The Lizardman Heroes

by Kugane Maruyama

  Copyright

  OVERLORD

  VOLUME 4

  KUGANE MARUYAMA

  Translation by Emily Balistrieri

  Cover art by so-bin

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  ©2013 KUGANE MARUYAMA

  All rights reserved.

  First published in Japan in 2013 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION ENTERBRAIN. English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION ENTERBRAIN, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2017 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Maruyama, Kugane, author. | So-bin, illustrator. | Balistrieri, Emily, translator.

  Title: Overlord / Kugane Maruyama ; illustration by So-bin ; translation by Emily Balistrieri.

  Other titles: Ōbārōdo. English

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2016-

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016000142 | ISBN 9780316272247 (v. 1 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316363914 (v. 2 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316363938 (v. 3 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316397599 (v. 4 : hardback)

  Subjects: LCSH: Alternate reality games—Fiction. | Internet games—Fiction. | Science fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure.

  Classification: LCC PL873.A37 O2313 2016 | DDC 895.63/6—dc23

  LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000142

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-39759-9 (hardcover)

  978-0-316-39760-5 (ebook)

  E3-20170429-JV-PC

  Prologue

  “Welcome home, Lord Ainz.” Ainz hadn’t been to his room in a couple of weeks, and the next words out of Albedo’s mouth completely drained him of the will to do anything. “Would you like something to eat? Or a bath? Or maybe…me? ”

  Ainz imagined a wild dance of hearts behind her head. “…What’s with the act?”

  “I’m playing newlyweds, Lord Ainz. When the husband takes his pet and goes to his new job assignment alone, there is no better way for his bride to welcome him home than this, or so I’ve heard. How is it?”

  So this was why she hadn’t met him on the ground level. He wanted to respond with a flat And I care why? but he’d never even dated a woman, much less married one, so he swallowed the comment. He had to keep up appearances. Masculine pride welled up inside him. What kind of reply does she expect, anyway? He wasn’t confident, but he gave a benign response as if he were. “It was pretty attractive, Albedo.”

  She smiled happily and said, “Good. Tee-hee-hee!”

  Being on the receiving end of such a charming smile, he lowered his center of gravity slightly, preparing for action. He felt something creeping up his back like a snake. It was probably the animal lust reflected deep within Albedo’s eyes. But their golden glimmer was deadly serious. If he even joked that he wanted her, she would take it as a promise and descend on him like a beast of intense carnal desire. Words like sexual assault flickered through his mind.

  He’d lost nearly all his physical desires, but the clinging vestiges begged to go along with Albedo’s mood to see a taste of what would happen next. And his spirit of curiosity, which he hadn’t lost, spurred him on.

  Stop it, you fool. It was not with his spirit of self-denial but with some similar power (surely related to being undead) that he managed to ignore her intentions.

  Before they’d been transported to this other world, he’d warped her personality by editing her backstory, as a joke, to say she was in love with him, but now he couldn’t make a move, even though he was already using her in plenty of other ways. In a corner of his heart, he hated himself. It’s not like I can take a swing if I don’t have a bat. I don’t think relationships between men and women can go well based on a mental connection alone… Maybe that’s why I’m scared? thought Ainz the virgin.

  There was another thing. The NPC his old friend had made was a child, in a way. He wondered briefly if it was right to sully or warp her any more than he already had. Are you stupid? This isn’t what you need to be thinking about right now.

  “Ah!”

  The sudden shout from Albedo caused the flames in his empty eye sockets to flare. “Wh-what is it, Albedo? What happened?”

  “I have made an error. Supposedly it is proper etiquette for a new wife to meet her husband wearing nothing but an apron…” She checked her dress and blushed before speaking again. “If you order me to change, I will do so immediately.” She glanced at him, and her quiet but awfully distinct voice continued, “Right in front of you…”

  “Uh…right…ngh. Geez…” He sighed. “Albedo, it’s about time we quit fooling around. Let’s start the report meeting and exchange information.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  Regretfully—though for what, he wasn’t sure—Ainz did his best to ignore her and thunked down into his chair. He tossed three leather bags onto the table. In moments, Albedo had shifted from horny bride to outstanding secretary, ready to receive Ainz’s instructions.

  “First, I’m handing over the money I made in E-Rantel, so put it toward experiments.”

  The bags were different sizes, and the biggest was so full it was nearly overflowing. Inside were the gold, silver, and copper coins Ainz had earned as an adventurer.

  “Understood. Then I’ll use this for Nazarick’s defense systems and testing whether we can summon monsters or not.”

  “Please do. Also check if you can use it for creating scrolls or crafting items.” He looked away from Albedo’s deeply bowed head and gazed at the leather bags with an emotion resembling a prayer.

  Gold coins earned in the game Yggdrasil could be used not only to buy items but also to maintain and manage one’s guild, summon monsters over level 30 that didn’t spawn automatically, cast some spells, craft items, and resurrect dead NPCs, among other things.

  They’d already confirmed that they could use Yggdrasil gold coins, but they hadn’t determined whether they could use this world’s currency—especially silver and copper coins, which didn’t exist in Yggdrasil.

  It wasn’t too much to say Nazarick’s fate depended on these experiments. If the coins in this world worked like Yggdrasil gold, their plans would change in a big way—the importance of obtaining this world’s currency would increase drastically. Depending on the situation, Ainz might have to suddenly make acquiring money the highest priority. On the other hand, if they couldn’t use the coins, the resources in the treasury would become their only lifeline, and they’d have to start budgeting.

  “Then about Clementine�
�”

  At the name of the corpse that had disappeared, Ainz’s immobile face grimaced. He was worried that because of his mistake, she’d been resurrected and was now sharing intelligence on Nazarick with an unspecified multitude of people.

  Nazarick had many potential enemies, but they’d been able to get relatively little information. On top of that, he’d gone and leaked Nazarick’s info. With luck, it might reach some guild members. There might be some around… But it’d be a mistake to expect that kind of luck. I have to be careful from now on. What should I do about Momon?

  If someone were after them, Momon would be the target. Ainz was in the middle of building a foothold, so it would be a waste to abandon the persona now. And it was still too early to let people know that Momon and Ainz were one and the same. All I can do is play it by ear…

  Forced into a mental dead end—no matter how much he pondered, there was no easy answer—he set the issue aside for the moment and considered other things. “I think I might tell Pandora’s Actor to throw one of Clementine’s swords into the shredder.”

  “Shredder?”

  At Albedo’s puzzled voice, Ainz remembered its official name. “The exchange box. You can get a higher price if someone with merchant skills uses it, so I’ll have Pandora’s Actor take on Nearata’s form and use his skills.” Watching Albedo bow her head in acknowledgment, Ainz proceeded to unroll a piece of parchment on the table. “One other thing. Here’s the world map I finally got my hands on in E-Rantel.”

  “This is… Hmm…”

  He knew why Albedo was frowning slightly. The map wasn’t very detailed.

  “I understand how you feel. And it only covers this area, just a part of the world. The scaling is probably off, and a lot of geographical features are missing. Plus, it mainly shows human countries; there’s only one subhuman nation on here. It’s totally sloppy, but it seems like this is the best we can get.”

  Ainz had learned about many places from the head of the wizards’ guild thanks to their budding friendship—for example, the plains where the centaur tribes resided, the papigsag scorpion-people villages in the desert, the mountains where the dwarves had built their country, and more—but the parchment showed none of these. In the end, this map was nothing more than a tool for the convenience of humans by humans.

  A map was unusable if it wasn’t reliably accurate. But a better one would be hard to get without massive investments of time and money. So Theo Rakheshir had said, and given how friendly the wizard leader was being with Ainz, it must have been the truth. Ainz could tell from his response that just getting this map had been a nearly impossible request.

  “Understood. Then let’s copy this and pass it out to all the guardians.”

  “Yeah, but before we do that, let me give you a simple explanation.” Ainz pointed to the middle of the map. The drawing was fairly detailed. “This is E-Rantel…and the Great Tomb of Nazarick is around here.” He moved his finger to the northeast, stopping in the vicinity of a huge forest. Perhaps it was only natural, but he could pick out Nazarick’s location from just the surrounding topography with a fair amount of confidence. “These are the Azerlisia Mountains that form the border between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire. The Tove Woodlands extend from their southern edge and wrap around them. And here lies a big lake.” Between the southern tip of the mountains and the woodlands was a lake shaped like an upside-down gourd formed by the rivers running down the mountains, and Ainz’s finger stopped at its southern shore. “This is a large marsh, where several lizardman villages are situated.”

  Ainz noted Albedo’s nod and continued. “Now, I’ll pass on to you the brief descriptions of our neighboring countries that the head of the wizards’ guild gave me. To the northwest of the kingdom is a rugged region divided by several mountain ranges. This area is the Argland Council State, home to multiple subhuman races. We need to watch out for the dragon councilors—there are said to be five or seven.

  “Then, to the southwest, is a place called the Sacred Kingdom. It’s fairly rough on this map, but apparently a giant rampart surrounds their country. Like the Great Wall of China. They’re always on guard against threats from this wasteland, although it isn’t marked on the map. The different subhuman races are constantly fighting there.”

  “That’s where Demiurge went, right?”

  “Yeah. And then on the other side is the Slane Theocracy. We need to watch out for them.”

  “Is this the border?” Albedo traced a line with a delicate finger.

  “Maybe. Honestly, the boundaries drawn here don’t mean much. The map is too rough. Okay, let’s look at the empire side. Northeast from the empire there are several allied city-states. Supposedly there’s at least one subhuman city-state as well. Then to the southwest of the empire is an area with giant quartzite pillars, and it seems there’s this race of humans…? Apparently they tame wyverns and live in the numerous caves there.” From what Ainz had heard, it sounded like a place like Wulingyuan, but the details were unclear.

  “Wyvern riders?”

  In Yggdrasil, wyverns were beasts with levels in the late 30s that players with mounted soldier classes could call upon and ride, but he had no proof that they were the same in this world.

  “…Yeah. They’re probably pretty strong, but even if they are, I’m not worried about them attacking the Great Tomb. But below that… This map cuts off around the eastern part of this huge lake.” Ainz indicated a place on the table instead of the map. “Supposedly there’s a country called the Dragon Kingdom here.”

  “Dragons?”

  “Yeah. Legends say the powerful dragons of old created that country and that the royalty there still has dragon blood flowing in their veins… I have no idea if that’s true or not, but…anyway, that’s it for the map.” In the world where Ainz went by the name Satoru Suzuki, this would all sound like lies, but in this world, it could very well be true.

  “So the countries we should look out for are the Slane Theocracy and the Argland Council State?”

  Ainz crossed his arms and hmmed. This was basically all they knew about the surrounding polities, but that was mainly because they hadn’t collected enough information.

  Albedo slowly bowed her head. “Excuse my error. At present we should be on guard against every country, shouldn’t we?”

  “…That’s right. Even if a country itself doesn’t seem like an issue, you never know what kind of individuals you’ll find inside.” Like the one who used a World Item on Shalltear. It seemed like Albedo understood without him saying it aloud.

  Ainz tapped the table at two locations in the east and south. “But in the east there’s a city that rises out of the sea, and in the south, the city that the Eight Kings of Avarice built. These are probably the cities we have to watch out for the most—especially the latter, a floating city in the middle of the desert.”

  “Floating city?”

  “If the story I heard is correct, it’s beneath a floating castle that pours an infinite amount of water. Apparently the whole city is surrounded by a magic barrier, so you’d never think it was in a desert.”

  A cold glint appeared in Albedo’s eyes, and she made her proposal in a rather restrained tone. “Should we have some minions conduct a reconnaissance-in-force?”

  “We don’t need to go stepping on a tiger’s tail. Even if whoever used the World Item did come from there, we should pretend to be agreeable until we figure out how strong they are… How’s Shalltear doing?”

  “There’s nothing physically wrong with her after the resurrection, but…”

  “Don’t mince words. Even I get anxious, you know!”

  “Ah! My deepest apologies. The truth is, I am a little worried about her, mentally speaking.”

  “…Are there lingering effects from the mind control? Does the World Item still affect her after we killed and resurrected her?”

  “No, it’s not that… It seems like she’s unable to forgive herself for fighting you.”


  Ainz was confused for a moment.

  Everything had been due to his error; Shalltear had done nothing wrong. He told her that many times.

  “If you’ll forgive me the rudeness of speaking against your decision…”

  Ainz nodded at her serious expression.

  “Perhaps you should have punished her.”

  The red sparks in his eye sockets dulled. He opened his mouth—then closed it as she continued.

  “Clear rewards and punishment keep all in order. If you punish her, her guilt will disappear. Without penance, she stays unable to come to terms with her crime.”

  I see, thought Ainz. It was true that rewards existed as the reverse of punishment. But Ainz had been a normal company employee, so he had a hard time judging when to reprimand and when to forgive. His normal self would avoid the issue entirely by excusing everything.

  In that case, he felt a bit bad for Shalltear, but providing retribution might be good practice for him.

  “…Got it. I’ll come up with some punishment for her.”

  “I think that’s for the best. Do forgive me for my outspoken behavior.”

  “What are you talking about? I want suggestions like this. I’ve been wishing someone would give me opinions when I’m not sure what to do. Albedo, as the captain of the floor guardians, it’s entirely appropriate.”

  “Thank you!” The peerless beauty’s cheeks reddened, and she bowed with moist eyes.

  Ainz was flustered by her expression of genuine happiness and responded with a benevolent wave. “Okay, I’m going to go back for now and get some work done. I’ll leave things here up to you.”

  “Yes, please do! While you’re gone, I’ll take responsibility for managing everything.” He thought he heard something in a low voice about being his wife, but he let it go because Albedo still had more to say. “But Lord Ainz, please be careful. We can’t be certain that the one who controlled Shalltear won’t launch another attack.”

  “Hmph!” Ainz looked displeased for the first time since returning to his room. “If they do, I’ll kick their ass…well, maybe it wouldn’t be that easy. But don’t worry, Albedo. Our enemy is unknown. I intend to prioritize retreat if I encounter them. And I’ve readied some protection.” Ainz looked slowly up at the ceiling, his mind on their supposed enemy.