“Captain Montagnes, I am glad to hear you approve. How about yourself, Priest Naranho?”
Siliaco also agreed with Caspond’s suggestion.
“The Sorcerer King is in this city. Since he can keep us safe, I would like the paladins to attack the prison camps… can you do that? Also, one more thing. I would like Captain Remedios to stay here while you are launching the attack. Make her think that she’s in charge of bodyguarding me.”
“Thank you very much, my Prince!”
“…I don’t think I’ve said anything you need to thank me for, Vice-Captain Montagnes,” Caspond said as the smile faded from his face. “…The absence of the country’s strongest paladin means that if there’s someone like the Grand King at the prison camp you’re attacking, you might all be wiped out, am I wrong?”
“Can we decide which camp to attack?”
“But of course. I’ll leave it to you. There’s no need to force yourself to attack a large camp that’s more dangerous.”
“Understood. In that case, I feel only we should go.”
“Captain Montagnes, may several of our battle-capable priests go with you?”
“Certainly. Then we’ll set out in a couple of days’ time.”
Ainz used 「Greater Teleportation」 to reach his destination, which was in front of the log cabin on the surface of Nazarick. Albedo, Demiurge, and Lupusregina were all standing there already, although he did not know how long they had been waiting.
Albedo and Demiurge had been summoned by Ainz, while Lupusregina must have been the one on duty in the cabin.
Since Lupusregina was in charge of all matters concerning Carne Village, she should have been excused from the log cabin’s duty roster, but that was not set in stone.
Perhaps someone else was on duty, but they had not been able to make it, so Lupusregina had rushed over instead. That would be wonderful it it were the case. After all, that would imply that even if there was a lack of manpower for a shift after completing a mission, there was a system to immediately swap someone else in to make up the shortfall.
Still, hang on.
While the Pleiades each had completely different job abilities, their maid skills were all equal. It only made sense that they could substitute for each other in a professional capacity.
However, in contrast to that, there were also personnel who were hard to replace. Starting with the Floor Guardians and the Guardian Overseer, there were some NPCs with highly specialized abilities who might need someone to take over them for one reason or another. This was especially true because Ainz had been working hard towards establishing a vacation system.
After all, letting Pandora’s Actor substitute for all of them is also dangerous.
To take an extreme case, what if Ainz himself was not around? For instance, if he were imprisoned, or if he were charmed, or something else. While he did not think that everything would break down without him there to make decisions, he had the feeling that Albedo and Demiurge would both say, “Ainz-sama would never let that happen to himself,” and thus not plan for unforeseen circumstances.
I need to seriously assess the need for this, and quickly.
In a grave tone, Ainz bade the three people bowing to him to raise their heads.
“It has been a while, Demiurge.”
“Yes!”
In truth, Ainz agonized over the Holy Kingdom’s affairs every day, and he also thought about Demiurge every day, so it did not actually feel that way. However, it had been quite a long time since they had last met in person.
“Now then, you probably have questions about why I acted as I did. While I would like to answer you, speaking in this place is not quite appropriate. Let us go somewhere else.”
Ainz was the first to enter the log cabin.
He could have come here straight away because there was a Gate Mirror set up, but he did not use it today.
There was a table in the center of the room, and there were two chairs facing each other on either side of it. Ainz took the seat of honor with familiarity and without hesitation. He had already experienced the problems which came of not doing so many times already. While he had once needed to ponder which was the top seat before sitting down, he had now reached the point where he could unconsciously take the seat of honor
As he approached the chair, Lupusregina immediately pulled it out for him.
In truth, he was of the opinion that he ought to pull his chair out himself. However, his observations of Jircniv had made him understand that it was very important for a ruler to let his subordinates do work. Still, letting them handle even trivial tasks like this gave Ainz the commoner a bit of difficulty.
After Ainz sat down, Albedo and Demiurge did not take a seat, but instead knelt on the floor. Behind them, Lupusregina went to her knees as well.
“—I permit the two of you to sit down.”
The two Guardians politely refused in unison. Ainz once again granted his permission to the two Guardians, whereupon they finally sat opposite Ainz after a great deal of thanks and gratitude. Lupusregina, on the other hand, stood stock still behind the two of them.
This takes so long and it’s a waste of time. Couldn’t it be simpler like… ugh.
“Then let us continue our previous topic. While I said there was nobody who needed to be saved, I rescued the people of the Holy Kingdom nonetheless. I am sure you have your questions about that, do you not?”
“No, not at all.”
— Er? W-Why?
Demiurge shook his head gently, unable to resist the urge to sigh in admiration.
“Everything you do is correct, Ainz-sama. I feel that the reason why you did so was because you saw that it held merits which I could not imagine.”
“That is correct. If you feel it needs to be done, then it must be correct, Ainz-sama.”
— Eh?
Albedo’s words froze Ainz’s facial expressions solid. But of course, Ainz had no facial expressions to speak of.
The way the two Guardians — who were also the most knowledgeable Guardians in Nazarick — nodded in unison before him filled him with various flavors of terror and anxiety.
“Wait, wait. Indeed… yes, it is true.” Ainz began to panic. The conversation had travelled a path that was slightly different from what he had foreseen, and so he had become confused and could not clearly think of what he wanted to say. However— “—Indeed, under normal circumstances I would have acted as you had imagined.”
Huh? Ainz was slightly confused. He struggled to piece some words together and threw them out as appropriate. Even so, the two of them continued nodding vigorously, and Ainz found that a little odd. He continued speaking, desperately hoping for a last second save.
“However, yes, however. This time was slightly different. I did not do this because I was planning something.” Having found a way to amend his words, Ainz delightedly continued, “This time round, I was deliberately introducing a flaw into the plan.”
“What would be the reason for that, Ainz-sama?”
Ainz slowly leaned on the back of the chair with a Hm. Then he adopted a well-practiced posture, a grand one that was befitting of a ruler, which a master ought to have, and then spoke.
“Demiurge. Albedo. The two of you are more intelligent than me.”
“That—”
Ainz held up his hand to stop the two of them from speaking.
“I am just saying that this is how I feel. In that case, what would happen if something unexpected occurred during parts of the event described in your plan? If everything proceeded as you outlined, then everything would have been perfect and ended in excellent form.”