The Dark Warrior

“These are the goblins and goblin archers summoned by the

Goblin General>.”

If these goblins were under the control of the girl he gave the item to, then they

should avoid any hostile action. They should think of some countermeasures,

but since they were no match for Ainz or Narberal, there shouldn’t be a problem.

Looking at the calm and easy-going Ainz, the goblins said:

“That man wearing the full body armor, if possible please do not act rashly. We

do not wish to fight.”

Ainz once again stopped Narberal's actions and with a guarded and stiff voice

he said:

“Don’t worry, if you don’t attack us, we won’t move as wel .”

“I thank you. These guys may be strong, but they aren’t really scary... You on the

other hand, along with the lady next to you... my instinct tells me it would be

terrible if the two of you become my enemies.”

Ainz didn’t speak up, but shrugged in answer.

“Please wait here for a moment until elder sister comes over,.”

“Who is this elder sister you speak of! Is it that person occupying Carne Vil age!”

Enfrea’s agitated shout surprised the goblins.

“Enfrea, calm down. I don’t need to tell you has the upper hand right now.

Looking back at what Narberal has said about the vil age, there are stil some

strange areas. So before we know more about the situation, I hope we can

avoid any unnecessary conflict.”

Although he had heard Ninya’s advice, Enfrea could not conceal his anxious

mood.

Only that his face showing his determination to fight to the death, turned into a

face of discontent, his clenched fists slowly relaxed.

Seeing such drastic changes in Enfrea, Ainz felt both surprised and confused.

Of course, since it was just a short journey he didn’t know everything about the

youth’s personality, but even then he didn’t think his reaction would be that

extreme. Maybe this vil age was more to him than just a place he got his herbs

from.

Feeling suspicious, Ainz looked at the youth. The goblins on the other hand felt

Enfrea’s anger, and were looking at each other with puzzled expressions.

“Eh—— This feels different from before…”

“Elder sister’s vil age was recently attacked by Knights of the Empire, we are

just being careful.”

“The vil age was attacked…! I hope she’s fine!”

Seemingly responding to Enfrea’s cry, a girl under the protection of the goblins

appeared at the vil age entrance. Seeing the girl, Enfrea opened his eyes wide,

shouting the girl’s name loudly:

“Enri!”

Hearing his shout the young girl also replied with a voice that sounded like they

were good friends, full of kindness and warmth:

“Enfrea!”

At this point Ainz thought about what he heard before.

“A-hah, her pharmacist friend… wasn’t a woman, but a man.”

Interlude

Demiurge was walking on the ninth floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. His

shoes clopped on the floor, making a “da da da” sound, the echoes of which

faded into silence. Although a number of servants were on duty as a precaution

against an invasion, that stil didn’t harm the mythic atmosphere. Demiurge

looked around, a smile appearing on his face.

“How glorious and majestic.”

He was admiring the ninth floor in all its majesty. He admired the scenery here

because the scenery and the forty-one supreme ones complimented each other

wel , to the extent that it was worth Demiurge pledging his life to protect this

floor. That's why he was fond of the scenery.

Every time he walked on the ninth floor, he would be fil ed to the brim with joy

and would vow once again to devote himself to the creators. This sentiment

applied not only to him but also to the boisterous clowns and musicians.

Whenever they treaded on this floor, they would also be fil ed with awe, doing

their best to not utter any sound that would disrupt the tranquility.

If anyone disliked this scene, they were either disloyal to the 41 Supreme

Beings or harbor ‘thoughts of disloyalty’.

Demiurge turned the corner as he thought about that, his destination right before

him. That was the room of the last Supreme Being in the Great Tomb of

Nazarick, their overlord Ainz Ooal Gown.

When the door was within sight, he saw some people opening the door and

exiting.

They seemed to notice Demiurge too as they waited respectfully for them to

draw close.

One of them was dressed like a butler, dressed entirely in black except for his

white gloves. But instead of a butler, he looked more like a combatant.

He was one of the ten male servants in Nazarick. But even Demiurge was

unable to differentiate which of the ten servants he was. This was because all of

them wore masks covering their entire head, and they could only utter weird

noise.

And there was that thing standing before the male servant.

The strange thought of ‘naked with tie’ emerged in Demiurge’s mind.

That was a penguin.

It’s appearance was totally that of a penguin and it was wearing a black tie.

“Long time no see, assistant butler.”

When it heard Demiurge’s warm greeting, the penguin smiled cheerfully—— It

seemed to be doing that—— and it returned the greeting:

“It’s been a while, Demiurge-sama.”

It bowed deeply.

Of course, this was no simple penguin, but the assistant butler of Great Tomb

Nazarick. A heteromorphic race birdman known as Eckleya Eckleyer Eeckleya.

Birdman should normally be similar to the Pelucino of the 41 Supreme Beings

and possess wings and the head of beast, their limbs should be similar to the

talons of birds too. But this man had the appearance of a penguin for some

reason. But Demiurge wasn’t fazed by his appearance.

Because he was undoubtedly the creation of the 41 Supreme Beings.

“Is Albedo inside?”

“Yes, Albedo-sama is in there.”

With Ainz away, Albedo was in charge of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. But she

didn’t work in her own room, shutting herself in this one instead, something

everyone knew.

Al of her actions were permitted by Ainz, so the only one who might protest

would be Shalltear Bloodfallen who was away.

Demiurge told Albedo ‘Shouldn’t a good wife wait for her husband and take care

of their home?’. She answered ‘There’s nothing wrong with a wife guarding her

husband’s room’, and Demiurge couldn’t retort.

Demiurge nodded to express his acknowledgement asked Eckeya:

“How rare to see you here. Isn’t your work place in the guest room?”

“With Sebastian-sama away, I have to work doubly hard in his place too. I was

discussing the division of tasks with Albedo-sama in detail.”

“That is true. With him away, the 9th floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick wil be

in your hands.”

“Absolutely right, in order to rule the Great Tomb of Nazarick in the future, now is

the time to work hard.”

Even though some strange words were uttered before him, Demiurge was stil

smiling.

It was common knowledge that Eckleya was eyeing the throne of Nazarick. This

was part of the 41 Supreme Beings’ creation, so there was no problem with this.

Demiurge would dispose of him mercilessly if the Supreme Beings commanded

it, but there was no problems before that.

“That’s right, work hard. So what do you plan to do first?”

“Cleaning. Are there any other chores? No one can clean better than me! You

can even lick the toilet bowl after I cleaned it.”

Hearing Eckleya’s confident reply, Demiurge nodded with satisfaction:

“Wonderful. You have a very important job. If this floor becomes dirty, it would be

an insult to the Supreme Beings.”

Demiurge who was nodding raised another query:

“I know your work are of the utmost importance, but who is taking care of this

floor in place of Sebastian?”

“That’s the job of the head maid Pastry. Compared to cleaning, management is

no big deal.”

“I see… The servants created by the Supreme Beings have been delegated

corresponding tasks… Speaking of which, isn’t it hard to clean with your

penguin hands?”

“I can overcome this pair of hands and clean deftly with my skil s.”

Eckleya puffed out his chest and replied confidently, but he continued speaking

with a hint of displeasure:

“By the way, Demiurge-sama, this doesn’t seem like a question a person whose

intelligence was just beneath me wil ask.”

Eckleya took the comb handed to him by the male servant behind and started

grooming the golden feathers on the side of his head.

“I am not a simple penguin, but a rockhopper penguin created by Ankoro

Mochimochi-sama. Please don’t get that wrong. And this is not a hand─── it’s a

wing.”

“Pardon me.”

Seeing Demiurge bowing in apology, Eckleya didn’t take the matter to heart,

turning around to order the male servant:

“Carry me there.”

“Eeek~!”

Eskleya was carried under the male servant’s armpit.

Because Eckleya moved in shuffling steps, it was rather slow.

So he was carried by the male servants normally.

“I will bid my leave, Demiurge-sama.”

“Yes, farewell Eckleya.”

After glancing at the assistant butler being carried under the arm like a soft toy,

Demiurge knocked the door gently:

Naturally, the owner wasn’t in, but Demiurge stil acted respectfully. For

Demiurge, this room is a place that deserved respect.

Demiurge entered the room that didn’t gave him any response.

After looking around, he didn’t see Albedo. Demiurge sighed, open another door

and entered the interior room.

The rooms of the 41 Supreme Beings were designed in the image of a

presidential suite, with a large bath, bar counter, living room with a piano, master

bedroom, guest room, kitchen for personal chefs, walk in wardrobe and many

other rooms.

Demiurge head for the master bedroom without hesitation.

He didn’t wait for a response after knocking and opened the door.

There was a bed in the room, but its large size was extravagant. A lump slightly

bigger than a person was squirming under the covers.

“Albedo.”

Demiurge called out in irk. A beautiful face emerged, her bare shoulders could

be seen and she was probably naked. Her face was pink with excitement

probably because she was squirming inside the covers.

“...What are you doing here?”

“I want Ainz-sama to be surrounded by my scent when he returns.”

Her squirming actions was probably to leave behind her scent.

Demiurge was dumbfounded, looking silently at the highest ranking NPC, the

overseer of the Grand Tomb of Nazarick. He then shook his head weakly.

He didn’t say ‘Ainz-sama is an undead, he probably doesn’t sleep in bed.’ or

‘Even if he does, the bedsheets would be changed immediately.’ If this was

enough to satisfy Albedo, then let her be.

“But don’t go overboard.”

“... I don’t know how much would be overboard, but I have taken note. Right,

Ainz-sama.”

Demiurge was stunned beyond words.

He thought it was Ainz Ooal Gown for an instance, but it lacked depth and the

presence.

“Is that… a hug pil ow of him… who made it?”

“I made it myself.”

The fast reply made Demiurge slightly opened his eyes that seemed to be

always closed. He don’t think Albedo had such skil s.

“Be it cleaning, laundry or sewing skil s, I am at the level of professionals.”

Pleased to see the shocked expression of Demiurge, Albedo boasted

delightfully:

“For the child that might be born in the future, I had made clothes and socks. Al

the way til 5 years old.”

Albedo was all smiles, her “fufufu” laughter made Demiurge feel weak, thinking

of just leaving this woman here and leaving right away.

“Either boys or girls would be fine… Ah! What about dual sex or sexless?”

Demiurge had nothing to say, looking at Albedo chattering away.

Albedo was excellent in managing the Grand Tomb of Nazarick, surpassing

Demiurge by leaps and bounds. However, she wasn’t as well versed on the

military aspect, so Demiurge’s aid was necessary.

But without any clear enemies, there should be no problem.

Demiurge suppressed his unease after judging so. His master ordered him to

leave for a mission, so Demiurge can’t protest.

“By Ainz-sama’s command, it is about time for me to set off. Of the guardians left

in Nazarick, only you and Cocytus are free to act. I don’t have anything else to

advise you, please be careful.”

“After Aura, Mare, Sebastian and Shalltear, so you are next. Yes, leave it to me,

I wil ask my little sister for help in a pinch. I wil activate the Pleiades too, so I wil definitely hold until everyone returns.”

“... Even in the event of an emergency, you can’t mobilize your sister without

Ainz-sama’s permission. The Pleiades are the same. Two of them are out, so

you can’t gather all of them. You might want to move Victim to the higher floors if

the situation warrants it?”

“Something of that extent… I have made preparation to handle that. I wil

summon you back if there is a crisis. By the way, how do you plan to deal with

the survivors of the Sunlight Scripture? Ainz-sama had given the green light for

you to manage them right? You can leave them with me too, but I have no idea

what you were doing…”

“Ah, you mean them? I am conducting experiments by Ainz-sama’s orders.”

Demiurge was smiling happily, making Albedo frown her beautiful eyebrows.

“First would be healing magic experiment. If you cut off an arm and cast healing

on the wound, the arm that was cut off would disappear. What happens if you let

them eat the arm that was cut off and cast healing, would the nutrition

disappear? If we repeat this indefinitely, wil the one eating starve to death?”

“Ah-- I see.”

“Not just that, I let them vote to choose the one to become food, the one to cut

off the limbs with a blunt axe. The votes are not anonymous.”

“Is there any meaning in doing that?”

“Of course. There wil be a ranking among the prisoners, those who are eaten,

those cutting off the limbs and those who eat the limbs. The comrades will in

turn bear grudges. We wil then gently incite those who are eaten. This wil make

them revolt, the results are clear. Living beings that hate everything are scary.”

“... How discomforting. The beings in Nazarick are created by the Supreme

Beings and would never betray Ainz-sama. But humans wil turn against their

master… they have no loyalty.”

“That’s why it is interesting. Do enjoy this part of humans, Albedo. Just treat

them like toys and you will be fine.”

“I totally don’t understand your thinking.”

“Such a pity. Alright, chatting here all day wil delay the execution of Ainz-sama’s

orders. If something happens, notify me and I wil rush back immediately.

“Yes, but such things shouldn’t happen. I wil notify you if there is a need.”

“I will take my leave then. Oh right… Since you are making clothes for boys, I

should inform you earlier. The Supreme Beings seem to prefer young boys

wearing girls clothing's alright?”

“... Eh?”

Chapter 3 – The Virtuous King of the Forest

Part 1

Clementine returned to Kajit’s secret shrine base situated under Re-Lantier’s

cemetery. She was practically burning with anger.

Her steps were rushed, her eyebrows were frowning and her mouth was

crooked. Her fine features were twisted into an ugly mess.

Her personality was probably uglier than that.

Kajit mumbled in his heart, commanding his newly created zombies to the

undead holding area.

“Oh~? New zombies? That’s over 150, the Pearl of Death is exceptional

indeed~”

Using the 3rd tier undead creation spell , the number of

undead that can be controlled was dependent on the Magic Chanter’s ability.

The stronger the undead, the smaller the number that can be controlled. But for

low-class undead like zombies, Kajit who was unbelievably skil ed in undead

control could command more than one hundred of them. As for why Kajit was

able to do this, it was all thanks to the item he owned —— the Pearl of Death.

“The problem is that you like to play so much.”

“Sorry~”

The bowing Clementine had no hint of regret on her face.

“But~ Those fellows who die so easily are at fault~ They can’t even take that

much~”

“... The way you beat them up, anyone would die easily…”

“Adventurers don’t die so easily~”

“They are just normal people… They will die since they are not adventurers…

Clementine, is saying obvious things to pass the time one of your hobbies?”

“Alright, alright~ Sorry~ I won’t do it again, please forgive me!”

Kajit clicked his tongue:

“I don’t believe you, just stop kidnapping people for now.”

“Yes~”

Her casual response made Kajit frown. But since saying anything more was

useless, he stopped lecturing her. He showed his strong displeasure with a

frown, which was ignored as usual.

“But~ I am so bored~ By the way, where did he go?”

“He is not back?”

“Not yet, I came back empty handed again~ Now’s a good chance, how about

nabbing the granny~?”

“Don’t be rash. Don’t underestimate the granny, she can use 3rd tier spells and

is famous in this city. It will be trouble if we make a move on her lightly.”

“Eh~ But~”

Kajit reached into his robes and grab a black jewel:

“... Clementine, in order to turn this city into the realm of the dead, I had spent

years making preparations. I don’t want your sil y games throwing my plans into

disarray. If you keep stirring up trouble… I wil kil you, understood?”

“...It’s called the Spiral of Death, isn’t it?”

“That’s right, the ritual our master is executing.”

In places where undead gathered, it was possible to create stronger undead. If

strong undead were gathered, it became possible to create even stronger

undead. The magic ritual exploiting this spiral-like property, which endlessly

allows to create even stronger undead and was able to destroy a whole city, was

known as the .

In the past, this evil ritual turned a city into the realm where the undead roams.

Kajit’s goal was to turn Re-Lantier into the 2nd undead city, harnessing the

power of death in the city to turn himself into an undead.

He had put in a lot of effort and preparation to reach this goal; he wouldn’t allow

the woman who appeared a few days ago to derail this plan.

“You understand?”

Kajit saw right through Clementine’s cute puffed up cheeks and sensed her cruel

expression. In that instant, Clementine’s kil ing intent burst out like a gust of

wind.

She closed the distance, striking with amazing speed. The sharp shortsword

shone as it stabbed towards Kajit’s throat—

The weapon Clementine used was a piercing weapon known as a stiletto.

Piercing weapons were limited in their ways of attacking and hard to wield. But

Clementine liked this type of weapon, so she trained her muscles, picked her

equipment and learnt the techniques. Al this was in preparation to kil with one

hit.

After developing this skil , Clementine survived countless battles against men

and monsters, and reached a state where it was impossible for normal people to

dodge her.

Clementine had innate talent and incredible potential, so it was natural for her to

reach such a state after spending most of her life learning this skil .

But her target was no pushover either.

The pride of Zuranon, Kajit of the twelve disciples wouldn’t die just like that.

───The unavoidable tip of the sharp blade was blocked by a white wal that

erupted from the ground. It was a claw made from countless human bones, the

claw of a lizard.

The claw moved and cracked the ground around it. This huge object appeared

to be controlled by Kajit’s will.

He felt the presence of a powerful undead by his feet. Feeling quite satisfied,

Kajit glared at Clementine:

“What a meaningless attack. The only harm you’ve done was to distract me

enough to lose control over the undead for a moment.”

“Eh~ Sorry about that~ but I didn’t even use my full power. You had to use all

your strength to block that blow, right?”

“Don’t talk nonsense Clementine. You are not someone who wil hold back.”

“Wah~ you saw right through me? Yeah, if you didn’t block it, your shoulder

would had been stabbed. But I wasn’t planning to kil you~ Honestly.”

Seeing the woman before him smiling, Kajit frowned.

“And I can stil defeat that thing~ It might have a chance against Magic

Chanters, but as a warrior I should be more than enough, right? It’s just that I’m

no good with blunt weapons~”

“... You might be strong against living beings with your one hit kil technique, but

how would you fare against undead that don’t have vitals? Do you really think

this is my final trump card?”

“Hmmm~... You are right~”

Clementine gazed towards the passageway, apparently sensing the undead

controlled by Kajit who were waiting inside.

“I should be able to deal with a few of them... But under these circumstances it

wil turn into a war of attrition and I’l probably lose~ Sorry Kaji-chan.”

Clementine moved the weapon she was holding in her hand back under her

cloak and the earth stopped trembling.

“But~ As expected of enhanced undead control~ that was impressive!”

Clementine turned and walked away after saying that:

“Oh yah. I won’t touch the granny until the very end. I won’t nab anymore

people, that should do, right?”

“... Yes.”

Kajit would never relax the power in his hands before Clementine was gone.

Even when her figure disappeared down the exit of the underground shrine.

“Madwoman.”

With these words, Kajit finished their conversation.

He was flawed as wel , but not to Clementine’s extent.

“What an incredible strength... no, it’s because of her incredible strength that

her personality became so twisted”

Clementine was strong, even among the twelve highest-ranking members of

their secret organization, only three were able to defeat her. Regrettably, Kajit

wasn’t counted among them. Even if he used his special item, he would only

have a 30% chance of winning.

“The former ninth seat of the Black Scripture, huh… A psychopath with the

strength of a hero is not to be trifled with.”

“So something like that happened.”

Enfrea sighed deeply and muttered.

Enfrea knew Enri’s parents wel . They were ideal parents. He envied the two

daughters they doted on.

Enfrea was orphaned from a young age and only had vague memories of his

parents. Whenever wonderful parents were mentioned, Enfrea would think of

Enri’s parents.

He felt anger against the ‘imperial knight imposters’ who took the lives of Enri’s

parents. He thought they deserved it when he heard they were kil ed. He was

angry at the higher ups of Re-Lantier for their unwil ingness to dispatch soldiers.

But the one who should be the most angry and sad, Enri, put her own feelings

aside, which felt a bit strange.

He watched as Enri recalled the past, uncertain if he should console her or not,

she wiped away the tears in her eyes and smiled:

“I stil have my little sister, so I can’t stay depressed like this.”

Enfrea, who had been about to get up, sat down again. He thought it was

regrettable having lost his chance to console her, but he also thought himself to

be really useless.

But—— His feelings of wanting to protect her remained the same. After

hesitating, Enfrea made up his mind. Other than himself, he wouldn’t let anyone

else sit beside Enri. Even if that person was strong enough to protect Enri.

It was a bit rash, but Enfrea didn’t want to lose Enri, so he decided to express

the feelings he had harboured since the first time he ever came to the vil age as

a child.

“Well then——”

He couldn’t speak, his throat seemed to be glued shut. Say it, say it. He wanted

to say it, but the words seemed to be jammed in his throat and wouldn’t come

out.

Both Enri and Enfrea were at a marriageable age, and the money Enfrea made

as a pharmacist was enough to take care of Enri and her sister.

It would be fine even if they had a child...

The scenery of building his own family appeared in his mind—— but he stopped

his imagination that was going out of control. Noticing that Enri was looking at

him with a puzzled expression, Enfrea became even more anxious.

His mouth opened and shut.

I like you.

I love you.

But he couldn’t say these two sentences. Because he was scared of hearing her

rejection.

He should say something that wil shorten the distance between them.

The city is safer, want to live together? I will take care of your sister too. If you

want to work, you can help out in grandma’s shop.

If you feel uneasy in the city, I wil do all I can do to help you.

Just saying these would be enough. The chance of being rejected would be

lower than expressing his love.

“Enri!”

“Wha-what is it? Enfrea.”

Enri was surprised by his sudden shout and Enfrea started his confession:

“——If... if you have any troubles please tell me. I will do all I can to help you!”

“Thank you!... Enfrea is a great friend, better than what I deserved!”

“Ah, ah, ermm… No, don’t mention it, we’ve known each other for so long.”

Unable to say anything else to the smiling Enri, Enfrea lamented his own

uselessness. At the same time, he felt that Enri was really cute and chatted

about their childhood for a moment.

When the topic reached its end, Enfrea asked:

“By the way, what’s with those Goblins?”

Those goblins addressed Enri as ‘anego’. And unlike the normal goblins he saw

on the road, each of them looked like a veteran warrior. Not only that, seeing the

traces of a Magic Chanter in the vil age was even more shocking. He wondered

how Enri, who was just a vil age girl, got to know that group of goblins and what

the nature of their relationship was.

Enri answered simply:

“I used the item left by the saviour of the vil age, Ainz Ooal Gown, and they

appeared. They wil obey my command.”

“I see…”

Enri’s eyes sparkled like the stars, which made Enfrea miserable as he replied

casually.

Ainz Ooal Gown.

Enri had mentioned this names several times already.

When Carne vil age was attacked by people disguised as Knights of the

Empire , a mysterious Magic Chanter who happened to pass by, saved the

vil age with his amazing powers and brought peace to the vil age. He was a hero

who saved Enri, someone Enfrea should give thanks to.

But Enri’s expression made it hard for him to express his gratitude.

This was the natural reaction when Enri mentioned her saviour, but the feelings

of jealousy stil sprang from his heart. The nature of a man is competitive, so he

felt jealous because Enri didn’t show that for himself. He was caught in these

murky feelings and ugly thoughts.

As he was feeling miserable, Enfrea tried to push these emotions out of his mind

and thought about the item Enri mentioned.

It was used to summon goblins, known as [Horn of the Goblin General].

The great Magic Chanter who saved the vil age obviously told Enri something

about this horn, but since her mind was confused back then, she wasn’t able to

remember everything clearly.

Enfrea thought it was strange.

She might not know what kind of item it was, but she shouldn’t have forgotten

about it. Since it was an item with special effects, you wouldn’t forget about it

after hearing it only once.

There were many items that could be used for summoning, and there were

summoning spells too. But the summoned beings will disappear after a fixed

amount of time has passed.

‘Summoned monsters’ were not monsters that could be controlled over a long

time.

If that item could accomplish this, the history of magic up to this point might be

overturned.

How valuable would an item like that be? Enri appeared to be unaware if the

item’s value, but if she were to sell it she would be set for life.

Enri used this rare item because she don’t want the vil age to get hurt again.

Enfrea thought this way of thinking was just like Enri, which was why the

summoned goblins protected the vil age, addressed Enri as anego, followed her

commands and even helped in the fields. Not only that, but he heard they were

even teaching the vil agers how to use a bow, teaching them ways of protecting

themselves. That’s how the vil age got their strange new residents.

Part of the reason why the vil age accepted the goblins was that they were

attacked by knights, who were fellow humans. They were no longer able to trust

other humans as before, and at the same time it became easier for them to

accept the goblins’ help.

The main reason was because the item was a gift from the Magic Chanter who

saved the vil age.

“That person called himself Ainz Ooal Gown, right? What kind of person was

he? I want to express my thanks.”

Enfrea had no idea who Ainz Ooal Gown was. Enri said she didn’t know how he

looked like under the mask, so even if he were someone Enfrea knew, they

wouldn’t be able to tell. But anyone who gave away such a valuable item must

be a great person. Enfrea would never forget if he had seen him before. After

telling Enri what he thought, Enri looked disappointed.

“I see. I thought Enfrea would know who he was…”

Enri’s reaction made Enfrea’s heart race and his back started to sweat.

“Appearance aside, considering his strength, the possibility of him being popular

is high.” The words he heard last night surfaced in his mind and his breathing turned ragged.

Calming his uneasiness for the moment, Enfrea asked:

“En, Enri, what’s the matter? Why do you want to see that Ainz person?”

“Huh? Well, I want to thank him properly. The vil agers proposed building a small

bronze statue in remembrance of him saving our lives, I need to thank him

too...:”

Sensing that the feelings of love, which Enfrea feared, were absent, Enfrea

sighed in relief, relaxing his tensed shoulders:

“Oh I see, erm… phew. That’s right, we need to thank him. If there was

something special about him, we can narrow the search fields… Oh right, do

you know what magic he used?”

“Ah, magic. It was amazing. With a loud bang of lightning, the knight fell.”

“Lightning… Did you hear him say the word lightning?”

Enri gazed to the sky and nodded heavily.

“Yes!... I heard him say that.”

But it was longer… Listening to Enri’s mumbled language, Enfrea judged that

her mumblings were things said before activating a spell.

“That… is a 3rd tier spell.”

“... 3rd tier spell… is that amazing?”

“That is definitely amazing! I can only use 2nd tier magic, 3rd tier is the highest

normal people can achieve. For higher tiers, that would be in the realm of those

with innate talent.”

“Sir Gown is amazing!”

Enri was impressed and nodded, but Enfrea didn’t think this Magic Chanter was

limited to 3rd tier spells. He could give away that item casually, so he might be

able to use 5th tier magic that goes into the realm of heroes.

Why did such a great person come to this vil age?

The puzzled Enfrea couldn’t help tilting his head, but the doubt in his mind

disappeared when he heard Enri’s next words.

“Not just that, he also gave me some red potion——”

The story he heard was bits and pieces of the whole incident, which reminded

Enfrea of a conversation he heard some time ago.

“I will you pay you for your trouble, could you describe in detail the person who

gave you the potion?”

The warrior named Verita was displeased by Lizzie’s request:

“What are you planning by asking this?”

“Obviously, it would be a clue for me to find him. Find the mysterious man in full

body armor. If I get close to him, he might tell me where he got that potion from,

right? He might even spil it accidentally. If he is an adventurer, I plan to hire him.

What do you think, Enfrea?”

This was the reason Enfrea asked for Momon by name.

He wanted to find out information about the potion by deepening their friendship.

Aside from this, during the process of heading to the forest to harvest herbs,

Momon might unknowingly leak some other information.

Enfrea worked hard to hide his excitement, asking Enri carefully with a calm

voice like before.

“Oh, what kind of potion was it?”

“Eh?”

“You know that I am a pharmacist, I am interested in potions.”

“Ah, that’s right! These kind of things are your job.”

Enri told Enfrea everything about how the Magic Chanter gave her the potion.

Enri mentioned the amazing feats of Ainz Ooal Gown while doing so, which

would had made Enfrea from just now jealous. But right now, his mind was full of

something else.

After consolidating all the information and unveiling several layers of mask, the

hidden identity was finally revealed.

The potion in Re-Lantier and the potion Enri drank might be the same thing. And

the people who appeared in both of these places were duo travelers of Magic

Chanter and warrior in black armour.

There was only one answer, but there were two candidates for the one claiming

to be Ainz Ooal Gown. He seemed to be a man from Enri’s description, but to be

safe, Enfrea asked to confirm:

“... The person named Ainz Ooal Gown, could she be… a woman?”

“Hmmm? No? I didn’t see his face, but the voice belonged to a man.”

This evidence wasn’t enough to prove that the other party was definitely a man,

there could be spells and items to change one’s voice. But it felt wrong equating

Nabel with Ainz Ooal Gown. The cool and bumbling Nabel compared to the

intelligent, collected and helpful Ainz, they were too different. It was too far of a

stretch to link them together——

“The one in black armor seemed to be called Albedo.”

“I, I see…”

He remembered that Nabel mentioned that name.

The cat is out of the bag.

Ainz Ooal Gown is —— Momon.

This showed an amazing fact.

The Magic Chanter who saved the vil age was also an accomplished warrior.

There were warriors who were trained in magic, but the balance wil trend

towards one of the skil s. It was the same for Magic Chanters. If mana based

Magic Chanter wore heavy armor, they wouldn’t be able to chant spells.

A 3rd tier Magic Chanter and an adamantite class swordsman adventurer.

What an absurd existence. If there really was someone like that, he would

definitely be a hero among heroes.

But if that were the case, why was he asking so many questions during their

travels?

The most logical explanation would be that he was a Magic Chanter who

learned unknown techniques in a foreign nation, so he didn’t know these things.

If that were the case, it would be natural for him to possess foreign potions

which Enfrea knew nothing about.

Enfrea got this valuable information and his breathing turned ragged; he couldn’t

stop it even though he knew Enri was looking at him strangely.

Complicated feelings emerged in his heart at the same time.

Compared to Ainz, who saved Enri and gave her a potion, he was despicable

and detestable for getting close to him in order to learn the secrets of making

that potion.

Enri should prefer such a man.

He can’t help sighing when he thought of that.

“Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

“Erm, yes. I’m fine, just thinking of something…”

If he found out how to create the potion, he could save many people and

cleanse his sense of guilt. But the chance of that happening was slim. He just

want to obtain new methods of making potions as a pharmacist.

He wasn’t just a powerful warrior, but an excellent Magic Chanter too. A beauty

accompanied him, he possessed unknown potions and he had a strong sense of

justice to save the vil age that was in danger. Enfrea compared such a man with

himself.

Enfrea felt a depressingly wide chasm between himself and Momon—— no,

Ainz Ooal Gown.

“What’s the matter? You look weird?”

“Ah, yeah. It’s nothing.”

Enfrea held back his sigh and smiled, but he wasn’t confident that he could

smile naturally. Enri made an expression that showed she had seen through

Enfrea’s fake smile.

“... What should I do? Enri hates people who hide their shameful affairs right?”

“... Before we are called forth by God, everyone has things that he or she keeps

in their heart. Especially things that cause misfortune when said. But if keeping

these secrets cause misfortune to others, that would be another matter… I won’t

detest you for this, so no matter what crimes you committed, it would be better

to surrender yourself to the authorities!”

“...No, I didn’t commit any crimes.”

“Eh… Yes! That’s right! There was no way Enfrea would commit crimes! I trust

you deeply!”

Looking at Enri who was laughing forcefully, Enfrea relaxed the strength in his

shoulders.

“Yes, but I stil have to thank you. You made things easier in some ways. I wil

work hard to be as good as he is.”

In order to lift my face high and say to you that I like you, I love you.

In response to Enfrea’s determined announcement and his words earlier, the

confused Enri simply nodded and smiled politely.

Part 2

“Oh───”

Ainz sighed and looked towards the vil age in admiration.

There were many different vil agers all standing in a line. Men and women, old

and young, they were all there. There were forty year old plump women who

looked like mothers, there were also youths whose age looked around ten years

old. Al of them were serious to an extent that they appeared hostile. No one

was fooling around.

A goblin holding a bow was speaking to them.

Even with Ainz’s sensitive hearing, he couldn’t hear what they were saying from

this distance.

A few moments later, the lined-up vil agers slowly picked up their bows. They

were simple shortbows and judging by their shape, they were probably self-

made.

After fully drawing the bow, they aimed at the scarecrows some distance away.

The goblin probably issued a command and the vil agers fired in unison.

The bows might look simple, but the arc of the arrows was beautiful. Everyone

hit the scarecrow, no one missed.

“Not bad.”

Ainz praised.

“Is that so?”

Narberal asked doubtfully, standing behind him.

From her perspective, she probably wouldn’t understand why a technique of this

level was worthy of praise. Compared to the archers in the Great Tomb of

Nazarick, this was child’s play.

Ainz understood how Narberal felt and smiled bitterly under his helmet.

“You’re right Narberal, their skil with the bow may not be that amazing. But just

ten days ago, they couldn’t even use a bow. They aren’t passively hoping their

spouses, children and parents won't die in another tragedy, instead they’re

actively taking up arms to defend themselves whenever necessary. Isn’t the

technique they learned with this courage worthy of praise?”

What was praiseworthy, was the hate that pushed the vil agers to this extent.

“My apologies. I hadn’t thought about it so deeply...”

“It’s fine, no need to think too much, Narberal. Their technique isn’t worthy of

praise anyway.”

Ainz watched the arrows fly through the sky and pierce the scarecrow, and a

thought surfaced in his mind.

How strong would they become? How strong could I get?

In YGGDRASIL, Ainz had already reached the level cap of 100. His experience

points were at 90% of the limit when he came to this world. This was just a

hypothesis, but since his other abilities were stil intact, the level system in this

world should be the same. The problem was whether he could obtain the

remaining 10% of experience points and reach level 101.

Considering this question, Ainz could guess the answer.

He couldn’t get stronger. He had already reached the peak of power.

Ainz was strong, but he won’t get stronger. But the vil agers were weak and

might become unexpectedly strong.

If the people in this world didn’t have any limit to their growth, they could exceed

the level 100 peak in YGGDRASIL. If that happened, Ainz and his underlings in

the Great Tomb of Nazarick wouldn’t be able to match them.

But this wil absolutely——

“It might happen though…”

Ainz thought it could be possible that the Six Gods of the Silian Theocracy were

players. He didn’t know why the time of their appearance was so far apart from

his, but if the Six Gods were from heteromorphic races without limited lifespan,

or if they had lifespan-specific class, there was a high probability that they were

stil alive.

If the Six Gods were stil hiding in the Silian Theocracy, then during the last 600

years there might’ve been those who used the strength of the Six Gods to power

level——gaining experience faster than normal through the help of powerful

players—— It wouldn’t be surprising if someone over level 100 showed up.

Then the reason Silian Theocracy didn’t rule this world would be due to an

existence with a similar level. Or maybe level 100 was nothing impressive here.

When he thought about that, Ainz’s non-existent stomach started to cramp.

If the Six Gods were players, he had to try his best to get on their good side,

even if the information gathering wasn’t complete. But according to the survivors

of the Sunlight Scripture, the Knights of the Empire who attacked the vil age

were actually imposters from the Theocracy, which would mean that saving this

vil age was the same as opposing the Theocracy.

“Maybe it was a mistake to help them…”

He needed to gather more information after all.

While Ainz was preoccupied with such thoughts, he noticed a young man

running towards him. The eyes, which were normally covered by hair, were

visible as his hair swayed in the wind. He was staring straight at Ainz.

Seeing Enfrea’s behavior, Ainz got a bad feeling. It was the same look of panic

he had seen in the vil age chief.

“What’s the hurry? Is there another emergency? This vil age is really…”

Enfrea reached Ainz, who was rambling on.

Enfrea was panting, and his forehead was drenched in sweat, causing his hair

to part. It revealed his serious expression, looking at Ainz and Narberal.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, not sure how to speak. He finally made up

his mind and asked Ainz:

“Momon-san, are you Sir Ainz Ooal Gown?”

This sudden question dumbfounded Ainz. The correct answer should be no.

But could he say that? That was the name he and his friends created. Even

though it was his name right now, could he really deny it?

This period of hesitation was the best proof, and Enfrea went on.

“So it is you, Sir Gown. Thank you for saving this vil age and Enri.”

Ainz answered the bowing Enfrea, ”No… I…”

Hearing the words Ainz managed to squeeze out, Enfrea nodded

understandingly:

"I understand you’re hiding your identity for some reason, but I stil wanted to

thank you for saving this vil age—— no, for saving Enri. Thank you for saving

the girl I like.”

He felt like an old uncle, thinking that ‘like’ was a word only used by youths. For

a moment he allowed himself to reminisce about the past, while thinking about

other, more important things.

“Ah… enough… lift your head.”

This meant admitting that he was Ainz Ooal Gown, which meant he had no

possible explanation to refute Enfrea’s idea. It was Ainz’s loss.

“Yes, Sir Gown. Also, actually… I’ve been hiding something from you.”

“... Follow me. Nabel, stand by here.”

After issuing the order to Narberal, Ainz brought Enfrea to some place further

away. This was to prevent Narberal from hearing anything strange and getting

agitated.

After getting some distance away from Narberal, Ainz turned around to face the

youth.

“Actually…”

Enfrea gulped nervously, then made a determined face.

“Sir Gown, the potion you gave to the woman at the tavern is impossible to

create using normal methods and is very rare. I wanted to know what kind of

person owned such a potion and it’s brewing method, that’s why I requested you

for this job. I am very sorry.”

“Oh, so that’s it.”

That was the mistake.

Ainz gave a potion to Enri in this vil age, and he gave a similar potion to

someone in Re-Lantier. That was how his identity got exposed. Not only that

——

... I should had gotten that potion back. If only I had asked for the name of thatfemale adventurer… But there’s no point crying over spil ed milk.

Ainz thought that giving her the potion was the best way back in Re-Lantier.

She said ‘With such a flashy armor, you must have some potions, right?’ She

probably didn’t mean to, but that greatly limited the actions Ainz could take.

For example, if someone got out of a classy car, wearing expensive clothes and

dressed extravagantly, you would think that the car fit the man. However, what if

he dressed poorly? You would think that man spent all his money on the car and

mock him.

Ainz wanted to avoid that.

If he rejected her back then, the beauty of his companion Narberal and his

flashy armor would be the subject of envy and unfavourable rumors would be

spread. Things like rumors would stick with you for life and people would pick on

that wound endlessly.

Ainz came to this place in order to raise his fame as an adventurer, so he

needed to avoid doing things that might damage his reputation.

After considering al this, he gave the potion away.

It was a gamble, but it wasn’t regrettable even though he lost. It wasn’t a total

loss yet, there were stil a chance to patch things up. Ainz wasn’t perfect and wil

continue making mistakes.

But he didn’t understand why Enfrea was apologizing.

“There is no reason to apologize, right?”

“Eh?”

“... It is uncomfortable to hide things and asking to shake your hand with a smile.

But the request this time was made in order to build a relationship right? So

what is the problem?”

Ainz asked in sincere bafflement.

“Sir Gown is really forgiving…”

Ainz didn’t understand why Enfrea was impressed. Human relations were the

basic requirement in society; there was no problem in wanting to establish

relationships. It might be vague, but Ainz had understood something. Maybe

Enfrea viewed himself as an industrial spy who was getting close to him in order

to his steal secrets.

“If I tell you how to make the potion, what would you do with this information?”

Enfrea yel ed in surprised and answered after pondering shortly:

“I didn’t think that far. I’m driven by curiosity… My grandmother is probably the

same.”

“I see. That isn’t a problem. It would be different if you were planning to commit

some felonies, but it’s fine if you don’t plan to do that.”

“How amazing. No wonder… she idolizes you…”

The mumbling youth’s hair had dried in the wind and covered his eyes once

more. But Ainz could see his envious eyes. They were the eyes of a youth, who

likes baseball, seeing a pro.

The young man’s expression was similar to the one made by Ainz and his

comrades who were rescued after being PKed repeatedly: being in awe by the

strength of a savior.

The feelings of embarrassment surfaced and were suppressed.

Enfrea’s attitude affected his heart, surprising Ainz, but he recovered

immediately and took action. He had to find out something first.

“By the way, are you the only one who knows I am Ainz?”

“Yes, I didn’t tell anyone.”

“I see, that’s great.”

Ainz thought about how to ask Enfrea as he said that. He had no clue how to go

about it, so he requested directly.

“... Right now I am an ordinary adventurer called Momon. I would be grateful if

you could remember that.”

“Yes, I thought you would say that. I know it would cause Momon-san a lot of

trouble, but I can’t help wanting to express my thanks to you. Thank you very

much for saving Enri and this vil age.”

With serious eyes, Enfrea sincerely expressed his thanks to Ainz.

“There’s no need to be so formal. I simply happened to be passing by.”

“But even so, there was no need to give that horn as a present.”

The horn wasn’t given for any special reason, but it’s good that Enfrea thought

of it as kindness. Ainz didn’t say anything, just nodded generously.

As the client, Enfrea said that they would head into the forest in an hour. He

expressed his thanks for saving the vil age again and left.

As he watched Enfrea’s figure move away, Narberal came before Ainz and

bowed.

“Ainz-sama, I am very sorry!”

“People are watching, raise your head.” When Narberal lift her head, Ainz spoke

thornily: “Yes, you should be sorry; it’s because you mentioned Albedo’s name.”

Being exposed had nothing to do with her mentioning Albedo, but that was a

huge blunder. I will use this chance to correct her and warn her to never do it

again. First would be banning her from addressing me as Ainz… But… No one

seemed to have heard…

“Al ow me to atone for my crime with death!”

She didn’t sound like she was kidding.

Everyone in the Grand Tomb of Nazarick was like that, treating the 41 members

of Ainz Ooal Gown as the Supreme beings, the absolute authority and took glory

in serving them.

It was a bit heavy for Ainz, but it wasn’t bad if the NPC he created served him

happily. That was the fate of all creators.

Narberal was an NPC like that. If she were jokingly ordered to commit suicide,

she would oblige immediately. She was seeking permission because of her

sense of absolute duty to her master, since she saw her life as the property of

her master.

“... Enough. No matter who, everyone makes mistakes. Just work hard and

avoid failing again. Work hard step-by-step and don’t make the same mistake. I

won’t pursue this failure further, Narberal Gamma.”

Her feelings of wanting to die to atone for her failure and Ainz’s refusal for her to

do that. Narberal was trapped between these two emotions. Shortly after, Ainz

felt the scale of her emotions fall towards one end.

Narberal lowered her head slowly:

“I am very grateful! I will take care and not make the same mistake next time!”

“... Yes, don’t take it too hard. Because the adventurer known as Momon——

this disguised identity isn’t a complete failure yet, just be careful next time. But…

depending on how things pans out, we might need to dispose of Enfrea…”

“Right now?”

“Don’t joke with me. It would be more troublesome to mess up the assigned job.”

Enfrea’s grandmother is a famous pharmacist in Re-Lantier. Angering her would

make achieving Ainz’s goal even harder.

“Anyway… let’s see how things turns out.”

Right now, that was the best he could do.

Part 3

A few hundred meters away, there was a large clearing in the direction of the

forest.. The goblins felled the trees there to construct the palisade, but the

opening looked like the maw of a giant monster.

Ainz's group did their final check here. The young man who made the job

request was the first to speak up:

"We wil be entering the forest now, I wil be relying on everyone to act as

escorts. The territory of the Virtuous King of the Forest isn’t far from here, if

everything goes wel the chance of encountering other monsters wil be low. The

only problem is that the place where we encountered the ogres yesterday was

also inside the Virtuous King of the Forest's area of influence, so something

might be happening in the forest. This is a somewhat trivial matter, but

nevertheless I hope everybody wil keep their guard up."

Enfrea's gaze stopped on Ainz's face momentarily.

The members of the ‘Sword of Darkness’ also looked at Ainz.

"With Momon-san here, it shouldn't be a problem."

"If the Virtuous King of the Forest shows up, we will keep it busy. Please escape in the meanwhile."

Ainz's confident words made everyone swoon. After the battle with the Ogres

yesterday, he became the center of attention.

Ainz felt uncomfortable with everyone praising him.. His embarrassment was the

result of not having been praised much in his past life. Ainz envied Narberal who

accepted all this proudly.

"If there’s a need to run, could I trouble you all to clear the area? The stronger the Virtuous King of the Forest is, the more power I need to use and I don’t want

everyone getting caught in the crossfire."

"Understood. We will protect Enfrea-san and escape out of the forest. Please

don't push yourself too much either, Momon-san."

"Thank you. I wil run if I think it is too dangerous."

"Erm... Momon-san."

Enfrea who was hesitant about speaking up finally made up his mind:

"Could you spare the Virtuous King of the Forest and just chase him away?"

"... Why?"

"Well... Because of the influence of the Virtuous King of the Forest, Carne is

able to avoid the attacks of monsters. If you defeat the Virtuous King of the

Forest..."

"I see..."

"This is rather tough. Momon-san might be very strong, but the opponent is a

legendary monster. If he doesn't use his full power, Momon-san might not be

able to protect himself. How could he spare the effort——"

"I understand."

"Huh?!"

Lukeluther yel ed in surprise. The other members of the Sword of Darkness

didn’t speak up, but they stil had a surprised expression on their faces.

"It might be difficult, but I will do my best to hold back and endeavor to drive it away."

Listening to Ainz’s confident words, the group of adventurers felt shivers running

down their spines.

"Even though the opponent... is the legendary monster that lived for centuries..."

"This is the attitude of a powerful man..."

"Considering Momon-san's personality, he shouldn’t be boasting..."

Unlike the members of the Sword of Darkness, Enfrea had a rough idea of

Ainz’s strength and was showing a relieved expression. Ainz smiled in his heart

as he watched this young man.

The young man hoped that no monsters would attack Carne vil age. If Ainz

replaced the Virtuous King of the Forest with another monster to maintain the

sphere of influence, Ainz could stil grant the young man's wish.

Even if Ainz kil ed the Virtuous King of the Forest, he could resolve the issue by

sending an underling from Nazarick to take over.

"Alright! Let's make haste, the herb I want to harvest looks like this. Please

inform me if anyone finds these."

Enfrea took out a dried plant from the pouch on his waist.

"Oh, its Arnica grass!"

To Ainz, this plant was no different from the weed growing nearby, but the druid

Dyne could tell the difference and identify it by name.

Reacting to this name, Lukeluther and Ninya nodded in agreement. They

probably had some knowledge about plants and found the name familiar.

As Ainz was hesitating if he should pretend to know about it, everyone was

looking at him.

"Would you have any problem, Momon-san?"

"Hmmm? Ah, that plant? I got it."

Ainz nodded calmly.

If not for the mental tenacity of the undead, his voice would’ve wavered or

changed in pitch. But Ainz's expression was covered by his helmet, so no one

would know what he was thinking. Ainz who was covered in layers of metal

looked impressive, but he was wavering on the inside.

"Yes, this is the herb that is normally used in the process of making healing

potions."

"And it grows near the adventurers guild!"

"Oh, is that so. Then the mystery of why we made the trip to the forest in order

to harvest the herb is solved—— I heard that wild herbs are more potent than

farmed ones?"

That's correct. Al the potions from my place uses natural herbs, that is a selling

point to be proud of! But the potency only increases about 10 percent."

"For people with their life on the line, these 10 percent are very important.

Selling better potions for the same retail price as others... As expected of the

famous Bareal pharmacy."

Listening to the members of the Sword of Darkness discussing potions with

Enfrea, Ainz fell into deep thought.

YGGDRASIL's potion were made using skil s that were available to specific job

classes and enchanting ingredients with spells. Ainz had knowledge about this,

but he heard it was created from a specific material and alchemic liquid. He had

never heard about using herbs...

This meant that potion creation in this world was different from YGGDRASIL.

When Enfrea said 'it couldn't be made through normal means', this was probably

the reason.

Ainz believed that if he could harness skil s techniques related to the potions of

this world, it would strengthen Nazarick. The only question was how.

As he was deep in thought, the topic once again returned to the job at hand and

Ainz listened carefully.

"There is an large, open clearing in the forest; I plan to set that area as our

target. I already told Lukeluther-san about that place, so please lead the way."

After hearing Lukeluther reply 'Leave it to me', Enfrea returned his gaze to

everyone.

"Let's start the harvesting—"

"—— I’d like to make a suggestion."

"Please enlighten us, Momon-san."

"Since Narberal can use a spell similar to the spell used back in the camp, could we split up temporarily after reaching the destination?"

Everyone including Enfrea frowned. They felt uneasy about the strongest

combatant leaving in the middle of the most dangerous area.. Enfrea composed

himself and replied:

"That's fine, but please don't take too long."

"Of course. To avoid getting lost in the forest, I wil leave a trail of rope. Just pull it if anything happens."

"Should I come along? I need to watch out to make sure you don’t do anything

weird with Nabel-chan."

"Die you lower life form (Aphid). Is there only lust in your brain? Can you even

move if that is gone?"

"... Enough Nabel. Lukeluther-san, that won't be necessary. Ninya-san, is there

any magic that al ows us to locate each other if we get separated in the forest? It

would be convenient if there is."

"I have never heard of such a spell. Such a spell would indeed be convenient."

After hearing Ninya's negative reply, Ainz nodded.

Among the magic of the 6th tier, there is a spell that allows you to locate specificobjects. Does he lack the knowledge, or does YGGDRASIL have spells that do

not exist in this world?

Leaving this question aside, Ainz gestured at Nabel with his chin, signaling her

to get ready. Nabel received the order and watched the Sword of Darkness

members closely:

"Momon-san and Nabel-san are leaving for a moment; they wil start harvesting

when they return."

Since the client decided this, no one protested. Al the members of the Sword of

Darkness agreed and nodded.

After concluding the final check, Enfrea gave the cue to set off in a loud voice.

The ground where the trees were cut down by the vil agers had dried up. The

woodland was easy to traverse, but the scenery in front of them gradually

changed into a green maze.

The forest didn’t have any landmarks, to the point where one was unable to tell

which direction they were heading. It created a feeling of helpless anxiety, an

uneasiness that stemmed from having nothing to rely on. The trees covering the

sky reinforced that effect and normal people would be afraid. But due to the

mental strength of an undead, Ainz wouldn't feel any fear apart from his own

lingering human emotions, calmly watching the grandiose scene of nature in

awe.

In YGGDRASIL, Forests and other natural zones were nothing but the game

world's sceneries —— this kind of thought appeared in his heart.

Ainz, who was proud of the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s design felt conflicted; he

didn't realise that a natural forest could be so amazing.

I understand why Blue Planet-san likes nature so much...

As he watched the surroundings of the forest for signs of monsters, he noted

that it was really quiet. Apart from the cawing of far-away birds, Ainz couldn't

sense any living creatures.

He could see the back of the ranger Lukeluther, who used all his senses as he

cautiously advanced. Lukeluther seemed to think there weren't any living beings

hiding out there.

Actually, someone is hiding behind us.

Ainz was proud of the person approaching them unnoticed from the back.

The group——except for Ainz and Narberal —— were quietly moving in the

sunlight while feeling extremely tense. The forest was surprisingly cool, but due

to the uneven ground and the psychological pressure, the group was sweating

buckets.

They finally reached an open space with a width of fifty meters.

"This wil be our base. Let's pick the plants with here as the center."

Upon hearing Enfrea's words and seeing him put down his bags, everyone else

followed suit but didn't let down their guard, prepared for any emergency as they

watched their surroundings.

This was no longer the world of men.

"Let's move as we planned."

After acknowledging Enfrea, Ainz tied a rope on a nearby tree and entered the

forest as he left the trail of rope behind him.

The rope was thin and strong, it wouldn't break easily because of friction against

the ground. Ainz and Nabel did their best to move in a straight line into the

forest.

Normally, it was impossible to move in a straight line through the forest as your

path would be blocked by trees. But with the rope as a guide, the two who were

inexperienced in forest navigation were able to advance in a straight line.

Their backs were covered by trees, so there was no danger of being spied on.

Someone who could detect anyone who was following them was nearby, so

there was no need to worry.

"This place should do."

"Yes."

"Let us discuss how to raise my fame."

"... May I ask what your plans are? Find plenty of the herbs they are after?"

Ainz silently looked at Narberal and shook his head:

"I intend to fight the Virtuous King of the Forest."

Ainz continued to explain to the baffled Narberal:

"Our goal is to display our strength in a clear and simple way."

"... Didn't we showed them plenty during the fight against the ogres?"

"... You are right, but monsters like goblins and ogres aren't enough. If they tell about my exploits back in the city, saying that I defeated the Virtuous King of the

Forest is on a whole different level than cleaving an ogre in half in terms of

fame. That's why we need to put on a good performance."

"I see! As expected of Ainz-sama! A flawless plan! But how would we find that

Virtuous King of the Forest?"

"I already planned for that."

Narberal was about to enquire further, but was interrupted by the voice of a third

party:

"Yes—— That's why I’m here."

The sudden sound made Narberal turn and look with sharp eyes. She extended

her right hand and prepared to fire her spell at the target, but after recognising

the owner of the voice, she regained her composed expression:

"Aura-sama! Please don't scare me like that."

"Sorry."

Appearing from behind the trees was a smiling dark elf girl.

One of the sixth floor twin guardians of the Grand Tomb of Nazarick, Aura Bella

Fiora.

"When did you arrive?"

"Hmmm? I was following you since you and Ainz-sama entered the forest.”

Aura was a beast tamer cum ranger, tracking in the forest was a piece of cake

for her. Lukeluther might be a ranger as well, but the difference in their skil s

were too vast for him to detect Aura.

"I was summoned here to find the monster known as the Virtuous King of the

Forest and make it attack Ainz-sama."

"That's right, according to the intelligence I got, the Virtuous King of the Forest has white fur, a snake-like tail, and is a four legged beast... Does this ring any

bells?"

"Yes, no problem. It's probably that fellow."

Aura looked upwards and replied confidently:

"If that’s the case, want me to tame it directly?"

"... That's a plan too, but there is no need."

If it was the tamer Aura, she would be able to tame the Virtuous King of the

Forest easily. But it would be bad if others found out it was just a show.

Removing all these issues from the very beginning would be the best way.

"By the way Aura, how is the other task I ordered you to carry out going?"

"Yes!"

Aura knelt immediately to pay her respect to her master.

It doesn't feel like Aura's style, but Ainz accommodated her actions and listened

with the attitude of a master.

"Ainz-sama ordered me to 'explore and understand the forest and find any living

beings wil ing to join Nazarick, and set up a warehouse to store resources.

Everything is proceeding smoothly."

“I see.” Ainz replied curtly.

Before heading to Re-Lantier, he issued different orders to each of the

guardians. Aura and Mare were dispatched to the forest to ensure the safety of

Nazarick and collect intelligence.

As for the warehouse, terming it as an emergency shelter would be more

adequate. Aura was ordered to set such a place up so that in the event of an

emergency preventing a return to Nazarick, it could serve as a hiding place.

Also, having another base would help in preventing Nazarick from being

exposed.

And of course, it serves as a warehouse to keep all sort of materials.

Tasking her to find creatures wil ing to work for Nazarick was to confirm the

possibility of power leveling, and what the ways of leveling up in this world were.

Because they were tasked with various missions, powerful beings like Aura,

Mare and their underlings came to the forest to establish a base, upsetting the

power balance in the forest. This forced monsters such as ogres to enter the

Virtuous King of the Forest's territory in order to escape the forest.

"But the construction of the warehouse will take a very long time."

"That is unavoidable. It hadn't been long since I issued the order."

Even though they brought golems and undead helpers that could work without

rest, it was stil a huge amount of work to be done.

"You can take your time, but do it right. And beef up the defenses so it won't fall easily when attacked."

"Yes! By your command!"

"Excellent. Well then, I leave the task regarding the Virtuous King of the Forest to you."

"Yes!"

Aura replied energetically and stood up.

After Ainz left, a giant black wolf with bright fur seemed to be waiting for this

moment and sauntered slowly out of the trees. It's crimson eyes seemed to be

burning and were full of intelligence, proving that it wasn't a simple beast.

That wasn’t all.

On top of the other trees, a 6 legged monster that seemed to be a cross of

chameleon and iguana was changing its skin color rapidly. It was as large as the

wolf.

"Fenny, Crackerlacile, what’s wrong? Were you guys worried about me?"

The giant wolf named Fenny whined and butted Aura with its head. Crackerlacile

stuck out its tongue and patted Aura's head.

"Hey, we stil have the work Ainz-sama ordered us to carry out."

Among the guardians, Aura was second worst in strength, even some area

guardians were stronger than her. But that was in terms of single combat power.

Aura’s strength wasn’t single combat, but group fights. Among the hundreds of

monsters tamed by Aura, the strongest was level 80. With the special support

skil s of Aura, it was equivalent to level 90. With her monsters, Aura's fighting

prowess could overwhelm the single combat power of the other guardians.

Among Aura's tamed beasts, these two were Aura's favorite high-level monsters

——the holy beast Fenrir, Fenny, and the similarly powerful Itzamna,

Crackerlacile.

Fenny and Crackerlacile stopped playing around after hearing Aura's words.

"Good, let's go!"

Aura brought the two beast along and ran through the forest. Her speed wasn't

affected even though she was in the forest, moving as fast as the wind.

After running for about 30 minutes, Aura reached her destination.

Aura had a cold smile that didn't match her young age. It felt innocent and cruel

at the same time. "I wanted to claim this for myself, but since this is Ainz-sama's order, it couldn't be helped."

Aura didn't seem to be talking to her pet. She was mumbling as if she was

talking about some accessories.

She knew about the Virtuous King of the Forest's nest because Aura wanted to

tame it before. The Virtuous King of the Forest was weak when compared to

Aura's monsters, so it wasn't worth much. But it was an unknown monster to

Aura, so it spurred her collector’s spirit. It was a pity to not add it to her

collection, but she had no complaints if it was for the supreme master she was

wil ing to offer everything to.

"Okay."

Aura changed the composition of the air in her lungs. The unnatural air

composition was breathed out of her slightly opened, pink lips. It was a

breathing technique to control emotions.

It radiates around herself normally and had a short range, so it was a special

passive ability. But if Aura desired it, it could be combined with her ranged attack

and hit a single target 2km away. Even if it was in such a dense forest.

But there was no need to do so this time. Her aim was to erase her presence

and approach the target undetected. Wild animals aside, even monsters which

had better senses couldn't notice Aura's approach.

Aura boldly walked to the side of the Virtuous King of the Forest with her

presence erased and took a light breath. Her breath was composed of elements

that incited fear, suddenly awakening the Virtuous King of the Forest that was in

deep slumber.

Al the fur on the Virtuous King of the Forest stood on end and it ran off in a

panic. A frightened four legged beast was surprisingly fast. But Aura, who was

chasing it, was faster.

With breaths from time to time to guide the Virtuous King of the Forest to Ainz,

Aura was chasing it just like 'death'.

The forest turned noisy.

Perking up his ears, Lukeluther was wary because of the change in the air of the

forest and observed the surroundings with a serious face.

"Something is coming."

Hearing this, the members of the ‘Sword of Darkness’ who were picking herbs

drew their weapons and prepared for battle. Ainz also held his giant sword

tightly.

"Is it the Virtuous King of the Forest?"

No one answered Enfrea, who put the herbs into his pack. Everyone looked into

the depth of the forest in silence.

"This is bad."

The carefree Lukeluther shouted in a stern voice:

"Something big is heading this way. I don't know why it is moving in a

meandering path, but judging from the sound of it trampling the grass, it should

be here soon. But... It's uncertain whether this is the Virtuous King of the Forest

or not."

"Retreat, it's dangerous to stay here even if it’s not the Virtuous King of the

Forest. We are in its territory, so even if it's not the Virtuous King of the Forest,

the chances of it attacking us is high."

Peter said as he looked towards Ainz:

"Momon-san, could you act as the rear guard?"

"No problem, leave it to me... I wil take care of the rest."

The members of the ‘Sword of Darkness’ offered words of encouragement as

they retreated out of the forest with Enfrea in toll.

"Momon-san, please don't push yourself too hard."

Enfrea's voice had absolute confidence in Ainz, his eyes covered under his

bangs were full of adoration. Ainz felt uneasy and urged them to leave faster.

After seeing the group disappear at the other side of the forest, Ainz

momentarily feared that he couldn't navigate out of the forest by himself. But he

immediately remembered that he could let Aura guide him.

The task at hand───

"Oh no... It might not be recognized as the Virtuous King of the Forest... Even if I want to take the Virtuous King of the Forest back to Nazarick, I have to obtain

proof that I defeated it... How about slashing off one of its legs?"

"───Ainz-sama."

In the direction Narberal was looking, there was a large shadow some distance

behind the forest. Ainz couldn't see it because it was hidden behind the forest.

The sunlight didn't reach it, so he couldn't confirm if its body was silvery white.

"Is the guest here?"

Maybe I am the guest-- Ainz thought about random things as he stood in front of Narberal. He couldn't convert its power to levels, so Ainz wasn't sure of the

Virtuous King of the Forest's power. So Ainz naturally stood before the magic

chanter Narberal, who wasn't proficient in melee combat, to protect her.

Standing before Narberal, Ainz felt a flow in the air and used his giant sword to

shield himself.

The sound of metal clashing reverberated and Ainz felt a heavy pressure in his

arms. Something heavy hit Ainz's giant sword at a very high speed.

He could see a long tail with scales like a snake sliding back behind the trees.

The tail attacked like a whip. Judging from the sound and sensation of the

impact, that tail is as tough as steel... It's range of more than 20m is troubling,but how does it live its normal life with such a tail?

Ainz lacked the special skil s of a vanguard and couldn't think of any way to deal

with it. The best he could do was melee combat.

Ainz sighed. He didn't have lungs, so he was just going through the motion. He

lowered his shoulders and adopted a stance. Seeing that Ainz was prepared to

fight, a deep and calm voice came from the forest:

"To completely block the first attack of this king, impressive... To meet such an opponent... This is the first for this king."

"This king..."

Ainz's il usionary face stiffens, then he remembered that these words were

translated. According to the judgement of Ainz's mind, these were the words

closest to what it said.

"Well then, intruder to the territory of this king. If thou is thinking of fleeing, I will let the matter rest since you displayed such excellent defense... How about it?"

"... What a foolish question. Of course I wil defeat you and reap the rewards...

Anyway, are you hiding because you lack confidence in your appearance or are

you shy by nature?"

"... What imposturous words, intruder! Behold this king's majestic figure and

tremble in fear!"

The Virtuous King of the Forest emerged from the forest slowly, showing itself to

Ainz.

After seeing it, Ainz's il usionary face stared with eyes wide open.

"Hahaha, this king could feel the terror and shock from beneath thy helmet."

The monster's face wrinkled in a smile and its long tail coiled up. Strange

markings that resemble words appeared on its silvery white body. It was about

the size of a horse but was very short, a stout body that developed horizontally.

The Virtuous King of the Forest closed the distance slowly.

"What is this feeling..."

Emotions that were hard to describe washed over Ainz. After becoming an

undead, every strong emotion would be suppressed. Considering this, this

wasn’t a strong emotion. Even so, including the time when YGGDRASIL was a

game, he had never felt this way after seeing a monster.

"...I want to ask one thing, what is your race known as?"

"This king is the Virtuous King of the Forest thou speak of. There are no other

names."

"Could your race’s name be... Djungarian hamsters?"

Virtuous King of the Forest.

From what Ainz knew, its appearance was similar to an animal known as

Djungarian hamster. It had silvery or white fur, black round eyes and a body

shaped like a Mochi.

Of course, hamsters didn’t have such a long tail and they wouldn't grow larger

than a man. Other than that, Ainz couldn't think of any other creature to describe

it. If you asked a hundred people, the answer you would get a hundred times

would be hamster. A gigantic Djungarian hamster, or a mutant Djungarian

hamster.

It tilted it's cute head───it didn't look like it had a neck───and kept sniffing the

air while it spoke:

"Hmm... This king has always lived a solitary life. I don't know about others of

my race, so I can't answer you... Might thou know what race this king belongs

to?"

"Eh... Yeah... You could say that... A past comrade of mine raised an animal

similar to you..."

Ainz recalled how said companion didn’t log into YGGDRASIL for an entire week

after his pet Djungarian hamster died of old age.

Behind his back, Narberal muttered a silent “Oh…”, probably because she

learned something new about the 41 supreme masters.

"What! To keep a being similar to this king as a pet!"

The Virtuous King of the Forest puffed its cheeks.

Ainz wasn't sure if that was an unhappy or threatening expression, or maybe it

was displaying some other emotions. Ainz was only sure it wasn't eating

anything.

"Hmmm... Pray explain the details. This king has the obligation to continue the

lineage of my race. If others from my race exist, I have the duty to raise the next

generation, or this king wouldn't be fit to be called a living being."

According to the Virtuous King of the Forest's theory, Ainz who couldn't produce

offspring wasn't fit to be a living being. Ainz thought about the excuse of an

undead not being a living being and answered tiredly:

"... Eh, that creature wasn't as big as you."

"Is that so... could it be a child?"

"... No, even fully matured, it was small enough to place in my hand."

The Virtuous King of the Forest seemed to be dejected as its whiskers drooped

down.

"That's a bit hard... Is this king fated to live alone til death..."

"... A cooler race would be more like it... but a hamster. I empathize with your

situation, but if you find another one of your race, your numbers would increase

exponentially and the world might be destroyed..."

The Virtuous King of the Forest's whiskers perked up while its beady eyes

remained the same. It sounded a bit angry: "How preposterous! Continuing to

raise next generation is of grave importance! And this king has always been

alone! It is natural to want to meet others of my kind!"

"Eh... Yeah... It's obvious to think about it this way... Pleases forgive my slip of the tongue..."

Ainz thought about his comrades in Ainz Ooal Gown and apologised. The words

of this hamster reminded him of his comrades and he actually apologised to a

hamster, which gave him some complicated feelings.

"... Never mind, I will forgive thee. It's time to end the useless banter, let's duel to the death... Be aware... Those who invade onto this king's realm wil end up as

food!"

"Huh... Yeah..."

Ainz felt he was losing his drive.

He knew that cute appearance was just on the outside, but Ainz was

unmotivated. The overlord of the Great Tomb of Nazarick dueling against a giant

hamster. Objectively speaking, this scene was too sad.

If he defeated it, would he need to drag the body of the giant hamster back and

tell others about it? 'This is the Virtuous King of the Forest, I couldn't chase it

away because the battle was too intense.' How would the other adventurers,

including the members of the Sword of Darkness, see this? The best case

scenario he could think of was them consoling Ainz with gentle eyes.

Don't kil the Virtuous King of the Forest then, just capture it alive and ask what it knows.

"Nabel, stand back."

Ainz finally gained some wil to fight and gave an order. Narberal had an

expression of absolute faith in Ainz's victory, bowing deeply before retreating to

a corner of the open space.

"Hmm—— it's fine if both of you attack at the same time."

"... Two people ganging up on a hamster, I would never allow such shameless

act."

Seeing Ainz adopt a battle stance after saying that, the Virtuous King of the

Forest lowered its posture and tensed its body:

"Don't regret it! This king is coming!"

With a bang, the giant body kicked the ground with enough force to make the

earth tremble, pouncing towards Ainz.

The Virtuous King of the Forest pounced with its gigantic body, which would

send normal people flying if they didn’t use martial arts to counter.

But Ainz used the giant sword as a shield and took the pounce head on.

It was an incredibly powerful blow, but Ainz blocked it easily.

"Oh!"

The Virtuous King of the Forest was surprised that Ainz didn't even take a single

step back, and slashed with its unexpectedly sharp claws. Ainz parried it with

the sword in his left hand while attacking with his right.

It wasn't a powerful blow, but it was stil a mighty strike.

With a high-pitched sound, Ainz swing was deflected, numbing his arm. The

Virtuous King of the Forest had defended Ainz's blow with its claws. Both their

attacks bounced back after colliding in the air.

"Impressive! How about this! ."

Mental attacks were ineffective against the undead. Ignoring the spell, Ainz

swung both swords at the same time.

The clash of metal erupted again and Ainz's swords were deflected again.

Ainz squinted the eyes under his helmet.

He was just testing the waters, but the Virtuous King of the Forest deflected that

strike with its fur. It was as tough as steel.

So it’s fur isn’t soft? It was a bit unexpected, but Ainz shook the thought that shouldn't appear in the midst of battle out of his mind.

Judging from the levels of YGGDRASIL, Ainz estimated the physical attack

power to be on par with a level 30 warrior. But that might be boosted by spells

and equipment, so it couldn't be judged that way. But using that as a gauge, the

battle power of the Virtuous King of the Forest was about level 30.

Ainz's il usionary face frowned:

"Not bad... suitable for close-combat practice."

Ainz concluded he would definitely win the fight if he used his full power. He

couldn't let his guard down, but it was good sword practice for a vanguard.

Ainz swung the swords in his hands repeatedly while the Virtuous King of the

Forest deftly parried the blows with the claws on its front feet... Another sigil on

its body lit up as it activated another spell.

""

Unlike , this wasn't a mental spell and was effective against

Ainz. But since Ainz had a racial skil that nullified all low-level magic against

him, the spell vanished without causing any effects.

When it used magic earlier, a different sigil lit up on its body... So the number ofsigils was equivalent to the number of spells it could use.

For monsters that could cast spells in YGGDRASIL, the number of spells it could

cast were dependent on the level and racial type, but it was normally around 8.

There were about 8 sigils on the Virtuous King of the Forest too, so Ainz felt as if

he was fighting a monster in YGGDRASIL.

The Virtuous King of the Forest didn't notice that his spell was nullified and

attacked with its front legs. Ainz blocked using the giant sword in one hand while

attacking with the other.

He was reminded of fighting together with his comrades in the past.

In YGGDRASIL, one of the strongest warriors that used a sword and shield was

TouchMe. The one with the strongest attack, Nishiki Enrai, dual wielding the

swords 'Amaterasu' and 'Tsukuyomi'. Claiming he didn’t need a second

attack─── although that wasn’t the truth─── using the two tachi 'God Slayer

Blade' and 'Takemikazuchi Mk. 8', Warrior Takemikazuchi.

He was also reminded of the warrior he met recently —— The knight captain of

the Kingdom, Gazef Strolonof.

Ainz assumed the appearance of a warrior when he headed towards Re-Lantier

because he was inspired by that man.

Ainz rebuked himself for thinking about such things.

I shouldn't think about random stuff in the middle of a fight. I am doing wel , but Ican’t let my guard down... Even if the opponent is a hamster...

The sword-attack movements his comrades used in the past appeared in Ainz's

mind, and he attacked continuously while mimicking them. At the same time,

Ainz blocked the counterattack of the Virtuous King of the Forest swiftly with the

sword in his left hand.

The fight turned into a stalemate before Ainz's giant sword finally broke through

the Virtuous King of the Forest's defense.

"What!"

With the sensation of the giant sword cutting into flesh, the stink of blood came

out. The sword in his right hand slightly slashed through the skin of the Virtuous

King of the Forest, sending some fur flying in the air.

Ainz followed up with the sword in his left hand, but the Virtuous King of the

Forest sensed the danger, leaped backwards and retreated.

It pulled about 10 meters away.

I heard hamsters would escape from its nest with a leap, but I didn't know they

could jump backwards.. .

As Ainz thought idly with the feeling of fighting a giant hamster, the Virtuous King

of the Forest lowered its posture.

Ainz looked at his foe in surprise.

What is it trying to do at this distance? If it tries to charge again, I would raisemy sword and let it smash into its own ruin... But it was most probably casting

another spell.

The coiled tail behind the Virtuous King of the Forest shouldn't be long enough

to reach here——

"——No, wrong!"

Ainz realized his miscalculation.

The first tail attack came from an even further distance. This was stil within its

attack range.

As expected, the tail swung towards Ainz with a large arc. Ainz used the giant

sword in his right hand to block and stared with his eyes wide open in surprise.

The tail was using the sword as a pivot point to turn.

"!"

Ainz flicked the sword to the side in order to shake off the tail, but he was a

moment too slow, the tail loudly hit the back of Ainz’s armor with a great impact.

Because of his racial skil s, Ainz didn't take much damage even though his

armor was hit by the tail. But if this was an arcade shooting game, it would’ve

been a slip up.

"Now the score is 1:1."

Just a mere hamster—— the feeling of anger wel s up.

I wil use a ranged attack too.

Ainz decided as he increased the strength in his right hand. As Ainz was making

preparation, the Virtuous King of the Forest said in awe:

"Thy armor... is really great. No, thy power and swordsmanship are impressive.

Thou art a superb warrior. Were thee a famous figure among the society of

men?"

Ainz relaxes his right hand.

He asked with a hint of disappointment:

"Do I look like a warrior?"

"... Why would thou question that? If not a warrior, what else would thou be? No, perhaps a knight?"

"Virtuous King of the Forest... an undeserved title. The script had been a mess

since I found out you were a giant hamster..." It was difficult to see Ainz, who

was clad in full armor, as a magic chanter. But with an impressive name like

Virtuous King of the Forest, Ainz was hoping it could sense something was off.

Nullifying magic was only seen as fending it off through strong force of wil . The

effect of resistance and nullification wasn't much different in YGGDRASIL, but it

should have acted more like a wise sage.

But the title of Virtuous King didn't fit him at all. If it was named giant Djungarian hamster from the very beginning, he wouldn't have gotten his hopes up. The

people addressing it as virtuous king were the ones with the problem. It was

misleading advertisement or branding.

Ainz lost his wil to fight and lowered his giant sword.

"What art thou doing! It is probably impossible... Surrendering before the fight

concludes? Fight this king with all your might! This is a battle to the death!"

Whenever the hot blooded Virtuous King of the Forest said something

unexpected, Ainz would be hit psychologically. Since strong emotions would be

suppressed, Ainz should stil have some strength left.

"Enough... already."

Ainz said in an icy tone, pointing the sword in his right hand at the Virtuous King

of the Forest and activating his power.

Despair aura V.

Because the chance of causing instant death was too high, Ainz held back and

only utilized the terror effect of level I.

Air was emitted out with Ainz as the center, the chil that causes mental effects

spread out around him.

When it came into contact with the chil , the Virtuous King of the Forest's fur

stood on end and it flipped over at an amazing speed. The defenseless soft

stomach full of silvery fur was exposed.

"This king surrenders! This king admits its loss!"

"... Ah... it's just an animal after all..."

Ainz answered tiredly as he walked to the Virtuous King of the Forest's side,

looking down at its defenseless belly and thinking of his next move.

It is a monster of this world so it would be a pity to chase it away. Too bad it'sjust a hamster, should I keep it as a pet... At most, its corpse would be of use.

One of Ainz's job classes was necromancer. It was a class that enslaved

corpses, but the strength of the zombie created was dependent on the race of

the corpse.

The best corpses would be powerful races like dragons while human corpses

would turn into zombies or skeletons. What kind of undead would the Virtuous

King of the Forest which didn't exist in YGGDRASIL turn into?

Virtuous King of the Forest zombie?

"Want to kil it?"

A bright voice came from behind. Ainz turned and saw Aura had suddenly

appeared next to Narberal.

"If you want to kil it, I want its skin. I think it would yield great leather."

Ainz looked down and met the teary eyes of the Virtuous king looking upwards.

Its whiskers were trembling as it silently feared what its fate might be.

He recalled his conversation with the Virtuous King of the Forest. It reminded

him of his comrades.

After hesitating, Ainz sighed and made a decision:

"My real name is Ainz Ooal Gown. If you are willing to serve me, I will spare your life."

"Thank, thank you for your mercy! This king would repay you with my loyalty.

The Virtuous King of the Forest wil serve the great warrior Ainz Ooal Gown-

sama!"

Aura looked with eyes of pity at the Virtuous King of the Forest declaring its

fealty.

After exiting the forest, the group hoping Ainz and Narberal would make it

cheered their safe return. Only Lukeluther looked a little stunned.

Enfrea asked Ainz with a mixture of surprise and praise:

"No injuries at all... Did you avoid battle?"

As Ainz was about to answer, Lukeluther interjected:

"Momon-san, did you bring something back with you? Did you get bewitched?"

"I sparred with the Virtuous King of the Forest and tamed it. Hey, show yourself."

The Virtuous King of the Forest with pearl white fur slowly came out of the

forest. The Sword of Darkness members stood around Enfrea with a shocked

expression, raising their swords and took a step back.

It might just be a Djungarian hamster, but it's so big...

Even though its beady eyes were cute, its gigantic size was stil intimidating. It

was natural of the adventurers to protect their client. Ainz lowered his volume

and said:

"Don't worry everyone. He has submitted to me and won't go berserk and harm

people."

Ainz approached the Virtuous King of the Forest and put on an act of caressing

its body.

"As my lord said, this Virtuous King of the Forest had sworn fealty to my lord and serves him as a vassal. I swear to my lord that I will not cause trouble for

everyone!"

The Virtuous King of the Forest declared its loyalty to Ainz once again.

Everyone might be wary of its gigantic body, but it was originally a cute

Djungarian hamster, they wouldn't be on guard after getting used to it. The

problem was how to convince everyone this was the real Virtuous King of the

Forest. Ainz was at a loss.

But things didn't go the way Ainz imagined.

"... This is the Virtuous King of the Forest! Amazing, what a grand beast!"

—— What?

Ainz switched his gaze between Ninya and the Virtuous King of the Forest,

observing carefully to see if he was just teasing. But Ninya was serious.

"... Wow, this Virtuous King of the Forest... is as great as the legends! I can feel its tremendous power just by being in its presence!"

Dyne said in awe.

—— Huh? Tremendous power?

"Ara, my hat is off to you. To accomplish such a grand feat. With such power,

you are indeed qualified to bring Nabel-chan around with you."

"We would definitely be wiped out if we encounter such a monster. As expected

of Momon-san. You are too good."

Listening to the praise of Lukeluther and company, Ainz looked at the Virtuous

King of the Forest once again.

A gigantic Djungarian hamster.

That's the only comment Ainz had. Why would they think this monster was

threatening?

".... Everyone, don't you think the eyes of this monster are cute?"

Everyone stared with eyes wide open when they heard this, as if their eyeballs

were going to drop out. This probably sounded ridiculous to them.

"Mo, Momon-san! You think the eyes of this monster is cute?"

Of course. Ainz retorted in his mind as he nodded, wondering whether the

Virtuous King of the Forest was activating its bewitching passive skil .

"Unbelievable, as expected of Momon-san. What do you think after looking at its

eyes, Ninya?"

"... I think these eyes are full of wisdom and I could feel how powerful this

monster is. No matter how lightly I could take it, I won't think of it as cute."

"...?"

Ainz looked at everyone speechlessly. After understanding how everybody

thought, he felt dizzy.

"What about Nabel?"

"It's power aside, its eyes looked strong."

"... No... Way..."

Everyone was praising Ainz with shining eyes. This meant everyone felt respect

towards Ainz who described the eyes of such a monster as cute.

Ainz looked at the eyes of the Virtuous King of the Forest and couldn't see any

‘Wisdom’.

Did my ability to discern beauty change after turning into an undead?

Since everyone except him thought so, there was a possibility that his

judgement had changed. But he stil needed a final confirmation:

"By the way, does anybody think a rat is powerful?"

"Rat.. Gigantic rats? Those monsters are nothing special."

"You can find them in the sewers of Re-Lantier."

"Giant rats can spread horrible plague. And also Ratmen… Ratmen are resistant

to any weapon that is not made of silver, so they can be quite a handful."

Aren't hamsters and rats similar? And since the Virtuous King of the Forest has

a long tail, it is closer to a rat than a hamster...

The baffled Ainz came to the conclusion that 'this world is a bit weird'.

While Ainz was troubled over the petty stuff about this world, Enfrea asked a bit

worryingly:

"But if you take this monster away, the other monsters would have nothing to

fear with the Virtuous King of the Forest's absence and attack En... Carne

Vil age?"

Ainz gestured at the Virtuous King of the Forest with his chin. The Virtuous King

of the Forest understood this and said:

"Art thou referring to the vil age over there? Hmmm... the power balance in the

forest has been overturned, even this king couldn't ensure its safety by staying

here."

"How could this be...

Ainz didn't console the dejected Enfrea and just smiled in his heart.

The Virtuous King of the Forest isn't worthy of his title, but I can get somethingout of this.

As Ainz pondered how to guide the topic, he noticed Enfrea's gaze. Enfrea was

opening his mouth, hesitant to speak up.

It was obvious to Ainz that Enfrea’s heart was conflicted.. Enfrea wanted Ainz to

save the vil age once again, but was hesitant about leaving everything to Ainz.

As the Sword of Darkness members discussed how to save the vil age, Enfrea

made up his mind and spoke with a serious expression:

"——Momon-san."

"What is it?"

Ainz gleefully awaited Enfrea's words.

Ainz had planned from the very beginning to protect Carne Vil age, which was a

rich source of information, but it was important to receive a request. Ainz could

do a favor for Enfrea and get a reward, kil ing two birds with one stone. This was

Ainz's plan, with this he wanted to make up for the mistake of miscalculating the

Virtuous King of the Forest's worth.

But Enfrea's words were beyond Ainz's imagination.

"Momon-san! Please allow me to join your party!"

"What?"

“I want to protect Enri... Carne Vil age. But I don't have the power to defend it.

So I want to become stronger! Even the basics would be fine, I hope Ainz-san

could impart some of your powers to me! But my wealth couldn't employ an elite

adventurer like Ainz-san in the long run! So please let me join your party! I am

confident in pharmacy and I am wil ing to carry the luggage or any chores!

Please accept my request!"

As Ainz blinked his nonexistent eyes in hesitation, Enfrea continued:

"I have always been researching pharmaceutical studies. My grandmother and

father were pharmacists, so I entered this career without much thought... But I

found the path I want to take, something different from being a pharmacist."

"You want to become a powerful magic chanter and protect Carne Vil age?"

"Yes."

Enfrea looked at Ainz with sincere manly eyes, shaking off his childishness.

During his time in YGGDRASIL, there were plenty of people who wanted to join

Ainz Ooal Gown. Most of them did this for their personal gain, wanting to get

something out of joining a high-tier guild. They didn't think about what they could

do for the guild, but what the guild could do for them.

Not only that, there were also treacherous people planning to infiltrate the guild

to steal information and rare items.

Because of this, the members of Ainz Ooal Gown maintained its core members

and didn't grow much. They were guarded, careful to not let their efforts go to

waste.

But Enfrea didn’t know about the guild Ainz Ooal Gown, he only had simple

thoughts── This thought that seemed right, but was off the mark, gave Ainz a

pleasant feeling.

“... Ha, hahaha!”

Ainz laughed heartily. He didn’t hold anything back. Ainz then stopped his

laughter, took off his helmet and bowed deeply with a sincere and serious

attitude.

He could hear Narberal gasping.

This attitude might not be appropriate for Narberal’s master, the overlord of the

Great Tomb of Nazarick, but Ainz felt he should bow and did so without

hesitation. He didn’t think that bowing to a youth half his age was shameful.

He didn’t mean any harm with his laugher, and Ainz knew he shouldn’t be

laughing. He raised his head and told the shocked Enfrea:

“... I apologize for losing my composure, but I hope you understand that I am not

making fun of your resolve. You need to fulfil two criteria to join my team, but

you only fulfil ed one. It’s regrettable, but I can’t let you join.”

The hidden criteria was the consensus of half the members, so even though

Ainz agreed, he couldn’t recruit any members on his own. But since coming to

this world, Ainz was fil ed with the joy of being treated with loyalty by the

guardians of Nazarick and continued:

“I understand what you are thinking and wil remember that you wanted to join

my team. As for the protection of this vil age, I wil do what I can to aid you. But I probably wil need your help as well——”

“Yes! Please let me help!”

“I see, I see.”

As Ainz nodded, his eyes met with Ninya’s for a moment. Ninya looked as if he

was seeing something interesting, which made Ainz feel awkward.

“Let’s talk about this later. Before that, I have to tell everyone about something

interesting. Which is the taming of the Virtuous King of the Forest.”

Chapter 4 – The Twin Swords of Death

Part 1

Taking one night to travel to Carne Vil age, staying in Carne Vil age for one

night, then leaving for Re-Lantier. The planned three day two night journey was

finally coming to its end, arriving back at Re-Lantier, they were welcomed by the

evening scene of the city.

The road was il uminated by the white glow from the , the

people travelling on the road also changed. Gone were the young women and

children, most of them now were working men travelling home. Shop houses

were lined side by side along the street, cheerful sounds and lights came from

them.

Ainz looked around.

After three days, the town didn’t seem to have changed. No, after arriving in Re-

Lantier, he straight away left for Carne Vil age the next day, so there was

insufficient knowledge and attachment to compare. However, he could stil feel

that the scene of the calm streets remained unchanged.

After reaching a turn on the main road, Ainz suddenly stopped walking.

Normally, stopping in the middle of the road would definitely obstruct the path of

other pedestrians, but nobody even complained. That was because nobody

even got close to Ainz.

Ainz hunched his back in resignation and observed the people around him.

Nearly everyone looked toward Ainz——No, they stared at Ainz, and whispered

lowly to the person next to them.

Hearing the sound of talking, Ainz felt as if they were laughing at him, but that

was his own misunderstanding. If he had actually listened, he would know that

their tones were fil ed with surprise, appreciation and fear.

Even so, there was stil a place that made it hard to release the tension.

Ainz silently looked down——under him was pearly white fur. That was because

Ainz was currently mounted on the Virtuous King of the Forest.

Al around the people looked towards the awe-inspiring brave appearance of the

Virtuous King of the Forest——Ainz was somewhat critical of this point——in

amazement, they were talking about the warrior who was able to ride upon such

a fearful, yet dignified magical beast.

I should be able to hold my head high…. right...

Completely understanding the situation. The people here showed approval of

the majestic appearance of the Virtuous King of the Forest, but for Ainz, this was

already approaching something like a punishment game. To put it in other

words, it was like not having any family or girlfriend as a partner, sitting on a

carousel with a deadpan look, looking towards an uncle in loneliness.

His riding posture was also quite unsightly. Because the Virtuous King of the

Forest was completely different from a horse, Ainz’s butt would point outwards

while riding and he had to spread his legs wide. If he didn’t assume this posture

similar to jumping over a box, it would be difficult for him to maintain his balance.

Therefore, this idea of riding the Virtuous King of the Forest, was definitely not

an idea that Ainz thought of himself. In addition to the persuasion from the

Sword of Darkness members and the Virtuous King of the Forest himself,

Narberal also politely said “It would be too much for a ruler to walk.” which made

him think that riding it wouldn't be such a bad idea, thus ending up with this

result.

If I had known, I would have rejected the idea. Shouldn't be that someone

wanted to set me up, thus setting this trap...

It looked like a hamster, as if coming out of a fairy tale, but it would only be

suitable for boys and girls to ride upon. Even as a slight compromise, a woman

riding it would also be alright. But it definitely wasn't right for a warrior to ride

upon it.

But the surrounding people thought the only one with a strange reaction was

Ainz.

Is it a problem with my own aesthetic views, their aesthetic views, or with this

world’s aesthetic views?

Of course, the answer went without saying. As long as the majority thought it

was beautiful, then the one with the wrong aesthetic view must be Ainz.

Because of this, he did not strongly oppose to riding the Virtuous King of the

Forest. Also, if he could let the name of Momon the adventurer become even

more impressive, and gain a more solid position, then it would be even harder to

reject the idea. But stil ——

This is simply a shame play…

TL Note: Like a cosplay but instead shame play… Think Masochist or pranking

Ainz’s emotions would immediately be repressed once they reached a certain

point, but up til now, there was no such feeling, which meant there wasn’t too

much embarrassment. This result only told Ainz one thing.

Does this means that I have developed some immunity to shame play… I

couldn’t be an M, right…? I always felt I was more of an S…

“Now that we have returned to town, our job has come to an end.”

Replaying the scenes and stil images of his past, Ainz compared them to his

current mental state and agonized over his own fetishes. While doing that,

Enfrea chatted with Peter.

“Yes, you are right, with this your job is over. Then… Although I am ready to pay

the agreed reward, but… to also pay the additional reward that we spoke of in

the forest, would it be alright if you come over to the shop at my home?”

The rear of Enfrea’s carriage was fil ed to the brim with many herbs. Not only

that, but also some timber, some fruits that grew to look like branches, a huge

mushroom large enough to cover a person and a variety of very tall grass. If

seen by a layman, they would feel that these were just many simple plants,

however for an expert, this was a shining jeweled mountain.

These were all from the time when Ainz tamed the Virtuous King of the Forest,

this allowed them to safely explore his domain. In there they found a variety of

precious herbs and many other herbs that could be used to make potions,

Enfrea who harvested non-stop agreed to give them an additional amount of

money for it.

“Momon-san should first go visit the Adventurer’s Guild!”

“Eh, that’s right. Because I brought a magical beast into the city, I need to

register the Virtuous King of the Forest in the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Although it is troublesome, but there is no choice.”

“We also mopped up the ogres and other monsters together, how about it? Why

don’t we head to the Adventurer’s Guild together?”

“Well——no, this time we mostly relied on Momon-san, we wil head to Enfrea-

san’s home first, at least we will help with some chores or move some of the

herbs. Otherwise to receive the same reward as Momon-san would be

unjustified.”

The Sword of Darkness members all nodded in response to Peter’s remarks, but

Enfrea politely interrupted:

“There’s no need to trouble yourselves…”

“Because there is an additional reward, let us give you this free service.”

Hearing Peter’s joking words, Enfrea also respectfully said:

“Then, the next time you come to my store to buy potions, I wil give you a

discount.”

“That would be really great. Momon-san, you should go to the Adventurer’s

Guild first and then head over to Enfrea’s home. We wil go there first, and after

doing some chores we wil head back to the Adventurer’s Guild to settle the

formalities. Because we have to wait until tomorrow before going to the

Adventurer’s Guild to receive our reward for the ogre extermination, I’m sorry

that we wil have to trouble you to make another trip to there tomorrow… The

time we meet should be the same as the time when we first met.”

“Understood.”

Faced with this proposal, Ainz nodded in relief. Registering just requires one to

just calmly go up to the counter and asking, he did not want to go with them to

the Adventurer’s Guild, faced with the dilemma of “Please write this” and “Please

look at this”. That had the chance of causing al his previous effort to go to

waste.

“Then, sorry to trouble you.”

Gently nodding his head while riding on the Virtuous King of the Forest, and

separating from Enfrea and the members of the Swords of Darkness, with only

Narberal as his partner, they moved towards the Adventurer’s Guild. This time

Narberal leaned over and asked:

“Can we believe them?”

“... No big deal. Even if we are betrayed, the loss is just the reward for

exterminating some ogres. If we worried ourselves over this small amount of

money, we would be considered stingy, and that would be an even larger loss.”

Ainz came to this city in order to increase his fame, to be considered petty would

hinder his future plans.

Putting up a false front.

Thinking about that phrase, Ainz touched the money bag on his chest and with

one pinch he felt a few coins: it was easy to know how much was left. But it

should be enough to pay for accommodations for two tonight.

If he considered adding in the costs of meals, he might not have enough, but

considering that Ainz is an undead, and the ring on Narberal’s hand contained a

magic that allowed her to go without food, in terms of cost, that was a huge

contribution. Narberal was able to wear two rings, one of those was this ring, its

original purpose was to prevent eating poisoned food, he never thought it would

contribute in such a way now.

However, while looking at the Virtuous King of the Forest he was riding, his heart

thought “This guy must always eat something.”, Narberal once again said:

“Indeed… It is strange that the most supreme Ainz-sama would be left with so

little money. How rude.”

“Well..”

Ainz once again touched his money bag, feeling that his back which could not

sweat was seeping with sweat. He cursed himself for raising the threshold when

there was no need. Also——

Ainz-sama… Stop calling me that Narberal. If no one heard it that would be

great...

He felt helpless in his heart, while Narberal stil joyfully said:

“These lower life forms (Mosquito), are all prostrating themselves to Ainz-sama’s

astonishing strength.”

“It hasn’t reached that stage yet.”

“Too modest. Although in the eyes of Ainz-sama, those Ogres were nothing

more than insects, but Ainz-sama’s sword skil s were at another level, truly

admirable.”

Below him, the Virtuous King of the Forest shook strangely, but Ainz paid it no

mind, towards Narberal he said:

“... It was just playing around with brute force.”

It sounded like he said that to make himself sound cool, but that was not so.

When he saw Gazef fight, Ainz saw his smooth moves, but when Ainz thought

back about his own movements, he felt like he was a child wildly flailing around

his sword, how unsightly. Their praise was only directed to the destructive power

brought about by his arm. It was completely different from the praise to a true

warrior like Gazef.

“Moving around like a true warrior is actually really difficult.”

“... Then how about using magic to turn into a warrior?”

While wearing armor, he was stil able to use around five different types of

magic, one of those was the ability to convert his Magic Chanter levels to

Warrior levels. Meaning that if Ainz used that magic, he could temporarily turn

into a level one-hundred warrior.

Although the advantage was being able to use certain equipment of the other

job, the disadvantages are also big. Firstly, during that time he would be unable

to use any magic, and once he turned into a warrior he wouldn’t have any

special skil s. His recalculated stats would also be very low for a warrior. Simply

said, he would be a half-baked level one-hundred warrior. It would be another

story if both he and a High Priest fought using only swords, but for him to go

against another warrior of the same job, there was no chance of winning.

Even so, it would be stronger than the current Ainz.

Problem was——

“There are too many disadvantages. If an opponent of the same level does a

surprise attack on me, then I won’t be able to use magic in such a short time,

which wil lead to my certain defeat. Even if I use Magic scrolls, considering the

preparation time and so on, there are stil too many disadvantages.”

Right now it was stil unknown whether there were any hostile players or not,

they must not be taken lightly. There was no need to specifically use that magic,

and create weaknesses for himself.

“Being a warrior is just an act to hide my identity, there is no need to feel bad

about it.”

“!”

The body of the Virtuous King of the Forest shook a bit and with a surprised look

he tilted his head up to look at Ainz:

“This underling has been listening from the beginning, isn’t Master a warrior?”

Returning its look, Ainz gave a quiet nod and Narberal explained with a

condescending tone:

“Ainz-sama is only pretending to be a warrior, just like playing a game. If he

used his real strength in magic, Armageddon would just be a small matter.”

Faced with such absolute trust, or thinking that this was just natural of Narberal,

Ainz was unable to say the words “Impossible” in response.

“..... Well, it’s probably like that. Virtuous King of the Forest, aren’t you glad you did not fight the real me in battle? If I had used my real strength, you would’ve

been unable to survive even for a second.”

“Th-that is so, Master. Your humble servant, Hamsuke, once again pledges his

undying loyalty to you!”

When the Virtuous King of the Forest said he wanted a name, the name that

floated into Ainz’s mind was Hamsuke. After receiving the name Hamsuke, the

Virtuous King of the Forest was also very satisfied with his name. But after

calmly considering, the name Hamsuke really has no taste at al .

... The name, Hamsuke, was decided too much in a hurry. Maybe Mochi…

would be more entertaining… My companions had mentioned before that I am

unable to think of good names…

Feeling some regret, Ainz who was sitting on the back of the Virtuous King of the

Forest —— Hamsuke, slowly wobbled to the Adventurer’s Guild.

The carriage moved directly into the backyard of the home, stopping in front of

the backdoor. Picking up the magic lantern, Enfrea jumped off the carriage’s

front seat and opened the door. Hanging the lantern in his hand on the wal ,

il uminating the dark room.

Because of the light, it was possible to see a few buckets inside the room. The

smell of dry herbs came from the room, indicating that this was a place used to

keep herbs.

“Then, sorry to trouble you, but could you help transporting the herbs over?”

Readily replying, the Sword of Darkness members carefully transported a

bundle of herbs from the carriage to the house.

Guiding the placement of the herbs, a question emerged from Enfrea’s heart:

“Is grandma not home?”

Despite Enfrea’s grandmother being of an old age, her hearing and eyesight

were not bad, she would have heard the sounds of things being transported and

come outside. However, if she was too concentrated on the creation of her

potions, then she would not pay any attention to any small noises. Feeling as if

this was the usual, Enfrea did not shout out in a loud voice.

Waiting until all the herbs were placed in their appropriate locations, Enfrea

called out to some of the Sword of Darkness members:

“Good work! There should be some ice cold juice in the house, please go ahead

and drink it.”

“That would be great.”

Lukeluther said, his forehead sweating slightly. The rest happily nodded their

heads.

“Then, this way please.”

Enfrea led everyone towards his home, then suddenly someone opened the

door from the other side.

“Hey~ Welcome back~”

In front of their eyes stood a lovely woman, but she gave off a vague sense of

unease. Her short blonde hair swaying.

“Aiya~ I was worried you know? I thought you went missing. How unlucky~ I had

no idea when you would come back, so I was just waiting here all this while.”

“.... Ma- May I ask who you are?”

“Hey! Don’t you all recognise me?”

Because of the intimate tone, as if the two of them were acquaintances, Peter

let out a sound of surprise.

“Eh? Hahaha~ I came to kidnap you~ we require someone to use a magic

artifact to summon a large number of undead, the , so could

you become my toy? Onee-chan is asking you a favour, please?”

The Sword of Darkness members feeling this woman’s evil atmosphere,

immediately pulled out their weapons. Even in the fact of an impending battle,

the woman stil said in a frivolous tone:

“That is a seventh tier spell that is very hard for people to use, but through the

use of the crown it can be achieved. Although it is stil not possible to control all

the undead, but it can stil influence them! What a flawless plan~! Perfect~!”

“... Enfrea-san, retreat! Quickly leave this place.”

Wielding his weapon while being wary of the woman, Peter said in a serious

tone:

拿 起 武 器 的 彼 得 提 防 女 子 ，以 严 肃 的 声 音 说 道 ：

“That woman won’t stop talking, she must be confident about dealing with us.

Since you are her target, the only way to reverse the situation is for you to

escape.”

The Sword of Darkness members used their bodies to shield the panicking

Enfrea, standing in front of him.

“Ninya! You escape as wel !”

Following Dyne, Lukeluther also shouted:

“Take the kid and run! Don’t you stil want to rescue your sister who was

captured!?”

“Yes. You stil have something to do. While we may not be able to help you in

the end… At least we can buy you some time.”

“Everyone….”

“Hey~ How heart warming~I almost want to cry, eh. But if he escapes it would

be a bother. At least leave one person for me to play with~”

Seeing Ninya’s tightly pursed lips, with an appearance of not knowing what to

do, the woman showed a joyful smile, slowly taking out her stiletto from within

her robe. At this moment, from behind the back door came a few pale scrawny

men.

Realising this, the faces of all of the Sword of Darkness members became

serious.

“... Playtime is over.”

“Hey~ What are you saying, Kajit-chan. Weren’t you all helping me prepare,

helping me ensure that the screams don’t leak outside? But since it’s just one

person, please let me have some fun.”

Her toothy laugh made Enfrea’s hair stand on ends.

“Well now that there is no way to escape, let us begin~”

Part 2

The registration for Hamsuke was simple, but it stil took an hour and a half to

complete. The most time consuming was sketching a portrait of Hamsuke. It

could’ve been done much faster with magic, but Ainz didn’t want to spend the

money, which was why it took so long.

To avoid being viewed by others as being petty, Ainz made up an excuse.

“It’s a bit late to say so, but ‘being interested in drawing’ was a tedious excuse…

But never mind. I should head over there now.”

Ainz, who had finished the registration, said so to Narberal who was standing by

the entrance of the guild, and he then walked towards Hamsuke.

He had gotten used to it.

Carousels weren’t exclusive for the winners in life —— people with a significant

other or kids —— so it shouldn’t be a problem for a lonely old man to sit on it.

Ainz, who had given up, showed no hesitation in his actions.

He used his high agility and mounted the Virtuous King of the Forest like a

famed gymnast. Although there wasn’t any supporting equipment like a saddle,

a few hours of experience was enough for Ainz to master riding techniques.

The pedestrians who saw the scene sighed in admiration. There were even

squeals from the ladies. The eyes of the adventurers were exceptionally

passionate. After confirming the type of medal on Ainz’s neck, they had a face of

disbelief.

I am the one who has a hard time believing this. What happened to everyone’s

sense of aesthetics?

Someone called out to Ainz, who was retorting the crowd in his heart and

ordering Hamsuke to leave.

“Hey, are you the person who went to harvest herbs with my grandson?”

Ainz heard an elderly voice addressed him, turned his head to find an old lady.

“... Who might you be?”

Ainz asked although he already guessed the answer. If what the old lady said

was true, there is only one answer.

“I am Lizzie Bareal, grandmother of Enfrea.”

“Ah! So it is you? You are correct, I escorted Enfrea to Carne vil age, my name

is Momon. This is Nabel.”

Lizzie compliments Narberal who bowed respectfully:

“What an unbelievably beautiful girl. What is the monster you are riding known

as?”

“This is the Virtuous King of the Forest.”

“This King is Hamsuke! Pleased to meet you!”

“What! This fearsome monster is the legendary Virtuous King of the Forest!?”

When the adventurers who were eavesdropping nearby heard Lizzie’s

exclamation, all of them had a look of surprise. They seemed very shaken as

they whispered things like ‘That is the legendary monster?’.

“Yes, as requested by your grandson, I tamed it after an encounter at the

destination.”

“To… tame the Virtuous King of the Forest…”

Lizzie stuttered:

“Well… where is my grandson?”

“Ah, he returned with the herbs. We are on our way over to claim the reward.”

The old lady who breathed a sigh of relief looked at Ainz with amazed eyes and

asked:

“Oh, I see… Want to go together? I am curious about your adventures.”

Lizzie’s suggestion was a great help for Ainz.

“Yes, it would be my pleasure.”

With Lizzie leading the way, the group walked through the city of Re-Lantier.

“Please come on in.”

After reaching the shop, Lizzie took out her key and lowered her head. She

pushed the door and found it opening without any resistance.

“What’s happening, he is too careless.”

Lizzie mumbled to herself as she entered with Ainz and Narberal in tow.

“Enfrea, Momon-san is here──”

Lizzie shouted in the shop, it was quiet without any sign of people.

“Is something wrong?”

Lizzie tilted her head confusedly but Ainz answered curtly:

“This is bad.”

Lizzie was baffled, but Ainz ignored her and placed his hand on the hilt of his

sword. Narberal understood what Ainz meant and unsheathed her blade.

“What, what are you doing!?”

“Don’t ask, just follow me.”

Ainz drew his weapon after the short reply, entering with his sword in hand. He

knocked the door inside open and headed towards the right . It was an

unfamiliar house, but Ainz showed no hesitation in his footsteps.

Ainz came before the door at the end of the passageway and asked Lizzie who

finally caught up:

“What is this place for?”

“This is the storage room for herbs, and a door that leads towards the back

door.”

Although she didn’t know what would happen, Lizzie who felt the atmosphere

was weird was worried. Ainz didn’t bother himself with her and opened the door.

What he smelled wasn’t the fragrance of herbs, but something more stinging

——the smell of blood.

The ones at the front were Peter and Lukeluther, Dyne was further back and

Ninya was at the furthest end. Al four were leaning lifelessly against the wall.

Their legs were straight and their hands were hanging limply. A dark pool of

black blood was on the floor, which seemed to have drained from their bodies.

“What, what is happening…”

The surprised Lizzie wanted to enter with unsteady steps. Ainz stopped her with

a hand on her shoulder and he rushed into the room.

The collapsed Peter suddenly moved like a puppet, but before it could get up,

the flash from a sword went by without hesitation.

Peter’s head rolled on the ground. With a backhand cut, Lukeluther who was

attempting to stand was decapitated.

As Lizzie was stunned by the tragedy before her, Dyne who was situated further

in had stood up.

His face showed no signs of life and was pale. It looked at Ainz and Lizzie with

murky eyes. There was a hole in his forehead which was obviously a fatal

wound.

There was only one reason why the dead could move. When they become an

undead.

“Zombie!”

As Lizzie shouted, Dyne drew near with a hostile grunt. Ainz immediately

stabbed with his sword. It pierced Dyne’s throat and he staggered for a moment

before collapsing.

There was no other movement.

Ainz stared at Ninya who sat motionlessly on the ground in silence.

“Enfrea!”

Lizzie finally realized what was happening rushed out to search for her

grandson. Ainz glanced at her back and ordered Narberal:

“Protect her. My passive skil has no reaction, so there

shouldn’t be any other undead in this house. But there might be live ones hiding

somewhere.”

“Understood.”

Narberal took off after Lizzie after bowing lightly.

Ainz confirmed the departure of the two of them and turned his eyes on Ninya.

He slowly knelt down and gently touched the body. After confirming there was no

corpse trap which was common in YGGDRASIL, he lifted Ninya’s face. Ninya

wasn’t unconscious, but dead.

His face was swollen, probably from the blows of a blunt weapon. Ainz couldn’t

recognized him by his face.

His left eye was smashed and flowed out of the socket like a tear.

Al the bones in his fingers were cracked and the skin split open, revealing the

red muscle within. Some places didn't even have meat. When Ainz removed the

clothes for inspection, he was shocked with his eyes wide open.

He put the clothes back in place and mumbled:

“... Even the body was…”

The body was similar to the face, with wounds everywhere due to severe

bleeding. It was covered with the color of internal hemorrhage and it was harder

to find a spot that wasn’t wounded.

Ainz closed Ninya’s eyes gently.

“... It makes me feel… uncomfortable.”

His mumbling words were gone with the wind.

“My grandson! Enfrea is gone!”

Lizzie screamed when she returned. Ainz who gathered the corpses in a corner

of the room replied calmly:

“... I took a look at their belongings, there were no signs of them being searched.

Judging from this, the enemy’s objective was to kidnap Enfrea.”

“Ugh!”

“Please look this way.”

Ainz gestured to the bloody words under Ninya’s body. They wouldn’t have been

discovered if the body weren’t moved.

“This is… the sewers? It means Enfrea had been taken to the sewers?”

“... It might also be a trap made by the one behind this tragedy. I have no idea

how large the sewers are… It would take a lot of time to search it. What are your

opinions about this?”

“There are numbers here too! 2-8, what does this mean!?”

“This makes it even more suspicious. I don’t know what these numbers mean…

It could be dividing the city into 8 parts along the compass axis and the

intersection of 2 and 8, or some sort of address… Did Ninya really have enough

strength left to think so complicated? … Even if Ninya wrote it, how much

information was leaked by the enemy? This is too much of a coincidence.”

Lizzie frowned her already wrinkled face, and looked as if she was angry with

Ainz’s surprisingly calm demeanor. She then shifted her gaze to the four corpses

on the ground:

“Who were these people?”

“... They were adventurers commissioned along with me by your grandson. After

we parted, they probably came here to unload the herbs.”

“What! They were your comrades!?”

Ainz shook his head:

“No, they were not. We just happened to be adventuring together.”

These cold words made Lizzie disil usioned.

“Speaking of which, I had been thinking about this, but I would like to ask your

opinion. What do you think about them turning into zombies?”

“... . The enemy has someone who could use magic of at least

the 3rd tier. What other possibilities were there?”

“I think we should deal with this promptly.”

“Isn’t that obvious… What do you want to say?”

“... The enemy could have used either mind control or hidden the bodies, but

they didn’t. They only did something like this for their own amusement. They

either didn’t care about being exposed or had absolute confidence in escaping.

Hmm… I don’t know which is it. Since they could turn corpses into zombies,

they should be able to bring them back with them right?”

If the goal was to kidnap Enfrea, they could buy enough time to escape just by

hiding the bodies. But they didn’t do that, meaning they were planning

something else, or wanted Lizzie to do something.

The latter would be easier to deal with, but it would be troublesome if it was the

former. Enfrea’s life and ability was valuable, but might not be useful for long.

Would those merciless criminal let Enfrea go safely after utilizing him?

Lizzie who understood what Ainz meant turned from green to white. She didn’t

know where in this big city he was kidnapped to, but it would take too long to

search.

The only clue was the sewers, but Ainz had doubts about it.

Enfrea’s lifeline was diminishing with each passing second.

Ainz said calmly to the tense Lizzie:

“How about commissioning a rescue party?”

The calm voice continued:

“Isn’t this something you should request of an adventurer?”

Lizzie’s eyes shined, she seemed to understand what Ainz was getting at.

“You are lucky, Lizzie Bareal. Before you is the strongest adventurer in the city,

and the only one who could bring your grandson back safely. If you commission

this job to me, I wil accept it. But… The price is very heavy, because I

understand how hard this job is.”

“Indeed… If it is you… The one with that potion… tamer of the Virtuous King of

the Forest, there is no question that you’re strong… hire, I want to hire you!”

“Is that so… Are you prepared to pay this heavy price?”

“How much would satisfy you?”

“───Everything.”

“What?”

“Give me everything you have.”

Lizzie stared with her eyes wide open in surprised and trembled.

“Your everything. If Enfrea returns safely, give all that you have to me.”

“You…”

Lizzie backed away from fear and said in a soft voice:

“When you say everything… it doesn’t mean money or rare potions… I heard

the devil would grant any wish in exchange for human soul. Are you a devil?”

“... Even if I am, it doesn’t matter, does it? Do you want to save your grandson?”

Lizzie was silent, and nodded as she bit her lips.

“Then there is only one answer right?”

“Yes… I will hire you. I will offer everything to you, so save my grandson!”

“Good, the contract is agreed. Let’s make haste, do you have a map of this city?

Lend it to me if you have one.”

Lizzie felt it was bizarre, but she immediately took out a map and handed it to

Ainz.

“Next would be finding where Enfrea is.”

“You can do that!?”

“I have to use this method. I am not sure if the enemy is dumb or…”

Ainz didn’t finish and just shifted his gaze to the 4 bodies in the room.

“I wil start searching now, go to the other rooms and look for clues, see if the

people who kidnapped Enfrea left anything behind. If kidnapping Enfrea is also a

diversion, then things will be bad. You are more familiar with the house and

better suited for this.”

After chasing Lizzie out with a random reason, Ainz turned to Narberal.

“What does my liege plan to do?”

“Simple. Look, all their medals are gone, probably taken by the one who

attacked them. The question is why they didn’t take something more valuable,

but just the medals… What do you think?”

“My apologies, I have no idea.”

“That is because──”

Ainz heard a sound in his mind when he was talking halfway. It was a

.

『Ainz-sama.』

The voice was a bit excited, and the sound of buzzing could also be heard.

“Is this Insect Queen?”

『Yes.』

Insect Queen Zeta. A battle maid just like Narberal.

『I have something to report.』

“——I am busy right now. I wil contact you when I am free.”

『By your command. Please contact Albedo-sama when you are available.』

The spell dissipates and Ainz continued the discussion with Narberal:

“As a trophy, a prize of the hunt. The perpetrator probably took it as a momento.

But that was a devastating mistake. Narberal, activate the spell.”

Ainz took a scroll from his magic bag and gave it to Narberal.

“This is a scroll of . You know what the target is right?”

“Understood.”

Narberal who acknowledged opened the scroll. When she was about to activate

the spell, Ainz grabbed her hand and lectured the surprised Narberal coldly:

“... Stupid.”

The cold scolding made Narberal’s shoulder tremble:

“I, I’m sorry!”

“When using information gathering spells, you need to be prepared for

counterspells of the enemy before casting it, this is the ironclad rule. Keeping in

mind that the opponent might use , the basics of the basics

would be using and to protect yourself.

Also──”

Ainz prepared 10 scrolls, and explained each one to Narberal like a teacher.

When using information collecting spells, you had to make the necessary

precautions. Those were the basics.

When Ainz Ooal Gown PKed, they would collect every information available

about the opposition and settle it in one sneak attack. This was the ‘the battle is

concluded before it even started’ dogma of the guild member Punitto Moe, who

came up with the basic strategy for the guild, ‘PK can be performed by anyone

easily’.

That’s why Ainz taught Narberal the basics too, so when they encounter other

players in the future, they could gain the upper hand in battle.

“——That’s all. Normally a special ability should be used to strengthen it as wel

for insurance, but there shouldn’t be a need to go that far for the enemy this

time. If they had thought of more ways to deal with magic chanters, they

wouldn’t had cast that level of spell on the corpse. Well then, let’s begin

Narberal.”

Narberal who was finally unleashed opened the scrolls in order and chanted the

magic written on the scrolls.

Flames that weren’t hot emerged from the scroll and burned it to a crisp in

seconds, releasing the magic sealed inside it.

After expending all the scrolls’ magic, Narberal who was protected by numerous

defensive spells finally activated . She pointed to a spot on the

map:

“It’s here.”

Ainz who couldn’t read searched his memories to deduce what that place was.

“... Cemetery. The chance of it not being the sewers were high indeed.”

Re-Lantier was a military base and that cemetery was unbelievably huge. The

spell indicated the deepest spot of the cemetery.

“I see, next would be using and together, so I can see the scene over there too.”

Narberal activated more scrolls, and the screen that appeared in mid air showed

countless figures. But their movement seemed creepy and rigid. Not just that,

there were also things that were clearly not human.

In the middle of all that was a youth. The dressing was different, but Ainz

wouldn’t get it wrong.

“That is the place. The medals are in the vicinity… and a large mob of undead?”

It was a huge group of undead. They were low tier undead, but their numbers

were frightening.

“... What is my liege’s will? Teleport and destroy them in one go? Or use flying

magic to attack from the front?”

“Don’t be sil y. Wouldn’t the problem be solved in the dark that way?”

Ainz explained to the confused Narberal:

“To prepare so many undead, the opponents must be thinking of doing

something big with them. Since we are going to rescue Enfrea, we wil resolve

this crisis on the way there to raise our fame. Taking care of the problem in the

dark would only get us Lizzie’s reward and would be unlikely to raise our fame.”

That might be so, but if they didn’t resolve it as soon as possible, Enfrea might

die. Even Ainz couldn’t summon and manipulate so many undead in one go, so

there must be some sort of trick to this. Enfrea’s presence might be the crucial

piece of that trick.

If that was the case, Ainz wanted to find out the secret behind the trick even if he

had to sacrifice Enfrea.

For Ainz, the most important goal was how to strengthen the Great Tomb of

Nazarick. If sacrificing Enfrea could do that, Ainz would have no choice but to do

so.

“I want to collect more information, but there isn’t enough preparation time.”

Ainz mumbled as he walked to the front entrance, and hollered as he opens the

door.

“Lizzie! The preparations are done. We are heading to the cemetery!”

“What about the sewers?”

The voice came from afar, and Lizzie rushed over.

“The sewers are just a diversion by the enemy, the real location is the cemetery.

And there is an army of undead, numbering easily in the thousands.”

“What!”

It was just an estimate, how could it be possible to count accurately.

“Don’t be surprised, we wil be heading straight for the goal. The problem is that

I can’t guarantee the undead army won’t spil out from the cemetery. Try to tell

everyone about this, ask them to fend off the undead that wander out of the

cemetery. This information lacks evidence, but since it’s a request from a

renowned person like you, people should be wil ing to listen right? If the undead

came out of the cemetery and no one is prepared… Things would be bad.”

Ainz’s face under the helmet smirked.

It would be troubling for me if they don’t make it a big deal. The bigger this gets,the greater the fame I wil receive from resolving the crisis. That’s why I am

doing this.

“That’s all I want to say. Time is of the essence, so I will be heading there now.”

“You have a way to break through the undead army?”

Ainz looked at Lizzie as he pointed to the swords on his back:

“The way is right here.”

Part 3

A quarter of Re-Lantier's city walls was used to surround an enormous area,

which took up half of the city's western district. That was the public cemetery of

Re-Lantier. There were cemeteries in other cities too, but not one of such a

scale.

That was in order to suppress the rising undead.

There were stil many unknowns regarding why the undead rose, but unclean

things tend to sprout from places where the living meet their end. The probability

of the undead rising was higher for those who were kil ed and those who were

not mourned. Hence, it was common to find undead in places like battlefield and

ruins.

Re-Lantier, which were situated near the Empire’s battlefield, needed a gigantic

cemetery to prevent the undead from rising——a place for people to pay tribute

to the dead.

For this part, it was the same for the neighboring nation——the Empire. They

also had an agreement to pay tribute to the dead during the war. Even though

they were fighting each other, they stil see the undead that assault the living as

a common enemy.

Apart from that, the undead posed another problem. If you left them alone, they

might produce stronger undead. That’s why the adventurers and guards will

patrol the cemetery every night and destroy the undead while they were stil

weak.

The cemetery was surrounded by a wal , and this wal was the line separating

the living from the dead. The 4 meter high walls couldn’t compare to a siege

wal , but it was enough for people to walk on top of it. The gate was secured and

sturdy, it definitely was not easy to break down.

This was all done to guard against the undead that rose in the cemetery.

There were staircases to either side of the door and an observation tower was

erected beside the wall. Each shift consisted of five men, they yawned as they

took turns to watch over the cemetery.

The cemetery was il uminated by a lamp post enchanted with ,

so it was bright despite being night. But there were stil dark areas, and the tomb

stones obscured the view as wel .

A guard holding a spear looked over the cemetery absentmindedly, yawning as

he said to his watch companion:

“It’s quiet tonight too.”

“Yup, there were five skeletons just now right? Compared to the rate of their

appearance in the past, that’s almost nothing.”

“Yeah, were the spirits of the dead summoned back by the Six Gods? That

would be great.”

The other guards were intrigued by this topic and joined in:

“We can handle skeletons and zombies, but it is hard to take down skeletons

with spears, so it is troublesome.”

“I think wights are the hardest to handle.”

“Centipede skeletons for me. If the adventurers patrolling nearby didn’t come to

assist, I would already be dead.”

“Centipede skeletons? I heard that if you leave the weak ones alone, stronger

undead would spawn. If we kil them while they are weak, the strong ones won’t

spawn.”

“Yes, absolutely true. The team that patrolled last week was lectured viciously by

our team captain. The wine they offered as an apology was great, but I don’t

want to ever experience that again.”

“But… If you think about it, the undead not showing up could mean trouble.”

“... Why?”

“Well, it feels like our surveil ance is missing something.”

“You think too much, normally there won’t be so many undead. I heard that the

undead rise frequently after burying the bodies of those who were kil ed in battle

against the Empire. Conversely, this is how it is without war right?”

The guards nodded to acknowledge this theory. Although the vil ages in other

areas also bury their dead, they had never heard of such frequent spawning of

the undead there.

“... Now you mention it, the situation in Kaze plains went out of hand.”

“Yup, I heard incredibly strong undead spawned there right?”

The plains where the Empire and the Kingdom clashed. That place was a

famous zone where the undead roamed. The adventurers commissioned by the

Kingdom and the knights of the Empire exterminate the undead there frequently.

The importance of this job prompted the support division of the Kingdom and the

Empire to set up a small town there.

“I heard──”

The guard who was about to speak stopped suddenly.

The other guard who felt uneasy because of this said:

“Hey, don’t──”

“Quiet!”

The guard who stopped speaking seemed to be able to see through the dark

and stared at the cemetery. Affected by this action, the other guards looked

towards the cemetery.

“... Did you hear that?”

“Was it your imagination?”

“I didn’t hear anything… But I smell soil. Didn’t we dig a grave recently? It smells

just like that…”

“Don’t joke like that.”

“... Huh? Ah, hey! Look over there!”

A guard pointed towards the cemetery. Everyone focused on that spot.

Two guards were sprinting towards the main gate. They were out of breathe and

their wide open eyes were bloodshot. Their sweat-stained hair stuck to their

forehead.

The scene before them made the guards feel something was wrong.

The guards patrolling the cemetery moved in groups of ten. Why were there just

two? They were running without weapons and seemed to be running for their

lives.

“Quick, open the gate! Open the gate now!”

Seeing the way these two were screaming, the guards ran down the stairs and

opened the gate in a hurry.

The two guards scampered in without waiting for the gate to fully open.

“What in the…”

The two guards interrupted while panting with a pale face:

“Quick, close the gate! Hurry!”

Al the guards got goosebumps looking at their unusual actions, closing the gate

together and placing the bolt in place.

“What happened? Where are the others?”

Hearing this question, the guard lift his head and had a shocked expression.

“They, they were eaten by the undead!”

Hearing that 8 comrades had fallen, the guards looked to their captain. The

captain immediately ordered:

“... Hey, someone get up there and take a look!”

A guard climbed the stairs and stopped when he got half way up.

“What, what is it!”

The trembling guard shouted:

“Undead! A huge mob of undead!”

Straining their ears, they could hear sounds like a stampede of horses coming

from the other side of the wal . Not just the guard that first sighted them, all the

guards present were dumbstruck by the scene before them.

A mind numbing number of undead were advancing towards the gate.

“What is with these numbers…”

“It’s more than a hundred or two… There should be thousands…”

There were countless undead in places the light didn’t shine, it’s hard to gauge

the actual number if you include the figures wriggling in the darkness.

With their rotten stench the innumerable undead closed in on the gate with

unsteady steps like a dark cloud. Not just zombies and skeletons, there were a

few strong undead mixed in ── Ghouls, Devourers, Wights, Bloaters, Carrion

Crawlers etc.

The guards trembled in fear.

The city was protected by the walls, the undead couldn’t attack normal citizens

without breaking through the wal s. But even if they mobilize all the guards, it

was uncertain if they could keep such a large group of undead at bay. The

guards are just peasants wearing defensive gear, they didn’t have the

confidence to exterminate all these undead.

Not just that, some undead could even turn the people they kil into their own

kind. If things went bad, the guards might even be turned into an undead and

start attacking their comrades. No flying undead were sighted yet, but if they

didn’t take care of this soon, it would only be a matter of time before vicious

undead able to take flight spawned. This made the guards even more terrified.

── The wave of undead washed to the wal s.

Bang bang──

The swarm of low-intelligence undead couldn’t feel pain and bashed the door

haphazardly. They seemed to realize they could attack the living after breaking

down this door.

Bang bang──

The banging sound, the creaks of the door bending under the pushing force and

the moans of the undead kept coming.

With no need for brakes, the undead who didn’t mind shattering under the brunt

of the impact were like a siege weapon.

The guards witnessing this sight were breaking out in cold sweat.

“Sound the bell! Request reinforcement from the guard post! The two of you

inform the other gates of the emergency!”

The captain issued the orders after getting hold of himself:

“The ones behind use spears to attack the undead that approach the gate!”

The guards remembered their duties when they heard the orders, thrusting their

spears hard at the undead below. The mass of undead flooding the ground were

easily hit.

Thrust, pull back and thrust again.

Murky blood and the rotten stench numbed the noses of the guards who

repeated the same action like a factory worker. Several undead lost their

negative life force, and got trampled by the undead behind them after they fell.

The undead lack intelligence, so they didn’t fight back against the guard’s

repeated spear attacks. Repeating the same motion made the guards lose their

sense of danger.

As if it was aiming for this moment──

“Wahh!”

There was a scream and when they looked toward the source, the neck of a

guard was entangled by something long and squirming.

It was a smooth and pink—— an intestine.

An egg shaped undead stood at the place the intestine came from. In front of it

was a wide gap with the organs of several people squirming in it like parasites.

That was an undead known as Viscera Egg.

The intestine pulled the guard over.

“Yahh!”

Before others could help him, the guard fell with a scream──

“Help! Save me! Ah, Yahh──”

——The shriek started again. Al the guards saw the terrible fate of their

comrade as he was eaten alive by the congregation of undead.

The armor protecting his body and the action of protecting his face prolonged

this cruel moment. Fingers, calves, face, all of them were stripped bare.

“Fall back! Down the walls!”

Seeing the Viscera Egg squirming again, the captain sounded the retreat.

Al the guards rushed down the stairs and the sound of the undead banging the

gate became louder, the creak of the gate became even clearer.

The feeling of despair grew stronger. The chances of reinforcement coming

before a stronger undead appear were too slim. Once the gate opened, the

wave of death would rush forth, leading to the demise of countless lives.

When despair was written on the faces of all the guards, the sound of metal

clanking could be heard.

Everyone looked towards the source on reflex.

Before them was a warrior in full armor riding a monster with black intelligent

eyes. Besides him was a beauty who was out of place with the surroundings.

“Hey! It’s dangerous here! Hurry up and leave──”

At this moment, the guard saw the medal dangling before the warrior’s chest.

An adventurer!

But the flicker of hope was extinguished when they saw it was a bronze medal.

There was no way an adventurer of the lowest level could resolve this crisis. Al

the guards showed faces of disappointment.

The warrior leap off the monster nimbly and showed no signs of bulkiness.

“Didn’t you hear! Leave this place at once!”

“Narberal, hand me my sword.”

The warrior’s voice was obviously softer than the guards, but despite the noise

of the swarming undead it was unexpectedly clear. The beauty came to the side

of the warrior and drew the sword from his back.

“Look behind you, it’s dangerous alright?”

Heeding the warrior’s warning, the guards turned back and witness their end

looming before them.

There was a figure that was taller than the 4 meters high wall.

It was a giant undead made from countless corpses and ghouls.

“Wahhhh──”

As the group screams and was about to run away, something surprising

happened before them. That warrior held his sword with the stance of throwing a

spear.

What was he doing?

This question dissipated in the next instance.

The warrior hurled the sword out at an unbelievable speed. The guards tracked

the place the sword flew and saw something even more incredible.

The giant made from the undead, the undead monster that seemed impossible

to defeat was staggering backwards as if it was hit by an even bigger enemy. It

then fell, a colossal sound erupted, proving the giant had indeed fallen.

“——the undead are in the way.”

The dark warrior only said this as he drew the other sword and strode forward

“Open the gate.”

The guard couldn’t grasp what he was saying immediately, only understanding

after blinking a few times.

“Don’t, don’t speak nonsense! There is a huge mob of undead on the other side

of the gate!”

“And so? What has that got to do with me, Momon?”

Facing the absolute confidence of the dark warrior was stunned beyond words.

“... Never mind, it couldn’t be helped if you don’t want to open, I will go over

myself.”

The warrior started sprinting, leaped off the ground and disappeared on the

other side of the wall. And he was in full armor too.

The scene was like an il usion.

The guards couldn’t believe what just happened, staring with their mouths wide

open at that empty space.

The beauty who was left behind rose gently into the air and was about to go

over the wall when she was stopped:

“Please wait. Do take this king along with you!”

The sound came from the powerful monster the warrior was riding, its voice was

as dignified as its appearance.

The beauty frowned her brows slightly——which didn’t tarnish her beauty——

and answered:

“... Climb the stairs over there. You won’t be immobilized just from falling from

this bit of height, right?”

“Of course! This king wants to rush to master’s side! Wait for this king, master!”

The giant monster ran past the guards at a great speed, agilely climbed the

stairs and jumped off the wal .

The scene turned silent.

It was like the aftermath of a storm, they stood stunned in place for an

undetermined amount of time. When they gathered themselves, a guard asked

in a trembling voice:

“Hey… Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“The sound of the undead.”

Even when they strained their ears, they couldn’t hear anything. The endless

banging on the gate had also stopped.

The frightened guard shivered as he mumbled.

“Hey, do you all believe this? That warrior… in the face of that huge mob of

undead, he easily broke through… and proceed ahead unharmed.”

The guards felt shock and admiration.

The noise subsided because the undead were drawn away from here by a new

target. It was stil quiet because they were stil in combat and had yet to return.

This unbelievable thought compelled the guards to climb up the walls. The

scene before them made the guards question their eyes as they couldn’t help

but groan:

“What happened… that warrior… Just who is he…”

They could only see the countless bodies lying on the ground. The corpses piled

up like a hil , the entire cemetery was fil ed with fallen bodies. Some of the dead

stil had their negative life force, but they could barely move their body and lost

their ability to fight.

The rotten stench came with the wind as expected and the sound of fighting

could be heard in the distance.

“... No way… They are stil fighting? They broke through the huge amount of

undead! That is unfathomable…!”

“Who in the world is that warrior!”

“... I think he called himself Momon… Being a copper medal adventurer with

such skil s is too outrageous, it is impossible. He should be the legendary

possessor of an adamantium medal right?”

Everyone nodded in agreement with that assessment, that skil was definitely

not a copper medal adventurer.

He should be the owner of the highest medal —— a hero.

There was no other possibility.

“We… probably saw a legendary figure… dark warrior… no, dark hero…”

That mumbling made everyone nod.

♦ ♦ ♦

A flick of his right hand sent an undead flying, a flick of his left cut another in

half.

Ainz’s storm of one hit kil s finally stopped.

“Annoying minions.”

Ainz’s hands was holding swords that were magically created again, looking at

the undead in the surrounding with irritated eyes. He pointed the filth-stained

swords at them.

The undead were in an uproar, trying to get away from Ainz. The undead who

shouldn’t know fear seemed to feel just that from Ainz.

“...This king apologizes for its action.”

The voice came from somewhere high above Ainz. The Virtuous King of the

Forest floated in the air with its limbs spreaded out and whiskers drooping, it

sounded depressed.

The one answering wasn’t Ainz.

“Just… behave. It is hard to carry you if you fidget around.”

Narberal’s voice came from the Virtuous king of the forest’s stomach. Because

the Virtuous King of the Forest wasn’t able to fly by itself, it was being lifted from below by Narberal, who had activated flight magic. Half of her body was pressed

into the soft belly of the Virtuous King of the Forest.

“This one is very sorry…”

The low tier undead who lacked intelligence didn’t show hostility towards Ainz.

They were sensitive to ‘life’, so they sensed that Ainz was from their own kind.

But they couldn’t let go of the ‘life’ of the Virtuous King of the Forest that

appeared later. This dragged Ainz into this chaotic battle. Narberal lifted the

Virtuous King of the Forest with her flying spell so that the undead couldn’t touch

and hurt it.

When Ainz took a step forward, the undead would take a step back. Their

distance remained the same in this encirclement.

The encirclement with Ainz in the center moved according to Ainz’s pace. The

undead seemed to be searching for an opportunity to attack, but anyone who

wil step forward would be destroyed by Ainz with one hit. So the undead simply

encircled Ainz, not daring to engage.

There had been countless examples of undead being decimated when they get

close. Even the undead who lacked intelligence learned from this and formed

this encirclement.

“But this would become a stalemate.”

Ainz complained about the number of undead left.

If Ainz broke through seriously, an undead mob of this level wouldn’t be a

challenge. But if he broke through forcefully, the undead might scatter, which

might lead to the guards nearby getting kil ed. He would then lose his eye

witnesses, failing Ainz’s goal of being ‘the adventurer who resolved this crisis’.

So he had to lure the undead as he advanced in order to ensure the safety of

the guards. But this resulted in the progress becoming slow.

But Narberal took his words literally:

“Let’s call for reinforcement from Nazarick. With a few dozen helpers, we could

decimate the scum opposing Ainz-sama in this cemetery.”

“... Don’t be stupid. I have told you the reason for coming to this city several

times.”

“But Ainz-sama, if you want to gain fame, it would be better to wait for the

undead to break down the gate, and make an appearance after there are more

victims, wouldn’t it?”

“I have thought about that. If we knew information like the enemies’ objective

and the combat prowess of this city, we could possibly do that. But with the lack

of information, we need to avoid losing the initiative. If everything went

according to the opponent’s script, it would be displeasing. And based on my

observations, other parties might come in to snatch the glory.”

“I see… Ainz-sama is amazing. To consider every angle, as expected of the

supreme being, I am once again awed by you. Speaking of which… maybe you

could enlighten me about something. If we send servants proficient in

concealing themselves, like Eight-legged Spiderblade Assassins and

Shadowdemons to observe the situation before any major developments,

wouldn’t that help us act at the best moment?”

Ainz looked at the flying Narberal silently.

The air flowed quietly. Thinking this was a chance, some undead stepped

forward and were cut down by a casual sword swing.

“... If, if I have to teach you everything, how would you learn? Think about it

yourself.”

“Yes! My humble apologies.”

Ainz who was slightly shaken turned his head back to gauge the distance from

the gate, and whether the guards could see him.

“That, that might be so, but time is pressing. In order to cut open a path, I will

use my powers.”

Ainz released his abilities.

.

Collector>.

Two undead appeared after Ainz activated his skil s.

One of the undead wore a mask with a smiling face and an overcoat. The lower

half of its fingers were large surgical knives.

The other undead had a burly body shape and pustules all over its body. The

bandages all over its body were yel ow with several steel hooks. The hooks

were connected to a chain leading to moaning skulls.

The two undead obeyed Ainz’s command and attacked the undead mob that

had gathered. There were just two, but they had the upper hand in terms of

power.

While Jack the Ripper cut off the undead’s limbs with its surgical knifes and the

Cadaver Collector tore off the undead’s head with its chain, Ainz continued to

use his skil s.

“I wil settle all this at once.”

. . After summoning, he ordered them:

“If anything comes into the cemetery, chase them out. It’s fine to kil the

adventurers, but don’t harm the guards.”

The body of the wraith disappeared like a shadow while the skull vulture opened

its bony wings and took flight. Having finished his preparations, Ainz laughed.

Sending out the low tier undead as a precaution to prevent adventurers from

taking out the mastermind with flying magic and steal the glory of this job.

“Let’s go then.”

The two undead that were summoned displayed their skil s, letting Ainz break

through the diminishing amount of undead.

Ainz with only Narberal in toll came to the shrine near the depths of the

cemetery. He saw several suspicious figures in a circular formation before the

shrine, conducting some sort of ritual.

The black robes covering their bodies were unevenly dyed and of poor quality.

They used a triangular cloth to cover their face, showing nothing but their eyes.

The tips of the wooden staffs in their hands had strange engravings.

They were short in stature and judging by the silhouette of their bodies, all of

them were male.

Only the man who looked like an undead in the middle was showing his face,

and his clothing was elegant. The man held a black stone in his hand and

seemed to be concentrating.

Their soft whispers were transmitted into Ainz’s ears with the wind. Their pitch

changed in unison and sounded like a prayer, but it didn’t feel like the solemn

prayer offered to those who had passed on and more like an evil ritual

desecrating the dead.

“Shall we launch a sneak attack?”

Narberal said softly into Ainz’s ears, but he shook his head and said:

“It’s useless. They seemed to have noticed us.”

Having no special abilities to hide himself, Ainz just walked boldly towards

them.. He avoided the light of the cemetery as he moved, but the enemy could

see as clear as day if they used . From Ainz’s experience, the

summoner and the summoned monsters had a telepathic link. After kil ing so

many undead, by now their opponent should have detected Ainz’s approach.

In fact, several of them were staring at Ainz’s group.

They probably didn’t attack because they had something to say. That was Ainz

conclusion while he walked towards them.

When Ainz group walked into the light, the suspicious group took a stance and

one of them told the man in the middle: “Kajit-sama, they are here.”

Okay, they are definitely stupid… No, maybe they are just pretending to be

retarded. Let’s hear what they want to say.

“Ara, what a beautiful night. Don’t you think it is a shame to waste it on boring

rituals?”

“Hmmp… I wil decide if it is suitable for rituals. Anyway, who in the world are

you? How did you break through that mob of undead?”

The man in the middle of the formation——if it wasn’t an alias, this man called

Kajit had the highest status here——asked Ainz on behalf of everyone.

“I am an adventurer who was commissioned a quest to search for a missing

youth… You should know who without me saying the name right?”

The group took a stance, confirming Ainz’s suspicion that they were not innocent

bystanders.

Ainz looked from under his helmet at Kajit who was scanning the surrounding

with a bitter smile.

“Is it just the few of you? Where are the rest?”

Hey, hey, would anyone ask like that? He might be on guard against

ambushes… but ask after using your brain a little. From the looks of things, this

guy is nothing but an abandoned chess piece.

Ainz shrugged weakly and replied:

“It’s just us. We flew all the way here using flight magic.”

“Lies, that is impossible.”

Ainz felt there was a hidden meaning behind Kajit’s confident words and asked:

“Believing or not is up to you. Back on topic, if you return the youth unharmed, I

could spare your life alright? Kajit.”

Kajit glared at the moronic disciple who addressed him by name.

“——And your name is?”

“Before that, I have something to ask. Apart from you all, is there anyone else?”

Kajit looked at Ainz with cold eyes:

“It’s just us——”

“——It’s not just you, all right? There should be someone using melee

weapons… Planning a surprise attack? Or are they hiding because they fear

us?”

“Ohh~ You investigated the corpse~ Impressive~”

A woman’s voice came from the direction of the shrine.

The woman showed herself slowly, a metallic clanking sound could be heard

with every step she took.

“You…”

“Ara~ We’ve been found out~ It’s pointless to keep hiding. By the way~ I was

only hiding because I am unable to use ~”

The woman smiled bitterly, replying to Kajit who sounded rather fierce.

Despite showing a strong front, they stil didn’t use the hostage Enfrea───

Maybe Enfrea was already dead. As Ainz was thinking about that, the woman

asked:

“Could I know your name? Ah, I am Clementine. Pleased to meet you.”

“... It’s useless, but I wil humor you. I am Momon.”

“I have never heard that name before… what about you?”

“Me neither~ I have gathered information about all the high-level adventurers in

this city, but there wasn’t anyone named Momon. Why do you know about this

place? The death message indicated the sewers though~”

“The answer is under your cape. Show it to me.”

“Wahh~ Pervert~ Ecchi~”

After saying that, the woman─── Clementine’s face twisted. Her grin was so

wide it almost reached her ears:

“Just kidding~ You mean these?”

Clementine lifted her cape, revealing a scale armor with a multitude of colors.

But Ainz excellent eyesight saw through the truth behind the armor immediately.

This wasn’t a scale armor, but metallic medals.

There were numerous adventurer-medals there. Platinum, gold, silver, iron

copper, there were even mithril and orichalcum too. These proved that

Clementine had been kil ing adventurers and taking their medals as trophies.

The clanking of the metals were like the grudging moans of the dead.

“It was these trophies… that told me about this place.”

Clementine had a baffled expression but Ainz didn’t want to explain.

“... Nabel. Take care of the men including Kajit. I will take on this woman.”

After Ainz finished, he warned Narberal in a soft voice to pay attention above

her.

“Understood.”

Kajit smiled mockingly while Narberal had cold eyes and an uninterested

expression.

“... Clementine. Let’s fight over there.”

Ainz didn’t wait for Clementine to respond and walked away. He was very sure

his opponent wouldn’t refuse, and the sound of leisurely footsteps behind him

proved his point.

After going some distance, the place where Narberal and Kajit were at was hit

by a bril iant and deafening lightning. This lightning was like a cue, prompting

Ainz and Clementine to glare at each other.

“Could it be that the people I murdered in that shop were your companions? Are

you angry because your comrades are dead~?”

As if she was mocking, Clementine continued:

“Hahaha, that magic chanter was hilarious. Believing someone would come to

the rescue ‘til the very end~ It was impossible to last ‘til help arrived with that

tiny bit of stamina… Was that rescuer supposed to be you? Sorry~ I kil ed them.”

Ainz shook his head at Clementine who was all smiles:

“... No, no need to apologize.”

“Really? Such a pity~ It is really interesting to infuriate those who get agitated

when their comrades get mentioned. Hey, why are you not angry? How boring!

Are they not your companions?”

“... I did similar things too, so I would be acting wilfully if I was to accuse you.”

Ainz lifted his sword slowly:

“... They were tools to raise my fame. After they returned to the tavern, they

would’ve spread stories of my exploit to other adventurers, how just the two of

us defeated the Virtuous King of the Forest. Interfering with my plans displeases

me.”

Something in Ainz’s tone made Clementine smile:

“I see~ How sad of me to be despised by others~ Oh right, choosing to fight me

is a mistake~ That beautiful girl is a magic chanter right? It’s impossible for her

to win against Kajit-chan~ If the two of you switch, you might win if you were

lucky. But that woman won’t win against me either~”

“To win against you, Nabel is more than enough.”

“Don’t be sil y~ A mere magic chanter won’t defeat me. It would be over before

you know it~ That’s how it has always been~”

“I see, you are confident in your prowess as a warrior…”

“That’s obvious. In this country there are no warriors that can defeat me~

Correction, almost no warriors that can defeat me~”

“Is that so… I thought of a good idea. I wil give you a handicap and exert my

revenge this way.”

Clementine squinted her eyes and expressed unhappiness for the first time:

“According to the intelligence from the Windflower guys, there are only five

people who could put up a fight against me. Gazef Strolonoff, Blue Rose’s

Gagaran, Crimson Droplet’s Lucen Bagel, Brain Unglaus and the retired Wise

Croft de Lefan… but they couldn’t beat me even if they held nothing back. I

could even do that without the magic item bestowed to me by the country.”

Clementine showed a disgusting smile to Ainz:

“I don’t know how disgusting your face is under that helmet, but I, who has gone

beyond mortal limits~ and stepped into the realm of heroes, wil never lose!”

Compared to the fired up Clementine, Ainz was calm and collected:

“That’s the reason why I wil offer you a handicap. I won’t go all out.”

Part 4

“.”

In Narberal’s open palms were two lightning ball's that were twice as big as

normal, which she fired simultaneously.

───Strike.

The lightning ball with its magnified power expanded rapidly, the giant lightning

ball that flew out had a wide range, il uminating the area surrounding the

cemetery as bright as day. The magic powered lightning dissipated in an

instance and its destructive power was immense.

Kajit’s underlings who were caught in the effective area fell to the ground.

Only one man remained unmoved.

“Really… Why didn’t you fall like those lower life forms (caterpil ar)... Did you

activate ?”

Narberal asked and saw that Kajit’s face showed signs of burns.

In that case, it should be a lower tier spell of ,

.

Narberal felt it was a pity that she couldn’t wipe them all out in one strike, but

consoled herself that this was within the acceptable range. It would be too dull to

settle it with just one hit.

“You are not a simple idiot, but an idiot that can use tier 3 magic!”

“... Idiot? This lower life form (tick) dares calling me an idiot!”

Narberal frowned.

“Anyone who foolishly attempts to derail my plans is obviously an idiot. Not

knowing my might and rushing here to meet your end! My preparations are

done! Let me show you the power of the supreme pearl fully charged with

negative energy!

Kajit lifted the pearl in his hand.

It shone like a black lump of iron, a plain pearl. It wasn’t polished and the shape

was rough, so it was closer to being an ore. Narberal saw the pearl was

pulsating.

Suddenly, the six disciples who were burned all over by the lightning got up.

That wasn’t the movement of a living being. The six disciples were manipulated

by undeath, stumbling into the space between Narberal and Kajit. Narberal

looked at the scene before her irritably.

“Sending zombies to be my opponent?”

“Hahaha, that’s right. That is more than enough! Attack!”

Zombies, the lowest tier of undead, didn’t have the ability to use magic. Narberal

cast a spell on the six disciples closing in with their claws extended.

“.”

A ball of white once against electrified the surroundings, swallowing the disciples

which were in range. The lightning dissipated instantly and the disciples fell once

again. The enemies were disposed of easily, but Narberal didn’t look happy.

wasn’t able to spawn multiple undead at the same time. This

must be the result of her opponent using some special support skil s.

Narberal shifted her sights onto the black ball in Kajit’s hand. The power of that

item allowed Kajit to control multiple zombies at the same time.

To name it the supreme pearl with merely such effects. Only the overlord of the

Great Tomb of Nazarick and the 41 great beings that created us are worthy of

the title ‘supreme’.

While Narberal was feeling displeased, Kajit said happily:

“Enough! It has absorbed enough negative energy!”

The black ball in Kajit’s hand absorbed the darkness of this cemetery and

seemed to be glowing. It seemed to be pulsating like a heart, and was beating

stronger than before.

If it was left alone, it could become troublesome in the future.

Narberal was about to act after judging so, but then she heard a sound. It was

the sound of the wind. Remembering the warning of her master, Narberal leapt

up strongly.

A giant object swiped down next to Narberal, floating slowly towards Kajit and

landed.

It was a being made from bones and about three meters tall. Composed of

countless human bones, it was mimicking a mythical creature with a long neck,

wings and four legs───a dragon. The tail formed from numerous bones

slammed the ground powerfully.

It was a monster known as Skeletal Dragon.

The level of such a monster wasn’t high for Narberal, but a feature of the

Skeletal Dragon was dangerous to Narberal.

Narberal looked surprised for the first time.

“Hahaha!”

Kajit’s unrestrained laughter erupted from all sides.

“The Skeletal Dragon with absolute resistance against magic, a powerful enemy

that renders magic chanters helpless!”

If Narberal’s spell wouldn’t harm the Skeletal Dragon, then──

She took out her sword along with the sheath, the weapon her master insisted

she should carry just in case. The sword was tied onto the sheath with ropes so

it couldn’t be drawn easily.

“——I wil beat you to death.”

Narberal took a step out.

Narberal deftly dodged the Skeletal Dragon’s foreleg swipe and wanted to

counter attack. As the swipe raised a gust of wind, Narberal made her way to

the Skeletal Dragon’s chest.

She used all her might—— and swung.

The three meter tall Skeletal Dragon was sent flying.

Followed by the tremble as it hit the ground.

“What!?”

Kajit was dumbfounded.

The Skeletal Dragon was formed from bones, so it looked rather light. But that

was just the appearance. Sorcery-based magic chanters sought the mastery of

spells every day, and shouldn’t have the strength to give such a blow.

Kajit hid behind the enormous body of the Skeletal Dragon and yel ed:

“——You, who the hell are you! Could it be mithril… No, orichalcum level

adventurers!? There shouldn’t be any adventurers like that in this city, did you

follow me or Clementine here!?”

Kajit ground his teeth irritably.

“Yes, this kind of agitation suits lower life forms (Burrowed Click Beetle) well.”

“You, you!”

How could the Skeletal Dragon, that exhausted so much negative energy and

took the grand ritual two months to create, lose so easily. This was his Magnus

Opus that took years of planning to execute.

While Kajit’s face was red from anger, the Skeletal Dragon stood up slowly with

a cracking sound. The bones forming the chest had a giant fracture with

fragments falling off constantly. It couldn’t take any more hits.

“No! No! No!”

“.”

Black rays shone from Kajit’s hand onto the Skeletal Dragon, repairing the

Skeletal Dragon’s damage with negative energy.

“It has absolute resistance against magic, but it can be healed with spells.”

Ignoring Narberal’s nitpicking, Kajit continued casting magic.

, , , .

Kajit kept casting spells to strengthen the Skeletal Dragon.

The skeletal body of the Skeletal Dragon became tougher and stronger from

magic, a dazzling black flame covered its entire body. There was even an

invisible barrier before its body, shielding it from attacks.

“If that’s the case, I wil do that too.”

, , .

Narberal activated defensive spells too.

After both sides cast their defensive magic, the battle started anew.

Narberal swung her sword.

It hit the front leg of the Skeletal Dragon dead on, but Narberal frowned.

Although she could hit the opponent easily like before, the situation wasn’t good.

She wasn’t proficient in melee combat and the weapon wasn’t suitable.

The Skeletal Dragon’s body was made from bones, so piercing and slashing

weapons were ineffective. Since Narberal didn’t have any blunt weapons, which

would be the most suitable, she could only use the sheath. She had the upper

hand, but the balance of her attack was poor and she was unable to effectively

damage the Skeletal Dragon.

A professional warrior might be able to achieve balance, but Narberal was a

magic chanter, she was not proficient with this.

The front limb of the Skeletal Dragon swiped over the head of the squatting

Narberal. The black flames covering the Skeletal Dragon burned Narberal who

evaded the attack, but nullified the effect and

the black flame disappears without a trace.

If she didn’t cast protection spells in advance, Narberal would had been hurt

from the effects even if she did dodge the attack.

“.”

Kajit healed the Skeletal Dragon with his magic rays.

This was another reason Narberal was frowning. No matter how much damage

she dealt, Kajit would restore the Skeletal Dragon from behind. Narberal wanted

to take out Kajit first, but the Skeletal Dragon was in the way, stopping her.

Even if she use piercing spell such as , it would be blocked by the

Skeletal Dragon which could nullify magic. Wide area spells like would also be resisted by Kajit’s magic defence, making it almost ineffective.

If she used mind control to release the defence, it could decide the match at

once──

“——.”

“——.”

Narberal and Kajit activated their spells at the same time. Narberal used a spell

that could bewitch humans while Kajit cast a defensive spell on himself that

renders mental attacks ineffective.

The result was—— Kajit smiling victoriously while Narberal clicked her tongue

and frowned.

Maybe she was distracted by Kajit’s smile, a shadow loomed over Narberal’s

face.

A white object that covered her entire field of vision appeared before Narberal.

——Impossible to evade.

With a flash of inspiration, Narberal rested the tip of her sword on her shoulder,

using the blade as a shield. Her sword hand and shoulder took the brunt of the

impact which numbed her body. Narberal flew into the air from this hit.

This was the result of the Skeletal Dragon’s tail swinging with Narberal’s face as

the target.

“Oh, ohh.”

Narberal didn’t fall as she landed agilely with both feet on the ground, but she

stil stumbled backwards.

It was a great chance to press the attack, but the Skeletal Dragon stood its

ground. It had to protect Kajit, so it couldn’t go too far. Watching the Skeletal

Dragon act this way, Narberal waved her arm to relieve the pain and numbness.

Kajit showed his face from behind the Skeletal Dragon──

“—— .”

“—— .”

The green spear-shaped object Kajit cast hit Narberal’s body. The javelin of acid

should have harmed her, but it was blocked a few centimeters before Narberal’s

body and dissipated. At the same time, the lightning was also blocked by the

Skeletal Dragon and rendered ineffective.

Kajit and Narberal glared at each other.

“... Using defensive spells? How troublesome.”

“... That should be my line, lower life form (Bagworm). How about fighting

honorably and stop hiding?”

“Why do I have to come out?”

“Wouldn’t it mess up your plans if you are trapped here?”

Kajit glared at Narberal when she mentioned that. In contrast, Narberal smiled

nonchalantly.

“...There’s no other way.”

Kajit who seemed to have made up his mind held the strange ball up to the sky...

“Witness the power of the Pearl of Death!”

The ground trembled and Narberal’s body followed suit. That was a sign of a

gigantic being showing itself.

The ground cracked the next moment and a second white beast slowly rose.

“... Another one.”

“Hmmp! The negative energy had been exhausted. Even so, I stil want to

dispose of you and your companion. If I spread death in this city, it should

recoup its energy!”

Compared to the emotionless Narberal, Kajit’s shout was full of wrath.

“Phew.”

After breathing out hard, Narberal charged forward with incredible speed. Kajit

wasn’t expecting that and was caught off guard.

The Skeletal Dragon swiped its foreleg at Narberal who was in its range.

Narberal turned to dodge the forelimb’s attack, but the other Skeletal Dragon

was lying in wait, attacking with its tail with a force threatening to peel the

ground off.

Narberal leapt a good distance backwards and the giant tail missed its mark. It

suddenly changed direction, went up and smashed downwards towards

Narberal.

Narberal dodged left to avoid the heavy strike that made the ground tremble, but

the Skeletal Dragon on her right closed in and swiped its foreleg.

“Ugh!”

Narberal used the sword to block the mighty blow. The weight behind the hit was

immense, but Narberal blocked it steadily and pushed back. The Skeletal

Dragon staggered back, and there was a short break in the action.

“... Just who the hell are you? To defend that with martial arts… How did you

train that skil !?”

“Because I was created by the supreme being that is greater than god.”

“Are you mocking me, idiot!”

“You wouldn’t understand even if you learned the truth, to call me an idiot when I

mention the supreme being… That’s why I say humans are lower life forms

(planarian).”

Narberal glared at Kajit with sharp eyes. It was a sharp cold gaze that makes

you want to back away.

Kajit who felt afraid ordered as if he was trying to shake off his fear:

“Go! Skeletal dragon!”

The two Skeletal Dragon maintained an adequate distance from Kajit and

attacked once again.

Dodging the Skeletal Dragons attack while attempting to get nearer, Narberal

lost her chance because of the other Skeletal Dragon’s attack. The back and

forth went on for some time, and the moment to settle the match finally

appeared.

“Acid Javelin.”

Narberal unconsciously averted her face to dodge the magic spear coming at

her.

That was a grave mistake. It had no effect even if it hits, so she could have

ignored it. But it was going towards her face, so she dodged on reflex. That was

a mistake a magic chanter who didn’t raise her melee combat skil s would make.

This mistake had serious consequences.

“Pew!” With a loud bang, Narberal’s field of vision changed drastically. She was

flying to one side.

She felt a short moment of weightlessness before falling heavily to the ground.

Her left hand was hit by the Skeletal Dragon’s tail attack. Rolling on the ground

made her dizzy and she couldn’t tell where she was.

Her body was protected by multiple spells, so it didn’t hurt, but the two Skeletal

Dragons were lifting their forelegs on top of Narberal.

It’s hopeless── that is normally the case.

“I wil spare your life if you surrender.”

Kajit who was sure of his victory smiled cruelly at Narberal.

Kajit wasn’t planning on sparing her. His expression was obviously hoping to

see the pitiful sight of the girl beg for mercy and stil getting ravaged in the end.

Narberal propped the upper half of her body up, her face was twisted with fury:

“... Mere… human…”

“... What?”

Narberal stared unwaveringly at Kajit:

“A mere human like you dare say such arrogant words? You trash.”

Kajit, whose eyes were wide open, trembled with anger and ordered Narberal’s

execution.

“Destroy her, Skeletal Dragon!”

When the forelegs of the two giant dragons lifted up, Narberal smiled.

The subject of Narberal’s adoration. No matter how far away he was, she

definitely would hear him.

“Narberal Gamma! Display the power of Nazarick!”

“... By your command. From now on, I am no longer Nabel, and wil handle this

as Narberal Gamma.”

The skeletal forelegs of the Skeletal Dragon stomped down, attempting to

squash Narberal. Narberal activated her spell in the nick of time.

“.”

Narberal’s vision changed to a different scene.

Narberal was five hundred meters overhead.

Since she didn’t have wings, she dropped straight down.

The howling wind slapped against her body as the ground got closer. Narberal

laugh out loud:

“——.”

Her speed of descent slowed and Narberal floated in the air, looking down at the

scene of battle below. Kajit and the two Skeletal Dragons couldn’t see Narberal

and were looking around in surprise.

♦ ♦ ♦

“Sigh~ I am tired~”

Ainz heard Clementine’s carefree words.

After a few minutes of battle, Ainz’s swords didn’t touch Clementine even once.

“By the way~ your abilities are great~ it’s worthy of praise~ but~”

Her expression changed into the grin of a predator.

“~ Are you stupid? You are just wielding your sword with your excellent physical

abilities. You don’t even know how to feint, swinging your sword around like a

kid with a stick. Even if you hold a sword in each hand, you would be better off

using just one if you don’t know swordsmanship. Are you looking down at

warriors?”

“Attack me then. You’ve been dodging all this time right? It would be

disadvantageous for you if this drags on for too long.”

Ainz responded with a cold laugh.

Clementine frowned. Indeed, Clementine didn’t attack Ainz at all.

She was just dodging Ainz’s attack because of his freakish athletic ability, so

Clementine was unable to find a chance to attack.

It wasn’t as effortless as Clementine made it out to be. Her strong words were

caused by her frustration of not being able to take the initiative to attack.

“Where did your confidence that no warrior could beat you go?”

“......”

Clementine finally drew her weapon after Ainz taunted her. On her waist were

four short blades known as stilettos and a morning star. She took one of the

stilettos out.

Ainz confirmed the morning star was stained with filth that looked like blood and

minced meat with his extraordinary eyesight. Ainz tightened the grip on his

sword.

As both of them were preparing to make a move, the earth trembled.

Ainz couldn’t look away from Clementine who took a stance and just glance a

little. He saw two giant dragons made from bones where Narberal was fighting.

“... Are those Skeletal Dragons…?”

“Correct~ You are quite knowledgeable. That’s right~ That’s the nemesis of

magic chanters.”

“I see. That’s the reason why Narberal couldn’t win.”

“That’s~ how it is.”

Clementine regained her cool after the Skeletal Dragon appeared and she

teased Ainz. Ainz frowned his il usional face under his helmet.

For magic chanters, Skeletal Dragons are tough enemies. And there were two of

them at the same time, so it was impossible for the current Narberal to deal with

them.

Clementine seemed to realize Ainz was worried so she made a movement.

This action served to keep Ainz in check and there should be a follow up. For

warriors, they would use the chance to attack when they see a stronger enemy

than them show a weak point.

Clearing the issue with Narberal out of his mind, Ainz thrusted his left sword out

and waved it slightly to keep Clementine at bay as he readied the sword in his

right hand.

Clementine’s weapon was the piercing type and lacked variety in attack

methods like hack and slash weapons. It was a weapon reinforced for thrust

attacks. The delicate structure of the stiletto wasn’t strong enough to clash with

the great sword.

That was why Ainz kept his distance by using the sword in his left hand as he

waited for Clementine to get close by herself. But the opponent knew this too.

“You have any way of closing this distance?”

“What do you think~”

The crafty Clementine looked calm and collected and had a faint smile. This

showed she had a plan.

Clementine slowly changed her posture, similar to the starting position of a

sprinter, but she was stil standing so it was awkward. It looked funny, but wasn’t

a position to take lightly.

At this moment── Clementine took action. Before the tight defence of Ainz,

Clementine shot out like a fully loaded spring that had been released.

She charged straight on.

It was hard to believe, even for Ainz who had extraordinary physical abilities.

Like the storm taking everything in an instance, Clementine appeared before

Ainz in a blink of an eye, running under Ainz’s sword with the agility to match her

speed.

Facing Clementine’s nimble action, the anxious Ainz swung hard with his right

hand, attacking Clementine with a power beyond his imagination.

At that moment, Ainz saw the grin of that woman became wider.

“——.”

The absurd scene shocked Ainz.

The slender stiletto blocked the great sword which was ten times its weight from

the front.

If she blocked Ainz’s powerful blow, the short blade would probably break. But

even if it miraculously didn’t break, it would be knocked away by the strong blow.

But Ainz’s great sword seemed to have hit a solid siege wal and the blow was

deflected back instead.

As if she was throwing herself into a lover’s embrace, Clementine charged into

Ainz’s defenceless chest. Half of Ainz’s vision was taken up by Clementine’s

smiling face.

Compared to the retreating Ainz, his opponents attack speed was faster.

Combining the momentum of the sprint with all her strength, her strike used the

shift in gravity terrifically like a shooting star.

With a flash, a screeching sound erupted in the cemetery.

Clementine dodged the counter attack from Ainz’s left sword and backed away.

Ainz grasped the secret behind Clementine’s attack.

“——Martial arts!”

Skil s that do not exist in YGGDRASIL, the magic of warriors—— martial arts

which Ainz had to be wary of.

The effect is probably defending against sword attacks and nullify the power of a

sword. She must have used martial arts to deflect Ainz’s attack.

“... How tough~ What is that armor made from? Adamantium…?”

It doesn’t hurt, but he stil heard the sound of friction and the feeling of

something sharp hitting his left shoulder.

Ainz glanced at the shoulder which received the blow and the armor there was

only slightly dented. It didn’t have unique powers, but this armor was stil created

by a level hundred magic chanter. The toughness of the armor would increase

with level, so the dent was telling of how powerful Clementine’s strike was.

“Forget it. Since it’s like this, next time~ I wil attack somewhere more

vulnerable~ I wanted to weaken you slowly and torture you when you couldn’t

move~ What a pity.”

After learning Clementine didn’t attack his shoulders randomly but was trying to

disable Ainz’s arm, Ainz felt impressed by Clementine for the first time.

Ainz could only wield the sword simply to hurt the enemy. With just one direct

hit, he could end his enemy. When facing skil ed foes, he had to consider how

the fight would flow as the battle goes on.

It was a fruitful experience...

“Well, I am coming~”

While Ainz was feeling impressed, Clementine adopted the same forward

leaning position like just now. Ainz lifted the great sword in his right arm in

anticipation of the attack. He didn’t thrust out the left sword this time.

Clementine scoffed at Ainz’s posture and charged over. She was so fast even

Ainz’s incredible dynamic vision had a hard time keeping up. If she wasn’t

coming in a straight line at him, she might escape out of sight.

Facing the premonition of Clementine’s charge, Ainz swung his right sword to

attack──

“.”

───and was deflected by the opponent’s martial art once again, but this was

within expectation. In the previous clash, Ainz lost his balance because he was

attacking with full strength, so he held back this time.

Absorbing the recoil that was similar to hitting a wal , Ainz swung the great

sword in his left hand. Ainz was confident the opponent couldn’t block this

second strike.

But in an instant, Clementine activated another martial art.

“”

This martial arts created an unexpected result.

Time in this space seemed to be manipulated──as if he had fallen into a

viscous liquid, al his movements were slowed down. Ainz great sword became

really slow.

But Clementine retained the same speed in this slow world, dodging the sword

easily and made her way in front of Ainz.

It might be the imagination of Ainz. To prevent his movement from being

interrupted, Ainz had a magic ring that prevented his movements to slow down

because of external factors——or unknown situations.

It was probably because the fight with Clementine was intense, that’s why he felt

her speed increased drastically. Most importantly, Ainz had seen this martial arts

before and didn’t feel this way back then.

“Gaz──”

Gazef Strolonoff used this martial arts before.

He didn’t finish uttering the name when the stiletto stab towards him. It was

aimed at the gap of the helmet—— the eyes.

Ainz turned his head hard. Although the gap wasn’t hit, the sound of screeching

steel stil reached his ears. Before he had the chance to sigh in relief, he saw

from the corner of his vision that Clementine was raising her stiletto, ready to

strike again.

“Tch!”

Even taking the difference in physical abilities into account, Clementine’s

straight thrust was faster than Ainz’s swing. The stiletto didn’t miss this time,

scoring a direct hit on Ainz.

“Hmmm~?”

“Ugh!”

A surprised sound and a panicked voice could be heard at the same time.

Ainz pressed his hand against his helmet without letting go of his sword and

jumped a huge distance backwards. But Clementine didn’t press her attack.

Looking at Ainz with slanted eyes, Clementine looked at the tip of the stiletto and

said mockingly:

“Don’t give me any handicap, you wil die if you don’t use your full power, you

know~”

In order to clear her doubts, Clementine continued asking the silent Ainz:

“But how did you do that? Being unharmed after taking that hit just now. I was

sure it would definitely hurt you~”

“... Ara ara. This battle… has been very fruitful. It tells me about the existence of

martial arts, taught me not to simply use brute force in battle, and the

importance of keeping my balance.”

“... Huh? Are you an idiot? To talk about this now… You are not worthy of being

a warrior. But it doesn’t matter since you will die here anyway~ But I hope you

wil answer my question… Was that a defensive martial art~?”

Clementine spoke as if she has had enough. Ainz smiled bitterly under his

helmet, thinking that she was right.

“I have much to learn… I am grateful. But time is short, let’s end this game.”

Ignoring the baffled Clementine, Ainz shouted:

“Narberal Gamma! Display the power of Nazarick!”

Spinning the swords in his hand, Ainz stuck both swords tips down into the

ground. Ainz reached out with one empty hand at Clementine, gesturing gently

for her to come:

“Well then, come at me with the resolve to die.”

♦ ♦ ♦

“... To really know magic, looks like you aren’t putting up a false front.

But how did you dodge the attack just now? I was behind the Skeletal Dragon

and didn’t see…”

Narberal who slowly descended from the sky heard the wary questions. Kajit

couldn’t fathom why she didn’t escape using the magic. She could have

retreated since she was facing Skeletal Dragons, which baffled him.

“Hmmp, you think you can win? In the face of Skeletal Dragon with absolute

resistance against magic?”

“There are countless ways to win… But before that…”

Narberal grabbed her shoulder and pulled off her robe:

“I am Narberal Gamma, one of the battle maids (Pleiades) who swore fealty to

the overlord of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the supreme being Ainz Gown Ooal.

You lower life form (Human) should be honored to battle with me.”

Her dressings changed completely. Wearing gold, silver and black metal

gauntlets and knee guards. Wearing armor designed after the maid uniform of

manga with a white bonnet taking the place of a helmet. Narberal held a staff

that was gold on the inside, silver on the outside.

The abilities of a user-designed item in YGGDRASIL could be altered with data

crystals. Narberal’s robe included a highspeed clothes-changing crystal. So

Narberal didn’t need to waste time changing her equipment and put on her

preset gears immediately.

The robe that was taken off would be put into her item box.

Seeing the maid appeared before him, the confused Kajit blinked repeatedly

before he grasped the situation──

“What?”

── And then he shouted in surprise.

Seeing a magic chanter morph into a maid was definitely surprising.

Kajit felt displeased to see this joke like dressing, but Narberal’s composed

demeanor made him feel danger, so he ordered the Skeletal Dragons to attack

immediately. The two Skeletal Dragon approached Narberal with unexpectedly

nimble movements, swinging their forelegs made up from countless bones. As

they were about to hit, Narberal activated her spell.

“.”

“Again!”

Narberal disappeared again.

Kajit looked up in the sky to searched for the missing Narberal, stil

remembering what happened earlier. But a sense of pain told him where

Narberal was.

“——Ahhh!”

Kajit’s screamed echoed in the cemetery. Kajit’s left shoulder suddenly burned

with pain and the pain spread all over his body with the beating of his heart.

The shocked Kajit looked at his wound as the sharp blade was about to be

drawn out of it.

“——Ugh, ugh!”

The sword was pulled out crudely, inducing a sharp pain once again. He felt his

bones being grinded, which accentuated his discomfort. Blood sprayed out of

the sword wound, staining Kajit’s black robes.

Kajit who was drooling from the pain turned his head in a hurry to see what was

happening.

He saw Narberal standing before him with a puzzled face.

“Is it that painful?”

“——!”

Narberal used her hand that wasn’t holding the staff to toy with the dark,

bloodstained shortsword.

Kajit couldn’t speak because of the pain.

A magic chanter who seldom fought in the front wouldn’t experience a lot of

pain. And Kajit was usually served by others and the one inflicting pain. That’s

why he had such low tolerance for pain.

Kajit’s head was sweating as he ordered the skeletal to attack with his mind.

Narberal retreated, putting some distance away from the approaching Skeletal

Dragon. The speed of was faster than the average speed of sprinting.

The two Skeletal Dragons charged into the space where Narberal had been.

Hiding behind the Skeletal Dragon, Kajit regained his calm after getting into a

safe position and finally understood which spell Narberal was using.

That is──

“This is teleportation!”

was a 3rd tier magic, but for magic chanters, it was just a means for them to escape and put some distance between them and the enemy.

But that was the limit for magic chanters with poor physical abilities. For magic

chanters who were as skil ed as warriors in melee combat, this spell was as

good as an offensive spell. No, with its element of surprise, it might be stronger

than some half-baked offensive spell.

Kajit pressed on his shoulder and glared at Narberal: “I see, your ace in the hole

is using teleportation to kil me! You used that to escape earlier too right!?”

It was a troubling ace. Since spells were ineffective against Skeletal Dragons,

Narberal just needed to kil their summoner, an obvious tactic. With her skil ful

use of teleportation, Kajit might not be able to evade.

But Narberal answered casually:

“That’s impossible.”

Kajit couldn’t understand what she meant for an instant and kept blinking his

eyes. As if to reinforce her explanation, Natberal sheathed her sword:

“I’m just showing you that I could kil you easily.”

Narberal displayed a way to change her crisis into an opportunity, but gave up

on it herself. Kajit couldn’t understand what she was getting at.

“Are you crazy?”

“You might be a lower life form (Flea), but what kind of answer is this? Use your

head.”

Seeing Narberal’s icy glare, Kajit shivered.

He wasn’t shaking from anger── but fear. Uneasiness flooded Kajit’s mind.

“It’s about time to end this. As his underling, It is rude to let Ainz-sama wait…

you seemed to think spells are ineffective against Skeletal Dragons, so let me

enlighten you, lower life form (shore fly). The price would be your life.”

Letting go of her staff, the sound of a clap could be heard── white arcs of

lightning could be seen between her parting palms. The surrounding air sparkled

brightly because of the twisting dragon shaped lightning.

Narberal was enveloped by a white glow.

“...Eh.”

Kajit was dumbfounded. He knew that was an incredible magic beyond his

intelligence. He could see Narberal smiling coldly in the glaring white light.

Before him was the gigantic body of the Skeletal Dragon. Remembering their

presence, a shril alarm sounded in Kajit’s heart.

“──You think you can defeat Skeletal Dragons with their absolute magic

resistance!? Go! Kil her!”

Kajit couldn’t conceal the fear in his shril voice as he shouted his orders.

When the two Skeletal Dragon drew near, Narberal smiled like a cold master

schooling her foolish disciple:

“Absolute magic resistance? Skeletal dragons do have resistance against

magic, but that is only against spells of the 6th tier and below.”

The Skeletal Dragon would take a moment more to reach Narberal. In this time,

the strangely calm Kajit understood what Narberal meant.

“──That means the Skeletal Dragon can’t resist me, Narberal Gamma, who can

use spells of an even higher tier.”

She was telling the truth. Kajit’s instinct told him that.

Which means this woman could take out the Skeletal Dragon and send Kajit to

hell──

“Why! The fruits of my labor over 5 years is gone in less than an hour!”

The wailing Kajit saw various scenes in his mind like a carousel.

Kajit Dale Batantier.

Because of work in the vil age, his father with a chiseled body and his matured

mother gave birth to him in a vil age bordering the Silian Theocracy and he

spend a ‘normal’ childhood there.

He turned out like this because he saw his mother’s corpse.

That day── when the sun set was stil bright, Kajit ran home panting. His

mother wanted Kajit to return early, but he was late because of some small

matters which he couldn’t remember. Searching for pretty stones or holding a

stick pretending to be a hero. He was delayed by such insignificant matters.

Kajit ran home fearing the lecture of his mother and saw her collapsed in the

living room. When he rushed in and touched her mother, that warm sensation

was stil fresh in his mind.

He felt this was a joke, but things didn’t went as he hoped.

Kajit’s mother was no longer of this world.

According to the priest, the cause of death was ‘blood clot in the brain’.

Which meant there was no foul play, no one was at fault. No, Kajit felt someone

should be responsible.

Which was himself. If Kajit had returned earlier, he might had saved his mother.

There were many faith based magic chanters in Silian Theocracy, and Kajit’s

vil age had several of them. If he ran to them for help, his mother might stil be

smiling healthily right now.

His mother’s face twisted from pain was all his fault.

Kajit made up his mind to fix his own mistake── which meant resurrecting his

mother.

The more he learned about magic, the bigger the problem he faced.

Faith based magic of the 5th tier had a resurrection spell, but it couldn’t revive

his mother. Because the resurrection will exhaust a large amount of life force,

those who didn’t have enough life force wouldn’t revive and disappear. Kajit’s

mother didn’t have any life force to expend.

Kajit didn’t have enough time to develop a new resurrection spell. If he gave up

his humanity and became an undead, he could buy more time to research new

resurrection spells── That was his conclusion.

Abandoning the faith based magic he accumulated in the past, Kajit took the

path to become an undead through sorcery based magic. But there was another

obstacle in his way.

Even if he took the route of a sorcery based magic chanter, it would take a very

long time to become a high tier undead after abandoning his humanity. He was

also limited by his talent and potential, and might even fail to become an

undead.

One way to break through these obstacles was to accumulate a large amount of

negative energy── That’s right, kil ing the people of an entire city and drawing

the negative energy of them becoming the undead.

Just when his wish was about to come true, why did another obstacle appear?

“I spent five years to prepare in this city! The wish I couldn’t let go after thirty

years! Do you have the rights to destroy all this!? You, who suddenly showed

up!”

A cold smile answered Kajit’s howl:

“I am not interested in the wishes of a lower life form (you). But your efforts are

laughable. I have some words for you… Good work in being the stepping stone

of Ainz-sama.”

“.”

Bursts of dragon shaped lightning came from both of Narberal’s hands.

The lightning that was thicker than an arm hit the Skeletal Dragon, and shook

their massive white bodies. The lightning flowed through the entire body of the

Skeletal Dragon, ending its false life.

The results were clear.

Under the might of the lightning, the Skeletal Dragon that should have absolute

resistance to magic started to shatter.

Even after shattering the Skeletal Dragon, the lightning stil remained. The two

lightning dragon seemed to be searching for their next prey as they flew towards

their final target.

Kajit’s vision was covered by white lightning.

He had no time to beg for mercy or howl in despair.

The tears from the corner of his eyes vaporized instantly. Kajit moaned ‘mama’

as he was swallowed by an even brighter light, pierced mercilessly by the

lightning.

Kajit spasmed while he was stil standing, as if he was performing a weird

dance.

After burning the insides of the body, the lightning disappeared, leaving a

smoking Kajit rolling on the ground.

The charred, burning smell was everywhere.

Narberal shrugged, mumbling at Kajit who was now a heap of charred flesh:

“Even a lower life form (worm) smells nice after gril ing… I wonder if its fine to

give it to Entoma as a present.”

When she mentioned her colleague who preys on humans, Narberal had a

sarcastic smile.

♦ ♦ ♦

The warrior was holding up his arms, as if he was waiting for a hug.

“... What are you playing at~? Giving up?”

“Give up what? Since I gave Narberal the order, I thought it’s time for us to settle

this.”

“What? Are you daydreaming~? Your martial arts are laughable, do you think

you can win against me, the great Clementine? How infuriating.”

“It’s impressive for the weak to crack such jokes.”

The agitated Clementine wanted to rebuke ‘that’s you right?’, but she calmed

herself.

The warrior skil s of the man in front of her were laughable, but his physical

might was abnormally good. From what she knew, he was just beneath the two

celestials── The black scripture’s ‘Special’ and the chief captain. He swung the

swords chaotically as he pleased, and it would be deadly if she slipped up and

got hit.

Acting her usual self, Clementine taunted with a mocking smile:

“...Never mind, I agree we should finish this~”

The warrior Momon shrugged in reply.

Clementine observed the posture of this man calmly. He was full of openings,

but that couldn’t be all. This must be a trap.

But Clementine had no choice. What she said sounded as if she was kidding,

but she was actually serious. She could escape with the power of the Skeletal

Dragon, but she couldn’t waste time. It was needed to throw the members of the

Windflower Scripture off her tail, but she already spent too much time playing

around.

Clementine squatted down slowly, tightening her grip on the Stiletto.

Finish the fight quickly. If possible, do it in one hit.

Not having time to waste was a reason, but the warrior before her was getting

more coordinated in his movements. It would be safer to dispose of him before

he grew any stronger.

Breathing out deeply, Clementine sprinted. ,

Evasion>, , , she used the same four martial arts as before to make up for the difference in their physical abilities. No

matter what Momon does, she could stil use more martial arts.

In the accelerated world, she could grasp the movement of her opponent

perfectly.

He might draw the sword from the ground or use martial arts, unarmed combat

or hidden weapons. No, maybe he would use a throwing weapon.

Clementine thought of the dozens of ways her foe might fight. Clementine was

confident she could break through all of them.

But all of Clementine’s guesses missed the mark.

── The opponent didn’t do anything.

The dark warrior simply open his arms, waiting for the attack to land.

A chil went down her spine. This was beyond Clementine’s imagination, a fear

of the unknown.

Should she strike courageously or retreat and escape?

She had only two paths to take.

Clementine might be cruel and heartless, but she was no fool. In that split

second, she rapidly considered countless possibilities and ways to counter.

The last thing that encouraged Clementine was her confidence and pride.

She had already left, but she had once been a member of the Silian Theocracy’s

strongest special unit──the Black Scripture. Someone like her shouldn’t be

escaping with her tail between her legs in the face of the unknown and unskil ed

warrior Momon.

After making up her mind, the rest of the pieces fell into place. With no

hesitation and regaining the calm of a first class warrior, Clementine ran towards

Momon’s chest── So close they were almost hugging.

“Die~!”

Using all the muscles in her body, Clementine shoved the Stiletto into the gap of

the helmet. And she twisted her blade forcibly to jab it deep into the brain. Not

only that, she was planning to destroy his other organs, to deal him a fatal

wound.

Although the armored arms were closing in on Clementine in the movement of a

hug, she didn’t care and continued her attack.

Clementine followed through with her thoughts of giving a fatal blow, releasing

the magic sealed in the stiletto. The spell was .

Ainz’s body was pierced by lightning.

Clementine’s weapon was enchanted with a sealed spell. If the sealed spell was

released, the magic stored within would be exhausted. But different spells could

be sealed within, so a variety of magic could be prepared in advance according

to the situation, so it was really convenient.

The Stiletto stabbed into his skull along with the big lightning present── a

definite fatal blow.

But──

“I’m not done yet!”

“.”

She used her enhanced speed to draw another Stiletto and released the sealed

spell within. Clementine imagined the scene of Momon’s body

burning from the inside, and thought she smelled charred flesh.

But── Clementine was stunned by the unexpected scene before her and

opened her eyes wide.

“Hmm, I see. YGGDRASIL doesn’t have such magic weapons. I learned

something new.”

Even though both of Ainz’s eyes were stabbed by Stilettos, he was stil speaking

casually. This made Clementine realize there wasn’t any blood when she

stabbed at the helmet’s slit earlier.

“No way! How could this be! Why aren’t you dead!”

She had never heard of such an invincible martial art. Or he had some ways to

deal with piercing attacks? If that is so, how did he defend against the magic

attacks that followed?

Even Clementine who was a veteran of hundreds of battles couldn’t answer this

question.

“!”

Clementine’s body was hugged, pushing Momon and Clementine close together

as the adventurer’s medals crankles.

“Let me tell you the answer.”

The dark armor disappeared without a trace, revealing the terrifying face below.

It was a skull without flesh or skin. In the hollow eye sockets── were the

Stilettos had pierced his goggles, but it didn’t seemed to hurt Ainz.

Clementine knew what that appearance meant:

“Undead… Lich!”

“...? ...I had many things to ask you, but forget it. I can only say your answer is

very close. Well then──”

Clementine thought that the monster before her shouldn’t have any expression

since it lacked skin or flesh, but she felt it was grinning.

“How do you feel? Dueling with a sword wielding magic chanter? Unable to end

it in a flash, what did it feel like?”

“Don’t, don’t look down on me!”

Clementine struggled with all her might, but she couldn’t move as if she was

chained tightly.

Liches were powerful undead proficient in magical abilities, but their physical

abilities weren’t high. So Clementine should have the advantage. But──

“Why, why!”

──She couldn’t break free.

Once she realized that the giant strength──and the powerful physical

abilities──weren’t the magical effects of the armor, Clementine stiffened. The

scene which came to her mind was a helpless butterfly caught in a spider’s web.

“... This is the truth behind giving you a handicap. An opponent like you isn’t

worthy of my full power── which is using magic.”

“Damn it──!”

“Since the truth is out... before we start, this is annoying.”

With a hissing sound, the lich plucked the stilettos in his eyes out and threw

them to the side. While the undead was picking the blades, Clementine

continued struggling desperately. But she couldn’t match the power of just one

of his arms with al her might. She couldn’t alter the hugging position and was

immobile.

After pulling out both Stilettos, the empty eye sockets shone with evil crimson

light, looking at the gasping Clementine who was using all her strength.

“Let’s begin.”

Clementine was wary about what her opponent was up too, and was closer to

the lich than lovers.

A weird creaking sound could be heard.

When Clementine understood what the lich wanted to do, an icy chil went down

her spine.

“... No way… no way, you bastard──!”

That shril sound came from her own dented armor.

── He is trying to squash me with his chest.

The lich would be subjected to the pressure of the armor too, but he probably

used some method to harden his body. His unyielding body was as sturdy as a

wal .

“If you are just a bit weaker…”

The lich took out a short sword from somewhere. It was black with four jewels in

its hilt.

“I would think about using this sword to end you… But there isn’t much

difference in dying from a sword or breaking your back right? You’l stil die.”

Clementine was trembling all over.

When she heard this casual joke, the pressure increased and the force on her

chest felt unbearable. The adventurers’ medal she got from murdering others

couldn’t withstand the pressure and fell to the ground. The first to fall was the

silver medal she just got.

Breathing became more painful and scary.

She hated the arms hugging her.

She hated herself for wearing light armor in order to increase evasion and

wearing the medals.

Knowing that swords were useless, Clementine punched the lich’s face wildly,

but that just hurt Clementine more. Since Clementine didn’t have the time to feel

the pain, she pulled out her morning star to hammer Ainz, but her position was

awkward and she hit herself instead.

She could imagine her fate easily. The increasingly painful breathing, her belly

that was being flattened and the squashed armor. Al these facts told Clementine

her fate.

“Stop struggling. I could end you quickly by changing the position of my arms,

but you spent lots of time kil ing them, so I will take my time torturing you too.”

Clementine attacked wildly.

She tried pushing his face away, scratching until her nails were falling off, even

biting with her teeth── but all these were ineffective and the unbearable

pressure continued.

No matter how she struggled, she couldn’t break free of the arms’ restraint. But

Clementine didn’t stop struggling, it was hard for her to breath and her vision

narrowed.

“The dance of death?”

She didn’t have the strength to listen to the soft voice.

With the sound of vomit, filth was sprayed onto Ainz. The red light within Ainz’s

eye socket flashed with disgust

Clementine who had been using both of her arms while struggling to escape had

become a spasming corpse.

Ainz didn’t lessen the strength in his arms, but squeezed harder. Shortly after,

Ainz felt the sensation of a thick bone cracking from his arms.

Ainz release the body that couldn’t even spasm.

With a splat, Clementine’s body fell to the ground like trash. Her face was

twisted into a bunch from pain and horror, a terrible sight. She was like a fish

caught from the ocean, her organs visible from her mouth.

Taking out his infinite flask, Ainz washed himself clean from the vomit with the

endlessly flowing water. At the same time, he said quietly to Clementine:

“I forgot to tell you… I am very stubborn.”

Part 5

Just as he was feeling unhappy about being wet and dirty in his clothes, Ainz felt

as if some kind of huge animal was galloping over. Looking towards the direction

of the sound, he saw that it was Hamsuke.

Compared to Ainz and Narberal, Hamsuke’s combat effectiveness was worlds

apart from them, if they had let him participate in the battle, it would’ve cause

unnecessary casualties. Therefore they had him on standby a little far away.

Hearing that there was no longer any sounds of battle, he must’ve run over.

Realising that the gigantic hamster’s cute face was painted with a certain

expression ──The worry for Ainz’s safety──Ainz felt a little depressed.

The gigantic hamster, not knowing that his master was harboring such feelings,

using unimaginable speed and agility as he looked around his surroundings, and

also at Ainz in a flash.

“Wa——!”

Showing his exposed belly, he kept shouting:

“... There is a scary monster here! Master——! Master——!”

Stil feeling some weakness, Ainz held his head. Speaking of which, I haven’t let

Hamsuke see my true form yet, but I can’t let him continue shouting so loudly

anymore. Looking around, he could see adventurers stil fighting against the

undead, although it was difficult to judge the distance, they probably could not

hear him, but no one could guarantee that.

Ainz, using a stern voice rebuked:

“... Stop playing around.”

“Eh? This high and mighty voice… So it is my master!”

“... Correct. So can you lower down your voice.”

“No way! Such an unimaginable appearance… If I had known earlier of my

master’s powerful strength… This underling, Hamsuke, would have sworn his

undying loyalty even more!”

“I see. But I say again, lower your voice.”

“Th-, that is too much master! Please do not treat this king’s oath of fealty so

lightly!”

“... Did you not hear Ainz-sama’s words? Idiot.”

Hamsuke’s flat body was kicked, flying into the distance. Narberal’s foot was

where Hamsuke had just been, and slowly went back.

“Ainz-sama, this stupid animal probably has no feeding value to it. Could you

allow this one to fry it with lightning?”

“No… The Virtuous King of the Forest has a high value, just taking him out onto

the road has already shown his value. Back to the point, Narberal, there is not

much time, quickly collect all of their belongings. There is a possibility that we

have to hand over the remnants to the local authorities, we must quickly discern

the value of these items.

“Yes sir.”

“I wil be in the shrine, I leave the rest to you.”

“Yes! May I ask how to dispose of the bodies? Should I transport them to

Nazarick?”

“No, perhaps these were paid out by the mastermind of this situation, so just loot

them for their equipment.”

“Yes sir.”

“Painful….”

Hamsuke who was running back purposely heaved out a big sigh, making

Narberal send him a cold stare:

“Compared to giving it their all, more importantly is to listen to the words of Ainz-

sama. This is the duty of a servant. For you, who is comparably the most inferior

of servants, every word must be said with care, else you will be instantly

slaughtered.”

Hamsuke’s whole body shivered.

“Next time it wouldn’t be a physical attack, instead it wil be a magical

punishment. Without going against Ainz-sama’s orders, I wil let you feel pain

until you beg to be kil ed.”

“I understand… Please stop having such a scary expression… But master’s new

majestic appearance is amazing, truly wise and strong.”

Narberal’s expression warmed:

“Of course. Ainz-sama’s appearance is truly wise and powerful, to be able to see

this much, this means that you stil have some insight.”

“Thank you for your praise. If this is master’s original appearance, then does

Narberal-sama also have another appearance?”

“... I am a doppelganger. This face is my ability. See.”

From her gauntlet exposed three fingers, they were longer than those of a

human, looking like inchworms.

“I, I see.”

“No need to be so surprised, you are also among the servants of the Grand

Tomb of Nazarick, no need to cause so much fuss on such a small matter. Back

to the point, I need to collect the equipment off these bodies, you should also

come help.”

“Yes! Understood!”

♦ ♦ ♦

The youth, Enfrea was currently inside the shrine. The youth’s bril iant red eyes

were dull.

The strange transparent clothes that he was wearing were impressive, but Ainz

noticed his face.

Across his face was a long cut over his eyes, one could also see tears and dark

blood clotting, it was obvious that he was blind.

“But… Blindness can stil be cured… Magic sure is convenient.”

The problem was Enfrea’s condition.

Standing straight, he did not respond at all to Ainz’s arrival, even though his

eyes couldn’t see, he should stil be able to know if someone stood in front of

him. But there was no reaction, that meant──his spirit was being controlled. The

question was, what kind of control?

“It definitely is this thing.”

Ainz looked at the crown worn on Enfrea’s head, a crown that looked like a

spider web. Other than that, there was no other suspicious thing.

Extending his hand, thinking about taking off the crown, Ainz suddenly stopped.

Since he did not know what caused this condition, he shouldn’t act casually. So

Ainz cast his magic onto the crown.

“.”

In YGGDRASIL, using this magic allowed one to learn about the effects of an

item. It was also possible to use the spell in this world. No, even worse, a

message like in YGGDRASIL slowly appeared in Ainz’s mind.

“... Crown of Wisdom… I see. However… This item would’ve never existed in

YGGDRASIL… It cannot be reproduced in YGGDRASIL.”

After gaining the knowledge, Ainz heaved a small sigh, and thought about what

to do.

He considered the benefits of bringing Enfrea back to the Great Tomb. The draw

of having access to a rare item and innate ability was large.

But he hesitated only for a moment.

“Since I accepted this quest, deliberately failing it would be detrimental to Ainz

Ooal Gown──let’s smash it then.”

“.”

Ainz cast his magic onto the crown. The sight of it turning into a myriad of tiny

lights was beautiful.

Ainz warmly held the limp youth, then gently laid him down and looked at his

face:

“Next… I just need to heal the eyes… but not in here…”

Ainz touched his face, then slowly got up. The undead he had summoned before

had not yet been completely destroyed, but there were a few things to resolve

first. Soon, reinforcements will surely find this place. Before that, he had to re-

apply his il usion and recreate his sword and armor.

And there were all the items being recovered as wel .

Compared to when he PKed in YGGDRASIL, Ainz chuckled at the fact that he

could take all the weapons and equipment.

Just as he was thinking about whether he should go back and help Narberal loot

the items, Narberal appeared at the entrance of the shrine.

“Ainz-sama.”

“How is it? Have you taken all the items? Including the money?”

“Yes. Just a little question, about this.”

In the hands of Narberal, who was at the entrance of the shrine, was a black

bead, its shape was not flat and it looked like a stone similar to those found near

a river, it didn’t look like it had any value.

“... What is that?”

“Yes, this looks like the precious item that the lower life form (hairpin planarian)

was using during my battle with him. However I do not know what effect it has…”

“I see.”

The spells that the NPC Narberal has learned were far less than Ainz, most of

them were combat magic, so she was unable to discern the item’s worth.

Ainz took the black ball, and activated his magic again.

“.”

The red light in Ainz’s eye shined:

“What is this..? Orb of Death? And… Also a sentient item?”

The name Orb of Death sounded impressive, but it was nothing special.

The item helped supplement the power of the undead, it also al owed one to use

multiple necromantic magics in a day, but all these didn’t appeal to Ainz at all.

Although this was able to manipulate those who were afraid of the Orb of Death,

it couldn’t control Ainz, Narberal or any other kinds of demi-humans or

heteromorphic races and those who have immunity against mind control.

“Can’t be said if this was a good or bad item…”

The only point that interested Ainz was the part about being a .

Ainz lightly poked it, and almost wanted to ask it to speak, when a voice

suddenly appeared in his head.

───Greetings, Great King of Death.

Hearing the voice. Ainz stared intently at the orb, because in this world that was

full of magic and magical monsters, something like this was no reason to cause

a huge fuss.

“Ah, truly a sentient item.”

Ainz flexibility rolled the orb in his hand. Then carefully looked, the orb had no

sign of speaking. Ainz thought for a while, then said what came into his mind:

“I allow you to speak.”

──Thank you very much. Great King of Death.

This made Ainz think about his loyal NPCs back in Nazarick, and gently

laughed.

──I am deeply impressed by thy unmatched aura of death and offer my deepest

respect.

I should have dispelled all of my aura spells, how did this item start calling me

“King of Death”.

“Continue.”

──My thanks, supreme Lord of Death. For the chance to encounter someone as

great as thee, I offer my deepest thanks to all the death in this world.

Although it was words of flattery, but these words seemed like heartfelt words

from the heart. Which caused Ainz’s spine to feel itchy, he proudly stood tall:

“So? Other than flattery, do you have anything else to say?”

──Yes, I know that this may seem disrespectful, but I would like some help to

achieve this wish.

“What wish?”

──Yes. Al along, my wish was to spread death across this world, but after

meeting you, the Great King of Death, only did I realise what I was born in this

world to do ── I was born into this world to serve you.

“... Oh.”

── O Great King of Death, please accept my oath of fealty. I hope that I could

have a place among your faithful servants.

The voice sounded pretty sincere, if it had a head, it should be bowing down

right now. Ainz brought his left fist to his mouth, and started thinking. Thinking

about the underlying advantages and disadvantages, whether it could be trusted

and more.

Ainz carefully looked at the item. If he considered “Safety” then destroying it

would be the best option, but for an item that did not exist in YGGDRASIL, that

would be too much of a waste.

After applying a few defensive spells on the orb, Ainz called for the giant

hamster at the entrance of the shrine:

“Hamsuke.”

“What is it master?”

“Take this.”

Ainz threw the orb in his hand over. Hamsuke skil fully caught it.

“May I ask what is this, master?”

“It is a magical item. Do you know how to use it?”

“Ah… This one should be able to! But how noisy! So noisy that this one wants to

give it back to master.”

Narberal stared wide-eyed at Hamsuke:

“You want to give it to the newcomer?”

Sounding a little out of tone, one could see how shocked Narberal was.

“Although measures have been made to counter its discovery, it can’t be said to

be completely safe, so I handed it to Hamsuke.”

“I see! As expected of Ainz-sama. Such impeccably sound judgement.”

In front of him was Narberal, who felt enlightened, and Hamsuke, who was

puffing his cheeks which were slightly bigger than a human fist as he nodded his

head.

Just as he was about to tell the two of them to retreat, Ainz saw his own red

cloak and on a playful whim, he grasped the edge of the cloak:

“If the recovery is complete, then bring Enfrea along—— “ Ainz exaggeratedly

waved his red cloak.

“——And let us triumphantly return.”

*Name change Insect Queen ==> Entoma

Chapter 5 – Epilogue

The door of the tavern opened.

The place turned quiet with countless sets of eyes being focused on Ainz. No

one stopped him this time while he made his way to the tavern owner.

“You…”

Al their gazes were directed at the metal plate on Ainz’s neck.

Lightheartedly, Ainz said only two words:

“Double room.”

He put down a silver coin and took the key from the silent tavern owner.

Ainz walked into his room and dispelled his magic, reverting back to his true

form.

The mithril plate touched the Nemean lion and making a clear clinking sound.

When he told the guild about the incident at the cemetery last night, he received

this plate .

The silence in the tavern was due to this plate. A man who wore a copper plate

just a few days ago had jumped through the ranks. Now he suddenly appeared

with the mithril rank’s plate, it overturned the knowledge they had accumulated

over the years about how an adventurer should go through the ranks.

Their frank reaction gave Ainz a sense of superiority, but he also felt unsatisfied.

His plan was to rise to Orichalcum rank in one shot, instead he was one ranks

below. If he obtained the Orichalcum plate, what kind of reaction would they

make?

But it wasn’t possible.

This incident was only known to a small group. But after explaining how the

events unfolded, it was determined that Ainz’s accomplishment was incredible

and it should merit a promotion to the Adamantium rank. Instead he was

awarded with mithril plate because Ainz doesn’t have a history of commendable

exploits and the investigation was stil incomplete. The guild made that decision

to err on the safe side.

Which means that the higher ups of the adventurer’s guild have already

acknowledged Ainz to be at the level of the only two Adamantium class

adventurers in the Kingdom.

Furthermore, with passage of time, the battle at the cemetery and the name of

Ainz──Momon the adventurer, should definitely spread throughout the

Kingdom. The guards who had escaped death would definitely talk about Ainz’s

exploits over meals.

The plan is progressing so smoothly that Ainz couldn’t help but smile. It was

more than just smooth, it was a perfectly executed first step.

Ainz flicked the mithril plate with his fingers as Narberal voiced out her doubts:

“Please advise on how to deal with those two? They said that they would contact

us with regards to the payment.”

Narberal was refering to Enfrea and Lizzie── the two pharmacists. Ainz had

already decided what to do with them.

“Lizzie said that she would give her everything, so I told her to bring her

grandson to Carne vil age. I want her to assist me── no, assist the Great

Underground Tomb of Nazarick by concocting potions.”

“... Nazarick has people who can make potions too, why do we need these lower

life forms (Penis fish/fat innkeeper worm) to do that?”

“Because I want a fresh source of powers.”

Narberal simply stared without any response, so Ainz continued to explain:

“Considering that our potion ingredients might dry up, we need to develop ways

to create potions outside of YGGDRASIL’s current manufacturing methods. We

need to research for new technologys that might incorporates techniques of both

this world and YGGDRASIL. We might even be six hundred years behind in

technology. And of course, we have to warn them sternly not to circulate the

manufactured potions… but from how she acted, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Ainz remembers Lizzie’s reaction when he brought Enfrea back.

Though he had already healed Enfrea’s eyes, he was stil unconscious probably

due to shock. Even so, Lizzie who found out that her grandson’s life wasn’t in

danger, broke down in tears and expressed with great gratitude that she would

definitely pay as promised.

“Lizzie’s matter aside, we have more pressing matters to deal with.”

Ainz activated ‘message’ to contact Albedo.

Though he received a message from Entoma, he was busy so he could only

contact her now. Ainz could only ask them to not bother with him until all are

finished.

After ‘message’ linked with Albedo, the first phrase he heard was far beyond his

imagination.

“── Ainz-sama. Shalltear Bloodfallen has rebelled.”

For a moment, he couldn’t understand. After Albedo’s words finally made it into

his mind, his reaction was really stupid.

“... Huh?”

Chapter 6 – Afterword

Dear readers, it has been a while. I am Maruyama.

There was a little story behind the editing of the battle scene, and that was

acting out the movement. My left hand accidentally hit a cup fil ed with coffee

milk. The coffee liquid splashing all over made me want to cry. The beddings

were hit, but it wasn’t too serious. The draft surviving was a great fortune…

Interested readers could try and identify which scene caused the coffee milk to

spil .

It’s that place that stinks of milk.After such hardship, I present to you ‘Overlord 2

The Dark Warrior’. I would be honored if my dear readers were to enjoy it.

This story should be recommended to those who tires of the cliche of rescuing

the damsel in distress right? Since both gender are equal, rescuing a man

should be fine right? The main character always think about himself

immediately, but if everyone likes such a scheming character, I would be very

happy.

Let me express my gratitude next.

And So-bin-sama with his wonderful il ustration for this book. The finished

product was more amazing than what the author had in mind. Inspired by the

completed drawing, I rewrote the battle scene seriously.

Once again, my thanks to Chord Design Studio for completing the dust jacket

and book sleeve. Osako-sama for editing and proofreading the weird parts,

thank you this time too. Editor F-ta-san, I have troubled you a lot. And add a bit

more red! No, I know its better without it…

TL Note: Its not really Book sleeve… Its that small little piece of paper wrapped

around the book at the bottom whenever you buy a book like this, it has the

advertisements and stuff on it.

And my good friend from college Honey-- Thanks for your help this time too.

Lastly, I want to thank all the readers who purchased this book, and the netizens

who gave me your comments while I’m stil publishing on the web. Thank you

very much, everyone’s comment had always fueled me with motivation.

So the next volume… should be more relaxed than this one… should I review it?

I don’t really want to… No, I should do it in order to write an interesting work…

Oh, well enough of my ramblings, it’s about time to say goodbye.

I wil continue to work hard, and I hope we have the chance to meet again in

volume 3.

See you next time.

Document Outline

Prologue

Chapter 1 – The Two Adventurers

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Chapter 2 – Journey

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Interlude

Chapter 3 – The Virtuous King of the Forest

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Chapter 4 – The Twin Swords of Death

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Chapter 5 – Epilogue

Chapter 6 – Afterword