A drop of water appeared at the mouth of the golden faucet, gradually
swelled, and was then pulled by gravity to the bathroom floor.
There were a number of places to take a hot bath in the Great Tomb of
Nazarick, and this was one of them.
In a marble bathtub big enough for multiple people sat a lone figure.
Drops of blue ran down the smooth white body. Blue is not poetic; it was
a deliberate blue, as if they had been dyed that color.
Once the blue liquid had lapped the white porcelain form, it disobeyed
gravity to go over it once again, bottom to top, not flowing, like water, so
much as crawling.
"Phwah." It tended to echo in the bathroom, so the unconsciously emitted
moan reverberated loudly.
Was the sound embarrassing? A thin arm rose out of the blue liquid.
There were none of the falling droplets that would normally be heard, nor
ripples across the surface—due to the extremely high viscosity of the liquid.
A slender raised hand stroked the bather's face, which was praised by
many for its beauty.
"Phew…" With a sigh, the figure flopped backward but did not sink
below the surface. The blue liquid gently supported the slim body. It was like
lying on a soft waterbed, that sort of elasticity.
The liquid had a distinct mind.
That was proven beyond a doubt in the next moment.
The blue liquid wriggled and raised tentacles a finger or two thick. They
wrapped around the body, both above and of course below the surface.
Head, chest, abdomen, arms, legs—and, of course, hips.
The liquid squirmed in satisfaction at having restrained its prey. It was
actually a sapphire slime, an elite variety of slime.
The sapphire slime began to move its slender tentacles.
It slipped one of them inside a delicate area near the hips.
"—Ahh."
Another moan. It was louder than the first, but this time there was no sign
of any attempt to suppress it. All attention was focused on the sensation of
the slime wriggling inside.
A murmur echoed in the bathroom.
"Ahh, it's so damn good. I can't even describe this feeling."
Ainz soaked in his slime bath.
He scooped some up and let it dribble over his head. The slime, which had
been diligently cleaning the area of his master's pelvic bone around the
obturator foramen, must have understood where he wanted to be cleaned
next. Ainz felt it slither around his head.
"Phew, this is paradise. Just paradise."
Ainz the undead's body was made entirely of bones.
Since it didn't excrete any waste products, he didn't get oily or smelly, but
that didn't mean he didn't need to bathe. Dust and dirt clung to him, and
sometimes blood spattered onto him. He did get dirty.
And as a Japanese person, he couldn't endure a life without bathing.
"I only took steam baths back in the other world, but… Just the idea of a
real bath gets me excited. The practice of bathing must be deeply rooted in
the hearts of Japanese people."
Mimicking a relaxed exhalation, he submerged himself farther under the
slime. With a slippery sensation, it made way for him.
Despite the high viscosity of the liquid, it didn't feel strange to him.
Taking a normal bath is such a pain…
He looked down at the most troublesome part of his body—his ribs.
Washing them one by one took an awfully long time. He had experience
with this, and just the thought of it made him sigh—although he wasn't
actually breathing.
And that wasn't the only troublesome part.
His spine was the same. The protuberances got stuck on his towel, so he
couldn't just give them a quick wash. It took attention to detail.
At first, he'd been washing himself with care. But even the mentally
resilient Ainz got sick of the monotonous labor. His fastest attempt still took
more than thirty minutes; that was no joke, and he felt it.
The next thing he tried was getting into a bathtub full of soapy water and
spinning around as if he were in a washing machine. That wasn't as bad; he
just didn't feel like he got clean. If he didn't use something to scrub himself,
there was no sense that he'd gotten the dirt off.
So his next tactic was to procure a cleaning brush with a handle and scrub
with that. That went very well.
It did get soap everywhere, but it wasn't as if Ainz had to tidy up after
himself. Tidying up was the maids' job, and they were happy to have
something to do. He basically killed two birds with one stone.
But even that brilliant plan had one problem.
He wasn't sure if he was really getting every part of himself clean.
He was anxious that even though he thought he was scrubbing his whole
body, there might have been places he missed, like how even a tooth brusher
with the best intentions can get cavities.
Eventually, he arrived at this final solution of having a slime crawl around
his body.
"Yeah…this really is a landmark, original method. It leaves nothing to be
desired—it's simply perfect," he murmured as he watched the blue slime
slither over the surfaces of his body.
He nodded, totally in love with the effortless method he had come up
with. It might have been the most perfect plan he had devised since arriving
in this world.
"It's magnificent if I do say so myself!"
Continuing to pat himself on the back, he watched the slime moving
around every nook and cranny of his body.
It's so adorable…
It was a malicious monster with the ability to dissolve things with acid
and constricting strength enough to easily bend an iron rod, but to Ainz it was
a back-washer buddy who cleaned him. In a way, he was even attached to it
as a pet.
A slime bath isn't bad, but I would like a normal soak once in a while…
The ninth level of Nazarick had many different facilities. There was even
a bathhouse. It was modeled after a spa resort, a complex of different kinds of
baths.
"Maybe I should check it out…"
But it wouldn't be very fun to go alone. In that case…
"Okay! I'll invite the guardians. It'll be great if we can find a time that
everyone is free."
Ainz smiled at his brilliant plan.
1
7:14 AM Nazarick Time
Nazarick had two types of maids.
There were the combat maids, like Yuri Alpha, and then there were the
regular maids with no combat ability whatsoever. The job of the latter—
homunculi who were only level 1 even with race and class levels combined—
was to perform all sorts of chores on the ninth and tenth levels, especially
cleaning. Tidying up the rooms of their masters, the Supreme Beings, was
their most important duty.
Cixous, one of those regular maids, was hurrying without quickening her
steps—a special ability maids had, though it wasn't technically a skill—
toward the employee cafeteria.
There was only one reason to go to the cafeteria at this time of morning.
When she arrived, most of the other maids were already eating.
The women's cheerful, noisy conversations overlapped and rippled
through the dull, mainly white cafeteria. No single person was talking all that
loudly, but when their voices mixed together, it became an incomprehensible
din. That plus the sound of clinking dishes made quite a racket.
Cixous looked for her close friends.
The maids in the cafeteria were split broadly into four groups.
The first three groups were maids created by the same Supreme Being.
There were forty-one of these regular maids, but it wasn't as if each of the
Supreme Beings had made one. WhiteLace, HeroHero, and Coup de Grâce
had created them all.
The final group, though it might be misleading to call it a group, was
made up of the maids who weren't in the other gatherings. These were the
maids who wanted to quietly eat alone, or read, or chat with people made by
other Supreme Beings.
Cixous, who had arrived a little late, belonged to the latter group. She
waved to the maids created by the same Supreme Being—her sisters, so to
speak—and said her good mornings as she made her way to her usual table.
The usual faces were already sitting there: Foäille and Lumièlle.
Cixous's face fell when she noticed there was no food in front of them.
"Morning. Did you guys…eat already?"
"Morning. Yeah, we ate. It was really good. So creamy and fluffy… Ahh,
it was great." Foäille had a sporty look—short hair, a maid uniform she
customized herself to have slightly shorter sleeves—and always wanted to fib
even though she was horrible whenever she tried while constantly speaking in
monotone.
The other maid, meek-faced Lumièlle, raised her eyebrows. Her blond
hair gave off a mysterious light, as if there were twinkling stars inside. "Good
morning. Foäille, you don't need to eat twice, right? Please wait here. I
haven't eaten yet, so I'm going to get some food. Let's go, Cixous." Lumièlle
stood up.
"I was just kidding! It was a joke!" Foäille hurried after her.
The familiar exchange ended, and they walked—not without asking
Inclement, who was quietly reading next to them, to save their seats—to the
buffet.
The first thing Cixous grabbed was crispy bacon. As part of the "floppy
bacon is just wrong" faction, this was a required item for her. Next, she got
soup. From "today's special," corn soup and onion soup, she chose the onion.
Then she mounded sausage, fried potatoes, and Danish onto her plate and
piled another dish to overflowing with a salad that was mainly onions.
Finally, she moved toward a male servant wearing a mask.
"Um, I'll have triple cheese, double onions, and mushrooms please."
The male servant bowed and began frying up an omelet.
Cixous returned to her seat for the moment to put down her food. When
she went back to the servant, with a cup of milk in one hand, he was just
finishing up her order.
"Thank you."
She took the perfect omelet, no burned spots, back to her seat, and her
friends were just arriving, too.
"Okay, let's eat!"
"Yum!"
"Mm-hmm."
The three of them began to eat in silence. For an average woman, the
portions were far too big, but they rapidly packed the mountains of food into
their stomachs. One of their racial penalties was the need for a lot of food.
That was why, though they were good friends, they never chatted while
eating.
Foäille chewed with her cheeks stuffed full, Lumièlle ate neatly with her
fork doing unusually rapid laps between her plate and her mouth, and Cixous
was somewhere in between.
In a surprisingly short time, the food on their plates was gone, and they
were finishing off their milk.
"Ahh!"
All three of their milky exhalations overlapped. Then they exchanged
glances.
"…Want to go around again?"
"Yeah, but let's rest for a little while first."
"I agree! My tummy's even poking out a little bit. By the way, Cixous,
isn't it your turn to serve Lord Ainz today?" Foäille asked, grinning. "You're
looking sharper than usual."
Cixous couldn't help but smile, too.
"How lucky. I wonder how many more days until my turn." Lumièlle
started counting on her fingers.
The chambers of the highest rulers of Nazarick were spacious, so cleaning
a suite carefully on one's own would easily take half a day.
Certainly, by the numbers, it was possible to clean them all every day,
even including other rooms like the spare one Albedo was using, but several
people would have had to work full-time with no rest.
Still, that wasn't a problem for them. They were created by members of
Ainz Ooal Gown, who ruled the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Working their
hardest for them was only natural—to them, it was quite literally serving the
gods.
But the godlike being Ainz Ooal Gown stopped them from working like
religious fanatics.
He knew the pain of working for a tyrannical company, so he couldn't
force that kind of lifestyle on what were basically his friends' daughters.
He instructed them to clean unused rooms less frequently and also broke
them up into teams in order to give time off.
And so Nazarick's maids were currently split into morning and evening
teams. Thirty were in the former group and ten in the latter. The one
remaining person would take the day off. In other words, they got a day off
only once every forty-one days, and some of them complained about the
arrangements.
Not that there were too few days off—they protested the opposite. The
servants petitioned to get rid of vacation days.
Their whole reason for existing was serving the Supreme Beings. When
they were told they didn't have to do anything, they lost their sense of selfworth. All they felt was the negative emotion that they weren't needed.
So they negotiated with Ainz directly: Please don't take our work away.
We want to work all day.
Ainz immediately rejected their appeals. On one hand, the concept of
exhaustion had existed in Yggdrasil, but it could be cured with magic. At the
same time, that didn't necessarily mean the same thing was possible in this
world. Ainz was worried that even if he treated their fatigue with purely
magic, their gears would slowly wear down and stop working.
Their stubborn ruler wouldn't back off, so they had no choice but to
accept his decision. Seeing them fight back their tears, he proposed a
compromise.
A position that would answer to him directly.
He declared that the maids would take turns, one by one, waiting on him
and helping him with all his work.
To these girls for whom serving the Supreme Beings was the greatest joy,
this was like icing on their cake. They jumped at the opportunity with zero
hesitation and accepted that on the day before they would serve him, they
were to take a day off so they would be ready to serve him to the best of their
ability.
"You need to eat all your nutrients and work hard! There's a good chance
you'll have to work through a meal, you know."
"Of course. The one serving Ainz needs to send a lot of nutrients to their
brain."
"It makes you crave sweets."
All three of them nodded. Incidentally, maids carried supplemental meals
high in sugar content on their person. When they were working for Ainz, they
snacked on them whenever they found a spare moment, but if they were
unlucky—or maybe, if they were lucky—they wouldn't have time. That was
why it was so important to eat a big breakfast.
"Oh, did you hear? Apparently, they're going to start cooking with
ingredients from the outside world, and I heard they're having a tasting."
Cixous's friends gasped at this news.
That's only natural, she thought.
No maids had positive feelings for the world outside Nazarick. Some of
them looked down on it, but the majority simply thought it was scary—many
remembered the raiders from the outside who penetrated all the way to the
eighth level, the one above them.
"Can all the maids participate? It must be only some, right?"
As Cixous was about to answer Foäille's question, the atmosphere in the
cafeteria suddenly changed. Something like a buzz of excitement went
through the room.
They followed the gazes of the other maids just as the cheers went up.
"Shizuuu!"
"It's Shizu!"
One of the combat maids, Shizu, had just entered the cafeteria.
The regular maids admired the combat maids as if they were pop idols,
and Shizu was the most popular one. Competition for seats near her was
fierce.
"Oh, and the penguin."
She was carrying a penguin under her arm, and a perplexed-looking male
servant followed them. The assistant butler was struggling, but he was a
level-1 birdman—he couldn't escape Shizu's tough grasp. As they watched,
his frantic resistance devolved into powerlessness.
Eventually he gave up completely and went limp. He was like a live
stuffed animal.
"Shizu! Over here, over here! Let's eat together!"
"No, please come over here, Shizuuu!"
"Leave the assistant butler somewhere over there! Just chuck him!"
"Take that useless bird to the chef! Then he'll at least be able to contribute
to Nazarick in some way!"
There was no helping the overt difference in reception between Shizu and
the assistant butler. The birdman had a habit of spouting blasphemy about
how he wanted to rule Nazarick, so no one much cared for him. Even if the
Supreme Beings made him that way, it was too hard to put up with his
behavior when he was always talking like that.
Hearing everyone shouting for her, Shizu glanced around the cafeteria.
Many maids were touched by the childlike way she either searched for
someone or was contemplating where to sit.
"When Shizu is holding him, he looks kinda cute somehow. It's so
weird."
"Maybe I'll make her a body pillow to hold instead. Mistress Albedo
seems to know a lot about them. Maybe I can get her to teach me."
"Mistress Albedo is nice, so I bet she would. Why not try asking her?"
Shifting her gaze in response to the sound of a book snapping shut at the
next table, Cixous caught Inclement standing up to leave.
"It got noisy in here, so I'm going back. If you're serving Lord Ainz
today, I think you should hurry up and finish eating, too, so you can go. If
you make a mistake, it'll reflect poorly on all of us."
Having said her piece, Inclement walked away without waiting for a
reply. Watching her go, Cixous checked the time on her pocket watch. She
still had some leeway, but once she had eaten more and touched up her
appearance, time would probably be running short.
"Okay. Let's go get seconds quickly while everyone is fighting over
Shizu."
Her friends agreed with her suggestion.
"Ooh, nice idea."
The maids nearly jumped out of their skin at the voice that had come from
immediately next to them.
"L-Lupusregina!" Cixous turned to the voice's owner, pressing both
hands over her pounding chest. Just a moment ago, there had been no one,
but in the brief time she'd been distracted by Shizu and looked away,
Lupusregina had appeared. She was sitting sideways on a chair with her legs
crossed and even had her meal placed neatly on the table in front of her.
"Don't surprise us like that, geez!" Foäille, with pathetic, pleading
eyebrows, still clung to Lumièlle.
"I thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest!" Lumièlle
murmured in a daze; she didn't seem to have the wherewithal to be
indifferent about Foäille's embrace.
The three of them reproved her, but their faces were smiling. Lupusregina
was the only combat maid who interacted with all of them on the level of
friends, but her patterns of activity were erratic. Since she changed groups
each day, being approached by her could be considered a sign of good luck.
Hence, the jealous looks Cixous and her friends were getting from other
maids.
"Nyee-hee-hee. It was worth experimenting in the village. Nice reactions,
guys."
Lupusregina propped her head up on her hands and grinned like a cat from
a storybook. It was a spiteful smile but also strangely charming, which made
it mysterious, and Cixous admired it for a little while.
The other two seemed to feel much the same, but the first one to recover
was Foäille. "The village?" When she cocked her head, her short bob tickled
Lumièlle's face.
With a look like she was holding back a sneeze, she shoved Foäille away.
Then she straightened up and faced Lupusregina. "Miss Lupusregina, I did
hear you're working outside."
"Yup, I'm workin' in a human village."
"A human village… Sounds difficult." Lumièlle gave Lupusregina a
sympathetic look.
"Nah. Plus, I was ordered to do it by Lord Ainz himself, so it's worth it…
To be honest, though, it's pretty borin'. If they would get overrun in an
attack, that would be more fun."
Cixous didn't think twice about the remark. What became of the human
village wasn't any of her concern; it could flourish or go to ruin, as long as it
was useful to Nazarick.
"Lord Ainz says it has value, but I don't really know what it is."
"Knowing Lord Ainz, perhaps he took pity on the worthless humans."
"No, no, Lord Ainz is a gale-force wind of death. He's probably just
waiting for the right time to trample them."
"What are you saying? Lord Ainz is a crystallization of wisdom! It must
be part of a bigger plan."
"Hold up, can't let that pass. Might is Lord Ainz's true forte."
The four girls glared at one another, practically growling.
"Lord Ainz is a kind, beautiful person!"
"Lord Ainz is death manifest in this world!"
"Lord Ainz is an unparalleled genius!"
"Whoa, looks like we all have different ideas of what Lord Ainz is like,
huh? In that case, a challenge: Who can give him the most fittin' nickname?"
For a moment, silence. Lupusregina was smiling as usual, but she didn't
seem to have any intention of being left in the dust when it came to divining
Ainz's true nature. Still, that went for Cixous and her friends as well.
Regular maids may have been weak level-1 beings, but they wouldn't
back down when it came to respect and adoration of their master.
"You three can go first."
"Then…" Lumièlle was the first to speak. "As I said before, I think we
need to exalt Lord Ainz's beauty. So how about 'the Ever-Radiant Lord of
Most Merciful Love with the Aesthetically Glorious Porcelain-White
Visage'?"
Next was Foäille. "If we're going to exalt Lord Ainz, what needs to be
emphasized is his great power! Given that he's an overlord, it has to be
'Memento Mori,' right?"
Cixous went third. "Lord Ainz was once the leader of the Supreme
Beings, so he must have superior skills for running and maintaining an
organization, so I say 'the Resourceful King.'"
All the nicknames fit their master, but they all still felt that their own
choice fit him best. Cixous, then Foäille and Lumièlle all focused on the last
person.
Her turn having come around, Lupusregina cleared her throat, "Ahem,"
and said with a smug grin, "It's gotta be 'the Absolute Strongest in—'"
"…So that's where you were," a soft voice said. It was Shizu. Éclair the
assistant butler must have gone somewhere, because he wasn't under her arm
anymore. "…Please don't go completely invisible all the time."
"Sorry! Guess it's just a habit now."
"…And you started eating without me." Anger like a haze of heat showed
through beneath Shizu's barely changing expression.
Cixous realized it could be risky to stick around any longer. "Oh, I have to
get going to Lord Ainz's."
"Then I'll head out, too."
"I'll walk with you partway."
Cixous and her friends quietly stood, pretending not to notice
Lupusregina's glances pleading for help.
In the end, Cixous missed out on seconds. She had many regrets about
that, but she had to compose herself.
Clearing her mind of the precarious atmosphere behind her, she slapped
her cheeks to steel herself. Her face was that of a brave warrior heading to
battle, but she walked forward with light steps.
9:20 AM Nazarick Time
The sixth level of the Great Tomb of Nazarick…
This zone, boasting the largest area of any in the great tomb, was
protected by not the typical undead but monsters that wouldn't usually spawn
there, like Aura's magical beasts. Most of it was covered in thickly growing
forest, making "sea of trees" an apt description.
But the enthusiastic members of the once extant guild Ainz Ooal Gown
weren't satisfied with simply painting the place green.
There was an arena, a giant tree, ruins of a settlement that had been
swallowed up by the forest, a lake, a poisonous den, gnarled trees,
mangroves, a bottomless swamp, and more; it was designed with diversity.
Recently they had even built a small village to welcome new residents.
In the center of this sea of trees with its many highlights was a big—
although not as big as the underground lake zone on level four—body of
water, and it was surrounded by grass, not trees. The meadow and the lake
were only a tiny part of the sixth level, but it was big enough for the girls to
do what they came for.
One of the girls was a guardian of the level, Aura. She looked impressive
on the back of her giant jet-black wolf and seemed right at home.
But of course she did. Although she had extraordinary physical ability and
could easily run to patrol the vast grounds, she preferred riding her magical
beasts.
There were two other girls.
One was Captain of the Guardians Albedo. Instead of her usual white
dress, she was wearing her black full plate armor, but she had no weapon or
shield.
The other was Shalltear. Nothing about her was different from usual.
There was a strange look in her eyes, like she was highly engaged or having
fun.
"Okay, here I go. Come to me, mount!" Albedo used the skill Summon
Mount.
A magical beast the same color as her armor wavered into sight where
there had been nothing. The beast had a white mane and tail and resembled a
horse. He wore equestrian full plate armor and was fitted with a saddle and
reins.
His body was slightly smaller than a horse's, but he had a much more
powerful air about him. The most obvious difference was his head, which had
two horns jutting out to the front.
The first one to react to the mount that appeared was Aura, who had the
most detailed magical beast knowledge of anyone present. "Wow! He's
different from a normal bicorn! Those horns are magnificent, and his body's
really toned!"
Albedo emitted a proud laugh. "That's right. His strength matches my
level—he should probably be called a war bicorn lord. Though, actually, he's
a level–one hundred bicorn…"
"Can he fly?!"
"No, that's impossible. His abilities aren't so different from a normal
bicorn's. He doesn't have extra skills, just boosted health, muscular strength,
and agility."
"I guess you can't power up mounts without rider skills, huh? So if we
participate in a level–one hundred battle, our mounts' skills will be weak and
we'll just be in the way."
"Yes, but I can protect him with my skills, so we can go the distance in
battle."
"But then do you not have to split your resources? I daresay that is a lot of
wasted energy during combat. What about equipping different gear to
strengthen him? I have heard that mount monsters can equip things similar to
armor and horseshoes."
"Yes, some summoned beasts can equip gear. For example, and this is
related to Aura's earlier question, if I equipped him with horseshoes that
included a flying ability, then he would probably be able to fly. But I already
have him equipped with an item to boost his speed, so…I can't really."
Albedo gave the magical beast beside her a pat. Perhaps she'd hit him too
hard—he staggered.
A mount she summoned shouldn't have staggered from a little tap like
that. Albedo furrowed her brow, wondering if he didn't like her or something
else was wrong, when Aura jumped in with a question.
"Huh. So what's his name?"
"He's a bicorn. Didn't you just say that?"
"No, not his racial name, his own name."
"Does he need one?" Albedo looked at the vampire for her opinion, but
she just shrugged.
"Pretty sure he does! He's like your pet!"
"He's not really my pet… Is a summoned beast even the same one every
time?"
Shalltear chimed in with what she thought was a great idea. "Why not ask
the Prince of Fear? He excels at summoning his brethren, so he must be well
versed in the details."
"I'll pass. I mean, he is a member of Nazarick, and it's not like I hate him,
but I just…"
"Ahh, yeah. I know he doesn't mean any harm, but they kinda come in
through the gaps in your clothes… I think Entoma goes sometimes, but…"
"Disgusting! Please spare me this talk of skin-crawling matters… That
room is truly a fearful place. It may be on one of my levels, but I definitely
have no interest in going."
"Shalltear, did you know that Entoma calls it the snack room?"
"Eeek! Really? Are you serious?! Ugh, I can't go anywhere near her
now!"
Albedo agreed. Who would want to go near someone who declared those
things snacks?
The atmosphere had gotten a little strange when Aura, perhaps to change
the subject, raised her voice slightly. "So getting back to what we were
talking about, you're not going to give him a name?"
"Well, if you think I should, then maybe I will." Albedo mumbled to
herself as she became absorbed in thought. If she was going to go to the
trouble of giving him a name, she wanted to make sure it wasn't an
embarrassing one. Among the words and letters that came to mind, a song
echoed through her head in a flash of inspiration.
"What are you mumbling about?"
"Oh, sorry," Albedo answered as if waking from a dream. "If Ainz will
allow it, I'll give him a name that is dear to me—Top of the World."
"Hmm. That's a nice name. Is that a reference to Lord Ainz?"
Albedo didn't feel like answering, so she just smiled.
Shalltear's eyebrows tilted to a dangerous angle.
They were always like this. The atmosphere turned volatile, and Aura
intervened. "Well, that's fine. You summoned the bicorn, so how about we
move on to the next experiment?"
"Sure, okay."
Shalltear scowled upon being ignored as Albedo turned back to face her
bicorn and stepped into a stirrup. She mounted him with movements so
nimble it was hard to believe she was wearing armor. The moment she let her
weight rest in the saddle, she felt the bicorn tremble.
"What's wrong?" Albedo shouted in a panic. She had no idea why her
level-100 bicorn would be stumbling like that. She remembered how he had
reacted when she had patted him moments ago. Had something been wrong
since then? Then what caused it?
"Aura! Shalltear! Something's wrong with my bicorn! Can you come take
a look?"
By that time, the bicorn had started staggering as if he couldn't stay
upright any longer, so the other two could see clearly that something wasn't
right.
"F-for now, hurry up and get off him, Albedo!"
"O-okay."
The thought finally occurred to Albedo when Aura suggested it, and she
dismounted.
The unstable bicorn collapsed on the spot. He was breathing hard and
covered in sweat.
"…Albedo, did you gain weight?" Shalltear wasn't asking entirely out of
malice. That is, there wasn't really any other way to interpret what she had
just seen.
"How rude! I'm within a suitable weight range, taking into account extra
muscle!"
"Is he weak because you don't ride him regularly? Mine I keep loose and
have them patrol the sixth level pretty frequently."
"Huh? He shouldn't… I thought a mount was just like any summoned
monsters. So why would he be weak?"
"Should I try to ride him?"
"Unfortunately, you can't. This is my mount. No one else can ride him. If
you try to force your way onto him, he'll be sent back."
"Then maybe we should ask him. Hey, bicorn, what happened?" Aura
asked. She didn't have a special ability to talk to horses—bicorns were fairly
intelligent magical beasts, so she was probably banking on that. But the
bicorn couldn't talk; he only neighed.
"If he can't talk, I bet he can't write, either…"
The bicorn neighed as if confirming her hunch.
The three girls looked at one another.
"Aura, can't you do some amazing thing with your power?"
"No. What's 'some amazing thing' anyhow? You interviewed us all a
while back, so you know the full extent of my powers. Did the head guardian
forget something so simple?"
"Ah… How do you usually communicate with Fenrir?"
"Just like normal. 'Do this, do that.'"
"With words, then? So if you made a concerted effort, perhaps you could
do the same with this bicorn?"
"Just because I can communicate with the beasts I control doesn't mean I
can communicate with all of them. Actually, I've already tried. Like, the
lizardmen have that Rororo, right? I tried with him, and yeah, it's like I just
can't connect."
The three girls looked at one another.
"Demiurge is good to call if you're in a pinch…"
"Unfortunately, Demiurge is working outside Nazarick on orders from
Lord Ainz. He's so busy it's rarer to find him here. I could contact him, but
honestly, I don't want to consult him about things that aren't work related."
Jealousy showed up in Shalltear's and Aura's eyes. Demiurge, running
around being useful to their master, was the envy of all.
"Ahh, I'm so jealous. I know protecting Nazarick is an important duty, but
unless there are raiders, I've got nothing to show for it, so I always wonder if
I'm really being useful or not. I'd like to get out there and bang some heads
together for Lord Ainz, too…"
"I've only failed…"
"It's okay, Shalltear! There will probably be some way you can be useful
to Lord Ainz—no, I'm sure of it! Although it might be a little tricky unless
you get smarter first…"
"Isn't that…a horrible thing to say?"
"Oh, but it's true that you failed, isn't it? Please get some results worthy
of a guardian."
Shalltear ground her teeth audibly, but suddenly her expression brightened
up like a lamp had gone on in her head. "Hoo-hoo-hoo. Why is this
conversation turning against me? Demiurge isn't here, so you can't ask him
—I mean to help you ladies out, you know. I guess we have no choice, so I'll
do the research."
Shalltear took out a book. The thick, heavy volume had to be more than a
thousand pages. But even though Shalltear looked like a little girl, for her
totally different inner nature, this weight was nothing.
"Whoooaaa! Is that—? Could that be—?"
"Grr, it's the treasure Lord Ainz gave you, right?"
Aura wasn't the only one to turn an envious gaze toward her—Albedo
did, too.
"Yes! This is Lord Peroroncino's Encyclopedia! Lord Ainz gave it to me
as a reward for following his orders!"
It was an award for fighting bravely, a consolation prize, and recognition
for her services all rolled into one, but for Shalltear, it was the best reward,
and she grinned triumphantly. Of course she did. An item that belonged to
one's creator was more precious than any other reward.
An Encyclopedia was given to each and every player right after they
started the game. It was a one-of-a-kind item that couldn't be stolen or lost
unless its owner destroyed it on purpose.
Yggdrasil was a game about enjoying the unknown, and this item could be
said to be the embodiment of the developer's desire that players get to know
the unknown.
The Encyclopedia recorded an image of each monster the player met. It
didn't, however, reveal the monster's stats. Only the image and its name were
included and the content of the myth, if the monster appeared in one.
Players who wanted to get the most out of this book item had to write
their own notes in it, like what kind of moves the monsters had and what their
weak points were.
The Encyclopedia Shalltear now held had belonged to Peroroncino and
contained his notes. Ainz remembered Peroroncino had left it in the treasury
when he quit the game, so he gave it to Shalltear.
But most of the things that should have been written there were gone, as if
Peroroncino had erased them himself because he was scared for the
information to be left behind.
For that reason, it wasn't terribly useful, but that didn't matter to
Shalltear. To her, it was more important that it was an item that her creator
had once used.
"B… Bi… Bic…," she said as she flipped through the pages.
Aura and Albedo tried to peek, but she held the book close to her body
and moved away.
"Hmph! That's fine. I got a ring from Lord Ainz, so!" Aura gently stroked
the silver band. Albedo stroked the ring on her left ring finger in the same
way. Of course, they weren't the only ones who had received those rings.
I want him to give me something special, only for me, a special item from
Lord Ainz… As Albedo caressed the lower part of her abdomen, Shalltear
shouted. Apparently, she'd found the page she was looking for.
"Bicorn! Here it is! Let's see…" She suddenly froze, looked up, and
stared at Albedo in surprise.
"Wh-what? What is it?" she asked timidly, but Shalltear had already
lowered her eyes to the book and was reading over the passage again.
"…A subspecies of unicorn. In contrast to unicorns, who preside over
purity, bicorns are said to preside over impurity. Unicorns only let pure
maidens ride them, while a bicorn would never let a pure maiden ride it…
What?!"
Shalltear's and Aura's eyes nearly popped out of their heads.
"No way… Albedo, you're…?"
"What do you mean, 'No way'? What exactly do you guys think of me?"
"Huh? I mean, but…you're a succubus!!"
"S… Su… Suc… Succubus." Perhaps Shalltear was confused. She flipped
through the book looking for the entry.
"Yeah! I'm a succubus! But I've never done it with a guy—sorry! What
am I supposed to do about it? I'm the captain of the guardians! I'm cooped up
in the Throne Room all day! When have I gotten the chance to meet
someone? And Lord Ainz never calls me to his bed… I have zero interest in
any man but Lord Ainz…" She'd been grumbling at her feet, but she
suddenly whipped her head up. "But if you're gonna talk…" Albedo glanced
at Aura but shook her head. On the contrary, it'd be bad if she wasn't pure.
"…Then how about you, Shalltear?"
"…I have no experience with the opposite sex. But if it's with the same
sex, then…"
Aura cocked her head for a second as if she didn't understand, then it
seemed to click and she appeared weirded out. Her brow furrowed and she
yelped, "Whoa!"
"C'mon! There're no good guys! I like dead ones better but not if they're
rotting, so… Right? Right?"
"I get that you want me to agree with you, but it's pretty hard to when you
have fetishes like those, Shalltear."
Their eyes met, and they all looked away as they silently agreed to end
that conversation.
"…Well, now we know why I can't ride the bicorn… How unbelievable.
What the heck." Albedo twisted her face up in displeasure.
The bicorn sensed he was being reprimanded and cowered.
"Hmm, it's like part of your powers are sealed away."
"But it's not as if mounted combat is your specialty. You're simply
prevented from using a single ability. If you cannot ride the bicorn, you can
borrow a magical beast from Aura, no? I think a unicorn would serve quite
well."
"Mmm, I don't have a unicorn. I want one, but…"
"Isn't there a better way? All I have to do is get Lord Ainz to help me out
so I can ride the bicorn! That's the best plan!" Albedo said with a huge grin.
"That's not fair!"
"Ha!" Albedo snorted at Shalltear. "Could you not be so disrespectful,
Shalltear? It's necessary in order for the captain of the guardians of the Great
Tomb of Nazarick to more fully utilize her powers!"
"Grrrr. Heh! So no one will sleep with you unless it's for work? What a
pathetic woman you are. You won't be winning him on the strength of your
charm, that much is certain."
Aura had had enough of the two grunting and growling. "Would you guys
stop talking over my head? Like, enough of the nonsense. It's not like it's an
immediate issue anyhow, right? You can't summon anything else?"
"I do have a magic item for that, so I can at least summon a mount."
"Then that's fine, isn't it? What's the problem?"
"Since summoning with a magic item means I need to change gear or take
out the item, it has more steps than summoning with a skill. And this bicorn
is much better in combat…"
"So can't you have the bicorn stop your opponent's attacks and take
advantage of that opening to use the item? It's one of a beast tamer's most
basic tactics."
"I wonder if that's the only way I can use him."
"If so, you'll be weak."
"Don't say it like you're happy about my misfortune!"
"You seemed pretty happy about my misfortune!"
When she said, "That's not true," "Yes it is" was the reply.
"Agh, c'mon, you guys. If you're only going to glare at each other, do it
somewhere else. Lord Ainz was nice enough to give us the day off…"
Albedo realized she was right, and Shalltear, who'd been arguing, nodded.
But…
"…We have this day off, but I wonder what we should do. We were made
to guard the Great Tomb of Nazarick and work for the Supreme Beings in the
first place. Our whole existence is work, so why…?"
"Even so, if Lord Ainz tells us to rest, then rest we must!"
The whole reason these three had gathered here was their master saying,
Thanks for working so hard every day. How about you girl guardians get
together and hang out?
"We already met up and hung out, so want to split up? Er, can this even
be called hanging out?"
"I wonder. I'm still not sure—or more like rather unsure—what 'hanging
out' means. By the way, what are you ladies usually up to?"
"I'm patrolling the first, second, and third levels. Other than that,
collecting the opinions of the domain guardians, checking on the overall
security of my levels… If I have extra time, I take a bath, make sure I'm
dressed well…"
"So you actually work sometimes."
"What do you mean, 'actually'?"
"Baths, huh? What about you, Aura?"
"Mmm, while Mare is in the arena, I patrol the forest. We have new guys
now, too, you know. Other than that, I go home and sleep… Guess that's
about it."
"That's it!"
Aura and Shalltear looked confused.
"Yeah, that's what we should do! By 'new guys' you mean the residents
of the new village on this level, right? I've never been there. Let's go!"
"Huh? You've never been? You've visited before, right, Shalltear?"
"I have."
"Really?" Albedo looked a bit puzzled and Aura explained.
"The other guardians have, too. Cocytus came first 'cause he's involved
with the lizardmen. Then Demiurge came by to see how things were going.
The others drop by sometimes. Hrm, then do you wanna go? It's not that far
from here."
9:38 AM Nazarick Time
The newly built village on the sixth level, consisting of only ten log cabins,
was smaller than a hamlet. To the right of it were fields, and to the left of it
were orchards that were several times larger than the fields.
Naturally, it was surrounded by densely growing forest. Looking from
above, it might have seemed like a wide-open space—a green hole, perhaps.
When felling trees and removing the stumps, it was usually hard to avoid
making the ground uneven, but inside the village it was bizarrely neat and
level. That was thanks to Mare's magic.
Many figures were toiling away in the orchards.
The first ones they noticed were members of a race who looked like
human women except their skin was the color and texture of bark. Next to
them were creatures who looked exactly like trees that had started to move.
The former were dryads, and the latter were monsters called trents. The
trents were assisting the dryads by using their tree trunk–like arms to lift
them up to the tops of the fruit trees.
"There are also ten lizardmen living here. Sometimes they go up north to
hang out at the lake near where we just were. It's not like they live in the
water, so it's kinda weird."
"The village is much larger than it was last time I came. It seems like
there are many more residents, as well."
"Yeah, after we conquered the Tove Woodlands, we discovered a few
races who are okay with living in Nazarick."
"The criteria for inviting a race here is that they have to be grotesques,
fine without food, and of a mild temperament, right?"
"Yeah, that's what Lord Ainz told us. Although, technically, 'fine without
food' is 'immediately self-sufficient…' Both dryads and trents take nutrients
from the soil, so they don't need any food in particular, although I guess
they're in trouble if the nutrients in the soil run out or it doesn't rain enough."
"Hmm. Does Mare make it rain? Or is it a magic item?"
"That's mainly Mare's job. He's also in charge of replenishing the
nutrients in the soil. There's a spell for making the earth more fertile, so when
he casts that, it completely recovers. The dryads and trents said it was so
yummy they'd get fat, but…well, obviously I don't know how it tastes."
As Shalltear and Aura were chatting, Albedo slowly looked out over the
village with a levelheaded gaze, as if she were observing experimental
subjects. Then the first hint of emotion appeared in her eyes.
"Oh? That's the sous-chef over there in the field, isn't it? I wonder what
he's doing."
The others followed her line of sight and saw hidden behind tall stalks
bearing red fruit, in one corner of a field surrounded by a simple fence, a
monster that looked sort of like a mushroom moving around. If they squinted,
they could see that he was wearing work clothes while picking fruit.
"It's what it looks like. Sometimes he comes to get produce. He's also
growing a bunch of things. Should we go say hi?"
Albedo and Shalltear exchanged glances. Upon confirming that neither of
them felt like rejecting the idea, they headed over to see their friend. They
figured it was fine as long as they wouldn't be in his way.
"Yoo-hoo! You're working up a sweat as usual!"
At the sound of Aura's cheerful voice, the sous-chef looked up and saw
the three of them. "Not that my body actually sweats, but…"
He stood with an "oof" and stretched his back. It made sense, since he'd
been sitting in the field working, but as he didn't have anything that could be
called a "back"—he didn't have a waist, either—it was impossible to know if
his back was actually stiff or if he was just doing it for a change of pace.
Then the sous-chef rotated his neck like a stiff-shouldered human would.
His head was shaped like a mushroom cap, and it looked like it had reddishpurple droplets of some kind of liquid about ready to roll off it, but actually
they had a bizarre elasticity like dried glue and wouldn't dribble or spatter.
"Hey, is that a tomato?" When Albedo took an interest in the red fruit in
the sous-chef's hand, he held it up to the level of his eyes and marveled at it.
"Yes, indeed. A tomato of the variety you all know. It's neither the type
that gathers the sun's energy and explodes, nor the type that attacks you, nor
the type that glimmers golden when you cut it open—it's a normal tomato."
"In other words, it's a not-very-rare regular tomato for eating, right?"
"Yes. I don't have the skill to grow vegetables with special effects. Does
your interest indicate that you would like to eat dishes made with tomatoes?
Unfortunately, I can only make drinks…"
"No, I was just curious. Maybe Shalltear would like to eat tomatoes."
"…Why does everyone think vampires drink tomato juice? Undead don't
get any buffs from eating food."
"There are lots of people in Nazarick who don't eat food."
The majority of the NPCs made eating and drinking unnecessary with an
item.
"Yeah, because if they did it would increase Nazarick's maintenance
costs. Big eaters like your magical beasts are a burden."
"Ack, so are we in trouble if I don't go out and make some money?"
"No, you don't have to go that far. Lord Ainz and the other Supreme
Beings calculated out a precise balance of expenditure and revenue when
they built the tomb."
"Ahh, so that's why he gave the order to only accept races that are selfsufficient. They won't disrupt the balance even if their numbers increase."
"Yeah… You didn't know that?" Albedo looked at each of the others in
turn. "That's no good. It's pretty bad if you guys don't even know about the
place you're guarding. Make some time in your schedules. I'll explain
everything."
She sighed and looked out at the fields, since they happened to be there.
Then she found the leaves of a plant she recognized. "Are those carrots—er,
magic carrots?"
"No, those are something else. But, Captain, haven't you heard?"
"About what?"
"Oh, uh, hmm, I guess we haven't told you yet. Okay, Mistress Aura,
what shall we do? Do you want to call them? I taught you how, right?"
"I did file a report…" Aura grinned. Then she took a deep breath and
shouted, "Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!"
The row of the leaves reacted abruptly and began to move. They wiggled
vigorously back and forth, pushing the soil aside, and the part that would
have been the root underground, if they were carrots, popped out onto the
surface.
They looked almost like ginseng, but there was definitely something
different about them. They had distinct feet and were clearly moving
according to will, not reflex. At the top of the root near the stalk were
depressions that seemed to be their eyes and mouth.
Shalltear's eyes widened, and she said the monster's name. "Are those
mandrakes? I thought we didn't have any of those…"
"Ohh! That's what those are! I knew about them from the report, but I had
never seen one before."
The mandrakes chanted, "Long live Ainz Ooal Gown! Long live Ainz
Ooal Gown!" and were forming a line.
"These guys aren't very smart. Supposedly their relatives galgenmännlein,
alruna, and alraune are fairly intelligent, but…I did a general search in that
forest and couldn't find any. It's pretty big, so maybe I just haven't found
them yet. There also seems to be a pretty sizable cave carved out in the
direction of the mountains with a myconid colony in it. Haven't bothered
them yet, though."
"But I'm impressed you managed to teach them how to say this much."
The sous-chef plucked one of the mandrakes out of the line and took a closer
look.
Perhaps it hurt to be grabbed by its stalk. The mandrake started to
struggle.
"Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!"
"Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!"
The other mandrakes broke their line and surrounded the sous-chef to
protest the mistreatment of their comrade—although they shouted the same
thing as before.
"Oh, pardon me. Mistress Aura, could you send them back?"
"Okeydoke! All right, return!"
Beginning with the mandrake that the sous-chef had gently placed back on
the ground, they all hopped back into their holes and burrowed into the soil.
In only a few seconds, they were completely concealed underground, like the
way someone burrows into bed in the middle of winter.
"I see. So the way they talk is just like an animal call, huh?"
"Indeed. They only parrot the sounds; they aren't using them as words
with meaning. Apparently, there is a minimum threshold of intelligence that
must be crossed for language comprehension to be possible. I heard it's being
studied right now." The sous-chef mentioned he heard all this from
Demiurge.
"Hmm! By the way, Albedo, may I ask you something? Isn't it sort of bad
for you to not know about newcomers to Nazarick, as captain of the
guardians? What would you do if there was a spy?"
Someone else objected faster than Albedo could reply.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha! Good one, Shalltear. It's definitely natural to think that
because the sixth level is so vast it would be harder to capture and slaughter
raiders. If they escaped the arena…if they scattered like baby spiders, it'd be
a pain to catch them if there were a lot." The laugh was empty, and Aura's
eyes were like ice. "But aren't you underestimating me? This is my hunting
ground. Even if they scattered, I would hunt them all down. And even if they
wanted to hurt Lord Ainz and slipped out of the sixth level, they'd still have
to break through Crimson's world on the seventh level, and next is the
impassable eighth level, you know. Even if they wanted to run away, they'd
have to get through the frigid hell of the fifth level, the dark waters of the
fourth level, and all the domains you guard… Do you really think that's
possible?"
Shalltear shook her head. "It's not possible."
"That's what I'm saying. So even if the newcomers multiply on this level,
there's nothing to worry about."
"Aura said it all. Uh, so…so as a result the current plan is to gather all
sorts of monsters here."
"Huh? Not just plant monsters?"
Albedo smiled in response to Aura's surprise. "That was the original idea.
But thanks to you and Mare, we've seen that there shouldn't be any issues, so
a more ambitious plan was drawn up. That said, it's still only a draft, so it's
unclear if we'll actually implement it or not. That's why I hadn't told you
guys yet, even though you're the guardians of this level." Albedo prefaced
her explanation of the plan with, "Don't tell anyone, but…
"The plan is called the Paradise Project. It starts with the hideout Aura
built, but it's a large-scale project to eventually gather monsters friendly with
humans and have them live here."
"Why do they have to be friendly specifically with humans?"
Albedo had expected that reaction, so she smiled. It was an incredibly
sinister smile. "That's the point of the Paradise Project."
"Honestly, I find that difficult to understand. We work in this place,
Nazarick, to make it a paradise for the Supreme Beings, so why that name?"
"It's to appeal to the outside world, like, 'Hey, we live in peace with
outsiders.'"
"I see… So that's the idea."
"No way! I can't believe you understood, Shalltear!"
She glared at Aura with a face that could obliterate a hundred-year
romance. "Do you by any chance think I'm stupid?"
"…H-hold up a second, Shalltear. Reflect on your past deeds and ask that
question again, will you? All you have to do is remember a few things."
It took only a moment—she must have considered what she had done so
far. Shalltear's pupils dilated like a dead animal's. Then her eyes flickered as
if she had been tossed around on rough waves.
She looked so distressed that Albedo changed the topic back for her. "Uuh, the plan is another of Lord Ainz's proposals. We were discussing the
sixth level, and he suddenly said he wanted to collect a bunch of different
monsters. That's not the kind of idea I could come up with, thinking within
the confines of my small world. I was talking with Demiurge a while back
about how resourceful Lord Ainz is. Our conclusion was that he really is a
genius."
"We already knew he was a genius. I heard he is a man of few words,
though."
"From Demiurge, right? Geez… Certainly, Lord Ainz does not speak of
his plans in a straightforward way. And sometimes he does strange things.
But just as the cowardly are often heroes, so are fools often wise. I really
believe that." Albedo shook her head, her eyes moist. "I couldn't make out
his aim in creating the adventurer Momon. What a terrific being… It's
astounding that he has been controlling everything that has happened…"
"Momon is Lord Ainz as an adventurer, right? So why did he do that?"
"You'll understand soon enough… It's precisely because he has the
persona of Momon that Lord Ainz's rule will be rock-solid. He's so
awesome… Maybe Demiurge's proposals are even due to his influe—"
"What are you mumbling about? It's a trifle disturbing."
Shalltear's voice brought Albedo to her senses, and she cleared her throat
before looking at the other three. "Uh, what were we talking about? Oh,
right! Each word Lord Ainz says, each move he makes—they're all full of
meaning. So what I'm saying is that even if you can't reach his level, you
should endeavor to at least understand the meaning behind his words."
"That's hard. Lord Ainz is a little too smart. Oh, spearneedles!"
Two big white lumps well over six feet tall lumbered out of the woods
toward Aura. They were magical beasts that looked sort of like Angora
rabbits.
"How cute!" Shalltear stood next to Aura and petted the white fur balls.
"They're so soft. I want one of these."
"Yeah, it feels good, right? But this fur gets sharp like needles when they
encounter an enemy."
Spearneedles were level-67 monsters.
When they engaged in combat, they became balls of extremely fine
needles. If they were killed in that state, they wouldn't go back to being soft,
so people requested that they be taken by surprise and killed in one hit before
they could go on guard. For that reason, the players hunting them were
always a much higher level.
"Really? Wow. Frightening!" Shalltear exclaimed these and other things
as she continued petting them.
"Well, they won't engage in combat unless I order them to. I guess it
would be different if there were enemies around, but how would hostile
forces—raiders—get in here? And without any reports from other levels?"
"Yeah. Of course. There are minions with superior detection skills
stationed on the upper three floors, so it would be really hard to make it this
far without being discovered."
Just then Aura froze, then turned her head toward the arena.
"What is it, Aura?"
"Seems like the portal to the seventh level activated."
"From below? Demiurge is outside, I think, so…one of his subordinates?
Do you need to go check on it?"
"No, Mare is there, so I think it's okay. He should get in touch if
something comes up." She touched the earring hung around her neck. "And
it's not such a rare thing. If you want to get to the surface from below, the
only way is to use the teleportation gates and go up one level at a time. Oh
right, I remember someone didn't want to run and used magic instead."
"Ahem, the Great Tomb of Nazarick certainly is an impregnable fortress."
"Yeah. You probably couldn't blow up a level even with the super-tier
spell Sword of Damocles and the World Item I have. That's why we really
have to avoid getting the free teleportation rings stolen."
Everyone's eyes gathered on Albedo's left ring finger.
"I'm pretty sure Mare leaves his ring here when he ventures outside. Just
goes to show how important they— Oh, Mare's calling."
Aura moved a short distance away from the others, grabbed her earring,
and began talking to Mare, who was elsewhere. Her face grew gradually
sterner as their conversation went on, and by the time she was finished, she
looked disappointed.
"Sorry, it looks like something came up and Mare has to go out, so I have
to head back."
"Oh. In that case, shall we go back, too? What do you think, Shalltear?"
"No objections."
"I'm going to putz around in this field a little longer. I want to talk to the
dryads and trents."
"Then I guess we're splitting up. Thanks, guys. I feel like I figured out
how to spend a day off. Let's do something again… Oh yeah, we should all
go to the baths sometime."
2
9:28 AM Nazarick Time
Mare looked up from his book and slowly shifted his gaze to the teleportation
gate that led to the seventh level.
At the slight sensation of power waves, he marked his place and quietly
put his book on the chair next to him. He picked up his god-tier staff—
Shadow of Yggdrasil—and held it aloft.
He reached for the magic item hanging around his neck with his free hand
but stopped.
He didn't need to contact his sister. He hadn't received any reports of
intruders, so the person coming in had to be one of his colleagues.
He scampered away to the gate. His sister liked to jump from the arena
seating, but Mare didn't. In the first place, there were stairs, so wouldn't
using them to get down show the most loyalty to the Supreme Beings? They
must have created the stairs for a reason.
But I can't say that to Aura… She'd look at me with her scary eyes…
Mare had decided that he, at least, wouldn't let the Supreme Beings'
intentions be in vain, so he took the stairs. Then he raced into the waiting
room to find someone standing before the giant oval mirror sparkling in the
colors of the rainbow.
"S-sorry to keep you waiting."
"Oh, if it isn't Floor Guardian Mare. I am ever so delighted that you've
come to meet me." The clown dressed all in white with a raven beak mask
made a little bow, and Mare bowed back in the same way.
"Hello, Pulcinella. What can I do for you today?"
"Perhaps you've heard, but I am currently working for Master Demiurge.
I've come today as his messenger. Please take this." The clown held out a
folder.
"If Demiurge is giving it to me, it must be a circular?"
"Indeed. Ah, I'm so lucky you came, Master Mare. If it was Mistress
Aura, I would have had to have her call you."
"Huh? R-really?"
The circular system was devised by the ruler of the Great Tomb of
Nazarick, Ainz Ooal Gown, himself. All it entailed was writing a nonurgent
message on a piece of paper and passing it around to each guardian, but they
hadn't had anything like it before—which was why Mare, intrigued and
moved, fixed his eyes on it so intently when he took it.
"So this is…? W-wait! Why c-can't you give it to Aura?"
Both Aura and Mare were floor guardians, so there shouldn't have been
any reason not to. She could be surprisingly methodical, so it wasn't as if she
would have thrown the message away.
"That I don't know, either. Master Demiurge ordered me to hand it
directly to you and not to Mistress Aura."
"I see… I—I wonder…"
He didn't say enough to specify the question on his mind, but Pulcinella
understood what he meant. "Hmm, no, I don't know. Perhaps the answer or
reason is contained within that folder."
"I see… B-by the way, what is Demiurge doing now?"
"Crossbreeding experiments. Crossbreeding is possible between
humanoid races but impossible between humanoid and subhuman races. How
sad! Just because two lovers are of slightly different races, their love cannot
bear fruit. Demiurge is endeavoring to rescue them from those unfortunate
circumstances, to create the possibility between humanoids and subhumans!"
He practically sang in a sonorous voice, spreading his arms wide and looking
to the heavens.