The Ruler of Conspiracy

by Kugane Maruyama

  The two high priests looked at each other.

  And when they turned back to Jircniv, the hostility in their eyes had lessened.

  “…It seems we got a little emotional. Certainly from the rumors we heard, it’s impossible to rule out that everything was part of that undead’s conspiracy. Let’s meet again sometime.”

  “Thank you. And before that, I have one favor to ask of you. I want you to watch his fight in the arena. And if you can think of a way to defeat him, tell me.”

  Jircniv bowed.

  He couldn’t win against Ainz with conspiracies and other strategizing. If they were going to fight on an equal footing at all, the human spirit was probably their trump card.

  A cheer went up from below and Jircniv looked over.

  “…Do your utmost, martial king. Oh gods!” He prayed in all seriousness for the martial king’s victory.

  3

  It had been a while since he had visited the imperial capital.

  The scene Ainz could see through the sliver of open window was enough to make him feel defeated.

  It was full of life.

  The people’s faces were cheerful, and it was noisy—completely different from his own country, where the flame seemed to have gone out.

  But the defeat assailing his heart vanished almost immediately. It was only recently that he had taken control of that city. It was only natural that while accepting a new leader, the changes and anxieties would cause a temporary lack of vigor.

  Squishy Moe once taught him about strategy games. Apparently, when occupying territory won in a war, the emotional states of the people in the cities dropped precipitously. And then…

  You end up with partisans. I think that’s what he said? Why would a bunch of weapons be brought out because of that?

  The first part and the second part didn’t seem to have any connection. He had the feeling he was misunderstanding something.

  Since the game they were discussing didn’t have much to do with Yggdrasil, he had only been half listening—that must have been the problem. But there had to be some connection.

  Maybe “end up with” means they sell? Is it some kind of gamer lingo…? Partisan… I know that’s a type of polearm. Does lots of weapons selling mean they have a reason to fight, then? The citizens? Hmm? Does it mean they’ll fight against this new ruler? Like a civil war? Then why not just say there would be a revolt? Why “partisans”? Well, whatever…

  The reason there wasn’t a revolt in E-Rantel must have been that his public safety efforts with the death knight patrols were working. And probably using Momon in the beginning had a major deterrent effect. Or perhaps it was because Ainz was doing good politics.

  The best is if I can rule peacefully. Strangling a chicken that can lay eggs is the height of stupidity. “Sometimes when PKing, you need to return drops so that people don’t hold a grudge against you.” Right?

  Remembering what was written in No Fuss PKing, Ainz realized he was on a tangent and did some course correction.

  Oops, I was thinking about liveliness, right? Well, I’m ruling a single city. And this is the capital of an empire with multiple cities. I can’t help it if there’s a liveliness disparity. The population is different, too… If the population increased, maybe the Nation of Darkness would be more energetic, too. Maybe I should casually suggest to Albedo the strategy of giving birth, multiplying, and increasing our population.

  Ainz consoled himself and, in a ruler-like way, came up with a new plan.

  “U-uh, Your Majesty.”

  The voice of the man looking out the carriage window like him interrupted Ainz’s contemplation.

  “E-excuse me, Your Majesty. I believe this is the imperial capital, Arwinthal…” The voice of the man he had practically forced to come with him shook as he spoke.

  “Yes, that’s right. Just what I’d expect from the Adventurers Guild master. I’m impressed that you knew it on sight.”

  “Thank you very— Wait! I don’t recall going through a checkpoint. Are we entering illegally?”

  That was true. He had used Gate to come directly to the capital. They hadn’t passed through any checkpoints.

  “A trivial matter.”

  “It is not a trivial matter! It will most certainly be an international issue if a king illegally enters another country!”

  He couldn’t mention that Jircniv did the same thing when he came to Nazarick. Common sense was on the guild master’s side. Ainz was undoubtedly in the wrong.

  No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t come up with any way to convince Ainzach. Or rather, he was impressed with how serious he was. He expected him to be the type to say, As long as we don’t get caught, so he adjusted his appraisal of the man.

  “…Guild Master, Sir El Nix and I are on good terms. I was even kind enough to do a favor for him once.” Ainz recalled the war. “Not that that’s why, but I’m sure he would be kind enough to allow this. It would be an ex post facto approval, but…as long as he allows it, what more do we need?”

  “Th-that’s true, but…”

  “And in the first place, it’s not as if you’re some sort of illegal import. That means it’s no big deal, right?”

  “Mmrf.” Ainzach couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  Seeing that he had coaxed him into it, Ainz smiled inwardly.

  In truth, he had entered the country in secret on purpose, and there were two reasons for that.

  If Jircniv knew I was coming, he would undoubtedly want to entertain me. No matter how wary of Nazarick he is, outwardly he would have to welcome me as the king of an allied country. But I can’t have that.

  Ainz knew nothing of noble society, so he definitely wanted to avoid any kind of ceremony where the emperor welcomed the king of an allied nation.

  If he became a laughingstock there, how could he show his face to the guardians working so hard in the Nation of Darkness?

  Then there was one other reason.

  I need to think of a way to get Ainzach involved. Would the best be to do like I did at the guild? Talk about dreams and request his cooperation?

  His intention was to force the Adventurers Guild master to get involved.

  Ainz was here to recruit adventurers.

  He wanted to absorb the guild as an organ of the state. But even if he got the box made, it would take time for it to fill up. That is, the Nation of Darkness had only one city, so the adventurer population was low. With an eye on incorporating lizardmen and other races in the future, he first needed to increase the number of human adventurers.

  Hence the scouting. If he didn’t have enough adventurers, all he had to do was bring them in from neighboring countries.

  But, as everyone knows, recruiting is no easy feat. Especially the type Ainz needed to do: Cold-calling was no different from the toughest types of sales job.

  As Ainzach had said, though adventurers were free, in reality they did figure into the national anti-monster defense strategy. Removing them by force would invite an intense backlash from all corners.

  Of course, even if the adventurer guilds of all the countries joined forces to resist the Nation of Darkness, Ainz didn’t plan on losing. But if that happened, the morale of the adventurers he did have would surely plummet. It was very likely that they would lose motivation seeing the new organization fighting with their old buddies.

  So he wanted to get Ainzach, who knew Ainz’s goals and concept, involved and use him as a go-between to smooth things over. If he had told him that in the kingdom, he figured he would have refused to come, so he dragged him along.

  He also thought that Ainzach would be able to suggest some good conversation topics.

  That was a major business skill. Having something in common with people made it surprisingly simple to get them to pay attention. Ainz—no, Satoru Suzuki had seen his coworkers get a customer on board by being from the same area or rooting for the same sports team.

  As Momon, Ainz had gotten to know a fair amount
about how adventurers worked. But since he had climbed the ranks in a single bound, he had no knowledge of the struggles they faced—hence putting the guild master, who had been watching adventurers in addition to once climbing the ranks himself, in the middle to foster a sense of familiarity.

  In other words, it could be said that the success of his activities in the empire during this trip depended on Ainzach.

  The question is how to get his motivation up…

  If it depended on compensation, he would pay a decent sum, but he didn’t think that would work on Ainzach.

  “Go.”

  When Ainz called to the box seat, the carriage silently began to move. The driver was a Hanzo, a monster over level 80 Ainz had summoned with what little money he had.

  Hanzo, one of the most ninja-like humanoid monsters, excelled at discovering clandestine operations. The same level range included monsters such as Kashinkoji, who excelled at illusion; Fuma, who excelled at unarmed combat and special skills; and Tobikato, who excelled at armed combat.

  The carriage continued on, and the passenger compartment bumped along—because rather than using an enchanted carriage that might stick out, he had chosen a regular one.

  “…So, Your Majesty, King of Darkness. You haven’t told me yet, so may I ask? What are you planning to do now that we’ve arrived in the imperial capital?”

  “We talked about my objective in coming here, so you must know.”

  “Huh?” Ainzach furrowed his brow.

  “To invite adventurers to my country.”

  Ainzach’s expression was subdued. He clearly didn’t approve. “…You’re going to recruit adventurers from the empire?”

  “That’s right. I’m going to poach adventurers from this country.”

  Though it was war, he had just killed an awful lot of Re-Estize soldiers, so it would be difficult to pull adventurers from there. Plus, Albedo was visiting the kingdom; he didn’t want to cause her trouble. If that was the case, then his best option was his ally the empire.

  Places that were a bit farther away, such as the city-state alliance, he was gathering information about via Fluder, but he was scared to mess with them without consulting Albedo or Demiurge first.

  “How are you thinking to do that? I…” Ainzach took a deep breath. “…Your Majesty, when I encountered your ideas about adventurers, I was deeply impressed. So I would like to cooperate as much as I can. But that might be because I’m really more on the system side of things. Will active adventurers really give up all they’ve been doing until now? Honestly, I think it’s a lot to ask. Especially when it comes to imperial adventurers.”

  A refreshing happiness welled up in Ainz’s breast.

  Yes, this is the sort of opinion I wanted to hear.

  There wasn’t anything wrong with the guardians, but since they operated as if everything Ainz said was absolute, he often wondered if he was really giving them the right orders. For that reason, Ainz had been wishing someone would give him negative feedback. Then he would know what he was doing wrong.

  Ainz found himself feeling more favorable toward Ainzach.

  But he couldn’t just be impressed and accept his ideas.

  It was a true mystery, but Ainz Ooal Gown, King of Darkness, was considered wise by his subordinates. He couldn’t do anything that would ruin that reputation. He didn’t want anyone to be disappointed in him.

  “…It’s strange. When you compare the pros and cons, there seem to be more pros, but it’s tricky. I guess I still don’t know enough about adventurers.”

  He was so lucky to have his expressionless face—because no one could tell when he lied. It was the ultimate poker face.

  Ainz punctuated their conversation there and looked straight at Ainzach. He wanted to avoid making it seem like he was waiting for his response.

  “What would you do? What kind of offer is tempting enough to get an adventurer who has chosen their home base to switch sides?”

  “…Your Majesty. Do you need to poach them right away?”

  “What?”

  “Are you in a hurry to pull adventurers from the imperial capital?”

  Ainz put a hand to his chin and thought about it.

  If possible, he wanted them right away. But if that wasn’t possible, he could be patient. His main goal was to spread the name of the Nation of Darkness far and wide.

  “It’s true that I’m not in a huge hurry.”

  “Then perhaps the first thing you should do is build your scaffolding. First, build the organization you spoke of and all the other facilities. Couldn’t you make the skin now and worry about the insides later?”

  “That’s a very good idea. I thought of it, too, but there’s one problem. If you don’t make it with an estimate of how much will go in, you could end up with a skin that is too big or too small… Can you give me an estimate?”

  “Th-that’s definitely impossible for me. I don’t know the scale of the adventurer training organization you envision or what proportion of the Nation of Darkness you intend it to be.”

  “Yeah. Actually, I’m just feeling my way along. Especially when it comes to— Well, you’ve shown an interest in my plans, but I have no idea how many other adventurers will be moved. That’s why I want to do a test recruitment in the empire—to see what kind of results I get.”

  “I see… It’s very impressive, Your Majesty, that you’ve already thought through these things. I’m ashamed of my shallow analysis.”

  “No, no. I’m a different type of being from you guys. That’s why I might be mistaken when it comes to human reactions. I might say something that offends someone. If I do, please advise me. I need someone to cooperate with me in that way… Ainzach.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty!”

  “I hope we can continue working together.”

  For a moment, he seemed to be thinking, but then he bowed deeply.

  It was a bow just like the ones the guardians of Nazarick made.

  Ainz nodded benevolently and reflected on their conversation.

  So does this mean I can leave the enticement of imperial adventurers entirely up to him?

  This was a very important point.

  He could give a decent presentation, but he didn’t like them. If there was someone who could do a better job, delegating was the right thing to do. No…

  I shouldn’t toss it all in his lap. At the very least, I should take care of any issues that arise, as his boss…

  As Ainz was resolving not to be a horrible boss, he noticed that Ainzach seemed to be pondering something.

  “What is it?”

  “…You want to have adventurers explore the unknown, and that’s not only existing adventurers but new ones, too, right, Your Majesty?”

  “That’s my intention.”

  “As I said before, it might be difficult to poach currently active adventurers. But you might be able to get people who hope to become adventurers interested in going to the Nation of Darkness. You can gather up and raise fledglings.”

  Ainz had thought that adventurers didn’t have borders, while people who weren’t adventurers yet still did, but if a man with more knowledge of this world than him said that wasn’t the case, then he supposed it wouldn’t be a problem.

  “I see. And how would I do that?”

  “People admire the strong. So how about putting your power on display as promotion?”

  How would I do that, though? thought Ainz.

  But promotion was critical. The whole reason he was creating an adventurer guild was to promote the Nation of Darkness, Ainz Ooal Gown.

  “…To show that I’m strong, maybe I could mimic the things adventurers do?”

  Ainz was thinking maybe he could create an empire version of Momon, but Ainzach shook his head.

  “Your Majesty, this is the imperial capital. How about showing off your power at the arena?”

  “Ooh… Now that seems interesting. Tell me more.”

  The carriage came to a stop before a huge hous
e.

  Ainz had come to the imperial capital once as Momon with Nabe in tow, but he didn’t recall ever seeing a private residence this large. In any case, there weren’t any of that size in E-Rantel.

  “This is the arena manager’s house? Seems pretty big.”

  “That’s not exactly right,” Ainzach replied. “The arena itself belongs to the country. People borrow it to put on shows—more like promoters. This man is one of the most powerful among them.”

  “I see… Do you know him?”

  If he did, that would make things easy, but unfortunately, Ainzach shook his head.

  “There are a wide variety of arena shows, so sometimes he has adventurers fight monsters. I’ve only met him a few times when capturing and delivering monsters.”

  “I see. But that’s useful; I have nothing but gratitude for your connections. Still, what kind of monsters was he after in the E-Rantel area?”

  Ainzach frowned. “Apparently, he wanted to capture undead from the Katze Plain. Undead don’t require food, so once they’re captured, there are no additional costs.”

  “Oh? I like his way of thinking. He seems to know what’s what.”

  “You think so? I’m not so fond of him… And Your Majesty, I beg your pardon, but we were just talking about members of your kind being captured. That doesn’t bother you?”

  Ainz looked straight at Ainzach.

  What is this guy talking about?

  “Being undead and all…”

  “Ohhh, I see. Well, there are all different kinds of undead. It’s not as if I feel like all of them are my brothers.”

  “Do excuse me, then… What race are you, Your Majesty? If it’s not rude to ask, I hope you’ll tell me.”

  “I’m an overlord. Have you heard of them?”

  “No, my humble apologies, but in my ignorance, I haven’t.”

  Well, it makes sense, thought Ainz.

  In Yggdrasil, there were all sorts of monster overlords, including overlord wise men, who excelled at magic; overlord chronomasters, who employed special abilities related to time; and overlord generals, who excelled at leading undead armies. Even the weakest of them was level 80.

  Ainz had gotten a fair grasp on the average strength here and what people considered powerful were capable of, and with those things in mind, he was sure that the appearance of an overlord would cause quite a panic. Especially since undead didn’t age. Unless someone killed it, it would continue to reign over the land, immortal.