Chapter 9: 2-1: Preparations part 3

Good news. Noa is tremendously sensitive. Bad news. I now have a boner that she's extremely curious about.

So, with great regret, I aborted the mission halfway through.

Say what you will, responsibility is the greatest cockblock in the world.

I left the mansion several hours after I entered with a basket and a bra Noa refused to put back on stowed carefully in my Inventory. I picked a handful of peaches, stopping midway through as I realized I somehow knew exactly what I was doing.

Fun botanical fact. The stage of life Noa's peaches were in affected their properties. The small, barely-formed bulbs were a panacea of sorts, curing every status effect in the world with a single bite. The larger, more ripe ones that still hadn't changed colors could prolong a person's lifespan indefinitely, though they would still age extremely slowly. The fully ripe ones, though… they were the ones that were worthy of being World Items.

Complete immortality, healing all wounds short of death itself. A removal of the upper limit on your power. And finally, if one were to eat the pit within, the power it contained would allow you to change your Race to any other.

…Huh. I wonder if Noa will taste like peaches.

Heheheheh… goddammit. All this waiting is driving me insane.

Well, all the more reason to tie all the loopholes as soon as possible.

The room was silent, not a single sound to be heard. I stood to the side of the Throne of Kings, leaning back against a pillar and observing the gathered NPCs.

Was this the right choice? Would it hurt more than help? I didn't know, but I had to do something.

I inhaled, exhaled, then spoke.

"Greetings, Servants of Nazarick." I began, my quiet baritone rolling over the room like a physical force. "I have called you here to speak with you about a matter of solemn importance."

I let the words hang in the air for a moment before continuing.

"Our Guildmaster is nowhere to be found, and that he won't be returning anytime soon. I'm no figurehead, I'm merely a stand-in while awaiting his return. As such, I refuse to force any of you to stay in a Tomb controlled by me." I waved towards a door to my right, placed where a banner would normally be obscuring it. "As such, I have come to a decision. To those of you who cannot wait for his return, I have prepared a place for you."

"The moment that you set foot in that room, you will no longer be beholden to the laws of time. As soon as the door swings shut, you will no longer feel the effects of age. The next time someone opens the door, it will be as if no time has passed for you." I stated simply. "You may enter or leave as you please, so long as you have someone to open the door for you. You can wait there for Momonga's return without having to suffer the torture of a possible eternity without him."

All right. Confession time.

The door doesn't actually stop time for the room's inhabitants. Believe me, I tried every bit of phrasing I could think of. Nothing worked. [Time Stop] has a hard limit of ten seconds no matter how much flavor text I dump on, and simply stating that the door stops time just drains all of the Mana from the door the moment you try to activate it.

So I took a shortcut.

See, I might not be able to stop time, but when everyone in Nazarick is effectively immortal, that's not an issue. All I have to do is make it seem that time is stopped. So I made it so that the Door applied a stacking Debuff instead. Every second that the Door was closed, twenty stacks of [Mental Slow] were applied to everyone inside regardless of resistances. In-game the cap was four hundred stacks, but here it could theoretically apply to infinity.

As one might imagine, the Debuff was never meant to apply this way. It was supposed to slow the cast speed of Mental Spells. But as you may have guessed, it works a fair bit differently here. Each Debuff takes twenty percent off the victim's mental speed, which means that at a certain level their mind simply cannot process the passage of time.

I had accidentally invented what was, in effect, the perfect prison. You could go in, but on your own you could never get out.

"I will not hold your choice against you." I continued, lowering my arm. "All I ask is that you write your name down on the sheet on the door to ensure we know who all is in there. If an emergency occurs, we will require your services once more. But I cannot in good conscience force you to remain here against your will."

Silence fell. I had deliberately phrased it so it sounded as if they would be in the service of Nazarick either way, and that I wouldn't just be tossing them into the freezer to forget about them.

"This is not a test." I finished with a solemn shake of my head. "You will not be judged by your decision to stay or leave, by me or your fellow Servants, now or in the future. This is an option that has no strings attached, no dramatic reveal. You walk in that door, you can walk back out when Momonga returns with no consequences. You have my word."

I hardly expected them to cheer and pile in at the first opportunity. That wasn't what this was about. This was about me establishing a third option between 'obedience' and 'insanity'. If they were in so much pain that they might consider going against their core programming, having a place I was blatantly telling them they could go would be a godsend.

"Now." I clapped my hands together sharply, my tone of voice shifting to a more cheerful note. "As of right now, Nazarick has everything it needs to survive for an indefinite period of time. I have activated the security measures and enlisted Mare's aid in turning this place into a false mountain. To an outside observer, we do not exist and never have. Our safety and wellbeing is ensured, which means it is now time to do more than basic scouting of our surroundings."

A collective nod came from the gathered Servants, all save Albedo, who was still pale and unkempt. Even a day and a half later, she was dazed and unfocused. Even Shalltear, who would normally have laughed mockingly at her pain, was beginning to give her concerned looks.

I'll have to talk to her later.

"Now. I have a plan on how to explore the world without sacrificing any of Nazarick's defenses, but I'll need the aid of several humanoid Servants. If you believe you would be comfortable staying indefinitely in an area containing humans, gather in the Throne Room again in four hours. Worry not, you won't be leaving the Tomb for this mission, but you will still be involved. You'll learn more if you decide to volunteer."

"Does anyone have any questions about what I've said to you tonight?" I surveyed the room, nodding once when no one spoke up. "All right. Feel free to speak to me later in private if you have any, but until then, you all are dismissed. And… Albedo, you come with me."

The Guardians bowed, Albedo slowly walking up to join me as I prepared to Teleport. Noa waved sleepily, already moving over to where Archer stood so they could return to our mansion to wait.

I activated my Guild Ring, and the world shifted.

"A-ah… Ancient One-sama?" Albedo's voice was cracked and broken, wavering uncertainly. "Is this… the Treasury?"

"Yes." Or, the entrance to it, at least. Direct Teleportation into it wasn't possible. "We need to talk."

Her golden eyes widened, and she straightened immediately. "My Lord, please, I just need some time, I—"

"Whatever you're about to say, it doesn't matter." I cut in gently. "Please. Listen to me. Momonga's disappearance… it wasn't your fault. You know that, right?"

She nodded mechanically. "Of course."

I stared her down. "Albedo. Look me in the eyes and tell me. It wasn't your fault."

Her gaze shifted. "My Lord… please, this isn't…"

"Albedo." I repeated, reaching out to place my hands on her shoulders. "Please. Say the words."

"But… what if it was?" She finally whispered. "I was… right there. Right next to him when he… he just wasn't there anymore. What if I could've protected him and didn't?"

"Albedo." My grip on her tightened. "It wasn't your fault."

She shook her head. "No."

"It wasn't your fault." I repeated, voice gentler. "Listen. Albedo. I didn't see this coming. No one in the room saw it coming. There was no Spell, nothing to block, no way we could've prevented this. It's no one's fault, no even Momonga's. You need to understand that if you're going to move on."

She was silent, beginning to shake. I held her at arms' length, patiently waiting as tears began to stream down her face.

"Albedo." A firm statement. "It wasn't. Your. Fault."

"But it was!" She finally exploded, voice raw with grief. "He's gone, and it's because I couldn't do my one job right! I couldn't protect the man I love for one moment, so how can I expect to protect anyone else?"

She stood, panting, with golden eyes practically ablaze. I could practically see her horror as she realized what she had just done, anger cooling to raw grief.

"There was nothing you could have done, Albedo." I brought her close, encircling her in a hug. "It wasn't your fault."

She buried her face in my shoulder and began to cry.

Time passed. Her tears gradually dried up, only sniffles remaining. I spoke up at last, voice gentle. "All right. Listen to me. Right now I'm sure Innocence is just as lost and confused as you are, but she's still in there calming Pandora down. I want you to go join her until you can honestly accept that you did nothing wrong. Help her, or join Pandora in being comforted by her. Either way, you need closure."

"…Okay." She finally whispered after a long pause. "But you can't tell Shalltear where I am."

"She won't know a thing." I soothed. "She's dealing with this on her own, though, so perhaps once you're done here you can go and talk with her. Just to make sure she's not breaking down or anything."

"Y-yes." She pulled away, wiping her eyes. "I understand. Thank you, Ancient-sama."

I nodded once, stepping away and raising my Guild Ring. "And Albedo… if you ever need to talk, my door is always open."

And with that, I vanished.

…What? I said that she's dangerous and unpredictable if she's left to her own devices. I never said I'd leave her to rot. She's a living being. Sure she's dangerous and possibly insane in many regards, but that's no reason to be an asshole.

Pretty much every girl in Nazarick is insane, so it's not like it's anything new, anyway.

I'd still prefer it if both she and the problem she represents disappeared entirely until Momonga was around to s̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m deal with them. At least then I won't have to be constantly looking over my shoulder at every turn.

She'll likely never betray me, I know. She likely worships the ground I walk on, I understand. But there's still a nonzero chance that she could one day snap and try something drastic to bring her beloved home sooner.

So sue me, I'm playing both sides and hoping to win. At least it's better than just shrugging dumbly and leaving her to collapse in on herself. If talking with Innocence and Pandora helps her come to a conclusion she can live with, the problem will go away one way or another.

Comfort Albedo, check. Make announcement, check. Start exploration program… not check. Which is why I'm back in my workshop, staring out over my various tools.

Time to get to work.

More Servants turned up to the next meeting than I would've thought. Demiurge, Mare, a few of the Pleiades, and Sebas. Not that it was a bad thing, per se. The more faces, the better.

"All right." I clapped my hands together, gesturing to the table in the middle of the room. "Tell me. What do you see here?"

Silence.

"Um… a bunch of wax dolls?" Mare tried. I had to resist the urge to cringe at the voice of the greatest trap alive, reminding myself that I knew for an absolute fact that he was male.

…Erm… how do I describe Mare here… how about this. Picture a tall, delicate girl in a white vest and a skirt. A gently slanting chest to suggest a budding maturity, soft eyelashes framing sparkling blue eyes, and a shy demeanor that makes her look like the type guys would fall over themselves trying to protect.

Now have that girl tell you she's a boy in the most female voice possible.

There. Job done. Moving on.

"Yes." I agreed. "They are wax dolls. But what else?"

Demiurge picked one up, examining it. It was a very vague shape, one that could easily be carved to look either a male or female. "Is it… some form of magical construct?" He mused.

I smiled.

"Ladies and gentlemen… allow me to explain to you my plan."

Word count 2200