“Haven’t heard anything like that. Rather, there aren’t any details yet.” The dark voice from beneath the robe carried a spine-chilling, hollow echo, as if it were emanating from an open grave.
“I’d really like to get our hands on that list. We could blackmail so many people.”
“Don’t be stupid. We’ll look even more suspicious if we get it. They’ll think the whole thing was our plan. If we find the list, we should hide it in a safe place and then return it to Coccodor later when we apologize. Besides, they write in a code that can’t be cracked so easily, so we wouldn’t be able to use it anyhow.”
The delicate man shrugged at Zero’s remark and said, “Anyhow, we’ll go in and figure that out later. If it’s there, it’s probably in a hidden safe… Still, this is crazy. How did they make this hole? Doesn’t seem like a weapon… Magic?”
“A fist.”
Everyone’s eyes gathered on Zero. He repeated himself.
“A fist? What a guy!”
“Don’t be stupid. This is nothing.” Zero interrupted the woman’s admiring words, steadied his breath, and struck at the door with his hand. His fist pierced the iron as if it were ripping through paper. He slowly withdrew it to reveal a hole like the one Sebas had made.
The delicate man opened his mouth in astonishment. “We can’t have you being the standard, boss… Anyhow, he’s strong enough to punch through an iron-reinforced door and take out Succuronte, one of the Six Arms, albeit the weakest one. I suppose we should consider this a fairly powerful enemy?”
“What are you saying? Just because Succuronte lost doesn’t mean the enemy is strong.” The voice under the hood scoffed. “Once you see through his illusions, his abilities can’t measure up to ours. He’s tough in a fight where he is clearly superior, but against someone at the same level or where he is even slightly inferior, defeat is inevitable. I believe you all knew that.”
Someone laughed quietly in agreement with that opinion, ridiculing the less powerful man.
“So keeping that in mind, I’ll ask the question: What should we do? Stay out of it? Even if we confront this, I can’t imagine the benefits can balance out the losses,” the hooded figure continued.
“Don’t be stupid.” The irrepressible anger was showing through here and there in Zero’s speech.
“If we don’t make the guy who attacked the brothel into an example by killing him, it’ll be bad for our reputation. Now’s no time to think about losses. The Six Arms need to move together to kill the raider. Undead King, Davernoch.” The figure in the robe thrust out a hand. The hand, which was not that of a living thing, contained an orb that gave off a strange aura representing the owner’s emotions.
“Spatial Slash, Peshurian.” The figure in full plate armor who had been silent up until now pounded his fist against his chest with a violent clang.
“Dancing Scimitars, Edström.” The woman dressed in light silk gave an elegant bow, and the golden bangles on her arms jangled.
“Thousand Kills, Marmvist.” The delicate man clicked his heels together.
“And me, Fighting Ogre, Zero!”
Everyone around Zero nodded in agreement or maybe understanding.
“First, let’s bail out Succuronte and the other captives and get info from them. Once that’s done…get together some guys who can perform torture. We’ll show the raiders what a hell this world can be. We’ll make them regret the foolish things they’ve done!”
3 Late Fire Moon (September) 5:42 PM
By the time Sebas finished everything and returned to the mansion, the sun was already going down.
Climb will protect women who were being held captive. Succuronte and the place’s manager have been arrested. Things are probably a mess on their end, so perhaps we’ve bought some time.
So what to do about Tsuare? He thought it would be best to take her somewhere safe, but as far as he knew, no such place existed. Sebas was worrying about all these things when he reached the mansion.
His hand stopped as he went to open the door. Someone was standing immediately behind it. The presence was Solution’s, but he couldn’t tell why she was right inside.
Some kind of emergency?
With some trepidation, Sebas opened the door. What he found was so unexpected, he froze.
“Welcome back, Master Sebas.”
It was Solution in her maid uniform.
A chill went up Sebas’s spine.
She was supposed to be acting the part of a merchant’s daughter. A human who knew nothing—Tsuare—was in the house, and she was wearing her maid uniform. That meant either she didn’t need to act anymore or there was some reason she needed to wear her maid uniform.
In the former case, it meant something had happened to Tsuare. In the latter…
“Master Sebas, Lord Ainz is waiting for you inside.”
Registering what Solution’s quiet voice had said, Sebas’s heart skipped a beat.
Sebas was unfazed before a powerful enemy or a guardian-rank being, but a visit from his master made him nervous.
“Wh-why…?” His tongue tangled on the word.
Solution only looked at him. “Master Sebas, Lord Ainz is waiting.”
Her attitude told him she had nothing else to say, and he followed after her.
His footsteps were as heavy as those of a man being led to the guillotine.
Afterword
It’s Kugane Maruyama, the author. Overlord is already five volumes long. Allow me to express my gratitude to everyone who has been reading all this way. Thank you.
Now then, Volumes 5 and 6 are a pair, part one and two, so do we even really need an afterword? is what I asked my editor, but she said there might be people who are looking forward to it, so please write one. Are there…people who…look forward to this? Or, like, is it possible to look forward to an afterword? Nnngh, are people expecting the impossible, like, “Hey, say something interesting!”?
Is there anything fun to say…? I don’t have anything to talk about except for the fact that while working on books five and six I didn’t leave the house at all on weekends or holidays from August till the end of November because I was so busy.
And book six has a deluxe edition with a drama CD like the fourth one did, so that made it even more intense.
This is what it’s like to lead a double life as an author!
Hmm, this isn’t a fun story at all. It’s more likely to crush everyone’s dreams.
Let’s switch subjects.
I’m still updating the web version of Overlord, but book six will be about 90 percent new writing.
It was always my plan to add material when turning the web novel into a book. This next volume will be the fruit of that endeavor.
I’ve already finished writing it, so unless there are any issues, it should be out at the end of January 2014. I’ll see you again in the afterword there.
From here on out, I’ll turn to thank-yous.
To so-bin for the illustrations, Code Design Studio for the design, Osako for the proofreading, Fta for editing, and everyone involved in producing Overlord, thank you. And Honey, thanks for everything.
And to all of you who picked up the book, really, thank you!
KUGANE MARUYAMA
December 2013
Profile
Author Profile Kugane Maruyama
He began writing novels, and as a result his life is even more sedentary, so he’s developed a very fatty midriff. It’s not because he’s planning to hibernate for the winter, so he is giving real consideration to going on a diet.
Illustrator Profile so-bin
Has recently been chided by everyone for being “too skinny” and is feeling sad, so decided to set a new goal for 2014 to put on weight.
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The Men of the Kingdom Part I Page 25