The Two Leaders

“All the other guardians are the same. Cocytus took a look when he came by for the lizardmen, Demiurge likes to drop by and check on things, and others come for a visit once in a while. Mmm…

then let’s go now. It’s pretty close.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Nazarick Time 9:38

The newly created village on the 6th floor consisted of about ten log houses. It would be more accurate to call it a ‘tribe’. To the right of the village were farming fields and to the left was an orchard several times the size of the fields.

The surroundings were obviously a forest and from the sky, it would look like a gigantic hole, hence the name ‘The Green Hole’. When cutting down trees and digging out their roots, it would be inevitable for the ground to be uneven. However, the village was strangely immaculate, organized and clean. This was thanks to Mare’s magic.

In the orchards were various figures hard at work. At a glance, they appeared to be human women, but they had skin coloured like tree bark. Beside them were creatures that could only be described as moving trees.

The former were dryads and the latter were treants.

The treants carried the dryads on their arms and raised them up to the fruit trees so that dryads could take care of the orchard.

“Apart from them, ten lizardmen live here. They often go over to the lake to the north, where we’ve just been, and play in the water. It’s not like they live in the water either, isn’t it strange?”

“It is bigger than the last time I was here. More residents as well.”

“That’s right. When we conquered the Great Forest of Tob, we found a couple of species suitable to live in Nazarick as well.”

“The species that are acceptable to Nazarick… must be non-human, require no food and be mild-tempered, those were the conditions, right?”

“Yea, Ainz-sama said that. More specifically it wasn’t ‘require no food’ but ‘must be a self-sustainable species’… Since dryads and treants can gather nutrients from the soil, they don’t really need to eat. Although if the nutrient in the soil is depleted or if it doesn’t rain, it might be a little dangerous.”

“Hmm, does Mare make it rain every once in a while? Or do you use a magic item?”

“That’s usually Mare’s job. Same with recovering the nutrients in the soil. Apparently there’s a magic that makes the land more fertile and it also completely recovers the land. According to the dryads and the treants it’s so delicious that they’re going to get fat… but I wouldn’t really know about how it tastes.”

Albedo, who had been coldly looking around the village like inspecting the tools for an experiment while Shalltear and Aura were talking to each other, showed a glimpse of emotion in her eyes.

“Oh? Isn’t that the sous-chef in the field over there? What’s he doing?”

Following her line of sight, they saw a mushroom-like monster squirming in the corner of a small field, surrounded by a fence which was covered in vines bearing red fruits. On a closer look, it was apparent that he was picking those red fruits while wearing clothes that he could afford to get dirty.

“It’s just what it looks like. He comes here from time to time to grab ingredients. He’s also growing this and that on the side. Want to take a look?”

Albedo and Shalltear looked at each other. Looking at each other, they saw that neither of them was opposed to the idea and felt as long as they were not interrupting their duties, it would be fine to see what their comrade was doing.

“Yaho~. Working and sweating hard as always!”

The sous-chef raised his head at Aura’s energetic voice and spotted the three.

“It’s not like this body particularly sweats either.”

He stood up and straightened his waist with a grunt. It was an appropriate gesture for someone who was working while squatting, but he didn’t really have any feature that could be described as a waist. Because his body was completely straight and there were no contours or narrowing points anywhere, it was difficult to tell whether he really was stretching his waist or was doing it for the sake of doing it.

Next, the sous-chef stretched his neck as if it was strained. His head was a mushroom and looked as if a purple liquid was oozing from it, but since it was very adhesive and sticky it never splattered anywhere.

“Is that a tomato?”

Albedo took interest in the red fruit in the sous-chef’s hand. He raised it up all the way to his face and tilted his head as if it was something strange.

“It seems like a tomato. It’s a tomato you all know very well. Not the type that gathers sunlight to explode, not the type that attacks you suddenly, not the type that glows like gold when you cut it, but a regular tomato.”

“So I reckon it’s a common everyday tomato used as cooking ingredients, right?”

“Yes. Since I don’t have the skill for it, I can’t cultivate any vegetables that confer special effects.

Were you interested in it because you wanted a dish made with tomatoes? Unfortunately, I can only make drinks.”