Pleiades Day

Part 3

Yuri Alpha arrived before the chambers of her Supreme Master. On either side were the insectoid vassals which Cocytus had assigned as sentries, who remained stock still. While they were higher-level than Yuri, it was nothing worth worrying about. More than that, Yuri’s heart was focused on the thick, heavy door before her.

She exhaled — of course, Yuri did not need to breathe, so she was just going through the motions — and inhaled. Then, she worked her shoulders up and down, as though to relieve her tension.

Her tension was not for a good reason, such as excitement at being summoned to the chambers of the Supreme One. It was for a bad reason.

That was because she could not think of a reason why she would be selected out of all the entities in Nazarick who were stronger and wiser than herself. The most likely possibility was that he had business with herself, as the assistant leader of the Pleiades Seven Sisters. However, Yuri felt it was more likely that the Supreme One was going to rebuke her for idleness.

These negative thoughts kept floating up in her head, and they weighed down Yuri’s footsteps. Whatever the answer was, she would find out when the door opened.

Yuri reached out to knock.

And then, the regular maid Decrement poked her head out. She was probably on duty today.

She was a lively, short-haired maid.

Her pure and innocent eyes were always sparkling, and her movements were as cute as a small animal, bringing the usual smile to Yuri’s face. In particular, the regular maid Increment — who was made by the same Supreme Being as Yuri’s own creator — had a way of tensing up her back while she was reading which made Yuri feel very warm.

However, Decrement’s air of vitality was gone. It would not be quite right to say that she was nervous about her shift today. The slightly green tint to her face conveyed a sense of fear.

Something cold flowed down Yuri’s back. Her heart which should not be beating lurched.

What kind of tragedy had happened before Yuri had arrived?

However, once she recognized who Yuri was, a hint of relief came to Decrement’s eyes, and she regained a bit of her composure. Why was it that a maid who should have kept these emotions hidden could not help but reveal them?

The look on Decrement’s face implied that the situation was the opposite of what Yuri had imagined.

Whatever the situation within the room was, Yuri’s arrival had put Decrement at ease. In other words, Yuri’s presence had saved Decrement.

“I am Yuri Alpha. I present myself in response to Ainz-sama’s summons.”

“I understand. Please wait a moment.”

As expected, her voice carried a hint of relief within it.

The door before Yuri closed. Naturally, Decrement was awaiting the instructions of her Master within the room.

Yuri gulped audibly, preparing herself for whatever awaited her within the room.

Decrement opened the door once more.

“Ainz-sama has granted his permission. Please enter.”

As though she was urged forward by Decrement’s uncharacteristically tense voice, Yuri entered.

Yuri’s gaze rested on her Master, while she took in the interior of the room without moving her eyes — the situation was grave, and when Yuri sensed what had happened, her face twisted for a moment.

It was no wonder that Decrement had that look on her face. Being made by the same Supreme Being, it was only natural that they would have the same expression when they were worried.

However, Yuri worked to ignore that, and so she passed through the door, arriving before her master.

“—Your servant, Yuri Alpha, has come in response to your summons, Ainz-sama.”

Yuri bowed her head, and Ainz responded immediately, as though he wanted her to raise it immediately.

“Mm. I'm glad you came, Yuri.”

Her master slowly steepled his fingers in front of his mouth.

“Do you know what I wish to say?”

“If you will permit your servant to guess…”

Yuri wanted to look at a certain corner of the room, but she resisted.

“…Is that so. Then, I shall make this quick.”

Yuri knew her Master’s eyes had left her, going in the direction she was strenuously trying to ignore.

Yuri gathered up her resolve, and spoke.

“Does it concern that matter?”

“Indeed. That is precisely the matter.”

In that place was Yuri’s sister, Solution Epsilon.

For some reason, she was in a seiza position.

The fact that she would be sitting in that posture within the room of the Supreme One suggested that she had done something worthy of rebuke.

Yuri was undead, but her gut suddenly cramped up.

“…W-what has my sister done?”

“Umu…”

The Supreme One slowly rose from his seat. Then, he turned his back on Yuri. After looking to the sky for several seconds, he turned his head around and spoke.

“Solution took my Miyoshi-kun, no, Miyoshi — I don’t know if you know, so I shall quickly explain; he is a Sapphire Slime which I use for certain purposes, and Solution has hidden him away somewhere. Even when I asked her, she refused to speak. Therefore, I called you over.”

“Aieee!”

A strangled shriek escaped Yuri’s lips.

That was a truly monstrous sin. It would not be surprising if one were to be executed for it. No, it was a sin which demanded the complete annihilation of the party in question. Since Solution had committed such a grave offense, she could not even begin to beg for leniency on her behalf.

Yuri mustered up all her strength to speak.

“…If she must be questioned, your servant submits that Neuronist-sama might be more suitable.”

Yuri desperately struggled to keep the tears which the undead should not possess from escaping her eyes.

She had to kill off their sisterly ties. This was the appropriate attitude to take with one who had disrespected the Supreme Beings.

“…I will not do that. Firstly, if I seriously intended to investigate this matter, I would only need to read her memories.”

“Yes!”

Indeed, that was correct. That would mean the reason why she had been called up was to shoulder her responsibility as elder sister, to make Solution confess even if she had to use harsh methods.

“—Understood!”

Yuri hardened her heart.

Solution was a Slime. Thus, she was adept at dealing with physical attacks, and she possessed an especially strong resistance to piercing or slashing attacks. However, bludgeoning attacks could hurt her.

Yuri activated her gauntlets, having them envelop her fists. Then, she stepped towards Solution.

“..Wait.”

This time, her supreme master had given an order.

“May I know what is the matter, Ainz-sama?”

“Yuri, what did you intend to do?”

“…Your servant was planning to interrogate Solution.”

“…Umu. Then, then why, are you using your gauntlets to cover your fists?”

Yuri realised her Master’s intent, and then she was stunned. The implication was that he wanted Yuri to carry out the procedure with her bare hands. She would directly feel the sensations of striking her little sister, thus tormenting Yuri, the person carrying it out.

“U-understood. If that is what you command, Ainz-sama.”

Yuri returned her gauntlets to their standby state. Her supreme Master grunted and nodded, then tilted his head.

“Hm?…It feels like my question was not answered, but if you understand, then that will make things simple. Well, forget it. Let’s go with this. In that case, get the answer from Solution, Yuri.”

“Yes!”

Yuri stood before Solution. Perhaps she knew what would happen to her after this, but her little sister merely looked downwards. Yuri raised her fist high, prepared to strike.

“—Stop!”

Yuri sensed worriedness in her Master’s voice as her body went stiff, and then she looked back.

“You… what were you planning to do?”

Yuri did not understand what her Master’s words meant, and she was confused.

“No, ah, in accordance with your orders, your servant was planning to obtain the answer from Solution…”

“…Uh…hm?…Was I mistaken? Let me ask again, how did you intend to make Solution answer me?”

“Yes! Your servant intended to beat her until she was near death, and get the answer from her while her mind was clouded.”

After hearing this, her Master suddenly froze. Then, he stared closely at Yuri.

Had she said something wrong? After nervousness swept over Yuri, her Master turned his back to her once more.

After a few eternal seconds, her master slowly began to speak.

“Yuri. That was not what I ordered. Perhaps Solution hid my Miyoshi because she was obeying some wish of Herohero-san’s. It is something which she cannot tell me. That was why I was thinking that perhaps you could help me ask her for the answer.”

“M-my sincerest apologies!”

Yuri hurriedly put her hands on the floor and bowed deeply.

Indeed, if it was for that reason, then she would not be blamed. The assistant butler could be excused because the Supreme Beings had decided that he should be that way. However, it was one thing to permit it and and another to like it.

“—It is fine. Incidentally, I believe you are mistaken. I am not angry at what Solution did. Rather, I find it quite intriguing.”

Yuri noticed that it was not just her expression which had changed, but Decrement and even Solution as well.

Why was that? Before Yuri could ask, her Master had already spoken.

“—Solution.”

“…Y-yes, Ainz-sama.”

This was the first time Yuri had heard her sister speak since she had entered the room. Her voice was very much unlike that of the Solution which she knew.

Her Master circled around the table, passed near Yuri, and stood in front of Solution. Then, her Master took out a data crystal. It would seem he knew what abilities the crystal had just by holding it, but almost all data crystals shared the same appearance, and only certain job classes could tell their types apart by their exteriors alone.

“I now give you an order. While there is no doubt that this item belongs to me — destroy it.”

“T-though it is your will, p-please forgive me, Ainz-sama…”

Solution refused in a trembling voice.

“I see. Then, let’s move on.”

Her master pointed to the lamp on the ceiling.

“That light is part of my room, but you are to destroy it.”

“B-but…”

“Repairing damage to the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick requires the payment of a fee. However, one can repair a certain sum’s worth of damage every day for no charge. In particular, the upper floors were designed to be particularly cheap given the fact that intruders often attempted to invade, so even repairing the entire floor is not a great expense… In contrast, things on the 9th Floor are quite expensive. Well, items within the royal suites are usually expensive; that’s the usual impression one would have of them in the world.”

Her master spread his arms.

“That said, repairing a single lamp is no great expense, and it should fall under the amount for the free daily repairs. Very well — proceed.”

Solution rose and walked below the lamp and extended her hand. The slimy hand engulfed the lamp, and after a while one could hear the sound of dissolving and crushing.

“…Is that really alright?”

“This is my order, so it is fine. Do it.”

With one of the lights destroyed, the interior of the room grew slightly darker.

“I see, I see. So I should consider that I can order damage to be dealt to the guild base so long as it does not cause incur an actual loss to the Guild, then? Solution, why did you break it? Or rather, why could you break it?”

Solution had a surprised look on her face.

“…I see, it would seem there was a problem with the way I asked that question. Pay it no heed. Then… if you can do damage so long as it does not incur a loss to the Guild, what is the extent of damage which would qualify as a loss?…The creator’s instinct? Or was it because I ordered it? What is different from summoned monsters? Is there a difference between Aura and Mare? Hmm, now this is interesting.”

Her Master seemed to be in a world of his own, as though there was nobody else within his eyes.

“Still, you could only destroy it because friendly fire was enabled, so would this have originally incurred a cost? If that’s the case, then fighting within Nazarick would be very troublesome… I need to investigate this in detail. This is wonderful, Solution. If you had not hidden Miyoshi-kun away, I would not have thought to look into this.”

With that, her Master turned around and looked at Solution.

“You’ve given me quite an interesting research topic. Well done.”

“M-my deepest thanks, Ainz-sama.”

Yuri could understand Solution’s confusion very well. The reason she had earned the Supreme One’s praise was far too mysterious for their meager powers of reason to comprehend.

“Then, I shall continue the investigation. Yuri, give your possessions to Solution.”

There was no hesitation as Yuri handed over her precious gauntlets — which had been made by her creator — to Solution.

“Now, destroy them.”

“I–I beg your forgiveness, Ainz-sama.”

Solution lowered her head.

“Hmmm. I’ll take it that you can’t destroy her possessions. Then—”

A Death Knight suddenly appeared before her Master.

“Destroy this.”

Solution shook her still-lowered head.

“You can’t destroy a Death Knight which I made? Then, can you swallow it without damaging it?”

“If that is all.”

Solution approached the Death Knight and pressed her face to it.

Her head swelled up like it was floating, and her hair lost its false form, revealing its true nature as dirty-colored slime as it swallowed the Death Knight whole. After that, Solution’s head returned to normal, and the massive form which had been standing there had vanished without a trace.

“Hmm…If I had the Death Knight disappear in this state, would it cause you any harm?”

“No, not at all.”

“Really now. Then I shall do it. Good, I see, hm… in other words, the basic consideration is that concealment by itself is not a crime? In that case, maintaining another shape should be the important point, then? Or is there some other reason? Is allegiance the key…? Or is it a system reason? Friendly fire is active, no? It’s also possible that it might be purely due to unwillingness… huh. As I thought, this does merit careful study. That said, I’ve conducted all sorts of experiments, but I haven’t investigated enough. The fact that I could reaffirm that point is also an excellent out—”

Her chattering Master suddenly fell silent. Then he clapped his hands and looked to Yuri.

“…What am I doing? Didn’t I call Yuri here to get the location of Miyoshi-kun out of Solution? Forgive me. I seem to have lost myself in my investigations”

“No, I would not dare. Your servant understands that your investigations are very important, Ainz-sama.”

It was immediately obvious that her Master was pondering a complex and difficult problem. Perhaps if one of the two intellectual peaks of Nazarick were here, they might be able to explain a part of their Master’s thoughts. Unfortunately, neither of them were present. As a result, all she knew was that being able to understand her Master was an amazing thing, but she did not know exactly how amazing it was.

Yuri was a little unsatisfied with that.

“Now then… go speak with Solution and find out why she did such a thing.”

“Yes! I hear and obey!”

She wanted to say that her sister was speaking normally now, but Yuri mentally shook her head. Her Master must have roughly gathered the reason why.

She recalled what Sebas had said today.

As the one who had assembled the Supreme Beings, there was no way he could not have seen through her little sister’s thoughts. In other words, there must be some special reason for this.

Yuri turned back to Solution, who had resumed her seiza position at some point.

“Before I ask you where you hid Miyoshi-kun-sama, answer a question for me. Why did you do such a thing? Miyoshi-kun-sama is Ainz-sama’s possession. You should have known that.”

Solution’s eyes flickered.

In order to keep her from evading the question, Yuri pressed both her hands on her face and forced their eyes to meet.

For a Shoggoth like Solution, escaping from between those hands should have been easy as pie. However, she did not do so. Incidentally, Solution’s eyeballs were also fake, so meeting her gaze was meaningless. After all, she did not use vision to perceive others. Even so, she locked eyes with her elder sister, because Solution could understand how she felt.

The two of them looked at each other.

Finally, Solution’s lips moved.

“Yuri-nee… I–I’m not happy with this.”

What aren’t you happy with? The reason why she did not ask that was because Yuri sensed that Solution had not finished speaking. Thus, she released her grip on Solution’s face, and stepped back.

“…Ainz-sama!”

Solution’s eyes turned from Yuri to her Master.

“Why! Tell me why! I am a Slime too! I can clean you better than Miyoshi-kun-sama! Why! Why won’t you let me bathe with you and lick your glorious body clean?!”

Her Master turned around.

Sensing rejection from his attitude, Solution’s face was filled with despair. Yuri could understand this misery very well, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Decrement making the same face.

Why did it end up like this… if that was not what the Supreme Beings wished for… then my dear little sister will have committed a terrible sin…

It was a grave offense, worthy of capital punishment. No, there was no other possible response than the death penalty.

Just how long had passed since her Master had turned around? While the actual amount of time had probably not been very long, it felt like several times that amount to Yuri. When would he give the order to punish her sister?

Finally, a question rang through the air.

“…That’s it?”

“What else could there be?!”

Solution wept in response to her Master’s question — although her tears were only a part of her body, and they were reabsorbed back into her when they reached her chin.

She could understand her sister’s feelings, but—

“Solution Epsilon! How dare you!”

At the very least, she wanted it to be done with her own hands, those of her elder sister. With that in mind, Yuri clenched her fists—

“—It’s fine. Yuri, there…”

She looked over because of her Master’s voice, and so her eyes met the red points of light staring at her. No, that was not right. His gaze might have appeared to be resting on Yuri, but that was not the case. It was as though he were looking at something far away, far, far away.

Did something happen, Yuri thought as she stopped moving, and then she heard a faint voice saying something along the lines of “Muscle— Brain—?”

The voice was very soft, so she did not hear it clearly. As Yuri’s Master looked upon her confused form, he coughed to clear his throat.

“No, Yuri. Ah… there is no need to strike her. In any event, I am not angry, no?”

“Understood! My deepest thanks!”

Yuri’s eyes could not help but moisten up at her Master’s broad and merciful heart, which could forgive even Solution’s disrespectful attitude. No, if she were not undead, she would surely be weeping copiously by now.

“Uh, umu… then. Solution. I understand how you feel. It would seem my considerations were not quite appropriate. As for why I did not order you to do so, Solution, one reason was because you were not made by me. If I did so. I would be ashamed to face Herohero-san.”

“Herohero-sama, you say?!”

Perhaps it was because he had mentioned the Supreme Being who had made her, but Solution made a sound which one would hardly imagine she could have produced under normal circumstances.

“Umu. Indeed, that is so. Allowing someone like yourself — who would be Herohero-san’s daughter — to do such ah, what, well, that sort of thing, would surely result in a scolding for me.”

Solution lowered her head, and soon after she raised it again.

“…Ainz-sama, please accept my sincerest apologies. Your servant will gladly accept any punishment you wish to mete out.”

“Umu, it is as I just said. On this occasion, my considerations were not complete. If I had explained this from the start, then this would not have happened… Solution, I will not ask after that adorable little rampage of yours… the events of what happened today shall remain a secret between the four of us. Do you have any objections?”

There was no way there could be any such objections.

Yuri breathed a sigh of relief in her heart.

It was good that her sister had not been killed.

“Then… where is my Miyoshi?”

“Here,” Solution’s mouth swelled up greatly, and a blue slime flowed out of it. “It is.”

“Uh…”

Solution held the Slime in her hands and respectfully offered it to Ainz. However, her Master did not reach out to take it.

“Solution, put him back where you found him. And don’t forget to let him soak in water.”

Her Master's intention was to have her follow through on her responsibility until the end.

When one thought about it, that was only to be expected.

Just as Yuri began feeling ashamed of not having noticed how obvious that was, Solution rose and left the room.

“—Ainz-sama, I cannot thank you enough for the mercy you have shown Solution.”

“Hm?” Her Master, who was watching Solution leave, seemed to speak in order to revive his spirits. “No, it was simply that I failed to consider the full picture. I should have tried considering Solution’s side of things… although, I had no intention of entrusting her with bathing duties under any circumstances.”

“Even so, I am still extremely grateful.”

“Hmm… speaking of which, are you Battle Maids dissatisfied with the current situation in any way?”

“May I know what you mean by that?”

“I did not notice Solution’s discontentment. I have failed as a Master.”

“But that is—”

Yuri stopped halfway because her Master had raised his hand.

“Well, please hear me out. I would like you to help me find out if the other Battle Maids are dissatisfied in any way. In the past, I had a Death Knight ask the Guardians about the same thing. Granted, at that time I was only asking about what resources they needed. Then, Yuri Alpha.”

“Yes!”

“I now bestow upon you a task. Go and meet with the other Battle Maids and see if they are unhappy with their current environment and treatment.”

“Understood. Your servant shall immediately carry this out.”

“—Also, I will leave you with a warning. When you encounter an unknown enemy, you are not to say anything along the lines of ‘We’ll punch them first and think about whether we can beat them later’, do you understand?”

“Y-yes. I understand.”

A momentary confusion left Yuri unable to immediately respond. That was because she had no idea why her Master would be saying something like that to her. However, it was an order from the Supreme One, so naturally all she could do was obey.

She was forbidden to punch them and then consider whether or not they could be beaten.

Yuri made a mental note of that.