She looked stunning, obviously.
Albedo stood before the gilded floor length mirror as Etoile finished placing her hair exactly so. The dress she had created was woven of thread-of-moonlight, the enchanted silk. A gradient of colour from pure alabaster across her chest and brightening in on the way up to the silvery high collar that held the open-back sleeveless gown up. Across her hips, to which it clung with perfect tailoring, and down along the floor length flowing trail was a whirling mass of embroidered feathers that matched her wings and gave her the appearance of flying as she walked. This detailing was made of the same enchanted silk but had been ritually corrupted to be of darkness and shadow, giving it a certain unreal quality.
The fabrics were very nearly alive, the pure and the corrupted thread-of-moonlight warred and made the edges shimmer and shift. The effect was that whenever she moved the feathers themselves seemed to dance and flutter, it almost made her look like she was floating. Entoma had outdone herself on the fillagree, again.
"Have you decided on jewellery Lady Albedo?" Lumiere brought forward the box which contained quite a number of items.
She hadn't, but by now Albedo was sure that she would include Freya's cloak for at least the meal part, before dancing. It had inspired the whole dress after all.
"I haven't." The jewellery boxes hadn't quite had the same problem as her closets had, but that just meant the 'maybe' pile was larger. The maids were good judges of style at least. "Let's look at earrings first."
"I think these ones match your eyes perfectly Lady Albedo." Etoile offered. She took the proffered set. Gemstones were caged in a silver cage and gave off a gentle light. 'They might match my eyes, but not the rest of the ensemble.' Black and white dress with a grey falcon-feather cloak. Or is that better? Using just one highlight colour?' Between her wings and hair it was a lot of black on white. "Let's see how they look."
Stunning, obviously.
"Good choice Etoile, thank you."
"Thank you Lady Albedo. I am yours to command."
"Well I command your excellent opinions on taste. How do you think gloves would look? She picked up a pair that would extend to her elbows, the same white as the dress.
"Not with Freya's cloak my Lady. But perhaps these armbands?" Lumiere held up a large It was stylized as a tree, branches and leaves of silver that would climb over the upper part of her right arm, a smaller bracelet version for her left wrist.
It would look great. But it was large enough to be eye-catching enough to detract from the overall look. "Maybe something smaller?"
Etoile held up a pair of smaller bands, "This one is another Aesir artefact, my Lady." They were crafted as nine connected rings arrayed in a band, each with a jewel set in the centre representing one of the nine worlds of Yggdrasil. She tried it on, it was faintly enchanted and on a mage would have given access to elemental magics. "It's too many colours to go with the rest."
"What about a tiara my Lady? I think this one goes with the earrings."
"With all the jewellery on my head? I'll look like a lighthouse, rocks, tower, and beacon."
The black embroidered feathers could not really be so mistaken, nor her figure for anything so pedestrian as a tower. A temple perhaps, a house of worship. But the eyeshine coloured gemstones already selected did give off a soft golden light of their own.
"Yes Lady Albedo, or no, Lady Albedo. That is- I mean… you are like a beacon my Lady! Shining and perfect and beautiful and it's like how you're the light directing us all as lord Ainz's hand… I think you would look amazing." Lumiere stuttered out.
'Cute.' Flattery would get her everywhere. Albedo smiled and stilled her stuttering with a hand on her shoulder. "Which were you thinking?"
It was more of a mess of thin chains than a tiara proper, but the next choice was lovely. Silver bands that wove through her hair holding a golden disk etched with the crest of Nazarick over her forehead. "This one might be a bit too much."
"We will find the perfect accessories lady Albedo!" Etoile sounded very earnest, fist clenched in determination and a fire in her eye.
Entoma lounged her favourite of the webs she had spun in her corner of the room she and Shizu shared; her nest a contrast to the archanotech workshop that was the other half of the space.
"It's almost time!" She sang out.
Yuri looked up from where she was tinkering with Shizu's attachments and replaceable parts, reworking to maximise dexterity and appeal. "Exactly like the last time you said so. Are you sure you're ready to go?"
"False. We are now ninety seven minutes, eight seconds until time. Previous was one-hundred four minutes, thirty-two seconds." Shizu was in low-power mode for the hardware upgrade and was unable to do much more than speak in a true monotone and wait for Yuri to finish.
"No sass while I'm fiddling with wiring please, Shizu."
"I am! Lepi and Lycae are ready too." The two giant conjured butterflies were clinging to her shoulders, eight wings wrapped around her in a shifting array of colour and patterning. Wings intertwining and constantly shifting around her as they buzzed happily in response to her movements.
Yuri made a humming noise and turned back to setting the last pieces back into place. Ainz had said that if everyone enjoyed this ball then they should make it a regular thing, which was a little pressure. But mostly just exciting, 'an excuse to make even more art and weavings!' Entoma shifted on the web, moving carefully across the threads so as not to ensnare either butterfly in the adhesive lines. She hopped down and let a waiting group of beetles crawl up her legs in a predetermined pattern, forming a sort of chitin scale boots.
"Diagnostics?" Yuri asked, stepping back from Shizu, who began returning to full-power mode.
"Systems functioning nominally. Additional gyroscopes compensating for excessive manoeuvring potential. Redistributed power conduits increase movement efficiency forty percent. Targeting system accuracy decreased below tolerance, needs fixing once the party is done. All good, thank you Yuri-nee."
"Do you want me to try bringing that accuracy up to tolerance before we go Shizu?"
"We got a whole ninety minutes Zu-chan! That's basically forever."
"Unnecessary. I have muted the warning."
That didn't use to be possible for her, but it was now, after reworking some programming with Ainz. Entoma swiped an accuracy potion from the workbench and hid it in Lycae's grasp, just in case. "Come on! We still need to make sure all the food is ready for the banquet!"
It tasted like blood straight out of an artery, pumped with the agonised wheeze of a fading heartbeat. There was an aroma of dread, faint echoes of pain and immense fear, the exquisite taste of failing life. Of a good, strong life, gone wasting to death.
Shalltear swirled the wineglass in her hand and took another sip. Not only did it taste like the most perfect lifeblood, drank at the very moment of death, it felt like it too, satiating her hunger as only a full drain does with every drop.
She swirled the glass again, watching the crimson liquid whirl, thin like the wine it truthfully was. "What is this delicious thing, it's almost better than blood?" She asks, looking at lord Ainz but addressing the whole table. The floor guardians were sitting here, at the centre. Ainz at the head, the twins sat near him, next Demiurge beside her and Cocytus across from him, Victim across from her place next to Albedo at the foot of the banquet table.
"The Ichor of Osiris was something like that if I recall." Ainz answered from the head of the table, like her he was not eating, but had a series of small covered dishes that were spiced like the meal and could be enjoyed through smell. "Something to do with the god's blood turning to wine and causing a river to flood when he died. It was a drop from one of the World Enemies in the Ennead DLC."
'Delicious as well.'
"Oho! Just as we would expect of the Supreme Beings, hunting down gods to destroy and devour. Ah- and that means…" Demiurge stiffened, mandible worrying the glenoid fossa as he worked his jaw in wonder. Then Demiurge raised his own glass of the Ichor in a toast. "To forever being amazed by your power and foresight Lord Ainz, to think that all of that and to… Cheers!"
Shalltear reluctantly parted the glass from her lips to raise it in toast. 'All of what? It's an amazing party but have I missed something?'
"Ahh. Umu, of course Demiurge. And to forever being amazed in turn by what you all can do, can grow, and can become. To Nazarick, the jewel of creation."
Lord Ainz's presence was magnificent. When he spoke like that, or at all really. So much power and certitude. Like his words commanded not only them, his servants, but the very world itself. Commanded it to bow, to submit, and to obey the will of the supreme Overlord of all things.
It was a very powerful aura, no magic but force of will. The ultimate will. She was, as always, ecstatic to witness. She savoured the sound and depth of those simple but potent words, felt them reverberate through her as the conversation continued. Felt and saw more than heard as each movement shifted his rib cage so that the firelight played across the bone in a great '...ow!'
Shalltear turned to Albedo who had stepped on her foot and had one eyebrow raised. "What?" she demanded in a whisper. In response the demonic overseer reached out a napkin and wiped her mouth 'you better not have smeared my lipstick!' A glance at the reflective surface of a serving dish in the passing arms of a conjured automaton proved she had not. "What?" She hissed again.
"How a vampire manages to drool I will never know, or maybe that's normal for lamprey's?"
"Droo- I do not!"
"Unless you got embalmed without telling anyone, in which case, you're leaking."
Shalltear twisted her foot out from where it had still been pinned under the overseer's and made to retort, but the words of the continued conversation at the head of the table caught her attention instead.
"Hold on a moment Demiurge, this book of Ulbert's said what about Peroroncino?"
"How he destroyed the gods of someplace called 'Greece' in body and mind in revenge for a 'waifu' Lord Ainz, though I don't know what Lord Ulbert's annotations about 'commissions' meant or why Lord Peroroncino had a different name sometimes."
"Ahhh… surely he wou-" Ainz leaned forward, clavicles pivoting under his robe pushing sternum forward as he turned to more fully face the demon. Ulna and radius twisting about themselves as he uplifted the arm, carpels facing the ceiling and phalanges curling inward with the utmost grace and delicacy; the index slightly looser as he beckoned.
"Say, Demiurge, what was this alternate name that Ulbert wrote?"
"It was Kratos, Lord Ainz."
"He… I see." Lord Ainz put the extended hand to his skull, perfectly sculpted metacarpals rested against maxilla and zygomatic arch as the ideal phalanges caressed his frontal plate up to the coronal suture. "That is… fiction then. Just a story of what might happen in such a situation, but not real events."
Demiurge leaned back, contemplative. "So the reincarnating into a 'character' that Lord Ulbert wrote of with Lord Peroroncino does not happen?"
"Err… not usually."
There was a guffaw of repressed laughter from the table behind Shalltear, where the Pleiades were sitting.
Shalltear was pretty sure she knew what book Demiurge was talking about, there was a copy in the Collection of Lord Peroroncino that she was Warden of. She turned back to Albedo, who was grinning at the same overheard conversation. "I am not leaking! You big-mouthed gorilla."
Albedo blinked and turned back towards her, headdress glinting in the firelight as she grinned not-quite maliciously. "Oh? And here I thought you were proud of leaking in Lord Ainz's presence?"
"That was one time!" 'That anyone else knew about.'
Within their orbital sockets, Albedo's eyes almost seemed to dance with what was either mirth or superiority. Probably both. "Mine." they almost seemed to say, 'Yeah, yeah.' Shalltear huffed and leaned back, wine in hand. 'But that's hardly set in stone yet.'
'Reincarnation doesn't usually happen.' Was that actually true? Ainz had and the other supreme beings were from the same place originally. Probably not to this world, since their avatars were 'offline' but somewhere else was possible. 'How many worlds are there?'
A bun was flung at her head and Yuri caught it on reflex, staring down the culprit. "Lupu, don't play with your food."
"Awww Yuri-nee, ain'tcha supposed to encourage me to express myself?"
"Not like a heathen, Lupu."
"Wha-! My own sisters! The betrayal! Hoarding the buns, spurning my self expression. I shall waste away!"
Solution, an earlier victim of flung-food, stretched out a pseudopod and engulfed Lupusregina's entire plate. "Then perish."
The werewolf pouted, sinking into her chair and leaning her head down so that between her messy wave of curled hair and her red sequined dress she blended into the upholstery of the high-backed chairs. Yuri threw the bun back at her.
"An-and then the scorpion people came out of hiding so I didn't learn much more about the hidden city from them."
Shizu tiled her head sideways as he spoke, then stepped backwards and pulled him along as the song continued. Mare scrambled to find the correct footing. "Sensible, girtablilu tribes are at war with the sun elves. Suspicious entrance, no information leak."
'Woah' Shizu stopped the movement and spun them the other way as they neared the tables again.
"Yeah but- But Demiurge said I need to make contact on their terms before his next stage."
'Even though Aura already found the place.' It was carved into the walls of a canyon and had magic against being found.
"No tactical value to being nice." Shizu said as he tried to keep up with the footwork. "Girtablilu are more widespread, for asserting control of the region. Easily dominated."
"Well… the elves are much nicer and the scorpions are kinda scary."
Mare shivered slightly at the memory of those claws, each larger than he was as the human-insect hybrids burst out of the sand dunes and tore the elven pilgrims to shreds.
They were far too weak to do anything to him, and he beat them all up just after. But it was scary, even if Aura thought it was awesome to watch the first ambush.
Shizu paused and Mare was almost flung into the passing pair of Shalltear and Solution. "Fear is inefficient. Ainz said so, I understand. The architecture expertise could benefit additional settlements in the area for trade route expansion. Girtablilu tribalism has less growth potential."
"A- and Demiurge said that the architecture was like what Lord Blue-Planet wrote about something called Petra, so we should keep it and make the people join the Sorcerer kingdom willingly."
"So destroy girtablilu, stop the fear for gratitude. I understand."
"If I can talk to them long enough to be led in."
The song ended as Shizu bent them into a complicated finishing pose, she blinked and tilted her head again. "Likelihood is high, rate of elf slaughter must be low to support ever leaving Petra-oasis. Bad luck so far, keep trying."
And a lot of mess to cover up with sand dunes as well.
"It is alternating steps lady Shalltear, I'll show you."
Solution stepped forward and pushed herself entirely against the vampire, partially molding around her front. "Like this." She made the steps, pulling at Shalltear's limbs with suggestions of movement as she wrapped tendrils around them.
"Ah, so close. And in public too~"
"You love it." She whispered, because that was profoundly true. Very quickly Shalltear picked up the pattern and Solution stepped back, now her own entity again rather than a strange add-on to the vampire.
Shalltear immediately stumbled, badly, and unconvincingly.
"I'm just not getting it Sol~."
Solution stepped forward again, partially engulfing her. "Liar." She continued to lead anyway, twirling them about one another. "You just wanted a hug again."
For a given definition of hug anyway. Shalltear made an almost-growl and as they bent in an arch caressed her 'neck' with fangs. Solution didn't shiver by force of will alone. "It's that gorilla, she won't share Lord Ainz at all!"
Solution twisted, pulling them partially apart but leaving several points of contact. "Your lame duck plan isn't working. Tell you what my Lady, dance with me for real and I'll distract you later."
Shalltear pivoted unexpectedly and stepped through her, making herself be enveloped again. "I want Lord Ainz to teach me but I only got one turn before he went back to Albedo."
Yes, and Shalltear's killing intent had been slowly rising all evening on that account. Solution morphed her form and caressed the vampire with a pseudopod as she stepped back, successfully pulling her attention back to the present. "If I can tell you're only pretending to stumble, so can he. Plus, it is their date night."
Growl and twist as the music came to a close. "So no more pretending."
Very hungry eyes were looking at her, Solution paused and turned her head in question as the next song was about to begin. "Just dance? I'm the best, I'll prove it!"
Not a lot of proving had gone on so far. Solution leaned forward whispering "Convince me."
She did, mostly.
"You. Are. Having. Fun?"
Cocytus stepped over to the side where Sebas had deposited a tired looking Tuare in a chair as he went to get them something to drink.
"I am Lord Cocytus, the dance floor is just very warm."
"It. Represents. Floor. Seven. Lava. Hellscape. Much. Hotter. Down. There."
The human flopped down against the table, still wilting against the heat. "I don't think I could survive that at all."
"No." Cocytus let the smallest portion of his frost aura seep through. "High. Area. Fire. DOT. Unpleasant. For. Even. Me."
"Oohh, thank you Lord Cocytus. How do the real maids do it?"
"Fire. Nullification. Amulets."
"That makes sense. I don't think I want to see that place anyway, Lord Demiurge scares me."
"You. Have. Lord. Ainz's. Protection."
She nodded and pointed to the returning butler. "Lord Sebas' as well. Though your frozen wasteland doesn't sound much better than the seventh hell most days, when I'm not actively melting."
"Humans. Are. Very. Squishy."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment, you oversized air conditioner."
He huffed an amused puff of frosty air. "Should. You. Prefer. The. Heated. Dancefloor. Air. Again?"
Tuare shook her head vigorously as Sebas laid a tray of three dinks down on the table. "Thank you!"
"Appreciate. The. Drink." Cocytus took the third and downed it. "Now. I. Should. Get. Back. To. It. Enjoy. Your. Break."
Aura flipped up to land standing on Cocytus's shoulders, then pivoted and with the extra height leapt over the heads of Pestoniya and Increment, tumbling in a complex dive and landing in a victory pose.
"Ta-dah!"
Mare frowned from a distance away. "Tha- that one looked hard."
"It's acrobat horse, it's not supposed to be easy!" Though really it wasn't even that much flipping this time. The maids kept moving but Cocytus had paused so the platform was even still there.
"Ah- umm, is it okay?" He asked as if Cocytus would ever actually mind being brought into a game.
"Go. Ahead. Mare. That. Looked. Challenging." 'See.' Totally fine.'
He leapt up with much less grace and repeated her move, mostly. Stuck the landing anyway. "Hyaah!" Cocytus clapped.
"I don't think that one counts Mare."
"Wh- It does!"
"Nu-uh you need to- Ohh! Lord Ainz is back, let's ask him!" She grabbed her brother's elbow and ignored the protests as she tugged him along for the real tiebreaker round.
"It is all still the same Demiurge. But aha! I talked that wyrm through a whole circle of fallacies to the opposite view thrice over today, which is more than yesterday."
"'Message.' And he still hasn't noticed anything?"
"Alas! No. I think I could get us around another time before we depart, but Demiurge, this is not time for reports, you're off duty tonight."
Officially that was true, but to truly put away all work for six consecutive hours would be the height of negligence. "'Message.' We know our Lord better than that, Pandora's Actor. There must be some delicate plot happening now that we can't interfere with."
"In that case should you not listen to father, and ignore the world outside the ballroom while you're inside it?"
"'Message.' Impossible! I would be the deepest disappointment if I didn't use this opportunity to learn the depths of Lord Ainz's planning and foresight."
"Through disobeying the order to relax? There will be time for information gathering after your ball is done rolling downhill."
'But what if he asks for my report before I've figured out the plan!' Demiurge let the thread of back-and-forth messages fade. Pandora's Actor knew their Lord's mind, maybe he was right, maybe not, but he definitely wouldn't be saying more after that. 'But getting a head start won't hurt.'
"'Message.' Sebas, is anything happening in the throne room?" The head butler had just started hi shift by the throne, overseeing Nazarick for the next hour before he would return with his ridiculous pet human.
"Nothing Lord Demiurge. All is as you left it when we swapped shifts."
"'Message.' I see. No reports coming in?"
"Should there be anything in particular Lord Demiurge?"
'Something at least.' He had already had his shift, fairly late into the night so that he could examine everything that happened during the first half. 'Unless the plan will take the whole six hours to come to fruition?'
What a grand plan it must be. Lord Ainz can take over entire countries with a few moment's appearance, spark cults into being with a single spell, craft an enduring legend with whips and shadow. 'Something that takes so long and careful for Lord Ainz would be…'
"'Message.' No Sebas, but let me know when that changes."
"Of course Lord Demiurge."
He stepped back out from against the wall and acknowledged Cixous wringing her hands with a raised eyebrow. "Wh- Would you like to dance Lord Demiurge?"
"Perhaps in a moment. I should speak to Nigredo about something first."
Her face fell slightly as he walked away.
Demiurge didn't make it even halfway across the ballroom before a message arrived, but not from Sebas. "What if I told you I knew lord Ainz's secret plan for today?" He stopped dead. "'Message.' You do? What is it Narberal, tell me!"
"Have a fun evening with most of Nazarick."
"Wha- 'Message.' No, that's the excuse." Demiurge kept walking, skirting the edge of the dancefloor.
"Sure, it's that too. How many layers do your plans usually have, Demiurge?"
"'Message.' Between one and three, but this is one of Lord Ainz's. And we have no idea what it is for, I haven't seen any sign of something else at all!"
"Only one layer sometimes? Why not more?"
He grit his teeth. "'Message.' Because sometimes that's all you need! It's more effective to keep simple things simple. You know this Narberal."
"I do, and I only have a few more seconds of privacy here. But Demiurge, why would that not also be true for Lord Ainz? This is Nazaricks first big social event, it is very important all by itself."
That was… 'oh. Right.' It made sense, it did. But…"'Message.' But Lord Ainz is a genius who always has extra layers of intent."
She didn't reply.
'Could it be so simple? No, never.' But Narberal might still be on the right track. He looked around, it was a nice party. 'Perhaps the extra goals are all internal to Nazarick.'
Yes, that seemed most likely. Nothing new was happening on the outside after all. But if the dominos that Lord Ainz was toppling were all within Nazarick then that was to be expected and the best course of action was to simply participate.
'I suppose I should find Cixous then.'
"Solvu-chan you have created a monster."
"I take absolutely no responsibility for this."
CZ watched as Shalltear whirled Yuri around like a spinning top that was unusually resigned to its fate. 'Likelihood of hurling up dinner is negligible,' her processor outputted. Dullahans were resilient. "You should take at least thirty percent responsibility."
Solution shrugged and held out a potion vial, conceding the point. "I'll take twenty-five and not a bit more. Entoma said you might want this by now."
'Accuracy-up potion' she recognized, one of her own stash from their shared room. "Unnecessary. System alert is muted." Her older sister sat in the chair next to her, placing the unaccepted vial on the table between them.
"Okay, but it's here. You've been sitting out though, is the music that bad?"
"Repetitive." The melodic patterns were complex throughout the genre, but she's had enough data to analyse by now that it made the songs predictable. And the rhythms had become boring almost immediately.
"Which is why I take no extra responsibility for Yuri's noble sacrifice. At least it's new and interesting to watch."
It was interesting. Shalltear's spinning and short tosses were generating enough g-forces to squish the average new-worlder into pulp. And predictively modelling that and its gruesome consequences was interesting. She told Solution as much.
"Hmmm." Her sister hummed, leaning back and melting into the chair. "Would be nice to get a more precise number though. How long with Shalltear could mortals survive dancing, exactly?"
'Unusual phrasing. Strange.' She processed the question. "Depends on health. Less than thirty seconds for most."
"And look at Yuri toughing it out despite all that."
"That's Yuri-nee. She can survive anything."
Solution pushed herself up off the chair. "Can, yes. But she would enjoy the ball more if she didn't have to be a ragdoll." her sister wasn't looking at CZ, rather down towards the table. "I'm going to rescue her. We should all enjoy ourselves to the utmost after all."
CZ followed Solution's gaze to the potion. "I don't need it Solvu-chan. Ainz let me ignore system warnings."
"I know. Yuri doesn't need rescuing either. But she'll be happier if I go distract Shalltear again."
'Analogy.' Solution was good at those. "It would have no detriment."
Solution grinned like it was some great victory, CZ mimicked a pouting posture as she drank and the notification cleared.
"You're not over here to get a drink." Lupusregina slid into the alcove which contained a mostly-extravagant portal to the Nazarick bar gesturing to Clavu for another round.
Ainz was in the alcove as well, standing with the utmost regality. 'Which probably means he is nervous.' It was a strange basically impossible thing, Lord Ainz being nervous. But not so uncommon for just-Ainz as she had been learning. "Unless everything I know about undead is wrong?"
Fully impossible. She's a cleric, and a good one. 'But it's better to give an option out.' Not that Ainz was one to avoid an honest conversation when in private.
"Ah… no you aren't, I'm well…"
"Hiding?" She offered, stepping across and turning to lean beside him, conveniently blocking the way into the alcove for anyone else.
"I wouldn't say hiding exactly Lupu just…"
"Going undercover as a flesh-and-blood-mortal but like, really badly?"
He laughed and one of the conjured automata that were serving as waitstaff for tonight brought her a cocktail and holding a tray with several more drinks. She sent it off to Yuri with the rest of the round she was supposed to be bringing herself. "Okay, hiding then."
"From?"
"Ah… well it's just. A bit silly." He didn't deflate exactly, if anything his posture became more certain, sure of itself. 'Which in this case means the opposite.' She raised an eyebrow, he caved.
"...Albedo put so much effort into learning how to dance for tonight. She is amazing and I struggle not to step on her toes."
Albedo had looked amazingly talented out there but she hadn't noticed Ainz lagging behind in those dances earlier. 'Actually, I would have thought he was just as good.' Albedo had been leading circles around everyone else though. "...So?"
"So," Ainz pressed his skull back against the wall, actually relaxed with her shielding the view and letting him talk this out. "I don't want to disappoint her by messing up a dance. If I'm here then there'll be fewer dances to mess up."
She took a sip of the cocktail, an 'american werewolf,' which was a better name than drink. "That's dumb."
"That's what Narberal said too."
'You messaged Narberal? And you're still here in the corner after?'
"Ya know, I think that makes majority vote for going back out dancing before Albedo has enough of being fawned over by Increment and Foth."
"I don't want to disappoint her."
Lupusregina pushed herself off the wall, and with her free hand pulled Ainz up as well. "You won't. Except by standing here. Go on, shoo, we're blocking the bar!
Ainz laughed aloud again. "Is that an order?"
"Yes sir Mr. The Overlord sir, this is a mutiny. Now get out there and have fun."
"I hope I'm not interrupting?"
Albedo turned as a most beloved voice interrupted her train of thought. "Never my Lord!" He was standing a little ways away with an offered hand, she took it in hers.
"There is apparently an acrobatics competition I must judge before the last dance can begin, will you join me?"
'Last? I never want this night to end.'
"I would be delighted to!"