.

'He can do as he wants, The One Who Stayed… but still, it is strange.' Sebas considered the question with care, and found no answer until his lord, still dressed in his warrior regalia, laid a hand on Sebas' head.

"Am I the master of Nazarick? Am I the one to whom you are loyal, no matter what?" Ainz asked the question as he had rehearsed it, Sebas was above all, a dignified servant, and so Ainz wanted to present himself as his dignified master when the time came.

And the time had come.

The gesture of affection was both unlooked for and more welcome than Sebas expected, his tight, tense lips barely moved, but he did suck in his breath at the sudden act.

"You are Lord Ainz, The One Who Stayed, to whom our lives and our loyalty are the same." Sebas replied without reservation.

"And if what your Lord Ainz is, should change?" Ainz asked him, out of all the guardians, he was most sure Sebas would remain absolutely loyal. 'Soon I'll run out of the easy ones.' Ainz told himself to mentally prepare for the day he had to tell Solution, or Naberal, or Demiurge, or Albedo… but telling himself was easier than doing so.

"Then my loyalty remains the same." Sebas answered.

It was a relief to hear, but it didn't stop Ainz's train of thought. 'Sebas is the third level one hundred being for me to tell, and even less likely to resist me than Cocytus, I would have preferred to tell him first after Pandora's Actor, if only I hadn't needed to reveal it to a guardian. But still, even if it comes down to it, I'm now level one hundred and two. I can handle Sebas if I need to.'

Still, it was a relief. And so Ainz held his hands steady as he removed his helmet, and revealed his human face.

"Look at me, Sebas. Look, and know your master." Ainz ordered, and Sebas raised his head, though Ainz heart was fluttering and his stomach roiling as it had when the truth was made known to Lupusregina he kept his eyes steady.

"Sire… what is this?" The Butler of Steel asked with breathless confusion.

"A spell gone wrong, I don't know how it happened, but it has. Now, has your loyalty changed? Or are you still my servant?" It was the critical question, and with it came the answer Ainz expected at least this time.

"I am your servant, you are The One Who Stayed, My Lord. I bend to your will, now and forever." Sebas said, without hesitation.

Relief flooded through Ainz from tension he hadn't known he felt. "Then I have a task for you. I want you to visit the Baharuth Empire, take whatever battlemaid that you wish, and establish yourselves as wealthy figures. While there, this is what I want you to do…"

When Ainz finished his explanation, Sebas's thoughts turned inward. "I believe Solution would be well suited for this task."

"Good." Ainz replied and reached into his pocket dimension to remove the coins he'd acquired earlier. He threw them at Sebas's feet. "Have these melted down and exchange them for Baharuthian currency, then see to it at once."

"I will not fail you, My Lord. The purges in Baharuth left many empty manors, we can easily acquire one and integrate ourselves for your purposes." Sebas took up the coins and put them into his own pocket dimension, and stood up when his master stepped back and put the helmet back on.

"Good, I place my trust in you, Sebas, do as you have said, and do not fail me." Ainz ordered, and Sebas withdrew.

When he was alone on his bed, he dismissed his 'Perfect Warrior' spell and went to his bed, he fell backwards with a deep sigh and his arms spread out to take up as much of it as possible. The room was thematically black, with grim, gothic furnishings befitting an Overlord of Death. 'I was 'such' a chuunibyou!' He mentally exclaimed, and staring up at the dark ceiling, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his circumstances, he began to laugh.

Back home, his lungs were stained and scarred from the toxic air, his body ached to the point where everything hurt, like it was for everybody else is his old world. His diet had left him in poor health and as he knew it, he had no future.

Now? Here? In this body? He was the definition of strong compared to any human and probably a fair number of monsters. Every breath came easily and without pain, every step was light as air. The sun, the moon, the stars, everything was real and visible, and despite his concerns that still lingered, things were going well. 'I'm free! I'm free of that old hell! That nightmare world is gone and I have everything I dreamed of!' He laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more. Ainz laughed on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and utterly at ease alone in his room where he would remain undisturbed.

Whether his spirits rose because of the laughter, or the laughter grew because his spirits rose, he didn't know, but he was still laughing when the message spell came in.

He heard Aura's voice in his head as soon as the message spell connected, 'Lord Ainz, we have an urgent message for you, as both Momon and as Lord Gown. From Gazef Stronoff.'

This had his attention. The laughter of the human male on the bed vanished, 'What is it?' He demanded.

'My Lord, 'Both' of you have been invited to the Capital for a feast, the King wishes to show his gratitude for the help given to his people.' Aura explained, 'The invitation is for one month from now.'

'I see, and how did you maintain my cover?' Ainz pressed.

'My Lord, Lupusregina accepted for Momon, and I promised to pass on word to Lord Gown.' Aura explained, briefly sounding uncharacteristically nervous.

'She heard the edge in my question, better to reassure her.' Ainz thought, and then answered, 'It's fine, you did well. I will be arriving in the village soon, and notify Pandora's Actor that he needs to be prepared to play as myself in a few days.'

A thought occurred to him immediately afterward, 'Aura, not that I mind, but why didn't Lupusregina notify me instead of you?'

'Oh, my lord, she's peeping on Enri and Nfirea right now, she said you wanted the pair kept safe, so I offered to contact you for her while she ahh… watched what she said was an… 'adult performance art' I don't know quite what she means, but it got really loud and there was screaming involved, some kind of wrestling I guess.'

Ainz was even more glad for his isolation in that moment when his face turned red. 'Er- Yes. Yes, that's right, it's fine, thank you Aura, leave her to it, give them some time, I will be joining you… later than I initially intended.' He rolled his eyes, and his humanity smacked him in the face like an unexpected door. Enri was a pretty young woman, it was no surprise she was engaged in a liaison with the brilliant young pharmacist. 'A pity about his grandmother, he must have rushed back to Carne for comfort, and at least gotten it.' Recalling all his recent actions, fueled by a powerful body and his own anxiety and ambition mixed together, he suddenly felt overwhelmingly… tired.

'I can't wait, My Lord!' Aura's childish innocence helped to curb the flush on Ainz' cheeks after the connection cut, and for a solid minute, Ainz remained lying flat on the bed.

"That… kind of made me wish for my undead body back." He muttered and took a deep breath, the scent of perfume lingered in the air, and for a long time, he slept, resting at his ease through dreams of wings enfolding his body, and the moans of ecstacy from a demoness designed to be the goddess of beauty herself.

Somehow, he knew it was a dream, but such was the warmth of the imagined embrace, that he did not want to wake up.