Hello Scrolls and Followers of Justice, and Mr.Bones bringing chapter 05.

I'm very excited about what I've written so far.

With you

The One Who Came Back

Chapter 05: Arrival and Departure

The two Kings had overheard the conversation and decided to have a little fun trying to look more solemn than they wanted to. The reaction was immediate to such an attitude, everyone in an area of one hundred meters fell to their knees, lowering their heads.

The situation became uncomfortable when neither of them knew who should give the order to raise their heads. Gondo thought that the Sorcerer King, as his overlord, would give the order, while Ainz, a salaryman, thought that Gondo as the rules of this people should do so.

The situation continued until Ainz lightly coughed into his fist and said – Ahan! I think you should say something Gondo.

— Ah yes, Your Majesty, RAISE YOUR HEADS AND CONTINUE YOUR WORK, YOUR MAJESTY THANKS YOU FOR YOUR GREETINGS.

And Ainz just waved to everyone like a beauty pageant contestant, something embarrassing even for an undead, his emotion suppressor kept shining.

— Well Brotkin, can we go somewhere more private?

— This way, Your Majesties – said the nervous dwarf. He had never met royalty, let alone two more, this would be a day to be told to his grandchildren, he thought.

Inside the customs, in a room away from prying eyes, they sat in richly ornate armchairs that Ainz had created out of thin air, for despite being an important post, it was still a work area and everything there was simple. So Ainz thought that a simple chair would not support his weight, and after creating an armchair he was ashamed to be the only one to sit comfortably, so he created several others, which would now be items of worship by the dwarven people, being kept in a museum decades later with a sign that read: "In these armchairs sat the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown, the King Under The Mountain Gondo Firebeard, the Master Blacksmith Rumble Redson, and the Chief Customs Officer Brotkin Blackrock."

— You seem quite busy, Mr. Brotkin – the supreme being broke the ice.

— You have no idea, Your Majesty, the movement has only increased in recent months, so we've hired new surveyors and they are, at best, inexperienced.

— I think the smuggling of illegal products would be inhibited by the presence of the Death Knights.

— Yes, yes, some more obvious ones, like the smuggling of weapons out of the kingdom, but the entrance is what makes us work. Where there are rules, someone wants to break them, they want to bring in items without verifying the origin, things with dubious effects, but the biggest problem is black powder.

— I thought the Eight Fingers had been destroyed and no longer operated. – Said Ainz, remembering that he had ordered the use of black powder by the organization to stop after they took control.

— That's the problem with power Your Majesty, power can't stand a vacuum – said Gondo – when the Eight Fingers stopped supplying drugs, someone took over the business, minor dealers and even people without an organization, sometimes someone at home alone cultivating a single plant that produces enough black powder for three people and thinking he's the king of drug trafficking.

— I understand, lesser thugs would be hard to spot because they're not connected to anyone. Alone they are a nuisance, but in quantity they can cause as much damage as an organization.

— 'They never entered E-Rantel because of the extremely strict inspection, but in other cities and towns they would become a problem, I'll have to talk about it with Albedo, we can't allow these kind of people to develop' - thought the Sorcerer King.

— It's hard work, but someone has to do it, and it looks like you're trying really hard.

— Thank you Your Majesty, I do what I can, I've worked as a watchman in these caves for years and it's not now that we've survived the war that I'm going to let strangers break into my house with this crap.

— By the way, I'd like to know about a person, someone who came here almost six months ago, in the middle of the night, his name was Telcontar, do you remember him?

— Telcontar, yes, yes, I remember, the storyteller, did he do something bad? It must not have been a good thing for two rulers to come here, am I in trouble?

— No, you are not, but we're looking for information about him, confidential stuff, you know?

— Of course Master Gondo, I understand, about Mr Telcontar, so…" Brotkin began.

— I was on duty at that same exit, at the time it was just a simple entrance with a gate, we kept watch at night to avoid any attack. There are usually two of us, but my partner had to go back to the city, some problem with the lack of people to check on the undead, you know, they work day and night straight, but someone always has to keep an eye out because they're not very smart, just enough to carry out simple orders.

— After several hours in the middle of the night, you sometimes see and hear strange things, but he arrived out of nowhere, before midnight, without making a sound. In the middle of the rain you hear it slam into the body of something, but it caught me off guard, and no, I wasn't sleeping.

— He came to the gate and said — "Hail buddy, bad night huh?!" – I was amazed that someone spoke so casually like that – "Hello, who's there!?" - I said.

— "Hello how are you? I'm passing through and looking for a place to spend the night, can I get out of this rain?" – he questioned.

— I kind of reacted instinctively and let him get closer, you know, I reacted without thinking, he could be a thief or a trespasser, but he didn't pass that attitude, he was polite and sounded sincere, he could be using magic, but I have no way of knowing. Today we are prepared for this, I myself requested magic casters capable of detecting charm, it was a struggle to get it, but we have already arrested several smugglers trying to use it on agents, so it was worth it.

— He patted his clothes to get the rainwater out, he wasn't even as wet as he should have been, weird right, then he smiled and asked how I was, you know, like we were friends, we started talking, me doing my job, asking what his name, where he came from, where he was going, what was the intention here.

— He thought for a while and said his name was Telcontar, that he was a storyteller who came from the direction of E-Libera and previously passed through E-Pespel, but who had already spent the last few months in Horbuns, in the capital of the Draconic Kingdom and even worked in some taverns in Kami Miyako, the capital of the Slane Theocracy, he said he didn't know where he was going and that he just wanted to spend the night if possible.

— I asked what kind of stories he told and he said it depended on the audience and then he told a funny story about a human and seven dwarves, ahan! But I don't think Your Majesties would like to hear it – remembering how obscene the story sounded.

— No, no, thank you – said the two kings at the same time having a bad feeling.

— With no sign of malicious intent and no weapons, I thought I would have no problem with his entry, after all we were hoping people would start visiting us again after the war.

— No weapons you say – inquired Ainz.

— Yes, I searched him, no weapons, no backpack, in fact nothing to indicate he was travelling.

— 'Interesting, where did he get the battered backpack and knife then? He stole it or found it along the way, he couldn't have taken it out of thin air… or could he?' – thought Ainz as he analyzed the story.

— He greeted me, thanked me, and said he was glad to know that people are still trusted today, so he did something strange.

— Which was? – Asked the Overlord, leaning forward.

He took my hand, closed his eyes, and said, "Fortune come to those who are attentive"– he smiled and left. It wasn't until the next day that I saw him again, despite my bad mood it seemed his presence made these things go away.

— Interesting – said Ainz..

— And about Brock, do you know anything? asked Rumble.

— Yes, I know something about him – Brotkin answered sourly.

— He was the reason for my bad mood, he was supposed to come to take my place early in the morning, but he was late, only later when they came to replace me I found out what had happened.

— And what happened? – asked Gondo.

— He died! You know the T-27 tunnel that collapsed? He was there when it happened.

— I remember, the passing tunnel, it was being widened using the undead, what was he doing there?

— Well, Master Gondo, the tunnel was a shortcut to the area where we lived, I was his neighbor, so we used to go there every day, I heard from his sister who lived with him that he left the house an hour late and passed through the tunnel, then the cave-in happened, someone forgot to supervise the undead who dug too hard somewhere fragile, só everything came crashing down.

— But you know what, I was really lucky in the end, because if he hadn't been late, I'd probably be heading back there by the time everything went down.

— "Every cloud has a silver lining" — muttered Ainz.

— Yes, Telcontar had told me that, does your Majesty know the phrase? I had never heard it before and it suited the situation well.

– Apparently he likes witty phrases – 'Shalltear, come to my location.'

From within a black whirlpool emerged a small Gothic maiden.

— I am here to serve you, Ainz-Sama.

— Shalltear, I understand you've developed skills for the art, haven't you?

— A little hobby I picked up if my Lord will allow me to say – 'Yes! I managed to get Ainz-Sama to notice me, now I'm in front of that gorilla in the race for my master's heart!'

Somewhere in Nazarick a succubus had just sneezed.

— Well Shalltear, do you think you could do a portrait of a person just by the description?

— I think so, Ainz-Sama – said the vampire, producing a scroll and a quill out of thin air.

— Mr Brotkin and Rumble, could you describe Mr Telcontar?

A few minutes later, Ainz looked at a very well drawn sketch of an extremely ordinary person, brown hair, light eyes, fair skin, little tan, strange for a traveller.

— Well, I think we're done here, so I'm off, thanks for the company Gondo, Master Brotkin, Master Rumble, farewell.

— We thank you for your visit, Your Majesty and hope that you will return soon.

— I'll definitely be back, Gondo. Shalltear, we're going home.

— As you wish Ainz-sama-arinsu – said the vampire creating a new portal.

— 'Albedo, I need you to gather the Guardians and the Pleiades' – Ainz called, raising two fingers to his head.

— 'Understood, Ainz-sama. Has something happened, my Lord?' – The succubus' voice sounded frightened by her master's urgent request.

— 'Yes Albedo, Nazarick will go hunting.'