Chapter 2 Part 8
Ainz pushed open the fairy-tale-esque, chateau-style layered frozen doors. Just as before, a chilly breeze flowed out from within, but Ainz, as an undead with complete immunity to freezing temperatures, was not bothered by it anyway.
Ainz walked alone through the gloomy corridors. Other than checking for holes in the ceiling as he walked, he strode non-stop to a door that stood as the centerpiece of a giant mural which spanned the entirety of the wall.
Just as before, the plaster on select spots of the mural had already fallen off. It looked quite miserable.
The door took a single push and silently slid open, the three occupants of the room stood up to greet Ainz.
The owner of the room, Nigredo.
The dog-headed maid, Pestonia.
And the last of the trio, Sebas.
“Welcome, Ainz-sama.”
With the room’s owner, Nigredo’s invitation, Ainz approached the table at which they sat.
The last time he had been in this room, all it had was a cradle. This time the cradle was nowhere to be seen, just a table and four chairs.
Those were probably appropriated from other rooms within the Frozen Prison. As a side note, Nigredo was only the Area Guardian of the above-ground portion of the Frozen Prison, Neuronist was the Area Guardian of the underground portion.
After Ainz had taken his seat, Pestonia immediately began to prepare some tea. The steam emanating from the teacup in front him carried with it the aroma of the black tea held within. Sebas brought out some biscuits at the same time.
Of course, Ainz could not consume anything with his body, but he gladly accepted their hospitality anyways. After that, Ainz ordered the still-standing three of them to sit down.
The biscuits that were delivered to Ainz were not sophisticated at all, they were just plain squares. That could be said to be a rare sight in Nazarick.
Was this someone’s experiment? Ainz looked towards Sebas and asked about them through his gaze alone, prompting Sebas to reply,
“Those are not from Nazarick, but goods I had brought back from E-Rantel. Due to the current abundance of cheap and fresh ingredients being brought into the city, a food culture is slowly developing there. This biscuit is among the foods being developed. It was said to be harder previously, but is now quite soft.”
“I’ve tried some already, it’s at an acceptable level of quality for a snack, woof.”
“Hmmm.”
Ainz took a biscuit and bit down on it. Indeed, it wasn’t as tough as he had expected.
The biscuit snapped in half as Ainz caught the crumbs from the inside of his jaw cavity and placed the pieces next to the cup of black tea.
He could tell the texture of the biscuit, but not its taste. What a disappointment of a body.
However, from Ainz’s perspective it wasn’t so at all. It was specifically because of the fact that this body had no libido, appetite, and somnolence that he could succeed in his role as the ruler of Nazarick.
If one of those aspects were to apply to him, surely he would have been in an endless fall from grace since the beginning.
“If Ainz-sama was to rent out more of his undead for agricultural purposes, then there would certainly be developments in the improvements of breeds of food. The food culture would surely blossom and perhaps they could even produce food of an equal quality compared to Nazarick’s offering.”
“That would be great. Because of my body, I couldn’t investigate the buffs incurred by different food items before. If we were to invest more resources into this, it could help strengthen Nazarick. But — if that was the case, I assume those without [Cook] levels can’t cook at all then?”
“We were concerned about that too, so it would be best to save as many purebreds as we possibly could.”
Ainz nodded in approval in response to Nigredo’s suggestion.
Suddenly, Ainz was reminded of the European biodomes of the past and the conflicts that arose surrounding the seed banks. Though he wasn’t too interested in the topic back then, Blue Planet was riled up all over it.
“Ah, yes. It would be best. A task force should be formed to handle this matter.” He should probably propose this idea to Albedo. “Now then — it’s about time that we address the main topic at hand. Tell me. Why was I summoned here?”
Nigredo, as their representative, spoke,
“Yes. Given the current situation, isn’t it about time that we stop massacring the citizens of the Kingdom?”
“Negative. Anyways, shouldn’t this be something that you should ask of your direct superiors, the Floor Guardians, rather than me?”
Ainz replied immediately.
The denizens of Nazarick — especially the Area Guardians — had been informed, in writing, the actions of Floor Guardians and the goals behind them.
If they had any suggestions, they should be reporting to their superiors, the Floor Guardians. This was to unify the various denizens of Nazarick, to gain the opinions of those with different points of view and to pique the interest and curiosity of them all.
However, though Nigredo was stating her opinions just as he had hoped they would, she should have done so to her direct superior, the Floor Guardian of the fifth floor, Cocytus. If Ainz was to accept her suggestion directly, it would be detrimental to Cocytus’ authority.
As a social conformist, he absolutely could not do that.
If some of you don’t understand, do try skipping your own superior and petitioning a higher-up from another department if you will. Do you understand now? Nothing good would come of that.
From that perspective, Ainz, as the head of the board of directors — the company hierarchy analogue to Guildmaster — should be able to do so, but to rouse discord among his subordinates could ultimately lead the company into a difficult situation and thus should be avoided at all costs.
If it was in the stead of the Floor Guardian of the fourth floor, Gargantua, instead, Ainz would be willing to do so.
“Ainz-sama is correct. So, do permit me to raise this suggestion too, woof.”
In a sense, Pestonia’s direct superior would be Sebas.
If a Floor Guardian was to be assigned to the ninth and tenth floors, Sebas would be the Floor Guardian of the ninth and Albedo would be the one for the tenth.
Because Sebas had been the one to have invited Ainz, there shouldn’t be an issue with indignity at all.
“—I see, I understand your feelings now, but I do want to ask one question. This war is a massive experiment for the greater good of strengthening the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, our home. It wouldn’t halt just by the grace of mercy alone. So, was your suggestion built upon this premise?”
Make no mistake, the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick — the Sorcerous Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown is not unique, nor is it invincible. If they were to encounter another guild that was also transported to this world, they could lose.
To assume that they were the only ones to have transported here...would be far too optimistic.
To be honest, he had already felt the presence of other World Class Items so it wasn’t a far stretch of the imagination to assume that some other guild existed elsewhere.
This was why, to guarantee victory for an inevitable guild war, it was his duty as the Guildmaster to strengthen Nazarick as much as he could.
“By what grace may they be spared if it is not by mercy alone? Woof.”
“...uh. What do you mean? If there are any benefits to be reaped from your suggestion, do tell. That said, if it’s something along the lines of ‘if we spare as many people as possible, a strong being may be born in the future’ I will not entertain it. Throughout the Kingdom’s history, it has produced nothing stronger than Adamantite-ranked adventurers. In terms of pure power alone, perhaps this was humanity's limit. If that was the case, it’s better to give preference to Dragons or other stronger races.”
“All infants have potential, Ainz-sama.”
Pestonia gave Nigredo a cold-eyed — at least he thought it was — glare.
“Not just the infants, woof.”
Nigredo had a soft spot for babies, perhaps even surpassing that of Pestonia’s. However, her compassion is limited to only that of infants. Once they live past the age of two, she sees them as nothing but sacks of meat to be disposed of.
For that reason, the toddlers that had been saved during the assault on the capital had left Nigredo’s care and were placed under Pestonia once they were two years old.
They were probably transferred to Yuri’s orphanage by now
“I see, that is true. But, isn’t the same true for dragonlings too?”
“What we had just talked about, improving the breeds of food, doesn’t that apply to humans too? If we were to apply the different techniques we have in Nazarick to strengthen them, surely stronger varieties of humans could be made. Plus, a race’s value isn’t just in their strength, humanity’s propensity for creativity in their creations… you could call it the ability of cultural development, I believe they do have that ability. If we were to reduce their population to nothing, isn’t that a great opportunity cost to Nazarick?”
Was that why they had given Ainz the biscuits? If that was the case, everything had been playing out the way they had intended for it to. No, that did not matter much. As long as they could convince Ainz, it would be their victory.
“Indeed, that is worth considering. However, I do not wish for the inhabitants of this world to become too strong, even to the extent that I believe their development of civilization to be a threat.” Ainz curled his hand into a fist. “Those who are strong but could not get stronger and those who are weak but still have room for growth, a turn of tides must be avoided at all costs. Once we discover the slightest possibility of that happening, we must prevent it at all costs. This is all for Nazarick’s good...isn’t it?”
The two of them fell silent. Ainz shifted his gaze onto Sebas.
Sebas hadn’t spoken since then.
“I’m grateful that Ainz-sama was willing to come down here and lend an ear to their thoughts. That is why I will not be making any further requests.”
“Hmmm...”
Ainz cupped his chin and turned his gaze back on to the two of them.
“Mmmm, it is true that it would be disadvantageous for us to push humanity to the brink of extinction. When push comes to shove, they would do anything to become stronger out of desperation. For that reason, it is best for us to wipe out all who have had that kind of experience. If you want to nurture them, nurture the ones who have not gone through those kinds of experiences — those without the drive to strengthen themselves.” Ainz alternated his gaze between the two of them. “Are we done here? Shall I return to my room?”
“Not yet, woof!”
Pestonia’s voice was a bit too loud. She lowered her head in shame and said, “I’m very sorry.”
“It’s fine. Rather than apologizing, do speak your mind.”
“Yes — Ainz-sama. I heard that your strategy this time around was called Candy and Whip, to let the countries around us know the difference in outcome between the Empire who chose to become our vassal and the Kingdom who chose to oppose us as enemies. Was that the reason for the current massacre, woof?” Pestonia continued after Ainz had nodded, “As more and more people manage to escape through great tribulations, wouldn’t the perception of how foolish it is to disobey Ainz-sama, or rather the Sorcerous Kingdom, become more widespread? Uh, woof.”
“You’re suggesting that I should intentionally let more of them go because of that?”
“Yes, woof.”
If that was the case, there was some value in allowing them to escape.
But.
He did not believe that Albedo and Demiurge had not given consideration to this already. Both of them were the type to not execute a plan until they had thought of even these kinds of possibilities. If Ainz were to allow that, he would be executing a plan that Albedo and Demiurge had abandoned for some reason.
How would those two, who always mistook Ainz’s actions to be that of a genius’, react to this?
Ainz’s non-existent stomach cramped up the moment he thought about this.
Wait no, he had told them that, “I will be making mistakes intentionally,” so even if something out of the ordinary happened, it could still work out fine at the end. However, the real issue lay in what would happen afterwards, specifically the actions of those who would call the color white as black and vice versa if he did it first.
{If they gave up on the plan due to a fatal flaw and I ordered them to carry it out anyways, it could lead to massive losses on our side.}
It would be the same as a company that experienced massive losses due to the CEO’s incompetence while the employees were helpless to stop it from happening.
{Even if they were to recover the loss, someone like me would be too meek and powerless to do anything about it. Someone who couldn’t even shoulder the responsibilities and consequences of their actions shouldn’t be doing something like this.}
But even if he wanted to reject it, he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what was wrong with Pestonia’s suggestion.
Even though a simple “no” would have probably sufficed.
{...So I should have forcefully brought Albedo and Demiurge along, huh? But...}
He had not done so because he had more or less figured out what this meeting would be about after learning that it was with Nigredo and Pestonia.
This was why it had turned into a difficult situation.
Because, those two had been imprisoned before. Back then, Albedo had already suggested executing them. He was afraid that if the same thing was to occur again that Albedo would strongly request execution. He was also afraid of a future irreconcilable division.
An organization that seemed formidable to outsiders could still crumble down from the inside.
That was why they had to avoid anything that could pose a threat to them.
So then, what should he do now?
His common sense told him to reject their suggestion but something still troubled him: the future.
Though the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick would only accept one set of outsiders into their ranks, the Sorcerous Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown had already absorbed a large number of outsiders. Though they may not hold any important posts within the organization, that was probably only a temporary measure.
If those outsiders were to become high-ranked officials, they would certainly hold quite a lot of different opinions. Perhaps there would also be suggestions for benevolence that would make Albedo and the rest call them “weak-willed” or something similar.
Would it be possible to task Nigredo and Pestonia with integrating those kinds of opinions?
If that was the case, ignoring their suggestions now could lead to problems later on.
If people with similar opinions as them were the exception in Nazarick, then he should divert even more attention towards this issue.
Also—
{I have already repaid the kindness Touch Me-san had shown to me, so if I was to consider this as repaying Mochi-chan and Tabula-san’s kindness, this should be fine.}
“...though I believe that all of you should know this by now, I’ll repeat it again. I never intended to wipe out every single human from the Kingdom. The truth is, we have already convinced multiple nobles to join our side...at most, only around 90% of them will be killed.”
“So some people chosen to be spared will live under the Nazarick’s rule, woof. I don’t believe that would advertise the message louder than if we were to let the unchosen ones escape.”
He could understand Pestonia’s will to help those who had not been chosen by them.
“I completely understand what you’re trying to say. If it is not out of mercy, but rather for the greater good of Nazarick, there is room for consideration...I’ll consider letting a few of them go.”
“We’re eternally grateful.”
“We’re eternally grateful, woof.”
Sebas silently lowered his head as well.
Still, though he had said that, he did not know exactly how he should go about this. Ainz’s heart grew heavy.
He had to think up a solution. Perhaps he only needed to let a few hundred people go to appease them.
--------
Mini-FAQ
Q: Where are we at?
A: As of this part: 270/568
Hitori's comment corner: Maruyama's so damn repetitive with his word choice and sentence structure it pains me. This part was an absolute slog to go through.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Chapter 2 Part 7
If the “Dual-Wielder” was on the same level as the Shield-Bearer, there would be no way Skama and the rest could handle both of them at the same time. No, perhaps they would be dead the moment they came into contact with the enemy.
“Skama, what do we do!?”
“...Let’s take care of this guy first.”
Skama spoke with determination after her companion’s panicked voice calmed her down somewhat. If they couldn’t even take this thing down, they wouldn’t even have a chance at an escape. They could only hope that this thing’s health had already been whittled down to a wick’s length by those spell attacks.
After she stopped retreating, Skama turned to face the Shield-Bearer and darted towards it.
Her tomahawk was easily blocked by the shield and so was the ethereal copy. Skama’s attacks were not enough to break down the Shield-Bearer’s defences.
She had expected her attack to be thwarted, that was all she had to do.
The real attack was the [Magic Arrow] and [Shockwave] that followed.
The spell attacks were followed up by the rogue, who tossed a bottle towards the sides of the undead’s leg.
The liquid that oozed out of her comrade’s shattered bottle was common glue that any alchemist or the like could manufacture. This was a strategy that could only work if the enemy was standing on polished stone.
No matter how high of a defence the Shield-Bearer might have, its ability to dodge didn’t matter against a bottle thrown at it.
The undead was bound to the ground by glue.
Even if it only was for a brief moment, their opponent was immobilized. This was a common tactic they used when engaging a foe who was much more powerful than them.
Skama circled around to the Shield-Bearer’s hand that did not hold the shield, the hand that held the wave-bladed sword, and began attacking.
The Shield-Bearer swung its greatsword around, expertly parrying every hit that came its way. Even though its two legs were completely stuck on the ground and she had used martial arts to chain her attacks, Skama couldn’t land a single hit.
{This thing, is like a metal wall!}
Skama saw from the corner of her vision the scene of the undead using brute strength to tear its foot away from the stone-tiled ground. Two more offensive spells were cast yet they still failed to bring it down.
{—an undying ability? Or something that could heal it over time?}
There were monsters like Hydras or Trolls who had the ability to regenerate. For those, you couldn’t just deal incremental damage but would have to land a single fatal hit that could reduce the monster’s health to zero.
It was futile to continue on their panicked attacks.
Skama couldn’t even land a single hit on it.
{God damn it!}
“—incoming!”
Skama couldn’t help but shift her gaze upon hearing the rogue’s cry. Standing at the gate was the silhouette of the other undead being.
The Dual-Wielder.
Skama felt her stomach churning, the combined pressure of them all made her want to puke.
{Is this where I’ll die!?}
The rogue who had been executing combos with Skama couldn’t handle the pressure and retreated to her side. The Dual-Wielder responded in kind and moved to the Shield-Bearer’s side.
“...They’re not attacking. Which means...shit. These things are highly sapient.”
Skama felt as though she could perceive a smile on the Dual-Wielder’s rotten face. The Shield-Bearer had shown them attacks that were not on the same level as its defence capabilities, but perhaps that was just to instill despair in them to buy time for the Dual-Wielder to come.
Both enemies were there, this was a good opportunity to use AOE spell attacks. Yet, those spells were never cast. No, it might have been better to say that they couldn’t start casting.
The reason why should have been obvious. Though attack spells had been proven to be effective, it would also provoke them to initiate their attacks.
Their fate would have been set in stone then.
Even if their side held off on attacking, their enemy would do so sooner or later. But, they simply could not build up the courage to hold their fates in their own hands.
After she agonized over this, Skama made her decision.
“You two, run away!” She knocked on the rogue’s waist, “we’ll buy you some time.”
“Hah? For real!? Me too!? Wait, you want me to do that!?”
The rogue wailed but Skama ignored him.
There were two opponents, if they did not at last have two people to hold them off, they could only— a ‘boom’ rung in their ears.
“...hah?”
The undead in front of them, the Shield-Bearer’s head had been pierced by what looked like a long needle.
Wait, no.
What pierced through the Shield-Bearer’s head was not a needle; the thing that penetrated through its skull and was now embedded into the stone tile below was something about the size of an index finger.
That meant that that thing was so fast that Skama’s kinetic vision could not see it flying through the air at all but could only pick up its afterimage, which looked like a needle.
The Shield-Bearer shook, its feet trembled as they stomped on the tiles below, barely allowing it to stand up. Perhaps it was only because it was undead that it could remain standing even after its head had been pierced.
Skama and the others couldn’t help but shift their vision away from the enemy in front of them and look towards where that attack originated from. The undead did not attempt to attack them during this time as they were also looking towards the same direction.
Another attack pierced the Shield-Bearer’s head again and with that, the giant frame of the Shield-Bearer crumbled.
It only took two shots. No, perhaps it was because it had already taken so many spell attacks and was already weakened. But, who could accomplish such a thing—
The silhouette of a man could be seen in the air—
“W-What?”
—Whose voice was that?
Was it Skama herself’s or was it her companions’? She was so shocked that she could no longer tell such a simple thing.
In front of them was an armoured giant.
An approximately three meters tall being clad in an odd, blood-red armour flew in the air. In his hands was a pipe-shaped object which he held like a crossbow, perhaps that was what those index finger sized things came out of.
Because it had attacked the Shield-Bearer, they could conclude that it was not their enemy, even if it wasn’t their ally either.
Skama and the others slowly moved away from the Dual-Wielder. If they were to be caught up in their battle, she knew for sure that they would meet their ends right there.
Perhaps the Dual-Wielder had already lost interest in Skama’s group or perhaps it was because the armoured giant in the air was the only threat worthy of its attention, whatever the reason was, it did not attempt to halt their retreat.
And then, the battle began.
It was the Dual-Wielder’s turn.
It threw one of its swords.
It threw the sword with such strength that there was no way that Skama could avoid it. If she tried to block it, it would still inflict a fatal amount of damage.
The armour did not try to avoid it but tanked the hit with its own body. Perhaps it could not avoid it, or maybe it did not feel the need to avoid the attack at all?
The ear-piercing sound of metal clashing against metal rang as the thrown sword bounced off the armour. It then disappeared as if it had evaporated into the air, only to show up back in the Dual-Wielder’s hands.
It did not return to its hand. Rather, another one had appeared.
The armour in the air pointed the pipe at the Dual-Wielder in one smooth motion, as though that sword toss did not do damage to him at all.
The pipe found its target and then — it spat out something after a brief flash of fire and lightning.
What used to be single-shot attacks turned into an uncountable amount of projectiles. ‘Grakatatata’, the sound of apathetic violence could be heard everywhere.
Faced with the unknown projectiles, the Dual-Wielder swung its swords. The sharp ‘ting’ sounds of whatever was flying towards it being sliced into pieces could be heard. But there was a limit to it.
Two swords could not have dealt with the dozens or even hundreds of projectiles. The tiny projectiles flew at shocking speeds as it penetrated the enemy. The Dual-Wielder started twitching as though it had muscle spasms and like the Shield-Bearer before it, it disappeared.
The two undead beings had vanished in a blink of an eye.
Skama was truly, from the bottom of her heart, speechless.
To be honest, she had no idea what had just happened.
But Skama understood one thing, that armour was mind-bogglingly strong, stronger than everyone she knew.
She couldn’t stop blinking.
Nothing about this felt real. It was hard for her to accept that they had been saved. Their despair and readiness for self-sacrifice were shattered so easily, her mind could not keep up at all.
“W-What the hell is that?”
“...Hey, isn’t that a plate from the Adventurer’s Guild?”
“Hah?”
She squinted her eyes to focus on the details after the rogue had said that and saw that on the neck of the armour — though she could barely make out its shape — was a necklace that held a metal plate. Though it was about the same size as Skama’s, it looked minuscule on that giant figure. As expected of a rogue to notice something that she would have missed.
The metal plate on the necklace was of a colour that she did not recognize.
She had seen the colour of Orichalcum before, so by the process of elimination this was,
“An Adamantite-ranked adventurer?”
There were three Adamantite-ranked groups in the Kingdom and the colour of the armour made her realize which team it was a part of.
“Perhaps this is someone from Red Drop…?”
Upon hearing Lilynette’s question, Skama replied, “should be.” If this was someone from Blue Rose or Darkness, she would be ranting about why they would choose this hue for their armour.
The floating armour turned its back to Skama.
“W-wait!”
The armour responded to her voice and turned around slowly.
It raised up its left hand, straightened its index and middle finger, and pointed them towards its forehead. As if it was bidding farewell, the armour gestured at them gently.
Then, it just flew away.
Skama stared vacantly at the empty sky and asked the rogue,
“...What was that?”
“Who knows...”
She couldn’t understand at all, but someone from Red Drop came over to assist them, that was probably it.
“But, umm, I understood one thing. If we have someone this strong — perhaps the Sorcerous Kingdom’s invasion will come to an end right here. Of course, this is under the pretext that it would still be willing to break the Adventurer’s Code and will continue participating in battles from this point onwards.”
3
He felt as though he had just heard an, “eh?” sound. Ainz thought it sort of sounded like it was from himself.
A Death Knight and a Death Warrior, two undead beings had suddenly died. The one to defeat them was also wearing an item from Yggdrasil, the Power Suit.
Ainz had felt that he had lost two contacts — though the feeling wasn’t too strong given how many connections he had at once — which was how he had come to learn that it wasn’t an illusion.
Silence filled the room.
He felt the gaze of every Floor Guardian — perhaps the maids’ too — on him.
Ainz was the mastermind of this siege, so it would not have been wrong to view this as Ainz’s defeat.
Though something unexpected had occurred, the puny force they had lost was sent there precisely because losing them would not have been a big deal. So Ainz wished that they wouldn’t act so tight and careful.
However, given the current situation, if he was to tell them that it was fine to lose a battle, it would sound more like a sore loser’s excuse. Hindsight is always perfect.
His belief that he does not belong here would surely intensify.
Ainz decided to use his long-practised acting skills, which of course, he had obtained by practising in front of the mirror while the ordinary maids were absent.
“Hmmm...as I expected, mmm.”
The situation was under control.
Ainz displayed the same air of arrogance a mob boss quietly talking to themselves would have as they enjoyed the fragrance of the red wine from their wine glass.
The important part of this act was to not speak in a loud voice. A loud voice would be quite lame right now. The trick was to act as if he was just mumbling to himself.
His acting, the result of hard research, led to a ripple of commotion that reverberated around the room.
Ainz swallowed his non-existent saliva.
Whether he had succeeded or not depended on Demiurge’s response.
“I. See.
So. That. Was. Why…”
{—What!? Cocytus!?}
While Ainz was panicking, Shalltear responded, “Yes yes yes!” as both of her hands shot up. Though it appeared that she was hailing him, she was simply calling attention to herself. Shalltear smiled with pride as everyone’s gazes fell upon her.
“I understood it too-arinsu! Ainz-sama predicted that something like that would appear-arinsu! That was why we sent such a weak force, am I correct-arinsu!?”
This felt different from usual.
Was this a success or a failure? Ainz stole a glance at Demiurge, but he was just smiling mysteriously while nodding his head.
“As expected of the both of you.”
The two of them held their heads high upon receiving Demiurge’s praise. Perhaps Demiurge had already arrived at this conclusion but left it up to those two to answer first.
Ainz breathed a sigh of relief.
This appeared to be a success.
Albedo continued on,
“Intel from Sebas, Demiurge and also our corroborators in the capital mentioned how Red Drop was operating in the northern end of the Kingdom. Because of that, Ainz-sama decided to deploy insufficient troops to lure them out. The amount of troops struck the sweet spot of being easily defeatable by that guy, but at the same time enough to conquer the city without their help. Sasuga Ainz-sama.”
“Like. A. Hooked. Fish...”
{Eh? That was Red Drop? Could we trust that intel? What are the possibilities that it was a player?}
If he was in a Power Suit from Yggdrasil, isn’t the possibility that he was a player quite high?
Could they be sure that that was Red Drop? If so, shouldn’t that intel have reached him at some point or another?
No, wait— It was absolutely more likely that Ainz had simply missed that piece of intel while he read through the documents. For that reason, Ainz pretended that all was according to plan with a burst of gentle laughter.
Needless to say, he had practised this laugh quite a few times too.
“—hehe. Mmm, I did not think that he would actually show up. I was quite shocked too...I thought that perhaps they were conserving their forces for the showdown at the capital.”
“Ainz-sama can always think of situations we couldn’t!”
Said Aura as Mare mumbled, “amazing,” to himself.
The unadulterated gazes of reverence from those two dealt a massive blow to Ainz’s now fragile-as-glass superego.
{It’s not like that at all.}
But, he could never say those words.
Ainz had never considered such a thing could happen. Though he was of the mindset that losing was fine and winning was good, it was for different reasons than what they were now thinking of.
Ainz reminisced about the meeting between him, Sebas, and the others, the meeting that made Ainz take charge of this battle.
----
“What is it, Sebas? Is something wrong?”
Ainz had just returned to Nazarick and in front of him was Sebas, who was supposed to be on standby in E-Rantel, so it was natural for him to ask.
Ainz had no recollection of the contents of his last order to him, let alone of an order for him to come forth. Perhaps he was here of his own will, Ainz was fine with that too.
Though Sebas was stationed at E-Rantel, he was still given considerable amounts of freedom. The right to return to Nazarick at any time was a given.
However, if his goal was to meet with Ainz, he could have done so in E-Rantel. This must have been about something important and urgent.
“I’m terribly sorry, Ainz-sama. Would you be so kind as to spare some of your precious time— or rather, could I bother you for a while?”
Ainz felt as though there was something ominous hidden in Sebas’ muddled choice of words. He ordered the ordinary maid closest to him — the one assigned to Ainz for the day — to leave them be. The maid, along with the other maid who was assigned to this room, gently lowered their heads and left the room.
Ainz looked towards the Eight-Edge Assassins on the ceiling.
“All of you, leave us be.”
The Eight-Edge Assassins fell from the ceiling as if they were completely weightless and silently exited the room.
If Ainz had ordered them to never speak of what was said in this room, they would probably follow that order to their deaths, but magic existed in this world that could lead someone to dominate their minds and extract information through those means. Needless to say, even though Ainz would never allow that to happen, it was still best to stay on their toes.
“Ainz-sama, I am eternally grateful.”
If Sebas was the one to order them to leave, it would be akin to him saying that he did not trust his colleagues, the ordinary maids.
So, his gratitude was probably directed at Ainz’s consideration to not start any tensions between them.
Ainz gently shook his head in response to what Sebas had said. To obtain the answer to the question he had in mind, Ainz asked again,
“So, what’s the matter? It doesn’t seem like an ordinary matter. An emergency perhaps?”
“Yes- ahem, no. I’m not too sure if this counts as out of the ordinary or not… Someone wishes to converse with Ainz-sama in private… I was requested to ask for Ainz-sama’s presence at their behest.”
“So they wish for me to go to them? They couldn’t come to my room?” Given that Ainz was the Supreme Overlord of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, this was an uncommon request. “...This is not about that human, is it?”
“No, it was not Tsuare. It was a guardian who had not received permission to leave their area. They knew that this would be disrespectful, but they still wish to trouble Ainz-sama for a while...”
Sebas looked towards Ainz with an apologetic expression.
“Ahhh, I see.” Ainz understood.
If it was an Area Guardian, then it all made sense.
Of course, if he ordered them to come over they would most likely do so. Some NPCs might respond in the negative due to a previous order from Ainz’s allies, who were their creators and whom they referred to as the Forty-One Supreme Beings. Still, most would obey Ainz’s order.
There were also those who simply couldn’t be allowed to leave.
A good example of which would be one of the Area Guardians on the seventh floor, Guren.
Because of its passive aura, it would surely cause a lot of collateral damage just by moving to the ninth floor. Things like wool carpets catching fire would be fine, but if it were to cross paths with beings like the ordinary maids, they would surely take a lot of damage.
If that was the case, it was better for Ainz to go to it than the other way around. Ainz had never liked putting on airs anyway. In addition, he did not have any tasks on hand that must be dealt with immediately. At least that was what Ainz thought.
“Understood. I’ll go to them. So, who am I looking for?”
“It was Nigredo-sama and Pestonia”
Sebas was one to refer to everybody else with the honorific “-sama” yet he did not do so with Pestonia, was it because they were colleagues?
“It was those two...”
Ainz’s expression became dejected and he tried his best to hide that fact. Though Ainz’s skeletal face could not show any expressions, it appeared as though a select few of the guardians could actually cold-read him. Albedo was one of them. As a side note, Demiurge would apparently always interpret his expression in weird ways.
Was it on purpose?
Ainz had thought that he had hidden his emotions well enough but it seemed like Sebas could still pick up on a few hints that slipped out of his vocal mannerisms. Sebas’ expression had become more and more apologetic as a result.
{Though I feel sorry for Sebas...but honestly, I don’t want to go~}
Nothing good will come of this.
He could confidently state that.
Imagine if you were in an office and someone told you, “the people from that other department are looking for you. They don’t want to call you but want you to go to them directly.” Eight or nine times out of ten it would be about a hassle.
That said, it wasn’t as though Ainz had a choice in this matter. If a larger issue rose up because he had neglected the smaller issues, the responsibility for the consequences would ultimately fall upon him.
While it was true that Ainz was the absolute overlord of Nazarick, for him to rest on his laurels would be moronic.
Ainz wanted none of the NPCs to dislike him, but rather, he desired that they would adore him just as he doted on them as if they were his children.
“...Let’s go. As for my schedule...” Ainz pulled out a notebook to check what he had scheduled for today. He was someone who would put off tasks that he found to be annoying yet was also someone who would wish that said annoying affairs would be resolved as soon as possible. “This time slot is fine, it’s empty. Can we go there right now?”
Nigredo and Pestonia. Though both of them were Area Guardians, with what Sebas had just stated, Ainz knew exactly where they were going. That was why he could still convey his intentions to Sebas even with these half-questions.
“If we were to allow Pestonia to arrive there first, how about an hour later?”
“...That’s fine. Looks like — it would be inappropriate to bring Albedo and Demiurge along.”
“Yes. Though it pains me to say this, they hoped that Ainz-sama would be going there alone.”
Ainz nodded his head.
“What about that doll?”
“I will ask Pestonia to take care of that matter, there should not be any problems.”
“Good. An hour later then...hmm? Sebas, will you be going too?”
“Yes. I had hoped that you would grant me permission to. Am I allowed to?”
Sebas’ lowered his head of white upon receiving Ainz’s approval.
An hour later, Ainz used the power of the ring to teleport to the Frozen Prison on the fifth floor.
No one was accompanying him. He had told the ordinary maid assigned to him that he had important matters to attend to and had ordered her to keep the secret and stay behind.
At first she had protested by saying, “I will pretend that I saw nothing at all. You could just ignore my presence entirely, so please take me along with you.” While Ainz did find her suggestion to be trustworthy, she did appear to derive some form of fulfilment from being ignored.
He had talked this over with her in the past and her response was that for him to objectify them, would have meant that they had accomplished their duty as maids to the utmost. They were apparently also actively seeking that kind of interaction. Then again, he had only asked one of them so perhaps she was the only one — no, she had to be the only one with such a fetish.
Even if it was an ordinary maid like her, to guarantee that he did not leave even the 1% of a probability that this could snowball into something bigger, Ainz steeled himself.
{I should do something that’ll make her happier when I get back...maybe assign her to some bothersome and menial task...so that she’ll be happy or whatever. Yeah, I don’t get it at all…}
There were just too many people in Nazarick who behaved like this maid, that was why none of his long-term vacation and paid-leave policies ever took off. If this persisted, Ainz’s hopes and dreams were all doomed to fail.
--------
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Why won't you work with [insert name]?
A: anon, I thought we were past that stage where we trust random anons' claims. I have not been contacted by other TLers since I've started and prior to that, the ones I've talked to were either not up to my standards or burned out after a few pages or so. I'm not the only one TLing because I chose to, I'm the only one who stayed. That doesn't mean I'm without help though. I do have a few buddies looking over my work to pick out some of the major errors.
Q: Where are we at?
A: As of this part: 259/568
If the “Dual-Wielder” was on the same level as the Shield-Bearer, there would be no way Skama and the rest could handle both of them at the same time. No, perhaps they would be dead the moment they came into contact with the enemy.
“Skama, what do we do!?”
“...Let’s take care of this guy first.”
Skama spoke with determination after her companion’s panicked voice calmed her down somewhat. If they couldn’t even take this thing down, they wouldn’t even have a chance at an escape. They could only hope that this thing’s health had already been whittled down to a wick’s length by those spell attacks.
After she stopped retreating, Skama turned to face the Shield-Bearer and darted towards it.
Her tomahawk was easily blocked by the shield and so was the ethereal copy. Skama’s attacks were not enough to break down the Shield-Bearer’s defences.
She had expected her attack to be thwarted, that was all she had to do.
The real attack was the [Magic Arrow] and [Shockwave] that followed.
The spell attacks were followed up by the rogue, who tossed a bottle towards the sides of the undead’s leg.
The liquid that oozed out of her comrade’s shattered bottle was common glue that any alchemist or the like could manufacture. This was a strategy that could only work if the enemy was standing on polished stone.
No matter how high of a defence the Shield-Bearer might have, its ability to dodge didn’t matter against a bottle thrown at it.
The undead was bound to the ground by glue.
Even if it only was for a brief moment, their opponent was immobilized. This was a common tactic they used when engaging a foe who was much more powerful than them.
Skama circled around to the Shield-Bearer’s hand that did not hold the shield, the hand that held the wave-bladed sword, and began attacking.
The Shield-Bearer swung its greatsword around, expertly parrying every hit that came its way. Even though its two legs were completely stuck on the ground and she had used martial arts to chain her attacks, Skama couldn’t land a single hit.
{This thing, is like a metal wall!}
Skama saw from the corner of her vision the scene of the undead using brute strength to tear its foot away from the stone-tiled ground. Two more offensive spells were cast yet they still failed to bring it down.
{—an undying ability? Or something that could heal it over time?}
There were monsters like Hydras or Trolls who had the ability to regenerate. For those, you couldn’t just deal incremental damage but would have to land a single fatal hit that could reduce the monster’s health to zero.
It was futile to continue on their panicked attacks.
Skama couldn’t even land a single hit on it.
{God damn it!}
“—incoming!”
Skama couldn’t help but shift her gaze upon hearing the rogue’s cry. Standing at the gate was the silhouette of the other undead being.
The Dual-Wielder.
Skama felt her stomach churning, the combined pressure of them all made her want to puke.
{Is this where I’ll die!?}
The rogue who had been executing combos with Skama couldn’t handle the pressure and retreated to her side. The Dual-Wielder responded in kind and moved to the Shield-Bearer’s side.
“...They’re not attacking. Which means...shit. These things are highly sapient.”
Skama felt as though she could perceive a smile on the Dual-Wielder’s rotten face. The Shield-Bearer had shown them attacks that were not on the same level as its defence capabilities, but perhaps that was just to instill despair in them to buy time for the Dual-Wielder to come.
Both enemies were there, this was a good opportunity to use AOE spell attacks. Yet, those spells were never cast. No, it might have been better to say that they couldn’t start casting.
The reason why should have been obvious. Though attack spells had been proven to be effective, it would also provoke them to initiate their attacks.
Their fate would have been set in stone then.
Even if their side held off on attacking, their enemy would do so sooner or later. But, they simply could not build up the courage to hold their fates in their own hands.
After she agonized over this, Skama made her decision.
“You two, run away!” She knocked on the rogue’s waist, “we’ll buy you some time.”
“Hah? For real!? Me too!? Wait, you want me to do that!?”
The rogue wailed but Skama ignored him.
There were two opponents, if they did not at last have two people to hold them off, they could only— a ‘boom’ rung in their ears.
“...hah?”
The undead in front of them, the Shield-Bearer’s head had been pierced by what looked like a long needle.
Wait, no.
What pierced through the Shield-Bearer’s head was not a needle; the thing that penetrated through its skull and was now embedded into the stone tile below was something about the size of an index finger.
That meant that that thing was so fast that Skama’s kinetic vision could not see it flying through the air at all but could only pick up its afterimage, which looked like a needle.
The Shield-Bearer shook, its feet trembled as they stomped on the tiles below, barely allowing it to stand up. Perhaps it was only because it was undead that it could remain standing even after its head had been pierced.
Skama and the others couldn’t help but shift their vision away from the enemy in front of them and look towards where that attack originated from. The undead did not attempt to attack them during this time as they were also looking towards the same direction.
Another attack pierced the Shield-Bearer’s head again and with that, the giant frame of the Shield-Bearer crumbled.
It only took two shots. No, perhaps it was because it had already taken so many spell attacks and was already weakened. But, who could accomplish such a thing—
The silhouette of a man could be seen in the air—
“W-What?”
—Whose voice was that?
Was it Skama herself’s or was it her companions’? She was so shocked that she could no longer tell such a simple thing.
In front of them was an armoured giant.
An approximately three meters tall being clad in an odd, blood-red armour flew in the air. In his hands was a pipe-shaped object which he held like a crossbow, perhaps that was what those index finger sized things came out of.
Because it had attacked the Shield-Bearer, they could conclude that it was not their enemy, even if it wasn’t their ally either.
Skama and the others slowly moved away from the Dual-Wielder. If they were to be caught up in their battle, she knew for sure that they would meet their ends right there.
Perhaps the Dual-Wielder had already lost interest in Skama’s group or perhaps it was because the armoured giant in the air was the only threat worthy of its attention, whatever the reason was, it did not attempt to halt their retreat.
And then, the battle began.
It was the Dual-Wielder’s turn.
It threw one of its swords.
It threw the sword with such strength that there was no way that Skama could avoid it. If she tried to block it, it would still inflict a fatal amount of damage.
The armour did not try to avoid it but tanked the hit with its own body. Perhaps it could not avoid it, or maybe it did not feel the need to avoid the attack at all?
The ear-piercing sound of metal clashing against metal rang as the thrown sword bounced off the armour. It then disappeared as if it had evaporated into the air, only to show up back in the Dual-Wielder’s hands.
It did not return to its hand. Rather, another one had appeared.
The armour in the air pointed the pipe at the Dual-Wielder in one smooth motion, as though that sword toss did not do damage to him at all.
The pipe found its target and then — it spat out something after a brief flash of fire and lightning.
What used to be single-shot attacks turned into an uncountable amount of projectiles. ‘Grakatatata’, the sound of apathetic violence could be heard everywhere.
Faced with the unknown projectiles, the Dual-Wielder swung its swords. The sharp ‘ting’ sounds of whatever was flying towards it being sliced into pieces could be heard. But there was a limit to it.
Two swords could not have dealt with the dozens or even hundreds of projectiles. The tiny projectiles flew at shocking speeds as it penetrated the enemy. The Dual-Wielder started twitching as though it had muscle spasms and like the Shield-Bearer before it, it disappeared.
The two undead beings had vanished in a blink of an eye.
Skama was truly, from the bottom of her heart, speechless.
To be honest, she had no idea what had just happened.
But Skama understood one thing, that armour was mind-bogglingly strong, stronger than everyone she knew.
She couldn’t stop blinking.
Nothing about this felt real. It was hard for her to accept that they had been saved. Their despair and readiness for self-sacrifice were shattered so easily, her mind could not keep up at all.
“W-What the hell is that?”
“...Hey, isn’t that a plate from the Adventurer’s Guild?”
“Hah?”
She squinted her eyes to focus on the details after the rogue had said that and saw that on the neck of the armour — though she could barely make out its shape — was a necklace that held a metal plate. Though it was about the same size as Skama’s, it looked minuscule on that giant figure. As expected of a rogue to notice something that she would have missed.
The metal plate on the necklace was of a colour that she did not recognize.
She had seen the colour of Orichalcum before, so by the process of elimination this was,
“An Adamantite-ranked adventurer?”
There were three Adamantite-ranked groups in the Kingdom and the colour of the armour made her realize which team it was a part of.
“Perhaps this is someone from Red Drop…?”
Upon hearing Lilynette’s question, Skama replied, “should be.” If this was someone from Blue Rose or Darkness, she would be ranting about why they would choose this hue for their armour.
The floating armour turned its back to Skama.
“W-wait!”
The armour responded to her voice and turned around slowly.
It raised up its left hand, straightened its index and middle finger, and pointed them towards its forehead. As if it was bidding farewell, the armour gestured at them gently.
Then, it just flew away.
Skama stared vacantly at the empty sky and asked the rogue,
“...What was that?”
“Who knows...”
She couldn’t understand at all, but someone from Red Drop came over to assist them, that was probably it.
“But, umm, I understood one thing. If we have someone this strong — perhaps the Sorcerous Kingdom’s invasion will come to an end right here. Of course, this is under the pretext that it would still be willing to break the Adventurer’s Code and will continue participating in battles from this point onwards.”
3
He felt as though he had just heard an, “eh?” sound. Ainz thought it sort of sounded like it was from himself.
A Death Knight and a Death Warrior, two undead beings had suddenly died. The one to defeat them was also wearing an item from Yggdrasil, the Power Suit.
Ainz had felt that he had lost two contacts — though the feeling wasn’t too strong given how many connections he had at once — which was how he had come to learn that it wasn’t an illusion.
Silence filled the room.
He felt the gaze of every Floor Guardian — perhaps the maids’ too — on him.
Ainz was the mastermind of this siege, so it would not have been wrong to view this as Ainz’s defeat.
Though something unexpected had occurred, the puny force they had lost was sent there precisely because losing them would not have been a big deal. So Ainz wished that they wouldn’t act so tight and careful.
However, given the current situation, if he was to tell them that it was fine to lose a battle, it would sound more like a sore loser’s excuse. Hindsight is always perfect.
His belief that he does not belong here would surely intensify.
Ainz decided to use his long-practised acting skills, which of course, he had obtained by practising in front of the mirror while the ordinary maids were absent.
“Hmmm...as I expected, mmm.”
The situation was under control.
Ainz displayed the same air of arrogance a mob boss quietly talking to themselves would have as they enjoyed the fragrance of the red wine from their wine glass.
The important part of this act was to not speak in a loud voice. A loud voice would be quite lame right now. The trick was to act as if he was just mumbling to himself.
His acting, the result of hard research, led to a ripple of commotion that reverberated around the room.
Ainz swallowed his non-existent saliva.
Whether he had succeeded or not depended on Demiurge’s response.
“I. See.
So. That. Was. Why…”
{—What!? Cocytus!?}
While Ainz was panicking, Shalltear responded, “Yes yes yes!” as both of her hands shot up. Though it appeared that she was hailing him, she was simply calling attention to herself. Shalltear smiled with pride as everyone’s gazes fell upon her.
“I understood it too-arinsu! Ainz-sama predicted that something like that would appear-arinsu! That was why we sent such a weak force, am I correct-arinsu!?”
This felt different from usual.
Was this a success or a failure? Ainz stole a glance at Demiurge, but he was just smiling mysteriously while nodding his head.
“As expected of the both of you.”
The two of them held their heads high upon receiving Demiurge’s praise. Perhaps Demiurge had already arrived at this conclusion but left it up to those two to answer first.
Ainz breathed a sigh of relief.
This appeared to be a success.
Albedo continued on,
“Intel from Sebas, Demiurge and also our corroborators in the capital mentioned how Red Drop was operating in the northern end of the Kingdom. Because of that, Ainz-sama decided to deploy insufficient troops to lure them out. The amount of troops struck the sweet spot of being easily defeatable by that guy, but at the same time enough to conquer the city without their help. Sasuga Ainz-sama.”
“Like. A. Hooked. Fish...”
{Eh? That was Red Drop? Could we trust that intel? What are the possibilities that it was a player?}
If he was in a Power Suit from Yggdrasil, isn’t the possibility that he was a player quite high?
Could they be sure that that was Red Drop? If so, shouldn’t that intel have reached him at some point or another?
No, wait— It was absolutely more likely that Ainz had simply missed that piece of intel while he read through the documents. For that reason, Ainz pretended that all was according to plan with a burst of gentle laughter.
Needless to say, he had practised this laugh quite a few times too.
“—hehe. Mmm, I did not think that he would actually show up. I was quite shocked too...I thought that perhaps they were conserving their forces for the showdown at the capital.”
“Ainz-sama can always think of situations we couldn’t!”
Said Aura as Mare mumbled, “amazing,” to himself.
The unadulterated gazes of reverence from those two dealt a massive blow to Ainz’s now fragile-as-glass superego.
{It’s not like that at all.}
But, he could never say those words.
Ainz had never considered such a thing could happen. Though he was of the mindset that losing was fine and winning was good, it was for different reasons than what they were now thinking of.
Ainz reminisced about the meeting between him, Sebas, and the others, the meeting that made Ainz take charge of this battle.
----
“What is it, Sebas? Is something wrong?”
Ainz had just returned to Nazarick and in front of him was Sebas, who was supposed to be on standby in E-Rantel, so it was natural for him to ask.
Ainz had no recollection of the contents of his last order to him, let alone of an order for him to come forth. Perhaps he was here of his own will, Ainz was fine with that too.
Though Sebas was stationed at E-Rantel, he was still given considerable amounts of freedom. The right to return to Nazarick at any time was a given.
However, if his goal was to meet with Ainz, he could have done so in E-Rantel. This must have been about something important and urgent.
“I’m terribly sorry, Ainz-sama. Would you be so kind as to spare some of your precious time— or rather, could I bother you for a while?”
Ainz felt as though there was something ominous hidden in Sebas’ muddled choice of words. He ordered the ordinary maid closest to him — the one assigned to Ainz for the day — to leave them be. The maid, along with the other maid who was assigned to this room, gently lowered their heads and left the room.
Ainz looked towards the Eight-Edge Assassins on the ceiling.
“All of you, leave us be.”
The Eight-Edge Assassins fell from the ceiling as if they were completely weightless and silently exited the room.
If Ainz had ordered them to never speak of what was said in this room, they would probably follow that order to their deaths, but magic existed in this world that could lead someone to dominate their minds and extract information through those means. Needless to say, even though Ainz would never allow that to happen, it was still best to stay on their toes.
“Ainz-sama, I am eternally grateful.”
If Sebas was the one to order them to leave, it would be akin to him saying that he did not trust his colleagues, the ordinary maids.
So, his gratitude was probably directed at Ainz’s consideration to not start any tensions between them.
Ainz gently shook his head in response to what Sebas had said. To obtain the answer to the question he had in mind, Ainz asked again,
“So, what’s the matter? It doesn’t seem like an ordinary matter. An emergency perhaps?”
“Yes- ahem, no. I’m not too sure if this counts as out of the ordinary or not… Someone wishes to converse with Ainz-sama in private… I was requested to ask for Ainz-sama’s presence at their behest.”
“So they wish for me to go to them? They couldn’t come to my room?” Given that Ainz was the Supreme Overlord of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, this was an uncommon request. “...This is not about that human, is it?”
“No, it was not Tsuare. It was a guardian who had not received permission to leave their area. They knew that this would be disrespectful, but they still wish to trouble Ainz-sama for a while...”
Sebas looked towards Ainz with an apologetic expression.
“Ahhh, I see.” Ainz understood.
If it was an Area Guardian, then it all made sense.
Of course, if he ordered them to come over they would most likely do so. Some NPCs might respond in the negative due to a previous order from Ainz’s allies, who were their creators and whom they referred to as the Forty-One Supreme Beings. Still, most would obey Ainz’s order.
There were also those who simply couldn’t be allowed to leave.
A good example of which would be one of the Area Guardians on the seventh floor, Guren.
Because of its passive aura, it would surely cause a lot of collateral damage just by moving to the ninth floor. Things like wool carpets catching fire would be fine, but if it were to cross paths with beings like the ordinary maids, they would surely take a lot of damage.
If that was the case, it was better for Ainz to go to it than the other way around. Ainz had never liked putting on airs anyway. In addition, he did not have any tasks on hand that must be dealt with immediately. At least that was what Ainz thought.
“Understood. I’ll go to them. So, who am I looking for?”
“It was Nigredo-sama and Pestonia”
Sebas was one to refer to everybody else with the honorific “-sama” yet he did not do so with Pestonia, was it because they were colleagues?
“It was those two...”
Ainz’s expression became dejected and he tried his best to hide that fact. Though Ainz’s skeletal face could not show any expressions, it appeared as though a select few of the guardians could actually cold-read him. Albedo was one of them. As a side note, Demiurge would apparently always interpret his expression in weird ways.
Was it on purpose?
Ainz had thought that he had hidden his emotions well enough but it seemed like Sebas could still pick up on a few hints that slipped out of his vocal mannerisms. Sebas’ expression had become more and more apologetic as a result.
{Though I feel sorry for Sebas...but honestly, I don’t want to go~}
Nothing good will come of this.
He could confidently state that.
Imagine if you were in an office and someone told you, “the people from that other department are looking for you. They don’t want to call you but want you to go to them directly.” Eight or nine times out of ten it would be about a hassle.
That said, it wasn’t as though Ainz had a choice in this matter. If a larger issue rose up because he had neglected the smaller issues, the responsibility for the consequences would ultimately fall upon him.
While it was true that Ainz was the absolute overlord of Nazarick, for him to rest on his laurels would be moronic.
Ainz wanted none of the NPCs to dislike him, but rather, he desired that they would adore him just as he doted on them as if they were his children.
“...Let’s go. As for my schedule...” Ainz pulled out a notebook to check what he had scheduled for today. He was someone who would put off tasks that he found to be annoying yet was also someone who would wish that said annoying affairs would be resolved as soon as possible. “This time slot is fine, it’s empty. Can we go there right now?”
Nigredo and Pestonia. Though both of them were Area Guardians, with what Sebas had just stated, Ainz knew exactly where they were going. That was why he could still convey his intentions to Sebas even with these half-questions.
“If we were to allow Pestonia to arrive there first, how about an hour later?”
“...That’s fine. Looks like — it would be inappropriate to bring Albedo and Demiurge along.”
“Yes. Though it pains me to say this, they hoped that Ainz-sama would be going there alone.”
Ainz nodded his head.
“What about that doll?”
“I will ask Pestonia to take care of that matter, there should not be any problems.”
“Good. An hour later then...hmm? Sebas, will you be going too?”
“Yes. I had hoped that you would grant me permission to. Am I allowed to?”
Sebas’ lowered his head of white upon receiving Ainz’s approval.
An hour later, Ainz used the power of the ring to teleport to the Frozen Prison on the fifth floor.
No one was accompanying him. He had told the ordinary maid assigned to him that he had important matters to attend to and had ordered her to keep the secret and stay behind.
At first she had protested by saying, “I will pretend that I saw nothing at all. You could just ignore my presence entirely, so please take me along with you.” While Ainz did find her suggestion to be trustworthy, she did appear to derive some form of fulfilment from being ignored.
He had talked this over with her in the past and her response was that for him to objectify them, would have meant that they had accomplished their duty as maids to the utmost. They were apparently also actively seeking that kind of interaction. Then again, he had only asked one of them so perhaps she was the only one — no, she had to be the only one with such a fetish.
Even if it was an ordinary maid like her, to guarantee that he did not leave even the 1% of a probability that this could snowball into something bigger, Ainz steeled himself.
{I should do something that’ll make her happier when I get back...maybe assign her to some bothersome and menial task...so that she’ll be happy or whatever. Yeah, I don’t get it at all…}
There were just too many people in Nazarick who behaved like this maid, that was why none of his long-term vacation and paid-leave policies ever took off. If this persisted, Ainz’s hopes and dreams were all doomed to fail.
--------
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Why won't you work with [insert name]?
A: anon, I thought we were past that stage where we trust random anons' claims. I have not been contacted by other TLers since I've started and prior to that, the ones I've talked to were either not up to my standards or burned out after a few pages or so. I'm not the only one TLing because I chose to, I'm the only one who stayed. That doesn't mean I'm without help though. I do have a few buddies looking over my work to pick out some of the major errors.
Q: Where are we at?
A: As of this part: 259/568
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Chapter 2 Part 5
The morning three days after that, a man stood on the top of a watchtower.
He appears to be over forty, had a tanned body, and his scent was more akin to that of waves crashing upon a skerry than that of a warrior’s. From the smell alone you could tell that he was a man whose life depended on the sea.
Though the top of his head was completely bald, the sides and back of his head still had remnants from the lusciousness of his youth. He would try his best to comb them upwards to cover up the wasteland that is the top of his head.
Though his physical appearance screamed fisherman, his garment was that of a first-class noble’s; thus, one could easily distinguish his status.
“Woooah — they’re everywhere —”
His tone did not match his appearance at all and was generally undignified, but this man was the ruler of these lands: Earl Naüa.
Within his line of sight was a large group of zombies which numbered approximately twenty times more than E-Naüru’s defence force. The undead army had halted their march to wait for stragglers to catch up, but it appeared that the influx of zombies into their formations had abated so that was probably the whole army. Given that was the situation, war was only a hair’s breadth away.
“—even so, it’s only a swarm of zombies. It’s not that big of a deal.”
The one who had asserted that was a woman who stood next to the Earl.
Her hair of pure white danced in the breeze.
That said, her white hair was not a product of age, she had deliberately dyed it so.
Her original hair colour was the shade of gold that was a common sight throughout the Kingdom. Until the year prior she had dyed her hair black.
The dyed hair wasn’t for a fashion statement or for fun, she was using her flashy appearance as a sort of advertisement for her adventurer group. Adventurers like her weren’t all that uncommon, there were even those who would dye their hair pink in a bid to become famous.
It was for that reason that she had changed her hair dye from black to white.
Of the active adamantite-ranked adventurer groups there were already teams with ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ associations, but recently ‘Black’ had been taken too. Within the adventuring circles, the moment you mention the colour black most people’s thoughts would naturally gravitate towards Momon of Darkness. Still, since not many people had seen Momon’s true appearance, she had considered whether keeping her black hair would have a positive impact on their publicity or not. She gave up on that idea after she learned that Momon’s partner had gorgeous black hair.
Consequently, her team’s colour had also changed from black to white. As for her, Skama Herbelot, she was just glad that they had not incorporated the colour into their team name yet but had just named themselves the Four Armaments.
“Those are obviously not naturally spawned. Many of them look like farmers, so they can’t be from the Sorcerous Kingdom. They must have destroyed the surrounding villages and turned their corpses into zombies. How revolting.”
Skama spoke as though she was about to vomit.
Though there were also a few amongst them that had better equipment — leather armour, chainmail, and other types of light armour — that gave one the impression that they were soldiers who were turned into zombies, the majority of them only wore regular clothing, clothing that wasn’t even of notable quality.
“Can someone even do that?”
“Whether it's possible to generate this amount of zombies or not, I have no idea. But, since spells to create the undead exist, it should be possible, right?”
“Oh, haaaaaaaah—”
Earl Naüa sighed from the depths of his heart.
In these trying times, his voice did not have a shred of urgency. It could be infuriating to some, yet Skama’s expression remained unchanged.
“If that’s the case, could we not create an undead army of our own to hold them off?”
“If there were dozens of those who favour necromancy out of the exotic arcanas and could use the higher tier spells of that discipline, it wouldn’t be completely impossible. Too bad there’s none in this city~.”
There was a reason why she was so sure of herself.
Earl Naüa had sent requests to the Mage’s Guild, the Temple, the Adventurer’s Guild and others— he had basically sent a call to every magic caster in the city to join them in mounting a defence, in hopes that he could form a unit comprised entirely of magic casters.
Due to the fact that the Adventurer’s Guild had the most magic casters and the adventurers had plenty of experience with combat, the highest-ranked adventurer group — Skama’s Four Armaments — was chosen to lead this caster unit. For this reason, Skama had detailed knowledge of every single magic caster within the city.
“Is that so? So— everything’s going to work out, right? For a hundred and twenty year— this city has never been sieged ever since its founding as a village. We really don’t have much experience with that at all.”
This was not something the ruler of this city should be saying right now.
Still, Skama had not appeared to be angered by this. That being said, as usual, not an ounce of respect could be heard in her voice as she responded,
“Everything will work out? I don’t think so~, Earl. If we can’t think up a plan about this, everyone will turn into undead~. Everybody’s trying their best to help us because they want to avoid that outcome~”
“I see— why did something like this have to happen during my time. If only this did not happen for another 5 years, by then my eldest son would have probably succeeded me.”
“Unlucky~. Well, you say that but it’s the same for us. Why, why did this have to happen when we chose to come to this city. If it happened a few months later, we would have probably moved to another — a bigger city~”
“Wha— Hol-hold up a second, alright? Let’s all be sensible. Please don’t abandon this city!”
“If we really wanted to run away, now would be the best time! Take a look, there.”
Skama pointed towards two undead that were at the helm of the zombie army.
They were quite easy to spot given how they were about two head’s height higher than the zombies around them. In conjunction with the overwhelming, hair-raising pressure they gave off that accentuated their presence, their strength was made apparent.
Those undead carried a flag at their sides.
“The Sorcerous Kingdom’s.”
“Yup...did the Earl participate in the battle of the Katze plains?”
“Hmm? I only sent some trusted subordinates along with our levy. Neither I nor my family participated...but, it’s not like they’ll return anyhow.”
“Umm...Hope they could rest in peace at God’s side. Only two special undead were sent by the Sorcerer King who massacred 200,000 — by the Sorcerous Kingdom…Do you believe them to be weak?”
“I don’t think so, sigh— they must be mind-bogglingly strong—”
“Right… Aren’t you angry? That they judged that they only needed two undead to destroy this city?”
“Nooope— Rather than that, I am only thinking of how we could be saved from all of this.”
As the ruler of this land, those words were quite lame, yet, they were the simple truth.
“Though I want to send out a messenger to declare our intention to surrender, I doubt that would work at all.”
“Can’t you just escape by sea? You’ve probably prepared for that already, right?”
Skama asked what was on everybody’s minds during their previous meetings, but no one had said out loud.
The Earl smiled with a bitter expression and did not respond immediately. Rather than hiding something, it was more likely that he was just trying to figure out what Skama truly meant by that question.
Though she wasn’t too acquainted with the Earl, they had quite the amount of interactions due to their lines of work. She knew from then that he was quite a quick-witted one.
What was unfortunate was that though the Earl’s son was a suitable replacement for him, he was not as outstanding as his father. That said, there were people who believed that his son could gain a leg up on him with enough experience.
“Ahem. Of course, but we can’t transport everybody out of this city by boat. Even if we make multiple runs to dump people to the nearby coasts, what will we do about the food situation? Where can we escape to? And more questions just keep coming up...”
“But if it’s just the Earl and his family, they should make it out alright, right?”
The Earl pondered for a moment once more and replied,
“I guess, but that will be the last resort. ‘Everybody please evacuate to the city, my family and I will get out of here first though’ or something like that would weigh heavily on my conscious—”
Normally when a city had been taken over, its ruling class would either be slaughtered or forced into submission. The citizens on the other hand — though their possessions might be plundered — would just be under new management. To slaughter the civilians of a city would be akin to killing the goose that laid golden eggs.
Unless razing a city held benefits for the invaders, they would never do such a thing.
However—
“The words of the Baron who had escaped the Sorcerer King’s— the Sorcerous Kingdom’s invasion to this place and the words of the refugees from my villages, surely you have heard them already? Things aren’t looking too good for us.”
“You’re saying that there should have been more refugees, right?”
“Yes, that’s right,” the Earl replied.
Those who had evacuated first were here already, but there were too few compared to the population count of the surrounding area. What happened to the people who were left behind or could not make it out?
Did they not want to escape because they were now living under a utopia? Or were they under a surveillance state in which not a single ant could escape? Or were they all taken to the Sorcerous Kingdom? Those three were the only optimistic outcomes he could think of.
But, upon seeing the farmer-turned zombies, he got the feeling that there was no way the Sorcerous Kingdom would treat them well.
“Though he lords over E-Rantel, it looks as though he is still a monster who could not tolerate the living—”
“So the purpose of this war was to turn their defeated enemies into soldiers to bolster their ranks. They don’t sleep, don’t eat, don’t tire, are fearless, and are absolutely loyal. Sigh, it makes sense why they wouldn’t show mercy to their enemies, right?”
“That makes sense, for the enemy. If they were trying to subjugate a city and force its citizens to work for them, they wouldn’t be doing something like this… Perhaps they do not intend to leave any of the Kingdom’s residents alive. If that’s the case does it even matter where we escape to?”
Was he trying to empathize with her or getting her to empathize with him?
Skama picked up on something.
She was the strongest adventurer in this city. If she was to desert this city, what could have been a victory could turn into a defeat. That was why the Earl was trying to make her think that there was nowhere to escape to.
Just as Skama was about to say something, some disturbance had occurred somewhere near them.
For privacy’s sake — or it was better to say that for the sake of preparing for a defensive, the two had slipped away to observe the enemy’s formation.
The ones who had appeared in front of Skama were her teammates. Her team, Four Armaments, had four members including herself. The ratio of men to women was equal. In addition to the warrior Skama, there were also a rogue, a priestess, and a magic caster of the school of evocation. Their team composition was fairly balanced.
Behind her teammates were the magic casters gathered from all over the city.
The number of magic casters was less than fifty, but this quantity made for a more than formidable army unit.
The reason why they were able to gather up so many magic casters was because of a loophole to the unspoken rule amongst adventurers — the one about how they could not participate in the wars between countries.
This would not have been possible had the Sorcerous Kingdom sent human soldiers, but their army was comprised of undead — of which they were almost certain were the Kingdom’s civilians who were turned undead.
They could basically treat it as a coincidence that this army of undead was carrying the Sorcerous Kingdom’s flag.
They had to use that reason because there was no way they could use that rule to excuse themselves from a fight with the undead who could turn dead villagers into more undead.
To have formed a caster unit out of the people here meant that together they — well, not everyone was of that school of magic, so this was more of a hypothetical — could adopt the strategy of continually raining down [Magic Arrow]s on the enemy, which could theoretically slay even dragons.
Unlike regular arrows, [Magic Arrow]s were guaranteed to hit independent of the evoker’s skills. Casting it at a higher tier would increase the amount of projectiles generated as well as the individual damage output of each projectile. Even so, a single projectile’s damage output was still miniscule. It was pretty much impossible for them to one-shot their enemies with a single cast.
The damage output of the spell did not depend on where the enemy was struck, which some considered to be its advantage while others believed that it was its flaw.
With all of that in mind, it was still a convenient spell to use in a group. If they were to form an army corp out of people who learnt that spell, it would probably see a lot of success. However, no historical records existed of such a tactic being used.
This was because to learn even the beginner’s level of the first tier of spells required a certain amount of potential, nevermind the amount of time that had to be invested to educate a magic caster. Given the same amount of time and resources, it was more beneficial to train a hundred archers than a single magic caster for combat.
If there existed some organism that could innately use [Magic Arrow] and an army was formed out of them, that had the potential to be absolutely terrifying. If not even those requirements for talent could be met — no, it was safer to say that it was precisely because no such organism existed that an army composed purely of magic casters was only a pipe dream.
Behind this ex-pipe dream of an army unit were the soldiers under the Earl’s employ and adventurers who were skilled in archery and other ranged weaponry.
Which is to say, those who are gathered on the city walls were aiming to strike the Sorcerous Kingdom’s army first.
Earl Naüa, standing in front of them all, raised his voice and said,
“I’m grateful for everybody who has gathered here! I would like to thank each and every single one of you for your aid.”
Skama could no longer feel that sense of unreliability from his tone, all that remained was the dignity and confidence befitting of a leader.
His attitude, the product of having lived a noble’s lifestyle, left Skama in awe.
“Thank us through more practical means please!”
One of Skama’s companions, the magic caster, replied. A wave of laughter could be heard behind him. The Earl was not displeased upon hearing what one of the representatives of the adventurers had to say. On the contrary, the smile that flourished on his face was a genuine one.
“Leave that to me! You will be rewarded enough that even if every other adventurer forced you to take them out for a meal, you would not go broke. I will hand over your rewards in front of everyone, out in the open.”
“Woooo,” everybody started cheering.
“Of course, that applies to my soldiers too. Though your pay may not be as plentiful as the adventurers’, I will pay you a bonus big enough that you would no longer have to worry over your wives’ and children’s future! But—” The Earl switched to a playful tone to say, “—don’t you dare squander away all of your newfound wealth, am I understood~?”
He could see that the tense expressions on his soldiers had loosened up a little.
“I was thinking of alternative forms of compensation. Surely the Earl has a few magic items as heirlooms or something? Your lineage goes quite a ways back after all.”
The one who had said that was a woman who irradiated a perverse aura. On her neck hung the holy symbol of the Earth God, which was sandwiched between her voluptuous bosom. It wouldn’t be incorrect to call this sacrilege.
This woman, Lilynette Piani, was also one of Skama’s companions and no, she was not wearing that priestess’ outfit because she’s a prostitute who was accommodating her client’s fetish or something like that.
“Huhhh. An heirloom magic item would be a tall order. It does exist though, I do have a magic item that was passed down for generations. A lot of people would know about it, it’s called the Holy Sword of Pentechromata.”
It was a longsword enchanted with the elemental powers of fire, thunder, acid, sonic, and ice which dealt their respective damage types to a slashed target.
But, the blade was without an edge so it could only be used as a blunt weapon, like a dummy sword for swordsmanship practice. He had no idea why someone would create such a sword. What was more confusing was that it did not deal holy damage yet was called a holy sword, perhaps the name was changed generations after its creation so that did not really matter much.
“I want that~”
After all, it was still a valuable item, so to give it away to an adventurer as compensation seemed wholly inappropriate.
“You want that? Hmm, depending on the situation I wouldn’t rule it out completely.” The Earl continued on in a sea of gasps, “my son — I wish that you could become my son’s concubine.”
Skama’s expression turned apprehensive.
The Earl had said something he shouldn’t have.
Some of the adventurers looked towards the Earl with their eyes wide open, they were those who were head over heels for Lilynette. In comparison, the one who had started this had on her eyes as sharp as an eagle’s.
Perhaps that joke had crossed a line. Just as Earl Naüa opened his mouth to apologize, Lilynette asked,
“The Earl has four children right? Your wife gave birth to your eldest son and your third son. Your concubine gave birth to your second son and eldest daughter. Um, your eldest is out of the question, so which son were you referring to?”
Her tone had shifted completely. From her careless attitude back then to the seriousness that was to be expected of an adventurer. This was her actual personality.
Which meant that Lilynette was being completely serious.
Skama’s expression further darkened. She glanced at her other teammates who cold-heartedly avoided making eye contact with her.
Those cowards.
“...I was talking about my third son”
“Your third son? But isn’t that kid only twelve? The one whose birthday is coming up soon but hasn’t passed yet? Be the concubine of that child?”
The Earl was about to nod his head when he suddenly froze up.
“...that’s, right. How did you know about my child’s age? Even the birthdate of the third son of a local noble… Is that important intel? Or are all of you top-ranked adventurers like this?”
“N-no”, “Um, no”, and other denials came from the other adventurers. Lilynette ignored them all and continued on as she held up her hair,
“Hah, fiiiine. Ahem. Fine then, I’ll become your son’s concubine for the Holy Sword of Pentechromata.”
The Earl observed Lilynette in detail and turned his gaze towards Skama as if he had a question that he wanted an answer to at this exact moment.
Skama knew what that question was, she knew it well.
“Though I was the one who raised that suggestion. Wait, why is she drooling? Is she actually after my son or the magic item?”
“It’s the former,” Skama tried to say, but before her words could reach anyone a boisterous voice boomed,
“You fool! Unripe fruits are the most alluring of all, aren’t they?”
The silent atmosphere was broken the moment they figured out whose voice that was. At the same time, a few of the adventurers had already fallen to the ground, a result of their fantasies being crushed by the harsh reality of it all.
Skama could empathize with the sorrow of those adventurers.
{Sorry,} she thought. Those who had fawned over her should understand at this point why they had not been successful.
Age preference.
“I thought that you would ask, ‘why a concubine,’ or something.”
Lilynette responded to Earl Naüa, who was muttering to himself,
“Ah, father-in-law-sama. Even if he’s your third son, he was still born of your wife. If all goes well he should be able to gain the title of Baron and a small patch of land, correct? With that in mind, it would be asking too much for an adventurer to be his wife, even if it’s a powerful one, right? Though I do have connections to the temples, that is still, you know. You were planning to say something along the lines of ‘if you perform outstandingly in this battle, I will consider letting you be his wife,’ right? But if I was to be satisfied by the offer of being his wife alone, then there would be no way I could get my hands on the Holy Sword of Pentechromata. After all, the wife of your third son inheriting the family heirloom would upheave our family’s peace~”
She was already calling him father-in-law.
“...I have underestimated you… If you came along earlier, I would have made you my eldest son’s concubine.”
“Ah, fifteen...wait no...seventeen and above would be too old for me, father-in-law-sama.”
The Earl kept glancing at Skama as she tried her darndest to ignore him. Earl Naüa’s expression looked as though he had just taken a heavy blow and wanted to call her sly, drew no sympathy from the crowd at all.
“Umm, something that I’ve got to ask— even if it’s his third son, there will still come a day when he ages past the age of 17 though!”
“That’s true— if only he was of a race with a longer lifespan. But if that was the case, wouldn’t I be the one who’d age faster…? So, what you’ve said is acceptable to me.”
“You thought that was worth emphasizing!? You thought that, of all the things that I have said so far, that was the thing that was most worthy of emphasizing!?”
“Eh? Father-in-law-sama. Your composure, you appear to be losing it?”
“...You’re the last person I wanted to hear that from.”
Based on Skama’s personal judgment, Lilynette was an honest and caring person so she should make for a good bride. However, none of that was on display right now.
If this continued on any longer, not only would it bring shame upon her companion, but it would set the reputation of her entire team on some weird trajectory which would be troublesome. Skama did not want to be identified by her white hair for negative connotations.
“...Now then, Earl. Though we do appreciate your efforts to alleviate our stress with some humour, we do have to get on with our preparations for the battle. Could I ask of you to return to the center of command?”
Even if he stayed, he, who is without any combat prowess would not be able to do much. His job was better accomplished elsewhere. Earl Naüa nodded his head at this logical proposal, probably out of a desire to stay as far away as possible from Lilynette.
“Ah yes, now then. Everybody, we’ll be relying on you all!”
--------
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Where are we at?
A: As of this part: 220/568
Q: When does chapter 2 end?
A: Page 279, it's one of the longer ones. Chapter 3 is much shorter by comparison at only 67 pages.
Q: Pentechromata?
A: Creative liberty, it's Greek for five colors, which sounds cooler than leaving it as "Five Colors"
Hitori's comment corner: When I said this week should be a ((bit)) better that doesn't mean my schedule has cleared up.
Anyways, be mindful of people going around claiming that they're me and asking for paypal/patreon/etc. donations. This shit was, is, and will be free so if you paid for it, you got scammed.
The morning three days after that, a man stood on the top of a watchtower.
He appears to be over forty, had a tanned body, and his scent was more akin to that of waves crashing upon a skerry than that of a warrior’s. From the smell alone you could tell that he was a man whose life depended on the sea.
Though the top of his head was completely bald, the sides and back of his head still had remnants from the lusciousness of his youth. He would try his best to comb them upwards to cover up the wasteland that is the top of his head.
Though his physical appearance screamed fisherman, his garment was that of a first-class noble’s; thus, one could easily distinguish his status.
“Woooah — they’re everywhere —”
His tone did not match his appearance at all and was generally undignified, but this man was the ruler of these lands: Earl Naüa.
Within his line of sight was a large group of zombies which numbered approximately twenty times more than E-Naüru’s defence force. The undead army had halted their march to wait for stragglers to catch up, but it appeared that the influx of zombies into their formations had abated so that was probably the whole army. Given that was the situation, war was only a hair’s breadth away.
“—even so, it’s only a swarm of zombies. It’s not that big of a deal.”
The one who had asserted that was a woman who stood next to the Earl.
Her hair of pure white danced in the breeze.
That said, her white hair was not a product of age, she had deliberately dyed it so.
Her original hair colour was the shade of gold that was a common sight throughout the Kingdom. Until the year prior she had dyed her hair black.
The dyed hair wasn’t for a fashion statement or for fun, she was using her flashy appearance as a sort of advertisement for her adventurer group. Adventurers like her weren’t all that uncommon, there were even those who would dye their hair pink in a bid to become famous.
It was for that reason that she had changed her hair dye from black to white.
Of the active adamantite-ranked adventurer groups there were already teams with ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ associations, but recently ‘Black’ had been taken too. Within the adventuring circles, the moment you mention the colour black most people’s thoughts would naturally gravitate towards Momon of Darkness. Still, since not many people had seen Momon’s true appearance, she had considered whether keeping her black hair would have a positive impact on their publicity or not. She gave up on that idea after she learned that Momon’s partner had gorgeous black hair.
Consequently, her team’s colour had also changed from black to white. As for her, Skama Herbelot, she was just glad that they had not incorporated the colour into their team name yet but had just named themselves the Four Armaments.
“Those are obviously not naturally spawned. Many of them look like farmers, so they can’t be from the Sorcerous Kingdom. They must have destroyed the surrounding villages and turned their corpses into zombies. How revolting.”
Skama spoke as though she was about to vomit.
Though there were also a few amongst them that had better equipment — leather armour, chainmail, and other types of light armour — that gave one the impression that they were soldiers who were turned into zombies, the majority of them only wore regular clothing, clothing that wasn’t even of notable quality.
“Can someone even do that?”
“Whether it's possible to generate this amount of zombies or not, I have no idea. But, since spells to create the undead exist, it should be possible, right?”
“Oh, haaaaaaaah—”
Earl Naüa sighed from the depths of his heart.
In these trying times, his voice did not have a shred of urgency. It could be infuriating to some, yet Skama’s expression remained unchanged.
“If that’s the case, could we not create an undead army of our own to hold them off?”
“If there were dozens of those who favour necromancy out of the exotic arcanas and could use the higher tier spells of that discipline, it wouldn’t be completely impossible. Too bad there’s none in this city~.”
There was a reason why she was so sure of herself.
Earl Naüa had sent requests to the Mage’s Guild, the Temple, the Adventurer’s Guild and others— he had basically sent a call to every magic caster in the city to join them in mounting a defence, in hopes that he could form a unit comprised entirely of magic casters.
Due to the fact that the Adventurer’s Guild had the most magic casters and the adventurers had plenty of experience with combat, the highest-ranked adventurer group — Skama’s Four Armaments — was chosen to lead this caster unit. For this reason, Skama had detailed knowledge of every single magic caster within the city.
“Is that so? So— everything’s going to work out, right? For a hundred and twenty year— this city has never been sieged ever since its founding as a village. We really don’t have much experience with that at all.”
This was not something the ruler of this city should be saying right now.
Still, Skama had not appeared to be angered by this. That being said, as usual, not an ounce of respect could be heard in her voice as she responded,
“Everything will work out? I don’t think so~, Earl. If we can’t think up a plan about this, everyone will turn into undead~. Everybody’s trying their best to help us because they want to avoid that outcome~”
“I see— why did something like this have to happen during my time. If only this did not happen for another 5 years, by then my eldest son would have probably succeeded me.”
“Unlucky~. Well, you say that but it’s the same for us. Why, why did this have to happen when we chose to come to this city. If it happened a few months later, we would have probably moved to another — a bigger city~”
“Wha— Hol-hold up a second, alright? Let’s all be sensible. Please don’t abandon this city!”
“If we really wanted to run away, now would be the best time! Take a look, there.”
Skama pointed towards two undead that were at the helm of the zombie army.
They were quite easy to spot given how they were about two head’s height higher than the zombies around them. In conjunction with the overwhelming, hair-raising pressure they gave off that accentuated their presence, their strength was made apparent.
Those undead carried a flag at their sides.
“The Sorcerous Kingdom’s.”
“Yup...did the Earl participate in the battle of the Katze plains?”
“Hmm? I only sent some trusted subordinates along with our levy. Neither I nor my family participated...but, it’s not like they’ll return anyhow.”
“Umm...Hope they could rest in peace at God’s side. Only two special undead were sent by the Sorcerer King who massacred 200,000 — by the Sorcerous Kingdom…Do you believe them to be weak?”
“I don’t think so, sigh— they must be mind-bogglingly strong—”
“Right… Aren’t you angry? That they judged that they only needed two undead to destroy this city?”
“Nooope— Rather than that, I am only thinking of how we could be saved from all of this.”
As the ruler of this land, those words were quite lame, yet, they were the simple truth.
“Though I want to send out a messenger to declare our intention to surrender, I doubt that would work at all.”
“Can’t you just escape by sea? You’ve probably prepared for that already, right?”
Skama asked what was on everybody’s minds during their previous meetings, but no one had said out loud.
The Earl smiled with a bitter expression and did not respond immediately. Rather than hiding something, it was more likely that he was just trying to figure out what Skama truly meant by that question.
Though she wasn’t too acquainted with the Earl, they had quite the amount of interactions due to their lines of work. She knew from then that he was quite a quick-witted one.
What was unfortunate was that though the Earl’s son was a suitable replacement for him, he was not as outstanding as his father. That said, there were people who believed that his son could gain a leg up on him with enough experience.
“Ahem. Of course, but we can’t transport everybody out of this city by boat. Even if we make multiple runs to dump people to the nearby coasts, what will we do about the food situation? Where can we escape to? And more questions just keep coming up...”
“But if it’s just the Earl and his family, they should make it out alright, right?”
The Earl pondered for a moment once more and replied,
“I guess, but that will be the last resort. ‘Everybody please evacuate to the city, my family and I will get out of here first though’ or something like that would weigh heavily on my conscious—”
Normally when a city had been taken over, its ruling class would either be slaughtered or forced into submission. The citizens on the other hand — though their possessions might be plundered — would just be under new management. To slaughter the civilians of a city would be akin to killing the goose that laid golden eggs.
Unless razing a city held benefits for the invaders, they would never do such a thing.
However—
“The words of the Baron who had escaped the Sorcerer King’s— the Sorcerous Kingdom’s invasion to this place and the words of the refugees from my villages, surely you have heard them already? Things aren’t looking too good for us.”
“You’re saying that there should have been more refugees, right?”
“Yes, that’s right,” the Earl replied.
Those who had evacuated first were here already, but there were too few compared to the population count of the surrounding area. What happened to the people who were left behind or could not make it out?
Did they not want to escape because they were now living under a utopia? Or were they under a surveillance state in which not a single ant could escape? Or were they all taken to the Sorcerous Kingdom? Those three were the only optimistic outcomes he could think of.
But, upon seeing the farmer-turned zombies, he got the feeling that there was no way the Sorcerous Kingdom would treat them well.
“Though he lords over E-Rantel, it looks as though he is still a monster who could not tolerate the living—”
“So the purpose of this war was to turn their defeated enemies into soldiers to bolster their ranks. They don’t sleep, don’t eat, don’t tire, are fearless, and are absolutely loyal. Sigh, it makes sense why they wouldn’t show mercy to their enemies, right?”
“That makes sense, for the enemy. If they were trying to subjugate a city and force its citizens to work for them, they wouldn’t be doing something like this… Perhaps they do not intend to leave any of the Kingdom’s residents alive. If that’s the case does it even matter where we escape to?”
Was he trying to empathize with her or getting her to empathize with him?
Skama picked up on something.
She was the strongest adventurer in this city. If she was to desert this city, what could have been a victory could turn into a defeat. That was why the Earl was trying to make her think that there was nowhere to escape to.
Just as Skama was about to say something, some disturbance had occurred somewhere near them.
For privacy’s sake — or it was better to say that for the sake of preparing for a defensive, the two had slipped away to observe the enemy’s formation.
The ones who had appeared in front of Skama were her teammates. Her team, Four Armaments, had four members including herself. The ratio of men to women was equal. In addition to the warrior Skama, there were also a rogue, a priestess, and a magic caster of the school of evocation. Their team composition was fairly balanced.
Behind her teammates were the magic casters gathered from all over the city.
The number of magic casters was less than fifty, but this quantity made for a more than formidable army unit.
The reason why they were able to gather up so many magic casters was because of a loophole to the unspoken rule amongst adventurers — the one about how they could not participate in the wars between countries.
This would not have been possible had the Sorcerous Kingdom sent human soldiers, but their army was comprised of undead — of which they were almost certain were the Kingdom’s civilians who were turned undead.
They could basically treat it as a coincidence that this army of undead was carrying the Sorcerous Kingdom’s flag.
They had to use that reason because there was no way they could use that rule to excuse themselves from a fight with the undead who could turn dead villagers into more undead.
To have formed a caster unit out of the people here meant that together they — well, not everyone was of that school of magic, so this was more of a hypothetical — could adopt the strategy of continually raining down [Magic Arrow]s on the enemy, which could theoretically slay even dragons.
Unlike regular arrows, [Magic Arrow]s were guaranteed to hit independent of the evoker’s skills. Casting it at a higher tier would increase the amount of projectiles generated as well as the individual damage output of each projectile. Even so, a single projectile’s damage output was still miniscule. It was pretty much impossible for them to one-shot their enemies with a single cast.
The damage output of the spell did not depend on where the enemy was struck, which some considered to be its advantage while others believed that it was its flaw.
With all of that in mind, it was still a convenient spell to use in a group. If they were to form an army corp out of people who learnt that spell, it would probably see a lot of success. However, no historical records existed of such a tactic being used.
This was because to learn even the beginner’s level of the first tier of spells required a certain amount of potential, nevermind the amount of time that had to be invested to educate a magic caster. Given the same amount of time and resources, it was more beneficial to train a hundred archers than a single magic caster for combat.
If there existed some organism that could innately use [Magic Arrow] and an army was formed out of them, that had the potential to be absolutely terrifying. If not even those requirements for talent could be met — no, it was safer to say that it was precisely because no such organism existed that an army composed purely of magic casters was only a pipe dream.
Behind this ex-pipe dream of an army unit were the soldiers under the Earl’s employ and adventurers who were skilled in archery and other ranged weaponry.
Which is to say, those who are gathered on the city walls were aiming to strike the Sorcerous Kingdom’s army first.
Earl Naüa, standing in front of them all, raised his voice and said,
“I’m grateful for everybody who has gathered here! I would like to thank each and every single one of you for your aid.”
Skama could no longer feel that sense of unreliability from his tone, all that remained was the dignity and confidence befitting of a leader.
His attitude, the product of having lived a noble’s lifestyle, left Skama in awe.
“Thank us through more practical means please!”
One of Skama’s companions, the magic caster, replied. A wave of laughter could be heard behind him. The Earl was not displeased upon hearing what one of the representatives of the adventurers had to say. On the contrary, the smile that flourished on his face was a genuine one.
“Leave that to me! You will be rewarded enough that even if every other adventurer forced you to take them out for a meal, you would not go broke. I will hand over your rewards in front of everyone, out in the open.”
“Woooo,” everybody started cheering.
“Of course, that applies to my soldiers too. Though your pay may not be as plentiful as the adventurers’, I will pay you a bonus big enough that you would no longer have to worry over your wives’ and children’s future! But—” The Earl switched to a playful tone to say, “—don’t you dare squander away all of your newfound wealth, am I understood~?”
He could see that the tense expressions on his soldiers had loosened up a little.
“I was thinking of alternative forms of compensation. Surely the Earl has a few magic items as heirlooms or something? Your lineage goes quite a ways back after all.”
The one who had said that was a woman who irradiated a perverse aura. On her neck hung the holy symbol of the Earth God, which was sandwiched between her voluptuous bosom. It wouldn’t be incorrect to call this sacrilege.
This woman, Lilynette Piani, was also one of Skama’s companions and no, she was not wearing that priestess’ outfit because she’s a prostitute who was accommodating her client’s fetish or something like that.
“Huhhh. An heirloom magic item would be a tall order. It does exist though, I do have a magic item that was passed down for generations. A lot of people would know about it, it’s called the Holy Sword of Pentechromata.”
It was a longsword enchanted with the elemental powers of fire, thunder, acid, sonic, and ice which dealt their respective damage types to a slashed target.
But, the blade was without an edge so it could only be used as a blunt weapon, like a dummy sword for swordsmanship practice. He had no idea why someone would create such a sword. What was more confusing was that it did not deal holy damage yet was called a holy sword, perhaps the name was changed generations after its creation so that did not really matter much.
“I want that~”
After all, it was still a valuable item, so to give it away to an adventurer as compensation seemed wholly inappropriate.
“You want that? Hmm, depending on the situation I wouldn’t rule it out completely.” The Earl continued on in a sea of gasps, “my son — I wish that you could become my son’s concubine.”
Skama’s expression turned apprehensive.
The Earl had said something he shouldn’t have.
Some of the adventurers looked towards the Earl with their eyes wide open, they were those who were head over heels for Lilynette. In comparison, the one who had started this had on her eyes as sharp as an eagle’s.
Perhaps that joke had crossed a line. Just as Earl Naüa opened his mouth to apologize, Lilynette asked,
“The Earl has four children right? Your wife gave birth to your eldest son and your third son. Your concubine gave birth to your second son and eldest daughter. Um, your eldest is out of the question, so which son were you referring to?”
Her tone had shifted completely. From her careless attitude back then to the seriousness that was to be expected of an adventurer. This was her actual personality.
Which meant that Lilynette was being completely serious.
Skama’s expression further darkened. She glanced at her other teammates who cold-heartedly avoided making eye contact with her.
Those cowards.
“...I was talking about my third son”
“Your third son? But isn’t that kid only twelve? The one whose birthday is coming up soon but hasn’t passed yet? Be the concubine of that child?”
The Earl was about to nod his head when he suddenly froze up.
“...that’s, right. How did you know about my child’s age? Even the birthdate of the third son of a local noble… Is that important intel? Or are all of you top-ranked adventurers like this?”
“N-no”, “Um, no”, and other denials came from the other adventurers. Lilynette ignored them all and continued on as she held up her hair,
“Hah, fiiiine. Ahem. Fine then, I’ll become your son’s concubine for the Holy Sword of Pentechromata.”
The Earl observed Lilynette in detail and turned his gaze towards Skama as if he had a question that he wanted an answer to at this exact moment.
Skama knew what that question was, she knew it well.
“Though I was the one who raised that suggestion. Wait, why is she drooling? Is she actually after my son or the magic item?”
“It’s the former,” Skama tried to say, but before her words could reach anyone a boisterous voice boomed,
“You fool! Unripe fruits are the most alluring of all, aren’t they?”
The silent atmosphere was broken the moment they figured out whose voice that was. At the same time, a few of the adventurers had already fallen to the ground, a result of their fantasies being crushed by the harsh reality of it all.
Skama could empathize with the sorrow of those adventurers.
{Sorry,} she thought. Those who had fawned over her should understand at this point why they had not been successful.
Age preference.
“I thought that you would ask, ‘why a concubine,’ or something.”
Lilynette responded to Earl Naüa, who was muttering to himself,
“Ah, father-in-law-sama. Even if he’s your third son, he was still born of your wife. If all goes well he should be able to gain the title of Baron and a small patch of land, correct? With that in mind, it would be asking too much for an adventurer to be his wife, even if it’s a powerful one, right? Though I do have connections to the temples, that is still, you know. You were planning to say something along the lines of ‘if you perform outstandingly in this battle, I will consider letting you be his wife,’ right? But if I was to be satisfied by the offer of being his wife alone, then there would be no way I could get my hands on the Holy Sword of Pentechromata. After all, the wife of your third son inheriting the family heirloom would upheave our family’s peace~”
She was already calling him father-in-law.
“...I have underestimated you… If you came along earlier, I would have made you my eldest son’s concubine.”
“Ah, fifteen...wait no...seventeen and above would be too old for me, father-in-law-sama.”
The Earl kept glancing at Skama as she tried her darndest to ignore him. Earl Naüa’s expression looked as though he had just taken a heavy blow and wanted to call her sly, drew no sympathy from the crowd at all.
“Umm, something that I’ve got to ask— even if it’s his third son, there will still come a day when he ages past the age of 17 though!”
“That’s true— if only he was of a race with a longer lifespan. But if that was the case, wouldn’t I be the one who’d age faster…? So, what you’ve said is acceptable to me.”
“You thought that was worth emphasizing!? You thought that, of all the things that I have said so far, that was the thing that was most worthy of emphasizing!?”
“Eh? Father-in-law-sama. Your composure, you appear to be losing it?”
“...You’re the last person I wanted to hear that from.”
Based on Skama’s personal judgment, Lilynette was an honest and caring person so she should make for a good bride. However, none of that was on display right now.
If this continued on any longer, not only would it bring shame upon her companion, but it would set the reputation of her entire team on some weird trajectory which would be troublesome. Skama did not want to be identified by her white hair for negative connotations.
“...Now then, Earl. Though we do appreciate your efforts to alleviate our stress with some humour, we do have to get on with our preparations for the battle. Could I ask of you to return to the center of command?”
Even if he stayed, he, who is without any combat prowess would not be able to do much. His job was better accomplished elsewhere. Earl Naüa nodded his head at this logical proposal, probably out of a desire to stay as far away as possible from Lilynette.
“Ah yes, now then. Everybody, we’ll be relying on you all!”
--------
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Where are we at?
A: As of this part: 220/568
Q: When does chapter 2 end?
A: Page 279, it's one of the longer ones. Chapter 3 is much shorter by comparison at only 67 pages.
Q: Pentechromata?
A: Creative liberty, it's Greek for five colors, which sounds cooler than leaving it as "Five Colors"
Hitori's comment corner: When I said this week should be a ((bit)) better that doesn't mean my schedule has cleared up.
Anyways, be mindful of people going around claiming that they're me and asking for paypal/patreon/etc. donations. This shit was, is, and will be free so if you paid for it, you got scammed.
Monday, April 6, 2020
Chapter 2 Part 4:
Why were those who were well-spoken also smart? How were they able to spew out the words and phrases they had learnt nonstop? Usually, even if someone were to forget what they were about to say, they wouldn’t stop {there}, would they?
There was only one probable conclusion, their brains were built differently.
“...Haaah...No matter if we were to destroy the Kingdom’s cities or massacre its citizens, it is not too much of a hassle given the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick’s power. But, our focus should be on cumulating experience. If we were to face a much more difficult situation, the lessons you have learnt from this war could be of help.”
Ainz had experience launching attacks on enemy bases and sieging cities during past guild wars and other similar events. However, that was back in Yggdrasil. The knowledge that he had gained from the game must be implemented in reality properly.
In that context, the experience they had gained from the different methods they had employed to destroy different types of cities will undoubtedly be of use in the future.
The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had to strengthen itself. The belief that Ainz Ooal Gown and the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick were the only guild and guild base in this world was a naive one. Ainz exists in this world, therefore there must be other players and guilds in this world too, perhaps due to arrive in the future.
To prepare for that future, it was a necessity for this organization to bolster its own strength.
Indeed, it was imperative for all of them to have personal experiences in these matters.
Ainz continued on to the guardians who were intently listening to him,
“Speaking of our current situation, I could feel that the burden of responsibility has been growing ever so heavier on every Floor Guardian. At the same time, the number of people like you who I could entrust these jobs to are far and few between.”
The Floor Guardians — excluding Victim — were all strong level 100 beings that could give Ainz a run for his money. The Area Guardians were weaker than the Floor Guardians so Ainz felt uneasy at the suggestion of bringing them outside, where there could be strong enemies. This was why the number of tasks given to the Floor Guardians had been increasing.
“However, if we were to keep up the status quo, multiple issues will begin to surface. When the Sorcerous Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown has come to subjugate a vast enough territory, the Area Guardians will take up responsibility for a wide range of tasks. Perhaps a day will come when even the management of warfare will have to be delegated to someone.”
“—that is to say that our master wishes those who are without experience to have a personal history of their own, correct?”
Demiurge started spouting unintelligible things again. But, what he said about forming a history of their own more or less hit the mark. It sounded pretty cool too.
“—That’s correct. It is just as you have surmised, Demiurge.”
Though he did not feel as though it could be conveyed properly, Ainz still smiled while using his practised ‘What a No-Nonsense Ruler Would Sound Like!’ voice.
Speaking of which, normally if he were to hear himself using that voice through a recording he would not be able to stand the amount of cringe he felt, but he didn't really think too much about it now. After all, he felt that his emotions would get suppressed quickly if he had imagined the voice that he was using.
Anyways, Demiurge’s ‘history’ idea was a good one.
They had gained the knowledge of various types of methods to siege cities during this invasion against the Kingdom, and they should record all of it down in a book or something. With the Area Guardians as their focus, the denizens of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick should be able to gain some knowledge through these shared experiences, right?
Of course, as the saying goes, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, those who had experienced something first hand could learn more from it than those who had only heard about it afterwards. However, he felt that they would not be able to have many more opportunities like this one.
“Now then Floor Guardians, from this day onwards, try to come up with as many unique strategies to siege cities. Demiurge and Albedo, both of you are far too brilliant for this, so just listen and note down the others’ proposals. From my perspective, up till now Shalltear has been the most creative in her strategies.”
“I-is Ainz-sama talking about how I used the frost dragons to drop soldiers in from the sky-arinsu?”
“That is correct. I believe that it was because I had entrusted Shalltear with all the transportation-related tasks that she was able to come up with that idea. With this tactic as the basis, we could organize - what was it called again? Paratroop? To be able to organize something like that isn’t bad at all.”
She had not just used dragon breaths for hit-and-run tactics, but to drop soul eaters from 500 meters above into the city. The soul eaters would heal themselves, then rampage through the city killing masses with their aura.
Even if it was soul eaters, to drop them from 500 meters up would inevitably incur some damage. In this world, acceleration due to gravity did not seem to be affected by air resistance so one’s free-fall velocity could increase infinitely. That may or may not have been the case, but Ainz did not want to spend the time and effort on that kind of experiment, so he did not have detailed information.
Soul eaters were able to activate an aura that consumed souls to convert them to HP, which meant that this strategy included a way to negate the fall damage taken by the units almost immediately.
“Though that plan was a failure in some aspects — but it was a good lesson to learn from for the future. Long story short, they were smashing through rooftops.”
Aura laughed as she read through the report and Ainz did the same in his mind. Of course, they were not laughing at Shalltear’s strategy, it was just something that they had not expected, but was so obvious in hindsight.
Of the soul eaters who were dropped from above, an individual bounced off some pointed rooftops, flew off at an odd angle, and took more damage than they had expected. That was still better compared to the one who smashed through the roof, tried to ram down the doors, and ended up getting stuck.
Of the four that were dropped, only one of them wound up immobilized. The sample size was small, but the rate of failure ended up quite high nonetheless.
“It would be best to conduct this experiment a few more times, we may be able to gain valuable data from these dropped troops.”
“Yes!”
“I will leave it to you then, choose a few cities to experiment on.”
“As Ainz-sama wills it, I will draw up and execute those plans immediately.”
The other details that caught Ainz’s eye included how 300 elder liches were used to carpet bomb a city by synchronizing their [Fireball] spells and how assassins were sent to assassinate the head of a city, whereupon the invasion would commence whilst the city was plunged into chaos.
These records on the methods they had used to destroy the cities were not just useful to educate the Area Guardians, but they were also useful as a study of what strategies an enemy could employ to invade Nazarick.
Ainz sighed internally.
Perhaps the guardians thought that he was being too paranoid.
If Nazarick was truly invincible, there would be no need to do these things, but that could not be possible.
Absolutely impossible.
“—This is to prepare for our inevitable fight against a guild that is as strong if not stronger than us.”
After Ainz had finished speaking, the guardians responded that they would obey in unison.
“Now then — it is about time that we begin our next siege.”
Ainz glanced at Albedo — because Ainz did not have eyeballs, most people could not notice that his gaze was on them. He had had to turn his head to face them most of the time but Albedo was perceptive enough to notice without him doing so — Albedo nodded in a manner that seemed to convey the message, “It is just as Ainz-sama has said.”
“Speaking. Of. Which, Ainz. Sama.
The. Amount. Of. Troops. We. Have. Deployed. For. This. War. Seemed. To. Be. Scant, What. Was. The. Reason. For. That?”
Ainz immediately froze up.
He could not think up an answer to such a logical question. To be honest, he thought he would be able to hold the stage much better than he was right now. Demiurge and Albedo had not been raising any questions, he had hoped that Cocytus and the rest would do the same too—
{—so that’s why. Because Cocytus had experienced defeat during the battle with the lizardmen, I had instructed him back then to think for himself.}
No matter how you look at it, the source of his misery was always what he had said in the past. Why? No, what he had said back then was correct. From the perspective of him wanting to strengthen Nazarick, his statements were fine. It was because of what he had said back then that Cocytus could have the growth that he had today.
Why did Ainz arrange for an amount of troops that could not guarantee them victory? The explanation was not that complicated, but it wasn’t one that he could just tell the Floor Guardians about.
Why was that? It was because the explanation could bring about Nazarick’s downfall.
Ainz gulped down his (nonexistent) saliva.
He had remained silent for too long. He had to say something, something that would seem to make sense.
“Speaking of which, it was the same when we were storming the neighbouring towns and cities. A small portion of the people were allowed to escape, right? What was the reason for that?”
“Cocytus and Aura’s questions were to be expected, perhaps there are others amongst you who have had the same questions in mind.” Ainz surveyed those in front of him to be met with every Floor Guardian nodding their heads. “...I see. Well, let us observe how our first battle will unfold. Afterwards, I will tell you the reason why.”
Ainz was just dragging things out, leaving these bothersome problems for his future self.
----
Situated at the North end of the Kingdom facing the Rhynd sea was the city of E-Naüru.
It was the largest city within Earl Naüa’s demesne, a city that was blessed by the sea.
Even though it was the largest city within the domain, if you were to head east across the demesne’s border, you would not be too far off from the city famous for its naval port, Re-Urovua. That city had more landmass and ships docked within its ports, the only advantage E-Naüru had over that city was probably that it had better fish hauls. That is to say, E-Naüru was of no strategic purposes whatsoever.
It was safe to say that gourmets were the ones who accentuated the true value of E-Naüru. Earl Naüa’s lineage had been researching seafood for generations in order to secure the bragging rights that they had the best seafood in the entire Kingdom. Said research produced a sauce, made by mixing soy sauce and honey, used to glaze over other ingredients. Heat had to be controlled precisely during the grilling process to prevent the sauce from burning. All of this cumulated into the creation of E-Naüru style grilled fish, a story that was quite widespread.
The atmosphere of such a city remained the same regardless of the declaration of war up till a few days ago. Fishermen still sailed out to fish and the markets were still packed with people shopping for fresh fish and shellfish. Other than the decrease in the number of travelling merchants on the streets, life went on as usual in the city.
It was inevitable that no one took any special actions.
They had received the news of the Sorcerous Kingdom declaring war on the Kingdom from a messenger sent from the capital around a month ago, but they did not believe that the Sorcerous Kingdom would attack the northernmost reaches of the Kingdom. By conventional logic, before that happened, the capital would have fallen and ended the war.
There were also other major cities neighbouring them that belonged to other demesnes, nevermind the numerous villages within their own demesne. The Sorcerous Kingdom would have to go through them before they got to this city.
If and when the war reached them, they should receive requests for aid from those towns first. That was why they did not attempt to bolster defences, the most they did was make preparations to send their levies.
However — things did not turn out the way they had expected.
The neighbouring Baron, a few of his subordinates, and the rest of his family had hurriedly escaped to E-Naüru.
The Baron’s explanation was simple, “some undead suddenly showed up and slaughtered every single civilian in my domain.”
The undead could spawn naturally and ones that could destroy entire villages were not unheard of.
But, for such a strong undead to naturally spawn took time. Excluding the Katze plains, numerous weaker undead would have to occupy a place before there was even a chance for stronger undead to show up.
If his domain was well managed, it would be easy to have the undead stifled in their cradle before they could even contend, so to speak.
Which was why strong undead normally did not appear close to human civilization. There were only two exceptions to this rule.
Either there was an evil magic caster who could control the undead close by, or that undead had travelled there from some faraway land.
If that was the case, there was only one person that came to mind.
Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerer King.
They must have also received the intel that the war was declared. If they were to treat that undead as part of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s army, everything made sense. Except, questions kept arising one after another.
What about the other neighbouring cities?
How numerous are the enemy’s forces? What kind of an undead army is it?
What happened to the capital?
Questions other than those kept on surfacing, but there were more important matters to tend to before they could deduce the answers to those questions.
After they had listened to the Baron’s retelling in detail and analyzed the intel they had on hand, they predicted that E-Naüru was on the path that the undead would march through to invade the Kingdom.
They immediately send messengers on fast horses to every village and town within their demesne, ordering them to evacuate.
With the information they had, they could not tell for what purpose was the Sorcerous Kingdom’s army marching towards such a remote port. Perhaps it was because the Sorcerous Kingdom was a landlocked nation and wanted to get their hands on a port city immediately so they chose to attack such an unfortified place. Perhaps they were hoping to use E-Naüru as a staging ground for their future war efforts.
Though it was still dangerous for people to evacuate to the city, there weren’t many who could outrun the ever-encroaching army of the Sorcerous Kingdom and make it to the other demesnes.
In the end, the vast majority of people chose to stay within the somewhat defended walls of E-Naüru.
Five days after the evacuation of the citizens within the demesne had ended, they sighted the silhouette of the undead from atop the watchtowers of E-Naüru.
--------
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Where are we at?
A: As of this part: 205/568
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