Despite all the complaining that Neia Baraja would do in the coming days- she had to acknowledge that these goggles were absolutely amazing.
They attuned her abilities several times over, and the night vision was incredibly amazing. Neia could see the individual blades of grass an entire spear's throw away.
Could she rival her father with this new gear?
It was said that her father could pin a fly to a wall without killing it.
From a hundred meters.
Blindfolded.
She was sure that the last part was an exaggeration, but there was no denying that he was an unparalled marksman. Neia was no slouch herself, as a matter of fact, there were only fourteen other archers in the entire Holy Roble Kingdom who were better than her. However, there was a vast difference between her and someone like her father who had ascended into the realm of Heroes- someone who was nearly an equal to Remedios Custodio herself.
Part of that was because she had committed her time to studying swordsmanship as a paladin. As it was said, one could not ride on two rafts at once- and her archery had suffered thanks to that.
"Alright then," Remdios said as they stepped out of the [Gate]. Neia had heard of teleportation magic before, but was astounded that this magic caster could use it- let alone that he was an unknown person to her. If he really was a Fifth Tier caster, Neia was sure that she would've heard of him somewhere. "Start tracking!"
It took Neia a moment to realize that Remedios was speaking to her.
"W-what?"
"You're a Ranger, aren't you? Start tracking where they took the Holy Queen," Remedios demanded.
"W-wha-who am I looking for?" Neia asked, confused.
Remedios sighed in exasperation. "Winged Demihumans- Harpies, they carried the Holy Queen away. Track them down."
"B-but there's nothing to track them down with," Neia protested. "They fly and they don't leave footprints and-"
"Enough excuses!" Remedios snapped. "I brought you along for one very simple job, Squire Baraja, and I expect you to do it!"
"Don't you think you're asking a bit too much?" Ainz asked. "There's no way that she could track a creature that flies so easily. Even assuming that they have to take a rest for a while-"
"No excuses are allowed in the line of a paladin's duty!" Remedios said. "Even with that fancy new gear, are you unable to find a trace of the Holy Queen?"
The gear in question did nothing to improve her tracking abilities.
Neia stammered. "B... but without a lead I really can't-"
"I think it is rather unreasonable to demand that she do this," Ainz said.
"What of you?" Remedios said, now turning to Ainz. "Can't your magic track down the Holy Queen?"
"Hmm... Divination Magic," Ainz said. "I'm afraid that for now it's out of the question. I am not too skilled in that field, and if the enemy is a creature of comparable power to me, trying to spy on them will have sorcerous repercussions. Possibly death."
Remedios clenched her fist. "Alright- we go in that direction then!"
She then wandered off in a direction she was pointing at.
"If we are going based off your memories, it should be in this direction," Ainz said, pointing to a direction fifteen degrees west of where Remedios was going.
"Fine then!" Remedios said.
The whole situation reminded Neia, weirdly enough, of her mother and father. Many of times had her father (Ainz) came to her rescue when her mother (Remedios) was too overbearing on her. And he usually got the stick for standing up for her, but that never stopped him...
The thought of the two of them nearly brought tears to her eyes but she stifled them.
Truth be told, Remedios's words had cut deep.
She had prided herself in her skills at scavenging and how they had helped her and the survivors evade enemies, but Remedios had sown doubt on them.
Come to think of it though, her entire line of reasoning was flawed. Flying demihumans would leave no traces, so it was nearly impossible to track them down. They left no footprints that she could follow. She was asking for something complete-
"Eh?" Neia said, stopping in her tracks. Remedios didn't slow down, but Ainz did.
"Is something the matter?" Ainz asked.
"Uh, yeah," Neia said. She squinted- making sure that she wasn't imagining what she was seeing. "There's someone waiting to ambush us over there."
"Huh?" Ainz asked.
"There's a pile of grass there... but it's arranged all too wrong. It's not some random pile eiter. There's a small figure being covered by the grass..." Neia said.
"Are you sure?" Ainz asked.
"Yes," Neia said. "There is one thing that bothers me though..."
"What?"
"Whatever it is, it's really poorly hidden," Neia said. "I could've told that there was someone lying in wait there even without these goggles."
"Ah," Ainz said.
"It's almost like they hid themselves badly on purpose."
"Oh! I see it now! Indeed, that is quite the queer spot to plan an ambush," Ainz said. "One would normally use the terrain in order to... ah!"
"What?" Neia said, startled at Ainz's strange exclamation.
"This must be... a double trap!"
"A what?"
"A double ambush," Ainz said. "The man you see hiding there is not the actual trap. He is just there disguised just well enough so that we think that whoever it is ambushing us, when in reality, there are agents more well hidden around us who are the actual ambush."
"R-really?" Neia asked. It seemed way too elaborate to think of, but then again, she didn't have much experience. She would put much more trust in the words of this magic caster, strange as that was to think. She just assumed that Ainz was an incredibly wise man- otherwise the Captain would never place so much trust in him. 'I'll tell the Captain then!'
She hurried up and ran to be beside Remedios, to whom she explained the whole thing in a few sentences. Remedios did not even budge from her position as she advanced forward.
"But Captain!'
"If it's a trap, we're probably heading in the right direction as they say," Remedios said. "And either way, it won't throw us off of our course. We have to reach the Holy Queen."
"Maybe, but we should also set up countermeasures such as-" Ainz began to say before Remedios shot him down.
"Look, I believe that you are overthinking this," Remedios said. She could see the patch of grass now as well. "Anyone who would try to rob us is an utterly complete buffoon who we shouldn't take seriously."
"Exactly!" Ainz said. "No one would ever set up a trap which is so blatantly obvious. There must be another mastermind here."
"I doubt it," Remedios said. "As it stands, whether there is one or isn't one, we have to keep marching forward!"
Remedios whipped around and was moving towards the ambush site at double-time.
Neia sighed. "I'm sorry about that. The Captain can be kind of... well... mostly she is kind of a bimbo."
Neia heard the masked caster grunt in response. Was that... anger in his voice?
She had let that comment out- something she would normally not say to anyone else, because she thought that he would agree. Granted, most of the other paladins in the order also thought similar things regarding Remedios. Of course, as a mere squire Neia had never felt comfortable enough to join in on such discussions. With this caster though, she had felt a strange sense of camaraderie.
That said, it looked like what she had said had made him mad.
"Ah, I don't mean it like that- her battle sense is really good," Neia said. "It's just that with literally everything else, she's kind of uh-"
"I see what you mean," Ainz said. He didn't sound angry any more at all. "But I suppose there is something to admire with her single-mindedness."
"RIght..." Neia said, not unaware of the admiration in his voice. What was that? Did someone have a c-
"Stop right there!"
Neia's thought process was interrupted as someone erupted from the pile of grass, wielding a knife in one hand.
Neia drew her Shooting Star Super, ready to plant an arrow into the assailant's heart. But, she didn't. For the same reason that Remedios paused.
Remedios would normally have charged on ahead, undeterred, but something made her stop dead in her tracks.
The ambusher was... a child? He looked no older than fourteen.
This put Ainz more on edge. This looked like perfect bait for them, they needed to keep an eye out for the actual trap. He began preparing immediately.
[Body of Effulgent Bery]
"Ah, I see," the boy said. "It looks like I've stumbled upon a happy little family over here. Well, rest assured, I will leave you all alone. Simply hand over your valuables."
"Eh? Are you dumb?" Remedios asked. Coming from her, this was quite the insult.
[Body of Effulgent Heliodor]
"Um, Captain, something about him makes me think he's being serious," Neia said.
[Maximize Silent Triplet Magic: Magic Mine]. With so many metamagics applied, even a First Tier spell drained quite a bit of mana from him.
"Your daughter over there seems to have more sense than you," the boy said.
[Greater Hardening]
Remedios's face instantly turned red. "D-Do you really think that I'm old enough to have a daughter as old as Neia?"
[False Data: Life]
"I'm not really that old, Captain," Neia said. She didn't really know how old Remedios was, but given she was supposed to be about the same age as the Holy Queen-
[False Data: Mana]
"-Squire Baraja, keep your nose out of this!" Remedios said. She marched forward. "You! What exactly is the meaning of threatening one of the Paladin Order's paladins?"
[Mana Essence]. The boy had no mana to speak of.
"Eh? So are you that famous paladin of the Holy Kingdom? Ah, Retardios, was it?"
[Life Essennce]. The boy's HP was miniscule.
"REMEDIOS!"
[Delay Teleportation]
"But, that will not help you in a fight against me," the boy said. He started brandishing his knife. "For you see, my knife... is coated in poison."
[Greater Resistance]
"The smallest cut can be fatal," the boy continued.
[Greater Hardening]
The boy licked the knife as if to intimidate them.
[Paranormal Intuition]
"...I probably shouldn't have licked it."
[Sense Enemy]. Huh... there was no one else here.
The boy collapsed to the ground.
"You know, I think the two of you are complete idiots," Remedios said to AInz and Neia. "This kid is just that- a compelte id- AHHH!"
She raised a finger and pointed it at the kid's head. There was a single feather tucked behind his ear... a Harpy feather!
"Quick, we can't let him die!" Remedios said. "He may have seen the Harpies!"
She rushed over, casting [Dispel Venom] upon him.
"You know, he kind of looks reaaallly pathetic," Neia murmured.
Now that she had a closer look at the boy, who was tied up with the spell [Dark Chain], it was clear that he had not eaten properly for several days. Granted, the same was quite similar for her as well, but he looked really emaciated. "Not to mention kind of young..."
Ainz shrugged. "I've seen the corpses of far younger children on my way to work."
Neia whipped her head around. It wasn't just what he had said- but rather, the nonchalant way he had said it.
Children were considered god's treasures, though the Holy Roble Kingdom had its share of homelessness and orphans as did any other country. Many of them were taken care of by the Church, though there were of course so-called 'street urchins' no matter where you looked. Attempts were made to recruit them into guarding the great wall, and this was somewhat effective.
Of course, such problems were nearly universal. Her father had told her stories of the Baharuth Empire, and child hunger was an issue there as well, even more so in the Re-Estize Kingdom, she had heard. Those countries did not even have a strong theological structure that would shelter homeless children.
But- Ainz spoke of seeing dead children as if it was a commonplace occurrence. As if there was nothing inherently wrong about it.
Granted, it was a common enough occurrence now, given the invasion, but still...
"W-was that normal?" she asked.
Ainz shrugged. "Well, only about once every two or three weeks. The city cleaners were very efficient in getting rid of waste, though if you died at the wrong location- some place they didn't care about, you might stay there until you started really smelling."
"Ah...uh..." Neia said, at a complete loss for words. What kind of hell-on-earth did this magic caster live in before.
"Wake up," Remedios said, exasperated as she poked the boy with her boot.
"He's pretending to be asleep," Ainz said. "Here, let me help you... [Dominate]! Now wake up!"
The boy's eyes snapped open.
"Ah, it's a good thing that you're so skilled at dominating young boys, Momonga-san!" Remedios said.
"...do you go around thinking of ways to make me sound like a degenerate or do they just come to you naturally?" Ainz asked.
"I was just stating a fact why wou- oh..." Remedios said as she realized what she was saying.
Neia sighed. She really wasn't the sharpest tool in the toolbox. As a matter of fact, in the words of another paladin 'it's like a tool someone threw down into a well and had been left there for several years outside the toolbox' was more accurate.
"State your name!" Ainz said.
The boy, compelled by the magic, answered. "My name is Dantallion."
"Why did you ambush us? Where are your allies?"
"I've been stalking, looking for people to rob," Dantallion answered. "I then saw you all. And no one is helping me- the Great Thief Dantallion works alone!"
Remedios scratched her head. "Great thief? I haven't heard of you before."
"You have now!" Dantallion said.
"Quiet, fool," Remedios said. "Do you have no shame in trying to steal from the Paladins of the Holy Kingdom? We are Her Majesty's Royal Guard and Enforcers!"
Ainz had to note that she had a point- it was incredibly dumb to try to rob them. Like robbing a bunch of police officers- no, it was like trying to rob an armed military convoy.
"I don't care about Her Majesty," Dantallion said. That was all what he really believed given that he was still under the influence of the [Dominate] spell. "Her Majesty can kiss my-"
"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK ABOUT THE HOLY QUEEN THAT WAY!" Remedios screamed, nearly ready to lop off the kid's head. Neia had to hold her back- a feat she was barely succeeding at given that Remedios was far stronger than her.
"Heh, I didn't vote for her," Dantallion said.
"You don't vote for Queens, you know," Suzuki said. In his world, politics was mainly just theater for the MegaCorps. Voting was a pointless deed and he had never paid any attention to it.
"Whatever, then why do I have to obey her?" Dantallion asked.
"This is getting nowhere," Suzuki said. "Did you really think that you could take all of us on?"
"My knife was poisoned so I thought it would work..." Dantallion said.
Even Remedios was left speechless at the kid's stupidity.
"Truly, there must be no idiot greater than you in this whole world."
Hundreds of miles away, a young boy in the Montserrat household sneezed.
Still, what really pissed Suzuki off was the fact that he had wasted a lot of mana before this kid had appeared. If it had been his tactic to drain him of as much MP as possible so a stronger foe could swoop in and take them down- he would've bought it.
But it appears that a ten thousand IQ plan was nothing before a zero IQ fool.
"Where did you get that feather?" Suzuki asked.
