“—Don’t put it so lewdly, Aura. Ah— Ainz-sama is probably beyond this wall. Are there any holes I can peek through?”
Ainz looked closely at the wall, wondering whether someone had built any strange mechanisms into it. There was a period of time when such devices were all the rage among the guild members, and some of them might have been installed here.
“—Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Boys should be the ones doing that.”
“—That is impossible. Ainz-sama just needs to command me to ‘show me the goods’, he doesn’t need to peek.”
“—Oh, Shalltear is actually making sense.”
“—How rude. Is that a toothbrush? Brushing your teeth in the pool… Could you not do that right now?”
“—It can’t be helped. It is hard for me to clean myself, so I have to do it in a large bath like this.”
Albedo’s voice seemed to be coming from a higher spot, and a loud brushing sound could be heard.
“—Hmm, that looks tedious. Alright, I will allow it.”
“—Thank you.”
“—Wahh, don’t look over here while grabbing your head. Disgusting. Shalltear, aren’t you going to brush your teeth?”
“—I can do that in my room, no need to do it here. Anyway, can we even get cavities?”
“—Even if you don’t have cavities, if you have bad breath while kissing, even a thousand year-old love will turn cold.”
The sound of the brush stopped and heavy footsteps could be heard.
“—Hmm, wait, are you going in like this? At least…”
After a loud splash, sound of water flowing down could be heard. Someone seemed to have boldly leaped into the pool.
“—Wah! Cough cough! If I were a vampire from the storybooks, I would have sunk and not gotten up!”
“—You are not a kid, don’t jump in!”
“—Fufufu. Ah...How relaxing. That’s why I came here.”
“—At least follow bathing etiquette… Oh?”
“—What? Hmm? The lion is moving?”
“—To not know the etiquette means you have no right to enter the bath! Exterminate!”
The sudden male voice made Ainz and the others looked at each other.
“Eh, that sounds like a man.”
“I. Never. Imagined. That. I. Would. Hear. This. In. Person. That. Is. The. Area. Guardian. Of. The. Bath. Right? But. Is. There. A. Man. In. The. Female. Bath?”
“No, I’ve heard that voice before… It’s Luci★fer-san.”
When he heard the ominous voice of that man, Ainz recalled the various troubles that Luci★fer had caused. To be honest, he didn’t really like that man.
“One of the Supreme Beings!?”
“—So hard! This is not a simple steel golem! Albedo!”
“—Die! You scrap metal golem!”
With the loud sound of impact, something crashed hard onto the wall. Even the wall on the men’s side was shaking.
“…Basically, prepare yourselves to charge into the women’s bath in full gear should the need arise.”
Ainz issued his command to the reluctant Guardians.
The fiasco should end if they disarmed the attack mode set up by his comrades, but they should be having an all-out battle next door. With their gear off, the women’s combat potential would drop drastically, so they might need to help them if the situation called for it.
“…I want to bathe in peace next time.”
Ainz said after shaking the water on his body off while walking towards the changing room. The Guardians nodded their head as one in response to the casual remark.
Afterword
I’ve been very busy recently. As a result my tummy and chin have become plump. I am the man who is evolving into Mr. Pig, Maruyama Kugane. To those who have bought this book or have it on hand, thank you very much!
For the most part, I’ve been busy because of the animation project, work and other things.
Right now the animation is going smoothly, with such heart warming exchanges as “How is Ainz going to smile?” “Just play it by feel!” “Save me, Director!”
In addition to the anime, the Overlord manga (drawn by Fukayama Fugin-san) has also begun serialization. By the time everyone has this book in their hands, chapter 2 should have come out. His work makes you feel that “Ainz is a really cool character!”
Then, although there’s not limited edition goodies for this book, but there’s a secret cover under the cover (i.e. the female Guardian bath time picture)
This piece of coloured insert art is on par with those of other light novels. It was made from So-bin-san’s reckless wish that went something like “no matter what I have to sacrifice, I want to draw something beautiful here!”, and I’m sure everyone -- myself included -- has been touched by that wish keenly as well. As expected, it’s much better than Kyouhukou for refreshing everyone’s hearts.
Although I have the feeling it won’t be possible from now on, I hope that readers who like this sort of thing will send their wishes to me on postcards.
Some people might ask, “Why is the background pink?’ The reason is because Editor-san said that pink was the most ideal colour for those people who wanted to join Ainz in the bath.
If any of you displays the book with the inner cover showing, I hereby bestow upon you the title of “hero”.
Then, after this will be the credits.
Many thanks to So-bin-san, who solved many problems even as the work grew ever greater.
Thanks to the designers at Chord Design Studio, the proofreader Osako-san, the editor F-ta san, as well as to everyone who helped me make Overlord. In addition, many thanks to honey, who spotted a lot of mistakes.
And finally, thank you to all the readers out there. I hope to speak to you again in the future.
December 2014 Maruyama Kugane