Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 60

The Servant of the Shield, Mashu, is currently lying on her bed trying to appear as small as possible. She is sitting down on the bed while holding her legs close to her chest and casting her eyes downward. Quite the miserable picture for a Servant, fitting for a failure like her

"Hey," A voice that she wanted to hear the least right now called out, "Mashu..."

"Senpai..." - Mashu wanted to call out to Ainz, she wanted to call out to her Senpai... And yet she was not sure that she was qualified to call him that. Her non-existent strengths and her lack of accomplishments made her woefully unqualified to call the Magician as a Senpai. She felt in herself none of the rights to try to even call out to Ainz in such a familiar way. However... She dearly wanted to.

Mashu did not lift her head when Ainz entered her tent, therefore she did not see the wry expression on Ainz's face, but she did hear his long drawn sigh and felt his presence when he sat next to her. She however could no longer try to pretend that it was simply a figment of her imagination, of her longing, when Ainz put a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of support .

"What happened?" Ainz asked the question well aware of the answer to it. Mashu was unexpectedly ambushed, lost her fight and nearly died, having received several wounds that could easily be fatal to a normal person. After which she was saved solely due to the intervention of Cainabel - the one whom she sincerely disliked and possibly even hated, but a person who could easily, insultingly so, defeat an enemy who had previously fought with Mashu on an equal footing.

"I lost..." Mashu lifted her head, faced Ainz, and answered with apprehension.

Yup, Ainz was spot on.

"Yes, that indeed happened...," Ainz sighed. Not that he has much else to say to Mashu without resorting to blatant lies - "But you should not blame yourself. You fought against Altera. I do not think that there would be many other Servants capable of facing her."

"I didn't lose to Altera..." Mashu replied glumly, lowering her gaze to the floor again, "I lost to Spartacus."

"Hmm..." - Ainz sighed, - "Spartacus was the greatest gladiator of Rome, he had dozens of years of fighting experience. After becoming a Servant his strength increased even more. In comparison you were a normal human before becoming a Servant... A month and a half ago? For such a short period of training, you have achieved enough power and experience that you could fight on equal footing with Spartacus. That is worthy of praise..."

Ainz sighed. A month and a half, hmm... If one were to compare that period of time in Yggdrasil a dedicated player could get to level eighty, if he played a lot and knew what to do, not least of course, is his build. The eightieth level and proper build would allow them to defeat Spartacus without any effort. But these were the rules of a game, where in a week a player could reach the fortieth level, and translating the fortieth level into reality... This would mean, at best, a nation-level threat, where a nation would need to deploy their armies to even stand a chance. To compare such things to this reality, where a person who wants to become twice as powerful requires years of training would be simply ridiculous. A month and a half of training, and from an ordinary civilian girl to a Servant who was able to restrain Spartacus and maybe defeat him, a somewhat strong Berserker. It was more than worthy of respect.

"But I could have won," Mashu shook her head, and then she closed her eyes.

"That is more of a philosophical question than a practical one," Ainz sighed. Yes, she could. Easily even, if Spartacus had simply stood still Mashu could have easily been able to defeat him - or if Mashu had a powerful offensive Noble Phantasm - or under a dozen other conditions. But this was simply an afterthought - an excellent training tactic, but far from the best thing to mule over for a person's emotional state.