The empty bed was more than welcome to the weary Ainz. He peeled off his clothing, collapsed onto it, and breathed in the scent of perfectly luxuriant sheets. The faint scent of perfume lingered on as he drifted into dreams. ‘Yes… Albedo…’ His male virility asserted itself, hungry… wanting… The deep longing for her legs to wrap around him consumed his mind as he slept.

“My Lord! My Lord! My Love!” Albedo’s voice in his mind cried out in his dreams, sultry and sensual, rapturous and blissful, the heat of their loins and flesh to flesh drove him farther and farther down the path of desire in dreams.

Ephemeral as a fog, she was on all fours, he held her horns… then again she was on top of him, riding him as his hands ran over her perfect supple breasts, “Yes, your child, I want your child!” She cried and captured his mouth in a kiss, undulating her hips while her wings battered against the air with such strength that they left the bed and coupled in the air.

And then he awoke, a fog of bliss still hung in his mind, as he turned his head left and right, and there was no Albedo. ‘A dream… she is a succubus… could she have… on purpose? Does she know…?’ He asked himself, and a dread feeling went over him, a raging guilt that sent his arms flopping wide out at his side.

“A dream, a beautiful dream for a vile man… what have I done…?” Ainz wanted so hard to cry that he did. Tears welled up in his eyes, the precious girl, the child of Tabula Smaragdina, “How could I…?”

He knew he shouldn’t feel as guilty as he did. It had only been a mere joke in a few remaining minutes of the game. And in that moment, he incurred a guilt that would not leave him. ‘She is a demon… demons as a rule, despise humans.’ He wiped his eyes, it didn’t matter. She was still, in his mind, closer to a daughter, and yet he tainted her. ‘If she despises what I’ve become… Can I even argue? Can she know?’ He suspected it was possible.

The thought of telling her was dreadful. Right now she should be working with Demiurge, overseeing the integration of a few surrendered cities formerly of the Baharuth Empire and their surrounding towns or villages into his new Kingdom. The distance was a relief. ‘I have to tell them soon… but I’m not ready to face Albedo… to look at her without hating myself… for wanting her, for making her love me… if I’d known what would happen I wouldn’t have done it…’

His love for the children of his friends, even though he knew at heart that there was evil in most of them which was not even buried, was all consuming. Of course, that made the guilt over his dream of sleeping with Albedo even worse in his own mind. His heart pounded, his body was in a cold sweat, and he flung his forearm up to cover his eyes and shield himself from the dim light of the bedroom.

“What do I do…?” He asked himself, he couldn’t keep Albedo away forever, most of the guardians now knew the truth, all that remained were Demiurge and Albedo, and the next choice was easy. ‘Demiurge, the weakest guardian I have, I can easily defeat him… but he is also the most cunning. I’m sure he would have already worked out my change if I kept him around. But I can’t keep him in the dark forever, I need his help to find out if there is a way to go back… or to something else perhaps…?’

The possibility was an intriguing one that on its own, managed to briefly set his fears and dread aside, ‘I need only to be immortal, I could become anything of that type and that would be sufficient. I have the stats now for virtually anything.’

“Demiurge, I’ll tell Demiurge next.” He decided, ‘Albedo… forgive me… if you choose to do anything… I do want to live… but after what I’ve done to you… can I even resist… What will happen to your mind when I reveal the truth? That the one to twist your soul has become what you were created to revile?’

He took a deep and weighty breath as he lay on the soft mattress enshrouded in darkness. ‘Just a little while longer, that’s all I want, just a little while longer before I have to face up to the one I’ve done the worst to.’ He agonized and tried to sleep until he realized he dreaded the very idea of sleeping again.

That he might dream of entwining himself in the arms of his friend’s daughter made even the rest he craved, anathema. So Ainz stretched out his hand, opening his pocket dimension, he pulled out a ring of sustenance and slipped it onto his finger.

Energy invigorated his body almost before he removed his hand after putting it into place.

“That is much, much better.” He said to himself and slid off of the bed. He put his hands on his head where the fog of lust that consumed his dreams was slowly fading away. The fact that it still lingered beyond rest was telling, and he looked down the length of his naked body. “My son is more awake than I am…” He made the lame joke and went to his wardrobe. Part of him said he should reach for the rope that would summon a maid to attend to his needs, but in that late hour it would mean waking one of his friend’s children up, and that had no appeal at all.

‘Children need their rest.’ He told himself and quickly cast a cleaning spell over his body. “A bath would be nice but… I prefer not to be with anyone right now…” He mumbled as he selected a gregarious crimson robe with black trim along the edges and around the sleeves and running up the center.

‘They know… I know… but still… I’m not sure how to be around them all and be comfortable yet… maybe when I’ve told the last of them… yes… maybe then… or maybe not.’ He thought, and the thought haunted him right up until the moment he opened the door to find Shalltear stoically standing guard and said to her, “It’s time to go.”