57

After the War Chapter 5

Sometimes work had the tendency to cut into leisure time and there were few people who hated it more than Peros. After signing off the last order, he quickly teleported away before his assistant could bring him more work. After all, when all your subordinates are trained killers and since death was easily reversible, most disputes ended up with him calling in the resurrection team. 'If those idiots could stop killing each other twice a day I wouldn't need to fill out so many reports. Maybe I can pin it on Clementine… who am I kidding, nothing will make her lazy ass do the proper paperwork.'

'Screw it, I'll think about it tomorrow.' Pero pushed the work-related stuff out of his head and teleported to his private club inside the Great Tomb.

He quickly glanced around, and by the looks of it, the rest had started without him. There already were a few succubi and incubi dancing around the poles, and in his favorite area sat four men he could barely recognize as all four had chosen to remain human.

Pero quickly walked over and hopped into a free seat.

"Hey, the man himself is finally here! Couldn't resist having a detour to your darlings?" Beast King Mekongawa shouted. He was a tall slim man in his early thirties, dressed in a loose shirt and pants. Same as the others, he had dark brown eyes and black hair, but unlike his peers, his hair was shoulder length and messy.

"Unlike you bums, I have work to do." Pero said and waved for Freeze to bring him a drink. The dutiful frost virgin quickly brought over a large mug with an ice-cold beer.

"Give me a break. I've been here for barely two weeks, and it's so nice to finally relax. Not to mention, I have my psycho to deal with. She has not been able to slow down ever since I've been here." Beast King said.

"You did make her that way so it's on you, Beast." Pero chuckled.

"Sure I did. But on our last hunt, one of yours, that pretty blonde thing, joined in. It takes a lot for me to start feeling sorry for prey, but those trolls that got in her way, man they had it rough." Beast said, took a large gulp of beer, and then added. "I have no idea how you are not afraid to tap her."

"She can't even break my skin with her claws, so she'd get nothing out of it." Pero said as he leaned his head back and poured one-third of the beer into his throat. Even having a beak did nothing to stop him from enjoying his drink.

"So, what are we playing today and what are we betting?" Garnet, a man in his mid-thirties, dressed in a black, three-part suit, asked.

"Only the rare stuff." Pero said as he dropped the booze tokens on the table. Considering that there were types of alcohol only his brewery made, he could play dirty and bribe the guild members or simply use the tokens as a rare currency. After all, money was a non-issue.

"Oh, I forgot mine in my place." Genjiro, a man in his early thirties, dressed in an immaculate gray suit, said and put two fingers to his right temple.

"Banking on your kid being a dutiful maid as usual, huh?" Ancient one, a man in his mid-fifties, dressed in a loose robe, asked as he took the cigar out of his mouth and drank his beer.

"Hey, as long as she is happy!" Genjiro shot back as the door to the club flung open with Entoma running towards him.

The maid dropped his tokens on the table in front of him and said. "I found only twenty, Lord Genjiro."

"Eh, it will do. I, unlike others, know how to gamble. Isn't that right, kiddo?" He said with a laugh, grabbed Entoma by her waist and dragged her to his lap.

Entoma at first yelped in surprise, but then giggled and leaned against her creator.

"Still into crawlies, huh?" Beast King asked matter of factly as he put his own tokens on the table.

"Yeah, so what? This adorable bug is the only one I need." He said and patted Entoma on the head.

"Whatever floats your boat. I personally will go for that silver-haired one tonight!" Beast King said as he pointed at one of the succubi, who, upon noticing his attention, flashed him a seductive smile and licked her lips.

"Just be careful, or the old goat will have you by the balls if you let those pretties get in your head." Pero said with a laugh.

"How is he anyway? I haven't met Ulbert yet." Beast asked.

"Busy, just like the other three." Pero said. "Ulbert and my sister you may meet from time to time, but Ainz? Forget it. Unless you have official business, he is too busy to talk with anyone. As for Tabula… if you seek him out, that's on you."

"How bad could it be? The guy was a bit on the weirder side but nothing too bad, right?" Garnet asked.

"Do you remember his ramblings? It has gotten way worse. If you need anything from Tabula, get on his wife's good side, she will get things done."

"Wait, he has a wife?" Garnered asked, surprised.

"Did none of you even bother to go through my notes on Nazarick's inner circle?"

"I don't give two shits about politics." Beast King said.

"Nope." Garnet said.

"I started to read it." Genjiro said.

Ancient one took a long puff from his cigar and said. "And then you wonder why none of you were on the priority list for summoning. I already requested an informal meeting with our beloved emperor and his second-in-command. It never hurts to rub elbows with the top brass. Getting on the good side of Ainz and Ulbert is a must in these new circumstances."

"What about me?" Pero asked.

"You were what, fifth in the ranking? I will send you a nice card on your birthday. Besides, we are already mingling, aren't we?"

"Don't poke the bird too much. He might send his psychos after you." Beast said with a laugh.

Pero leaned forward and said in an ice-cold tone."You piss me off and my stealth teams will piss on your pillows every night!"

"That's oddly specific." Garnet remarked.

"You don't want to know." Pero said and leaned back again. "Either way, let's start the game. Who is shuffling the cards first?"

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Nishikienrai slowly crept through Nazarick's imperial castle with no particular goal in mind. With him being the master of stealth, pretty much no one noticed him. The constant onslaught of overly formal greetings got old way too fast.

Another reason for secrecy was Peros' insistence on pushing work on him. 'Like I would want to train his subordinates. That bird is out of his mind if he thinks I will change my one-man team ways.'

Unfortunately, Peros was one of very few who could see through his invisibility and thus needed to be avoided in a more direct way. Assured that he would not meet the avian, Nishi took soundless steps forward as he watched the castle staff and made up scenarios in his head about how he would deal with everyone if they were the enemy.

Due to his old ninja gear that - thanks to Ainz's obsessive collector's habit - was not sold, he could navigate between lower-level creatures with ease.

He then noticed a familiar young woman in a maid's outfit walking in his direction. 'Narberal? Hell, I completely forgot to visit her. I better snake past her for now.'

Nishi was about to leave when he noticed that Narberal had stopped and was looking around with an agitated expression. 'Does she sense me? Did I give her high enough stats for that? Oh, well, if she knows I'm here I might as well reveal myself.'

"Hey, Narberal." He said in a casual tone so as to not play up the accidental meeting.

The maid and the few other personnel practically jumped at his sudden appearance, but after a moment, Narberal's eyes went wide and she just silently stared at her creator.

"You alright?" Nishi asked as he approached her. She let out a weird "Yhhm." sound and nodded.

"How have you been?" Nishi asked in an attempt to ease up the atmosphere.

"I… L-Lord… Agghr… I mean.. I…" She continued making incoherent noises as her hands shook.

'Is she in shock? Did I spook her too much? Wait, what did Pero say about our creations? Right, they think of us as their parents. I guess that makes sense. So let's think logically… I have my daughter in front of me and she is shocked to see me. It's either very good or very bad. What should I do? Let's go with affection. If she tries to kick or stab me I can just use evasion and slip into invisibility again.'

"It is good to see you." Nishi said and hugged his daughter. Narberal instantly hugged him back with a grip that seemed impossible for her level. After a minute or so he tried to get out of her grip but Narberal was seemingly holding for her dear life.

"It's alright, I'm not going anywhere." He said as he slowly peeled her hands off.

"My Lord, I… I…" She stammered.

"It's alright." Nishi repeated. "If you are not busy we could find a place to sit down and catch up a bit. Are you up for that?"

The maid slowly nodded, still in disbelief that in front of her was her creator.

"Great, let's go then." he said and applied invisibility to her. He started to move but noticed that Narberal was still unmoving.

'Looks like she is still in shock.' Nishi gently took her hand and started to guide her to his quarters. 'I guess it will be a while till she snaps out of it.'

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Yuri ran after the Princess and Rubedo, who both flew through the castle dangerously fast, all three blurs to those they passed. And yet…

As honored as she was for the rare opportunity to look after Splendora and give the Emperor and Empress some private time, she also quickly realized she was not able to keep up with the overly enthusiastic princess.

"Princess, please slow down!" Yuri shouted after the pair.

Splendora mercifully slowed down enough for Yuri to catch up and said. "Hurry, we will be late for the story!"

There was no arguing with her. From what Yuri had heard, ever since the children of the Supreme Beings and their close confidants were summoned to this world, one of them had taken the role of a storyteller of sorts and read all kinds of tales for the children.

Now that Splendora knew about the event she was not about to miss it. Once again resuming her crazy flying speed, she nimbly navigated between the castle staff with Rubedo keeping up with her and Yuri sprinting after the flying pair.

Despite their speed, it took about five minutes for them to reach their goal. Yuri shouted, "Wait!" but it was too late. Splendora pushed the door open and barged in.

"The wolf puffed…" The woman reading the story stopped mid-sentence and looked at the trio with a startled expression.

The moment Yuri looked upon the woman, she knew who it was despite her now outwardly human appearance. The woman was in her mid-twenties, with long black hair and dark brown eyes, dressed in elegant pants and a shirt. If not for her undead nature, she would have lost her composure. 'Lady Yamaiko!'

Even if this was a reunion with her creator, duty still came first. She stepped forward and stopped beside Splendora who had now landed. "I deeply apologize for the intrusion." Yuri said with a bow. "Please let me introduce the crown princess, Splendora."

"Yuri, is that you?" Yamaiko asked with a warm smile and then turned her attention to the princess and asked with an enthusiastic tone. "Are you joining us for the story?"

Splendora nodded enthusiastically. "Yes lady, please, I want to hear the story."

"Then sit down and let's continue." Yamaiko motioned for Splendora to take a seat on one of the puffs. There were nine other kids in the room, ranging from the age of two to about six. The two smallest ones were beheld by their mothers.

Yamaiko resumed reading the story about the three little pigs, changing her voice to enact the roles of all the pigs and the big bad wolf. Yuri meanwhile stood by the door together with Rubedo as Splendora silently listened to the performance.

After the story ended, the kids slowly got up one by one and picked up the puffs to put them aside with the princess following their example. Unsure how to react as she had received no clear orders on how Splendora should interact with other children, Yuri continued standing by the door. If anything, her creator would know best how to deal with the situation.

Being an energetic and extroverted child, Splendora befriended the children in no time and started to play together with them. Some did ask if she really was a princess but that's about it.

"I see you are looking after Ainz's kid. Must be a handful to look after her." Yamaiko said as she approached her creation.

"It is a rare honor to look after Princess Splendora, Lady Yamaiko." Yuri said with a bow.

"There is no need to be so formal. It gets tiring, you know. How have you been all this time?"

"I have been keeping up with the duties entrusted to me and I have not received complaints from the Supreme Ones." Yuri said with a certain pride in her tone.

"That's wonderful. Would you be up for a chat once we both are free?" Yamaiko asked.

"It would be an honor, my lady."

Yamaiko smiled and said. "Then it's settled. I'll try to organize a meetup." She then turned her attention back to the kids as the two women with the toddlers were starting to get overwhelmed by the rest of the kids.

'My creator is so nice and humble. Oh, how easily she handles the children.' Yuri felt a rare feeling of warmth inside her undead body as she watched her creator.

Proofreading by I AM THE STRING CUTTER and Sad_Smiles