Shalltear had been told that Aura would only follow her and that she wasn’t to make use of the other guardian. In other words, this operation had to be planned and carried out by Shalltear on her own.
She had to follow her orders perfectly and achieve a brilliant success.
She loosened up her balled fists.
“Hanzo.”
“Yes, ma’am!” The minion dressed like a ninja came into view.
“I want to make sure none of them gets away. Can you check the tunnels to make sure there aren’t any inside?”
“Not a problem. Just say the word.”
She expected nothing less from a minion summoned by her master. With this, she could cut off the enemy’s escape. The next thing she had to prevent was her targets scattering and hiding all over the city. Of course, if she spent time hunting them down, she would be able to find them all eventually, but she wanted to avoid something that would take so long. Her master hadn’t specified a time limit, but letting things drag on would be proof she couldn’t manage her time well.
“Well then, let’s begin.”
Shalltear issued orders for the plan she had thought up on her way over.
Her forces would encircle the kuagoa and then close in to neutralize them.
In other words, it would be a brute-force maneuver that used the Hanzos as a wall to prevent any retreat and then overwhelm their opponents by completely surrounding them.
Considering she didn’t know her opponents’ powers, there was some slight danger involved, but if the kuagoa were strong enough to kill Shalltear and the Hanzos, there was no way the dwarf state would still exist—unless that dwarf Gondo was particularly weak.
After dispatching the Hanzos, Shalltear counted out three minutes. She had no way to contact the Hanzos, so they had to sync up action based on time.
Luckily, the kuagoa apparently decided to make their camp in the vicinity of the building and showed no signs of splitting up.
“Go. Move according to your orders. First priority is preventing runaways around the perimeter.”
After giving orders to the undead she’d brought with her, she ran along the roof and launched into a flying leap at the edge that brought her right in front of the kuagoa. At the same time, the undead jumped down to complete the encirclement.
With the main points on the roads around the building occupied, the kuagoa had virtually nowhere to run. The chaos among their ranks was tangible, and before they could regain their composure, Shalltear cast a spell.
“Mass Hold Species.”
As she had anticipated, her opponents weren’t very high level. Multiple kuagoa were frozen stiff.
The kuagoa who weren’t in range of the spell had recovered from their confusion, but none of them moved to attack Shalltear. She had appeared out of nowhere and frozen their friends with magic. It must have been difficult to even decide whether to fight or flee.
Shalltear grinned faintly.
Observing from above and aiming for what looked like the most important kuagoa had paid off. She tentatively identified her victim as the commander.
“Mass Hold Species.”
She cast again. Now all the kuagoa outside the building were incapacitated.
“Tighten the circle!”
On Shalltear’s shouted order, the undead encirclement contracted.
Hearing Shalltear’s raised voice and noticing how strangely their friends outside were acting, the kuagoa inside began to panic, but they were already in check.
When Shalltear felt a sadistic smile was ready to creep onto her face, she gave her cheeks a good slap. She couldn’t let her guard down now. That was probably what had caused her to fail in the past.
After mustering a new expression appropriate for the reborn Shalltear, she dove into the building. Coming in through a window would’ve made for a better surprise attack, but considering the time it would take to break the glass, she decided charging in through the entrance made more sense—plus, she figured she could draw more attention this way.
The kuagoa waiting inside brandished their claws and attacked.
Three right here, four in the back. No commander present as far as I can tell. With an eye on the future, I should probably let them attack me and learn what they’re capable of.
Shalltear accepted their attacks without dodging at all.
As she expected, she sustained no damage.
Only enchanted weapons with a silver attribute could hurt Shalltear. High-level monsters sometimes had unarmed attacks imbued with magic and a silver attribute, but it was rare among lower-level creatures.
For Shalltear, this was quite reasonable, but for the kuagoa, it was world shattering. The kuagoa surrounding her apparently couldn’t believe what they were seeing and swung their arms over and over. But nothing changed.
“All right, all right, this experiment’s over. Would you kindly leave it at that? Mass Hold Species.”
The spell stopped all the kuagoa in the area.
“Now then, what else?”
She turned her head around and, through the wreckage of the door, her eyes met those of the kuagoa in the next room. Dwelling inside those gazes was Shalltear’s favorite food: fear.
The moment Shalltear started to move toward them, the kuagoa turned tail and ran off as if competing to see who could escape first.
But they were too slow. To Shalltear, they moved about as fast as slugs. Repressing a sneer, Shalltear shot off a spell at their backs.
I’m not letting a single one get away.
Shalltear couldn’t afford any mistakes.
After restraining all the kuagoa in the building, she entered the tunnel and found six more on the ground at the Hanzos’ feet. Noticing from the way they were moving slightly that they were still alive, she queried the Hanzos. “Are these all the kuagoa that ran this way?”
“Yes. No others came over here.”
Shalltear hadn’t let any escape, either, so she was confident she could call this a perfect performance.
“Just in case, please check if there are any hiding in the building. Then call the undead holding the kuagoa outside and have them restrain and carry out the ones in the building, too, will you? I’ll stand by here while you search the interior, just to make sure none escape this way.”
The Hanzos acknowledged Shalltear’s orders, lifted up the fallen kuagoa, and went back to the building. They reappeared before her two minutes later.
Having completed her job without a hitch, Shalltear ventured back into the building and then outside once more. Tons of kuagoa were tied up. Ainz was there, too. Aura, the Hanzos, the dwarf, and the lizardman were also present.
“Well done, Shalltear. It seems you completed your mission without letting a single one escape.”
“Thank you, Lord Ainz!”
“And now, Shalltear, I have your next orders. Obtain information from these creatures, preferably without injuring them.”
“Understood.”
To start, she had an undead drag over one of the first kuagoa, whose spell had worn off.
“Eek! Save me!”
“Hee-hee. If you answer honestly, I won’t kill you. You have to be honest, though. First, who is the most important one here?”
“That one. The one with some blue fur.”
“You wretched blabbermouth!”
When she looked to see who had screamed, it was indeed a kuagoa with some blue fur.
“Now, now, don’t fight. In that case, can you bring that one over? You can put this one back.” She had the undead drag over the most important kuagoa.
“Hmph! You seem to be from a race similar to dwarves. Don’t think I’ll be talking! I’m staking my pride and my tribe’s pride on that!”
“Hmm, then how about we do this? Charm Species. Now will you talk to me?”
“Yes, of course. What would you like to know?”
The other kuagoa gasped in astonishment at the docile reply.
The charm spell made the targ
et feel like the caster was their trusted friend and equal. For that reason, the target couldn’t be made to kill or severely injure themselves, since that wasn’t something a friend would order them to do. And just as sometimes people kept secrets they wouldn’t tell even their best friend, the charm spell didn’t always allow the caster to draw out the information they wanted. In those cases, the only solution was to use even stronger mind-control magic, but that didn’t seem necessary this time. Shalltear was grateful for her luck.
“First, are you really the most important of everyone here?”
“Yeah, I’m the commander of this unit. Hey, you guys are being obnoxious. What’s so bad about me talking to my friend here? Oh, you can keep a secret, right?”
“Of course. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I trust you. But those guys… And wait—that’s an undead, isn’t it?”
The kuagoa eyed Shalltear’s great master. His attitude offended her, but she had to control herself until she acquired the necessary intelligence.
“It’s all right. I am, too, but I’m your friend, so you can trust us.”
“Could it be that you’re controlling that thing?”
I’m going to kill you. The words nearly got out, but she swallowed them—because her master spoke first.
“That’s right. She’s my master.”
“Ohhh. That’s my pal for you. Amazing!”
“Th-thanks.”
Assailed by a complex, burning emotion, Shalltear wanted to roll around on the floor, but she couldn’t waste her master’s precious support.
The commander kuagoa was giving her comments serious thought. The ones behind him all called out, “What’s wrong? What happened? Have you really been best friends with her all along and we just never knew?” but the commander completely ignored them. Eventually, his face twisted up. It was a smile. Probably.
“All right. If you say so, I’ll trust them. Our friendship runs deep, after all.”
Shalltear snorted. “Then, can you make sure to speak loud enough so the people behind me can hear? Who are you and why have you come to this city?”
We’re friends and you don’t even know that much? is what one might expect the reply to be, but magic is amazing. The commander kuagoa answered obediently without suspecting anything. “We’re a detachment from the attacking army. We’re here to kill any dwarves who try to flee to this city.”
“What?” the dwarf yelped in surprise. “Wh-what does that mean?”
“Shaddup, dwarf. You’re too loud. Your dirty race can go extinct already.”
“Now, now. That’s enough of that. So what is this attacking army?”
“Oh, sorry. I got a little worked up. There’s a dwarf city north of here, and the attacking army is planning to destroy it. Up until now, the fort guarding the bridge over the Great Chasm would repel us every time we launched an assault, but we discovered a way around the crack that exits to the side of the fort. Our plan is to use that and charge in all at once.”
Shalltear looked at the dwarf, and he was awfully pale. It seemed like very bad news.
“And when are you planning to attack?”
“Our group split off from the main group and came here, so I don’t know for sure, but probably today or tomorrow.”
Shalltear could hear her master and the dwarf talking.
“That’s what he claims, but is it true that the city will fall if that bridge is taken?”
“I can’t say. But I’ve heard that since the bridge is the only way to attack, the fort repels all intruders with magic items. If that fort falls, it’s a straight shot to the city, and it would be difficult to stop the advance of a huge army. In that kind of situation, it’s possible everyone might abandon that city and come back here. If they were then ambushed by these guys, that would be the end of the dwarves.”
The commander kuagoa could probably hear their conversation, too. He laughed with a sinister “heh-heh-heh.”
“Is your group the only detachment?”
“We’re the only ones that came here. We don’t know how strong the dwarf city is or how many soldiers they have, so most of our forces stuck with the main group.”
“Lord A— Err, uh, is there anything else you want to know?” Shalltear asked, struggling not to say Ainz.
“Not really. If anything, maybe see whether they have a way to contact the main forces or not.”
When she repeated her master’s question, the commander answered right away. “No. Our mission isn’t very high priority. We’re only here to hunt down the runaways.”
When she looked to her master, he nodded.
“How shall I dispose of this thing?”
“…Gondo. Sorry, but do you think you could start prepping for our departure?”
Realizing what that meant, the dwarf and the lizardman left.
After watching them go, Ainz gave Shalltear her orders. “…Okay, they’re gone. Shalltear, send them all to Nazarick. Have the kuagoa imprisoned. Whether we kill them or not will depend on what sort of relationship we build with the other kuagoa. We won’t kill our prisoners until we’re total enemies. But we will have them undergo some experiments—test their physical abilities, like the strength of their claws, as well as their physical and magic resistances. Some may die from that, but…tell them to keep casualties to a minimum.”
“Understood.”
Shalltear immediately cast Gate and connected it to the surface level of Nazarick before addressing the group of kuagoa.
“All right, you lot, in you go.”
When their commander took the lead and went through, the others followed. Several of them were too scared to stand, so Shalltear picked them up and threw them into the portal.
After getting them all across, Shalltear herself returned to Nazarick temporarily. She repeated the orders she had received to the Old Guarders there and then came back through the still-open Gate.
Her master stood there with his arms crossed as if he had been waiting for her.
“Your interrogation was perfect, Shalltear.”
Something warm welled up in Shalltear’s flat chest when the first thing she heard coming out of his mouth was a compliment.
“Thank you, my lord!” Before she knew it, she had thrown herself at his feet. She couldn’t think of any other acceptable response.
“Uh, right. Continue to serve me faithfully.”
“Understood, Lord Ainz!”
“Well, don’t stay down there—stand up. We need to hurry and meet with Gondo… This is a great chance to earn some favors.”
“We were quite fortunate. It’s almost as if fortune has blessed all you do.”
They looked at each other and smiled.
Not that her master’s face moved, but she was absolutely sure he was smiling.
“Shall we?”
“Yes, my lord!”
Ooh! Incredible! I can’t believe we get to walk side by side like this… Ahhh, such happiness.
Shalltear reveled in her joy as they exited the building.
“Gondo, sorry we kept you waiting. What are your plans?”
“What can I do…? It would take six days to reach the city underground. That’s far too long a trip to deliver the news we just heard in time.”
Shalltear’s often relaxed face was tense, and even as she returned Aura’s suspicious look, Ainz and the dwarf started talking. She tried frantically to memorize everything so she could put it in her notebook later.
This was none other than their great master, so she was sure he would either completely break the dwarf’s heart or put a huge chain around his neck so he would never be able to betray them.
“I see. That’s definitely not enough time. How about this? Do you want to come to my country straight from here? You wouldn’t be able to do anything on your own right now even if you could get back, right?”
“N-no, I wouldn’t.”
“I wish we could at least evacuate the rune crafters… A
ssuming we raced over there offering to save the day, do you think talks would proceed smoothly? Are dwarves a race that feels properly indebted to people who help them?”
“Yes. I hope you’ll believe that. If you protect us from the threat of the kuagoa, I’m quite certain negotiations will go in your favor.”
“Then we’ll need to figure out the proper timing,” said their great master, as if testing the dwarf, but Gondo just shrugged.
“I’ll go along with what you—whatever Your Majesty decides.”
Shalltear wasn’t sure what it meant, but she could gather that this dwarf had chosen her master over his own race.
He had only just met the dwarf a short time ago in the tunnel, yet he already ruled his heart. Shalltear was awestruck.
It made sense that Lord Ainz was the leader of the Supreme Beings when he was this charming.
“…Well, I guess we’d better hurry. I want to avoid losing rune crafters. There’s no telling what will happen if we travel underground, so let’s go outside. You can lead us, right?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ll do my best.”
“Good. Then, everyone, get ready to go!”
Intermission
Taking a glass filled with a liquid that sparkled amber, he left the room for the terrace.
It was the terrace of the city’s tallest building. From here, he could see the whole capital he ruled.
Within each of the innumerable pinpoints of light resided the life of one of his subjects.
Sneering at the scene, he brought the glass to his lips.
The heat of his drink burned as it traveled down his throat and spread from the pit of his stomach to the rest of his body. The breeze on the terrace was enjoyable. Feeling a bit better, he asked the kneeling weakling in the room, “So what is it?”
The weakling seemed to gasp in response, but he wasn’t interested in that. All he felt was displeasure at not receiving an answer immediately. Still, he wasn’t angry enough to kill, so he didn’t resort to force.
Besides, the pungent odor of blood tended to linger. Even if he ordered someone to clean it up, he would be uncomfortable for some time. Rather than deal with that, shoving the nuisance off the terrace would be the cleanest method of disposal. And it was possible that the extreme situation would cause some power to awaken within it.
The Dwarven Crafter Page 12
