“That won’t be a problem. He said he would cancel the spell.”
“That’s what you got out of the negotiations, huh?”
Shasuryu just smiled faintly in response to the Small Fang tribe chief’s question.
Comprehending his meaning, the chief cheerlessly shook his head. “While you were out, we did some investigating, you see, and…there are enemies inside the lake. They look like skeleton soldiers. It seems like they’re standing by in positions surrounding the village.”
“No…let…escape.”
“So they’re really serious about this…”
“I guess so.”
The four who hadn’t met the ruler sighed. Perhaps they had also arrived at the conclusion that it would be a ritual sacrifice.
“Well, what’ll we do?”
“Mobilize all warriors. As well as…everyone he—”
“Brother…could we do it with just five?” Keeping a slightly confused Crusch in his field of vision, Zaryusu continued his petition to not only Shasuryu but also all the males. “Their intention is to put on a show of their overwhelming power, so I doubt they’ll kill us all. If that’s the case, then we’ll need a leader to unite the survivors. If you think about the future of lizardmankind, it would be a waste for all of us here to die.”
Two chiefs looked between Zaryusu and Crusch and voiced their agreement.
“…He’s right, don’t you think, Shasuryu?”
“Yes. Zaryusu, true.”
Then, having gotten Zenbel’s approval—“Sounds good! Fine by me!”—Shasuryu no longer had any reason to veto his brother’s wishes. “Okay, let’s do that. Someone needs to survive and lead the tribe. I was thinking that as well. Crusch is the right person for the job. Being an albino might be a minus, but her priest skills will be indispensible.”
“Wait just a minute! I’m going to fight with you!” Crusch shouted, wondering why they were leaving her behind so late in the game. “Besides, if someone’s going to stay behind, wouldn’t Shasuryu be better? He’s the chief everyone trusts the most!”
“That’s why he’s no good. Their intention is to show us their overwhelming power. They’re probably aiming to make us lose heart so they can conquer us easier. So if there was a lizardman left alive who gave everyone hope…”
“And…out of all us chiefs and so on here, you actually have the worst reputation.”
Crusch didn’t know what to say. It was the undeniable truth that she, the albino, was least popular.
Convincing them with words will be impossible, she thought and turned to Zaryusu. “I’m going with you. Didn’t you have me resign myself when you called me to follow you here? And now you’re gonna tell me this?”
“…Back then, depending on the situation, everyone might have died, but now it seems like one of us will be able to make it.”
“Don’t give me that!” The air seemed to crackle with Crusch’s anger. Several strikes sounded against the mud wall. The intense emotion was making her tail go out of control.
“Zaryusu, you convince her. See you in four hours.” With that, Shasuryu walked off. Following a moment later were the crack of breaking ice and some splashes. The other three chiefs had hopped off the wall and gone with him. Zenbel raised a hand in a slight wave without turning around.
After watching them go, Zaryusu turned back to Crusch. “Crusch, please understand.”
“How can I?! Plus, there’s nothing that says for sure that we’ll lose! With my priest powers, we might be able to win!”
How empty those words sounded. Not even Crusch herself believed them.
“I don’t want to send the female I love to her death. Please just grant this foolish male’s wish.”
Crusch embraced him, visibly heartbroken.
“That was a dirty move!”
“Sorry…”
“You’re probably going to die!”
“Yeah…”
That was true. The chance of his survival was low. No, probably just nonexistent.
“In only a week’s time, you stole my heart, and now you’re telling me to just see you off?”
“Yeah…”
“I’m so glad I met you, but it was also horrible luck.”
Crusch’s arms tightened around Zaryusu’s back as if to say she didn’t want them to ever part.
Zaryusu had no words.
What should I say?
What can I say to make it okay?
These thoughts tormented him.
After a little while, Crusch looked up. Her face was full of determination.
He was worried she would say she was going with them no matter what.
Instead she made a clear declaration: “I’m gonna get pregnant!”
“What?!”
“Let’s go!”
Chapter 5 | The Freezing War God
1
Ainz and the others’ base was where Cocytus had been the previous day, the fortress Aura was in the process of building. If they listened closely, they could hear the sound of construction in the distance.
When Ainz entered one of the rooms, Victim, who had been silently following, spoke to him. “Eggshell teal fuchsia-scarlet-ash-crimson-clay-grape, gray-jonquil-orange teal peach-peach eggshell chestnut-gray-ivory-opal khaki clay-brown-eggshell scarlet-jonquil-jonquil-silk-grape-crimson.
“Nice work today. Then until we get back, please watch over level one.”
“Ivory-orange-peach-grape-cream-grape-orange-jonquil.
“Gate.”
Victim disappeared into the gate of darkness (leading to the first level of the Great Tomb of Nazarick) that Ainz made.
After seeing off the guardian that had a powerful death-activated detainment skill, Ainz turned his attention to the room. At the same time, he sensed Aura in the back, staring at the floor.
She had probably been trying to get the interior decoration together for Ainz’s arrival. There was evidence of her painful efforts here and there around the room, but it still didn’t look as good as Nazarick. She seemed ashamed.
It’s really not so bad, though…
Ainz was once a normal person, so it didn’t bother him so much. His quarters in Nazarick weren’t bad, either, but they were too luxurious; sometimes he didn’t know what to do with himself there. Here, he could actually relax, so it was nice.
I want an eight-tatami-mat studio. Maybe I should just secretly make one somewhere. Oh! I have to make sure to praise my underling’s work. I have to tell Aura how satisfied I am with what she’s done here.
Watch over your workers with gratitude. Without trust, they will not flourish. Ainz remembered the words he’d seen framed and hung in the president’s office at a client company. He didn’t know who’d said it, but he thought it was a great quote. That was how an ideal boss should act. You have to express gratitude in words. If you don’t praise people, they won’t work… Something like that?
“Sorry I insisted on staying here, Aura. You don’t have to worry about anything. I think highly of your work, and since you prepared this place for me, I consider it equal to Nazarick.”
“…Yes, sir.” Her eyes widened a little.
Did that make her feel better? Ainz wondered, but he couldn’t think of anything else good to say, so he examined the room again to divert the conversation.
It still smelled strongly of wood. Returning to Nazarick would definitely be safer than staying somewhere so vulnerable. This place had no defensive spells cast on it—in a way, it was like a house made of paper. But one could also say it was the perfect place to set himself up as bait to catch a big fish.
Since its location was fairly removed from the lake, the only ones who could come after him here would be Yggdrasil players, if there were any, or those with equivalent power. In other words, he’d planned it so that any raid on this place would reveal a powerful enemy.
Of course it was dangerous. But Ainz felt that nothing ventured meant nothing gained.
>
Nobody’s coming? Or…did this operation also fail? …What’s that? “Aura, let me ask you something. What is that?” Ainz’s gaze fell on a white chair in the back of the room. It had a tall back and an imposing appearance. It was so magnificently crafted that it would have done well as a work of art—as long as one issue was ignored.
“Though it be plain, I prepared you a throne.” It was Demiurge, following behind him, who answered.
I figured, thought Ainz and asked another question. “…What kind of bones are those?”
“Various different animals. I collected the good bits from things like griffins and wyverns.”
“I…I see…”
It was a throne made of numerous bones. Nothing like it existed in Nazarick, so Demiurge must have made it while he was out. It seemed to contain more than a few things that couldn’t be anything but skulls—human, or perhaps subhuman. Although the throne was made from bleach-white bones with no blood or meat clinging to them, it still seemed to radiate an unpleasant gory smell.
Should I sit in this creepy thing? Ainz hesitated for a moment. But his subordinate had prepared it for him, so it would be rude to not sit in it. It would be different if he had a legitimate reason to refuse…
After considering several options, Ainz thumped his hand. “…Shalltear, I believe I said I would punish you. I’ll do it right now. Yes…I’ll humiliate you.”
“My lord!” She seemed a bit surprised at the sudden address.
“Down on your knees and hang your head. Get on all fours.”
“Yes, sir.” Looking slightly confused, she proceeded to the place he’d indicated in the center of the room and got into the position he’d described.
Ainz moved next to her and sat down on her slender back.
“L-Lord Ainz!” Shalltear emitted an airy cry of surprise. The reason she didn’t move a muscle despite being so shaken was because Ainz was on top of her.
“Be my chair here. Got it?”
“Yes, sir!”
Ainz shifted his gaze away from Shalltear, who seemed awfully happy, to Demiurge. “Sorry, Demiurge. Perhaps another time.”
“Aha! Brilliant! That you would sit on a guardian! Certainly no one else could have such a chair; in other words, how perfectly suited to a Supreme Being! I’m impressed as always, Lord Ainz. I would never have thought of it!”
“I—I see…” Ainz looked away from Demiurge’s fairly sparkling face and wondered what the big smile was for when a beautiful woman addressed him, beaming.
“Excuse me, Lord Ainz. May I exit the room for just a moment? I’ll return straightaway.”
“What’s the matter, Albedo? Well, it’s fine. Go ahead.”
She thanked him and left the room. Immediately afterward they heard a woman’s voice shout, “Raaaaaagh!” and the noise of something smashing into the wall. The whole building shook.
A minute later, Albedo returned to the silent room wearing her usual gentle smile. “I’ve returned, Lord Ainz. Oh, Aura, when I left the room, I accidentally bumped into the wall. It seems to have broken, so do you think you could fix it later? Sorry about that.”
“Oh, uh, okay… Sure, I’ll fix it.”
Ainz sighed and swallowed all the things he wanted to say. He arrested his gaze, which threatened to ascend into the air, and tethered it to his staff and its ominous aura.
He couldn’t very well bring the real thing to such a dangerous location, so this was an imitation Guild Weapon, a prototype that he’d crafted. Since he had included an item that had been lying around in the treasury since their experiments with effects, visually, it was practically perfect—a polished fake.
If the Guild Weapon was destroyed, the guild would collapse, so he couldn’t just carry it around casually. That was why he had left it in the care of the domain guardian of the Cherry Blossom Sanctuary on level eight.
I’ve thought of defensive actions we can take if a ring gets stolen, but I’d really like to… Well, I guess we can’t really test for that… As Ainz pondered, Shalltear began to fidget. She was making slight adjustments so the position of Ainz’s butt would make it easier for him to sit. Feeling a bizarre tickle, he looked down at the back of her head.
She was breathing hard.
He was probably heavy. The slender back beneath him was that of a fourteen-year-old girl. A large adult was seated on a little girl’s back. It hit him what a perverted, shameful, cruel thing he was doing, and he thought maybe he’d gone a bit too far.
Shalltear was an NPC created by an old friend. Peroroncino probably never thought she would be used this way. Ainz felt like he was dishonoring his old guildmate, so he thought it could count as punishment for himself as well, but he knew that was foolish. I shouldn’t be causing Shalltear this much pain… I’m hopelessly awful.
“Shalltear, does it hurt?”
He would stop. He was about to stand when she turned her head around to look up at him. Her face was flushed red, and her eyes glittered with lust. “It doesn’t hurt at all! It’s more like a reward!”
She panted, exhaling the abnormal heat building up in her body with every breath, and Ainz was reflected in her gooey eyes. Her glistening beet-red tongue licked her lips, leaving behind a bewitching sparkle of light. The slight wriggling of her body reminded him of a snake.
No matter how he looked at it, she was burning up with desire.
“…Yikes.”
It creeped him right out.
He instinctively began to stand up.
No, I can’t do that.
This was Shalltear’s punishment. And Shalltear’s failure was born of his own mistake. Resisting his desire to get away from her would be his punishment.
Ainz quashed his uncomfortable emotions.
He endured his squirming, practically snorting chair and couldn’t help but wonder, Peroroncino, how much of a perv did you make her?
“Now then…let’s get down to business. It seems like we frightened them pretty well.”
“I think it went perfectly, Lord Ainz.”
“Indeed—the looks on those lizardmen’s faces!”
Ainz smiled with relief at the guardians’ feedback. He hadn’t actually been able to read the changes in the lizardmen’s faces. They resembled humans more than reptiles, but their expressions were still completely different. “I see. Then I guess the demonstration of our power that Cocytus wanted as phase one was a success.” He breathed a relaxed sigh.
Of course, he would expect nothing less from a super-tier spell that could be used only four times a day. He’d gone all out and cast the Creation; if they hadn’t freaked out, it would have been depressing.
“Now then, Demiurge. How long will it take to compile the data about how much of the lake froze?”
“We’re currently working on it, but due to the ice covering a larger area than expected, progress is slow. If it’s all right with you, we’ll take a little more time.”
Ainz held out a hand to stop Demiurge from kneeling and then placed it near his mouth. It covered a wider area than expected, but I guess we can call it a successful experiment…?
The Creation was a super-tier spell that made it possible to change environmental effects. Players used it in Yggdrasil to stop the heat in a volcanic region or the chill in an icy region.
Sure, they could have exhibited their power without a super-tier spell. But he had cast it also as a test of scale—to see how far its effects would spread. In Yggdrasil, the Creation covered quite a large area. When he’d tried it inside Nazarick, it had covered the entire eighth level, but he didn’t know what kind of effect it would have on the outside world.
In Yggdrasil, it affected an area, but he wanted to know how big an “area” was in this world. If he cast it on a plain and it covered the entire thing, that would be overkill.
If he’d frozen the entire lake, that was too wide a range. Apparently he needed to exercise some caution with super-tier spells.
“Okay, Aura. How’s the security net
going?”
“I took the undead you lent me and put them on watch for a mile radius, but so far we haven’t caught much of anything. I’ve also sent out some of my magical beasts with detection skills in a two-mile radius, but I haven’t received reports of anyone suspicious.”
“I see… There’s a possibility someone would use the skill Perfect Unknowable on approach. What about that case?”
“No worries. I teamed up with Shalltear, and we’re using some undead with good detection skills as well.”
“Fantastic.”
Aura grinned in response to Ainz’s praise. Gone was the depressed look of before.
“We’re giving them a big enough opening—why hasn’t the enemy who used the World Item on Shalltear made a move?” With all eyes on him, he repeated the question again to no one in particular. “Why hasn’t there been any attempt to observe Nazarick or this place?”
“Could there be some sort of surveillance that the current security net can’t pick up? Perhaps using a World Item?”
Ainz cocked his head in response to Demiurge’s question. “…Momon considered that hypothesis, but…even if there were some sort of World Item surveillance, it wouldn’t work on him, since he possesses a World Item as well. It’d have to be naked-eye observations or another physical method… I guess there’s always magic, but I thought they’d switch…” The questions on the guardians’ faces made him realize he hadn’t said enough. “Hmm… How can I explain this? …There was one time we secretly held a precious-metal mine, and because we had monopolized it, market prices soared. Someone mounted a plot to take it from us using Ouroboros, one of the twenty.”
Ainz smiled. He’d been annoyed at the time, but thinking back on it now, it was a good memory—even though he’d gotten killed and dropped some pretty rare items.
“What?! How dare they rob the Supreme Beings of their land! I won’t allow it! Please give us orders immediately for its recapture!”
At Albedo’s shout, Ainz hurriedly looked over at her. All the guardians were hostile and murderous. Demiurge was usually calm and composed, but even his face was twisted into a frown. Glimpses of determination showed through Mare’s timid mien—screaming, I’ll kill you! Shalltear was his chair, so he couldn’t see her, but he sensed her body tensing through his seat.
The Lizardman Heroes Page 23