C22 Great noble Maple.
In the capital of the kingdom of Re- Estize, rumors and gossip spread pleasantly, or in other words, the whispers spread as fire on the dry grass, and like a train without brakes, they hadn't the minimal intention to stop in the near future.
Each and every one of them with a single theme: the newly appointed Baroness of Carne, Maple. "Has anyone heard of her name before? Have you noticed her mount? Her armor? Her facial features? Can someone please tell me why she is so cute and how I can marry a baroness?"
Maple wasn't completely oblivious to the rumors, but it's not like she would give them much importance either.
It was already a week since her arrival in the capital and she was still having problems finding a good place to sleep... Or rather, she was causing problems to the rest of the people, including Gazef Stronoff. Most people would imagine that she would sleep in an inn or that she would buy a house to sleep, but normality was not something that went hand in hand with Maple, if she could sleep in Syrup's belly it was more than enough for her, it didn't matter that she was out in the open under a tree in a royal park. On the other hand, the fact that the newly appointed Baroness was homeless was scandalous to say the least, when the warrior captain came to scold her she obeyed him and stopped sleeping on the streets, instead taking refuge in a stable.
Gazef, as well as a good part of the nobility, were livid at the lifestyle of the Baroness of Carne, as Maple was dragging the concept of Nobility through the mud in a more or less literal way...
Ultimately Gazef invited Maple to live in the knights' barracks, where she quickly mixed with all the knights as well as the soldiers. Inevitably, the Baroness was invited to the training sessions one day.
No one talks about what happened that day, at least not out loud, but Maple gained a strong reputation within the military as soldiers and knights alike were traumatized on so many levels.
However, why the new Baroness of Carne resided in the capital instead of returning to her newly acquired domain remained a secret to most people, but the reality was that Ainz had asked her to do some reconnaissance before returning to Carne village, and a bit of information gathering in the slums around the city revealed something Maple never expected to find. The rich girl who played Yggdrasil knew about the existence of drugs and prostitution, it was just that she only knew about them from movies and similar things. Maple was the type of person who is uncomfortable with these topics and prefers to avoid them. But once you meet them in real life. Can you just pretend you're blind?
PoV Maple - Near a six-finger facility.
NO! How? Why? Wah why did I have to end up in the dark fantasy world instead of in a peaceful one? I should have known something like this would exist since they were massacring villagers when I first arrived. But still, there are things, and then there are these things, very different things.
I never thought I would come face to face with a mafia of drug sales, corruption, and prostitution. What should I do? Shall I report them to the knights? Should I try their product to see if it can get through my defenses and get me high? Scratch that last one, drugs are bad, they make you addicted, if you want to get addicted buy a video game and that's all you need, gashapones are much more fun ways to waste money. Maybe this type of organization exists because there are no gashapones in the world...
Hummm... I don't think I can become a great video game developer in this world, but if I do put my hands in a casino!... Wasn't the Big N a Gashapone toy company before becoming a video game company?
I shook the thoughts out of my head when the people I was following finally started walking faster than I could manage as I ran trying to be as discreet as possible. I'm so discreet that I took off my armor and put on a ninja suit! although since I sewed it myself with some old sheets... it's a Frankenstein ninja suit!
Covered by shadows, I tried to continue sneaking when suddenly I felt a blow on the back of my head.
"Ouch!" I heard someone say behind me.
I turned around and saw a girl in a Kunoichi outfit jumping while holding her injured foot. I rubbed my head in surprise when I suddenly heard another painful noise as a girl identical to the one jumping on her foot stood next to her while rubbing her hand.
They both whisper something to each other without taking their eyes off me.
"H-hey? Are you fine?"
They looked at each other and whispered something under their breath before looking at me. The girl on the right yelled at me then.
"Who are you and why were you spying on us?"
"Huh?"
I don't remember spying on a ninja, I was lamenting that I had lost sight of the yakuza when I started daydreaming about gashapons and —Oh!—while daydreaming my eyes fell on a group of pretty girls and warrior-looking blondes who walked through the alleys.
As I came to my realization I suddenly felt a tingle on my back. I turned my head curiously and saw that behind me, with her hand raised, was a blonde girl with a red cape and a white mask on her face, she slowly lowered her hand.
"Well, it seems she resisted the charm spell."
"Ha ha ha, well, I'm resistant to that kind of thing."
Just then I saw a couple of people starting to climb the side of the building we were in, I heard the wood creak under my feet but I ignored it. And there, the last two women of the group arrived, a large lady in red armor and a girl about Mi's age, with a beautiful braid on her head, as well as a bunch of swords floating around her.
Her technique reminded me of someone I fought a long time ago, it shouldn't be a big deal if we were to fight, but am I really going to fight? Are they part of the mafia? Asking doesn't hurt.
"Quick question, are you part of the city mafia?"
The girls looked at each other in confusion before the girl with the swords clarified the matter.
"We are Blue Rose, adventurers of Orichalcum rank."
Orichalkh rank adventurers... so there is such a thing, they look unique, especially the little witch that trying to use [ Charm Person ] on me, I think is level 50 at least. I wonder what they could do.
With a smile on my face, I took off my makeshift ninja mask to reveal that I didn't take off my armor, I just put this outfit over it!
"It's a pleasure to meet you! I am Maple the Baroness of Carne! — I heard the floor creak once again, but I didn't give it any importance. — and I'm on a mission to take down the mafia in this city!"
The floor squeaked once more before breaking under my feet... I hope this doesn't ruin my first impression.
Nazarick - Ninth Floor
Ainz left the report on the table as he raised his bony face before Demiurge.
"It seems that Maple... She's integrating well..."
Demiurge nodded slowly.
"Yes... Yes! You are right my lord, although the actions of the knight of absolute destruction in the capital of the kingdom seem... unusual, it would not be a lie to say that she has been taking control of the situation without problems."
Ainz bowed his head slightly before stating something else.
"Maple sent me a message recently, saying that the plan worked that Carne village is now under her protection, and that she was made the Baroness of Carne, however, she also stressed quite vehemently that it will take a little longer for her to return to the base of the guild, according to her there is this criminal group in the capital and that she is fighting to eliminate it, apparently she met a group of adventurers and is now on her way to talk to Princess Rener, on another note she asked if we can buy a casino."
"For our part, the management of Villa Carne and its surroundings are currently under the command of Miss Albedo, the construction projects have already begun, and the humans are currently being retrained by Lupusregina Beta. Before long, the loyalty of the lower creatures towards the supreme must be fully assured, on the other hand, there is... one more thing."
Ainz looked at Demiurge with curiosity...
"The eight-fingered assassins report a group of low-level armed humans approaching the village. Should we eliminate them?"
Ainz thought for a moment before speaking. "When you say armed humans, are you talking about knights of some kind?"
Demiurge shook his head. "They are a disparate group of what humans call adventurers composed of armed warriors and a magic caster as well as a kind of alchemist or pharmacist."
If Ainz had an eyebrow, he would have raised it in interest.
"Interesting, the presence of heteromorphic creatures in Carne is prominent, if they are adventurers as I suspect they are it would not be a surprise if they attack as soon as they see us, but I am interested in their presence in my village. Starting friendly relations wouldn't be a bad idea, but reveling ourselves to the world... it's still too early. As soon as they reach the village, capture them without harming them, and hold them inside the village until the situation is more stable and we can firmly place ourselves in the political scheme of the kingdom. — Ainz looked Demiurge firmly in the eyes for a moment before continuing. —Remember, we do not want to be hostile or unpleasant to our guests."
Demiurge bowed to Ainz with respect and seriousness.
"It shall be done, Ainz-sama."
Author's Note.
As I have already said in my other stories I have been quite busy and only now have some free time to write, I must admit, however, that I am a bit charente in the motivation and imagination department, so I apologize for the shortness of the chapter (wait, I think it's an average-sized chapter at this point...).
Anyway, let me tell you a little about my plans.
To begin with, OVERLORD IS FUCKING COMPLEX! The study that each chapter requires has no name, there are so many things happening at the same time and in the background, watching the anime to refresh your memory is not enough. So many subtleties, my god, if I'm not mistaken Blue Rose shouldn't be in the capital at this very moment, Shaltear hasn't interacted with Brain Ungalss, and therefore the bloody Valkyrie arc is still pending since she hasn't interacted with members of the theocracy. Nazarick in general has not expanded its network yet.
Since I am so deviated from the canon, I said to myself, why don't I lock Nfiria and the swords of darkness in Carne village and force Clementine to go there?
We'll see you in a future update.
Sincerly.
"Should I do a Christmas special?"
J-More
P.S. Merry Christmas!