The sound of valuable metals clinking against each other rang forth.
After ensuring that the up-ended purse was empty, Ainz began sorting out the shiny coins scattered on the table.
He placed ten silver or gold coins into each stack, and then he counted them up.
After totalling the stacks of coins several times, Ainz looked inside the purse.
It was empty, as expected. After verifying that fact, Ainz cast it aside, and then grabbed his head.
"Not enough... there's not enough money at all..."
His illusory human face twisted in depression. Of course, the money before him was a sizable sum. An ordinary citizen could labor for decades and not accumulate this amount. However, to the master of the Great Tomb of Nazarick and its only source of income, it was little more than pocket change, a fact that made him terribly uneasy.
Ainz's mental state would be forcibly stabilized once it was disrupted beyond a certain threshold. Therefore, he should have been automatically calmed down once the shock of having insufficient money kicked in and assaulted his psyche. However, the sum of old coins he possessed gave him some emotional leeway, and so the emotional cutoff did not trigger. Instead, he burned in the slow fires of anxiety.
Ainz shook his head, and divided the gold coins before him into several piles.
"First, this is additional funding for Sebas."
The pile of money before him dwindled in an instant, and Ainz's face twitched.
"Then there's this pile... funds for rebuilding and financial aid for the Lizardman Village, in accordance with Cocytus' wishes, and then..."
It was less than before, but the pile of money shifted, leaving only a few gold pieces behind.
"...This money is going towards the Lizardman Village's expenses, so if I buy from the Adventurer's Guild, I can use my reputation as an adamantite-ranked adventurer to open doors for me. That should make things... cheaper... so perhaps this will do?"
He recovered several coins from Cocytus' pile.
After counting and recounting the remaining coins, Ainz muttered quietly to himself.
"...Maybe I should get a merchant to sponsor me or something... It'd be a good way to set up a regular income stream outside of adventuring."
There were only three adamantite-ranked adventurer teams in the Kingdom, including Ainz's own. Therefore, sometimes merchants would make requests of them by name. These jobs were both easy and profitable for Ainz, and he could easily stand to take a few. However, he had not done so until now.
That was because Ainz wanted to avoid giving merchants or adventurers the impression that his Momon persona was a money-grubber, or perhaps one who would do anything for money.
Ainz intended to build a public image of an adventurer who was loved by all, and then transfer that glory to Ainz Ooal Gown. Thus, he had to be mindful of what other people thought of him.
"Still... I'm penniless. Shouldn't have stayed in such an expensive inn..."
Ainz looked around the opulent room.
This was the best inn in all of E-Rantel, and this was its best room. Naturally, the prices for this room were equally staggering However, this superior room meant nothing to Ainz, who did not need to sleep. How he longed to spend the money somewhere else.
The same went for his meals. However splendid the dishes which the inn prepared for him, it was all meaningless to Ainz, who could not eat them. It would be wiser to cancel the meals and save the money.
However, Ainz knew exactly why he could not do that.
Ainz... no, Momon was the sole adamantite-ranked adventurer in this city. A big name like himself could not possibly live in a flophouse where he had to take care of everything himself.
Living standards were an easy way of benchmarking people. An adamantite-ranked adventurer had to lead a lifestyle consistent with an adamantite-ranked adventurer, such as the inn where he stayed and what he wore.
Clothes did make the man, after all.
Thus, Ainz could not lower himself to stay in cheap lodgings. It was the same even though he understood that this was a waste of money.
"If they think I'm really this valuable, then the Guild ought to book me a room... hah... although, they'd probably do it if I asked..."
That said, he did not want to owe people favors. To date, whenever the guild made urgent requests of him, he would move into action immediately to make them feel indebted to him. Once he had accumulated enough leverage, he would then start calling in his markers. If he allowed people to pay off their debts with such small things, his plan would be ruined.
"Ah... there's no money. Whatever shall I do... More requests, perhaps? But there haven't been any good-paying jobs recently. And if I take too many on, the other adventurers will start to hate me..."
While he wanted Ainz Ooal Gown to become an eternal legend, obviously he did not want that name to become infamous. Ainz made the semblance of a sigh, them memorized that amount of spending cash he had from the pile.
"Speaking of money, what about the Guardians' salary?"
Ainz went "Hmm" and leaned back against his chair, looking at the ceiling.
The Guardians insisted on not drawing a salary, saying that their greatest joy in life was to serve the Supreme Beings, so they would not dare think of taking payment for it.
However, Ainz felt that he should not rely too much on their goodwill. One needed to reward work done in an appropriate fashion.
While the Guardians had all indicated that loyalty to the Supreme Beings was the best reward, that statement did not sit easy with Ainz.
Perhaps that was the conceit of a man who drew his pay by showing up for work, but he felt that labor ought to be compensated.
For all he knew, instituting a salary system might lead to the fall and corruption of these pure and naive children. Even so, he felt that it held merit as an experiment.
"The question now is how I should pay them."
Ainz's eyes went from the ceiling to the diminished pile of gold coins on the table.
"If we consider the Guardians' salary to be equivalent to that of a department head in a high-end company, that means they'd draw 15 million yen per year... Shalltear, Cocytus, Aura, Mare Demiurge and Albedo ought to be getting more, right? Which means I'll have to multiply that by six. Ah, It can't be helped. I can't make that much money."
Ainz grabbed his head in contemplation, and then his eyes shot open.
"Got it! I just need to pay them with something else! Maybe I could issue Nazarick-only bills — like play money, perhaps — and then fix their value at 100'000 apiece. That would do it!"
But after shouting that, Ainz's face twisted again.
How would he make everyone use these bills?
All the facilities in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick were free of charge. Even if he did print those bills, he had no idea where to begin using them.
"What if they were used to buy items from this world?"
After comparing the goods of this world to those of Nazarick, he could not help but wonder who would even want to buy things from the outside world.
"These facilities have been free until now, but if I start charging for them, I'd be putting the cart before the horse... what should I do?"
After pondering for a while more, Ainz hit on another bright idea.
"Got it! I'll ask the Guardians to think of something. All I need to do is ask them what they'd be willing to spend money on. That ought to do it!"
Just as Ainz was muttering, "What a great idea" to himself, his face turned sour again.
"Still..."
I'm talking to myself more and more, Ainz thought.
While all this had still been a game, he knew he had been talking to himself a lot because there was nobody else around. However, now that the NPCs had gained sapience, will and self-direction, he was still talking to himself. Why was that?
Was it because it had become a habit? Or was it because—
"Because I'm still alone, huh..."
Ainz laughed in loneliness.
Of course, he was surrounded by sapient NPCs, so it was hard to say that he was truly alone. However, he still felt that way. Perhaps he was busy erasing the personality of Suzuki Satoru in order to play the role of Ainz Ooal Gown, the coordinator of the 41 Supreme Beings, whom the Guardians wanted.
Ainz sighed, and as he looked back at the coins on his desk, he heard a knocking on the door.
After a short while, the door opened. Once he had verified that it was the person he had expected — Narberal Gamma — Ainz put on a face.
Right now, the corner of Ainz's mouth was curled up, as though he were looking down on her.
The low-level illusion which AInz was using reflected his thoughts, so it might occasionally display an expression which did not fit the ruler of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. Therefore, whenever someone else was around, and particularly in front of Narberal, he typically put on an expression which made him seem like a stern and dignified ruler. He had practiced it before the mirror many times, honing that expression to perfection.
"What is it, Nabe?"
His voice was the same faked one he always had.
"Yes, Momon sa—n."
"There's the old habit again. Whenever I remind you, you change for a while, so I guess I should give up on that, huh. Ahhh, no need to bow. I'm not angry, and the fact that you show respect to me... well, that's fine too. The Guildmaster and the others seem to have gotten the wrong impression, so it's fine. Now then, what are you here for?"
"Yes. It concerns the ore which you ordered the merchants to find, Momon-san."
I didn't give any orders, it was just business, Ainz grumbled inside his heart. That said, the stern expression on his face remained unmoved.
"Really now... Which location are we talking about? Have they gathered samples from all eight places?"
"My deepest apologies, but I did not ask that much."
"...Never mind, then. We have money. Even if we don't know where they came from, we should be able to buy them all up."
Ainz grandly swept the coins on the desk into a pouch and tossed it to Narberal. He watched as she decorously picked up the pouch of money.
"Understood. However, may I be permitted a question?"
"Why I'm purchasing ore from various locations?"
Narberal nodded, and Ainz explained.
"I intend to throw them into the Exchange Box. Simply put, I wish to see if the money I get from the ores changes with the location.
The Exchange Box should not be affected by such things. For instance, even an exquisitely-carved statue would only count the same as an unworked lump of the same material when fed into the Exchange Box. That being the case, what if the composition — the intrinsic quality of the material varied? That was why he had purchased all those ores.
"Nabe, you know that I managed to fix a price by throwing grain into the box."
I had to throw in quite a pile of grain before getting one measly coin, Ainz grumbled in his heart.
If that were the case, all he had to do was commence mass production. Thus, he had considered breaking ground on grain farms outside Nazarick, manned by undead or golems in order to tend large farms. Of course, actually executing that plan presented a mountain of problems in its own right.
"Understood. Then I shall make the purchases immediately."
"Mm. However, be careful. We can't guarantee nobody will make a move on you. If anything happens... You understand, right?"
"I will use the Shadow Demon as a meatshield. I will not think about obtaining information and prioritize safety by retreating with all due haste. I will then teleport to Aura-sama's fake Nazarick to deceive the foe."
"Very good. Pay attention to safety and do not travel in secluded areas or take routes which make you vulnerable to attack. Also, do not beat people half to death if they bother you or try and chat you up. In all honesty, I was quite surprised when that man wept and begged me to save him and said he was only trying to flirt with you. Also, you are not to project your murderous intentions everywhere.Crushing pickpockets' hands might be acceptable, but do not do it all the time. Also, do not, under any circumstances, refer to humans as insects. Simply put, keep your injurious impulses in check after all, we are Momon and Nabe, the highest-ranking adventurers known as 'Darkness'."
Once he saw Narberal indicate that she understood, Ainz felt that there was nothing else to remind her about, and nodded.
"...Mm. That should be it. Go then, Nabe."
Still holding the pouch, Narberal bowed before leaving the room. As Ainz watched her leave, he sighed deeply, despite his lack of lungs.
"...To think I have to make expenditures while I'm low on cash. What a pain."