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Overlord - Chapter 9
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1
Situated at a key location on the border between the Re-Estize Kingdom and its neighboring countries, the Baharuth Empire and the Slane Theocracy, E-Rantel looked the part of its title, the Fortress City, due to its three layers of walls. The townscapes within each layer had their own flavors.
The outermost area was where the royal army was stationed, so that’s where the military facilities were. The innermost area was the city’s administrative core. The storehouses for military provisions were there, and the whole zone was always under tight security. The space between those two zones was where the townspeople lived. It was the goings-on in this zone that usually sprang to mind when one heard the city’s name.
In the center square, the area’s largest, vendors at open-air stalls offered a wide range of goods, including everything from fresh vegetables to prepared foods. In the crowd of people, shopkeepers earnestly peppered passersby with lively sales pitches; elderly shoppers looking for the freshest produce haggled with merchants; lured by the grilling aromas, young men purchased kebabs dripping with meat juices.
Bursting with midday liveliness, it seemed as though the din in the square would continue on into the evening, but when a certain pair emerged from an adjacent five-story building, the commotion met its end. No one in the square could keep their eyes off them, and everyone froze.
One of the pair was a woman. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties and had lovely almond eyes that flashed with an obsidian gleam. Her abundant hair, so black it looked wet, was pulled back in a ponytail. Her smooth, pale skin shone with the luster of a pearl in the sun. More captivating than anything else was her modest beauty, the air of exoticism that turned everyone’s head. When worn by her, a completely ordinary brown robe seemed to transform into a luxurious gown.
Her companion’s sex was unclear, which is to say there were no distinguishing features visible.
Someone in the square whispered, “The Dark Warrior…”
Yes, the figure was enveloped in dazzling full plate armor that gleamed raven black and had purple-and-gold accents. It was impossible to make out the face behind the slit in the close helmet. Appropriate for such a robust physique, two great swords laid across the individual’s back, hilts jutting out from beneath a crimson cape.
The two of them looked out over the square, and the one in full plate armor set off walking first. Witnesses followed the departing figures with their eyes, murmuring rumors among themselves. It wasn’t that they were frightened or put on guard by the weapons, but that they had seen a curious sight.
The reason they weren’t more unnerved was because the building from which the pair had emerged was a place where people who specialized in monster extermination looked for work, the Adventurers Guild. It wasn’t at all rare to see armed people coming and going from there. In fact, after those two, a number of other people carrying weapons went in and out. Those with sharp eyes had been able to spot the copper plate around each of the pair’s necks. It was clear, then, that the only reason they were getting attention was the woman’s beauty and the magnificence of the other’s armor.
The pair walked silently down the not very wide street. Puddles in wagon wheel ruts reflected the sunlight. It wasn’t a proper paved road but a mix of dirt and mud that made it hard to walk. One wrong step and there was nothing to do but trip, but perhaps due to their superior senses of balance, these two walked with the same gait they would have used on cobblestones.
Moving with a light step, the woman checked to make sure no one was around and then spoke to the one in full plate armor. “Lord Ai—”
“No. My name is Momon. And you’re not Narberal Gamma of the Pleiades, but Nabe, Momon’s adventurer friend.” It was the armed figure—Ainz—who’d interrupted the woman—Narberal.
“Ah! Please excuse the error, Lord Momon!”
“Leave off the ‘Lord.’ We’re just a couple of adventurers, and we’re friends. It’ll look suspicious if you call me Lord.”
“B-but you’re a Supreme Being!”
Ainz gestured for her to lower her voice and answered with hints of annoyance and resignation in his voice. “How many times do I have to explain this? In this land I am Momon the Dark… —I mean, Momon, and you’re my partner. So don’t call me Lord. That’s an order.”
There was a momentary pause, and then Narberal reluctantly acquiesced. “Understood, Mr. Momooon.”
“Well, that’s better, at least, but really, you don’t even need the Mister. I’m your partner, so if you call me Mister, it makes it seem like there’s kind of a gap between us.”
“Is that…disrespectful or…?”
Narberal trailed off, and Ainz shrugged at her. “No one can find out who we really are. You understand that, right?”
“Of course, sir.”
“You don’t need the… Well, whatever. I’m just saying to be careful is all.”
“Understood, Mr. Momooon! But are you sure I’m the right person for this? If you need a companion, wouldn’t someone graceful and beautiful like Albedo be more suitable?”
“Albedo, huh…?” His voice contained a complex mixture of emotions. “I need her to manage Nazarick while I’m away.”
“If I may be so bold, surely Cocytus could manage Nazarick. The guardians were all saying so, but…when it comes to your safety, my lord, wouldn’t having Nazarick’s best defender, Albedo, with you be most appropriate?”
Ainz reacted to her question with distress.
When he had announced he would go personally to E-Rantel, the guardian who had been most vehemently against it was Albedo, and her pushback started the moment she understood she wouldn’t be accompanying him.
He still felt indebted to her for how, right after he had been transported to this world, she had covered for him when he’d been out walking on his own without telling anyone because he was loath to take an escort, so he didn’t react too harshly. But this was different; it was a carefully planned trip, not a whim, so he wasn’t going to back down.
She had probably suppressed her own desires and obeyed him because guardians were happy to submit when given an order, but Ainz didn’t feel good about it. It bothered him to force things on the characters his guildmates had created.
Ainz had tried persuasion, but Albedo was firmly against him. Their opinions were running along parallel lines destined to never meet, and it seemed like the issue would never get resolved, but after Demiurge whispered something in her ear, Albedo had abruptly withdrawn her complaints and the decision was made. She even said, “I understand everything,” and saw him off with a gentle smile.
He still didn’t know what Demiurge had said to her; that paired with the dramatic change in her behavior made him a bit anxious.
“The reason I didn’t bring Albedo is that there is no one I trust more than her. It’s precisely because she’s at Nazarick that I don’t have to worry about being away.”
“I see. That’s what I thought! So you’re closest to Albedo, then, huh?”
Saying Uh, yeah, I guess was impossible, so he just nodded. “And I know how dangerous this trip is.” Ainz raised his gauntleted right hand and wiggled his ring finger. “But it has to be me doing this. If I were to just command from within Nazarick, I’d end up missing something because this world is an unknown. I need to get out and see what it’s really like. …I’m sure there are many ways we could have gone about things, but when we’re dealing with so many unknowns, I wanted to do something that didn’t make me feel so uneasy.”
Ainz watched Narberal through the slit in his helmet as she solemnly accepted his explanation, and then he asked with a hint of anxiety in his voice, “Just wondering, but do you consider humans lower life-forms?”
“Indeed I do. Humans are worthless trash.”
Hearing this reply with no sign of hesitation that clearly came from the bottom of her heart, he muttered, “So you think so, too…,” but it was too quiet to reach Narberal’s ears. He continued, complaining, “That’s why I can’t just send you to a human city. I really should have made learning the personalities of my subordinates my highest priority.”
One of the reasons he hadn’t brought Albedo was because of how she had denounced humans as lower life-forms. He couldn’t take her to a city where there were lots of people only to have her throw a mass murder party the moment he took his eyes off her. Plus, Albedo didn’t have any disguise magic, so there was no way to hide her horns or wings.
And then there was the biggest reason—the one he couldn’t tell anyone: Ainz, who had been a normal office worker, wasn’t confident he could just sit at the top and manage everything with Nazarick’s future in mind based solely on secondhand information. That’s why he had decided to venture out, foisting operations onto Albedo, who had the skills to manage them. One should always delegate to a talented subordinate when possible. Nothing good came from a higher-up mucking around in an area outside his competence.
Also, where Ainz was concerned, Albedo was bound by two chains: loyalty and love. Under the circumstances, he felt safe leaving the Great Tomb of Nazarick in her hands.
Love… Whenever he saw Albedo, and whenever she said how much she admired him, he was reminded of his mistake in rewriting part of her backstory. Yes, right before the game’s servers were supposed to go down, he’d edited her bio to say that she was “in love with Momonga”—in other words, with Ainz. Of course, he had no way of knowing they would all go flying off to some new, other world. He’d just meant it as a little joke on the last day.
Reflecting on it, though, Albedo herself didn’t seem to mind, but what would Ainz’s friend, her creator, Tabula Smaragdina, think if he found out? What if it were me? If my friend had warped an NPC I made… He also didn’t like that he was taking advantage of her condition and assuming she wouldn’t betray him.
He shook his head to banish those dark thoughts. His undead body suppressed major emotional waves, but little ripples like this still affected him like they had when he was human. If I turn completely undead, will I stop feeling this guilt? Thinking absentmindedly on these things, he turned his close helmeted head to face Narberal. “Nabe, I’m not saying you have to discard that sentiment, but at least suppress it. This is a human city, and we don’t know how strong some of them might be, not to mention a lot of other things. Try not to do anything that could trigger hostility.”
Narberal bowed deeply to signify her loyalty and submission, and he held her head down to make his final point. “One more thing. When we take a fight too seriously or think we’d like to kill someone, it…frightens the humans. I don’t know if you really have bloodlust as such or not, but it comes off that way, so don’t go all-out without my permission. Okay?”
“Yes, Mr. Momooon.”
“Okay, the inn that lady told us about should be around here somewhere…” Ainz scanned the area.
There were some shops open and a few people going in and out. Looking to the side, he saw some artisans in aprons carrying goods, but there were only a handful. Ainz and Narberal looked for the inn based on the picture on the sign, since they couldn’t read this country’s writing.
Finally Ainz found the “picture” and began walking faster. Narberal noticed and matched his pace.
Scraping the mud off his sabbatons, Ainz went up the stoop, pushed open the swinging café doors, and stepped inside. The windows that would have let light in were mostly shuttered, so the room was dim. A human accustomed to the light outside might have felt it pitch-dark for a moment, but Ainz had the Darkvision ability, so there was plenty of light for him.
It was a fairly large space. The first floor was a pub with a bar in the back. Behind the bar were two built-in shelves lined with bottles. The door to the side of the bar probably led to the kitchen.
In the corner of the pub was a stairway that wrapped around on itself partway up. According to the lady at the guild, the second and third floors were an inn.
There was a handful of customers sitting at the few round tables, mostly men. The atmosphere suited the kind of people who constantly put themselves in dangerous situations.
Most eyes were on Ainz and Narberal, many aggressively appraising them. The only person not paying attention to them was a girl sitting at the edge of the room, staring at a bottle on her table.
Faced with this scene, Ainz furrowed his nonexistent brow under his close helmet. He’d prepared himself for this, but it was still dingier than he’d expected.
There were dirty and repulsive places in Yggdrasil, too. There were even some in the Great Tomb of Nazarick itself—places like the Prince of Fear’s room and the Den of Poison. But this was a different kind of dirty.
Scraps of some kind of food had fallen to the floor, and there were puddles of some kind of liquid as well; the walls had strange stains on them, and in the corner something had coagulated and was growing mold…
Ainz sighed in his head and looked at the back of the room. There was a man standing there wearing a grimy apron. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing thick forearms; they bore several scars, but it was impossible to tell whether they’d been made by a sword or a beast. His features fell somewhere between intensely masculine and wild animal, and there were scars on his face, too. His head was shaved clean—not a single hair remained. This man with a mop in one hand, who seemed more like a hired guard than the innkeeper, had been openly observing Ainz.
“You need a room, eh? How many nights?” his gruff voice boomed.
“One, please.”
“…A copper plate? It’ll be five coppers for a shared room,” the innkeeper said brusquely. “Food is oatmeal—well, some days it’s leftover bread instead of oatmeal—and vegetables. If you want meat, that’s a copper extra.”
“If possible I’d like a room for just the two of us.”
Ainz heard a faint snort. “…There are three inns that serve adventurers in this city. The one at the bottom is mine. You were introduced by the guild, right? You know how I can tell?”
“No, I don’t. Will you tell me?”
At Ainz’s swift reply, the innkeeper’s eyebrows tilted to a dangerous angle. “Think a bit! Or don’t you have anything inside that fancy helmet of yours?”
Ainz wasn’t fazed by the irritated voice projected from the pit of the innkeeper’s stomach. Perhaps he could take the outburst the way he would take a tantrum thrown by a child, because of his experience in the battle the other day.
That battle, and forcibly extracting intelligence out of his prisoners afterward, had helped him get an idea of how powerful he was. He didn’t need to get riled up about being shouted at.
The innkeeper noticed that attitude and emitted a faint hmm of admiration. “…Seems like you have some guts, eh? …The adventurers who stay here are generally copper or iron plates. If you’re around the same ability level and start to recognize each other, you might decide to form a team and go adventuring together. My place is a perfect spot to look for team members…” The innkeeper’s eyes widened into an intimidating stare. “I don’t mind if you want to sleep in your own room, but if you don’t meet people, you can’t make friends. And if you can’t organize a balanced team, you’ll die fighting a monster. That’s why greenhorns who don’t have enough friends get themselves known by staying in a large room. So I’ll ask you one more time: Do you want a shared room or a two-person room?”
“A two-person room. No need for meals.”
“Tch, I’m just trying to be nice… Or are you saying that your full plate armor isn’t just for show? Well, whatever. One night is seven coppers—up front, naturally.” The innkeeper stuck out his hand.
Under the room’s appraising eyes, Ainz, followed by Narberal, moved to go when suddenly a leg was ****** into his way. Ainz stopped and, moving only his eyes, looked at the man the leg belonged to.
He had a thin, nasty smile on his face. The others at his table were either smiling in the same way or staring at Ainz and Narberal.
Neither the innkeeper nor any of the customers went to intervene. At a glance it seemed like they either didn’t care or were looking on in amusement as if something interesting had started, but there were a few people with sharp gazes mixed in, watching their every move.
Sheesh. Ainz breathed a faint sigh and shoved the leg away with his foot.
As if he’d been waiting for just that, the man stood up. Since he wasn’t wearing armor, it was possible to see that he was well muscled under his clothes. A chain with a plate similar to the one Ainz was wearing—only iron—swung from his neck when he moved. “Hey, that hurt!” He implied a threat as he slowly sidled up. At some point he had grabbed his gauntlets and put them on. When he formed fists, the metal made a chilling squeak.
The two sized each other up from a distance that was a bit too close for throwing punches. They were about the same height. Ainz made the first move. “Oh, I didn’t see your leg there. With this close helmet on, my field of vision isn’t so great. Or maybe I didn’t see it because it’s so stubby… Anyhow, you’ll forgive me, right?”
“…You bastard.” A dangerous glint appeared in the man’s eyes in response to Ainz’s taunting. But when his gaze shifted behind Ainz to Narberal, something new got lodged where the anger had been.
“You really piss me off, but hey, I’m a nice guy. If you lend your lady to me for a night, I’ll let you off the hook.”
“Hah! Ha-ha-ha!” Ainz burst out laughing and put a hand out to stay Narberal, who had begun to move forward.
“…What?”
“No, it’s just that what you said just now was such a textbook example of something a little punk would say that I couldn’t help but laugh. Forgive me.”
“Huh?” Now his indignation showed on his face, which had grown red in patches.
“Oh, before this comes to blows, can I ask you something? Are you stronger than Gazef Stronoff?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?!”
“I see. That reaction will do. I guess I won’t even be able to use enough of my power to have any fun. Time to fly!”
Ainz whipped out his hands and grabbed the man’s collar to lift him off the ground. Unable to resist, much less dodge, before being hoisted into the air, the man cried a startled, “Whoa!” and the men watching the commotion grew audibly excited. How strong would a person have to be to lift a grown man off the ground with one hand? There was no one in the room with so little imagination they couldn’t guess.
The stir was followed by a collective held breath. Ainz shattered the tense air of astonishment by taking the frantically kicking man and lightly tossing him across the room—of course, “lightly” was from Ainz’s perspective.
The man’s body ascended with impressive velocity almost to the ceiling before describing the rest of its parabola and falling heavily onto a table.
The impact of the body, the shattering of the things that had been on the table, wood splitting, and the man’s pained voice—all these sounds overlapped in a cacophony that resounded throughout the room. Then, as if the noise were dampened by the man’s groan, silence descended. But a beat later—
“Nyaaargh!” A strange yell came out of the mouth of the woman who’d been sitting at the table—a scream from her soul that said something unthinkable had occurred. It was a natural way to react to a man falling down on one’s table, but this was definitely about something else.
“So? Now what are you gonna do? It would be a pain to fight you each one-on-one, not to mention a ridiculous waste of time, so you can come at me all at once if you want.” Ainz addressed the rest of the men sitting where the first one had been. Catching his implication, they all hurried to bow their heads.
“Ah? O-oh! How rude of our friend! Allow us to apologize!”
“…Sure, you’re forgiven. This was no problem for me at all. Just make sure you pay the innkeeper for that table.”
“Of course. We’ll take care of that.”
That’s settled, then. Ainz had just started walking away when someone else called out to him. “Hey, hey, hey!” When he turned to look, the woman who’d screamed earlier was striding his way.
She was probably twenty or a little younger. Her red hair was cut to a practical length. No matter how generously one regarded it, the ends weren’t remotely even—if anything, it looked more like a bird’s nest. Her face wasn’t bad, but there was no sign of any makeup on it, and she had bitterness in her eyes. Her skin was tanned to a healthy wheat color, and the muscles on her arms stood out, as did the sword calluses on her hands. The first impression she made was not woman, but warrior. The iron plate hanging around her neck swung with each step she took.
“Whaddaya think you’re doin’?!”
“What do you mean ‘what’?”
“Huh?! You don’t even know what you did?!” She pointed to the broken table. “You threw that guy, and my potion, my precious potion, broke! What’re you thinking, throwing around a huge fucking thing like that?!”
“Your point?”
“My ‘point’?! Oh, man…” Her eyes grew sharper and her voice lower. “I demand compensation! For my potion!”
“It’s just a potion…”
“I skipped meals and scrimped and saved, desperately economizing, all to buy that potion today—today!—and you went and broke it! I was trusting that potion to save my life on a dangerous adventure! This is your attitude after you crush my dreams?! I am seriously pissed!” She took another step toward Ainz. Her wide-open eyes were bloodshot; she had the look of an enraged bull.
Ainz suppressed a sigh. It had been careless of him to not look before throwing. But there was a specific reason he wouldn’t agree to compensate her so easily.
“…So why don’t you collect from that guy? If he hadn’t been so desperate to stretch out his stubby little leg, this wouldn’t have happened, right?” He glared at the man’s friends through the slit in his helmet.
“O-ohh…”
“But—”
“Well, you can give me another potion or pay me the equivalent, either way…but it cost one gold piece and ten silvers.” The men looked at their feet. Apparently they didn’t have the money to pay her back. So the woman looked back at Ainz. “Figures. They’re always here drinking themselves into a stupor, so why would they have any money But you…you’re wearing that fancy armor, so you must have at least a low-grade healing potion on you, right?”
I see, thought Ainz. So that’s why she started by asking me. Things had gotten complicated; one wrong move could ruin everything. He thought a moment and then made up his mind. “I do, but…you’re certain it was a healing potion?”
“Duh! I worked so har—”
“Yeah, I got that part. I’ll give you a potion, so let’s call it even.” He took out a Minor Healing Potion and held it out to the woman.
She gave it a dubious look, and then made a sullen face and took it.
“…So there’s no problem anymore?”
“…I guess it’s fine.” It sounded a little like there still might be an issue, but Ainz cleared the doubts from his mind. He had more important things to worry about, like whether Narberal was about to commit a fatal error or not. Even though he’d settled things, she was clearly still on edge. Seeming to sense this, several bystanders had anxious looks on their faces.
“Let’s go,” Ainz said, half as a check on Narberal, and stood before the innkeeper. Then he casually pulled a leather pouch from his pocket, took out a silver coin, and dropped it into the innkeeper’s rough hand.
The innkeeper stuffed it into his pocket without a word, and when he brought his hand out again, it was clutching a few copper pieces. “Okay, then, six coppers is your change.” He dropped the coins into Ainz’s gauntleted hand and set a key on the counter with a ka-ching. “Up the stairs and first on your right. Put your luggage in the chests built into the beds. I don’t think I have to tell you, but don’t go near other people’s rooms for no reason. If somebody thinks you’re up to something, there’ll be trouble. Although if you want people to know who you are, I guess that’s one way to do it. Seems like you could handle almost any trouble that might arise. Just don’t make any for me.” The innkeeper’s eyes flitted for a moment to the man still moaning on the floor.
“Got it. Also, please outfit me with the minimum provisions necessary for adventuring. I lost everything I had. When I asked at the guild, they said you’d be able to…”
The innkeeper looked at the things Ainz and Narberal were wearing and then eyed the leather pouch. “Yeah, sure thing. I’ll have it all ready for you by dinnertime. Make sure you’re ready to pay.”
“Right. Okay, Nabe, let’s go.”
Narberal followed Ainz up the old staircase that shrieked its creaks, and they headed to their assigned room.
•
Once Ainz was gone, the comrades of the man who’d been thrown hurried to cast healing magic on him. As if that were the trigger, the silent inn suddenly began to stir.
“So that guy’s actually as tough as he looks, huh?”
“Yeah, that strength is something else. I wonder how he trained!”
“He didn’t have any other weapons besides those two great swords, but that must just show how confident he is.”
“Argh, another guy who seems like he could knock us all flying at once?”
The conversations being had conveyed admiration, wonder, astonishment.
Actually, everyone had known from the start that Ainz wasn’t a typical adventurer. The first tip-off was his impressive gear. Full plate armor did not come cheaply; it was only someone who had gone on adventure after adventure—someone with a lot of experience—who could afford to buy it. Factoring in only rewards, someone who’d earned a silver plate might have that kind of fortune. Of course, there were some who inherited gear or people who picked up things in ruins or on the battlefield; that’s why they’d wanted to test how powerful he really was.
Everyone at this inn was friendly with one another but, of course, they were also rivals. If a new guy showed up, they would all want to know how strong he was, so incidents like the one that had just happened were common. Actually, they’d all taken their turn running this gauntlet; just no one could ask themselves if they had made it through so easily and say yes.
In other words, it was clear to everyone that whether they were friends or foes, the unfamiliar pair with the copper plates possessed genuine strength.
“How should we treat them now?”
“Guess I can’t talk to that pretty lady ever again.”
“If it’s just the two of them, they can join my team!”
“You mean you’ll beg them to join!”
“I wonder what his face looks like under that helmet.”
“I’m gonna camp outside their room and listen in tonight!”
“He name-dropped Gazef Stronoff, the strongest warrior around!”
“Do you think he’s his apprentice?”
“Could be.”
“A job that important should be left up to me! I’m a thief with excellent hearing.”
In the midst of all the chatter flying around about the unknown pair, the innkeeper walked up to one adventurer in particular—the woman who had received the potion from Ainz.
“Hey, Brita.”
“Hmm? What?” The woman, Brita, moved only her eyes from the red potion she’d been staring at and looked at him with disinterest.
“What’s up with that potion?”
“Dunno.”
“C’mon now, whaddaya mean, ‘dunno’? You only took it because you knew how much it was worth, right?”
“Yeah, right. Actually, I’ve never seen a potion like this before. You’re
over here looking at it because you haven’t, either, right?”
It was just as she’d said. “You’re okay with that? He really did break your potion, y’know? This one might be worth less than the one you had!”
“Mm, yeah. It’s definitely a gamble, but I feel like I’ll come out ahead this time. After all, that guy with his fancy armor offered this after hearing how much my potion was worth.”
“Oh…”
“…Plus, I’ve never seen a healing potion this color before. That means there’s a good chance it’s a pretty rare find, right? If I’d hesitated, it would have been like going into a dragon’s nest and bringing home nothing. Anyway, tomorrow I’ll go get it appraised, and then I’ll know how much it’s worth.”
“Oh yeah? Then let me cover the appraisal fees for you. And not only that, but I’ll introduce you to a top-notch place.”
“You’d do that?” Brita’s eyebrows scrunched together. The innkeeper was a good man, but he wasn’t a softy. He had to have an ulterior motive.
“Now, now, don’t make that face. All you have to do is tell me what effects the potion has or whatever.”
“That’s the deal, huh?”
“Not a bad one, is it? And with my connections, I can introduce you to the best potion maker around—the Lizzy Baleare.”
Brita’s face showed her genuine surprise.
E-Rantel was a place where many mercenaries and adventurers gathered, so it was home to a flourishing market for buying and selling weapons and items aimed at them. The potion business was particularly brisk, and there were many more apothecaries there than in other cities.
Out of all of them, Lizzy Baleare was known as the best and could make the most complex potions of any of the city’s apothecaries. Once the name of the best apothecary in E-Rantel had been brought up, the offer was no longer one Brita could refuse.
2
The wooden door gently clapped shut.
The only furnishings in the room were one small desk and two simple wooden beds with chests built in. Since the shutters were open, sunlight and air from outside came in directly.
Ainz looked around the room, slightly disappointed. He knew he was at an inn on the outskirts of town and couldn’t expect the same facilities and cleanliness as at Nazarick, but this setup put him on his guard.
“That you should have to stay in such a place, Lord Momon, is so…”
“Oh, don’t say that. Our goal is to gain a reputation in this city as adventurers. We have to aim for the top so everyone will know my name. Until then, adopting the lifestyle of the part can’t hurt.” Ainz comforted her, showing no sign of his inner feelings, as he closed the shutters. The light that came in through the gaps in the shutters was not enough to banish the room’s darkness completely. Ainz and Narberal could use Darkvision, so it didn’t affect them, but for anyone who couldn’t do that, this room would probably be too dark to see much of anything. “…But, man, being an adventurer is more depressing than I thought.”
Adventurer. The word had held some fascination for Ainz. They traveled the world in pursuit of the unknown. He’d been imagining it as an occupation that embodied the “correct way” to play Yggdrasil, but after talking to the receptionist at the guild, he realized it was more practical and boring.
In a nutshell, an adventurer was an anti-monster mercenary. They did resemble the adventurers Ainz had been dreaming of in some ways—e.g., there were opportunities to explore ruins, wreckage of the country destroyed by the evil spirits that appeared there two hundred years ago, and pursue the unknown in unexplored regions—but they were basically monster exterminators.
Monsters had various special abilities depending on their type, which is why tackling them required people with a larger variety of skills—countermeasures—than soldiers had.
Given that, one might think that they’d be in a position like the hero in a video game, with many people depending on them…
But that was not the case.
The ruling classes weren’t too keen on having armed groups roaming around outside of their control. For that reason, even if adventurers were doing well enough from a monetary standpoint, their status was low. The reason they weren’t brought in to work on a national level was that countries used the same logic that corporations do: Full time employees cost money, so it was cheaper to just hire temp workers as necessary. And just as there are some companies that get by without hiring any temp workers, there were countries where the army could subdue the monsters; in those places, an adventurer’s status was even lower.
The lady behind the desk at the guild had grumbled that there were no adventurers in the Slane Theocracy and that the standing of adventurers in the Baharuth Empire had been falling ever since the current emperor came to power.
Ainz cleared the faint disappointment from his mind. It wasn’t so uncommon a thing for someone to take a job they’d always wanted only to discover it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
He waved his hand loosely, and his raven-black armor and two great swords melted into thin air, revealing his skeletal figure wrapped in magic items. Every now and then, a red target sight appeared on his thin black-mirrored shades and then disappeared. The amethyst circlet around his head was like a rose vine—the outside had a number of thorns sticking out. On top, he wore a black long-sleeved shirt with a silky sheen and, on bottom, baggy pants. Around his waist was something closer to a black belt—as in the martial arts kind—than a simple belt. He took off his unsophisticated gauntlets, and all his fingers except his ring fingers had rings on them. His rugged, red-brown ankle boots were embroidered with gold thread. Around his neck was a necklace that featured a silver plate fashioned into a lion’s face and then his crimson cape.
Normally, Yggdrasil items were augmented by inlaying them with data crystals. For this reason, it was extremely difficult to have matching gear. But there were enough people who hated looking like a jumble of east and west that the developers released an update that made it so a player who met certain conditions could keep their stats but align the style of their equipment.
The matching raven-black armor that had been covering Ainz’s entire body up until moments before was created with Create Greater Item, which was one of the conditions.
The items Ainz had equipped included Direct Hit Glasses, a Crown of Psychic Defense, Black Widow Spider Clothes, a Black Belt, Járngreipr, a Nemean lion, Haste Boots, and—
In Yggdrasil, buying and selling was often done at the data-crystal level; however, there were times when players had created a more powerful item and would then sell what they had been equipping before. The problem was that if a player created an item, they could name it basically whatever they wanted (the admins would request a change if the name contained words prohibited on TV or insults against a particular individual).
There was an understandably strong tendency for items with strange names to be avoided on the market. The in game purchase to change an item’s name was rather inexpensive, but there were not a lot of people who would go so far as to use one in order to buy something. For that reason, most players racked their brains when it came time to name an item. Names from myths or English words were common solutions.
Of course, there were exceptions.
Naming rings Ring1, Ring2, Ring3, and so on was still on the charming side. Ainz had even seen Thumb, Pointer, Middle before. One of Ainz’s friends, the Warrior Takemikazuchi, had two ōdachi that he used for different things. He named the eighth generation of one of them Takemikazuchi Style Eight.
Ainz’s crimson cape also had one of these custom names: Necroplasmic Cape. The idea was borrowed from the dark hero of an American comic.
This was all relic gear. That was two tiers below his usual, but he could think of several good reasons to not bring overly powerful items to this place, so he had stopped himself there.
As Ainz rotated his shoulders and relished the freedom he felt after taking off his armor, Narberal asked him a question. “What should we do with that unpleasant lady from before?”
“Oh, you mean the one whose potion broke? We shouldn’t have to worry about her. I mean, if something important to me got broken, I’d fly into a rage…” Remembering the changes in his psychology since he ended up in this body, he faltered for a moment and then continued, “…myself. Probably. I was careless, so of course she would blame me.”
“But that only happened as a result of a stupid human committing so foolish an act as picking a fight with you, Supreme One. That man is surely the one to blame.”
“That’s true, but I was the one who threw him. In this case, we should practice tolerance and forgive. Plus, we’re in this city to build reputations as Momon and Nabe, beings from this world. If word got out that we couldn’t even afford a potion, we’d be off to a bad start.”
Narberal didn’t seem completely on board with his way of thinking, but she acquiesced with a low bow.
“Plus, she was more experienced than us. We should probably try to keep the more experienced adventurers from getting their pride hurt.”
Momonga toyed with the other chain around his neck. These are just metal plates, so I wonder if it’s possible to counterfeit them… Well, I’ll let the guild worry about that. Hanging as it was, essentially, a dog tag.
Plates were the proof of an adventurer’s ability level: copper, iron, silver, gold, platinum, mythril, orichalcum, adamantite. The latter metals indicated a better reputation, and higher ranks could not only select more difficult jobs but were also better compensated. The system was designed to avoid unnecessary adventurer deaths.
Ainz had just registered with the guild, so he had a copper plate, the lowest rank, while that woman was an iron plate. Showing a minimum level of respect for superiors is one of the ways to get ahead in any society.
“But Lord Ainz, adamantite is such a soft metal; you should be a prismatic ore like apoithakarah or scarletite. They must all be blind.” Narberal was listing highly valuable metals from Yggdrasil.
Ainz narrowed his eyes and brought up something that had been bugging him. “Nabe, just in case, you should call me Momon while we’re here.”
“Understood, Lord Momon!”
“You really want to have this conversation again? It’s just Momon.”
“M-my apologies, Mr. Momooon!”
“Mr. Momooon sounds pretty dopey… Well, whatever. If Momon is too hard, then at least say Mr. Momon. Got it?”
“Yes, Mr. Momon!”
She bowed low again and Ainz put a couple fingers to his forehead. She doesn’t understand why I’m making her say Momon. I guess she’s a little slow… Well, at least there’s no one who can see us right now; I’ll let it go for the moment.
“For now, let’s just discuss our plan of action.”
“My lord!” She dropped to one knee and lowered her head—the posture of an attendant awaiting orders from her master.
What am I gonna do with her? They were fine now because he had locked the door the moment they had walked through it, but he had the feeling people would talk if they witnessed a scene like this. And why doesn’t she understand why I want her to call me Momon? I’m pretty sure I explained it on the way here…
He began to speak, half resigned. “We’re going to build reputations undercover as famed adventurers in this city. One reason for that is to obtain information that adventurers, i.e., powerful people, have. I want to put a special emphasis on rumors about other Yggdrasil players like me. Once we earn a higher ranking plate, we’ll be offered jobs appropriate to that level, and the information we’ll acquire will probably be more accurate and useful. So, for the time being, our top priority is to succeed as adventurers.”
As Narberal acknowledged this, Ainz began to list the pending issues.
“But we already have some problems.” He took out his small leather pouch, loosened its mouth, and emptied it into his hand. There were coins, not very many, with not a glimmer of gold to be seen. “For starters, we have no money.”
There were a few reasons he had handed over a potion in the dispute earlier, but one was that he wasn’t confident he could settle things with cash. It would have been too pathetic to have to say he didn’t have any money back there.
Narberal looked at him with a dubious expression, and Ainz added, “Well, I mean, we have money. But most of it is Yggdrasil gold. I want to only use that as a last resort.”
“But why? Didn’t you already confirm that Yggdrasil coins have monetary value here?”
“That’s true. When I went to Carne, the gold coins… Yeah, they told me one was worth two of their gold coins used for exchanges. But if I use Yggdrasil gold in this city, there’s no telling what might happen. If we’re not careful, it could basically be the same as announcing that there’s a Yggdrasil player here. I’d like to avoid that while we still don’t know this world very well.”
“Players…beings with the same rank as my lord, but recalcitrant rabble who once raided Nazarick.”
Ainz furrowed his nonexistent brow at her use of “my lord,” but he decided to say nothing for the same reason as earlier. “Yes. We need to be on our guard against them.”
He, Ainz Ooal Gown, had reached the highest level in Yggdrasil, 100, but among players, that wasn’t such a rare thing. Indeed, most players had done it. Among them, Ainz knew he was on the higher side of mid-ranking, power-wise. That was because instead of taking only classes suited for an undead caster, he had chosen some for the role-playing element, regardless of power. Taking into account his multiple god-tier items and how many cash shop items he had, he would probably land on the more powerful side of average, but there would always be someone stronger.
That was why he had to avoid being discovered by other players. If he rushed into the wrong battle, there would be any number of opponents he wouldn’t be able to beat.
And players were originally humans, so many of them would probably side with humans. If players like that came up against someone like Albedo, who saw humans as lower life-forms, they might decide the Great Tomb of Nazarick and Ainz Ooal Gown in its entirety were enemies of mankind. That’s why he’d decided it was dangerous to be out and about with her.
But I had no idea Narberal would be the same way… Ainz wasn’t an enemy of mankind; however, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them if it was necessary to achieve his goals. Still, he wanted to avoid head-on confrontations with players.
“In that sense, it really was a waste.”
“What was?”
“That we lost that Nigun fellow so fast. He probably had a lot of info, but we finished him off on such a simple question.”
Of the members of the Sunlit Scripture he had captured in Carne, only ten were still alive. The others had died during their interrogations and become fodder for Ainz’s undead summons. He recalled the info they’d forced their prisoners to cough up and laughed at himself.
“Most players would probably back the Slane Theocracy, huh?”
The Slane Theocracy was a religious nation that believed in the Six Gods who appeared six hundred years earlier. In the words of the Sunlit Scripture members, it was a country working toward a world where weak humans would prevail over the other more powerful races and prosper. If there were players who had retained their humanity, they might approve of the Slane Theocracy’s teachings.
This world was not one where humans were top of the heap—here, humans were considered one of the inferior races. Yes, they had built grand cities like this one on the plains, but their living on the plains was simply a sign of their weakness.
In fact, the plains was a dangerous place to be. There was nowhere to hide, and it was easy to be spotted by enemies. The reason they had chosen to settle there was that, for a fragile race without eyes to see in the dark, stronger legs, or better stamina, there was nowhere else besides the plains where they could build a habitat for themselves.
There were races more physically able than humans, with superior civilizations, but they hadn’t been able to conquer the continent because when the Eight Kings of Avarice tried to rule it five centuries earlier, the ensuing struggle resulted in diminished racial power. If that hadn’t happened, humans probably would have been wiped out.
Arriving in such a world, one would probably want to side with the humans. That’s precisely why Ainz was keeping his distance from the Slane Theocracy—he was wary of other players.
“Anyhow, as far as money goes, I had you bring those swords the fake knights from the Slane Theocracy had because I figured we could sell them in a pinch, but…I’d like to find some work before it comes to that.”
“Understood. So you’re saying we’ll go to the guild again tomorrow, then?”
“Yes. Really, I’d like to tour the city and gain some knowledge, but that will have to wait until we earn some money.”
“Very good, my lord. I, as a combat maid, shall provide my full support.”
“Great. Thanks, Narberal.”
Satisfied with Narberal’s deep bow, Ainz cast some magic and clad himself in illusion and armor. “I’m going to go have a look at our surroundings. You stand by here.”
“I should go with—”
“No thanks. It’ll just be a quick peek. I heard there is a huge graveyard; I’d like to see that, if possible… And the reason I’m leaving you here is in case any intruders show up. Make sure not to let your guard down for a second. So far, I don’t think we’ve made any slipups, but it’s not an exaggeration to say we’re in enemy territory. Stay alert.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And take care of our periodic check-in.”
Ainz left the room and Narberal heaved a sigh. She then massaged her temples up and down. Her eyes had been sharp, but now they drooped as all the tension went out of her expression. Even her ponytail sagged as though it, too, were out of energy.
But she hadn’t forgotten her supreme master’s orders.
She focused her senses to see if she could perceive what was happening outside the room, but as a caster, it was difficult to mimic a thief’s abilities. She compensated by using a trick of hers.
“Rabbit Ears!” When she cast the spell, a pair of cute rabbit ears sprouted from the top of her head. They began to twitch and pick up sounds in the area.
Rabbit Ears was one of three spells Yggdrasil players called “bunny magic.” The other two were Rabbit’s Foot, which upped the caster’s luck, and Bunny Tail, which slightly reduced the amount of enmity they generated. These spells were ridiculously popular because when a female character cast all three, her outfit would change. Narberal didn’t need the other two at the moment, so she didn’t bother.
This was one of the few spells she had learned that wasn’t for combat.
After listening enough to determine the coast was clear, she cast Message.
As if she’d been waiting for the call, a woman’s pretty voice echoed in Narberal’s head almost instantly. “Narberal Gamma. Is something wrong?”
“No, just checking in.”
Narberal was speaking with Albedo, captain of the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s floor guardians. After touching on every detail of their current situation, she said what she knew Albedo would want to hear. “Lord Ainz said there is no one he trusts more than you.”
“Tee-hee!” A strangely excited squeal echoed in Narberal’s head. “Great, great. Good girl, Narberal! Keep on talking me up! That’s an order from the captain of the floor guardians!”
Narberal wondered if that was worth giving an order over, but she realized Albedo was fighting a battle with Shalltear to decide which woman would serve by their lord’s side. When she thought of it that way, an order made perfect sense.
All the while Narberal was coming to understand this, Albedo’s voice kept ringing in her head. “While Shalltear is out, I’ll be gently closing the gap between Lord Ainz and me. He may be an impregnable fortress, but if I strike with wave attacks and establish a bridgehead, he must one day fall! And on that glorious day, Shalltear will cry oh so bitterly!”
Narberal’s brow creased slightly in response to Albedo’s delighted screams. As might be expected, the captain was a bit of a hassle when she got this worked up.
Sounding so cheerful it seemed like she might start skipping, Albedo plotted quietly how she’d have to do this and that, but all at once her voice grew serious. “But why are you helping me? What’s the reason you chose to support me and not Shalltear? Are you trying to get something?”
“It’s simple. If I were asked who was worthy to sit at Lord Ainz’s side, you or Mistress Shalltear, I would answer that you are.”
“Tee-hee! Wonderful! Now, here’s a girl who can see Nazarick’s future— the big picture. Impressive!”
“On top of that, Yuri isn’t very fond of Mistress Shalltear.”
“Ah, Yuri Alpha. I see, interesting. So is it safe to consider the others my allies as well, do you think?”
Narberal pictured deputy leader Yuri Alpha and her other teammates one by one as she answered. “Hmm, I’m not so sure. Lupusregina is more on your side, but Solution probably leans more toward Mistress Shalltear. I don’t know about Entoma or Shizu; they don’t seem particularly attached to either side at the moment.”
“Do you think there’s a way to win Solution over?”
“I imagine it would be difficult. She and Shalltear have some things in common…”
“Oh, right. Their bad taste, huh?” Narberal confirmed, cocking her head in her inability to understand Solution Epsilon’s twisted hobby. Narberal, too, considered all humans save one lower life-forms, but that didn’t mean she wanted to torment them. If they got in her way, she would kill them, and if they made trouble, she would kill them, but that didn’t mean she’d want to go out of her way and take all kinds of time to do it.
“Well, we can’t do anything about that. Very well. Let’s try to get the other girls in my camp, starting with Entoma and Shizu.”
“That sounds good. Solution and Entoma both enjoy eating humans, so it’s possible that if we can get Entoma to ally with you, Solution might follow.”
“Hmm… Got it. Then, to change the subject…will you give me more details about how Lord Ainz, my beloved, is doing?”
“Yes, mistress.”
And so the check-in with Albedo livened up, although there were some brief tiffs such as when Albedo raised a bizarre war cry when she heard that Narberal and Ainz would be sleeping in the same room. Narberal had to cast the same spell four times and Ainz was somewhat disgusted when he returned, but that’s another story.
3
Feeling the air had taken on a color, Brita sniffed several times like a dog. The faint green component of the smell was probably not her imagination. It was some chemical or mashed plant. That told her she was nearing the block she was aiming for.
Brita followed the road and reached the block where the smell was even stronger. Looking both ways, she stopped before the largest house on it. The other houses in the area were constructed with a store in the front and a workshop in back, while this one was more like workshop, workshop, workshop. Reading the letters on the wooden plate hanging from the door and the sign out front confirmed she was in the right place.
She pushed open the door. The bell attached to the top of it jangled so loudly she jumped. Inside seemed like a sitting room where discussions with customers could take place. Two sofas faced each other in the center of the room, and along the walls were shelves lined with things that appeared to be documents. There was a houseplant in the corner.
The moment Brita stepped inside, a voice called out to her. “Hello there!” A man’s voice. No, it was too young sounding.
When she looked over, there was a boy standing in the back of the room wearing a beat-up work apron, which seemed likely to give off a pungent odor, judging from all the mashed plant material sticking to it. His long blond hair hid half of his face, so she couldn’t tell how old he was, but judging from his height and voice, he was probably in the middle of a growth spurt.
Brita had an idea who he might be. Yes, his grandmother was renowned, but this boy could also be counted among E-Rantel’s celebrities due to his talent.
“…Nfirea Baleare?”
“Yes, that’s me.” He nodded and then asked, “What can I do for you today?”
“Oh, uh, just a moment.”
Brita took out of her pocket the folded paper the innkeeper had given her and handed it to the boy, who had come closer. He opened it and began reading carefully.
“So this is… I see. Then, could you show me the potion?”
Nfirea took the potion she’d taken out and raised it up to the level his eyes must have been under his hair.
Something in the atmosphere changed.
Nfirea parted his bangs, exposing regular features that made it seem certain girls would fuss over him in the future. He still looked so young, but now, a sharpness appeared in his expression. His gaze was incredibly keen for the casual tone he had taken earlier. He blinked several times, and his excitement was visible in his eyes. Then, he rocked the bottle a few times and nodded once. “Excuse me. There’s not much I can say about it at this point, so would you come this way?”
Assenting, Brita followed Nfirea to a messy room. No—it only seemed messy because she didn’t have the knowledge to understand it.
On a table were round-bottom flasks, test tubes, a still, mortars, funnels, beakers, burners, a balance, strange jars, and other various pieces of equipment. The walls had shelves full of countless medicinal herbs and ores. The whole room assaulted her nose with a singular reek that seemed like it might be harmful to her health.
The occupant of the room turned to glare at the two intruders. It was an extremely old woman. Wrinkled face, wrinkled hands. Her hair, cropped to shoulder length, was pure white. Her work clothes had even more green splotches than Nfirea’s and smelled strongly of herbs.
Entering the room, Nfirea called out to her, “Grandma!”
“What is it? What is it? I can hear you without all the shouting. My ears are doing just fine.”
Nfirea only had one grandmother. This was the woman said to be the best apothecary in the city, Lizzy Baleare.
“Look at this!”
Lizzy took the bottle as he ****** it into her hands, and her perceptive gaze was so sharp that Brita was almost compelled to brace herself. She sensed that she was in the presence of a powerful veteran.
And it wasn’t just her imagination. Apothecaries needed to use magic in the course of making medicines, so the better the reputation of the apothecary, the higher tiers of magic it indicated they could use. That meant that as the best apothecary in E-Rantel, Lizzy’s individual combat ability surpassed Brita’s.
“This… She brought it? The legendary…? It can’t be… Gods’ Blood? Hey, what is this thing?”
“Huh?” Brita blinked. That was her question.
“This potion…it shouldn’t exist. Where did you get it? Is it from the ruins?”
“Huh? Uh, no, I mean…”
“You’re not very good at making yourself understood, child. Just spit out what’s asked of you! Where did you get it? It’s not like you stole it, right? Hmm?”
Brita’s shoulders jumped. She felt like she was being scolded even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Grandma! Don’t frighten her!”
“Whaddaya mean, Nfirea? I’m not frightening her one bit. …Right?”
Nope, definitely scared, Brita wanted to say, but of course, she couldn’t, so she swallowed hard and quit beating around the bush about how she acquired the potion. “Someone, uh, gave it to me.”
“Huh?” Lizzy’s gaze became more damning. “You think—”
“Grandma, just wait a minute. Um, Brita, who gave it to you and for what reason?”
Reaching out for the lifeline Nfirea offered, she gave a simple explanation of how she’d received it from a mysterious person in full plate armor. Lizzy’s wrinkled face grew even more wrinkly.
“…Did you know that there are three types of potions?” Despite asking the question, she didn’t wait for Brita’s response before continuing. “There are potions made just with herbs. These don’t have instantaneous effects, but basically work by enhancing humans’ natural healing processes. They aren’t terribly effective, but they’re extremely cheap.
“Next are potions made with herbs and magic. These take effect more quickly than the ones I just mentioned, but they still take some time. These are the ones you often see adventurers drinking after a battle or something when they have more time.
“Lastly, there are potions that use only magic. They’re made by infusing alchemical solutions with spells. They take effect immediately and can work just as well as spells would. Of course, you pay for it.
“This one you brought me doesn’t have any herbal sediment, so we can assume it was created entirely with magic, but…” Lizzy picked up a potion bottle full of blue liquid and ****** it at Brita. “This is your typical healing medicine. Notice the color difference? No matter what we do, they end up turning blue during the production process. But yours is red. In other words, your potion was made with some completely different process. That means that you have something incredibly rare—it may have the potential to change potion-making technology! Though I’m not sure if that makes any sense to you…”
After saying that much, Lizzy cast two spells on the potions. “Appraise Magic Item! Detect Enchantment!” Astonishment and fury registered in her expression. “Heh-heh… Waa-ha-ha-ha!”
Suddenly an almost cracked sort of laughter echoed throughout the cramped room. Lizzy looked up slowly. She had the crooked smile of a crazy person. Brita was so taken aback by the sudden change that had come over the old woman that she couldn’t move a muscle, much less speak.
“Heh-heh-heh. I knew it! Take a good look at this, Nfirea! This, this is potion perfection! This is what has eluded us—apothecaries and alchemists, anyone involved in potion making—even after all our research over the years: the ideal potion!” Lizzy’s face was flushed with excitement, and she breathed in quick gasps. She held the potion bottle out toward Nfirea, her hand clamped around it as if to say she would never let it go. “Potions degrade, right?”
“Yes, everyone knows that.” Nfirea spoke in even tones, quite a contrast from Lizzy’s state, but Brita could see a hint of excitement on his face.
She just couldn’t understand why they were so excited. But she could sense quite acutely that she was involved in something big. It had to be huge if the greatest apothecary in the city was getting this fired up over it.
“Potions made entirely with magic use an alchemical solution. Those are made by using alchemy on minerals, so it stands to reason that they would degrade over time! That’s why we have to cast Preservation!” She paused for a beat for effect. “Or rather, ‘had to’!”
Brita vaguely understood what Lizzy was saying and eyed the red liquid in surprise.
“This! This potion—this potion! It won’t degrade! In other words, it’s a perfect potion! No one has ever been able to produce one! According to legend, a true healing potion signifies blood of the gods. This story has been told for ages!” The potion shook in her hand and the crimson liquid sloshed. “Of course, it’s only a legend, and apothecaries even joke with one another that the gods themselves must have blue blood, but…” She paused for a moment to stare at the bottle clasped tightly in her trembling hands. “This potion must be true Gods’ Blood!”
Lizzy wheezed, out of breath. Nfirea rubbed her back. Brita was speechless. The silence the three of them created was broken by Lizzy. “… And I think you’re here to inquire what the effects of this potion are. This is equivalent to a tier-two healing spell. Without adding value for rarity or anything, it would fetch eight gold pieces. Factoring in added value, the price goes so high that it’s possible people might try to kill you for it.”
Brita’s whole body shivered. Even just the value of its effects was worth quite a lot to an iron-plate adventurer like her. That added value, though, was a problem. She even felt like Lizzy, with her perceptive eyes, was waiting for a chance to jump her.
But she still didn’t understand everything. How could that mysterious man in the full plate armor give a potion like this to her as if it were nothing? What in the world did his face look like under that helmet?
Countless questions assailed Brita, and Lizzy added one more. “You wouldn’t be interested in selling that to me, would you? I’ll make it worth your while. How does thirty-two gold pieces sound?”
Brita’s eyes widened even more.
To Brita, it was an incredible fortune. A family of three could probably live modestly on that for three years.
She couldn’t make up her mind. She knew the potion was ridiculously valuable. So was selling it here for thirty-two gold pieces the right move? The chances she would acquire another one were extremely low.
But if I turn her down, will I make it home in one piece?
Picking up on Brita’s indecision, Lizzy shook her head—it couldn’t be helped. Then she made an alternative suggestion…
4
The next morning, Momon/Ainz pushed open the door to the guild once more. When he entered, he saw the desk at the back. Behind it were three smiling receptionists assisting adventurers. There was a knight in full plate armor, an agile-looking guy in light armor carrying a bow and arrows, someone wearing priestly garb with the sigil of a god, an arcane magic caster in a robe holding a staff—there were all sorts of adventurers.
On his left was a big door and, on his right, the board. There were several sheets of parchment posted that hadn’t been there yesterday. Naturally, there were adventurers clustered around them as well. A team was conferring with one another in front of one of the parchments. With a bad feeling about that scene and the posting, he headed toward the reception desk.
Ainz felt the room’s eyes gather on the plate around his neck and then lap up and down his body, taking in his appearance. It was the same vibe he’d gotten at the inn the previous day.
He observed the other adventurers back from the corners of his eyes. Their plates were silver and gold. Not a single copper. Feeling a bit like he was playing an away game, he stepped up to the counter.
It seemed as though a team had just finished, so there was a receptionist open. He stepped in front of her and said, “’Scuse me. I’m looking for work…”
“Oh! Then please select a sheet of parchment from the board and bring it over.”
As Ainz acknowledged her, he was assailed by the feeling that the sweat glands he’d lost had now returned. He arrived in front of the parchments and swept his eyes over them. Then, he nodded firmly.
Yup. I can’t read.
One of this world’s laws was that foreign languages would be translated, but that didn’t extend to the written word.
Last time, the receptionist lady had done everything for him, so he assumed it would work the same way this time. That was naive.
Aah! He wanted to scream and roll around on the floor, but then his mind settled down. Feeling grateful for the changes in him since taking on his new body, he racked his brains.
The literacy rate didn’t seem terribly high, but it would still be embarrassing to not be able to read in a place like this, and it could only end with him in the disadvantageous position of being looked down on. He’d given all his items for reading foreign characters to Sebas and had sneered at the idea of acquiring spells for that back in his Yggdrasil days—“I have scrolls, so that magic is pointless.”
He felt like a fool. He’d known he couldn’t read the writing in this world, so why had he neglected to come up with a plan? But there was no use crying over spilled milk; what’s done was done. Narberal couldn’t read the characters, either. Checkmate, the end.
Those were the thoughts going around in his head, but the ruler of Nazarick couldn’t knowingly embarrass himself. He made up his mind, took down a piece of parchment, and strode back toward the desk.
“I’d like to take this job.”
The receptionist looked over the sheet that he’d ****** at her rather too firmly and her expression became awkward. Then with an embarrassed smile, she said, “I’m sorry. This is a request for mythril-plate adventurers.”
“I know. That’s why I brought it over.”
Hearing the quiet dignity of his voice, something doubtful appeared in the receptionist’s eyes. “Uh, um…”
“I’d like to take that job.”
“Huh? Uh, I mean, I see what you mean, but it’s a rule—”
“It’s a stupid rule. I can’t believe I have to keep grinding out these crummy, easy jobs until the promotion exam.”
“But your failure could result in the loss of many lives.” Not to mention the reputation of the guild that so many adventurers worked so hard to cultivate, her hard voice implied.
“Hmph.” The expressions of the adventurers in the vicinity grew hostile to match the receptionist’s. Here was a newbie mocking the rules they’d all diligently followed. It’s only natural for them to be upset, he thought. It didn’t particularly bother the undead Ainz, but the vestige of office worker Satoru Suzuki inside him was bowing apologies with all his might.
What Satoru Suzuki hated were people who turned down proposals without listening to explanation—and without even bothering to suggest an alternative—and whiners with no common sense. Ainz was currently a textbook example of the latter—those eminently punchable jerks.
But he wasn’t going to back down so easily. Really, he’d meant to, but he needed to push things to a certain point first, so he played his trump card.
“The woman behind me, Nabe, is with me. She can use tier-three magic.”
The air buzzed, and all at once Narberal became the target for amazed stares. In this world, tier three was the level of an accomplished caster. Was it true or false? Everyone was wavering between the two answers and looking back at Ainz’s full plate armor. Adventurers acquired better gear as they ranked up. Nothing was more convincing than the fact that this guy who was probably Nabe’s friend had such fancy armor.
Seeing the change in everyone’s eyes, he gave himself a round of applause in his mind and played another card. “And of course I’m a warrior just as strong as she is. That job will be no problem for us, I assure you.”
Everyone’s reaction was a bit subdued compared to his first revelation, but he could see that they saw him in a different light now.
“I didn’t become an adventurer to do odd jobs for a handful of coppers. We want to take on higher-level assignments. If you want to see what we can do, we’d be happy to demonstrate, so can’t we take that job?”
The hostility from earlier was rapidly dissipating. The atmosphere was one of Ah yeah or I know the feeling. For this rough bunch who valued an adventurer’s strength above all, what he was saying made sense.
But the receptionist was not so understanding. “…I’m sorry, but rules are rules.”
Ainz did a mental victory pose in response to her apologetic bow. “I see—there’s nothing I can do, then. Sorry to have been so presumptuous.” He bobbed his head. “In that case, please give me the most difficult thing you have for a copper plate. Maybe something not posted to the board yet?”
“Uh…yes, sir.”
Just as the receptionist stood up and Ainz was about to cry mental tears of joy at his victory, a man’s voice called out, “If it’s a challenge you’re after, how about helping us out on our job?”
“Huh?” Ainz let some intimidating irritation slip into his voice. He looked up to try to gloss that over and saw four adventurers, silver plates gleaming in the light. But I finally had things going my way, he grumbled in his head as he turned to face them.
“Is the job…worthwhile?”
“Well, hmm, I think it’ll be what you make of it,” a man who seemed like the leader of the group replied. He was a warrior type wearing banded mail, a type of armor where thin bands of metal covered layers of chain mail and leather.
Should I go with this guy on his job? Of course, I can decide after I hear what it is, but I’m not sure if the receptionist will pick a job for me next time.
But if I take this job, I can network a bit and maybe even get some info.
His indecision lasted several seconds.
Then he slowly nodded. “That’s exactly the kind of job I’m looking for. Allow me to join you. But do you mind telling me what kind of job it is?”
At this reply, the men had the receptionist prepare them a room.
It was basically a conference room. There was a table in the center with chairs placed around it. The four men seated themselves on the far side.
“Okay, have a seat right there, please.”
Ainz did as he was told and sat in one of the chairs. Narberal sat noiselessly beside him.
The men were young—none of them seemed more than twenty—but they didn’t look green. They seemed more composed than one would expect of people their age. They were relaxed, but they had sat down with space between them so they could take up arms at a moment’s notice. They’d done so unconsciously, so it must have been a habit that stuck with them from many life-or-death battles.
“Okay, before we talk business, let’s introduce ourselves.” The warrior-type man from before spoke up as their representative. He had the typical blond-haired, blue-eyed look of kingdom people, and although there was nothing about his features that made him stand out, he was still handsome. “Nice to meet you. I’m the leader of the Swords of Darkness, Peter Mauk. Over there is the eyes and ears of our team, ranger Lukrut Volve.”
A blond man in leather armor bobbed his head. There was a jokey tenderness in his brown eyes. Overall he was slim with especially long arms and legs, almost bringing to mind a spider. It was clear, however, that his thin frame was the result of trimming away any excess.
“And this is the brains of our team, a caster, Ninya the Spell Master.”
“Looking forward to working with you.”
He was probably the youngest of the group. He had blue eyes and brown hair, and a smile too youthful to belong to an adult spread across his face as he bowed. Compared to the other members of the group, who were rather suntanned, he had pale skin. He was also the most attractive of the bunch. It wasn’t so much a masculine beauty as androgynous. His voice was also a bit high for a man’s.
Although his smile didn’t seem insincere, there was something about it that made it seem pasted on like a mask.
And though the other members all wore armor, he was just wearing some leather clothes. Instead, a number of curious objects could be seen hanging from his belt in the shadow of the table—strangely shaped vials, odd bits of woodwork. If he was called the Spell Master, he was probably an arcane-type magic user, like Ainz.
“Peter, can you stop calling me that? It’s embarrassing.”
“Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“He has a nickname, huh?”
Lukrut hopped in to provide an explanation, since Ainz didn’t seem to know what it really referred to. “He has a talent, you see! This kid’s a famous casting genius!”
“Oh?” Ainz reacted. They’d gone through three of their Sunlit Scripture captives to get information about talents—powers people were born with. He was delighted to have an example of one in front of him.
Narberal, on the other hand, snorted a scoff; Ainz was relieved no one else seemed to hear it. Feeling like a manager whose report had done something strange on a client visit, he got angry for just a second before regaining his composure, since it wouldn’t help things if they made a scene.
“It’s not such a big deal. It’s just that the talent I was born with happened to be that type.”
“Oh-ho.” Ainz was even more interested and leaned in with ears pricked up.
Talents, like martial arts, did not exist in Yggdrasil—they were specific to this world. About one in every two hundred people was born with one, so having a power itself was not so rare, but there was an infinite variety of them, spanning the continuum from weak to strong. They ranged from things like predicting the next day’s weather with 70 percent accuracy to being able to speed up the harvest times of Poaceae family grains by a couple days to summoning stronger monsters or being able to use the magic of the dragons who once ruled the world.
However, the type of power was fixed upon birth; it was not possible to change or select powers later in life. That meant there were lots of times talents didn’t match the natures of their holders. For example, if someone were born with the talent to boost the destructive power of spells but didn’t have the knack or physical strength to become a caster, the talent would go to waste.
If a talent did match a person’s nature, they just considered themselves lucky—with the exception of some truly major powers, having a talent didn’t generally determine the entire course of one’s life. The fact that a warrior like Gazeff Stronoff wasn’t a talent holder illustrated that well enough.
Even so, there was a tendency for people with talents useful in combat to slide easily into the adventuring occupation, so there were many adventurers with talents. Among them, Ninya was a fine specimen of the fortunate variety where the talent matched the holder very well.
“Didn’t it take you like four years with your magic aptitude or whatever to master what took others eight years? I mean, I’m not a caster, so I don’t have much of a sense of how awesome that really is, but…”
As a magic user, Ainz was curious, but he was also motivated by the Gimme that greed of a collector. If he could acquire a power no one in the Great Tomb of Nazarick had, it would surely make their organization stronger. If there was a way to steal the ability, it might be worth the risk of making enemies to do it.
Assuming there was a way, it would probably be the super-tier spell Wish Upon a Star.
Ninya didn’t realize that Ainz was thinking such things under his helmet and looking at him as if he were sizing up his prey, and the two continued their conversation.
“It was really lucky that I was born with this power. It helped me take the first step toward making my dreams come true. If I didn’t have my power, I’d have ended up some crummy villager.” His mumbling voice was gloomy.
Attempting to brighten things up, Peter spoke in a tone that was, of course, the exact opposite. “Anyhow, he’s a famous talent holder in the city.”
“Still, there’s someone way more famous than me.”
“The leader of the Blue Roses?”
“The leader of the Blue Roses is famous, too, but I mean someone in this city.”
The last member of the team, whose name Ainz hadn’t heard yet, mentioned someone in a loud voice. “He means Mr. Baleare!”
His curiosity piqued, Ainz asked, “What kind of talent does he have?”
Everyone looked surprised. Apparently this was something anyone would know. Ainz had been so eager for info and so focused on improving Nazarick’s position that he’d let his guard down. It was unfortunate, but he was confiden the could bounce back from this minor of a mistake. But before he could even make an excuse, they seemed to have reached their own conclusion.
“I see! So the fact that we hadn’t ever heard of you despite your magnificent armor and that companion so beautiful she’d be the talk of the town means you’re not from around here?”
Ainz took the timely cue. “That’s exactly right. We just arrived yesterday.”
“Ah, then you wouldn’t know, huh? He’s quite famous here, but I guess word of him hasn’t spread to other cities.”
“No, it doesn’t seem like it; I’ve never heard of him. Do you mind telling me?”
“His name is Nfirea Baleare. He’s the grandson of a well-known apothecary, and his talent is the power to use any and every magic item. He can use scrolls from different magic types, which you usually can’t do, and he can even use items that only nonhumans are supposed to be able to use. I’ll bet he can even use items that require the user to have royal blood.”
“…Hmm…” Ainz took pains to not let his wariness show in his voice.
How far does this talent go? Could he use items that with few exceptions only guild masters can use, like the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown? World Items, too? Or is there some limit?
That was someone to keep an eye on. Of course, he might also make a valuable pawn.
Narberal must have had the same take. She brought her mouth near where she seemed to have decided Ainz’s ears were under his helmet and whispered, “This guy could be dangerous,” her voice wary.
“…I know. Coming to this city was the right move.”
“Momon, is something wrong?”
“Oh, no. It’s nothing. More importantly, could I ask you to introduce the last member of your team?”
“Sure. This is Dyne Woodwonder, a druid. He uses healing magic and magic that manipulates nature, and he also has a wealth of knowledge about medicinal herbs, so if you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. He even has medicines for stomachaches and that kind of stuff.”
“Looking forward to working with you!” The man whose messy beard and solid build combined to create a somewhat barbaric impression spoke in a dignified voice. That said, he was still younger than Ainz appeared to be. A faint grassy smell came from a pouch at his hip.
“Okay, now it’s our turn, huh? This is Nabe and I’m Momon. Looking forward to working with you.”
“Likewise.”
“Yes, we should make a good team. Momon, feel free to call us by our first names. Now, I don’t mean to hurry us along, but I’d like to get down to business. Not that it’s a real job per se…”
“Uh…”
In response to Ainz’s dubious interjection, Peter held up a hand entreating him to wait. “Our aim is to hunt the monsters that pop up near town.”
“Subduing monsters…?” Ainz thought that fell pretty squarely under the work umbrella. Or is there some reasons adventurers don’t consider it work? he almost wanted to ask, but if it turned out to be basic common sense, it would seem like he didn’t know anything, and that would be bad. Instead, he chose a more benign subject to ask about. “What are the monsters called?”
“Oh no, not like that—I wonder what they call it in your country—where you hunt monsters and get rewarded by the city via the guild based on how strong the monsters you got were. That thing.”
Aha. Ainz understood now. Putting Peter’s work that wasn’t work into Yggdrasil and similar game terms, they would grind monsters for drops.
“If you want to make a living, it has to be done,” the druid, Dyne, solemnly noted.
Then Lukrut chimed in, “We get to eat. Things are less dangerous for other people. Merchants can travel safely. The country can collect their taxes. Nobody loses!”
“Nowadays, any country with guilds has this system, but it’s surprising because even just five years ago it wasn’t like that,” Ninya said, and everyone nodded nostalgically. They practically forgot about Ainz and started going off on various tangents. He couldn’t participate in the conversation at all. It would be too suspicious if he knew nothing about the country he was in, so he decided to just listen silently.
“Long live the Golden Princess, right?”
“The proposal ran into some setbacks, but I heard she was motioning to get rid of the foot tax for adventurers, too.”
“Whoa. It’s amazing that she thought so highly of us.”
“Right? She did all that even though we’re armed groups that haven’t proven our loyalty to the kingdom. Depending on the team, some might even be enemies! Not even the empire is that tolerant.”
“That princess really does have some wonderful ideas…even though they mostly get shot down.”
“I hope I get to marry a lady that gorgeous!”
“You got a lotta work to do if you’re hoping to join the ranks of the nobles!”
“No—no way, no way. That stiff, formal life ain’t for me.”
“Oh, c’mon, it’d be great to be a noble! It’s established by the country that you get to screw over the people and do whatever you want!”
The true feelings behind Ninya’s smile were beginning to show. Ainz knit his nonexistent brow under his helmet, but Narberal was unfazed.
Lukrut called out in a purposely lighthearted voice, “Yikes! Always with the harsh words! You hate the nobles as usual, huh?”
“I know that some of them are honest people, but…as someone whose older sister was abducted by those pigs, I just can’t…”
“Well, this conversation has taken an unexpected turn! We probably don’t need to discuss this sort of thing in front of Momon and Nabe!”
On board with Dyne’s course correction, Peter cleared his throat rather deliberately and continued his explanation, “Well, so that’s about it. We’ll be on the lookout for monsters in this area. This close to civilization there probably won’t be anything too strong… I hope that doesn’t bother you, Momon?”
Peter took out a sheet of parchment and opened it across the middle of the table. It seemed to be a rough map of the area, with groves and forests, rivers, and other features indicated.
“Our basic plan is to head south and hunt around here.” He started from the middle of the parchment and traced down with his finger to an area near a forest in the south. “We’ll mainly be fighting monsters that come out of the forest on the Slane Theocracy border. The only monsters that are likely to use weapons or launch an attack on someone with an escort are goblins at the nastiest.”
“Yeah, they’re weak, though, so even if we take ’em out the pay is peanuts.”
Ainz wondered a bit about their relaxed attitude. The goblins he’d known in Yggdrasil all had various names and had been anywhere from level 1 to 50—it wasn’t possible to lump them all together like that. If they weren’t careful, they could find themselves in trouble.
Are they so laid-back because they’re sure high-level goblins won’t show up around here? Or is it because in this world goblins just aren’t so tough?
“…There aren’t any strong goblins?”
“Yes, there are. But they don’t hide out in the forest we’re headed to. The strong goblins are the ones who lead tribes. I can’t imagine they’d have their whole tribe attack.”
“Goblins are also aware how far the humans’ sphere of influence extends. They know how much of a pain a huge invasion would be, especially the stronger, more clever, elite types.
“Plus, if Nabe can use tier-three magic, then even the more elite types will be a piece of cake.”
“I see. I just want you to be aware, though, that there are some goblins who can use tier-three magic, too. Just for reference, would you mind telling me the names of the monsters we are likely to encounter?”
All the Swords of Darkness members looked immediately at Ninya, who assumed a professorial expression and began his explanation. “The monsters we often encounter are goblins and their pet wolves. I have no records of encountering any other wild beasts that put up much of a fight in this area. On the plain, the most dangerous thing we could encounter would probably be an ogre.”
“So we won’t be going into the forest?”
“No, the forest is quite dangerous. We could probably handle jumping leeches, giant beetles, and the like, but the hanging spiders that dangle down from the trees and the forest worms that come out of the ground to swallow you whole are a bit tough.”
I see. Ainz nodded. So we’ll fight the monsters that spill out of the forest onto the grass.
“So that’s the job, Momon. How about it? Will you help us out?”
“Uh…I suppose…but actually, before that, could you tell me what kind of reward we’ll get?”
“Oh yeah. That’s important, isn’t it? Since there are two teams, yours and mine, we’ll split it in half.”
“Considering the number of members in each team, that’s awfully nice and generous of you.”
“But if some monsters appear, we’ll have you guys take half of them, and we can only use up to tier-two magic. I think it balances out if you take those things into account.”
Ainz pretended to think for a moment and then nodded. “That’s fine by me. It’s a deal. And since we’re going to be working together for a while, I’ll go ahead and show you my face.”
Ainz removed his helmet. Mild surprise registered on the faces of the four adventurers.
“…Black hair and black eyes, like Nabe. You’re definitely not from around here. I heard that down south there’s a country where people look like you… Are you from that area?”
“Yeah. I traveled a pretty long ways.”
“He’s older than I thought…kind of an old dude.”
“Don’t be rude! A warrior on a level equal to a tier-three magic user would be about that age!”
“Miss Nabe must have learned so fast!”
Ainz had sharp enough hearing that he could pick up the other three’s whispers. He felt a little young to be called an “old dude,” but compared to these kids, he probably was old. Considering people came of age here at sixteen, he was pretty ripe.
“Well, now that you’ve seen my face, I’ll cover it up again,” he said, replacing his helmet. “If it got around that we’re both foreigners, there might be trouble.”
He smiled under his helmet. He’d used a low-tier illusion that would break if it were touched, but he was glad he’d thought of it.
“Okay, if we’re going to go hunting together, we should get any questions out of the way ahead of time. Do you have anything you’d like to ask?”
“Yes!”
In response to Ainz’s question, a hand flew into the air. It was Lukrut. When he saw no one else had anything to ask, he threw a question loudly at Narberal. “What exactly is the relationship between you two?”
Silence.
Ainz couldn’t fathom why he would ask such a thing.
Peter and the rest could, though, and keenly.
“…We’re friends.”
Lukrut’s reaction to Ainz’s answer completely disrupted the mood of the meeting. “I’m in love! It’s love at first sight! Will you go out with me?”
Everyone stared at him. When they realized he hadn’t said it as a well-intentioned joke, their eyes moved to Narberal. Under everyone’s gaze, she sighed before replying, “Shut up, you slug. Don’t speak to me again until you know your place, or I’ll rip out your tongue.”
A silence descended, incomparably more still than the previous one.
“Uh, er…” Before Ainz could get a word out, Lukrut was talking.
“Thank you very much for that intense rejection! Let’s start as friends!”
“Drop dead, maggot. As if I’d be your friend! Do you want me to gouge out your eyes with a spoon?”
Peter and Ainz looked away from the back-and-forth and bowed to each other.
“…I’m sorry my friend is causing trouble.”
“…Not at all, I’m the one who should be apologizing.”
“Okay, can we say that no one has any questions?” Peter addressed the group once more, leaving out Lukrut with his goofy grin and icy Narberal. “Then let’s head out once you’re ready. Our preparations have already been made.”
At the word preparations, Ainz remembered something. He’d purchased the minimum necessary provisions from the innkeeper, but neither he nor Narberal required the bulky food and drink. Of course, it would be suspicious if they ate nothing, so he supposed it was necessary to some extent.
“Okay. We’ll be ready to leave once we replenish our food supply.”
“Just food? If you don’t need to buy from a particular store, the desk has nonperishables. They can get you ready in no time.”
“Oh, that sounds good. And then we can leave right away.”
“Shall we go, then?”
They all stood up and left the meeting room.
When they got back to reception, there were more adventurers around than before, and several groups had gathered around where the parchments were posted, but almost everyone was focused on one boy.
The blond youth was talking with one of the receptionists, but the other two were listening in. The atmosphere had done a complete one-eighty from the earlier bustle.
Just then, the receptionist’s mouth made a perfect O—of surprise. And her line of sight led to Ainz.
What the heck? As Ainz wondered what was going on, the receptionist stood up and came over.
“You have been requested by name.”
At her words, the vibe in the room changed dramatically. Ainz felt the unreserved stares of numerous curious eyes. The members of the Swords of Darkness also seemed surprised.
Narberal made a slight move in response to the mysterious change in atmosphere. She was shifting just in case she had to deal with a situation, preparing for combat.
Ugh. Narberal’s movements were bad, no matter what her reason. She may very well have been acting to protect him after detecting something off about the vibe, but it wasn’t appropriate here. Or rather, someone with common sense wouldn’t do what she was doing. Even if she was prioritizing Ainz’s safety above all else, she was being too thoughtless.
That idiot. She’s as bad as Albedo, but gah, what is she thinking? Actually, she’s probably not thinking. She looks down on humans, so to her it would be like stepping on some noisy bugs. I guess it makes sense to have that attitude, since Ainz Ooal Gown is a guild made up entirely of grotesques, but there’s still a time and a place for it.
Ainz put his head in his hands. He wanted to ask his old guildmates why all their NPCs were like this. I don’t care what kind of backstory you assign them—at least give them minimum interpersonal skills, like being able to read a room and understanding the context of their actions.
He didn’t have time to reprimand her now. But he didn’t know what would happen if people picked up on the fact that she was going into combat mode. He quickly karate-chopped her on the head—not with full strength, of course, but the pain he inflicted with his gauntleted hand had apparently been pretty serious; Narberal looked up at him, her tearful eyes taken over by surprise and confusion.
Completely ignoring her, Ainz asked the receptionist, “By who?”
The minute he’d said it he felt stupid. It had to have been that boy.
“Nfirea Baleare.”
Ainz realized it was the name he’d heard earlier, and the boy was already approaching.
“Nice to meet you. I’m the one who made the request.” He tilted his head, and Ainz reciprocated. “So about the reque—” He started to speak, but Ainz held up a hand to stop him.
“I’m terribly sorry, but I’m already contracted for another job. I can’t take on your request right away.”
A commotion went through the room. The Swords of Darkness members were especially startled.
“But Momon, he’s requesting you!”
Seeing Peter’s reaction, Ainz wondered if a request by name was really worth getting so excited about, but…
“That may be, but it’s only right to prioritize the previous engagement, don’t you think?” It seemed Ainz’s conclusion was not mistaken. Some of the onlooking adventurers nodded; he’d made a favorable impression.
“But…our request can’t even properly be called a request, and we can’t even pay you if we don’t encounter any monsters…,” Peter mumbled.
The difference in value of the work between a request from this boy (who is not only famous himself but also has a famous grandmother) and roaming around hunting monsters is enormous. That must be why Peter is trying to give me some space. Guessing that was the case, Ainz replied with kindness in his voice. “Then how about this, Peter? I haven’t heard anything about the job or the compensation, so I’ll listen to what Mr. Baleare has to say and then we can decide.”
“That’s fine with me. We’d like to go sooner rather than later, but we weren’t even planning on today or tomorrow anyhow.”
“Then let’s have the Swords of Darkness come while we talk it over. If we can come to an agreement…or rather, if we can’t, I suppose, I’ll go ahead and prioritize my previous engagement.”
“What? You want us in your meeting?”
“Yes. As a concerned party, your input is important to me.”
Once the Swords of Darkness agreed to the plan, they all returned to the meeting room they had just come from.
Well, this is a bit hectic. Ainz smiled wryly and sat in the same seat as before. Narberal sat next to him again, and Nfirea sat one seat down from her. The Swords of Darkness members, like Ainz, all took the same seats as before.
The first to speak was, naturally, Nfirea. “The woman at reception mentioned my name before, but allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nfirea Baleare. I’m an apothecary in this city. As for my request, I’m planning to go to a nearby forest, but as you know, the forest is a dangerous place. So I’d like you to escort me but also, if possible, help me collect medicinal herbs.”
“An escort job? I see.” Ainz nodded confidently, but privately he thought it sounded like kind of a pain.
Ainz knew that he was strong himself, and if he teamed up with Narberal, annihilating any monster that came at them would probably be a piece of cake. The problem was that when it came to escort duty, he wasn’t so certain he could pull it off. As casters, neither he nor Narberal had the tanking skills that would be useful to guard someone.
“Compensation would be a fixed amo—”
“One moment. How convenient that it’s an escort job. Hey, Peter, what would you say to me hiring you instead?”
“Huh?”
“For an escort job in the woods collecting herbs, wouldn’t it be better to have a ranger and a druid along?”
“Indeed! That is very perceptive of you, Momon. Druids are really in their element in the forest. I’d probably be even more useful than Lukrut!” Some pride slipped into Dyne’s dignified tone.
Lukrut didn’t seem so amused. “Keep talkin’, Dyney.”
“With my druid powers, it’s a given that I’d be more useful. And don’t forget that I dabble in the medicinal arts.”
“Hmm. I’m game, Peter. Seems like I need to show Mr. Druid here who has the superior gathering skills.”
“Then that seems fine. And if any monsters show up along the way, we can slay them and get the reward from the city, too. Mr. Baleare’s compensation can be split by head count, right, Peter?”
“I have no objection if it’s all right with you, Momon.”
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Baleare. If you don’t mind, we’d all like to take on your request.”
“Oh? That’s fine with me. Then, I’m looking forward to working with all of you. Oh, and you can call me Nfirea.”
Then, they all introduced themselves to Nfirea, and although Narberal whipped her sharp tongue at Lukrut a couple times, there was no real trouble.
“So, our plan will be my normal pattern of proceeding to the village of Carne, getting a place to stay, and then heading to the forest. The time we spend gathering herbs will depend on how much we can get, but it’ll be three days at most. The average has been two.”
“How will we get there?”
“I have one single-horse cart, but that’s where the bottles for the herbs will go, so there won’t be room to carry everyone.”
“Can we restock provisions in Carne?”
“Water is no problem, but food might be difficult. It’s not a very big village.”
The Swords of Darkness discussed preparations among themselves and peppered Nfirea with questions. Then Ainz spoke up. “Do you mind if I ask some questions?” Nfirea smiled and said to go ahead, so Ainz asked his first question. “Why did you specifically want me? It was only just recently that I boarded a carriage and arrived here, so I have no friends in this city, nobody knows me, and yet you requested me? And you mentioned you have a ‘pattern,’ so doesn’t that mean you’ve been hiring a different adventurer up till now? What happened to that person?”
Ainz’s eyes were sharp under his helmet. He didn’t recall ever being introduced to this boy. If his true identity had been discovered, he would need to take a different approach with his disguise. He tried to discover the boy’s real motives, but he couldn’t detect changes in his eyes because of the long hair that covered half of his face. As Ainz was wondering if he was overthinking things, Nfirea spoke.
“The person I used to hire left E-Rantel to go to a different city. That’s why I was looking for someone new. And then…actually, I heard about the incident at the inn from someone who came to my shop.”
“The incident at the inn?”
“Yes, how you beat up an adventurer a rank above you in the blink of an eye.”
“I see.”
He had shown off his strength there to try to spread his name, and it seemed like it had worked. Ainz was about convinced when Nfirea joked, “Plus, copper-plate adventurers cost less, right? I’d like it if we could work together for some time.”
“Ha-ha, that’s right.” Ainz could certainly understand the concept of getting in on the ground floor. He felt his caution being dispelled. But there was one thing he feared. If that were the case…
As Ainz was thinking it over, some other questions were asked and Nfirea answered them. When it seemed like the questions had petered out, Nfirea raised his voice. “Then, let’s get ready and be off!”
5
In the dead of night, a hooded shadow slipped into E-Rantel’s huge graveyard. The jet-black hooded cape combined with the shadow’s singular way of moving, keeping its shoulders and hips from bouncing, made it look like a ghost. It nimbly avoided all the magical light sources that had been placed around the graveyard, going in deeper and deeper.
Before long, it came upon a mausoleum. The shadow slowly removed its hood. It was a young human woman. Age wise she was somewhere around a fresh twenty or so. Her face was attractive but in a vaguely feline way. She had ample charm, but there was also something dangerous about her—like she might reveal her true nature as a carnivorous beast at any moment.
“This is the place!” she said playfully, smoothing back her short blond hair before pushing open the stone door. From beneath her cape came a sound like the soft rubbing of metal on metal, almost exactly like the sound chain mail makes.
When she entered the mausoleum, there were no bodies on the stone platforms for laying out corpses, and the ornaments put up when praying for the departures of deceased souls had already been taken down. Still, a cloying smell tingled her nose, as if the rocks had absorbed all the tons of incense.
With a slight wrinkle in her brow, she approached a large platform in the back. “Hmm-hmm-hmm! Let’s seeee…” Humming, she pressed one of the surprisingly detailed carvings near its base.
Something went ker-chk as if catching, and a beat later the platform rumbled to the side to reveal a staircase leading underground.
“I’m coming iiin!” she shouted down the stairs, stretching the final vowel in a carefree way, and began her descent. There was one turn along the way, and at the bottom yawned a huge cavern.
The walls and floor were dirt, but since it was partially man-made, it didn’t seem like it would collapse anytime soon. The air wasn’t stale, either; it wasn’t clear where it was coming in from, but it was fresh.
This place was not part of the graveyard. No, it was something far more sinister.
Strange tapestries hung from the walls and below them burned a number of bright red candles with blood mixed into the wax, sending up the stench of scorched gore as they gave off their dim glow. Among the countless shadows cast by the dancing light were several holes, big enough for humans to pass through, that reeked in the putrid way only lower-tier undead do.
The woman swept her eyes across the room before focusing on one point. “Oh! Hey, you hiding over there! You have a guest!”
The shoulders of a man watching from the shadows of a passage flinched.
“H’lo! I’m here to see Khaj! Is he here?”
The man wasn’t sure what to do, and his shoulders flinched again at the sound of more footsteps.
“It’s fine. Leave us.” The newly arrived man dispatched the hesitant one with just that and showed himself.
He was very thin. His eyes were sunken, and he had so little color in his face it was questionable whether he was even alive—ashen was the perfect word to describe it. Not a single hair could be spotted on his head. In fact, he had neither eyebrows nor lashes and there was so little evidence of anything hairlike on his body that one began to wonder if he had any at all. With those looks, it was impossible to guess his age, but since his skin didn’t have wrinkles, he must not have been too terribly old. He wore a deep, bloody-red robe and a necklace that was a string of small animal skulls. His skin-and-bones arms ended in hands with yellowed nails that gripped a black staff. He looked more like an undead monster than a human.
“H’lo, Khaj.”
The man frowned at the woman’s lighthearted salute. “Stop using that bastardized greeting! It’s an insult to the proud name of Zurrernorn.”
Zurrernorn—an evil secret society made up of casters who always had their powerful leader in mind and kept death close. They had caused more than a few tragedies and were considered an enemy by the countries in the area.
“Hmm!” Her response containing no sign that she would change caused the creases in the man’s face to deepen.
“And? What reason could you possibly have for being here? You know I’m pouring energy into the Jewel of Death in this place. If you came to make trouble, I’ll take the liberty of dealing with you as I see fit.” The man squinted and power began to build up in his staff.
“Aw, Khaj, don’t be that way. I even brought you a present!” The woman grinned and dug around under her cape. There was some jangling, but eventually she found what she was looking for and gleefully pulled it out.
It was a circlet. Innumerable tiny gems were delicately attached to metal thread as thin as spider silk, making it look like a spiderweb covered in water droplets. A large black crystal was set in its center, about where the wearer’s forehead would be.
“That’s—” The man’s eyes opened wide. He’d seen one once from a distance, so there was no way he would mistake it. “—the sign of a shrine princess, a Crown of Wisdom—one of the Slane Theocracy’s greatest treasures!”
“Yup! A cute little girl was wearing this, but it wasn’t her style, so I did her a favor and stole it. And then—what a surprise! She went crazy! Pooping and peeing all over the place!” The woman cackled.
She was formerly with the Black Scripture, so there was no way she didn’t know what would happen when she removed the Crown of Wisdom from its wearer—one of the shrine princesses, who play key roles in the magic ceremonies the Slane Theocracy performs. When it was time for a new princess to be crowned, sending the one driven insane by the removal of her crown to be with the gods was the Black Scripture’s job.
“I mean, there was nothing I could do. There’s no other way to take it! It’s the guy who made ’em’s fault! Can’t believe he got away with that.”
There was no way to safely remove a Crown of Wisdom; the only option was to destroy it. But a Crown of Wisdom transformed a human being into nothing but a font of super-high-tier magic by sealing off their sense of self; it would be a waste to destroy a sacred treasure like that.
And so, crazy people.
“Hmph. I can’t believe you betrayed the Black Scripture to steal such a piece of junk. If you were gonna do that, you could have at least stolen one of the sacred treasures left by the Six Gods!”
“‘Junk’? That’s a bit harsh!” She puffed up her cheeks to pout in a contrived way, and the man sneered at her.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s junk. The girls who can use that thing are one in a million. You can’t even begin to look for someone to use it unless you’re a nation, like the Slane Theocracy.”
The Slane Theocracy was the only country in the area that had a registry of inhabitants. That’s how they were able to find the ones who could use the crowns—the sacrifices. Without that kind of system, it would be incredibly difficult to search for them, even with the power of Zurrernorn.
“Plus, how am I supposed to steal a sacred treasure? The Black Scripture’s strongest monster, with beyond otherworldly powers—the atavistic son of a bitch said to have blood of the gods in him—is guarding them!”
“That demigod…? Are they really that strong? I’ve only ever heard of them from you.”
“Oh, man, they’re on a whole ’nother level! But I guess you wouldn’t know because the info is so locked down. Being brainwashed into spilling the beans would mean big trouble, too. I wish there were more info, but they say if word got out, the whole theocracy would get swept up in a war with the remaining true dragonlords and get wiped off the map.”
“…I highly doubt that.”
The woman’s tone suddenly changed. “Yeah, I guess you would if you hadn’t seen his power… Anyhow, to get back to my point, Khajit Dale Badantel… We’re both one of the twelve leaders. Let’s work together.”
“Oh? Is this a peek at the true you? One of the Quintias? But leave out the Dale. I don’t use that name anymore.”
“Only if you cut out the ‘one of the Quintias’ stuff. Just call me Clementine!”
“…Clementine, then. What’s this about working together?”
“There’s someone in this city with a wonderful talent, right? I bet he could use this item.”
“…Ah. I’ve heard the rumors. But surely you can kidnap a single person on your own?”
“Well, yeah! But while I’m at it, I want to cause a big commotion.”
“To escape during the confusion? I see…”
“So, I thought, what if I said I’d help out with your ritual? Not a bad offer, right?”
Khajit’s eyes narrowed and a superbly evil smile spread across his face. “Splendid, Clementine. In that case, we can perform the Ritual of Death sooner than planned. I’ll do it. You have my full cooperation.”