Obsession: Albedo’s Desire

No speed limits bind the road between Carne Village and E-Rantel. Even if there were, Nazarick's carriage would not be stopped. Yuri, driving at full speed, ensured the young master avoided his first resurrection.

At the mansion, Lupusregina swiftly healed him. Solution, bursting into the carriage, swallowed him whole—not to melt him, but because his return from outside was suspicious. He was meant to be inside, disguised as planned.

Spit out in the mansion's study, nostalgia hit despite mere days away. A silver-haired man with heterochromatic eyes stared down—his own face, mirrored. He understood instantly.

"Pleased to meet you, Pandora's Actor-sama. I'm grateful for your time, busy as you are with Momon-sama and Ainz-sama's roles."

"Hm."

Nabe had mentioned Pandora's Actor, a Greater Doppelgänger, covering for his absence to avoid the maids' suspicion.

"I've heard of you in Nazarick. I've longed to meet you."

"Oh? What's your request?" Pandora's Actor asked, intrigued. Ainz had only mentioned Albedo's "interesting human." Playing Momon, Ainz, and this man, he'd heard from Solution, Lupusregina, and Nabe—human-disdaining maids—praise his boldness and wit. Yet, he remained unremarkable.

Kneeling, the man's polished manners matched Nazarick's standards. His audacity in making a request to a superior hinted at either courage or folly.

"Could you teach me German?"

Silence.

Fearing rejection, he pressed, "Ainz-sama graciously allowed me access to the Great Library. Many books are in German, and I wish to read them."

Knowledge within reach, if only he could grasp it.

"I know you're busy, Pandora's Actor-sama. At least teach me pronunciation. I have a dictionary, but phonetic symbols alone are daunting."

Language fuses time and space—sound and sight uniting to form meaning. Pronunciation is vital; without it, learning is a detour.

More silence. Desperate, he added, "German sounds so cool! I want to shout finishing moves in it!"

"Großartig! Splendid!" Pandora's Actor gleamed, shedding his disguise. Leaping, spinning, he nearly hit the ceiling, landing with a flourish. His khaki cape settled as his cap landed perfectly on his egg-like head, three holes for a face.

"…So cool!" the man exclaimed, unfazed by Nazarick's stranger sights.

"German is cool, you say?"

"Yes! The library's novels had awesome German attack names. I want to use them!"

"Very well!" Pandora's Actor boomed, cape flaring. "I, Pandora's Actor, shall teach you German!"

"Thank you!"

"Falsch! Wrong! Danke schön!"

"Falsch? Danke shen?"

"No! Danke schön! Again!"

"Danke shen!"

"Danke schön!"

"Danke, Danke shen!"

"Danke schön!"

"Perfect!"

A fateful meeting. Solution, Lupusregina, Nabe, and Yuri, present in the study, couldn't keep up. As they left, stunned, they realized Pandora's Actor had claimed the man. Too late to intervene.

Thus, while Ainz was away, Momon and Nabe occasionally stayed at E-Rantel's mansion.

A grand tent, lavishly furnished, fit for royalty—or Nazarick's guests. A man, seated deeply, reads documents. A demon emperor, now maskless, back to Demiurge, Nazarick's loyal servant.

A minor mix-up: a sealed envelope from Nazarick, sent by the Head Librarian, contained a human's report. Not urgent, but Demiurge's demons, mistaking the seal's importance, rushed it to him. He reads for a break.

The report, in three parts, exceeded expectations. Parts one and two bore Albedo's subtle influence—her phrasing evident to Demiurge, though not to Titus. She hadn't overstepped; the content impressed. Passable, with potential for policy-making, though Albedo might hesitate to use him publicly.

Then, the third part. Demiurge smirked.

"What are you reading, Demiurge-sama?" Entoma, unmasked as a Pleiades, asked, noting his amusement.

"Know of Albedo's pet human?"

"Albedo-sama's?"

"For food, it seems. Not flesh, but essence. Though her blood's tasty too—Shalltear lost herself tasting it before Ainz-sama."

Entoma's throat clicked, not swallowing but grinding. If the blood's that good, the meat must be divine.

"Not just for food," Demiurge continued, showing a stack of papers. "He's capable. I tasked him with this."

He explained: a plan for E-Rantel's growth as the Sorcerer Kingdom's capital. A test of comprehension, not implementation. It passed.

"But this third part… tricky. Nazarick's servants would laud its ideals, but execution?" He handed Entoma the thinnest section. "Your thoughts?"

"I-I couldn't possibly…" Entoma recoiled from the dense text.

Demiurge chuckled. "I'll summarize."

Ainz's expedition to the Azerlisia Mountains isn't just for conquest. He seeks the unknown, new experiences, as seen in his role as Momon. The human's report guesses Ainz desires adventure, not far off. It's bold, not blasphemous, to ponder Ainz's wishes.

Ainz envisions adventurers not just as monster hunters but as pioneers of new worlds. The report aligns but proposes a unique path: art. Art, evolving through generations, splits into craft and technique, endlessly specialized. It suggests E-Rantel become an artistic capital to ease Ainz's boredom. Idealistic, beautiful—Sebas might agree.

But the means? Nazarick's culture dwarfs this world's. Instead of nurturing it, the report advocates educating select humans rigorously, excluding those too primitive.

The method? Entoma read the preface and shrieked, "What a waste of meat!"

Even Demiurge, evil incarnate, hadn't conceived it. Worse than the Gehenna Plan's horrors, it summons one of the Four Horsemen: Famine. A world-ending calamity.

"Preserving some is feasible, but not all—not with a hundred Fifth Floors," Demiurge mused. Feasible now, with the Sorcerer Kingdom small. "I must report this to Ainz-sama. He'll likely reject it, but if approved…" His heart raced at the thought.

Note: New story is out, if you want to check it out. 

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