Lupusregina was standing over the wailing Nfirea and scratching her head.  “What’s wrong with you, all I said was ‘go through the dead meat’s things and see if there’s anything useful there.’  Why does that merit a bunch of tears, did she turn out to be a childhood friend gone wrong or something?”

Nfirea’s hand shook, the hair that hung down in his eyes hid the worst of his expression, his knuckles were white from the tension.  He didn’t look up at the red haired beauty, he only stared down at the closed fist and sobbed.

He heard Lupu’s question repeated, a little more sharply, more commanding.  His shaking fist became shaking fingers as they opened slowly to reveal what lay within.  A plate.  Obviously very old, obviously worn.

A name sat emblazoned on it.  “Lizzie Bareare”  Nfirea whispered her name like a prayer, tears ran down his face and he said it again.  “Lizzie Bareare.  That is… was, my grandmother’s name.”  

Lupusregina’s face formed a deep frown, ‘The only casualty of the whole trip is one person who wasn’t with us, go figure.’

Nfirea’s shaking fingers dropped the little mithril plate.  Enri however, caught it immediately, and put her arm around his upper back while she held the plate in his stead.  “Grandmother,” Nfirea mumbled through his sobs, “That must have been how this one,” he waved a hand to the torso of the woman who identified herself as Clementine, “Found me.  She must have done something to grandmother, mind control magic or something, and found out I would be here.”

Lupusregina Beta felt the orgasmic bliss rise in her as she watched the twisted emotional suffering of the two humans, she’d helped bring the two together… in her own playful way.  The brief time knowing them had led to her finding enjoyment in their antics.  Now they were suffering one of the worst losses they possibly could… and the smiling sadist couldn’t have been happier about it.  ‘Yes!  Yes!  Oh… yes!’  Her mind screamed out as she was flooded with pleasure that left her trembling with unrivalled excitement the sort of which she’d never felt before.

The battlemaid’s legs trembled so much her knees almost knocked, and finally she could stand no more, and fell with a thud, knees hit the dust and scattered small clouds, she all but wept with the bliss of the moment.

‘Wow, she barely knows us… but she’s such a good friend already, she’s so hard hit by how Nfirea feels… she feels his pain like it’s her own… what a good woman.’  Enri thought, and after putting the plate back into Nfirea’s hand, she gently reached out to put her palm on Lupus thigh.  Enri gently pressed down on the soft green fabric of the traveling pants.  “Hey… Miss Lupu… you couldn’t have known, this isn’t your fault, you protected us, that’s good enough, you couldn’t know they were going after Nfirea’s grandmother.”

The young man nodded without looking up, his eyes still latched on the mithril plate that Enri pressed into his hand before touching Lupu’s thigh.  Though he couldn’t yet look up, he could speak, and did.  “Yeah, don- don’t blame yourself.  This was just… just a thing that happens.  And… and you made it right as anyone can be.  You killed her killer for me, I’m… I- it’s- you’re amazing.  Beyond amazing.  For the rest of my life, I’ll be thankful to you both.”  

It took the battlemaid a moment to regain her breath from her moment of bliss, when she did, she put her hands on their heads and tousled them gently before saying, “Thank Momon, not me.”  Lupu gave a very small, indulgent grin, “Everything I do, I do for him first.”

“You’re a team… that’s to be expected.  But still, thank you, too.”  Nfirea said when her hand withdrew, “I still-” he stopped for another round of sobs, then picked up his words again.  “I still need to process this.  Just… just give me some more time.”

He watched as Lupu gave him a polite nod, and when Enri came around to comfort him, he let his head rest in her chest as he cried out his sense of loss.

“I’ll take care of the body, not to worry, I know what to do with it.”  Nfirea heard Lupu say, but he didn’t ask or care what it was she meant.

Lupusregina looked over the torn apart corpse and gave a light whistle.  “I really tore you up last night, didn’t I?”  She said to the dead, pallid corpse with the empty death milky eyes that stared at nothing.  The corpse didn’t answer her, the dead never did have much to say, and even most undead couldn’t do more than grunt.

She shrugged and bent down to start picking up the parts to take away and thought to herself,  ‘I guess I have to save the head, armor, and weapons for proof, I’ll bet you’re worth something to get my Lord promoted.  But your corpse, I’ll bet Entoma would like a snack, and maybe Solution.  Unless Lord Ainz has any plans for you, kind of a shame really.  If you hadn’t gotten in the way, you and I, we might have gotten along.’  

“Oh well, you really screwed the pooch, or tried to anyways.”  Lupusregina continued chattering to the corpse when she dragged it toward the gate, just then Momon came into the village.  She stopped as soon as he approached her.

“Lupu, what is it?”  Ainz asked her, other peasants began going in and out, and as others sobered up enough to work, they began to immediately pitch in, going out to the other gate and started hauling dragon bones.  While more carts were used to clear materials, goods, or otherwise refurbished for the extra cargo.  Almost every farmer had a cart and a horse or at least a mule, and not one of them was slacking beyond what it took to be able to stand up again after their earlier revelry.

Lupusregina jabbed her thumb over her shoulder toward Enri and Nfirea.  “The blonde one here,” she held up the head, “Killed his grandmother, the adventurer plate from when she was young was found in the belongings of this hunk of meat.”

“Oh, how unfortunate.”  Ainz replied, a well of pity rose for the young man as he mourned the loss.  ‘At least he isn’t alone.’  

When everything was said and done, it took most of the village’s wagons to load up the bones, but when that was ready, their client wasn’t.

It was evening the day after the battle when the adventurers and their client met up in the house designated for the hero ‘Momon’.

They sat around the table while Lupu stirred the cast iron pot, the fragrant smell of cooked meat and vegetables wafted over the table, it was, in Ainz’s view, somewhat improved.  ‘Her cooking skill seems to have gone up, not much, but a little.’  He considered that and filed it away for later, ‘I’ll need to see if the skill console is still accessible in the creation room, I may not be able to make new NPCs, but being able to analyze the ones I have would be really helpful.’  

“I’m just asking for another two days, that’s all, of course I’ll pay you for your time again, but I just need to get ready for what I’m going to see when I go back.  I know Granny is dead… I just need to prepare myself before I collect her body.”  Nfirea said with a quiet shiver that showed he was still suppressing how he really felt.

“Another two days is fine by me as long as you have the coin, this has already been an adventure and a half, so a paid vacation isn’t a bad idea.”  Peter admitted.

“I don’t mind either, any chance to hang out with the love of my life, eh Lupu?”  Lukrut winked, and without even blinking, Lupu stuck her ladle in, took out a tiny lump of meat, put it on her thumb, and flicked it faster and harder than an arrow with her forefinger.  It flew straight and true, into Lukrut’s mouth, knocked him backwards from his chair, and tumbled with a thud onto the floor.

He pounded his chest and coughed at the unexpected bit of meat in his mouth, and lay there for a full half a minute before he groaned and began to rise and righted his chair to reseat himself.  “You’re so merciless, Lupu my love…”

“Better remember that.”  She flashed a predatory grin.

“I’ll miss this.”  Ninya said with a breathy sigh.  

“What’s that?”  Dyne inquired, his rounded face somewhat red, she answered him.

“I’m done.  This is my last journey as an adventurer with the Swords of Darkness.”  Ninya replied.

“Wait, are you… are you serious?”  Peter asked, “What about your sister… weren’t you going to do something about that?”

Ninya clutched her staff in her lap, “Yes, I haven’t given up on that, but this trip has taught me something.  I’m taking a lot of risks for no great gains, I’ll never get my sister back like this.  It’s been how long, and I don’t even know if she’s alive or dead anymore?  For all I know she died a year ago or more.  Even if she is alive, this isn’t getting me closer to my goal, I need to do something else.”

“What, exactly?”  Peter asked, the rest of the team narrowed their eyes, suspecting insanity was to follow.

“Nothing you need to worry about, besides, you don’t let women on the team so… I never should have been here to begin with.”  Ninya confessed, “I’m- I have been lying to you all.  I’m a woman, and Lukrut if you ask me to prove it…”

No jokes were forthcoming, instead they looked her up and down and reappraised her in a way they never had before.  Little things began to click into place for them all.  Her habit of bathing alone, relieving herself alone, the loose clothing that she always wore.  “Huh… go figure.”  Lukrut said and scratched his head.  “Well… I guess… I guess all we can do is wish you good luck with whatever it is you’re doing.”

“Look ahhh… I was going to wait until we got back and collected our pay, but I was thinking about quitting too.”  Peter said, and all eyes were on him.

He gave those at the table around him a sardonic half smile.  “That fight, and the one before, showed me limits I can never reach, if I continue doing what I’m doing, I’m just going to die a pointless death, and take my team down with me.”

“You may improve with time, you know.”  Ainz said to the young man, who put his hands on the table and folded them together with fingers interlocked.

“You’re a good man, Mr. Momon, but what I saw out of you and your partner is a sign, a sign that some people aren’t meant to rise to the top, and some people are born ready to be there.  I’m part of the former.  I was the best fighter in my village, I wanted to be adamantite ranked, and I thought if I could only work hard enough, that was possible.”  Peter gave a snort, “We had big dreams, the Swords of Darkness.  We dreamed more than we ever had any right to.”  He took out the little black stone dagger that was the symbol of the bond of his team.

“Now that I know how far away that dream is, I might as well be a turtle dreaming of having wings, or a fish dreaming of walking down a street or climbing a tree.”  Peter’s fingers fidgeted with one another when he turned his attention to Nfirea.  “We’ll get you home, we’ll show the guild what Mr. Momon and Miss Lupu accomplished, see them get the rank they should have.  Then after that?”  Peter looked toward the window, “It looks like this village needs more hands, maybe I can lend mine to it.”

“We need good people.  And this is a good place to live.”  Enri said with inviting warmth.  Lupu scooped up bowls of stew and began to fling them along the table, stopping them perfectly in front of every person.

“The decision is yours of course, and I can understand it.  Perhaps you should pass on your skills here.”  Ainz suggested, offering some hope to the young man that he had not wasted his time.

Dyne and Lukrut traded glances.  “Wow.”  Lukrut said and tapped his foot.  “Look, I… you know the thing I wanted to do.  But… Lupu was right, what am I going to do, dump corpses at the feet of their parents?  I might as well stab them again.  Maybe it made sense years and years ago, but now?  No… and the truth is that I want to be with my team, even its trickiest member.”

He winked at Ninya, who rolled her eyes.  “This is why I bound my breasts tightly down.  Pervert.”  She said, and Lukrut had the decency to blush.

Dyne was the last of the Swords of Darkness, “I think… I think I want to keep trying out there.  I’m sorry, but I worked too hard on my magic to stop now.  When I’ve reached the limits of my skill, if there comes a time I can go no farther, I will come back here again.  Please, stay alive until then.”  He reached down and took the little black dagger and, setting it on the table, he began to slide it over to Peter.

“No.”  Peter said and put a hand up with his wrist on the wood, “Keep it.  As long as one of us is out there, the Swords of Darkness are not gone.”

“Whelp, guess that means some of you have a new redhead neighbor.”  Brita said with a bemused expression.

Lukrut gasped and clasped his hands together, “Miss Lupu is staying here!  Oh I knew it!  You do love me!”  

Brita smacked him on the back of the head.  “No, you imbecile!  I mean me.”

He looked up at her with a sheepish, taunting smile that led her to sigh with exasperation.  “I always fall for this one’s antics…”  Brita groused, and the gathering fell to idle chatter until the time came to rest.

When Ainz and Lupusregina were alone at last, she approached him and began to remove his armor.  She was halfway through the process when she inquired of him, “Momon, what will you do about bathing.”

Ainz reached up and stroked his squared jaw, “Right, I can’t very well return to Nazarick like this… and I would very much like a bath.”  He raised an arm and sniffed.  “Sweat, yes I definitely need a bath.”

Lupusregina hung her head and instinctively became formal.  “I like the smell of a supreme being.  My lord does not ‘stink’.”  

Ainz chose to let the comment pass and replied only, “I would still like a bath.  I’ll visit the nearby river tomorrow.”

When he was down to his regular clothes, he flopped down in the bed, and turning his eye toward the first of the maids to earn his unreserved trust, he gave a single firm order.  “Guard.”

She seemed to stiffen, and her wolf-like nature became more obvious.  It was like watching the spirit of a loyal hound emerge from within one of his friend’s children.  ‘If only they’d known, they wouldn’t have left.’  He reflected, and finally drifted off to sleep.