Sorry for the delay guys real life all that nonsense please enjoy!

Guiche awoke to the light shining through his window, still feeling slightly sick after yesterday's...Activities. Forcing himself from his bed he quickly changed into the school uniform, cinching the runic blade to his side he paused in front of his mirror. His eyes had bags under them, denoting his restless sleep. Part of him wished to curl back under the blankets and sleep until he felt better. Alas, Mrs. Chevreuse had mostly recovered with the aid of magic and thus classes were to resume their normal schedules.

Guiche sighed internally feeling slightly bad about wishing the professor was still injured, pushing aside that thought he reached down yanking the runic blade from its sheath. He saw reflected on the blade, his stare felt slightly unnerving. He had used this glorious weapon, he had maimed another mage, he had drawn blood. He was sickened, he was invigorated, he was proud, he was ashamed, shaking his head to clear his mind. He quickly returned the sword to its sheath and walked to the door, stopping as he noticed a piece of parchment on the ground.

Picking it up he began to read the familiar flowing script, it was a message from Montmorency asking him to meet her for lunch. The sick feeling in his stomach was quickly subsumed with the fluttering of butterflies. Was she finally ready to accept his apology? Had his gift of earrings been enough for her to forgive him? Despite his lack of sleep, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders, with a small smile he left his room determined to face the morning.

Ainz felt barely restrained energy coursing through his marrow, even after it was suppressed he still was left in an airy mood. Even the intense reading session he had put in overnight wasn't enough to dampen his spirits. Colbert had informed him the ritual would be ready today! He finally had a chance to return home!

"Your majesty, I don't wish to offend you but it is important to remember that today is an experiment. I've adapted the ritual to the best of my abilities but this is untested magic, I had to redesign the ritual from the ground up to allow it to accept magic outside the familiar summoning spell. Add on to that the fact I had to rewrite the runic characters and I can't promise we will get the results we seek on our first attempt..." As Colbert spoke nervously, walking faster than he usually would to keep up with the sorcerer-king's long stride. The maids trailed behind them, their struggle made tougher by the need to also maintain a respectful distance.

Ainz finally noticed the professors difficulty, feeling slightly guilty over forcing the professor to keep up with him. He felt tempted to apologize for allowing his excitement to get the better of him but also knew it would be improper for a king to apologize for such a minor event. Sighing internally he simply slowed his walk to better accommodate the professors shorter stride. The professor and maids both seemed relieved by this change in pace, only adding to Ainz feeling of guilt.

Ainz couldn't help but remember his old job, the nerves that came about before making a presentation. The fear of forgetting important information, or getting some data wrong and being punished by the higher brass. No doubt Colbert was experiencing a similar feeling at the prospect of presenting his hard work to Ainz. Perhaps it was even worse for Colbert though, all Ainz had to worry about was his own failures, here Colbert had to worry about failings that may well not be his own.

"Colbert you have worked tirelessly on this project since my...Unfortunate arrival here, rest assured I won't be overly disappointed if we don't achieve success in our first attempt. While I wish to return to my kingdom, I will not hold you accountable should today's attempt fail. As long as we learn something from today's attempt I shall consider it to have been a worthy endeavor." Ainz reassured the distressed professor with a light smile, while he was in a rush to return to his kingdom, today was an experiment at its core and thus success was not guaranteed. Colbert didn't seem to know how to respond to his reassurances thus they fell into an amicable silence as they neared the courtyard.

The ritual had been set up in one of the schools multiple courtyards, the ground bore a large intricate circle. Inter-layered with runic symbols and patterns that only seemed vaguely familiar to Ainz. Lacking class levels in magical research and knowledge the circle's meaning and purpose were indecipherable to Ainz eyes. Still, Colbert seemed confident as he walked around the circle applying alchemical solutions at key points in the circle.

"It should be ready your majesty, all it requires now is a spell to activate it..." Colbert turned to him expectantly. Ainz felt a sweatdrop forming on the back of his head, it was time to see if the ritual would work with the [Gate] Spell. While he had assured the professor he had a good spell for the occasion there was no telling how the two foreign forms of magic would interact. If they interacted at all, of course, any failing on Ainz part could be shifted to the professor.

Pointedly ignoring the guilt he felt about shifting any blame to the professor that had worked so hard to assist him, he lifted his hand focusing on the center of the circle activating [Gate]. A black hemisphere formed in the center of the circle, much like his first attempt it sat lifelessly, unable to connect to the area he had commanded. The circle glowed, flashing different colors as the runic symbols floated from the earth, slowly circling the black hemisphere.

In the background Ainz heard Colbert gasp, Ainz couldn't help but wonder why? The rituals floating symbols didn't seem out of place to him, it reminded him a bit of the circle that formed when using magic arrow, or magical defensive spells. Even a few of the rituals Ainz could remember made use of floating magic circles and symbols. From what he could remember it was common artistic style, then again from what he could tell the magic common to this world seemed less flashy than that found in Yggdrasil and new world. Perhaps his magic was having a bizarre effect on the ritual? Pushing these thoughts aside Ainz refocused on the ongoing ritual.

There were five symbols in total, two of them glowed a dark blood red while the other three glowed an acidic green. The symbols seemed to slow as they drew closer to the black center, the green symbols flew into the hemisphere and Ainz felt the [Gate] respond. It felt as if the spell were reaching for something only for it to be pushed back? It was such a strange feeling that Ainz nearly allowed the spell to fade, luckily he regained himself before the spell could falter. Next, the two red symbols flew into the center.

Ainz felt it again, energy arced from the [Gate] dust and debris ripped from the ground as the spell seemed to roar with newfound power. He heard Colbert backing away but was far too absorbed in the spell to be concerned about the professor. Forcing more mana into the ritual he felt, for the briefest of seconds, a connection between worlds!

Alas something seemed to push back, it felt even stranger then the ritual, as if hundreds of overlapping spells all with the single focus of blocking his connection was pushing back against the ritual. There was a split second where the gate seemed to glow a deep red, then it exploded kicking up dust and stone. the flying stone could not harm Ainz and the professor had the foresight to take cover before the blast.

After the dust settled a large crater had replaced the circle, no trace of the professors work remained. Ainz heard coughing and turned to find the professor emerge from hiding, he seemed a bit fearful.

"Your majesty! My sincerest apologies I hadn't imagined the ritual would have such a catastrophic failure! I've never seen magic act in such a strange fashion." Colbert apologized swiftly as he discreetly searched Ainz for any sign of injury, luckily there were none he could see. Ainz seemed perfectly unharmed despite his proximity to the explosion.

"Colbert as I said as long as we learn something today it is not a failure and learn we have! For a brief moment the spell worked, I connected to my kingdom." Ainz couldn't help the happiness that leaked into his voice. They had failed but today had confirmed to him returning to his kingdom was possible, he simply needed to remain persistent.

"Really? I didn't notice any shift before the explosion..." The professor seemed incredibly interested yet also nervous, it took a moment for Ainz to parse out why the professor would be nervous.

"I see, you fear I may be mistaken, that my mind has shown me what I wanted to see rather than what was there. An understandable fear, but I felt the rituals effect on the spell. That's how I know it worked and also how I know the range isn't the problem, we need more power." Ainz Explained as he went over the information Colbert had told him if he remembered correctly the runic symbols represented power and reach, or length depending on how one examined them.

Of the symbols used two were for power while three were for range. With that knowledge, he had surmised the green symbols were the ones representing range while the red represented power. as he had originally thought his spell had the range but something was blocking its power, but that left the question of what?

The only thing he could think of was a world-class item suited to unbreakable sealing, as far as he knew no such world-class item existed in Yggdrasil. Even more, had it truly been a world-class item with a focus on sealing he should not have been able to pierce it without a world-class item focused on breaking or piercing was how absolute world-class items were set up, an absolute offense that could only be defeated by an absolute defense...

So whatever formed this seal was near the power of a world-class item but not as absolute? What had formed it? Even more why? Was there a valuable resource in this world? Like the prismatic ore mines in Yggdrasil? If that was the case why did this world seem to lack truly powerful magical items? Perhaps the older vampires would know?

"Your majesty...If the range is not the problem I will need to fully redesign this ritual...How much power do you feel we'll need?" Colbert nervously interrupted Ainz theory crafting. Refocusing on the professor Ainz considered the question, three runic symbols had been enough to offer him the briefest of connections. To take that to something usable he suspected would take far more than the two extra symbols the ritual could currently support. Searching through his memories the largest rituals he read about apparently comprised of twelve symbols, yet Ainz doubted doubling the symbols would be nearly enough.

"I believe thirty symbols should be enough to ensure we can not only create the connection but also maintain it. Less than that and I'd fear the connection breaking." Ainz chose the number, not due to some significance but instead because he believed overkill would be better in this case then being sparing with the size of the ritual.

He figured in the worst-case scenario they made the ritual to powerful and wasted some materials and mana to return him home, and if the ritual still wasn't strong enough they won't have wasted time on lesser efforts. What was it said? There was no such thing as overkill? Or was that Lord touch me? Both could be so excessive at times...

"Your majesty! That's...Not feasible, even the largest ritual I know of historically only used fifteen runic symbols. Even ignoring the material cost the sheer amount of will power required isn't plausible, even with a large number of powerful mages working in tandem. I understand your strength but what you suggest...Simply isn't possible." Colbert explained in shock over Ainz suggestion, seemingly also afraid of disappointing.

Ainz couldn't help but be slightly surprised he figured the material cost would be the largest obstacle but the professor seemed more worried about will power... from his observations he had come to the conclusion the will power mages used was equivalent to his mana. Thinking back to the ritual he had spent slightly more mana then he would usually have needed to on the gate spell but not to an unreasonable degree.

Even if the larger ritual required a thousand times the mana this one had it would still be well within his abilities. Even more, if the ritual did somehow surpass his mana reserves he could simply produce a large group of undead magic casters to assist him... Then again the people of this world didn't seem to have any means to measure the magical potential of those around them, at least none of his research suggested they had such capabilities.

Thus he was left with two ways to deal with the situation simply tell the professor to focus on creating the ritual and let him focus on the magical components. While tempting he knew just how slow work could become when a subordinate felt they were working on a doomed project. Instead, it would be a simple matter to assuage the professors worry about the mana cost of the ritual.

Colbert felt himself break out into a cold sweat as the sorcerer-king stood there silently gazing over the ritual after the failure Colbert had been ready for bereavement or insults. Common practices for displeased nobles and royalty what he had not been prepared was the kings seeming jovial tone at the discovery it had almost worked.

Honestly, it was quite refreshing to have a failure viewed in such a positive light, but he had been even less prepared for the sorcerer-kings next suggestion. A ritual of thirty runic symbols, the sheer size, and cost of such thing boggled the mind. The intricate circles and patterns required to interconnect the magical energy of thirty individual runes boggled the mind not even to mention the sheer cost and quality of the materials required. For such a high powered ritual, only the highest quality magical reagents would have the stability to handle that level of magical energy without breaking down.

All of that ignored the impossibility of gathering enough mages with high enough willpower to sustain the ritual to completion. Adding more mages to a ritual was a rare practice due to the sheer instability they introduced, as adding more mages added different forms of magical energy and keep the power flowing into the ritual consistent was nearly impossible.

The most mages that had ever taken part in a single ritual was six as far as he could remember. For a ritual the size, the sorcerer-king suggested would require at least twenty incredibly strong mages working in perfect tandem and even then the odds of succeeding with that many different sources of magic were astronomical.

"Colbert put this on, I believe it will help assuage your worries." The sorcerer-king interpreted Colbert's thoughts, in his skeletal hand now sat a small bracelet of polished silver with a dull blue sapphire. Feeling slightly confused Colbert took the jewelry in his outstretched hand, eyeing the bracelet now sat in his hands he didn't note anything particularly strange about the object. It was slightly larger than seemed normal for a bracelet but he suspected that was to allow it to pass over larger hand sizes, the real question was how he was going to fit it to his wrist.

Forcing down his trepidation he pulled the jewelry over his hands where it suddenly shrunk to fit perfectly around his wrist sending a jolt of surprise down his spine. Glancing up at the sorcerer-king Colbert felt surprised to see the king gesture with his hand, seemingly wanting him to look around.

Glancing at the area around them he didn't notice anything immediately amiss but his eyes were quickly drawn towards a slightly open doorway where he could just make out the figure of a student peeking into the secluded courtyard. The student must have only recently peeked through the door as he hadn't noticed them after the completion of the ritual.

Normally he would have been able to decipher which student it was but he was distracted by a blue aura that seemed to expand out from their eavesdropper. The aura was rather small seeming to drift in the air around the student mystically, Colbert had never seen anything quite like it. The student seemingly noticing the fact they had been caught jerked back slamming the door shut, no doubt fleeing the scene to avoid punishment. Looking down at the bracelet he noted something that had escaped him, floating around his personage was a blue aura.

"That bracelet is enchanted granting the wearer a similar effect to the spell [Mana Essence] while equipped you can view the mana...Will power of magic casters, it also gives an idea on the levels of magic the caster is capable of." The sorcerer-king explained the enchantment surrounding the jewelry he had asked Colbert to wear.

"Your Majesty, it's incredible! I've never seen such a thing...But where is your willpower?" Colbert couldn't help but notice the sorcerer-kings lack of mystical aura, considering the magical prowess the king had shown in their interactions it seemed very strange for him to lack an aura of his own.

"First things first Colbert you're a decent mage are you not? Thus your willpower mirrors this, my willpower isn't visible due to this ring. As long as I wear it I am protected from most forms of divination. Now observe..." With those words, the sorcerer-king raised his hand and slowly removed one of his many rings.

The world seemed to explode as the courtyard was coated in a massive blue aura that dwarfed Colbert's by a ridiculous amount. It not only filled the meager courtyard but reached into the heavens, it also seemed darker with untold depths of power. Even with no experience with determining strength, Colbert could feel it at the core of his being that he gazed into a peerless void of pure magical might.

Just as suddenly as Colbert's vision and senses were overwhelmed, the aura dissipated as the sorcerer-king returned the ring to his finger. He held out a skeletal hand expectantly and with trembling hands, Colbert removed the bracelet which changed size yet again to pass over his hand. He quickly relinquished the bracelet to the sorcerer-king.

"I hope there will be no more worries about the energy required to accomplish this ritual?" the sorcerer-king asked with a light tone, clearly amused by his previous concerns.

"Of course! I apologize for doubting your strength, your Majesty! I will begin work on the new ritual immediately." Colbert bowed deeply as he apologized, feeling foolish for doubting the strength of the skeletal king before him. The sorcerer-king simply nodded before walking off seemingly satisfied with his response.

Colbert stared down at the ritual mind stuck on what the sorcerer-king had shown him, perhaps it had been a ruse to inflate his strength. Alas, Colbert did not believe that to be the case, there would have been no reason for the king to want to fool Colbert about his might, especially not in such a complicated manner.

Up to this point, he suspected the king had been using his magic in such a casual manner to impress upon them his strength. Colbert now felt sure it was nothing more than a byproduct of the king truly being that powerful, to a being with the power the sorcerer-king had just shown him waving a hand to create a fortress was nothing more than a parlor trick.

Colbert had assumed the sorcerer-king hadn't interfered when the golem appeared because the king didn't wish to fight such a powerful magical construct. Now Colbert was sure the golem had simply been too far beneath the sorcerer-king for him to even consider raising his hand in assistance. This was awful and incredible...He needed to inform the queen of his recent discovery, he had to inform her of how they had been underestimating the king. She had to know just how dangerous of a being Louise had brought into their world.

Suppressing his panic Colbert took a deep breath and began his march towards the headmaster's office, for a no doubt stressful talk.

Guiche couldn't contain himself, he had ordered a few maids to bring lunch, a table and a set of chairs to a balcony overlooking an open field outside the school, the sight was quite enchanting. Not only did he hope to speak with Montmorency in private but he hoped the earrings he had gotten on his trip to the city would help to further cool her anger. He had managed to speak to her during their morning class and convinced her to meet him here during their lunch period.

He was getting nervous though, it had been nearly five minutes and she still hadn't made her appearance. Now he may have rushed here immediately as the lunch period started but he didn't feel it should have taken this long for her to arrive. He also didn't wish to sit down before she arrived as that would not only be improper of him but it would also stop him from pulling out her chair for her and offering her the earrings in the manner he wished to. Thus he stood waiting patiently for his love.

After what felt like an eternity but couldn't have been more than a few moments Montmorency appeared on the catwalk, her gaze had not lost its cold edge though a small smile pulled on her lips at the romantic setting he had prepared.

"My lady," With a deep-bow Guiche moved to pull back her seat allowing her to take her seat with a proper elegance, grinning lightly he moved around her side he took a knee offering the gorgeous golden earrings he acquired in the city to her in upturned palms. Her eyes seemed to warm as she lightly took them from his hands, a grin spreading across her face in full force.

"Guiche! Thank you! I love them..." With those airy words, she quickly removed the small sapphire earrings currently occupying her ears as she replaced them with his gift. Smiling to himself Guiche felt the urge to take his seat but remembered the sorcerer-kings words, about sacrificing something real for the sake of fun. This moment felt real, Montmorency felt real and he had almost thrown it away...

"Montmorency I want to apologize for what I have done, I swear upon my name and honor I will never dishonor you or another in such a way again." Swearing his oath he waited with bated breath for her response, this wasn't his first attempt to apologize but it was the first time he had staked his honor on it. Suddenly he felt two warm arms wrap around his shoulders, looking up he saw Montmorency smiling warmly as she lightly touched her lips to him in a sweet kiss.

"I forgive you" she smiled sweetly as she pulled him to his feet, they quickly took their seats and began to eat. She asked him questions about his trip to the city and he told her of it avoiding mentioning the sorcerer-king or Colbert. He asked her about classes and her family estates, their small talk was interrupted as a maid approached.

The maid had black hair and light gray eyes, in her hands, she carried a silver tray on which sat a teapot and two cups made of fine porcelain with artistic patterns decorating the sides. It took a moment but finally, guiche remembered where he had seen the maid before, it was the same maid he had nearly struck when he had been caught out by Montmorency. While he felt some guilt over the exchange apologizing to a maid was far beneath him thus he didn't comment on his familiarity.

"Lady Montmorency, I brought the tea as you requested." With those words, the maid placed the silver platter lightly on the table depositing the cups before them. She then lightly poured their drinks before bowing and backing away, no doubt waiting for them to complete their lunch so she could clean up their table. Guiche grinned as he lifted his cup lightly noting Montmorency lack of movement and strangely nervous stare.

"Is something wrong?" he wondered as Montmorency stared intensely at the tea gripped in his hands, she seemed almost conflicted.

"NO!... Nothings wrong, why would anything be wrong?" She exclaimed defensively, feeling slightly nervous guiche sighed and raised the cup to take a sip.

"Don't drink that!" She shouted, slapping the cup from Guiche's hands causing it to shatter on the stone beneath them. Pushing himself to his feet in shock he was left dumbfounded as he stared at Montmorency guilty expression. Guiche was about to question her strange behavior but was distracted by approaching footsteps. Rather swiftly a small pink-haired figure made herself known, none other then Louise though she appeared rather haggard coated in a light layer of sweat.

"...Do you have any idea how annoying it was to find you! By the founder, I've been looking for you since Lunch started! I wanted to... Why would you come up here of...Never mind, Guiche we need to talk after..." Louise expressed her annoyance through her panting breaths, pausing as her eyes landed on Montmorency teacup. With no hesitation she quickly snatched the cup downing the contents in a single gulp, clearly, the physical exertion of her search had left her quite thirsty.

Montmorency looked horrified as Louise sighed in relief, opening her eyes to reveal her now light pink pupils.

Ainz felt slightly relieved as he entered his room leaving the maids to stand in the hall. With a sigh he threw himself into his bed with a light grin, chuckling to himself all the while. He had not only managed to make it look like he knew what he was talking about during the ritual but he had ensured Colbert wouldn't lose hope in his work.

Had he still been a businessman and well...Alive this would be the point where Suzuki Satoru would grab a beer from his fridge, it was the simple things Ainz supposed he missed the most. Chuckling lightly at his musing Ainz pushed himself off the soft bed, he figured it was about time to check up on the vampires and how they were settling into their new home. At times like this, he missed the ability to delegate the task to his skilled subordinates hopefully his children would be ok in his absence...

Then again perhaps he should be more concerned for the state of the country on his return...Albedo seemed rather set on making that ridiculous statue and he couldn't imagine anything to say to get her to take it down after it was already erected. The warm feeling in his chest brought on by thinking of how his guardians were doing was quickly suppressed rolling his eyes in annoyance he activated [Gate] sending a quick [Message] ahead to inform them of his imminent arrival.

Stepping through the [Gate] he found himself in a small graveyard surrounding an ancient mausoleum. The central building was rather weathered, vines growing over and through the stonework. The graveyard surrounding the central mausoleum was far smaller than the one surrounding the great tomb of Nazerick though that was to be expected. He could sense a large group of undead deep below the earth, no doubt the vampires occupying the underground area he had told them to create but there were four more signatures far closer.

Glancing around he could make out a few shapes buried under mounds of dirt while a few others seemed to emerge from the small family tombs. From his mental connection, he knew they were the death knights he had created to assist the vampires and elder liches. They had been camouflaged to better guard the entrance to the mausoleum, a rather clever idea to help avoid detection. Though the odds of someone stumbling across this area by accident were astronomically low, considering its isolated location and lack of historical significance.

The stone doors were pushed open at his approach, two ghouls stood behind the doors as a form of security. Ghouls were a strange creature to Ainz they were mostly used by vampires as servants and guards as they gained powerful physical abilities from the process of ghoulification. The problem was that vampires were limited in the number of ghouls they could create and control which made the process seem less useful to Ainz.

His create undead skill had its limits but those were purely based on a daily cap and as long as he had corpses his numbers would grow in time. Contrarily vampires in this world seemed far more limited in their ability to grow their strength. Though it fell in line with many of his experiences and understanding of this world, here power was not a solid concept, growing stronger not a linear path. No gap in strength would make one immune to a knife to the back. So he supposed it only made sense creation of servitors would be fundamentally limited in the same way their strength was.

Passing by the servants he began his descent, flights upon flights of stairs interconnected with empty rooms, the design was meant to be overly complex to frustrate would-be invaders and the design was perfect for ambush spots. Though he hadn't had enough time to create undead to set up such traps, still he felt for the short time he had granted them, the work was rather impressive.

Perhaps he should order the vampires to create more ghouls to set up some preliminary defenses until he could create more undead? While they were limited in the numbers they could create it should still have been more than enough to reinforce their non-magical defenses. While he had yet to encounter any beings that could defeat the death knights with any ease it would be better to be safe than sorry.

Ainz halted his musings as he approached a massive door, the door was not the only of its kind within the maze of tunnels and dead ends but it was the only one with the carving of skeletal hands reaching upwards. This door led into a central hall where he was to meet the vampire leadership and make his proclamations over the vampiric clans. Two sarcophagi that stood on either side of the door opened revealing death knights who move to push the door open.

Behind the door stood a massive hall full of long tables and chairs with a stony balcony overlooking the area, atop the balcony sat the two remaining vampire lords. The room was packed with vampires as they all stared at him with nervous energy. Part of Ainz wondered how much of it was induced by hunger and how much was caused by their fear of him.

Ainz passed between two of the tables the eyes of the vampiric crowd following his movements, a mix of hunger and apprehension coloring there faces. It was clear they had followed his orders to not feed until his return. Now they waited with bated breath for his next command in hopes of food being provided.

Approaching the large balcony, noting the grooves that had been carved into the floor. These grooves ran from two drains by the door to just below the balcony where they met with a strange altar. Ainz had ordered this specific construction to be completed upon his return and was quite pleased to see the vampires hadn't failed him. Spirit magic that could shift the earth reminded him of Mares high-class druidic magic.

The altar was strange as several grooves were carved into its stone surface said carvings linked into the groves occupying the floor, but hanging from the balcony above it was a series of stone spikes hanging like a demented chandelier. Ainz reached into his inventory ignoring the few quiet gasps from the vampires around him.

From his inventory he pulled a large chalice, known as the lesser chalice of ever-flowing, it was a gacha shop item that had been quite irritating to Ainz. The chalice had been added in a special event known as crafters paradise, during the event several items that would only be useful to crafting focused characters appeared in the shop. Amanomahitotsu had been desperate to attain several of the items and had enlisted Ainz aid in playing the shop. While it had been an expensive endeavor he had been more than pleased to help his friend.

There were two versions of the chalice of ever-flowing the greater and the lesser, they were interesting in their functions, the lesser and greater chalice essentially shared the same ability. Both would endlessly recreate any liquid poured into them, this had the drawback of never being able to change the liquid put into them.

The difference between the two versions of the chalice was quite large, the lesser chalice could only recreate the liquid at five percent it's original potency. Despite this flaw the lesser chalice still had great use in crafting, using the chalice a skilled craftsman wouldn't risk losing a valuable liquid in his experimentation as he could test his creation with the liquid from the chalice, thus he would only use the full-powered liquid in recipes he knew would work.

The greater chalice contrarily recreated liquids poured into it with ninety percent potency, which made it the perfect tool for mass crafting. Amanomahitotsu had been desperate to attain it, which is how Ainz ended up with no less than twelve of the lesser chalices before finally gaining the greater chalice. He had been incredibly excited to present the greater chalice to Amanomahitotsu only to find he had gained it after his second roll and had become too absorbed in his crafting to inform Ainz.

As annoyed as he had been on that day he now looked back on it as one of the thousands of moments of what made the guild of Ainz Ooal Gown so precious to him. He had gifted his friend all the chalices which is how they had all become filled with some truly bizarre liquids, luckily the lesser chalice Ainz now held was full of the blood of a greater fire dragon.

Approaching the altar he pulled aside a few of the stone spikes turning the chalice upside down and closing the stone teeth around the bottom of the chalice. Stepping back blood flooded from the chalice, forming into a river that flowed along the groves in the floor. In Yggdrasil turning the chalice upside down would simply result in the liquid vanishing on contact with the ground but in this world, such restrictions were no more.

The scent of blood flooded the hall inciting a ruckus among the hungry vampires, stepping back Ainz watched as the vampires rushed towards the spouting chalice some had cups others simply took the blood into their cupped hands. A few dunked their heads into the floor grooves devouring the blood in a heated frenzy. Smirking to himself Ainz climbed the stairs up to the balcony to meet with the vampiric leadership, both the lords bowed before him in tune with the elder liches at their sides.

"Master, we've been awaiting your arrival." Raphael the elder vampire bowed deeply, Victor the younger clan head albeit uncomfortable followed suit. While the younger of the lords was struggling with the act of subservience but was unwilling to earn Ainz ire especially as his elder compatriot so quickly bent a knee. Of course, the recent death of the other clan head no doubt further dissuaded his rebellious urges.

There was another aspect to the vampire's behavior that Ainz hadn't picked up on and that was their respect. The vampires feared him, some even hated but all respected his raw power that had allowed him so easily decimate a clan head. Within their clan-based society strength was prized even more than age, which was why the clan heads had varied widely in age.

"You've done well on the construction, tell me have you done what I asked?" Ainz questioned with a raised brow, both vampires quickly scrambled to their feet leading him through a door behind their seating arrangement, beyond this door was a hall lined with further doors, they led him to the third one on the right. Beyond this door was a room full of cages, in these cages were many different birds in a variety of sizes and colors.

Unnoticed by either vampire lords or Ainz himself was the strange happening around the bloody altar. The vampires had continued to drink their fill yet a mysterious change was coming over a few of the vampires. So small it was unnoticeable without a careful inspection, but doubtlessly there. the vampires had all grown slightly paler as if something had sucked some of the colors from their very beings. Far more noticeable were the flecks of red slowly filling their irises.

in the center of the room sat a table with three stacks of paper, one held opened envelopes the other sheets upon sheets of paper and the third contained resealed envelopes. Sitting at the table were a group of three vampires sorting through these missives, all of them halted their work to stare at the intruding vampire lords and Ainz. They scrambled to bow mumbling quiet apologies under their breath.

"We have set up a system to capture and sort through all the mail leaving and entering the academy, master we have noticed an anomaly..." Raphael explained in a steely voice, Ainz felt his curiosity rise. He had set up this impromptu system in hopes of getting a spy network working, while he couldn't trust the judgment of the vampires as much as he could his guardians and servants he still felt they could accomplish this simple task.

While it would have been better to have the vampires capture the mail leaving the academy so he could personally search it for useful or relevant information he was well aware of his limits. Just the thought of reading through hundreds of different letters looking for scraps of information made his headache. Thus he had ordered the vampires to search out all mentions of him leaving or entering the academy, he couldn't help but wonder what they discovered. He tilted his head, a silent command for the vampire to continue its explanation.

"None of the mail leaving the academy has any mention of you and there are signs of the words being magically tampered with. We cannot determine the original content but we suspect the letters have had their mentions of your presence removed. The only exception we've found to this tampering were these two letters." With those words, Raphael reached into one of his sleeves his hand emerging with two open envelopes.

Taking them into his hands Ainz began to read, the first letter appeared to be from the headmaster Osmund meant for the Princess. The other was from Colbert addressed to a man by the name of Gregory. The headmaster's letter mentioned Colbert gaining a glimpse of the power he represented and warning her of the severe danger he represented. While disappointing it wasn't shocking to Ainz, the professor loyalty was to his country first, it only made sense he would report a possible danger to his superiors.

Still, with this information, Ainz would have to watch the professor more closely it was now clear where any information links were bound to come from. Still, that left him with the question who was altering the student's letters? Why? It seemed likely it was Osmund or someone of great influence but that left the question...Why? Why were they so desperate to keep his presence hidden?

Pushing aside the thought for later Ainz read over Colbert's letter, it contained several details about the ritual he was crafting, asking for assistance with the linework and ideas on how to improve the stability. It was all posed as a theoretical experiment though which was fascinating whoever this letter was meant for was clearly closer to a colleague rather than a trustworthy friend...

"This...This is perfect, I want you to intercept all letters going to this Gregory person from Colbert, tell me who among your clan is most familiar with ritualistic and brimiric magic?" Ainz couldn't help the evil smirk that so desperately wanted to coat his face.

All right guys I made up the entire ritual segment cause I couldn't find any info on it and I figured well I'll make something else that sounds plausible...We know rituals were a thing in Yggdrasil and in new world but we never get first hand experience and the only ritual I knew of from foz involved the summoning ritual. So I got creative sorry! Review and let me know what you think!