The Dark Warrior

by Kugane Maruyama

  “Hmm!” Her response containing no sign that she would change caused the creases in the man’s face to deepen.

  “And? What reason could you possibly have for being here? You know I’m pouring energy into the Jewel of Death in this place. If you came to make trouble, I’ll take the liberty of dealing with you as I see fit.” The man squinted and power began to build up in his staff.

  “Aw, Khaj, don’t be that way. I even brought you a present!” The woman grinned and dug around under her cape. There was some jangling, but eventually she found what she was looking for and gleefully pulled it out.

  It was a circlet. Innumerable tiny gems were delicately attached to metal thread as thin as spider silk, making it look like a spiderweb covered in water droplets. A large black crystal was set in its center, about where the wearer’s forehead would be.

  “That’s—” The man’s eyes opened wide. He’d seen one once from a distance, so there was no way he would mistake it. “—the sign of a shrine princess, a Crown of Wisdom—one of the Slane Theocracy’s greatest treasures!”

  “Yup! A cute little girl was wearing this, but it wasn’t her style, so I did her a favor and stole it. And then—what a surprise! She went crazy! Pooping and peeing all over the place!” The woman cackled.

  She was formerly with the Black Scripture, so there was no way she didn’t know what would happen when she removed the Crown of Wisdom from its wearer—one of the shrine princesses, who play key roles in the magic ceremonies the Slane Theocracy performs. When it was time for a new princess to be crowned, sending the one driven insane by the removal of her crown to be with the gods was the Black Scripture’s job.

  “I mean, there was nothing I could do. There’s no other way to take it! It’s the guy who made ’em’s fault! Can’t believe he got away with that.”

  There was no way to safely remove a Crown of Wisdom; the only option was to destroy it. But a Crown of Wisdom transformed a human being into nothing but a font of super-high-tier magic by sealing off their sense of self; it would be a waste to destroy a sacred treasure like that.

  And so, crazy people.

  “Hmph. I can’t believe you betrayed the Black Scripture to steal such a piece of junk. If you were gonna do that, you could have at least stolen one of the sacred treasures left by the Six Gods!”

  “‘Junk’? That’s a bit harsh!” She puffed up her cheeks to pout in a contrived way, and the man sneered at her.

  “Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s junk. The girls who can use that thing are one in a million. You can’t even begin to look for someone to use it unless you’re a nation, like the Slane Theocracy.”

  The Slane Theocracy was the only country in the area that had a registry of inhabitants. That’s how they were able to find the ones who could use the crowns—the sacrifices. Without that kind of system, it would be incredibly difficult to search for them, even with the power of Zurrernorn.

  “Plus, how am I supposed to steal a sacred treasure? The Black Scripture’s strongest monster, with beyond otherworldly powers—the atavistic son of a bitch said to have blood of the gods in him—is guarding them!”

  “That demigod…? Are they really that strong? I’ve only ever heard of them from you.”

  “Oh, man, they’re on a whole ’nother level! But I guess you wouldn’t know because the info is so locked down. Being brainwashed into spilling the beans would mean big trouble, too. I wish there were more info, but they say if word got out, the whole theocracy would get swept up in a war with the remaining true dragonlords and get wiped off the map.”

  “…I highly doubt that.”

  The woman’s tone suddenly changed. “Yeah, I guess you would if you hadn’t seen his power… Anyhow, to get back to my point, Khajit Dale Badantel… We’re both one of the twelve leaders. Let’s work together.”

  “Oh? Is this a peek at the true you? One of the Quintias? But leave out the Dale. I don’t use that name anymore.”

  “Only if you cut out the ‘one of the Quintias’ stuff. Just call me Clementine!”

  “…Clementine, then. What’s this about working together?”

  “There’s someone in this city with a wonderful talent, right? I bet he could use this item.”

  “…Ah. I’ve heard the rumors. But surely you can kidnap a single person on your own?”

  “Well, yeah! But while I’m at it, I want to cause a big commotion.”

  “To escape during the confusion? I see…”

  “So, I thought, what if I said I’d help out with your ritual? Not a bad offer, right?”

  Khajit’s eyes narrowed and a superbly evil smile spread across his face. “Splendid, Clementine. In that case, we can perform the Ritual of Death sooner than planned. I’ll do it. You have my full cooperation.”

  Chapter 2 | Journey

  1

  There were two main routes carriages could take heading from E-Rantel toward the village of Carne to the northeast. They could go north and then follow the forest to the east, or they could start off going east and change course to head north. This time, the group chose the former.

  Going along the forest made the monster-encounter rate slightly higher, so it was technically the wrong choice for an escort job. But the reason they did it was the monster-hunting work Ainz originally agreed to take on with Peter and his crew. There was the risk of chasing two hares and catching neither, but everyone felt secure in knowing that the powerful Momon and Nabe were there, so they chose that route. The Lightning Ainz had had Narberal cast once they were outside the city as proof she could use tier-three magic had surely helped put them at ease.

  In any case, they weren’t going deep into the forest, just out to the plains, so they wouldn’t run into any terribly powerful monsters. Since they would be more than able to deal with them, they decided it would be a good chance to verify each team’s abilities in actual combat.

  They left E-Rantel when the sun was a bit past its peak. Far in the distance they could see a virgin forest so dense it looked like a dark green lump. The thick trees stood straight up, and because their magnificent branches spread out and blocked the sun, visibility inside the forest was poor, and it almost felt as though one were being swallowed up by the darkness. The gaps between trees inspired terrible uneasiness—they seemed almost like gaping maws waiting for prey to jump in.

  The party was arranged with the cart in the center. The driver was Nfirea, naturally, and the others proceeded in a formation where Lukrut the ranger was out front, Peter the warrior was on the left flank, druid Dyne and caster Ninya took the right, and Ainz and Narberal brought up the rear.

  They hadn’t been terribly cautious, partly because visibility was good, but now for the first time Peter spoke in a slightly harder tone. “Momon, we’re entering a bit of a dangerous area. I don’t think there will be any monsters we can’t handle, but be on your guard, just in case.”

  “Understood.” As he nodded, Ainz suddenly thought of something.

  In a game, the monsters a player could encounter in a specific area were set, but there was no way that would hold in real life. God only knows what kind of tricky enemies we’ll be up against.

  Ainz was confident in his own strength after the battle at Carne and based on the info they were able to get out of the Sunlit Scripture members they’d caught. But that was confidence as a caster. At the present moment, Ainz could hardly cast any spells because he was wearing a suit of armor. With his specialty removed from the picture, would he be able to perform as the vanguard everyone was counting on him to be? Also, since this was an escort job, it wasn’t simply a matter of defeating monsters—he had to add keeping Nfirea alive to the victory conditions. Thinking about all of that made him a little anxious.

  If push came to shove, he would ditch the armor and handle the situation with magic, but then he would either have to kill his party or use memory manipulation on them, so he didn’t want that to happen. It’d be a pain.

  Ainz moved his head to look over at Na
rberal. She noticed him and nodded once. They’d planned so that she would cast spells higher than tier three—up to tier five—if it became necessary. Hopefully that would take care of things. If it didn’t, then Ainz would take off his armor and get just a little bit serious.

  Lukrut seemed to have misunderstood something about the pair’s eye contact (even though Ainz was still wearing his close helmet), and he called out to them in his jokey way, “We’re fiiine. You don’t need to worry so much. As long as we don’t get ambushed, nothing bad’ll happen, and as long as I’m our eyes and ears, that’s no problemo. Right, Nabe? Aren’t I amazing?”

  He pulled a gallant face, and Narberal laughed derisively. “May I have permission to beat that mosquito to a pulp, Mr. Momon?”

  “That’s cold, but I’ll take it!” Everyone looked annoyed as he stuck his thumb up, but no one seemed to think anything of Nabe speaking so severely. Luckily they seemed to have interpreted it as her looking down on Lukrut, not calling the entire human race lower life-forms.

  Ainz dismissed her entreaty and felt like he had an ache in his nonexistent stomach. You’re traveling with humans! Be a tiny bit more discreet!

  Nfirea must have understood his body language differently. He jumped in to say, “We’re all right. Actually, from here to around Carne is the territory of the mighty magical beast known as the Wise King of the Forest, so it’s very rare for other monsters to show up.”

  “The Wise King of the Forest?” Ainz recalled what he’d found out in Carne. The Wise King of the Forest was supposedly a magical beast who possessed a terrible amount of power and could even cast spells. He lived so deep in the forest that there were next to no eyewitness accounts, but tales of his existence had been passed down since long, long ago. One account said he was a silver, four-legged beast with the tail of a snake who had lived for hundreds of years.

  I’d like to meet this guy. That story’s hard to swallow, but if he’s really that old, he might have a crazy amount of wisdom. I mean, he’s called the Wise King of the Forest! Capturing him…should help strengthen Nazarick’s position. Ainz vaguely remembered what the magical beast looked like. The Wise King of the Forest…I’m pretty sure there was an extinct animal called something like that… It looked kinda like a monkey… Oh, right, an orangutan. A person…er, a wise man, who lived in the woods…? With a tail like a snake…? I think there was a monster like that. Ainz thought there had been something like that in Yggdrasil, and then he realized what it was. A chimera! Pretty sure that had the face of a monkey, the body of a badger, the limbs of a tiger, and the tail of a snake… I don’t know for sure that this’ll be the Yggdrasil monster, but if this is anything like those angel summons, there’s a good chance.

  As Ainz was recalling everything he knew about Yggdrasil’s chimera, Lukrut was casually talking to Narberal again. “Mm, okay, I gotta do a flawless job so that lovely Nabe will like me more.”

  Narberal’s response was a click of her tongue that seemed to contain all the hatred from the bottom of her heart.

  Lukrut appeared shocked, but no one moved to console him. It seemed they had started considering the pair’s back-and-forth a comedy act.

  Chatting like that now and then, the party continued on, the scorching sun at their backs. As they tramped through the grass, some of the juices from the crushed plants stuck to their leather boots, giving off a green smell.

  Watching everyone mop their sweat, Ainz was thankful for his undead body, which had no trouble at all with the sun beating down and didn’t tire out even though he was wearing heavy armor.

  Lukrut continued to be the one to break the silence with his perky remarks. “You guys don’t have to be on the lookout so much. I got my eyes open! I mean, check out Nabe—she’s totally relaxed because she believes in me.”

  “Not you. It’s because of Mr. Momon.” Creases appeared in her brow. Sensing that in another second or two she’d explode and do something outrageous, Ainz laid a hand on her shoulder and her expression softened immediately.

  Seeing that, Lukrut had a question for them. “Heyyy, are you sure you two aren’t actually lovers?”

  “L-lovers?! What are you talking about?! He has Mistress Albedo!”

  “You—” Ainz blurted. “Watch your mouth, Nabe!”

  “Ah!” Narberal’s eyes popped wide open, and she slapped her hands over her mouth.

  Ainz cleared his throat and spoke in a cold voice. “…Lukrut. Could I ask you to please not inquire any further?”

  “…Oh. Sorry about that. I was just joking. Hmm, so you’re with someone already, huh?” Lukrut didn’t seem very sorry as he bobbed his head, but Ainz wasn’t so mad at him. This time Narberal had been too careless.

  He wondered if he’d brought the wrong person, but he was going nuts in his head because there wasn’t anyone else for him to mobilize. In Ainz Ooal Gown, all the members were grotesques, and almost all the NPCs they’d created were also grotesques, so there was almost no one who could infiltrate a human city. Narberal was one of the few who had a human appearance, even though it was fake…but Ainz hadn’t taken her personality into consideration when he’d picked her. Looking back, Lupusregina Beta, also a member of the Pleiades, might have been more suitable, but it was too late now.

  Narberal was looking pale in the face following her error, so Ainz patted her back a few times to make her feel better. A great boss forgave his subordinates their first mistake. He would just let her have it if it happened again. Having her get all depressed and listless about it could impinge on her performance going forward and that would only make things worse.

  And after all, she had only said Albedo’s name. It probably wasn’t even necessary to manipulate anyone’s memories.

  “Lukrut, cut the chatter and focus on keeping watch.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Momon, I apologize for my friend’s behavior. He knows he shouldn’t be asking personal questions.”

  “It’s okay. As long as it doesn’t happen again, I’m fine overlooking it this time.”

  Both of them looked simultaneously at Lukrut’s back, only to be discouraged by hearing him say, “Ahh, now Nabe hates me. Her affection for me is negative!”

  “That idiot… I’ll give him a good talking-to later. And we’ll pretend we never heard that earlier detail.”

  “Ah well, okay. Thanks. And then if Lukrut’s on watch, I’d like to leave it to him and take the opportunity to talk a bit.”

  “Sure, go ahead. We’ll make him work to offset the trouble he caused.”

  Peter smiled and Ainz moved to walk alongside Ninya and Dyne. In exchange, Dyne dropped back to line up with Narberal.

  “I’d like to ask you a few things about magic…” Ninya said that was fine, so Ainz asked a question. Nfirea looked on, seeming to have taken an interest in their conversation. “People being manipulated with charm or dominate spells end up giving up all the intelligence they have, but is there a spell that, as a counter to that, would cause someone to die if they were asked the same question multiple times under certain circumstances?”

  “I’ve never heard of a spell like that.”

  Ainz moved his head to look at Nfirea through his helmet.

  “Me neither. You might be able to do a delayed cast using magic modification buffs.”

  “I see…” That wasn’t the answer he’d been hoping for. He was no closer to solving the issue of how to use the remaining Sunlit Scripture prisoners.

  There weren’t very many survivors left, and using them up for nothing would be a pity. In order to see if they had some magic medical device that would make them disappear when they died, Ainz had had a few of them dissected live, but it had been a pretty big waste. If things were going to end up like that, then he should have tried to get info out of them once he realized they would die. He missed three chances per captive to get information out of them.

  But Nigun was the biggest waste. Using him first had been a mistake. He was the man with the most int
elligence among them, and he’d been finished off on such a simple question.

  Well, it hadn’t been all for nothing. That failure led to the understanding that he wouldn’t be able to deal with everything in this world using the knowledge he’d cultivated in Yggdrasil. It was better to consider things optimistically—he had learned a lot.

  While Ainz was thinking absentmindedly on those things, Ninya continued his answer. “Still, I only know a fraction of all the spells that exist. In countries that cultivate casters on a national level, it’s possible they’ve created that sort of spell. In the Slane Theocracy, for instance, they train priests—casters who use faith magic—and in the Baharuth Empire they have an academy for arcaners, sorcerers, wizards, and other magical-magic classes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Argland Council State had some kind of magic using the dragons’ wisdom.”

  “I see. So you wouldn’t be surprised if it existed.”

  The Argland Council State, according to the information he’d gathered so far, was a subhuman nation governed by a group of councilors. Given the Slane Theocracy’s principle of human superiority, the two nations were a conflict waiting to happen. The council state was especially known for its five dragon councilors, who were said to possess great power.

  Ainz was interested in that country, but since he was still not all the way on his feet, he couldn’t quite get there at the moment, especially given the sharp drop in Nazarick’s war potential.

  “Okay, then, there’s something else I’d like to ask.” Asking Ninya his other questions, Ainz felt very satisfied.

  The other members of the Swords of Darkness only looked at him to note that Ainz was at it again. He’d gotten Ninya, Peter, and the others to tell him so much that it had become a routine. He learned about a myriad of topics such as magic, martial arts, adventurers, nearby countries, and so on. He had to be careful about what he asked, but everything he heard was extremely useful, and he was confident that his knowledge about the world had increased a great deal.