Chapter 112

When Ainz returned to Nazarick and went to his office to review the day's work which he would… unfortunately, be leaving to Pandora's Actor and Albedo, he found Pandora's Actor already waiting for him.

"Mein Vater!" Pandora's Actor said, sliding one foot behind himself and extending one hand out while the other clutched at his own breast, "Your servants have spoken of their journey to the Draconic Kingdom, and the delightful Lupusregina turned both Baziwood and Nazami into werewolves, while Leinas acting under Shalltear's direction, added Nimble to her vampires. They are all four equipped and ready for travel. I used the Face Sculptor bonus item to change their appearances… sogar ihre eigenen Mütter would not recognize them!"

Ainz opened the door to his office and walked within. Part of him craved nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die, such was the grandiose Pandora's Actor's over the top behavior and again with the German speaking, brought fresh embarrassment on behalf of Ainz' younger self.

But he forced it aside to go behind his desk instead and ask, "All that is expected, but you wouldn't leave the treasury just to tell me that. So what is it?" It might have been said with a tiny bit of harshness, and yet Pandora's Actor took that seemingly in stride.

"It was requested that someone from Nazarick accompany them, two teams of four, they will be spread out a great deal, someone should centralize control, organize them, and represent the Kingdom of Nazarick to the Queen while managing your subordinates." Pandora's Actor's words were so significant in Ainz' mind that the quill in his hands snapped.

'That's a good point, I don't want to give up control of any of my subordinates… not to such an extent as that at least…' Ainz nodded very slowly. "Of course…" Ainz mumbled under his breath as he ran down the list of names.

"Set Sebas and Solution to it. She will act as his servant as he represents my Kingdom, I can't think of anybody better to represent me to a human kingdom. Besides, what can truly go wrong there?" Ainz asked the question rhetorically and drew out a blank sheet of paper, he began to write on it, recalling the words and phrases he often saw Queen Draudillon use in her official correspondence so that he could sound as official and formal as possible. "Allocate a budget suitable for a royal emissary of Nazarick for them to live on, and be sure to allot a reasonable salary to our adventurers for their wages… enough for them to be as envied as they are admired."

"Brilliant, Vater, brilliant!" Pandora's Actor said, nodding along while Ainz worked.

He took his seal after rolling the document and affixed it into place. Then for added good measure he held his hand over the seal and cast, [Guild Master Seal - Draconic Queen Draudillon], using the spell and binding it to her name to prevent its opening by any other.

"Give this to Sebas, inform him that it should pass into nobody's hands but those of Queen Draudillon herself." Ainz gave the order and Pandora's Actor bent forward halfway before accepting the scroll.

"Thy will be done, mein Vater!" Pandora's Actor exclaimed and then withdrew from Ainz' sight.

'When I have time, I have to put more effort into international relationships, I cannot let my Kingdom be seen as one that is only good at fighting and warfare. Something… something that will showcase our greatness and draw eyes to our artistry and magnificence in other ways… something that will make all nations say, 'I want to be on good terms with the Kingdom of Nazarick'.' Ainz turned over those options in his mind, 'A great tourist event, a fair, a tournament, a peace conference among the nations… so many possibilities…'

Ainz scribbled the ideas down in the margins of a sheet of paper on his desk, adding a few more concepts to the list along the way whenever one came to mind as he did his best to leave Albedo a manageable amount of material. 'What I did to her… how do I live with that? I don't want to be a bad boss on top of everything else…'

The thing he hated most about having a human body was the seemingly constant ranges of emotion over his own actions, the stress, the shame of how he was still hiding what he was from his guardians, guardians who loved and trusted him enough to still carry out his orders. 'Every time they prove my fears were misplaced… I am ashamed I ever doubted them… how do I make it up to them… mistrusting them for crimes committed only in my own fearful heart?'

He clenched his fists, cursed his humanity, his frustrations and his cowardice. His entire body shook as one by one he recalled their loving embraces and patient, loyal reassurances that he was their lord no matter what his body was.

'The last two… Demiurge and Albedo… Albedo and Demiurge…' Again he questioned himself as he repeated their names on a loop. The suspicion that Albedo might have known something would not leave his mind, and yet she remained faithful, quietly away, working hard on normalizing the new city governments to align with Ainz' vision.

'What even 'is' my vision?' Removing slavery was an easy one, he knew enough history to know it was economically harmful, of benefit only to the wealthy, and created a naturally unstable powder keg. The new dark elven settlements were being steadily constructed in turn…

But still he had no real vision other than, 'I want my friend's children to be able to live happily anywhere, and my friends to love the world I create.'

That meant all races had to be able to coexist, and that meant a just system of the sort Touch Me would have approved of, to name but two requirements.

'Albedo seems to have grasped my intent more or less…' He thought to himself as he looked over the one jointly signed off by herself and Demiurge. The sentencing of violent criminals to a life of… 'Farm labor'?' Ainz scratched his head, "I suppose that is better than prison… and more productive too." It was just thinking out loud, but once again buried beneath it all was a great admiration for the brilliance of two of the three geniuses of Nazarick. 'To think they'd use criminals to tend sheep and farm to help increase our material for scrolls and even feed the same labor force… excellent work…'

With that thought, he affixed his seal of approval to the proposal and then let out a long, steady yawn. 'One more night's sleep… then it's off to a nice, quiet visit to the dwarves and see what tomorrow brings… and what dreams may come tonight…'

With that thought, Ainz stood up and stretched, then went back to his room to sleep.