Chapter 675 - Countdown to Extinction*2

The morning three days after that, a man stood on the top of a watchtower.

He appears to be over forty, had a tanned body, and his scent was more akin to that of waves crashing upon a skerry than that of a warrior's. From the smell alone you could tell that he was a man whose life depended on the sea.

Though the top of his head was completely bald, the sides and back of his head still had remnants from the lusciousness of his youth. He would try his best to comb them upwards to cover up the wasteland that is the top of his head.

Though his physical appearance screamed fisherman, his garment was that of a first-class noble's; thus, one could easily distinguish his status.

"Woooah — they're everywhere —"

His tone did not match his appearance at all and was generally undignified, but this man was the ruler of these lands: Earl Naüa.

Within his line of sight was a large group of zombies which numbered approximately twenty times more than E-Naüru's defence force. The undead army had halted their march to wait for stragglers to catch up, but it appeared that the influx of zombies into their formations had abated so that was probably the whole army. Given that was the situation, war was only a hair's breadth away.

"—even so, it's only a swarm of zombies. It's not that big of a deal."

The one who had asserted that was a woman who stood next to the Earl.

Her hair of pure white danced in the breeze.

That said, her white hair was not a product of age, she had deliberately dyed it so.

Her original hair colour was the shade of gold that was a common sight throughout the Kingdom. Until the year prior she had dyed her hair black.

The dyed hair wasn't for a fashion statement or for fun, she was using her flashy appearance as a sort of advertisement for her adventurer group. Adventurers like her weren't all that uncommon, there were even those who would dye their hair pink in a bid to become famous.

It was for that reason that she had changed her hair dye from black to white.

Of the active adamantite-ranked adventurer groups there were already teams with 'Red' and 'Blue' associations, but recently 'Black' had been taken too. Within the adventuring circles, the moment you mention the colour black most people's thoughts would naturally gravitate towards Momon of Darkness. Still, since not many people had seen Momon's true appearance, she had considered whether keeping her black hair would have a positive impact on their publicity or not. She gave up on that idea after she learned that Momon's partner had gorgeous black hair.

Consequently, her team's colour had also changed from black to white. As for her, Skama Herbelot, she was just glad that they had not incorporated the colour into their team name yet but had just named themselves the Four Armaments.

"Those are obviously not naturally spawned. Many of them look like farmers, so they can't be from the Sorcerous Kingdom. They must have destroyed the surrounding villages and turned their corpses into zombies. How revolting."

Skama spoke as though she was about to vomit.

Though there were also a few amongst them that had better equipment — leather armour, chainmail, and other types of light armour — that gave one the impression that they were soldiers who were turned into zombies, the majority of them only wore regular clothing, clothing that wasn't even of notable quality.

"Can someone even do that?"

"Whether it's possible to generate this amount of zombies or not, I have no idea. But, since spells to create the undead exist, it should be possible, right?"

"Oh, haaaaaaaah—"

Earl Naüa sighed from the depths of his heart.

In these trying times, his voice did not have a shred of urgency. It could be infuriating to some, yet Skama's expression remained unchanged.

"If that's the case, could we not create an undead army of our own to hold them off?"

"If there were dozens of those who favour necromancy out of the exotic arcanas and could use the higher tier spells of that discipline, it wouldn't be completely impossible. Too bad there's none in this city~."

There was a reason why she was so sure of herself.

Earl Naüa had sent requests to the Mage's Guild, the Temple, the Adventurer's Guild and others— he had basically sent a call to every magic caster in the city to join them in mounting a defence, in hopes that he could form a unit comprised entirely of magic casters.

Due to the fact that the Adventurer's Guild had the most magic casters and the adventurers had plenty of experience with combat, the highest-ranked adventurer group — Skama's Four Armaments — was chosen to lead this caster unit. For this reason, Skama had detailed knowledge of every single magic caster within the city.

"Is that so? So— everything's going to work out, right? For a hundred and twenty year— this city has never been sieged ever since its founding as a village. We really don't have much experience with that at all."

This was not something the ruler of this city should be saying right now.

Still, Skama had not appeared to be angered by this. That being said, as usual, not an ounce of respect could be heard in her voice as she responded,

"Everything will work out? I don't think so~, Earl. If we can't think up a plan about this, everyone will turn into undead~. Everybody's trying their best to help us because they want to avoid that outcome~"

"I see— why did something like this have to happen during my time. If only this did not happen for another 5 years, by then my eldest son would have probably succeeded me."

"Unlucky~. Well, you say that but it's the same for us. Why, why did this have to happen when we chose to come to this city. If it happened a few months later, we would have probably moved to another — a bigger city~"

"Wha— Hol-hold up a second, alright? Let's all be sensible. Please don't abandon this city!"

"If we really wanted to run away, now would be the best time! Take a look, there."

Skama pointed towards two undead that were at the helm of the zombie army.

They were quite easy to spot given how they were about two head's height higher than the zombies around them. In conjunction with the overwhelming, hair-raising pressure they gave off that accentuated their presence, their strength was made apparent. Those undead carried a flag at their sides.

"The Sorcerous Kingdom's."

"Yup...did the Earl participate in the battle of the Katze plains?"

"Hmm? I only sent some trusted subordinates along with our levy. Neither I nor my family participated...but, it's not like they'll return anyhow."

"Umm...Hope they could rest in peace at God's side. Only two special undead were sent by the Sorcerer King who massacred 200,000 — by the Sorcerous Kingdom...Do you believe them to be weak?"

"I don't think so, sigh— they must be mind-bogglingly strong—"

"Right... Aren't you angry? That they judged that they only needed two undead to destroy this city?"

"Nooope— Rather than that, I am only thinking of how we could be saved from all of this."

As the ruler of this land, those words were quite lame, yet, they were the simple truth.

"Though I want to send out a messenger to declare our intention to surrender, I doubt that would work at all."

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"Can't you just escape by sea? You've probably prepared for that already, right?"

Skama asked what was on everybody's minds during their previous meetings, but no one had said out loud.

The Earl smiled with a bitter expression and did not respond immediately. Rather than hiding something, it was more likely that he was just trying to figure out what Skama truly meant by that question.

Though she wasn't too acquainted with the Earl, they had quite the amount of interactions due to their lines of work. She knew from then that he was quite a quick-witted one.

What was unfortunate was that though the Earl's son was a suitable replacement for him, he was not as outstanding as his father. That said, there were people who believed that his son could gain a leg up on him with enough experience.

"Ahem. Of course, but we can't transport everybody out of this city by boat. Even if we make multiple runs to dump people to the nearby coasts, what will we do about the food situation? Where can we escape to? And more questions just keep coming up..."

"But if it's just the Earl and his family, they should make it out alright, right?"

The Earl pondered for a moment once more and replied,

"I guess, but that will be the last resort. 'Everybody please evacuate to the city, my family and I will get out of here first though' or something like that would weigh heavily on my conscious—" Normally when a city had been taken over, its ruling class would either be slaughtered or forced into submission. The citizens on the other hand — though their possessions might be plundered — would just be under new management. To slaughter the civilians of a city would be akin to killing the goose that laid golden eggs.

Unless razing a city held benefits for the invaders, they would never do such a thing.

However—

"The words of the Baron who had escaped the Sorcerer King's— the Sorcerous Kingdom's invasion to this place and the words of the refugees from my villages, surely you have heard them already? Things aren't looking too good for us."

"You're saying that there should have been more refugees, right?"

"Yes, that's right," the Earl replied.

Those who had evacuated first were here already, but there were too few compared to the population count of the surrounding area. What happened to the people who were left behind or could not make it out?

Did they not want to escape because they were now living under a utopia? Or were they under a surveillance state in which not a single ant could escape? Or were they all taken to the Sorcerous Kingdom? Those three were the only optimistic outcomes he could think of.

But, upon seeing the farmer-turned zombies, he got the feeling that there was no way the Sorcerous Kingdom would treat them well.

"Though he lords over E-Rantel, it looks as though he is still a monster who could not tolerate the living—"

"So the purpose of this war was to turn their defeated enemies into soldiers to bolster their ranks. They don't sleep, don't eat, don't tire, are fearless, and are absolutely loyal. Sigh, it makes sense why they wouldn't show mercy to their enemies, right?"

"That makes sense, for the enemy. If they were trying to subjugate a city and force its citizens to work for them, they wouldn't be doing something like this... Perhaps they do not intend to leave any of the Kingdom's residents alive. If that's the case does it even matter where we escape to?"

Was he trying to empathize with her or getting her to empathize with him?

Skama picked up on something.

She was the strongest adventurer in this city. If she was to desert this city, what could have been a victory could turn into a defeat. That was why the Earl was trying to make her think that there was nowhere to escape to.

Just as Skama was about to say something, some disturbance had occurred somewhere near them.

For privacy's sake — or it was better to say that for the sake of preparing for a defensive, the two had slipped away to observe the enemy's formation.

The ones who had appeared in front of Skama were her teammates. Her team, Four Armaments, had four members including herself. The ratio of men to women was equal. In addition to the warrior Skama, there were also a rogue, a priestess, and a magic caster of the school of evocation. Their team composition was fairly balanced.

Behind her teammates were the magic casters gathered from all over the city.

The number of magic casters was less than fifty, but this quantity made for a more than formidable army unit.

The reason why they were able to gather up so many magic casters was because of a loophole to the unspoken rule amongst adventurers — the one about how they could not participate in the wars between countries.

This would not have been possible had the Sorcerous Kingdom sent human soldiers, but their army was comprised of undead — of which they were almost certain were the Kingdom's civilians who were turned undead.

They could basically treat it as a coincidence that this army of undead was carrying the Sorcerous Kingdom's flag.

They had to use that reason because there was no way they could use that rule to excuse themselves from a fight with the undead who could turn dead villagers into more undead.

To have formed a caster unit out of the people here meant that together they — well, not everyone was of that school of magic, so this was more of a hypothetical — could adopt the strategy of continually raining down [Magic Arrow]s on the enemy, which could theoretically slay even dragons.

Unlike regular arrows, [Magic Arrow]s were guaranteed to hit independent of the evoker's skills. Casting it at a higher tier would increase the amount of projectiles generated as well as the individual damage output of each projectile. Even so, a single projectile's damage output was still miniscule. It was pretty much impossible for them to one-shot their enemies with a single cast.

The damage output of the spell did not depend on where the enemy was struck, which some considered to be its advantage while others believed that it was its flaw.

With all of that in mind, it was still a convenient spell to use in a group. If they were to form an army corp out of people who learnt that spell, it would probably see a lot of success. However, no historical records existed of such a tactic being used.

This was because to learn even the beginner's level of the first tier of spells required a certain amount of potential, nevermind the amount of time that had to be invested to educate a magic caster. Given the same amount of time and resources, it was more beneficial to train a hundred archers than a single magic caster for combat.

If there existed some organism that could innately use [Magic Arrow] and an army was formed out of them, that had the potential to be absolutely terrifying. If not even those requirements for talent could be met — no, it was safer to say that it was precisely because no such organism existed that an army composed purely of magic casters was only a pipe dream.

Behind this ex-pipe dream of an army unit were the soldiers under the Earl's employ and adventurers who were skilled in archery and other ranged weaponry.

Which is to say, those who are gathered on the city walls were aiming to strike the Sorcerous Kingdom's army first.

Earl Naüa, standing in front of them all, raised his voice and said,

"I'm grateful for everybody who has gathered here! I would like to thank each and every single one of you for your aid."

Skama could no longer feel that sense of unreliability from his tone, all that remained was the dignity and confidence befitting of a leader. His attitude, the product of having lived a noble's lifestyle, left Skama in awe.

"Thank us through more practical means please!"

One of Skama's companions, the magic caster, replied. A wave of laughter could be heard behind him. The Earl was not displeased upon hearing what one of the representatives of the adventurers had to say. On the contrary, the smile that flourished on his face was a genuine one.

"Leave that to me! You will be rewarded enough that even if every other adventurer forced you to take them out for a meal, you would not go broke. I will hand over your rewards in front of everyone, out in the open."

"Woooo," everybody started cheering.

"Of course, that applies to my soldiers too. Though your pay may not be as plentiful as the adventurers', I will pay you a bonus big enough that you would no longer have to worry over your wives' and children's future! But—" The Earl switched to a playful tone to say, "—don't you dare squander away all of your newfound wealth, am I understood~?"

He could see that the tense expressions on his soldiers had loosened up a little.

"I was thinking of alternative forms of compensation. Surely the Earl has a few magic items as heirlooms or something? Your lineage goes quite a ways back after all."

The one who had said that was a woman who irradiated a perverse aura. On her neck hung the holy symbol of the Earth God, which was sandwiched between her voluptuous bosom. It wouldn't be incorrect to call this sacrilege.

This woman, Lilynette Piani, was also one of Skama's companions and no, she was not wearing that priestess' outfit because she's a prostitute who was accommodating her client's fetish or something like that.

"Huhhh. An heirloom magic item would be a tall order. It does exist though, I do have a magic item that was passed down for generations. A lot of people would know about it, it's called the Holy Sword of Pentechromata."

It was a longsword enchanted with the elemental powers of fire, thunder, acid, sonic, and ice which dealt their respective damage types to a slashed target.

But, the blade was without an edge so it could only be used as a blunt weapon, like a dummy sword for swordsmanship practice. He had no idea why someone would create such a sword. What was more confusing was that it did not deal holy damage yet was called a holy sword, perhaps the name was changed generations after its creation so that did not really matter much.

"I want that~"

After all, it was still a valuable item, so to give it away to an adventurer as compensation seemed wholly inappropriate.

"You want that? Hmm, depending on the situation I wouldn't rule it out completely." The Earl continued on in a sea of gasps, "my son — I wish that you could become my son's concubine."

Skama's expression turned apprehensive.

The Earl had said something he shouldn't have.

Some of the adventurers looked towards the Earl with their eyes wide open, they were those who were head over heels for Lilynette. In comparison, the one who had started this had on her eyes as sharp as an eagle's.

Perhaps that joke had crossed a line. Just as Earl Naüa opened his mouth to apologize, Lilynette asked,

"The Earl has four children right? Your wife gave birth to your eldest son and your third son. Your concubine gave birth to your second son and eldest daughter. Um, your eldest is out of the question, so which son were you referring to?"

Her tone had shifted completely. From her careless attitude back then to the seriousness that was to be expected of an adventurer. This was her actual personality.

Which meant that Lilynette was being completely serious.

Skama's expression further darkened. She glanced at her other teammates who cold-heartedly avoided making eye contact with her.

Those cowards.

"...I was talking about my third son"

"Your third son? But isn't that kid only twelve? The one whose birthday is coming up soon but hasn't passed yet? Be the concubine of that child?"

The Earl was about to nod his head when he suddenly froze up.

"...that's, right. How did you know about my child's age? Even the birthdate of the third son of a local noble... Is that important intel? Or are all of you top-ranked adventurers like this?"

"N-no", "Um, no", and other denials came from the other adventurers. Lilynette ignored them all and continued on as she held up her hair,

"Hah, fiiiine. Ahem. Fine then, I'll become your son's concubine for the Holy Sword of Pentechromata."

The Earl observed Lilynette in detail and turned his gaze towards Skama as if he had a question that he wanted an answer to at this exact moment.

Skama knew what that question was, she knew it well.

"Though I was the one who raised that suggestion. Wait, why is she drooling? Is she actually after my son or the magic item?"

"It's the former," Skama tried to say, but before her words could reach anyone a boisterous voice boomed,

"You fool! Unripe fruits are the most alluring of all, aren't they?"

The silent atmosphere was broken the moment they figured out whose voice that was. At the same time, a few of the adventurers had already fallen to the ground, a result of their fantasies being crushed by the harsh reality of it all.

Skama could empathize with the sorrow of those adventurers.

{Sorry,} she thought. Those who had fawned over her should understand at this point why they had not been successful.

Age preference.

"I thought that you would ask, 'why a concubine,' or something."

Lilynette responded to Earl Naüa, who was muttering to himself,

"Ah, father-in-law-sama. Even if he's your third son, he was still born of your wife. If all goes well he should be able to gain the title of Baron and a small patch of land, correct? With that in mind, it would be asking too much for an adventurer to be his wife, even if it's a powerful one, right? Though I do have connections to the temples, that is still, you know. You were planning to say something along the lines of 'if you perform outstandingly in this battle, I will consider letting you be his wife,' right? But if I was to be satisfied by the offer of being his wife alone, then there would be no way I could get my hands on the Holy Sword of Pentechromata. After all, the wife of your third son inheriting the family heirloom would upheave our family's peace~"

She was already calling him father-in-law.

"...I have underestimated you... If you came along earlier, I would have made you my eldest son's concubine."

"Ah, fifteen...wait no...seventeen and above would be too old for me, father-in-law-sama."

The Earl kept glancing at Skama as she tried her darndest to ignore him. Earl Naüa's expression looked as though he had just taken a heavy blow and wanted to call her sly, drew no sympathy from the crowd at all.

"Umm, something that I've got to ask— even if it's his third son, there will still come a day when he ages past the age of 17 though!"

"That's true— if only he was of a race with a longer lifespan. But if that was the case, wouldn't I be the one who'd age faster...? So, what you've said is acceptable to me."

"You thought that was worth emphasizing!? You thought that, of all the things that I have said so far, that was the thing that was most worthy of emphasizing!?"

"Eh? Father-in-law-sama. Your composure, you appear to be losing it?"

"...You're the last person I wanted to hear that from."

Based on Skama's personal judgment, Lilynette was an honest and caring person so she should make for a good bride. However, none of that was on display right now.

If this continued on any longer, not only would it bring shame upon her companion, but it would set the reputation of her entire team on some weird trajectory which would be troublesome. Skama did not want to be identified by her white hair for negative connotations.

"...Now then, Earl. Though we do appreciate your efforts to alleviate our stress with some humour, we do have to get on with our preparations for the battle. Could I ask of you to return to the center of command?"

Even if he stayed, he, who is without any combat prowess would not be able to do much. His job was better accomplished elsewhere. Earl Naüa nodded his head at this logical proposal, probably out of a desire to stay as far away as possible from Lilynette.

"Ah yes, now then. Everybody, we'll be relying on you all!"

-x-X-x-

From the vantage point of the city walls, it appeared as though the enemies did not have a formation at all but were just gathering zombies into one spot. This would have been easy for a Mythril-ranked adventurer like Skama to clear them out, if only those monsters were not there.

"No movement, hmmm? So — does anyone recognise those undead?"

Two undead creatures stood where Skama was pointing to.

One held a huge shield in one hand and a huge sword in another while the other one was dual-wielding swords.

The magic casters around her shook their heads after she had asked her question. Skama shifted her gaze towards Lilynette.

Priestesses were usually knowledgeable in matters concerning the undead, whether they're well known or esoteric.

With her response of a shrug, there could only be two possibilities.

One was that this was an extremely rare type of undead or a new species — ignore the nomenclature for now — of undead.

Either possibility was worrisome. Normally, it would not have been unusual for an adventurer to consider running away at this point.

The other situations in which they would consider retreat were if it had any special abilities that could one-hit KO or could unleash fatal attacks.

This was a scenario in which they had no intel to operate on at all.

For example, Ghouls had a claw attack that could paralyze their opponents via poison when they inflict damage with it.

If one were not to know about its paralytic effect and did not prepare against it, they could get chain-paralyzed or even TPK. What would happen to a party that did not know about Wraiths' ability to life-steal? Or what about a party that did not know about werewolves and other similar monsters' resistances to any attacks not made with a specific metal? Or what about monsters who could regenerate if you did not hit it with fire or acid attacks?

Intel was both an offensive and defensive tool. If one were to fight without any intel to back them up, the amount of danger they would be putting themselves in should be obvious.

"...This isn't good at all. We should try to hit it with all kinds of attacks to see what would be effective, any objections?"

Not a peep.

"Then, that's what we'll do — the specifics on who's casting and what they're casting, I'll leave to you professionals to discuss. Just make a judgment based on what you think it's capable of based off of its appearance. First of all, both of them appear to be close-quarters combatants."

They did appear to be that way, so they shouldn't veer too far from their expectations, right? It wasn't as though monsters that could disguise their appearance did not exist, it was just that Skama had not seen one in person yet.

"They do appear to have high defensive capabilities so it would be dangerous to engage them in close-quarters combat. We'll attack them from afar if that's the case, as is the convention, but physical arrows might not have that great of an effect. We might still have to engage them in close-quarters, so the amount of damage we could unleash onto that thing before it reaches the walls will dictate whether we win or lose this fight. But since we also have to prepare for the eventuality of the enemies breaching the walls and the prospect of urban warfare, we'll have to reserve some casters to provide buffs to the vanguard and offensive magic too."

That said, she had already warned them to not be too stingy with their mana usage than was necessary.

"If nobody has any better ideas, we'll run with this one. Alright, let's start."

The magic casters began exchanging their opinions according to Skama's orders.

Skama moved somewhere that was quite a ways from where she was to reunite with her companions — albeit with a single absence.

"So, leader, what do we do now?"

Skama replied, "what do you mean?" to the rogue's question.

He already knew about the battle plans which had been explained to him, so he must have been asking about something other than that.

The question of "what do we do?" was just too vague for her.

"'How hard should we try for this city' is what I mean. Because the enemy are mostly zombies and the city won't be surrounded on all sides, if we wanted to run, with our skills we should be able to escape easily, right? Stealing one of the boats and escaping with it isn't a bad idea at all y'know? Food has been prepared as ordered, y'know?"

"Dumbass," Lilynette replied with a fed-up tone, "our opponents are undead y'know? It wouldn't shock me if they were to march up from the sea~"

Because the north end of this city faced the sea and was covered with piers, there were no walls covering that side of the city. If their enemies were at all intelligent, they would have chosen to attack from that side. It was still possible that their main army was waiting to come out of the sea.

"Ah — is that so? That's-a, quite disturbing. Have you told the Earl about this?"

"Nope, wouldn't have helped if I did. Even if we were to only install roadblocks, the perimeter is too wide for that to happen...it would create unnecessary panic in the city first of all. Perhaps there was a reason as to why they are not surrounding us completely. Like what if they were to leave us a small hole in their perimeter and if we were to try to escape through there, it would turn out to be a trap?"

"Then what should we do?"

"If you want to run, do it through there," Skama said as she pointed towards the cluster of enemies, "It's easy to break their formations if it's zombies, worst case scenario we'll just have to scout ahead with [Fly] to make sure the enemy's main forces aren't lurking further beyond."

"I see, you thought this through, eh?" the rogue said, unaware of his two female companions' glares, as if they're trying to say 'that's because you're the only one who haven't thought about this at all.' The rogue continued, "So if we were to run, where do we run to? The neighbouring city or somewhere near the capital?"

"We'd just give up on this country."

"Are you serious!?"

"You're too loud," Skama confirmed that their surroundings were clear before continuing on to say, "...yes."

To stay and be ruled by the Sorcerous Kingdom, the country that would turn so many people into undead (even though they were citizens of a hostile state), would surely ensure an unhappy end for them all.

The question now was: where should they escape to?

Though it might be easy for them as an adventuring party to escape, the leader of the party would still have to consider various scenarios.

Three countries neighboured the Kingdom other than the Sorcerous Kingdom: the Council State, the Holy Kingdom, and the Empire.

By the process of elimination, all that was left was the Council State since the Holy Kingdom appeared to be friendly to the Sorcerous Kingdom and the Empire was its vassal. An advantage of choosing the Council State was that it was relatively close to where they were, but other than that, their options were probably the City State Alliance or the Theocracy. The Draconic Kingdom wasn't doing so great the last she heard and the other countries have humans in the minorities. Then again, humans were the minority in the Council State and the City State Alliance too.

If they had to take into account the percentage that humans held in a country's population, they would have to remove the Council State from their list of countries to fallback on. She had heard that humans made up less than 10% of the country's population.

If distance was no issue, the City State Alliance appeared to be their best option. Apparently half of some of the cities' populations within the Alliance were human.

"Sigh—, are we really running away? Skama, you should try harder for my own pursuit of happiness~"

"...So you weren't acting when you were talking just then about that child?"

The desire to help and the desire to run away, those conflicting emotions grew in Skama. It was around that time when Skama noticed that the casters had concluded their debate.

"Leader! We're done here~"

"Understood! — Now then, shall we? Act according to the plan, if worse comes to worst — jump down and try to break through the cluster of zombies."

To jump down from such a height would inflict some pain even on someone armoured like Skama. This issue was solved by their magic caster, who would cast [Falling Control] on her to let her fall safely.

Skama and the others moved to their post and awaited the enemies' action.

Should they consider themselves lucky that the enemies chose not to wait until nighttime to make their move?

There was no special signal to signify the start of the battle.

No statements were made by the exchange of arrows, neither side declared their justifications, just a great amount of zombies stumbling towards the city walls. It looked nothing like how a normal battle was initiated.

Corpses grumbling while rapidly approaching them must have been a terrifying sight for some, but to someone like Skama this was a laughable display. If those were zombies of races other than humans such as giants, dragons, or other giant monsters, this would be a different situation entirely. Not even fledgeling adventurers would be scared of mere human zombies. After all, this city's walls weren't something zombies of this calibre could breach.

Zombies, though they had more strength, durability, and stamina than the average Joe, they were still worse than an adventurer with even a modicum of experience. This was without considering the fact that zombies were not sapient.

While archers readied their bows, the adventurers' gazes were affixed onto those two undead beings.

They were not moving at all. Why? Were they not planning to move at all?

Eventually, when they confirmed that the zombies were barely within their range, the archers loosened their arrows at Skama's signal.

Normally, they would have waited until the distance between them was shorter than what it was now to start shooting to ensure they could hit their targets, but since these were zombies, quantity mattered more than accuracy.

As expected of the soldiers who were confident in their archery skills, they were fairly accurate even from this range. Perhaps only two of ten arrows missed their mark, which was an insignificant loss.

However, it was not as though a zombie would fall to a single arrow. Still, they could shave off some of the false life their opponents had as long as they landed their shots.

The second and third volleys started picking off a good number of the enemies.

The adventurers and soldiers did not rejoice at the sight and sound of the zombies hitting the ground, nothing had occurred that was out of their expectations yet.

Their main issue remained to be those two undead beings.

Strong monsters could change the tide of battle single-handedly.

"—they're moving."

The shield-bearing undead began moving. With speeds that were considerably greater than that of the zombies as it rushed towards the city gate. The shield-carrying undead sent zombies flying without much consideration as it charged through them with its shield at its front.

Skama, shocked by the extraordinary speeds their opponents were moving at, gave out her order,

"Initiate attack!"

The magic casters' spells flew out at the same time.

Amongst them, the most destructive was Skama's companion's [Fireball], as she had expected.

The [Fireball] flew through the air and exploded with the unknown undead at its center, a huge ball of fire emerged from the explosion and enveloped the zombies around that undead. Even if it was behind a shield that would reduce the amount of upfront damage, the ensuing raging flames of the fire should be able to swallow it up.

Various spells were shot towards the "Shield-Bearer".

Yet it pressed on as before as though it had taken no damage at all. That caused some noise within the ranks of the soldiers.

"Don't panic!" an adventurer yelled.

To the adventurers, this was the logical outcome. The undeads' movements were not impeded by the amount of damage they took. No matter how much damage they took — even if it was enough to bring a living creature to the brink of death — they could move around as usual as long as their false life was not zero.

Even the well-known spell [Fireball] was not unparalleled in its damage output. Some of the stronger adventurers could tank a hit and live, stronger ones could even take numerous hits.

Magic of this calibre was not enough to bring down the Shield-Bearer, adventurers who had not considered this possibility should have been fired a long time ago.

But, a question still remained.

Did it take damage at all or not? There was no way they could find out.

That was why Skama focused her attention towards it.

Normally speaking, spell damage could not be evaded, guarded, or reduced by physical armour. Purely energy-based spell attacks like those should be effective against enemies with pieces of armour or study exoskeletons. Still, it wasn't as though monsters with magic or elemental resistances did not exist.

If she had to think of an example among the undead.

There was the well-known, super dangerous being known as a Skeletal Dragon which had complete immunity to all magic. There were also monsters that could reduce the amount of fire damage they took or even heal from attacks.

It was not impossible for that undead being to have those kinds of abilities.

If magical attacks don't work, they would have to drastically alter their battle plans.

"It's fine! Our attacks are effective!"

Her companion, the one who cast the [Fireball] yelled.

The casters one-by-one felt the amount of damage they were dealing through their intuition and began to chime in with "it works", "we're dealing damage", and other similar phrases.

"Skama! Every type of magical attack appears to be effective on that thing!"

Skama sighed in relief at the best news she had received all day. Perhaps they had a shot at victory after all.

"Understood! Now then — continue attacking!"

The opponent was still running towards them at a breakneck speed. She prayed that they could bring it down before it reached the gate. If they were to consider that this being had no resistances, then the amount of damage that it had already tanked should be proof that it was no common foe at all.

{I don't want to fight something like that in close-quarters!}

As though to concur with Skama's thoughts, another wave of spells were sent out.

Many zombies had already fallen at this point yet the Shield-Bearer pressed on.

Most undead would have been vanquished after a few dozen spells.

Skama felt a chill down her spine.

{It's stronger than expected...no, it's too strong...this thing, can we, really defeat it?}

The Shield-Bearer wasn't the only enemy they had to be wary of, there was also the other one who was still waiting in-place. Why it wasn't moving, they had no idea—

{Is that the Sorcerous Kingdom's trump card? That's why there's only two...? Or was it to say that this city with us included is weak enough that only two of them were required?}

Another chill was sent down her spine.

What if the Sorcerous Kingdom had received intel on every adventurer in the city, including Skama's Four Armaments and had sent the exact amount of troops to guarantee victory? And the 'troops' in question were not the zombies but rather the Shield-Bearer?

As if to disprove her worries as paranoia, Skama bit down on her lips and resisted the urge to yell, "kill it faster."

Everybody was already focused on that and were trying their best. What kind of an effect would take hold on their minds if she, the most powerful adventurer here, was to yell that?

Nevermind a neutral impact, it would probably drive down their morale.

She had to resist her urges for now.

Skama offered up a prayer to her God, the God of Fire, yet it could not bring a smile to her face.

The Shield-Bearer was at the gate.

It was now in the casters' blindspot, where they couldn't aim at it properly.

Skama considered if she should jump off of the city walls and run.

One look at the other, unmoving undead killed that idea.

If that other undead being was as fast as the Shield-Bearer, it could easily catch up to her.

It wasn't impossible for her to make it out alive, she had already used [Fly] to scout out beyond the zombie army and found nothing other than those two undead beings.

So if they were to combine [Fly] with [Floating Board] or draw the enemies into the city and slip out in the chaos, it could work. As long as there weren't any other undead troops on stand-by, nothing could stop her escape.

If they were to go with the latter plan and lure the enemy into the city, it would surely burden them all with a guilt that was much stronger than if they were to simply abandon the city. Perhaps a guilt that could cause a lifetime's worth of regrets.

As Skama gnashed her teeth she heard the loud 'Boom!' from the city gate, as if a battering ram had just impacted with the gate.

They were out of time.

Skama made her choice.

"...It's our turn! You guys keep your attention towards that unmoving undead and what's below the walls! I'll bait it into your line of sight. Once you could see it, cast your spells immediately!"

After a brief order to her teammates and detailed orders to the soldiers and the casters, Skama ran towards the stairs that led to the bottom of the city walls. Her companion, who still had his [Fly] spell active, followed closely behind her.

"That thing has an unbelievable level of durability, but it should have taken quite a bit of damage already!"

{But is that true...? This isn't too optimistic of a deduction, is it? But...}

Skama's expression was that of a bitter smile.

{An undead who had already taken so many spell attacks. I wouldn't want to buy time for a spell to finish it off by taking its attacks.}

But, she had to do so to even have a chance at surviving this ordeal.

The city gate was a simple, single giant door made out of logs. It would have been a point of pride for a fishing village, but not so given the current situation.

A hit from a battering ram would have probably blown out the hinges. Because they could not replace it with something that was sturdier given the amount of time they had, they could only reinforce it with wooden planks and seal the frame. The thickness of the gate was about twice what it used to be.

From the other end of such a door, the booms of repeated impacts reverberated.

"What kind of power is this..."

With a "Crack!", a part of the wood plank reinforcements began to break down.

There was a gap between the impacts, perhaps the Shield-Bearer was backing up to get a running start before bashing into the gate again.

"What should we do? [Lightning] could hit it through the gate, should we do that?"

Doors like this were resistant to lightning-based attacks but that did not mean that it would not take damage from such spells at all.

The potential damage such a spell could do to the door had to be compared to what it could do to the undead being. The benefits of casting [Lightning] now or to save the mana for other spells after the Shield-Bearer had broken through the gate had to be considered too.

No, consideration wasn't necessary.

They shouldn't be trying to face the enemy head-on but to deal as much damage to it right now as they could.

Skama nodded her head and her companion immediately initiated his cast.

"[Lightning]"

An arc of lightning shot out and went through the door, surely dealing some damage to the Shield-Bearer.

"Owoahwoahwoahwoah!"

Whether it was becoming irritated or not, the undead began roaring loud enough for its sounds to pierce through the gate. The roar had enough determination behind it to make one forget to breathe.

A streak of sweat flowed down Skama's face.

No shout-based ability was used, but the roar could still make one's body tremble all over, so this must be from the difference in their power alone — her subconscious had understood the difference in power between them.

{Not good, this, this is not good at all...it's no longer a question of whether we could win or not. If the Sorcerous King could dominate this kind of undead...ahhh, it makes sense. After all, he's a monster who could kill over a hundred thousand people at once.}

It was hard to imagine how one could control multiple undead of this level. Perhaps this undead was the Sorcerous Kingdom's trump card.

Was this city worth that kind of investment?

Why was she in such a terrible city in the first place. Skama lamented over her poor luck.

"Boom!" another loud noise rang through, multiple reinforced logs had snapped already.

"[Lightning]"

Another streak of lightning shone, leaving behind a white afterimage, yet the sound of the repeated impacts failed to cease.

The only thing that changed was the door. The logs had been snapped in half, the reinforcing planks were blown away, and only the twisted nails of the hinges remained on the frame.

"That's enough with the spell attacks. Could you buff me instead?"

"...Ahhh"

Skama dodged the wooden splinters as best as she could while also moving backwards. She was receiving Divine and Arcane buffs from both of her companions.

They used the first tier [Anti-Evil Protection] spell, the second tier [Lesser Strength] and [Lesser Dexterity] spells, the third tier [Haste] spell, and more. Compared to spells for countering special abilities, more spells were cast on her to heighten her body's capabilities.

The gate finally gave way after they had finished buffing and crashed onto the ground with a loud noise.

In the slowly settling dust cloud that was just kicked up, a pair of bright red eyes appeared. Unbearable fear spread through her entire body upon receiving the gaze of those ferocious eyes.

Her teeth clattered and her hands quivered. To hide this fact from the others, she had to suppress it to the point of almost fainting.

This level of terror could not be felt on top of the city walls, it was something you had to face this monster to experience.

"What am I looking at...? Just a single one of them managed to knock down the reinforced wall...The Sorcerer King dominates this kind of undead..."

"I say this from the bottom of my heart, we should avoid becoming enemies with the Sorcerer King the next time around."

Skama replied to her companions after swallowing a load of saliva.

Though she had already heard of how the Sorcerer King had destroyed an army of over a hundred thousand men, she didn't feel real, tangible fear. What happened before her eyes, however, influenced her fear of the Sorcerer King who had control over this undead being.

She did not want to fight this undead at all. Honestly, she wanted to just run as far away as possible.

But, there was no way this life-despising undead in front of them would ever let them do that.

In any case, their only hope of survival laid in doing something against this undead.

The horrifying embodiment of death swept the dust away from them using its shield, stepped over the broken threshold, and moved towards them.

They had finally breached the walls.

Were the zombies too distracted by the people on the walls or had their encirclement not extended to this part of the walls yet?

The fact that the undead in front of them had scattered the zombies near the gate on its way here was lucky for them, but there was no doubt in their minds that their luck would run out soon. Skama held up her tomahawk. Judging from that undead's speed, she should consider herself to be within its strike range.

After activating the ability of the axe, an ethereal copy of it appeared next to her. This was her weapon's ability, Doppel, which created a copy of itself to float at a distance that wasn't too close nor too far away from the wielder. It could automatically strike an enemy with the same level of accuracy and speed as the wielder.

This ethereal weapon could not be destroyed with brute force, to break it would require special weapon destruction abilities; as a result, it could even outlast Skama in a fight.

Though this ability was without any real weaknesses, it could only deal half the damage the real weapon could.

"Owoahwoahwoahwoah!!"

The undead let out another roar that sent them trembling in fear.

Was it cheering the fact that it was about to slaughter people? It raised its shield high above its own head and smashed it down at the remains of the gate.

The wooden shrapnels flew towards them with tremendous momentum but Skama waved her weapon around to effortlessly deflect them.

Her actions appeared to have drawn the aggression of the Shield-Bearer, who moved to engage her.

It readied its wave-bladed sword as it charged towards her with its shield.

{This is, bad...Speaking of which, why is it still alive after taking so many spell attacks? Isn't this too unfair?}

It was a flat-out lie that she deflected those shrapnels effortlessly. She barely managed to do so with magical buffs.

"Everybody, slowly—"

The Shield-Bearer charged towards them. The gap between them was closed in an instant, as though a wall had come barreling towards them, as though it was planning to use its shield to crush her to death.

But—

Skama wasn't good enough to use [Impenetrable Fortress] so she chose to just use [Fortress] instead to halt the shield with her tomahawk. The Shield-Bearer cleverly deflected the tomahawk with its shield, intending to break Skama's stance. This was a difficult manoeuvre that made Skama feel as though her axe was being sucked onto its shield. Skama gave up resisting its force, rolled to the side, and used the counter-acting force of that action to stand back up.

The ethereal axe swung from top to bottom but was deflected by the wave-bladed sword. At the same time, the undead charged towards Skama.

She did not even have the time to breathe. Forced to take the defensive again, Skama deflected attacks with her tomahawk and charged into her opponent.

If her opponent was this big, sometimes it would be better to charge through it rather than standing still.

"[Sunlight]!"

As if to push her forwards in her decision, a blinding flash of light was emitted from behind her.

This was a third-tier divine spell.

That brilliant light not only blinded the enemy, but also dealt damage to the undead. Although there was a spell of the same tier called [Holy Light] that would have dealt full damage to evil creatures, it wouldn't have blinded them. [Sunlight] was probably chosen to support her rather than going for pure damage.

The flying caster sent out three bolts of light towards the undead with [Magic Arrow].

Though she was receiving support, the shield still blocked everything like it was a wall and left no openings for her to exploit. Skama hacked at it with her tomahawk but it was easily deflected.

{Damn it! Its movements are too clean. It wasn't this strong when it used its sword — its proficiency with its shield is too high! So its primary feature is its defences? Hah? But, what about that heavy strike? No, impossible...}

Terrified by her own revelation, Skama slowly backed off. Needless to say, this was so that the casters on the wall could have a clear shot at it. She couldn't move too far away lest it ignores her and runs into the city. That was a scenario that must be avoided at all costs given how fast that thing ran, neither Skama nor the others would be able to catch up to it if that happened.

If that happened, the defenceless city would see an enormous amount of casualties.

It was better to veer on the safe side. The rogue on Skama's team was waiting at the sideline rather than helping out with the fight specifically to catch up to the monster should it choose to run into the city. That was the plan to stop an opponent from leaving, but its physical abilities made failure quite likely.

She slowly kited it while paying attention to its every move. It did not appear to have noticed and followed at a distance.

Just as they were about to bring it into the line of fire, wails could be heard from above them.

"No! The other one is coming at us! The people up there are attacking it!"

The implications of those words slowly sunk into her head. {Ah...checkmate}, Skama thought.

-x-X-x-

If the "Dual-Wielder" was on the same level as the Shield-Bearer, there would be no way Skama and the rest could handle both of them at the same time. No, perhaps they would be dead the moment they came into contact with the enemy.

"Skama, what do we do!?"

"...Let's take care of this guy first."

Skama spoke with determination after her companion's panicked voice calmed her down somewhat. If they couldn't even take this thing down, they wouldn't even have a chance at an escape. They could only hope that this thing's health had already been whittled down to a wick's length by those spell attacks.

After she stopped retreating, Skama turned to face the Shield-Bearer and darted towards it.

Her tomahawk was easily blocked by the shield and so was the ethereal copy. Skama's attacks were not enough to break down the Shield-Bearer's defences.

She had expected her attack to be thwarted, that was all she had to do.

The real attack was the [Magic Arrow] and [Shockwave] that followed.

The spell attacks were followed up by the rogue, who tossed a bottle towards the sides of the undead's leg.

The liquid that oozed out of her comrade's shattered bottle was common glue that any alchemist or the like could manufacture. This was a strategy that could only work if the enemy was standing on polished stone.

No matter how high of a defence the Shield-Bearer might have, its ability to dodge didn't matter against a bottle thrown at it.

The undead was bound to the ground by glue.

Even if it only was for a brief moment, their opponent was immobilized. This was a common tactic they used when engaging a foe who was much more powerful than them.

Skama circled around to the Shield-Bearer's hand that did not hold the shield, the hand that held the wave-bladed sword, and began attacking.

The Shield-Bearer swung its greatsword around, expertly parrying every hit that came its way. Even though its two legs were completely stuck on the ground and she had used martial arts to chain her attacks, Skama couldn't land a single hit.

{This thing, is like a metal wall!}

Skama saw from the corner of her vision the scene of the undead using brute strength to tear its foot away from the stone-tiled ground. Two more offensive spells were cast yet they still failed to bring it down.

{—an undying ability? Or something that could heal it over time?}

There were monsters like Hydras or Trolls who had the ability to regenerate. For those, you couldn't just deal incremental damage but would have to land a single fatal hit that could reduce the monster's health to zero.

It was futile to continue on their panicked attacks.

Skama couldn't even land a single hit on it.

{God damn it!}

"—incoming!"

Skama couldn't help but shift her gaze upon hearing the rogue's cry. Standing at the gate was the silhouette of the other undead being.

The Dual-Wielder.

Skama felt her stomach churning, the combined pressure of them all made her want to puke.

{Is this where I'll die!?}

The rogue who had been executing combos with Skama couldn't handle the pressure and retreated to her side. The Dual-Wielder responded in kind and moved to the Shield-Bearer's side.

"...They're not attacking. Which means...shit. These things are highly sapient."

Skama felt as though she could perceive a smile on the Dual-Wielder's rotten face. The Shield-Bearer had shown them attacks that were not on the same level as its defence capabilities, but perhaps that was just to instill despair in them to buy time for the Dual-Wielder to come.

Both enemies were there, this was a good opportunity to use AOE spell attacks. Yet, those spells were never cast. No, it might have been better to say that they couldn't start casting.

The reason why should have been obvious. Though attack spells had been proven to be effective, it would also provoke them to initiate their attacks.

Their fate would have been set in stone then.

Even if their side held off on attacking, their enemy would do so sooner or later. But, they simply could not build up the courage to hold their fates in their own hands.

After she agonized over this, Skama made her decision.

"You two, run away!" She knocked on the rogue's waist, "we'll buy you some time."

"Hah? For real!? Me too!? Wait, you want me to do that!?"

The rogue wailed but Skama ignored him.

There were two opponents, if they did not at last have two people to hold them off, they could only— a 'boom' rung in their ears.

"...hah?"

The undead in front of them, the Shield-Bearer's head had been pierced by what looked like a long needle.

Wait, no.

What pierced through the Shield-Bearer's head was not a needle; the thing that penetrated through its skull and was now embedded into the stone tile below was something about the size of an index finger.

That meant that that thing was so fast that Skama's kinetic vision could not see it flying through the air at all but could only pick up its afterimage, which looked like a needle.

The Shield-Bearer shook, its feet trembled as they stomped on the tiles below, barely allowing it to stand up. Perhaps it was only because it was undead that it could remain standing even after its head had been pierced.

Skama and the others couldn't help but shift their vision away from the enemy in front of them and look towards where that attack originated from. The undead did not attempt to attack them during this time as they were also looking towards the same direction.

Another attack pierced the Shield-Bearer's head again and with that, the giant frame of the Shield-Bearer crumbled.

It only took two shots. No, perhaps it was because it had already taken so many spell attacks and was already weakened. But, who could accomplish such a thing—

The silhouette of a man could be seen in the air—

"W-What?"

—Whose voice was that?

Was it Skama herself's or was it her companions'? She was so shocked that she could no longer tell such a simple thing.

In front of them was an armoured giant. An approximately three meters tall being clad in an odd, blood-red armour flew in the air. In his hands was a pipe-shaped object which he held like a crossbow, perhaps that was what those index finger sized things came out of.

Because it had attacked the Shield-Bearer, they could conclude that it was not their enemy, even if it wasn't their ally either.

Skama and the others slowly moved away from the Dual-Wielder. If they were to be caught up in their battle, she knew for sure that they would meet their ends right there.

Perhaps the Dual-Wielder had already lost interest in Skama's group or perhaps it was because the armoured giant in the air was the only threat worthy of its attention, whatever the reason was, it did not attempt to halt their retreat.

And then, the battle began.

It was the Dual-Wielder's turn.

It threw one of its swords.

It threw the sword with such strength that there was no way that Skama could avoid it. If she tried to block it, it would still inflict a fatal amount of damage.

The armour did not try to avoid it but tanked the hit with its own body. Perhaps it could not avoid it, or maybe it did not feel the need to avoid the attack at all?

The ear-piercing sound of metal clashing against metal rang as the thrown sword bounced off the armour. It then disappeared as if it had evaporated into the air, only to show up back in the Dual-Wielder's hands.

It did not return to its hand. Rather, another one had appeared.

The armour in the air pointed the pipe at the Dual-Wielder in one smooth motion, as though that sword toss did not do damage to him at all.

The pipe found its target and then — it spat out something after a brief flash of fire and lightning.

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What used to be single-shot attacks turned into an uncountable amount of projectiles. 'Grakatatata', the sound of apathetic violence could be heard everywhere.

Faced with the unknown projectiles, the Dual-Wielder swung its swords. The sharp 'ting' sounds of whatever was flying towards it being sliced into pieces could be heard. But there was a limit to it.

Two swords could not have dealt with the dozens or even hundreds of projectiles. The tiny projectiles flew at shocking speeds as it penetrated the enemy. The Dual-Wielder started twitching as though it had muscle spasms and like the Shield-Bearer before it, it disappeared.

The two undead beings had vanished in a blink of an eye.

Skama was truly, from the bottom of her heart, speechless.

To be honest, she had no idea what had just happened.

But Skama understood one thing, that armour was mind-bogglingly strong, stronger than everyone she knew.

She couldn't stop blinking.

Nothing about this felt real. It was hard for her to accept that they had been saved. Their despair and readiness for self-sacrifice were shattered so easily, her mind could not keep up at all.

"W-What the hell is that?"

"...Hey, isn't that a plate from the Adventurer's Guild?"

"Hah?"

She squinted her eyes to focus on the details after the rogue had said that and saw that on the neck of the armour — though she could barely make out its shape — was a necklace that held a metal plate. Though it was about the same size as Skama's, it looked minuscule on that giant figure. As expected of a rogue to notice something that she would have missed.

The metal plate on the necklace was of a colour that she did not recognize.

She had seen the colour of Orichalcum before, so by the process of elimination this was,

"An Adamantite-ranked adventurer?"

There were three Adamantite-ranked groups in the Kingdom and the colour of the armour made her realize which team it was a part of.

"Perhaps this is someone from Red Drop...?"

Upon hearing Lilynette's question, Skama replied, "should be." If this was someone from Blue Rose or Darkness, she would be ranting about why they would choose this hue for their armour.

The floating armour turned its back to Skama.

"W-wait!"

The armour responded to her voice and turned around slowly.

It raised up its left hand, straightened its index and middle finger, and pointed them towards its forehead. As if it was bidding farewell, the armour gestured at them gently.

Then, it just flew away.

Skama stared vacantly at the empty sky and asked the rogue,

"...What was that?"

"Who knows..."

She couldn't understand at all, but someone from Red Drop came over to assist them, that was probably it.

"But, umm, I understood one thing. If we have someone this strong — perhaps the Sorcerous Kingdom's invasion will come to an end right here. Of course, this is under the pretext that it would still be willing to break the Adventurer's Code and will continue participating in battles from this point onwards."

-x-X-x-

He felt as though he had just heard an, "eh?" sound. Ainz thought it sort of sounded like it was from himself.

A Death Knight and a Death Warrior, two undead beings had suddenly died. The one to defeat them was also wearing an item from Yggdrasil, the Power Suit.

Ainz had felt that he had lost two contacts — though the feeling wasn't too strong given how many connections he had at once — which was how he had come to learn that it wasn't an illusion.

Silence filled the room.

He felt the gaze of every Floor Guardian — perhaps the maids' too — on him.

Ainz was the mastermind of this siege, so it would not have been wrong to view this as Ainz's defeat.

Though something unexpected had occurred, the puny force they had lost was sent there precisely because losing them would not have been a big deal. So Ainz wished that they wouldn't act so tight and careful.

However, given the current situation, if he was to tell them that it was fine to lose a battle, it would sound more like a sore loser's excuse. Hindsight is always perfect.

His belief that he does not belong here would surely intensify.

Ainz decided to use his long-practised acting skills, which of course, he had obtained by practising in front of the mirror while the ordinary maids were absent.

"Hmmm...as I expected, mmm."

The situation was under control.

Ainz displayed the same air of arrogance a mob boss quietly talking to themselves would have as they enjoyed the fragrance of the red wine from their wine glass.

The important part of this act was to not speak in a loud voice. A loud voice would be quite lame right now. The trick was to act as if he was just mumbling to himself.

His acting, the result of hard research, led to a ripple of commotion that reverberated around the room.

Ainz swallowed his non-existent saliva.

Whether he had succeeded or not depended on Demiurge's response.

"I. See. So. That. Was. Why..."

{—What!? Cocytus!?}

While Ainz was panicking, Shalltear responded, "Yes yes yes!" as both of her hands shot up. Though it appeared that she was hailing him, she was simply calling attention to herself. Shalltear smiled with pride as everyone's gazes fell upon her.

"I understood it too-arinsu! Ainz-sama predicted that something like that would appear-arinsu! That was why we sent such a weak force, am I correct-arinsu!?"

This felt different from usual.

Was this a success or a failure? Ainz stole a glance at Demiurge, but he was just smiling mysteriously while nodding his head.

"As expected of the both of you."

The two of them held their heads high upon receiving Demiurge's praise. Perhaps Demiurge had already arrived at this conclusion but left it up to those two to answer first.

Ainz breathed a sigh of relief.

This appeared to be a success.

Albedo continued on,

"Intel from Sebas, Demiurge and also our corroborators in the capital mentioned how Red Drop was operating in the northern end of the Kingdom. Because of that, Ainz-sama decided to deploy insufficient troops to lure them out. The amount of troops struck the sweet spot of being easily defeatable by that guy, but at the same time enough to conquer the city without their help. Sasuga Ainz-sama."

"Like. A. Hooked. Fish..."

{Eh? That was Red Drop? Could we trust that intel? What are the possibilities that it was a player?}

If he was in a Power Suit from Yggdrasil, isn't the possibility that he was a player quite high?

Could they be sure that that was Red Drop? If so, shouldn't that intel have reached him at some point or another?

No, wait— It was absolutely more likely that Ainz had simply missed that piece of intel while he read through the documents. For that reason, Ainz pretended that all was according to plan with a burst of gentle laughter.

Needless to say, he had practised this laugh quite a few times too.

"—hehe. Mmm, I did not think that he would actually show up. I was quite shocked too...I thought that perhaps they were conserving their forces for the showdown at the capital."

"Ainz-sama can always think of situations we couldn't!"

Said Aura as Mare mumbled, "amazing," to himself.

The unadulterated gazes of reverence from those two dealt a massive blow to Ainz's now fragile-as-glass superego.

{It's not like that at all.}

But, he could never say those words.

Ainz had never considered such a thing could happen. Though he was of the mindset that losing was fine and winning was good, it was for different reasons than what they were now thinking of.

Ainz reminisced about the meeting between him, Sebas, and the others, the meeting that made Ainz take charge of this battle.

----

"What is it, Sebas? Is something wrong?"

Ainz had just returned to Nazarick and in front of him was Sebas, who was supposed to be on standby in E-Rantel, so it was natural for him to ask.

Ainz had no recollection of the contents of his last order to him, let alone of an order for him to come forth. Perhaps he was here of his own will, Ainz was fine with that too.

Though Sebas was stationed at E-Rantel, he was still given considerable amounts of freedom. The right to return to Nazarick at any time was a given.

However, if his goal was to meet with Ainz, he could have done so in E-Rantel. This must have been about something important and urgent.

"I'm terribly sorry, Ainz-sama. Would you be so kind as to spare some of your precious time— or rather, could I bother you for a while?"

Ainz felt as though there was something ominous hidden in Sebas' muddled choice of words. He ordered the ordinary maid closest to him — the one assigned to Ainz for the day — to leave them be. The maid, along with the other maid who was assigned to this room, gently lowered their heads and left the room.

Ainz looked towards the Eight-Edge Assassins on the ceiling.

"All of you, leave us be."

The Eight-Edge Assassins fell from the ceiling as if they were completely weightless and silently exited the room.

If Ainz had ordered them to never speak of what was said in this room, they would probably follow that order to their deaths, but magic existed in this world that could lead someone to dominate their minds and extract information through those means. Needless to say, even though Ainz would never allow that to happen, it was still best to stay on their toes.

"Ainz-sama, I am eternally grateful."

If Sebas was the one to order them to leave, it would be akin to him saying that he did not trust his colleagues, the ordinary maids.

So, his gratitude was probably directed at Ainz's consideration to not start any tensions between them.

Ainz gently shook his head in response to what Sebas had said. To obtain the answer to the question he had in mind, Ainz asked again,

"So, what's the matter? It doesn't seem like an ordinary matter. An emergency perhaps?"

"Yes- ahem, no. I'm not too sure if this counts as out of the ordinary or not... Someone wishes to converse with Ainz-sama in private... I was requested to ask for Ainz-sama's presence at their behest."

"So they wish for me to go to them? They couldn't come to my room?" Given that Ainz was the Supreme Overlord of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, this was an uncommon request. "...This is not about that human, is it?"

"No, it was not Tsuare. It was a guardian who had not received permission to leave their area. They knew that this would be disrespectful, but they still wish to trouble Ainz-sama for a while..."

Sebas looked towards Ainz with an apologetic expression.

"Ahhh, I see." Ainz understood.

If it was an Area Guardian, then it all made sense.

Of course, if he ordered them to come over they would most likely do so. Some NPCs might respond in the negative due to a previous order from Ainz's allies, who were their creators and whom they referred to as the Forty-One Supreme Beings. Still, most would obey Ainz's order.

There were also those who simply couldn't be allowed to leave.

A good example of which would be one of the Area Guardians on the seventh floor, Guren.

Because of its passive aura, it would surely cause a lot of collateral damage just by moving to the ninth floor. Things like wool carpets catching fire would be fine, but if it were to cross paths with beings like the ordinary maids, they would surely take a lot of damage.

If that was the case, it was better for Ainz to go to it than the other way around. Ainz had never liked putting on airs anyway. In addition, he did not have any tasks on hand that must be dealt with immediately. At least that was what Ainz thought.

"Understood. I'll go to them. So, who am I looking for?"

"It was Nigredo-sama and Pestonia"

Sebas was one to refer to everybody else with the honorific "-sama" yet he did not do so with Pestonia, was it because they were colleagues? "It was those two..."

Ainz's expression became dejected and he tried his best to hide that fact. Though Ainz's skeletal face could not show any expressions, it appeared as though a select few of the guardians could actually cold-read him. Albedo was one of them. As a side note, Demiurge would apparently always interpret his expression in weird ways.

Was it on purpose?

Ainz had thought that he had hidden his emotions well enough but it seemed like Sebas could still pick up on a few hints that slipped out of his vocal mannerisms. Sebas' expression had become more and more apologetic as a result.

{Though I feel sorry for Sebas...but honestly, I don't want to go~}

Nothing good will come of this.

He could confidently state that.

Imagine if you were in an office and someone told you, "the people from that other department are looking for you. They don't want to call you but want you to go to them directly." Eight or nine times out of ten it would be about a hassle.

That said, it wasn't as though Ainz had a choice in this matter. If a larger issue rose up because he had neglected the smaller issues, the responsibility for the consequences would ultimately fall upon him.

While it was true that Ainz was the absolute overlord of Nazarick, for him to rest on his laurels would be moronic.

Ainz wanted none of the NPCs to dislike him, but rather, he desired that they would adore him just as he doted on them as if they were his children.

"...Let's go. As for my schedule..." Ainz pulled out a notebook to check what he had scheduled for today. He was someone who would put off tasks that he found to be annoying yet was also someone who would wish that said annoying affairs would be resolved as soon as possible. "This time slot is fine, it's empty. Can we go there right now?"

Nigredo and Pestonia. Though both of them were Area Guardians, with what Sebas had just stated, Ainz knew exactly where they were going. That was why he could still convey his intentions to Sebas even with these half-questions.

"If we were to allow Pestonia to arrive there first, how about an hour later?"

"...That's fine. Looks like — it would be inappropriate to bring Albedo and Demiurge along."

"Yes. Though it pains me to say this, they hoped that Ainz-sama would be going there alone."

Ainz nodded his head.

"What about that doll?"

"I will ask Pestonia to take care of that matter, there should not be any problems."

"Good. An hour later then...hmm? Sebas, will you be going too?"

"Yes. I had hoped that you would grant me permission to. Am I allowed to?"

Sebas' lowered his head of white upon receiving Ainz's approval.

An hour later, Ainz used the power of the ring to teleport to the Frozen Prison on the fifth floor.

No one was accompanying him. He had told the ordinary maid assigned to him that he had important matters to attend to and had ordered her to keep the secret and stay behind.

At first she had protested by saying, "I will pretend that I saw nothing at all. You could just ignore my presence entirely, so please take me along with you." While Ainz did find her suggestion to be trustworthy, she did appear to derive some form of fulfilment from being ignored.

He had talked this over with her in the past and her response was that for him to objectify them, would have meant that they had accomplished their duty as maids to the utmost. They were apparently also actively seeking that kind of interaction. Then again, he had only asked one of them so perhaps she was the only one — no, she had to be the only one with such a fetish.

Even if it was an ordinary maid like her, to guarantee that he did not leave even the 1% of a probability that this could snowball into something bigger, Ainz steeled himself.

{I should do something that'll make her happier when I get back...maybe assign her to some bothersome and menial task...so that she'll be happy or whatever. Yeah, I don't get it at all...}

There were just too many people in Nazarick who behaved like this maid, that was why none of his long-term vacation and paid-leave policies ever took off. If this persisted, Ainz's hopes and dreams were all doomed to fail.

Ainz pushed open the fairy-tale-esque, chateau-style layered frozen doors. Just as before, a chilly breeze flowed out from within, but Ainz, as an undead with complete immunity to freezing temperatures, was not bothered by it anyway.

Ainz walked alone through the gloomy corridors. Other than checking for holes in the ceiling as he walked, he strode non-stop to a door that stood as the centerpiece of a giant mural which spanned the entirety of the wall.

Just as before, the plaster on select spots of the mural had already fallen off. It looked quite miserable.

The door took a single push and silently slid open, the three occupants of the room stood up to greet Ainz.

The owner of the room, Nigredo.

The dog-headed maid, Pestonia.

And the last of the trio, Sebas.

"Welcome, Ainz-sama."

With the room's owner, Nigredo's invitation, Ainz approached the table at which they sat.

The last time he had been in this room, all it had was a cradle. This time the cradle was nowhere to be seen, just a table and four chairs.

Those were probably appropriated from other rooms within the Frozen Prison. As a side note, Nigredo was only the Area Guardian of the above-ground portion of the Frozen Prison, Neuronist was the Area Guardian of the underground portion.

After Ainz had taken his seat, Pestonia immediately began to prepare some tea. The steam emanating from the teacup in front him carried with it the aroma of the black tea held within. Sebas brought out some biscuits at the same time.

Of course, Ainz could not consume anything with his body, but he gladly accepted their hospitality anyways. After that, Ainz ordered the still-standing three of them to sit down.

The biscuits that were delivered to Ainz were not sophisticated at all, they were just plain squares. That could be said to be a rare sight in Nazarick.

Was this someone's experiment? Ainz looked towards Sebas and asked about them through his gaze alone, prompting Sebas to reply,

"Those are not from Nazarick, but goods I had brought back from E-Rantel. Due to the current abundance of cheap and fresh ingredients being brought into the city, a food culture is slowly developing there. This biscuit is among the foods being developed. It was said to be harder previously, but is now quite soft."

"I've tried some already, it's at an acceptable level of quality for a snack, woof."

"Hmmm."

Ainz took a biscuit and bit down on it. Indeed, it wasn't as tough as he had expected.

The biscuit snapped in half as Ainz caught the crumbs from the inside of his jaw cavity and placed the pieces next to the cup of black tea.

He could tell the texture of the biscuit, but not its taste. What a disappointment of a body.

However, from Ainz's perspective it wasn't so at all. It was specifically because of the fact that this body had no libido, appetite, and somnolence that he could succeed in his role as the ruler of Nazarick.

If one of those aspects were to apply to him, surely he would have been in an endless fall from grace since the beginning.

"If Ainz-sama was to rent out more of his undead for agricultural purposes, then there would certainly be developments in the improvements of breeds of food. The food culture would surely blossom and perhaps they could even produce food of an equal quality compared to Nazarick's offering."

"That would be great. Because of my body, I couldn't investigate the buffs incurred by different food items before. If we were to invest more resources into this, it could help strengthen Nazarick. But — if that was the case, I assume those without [Cook] levels can't cook at all then?"

"We were concerned about that too, so it would be best to save as many purebreds as we possibly could."

Ainz nodded in approval in response to Nigredo's suggestion.

Suddenly, Ainz was reminded of the European biodomes of the past and the conflicts that arose surrounding the seed banks. Though he wasn't too interested in the topic back then, Blue Planet was riled up all over it.

"Ah, yes. It would be best. A task force should be formed to handle this matter." He should probably propose this idea to Albedo. "Now then — it's about time that we address the main topic at hand. Tell me. Why was I summoned here?"

Nigredo, as their representative, spoke,

"Yes. Given the current situation, isn't it about time that we stop massacring the citizens of the Kingdom?"

"Negative. Anyways, shouldn't this be something that you should ask of your direct superiors, the Floor Guardians, rather than me?"

Ainz replied immediately.

The denizens of Nazarick — especially the Area Guardians — had been informed, in writing, the actions of Floor Guardians and the goals behind them.

If they had any suggestions, they should be reporting to their superiors, the Floor Guardians. This was to unify the various denizens of Nazarick, to gain the opinions of those with different points of view and to pique the interest and curiosity of them all.

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However, though Nigredo was stating her opinions just as he had hoped they would, she should have done so to her direct superior, the Floor Guardian of the fifth floor, Cocytus. If Ainz was to accept her suggestion directly, it would be detrimental to Cocytus' authority.

As a social conformist, he absolutely could not do that.

If some of you don't understand, do try skipping your own superior and petitioning a higher-up from another department if you will. Do you understand now? Nothing good would come of that.

From that perspective, Ainz, as the head of the board of directors — the company hierarchy analogue to Guildmaster — should be able to do so, but to rouse discord among his subordinates could ultimately lead the company into a difficult situation and thus should be avoided at all costs. If it was in the stead of the Floor Guardian of the fourth floor, Gargantua, instead, Ainz would be willing to do so.

"Ainz-sama is correct. So, do permit me to raise this suggestion too, woof."

In a sense, Pestonia's direct superior would be Sebas.

If a Floor Guardian was to be assigned to the ninth and tenth floors, Sebas would be the Floor Guardian of the ninth and Albedo would be the one for the tenth.

Because Sebas had been the one to have invited Ainz, there shouldn't be an issue with indignity at all.

"—I see, I understand your feelings now, but I do want to ask one question. This war is a massive experiment for the greater good of strengthening the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, our home. It wouldn't halt just by the grace of mercy alone. So, was your suggestion built upon this premise?"

Make no mistake, the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick — the Sorcerous Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown is not unique, nor is it invincible. If they were to encounter another guild that was also transported to this world, they could lose.

To assume that they were the only ones to have transported here...would be far too optimistic.