The Terror of Option

Momonga activated one of his skills.

"—「Create Mid Tier Undead, Death Knight」."

This was one of Momonga's skills, which could create various undead. The Death Knight in question was Momonga's favorite undead monster, which he used as a meat shield.

It was roughly level thirty five, but although its attack power was only comparable to a level twenty five monster, its defensive power was very good, equivalent to a level forty monster. That said, monsters of that level were useless to Momonga for the most part.

However, the Death Knight had two very important skills.

One of them was the ability to draw away enemy attacks. The other was that just once, they could survive any attack with one HP. Momonga liked using Death Knights as shields because of these two skills.

This time round, he was also looking forward to using the Death Knight in a similar way.

In YGGDRASIL, when he used his skills to create undead, they would appear out of the sky in their summoner's vicinity. However, things seemed different in this world.

A cloud of black fog appeared. The cloud headed straight for the body of the knight whose heart had been crushed and then enveloped it.

The mist slowly expanded, and melded with the knight's body. After that, the knight wobbled before slowly rising to its feet like a zombie.

"Eeeeek!"

Momonga heard the shrieks from the sisters, but he had no time to worry about them. After all, he was quite surprised at the sight before his eyes.

With a wet, dripping sound, several rills of black ichor oozed out from between the gaps in the knight's helmet. It must have come from the knight's mouth.

The black fluid flowed out without end, until it covered the knight's entire body. It looked like a human being that had been swallowed by a slime. Completely surrounded by the black liquid, the knight's body began to twist and change.

After several seconds, the black liquid fell off the body of what was now a Death Knight.

It was now two point three meters tall, and its body was correspondingly bulkier. It no longer resembled a human being, but a wild beast.

In its left hand it held a large shield that covered three-quarters of its body — a tower shield — and in its right hand it held a wavy-bladed flamberge. This one hundred thirty centimeter long weapon was intended to be held with both hands, but the massive Death Knight could easily wield it with one hand. A dreadful red-black aura covered the flamberge's blade, which pulsed like a heart.

Its massive body was sheathed in a suit of full plate armor made from some black armor, and it was covered in red tracery that resembled blood vessels. The armor was also covered in spikes as far as anyone could see, and it looked like a man-shaped incarnation of brutality. Demonic horns sprang from its head, and one could see its rotted face underneath them. Twin points of hateful, murderous light shone in the eye sockets of its ghastly visage.

Its tattered black cape blowing in the wind, the Death Knight awaited Momonga's orders. The way it carried itself was truly deserving of the name "Death Knight".

Much like he had with the Primal Fire Elemental and Moonlight Wolves he had summoned, Momonga used the mental bond with his summoned monster and pointed to the corpse of the knight who had been slain by the 「Dragon Lightning」.

"Exterminate all the knights who are attacking this village."

"OOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHHH!" it roared.

So mighty was its cry that it shook the air, and it was so filled with bloodlust that everyone who heard it broke out in goosebumps.

The Death Knight ran, fast as lightning. The way it charged forward without hesitation was like a hunting hound that had scented its quarry. The undead creature's hatred for the living made it sensitive to the prey that it would soon slaughter.

As the Death Knight's silhouette shrank into the distance, Momonga was keenly aware of a difference between this new world and YGGDRASIL.

That was "independence".

Originally, the Death Knight should have stayed by its summoner's side to await his orders and attack any enemies which approached. Yet, it had disregarded that order and launched an attack of its own accord. This difference might be a fatal vulnerability in an unknown situation like this one.

At a loss for words, Momonga scratched his head and sighed.

"It ran off... to think a shield would abandon the person it was supposed to protect. Then again, I did tell it to do so."

Momonga reproached himself for his miscalculation.

Although he could make quite a few more Death Knights, it was best to conserve limited-use abilities while he was not sure of the enemy and the situation. Still, Momonga was a back-line mage. Without a front-liner to run interference for him, he was effectively naked.

Therefore, he would need to create another defender. This time, he would try making one without a corpse.

Just as Momonga was thinking about that, a humanoid shape came through the still-open Gate. At the same time, the Gate's duration ended, and it slowly disappeared.

A person clad in a suit of full-body black plate armor stood before Momonga.

That suit of armor looked like a demon. It was covered in spikes and did not expose the slightest bit of flesh. Its clawed gauntlets grasped a black kite shield in one hand and a bardiche that radiated a sickly green glow in the other. A blood-red cape blew in the wind, while the doublet beneath was also the carmine of fresh blood.

"The preparations took some time. I apologize for my late arrival," Albedo's melodic voice spoke from beneath the horned helmet.

Albedo's levels were in the defense focused Dark Knight class. As a result, among the three level one hundred warriors of Nazarick — Sebas, Cocytus, and Albedo — Albedo possessed the greatest defensive ability.

In other words, she was the strongest shield in Nazarick.

"No, it's fine. You came just in time."

"Thank you. Then... how shall we dispose of these inferior lifeforms? If you do not wish to stain his hands with their blood, I will gladly eliminate them on your behalf, Momonga-sama."

"...What exactly did Sebas tell you?"

Albedo did not respond.

"I see, you didn't pay attention... my intention is to save this village. Our enemies are the knights in armor, like that corpse over there."

Momonga saw that Albedo nodded in understanding, and turned his eyes elsewhere.

"Then..."

The two girls shrank under Momonga's unyielding gaze, and tried their best to make themselves as small as possible. Perhaps it was because of the Death Knight, or because they heard its roar, or because they had heard Albedo's words, which made them tremble uncontrollably.

Perhaps it was all of them.

Momonga felt that he should show his intention to help and reached his hand out to the elder sister, but the two girls seemed to have gotten the wrong impression.

The elder sister wet herself, followed by the younger sister.

"..."

The stench of ammonia filled the surrounding air. Fatigue washed over Momonga like a tide. He had no idea what to do, and Albedo was no help, so Momonga decided to continue trying to express his good intentions.

"...You seem to be hurt."

As a working man, Momonga had long since trained up his ability to ignore things.

Momonga, who pretended not to notice, opened his inventory and withdrew a backpack from it. Although it was called an Infinite Backpack, it could only hold up to five hundred kilos of items.

YGGDRASIL players commonly put their immediate-use items into this bag, because the items within the bag could be assigned to hotkeys in the game interface.

After digging through several of these Backpacks, he found a small phial containing a red potion.

It was a Minor Healing Potion.

This potion could restore fifty HP, and beginners in YGGDRASIL frequently used it. However, Momonga as he was now had no need for this item at all. This was because this potion healed through positive energy. To an undead being like Momonga, this potion was like a damaging poison. However, not every member in the guild was undead, so Momonga kept some of these items just in case.

"Drink it."

"Momonga offered the red potion. The elder sister's face was pale with fright as she replied:

"I, I'll drink it! Just, please, spare my little sister—"

"Nee-chan!"

He watched the little sister weeping as she tried to stop her elder sister, while the elder sister apologized to her little sister while taking the potion. Their reactions confused Momonga.

After all, he had saved them in a tight spot, and had even offered them a potion. Why were they acting like this in front of him? What was going on here?

They don't trust me at all. Even though I wanted to leave them to their fate at first, I ended up being their saviour in the end. They should be crying and hugging me in gratitude. Isn't this sort of thing common in manga and movies? But the exact opposite is happening now.

Where did I go wrong? Could it be that being instantly accepted is a privilege of the beautiful?

Just as a baffled expression dawned on Momonga's fleshless face, a dulcet voice said:

"...Momonga-sama offered you a healing potion out of the kindness of his heart, but to think you would actually dare to refuse it... you inferior lifeforms deserve ten thousand deaths for that."

Albedo raised her bardiche in a natural way, preparing to behead them on the spot.

Considering they had treated him like this despite how he had risked himself to save them, Momonga could understand Albedo's feelings. However, if he let her go ahead and slay them, then there would be no point to this rescue.

"Wait, wait, don't be so hasty. There's a time and place for this, so lower your weapon."

"...Understood, Momonga-sama," Albedo replied gently as she withdrew her bardiche.

However, she was still radiating murderous intent, to the point where the two girls were gritting their teeth in fear. In response, Momonga's nonexistent stomach began cramping up.

In any case, he had to leave this place as soon as possible.

If he remained here, who knew what other tragedies might occur?

Momonga offered the potion again.

"This is a healing potion. It is harmless. Hurry up and drink it."

Momonga's words were gentle, but backed with an adamant will. There was also the implied threat that if she did not drink, she would be slain.

The elder sister's eyes went wide and she gulped the potion down. After that, a look of surprise filled her face.

"No way..."

She touched her back, then wiggled her body in disbelief and patted her back.

"The pain is gone?"

"Y-Yes, it is..."

The elder sister nodded stiffly, to indicate that it did not hurt.

It would seem that the minor wounds on her were easily remedied by a low tier healing potion.

Now that he had their trust, Momonga continued by asking a question. There was no way around that question, and depending on the answer, it would affect his future movements.

"Do you know of magic?"

"Yes, yes I do. The alchemist who comes by our village... my friend, knows how to use magic."

"...Is that so. Well, that makes things easy to explain. I am a magic caster."

Momonga then cast his spells:

"「Anti-Life Cocoon」."

"「Wall of Protection From Arrows」."

A dome of light, roughly three meters in radius, surrounded the sisters. The second spell was not visible to the naked eye, but there was a subtle change in the air. He had originally planned to use an anti-magic spell as well, but he did not know what sort of magic existed in this world, so he did not do so for the time being. If the enemy had magic casters, then that was just their bad luck.

"I have cast a defensive spell that keeps living creatures from coming near you, as well as a spell that weakens the effectiveness of shooting attacks. As long as you stay here, you should be safe. Ah, just in case, I will give you these as well."

After calmly explaining the effects of the magic to the two dumbfounded sisters, Momonga withdrew a pair of unremarkable-looking horns. Apparently, the magic did not obstruct them, since they sailed straight through the forcefield as Momonga tossed them to the sisters' side.

"These are called the Horns of the Goblin General. If you blow them, Goblins — in other words, small monsters — will appear. Order them to protect you."

In YGGDRASIL, electronic data crystals dropped from monsters could be slotted into almost any sort of item (apart from certain expendable items), in order to create just about any item a player could think of. In addition there were certain artifacts which could not be created by players and had fixed stats. These horns were examples of them.

Momonga had used the horn before, and at that time it managed to summon a Goblin Troop, twelve or so Goblins with some measure of ability. There were two Goblin Archers, one Goblin Mage, a Goblin Cleric, two Goblin Riders and their wolf mounts, as well as one Goblin Leader.

Although it was called a Goblin Troop, their numbers were few and they were very weak.

This was a trash item for Momonga. The surprise was why he had not disposed of it yet. Still, Momonga felt quite smart for being able to put this trash item to good use.

Another good point about this item was that the summoned Goblins would linger until they were killed instead of vanishing after a while. That could at least buy the girls some time.

As Momonga finished, he turned to leave, bringing Albedo with him as he headed to the village. However, after a few steps, a couple of voices called out to him.

"Ah... th-thank you for saving us!"

"Thank you!"

Those words stopped Momonga in his tracks, and when he turned around, he saw the two girls, their eyes brimming with tears as they thanked him. He simply replied:

"...Think nothing of it."

"And, and this may be thick-skinned of us, but, but you are the only one we can count on. Please! Please save our parents!"

"All right. If they're still alive, I will rescue them."

The sisters' eyes went wide as they heard Momonga's words. Their faces reflected the disbelief in their hearts, but soon they came to their senses and lowered their heads in thanks.

"Th-Thank you! Thank you very much! And, and, may we know..."

The girl's voice trailed off, and then she asked in a mumble:

"May we know your name...?"

Momonga almost responded by reflex, but in the end he did not state his name.

The name "Momonga" was that of the guild master of the former Ainz Ooal Gown. Then what should he call himself now? What was the name of the last man who remained in the Great Tomb of Nazarick?

—Ah, that's it.

"...Remember my name well. I am Ainz Ooal Gown."

-x-X-x-

"OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The mighty roar shattered the air.

It was the signal for a slaughter to become a massacre of a different sort.

In the blink of an eye, the hunters had become the hunted.

Londes Di Gelanpo had probably cursed his gods more times in the past ten seconds than he had in the rest of his life. If the gods really did exist, then they should defeat that evil being right now. Londes was a faithful man — why had the gods abandoned him?

The gods did not exist.

In the past, he had looked down on those people who did not believe in the gods as fools. After all, if the gods did not exist, how could the priests work their magic? And now, he realised that he was the foolish one.

The monster before him — a Death Knight, for want of a better word — drew closer.

He took two steps back in response, trying to get away from it.

A shrill creaking noise came from his armor, and the sword he clutched in both hands was trembling uncontrollably. He was not the only one; the other eighteen knights surrounding the Death Knight were all acting the same way.

Although they were filled with fear, none of them ran. This was not courage — the grinding of their teeth could attest to that. If they could, they would run as fast and as far as they could.

It was because they knew there was no escape.

Londes's eyes shifted, pleading for help.

This square was at the center of the village, where Londes and his men had gathered sixty or so villagers. They looked fearfully at Londes and his men, while a group of children were hiding behind a wooden watchtower.

Some of the children held sticks, but none of them was in a fighting stance. It was all they could do not to drop their sticks.

During Londes's attack on the village, they had chased the villagers to the central square. They searched the houses, and then, in order to root out anyone who was hiding in the cellars, they poured in alchemical oils and set them on fire.

There were four knights standing guard around the village with bows, and their job was to shoot down anyone who tried to escape the village. They had done this several times now, and it could be said that they were old hands at this sort of thing.

The massacre had taken a fair bit of time, but it had been successful, and they had gathered the surviving villagers into one place. After that, they would release some of the prisoners as bait.

It should have been like that, but—

Londes still remembered that moment.

The sight of Erion flying through the air, after the last few villagers fled into the square.

It should have been impossible. Nobody knew what was going on. How could they understand the reason why a trained, grown man in full plate armor — which still had some weight even if it was lightened by magic — could fly through the air like a ball?

After soaring about seven meters through the air, he fell to the earth with a thunderous crash and lay still.

A bone-chilling monster stood where Erion had been. The hair-raising undead being called a Death Knight lowered the tower shield that had bashed Erion and stood before them.

This was when their despair began.

"Aiiiiieee!"

Their panicked squeals echoed through the air. One of the men huddled together with his comrades could not bear the oppressive terror and fled with a scream.

Under these extreme circumstances, it was only natural that — when stretched to the breaking point — people would snap. However, among all of the fleeing man's comrades, not one of them joined him. The reason was that would soon be evident.

A black gale whirled past the field of Londes's vision.

The Death Knight's body was larger than a normal human's, but its nimble grace was far beyond anyone's expectations.

The fleeing man only managed to take three steps.

Just as he was about to take his fourth step, an arc of silver brilliance cleaved his body in two. The bisected left and right halves of his body collapsed in opposite directions. A sour stench filled the air as his pink internal organs spilled out.

"GUWOOOOOOOOOOHHH!" the blood-covered Death Knight roared as it swung its sword.

It was a roar of joy.

The look of delight was unmistakeable, even on its rotted face. As an overwhelmingly superior slaughterer, it savored the despair and terror of the pitiful humans who could not even survive a single one of its blows.

Nobody dared attack, though they had swords in hand.

At first, they had tried an attack, though they were afraid. But even those blades which had made it past their foe's defense could not strike a telling blow through the Death Knight's armor.

In contrast, the Death Knight did not use its sword, but sent Londes flying with a shield bash, and it did so without using enough force to kill.

It was clearly toying with them, given the way it did not use its full strength. It was plain to see that the Death Knight wanted to enjoy the dying struggles of these humans.

The Death Knight only dealt fatal blows in earnest when the knights tried to escape.

The first knight to run was Ririk. He was a nice guy but a bad drunk. His limbs were chopped off, followed by his head.

After seeing the two deaths, the other knights knew the score, so they did not dare to flee.

Their attacks were ineffective, and they would be killed if they tried to run.

The only thing they could do was wait their turn to be tortured to death.

Although there was no way to see their faces below the full helms they wore, everyone present was keenly aware of their fate. The wails of grown men reduced to children echoed throughout the village. These men who had always oppressed the weak had not thought that one day, they would be on the receiving end of that treatment.

"Oh god, please save me..."

"Oh god..."

After hearing these cries for salvation, the strength left Londes's legs and he almost fell to his knees. He loudly cursed the gods — or was it a prayer to them?

"You, you lot, go hold that monster back!" a desperate knight shouted. He knew that his fate was sealed. His words sounded like an off-key psalm.

The man who spoke was standing next to the Death Knight. The way he was stumbling back on his tiptoes to back away from the corpse of his comrade was quite comical.

Londes frowned as he looked on that man in his pathetic state. It was hard to tell who had spoken those words because their closed helmets covered their faces and their voices were distorted by fear. Still, he knew that only one man would speak like that.

...Captain Belius.

Londes's frown deepened

Overcome by his lewd desires, he had tried to rape a village girl and then sought help from others after he got into a fight with her father. After he was pulled off the other man, he vented his anger by stabbing the father with his sword. That was the kind of man he was. However, his family was quite wealthy in their country, and he had joined this unit because of his family's riches.

Everything had gone wrong because he had been made their leader.

"I'm not someone who should die here! All of you, hurry up and protect me! Be my shields!"

Nobody moved. He might have been appointed their leader, but he was not popular at all. Nobody would throw their lives away for a man like this.

However, the Death Knight responded to his shouting, and it slowly turned to face Belius.

"Aiiiiiieeeeee—!"

The only thing praiseworthy about him was that he could make so much noise while standing in front of the Death Knight.

Just as Londes began to respect this odd quality of Belius's, he heard the man shriek in terror:

"Money, I'll give you money! Two hundred gold pieces!! No, five hundred gold pieces!!!"

Those were considerable amounts he was talking about. However, right now, it was like telling them that he would pay them to jump off a five hundred meter cliff.

Although nobody responded, one person — no, half a person moved as though in reply to him.

"Uboooooarrr..."

The right half of the bisected corpse gripped Belius's ankles firmly. The bloody gargling from its mouth hardly sounded like words.

"—Ogyaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Belius screamed in an unnaturally high-pitched voice. The onlooking knights and villagers were frozen in fear, their skin covered in goosebumps.

Squire Zombies.

In YGGDRASIL, creatures killed by the Death Knight would become undead of comparable power, haunting the place where they were killed. According to the game's rules, those damned souls who fell to the Death Knight's blade would become its slaves for all eternity.

Belius stopped screaming, and fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut, facing the sky. He must have passed out. The Death Knight drew closer to the defenseless man and stabbed its wavy-blade flamberge down.

Belius's body twitched, and—

"Gu-Guwaaaaaaargh!"

Woken by the incredible pain, Belius screamed, "Leh, leh me guh!!!!! Ah beggehg yeh!!!!!! Ah duh anythuh!!!!!!!"

Using both hands, Belius desperately grabbed the flamberge that had already penetrated his body, but the Death Knight paid his futile struggles no heed and worked the flamberge like a saw. His flesh and armor were cruelly torn open, and fresh blood flew everywhere.

"—Aah—eeeh—ah gib ya munni, leh, leh meh guh—"

Belius's body shuddered, and then he breathed his last. Only then was the Death Knight satisfied, and it stepped away from Belius's corpse.

"No... no... please, no..."

"Oh god!"

Their screams came from seeing the ghastly sight before them. If they ran, they would die swiftly, but if they stayed, they would die horribly. They knew that perfectly well, but still, they could not bring themselves to move.

"—Get a grip!"

Londes's shout tore through their wailing. The world was filled with silence, as though time was standing still.

"—Fall back! Sound the horn for the horsemen and archers to come here! The rest of you, do your best to buy some time for the hornblower! I'd rather not die like that, if you don't mind! Now move!"

Everyone moved in an instant.

There was no sign of their earlier panic. Everyone moved in silent unison, like a raging waterfall.

Their mechanical obedience to their orders without thinking created a miracle. There was no way they could move so immaculately again.

The knights each did what they were supposed to do. They had to protect the knight who would blow the horn and signal the others.

One of the soldiers who had taken several steps back lowered his sword and withdrew his horn from his bag.

"OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The Death Knight charged, as though reacting to the horn being taken out. Everyone was shocked. Could it be that the Death Knight wanted to destroy their means of escape so he could kill them to the last man?

The flood of darkness drew closer and closer, and everyone knew that stepping forward to try and stop it was certain death. However, the knights still climbed over each other to block the Death Knight one after the other. Their fear was wiped away by an even greater fear and they surged forward to become obstacles.

Every time its shield moved, a knight was smashed through the air.

Every time its blade flashed, a knight was cut in two.

"Dezun! Morett! Behead the fallen! Hurry, before they come back as monsters!"

The named knights hurriedly ran toward their murdered comrades.

The shield swung, and a knight was thrown into the air. His body was bisected by the flamberge.

Four men had lost their lives in the blink of an eye. Though Londes was still gripped with fear, he readied his sword against the coming of the jet-black storm, like a martyr preparing to give his life for his faith.

"Ohhhh!"

It might have been a meaningless gesture, but Londes did not intend to wait for death. Giving voice to a battlecry, he swung his sword with all his strength at the oncoming Death Knight.

Perhaps it was because of his circumstances, but Londes's muscles broke their limit and surprised him. It might have been the best blow Londes had ever struck in his life.

The Death Knight swung its flamberge as well.

In an instant, the world before Londes spun—

And he saw his decapitated corpse collapse to the ground, as his sword swung through thin air.

Just then, at that moment, the horn rang out—

-x-X-x-

Momonga — Ainz raised his head as the sound of the horn reached him from the direction of the village.

The area around him was covered with the corpses of the knights who had been standing guard here. The stink of blood hung heavy in the air, but Ainz paid it no heed as he ran his experiments. Just then, he chided himself for getting his priorities wrong.

Ainz cast down the sword in his hand. The sword which had originally belonged to a knight fell to the ground, its gleaming, razor-sharp edge now stained with dirt.

"...Well, I've said it before, but this physical damage reduction is quite something."

"Ainz Ooal Gown-sama."

"...Ainz will do, Albedo."

Ainz's request to be called by a truncated version of his name threw Albedo into confusion.

"Ku, kufu! Am, am I really allowed to do that? Would it not be disrespectful to shorten the name of the leader of the Forty One Supreme Beings, especially if it is also the name of Nazarick's rulers!?"

Ainz did not think that it was a big deal. However, her words meant that she respected the name of Ainz Ooal Gown, which pleased Ainz. Therefore, his reply was phrased in a gentle tone:

"It's fine, Albedo. Until my former comrades arrive, that is my name. I permit you to shorten it."

"I understand... no, but please let me address you with the appropriate respect. Then, then... my master, Ai-Ainz-sama... kukuku... yes, that's right..."

Albedo twisted her body shyly.

However, since she was in full body armor, Ainz could not see her beautiful face. To him, she was just acting strangely.

"Could, could it be... kukuku... could it be that I'm the only one who's allowed to address you in such a way?"

"No. Having someone address me by such a long name all the time would be annoying, so I would like to have everyone do the same thing."

"...Is that so... ah, that's right. Yes, that's what I thought—"

Albedo's mood turned gloomy all of a sudden. In an uneasy voice, Ainz asked:

"...Albedo, what do you think of the name I chose?"

"I think that name suits you very well. It fits my beloved — cough, cough — it fits you, in your capacity as the one who united the Supreme Beings."

"...This name was intended to represent the forty one of us, and this includes your maker, Tabula Smaragdina-san. However, I ignored the feelings of your master and the others, and took that name for myself on a whim. How do you think they would feel about that?"

"...Although I fear to anger you... I pray you will allow me to speak. If my words displease you, then I will gladly take my own life if you command it. I feel that some of the Supreme Beings who abandoned us might object to that name being used by the one who stayed with us until now, Momonga-sama. However, they are not here, so if you wish to use that name, all I feel is happiness, Momonga-sama ."

Albedo lowered her head after she finished speaking, and Ainz remained silent.

The phrase "abandoned us" swirled in his mind like a vortex.

His past companions had left him for their own reasons. YGGDRASIL was just a game, and they could not abandon their real lives for a game. Momonga felt the same way too. Yet could it really be said that he — who had been fixated on Ainz Ooal Gown and the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick — had not been suppressing his anger toward his former comrades?

They abandoned me.

"...That might be so, but it might not be. Human emotions are a complicated matter, and there is no right answer. Raise your head, Albedo. I understand your feelings. All right, it's decided... this shall be my name. Until my comrades object, I shall be Ainz Ooal Gown."

"Understood. The thought that our most exalted master... and the man I love most would bear this glorious name fills me with joy."

The man I love most... ah.

The uneasy Ainz decided not to worry about this for now.

"...Is that so? I'm glad to hear that."

"Then, Ainz-sama, would you like to spend some time here? Although I would be happy to stand by Ainz-sama's side, I... right, a stroll through the woods would be fine too."

He could not do that. Ainz had come to save this village.

The parents that his sisters had asked him to save were already dead.

As he thought of their corpses, he scratched his head.

The sight of their bodies reminded him of a dead insect by the roadside. There was no pity, no sadness, no anger.

"Hm, well, a stroll might be all right. After all, there is nothing of importance to do. The Death Knight seems quite happy to do his job."

"As expected of an undead being that Ainz-sama made. His marvellous execution of his duties is truly praiseworthy."

The undead made by Ainz's magic and his skills were stronger than ordinary monsters of their kind due to Ainz's class skills. Naturally the same applied to the Death Knight he had just created. However, it was only a level thirty five monster, and it was nothing in comparison to the monsters which required XP to create, like Overlord Wiseman and Grim Reaper Thanatos.

The fact that it was still fighting until now meant that the enemies were weak.

In other words, there was no danger.

He wanted to jump for joy when he thought about it, but he had to okay the role of the dignified master, so Ainz quashed that thought. However, he clenched his fists tightly, under his robe.

"The enemies who attacked the village were too weak. Then, let us go check on the survivors."

Before Momonga set out, he realised that he had some things to do first.

To begin with, he deactivated the special effects of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. The malevolent aura which wreathed it vanished like a candle flame in the wind.

Next, he withdrew a full-face mask from his inventory. It was gaudily decorated, and its expression was hard to describe, being somewhere between crying and anger. It resembled a Balinese barong mask.

The mask looked creepy, but it had no special powers. It was a simple cosmetic item which did not contain a trace of data.

Only those who were logged onto YGGDRASIL for more than two hours, between seven pm and ten pm on Christmas Eve, would possess this mask — no, as long as they were in the game during that period of time, they would automatically receive it. It could be called a cursed item.

This mask was known as the Mask of the Jealous, or the Jealous Mask.

Once, when he wore this mask, he was flooded by messages. "Has the company gone mad? We've been waiting for this. Nobody in our guild has it, can I PK him? I'm done with being a human being~" and other such things in a certain large message board.

Then, he took out a pair of gloves. Their rough exterior betrayed the fact that they were crudely made and had no special properties.

These gloves were called Jarngreipr, and they were an armor item made by one of Ainz Ooal Gown's members for fun. Their only ability was to increase the wearer's strength.

He used these items to hide his skeletal appearance.

Naturally, there was a reason for this emergency camouflage. It was because Ainz realised he had made a fatal mistake.

Ainz was used to YGGDRASIL, and looking like a skeleton did not frighten him. However, to the people of this world, Ainz's appearance was synonymous with terror. Both the sisters who had nearly lost their lives and the fully armored knights were afraid of him.

For the time being, he would use magic items to change his appearance from a "dreadful monster" to "menacing magic caster." That ought to reduce how frightening he appeared. Then he thought about the Staff. In the end, he decided to keep it with him. Besides, it was not a problem for him.

"Rather than beg your god for aid, you should not have massacred these people in the first place."

With that line which only an atheist could come up with, Ainz looked away from the corpse, whose fingers were folded into a gesture of prayer, and cast a spell.

"「Fly」."

Ainz floated lightly into the sky, Albedo soon followed him shortly afterwards.

"『Death Knight, if there are any surviving knights, leave them alive. They are useful to me.』"

The Death Knight sent its acknowledgement of Ainz's will back through the mental link they shared. It was difficult to put the distant Death Knight's thoughts into words.

Ainz flew toward the place from whence the horn blast had come, as quickly as he could. The wind lashed at his body, because he had never flown this fast before in YGGDRASIL. The robe plastered to his body felt a little uncomfortable, but that passed swiftly.

He soon reached the sky above the village, and Ainz looked down on the landscape beneath him.

Ainz discovered that part of the village square was darkened, as though it had absorbed water. There were many corpses and a few trembling knights, as well as the Death Knight.

Ainz counted the panting knights, who were too tired even to move. There were four of them in total. Though there were more than he expected, a few extra would not be a problem.

"Death Knight. That will be all for now."

His words seemed strangely incongruous with the surroundings, like he were buying something at a store. But to Ainz, this situation was as casual as going shopping.

He slowly descended to the ground, accompanied by Albedo.

The false knights stared at Ainz with mouths agape. They had been hoping for a rescue, but what had come was the man responsible for everything, and his arrival shattered their hopes.

"Greetings, gentlemen. My name is Ainz Ooal Gown."

Nobody answered.

"If you throw down your arms, I can guarantee your lives. Of course, if you would rather fight—"

One sword was cast to the ground. It was shortly followed by the other swords being thrown down until there were four blades on the ground.

Nobody spoke during this time.

"...You seem quite tired. Although, don't you think your heads are held a bit too high before the master of the Death Knight?"

The knights immediately prostrated themselves before him without a single sound.

They did not look like vassals before their lord so much as convicts awaiting execution.

"...I will permit you to leave with your lives. In exchange, tell your master — your owner — this."

Ainz used the effects of the 「Fly」 spell to move near one of the knights, and then he removed his helmet with the hand that was not holding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. He noted the man's exhausted eyes, and their gazes met through the mask.

"Do not make trouble around here. If you make a disturbance here, I will slay you with the rest of your country."

The trembling knight nodded as hard as he could. His frantic gesture looked quite comical.

"Get lost. And make sure to relay this to your master."

He jerked his chin, and the knights fled like rabbits.

"...Ah, this act is tiring," Momonga quietly grumbled as he watched the knights run away.

If there were no villagers around, he might even have stretched his shoulders. Although he was doing the same thing in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, playing the role of a dignified person was very tiring for an average salaryman like Ainz. Yet, until the curtains closed on this act of his, he had to wear yet another mask.

Ainz resisted the urge to sigh and walked toward the villagers. Albedo followed behind him, her every step accompanied by the clanking of metal.

"『—Clear up your zombie slaves』," Ainz ordered the Death Knight.

As Ainz drew closer to them, he could more clearly see the confusion and unease on the villagers' faces.

It was not that they were not happy at being rescued from the knights, but frightened by the person before them.

Ainz finally realised this. He was powerful, much more so than those knights, so he did not consider this situation from a weak person's point of view.

He decided to reflect on this, and pondered it quietly.

If he went too close to them, the outcome would be the opposite of what he was hoping for. Therefore, Ainz decided to stop at a distance from them, and spoke in a kindly tone.

"You have been saved. Be at ease."

"You, you are..."

One of the villagers was saying that, but even in the middle of speaking to Ainz, his eyes never left the Death Knight.

"I saw someone attacking this village, so I came here to help."

"Ohh..."

As the noises spilled out, looks of relief dawned on the faces of the villagers. Even so, they could not be completely at ease.

What a pain. Should I try a different approach?

Ainz decided to handle this in a way he did not like much.

"...That said, this was not for free. I expect a reward commensurate with the number of villagers whom I saved."

The villagers looked at each other. It would seem that they were worried about money. However, their doubtful looks faded away. This crass demand for money in exchange for salvation seemed to have allayed their suspicions somewhat.

"With, with the village in its present state..."

Ainz raised his hand to silence the other man before continuing.

"We'll discuss that later. I rescued a pair of sisters before I came here. I will go bring them over now. Can you wait here for me?"

He had to make sure those sisters did not talk and give away his true identity.

Without waiting for them to reply, Ainz slowly headed off. At the same time, he thought about using magic to alter memories.

-x-X-x-

[Pov Others]

The Village Chief had a house near the village square. Upon entering, one would be greeted by a large living room, with a kitchen off to one side. A rickety old table and several chairs occupied the center of the room.

Ainz surveyed the interior from where he was seated on one of the chairs.

The sunlight which shone through the windows illuminated every corner of the room, so he could see clearly inside even without darkvision.

He took a look at the woman in the corner of the kitchen, and the farming tools inside the house.

There were no manufactured products to be seen anywhere.

Just as Ainz thought that there would not be much in the way of technology here, Ainz realised that his thinking might be naive. Still, he was curious about what sort of science that a world with magic would develop.

Ainz shifted his hand across the old table to avoid the sunlight. His metal gauntlets were not heavy, but the shabbily-made table shook under its weight. The chair also creaked from Ainz sitting on it.

This was a textbook definition of the word "poverty."

Ainz leaned the Staff on the table to keep it out of people's way. The way the Staff reflected the sunlight in a brilliant display made the run-down old house appear to be some sort of fairytale wonderland. He recalled the surprised expressions on the villager's faces, the way their eyes went wide and how they were lost for words.

A surge of pride came over Ainz as the villagers asked about the Staff which he and his guildmates had painstakingly crafted. However, his delight was immediately suppressed to normal levels, which made Ainz furrow his nonexistent brows.

Frankly speaking, Ainz disliked this forced calming effect. That said, it was also true that allowing his emotions to run wild would make it difficult to solve the challenges ahead of him. With that in mind, Ainz prepared himself for his upcoming task.

He had to negotiate payment for rescuing the village with the Chief.

Of course, Ainz's real objective was to obtain information, and not money. However, directly asking for information would be strange.

While it would be fine in a small village like this, once the local lords found out, they would begin making their way to him. When they discovered that he knew nothing about this world, there was a high chance that they would try to use him.

Was he being too cautious about this?

Ainz felt that this was like running across a busy road — a fatal accident could happen at any time. The fatal accident in this case meant encountering the mighty beings of this world.

Strength and weakness were two sides of the same coin.

For now, Ainz was stronger than everyone he had encountered in this village. However, that did not guarantee that he was stronger than everyone in this world. In addition, Ainz was now undead, and from the terrified reaction of the two girls, he could imagine that undead were not very well-received in this world. He had to be aware that since most humans would hate him, they might well attack him. Thus, he had to tread very carefully.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

—The Chief sat opposite Ainz. His wife stood behind him.

His skin was dark and covered in wrinkles.

His body was very muscular, and it was obvious that those muscles had been honed through heavy labor. More than half of his hair was white.

Though his crudely made cotton shirt was stained by dirt, it did not stink.

The tired look on his face made Ainz think he was over forty five years old, but it was hard to tell, because he seemed to have grown older in the past half hour or so.

The Chief's wife was roughly the same age as her husband.

She had been slim and beautiful once, but after long years of working on the farm, that beauty was nowhere to be seen. All that was left were the wrinkles that covered her face.

Her shoulder-length black hair was mussed up, and she looked gloomy even under the direct sunlight.

"Please, help yourself."

The Village Chief placed a crude-looking cup on the table. Albedo was not here because she was patrolling the village.

Ainz raised his hand, refusing the cup of hot, steaming water.

He did not feel thirsty, nor could he remove the mask. However, he felt that he should have refused earlier, given that she had gone to so much trouble for him.

The trouble in question concerned the boiled water.

First, there was the matter of creating sparks with a flint. Then, she had to light wood shavings — or tinder — with those sparks. Then, she had to fan the sparks into flames, and when they were big enough, she had to transfer them to the stove. Then, she had to boil the water, and by the time that was finished, a long time had passed.

This was the first time Ainz had seen water boiled by a hand-started fire, rather than through the use of an electric kettle. He found it quite interesting. Back in his world, he had boiled water on a gas stove, so it was hardly as time-consuming as this.

This was also a good opportunity to gather some information on the technological level of this world. With that in mind, Ainz spoke to the Chief again:

"I do apologize, especially since you went to all this trouble to prepare water for me."

"You are too kind. There is no need to apologize."

The fact that Ainz lowered his head to them (however slightly) filled the Village Chief and his wife with dread. They could not imagine the Death Knight's summoner bowing his head to anyone.

However, it was hardly strange to Ainz. It was always a good idea to have a friendly attitude when negotiating with someone else.

Of course, he could simply have used 「Charm Person」 to make them talk, followed by high-tier memory alteration spells, much like he had done with the sisters. However, that was a last resort, because it took far too much MP.

Ainz recalled the feeling of spending MP; it felt like a strange fatigue, like he had lost something.

Just altering the tens of seconds of their memories — until he had put on his mask and his gauntlets — had taken a considerable amount of MP.

"Then, let us cut to the chase and begin the negotiations."

"Yes. But before that... thank you very much!"

The Chief bowed to Ainz, his head so low that it nearly touched the table. After that, his wife bowed as well.

"Without your help, we would all be dead by now. You have our deepest thanks!"

Ainz was quite surprised to receive such unreserved gratitude.

When he looked back on his past life, he had never been thanked like this before. No, the sisters he rescued earlier had acted that way too. Well, he had never saved someone else's life before, so it was only to be expected.

That was a relic from his time as a human being — as Suzuki Satoru. Although he was somewhat embarrassed by this earnest appreciation, he certainly did not dislike it.

"Please, raise your heads. Like I said earlier, I did not help you for free."

"We know that, but still, we wish to thank you for rescuing us and many of the other villagers."

"...Then, paying me more will be good enough. Come, let us discuss it. You must have many things to do, Village Chief-dono."

"Nothing could be more important than spending time with our savior, but I understand."

The Chief slowly raised his head, and Ainz racked his nonexistent brains.

His goal here was to obtain information through conversation, rather than through magic.

—What a pain.

He still remembered the tricks he had used as an office worker. How effective would they be here? Hopefully, at least half of them would be useful. After steeling himself against the possibility of failure, Ainz asked:

"...Let us get to the point. How much can you pay me?"

"We would not dare deceive our savior. I do not know how many silver and copper pieces we can gather if we do not collect them from everyone, but I believe we can muster up at least three thousand copper pieces."

I have no idea what that means, Ainz thought.

Asking them directly was a mistake. I should have tried a different approach. Besides, I was a lousy worker to begin with, and my job skills were pretty bad.

It sounded like a large amount, but without knowing the value of money, he could not tell if it was an appropriate sum or not. He had to avoid accepting too high or too low a sum, lest he reveal his ignorance.

No, he should have been relieved that they did not offer him "four heads of cattle" or something.

Just as he was about to sink into depression, his mental state immediately settled down. Ainz silently praised his undead body, and then he realized one more thing.

First, copper and silver pieces were the basic units of currency in this village. Second, there should be other forms of currency which were more or less valuable, but he was not confident that he could draw this information out of them.

He needed to learn the monetary value of these copper pieces. Without that knowledge, things would be troublesome in the future. However, not knowing the value of money was quite suspicious, and he wanted to keep a low profile while he learned more about this world.

That was why he was thinking as hard as he could to avoid making a bigger mistake.

"These small coins are hard to carry in large amounts. I'd like something in a bigger denomination, if you can manage it."

"Our sincerest apologies. If we could pay in gold pieces, we would. However... the fact is that our village does not use gold pieces..."

Ainz fought back the urge to sigh in relief.

The Chief's answer went in the direction that he was hoping for. Therefore, Momonga thought heavily about how he would continue steering the conversation, until it seemed like smoke would start coming out of his head.

"How about this: I plan to buy the produce of this village for a reasonable price, so all you need to do is pay me in currency used for trading."

Ainz secretly opened his inventory under his robe, and withdrew a pair of gold coins from YGGDRASIL. One of the coins was decorated by the face of a woman, while the other coin had the face of a man. The former was a coin from after the huge update "Valkyrie's Downfall", while the latter was a coin from before the update.

Their values were the same, but they meant different things to Ainz.

The old coin was one that had followed Ainz ever since he had started playing YGGDRASIL until he had formed the guild Ainz Ooal Gown. The new coins had been released with the update, when Ainz Ooal Gown had been in its golden age. His equipment was almost complete at that point, so those coins simply went into his inventory's coffers.

Ever since he had started out as a skeleton mage, he used his spells to defeat monsters roaming the world and gained gold coins which floated in the air. He soloed dungeons, defeated the vicious monsters within, and earned a huge pile of gold with great effort. After the members of Ainz Ooal Gown completed a dungeon, they sold the data crystals they collected and in exchange, they received these gold pieces, which glowed so brightly...

But Ainz waved that topic aside.

He put the old coin away, and held up the new coin.

"...If I used this gold piece to buy something, what could I get for it?"

He placed the gold coin on the table. As one, the Village Chief and his wife stared, their eyes wide.

"This, this is!"

"This is currency used in a land far, far away. Can it be used here?"

"I should think so... please wait a little."

Relief came over Ainz as he heard that the coin could be used. Then, he watched as the Chief left his seat, went to his room, and came back with something he had once seen during his history lessons.

That object was called a balance scale.

After that, it was his wife's turn. She took the gold coin and put it next to a circular object, as though she were comparing their sizes. After she was satisfied, she placed the gold coin on one pan of the balance, and on the other pan went a counterweight.

He seemed to recall that this sort of thing was called a "standardized mass."

As Ainz went through his memories, he compared them to the wife's actions and tried to figure out what she was trying to do. The first part should have been comparing his coin to the gold pieces of this country, and next she was trying to confirm its gold content.

It would seem the gold coin was heavier, and the standardized mass rose up. The Chief's wife put another mass on it, and both sides balanced out.

"It seems to be about twice as heavy as a regular gold piece... perhaps, perhaps if we could scratch the surface..."

"O-Oi! You're being rude! Please accept my sincerest apologies on behalf of my wife, for saying such foolish things..."

No wonder. She must have thought it was gold-plated. Ainz was not completely unoffended, but he was not angry.

"It's fine... although, if you scratch it and find that it's pure gold, you'll take it, no?"

"Ah, no... we are truly sorry for this."

The Chief's wife bowed in apology, and returned the gold coin.

"Think nothing of it. After all, it's only sensible to verify the bona fides of any money you're given. Still, what do you think of this gold piece? Don't you think it looks like a work of art?"

"Indeed, it is very beautiful. May I ask the name of the country from which it came?"

"It's no longer — yes, that country no longer exists."

"I see..."

"...Well, you've confirmed for yourselves that it weighs twice as much as a regular gold piece, but considering its artistic value, this gold piece should be worth more as a result. What do you think?"

"That may be so... but we are not merchants, and we do not know the value of art..."

"Hahaha... well, that's not wrong. So, if I were to use this to buy something, it would be worth two normal gold pieces?"

"Of, of course."

"Actually, I have a few more gold pieces like this. What can you sell me for them? Of course, I wish to pay the usual market rate for them. I don't mind if it's the same as what a street vendor would charge. By all means, go ahead and inspect these coins. Please—"

"Ainz Ooal Gown-sama!"

The Village Chief's sudden shout made Ainz's nonexistent heart lurch. The Chief's determined expression seemed harder and more forceful than before.

"...Ainz will do."

"Ainz-sama, then?" The Chief seemed a little surprised at this, but he soon nodded and continued speaking:

"I fully understand what you want to say, Ainz-sama."

For a moment, Ainz wondered if a giant question mark icon had appeared over his head. There seemed to be a misunderstanding of some sort, but he had no idea what the Chief was getting at, so he did not know how to answer him.

"I am very aware that you do not wish to be seen as cheap, and I understand that you would wish to request an appropriate reward in keeping with the public view of yourself, Ainz-sama. Certainly, it would require a great deal of money to obtain your services. Therefore, what else do you desire besides three thousand coppers?"

Ainz had no idea what the Chief was talking about and his mind was a whirl of confusion. He was silently grateful that he was wearing a mask. The reason Ainz brought out the gold coin was because he wanted to know what it could buy, and thus gain a rough grasp of market values. How had things ended up like this?

The Chief did not give Ainz any opportunity to cut in and continued:

"However, as I said earlier, this village can only produce three thousand copper coins in cash. Although you must be suspicious of us, we would not dare hide the truth from our savior, Ainz-sama."

The Chief's expression seemed honest and determined. He did not seem to be lying. If it turned out to be a deception, then Ainz could only curse his inability to read people.

"No, I am certain that a great man like yourself could not possibly be content with that sum. Perhaps if everyone in the village gathered their wealth, we might be able to produce sufficient cash to satisfy Ainz-sama. However... our village has lost a lot of manpower, and if we paid more than three thousand coppers, we would not be able to survive the coming winter. The same applies with our produce. Many fields will have to be abandoned because we lack the people to work them. If we gave you our supplies, our lives would be very difficult. Although it pains me to have to ask a favor of our savior, perhaps... could we... could we pay by installments?"

Hm? Isn't this a good chance?

It felt like he had been lost in a dense forest, and then his field of view suddenly expanded before him. Ainz pretended to think about it, and then all he could do was pray it all worked out. After a few seconds, Ainz finally gave his reply.

"I understand. The payment will not be needed."

"Eh!? But... but why?"

The Village Chief and his wife stared at Ainz, their eyes wide and their tongues tied. Ainz raised his hand, indicating that he still had something to say. He had to consider what he could and could not reveal, and it was quite troublesome. He did not know if he could guide them into telling him what he wanted, but he had no choice but to try.

"...I am a magic caster. I was researching spells in a place called Nazarick, and I have only stepped outside recently."

"I see, so that is why you are dressed like this."

"Ah, mm. That's right," Ainz muttered as he touched the Jealous Mask.

What would people on the street think if they saw a magic caster walking around in his weird getup?

He thought of the crowded streets of Bali, and just as he was hoping not to see something like that in his world, Ainz noticed something that he could not understand, which was how YGGDRASIL terms were understood and used here.

The term "magic caster" referred to a lot of things. It included clerics, priests, druids, arcaners, sorcerers, wizards, bards, mikos, talismancers, sages and countless other magic-using classes. In YGGDRASIL, they were all called magic casters. It would be surprising if the exact terminology carried over to this world.

As Ainz watched their reaction, he replied:

"...I may have said that I did not want a reward, but a magic caster uses many tools to achieve his aims, including fear and knowledge. These things are all tools for generating profit, but like I said earlier, I was focused on spell research, so my knowledge of local matters is somewhat lacking. Therefore, I would like to learn about the surroundings from the two of you. In addition, I hope you will not tell anyone about this sale of information. I will accept that in lieu of a reward."

Nobody would be so nice as to say "I don't want anything." One could say that nothing was more expensive than being free of charge.

Someone who saved another's life was entitled to a reward for their hard work. Yet, if the savior said they did not want a reward, anyone would find that strange.

Then, the next best thing was to make the other side feel that they had paid in some way, even if it was in an intangible form.

In other words, the best solution to the present situation was to allay their suspicions by having them trade information to Ainz. That would put them at ease.

The Chief and his wife nodded, steadfast looks on their faces.

"I understand. We will not let anyone know about this."

Ainz secretly clenched his fist in approval. It would seem the skills he had picked up through working could still be put to use here.

"Excellent. I do not wish to bind you with magic. I shall trust your good nature."

Ainz extended an armored hand. The Chief stared blankly at it for a moment before taking the situation in, and he grasped Ainz's hand.

After that, Ainz breathed a sigh of relief. It would seem shaking hands was a known practice here. It would have been tremendously depressing if the Chief had looked dumbfoundedly at him.

Of course, Ainz did not fully trust them. After all, mouths that were sealed by the promise of benefits could be opened by bigger benefits. If he tried to play on their personalities to keep them quiet, the vagaries of human nature might make them talk. No method was better than the other, so all Ainz could do was take a chance and hope that the Chief's character would keep his lips sealed. Although, it would be fine even if he did talk. That betrayal would simply be more leverage Ainz could use in future dealings with the village.

That said, Ainz's instincts told him that they would not betray him. After seeing the earnest gratitude of the Chief and his wife, he believed that they would be loyal.

"Then... can you tell me more about this place?"