ALL NOVEL Christmas special: Eryuentiu and some fun times, part one (15)
Christmas special: Eryuentiu and some fun times
Aeskell walked down the halls of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. She had been a part of this place for mostly a year now. The halls had become the halls of her home, the NPCs that walked through it were now than that to her now, they were her allies, real people.
And today was a special day, it was Christmas Eve. As anybody would know, this was a very special day for anyone who had family. She had lost her family in the past, but now she had found another.
As she walked down the hall, she nodded her head in respect to the maids that walked down it. They did not celebrate Christmas as she would have liked, but she wasn’t their mom. She couldn’t tell them what to celebrate in their hearts and what to not celebrate.
Though they saw her as one of their leaders, they would always be a bit curter when talking to her than Ainz, like a stepson to a stepfather. It made her rather sad in all honesty.
But as she neared her own room, as she had not just teleported there so as to see the people working their jobs and give them encouragement. Of course, they responded with courtesy, but it still had an underlying curtness. It was a little aggravating to her how they seemed to think of her; but whatever.
Anyway, as she neared her own room, she noticed the door was open. That, in and of itself, was strange. She always closed her door. Maybe she had forgotten this time around? Oh well, now she didn’t have to waste her energy opening it and she could just push it open.
But as she was about to, she heard someone in her room. They were hiding their presence from her. That was a rather hard thing to do, as she specialized in passive identification magic. She peered into the room through the crack in the door and she smiled.
Someone was actually dressed up as Santa. And what was even stranger was she was pretty sure it was Ainz. He stood around a Christmas tree she had set up earlier and she was going to put presents under it, but it looked like he had beaten her to it.
Now, Ainz wasn’t the most festive person, but he loved the tomb and the children of his friends who used to play Yggdrasil. As such, he tried to show them the merriment of celebrating Christmas together.
It was honestly quite wholesome and made all the horrible things he’s done kind of worth it, to see the children of the tomb happy. But she was getting ahead of herself; what was he doing in her room? As she looked at the dark interior she flicked on the magical light switch.
The Authur isn’t quite sure if that is cannon but whatever. Ainz was startled by this, and he whipped around. If his skeletal face could flush in embarrassment he would. The stuffing he had put under his Santa suit started to fall out after this, and Aeskell could see it falling out of his top and she giggled at him as he tried to put it back in.
“Ainz, you look surprisingly good in a Santa Costume. What are you doing in my room though?” she asked with a slight upturned brow.
He took a minute to get all the stuffing back in his fake belly. Then, he looked at her, but turned away slightly. He took a deep breath on reflex.
“Well, you see, I was just putting your Christmas presents under the tree. I got some for all the NPCs, even the regular maids so I thought I would get you some too. But I didn’t have anything so right now I was putting boxes under your tree as like… kind of a prelude to the thing… I thought it was a good plan,” he mumbled out in mild embarrassment.
A light blush came upon her cheeks and her lips turned up in a small smile. He cared so much for his children that it was kind of hard to imagine him sparing any care for her or anyone else.
“Ainz, I didn’t even think you would get anything for me. I haven’t even been talking about what I wanted for Christmas at all. But you still tried to do something, that’s all someone could ask for,” shew told him with a rather calm and soothing voice.
He then looked around at the room as if looking at it for the first time. Then again, he hadn’t been in this room since he had given it to her. The walls had been covered in a couple of pictures of her screenshots she had in her inventory from her past in her old guild.
On the dressers were different items that she had been given by her past friends, or things she had picked up in her time in the new world. Such as a glowing red orb that seemed like it didn’t want to be here. Or the skull of woman she had killed when she dissed Ainz.
Then again, all that stuff was stuff from the beginning of their time in this new world, this new land. Some of the old stuff seemed to catch his eye, and he looked at it like he wasn’t expecting it. There, on the wall above her desk, was a picture of her old guildmates, on the last Christmas they had spent together.
She noticed this and her gaze took on a sullen look, like she had just eaten a lemon. She walked over to him and then locked eyes with his glowing, red flames. Her gaze then seemed to soften a bit, as if him being here made the memories of that time they separated better.
“Ainz, do you know what was the last Christmas I have ever had with friends or family was?” he shook his skull of a head, “it was when I was with them.”
She pointed to the picture, as if mocking it, “you know my grandfather had died before I started playing the game. I had never played a MMO before, let alone the MMO that everyone knew of. I mostly played western RPGs,” she sighed and brought her hand down, as if the flame of the pain of losing her friends had been snuffed before it was even formed.
“I…”
…
As Kane walked down the hall of the castle, he thought about something. Would anyone like his gifts? Would anyone even give each other gifts this year? Those were questions that he didn’t really know the answer to.
He then got to the guild hall, the place where they were all going to celebrate such an event. He was part of a guild with eight other people. They called themselves the Nine Grand Kings. They were a group of people who all wanted more in life.
Except for him. He simply wanted family; he didn’t need money. Well, he did, but he had a rather well-paying job. No, he wanted friends to have fun with, people who would listen to his ideas on many different topics. These guys only did that sparsely.
Though he hoped they would start to get along better soon. He wanted someone to talk to. It was lonely without his grandfather. He had died a while ago now. The thoughts of his grandfather made him think about how he used to act, back when he was a little brat and his grandfather had shown him the world of books, of different worlds that others had made.
It had changed the little brat that had been him, to the rather normal, or at least Kane hoped was normal, human.
But that was in the past now, and all he wanted to do was share the worlds he found, the ideas he had, the world he wished to mold with his friends. He then came across his friend and fellow guild mate, Hougen.
He was an elf player, and all of them were usually kind of competitive. At least, that was the stereotype. He had white hair, and heterochromatic eyes. His tall player avatar was a bit lacky, but it fit him.
Hougen was kind of a dick if Kane was being honest. He thought himself better than a lot of other people because he was minimaxed for the rapier. But other than that, he was a rather respectable guy.
Though he did think that Kane was a girl because of his avatar, and even when he told him otherwise, and even turned off his voice changer, he was unconvinced. But whatever…
As the rest of them piled into the guild hall, Kane turned to look at the rest of his guild mates and allies. There was… but it was then that he noticed something, a tear running down his cheek…
And another…
And yet another…
Yet more came from her eyes…
“I…” Aeskell stopped her story to looked at her hands as thew water came flooding form her face.
It was like a waterfall had sprung up from her. She kept crying, and crying, she could not stop. Why? She was kicked out! They had left her! SHE HATED THEM!!!
Ainz then pulled her into an embrace. He knew how she was feeling right now, his dear friends had left. Yes sure, they hadn’t had such a one-sided argument, but there had been one. It had taken longer as well, for them all to leave. But he knew this feeling.
It was abandonment, she was left behind, and him being here, him pointing out that photo had caused her to cascade like this once more. It was just like their first meeting with each other.
“I’m here now, I won’t leave you Aeskell,” he told her with the calmest voice he could muster.
…