Nfirea craned his neck up at the onyx armored man in front of him. “Thank you for joining us.” He said in a youthful voice that to Ainz seemed barely into manhood. The alchemist was slight of build, not especially tall even for the people of this world, if anything, one might say he was short. But he was open, friendly, and polite. He held a hand out readily in greeting.

“It’s my pleasure. I will do my utmost to ensure a safe journey.” Ainz replied and took his hand, he gave it a gentle, but firm shake, and then Lupusregina stepped over to do the same.

Lupusregina’s gregarious and friendly smile was infectious, and it made the young man blush. “Not to worry, we’ll take good care of you. Momon is the strongest man in the world, after all. He’s as strong as I am pretty.” She winked, then when Nfireia turned a bright shade of red behind his mop of blonde hair, she laughed at him.

“You’re a fun one.” Lupu added before Peter coughed and interrupted.

“Should we go?” Peter asked, and waved toward the double door.

“Ah, yes, let’s.” Ainz agreed, and took the first step outside.

Along the way Ainz made a point of learning what he could about adventuring through some roundabout questioning from his traveling companions. They walked beside the horse drawn cart, and though Ainz thoroughly enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the feel of fresh, clean air in his lungs… what he learned was nothing short of disappointing.

‘So they’re just monster hunters in the end, glorified exterminators, like hunting rats that are particularly dangerous.’ The unhappy understanding, the blow that it was, made sense.

‘They need better equipment, so they hunt monsters to pay for it, many times dying in the process since they don’t have the equipment needed to ensure survival.’ Ainz read between the lines, and drew a parallel between the unloved but necessary mercenaries, and the temp agencies of his own world.

‘You need them, but care nothing for them. No benefits, no loyalty, just use them up and throw them away. Only the best of them, the ones who survive a long time, are revered in any way.’ Ainz recognized when he heard the story of Blue Rose, Red Drop, and other adamantite ranked teams who were the pinnacle of humanity.

When he asked about the adventurers of the Slane Theocracy, the adventurers only groused. “They don’t have any. Anyone strong enough to become an adventurer gets drafted into their scriptures or their army.” Brita explained, though her voice was not exactly thrilled.

“You don’t approve?” Ainz guessed.

“No, definitely not, Momon.” Brita expanded, “Adventurers need teammates to survive. The Slane Theocracy may arm, train, and develop their talented people, but then they only do their own thing. If a serious threat appeared outside of E-Rantel, the guild could reach out to all the other big teams for help, even across borders. It would be up to the teams themselves if they wanted to help, and most of them would. But the Theocracy only decides what to do based on politics.” She spat a thick glob of saliva into the dust to express her distaste. “Politics, it never goes well for common people when that’s the going concern. So, whenever a big threat appears, the Slane Theocracy mostly ignore it. Look at what’s happening in the Draconic Kingdom.” Brita continued.

Rumbles of agreement came up from the rest, but Ainz was uncertain. He felt a drop of sweat grow on his brow, fear of appearing ignorant, even though he was, always made him anxious at work, and this was no exception.

Lupusregina came to the rescue, “What’s going on there?”

“You haven’t heard?” Peter said when looking over his shoulder, “The Beastmen Kingdom started invading earlier this year, they used to just raid the border, but now it’s a full fledged invasion. Beastmen eat humans, so it’s a national disaster that their Queen is trying and failing to stop. The Theocracy shares a border with the Draconic Kingdom, but all they’ve sent are basically retirees.”

“Not very neighborly.” Lupusregina answered and played with the mace at her side.

Mistaking her statement for sympathy, Dyne spoke up. “No, it isn’t, we’d help if we could. But a beastman is a serious threat that anyone lower than a gold rank is unlikely to survive against, and a gold rank is as good as dead if he tries to face two or more. True heroes are needed to face off against something like a beastman invasion. We’re… we’re just not there yet.” He admitted with a head that hung in reluctance.

“I see.” Ainz mused, ‘So the elite we faced… still, weak as they were, maybe they could get stronger, what if…’

The stirrings of an idea began to take shape. But he needed more information.

“Brita, you said that if we’d healed you before we were a team, we could be kicked out of the guild… what happens when adventurers are removed from the rosters? Where do they go?” Ainz tried hard to keep his voice neutral.

“They become workers, they don’t get guild contracts, some of them become bandits, but most take on the more dangerous jobs that the guild just won’t touch. They do have some strong numbers, and can become workers for all kinds of reasons, like… healing without temple approval.” Brita said and looked pointedly at Ainz from her place on the other side of the wagon.

“I see.” Ainz answered again and snapped his jaw shut.

“Not a man to waste words…” Was the thought they held around the wagon as their estimation of Momon went up several more notches.

However, while they were thinking about that, Ainz was busy solving a different issue. ‘My level cap is gone, but what I don’t know is what the status is for others here, the ‘elites’ of the Theocracy proved to be pathetic relative to us, but maybe they have inborn level caps?’

‘My own was broken, even Lupusregina doesn’t know that, maybe others can be broken as well? What if my new level cap is the ‘human’ level cap, if so, should I go back?’

Round and round Ainz turned these thoughts, keeping an ear turned to the rest of the conversation, learning more about the poor state of adventurers in Baharuth was of particular interest. As a result of the strengthening central government and military, more adventurers turned to risky or illegal jobs, many had become workers because that offered more opportunity than a guild affiliation.

Ainz’s plan continued to develop in his mind, without the certainty of the guardians or most other loyalties, about which he still kicked himself, ‘Their loyalty should be to you, no matter what you have become…’ He said that to himself many times, only for his innate human fears about the nature of their settings and the unknown ways that may influence their choices, to rear its ugly head again and cause him to keep silent.

‘Most players would want to support the Theocracy, heteromorphic guilds were few, and demihuman guilds were only slightly more common. If others are here now, it would likely be a human… which is an argument for me to remain as I am to better deal with them. Could I present myself to the guardians on those terms? They should know the dangers of other players from the last invasion. On the other hand that might only stoke their hatred to new heights.’ He kept the sigh he felt rising, confined to his own tumultuous mind. Drifting mentally far from the buzz of chatter around him.

Albedo looked around the room to the other guardians. “Cocytus, what were the results of the experiments in the arena?”

The insectoid being exhaled icy chill and answered, “He fought well.”

“Could you elaborate? What is he compared to?” She asked, “What could possibly compare to a supreme being?” Her yellow eyes narrowed with annoyance, and the insectoid tapped his long spear on the floor.

“Lord Demiurge?” Cocytus asked.

“Yes,” the slender devil in the sharp red suit adjusted his tie as he stood, “I observed through the mirror how members of new world warrior bands fought. I saw three massacres in the Draconic Kingdom, and a clash between two bands of raiders between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire, a feisty little skirmish to say the least, nothing large, only a hundred men or so. In addition, I and Cocytus observed some adventurers and worker groups in separate training grounds. Thank you, Aura, for finding those.”

Aura flashed him a ‘V’ gesture with her right hand and a childishly happy grin.

“Lord Cocytus, could you explain the rating criteria?” Demiurge asked, placing a hand up on the shoulder of his comrade.

“Yes. Speed, strength, dexterity, endurance, all were compared on a scale from human to supreme being.” Cocytus explained, “Lord Demiurge assisted in the creation of this scale.”

Demiurge picked up seamlessly from Cocytus, “Quite right, I evaluated the various fights in collaboration with Lord Cocytus’s expertise in combat, including the ‘AQ’ of various opponents.”

“AQ?” Albedo asked, her interest growing with the dual narrative.

Demiurge seemed, if it were possible, to have straightened himself up even more, and the other Guardians responded by leaning forward with interest, sensing something remarkable was to be said. “Aggressive Qualities, courage, and the willingness to press home the advantage. Lord Ainz is not a warrior, he never defeated Lord Touch Me and never used combat as the method to defeat Lord Takemikazuchi. However, since coming to this place, Lord Ainz has shown a degree of growth as a warrior that would be considered impossible if he were not a supreme being. His first tentative swings when we first saw him use ‘Perfect Warrior’ in Yggdrasil were on par with what, back then, we would have said was a player of around level fifty.

Albedo’s eyes flashed bright as lightning, the stern rebuke of the harsh critique was on the tip of her tongue when Demiurge held up one hand to tell her to stop. “However, within the first few engagements in the arena, he showed skills on par with someone of level seventy to eighty.” His mouth opened in a joyful smile, “It is as if this world has ‘strengthened’ him somehow.”

“You think Lord Ainz brought us here? Don’t you?” Albedo proposed, a steady look in her eyes, the anger was gone and an intensity greater even than she thought possible, filled her up like a pouring rain filled a vessel.

“I cannot rule it out.” He looked around at the other attending guardians. “We all heard the last Supreme Beings speak of the coming end, and we heard it from Lord Ainz as well, Yggdrasil, the world we knew, it was all going to die. The Supreme Beings returned to whatever world they came from, content to let it come to a close, but our Lord…”

“The One Who Stayed.” Aura, Mare, Albedo, Cocytus, and Shalltear intoned with bowed heads.

“Yes, The One Who Stayed.” Demiurge bowed his head then said with reverence reserved for gods, “We knew he didn’t want to let us go, he cherished this place, he didn’t want it to end… perhaps he brought us here. Using his matchless might, he carried us to this new world.”

Albedo was silent for a moment, then she replied, “No, he seemed confused about why we were here, how we were here. I have no doubt he wanted to save us, but then, why everything else? Why the unfamiliarity with everything?”

“Perhaps he simply reached blindly to find some habitable place for us. Or perhaps something interfered, he intended us to go to his paradise world with our creators. Perhaps this is all a test, and he simply doesn’t want us to know how far he went for us? To abandon two worlds to save us… his humility is profound. He doesn’t want us burdened with the knowledge so that we would not feel inadequate.” Demiurge laid out the various options, and it left the room full of quiet reflections within every head.

Lord Mare anxiously rotated the staff in quick, jerking motions in both hands, he clutched it against his body like it was a security blanket, his dark elf ears twitched, and he said, “B-But i-if that’s true, wh-what do we do?”

“We work harder, of course.” Shalltear answered, for once not preening, her blood red eyes shone between the fluttering of her lashes as she blinked back her loving emotions for The One Who Stayed. “If he doesn’t want us to know, then we say nothing. We clutch it to our hearts and show him we were worth it.”

The eyes of the guardians were on her as one, even those of her rival. The Guardian Overseer spoke first. “Lady Shalltear is right. If we’ve given him everything already, and he has gone so far for us, then we must add to ourselves so that ‘more’ is ‘more’. It’s the least that we created servants of Nazarick can do for the One Who Stayed.”

The rest of the meeting was routine, with trivial discussions about the wildlife and observations on the village that had wisely come to love Lord Ainz as if he were their own. But Albedo’s heart was already turning toward whether she should wear an apron… or nothing, when she waited for him in his room on his return.

“...It’s useful to be a talent holder, but unfortunately even that has its limits.” Ninya added to the conversation, “Mine is good, but pretty limited really. I can learn spells in half the normal time, but it doesn’t change the total mana I have for casting, so even if I could learn a higher tier faster, my total mana doesn’t go up with it. So, right now I can only use tier two spells.”

Ainz listened with great interest from the moment he learned about talent holders, but only his helmet kept the shock from his face at what Ninya said next.

“Some are really amazing, like Mr. Nfirea here, he can use any magical item, no matter what, without any requirements.” Ninya waved her hand up at the young man driving the cart, and he responded with a self effacing smile.

“I’m grateful for my gift, but it’s only as good as actually having items, and not many come my way.” The young alchemist replied.

“I suppose that’s true.” Ainz answered with quiet calm while panic ran through his mind.

‘Could he use the staff? What if he could? This one is dangerous. Very, very dangerous. Or… very useful.’ Ainz was turning that over in his mind when Lukrut chose to attempt to engage the fire haired and radiant Lupusregina Beta.

“So Miss Lupu, what’s your relationship with Mr. Momon here? Are you husband and wife?” He gave a wolfish grin toward her, and she paled immediately.

Her tongue was bound for the first time in Lukrut’s brief acquaintance with her, and though it had been ‘very’ brief, he felt the way the question cut to the quick. All humor and mockery was gone, and whoever she really was, was laid bare in a vulnerable moment. He snapped his lips shut and the smile vanished, ‘Stupid question, idiot, that’s far too personal.’

The fire haired woman answered when his moment of humble self recrimination passed, “He rules supreme in my heart. You… rule supreme beneath my feet.” Her jest was less than her customary humor, but it still had her usual playful smile.

He accepted the unspoken rebuke and answered with, “Joke’s on you! I’m into that!”

“What aren’t you into, pervert?” Peter answered with a sour look on his face, and a dismissive snort from his nose.

“Mr. Lukrut, please do not delve into our personal lives.” Ainz interjected, and Dyne quickly voiced his agreement.

“It’s just rude, you know, prying like that.” The druid said from behind him.

“Right…” He put a hand behind his blonde head and rubbed it self consciously, “Sorry, that was a bit too much.”

Ainz privately agreed with the sentiment, though it was difficult to resent it overly much, given that it brought another of Lupusregina’s answers of loyalty.