“I screwed up…”
The village headman seemed to think the knights had come from the Baharuth Empire due to the crests on their armor, but in terms of which countries actually shared borders, it was possible the whole thing could have been a plot by the Slane Theocracy. It had been a mistake to let all the knights go. He should have grabbed at least one and gotten some info out of him. Now it was too late.
Assuming it had been the Slane Theocracy, then maybe he should strike some kind of deal with the empire. The kingdom was fine—he’d already earned some goodwill there for saving this village.
Ainz pondered whether he could really be the only one who’d come to this world. That can’t be. There’s a huge chance other players are here. Even HeroHero might be here. What I need to think about is what will happen if I encounter other players.
If a large number of players had come, knowing Japanese people, many of them would group together. Ainz wanted to be part of that if possible. He would make any concessions as long as they didn’t have to do with Ainz Ooal Gown.
The issue would be if that group saw his guild as an enemy. That wasn’t completely out of the question—Ainz Ooal Gown had role-played evil and done a lot of PK-ing, so they were widely detested. He wasn’t confident that hatred had died out. He might even be antagonized out of a sense of justice or righteous indignation.
To avoid that, the first thing to do would be to make as few enemies as possible. If he killed locals—or especially if he carried out any unnecessary slaughter of humans—it could upset players who still had their humanity. Of course, if he had a reason they found convincing (for instance, saving a village like this one that was under attack), then it might be a different story.
In short, I need to have a really good reason for everything I do from now on. In other words, I didn’t want to do this but…I need a procedure.
In the event this group held a grudge against Ainz Ooal Gown, Nazarick probably wouldn’t be able to avoid combat. Considering their current war potential, they could annihilate thirty level-100 players in one go. And if they used a World Item, the Tomb would transform into an impregnable fortress. They’d probably be able to fight off any enemies like they had before.
But it wasn’t hard to imagine how stupid trying to withstand a raid without backup would be. And each time they unleashed the World Item’s power, Ainz’s level would go down. If they were attacked in waves, they would eventually be worn down to the point where they couldn’t use it anymore.
Ainz knew focusing on warfare was dangerous because it could lead to bias and a narrower view of things, but neither was he so naive that he would act without considering the worst possible outcome. He was simply considering how to deal with problems.
If he only cared about surviving, maybe he wouldn’t have to do all that—he could just live in the mountains and fields like a beast—but he had too much power and pride to do that.
If he tried to get along with people, things ought to work out one way or another.
In that case, the most important item of discussion was how to increase their war potential. He needed to collect more information about the world, including who the players in it were.
“There has to be some mistake…”
“Is something wrong?”
“Oh no. Things are just a bit different than I thought, so I was momentarily upset. More importantly, could you give me some more information?”
“O-okay, yes.” The headman changed topics to discuss monsters.
They had them, just like in Yggdrasil. There were dangerous beasts living deep in the woodlands, especially the Wise King of the Forest, and they also had humanlike races like dwarves and elves, as well as subhuman races such as goblins, orcs, and ogres. Apparently some of the subhuman races had even established countries.
People who went around exterminating monsters for rewards were called “adventurers,” and there were many casters among them. In big cities, there were adventurer guilds.
Ainz also got some information about the nearest fortress city, E-Rantel. The headman wasn’t sure about the population, but he knew it was the biggest city in these parts. It seemed like it would be the best place to gather information.
The information Ainz got from the village headman was useful, but there were still lots of unknowns. Rather than trying to get details here, it would be faster to send a party to E-Rantel.
Then, there was the language. Ainz thought it strange that everyone knew Japanese in this completely other world, so he tried watching the headman’s lips and—no big deal—he wasn’t speaking Japanese.
The movements of his mouth and what Ainz was hearing were totally different.
From there, Ainz did some experimenting. His conclusion? Everyone here had eaten Translation Gum or something, not that he knew where they’d gotten it. This world’s language, or rather the words anyone spoke, would be automatically translated by the time they reached the listener. If a word could be recognized as a word, it would probably work with nonhuman creatures as well, like cats or dogs. He just had no idea how it was possible. The headman, however, didn’t seem to think anything of it—it was taken for granted.
So it must just be one of the laws of this world? If I take a step back and think about it, they do have magic. It wouldn’t be strange at all if this world was governed by a whole different set of laws.
The common sense Ainz had picked up in his life was not the common sense of this world. That was a critical problem. Without common sense, he was in danger of committing a fatal error—nobody ever means anything good when they say, “That guy has no common sense,” and he was certainly lacking it now. He had to do something, but no brilliant moves came to mind. I can’t just grab someone and say, “Tell me all your common sense!” That’d be ridiculous!
Which left him with basically one option.
“…I guess I need to go live in a city, huh?”
To learn common sense would take a large number of models. He also needed to learn about this world’s magic. There were too many things he still needed to find out.
As he was going over all of this in his head, he heard the faint sound of footsteps in the dirt outside the thin wooden door. The interval was large, but it didn’t sound like stomping—it was a man in a hurry.
The knock came just as Ainz had turned to face that way. The headman looked to Ainz to see how he wished to proceed. He must feel awkward doing anything of his own volition when he’s in the middle of a discussion constituting payment for me saving the village. “Go ahead, no problem. I was just wanting a break anyhow. I don’t mind if you go out.”
“My apologies.” The headman gave a slight bow and walked toward the door. When he opened it, a villager was standing there with the sun at his back. His eyes went from the headman to Ainz.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but the preparations for the funeral are complete…”
“I see…” The headman looked Ainz’s way as if requesting permission to leave.
“I don’t mind. Don’t worry about me.”
“Thank you. Then, please tell everyone I’ll join you presently.”
2
The funeral began in the public cemetery on the outskirts of town. The cemetery was surrounded by a shabby fence. Round stones with names carved on them dotted the yard, serving as grave markers.
The village headman appealed to gods Ainz had never heard of in Yggdrasil, so that the deceased might rest in peace.
There weren’t enough hands to bury all the corpses at once, so they were starting with what they could. Ainz thought it seemed hasty to bury people that very day, but there were no religions he was familiar with here, so all he could do was accept it as different.
Among the villagers present were the sisters he had saved, Enri and Nemu Emmott. Their parents must have been getting buried that day.
Ainz watched a little ways away from the others, running his hands over a wand of about twelve inches under his robe. It was made of e
lephant ivory and one tip was dipped in gold. The grip was inscribed with runes, giving the whole object a kind of sacred vibe.
It was a wand of resurrection, a magical item that could revive the dead. Of course, he had more than just that one. He had enough to bring back everyone in the village with change left over. But according to the headman, magic that could bring back the dead didn’t exist in this world. So there was the potential for a miracle to occur in this village, but as the prayer ended and the funeral entered its last stages, Ainz quietly put the wand back in his item box.
He could bring them back. He just didn’t. Not that he was concerned for their souls or had some other religious reason. There just wasn’t anything in it for him.
There were casters who could kill and casters who could revive. It wasn’t hard to imagine either type getting caught up in some kind of trouble. Even if he did it on the condition they stay quiet about it, the chance of them sticking to that was low.
The power to oppose death—who wouldn’t drool over that?
If the situation changed, maybe he could use it, but for now, he didn’t have enough information. Now is not the time. “I’ll have them be satisfied with the fact that I saved the village,” he murmured and then turned to take a hard look at the death knight standing behind him.
He had some questions about this guy, too. In Yggdrasil, with a few exceptions, summoned monsters expired after a set time, and since he hadn’t used any special method to summon this death knight, his time should have been up a long time ago. But he was still here. Ainz had various guesses about what was going on, but without more information, he couldn’t reach an answer.
Next to Ainz and his thoughts, two shadows lined up. They were Albedo and a spiderlike monster the size of a human wearing ninja gear. From each of its eight legs grew a sharp blade.
“An eight-edged assassin? Albedo…!” Ainz scanned the area, but there was no sign of any villagers looking their way. Even in the middle of a funeral, the sight of Albedo and especially the bizarre monster should have been enough to draw attention.
Then he remembered: Eight-edged assassins could turn invisible.
“I brought him because he said he wanted to see you, Lord Ainz.”
“I do hope you are in good spirits, Lord Momo—”
“Spare me the flattery. More importantly, are you my reinforcements?”
“Yes, sir. There are four hundred minions under me ready to raid the village.”
Raid? Why do they think we’re raiding? Sebas, this is like a bad game of telephone. “There’s no need to attack. The issue is already resolved. And who is commanding you?”
“Mistress Aura and Master Mare. Master Demiurge and Mistress Shalltear are defending the castle, and Master Cocytus is guarding the area.”
“I see. If there are too many minions out, they’ll just get in the way. Have everyone except Aura and Mare withdraw. How many of you eight-edged assassins came?”
“Fifteen in all.”
“Okay, then you guys stand by with Aura and Mare.”
After receiving the eight-edged assassin’s bow, Ainz turned back to the funeral proceedings. Right as some dirt was being thrown onto a fresh gave, the two sisters collapsed in tears.
Realizing the funeral wouldn’t end anytime soon, he headed slowly back to the village. Albedo and the death knight followed behind him.
Although they’d been interrupted by the funeral, by the time Ainz left the headman’s house after learning about the area and some amount of common sense, the sun had been sitting low in the sky.
He’d made this dramatic rescue as a favor to an old friend, but it had taken more time than he’d expected. He did feel like the benefits balanced it out, though. Even just realizing that the more he learned about the world, the more questions he had was worth it. Ainz ran his mind over the things he had to do while gazing absentmindedly at the setting sun.
It was extremely dangerous to act without being fully informed. The best thing to do would have been to stay hidden and gather information on the down low, but now that he had saved this village, that was no longer possible.
Even if he had annihilated those knights, their country would have wanted to investigate what had happened to them. In his own world, scientific investigation was advanced, but it was possible that in this world some other way of investigating had advanced.
Even if they weren’t advanced, as long as there were villagers alive, there was a high chance they’d be able to find out about him. One way to make sure no information leaked was to take all the villagers to the Great Tomb of Nazarick, but it wouldn’t be strange for the kingdom to consider that abduction.
And so he had given his name and let the knights go. He’d had two aims in this. As long as he wasn’t hiding out in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, he guessed word of him would spread quickly, so his first aim was to spread word of himself to some extent; he figured it would be good to guide that process. The second aim was to spread the story of how someone called Ainz Ooal Gown saved a village and killed knights. Of course, the ones whom he most wanted to hear the rumor were Yggdrasil players.
Ainz wanted to belong to either the kingdom, the empire, or the theocracy. He was sure that if other players were in this world, rumors of them would spread. But if Ainz belonged to an organization called Nazarick, it was bound to be difficult to acquire information, not to mention risky. And if he made the mistake of giving orders to someone with a personality like Albedo, he might inadvertently make unnecessary enemies.
Even just from the standpoint of acquiring information, it seemed like getting under the umbrella of one of the countries would be a good idea. In order to maintain the self-governance of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, as well, it would be good to have the backing of some authority. He couldn’t take his situation lightly as long as he was in the dark about the relative strength of the countries. Not knowing what the limit of individual power in this world was also spurred him on. He couldn’t assume there was no one stronger than him in any of the three countries.
He could think of plenty of downsides to becoming a member of one of the countries, but he felt the upsides outweighed them. The problem was, in what position would he “join” them?
I’m not about to be somebody’s slave, sorry. I’m not interested in being employed at a company with horrible working conditions like HeroHero, either. I’ll have to try to impress the various powers and choose the best place once I’ve seen the differences in how they treat me.
It’s just like changing jobs.
So it’s just a question of when to start making connections. I might get taken advantage of the way I am now, with barely any information.
Ainz got about that far before shaking his head as if he were a bit tired. He’d used his brain a crazy amount during the past several hours. It was a pain to think anymore.
“Phew…all right. I’ve done what I came here to do. Albedo, let’s withdraw.”
“Yes, my lord.” Albedo was bristling despite the fact that she had no reason to be on guard; there was no danger in this village.
In that case, Ainz could only think of one explanation. He lowered his voice and asked, “…Do you hate humans?”
“I’m not fond of them. They’re such fragile creatures—lower life-forms. I always wonder how pretty they’d be if I squashed them under my feet like bugs. Oh, but…there is one exception, a girl…” Her voice was sweet as honey, but the words she spoke were severe.
Ainz considered the beauty that made her look like a goddess full of love and felt her attitude unbecoming. He replied to admonish her somewhat. “Hm, I understand how you feel, but please keep your composure and treat them kindly. It’s important to put on the act.”
Albedo deeply bowed her head. Watching her, Ainz worried. Her preferences wouldn’t cause problems for the moment, but he wondered about the future. He realized he needed to be aware of his subordinates’ likes and dislikes.
With that, he decided to try to find the
village headman. He wanted to be polite and say good-bye before leaving.
The headman was easy enough to locate. He was conferring in a corner of the square with some villagers; the looks on their faces were serious, but there was something off—they seemed nervous.
More trouble? Ainz refrained from clicking his tongue and went over to them. In for a penny, in for a mile.
“Is something wrong, Mr. Headman?”
It was like a ray of heavenly light beamed across his face. “Oh, Lord Ainz! We have word that there are mounted knights heading toward the village.”
“I see.”
The headman looked nervously at Ainz. The villagers did the same.
He held up a hand to calm them. “Leave this to me. Gather all the villagers in your house at once, then meet me in the square.”
A bell rang, and while the villagers gathered, Ainz positioned the death knight outside the headman’s house and Albedo behind himself.
Ainz spoke to the headman in a cheerful voice to assuage his fears. “Don’t worry. I’ll give you a freebie, just this once.”
The headman’s trembling lessened somewhat and he smiled wryly. Perhaps he had been prepared for the worst.
It wasn’t long before a group of cavalrymen came into view down the main road. They rode in formation and proceeded quietly into the village.
“Their gear doesn’t match—they’ve all got custom setups… Does that mean they’re not part of a regular army?”
Watching the cavalrymen, Ainz felt something was off about their equipment.
The knights who had come before with the empire’s crest emblazoned on their chests all had matching heavy armor. But these cavalrymen, they were wearing armor, but everyone had arranged their equipment to their own liking. Some wore just leather armor for some parts, while others had taken off iron plates and wore exposed chain mail. Some wore helmets, some didn’t. The one thing they had in common in that department was that their faces were visible. They also all wore the same make of sword, but their secondary weapons were all different types—bows, one-handed spears, maces, etc.
The Undead King Page 18