Chapter 21: Chapter 17: Gifts

Currently, on the 10th floor of Nazarick, more specifically the throne room.

There were 4 figures present.

A petite vampire wearing a gothic outfit as she stood stiffly at the center of the room with a concentrated look on her face as her eyes glittered like red spinels, projecting her experiences in 4k through a spell known only to her.

A black-haired beauty in a maid outfit, a slight smile adorning her usually cold yet enchanting face as she watched the show with her stone-grey eyes, a voluptuous succubus in a tight white dress a few steps ahead of her with the smile of a mother, overflowing with pride and joy as she puffed out her chest for all to drool at. And finally, an elder lich clad in eerie black robes with his jaw dropped comically, sadly everyone was either too concentrated or too distracted with the mental projection to notice it.

On the massive screen, you could see the aftermath of Lilinana’s cursed fog, bringing either pride or shock to everyone present.

‘This makes her little performance in Carne village look mild!’ Ainz exclaims in his head his mouth shutting abruptly with a clacking noise.

After overcoming his initial shock he went back to spectating the show once more, trying to remember what consisted of Liliana's flavor text.

‘Ah! The ruthlessness, I was worried for nothing. The mellow and loving child is nowhere to be seen.’ Albedo thought to herself happily, pride swelling in her heart as some tears welled up at the edges of her golden eyes.

‘Lady Liliana is just like a little box of chocolates, filled with pleasant surprises.’ Naberal contemplated as she watched Liliana indifferently gather the souls of her deserving victims.

The shock and pride turned to worry and anger when she collapsed from the pain, fortunately or unfortunately, they didn’t get to witness what happened while she was knocked out and the scene simply moves onto the moment she woke up on her secretary's lap from her unwelcome slumber. They watched as she opened up the boxes of equipment.

‘That brings me some bittersweet memories’ Ainz smiled internally while reminiscing on the old days.

Some chuckles escaped his skeletal body despite the lack of vocal cords, much to the other two women's surprise. Albedo’s smile increased as some butterflies fluttered around in her stomach at hearing her lord enjoying the show. Naberal on the other hand was curious about the effects of the gear she saw Liliana equip.

“Cleria, I’m not entirely sure of their strength. Bugs may be bugs but they still bite, and from what I’ve observed they are in possession of some rather dangerous items. Shaltie is currently standing motionless in the forest so we’ll have to check up on her after picking up my new pet.” Liliana’s sweet voice reached their ears.

To the minds of the spectators, this brought further curiosity as they had no idea what she was talking about, as good as the quality of the projection was, they couldn’t see or hear her thoughts. And because Lily’s spacial sense was more akin to feeling, her reference flew right over their heads. But this caused no discomfort as they knew what to expect. Her next instructions were even stranger but they took it in stride as they were sure it would work out for the best.

They continued watching with amusement as she walked right into the center of the unknown party without a hint of fear or even wariness, they giggled as the oblivious humans discussed what they should do with the cute little vampire, but when they saw a spear point at Liliana the temperature in the room dropped noticeably with two powerhouses erupting at the thought of anyone harming the pampered child Nazarick. A black unsettling aura subconsciously overflowed from the elder lich as he memorized the appearance of the man wielding a spear. The ground below them thrummed in fear of their wrath...

‘I don’t understand why, but just the thought of someone pointing a spear at Liliana is irking me in a way I haven’t felt for a very long time…’ Ainz assessed as his bony finger tapped his temple in agitation.

‘THEY DARE!’ Albedo gritted her teeth as her motherly instincts kicked at full-throttle, engraving the black-haired captain as a target in her heart.

( POV - Fukushima )

“AAAARGH!” I screamed as I tumbled off the bed.

Cold sweat drenched my body as I looked around, terrified, trembling in fear at what I just felt. A sense of horror surged from deep within my chest.

“It was just a dream…” I comforted myself to no avail, knowing deep down that it was much more than just a dream…

( POV - 3rd person )

Back to Nazarick, they had just finished watching Liliana wisp away along with the body of the old woman and the attractive blond female they assumed to be the so-called “pet”.

‘Smart move, you can’t teleport other people unless they are allies or give you permission to do so. This was something that kept spacial mages from completely dominating any enemy they come across. To be able to lower their guard and voluntarily kidnap them is something I could never do with my appearance. I wonder how that rule works in this new world.’ Ainz analyzed with a newfound respect for the adorable vampire.

As soon as this happened, the monitor collapsed into itself, ending the 20-30 minute long episode of the librarian's adventure. Ainz applauded her along with Albedo and Naberal who both returned to their usual expressions, but the twinkle in their eyes could still be seen.

Liliana’s posture visibly relaxed as she puffed her chest out in a show of pride.

( POV - Liliana )

‘I nailed it!’ I cheered and gazed at Lord Ainz.

He clapped gracefully and stood up from his throne before walking up to me along the luxurious and spotless red carpet Albedo has probably been cleaning for the last few days. Standing a few heads above me he raised his right hand and placed it on my hooded head softly, patting with a warmth unusual to the average lich.

“Weldone Liliana, I am impressed by both the way you acted during the mission and the spell you have just used. If we interrogate the two women you brought along we should easily find out what happened to Shaltear.” Ainz congratulated with a fatherly voice.

He took his hand off my head, much to my disappointment, and reached into a swirling black and purplish hole about the size of my head. His arm went in about elbow deep before he pulled something that made my heart race and my blood rush. A book! An unknown/unread/unowned book!

I was wondering about the contents of the book but before I could finish he pulled out another, and another, and another... until he had a pile of 8 books in his left hand.

I was admiring every inch of the covers from the closest distance I could without causing discomfort or disrespect. But after a few seconds, I was brought out of my thoughts by a tap on the shoulder.

‘Albedo? When did she get here?!’ I thought with a jump mixed with a noise of distress.

I also felt something wet on my neck, which weirded me out so I put my hand beneath my high collar and touched it with a mix of curiosity and wariness. Looking at the slightly viscous fluid, I realized it was drool.

‘I was drooling! How embarrassing…’ I gasped as I felt my face heat up.

Looking shyly up at Lord Ainz I saw him facepalming, I laughed nervously and took the books off his hands. Storing them in my own inventory before teleporting away before anyone could comment on my shameful behavior.

( POV - Albedo )

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“Excuse her manners, my Lord, Liliana isn’t very good at dealing with embarrassing situations…” I consoled, barely holding back a laugh at her cute reaction.

‘I would scold anyone who would leave without being dismissed, but I don’t think my heart could take it…’

“It’s fine Albedo, we have more important matters to deal with. From what I’ve observed, it seems one of the women Liliana brought back was wearing a world item… And if I’m right, the situation may have just become very troublesome.” He commented with a sexy thinking pose.

Seeing him act so serious… It’s making my maiden heart beat furiously as if it were trying to leave my chest!

But it’s not the time for those thoughts, we have an urgent situation to resolve.

( POV - 3rd person )

Upon entering Liliana’s library, the view was just too mind-blowing to even consider something was hiding behind myriads of shelves filled with bizarre books of all origins. I mean, who in their right mind would add a bunch of secret rooms to a massive open-air library extending infinitely into a sky filled with spacial phenomenons… riiight?

HAHAHA! FOOLS! YOUR NARROW MINDS WILL BE YOUR DOWNFALL!

Ahem~

So, as I was saying, it would be preposterous right?! And you’re absolutely correct! But do you really think that would stop the group of addicted hardcore gamers who repeatedly raided the same boss a couple of hundred times for a pair of socks?

You don’t do you? Good, maybe now you understand how insanely obsessed they were with the game.

Liliana herself doesn’t really know much about these rooms, which is why she loves them so much. The fact that there are countless rooms just waiting to be discovered.

She is only currently aware of three rooms, and that’s only because they were discussed right in front of her during her NPC days.

But before we get to that we have some measurements for the layout, The circumference of the Library is 500 meters and the height of the library is a nice 4800 meters, each bookshelf is 0.5 meters in width and 1 meter in height. Wait, I know what you’re thinking, how in the Hel (Helheim) did they manage to fill the whole library with books? The answer is…

They didn’t, dumbass, at least not intentionally… Originally the books were just static visual effects to make the shelves look full. But with the transition of worlds, the colosseum-sized library is now filled with actual books. Scary how so many things just came into existence without intention isn’t it?

The shelves have a similar classification to the periodic table, a horizontal row is called a [group] and there are 4800 groups, a vertical row is called a [period] and there are 500 periods. Each has a few copies of the same book available for lending, and below each clump of books is a brass un-aging plate with the title of the books.

These plates are special because they can feel when someone is looking for the title of their books and begin emitting flashes of red lights to attract their future owners.

As for the rarer books with peculiar properties that prevent copying, they have their own shelves, visually specialized in categories. This is the reason for some of the interesting effects seen on some shelves that have been influenced by the books they contain. And trust me, you wouldn't miss both the groaning of the tortured souls and the creepy glows they emit.

Before Liliana arrived she told Cleria about her plans for the pet and the ol’ bag’a bones they brought along.

“There’s a fun little room the supreme beings talked about, but to access the room you have to follow my orders very specifically. [ 69th period + 69th group + Ulgrim’s Biography -> Slaving for Dummies -> How to Train Your Masochist -> Pleasure and Pain -> The Art of Domination ]. Touch the books in that specific order, and on the very small chance you fail. Wait 5 minutes and attempt it again. I’m planning on leaving the pet in that special little room and handing that old thing over to Neuronist Painkill.“

Cleria didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow at her mistress’ advice despite how random it sounded.

Now that you're aware of that little treat, we can move on.

( POV - Liliana )

I plopped down on one of many couches and hid my face in the softness of a nearby pillow.

‘Why~! It was going so well!’ I whined in my head.

This situation continued for a few minutes before I had regained my composure, yet I didn’t notice I still kept a pinkish blush on my cheeks. And the traitorous servants didn’t even mention it to me! They just giggled discretely and went back to their jobs…

I slowly floated up to the 69th group of the 69th period, enjoying the serene atmosphere of my domain, feeling all my busy bees working hard on cleaning and tending to the bookshelves. Some even feed and water them, making me feel pride, who else can say they have a living shelf? Now imagine having multiple...

Exactly, worship me! I deserve it!

Anyway, I reached my destination with my smile growing wider every second until I gained a savage look of excitement. Fortunately, due to my appearance, it is impossible to consider anything I do as “savage”, but I still regulated my expression to look a little more friendly.

It was hard, I was thrilled, this situation brought out a part of me that was hidden very cleverly within my lore to make sure it wasn’t revealed. Who did this you ask? Lord Tabula did… it’s funny how he was annoyed with Lord Peroronchino for giving me strange fetishes and then proceeded to add something very dark and unknown even to me.

I felt it… I knew it was there… But I never really interacted with it as much as I am today.

Gently caressing each book in correspondence to my instructions, the bookshelf rippled like the surface of a lake when a sizable stone is dropped.

Creating a strange liquid-like wall between me and the shelf, I touched it with the tip of my finger. It was strange, cold, and sticky.

When I tried to remove my finger from the fluid, it stretched and remained stuck to my finger stubbornly. After a few attempts and long-distance stretching, I came to the conclusion that I either had to attack it or teleport away, but my intention wasn’t to let go of the unknown material. I was just curious.

Coming back to my previous place, I allowed myself to sink into the liquid. And what I saw beyond the shelf most definitely did not disappoint.

[ A/N: I'm starting to feel it again, hopefully, my writing quality improves back to where it was...]

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