Chapter 32: Unbeatable difference

Fuckin' heavens. Almost had a heart attack during that conversation. Fortunately, I figured out what he wanted. At first, I thought he wanted to talk to me about Pandora's Box and when he changed the subject to Albedo, I thought he knew that I borrowed her World Item, which admittedly was a weird assumption to make. After all, only my trusted people knew about it. If he got wind of it somehow, I would have to reevaluate their loyalty or watch out for any spies that were invisible to my senses.

Both were really awful conclusions and put me into a passive position once again, which would suck since I had already decided to at least change a few things around. Fortunately, that was just my paranoia. I didn't have to question anyone around me, which was nice. To be completely honest, I was beginning to panic as I had specifically brought Fubuki and the Royal Maids to give me some time in case things went south and were irreconcilable. If they had betrayed me then I would have fallen into their trap.

Of course, as long as they didn't use World Items I would be confident to escape with my new handle on Wild Magic. Even Martial Arts would be useful as I found out that my talent wasn't just limited to learning and mastering any skill. It seemed to have evolved to enhance their abilities to the degree I could even fight others who were on my level with ease, which brought me back to a theory that I came up with in the last two days after recovering my talent.

However, I shelved that thought as I was still in conversation with Ainz, who had comfortably reclined into his chair. He really didn't seem like someone that was testing me, which was obvious at this point. It really looked like he just wanted someone to talk to.

I wouldn't lie that there wasn't any resentment- No, resentment was too hard as I was also immensely grateful for this new fantastic life. It was more of an annoyance to these 'Supreme Beings'. The only people that had talked to me during my time as an NPC were them using, commanding, and generally treating me as a decorative piece. Of course, I was exactly that with the function of defending their dungeon, but that didn't mean it felt nice to be viewed like this.

Of course, I could have bugged out, but the likelihood of them turning in that bug to the devs and having them reboot me wasn't low as there were some rewards for bugs being found. Still, my mind back then had long grown weary, turning me indifferent to the plight that would haunt Ainz.

He actually didn't deserve to be treated like I wanted to treat him. As a fellow former human, I had some lingering sympathy for his anxiousness, but I couldn't break my character for now. There were several excuses I had thought about how I would safely reveal my 'secrets' of me being a human to him, but I couldn't risk jeopardizing a chance to peacefully live this life.

For just a bit longer he needed to be the lone ruler of Nazarick. The one that would attract the most attention of those that would harm us as we threatened their world. Just until I was powerful enough to just flip the game board and ignore all rules and restraints. For a bit longer he needed to be my scapegoat.

I couldn't help but sigh, making Ainz look over at me full of curiosity. Of course, that didn't mean I had to treat him coldly and get some weight off his shoulders. I was the prince of Nazarick, after all.

"Something bothering you Azazel?" Ainz asked.

"No, everything is fine Ainz-sama. I thought it was nice to spend some time like this." The red orbs in the adjacent skeleton's eye sockets glowed more brightly as he heard that.

He nodded at that, satisfied to not be the only one that felt this way. "Indeed. Ah, and please drop the honorifics. You are the prince, after all. I would feel awkward if you continued to address me in this way."

"Well, if it eases you then I will drop it in private. Though I think I'll continue using them as I didn't want the others to feel like I disrespected you."

"Oh, right. They truly might be displeased if that happened..., though do you think they would be displeased with you? I feel like they couldn't be unhappy with you even if they wanted to, right?" Ainz mused out loud as he held his bony chin. It was honestly quite relaxing to have him think out loud.

Even though I could deduce what he was thinking about, he seemed truly at ease with me. Of course, having him on my side meant I would have great leeway to push certain agendas. Still, if he wasn't completely on board with my ideas, he might side with Albedo and Demiurge's point of view.

Considering the fact that Ainz would rather sacrifice the entire world to ensure Nazarick's well-being, meant that he wouldn't shy away from making certain decisions that were essentially war crimes just to reduce the likelihood of any danger towards us by .5 percent. I wasn't completely opposed to that philosophy, but there were certain ranges of actions 'for the greater good' that I could tolerate.

Destroying an entire country as the 'stick' to remind other countries was completely unnecessary after one had shown to be able to decimate an entire army with one spell. I would be fine with exterminating the entire family and asking for heavy damage compensation, but killing unrelated people on a massive scale for something that admittedly could be seen as a foreign country's declaration of war was a bit much.

Then again I hadn't read my book about politics and it would be difficult for me to argue with Demiurge if they had reasoned that based on how to deal with foreign affairs. It would be an easy fix to just read it and become an expert in this topic since I had saved it in a book, but I was hesitant to use them.

The previous books that I had read until now were about spear and weapon mastery as well as magic theory. There were still books about politics and war tactics, though there was a reason I hadn't read them yet. The world for the most part worked with levels. If I decided to learn these things, would I level up in those regards? Would I gain levels as a strategist? As a politician?

I couldn't risk wasting my levels for something like that if it didn't enhance my immediate might. Obviously, I could think about it after I gained sufficient levels that I didn't have to min-max it, but as of right now, I was inclined to leave it as it was.

It was because of this that I had only used the ones that would either work with what I already had, which was either magic or melee combat. These books were just something I had prepared in case I truly needed them like in the event that I was dragged into the political landscape before I had the chance to develop beyond anyone's reach and could openly admit that I just didn't know much about these topics.

The fact that my brain's raw capacity was already enhanced through my angel physiology to be able to dissect nuanced topics in a short timeframe made it possible to live without risking in-depth knowledge to pollute my levels. I could just ponder over it and just memories the knowledge of the normal books Nazarick's library had to offer.

It would be even more unfortunate if my theory about the chains representing a certain milestone in my evolution as an Archangel was correct and I truly polluted my levels with unnecessary job levels. My talent and vast knowledge of the arcane made me realize that the chains seemed to represent certain levels. I still needed to meditate on it, but there were certain clues and theories I needed to confirm before I came to a conclusion about it.

"I don't think they would be too annoyed at me as they would think that it was just the natural course of development as I am being nurtured as the one that is closest to the Supreme Beings."

"Huh, you think so? Makes sense I guess." He tensed up for a moment before realizing that I wasn't going to comment on his lack of confidence. He quickly relaxed again. "So, why continue using honorifics?"

"Because I want to. Ainz, I think it would be time for me to leave again." Even though his demeanor didn't change and his expression stayed the same besides the glow in his eyes, attributed to the convenient emotional suppression, he deflated a bit at my departure. "I still need to prepare for the meeting with the upper echelon of the Holy Kingdom."

"Right, you mentioned that. Then good luck with that. We will talk in the future about possible cooperation with our adventurer teams."

"Indeed, we will hash out the details about the demonic threat that we are going to ally over in the future."

"Right, the demonic threat..." Obviously, it wasn't something that had been thought through by Demiurge just yet as the 'invasion' of the demons in the capital of the Re-Estize Kingdom hadn't happened yet. That would be the time when the Demon Lord would be introduced as the common enemy of the world.

I was already sprinkling in the first signs of the demon threat in the Abelion Hills with the helper Demiurge had given me. Until now Demiurge probably just thought it would be a ploy for the conquest of the Holy Kingdom. Just a pretense to accelerate my rise in the holy ranks and eliminate the ones I wanted to remove while putting the blame on the demons.

Once Demiurge would plan the demonic invasion in Re-Estize then a picture of a plan spanning across the entire continents would form in his mind. With my hand in the first moves and the establishment of the first signs, Demiruge would think that I was in on the plan that Ainz had 'concocted'.

"Anyway, I should quickly talk with Naberal and then head back. I don't want to continue occupying your time." I gained his attention once again.

"Talk with Naberal? Was there something you needed from her?" He asked cautiously.

"Not really. She is just attractive and I hadn't time to interact with her besides the talk before my departure."

"...Have fun?" What else could he say? I had already told him that Albedo approved of these actions and even actively pushed for them. Of course, he might feel awkward about it, but what did it have to do with me?

With a bow, I stepped outside, leaving Ainz alone in the room, though after closing the door I noticed that he had stepped closer to the door to listen in on us. The connected room was tall, easily holding a big couch with a table in front of it and some decorative plants. The Royal Maids and Fubuki sat across from Naberal, who looked at them with a spark in her eyes.

My loyal followers on the other hand looked prideful and held their heads high as Naberal stared at them with reverence. "Did you four have a nice talk?" Aneko nodded with a mischievous grin forming on her face. I couldn't help but feel intrigued by it.

As Aneko opened her mouth to speak Naberal visibly panicked and waved her arms as she interrupted her. "Yes, we had talked about their time serving Your Highness!"

"You asked them about them serving me?" I asked as a grin formed on my face.

"Yes, they had mentioned the duties they had undergone and how they performed them." She seemed to be happy to have avoided leaking some information, though she was too naive she thought I would let her go this easily.

"Oh, my. I didn't think you would directly ask them about them serving me. Daring to just ask such a question. Hadn't expected you to be this straightforward with your curiosity. Is that where your mind wanders when you imagine me and the Royal Maids? Perhaps, you imagine yourself as one of my personal maids?"

"W-what?" Her brain seemed to circuit as she looked at me stunned, trying to digest the words I had just spoken. It took her a moment before her face turned completely red and hastily waved her hands in front of her while shaking her head. "No! I-I didn't mean it like that!" She exclaimed while looking down to avoid showing her red face to me.

I pouted before sighing. "Aww, too bad." With my index finger under her chin, I raised her face to look at me. "You sure?" Her head snapped to the side away from my touch. Her face was already red from embarrassment, trying her best to avoid eye contact with me to calm herself down.

"Y-yes. W-we had just talked about the Royal Maid's duties like cleaning! Or guarding your bedroom while you and Albedo a-a-are... I-I don't dare to suggest you have s-sex with your m-maids!"

"What? Who said anything about sex?" I asked in a confused tone, making Narberal freeze before her eyes slowly widened as she realized that I had never revealed that I knew she was thinking about such lewd things.

She suddenly knelt before me while a sword appeared in her hands and placed the tip on her neck. I firmly held her hand, preventing it to move even a centimeter.  "Please, forgive me for my shameful thoughts. I will pay for it with my life." She pleaded as if she had committed a great sin.

"First of all, your life isn't yours to throw away. It belongs to Nazarick, to Ainz, and to Me. So, don't even think about throwing it away without our permission." I sighed as I sat back in between my maids. She really didn't have to go that extreme with her commitment, though I could tell that besides her guilt, she was incredibly anxious and more importantly embarrassed.

"Besides we do exactly what you were thinking about, right girls?" I chuckled as I rested my hands on their thighs, while I watched Narberal's eyes grow wide and round at my actions. She didn't believe what she was seeing. My intimate touch, caressing the voluptuous body of my maids, right in front of her to see.

She took a deep breath. Her eyes were unable to tear away from my hands caressing Aneko and Sueko's thighs. Sueko was rather eager to lean into my touch, barely understanding why she felt the way she did, while Aneko looked bemusedly at Narberal, teasing the other woman by openly moaning.

Fubuki rested her head in her palm as she watched the display with a neutral expression, though I could tell she was slowly getting jealous of the treatment, while she was left alone on the side. I winked at her, which made her happy because I wasn't ignoring her. She was smart enough to know that this display was just to get Narberal going as the show wouldn't be that enticing for the maid if I wasn't playing with the bodies of her 'colleagues.'

"Well, I actually hadn't had sex with them until now. Perhaps we should change that, right Aneko, Sueko?" Sueko just nodded not truly knowing what I meant by it, while Aneko looked ecstatic. "You know Narberal, you can be part of this too if you want to."

Narberal sucked in a breath before she placed a hand on her chest in disbelief that I would offer something like this to her. "T-truly?" She asked shakily as if a child's dream was about to be fulfilled. There was so much expectation, anticipation, and hope in her tone that it was almost unreal.

Not to mention, the fear of this being a lie was interwoven in her demeanor. I knew I could shatter her if I rejected her harshly or shamed her. However, why would I do something awful like that? I had a beauty desperately yearning for my touch, to be with me and serve me that just the sight of her expression was addicting.

"Of course, there are only two requirements..." She clasped her hands in front of her as she waited with bated breath for me to reveal my requirements. "...you need Albedo's approval." Her body stilled and her lips thinned as she fell in thought. It took her a while before she nodded firmly with determination.

"I will do my best."

"Good to see your enthusiasm. As for the second requirement... well that will be a secret for now. Though I can tell you that it trumps the first requirement." I smiled as she deflated slightly after I revealed that I wouldn't tell her at this moment. Truthfully, there was more than just one other requirement, but it could be summarized under one. I needed to want her.

She certainly had a leg in with being a 'celebrity' and an absolute beauty, but I also needed to be sure that she would be loyal to me forever and sincerely love me. I needed to trust her to involve her in my plans and thoughts.

Of course, I could just fuck her, but that wouldn't truly satisfy me. She belonged to one of the strongest creatures on this planet, so it was best to have her firmly in my hand. It was also one of the reasons that she needed Albedo's approval. It would suck if I turned her to my side only for Albedo to turn full Yandere and decided to murk her for stealing me or something stupid like that.

Besides trying to focus on trying to grow stronger and fulfilling my quest as an adventurer, it was also because of all that I hadn't had sex with anyone else besides her and Fubuki. Yuri was already a good candidate as Albedo had been the one that had placed her by my side. The Royal Maids were non-negotiable and she knew and accepted it or at least she had long thought I was sleeping with them.

"Alright, we should probably leave, right?" I asked as I hugged the maids' waists closer to me. My hands wandered up and down their sides, brushing against their boobs and caressing their hips. Narberal followed my hands almost mesmerized before she bowed deeply after standing up.

"I wish you a safe return, your Highness." She answered firmly while continuing to bow.

"Raise your head," I ordered as I gave her a signature smile that dazed her for a moment before she regained her composure and blushed from being entranced. "See you around, Narberal. Oh, and please call me Azazel."

"Understood, Azazel-sama!" Right, it would probably be difficult to bring her to just call me by name without honorifics, but that was for the future.

I stood up and created a [Gate] before leaving the Re-Estize Kingdom and reentering the Holy Kingdom. Too bad, I hadn't gotten the opportunity to look around E-Rantel. Well, I guessed that was for the future as well.

After crossing back into the Holy Kindom, I didn't go out for another quest or go around the neighborhood to raise my reputation and connections, I sat down on the chair in my room and closed my eyes, while I pulled Fubuki on my lap. I felt for the chains keeping my existence locked underneath its influence.

My hands wandered across her voluptuous and curvaceous body, causing her to squirm underneath my touch, rubbing her behind into my crotch, yearning for more, but I was only paying half of my focus on her sinful and comfortable curves.

In fact, my focus seemed to get sharper as I dissected the secrets I wanted to learn. Her body, her squirming, and her moans, not only didn't distract me, but they concentrated my focus as if they enhanced my perception. The further she lost herself in the debauchery, the better my thoughts aligned.

I followed the chains' origin, what was keeping them intact, and how I could break them. My talent and my knowledge of the arcane arts quickly revealed the answer to me. And with quickly I mean about an hour of torturing Fubuki with my magic hands until she got increasingly listless.

These chains represented the levels I had to break through to elevate myself to the next stage. Each chain represented 3 levels to be exact. When I broke through level 100, I became an Archangel of Malkuth, the Emanation of the Kingdom. After regaining my talent, it gave me enough experience and transcendent energy to break through level 103 all the way to 106. I skipped the Emanation of Life, Yesod, and entered the Emanation of Submission, Hod.

My talent gave me enough understanding about Yesod, the foundation that supports reality and forms the gateway between the spiritual and the physical, for me to advance to the next stage. It was also what elevated my understanding of the arcane, chaos magic to a new understanding. Yesod, the last stop before moving into the fully physical realm, made me realize how to manifest all the skills into reality. If I delved deeper into it, it would grant me the ability to realize any spiritual thing into reality. A low tier of a reality-warping ability.

I just entered Hod, the Emanation of Submission. My talent was beyond limits and surpassed any other was unable to grasp its concept. A force that abides, a force to relinquish me and all I was to the flow of fate and to let destiny guide my actions.

I was just beginning to understand something so different from the dominating force and knowledge I had understood from Yesod and Malkuth that it made it difficult for just my heaven-defying talent to advance me to the next realm.

The next chains represented the other Emanation. A total of 11 Emanations that an Archangel could experience. Of course, every Archangel could decide to use its nature to just delve into one aspect of reality and completely control it, but I wasn't satisfied with that thought. I wanted it all. This thought made me wonder if I wasn't an angel of greed instead.

However, one thing that bothered me with this realization was the fact that there were 12 chains remaining, but only 9 represented the breakthrough to the next level of being an Archangel. Although my talent and knowledge made me see deeper than I could have ever before, I still wasn't able to see what would welcome me when I reached that point.

I couldn't help but shake my head and returned to my introspection. There was more to uncover than just the chains. Each level above 100 was difficult to achieve, but it represented limit-breaking power.

A 9-level difference between two beings represented unwinnable odds during a fight, which meant that once I reached the next Emanation, I would be unbeatable against someone of level 100. Of course, this didn't include equipment, magical support, and other external equalizers, but besides that, I was unbeatable against any opponent 9 levels beneath me regardless of them hard countering me.

The level difference made me think about the other Archangels of the game that Hermorah had talked intensely about since they were my 'brethren'. I could deduce that I could push one Emanation to its absolute limit and reach level 120 with just that aspect. Something that I figured the other Archangel of Yggdrasil did to gain the title World Enemy.

Usually, if one defeated a World Enemy in the game, it would grant the players a World Item. However, from what I have heard, one didn't get anything when only beating one of the Ten Archangels of the Sephira.

It was speculated that one had to defeat all of them at the same time, which was declared impossible by the community as it was already difficult to beat just one while keeping the others at bay. To have to kill each Archangel who was on the level of a World Enemy in their own right, while also possessing complementary equipment and commanding a choir of angels at the same time, was simply too difficult to be achieved.

It was said that one needed at least 500 top-tier players to beat this group of World Enemies. weren't the most powerful boss as that belonged to the World Eater, but it still earned the title as the most difficult event to be cleared in the game. It was something no one had achieved even when the game was discontinued.

With me being an Archangel and a level of 106, I could be called a Quasi-World Enemy. Once I broke all the chains, I would be even more powerful than the ten Archangels of the Sephira and could dominate all there was. Even the combined forces of all of Yggdrasil would not be able to stop me.