Chapter 212

Ainz allowed Albedo to lose herself in the moment for far longer than he knew he should have. And yet? The time to think was so vital that it couldn't be helped. 'What have I done? What have I done to my precious Albedo…? How could I have not understood what I was doing to her while I was trying to ease myself into things… I should have told her first, whatever the consequences for it…'

His heart tore with the ease of wet paper and with the pain of sensitive, intimate flesh under rending claws. "Albedo…" He finally said, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" His voice, muffled by the mask, might have disguised the change from undead to human. But it did nothing to disguise the sense of remorse which came through with every word. His hands ran over and over through her dark silk hair and down her upper back.

Albedo being on her knees did nothing to stop their shaking, but when her Lord spoke, she managed at least to raise her head and shake that back and forth in turn. "No, no my Lord. My Lord's will is perfect and right, I shouldn't act this way… if it is my Master's wish to withhold his love for his servant, then I have to endure it. I was created to serve you, where you want me to be, I must be, for as long as my Lord wills it." She sniffled and wiped her nose, but kept her eyes up on him and added, "But I did miss you so very… very much."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" Ainz repeated as if she'd said nothing at all, "You worked so hard for me, and I didn't know how much I was hurting you… you're the precious daughter of a dear friend… I would never want to hurt you."

The simple statement that she was 'the daughter of his dear friend' lanced through Albedo's heart, a brutal, piercing dismissal of the way she loved him, and from the core of herself that was opened up by that piercing strike, out fountained words she had uttered a thousand times in her own mind.

"No! I'm more than that, my love! So much more!" She cried out, "I'm not a child! I'm a woman in love! Love I want to give to you and you alone! Love you chose for me, as a woman, not as a daughter!" Her words were frantic, blunt, bold, and they rained down on Ainz' resolve like vicious blows, not because of what she said, but because it opened up his overwhelming sense of guilt.

A memory stirred, distant now, but present nonetheless, of a powerful executive that wanted the pretty wife of a junior worker and so threw an office party. Though the man Suzuki Satoru had not personally seen what took place, the story made the rounds. A little white powder in her drink, got her away from her young, naive husband and alone, and the executive had his fill of her, only to discard her when he was done.

A special loathing existed in his mind for that executive, though now as Albedo's powerful hands pulled at his robes with teary eyes he was hard pressed to distinguish himself from the one who used the employee's wife. It wasn't lost on him what happened. Divorce and two suicides thereafter. Ainz' one excuse… 'I didn't know what I was doing when I changed her! It was just a final joke…'

Now he faced the punchline… a sobbing mess of a desperate girl who only wanted his love, and an overwhelming guilt at what he'd done to her.

And all he could do was say, "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. This was all my fault… all my fault…"

"Lord Ainz… please… please! Just a little bit of your love, even if for just a little while…" She began to pull at the fabric of his robes, and the moment changed.

She wasn't pulling herself to them, or them to her, or even himself to her, rather she was drawing herself up to pull his robes away to expose his body.

"Albedo!" Ainz exclaimed with a heart now pounding with shock and fear as much as guilt, "Get hold of yourself!"

Her pheromones filled his senses, the dreams of twilight hours came to mind to mingle with his panic, his alarm, his dismay, his guilt. He grabbed her wrists, though she was a level one hundred warrior which his former build could never have taken in a struggle, now… having far surpassed his old limits? He gripped her wrist and held her fast. He stopped her cold, though his aroused manhood still gave in to her wiles, he could still easily overpower her.

"This is because of you… your will, isn't it, my love?!" She cried out with an agonized catch in her voice as she lost all reason, her wild beauty in her slender frame which was by design meant to entice beyond measure.

Only his doubt about how she might react to his humanity kept his sense of control at bay, "Albedo, my body, I have to tell you-"

"I know, my Lord! I know the truth!" She shrieked the words and resumed drawing herself up, he fell on his back, more out of shock at her words than by the strength of her body. "You are a man… a whole man now! I've known for months! Longer! Since before you went to the Dwarves!" She shouted, and he froze, shock enveloped him.

'I was so careful to keep her at bay… and it was all for nothing… she knew?! She knew and I-'

Ainz' realization ripped apart what was left of his resolve.

'I tortured her for nothing.' His human heart wept a sea as she pulled his robes away and exposed his naked chest, she straddled him then and pulled her dress up over her head.

She cast the gift of her creator into the corner of the room with the utmost contempt, the wooden floor of the expensive room might as well have been filth to her before that hour. But in this moment, Albedo considered it to be the same as sacred ground.

Her breasts heaved as she tore away the sash that bound the undergarments which concealed his manhood, and with a swipe of her fingers she tore the cloth away, they were panting, both of them for different reasons.

Only his mask remained. For a moment Ainz thought she was going to tear it away, her hands were slow as glacial ice to his high level body, he could have stopped her. He had no doubt about it, 'What did you expect?' He asked himself, and her hands found the edges of the Mask of Jealousy.

Then they did nothing, they didn't tear it away, Ainz relaxed himself. "My Lord… may I… May I see?" It was a question as out of the blue as a lightning bolt on a cloudless day.

"You can never go back, if you do." Ainz said and brought his hands up to hers, his shaft was still responding to her pheromones, overwhelming heat rose from both their bodies.

"I can't bear it… I can't…" She said, and in that moment of rare clarity she asked, "All the others saw… haven't they?"

Ainz had no will to lie to her. "Yes."

"Am I so unworthy… cursed…?" She asked, coming for a moment, back to herself, perhaps due to his own seeming lack of response to her actions. "Of course… look what I am about to do…" The naked succubus hung her head in shame and then drew her hands away to cover her face as if she had a mask of her own.

"This was supposed to be beautiful… this was supposed to be beautiful… this was supposed to be beautiful…" She choked out the words and began a soft, whimpering cry, her body still straddling his own as the depth of her crime, attacking a Supreme Being, settled into her head.

"My Lord was right not to trust me… to exile me…" She said, as she now came to consider her 'assignment'.

"Albedo… Albedo no… No… No… No…" Ainz said and reached up from under her to grasp her arms and pull them away from her face to expose her weeping yellow eyes and her trembling ruby lips.

"Listen to me… let me tell you…" Ainz said and began to relay it all to her, the moment of the change, his concerns over the loyalty of the denizens of Nazarick. "I suppose I must blame my own human heart for being so irrational. As if my friends' children would ever be anything but loyal… it was a stupid thing for me to fear, but I feared it anyway."

Albedo gave a weak, fragile smile. "This truly does explain much… but, your mask, may I, my Love?"

Ainz allowed her hands there again, and this time he did not stop her from pulling it aside.

"My Lord is… handsome." She said and touched the cheek of his face, a little dark beard stubble bent under the light touch of her fingers. "I knew my Lord had all his manly parts restored, but not that he was human."

A spike of alarm shot through Ainz' heart for a moment until he saw that her smile did not vanish, instead growing only stronger. "I should have expected as much out of a genius." He admitted, and his head rolled to the side to look away from her, "It seems so obvious now, I should have come to you first. But I-" He reached up, not for her heaving breast, but for her own face.

"You're my friend's child… What I did so thoughtlessly, it was wrong. Your feelings, you told me once it wasn't a problem. That is true for you, but not for me… how can I do what you want when it isn't what you were meant to be?" His face twisted into a mix of confusion and pain, his eyes welled up with tears.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry, My Albedo… but please… rise, put on your clothes. I can't. We can't. I can't." Ainz said a little more firmly.

If she had pressed on, his resolve hung like a fraying thread, he would have relaxed, and let her do as she wanted. "I'm here now… let that be enough… please." He urged.

She gave a quiet, submissive nod and rose from off of him. His robes were not truly off of his body, only cast down, as she rose and went to obey him, putting on her dress again, he rose himself and began to close his robes as if nothing at all had happened.

But it did.

She had her back to him while she dressed, and shameful though it was, he could not help but look.

So Albedo caught his eyes when she ran her hands through her hair, pulling it from out of the confines of her dress to tumble down her slender curving back.

She lingered there a moment, sharing the eye contact from across the room, and then folded her hands demurely in front of her waist before saying, "My Lord, my servants should be ready soon, if it pleases you, we can begin to go over our plans for the last push before this Kingdom is doomed to fall into your hands."

"Ah, yes… yes let's do that. Go ahead, Albedo." Ainz stammered for a moment as he fixed the mask back over his face and then followed her over to a waiting table with two comfortable looking chairs just begging to be used.