The Dark Warrior

Part 1

Taking one night to travel to Carne Village, staying in Carne Village 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 illuminated by the white glow from the 「Continual Lights」, 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 Village the next day, so there was insufficient knowledge and attachment to compare. However, he could still 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 filled with surprise, appreciation and fear.

Even so, there was still 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.

All 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 still—

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 till 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 still images of his past, Ainz compared them to his current mental state and agonized over his own fetishes. While doing that, Nfirea 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 Nfirea’s carriage was filled 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, Nfirea 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 will head to Nfirea-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 Nfirea 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, Nfirea also respectfully said:

“Then, the next time you come to my store to buy potions, I will 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 Nfirea’s home. We will go there first, and after doing some chores we will 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 will 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 all 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 Nfirea 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 still 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 skills 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 still able to use around five different types of magic, one of those was the ability to convert his Magic Caster 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 skills. 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 will lead to my certain defeat. Even if I use Magic scrolls, considering the preparation time and so on, there are still too many disadvantages.”

Right now it was still 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 all.

… 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, Nfirea jumped off the carriage’s front seat and opened the door. Hanging the lantern in his hand on the wall, illuminating 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 Nfirea’s heart:

“Is grandma not home?”

Despite Nfirea’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, Nfirea did not shout out in a loud voice.

Waiting until all the herbs were placed in their appropriate locations, Nfirea 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.”

Nfirea 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 「Undead Legion」, 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 still 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 still not possible to control all the undead, but it can still influence them! What a flawless plan~! Perfect~!”

“… Nfirea-san, retreat! Quickly leave this place.”

Wielding his weapon while being wary of the woman, Peter said in a serious tone:

“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 Nfirea, standing in front of him.

“Ninya! You escape as well!”

Following Dyne, Lukeluther also shouted:

“Take the kid and run! Don’t you still want to rescue your sister who was captured!?”

“Yes. You still 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 Nfirea’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 still 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 Bareare, grandmother of Nfirea.”

“Ah! So it is you? You are correct, I escorted Nfirea to Carne village, 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.

“Nfirea, 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. All 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.

“Nfirea!”

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 skill 「Undead Blessing」 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.

All 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! Nfirea 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 Nfirea.”

“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 Nfirea 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 disillusioned.

“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?”

“… 「Create Undead」. 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 Nfirea, 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. Nfirea’s life and ability was valuable, but might not be useful for long. Would those merciless criminal let Nfirea 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.

Nfirea’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 Bareare. 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 will 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 Nfirea 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 Nfirea 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 will start searching now, go to the other rooms and look for clues, see if the people who kidnapped Nfirea left anything behind. If kidnapping Nfirea 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 「Message」.

『Ainz-sama.』

The voice was a bit excited, and the sound of buzzing could also be heard.

“Is this Entoma?”

『Yes.』

Entoma Vasilissa Zeta. A battle maid just like Narberal.

『I have something to report.』

“—I am busy right now. I will 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 memento. 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 「Locate Object」. 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 counter spells of the enemy before casting it, this is the ironclad rule. Keeping in mind that the opponent might use 「Detect Locate」, the basics of the basics would be using 「False Cover」 and 「Counter Detect」 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 strategic document 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 well 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 Casters, 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 「Locate Object」. 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 「Clairvoyance」 and 「Crystal Screen」 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 silly. 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 Nfirea, we will 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, Nfirea 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. Nfirea’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 Nfirea.

For Ainz, the most important goal was how to strengthen the Great Tomb of Nazarick. If sacrificing Nfirea 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 will be heading straight for the goal. The problem is that I can’t guarantee the undead army won’t spill 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 willing 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 will 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:

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 still 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 killed 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 still 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 still weak.

The cemetery was surrounded by a wall, and this wall was the line separating the living from the dead. The 4 meter high walls couldn’t compare to a siege wall, 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 illuminated by a lamp post enchanted with 「Continual Light」, so it was bright despite being night. But there were still dark areas, and the tomb stones obscured the view as well.

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 kill 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 surveillance 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 killed in battle against the Empire. Conversely, this is how it is without war right?”

The guards nodded to acknowledge this theory. Although the villages in other areas also bury their dead, they had never heard of such frequent spawning of the undead there.

“… Now that 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 breath 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!”

All 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 wall. 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 walls. 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 kill 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 walls.

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 reinforcements from the guard post! The two of you inform the other gates of the emergency!”

The captain issued the orders after getting a 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. All 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.

All 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 chance of reinforcements coming before a stronger undead appeared 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. All 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 witnessed 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, they were 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 illusion.

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 wall.

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 proceeded 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 still quiet because they were still 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 hill, the entire cemetery was filled with fallen bodies. Some of the dead still 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 still 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 skills 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 skill 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 kills 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 spread 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 will 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 killed. 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.

「Create mid-tier undead, Jack the Ripper」. 「Create mid-tier undead, Corpse Collector」.

Two undead appeared after Ainz activated his skills.

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 yellow 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 Corpse Collector tore off the undead’s head with its chain, Ainz continued to use his skills.

“I will settle all this at once.”

「Create low-tier undead, Wraith」. 「Create low-tier undead, Skull Vulture」. After summoning, he ordered them:

“If anything comes into the cemetery, chase them out. It’s fine to kill 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 skills, letting Ainz break through the diminishing amount of undead.

Ainz with only Narberal in tow 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 「Night Vision」. From Ainz’s experience, the summoner and the summoned monsters had a telepathic link. After killing 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, that one is definitely stupid… No, maybe he is 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 will 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 「Conceal Life」~”

The woman smiled bitterly, replying to Kajit who sounded rather fierce.

Despite showing a strong front, they still didn’t use the hostage Nfirea─── Maybe Nfirea 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 will 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 killing 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 brilliant 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 Caster was hilarious. Believing someone would come to the rescue ‘till the very end~ It was impossible to last ‘till help arrived with that tiny bit of stamina… Was that rescuer supposed to be you? Sorry~ I killed 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 Caster 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 silly~ A mere Magic Caster 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 will 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, will never lose!”

Compared to the fired up Clementine, Ainz was calm and collected:

“That’s the reason why I will offer you a handicap. I won’t go all out.”

Part 4

“「Twin Maximize Magic, Electrosphere」.”

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, illuminating the area surrounding the cemetery as bright as day. The magic powered lightning dissipated in an instant 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 (caterpillar)… Did you activate 「Negate Lightning Element」?”

Narberal asked and saw that Kajit’s face showed signs of burns.

In that case, it should be a lower tier spell of 「Negate Lightning Element」, 「Resist Lightning Element」.

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 call 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.

“「Electrosphere」.”

A ball of white once again 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.

「Create Undead」 wasn’t able to spawn multiple undead at the same time. This must be the result of her opponent using some special support skills.

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 Casters 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 will clobber you to death.”

Narberal took a step forward.

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 Casters 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 yelled:

“—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!”

“「Ray of Negative Energy」.”

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.

「Reinforce Armor」, 「Lesser Strength」, 「Undead Flame」, 「Shield Wall」.

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 will do that too.”

「Reinforce Armor」, 「Shield Wall」, 「Protection Negative Energy」.

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 Caster, 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 「Negative Element Resistance」 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.

“「Negative Ray」.”

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 「Lightning」, it would be blocked by the Skeletal Dragon which could nullify magic. Wide area spells like 「Lightning Ball」 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──

“—「Charm Person」.”

“—「Undying Spirit」.”

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 still 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──

“— 「Acid Javelin」.”

“— 「Lightning Bolt」.”

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 still 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 skill!?”

“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 Dragons 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 Caster who didn’t raise her melee combat skills 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 will 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 still 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 will 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.

“「Teleportation」.”

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 laughed out loud:

“—「Flight」.”

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 glanced 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 Casters.”

“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 illusional face under his helmet.

For Magic Casters, 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 thrust 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 still 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.

“—「Invulnerable Fort」.”

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 wall 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!”

Skills 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 still 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 still created by a level hundred Magic Caster. 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 will 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 skilled 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──

“「Invulnerable Fort」.”

───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 wall, 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.

“「Full Throttle.」”

This martial arts created an unexpected result.

Time in this space seemed to be manipulated──as if he had fallen into a viscous liquid, all 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 still 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 will 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 will 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.”

Part 4

“… To really know 「Flight」 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 「Flight」 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.”

The abilities of a user-designed item in YGGDRASIL could be altered with data crystals. Narberal’s robe included a high speed 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 Caster 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.

“「Teleportation」.”

“Again!”

Narberal disappeared again.

Kajit looked up in the sky to searched for the missing Narberal, still remembering what happened earlier. But a sense of pain told him where Narberal was.

“—Ahhh!”

Kajit’s scream 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 Caster 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 Dragon to attack with his mind. Narberal retreated, putting some distance away from the approaching Skeletal Dragon. The speed of 「Flight」 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!”

「Teleportation」 was a 3rd tier magic, but for Magic Casters, 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 Casters with poor physical abilities. For Magic Casters who were as skilled 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 kill 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 kill their summoner, an obvious tactic. With her skillful 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, Narberal sheathed her sword:

“I’m just showing you that I could kill 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 shrill alarm sounded in Kajit’s heart.

“──You think you can defeat Skeletal Dragons with their absolute magic resistance!? Go! Kill her!”

Kajit couldn’t conceal the fear in his shrill 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 are 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 village, his father with a chiseled body and his matured mother gave birth to him in a village bordering the Slane Theocracy and he spent a ‘normal’ childhood there.

He turned out like this because he saw his mother’s corpse.

That day── when the sun set was still 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 still fresh in his mind.

He felt that it was a joke, but things didn’t go 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 Casters in Slane Theocracy, and Kajit’s village had several of them. If he ran to them for help, his mother might still 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 Caster, 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, killing 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.”

“「Twin Maximize Magic, Dragon Chain Lightning」.”

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 still 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 spasm while he was still 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 grilling… 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 skills 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. 「Pace of the Wind」, 「Greater Evasion」, 「Ability Boost」, 「Greater Ability Boost」, 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 still 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 chill 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 Slane 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 unskilled 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 「Lightning」.

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!”

“「Full throttle」.”

She used her enhanced speed to draw another Stiletto and released the sealed 「Fire Ball」 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 still 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 that had pierced his goggles, but it didn’t seem to hurt Ainz.

Clementine knew what that appearance meant:

“Undead… Elder 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 Caster? 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 all 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 chill went down her spine.

“… No way… no way, you bastard──!”

That shrill 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 wall.

“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’ll still 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. All 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 killing 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 breathe 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—!”

Still 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 still 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 will 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 will be a magical punishment. Without going against Ainz-sama’s orders, I will let you feel pain until you beg to be killed.”

“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 still 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, Nfirea was currently inside the shrine. The youth’s brilliant 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 still be cured… Magic sure is convenient.”

The problem was Nfirea’s condition.

Standing straight, he did not respond at all to Ainz’s arrival, even though his eyes couldn’t see, he should still 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 Nfirea’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.

“「All Appraisal Magic Item」.”

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 Nfirea 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.”

“「Greater Break Item」.”

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 illusion and recreate his sword and armor.

And there were all the items being recovered as well.

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.

“「Greater Item Identification」.”

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 allowed one to use multiple necromantic magic 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 「Sentient Item」.

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. All 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 skillfully 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 Nfirea along— “ Ainz exaggeratedly waved his red cloak.