Chapter 15

Cha-ling, cha-ling. It came the sound of precious metals clinking together.

Upon confirming there was nothing left inside the leather pouch he'd upended, Ainz lined up the gleaming coins on his desk.

He made stacks of ten each, gold ones and silver, and counted them.

After tallying the mountain over several times, he picked up the bag and peered inside again.

Yep, there's really nothing in here. After confirming it, he flung the bag away and held his head in his hands."

"There's not enough… we don't have anywhere near enough money…"

The human face he'd created using an illusion warped darkly. Of course, the pile of coins before him was a fortune, a sum an ordinary person from this world wouldn't be able to earn even over dozens of years. But as the ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, as well as one of the few earning foreign currency, he felt extremely uneasy about the amount.

Since Ainz's emotions were forcibly calmed if they fluctuated beyond a certain range, his shocked mind would be immediately stabilized if he were in the extremely bad situation of having, say, a single silver coin. When he had some gold coins, however, that didn't happen due to the slight reassurance in a corner of his mind, so he experienced a steady irritation.

Ainz shook his head and began allotting the coins in front of him to different uses. "First, these are additional funds for Sebas."

He removed a huge chunk from the mountain, and his face twitched.

"Then this is the money Cocytus requested to support the restoration of the lizardman village and cover equipment costs."

The mountain moved again, and all that was left were a few gold coins.

"The stuff we'll be sending to the lizardman village are necessities, so if we buy at the Adventurers Guild, we can use our adamantite connections. We'd be able to get everything a little cheaper, for maybe this much?"

A few coins returned from Cocytus's funds.

Ainz counted the remaining money and muttered, "…Getting some merchant to sponsor us would be the ideal…to earn some kind of regular income besides adventuring."

Including Thunder & Lightning, there were only three adamantite-rank parties in Re-Estize. Due to that, merchants occasionally requested him by name. In general, the kind of work they desired (an escort while travelling on the Kingdom's roads', mostly) was simple compared to how much they would pay and he wanted to take those jobs by all means, but he had been hesitant up until now.

Ainz wanted to avoid giving the impression the adventurer he was playing, Momon, was greedy for cash or would take on any job as long as he was paid.

His plan was to make Momon into the kind of adventurer everyone would praise and then transfer all that glory to Ainz Ooal Gown when the time came. For that reason, he had to pay attention to his reputation.

"But I have no moneyyy. I really don't need a room like this."

Ainz scanned his splendid surroundings.

He was renting the nicest room in the best hotel in E-Rantel, so the cost was nothing to sneeze at. Ainz didn't even need to sleep just like Oshikuru, though the bastard still enjoyed doing that every once in a while, so there was no point in taking a room like this. He would have wanted to use this money on useless stuff. That also went for food and drinks: even if he liked to occasionally enjoy a meal, doing that in Nazarick was free of charge and everything tasted so much better.

But Ainz and Oshikuru knew full well he couldn't do that. They were adamantite adventurers, the only ones in E-Rantel. There was no way they could stay in a flophouse. Food, clothes and shelter were points of easy comparison: an adamantite team had to maintain a certain lifestyle, it was all about looks and honor. That's why Ainz couldn't downgrade his inn, even though he knew it was a waste of money not to.

"If we're worth anything to them, I could probably get the guild to arrange lodgings for us… Ahh, if

we just asked them, I bet they would…" But he didn't want to owe anyone. Up until now, they had done things like taking on last-minute requests in order to incur debt. Once he'd saved up enough favors, he intended to collect on them, even if it took a near threat. If they asked a favor for such a mundane thing as this, his plan would get messed up.

Agh, I don't have any money! What should I do? I guess I have to take an extra job like Oshikuru, even if all he does is playing music and singing, that has become a steady source of income for us. Still, it's not enoughWhat then, it doesn't seem like there are so many high-paying requests lately. And taking on too many is asking for ill will from the other adventurers.

If he was going to make Ainz Ooal Gown into an enduring legend, he wanted it to be in a good way, not a bad way. Ainz gave an imitation sigh and counted up the rest of the gold coins to burn into his mind how much spending money he had.

"Speaking of money, what should I do about the guardians' salary?" Ainz hmmed as he leaned back in his chair and lifted his gaze to the ceiling.

The guardians all insisted they didn't need a salary as there was nothing that made them happier than serving the Supreme Beings and that receiving some kind of payment for it would be absurd.

But Ainz wondered if it was really all right to take advantage of them like that. There should be a fair price for their work. Half smiling, he remembered what had happened the last time someone didn't want to pay Oshiku after a day's work.

When the guardians declared that being able to devote themselves completely to the Supreme Beings was consideration enough, Ainz had a hard time accepting it.

Maybe it was just him, who used to be a human working as a company employee for pay, but he couldn't simply discard the idea that work deserved compensation.

He was worried about throwing these children who knew nothing of salaries into it, but he still felt a system was worth adopting as an experiment.

"The problem is what to pay them with." His eyes moved from the ceiling to the small amount of gold coins on the table.

"If I gave some of the guardians the going rate for managers, it'd be fifteen million yen… Shalltear, Cocytus, Aura, Mare, Demiurge, Ambition… then Albedo's should be even higher? In other words, times six. Yeah, there's no way. I can't possibly make that much."

Ainz held his head in his hands, but suddenly his eyes popped open.

"Oh! I can just substitute something else! I can make a currency that can only be used in Nazarick like toy money and say that one is worth a hundred thousand or something!"

After he'd finished shouting, Ainz frowned again.

"How will I have them use the money, though?"

Everything inside the Great Tomb of Nazarick was free, so even if he created a currency, there was nothing for them to spend it on.

"Maybe they could buy items from this world with it?" Ainz compared the items of this world with those of Nazarick and wondered if anyone would even want them. "But making free stuff suddenly cost money would be totally backward… What should I do?"

After thinking for a little while, he turned to his friend who was extremely busy doing his best to ignore the burden of responsibility. The green-haired man seemed to intensively clean his swords, but they were already sparkling like gems.

"Oshikuru-san, you know, you could help me every once in a while."

"What are you talking about, my friend? I'm always here for you! Anyway, if we need money, I can always rob a bank. I'm so fast that normal people won't see me even if I don't become invisible, hehehe…"

"Seriously, man. What shall we repay the guardians with?"

"Hm, I don't know. Why don't you ask them? The guardians should know what they want."

"Genius! That's it! All I have to do is make the guardians think about it! Yes, I just have to ask them what they want badly enough that they would pay for it!" Delighted, he praised his friend.

"Come on, that was something you'd have realised in just a moment…"

"Maybe, but still you were helpful. I know I'm supposed to be the boss, but two heads are better than one. Thanks!… you know, you should give me a piece of advice more often."

"I'll always help you, my friend, but I'm not good at ruling. If you need someone to have fun with or to defeat an enemy, well, that's a job for me!"

As Ainz sighed and focused once more on the array of coins on the desk, there came a knock at the door. A muffled voice came through. "It's Dared".

Ainz remembered it was the concierge's name and he said: "Come in."

After a moment, the door opened. Ainz made a certain face. The expression was snobbish with one side of his lips curled up.

Because the low-level illusion forming Ainz's face expressed his emotions honestly, there was a chance it could display something unbecoming of an adamantite adventurer. For that reason, in order to create the picture of a dignified man in front of others, especially with the most important people, he took great pains to stick to this single expression, which he had practiced in front of a mirror.

"What's the matter, Dared?" He asked with his Momon voice.

"Sir, the iron ore I asked merchant Frans as you requested is ready to collect, he has just arrived in the lobby and his cart is right outside."

"I see. And where is this iron ore from? From all the eight spots we had agreed upon?"

"My apologies, but I didn't ask."

"… That's fine, I have plenty of gold. Even if we don't know where it's coming from, I'll buy it all. Still, please ask him now."

Ainz confidently packed all the golden coins on the desk into the bag, tossed it at his open hands and watched him carefully catch it. The man, no longer young but not old yet, had already proven to be trustworthy and tight lipped when necessary. That was all what they needed.

"I understand, Sir Momon. Then I will go and make the purchase right away."

He was about to walk away when a voice stopped him.

"Hold up, Dared. Unlike my greedy friend, I always give a tip to those who deserve it."

Then took a coin from his pocket and it jumped from his thumbnail to the concierge who gladly catched the silver in midair.

"It wasn't necessary, Sir Oshiku, but thank you!"

Dared bowed once and left the room.

Watching him go and ignoring Oshiku's taunt, Ainz sighed deeply despite his lack of lungs.

"… Expenses always go up right when you have no money. Honestly, this sucks."

"Aye. But remind me the reason why you're buying iron. And what's with different locations?"

Ainz explained: "It's to throw it in the exchange box. And I want to find out whether there is a difference depending on where it's collected."

Oshikuru gave him a puzzled look. "The hell are you talking about? The exchange box doesn't take shape into account!" He was right about that. For example, elaborate stone carving dropped into the box would get the same assessed value as a rock of the same weight with absolutely no craftsmanship involved.

"Yes, but back in Yggdrasil the quality of the material, especially with metals, did matter to the exchange rate. What if iron from different locations has different qualities, resulting in more or less return?"

"Ah, that's right. So that's why you're collecting iron from various locations. But are we really so in need of money?"

"Well, now that we have to rule the lizardmen, yes. As you know, we've assessed wheat recently. It took so much to get just one gold coin!" Ainz grumbled.

That meant they could make money if they produced a lot of it, so he'd come up with a plan to create wheat fields outside Nazarick. He figured if they used undead and golems, they should be able to create vast fields. Granted, there was a pile of problems that needed to be tackled before they could get there.

"I understand. Then… where we?"

"Uh, I was thinking about getting a job, or some way to make money anyway. Any ideas?"

"Well, there's plenty of money in the Kingdom. And those who make the most are the criminals in Eight Fingers. What about checking in on those we've sent to the capital? If necessary, let's have them implement the plan so that we can get rich!"

Ainz nodded and they both wondered what Sebas Tian, Solution Epsilon, Celicia Veyron, Brain Unglaus, Shalltear Bloodfallen and especially the devilish Demiurge were up to.