"Thus with a kiss I die."
Hum… I think I understand why Decrement felt compelled to rewrite this book now.
Ainz closed the hardbound red book with a deliberately quiet movement.
On its cover, one could read the title 'Romeo and Juliet' written in golden letters.
I have heard somewhere that love makes you dumb, and this pair of teenagers seems to exemplify this perfectly.
But is it really the case?
He looked at the stunning beauty sleeping by his side.
Albedo wore a sweet smile as she hugged his body tightly.
Her grip was so strong that Ainz feared that any more of that and he would start taking damage.
He didn't mind it, though.
At this point, he was already used to Albedo's reluctance to part with him.
In fact, he found it rather cute and deemed it just one more of her endearing traits, of which there were many.
He threw the book back into his inventory and let his gaze wander through Albedo's body.
From her silky black hair that seemed supernaturally resistant to disheveling to the curves of her waist, down to her feet, Albedo's body was a work of art that could make many men and women go mad just for the opportunity to come close to her.
She was also an incredibly capable woman, superbly intelligent, and incredibly skilled at most of what some called 'the womanly arts'.
To have a woman like that, be incredibly devoted, and hopelessly in love with him was something that Ainz knew to appreciate, but at the same time…
I wonder if I'm capable of loving her back.
This was a question that had been tormenting him for a few days.
He didn't doubt his affection for her or the other NPCs, but he also understood that this affection was very different from the one Albedo had for him.
And now Shalltear too.
No… Don't run away from it now, Ainz.
There are more of them, and you know it.
The image of his creations came to mind.
He didn't understand why those seven had developed this type of affection for him, for he didn't remember putting anything of the sort in their programming, but he wasn't blind enough so as to not see how they looked at him and, in some cases(Eris), how they had explicitly told him that.
If even those skeletal sisters can love someone, then maybe I can't blame my body for this problem.
Even now, as he sat beside the alluring Albedo, he felt not even a sliver of lust in his body.
His mind was as clear as ever, only filled with the mild joy of having helped Albedo with her needs, and of giving her as much happiness as he was capable of giving.
This shouldn't come as a surprise, considering that his body was only made of bones, lacking flesh or skin to act upon any lustful urges that would otherwise occur.
Initially, he didn't associate lust and love all that much, considering them as completely separate concepts, but after Shalltear came to him with her feelings, he was forced to reconsider.
In her case, her initial lust eventually gave birth to other feelings, which now might even be love.
The romantic love that bothered him.
From this, he understood that love sometimes needs a trigger to develop, or maybe an anchor would be a better metaphor.
In Shalltear's case, her lust for him served as an anchor that pulled more and more things into it, until it changed into something else that one might be tempted to call love.
Lust, it seems, is one of the most common triggers for love.
In his previous life, and as far as he could tell, in this one too, sexual attraction was a necessary component for most romantic relationships.
Ninya's situation seemed to corroborate this theory.
One of the reasons she gave him for not exposing her gender to her party members was that she feared that other feelings would bloom in one of the other members and bring complications.
If we consider that the members of Sword of Darkness only feel attraction to women, then what she feared might be that once she came out as a woman, it would open the door for them to start building up feelings for her.
Ainz felt amused by this concern, finding that humans have some interesting ways of building relationships.
He understood them for the most part, as a former human himself, but still struggled with some parts.
Or maybe that's simply because, as a human, I never had or desired a romantic relationship.
In Japan, it was hard enough to simply survive, so relationships were a minor concern for Suzuki Satoru.
He had a hard time understanding why thinking a person was a man or a woman could be so relevant to forming attraction, when it was the same person, with the same body in the end.
If I put one of them in the Yin Yang coffin, would that person, now in a feminine body, elicit this type of attraction from the others?
Maybe attraction starts as an idea, and then you project this idea on someone, generating a self-created feedback that feeds your lust?
I should instruct Eris to run some tests with the prisoners. Understanding this might prove helpful in the future.
Knock!
The sound from the door took him from his reverie.
An undead?
From outside the door, he could feel the presence of a single undead.
"Hum…"
On his side, Albedo woke up.
"Good morning, Momonga-sama."
She smiled sweetly and buried her face in his chest.
"Good morning, Albedo. Have you slept well?"
"Fu fu fu. Thanks to you, I slept wonderfully, Momonga-sama."
"That's good to hear."
He stroked her face affectionately.
After a few conversations, he got her to tell him she preferred to call him by his old name, which he attributed to the phrase 'She is in love with Momonga' he had written in her settings, so he gave her permission to call him that when they were alone.
She had been very happy with that, considering this a secret between the two of them.
"There's someone outside right now, so be prepared."
He then turned to the door.
"Come in."
***
What a disappointing man.
Nyx skimmed through reports detailing some of the decisions made by King Ramposa III of the Re-Estize Kingdom, her evaluation of the men continually falling as she continued.
In her eyes, the man was utterly mediocre, and his incompetence while handling the crisis with the Empire left her completely frustrated.
There were many points in the last 7 years when he could have reversed the situation, or at least minimized the damage, but his reluctance to make drastic decisions weighed as heavily in the kingdom's current situation as the pragmatism of the Blood Empress.
Her evaluation of the Empress was much more favorable.
There was nothing remarkable about her ability to rule, but at least she knew how to take advantage of opportunities given to her and deal with problems before they grew into unmanageable ones.
This one on the other hand…
Through the reports from the Re-Estize Kingdom, she identified one person who impressed her.
Her intellect should be on a similar level to ours, but what is her goal?
The golden princess, Renner, showed a level of wisdom that set her well above her peers.
The policies she proposed, if implemented, could have saved the Kingdom.
Had she been the ruler of the Re-Estize Kingdom, it wouldn't have taken long for it to become the superpower of the region.
And yet.
Why is she acting in this way?
Most of the policies she proposed were rejected, something that she should have predicted, so Nyx couldn't understand why she still submitted them.
Is she trying to impress someone?
Ding!
Ding!
Upon hearing the alarm, Nyx stopped thinking about these minor matters.
It's time to see Ainz-sama!
She quickly removed her dress and began cleaning her bones, making sure no dust remained on them.
Once she was done, her black bones shone like obsidian.
Then she went to the wardrobe and took a silvery dress, the one that Ainz had complimented before, and put it on.
After a quick check in the mirror, she finally left the bedroom.
Ainz had given her and Albedo the right to choose their own bedrooms out of the 41 bedrooms of the Supreme Beings on the 9th floor.
So she chose the one to the left of Ainz's, while Albedo chose the one to the right.
"Nyx-sama."
The maid in front of Ainz's bedroom bowed to her as she approached.
"Hello, Foire. Is Ainz-sama in his bedroom right now?"
The short-haired blonde girl returned to her position and nodded.
"Yes. Right now he is with Albedo-sama."
"Thank you."
She knocked on the door and, after receiving permission, entered the room.
Inside, she saw her most beloved master sitting on the bed with his back to the headboard.
"Oh, good morning, Nyx."
He looked composed, his voice calm, and his gaze tranquil.
Judging by Albedo's disheveled appearance, which she wouldn't normally dare to show in front of their master, she must have been sleeping until this moment, which was to say that Ainz had been waiting for her to wake up.
How kind of him.
She shifted her gaze to Albedo, who, after a brief moment, acknowledged her intent.
"I must go now, Ainz-sama."
With a kiss to his cheek, Albedo jumped from the bed and quickly got dressed, nodding to her before getting out.
"Well, what made you look for me so early today, Nyx?"
After watching Albedo's retreating figure, Ainz asked her.
"I have a report, Ainz-sama. I didn't come earlier so as not to bother you or Albedo."
She had wanted to come in earlier, but it was Albedo's time, and she couldn't do that to her friend.
"That is very thoughtful of you; now tell me what it is."
"Pandora's Actor and Shalltear have made contact with humans suspected to be bandits, and are currently in the process of capturing them, while Cocytus has already made his war declaration for the demihuman tribes and is holding his position while waiting for their reaction."
According to their master's arrangements, 3 out of the 10 Floor Guardians had been deployed on missions in the outside world.
5 if they were to count Aura and Mare, who were constantly moving in and out of Nazarick.
Whenever Albedo was unavailable, it fell to her to keep tabs on everyone's actions, so now she came to deliver the news personally.
"Good. Are there any problems so far?"
"Nothing major, only…Pandora's Actor reported that Shalltear's behavior has been unhinged, or rather, even more than usual."
In her opinion, Shalltear was too unstable to be used comfortably on a stealth mission, but she understood her master's intent in using this mission to educate her.
She could only hope that her brother could cover for her mistakes so as not to disappoint their master.
"Ah, this might be my fault…"
She felt his gaze fall on her as he pondered over something.
"Actually, I think it might be better to tell you this."
Ainz moved and patted the bed on his side.
"Sit beside me, Nyx."
"Yes!"
She forgot to maintain her dignity for a moment, but quickly calmed down, sitting shyly by his side.
"Before she left this time, Shalltear asked me to grant her a chance to be my woman if she succeeded at her mission while restraining herself from engaging in any sexual activity until its end."
She felt his hand fall on her shoulder as he continued.
"I didn't see a reason to disagree with that, so I agreed to her proposition, something that has made me think a lot about what my relationship with the citizens of Nazarick should be right now and in the future."
"I am but a man who has been given many wonderful subordinates. At some point, this was something that I could only dream of, and in fact, this was literally something I wished for."
"For hundreds of years, I walked alone through a world far, far away, but now I'm suddenly given command over hundreds of loyal subordinates who look at me with deep devotion, and some with even more than just that."
"Seeing this, I can only do my best to respond to everyone's feelings."
"This means striving to be the leader everyone wants me to be, but also, in some cases, to be the lover they clearly want."
"To me, conquering territories and killing enemies is an easy thing to do, but the more I look into it, the more convinced I am that love is hard."
"As I face this new challenge called love, I can't help but feel like a clumsy child struggling to take their first steps, but much like a child, I yearn to walk and run together with all of you, so I'm willing to go through this struggle."
"I do this for Albedo, for Shalltear, and also for you if this is what you want."
"What do you say? I hope I'm not misreading your feelin-."
Before he could even finish, she was already in his arms.