"The preparations took some time. I apologize for my late arrival," Albedo's melodic voice spoke from beneath the horned helmet.
Albedo's levels were in the defense focused Dark Knight class. As a result, among the three level one hundred warriors of Nazarick — Sebas, Cocytus, and Albedo — Albedo possessed the greatest defensive ability.
In other words, she was the strongest shield in Nazarick.
"No, it's fine. You came just in time."
"Thank you. Then… how shall we dispose of these inferior lifeforms? If you do not wish to stain his hands with their blood, I will gladly eliminate them on your behalf, Momonga-sama."
"...What exactly did Sebas tell you?"
Albedo did not respond.
"I see, you didn't pay attention… my intention is to save this village. Our enemies are the knights in armor, like that corpse over there."
Momonga saw that Albedo nodded in understanding, and turned his eyes elsewhere.
"Then…"
The two girls shrank under Momonga's unyielding gaze, and tried their best to make themselves as small as possible. Perhaps it was because of the Death Knight, or because they heard its roar, or because they had heard Albedo's words, which made them tremble uncontrollably.
Perhaps it was all of them.
Momonga felt that he should show his intention to help and reached his hand out to the elder sister, but the two girls seemed to have gotten the wrong impression.
The elder sister wet herself, followed by the younger sister.
"..."
The stench of ammonia filled the surrounding air. Fatigue washed over Momonga like a tide. He had no idea what to do, and Albedo was no help, so Momonga decided to continue trying to express his good intentions.
"...You seem to be hurt."
As a working man, Momonga had long since trained up his ability to ignore things.
Momonga, who pretended not to notice, opened his inventory and withdrew a backpack from it. Although it was called an Infinite Backpack, it could only hold up to five hundred kilos of items.
YGGDRASIL players commonly put their immediate-use items into this bag, because the items within the bag could be assigned to hotkeys in the game interface.
After digging through several of these Backpacks, he found a small phial containing a red potion.
It was a Minor Healing Potion.
This potion could restore fifty HP, and beginners in YGGDRASIL frequently used it. However, Momonga as he was now had no need for this item at all. This was because this potion healed through positive energy. To an undead being like Momonga, this potion was like a damaging poison. However, not every member in the guild was undead, so Momonga kept some of these items just in case.
"Drink it."
"Momonga offered the red potion. The elder sister's face was pale with fright as she replied:
"I, I'll drink it! Just, please, spare my little sister—"
"Nee-chan!"
He watched the little sister weeping as she tried to stop her elder sister, while the elder sister apologized to her little sister while taking the potion. Their reactions confused Momonga.
After all, he had saved them in a tight spot, and had even offered them a potion. Why were they acting like this in front of him? What was going on here?
They don't trust me at all. Even though I wanted to leave them to their fate at first, I ended up being their saviour in the end. They should be crying and hugging me in gratitude. Isn't this sort of thing common in manga and movies? But the exact opposite is happening now.
Where did I go wrong? Could it be that being instantly accepted is a privilege of the beautiful?
Just as a baffled expression dawned on Momonga's fleshless face, a dulcet voice said:
"...Momonga-sama offered you a healing potion out of the kindness of his heart, but to think you would actually dare to refuse it… you inferior lifeforms deserve ten thousand deaths for that."
Albedo raised her bardiche in a natural way, preparing to behead them on the spot.
Considering they had treated him like this despite how he had risked himself to save them, Momonga could understand Albedo's feelings. However, if he let her go ahead and slay them, then there would be no point to this rescue.
"Wait, wait, don't be so hasty. There's a time and place for this, so lower your weapon."
"...Understood, Momonga-sama," Albedo replied gently as she withdrew her bardiche.
However, she was still radiating murderous intent, to the point where the two girls were gritting their teeth in fear. In response, Momonga's nonexistent stomach began cramping up.
In any case, he had to leave this place as soon as possible.
If he remained here, who knew what other tragedies might occur?
Momonga offered the potion again.
"This is a healing potion. It is harmless. Hurry up and drink it."
Momonga's words were gentle, but backed with an adamant will. There was also the implied threat that if she did not drink, she would be slain.
The elder sister's eyes went wide and she gulped the potion down. After that, a look of surprise filled her face.
"No way…"
She touched her back, then wiggled her body in disbelief and patted her back.
"The pain is gone?"
"Y-Yes, it is..."
The elder sister nodded stiffly, to indicate that it did not hurt.
It would seem that the minor wounds on her were easily remedied by a low tier healing potion.
Now that he had their trust, Momonga continued by asking a question. There was no way around that question, and depending on the answer, it would affect his future movements.
"Do you know of magic?"
"Yes, yes I do. The alchemist who comes by our village… my friend, knows how to use magic."
"...Is that so. Well, that makes things easy to explain. I am a magic caster."
Momonga then cast his spells:
"「Anti-Life Cocoon」."
"「Wall of Protection From Arrows」."
A dome of light, roughly three meters in radius, surrounded the sisters. The second spell was not visible to the naked eye, but there was a subtle change in the air. He had originally planned to use an anti-magic spell as well, but he did not know what sort of magic existed in this world, so he did not do so for the time being. If the enemy had magic casters, then that was just their bad luck.
"I have cast a defensive spell that keeps living creatures from coming near you, as well as a spell that weakens the effectiveness of shooting attacks. As long as you stay here, you should be safe. Ah, just in case, I will give you these as well."
After calmly explaining the effects of the magic to the two dumbfounded sisters, Momonga withdrew a pair of unremarkable-looking horns. Apparently, the magic did not obstruct them, since they sailed straight through the forcefield as Momonga tossed them to the sisters' side.
"These are called the Horns of the Goblin General. If you blow them, Goblins — in other words, small monsters — will appear. Order them to protect you."
In YGGDRASIL, electronic data crystals dropped from monsters could be slotted into almost any sort of item (apart from certain expendable items), in order to create just about any item a player could think of. In addition there were certain artifacts which could not be created by players and had fixed stats. These horns were examples of them.
Momonga had used the horn before, and at that time it managed to summon a Goblin Troop, twelve or so Goblins with some measure of ability. There were two Goblin Archers, one Goblin Mage, a Goblin Cleric, two Goblin Riders and their wolf mounts, as well as one Goblin Leader.
Although it was called a Goblin Troop, their numbers were few and they were very weak.
This was a trash item for Momonga. The surprise was why he had not disposed of it yet. Still, Momonga felt quite smart for being able to put this trash item to good use.
Another good point about this item was that the summoned Goblins would linger until they were killed instead of vanishing after a while. That could at least buy the girls some time.
As Momonga finished, he turned to leave, bringing Albedo with him as he headed to the village. However, after a few steps, a couple of voices called out to him.
"Ah… th-thank you for saving us!"
"Thank you!"
Those words stopped Momonga in his tracks, and when he turned around, he saw the two girls, their eyes brimming with tears as they thanked him. He simply replied:
"...Think nothing of it."
"And, and this may be thick-skinned of us, but, but you are the only one we can count on. Please! Please save our parents!"
"All right. If they're still alive, I will rescue them."
The sisters' eyes went wide as they heard Momonga's words. Their faces reflected the disbelief in their hearts, but soon they came to their senses and lowered their heads in thanks.
"Th-Thank you! Thank you very much! And, and, may we know…"
The girl's voice trailed off, and then she asked in a mumble:
"May we know your name...?"
Momonga almost responded by reflex, but in the end he did not state his name.
The name "Momonga" was that of the guild master of the former Ainz Ooal Gown. Then what should he call himself now? What was the name of the last man who remained in the Great Tomb of Nazarick?
—Ah, that's it.
"...Remember my name well. I am Ainz Ooal Gown