Overlord (Light Novel)

Part 5

Ainz looked out over the city, which was in a panic over the appearance of the demihuman army, and he slowly collapsed.

This was not a figure of speech.

Ainz’s heart and soul were stretched to their limits by fatigue, and despite his undead nature, he fell to his knees from mental exhaustion and grabbed his face.

What should I do… what should I do after this…

Fundamentally, Ainz had been following Demiurge’s script.

Of course, not every word and action was planned, so he had improvised a fair bit, but even so, Ainz was counting on following the developments of Demiurge’s plan.

Or rather, the problem was that he had improvised too much.

Frankly speaking, the operational directives he had gotten from Demiurge basically said: “Please adapt to the situation,” and other things like that.

This was too much. That was what Ainz had thought when he first looked at the instructions.

If Ainz was an excellent person, perhaps he could follow those directions and play the role of a perfect Sorcerer King. However, much to his regret, Ainz’s abilities were perfectly normal, or perhaps even worse than that.

Therefore, Ainz had gotten into a spirited debate with Demiurge over the matter.

He recalled things going like this: Ainz had pleaded, “I don’t understand, write in more detail,” whereupon Demiurge had humbly replied with “How could I possibly do something that rude to the sagacious Ainz-sama?” and this had led to an intense back and forth. He had roped Albedo into this battle halfway, and Ainz — who had begun at a great disadvantage — had finished at a complete loss.

And so, the operational directives granting him complete discretion ended up in Ainz’s hands.

If this was a prank on Demiurge’s part, he might be able to deal with it in some other way, but this was the fruit of his subordinate’s trust and respect.

In particular, that was made very clear by such pronouncements as “You will surely be able to reach a better conclusion, Ainz-sama — how could one as insignificant as myself bind you with my words and deeds?”

If you went by common sense, why would the king of another country come over alone… what an unreasonable argument… still, I’ve come all this way. Although I stirred up some problems along the way and got careless a few times, I still came all this way…

He did not believe in the gods, but he wanted to pray to them with all his heart.

Couldn’t Demiurge and Albedo consider my abilities before dumping missions onto me…

Being asked to do the impossible made his motivation shrivel up.

…All right, pull it together, me. It’ll be easier after I get through this.

Ainz poured his strength into his legs, and then he stood up.

The plan had come to the vital middle stages, and that was the worst part.

According to Demiurge, if they formed a defensive line at this city, they would attack until there were eighty five percent casualties.

Ainz had no idea what he was talking about.

Since Demiurge felt it ought to be this way, then it should be a better answer than anything Ainz came up with. If all those deaths brought benefits to Nazarick, then let them die. Rather, Ainz would think about whether killing more would bring even more benefits to Nazarick and such things.

However, the problem lay in the fact that Demiurge had asked Ainz for humans here which could not be killed.

Frankly speaking, if that was all, then he would randomly select a few and be done with it, but there was one more thing to note.

That was humans who were devoted to Ainz, or who might be persuaded to join Ainz’s side.

『I feel that there must be several humans who are as devoted to you as those Dwarves, so please tell me their names, and when I make my move, I will take care not to kill them off.』

When he received that message from Demiurge, he had even thought, Are you kidding me? as he doubted Demiurge’s thinking.

“…There’s nobody like that.”

Those despondent words escaped Ainz.

There were no humans here who were devoted to Ainz.

Rather, he had keenly experienced how much the undead were hated in the Holy Kingdom.

Under these dire circumstances, how many people would be devoted to his undead self?

However, he could not tell Demiurge that there were none.

Demiurge sincerely believed that Ainz could fascinate several humans. So what would happen if he told Demiurge that he had not managed to do so with anyone?

My stomach hurts…

The Dwarf Demiurge was speaking of must have been Gondo Firebeard, but that had simply been lucky. He had scored a critical hit on a weakness in his heart by pure chance, and such luck would not repeat itself.

And it was precisely because he had the font of information which was Gondo that he had managed to strike a chord in the hearts of the runesmiths. However, there was nobody like that in the Holy Kingdom.

There was one person with whom he had formed a friendly relationship, Neia Baraja, but that was all.

Besides, he had given her a magic item to improve their relationship, as well as for another reason, but how effective it had been was still unclear. She kept glaring at him with murderous eyes, so he probably should not expect anything good to come of it.

What would Demiurge think if I told him there was only one person? Ainz asked himself.

Would the image of Ainz which Demiurge held in his heart not crumble completely?

And then, what would happen in the future?

In the Dwarven Kingdom, I told Demiurge that I wasn’t that smart, but at that time it didn’t seem like he believed me completely… this is bad. How great a person am I in his eyes? Or rather, it seems I’m getting greater and greater; am I imagining things? Normally, wouldn’t it be the other way around?

The expectations placed on him hurt. They were not weighty; they just hurt.

In the past, he had pondered how heavy and painful the word “loyalty” could be. In particular, the part where his subordinates viewed Ainz as a great being was the most painful of all.

I guess I should take this opportunity to tell Demiurge that I’m not really that amazing, but what would happen if I did? What should I do if it caused the plan that Demiurge labored for so long over to end in failure? If I spent several years courting a big client, only to have it fall through because of a stupid comment from my boss…

Ahhh, Ainz said as he scratched his hairless head.

What should he do?

What was the best answer he could give?

No matter what simulations he ran, they all ended in Demiurge looking at him in disappointment. He could not reach a conclusion that he could accept.

He’s expecting too much of me — the higher the climb, the longer the fall. That’s why I said I’m nobody amazing…

And then, Ainz’s own plan had been quite the failure.

Ainz reached into his pocket space and drew a sword.

It was an ordinary sword inscribed with runes.

However, it contained power comparable to the bow he had lent to Neia.

Of course, these were not Dwarven runes. The runes carved on it had no power at all. This was a piece of equipment made with YGGDRASIL techniques.

“Haaaa…”

Ainz sighed. He had several weapons like this. The original plan was to lend these weapons to the Holy Kingdom.

The people of the Holy Kingdom would be awed by the overwhelming power of the sword and think, So this is the power of runic weaponry, which would in turn improve the reputation of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s rune weapons.

This was the other reason why he had lent Neia the weapon.

He felt that the people of the Holy Kingdom would see that weapon and secretly borrow them from Ainz.

However—

Ainz grabbed his head.

Why didn’t anyone borrow them? I even thought people would talk about it because it was so flashy… I guess I should have forced her onto the frontlines and made her fight, huh…

Just then, there was a tok tok tok as someone knocked on the door.

He quickly checked his robe and other messy places before putting the sword back into his pocket dimension. Then he put his hands behind his back, looked at the door like a sovereign, and spoke loudly:

“Who is it?”

“Your Majesty, may I enter?”

There was no way to tell if it was a male or female voice through the door. Normally, he should have asked the visitor’s name, but Demiurge had already told him that someone was coming, and so Ainz granted his permission without any hesitation.

“Ahh, it’s fine. Come in.”

The person who entered Ainz’s room closed the door behind himself, and its body changed as well.

It had an egg-shaped head with a mouth and two eyes that looked like sunken holes. Its three-fingered hands were as slender as stick insects.

It was a Doppelganger.

It was a Doppelganger he had lent Demiurge at his request.

Since it was a monster Doppelganger, it was not very strong.

Even when transformed, it could only copy level forty abilities, and it was even weaker without transformation. Its more potent abilities was how it could freely make use of karma-restricted gear. That said, it could not use magic items above legacy class.

Its vacuous hole-like eyes turned to Ainz, and then it bowed deeply.

“I sincerely apologize for the many offenses I have caused you during the course of my duties. I pray you will forgive me.”

“Don’t worry about it. You were just doing your job. I have nothing to say about that.”

“Your servant is grateful for your generous words.”

Ainz looked at the room’s door.

“Aren’t you very busy now? There ought to be many things you need to direct, no? And is there anyone outside? If there’s anyone, we’ll be in trouble if we don’t keep our voices down.”

“It is fine. Nobody will object to your servant going alone to see you, Ainz-sama.”

“Is that so…”

Oh yes, the Doppelganger replied. However, it was still important to be careful.

“Then, Ainz-sama, please inform your servant of your decision.”

“Inform you of what?”

That said, Ainz knew very well why the Doppelganger had come here.

Or rather, it was time to tell this Doppelganger.

Yes, the question of who he had enthralled.

“Forgive me. This one speaks of the matter from earlier — the matter of those humans who are devoted to you and whose lives must be spared, Ainz-sama.”

“Hm…”

Ainz nodded forcefully, and began to walk.

Of course, he could not leave the room. Ultimately, he could only pace around inside this room. There was no telling where the Doppelganger’s eyes were looking, but Ainz was certain that they were following his movements, Ainz was certain. In truth, it would be quite scary if they did not look his way.

Time was running out. As Ainz thought with all his might, he suddenly stopped in place.

—He could not find the right answer. However, he did not have any ideas about how to continue covering things up any more.

If he were human, his heart would be pounding now, but his body lacked any organs which could move in that way.

A powerful emotion welled up, causing his emotion override to take effect, and as the small ripples bounced around inside his heart, Ainz told the Doppelganger the answer.

“Umu. I’ll be frank. There are no human beings who need to be saved. Leave a few alive as needed.”