ZAP!
A jolt like Nabe going berserk with Dragon Lightning indoors. But Nabe's in E-Rantel, so it must be a lightning strike.
"Thunder, huh? Hit close. Thought it'd be clear today—Empire's weather that fickle?" the young master said.
"Good morning. As you predicted, it's cloudless and sunny," Sixes replied.
He jolted upright, finding Sixes' face looming above.
"You were sleeping face-down on the floor, leaving red marks on your cheeks. I suggest washing with cold water before breakfast."
He'd gone to bed but woke on the floor. His cheeks stung, almost burning. How bad was his sleeping posture? He'd never fallen off a bed in his life.
"I'll help you change. This way," Sixes said.
"…Alright," he mumbled, following, unsettled.
After they left, Aura muttered, "He always like that?"
"First time I've seen it," Lupusregina said. "Soi-chan usually wakes him."
"Needing that to wake up is pathetic," Aura said.
"Totally! But I couldn't slap that face," Lupusregina grinned.
"Hit the body then," Aura suggested.
"Genius, Aura-sama!" Lupusregina cheered.
The trio arrived at dawn. No gate in the Empire barred Nazarick's carriage, and with guidance, they reached the inn smoothly.
Aura had tried waking the man gently—calling, shaking his shoulder—but got no response. Yelling made him roll over, showing his back. Annoyed, she knocked him off the bed, yet he slept on.
As she pondered what to do, Lupusregina and Sixes arrived. Sixes grabbed his collar, delivering a stinging double slap—trusting he'd neither break nor anger.
Mira, the new vampire bride, stood motionless in the hall, knowing her place as the group's lowest minion.
Washing and changing took thirty minutes. Aura and Lupusregina discussed plans, un bored but annoyed at the wait. Sixes returned, hand over mouth, cheeks faintly red—odd.
Aura handed the man's protection to Lupusregina and the others, realizing leaving him alone after bringing him here was risky. Staying overnight was incidental but necessary. Her task done, she could return to Nazarick but chose to stay, discussing the Sorcerer Kingdom's alert network and checking his lodging. She'd need to visit the Empire again, so knowing his stay was crucial.
After breakfast, ignoring the imperial knight's escort, they set out. The man knew the capital's layout, and no one cared to humor the knight. Mira drove the carriage, the man navigating from the coachman's seat.
The Empire's roads surpassed E-Rantel's and the Kingdom's—smooth cobblestones, separated pedestrian and carriage paths, and stepping stones for crossings. Nazarick's carriage, with different specs, rolled over them flawlessly, its suspension absorbing all jolts. The streets bustled with merchants, adventurers, and youths—livelier than E-Rantel, where fear of rulers hushed the crowds.
The carriage left the vibrant streets for a quieter district. Few passersby, better dressed than in the commercial area, walked past long stone walls with occasional gates—the Empire's elite residential zone, home to nobles' mansions and provincial lords' city estates. Jircniv's reforms had stripped many nobles, forcing sales.
"Still not there?" Lupusregina whined, opening the coachman's window. The spacious carriage interior, magically expanded, held only luggage and benches. Aura looked bored.
"We're here," the man said.
"Where?" Lupusregina asked, leaping out mid-motion—slow for her—and hopping onto the coachman's seat.
"Just walls," she noted.
Aura joined them. The seat fit four comfortably.
"Beyond this wall," he said.
"…It's been going for a while," Mira ventured cautiously before the guardian and Pleiades.
"The entire wall encloses it," he clarified.
Aura and the others' auras shifted slightly. He didn't get why.
"Speed up a bit," Lupusregina ordered.
"Understood," Mira replied, urging the undead horses to the grandest gate.
Soldiers stood guard, warned not to disrespect Sorcerer Kingdom envoys. A brief exchange opened the gate. Nazarick's lavish six-horse carriage and its stunning occupants screamed authority, even without the kingdom's emblem.
The carriage passed the gate, stopping where the mansion's full view emerged. Aura and Lupusregina leapt off; Sixes, noticing the stop, disembarked. The man, led by Mira's hand, stepped down, wishing for a cooler exit.
The four, except him, eyed the mansion warily. Mira's veiled face hid her expression, but her stance mirrored the others. He couldn't fathom their thoughts.
"How big's this place, Onii-san?" Lupusregina asked.
"Eight times E-Rantel's mansion in land area. The building's twenty percent larger, three stories, with annexes—some for servants, likely a stable. That's from an aerial view," he said.
"…"
The vastness wasn't Nazarick's wealth lacking but the gap between E-Rantel, a former fortress city, and the Empire's capital, home to elite estates. This was the prime lot, fit for an emperor's retreat.
"Lupu, can you contact Albedo?" Aura asked.
"Yup, reporting now," Lupusregina said, shifting from playful to Pleiades' second-born, Lupusregina Beta. Lacking message magic, she used an emergency bell from her inventory's dimensional box. Ringing it signaled Nazarick, prompting a response.
A message spell hit Lupusregina instantly. "Unexpected situation," she announced.
A dark orb appeared—a Gate. Shalltear emerged.
"Quicker reunion than expected," she said.
"Albedo-sama!" Sixes exclaimed.
The world dimmed, as if light itself bowed to Albedo's beauty. She surveyed the mansion coolly, then faced the man, her first meeting since his demotion.
"This is your lodging. Explain how it was chosen," she demanded.
"…As you command," he replied.
Albedo, Nazarick's overseer and Sorcerer Kingdom's prime minister, radiated authority, questioning him sternly. Her brow furrowed slightly as she listened.
"Shalltear, maintain the Gate. I'll report to Ainz-sama," Albedo ordered.
"Got it," Shalltear complied, her aura tense, puzzling him.
The Gate disgorged more: Yuri Alpha leading maids, Mare bowing cutely before joining Aura in the vast garden, where her summoned dragon landed, sparking screams from untrained imperial servants. Mira, tasked by Shalltear, vanished through the Gate, returning with vampire brides scattering across the grounds.
"What's happening?" he asked Ainz, who appeared suddenly, masked, after visiting the emperor.
"Everyone's working for me," Ainz said.
"…I see," he replied.
"Relax, I don't get it either!" Ainz laughed.
"No need for you to know every detail, Ainz-sama," he said.
"Exactly!" Ainz agreed, loving the phrase.
Ainz, believed to wield unmatched intellect, found omniscience exhausting. This man's words—"Ainz-sama needn't know every wisdom or fact"—freed him, endorsed by Cocytus and Albedo. He could admit ignorance, saying, "Is that for me to know?" or "Report it." Immensely grateful, Ainz considered giving him a medal—or any of his twenty-plus stocked items.
To clarify: a capable employee, sent from headquarters to a newly acquired subsidiary, is offered a lavish deal by the subsidiary's president, outshining headquarters' terms. Headquarters counters, "We can do better—subsidiaries can't match us!" It's about pride, not care for the employee.
A demotion from the Sorcerer Kingdom's capital shouldn't yield better treatment unless Nazarick intervenes. It's about face—Nazarick must be number one.
Nazarick's unmatched technology transformed the mansion. Staffing mixed Nazarick and E-Rantel maids for the main house, with imperial maids for annexes. Recruitment was open—top-tier待遇, ultra-white workplace.
Imperial maids puzzled over the master's title. Nazarick and Sixes called him Young Master. Lupusregina, his guard, said Onii-san. Mira, guard or mistress, called him Master, but her aloofness and veiled beauty drew poor repute—maids were warned not to speak ill, striving not to think it. Imperial knights called him Scholar. As the Sorcerer Kingdom's embassy, Ainz was the true master, ruling out Master and Onii-san. Scholar or Young Master remained, with Young Master prevailing.
E-Rantel's Young Master stayed so in the Empire.
Life began in the grand mansion. Aura visited via dragon, consulting on the alert network's organization and zones, spanning the Empire, Kingdom, Holy Kingdom, and southern nations. Discussions veered into Albedo and Demiurge's strategic territory, but Aura cared only for execution. The work progressed well.
She began thinking he'd make a fine deputy rather than idling here.
"Aura-sama, got time today?" he asked.
"Yup, lots. Just heading back to sleep," she said.
"Then join me."
He led her to an unused mansion room, bare save for neat wallpaper, curtains, scattered chairs, and stacked boxes or platforms.
Someone was there.
"Shalltear's… Mira, right?" Aura said.
"Yes, honored you remember. Shalltear-sama named me," Mira replied.
"Huh, Shalltear naming minions…" Aura marveled, noting Shalltear's change.
But why was Mira here? Usually in white with a veiled hat, she now wore a vampire bride's "formal" attire—Shalltear's erotic taste, barely cloth and straps covering breasts and pelvis.
"Sit there," he told Mira.
"…Understood," she said, taking an armchair. Sitting before Aura, a superior, was improper, but she complied, cheeks reddening.
"You can sit, Aura-sama, but standing's better," he suggested.
"What?" Aura bristled slightly.
"Need a blindfold?" he asked Mira.
"Yes… thank you for your mercy," Mira said.
"What's going on!?" Aura snapped, her tone sharp.
In Nazarick's eccentric crowd, where Mare was the purest, Aura was the most sensible. Being left out of a plan irked her.
He smiled warmly. "I spoke about women's bodies before."
"…Yeah," Aura said, catching on.
In the darkening room, with three of them—Mira seated, blushing, calling a blindfold mercy—it clicked.
"To show you a mature woman's body, Mira's helping," he said.
Aura's hunch was right.
He stood behind Mira, stroking her cheek, then untied the white strap circling her neck. It fell, revealing her breasts.