The sun was as at Ainz’ back, the birds were chirping, the breeze was mild and warm as it traced over the small gaps in the armor, the turning of the wheel rolling over the long dirt road was a steady, constant noise, much like the occasional snorting of the horse Nfirea drove.  Rather than walking beside the cart, he and the adventurers that had guarded the young man, rode seated and chatted amiably.

Lupusregina, true to form, was a lively and engaging conversationalist, but equally true to form, she used that charm to draw out words they might have otherwise held back.  Though far from brilliant, her brutal wit had its own way of making people see things the way she wanted them to.

Ainz was content to just enjoy the day and continue to call it a work trip, it had already lasted far, far longer than he estimated, but it was only a matter of time now before it would end.  Before he could let his mind travel far down that road though, he saw a distant cloud ahead, and leaned forward toward Nfirea, “Do you see that?”  He asked.

The young man squinted, “Is that… is that a dust cloud?”  

“It is, and the wind is low right now, so what does that leave?”  Ainz made the question sharp, and even through the shaggy mop of hair, he saw the face of his client turn pale.

“Stop the wagon.”  Peter ordered when he heard what Ainz said.

Nfirea obeyed, pulling on the reins and raising his hand so that the others would see and do the same.

None of the adventurers needed orders to know what to do next.  Ainz vaulted from the wagon, a majestic leap carried him beyond the front of the horse, his legs bent on landing and he quickly straightened up.  His great swords came out, and before his first step, the other adventurers took their places in a wedge formation in front of the lead wagon.  

Peter took up position at Ainz’s left, while Lupusregina took the right, and the team spread out from there with Ninya at the rear.  “Soldiers or bandits, but there isn’t a big difference between the two sometimes.”  The way Peter shifted his shield and gripped his sword a little tighter revealed that the uncertainty was likely worse than either alone.

“I see, I see.  Will soldiers bother adventurers?”  Ainz asked.

“Inside a city?  No.  And adventurers of high rank?  Never.  But you’re a copper rank pair and none of us are above iron, so the guild might take a guard’s word for us starting trouble ‘outside’ of a city.”  Peter replied, and Ainz’s estimation of the Re-Estize Kingdom’s worth dropped yet another notch.

“Wait… those aren’t…  they can’t be?  No way…”  Peter whispered as the figures drew closer.

“What is it?”  Ainz asked.

“Those aren’t soldiers, don’t you know who that is?”  Peter’s voice began to reach a higher pitch with every word.

“No, should I?”  He asked with a furrowed brow beneath his helmet.

“The red cloak, the mask, Lukrut are you seeing what I’m seeing?!”  Peter exclaimed and whirled to face the ranger.

“Yes, unless you know another team like that, that’s Blue Rose!”  Lukrut’s excitement was palpable, and the entire team relaxed.

“Blue Rose… right, I’ve heard of them.”  Ainz began to sheathe his swords, and Lupusregina pouted, but put away her mace.  “I thought they were a group of five women, but it looks like a dozen people there.”

“It’s a suppression force, someone must have seen the skeletal dragons and an emergency dispatch brought them in to deal with it.  Heh, won’t this be a surprise?”  Peter asked rhetorically and began to wave his hand and shout.

“Heeeey!  Hellooooo!  Everything is fine!”  Peter shouted and waved, and a wave of relief went up in the form of countless sighs up and down the row of wagons.  

“We better go deal with them, ah… Momon, Lupu, would you come with me?”  Peter asked, his face was flushed red, but the vibe Ainz got was hero worship rather than just anxiety alone.  “You are the two that took care of the problem, all we did was handle the scrubs.”

“Fine.”  Ainz answered, and the trio stepped away from the stopped carts, approaching the dozen adventurers on horseback, and much to his surprise, as they slowed down, from among the group, there was a familiar face.  One ‘much’ better equipped than the last time he’d seen him.

“Gazef Stronoff.”  Ainz murmured under his breath.  When they were ten yards from the wagons, the trio stopped, and a radiant blonde woman in expensive blue and white clothing rode up, flanked by the broad shouldered dark skinned Gazef, it was the Head Warrior who spoke first.

“Did I hear someone say everything was fine?”  There was some disbelief in his voice, but the horse was reined in, he traded a look with the radiant, fair skinned blonde woman.  She clearly shared the doubt.

“I heard that there were two skeletal dragons in the area, did we hear wrong?”  Relief and anger warred on his face, and was mirrored by the tight lipped blonde.

“No, you heard right, I killed them.”  Ainz explained.

The two on horseback stared at him with open doubt, their eyes focused on his copper plate.  “You?  A copper plate?  Killed not just one but two skeletal dragons.”  The blonde woman replied.

“It’s polite to introduce yourself before you basically accuse my partner of lying, lady.”  Lupusregina snapped and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

The blonde snapped her back all the straighter and turned her eyes over to the copper plated cleric.  “Lakyus of Blue Rose.  And you are?”

“Momon.”  Ainz replied, “And my partner, Lupu, our team name is ‘Axel’.  And yes, I did.”

“One skeletal dragon is difficult for a single adamantite adventurer team.  You’re copper plates.  You really expect me to…”  She stopped when Lupu pointed to the wagons.

“Go back there and look.  We were just bringing the bones back for proof, they’re all there, along with witnesses, witness statements, and so on.  Including our client, Nfirea Bareare.”  Lupusregina’s face was clearly quite smug.  “My partner took care of the dragons, and the Wise King of the Forest, I took care of some crazy bitch named Clementine.”

The name echoed back beyond the pair and all eyes turned to the redhead.

“You… you killed her?”  Gazef’s brows went up.

“Sure, assuming that’s her body back there all wrapped up in pieces.”  Lupu answered him, but Gazef could barely comprehend it, he stared at the plate that hung down in front of her neck, and she crossed her arms.

“If you’re going to check out a woman’s chest, be more discreet about it.  Pervert Head Warrior.”  Lupu said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and letting out a snort of derision.

He did a double take and could not help but laugh for a moment before the gravity of her claim came back to him.  “Ah, how, exactly?”

“I tore her apart until the blood stopped flowing, people who lose both their arms tend to die for some reason.”  Lupu shrugged, “Go figure, right?”  

Gazef traded a look with Lakyus, “We need… need to see this.  To be sure.  You understand.”

“Of course.”  Ainz replied nonchalantly and the trio stepped aside.  The Head Warrior raised a hand and gestured forward, and the rest of the adventurers on horseback followed.

“Impossible.”

“Unbelievable.”

“Are they… copper plates, seriously?!”

The words came from the various adventurers who reached in and pulled out chunks of bone, and looked for any evidence of falsehood.  The peasants driving the wagons were quick to confirm everything that was asked of them.

Yes, the dark warrior of Axel killed the dragons.  Yes, the dragons were summoned by a magic caster.  Yes, they had the bodies.  

Gazef took up the head of Clementine, wrapped in a preserving cloth, she was unmistakable.  If the facial expression was any clue, the fearsome warrior had died in absolute terror and pain.  The wounds on her body also supported what the copper plated Lupu had said.  The woman’s limbs had been literally ripped off.  A sword left clean cuts, a mace like the sort Lupu wore, that crushed.  But these were tearing marks, bits of skin dangled where it had been ripped away.  Not far from that, was the head of the Wise King of the forest, which drew comments, stares, and disbelieving strokes of their hands over its soft fur.

He set the body parts down and turned to look over to the masked magic caster.  He looked down into her mask, and she through it up to him.

“How does a copper plate do this?”  Gazef asked with a small whisper.

“By being stronger than that when they started.”  The little magic caster said when the milky eyed head of Clementine was put back into the wagon.  

“Evileye, wasn’t it?”  Gazef asked.

“Yes.”  She answered and cursed her diminutive stature, she grabbed the top of the wagon’s side and pulled herself up to look into the pile of bones.

“And that,” she pointed to the red robed corpse, “Is a Zuranon member who has had a bounty on him for a long, long time.”

“You recognize him?”  Gazef asked rhetorically when she let go and dropped back down to the ground.

“I do.  I never met him personally, but I’ve seen drawings of his face.  There are not many people who have long heads like that one, and one ugly face, even for an old man.  His name is Khajiit Dale something or other, he is, or was, a high placed Zuranon member.  He broke from the main branch a few years ago and disappeared along with a number of disciples.  Somehow, he ended up here.”  Evileye replied and shook her head, “He came to a bad end, no real surprise to be had with that.  Most people like him, do.”

Gazef grunted, “A bad end, or in charge.  I wonder what he was doing out here, but if he is what you say, and who you say, it’s no wonder he fell in with Clementine.  I definitely know who she is.  I fought her once, but couldn’t kill her.  I always considered her a loose end.”

“I’d say it’s tied up now.  That’s for sure.”  Evil eye looked up to the pile of bones.

“I couldn’t agree more.”  Gazef’s armor clinked a little when he reached up and tapped the side of his helmet.  The armor was a rust colored red with a brass colored outline around the various components, on his back was a long blue crystal sword.  Clad in the treasures of the kingdom, Evileye couldn’t help but doubt even Lakyus could defeat him as he was now.

And yet he was still clearly, obviously impressed.

“The guild will have to reevaluate them both before you think to take them to the capital for anything, you know that, right?”  Evileye asked, uncertain if he really did.  ‘Good man, but dense about guild politics.’  She rolled her eyes behind the mask and ignored the chattering of peasants and adventurers as the story was told and retold.

“Is that so?  Why?”  Gazef asked her with genuine confusion.

“Because they’re copper plates.  If people think copper plates can do this, it will degrade the value of all the other higher ranks, next thing you know they’ll try hiring young and inexperienced people off the books and then…”  Evileye stopped speaking.  

He understood.  That was clear, the brief haunted, distant look was turned toward the other young adventurers, iron plates, in the prime of life, vigorous, and vulnerable both at once.  ‘How many young warriors did he see die by taking on things they weren’t ready for yet?  I guess it isn’t just adventurers who suffer that end.’

“Come on,” she finally said, “If we take too long, we’ll be just rude, I’ll get Lakyus.  It’s obvious that they’re telling the truth now.”  Evileye replied, and went to her sister while Gazef turned away and walked over to the tall dark armored warrior.

“I don’t like that one.”  Lakyus grumbled and crossed her arms in front of her chest.  The glare was toward the red haired cleric.

“You don’t have to like her, but Gazef confirmed it, that was Clementine.”  Evileye said in a low whisper.  ‘I swear, I love her, but she’s so stubborn!’  The magic caster rolled her eyes looking up at the woman she considered a sister and tugged on the enchanted wrist length cloth.

“I know what that means, you don’t have to tell me, they have to be adamantite or nearly.  How is this even possible?  We should have heard about power like that before now.”  Lakyus kept an eye toward the redhead with the mace that was chatting with the big, beafy Moknak of the orichalchum team ‘Rainbow’, but her question demanded an answer from Evileye.

“I can only guess, they’re foreigners, not many have dark skin like that, so maybe they have reputations from somewhere else, somewhere farther south?”  Evileye suggested, “The important thing though, is that we have them reassessed as soon as possible.  Adamantite teams are always needed.  If he really took down two skeletal dragons by himself, it would be crazy to make him grind through iron, silver, and gold ranks as if he hadn’t done Adamantite feats already.”

“I still don’t like her.”  Lakyus shot a glance at the brown skinned beauty, and gave distasteful snort.

‘Was I that childish at that age?’  Evileye wondered with a roll of her eyes so large that she was grateful for the mask that hid them.

“Whatever, let’s go.”  Evileye replied and gave an insistent little tug on Lakyus’s arm.

The suppression team warmed up to the beautiful cleric with exceptional speed, though the dark warrior was more quiet and sparse with his words, but that was often the way of heroes.  He sat in the wagon while the newly arrived senior adventurers rode on either side.

Idle chatter was the rule, but Evileye couldn’t help herself when she rode beside the dark armored warrior.  “How’d you do it?”  She asked.  “Some special item?  Power?”

Ainz pointed to the great swords on his back.  “I kept hitting them with these,” then he pointed to the many carts loaded down with bones, “until I turned them into that.”

“How much did the village pay you to protect them?”  Evileye asked, “They’re giving you a bonus, I hope.”

“They paid nothing.  I was escorting him.”  Ainz jerked his thumb toward Nfirea.  “I don’t normally like escort quests, but I guess they can be okay.”

“So… why didn’t you two just grab him and run?  All you had to do was protect your client, right?”  Evileye stared up at him, even mounted on a tall horse, she had to turn her face up to meet the dark hero, and she immediately felt him stiffen at the question.

“Then who would protect the village?”  Ainz asked, she felt his stare through the helmet, and against such an answer, she felt her heart, which had been stilled for over two hundred years, skip a beat.

“You’re… serious, aren’t you?”  Evileye looked at him cockeyed, like he was some alien thing she’d never seen before.

“Of course.  After I killed the Wise King, I gave my word I would protect the village.”  He said to her, and she bowed her head.

“I apologize for the rude question.  I shouldn’t have assumed you were the sort to run away.  But most would have.”  Evileye apologized.

“My name is Momon.  And Axel is not ‘Most’.”  He answered, and Evileye quietly promised herself one thing.

‘I’d see him in an adamantite plate the day we return, even if I have to get a ladder to climb up and put mine around his neck!  That’s the kind of adventurer this world needs!  A hero!  A true hero…’

Though her words were not spoken, the sentiment was shared up and down the line as in spare moments on the trip, Momon’s noble words were spread among the peasants pulling the proof of team Axel’s victory, with many a driver privately resolving that they would spread Momon’s name throughout the whole of E-Rantel.