Chapter 178: One Up on Ainz
Touch Me's weeping drifted across the camp like a blunt blade working through something that wouldn't give cleanly — and Sebas felt every stroke of it.
Lucian stood a few paces away, watching the boy on the ground, then walked forward.
He crouched down beside Touch Me.
"Touch Me."
The voice was quiet, as though careful not to disturb something.
Touch Me didn't lift his head. Both hands still held Leno's body. Tears fell one by one onto the blood-stained blanket.
"Don't grieve too much."
Lucian's voice was steady and warm, the kind that made you want to believe what it was saying.
Touch Me's shoulders trembled slightly. He raised those red-rimmed eyes and looked at Lucian.
Lucian looked at Touch Me and at Leno in his arms.
"I'll bring the domain soldiers' bodies back, and Leno, together, to the Dragon Kingdom." He paused and chose his words carefully. "The Dragon Kingdom doesn't have a cleric capable of [Resurrection], but I'll contact Lakyus and have her come by teleportation magic. We'll do everything we can to bring Leno back."
Touch Me's pupils contracted sharply.
The light that had gone out in those deep blue eyes caught again, like a last ember touched by a breath of wind.
"Lord Lucian..." His voice was careful, laced with a disbelief that wanted so badly to become hope. "Is it really... possible? To bring her back?"
Lucian gave a small nod, but his answer left room. "As long as the body is intact, there's a chance."
Touch Me's lips trembled. Tears came again — but this time they were full of something different.
He looked down at Leno in his arms, and spoke softly to her: "Leno, did you hear that... Lord Lucian says you can come back..."
He held her a little tighter, as though pulling that fragile new hope into his arms along with her.
Sebas stood nearby, watching this with an expression that was clearly working through something unsaid. He already knew how this would likely end, and was worried Touch Me-sama would be disappointed.
Lucian let his gaze pass briefly to Sebas without making it visible, then brought it back.
The truth of the matter, internally: this was a calculated promise.
The girl's level was probably one, at most two. Her class was almost certainly something like slave. That placed her far below the threshold for Tier 5 faith-based [Resurrection].
Higher-tier resurrection magic or the equivalent items would be required: the higher the resurrection tier, the less experience it consumed from the subject. And in this world, the number of powers capable of that could be counted on one hand. The Great Tomb of Nazarick was among them.
Sebas. You don't want Touch Me-sama to stay like this either, do you.
With Sebas's intelligence, he should be able to work out the logic himself.
Lucian rose, and was about to say something to nudge it along —
Sebas moved first.
The old butler took two steps forward and stood in front of Touch Me.
He bent down, bringing his gaze level with the kneeling boy.
That lined face carried not one trace of hesitation.
"Touch Me-sama."
Sebas's voice was steady. And absolutely certain.
"Please don't worry. This child will be brought back. I give you my word."
Touch Me's head snapped up.
Those deep blue eyes still had unshed tears in them, but now something was rising behind them.
"Sebas-sama..." His voice was shaking. "Do you mean that?"
Sebas looked at him and gave a single nod.
"I promise you."
With both Lord Lucian and Sebas-sama making the same assurance, Touch Me received it as true.
The corner of his mouth lifted into a smile.
His eyes were still red. The tears were still on his face. But the smile that broke through had a brightness to it that hadn't been there before, the joy of something thought gone and found again.
"Thank you, Sebas-sama."
In those pale grey eyes of Sebas's, Touch Me's smile was reflected back.
"There is no need to thank me, Touch Me-sama." His voice was soft. "This is what I should do."
Lucian stood a few steps back and watched it all.
He lowered his gaze for a moment and quietly filed everything away.
Sebas had been willing to go this far for Touch Me. To make that promise outright, without first confirming whether Ainz Ooal Gown would agree.
That level of resolve was sufficient to establish how much Sebas believed in Touch Me's reincarnation.
Phase one of the compliance test: passed.
And now —
What would Sebas do when a request conflicted with Nazarick's interests?
Lucian intended to push a little harder for the next phase.
He raised his eyes, gaze landing on Sebas.
The old butler was crouching in front of Touch Me, saying something quietly. It looked like reassurance, the kind of low patient words you offer alongside a promise. Touch Me was listening and nodding, still holding Leno's body, and no longer looked as though he was about to come apart.
Maybe Lucian had been watching too long, or maybe Sebas's senses were simply that sharp.
The old butler's movement paused. He turned his head, and his gaze found Lucian's directly.
"Lord Lucian." Sebas shifted slightly toward him, his tone respectful. "Is there something you need?"
Lucian was about to begin the second phase of the compliance test — and then the words caught in his throat.
He blinked.
Lord Lucian.
Sebas's address for him had been "Lord Lucian" just now. Not "Lord Lucian" as in the formal title construction he had used before; the specific form had changed.
Lucian's brain stalled for one beat.
He ran back through everything that had just happened, from his promise to Touch Me to this moment.
And then he understood.
This was how Sebas's logic worked.
Touch Me called him "Lord Lucian." So Sebas had followed Touch Me's lead and was now calling him "Lord Lucian" as well?
What was that exactly? Deference to his lord's usage? Or had Touch Me's phrasing reached a priority level in Sebas's internal order high enough to override his own established form of address?
Lucian looked at those pale grey eyes waiting patiently for his response, and felt something unusual stir in his chest.
How to put it.
The feeling was something like — he had just one-upped Ainz?
He immediately expelled that dangerous idea from his mind, but the image was already printed there and wouldn't budge.
He found himself looking, involuntarily, at Touch Me's gold-bright short hair, and then at Sebas's silver-white hair.
His own little golden-haired one had apparently gone ahead and brought someone else's silver-haired one along with him.
That was roughly the level of absurdity he was looking at.
Lucian felt the corners of his mouth beginning to move without his permission. He pressed his lips firmly together, cleared his throat, and forcibly pushed back the grin that had been about to break out.
Then he rearranged his face, brow slightly furrowed and corners of the mouth turned just slightly down, and put his expression of concern back on.
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