The Paladin of the Sacred Kingdom Part I

by Kugane Maruyama

  Orthrouses. Like kentauroses, only half carnivorous beast instead of half horse. Stronger in combat than kentauroses but can’t run as fast.

  Magiroses. Innate magic ability allowed them to use up to tier-four spells. The magic type they could wield apparently manifested visibly on their bodies as tattoos. The stronger ones were covered in them head to toe. Some of them were also casters, and in those cases it was rumored they could use up to tier five. Perhaps those were lord-tier individuals.

  Pteroposes. A race of cliff dwellers that excelled at gliding. They could also fly, but it took quite a bit of energy, so they could only do it for a certain amount of time per day. And after that, they wouldn’t even be able to glide. As long as they didn’t fly, they could whip out cutting gusts of wind that were difficult to protect against even in armor, so they were stronger when they weren’t flying.

  Then there were the bufolk.

  The other six consisted of races that either had members who were very strong individually or didn’t have a tendency to live in close proximity or cooperate.

  Ogres.

  Pri-um, a race similar to ogres that possess control over the earth and were considered by some to be a powerful species. Their special powers were deeply associated with dirt and soil.

  Va-um, similar to pri-um but with water powers instead of earth.

  Nagarajas. A race of people with scaly snake bodies equipped with arms. Though their name was similar to naga, the two were actually completely different races and didn’t get along. Born with the ability to cast several spells, they sometimes also used weapons and armor.

  Spriggans. A race with the ability to change size at will. Essentially good; evil spriggans were exceedingly rare. But whether good or bad, if they got out of control, they were impossible to handle.

  Zooostias. With upper bodies of beastmen and lower bodies of carnivorous beasts, this was a race similar to kentauroses and orthrouses. They wore lamellar armor and carried oval shields. They didn’t have any special abilities, but they served well as heavy cavalry possessing the power and ferocity of wild animals. Since zooostias were individually quite strong, orthrouses often relied on them; it could be said that their relationship resembled that between goblins and hobgoblins. But given the zooostias lack special abilities, they weren’t terribly difficult foes for adventurers who could use Fly or the like; still, in a head-on clash, an orichalcum team would have a tough fight ahead of them.

  “According to the King of Darkness, the enemy could be staking out your base, right? In that case, they probably know about the troops here, so it’s best to assume the enemy knows what kind of numbers we have, too. That means he won’t send too many, which will work in our favor. But there’s one problem.”

  “Food.”

  “Yeah. The priests should be able to make some with their magic, but even if we had them use up all their mana, it wouldn’t be anywhere near enough. And we can’t just eat subhumans like they eat us.”

  Remedios and Gustav looked disgusted, but all three of them were aware that some subhumans ate humans.

  And it was why they knew that if they made it a battle to see whose supplies would hold out the longest, they would lose. Every prison camp doubled as a storehouse packed with food for subhumans.

  “How long will our food last? We should f—”

  “The orders to calculate it have already been given. And I’m also checking if we have a blacksmith who could adapt some of the subhumans’ equipment so we could use it.”

  “Nice going, Commander.”

  The trio’s meeting in preparation for a siege battle scenario continued for a while. After a little over an hour, they must have reached a conclusion they all agreed on; they exchanged smiles.

  “Okay. Get us prepped for a siege.”

  A week later, when they had less food and they really needed to start heading south, the subhuman army appeared far off on the horizon.

  But it was a far greater force than any of them had expected.

  5

  Watching the city begin to panic as the enormous host of subhuman soldiers drew closer, Ainz slowly crumpled to the ground.

  This was not a metaphor.

  The extreme strain that had built up in his mind mentally exhausted him despite being undead, and his knees hit the ground. He covered his face with his hands.

  What do I do…? What am I supposed to do now…?

  Ainz had been basically following the script that Demiurge prepared.

  Naturally, it wasn’t as if he had written out every word and gesture—there was a lot of ad-libbing—but even so, Ainz felt he had adhered to Demiurge’s plan.

  Or rather, the problem was that there had been too much ad-libbing.

  Frankly, most of what Demiurge’s manual said was Go with the flow.

  This is extremely unhelpful. That’s what Ainz thought the first time he laid eyes on it.

  If Ainz were a brilliant person, perhaps he could have perfectly played the role of the King of Darkness. But unfortunately, Ainz only had average, or possibly even slightly below-average, abilities.

  And so a fierce fight broke out between the two of them.

  To summarize, Ainz pleaded, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this. Write a more detailed plan, and Demiurge humbly answered, I couldn’t possibly insult your intelligence in such a way, my lord. Ainz was disadvantaged from the start, but then Albedo joined in, cementing his defeat.

  Which is how the operation manual that left everything up to him remained in use.

  If Demiurge was picking on him, he might have been able to find another way to fight back, but the present situation was the result of the trust and respect his subordinates had for him.

  Especially when he could tell they were thinking, You’re sure to get better results than us, Lord Ainz, so it wouldn’t do for us to limit you, there was simply nothing he could do.

  Using a little common sense, would a king really go off to another country on his own…?! This is so forced… But I’ve made it this far. I bent over backward a few times and nearly failed, but I’ve made it this far.

  He didn’t believe in any gods, but he sure wanted to pray to one now.

  I wish Demiurge and Albedo would at least take into account my strengths when they tell me what to do…

  When they gave him impossible tasks, it sucked all the motivation right out of him.

  ……Okay, c’mon. Hang in there, me. If you can get past this, the rest’ll be comparatively easy.

  Ainz tensed his legs and stood up.

  The plan was reaching the middle stage, the climax, and it was The Worst.

  Demiurge had told him that if they were to build a defensive line at this city, he would attack until 85 percent casualties were reached.

  Ainz didn’t feel anything about that.

  If that was what Demiurge thought, it was surely better than whatever he would have come up with. If that many dying was good for Nazarick, then that was what should happen. Actually, it made him wonder if killing more would be even better.

  The problem was that Demiurge wanted a list of the people he shouldn’t kill.

  If that were all, Ainz could have listed some random names and been done, but there was a condition: It had to be people who either worshipped Ainz or seemed likely to join his side.

  When Demiurge got in touch to say, Knowing you, Lord Ainz, I’m sure you’ve already mesmerized a number of humans like you did that dwarf, so please tell me their names. I’ll take care not to kill them, Ainz wondered if he was being sarcastic.

  “…There’s no one…” Ainz moaned in spite of himself.

  There wasn’t anyone who worshipped him.

  On the contrary, he could feel—tangibly—the intense hatred for undead the Sacred Kingdom had.

  How was he supposed to overcome that adversity to get someone to adore him?

  But there was no way he could tell Demiurge there wasn’t a single person.

  Demiurge was utterly co
nvinced that Ainz was capable of captivating people. So what would he think if he told him that getting even one was impossible?

  My stomach hurts…

  The dwarf Demiurge mentioned was probably Gondo Firebeard, but that had been pure luck. He just happened to land a critical hit on a weak point; there was no way such good fortune would repeat itself.

  And it was thanks to having Gondo as a source of information that he had been able to strike so effectively at the rune crafters. But he didn’t have someone that close to him in the Sacred Kingdom.

  He had succeeded in getting on friendly terms with the squire Neia Baraja, but that was as far as their relationship went.

  And he had lent her a magic item to deepen their friendship—not that that was the only reason—but he wasn’t sure how effective it had been. She was always looking at him with the eyes of a murderer, so he didn’t think he should expect much.

  If I told him there was only one, what would he say? Ainz asked himself.

  Would Demiurge’s image of him shatter into a zillion pieces if he did that?

  And then what would happen?

  I told him back in the dwarf country that I wasn’t as smart as he thought, but he doesn’t seem to have believed me… This is bad. How high has he built me up in his mind? Or, like, is the feeling that he keeps building me up bigger and bigger just in my head? Doesn’t this usually happen in the opposite way?

  The expectations were painful. Not burdensome—painful.

  The old him never knew what a heavy, stifling thing loyalty was. What hurt the most was how great his subordinates thought he was.

  Maybe this is just the right time to let him know that I’m not as awesome as he thinks. But if the plan he’s been working on for so long fails because of me, then what? If I worked for several years on a deal and then one dumb remark from my boss ruined the whole thing…

  Ahhh, he thought, and would have been pulling his hair out except he didn’t have any.

  What should I do?

  What’s the optimal answer?

  No matter how many times he simulated the outcome in his head, Demiurge looked at him with disappointment in his eyes. He couldn’t reach a satisfying conclusion.

  It’s because they expect too much—it’s because I’ve climbed too high that I’ll take so much damage when I fall. That’s the whole reason I keep telling them I’m not so great…

  Ainz’s own plans failed pretty often.

  Ainz reached into space and took out a sword.

  It was a normal sword with runes carved in it.

  But it contained as much power as the bow he had lent to Neia.

  Of course, this wasn’t a rune weapon crafted by the dwarves. The runes had no power at all; this had been made with Yggdrasil technology.

  Sigh… Ainz had a number of these weapons prepared. His original plan was to lend them to people on the Sacred Kingdom side. The point was to talk up the rune gear made in the Nation of Darkness by telling the people of the Sacred Kingdom wowed by the items’ power that they were finished products.

  That was the other reason he had lent Neia the bow.

  He thought the people who saw it would all want to borrow gear from him.

  Alas…

  Ainz cradled his head. Why doesn’t anyone ask me to borrow gear…? That bow is so flashy. I was sure it would catch people’s attention… Should I have forced her to go fight on the front lines with it…?

  Just then, Ainz jumped. There had been a knock on his door that caught him off guard.

  He swiftly checked for wrinkles in his clothes. After putting the sword away in extra-dimensional space, he clasped his hands behind his back in a ruler-like pose and called loudly toward the door. “Who is it?”

  “Your Majesty, may I come in?”

  From the other side of the door, it was hard to tell if it was a man or a woman. Normally, he would ask for a name, but Demiurge had let him know ahead of time to expect someone, so he allowed the person to come in. “Sure, come on in.”

  Once the person entered the room, they shape-shifted.

  They had a head like an egg, and their eyes and mouth were like cutout holes. Three slender, inchworm-like fingers extended from each hand.

  It was a doppelgänger.

  Demiurge had asked to borrow one.

  As monsters go, doppelgängers weren’t very strong.

  Even when transforming, they could only copy powers up to around level 40, so they ended up weaker than they were in their natural forms. Their most impressive power was probably their ability to use weapons with lots of conditions, such as those that required karma points. Still, they couldn’t use legacy-tier or higher gear.

  The creature looked at Ainz with wide eyes and then bowed.

  “I’m terribly sorry for the disrespect, Lord Ainz. I hope you’ll have mercy on me.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You only did your job. I have no complaints about that.”

  “I’m not worthy of your grace.”

  Ainz glanced toward the door. “Aren’t you extremely busy right now? Being in charge of a lot of different things must be tough. And is there someone outside the door? If so, we need to lower our voices.”

  “It’s all right. When I told everyone I was going alone because I was going to see you, no one objected.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yes,” said the doppelgänger. But they probably still needed to exercise some caution. “So, Lord Ainz, what should I do?”

  “About what?” he said, but actually, he knew why the doppelgänger had come.

  In fact, he was supposed to tell the doppelgänger—yes, about the people who worshipped him.

  “Do excuse me. I’ve come regarding the matter of who should be spared, of who is loyal to you.”

  “Hmm…” Ainz nodded benevolently and began walking.

  Naturally, he didn’t leave the room. He merely paced around it. He was sure that the eyes of the doppelgänger were following him, though it was impossible to tell by looking at what they were focused on. That said, it would be frightening if they weren’t looking at him.

  There wasn’t much time. Thinking frantically, Ainz froze.

  He wasn’t sure if he had arrived at the right answer. But he had no clue about how he could fudge this.

  If he were human, his heart probably would have been obnoxiously loud, but in this body, he didn’t have any pounding organs.

  As intense emotions welled up and were automatically suppressed, leaving only smaller waves to press in on him, Ainz finally answered the doppelgänger.

  “Right. I’ll be honest. There’s no one we need to save. Thin them out as needed.”

  Afterword

  As a child getting scolded by your parents to finish your summer vacation homework or when it’s time to flip the calendar to August, I’m sure lots of you have wished August had sixty days.

  I certainly did, raising my hand in class on the first day of September to say I forgot my homework.

  And this year, it actually happened to me! I always wanted to be the kind of adult whose childhood dream comes true, and now I am! How wonderful!

  You—okay that’s about enough of that. Buying time with pseudo-excuses won’t solve anything.

  So this ran a little later than I anticipated, but I managed to get it out. Well, I think it’s within the acceptable range of error. I mean, so much happened. Truly. Both good and bad things.

  Still, while in the hospital I’ve read a lot of digital books, and I thought, Hey, ebooks are handy! I didn’t realize they were so convenient. I thought it would be good for Overlord to have a digital version, too, so I decided to do that. There are so many things we don’t get until we try them ourselves. And so many situations we can’t understand until we are in them ourselves.

  By the way, this is a tangent, but most of the digital books I read are manga, especially romcoms.

  Last but not least, allow me to express my gratitude to so many people. Especially to you who p
icked up this book. And to this hospital.

  Well, I hope to see you again for the next book. Thank you.

  September 2017

  KUGANE MARUYAMA

  Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.

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