“Mmm~ Hubby, hold me closer~ I’m so tired today~ I’ve been w the entire day~”

  “Really? Didn’t you just hang out with the maids the whole day?”

  “Geez~ You don’t o mind the details~! Just hold me!”

  “Alright alright.”

  Yuuji ed his arms around Aika’s waist tighter, bringing her closer to him, as they cuddled underh the cover on their bed.

  Both of them were no longer dressed in their whole gear, and were now dressed casually in fortable nightwear. Aika, specifically, was adorned in a thin negligee that truly didn’t hide any part of her body. It iece of clothi to atuate her sinful body and seduce her beloved, not as a nightwear.

  Most of her clothing in her iory were all simir in nature to the one she was wearing right noart from a few dresses that also revealed a lot of skin, her casual clothes were all meant to be worn in bed with Yuuji.

  A rge mirror, around 1 meter i, with an oval-shaped bronze a-bck frame c its sides and edges floated at the feet of their bed.

  As of now, it showed nothing. Its surface aque.

  With this magic item that Yuuji had brought from the throne room, they would be watg Leloud Momonga in a as they saved e Vilge.

  They would be starting any moment now. And in the meantime, Aika told Yuuji about the events that happened with the maids.

  “Oh, so it’s a success?”

  “Uhn~! I turned Cixous today, and it was a success~! I wao turn the Pleiades and the other maids too… But there’s a one day cooldown for the spell, so I couldn’t. Also I don’t want to repce their inal race. So, I pn to have Momonga-saheir stats with his Geass first to see if my spell added the succubus race or repced it pletely!”

  While the succubus race had plenty of bes, it also had its drawbacks.

  For one, as a race which focused on magic, it hysically weaker than a Werewolf, a Dulhan, an Automaton, a Predator Slime, and an Araoid, and barely on par with a Doppelganger.

  Each of these races had their own strengths as well, and having different races would also offer more versatility in battle. Thus, repg all of them with the succubus race would prove to be more detrimental to their safety.

  “I see. That’s a good idea. When will you have him look?”

  “I’ll try to have him look after he finished saving e Vilge if possible. After all, we’ll be going to E-Rantel after this, so I’d like to firm it as soon as possible.”

  “Mm. It might be a good idea to have Lupu gain the succubus race first before we have her apany us. With her natural friendliness and the succubus’s charm, she’ll be able to help us mingle easier with the other adventurers.”

  “Uhn~! I’m sure she’ll be able to befriend the girls in Blue Rose easily~”

  While Lupu had a brutal and ing personality, she was capable of showing aremely sociable and friendly behavior towards others. In fact, she had bee close friends with Enri in the anime.

  As long as they could trol her sadistidencies, she would be the perfect person that would help them get along with people as adventurers.

  sidering her cheerful and fearless personality, Yuuji could easily imagine her befriend Gagaran, the massive, muscur, hammer-wielding member of the Blue Rose.

  And if they could befriend the Blue Rose, their influehin the Kingdom would also increase, making it easier for them to gairust and favorability of its citizens.

  “Mm. I agree.”

  Just then, Yuuji received a message from Lelouch, telling him that they’ve arrived in e.

  “Ah, it seems like they’ve begun.”

  “Really~? Let’s watch!”

  Yuuji activated the Mirror of Remote Viewing as he imagihe outskirts of the Vilge he had seen from the anime. And soon, the opaque surface of the mirran to ripple and they could finally see the sery near e.

  On the dirty, blood-stained ground, a beautiful young girl, most likely in her mid-teens, with a lightly fair skin, blonde hair, and brown eyes was holding a smaller young girl with reddish brown hair and brown eyes in a protective embrabsp;

  Before the two was a giant figure pure bd gold robes and a deep crimson-red mask with an expression resembling tears er, and a shorter, more slender figure in a familiar tight dark purple suit with a cape, and a spiky bd indigo mask c their fabsp;

  And behind them, the bloodied gores in iron armor of what had been “knights” of the Theocracy disguised as the Empire’s knights were strewn about on the blood-soaked earth.

  Momonga seemed to be talking to the two girls, cast a few spells that created a barrier around them, and tossed two “Horn of the Goblin General” to the girls.

  Then, they both walked towards the vilge as the girls looked at their backs in fused shod awe, still trying to process the tragedies as that had just happened…

  “Oh~ So they’ve saved Enri and her little sister already, huh?”

  Her luscious lips curled into a smile and her eyes narrowed with a pair of crest moons as Aika looked at the reg figure of the golden-haired girl in the mirror. Her eyes shih a luster of uable schemes.

  Then, they tio watch as the Dark Knight Momonga had summoned sughter all the “knights” that had been wreaking havo the vilge.

  They did n them uheir trol with Lelouch’s geass sine, there was no need for him to reveal his abilities to the vilgers here, and two, there was no information they could get from these grunts that they wouldn’t get from the Sunlit Scripture that would e ter on.

  It would only increase the amount of mouths they’d had to feed ba the interrogation chamber in Nazaribsp;

  The chaos caused by the “knights” quickly died down as every single knight was cut down by the hulking undead in knightly armor.

  And the rest of the events that happened followed the course of events in the anime, with the vilge head thanking Momonga and Leloud inviting them to their home.

  “Hm… Hey, Yuuji.”

  “Yeah?”“I… don’t feel anything when I watch those soldiers die from the death knight. I don’t even feel nauseous.”

  “...”

  This wasn’t the first time Aika and Yuuji had e face to face with the death of another human. They’ve experienced war ah during their time in Tatsuya’s world, and Yuuji had also experienced war in Lelouch’s world.

  But in those worlds, their enemies died from guns. While it was a bloody battle, it wasn’t as gory as the se of death they’ve just witnessed.

  Seeing a human body cut in half and gore strewn about on the bloodied dirt in mass… regur people their age would’ve received immerauma.

  But Yuuji and Aika did not feel any pity or shobsp;

  The age ah they’ve witnessed gave them the same feeling as crushing an ant with their fingers or spping an annoying mosquito against the wall.

  And that realization caused a sense of fear to grow within her heart. The fear of losing her “humanity” and sce over human life.

  She did not know if it was due to the rad css she had received from the Group Chat, or if she had gotteo death before she k from the “memories” she received for the missions and simply realized it upon witnessing the gruesome deaths.

  But the fact remains…

  “I get it… I stopped feeling it too.”

  Yuuji pulled her closer and stroked her head, trying his best to soothe his beloved.

  “It protects us from the mental damage we would’ve suffered from witnessihs… And I think, it’s better to have it than not with all these missions from the group chat. But… I don’t want to be used to it.”

  “Used to it…?”

  “Mm… I don’t want to be used to humah.”

  He pulled his gaze away from the mirror showing Momonga and Lelouch versing with the Vilge head and his wife, and turo Aika, gazing at her beautiful, sparkling eyes filled with fear and unease.

  “The reason why we do these missions is to bee stronger… Strong enough to protect those important to us. But if we lose our humanity… If we lose our love for those we do all of this for, then what’s the point?”

  He smiled, and pced a soft, gentle kiss on her forehead.

  “Sometimes, killing our enemies would be iable to protect those we love. But, I don’t pn on going on a killing spree.”

  “Uhn… I know. That’s why you made the pn to quer Re-Estize and the Empire by trolling their ey, right?”

  “Mm. That’s right.”

  “But I’m still scared… What if I got used to it…? What if… I came to love it? I have a job css called the “Empress of Evil” you know…?”

  Yuuji held Aika’s trembling hand and pced her head on his chest.

  “The fact that you’re afraid means that you’ll be fine… As long as you hold on to this fear, this humanity, then I know that you won’t go down that road. And if you fet…”

  Yuuji lifted her face up to him and kissed her orembling lips.

  “I’ll be here to remind you.”

  “Hubby…”

  Tears fell down the er of her eyes, and Aika ed her arms around her beloved. Her body, still trembling as she sobbed into his chest.

  “There there…”

  “Thank you hubby… you’re the best…”

  “You’re wele… You always rely on me. And I will, of course, rely on you if I fet myself too.”

  “Uhn… I will…”

  --------------------------------X--------------------------------

  Gazef, the renowned warrior-captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom, had arrived in e Vilge along with his band of warriors a with Momonga and Leloubsp;

  Momonga mused as he observed the famous band of warriors on horses and their wargear.

  The knights from before had breastptes bearing the sigils of the Baharuth Empire, and they were heavily equipped uniformly. While these men were wearing armors as well, their gear varied from man to man.

  Some wore leather armor, while some did not have their pte armor on, exposing the mail underh.

  Some wore helmets, while some went bareheaded. The only thing they had in on was the fact that they all showed their faces. All of them had swords of simir make, but apart from that, they also carried bows, javelins, maces, and other back up ons.

  Instead of an army, they looked like hardened veterans of the battlefield. Or to put it in a less polite way, they appeared like a ragtag bunch of sellswords.

  The riders of around 20 meered the square and came face to face with Momonga and Leloubsp;

  The leader, Gazef, observed the two of them keenly from horseback. And once he had affirmed that none of them were going to move, he jumped down from the saddle and addressed the Vilge Chief.

  “—I am the Warrior-Captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff. By order of the King, I have been visiting each of the frontier vilges to exterminate knights from enemy tries who have been making trouble here.”

  Gasps of shod awe quickly spread across the vilge as the warrior captain introduced himself.

  But Gazef did not mind the murmurs and turowards the t figure a luxurious robe of pure bd gold. From his outfit alone, he could already tell that he was a magic caster. And aremely powerful and rie.

  “You must be the chief of this vilge. you tell me who is the person beside you?”

  Momonga interrupted the old vilge chief who was about to answer, before o Gazef and introdug himself.

  “There is no need for that. Pleased to meet you, Warrior-Captain-dono, of the Kingdom. My name is… Ainz Ooal Gown. and I’m a magic caster. This vilge was attacked by knights, and so I stepped in to rescue them.”

  Momonga and Gazef tiheir versation, before soon relog into the Vilge Chief’s humble abode.

  And as the su, and the world was slowly swallowed in by darkness… They noticed figures outside surrounding the vilge from within the darkened house.

  They were slowly advang on the vilge. They appeared unarmed and were not wearing heavy armor. But that didn’t mean they were harmless.

  Magic casters preferred lighter gear, and judging by their appearahey indeed fit Gazef’s image of a magic caster.

  However, the humans weren’t the ones alerting him. It was the winged monsters floating beside them which firmed their vocations and his worry.

  Angels.

  Gazef knew enough about them to know that they were troublesome foes. Of course, that depended oype of angel. Not all angels were difficult to defeat.

  However, the ahis time around, with shining breastptes and fming swords, they were the type that was unknown to him.

  Of course, Ainz knew what they were.

  Argel Fmes. They were low-leveled angel summons armed with magical fme swords. Truly trash mobs by his standards, not worthy of even being hindering mobs during a dungeon run. But in this new world’s standards, their numbers and the fact that they could be infinitely summoned as long as their summoners had enough mana made them worthy adversaries.

  Uanding the gravity of the situation, Gazef did try to recruit Momonga and Lelouch as adventurers, and even scripted them uhe name of his king.

  But they both refused. However, they did swear to protect the vilge in his stead.

  “Thank you very much, Gown-dono. Now I have nothing more to worry about. All I o do now is charge boldly ahead.”

  “...Before that, please take this with you.”

  Ainz took out an item and ha to the smiling Gazef. It was a small, strangely carved statuette. There did not seem to be anything special about it. However—

  “If it is a gift from yood self, I will gdly accept it. Then, Gown-dono. Time grows short, but I must now leave.”

  “...Will you not wait until nightfall before setting out?”

  “The opposition should have spells like [Darkvision] and the like, so night fighting is not to our advantage, but I agihey will be hampered by it. Also… we also o let you see how we stand or fall.”

  “I see. As expected of the Kingdom’s Warrior-Captain, your keen insight is truly worthy of praise. Then, I wish you all the best, Warrior-Captain-dono.”

  “And I wish you a safe journey home, Gown-dono.”

  VergsX