Hello again.
Just about one month and a half remaining, and this story will have its second anniversary. Time sure flies, and I'm betting some people are already questioning when this story is gonna end. Well, I can at least say with fair certainty that this story won't get to see its third anniversary.
Anyway, on with the show.
[X][X][X]
*Yawn*
Ryu woke up not feeling rested this morning. Everything which had happened last night had exhausted him both physically and mentally, especially the latter. Long story short, now the room he rented in this inn had two additional occupants. There were only two beds in the room and each could only fit two people comfortably, so naturally Ryu had to be the one giving up his spot since all the others were girls and 'ladies first' was basic courtesy.
That would have been the case if Hikaru, being a clingy sister as always, had not insisted to sleep with him. In the end, Lily had been the one giving up the bed and sleeping on the sofa in the room. Ryu had not been able to sleep well with his sister hugging him as if he was a bolster pillow. Fearing that the others might get a horribly wrong idea, Ryu had slept while still wearing his battle suit, shoes and all.
Nevertheless, now that he was awake, Ryu got off from the bed and stood stretching his arms up. The others on the bed were seemingly still asleep, but soon the one who had been sleeping on the sofa greeted him.
"Good morning, Ryu-san"
"Good morning, Lily. Sorry that you had to sleep there"
Lily shook her head while sporting a smile in response.
"It's all right. Hikaru-san must have missed you very much, so I just wanted to let her have it"
"Yeah... Right... Thanks"
Lily got up into sitting position on the sofa, and Ryu sat down next to her. Once again like in the previous morning, Ryu couldn't help feeling captivated by Lily's unarmored beauty.
"I wonder what we are going to do today..."
"Staying on guard like we always do, Ryu-san?"
"That's natural. I meant about Hikaru and Mel Rose"
"We're now a party of five! Simple, right?"
"I don't think it will be that simple"
Ryu believed that the guild wouldn't easily register Hikaru and Rose into the team. After all, both of them were still not adventurers to begin with. It had taken a bit of time until Alice had officially been promoted from Gold Rank to Adamantite Rank, so putting non-adventurers right into Adamantite Rank right off the bat would be a no go, even with their nauseating behaviour of constantly licking the boots of Adamantite Rank adventurers.
Moreover, it was still uncertain whether both Hikaru and Mel Rose would want to become adventurers, the same ones as those who had put them into a horrible experience. Ryu himself had wanted to quit being an adventurer back then after hearing the kind of prejudice they were bearing against anything remotely not human, but he had decided against it. He felt that he had to hold on this position to make some things easier for the fleet once they came.
"...Anyway, we will have to ask and answer a number of questions once everybody wakes up. Let's just wait until then"
"Alright, Ryu-san"
Ryu stood up from the sofa and stretched once again, while Lily started equipping her armor set. He then looked out the window and felt the morning breeze. He hoped that today would be a good day without any more weird things happening.
About half an hour later, everyone in the room were already wide awake and in their respective outdoor getup, except Lily who still didn't wear her helmet yet. Since there were not enough seats for five people, they all sat on the floor in a circular formation facing each other.
"Before we begin, I just want to make sure. You're Rose, right?"
"Yeah, but Meru can hear everything we're going to say, so you should count her in for this"
"Alright, now..."
Ryu took a deep breath and cleared his throat before continuing.
"I believe some, if not all of us, have questions in light of recent event, but unfortunately last night we were already too tired and other people were present. Now that Hekkeran and Imina are not here, we can talk about things we probably don't want them to hear. To begin, first I'm going to let one person ask a question, and then we will work from there slowly. The first one will be... Hikaru. Do you have any questions?"
Hikaru seemed to be hesitating, her eyes sometimes glancing at Lily and Alice before she began speaking.
"...Lily, and Alice... Do you know about someone with the name Ainz Ooal Gown?"
Ryu was not that surprised hearing Hikaru's question. The good thing Ainz had hinted back then must have been about Hikaru and Rose coming to E-Rantel, and that meant she had met Ainz before. But Ainz probably had not told her anything about Lily and Alice, so her hesitation to speak about him was natural.
Alice, without showing any sign of surprise, began speaking in response. Her eyes were glancing at Lily while she spoke.
"Yeah, we all do. In fact, he is her father"
"...What?"
Hikaru's facial expression showed a mixture of surprise and disbelief, though only slightly. Of course nobody would expect an undead magic caster to have a very human-looking daughter. To prevent the confusion from lasting longer, Ryu began speaking to explain.
"Well, to be exact, Ainz created Lily with some method I don't know and assigned her to accompany me. But they loved each other like father and daughter, so might as well consider them so"
"Ehhh... okay..."
Hikaru nodded slightly with a facial expression which clearly showed that she still needed some time to process the answers she had just heard.
"You've met Papa, Hikaru-san? Did he treat you well?"
As Lily spoke, Hikaru seemed to become slightly displeased.
"I'm not sure if putting me on a death trial could count as treating me well"
What?
Ryu couldn't believe what Hikaru had just said. Ainz had promised to be his ally, but he had practically almost killed Hikaru. For a split second, Ryu could feel his blood starting to boil.
However, suddenly Rose raised her hand.
"Ah! Sorry, but I have to explain something about that!"
"Huh?"
Rose took a breath, and then she bowed to Hikaru with her hand clasped in front.
"I'm sorry that I haven't told you about this! It was actually a set up and none of us were in danger at all!"
"What...?"
All the others were similarly confused about what Rose had just said. She seemed to notice, so she continued.
"Sheep, I think we need to explain some things to the others first, if you don't mind"
"Ahh, yes..."
After Hikaru approved, both Rose and Hikaru told their story about how they had lived with a group of unofficial adventurers, commonly named Workers, during their time in Baharuth Empire. They had lived with a four members team named Foresight, and Hekkeran was the group leader. Recently, the group had accepted a job to explore a newly discovered ruins, which had turned out to be Ainz's home.
"Of course, at that point none of us knew that the ruins was his home"
Ryu, Lily, and Alice had been listening intently to the story. Especially Ryu who had never been aware on how his life on this planet had been much better than Rose and Hikaru.
"So, what happened there?"
"At one point, a trap caught me and separated me from the group. The trap teleported me right into Ainz's room, where he immediately greeted me"
As she spoke, Rose looked at Hikaru, and then she once again bowed with her hands clasped in front.
"I'm sorry again, Sheep! I have never told you that I and Ainz actually knew each other! I met him once before separating from Ryu"
"Eh, whatever... So, what happened there?"
"Long story short, he wanted to set up a scene to let us off in a dramatic way, and I agreed to play along. So he put me into that crystal prison and you know what happened next"
"Ah... yeah... The trial of dueling against Doppelgangers copying Momon and Nabe"
"The plan was to release me at the right time to make a dramatic intervention, and I'm sure he was about to do that before you suddenly did that and distracted him. Though by the way... what was that actually, Sheep?"
"Oh, you mean Briste Insignia..."
Ryu, being surprised on what Hikaru had just said, immediately spoke out.
"Wait wait wait! Hikaru, you released Briste Insignia?"
"Yeah, I felt that I had to..."
Hikaru then pulled the Briste Insignia katana from her photon inventory and put it on the floor. Despite still being sheathed, the katana somehow felt highly ominous with the visible glowing red line of the blade's middle part, which was visible because the scabbard had a hole through the middle of its length.
"Don't worry. As long as I don't activate its trait I won't be drained by it"
"I have never seen any weapons like this within ARKS. What is this actually, Sheep?"
"I don't know... Back then, I was just playing around with the weapon extension machine when for some reason it spat out this thing. I had no idea how and why this thing came out"
Ryu, feeling the need to add, began speaking to follow up with Hikaru's words.
"I once had it analyzed by... a person I trust. He had no idea about it either, but he could tell that this weapon is capable of transcending dimensions. I still don't know what he meant, but seeing that Hikaru can do unknown Photon Arts while wielding it, I guess it has something to do with that. The problem is, this weapon drains her physically and mentally, so I forbid her from using it unless absolutely needed"
After Ryu finished explaining, Hikaru put the katana back into her photon inventory, making it vanish into thin air.
"Rose, so... Nobody was supposed to die back then?"
"Yeah. Both the Doppelgangers were arranged according to the plan he made. Nobody, not even the Doppelgangers, were supposed to die"
After hearing Rose's answer, Hikaru started to look worried.
"So... I killed those two... by mistake...? And I attacked him too..."
Rose sighed before she began speaking in response to Hikaru's worry.
"Yeah, he promised me to let us all go with no strings attached, so he didn't say anything. But as much as I hate to say this, you might be in trouble when you meet him again, Sheep"
Hikaru looked even more worried now, and Ryu had no idea how to comfort her. As far as he knew, Ainz cared very much about his subordinates. Hikaru having outright killed two of them would probably warrant a consequence from him later.
"Hikaru-san, don't worry"
Lily came forward to Hikaru, kneeled in front of her, and held her arms.
"Eh...?"
"Papa is kind. He will forgive you. I will plead with you if you need me to"
It took Hikaru a few seconds before she could respond to Lily's sudden initiative. Lily just smiled warmly during all that silence.
"Thank you Lily, but I will face it myself. You shouldn't go so far for me, whom you just met yesterday"
"You are Ryu-san's sister, Hikaru-san! You're not merely someone I met yesterday!"
Lily smiled cheerfully this time, and that somehow managed to lift up Hikaru's mood. Ryu felt amazed on how Lily could quickly cheer Hikaru up. Nobody, not even all her brothers, had ever managed to cheer her up from her downed mood state this quickly.
Once Lily returned to her initial sitting spot, Ryu began speaking again.
"Alright, that became a long story but I suppose we all learned many things. Now, do you have questions, Rose and Meru?"
Rose put her finger on her chin and looked slightly upward, a common posture when a person was thinking. Though in her case she might be listening to what Meru was saying.
"I'm just wondering about one thing..."
Rose then looked at Alice before speaking again.
"You are a local, right? How did you get into the team?"
Alice averted her eyes, glancing at Ryu before she began speaking her answer.
"My former teammates were killed by Darkers, and he took me in"
"Hmm, alright"
Rose spoke with her head slightly tilted and her shoulders shrugging for a brief moment. Alice seemed to notice and began speaking in a rather indifferent tone.
"You seem not satisfied. Something bothering your mind?"
"I'm just concerned... are you strong enough to fight Darkers?"
Hearing Rose's words, Alice raised her eyebrows. Seeing the direction the exchange between Rose and Alice could go towards, Ryu quickly raised his hand.
"Intervention!"
Everybody else looked at Ryu, who quickly cleared his throat before speaking again.
"Your concern is valid, Rose. But while indeed Liz's combat power is below the rest of us, sorry about that Liz, she has contributed in other ways. Like for example... can you and Hikaru read the written languages of the people of this planet yet?"
"No, of course"
"No"
After hearing the answers from both Rose and Hikaru, Ryu looked at Alice.
"Liz, could you do that again for them?"
"Yeah, though I will have nearly no mana for the rest of the day"
"Please do"
Alice nodded and extended her right arm forward. A shining magic circle began to materialize on her hand.
"Hikaru, Rose, hold my hand"
Ryu gave Hikaru a light pat on the back and a single nod at Rose as a sign to urge them to do what Alice had just asked. Both of them did so, although slightly hesitating. It only took a few seconds until the magic circle lost its shine and faded away.
"There, now both of you can read"
"Eh?"
"What...?"
Ryu then quickly began speaking to explain what had just happened.
"Some people of this planet possess something called Talent. Liz here has a Talent to quickly learn new written language and bestow the knowledge to others"
"Yeah, though doing the latter part costs a whole lot of mana"
When Rose heard Ryu's explanation, her eyes went slightly wider for a moment and her head was raised a bit, as if she just remembered something.
"Ah, speaking about Talent, me and Sheep... I mean, Hikaru... Ahh, whatever! The two of us have something which our friend Workers thought as Talent"
Ryu quickly got what Rose meant, and he interrupted out of reflex.
"The ability to copy Martial Arts, isn't it?"
"Oh, so you know already"
Ryu nodded once as the response.
"If both of you can do that as well, I'm guessing that all ARKS can do the same"
"Yeah, we can instantly learn a Martial Art just by having one performed nearby. There's one interesting thing I noticed about this. Martial Arts performed by fellow ARKS can't be copied. I got to learn one first, but Sheep couldn't learn it no matter how many times I activated it near her. Thankfully, the person I learned it from was one of the friend Workers, a cleric named Roberdyck. So I asked him to try using the Martial Art near her, and she learned it on the first try"
"Hmm, interesting indeed. Though shame that we can't share our learned Martial Arts. What Martial Arts have you two learned?"
"Just two defensive ones: Impenetrable Fortress and Enhanced Magic Resistance. Both from Roberdyck"
"Both sounds good, especially the latter. I could use some magic resistance"
"What about you?"
"Evasion, Pace of The Wind, Flow Acceleration. None of them could be used to resist magic. By the way, I was surprised at the first time I found out about this. I activated the Martial Arts just by mentioning their name. Now I can control it, though. Also, I just remembered something else that might be interesting"
"Hmm?"
"Liz can cast Photon Tech, and Lily can do Photon Arts"
Both Hikaru and Rose were surprised by what Ryu had just said. Especially Rose whose eyes went really wide.
"What? How?"
"Long story short, Ainz found a way for him to use Photon Disks, so I tried the same method for them"
"Wait a second, wait a second! You gave him Photon Disks, and he managed to use them? So now Ainz can cast Photon Techs?"
"Uhh, yes"
Rose facepalmed hard with her right hand, while Hikaru sighed and shook her head, looking dejected.
"Do you realize that you have given more power to an already overwhelmingly powerful being? He might be an ally now thanks to having Darkers as common enemy, but will he remain an ally forever?"
"Yeah, I might have made a mistake there. But it's already done, so there's no use hurting our head over it. I do hope he will stay allied for long enough"
"Heh, right..."
Rose hung her head and sighed as she said that.
"By the way, I've been wondering a bit. When you said Doppelganger, are those like... creatures capable of mimicking someone else?"
"Yeah, Ainz said that they copied someone whom our group recognized as the strongest we have ever met, hence they came out as copies of Momon and Nabe. Why is that?"
"Ahh, nothing. They just kinda remind me of Dark Falz Persona"
"Huh? What's with that one? He's like, the weakest of all Dark Falz. He doesn't even seem to have a battle form, let alone a true form"
"Well... there was one occasion where he mimicked our brother from head to toe and assassinated one of the Six Councils, whom our brother was a friend with, by helping her in battle and then suddenly impaling his sword through her when things were looking safe"
"W-What?"
Rose was of course surprised hearing that, and Hikaru gently struck Ryu's side with her elbow. That strike made Ryu realize that he had just made a mistake.
"Ah, I should not speak further since that was actually classified information. But she lived, so don't worry. Anyway, one more thing..."
Ryu glanced at Rose and Hikaru, took a deep breath, and continued.
"Rose, Hikaru... What do you think about registering as an Adventurer?"
Both Rose and Hikaru showed a slight reaction upon hearing Ryu's proposal, but Ryu still continued speaking.
"I know both of you have had bad experience with adventurers, but it is a fact that adventurers are quite revered by this planet's society. Especially high-ranked ones, they are treated like top class celebrities. I'm not sure if the guild would allow you to start at Adamantite Rank right away, since Liz here needed some time until she was finally promoted to Adamantite from her previous rank of Gold. But becoming adventurers like us three will probably make a lot of things easier. Anyway, tell me what you two think first"
Rose folded her arms with raised eyebrows, but she didn't say anything. Meanwhile, Hikaru lowered her head and put one finger on her chin, also not saying anything. It was clear for Ryu that both of them were thinking. After slightly less than one minute, Hikaru was the first one to make a decision. She nodded before speaking to Ryu.
"Alright, I will do it"
Right after that, Rose let out a sigh.
"I don't really wanna do it, but Meru kept trying to convince me otherwise, saying that there is no loss or whatever. And with Sheep deciding to do that, I pretty much have no choice, do I?"
"I don't mind if you want to stay as you are"
Rose shook her head in response to Ryu's words.
"Nah, if I stayed as commoner it would be just out of spite and pride. That's not a valid reason, is it? I'm pragmatic enough when it comes to this kind of thing. Ah, come to think of it, there was once a bounty on Sheep but it was later dismissed. Do you know anything about that?"
Ryu could immediately guess what bounty Rose was asking about.
"Hmph, know about that? I was the one who dissolved the job. I told the guild that the alleged 'demons' are ARKS like me and the dead adventurers were killed out of mercy because they had been infected by Darkers irreversibly"
Rose could not hide her surprise.
"Wait, what? But they were not- Oh... I see"
"Yeah, I covered for you with a made up story and they believed right away. Being Adamantite Rank does have its perks, though sometimes nauseating like last night. Anyway, if both of you have decided, let's go to the guild and see if we can register you two into the team"
Everybody else nodded, and thus all stood up from their spot and prepared for a walk to the Adventurer's Guild. While this was happening, Ryu began wondering what kind of spot in the universe this planet was located at which made the warp drive require months of calibration. In any case, he was glad that the terrible scenario mentioned by Ainz back then did not turn out to be true.
[X][X][X]
"I will be expecting good news, Aura and Mare"
"Leave it to me, Ainz-sama!"
"Remember, while it is inevitable, try to minimize casualties in your show of power"
"I-I will do my best!"
With a proper send off, the twins departed to Baharuth Empire to send a message to the Emperor as part of Demiurge's world domination plan. Ainz actually had never had such grand ambition. Back then, what he had said had been nothing more than a 'would be nice' speech which he had never thought of actually doing. However, Demiurge had perceived the speech as something that had to be done.
Since there were benefits of doing this, Ainz had decided to go along with it. However, he still had no idea how the ARKS fleet would react to this scheme once they arrived and got their hands on the news that a powerful undead being was trying to expand his territory. Would they act like a righteous force of justice and try to eliminate him? Would they stay out of the matter because their purpose was to eliminate Darkers and not getting involved in local politics? Would they ally with him because he was their best bet in the fight against Darkers?
The latter would be the most ideal outcome, and Ainz had continuously try his best to increase his chance to produce that outcome. Albedo had pointed out that ARKS as a whole was probably filled with people of human ideals, so he had been trying not to cause unnecessary casualties during his endeavor.
Normally, Ainz really wouldn't want to bother exerting such a great amount of effort to gain anyone's favor. However, there were multiple pieces of evidence to suggest that each member of ARKS had enough strength to put up a decent fight against a Floor Guardian. ARKS as a whole, roughly judging from Ryu's words, likely had hundreds of thousands of members. With those kinds of numbers, and the powers wielded by each ARKS member, the history of Nazarick successfully defending against a 1500-Player raid would mean nothing. Nevertheless, Ainz never wanted to make enemies of anyone without a valid reason to begin with. So in that vein, it was not a big deal to try gaining favor, and see what would happen next.
Still feeling quite exhausted mentally, Ainz returned to his private bedroom and lied down on the bed to have some alone time. He rolled left and right, having a lot of things going on in his mind.
Now what do I need to do next...? Oh yeah, now that all the ARKS are in one place, I want to ask them a number of questions. When would be the best time to invite them here again...?
Ainz also couldn't help being concerned about what Demiurge had reported to him through [Message] yesterday. A portion of Abelion Hills had been utterly devastated by a huge explosion followed by a massive shockwave. From that description alone, Ainz would assume that a nuclear bomb had gone off there. But there should be nothing like that in this world, so the next assumption was that it had been the work of Elder, who had gained enough strength to cause such devastation. Ainz had immediately ordered Demiurge to return to Nazarick at once because he didn't want Demiurge to be in danger again.
Something has to be done about Elder as fast as possible.
All things considered, Ainz decided to get all the available ARKS to Nazarick promptly. Unfortunately, it would be a little difficult to do right now because neither Momon nor Nabe were in E-Rantel currently.
[X][X][X]
It was in the dead of night within Baharuth Empire. A time when most normal people would be sleeping soundly. However, one man was still wide awake on his work desk within his private bedroom. Both of his elbows pressed against the surface, along with his chin. His hands were gripping his head firmly through the forest of his lustrous blond hair, making its already matted appearance even more messy. It was a clear sign that this man, Emperor Jircniv Rune Farlord El Nix, was frustrated.
Today had been a very strange one for Jircniv, with so many unexpected things happening. Several layers of intermediaries had been set up so that it would have been nearly impossible to figure out that he was the mastermind behind the Workers' expedition into the tomb where Ainz Ooal Gown lived, but somehow he was found out anyway. Moreover, the emissaries sent in response had come right into the palace grounds riding upon an unknown dragon. Jircniv made contingency plans for every plan in motion, but only a crazy man would make a plan in anticipation of emissaries coming on a dragon.
And then, as a show of power, one of the two emissaries turned the palace grounds into a lush forest filled with flora which, as far as his knowledge could tell, was impossible to naturally grow in this region. No, even local flora would never grow there because the surface of the palace grounds was mostly brick stones. No plants would possibly grow there, let alone within a single minute.
Such power... If a mere emissary can control nature on a whim like that, I must assume that this Ainz Ooal Gown is even more powerful...
From the spies watching over the Workers, he already knew about the outcome of the supposed expedition. They were put through some sort of trial to earn their survival, and in the end more than half of them lived, though surviving by the skin of their teeth. A report sent through [Message] was never to be fully trusted, but it was still useful for preliminary information before the full report would be delivered later.
From both the preliminary report and the visit of the emissaries, Jircniv could make an assumption that Ainz Ooal Gown was ruthless, yet still merciful to a degree. He probably had watched the Workers struggling for their survival while taking pleasure in the spectacle, but those who had earned their survival got to go home free with allegedly no strings attached. As for the emissaries, with the kind of power they had they could have wiped out every knights on the palace grounds surrounding them during their arrival, but they had chosen to show their power in a way that the knights had just enough time to retreat from the scene, resulting in minimal casualties.
However, Jircniv suspected that those acts of mercy could have been possibly a cunning feint to make others lower their guard. There was no way someone in possession of such power would be compassionate to the slightest bit. Jircniv himself had risen to power and maintained the power by being calculating and ruthless, because kindness and compassion would slowly but surely bring downfall, like what was currently happening with the neighbouring Re-Estize Kingdom.
What kind of preparation would be appropriate for my visit to his place later?
Jircniv's general plan regarding Ainz Ooal Gown was to make Re-Estize Kingdom his enemy while Baharuth Empire would become his ally, and so far some information about his personality had been obtained after seeing his response to the intruding Workers. The plan was still in motion, but the unknown factors made the next course of action difficult to be decided upon. This was what have been frustrating Jircniv to no end.
"Not going to sleep, Your Highness?"
Right from another side of the room, a woman spoke to Jircniv in a concerned tone. This woman was Hilma Cygnaeus, the one who had been teleported into this bedroom all the way from the capital of Re-Estize Kingdom some time ago. A lot of things had happened ever since then, and now she was officially his concubine, whom Jircniv had been using as a secret advisor every now and then.
"Mind your own business, woman!"
Hilma, without changing her calm tone of speech after hearing Jircniv's harsh words, responded anyway.
"I see, you are in a pinch"
"Isn't that obvious? I expected Ainz Ooal Gown to be powerful, but I have never expected him to be that powerful! All the contingency plans mean nothing!"
Hilma walked up to Jircniv and kneeled next to him, still sporting a calm facial expression.
"You are tired and agitated, Your Highness. You will not come up with good new plans at this rate. Come and talk with me about it on the bed"
Hilma reached her hand to Jircniv's as she said those words. For Jircniv, it was the first time someone could calmly suggest him something in the middle of his frustration and lashing out. Any other woman would just stay silent like a useless statue, but Hilma was different.
Somehow, even though the situation did not change, Jircniv could feel himself calmer and more confident that he would figure something out very soon. Was it because of Hilma's presence, or just merely himself regaining his composure? Not paying heed to the question, Jircniv smiled and took Hilma's hand. Both of them stood up, exchanged a devious smile to each other, and went to the bed.
After both of them were properly settled upon the bed, Hilma began speaking in her same calming tone.
"Your Highness, there is actually something interesting that I noticed from the two emissaries."
"Oh, what is it? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Because I was not fully sure about it, and the information is probably irrelevant"
"Irrelevant or not, I will never know unless you tell me. So go ahead and speak"
"Over the years I spent as a high-class prostitute, and later part of Eight Fingers, I have dealt with many kinds of people. Thanks to that, I gained a skill, or you may call it an instinct, to tell many things about people I meet on first glance. When I saw the emissary wearing blue back then, my instinct kept telling me, 'That one is a boy'."
Jircniv couldn't help feeling surprised hearing Hilma's words.
"I know that Aura, the one in red, was a girl because Mare, the other one, called her with female honorific, but are you telling me that Mare, who clearly wore short skirts, is a boy?"
"Yes, but please don't take my words too seriously. Like I said-"
"Yeah, I know. But if it is true, I can assume that Ainz Ooal Gown has a rather peculiar taste. Interesting"
"Was my information relevant, Your Highness?"
"Not really, but it did gave me some more insight on his personality"
After saying that, Jircniv laughed as if he had heard something quite funny. Indeed, he found this peculiar taste of Ainz hilarious, but he was also aware that this hilarious side might be another trap to lower his guard. Either way, Jircniv now felt that Ainz was an interesting man, and looked forward to meeting him in a war of words and wits.
[X][X][X]
Afterword:
Now you see why the chapter's title is like that. XD
By the way, if anybody remembers, could you do me a favor and tell me how long is the time gap between the present time to the climax of Vol 9?
See you again next time.
