Part 4: Devotion

"As agreed, my lord." Albedo said as she withdrew the Sapphire Slime from her Item Box and presented it to her master.

"Ah, Miyoshi." Ainz said, his voice very pleased as the creature oozed between the many bones in his hand, already getting in deeper than mere soap and water could. "Thank you again for doing me this favor, Albedo."

"It was my pleasure." She bowed to him. "Though I must apologize for my trip taking longer than I expected."

"Think nothing of it." Ainz said, raising his other hand up from his chair's armrest to assure her it was no big deal. "Your return was still very timely and, had the Holy Kingdoms representatives shown up, your favor to me would have kept me from being an inconvenience to Demiurge's plan, which is far more important than me getting a slime bath. Though, if you don't mind me asking, what was the other errand you were running in Nazarick?"

Before she answered him, Albedo first looked and listened around the room, making certain that there were no nearby maids or the like whom would overhear her.

"I was meeting with Pandora's Actor regarding the search for the other Supreme Beings."

"Oh…!" Ainz uttered in surprise. He'd been puzzled why she'd been looking so secretive for a moment there but now he quite understood why.

Turning his head to the side, he rubbed his chin for a few seconds, staying completely silent. He stared off into nothing with such intensity, like he was trying to work himself up to something.

"…Has there been any news?" Ainz asked when he finally turned back to her, speaking more quietly than he probably meant to.

Albedo shook her head. "I'm sorry, my lord, but there has not." She told him. "While our net throughout Re-Estize, the Holy Kingdom, and the surrounding landscapes has caught plenty of rumors of creatures possibly matching their descriptions, every single one we've investigated has turned out to be false."

"…I see." Ainz said, Albedo feeling a tight pinch in her heart at hearing the disappointment in her beloved's voice.

"Please, forgive me, Lord Ainz. After so long, there should be more that I have than I do."

"There is nothing you need to apologize for, Albedo." Ainz told her. "You're still providing me with an invaluable service by checking out these false rumors. Even if they're not what we were hoping for, you're still insuring that such misinformation cannot be used against us, like that man from Foresight attempted to."

For a small second, Albedo thought she spotted a flare of intensity in Ainz's red eyes. If nothing else, she could feel relief in him still holding the same contempt for that man as she did. However, if it had been there, then it faded rather quickly, and took a little bit of his light with it.

"Besides…if I'm being honest…" Ainz spoke dejectedly, looking over at the crimson flag that was held in proud display on the wall of the office. "I have long held some doubt that my old friends were sent to this world along with us. I suppose that might be part of the reason I put off looking for them for so long. Perhaps I was worried about scouring the globe and finding nothing. Ignorance would at least give me the illusion that they could still be out there. Quite the poor quality in a leader, isn't it?"

"If I may speak frankly, my lord." Albedo instantly spoke up, not wanting him to say another word like what she'd just heard. "The entire tomb and everyone in it suddenly found themselves brought into a strange, unknown land for reasons we've still yet to find an explanation for. Every direction you've given us since then has been to keep Nazarick's defenses strong and our inventory replenishable. Prioritizing our ability to live and function in this new world over finding individuals whom may not even be here, however close you were, many would argue is the quality of a great leader."

"You…really believe that?" Ainz said, sounding almost like he felt unworthy of the sudden assurance.

Albedo nodded. "From the bottom of my heart." She said, her smile honest.

The next minute was filled with quiet, though Albedo didn't mind. Her face flushed with a bit of pink, encapsulated by the handsome, pondering look upon the skeleton's admittedly unmoving features, wanting to believe so badly her words had touched him.

"…Heh. Listen to me blather on." Ainz chuckled softly, surprising Albedo slightly as he stood up from his chair. She was of a decent height compared to the average woman, about 5′7″, but she still had to tilt her head back to see her beloved's face at such a close distance. "I suppose it's too easy for me to overlook I'm not the only one who misses them."

Albedo felt the sudden ripple through her body; Ainz's words stunning her for a moment. "What-…what do you mean?"

Ainz smiled, though it was a gesture only those whom had been around him for so long could pick up on. "I know you assured me of your ability to keep yourself under control. That you weren't at risk of dropping everything like the others might, and of course I believe you. But I'm certain you still have hopes of your own for finding Tabula."

"Wha-! L-Lord Ainz, I promise you, I-!"

"Albedo, it's fine." Ainz said, raising his hand up to ask that she settle herself. "You are more than allowed to have such feelings. I know for a fact he'd be proud of all you've done to keep Nazarick functioning since we've come to this world. And if Tabula is here too, I'm certain he'd have no greater relief than if it's you who finds him."

His words…they dug in deeper than he could have known. But Albedo did not allow her face to show it. "You humble me, my master." She said to him simply.

With that, Ainz gave a nod of his head in satisfaction. "Now then, since I have a few minutes, I shall be in the bath." He declared, holding up the forearm of which Miyoshi had already oozed underneath the sleeve to smother completely. "It shouldn't take very long but please inform me should the representatives arrive." He added quickly just before Albedo had been about to ask if she could join him, almost as if he'd predicted her question the instant her head perked up.

Disappointed, she bowed her head regardless. "Of course. Take as much time as you desire."

Nodding his head again to her in thanks, Ainz walked his way to the office's main door, leading himself out into the hallway that would take him to the manor's nearest bathroom.

The door closed behind him, leaving Albedo all alone in the room. He likely assumed she would show herself out once she gathered up any of the paperwork they'd left behind on his desk if she needed it.

That would have been the normal routine. However, right now, all Albedo did was stay standing where she was, eyes cast on that door like her master's ghost was still walking through it.

"But if you love Lord Ainz, why are you seeking to lie to him?"

Despite her façade, those words before had served to only add further fuel to her anger. However, right now…

"You act as though it's easy." Her thoughts cast themselves out at Pandora's Actor back in the Treasury, as if he could hear them.

Finding herself unable yet to put a single foot in front of the other, Albedo opened her Item Box once more. Reaching inside its void, she pulled out a long red sheet of cloth, too thin to be a blanket despite being the right size for one.

It was a flag. With its coloring and gold trimmings, one might think it was the same flag right behind her back and on display all across the Sorcerer Kingdom; the flag of Ainz Ooal Gown. From a certain point of view, it was, so long as one were referring to the person himself. The who in that question would be obvious to anyone who saw its emblem; a Rorschach resembling a skull.

Wrapping herself in the cool fabric's embrace, Albedo let out a long, comforted breath as she rubbed its soft silk against her cheek. She remembered that moment back in the Mausoleum, when her beloved had used his own sleeve to help dry her eyes. Its touch reminded her so much of that.

"I don't understand…" She said softly, no one present in the room to possibly hear her. "I don't understand why you…why everyone…is so okay with letting them back in."

Ordinarily, this flag would be left hanging up on the wall in her room on the 9th floor, its large size having it act almost as a backdrop. However, on the long trips she'd been taking much more frequently outside of Nazarick these days, Albedo had started bringing it along with her to give her some much-needed peace of mind. It was very much like a security blanket in that regard, as immature as that may sound.

As for the flag of Ainz Ooal Gown that came with the room, it was currently still sitting in its corner, crumpled in a heap and gathering dust. If anyone else in Nazarick saw it, they'd probably demand she be punished for such a sin. If they knew what else she'd done to that flag, it'd be a guarantee they'd call for her execution.

It was on a pure impulse that Albedo's hand lashed out behind her, and it was only at the last possible second that she stopped herself, halting her swing just before her nails would have torn through the flag that hung on the office's wall. It was doubtful that that she even could destroy it so easily. Lord Ainz had cast [Greater Break Item] to cut up his own flag. The most she would likely have done was smash up the wall. Regardless, she couldn't just go destroying her master's property, regardless of how she felt about that damnable emblem staring at her.

While she could be mistaken, Albedo could only remember one time she'd completely lost herself to her urges, and while it was doubtful anyone in Nazarick would believe her, it was a situation she had regrets over. The words that'd set her off had not even been directed at her.

"I would not give you up to even Bukubukuchagama herself."

Lord Ainz had said those words to Mare, whom was that Supreme Being's creation. She'd just been in the room at the same time. Though, in her defense, Lord Ainz had also declared that she, the maid on duty Cixous, and all those of Nazarick were his treasures. Who could possibly hold themselves back after that?

That said…her following pounce and mounting of her master had resulted in her being locked up in her room for three days. Quite frankly, she wouldn't have been able to say that three years would have been unjustified.

She regretted her actions, certainly. Her reasons behind it though… Her only regret was that those words had been to someone else.

"I want you to say those words to me." Albedo's voice quietly begged out to Ainz, obviously unable to hear her from where he was elsewhere in the mansion. "That even if Lord Tabula were to ask…even if he were to demand me back…you wouldn't give me up to him."

Tabula Smaragdina clicked away at the menu screen, taking his time as he scrolled through the many items Albedo held. Outside of the two of them, the 10th floor's throne room was completely empty.

"Right… I forgot I gave you that." He remarked with some interest as he spotted Ginnungagap among the list. "I thought the invasion by the fifteen hundred would have finally been our chance to pull out that trump card, but they were stopped at the 8th floor. Victim and Rubedo certainly did put in some work there."

His long, webbed fingers hovered over the menu for a few minutes, pondering whether to withdraw the item.

"…Ahh, but it fits with your lore so well! Besides, it's not like it's a consumable. Momonga and the others might be mad I took it without asking, sure, but he can always unequip it. Besides, if he's too stubborn to sell off regular items, I doubt his convictions will budge on a World Item, despite how much he knows people will pay for it."

Tabula closed the screen. He'd only taken from his creation a few items, and nothing that changed her outward appearance. Albedo stood before him still as could be, still in stand-by mode.

His masked face, so very resembling the decaying corpse of a long dead squid, gave one final look over the NPC, before he turned his back to her, activating his Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown and teleporting away.

That was the last time Albedo ever saw her creator.

Albedo held the flag in front of her body, opening it up so that she may look upon its crest.

"You who were the only one kind enough to stay with us when everyone else left. Who ordered me to fall in love and filled my heart with such warmth whenever I think of you. Whenever I get to see your face. I felt the loss of my own creator less and less because I had you. You… You are the only one I will acknowledge as Nazarick's rightful ruler. The only one who deserves it."

She bundled up the flag and held it close to her chest, closing her eyes.

"Even if you hate me forever for it, if my actions secure your future in any small way, then I will have no regrets." She whispered her pledge to him, almost like a prayer. "Even if everyone else abandons you, I will stay by your side. This Albedo swears herself to you and you alone."

It was a future she imagined more and more these days. Herself fighting at the front while Lord Ainz cast spells from the rear. The fantasy went back and forth as to whether Rubedo and Pandora's Actor were there alongside them but who they were fighting always remained the same.

The forty others of the Supreme Beings, sending forth volleys of their magics and charging forth to slay the Overlord with their weapons. The only thing standing between him and them being Albedo, taking every blow. No matter how bloody or beaten her armor and body became, she did not fall. She did not falter. If she did, then her beloved would be attacked next. She had no choice but to keep fighting.

The rest of the Guardians were often on the battlefield, their words and pointed fingers condemning her for committing the ultimate betrayal, the blade of her bardiche still wet with blood. Nearly every time she imagined this future, Lord Tabula's head was always the one she took first, done while his back was turned to her, just assuming she'd obey him even after being gone for so long. After leaving without a single word of goodbye.

Even if it cost her life, her pride, or her very soul, she would stand as her beloved's shield.

"Lord Momonga…I will never let them hurt you again."

Author's notes: I kind of hesitated to write this story, simply because the whole "Albedo Hit Squad" is just a fan theory and it could be revealed she was being genuine all along, thus this story wouldn't work at all in the canon. Buuuuuut oh well. Whatever happens will happen and I still got to have fun imagining Pandora's Actor making all those poses (his voice for me always goes back and forth between the Japanese and English dubs depending on what he's saying).

Funny enough, out of everyone in Overlord, I do find myself shipping Ainz and Albedo together, though the irony in that is that a big reason for why I ship them is because Ainz doesn't want to take advantage of Albedo.

Very early on, vol. 2 of the light novels and a quarter into season 1, Ainz tells Albedo he altered her settings and that (along with him no longer having any libido that isn't quickly suppressed) is why he does not reciprocate her advances. He doesn't want to take advantage of her. He'd be further violating his friend Tabula's creation, whom Ainz views as basically Tabula's daughter, and he'd be taking advantage of someone whom possibly is not giving her true consent. He knows that she has no choice but to love him and as we see throughout the series Ainz feels very guilty about it and wants to take it back.

It's just such a weird thing that makes me ship Ainz and Albedo the most in Overlord. The fact that he doesn't want to basically rape her. I typically like a little romance in the series I read/watch because I'm a sap, so naturally I feel for a character like Albedo who has a crush on the main character and is very funny, cute, and lovable in how she expresses her feelings. But again, it might not be real love. But just the fact that Ainz himself acknowledges that, feels horrible about what he did, confessed to Albedo that he did it, and even when she told him it was fine and she didn't see what the problem was Ainz still didn't take advantage of her...I don't know why but it just really makes me like the idea of them as a couple and want Albedo's love to be real and not just programming. It feels like he respects her beyond just being a piece of sexy meat, if that makes any sense. Like he views her as a person first instead of...well...a computer program or an NPC.

All that said, as things are now, any romance between Ainz and Albedo is pretty much doomed to failure, simply because Albedo is incapable of seeing herself as Ainz's equal. She worships the guy. She sees herself as a servant first and at best the first wife in a harem. It wouldn't be an abusive relationship, but it most certainly wouldn't be a healthy one. That's the tragedy of Ainz's whole situation. Outside of an AU sidestory and a non-canon crossover anime, he has NO ONE he feels he can be himself around, and thus no one who can be honest with him. He's stuck playing a role and, as far as he can tell, the women like Albedo, Shalltear, and Evileye are in love with the role, not him.