Chapter 3 Carne Village

By the time Harry arrived at the center of the village, there were no knights left alive and the villagers looked rightfully frightened at the possibility of the creature focusing on them. He should have ordered it to leave at least a few survivors for interrogation, but it was too late for that now.

"That's enough, my Basilisk" He said out loud for their sake. The giant lizard got farther away from them before sitting down like an oversized puppy, waiting for orders while it moved its large tail from side to side. With eight legs, the whole scene looked very weird.

After assuring the villagers that the creature was under his control, he spent the rest of the day with the Chief, gaining information and allies before attending the burial ceremony. He didn't even consider using a Resurrection wand on them; death was a natural part of the living cycle after all.

It was close to twilight, so he was waiting for it to end to bid his farewell. Bored, he sighed before looking at the basilisk at his right; considering it unusual that the summoned creature was still there. The time limit was up since a couple of hours ago, really.

Although he had some hypotheses, he still did not know enough to come to an answer. While he was thinking about this, a pair of figures turned up beside him.

One was Albedo, and the other was roughly humanoid, but resembled a spider dressed in a ninja uniform. Its eight legs were tipped with sharp blades, an Eight Edge Assassin. He was glad they could turn invisible; otherwise the villagers would have inevitably panicked.

"Are you part of the support troops?" He asked before they could say anything.

"Yes. There are 400 vassals beside myself who stand ready to assault the village at any time."

Assault the village? What had Sebas said exactly? He was really bad at passing messages. Harry made a mental note to avoid using him for that purpose in the future, even if it amused him that the butler would have trouble doing something so simple.

"...There's no need for an assault, the problem has been dealt with. How many of you Eight Edge Assassins are there?"

"There are 15 of us in total."

"Then make everyone else go back, you are to stay and be watchful, notify me if you see something unusual." 400 creatures were a tad much for a battle in a small village; they would end up utterly destroying it if they fought at full force and then his efforts would go to waste.

After watching the Eight Edge Assassin nod in acknowledgement, he dismissed it at the same time the burial seemed to be ending. Looking for the village chief, he found him talking to some of the villagers with a worried expression. Merlin, what was happening now? Sighing, he got closer to them while whishing whatever it was could be dealt with fast.

It seemed there were some mounted people running in their direction, quickly approaching Carne village. Considering he had gathered a nice amount of information from them, he offered to take care of the problem without an additional fee and instructed everyone to gather near the chief's house, the giant basilisk staying protectively in front of them.

Silently, he sent a [Message] ordering his assassins to let the unknown group pass into the village. He was hoping they would be reinforcements from the previous group of knights; he had lost the opportunity to interrogate them after all.

He stood in the square waiting for them to arrive, with only Albedo and the Chief for company. After a while, they finally sighted many mounted warriors along the road leading to the village. The men didn't seem to wear a uniform, their gear too varied to be considered anything other than protection equipment. Frankly, they looked like a bunch of mercenaries.

As they got closer he counted 20 of them, the riders forming neatly in the middle of the square. A single man stepped forward from the rest of them, most likely the leader of their group. Their attire was so different from the previous, full-armored knights; he lost hope of them being reinforcements.

The man's eyes rested briefly upon the village chief before lingering distrustfully on the giant basilisk. He seemed momentarily confused at the odd protective behavior of the creature before his gaze shifted to Albedo, making a quick evaluation of her armor and weapon.

After determining none of them were going to move, the man immediately turned his keen gaze on him. Harry remained calm in the odd staring contest, until the man finally seemed to be satisfied.

"I am the Warrior-Captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff. By order of the King, I have been visiting each of the frontier villages to exterminate the knights from enemy countries that have been making trouble here."

Surprised whispers could be heard from the villagers behind him, was this man really so awe-inspiring? Looking questionably at the chief, he was glad he didn't have to voice his ignorance.

"According to the traders, he is a man who claimed the championship of the martial arts tournament, and now he leads the elite warriors of the King." was the response to his silent question. Now that he looked more closely, the group actually had the same emblems on their chests, the Kingdom's symbol.

"You must be the chief of this village. Can you tell me who the person beside you is?"

"Ainz Ooal Gown, a magic caster. This village was attacked by knights, so I stepped in to rescue them. Pleased to meet you" Harry answered before the chief could speak.

Dismounting, Gazef made a deep bow and thanked him for his help. He considered it unusual that a high-class man bowed to an unknown like him, but nodded in acceptance even as he said that his help had not been for free.

He didn't bother to correct Gazef when he classified him as an adventurer, simply saying that he was from a far-away country and was currently traveling. When asked about the knights, he answered with a short and to the point "All dead" before pointing at the pile of bloodied, partially destroyed armors Albedo had piled in a corner.

"...Already dead... Ainz-dono, did you strike them down?"

"Not me directly" he said, turning his head to look at the basilisk that was still on guard in front of the people from the village. Gazef's gaze turned once more to the creature, even if he purposely avoided looking at its eyes, staring intently at the blood in its claws and jaws.

Harry then stated that he had controlled the creature with the help of the enchanted mask he wore and that its gaze had been nullified. Gazef nodded in understanding, looking relieved, before asking the chief if his group could stay for the night. They were walking towards the chief's house when one of Gazef's men came to report the sight of people surrounding the village.

The hope of reinforcements that had been previously crushed came back to life, so he sent a silent [Message] ordering to surround the new group that was getting close to the village, but refrained from attacking them without further knowledge. Sending [Messages] would have been complicated if he didn't silently place privacy wards to avoid being herd by the humans around him. Merlin bless the wandless Muffliato charm.

Getting inside the closest house, the chief's, they could see men in light armor surround the village with their winged monsters. Angels.

"Someone out there doesn't like you, Warrior-Captain." the village was too little and poor to be really that significant, and he had just arrived, so he hadn't made any enemies yet. Probably.

"It comes with the job. I didn't expect the Slaine Theocracy to have their eyes on me, not enough to send a special operations unit… the legendary Six Scriptures. It would seem that both in numbers or ability, they're superior to us." Harry raised an eyebrow at his inclusion in the last phrase. Looking at the low-level angels that looked like the ones Yggdrasil had, he wondered if they could summon similar creatures of higher level.

"I apologize, but I'll have to refrain from participating in the coming battle" he said before Gazef could ask, having rightly interpreted the hopeful gaze. It's not like he was against taking the risk of colliding with a force greater than himself, but he would never learn anything if they ended up being as weak as the previous knights. He wanted to witness a battle among equals.

He refused the petition to loan his Basilisk as well, and found himself surrounded by the men Gazef had come with, all pointing their weapons at him.

"Then... as decreed by the Kingdom's law, will you subject yourself to conscription?"

His face hardened under his mask. "You would find that's a very bad idea." he said soflty, looking straight at Gazef, who averted his eyes after a few seconds. He was glad Albedo was mounting guard outside the house, or the Warrior-Captain would have surely lost his head.

"...That would be frightening indeed. We would be wiped out before even crossing blades with the gentlemen of the Slaine Theocracy."

"Glad you understand me." he said simply, not denying his words. The warriors lowered their weapons while the villagers seemed offended, whispering furiously among themselves. They had been disrespectful with the person that had saved them.

He recognized the look in Gazef as the one of a man that had accepted he was going to die. If he was really as important as he was made to be, having him as an ally wouldn't hurt. Making a decision, he gave him two items, one would ensure the man survived with 1 HP no matter the blow he took, while the other one would make the "carrier" change places with the "owner" of the item.

After giving his word to protect the villagers, he went out and made a low-level protection ward around the house everyone was reunited in. Standing at Albedo's side in front of the house, he watched the fight unfold with an attentive gaze.

While mildly interesting, he didn't learn anything other than the weakness of angels. Seeing that Gazef was about to die, he told Albedo to grab his shoulder (and promptly ignored the sound full of glee that followed the action) before activating the item.

He now stood in the middle of a bloodied battle field. After using strong anti-information magic (it seems they had been watched after all) he ordered his assassins to knock them out in quick succession, starting with the leader. There wasn't any advantage in giving the enemy a chance to speak.

He had been prepared to help them stun the enemy, since their numbers were larger than his 15 subjects, but the humans were too slow to react to the invisible, fast attack that was descending upon them.

"Take them to Neuronist for interrogation." he instructed to the arachnid ninjas. He waited in his position until all of them had been taken to Nazarik, not wanting to go back so soon to the village.

Glad when it finally ended, it was already dark when he started to walk slowly back to the village. Albedo seemed tense though, was she still on guard even without enemies around? Or maybe…

"...Do you hate humans?"

"I detest them. Humans are weak and inferior lifeforms. They would look so pretty if I squashed them like bugs." she answered immediately with a sweet voice. That was going to be a problem, considering he wanted to meddle with humans. Sadly, the idea of changing those descriptions when he still could hadn't occurred to him. Back at the time, he hadn't thought it would be a hate this strong.

"Is that so? I don't hate them. I don't think anything of them as a race, but I'm willing to admit that there are a few whose determination and will to live up to their belief is worth admiring. The opposite is true as well, there are some that are nothing but a waste of space." he paused at Albedo's surprised gasp before continuing "I understand how you feel. However, I hope you can control yourself for the time being, it's very likely that we'll end up coexisting with them for a long while." Albedo nodded energetically in response.

He silently wondered if Albedo thought less of him now. He wasn't willing to dramatically change his own person just because someone else may not like it. If being himself made them think he was unfit for being their ruler, then he would nod in acceptance and leave Nazarik without a fight.

He couldn't see the pensive face of Albedo under her closed helmet, nor hear her worried thoughts when she internally panicked if she had said the wrong thing. It had been an honest answer, but if those were the thoughts of his beloved, then she would do her best to try to adapt to his perception. A Supreme Being could not be wrong, if they said white was black, then it must be.

Since Harry could not tell what she was thinking, he went over the day's proceedings once more. He had failed not once but twice in securing a good source of information, and both times it had happened because he hadn't explained his intentions clearly. The fact that his dear subjects would follow his orders blindly was a very worrying thought, on the worst case scenario; it could lead to Nazarik's complete annihilation. Maybe he was being too paranoid, but it still made him worry. He would have to teach them to recognize the intentions behind the orders, so they worked with defined objectives instead of going in blindly following him.

Still, there was no point worrying about that right now. Finally arriving at the village, the people came out to meet them.

Briefly explaining that they had "chased off" the enemy, he accepted the praise and grateful words of the villagers and the suspicious gaze of the Warrior-Captain. Considering this, he was honestly surprised when Gazef came closer to say "Truly amazing. I do not know how I can repay you for your help, Ainz-dono. Please, look for me when you come to the Royal Capital. I will welcome you with open arms."

Thanking him, he politely declined to travel with him and his few survivors before bidding farewell to everyone. They traveled by mounting the Basilisk, walking in a random direction for a while before stopping. Using magic to determine if there was anyone watching them, physically or otherwise, he only noticed the assassins that had been silently following them, so he opened a [Gate] to go back home.

Back in Nazarik, he used magic to shrink the basilisk, placing it in his bedroom before reuniting his guardians to update them on the day's events, letting Albedo give the summary report. He clarified that he would only use the name of Ainz when acting as a representative of Nazarik in the outside world, and that he wanted them to still address him as Hadrian.

All things considered, it had been a quite productive day.

AUTHOR NOTE:

Well this chapter was a tad difficult to write, mostly because I didn't want to bore you with the details of the Light novel that had stayed the same, but it was still important so I tried to summarize it as much as possible. Hope it was decently done.

I thank you for all the favs, follows, and positive reviews. I accept constructive critics of course, thank you for staying with me.

I'm aware that there are people that would like me to follow the events of the light novel, while others would like me to be more original with this fanfic. My idea is to do a little bit of both, something I would like to show in the next chapter. This one was already finished, but I wanted to publish it at the same time as the next one to prove my point.

I'm on vacation right now and have plenty of time to write, so I'll update this story quite regularly.

And for those who actually bothered reading this note, here's an extra scene:

Harry was on his office, reading a report on the information Neuronist had gathered from the interrogations. The fact they were so weak had been a surprise, even worse when the Captain of the group had been the first to die with only 3 questions answered.

Sighing, he used a [Message] to ask Neuronist if there were any high-ranked people left. After a brief pause she told him that according to the others, only one remained. With an order to put him on a separate cell, he used the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to go to the Room of Truth in the Frozen Prison of the 5th Floor. He ignored the torturing tools and blood of the place and went directly to the cell room Neuronist had prepared.

The man was bound and gagged on the cell's floor, fearful eyes looking up at him. Summoning his wand, he forced him to stand up before immobilizing him.

Looking at blue eyes, he used legilimency to see the important tidbits of his life. There were a lot of memories he could do without, but he tried not to overly skip them either. When he finally ended, he broke eye contact and blinked.

So the thing in the magic-sealing crystal was an angel. Dominion of authority, a creature that could use magic up to the 7th tier and was considered by this people as undefeatable.

Releasing a dark chuckle, he thanked the man with a painless killing curse and turned to leave. It seemed he had been worrying over nothing.