The Dark Warrior (2 page)

Situated at a key location on the border between the Re-Estize Kingdom and its neighboring countries, the Baharuth Empire and the Slane Theocracy, E-Rantel looked the part of its title, the Fortress City, due to its three layers of walls. The townscapes within each layer had their own flavors.

The outermost area was where the royal army was stationed, so that’s where the military facilities were. The innermost area was the city’s administrative core. The storehouses for military provisions were there, and the whole zone was always under tight security. The space between those two zones was where the townspeople lived. It was the goings-on in this zone that usually sprang to mind when one heard the city’s name.

In the center square, the area’s largest, vendors at open-air stalls offered a wide range of goods, including everything from fresh vegetables to prepared foods. In the crowd of people, shopkeepers earnestly peppered passersby with lively sales pitches; elderly shoppers looking for the freshest produce haggled with merchants; lured by the grilling aromas, young men purchased kebabs dripping with meat juices.

Bursting with midday liveliness, it seemed as though the din in the square would continue on into the evening, but when a certain pair emerged from an adjacent five-story building, the commotion met its end. No one in the square could keep their eyes off them, and everyone froze.

One of the pair was a woman. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties and had lovely almond eyes that flashed with an obsidian gleam. Her abundant hair, so black it looked wet, was pulled back in a ponytail. Her smooth, pale skin shone with the luster of a pearl in the sun. More captivating than anything else was her modest beauty, the air of exoticism that turned everyone’s head. When worn by her, a completely ordinary brown robe seemed to transform into a luxurious gown.

Her companion’s sex was unclear, which is to say there were no distinguishing features visible.

Someone in the square whispered, “The Dark Warrior…”

Yes, the figure was enveloped in dazzling full plate armor that gleamed raven black and had purple-and-gold accents. It was impossible to make out the face behind the slit in the close helmet. Appropriate for such a robust physique, two great swords laid across the individual’s back, hilts jutting out from beneath a crimson cape.

The two of them looked out over the square, and the one in full plate armor set off walking first. Witnesses followed the departing figures with their eyes, murmuring rumors among themselves. It wasn’t that they were frightened or put on guard by the weapons, but that they had seen a curious sight.

The reason they weren’t more unnerved was because the building from which the pair had emerged was a place where people who specialized in monster extermination looked for work, the Adventurers Guild. It wasn’t at all rare to see armed people coming and going from there. In fact, after those two, a number of other people carrying weapons went in and out. Those with sharp eyes had been able to spot the copper plate around each of the pair’s necks. It was clear, then, that the only reason they were getting attention was the woman’s beauty and the magnificence of the other’s armor.

The pair walked silently down the not very wide street. Puddles in wagon wheel ruts reflected the sunlight. It wasn’t a proper paved road but a mix of dirt and mud that made it hard to walk. One wrong step and there was nothing to do but trip, but perhaps due to their superior senses of balance, these two walked with the same gait they would have used on cobblestones.

Moving with a light step, the woman checked to make sure no one was around and then spoke to the one in full plate armor. “Lord Ai—”

“No. My name is Momon. And you’re not Narberal Gamma of the Pleiades, but Nabe, Momon’s adventurer friend.” It was the armed figure—Ainz—who’d interrupted the woman—Narberal.

“Ah! Please excuse the error, Lord Momon!”

“Leave off the ‘Lord.’ We’re just a couple of adventurers, and we’re friends. It’ll look suspicious if you call me Lord.”

“B-but you’re a Supreme Being!”

Ainz gestured for her to lower her voice and answered with hints of annoyance and resignation in his voice. “How many times do I have to explain this? In this land I am Momon the Dark… —I mean, Momon, and you’re my partner. So don’t call me Lord. That’s an order.”

There was a momentary pause, and then Narberal reluctantly acquiesced. “Understood, Mr. Momooon.”

“Well, that’s better, at least, but really, you don’t even need the Mister. I’m your partner, so if you call me Mister, it makes it seem like there’s kind of a gap between us.”

“Is that…disrespectful or…?”

Narberal trailed off, and Ainz shrugged at her. “No one can find out who we really are. You understand that, right?”

“Of course, sir.”

“You don’t need the… Well, whatever. I’m just saying to be careful is all.”

“Understood, Mr. Momooon! But are you sure I’m the right person for this? If you need a companion, wouldn’t someone graceful and beautiful like Albedo be more suitable?”

“Albedo, huh…?” His voice contained a complex mixture of emotions. “I need her to manage Nazarick while I’m away.”

“If I may be so bold, surely Cocytus could manage Nazarick. The guardians were all saying so, but…when it comes to your safety, my lord, wouldn’t having Nazarick’s best defender, Albedo, with you be most appropriate?”

Ainz reacted to her question with distress.

When he had announced he would go personally to E-Rantel, the guardian who had been most vehemently against it was Albedo, and her pushback started the moment she understood she wouldn’t be accompanying him.

He still felt indebted to her for how, right after he had been transported to this world, she had covered for him when he’d been out walking on his own without telling anyone because he was loath to take an escort, so he didn’t react too harshly. But this was different; it was a carefully planned trip, not a whim, so he wasn’t going to back down.

She had probably suppressed her own desires and obeyed him because guardians were happy to submit when given an order, but Ainz didn’t feel good about it. It bothered him to force things on the characters his guildmates had created.

Ainz had tried persuasion, but Albedo was firmly against him. Their opinions were running along parallel lines destined to never meet, and it seemed like the issue would never get resolved, but after Demiurge whispered something in her ear, Albedo had abruptly withdrawn her complaints and the decision was made. She even said, “I understand everything,” and saw him off with a gentle smile.

He still didn’t know what Demiurge had said to her; that paired with the dramatic change in her behavior made him a bit anxious.

“The reason I didn’t bring Albedo is that there is no one I trust more than her. It’s precisely because she’s at Nazarick that I don’t have to worry about being away.”

“I see. That’s what I thought! So you’re closest to Albedo, then, huh?”

Saying
Uh, yeah, I guess
was impossible, so he just nodded. “And I know how dangerous this trip is.” Ainz raised his gauntleted right hand and wiggled his ring finger. “But it has to be me doing this. If I were to just command from within Nazarick, I’d end up missing something because this world is an unknown. I need to get out and see what it’s really like. …I’m sure there are many ways we could have gone about things, but when we’re dealing with so many unknowns, I wanted to do something that didn’t make me feel so uneasy.”

Ainz watched Narberal through the slit in his helmet as she solemnly accepted his explanation, and then he asked with a hint of anxiety in his voice, “Just wondering, but do you consider humans lower life-forms?”

“Indeed I do. Humans are worthless trash.”

Hearing this reply with no sign of hesitation that clearly came from the bottom of her heart, he muttered, “So you think so, too…,” but it was too quiet to reach Narberal’s ears. He continued, complaining, “That’s why I can’t just send you to a human city. I really should have made learning the personalities of my subordinates my highest priority.”

One of the reasons he hadn’t brought Albedo was because of how she had denounced humans as lower life-forms. He couldn’t take her to a city where there were lots of people only to have her throw a mass murder party the moment he took his eyes off her. Plus, Albedo didn’t have any disguise magic, so there was no way to hide her horns or wings.

And then there was the biggest reason—the one he couldn’t tell anyone: Ainz, who had been a normal office worker, wasn’t confident he could just sit at the top and manage everything with Nazarick’s future in mind based solely on secondhand information. That’s why he had decided to venture out, foisting operations onto Albedo, who had the skills to manage them. One should always delegate to a talented subordinate when possible. Nothing good came from a higher-up mucking around in an area outside his competence.

Also, where Ainz was concerned, Albedo was bound by two chains: loyalty and love. Under the circumstances, he felt safe leaving the Great Tomb of Nazarick in her hands.

Love…
Whenever he saw Albedo, and whenever she said how much she admired him, he was reminded of his mistake in rewriting part of her backstory. Yes, right before the game’s servers were supposed to go down, he’d edited her bio to say that she was “in love with Momonga”—in other words, with Ainz. Of course, he had no way of knowing they would all go flying off to some new, other world. He’d just meant it as a little joke on the last day.

Reflecting on it, though, Albedo herself didn’t seem to mind, but what would Ainz’s friend, her creator, Tabula Smaragdina, think if he found out?
What if it were me? If my friend had warped an NPC I made…
He also didn’t like that he was taking advantage of her condition and assuming she wouldn’t betray him.

He shook his head to banish those dark thoughts. His undead body suppressed major emotional waves, but little ripples like this still affected him like they had when he was human.
If I turn completely undead, will I stop feeling this guilt?
Thinking absentmindedly on these things, he turned his close helmeted head to face Narberal. “Nabe, I’m not saying you have to discard that sentiment, but at least suppress it. This is a human city, and we don’t know how strong some of them might be, not to mention a lot of other things. Try not to do anything that could trigger hostility.”

Narberal bowed deeply to signify her loyalty and submission, and he held her head down to make his final point. “One more thing. When we take a fight too seriously or think we’d like to kill someone, it…frightens the humans. I don’t know if you really have bloodlust as such or not, but it comes off that way, so don’t go all-out without my permission. Okay?”

“Yes, Mr. Momooon.”

“Okay, the inn that lady told us about should be around here somewhere…” Ainz scanned the area.

There were some shops open and a few people going in and out. Looking to the side, he saw some artisans in aprons carrying goods, but there were only a handful. Ainz and Narberal looked for the inn based on the picture on the sign, since they couldn’t read this country’s writing.

Finally Ainz found the “picture” and began walking faster. Narberal noticed and matched his pace.

Scraping the mud off his sabbatons, Ainz went up the stoop, pushed open the swinging café doors, and stepped inside. The windows that would have let light in were mostly shuttered, so the room was dim. A human accustomed to the light outside might have felt it pitch-dark for a moment, but Ainz had the Darkvision ability, so there was plenty of light for him.

It was a fairly large space. The first floor was a pub with a bar in the back. Behind the bar were two built-in shelves lined with bottles. The door to the side of the bar probably led to the kitchen.

In the corner of the pub was a stairway that wrapped around on itself partway up. According to the lady at the guild, the second and third floors were an inn.

There was a handful of customers sitting at the few round tables, mostly men. The atmosphere suited the kind of people who constantly put themselves in dangerous situations.

Most eyes were on Ainz and Narberal, many aggressively appraising them. The only person not paying attention to them was a girl sitting at the edge of the room, staring at a bottle on her table.

Faced with this scene, Ainz furrowed his nonexistent brow under his close helmet. He’d prepared himself for this, but it was still dingier than he’d expected.

There were dirty and repulsive places in
Yggdrasil
, too. There were even some in the Great Tomb of Nazarick itself—places like the Prince of Fear’s room and the Den of Poison. But this was a different kind of dirty.

Scraps of some kind of food had fallen to the floor, and there were puddles of some kind of liquid as well; the walls had strange stains on them, and in the corner something had coagulated and was growing mold…

Ainz sighed in his head and looked at the back of the room. There was a man standing there wearing a grimy apron. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing thick forearms; they bore several scars, but it was impossible to tell whether they’d been made by a sword or a beast. His features fell somewhere between intensely masculine and wild animal, and there were scars on his face, too. His head was shaved clean—not a single hair remained. This man with a mop in one hand, who seemed more like a hired guard than the innkeeper, had been openly observing Ainz.