Zenbel braced himself a bit, but Ainz gently smiled at him. “I’m going to take a peek at your memories.”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“…That must’ve sounded like something a villain would say. Anyway, I know a spell that allows me to manipulate other people’s memories. And I developed a way to use it to peer into them. Frankly, this technique expends quite a bit of mana, so I don’t really want to use it if I don’t have to, but I’m a little worried about going based on your hazy recollections alone.”
“D-does it have any aftereffects?”
“You’ll be fine. I got help from a priest, so I have the skills of a veteran now. As long as I don’t attempt anything weird, there won’t be any issues. I even tried it on one of my maids and nothing bad happened.”
“You mean Shizu, right?”
“That’s right, Aura. That said, this isn’t an all-powerful ability. If the target doesn’t remember the memory, I’ll only be able to see a foggy version of it. There are some other factors that make it hard to use, but that might be because instead of memories from the brain, it could actually be accessing more fundamental records…” Ainz realized he had gone on a tangent and shrugged.
“I see… Just to be sure, I’ll ask one more time… Will I really be okay?”
“I understand your concern. You’ll be fine, Zenbel. I swear on my honor as Ainz Ooal Gown that I won’t rewrite your memories.”
“Then, what do I need to do?”
“Right. You can just sit there and relax. This won’t make you feel sick or anything. But before I cast the spell, I’d like to know some details. How many years ago was this? What day, what time? What other memories do you have from that time?”
After Zenbel answered the questions, Ainz cast a spell.
He could boast that he was an expert in this magic, with all the experience he had accumulated, but it was still difficult to use.
Memories that were tampered with could end up overwritten, so one false move could mean an irreversible error. It was like fiddling with a computer system that had no backup. It was probably a great spell for manufacturing disabled people.
More than anything, the large amount of required mana made it hard to use.
Ainz could feel his MP draining away from simply going back a little through Zenbel’s memories.
His plan was to find all the memories he wanted and then take his time sifting through them, but it seemed like he would run out of MP before he managed to do that. The other tricky thing about this spell was that even if he wanted to investigate again the next day after his MP recovered, he would have to start over again at the most recent memories.
Given all this, he was certain there had to be a more effective way to collect info than this spell.
As Ainz grumbled internally, the image of mountains suddenly appeared in his mind. Apparently, he had reached the memories he was searching for, but as expected, his mana was almost gone.
Peeking into old memories is the hardest. I can manage if they’re more recent, but…
As expected, everything was indistinct, as if enshrouded in fog. Ainz could make out some dwarves, but perhaps because Zenbel didn’t distinguish among them, all their faces looked the same. His only impression was that they all had beards and were all drinking and shouting in raucous voices.
This is no good. I was able to apply what I learned from the experiments I conducted on the priest when I tried this with Shizu, but I still don’t feel like I’m very good at it… I can’t afford to slip up when I’m handling something as delicate as memories; maybe I should mess with that priest a bit more? He’s already pretty screwed up, though, so I shouldn’t expect a decent answer out of him, but… Maybe I should have only poked around every few years so I could’ve tried to restore him to his original state. Wiping his memory completely to see what would happen was a mistake.
As he canceled the spell, Ainz thought that if a criminal was sentenced to death in E-Rantel, he would use them for experiments.
“How do you feel, Zenbel? Nothing out of the ordinary, right?”
“Eh? Well, it’s like nothing happened but also like something weird…”
Ainz chuckled. “All I did was look at your memories. I didn’t overwrite anything, so it’s weirder that you feel off. It must be something like the placebo effect. I’m sure it’ll wear off soon.”
Rather than pay attention to Zenbel shaking his head, Ainz examined the map.
Ainz had seen the memories, but sure enough, he didn’t understand them very well.
In the first place, the mountains lacked distinct landmarks, making it difficult to tell one place from another. On top of that, the most vivid memories were of hiding from monsters.
Honestly, even though he would regain his mana by tomorrow, Ainz didn’t think it was worth it to try again.
“Okay, tomorrow we’ll head north once more with Zenbel leading, as per our original plan. I might be able to help a little, since I checked over his memories.”
No one had any better ideas.
Even if they sent a scout ahead, the only point would be to preemptively deal with monsters that might attack the party.
“You’re dismissed. Everyone have a good… Well, I suppose Zenbel is the only one who needs to rest, but take your time getting ready for tomorrow.”
•
After seeing that their master was headed to his room, Aura turned to Shalltear and asked, “Do you want to be in the room on his left or right?”
Aura had a magic item, and Shalltear was undead, so neither of them required sleep, which meant they didn’t need rooms. But not using the spaces given to them by their master would be rude. And since they were protecting him, they wanted to avoid rooms that were too far away.
“Mm, either is fine. They’re both the same.”
“Well, that’s true… Hey, what are you doing?” When Aura wondered why Shalltear’s response was so absentminded, she looked over and saw the vampire was writing in a notepad.
“‘…said Lord Ainz, period.’ I’m taking notes so I don’t forget anything Lord Ainz says.”
“Wow, I’m impressed. Let me see!” Aura leaned over for a peek and then froze. The pages were bizarrely crammed full of writing, to the point that there wasn’t any blank space left.
Wondering what she could possibly be writing, Aura skimmed the contents only to discover that it was word for word every single thing that Ainz had said, and it even described his actions.
Is this…okay? Of course, creating a record of the wise words of the Supreme Ones is a good thing to do, but that isn’t what Shalltear’s doing…
Shalltear should have been taking notes in order to grasp the main points of their master’s wisdom as a path to making them her own. If this was what she was doing, Aura was a bit worried.
“Err, uh, so… Taking notes is great and all, but I’m not sure your objective is the right one…”
Shalltear stared at her in confusion.
“Listen, you might feel like you’re doing a good job because you’re taking notes. But really, you should be jotting down the important points so that when the situation calls for it, you can act on your own. Can you do that with the notes you’re taking now?”
“I think so…”
“Well, that’s fine, then. Just in case, when you get back to your room, it might be a good idea to read them over while considering what Lord Ainz was thinking when he said those things and what you would do if you were in his situation.”
“You think?”
“I do,” Aura declared. Then she wondered why she was saying all this. But for some reason, she felt like giving Shalltear advice was the natural thing to do.
I don’t get why, but she feels like a helpless little sister sometimes… It’s irreverent to say so, but maybe this is how BubblingTeapot felt, too…
•
In the overly bright morning sun, Ainz made his preparations to leave. Not that he actually had anything in particul
ar to do. He simply left the tower he created and had everyone form up. Compared to the journeys he had taken as Momon, this journey felt dull to him.
Then they resumed the search, but though they were on the march until evening, they didn’t find anything.
Ainz squinted at the sun sinking behind the mountain slope.
The party was mounted on magical beasts, so they should have already covered the sixty or so miles he had estimated it would take to reach their destination. But they still hadn’t found the dwarves. In other words, from here on out, they would have to leave no stone unturned. Which meant the next steps would be time-consuming.
That day, they used Ainz’s magic to rest again and then came the third day since they had started on their journey.
Zenbel cried out. “This place! I know this place!”
There were no trees in the area, just the craggy mountain face. Zenbel’s voice echoed. “Your Majesty, it should be near here!”
“Oh! In that case, keep an eye out, everyone.”
Following his instructions, everyone formed neat ranks.
“All right, Zenbel. I’m counting on you.”
“You can leave it to me, Your Majesty!”
The party followed his lead.
Eventually, they found an opening in the rock side that was less a cave and more a gaping tear in the mountain.
It did seem like something Ainz had seen in Zenbel’s memories. He felt it had been bigger, but judging from how happy Zenbel seemed, this had to be the place.
Ainz had only a glimpse of the memories. They belonged to Zenbel, so surely he knew them best.
Smoothing out his robe, Ainz signaled Aura.
As they had decided ahead of time, Aura took off on her magical beast toward the crack.
“Kingdom of the Dwarves! Ainz Ooal Gown, King of Darkness, sovereign of the newly established Nation of Darkness to the south, has arrived! Send someone out to greet him!” Aura’s loud voice seemed to fill the crevice.
But there was no reply.
She asked with her eyes what she should do next, and Ainz instructed her to shout one more time.
So she repeated herself.
But there was still no reply. They waited a little while, but there didn’t seem to be anyone coming out.
Zenbel said that in the past, there had been guards standing by to prevent trespassing. If they were truly there, they would have definitely heard Aura’s voice.
Were they avoiding the dark elf?
Ainz instructed Aura to come back and called Zenbel over. “Your turn. Go and call them out.” He cast several buffs on the lizardman. They wouldn’t keep him absolutely safe, but the difference between having them and not was huge.
Zenbel approached the cave and raised his voice. No reply.
“…Hanzos.”
“We have come, Supreme One.”
A shadow slipped out from behind Shalltear and a ninja appeared. The other four Hanzos stood behind their leader.
“Sneak inside and see what’s going on. Don’t attract attention.”
“Understood. How far should we explore? From what I’ve heard, dwarf cities are made up of numerous tunnels. It will take time to run through the entire network.”
“Just the minimum is fine. All you need to find is the city center, where all the functional parts of the city are located. The tunnels can be investigated later.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
The Hanzo leader flew off like a shot, and the others swiftly followed. Running while seeming to leave their presence behind was something high-level ninja-type monsters could do.
Ainz called Zenbel back and had him stand by in the center of everyone else where it was safe. He would be very useful in the negotiation with the dwarves.
“Shalltear, keep your guard up!”
“Yes, my lord!”
Shalltear used a skill to instantly equip full gear and scanned the area.
With Nazarick’s strongest guardian at the ready, even the most powerful enemy wouldn’t be able to nail him with an instadeath combo. That said, in battles against players, experience was a critical element. Shalltear didn’t have much, so in that sense, it was dangerous to leave the watch entirely up to her.
All that meant that Ainz, the most experienced by far, had to set a good example.
That was why he also kept a vigilant watch until the Hanzos returned. It had taken longer than he expected, but he supposed that was simply how far away the city center was.
The Hanzos lined up before him and took a knee. Naturally, it was the leader who spoke. “Lord Ainz, we discovered what seemed to be a dwarven residential area and searched it, but we didn’t find anything that moved.”
“What happened?”
“We didn’t investigate closely enough to know that, but we found no corpses. There was no furniture in any of the houses or any evidence that they had been looted.”
“Did the dwarves voluntarily abandon this city for some reason?”
When he turned to Zenbel, the lizardman looked surprised. They had been traveling together for only a short time, but Ainz felt like he had a handle on Zenbel’s personality. He wasn’t acting.
“Very well. Lead us to the residential area.”
“My lord!”
Ainz followed after the Hanzos. Of course, this was unknown territory. He didn’t lower his guard. It went without saying that Shalltear, Aura, and Zenbel accompanied him, but he also had the high-level undead and their mounts come along as well.
The only ones they left outside were the low-level vampire brides and the mammoth-like magical beasts.
The main reason was because they made good bait. If an unknown hostile force was observing them and wanted to chip away at their fighting power, it would start by picking off the ones they were sure they could defeat. Plus, once they saw the monsters were carrying supplies, planning an attack to gain information was the most basic of basic strategies.
For that reason, in addition to the vampire brides and the beasts, he left one Hanzo behind.
Not to save the others.
It was to gain as much info as possible about the enemy by observing the attack. And if he could also find out where they withdrew to—where their base of operations was—that would be even better.
Another reason he hadn’t returned to Nazarick at all during this trip was because he didn’t want to let the enemy know he could refresh his party at any time using Gate; he wanted any observers to believe that they could chip away at his combat strength.
Of course, I hope they’ll be all right even if an enemy shows up.
It wasn’t as if he wanted them to all die. But they spawned automatically up to a certain number, so he didn’t feel bad about losing some of them in order to gain intelligence.
Is that cruel? he wondered as he made his way into the cave.
No sunlight penetrated far into the cave, so it immediately became pitch-black. Ainz had Night Vision, so that was no problem. The same went for Aura, Shalltear, the other undead, and the magical beasts. No one’s vision would be inhibited by mere darkness at their levels.
One of the undead carried Zenbel.
The fact that all the stalactites and stalagmites had been cleared away and the path was easy to traverse seemed to imply that this was definitely the location of a dwarf city.
Ainz followed the Hanzos. Along the way, the path branched a few times, but when he inquired, they told him the other tunnels were dead ends. The dwarves must have created them to confuse intruders so they could buy time and drive enemies out.
Ainz had a spell he could use in situations like that, but the Hanzos didn’t, so it was no wonder their investigation had taken so long.
He was thinking about that when one of the Hanzos turned around. “Lord Ainz, we’re almost to the residential district.”
“Oh. I see a hazy light up ahead, but…you said there weren’t any dwarves?”
“That’s right. There were no dwarves. The light you see
is emitted by a crystal-like ore.”
At the end of the tunnel, a huge space opened up.
When Ainz searched for the light source with his eyes, he saw that crystalline things were protruding from the ceiling and natural rock pillars supported the growths. Like the Hanzo had said, they were the source of the light.
As far as Ainz could see, there was no other—artificial—light anywhere.
The Hanzo had called it a residential area, and yes, it was built like a city. The buildings all in a row were like little boxes, incredibly plain and probably two stories high.
Perhaps because the people who lived here were so short, the buildings were a fair bit smaller than those found in human cities. That said, the structures were still taller than Ainz was, so he couldn’t grasp how big the city was with them blocking his field of vision. Still, there seemed to be enough buildings that it didn’t make sense to try and count.
“Hmm…”
As he gazed at that settlement, he felt the flame of desire inside him sputter out.
It was just so shabby-looking.
He couldn’t find a scrap of the dignity and exquisite beauty he had imagined when he conjured up a dwarf city in his mind. And it didn’t feel like Yggdrasil, either—there weren’t any players around.
Ainz walked over to one of the buildings and pushed open the door.
Like the Hanzos had reported, it was completely empty.
As far as he could tell, there wasn’t a stick of furniture. All that was left were things like built-in shelves that couldn’t be transported. A layer of white dust carpeted the floor. It seemed like no one had been here in quite some time.
“Zenbel! Try calling out to see if anyone is here.”
Zenbel obeyed and called the name of a dwarf he knew.
Though they were inside a cave, his voice seemed to go on forever and never echoed back. It must have been a massive space.
Zenbel called a few more times, but as expected, no one emerged.
“Hanzos, search the other tunnels to see if there is anything that could give us a clue. We need to find out why this city was abandoned. But there’s no telling how far or deep these tunnels go. If it starts to go too deep, withdraw.”
The Dwarven Crafter Page 8
