Disclaimer: I do not own Overlord. That belongs to Kugane Maruyama, and all illustrations are made by So-Bin.
Blood and viscera flew, as helpless humans were cut down by mounted armoured soldiers. Unknown banners and crests were displayed upon the shining steel of the knights' full plate armour, all of which were clear as they butchered common folk. Elderly and other unlucky souls lay dead openly in the dirt, while others had drawn pitchforks and other farm implements to fight against the attackers. Children screamed and fled or fought back as their parents were struck down by the merciless knights.
"Murderers!" Touch Me roared, his insectoid accent horrendously thick. "Scum! What madness is this?"
Momonga and Tabula both twitched away from the paladin's explosive epithets, rattled by his outburst.
"Damn. Scared the life right out of me." Tabula murmured, brushing down his cloak.
"A massacre?" Momonga pondered aloud. "Why would they do that?"
"Could be an advance party for an invasion. Harbouring criminals. Plague. Religion. Take your pick. It was all commonplace, historically."
"They're butchering children!" Touch Me growled, eyes on the mirror's image. "For that there is no excuse!"
"I'm not defending their actions, but that doesn't rule out plague." Tabula observed. "Note that they're not discriminating between killing men or women. That's not what normally happens during these kinds of raids."
"They don't look sick." Momonga added. "Quite lively, actually. Well, less so, now."
"Perceptive."
"You know what I mean."
"Gate us there, Momonga." Touch Me interrupted, as the mirror tracked a pair of young girls who fled the village. "I won't stand back and watch people be murdered right in front of me!"
Momonga silently acknowledged the unspoken plea in Touch Me's words, not when he knew of how much the man had idealised justice in their cruel world, something he was unable to enforce under his old bosses. If he wanted to start their journey in this new world by upholding the values dearest to their hearts, he would not stop him.
"Gate."
"Damn." Tabula sighed, staring into the sudden void that appeared before them. "If we don't die out there Punitto will kill us himself."
"Probably." Momonga agreed, watching while Touch Me hurled himself through the portal. "This'll be all the excuse he needs to test resurrection on us."
The two casters shivered, knowing all too well that they weren't exaggerating about the Death Vine's wrath.
"They didn't look strong." Tabula commented, as Sebas excused himself through the Gate after his maker. "This will be a sweep."
"Then why are we hesitating?" Momonga eyed the Illithid as he refrained from moving.
"Because we're going to be grounded for all eternity after this stunt, and we'll never be allowed to leave ever again." Tabula shook his head. "Come, let's go before Touch Me instigates war with another country."
The two players reluctantly followed their friend and his creation through the gate, just knowing that Punitto will have their heads for it.
Arriving on the other side, the two players analysed the situation they found themselves in. Momonga had created the Gate to ahead of the two fleeing girls, intercepting them while appearing away from the main attack without drawing attention to themselves.
Before them, Touch Me had made short work of the two soldiers following the girls, their bisected remains divided in the small clearing.
Right in front of the portal, the two girls had collapsed on the ground in terror, and were clinging to one another while the new arrivals made their way onto the scene.
"You're still here, Touch Me?" Momonga spoke to the paladin who stood over the neatly divided corpse of one of the soldiers.
The body's innards were strewn between the two halves that had been split from head to groin, while the force of the impact had sent the two pieces flying metres apart. Touch Me stood trembling over the ruin of what was once a person, someone who may have been a murderer, but a human no less.
"Are you alright?" Tabula asked, concerned.
Momonga found it odd that he wasn't nauseas or sickened by the clear violence, and attributed it to his new body, as he inhaled the heavy stench of bile, waste, and gore that wafted from the corpses.
In fact, he didn't feel disgusted by the remnants before him or afraid of the very real violence to come, and wondered if it was all because of an adrenaline rush, something he certainly didn't feel.
'This body becoming real might run deeper than I thought.' Momonga wondered in the solitude of his clear mind.
"W-what? Yes, I'm fine." Touch Me shrugged off his blank stare. "I'll be going on ahead with Sebas. Could one of you please heal this girl, too? She's seriously injured."
Touch Me spared no more words on the two casters as he vanished in the direction of the village, with Sebas right behind him.
"M-monsters?" The wounded elder girl gasped through her pain. "Come back, sir knight! Please!"
The girl shuddered violently and coughed up a stream of blood. She rolled over slightly, pushing another, smaller girl out from under herself, where she must have been shielding the child.
The older blonde was a pretty, young girl in her teens, who had fair skin and brown eyes, while appearing to be of European descent. Her blond hair was tied up by a band, yet some locks had fallen loose in her scuffle to dangle in the wound down her back through her dull woollen clothing.
"R-run, Nemu!"
"Enri!"
The smaller girl lay back on top of the other girl, covering her body with her own, while she stared tearfully at the two monsters in the clearing. Her brown eyes glistened tearfully, appearing similar to the girl next to her, save for having her red hair done up in twin pigtails.
"Go away from my sister!" Nemu cried, eyes clenched tightly as she sobbed. "Go away! Go Away! Go Away!"
The two girls cried pitifully in the clearing while the two players glanced at each other, both well out of their depth when it came to dealing with crying, hysterical children.
"Please spare us!" Enri gasped weakly, her hands fumbling between trying to shield the younger child and push her to run away to safety.
The two players struggled to think of a way to calm the distraught girls. Momonga dove into his inventory to select a healing potion, while Tabula attempted to comfort the two.
"Be not afraid." Tabula waved a slimy, hooked tentacle in front of them, his monstrous voice warbling between a ghastly, sibilant rasp and a deep, dreadful gurgling.
The girls' cries became wracking, heaving screams of terror.
"You're doing that on purpose." Momonga placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Stop scaring them."
"You're no fun at all sometimes. You know that?" Tabula huffed, swiftly stepping back and allowing Momonga to administer the potion.
"Here. Drink this."
"Blood?!" Nemu flinched away. "Don't drink it, Enri!"
"It's a healing potion. Trust me, it'll help." Momonga encouraged the injured girl. "We're with the knight, which is why he entrusted us with your care. Now you can either take my word for it, or you can bleed out and die."
Hesitantly, or maybe because the elder girl had little strength remaining, she took the vial and downed its blood red contents. Within seconds the girl's wounds had healed, her skin knitting itself together and her pale skin darkening as her blood was replenished, restoring her to her optimum health beyond even the injury.
"T-Thank you very much." The revitalised girl leapt to her feet and bowed, dragging the little girl up with her.
"Though you have been saved it may still be dangerous for you to venture back to your village just yet. Stay here until the crises is over." Said Momonga. "Are you familiar with magic?"
"Um, yes. One of my friends from E-Rantel is a magic caster."
"Alright then." Momonga reached back into his inventory. "Here. Take these."
Momonga chose a couple of trash summoning items to give to the girl.
"These are horns that will summon a troop of goblins to your aid, should you ever blow on them."
Momonga warded the area against attackers as well. Magic circles shined briefly as he incanted the defensive spells.
"Anti-life cocoon. Wall of Protection from Arrows. You'll be safe so long as you don't leave the barrier. Stay here a while."
A dome of life flickered into existence over the two girls, forming a barrier over them that would shield them from small projectiles and living beings from entering the area.
"We should follow Touch Me. I don't like the idea of us being out here alone, even if he has Sebas with him." Momonga said to Tabula, who was still staring at the two girls.
"Right." Tabula acknowledged absently. "Let's go."
The two players turned and wordlessly took to the skies in pursuit of their friend.
"Please wait!"
Momonga and Tabula looked back as Enri called out to them.
"Can I please know the names of our saviours?" Enri asked, hands clasped in front of her chest in hope, or prayer.
Tabula nodded at Momonga, wordlessly dumping the decision on him over whether or not they should expose themselves in this world.
'Our names?' Momonga pondered, weighing the benefits against the risks of such a decision. 'Should I tell them? We'd need to show ourselves eventually, and this might be a good way to spread our name. I find it unlikely that anyone from this world will know it, but just in case, this will let other players know we're here.'
"We are Ainz Ooal Gown." Said Momonga. "Let that be the name you speak when you tell of our tale."
"Thank you, Sirs of Ainz Ooal Gown!"
"Thank you, Ainz Ooal Gown!" Nemu mimicked her sister.
Turning away, Momonga and Tabula flew off toward the rising smoke from the burning village, following their friend to battle.
"Do you think it was wise of me to share our name?" Momonga asked his friend.
"I think it was okay to share it." Tabula nodded. "If we're going to operate outside the guild, publicly, then we at least need a name to go by, and the only ones who'll know what that name means are players."
"So I've exposed us to other players?"
"Well, yes. But we're hardly noobs that make easy targets. We're PKK specialists. We hunt the players that specialise in hunting players. Besides, it's not like any player with half a brain would be foolish enough to attack our guild. If anything, spreading our name establishes our territory to any other players in this world, and send them running."
"Perhaps you're right." Momonga acknowledged, nodding as they slowed their approach when they saw that Touch Me had already killed or detained the knights.
"Caution is fine, Momonga, but being paranoid is Punitto's job." Tabula replied, landing near the village outskirts. "Lets go terrify the locals."
The two players landed near a burning house, which was more of a hut now that they were right next to it. It was cobbled together mostly out of wood, with some clay bricks stacked as a chimney, and a ceramic tiled roof.
"Low tech, wouldn't you say?" Tabula ran an elongated tentacle finger through the flames of the house, entirely resisting any burn damage from the regular fire.
"Medieval? No, Victorian, maybe." Momonga assessed the style of architecture as old British or European, estimating the era of architecture a level of construction like this would belong to. "Have we travelled into the past?"
"It could be that this world advanced at a slower rate. We haven't necessarily gone back in time. I think this is closer to the Georgian era." Said Tabula. "But it's definitely not our world, that's for sure."
"What? How'd you figure that out?" Momonga asked. Tabula turned and stared at him quizzically.
"Weren't you listening to Blue Planet gushing about it in the Meeting Room? He wouldn't shut up about it."
"Ah, I must have been thinking about something else."
"Oh." Tabula shrugged. "It's because the stars are different. None of the known constellations are in the sky."
"Really? I suppose that is a good indicator for checking if you've been isekai'd."
"It really is."
The two heteromorphs walked to the village centre, casually ignoring the stench of bile and waste left by the gutless corpses of the villagers and the severely mutilated knights here and there.
"Ahhh!" A voice shrieked as they rounded a corner. "Undead!"
The two players had only a second to survey the survivors, and the captured knights, before the paladin in question blinked before them.
"You two certainly took your time." Touch Me said gruffly, gleaming brilliantly in the midday sun.
"We took the scenic route." Said Tabula, glancing around at the piles of bodies dragged off to one side, as well as the pools of blood left in their wake. "It seems like you had things handled."
"And we healed the girl like you asked." Momonga informed him.
"Your justice leaves little room for mercy, Touch Me." Tabula commented. "You made short work of these knights."
"They are no knights worth respecting." Touch Me growled. "I spoke with the girls outside the village. There's no reason for this slaughter, other than the nation these knights hail from is supposedly at war with this country."
"Politics, then." Tabula surmised. "Strange that they were killing woman, though. They must be professionals."
"There was nothing righteous or justified about this that any knight worth their name would commit such atrocities!"
"I didn't say they were good people. Only that they're good at their jobs, and weren't falling to the wayside with a little ritual rape and plunder."
Momonga turned away from the two who began to argue the semantics of war crimes and the violation of human rights, paying no mind to what he was already aware of because of the cruelty prevalent in the old world.
Instead, he watched the humans who trembled frightfully at their presence, either unwilling or unable to flee in terror as two heteromorphs invaded their village following their tragedy.
"Monsters! You preached about righteousness, but now we see you dealing with the enemies of humanity!"
The players stopped and turned to stare at the captive knights, where one soldier was bellowing at them from his forced kneeling position. Momonga could see that his hands were bound behind him by a mangled sword that was bent over his wrists, and that his ankles had been shattered, which must have been agonising on the man. Still, he had the energy to vent his impotent rage at them.
"We all heard your voice! You must be a monster too! You false paladin! You talk of goodness and nobility, but we see you now for the enemy you really are! Look, people of Re-Estize, see your saviour for the enemy he is to us all!"
The captain, surely because of his shinier, cleaner armour with more elaborate decorations, yelled for the all the people to hear.
"A monster disguised as a knight, cavorting with undead! We must rise as one, or they will kill us all! Help us, people of this village! We must destroy them together!"
Silence greeted the captain's words, the villagers staring in disgust at the person who lead a massacre through their village, something they were just saved from by the knight who was friendly with monsters. At the moment they were wavering between fear of the monsters and hate for the knights, but indignation became the decider.
"Shut up, trash!"
"I don't care if monsters kill us, as long as you die, too!"
"You're a bunch of murdering scum! I hope you die slower!"
The wave of vitriol drowned out the captain's words, as the people of the village staunchly, viciously, condemned the knights' actions. They had come here to slaughter them all, and now they tried to rally them against their saviour?
"Die!"
"I hate you!"
"You're the real monsters!"
"Argh!"
The players stood back and watched as the villagers began throwing things at the captive soldiers, who could only huddle and hope that their broken armour would protect them. At first it was small stones and splinters of wood, but soon turned into rocks and bricks, and whatever else the angry mob could get their hands on.
"Was that an arm!?" Touch Me asked, taken aback. "Holy shit! Did you guys see that guy throw an arm at them?"
"Yeah, ooof."
The players let it go on, temporarily being forgotten in the mobs' ire, until a villager turned to pick up a rock that was close to them, coming face to face with the trio of heteromorphs that were still present.
"Ahhh!" The villager screamed, falling on his ass as he scrambled away, once more drawing the attention of the survivors.
"Remembered us, have you?" Tabula rasped, easily heard by everyone in the ruined village.
The whimpering man backpedalled away, while the angry villagers seized up in fright.
"Fickle, aren't they?" Momonga whispered.
"Hush, Momonga. Their suffering permits them some leniency. They've undergone a traumatic experience, so they might be unstable."
The frightened villagers left Tabula's question unanswered, remaining frozen in the presence of the monsters garbed in regal and refined dress.
Tabula strode toward the cowering knights, gaze burning into the captain's as he zeroed in on his target.
"N-no! Get away! Stay away from me!" The captain cried, spittle flying from his mouth as a panicked.
"You were so bold just a moment ago. Where did all that bravery go, I wonder?" Tabula's otherworldly voice burned strongly in the face of the terrible human being. "Your cowardly self is revealed."
"S-stay back, monster! Damn you! Argh!"
The knight cried as Tabula bent down and grabbed the man by his throat and easily lifted him into the air to dangle helplessly while he choked. The Illithid's gaze bore into the man, searing him with malevolent orange eyes that emerged from beneath the milky grey they normally were.
"Let me go!" The captain wheezed, gasping for a breath he wasn't permitted to have, not by the strange being who held him in his grasp, and not for the lives he had taken. "I won't tell you monsters anything, so you might as well give up!"
When the Brain Eater made no move to release him, the twitching captain began panicking in his final moments.
"Damn you! Damn you monsters! By the Six, d-damn you!"
"A religious phrase." Tabula tilted his head, analysing the man to find out his motivations. "Which explains his hatred and fear, but not why they would attack a harmless border village so eagerly."
"Y-you can't kill me! Not if you want what I know!"
"That's not how it works. You don't get to swear you'll never sell out, then attempt to valuate your life over the information you won't tell us. Besides, I couldn't care less about what you know." Tabula's scaly, tentacle-like limbs tightened around the man's throat, forcing him into a wide-eyed, spluttering panic. "But if you absolutely refuse to share anything that may otherwise persuade me to spare your life, I will gladly oblige.
"Die, now."
Just as the man was about to strangle into unconsciousness, Tabula flicked his wrist, causing the dangling body to twist violently in the air under its own weight. The momentum caused the captain's body to spin about his spine at the base of his skull, making an awful cracking sound as his neck was broken.
The corpse clattered nosily to the ground, as the armour covered legs flopped lifelessly, his body resembling a pretzel with his arms bent behind him.
"Fortunately," Tabula addressed the body. "You make a fine example."
The few remaining captives whimpered and whined, horror stricken and speechless about their encroaching deaths.
"There will be nothing more from you lot, I trust? Not if you don't wish to suffer the same fate." Touch Me directed to the quivering knights menacingly. No verbal answer was given, but he took the stench of ammonia as affirmation. "Good."
"Fucking brutal." A voice commented from behind them.
"Ulbert!" Momonga whirled on the demon who had snuck up on them. "When did you get here?"
"Now." Ulbert surveyed the carnage about them. "But my question is: why are you here?"
"We found this village being attacked by invaders." Touch Me replied. "I will not do nothing while others suffer."
"No, you will not." Ulbert nodded. "Neither will I."
"I thought you'd want to play at being an evil demon god? You change your mind?" The alchemist among them jabbed.
"Hilarious, Tabula. I forgot to laugh; you were that funny." Ulbert glanced at the Illithid out of the corner of his eyes from behind his mask. "Besides, who's playing?"
"Typically, demon gods aren't renown for their kindness, or their willingness to protect humans."
"I was once a child whose parents died to slavery under the tycoons, trodden on by those that called themselves my betters." Ulbert replied. "No more. I intend to help those that struggle under tyranny."
"You've turned a new leaf Ulbert. I'm proud." Touch Me commended.
"Perhaps." Ulbert responded to his frenemies praise.
"How'd you get here, anyway?"
"You left the TV on." Ulbert answered. "I made a portal near the girls when I saw them in the mirror. I didn't even have to ask them for directions, just followed the bodies."
Tabula nudged Momonga, who grunted and shrugged off the unspoken jibe for leaving the mirror active.
"Is everyone else here as well, or waiting back in the guild?" Momonga asked.
"Nah. I got bored, so I ditched them and came back by myself. I can't say how long you've got until everyone checks back in the Throne Room, so you should all try and make peace and forgive yourselves for this act, because Punitto sure won't."
"You're here too, stupid." Tabula sniped back.
Ulbert raised a hand to retort, but let it drop after a moment of thought.
"I did not think this through."
"I didn't think you had."
The players chuckled over their shared fate, and turned back to face the villagers, all of whom were absolutely frozen in place.
"Time stop? Since when?" Touch Me wondered.
"Since I got here." Ulbert replied. "That was another thing I realised in the arena. You feel your resistances, but you don't notice anything if you're immune. One of the fallacies of immunity, I imagine, is being unable to tell something's happening to you because you're, you know, immune."
"Damn, you're right." Tabula muttered. "I can sense it now, but only because I'm looking for it. We weren't paying attention."
"We'll have to work on that, if we hope to survive against high level opponents." Momonga noted. "I guess that tiny, little immunity activation pop up icon was so unnoticeable in game that it translated to being very nearly undetectable here. Shitty devs."
"Ha! That's probably it, too." Ulbert barked in laughter.
"By the way Ulbert, didn't we agree on not using time magic?"
"I don't recall agreeing on anything, Momonga, only that we refrain from using 'dangerous magic, until we understand more about our power'. Which we could have easily done, if you thought about it for more than a second." Ulbert disregarded the unspoken agreement. "Time stop stops all time. Something taking only a moment to think about it would have taught you. Broken, I know, but that's just how it is."
"That won't save you from Punitto or Blue Planet if they find out about this." Touch Me warned the Demon Lord.
"If they find out." Ulbert dismissed the spell with a wave of his hand. "What they don't know won't hurt them."
The villagers gasped, only now noticing that another monster had appeared.
"Be not afraid." Ulbert waved a clawed hand meant to mimic a comforting gesture.
'I already did this bit.' Tabula messaged directly to the players' minds, opening a mental dialogue among the group with a higher tier messenger spell. 'Said it to the girls in the forest.'
''Dammit!' Ulbert hissed into their minds, before raising his voice again. "We mean you no harm."
The villagers, once full of fire and rage at the knights, had reverted into being trembling and afraid of their saviours.
'Flighty, aren't they?'
'I said the same thing.' Momonga messaged back to the demon's commentary.
"People of this village. We are Ainz Ooal Gown." Touch Me said to the collective of people in the village centre. "Let one who speaks for you come forth."
The humans began murmuring among themselves, failing to send stealthy looks towards an older man, who the players surmised was an elder or mayor of some kind. Eventually, the old man steeled his nerves and stepped forward, facing the heteromorphs.
"I-I am the Chief of Carne Village." The older man had a deep suntan and a heavy muscular build for his old age, revealing a long life of having toiled outside, which made him look around forty years old and grey.
"The Chief of Carne approaches." Ulbert intoned ominously, spooking the villagers and causing the chief to falter in his step.
'Melodramatic, much?' Tabula messaged the group chat. 'Weren't you the one who said we should act however we want without acting out those stereotypes?'
'I said we should act how we want, and right now we should appear mysterious, to keep them off balance while we question them for information.'
'You're just playing around and having fun, aren't you?'
Ulbert's non-reply was revealing.
"Tell us everything you know about the attack on this village, Chief of Carne." Touch Me commanded.
"Y-yes, lord." The chief hesitantly replied. "I don't know why this village was attacked, but if I had to guess, it would be because we are a village of the kingdom of Re-Estize right on the border closest to the Baharuth Empire."
"And why would that matter? Is the empire always encroaching on Re-Estize territory?"
"Baharuth and Re-Estize have been at war for years now. D-do you not know this?"
"We're new to these lands, you could say." Ulbert interjected, eyes gleaming gold. "Assume we have absolutely no knowledge of anything about the neighbouring nations or current events. Continue."
"R-right. Ah, the Baharuth Empire has been declaring annual wars against the kingdom. I'm not sure why, but it's always a drain when it happens. There aren't many able young men left after the drafts, and work around the village is always harder at those times, plus the heightened taxes held on us by the Kingdom to afford its war. It's a struggle, but we get by."
"Hmmm. What of the lay of the land itself? Do you have a map that we could see?" Momonga suggested.
"Yes, I do. It's back in my house. Please wait here. I'll be right back." The old man gulped when faced with the undead of the monstrous group.
"Would it not be more expedient of us to simply you to your home?" Ulbert asked the chief, his guttural voice lilted in expectancy.
"Ah, yes. Follow me, my lords." The chief's eyes were darting about, looking to his fellow villagers, all of whom kept their heads bowed and faces averted from the desperate man.
"Splendid!" Ulbert said, clapping his hands in praise. "Lead the way, Chief."
The players followed the man to his house, an unremarkable building amongst the others in the village, save for it being larger and more weathered than the others that weren't burnt down. The man held the door open for them and shivered when they all drew so close to enter the home. None of them were as tall as the lintel, but they still had to stoop to be welcomed into the home. The players were greeted by the typical furnishings you might find in an eighteenth-century home, having grown familiar with the recreations in Yggdrasil, which were surprisingly accurate.
'Rickety table. Chairs that can barely hold your weight. Sparse furnishings. Earthenware food storage and cupboards in a same room kitchenette. Wooden chest storage. Crooked wardrobe. Only three separate other rooms, presumably two bedrooms and another storage room. Possibly a cold room.' Tabula commentated in their mental space, floor creaking beneath them. 'Wooden floors, possibly a basement below, and additional storage space. Definitely a cold store. So, the other room is also a spare bedroom? Quite a large household for peasantry.'
'Tabula, while I find your insight positively fascinating, could you please shut the fuck up?' Ulbert commented to the Illithid. 'At least, save it for someone who cares.'
'Barbarians.'
Momonga felt the link die when Tabula severed the connection, and was momentarily disappointed, having enjoyed the rundown of the house's interior.
"Show us the map, please." Touch Me spoke to the man casually, trying to gander some goodwill with the man whose village he had saved, and not scaring him out of his wits as the other players seemed intent on.
"Here."
The man pulled a scroll from the wardrobe, which was more of a shelved cupboard than the rack they thought it was. The chief unfurled the map on the table, smoothing it out and holding it in place with some ceramic cups he pulled from a nearby shelf.
The map itself was an unrecognisable scrawl of intersecting lines and squiggles, and something unintelligible faintly resembling script was scribbled across the map. There were old splotches of dye spread across the faded map, possibly to give some depth to the indecipherable mess.
"The cartographer should be shot for this. Could you explain the map to us? It's very difficult to… interpret." Tabula groused.
"O-of course."
The chief pointed out notable nearby landmarks which they could recognise, such as the beginning of apparent Azerlisia Mountain range to the distant northwest, which also happened to be in the general direction of where Nazarick was located, which itself was situated in a clearing within the Great Forest of Tob.
The Great Forest of Tob, apparently, was a massive stretch of untameable forest that separated much of Re Estize from the Baharuth Empire, by being too dense and hostile to be traversed, and far too costly to be conquered by either nation.
'Interesting. Perhaps…' Momonga analysed the map carefully to the best of his ability.
The sheer vastness of the dense forest made it an ideal area for the players to claim they were from, especially if it was unchartered by any nation, and an idea took root within Momonga's mind.
Otherwise, Carne Village itself seemed to be precariously located at the intersection of several distinct borders.
There was the Re-Estize Kingdom to the west, of which Carne seemed to be the furthest outpost from the capital. There was the Baharuth Empire to the distant north, or northeast, but there was also a bare stretch that covered leagues into the far southeast.
"What is this strip of land here, just south of Carne and the Baharuth Empire, that stretches out down to there?" Touch Me pointed to the areas.
"T-that would be the Katze Plains. I'm sure you must be familiar with it since it is a place of the undead."
"Undead, did you say?" Momonga interrupted.
"I assume that is where you are from? Ah, I mean, what am I saying!? I didn't mean to make assumptions about you, my lords! Please forgive me!" The chief clenched I his eyes closed as he apologised in fear for his presumption.
"Don't worry about it." Momonga waved away his concerns. "But that is interesting."
'So this is a fantasy world!' Tabula sparked the mental link back to life. 'I was beginning to wonder.'
Momonga felt a faint thrill of excitement course through him at the thought. While they were clearly fantasy beings from a game world, there wasn't much to suggest that this world itself was a fantasy land.
Even though it may have been safer to have been isekai'd into a mundane world, it would have also been unbearably boring. Knowing there were fantasy elements such as a land of undead meant there was more to this world than they hoped.
Undead were a good indicator of magic in a fantasy world, and he only hoped they weren't in some zombie plagued world either. A fantasy world was amazing, but a dedicated zombie only world was less so.
"What's this area here?" Ulbert pointed directly to the south of Carne, and the other nearby city that were a part of Re-Estize.
"That would be the Slane Theocracy, my lord." The chief replied.
'Oh, fantastic.' Tabula rolled his eyes, a decidedly strange look on the pallid creature with uniformly murky gray eyes.
'What's wrong?' Momonga messaged.
'I get that there's religion. But when you group a bunch of like-minded people together, they start getting ideas, and historically, grouping a bunch of religious people together and then putting them in charge is a terribly bad idea. It always seems to end poorly for everyone else, and just how do you think we'll be received in a religious, human society?'
'Their faith could teach forgiveness and tolerance?'
'Really, Momonga?'
"A theocracy you say?" Tabula voiced aloud.
"Yes. They are lead by the Pontifex Maximus and the Cardinals of the Six. Do you not know of them?"
"Assume we are from very, very far away, and appeared right here in the middle of your village without travelling through the other nations."
"Very well, my lord." The chief wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "I don't know much about the Slane Theocracy, only that they are champions of h-humanity, and follow the Faith of the Six Great Gods, the gods who saved humans from being wiped out six hundred years ago."
'Lore!' Momonga shared amongst the group. 'Finally, this world is getting interesting.'
"What can you tell us of the Faith of the Six Great Gods?" Momonga asked aloud.
"Not much, I'm afraid, my lords." The chief shook his head. "Only that the Six Great Gods emerged about six hundred years ago. They were the Gods of Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Life, and Death. They appeared when humanity was on the edge of extinction by the beastmen and saved us. They drove the non-humans out and made a haven for all the human peoples. Most of these nations on this map, from end to end, are what's left of the human nations created by the Six Great Gods, and the Eight Greed Kings."
'Epic lore!'
"And who are the Eight Greed Kings?" Ulbert asked.
"That I don't know, only that they appeared about five hundred years ago, about a hundred years after the Six Great Gods, and nearly destroyed the world." Said the chief.
"Nearly destroyed the world? They were that strong?"
"I don't really know. That's how the story goes. I'm sorry I can't tell you more about them."
Momonga surveyed the map and accepted the man's words. It would be terribly difficult to keep track of a long history, especially through the supposed near destruction of the world, and for six hundred years at that. Not to mention in this low-tech medieval fantasy world. That, and he shouldn't expect a peasant farmer to know history beyond word-of-mouth recounts.
"What about this area here, and this part here?" Touch Me pointed to the south west.
"This area is the Abelion Hills, which are infamous for their high numbers of different kinds of beastmen. From the base of the wall all the way to this mountain range is all beastmen territory."
"And this line here?" Touch Me indicated west of the Abelion Hills.
"The peninsula itself belongs to the Roble Holy Kingdom. This line here is a great wall built to keep their people safe from beastmen attacks."
'Another religious nation?' Tabula groaned into the connection, an odd sound to be sure in the other players' heads.
"Holy Kingdom? Of the Six as well?" Tabula asked.
"N-no, my lord. They follow only the Four Gods of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. I'm not as familiar with that faith, although it's supposed to be the same as the worship of the Six, except for the Gods of Life and Death."
"Do you know why that is?"
"No, my lord."
"Tell us more about the Azerlisia Mountains, and the Forest of Tob." Momonga said, trying to piece together an idea of Nazarick's surroundings.
"Well, there's much I don't know. Only that there's many different kinds of beastmen, goblins, ogres, trolls, and other monsters spread in the deeper reaches. That, and the forest is very dense not far in. It's almost impossible to get through. I also hear that there's a Dwarven kingdom up there, but I don't know how much of that is true."
The players eyed each other, a faint excitement bubbling up inside them all. Dwarves?
The fantasy elements were beginning to pile up.
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you more of the area, my lords."
"Lighten up, would you? There's no need for such a noble address with us." Ulbert pat the man lightly on the back, though the chief cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground under the force. "Oops, my bad."
"Careful, Ulbert! You nearly- "
"Ahhh!" A new voice entered the scene, as an older woman burst into the house wielding only a shovel from outside. The teary woman was trembling horribly, voice thick with fright even as she confronted the monsters. "Dear, are you o-okay?"
"Lani! I'm alright! Please forgive us my lords! I didn't mean to cause a commotion! She's very protective of me! Please, forgive her!"
The players were taken aback by the sudden scene that had occurred, but attributed it to distress, or duress of being separated from a loved one while they were interrogated by monsters. The cry of pain from the chief and sudden interruption by his wife had broken their immersion, having treated this entire encounter like they were role playing with a quest giving NPC.
"Your devotion to your husband is commendable." Touch Me acknowledged the woman's spirit, glaring at Ulbert through his visor. "But worry not. We mean you all no harm."
"My mistake. That one was on me." Ulbert apologised.
"It was an accident, dear." The chief climbed to his feet. "I wasn't expecting it."
"Here. For your trouble." Ulbert flicked his wrist, and with a little slight of hand made three Yggdrasil gold pieces appear in his splayed fingers.
"Gold?" The chief watched the demon place the small coins in a stack on the map, over where Carne was located.
"Indeed. If it isn't sufficient, I would be willing to part with more. Other reparations can be made if the gold has no value to you." Ulbert nodded in supplication.
"No, it's fine! Too much, in fact!" The chief eyed the coins, though his apparent fear kept him from picking them up. His wife, on the other hand, seemed to have a little more mettle.
"Is this pure?" She held the coin up, before realising she was questioning the monsters for their honesty. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to question your kind gifts!"
"Do not doubt that this is pure gold." Tabula produced another coin his slime covered palm, although none of it stuck to the coin, which shined brightly in the light from an open window. "Is this a form of currency you'd be willing to accept?"
"They're not Re-Estize gold coins, but gold is gold." Said the chief, whose name they still didn't know, Momonga realised.
"And how does it compare?" Momonga asked.
"By the size and heft to it, I'd guess maybe double the value of a Re-Estize gold coin, if this is pure gold. One moment please, I have a set of scales."
The players waited while the couple went and pulled a pair of scales and marked weights from one of the back rooms, which they placed down on the table.
"Let's see." The man weighed the coins against numerous weights of different size and metals. "This is just a little over double the worth of a Re-Estize gold coin, but this beautiful and artistic standard would triple its value, I'd say."
"Truly?"
"Ah, I'm not a merchant or collector, so I'm not too sure, my lord." The chief shook his head, volunteering as much information as he could in fear of retribution.
"What'd I say earlier, man? Relax." Ulbert waved away the chiefs wavering concerns.
"Going back a little. What can you tell us of Re-Estize, itself?" Tabula asked.
Momonga tuned out Tabula's further detailed questions as he pondered the update to their situation.
Apparently, they were in a low-tech fantasy land, one with periodic interventions from divine beings, and with the occasional all-out war between species and nations. Momonga began to feel excited with how the world building took shape in his mind, likening it to the Yggdrasil he was familiar with, yet was constantly reminded that it was a new world.
The players listened to the couple's tales and exposition for the immediate surrounding areas, especially the nearby fortress city of E-Rantel.
"An Adventurer's Guild?" Touch Me's words dragged Momonga back into the conversation.
"Yes. Trained adventurers for hire to take on any deed, from protection from bandits to clearing an area of monsters." Said the chief, only realising after about what he was saying. "Not that we'd hire adventurers to hunt you! I mean, not that they're strong enough! Argh, I mean-!"
"No, please. Go on." Ulbert prodded, having lost his previous jovial demeanour, causing the couple to begin trembling violently again in fear.
"Enough, Ulbert." Touch Me chastised the demon. "Stop toying with them."
"Okay. Okay. Just kidding." The demon was all smiles again. "You both really do need to loosen up. All that tension can't be good for you."
Momonga sighed as the human pair were back to being nervous wrecks again, after having grown accustomed to chatting with a bunch of monsters.
"So adventurers are sort of like mercenaries?" Touch Me wrested the conversation back on track.
"They're similar, but the mercenaries have a separate guild, and different rules they need to follow."
"I see. What differences might those be?"
"Ah, well, mercenaries are normally protection or muscle for hire, and don't really move around a lot. Adventurers need to be free to move around from place to place where all the monsters are sighted, if they want to make money, especially since they're allowed to travel freely between nations." The chief explained.
"I'm sorry. They what?" Tabula interrupted.
"Adventurers are allowed to move freely between nations without being accosted by local authorities. It's part of the oaths they swear when they become adventurers, and what makes the Adventurer's Guild so important. It's because monsters and beastmen aren't very picky about what humans they attack, and adventurers specialise in fighting them. No nation wants to be overrun by monsters, and no nation wants to share a border with monsters either."
"I see." Tabula analysed the information. "How curious."
"I-I meant no offense, of course." The chief bowed once again, sweat on his brow.
"We understand." Touch Me placated. "No offense has been given. But I see the hour grows late. Perhaps we should be on our way."
The paladin gestured towards the open window, through which they could now see the sun. Having arrived at midday, this meant it was well into the afternoon now, and they had been gone from Nazarick for a couple of hours.
"Thank you, for protecting our village, kind sirs." The chief bowed as they made their way outside.
"Think nothing of it. Any kind soul would do the same, no matter what form it may take."
The chief smiled for the first time since they'd met and escorted them through the village. The people of Carne seemed a little shell shocked from the assault on the village, as they hardly paid any attention to the monsters who walked among them, though they did make sure to steer clear.
"There seems to be a lot less people around." Momonga commented.
"O-oh. S-some of the survivors fled, my lords." Lani answered nervously. "They were terrified of you."
"Oh."
'Shit.' Tabula messaged the group. 'That's going to become a problem. I know it.'
The bodies of the villagers had been arranged within the village centre, around which grieving family members and friends could be found mourning the passing of loved ones, all the while tending to the injured and the few young children of the village.
"How horrible." Ulbert commented, appraising the situation once again. "I know humans have always been lowly creatures, but even in this pristine world, they still find reasons to tear each other down. Disgusting."
"Quiet, Ulbert." Tabula whispered sternly. "They might hear you, and we're not exactly humans either. You'll give them the wrong idea."
"Right. Right. Sorry."
"This unjust suffering. I hate it. I always have." Touch Me clenched a gauntlet covered fist. "Is this how we're going to start our journey in this new world? Arriving on a field of slaughter, with nothing but a few terrified survivors to be thankful for our untimely intervention?"
"What are you suggesting, Touch Me?" Momonga asked his friend. "If there was anything we could do, I would be all for it, but it's a little too late for them, don't you think?"
Momonga left it unsaid that they shouldn't revive the fallen people of this village, after all they were trying to keep a low profile, and it required little thought to realise that monsters resurrecting a bunch of humans was bound to draw attention more than a group of monsters slaughtering a few knights.
It would be easy enough for them to convince the villagers to follow that narrative given to them by the players, not if they feared for their lives.
"I'm saying that I won't let this be our beginning. We are Ainz Ooal Gown, and we have never been the ones to fade into the background while events pass us by!" Touch Me stopped their precession, and marched back into the village square. "You said we should act however we want, and damn what the rest of the world thinks. Right, Ulbert?"
The demon lord nodded, grinning behind his mask as he liked this new direction Touch Me was placing them on. "Sure."
"Then let our journey not start over the bodies of a broken village, but with the start of our legend in this world."
"Eloquent." Ulbert grinned, while Momonga and Tabula caught onto Touch Me's plan a little too late.
"Excuse me?"
"What?"
Touch Me raised his fist into the air, opening his hand to release a brilliant radiance that made the afternoon sun look like the dark of a new moon.
"Skill: Miracle."
Momonga was familiar with this skill, as it was one of Touch Me's favourites when clearing lower-level mob farms. As explained by the man, it was technically a Paladin skill, though it could only be unlocked by having a maxed out unique protector class, which was covered by his levels in World Champion.
This mid-tier skill allowed him to freely resurrect an unlimited number of low-level targets, without penalty, that had been slain by enemies, so long as the skill user had then killed the enemies in question. There were also other conditions, such as the slain targets and the slain enemies' combined levels couldn't be greater than the users, and the target having done less than ten percent max health damage to the enemies before they were killed.
These conditions were met in this circumstance, as the villagers' levels and the knights' combined levels were lower than Touch Me's, while the knights' armour had prevented them from being harmed in a meaningful way by the villagers. As Touch Me had slain the enemy knights single handed, he could use the skill to revive all the fallen villagers.
The brilliant rays of light emitted from Touch Me's skill blinded all the villagers, though the players weren't affected by such status afflictions. The fallen bodies glowed, emitting an inner light that resonated with the light in the paladin's hand. After a moment of silence, the dead villagers' wounds were healed, and colour was brought back to their bodies as the dead were restored to life.
As a group, the ones who were laid in state for burial gasped life-giving breath back into their lungs, having been brought back from deaths clutches to face the woes of life once more.
"It is a miracle!"
"Mama!"
"T-thank you so much!"
"My son! My boy!"
"Darling!"
Exclamations of joy and affection rang throughout the village as they celebrated the return of their loved ones. What was once fear of the monsters became praise and adoration as they thanked the players for the saving them from the attack.
"A grace of the gods unlike any other! You must be angels of the Six sent in disguise!" One villager proclaimed.
"Do not be mistaken." Ulbert refuted disdainfully. "We are not angels, and we are not mere servants."
"Monsters!" One of the newly resurrected villagers cried weakly, stumbling in disorientation from his renewed life.
"Please, remain calm!" The chief attempted to calm the saved villagers. "They are with our protector, this paladin, who saved us all!"
The villagers quietened down, although they still looked like they would prefer to be anywhere other than here.
"Would you kindly share your name, Sir knight?" The chief asked, faith and adoration shining in his eyes for the awesome display of benevolent power.
"I?" The insectoid briefly hesitated, before sharing his name. "I am called Touch Me."
"Thank you, Lord Touch Me, for saving this village." The chief bowed, as did the rest of the villagers' present
"Thank you, Lord Touch Me."
"You're the best, Lord Touch Me!"
"Lord Touch Me, you're so amazing!"
An odd thought raised itself in Momonga's mind.
'Hey, guys?' Momonga pinged the group chat. 'How come they're yelling out Touch Me's name so casually? I mean, Touch Me, really?'
'That's what you noticed, Momonga?' Tabula replied.
'What do you mean?'
'This is another world. Haven't you noticed that we can understand them, despite the fact we're not speaking the same language?'
'Wait, we aren't?'
'Pay attention to their lips.' Tabula instructed. 'The movements don't line up with what they're saying.'
Momonga, as did the other two who were eavesdropping, began to pay attention to the villagers around them that were talking amongst themselves, or continuing to sing their praises to their glorious saviour Lord Touch Me.
'Wow, you're right.' Ulbert exclaimed mentally. 'I didn't even notice that.'
While the villagers were talking, no matter what it was they were saying, the words they heard differed wildly from the shapes their lips were making when they were speaking.
'They can understand us too, so what we're saying is being translated back to them.' Tabula posited. 'They must hear the words 'Touch Me' as a name, which mightn't necessarily be translated.
'All names have meanings, no matter what language it's in or its origin, but no one hears a name and immediately thinks of the meaning behind it. That is how I think everyone's words are being translated.' Tabula explained. 'We can hear the intent in the spoken word, and we infer meaning from it.
'I bet if you said 'touch me' with different intentions, you might start garnering strange looks when you introduce yourself to people.' Tabula thought directly to the paladin in question.
'Then I'll try not to keep that in mind.' Touch Me thought wryly.
"Who are these others that are with you, my lord, if I may kindly ask?" The chief bowed once again.
"My name is Tabula Smaragdina."
"Ulbert Alain Odle. At your service." The demon returned the bow with a wicked grin with far greater grace.
"I am Momonga." The Overlord introduced himself. "And we are Ainz Ooal Gown, which is what we shall be known by when you tell of our tale."
The players turned to leave the village, walking towards the tree line to conceal their exit.
"R-right." The chief stuttered over having to learn so many outlandish names. "Thank you, Lords of Ainz Ooal Gown!"
Emerging through the veneers of their different monstrous forms, all four players smiled widely beneath the visages, stopping under the shade of a particularly large tree.
"I like this place already." Ulbert grinned under his mask.
'You'll like it a lot less once the villagers forget their memories of what happened here.'
Momonga shivered as he felt another presence enter the mental connection they had to communicate amongst themselves.
'Punitto!' Ulbert thought with faux joy dripping from his silvery thoughts. 'I was about to tell them to come back to the guild.'
'Is that right? Because that's not what it looked like from these Mirrors of Remote Viewing set up here in the Throne Room. To me, it looks like you lot have been hanging out there in a little village, playing god with the local peasantry, and apparently having it out with a foreign militant group. For the last three hours.'
'A-ah. It may seem that way at first glance, but…'
'Go on.'
'I've got nothing.'
The four players hung their heads guiltily, having trekked out of sight of the village, and stopped role playing to the fullest extent.
"Why must we wipe their minds?" Momonga spoke aloud, knowing the Death Vine would hear him clearly, regardless.
'Because we aren't ready to announce ourselves to the world just yet, and especially not so close to the entrance to Nazarick! When we do decide to go public, it will be done far away from the guild, that's for sure.' Punitto replied. 'Your psionic abilities will be sufficient, I trust, Tabula?'
"They should be." The Brain Eater replied. "Control Amnesia, or perhaps Memory Drain, or even Mind Control."
'Very good. I'll leave that in your capable hands- what is it?'
"Pardon?" Touch Me asked. "Is something the matter?"
There was a brief interlude of silence while Punitto dealt with the interruption.
'There's another group of mounted warriors heading your way. Damn.'
"What should we do?" Ulbert asked the group. "They might be more attackers."
'They're equipped different from the other knights.' Punitto interjected.
"We can't erase the villagers' memories now, that'll still leave a massive pile of dead knights with no explanation for how they died, and a burnt down village for no explicable reason. There's no way anyone will believe the villagers killed them, not with them having no memory of there being dead knights in the first place." Said Tabula, who began pacing briskly. "Any other action we take would also call for an investigation."
"And we won't be making them disappear, either." Touch Me vowed. "We won't become the monsters we appear to be."
"Strange, it's like no one even suggested that, Touch." Ulbert eyed the paladin who turned his gaze away from the demon.
"Then we'll have to go back." Momonga announced, drawing a mask and gauntlets from his inventory. "And it may be better if we start with not appearing as monsters. To prevent any further misunderstandings."
"We'll fly invisible over the village, Ulbert." Tabula took to the skies. "Provide a little aerial support. We're a little too inhuman for that simple of a disguise."
"Let's go, then." Ulbert vanished after him, as neither of them had transformation spells. "Oh, by the way, Momonga, that is a uniquely hideous mask you have on there. Just so you know."
"Thanks." Momonga uttered dryly.
'We'll leave everything up to you.' Punitto spoke to the four mentally. 'Everyone's here in the Throne Room ready to make a drop if you need us.'
'Appreciated.' Tabula responded mentally. 'But we're going to need a clear channel. Keep it down while we're out here.'
'If you insist.' Punitto closed the connection abruptly.
Touch Me's full plate armour and helmet hid his glaringly inhuman nature, but his voice was an obvious giveaway.
"Do you have something that can mask your voice, or am I going to have to do all the talking?" Momonga adjusted his robes to hide his ribs beneath his cloak.
"I have a mimicry skill from my insectoid levels. It should suffice." Touch Me's voice warbled a bit before settling into a lower tone of his human voice, if a little drone-like. "There. How's that?"
"Better."
"Excluding the seriousness of our situation, doesn't this remind you of an early story campaign, Momonga?" Touch Me spoke as the two returned to the village outskirts.
"Absolutely. The suspense. The role play. The lore of this new world." Momonga agreed joyously. "It's fantastic."
"It would be more fun if it weren't for the trappings of reality. I don't like the violence prevalent in such a young world. Why must humanity constantly be at odds with each other?"
"I don't know." Momonga answered truthfully, a little off balance from the sudden philosophical turn. "But with us here now, we can change that for the better, if we wish."
"You might be right." Touch Me agreed. "I wouldn't want to bring change as a conqueror, but there might not be any other way, not while people fear us as monsters."
"About that, I also want to visit some of these monster areas, they sound quite interesting."
"Maybe after. Enough of that for now. Let's get back to the village."
The two players disappeared in a blur of motion, preparing for the second wave.