章 41: Chapter 18
'Traitor!' 'Failure!' 'Unworthy!' These three simple yet devastating words were on constant repeat in her, rightfully, tormented mind. Shalltear sat on the edge of her bed and stared into the opposite wall with a blank expression, incapable of comprehending anything else.
There was nothing else to do, no way to fix things. No matter what she said or did, it would not undo her complete and utter betrayal. She attacked Lord Ainz with the intent to kill, and the Ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, in his infinite mercy, had spared her.
Like a pointless decoration, she was left in her room to 'recover.' Pero, her father, was smothering her with affection any chance he got. 'It's not your fault.' He had repeated that line more times than she could count, in dozens of variations. Maybe it was his way of coping that he had wasted his time to create a failure like her, not that it helped her one bit.
Shalltear sniffed and bit into her lip, feeling no enjoyment from the pain. In the shock of getting back the control of her mind, she had attempted to kill herself as a repentance for her sinful deeds. Another sin in her long list of misdeeds. In her arrogance, she had tried to take the easy way out without facing repercussions for her actions, believing herself to be the owner of her own life. No, she belonged to Nazarick first and foremost.
The doors to her bedroom swung open. Once again a vampire bride entered her private space without asking for permission. Not that it mattered. Her underling probably came to clean, given that they still had their duties despite her negligence.
"I apologize for the intrusion, Lady Shalltear, but Lord Ainz has come to speak with you." The vampire spoke with a strained voice as she bowed.
'Lord Ainz is here!?' Ignoring her unsightly appearance, Shalltear barged out of the room, almost slamming into the Overlord.
"Lord Ainz, w-welcome to my- to the third-floor sanctuary." She stuttered a response and kneeled so fast her knee broke one of the stone floor tiles, her dress messily and improperly flaring.
"Rise, Shalltear." Ainz motioned for her to get up. She tried to hear anger, frustration, or disappointment in his voice but there was none.
Slowly she stood up but her gaze was firmly set on the floor, unable to face her ultimate master.
"Please look at me when I talk with you," Ainz ordered.
"I am sorry, Lord Ainz." Her lip quivered as she spoke.
Slowly she moved her head upwards to face Lord Ainz. It didn't escape her notice that there was no one else in the room. No Rubedo, no eight-edge assassins, not even vampire brides. The Overlord was facing her alone, one-to-one.
'That can't be. Why is Lord Ainz alone with me, a traitor?' Her body lightly trembled. She wasn't the smartest among the floor guardians, but she wasn't stupid. Ainz had come to speak with her alone. He faced her without a shred of fear like the ultimate ruler should, reigning supreme over all those below him.
"First I wanted to inform you that I have decided that you will resume your floor guardian duties starting today. As much as your father wishes to give you time off to recover, I can't afford to divert Demiurge's attention any longer." Lord Ainz stated, his full authority behind his words.
It wasn't a suggestion that she got back her status as a floor guardian. It was an absolutely indisputable order.
"Lord Ainz…" Shalltear grasped her hands to stop them from shaking. "I… I am…I am sorry for what I did. And…" Her voice trembled.
"Shalltear, I want to make one thing absolutely clear to you. I sent you on a mission without considering the possibility of someone with world items existing in this world. What happened to you is my mistake, and it is me who needs to apologize." Ainz bowed his head, at least as far as he could with his bulky frame.
"Bu-but I am the one who got caught. I was careless. I was even questioned on details about Nazarick. How can what I have done not be my fault?" Shalltear bit into her lip even stronger, drawing blood that dripped upon the floor tiles.
"Then tell me and I'll be the judge if there is any fault of yours."
And she did. Remembering every single detail. From where everyone stood, what they said to facial expressions and gear.
"I see. In hindsight, what ticked them off was you mentioning Nazarick. But look at it this way. What if they had managed to lull you into trusting them and you had called Pero to join you for the talks? At that point, Albedo and I were the only ones with world items. In my eyes, you chose the correct approach by starting with diplomacy and were a victim of a cowardly attack." Ainz gave his reasoning, sighing.
"I should have contacted Albedo or Demiurge before opening my mouth. I attacked you, Lord Ainz. It could have been prevented if I asked for help instead of acting on my own. I wanted to be seen just as smart and capable as them,'' Shalltear admitted. No matter how she looked at these events, it was her failure and her failure alone.
"It is good you have already reflected on your mistakes in this situation," Ainz hesitated before continuing. "To repent for your lack of foresight, I will task you with doing whatever you can to better yourself and be truthful to yourself first and foremost. If there is something you are unsure you can do, ask for help from either your peers or me and my friends. We all can learn from this experience, myself included."
"I will, Lord Ainz!" For the first time since regaining her senses, she felt relief. The given task was a monumental challenge as she hadn't done anything resembling self-reflection before, but Lord Ainz in his infinite wisdom had shown her the way forward, one for the entirety of Nazarick and herself to benefit from.
There was just one thing she needed to clarify. "Lord Ainz, would it mean I shouldn't pad my bra if I am to be completely honest with myself?"
"Erm…" It appeared her beloved ruler went into a deep contemplation on the topic while she patiently waited for an answer.
"I suppose you shouldn't." He finally uttered his parting words, "I will look closely at your progress soon," Ainz teleported away, leaving Shalltear on the floor.
As her vampire brides walked back into the room one by one, she slowly returned to her room to adjust her appearance. No matter how much Aura or Albedo would tease her afterward, she was ready to accept it as justified punishment. For the first time since her creation, she would not alter her look to give the impression of maturity that simply wasn't there. The Supreme Lord had commanded so, that was worth more than a comparatively shallow attempt at looking older.
<X>
The job of a scholar was never-ending. With every problem or discovery, more and more ways to pursue knowledge opened up, and there was never enough time or resources to pursue them all. The few recent prisoners caught together with the world item user provided a unique opportunity to test the possibility of extracting both talents and power, sapping their enemies of their powers while empowering their own.
Tabula held a fist-sized crystal in one of his right arms with a few similar objects standing in a neat row on the table in front of him.
Now that he had gotten a talent into a crystal, he attempted to create a copy. If such a feat turned out to be possible, the growth of Nazarick could become exponentially faster, enabling even the weakest NPCs to become full-fledged warriors for incredibly shortened durations of time. Ninya's talent for learning magic faster alone could help the budding casters grow in power twice as fast. And there was no doubt in Tabula's mind there were more powerful talents out there in the world.
There was an option to use wish upon the star super tier spell to duplicate an item, but its use came with a price of power loss and no guarantees that the talent would be duplicated onto an empty crystal given how different this world was compared to Yggdrasil.
'Hmm, in theory, I should be able to break down the talent into raw data and use mana to rewrite it in a new crystal. But this world's magical language is different from the one I know. That makes it obvious that talents are not a result of tier magic or the product of a world item.'
The full learning of magical code would be a long and tedious process.
'It's rather simple actually, for some of them. Just use a combination of [Duplicate Item] and the Will of Mammon Incantation. But it will work only on very weak effects. The powerful ones, I'm afraid, won't be so easily copied.' A familiar voice gave him an answer.
'Regoz! Why are you helping me? What do you expect to get out of this?'
'Just a friendly advice from one seeker of knowledge to another. But that is not why I contacted you. It is time to come good on your part of the deal.'
He had promised to perform the deification ritual on anyone Regoz chose, and now this entity wanted to collect this debt.
'Who?'
'I'm sure you already know.'
'I don't want to play games!' Tabula shouted in his mind.
'Stress is not good for the heart, you know. Let's go talk with that lovely middle daughter of yours,' Regoz replied, as nonchalant and immaterial as ever.
'Albedo!? She has been sentient for only a month. It will tear her soul apart! I won't let you hurt her!' Tabula flatly refused.
'I didn't ask for your opinion. And you will be a conduit, per your deal. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours.' Regoz increased his presence in Tabula's mind, threatening to rip apart Tabula to enforce it.
'Whatever plans you have, they will fall apart if she can't handle it. Ainz won't forgive me.'
'She will be fine. Don't waste my time.'
Reluctantly, Tabula put down the crystal and teleported right to Albedo's office. As he predicted she was alone and filing paperwork as usual.
"Father? Did you require something?" Albedo asked, mildly surprised at the sudden appearance of her creator.
"Yes. In fact, please prepare. You will receive an upgrade." Tabula stated, sounding nervous.
"Prepare? Shouldn't Ainz be present?" She inquired, unsure what was going on.
Her father's eccentricities were well known, so his behavior wasn't that out of the norm for him.
She didn't receive an answer, instead, Tabula lifted his upper right arm as he, at the moment, had six in total, and spoke in a clear, pleasant voice instead of his guttural normal one.
"Albedo, the one whose love knows no bounds, be the Goddess of Love and Desire."
"Goddess? Father, what's the meaning of this?"
"Follow your true will. Choose now." The voice transmitted by her father didn't answer her question.
By the looks of it, her father was in some sort of trance. Yet the offer intrigued her. If she were to accept and become a Goddess, she could stand by the Ainz side as an equal. The head of the pantheon deserved a Goddess by his side, and she would be that Goddess.
"I accept!" She exclaimed.
"Then be the Goddess of Love and Desire!" The voice radiating out of her father declared.
She could feel subtle changes within, changing her from the inside out. As someone who had near-perfect control over her body, Albedo could tell she just gained access to powers she didn't possess before. For one, her aura of lust could be empowered by her newfound divinity. Additionally, she knew the sexual desires of everyone currently present on the ninth floor.
'So this is how it feels to be a supreme being!' She wanted to laugh in sheer delight, only stopped by her sense of etiquette in front of another Supreme Being.
"Thank you, Father." She said with a short bow.
"How do you feel?" Her father once again spoke in a deep guttural tone, seemingly concerned.
"Better than ever. Am I like you now?" She broke into a smile unable to contain her excitement. Now she truly was worthy to be Ainz's wife.
"In a sense. But be careful and do not overextend yourself. Uplifting you was different from the players." Tabula cautioned, a rather unusual sentiment from his usual careless self.
"I will. I'm sure Ainz will guide me to grow by his side."
"No doubt he will," Tabula mumbled something more under his breath, but Albedo couldn't catch what was said. Before she could ask more about being a Goddess, Tabula was already gone, leaving her behind with her paperwork.
Editing by aidan_lo.
Proofreading by Saphire_Drake, clagan, aidan_lo, Sluethen, Zirmeister, Lightflan, x4x, and KieraKieraARTS.
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