Ainz awoke out of a sound slumber, the light was just barely peeking in through the window of his room in the created fortress, and immediately his heart began to race. Shalltear had her cheek resting on his chest, that was alarming enough. More than that, she was nude, covered only by the long white hair that hung down the length of her body.

Her body wasn’t as warm as the living, though she wasn’t cold to the touch, she didn’t breath, but her mouth moved, she snuggled closer in her sleep, one leg draped over his, appearing every inch the young girl on the cusp of womanhood that she was designed to be. The perfect deception to disguise the monster which lay within.

He instinctively brought a hand up to his throat and felt around. ‘No, she didn’t take a bite. I am… whole.’ Ainz realized, and then he began to relax. Until he had to wonder, ‘Did she do anything ‘else’ while I was asleep?’ The fact that she was naked posed a whole host of other problems.

‘Peroroncino just copied the entire contents of the fet-wiki into her flavor text so… nothing is off the table.’ Ainz realized and grimaced behind his mask.

Then the reality of having a naked girl in his arms hit home and all else was jettisoned, he couldn’t look. He didn’t look, not again, it was enough to know that she was there. He found he had no will to move, ‘It’s the worst kind of paralysis spell! The self-induced kind!’ He managed to mock himself and his virginal absurd innocence. ‘How am I supposed to maintain the image of the supreme god they look up to, if I can’t even move when one of them touches me?! Or strips… stripping is harder but still! No dignified Overlord acts like a shut-in NEET who has never seen non-pixelated boobs before!’

The light on the wall told him about the passing of time, it continued to rise upward with the steadily rising sun outside, and more than once Ainz had to ask himself, ‘How long will I be like this?’

Shalltear’s arms and legs continued to rub and caress him through his robe as she slept, until finally she began to stir, her eyes fluttered open and she immediately knew. “Master. You’re awake.” She said succinctly and rolled over so that she was on top of him, she put her forehead down to his chest while she straddled him.

“You slept, Master.” She said.

“So you know?” Ainz asked, but it was rhetorical.

“I heard your heartbeat. It was beautiful.” Shalltear replied to him without raising her head.

“So you know.” It was not a question, but a statement.

She nodded without letting her forehead leave his chest.

“Say it.” He gave the order with more iron than he really felt.

“You’re living, My Lord.” Shalltear replied to him with a tiny whisper of a voice.

“Do you know more than that?” Ainz asked.

She shook her head, again without raising her forehead from his chest, her hands lay on either side of her head, “I don’t, Master.”

“Tell me, Shalltear, does it matter what the answer is? What I am?” Ainz pressed her.

“It only matters that you’re the one who stayed with us. Nothing else. That’s what you are, Master, that’s what I care about.” Shalltear replied to him with the utmost urgency. “I know you can’t trust me-”

“Why not?” Ainz asked with earnestness, bringing his arms up and putting his hands to her face, he forced her head back to look at him, and like a young girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar, she bit her lower lip, her fangs drawing out her own blood, her eyes welled up with bloody tears, and she confessed.

“I almost took a bite… I’m sorry… I’m sorry, My Lord... I didn’t do it… but to even think of it… I had your neck so close, I wanted to taste you… I wanted to feel you… I lied to myself and almost had myself believing that is why you brought me here…”

She sniffled while tears of red ran down her cheeks, “To even consider an assault on a Supreme Being leaves me worthy only of death… only my life can atone for-”

“Shalltear… before you go on… why are you naked?” Ainz asked, trying increasingly hard to not get increasingly hard. ‘I’m not a lolicon… it’s just the stimulation, just the waking up, that’s all…’

“I almost did something terrible to the last Supreme Being, I don’t deserve to wear the gifts of one… also… in case My Lord wished to use his newfound endowments, I would not waste a moment of his precious time.” She did manage a little tiny smile with her sniffle at the latter part of her answer at least.

“Get dressed, Shalltear.” Ainz gave the order, and though she pouted, she climbed off of him, setting bare feet on the floor, she walked to her dress and began to put it on again.

The rustling fabric was the only sound in the room. She stepped into her dress and pulled it up, sliding one slender arm through a sleeve, then another, Shalltear then reached behind herself to begin lacing it up.

“No.” Ainz gave the polite instruction to her with the crispness of a parent, and her deft little hands froze.

He took the laces in his fingers, and gently pulled them out of her own until they lay limp in his hands. Then, in a silent gesture of affection, Ainz began to lace her up himself.

He didn’t say anything as he drew a lace through each little loop, tightening it up a little more every time while Shalltear hung beyond the breathlessness of the undead. Her red eyes like twin blood moons opened wide to stare down at the new world below. ‘If only my heart could beat like his, then I could show how wonderful this feels!’ To have the Supreme Being who stayed with them to the end show her this affection after her sin. It burned, it ached, it made her heart burst into flames of excitement as much as it turned to ash at the contemplation of what her nature had nearly compelled her to do.

‘And he doesn’t blame me…’ She realized, that was the worst part, his forgiveness of her imperfection, as if a failure was expected. She wiped away her bloody tears and cast them down to stain the gray stones of the created fortress to leave a mystery that would never be answered by those who would visit it after them.

Finally her Lord was done, he secured her final lace and gave it a sharp tug before securing it with deft and powerful fingers into a tiny little bow.

“There.” Ainz said, and took her shoulders, she turned around and found that he crouched down so that they were at eye level, though she couldn’t see beyond his mask.

“M-May this unworthy one beg to see her Lord’s face?” Shalltear asked, “I know it’s improper after my sin… a reward like that… even the maids outdid me. I’m sure Lupusregina didn’t even consider what I did… but still…” Shalltear brought her hands up to close one open palm over a little fist before folding her fingers down in entreaty, “Please?”

The words Ainz had been mentally preparing died in his throat. His own heart ached for her as a parent would for a beloved child who was frightened of that parent’s wrath. ‘She is a True Vampire, it’s only natural she would ache for human blood… but I brought her out here for this purpose, so that we would be alone and I could know where she stands. There’s no backing down now.’ He thought and nodded. “If your loyalty is to me, no matter what, you may remove it.”

Her little hands dropped to her sides, her head bowed, she slowly brought her hands up again, without raising her head, she stared only at the stone and his bent knees that lay behind his dark robe. She felt the magic mask with her tiny fingers and folded them behind it, then with the greatest reverence, Shalltear pulled it away.

She held it down at waist height, beneath her eyes, moving her fingers over it with reverence, “You weren’t sure of us, were you, My Lord?”

Ainz blood froze for a moment, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie. Nor however, could he bear to tell her the full truth.

“I couldn’t know… so I thought it best to reveal this in secret, one by one, in case I had to flee.” Ainz answered, and the words were so unexpected that her face shot up to look at his own.

“Human.” She said with a tiny whisper and reached out to touch his cheek, she stopped, realizing the presumptuousness, but he caught her hand in his and brought it up to press to the warmth of his flesh.

“Yes, Shalltear. Yes.” He answered.

“H-How?” She had to ask.

“The Theocracy weapon, it was unexpected… I seem to be storing my undead levels in my phylactery, which… seems to have merged with me. I can still feel it, still access my magic as I always have. If anything I’ve grown vastly stronger than ever before, but I am…” He patted the dainty hand of hers that rested on his cheek, “this.”

His prior words then came back to her, “M-My Lord why would you ever flee? You’re easily more powerful than any of us…”

“Because, my precious Shalltear, I could never hurt the children of my friends. Never. If even one of you was unwilling to serve me, I would rather leave Nazarick than do any of you any harm. So, beginning with Lupusregina who realized it first, I carried on.” Ainz said in a delicate whisper only a little distance from the pale cheeks that were still stained with streaks of red from her earlier bloody tears.

“My Lord, if anyone refused then the rest of us…” She began but he stopped her immediately.

“No.” Ainz vigorously shook his head, “I could never watch my friend’s children kill each other. To see even one of you die would break my heart.”

“So that is why we come out alone, in case the one who stayed… goes.” Shalltear shuddered at the idea.

“Yes.” Ainz replied.

“If ever our Lord goes… if even one of us will not have you… I go too. The one who stayed will never go alone… if my Lord will have this untrustworthy sinner…” Shalltear’s lip trembled, blood drops began to pool at the corners of her eyes as tears threatened to fall again.

“My Shalltear…” Ainz replied, and he squeezed her, and squeezed her, and squeezed her, until at last he was ready to go.