Chapter 7: Troubles of a lord

Contrary to Ainz's expectations, he wasn't given a bad chamber by any means. It was rather comfortable and spacious, which made him curious as to who slept here before him. Ainz wasn't naïve enough to believe that a recluse race like the dark elves actually had something like a guest chamber.

Ainz naturally didn't sleep at all that night. Even if he wanted to, he would not be able to fall asleep due to his current constitution. Instead, he spent the whole night thinking about various problems back in Nazarick and how to deal with them.

The plan to turn Nazarick into a self-sustaining guild base by setting up plantations for harvest was coming along nicely, but was still a far cry from the monthly expense needed to sustain the tomb. The subjugation of E-Rantel had helped quite a lot as Ainz could now, on top of his Adventurer income, also set aside some tax revenue for the upkeep of the Tomb. The money in E-Rantel had now been switched from royal currency to imperial coin as a sign of friendship with the empire, but this secretly also benefitted them greatly as E-Rantel had always been a hub for trade between the kingdom and the empire. Even with Ainz's conquest, this had not changed much other than now most trade with the kingdom was done secretly, whereas before it was done secretly with the empire.

Demiurge had mentioned that the continuing destruction of a nation's currency might have some economic repercussions in the future, but naturally Ainz had not been able to make sense of most of what was said. The short of it was that there would be consequences later on for the empire, but that was hardly a point of concern for Ainz at the moment.

The most surprising report that Ainz now had to deal with was the one from Lupusregina in Carne village. Who would have thought that that silly little horn of the goblin general could actually summon so many goblin soldiers? For now, Ainz had found a temporary solution for them, but the fact of the matter was that 5,000 low-medium level goblins were not something that he could dismiss. Even if he could easily destroy such a force, there was no merit in doing so as they could not pose a threat to him and moreover were led by someone who owed a massive debt of gratitude to Ainz. The real problem was that the army needed to have a place to live and food to eat as well as clothing and more. This was not something that could be solved overnight.

As for his conquest of the world…

At least that was coming along rather smoothly.

The kingdom of E-Rantel was, as Demiurge put it, "fait accompli", or in other words: their fate was sealed. Whether it was in terms of military or financial revenue, political stability, or leadership, the kingdom's future looked extremely grim. After the massacre at Katze Plains, it was obvious that the kingdom was just a house of cards waiting to collapse. It was not long now until the nobles would revolt against their failed monarch, and it was then that Nazarick would seize its chance and force the entire kingdom to submit. At least that was how Demiurge had roughly put it.

The empire likewise was already a foregone matter. Its entire foundation had been Fluder and its trained army that surpassed conscripts by a large margin. Without Fluder, what threat could they pose if they did not possess any World Class Items like the Slane Theocracy? As for the Slane Theocracy itself?

Ainz's eyes flickered as he thought back on what he had done. His activation of the super tier spell [Rains of Banjir] had turned Astousa into an apocalyptic city where only the dead roamed. Eventually, when people started to return to Astousa in hopes of finding survivors the only thing they found was death.

Fortunately, the affected zombie citizens could only exist on the desecrated ground that Ainz had created by summoning the rain. The radius was just a bit smaller than the capital, so luckily the undead would not be able to spread out into the outside world. That was a fate that even Ainz did not want to unleash upon the innocent citizens of the Slane Theocracy. For now, they had already suffered enough. Ainz himself was not proud of what he had done, but even now he still relished the thought that the ones who forced him to kill Shalltear were being tortured to madness by Neuronist and Shalltear herself or were already given to demiurge for 'testing'. Eventually they would be all turned into undead by Ainz and forced to slave away for the good of Nazarick until the end of time. But all those innocent civilians…

The emotion of regret had mostly left Ainz, but he still felt that last little tinge of human compassion deep within himself. It was a good thing that most of his emotions were suppressed or he would definitely be incapable of leading Nazarick after massacring all those humans.

Without their capital and their precious treasures, the Slane Theocracy was a beaten foe and in time would be absorbed into the fold, but for now was not important.

All that was left were the other human nations that thus far had remained obscured from Ainz's focus and the small demi-human nations that did not interact much with the human world such as the dark elves, the dwarven kingdom, or the lizard men. For now, these were much more important than the weakened human nations that Ainz had already beaten.

"Hmmm?"

As his thoughts wandered, Ainz felt a message call ringing and placed his fingers on his temple to answer, but not before activating an item that made eavesdropping impossible.

"Ainz-sama, please forgive the intrusion of your mission, but might I ask if the dark elves have already subjected to the rule of Nazarick?"

The voice sounded demure and refreshing, yet petite as Ainz recognized Shalltear as the owner of the voice right away.

"Not yet, Shalltear, they still have some conditions for us to complete but it should be a trivial matter to finish the job and force them to submit."

"Oooh?"

The voice sounded strangely disappointed as if expecting to already hear a summary of how the elves kowtowed before their new lord.

"My goodness, those elves sure are impudent. To think that they actually dare to place conditions before they become our newest satrapy. Are all of them perhaps even more arrogant than that shorty? Ainz-sama, please tell me if we need to send soldiers and eliminate their tribe."

Ainz lightly chuckled as he heard Shalltear's words. The thought of destroying a tribe he had come to solely to find some companions for Aura and Mare was laughable. Especially since they fit in so well with the rest of Nazarick. No, this place would become protected ground and Mare and Aura would be able to find the ilk that they missed in Nazarick. Even if they were artificial and these elves were not, they would still suffice to fill the void for now. These were Ainz's truest thoughts.

"No need for violence, Shalltear. We shall catch more with honey than with vinegar. Just keep me posted if anything of major importance arises in Nazarick or in E-Rantel."

"As you command Ainz-sama-."

With that, the voice faded and Ainz was once again left alone with his thoughts. So many things needed attention and so few of his subordinates could be trusted to solve the matter with wisdom instead of force. He knew for certain that this trip might as well be a vacation, for when he got back to Nazarick there would be a mountain of things to do…

AA: and we're back! Yesterday I had a choice: write another chapter or go watch Civil war… so who wants popcorn?! Here's another chapter that I hope you enjoyed and please if you enjoy don't forget to like and follow.

PS: to that one reviewer of Light's Downfall that thought it would be funny to name himself Maruyama Kugane, joke's on you I don't have readers in japan!