Ainz settled in fairly quickly over the week that passed in the village, every day he and the Swords of Darkness, along with Brita, stopped in to check on Nfirea, and every day he said, “Just one more day, this is amazing.”

Ainz didn’t really mind, it was just the break he needed. Much to his surprise however, Lupusregina seemed to be taking a liking to the blonde village girl he’d rescued on his first venture out. Enri seemed oblivious to Lupu’s hidden sadistic nature, but not to the constant teasing of the red haired battle maid.

Almost every time he saw the pair, Enri was blushing, and Lupusregina was laughing, though Nfirea was not immune to the taunts of the battlemaid, and she often managed to con one or the other into a compromising position. It was a nonissue to Ainz as long as the client didn’t complain, so he let it pass while he watched the villagers live their lives.

Brita took to assisting with the hunting when not working with the other adventurers, and the lot of them began spending more time with Enri’s summoned goblins. Initially skeptical, he was watching on the eighth day with Lupusregina when she asked, “Momon, how come you find them so interesting? I mean they’re just humans and goblins, right?” She scratched her head with sharp, jerking motions of her hand that made Ainz think of the way a dog might have, and he let a light chuckle of his own pass without comment.

“Yes, they are.” He explained with the noble voice he still hadn’t gotten used to having, “But that is part of what makes them interesting. In Yggdrasil there was often discrimination and even hatred between different beings, and in the other world, it wasn’t much different.”

“First world?” Lupusregina asked with wide blinking eyes, she was, if possible, even more attentive when she stared up at him, secure in his ‘shared’ humanity with the villagers, he had his armor on, but helmet off, though it was secure under his arm when he looked down to her.

“First world?” He repeated the question back to her.

“The world the Supreme Beings would go to when not in Nazarick.” She explained, and it hit him.

‘Of course, they would have seen us come and go, perhaps remembering something of their time in Yggdrasil, they don’t know it was just a game, to them, it was their world.’ Ainz understood, and it prompted him to derail her question with one of his own.

“What do you remember of those days, Lupu?” He asked, keeping to the adventurer name to ensure it remained habitual.

Her yellow eyes were bright and happy when she answered. “Lots of things! I remember watching my younger sisters be born, I remember the day of the great invasion… fighting our way back and keeping the invaders busy to buy time for our creators… seeing you arrive, the fighting retreat, the death of Aura and Mare. Then after, seeing them remade by the will of their creator. So many moments shine bright as the daylight we’re standing in.” Lupusregina’s enthusiasm became reverence, and drifted slowly toward sadness.

“When they one by one, the Supreme Beings I mean, said goodbye and vanished, I wanted to ask my maker, Beast King Mekongawa, how I let him down the day he said goodbye, but for some reason…” Her head hung like a dog caught in the midst of mischief, “I couldn’t speak.”

“What’d we do wrong, Momon?” She asked, using the name with the same reverence she would have used calling him ‘Master’ or ‘My Lord’ in Nazarick. “We all kind of ask that to ourselves.”

“Nothing.” Ainz answered with absolute confidence that bordered on anger, his body tensed up, it was like listening to a child ask why their mother or father didn’t love them. Only once had he felt anger at his friends, anger he knew was unfair, that they left for the real world. Now, that anger returned in force, that they were so cruel as to abandon their children.

Again, he knew, ‘That isn’t fair. They were ‘just NPCs’ back then, not alive. Not like they are now.’ But it didn’t dissipate as easily as his prior moment of frustration. Chiefly because, as he saw it, there was a sad child looking up at him and hoping for answers he couldn’t begin to give. He put a hand on her head and suppressed the urge to say ‘Good dog’ instead he chose to say, “Nothing. You did nothing wrong. Things happened, and they had to go, there was nothing you could have done to make them stay.”

Lupusregina closed her eyes and raised up a little on her tiptoes to press her head a little more firmly into his hand, a very canine gesture if ever Ainz had seen one. But she didn’t say anything else.

He was the first to break the silence, shifting the subject, “In what you call ‘First World’, different peoples often fought one another, in this one, things are often the same if the Slane Theocracy, Beastman Kingdom, and Draconic Kingdom are any indication. I wondered if the villagers would accept the goblins. They have, and now it makes more sense. Goblins didn’t kill their neighbors, humans did. And because the villagers accept them, the adventurers do.”

“Wouldn’t the adventurers hate goblins, though?” Lupusregina asked, remaining on tip toe until a disappointed pout took over her face when Ainz’s hand withdrew.

“Perhaps, but adventurers travel a great deal, exposed widely to others, their minds are more open, a closed minded adventurer is a poor one. They don’t see possibilities that someone else might be open to, and so seeing the way the goblins work with the villagers and everyone at ease, it is much easier for them to settle into normalcy.” Ainz explained, “They may not be much, but they work hard, and are dedicated, so that gives them value.”

“I understand, Momon, but I still want to play with them.” Lupusregina’s wolfish, sadistic smile took over for a moment, sending a shiver down Ainz’s spine.

“I am also one of them now, you know.” He reminded her, and she shot her eyes up to him and gave her head a tiny shake.

“You are The One Who Stayed. No matter what else you are, you are that first.” Her yellow eyes glittered with devotion, and against that he could say nothing, though his disturbance at her desire to treat humans as toys had not left him.

It was then that they spotted Enri Emmott coming around a corner to oversee the construction of a new home in place of one that had been reduced to a burnt out husk of fallen timbers and toppled stone. The doorframe stood, but the rest was nearly gone or shattered to the ground. The change in Lupusregina was not physical, but he felt it nonetheless.

“Is she your friend?” Ainz inquired as a father might ask his child after seeing them with someone after their first day of school.

“Kinda. She’s fun to tease. She makes cute noises and blushes like a cherry.” Lupusregina replied with a mild laugh.

“I see, well I do intend to have this village protected, so we’ll add her to the list of those whose lives I will guarantee.” Ainz promised, “Now go, play, have a little fun.” He said, feeling very much the parent when Lupusregina turned invisible and began to creep up on the unwary Enri.

Left alone for the moment, the smell of hot meat and vegetables wafted toward Ainz’s nose, he sniffed the air and followed it, encouraged by the growling in his stomach.

Lupusregina waited until Enri was done with her work and the rebuilding was well underway, then followed her. Undetectable by an ordinary human girl, it was child’s play to watch until the blonde was alone with Nfirea. As soon as the pair was by themselves and Nfirea began to stammer and sweat as he tried to have a normal conversation with the girl he loved, Lupusregina snatched his hand and as if it belonged to her, then used it to swat Enri directly on her ass.

The blonde peasant jumped immediately, and somewhat impressively and spun around to stare open mouthed at her friend. “Enfi!” She shouted.

“Aahhh, I don’t! I didn’t! I wasn’t! I swear!” Sweat was already springing up, and it became a river, Lupusregina let Nfirea take back control of his hand and he stared at it.

“I lost control! I didn’t mean to! It felt like someone grabbed me!” He took a step back, and the shock on Enri’s face became understanding.

“Come out here Lupu! I know it was you!” Enri put her hands on her hips and looked around rapidly.

The red haired battlemaid crept behind Enri, blew softly on her ear and whispered, “How’d you know?”

Enri jumped with a loud, “Eeep!” and spun around again, putting her hands protectively over her derriere. When she landed however, Lupusregina had already begun pointing at the blushing pair and laughing so loud she arched her back and faced the sky.

“Your faces! You two look so ridiculous! So ridiculous! You’re redder than cherries, and that’s saying something, given that you’re both cherries!” Lupu exclaimed while she cried tears of laughter.

“Damn it Lupu!” Enri said, “What’s gotten into you?”

“Just helping young lovers.” Lupu answered when she managed to stop her laughing and wiped a remaining tear from her eye. “Really, you two should just do it already.”

Enri and Nfirea looked at one another, and never had the young man been so glad of the hair hanging down in front of him. Enri however, turned her eyes back to Lupusregina and said flatly, “Lupu, it’s not like that, he’s my best friend, I’ve known him since I was little.”

“Yeah, so?” Lupusregina gave a full body shrug with her arms out and shook her head. “I swear, it’s like everybody in this world is denser than rocks, you’re a village girl, who do you think you’re going to marry? Me? That old mayor guy? Everybody else you know is either dead, young enough to make you a pedo if you try, old enough to be your father, already married, or a girl. And you’re pretty, but not my type. Besides, I’m a mimidoshi, I know lots of practical stuff, and I know that unless it’s just business, you’re supposed to be like best friends with your mate. Silly virgin. Besides, he’s game, just look.”

Lupusregina said and pointed.

The pair had been blushing the entire time, but Enri followed the path of Lupusregina’s arm, past the tip of her finger and all the way down to the Nfirea’s very, very obvious erection.

Enri brought her hands up to cover her mouth, “Nfirea!” She exclaimed.

“Oh, don’t be that way.” Lupusregina said, “You’re a pretty girl and he’s a young man, what do you think he is, made of stone? Maybe a bit is, but not the rest. I’ve done my work for now, sooo… toodles!” Lupusregina winked at him and began to sashay away, cocky smile plastered on her face.

“It’s up to you now, boyo, don’t screw her up.” Lupusregina whispered when she was passing Nfirea.

When she was gone, Nfirea looked down and held his hands together like he was worried she’d appear and take control of one of them again. “Heh, uh, sorry about that.”

“It’s fine, she’s a strange one.” Enri replied and looked past him to be sure the beautiful, shapely back of the cleric was still in retreat. “But… still, strange or not…” Enri looked down again, Nfiria’s hands hung down in front of his manhood, “she’s not lying, is she?”

“No…” Nfirea finally whispered.

“This is… this is a lot to take in, Enfi, can I ask you to wait?” Enri asked, and to that Nfirea could do nothing but nod.

“You don’t like traveling much, do you Khajiit?” Clementine asked on their third night of travel.

“No.” The old man answered, every hated inch of road was more dust on his dark red robes, every step, a hated moment wasted in anticipation of the fulfillment of his plans.

“Awww, c’mon.” Clementine said, “The air doesn’t stink, you’ve got that big sky up there, what’s not to love? You spend enough time in those dusty crypts, you’ll turn into a corpse yourself.”

Khajiit didn’t take the bait, he only took another bite of plain bread. “I like crypts and tombs.” He finally answered, “I don’t like villages, I grew up in one of those, they’re trash places, good only for harvesting.”

Clementine didn’t think of anything to say to that, and they went to bed shortly after. There wasn’t a need, she didn’t much care for the places either, recalling how ugly village life was herself.

‘Stupid parents, stupid brother, stupid village. Just one or two more days of travel, snatch the brat, kill the rest, and then I get to watch a city die! What fun! Although… maybe I can kill off the whole village too, we only need the one brat, why not wipe out the rest. Villages are disgusting places, every one of them just like home… they can all just die.’ Clementine cursed everyone she knew from her own village, and she did it by name.

Then for the thousandth time, she cursed the Black Scripture instructor who raped her when she was still learning.

Then as Clementine’s last act before every rest, she counted. ‘One… two… three… four…’ She mentally counted out every time she got the chance to do the penetrating, and finally fell asleep when she hit the number that had finally killed him.