Hi, all!

Before I start the next chapter, I'd like to reply to a recent guest review by Shinku.

Thank you for the comment. It felt nice for me to finally see a PSO2 player reading my side hobby story. I actually have picked up the game again since June, and there were a lot of content I had to catch up, but so far I had fun. My MelRose game character actually has almost maxed both Dark Blast, but the Meru/Rose character in this story is based on the MelRose of two years ago, back at the time when Force/Techer still didn't have access to Type-0 techs but already had compound techs. And as you may know already, Ryu is based on SEA server so not even compound tech is accessible for him.

With that done with, here is the next chapter, with another cliffhanger warning. You can hate me a little bit more for that. :P


[X][X][X]


It was a dark night time in a wilderness somewhere in the Baharuth Empire.

A merchant wagon was parked near a small pond. The people there were sitting in a circle formation around a campfire, each of them holding a bowl of simple soup and eating quietly. In total, there were six persons; The owner of the wagon and his assistant, and four Gold Rank adventurers as their escort. All of them were men.

The merchant, Damian, has done this trip a lot of times throughout the years of his career. It was a simple trip from Arwintar to Rothar to open up shop for a week, and then return back home. The escorts were needed thanks to the potential threat of bandits and monsters. In practice, a decently strong Silver Rank team should be sufficient for this trip, but the cargo Damian was carrying was quite a lot more valuable than usual, so he had made precautions.

"At this rate, we should reach Rothar by noon tomorrow"

The ranger of the adventurer group, who was also the leader, spoke while looking at the stars in the sky. His short brown hair waved a little under the night breeze while his matching brown eyes observed the formation of the stars.

"The quest note says that we are free to do anything while you open up shop, is that correct?"

A dark-skinned muscular man, the warrior of the group, asked while still holding his bowl and spoon. His sleeveless top exposed his entire bulky arms which definitely was capable of heavy lifting. His shoulder length hair was rugged not because of style, but because it was totally untreated.

"Yes. I only require you to be with me again to escort me back to Arwintar in the following week"

The warrior nodded, signifying that he understood.

"Then we can go to Rothar's guild and take some light jobs to earn some coins in the meantime"

"I highly recommend that since, as the note should say, I don't provide any accomodation or additional payment for it"

The ranger resumed his dining after hearing Damian's reply to the warrior.

"The payment by itself is good, and a trip to another city is a nice change of pa- Who's there?!"

He suddenly sensed a presence not too far from their spot. Damian and his assistant were startled while the adventurers stood up quickly with their weapons readied. Their bowls dropped to the ground and spilled all the soup, but they didn't care. It was much better to be ready, and dying because of late reaction thanks to gently putting down a bowl of soup would never make a good story.

"W-What is it? A monster? Bandit?"

Damian's assistant was clearly frightened. He had never experienced this kind of event. Damian on the other hand, calmly but swiftly went to his wagon and readied himself to drive it away at full speed in case the worst happened. His assistant promptly followed.

"I sense something coming from that direction"

The ranger pointed at the nearby group of trees and bushes which were simply part of a nearby forest. There was no light source at all at that area, so nothing could be seen.

However, soon they saw what came out from the bushes.


[X][X][X]


"Here you go"

"Thanks"

Rose, having just come out from the confinement facility, had decided to take a break and go sightseeing for a little while. She had just bought two large grilled meat skewers from one of the many shop stands in the market district of Rothar. She actually couldn't eat that much, but that was the amount she could get with a single silver coin, and the seller just happened to not having any copper coins for change.

Rose went to an alleyway, made sure nobody was looking, and put one of the skewers into her photon inventory. She then came back to the open while eating the other one.

Rose aimlessly wandered around town, eventually getting bored of the market district and deciding to leave it. She continued walking randomly, and soon she arrived at an entrance gate of the city.

She was about to turn back, but she noticed that there was a commotion near the gate. Being curious, she came closer to see what was happening.

"Demon! It was a demon! I tell you!"

The one shouting was a rather aged man wearing what seemed to be the getup people of higher wealth usually wore. He was shouting at one of the guards, and his face looked really frightened. Right behind him was a merchant wagon, and next to the wagon there were four men looking really devastated and shivering. One of them seemed to be a commoner, but the remaining three seemed to be adventurers, judging from their equipment.

"These guys also saw that demon!"

"Calm down. We can't understand you if you're freaking out like that"

One of the guards on duty told the aged man to collect himself. The aged man then took a deep breath, and there was a silence for a few seconds.

"We were camping out at night. It was so sudden. That demon came out from the bushes"

"That demon... so only one?"

"Yes! I would never forget those sinister horns and bright red left eye!"

"And then what happened?"

"I don't know! It happened so fast, and all I could hear was a metallic sound and suddenly one of my escorts dropped dead!"

"How did you escape?"

"The demon, for some reason, retreated into the woods after killing him. I really thought that I was dead!"

The guard then told something to a nearby fellow guard.

"Go to headquarters and report this"

"Yes, sir!"

The one being told then quickly got on a horse and dashed away with it.

"You should also go and report this matter to Adventurer's Guild"

Rose, hearing all that, got a little interested. So far she had only been told about by Ryu on the topic of how low the standards of this planet was when it came to battle power, with the exception of that evil overlord. Now that by coincidence a big threat had emerged, she wanted to see if this demon was as threatening as the people made it out to be.

"This might be interesting"

"Please be careful, Rose"

"Yeah I know"

Not long after, the devastated men went back into the merchant wagon and drove it away. Rose followed the wagon from a distance. Thanks to the rather narrow road making pedestrians and wagons share the same lane, a normal walking pace was enough to keep the wagon in sight.

About twenty minutes later, the wagon stopped at a rather large three story building. All the men got off the wagon and entered the building.

"Is that what they call as Adventurer's Guild?"

Rose said that to herself while leaning on the wall across the road. Thanks to Ryu she knew a thing or two about Adventurer's Guild and how they worked. But unlike Ryu, she was not interested in becoming one of them.

"Rose"

"What?"

"Please remember to prepare food and water"

"Oh, yeah. What a bother..."

Rose then walked away from the place, intending to get some rations for herself in case the demon slaying trip would last for quite a while.


[X][X][X]


"So, that one is your father?"

"Yes, Liz-san! That's Papa!"

Alice and Lily were sitting on the ground under the shade of a tree, at a distance from the crowd of villagers surrounding Ainz and Ryu. The villagers, goblins included, were very eager to express their gratitude to their savior.

"Nobody else knows that, right? Better keep it that way"

"Hmm!"

Lily nodded in agreement.

"So, why is he wearing a sinister looking mask like that?"

"I don't know. I have never seen him wearing mask before"

"That's strange"

There was a silence for about twenty seconds.

"You know, I can't help feeling kinda betrayed right now. We worked hard to protect them from that monster, but now he is the one raking in all the gratitude"

"Really? I don't feel like that"

"Ah well, it's human nature to only notice the one bringing the final result"

Lily and Alice kept waiting there until a few minutes later, when Ryu walked away from the crowd and approached them.

"Are you two all right?"

"I'm all right, Ryu-san!"

"My mana is dry, but other than that I'm fine"

"Glad to hear that. I'm sorry that you had to face the El Ahda without me"

"Is that the name of the monster?"

"Yes"

"Your people fight these monsters regularly?"

"Yes..."

"I'm beginning to wonder how tough the life over there was"

"Well, in any case, Ainz-dono gave all three of us a gift"

Ryu then took three necklaces with wing-shaped head from his coat's inner pocket. Lily recognized what the necklaces were, but Alice was left wondering.

"What is this?"

Alice asked that as she took one of the necklaces.

"This is a magic item containing Fly spell"

There was a slight expression change on Alice's face for a very short moment. She was surprised beyond what her mind could comprehend.

"Are you telling me that wearing this necklace enables me to use Fly without spending mana?"

"Well, yes. I think so"

"Really, the worth of just one of this can make a dent in a noble's treasury, and he just gave away three?"

"He acknowledged me as the only person he knows who has knowledge and fighting experience against those monsters, so he decided to supply me with a mean to go places quickly"

"I can understand that, but why I got one too? At least Lily is his daughter, but I just saw him today"

"Well, he did at first only gave two but he added one more, saying that this should help you conserve mana"

Alice let out a sigh and put the necklace on.

"I will just go with that. His wealth is beyond my comprehension"

"Can I use that too, Ryu-san?"

"Why not? That's the reason Ainz-dono gave me three, right?"

Lily then reluctantly took one of the remaining two necklaces and put it on. Ryu also did the same with the last necklace.

"Let's try using this when we go back to E-Rantel later"

A few minutes later, the crowd of villagers and goblins dispersed to go back to their own business. Ainz then approached Ryu's group and looked at Alice.

"I suppose an introduction is required. I am Ainz Ooal Gown"

Alice bowed in respect and replied.

"It is an honor to meet you, Ainz Ooal Gown. My name is Alice Vegelshaft, and I am very thankful for the gift you gave to me"

"A new threat has emerged and Ryu here is the only one knowledgeable about it. It is naturally of utmost importance to help him with the best of my ability. Speaking of which..."

Ainz looked at Ryu.

"I would like you to come with me for a while"

"I don't mind, but would you tell me what it is for?"

"I want to conduct some research about the method to fight the monsters, and I want you to help with that"

"I see, but what about h- them?"

Ryu looked at Alice, and then shifted his eyes to Lily. At this point Alice let out a small sigh and folded her arms. Once again she noticed that Ryu was trying to hide something from her.


[X][X][X]


Oh god he's so terrible at it.

Even Ainz himself could notice that Ryu was acting a little strange in front of his partners. He probably was concerned about the new member finding out that Ainz was an undead if she was brought along to Nazarick, but he was so terrible at hiding that concern.

And she definitely noticed that too. Why did he have to recruit a local adventurer, and a sharp one at that?

The Kashin Koji spy had also verbally reported through Message about Alice joining Ryu's team and how capable she was on reading people. This had made Ainz's head hurt since combined with Ryu being an easy to read person, this would put his identity concealment in jeopardy.

Ahh, whatever. This is definitely beyond help. If I'm already wet might as well jump into the water.

"Ryu, you don't need to concern about that. I see no need to hide anything from the partners you trust. Though indeed for the villagers it is a different story"

Ainz then came closer to Alice and looked around, making sure that none of the villagers were looking this way. But just in case he silently casted a few concealment spells to mask the area around them.

"Alice, let me tell you that Ryu has been hiding this fact out of his goodwill for me. Please don't blame him for it"

Ainz then put his right hand on his masked face and slowly took it off. It was then that his skeletal face was revealed to Alice, who strangely looked indifferent. He then put the mask on again.

"An undead, huh? Figures..."

Ryu couldn't hide his surprise on the lack of reaction from Alice.

"You knew already?"

"Of course not. It's just that from the moment he raised his hand to open his mask I figured I would see something freaky"

"So, Alice, now that you know this fact, what are you going to do?"

"Nothing. In fact, I'm now interested in you"

What?

"For an undead, you are very powerful and cultured. I bet that you have lived for a very long time, and I really want to learn from you about things you have seen in distant past"

Very long time my ass! Not even two months has passed since the day I arrived here!

Ainz cleared his throat, trying to buy time to figure out what to say in response.

"That unfortunately should be saved for later"

"I can agree with that"

"I believe that you know already, but I must remind you that my nature should be kept secret for now"

"I am very aware of that, as you said"

"Now let's get back to business. I want Ryu to come with me, but I unfortunately can't allow you to be in my domain for a reason I don't want to disclose"

"Too bad, but can't be helped then"

Alice said that while shrugging.

"You seem to agree rather easily, don't you?"

"I know very well that arguing against you is pointless"

While she is right in a sense, I can't help feeling a little offended. Ah, whatever.

"As for Lily, I believe it is best for you to stay here with Alice"

"Alright, Papa!"

"D-Don't say that out loud in a place like this!"

Lily laughed cheerfully, and Alice let out a small giggle. Right now Ainz was very glad that he had put up all those concealment spells. He also realized something interesting about Lily.

She is a Loyal Dog with Ryu as her master, but why did she just obey me?

Ainz remembered his days back when YGGDRASIL had been still online. While none of his guild mates used the scroll, he had gathered info about the Loyal Dog special NPC. They would only obey their master, and nobody else. If anyone else tried to ask them something, they would just stand still.

During the time Lily was staying with him in Nazarick, Ainz had presumed that Lily had taken the 'be well' phrase from Ryu as an order to behave like a good girl while he was away.

Come to think of it, those weren't orders. She has been obeying me herself. Does the creator still retain some authority, or has she gained free will in this world? Does the same apply to my guardians?

"Nevertheless, Ryu. Do you have something to tell them before we go?"

Ryu, who has been waiting with his arms folded, released his arm folding stance and spoke.

"Lily, Alice, please help guarding this village while I am away"

"Sure"

"Alright, Ryu-san!"

Ryu looked at Lily.

"This is a good chance to try using that necklace. Still, be careful with it"

Lily cheerfully nodded, and then Ryu looked at Alice.

"Liz, I'm sorry for hiding all these from you"

"I can see your reason, so don't worry about that"

"Please help Lily train in using the necklace"

"Sure"

Ryu then turned his body to face Ainz, and spoke with a determined look.

"I'm ready"

"Alright then. Let's go"

[Gate]

Ainz and Ryu then walked into the dark portal and disappeared from sight.


[X][X][X]


Night has fallen.

A rather large group consisting of about twenty people were camping out in the wilderness of the Baharuth Empire territory. All of them were adventurers of at least Platinum Rank, and they all have one objective: to hunt down a demon.

All of them, except one.

Among the people, there was a red-haired, rather young girl. Unlike the others, she didn't have an adventurer plate. All of the people there knew about this fact that there was an outsider among the group, but nobody seemed to really care.

Rose, being the girl inquestion, tried to behave as normal as possible. She had at first followed the group from a distance, but she had been quickly noticed and then questioned about her intention. Thankfully, they seemed to believe her story of being a traveler who wanted to stay close to a group just in case for her own safety, so they had let her walk along them.

Still, some of them seemed to be discontent with it. Rose just kept her distance from those people.

Right now, the people were grouped among their own teams, each consisting of three to five people. Each of the group were sitting in a circle formation around each own campfire. Rose was along one group of three Platinum Rank adventurers: a warrior man, a ranger girl, and a druid man. She had been sitting alone at first, but these three people had invited her to sit with them.

Rose was eating a piece of bread she had bought earlier, and the other three people were also eating their own rations.

"Hey, sorry. What was your name again?"

The hairless, rather bright-skinned warrior asked Rose.

"Rose"

"We haven't introduced ourselves. I am Tibor The Strong Hand!"

The warrior guy exclaimed in confidence. Rose could see that his weapon was a pretty gigantic warhammer, so the name was quite fitting. His body build was rather slender in contrast to his weapon, making it a wonder how he could wield it. His armor was nearly a full plate, minus the upper half part of the arms.

"This one is Morian The Force of Nature, and the last but not least, Elize The Sharpshooter!"

"You never learn to stop with the embarrassing nickname, huh Tibor?"

"Give it up, Lizzie. He's just like that!"

Morian said that and laughed lightly. He then looked at Rose. Unlike Tibor, Morian had a wavy, medium length brown hair reaching slightly below the shoulders, and his facial hair was all over his mouth, almost making it totally concealed. He was lightly armored, but his clothing covered everything other than his face.

"What made you a traveler, if I may know?"

"I... ran away from home"

"Really? Why? Was your family hard on you?"

"My eyes, they are different than anyone else in my family..."

"Oh, I see"

Rose knew that in a primitive planet like this telling her true background was not a good idea, so she was trying to establish a fabricated setting for her background in this world. She had decided to go with 'an apparently illegitimate noble daughter running away from an abusive family' which she felt fitting for a fantasy world like this planet. Moreover, this setting would make it more believable for a young girl like her to be traveling alone.

"Remember to go with that setting in case you get asked, Meru"

"Alright, Rose..."

"How far is the destination of this group?"

Elize opened a map and then looked at the sky. Her blonde hair was tied into a ponytail reaching halfway through her back. Her blue eyes observed the stars above. She was mildly armored with metal breastplate and greaves, but leather clothing everywhere else.

"According to the guild, the demon was last seen at the edge of Great Kirrath Forest. At this rate we will be there by noon tomorrow"

"I see"

Tibor quickly asked Rose after hearing her reply to Elize.

"Hey, what is your plan once we reach the forest? Will you continue traveling on your own, or something else?"

"I'm gonna watch you work. This is not something you can see everyday, isn't it?"

"Ha! You're absolutely correct! You better keep your eyes open!"

Tibor sounded very high spirited, but Morian was less excited.

"Try not to get into trouble. We most likely won't be able to protect you in the heat of battle"

"Don't worry about me. I will keep my distance"

"Let's sleep for the night, then!"

Tibor then quickly took out a leather blanket from his luggage and lied down on the ground covering himself with it. Less than ten seconds later everyone there could already hear him snoring.

"Quick at falling asleep as always"

Elize said it with a light smile and sigh. She also took out a leather blanket and prepared to sleep. Morian seemed to be the one standing guard while everyone else slept. Rose just simply lied down right there.

"Rose"

"Yes?"

"Here, use this"

Morian threw a bundled leather cloth at Rose. It seemed that he meant for it to be used as a blanket like how Tibor and Elize did with theirs.

"Tonight is pretty cold, and with your legs in the open like that you will get cold without it"

"Uhh, thanks"

The kindness was actually unnecessary. The photon armor equipped by ARKS operatives also functioned as temperature conditioner, making the wearer always feel themselves at comfortable temperature as long as they were not exposed to extreme temperature. The term 'extreme temperature' here meant 'swimming in lava' or 'near absolute-zero', so pretty much any place remotely habitable would never pose a problem.

Still, Morian's remarks made Rose thinking. Clothing which didn't cover the legs seemed to be nearly nonexistent in this planet. All women wore either long skirts which reached their ankles, or long leather pants for adventurers like Elize. The way Rose outfitted herself made her stick out like a sore thumb, and the same definitely applied to Meru.

Still, there was nothing she could do since all the data she had for her photon clothing were all either short skirts or shorts, so she just went to sleep and decided to not think further about it.

In the following day, the trip of the large group went by without any significant event. As Elize had predicted, the group arrived at their destination forest by noon, and they unanimously agreed to have lunch before beginning the hunt.

Unlike last night, Rose separated herself from the group and stood by leaning to a nearby tree. She watched all the adventurers eating their meal, and then within only less than ten minutes they were already done and began preparing their equipment.

One of the adventurers, seemingly the one in charge of the whole group, stood up on a rock to position himself higher. The man wore a shiny silver-colored full plate armor minus the helmet, and the design of the armor was generally more fancy than what Tibor wore. Rose didn't remember the name of the rank, but the color of his plate was the same as Ryu's. His dark brown hair was neatly cut at short length, and he sported immaculate moustache.

"Alright, everyone! Listen up!"

All the other adventurers gathered and lined up neatly in front of him.

"The demon was last seen in this forest last night! Spread our formation and hunt it down! Once spotted, alert all other groups! Do not, I repeat, do not try to take it out yourself! Report says it has killed one Gold Rank in a flash, so none of us should ever take it lightly!"

The speech did not last long. Soon, all the adventurers grouped up into their own teams and entered the forest. As they had planned, the individual teams went into separate ways. Rose decided to follow Tibor's group from a distance.

Half an hour passed, and the group was still searching. There was no sign from other groups either, so none has found the demon yet. By this time Rose was already walking along Tibor's group instead of following from a distance.

"There's a cave over there"

Elize said to the rest of the team while pointing to a direction. The group then walked that way and arrived at the entrance of a cave situated under a cliff wall about ten meters tall.

"Do you think the demon could be here? It would be nice if it is!"

Tibor confidently said it with his weapon readied. Morian just sighed.

"Don't you remember what the leader said?"

"I remember all right! But someone has to stall the demon while the others are on their way, right?"

"You have a point there. Anyway, Rose, you better keep your distance"

"I will wait here. Please be careful in there"

"If things get hairy, use this to escape"

Elize gave Rose something in the shape of a grey ball which would fit in one's palm. It was made of something that was solid yet fragile, like an eggshell.

"It's a smoke bomb. Just smash it to the ground to blow it up. Remember to hold your breath before doing it"

"Thank you"

Morian then lit a torch and gave it to Tibor. All three of them entered the cave with Tibor at the front and Elize at the back. Rose decided to sit down on a nearby rock and wait for them to return. She had taken a bit of liking to them, and she intended that if they somehow fell into danger she would protect them.

Five minutes had passed, and Rose was humming random notes by herself when suddenly...

"What are you... doing here...?"

A voice was heard from behind. It was the voice of a girl, and quite a soft one at that.

"Who's there?"

Rose said that as she quickly stood up and turned around.

What she saw next was, as the voice implied, a girl. She was standing next to a tree, leaning to it. The girl was wearing a tight black-with-some-grey-lines suit which was sleeveless, but there were detached sleeves covering her arms starting from near the shoulders all the way to the wrists, and those sleeves gradually got very loose the closer to the wrists. Her hair was jet black and straight, reaching down to her waist. She wore a weird white, fluffy hat which might as well looked as if she put a furball sheep on her head. Her face skin was pale white, as if she was anemic.

There was a waist-tall bush in front of her so Rose could only see the girl from waist up, thus she still couldn't see what the girl was wearing for the bottom half. But that was not the most important matter.

From the sides of the girl's hat, there were pairs of horns protruding, and while her right eye was of black color, her left eye was of blazing fire red color.

This girl was definitely the demon the adventurers were hunting down.


[X][X][X]


Afterword:

There you go, I'm pretty sure some avid readers have seen this coming and can already guess what will happen next. I can't constantly make unexpected things forever, can I?


Q & A


Q: Why did you subtly shut down my nagging for Ainz to get photon tech?

A: Not my intention. I write Indy-Ploy style and this was what came out.


Q: Has Lily *Cut*

A: You're hilarious as always lol.


See you later