Once again, Ainz knocked on the door, but even after waiting for a while, there was no response from the other side.
"Do you want me to go in and bring her to you, Ainz-sama?" Bothered by the situation, Aureole finally asked.
Ainz thought about it for a moment, but then shook his head.
"There's no need for that. She should be focused on her work, so let's just go in."
He then pointed at the vassals, ordering them to wait outside.
Thalia's studio was both spacious and messy.
She had built it herself after obtaining his permission as a place meant to meet all her work needs.
This was his first time visiting the place.
The air was stale and filled with the smell of paint.
There were no windows in the studio, which was not an issue for Thalia, who didn't need to breathe.
Long wooden tables were set along the walls, with many blueprints for buildings and tools scattered across their surfaces.
Above them, on the walls, he saw shelves filled with a variety of tools for painting, drawing, construction, and other uses.
Thalia was a Skeleton Craftsman designed to resemble a Renaissance-era inventor.
She was a master of many subjects and was granted boundless creativity.
He found Thalia sitting on a desk in the middle of the room. She held a pen in her hand and was writing something in a hurry while remaining oblivious to their presence.
Seeing her like this made Ainz feel nostalgic for his time in the other world.
In his long tenure as the Demon Lord, he had led a lonely life through centuries of work, and through it, reading and studying had been his closest companions.
As an Archlich, he had a natural hunger for knowledge, so whenever he destroyed a new town or city, he always made sure to loot all the books he could find.
From fictional stories to arithmetic, anatomy, astronomy, architecture, and all other subjects, he approached all of them with genuine curiosity, even going so far as to kidnap scholars to better understand the most challenging ones.
As the centuries passed, his knowledge grew to the point that he could no longer be satisfied with what the people of that world could offer him.
The state of the world only degraded as he continued to conquer it, and as generations passed, the number of soldiers grew while the number of scholars declined.
At that point, he had to make do with his own research, which only made him resent that world all the more, and in this state, he poured all his efforts into finishing his quest for domination, thinking that that world had nothing else to offer him.
Fusing with Suzuki Satoru had alleviated this obsession, but it was still there, and as far as he could tell, this obsession of his had been transmitted to these NPCs he created, with Thalia seeming to be the one most affected by it, which he hoped would not lead her to a lonely experience.
He looked at Aureole Omega, who was standing at his side.
The youngest member of the Pleiades looked like a Japanese girl in her late teens, carrying herself with the self-assuredness that only someone so young could have.
Despite her appearance, the way she gazed at everything around her demonstrated wisdom beyond her years.
A cunning gaze with the playfulness of someone who knows they are in control. That is the type of gaze a strategist should have, Momonga-san.
Ainz was reminded of the words of her creator, Punnito Moe, as the man described to him what he conceived to be the ideal strategist.
As the creation of one of his closest friends in Ainz Ooal Gown, Ainz knew a lot more about Aureole Omega than most NPCs.
Punnito Moe was a strange man, extremely into strategy games and with a somewhat unhealthy obsession with ancient wars.
Aureole Omega was heavily influenced by these interests. Thought to be the ultimate strategist, she had a lot of levels in Commander Classes and a sharp mind for coming up with solutions for problems.
He made her a miko just so she wouldn't look out of place commanding the yokais in the Cherryblossom Sanctuary, and as the NPC responsible for teleportation, she would always know the positioning of allies and enemies during an invasion of the tomb.
When making the skeleton sisters, he tried to establish a bond between them and an important NPC on the floor.
In Thalia's case, this NPC was Aureole Omega, but he was not so sure that it worked, considering her eccentricities.
Seeing that Thalia showed no signs of stopping, Ainz turned his attention to the papers scattered on the tables.
After skimming through them, he grabbed one that piqued his interest.
Carne Village Reconstruction Plan, huh? This is interesting.
He looked over the table and found a few more related to Carne.
'Expansion of Carne into a town', 'Expansion of Carne into a city', 'Carne as a fortress?', and 'Carne Residential Area'.
She has been working hard.
After registering Carne as his territory, he had entrusted Thalia with the task of creating a plan for its reconstruction and future expansion.
The attack from the Sunlight Scripture damaged many facilities and houses in the village, and the subsequent migration from the survivors of nearby villages almost doubled Carne's original population.
He wanted to take advantage of this situation to remake Carne into a better village, seeing as it was now his territory.
At the same time, he couldn't go crazy with renovations.
If a little rural village at the border of the Re-Estize Kingdom suddenly started showing better infrastructure than the capital, it would attract unwanted attention and scrutiny from the ones in power, and while he didn't quite care for what the weak people of this world might want to do, the truth was that he couldn't afford to attract the attention of potential players at this stage.
For these reasons, most of the plans Thalia crafted would need to be put on hold until a later date.
"Huh? Ainz-sama? What are you doing here?" As he continued reviewing the projects, Thalia finally noticed their presence.
"He came to see you, Thalia. But you didn't respond even when we knocked on the door, so Ainz-sama has been waiting for you for a while." Aureole Omega summarized the situation for her.
"Ih! Sorry about that." Thalia got up and approached them.
Her bones were a light pink, reminiscent of cherry blossoms, but marked by many stains of different colors, most likely from painting.
She wore loose brown overalls with pockets filled with brushes and pencils, while her eyes were green flames that looked at him curiously.
She approached him with what he inferred to be a sheepish smile, which for her standards, was already a deeply apologetic look.
"It's okay, Thalia, I know you didn't mean any disrespect."
"Of course, Ainz-sama."
"But I must ask. When was the last time you cleaned yourself?"
Thalia looked remarkably unkempt, like she had just emerged from a deep seclusion.
"Hum… Last night?"
Not believing these words, Ainz looked at Aureole.
"I don't know when she last cleaned herself, but it's been 3 days since she left her studio, Ainz-sama." The miko answered while sporting a teasing smile.
It seems they are fairly close after all.
I'm glad.
"It was that long ago? I didn't even notice." Thalia muttered, seemingly amused by this information.
"It's just that it's a bit troublesome to remember these things, and I think my time is better spent on work."
"Is that so? And what have you been working on?"
"Oh! It's something Nethys asked me to do." Thalia then handed him the paper she had been working on.
It was named 'Training Tower', and depicted a 5-story building with many training facilities in it, as well as a dormitory.
"She said that it's difficult to train the prisoners on the 5th floor because of the cold, so she asked me to create a place where even those humans could survive. I was going to complete it before submitting the plan for your approval, Ainz-sama."
She then began pointing to different parts of the tower, explaining what each meant, while also outlining her plans to achieve insulation even in those harsh temperatures.
Listening to her explanation, Ainz's interest was piqued.
He asked for some clarification on certain points while also presenting his own ideas.
Thalia responded with enthusiasm, and soon they were locked in a heated discussion. Before he noticed, he was already sitting on the desk with Thalia, working on the blueprint for this tower.
Time passed as they continued brainstorming ideas and revising the plan, and only after they made the final stroke on the paper did he finally notice what they were doing.
He turned to Aureole.
"How long have we been doing this?"
"For about two hours, Ainz-sama." The girl answered with a half-smile.
"Sorry for leaving you waiting, Aureole."
"I don't mind. Seeing you happy was a delight, Ainz-sama."
"Well, since Shalltear and Pandora's Actor are waiting, I will try to be brief. Follow me outside."
After they left the studio, he opened a [Gate], and from it emerged a group of 30 skeletons and 5 Elder Liches.
"These are some of the undead I created. 30 Skeleton Craftsman of level 15, and 5 Elder Liches of level 22. From here on, they are your subordinates, Thalia. You are to train them and use them to execute your projects."
"Wow! Thank you, Ainz-sama! I loved it!" Thalia hugged him before turning to her new subordinates, with the light in her eyes flickering in excitement.
"I'll send more of them your way in the future. Your ideas are too good to be left as only paper, so I trust you'll use your abilities to bring the infrastructure of Nazarick and my new territories to new heights. Also, you can use them to help you with your hygiene, since you find it so bothersome."
"Of course, Ainz-sama, you don't need to worry about that." She rubbed her hands in expectation.
It seems nothing excites her more than her little projects, huh?
Were it not for that painting above her desk, and I might even get a bit jealous.
Above Thalia's desk, there was a large painting of the Throne Room.
On it, he was depicted sitting on the throne, while all his creations stood at his sides.
Seeing as how it looked like a family photo, Ainz was confident that Thalia viewed him and the others as her kin, so there was no need to doubt her affection towards them.
"It's good that you liked it, but this wasn't even the main reason why I came here."
"You see, I intend to embark on a journey to E-Rantal while posing as a hero, so I want you to create a painting of the most heroic figure you can conceive for me to base my appearance on."
As soon as he finished talking, Thalia sprinted into the Studio, seemingly looking for something.
After waiting for 5 minutes, she emerged carrying a scroll.
"Here, Ainz-sama, a painting of the most heroic figure I can conceive." Thalia handed him the scroll and then looked at him in anticipation.
Upon opening the scroll, Ainz saw a painting of himself sitting on a throne over a gigantic undead dragon. With his Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown in hand, the Ainz in the painting looked menacingly at him.
"Hum… It's really very heroic. It's hard to think of anything that could topple that." Aureole Omega took a look at the painting and shared her opinion.
Maybe in all of Nazarick, he wouldn't find someone who would disagree with this statement.
"Ha ha ha, thank you for your praise, but this is not exactly what I was asking for."
"You see, I intend to disguise myself as a human on this trip using illusion magic, so what I want is a human face that looks heroic and can represent me while I stay in this role."
His goal was to pose as an adventurer while infiltrating E-Rantal, and he figured that using a mask all the time would only make him look suspicious, so he would need to use illusion magic to make people think he was human from time to time.
In all of Nazarick, Thalia was the best artist by far, so he decided to ask for her help with this.
"I see…" Thalia answered with some gravitas.
"Well, if you understand it, please make one for me as soon as possible. Now I really need to go, bye."
And with that, he teleported.
…
"This is going to be hard," Thalia said.
"Indeed," and Aureole agreed.
Thalia looked through the many paintings of Ainz she had in her studio, feeling the difficulty of the task ahead of her.
"How am I supposed to come up with a human form befitting of Ainz-sama by myself?"
This was a mission of the highest degree, one that would test her abilities as an artist to their fullest extent, and one that could very well result in her being branded as a traitor if she failed.
"Ainz-sama is too kind to take it out on me, but Albedo would probably try to kill me if the end result is not up to her standards, maybe Shalltear would too. What should I do, Aury?"
"I don't know. If you're afraid Albedo and Shalltear won't like it, why not ask for their help? In this way, they will have to accept whatever you make."
"Hum… That might work, but in this case, I'll also ask for my sisters' opinions, since I think they would like to participate."
They would probably feel offended if I included those two and not them, right?
"Do you want me to call my sisters too?"
The Pleiades? Those five could really help. Not to mention that if Aureole is going to help, then I can't exclude them.
Ugh. Thinking about who to include is annoying.
"Let's just call everybody. The importance of the task justifies that."