Overlord

Chapter 5 | Ainz Dies

1

There were four people in the room.

Two had come straight from the fighting and were still wearing blood-spattered armor—the paladins Remedios Custodio and Gustav Montagnés; one was the leader of the surviving priests, the cleric Ciriaco Naranho; and the last was the brother of the Holy Lady, Caspond Bessarez.

Two who had been on the battlefield, one who had tirelessly healed the wounded… Thanks to them, the royal master’s quarters reeked of blood.

Remedios hadn’t even taken her helmet off. That was no way to enter royal quarters—it could even be considered insolent—but Caspond seemed unperturbed.

Even so, the atmosphere in the room was awful. The smell hanging in the air was bad enough, but the mood felt so heavy that even the sunlight streaming in through the window seemed somehow overcast.

This was far from what most would expect from people who had just avoided what should have been certain defeat.

The first one to break the oppressive silence was Caspond. That was only natural. Who else would?

“Why don’t you start by telling me our losses?”

“Yes, sir. About two thousand four hundred of the six thousand militiamen on the battlefield died of their wounds.”

“…Adding to my second-in-command’s report, about a thousand are
injured. We’re having the priests heal them, but if they don’t provide treatment in time, around half could die.”

“…And we lost about half of the remaining paladins as well as eight priests.”

Caspond shut his eyes and shook his head.

“I’m not saying I’m glad we only lost that many, given what we were up against, but maybe we should be thankful that was all. Or should we be sa—”

“The latter,” interrupted Remedios. “It has to be the latter.”

“…Lady Custodio is right. We should grieve our losses.”

At Caspond’s comment, Gustav and Ciriaco lowered their gazes.

It was unquestionably a miracle—albeit man-made—to have so many members of the Sacred Kingdom Liberation Army forces return alive despite how outnumbered they were. But it was painfully obvious that saying so in this situation would only cause friction.

“The King of Darkness also took out the forces staging at the enemy camp as well, right?”

“Yes. Since it happened during the chaos of defending the wall, there aren’t many witnesses. We don’t have the details, but what we’ve heard is that some undead wiped them out.”

“I see. That aligns with what I heard from the King of Darkness. He said he created some undead creatures and ordered them to take out the enemy… To think that he really eliminated such a massive army… It’s probably safe to assume that the King of Darkness can win against Jaldabaoth, eh?”

Caspond glanced at Remedios, but she remained surly and silent. The strongest paladin in the kingdom was so intimidating at the moment that anyone but the strong would have been afraid of staying near her. When Caspond turned from her to her second-in-command, Gustav could only lower his gaze again apologetically.

“
Hahhh
… Then should we simply bet everything—every last pebble of our country—on him? Or should we have a plan for the scenario where he loses? Does anyone have an idea for that case?”

Silence was their answer. But then Remedios spoke.

“What if we tried to convince Sir Momon to come?”

The other three looked at one another with expressions that said her proposal was tricky at best.

Remedios thought it was a great idea, so she frowned. “What? Do you have any other ideas? He’d be better than that undead.”

“…Commander. We’re discussing what we should do if the King of Darkness is killed. At that point, it would be dangerous to go to the Nation of Darkness expecting further assistance.”

“Maybe not.” Ciriaco fingered his newly graying beard as he spoke. “One moment, Deputy Commander. The commander’s idea is a bit risky, but it’s not a terrible move. What if we told them Jaldabaoth was holding the king captive and asked for Momon to come?”

“With all due respect, that would be too dangerous. Even if Momon could defeat Jaldabaoth, the moment the lie came out, we could be at war all over again. In the best-case scenario, our kingdom’s reputation would be worse than dirt. And the worst case could see Momon becoming a new Jaldabaoth and leading the Nation of Darkness’s undead army against us.”

“Exactly. Above all, we need to avoid giving the Nation of Darkness any valid reason to condemn us.”

Hearing Caspond’s explanation, Remedios cocked her head. “We’re not bordering them or anything. Wouldn’t we be fine?”

“…That’s a dangerous way to think, Commander Custodio. I don’t want to rely on any plan that could cause us trouble in the future… That said, I don’t have any bright ideas. Do you?”

Both Ciriaco and Gustav admitted they did not.

For a time, silence ruled the room.

Eventually Caspond spoke up again. “For now…let’s each think about it on our own. We won’t have this problem if the King of Darkness defeats Jaldabaoth, after all.” He clapped his hands together. “Now then, on to the next order of business. What’s the report on the food the subhumans brought with them? Is it things we can eat? If so, how many meals can we get out of their supplies?”

Really, the King of Darkness had defeated the subhuman army, so the food belonged to him, but he promised he would hand it all over to them free of charge.

It was Gustav who answered as he was taking care of administrative odds and ends.

“There were a lot of things, like some sort of hardened bread, vegetables, and so on, that we can eat. The king’s attack with the undead left it all pristine, so everything is in great condition. There are also some things we’ll need to examine further, like a sour-smelling salad we found.”

The Sacred Kingdom had its share of sour foods like anywhere. But some subhumans ate foods humans considered spoiled, so Gustav mentioned that they needed to figure out what exactly it was first.

“There’s just one problem: the meat.”

“By which you mean?”

Gustav turned to Caspond with a grim face. “Some of the dishes seem to contain human flesh. We’re only guessing due to the shape, so we aren’t certain. Eating some might tell us something, but I have absolutely no interest in trying it.”

“How much meat is there?” Ciriaco asked with an offended expression.

“It appears many of the subhumans were carnivorous. There’s quite a lot. Eyeballing it, I’d say about half the food they brought was meat.”

“What?! The rations for forty thousand soldiers are half meat?!” It was only natural that Remedios’s face twisted into a hateful expression.

If each subhuman ate two pounds of meat a day, that would be forty tons. Two weeks’ worth would mean some 560 tons.

“So then”—the royal covered his face with his hands—“how much of that is human?”

“We aren’t sure. It would take too long to investigate each individual piece, and for anything that has been processed…”

“It would be a shame to let food go to waste when we don’t know what the future holds. If possible, I’d like to do our best to separate the human flesh from the other meat. Cleric Naranho, is there nothing that can be done with magic?”

“I’m terribly sorry, Master Caspond. I’m not capable of such a thing. And I believe the same goes for the paladins.”

Watching Gustav nod once, Caspond heaved a sigh. “So magic isn’t omnipotent, hmm? Then what about feeding it to the subhuman prisoners and having them tell us?”

“The dead should be allowed to rest in peace. If there is human flesh present, it should be returned to the earth.”

“It’s one thing to say that, Commander Custodio… What do you think, Deputy Commander Montagnés?”

“I agree with the commander on this one. Inspecting each piece of meat in the barrels would take more time than we could possibly get. There are more important things to put our minds to.”

“Ah…I see. Then next up, how about their equipment?”

The King of Darkness was also giving them the military supplies free of charge. But if they appreciated it, he asked for it to be paid back eventually. So at some point, they would have to offer him something in return.

Caspond had mentioned before that if they could drive off Jaldabaoth or retake the royal capital, they could offer the royal family’s treasure.

“First, we’ll need time to strip the enemy corpses as well as bury them, so we don’t have a detailed idea of what kind of quality we can expect yet… Cleric Naranho, if undead spawn there, will they be under the king’s control?”

Locations where many lives had been taken had a greater tendency to spawn undead. A place where over ten thousand subhumans had been killed definitely fit that description.

Ciriaco looked incredibly troubled.

“I don’t know. I truly cannot say for sure. But anything could happen, so we should take care of the bodies as soon as possible and purify the earth. We’ll do our best on our own, but if the task proves overwhelming, it would be immensely helpful if the paladins could assist.”

“Of course. We’re actually quite used to handling undead.”

“Wonderful. I knew I could count on you, Commander Custodio. If only the Holy Lady and Lady Kelart were here…”

Everyone fell silent as Ciriaco trailed off.

After what was almost like a silent moment of prayer, Caspond spoke.

“…Oh, that reminds me, Deputy Commander Montagnés. The King of Darkness said he would be taking the enchanted items, so please separate those from the rest. Of course, anything that obviously belongs to the Sacred Kingdom can be left out.”

“Understood. The only thing I’d like to bring up is that while it’s fairly easy to distinguish enchantments among our own objects, it’s quite difficult for other items. We’ll need help from someone knowledgeable about magic items.”

“I know a bit about the items passed down in the royal family. And for faith items…” Ciriaco nodded when Caspond glanced at him. “For the rest, let’s check among the people for someone who can help. I must admit, I never imagined this would happen. It’s probably more accurate to say that this goes well beyond anything I had imagined. I suppose we should be thankful that the King of Darkness is so unfathomably powerful.”

None of the others objected. Amid their silence, Caspond continued, as if speaking for them all.

“It was the King of Darkness’s power that kept this city from falling.”

At the audible teeth grinding, Caspond looked to Gustav for help.

“Later, representatives from the Paladin Order will need to go express our gratitude. I’d like you all to join us… At any rate, we’re fortunate that we were able to win the battle thanks to the King of Darkness.”

“It wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t give our all. Don’t forget that.”

The whole room seemed to freeze at Remedios’s comment. No, only two people froze—Gustav and Ciriaco.

Gustav worked his mouth like a fish out of water. He was trying to think of a way to apologize for his superior’s rude remark, but nothing came to mind.

“…Yes, of course, Commander Custodio. We couldn’t have achieved victory without the desperate efforts of the paladins and the militiamen. That much is true.” Seeing Remedios nod, Caspond continued. “And it’s also true that without the King of Darkness, we would have been defeated. The fact is that he is the one who decided the battle. Am I wrong?”

Remedios ripped her helmet off and hurled it at the wall. It clanged loudly.

“Master! Did something happen?!” The door opened, and the paladin standing guard outside rushed in.

“Everything’s fine. You can wait outside.”

The paladin’s eyes went back and forth between the helmet on the ground and the look on Remedios’s face; it must have been obvious what was going on. Acknowledging the order, the guard quietly left the room.

“Commander Custodio. Please calm down. I need you to keep a level head.”

“How can I be calm?! Almost every person I met on my way here was grateful to the King of Darkness and the King of Darkness only! It was as if he won the battle all by himself! But he only showed up partway through! How many people died for that victory?! Citizens, paladins, priests—young and old, men and women—so many sacrifices were made!” She glared at Caspond. “He didn’t do this on his own!”

“Commander!”

Gustav could no longer hide his horror at how she was behaving in the presence of royalty. Remedios had never been the thinking type, but she understood who was her superior, if nothing else. But now she was different. She was like a wounded beast that had gone mad with pain.

“That bony bastard. Flying around trying to look cool! Is war just a game to him?”

“…Commander Custodio. The massive loss of life must be upsetting you. What if you rested for a while?”

Gustav shot Caspond a thankful look for handling the situation with such grace.

“Before that, there’s something I’ve been thinking: I’m sure the King of Darkness and Jaldabaoth are working together.”

The other three exchanged glances.

“If you’re going to make such a claim, you’ll need some proof, Commander.” Ciriaco gave Remedios an icy stare. Given her recent behavior, a careful analysis could only appraise this assertion as an attempt to
discredit the king she loathed so much—even though this was no time to be hypercritical.

“But isn’t he the only one gaining anything? The subhumans and our people alike are dying in droves. He’s culling our forces so that he—the Nation of Darkness—can take over the Sacred Kingdom and the hills. That’s why he’s here!”

“…I see. In terms of who benefits, it would be possible to see it that way. Do either of you have any thoughts?”

Caspond’s question caused Gustav to furrow his brow. “The King of Darkness came to the Sacred Kingdom because we asked him to. Wasn’t having the two of them fight your idea, Commander?”

“…That’s true. Then the one with the mask from the Blue Roses is in on it, too. If she hadn’t said anything, we wouldn’t have gone to the Nation of Darkness. Without her advice, we would have turned to the Empire or the Theocracy. And besides, he might have come even without any word from us!”

Caspond sighed heavily. “Commander Custodio, all your inferences presume the answer you want to reach. It seems you’re just lining up everything else accordingly. What do you make of the claim that the King of Darkness wants to acquire the demon maids?”

“…This isn’t an appropriate comment for a cleric to make, but please forgive me. I hear those demon maids possess tremendous power. It’s understandable why he would want them for himself. It’s said that demons don’t need to eat or drink and that they don’t die, either. One powerful demon might be worth more than an entire army.”

“So you could say that he volunteered to assist us because it would benefit him as well? That’s a natural thing for the king of a country to do.”

“But no one has even seen these demon maids!”

Remedios’s emotional outburst was met with a glance from Caspond that he might have directed toward a pitiful child. “Commander Custodio, I wanted to discuss this logically, not clouded by emotions…but it seems you’re a bit tired. Get some rest. That’s an order.”

Remedios blushed furiously and tried to shout something, but before she could, Caspond continued.

“And then go visit the wounded soldiers. You have your duties as frontline commander.”

“…Fine.”

Remedios picked up her helmet and left the room.

An indescribable sense of relief flooded the room. It was the atmosphere after a typhoon, the combined fatigue of having to clean up and the liberation of being past the storm.

But there was one man for whom it wasn’t over yet.

“Master Caspond! My humble apologies for Commander Custodio’s behavior!”

Gustav bowed his head low, and Caspond chuckled wryly.

“You’ve really got it rough. But you know, you should be thinking about the future, too. I can’t fathom what will become of this country after the war. If we could find my little sister… Do you know what happened to the Holy Lady during the battle of Karinsha? Did you hear anything from Commander Custodio?”

Gustav was Remedios’s aide. Naturally, he had heard the story from Remedios, and he had been present when she had explained it to Caspond.

If Caspond was asking again, it meant he suspected that he hadn’t been told the truth.

“…Master Caspond, I heard the same story Commander Custodio told you when you first met her.”

She had been thrown by an explosion, and when she came to, the Holy Lady and Remedios’s little sister—Kelart Custodio—were nowhere to be found. The corpses of paladins, adventurers, and priests had been strewn everywhere, but the bodies of those two weren’t there.

“I see. I guess I was overthinking things… And I doubt Commander Custodio is a very good actress. Well, I hope they’ve only been captured. If they’ve been killed…there will be problems surrounding succession.”

Ciriaco seemed puzzled and asked, “Won’t you become holy king, Master Caspond?”

“Is that flattery? Perhaps if my sister had died in an accident during peacetime, that’s what would have happened. But not as things are now. The
north is exhausted, and the south has an army. So it’s very likely that someone the south chooses will be holy king. Frankly, it could even be one of the southern nobles.”

“What?!”

Caspond smiled wryly in response to Ciriaco’s surprise. “I don’t think it’s all that surprising… Anyhow, regarding Deputy Commander Montagnés’s earlier comments, if things go according to plan, the first thing the southern nobles will demand is that Remedios Custodio be confined—to pin the responsibility on her.”

“Why are you so certain that will happen?”

“Conversely, Deputy Commander Montagnés, why do you think it wouldn’t? Isn’t the paladin who failed to protect the Holy Lady the perfect target for their discontent? Of course, that’s not the only reason. She can take a whole army on by herself. Isn’t it a fundamental rule of battle to first defang your enemy?”

“Enemy?! Whose enemy?!”

“Whoever stands in the way of the southern nobles. In other words, the Holy Lady’s faction. Remedios Custodio is the Holy Lady’s aide. And I’m sure they feel the same about the Paladin Order she led.”

“Then what about the priests Lady Kelart Custodio led?”

“It’s possible that priests with connections to the southern nobles will be promoted…but I wonder. The magic the priests use is essential for daily life. I think everyone knows how foolish it is to put someone with no ability at the top, but people have a tendency to occasionally do things that anyone would recognize as foolish…”

“Master Caspond…what should we do?”

“What do you mean, Deputy Commander Montagnés? In order to keep her from being locked up? Or to prevent the rest of the paladins from meeting the same fate?”

“To secure a better future for the Sacred Kingdom.”

“…We must find my sister. Then we need to achieve something that will allow us to say she saved the country so that the people will accept her
wholeheartedly. Like if we could put an end to all this without relying on the south.”

“That would be impossible… There’s no way we can win without the King of Darkness.” Gustav’s grumble slipped out, and Caspond shrugged.

“And yet, we must. If we fail, we won’t be able to withstand the pressure that will surely come from the south. Oh, right. The other thing would be to ensure that the south suffers as much damage as the north. As long as the balance of power remains the same, there won’t be an issue.” Caspond looked up at the ceiling. “If only friendly relations had been established before all this. My sister’s approach to rule was too soft. I can understand why Commander Custodio was so irritated with her. The only one who gained any renown in this fight is the King of Darkness. In the worst case, he could become holy king.”

Though the other two didn’t think that could be possible, they found it impossible to deny, either.

“All right, then what should our plan be now? I wanted Commander Custodio to be here for this, but… Do you think she’ll disobey orders?”

“…If the orders are aligned with justice for the kingdom, I don’t think there will be a problem.”

“I see… I think we should go around and liberate the prison camps. That is—”

Caspond began to explain.

The invading subhumans had numbered ten thousand.

There had been no reports that the subhumans facing the southern Sacred Kingdom were on the move, so it was possible to infer that the forty thousand in the army that had shown up outside the city must have been the majority of those left in the north to run the camps.

“I agree. We can raid the sparsely guarded camps and increase our own numbers while reducing theirs. This operation will kill two birds with one stone.”

“I’m glad you approve, Deputy Commander Montagnés. How about you, Cleric Naranho?”

Ciriaco also agreed with Caspond’s idea.

“With the King of Darkness around, the city should be safe. That being the case, I’d like the paladins to carry out the camp raids… Do you think that’s possible? I’d also like you to leave Commander Custodio here. I think I’ll assign her to be my personal guard.”

“Thank you, Master Caspond!”

“I don’t remember saying anything that warrants a thank-you, Deputy Commander Montagnés.” Caspond smiled for a moment before his expression became grim. “Without the strongest paladin in the country, if you encounter a subhuman on par with the Mighty King at one of the camps, you could all be wiped out.”

“Can we decide which camps to raid?”

“Of course. I’ll leave that up to you. There’s no need to go after the larger, more dangerous ones.”

“Understood. Then we’ll go on our own.”

“Deputy Commander Montagnés, may we send a few priests who can fight along to assist?”

“Of course! That would be a great help.”

“Very good. Then head out within the next couple of days.”

Ainz had used Greater Teleportation to travel instantly in front of the log cabin situated on the surface of Nazarick. It was unclear how long they had been waiting for him, but Albedo, Demiurge, and Lupusregina were already outside.

Albedo and Demiurge were there because Ainz had asked to meet with them, while Lupusregina must have been on guard duty.

He had left the business of Carne up to Lupusregina, so logic dictated that she shouldn’t have been on log cabin duty, but apparently that wasn’t a given.

Maybe it had been someone else’s shift, but something came up suddenly, so she was filling in on short notice. If so, that was wonderful. It meant that the system could fill any opening right away.

…But wait a second.

The Pleiades all had different roles, but their basic abilities as maids were mostly equal, so for a job like this, they could be swapped out easily.

But there were other people who couldn’t be replaced. There could come a time when an NPC with completely specialized abilities—like a floor guardian or their captain—would need to have someone fill in for them. And Ainz had been meaning to adopt a vacation system for some time now.

Having only Pandora’s Actor to cover any and all vacant posts was too risky.

What would happen in the extreme case that Ainz was gone? Like if he was captured or charmed. He didn’t think they required his explicit approval to operate, but there was a good chance that Albedo and Demiurge didn’t even consider such an event possible. He figured they would just say,
That would never happen to you, Lord Ainz.

I need to put some serious thought into this—ASAP.

He put on his dignified voice and ordered the three who were bowing to raise their heads.

“It’s been a while, Demiurge.”

“My lord!”

Really, there was so much on his mind about the Sacred Kingdom that he was thinking about Demiurge every day, so it didn’t feel like they’d been apart very long. But it actually had been quite some time since they had last seen each other.

“Now, you’re probably both wondering why I did what I did. I’m going to tell you, but this is no place for a talk. Come with me.”

Ainz led them into the log cabin.

There was a Gate mirror ready to transport them as a handy shortcut, but today he had no plans to use it.

In the center of the room was a table with two pairs of chairs facing one another across it. Ainz went for the most esteemed seat. He knew the trouble that would follow if he didn’t. There had been a time when he would have needed to think carefully about which seat was meant for the highest-ranked person, but now he could choose it automatically.

When he stood next to the chair, Lupusregina immediately pulled it out for him.

Honestly, he felt perfectly capable of pulling out his own chair, but he had learned well while observing Jircniv that it was important for a ruler to put their subordinates to work. Nonetheless, as a member of the lower middle class, Ainz found it impossible to leave
every
last thing up to someone else.

Once Ainz had made it into his chair without issue, the others knelt instead of sitting. Lupusregina, who had circled around behind them, was doing the same.

“You may both be seated.”

The two guardians declined in unison. It was only after he gave them permission a second time that they emitted a chorus of gratitude and sat down across from him. Lupusregina stood at attention behind them.

That took so long, and it’s so much effort. Isn’t there some other w…? Oops.

“Okay, now we can continue. I had said there was no one worth saving in the Sacred Kingdom, yet I saved some of them anyhow. You must find that quite puzzling.”

“Not at all, my lord.”

“………Huh? Wh-why not?”

Demiurge shook his head lightly as if he couldn’t bear the admiration he felt.

“Everything you do is correct, Lord Ainz. If you did it, then it means there was some merit to the idea that I couldn’t have imagined.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself. If that’s what you thought was best, Lord Ainz, then it was the right thing to do.”

—Wha—?

At Albedo’s comment, Ainz’s face froze completely. Not that his face could be considered expressive in any way, but…

The sight of the two guardians before him—the two smartest members of Nazarick—nodding to each other caused him panic and fear in every sense of the words.

“H-hold on. While… I mean, while it’s true…” Ainz was flustered. The
conversation had gone in an unexpected direction, which confused him; he couldn’t remember what he was going to say. And yet— “It’s true that normally, I behave as you might expect.”

Er?
Ainz was slightly embarrassed. He was so intent on getting his story together that he spoke without really thinking. Finding it strange that the two guardians were nodding deeply, he nonetheless pressed on, since he couldn’t very well turn back now.

“But—yes,
but
—this time is different. I didn’t have anything in mind when I made that move.” Having managed to correct what he was saying, Ainz continued merrily. “This time I destroyed the plan without thinking.”

“For whatever reason did you do that, Lord Ainz?”

“Mm,” Ainz murmured as he leaned back in his seat—with the appropriate master attitude that he had practiced for a ruler. “Demiurge and Albedo. The two of you are wiser than me.”

“Not at—”

Ainz held up his hands to stop them.

“I’m telling you that’s what I think. Now, is there any element out of place in the plan you drafted, Demiurge? If we proceed according to your proposed operation, everything would go perfectly and we would reach a brilliant outcome.”

That planning document was garbage, though
, grumbled Ainz in his head.
Any plan that leaves the whole thing up to me is doomed to fail.

“So I suddenly wondered, Demiurge, if your brain, capable of drafting such a wonderful plan, could continue to work when things didn’t go according to it, if something changed drastically or went haywire. In other words, I wanted to know if your ability to adapt is equally outstanding.”

“Ah, I see.”

What? You already get it? He seems to understand the whole thing!

Witnessing how quick Demiurge’s intellect was made him want to scream,
How can a genius like you think I’m smart? Are you bullying me?
but he managed to control himself.

“I’d expect nothing less… You really are brilliant, Demiurge.”

“Thank you, Lord Ainz.”

“S-so sorry to test you like this, but…”

“Not at all, my lord. I’m delighted that you are interested in learning more about my abilities. I’ll be sure to achieve an outcome that will meet your expectations!”

“Good. I’m counting on you, Demiurge. So during this series of events in the Sacred Kingdom, I’ll make the occasional mistake and request that you adjust the plan. That’s all right with you?’

“Yes, my lord! Understood!”

Yeeeeeeees!
Ainz was overjoyed. He got so happy, the emotion was immediately suppressed.

But there was still a lingering contentment.

Good, good, good. Now if I screw up, I can just say I did it on purpose! Of course, the idea is to not make mistakes, but…wow, I really should have told him this from the beginning.

He wasn’t in the habit of celebrating the failure of his subordinates’ plans, but it was possible he would somehow throw things off by accident. Now, instead of thinking,
Ainz must have done that for a reason
, Demiurge would automatically correct the error. For the first time in a while, Ainz felt a massive weight lift from his shoulders. It was so refreshing.

“…I understand your concerns, Lord Ainz. Would you like to investigate the capabilities of the other guardians and domain guardians at the same time?”

For a moment after hearing Albedo’s question, he thought,
What in the world are you talking about?
But…

“That won’t be necessary for now. Demiurge is doing the most work outside Nazarick—that’s why it came to mind. For the others, we can do it as the need arises.”

“I see…”

“Yes. And the next thing I wanted to talk about is… The plan was for me and my admirers in the Sacred Kingdom to go east to the Abellion Hills where the subhumans live, but I’m going to change part of that. I’m going to go alone, and I’m going to die.”

For a moment, it was as if time had stopped. Then—

“What?! What are you saying, Lord Ainz?! How could the ever-lofty Lord Ainz perish?!”

It was Albedo criticizing the idea. She seemed so crushed that Ainz wondered if this was the most agitated he had ever seen her. Before Ainz could explain his intentions to Albedo, Demiurge spoke up.

“Albedo, surely Lord Ainz has a splendid objective in mind. I’m not sure you should be coming out against his proposal so emotionally.”

“Demiurge, where do you get such a level head? If Lord Ulbert Alain Odle said the same, would you be so calm? Or…?”

“Ho-ho…Albedo. Would you mind telling me what you meant by that? What did you want to say after ‘or’?”

One guardian glared with icy eyes while the other’s blazed like a raging fire, creating an eerie vibe between them. It was the same suffocating sensation Ainz had felt fighting against Shalltear. Whether it was due to fear or anxiety, he could hear Lupusregina breathing harder.

“Cut it out!”

When Ainz shouted, the dangerous atmosphere dissipated instantaneously. The shift was so dramatic, it was as though the tense mood from a moment ago had been nothing but his imagination. But Lupusregina’s irregular breathing told him it wasn’t.

“Calm down, both of you. This is exactly why I have to die. This is an event called a safety drill. The idea is to prepare in advance for an emergency in order to be ready if it happens. So what would you do if I died? I’ll ask you first, Albedo.”

“My lord! After immediately subjecting the grave offender to every manner of suffering that exists in the world, I would resurrect you!”

“I see. Demiurge?”

“My lord! In parallel with preparation for your resurrection, I would strengthen Nazarick’s defenses and collect intelligence on the one who committed the grave offense.”

Albedo gave Demiurge a sidelong scowl.

“Collecting intelligence isn’t enough. No matter what sort of being committed the offense, it was against a Supreme Being, so we must use
every available resource to capture and torture them until their very sense of self breaks down.”

“Albedo, everything you’ve said is quite right. But our opponent would be a being who killed Lord Ainz. We mustn’t let our guard down. It’s imperative that we collect data about their movements, strength, and so on. If the enemy is more powerful than expected, it will affect where Lord Ainz can be resurrected.”

As Albedo’s expression grew even more severe, Ainz struck the ground with the staff he had taken out. The
clack
had the effect of a dousing bucket of cold water, and the pair immediately composed themselves.

“I’m not even necessarily saying someone killed me. For instance, I could die in…some kind of unimaginable natural disaster.”

Honestly, he couldn’t imagine anything like that killing him, so his example ended up being very vague.

“But I see that there’s a slight difference in opinion between our two sharpest minds. We can’t have that. That’s why we’ll have a drill—to make sure that if it actually came to pass, there wouldn’t be any issues.”

The guardians bowed.

“Of course, this isn’t just about me. Demiurge, you’re in charge of defense in the event Nazarick is attacked, but what if you’re killed somehow? Will Nazarick still function?”

“Yes, my lord! All the arrangements have been made. I believe I gave you a report on the matter.”

Ainz thought,
Huh? Did I get a report about that?
for a moment, but he trusted Demiurge’s memory more than his own.

“Hmm, but that was only on paper, right? Have you tested it to see if it works?”

“My humblest of apologies, my lord! No, we have not.” Demiurge’s voice trembled as he replied with pangs of deep regret.

“I-I’m terribly sorry, Lord Ainz! I’m also a fool for merely signing the document and not suggesting that we run a test!”

Albedo bowed her head with the same look of remorse on her face.

Ainz was suddenly tormented by guilt. If anyone was to blame, it was
him. If he had been more attentive, neither of these two would have had to apologize.
A boss who makes his subordinates apologize for his own errors is the worst—just a shitty piece of trash.

“You don’t need to apologize. I’m the one who didn’t explain well enough. I should have noticed that the test hadn’t been run. It’s all my fault.” Ainz bowed till he could place his forehead on the table. “Please forgive this reprehensible error.”

“Wh—?! Lord Ainz!”

“P-please don’t!”

Both guardians immediately begged him to stop bowing. But Ainz didn’t raise his head. He couldn’t—because he was embarrassed at how shamelessly he had lied even while apologizing.

“L-Lupusregina! Get Lord Ainz to stop bowing!”

“Eh? Me? F-forgive me, but I can’t possibly force Lord Ainz to raise his head!”

“““P-please raise your head!”””

The three of them—especially Demiurge—seemed so out of sorts that Ainz hurriedly returned to a normal posture. There were three audible sighs.

“…I appreciate you accepting my apology. So while I’m doing what I need to do in the Abellion Hills, please begin a drill that assumes I’m dead. Ah. This is a good chance, so maybe you should train for more than just that. Maybe you could assume that both Demiurge and I have been killed…”

Having said that much, Ainz was suddenly nervous about his proposal.

“That said, it’s not as if my plan is the perfect training program. If you have a better idea, do that. Also, you don’t need to ask me for permission. Right? Because I’m dead.”

The pair winced.

“For us to act like you’ve disappeared during the planning stages of the drill…”

“Demiurge has a point, Lord Ainz.”

“““Ha-ha-ha-ha.””” The log cabin filled with the laughter of three people.

Two were laughing genuinely; one was faking.

“I should add that you don’t have to get too serious. The goal isn’t to cause discord in Nazarick, like what happened between you two earlier. Going forward, I’d like to run a variety of drills, so I want you to gain some experience from this and share it with the other guardians… But you’re both brilliant, so I don’t need to tell you that. Do whatever you deem necessary. I’m counting on you two. Got it?”

Thinking back, he realized that Satoru Suzuki was never the type to take disaster prevention training seriously. As such, Ainz couldn’t very well ask them to put everything they had into the drill, so he made sure to tell them not to stress about it.

Upon confirming their sober bows, Ainz said, “On a different topic…”

You got this!

He had built flowcharts and simulated how he would persuade them any number of times. It was all for this moment.

“I want you to halt all plans for the giant statue of me.”

“Understood. I’ll make sure of it.”

With a single remark from Albedo, the conversation appeared to have ended.

Huh?
It puzzled him, so he boldly inquired into what he wanted to cautiously ask about.

“…Is that okay? You wanted to build it, right, Albedo?”

“Who could object to something the Supreme One decided? If you say black is white, Lord Ainz, it is white.”

Ainz swallowed hard, though he had no spit or throat.
That way of thinking is actually terrifying, you know.
He shuddered.

“…I’m not fond of that argument, Albedo. It’s the same as ceasing to think. There are definitely times that even I will be wrong.”

If he was being honest, it felt like he was always wrong.

“If someone takes control of me, we’ll be done for. The ones who brainwashed Shalltear are still out there, after all. You don’t need to ask my objective every time I speak, but if something comes to mind when I make a suggestion, you should tell me.”

“Understood.”

Albedo and Demiurge exchanged quick glances.

“In that case, why are you halting construction of the statue? The aim was to inform the world of your supremacy…”

“Hmm.” Ainz grinned with nihilism in his head. “My greatness shouldn’t be conveyed via some object.” He thought of Neia’s face; she had understood him with that single comment.

Perfect.

“Isn’t conveying it through an object a good idea? Fools can only understand things they can see with their foolish eyes.”

Albedo’s remark caught him off guard. It was as if the pitcher had thrown the ball, and instead of hitting it, the batter had caught it and thrown it back as hard as they could.

“…I see. You have a point, Albedo. But…” Impressed that his voice wasn’t shaking, Ainz frantically whipped his mind into action. When he didn’t think of anything, he was about to give up and shrug, but he couldn’t break his character as a ruler in front of his subordinates.

“Ah, never mind. You must have thought of more pros than the five cons I came up with. In that case, I don’t have any complaints.”

“F-five, my lord?! …Demiurge, I need to talk to you later. Let me borrow a bit of your wisdom.”

“O-of course. A-and you’re brilliant as usual, Lord Ainz. It’s so modest of you to claim that we’re smarter…”

The two of them seemed flustered, and Albedo bowed low.

“M-my apologies, Lord Ainz. We went so far as to secure your permission, but I’m very sorry; we’ll suspend construction for now.”

“M-mm. Well, that’s fine. Please do, Albedo.”

He had thrown the number out without thinking very hard, but the two of them were terribly shaken. He even heard Lupusregina murmur, “Wow,” behind them.

Feeling guilty for befuddling them again with his arbitrary pronouncements, Ainz looked down slightly. But he was genuinely happy that the plans for the giant Ainz statue were being halted.

Next, I need to do something about the Thanks to the King of Darkness festival; the Happy Birthday, King of Darkness festival; and the other two events with my name in them. But I guess if the giant statue is being canceled, then it can’t walk around for the Thanks to the King of Darkness festival, so that’s one down! I would’ve been perfectly happy with normal festivals!

It had actually been Ainz who had casually suggested a festival. But the result was the establishment of a bizarre, embarrassing festival committee. He sighed heavily in his head and turned to Demiurge.

“So what’s left is our next steps, Demiurge. The plan is to have a demon summoned by you—Jaldabaoth—attack the city, right?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Then…I have two favors to ask. One is a plan I’ve been working on personally that isn’t going very well; I’d like your help. Oh, but it doesn’t have to be flashy or anything. Secondly, can you order the demon you summon to fight me for real?”

Neia shut the door to the King of Darkness’s quarters, turned on her heel—and trembled.

Smacking her slightly flushed cheeks, she pulled herself together and schooled her expression. One reason was that she knew how much her relaxed face put others on guard, but even more than that, grinning like a fool would be embarrassing.

She didn’t want to strut around outside with a goofy look on her face. She was on her way to meet people, so she wanted to look a little more dignified.

On top of that, Neia Baraja was attendant to the King of Darkness. Embarrassing herself could harm the king’s reputation.

Really, I’m only serving him temporarily, so my missteps should reflect on the Sacred Kingdom if anything, but…

She knew those who felt hostile toward him would not see it that way. Hatred, especially, clouded one’s eyes. Perhaps the saying “Hate the sword, hate the blacksmith” was more apt.

Okay!

Neia didn’t want the king to regret choosing her as his attendant, either. That just meant she had to do a good job.

She headed for the meeting place. On her way, she ruminated on how compassionate the King of Darkness was.

…Ah, I see. So that’s what happened. A sad state of affairs.

When he said those words, she had detected the intense disappointment and regret. He wasn’t just saying them for show.

…His Majesty is just so kind.

She couldn’t think of any other king—of course, Neia didn’t know any other kings, so she could only compare with imaginary ones—who would mourn another country’s war dead as his own like the King of Darkness did.

If they could have held out just a little longer, they would have surely been saved just like Neia was. Even the man who lost his son would have probably survived.

Neia didn’t think anything about the fact that the rescue had come late. The King of Darkness said he needed to conserve mana for the fight with Jaldabaoth, so she thought it was good fortune he came at all. Besides, she heard from someone in Remedios’s unit that before the king had rescued her, he had faced powerful subhumans right in front of the west gate.

Two who could kill a paladin in one hit and another who fought at the level of the Sacred Kingdom’s strongest.

The militiaman hadn’t been able to contain himself and gushed about the events that unfolded there. “If the King of Darkness hadn’t shown up, we would’ve been dead.”

That’s right.
Neia felt a warmth in her chest.

Before saving Neia and those near her, he had been helping others elsewhere.

She felt a little sad that he hadn’t prioritized her, but it was wrong to think that way. Defense of the wall was certainly important, but if the gate—the entrance to the city—had fallen, that would have been a disaster. If the subhumans had flooded the city, it would have been the start of a merciless massacre.

For anyone thinking straight, it was natural to prioritize the gate in order to save more lives.

People who don’t get swept up in emotions, but instead act according to logic, are the most trustworthy.

I’d expect nothing less from the King of Darkness!

She recalled the strongest paladin of her own country.

Even comparing them is an insult to His Majesty!

And after the initial battle, the King of Darkness slaughtered the few subhumans that had gotten into the city. Many people said he saved their lives.
And actually…

“Oh! If it isn’t His Majesty’s attendant! Did you give him my message?”

Apparently, she had been so absorbed in her thoughts, she had reached the meeting place without realizing it.

In a part of town that still had the air of a battlefield, six men were gathered on the road. They called out to her as if they had been eagerly awaiting her arrival—in fact, they probably really had been that eager.

“Yes, I extended all your gratitude to His Majesty.”

Under Neia’s gaze, the men braced themselves, but they thanked her, wearing smiles.

“Ahhh, good. It would be awkward to thank the king of a different country. Well, it’d be hard to face the Holy Lady, too.”

“Yeah, but there’s no way royalty would agree to meet you in the first place.”

The ages ranged from quite young men to those who were approaching their twilight years, but they were all around platoon leader rank. Some of them had been career soldiers, servicemen.

None of them was put off by the fact that the king was an undead.

Certainly, some people were still wary of him for that reason—more so in the general population than among the paladins and priests. There were those among their ranks who often claimed that he was only being kind so that he could betray them when the timing was right.

But Neia figured they felt that way because they didn’t know the King of Darkness. It was all conjecture based on their negative impression of
normal undead. Why? The proof was these men standing here. Once people got to know the king, many changed their minds.

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about it. I simply told him thank you from you all. Oh, and he told me he was happy to hear it.”

The militia representatives looked bashful. “Awww, geez, we’re the ones who are happy…”

“Really. What a kind ruler. It’s embarrassing that we used to be afraid of him just because he’s an undead.”

“His Majesty truly is so kind. But he also said,
I don’t want them to assume that luck will hold. I used a tremendous amount of mana in that fight. Next time, I really won’t be able to save them.
”

The men’s expressions grew meek.

“He won’t be able to save us again…? We’re in trouble.”

“…Lots of people will be frightened when they hear we won’t be able to get his help again, especially my group.”

“Not only yours. Mine is the same… We can’t tell them.”

Neia spoke softly to the shaken militiamen. “There’s something I’ve learned, everyone, and that is that it’s bad to be weak.”

The men seemed puzzled, so she continued slowly. “Look, if we were strong, then this never would have happened. We would have been able to save our own parents, children, wives, friends, and so on. His Majesty once said that you’re the only one who values your loved ones as highly as you do. The King of Darkness isn’t the ruler of this country. He only came to lend a helping hand.”

Neia inhaled.

She wanted the citizens hurrying down the road with a glance at their group as they passed to hear this, too. She raised her voice slightly before continuing.

“…What will we do if we’re attacked by subhumans again after His Majesty defeats Jaldabaoth and goes home? Will we run crying to the king of another country again and ask him to save us? He might not do it a second time. This is extraordinary. Have you ever heard of a king helping another country this much?”

No one answered—because there was no precedent of such a thing, no matter how far back they searched.

“Maybe it’s offensive to be lectured like this by a girl. But our only choice is to protect what we care about ourselves. That’s why I’m going to get stronger. I’ll get stronger so I won’t need to ask His Majesty the King of Darkness for help defending what’s important to me.”

“Yeah. That makes sense. You’re right. I’ll train, too!”

“Me too. Next time, I’ll be the one to protect my wife and kids.”

“…I’ll do the same. When I got drafted, I hated it so much, but…now I’m glad.”

“But wow, the King of Darkness has a way with words. No one values my loved ones as much as I do, huh—it’s true.”

“If anyone valued my wife more than I do, I’d have to kill him.”

“…Um, I don’t think that’s what the King of Darkness was talking about.”

“…Hey, I was only joking.”

“Didn’t sound like a joke to me!”

As they laughed, Neia made a suggestion. “Would you all like to train with me? I can’t teach swordsmanship, but I might be able to show you a thing or two with a bow.”

Weakness is wickedness.
Being a burden to the king was wrong. That meant she would simply have to get stronger. As his attendant, the proper course of action was to make sure she didn’t cause trouble for him so he could focus on his duel with Jaldabaoth in the next fight.

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“I definitely gotta train some. I need to protect my family myself.”

“—What are you all doing out here? Having a meeting or something?”

“Oh, Commander.”

When Neia turned around in response to the sudden question, there was Remedios Custodio standing there. She had heard the footsteps but never guessed it would be her commander.

Of all the people to show up
, thought Neia, but she did her best not to let her feelings show on her face. The militia representatives seemed confused.

“You’re not going to answer my question?”

“Ma’am! I was just telling them how I conveyed their gratitude to the King of Darkness.”

“To that jerk?”

“…I’m not sure it’s a good idea to call a foreign king a jerk…”

Remedios glowered at her.

“Isn’t it only natural for the strong to protect the weak?”

“…I don’t know if it’s natural or not, but I think that’s something for the strong to say, not the weak.”

“What?! Are you calling me weak?!”

“Yes!” Neia shot back immediately. “Compared to His Majesty the King of Darkness, you’re weak… Do you think I’m wrong, Commander?”

Neia replied to Remedios’s glare by glaring right back.

“Hmph. It’s fine for you to be friends with him and all, but he’s an undead, you know. He’s a monster not from the world you and I live in.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that.”

“I’m saying this because I’m worried about you, but it doesn’t seem to be getting through.”

Her expression was one of regret, but it reeked of insincerity to Neia. The paladin before her didn’t seem to think it was all that tragic.

“Commander, I know you’re busy, so I would feel guilty taking up any more of your time. We’re going to talk a little more, so maybe it would be better for you to be on your way to your meeting.”

“…I’ll do that. Remember, everyone, it was only natural that the King of Darkness save you. You don’t have to read so much into it.”

With that, Remedios walked off. Watching her go, one of the militiamen murmured, “Woof… She’s really something… So that’s the Sacred Kingdom’s strongest paladin…”

“Yes. That’s what she’s like.”

Neia sympathized with the honest remark. And all the militia representatives covered their faces with their hands. They seemed to be fairly shocked.

It wasn’t as if Neia had done anything wrong, but she still felt guilty.

“I-it’s not as if all the paladins are like that. She’s a bit special, you could say, er…you know. Something like that. Yeah.”

“Must be tough being a squire. If you drank, I’d be buying.”

“I’ll manage with the sentiment alone, thanks. Um, where were we again? Oh, right. Training together. I know a way for us to get a space and borrow some gear. Can I contact you all again once I have a plan?”

“Sure thing.” The men answered in the affirmative. “We’ll be waiting to hear.”

2

Neia smoothly drew her bowstring.

With her sharp eyes fixed on the target, she saw the white of her quiet breath dissipate in her peripheral vision. Spring was near, but it would still be chilly for a while.

Burying her extraneous thoughts, she cleared her mind and carefully took aim.

She had learned quite well during the fight to defend the city that there was no time to aim on the battlefield, but this was an exercise in accuracy, not speed.

And then she let go.

Leaving a whistle in its wake, the arrow flew straight ahead until it struck the target right where she intended.

Phew
, Neia exhaled.

In ten shots, she had missed none.

It was an excellent bull’s-eye rate, but Neia wasn’t happy.

Previously, it would have been impossible for her, but now she could even hit the nock of the previous arrow she’d sent downrange; of course, she didn’t do that because the arrow would break.

She had been capable of feats like that only since the battle. It wasn’t merely her bow skills that had improved; she could also draw upon holy
energy now. But what struck her as a bit strange was that, as far as she had heard, it seemed to be a different sort of energy from what the other paladins were tapping into. Well, paladins generally poured it into their weapons for close-quarters combat, and she was using it for her ranged weapon.

She wasn’t sure what it meant, but when she asked the King of Darkness, he was mightily intrigued. But even he had said,
It’s hard to tell from just that. Report back when you’ve awakened more of your powers.

At the sound of clapping, Neia smiled awkwardly. It was embarrassing.

“Wow, Baraja, you’re amazing.”

“Seriously. I’ve never seen someone so good with a bow. There was nobody like that in my village.”

“No kidding. I’ve been a hunter all these years, and I know a few, but none of them has the archery skills you do, Baraja.”

The compliments came from the people sweating it out with her on the training range. Many of them hadn’t been around during the battle three weeks prior.

The city’s population was rapidly increasing as a result of the influx of people freed from nearby camps. The ones with an aptitude for archery or experience with a bow were sent to train under Neia to be part of the archer unit.

Common sense would dictate that most would be opposed to having a girl, a mere squire, commanding men (and some women) old enough to be her parents. But no one complained.

The reasons were mainly that no one was willing to dissent when she looked at them with her terrifying eyes, that they were impressed by her prowess with a bow, that she was the attendant to the King of Darkness, and that they knew others were grateful to her.

Some were frightened after learning she was the king’s attendant because of their fear of the undead, but they didn’t all react that way. Because during those three weeks, the Paladin Order had been out liberating prison camps, but so had Neia and the King of Darkness.

When the king proposed the idea, a surprising number of people objected. But when the king suggested that
With fewer soldiers, the subhuman alliance will realize they can’t manage the camps and begin killing off the prisoners. We need to save them as fast as possible
, Caspond allowed them to go.

The King of Darkness was supposed to be conserving mana for his fight with Jaldabaoth. Neia wanted to say as much. But the reason she respected him and sensed justice within him was that he was the kind of person who would leap into action to protect another country’s people. There was no way she could stop him.

That was how Neia and the king set off to rescue a huge number of prisoners before leading them to the city. Several of her new subordinates gladly joined her unit because of that.

“Ahhh, we need to be more like Baraja.”

“Uh-huh. She’s truly an inspiration. And when she uses that bow she borrowed from His Majesty, Ultimate Shooting Star: Super, she’s even more powerful, right?”

“Ultimate Shooting Star: Super… It’s a magnificent bow…”

Everyone’s gaze shifted to Ultimate Shooting Star: Super, which was strapped to Neia’s back.

Though she felt it might be best to train with it, too, she didn’t want to rely solely on her weapon, so she refrained.

“Yeah. It was thanks to Ultimate Shooting Star: Super that I was able to hold out in the battle on the wall until the King of Darkness arrived… No, that’s not right. It wasn’t only Ultimate Shooting Star: Super but the armor and other items His Majesty lent me…”

Neia stroked Mighty King Buser’s armor.

“That was originally owned by a named subhuman, right? It’s unbelievably gorgeous …”

“She let me touch it once. That armor is insanely hard. I couldn’t even nick it when I slashed at it with my sword.”

“Seriously? That’s crazy.”

The discussion about her gear was heating up, but she clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention.

“Please cut the chatter for now and get back to training. His Majesty
says Jaldabaoth’s forces are probably nearly ready to move. We don’t have a moment to lose.”

Everyone acknowledged her order.

“You’ve done enough observation. Please get started.”

As Neia watched her subordinates—though she still felt a bit embarrassed and arrogant thinking of them that way—disperse, she removed the item covering half her face, also borrowed from the king.

The Mirror Shade was a visor that allowed her to use the skill Snake Shot once every three minutes. Its effect made her arrow leap up in front of her opponent like a serpent attacking its prey.

She had never shot it at anyone, so she didn’t know for sure, but she figured that someone would have to be awfully nimble to evade it.

For Neia, whose main weapon was a bow, it was an extremely handy item, but even more wonderful was that it allowed her to conceal her eyes. Without the item, she probably never could have gotten so close to these people.

Neia put her visor back on and took aim.

The ones training under her had experience; she didn’t need to instruct them in the basics. Even for quick shooting, a brief explanation was enough. For the most part, she just had them practice till their fingers hurt. The most important thing was to shoot as many arrows as possible.

I need to request healing from the priests as usual
, she thought as she loosed her arrow.

Just then, her keen ears picked up a buzz.

It was coming from outside. She fought the urge to smile. It might not be who she thought, and even if it was, it was possible he was simply passing by.

But the one who appeared in the entrance to the training grounds with his bony visage was none other than the great ruler, the King of Darkness.

Some people were still frightened of the undead, but there were also many whom he had personally rescued from a camp or saved on the defensive lines. The whispers of awe and gratitude merged into a buzz announcing the coming of the king.

But no one stopped training. Normally, they would prostrate themselves before him, but the king himself had put a stop to that.

He did say that wasn’t necessary, since it wasn’t a public place and he was just poking his head in.

That should have been an unforgivable act of disrespect not only for a king but also a hero who had saved their country.

But he himself had asked them to not do it.

What incredible power…

Neia marveled with a sigh and trotted over to the king. She made a conscious effort to keep her mouth from relaxing into a grin.

She kept her visor on—because His Majesty had told her she should always be combat ready, it was fine not to take it off.

He probably wanted her to get so used to the magic items that they felt like parts of her body while making sure she was taking precautions against whatever kind of unexpected circumstances might arise. Neia admired his foresight.

She felt his eyes shift from his hands to her as she ran over; she was happy to notice the usual pattern in his behavior.

Knowing little personal quirks about someone so extraordinary made her smile.

“Your Majesty! Thank you for coming to our humble training range!”

Even charged with leading the archer unit, she was still his attendant. That said, she had left him to go train with her bow and made him walk all this way alone on top of that, so she couldn’t claim to be doing a very good job.

Neia preferred to prioritize her attendant role, but since she didn’t want to hold him back again, she accepted things as they were. And there was another reason, one she hadn’t told anybody.

The king had told Caspond right in front of her that he didn’t want another attendant, only Neia.

The population of the town was growing steadily. There were plenty of people more impressive or charming than the girl with the sinister eyes. Yet, he said Neia was the one he wanted. The one she considered to be the embodiment of justice had chosen her.

Could there be any greater joy?

“Mm. I can appreciate the desire to be modest, but there’s no need to call it ‘humble.’ This is where you’re preparing for battle.”

“Th-thank you, Your Majesty!”

When she glanced aside (normally it would be rude to do that while speaking with the king, but with her visor on, no one could really tell), she noticed the men listening nearby were blushing so hard, even their ears had gone red. Maybe it was because of the added stress of doing their best, the trainees weren’t doing as well as they had been a moment ago, which was vexing.

That said, she could feel her own ears growing fairly warm as well.

“…Miss Baraja. Your troops seem to have progressed quite a lot since the last time I saw them. It must be because they have you as their leader.”

Slightly flustered by the flattery, Neia fretted about how to respond.

It’s a bit embarrassing if I tell him they’re underperforming because they’re nervous he’s here—that probably goes for them, too.

She decided to let it be. But—

“No, not at all. I’ve hardly taught them anything. They were this capable from the start.”

“Really? Well, if you say so.”

If you say so
, which meant he didn’t think so. He had a very high opinion of Neia.

She raised her voice slightly to distract herself from the feeling of wanting to skip for joy. “S-so, Your Majesty. If you’re here, does that mean your meetings are over?”

“Yes, for today. That said, it’s not as if I really contributed much.”

The city was facing a mountain of problems at present, and all of them stemmed from the population surge. Previously, this small city, Roytz, had been home to less than twenty thousand people. But now, because of the people they’d pulled from the camps, there were over one hundred fifty thousand residing within its walls.

One overpopulation issue was that due to the abundance of nutrition, the slimes that processed the city’s sewage had caused a disturbance by reproducing so much that they overflowed from the sewers.

Sometimes slimes had to be culled with fire when there were too many, but this time their numbers had increased with such unimaginable speed that there wasn’t enough time to thin them out, leading to a number of people getting attacked.

When the slimes surrounded them, garbage-eating monsters called fecudesses appeared out of the sewer to rescue them.

Fecudesses were much more intelligent than they looked, and these creatures were fully aware it was the humans who kept them fed. With their resistance to acid, they were able to save the people accosted by slimes.

But no one thanked the fecudesses: While sanitation slimes were bacteria-free, fecudesses were conglomerations of germs, so anyone who came in contact with their tentacles got horribly sick. The cases of encephalitis were particularly awful.

Other issues included a dearth of wood and other fuel for burning, since it was winter, and the slow rate of housing expansion; they hadn’t had a problem feeding all the extra mouths, but it was liable to become a problem in the near future.

The King of Darkness had been invited to meetings nonstop that week. Everyone must have expected him to have lots of advice on how to best respond.

The king himself claimed he didn’t have much wisdom to offer and was merely listening in, but those in charge wouldn’t repeatedly invite him if that was the case.

Neia respected him even more for maintaining a humble attitude as the leader of a nation.

“So what will you do now?”

“I think I’m going to go check to make sure the logging is going well. You…must be busy training? Or would you like to go together?”

To solve the housing and fuel shortages, the King of Darkness had summoned undead horses to transport felled trees from a distant forest. At first, many people were averse to using undead horses, but now more and more people were openly impressed by them.

“Yes, allow me to accompany you! I’m your attendant after all.” It had
been a while since she had done work for him, so the idea of going somewhere with just the two of them made her so happy, she spoke quickly and a bit louder than necessary.

She blushed.

“A-ah, okay. Well then, let’s get going.”

“Yes, le—!”

Neia was interrupted by a roaring burst of flame a short distance away, so intense it seemed liable to scorch the sky.

For a moment, she wondered what had caught on fire.

But that wasn’t what had happened. No, it was something else entirely. Nothing like that would occur naturally.

The fire was surrounding the city. In other words, a wall of fire; Neia immediately remembered what the Blue Roses had described.

“Your Majesty, that’s—!”

“Yes, it must be. I heard the story from Momon… So the time has finally come. It’s Jaldabaoth. He’s here to attack. Miss Baraja, I’ve got to go.”

He must have anticipated this moment. His levelheadedness helped Neia stay calm, too. No, just his presence as an absolute ruler was a relief.

“Where?”

“Er, so…we don’t know what Jaldabaoth is after. And, uh, it could be that he’s here to commit indiscriminate slaughter. But if he has a target, it could be me or the Sacred Kingdom’s leadership. That means I should regroup with them. Have your troops prepare for combat and then lead them somewhere safe.”

“What?!”

“If Jaldabaoth is here, they won’t be any use in that fight. I’d rather have them deal with the demons he may summon. The city will probably get too chaotic, so if you’re going to form up, it might be better to do it outside.”

At first, he wasn’t being very clear, but as he went on, his thoughts seemed to become more organized. The rest of his instructions flowed smoothly.

“Okay! Thank you, Your Majesty! All right, everyone!”

They had a plan for if Jaldabaoth appeared leading an army, but they
hadn’t anticipated a wall of flames. Or rather, the problem was that they had no idea how many enemies they were up against.

Neia instructed her troops. They were only one unit, so she couldn’t do anything too drastic, but until new orders arrived, it was her duty to have them do what seemed best to her as their leader.

The orders were as follows.

They were to take their families and head for the east gate (because if enemies were attacking, they would most likely show up at the west gate). There they would get into formation, and if there were demons outside the east gate, they would go up on the wall and attack from there. Until Neia arrived, her second-in-command would play things by ear.

Neia’s troops moved swiftly to carry out her orders.

“Your Majesty!”

After directing her troops, she turned around to find him looking at one of his hands, hovering at about the height of her head with a flight spell.

“Your Majesty! I’m going with you!”

Did she surprise him by calling out like that? He balled his hand up suddenly. She heard a slight noise from inside his fist.

“Mm…sure, that’s fine.”

He cast a flight spell on her. That instant, she found she knew exactly how to fly, proving once again how fantastic magic was.

Neia and the king glided across the earth. When they came upon a jumble of confused people, they flew over them, but otherwise they hugged the ground. Flying higher with no cover would have made them stick out, and if there were demons around, they could have been attacked from any direction.

Neia realized she was a liability and bit her lip. A demon’s magic was probably nothing to the King of Darkness. She figured he was avoiding the straightest route for her sake.

Eventually they reached headquarters—in other words, Caspond’s quarters and command post.

Two paladins were busy handling all the people who had rushed to the entrance.

“Miss Baraja, we’re going up!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Seeing that it would be difficult to get in the front door, they floated up. When they landed on the balcony, the window opened.

“Your Majesty! We’ve been expecting you.”

It was a paladin.

“Is everyone here?”

“No, Your Majesty. The priests are still gathering. Deputy Commander Montagnés is out liberating a camp and wasn’t planning to be back today, so we only have Commander Custodio and Master Caspond.”

“Oh. Well, if those two are here, this’ll be quick. Take me to them.”

“Right away!”

The paladin led them to Caspond’s quarters. There were voices arguing behind the door. The disagreement sounded quite complex.

When the paladin opened the door, they were met with ten pairs of bloodshot eyes.

“Sorry I’m late. We probably don’t have much time. What’s the plan?”

Everyone inside the room exchanged glances. Caspond spoke as their representative. “We haven’t spotted Jaldabaoth yet. Your Majesty, do you think another demon or some enchanted item could produce these flames?”

“I’m not sure. Though I know that I sure can’t.”

That alarmed everyone. There was no telling how many different spells the King of Darkness could use. So how powerful was this demon Jaldabaoth if he could cast a spell that even the king couldn’t?

“So…what are the effects of this fire? The Blue Roses said they could walk through it like it wasn’t even there, but can an ordinary person do that?”

The King of Darkness turned to Remedios to answer her question. “Yes, that’s no trouble. There were a variety of opinions about what it does: boosting the abilities of demons within the fire circle, boosting spells that are strengthened by negative karma points, raising the drop rate, and so on, but the survey team discovered none of those effects. There are still those who believe it bestows some other advantage, however.”

“So it’s possible to pass right through it, then?”

“Hmm? The first thing I said was that it would be fine.”

“If that’s the case, then if there are no subhumans or demons outside, we should have the people evacuate the city and form ranks—because in the attack on Re-Estize, demons appeared within the flames. Come up with a plan along those lines.” Caspond gave that order to the paladins and then turned back to the King of Darkness to ask another question. “Is there a way for you to check if Jaldabaoth is nearby, Your Majesty?”

“If I could do that, there wouldn’t have been any need for me to remain in this city all this time.”

“Fair.”

As the king was responding to question after question, Neia heard something—a bizarre, ominous creaking.

At first, it was so quiet, the commotion in the room drowned it out, but it grew louder. One person after another noticed it and fell silent, and before long the only sound in the room was the creaking.

As everyone was looking around uneasily, Neia noticed something strange about the wall connected to the outside. “Ah!” she gasped.

The wall had a crack in it. As everyone watched, cracks radiated outward, and the wall began to bulge inward. Then—

“Watch out!”

Just as Remedios shouted, the King of Darkness moved in front of Neia.

The wall loudly burst open, scattering bricks into the room like buckshot. A few people groaned. They’d been struck by the flying bricks.

If the King of Darkness hadn’t shielded her, Neia might have been screaming with the rest of them.

“Th-thank y—”

She tried to thank him, but he raised a hand to stop her. He was pointing at the billowing smoke.

A shadow was visible in the blazing flames.

“I appreciate you coming to meet me, humans.”

A deep, heavy voice.

As if parting the cloud of dust, the figure stepped through the gaping hole in the wall and slowly showed himself.

It was…a demon.

He was so large, he had to bend over slightly to fit in the room. He definitely looked a bit ridiculous, but this was no time to laugh. Neia’s throat wasn’t working properly, and when she tried to swallow the suddenly very noticeable spit in her mouth, it wouldn’t go down.

Here was a mass of overwhelming power.

Neia had never been all that good at perceiving the power gap between her and her enemies, but this one she understood. No matter how many tens of thousands of Neias there were, it wouldn’t be enough to win. In the face of a presence as overwhelming as that of the King of Darkness with his ring off, Neia couldn’t so much as lift a finger.

At this point, she knew who it was.

Th-that’s Jaldabaoth… Evil Emperor Jaldabaoth…

A furious face, crimson wings, flaming hands…and he was holding something in one of his hands. Neia blinked.

She didn’t want to believe it, but it appeared to be the lower body of a human. There was a strange smell coming from it; the body was putrefied.

“Yeeeeeeeeegh!”

A battle cry. Or maybe a bizarre scream. From behind her, she heard the sort of scream humans emit when they’ve lost control and gone mad.

A shiver ran up Neia’s spine. It was Remedios’s voice.

Holding her Holy Sword in front of her, Remedios charged at Jaldabaoth as if she had absolutely no sense of self-preservation.

It was reckless. Even Neia, who wasn’t that skilled with a sword, could tell it was foolish.

“—You’re in the way.”

The heavy, quiet voice was accompanied by a wet slap. At the same time, Remedios hurtled straight into the wall, crashing with a noise so loud that it seemed like the building might’ve taken damage. After bouncing off like a ball, she lay weakly crumpled on the floor.

Jaldabaoth had smacked her away with the remains he held.

The blow probably would have killed Neia, but as might be expected of the strongest paladin in the kingdom, Remedios seemed to have survived.

Not that it was the reason her life had been spared, but a pungent, nauseating stench soon filled the air.

The rotting flesh in Jaldabaoth’s hand had come apart and spattered the entire room when he hit Remedios.

“Oh dear…what a pity. First, allow me to apologize for making a mess of your room. If that woman wouldn’t have thoughtlessly come charging at me, this wouldn’t have happened, but…that’s just an excuse, isn’t it? I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Jaldabaoth slowly bowed his head. Horrifyingly, his regret felt genuine.

Then he took the charred ankle bones from the corpse still in his hand and tossed them carelessly onto the floor.

“Sheesh, I was swinging it around so carelessly, the top half went flying off somewhere. It was filthy, so I had been waiting for a chance to dispose of it quickly. Using up every last bit proves what a considerate demon I am, don’t you think? I’m sure she’s thanking you in the next world,” Jaldabaoth said to no one in particular.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

A scream went up. Blood dribbling from the corners of her mouth, Remedios had sat up slightly and was moving her hands over her body. No, she was collecting the bits of flesh sticking to it.
What’s she doing? Has she gone insane?
thought Neia.

No, there had to be a reason for her strange behavior.

Could that corpse have been…? No…

The half a body had been clad in the beat-up husk of some armor, but it appeared to be female. Then there were two people it could have been.

If so…

“A beautiful tone.” Jaldabaoth waved one arm as if conducting. “Now, then. I believe this is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of making your acquaintance, King of Darkness, Sir Ainz Ooal Gown. Or do you prefer Lord?”

“That’s not necessary. So you came here to fight me, is that correct?”

“Indeed. There’s no point in wasting time on weaklings no matter how many there are. That much is plain to see.”

“I agree with you there. I have no interest in incurring pointless sacrifices.”

The king turned pointedly to Remedios, who was sniffling.

“King of Darkness, you are strong. Even stronger than Momon. That’s why I’m going to make sure I win.”

When Jaldabaoth raised a hand, faces peeked in from the other side of the hole in the wall.

They were masked women in maid uniforms—two of them.

“Don’t tell me you’re a coward now.”

“Hmm. This is…hmm… Hmmmm.”

The king seemed anxious. That was only natural.

Surely, he wasn’t surprised that he would be fighting Jaldabaoth as well as two maids. No—

That can’t be. He’s so wise. I’m sure he realized ahead of time. So then why? It must be because the rest of us are here. He might be worried that he won’t be able to save us!

“Your Majesty, please don’t worry about us!”

“Eh?” He emitted a little surprised noise.

She knew. She knew the maids could kill everyone else in that room with no trouble, and that even if she told him not to worry, it’s not as if he could trust her to put up a decent fight. Compared to the King of Darkness, Neia and probably even Remedios were so weak they couldn’t even be measured on the same scale.

If they were just going to be in the way, it was fine even if they died.

She had heard His Majesty’s servants were prepared to die if they were taken hostage. He had mentioned it as a problem, but at this moment, Neia understood very well how they felt. She wasn’t here to be a burden to the one she respected.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha! Relax, humans. I’ll slowly torture you to death later. We’ll be waiting at the fountain in the center of town. Of course, King of Darkness, you’re free to flee with them if you wish!”

“I offer you the very same chance, Jaldabaoth.”

Then Jaldabaoth turned to go—and Remedios, clenching her sword, jumped up and set off sprinting.

The arc of the faintly glowing blade looked almost like a ribbon of light.

“Dieeee!”

And she stabbed Jaldabaoth in the back.

“Huh? What’s this? …Are you satisfied now?”

An icy voice.

“Wh……wh-why……? That was a clean hit…and you’re evil, so…?”

Remedios looked so small.

“I dunno. Why? What do you mean, ‘Why?’ It did sting a little bit. If you’re satisfied with that, then could you get out of the way? I have no intention of killing you here. You come after the king.”

Jaldabaoth paid Remedios no further mind and spread his fiery wings. Blown back by the force of the motion, Remedios tumbled and rolled.

Without a single glance at Remedios pathetically crawling on the floor, Jaldabaoth took off. The demon maids followed.

“…Okay. I’ll be on my way as well. You guys should take shelter so you don’t get caught up in the fight. I doubt it’ll happen, but please forgive me if half the city gets destroyed in the battle.”

“Your Majesty, will you be all right?” Caspond asked as he rose from the floor where he had dived to avoid the flying debris. His eyes were on Remedios’s slumped shoulders; she wasn’t even trying to get up.

“It’ll be no problem…unless it is. But this is a good chance. If he had brought some subhumans as a shield, it would have been a much trickier situation, but it appears he’s still underestimating me. And it’s an opportunity to bring those maids under my control, too.”

“It’s okay. We’re still okay. There’s my sister, Kelart. If we have her, then even Lady Calca can be…” Remedios mumbled, slapping her face as she hopped to her feet. “King of Darkness! I’m going with you! Lend me a weapon that can hurt him! I’ll be your sword, if only temporarily!”

In response to Remedios’s bloodshot, hatred-filled eyes, the king shook his head. “…No. You’ll only be in the way.”

“What?!”

“Do you not understand the difference in power? Or do you understand it but refuse to accept it? Allow me to be clear: You’ll be dead-weight.”

Remedios glared at him as if he was her mortal enemy.

Certainly, what the king said was harsh. But it was also the truth. On further thought, it was probably because it was precisely the truth that she couldn’t accept it.

“Commander Custodio! I have another role for you! Lead the evacuation of the city!” Caspond ordered in a dignified tone.

“You agreed that we would have His Majesty the King of Darkness take on Jaldabaoth from the beginning, didn’t you?”

“…Yeah, fine,” Remedios fairly spat, biting her lip. “Make sure you kill that scum.”

“Understood.”

“Paladins, gather up that corpse. Don’t leave a single trace.”

“Commander… This body is—?” a paladin who had a sneaking suspicion asked in a trembling voice, but Remedios cut him off.

“Don’t forget: It could be some sort of demonic deception.”

Remedios headed out without turning back. Some of them followed her looking half-frightened.

“Your Majesty, I’m truly sorry about her attitude… Not that I think apologizing makes it forgivable.” Caspond bowed. “But I do hope you’ll forgive the transgression.”

“…I accept your apology. So please hurry the evacuation along. If we make them wait too long, that demon may not stick to what he said. I’ll go over there and buy some time. But I want you to assume that we don’t have more than thirty minutes.”

“Understood. You heard him! Let’s move!”

Several priests and paladins followed Caspond.

Then the only ones left in the room were the King of Darkness, Neia, and the handful of paladins and priests cleaning up the body.

“Your Majesty, may I go with you?!”

She heard audible gasps around them, but Neia ignored those outsiders. She took off her Mirror Shade and looked the king in the eyes.

“…Mm. No, I can’t allow that. He made a lot of claims, but in the end, he’s a demon. If he felt pressured, he might show his true colors and take you hostage.”

“But if that happened, you would kill me with zero hesitation, wouldn’t you, Your Majesty?”

“When you say that with such a serious look on your face, it makes me sound like a pretty horrible guy. But, well, if I couldn’t save you, I would cast a spell that would attack you both.”

“Then—”

“—It’s not…! It’s not as if I enjoy killing captives!”

“Ah! I’m sorry…”

Of course not. He only did it because he knew it was the greatest good. He was a kind person who would choose the better option if there was one. And he thought the best option in this case was to not have Neia accompany him.

“But…in order to liberate this city, you used a lot of magic—and magic items—which expended your mana. I’m worried that as a caster, you might have lost a significant amount of your power. Will you be all right?”

“Hmph! It may be dangerous, but I came here to slay Jaldabaoth. If he’s here now, that’s convenient. I’ll destroy him and take his maids. Though it makes me sound like an old perv when I say I want maids…”

Grinning wryly at the king as he made such a poor joke under these circumstances, Neia was about to reply, but he held up a hand to stop her.

“Besides, if I ran now, I’d be a laughingstock.” He shrugged and played it as a joke.

But Neia couldn’t take it seriously and found herself shouting at him. “Your Majesty! Let those who would be so foolish laugh as much as they want! I humbly propose you fight him once you’re at full power! You only came here in order to defeat Jaldabaoth. You already spent a vast amount of mana for the sake of the Sacred Kingdom. That’s not what the original deal was, so if we explained that to the people, I’m sure…!”

“You’re right. But you humans believe what you want. Even if you spread the word, surely no one would believe it.”

“I don’t think…! But in that case, I’ll testify! And…”

Neia quieted down and gave the paladins and priests listening to their conversation a sidelong glance. They would probably corroborate her claims.

“…Neia Baraja. I appreciate it. But it’s not necessary. I still intend to fight Jaldabaoth now.”

“But…why?”

“It’s simple: Because I gave my word as a king.”

Neia was speechless. What could she say to that? It would surely be impossible for someone of no rank like her to change the mind of a ruler.

From around them, she heard murmurs of admiration.
That’s right. This great, proud being—this is His Majesty the King of Darkness, Ainz Ooal Gown.

Neia wanted to sing his praises with all her heart because she respected this king so much.

“Your Majesty, I realize it’s rude of me to say so, but I insist. If you feel you’re in danger, please run!”

It surely offended him that she would mention the possibility of him losing. Even so, she had to say it.

“…Of course. Only a complete fool would enter a fight with no plan for escape. Even if you lose one battle, surviving means accumulating knowledge that can be used to your advantage in the next. I don’t mind ceding the first round.”

“Brilliant as usual, Your Majesty.”

Ultimately, if the objective was to defeat Jaldabaoth, the important thing was the final victory. His way of thinking, not as a warrior but a king, made Neia shiver with excitement.

“Then I’ll be off.”

Ainz walked toward the location Jaldabaoth had specified. Along the way, he Messaged the two Hanzos he had brought with him to make sure no one was following him or observing from a distance.

Having confirmed it was all clear, he was about to end the Message when the Hanzos hesitantly informed him that the Pleiades were present.

Ainz said he was aware and cut off the spell.

…No sign of any players or people with World Items this time, either, huh? At this point, maybe it’s just… But then what the heck happened with Shalltear? Some kind of crazy coincidence? It seemed like a World Item attack, but was it just some other weird ability they had to begin with?

Detecting nothing despite the extreme vigilance made it seem, conversely, like a trap. Was someone waiting for him to lower his guard?

This is ridiculous… I guess it is what it is. You can never be too careful.

Ainz sent a Message to a separate Hanzo team. Then he made sure he was ready and had given everyone adequate instructions.

Okay. I’m all set. Of course, all I have to do now is follow the plan Demiurge drafted, so it’ll be a piece of cake—especially since I already arranged it so that if I screw up it’s because I’m testing him!

Amazing.

Ainz was impressed by how light he felt on his feet. It might have been the freest he’d felt since coming to this world. He was floating on air.

Then he arrived at the not terribly large square.

There was a time when this was a place where fountains would spray at certain intervals, a place where the city’s inhabitants could relax. But now there was no water to feed the mechanism, and the subhumans had broken the fountains to boot. There were no plans to fix them, leaving the area hopelessly forlorn.

A single demon stood there.

A giant being with wings of fire and fists the color of flame.

It was an Evil Lord Wrath, like they had in Nazarick. But this one had been summoned by Demiurge via an ability he could use once every fifty hours to call upon an evil lord, so if it was killed, there would be no loss to Nazarick.

It was level 84.

Of all the evil lords, it boasted particularly powerful physical attacks and fairly high HP as well. It was a pure warrior-type monster.

The most troublesome skill evil lords had was their ability to summon other monsters—either one other evil lord or multiple lower-level demons. However, summoned monsters were unable to summon monsters of their own, so the evil lord Demiurge had conjured couldn’t bring another evil lord into the fight.

If it had been a create or make spell, the summoned creature wouldn’t have the same restrictions, so an Evil Lord Sloth would keep summoning demons and undead until it was defeated—an absolute pain.

The other tricky thing about Evil Lord Wraths was aggro management.

Their aggro rose more easily than that of other evil lords, and Ainz had heard from tanks that managing enemy attack priorities got very hectic when facing a mixed group of evil lords.

On top of everything else, they had special abilities that gave them more powerful attacks or higher defense as their aggro increased. Still, he didn’t have to worry too much.

The only thing he was a bit scared of was Soul for a Miracle because there was no telling what might happen.

The spells the demon could use were:

Tier ten: Meteorfall, Stop Time, Field of Unclean

Tier nine: Greater Rejection, Vermillion Nova

Tier eight: Distorted Morals, Insanity, Astral Smite, Wave of Pain

Tier seven: Napalm, Hell Flame, Greater Curse, Greater Teleportation, Blasphemy

Tier six: Flame Wings, Wall of Hell

Tier three: Fireball, Slow

The number of spells a
Yggdrasil
monster could use varied widely depending on level and type, but the standard was eight. Meanwhile, elite monsters like dragons, demons, and angels could use a number that completely disregarded whatever standard there might have been.

But since Evil Lord Wraths were pure warriors, their spells weren’t so worrisome.

They didn’t have skills that would boost the power of their magic, and they had low magic-related stats. Plus, Evil Lord Wraths’ magic attacks
were primarily fire based. While the undead were innately weak against fire, Ainz had long since learned the importance of defending against it and no longer had to even consider it consciously. Psychic spells wouldn’t work on him, since he was undead, and since he had negative karma, Distorted Morals wouldn’t have any effect, either.

For someone with negative karma like Ainz, an angel posed more of a challenge than a demon.

Recalling the evil lord’s stats, he glanced at the two maids behind it. He would talk to them afterward.

“So you know the deal?”

“Of course, Lord Ainz.”

The same deep, heavy voice made not Ainz but Satoru Suzuki smile. It wasn’t just this demon— Who had decided all the demon voices in Nazarick?

Was it the admins or the devs who had designed them? Then who dreamed up the adorable voice of the Lip Bug before it had eaten anyone’s vocal cords? Was it the mental voice actress that Peroroncino had mentioned?

Nah, that couldn’t be.

Pandora’s Actor was a good example. It was impossible to say that the creator’s intent had been fully realized. Besides, Ainz didn’t even have vocal cords, yet he could speak. Perhaps it was more sensible simply to be surprised by the laws of this magical world.

“If you’re using that name and that tone, you must have cleaned up this area, right?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Then here is the most important question of all. You can come at me for real—like you actually mean to kill me, okay?”

“Yes, that is what I was ordered to do.”

Ainz nodded in response to the evil lord’s reply.

Something had been on his mind for a while now: He hadn’t done much combat against powerful enemies. He was concerned that there hadn’t been any chance to fight all out like he had in his battle with Shalltear.

By training in close-quarters combat, Momonga’s body had gained decent mobility, and his fighting ability was comparable to a level-33 warrior.

But it remained to be seen whether he could practically utilize those skills in high-level combat.

As such, he wanted to face powerful enemies and work on making full use of his combat abilities. Unfortunately, he hadn’t encountered any powerful monsters recently.

That was why he told Demiurge to order the summoned evil lord to kill him.

The idea was to defeat his murderous attacker in order to strengthen himself.

Saying it was simple, but he had to spend a lot of time persuading the two who were vehemently against it. In his mentally fatigued state, Ainz couldn’t help but think,
I thought if I said black was white, it was white…

In the end, after making a bunch of compromises and swallowing lots of demands, he was finally able to arrange this life-and-death duel.

The thought that he might die made something cold ooze out inside him. When he had fought Shalltear, there were other emotions that were stronger. This time he was unnecessarily risking his life, so it was quite different.

But…

I did a fair amount of PvP in my
Yggdrasil
days. Still, as I realized during the fight with Shalltear, this world isn’t a game. If I end up having to face a level-100 player with experience here, I had better make sure I’m just as seasoned, or I’ll lose. Hesitating here will lead to future defeat.

Ainz was thankful he was undead—because he could mostly stifle the fear of dying. If he were human, he may very well have called off the fight.

“Now then, Yuri,” he spoke to one of the maids behind the evil lord. “I can assume you and Lupusregina are there to fight me alongside the evil lord, right? The others aren’t here?”

Looking around, he didn’t see Solution, Entoma, or Shizu anywhere. These two had been the only ones to show up before, so were the others busy somewhere else?

“We are the only ones here. It will be us sisters and the evil lord facing you. We came because Mistress Albedo said it wouldn’t be a bad idea to show the people of this country the demon maids and because she thought you wouldn’t be satisfied by the demon alone, my lord.”

Certainly, a single level-80 demon wasn’t much of a challenge for Ainz. Then again, even with Yuri and Lupusregina added, it wasn’t exactly intimidating.

That said, sometimes just making the effort can be all the difference. Only an idiot would underestimate the odds and get smacked down. I need to stay on my toes.

“Just to confirm, Lord Ainz, since we were ordered to do so by Mistress Albedo, you agree to the condition that if you lose, you won’t leave Nazarick for a year?”

“Yeah, that was one of the conditions I used to persuade Albedo. If I’m defeated, I’ll spend a year working inside Nazarick. With Albedo. In the same room… You’re not going to confirm Demiurge’s conditions?” He looked at the evil lord, but the demon didn’t answer. Had he figured there was no need to confirm, or had he simply not been given those orders?

“Thank you.” Yuri bowed.

Okay.
Ainz was forced to change his plan. At the same time, he was mentally sweating in response to how intense things had gotten.

It would be extremely easy to kill Yuri and Lupusregina. The gap between him and them was that large. But Ainz Ooal Gown wouldn’t allow that. Killing NPCs for training purposes was out of the question.

In other words…

I need to keep Yuri and Lupusregina from getting hurt but also kill the evil lord.

He burst out laughing in spite of himself. This was quite the difficulty setting. But it would be good training.

“Is somethin’ wrong, Lord Ainz?”

“No, don’t worry. It’s nothing.”

“Then I should mention that Master Cocytus has a request. He’d like
us to record the fight, so everyone in Nazarick can watch it later. Is that okay with you?”

It would be extremely embarrassing, and he hated the idea, but back in
Yggdrasil
, it was common to make combat logs. He figured he should just think of this as the same thing and accept.

“Sure. But I’m pretty sure any recording measures get caught in countersurveillance attack walls. Should I turn mine off?”

“You’re just runnin’ the kind that detects surveillance, not the one that actively attacks, right, Lord Ainz?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m using. I can’t have someone from Nazarick searching for my location and end up setting off an attack.”

If he was using an active defense that automatically triggered an offensive countermeasure like he used to, the moment someone from Nazarick cast a spell to look for him, they would sustain major damage. Back when there was no friendly fire, he could simply leave it on all the time, but now, that would be pretty dangerous.

Of course, with the protection of the World Item Nazarick was under, even if the attack activated, the victim probably wouldn’t be terribly hurt. The only thing was that activating the Nazarick defense system would cost money. If he wasn’t careful, the expenditure would hurt.

“Then it should be fine.”

“Nah, I’ll cancel it. Attack walls can only activate once before you have to recast them anyhow, so it’s no big deal to turn it off.”

“Oh? Then please do.”

Ainz disabled his attack wall.

“Okay. So please record the fight. Who will it be focused on? I don’t mind if it’s me.”

“For now, it’s gonna be me.”

That was fine with Ainz. He didn’t much care who would be the focus of the recording.

Somehow, it all reminded him of training with his old friends—he was starting to have fun.

Sparring with friends was standard after devising new tactics or equipping new gear.

He had often fought with Touch Me, but Ainz didn’t count those, so he didn’t include them as part of his PvP experience—mostly because he never won against Touch Me, which meant his victory ratio would have dropped. His excuse was always that he only did it for training, knowing that he would lose, so he hadn’t been taking it seriously.

“Then should we get started? You guys should come at me with everything you’ve got as well. I don’t have any intention of killing you, but still.”

“Oh, we don’t mind if you kill us.”

Before Ainz could say he didn’t want to, Yuri was explaining the reason.

“Lord Ainz, we aren’t the Pleiades. We’re greater doppelgängers.”

“What?! Really?!”

“We’re members of the Erich String Orchestra under Master Chakmol—one of the Five Worst despite being a musician. Mistress Albedo ordered us to transform into the Pleiades.”

“I see.”

He took a hard look but really couldn’t tell they weren’t Yuri and Lupusregina. He wondered if they were lying in order to allow him to fight them to the death.

Or maybe one of them was real? He had heard somewhere that the best lies contained some truth.

Ainz wasn’t able to see through doppelgänger transformations. He had a spell that allowed him to detransform them, but as a side effect, it would prevent them from transforming for a set amount of time. That would defeat the purpose of the disguise. If he had a more basic version of the spell, he could have cast it…

Eh…

“Lupusregina, you’re talking differently from usual. What’s that about?”

Lupusregina gave him a blank look. “I’m talking strangely, my lord?”

The Lupusregina doppelgänger changed the way it spoke. This must have been the base speech pattern.

“Yeah, you don’t sound like she usually does.”

“With me, she always talked like that…”

The closer you were to a person, the harder it was to see through a doppelgänger transformed into them. Why? Because the doppelgänger would use mind control abilities to read the shallow thoughts of the person they were interacting with and the people nearby to gain information about the one they were impersonating and incorporate this into their act. At least, that’s what the monster description had said.

Pandora’s Actor said it was possible to use that ability in the reality of this world.

But it could only be used to glean the reactions a transformation’s source was likely to make, so it wouldn’t work for collecting intel by peeking into someone’s private thoughts.

And the ability was ultimately a type of psychic attack, so it wouldn’t work on undead like Ainz, nor would it be very difficult to resist unless there was a considerable level gap between the user and the target. So the doppelgänger had basically been exposed by failing to read Ainz’s mind.

Incidentally, the more people to interface with, the greater the chances of exposure due to everyone’s different perceptions of the source.

Hmm, why does Lupusregina speak like that in front of these people? Ohhh, I see. She must have done it so I would notice something was off. Maybe she wanted to give me a hint. That’s cute…

“…Hmm? Sorry. I have one question unrelated to our fight. You said you have orders from Albedo, but if I was to tell you to cancel that order, whose order would take precedence?”

“Naturally, your order as the Supreme One would be prioritized, Lord Ainz. But apologies, the highest priority is given to the one who summoned us, Lord Dark Melody.”

“…Hmm? Who’s that?”

Did we have an NPC by that name?
Ainz wondered, but the flames in his eye sockets brightened at Yuri Doppel’s next words.

“Lord Temperance.”

“Huh? Temperance? Dark? Ah…I guess he did look like that, but…Dark Melody?”

“Yes. Lord Temperance called himself that, so Master Chakmol instructed us all to do the same.”

“…When we get back to Nazarick, I reallllly want to hear more about this. Dark Melody, huh…?”

This nickname was news to Ainz.

Hearing that his old friend had given himself a secret sobriquet made him laugh. And lowering his will to fight right before battle— What a setup.

Whoops, can’t have that. No falling into Dark Melody’s trap! Heh, heh-heh…

Though he knew the timing was bad, he couldn’t help but remember his guildmate.

What was he feeling? What kind of look was on his face when he gave himself that name?

Ainz smiled at the fond memories, but when he saw Yuri Doppel cock her head, puzzled by his response, he realized he had lowered his guard too much.

He could think about his friend later. For now, he needed to analyze the doppelgängers’ story.

And I want to survey the other minions and NPCs. I wonder what else everyone kept hidden away. Ho-ho-ho. But now I’m curious about something.

Without direct orders, minions such as doppelgängers would apparently follow the NPC master above them. So what would happen if an NPC from Nazarick, bent on killing him, gathered a ton of high-level minions and ordered them to use their most powerful moves to beat him up? If he didn’t figure out the plot and stop it in time…

Would the orders be carried out? Or would they refuse orders like that?

“…And you’re going to come at me with the intent to kill, correct?”

“Yes. Those were our orders, and we understand that we have your permission to do so.”

Yuri Doppel’s response caused Ainz to furrow his nonexistent brow.

…Is this dangerous? At some point, I should really test where the line is.

It was highly probable that if it was something Ainz was thinking
about, Albedo had already looked into it, but it was obviously a good idea to confirm. He couldn’t just leave a security hole unchecked.

“…Yes. For this one battle, I permit you to fight with all your might to kill me. Then I’d like to have you swear on the name Ainz Ooal Gown that your identities are as you stated a moment ago.”

“We promise on your name, O Supreme One.”

Yuri and Lupusregina changed just their hands into something else.

“Ah!”

“What? What is it, Yuri Doppel?”

“Lord Ainz, I forgot one thing. We borrowed this gear from the Pleiades. So if you kill us, could you please make sure to recover it?”

Doppelgängers could copy clothing and equipment perfectly but only in appearance; they couldn’t reproduce the performance of the gear. Having resistance or not made a night and day difference when fighting a caster like Ainz, so they must have had to borrow the gear from the real maids.

Greater doppelgängers can transform into beings up to level 60. And unlike when you make them as NPCs, they can copy abilities up to 90 percent. Even if their gear is the same as the Pleiades’, they still don’t pose much threat to me. Killing them would be quite a waste—especially since it costs money to summon mercenary minions. Yeah, I’d rather leave it at incapacitation. I guess I should make that a rule.

“Okay! I’m changing the rules. If you doppelgängers are about to die, you’re out. I’ll monitor your life energy with Life Essence. I’m pretty sure you’re masking your strength, right?” Seeing Yuri give the affirmative, Ainz nodded. “Then suppress that power for the time being. When I judge that you’ve gotten to the point that a nudge would kill you, I’ll call your name, and that means you’re out. You count as a corpse. Get out of the combat zone as fast as you can. And if either I or the Evil Lord Wrath declare victory, then the fight is over. Got it?”

The Evil Lord Wrath and the two doppelgängers signaled that they understood.

“All right, we’ll start by coin drop… It’s been about twenty-five minutes, so I doubt anyone would complain if we got started.”

Ainz activated Life Essence and took out a gold piece. Of course, it wasn’t a
Yggdrasil
gold piece but the currency from this world.

“You don’t need to cast any buffs?”

“Making time to cast buffs is part of the combat training,” Ainz answered Lupusregina Doppel and distanced himself a little before flipping the coin so that it would land between them.

The moment the coin hit the ground, he leaped back, thrust his hands forward, and shouted, “Perfect Invincible Wall!”

He could see that the Evil Lord Wrath and the doppelgängers had frozen. But they charged soon enough.

Of course. That was the right thing to do.

Ainz’s action just now had been meaningless. There was no such move as Perfect Invisible Wall in
Yggdrasil
—or at least there shouldn’t have been. Not one that he knew of anyhow. He had shouted it even so as a feint, yes, but there was another reason.

Ah, I feel like they’re moving slowly. Are they worried I did something to them? Well, when you think your opponent may have set a trap, it’s normal to want to avoid rushing right into it.

The fear that perhaps in this world that move did exist put a limit on what they could do. In other words, caution of the unknown had worked as a feint.

And it wasn’t merely unknown. Ainz’s Create Undead was a good example of this.

Back in the game, it wasn’t possible to make unlimited undead using corpses with no time constraints. But in this world, the power had changed. There could very well be other altered moves still waiting to be discovered. No, it would be stranger to think there weren’t any.

In other words, it was extremely dangerous to make decisions based only on
Yggdrasil
-era knowledge.

I should talk to Albedo…and probably Cocytus about this sort of thing.

Having silently cast Fly, something occurred to Ainz as he retreated to get some space.

Albedo was saying it would take two years of prep to destroy the Re-Estize Kingdom. Should I be spending my days gathering intelligence that whole time? Developing your country means more contact with the outside world… I should probably ask Albedo and Demiurge their thoughts on that, too. Hmm…illusions might be stronger than I thought. Maybe I need to be more careful. Someone smart could probably do incredible things with them. I’d like to find someone who excels at illusions and win them over with preferential treatment. Fluder is— Whoops.

The evil lord was running toward Ainz faster than he was flying. Unfortunately, Fly didn’t provide much speed.

“Ngh!”

Taking a hit from the evil lord’s hammer-like fist, Ainz felt pain, though it was immediately suppressed. He had had the same thought fighting Shalltear, but he was truly grateful for this body that suppressed pain. This body was the reason Ainz could fight.

He had been knocked back, and the evil lord was closing in.

For Ainz, that was the worst.

So Yuri will come around behind me? I’ll be pincered between these two who deal blunt damage, my weakness? And Lupusregina is casting from a distance? Buffs, I see. Well, that’s the right thing to do against a caster. Is this how the evil lord is programmed to fight? Or are these moves that wise Demiurge chose? Well, whatever.

If they wouldn’t let him gain any distance, he would just have to acquire it by force.

Greater Teleportation.

His field of vision opened up all at once, and he saw the city spread out below. Usually, you needed to know where you were teleporting to or it wouldn’t work, but if the destination was within view, there was no problem. Having teleported over half a mile into the air, Ainz cast another spell.

Body of Effulgent Beryl.

Both Yuri and the evil lord were coming at him with bludgeoning attacks, so this would be a very effective spell.

“Of course, that’s not all,” Ainz murmured as he looked down at the surface. “Man, if BubblingTeapot or Variable Talisman were here, the rear guard would never get hit.”

When playing as a team, a tank with good aggro management skills would never make the mistake of allowing a caster to get punched.

Even once his guildmates stopped logging in—during the period when Ainz was earning Nazarick’s upkeep fees by himself—he would employ some mercenary NPCs to be safe. He hadn’t been in a serious fight alone since that time with Shalltear. Maybe that was why he was grumbling.

At this distance, he couldn’t tell where the evil lord was, but he could make out the square. Carpet-bombing it from his current location would be a good strategy, but there wouldn’t be much point in doing that this time. His objective now was to slug it out in a proper showdown.

Widen Magic: Delay Teleportation.

That reminds me, back when I hired mercenary NPCs, I was bothered by their sloppy aggro management. Maybe the admins were telling us they wanted players to work together…

Ainz took note of the large figure—the evil lord—teleporting above him into the range of Delay Teleportation. Due to the delay, the demon wouldn’t be appearing in this world for another couple of moments. In other words, the two vulnerable enemies had lost their shield.

In order to chip away at his enemy’s fighting power, it was best to dispatch the two weaker ones first. Ainz gave himself up to gravity and then used Fly to accelerate further.

That combined with his falling speed was some serious velocity. The air roared into his face and past him. Ainz kept his eyes open all the while, staring at the square.

Ainz mumbled as he targeted Lupusregina, who was standing out in the open. “You should probably hide in a building…”

Yuri was a short distance away. She could see him but showed no signs of engaging. Having the healer stand by herself was brow-furrow-inducing, but if they were concerned about area-of-effect attacks, then Yuri’s behavior wasn’t a mistake.

Stopping just before the ground—though he could have slammed into it and not taken any damage—Ainz cast a spell.

He chose the tier-ten spell with the most destructive power, Reality
Slash. At the same time, he activated a skill that would strengthen its effects. If he tripled it, he could deal a ton of damage at once, but he figured that was dangerous when he didn’t know how much the doppelgängers could take. He wanted to avoid accidentally killing them in one hit.

“Maximize Magic—”

The moment he raised his arm, it was hit by an incoming projectile, and the spell dispersed. The mana he’d planned to use on it was wasted.

What?! Shooting to disrupt a spell? Is that a skill?

Whether it was due to his being an undead or his capability as a seasoned player, he was confused for only a split second. He immediately set about analyzing the attack he had taken.

Neither the evil lord nor Yuri nor Lupusregina had a power like this.

It could be the World Item wielder who brainwashed Shalltear, but…

If the Hanzos missed someone…

The one who would use projectiles was…

And she had skills that could obstruct spells…

“They tricked me!” Ainz shouted once he had the answer.

Yuri was closing in to punch, but he had magically raised his defense, so he didn’t need to be too careful about it. There was something more problematic he had to take care of.

So it was all a trap?! No, Yuri— Oh! When she said “here,” she meant the square! And the Hanzo said the Pleiades were here, too! Shit! I
thought
it was a weird way to put it if there were only two of them!

The realization came together in an instant.

It was Shizu who had just attacked him.

It wasn’t just Lupusregina and Yuri. Shizu was on this battleground as well. And probably Solution and Entoma. This city had a full set of Pleiades Doppels inside it.

Okay, okay, calm down. The Shizu doppelgänger just got lucky there. With our different levels and the gap in our abilities, it won’t be hard to resist. She just got lucky this time—and I was unlucky.

“Greater Curse.”

He had no trouble resisting the spell cast by the evil lord who belatedly
arrived on the scene. What frightened him was close-quarters combat; as long as they were at a distance, he would be fine.

Ainz ignored the evil lord in the sky, and he also ignored Yuri, who had been chipping at him with small blips of damage for a while. Then he charged at Lupusregina.

That instant…

An insect-shaped shot came from somewhere off to the side. It had to be Entoma.

He doesn’t even need to block it with Greater Physical Damage Immunity. Any projectile attacks that weren’t enchanted had no effect on Ainz.

The Pleiades’ gear had large data capacities, so they would probably come prepared for all of Ainz’s areas of resistance. Yuri’s and Shizu’s previous attacks were good examples. But some special abilities were dependent on the character’s level. Entoma, especially, had a lot of moves tied to her level.

At level 50, Entoma couldn’t do anything to Ainz. And if the damage was completely blocked, the secondary effects wouldn’t work, either.

It would be safe to shift his attention away from her.

Solution must have been hiding, determined not to get crushed by Ainz, who hadn’t given Entoma so much as a glance— She pushed up out of the ground in front of Lupusregina. There wasn’t much point to coming out before an area-of-effect attack, but she had no choice when it came to protecting their healer.

But Solution made one fatal mistake. Ainz was a caster. There was absolutely no reason he needed to make it a close-quarters fight. He could launch attack magic from a distance. She should have thought about why someone like that would be charging straight for Lupusregina.

Ainz had a single objective: to make clear who he was fighting and get all the cards on the table.

Narberal isn’t here?

He wasn’t sure. She hadn’t been in the group that had attacked in the royal capital. But since she was a member of the Pleiades, there was nothing to guarantee she wasn’t present. It was possible she would continue hiding
until the last possible second. But now that he had figured out what kind of hand his opponents were playing with, there was no reason to fight from right in the middle of them all.

“Greater Teleportation.”

With no obstruction from Shizu, he successfully teleported to the roof of a building in sight.

I need to remember what they can all do. Who should I take out first? Yeah, the healer, Lupusregina. I need to be wary of Shizu, too, but…I don’t know where she is… The rest I can worry about later. And the evil lord will take the longest, so he’s last.

He could see Lupusregina casting a spell on Solution. There was no disadvantage to them if he took his time. That must have been why no one was following him. No, it was probably because they knew that if they chased around Ainz, who could teleport wherever he felt like at will, they would be picked off one by one after getting split up. Of course, that was what Ainz was hoping for.

But even if they saw through his scheme, that was no problem.

He could harass them with magic attacks at range and still pick them off. Shizu was in her element in a ranged battle, but attacking continuously would reveal her position. So it seemed like she would only fire when she had a perfect shot. If so, then he didn’t have to be too worried about her. Or…?

“I don’t see her here, so are you taking her place?” he asked under his breath to the evil lord who landed dramatically back on the ground.

Ainz smiled wryly in spite of himself.

“Ha-ha. You’ve gotten massive, Narberal. Maybe I should call you Gorillal. And the attributes you use have changed considerably as well. Well, isn’t that funny. If the Pleiades Doppels are my opponents…” He fluttered his mantle—not that it meant anything. He just wanted to try striking a kingly pose. “…Then I guess I should be a bit serious about this.”

“Twin Maximize Magic: Re—”

As he was trying to send a spell flying at Lupusregina, another bullet went through his arm. And the spell became pointless once again.

“Huh?”

This was impossible.

Even if once was possible, he couldn’t get his magic canceled twice. The level gap between him and Shizu was enormous.

Could he really be so unlucky as to have his resistance fail twice in a row? What were the odds of that happening? Or was this not luck but the natural outcome? For example, if his opponent wasn’t Shizu?

The Evil Lord Wrath spread his flaming wings and approached. Yuri flew right, and Entoma took off on a wide arc to the left.

Why? How? Is this another change that happened since coming to this world? Or did Garnet give Shizu something? Or is it not Shizu? What did Yuri say? She said sisters, but if they’re doppel… Pando— Aaaah!

The Evil Lord Wrath had come within hand-to-hand distance and was winding up for a full-powered punch.

Shit! I hate when they just get in close and hit me! If you’re here as a stand-in for Narberal, you should be using magic, Gorillal!

Well, if he did use magic, it would all be completely blocked, so that would be sort of boring…

Without hesitating, Ainz charged forward to close the gap entirely.

The evil lord reacted slowly, probably because he had expected him to run away. The idea had most likely been to pincer him in coordination with Yuri.

And that was why Ainz was able to duck under the blow (intended as a feint) from the demon’s great fiery arm.

The arm went past his ear with surprising speed, and the wind it whipped up sounded like a scream.

A pure caster had dodged a warrior monster’s attack.

He wondered if he could have pulled that off in
Yggdrasil
, but this wasn’t luck. As previously mentioned, the evil lord didn’t expect Ainz to come forward, so he hadn’t put all his strength behind the blow. And the other reason was Ainz had trained.

This ducking and weaving in close quarters was a move he had practiced
hundreds of times with Cocytus. The result was that one out of ten times, he was able to dodge Cocytus’s not-at-all-serious attack.

Cocytus told me that a good warrior would never attack in such an easy, exaggerated way, so I couldn’t let my guard down, but…it seems like I can actually use this in combat.

From there, Ainz put a hand against the evil lord’s thick chest—and cast a touch-triggered spell.

Spells all had an effective range, and some had a range of essentially zero. Those required the caster to be touching their target, so only people who had acquired both a magic class and a warrior class could use them properly. Because the spells were so inconvenient, they were more powerful than others on the same tier and, in fact, closer to the strength of a spell from the next highest one.

Ainz used a tier-eight spell from his specialty, ghost magic, called Energy Drain. It temporarily drained levels from the target and gave the caster benefits proportional to the number of levels lowered. And he boosted it. Penetrating the evil lord’s resistance, the spell stole his levels. As a result, the wound Ainz had gotten from Yuri was mostly healed. Of course, the healing this spell provided was only an auxiliary effect.

All of Ainz’s abilities were temporarily strengthened. And he also got a special buff for a short time. Meanwhile, the evil lord received a special debuff that reduced his level and wouldn’t disappear over time.

This time it was the evil lord who backed away.

His face twisted in rage had another note to it.

Surprise? Or perhaps admiration?

Ainz was filled with the urge to pat himself on the back for managing to get around that blow. That said, the main factor was that he had caught his opponent off guard. Just as a magic trick that had been spoiled would be boring, he figured that move wouldn’t work again.

“Well, only a fool puts an ingenious strategy on repeat. Right, Pleiades? Aureole Omega!”

That’s what it was.

In this fight, there were five doppelgängers and an Evil Lord Wrath, plus a level-100 NPC.

Did Albedo come up with this plan in order to defeat me? I can’t believe she’s using Aureole Omega.

The littlest Pleiades sister, Aureole Omega, was a domain guardian on level eight, a level-100 NPC specialized in commander classes. When she gave orders as a commander, her teammates all received various buffs. That was probably why Shizu’s skill had been overcoming the level gap.

Ainz wasn’t sure what sort of skills Aureole had, but he knew she fell outside the typical categories of melee DPS, magic DPS, healer, and so on—she was a wild card. Nothing she did would be a surprise.

What kinds of stuff did Squishy Moe usually do?

The commander classes never fought directly against their opponents in PvP, so Ainz didn’t know very much about them.

There’s no way she would have left the eighth level to come here without my permission. So the Doppels must have just gotten some buffs before they came, and she figured anything too elaborate wouldn’t work, so… No, is an Aureole doppelgänger here?

Stop.
He didn’t have time for extraneous thoughts. Only one thing was important: His magic could be completely disrupted—indefinitely.

Skills in
Yggdrasil
came in two types. One required a cooldown period after use. The other was allowing a set number of uses within a certain time period. And some were a combination of the two.

The stronger the skill, the fewer uses or the longer the cooldown. Ainz’s ace move, the Goal of All Life Is Death, could only be used once every hundred hours, for example.

So which were Shizu’s magic nullifying shots?

For such a handy move, it seemed to have hardly any cooldown time at all. So then it probably had a limited number of uses. But he had no way of knowing the recovery time. He wanted to believe that once she used the power-up, it wouldn’t come back again this fight.

I should really save tier-ten spells for finishing moves, but…

Ainz quickly confirmed the locations of the Pleiades and the evil lord. The evil lord was right in front of him. Behind him was Yuri—but she had just closed in to punch him. Imbued with chi, her fist could break iron, but at Ainz’s level, it didn’t cause much damage.
The dangerous one really is the evil lord
, he confirmed and then checked on everyone else.

Entoma was in a building on the left side of the square. Lupusregina was in the square. Solution was defending her from the front. Shizu’s location was unknown.

Not knowing the sniper’s location was the worst of the worst. On the other hand, having the enemies all spread out was the best.

“Heh,” Ainz laughed in spite of himself.

He knew it was no time to laugh, but he couldn’t hold back.

This is so fun!

“Enjoy your flight. Maximize Magic: Nuclear Blast.”

“Ngh!”

Right before Ainz’s eyes: A flash of light between him and the evil lord expanded, swallowing up everything in an instant. It was only natural for Yuri to be surprised—because Ainz was caught up in the blast, too.

The tier-nine spell Nuclear Blast was only so-so as attack magic. It dealt both fire and battering types, but the total amount was low for the ninth tier.

Against an Evil Lord Wrath, who had an ability that gave him fire immunity, it shouldn’t have been an option. Of course, there was a reason Ainz used it despite that.

First, it had a large area-of-effect, and of all the spells in existence, it was up there with the best. It also delivered the negative status effects of poison, blindness, hearing loss, and more, but he didn’t expect much out of those. At the evil lord’s level, most of them would be resisted, and the Pleiades had gear that would block them. The main reason Ainz chose this spell was its powerful knock-back effect.

The resulting damage affected Ainz as well, of course. In
Yggdrasil
, there hadn’t been any friendly fire, so it was possible to use it in this reckless
way without issue, but now it was a type of self-harm. No matter how high his magic defense was, there was no need to take damage himself in order to use this; if he was going to self-destruct, he should have chosen a different spell.

But Ainz had already thought that through.

If he could block the blunt damage completely by activating Body of Effulgent Beryl, he would be fine, since the fire damage would be nullified as a matter of course. And as an undead, the negative statuses couldn’t affect him.

In other words, Ainz would take no damage.

And if he blocked it completely, the knock-back effect was also canceled. Ainz stood alone unfazed in the blast zone.

“Ha-ha.”

Ainz laughed. As one would expect, it felt great to have things go according to plan.

Blow the enemies away and ruin their formation—that was his aim.

His guildmates—who had taught him so many things, including these sorts of tactics—briefly crossed his mind.

Just like before, recalling his
Yggdrasil
days made things fun, even in this life-and-death situation.

I’ve thought this before but… I don’t remember being addicted to combat or anything…

“That’s not all. I’m just getting warmed up. Watch how well you all trained me.”

As a result of the raging tier-nine spell, the buildings in the area had been blown away, making the square suddenly much larger.

Well, it was out of his hands. This town’s role ended here, in any case.

He wanted to make sure he got Shizu in the blast, but he was hesitant to boost the spell’s power any higher than that because he didn’t want to cause too much destruction; that may have been a mistake.

Well, it’s fine. All that’s left is…

He stared in the direction Lupusregina should have been. The enemy encirclement was completely broken.

Even with Aureole’s buffs, they couldn’t escape the effects of the explosion. He saw them all scrambling to get to their feet.

They didn’t lose much strength from Nuclear Blast, so…

Flying toward Lupusregina, Ainz cast Reality Slash.

This time there was no disruption from Shizu, and blood spurted from Lupusregina’s body.

“Widen Magic: Shark Cyclone.”

He created an extra-large tornado and sent it to the rear where it would catch Yuri and the evil lord. He could use it to buy time, since it would obstruct their view while creating a disturbance. He had come up with the plan to create the tornado before using Nuclear Blast to cut off Shizu’s line of fire and take out Yuri first, but he figured the evil lord would have no trouble getting through it. He judged this timing, when everyone was confused, to be most effective.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Entoma moving a crumbling pillar out of her way as she stood up.

It was unclear what had happened to Shizu, whom he hadn’t managed to spot yet. If she was trapped under some rubble, that would be great.

“He’s over here! Stop him!” Solution yelled from in front of Lupusregina, but Yuri and the evil lord couldn’t hear her over the roar of the wind. Yuri was on the move, desperate to avoid being blown away by the tornado. Some classes could use magic or skills to teleport or go incorporeal and escape with no trouble, but Yuri didn’t seem to have any of those abilities.

Of course, that meant she had strengths in other areas.

After this battle, we’ll all learn what sort of equipment changes and preparations we should make. No…

The real Pleiades might have handled everything like experts. These were only doppelgängers who had copied their abilities. Their combat prowess had to be inferior to the real combat maids.

When Ainz tried to close the distance and use Reality Slash, a bug dropped in front of him. It was a large transport bug with no combat ability. He was sure it was only there to obstruct his attack vector.

In
Yggdrasil
, this usage would have been impossible. That Entoma—the
doppelgänger—had done it anyhow impressed Ainz a lot even as he was casting his next spell.

“Greater Teleportation.”

Evading the bug by teleporting skyward, he aimed Twin Maximize Magic: Reality Slash at Lupusregina.

Even if Shizu had been targeting him, he should have been able to shake her off by abruptly teleporting up into the sky. Humanoids were weak when it came to following sudden vertical motions with their eyes.

That said, an archer with a wealth of experience like Peroroncino could predict an enemy’s movements and handle vertical motion as well, so there was a chance that teleporting wouldn’t help him.

Peroroncino has led his targets so well, it seemed like he was locked on. Shizu needs to work hard so she makes it to that level.

Feeling nostalgic, he shouted, “Lupusregina, you’re out!”

It was pretty hard to fight while keeping a close eye on his opponents’ HP. It could even be considered a handicap. For that reason, he wasn’t entirely sure if she was really out or not, but he wanted to avoid accidentally killing her.

As a doppelgänger, she’s weaker than normal with less HP than the real Lupusregina. Now that I’ve crushed the caster, I’m going to get sneaky. Perfect Unknowable.

There were ways to find someone using Perfect Unknowable, but he was pretty sure the only one of the Pleiades who could do so without using an item was Lupusregina, and it was likely the evil lord didn’t have that power. In other words, he could assume they had no way to cope with his stealth attacks.

I knocked out their source of healing, so maybe it’s time to hunt for Shizu. They wouldn’t use consumables, would they?

Ainz wouldn’t forgive them for wasting Nazarick’s resources on a fight like this.

“Where is he?”

“He disappearrrred! Invisibility?”

“If it was Invisibility, I could find him! But I don’t see him anywhere!”

“Then another type of concealmennnnt?”

He could hear the two in their confusion.

“You dummies! It’s Perfect Unknowable!”

“Lupusregina! That’s against the rules!” Ainz shouted, but no one could hear him because of Perfect Unknowable. “Ahhh, geez…” He scratched his head self-consciously.

The evil lord and Yuri must have made it past the tornado, because Ainz saw them searching for him. Following up with another Nuclear Blast would have been a good plan except for the possibility of killing Lupusregina. He quickly gave up on that idea and estimated his distance from Yuri as he dove into a free fall. Then he compared the others’ HP loss, made sure that they had all taken fire damage in addition to battering in his previous attack, and…

“Triplet Maximize Magic: Vermillion Nova.”

He launched his most powerful single-target fire attack spell—not counting the super tier—at Yuri.

Of course, there were attack spells on tier ten that dealt fire damage.

Like Stream of Lava and Uriel. But there were issues with Ainz using them.

For starters, he couldn’t cast Stream of Lava. That was a faith spell for druids like Mare.

Uriel could be acquired by casters of any type as long as they fulfilled the conditions, but it only dealt the listed damage if the caster’s karma was as high as it could go. Any lower and the damage dealt began to decrease, so for Ainz it would be less powerful than a tier-one attack spell.

In the sense that this spell was simple to use, as it was Ainz’s only choice.

It took a huge dent out of Yuri’s health. Then…

“Perfect Unknowable.”

“He’s gone again!”

“No faaaair.”

“I wish he’d fight fair and square!”

Nah, it’s your fault for not having a way to cope.

“Really, though, I still don’t know where Shizu is, and you three hid the fact that you were here! So who’s really being unfair?!” He knew they couldn’t hear him, but he shouted anyhow.

The next thing he knew, the evil lord was charging toward his previous position.

“Sorry, better luck next time!”

He was already on the move, but Ainz was no longer there. Just as Ainz was thinking that the evil lord was in range for an area-of-effect spell, he suddenly changed course and headed straight for Ainz.

“Huh?”

He shouldn’t be able to see me!
The confusion was erased by the ensuing pain.

The evil lord’s punch sent him flying. Since it was a more serious blow than the last, it was impossible to evade or defend. No, more than that, he was off guard, so the idea of dodging hadn’t even occurred to him.

Using Fly, he was able to stabilize his posture, so he managed to avoid falling. Just like in the fight with Shalltear.

The evil lord flew after Ainz. The demon’s gaze was definitely tracking him.

An Evil Lord Wrath with a detection ability…? Oh, he used it! He used his ace move, Soul for a Miracle!

Based on the fables where demons would make wishes come true in exchange for someone’s soul, this ability manifested a miracle. Ainz wasn’t sure how the data were handled internally, but in
Yggdrasil
, it allowed the user to cast any spell tier eight or lower.

Evil lords generally used it to cast a healing spell. But this time, he must have used it to see through Perfect Unknowable.

Though Ainz was thankful to know the power he feared the most was out of the way, he was forced to reformulate his plan.

Slugged again by the evil lord dogging him, Ainz felt irritated and impatient.

There was a large level gap. He still had plenty of leeway, but that didn’t mean it was okay to continue getting hit.

“Tch, right back at you. Triplet Maximize Magic: Call Greater Thunder.”

Elite demons had high resistance to elemental magic. Which attributes that applied to were usually all over the place, but electric tended to be one that worked. Suffering a triple max damage dose of effective magic, the evil lord staggered.

Then Ainz cast again.

“Perfect Unknowable.”

“You’re playin’ dirty, Lord Ainz! So dirty!”

“Aaaagh! Aaaagh!”

Entoma was stomping her feet, and Lupusregina was rolling around on the ground. Only Solution kept her eyes sharp and scanned the area.

Mercenary minions should have all been the same, so did the differences in their personalities stem from the fact that they were imitating the Pleiades? Or were their personalities differentiating over time? The evil lord before his eyes stayed on his tail and shouted.

“He’s here! Use an area-of-effect attack! Take me out with him!”

Without missing a beat, Entoma vomited up a black cloud.

It was her ace move, Fly Breath.

But it wouldn’t work on Ainz. More specifically, it was counted as a piercing attack. Besides, how were flies supposed to eat away at a body that was nothing but bone? Only the evil lord seemed to be having trouble.

“Hey! It’s not working! Or more like, it’s only working on me!”

“Whaaaat?!”

Being able to copy a power was different from being able to use it competently. The real Entoma never would have made a mistake like that.

“I don’t have any area-of-effect attacks! Do you, Mistress Yuri?”

“This’ll do!”

A light appeared in Yuri’s hand.

Chi Palm Blast. On contact, it targeted a single enemy, while if it was touching no one, it radiated a shock wave over its area of effect. Of course, the move was meant to be used by touch, so the diffused version was very weak. Monks were specialized in contact moves and had very few—really as good as zero—reliable area-of-effect attacks, so that was just how it was.

“There! He’s on the move!”

“Here?!”

Yuri did a Chi Palm Blast in the direction of where Ainz had been a moment ago. Furrowing his nonexistent brow at her, he thrust his arms out.

“…No, you should be focused on healing.” Ainz was pretty sure Yuri could heal using chi. After snarking, he cast another spell. Of course, it was one that he already learned was effective. “Twin Maximize Magic: Vermillion Nova.” Having revealed his position by casting, he told the flame-engulfed maid in a cold tone, “Yuri, you’re out. Perfect Unknowable.”

Now I really have to find Shizu
, decided Ainz. Still wary of the evil lord, he took a spin around the area.

3

Standing on the wall among a crowd of other people, Neia watched the fight.

Many of the spectators had been saved by and revered the King of Darkness, but not all.

Paladins were present, too, as were priests. Neia couldn’t see her through the wall of people, but even Remedios was so close by, she could hear her voice.

Of the leadership, it seemed only Gustav and Caspond were absent.

No one watching said any— No. There simply were no words for this fight.

They knew.

The Blue Roses had said Jaldabaoth’s difficulty level was over 200. So this was essentially a fight with a dragon shaped like a man. Simply having it take place in the human world guaranteed disaster.

They were probably lucky only one part of town had been destroyed. A few buildings were burning, sending up plumes of white smoke, but there were next to no human casualties.

As the people watched, a tornado, fire, lightning—a storm of powers beyond human comprehension was unleashed. Any one of them would have been enough to take scores of lives.

Especially…

“That was beautiful…”

What moved Neia was the white sphere of light that occurred twice.

A power that swallowed everything up and cleanly erased it. Neia sensed good in it. She wasn’t sure if it was a sacred power or not. The utter destruction left behind after the light faded was actually frightening, but her admiration of the immense force won out.

It seems like the fight is still going. If His Majesty can use such powerful magic and things still aren’t finished…Jaldabaoth really is strong.

She had heard tell, and she had seen with her own eyes, but she had apparently still been underestimating him. She would certainly never do that again.

The king she had been serving, if only while he was in the Sacred Kingdom, was fighting. Neia felt it was her duty to bear witness to his heroism, which is why she was watching.
And in the case that…

…Neia clenched her hand around her bow.

She could tell multiple opponents besides Jaldabaoth were challenging the king—the demon maids, said to be difficulty level 150. Even fighting all those powerful enemies at once, he was holding his own; Neia couldn’t help but be awed by his might.

She was sure now that she was envious of the Nation of Darkness’s people, who were protected by such justice. A country with a king like that had to be such a happy place.

“Weakness is a sin, so I have to get stronger. Either that or I should reverently accept the justice of one like His Majesty the King of Darkness.” Neia murmured what was always on her mind of late. Having repeated this so many times, it had come to resemble a prayer.

Suddenly a meteorite fell, causing a huge explosion.

The wreckage of buildings went flying and then rained down mixed with dirt and dust.

“Commander… Isn’t Jaldabaoth…impossibly terrible?”

“Yeah.”

“The King of Darkness—His Majesty—is also so strong. If he ends up our country’s enemy in the future…er, what do you think would happen to us?”

“Yeah.”

“Commander?”

“Yeah.”

Neia could hear Remedios talking with three other paladins.

The three asking her questions must not have seen her unleashing the power of her Holy Sword from behind only to be spurned like a child.

Yeah, maybe they didn’t see it.
Anyone who had seen that fight would know that the King of Darkness and Jaldabaoth possessed unimaginable power. It was too late to ponder those things now. No…

If His Majesty took over this country, the subhumans would never be able to attack again.

Neia was surprised at what a perfect idea she had come up with. It was so perfect, it was a little scary.

We could have him absorb the Sacred Kingdom… If he was a horrible tyrant, I wouldn’t think that. But that’s not who His Majesty is. He is justice. So I should rally the people who agree with me!

Neia considered her plan.

The number of people who respected and adored the king was on the rise: people who were attracted by his overwhelming power, people he had rescued from their abject suffering, people who hated subhumans so much that they were happy to have him avenge them, and so on.

Among those people, she would find the ones who wanted the kingdom to stay peaceful forever and tell them her idea.

Neia knew she was young and still lacked life experience. But if a conscientious adult thought she was wrong, she was sure they would stop her.

I’ll look for the first few among the archers I’m in charge of.

She figured a good starting place would be people who had lost
someone close to them and people harboring deep-seated hatred—because she could understand their feelings.

When she had thought that far—
boooooooom
—an explosion larger than the others up until now went off.

And a tall building awfully far away began to collapse.

The King of Darkness would never destroy it for no reason. Neia squinted but couldn’t make out what it was through the cloud of dust as the building fell.

As if to follow that up, a thick column of lightning flashed down from the sky.

Yes, it seemed like he had an objective.

Magic spells continued to hammer that part of the city for a little while.

Neia grew anxious.

It went without saying that all these spells were fantastic, but would the king’s mana last?

Neia shook her head and cleared out her anxieties and fears.

It’s okay! I’m sure His Majesty has already considered that. He used a bunch of his precious mana for our sake, but he’s still…!

But if Jaldabaoth did win, there would be no saving this world—only despair would remain. What could she do in that situation?

I believe in you, Your Majesty!

As if Neia’s wish had been heard, two things flew into the sky.

The first thing left pitch-black darkness in its wake. The other beat its fiery, crimson wings trailing flames.

The maids didn’t seem to be in pursuit. That told Neia one thing. The king had dispatched those difficulty level–150 monsters among monsters while fighting Jaldabaoth.

Wow!
Neia trembled with emotion.
His Majesty is stronger than Jaldabaoth!

Yes. There was no other way to look at it.

Jaldabaoth was lower ranking than the King of Darkness, and the
demon maids were lower still. That must have been why His Majesty could handle Jaldabaoth while fighting off the maids.

Neia tensed up to contain the joy that realization gave her. Being able to see the one she respected in all his greatness right before her eyes made her feel like she was going to explode with happiness.

Her heart was beating so hard, it hurt.

She was sure they were witnessing a heroic moment that bards would sing of for generations to come.

No…that’s not it.

Renewed combat had broken out in the sky.

Balls of flames and balls of light were formed.

The crisscrossing spells were probably enough to blow away another neighborhood, but they were so far away, they looked charming.

Still, it was an exchange of energies that humans could never come close to.

This is…

She could see with a sidelong look that everyone on the wall watching with bated breath understood. They followed the battle in the sky in sober silence.

Someone folded their hands. The person next to them followed suit. Everyone on the wall pressed their hands together and gazed up at the sky.

Whatever it was resembled worship.

…This is mythical.

Neia had no idea how much time had passed. Eventually—a commotion erupted.

Everyone saw a single speck fall across the eastern sky—and disappear.

Victory had been decided.

As they all looked on, the sole remaining speck descended slowly. With better vision than anyone else, Neia was the first to clamp her hand over her mouth in shock.

As the crimson flames became visible to the others, a grave quiet enveloped the wall. But no one tried to run. Anyone who saw that battle knew running was pointless.

Flapping his flaming wings, the victor showed himself.

He looked too wretched to have won.

His entire body was covered in scorches from the lightning that had coursed through it, and half his face was caved in. Bright-red gore gushed from a deep wound. It must have been hot, because the blood made a hissing noise when it hit the wall—a hiss that didn’t stop for so much as a second.

His condition spoke louder than words, showing exactly how fierce the battle had been.

“It can’t be…”

A dignified yet pained voice rang out over the entire wall, drowning out Neia’s murmur.

“…He was strong. I haven’t fought anyone that strong since Momon. I underestimated him. That was foolish. Leading the subhumans nearly became pointless but—yes—he’s dead.”

Neia didn’t want to believe it, so she screamed, “You’re lying!”

Jaldabaoth’s good eye looked at Neia. Under the gaze of a being on another level, Neia still didn’t waver. She could be brave because passionate emotion had taken over her mind—there was no room for fear.

“It’s not a lie.”

“His Majesty has a horrible sense of humor… It’s a lie, isn’t it?”

“It’s not a lie.”

Jaldabaoth’s repeated words made Neia feel like her chest was being crushed.

The world swayed.

Without even thinking, she knew why the King of Darkness had lost.

Evileye of the Blue Roses. And Nabe of Raven Black. Because those two, who were capable of stopping the demon maids, weren’t in this country.

And one more reason.

“If that undead had been fully rested, I might have been defeated. He wasted mana on you humans—to think he was such a fool who failed to prioritize. I’m grateful to you all.”

I knew it. I knew weakness was wickedness.

Neia was absolute in her conviction.

“So I’ll grant you a reward. Your lives.”

“…What do you mean?”

Jaldabaoth sneered in amusement at the question someone had asked. “I’ll spare your lives. This time anyhow.”

Someone breathed a sigh of relief—but Neia was furious.

“Don’t you dare play these games with me! Don’t you dare! It’s all lies! Everything you say is a lie! Who would believe what a demon says?!”

“If you can’t accept reality, then you’ve gone mad, human. Poor thing.” Jaldabaoth pointed a finger at Neia, said, “Be go— Aha!” and then immediately lowered his hand.

“What, Jaldabaoth?!”

“You wanted to provoke me, to prove I was a liar, hmm…? At least giving up your life would have had meaning? It’s beyond my comprehension, but that seems to be the case.”

Neia clenched her teeth so hard, they made a sound.

Jaldabaoth had to be lying.

He had to be a liar to tell such a huge lie, like that the King of Darkness had died.

“I won’t let you do that. I already said I would spare your lives. Anyhow, I’m leaving for now. I’ve sustained enough wounds that I must rest for a time. In the meantime, feel free to cry as you drown in your despair.”

The moment Jaldabaoth flapped his wings and took off, Neia’s hands moved on their own.

Her bow was aimed, and she let it fly.

It was a perfect attack from behind. No extraneous motion.

And yet, Jaldabaoth turned around that instant and caught the arrow. Even with his horrible wounds, he was quick.

Jaldabaoth glared straight at Neia, and his eyes shifted to her bow, Ultimate Shooting Star: Super. Something changed slightly in his furious expression.

“Oh?! Ah! Wh-what an amazing weapon! It’s been quite some time since I saw a weapon this splendid! You nearly got me. That was close.”

Jaldabaoth spoke rapidly. He had seemed plenty calm, but perhaps he had actually panicked?

“Where’d this weapon come from? How did you make it?”

“As if I’d tell you!”

What is this guy thinking?
Molten hatred flared in Neia’s breast.

There was no way she would tell this deceiver the precious things she had learned from the King of Darkness.

“Why would I tell a great big liar like you?!”

“Mnrgh. Ah, c-could it be that it was made using rune technology?”

When he guessed the truth, Neia’s heart throbbed. She was feeling a bit more composed, but when her memories of the kind king came to mind, her anger reignited.

“No!” Neia spat, and Jaldabaoth snarled. Recognizing it as an opening, Neia loosed another arrow.

This time she aimed at his leg, which would be hard for his hand to reach.

He’s on guard! Maybe this bow…

Jaldabaoth could take a Holy Sword in the back like it was nothing, so if he jumped to evade, what explanation could there be aside from that her bow could hurt him?

Neia was assailed by regret, and tears blurred her vision.

She knew she would have been killed all too easily had she joined that fight. But if Ultimate Shooting Star: Super could reach Jaldabaoth, then maybe she should have tried to act as the king’s shield. If she had, then maybe…

Neia shot another arrow.

He moved his head, and her arrow flew on and on.

“Hit him!”

Another.

Another.

But none of them connected. Even though he was so huge, even though he was so terribly wounded, he was so nimble that he could dodge Neia’s attacks.

“Runes—”

“Shut up!”

Neia interrupted him with another arrow.

But as expected, that one didn’t strike him, either.

Why? Why isn’t anyone else attacking him?

She realized that since he was flying, they didn’t have the means. But did they think it was fine to just let this evil liar go? He said he killed the king they were all indebted to!

“Mrgh… I suppose I have no choice… Greater Teleportation.”

And with that, Jaldabaoth disappeared.

“You’re running?!”

Neia scanned the area.

All she saw were the faces of people surprised by her reaction. Jaldabaoth was nowhere to be found.

“Shit! He’s gone!”

“Calm down!” Remedios snapped. The voice of the strong woman carried a physical weight. Normally it would have brought Neia back to her senses, even causing her to stiffen up. But now it was no different from plain noise.

“How can I be calm?!”

“Squire Neia Baraja! You borrowed that weapon from the King of Darkness, right? Why was the demon so interested in it?”

“Please don’t come at me with questions that don’t matter! We have to go find His Majesty! I saw him fall in the east! We should mount a rescue party at once!”

“That guy’s probably dead.”

“He can’t be dead! His Majesty wouldn’t just die!”

Neia grabbed at her without thinking, but Remedios easily brushed her off, sending her tumbling across the top of the wall.

“Simmer down. He couldn’t have fallen from so high and lived.”

“What? Why do you believe that demon? Did you sell your soul to him or something?!”

Remedios’s expression changed. Then she flew at Neia.

“Squire! There are some things you can say and some things you can’t!”

The grip on her lapel was so tight, it was hard to breathe.

“Both of you, calm down! Please calm down!”

Paladins, priests, and servicemen rushed between Remedios and Neia to pull them apart.

Breathing rough and hard, Neia shouted, “Dispatch a unit to rescue the king—now!”

“We don’t have the troops to waste on a pointless exercise!”

“Pointless?!” Neia stepped forward to slug Remedios, but because of the people between them, she couldn’t. “It’s no use talking to you!” Having composed herself somewhat, she addressed the people holding her back. “Would you mind releasing me? I have somewhere I need to go.”

“Where?!”

Neia eyed Remedios with absolute incredulity.

“What’s that look for? Is that any way for a squire to look at a paladin?!”

“Ha,” Neia scoffed. “First, I’m going to request that the Holy Lady’s brother dispatch a rescue party for the King of Darkness. Then I’m going straight to the Nation of Darkness to tell them the truth of what happened and request their cooperation in the search.”

Going to the Nation of Darkness under these circumstances didn’t bode well for her. Still, she had to fulfill her role as the king’s attendant.

She wasn’t even sure if she would make the journey safely. Still, she had to go, even if it was the last thing she would do.

“Oh, Baraja, if you’re headed to the Nation of Darkness, I’ll go with you!” The older man who spoke up was a retired serviceman living as a hunter. Commended for his skill with a bow, he belonged to Neia’s archer unit. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve lived this long. This old body doesn’t have too many more years in it anyhow.”

“Bardem!”

He had spoken with the knowledge of what sort of fate likely awaited them even if they reached the Nation of Darkness.

“Oh, Neia. Don’t forget me!”

“You too, Codina?”

“Count me in. I wouldn’t leave for you, really, but if it’s for the King of Darkness, then I pretty much have to.”

“Even you, Mena?”

The most skilled members of Neia’s unit took the initiative and stepped up to join her. With them on her side, they would surely be able to reach the Nation of Darkness safely. The only thing was…

“Thank you. But would you do me a favor and join the rescue party instead?”

“Where do you get off making plans like that?! You were all gathered here in order to liberate the people of the Sacred Kingdom from their suffering under the demon! Don’t get your priorities mixed up!”

“With all due respect, Commander, what are you talking about?! What could possibly be more important than rescuing the King of Darkness?!”

“That should be obvious! How many people are being tortured this very moment in the hell the subhumans have created?! What could be higher priority than them?!”

“I’ll tell you! The—”

“What in blazes is going on here?! Why are you all screaming at one another?!”

Suddenly, someone intruded on their quarrel. It was Caspond.

“Commander Custodio. Weren’t you supposed to come straight back? Where is His Majesty? What happened to Jaldabaoth? What happened…? Someone give me an explanation.”

Caspond was at his wit’s end, and his voice sounded awfully awkward in the oppressive silence.

In addition to the paladins and priests, the nobles, who had been prisoners until just the other day, and honorary knights had been invited, so the meeting room was feeling rather cramped. Still, the room Caspond had originally been using had been damaged by Jaldabaoth, and there was no other more suitable location.

Upon receiving a report from a paladin, Caspond had called this emergency meeting and instructed the participants to gather here.

Caspond hastened into the room, accompanied by Remedios, moments after everyone else had arrived.

With the appearance of the Holy Lady’s brother, many of the attendees bowed. Neia was one of them. It wasn’t as if she had anything against Caspond.

Remaining standing before them all, Caspond began to speak.

“I appreciate you all gathering here. I’d like to discuss what to do next.”

He could say he wanted to discuss it, but to Neia, there was only one thing they needed to do. And she was confident in her answer. She moved to speak, but Caspond held up a hand to stop her.

“I’m sure everyone has their views, but first I want you to listen to what I have to say.” He slowly scanned the room. “I believe many of you have confirmed with your own eyes that Jaldabaoth’s power is beyond all imagination… Yes, unfortunately, we must admit the truth—that there is no one in this country who can defeat him.”

Several people glanced at the strongest paladin in the kingdom, Remedios, who remained sullenly silent. Upon learning that she agreed with him, fear and despair became faintly visible on their faces.

“But it’s too soon to succumb to pessimism. We’ll drive him off indirectly instead of directly.” Caspond waited a few seconds for what he was trying to say to sink into the heads of those listening before giving his conclusion. “We’ll kill every last one of the subhumans he’s leading.”

“Why will that work?”

Caspond responded to the question. “Jaldabaoth once went on a rampage in the Re-Estize Kingdom. He fought in single combat with a warrior there and ended up fleeing in defeat. That time, he was leading demon forces, but there was no subhuman army. Doesn’t that mean he decided to lead the subhumans because he was defeated?” Caspond looked around to make sure everyone understood. “Doesn’t it seem like he is using the subhumans as a shield to avoid single combat with that warrior…? When he was fighting the King of Darkness, he even said, ‘Leading the subhumans nearly became pointless.’”

That was true.

At the time, Neia hadn’t understood, but now that it had been laid out so clearly, it was hard to imagine it could mean anything else.

“In other words, to Jaldabaoth, the subhumans are his armor and strength for the next time he has to face that warrior. So then what would happen if he lost them? Would he press on without his armor and strength? Even though the warrior who defeated him could appear at any time? Or do you think he would run?”

“I see… So you think we should abandon this city, attack the subhuman army in the south, and coordinate with our own southern allies to drive the enemy off?”

A liberated noble answered the priest’s question. “That would be good. The King of Darkness killed around forty thousand of the subhumans here. That’s a massive chunk of their forces! The rest of them are facing off against our forces in the south. If all the liberated people in this city maneuver to pincer them, we should be able to annihilate their army. Then we could join forces with the southern army to take back our country’s territory!”

There were murmurs of approval, but Caspond shook his head, and the silence reigned once more.

“No, we’ll do the opposite and move west to retake the vital hub of the north, Karinsha.”

“Why?”

“Yes, what is the reasoning behind that decision? The major cities in the west—Karinsha, Prato, Limun, and the capital, Jobans—will all be difficult fights. Many sacrifices will be made. So wouldn’t wearing down the subhuman army in the south be more along the lines of what you’re thinking, Master Caspond?”

“Ah. I see what you mean. I’m thankful that so many wise people are gathered here. But will everyone understand that?”

Most of the people in the room wore expressions that said they didn’t see what he was getting at.

“Listen. Going south now would be the same as leaving
behind—abandoning—if only temporarily, the people who are still imprisoned. Do you think the masses will accept that?”

“W-well…it’s more logical and would give them a better chance of being rescued!”

“You’re a baron, correct?” It was a man in his prime who asked.

“Y-yes, I’ve had the honor of making your acquaintance once before.”

“Oh, huh. So have all the people of your domain been saved?”

“N-no, not yet. I was imprisoned while fighting under Her Majesty the Holy Lady, so I don’t know what has happened to my land…”

“Ah. So if you joined the southern army to get it back, you might be accused of fleeing to the south.”

The noble’s face stiffened.

Rationally speaking, what the noble was saying was correct. But that didn’t mean all the people, some in very difficult situations, would accept noble logic. It was possible the blade of the people’s hatred would be turned on them. Neia had seen some make comments like,
Why didn’t you rescue us sooner? My family was killed by the subhumans.

But no one from the camps liberated by the King of Darkness said that. Given his overpowering magic (a single spell could scatter a moat) and that he was the king of a foreign country, who was bold enough to take their personal anger out on him?

“Additionally, I had intended to talk to those of you with land after this, but I might as well say it now… How do you think the southern nobles will treat us when we’re weak and exhausted? What do they think they would do to us, especially if the masses think we have abandoned our lands?”

The air took on the muddy stench of politics and power.

Neia couldn’t believe it, but the nobles nodded as if they understood.

“Our land would be…”

“I won’t ask you to spell it out. It’s not as if I can promise you anything, after all. But it’s clear that the power of the southern nobles will increase dramatically. That’s why we need to consider the postwar scenario to choose the best course of action.”

“Wait!” A paladin raised his voice. “We have no desire to spill extra blood over a courtly feud!”

“Hear, hear!” Ciriaco boomed in his voice trained by delivering sermons. “What’s important is what will save the most people!”

“…This won’t end just because we get rid of the subhumans. If the southern army makes off with all the spoils, it’ll be a struggle to reject any demands they make after the war. It could even mean more heavy taxes levied on the already weary people.”

“…If a new holy king is chosen on the advice of the southern nobles following the death of the Holy Lady, that would be the worst. But we’ve made it this far, so…”

Opinion began to split down the middle.

There was a faction of nobles and a faction of paladins and priests.

Their views clashed. Remedios was getting Caspond’s plan broken down for her by the other paladins.

Neia didn’t join either side, instead merely watching the proceedings in silence. Really, she already knew what she needed to do, so she didn’t care what outcome they reached. She just wanted to make her proposal and be on her way already.

That said, if I suddenly start talking about something completely unrelated, everyone might get annoyed with me to the point that even those who would have cooperated might refuse to help me…

She listened, though it all bored her, and eventually everyone got tired of arguing past one another and threw it back at Caspond.

“Master Caspond, you were the one who brought this up. Why don’t you tell us the rest of your idea first?”

“Of course. As I said, my plan is to retake Karinsha. This will benefit us militarily. Honestly, our current city is small, and much of it has been destroyed. It has become difficult to live here. I want us to have a resilient base of operations with ample room. And taking back one large city should also give us some leverage against the southern nobles. Karinsha was designated as a bastion to stem enemy invasions, so it should have a decent stockpile of military equipment, if it hasn’t already been raided.”

“…It
would
be nice to have a better base.”

“Yes, with the city in this state, sanitation is a concern. And many people are shivering in the cold.”

“But we also want to avoid huge losses.”

“Of course. Which is why we act now. Now is the perfect time to attack the enemy garrison. Moving while Jaldabaoth is out of commission is key.”

No one knew how long it would take Jaldabaoth’s wounds to heal. But it probably wouldn’t take any longer than it would for them to get rid of the subhuman army.

That said, he probably wouldn’t come out if he hadn’t recovered at all yet. It was hard to imagine him making a move when he knew that his nemesis Momon could appear. Surely, he would wait until he was mostly healed to attack again.

And no matter how many forces the Sacred Kingdom mustered, they wouldn’t be able to do anything once Jaldabaoth returned, so it was best to capture the base now.

“Now, there’s one thing you’re all dissatisfied with. The number of casualties. So can I take that to mean that if we’re able to avoid a massive amount of casualties, you agree to my plan?”

Everyone besides Remedios nodded. Neia didn’t care, but given the way things were going, she felt it would look bad to be the only one not nodding, so she assented along with the rest.

A few people glanced at Remedios and decided from her expression that she had no particular reason for not nodding, so she was ignored.

“Okay. Then let’s come up with a plan for taking Karinsha later on. Next—” Caspond heaved a sigh and looked straight at Neia. “Regarding the death of the King of Darkness…”

“Forgive me for contradicting you, Master Caspond, but we don’t know for sure that the King of Darkness is dead. That’s merely what Jaldabaoth told us. Taking a demon’s words at face value would be incredibly foolish.” Neia continued with a glance at Remedios. “I believe there’s a good chance that he’s deceiving us.”

“Then why hasn’t the king returned? He can use teleportation magic.”

“He might be wounded and unable to move. He might be low on mana. I can think of any number of reasons.”

Remedios had no further questions.

“Right, then I’d like to hear your opinion, everyone. What do you think we should do?”

“It’s not even a question!” Neia roared and then, gritting her teeth, forced herself to speak more levelly. “…We must dispatch a rescue party. And we need to inform the Nation of Darkness about what has happened. If it’s all right with you, I’ll be the messenger.”

“I see. So that’s Squire Baraja’s opinion. Anyone else?”

Caspond’s gaze floated over the group gathered there. A noble spoke.

“I have a thought. The theory that he fell in the east is persuasive, but if we’re sending a rescue party into subhuman territory, we should have more concrete information…”

“That would be too late.” Neia could rebut that argument immediately. “The longer it takes, the more danger His Majesty will be in. I propose sending a party immediately.”

Many people nodded in agreement. There was nothing wrong with the rationale of Neia’s idea.

“Then we should send a messenger to the Nation of Darkness at the same time that we send out the search and rescue party, right?”

“…I’d like to ask you as His Majesty’s attendant: Do you think he told someone in the Nation of Darkness that he was coming here?”

Neia searched her memories. “My apologies. I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he had—because he sometimes teleported back.”

“Then, Master Caspond, I don’t think we should send a messenger.”

“Why not?!” Neia glared at the noble who had been opposing her the entire time. Withering under her gaze, he went pale and backed up a couple of steps, and those around him moved away slightly.

“I—I mean…I’d like you to keep a cool head and listen to what I have to say. It’s because it’ll cause trouble. Wait! Calm down and listen! If you think about it, isn’t it possible that his undead army would want revenge? Simple retaliation would be one thing, but we might even be annexed. And…the
other thing…is that who can say that isn’t what the king was after the whole time?”

“You think he would do that?!” Neia was so angry, she was dizzy. “Then allow me to ask you this! If His Majesty had teleported back to the Nation of Darkness, what would he think of the Sacred Kingdom if we didn’t send a messenger to inform his country of the situation?!”

She could see many of the people were nodding in agreement. Then Remedios spoke.

“But what could we do? We’re strapped as it is. We can just apologize when this is all over.”

“So then—”

Neia was about to snap back when someone loudly clapped their hands several times. She saw it was Caspond. If the Holy Lady’s brother wanted to speak, Neia had no choice but to let him.

“Squire Baraja, I’ll choose a messenger to send to the Nation of Darkness. How about that? Don’t you think they would feel we’re looking down on them if we sent a mere squire as a messenger?”

“Th-that’s true, but…”

He had a point, and she knew it. A messenger sent by the government or a squire who borrowed a bow from the king? Officially, the former was undoubtedly more proper. Honestly, she wondered if they would really send someone, but it would be problematic to act as if she didn’t trust the Holy Lady’s brother.

“I’m glad you seem to understand.”

“Then please let me take a group to the east.”

“Sure. I’d like you to do that. But first, we don’t actually know where he fell. It could be five miles to the east or fifty. If we’re unlucky, he might have fallen in the Abellion Hills as previously pointed out. Do you have some way to search for the King of Darkness in those unexplored lands?”

Neia wasn’t sure what to say.

There was no way she could search for him in unfamiliar lands populated by subhumans. It was clear that the rescue party would only meet with disaster and be wiped out.

“The skills to survive in the hills. The skills to evade subhuman surveillance. The skills to gather intelligence.” Caspond counted on his fingers. “If you go without preparing any of those, it’s a roundabout way to suicide. What’s the point of a rescue party doomed to fail?”

“Th-then do you have any better ideas?!”

“I do.”

“Huh?”

She never imagined that he would, so her eyes widened at how simply he replied. Caspond braced himself slightly and told her what it was.

“You just need to find someone who knows the hills.”

He smiled wryly at Neia as she blinked in confusion.

“Got it? Capture a subhuman and make them lead you. With a subhuman as your guide, you should be much safer out there.”

“Oh.”

That made sense. Venturing into those lands came with too many risks for humans, but with a subhuman guide, it was a different story.

There was just one problem that couldn’t be ignored.

Even if the subhuman could be coerced into leading the party, if they decided to stop following orders and turned against them, the rescue party would just be journeying to their deaths again. The orcs from the other day seemed like exactly the type who would exercise that sort of life-and-death courage.

They needed a subhuman they could trust. But where could they find one of those?

Neia felt Caspond’s plan was impossible, but she didn’t have any better ideas.

What kind of subhuman would guide them, and what would she have to do to strike the deal?

Neia racked her brain. Still, all she could think of was the horde of enemies charging with bloodshot eyes; none of them seemed open to negotiating their defection.

No, the orcs and Mighty King Buser seemed sort of humanlike. Oh, maybe it’d be possible if we took their family hostage? Hrrrm…or if we could take a king like Buser hostage, then we might be able to get an entire race to follow orders.

But it was easy to imagine a furious uprising instead, and in the first place, where and how was she supposed to capture a subhuman king?

As Neia was getting lost in the maze of her inconclusive thoughts, the door flew open, and a paladin rushed in.

Panting, he scanned the room and headed not for Remedios but Caspond.

He must not have wanted the others in the room to hear, because he pulled him into a corner and whispered into his ear, but Neia’s sharp hearing could pick up a word here and there. The ones that interested her the most were
demon maids
.

“Everyone, I have an urgent matter to attend to. Apologies, but this meeting is adjourned. I want you to draw up a plan for taking Karinsha. Commander Custodio, come with me.”