“My lord!”
“This place you made, into which you put so much thought—I told you I think it’s equal to Nazarick, right? I wasn’t lying. Cocytus, bring her in. We’ll meet her here.”
“L-Lord Ainz!”
“Aura, step down.”
“Albedo!” Aura responded fiercely, blushing. “Why are you stopping me?”
Albedo just shot one glance at her and then fixed her attention on the door.
The one who answered angry Aura was Demiurge. “…Lord Ainz’s words are correct in every instance. Thus, if he says he considers this place equal to Nazarick, then—”
“—that is correct.” Shalltear finished his sentence.
I don’t think my words are always correct, nor do I really want them thinking so…but in this case I guess it’s convenient if they do.
“Aura. I’ll tell you one more time. I think this place that you, one of my most trusted servants, a guardian, are working hard to build is equivalent to Nazarick—even if it’s still under construction… Do you understand?”
“…Lord Ainz. Thank you!” Aura bowed deeply. The other guardians followed suit.
You don’t have to be so…emotional. You’re gonna make me blush! “Then Cocytus, bring her here.”
“YES, SIR!”
Cocytus immediately brought the snow-white lizardman into the room. She kneeled and bowed her head before Ainz.
“Let’s hear your name.”
“Most supreme of the great, King of Death, Lord Ainz Ooal Gown, I am the representative of the lizardmen, Crusch Lulu.”
What an exaggerated title. Who came up with that? Ainz wondered, acting the composed king.
“…Hmm. Good of you to come.”
“My lord. Please accept the lizardmen’s absolute loyalty.”
“Hmm.” Ainz took a good look at Crusch.
Her scales were extremely beautiful. They sparkled stunningly in the magic light. Ainz was seized by a bit of intellectual curiosity regarding how they would feel if he touched them.
As he gazed at her, he noticed her shoulders were trembling slightly. He didn’t think Cocytus’s chill skill was activated, so there had to be some other reason. After mulling it over, he arrived at the obvious answer.
If Ainz said he didn’t care for them, all the lizardmen would be killed, so she had to pay careful attention to her each and every word. Under that mental stress, his silence must have been terrifying for her.
Ainz wasn’t the sort to derive pleasure from tormenting the weak. He could be incredibly brutal if it profited Nazarick, but his mind wasn’t so twisted that he would act that way all the time.
“From now on, you lizardmen will be under my rule. That said, Cocytus will govern you as my proxy. Any objections?”
“No.”
“Very well, then, that will be all. You may go home.”
“What? Are you sure?” Crusch exclaimed with her head still bowed. It was an appropriately stunned response considering what unreasonable, impossible demands she had expected him to make.
“For now. Crusch Lulu, you lizardmen are heading into a period of prosperity. Future lizardmen will surely be grateful—to be under my rule.”
“No, you’ve shown us such mercy despite our hostility toward your greatness, Lord Gown. We are already grateful.”
Ainz slowly stood up from his throne. Then he went next to Crusch, bent down, and put an arm around her shoulder.
Crusch flinched, and her trembling passed into Ainz’s arm.
“There’s also something I want to ask especially of you.”
“What might that be? I, your devoted servant, will do anything in my power for you, Lord Gown…”
“I want to ask you a personal favor. In exchange, I’ll resurrect Zaryusu.”
At the mention of the name he’d heard from Cocytus, her head shot up. Her expression was twisted in shock.
Feeling triumphant, Ainz continued to observe her. She was probably trying to hide the flurry of changes whirling through her expression. He couldn’t tell exactly what emotions they were, since the movements were so different from humans’, but they probably ran the gamut.
“You can do that…?”
“Yes, I can manipulate even life and death. Death is just another status for me,” he responded to her faint query. “Like poison or sickness. Of course, I can’t do anything about life span, but…” He had a feeling if he used Wish Upon a Star it would work, but he didn’t go as far as to say so.
“…Then what do you wish of me as your faithful slave? …Perhaps my body?”
Ainz was speechless. “No, I…don’t think that’s…” He nearly broke character and blurted, I mean, c’mon, a lizard? but he desperately clung to his persona. He decided to overlook the noise of grinding teeth coming from somewhere nearby. “Ahem. No, that’s not it. It’s simple: I want you to keep an eye out for any lizardmen who might betray me.”
“No lizardman would do such a thing,” she declared, but Ainz sneered at her.
“I’m not foolish enough to actually believe that. I’m no expert in lizardman thought, but for example, in the race of humans, betrayal wouldn’t be a rare occurrence. That’s why I want someone secretly watching from the inside.”
From her now blank expression, Ainz fretted internally that he’d gone about proposing it in the wrong way. He was already planning on bringing Zaryusu back to life, but his plot was to create a debt of gratitude on her side by manipulating her into asking him for it. What will I do if she refuses here? Maybe I shouldn’t have been so greedy… Well, no use crying over spilled milk.
“…Right now, there is a miracle right in front of you, but it won’t be there forever. If you don’t seize this moment, it’ll all be over.”
Crusch’s face twitched.
“We’re not going to do some creepy ritual. You probably have it in this world, too, right? Resurrection magic—that’s what I’ll be using.”
“Isn’t that a legen…?”
She swallowed her words, and Ainz spoke gently to her, acting his arrogant part. “Crusch. What is most important to you? I want you to think about that.”
Her gaze started to waver, and he flashed back to his days as a salesman, envisioning a client who was about to bite.
Next he had to get her to understand that this miracle wasn’t free. People were wary of free things, but they would often consent if a reasonable price was charged.
“You’re going to secretly observe your lizardman friends from the inside. You may have to make some difficult choices at times. And I’m going to cast a spell on Zaryusu when I resurrect him so you don’t betray me. If I ever suspect that you have, he’ll drop dead instantly. I’m sure this will all be agonizing for you, but won’t having Zaryusu back be worth that?” No spell like that exists, but she doesn’t need to know that.
He stood up slowly with the attitude that he’d said everything he had to say. Then he spread his arms.
Crusch watched him with eyes full of anguish.
“Oh yes, and after I revive Zaryusu, I’ll tell him that I brought him back to life because I had a use for him. I promise not to bring your name into it. Okay, Crusch Lulu, make your choice now. This is your last chance to bring back your beloved Zaryusu. What will you do? Will you shake my hand? Or not? Choose.” He slowly extended his hand to her. At the same time, he gave a strong warning to the guardians. “Don’t do anything even if she refuses! So, what’ll it be, Crusch Lulu?”
Epilogue
His entire body felt like it was being gently stroked. Someone’s hands were pulling him up from deep underwater. But Zaryusu shook them off. He sensed something horrifying beyond those hands that he didn’t like.
After what could have been an eternity or an instant, he had the feeling a hand was reaching out to him again. He went to brush it away once more but hesitated. He could hear a voice right next to him. The voice of the female he loved…
He hesitated.
And hesitated.
After faltering and wavering in that world of uncertain time, Zaryusu finally, albeit reluctantly, took the hand.
And all at once he was pulled up, leaping into a white world.
The overall weakness was awful.
His body felt full of sludge.
He was abnormally exhausted. No matter how hard he’d trained, he’d never felt as awful as this.
He fought to open his heavy eyelids.
Brilliant light poured into his eyes. Lizardman eyes automatically compensated for the amount of light, but they were still dazzled by sudden brightness. He blinked—
“Zaryusu!”
Someone hugged him tightly.
“C-Crusch?”
He should have never heard her voice again, but there it was.
He looked at her hugging him with eyes that had finally adjusted.
It really was the female he loved, Crusch Lulu.
Why? How in the world…? Zaryusu was assaulted by endless doubts and worries. The last thing he remembered was…the moment his own head fell into the marsh. Cocytus had definitely killed him.
So why am I alive? Could it be that…? “Crusch, did he kill you, too?” he asked, with a numb mouth that didn’t move quite right.
In response came Crusch’s puzzled face. “Huh?”
He was slightly relieved to see that expression. She wasn’t dead, then. So why am I alive?
A hint at the answer came in the form of a voice from somewhere to the side. “Hmm. So he’s revived, but he’s confused. And it seems like he lost some levels… I guess it’s not much different from Yggdrasil?”
Realizing whose voice it was, Zaryusu looked over in surprise.
Standing there was the King of Death, Ainz Ooal Gown, the impossibly powerful caster. He was holding a foot-long wand that looked so sacred as to be out of place in his hand. It was an extremely beautiful object, made of what appeared to be a tusk with runes carved in the handle, its tip dipped in gold.
Zaryusu had no idea, but it was a Wand of Resurrection, the item that had brought him back to life. Usually only someone who could use priest magic was able to wield priest-magic items, but this one was an exception.
Zaryusu examined his surroundings and confirmed that they were in the same lizardman village from before. The group was in the square, with lots of prostrate lizardmen surrounding them. None of them moved a muscle, their worshipfulness was so strangely intense.
“What in the world…?”
It was logical to prostrate oneself after being shown that much power, but that wasn’t all he felt from the lizardmen here—there was something else, something stronger. Lizardmen had no deities—the targets of their faith were their ancestral spirits—but what he sensed from them now was the worship of a god.
“Hmm. Be gone, lizardmen. Don’t enter the village until someone tells you to.”
No one objected to the order. On the contrary, they consented without a word. The shuffling and splashing in the marsh as they walked away were all they left as they cleared the square.
The display of power must have completely broken their spirit. Of course, it was lizardman custom to bow to the strong. In other words, things had gone according to their opponent’s wishes.
“Aura, are they gone?”
“Yes, they all left.”
The one who answered was a dark-elf girl. It might have been partially because she was standing behind Ainz and Zaryusu couldn’t see her, but he hadn’t even been able to sense her—her presence was surprisingly slight.
“Okay. Then allow me to congratulate you on your resurrection, Zaryusu Shasha.”
Resurrection.
It took Zaryusu a little while to understand what that word meant. When it dawned on him, he was hit with a shiver. Resurrection…so I came back to life? He couldn’t speak, only gasp.
“What’s the matter? It’s not like lizardmen harbor some hatred for resurrection, right? Or did you forget how to talk?”
“R-resurrection… You can bring the dead…back to life…?”
“That’s what I’m saying. Really? You thought I couldn’t do something so simple as that?”
“Did you…hold a big ritual…?”
“A big ritual? Why would I need that? I can do it fine by myself.”
Zaryusu had nothing else to say. Resurrection magic was a miracle performed by the legendary lizardman with dragonlord blood in him.
But here was a being who said he could do it by himself.
A monster? No.
A caster with immense power? No.
Zaryusu had figured it out completely.
Leading a mythical army, attended by devils…
In other words, the being before him was on par with a god.
Zaryusu sat up, wobbling, and prostrated himself before Ainz. Crusch hurriedly bowed in the same way.
“Great One.” The being looking down at him seemed confused for a moment, but Zaryusu judged that to be just his imagination. “I devote myself to you.”
“Good. I’ll make you a promise on my honor as Ainz Ooal Gown.”
“Allow the lizardmen to flourish.”
“That’s what you want? I promise anyone under my rule will flourish.”
“I thank you.”
“Well, your mouth still isn’t working quite right, is it? If you rest a bit, you’ll get back up to speed. Rest for now. Later there are a lot of things we have to decide. First, we need to make sure this village, now under my rule, has proper security… Well, please discuss it with Cocytus.” Saying that, Ainz readied himself to leave, but Zaryusu had something he needed to ask first. It had to be now.
“Please wait. What about Zenbel and my brother?”
“Their corpses should be over there somewhere.” Ainz had begun walking away with Aura, but he stopped and gestured casually with his jaw toward the edge of the village.
“You won’t bring them back to life?”
“…Hmm…I don’t sense anything in it for me…”
“Then why resurrect only me? Zenbel and my brother are strong. They would definitely be useful to you.”
Ainz took a good look at Zaryusu and shrugged. “I’ll think about it… Keep the bodies of those two safe. I’ll consider it.”
Ainz walked off, robe flapping, as if to say the conversation was over. As the pair retreated, Zaryusu heard Aura’s fading voice say, “That hydra’s pretty cute, huh?”
He finally broke his submissive posture and relaxed.
“I survived… Or I guess I came back to life?”
He didn’t know what kind of rule they were in for, but if they could prove themselves useful, he figured it couldn’t be that bad.
“Crusch, my brother…”
“It’s okay. Let’s worry about it later. Right now you need to rest and get back on your feet. Don’t worry, I can carry you.”
“Okay…thanks.”
Zaryusu crumpled to one side and closed his eyes. The moment his lids fell, he was hit by a wave of sleep, like the deep sleep that awaited him after a day of straining his body beyond its limit.
Sensing the gentle arms around him, Zaryusu sank back into darkness.
Afterword
I doubt there are many people starting from this volume, so allow me to say, “Long time no see.” This is Kugane Maruyama.
So, as I announced in the afterword of the previous volume, this turned out to be a strange book all about lizardmen. The story was fairly rare for a light novel, don’t you think? Maybe I just don’t know where to look, but I have the feeling there aren’t that many where the protagonist one-sidedly invades a peaceful village.
How was it?
You may have mixed feelings, but in this series there’s a fairly good chance that the strong will trample the weak now and then.
The Overlord protagonist isn’t the type to just deal with what’s right in front of him, putting out fires as they start, but the type that acts assertively to carry out his aims and pursue
profit. Instead of acting when he hears a princess is in trouble, he’s the aggressive one who goes out searching for a princess who’s in trouble. Well, maybe not exactly like that…
And those of you who play strategy sim games understand, but in order to meet his goal of expanded military power, Ainz tends to subjugate weaklings rather than go after stronger opponents.
So rather than the usual invaded side, I’d like to make this a series about the invader side. That said, just beating on each other isn’t an invasion…
From here on out I’d like to give some thank-yous. So-bin, Crusch was so cute!!! She got me all flustered. Thanks also to Code Design for the great cover, obi wrap, and poster designs. To Osako, thanks for always doing such detailed proofreading. And thanks for everything to my editor, Fta.
To Honey, who looked over the manuscript, thanks as always for your “penetrating insights.” I really use my head to figure out how to respond.
And to everyone who bought the book, my deepest thanks. Thank you so much.
Okay, it will be great if I can see you again for the next book.
Well then, see you.
This is just a side comment, but in every book so far I’ve used the word death in at least one of the chapter titles, but it’s getting tougher to do, so there might not be one in the next book. It was just for kicks, so it’s not like there’s an issue if I don’t, but… Anyhow, if you don’t have the knack for that sort of thing, it’s just kind of hard to pull off! Bummer.
KUGANE MARUYAMA
July 2013
The Lizardman Heroes Page 27