Prologue

When Albedo entered the room, she breathed in deeply.

Unfortunately, there was no scent left behind to tickle her nostrils. Of course there wasn’t. Her beloved master’s body performed no metabolic processes, and he didn’t even breathe, so how could he leave behind an odor?

But she could sense his smell—with her heart.

When she inhaled air from a room her master had been in, it put her heart at ease.

That’s what it’s like to be a maiden in love.

“Tee-hee-hee!” She let slip an intoxicated giggle and clamped a hand over her mouth.

It wasn’t truly an issue that her teeth had been visible, since no one was around to see, but it simply wasn’t ladylike.

Albedo sat softly on the bed and then lay down.

She sniffed a few times, but as she had suspected, her nose picked up nothing. Still, it gave her profound joy to lie in the bed of the one she adored.

This was perfectly normal behavior for a maiden in love. Anyone who took a woman doing the same thing in the bed of the man she loved, yet feeling nothing, and lumped her together with Albedo in the “maiden in love” category was offensive rabble who knew nothing of true love.

“Ahhh…”

She stopped her hand just as her fingers sought the pleasure below her waist. Now wasn’t the time.

I guess I’m getting addicted, she thought, among other things, as she sat up.

For the moment, she had to finish the day’s work.

With the establishment of the Nation of Darkness and the conquering of E-Rantel, her workload had increased dramatically. The reason being that the civil servants under the previous ruler, the Re-Estize Kingdom, had fled—that is, returned to the kingdom, leaving government posts understaffed.

Undead created by her master were supposed to take over those roles, but she was still educating them—which took time and added even more to her workload.

In the not too distant future, she would have some free time, but for now, she would probably stay busy.

Of course, Albedo didn’t equate having lots of work with suffering. No, she was sure that not a single resident of Nazarick found laboring for their master unpleasant. On the contrary, it was only natural that the harder they worked, the more ecstatic they grew.

“I would like to see the results of my teaching soon, though…”

For a few days or a couple weeks. Even if a month was impossible, she wanted to leave the government up to the undead and see how they would do.

As luck would have it, she was thinking it was about time to visit the kingdom for some talks. She knew that, since her master was so overflowing with wisdom, he would be fine without her. But that would mean forcing the absolute ruler to do work that was beneath him—odd jobs.

A king had a king’s duty.

“Speaking of which…I wonder what direction Lord Ainz is planning on taking the Nation of Darkness in.”

The nature of the country itself…

Once that was decided, they could make laws and policies that matched.

For instance, if it was a country that made all humans work for Nazarick as slaves, they would have to create laws that completely enslaved humans. They would also have to decide all sorts of details such as how to interact with neighboring human countries and what approach they would take with the humans of other countries.

But she still hadn’t gotten a clear answer on that from her master yet.

It was as if the Nation of Darkness was currently missing a critical pillar in its foundation and still based its overall structure on the old house—that is, the kingdom.

Was this the shape her beloved master’s country would take? Or was he waiting for something?

If it was the latter, she felt endlessly ashamed that she wasn’t able to discern his plans.

This was the struggle of serving a master with such a sage mind that it left everyone clueless.

Her master had the ability to plan in a way that allowed him to accomplish multiple objectives in one fell swoop. Sadly, that left her always feeling bad for not being able to think as far as he could.

Even Demiurge, who was as brilliant as her if not more, had grumbled, “I cannot even hold a candle to our master’s wisdom. It’s quite embarrassing.” That being said…

“No matter what kind of country he creates, all I have to do is abide by Lord Ainz’s decisions.”

There was only one exception—Albedo didn’t plan on obeying anyone but her beloved master.

“Though I really have to wonder what he’s going to do…”

Of course, there was no one to answer her murmur.