“Really? Then I’ll give it to you. You can use it however you want. But Ulbert might be embarrassed if his failed project stays lying around forever.”
“My word! For you to bestow such a wonderful item unto me—I humbly thank you!”
Demiurge got out of his chair and kneeled down on the floor. Mare scrambled to follow suit.
“Cut it out, Demiurge. Don’t you have more important things to do right now? Think of it as a token of my appreciation for your loyalty.”
“We guardians were created by you, the Supreme Ones, so it’s only natural that we should devote ourselves to you completely until the moment we expire. Then to be spoken to so mercifully time and time again and receive such fabulous rewards… From the beginning, you had my absolute dedication, but now I will redouble my efforts to become even more loyal!”
“Uh…indeed. I’ll have great expectations for your increased loyalty. And you should stand up, Demiurge. As I said, I think you have things to do.”
“Yes, my lord! My apologies.”
Demiurge sat back down, and Mare stood by behind him.
“So, yes, the story is that Jaldabaoth attacked the Eight Fingers bases looking for this and then occupied the royal capital’s warehouse district. The theft of all the things in the warehouses is part of that. And of course, it will be my plan to discover this item Lord Ulbert made in one of the Eight Fingers base’s storehouses.”
“I see. And what is the plan’s third benefit?”
“Right. We have taken most of the humans who were inside the wall of fire I created and carried them off to Nazarick. I believe we will have many uses for them, and Jaldabaoth will be the one who gets the bad reputation for it.”
Ainz murmured that he understood, but he did have one question. Is it really so advantageous to us to have Jaldabaoth getting a bad reputation? Couldn’t we just make it the fault of some random monster? Oh, so…
“The point is to earn this reputation?”
“That is correct. I’m thinking to make Jaldabaoth king of the demons.”
“Ah, I get it. You’re going to use him for one of the plans I ordered you to carry out?”
Demiurge bowed, saying, “That is correct,” and Ainz recalled the orders he had given him. He’d tasked Demiurge with a number of things; this must have been for the one about creating a demon king.
“And that connects to the fourth merit of this plan, which is that it serves as a test for the incident we will cause in the sacred kingdom.”
Aha! thought Ainz. Then he remembered something he’d been wondering about and asked, “By the way, did you bring all those demons from Nazarick?”
“Heavens, no! I would never do such a thing without your permission, my lord.”
“Hmm? I cleared Albedo to let you have full privileges for this operation, so I thought you had mobilized Nazarick forces…”
“No, I had the evil lords I brought with me summon them. After a day, the usage limits will reset, so the cost to Nazarick is zero.”
“I see. So that’s why there are some demons I didn’t recognize from Nazarick… Got it. Then I have a different question. You said you abducted all the humans within the wall of fire and took them to Nazarick, but is that true regardless of age and sex?”
Demiurge seemed confused as to what difference it made, but he said yes, which left an unfavorable impression on Ainz.
What happened to humans was no particular concern of his. He’d been a human at one time, but since inhabiting his new body, he didn’t feel close to them at all and practically thought of them as a different species. If it would benefit the Great Tomb of Nazarick, he would kill any number of humans with no hesitation. But he still had qualms about killing infants. Is this also a vestige of Satoru Suzuki?
Ainz exhaled a deep breath—although he didn’t have lungs.
“Demiurge. Please give anyone who has not wronged me or the Great Tomb of Nazarick a painless death.”
Demiurge said nothing but bowed deeply.
What Ainz Ooal Gown prioritized was the peace of the organization and the calm of his loyal subordinates.
Having already abducted the infants, they couldn’t just let them go safely, because that could lead to intelligence leaks. He wasn’t against a plan to cultivate humans inside Nazarick who would work with a blind loyalty, but there wasn’t any advantage to doing it at present. So the plan he proposed was the most mercy he could show them.
“Okay, so is that about it?”
“I have two more things. First, thanks to Mare, another wonderful potential benefit has appeared.”
When Ainz glanced at Mare, the boy was fidgeting awkwardly.
“Which is?”
“We’re currently working on training, so we’re not sure if the plan will work out or not. I’ll explain it when we get back to Nazarick. Then the other thing is that since they haven’t appeared so far, I would imagine there is a good chance that the people who brainwashed Shalltear don’t have anything to do with the kingdom.”
“Ah, I see. So is there something you need my help with?”
“Not aside from repelling me in this battle right now. I’ll do my very best to make you look good, my lord.”
“Got it. Then before I drive you off, do you mind beating up my armor? If it makes it through this without a scratch, it will be hard to convince people I fought someone as strong as you.”
“Then would you please take it off? I couldn’t possibly attack it while you’re wearing it, Lord Ainz…”
“If I take it off, it’ll get all dented and I won’t be able to put it back on. For the battle with Shalltear I had the blacksmith make me pre-broken armor—that was how I was able to wear it. If you pummel this suit while I’m not in it, I won’t be able to get in.”
Ainz chuckled to himself. The guardians weren’t sure if they should laugh or not and had vague looks on their faces.
“U-uh, Lord Ainz? W-wasn’t that armor made with magic?”
“Nope, this suit wasn’t. You might have thought so, since I’m wearing it as a caster, but the reason I can equip this is because I used a spell that turns me into a warrior. After Messaging with Albedo on a break on the way to the capital, I changed just in case something came up. It seems like that was a good move.”
Sustaining the spell to turn into a warrior on top of his other continuous spells meant that the constant consumption of MP negated his natural MP recovery, which meant the amount wouldn’t increase. If he canceled the warrior spell in an emergency, he would start off with fairly depleted MP, but he felt it was the right choice to operate as a warrior this time. If he hadn’t, there would have been a lot of issues starting right around the time his first fight with Demiurge had occurred.
When he heard Ainz’s remarks, Demiurge’s narrow eyes crinkled into slits. “As I would expect, you have everything in the palm of your hand, Lord Ainz. I can’t believe I thought I could match intellects with someone so sharp. It seems you are out of my league,” he murmured softly as he smiled.
Ainz’s back began to sweat, although that shouldn’t have been possible. “Oh, should we get back to it soon? Demiurge, I’m counting on you to rough up my armor.”
“Understood. Mare, I want you to send a signal to everyone. Can you cause an earthquake as you promised?”
5 Late Fire Moon (September) 3:56 AM
“Eat this—my electric shock!”
Lightning flashed and hit one of the maids.
“Gwaaa, oh dear!” With an extremely contrived scream, she was launched a bizarrely long way back, as if she had jumped herself. And just like that, she disappeared down one of the streets.
With a dainty grunt, the maid with rolled curls threw a dagger. The knife seemed to lack motivation and described a leisurely arc before hitting Narberal.
“Kyaaagh!” With a scream—uttered with a totally normal facial expression—Narberal pursued the maid who had gotten knocked back.
Entoma went silently after her.
They all ran one after the other down a street. In front of Narberal was the maid with braids. Behind her were Entoma and the one with rolled curls. It was like a pincer attack, only with absolutely no tension. Of course there was none. Why would there be? What little will to fight there had been had completely melted away, and the atmosphere had shifted to one resembling schoolgirls chatting at a café.
“Okeydoke. Nigredo has taken measures against surveillance in this area, so we should be safe.”
“Really? In that case…long time no see, Lupu.”
The maid with the braids, Lupusregina Beta, laughed through her mask. “Long time no see, Na. Haven’t seen you since Lord Ainz hauled you off.”
“I’ve been back to Nazarick a few times, but you were always at the village.”
“Yah. Guess we’re always just missin’ each other. Actually, haven’t seen you in a while, either, So.”
“I haven’t, either. But shouldn’t you talk a little more…?”
“Oh? It bugs you just like Yuri, huh, So? S’okay. I know there’s a proper time ’n’ place. Just like En.”
“Okay, then… By the way, why isn’t Entoma talking?”
“Ah, I guess she doesn’t wanna.”
“THAT LITTLE BITCH STOLE MY VOOOICE.”
“Ah.” Narberal nodded. Entoma hated her real voice. That must have been why she wanted to avoid talking as much as possible.
“I WANT TO STEEEAL HER VOOOICE.”
As usual, she was wearing a bug, so they couldn’t see her face, but the intensity of her anger and urge to kill was expressed well enough.
“You can’t. Lord Ainz left with her, so if she doesn’t make it back alive, it will hurt Sir Momon’s reputation.”
Entoma pouted at Narberal’s response, but she didn’t argue back. Their master’s reputation or her own desires? There wasn’t a combat maid among them who didn’t know which to prioritize.
“She’s pretty strong, eh? What’s her name?”
“I don’t care about that crane fly’s name, so I don’t know. I think it was Evil-something?”
“You’re awful, ha. Haven’t you guys been fighting together so far?”
Solution responded instead of Narberal, who had scowled at the word together.
“Pretty sure she’s Evileye—from the Blue Roses. She was in the reports from Master Sebas.”
“Oh yes, that was her name,” Narberal affirmed. Once someone had said it, she had a feeling that was correct.
“You okay, Na? Not goin’ senile, are you?”
“Can you remember the names of humans?”
“I can! It might be important for work, so I pay attention to proper nouns.”
“Me, too. Or more like, me ’n’ the humans get along pretty well.”
“IT’S NO TROUBLE FOR MEEEE.”
Narberal was just a little shaken by the realization that she was the only one. Just as she was thinking that maybe she should pay more attention and learn their names, they heard an explosion. The buildings on either side of the back alley blocked their view, but they could guess who had caused it.
“Huh, seems like they’re fightin’ for real over there.”
“It’s Yuri and Shizu, after all. Those two would take it seriously. But if the battle hasn’t been decided yet, that means they aren’t going all out.”
“IF IT WERE MEEE, I’D FIGHT ALL OUT UNTIL I WAS PRACTICALLY DEEEAD.”
“Evileye is pretty strong. If it all came down to level, Yuri and Shizu probably couldn’t beat her.”
The faces of the combat maids darkened for the first time during this fight.
Except Narberal. She was confident.
“They’ll be fine.” All eyes were on her as she continued, “I think Evileye is an elementalist like me—an arcane caster who specializes in a specific type of energy and then specializes even further. It makes her attack power really high, but neutralizing her specialization will weaken her.”
“The earth tree has…acid, poison, and gravity, right? So how does she use crystals?”
“There’s an earth type that specializes in gems! Limiting herself to crystals probably made her even stronger.”
“Specialized in pure physical damage magic that deals both crushing and stabbing damage? …That’s a bit tricky.”
How would I kill Evileye if it were me? All four of them were thinking about it when the ground shook.
It felt a little different from the shaking caused by shock waves.
“AN EARTHQUAAAKE. SEEMS LIKE ONE OF MASTER MAAARE’S. SO IS IT TIME FOR THE NEXT PHASE, THENNN?”
“Is it a signal?”
“Yes, Narberal. Could you get injured soon? We have to corner you.”
“I’ll try not to make it hurt too much, but I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“Oh, well. It’s for work.”
5 Late Fire Moon (September) 3:57 AM
“Calm down! Please calm down!” Climb called out, trying not to raise his voice too much, but all the people in the warehouse were making a racket, so he wasn’t loud enough to quiet them down.
“My boy got—”
“My wife got taken away—”
“Mom and Dad—”
Voices of every age and gender combined into a single wave breaking over Climb. It was so clamorous he couldn’t tell what anyone was saying.
These three hundred citizens were the ones Climb and the others had risked their lives to look for and the only ones they’d found. The people in this smallish warehouse didn’t know anything about the situation outside and were just shouting about how worried they were for their family members who had been taken elsewhere.
It was a very natural scene, a natural reaction, but extremely inopportune.
Just because they hadn’t run into any demons so far didn’t mean there weren’t any. They had spotted groups of demons a few times on the other side of the street and elsewhere. It was only a matter of time before some of them heard the screams filling the warehouse and came over.
“You’re the only ones we’ve found—”
“Where is my wife?! Can you go find her right away?”
“Uh…”
It probably would have been possible to quiet them if he shouted a little louder. Although there was always someone better, Climb was quite powerful; the guards couldn’t even compare. The roar of a man that strong would no doubt squeeze ordinary people’s hearts like an eagle’s talons. He had to actually do it, though.
As Princess Renner’s attendant, he’d come bearing her reputation as well as his own. Frightening the people or causing them to feel antagonistic toward him could tarnish the princess’s reputation, so he couldn’t quite muster the courage to get aggressive with them.
“Could you just give a straight answer—?”
“My baby is still so young—”
“Papaaa! Mamaaa!”
“Shut up for a minute!”
A shout so powerful it practically sent an electric shock through the warehouse blew everything else away. Brain’s fed-up roar—the rage of an ultra-first-class warrior—terrified the weak in an instant.
“Wah, wah, wah. If you would just shut up and listen! First of all, this location is in enemy territory, and it’s not as if your safety is assured. If we don’t move quietly, the demons will come and kill you all. If you understand, then first shut your mouths.”
Brain scanned the silenced warehouse and then glared straight at Climb. The eyes on him were so angry that the citizens gathered around him slowly backed away.
“Next…Climb, you should probably just come out and say it.”
He had a general idea of what he needed to come out and say, but he wasn’t confident that was really the smart thing to do.
“Too hard? Then I’ll say it for you. First, you people need to keep this in mind: Anyone who raises their voice in response to what I’m about to say will be cut down with zero hesitation. We don’t even have any guarantee that you’re actually humans.” Brain slipped his katana
out of its sheath, and it sparkled strangely in the small light they’d brought with them. “You’re probably wondering what I’m talking about, but take a quiet look at the person next to you. Are you all human?”
The captives looked at one another suspiciously.
“We saw quite a few demons on our way over here, you know—demons with wings and long tails, demons like humans with their skin ripped off, and plenty of others. Those are the kind of guys strutting around outside this warehouse… You probably saw them when you were brought here, right?”
All the people Brain looked at nodded, pale faced.
“So who can guarantee there aren’t any demons in here, ones who can peel the skin off humans and wear it?”
No one spoke, but there was a wave of movement—the people were looking around with doubt in their eyes and trying to shift positions.
The warehouse was certainly small, but it wasn’t cramped. There was plenty of space to secure a spot apart from everyone else, if desired.
“Relax. If there are any demons in here, we’ll cut them down for you. If you take a moment to think about how we got here, you understand that, right?” After waiting for some relief to appear in the atmosphere, Brain continued, “But if the demons from outside rush into this building, I can’t make any promises. Hey, don’t you think if there was a demon in here, it would call out to its companions to let them know about the invaders? Now you know why I’m going to kill anyone who raises their voice. You might think, ‘I’m human, killing me would be absurd,’ but how would we know you’re human? So, in order to protect the others, we’re going to kill anyone who attracts the demons by shouting.” He looked around again, focusing on individual faces with a murderous glare.
“Seems like you understand… First of all, before coming to this warehouse, we went through a lot of other ones, but we didn’t find any people, and in fact, they were practically empty. When you think about the area the fire wall surrounded, this is the warehouse district, yes, but there also should have been over ten thousand residents. If there are three hundred people here, then that’s another thirty-three warehouses full of captives, right?” Brain took a breath. “So here’s a question: Why didn’t we find any other people? It’s entirely possible that we had bad luck. We did avoid places that seemed heavily guarded by demons. But what if they were already taken from the warehouse district to some other location—doesn’t that make more sense? Uh-oh! And we have no way of knowing where that new location is. But these are demons doing the abducting, so they can’t be very nice.”
The Men of the Kingdom Part II Page 26