I sat back down with a satisfied sigh and watched Kelart fall forward until her face was pressed against the floor. Cum was leaking out of her gaping hole and I couldn't help but stretch slightly, trying to alleviate some of the discomfort of the long session I spent sitting on this stiff throne.
"Next time I am definitely choosing a more comfortable chair," I muttered absentminded as I watched essentially the two leaders of the country being reduced to two fuckholes. Seeing their blissful expression I wanted to pat myself on the back for a job well done.
It was important to remember one's accomplishments and be grateful for whatever one had, despite how difficult it was for me to choose a woman to fuck among the myriad of options. It was such a struggle. I chuckled slightly, thinking about those who would curse me if they heard me saying this. Well, lucky for you I loved my life.
I glanced at the opening door and found Remedios briskly entering the throne hall. Her body was covered again though her face was still red. At one point, I had sent her out to deal with the ones who wanted to see the queen and the leader of the priestess.
She probably hated dealing with all this organizational stuff, but she didn't really have much of a say in this matter. After all, she had to do her best to redeem herself and it wasn't like she liked being reminded how she yearned for this while not getting it.
"My lord." She began as she approached the throne while glancing at the four unconscious bodies around me. She then began to speak about the guests from different countries, who were requesting an audience with the queen. Reason? To convey a message to me if I happened to meet her.
After sending her away with the instructions to tell the others to wait in a separate room, I turned to my wives on my sides. Of course, at some point, I just couldn't endure the torture of the human women's weak endurance that the two had to fill in the gap.
My eyes drifted to their bountiful mounds and the cum in between them before I observed their sweaty faces. My hands reached toward them before stopping just a finger-width away.
I glanced towards the wall that seemed to close in on me. Of course, I knew it didn't happen and it wasn't an illusion in existence that could fool my eyes. However, the dread I suddenly felt was real as if the tip of a spear was pointed between my eyebrows, grazing me as it waited for the final thrust to pierce my head.
I squinted at the wall, peering through the mundane as I mobilized divinity to seek whatever was causing me to feel like I was at death's door. It wasn't because I had a death wish. No, the reason was simple. There wasn't just dread for my life filling my body, there was this boiling-hot rage filling me as if the murderer of my family stood before me with a stupid smile on their face as they mocked me.
It was all-encompassing and even my divine energy started going haywire as I peered at the cause of this unrelenting wrath and dread of what was to come. "Albedo," I called out as I slapped her across the butt, jolting her awake. "Fubuki, prepare yourself."
Their expression was confused and dazed from their suddenly awoken state, but it quickly cleared up when they saw me donning my gear. My spear also had appeared in my hand without me consciously equipping it. It pointed into the distance where I felt the sensation come.
I glanced at them again, now wearing full armor and in the next moment, space started to bend to my will. In less than a blink, we had crossed an unfathomable distance only to appear at an unsuspecting landscape. There was a lone mountain giving it a vantage point across the surroundings.
Albedo and Fubuki were at my side, following me as I ascended toward it. As I grew closer, I narrowed my eyes at the figure in white armor hovering above the mountain. The other one noticed me as well, turning toward me with his shining blue flames as eyes gazing upon me.
My eyes powered with the profoundness to see into the truth of reality easily stripped away the layers of armor as I peeked at his true self. In an instant, the location far away was revealed to me and I couldn't help but snort. "A dragon?" I questioned and I was almost tempted to ignore his presence since I had already discerned the identity of this dragon.
The dragon seemed to sense my gaze on his real body and opened his eyes in surprise, gazing in our direction through the walls. Platinum Dragon Lord, probably the most powerful entity of the New World. However, despite this fact, that was also the problem.
Even if he were the most powerful dragon that came to be on this planet, he wouldn't be able to make me feel the way I had. I didn't have any grudges against them and I certainly wouldn't fear them. No, he wasn't the cause of this. It had to be something else. I surveyed the surroundings but I couldn't find anything that stood out.
My attention turned back to the flying armor that had been observing us. Was he truly not the one that caused this sensation? I shouldn't be looking down on the New Worlders, after all, they were born blessed with Wild Magic. Well, at least the ancient powerful beings like this one. Perhaps, he truly created or summoned something that caused this disturbance in the force.
"Tell me, dragon. What are you doing here?" I questioned as I scrutinized him. The dragon seemed to be awoken from his stupor and turned his full attention to me.
"A calamity." He answered simply. "The end of the world is near and I will be protecting it!" Didn't he sound a bit too standoffish? With the determination in his voice and his posture, it was almost like he was trying to say that he would protect the world from me. Perhaps, me staring at him in his sleeping chamber wasn't something he considered as nice. Did I accidentally provoke him?
"You are hiding your true self and appear in the same place where I sensed something awful. Was this evil you that I sensed?" The dragon kept his composure, but I could tell that I hit a soft spot. Not that it was surprising as I knew he held some guilt for deceiving his colleagues and friends by pretending to be the armor during his time with the Thirteen Heroes.
"My current situation makes it difficult to travel with my current body and you can't deny the inherent use of scouting a potential hazard with this armor." It sounded like he wanted to justify his actions to himself rather than explain them to me, though it was obviously an argument that he delved into for some time already. Regardless, he focused on the not-so-important part of my question. "However, rest assured I am here to guard the world of this evil you speak of. I had sensed its presence here as well."
"Is that so? You guarding the world?" I asked in a deliberate skeptical tone, which caused the dragon to look at me with steel in his eyes. "Yet where were you when the demons attacked the Holy Kingdom or the capital of the Re-Estize Kingdom?" I pointedly asked, already guessing what his answer would be. To be honest, I wasn't fully paying attention to him as most of my focus was trying to pinpoint where I felt this sensation from.
He puffed out hot smoke out of his snout miles away in his castle. "Truly, the demons are a problem, but there are bigger things to pay attention to. I am the protector of the entire world, after all. Besides, you felt it too. If you didn't then you wouldn't be here."
A cold smile found itself on my face. "Bigger things, huh? An entire kingdom was nearly wiped out, but there were bigger things? No, that wasn't the case for your absence. You didn't know where the demon would strike or you didn't care. The wars that would soon see the end of the Dragon Kingdom and the oppression of the people are not part of the bigger picture, are they?"
I asked pointedly while I let my voice flow with rising anger. "Don't kid yourself. You clearly have the power yet you sit in your castle, in a seat of power, looking down at the struggles and injustice of those millions of people across the world." I continued before shaking my head with disappointment. "Let's not speak about this any longer, oh protector of the world. What have you learned while not helping the people?" I finally asked as I couldn't detect anything. It was like I had just fantasized about it.
The dragon gnashed his teeth and I could tell he was thrown for the loop. It looked like he had some retrospective to do, though he also obviously didn't like the jabs I threw at him. He would survive, I doubted that dragons had thin skin. Besides, dragons were inherently arrogant, so I could see him just deflecting my insults as mere ignorance of his efforts and sacrifices...
"Something from the beyond is trying to find a way into this world and I suspect they are close to finding a path." The dragon swallowed his grievance and spoke about what he had felt not long ago. Something stirred the Wild Magic nature that permeates through everything and everyone in tune with it noticed the change.
Of course, it had changed back soon and most that were capable of picking up on this event thought it was because of what I had caused when I shot a light into the sky and cleared it to reveal the starry night regardless of the time of day. However, the Platinum Dragon Lord being one of the most powerful and more knowledgeable and observant noticed that the direction where this disturbance originated wasn't where I created the phenomenon that shook the world.
"...It wasn't you. It was something far beyond your power, an entity that clashed against our reality and withstood the rebound. The only thing I could perceive in that fissure was a leaf-shaped object trying to create a path to my world." He finished and it was like an explosion illuminated my mind.
"A leaf?" I muttered as I thought about any other possibility, but everything just returned to something I dreaded. The timing was too conspicuous. Something was trying to reach me after I had established the foundation of my tree and grown it to a sizeable degree. This was no coincidence, something had been stirred up by my actions and I knew exactly what.
I hadn't tried to hide my item's display of power since I feared that it would impede the effects of my items, but it seemed like I should have risked failure because now I had gained the attention of Yggdrasil.
Indeed, although I didn't think it was possible for it to reach me in this world as I thought it would remain bound to wherever it currently was. Even when I was in its world, it couldn't do anything to me, so I didn't worry about it too much, at least until now...
Perhaps I shouldn't have been so relaxed, after all, there was the possibility that it couldn't do anything to me because of my status as an NPC... I shook my head. This wasn't something I could figure out as I was now.
"Then where is it now?" I spit out more urgently than I intended to. The dragon was silent as my gaze bore into him.
"...I don't know." He finally said at a moment.
"Useless. What kind of protector are you that you lost the greatest threat to the world you guard?" I turned away. "We are leaving. I will contact you when I find it." I said and bent the space around us.
"How..." He began as he saw me use wild magic. Of course, it wasn't pure wild magic as the natives used since I was directly using the source, chaos magic, but this reality had some leeway systems in place that made it easier to use. What I revealed was wild magic to all its intents and purposes, just without the cost of soul.
"How am I going to contact you?" He finally settled on asking.
"The queen of the Holy Kingdom. Leave a message with her and it will find me." With that, I teleported away toward the throne room again. Remedios was cleaning the queen and her sister with a warm wet cloth before pressing her face into it.
"Pervert." Her body tensed up when I called her. Remedios' face was red as she turned toward me with her head bowed. "Tell, your sister and the queen that I will be leaving for some time. Tell them to pray to me when they have important news."
"Yes, my lord... Can I-" I ignored her following request, leaving the paladin dejected. I wrapped my arms around Fubuki and Albedo and teleported myself into the tomb and to my home with the authority of my ring.
My mind instantly reached and connected with Aneko and Sueko. "Come back to the Royal house. I have something to discuss with you in the dining room."
Sueko replied positively as she was just in the garden of Kalinsha tending to the more exotic plants and had nothing else to do. Aneko, however, couldn't easily leave without leaving a gap in the defense at the border of the beast kingdom. My mind connected to the Luminari Guards in the Royal Backyard and told them to help the queen of the Dragon Kingdom before I teleported them to Aneko, so she could give them some reminders and orders before returning.
With that out of the way, I glanced over to Fubuki. "What do you think about your sister? After all this time, do you think she will still be loyal to me?" Fubuki grimaced slightly at the question, knowing that depending on her answer Tatsumaki's position would drastically change.
Another moment before she nodded hesitantly with a heavy sigh. "Although I hate to say it, she would walk through hell for you." I nodded at her admission. Despite not being one hundred percent sure about this, it was better to have more powerful allies on my side, especially with what was to come.
"What can you remember about her imprisonment?" I asked as directly as I could. As for whether it would expose my ignorance wasn't something I needed to consider much. Even if they wondered why I asked them this or that, I didn't owe them an explanation and even if they asked, they could hardly force me to answer.
With their delusions of my omnipotence, they would come to a reason by themselves just fine. It was something even Ainz could use to even greater effects with his perfect poker face. Just ask general questions and ask them to elaborate, everything else will fall in place.
"I am not sure about the details as Albedo and I had been shown around the new armory at that time," Fubuki admitted and gave me another clue of a timeline that only existed in their collective imagination. "From what I heard of the Supreme Beings and by her own admission, she found out about your deepest secret. She hadn't told me anything beyond that when I had visited her once." She finished solemnly and there was a spark of guilt in her eyes, clearly worried that I would see her in an unfavorable light after I found out that she wanted to know why her sister had been banished.
"Why did you ask her of my secret?" I questioned to find out more, but she clearly took it as a sign of my disapproval.
"I swear I didn't want to inquire about it. I was just there to see if her situation could be salvaged, but since her crime was this severe I found it better for you to decide on her fate." She hurriedly explained to which I just nodded.
"Don't worry I don't hold this against you. In fact, I find it good to hear that you don't truly despise her. After all, she is your sister and you should stick together." I commented, causing her expression to soften.
"Thank you." The implication of what secret Tatsumaki actually knew wasn't lost to me. If the setting was vague, it wouldn't be impossible for her to know that I used to be a human, which wasn't something that I could leave unchecked. At least, I shouldn't let it reach Ainz's ears.
My glance wandered over to Albedo, wondering if she knew more about this. Surprisingly, she shook her head as if she could read my mind. "I didn't know about the reason for her imprisonment." I nodded before turning back to Fubuki.
"Alright, call her then. She will be under your watch then." Her eyes lit up with a delightful glee like that of a child on Christmas morning. It was rather risky to include her in the following meeting, but it was more advantageous to have Tatsumaki around than to let her do as she pleased. She had been trying to get my attention with Shalltear and the fact that she decided to volunteer for the position to fight against me during the Gehenna mission.
If it hadn't been for Fubuki's interference I imagined that she would have tried to strike up a conversation during the mission. Either way, I wanted to have her close, talk to her, and gauge her reaction during it all. She had the highest possibility of having her absolute loyalty written into her existence compared to the other NPCs of Nazarick.
Of course, the most important factor was her strength. I could somewhat guess her powers just by looking at her and she was said to be my secret weapon, implying that she was incredibly powerful, at least, in terms of level 100's.
I then connected to Yuri Alpha and told her to meet me in the dining room. She was the only one that I entertained inviting as I could already see what kind of position I occupied in her undead heart through her manner of speech. She too opted to call me 'majesty', despite how blasphemous the act was.
As for whether she was just saying it and secretly telling Ainz about it wasn't something that could have gone past me. Whether it was my inherent ability to tell lies from truth and to read her inner musings by her mere body language, the fact that I had more NPCs willing to convey something simple as having seen her approach Ainz, or her settings having integrated a certain degree of favor toward me like every other female NPC in this tomb, it all gave me confidence in her loyalty.
Another factor was her entering my divine realm. Her undead soul had entered and burned at the fringes of my realm. Despite her positive karma, her undead nature didn't fit well with my divinity. Something I would need to reshape in the future as I couldn't have the majority of my women burn their souls when staying in my realm for an extended time.
With everything arranged, I sat down at the head of the table, while Albedo took the seat to my left and Fubuki to my right. Fubuki made the call to her sister, while Albedo looked at me with concern and gave me a supporting hand to hold onto, knowing that the news had rattled me quite a bit. Given her intelligence, she had already figured out what was concerning me.
I had already told her a bit of my background, my enmity with the World Tree, and my eventual confrontation with it. Of course, I had never expected it to come to pass this soon and if I was being honest, there was part of me that denied its existence entirely despite the evidence I had already found about the necessity of its existence.
Now, the backstory of my feud with the World Tree was more important than ever before. Most of the items have been used up and I could feel its arrival being imminent, at least if I didn't prevent it...
It didn't take long for the first to arrive. Sueko was the first one, able to drop everything in the garden to come here. With a spring in her step, she walked to the side, ready to tend to the needs of those present at any moment. Her joyous attitude had to be the result of yet another successful plant being ripened.
I was already eager to see what its effects would be. The space dao fruit had already been used to create the portal wormholes out of Albedo's recreated smartphone. It was probably a waste to have used this fruit in such a way, but it certainly had been my pleasure. Some cultivators in another universe probably would be spitting out blood if they knew what I had used it for.
Tatsumaki was the second one to arrive. The short woman strutted inside, swaying her hips to emphasize her strong points while holding up her head as if she had every right to be here, "Greetings, my lord." She slowly bowed to me before reaching for the chair and was about to sit down next to Albedo, when the demon placed her hand on the chair's backrest. "I think you should stand for now." Fubuki also narrowed her eyes at her sister, though Tatsumaki only raised an eyebrow unimpressed and unconcerned by their hostility.
"Is that so? Unfortunately, I don't care what you think." Her eyes turned to me and I just looked at her with the blankest expression I could muster.
"You will do as my wife says." I simply responded, getting a squeeze from Albedo's hand that rested in mine.
"Tsk." Tatsumaki rolled her eyes and stood to the side until Yuri and Aneko arrived. They all stood, while Fubuki, Albedo, and I sat, clearly portraying the difference in status. Although I would try my best to treat them equally, they needed such a hierarchy. Besides they were all maids (minus Tatsumaki), so they were used to standing to the side, awaiting new orders.
These represented my inner core with short Esper currently being the one odd out. Of course, there were also human followers, who were absolutely loyal, but their reach and power were inconsequential to what I wanted them to do. Besides Calca, the maid and Neia could hardly help me.
I conveniently ignored the fact that they were all women. It wasn't like I had any male followers that were completely loyal... Why did I just think of a tiger sneezing?
"Most of you might not know this..." I started as I looked at the attendees. "... and even Ainz is probably in the dark about this, but I have a long conflict with the World Tree Yggdrasil." Besides some widened eyes, all of the people here had a good grip on their emotions. Perhaps, they somehow guessed it or gained some implicit knowledge through their 'close' relationship written into their being?
Didn't really matter. "Yggdrasil is trying to find a way to this reality and it is succeeding. Soon it will arrive and we will have to deal with all of its forces." This time their reactions were more pronounced. Shocked and worried were the dominant emotions they conveyed.
All of them turned extremely solemn and I could tell that they were taking this as seriously as they should. I glanced over to Tatsumaki. "I will have you join my public group soon. We will stage a battle at the borders of the Dragon Kingdom where I will 'free' you of Jaldaboath's influence and you can 'reunite' with your sister."
She firmly nodded, not even hesitating to agree since she would rather be by my side in case I needed her. Her attitude already spoke well for her loyalty, but I would slowly probe it out of her until her inner thoughts were completely laid bare to me.
"In the meantime, everyone, try to keep an eye and an ear out of a fissure of golden light. Notify me immediately once you find something. Also, be prepared to drop everything once I give you the signal." I ordered, getting a united shout of agreement as a response.
I nodded at that, though noticed that Yuri had something to say. I waved my hand at her to speak. "Should we inform Ainz-sama and the other Floor Guardians as well?" She nervously asked since it would indeed be the best option to cover the most ground. Her nervousness was attributed to the lineup I had chosen to deliver this news first. After all, everyone here was loyal to me first.
"I will talk with Ainz, while you keep it under wraps until Ainz makes an official statement." With the most important out of the way, it was now time to find out what kind of secret Tatsumaki knew about me.