Shasuryu’s eyes were slow to open, and when they did, he found himself staring up at a mask and a dainty face with sharp fangs. “I’m not dead?” He asked.

“No, but even if you were, it wouldn’t matter.” Ainz answered, “Raising the dead isn’t difficult if they’re strong enough.”

Shasuryu began to run his hands over his body, his wounds were gone, there was no pain, though looking past them he could tell the sun was beginning to set.

“I… understand…” He said, “May I… may I know the mighty name of the one who saved my life…?” Shasuryu asked, as power and authority radiated off the magic caster in the crisp black flowing robes. Everything about him screamed, ‘Lordly’ in Shasuryu’s mind.

“I am Ainz Ooal Gown. King over Nazarick. And you are?” Ainz inquired, holding out a richly gloved hand to indicate that Shasuryu could speak.

“I am Shasuryu Shasha, Chief over the Green Claw tribe.” He said as his full awareness returned, then memory rushed back with it, bringing a reminder of the urgency of his and his tribe’s situation. He quickly rolled over and lowered his face to the dirt. “Please! Save my people!”

Ainz blinked behind the mask, “What?” He asked without thinking.

‘He needs more… of course he does… of course, of course… the vampire behind me, a mere servant used servants to destroy my pursuers, it won’t be as easy as just asking!’ Shasuryu realized, ‘He waits for an offering…’

“Save the lizardmen, and I offer you the submission of my tribe! The ones chasing me, the frogmen, they come in great numbers to kill us all. Help us, and we will become your servants! I will offer myself as your personal slave if you wish it! A mere footstool to your greatness if you will only keep us from annihilation!” Shasuryu urged. The aura of power coming off of this Great One was beyond his comprehension. ‘I have seen battle many times, I’ve seen great warriors and casters, dreadful monsters… but one look… and this is a God over ants. He can give us certain safety.’

Shalltear stood by, preening with happiness. ‘With a single word he claims the whole place… what a magnificent lord!’ Her red eyes shone bright as rubies in the daylight as her lord masterfully drew out the fear and anticipation of the new supplicant.

‘What… just happened here?’ Ainz wondered, ‘They’re looking at me… I need to say something…’

He cleared his throat and in a powerful, noble voice, he demanded, “Take me to your tribe.”

Shasuryu rose to his feet, “At once, mighty one!” He declared and scrambled to his feet.

“While we walk, tell me about your people.” Ainz said. The lizardman was around the same height as a human, though stooped forward just a little. He was powerfully muscled beneath thick scales and had a long, salamander-like tail. ‘That’s what they remind me of, salamanders walking on two legs…’

He followed along while the Lizardman spoke, “Mine is one of the five surviving tribes of lizardmen, we’ve lived around the great lake, on the shores and in our wetlands, for longer than ancient memory. The Greed Kings ignored us, the Demon Gods ignored us, and the humans don’t live well in our land. We live mostly in peace, though we often compete with the frogmen on the outerlands in the north.”

“Oh, so you have no conflict with humans?” Ainz asked with great interest. ‘A demihuman species that is comfortable with humans will be a valuable example to other subjects… and perhaps soften my NPCs attitudes towards humans. That might be a bit of a stretch, but it can’t hurt.’

“None really, we have even had travelers such as my brother who ventured out into the world and befriended humans. He spoke well of ones who were willing to help him, and of the dwarves in the mountains. He brought back a few pieces of something called ‘Runecraft’ from a smith he met.” Shasuryu replied with a note of pride in his voice as he mentioned his brother.

“Runecraft?” Ainz asked, rolling the unfamiliar term off his tongue.

“A strange art that allows enchanting without ingredients or reagents.” Shasuryu replied by way of explanation, and Ainz felt his blood run hot. ‘Cost free enchanting?! With resources an ever present concern, the revelation of a cost free method of creating magic items seemed impossible to refuse. ‘I’ll visit the dwarves next.’ He privately promised.

But to the matter of his guide, he asked, “Do you know why the frogmen are attacking?”

Shasuryu was quiet for several minutes as he thought that over, the shade of the trees covered him in a shifting layer of darkness that went on until the very pitch of night was on them. Finally he answered, “Would you accept a guess from your servant, My Lord?” The lizardman asked.

“If you think it’s a good one.” Ainz said congenially as they came into a small clearing surrounded by trees and bushes, “Why don’t we stop here for now, we can continue on in a few hours.”

Shasuryu accepted that request and seemingly by reflex he began to establish a camp.

A swelling guilt roiled up in Ainz’ gut when he realized what Shasuryu was doing. “Stop.” He commanded the lizardman.

“My Lord…?” Shasuryu asked before Ainz pointed to the ground in front of him.

[Create Fortress]. Ainz used the eighth tier spell, and from the ground a small fortification arose, thrusting its conical tip toward the sky like a spear, a wide double door waited to be opened, and several small towers jutted from small wings.

The clearing was entirely consumed and some small numbers of trees besides, and Shasuryu stood on, agog at the seeming impossibility.

“Eighth tier magic, child’s play, really.” Ainz answered and approached the door.

Shalltear walked past the stunned lizardman and smirked back at him, “You were right about one thing, lizardman.” She gave him a fangy sweet smile, “He really is a God.”

The trees crashed down as if the very forces of nature were bowing before the might of his new lord, and the door closed behind them all when Shasuryu finally followed. He found himself in a small room already equipped with a bed, and crashed into it like one of the recently fallen trees. ‘What more can surprise me than what I have just seen?’ He wondered, but as he lay on the shockingly comfortable bed that seemed to just let him ‘sink’ into it and left him feeling like he was floating on the water it occurred to him, ‘There is probably more. I will just have to wait and see.’ It was a pleasant final thought to have before he went to sleep.

When Ainz was alone with Shalltear, she immediately asked, “Would my Lord like me to warm his bed? Should I strip down here! Is this to be my first time!” Shalltear exclaimed with a rush of joy that lit up her small, eager face, her hands rushed behind her back to undo the laces that held her black and red dress secured. “Would my Lord prefer to simply tear my clothes away… what would be best?! Tell me so I may please you!”

‘I’m finally going to get a leg up on that succy demoness!’ Shalltear crowed to herself with joy, ‘I knew having small breasts was not a liability, my pure beauty is beyond that of any one feature.’ Her thoughts were filled with unutterable happiness, until Ainz put a hand out on her head.

“My Shalltear, my precious, wonderful child… do you know how much I cherish you?” Ainz asked, crouching down to then clutch at her shoulders. The tension of his fingers was impossible not to notice and all of Shalltear’s thoughts, even her lustful wants, came to a grinding halt.

“My Lord… you’re the One Who Stayed… we all know you love us… our creators…” Shalltear briefly turned sorrowful, “their leaving, we never understood.”

“Did we fail them, My Lord? Why did they go… were we not enough? Were we flawed in some way? Did they simply not want us anymore…?”

Ainz sighed, “Shalltear… the realm we came from… you know it was not a part of Yggdrasil, don’t you?”

She gave a little nod as Ainz went and sat down on a nearby bed wide enough for four and befitting a true royal, with rich dark sheets and a thick red blanket over top with two long pillows at the head. “Shalltear, sit on my lap.” Ainz said, and held his arms out to her. She was so small, so little, that she was more than she seemed, he knew, but he couldn’t help himself. All he saw was ‘Peroroncino’s daughter’.

She obeyed and came to him, her brief sorrow not entirely gone, but subdued as he put his hands around her waist and put her sideways on his lap.

She weighed almost nothing, really. No more than if she’d been a normal human child. “The world we came from, the other realm… Yggdrasil was a respite from that, we had… we had much to do in that place.” Ainz struggled to find words that he himself could accept and offer them to her in turn, and he had little luck.

“It was those things, those needs in that other place that took your creators from you. I myself thought I’d lose you in the end, when Yggdrasil was ending, that was why I stayed, because that whole world meant so much to me, as did all of you. I could not let it all go alone. Each of your creators, each of my friends, had other concerns at one point or another, and whether they wanted to or not, they had to do what they did.” Ainz answered her in part, and pulled her closer, into his robes.

“There was never anything inadequate about any of you, you are what we made you to be, and that will never not be enough.” Ainz said that with an avowed conviction that left no room for doubt.

Shalltear hung her head in a tiny nod of acknowledgement, her lust forgotten, instead it was replaced with a sense of relief. “Can I stay like this a little while, My Lord?”

“For as long as you want, Shalltear. For as long as you want.” Ainz replied. ‘I’ll tell her later.’ Ainz promised himself, but there remained the nagging doubt... could he?