Dreams and Books

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"It's been a while, hasn't it..."

Ainz was groggy, confused. He was surrounded by dark, and now, here he was hearing disembodied voices.

The worst part was, the voice was familiar. Not just vaguely but extremely.

A voice he could recognise anywhere.

"Momonga."

From the dark came a figure, tall and dark in his silhouette. His voice resonated around them.

Ainz wanted to run to him. To feel, once more, the kinship of the guild.

Alas, he felt no body of his own to move. So he settled with words

"W-Why are you here, my friend?"

The figure was silent for a moment.

Ainz felt... dry.

"I have a question for you. Friend."

His tone when he said 'friend' made Ainz's heart shake within his chest.

The figure began to walk closer.

Ainz could hear the metallic echo of armour before he saw the holy knight.

They stood across from one another over a black void.

Looking down, one saw nothing, not even a platform for them to stand on.

Ainz turned his eyes back to his oldest friend.

"What is your question, Touch Me."

"What have you done!"

Ainz was very taken aback.

"W-What?"

"You have committed countless atrocities! In our our name! So I ask you once more, what. Have. You. Done?"

Ainz stammered for an answer.

He stopped and looked down at the void.

He closed his eyes, now ready to answer. Ready to look his friend in the eye.

But when he opened them, touch me was gone.

He was now, instead, standing in the empty throne room of nazarick.

He stood directly in front of the throne.

A sudden sense of familiarity washed over him, and he sat down on the throne, his head in his hands.

It was only at this moment that Ainz realised he was once more a skeleton.

"What the hell is going on."

"Guilt?"

A small voice suggested from nearby, a British accent clear in it.

Ainz looked up to see a small, thin figure walk out from behind a pillar.

He was rather surprised to see Kenny Winters.

He looked as he did when Ainz first took over his body.

Dishevelled, greasy, tired.

Blood stained around his mouth.

Guilt? He felt no real guilt. The things he did were always the measured reaction, at least from his point of view. Always in the best interest of Nazarick or of finding his guild mates.

The boy walked closer until he stood at the bottom of the steps leading to the throne.

"Are you even real? Is any of this real?"

The boy tilted his head and looked at him almost pityingly.

"Who's to say."

He looked around.

"But... thanks. Y'know, for fulfilling my wish."

"Your wish?"

The boy looked to the ground, a sad but content smile on his face.

"I, uhm, wished I was stronger. Strong enough to control my own fate. I didn't get that exactly, but I get to live through you."

"Why did you say I felt guilty?"

"I know you, Suzuki Satoru. You're a human like me. You've killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of people directly or indirectly to further your own ends."

Ainz leaned back in his throne.

"Do you resent me for that? For killing other humans?"

Kenny walked up to the throne and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of Ainz, looking up at him like a child.

"No. No, I don't. You were the strongest. Your goals were, therefore, the most important."

Ainz leaned down over the boy. He placed his hand on Kenny's head and ruffled his white hair.

"I find it sad that a child like you has come to view the world in such a gloomy light."

He moved his hand back to rest on the arm of the throne.

"Kenny Winters. I'm not certain that what I am experiencing now is real. But you have reminded me that I, too, am human. When I return to the real world, is there anything you'd like me to do?"

Kenny looked at Ainz as if he had planned for this. As if he wanted Ainz to ask this all along but knew that he'd have to do something in return.

"If it's not too much trouble, could you... look after my mum?"

Ainz looked down at him.

"Is that truly all you wish?"

Kenny nodded.

"Like I said, you're strong. You can do as you please. If you wanted to, there'd be nothing to stop you from killing my mother or making her your subordinate. Just please, look after her."

Ainz looked down at him.

"Alright. I'll take care of her."

After that, Kenny smiled at Ainz. He didn't look around, as Ainz did, when the space around them began to crack and shatter like glass.

Just as Ainz was confronted by a blinding white light, he heard Kenny's voice echo around him once more.

"Thank you."

Ainz now opened his eyes and found he was back in hogwarts. Back as Kenny.

November rolled in fast, and with it, the cold weather.

Outside the slytherin's common room, in the dungeons was almost unforgivably cold.

Luckily, the common room and the dorm rooms were heated.

Unluckily, for Kenny anyway, quidditch season was here.

Suzuki Satoru wasn't a sports fan, and neither was Ainz Ooal Gown nor is Kenny Winters, for that matter.

So he took no notice of the fuss over Harry being made seeker. He was entirely unbothered by Draco prattling on and on about quidditch.

And he made no bones about his disinterest in the topic.

Whenever Draco or Daphne or even any of his classmates tried to engage him in the topic, he gave only small, disinterested responses.

As such, he spent most of his time in the library, reading up on history books about any mention of Nazarick or its denizens. He was also adding books about dreams.

It would seem that modern magic had quite a bit to do with dreams.

So, here he was. Once more, trodding around the library as if he owned it with stacks of books in his arms while all but the whole school, including its faculty, was out in the quidditch pitch, watching gryffindor face slytherin.

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