Though he didn't know him well, they'd shared conversations back when Christopher supplied alcohol to some tavern in the capital that was being funded by the Eight Fingers.
It was unfortunate that Christopher had not been given a warrant of appointment, so he had never done business with that noble even when he had to pass through this section of road in his demesne before. The lord here had potential worthy of Christopher's attention, in no way was he the type to mobilize villagers to attack caravans.
From what Christopher could recall, there weren't many villagers in that man's demesne who were hungry enough to attack a trade caravan, never mind fifty of them.
There was a world of difference between him and the man introduced to Christopher by Hilma Cygnaeus. No, that man was simply unparalleled in his inferiority.
Christopher couldn't help but suddenly tense up his forehead at the memory of being mistreated back then.
"Boss, even if they were to attack, they're only fifty unarmed and unarmored villagers. We should be able to defeat them easily."
"What are the chances that this is bait and there are more soldiers lying in wait for an ambush?"
The two mercenaries looked at each other upon hearing what their leader said.
"That's possible. Should we scout out our surroundings? If so we'll need some time."
"Better safe than sorry, do it."
"Please don't take too long, if we deviate from the plans too much I would have to march an army of wagons through the next time around to make up for the time we lost."
"Understood, just take a look around and return as soon as possible."
The scout gave a nod and ran out.
After around ten minutes, he returned to report that other than the fifty, there did not seem to be more waiting in ambush.
They arrived at the conclusion that they must be there for farm work and continued on their way. Not even five minutes had passed before the carriage stopped again.
"…Patron, I do apologize but can I trouble you to come out for a second? The villagers have blocked our path. If they had any malicious intentions we would have just rushed them to scare them off, but they seem to be indifferent, lethargic, or… they just don't look right. So I was hoping that you could come out and talk to them? Of course, your safety is our number one concern, so we prepared this shield for you."
To tell the truth, Christopher really wanted to decline the mercenary's request. He did not believe in his own abilities; after all, he had avoided any and all violent confrontations throughout his life.
But, this wasn't something he could ignore. If they were to be embroiled in a dispute over what happened today, it could cost Christopher his access to this road. In that case, it wouldn't just impact him but possibly also his children who will inherit his business.
"…Yeah, let's go."
Christopher and the mercenary leader stepped off the carriage together and walked towards the front of the entourage. They were escorted by mercenaries carrying a large shield known as a tower shield, which could cover half of his body during the negotiations.
Furthermore, they were also followed by halberdiers who were there as a deterrent and archers who hid in the forest. Of course, the mercenary leader was also there. He had warned Christopher to listen carefully to his commands should a situation arise.
Between the two sides of the forest on the road ahead of them, sat a few chattering villagers.
There was no mistaking it, they could only be villagers who were returning home after they had finished a day's worth of farm work.
But if that was the case, why did they stop in the middle of the road to block them?
Perhaps the mercenary leader had perceived Christopher's worries, as he started to mumble towards him in an attempt to initiate a conversation.
"Hey, pretty baffling right? If they're planning to jump us they should've split into two and hid in the forest or something. There are lots of ways to set up an ambush, but none of them would require you to show yourself in the middle of the road. No commander would be stupid enough to make such a mistake."
"Could it be that they're trying to scare us?"
"Scare us? With their equipment? With those numbers? Wouldn't that be a serious insult to us if that were the case? Has my patron only employed mercenaries of such low levels before?"
It was just as he had said.
Christopher did not bother replying but only stared towards the villagers.
That said, the distance between them was huge and there were rows upon rows of mercenaries standing in front of them.
"I'm just a simple merchant who has accepted a transportation contract. If you're on the road to beg some noble or whatever, we do not want anything to do with that. Please vacate the road, otherwise we will be forced to bear arms against you all in the name of self-defense."
A man appeared from the forest just as he had finished speaking to the villagers.
The man had donned an exquisite set of full-plate armor, but because he wasn't wearing his helmet, Christopher could see his face.
It was someone Christopher had met before.
"Unfortunately, for the sake of the Kingdom's future, I cannot allow you to pass!"
"…Hah?"
Christopher couldn't stop himself from vocalizing. It wasn't just him either, the mercenaries around him had made similar sounds too.
"…I see. Looks like there has been some sort of a misunderstanding, we are just transporting the Sorcerer Kingdom's food aid to the Holy Kingdom."
"I mew it! —Ahem! I knew it! That's precisely why I'm doing this!"
What the fuck is this guy talking about? or rather, what kind of thought process would lead you to that conclusion?
Christopher was perplexed from the depths of his heart.
But wait—
It doesn't matter what this unpleasant fool thinks. I don't think his demesne is even close to this place? Why is he here? Are they in cahoots? But would the lord of this land even bother working with this guy?
Meh, whatever. Christopher thought. The man had admitted guilt already, now Christopher could report back to his superiors that they were delayed by fools who were standing in the Sorcerer Kingdom's way. It shouldn't even be a problem with the Kingdom or the Sorcerer Kingdom if they were to kill them all.
Just as he was about to motion to the mercenaries around him to slaughter them, he felt a strong feeling that he shouldn't.
The man they called Philip is a nobleman who has the backing of Hilma Cygnaeus. Christopher, who was humiliated and had to hide his anger beneath a fake smile back then, was told that though this man was moronic, he still had value, so it was best to just ignore his own humiliation.
Would it be such a good idea to kill a valuable pawn of the Eight Fingers?
Speaking from common sense, there'd be no way a local noble would attack a caravan that was flying the Sorcerer Kingdom's flag.
Everyone should know that it would just invite the Sorcerer Kingdom's wrath and spark all-out war between the nations. No matter how dumb a noble may be, they certainly wouldn't do something so braindead.
If that was the case — what would his reason be to undertake such a task?
Plus, if he was trying to pretend to be a bandit, he would at least cover up his face. I can't understand his reasoning.
No matter how stupid someone could be, they should at least know that they should be concealing their identity in this situation. Since he was wearing that set of full-plate armor, it should've come with a helmet that could cover his entire face. If that was the case—
He wants us to see his face. He wants us to identify him as Philip? Why wou— Ah!
Christopher was suddenly reminded of the existence of illusion magic.
That's it! It's an illusion! Someone's trying to frame Philip so they faked his appearance. Maybe those villagers aren't villagers after all…
He had managed to deduce it perfectly.
Then—
"So, so you're saying, you're robbing us specifically because we're carrying the Sorcerer Kingdom's grain. Is that correct?"
"Oy, oy? Patron, what's wrong?"
The mercenary leader who had been standing beside him asked with a perplexed expression. That was to be expected. He had expected an order to kill, so Christopher must have appeared to him like a mad man.
"That's right! We'll be using these grains efficiently!"
The man, who was purportedly Philip, replied with pride.
He's talking like a retard… The man pretending to be him must also be thinking why he'd have to say something so dumb. But…
Could this be a pre-prepared script? But why?
Christopher's first thought was of the rival organizations the mercenary leader had mentioned in their previous conversation, his next thought was of the leaders of the Eight Fingers.
If it was the former, they had to get away from this place immediately. The Eight Fingers handed out the most ruthless punishments for those who had betrayed them, followed by those who had failed a job they had given to them.
If the former was the case, then their opponents must have enough numbers to defeat Christopher's security detail. But even if they're just wearing disguises or whatever, Christopher couldn't think of a reason why there would be shovelwielding villagers.
Now that he thought about it, the latter felt more natural. If that was the case, then they're dealing with something truly troublesome, something extremely troublesome. This could imply that the leaders of the Eight Fingers were not as united as previously thought and were still attempting to sabotage each other.
Or, was this the will of all of the leaders?
—Are we being thrown away? Are they trying to push the crime of killing Philip, a noble of the Kingdom, onto me? …His actual body might have already been dealt with.
If that was the case, what would their next best move be?
"Hey, patron? What are we doing? Are you scared? You know that we can easily fight off someone like him, right? Though that noble-looking nutjob has some pretty impressive armor, he doesn't seem to have the skills to match."
The mercenary leader spoke in a hushed tone. This wasn't the time for that, he shouldn't be interrupting Christopher's thoughts.
"—Hold on. Just wait for a minute."
Their problem wasn't going away. If they were pushing the job to kill Philip onto him, why didn't they mention it before? Had they told Christopher in advance, he wouldn't have to worry as much. He would have just taken care of that man as if he was just a normal bandit.
So was their plan to make it out to be that a Sorcerer Kingdom's caravan had killed one of the Kingdom's nobles, and bring the nations to the brink of war?
This thought made Christopher uncontrollably tilt his head.
As the situation stands, it was more like a merchant of the Kingdom killing one of its nobles in self-defense.
It would be hard to force a war on these conditions. Of course, Christopher, as someone who had deep connections to the criminal underworld, knew full well that many people wouldn't think twice about doing something as long as they had a reason prepared. There were also people who would kill for the simplest slight, but it was hard to imagine a country being this impulsive.
…Then there's only one possibility left. The top brass had decided on this already, but the word never got to me, so it's just a misunderstanding. After all, there would be no way they thought that it was possible for them to kill us all right now and not have news of it spread all over the place.
Careless mistakes being made was a tale as old as time, so it wasn't as though that was an unreasonable assumption. What would be his best move from this point onward?
If he were to take independent actions, there was a chance that he would be "taken care of." If he wanted to avoid that kind of situation, he should have an excuse for himself at the very least — he should act in a way that makes it possible to shift responsibility to someone else.
Killing that Philip guy would be the worst option. Once he's dead we can't bring him back and it would probably anger Cygnaeus-sama. If that's the case…
"…Leave the cargo… leave this place. If we did that he wouldn't chase us, would he?"
"Hah?"
Christopher tried his best to ignore the perplexed sounds coming out of the mercenary leader's mouth.
"Of course! I do not intend to harm the merchants of the Kingdom!"
Even if it isn't directly, you're still harming me. Though those were his hate-filled thoughts, Christopher did not let it show on his face.
"Oy, oy, oy? Are you for real? Are you being serious right now? What's going on? What's happening? Are you under a spell? Or do you see an entire army I'm not seeing right now?"
"This is an order from your patron, prepare for a full retreat."
The mercenary leader rolled his eyes and got quiet for a moment. Perhaps he was considering the possibility that Christopher was under a spell, his own opinions, and his future. After a while, with an expression that said he couldn't accept any of this, he said, "I understand."
The mercenaries covered for Christopher as they backed away.
He was allowing the grain to be taken away, but he knew the exact quantity and what exactly was in the cargo. If worse comes to worst, he could always repurchase the cargo and send it to the Holy Kingdom. They wouldn't be so picky as to only want this exact caravan of grain, right?
Though he would have to apologize to the maritime merchant who was waiting on him, it was imperative for him to return to the capital to ask Cygnaeus-sama about this.
Christopher knew from the depth of his heart that there was no easy way out of this situation.
***
Was it because the merchants knew which side was in the right? They backed off without even unsheathing their swords.
There were numerous wagons as their spoils of war.
He had taken a look inside, they were all filled with barrels and crates, each filled to the brim with grain. Though it was all the types of grain that was easy to store and were by no means fresh, they should be safe for consumption.
It was disappointing how it was just food.
Philip wanted to take something as a trophy to commemorate his great achievement, but grain couldn't fulfill that purpose.
If only there were sets of armor or swords in here, I could take one as a souvenir…
so I really should have asked those men to leave their weapons behind, huh?
Philip looked over the cargo wagons that were his prize.
The horses had been taken away already so they did not have a way to move them. Of course, Philip had ordered them to leave the horses, but someone who looked like he led the mercenary group had refused his order.
He even shot an arrow into the tree next to Philip back then.
Though Philip hated his guts, he had no other option but to back down.
I have my full plate armor so I should be fine, but these soldiers aren't in the same boat as I am. Ah, how merciful am I to forfeit my own gains out of consideration for these people. Though, considering how everything had gone so well — not a single injury and not a single drop of blood spilt — I wanted to keep that up till the end.
Philip surveyed his spoils and his gaze fell upon the flag of the Sorcerer Kingdom.
Oh, I can keep this as a souvenir. The first to capture the flag of the Sorcerer Kingdom, the country that had defeated the Kingdom's 200,000 strong army in battle, is me!
Umu umu, umu umu, Philp nodded his head.
Though he wanted to hide his joy, he couldn't help but smile.
A perfect conclusion suited him the best — as he thought, he was truly someone with exceptional abilities. This made him extremely happy.
In front of him were the excellent fruits of his labor.
Since there were multiple flags around, it should be fine if he did it to one of them right? After finishing that thought, Philip dropped the flag and began to stomp on it.
The image of the Sorcerer Kingdom's flag being trampled in the dirt filled his heart with excitement. This wasn't something anyone else in the Kingdom could accomplish.
That's right, Philip had accomplished what no other man could.
Look at that! I'm not a good-for-nothing after all! Compared to my brother, compared to my father — compared to everyone else in the Kingdom! I'm truly the greatest!
"Ah, umm, my lord. Can we really take these? Or is it better to leave 'em where they stand?"
One of the villagers checking the wagons asked timidly. With his excitement curbed, Philip asked without masking his emotions, "…What are you talking about?"
"No, you see, umm, won't those who ran away come back 'ere with soldiers?"
"What do you mean? You think it would be better if we killed those merchants?"
"N-no! I didn't mean that! Killing them would 'ave been unnecessary."
"Then what are you trying to say?"
"Umm, my lord. What should we do about these? If we can take them back, how do we do that?"
The other villagers chimed in, it was what was bothering Philip as well.
"What should we do…"
Even if he forced all fifty of them to carry it back all on their backs, it still wouldn't be enough to move all of their spoils back. The carriages themselves were also of high quality so they could probably fetch a fair price, or Philip could just use them.
But, with the manpower he has on hand, moving these back wouldn't be an easy task — it would be heavy, grueling physical labor.
Right as Philip was agonizing over the matter, he heard the sound of people running on grass. Upon looking at the source of the sound, he saw the silhouettes of two masked men.
"Philip-kakka!"
It was Wayne's voice, but his equipment looked completely different from before. The dirty leather armor he had on was now replaced by a sturdy chestplate, he had a sword by his waist too. Why would he change his equipment?
Philip felt doubt in his heart, but the feeling of excitement over the result of this operation was much stronger and thus overrode it.
"Hey! You two! Come, over here — look at our haul!"
"This… what, what happened?"
Wayne stood still, surveyed his surroundings, and spoke with an incredulous tone as if the cargo wagons being there was a strange sight to behold. Outside of regular combat and raids — once he considered that, Philip understood what questions Wayne had in mind.
As if to affirm Philip's thoughts, Igor opened his mouth to ask.
"…Exactly. Looks like none of Philip-kakka's soldiers have been harmed. The ground looks fine — the air looks fine, not even a whiff of blood. What kind of tactic did you employ? Did you have on your person any special magical items?"
If only he had any arcane talents, but that wasn't what Igor was talking about was he?
"None of that, after all I've gathered a great number of men, the enemy simply did not want to fight to their deaths. I think."
The two of them turned to face each other, but because both of them had their faces obscured, he couldn't see what their expressions were like.
"Now then — how should we split this?"
If he was being honest, the spoils of war in front of them were there entirely because of Philip's actions. It did irritate him somewhat that he had to split the prize with two people who had just been standing far back as spectators.
However, if Philip were to take it all for himself, they would surely be unhappy too. After all, they also had to mobilize the villagers in their demesnes. Eighty percent of the spoils should go to Philip, those two can take the rest of it.
To take a tenth of the spoils each just for mobilizing some villagers, there'd be no way they would want more, right?
"Ah, no need to worry about that. It doesn't sit right with us if we were to take a portion of the spoils without doing anything at all. Please, Philip-kakka, you should take it all. I trust that there aren't any objections?"
"That's right, Philip-kakka should take it all, including the cargo wagons."
Even someone like Philip would feel guilty to take it all after hearing such cordial words. Though they did say their villages were too small so Philip couldn't stay there, the fact that they had set up camps near the forest and had prepared food for him meant that those favors must be repaid.
"Nonsense, nonsense. Aren't we partners? I would have to leave some of the spoils behind anyways, please feel free to use them."
"No no, we have more than enough, Philip-kakka."
Wayne replied without hesitation, not a single shred of doubt was present in his answer.
"These were all earned through Philip-kakka's efforts. As the etiquette of the nobility would dictate, we cannot accept these."
"Is that true?"
"Yes," both of them answered simultaneously. They seemed to possess an unyielding will on this matter, so there was nothing he could do about it. This is all mine! Philip's heart fluttered at that thought.
"Since it has come down to this, I'll take it all. Also — though I'm embarrassed to ask, I do have a request for you two. Could I borrow some horses to pull these wagons?"
"Horses?"
"…What should we do?"
"We'll discuss this privately for a second, please excuse us."
The two who had temporarily left his presence seemed to be exchanging their opinions, but from this distance it was hard to tell if they were talking at all.
They seemed to reach an agreement after a while and promptly returned to Philip.
"We'll prepare the horses as soon as possible. However, because these aren't warhorses but workhorses, could you return them shortly after you're done with them?"
"Thank you very much."
"Umm, an important thing to note, it would probably be best to lower the flags of the Sorcerer Kingdom. You wouldn't want to be seen by regular folks while transporting your spoils back, so though it will be difficult, please consider transporting them through the forest."
"Understood, I'll do that then."
The two strode away as soon as they were done talking.
Soon their silhouettes could no longer be seen in the forest. Philip surveyed the cargo wagons again.
This was proof of his victory.
They were as bright as his future.
On the other hand, that which now rests underneath Philip's foot, the dirt ridden flag of the Sorcerer Kingdom, was a representation of that country's eventual downfall.
-x-X-x-
Ainz strode proudly through the streets of E-Rantel.
Momon walked alongside him.
Needless to say, it was actually Pandora's Actor.
To match Momon's appearance, he had been equipped with a set of full-plate armor and two greatswords which hung on his back.
His regal and austere gait had garnered him much praise and prestige. In fact, his version of Momon appeared to be even more heroic than Ainz's. To be honest, Ainz had considered asking him to adopt a worse gait in case the citizens were able to tell the difference between the different versions.
Of course, this wasn't something he would actually say out loud, so he figured he could at the very least attempt to secretly copy his gait. To this end, he had been stealing glances at Pandora's Actor from his side view and fortunately, he hadn't appeared to have noticed yet.
The one silently tailing those two to keep an eye out on their rear was Nabe
— Narberal Gamma. Though it appeared that they did not have any bodyguards, in actuality, multiple Hanzos were hidden around them and were on alert; consequently Nabe, whose level was lower than theirs, was largely redundant.
However, considering how she had acted in this manner ever since she first debuted as Momon's companion, Ainz felt it was unnecessary to order her to stop.
It's important to note that these three were walking through the streets of this city without any goals in mind at all.
It was just a familiar exercise for all.
Through this procession with Momon and Nabe, Ainz was able to demonstrate various different things to the crowd. It was also for this reason that Ainz hadn't brought the maids along.
.
This act served multiple purposes, the most important of all was to validate the fact that Ainz was still working together with Momon, so it wouldn't be appropriate to exclude Narberal from this operation. After all, Momon was always seen in full-plate armor and his appearance wasn't known to many. So, had they not brought Narberal along, rumors would begin to circulate that,
"Momon was already killed by the Sorcerer King and it's actually an undead in that armor." In fact, those rumors had already begun circulating, so it was crucial for them to avoid creating further misunderstandings.
The pedestrians all kept to the sides of the road as if it was a no man's land upon spotting the trio's silhouettes.
This was of course, mainly due to the Sorcerer King's presence. If Ainz had walked down these streets as Momon, this wouldn't have happened. Though much time had passed between the founding of the Sorcerer Kingdom and now, the citizens were still terrified of Ainz.
It wasn't just the humans who were reacting to him in that manner, but also some of the demi-humans too.
This was because E-Rantel, which used to be a purely human-inhabited city, was no longer so. Demi-humans could be seen sprinkled throughout the crowds.
If one were to look around where they were, they would see the outlines of a number of demi-humans (although not many) in the shops. They were both employees and customers, and sometimes they were even the owners of the store.
The part of the city which used to be a pauper's district was renovated into residential zones for demi-humans under Ainz's orders. If they had been in that part of the city, this wouldn't be such an unusual sight to behold, but Ainz and the others were walking through one of the main streets of E-Rantel, far away from the slums of yore.
It was easy to see from this fact alone how there had been a considerable number of demi-humans flowing in and out of E-Rantel.
Though this wasn't due to any special policies Ainz had put in place, after all the one who had been putting effort into these matters was Albedo, he still felt proud of this fact. It told him that his plans to unify the races were progressing at a steady pace.
If this was the case, I would really like to enact policies that could speed up the process of uniting them all…
In fact, he had such a plan in mind already. Ainz had considered holding some sort of an event in E-Rantel with the ulterior motive to draw in more tourists and increase their income from foreign sources. What he hadn't considered was how unfestive and non-participatory this world was in general, which was the cause of his boredom this entire time.
Though a gladiatorial arena like the one in the Empire wouldn't be too bad, Ainz wanted something that hadn't been done already, something truly special.
If he were to hold a large event that involved audience participation or anything that would allow an interracial team to shine, that would surely boost racial unity. If people had something in common to talk about, surely it would be easier for them to get along.
How about some kind of ball-based sport like baseball or football? Or should I do something to spice up an existing event…
As he mulled over those issues, Ainz was also observing an Orc shopkeeper who appeared to be in a serious discussion with their human customers.
They were probably part of the Orcs he had encountered in the Holy Kingdom, the ones who had been devastated by the Evil Lord of Wrath and were then unified under Ainz. He couldn't recall any other time he had brought Orcs to ERantel.
Who this Orc was exactly, Ainz had no clue. Though he had incorporated a large number of Orcs into his dominion, the main reason was because Ainz, as one with human sensibilities, could not tell Orcs apart at all.
In a similar vein, he couldn't tell apart members of the other races either. For example, female Zerns differentiated themselves by their color. Speaking of Zerns, he couldn't help but wonder, how do they "see" anyways? In any case, they all looked about the same to Ainz.
This issue was applicable to most people anyways.
It was equally as difficult for an Orc to differentiate between two humans as it was for a human to differentiate between two Orcs.
For this reason, they had stuck to recognizing humans through features like hair length, pupil colors, et cetera, but incidents still arose whereby goods reserved for a specific person were sold to someone who looked similar, even though to someone like Ainz the two persons looked completely different.
The Sorcerer Kingdom had no issues with public order. Crime rates for misdemeanors were low, never mind felonies. This however, wasn't due to the strict enforcement of the law, but rather out of people's fears that their corpses would be turned undead to serve the country after their deaths.
It was for this reason that misunderstandings were cleared up quickly and without much fuss, mountains weren't being made out of molehills. This was why the Orc was calmly discussing business with his human customers.
"The Adventurer's guild has also started accepting demi-humans amongst their ranks. I believe that all of the demi-humans will be able to reach their potential in the foreseeable future."
Ainz said under his breath without much thought, prompting Pandora's Actor to reply,
"Ainz-sama, it is exactly as you have surmised. Those demi-humans, upon witnessing the undead Ainz-sama had created, must have thought that the career of a common soldier was no longer feasible. Those with talents in the arts, manufacturing, and research would then be more inclined to utilize said talents to their maximum potential."
The Sorcerer Kingdom was still following the system of, "your race is pretty good at this, so you should probably seek employment in this field." However, as the citizens' knowledge of the other races and their respective cultures increases, they would probably begin to desire various other professions.
Though this change was still in its early phases, the desire for self-determination would surely blossom over time.
The main drive for this change was the fact that all menial labor was now handled by the undead.
"Albedo seems to be managing that sector of the country well. After all, it's imperative for us to halt the development of problematic crafts."
Ainz and the rest were already at their level caps, so it was necessary to plan against those who were weaker than them and thus had the potential to become stronger.
As part of those plans, they couldn't allow their own people to achieve superiority in expertise over them. Weaklings should remain weaklings.
At the same time, they had to ensure that the supremacy of their country as a whole was well maintained against their neighboring countries. Perhaps Albedo was the only one who could possibly maintain this delicate balance.
To this end, we're in desperate need of spies capable of obtaining top-secret intel from our neighbors… We're still too weak on that front.
To create a POP monster that Nazarick would not automatically respawn required two ingredients. One was the monster's data and the other was the corresponding amount of gold coins from Yggdrasil.
Though the library of Nazarick contained data on various types of monsters, it did not contain the data of every single type of monster from Yggdrasil. Some monster's data were of limited use too. For example, they had already exhausted their supply of data on Hanzos and the library did not contain any data for the creation of Eight-Edge Assassins.
The creation of higher-tiered monsters incurred the cost of a large sum of gold.
If that was the case, shouldn't weaker monsters suffice? Though he wanted to say so, actually using them would mean that there would be a higher chance of them getting caught whenever they tried to infiltrate someplace.
Amongst the surrounding nations, it wasn't inconceivable to think that they weren't the only ones capable of employing monsters. It would be best for them to use higher-tiered monsters who were harder for others to detect while their country was still of modest size. Or maybe—
"—Human spies?"
Ainz accidentally spoke his thoughts out loud. Nabe, upon hearing him speak, walked closer behind him to say,
"Ainz-sama. Speaking of which, how has the training for those spies been going? Shall I make sure those sows know who their rightful master is?"
Ainz lowered his voice and responded with,
"…Nabe. You're the partner of the folk hero Momon now, do not forget your position."
After all, they had made it out to be that Momon and Nabe had been bound to this city out of concern for the safety of its inhabitants, which was why they were working with Ainz Ooal Gown in the first place.
Perhaps enough time had passed that it wouldn't be too bad to have their characters have a change of heart so that they were staying in the city out of reverence for the Sorcerer King instead. That being said, it would be safer to discuss this matter in advance with Albedo and the others to formulate a better script before committing to anything. Until then, it was best to not make suggestions to Ainz directly. It was better to discuss these matters within Nazarick and avoid those topics entirely while outside.
"—I profusely apologize."
"You have been forgiven," would have been what he would have said, until he took a good look at their surroundings.
A lot of people were watching intently with horrified expressions, hopefully they hadn't heard what Nabe had said. Ultimately it wouldn't have been feasible for him to kill them all out of the suspicion of what they might have overheard, otherwise the facade he had built up that he was "a unique undead capable of speech who was different from the other members of his kind" would be harder to maintain.
Nonetheless, ignoring Nabe's question and causing her to put on a dismayed expression caused Ainz to feel pity for her.
It would be troublesome if she were to stop asking questions of her own entirely. With that in mind, Ainz muttered his answer in a volume that was incomprehensible to those around them,
"…We've lent out the Hanzos. Tira is currently in charge of training the human spies, but if I'm being honest, all of them combined are no better than a single Eight-Edge Assassin… hmmm, just consider it an investment for the future."
Though it was unlikely that they would receive a return on investment proportional to the gold and time they had invested into this program, it wasn't as though it was completely impossible. The same applied to their investments in runecraft and other magical technologies.
They were going in completely blind on whether or not those efforts would bear fruit, so it would be best to dial back their investments down to a minimum for now.
Ainz stopped talking.
And just like that, the trio continued to walk down the street in silence.
Occasionally they would bump into patrol teams consisting of Death Knights, Death Wizards, Death Warriors, Death Priests, and Death Assassins.
Though they were walking on the streets too, they maintained a tight formation with the Death Assassins silently keeping a lookout on the front. This wasn't due to any perceivable dangers, but rather the fact that they were just following their original orders to patrol in formation.
Something of note was that though Death Assassins were bad at concealing themselves, they had a high damage output thanks to their high critical strike chance. If an enemy were to let their guard down because they believed that a Death Assassin did not pose a threat to them, then they would be able to deal an alarming amount of damage. This was why Ainz couldn't make spies out of them.
Even though we're exporting undead, those exports mostly consisted of weak Skeletons…
Of course, they were charging vastly different prices for weaker undead compared to the stronger ones, so the most popular product was still those designed for cheap menial labor.
Consequently, the amount of undead around the level of a Death Knight they had exported was minimal.
It would be a waste to not use up his daily limit of [Create Undead], so Ainz had been exhausting his daily-use abilities; as a result, the number of undead he had created had already become a nuisance to him.
If I were to lower their rental costs and raise them in the future, no one would rent from us again. Plus I don't want to cut prices directly… Should I create a rewards system? The Empire rented quite a lot of Death Cavaliers from us, so we should probably focus on marketing to nations directly… but…
Ainz glanced at Pandora's Actor, who was beside him.
It's kind of awkward to just walk like this in silence. But, there's not really much I'd want to talk to him about.
If people were to perceive that their relationship wasn't so great after all, then there wouldn't be a point to this exercise.
"Ah — miss Nabe."
A conversation with Pandora's Actor would be insufferable, so Ainz chose to speak to Nabe instead.
"Yes!"
Hold up, you don't have to answer with such vigor, you know? Ainz thought but did not bother to say out loud. Her actions weren't so strange in hindsight; when all was said and done, they were essentially subordinates under Ainz.
"Umm, how should I say this. How's Yuri's orphanage? Have you visited yet?"
"No, I haven't been there yet."
And that was the end of their conversation.
That couldn't be because she had a bad relationship with Yuri, but just that she had no interest in that matter, right? Wait a second—
—Would someone really be so disinterested in the workplace of someone whose existence was their closest analogue to family? But, that response was also to be expected from Narberal.
Would she have reacted in the same way if the question had been about Shizu or Entoma's workplace? Ainz shrugged as that thought came up.
"Shall we visit it then?"
Because the full responsibility for the orphanage had been given to Yuri, not even Ainz knew of its current status. Of course, he had been given detailed plans about it, but no memory of it remained in Ainz's vacuous, boney head.
There should've also been some scheduled reports on the finances of the orphanage, but since Ainz had been delegating those responsibilities to Albedo, he had only pretended to have read those reports.
Though he had advocated for Talent scouting through the education sector, the Sorcerer Kingdom had yet to implement the as of now unrealistic policy of universal education for all.
If the level of education rose, so will technological and cultural advancements, but it could also strengthen weaklings. Though their current policies may lead to some people with undiscovered Talents to stay as farmers for the rest of their lives, Nazarick's peace was their top priority.
"I don't think that's a bad idea."
After Pandora's Actor agreed, the trio began walking in another direction led by Narberal.
Not even two minutes had passed before Ainz received a [Message].
"「—Ainz-sama.」"
"—Entoma? What's going on?"
Ainz walked as he talked and felt rather inauspicious.
He couldn't remember the last time he had received a [Message] like this in the past year, so it must have been some kind of emergency.
But — Ainz's fearless smile never wavered.
The whole ordeal in the Holy Kingdom was such a pain that nothing could be worse in comparison.
Compared to the hell I had to go through, nothing this world could throw at me is undoable!
The request, as he had expected, was for him to return to Nazarick immediately. After replying that he would do so, Ainz instructed Narberal to bring the rest of the maids back to Nazarick too. He opened up a [Gate] after bidding his farewells to the two to allow the Hanzos who had been securing their perimeter to go back.
Only then did Ainz return to Nazarick himself.
After dismissing the Hanzos, he took the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown from Solution, who had welcomed him back. Using the ring, he teleported to the Tenth Floor and began to walk towards the room that was his destination.
The rooms that were either important or special in Nazarick had all been marked so that one could teleport straight to their doors with the ring. This was not the case with rooms that had been deemed as "normal" from the start and thus one could not teleport straight to them.
This could be seen as the only flaw of the ring that allowed its user to teleport freely within Nazarick but it was no longer possible for them to modify its functions. If they still had the Yggdrasil creator kits around it could be possible, but neither Ainz nor Nazarick's inventory had any.
Albedo stood in front of the door to Ainz's destination, awaiting his arrival.
Ainz did not probe how long she had been waiting there, but only about the progress she had made on her assigned tasks.
"—You've been working hard, thank you."
"I'm not worthy of your praise!"
Ainz sighed on the inside as he witnessed Albedo deeply lowering her head.
Though he had said that he would return immediately, he had not given them a specific time frame. The thought that he could have wasted Albedo's time by making her wait unsettled Ainz. He did not and could not let those thoughts show on his face.
This had happened several times before. Despite telling Albedo that there was no need for her to wait for him each time, she had always insisted, saying that it was natural for a servant to welcome her master's return.
In fact, he had talked about this with not just the Floor Guardians, but the Area Guardians and the maids too. Every time he brought it up, their responses would be the same as the one Albedo was giving him right now. The maids were especially enthusiastic with their answers, demonstrating a level of determination that could even make someone like Ainz cower and apologize.
If this was the general consensus then Ainz, as their overlord, had to forgo his personal opinions on the matter.
Albedo opened the door to the room and welcomed Ainz in.
Ainz believed that he was not a man outstanding enough to be worthy of such treatment and with great guilt, he put on the facade that this was all to be expected and walked into the room before her.
Shalltear.
Cocytus.
Aura and Mare.
And Demiurge.
The Floor Guardians had already been gathered in this room and were all bowing towards the throne that somehow radiated darkness.
Behind the throne hung the flag of the Sorcerer Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown.
It looked like everybody who was supposed to be here was already here. In cases such as this where all hands were on deck, Ainz had to be the last one to arrive according to procedures. Unless it was for a special occasion, no one would arrive later than him.
Ainz surveyed the overburdened Guardians in front of him.
Every Floor Guardian had been entrusted with their own set of duties in the past, but recently the scope of their work had increased by a wide margin.
The air transportation system that mainly relied on flying monsters (mostly Dragons) had established a transportation network between the Sorcerer Kingdom, the Empire, the Dwarven Kingdom, and the desolate, demi-humaninhabited region to the east of the Holy Kingdom. The one who was placed in charge of this network, Shalltear, now had the responsibility to utilize her skills to gradually establish a land-based transportation network.
The one in charge of controlling the weather in the territories and building an underground tomb on the outskirts of E-Rantel, Mare, was also working alongside the newly established Adventurer's Guild.
The one in charge of commanding, managing, and training the Sorcerer Kingdom's army, which consisted mostly of the undead but also included various types of demi-humans and a small number of humans, was Cocytus.
The one who used to only have to command her own magical beasts but now had to operate a department which deployed a warning net that provided adequate coverage over the ever-increasing boundaries of the Sorcerer Kingdom's territories, was Aura.
The one who was establishing an intelligence agency on the Seventh Floor of Nazarick, was Demiurge.
Just like that, the responsibilities of each Floor Guardian grew over time.
Which was why there were plans to shift some of those responsibilities to those who up till that point had only been concerned with the internal defense of Nazarick, the Area Guardians.
Needless to say, the one who was in charge of checking up on everybody's progress, receiving requests or suggestions, and approving the various affairs of the Sorcerer Kingdom, the Guardian Overseer Albedo, had been the busiest of them all.
The truth was, no one was as idle as Ainz.
His daily duties amounted to simply practicing acting more like an overlord, it was a deeply embarrassing fact to admit.
So basically, he had been summoned for something that those who were occupied by the most important tasks had deemed to require his presence.
Ainz strode in a dignified manner through the center of the room. Albedo shut the doors behind them and followed closely behind him.
He sat on the only seat in the room. Albedo took a knee in front of him and said,
"Ainz-sama. The Floor Guardians of every Floor have arrived."
What do you mean, they have arrived? They were here already! Of course, Ainz did not and could not say that out loud.
"—Umu. You Floor Guardians have been working hard. Raise your heads."
"Yes!"
The guardians raised their heads as they gave their crisp answers, an action that was both flawless and in unison.
Originally, Albedo had been the one to ask them to raise their heads but Ainz had decided to put an end to that. Though it had been said that a superior shouldn't talk so easily to their subordinates, Ainz did not want to distance himself from them that much.
The guardians' gaze, which made apparent their absolute loyalty, all fell on Ainz's body. In the past, Ainz couldn't handle this kind of attention, but his skin had grown thick in the intervening times to the point that it did not affect him in the slightest these days.
But… why? Am I getting the wrong impression or do they feel even more loyal than they were before…? No… it has to be the wrong impression, right…?
Ainz, who couldn't recall doing anything that could have raised their loyalty, avoided the welcoming gazes of the guardians to randomly scan the room he was in. This wasn't because he couldn't handle their gazes, but he did it anyway.
On both sides of the room were doors that were dissimilar to the one they had just walked through, doors that were not warranted given the relatively small size of the room. The room was just decorated in such an exquisite manner that it emanated an air of grandeur.
It was set up to be the audience room within Nazarick. Another was set up in E-Rantel.
Nazarick's throne room was glorious, but it was too spacious and would feel empty if not enough people were gathered inside. He could gather enough people if he wanted to, but considering problems such as the presence of a World Class Item, something that was among Nazarick's strongest assets and thus could not casually be seen by others, an audience room was built.
Everything in Nazarick was made by its guild members in the past, except this audience room. Under Ainz's orders, the Floor Guardians had put great consideration (though it wasn't as though much consideration was necessary anyways) into refitting an empty room for this exact purpose.
It made Ainz quite happy.
NPCs, made by the guild members, had grown beyond being mere NPCs. It was as though they had become Players.
There will always come a day when the chicks leave their nest to fly on their own, huh?
Ainz smiled mentally.
Every one of them had made him proud.
Suzuki Satoru had no children and not many of the other guild members did either. He wasn't sure, but perhaps this was what it was like to be a father. At any rate, this was not what it would be like to be a mother, probably.
He immersed himself in his own thoughts for a bit. However, no one would speak until he had spoken, so he was forced to despite not being the emcee or something similar.
"So, Albedo. Tell me the reason why everyone was gathered here. It's something important to Nazarick, or rather, to the Sorcerer Kingdom, right?"
"Yes. Simply put, our grain that was being transported through the Kingdom towards the Holy Kingdom was plundered four days ago."
"Oh… and who did that?"
"A noble of the Kingdom."
The light in Ainz's eyes flashed for a moment. Albedo was being vague.
Normally, she would report the name, military power, and goal of the noble all at once. Why is that? Ainz thought about it as he asked further,
.
"Did the Eight Fingers' merchant in charge of transportation not have soldiers guard the caravans? Moreover, the rule was that our flag should have been flown, yes? Which meant the Kingdom had chosen to start a war with us?"
He had thought, judging by the Kingdom's actions, that they were trying to avoid a war, but it now seemed to be an incorrect judgment. Or, was the incident itself some kind of strategy? Ainz took notice of another possibility as his thoughts developed.
"Could it be that the Eight Fingers had betrayed us?"
"No, well…"
Albedo lowered her head as she muttered, she then glanced at Ainz as if she were trying to sneak a peek.
Ainz thought that her current attitude was quite rare. Rather, this might have been the first time she has ever shown this kind of behavior. She was behaving like a little girl who was afraid of getting scolded, definitely unlike the Overseer she had always been.
"What's wrong, Albedo? Is something the matter?"
Ainz carefully maintained his dignified facade and felt as if his back was soaked with sweat. Ainz, of course, could not sweat.
Was it because of a mistake Ainz had made? If that was the case then Albedo's response would make sense.
She was behaving like an employee who'd had to point out the mistakes her boss had made that messed everything up.
A noble of the Kingdom? I have no idea… Did I do something? I didn't do anything funny in the past few months, did I? No, could I?
As Ainz, who couldn't even remember the documents he had stamped a few weeks ago, thought about it, it felt more and more like it was a mistake of his own. His anxiety grew alongside his thoughts.
No, wait! I got it! I got it! Didn't I tell Albedo and Demiurge during the Holy Kingdom thing? And I told a lot of people the same thing after coming back. Yes, I made a mistake deliberately! Past me, you're great! Wait, now is the time… to use that excuse!
Ainz had always thought that the title of an absolute overlord was too much for him to bear. It was about time for him to take it off.
He had a cordial smile on his face.
"Don't worry about it, Albedo. Tell me about it."
"Yes… Ainz-sama. Surely you remember our plan to make use of an idiotic noble for the purpose of gaining control over the Kingdom…"
Hmm? Ainz raised a question in his mind. What she said was not what he had expected, but at this point Ainz knew what to say.
"That fool had something to do with it?"
Albedo nodded, "Yes. That dimwit had caused this incident. Ainz-sama has probably realized by now the possibility that this could be a scheme of the Kingdom's ruling class."
More misunderstandings, huh? "Hmph…" Ainz started thinking. He couldn't see the deeper aspects of such a scheme, but it was probably beneficial to the Kingdom to convict a noble associated with Nazarick. That way, they could purge a pest from their ranks.
"I understand… but does the blame truly lie with that imbecile? It's not some ploy by the Kingdom is it? …Wait, Albedo must have investigated the intel already. Sorry for unnecessary questions."
"No, those questions were only natural for you to ask, Ainz-sama. We have prepared a witness for this purpose. Shalltear."
"Understood."
Shalltear curtsied, stood up, and then left through the left door. Right after that, a woman held on both sides by Death Knights returned with Shalltear.
She was so thin her bones were visible as if she were sick. She also had heavy bags under her eyes, did not wear any make-up, and had messy hair.
Tear stains could be seen around her bloodshot eyes, which darted around uncontrollably like a terrified, tiny creature.
Ainz remembered seeing that person somewhere, but he couldn't recall important details like her name and position.
As he tried his best to search through his memories, the Death Knights let go of her.
The woman knelt down in one smooth movement. It was flawless, one could even say that it was beautiful.
It was something that was only possible through a suitable amount of training.
Ainz even felt a bit of respect for her because of that.
"Yoar, yoar mejasty…" her voice was trembling a lot. She paused for a moment, then spoke again, "Your Majesty."
The room fell silent. Realizing that it was his turn to speak, Ainz said in a deep voice, "—Woman, I permit you to speak your name."
"Ah! Hilma Cygnaeus, Your Majesty!"
His reawakened memories spread like vines. She was one of the leaders of the Eight Fingers, the Kingdom's crime syndicate.
"Ah, ah."
It was not known how she understood the noise that Ainz had made subconsciously. Hilma, who had not raised her head even once, yelled as her forehead rubbed against the floor.
"I, I have no idea! No idea! I have absolutely no intention of disobedience! The grain robbery has nothing to do with me!"
Ainz took a glimpse at Albedo's back.
It would be incredibly easy to determine if the woman had lied, so Albedo must have done so. So why did she not report the results directly to Ainz?
Ainz didn't know what Albedo was thinking, but it certainly wasn't about stabbing him in the back. Actually, it was probably the opposite. There was some unknown misunderstanding that was borne of her holding Ainz in too high of a regard. It would not be appropriate to ask her about it directly.
I got myself into this situation because I repeatedly performed as my persona, didn't I? Albedo won't understand if this continues on. Should I ask and see what happens? It would've been fine if Albedo was the only one who was here, but the others are also here… Ainz looked at Aura and Mare. Hmm, next time I guess.
"—Umu. First of all, let me confirm if Cygnaeus was telling the truth.
[Dominate]."
After the spell had been cast, Ainz asked Cygnaeus:
"Did you play any role in that noble robbing our grain convoy?"
"None whatsoever!"
A dominated individual could not lie to their dominator, which meant that Cygnaeus had no direct connections to the incident. Though an indirect connection was still possible, it wouldn't have made it her responsibility. The hypothetical that she had been lying by ways of memory manipulation was unlikely.
"—Have you been described by others as having multiple personalities?"
"No!"
"Umu… then do you wish to oppose us?"
"Not at all! I don't have the slightest intention to! Absolutely not!"
She denied with her fiercest tone yet. Bearing witness to this, Ainz released her from his [Dominate].
"If we were to punish her based on a crime she wasn't purposely responsible for would be too harsh. Cygnaeus, not guilty. That's my ruling."
Cygnaeus raised her head and gazed towards Ainz with a brilliant passion within her eyes, to the point where Ainz found it to be terrifying.
"But, Ainz-sama. Shouldn't the faults of a subordinate be the responsibility of their superiors? That cretin was her responsibility."
Albedo was right.
"You, you're absolutely correct! But he took those actions randomly and of his own accord! I had instructed him multiple times! 'Contact me before you do anything!' I had even appointed a subordinate to monitor him for this exact reason!"
Albedo did not object to her explanation. So that was the truth. She had performed her duties to the utmost, so it would be too cruel to let her shoulder the full responsibility for this incident.
{Albedo}, Human Resources, had hired a {simpleton} who caused major issues in {Cygnaeus}, the department. Though it's obvious that there were issues within that department, Ainz also understood the tendency to want to blame this on HR.
{Ainz}, the salaryman, thought about this issue from Cygnaeus' perspective.
If he were to leave this matter to Albedo and the others, they would surely dish out severe punishments to her. Then—
"—The faults of a subordinate are the responsibility of their superior. I concur with that statement."
Ainz watched as the color drained from Hilma's face and continued,
"But, that proverb was said by a leader who wished to shoulder the burden of their subordinate, it was not meant as a way for subordinates to shift blame onto their superiors. As for how encompassing the statement could be: Albedo, let me ask you a question. Cygnaeus was in charge of that dunce, but who was in charge of Cygnaeus?"
"That's — that's my responsibility."
"Umu. And I am your master, so the responsibility for this incident falls on me in the end, correct?"
"W-W-We wouldn't dare! This is absolutely not the fault of Ainz-sama!"
Albedo disavowed his statement with an uncharacteristically panicked expression.
Cygnaeus, whose expression just a moment prior had been one foretelling of their own doom, now gazed upon Ainz with the same spark in her eyes as before.
Her face was almost ever-changing.
"Though Cygnaeus' modus operandi may be flawed, she had performed according to the expectations of her office. For that, she has been forgiven. The first time an error occurs, it is because everyone makes mistakes. The second time around it would be the result of carelessness. The third time should have been avoidable. The fourth time is the one to indicate one's incompetence —
Cygnaeus."
"Yes!!"
Cygnaeus lowered her head so much that it made an audible impact with the floor. It looked painful even from an outside perspective.
"To prevent a similar incident from occurring again, work harder on your preventative measures. Prepare a set of all of the plans you could think up of, submit them to Albedo, and wait for approval. That will be your punishment. "
"Yes!!"
Cygnaeus rubbed her head against the ground, as if she was trying to lower her head even further.
That seems unnecessary. Ainz thought as he turned to look towards the guardians.
"That is my decision — do you have any comments? I will not get angry, so you are free to speak your minds."
No one seemed to have objections. Still, every one of them was capable of saying "Ainz-sama's decisions are always correct" with a straight face even if they had any dissenting opinions, so it wasn't likely that they would give voice to those opinions. In any case, it was better to confirm than not.
"—Albedo."
"No objections."
"—Demiurge."
"I concur with Albedo."
"—Aura."
"None."
"—Mare."
"Ah! Y-yes. I don't have any objections."
"—Cocytus."
"No. Objections."
"—Shalltear."
"None."
Were they really fine with it or were they too afraid to speak up? Ainz wasn't sure, but he had at least received their approval.
Ainz forcefully nodded his head and made his judgment final.
"…Good. Now then, Cygnaeus. Prepare those plans within a few days, that is… have them ready within two days."
Cygnaeus audibly whipped her head upwards.
"Understood! I'm grateful for my lord's merciful judgment!! I thank you from the deepest depths of my heart!! Oh Sorcerer King-heika!! Please allow me, Hilma Cygnaeus, to continue loyally serving you from now on!!"
"Is that so…?"
Cygnaeus' almost revolting amount of passion reminded him of a girl he had met in the past with scary-looking eyes.
"I look forward to your loyal service. Now then, Shalltear, please send Cygnaeus back."
"Understood."
Shalltear took Hilma along as she activated her ring's function, the destination of their teleportation was the surface. She should be using [Gate] afterwards so it shouldn't take too long. With that in mind, they waited in place for her. Not too long after, Shalltear returned alone as he had expected.
"Now then — that couldn't be the only reason I was called here for, right?"
If that was the only reason why then he would be thanking his lucky stars, but that wish was shattered by Albedo.
"Yes, it is exactly as you have surmised."
Ainz looked at Albedo as if he had held a grudge against her. He would have loved it if she had only let him hold onto that hope for just a while longer.
"Umm, is something wrong? Perhaps just then…"
"No, nothing's wrong. Now then, how about you tell me the true purpose behind you calling me — gathering every Floor Guardian here?"
Albedo and Demiurge exchanged glances upon being asked.
"First on the docket, for what purpose did that buffoon undertake his actions? Was someone manipulating him as part of their ploy? That is certainly possible. Depending on the answer to those questions, we may have to significantly revise our plans against the Kingdom. For that it would be nice to know what Ainzsama's thoughts are on the matter, so I proposed that we ask for your presence."
"Umu… As of now our strategy against the Kingdom had been 'Candy and Whip' hadn't it? Have you explained the concept to Aura, Mare, Cocytus, and Shalltear before?"
"Demiurge and I were in the process of doing so, but we have yet to explain the specific details of the plan."
"Is that so? Then Albedo, please share the intel with everybody. Any suggestions or opinions from you all could be helpful."
"Understood."
Albedo began her explanation to the four of them.
The Candy and Whip strategy (coined by Ainz, the term was popular due to its simplistic nature) to prepare the Kingdom for a takeover was in essence a plan to destabilize the Kingdom from the inside to the point where a portion of the Kingdom's citizens would actively hope for peaceful foreign intervention by the Sorcerer Kingdom.
Was it because Demiurge was also involved in the planning process? The plan began sounding more and more like what they had done in the Holy Kingdom.
It was a strategy that depended on internal conflicts and would thus cause a massive loss of life at the start. His preference for internal conflicts over physically invading a country was probably due to him being a fiend. If Cocytus or Shalltear were in charge of planning, they would probably prefer more direct methods such as a full-blown invasion.
But apparently this plan had been formulated by someone within the Kingdom and Albedo and Demiurge had only made slight modifications on top of the original.
That imbecile of a noble was a crucial element of this strategy.
He was meant to start a revolution. In conjunction with the internal conflicts initiated by their grain shortage, the Kingdom would then be forced to request aid from the Sorcerer Kingdom. There were multiple ways to make use of the nobility, but they would all create a reason for the Sorcerer Kingdom to intervene in the Kingdom's affairs.
This meant that to Ainz, everything was still going according to plan. The incident caused by that dimwit was more than enough justification for the Sorcerer Kingdom to involve themselves.
However, it appeared as though Albedo and Demiurge were a bit worried by the current situation. There had to be something that Ainz was missing.
"Now then, Albedo. Though I want to ask questions of a fundamental nature… Do we actually have evidence that noble caused the incident? Do we have clues that this was a ploy by the Kingdom? I recall something… about Albedo's scheduled correspondence with that noble we were supposed to get under our influences?"
Albedo had complained to Ainz time after time about "having to send letters to that unpleasant noble," "a mere human…", or something similar. She had also requested Ainz to review said letters so he had to read them on numerous occasions.
If it was simple paperwork, Ainz would still know a bit about it, but he had no confidence in his ability to proofread or edit. He tried to avoid having to do so but Albedo had begged him in earnest, so he had to.
By the way, though much time had passed since he came to this world, Ainz still hadn't learned to read the language.
The best he could do was write out his and Momon's names and recognize numbers. Compared to Albedo, Demiurge, and Pandora's Actor, who understood the language of several countries, it was easy to see how their brains functioned on a completely different level than his. It was for this reason that Ainz had to rely on magical items to understand any texts.
If he was being honest, he didn't think any edits would be necessary so he just handed them back as is to Albedo.
"I've also seen the letters that noble had sent back in response and frankly it appears as though he was completely charmed by you. I did not think that he would be the type to oppose the Sorcerer Kingdom."
He had heard of a saying that betrayal from one's crush could lead one to become irrationally hateful. Like finding out the cute voice actor you love had a boyfriend. As this thought came to mind, Ainz could see a reflection of his friend of yesterday crying tears of blood in Shalltear's place.
He could also see in Aura and Mare's place, that friend's sister laughing at him.
"Yes, we've conducted detailed investigations into this matter, it is undeniably true that that man was the mastermind behind the grain robbery.
But… the possibility that he could have been charmed, brain-washed, or controlled in any other way is certainly not zero… the only thing we could be sure of is that he had committed the crime."
"Perhaps this was a ploy by someone of an even higher intellect than us. If that was the case, then there is the possibility that they are somehow taking advantage of his actions…"
Albedo had a troubled expression and so did Demiurge. What Ainz found unbelievable was the possibility that someone who could rival the intellect of these two would just show up out of the blue. Or rather—
"Maybe that nobleman did what he did without thinking it through?"
If that was the case, then it would make a lot more sense to Ainz.
"Ainz-sama, I don't believe that's possible…"
Albedo said in a tone as if she were apologizing. This was the first time she had adopted such an attitude and Ainz couldn't help but feel refreshed from this new kind of behavior.
"No, wait a second, Albedo. We are only able to make pre-emptive moves against the strategies of some genius, but Ainz-sama could even see through an idiot's rash actions. There's always the possibility that it could be the case, is there not? No, isn't that explanation the most plausible?"
"B-but… to be that stupid… is it really possible…? But Ainz-sama…"
"If Ainz-sama said so, then isn't it the truth? Albedo."
"I-I guess so, I think…"
For some reason Aura and Mare had butted in to back up Demiurge's argument, stunning Ainz who had simply muttered a throwaway comment.
"If that's the case—"
Albedo and Demiurge furrowed their brows and began to debate.
"Hol-hold on a second. Let's hear the opinions of the other Floor Guardians regarding the operation. They must have quite a lot of questions, so let's set aside some time for that. Those of you with questions could just raise your hands and Albedo or Demiurge will answer them."
Please don't direct any questions at me! Ainz had put up a white flag in his mind already.
"Umm, I have a question," Aura said as she raised her hand, "why didn't we just draw in as many of the nobility as we could at the start of the operation? If we did that, we could just kill off that troublesome noble and continue the operation as we had planned, right?"
The one to answer this question was Demiurge.
"We had considered that during the planning phase, but ultimately chose to abandon that idea after deliberations. It would have been fine had we drawn in outstanding noblemen, but the nobles of the Kingdom aren't exactly known for their intellect, now are they? With that in mind, the more people we drew into the fold, the more likely it was for an unexpected leak in intel to occur. That was why we had decided to focus on an individual and have them form and manage a new faction."
Things were the way they were because they hadn't expected that person to be such a wildcard.
The next one to raise their hand was Cocytus.
"We. Could. Not. Make. Use. Of. The. Exceptional. Nobles?"
"It wasn't as though we couldn't. In fact, we had recruited someone like that already… it's so easy to blackmail a doting father. We had considered the fact that we would want to spare the noblemen who were at least somewhat capable, which was why we chose the expendable portion of the nobility. Don't you believe that it's necessary for us to clear out the moronic few so that the country could become one worthy of being ruled over by Ainz-sama? That was why we formed a faction that was filled with people that were incompetent in various forms. As a metaphor, think of it as preparing a rubbish bin before throwing away trash. Of course, we had received intel on the talented people of the Kingdom, but we wanted to also collect intel of our own directly from the source."
"Because the Sorcerer Kingdom has no need for nobles other than a few of them who are either talented or hard-working ascetics."
"I have a question," Shalltear said as she raised her hand," I'm not sure I understand ~arinsu. Even if that dolt of a nobleman was being manipulated into doing what he did, did his actions not constitute an attack against the Sorcerer Kingdom? If so, shouldn't the Sorcerer Kingdom use that as casus belli to invade the Kingdom ~arinsu? If it really was a trap set by someone, could we not just crush them?"
"That is correct, we should have done so especially if there were no hidden masterminds… but… hmm."
Albedo glanced at Demiurge, prompting him to answer, "That's right."
Demiurge then turned his gaze towards Ainz before looking towards the guardians.
"It is extremely difficult to find the right balance in dealing with the situation. Though now that we have Ainz-sama's superior insight, we've come to understand that the nobleman had committed this act without putting much thought into it. If we were to lightly punish him for this transgression, the Sorcerer Kingdom will be looked down upon by other nations. So, what do you all believe is the suitable punishment for someone who had attacked a caravan flying the Sorcerer Kingdom's flag — something that essentially signified Ainzsama himself — and had stained Ainz-sama's public image?"
"We should kill him."
"Yeah, I think Onee-chan is correct."
"That's right. That's how it should be. Now then, I must ask you all. Do we simply let this slide after we have dealt with the criminal himself?"
"That. Will. Not. Do. His. Master. Must. Also. Answer. For. This. Crime."
Cocytus nodded his head in silence.
Ainz had never been more shocked than he was at this moment.
Though it was surprising that the guardians would have such an overreaction, it wasn't too out of the ordinary considering their personalities. What Ainz was shocked about was how they had accepted his throwaway comment about the noble as the truth at face value.
To be honest, it was quite scary.
"That's right, I also agree with Shalltear's judgment. For them to be dumb enough to make a fool out of Ainz-sama, I say we need to mete out appropriate punishments to the entire Kingdom! But, back then…"
"Ainz-sama once said that 'to rule over a ruined nation would be bad for our reputation.' I've also heard that Ainz-sama has no interest in standing atop a pile of rubble, so we should try our best to avoid that kind of situation."
Upon hearing what Demiurge had to say, Albedo nodded her head.
Ainz had two questions in mind in response.
First, has he ever said something like that before?
If you surveyed a hundred of Nazarick's denizens on the question, "Who is correct, Ainz or Demiurge?" perhaps a majority, no, 99 of them would be certain that it was Ainz. Only a single person would be against that notion and that person is Ainz Ooal Gown.
But how credible could he be as a person who couldn't even remember what had happened a week ago?
Which was why, although Ainz had no recollections of this, since Demiurge had said so, he must have said something along those lines in the past. If that was the case, then there was only one correct way to approach this.
.