The Dark Warrior (9 page)

Well, this is a bit hectic.
Ainz smiled wryly and sat in the same seat as before. Narberal sat next to him again, and Nfirea sat one seat down from her. The Swords of Darkness members, like Ainz, all took the same seats as before.

The first to speak was, naturally, Nfirea. “The woman at reception mentioned my name before, but allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nfirea Baleare. I’m an apothecary in this city. As for my request, I’m planning to go to a nearby forest, but as you know, the forest is a dangerous place. So I’d like you to escort me but also, if possible, help me collect medicinal herbs.”

“An escort job? I see.” Ainz nodded confidently, but privately he thought it sounded like kind of a pain.

Ainz knew that he was strong himself, and if he teamed up with Narberal, annihilating any monster that came at them would probably be a piece of cake. The problem was that when it came to escort duty, he wasn’t so certain he could pull it off. As casters, neither he nor Narberal had the tanking skills that would be useful to guard someone.

“Compensation would be a fixed amo—”

“One moment. How convenient that it’s an escort job. Hey, Peter, what would you say to
me
hiring
you
instead?”

“Huh?”

“For an escort job in the woods collecting herbs, wouldn’t it be better to have a ranger and a druid along?”

“Indeed! That is very perceptive of you, Momon. Druids are really in their element in the forest. I’d probably be even more useful than Lukrut!” Some pride slipped into Dyne’s dignified tone.

Lukrut didn’t seem so amused. “Keep talkin’, Dyney.”

“With my druid powers, it’s a given that I’d be more useful. And don’t forget that I dabble in the medicinal arts.”

“Hmm. I’m game, Peter. Seems like I need to show Mr. Druid here who has the superior gathering skills.”

“Then that seems fine. And if any monsters show up along the way, we can slay them and get the reward from the city, too. Mr. Baleare’s compensation can be split by head count, right, Peter?”

“I have no objection if it’s all right with you, Momon.”

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Baleare. If you don’t mind, we’d all like to take on your request.”

“Oh? That’s fine with me. Then, I’m looking forward to working with all of you. Oh, and you can call me Nfirea.”

Then, they all introduced themselves to Nfirea, and although Narberal whipped her sharp tongue at Lukrut a couple times, there was no real trouble.

“So, our plan will be my normal pattern of proceeding to the village of Carne, getting a place to stay, and then heading to the forest. The time we spend gathering herbs will depend on how much we can get, but it’ll be three days at most. The average has been two.”

“How will we get there?”

“I have one single-horse cart, but that’s where the bottles for the herbs will go, so there won’t be room to carry everyone.”

“Can we restock provisions in Carne?”

“Water is no problem, but food might be difficult. It’s not a very big village.”

The Swords of Darkness discussed preparations among themselves and peppered Nfirea with questions. Then Ainz spoke up. “Do you mind if I ask some questions?” Nfirea smiled and said to go ahead, so Ainz asked his first question. “Why did you specifically want me? It was only just recently that I boarded a carriage and arrived here, so I have no friends in this city, nobody knows me, and yet you requested me? And you mentioned you have a ‘pattern,’ so doesn’t that mean you’ve been hiring a different adventurer up till now? What happened to that person?”

Ainz’s eyes were sharp under his helmet. He didn’t recall ever being introduced to this boy. If his true identity had been discovered, he would need to take a different approach with his disguise. He tried to discover the boy’s real motives, but he couldn’t detect changes in his eyes because of the long hair that covered half of his face. As Ainz was wondering if he was overthinking things, Nfirea spoke.

“The person I used to hire left E-Rantel to go to a different city. That’s why I was looking for someone new. And then…actually, I heard about the incident at the inn from someone who came to my shop.”

“The incident at the inn?”

“Yes, how you beat up an adventurer a rank above you in the blink of an eye.”

“I see.”

He had shown off his strength there to try to spread his name, and it seemed like it had worked. Ainz was about convinced when Nfirea joked, “Plus, copper-plate adventurers cost less, right? I’d like it if we could work together for some time.”

“Ha-ha, that’s right.” Ainz could certainly understand the concept of getting in on the ground floor. He felt his caution being dispelled. But there was one thing he feared. If that were the case…

As Ainz was thinking it over, some other questions were asked and Nfirea answered them. When it seemed like the questions had petered out, Nfirea raised his voice. “Then, let’s get ready and be off!”

In the dead of night, a hooded shadow slipped into E-Rantel’s huge graveyard. The jet-black hooded cape combined with the shadow’s singular way of moving, keeping its shoulders and hips from bouncing, made it look like a ghost. It nimbly avoided all the magical light sources that had been placed around the graveyard, going in deeper and deeper.

Before long, it came upon a mausoleum. The shadow slowly removed its hood. It was a young human woman. Age-wise she was somewhere around a fresh twenty or so. Her face was attractive but in a vaguely feline way. She had ample charm, but there was also something dangerous about her—like she might reveal her true nature as a carnivorous beast at any moment.

“This is the place!” she said playfully, smoothing back her short blond hair before pushing open the stone door. From beneath her cape came a sound like the soft rubbing of metal on metal, almost exactly like the sound chain mail makes.

When she entered the mausoleum, there were no bodies on the stone platforms for laying out corpses, and the ornaments put up when praying for the departures of deceased souls had already been taken down. Still, a cloying smell tingled her nose, as if the rocks had absorbed all the tons of incense.

With a slight wrinkle in her brow, she approached a large platform in the back. “Hmm-hmm-hmm! Let’s seeee…” Humming, she pressed one of the surprisingly detailed carvings near its base.

Something went
ker-chk
as if catching, and a beat later the platform rumbled to the side to reveal a staircase leading underground.

“I’m coming iiin!” she shouted down the stairs, stretching the final vowel in a carefree way, and began her descent. There was one turn along the way, and at the bottom yawned a huge cavern.

The walls and floor were dirt, but since it was partially man-made, it didn’t seem like it would collapse anytime soon. The air wasn’t stale, either; it wasn’t clear where it was coming in from, but it was fresh.

This place was not part of the graveyard. No, it was something far more sinister.

Strange tapestries hung from the walls and below them burned a number of bright red candles with blood mixed into the wax, sending up the stench of scorched gore as they gave off their dim glow. Among the countless shadows cast by the dancing light were several holes, big enough for humans to pass through, that reeked in the putrid way only lower-tier undead do.

The woman swept her eyes across the room before focusing on one point. “Oh! Hey, you hiding over there! You have a guest!”

The shoulders of a man watching from the shadows of a passage flinched.

“H’lo! I’m here to see Khaj! Is he here?”

The man wasn’t sure what to do, and his shoulders flinched again at the sound of more footsteps.

“It’s fine. Leave us.” The newly arrived man dispatched the hesitant one with just that and showed himself.

He was very thin. His eyes were sunken, and he had so little color in his face it was questionable whether he was even alive—
ashen
was the perfect word to describe it. Not a single hair could be spotted on his head. In fact, he had neither eyebrows nor lashes and there was so little evidence of anything hairlike on his body that one began to wonder if he had any at all. With those looks, it was impossible to guess his age, but since his skin didn’t have wrinkles, he must not have been too terribly old. He wore a deep, bloody-red robe and a necklace that was a string of small animal skulls. His skin-and-bones arms ended in hands with yellowed nails that gripped a black staff. He looked more like an undead monster than a human.

“H’lo, Khaj.”

The man frowned at the woman’s lighthearted salute. “Stop using that bastardized greeting! It’s an insult to the proud name of Zurrernorn.”

Zurrernorn—an evil secret society made up of casters who always had their powerful leader in mind and kept death close. They had caused more than a few tragedies and were considered an enemy by the countries in the area.

“Hmm!” Her response containing no sign that she would change caused the creases in the man’s face to deepen.

“And? What reason could you possibly have for being here? You know I’m pouring energy into the Jewel of Death in this place. If you came to make trouble, I’ll take the liberty of dealing with you as I see fit.” The man squinted and power began to build up in his staff.

“Aw, Khaj, don’t be that way. I even brought you a present!” The woman grinned and dug around under her cape. There was some jangling, but eventually she found what she was looking for and gleefully pulled it out.

It was a circlet. Innumerable tiny gems were delicately attached to metal thread as thin as spider silk, making it look like a spiderweb covered in water droplets. A large black crystal was set in its center, about where the wearer’s forehead would be.

“That’s—” The man’s eyes opened wide. He’d seen one once from a distance, so there was no way he would mistake it. “—the sign of a shrine princess, a Crown of Wisdom—one of the Slane Theocracy’s greatest treasures!”

“Yup! A cute little girl was wearing this, but it wasn’t her style, so I did her a favor and stole it. And then—what a surprise! She went crazy! Pooping and peeing all over the place!” The woman cackled.

She was formerly with the Black Scripture, so there was no way she didn’t know what would happen when she removed the Crown of Wisdom from its wearer—one of the shrine princesses, who play key roles in the magic ceremonies the Slane Theocracy performs. When it was time for a new princess to be crowned, sending the one driven insane by the removal of her crown to be with the gods was the Black Scripture’s job.

“I mean, there was nothing I could do. There’s no other way to take it! It’s the guy who made ’em’s fault! Can’t believe he got away with that.”

There was no way to safely remove a Crown of Wisdom; the only option was to destroy it. But a Crown of Wisdom transformed a human being into nothing but a font of super-high-tier magic by sealing off their sense of self; it would be a waste to destroy a sacred treasure like that.

And so, crazy people.

“Hmph. I can’t believe you betrayed the Black Scripture to steal such a piece of junk. If you were gonna do that, you could have at least stolen one of the sacred treasures left by the Six Gods!”

“‘Junk’? That’s a bit harsh!” She puffed up her cheeks to pout in a contrived way, and the man sneered at her.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s junk. The girls who can use that thing are one in a million. You can’t even begin to look for someone to use it unless you’re a nation, like the Slane Theocracy.”

The Slane Theocracy was the only country in the area that had a registry of inhabitants. That’s how they were able to find the ones who could use the crowns—the sacrifices. Without that kind of system, it would be incredibly difficult to search for them, even with the power of Zurrernorn.

“Plus, how am I supposed to steal a sacred treasure? The Black Scripture’s strongest monster, with beyond otherworldly powers—the atavistic son of a bitch said to have blood of the gods in him—is guarding them!”

“That demigod…? Are they really that strong? I’ve only ever heard of them from you.”

“Oh, man, they’re on a whole ’nother level! But I guess you wouldn’t know because the info is so locked down. Being brainwashed into spilling the beans would mean big trouble, too. I wish there were more info, but they say if word got out, the whole theocracy would get swept up in a war with the remaining true dragonlords and get wiped off the map.”

“…I highly doubt that.”

The woman’s tone suddenly changed. “Yeah, I guess you would if you hadn’t seen his power… Anyhow, to get back to my point, Khajit Dale Badantel… We’re both one of the twelve leaders. Let’s work together.”

“Oh? Is this a peek at the true you? One of the Quintias? But leave out the Dale. I don’t use that name anymore.”

“Only if you cut out the ‘one of the Quintias’ stuff. Just call me Clementine!”

“…Clementine, then. What’s this about working together?”

“There’s someone in this city with a wonderful talent, right? I bet he could use this item.”

“…Ah. I’ve heard the rumors. But surely you can kidnap a single person on your own?”

“Well, yeah! But while I’m at it, I want to cause a big commotion.”