The Overlord and the Human Maid

Part 1: Decision

Always being one to try and keep his paperwork as neat as possible (at least, the paperwork anyone else would be seeing), Ainz Ooal Gown set the report from the Lizardmen village down in the "Finished" pile on his desk, before then taking another detailed document from the "Incoming" stack on his left. Because of spending so much time outside the Great Tomb as Momon he unintentionally had allowed the status reports from the Guardians and the other NPCs to pile up and was now working to whittle the load down.

Not that he could justifiably complain about it that much. Despite being an overlord, there really wasn't that much Ainz himself had to do. Most of Nazarick's functions had already been set in place before they'd been sent to the New World and the NPCs routinely executed their daily tasks without fail. Albedo especially. Internally he feared that if it weren't for the Overseer of the Guardians taking so much of the load off him, he'd have already run this place into the ground and he made certain not to delude himself into thinking otherwise.

His position was much more like the president of a company, which thankfully gave the former salaryman something for his real-world skills to latch onto. His job was mostly just setting policies, seeing to it that they are implemented properly, and making sure that all the subordinates under his direction were being taken care of. How thoroughly he went over all the details of each report he'd been sent showed how seriously he took his role. With everyone else working so hard, all in his name and the name of Nazarick, he had no right not to pull his own weight when he only had this one job to do.

That being said…

The red lights within his skull that acted as his eyes snuck a glance over at his side, Ainz doing his best not to move his head too noticeably.

As per usual whenever he was within his chambers he had a maid attending him. Outside of the Pleiades, all of Nazarick's maids were fairly uniform in design (understandably, given there were forty-one of them having been created between three people). All women with the same maid outfit and hair of various shades of blonde. Detailed as they were, a point of pride for his former friends, it was still easy to confuse one for another for anyone whom didn't interact with them that often, though Ainz still made efforts to know all of their names. This one in particular was at least fairly easy as she was one of the few Homunculus Maids sporting eyeglasses.

The Supreme Being not being as stealthy as he'd hoped, the maid Lumière noticed him looking at her.

"Yes, Lord Ainz? Is there something you needed?"

"What? Oh…! N-no, no. Nothing. It's fine." Ainz shook his head, declining politely as he returned to reading the reports. To that, Lumière gave a bow and resumed her silent stand.

Internally, Ainz gave a sigh.

"This is starting to wear me down." His former voice of Suzuki Satoru grumbled within his head. Before coming to this world and being trapped in this undead form, he never would have believed being smothered by praise was a real thing.

At first Ainz thought it was just his paranoia but it continued with servant after servant until he was absolutely certain he was right. Lumière was standing off to his side, staying out of her master's way and allowing him to work until she was given orders. But Ainz could feel her eyes constantly on him, like he was some kind of rare, exotic animal in a zoo. Her gaze wasn't judgmental. Quite the opposite in fact. It was pure admiration, like every little thing he did was gospel to the maid. And for quite a while now it'd been stressing him out.

He wanted to be a leader worthy of all the NPCs' admiration and praise but they kept constantly raising the bar higher and higher without realizing it. To them, Ainz Ooal Gown was name synonymous to that of a god. A god of gods even, given that the other Supreme Beings had named him as their leader. A truly perfect being, which naturally with Ainz being anything but made him constantly second-guess everything he was doing. It'd gotten to the point where he couldn't even read a simple report in front of one of the NPCs without worrying he was going too slow, thus making them think he wasn't that intelligent, or that he was going too fast, thus making them think he was so much more intelligent than he really was and setting himself up to look bad in the future when he couldn't retain information reading at that speed.

"I need a break from all this devotion." Ainz whined to himself, rubbing the space between his eyes, creating the not thoroughly pleasant sound of bone grinding against bone. "Just some time where I can relax enough to recharge myself mentally."

It was a well-known fact that Ainz did not require sleep. Generally he could spend an hour or two alone in his room, time typically spent practicing lines and poses he believed a great ruler would use. But as he could not use the excuse of going to bed for what he'd be doing privately in his quarters for several hours, the NPCs would get worried and periodically check up on him.

For a time he thought maybe he could use his guise as Momon as his reprieve from the life of Ainz but Narberal was almost always by his side. Her magics helped make up for his lack of while using [Perfect Warrior], so she was invaluable out in the field, but her outright disgust and loathing for all the humans around them made her a massive handful to deal with, at least if he wanted to keep her from killing everyone who so much as glanced at him wrong. Even taking her out of the equation, the humans were now starting to close the gap between them and the NPCs when it came to overpraise. Between his insanely fast rise to adamantite rank, his well-publicized duel with Jaldabaoth, and now everything with the Sorcerer kingdom, Momon was more famous than ever and while that had been the goal, it did make for another mask Ainz had to keep himself from cracking.

Be it in the outside world with the humans and Narberal or here in the Great Tomb with the NPCs, Ainz worried how long he'd be able to keep up his guise as a wise, powerful ruler.

"I suppose at least with Momon I actually did SOME of the things everyone praises me for." Ainz commented to himself, though he personally had a hard time counting Hamsuke and Clemintine as accomplishments after how easy they'd been. "Defeating" the vampire and "forcing" Jaldabaoth to run away. Even though he'd come up with the plans with the help of the Guardians, Momon's greatest labors still made Ainz feel just as big of a fraud as the Dark Warrior as he was as a Supreme Being.

Wanting so badly to give a sigh, Ainz held it back, as not to spark Lumière's worry. Instead, acting as though he was done reading the current report, he opted to stretch his stiff neck, lazily gazing upwards at the ceiling and the many-legged other audience he was always playing to.

The Eight-Edge Assassins actually weren't that bad. They'd also become more self-aware since coming to the New World but with their ability to become invisible and that their duty of protecting Ainz involved more focus on the areas around him rather than Ainz himself, even being so littered across the ceiling they were fairly easy to ignore. The maids on the other hand were more of a challenge, most likely because they were closer to humans.

At that offhand comment to himself, however, an interesting thought floated through Ainz's skull.

"Lumière?"

"Oh! Yes, Lord Ainz?" The maid instantly snapped to attention as her master turned to her.

"I don't suppose you'd have the maid schedule on you by any chance, would you? Specifically for those whom would be my maid-for-the-day?"

"I'm afraid I do not, but if you'll permit I can go fetch it for you. The listings are on this floor so it should not take more than a few minutes."

"If you'd be so kind." Ainz nodded his approval.

"My lord!" Lumière thanked him with a quick bow (unneeded, Ainz thought, as she was the one doing something for him) before making off for the doorway. She did not run but Ainz did still have to admire her speed while maintaining such a dignified posture. He recalled that a maid had once scolded a Death Knight he'd summoned for running in the hallways, so he supposed it'd be hypocritical for them to do the same even when preforming tasks for him (though according to that same Death Knight, the maid had tried to apologize many times upon finding out Ainz was the undead's creator).

The trip had been as short as she'd predicted. By the time Ainz had finished the report in his hands and picked up another, Lumière had returned, clipboard in hand.

Giving his thanks to the maid, Ainz flipped through the dates as she returned to her post. "Alright, good. I thought there was an open day." He thought to himself, happy that he'd remembered correctly. Just a few days from now there was no maid on the schedule. "Momon had agreed to take on a job killing a nest of various were-creatures but the patron specified that the nest could only be found during a full moon. I informed Nazarick ahead of time that it was likely going to be an all-day thing. I must have forgotten to tell them that the noble was discovered to have ties to Eight Fingers and went on the run after we took it over, so the Adventures Guild cancelled the job."

He pondered what he was thinking carefully. "Okay. This should work."

"Lumière."

"Yes, Lord Ainz?"

Ainz turned in his chair to better face her. "If I were to request a change or alteration to the maid's schedule, who would I need to talk to about that?"

"That would be Miss Pestonya, my lord." Lumière answered without even needing to think about it. "Miss Yuri and Mistress Albedo have the authority as well but as the head of the Homunculus Maids, Miss Pestonya is the main overseer."

"I see. Thank you. This should be easy enough then." Ainz said, looking back at the dates just to double-check himself.

Lumière watched her master with some curiosity. "Is there some discrepancy in the current schedule that displeases you, my lord?"

"Hm? Oh, no, nothing like that." Ainz waved off the idea to reassure her. "I'm merely…pondering an experiment."

"Lord Ainz is requesting Tuare as his maid for the day?!" Sebas felt the world slam against him as he was told those words, the butler of steel nearly feeling his knees give out from under him upon hearing that news.

"That is correct." Yuri Alpha said, adjusting her glasses with grace as she spoke. Tuare stiffened uncomfortably, the shine across the lenses in the light making it difficult to tell if the combat maid was looking at her or not.

Sebas gave a tentative look back at his ward. His master's word was law and normally he'd never even think to question it. But…

"Did he give any reason for why he wants her on that day? Surely one of the Homunculus Maids or even the Pleiades would be better suited if there's anything specific Lord Ainz requires." Sebas asked, mentally apologizing to Tuare for the likely offense in his words. "Tuare's made great progress for a human but she's nowhere near ready yet to serve Lord Ainz directly."

"That is something he said he wishes to judge for himself." Pestonya stepped forward, her voice helping Tuare breathe a little easier. Next to Sebas, half-canine maid had been the kindest to her since she'd arrived in the Great Tomb, enough to the point where Tuare found her unusual appearance more comforting than that of most of the more humanoid residents. "Lord Ainz explained that he wants to see how far she's come as a maid and that serving him personally for a day would be the best way for him to judge that."

Even through his gloves Sebas could feel his nails digging into his palm, unable to relax himself. "But she is only-!"

"It is not our place to question Lord Ainz." Yuri swiftly reprimanded him, despite being his subordinate. "It's best if we not forget this is likely a test for us as well as her. We three were the ones who trained Tuare into being a proper maid. If she is not up to the task, then the fault lies with us."

Sebas and Pestonya could have expected no less of a statement from Yuri. Ever the teacher, just like her creator. And of her two points, the butler could argue with neither of them, especially the first. If his master was to declare white as black, then it was black. Not a single resident of Nazarick, including himself, would ever disagree with that fact. If he declared Tuare would serve him directly, then it was as good as done.

Taking the almost unnoticeable slouch in Sebas' shoulders as a sign that he'd accepted, Pestonya continued. "She was ordered to be given the same treatment as the Homunculus Maids, thus Tuare will also being given the day prior off so that she may best prepare to serve Lord Ainz. Naturally, of course, we'll do everything we can to help you with that, Tuare."

"Th-thank you very much!" Tuare quickly bowed to her upon being addressed.

Yuri could see the worry on Sebas' features plain as day. The way his eyes moved showed he was thinking through every last thing they'd need to go over in order to properly get Tuare ready. Could it actually be done? Human preforming a job normally only done by those created by the Supreme Beings themselves? Perhaps this would be like with Cocytus; a deliberate set-up to fail by Lord Ainz in order to teach them something. But that was not a chance they could take.

Sebas then felt a small tug on the lapel of his suit. When he turned, there was clear look of guilt on Tuare's face, but she fought though it to smile so gently at him.

"I… I promise you, Lord Sebas, I won't let you down." She swore to him with a bow.

The butler felt his nerves soften, just for a moment, before twisting up in knots once again. He couldn't help but be worried for her.

"I know you won't." He said, praying the words he used to assure her and himself would somehow turn out to be true.

Author's notes: Just wanted to take a small break from writing Grim Tales and since I've been obsessively into Overlord lately, I had an urge to write something for that. And since Ainz and Tuare haven't interacted that much yet in the anime or Light Novels, I figured why not have that be the focus?

This will be a pretty short story, probably only four chapters, none of which will be very long. Enjoy!