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Overlord - Chapter 10
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1
There were two main routes carriages could take heading from E-Rantel toward the village of Carne to the northeast. They could go north and then follow the forest to the east, or they could start off going east and change course to head north. This time, the group chose the former.
Going along the forest made the monster-encounter rate slightly higher, so it was technically the wrong choice for an escort job. But the reason they did it was the monster-hunting work Ainz originally agreed to take on with Peter and his crew. There was the risk of chasing two hares and catching neither, but everyone felt secure in knowing that the powerful Momon and Nabe were there, so they chose that route. The Lightning Ainz had had Narberal cast once they were outside the city as proof she could use tier-three magic had surely helped put them at ease.
In any case, they weren’t going deep into the forest, just out to the plains, so they wouldn’t run into any terribly powerful monsters. Since they would be more than able to deal with them, they decided it would be a good chance to verify each team’s abilities in actual combat.
They left E-Rantel when the sun was a bit past its peak. Far in the distance they could see a ****** forest so dense it looked like a dark green lump. The thick trees stood straight up, and because their magnificent branches spread out and blocked the sun, visibility inside the forest was poor, and it almost felt as though one were being swallowed up by the darkness. The gaps between trees inspired terrible uneasiness—they seemed almost like gaping maws waiting for prey to jump in.
The party was arranged with the cart in the center. The driver was Nfirea, naturally, and the others proceeded in a formation where Lukrut the ranger was out front, Peter the warrior was on the left flank, druid Dyne and caster Ninya took the right, and Ainz and Narberal brought up the rear.
They hadn’t been terribly cautious, partly because visibility was good, but now for the first time Peter spoke in a slightly harder tone. “Momon, we’re entering a bit of a dangerous area. I don’t think there will be any monsters we can’t handle, but be on your guard, just in case.”
“Understood.” As he nodded, Ainz suddenly thought of something.
In a game, the monsters a player could encounter in a specific area were set, but there was no way that would hold in real life. God only knows what kind of tricky enemies we’ll be up against.
Ainz was confident in his own strength after the battle at Carne and based on the info they were able to get out of the Sunlit Scripture members they’d caught. But that was confidence as a caster. At the present moment, Ainz could hardly cast any spells because he was wearing a suit of armor. With his specialty removed from the picture, would he be able to perform as the vanguard everyone was counting on him to be? Also, since this was an escort job, it wasn’t simply a matter of defeating monsters—he had to add keeping Nfirea alive to the victory conditions. Thinking about all of that made him a little anxious.
If push came to shove, he would ditch the armor and handle the situation with magic, but then he would either have to kill his party or use memory manipulation on them, so he didn’t want that to happen. It’d be a pain.
Ainz moved his head to look over at Narberal. She noticed him and nodded once. They’d planned so that she would cast spells higher than tier three—up to tier five—if it became necessary. Hopefully that would take care of things. If it didn’t, then Ainz would take off his armor and get just a little bit serious.
Lukrut seemed to have misunderstood something about the pair’s eye contact (even though Ainz was still wearing his close helmet), and he called out to them in his jokey way, “We’re fiiine. You don’t need to worry so much. As long as we don’t get ambushed, nothing bad’ll happen, and as long as I’m our eyes and ears, that’s no problemo. Right, Nabe? Aren’t I amazing?”
He pulled a gallant face, and Narberal laughed derisively. “May I have permission to beat that mosquito to a pulp, Mr. Momon?”
“That’s cold, but I’ll take it!” Everyone looked annoyed as he stuck his thumb up, but no one seemed to think anything of Nabe speaking so severely. Luckily they seemed to have interpreted it as her looking down on Lukrut, not calling the entire human race lower life-forms.
Ainz dismissed her entreaty and felt like he had an ache in his nonexistent stomach. You’re traveling with humans! Be a tiny bit more discreet!
Nfirea must have understood his body language differently. He jumped in to say, “We’re all right. Actually, from here to around Carne is the territory of the mighty magical beast known as the Wise King of the Forest, so it’s very rare for other monsters to show up.”
“The Wise King of the Forest?” Ainz recalled what he’d found out in Carne. The Wise King of the Forest was supposedly a magical beast who possessed a terrible amount of power and could even cast spells. He lived so deep in the forest that there were next to no eyewitness accounts, but tales of his existence had been passed down since long, long ago. One account said he was a silver, four-legged beast with the tail of a snake who had lived for hundreds of years.
I’d like to meet this guy. That story’s hard to swallow, but if he’s really that old, he might have a crazy amount of wisdom. I mean, he’s called the Wise King of the Forest! Capturing him…should help strengthen Nazarick’s position. Ainz vaguely remembered what the magical beast looked like. The Wise King of the Forest…I’m pretty sure there was an extinct animal called something like that… It looked kinda like a monkey… Oh, right, an orangutan. A person…er, a wise man, who lived in the woods…? With a tail like a snake…? I think there was a monster like that. Ainz thought there had been something like that in Yggdrasil, and then he realized what it was. A chimera! Pretty sure that had the face of a monkey, the body of a badger, the limbs of a tiger, and the tail of a snake… I don’t know for sure that this’ll be the Yggdrasil monster, but if this is anything like those angel summons, there’s a good chance.
As Ainz was recalling everything he knew about Yggdrasil’s chimera, Lukrut was casually talking to Narberal again. “Mm, okay, I gotta do a flawless job so that lovely Nabe will like me more.”
Narberal’s response was a click of her tongue that seemed to contain all the hatred from the bottom of her heart.
Lukrut appeared shocked, but no one moved to console him. It seemed they had started considering the pair’s back-and-forth a comedy act.
Chatting like that now and then, the party continued on, the scorching sun at their backs. As they tramped through the grass, some of the juices from the crushed plants stuck to their leather boots, giving off a green smell.
Watching everyone mop their sweat, Ainz was thankful for his undead body, which had no trouble at all with the sun beating down and didn’t tire out even though he was wearing heavy armor.
Lukrut continued to be the one to break the silence with his perky remarks. “You guys don’t have to be on the lookout so much. I got my eyes open! I mean, check out Nabe—she’s totally relaxed because she believes in me.”
“Not you. It’s because of Mr. Momon.” Creases appeared in her brow. Sensing that in another second or two she’d explode and do something outrageous, Ainz laid a hand on her shoulder and her expression softened immediately.
Seeing that, Lukrut had a question for them. “Heyyy, are you sure you two aren’t actually lovers?”
“L-lovers?! What are you talking about?! He has Mistress Albedo!”
“You—” Ainz blurted. “Watch your mouth, Nabe!”
“Ah!” Narberal’s eyes popped wide open, and she slapped her hands over her mouth.
Ainz cleared his throat and spoke in a cold voice. “…Lukrut. Could I ask you to please not inquire any further?”
“…Oh. Sorry about that. I was just joking. Hmm, so you’re with someone already, huh?” Lukrut didn’t seem very sorry as he bobbed his head, but Ainz wasn’t so mad at him. This time Narberal had been too careless.
He wondered if he’d brought the wrong person, but he was going nuts in his head because there wasn’t anyone else for him to mobilize. In Ainz Ooal Gown, all the members were grotesques, and almost all the NPCs they’d created were also grotesques, so there was almost no one who could infiltrate a human city. Narberal was one of the few who had a human appearance, even though it was fake…but Ainz hadn’t taken her personality into consideration when he’d picked her. Looking back, Lupusregina Beta, also a member of the Pleiades, might have been more suitable, but it was too late now.
Narberal was looking pale in the face following her error, so Ainz patted her back a few times to make her feel better. A great boss forgave his subordinates their first mistake. He would just let her have it if it happened again. Having her get all depressed and listless about it could impinge on her performance going forward and that would only make things worse.
And after all, she had only said Albedo’s name. It probably wasn’t even necessary to manipulate anyone’s memories.
“Lukrut, cut the chatter and focus on keeping watch.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Momon, I apologize for my friend’s behavior. He knows he shouldn’t be asking personal questions.”
“It’s okay. As long as it doesn’t happen again, I’m fine overlooking it this time.”
Both of them looked simultaneously at Lukrut’s back, only to be discouraged by hearing him say, “Ahh, now Nabe hates me. Her affection for me is negative!”
“That idiot… I’ll give him a good talking-to later. And we’ll pretend we never heard that earlier detail.”
“Ah well, okay. Thanks. And then if Lukrut’s on watch, I’d like to leave it to him and take the opportunity to talk a bit.”
“Sure, go ahead. We’ll make him work to offset the trouble he caused.”
Peter smiled and Ainz moved to walk alongside Ninya and Dyne. In exchange, Dyne dropped back to line up with Narberal.
“I’d like to ask you a few things about magic…” Ninya said that was fine, so Ainz asked a question. Nfirea looked on, seeming to have taken an interest in their conversation. “People being manipulated with charm or dominate spells end up giving up all the intelligence they have, but is there a spell that, as a counter to that, would cause someone to die if they were asked the same question multiple times under certain circumstances?”
“I’ve never heard of a spell like that.”
Ainz moved his head to look at Nfirea through his helmet.
“Me neither. You might be able to do a delayed cast using magic modification buffs.”
“I see…” That wasn’t the answer he’d been hoping for. He was no closer to solving the issue of how to use the remaining Sunlit Scripture prisoners.
There weren’t very many survivors left, and using them up for nothing would be a pity. In order to see if they had some magic medical device that would make them disappear when they died, Ainz had had a few of them dissected live, but it had been a pretty big waste. If things were going to end up like that, then he should have tried to get info out of them once he realized they would die. He missed three chances per captive to get information out of them.
But Nigun was the biggest waste. Using him first had been a mistake. He was the man with the most intelligence among them, and he’d been finished off on such a simple question.
Well, it hadn’t been all for nothing. That failure led to the understanding that he wouldn’t be able to deal with everything in this world using the knowledge he’d cultivated in Yggdrasil. It was better to consider things optimistically—he had learned a lot.
While Ainz was thinking absentmindedly on those things, Ninya continued his answer. “Still, I only know a fraction of all the spells that exist. In countries that cultivate casters on a national level, it’s possible they’ve created that sort of spell. In the Slane Theocracy, for instance, they train priests—casters who use faith magic—and in the Baharuth Empire they have an academy for arcaners, sorcerers, wizards, and other arcane-magic classes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Argland Council State had some kind of magic using the dragons’ wisdom.”
“I see. So you wouldn’t be surprised if it existed.”
The Argland Council State, according to the information he’d gathered so far, was a subhuman nation governed by a group of councilors. Given the Slane Theocracy’s principle of human superiority, the two nations were a conflict waiting to happen. The council state was especially known for its five dragon councilors, who were said to possess great power.
Ainz was interested in that country, but since he was still not all the way on his feet, he couldn’t quite get there at the moment, especially given the sharp drop in Nazarick’s war potential.
“Okay, then, there’s something else I’d like to ask.” Asking Ninya his other questions, Ainz felt very satisfied.
The other members of the Swords of Darkness only looked at him to note that Ainz was at it again. He’d gotten Ninya, Peter, and the others to tell him so much that it had become a routine. He learned about a myriad of topics such as magic, martial arts, adventurers, nearby countries, and so on. He had to be careful about what he asked, but everything he heard was extremely useful, and he was confident that his knowledge about the world had increased a great deal.
But it still wasn’t enough. Every time he learned something, the things he needed to know multiplied. That was especially the case with magic. He was surprised by how different things were in a world based on magic.
One thing that was especially affected was the level of civilization. It appeared to be something like the Middle Ages, when in fact it was probably closer to premodern or in some cases nearly modern. Supporting this level of technology was magic.
Once Ainz realized that, he gave up thinking too hard about the progress of technology. For someone who had lived in a world with scientific technology, it was impossible to think too deeply about this world with its entirely different system. They even had magic to produce spices like salt and sugar, as well as magic to return nutritive value to the soil to avoid damaging it by replanting the same crops over and over.
On top of that, he wasn’t sure if it was true or false, but he’d heard that the ocean wasn’t salty—that was how far this world departed from Ainz’s common sense.
How long had he been cautiously satisfying his curiosity when—?
“Something moved,” Lukrut announced abruptly with palpable tension in his voice. None of the silliness from the tone he used when talking to Narberal was present; this was the voice of an experienced pro adventurer. Everyone immediately readied their weapons in the direction Lukrut was looking.
“Where is it?”
“There. Right there.” Lukrut pointed in response to Peter’s question to a part of the giant forest. Since it was shaded by trees, it was difficult to see inside, and there was no sign of anything there. Even so, no one doubted him.
“It’d be pushing it to just rush in there, so unless it comes out of the woods, let’s ignore it.”
“Well, it’s probably smart to follow our plan and have Nfirea move back.”
While they were talking, the forest stirred and the monsters slowly came into view. There were fifteen small creatures about as tall as children. Surrounding them were six large ones.
The smaller ones were subhumans called goblins. They had flattened noses, and two little fangs stuck up out of their mouths, which seemed almost like big rips in their squashed faces. Their skin was light brown. Their messy, oily clumps of grimy hair were black. It was hard to tell if their raggedy dark brown clothing was dyed or just dirty. Over it, they wore animal hides in place of armor. Each carried a wooden club in one hand and a small shield in the other. They were like a cross between a human and a monkey, with a handful of viciousness on top.
Each of the fewer, larger monsters stood between around seven and a half to almost ten feet tall. With their jaws jutting way forward, their faces were imbecility incarnate. Their arms bulging with muscles brought to mind large trees, and their hands nearly reached the ground, although their stooped backs helped. They carried clubs that looked like they had ripped them straight off a tree and wore untanned animal skins around their waists. Their horrid stench seemed to waft all the way to where the adventurers were. Their warty skin was darkish brown and their pecs and abs were built. From the look of them, they seemed quite strong, and the overall impression they made was of big, hairless chimpanzees with a warped twist. These monsters were of the subhuman race known as ogres.
Almost all of them were carrying bags that looked to be made of rags. They must have been migrating some distance.
The monsters looked over the party of adventurers and then began stepping out onto the grass. They were still some distance away, but the hostile looks on their ugly faces could be read easily enough.
“…There are quite a lot of them, huh? We’re not going to be able to avoid a fight at this rate.”
“Yeah, goblins and ogres tend to go on the attack when they see they outnumber their opponents. Or rather, they’re too stupid to evaluate their opponent’s strength on anything besides numbers—what a pain.”
Ainz understood his situation, and things had definitely sunk in, but he still cocked his head slightly at how different from a game it felt. The goblins and ogres all had individualized features, whether it be their height or the darkness of their skin. In other words, they weren’t all identical. That made him feel like he was facing twenty-one unfamiliar monsters.
“Reality is no game,” he lamented in a voice the others couldn’t hear. He was seized by the feeling he used to get when hurtling into a new area without reading a strategy guide and clashing with monsters he’d never heard of; it reminded him of the things he’d realized during the battle of Carne.
“So, Momon.”
“…Oh, what is it?”
“We said we’d have you take half of them, so how would you like to divide them up?”
“We can’t just split into our two teams and kill them as they come?”
“That’ll get complicated if they all bunch up on one team. Nabe, is it possible for you to take out all the goblins at once with an area-of-effect spell like Fireball?”
“I can’t use Fireball. The spell I have with the most firepower is probably Lightning.”
So it’s that kind of setup, Ainz murmured in his head.
“Lightning pierces in a straight line, right?”
“In that case, if we managed to get them all lined up, could you shoot through them from the side?”
“We’d have to have someone preventing them from charging…”
“Oh, I’ll take care of that. But most importantly, Nfirea’s in the cart—can everyone else protect him?”
“Momon…?”
“I’d be all talk if I had trouble with a couple ogres. I’ll show you how easy it is to butcher these guys.”
The Swords of Darkness members understood what Ainz, in a voice brimming with confidence, was saying and were relieved that they felt they could trust him.
“Got it. That said, we shouldn’t be allowing the enemy to charge, either. We’ll back you up as much as we can.”
“Um, do you need any support magic?”
“Oh, we’re fine. You should support your teammates.”
“Okay, I’ll do that. Everyone, if we engage here, we’re close to the forest, so there’s a chance they’ll run away.”
“Then let’s do what we always do! We’ll draw them out just like yankin’ a turtle’s head out of its shell!”
“Oh, that’s a fine plan. So Momon is blocking the charge, but how should we deal with the ones who get by, Peter?”
“I’ll trap the ogres with the martial art Fortress. Dyne, you deal with any goblins that slip through. Ninya, cast defensive magic on me. After that, although it might not be necessary, pay attention to how Nabe is faring while you focus on using attack magic. Lukrut, pick off any goblins you can. If any ogres get by, get in their way. In that case, Ninya, prioritize cleaning up the goblins.” Everyone took Peter’s orders simply by exchanging firm nods. The battle plan was coming together quite smoothly. They were really on the same wavelength.
Impressed, Ainz couldn’t help but sigh. He remembered his days in Yggdrasil. He and his guildmates had also been on the same wavelength when they went out grinding together. Decoy, pull, block, select targets—the kind of team play that can only be done when all the members know one another’s abilities inside out.
Maybe Ainz was biased, but he didn’t think chemistry like that was so easy to create; that said, he caught a glimpse of it in the Swords of Darkness, even if they weren’t as in sync as his old friends.
“Momon, do you need any backup from us besides magic?”
“No, that won’t be necessary. We’re fine as the two of us.”
“You’re…really confident, huh?”
Ainz could sense some worry in Peter’s tone—Are you really going to be all right? If the block were easily broken, they were in danger of being wiped out one by one. He was uneasy about that.
They weren’t playing a game—lives would be taken.
“You’ll understand once we get started.” With that as his only response, Ainz cut the conversation short. “If your team is ready to go, we can start the fight.”
Lukrut drew his composite longbow. The creaking of the bowstring stopped, and then came the bing of it slicing through the air. The loosed arrow flew straight across the grass and landed about ten yards from the goblins, who were on the move. They had put their shields up and were slowly closing the distance, but in response to Lukrut’s sudden attack, they jeered. They were laughing at him because he missed. Of course, they couldn’t hit a target more than 140 yards away, either, but they had conveniently forgotten that.
Then, the fact that they had been attacked and the overwhelming imbalance in respective numbers incited their inherent violence—so they all screamed and ran full speed, unthinking, toward Lukrut. The ogres also charged, after a short delay.
Having lost themselves in their thirst for blood, they had no formation and didn’t even take the defensive measure of keeping their shields up. There was nothing left inside their heads.
Noticing as much, Lukrut cracked a smile. “Heh.”
The distance separating them was about one hundred yards when he took his next shot. This one didn’t miss, but went through a goblin’s head. It was the one farthest to the rear; it tottered a few more steps forward before crumpling to the ground, dead.
The distance was closing before Lukrut’s eyes, but his hand nocking the next arrow showed no sign of nervousness; even if they got right on top of him, he knew he had a friend nearby who would protect him.
“Reinforce Armor!” With the sound of Ninya casting a defensive spell behind him, Lukrut loosed another arrow.
Another shot at sixty yards. Another pierced head, another goblin tumbling to the ground. Then Peter and Dyne started to move.
The goblins were nimble, but the ogres took larger steps, so there wasn’t much of a pace gap between the two groups. That said, they were running over about 110 yards of grass, so the ogres with their more powerful legs were out front and the goblins followed. Each group was spread out to some extent, making it difficult to capture very many of them in an area-of-effect spell.
But that was fine. Dyne’s first job was to trap an ogre.
“Twine Plant!” When he cast the spell, the grass under one ogre’s feet began to flail like a whip and twist around them. Restrained by plants tough as chains, the ogre began to get frustrated, and its roar resounded across the plain.
Into this scene at a leisurely pace walked Ainz, followed by Narberal. No one, looking at his gait, would imagine he was headed into a fight against charging monsters. It looked more like he was taking a stroll through the meadow than navigating a combat zone.
As the nearest ogre was getting closer, Ainz crossed his hands over opposite shoulders to clutch the hilts of his swords. Narberal put her hands under his cape to pull the sheaths off. Then the blades slowly appeared in two great, huge arcs.
Every one of the Swords of Darkness gasped at the dazzling spectacle.
The nearly five-foot swords Ainz gripped were so splendid they seemed like they might have more value as works of art than as weapons. The keen blades coldly gleamed, their tips spreading into fan shapes and their grooves engraved with a pattern resembling two intertwining snakes.
They were weapons a hero would wield, and Ainz had one in each hand. Seeing him like that caused all the Swords of Darkness to gasp again. If the previous gasp had been in admiration, this time they were knocked completely speechless.
Swords get heavier the longer they are—it was only natural. No matter what kind of spell was cast to lighten the load, swinging these around would have been no easy feat. After traveling with Ainz for a short time, they understood he was exceptionally strong, but the common sense they’d amassed up till then didn’t allow for the sight of him holding a great sword in each hand so comfortably.
But…
He swung them around into a fighting stance so easily they might have been twigs. He cut quite a majestic figure.
“Momon…you’re incredible…,” Peter gasped, representative of everyone’s shock. As a warrior himself, he’d just been instantly taught what kind of strength was possible, and it dawned on him how long he would have to train to achieve it. He’d had the vague notion that he and Ainz were on different levels, but having conclusive proof before his eyes gave him shivers that started in his toes.
Even goblins, with their lesser intelligence, seemed to realize they should be afraid. Their recklessly charging feet slowed, and they changed course to take a longer way around to Peter and the others. Only the ogres continued to barrel toward Ainz, too dim-witted to second-guess their strength.
As the distance closed, they raised their weapons. No matter how long Ainz’s swords were, the ogres were still huge and had better range with their equally huge clubs. It looked like the ogres would get the first attack, but then Ainz rushed at them.
He was like a hurricane. Then, in an even faster flash of silver, the sword in his right hand flew through the air as if it were cutting space itself.
The attack was too magnificent. Regardless of the fact that they hadn’t even been cut, everyone watching felt the sudden presence of death right beside them, so much so that every hair on their bodies stood on end. It was over in that single swing.
Ainz targeted a new ogre, leaving the one in front of him. As if waiting for him to move away, the upper body of the now stock-still first ogre slipped to the ground, leaving the lower body standing. The spray of blood, slop of innards, and diffusion of an awful stench throughout the area were the signs that this was neither a dream nor an illusion.
He’d cut the monster in two with a single diagonal stroke.
Although they were in the middle of a battle, both friends and foes froze to observe the riveting scene as if time had stopped.
A deadly blow—and one that would slice a monster as meaty as an ogre in half.
A “whoa” escaped someone’s lips. The battlefield had fallen so silent that everyone heard it.
“…I can’t believe it. He must be a mythril plate or maybe orichalcum—no… Could he be adamantite?”
To cut an opponent in two—it wasn’t an impossible move, per se. Someone who trained up a very targeted set of skills or who had a powerful magical weapon could probably pull it off. But to hold a gigantic, two-handed great sword in one hand and give it enough momentum to cut someone in half would be difficult. That was common sense. A two-handed sword was used with two hands and relied on mass and centrifugal force to cut—they weren’t about slicing and dicing with physical strength.
So the only way to explain what Ainz had just done was to conclude that his sword was endowed with incomparable magic, that he had more strength in one arm than most warriors had in two, or both.
The ogres that had stopped in their tracks, shocked by the scene in front of them, began to backpedal with fear written on their faces. Ainz advanced one step to fill in the distance.
“What’s the matter? Not going to attack?” His quiet, casual voice floated over the battlefield.
Even just that question scared the ogres—because they’d just seen how overwhelming the gap in strength was between Ainz and them.
Ainz moved in on a second ogre so quickly it was hard to believe he was wearing full plate armor.
“Uooogh!” The ogre raised a hoarse voice in what could have been either a shriek or a battle cry as it readied its club against Ainz, but anyone would have recognized it was moving too slowly.
As Ainz closed in, the great sword in his left hand moved as if he were going to lightly brush the ogre away. Its upper body went tumbling through the air to land somewhere completely different from its lower body.
He’d cut the monster in two with a single horizontal slice.
“Momon… Are you a monster?”
Witnessing another riveting scene, nobody had any objections to what Dyne had said.
“Okay, and as for the rest…” Ainz stepped forward, and the other ogres, ugly faces frozen in fear, moved farther back.
The goblins that had taken a large detour to the side got around and attacked Peter and the others. The Swords of Darkness had lost themselves in amazement but now had to spring into action.
Peter readied his broadsword and large shield and ran to meet the fourteen-plus goblins. The head of the one out in front went spinning off after a lunging swipe. Dodging the fountain of blood, Peter closed in on the rest of the goblins.
“Eat this!” A goblin bared its yellowed teeth as its foul, throaty scream filled the air. Peter easily took a goblin club strike with his shield. The hit that came from the side got blocked and repelled with a loud crack thanks to the magic reinforcing his armor.
“Magic Arrow!” Two glowing shots of magic nailed the goblin trying to hit Peter from behind, and it collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut.
Half of the goblins surrounding Peter ran at the remaining three Swords of Darkness. None of them went to attack Narberal, who was standing next to the gale-force wind of death named Ainz.
Lukrut had tossed aside his composite longbow and whipped out a short sword. Both he and the mace-wielding Dyne dashed into Ninya’s line of fire to provide cover for him.
The fight between Lukrut and Dyne and five goblins was about evenly matched. If they paced themselves, they could probably beat them one by one, but it would take a while. Lukrut had taken a club to one arm and was tolerating the pain with an obvious grimace as he stabbed his short sword into a gap in a goblin’s leather armor. Dyne had taken a bit of a beating, and although his movements had become somewhat sluggish, it didn’t seem like any of his wounds were too critical.
Ninya, keeping a sharp eye on the situation, began to conserve magic. There was one ogre immobilized with a spell. If circumstances called for it, he would have to take it on.
Meanwhile, Peter was spending equal time on offense and defense against six goblins.
The eleven goblins’ violence didn’t overwhelm the adventurers, though, because there was hesitation in their attacks. Their morale had dropped significantly after witnessing Ainz’s amazing one-hit kills, and they hadn’t made up their minds yet if they should fight or flee.
Then, as if to crush their morale further, one of Ainz’s swords swung in a huge arc. No one could hear anything but the sound of it slicing through the air and then something heavy falling to the ground—two things, in fact.
As everyone expected, the number of ogre corpses had increased. Now the only ogres remaining were the one trapped in the grass and the one cowering before Ainz.
Ainz’s helmet moved to confront the final ogre. Perhaps because it had felt the gaze of Ainz’s eyes from deep within the thin slit of his helmet, it emitted a bizarre groan and attempted to escape, dropping its club and racing back toward the forest faster than it had run over. But there was no way it would be allowed to get away.
“Nabe, get him.” His icy voice rang out and Narberal, who had been standing by behind him, gave a quick nod.
“Lightning!” A bolt of lightning sent large vibrations through the air and shot through the fleeing ogre’s body with a peal of thunder. Then it continued on through the ogre that was still tangled up behind him.
That was all it took to stop the beating pulses of two ogres.
“Let’s get outta here!!”
“Run away! Run away!” The goblins that had been watching these events unfold as if in a trance called for a retreat and went to flee, but as might be expected, Peter and his crew moved faster. The demoralized goblins were not so tough anymore.
They were taken care of one after another in smooth succession. Ninya figured he didn’t need to conserve magic any longer and added his powers to the fray. The goblins were killed in the blink of an eye.
Amid the reek of the dead bodies, Dyne tended to Lukrut’s and Peter’s wounds with Light Healing, while Ninya, with nothing to do, went around slicing the ears off the goblins with a dagger.
By turning items like those in to the guild, they would be compensated per monster. Of course, it wasn’t always ears. A specific part was required from each kind of monster. That said, for subhumans like goblins and ogres, it was usually ears.
As he was removing the ears with a practiced hand, he saw that Ainz, accompanied by Narberal, seemed to be searching the vicinity where the ogres had fallen.
“Are you looking for something?”
Ainz looked up to respond to Ninya’s question. “Yeah, just seeing if there are any drops…especially crystals.”
“…Crystals? I’ve never heard of ogres carrying precious stones…”
“So they don’t, huh? I was just thinking maybe on the off chance…”
“Oh yeah, it would be great if ogres carried treasure around,” said Ninya, adeptly clipping off ogre ears. “But wow, Momon. I knew you had confidence in your abilities, but I didn’t realize how strong you really were.”
In response to Ninya’s comments, the other three who were almost finished healing chimed in with more praise for Ainz.
“You were amazing! As a warrior, I hope I can be as awesome as you someday! How did you get so strong?”
“With Nabe along and all, I figured you were rich, but where are those fantastic swords from? I don’t think I’ve ever seen more expensive-looking swords.”
“Now I see that what you were saying at the guild was for real. You might be as strong as the oft-rumored-about strongest warrior in the kingdom. I’m impressed.”
Nabe looked smug enough to snigger next to Ainz, but he demurred. “Nah, it just happened to work out.”
“‘Just happened to work out’…?” Peter smiled wryly. “…Really, the way you fought reminded me there’s always someone stronger.”
“I know you guys will get to the point where you can take care of small fries like that easily, too.” Everyone’s smiles got wryer.
Peter and his friends were working hard at getting stronger. And they didn’t waste a copper of their rewards, only spending on things that would make them stronger. That’s why they’d been able to work so well together so far, but even reflecting on how far they’d come, they didn’t imagine they’d ever be able to reach Ainz’s level. To the Swords of Darkness, Ainz’s level was the furthest of extremes, which only a handful of people were allowed to access.
This guy they were traveling with would probably go on to be a hero whose name would be known by all. He was one of the greats who could stand at the pinnacle of adventuring. That was all they could think.
2
The party began pitching camp long before the sun would go down. Ainz took the wooden rods he was given and stood them up around the perimeter of their site. That said, they had to fit the cart inside, so it was fairly large—more than twenty yards across.
Once he hammered the four posts into the dirt, he would string a black silk thread around them to make an enclosure. Then, he would make a knot in the thread, pull it right near the opening to their tent, and hang up a big bell to finish it off. In other words, he was cordoning off their campsite and setting up a noisy alarm.
Narberal stood behind him as he was knocking in the posts. Narberal was supposed to have something else to do… I guess it’s fine if she finished that already? If that guy pissed her off again, I may have to have a word with him…, Ainz had decided as he went to turn around, but then Narberal spoke in a dark voice as if she was suppressing her rage.
“…Mr. Momon, you shouldn’t have to do such menial tasks as these…”
Seeing her anger, Ainz sighed slightly. Then, he looked around and lowered his voice. “Everyone is pitching in to set up camp. You think they would be okay with just me sitting around on my butt?”
“Didn’t you show them your magnificent combat ability? Everyone has their strengths—this kind of work should be left to the weak.”
“Don’t be like that. Listen, we do need to stand out as powerful, but I don’t want people to think we’re arrogant. You need to keep an eye on your behavior, too.”
Narberal nodded her understanding, but it was plain that she wasn’t convinced, only taking his order. On the one hand, he was happy that her overwhelming devotion to him could beat down her own dissatisfaction, but he wondered if that was really sustainable.
Ainz was actually enjoying his stay in the outdoors. In the real world it had been impossible, of course, but he hadn’t been able to do this even in the fantasy world of Yggdrasil, so it was all new and surprising. It also reminded him of going on quests in Yggdrasil, even though it did take a little too long to get from place to place here.
If instead of the Great Tomb of Nazarick it had been just me who got transported here, I would probably have just traveled around without a care in the world. He was undead, so he didn’t need food or drink—he didn’t even need to breathe. He could climb the far-off mountains empty-handed and dive to the deepest ocean depths, too. He would have simply enjoyed all the unfamiliar scenery the world had to offer.
But as long as his guildmates’ precious creations were obeying him, he had to live up to their loyalty by acting as the ruler of the Great Tomb.
Shaking off his memories, Ainz devoted himself to his task once more. Once all four posts were sunk deep enough, he strung the thread tightly around them and returned to the marquee tent.
“Thanks.”
“Oh, no problem.”
Lukrut, who was inside, had addressed him without even looking up. It was perhaps lacking in courtesy, but it wasn’t as if he were slacking off, either. He’d been digging a hole and building an oven around it for a while.
Ninya was walking the perimeter chanting some spell. Alarm was a spell one could cast as a precaution. He said it couldn’t cover a very large area but was worth using just in case.
Ainz had squinted—this was magic that hadn’t existed in Yggdrasil. Collecting spells that didn’t exist in Yggdrasil was one of the jobs he’d given the others, but as a caster, unfamiliar magic awakened his greed.
The magic Ninya used was, like Ainz’s, arcane type. The spells even looked just like the ones in Yggdrasil. Ainz had been doing something only characters with the racial skill Black Wisdom could do to increase the number of spells he could acquire. If I perform a sacrifice ritual, could I get spells that weren’t in Yggdrasil? Or is there another way? There are so many things I don’t know…
Ninya had realized Ainz was staring, and although he had warmed up a little since they had first met, he still wore a forced smile when he came over. “You don’t need to watch so closely! It’s not such an interesting spell, is it?”
“I’m extremely curious about magic, so I take a great deal of interest in what you do, Ninya.”
“Really? But Nabe is a way better caster than me!”
“But you can use spells she can’t.” Ainz saw Narberal lower her head slightly. He could tell from the corner of his eye that she was more jealous than embarrassed. “I’d like to be able to use magic like you can.”
“You want to learn magic even though you’re that good with a sword? You’re a hard worker, huh, Momon? Although I suppose that attitude makes you a model adventurer.”
Lukrut chimed in without looking up from the oven he was building. “Magic isn’t something you can just learn overnight. First you gotta get this connection-to-the-world thing, but the only ones who can do that so easily are the ones who have a natural knack for it. I heard if you don’t, all you can do is study little by little till you get the feel.”
Ninya’s smile vanished and was replaced by a serious expression. “Momon, I think you have the aptitude. I get the feeling you’re different from normal people. There’s something about you that…just doesn’t exist among humans.”
Ainz’s nonexistent heart skipped a beat—it sounded almost like Ninya had vaguely realized he was an undead. He was using illusions and anti-intelligence magic, but it was plenty possible that unfamiliar spells or special abilities could strip off his mask.
He cautiously asked, “Oh…? I know I’m strong, but I don’t think it’s to a degree that is nonexistent among humans. I showed you my face, right?”
“Mm, it’s not a question of looks… More just, that amount of power is not human. You were killing ogres in one hit…! I guess men are about power and not looks, huh? I mean, you got a babe like Nabe with you.”
Considering Lukrut’s remarks with a level head, it seemed like the illusionary face he’d created was being called ugly, and when he thought about the people he had met so far, he had to agree. There’s too much beauty in this world. You can look at anybody in the street, and they have nice, regular features. I used to consider my face worthy of a supporting role, but now I wonder if I’d even make the bill…
“Faces aside, Lukrut is right. The ones they call heroes are on another level from ordinary humans. That really sunk in for me today.”
“Er, I don’t think I’m a…hero, though. I’m not fishing for compliments here.” Ainz answered Ninya pretending to be flustered, while suppressing his sigh of relief.
“Would you like to come meet the person who taught me? My teacher has the talent of being able to tell how much natural aptitude someone has. For arcane magic, it’s apparently even possible to know what tier.”
“Actually, there’s something I’ve been wondering: Isn’t that the same talent that the empire’s head wizard has?”
“Yes, it’s the same one.”
Ainz couldn’t let this chance pass. He could get more info if he pressed.
“…What kind of ability is it, exactly?”
“The way my teacher explains it, every caster has a magic aura. The more powerful they are, the bigger the aura. My teacher has the power to see those auras.”
“H…hmm…” Ainz’s voice was about to go too deep, but he controlled himself to reply in a normal range.
“My teacher collects kids with good auras and trains them.” Ninya continued to say that he had been found in just that way. Ainz made appropriate feedback noises while inwardly cursing that there was such a talent—it could mean trouble.
“So if I think I’d like to use magic, what should I do first?”
“Maybe finding a proper teacher is a good place to start.”
“…So maybe…I could be your disciple?”
“Mm, I think it’d be better to find someone stronger than me. But the thing is, in the kingdom almost all the schools are private, and if you’re not affiliated with any of the magic-related guilds, you can’t get in. And the people who do get in are usually kids, because their brains are still malleable. To get in at your age, you’d have to have someone pretty important pulling strings for you. In comparison, the empire has a solid magic academy and the theocracy also offers some fairly high-level education—in faith magic, of course.”
“Aha. Is it pretty easy to get into the empire’s magic academy?”
“It’d probably be pretty hard, actually. The academy is a facility mandated by state policy, so for a nonnational…”
“I see…”
“And about you being my disciple: My apologies, but I have something I want to do, so I don’t have time to spend on that.” Ninya’s face darkened, and there was something sinister and threatening in his expression—a thinly veiled hostility.
Guess I should steer clear of that subject. Doesn’t seem like there is any benefit to pressing him anyway. Just as Ainz made that decision, Lukrut casually interrupted.
“Hey, sorry to bug you in the middle of your chat, but food’s almost ready. Could you go get the other three?”
“I’ll go, Momon.”
“Aww! You’re leaving, Nabe? Wouldn’t you rather make this meal the fruit of our love? Come cook with me!”
“Drop dead, centipede! Or do you want me to force-feed you boiling oil so you can’t talk any more nonsense?”
“Would you give it a rest, Nabe? I’m going with you.”
“Sir! Understood.”
Ainz thanked Ninya before leaving the tent and walking over to where two of the others were sitting on the ground working a little ways away.
Peter and Dyne were completely absorbed in the inspection of the weapons they had used earlier. They applied oil to the swords so they wouldn’t rust and checked all the weapons carefully to make sure they hadn’t bent.
There was fresh damage to their armor, and the swords had dings from where they had clashed with the goblins’ weapons. These makeshift repairs were standard, considering that one’s life could depend on them. They were focusing so hard Ainz almost didn’t want to interrupt.
After telling those two dinner was ready, they let Nfirea, who was tending to the horses a little ways away, know as well.
•
The sun was just about to disappear below the horizon… Its evening rays had dyed the sky crimson when dinner began.
Stew flavored with smoked and salted meat was ladled into everyone’s bowl. That plus crusty bread and dried figs, along with walnuts and other nuts, made up the night’s meal.
Ainz looked down at the salty-seeming soup in his bowl. He couldn’t feel the heat of it through his gauntlets, but considering everyone was eating without waiting for it to cool, it must have been just the right temperature.
Now what? Ainz was undead with a body that couldn’t eat or drink. He could create illusions to make it look like he had a body, but as long as he was made of bones and had a bottomless mouth, any soup he put in would spill right out. There was no way he could let them see that.
Unfamiliar food in an unfamiliar land… Despite how simple everything was, Ainz thought it a shame that he couldn’t eat any. He had pretty much lost the desire for food entirely, but sure enough, when a bunch of tasty-looking dishes were laid out, his curiosity was piqued. He was rather frustrated he couldn’t eat. It was the first time since coming to this world that he regretted being in his new body.
“Oh, is there something you don’t like in it?” Lukrut asked, since Ainz wasn’t touching his food.
“No, it’s not that. There’s a specific reason…”
“Oh yeah? Okay, then. Don’t feel like you have to force yourself to eat it. Actually, it’s mealtime and all, what about taking off that helmet?”
“…It’s against my religion. There is a rule that one must not eat in a party of four or more on a day one has taken a life.”
“Huh? You believe in some strange stuff, Momon, but I guess the world is a big place. I can’t believe there’s a teaching about how many people you can eat with on a day you kill something!”
Once they found out it was to do with religion, everyone’s suspicious looks softened. I suppose religion has the potential to cause trouble in this world, too. Momon prayed to his nonexistent god to thank him for helping him out of that situation and then asked Peter a question to change the subject. “So, you guys are called the Swords of Darkness, but none of you have terribly dark-looking swords.”
For his main weapon, Peter had a (not terribly) magical longsword, Lukrut had a bow, Dyne had a mace, and Ninya had a staff. Nobody had a black or dark-colored sword. Peter’s sword and Lukrut’s sub-weapon, a short sword, were close in shape but were nowhere near the right color.
By mixing special powder into the metal, it was possible to change a sword’s color, so it would be easy enough to make a sword look dark—it was actually strange that none of them had one.
“Ohh, that.” An awkward smile played across Lukrut’s face, like he’d been reminded of some past embarrassment. Ninya’s face was turning a shade of red distinctly different from the reflected light of the fire. “That’s what Ninya wanted.”
“Please stop. I was young and stupid.”
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. It’s important to dream big!”
“Dyne, would you give me a break? Seriously…”
The other Swords of Darkness chuckled warmly at him, and Ninya looked like he was about to start writhing from the awkwardness of it all. The name seemed to have some special meaning for the group.
“Uh, we’re named after four swords that belonged to one of the Thirteen Heroes a long time ago,” Peter declared, grinning from ear to ear. He didn’t seem like he was going to add anything else.
That’s great, but I have no idea what you’re talking about… I know the Thirteen Heroes were super-powerful heroes who destroyed evil spirits that were terrorizing the land two hundred years ago, but I don’t know who they all were and what kind of gear they had. Is that bad? Or should I just say, “Huh?”
While Ainz was wavering, Narberal spoke up from beside him. “Who were they?”
Nice! Ainz struck a victory pose in his head, but the Swords of Darkness seemed unsettled. The reality of someone not knowing magical weapons so famous they had named their whole team after them must have been a shock.
“You haven’t heard of them, Nabe? Well, I guess you wouldn’t have. Some people think of the Thirteen Heroes as evil or say they had demon blood. They were deliberately left out of the sagas… And people say the powers they had were insane…”
“The Swords of Darkness are four swords that belonged to one of the heroes called the Black Knight: Demonic Sword, Killineiram, that gives off dark energy; Canker Sword, Coroquedavarre, that is said to inflict wounds that never heal; Death Sword, Sufiz, that takes your life if it so much as scratches you; and Evil Sword, Humiris, the special ability of which is unclear.”
“Hmm.” Narberal seemed to have lost interest, and everyone smiled, embarrassed.
But Ainz cocked his head a bit. He had heard of those special abilities somewhere before. After thinking about it, a vampire came to mind. Shalltear Bloodfallen had a class called cursed knight that had skills just like that.
The cursed knight was a priest knight sullied with a curse and one of the more powerful classes in Yggdrasil. It was also heavily penalized, so it wasn’t very popular. Among the skills it could acquire were the ability to give off a wave of darkness, inflict wounds that couldn’t be cured except with the strongest healing magic, and cast an instadeath curse.
Ainz narrowed his illusionary eyes. It couldn’t be a coincidence. It was possible that the Swords of Darkness were swords with effects that happened to match cursed knight skills, but there seemed to be a bigger chance that the hero who had wielded them was a cursed knight.
To meet the minimum requirements to be a cursed knight, one needed a cumulative class level of at least 60, which meant that this Black Knight person had to be at least level 60. No, to have all those skills he’d have to be at least 70.
That would mean that the evil spirits he fought must have been about the same level, but Nigun had been shouting about how the angel he’d summoned, the dominion authority, had defeated an evil spirit like it was some big deal, so Ainz wasn’t sure how the power balance worked. If he went by the information he’d collected thus far, it made the most sense to assume that evil spirits came at all kinds of power levels, but he wouldn’t know the truth unless he either got his hands on those swords or met the hero.
While Ainz was lost in thought, the party’s conversation had continued. With a start, he turned his attention back to that. It would be a waste to miss the chance to get more information.
“—ultimate goal is to find them. There are a lot of weapons that are said to be legends, but these we know for sure exist. Well, I guess we don’t know if they still exist, but…”
“Oh, I know of one person who has a Sword of Darkness.” Nfirea casually dropped a bomb, and they all turned to face him as if he’d physically yanked them.
“Wh-who?!”
“Whoa! Are you serious?! So there’s only three left?!”
“Hrm. Now there won’t be enough to go around.”
Nfirea responded timidly, “Er, it’s the leader of that group of adventurers called the Blue Roses.”
“Ugh, those guys? They’re adamantite! I guess we should just give up, then.”
“Indeed. There are still three left, so let’s get strong enough to get all of those.”
“Yeah. If one is real, the others must be, too! I hope they’re hidden somewhere no one will find them before we do…”
“Ninya, write that in your journal so we don’t forget.”
“I will. But actually, my journal is personal, so couldn’t you write it down yourself?”
“It’s good to make a physical record for posterity!”
“I don’t think that’s the issue, Dyne…”
“Anyhow, we have that other thing already.”
“‘Other thing’?”
“This, Momon.” Peter took a dagger with four small jewels inlaid in its handle out of his ****** pocket and drew it. The blade was black. “The idea is to have this as our symbol until we get the real ones…”
“What if we called ourselves Blades of Darkness instead of Swords of Darkness? Then, there’s no real or fake, and this thing can symbolize us properly.”
“Hmm… For once, Lukrut, you have a point!”
The Swords of Darkness all laughed together like the group of good friends they were. Even Ainz smiled. They must have felt the same way toward that dagger as he did toward the staff that symbolized his guild.
Soon the conversation was of the idle sort suitable to mealtime. Since there were more of the Swords of Darkness, they took the lead and skillfully bounced topics off of Ainz, Narberal, and Nfirea.
Ainz participated, but he still felt some kind of wall between him and the Swords. He also felt like he was out of step because he always had to speak vaguely in order to conceal how little he knew about the world. Then, he ended up talking less—it was a vicious circle.
Anytime someone asked Narberal something, she would answer in a way that cut off all further discussion, so they gradually stopped bothering.
Nfirea was doing fine. There was the fact that he was a human who actually lived in this world, but Ainz felt the boy had social skills far superior to his own as well. He always found ingenious ways to keep the conversation moving. He had that knack for reading the mood.
Who cares? I have my old friends… Ainz sulked while he watched the harmonious bunch chat in the glow of the fire.
Perhaps it was only natural for people who risked their lives together, but they really did get along well. Nfirea also looked on wishing he could share in such a friendship.
Ainz thought of his old friends and got so jealous he loudly ground his teeth beneath his helmet. It used to be like this before for me, too…
“You all get along so well. Is that normal for adventurer teams?”
“I think so! Probably because we trust one another with our lives. It’s dangerous to adventure with people if you don’t know what they’re thinking or can’t tell what they’ll do. So before you know it, you’re all suddenly getting along.”
“Oh yeah, and we don’t have girls on our team. I heard if you do, you end up fighting.”
“Yeah…” Ninya smiled with a nuance that was hard to pin down and continued, “If we did have a girl, I bet you’d be the first one to cause problems! But I think it has to do with our goal…well, I mean, that we have a solid one.”
Peter and the others nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, that must be part of it. It’s amazing how different it feels when everyone’s aims are aligned.”
“Huh? Did you used to have a team, too, Momon?”
Nfirea’s curiosity put Ainz at a loss for words, but he realized there was no need to tiptoe around this topic. “Well, they weren’t adventurers per se, but…” It was no wonder, as he remembered his old friends, that his voice started to sound a bit heavy and gloomy. Becoming an undead didn’t stop all of his mental processes, and his strongest emotions were about those friends.
Sensing something in his reply, no one pushed further. A curtain of silence fell. It was so quiet it was as if there were no one else in the world. Ainz looked up at the stars that had come out at some point to twinkle.
“Back when I was weak, the one who saved me was a pure white holy knight with a sword and a shield. Under his wing, I made four more friends. Then we picked up three more weaklings, like I had been, for a total of nine. That was my first team.”
“Wow…” Someone’s impressed voice sounded among the crackling sparks, but Ainz didn’t care who it was. He was reminiscing about the forerunner to Ainz Ooal Gown, the First Nine.
“They were wonderful comrades: a holy knight, a katana wielder, a priest, an assass— Er, a thief, a double-wielding nin— Er, no, a double-wielding thief, a sorcerer, a cook, and a blacksmith. They were the greatest friends one could hope for. I’ve been on many adventures since that time, but I’ll never forget those days.”
It was thanks to them that he knew what a friend was. Right at the moment he was despairing about being treated so badly even inside the world of Yggdrasil, those wonderful people reached out to him. And as their membership increased, the fun times continued.
That was why Ainz was willing to give up everything, to trample anything else underfoot, if he could protect and show off his precious guild. It meant the world to him.
“I hope someday you can make such great friends again!”
“That day will never come,” snapped Ainz, annoyed by Ninya’s consolatory words. His voice contained a surprising amount of hostility. Ainz stood, equally stunned himself. “…Excuse me… I’m going to go eat over there.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Really? Well, I guess if it’s your religion…” Peter responded in a disappointed voice but didn’t try too hard to make them stay.
Ainz saw that Ninya’s face was gloomy, but he didn’t have the will to say anything despite the fact that a simple “It’s fine” would have been enough…
•
The two of them had gone to a corner of the corded-off area, and it seemed like they were beginning to eat.
When someone leaves a group, the conversation sometimes turns to the subject of that same person. And that day, the person on everyone’s lips had just left. It was only natural that the conversation should move in his direction.
Just as the discussion was interrupted and silence had fallen, the fire popped loudly and sparks rose into the sky. Following the sparks with his eyes, Ninya mumbled, “I suppose I said something wrong…”
“Indeed. Something must have happened.” Dyne nodded gravely, and Peter continued.
“I wonder if they got wiped out. People who’ve lost all their friends at once tend to have that sense about them.”
“That’d be…really hard. Even in a world where lives are taken and lost every day, losing your friends must be…”
“Right, Lukrut. I should have thought harder about what I was saying.”
“You can’t reverse what you said. All you can do is give the person something to write over the top of it with.”
Ninya said he would, but his face was cheerless. Then he mumbled, “I know how awful it is to lose someone, so why didn’t I realize…?” and no one said anything in reply.
In the silence, a log popped and more sparks rose.
To change the topic to something less heavy, Nfirea cautiously began to speak. “…Momon sure was amazing in the fight today.”
Peter jumped on the topic as if he’d been waiting for it. “Yeah, I had no idea he was that strong. Cutting an ogre in half with one swing…”
“Seriously, though!”
“Even I think it’s amazing to kill an ogre in one hit, but about how impressive would you say it is that he cut it in half?” Nfirea asked, and the Swords of Darkness all looked at one another.
Nfirea, famous as a talent holder, was also an excellent caster. He had the potential to be a great success in the future, but it was hard for him to grasp how powerful Ainz was when he didn’t have other warriors around for comparison.
Peter realized that and chose his words carefully to explain so Nfirea could understand. “Usually you use a large sword’s weight to cut, but he made a severing slice. Achieving that with a large sword in one hand against a mass of muscle like that ogre would be extremely difficult. …Well, there are some exceptions, but…” Nfirea seemed impressed and hmmed, but Peter saw that he wasn’t quite impressed enough, so he brought someone up for comparison. “Honestly, I think he’s on the level of the captain of the Royal Select.”
Nfirea’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He finally understood quite well how powerful the Swords of Darkness thought Momon was. “So you mean…he’s an adamantite-rank adventurer? The strongest kind? A living legend? He’s on par with one of the most elite humans there is?”
“Yes,” Peter answered simply with a nod, and when Nfirea looked at the other party members, they all nodded as well.
He was dumbstruck.
A plate made of adamantite, a rare magic metal known for being the hardest, signified an adventurer at the peak of the profession. Naturally, there were very few who made it that far. The kingdom and the empire had two teams each—that was it. Their power was at the furthest end of human potential—in other words, they were heroic.
And Momon was their equal.
“That’s amazing…” The whisper expressed a deep admiration.
“At first…when I first met Momon and saw he was a copper plate, I saw the fancy armor he was wearing and felt jealous, but now that I’ve seen that he has the skills to match, I can only accept that it makes sense—his armor is appropriate for his skills. Boy, I wish I were that strong…” Peter wore banded armor, which offered less defense than full plate armor. He hadn’t selected it by choice; it was just the best protection his limited budget afforded him.
“What? Peter, you’ll be able to buy even fancier full plate armor soon enough.”
“That’s right. And if you admire his strength, then all you have to do is make that your goal and put in the work. You should probably be grateful that you had the opportunity to witness such an inspiration.”
“Yeah, what Ninya said! You just gotta try to work toward Momon’s level. We’ll support you—and we’ll find our own role models, too!”
“That’s right. Just take your time. The way he looked, he’s been training far longer than you.”
Nfirea reacted to what Dyne said. “You’ve seen beneath Momon’s helmet?” Ainz hadn’t taken it off a single time since meeting Nfirea. He had it on through all their meals; it was unclear how he even drank anything.
“Yes, we have. He was utterly normal, just…not from around here. He had the same black hair and eyes as Nabe.”
“I see… Did he mention what country he’s from?”
The Swords of Darkness all looked at one another—suddenly Nfirea was quite engaged in the conversation.
“No, he didn’t say…”
“Hmm… Oh, uh, I was just wondering because if he’s from a far-off country, maybe they have different kinds of potions there or something—apothecary stuff.”
“Ah, right. It does seem like he came from the same place as Nabe, but they don’t look alike at all! You wouldn’t be able to call him good-looking even as flattery. But I guess she must be into that?”
“Looks don’t matter so much when you’re that strong. He’s probably got any number of women coming after him.”
Strong men were attractive. That is to say, given the existence of monsters, and humans being one of the inferior races, there were many women whose instincts caused them to be attracted very strongly to powerful men.
“Ahh, is this love of mine doomed, then?”
“Mm, no matter how you look at it, I’m pretty sure it was doomed from the get-go,” Ninya said, laughing as he recalled Nabe’s reactions to Lukrut’s advances.
“C’mon, man! For now I’m just gonna keep push-push-pushin’. That’s what it takes! And I mean, she’s super gorgeous! If I can get her to return even a tiny fraction of my love, I’ll be able to count myself among the winners in life.”
“She is extremely beautiful, but…” Dyne was half through his sentence, wearing an austere expression, when he noticed the sour look on Nfirea’s face. “Is something wrong, Nfirea?”
“Oh, nah. Er, it’s not a big deal…”
“Hmm?” Ninya’s and Lukrut’s faces broke into indecent grins. “You don’t have a thing for Nabe, do you?”
“No!” Nfirea quickly replied, practically shouting.
Peter sensed that there was something they shouldn’t discuss behind that overreaction. “Lukrut, don’t be rude. Think a little before opening your mouth.” Lukrut apologized sincerely.
Nfirea didn’t seem to know how to act in response. “No, uh, it’s not that. I’m just a little anxious. …Do you think Momon is really that popular with women?”
“Well, I dunno about looks-wise, but with that strength, there’s a good chance. And with that armor and those swords, he looks rich, too…”
“Ahhh…” Nfirea was looking slightly glummer.
Peter addressed him like an attentive big brother would, looking out for his little bro. “Did something happen?”
Nfirea opened and closed his mouth several times. Nobody intervened. There was no reason to force him to say something he didn’t want to say. But finally Nfirea made up his mind and opened his guarded mouth. “Mm, there’s someone in Carne who…I’d be upset if she fell for Momon…” Reading between the lines, the Swords of Darkness all smiled warmly.
“Okay, little guy. Let your big bro show you how it’s do—” Peter stabbed Lukrut with a fist, and there was a strange slumping sound. Keeping only the corners of their eyes on the passed-out ranger, everyone had something to say to Nfirea, who was still in shock.
In the glow of the fire, he broke into a smile.
•
Meanwhile…
A forehead was pierced clear through the steel helmet protecting it. The body shuddered once and then collapsed to the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut. The clatter of its metal armor echoed in the darkness.
Another man wanted to hope that someone might hear the racket and come running, but no one was crazy enough to come to a neighborhood of E-Rantel even the slum dwellers had abandoned. That’s why they were meeting their requester here in the first place.
He glared at the woman in front of him but couldn’t disguise that it was just a brave front. After watching her kill his three comrades in quick succession, his spirit was broken.
The woman whipped the stiletto she’d used to kill the others, spattering the ground with blood and restoring the blade’s cold gleam.
“Nye-he-he-he! Looks like you’re the only one left!” She revealed all her teeth in a big, carnivorous smile.
“Wh-why are you doing this?” He knew it was a stupid thing to ask, but this was all out of the blue to him.
The men were adventurer guild dropouts known simply as workers. Sometimes also called dusk workers, they would take on jobs that were borderline criminal or even actual crimes. So while there wasn’t a total lack of reasons people would have something against them, they hadn’t even done any jobs in this city yet, and they’d had no recollection of ever meeting this woman.
“Why am I doing this? Oh, I just thought I’d like to have you.”
He blinked a few times in confusion and asked, “What do you mean?”
“The grandson of that famous apothecary is out, so I need someone to keep watch and tell me when he gets back. You think I wanna do a pain-in-the-*** job like that myself?”
“Why not just make that as a request, then? Wasn’t that the point?” They were workers who would take on illegal jobs, so he had no idea why this woman had to kill him.
“Nah, nah, nah. Ya might betray me!”
“We don’t betray anybody as long as we get paid!”
“Oh? Well, then let’s say this: I adore killing people! It’s my love, my passion!” She laughed and added, “Oh, and torture, too!”
The man’s face screwed up in disbelief at this thing on which common sense had no effect. “What…the hell? Why are you so insane?!”
“Why?” The woman’s expression suddenly changed, along with the tone of her voice. Her nonsensical attitude of just a moment before vanished. “Oh, I dunno… Maybe because it used to be my job to kill people? Or because I was always compared to my brilliant big brother? Or because our parents gave all their love to him? Or because I got abused when I was weak? Or because my friend died right in front of me? Or because I screwed up, got caught, and was tortured for days? Red-hot choke pears really hurt, ya know!” There was something childish about her then, but a moment later the adult had returned, grinning. “Just kidding! Those were all lies, lies, lies! None of that ever happened to me! But who cares, anyway? Even if you knew my past, it wouldn’t change anything. Just a lot of junk happened, and here I am. But man, I’m really glad Khaj did the research for me, and I could contact you right away. It would have taken forever if I had to start from finding someone to work with!”
The woman let go of her stiletto. Pulled by gravity, the knife’s tip sank into the earth far enough that it didn’t fall over. That abnormal sharpness implied that it was made of not steel but some other metal.
“It’s orichalcum! More specifically, orichalcum-coated mythril. That’s not so common, ya know.”
The rareness of her weapon spoke to her strength. In other words, the man realized he didn’t stand a chance.
“Okay, next! If I give you too big of an injury, ya won’t be any use to me… If only Khaj would use his faith magic so no matter how much I hurt ya we could heal ya back up… I’d be able to torture you forever! Wouldn’t that be great?”
Chattering on about such horrible things, the woman took out another stiletto from under her robe. “This should work… Sorry if I miss…,” the woman apologized, sticking out her tongue. Superficially, she was cute, but her true tainted nature was showing.
The man turned and started to run. Behind him, the woman yelped in what sounded like feigned surprise. He didn’t stop to pay attention, just ran desperately through the darkness, employing the sense of direction he was so proud of. But he heard a jangling from behind him and the woman’s icy voice, sounding like she wasn’t even breaking a sweat: “Too slow!” And then a white-hot pain shot through his shoulder. As he realized he’d been stabbed with the stiletto, a haze washed over his brain.
Mind control… The man fought frantically, but the haze hanging over his consciousness was stronger.
After a short time, he heard the voice of his new friend behind him. “Heyyy. Are you all right? The wound isn’t too deep, is it?”
“No, I’m fine.” He turned around to smile at his friend.
“Oh, good!” The girl smiled a horrifying grin back at him.
3
The party set out as the sun was coming up and proceeded along the road hidden in the grass.
“Carne is just a bit farther.”
Nfirea was the only one who had been to Carne before (well, Ainz had, too, but he was hiding the fact), so everyone nodded at this information. They didn’t, however, do anything else besides walk along silently. Nfirea looked like he couldn’t take it anymore.
Morale was extremely bad. I messed up, Ainz thought, hidden beneath his helmet. Ninya glanced over at him now and then. It bothered him, but it was his own fault, so he couldn’t say anything.
In other words, they were still feeling the aftereffects of what he’d said last night. Ninya apologized again at breakfast, so forgiving him would have ended it; he just couldn’t get out the words. He sensed that he was being petty, but he just couldn’t let it go.
I guess I have to deal with this kind of thing even as an undead…
Since becoming an undead, stronger emotions were suppressed, but weaker ones didn’t go anywhere. In other words, he was experiencing a slow-burning anger. That showed how important his old friends were to him. That part of it was a good feeling, but at the same time, he knew things couldn’t go on like they were.
He just wasn’t motivated to take the initiative and change the mood. It was a feeling that was difficult to describe; he knew he was acting like an ornery child and got annoyed at himself for being such a brat.
The only person who seemed unaffected by the bad morale was Narberal, walking next to Ainz—she was pleased as punch that Lukrut couldn’t bother her. Everyone else just kept marching silently along at a fairly fast pace until they reached a place near Carne.
“So, I was thinking… It’s such a nice view and all… Maybe we didn’t need to form ranks…” Lukrut spoke, perhaps just to say something. Next to them was the dense forest, so it was a little puzzling what he meant by “nice view.” And besides, not dropping one’s guard just because of a nice view was one of the fundamentals of escort duty, so they were right to be in ranks.
However, it was clear that this time the reason they were marching silently in ranks wasn’t the result of adventurer precaution.
“It’s important to stay on guard! Let’s keep—er, let’s hurry on to the village,” Peter said.
“Exactly! It’s crucial to keep a constant watch so we don’t get caught off guard,” Dyne said, but his expression made it clear he didn’t think that was true.
Ninya tossed out, “Plus, a dragon might fly over from super far away and suddenly attack us.”
Lukrut bit right away. “Where’d that stupid idea come from? Use your brain, Ninya—could that really happen?”
“That would never happen. The last time a dragon was in the vicinity of E-Rantel was a long time ago, but that was just some made-up folktale; it said there was a dragon who could control natural disasters. You don’t hear stories of dragon sightings nowadays. Oh, wait. There is that one about a bunch of frost dragons living in the Azerlisia Mountains. Pretty far up north, though, I think.”
So there were dragons here a long time ago? I heard from the Sunlit Scripture captives that dragons were the strongest race on the continent…
Dragons could also be counted among the most powerful races in Yggdrasil. They had high physical attack and defense and seemingly inexhaustible health, plus countless special abilities and spells. They were very nearly overpowered.
Among Yggdrasil’s monsters, named monsters, area bosses, and so on were the superpowerful World Enemies. These were balance-breaking monsters that were hard for even a legion (six teams of up to six players each) to beat.
One was the final boss of the so-so official story, Devourer of the Nine Worlds. Then there were the Eight Dragons, the Seven Sin Lords, the Ten Angels of the Sephirot, and then with the big update, “The Fall of Valkyria,” the Sixth Master Angel and the Five Transcendent Ones were added for a total of thirty-two. The fact that dragons were one of the races represented there showed that the developers must have liked them.
If dragons still exist, then I should be careful. In Yggdrasil, dragons’ lives don’t end… Even just one could have more power than we can even imagine.
“Hmm, would you happen to know the name of that dragon that could control natural disasters?” Ainz mumbled, not quite bold enough to jump casually into a conversation with someone he was having a fight with. But it seemed like they’d heard him fine, and Ninya whipped around to face him.
It was as if they were a couple who’d had an argument, and he was looking for any possible chance to make up. (At least, that’s how Ainz felt when he compared the situation to conversations of couples he’d seen in coffeehouses.)
Still, after Ainz spoke to him, Ninya was looking a little more cheerful, and the rest of the Swords of Darkness and Nfirea brightened up a bit, too. The only one who seemed unchanged was Narberal—or rather, there wasn’t the slightest indication that the awkward mood had registered for her at all.
“My apologies, but no! Shall I look it up once we get back to town?!”
Uh, you don’t have to get so excited about it… And if you don’t know, you can just say so… I was just making conversation. But he couldn’t say those things. “Sure, Ninya. Please do, but only if you happen to have time.”
“Okay, Momon!”
Ainz felt a tad shamed by everyone’s content nods. If their positions had been reversed, it would have been fine, but as the oldest one in the party, he was embarrassed.
“Okay, we’re just about—” Nfirea spoke in practically the first cheerful voice of the morning but abruptly closed his mouth.
Everyone’s eyes looked at the village up ahead. It was a simple village right next to the forest. They didn’t sense anything that would have caused Nfirea to clam up, and nothing about the scene bothered them.
“What is it, Nfirea? Is something wrong?”
“Oh no. Just…there didn’t used to be such a sturdy fence there…”
“Oh yeah? Well, it doesn’t seem like such a tough fence. Compared to the fences around the border villages, it’s pretty shabby, actually. Wouldn’t you think they’d have something stronger to protect against monsters with the forest so close?!”
“Well, maybe, but…they have the Wise King of the Forest, so they didn’t even have this one before…”
Everyone looked at the village. The fence was made of thick logs that seemed difficult to break, and as far as they could tell, it surrounded the entire village.
“That’s so weird… Did something happen…?”
Even hearing the concern in the boy’s voice, Ainz said nothing, of course. The one who came here before was Ainz Ooal Gown the caster—this time it was Momon the adventurer.
Ninya spoke up with a sober look on his face. “Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I’m from a village, so I remember the lifestyle well, and two things stick out to me. First, at this time of day there should be people out in the fields, but there aren’t. And second, I see that some of the wheat has already been harvested.” Looking in the direction Ninya’s finger pointed, the group noted that part of one of the wheat fields was indeed harvested.
“Oh yeah. You’re right… I wonder if something happened…”
Ainz addressed the group as they exchanged worried looks. “Let us handle this, everyone. Nabe, go invisible and fly over the village to see what’s going on.”
After acknowledging the order, Narberal used an invisibility spell and disappeared. Then, they heard her disembodied voice chant the Flight spell and felt her presence move away. Everyone waited right there in the middle of the road, and it wasn’t long before she returned.
“Villagers were walking around normally inside. It didn’t particularly seem like they were acting under orders from anyone. And there are people working the fields on the other side of the village.”
“Oh! I guess I was just worrying too much.”
“There doesn’t seem to be any problem for the moment, then. Can we… continue on to the village?” Peter asked Ainz and Nfirea, and they both responded in the affirmative.
The road narrowed, so the party walked toward the entrance to the village in single file. The fields on either side of the road were green with wheat that waved gently in the occasional breeze. From far away it would have looked almost like the party was waist-deep in a green sea.
“Hmm?” As the cart clattered along, Lukrut, walking second in line, made an odd noise and peered into the field. It wasn’t even harvest season, but the wheat stalks were already more than two feet tall. Of course, just like the sea, it was impossible to see inside.
“What is it?” Ninya, walking behind him, asked nervously.
“Huh? Oh, maybe just my imagination…” Lukrut cocked his head for a moment and then sped up to close the gap with Peter.
Ninya looked in the same direction and then, having confirmed nothing was moving, hurried along to catch up with the other two.
The road was even partially covered with wheat as if the green sea were eroding it. They almost wanted to hack at the plants that stuck out to make more space to walk, but it would have been more trouble than it was worth.
“They should really take better care of the fields. This is such a waste.” Peter was taking long strides out in front, and when the heads of the wheat collided with his leg armor, berries fell to the ground. Just as he was lamenting this, he was seized by the feeling that something was amiss.
The intuition forged by the life-or-death situations he’d encountered so far was whispering: Would green berries really fall off so easily?
Following his gut, he nonchalantly looked into the field—and saw a pair of eyes staring back at him. There was a little creature there that had wrapped its body in wheat to blend in. Its face was mostly covered, so he couldn’t tell what it was, only that it wasn’t human.
“Whoa!” He was so surprised that before he could alert his friends, the creature, a subhuman, spoke.
“Do yuh mind disarming?” The little subhuman had already drawn a blade and could probably stab Peter faster than he could do anything, no matter how quickly he moved.
“Not so fast! Drop yer weapons. And would yuh tell the people behind yuh, too? I wouldn’t want to have to shoot them with my bow here.” Another little voice came from somewhere else. When he turned to look, he found another subhuman waist-deep in a hole it had ingeniously dug in the field. It was also wrapped in wheat.
Peter hesitated; from the way they were talking, he felt like there was still room to negotiate. “…Can you guarantee our lives?”
“Of course. If yuh surrender, that is.”
Peter wasn’t sure what to do. He had to block the line of fire to the cart where Nfirea was and get a handle on how many enemies there were and their positions. And it was also important to find out what they wanted. Under the current circumstances, he couldn’t submit to them or refuse to listen.
They must have noticed his confusion. With a rustling noise, two subhumans in the field stood up.
“Goblins…,” Ninya murmured.
The race of the subhumans matched the one of the monsters they had fought the previous day. They had nocked arrows and were aiming with keen eyes.
Shall we? Ninya, Lukrut, and Dyne tried to read one another’s thoughts from their eyes.
Goblins were inferior to humans when it came to physical ability based on height, weight, or muscle mass. They did have Darkvision, so attacking them at night was tricky, but in broad daylight the veteran Swords of Darkness didn’t think it would be a terribly difficult fight.
And Ainz was with them. He could probably slaughter them like he had the others the previous day with no problem.
Peter was being held hostage, but everyone was certain they could rescue him from these goblins.
There was one reason they hadn’t made up their minds yet—they could tell that these goblins were somehow different from the ones they had fought earlier. In a nutshell, these goblins had the air of trained fighters about them. And they were in good physical condition; the ones from yesterday lacked muscle tone, but these were covered head to toe in muscles.
That wasn’t all. The posture of the goblin with the bow was perfect. If the other goblins had been children swinging clubs, this was an experienced warrior.
Last but not least, their gear was of decent quality. In fact, it might have been on par with what the Swords of Darkness were using, and everything had been polished meticulously.
Just as humans could train to get stronger, so could monsters. Even for subhumans like goblins, it was only natural.In other words, it was possible these goblins were far stronger than the ones the Swords of Darkness had fought before.
Suddenly a rustling came from the field that was different from the wind blowing through it. Lukrut whipped around to look at their rear.
“Eh-heh, yuh found me, ’ey?” A goblin poked its head out of the field and stuck out its tongue. Apparently it had been trying to sneak up behind them, but its skills weren’t enough to fool ranger Lukrut. Still, just discovering them didn’t mean the adventurers had gained the advantage.
Calmly looking out over the wheat fields, Lukrut could see movements indicating goblins lurking here and there. They were moving in to surround them, with the cart at the center.
The Swords of Darkness were at a complete disadvantage, and none of them could think of a way out.
Ainz stayed Narberal, who was about to open fire, with a hand and finished observing the goblins. His hunch had been right. “These are goblins and goblin archers summoned by the Goblin General’s Horns.” If these monsters were working for the girls he’d given the horns to, Ainz wanted to avoid acting in a way that could be perceived as hostile. If that wasn’t possible, something would need to be done, but Ainz and Narberal could handle them no problem.
A goblin noticed Ainz looking around nonchalantly and called out to him, “Oy, full plate guy. If yuh could just not move, that would be great. We’d like to avoid combat if we can.” He must have seen him reaching out to stop Narberal. It was the hard voice of someone taking strict precautions.
“Don’t worry. As long as you don’t attack us, we don’t plan on moving.”
“That’s a big help. Those guys might be strong, but we’re not scared of them. But yer different. And the lady, too. I’m getting some unfriendly vibes, like, if we got on yer bad side, who knows what would happen?”
Ainz just shrugged in reply.
“If yuh could just wait right there till our lady arrives.”
“Who’s your ‘lady’?! Are you occupying Carne?!”
Dubious looks appeared on the goblins’ faces in reply to Nfirea’s threatening attitude.
“Nfirea, calm down. I don’t even need to tell you who has the upper hand here. And if you think about what Nabe \= said after she looked at the village, there are still some things we can’t explain. Let’s avoid starting a fight before we know what’s going on,” said Ninya, but Nfirea wasn’t able to hide his anger. Still, the expression that said he might pounce at any minute softened into frustration and a bit of the tension went out of his balled fists.
Seeing such a violent change in Nfirea surprised Ainz and even confused him a bit. Of course, we’ve only been traveling together for a short while, so I wouldn’t know his personality inside out, but I wouldn’t have expected him to be this excitable. Does this village mean something more to him than just a place to stay while he’s out gathering herbs…? While Ainz looked at Nfirea with these questions in mind, the goblins were glancing at one another—it seemed like they’d been thrown off by the boy’s rage.
“Hmm, something’s not quite right here…”
“We’re just guarding our lady’s village because it was recently attacked by guys dressed like imperial knights.”
“The village got attacked?! Is she okay?!” As if in response to Nfirea’s shouting, a girl appeared at the entrance to the village escorted by a goblin.
At the sight of her, his eyes widened, and he called out her name. “Enri!”
In response, the girl shouted back, “Nfirea!” It was the voice of someone calling a close friend, overflowing with kindness.
Then Ainz remembered something he’d heard before. “Oh, so the apothecary friend was not a girl but…a boy?”
Intermission
Demiurge walked through the ninth level of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. The clacks of his hard leather shoes were swallowed almost instantly by the silence. He had stationed several minions here for security purposes but was still unaccustomed to its mythical atmosphere.
He looked around and smiled. “Wonderful…” His admiration was addressed to the ninth level in its entirety. These were the appropriate surroundings for the Forty-One Supreme Beings, to whom he would be loyal even if it meant abandoning everything, so he loved this view.
Every time he walked the ninth level, his heart filled with joy, and his devotion to the Creators was renewed. No, it wasn’t just Demiurge. Even rowdy types like clowns and musicians would find themselves pausing out of respect, trying to melt into the silence. If there was someone whose heart did not fill with joy at this sight, it meant they were either not loyal enough to the Forty-One Supreme Beings or they were created that way.
Demiurge thought on this as he turned the corner. He had almost reached his destination, the private quarters of the last remaining Supreme Being and ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Ainz Ooal Gown.
When the door came into view, it opened and some figures exited. They seemed to see Demiurge as well and waited while he walked over. One was dressed like a butler, but all of his clothes—except his white gloves—were black and more suited to combat than to service.
He was one of Nazarick’s ten male servants. But Demiurge didn’t know which one—he couldn’t tell them apart because they all wore ski masks like generic baddies in a superhero show and only communicated in strange squawks.
Then there was the guy standing in front. Inane thoughts like ***** with a necktie flickered through Demiurge’s head.
He was a penguin. There was no mistaking him—he was most definitely a penguin. And wore nothing but a black tie.
“Long time no see.”
In reply to Demiurge’s warm greeting, the penguin grinned (or something like that) and said, “Indeed, Master Demiurge.” Then, he bobbed his head.
Of course, he was no mere penguin—he was a type of grotesque called a birdman, as well as the assistant butler, Éclair Éklair Éklare.
Normally birdmen would, like the Supreme Being Peroroncino, have the head and wings of a bird of prey, as well as bird parts from the elbows and knees down, but for some reason this man was a penguin. Demiurge didn’t question it.
“Is Albedo in there?”
“Yes, she is.”
Albedo was in charge of the Great Tomb of Nazarick while Ainz was gone, but it was widely known that she couldn’t be found in her own quarters and was instead holed up in Ainz’s. Since she had Ainz’s permission to be there, no one objected except for Shalltear Bloodfallen, who was about to leave the Tomb.
When Demiurge had suggested that a good wife’s role was to guard the house and wait for her husband’s return, she had retorted, “What’s wrong with a wife guarding her husband’s room?” so there wasn’t much he could say after that.
Demiurge nodded an I see and chatted with Éclair. “It’s rare for you to be out here, Éclair. Don’t you generally work around the guest rooms?”
“Since Master Sebas is out, I need to perform his duties as well, so I was just meeting with Mistress Albedo to discuss some details.”
“Oh yeah. If Sebas is gone, the ninth level depends on you.”
“Exactly. I need to do a good job in preparation for the day when I will rule the Great Tomb of Nazarick.”
There was no change to Demiurge’s smile, no matter how strange a thing was just said. It was widely known that Éclair was plotting to rule the Great Tomb, but that was because he was created that way by the Forty-One Supreme Beings, so there was no problem. Of course, if the order came down, they would liquidate him, but until then, there was no problem at all.
“Indeed, do your best. By the way, what are you going to do first?”
“Clean. What else is there? No one can clean so thoroughly as me. When I scrub the toilets, you can lick the bowl!”
Demiurge nodded in satisfaction at Éclair’s overflowing confidence. “Wonderful. Your work is critical. If this floor were to become dirty, it could be taken as an insult to the Supreme Ones.” He nodded emphatically and then asked a question. “I’m well aware of how important your work is now, but who is it that is in charge of administrative operations on this level while Sebas is away?”
“That would be the head maid, Pestonia; she’s received orders from Master Sebas. ‘Administrative operations’ isn’t such a big job compared to cleaning…”
“I see… Two NPCs built by the same Supreme One with a clear division of roles. …By the way, isn’t it hard to clean with penguin hands?”
“It’s precisely because I can do it that I am me.” Éclair puffed out his chest to demonstrate his overflowing confidence and then continued, sounding slightly offended, “But Master Demiurge. That doesn’t sound like something you, second in cleverness here only to me, would ask.” He smoothed the golden decorative feathers growing on either side of his head with a comb he took from the male servant behind him. “The Supreme Lady Ankoro Mocchi Mochi created me as not just any penguin, but a proud rockhopper penguin. Make no mistake! And these are not hands—they are wings!”
“Do excuse me.”
Demiurge bowed in apology, but Éclair told him not to worry about it and then turned around to give an order to the servant. “Carry me!”
“Eee!” The servant tucked Éclair under an arm.
Éclair’s way of walking was to hop forward, and from a certain perspective, it was extremely slow. So whenever he had to go somewhere on foot, he had a servant carry him.
“Well, Master Demiurge, I take my leave.”
“All right. See you again, Éclair.” Demiurge glanced over once more as the assistant butler was carried away like a stuffed animal, and then he knocked on the door.
“It’s Demiurge. I’m coming in.” Of course, the master was not in. But what did that matter? To Demiurge, the rooms themselves were worthy of his respect.
There was no reply, and he entered. Looking around, he noted that, as expected, Albedo was not there, either. He sighed lightly and opened a door to go farther in.
The Forty-One Supreme Beings’ private quarters were designed as royal suites. There were innumerable rooms including a large bathroom in the back, a living room with a bar and a piano, a master bedroom, guest rooms, a kitchen for their private chef to cook in, a dressing room, and so on. Out of all of these, the room Demiurge proceeded toward with no hesitation was the master bedroom.
He knocked and entered without waiting for a reply. There was only one bed inside, but it was a magnificent king sized one with a canopy. Inside it was a bulge slightly bigger than one person, squirming.
“Albedo.”
In response to Demiurge’s disapproving tone of voice, the peerless beauty poked out her face. In fact, she was out to her shoulders and didn’t appear to be wearing any clothes. Perhaps because she had been under the covers, her cheeks were flushed a delicate pink.
“…What are you doing in there?”
“When Lord Ainz returns, I would like for him to be enveloped in my scent.” Apparently all that squirming was a form of marking.
Demiurge had no words; he just looked at this most elite NPC created by the Forty-One Supreme Beings, the captain of the floor guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and shook his head weakly. He didn’t say, Lord Ainz is undead, so he probably doesn’t sleep in that bed, or, Even if he could sleep, I’m sure the sheets would be changed. If she was satisfied, that was fine with him. “Well…don’t overdo it.”
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘overdo it,’ but okay… Right, Lord Ainz?” Suddenly there was a face cheek to cheek with Albedo’s. For a split second, Demiurge was shocked into silence—because he thought it was actually Ainz Ooal Gown. But it wasn’t thick enough and didn’t have even a fraction of the presence of their supreme lord.
“Is that a…body pillow? …And who made such a thing?”
“I did!”
At her immediate response, Demiurge cracked open his closed eyes. He didn’t think she had that kind of skill.
“I may not look it, but I’m a pro at cleaning, washing, and sewing!” Delighting in Demiurge’s surprise, she boastfully continued, “And I’m making clothes, including socks, for our child who will surely be born! I’m done with everything for the first five years!
“Tee-hee-hee,” she giggled, grinning, and Demiurge wondered, a bit drained, if he should really leave her alone in this room.
“Boy or girl, either way! Oh! But what if it’s intersex or sexless?”
Demiurge was once again at a loss for words and just watched as she moaned and groaned. To be sure, she was brilliant as the head of the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s administrative operations—far better at that sort of thing than he was. But there were some doubts about her ability when it came to military affairs, such as handling defensive battles. That was where Demiurge came in.
There was no issue at present, when they hadn’t detected any immediate enemies. Demiurge forced himself to swallow his anxieties and believe that. His departure was an order from their master; there was no way he could voice any objections. “Very well. I’m going to leave soon, as Lord Ainz commanded. That means the only floor guardians left in Nazarick at liberty to move freely are you and Cocytus. I don’t think I need to remind you, but please take care.”
“First Aura, Mare, Sebas, and Shalltear, and now you, huh? Yes, things will be fine. If it becomes necessary, I’ll go to my sisters for support. And I’ll have the Pleiades go all out. If I do all that, we’ll be plenty able to buy time for everyone else to return.”
“…Surely you would need Lord Ainz’s permission to deploy your little sister, even in an emergency. And for the Pleiades as well. In the first place, two of them are out, so you can’t even get the whole team together. If the situation is as dicey as that, why not just station Victim on a higher level?”
“Things aren’t that bad… Anyhow, we’ve made preparations to take countermeasures, but if the time comes, please hurry back. More importantly, what are you going to do with the surviving members of the Sunlit Scripture? You got permission from Lord Ainz to be in charge of them, right? It’s fine if you take them, but I just have no idea what you’re planning…”
“Oh, them? Lord Ainz gave me permission to experiment.” Demiurge smiled happily, and Albedo’s shapely eyebrows crinkled. “First, a healing magic experiment. A severed limb will disappear if you cast a healing spell on a stub. So if you heal the stub after force-feeding a human an arm, what happens to the nutritional value? If repeated, would the subject starve to death?”
“Ah, I see.”
“And that’s not all! I had them vote on who will be eaten and who will be hacking off limbs with a dull saw—using their names!”
“And why would you do that?”
“It’s obvious. It creates a hierarchy among the prisoners: food, cutters, and eaters. This, of course, causes hate to blossom between onetime comrades. Then, right when the critical level of hate is reached, I’ll call out ever so sweetly to the food. To expose them. They’re very hard workers, these creatures full of hate.”
“See, that’s just disturbing. Nazarick was created by the Supreme Beings; there’s no way we could betray Lord Ainz. Yet humans would betray their master… They have zero loyalty.”
“That’s why they’re so interesting. I think it might be good for you to have some fun with that side of them. Just think of them as toys.”
“I don’t understand that way of thinking one bit.”
“That’s a terrible shame. Anyhow, if I stand here gabbing, I won’t be able to carry out Lord Ainz’s orders on time, and we can’t have that. If anything happens, get in touch and I’ll come right back.”
“Sure. I don’t think there will be anything I can’t handle, but if there is, I’ll call you.” She slipped a willowy arm out from under the sheets and waved good-bye.
“Then if you’ll excuse me… Oh, but if you’re making clothes for a male child, I should warn you: It seems as though the Supreme Beings dress boys as girls…”
“…Huh?”