The Two Leaders

by Kugane Maruyama

  “I was just kidding! It was a joke!” Foäille hurried after her.

  The familiar exchange ended, and they walked—not without asking Inclement, who was quietly reading next to them, to save their seats—to the buffet.

  The first thing Cixous grabbed was crispy bacon. As part of the “floppy bacon is just wrong” faction, this was a required item for her. Next, she got soup. From “today’s special,” corn soup and onion soup, she chose the onion. Then she mounded sausage, fried potatoes, and Danish onto her plate and piled another dish to overflowing with a salad that was mainly onions. Finally, she moved toward a male servant wearing a mask.

  “Um, I’ll have triple cheese, double onions, and mushrooms please.”

  The male servant bowed and began frying up an omelet.

  Cixous returned to her seat for the moment to put down her food. When she went back to the servant, with a cup of milk in one hand, he was just finishing up her order.

  “Thank you.”

  She took the perfect omelet, no burned spots, back to her seat, and her friends were just arriving, too.

  “Okay, let’s eat!”

  “Yum!”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  The three of them began to eat in silence. For an average woman, the portions were far too big, but they rapidly packed the mountains of food into their stomachs. One of their racial penalties was the need for a lot of food.

  That was why, though they were good friends, they never chatted while eating.

  Foäille chewed with her cheeks stuffed full, Lumièlle ate neatly with her fork doing unusually rapid laps between her plate and her mouth, and Cixous was somewhere in between.

  In a surprisingly short time, the food on their plates was gone, and they were finishing off their milk.

  “Ahh!”

  All three of their milky exhalations overlapped. Then they exchanged glances.

  “…Want to go around again?”

  “Yeah, but let’s rest for a little while first.”

  “I agree! My tummy’s even poking out a little bit. By the way, Cixous, isn’t it your turn to serve Lord Ainz today?” Foäille asked, grinning. “You’re looking sharper than usual.”

  Cixous couldn’t help but smile, too.

  “How lucky. I wonder how many more days until my turn.” Lumièlle started counting on her fingers.

  The chambers of the highest rulers of Nazarick were spacious, so cleaning a suite carefully on one’s own would easily take half a day.

  Certainly, by the numbers, it was possible to clean them all every day, even including other rooms like the spare one Albedo was using, but several people would have had to work full-time with no rest.

  Still, that wasn’t a problem for them. They were created by members of Ainz Ooal Gown, who ruled the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Working their hardest for them was only natural—to them, it was quite literally serving the gods.

  But the godlike being Ainz Ooal Gown stopped them from working like religious fanatics.

  He knew the pain of working for a tyrannical company, so he couldn’t force that kind of lifestyle on what were basically his friends’ daughters.

  He instructed them to clean unused rooms less frequently and also broke them up into teams in order to give time off.

  And so Nazarick’s maids were currently split into morning and evening teams. Thirty were in the former group and ten in the latter. The one remaining person would take the day off. In other words, they got a day off only once every forty-one days, and some of them complained about the arrangements.

  Not that there were too few days off—they protested the opposite. The servants petitioned to get rid of vacation days.

  Their whole reason for existing was serving the Supreme Beings. When they were told they didn’t have to do anything, they lost their sense of self-worth. All they felt was the negative emotion that they weren’t needed.

  So they negotiated with Ainz directly: Please don’t take our work away. We want to work all day.

  Ainz immediately rejected their appeals. On one hand, the concept of exhaustion had existed in Yggdrasil, but it could be cured with magic. At the same time, that didn’t necessarily mean the same thing was possible in this world. Ainz was worried that even if he treated their fatigue with purely magic, their gears would slowly wear down and stop working.

  Their stubborn ruler wouldn’t back off, so they had no choice but to accept his decision. Seeing them fight back their tears, he proposed a compromise.

  A position that would answer to him directly.

  He declared that the maids would take turns, one by one, waiting on him and helping him with all his work.

  To these girls for whom serving the Supreme Beings was the greatest joy, this was like icing on their cake. They jumped at the opportunity with zero hesitation and accepted that on the day before they would serve him, they were to take a day off so they would be ready to serve him to the best of their ability.

  “You need to eat all your nutrients and work hard! There’s a good chance you’ll have to work through a meal, you know.”

  “Of course. The one serving Ainz needs to send a lot of nutrients to their brain.”

  “It makes you crave sweets.”

  All three of them nodded. Incidentally, maids carried supplemental meals high in sugar content on their person. When they were working for Ainz, they snacked on them whenever they found a spare moment, but if they were unlucky—or maybe, if they were lucky—they wouldn’t have time. That was why it was so important to eat a big breakfast.

  “Oh, did you hear? Apparently, they’re going to start cooking with ingredients from the outside world, and I heard they’re having a tasting.”

  Cixous’s friends gasped at this news.

  That’s only natural, she thought.

  No maids had positive feelings for the world outside Nazarick. Some of them looked down on it, but the majority simply thought it was scary—many remembered the raiders from the outside who penetrated all the way to the eighth level, the one above them.

  “Can all the maids participate? It must be only some, right?”

  As Cixous was about to answer Foäille’s question, the atmosphere in the cafeteria suddenly changed. Something like a buzz of excitement went through the room.

  They followed the gazes of the other maids just as the cheers went up.

  “Shizuuu!”

  “It’s Shizu!”

  One of the combat maids, Shizu, had just entered the cafeteria.

  The regular maids admired the combat maids as if they were pop idols, and Shizu was the most popular one. Competition for seats near her was fierce.

  “Oh, and the penguin.”

  She was carrying a penguin under her arm, and a perplexed-looking male servant followed them. The assistant butler was struggling, but he was a level-1 birdman—he couldn’t escape Shizu’s tough grasp. As they watched, his frantic resistance devolved into powerlessness.

  Eventually he gave up completely and went limp. He was like a live stuffed animal.

  “Shizu! Over here, over here! Let’s eat together!”

  “No, please come over here, Shizuuu!”

  “Leave the assistant butler somewhere over there! Just chuck him!”

  “Take that useless bird to the chef! Then he’ll at least be able to contribute to Nazarick in some way!”

  There was no helping the overt difference in reception between Shizu and the assistant butler. The birdman had a habit of spouting blasphemy about how he wanted to rule Nazarick, so no one much cared for him. Even if the Supreme Beings made him that way, it was too hard to put up with his behavior when he was always talking like that.

  Hearing everyone shouting for her, Shizu glanced around the cafeteria. Many maids were touched by the childlike way she either searched for someone or was contemplating where to sit.

  “When Shizu is holding him, he looks kinda cute somehow. It’s so weird.”

  “Maybe I’ll make her a body pillow to hold
instead. Mistress Albedo seems to know a lot about them. Maybe I can get her to teach me.”

  “Mistress Albedo is nice, so I bet she would. Why not try asking her?”

  Shifting her gaze in response to the sound of a book snapping shut at the next table, Cixous caught Inclement standing up to leave.

  “It got noisy in here, so I’m going back. If you’re serving Lord Ainz today, I think you should hurry up and finish eating, too, so you can go. If you make a mistake, it’ll reflect poorly on all of us.”

  Having said her piece, Inclement walked away without waiting for a reply. Watching her go, Cixous checked the time on her pocket watch. She still had some leeway, but once she had eaten more and touched up her appearance, time would probably be running short.

  “Okay. Let’s go get seconds quickly while everyone is fighting over Shizu.”

  Her friends agreed with her suggestion.

  “Ooh, nice idea.”

  The maids nearly jumped out of their skin at the voice that had come from immediately next to them.

  “L-Lupusregina!” Cixous turned to the voice’s owner, pressing both hands over her pounding chest. Just a moment ago, there had been no one, but in the brief time she’d been distracted by Shizu and looked away, Lupusregina had appeared. She was sitting sideways on a chair with her legs crossed and even had her meal placed neatly on the table in front of her.

  “Don’t surprise us like that, geez!” Foäille, with pathetic, pleading eyebrows, still clung to Lumièlle.

  “I thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest!” Lumièlle murmured in a daze; she didn’t seem to have the wherewithal to be indifferent about Foäille’s embrace.

  The three of them reproved her, but their faces were smiling. Lupusregina was the only combat maid who interacted with all of them on the level of friends, but her patterns of activity were erratic. Since she changed groups each day, being approached by her could be considered a sign of good luck. Hence, the jealous looks Cixous and her friends were getting from other maids.

  “Nyee-hee-hee. It was worth experimenting in the village. Nice reactions, guys.”

  Lupusregina propped her head up on her hands and grinned like a cat from a storybook. It was a spiteful smile but also strangely charming, which made it mysterious, and Cixous admired it for a little while.

  The other two seemed to feel much the same, but the first one to recover was Foäille. “The village?” When she cocked her head, her short bob tickled Lumièlle’s face.

  With a look like she was holding back a sneeze, she shoved Foäille away. Then she straightened up and faced Lupusregina. “Miss Lupusregina, I did hear you’re working outside.”

  “Yup, I’m workin’ in a human village.”

  “A human village… Sounds difficult.” Lumièlle gave Lupusregina a sympathetic look.

  “Nah. Plus, I was ordered to do it by Lord Ainz himself, so it’s worth it… To be honest, though, it’s pretty borin’. If they would get overrun in an attack, that would be more fun.”

  Cixous didn’t think twice about the remark. What became of the human village wasn’t any of her concern; it could flourish or go to ruin, as long as it was useful to Nazarick.

  “Lord Ainz says it has value, but I don’t really know what it is.”

  “Knowing Lord Ainz, perhaps he took pity on the worthless humans.”

  “No, no, Lord Ainz is a gale-force wind of death. He’s probably just waiting for the right time to trample them.”

  “What are you saying? Lord Ainz is a crystallization of wisdom! It must be part of a bigger plan.”

  “Hold up, can’t let that pass. Might is Lord Ainz’s true forte.”

  The four girls glared at one another, practically growling.

  “Lord Ainz is a kind, beautiful person!”

  “Lord Ainz is death manifest in this world!”

  “Lord Ainz is an unparalleled genius!”

  “Whoa, looks like we all have different ideas of what Lord Ainz is like, huh? In that case, a challenge: Who can give him the most fittin’ nickname?”

  For a moment, silence. Lupusregina was smiling as usual, but she didn’t seem to have any intention of being left in the dust when it came to divining Ainz’s true nature. Still, that went for Cixous and her friends as well.

  Regular maids may have been weak level-1 beings, but they wouldn’t back down when it came to respect and adoration of their master.

  “You three can go first.”

  “Then…” Lumièlle was the first to speak. “As I said before, I think we need to exalt Lord Ainz’s beauty. So how about ‘the Ever-Radiant Lord of Most Merciful Love with the Aesthetically Glorious Porcelain-White Visage’?”

  Next was Foäille. “If we’re going to exalt Lord Ainz, what needs to be emphasized is his great power! Given that he’s an overlord, it has to be ‘Memento Mori,’ right?”

  Cixous went third. “Lord Ainz was once the leader of the Supreme Beings, so he must have superior skills for running and maintaining an organization, so I say ‘the Resourceful King.’”

  All the nicknames fit their master, but they all still felt that their own choice fit him best. Cixous, then Foäille and Lumièlle all focused on the last person.

  Her turn having come around, Lupusregina cleared her throat, “Ahem,” and said with a smug grin, “It’s gotta be ‘the Absolute Strongest in—’”

  “…So that’s where you were,” a soft voice said. It was Shizu. Éclair the assistant butler must have gone somewhere, because he wasn’t under her arm anymore. “…Please don’t go completely invisible all the time.”

  “Sorry! Guess it’s just a habit now.”

  “…And you started eating without me.” Anger like a haze of heat showed through beneath Shizu’s barely changing expression.

  Cixous realized it could be risky to stick around any longer. “Oh, I have to get going to Lord Ainz’s.”

  “Then I’ll head out, too.”

  “I’ll walk with you partway.”

  Cixous and her friends quietly stood, pretending not to notice Lupusregina’s glances pleading for help.

  In the end, Cixous missed out on seconds. She had many regrets about that, but she had to compose herself.

  Clearing her mind of the precarious atmosphere behind her, she slapped her cheeks to steel herself. Her face was that of a brave warrior heading to battle, but she walked forward with light steps.

  9:20 AM Nazarick Time

  The sixth level of the Great Tomb of Nazarick…

  This zone, boasting the largest area of any in the great tomb, was protected by not the typical undead but monsters that wouldn’t usually spawn there, like Aura’s magical beasts. Most of it was covered in thickly growing forest, making “sea of trees” an apt description.

  But the enthusiastic members of the once extant guild Ainz Ooal Gown weren’t satisfied with simply painting the place green.

  There was an arena, a giant tree, ruins of a settlement that had been swallowed up by the forest, a lake, a poisonous den, gnarled trees, mangroves, a bottomless swamp, and more; it was designed with diversity. Recently they had even built a small village to welcome new residents.

  In the center of this sea of trees with its many highlights was a big—although not as big as the underground lake zone on level four—body of water, and it was surrounded by grass, not trees. The meadow and the lake were only a tiny part of the sixth level, but it was big enough for the girls to do what they came for.

  One of the girls was a guardian of the level, Aura. She looked impressive on the back of her giant jet-black wolf and seemed right at home.

  But of course she did. Although she had extraordinary physical ability and could easily run to patrol the vast grounds, she preferred riding her magical beasts.

  There were two other girls.

  One was Captain of the Guardians Albedo. Instead of her usual white dress, she was wearing her black full plate armor, but she had no weapon or shield.

  The other was
Shalltear. Nothing about her was different from usual. There was a strange look in her eyes, like she was highly engaged or having fun.

  “Okay, here I go. Come to me, mount!” Albedo used the skill Summon Mount.

  A magical beast the same color as her armor wavered into sight where there had been nothing. The beast had a white mane and tail and resembled a horse. He wore equestrian full plate armor and was fitted with a saddle and reins.

  His body was slightly smaller than a horse’s, but he had a much more powerful air about him. The most obvious difference was his head, which had two horns jutting out to the front.

  The first one to react to the mount that appeared was Aura, who had the most detailed magical beast knowledge of anyone present. “Wow! He’s different from a normal bicorn! Those horns are magnificent, and his body’s really toned!”

  Albedo emitted a proud laugh. “That’s right. His strength matches my level—he should probably be called a war bicorn lord. Though, actually, he’s a level–one hundred bicorn…”

  “Can he fly?!”

  “No, that’s impossible. His abilities aren’t so different from a normal bicorn’s. He doesn’t have extra skills, just boosted health, muscular strength, and agility.”

  “I guess you can’t power up mounts without rider skills, huh? So if we participate in a level–one hundred battle, our mounts’ skills will be weak and we’ll just be in the way.”

  “Yes, but I can protect him with my skills, so we can go the distance in battle.”

  “But then do you not have to split your resources? I daresay that is a lot of wasted energy during combat. What about equipping different gear to strengthen him? I have heard that mount monsters can equip things similar to armor and horseshoes.”

  “Yes, some summoned beasts can equip gear. For example, and this is related to Aura’s earlier question, if I equipped him with horseshoes that included a flying ability, then he would probably be able to fly. But I already have him equipped with an item to boost his speed, so…I can’t really.” Albedo gave the magical beast beside her a pat. Perhaps she’d hit him too hard—he staggered.