An Eldritch Demon's Odyssey

Sweet Negotiations

Ainz PoV:

Ainz was facing a major dilemma. In a fit of anger, he had marched towards this containment facility to save Tabula's daughter. Which, in all honesty, was the right move. Opening up Nazarick to potential risks in the future did concern him but that concern was nothing in front of Lilith's safety.

His personality did not allow for such an atrocity against someone related to his friends to go unpunished, and so he had ordered the all too enthusiastic NPCs to take appropriate care of the humans that were to be captured.

Moreover, he would not have known how to face Tabula in the future if he had allowed whatever the so called 'SCP Foundation' was doing. But now that he was on the cusp of saving Lilith, he had regained enough clarity to think over everything that had transpired.

These moments of clarity brought forward a pressing question that he had not given any thought to at all, to his mind. How was he supposed to approach Lilith? It was not right to make Demiurge interact with her right off the bat. None of the NPCs had ever met her.

Even Ainz had only met her once or twice and had a vague recollection of her. If not for Demiurge uncovering the documents regarding what the foundation was doing, he might not even have remembered her.

Regardless, she was his friends daughter and in the absence of her father, Ainz would gladly take on the role of her guardian. He was the only one who could given the circumstances. Even if the entire ordeal promised unknown challenges that Ainz did not know how to deal with. He had to be the one to strike up the conversation with her.

After becoming the overlord of Nazarick, Ainz had plenty of experience dealing with 'troublesome children', that is, the NPCs that their guild created. But they did not provide a proper guideline in dealing with this situation.

To a certain extent, Lilith was in a position similar to him. Both of them had found themselves stuck in the forms of their player avatars in an unknown world. The difference being that Lilith had drawn the short straw in regards to her new circumstances.

Ultimately, they were both former humans and Lilith was only an innocent child without societal experience unlike Ainz. The NPCs were far from 'normal' and Ainz himself was no longer the person who he used to be after the experiencing events that transpired in the New World.

Perhaps the closest reference point Ainz had was his experience in dealing with Aura and Mare. Ainz was a bit worried about whether it would be alright for an innocent child like Lilith to interact freely with the NPCs. What if their degenerate thoughts and quirks rubbed off on her?

Imagine Tabula meeting his daughter in the future, only to find a second Albedo or Demiurge. The very thought of that was frightening.

He eventually decided to let events play out as they were. Anyway the NPCs were likely to worship and protect her like they did with Ainz. Perhaps more due to her being merely a child, much less, having experienced such misfortune.

Based on his observations ever since the news regarding Lilith was disclosed to them, he was certain that this would be the case. All of them had an unexpected newfound zeal driven out of fascination, and perhaps, guilt?

He was certainly fine with their approach towards Lilith in this particular aspect, as he too was intending to protect the poor child from any further harm. And yet, having considered all of this, the question still remained.

How must he go about approaching Lilith? How should he strike the conversation and what should he talk about? Ainz was used to practising for hours regarding his 'performances'. His acts of being a ruler. But his fury had made him forget preparing for this inevitable conversation.